Catch game: Statcast shows Bucs’ OF strengths

PITTSBURGH — How did Andrew McCutchen stack up among center fielders last year? What makes Starling Marte such an elite defender? How is Gregory Polanco developing in the outfield?

In this era of statistical enlightenment throughout baseball, defensive questions remain the most difficult to answer. But with the advent of MLB’s Statcast™ tracking technology, the game has been flooded by more concrete data about outfielders’ route-running, speed, reaction time and more.

Statcast™ has provided catch rates, based on a combination of hang time and distance from the ball. While it’s only one evaluative tool, it enables us to better determine how adept outfielders are in a few areas without watching every single play. What kind of range have they displayed? Are they making the plays they should make? How often do they make the tough, highlight-reel catches?

It’s no secret McCutchen is coming off the worst defensive season of his career, recording minus-28 Defensive Runs Saved and a minus-18.7 Ultimate Zone Rating, both last among qualified outfielders. Through Statcast™’s tools, we can compare his work to two other center fielders, Baltimore’s Adam Jones and Philadelphia’s Odubel Herrera.

Cutch, Adam Jones and Odubel Herrera played similar number innings in CF. Check the differences in # of hits allowed on “easy/routine” plays pic.twitter.com/A1mmyM56cg

— Adam Berry (@adamdberry) January 6, 2017

Cutch, Adam Jones and Odubel Herrera played similar number innings in CF. Check the differences in # of hits allowed on “easy/routine” plays pic.twitter.com/A1mmyM56cg

McCutchen played 1,318 innings in center, Herrera (six DRS, 3.9 UZR) logged 1,301 1/3 and …

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