How useful are the average fielding ratings by position listed in the HBD menus? Should one follow these as strictly as possible?

It's a guideline.  If you have a player with those ratings, he might be acceptable, but he won't be awesome.  I try really hard to have at least those ratings for my players, but sometimes very high glove can make up for low range and vice versa.  Just like most things here, you have to try different things out and see what you can make work or not.  By Fielding/Glove/Range, my SS is 85/86/89, 2B is 80/75/60, CF is 78/90/63, 3B is 74/74/82, RF is 59/50/68, LF is 74/69/53, and 1B is 41/39/37.  My catcher is 15/35/85 with an 83 pitch call.  My 2B, 1B, and RF backups are all above average defensively for their positions.

I'd say that there are certain players who have to be in the lineup for any given team, so you can start with putting them somewhere in the field and work from there.

I don't think a player HAS to be in the line-up.    If you use a C at 1B, a 1B in LF and a RF at 3B, you'll notice that your pitching sucks.   Then, if you check your fielding stats, you'll know why.

Determining rosters/lineups is about trade-offs.  There are very few "strict" things you must follow in order to be successful.  Very few teams are loaded enough that they have great offensive players that are also above-average defensively at each position.  The "average" ratings WIS provides for each position give you a guideline for how your player might perform defensively.  It's up to you to put together the best lineup based on the value of defense vs the value of offense and what you have available to you ad far as players.

Don't let people tell you that players MUST meet these guidelines for you to have a successful team.  Along the same lines, don't trick yourself into thinking defense isn't important and going for sluggers everywhere.  The great thing about this game is putting together the best strategy you can to field the best OVERALL lineup, taking into account both preventing (i.e. defense) and scoring (i.e. offense) runs.  There is generally no right or wrong and almost always no "strictly".

You always find a way to play your plus players. Just remember moving a player up the defensive spectrum (i.e. 1b in rf), the bat has to cover the diminished defense.

Posted by toddcommish on 8/16/2010 12:46:00 PM (view original):

In the past, WIS claimed that the fielding stats used for the sim are based on the real-life fielding stats.

So, if you have a SS with the EXACT average ratings, his FP% will tend to be around the average for MLB SS FP% for whatever the reference year is (2007?)

It will be exact to three decimal places.

I'd be very hesitant to say "Only good hitter can be plus players".

Having a team full of great hitters and terrible fielders is no better than having a team full of terrible hitters and great fielders.  I prefer to have my teams have some sort of balance.  Don't throw out the guy with low contact and power if he's got splits, eye, br, and speed.  And your middle infielders are probably going to get more chances in the field than they will at the plate in any given game, so I wouldn't sacrifice too much in the fielding attributes for those guys.