Gleeman & the Geek, Ep 177: Jacque Jones and Meeting the In-Laws

I've asked before about TF's 23 foot RF wall and its impact on UZR scores. If I understand you correctly, any balls that bang off it will (unfairly) penalize the RF's UZR score the same way Jones' UZR was hurt by the baggie. Something to consider when talking about the quality of the Twins RF defense.

So you're saying that after acquiring the worst defensive RF in baseball over the last two years, we should expect his numbers to be even worse because of TF's RF wall? :-)

Really? UZR doesn't account for walls? That's absurd. Plenty of stadiums have 10+ ft walls which make a catch impossible.

From Fangraphs: The data also tells us if a ball hits off an outfield wall (on the fly) and whether, in the judgment of the “stringer,” it was catchable or not. If not, then the play is ignored. If a “wall ball” was catchable, it is treated like any other batted ball at that distance, with no regard for whether it hit the wall or not.

Unless I'm reading it wrong, seems to me that ball hit high on the wall wouldn't negatively affect the RF UZR, since it's not catchable, UZR would just not account for the play at all, like it never happened. Like walks don't affect a BA.

Interesting. Any theories as to why UZR says Jones was an above average LF and CF but a below average RF?

Without digging too deep, perhaps because it's a comparable stat and, most of the time the worst OF are in LF (even moreso when he was playing) so his competition for comparison was worse?  Nowadays Alex Gordon is a nice exception, as was Trout when he played there.

Plus, if I remember correctly, his arm wasn't great, at least not what you would expect from a RF.  I often wonder how losing the ball in the Metrodome ceiling effected his LF numbers. That was often comical :-)