Astros History: Ken Caminiti's Defense

Today we're going to deviate from the normal plan of covering a player that relates to the days game number. I'm doing this because someone on twitter asked me on twitter if we had covered Ken Caminiti yet, and I don't think we have. Even if we have he's worthy of multiple Astros History spotlights so on we go.

One of the things Caminiti was known for was his defense at the hot corner. We can't use any of the newer defensive metrics to rate Caminiti so we'll defer to Baseball References defensive WAR and compare it to a more recent Astros third basemen.

For his career Caminiti had a 1.1 dWAR, so objectively we do have to question our perception of his defensive prowess, however, we only have to question not make any conclusions. His best defensive year came in 1989 when he posted a 2.8 dWAR in 161 games. Combine that with his two oWAR and his second best year in the majors was arguably his 1989 season with the Astros, this with an OPS+ of 98.

The rest of Caminiti's time with the Astros his defense was more good than bad, posting a 4.9 dWAR in his 10 years with Houston. It was when he was with San Diego, Atlanat and Texas that he posted below average defensive numbers.

Looking at Caminiti's defensive numbers and got me thinking if we have another Caminiti-like player in Matt Dominguez. Making comparisons this early in a players career is a dangerous thing and can get the small sample size police on you pretty quick, but so far Matt Dominguez has posted similar defensive numbers and better offensive numbers. How it all turns out is as of yet to be determined, however he's off to a great start and Astro fans may once again have another fan favorite at the hot corner.