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One of the early storylines of the Chicago Cubs' championship season was the defensive improvement of Dexter Fowler. How did we know he was better? Metrics, of course. After a four-season stretch in which he posted an aggregate minus-43 defensive runs saved (DRS) in center field, Fowler suddenly ... was positive. ESPN's Doug Glanville wrote about the turnaround at the beginning of last June. The explanation he extracted from Cubs manager Joe Maddon: Stats! Acting on the advice of Chicago's analytical team, Maddon convinced Fowler to play deeper. The result was fewer balls hit over his head, which invariably go for extra bases. At the time, Fowler's DRS was plus-1, per Baseball Info Solutions. That's exactly where Fowler ended the season, resulting in a 12-run improvement over his average between 2012 and 2015. Combined with Jason Heyward's Gold Glove defense in right, Chicago's outfield defense became a key part of its off-the-charts run prevention. The play-deeper scheme made sense on the very face of it: In 2015, Fowler saved 12 plays on shallow-hit fly balls, but 17 plays below average on deep balls. Last season, he broke even on the shallow and deep balls alike, with his 1 DRS on medium-depth balls. In 2015, the Cubs gave up a double or triple on 9 percent of balls allowed in play; last year that plummeted to 5.6 percent -- best in the majors. Suffice to say, it was a worthy trade-off. It's an open question of what accounted for Fowler's improvement. Was it merely the change in positioning? Did he actually get better? Was it the impact of playing next to a superior fielder in Heyward? The answer to that question is important. But only to the Cubs insofar as it impacts Fowler's new team, the rival St. Louis Cardinals.
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