All of a Sudden, Yankees Good at Catching and Throwing

NEW YORK -- Over the past few years, I have been to a lot of Yankees games. They keep it interesting, but there are a few things you come to count on. The YMCA. "God Bless America" during the seventh-inning stretch. And horrendous defense by the home team. This last has become as much a constant as the first two. The Yankees, for the past several years, have been a terrible defensive team.

So imagine my own personal surprise Monday night when I learned that the Yankees, those same bumbling pinstripers who've spent the early part of the 21st century scraping the bottom of the statistical defensive rankings, had set a major-league record by going 18 games in a row without an error.

The Yankees? Setting a record for defense? That's like LeBron James setting some kind of handshake record. Or Lindsay Lohan setting a record for consecutive days sober. There are certain things the Yankees do well. Defense is not one of them. Something must be amiss. I went to Yankee Stadium on Tuesday night to investigate.

"We're making the plays we should make," Yankees manager Joe Girardi said before the game.

And what do you know? The stats back him up. There's more to good defense than not making errors, of course, and several popular defensive metrics show that the 2009 Yankees are, in fact, much better than their predecessors were at turning balls that should be outs into outs.

First, there is the Yankees' Defensive Efficiency Rating, as defined and computed by Baseball Prospectus. This is a stat that measures the rate at which balls in play are converted into outs. Entering Tuesday night's game, the Yankees ranked fifth in the American League in "Def Eff." Last year, they ranked 13th. Our man Ed Price speculates that this might have something to do with the new Yankee Stadium and its propensity for allowing home runs. Home runs are not "balls in play." If there are balls being hit here that would have been fly balls in the old place, and instead are going over the fence, then there are fewer balls in play and the Def Eff would likely improve as a result. Interesting theory.

The two defensive stats I like at the Hardball Times are Revised Zone Rating, which measures "the proportion of balls hit into a fielder's zone that he successfully converted into an out," and the Out Of Zone, which measures "the total number of outs made by a fielder on balls hit outside of his zone." These are best used in conjunction with each other, and when we do that we get a pretty decent look at the Yankees' strengths and weaknesses on defense.

First, in RZR, the Yankees ranked fifth in the league entering Tuesday's game. They're converting 83.9 percent of the balls hit into their fielders' "zones" into outs. That doesn't sound spectacular, but it's an improvement over last year.

In the OOZ category, however, the Yankees rank 13th, having converted only 124 balls-in-play outside fielders' zones into outs. Only the White Sox, at 119, ranked lower.

These numbers back up Girardi's assertion that the Yankees are "making the plays they should make," while also pointing up the idea that they're not making too many above-and-beyond plays. But again, this is fine. You have to remember where they started. They've gone from a team that gives away outs to a team that, generally, doesn't. And this matters. Especially when you play in a ballpark that gives up home runs at a greater rate than any ballpark in history.

"Defense is one of those things you can control, relative to maybe other areas of the game," Girardi said. "A lot of it is about preparation -- mental preparation as well as physical preparation."

Robinson Cano, the Yankees' second baseman, told me he thinks the team is spending more time in pre-series and pregame scouting meetings going over positioning -- the ways in which the fielders are set to combat specific opposing hitters. That would certainly speak to Girardi's preparation theory, and explain the dramatic improvement in defensive statistics from a team that hasn't changed too many of its players. Other than first baseman Mark Teixeira and right fielder Nick Swisher, the principals in the field are the same in 2009 as they were in 2008.

But individually, the RZR numbers are getting better across the board. Cano last year had an RZR of .809. This year it's .874. Shortstop Derek Jeter is up from .839 to .847. Left fielder Johnny Damon is up from .917 to .944. In right field last year, Bobby Abreu had an .872 RZR. This year, Swisher has a .918 mark in right field. And at first base last year, Jason Giambi posted a .679. This year, Teixeira's RZR is .918.

"There's no doubt, he's made more plays already this year than...." pitcher Andy Pettitte said, then stopped, lest he slander a well-liked former teammate. "I can't tell you how many runs he's saved already this year. He's been a huge asset to our team this year."

Teixeira expressed surprise when informed that the Yankees of the recent past had a justified reputation as a poor defensive team, and he shrugged off any implication that he might have something to do with the improvement.

"You have four infielders that have won Gold Gloves or could win Gold Gloves," Teixeira said. "It shouldn't be a surprise that we're playing well on defense."

Maybe not, but it is a surprise if you've been watching the Yankees up close the past few years.

Anyway, the streak is over. In the top of the fourth inning Tuesday night, catcher Jorge Posada threw a ball into center field trying to catch Elvis Andrus stealing second base. Andrus got to third on the overthrow, and Posada was charged with the first Yankees error since May 13.

Which is good, because that just didn't feel right, the Yankees setting a record for defense. Next thing you know, the Mets will have the best record in baseball in September...