IntroductionThis past series with the Baltimore Orioles pitted two franchises with remarkably similar profiles: mid-sized market teams with an excellent cadre of young talent emerging from ugly rebuilds whose success is sometimes overshadowed by their larger-market divisional rivals. There is another, less complimentary, similarity between the two teams as well - theyve been sloppy on defense in the early going of the season. Amazingly, the D-Backs have already accumulated nine errors through the first 13 games of the season. Ill admit that theres a bit of an asterisk associated with that number as three of those errors came in the second game of the season against the Cubs, but Ill contend that my larger point still stands. I knew that there would likely be a distinct step down in defensive quality with the departure of a Gold Glove-caliber first baseman like Christian Walker https://www.arizonaapparelshop.com/Luis_Gonzalez_Jersey , but I still had higher expectations for the defense than what weve seen so far. In fact, one of the reasons why Corbin Burnes first start of the season against the Yankees had such an ugly final line was because of this even uglier play from Josh its not just Naylor - or any single player -that is driving this poor play. Its also unfair to only look at errors as a metric for a players fielding efficiency as the statistic is inherently subjective based on the official scorers opinion of the play. Look no further for how the subjectivity of errorscan have outsized impacts on player statistics than MLB changing this egregious play from a hit to an error, which lowered Cade Povichs ERA from 6.10 to 3.49 with a single pen stroke. But both of those topics are articles for another day. What might be causing these defensive issues and what, if anything, can be done to course correct before it starts to impact the team on a larger level? InfieldIf youve been a fan of the D-Backs over the past several years, you likely know that clean, crisp defense has been one of their calling cards in their recent resurgence. The numbers back that up too as the team has had the fewest errors in the majors the last two seasons, which undoubtedly has helped fuel their success. I suspect that there are three coinciding dynamics at play in the poor infield defense: Walkers exodus https://www.arizonaapparelshop.com/Jordan_Lawlar_Jersey , Ketel Martes injury, and general inexperience or discomfort from the players. And while I dont want to single any one player out, Eugenio Suarez has sadly continued a career-long trend of iffy defense at the hot corner. As I stated above, errors are not my preferred fielding metric because of their inherent subjectivity. I much prefer something like defensive runs savedfrom Baseball Reference as it combines a few different metrics that also take into account positioning and shifting. This alternative metric generally agrees with the overall defensive excellence that the team has exhibited over the past couple seasons - especially in their 2023 campaign when they were a top-five defense. Unfortunately, two of the DRS leaders from last years team, Marte and Walker, are missing from the dirt and that absence doubtlessly impacts the overall defense. Martes absence is particularly painful as one of his stand-ins - Garrett Hampson - has struggled to settle in while Tim Tawa is still trying to find his sea legs at the major league level. Similarly, because of the constancy and excellence that Walker exhibited at first base, there was an unsurprising amount of confidence the other infielders had that he would be able to clean up an errant throw that Naylor hasnt attained yet. Ideally, Martes return from injury and Naylors continued growth will clean up some of this inconsistency over the course of the season. ConclusionDuring my relatively brief time playing baseball, my father would often tell me that physical errors are inevitable and forgivable, its the mental errors that really stick with you. In my opinion https://www.arizonaapparelshop.com/Randy_Johnson_Jersey , most of theerrors the D-Backs have made so far have been more of the former than the latter. Those kinds of mistakes are to be expected when you do something as many times as ball players do - if for no other reason than the law of large numbers. But that fact doesnt make them any less frustrating to watch as a fan, especially if they end up costing the team otherwise winnable games. It would not shock me if some of the inconsistency weve seen so far comes from players still rounding into form with repeated reps alongside their teammates.