Comedian Will Ferrell played an inning in Centerfield on Wednesday and held a runner to a single on a hit near the gap.
Watch it here:
After watching that I wondered to myself - could life ever be sane again knowing that the Halos have signed lousy outfielders to ruin games for us? The announcers talked up Ferrell's greatness as a discrete side street to slip down to avoid pointing out that in recent memory there are players who just were not that good but still took Arte's money
Ferrell's quick handling of the ball along with returning it to the infield could certainly be calculated in a statistical manner - let's look at the fun stat of Defensive Runs Saved Above Average. This is the number of runs above or below average that the fielder was worth per 1,200 innings. This benchmark, equivalent to 135 games, allows us to measure players with limited playing time against veterans who were int eh field all season and see their defensive worth to the team.
Let's set Ferrell at 0 - totally neutral, totally average. He got to the ball, he got it back in, the runner held. No diving catch but no muff either.
How about some Halo outfielders who would have loved to have their DRSAA at zero instead of the negative territory (i.e. "below average") that they actually left us with.
2010:
•Torii Hunter
-11 (negative eleven) DRSAA. This is the year Hunter switched to Rf from CF to accommodate Peter Bourjos. Despite his reputation, Hunter had lost a step and might have been more exposed in Center had Fleet Pete not come around.
•Bobby Abreu
-13 DRSAA. This was the year he really started to bobble stuff out there.
•Juan Rivera
-15 DRSAA. Not that it justified trading he and Napoli but 'ole Johnny Rivers was not a gem out there.
•Hideki Matsui
-50 DRSAA. It is cool, big Yankee fans Dennis Kuhl and John Carpino got the pleasure of having one of their own play for their own team. Matsui was a butcher with the glove and this t4eam already had one butcher.
2011:
•Vernon Wells
-12 DRSAA. Just one of many things Vernon did not do well, fielding was the least of our worries.
•Bobby Abreu
-17 DRSAA. They got rid of him after 28 games for Mike Trout but they could have replaced him int he field with Will Ferrell and done fine at least there.
2012: Hunter, Trout and Bourjos were actually +59 runs saved above average. Halos could have traded Ferrell for pitching.
2013: In an atrocious yer for Angels defense when even Bourjos had a -3 DRSAA, Trout was at -8 and newcomer Kole Calhoun was measured at -16 the surprise was Josh Hamilton only being -6 DRSAA... perhaps it made fly under the radar.
2014: Hamilton was -1, Trout was again -8 but the keeper was Tony Campana in 13 games scaring the statisticians with a -77 DRSAA ...nothing to laugh at if you are an Angels supporter or a Will Ferrell fan.
And so we head into 2015 with a clear cut goal for every Halo outfielder: if you cannot be as funny as Ferrell in the clubhouse be at least as good as him in the field.