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Back to the future. Meet Jacoby Ellsbury, the Red Sox's one-time center fielder of the future who is currently their left fielder and—once again—their center fielder-of the future. The Red Sox organization has consistently said they regard Ellsbury as an excellent defensive center fielder, but the defensive metrics indicate that he is actually a pretty bad defensive center fielder, or at least he was in 2009 (when his UZR/150 rating was -18.3 ). There are a couple of problems with the UZR/150 rating system. First of all, from the perspective of most fans, a ballplayer is either a good defensive outfielder or he is not—so it is hard to understand how the UZR/150 for Ellsbury could vary from a 10.5 in 2007 to a +6.9 in 2008 to a -18.3 in 2009 (in center field). Second, it i ...

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Article written by Jeffrey Brown