The Hardball Times Fielding: 3rd base

In my third part of the series of turning defensive data from The Hardball Times into a runs value moves over to the Hot Corner.

First, team leaders:

Team	3B
LAA	19
MIN	18
WAS	17
OAK	14
SEA	13
DET	13
TOR	13
LAN	6
MIL	4
ATL	3
COL	2
HOU	2
NYN	1
TB	0
SF	-1
PIT	-2
ARI	-2
STL	-3
KC	-6
CHN	-6
SD	-6
FLA	-7
CIN	-7
BAL	-9
CLE	-9
PHI	-10
TEX	-12
NYA	-13
CHA	-16
BOS	-17

Chone Figgins has really been a stud for the Angels this year. Detroit comes in at 6th and you know that's a big thanks to the pickin' and grinnin' of Brandon Inge.

Individual top/bottom 5:

Last	First	Tm	Runs
Figgins	Chone	LAA	18
Zimmerman	Ryan W	WAS	17
Crede	Joe	MIN	16
Hannahan	Jack	OAK	15
Inge	Brandon	DET	13

Peralta	Jhonny	CLE	-10
Fields	Josh	CHA	-11
Feliz	Pedro	PHI	-12
Young	Michael	TEX	-14
Lowell	Mike	BOS	-15

Oh, look. That old Tigers killer, Joe Crede up there. Still as good as ever with the mitt. Think Kenny Williams is hating life after giving up Crede to free agency so he could give Josh Fields the chance to shine? Fields is at -0.6 WAR this year, while Joe Crede's posted 2.1 WAR already. Maybe the attendance issues for the White Sox could be solved with, you know, better players? Worth noting that the Mariners recently picked up Jack Hannahan to replace Adrian Beltre who is out until Mid-August with a right shoulder injury. Hannahan's a former Detroit Tiger farm hand who was dealt to Oakland for Jason Perry. Perry is a minor leaguer who was a 6th round draft pick by the Toronto Blue Jays in 2002. He was then dealt to Oakland to complete an earlier trade between the two clubs. We then released him March 28th, 2008.

So, to recap: we gave up a Jack Hannahan who's defense has made him a total 3 WAR player over the course of the last 3 seasons for a guy we ended up releasing. Yikes. Obviously it's not a big deal with Gerald Laird gunning down every potential baserunner in sight so Brandon Inge can gobble everything up at 3rd, but these are the types of shrewd moves that the Billy Beane's of the world make that the Dave Dombrowski's of the world don't.

Oh, and apparently moving Jhonny Peralta off the shortstop position didn't really do anything for the Indians via this metric. Then again, Brandon Inge was also a negative fielder at 3rd in his first season there. Peralta, though, isn't as athletic as Inge.