Breaking Down the Stats #2 - Fielding

G – Games played.
GS – Games Started
PO – Put Outs. This is awarded to a defensive player who records an out by one of six methods:

• Tagging a runner with the ball when he’s not touching a base (tagout)
  
• Catching a batted/thrown ball and tagging a base to put out a batter or runner (force out)
  
• A strikeout (for pitchers)
  
• A flyout
  
• Being the nearest defender when a runner interferes with fielding
  

A – Assists, awarded to a fielder that touches the ball before a putout (PO).
DP – Double Plays, when two offensive players are ruled out in the same play (which is super helpful to pitchers!), sometimes also referred to as a “twin killing” (don’t ask).
TC – Total Chances (or chances offered), a sum of your assists (A) + putouts (PO) + errors (E, described next!)
E – Errors, where the fielder misplays a ball that allows a batter or base-runner to move along the basepath more bases than they would normally be allowed. These are scored like golf strokes – the fewer you have, the better.

PCT – (fielding) percentage, which reflects the rate at which your player properly plays the ball – that is, a ratio of your putouts + assists to your chances (TC, described above). A 1.000 means you always play the ball correctly, whereas a 0.600 means you only make 60% of the proper defensive plays (that’d be a lot of errors).
IP – Innings played. It’s in the format “innings.outs,” where a 128.2 means you’ve played 128 innings plus two outs. This is more a volume than formulaic stat, but that’s the way the cookie (stat sheet) crumbles.
RNG (or RANGE or RF) – no words to mince here; the range or “range factor” is a measurement of a player’s putouts (PO) and assists (A) per nine innings. There are some positions that get a much higher range factor by virtue of their placement – especially catchers (for catching strikeouts) and first basemen (who are eligible for a putout on every ball in play). But the distribution is also affected by pitchers: groundball pitchers, for example, will result in a much higher defensive range for infielders than one who allows many outfield fly balls.

ZR – Zone Rating tells us the number of runs a defensive player’s performance is worth compared to the average player at their position. It’s a pretty interesting formula that takes into account where a ball is hit and every fielder’s “zone of responsibility” – as in, because of their position, would they be expected to play the ball? The average ZR is 0 (i.e. “average number of runs allowed”). A positive ZR means your defensive performance prevents a certain number of runs (on average), while a negative ZR means you allow more runs than the typical player at your position.
EFF – Efficiency. This is a combined stat that essentially tells you how frequently balls put into play turn into outs as compared to average, with 1.000 given to an “average” fielder.


SBA (or RSTA) – Stolen Base Attempts, or Runner Steal Attempts Against. This tells you the number of attempted stolen bases while a specific catcher is catching.
CS & CS% (or RTO & RTO%) – Caught Stealing (and its rate); if a baserunner attempts to steal and is caught out, the catcher is awarded a CS; CS% tells you how often a catcher is able to catch a batter out while stealing while they’re catching. Also referred to as “Runners Thrown Out” and its corresponding percentage.
CERA – Catcher’s Earned Runs Average. This is like the ERA for pitchers, but for catchers (which allows you to assess a catcher’s influence between a team’s entire pitching staff).
PB – Passed Ball. A catcher’s guilty of a passed ball if they fail to hold or control a pitch that should be able to be controlled with ordinary effort; it has to allow runner(s) to advance or score more than usual.



Let me first show you Pittsburgh’s CF Dale Cooper @Jetsqb101 with his fielding stats.


Notice anything? There are two things I want to bring attention to here: first, he has a literally perfect fielding percentage (1.000). He has zero errors on the season, and catches EVERY ball hit his way. More importantly, he has a +13.7 zone rating, which is the highest I could find among any position by quite some margin (though I haven’t checked every player). His rating is so close to perfect that it’s messed with the formula a little bit, as obviously no player can actually decrease an opposing team’s runs allowed per nine innings by 13.7 in a single game. Part of it may be skewed by the limited fielding ability of bot center fielders – which is why many of our active starters have a markedly positive ZR – but the other part is Cooper’s essentially perfect play.

Continuing on, I think Chicago’s Sphyrna Lewin @Troutstrong is an impeccable example of a great infielder, especially one at a high-stakes defensive position like shortstop.


Like with outfielders, we want to look at percentage, zone rating, and efficiency. Lewin is clearly above-average in virtually all of these, posting an elite .995 percentage, a human active-best +8.3 zone rating, and a Golden Glove-worthy 1.084 efficiency rating (often those above 1.050 are at least in contention).

Well, instead of belaboring the incredible performances of Cáramel Delight (who needs no introduction), I’ve chosen to focus on Las Vegas’s Wally Coleman @jhatty8 . He’s tied the best fielding percentage of any starting catcher (.998), has the best range (8.25, though that has some team factors like Vegas’s pitching rotation), a high-quality zone rating (+4.0), and an elite defensive efficiency (.995, tied #1). In catcher-specific ratings, he posts a reasonable 33.3% runners thrown out rate, which is identical to or better than other starting catchers.


As a result, he was understandably selected to the Minors All-Star Game.

Any thoughts, constructive criticism, or praise for our league-best fielders? Let me know what you think down below!

Up next week? Pitchers. And man, are they a doozy.