Weekly Check In: Robert Refsnyder

What can I say about my personal favorite Yankees prospect thus far this season? Refsnyder was given an opportunity to learn a new position in spring training with the hopes of breaking the club on the bench but a few miscues in the field kept him from his ultimate goal of making the show. Such has been his story to date as it’s always been his defense that has kept him out of the Bronx for long stretches of time but recently, obligatory small sample size reference inserted here, his bat has not been pressing the issue much either.

Refsnyder has been seen hitting below the Stephen Drew line for much of this young 2016 season which is not an encouraging sign for the young infielder. It will be his bat that ultimately forces the hand of Yankees GM Brian Cashman, not his defense, good looks or personality, and if he wants to be back in the Bronx to stay he needs to hit. Bottom line.

Tough love Ref. I’m your biggest fan next to your parents, I’ve said it numerous times, but you need to step it up if you want to prove the organization and the doubters wrong. How about we start now?

Year	Age	Lev	G	PA	R	H	2B	HR	RBI	SB	BB	SO	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS
2016	25	AAA	17	74	5	13	1	0	5	4	6	8	.194	.257	.239	.496

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table

Chase Headley WILL Be Better in 2016

If you watched a Yankees game in 2015 there is a good possibility that the Yankees third baseman Chase Headley was in the game. Headley led the team in games played with 156 games in 2015 making him one of the more durable players on the team last season. If you watched at least one game in 2015 it is very likely that you also saw Headley either make an error or make a throw that would have been an error had Mark Teixeira or Greg Bird pulled it out of the air or the dirt. Headley was horrible defensively in 2015 and committed 23 errors but he should be much better in 2016.

Headley was considered an elite defender before coming to the New York Yankees in 2014. Earlier this week we discussed the Yankees infield defense for next season and we used the FIELDING stat, formerly known as dWAR, from Fangraphs and we will use it again here to make our case specifically for Headley. Keep in mind that no defensive metric is considered a “be all tell all” type stat like WAR is for batters or FIP, WHIP or ERA+ are for pitchers but it is as close as we can get in modern times. Headley’s FIELDING stat in 2015 was -3.0 which is not great but I truly believe this is just a blip on the radar. Keep reading.

In 2014 Headley posted a very impressive and almost staggering 20.4 FIELDING while in 2013 he was no slouch at the hot corner with a 7.0 FIELDING stat. If FIELDING is not the stat for you then how about an oldie but a goodie? Headley’s fielding percentage in 2013-2015 are here in order for your reference, .968, .975 and .946. Headley committed a total of 19 errors from 2013 and 2014 combined making his 23 errors in 2015 a bit of an anomaly for me.

Look, I believe in my heart of hearts that you just don’t lose it defensively at age 30 (he's 31 now). For every Chuck Knoblauch who just woke up one day and decided he couldn’t throw it to first base anymore you have thousands of other examples where players are at minimum adequate defensively late into their careers. Chase Headley will be fine ladies and gentlemen, it’s amazing what an offseason can do for a guy. 

Fangraphs: Defense Metrics Numbers Are In

Many people believe the eye test is a more suitable way to project what a player is going to be and what a player is going to do in any given season. The rest of us rely on the metrics and the numbers that sites like Baseball Reference and Fangraphs feeds us. Fangraphs has released their defensive metrics numbers for the 2015 season and surprisingly the numbers are favorable for the Yankees. 

New York is considered one of the three most improved teams defensively this season along with the Cleveland Indians and the Los Angeles Dodgers. The three best teams according to Fangraphs with the best defenses are the Kansas City Royals, the Tampa Bay Rays and the Baltimore Orioles. With the best comes the worst and the three worst defenses in the game next season are the Houston Astros, the Chicago White Sox and the Minnesota Twins. While the Yankees are one of the three most improved teams there are three teams that took the largest steps back for this season and they are the San Diego Padres, the Atlanta Braves and the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.

Team	2015 Projection	Z Score	2014 UZR	Z Score	Change, Z
Angels	-7	-0.5	26	0.8	-1.3
Astros	-35	-2.0	-64	-1.9	-0.1
Athletics	13	0.5	24	0.7	-0.2
Blue Jays	1	-0.1	-7	-0.2	0.1
Braves	-3	-0.3	35	1.0	-1.4
Brewers	5	0.1	3	0.1	0.0
Cardinals	24	1.1	29	0.9	0.3
Cubs	-1	-0.2	-6	-0.2	0.0
Diamondbacks	10	0.4	-4	-0.1	0.5
Dodgers	21	1.0	-8	-0.3	1.2
Giants	7	0.2	3	0.1	0.1
Indians	-13	-0.9	-72	-2.2	1.3
Mariners	6	0.2	8	0.3	-0.1
Marlins	-4	-0.4	-3	-0.1	-0.3
Mets	-13	-0.9	7	0.2	-1.1
Nationals	17	0.7	-6	-0.2	0.9
Orioles	34	1.6	55	1.7	0.0
Padres	-26	-1.5	9	0.3	-1.8
Phillies	-12	-0.8	-22	-0.7	-0.1
Pirates	-8	-0.6	-40	-1.2	0.7
Rangers	-2	-0.2	-7	-0.2	0.0
Rays	29	1.4	7	0.2	1.2
Red Sox	19	0.8	49	1.5	-0.6
Reds	20	0.9	46	1.4	-0.5
Rockies	5	0.1	-1	0.0	0.1
Royals	34	1.7	61	1.9	-0.2
Tigers	-9	-0.6	-48	-1.5	0.8
Twins	-26	-1.5	-35	-1.0	-0.5
White Sox	-26	-1.6	-39	-1.2	-0.4
Yankees	29	1.4	4	0.1	1.3