An Analysis in Defensive Abilities

Hello everybody!

Thought I would take the time to try and help a lot of people who are new to OOTP and baseball's defensive positions! What I hope to do here is explain briefly the different defensive ratings that we have, what each do, and what positions need what in order to succeed in the SBL and compete for gold gloves or even just provide decent enough defense behind the pitchers we have today.

The Attributes:

Range (Infield and Outfield)

Range is the king of defensive attributes for most positions and can be fairly useful for all players to have. Range is essentially the speed attribute on the defensive end and determines how much ground your player can cover essentially to get to the batted balls and make the play. For infield range, we are talking about being able to get after the ground balls mainly and for the outfield range, we are talking about fly balls. This attribute is most important to players that have more ground to cover such as shortstops, center fielders, second basemen and corner outfielders.

Error (Infield and Outfield)

Error is just how it sounds, it is essentially the attribute to prevent making errors while fielding. To my knowledge this is the attribute that contributes most to the ability to field ground balls or fly balls and throwing errors would be mostly covered by the arm rating which will be explained after this. The error rating is how good you are at fielding the ball and works in the middle of our defensive ratings. Range to get to the ball, error to field it and then arm to throw it. This rating is important for all positions except catcher and can be more important than range in some instances in positions where not much range is needed such as first base or left field to name a couple.

Arm (Infield, Outfield, and Catcher)

Arm is the 3rd part of our big trio where throws need to be made after you get to the ball (range) and field it (error) and arm affects your throwing ability in both strength and accuracy. Fielders with a bigger arm rating will be able to make stronger and cleaner throws to different spots on the field. Catcher arm will affect the ability to throw out stolen base attempts as well. Arm is most important for fielders that need to make longer throws, third base and shortstop for the infield, and right field mainly for outfield. For center fielders, it is more of a neutral attribute.

Turn Double Play

This is an infield only attribute and focuses on the ability to turn double plays which includes being in the right position and making the turn after catching the ball, tagging the bag and being able to throw it to first. This attribute is mainly for middle infielders (second basemen and shortstops as they are the ones almost always involved in turning double plays in the infield. For corner infielders, third base and first base, this attribute does not mean much as they are usually not involved in having to turn double plays.

Catcher Ability

Catcher ability is one of the more unknown fielding abilities in OOTP in just how much it may affect the game but me personally when I am looking for catchers in any of my OOTP leagues, I want one with good catcher ability. The understanding is that catcher ability affects passed balls, pitch framing and can help lower a pitching staff's ERA and walks. Catcher ability is the most important defensive attributes for catchers and is not needed by anyone else unless you are wanting to be a backup catcher at some point.

Your Position's Defensive Attribute Needs:

Here I will list defensive positions and rank the needs on their defensive attributes and give a rating of LOW, MEDIUM, or HIGH for importance.

Catcher:
1) Catcher Ability - HIGH
2) Catcher Arm - MEDIUM

First Base:
1) Error - HIGH
2) Range - MEDIUM
3) Turn DP - LOW
4) Arm - LOW

Second Base:
1) Error - HIGH
2) Range - HIGH
3) Turn DP - HIGH
4) Arm - LOW

Third Base:
1) Arm - HIGH
2) Error - HIGH
3) Range - MEDIUM
4) Turn DP - LOW

Shortstop:
1) Range- HIGH
2) Error - HIGH
3) Arm - HIGH
4) Turn DP - HIGH

Left Field:
1) Error - HIGH
2) Range - MEDIUM
3) Arm - LOW

Center Field:
1) Range - HIGH
2) Error - MEDIUM
3) Arm - MEDIUM

Right Field:
1) Arm - HIGH
2) Range - MEDIUM
3) Error - MEDIUM