Can Mark Teahen's defense improve at third base with the White Sox?

November 10, 3:03 PMChicago White Sox ExaminerJJ Stankevitz

Previous Next

Comment Print Email RSS Subscribe

Subscribe

Get alerts when there is a new article from the Chicago White Sox Examiner. Read Examiner.com's terms of use.

Email Address   Include other special offers from Examiner.com Terms of Use

Some scouts like Teahen's 'D', but metrics don't. (AP file photo/Pat Sullivan)

Does Mark Teahen play good defense at third base or not?

That was a question that seemed to have been answered by Teahen's below-average UZR and +/- showings. His UZR/150s in 2005, 2006, and 2009 (the years in which Teahen has played over 100 games at third base) were -17.6, 0.4, and -10.9. In 2006—the only year in which Teahen appeared in the Fielding Bible at third base—it rated his +/- as 0.

So 2006 was Teahen's best defensive year at third base. That jump from -17.6 to 0.4 wasn't necessarily due to the wild year-to-year fluctuations you'll see with UZR, as the Fielding Bible rated him right at league average too.

Thanks to Alex Gordon, Teahen was forced from third base after his best defensive year at the position, not returning there full-time until 2009. Not surprisingly, Teahen struggled defensively in his return to the hot corner.

Why am I bringing all of this up? Because of this note from a scout passed on by Mark Gonzales:

I do think he'll make their overall defense better at third."

I knew Teahen's UZR numbers, but it got me to thinking: should those numbers be blindly trusted? I'm not saying the scout is definitely right, but I'm not so sure UZR is definitely right about Teahen's defense, either.

I have to wonder if Teahen will see a defensive improvement now that he has a defined position. He's going to play third base—and hopefully nothing else. He won't have Alex Gordon's potential breathing down his neck. Dayan Viciedo almost certainly will not crack the majors as a third baseman, no matter what Kenny Williams says.

So could a comfortable Teahen return to the league-average defense he played at third base in 2006? Well, maybe. There's no guarantee that he will, but if you ask me, there's at least a possibility Teahen plays better than his '09 -10.9 UZR/15.

The safest answer is somewhere in between the two extremes of well below average and league average. If Teahen can play around -4.0 or -5.0 defense at third, that fielding component of WAR won't be as bad as it has been. In turn, his WAR should bump up—and even it's only to 1.0, hey, that's better than 0.2.

And who knows? Maybe Teahen having a defined, consistent position while playing half his games in a hitter's park will lead to a bump in his offensive stats, too.

That being said, I'm still pessimistic about Teahen being any sort of an impact player, but I'm starting to see ways that he could possibly play above replacement level. I'll be surprised if he cracks the 2.0-win threshold, but if he can be over 1.0, he'll satisfy my expectations.

Unfortunately, those aren't exactly high expectations.

Mark Buehrle won a gold glove today. Too bad the award is a complete sham—leaving out Elvis Andrus and Franklin Gutierrez is an absolute joke. Buehrle probably doesn't win the award if he doesn't pitch his perfect game, either.

For the record, I had Buehrle winning a gold glove, though.