Stat of the Day: In the Field

People point to a poor back of the rotation, untimely hitting, and lack of offense when they look at the Red Sox' woes. But what about defense? In terms of errors and fielding percentage, the Sox are middle of the pack, 15th and 18th respectively. But they have turned the second fewest double plays, and have allowed the most steals in the Majors, and have the lowest DER of any team. "DER" is an interesting stat I looked up, and it stands for Defense Efficiency Ratio, and it equals the percent of batted balls that are turned into outs by a defense. Boston's .689 DER means that only 68.9% of any ball put in play will become an out. A low DER like this typically means that our pitching staff relies too heavily on the strikeout and don't give their fielders a chance to make a play. Not surprisingly, the Sox have the most strikeouts in the AL. Pitchers should be making it a priority to keep their fielders on their toes by making a pitch not that is nit so good it cannot be hit and risk walking too many batters, but a pitch that's bad enough to be hit, but good enough to not be hit well. Look at Derek Lowe's no hitter of 2002: only 6 strikeouts. It's not about striking batters out, it's about recording outs, however that can be done. This seems like the first year where the Red Sox don't really have any defensive specialists--a David Roberts, Alex Cora, Gabe Kapler, or Doug Menkevich-type player.