Maybe.

Much has been made about how the Tigers lead the league in errors (90) and are dead last in fiedling percentage (.977), so it’s easy to assume the have the worst defense in the American League. While errors and fielding percentage are inherently flawed metrics, being the worst at both still isn’t a good sign.

Then again, last year the Tigers committed the most errors, and had the worst fielding percentage, but according to UZR (ultimate zone ratings) they were only a slightly below average unit. UZR said that the Tigers defense cost the team 13 runs more than an average defense last year, which over the course of the season is pretty minor. Unfortunately I couldn’t find any “in season” UZR’s for this year so we’ll just have to look at other stuff.

Defensive Efficiency is simply a measure of how effective the defense is at turning fieldable balls (stuff in the field of play so not home runs) into outs. The Tigers actually rank okay in this metric. They convert 69.5% of balls hit in play into outs. The league average is 69.1% and the Tigers rank sixth in the American League.

Sixth is not bad considering the number of errors the Tigers have accumulated. So how have the Tigers managed to generate so many outs despite the errors? Well, the nature of the Tigers’ errors are a little bit different than the rest of the league. Of the Tigers 90 errors, only 41 of them allowed runners to reach base. This means that the other 49 errors were allowing runners to get additional bases. So 46% of the Tigers errors allowed runners to reach base. The league average is 56%, and the Tigers were the only AL team below 52%.

Taking a closer look at the errors, 22 were committed by the outfielders, which is 5 more than the next worst outfield. The infielders have committed 49 errors, and their .979 fielding percentage is only third worst in the league.

So are the Tigers the worst defense in the league? The fact that they rank in the top half in defensive efficiency tells me that they probably aren’t. However, the sheer number of errors has to place them well within the bottom half of the league. As for how much the defense has hurt the team, I’m not sure. As for the disparity in the types of errors, I’m not sure which would utimately cost the team more. While the errors that aren’t letting runners reach base seem very costly in that runners are moving closer to scoring (and in some cases scoring), the errors allowing runners to reach base prolong innings and wear out pitchers.