The Wonderful Year of Jacoby Ellsbury

Jacoby Ellsbury is having just about the type of offensive year that most projection systems expected him to have. His slash line of .304/.356/.423 is just about what ZIPS, James, and company had him for coming into the year. Yet, somehow, I’m very happily surprised at his success. Perhaps it was his mediocre start to the year or his stellar 63/10 SB/CS ratio. But whatever it is, he’s been a lot of fun to watch. What is baffling about this year is how horrible Fangraphs’ UZR thinks his defense is. He is rated at -11.0/150 games. I would have no trouble believing that Ellsbury was an average CF this year. He looks to be pretty good to my eyes, but I could understand if they were off by that amount. But I find it unfathomable that he is as terrible as this numbers say. And lest you think it’s some quirk of Fenway, he and Coco Crisp have both posted very good CF UZR numbers in recent years. On a side note, something else weird is going on with FangraphsR...