Nationals' Fielding Weekly #3

This week's chart is less exciting than last week's and just shows how Ultimate Zone Rating is rather opaque on a week-to-week basis. (I don't think it's designer, The Book author Mitchel Lichtman, intended it to be used the way I am doing.) Revised Zone Rating, meanwhile, shows that the good play in the outfield has continued, although the gains are not as dramatic.*

The story of the week is really the flubs on the infield. The only infielder to post a gain this week was Adam Dunn, who got a few innings at first base after Nick the Sick was hit by a pitch. I've already highlighted an error by Zimmerman in one of my Goats of the Day presentations as having played a significant part in a defeat. That, to me, has taken on symbolic status of how the significance of fielding remains a subject for debate. The average sabermetrically inclined person (i.e., me) can wonder whether the real fault lay in the inability of the Nationals to score runs up to that point? Or was Zimmerman's fielding muff the real culprit in a collapse in morale? Or was it Jesus Colome? Inquiring minds, blah, blah, blah.

Player           UZR   Change     UZR/150   Change   RZR    Change
Zimmerman (3b)   8.8    + 0.4      17.8    - 1.2    .757    -.010
Johnson (1b)    -6.9    - 1.0     -11.9    - 0.6    .729    -.004
Guzman (ss)     -2.9    - 2.0     -13.7    - 2.1    .743    -.004
Hernandez (2b)   0.9    - 0.7       2.1    - 2.2    .856    -.006
Dunn (lf)       -5.7    - 0.8     -13.7    + 1.2    .806    +.006
Kearns (rf)     -0.2    - 0.5     - 5.2    - 0.9    .875     n.c.
Willingham (lf) -2.2    - 2.1     - 6.4    - 7.2    .900    +.020
Dukes (cf)      -6.0     n.c.     -23.7    - 4.5    .897     n.c.
Harris (cf)     -5.8    + 0.1     -23.8    + 4.6    .925    +.013
Dunn (rf)       -6.5    - 0.2     -33.7     n.c.    .756     n.c.
Belliard (2b)    1.6    - 0.5       9.8    + 3.4    .893    -.011    
Gonzalez (ss)   -2.3    - 1.0     -19.1    - 7.2    .718    -.012
Dukes (rf)      -0.2    - 1.5     - 3.5    -14.1    .947    +.009
Dunn (1b)       -2.0    - 0.1     -36.8    +10.7    .714    +.114
Maxwell (cf)     1.8    - 0.1      36.9    + 0.5    .833     n.c.

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* I really ought to introduce a table showing an average RZR score at each position. I've got acres of space on the sidebars I'm not using.