Adam Kennedy Hopes To Stay With A's

When a player has such an impressive UZR track record, you can't really take 50 games at 2B and 80 games at 3B (which he had never played at the ML level before) and say that he's declining defensively.

His UZR/150 in 2008 was the best of his career, and players just don't decline that significantly within a single year.

He's probably not particularly good defensively at third base, partially due to a lack of experience there, but I would argue that he's still one of the better defensive second basemen in the game, given his track record at the position.

But you implied that he had declined from his defensive prime, which is questionable given that your evidence consists of 50 games at second base.

You say that his performance was in decline from his prime, but he posted the best UZR of his career last year in a much larger sample size.

I just think that it was an odd way to phrase things given the nature of UZR.

Right, but you're using 50 games of UZR data as if it's actually legitimate, accurate data, which isn't really the case given the nature of UZR.

I'm not saying that you're lying or anything, but I just think that on a certain level, you're misrepresenting the proper usage of the statistic, as your readers could misinterpret the comment.

It's not bad writing or anything, I just think that it's not the proper way to be utilizing UZR, when you don't even mention that while his UZR declined, that could easily be primarily because of the volatility in small sample sizes, and not any actual decline in his talent level.

What you wrote isn't wrong, I just think that you're omitted some pretty important stuff when it comes to understanding UZR, and many of your readers don't necessarily have a great grip on the statistic, although I don't question whether or not you do.

hey scribble, question about UZR you may be able to help me with. I know UZR is based on BIS's location data, but do you know if and/or how it accounts for things like the foul territory in Oakland, or left field in Fenway and Minute Maid? I've always been curious about this, esp. Fenway. It seems like Manny benefited from leaving Fenway, while Bay regressed once he got traded to Boston. Not like either were great, just that their UZR fluctuated in and out of Boston enough to be noticeable.

"I feel that that data is legitimate though. It's not like there is some specific threshold where 500 innings of UZR means nothing but 501 means something. More data's always better, but a single season's worth has value and at the least tells us how the guy fielded this year."

Well for one, it was only 421 innings, and secondly, that only covers 50 games, not a full season.

Certainly, the data has some sort of value, but I just don't think that you can realistically take anything away from 50 games of poor UZR numbers from a guy who has a great track record with the statistic, dating back as recently as last season.

I don't think Kennedy's UZR at 2B should really be a factor for the A's. Ellis is their 2B. Kennedy would be returning to the A's either to play 3B or be a utility guy.

Well yeah, why would teams continue to run a plus defensive second baseman without a ton of value elsewhere as a below-average defensive third baseman?