Bronx Bombers are filled with fancy fielders, too

NEW YORK (AP) — Of course, the Yankees are the Bronx Bombers. Turns out this group is filled with fancy fielders, too.

"I don't think they want the attention," catcher Austin Romine said Thursday. "You got a bunch of guys that go out there and play good defense, and it's just now getting noticed."

First baseman DJ LeMahieu, shortstop Didi Gregorius, second baseman Gleyber Torres and right fielder Aaron Judge may not necessarily be Baryshnikovs of the ballfield, but they can cha-cha and jitterbug quite nicely around the diamond. A series of outstanding defensive plays led to key outs in Monday's win that completed a Division Series sweep of Minnesota.

"Gleyber has made huge strides this year defensively," manager Aaron Boone said. "Overall defensively, I feel like we're a better club."

New York was in the middle of the major leagues, with a 1.7 defensive runs above average according to Fangraphs, quite a turnaround from the -15.7 of the sclerotic Yankees of 2015 and the -1.9 a year ago.

Oakland led the big leagues at 42.9 this season and Pittsburgh lagged at -51.0. Among the other remaining teams, St. Louis was third at 39.8, Houston 10th at 9.9, Tampa Bay 11th at 9.1 and Washington 17th at 0.9.

Quantifying fielding ability has been one of the greatest puzzles of baseball's digital era, highlighting the complexity of rating movement. No wonder Olympic figure skating and gymnastics are judged by people, not CPUs.

Aaron Judge of the Yankees led right fielders at 8.7, even higher than Boston's Mookie Betts at 7.0. Shortstop Didi Gregorius declined to 3.7 from 9.8 following Tommy John surgery. Third baseman Gio Urshela was -0.8, while Miguel Andújar was -14 last year.

LeMahieu, a three-time Gold Glove, was plus 4.9 at second (where he made 66 starts), plus 0.9 at third...

source https://www.chron.com/sports/article/Bronx-Bombers-are-filled-with-fancy-fielders-too-14509941.php