Not keen on baseball metrics? There are other ways to see if a guy plays sound defense

After my recent article criticizing advanced defensive metrics, a reader asked a logical question:

If fans can’t trust those defensive numbers, what should they look for and how should they rate defense?

There’s a whole book in that. If you’re a big-time publisher, give me a call and we’ll work something out.

But until that best-seller hits Barnes & Noble, here are a few things that the people who play the game have taught me to watch. We’re only going to scratch the surface, but as you’re about to see, you really have to pay attention if you want to understand.

Arm strength

If you want some idea of how strong an infielder’s arm is, wait until he goes to his backhand side to make a play; he’ll stop, plant his feet and throw.

As Royals infield coach Mike Jirschele pointed out, a lot of infielders look OK as long as they’re moving toward their target and have momentum, but when they go to their backhand and throw from a dead stop it’s all arm.

Now watch the ball arrive at first base: Is it dying and sinking or does it stay on a line and still have good life?

(Quick note here: The guys who love numbers also love to make things complicated — then we need them to explain those numbers — but the guys who play the game like to keep thing simple.

Player skills are rated from 2 to 8, with 5 being major-league average. If they get really wild, the baseball guys might use a 20-to-80 scale, with 50 being major-league average.

When someone says a third baseman has a 60 arm, everybody knows that means an above-average arm; 70 is well above average and 80 is as good as it gets. A 40 arm means that guy better hit a lot of home runs.

Defensive movement at the pitch

Let’s stay in the infield for a minute.

The two middle infielders can see the catcher’s signs and pass that information along to the corner infielders. That information allows good infielders to start moving before the pitch ever reaches the plate.

If you’re a third baseman playing off the line, there’s a right-handed hitter at the plate and you know an off-speed pitch is coming, odds are the ball will be hit to your right and you can start leaning in that direction as the pitch is delivered.

Go back to Salvador Perez’ walk-off single for the Royals in the 2014 AL Wild Card game.

A’s third baseman Josh Donaldson allowed Perez to pull an 83 mph slider between him and the foul line. Jason Hammel (then with Oakland) was pitching to Perez, and with the exception of a pitchout, he threw nothing but sliders. So people who know what they’re looking at questioned why Donaldson was positioned so far off the line if the game plan was to throw Perez sliders.

And Donaldson didn’t help himself with any pre-pitch movement.

Go back and watch the video and you’ll see that Donaldson is well off the line, flat-footed and doesn’t start moving until after Perez makes contact.

Donaldson barely missed the ball as it was; if he’d been leaning that direction before contact, he makes the play or at least knocks the ball down and keeps Christian Colon from scoring from second base for KC.

That’s how much this little stuff matters.

Works the same way in the outfield. If they know what’s coming — fastball or off-speed pitch — they can get a head start in that direction.

Take your eye off the ball for a second and watch the defenders as the pitch is delivered and you’ll see which guys are locked in and which guys are daydreaming.

Word of caution: If a defender is not moving left or right, just shuffling forward to get up on the balls of his feet, it doesn’t necessarily mean he’s on a mental vacation. It might mean the pitcher has no idea where the ball is going and the defense can’t take a chance by moving side-to-side before the pitch is made.

Straddling the bag

Old school baseball — back when players expected some contact — required an infielder making a tag on a sliding runner to straddle the bag. That meant the sides of the bag were blocked by the infielder’s feet and all he had to do was make the catch and drop his glove to cover the front of the bag.

These days a lot of infielders come out in front of the bag to take the throw, then try to spin back to the bag for the tag. That takes longer and also leaves the bag unprotected.

You might not want to deduct too many points from an infielder who comes out in front because that’s just the way it’s done these days, but when you see an infielder straddle the bag, you can appreciate the effort.

Plays at the plate

The same thing applies to plays at the plate. Old-school ball had catchers putting their left foot on the third-base line, which still allowed the runner a path to the back half of home plate. If a catcher straddled the line, he was taking the whole plate and saying run me over if you can.

If the runner tried it, those old-school catchers wrapped their hand around the ball, their mitt around that hand and, if possible, made a hard tag to the runner’s head. The catcher might also throw a knee hoping to catch the runner just right, if you know what I mean (and I think that you do).

Those catchers were sending a message: If you want to run over me, go ahead and try ... but you’re going to pay a price.

These days, catchers come way out in front of home plate, receive the throw, then lurch back to the runner trying to make a very long tag. This passive approach is not totally on the catcher; MLB has tried to make sure nothing exciting happens during a baseball game because a star player might get hurt and that might mean fewer ticket sales.

Footwork at first base

Defensive metrics have a lot of problems with first basemen because they either ignore what makes them good or don’t know how to measure it.

For example:

When Billy Butler played first base for the Royals he had a tendency to stretch for the throw before it was ever made. Once Butler got stretched out, he couldn’t adjust to his left or right if the throw was off-line.

That led to errors by his teammates, and that led to teammates holding onto the ball if they weren’t in a good throwing position because they knew if they made an off-line throw, Butler wasn’t going to save them.

Eric Hosmer had quick feet and could wait for the throw to be made and then stretch to the ball, which meant he could reach a whole lot of throws Butler couldn’t. That led to teammates attempting more plays, because they knew if they just got the ball close to first base, Hosmer would cover it.

The rest of the Royals’ infielders hated throwing to Butler and loved throwing to Hosmer because their margin of error was so much greater when the latter was at first base.

So when an “advanced” defensive metric called Hosmer the worst first baseman in the American League, it was a sign there was something wrong with the metric, not Hosmer.

Making scoops

Some people think this is the most important thing a first baseman does: scoop bad throws and prevent errors by teammates. If you’re not focusing on scoops, you’re missing a big part of a first baseman’s game.

Whenever possible, good first basemen make scoops on the backhand side because that means their palm is facing down and the ball has a better chance of sticking in the mitt. Make the scoop to the forehand side and the palm is facing up and the ball has a better chance of popping out.

Watch the scoop and see if the first baseman has good enough footwork to get to his backhand side before the ball arrives.

Short hops (the ball hits the ground inches in front of the mitt) and long hops (the ball hits the ground well out in front of the first baseman and gives him time to react) are easy, or at least easier, to field. In-between hops (the ball hits the ground just a few feet from the first baseman and gives him little reaction time) are the tough ones and where a first baseman earns his paycheck — at least on defense.

Outfield positioning

Let’s move to the outfield and listen to what Royals coach Rusty Kuntz had to say about positioning:

Bad outfielders play deep because they’d rather move forward than back. A pitcher gets killed on flares just beyond the infield? Sometimes we don’t realize he’s pitching great and getting soft contact, but those flares are turning into hits because his outfielders are scared to play shallow. Good outfielders play shallow because they don’t mind going back on the ball and want to cover those flares as well.

This is actually easier to see if you have cheap seats and sit in the upper deck. If the Royals continue to use a checkerboard cut in their outfield, count how many squares away from the warning track the outfielder is standing.

That will give you a clue about how confident that guy is when it’s time to go back on the ball.

The throw after a catch

Let’s stay in the outfield.

Whenever there’s a throw to be made after fielding a ball, the outfielder wants to be moving back toward the infield as he makes the play. Guys moving forward make stronger throws than guys moving sideways or back.

This is why “route efficiency” is a lousy number.

That metric assumes the best route to a ball is a straight line, and it’s not. Most of the time the best routes are curved to allow the outfielder to build momentum in the direction he’s going to throw the ball.

On a routine fly ball that will require a throw afterward, the outfielder wants to position himself behind the spot where the ball will land and move forward as he makes the catch. Catch the ball while stationary and the throw will have no momentum behind it.

The outfielder also wants to make that catch over his throwing shoulder because that closes up his front shoulder, which is something he has to do to make the throw anyway.

Then, the throw should come in on one bounce.

This is not the sign of a weak arm: It’s a sign of good fundamentals. Intentionally throwing the ball on one bounce keeps the throw low enough to be cut off and — assuming the cut-off guy did his job and is in the right spot — that freezes all the trail runners.

Or you could just look up a number

If you waded through all the above information, congratulations. But remember these are a just a few examples of what big-league players, coaches, managers and scouts look for. And every time you talk to someone new, you learn something new.

This might be why some people would rather look up a number on a website. It’s easier and much less time-consuming. But any metric that claims to be “all-inclusive” usually isn’t. There’s just too much to consider, and “all-inclusive” numbers paint with too broad a brush.

In the real world, each part of a player’s game needs to be considered and compared with all the other parts. Maybe a guy with below-average range makes up for it with above-average positioning. Maybe a guy with a below-average bat makes up for it with an above-average glove.

It seems like trying to jam everything into one number is done so you don’t have to pay attention to all the small stuff that makes a player who he is. But paying attention to the small stuff is what makes baseball not only enjoyable, but understandable.

And once you know what to look for, you won’t need a website to tell you how good or bad a player is. You’ll be able to see it for yourself.

Enjoy tonight’s game.