I can't seem to figure it out. The league leaders at SS, for instance, aren't necessarily the top defensive shortstops in range nor glove. Is it just a crappy metric or am I missing a factor?

Crappy metric. It's basically the total number of plays a guy makes in a game. The reason those SS are at the top of list are simply because they're getting more balls hit to them.

Crappy metric because it has more to do with the ground ball / fly ball rating of your pitchers than it does with the range rating of your position players. For example, have a pitching staff of mostly ground ball pitchers and your infielders will be towards the top in range factor while your outfielders will be towards the bottom in range factor no matter what their range rating is.

It also has to do with the range of your other fielders. If you put in a bigger range CF for example he will take some of the outs away from the other positions. There are only 27 outs to go around in a 9 inning game. So if all your guys suck defensively they will still add up to same RF as a team of all Gold
Glovers. (of course groundballs get 2 for the RF as there is an assist and a putout)

I'm pretty sure that is incorrect.

Posted by ezzcon on 1/7/2018 12:59:00 PM (view original):
It also has to do with the range of your other fielders. If you put in a bigger range CF for example he will take some of the outs away from the other positions. There are only 27 outs to go around in a 9 inning game. So if all your guys suck defensively they will still add up to same RF as a team of all Gold
Glovers. (of course groundballs get 2 for the RF as there is an assist and a putout)

Please ignore this retarded statement. The game does not work that way. Anyone with questions can refer to 'the Rightfielder' topic that was recently bumped.