David Pinto over at Baseball Musings broke out his Probabilistic Model of Range (link eventually leads to a video on the stat) for Second Basemen yesterday. Of the 37 second basemen profiled, Yankees second baseman Robbie Cano came in 12th, which isn't too shabby for a player that was initially profiled as an below-average to average fielder. Pinto's system predicted that with the same amount of chances, Cano should be able to convert 373 outs; Cano was able to get 385.

Now before you point it out, yes, I realize that defensive metrics are still more or less in their first/second iterations. Still, it still makes me feel good to know that Cano is getting better and that Pinto's PMR isn't the only one that shows Cano being an above average defender. Baseball Prospectus' Rate2 statistic pegged Cano at 113 (100 being average) for 2006 after a 2005 season at a Rate2 of 100. Let's hope Robbie can keep this up.

Update: First Basemen are also profiled (Giambi is DEAD LAST - big surprise there), as are Left Fielders (way to go Melky...and wow on Manny Ramirez), Center Fielders (Damon doesn't do too badly), Right Fielders (Abreu is right smack at average) and Shortstops (Jeter is 5th to last).