from Amazon
Monday, August 15, 2011
Bourjos
The red shading in that picture represents the area in which an average center fielder will catch the ball more often than not, if the ball is in the air for between three and four seconds (that’s the hang time for most fly balls). The blue shading represents the extra ground Bourjos covers.
“That right there … that’s the truth,” Hunter said Wednesday after looking at the diagram.
“He’s the blue?” asked Angels pitcher Jered Weaver, who has been a major Bourjos beneficiary this season. “That’s ridiculous.”
When Bourjos saw the image, his first reaction was to smile. It was the same smile he flashed when he made his ridiculous catch later that night.
“That’s pretty cool,” he said. “They don’t usually have those sorts of things for defense.”
I feel a bit stupid here, but it’s mostly that I’m not really a visual person (I prefer charts and numbers). Clearly, Bourjos covers more area on the balls in question (though I’m not sure what types of balls those are, exactly). But how significant is his extra blue area? Is this 1% better than average? 10%?
I’m not saying Bourjos isn’t great, but I guess I just don’t get a lot out of that particular picture because I have no idea what it means. (Note: I did skim the article and saw the chart with his defensive runs saved, but I’m talking about that picture specifically)