|
9/2/24; edited 2/22/2025 Dee-fense, Dee-fense…Part IIIAll GMs in OOTP leagues pay attention to their players’ batting and pitching statistics. I know some also pay attention to fielding statistics, but looking at some teams, it is clear that many do not. Why don’t they? I would guess it’s a combination of
Well, if you’re locked into the opinion that fielding isn’t very important, I can’t help you. But if you’d like to start paying attention to fielding and you just don’t what stats to pay attention to, I can. You only need to look at three stats, and they’re really easy to interpret. Assessing fielding is much simpler than assessing hitting or pitching. The three stats: Zone Rating (ZR): Simply put, a positive ZR is good, and a negative ZR is bad. Zero is average, so the farther away from zero you get, the better or worse you are. It’s a cumulative stat, so as the season progresses it may get very far from zero in one direction or the other. If a player gets to about minus 5.0 or worse, it’s cause for concern. If your Team ZR is way below zero (-20 or worse), you’ll probably need to be scoring a ton of runs to be competitive, and you may not be competitive even then. Individual Defensive Efficiency (EFF): 1.000 is average. Under 1.000 but above .950 is below average, but not really anything to panic about, unless you have a lot of players in that range. When you start getting far below .950, that’s pretty bad, and under .900 is really awful. If you’re playing a guy who has an EFF below .900, he’d better hit 50 home runs, because if he doesn’t, he’s probably not worth it. Team Defensive Efficiency (DEF): In some leagues the average DEF is higher than it is in others. Usually it’s somewhere around .700, but sometimes it’s 10 or 20 points higher or lower. But you really don’t need to concern yourself with that; forget about what the number is, what it actually means, or how it’s calculated, and just look at where your team stands compared to the league average. If your DEF is way above the league average, your defense is doing good. If it’s way below the league average, your defense is doing bad. Sometimes I see people doing just crazy things, things that defy all common sense as it pertains to baseball: playing a guy at short or at third who has no arm, playing a guy with lousy range up the middle, playing a guy who can’t turn a double play at second, etc. Where are they getting the idea that this isn’t a terrible idea? OOTP, probably. OOTP is probably indicating the player has experience at that position. Never take OOTP’s word for it that a player can play a certain position. OOTP draft pools always list more non-pitchers at catcher, shortstop, and center field than any of the other positions. That doesn't mean all of these players can play those positions at the major league level. Draft pools are made up of high school and college players. The best athletes on high school or college teams usually play the most demanding positions. But only the cream of the crop defensively among them are good enough to play those positions in the majors; most end up at a less demanding position. Sometimes, a player will have no high school or college experience at the position he’s most suited to playing in the majors. Look at it this way: OOTP lists all non-pitchers as “batters”, right? Does that mean all of them are major league-quality hitters? It lists all pitchers as “pitchers”; can all of them pitch at the major league level? Technically they can all pitch, but if they can’t pitch at least at replacement level, they’re not really “pitchers” in a practical sense—and not all of them can. You don’t judge whether a pitcher can pitch because OOTP calls him a pitcher. You judge whether he can pitch by looking at his pitching ratings. If you know some “pitchers” can’t really pitch, and some “hitters” can’t really hit, why would you assume all “shortstops” can really play shortstop? Don’t assume a player can play a position because OOTP says he can. Look at his fielding ratings—they will tell you what positions he’s actually capable of playing. (See here for a list of “good” ratings for infielders and outfielders.) Having read Part II, you may be asking, “Why does my shortstop have to have better than average range? Isn’t having an average shortstop good enough?” Asking those two questions together implies a misunderstanding about what the ratings mean. Having an average shortstop isn’t a problem; the problem is in thinking an infielder with average range is going to be an average shortstop. Take a look at your shortstop’s Fielding Ratings. There’s no category for “SS Range”; it’s “INF Range”. Assuming 50 to be average, a shortstop with 50 INF Range doesn’t have average range for a shortstop; he has average range for an infielder. Well, first basemen and third basemen are infielders, and what’s average for them is not the same as what’s average for a middle infielder. 50 INF Range is quite good for a first baseman; it’s way below average for a shortstop. Same thing with INF Error, INF Arm, and Turn DP; same with the OF ratings. In order to be “average” at a position, a player needs to be much better than average in the categories that define that position. A center fielder needs to have much better than average range for an outfielder. A second baseman needs to have very good infield range and very good double play capabilities. A third baseman needs to have a very good arm. A shortstop needs to be real good at everything. If you don’t want to spend time looking at fielding statistics, go the McKechnie route and get to work on getting as many good fielders in your lineup as you can. If you don’t already have them, find yourself a real shortstop, a real second baseman, a real center fielder, and a real catcher, not just guys who “can” play those positions. Move guys who shouldn’t be playing the demanding positions to positions they would actually be good at. Avoid putting bad fielders anywhere, unless they’re all-world offensive players, and for God’s sake, don’t put them anywhere but first base or left field. If you can do all that, you won’t need to look at the statistics. They’ll be good. |