OK....here's a quick visit to Mike's extensive RF thread. With nothing better to do I wend back over my last 6 season and looked at the dude who was my primary RF each season. Then I looked back and found 6 seasons were I used C/DH types to a great degree in RF and compared the totals. The study lacks something because I'm not comparing like-seasons, but it gives me a pretty good data base to extrapolate from.

Over the past 6 seasons, my primary RF's have averaged a 61-50-69-65 Glove/Arm. That probably isn't too far off the guys most of use use there over several seasons.Those guys played 6002 innings in RF or 667 full games. They made 873 Putouts, 30 assists only 13 errors (weirdly), 1 + play and 27 minus plays. Their Fld. Pct. was .985 and they had a range factor of 1.44. In 667 games they had a net 864 positive plays. That would work out to be about 209 PPPS

My 6 seasons of C/DH types in RF accounted for 5013 innings or 557 games. They made 660 Putouts, 15 Assists, 26 Errors, had O + plays and 67 minus plays. They had a Fld. % of .963 and a RF of 1.25. In 557 games they made a net 582 Positive Plays. That would work out to be about 169 PPPS.

With a difference of .19 Range Factor, the "good" RFs make about 30 more plays a season and boot a few less balls.

A booming DH/C type with an arm in the 60's plays well in RF. It remains true.

Enough owners know about the C-in-RF play that I always have a chance to make comparisons in my leagues.

When I look at the league stats and compare the RFs... specifically who's playing worst, the most errors, minus plays etc... it's always a mix of C/DHs and actual RF "qualified" fielders. Sure, you'll probably never see a C make a plus play in RF. However, generally speaking, the game doesn't seem to substantially differentiate between C/DHs and "real" RFs.

I've played both types of players in RF, simply depends on who's on my roster at the time. About the only thing you shouldn't do is put a 1B in RF. He won't have either the glove or the arm necessary.

Since it is mainly veteran owners that know about this C/DH in RF trick, I wonder if that means that the owners in veteran Worlds will have more poor fielders in RF. If so, I wonder how much you can take advantage of that by signing Leftie pull hitters and Rightie push hitters. My guess would be that you probably can't take too much advantage of it because -- 1. Not every team will have a poor fielder in RF (even in a Veteran World); 2. Even if half of the teams did have poor fielder in RF, you are probably giving up the opportunity to sign better hitting talent by limiting your targets to leftie pull hitters and rightie push hitters.

It's a good idea in theory but I would suspect it doesn't matter. The whole point of this is that - based on the Range Factor numbers - the game generates a proportionately low number of balls hit to RF in any circumstance. So if the RF boots even two out of ten it hurts you maybe once every six or seven games. I doubt you'd be able to push the system to the point that you deliberately, in one specific game, suddenly hit seven balls to RF and he boots two and you get three runs out of it.

Remember why this is possible: 1/ the average RF handles less than 1.5 chances per game and 2/ there's an observed correlation between rightfielder Arm Strength/Accuracy and fielding success, not Range/Glove. The opposite has been observed true for leftfielders, Range/Glove matters more in LF.

Posted by moethedog on 4/22/2020 1:41:00 PM (view original):
OK....here's a quick visit to Mike's extensive RF thread. With nothing better to do I wend back over my last 6 season and looked at the dude who was my primary RF each season. Then I looked back and found 6 seasons were I used C/DH types to a great degree in RF and compared the totals. The study lacks something because I'm not comparing like-seasons, but it gives me a pretty good data base to extrapolate from.

Over the past 6 seasons, my primary RF's have averaged a 61-50-69-65 Glove/Arm. That probably isn't too far off the guys most of use use there over several seasons.Those guys played 6002 innings in RF or 667 full games. They made 873 Putouts, 30 assists only 13 errors (weirdly), 1 + play and 27 minus plays. Their Fld. Pct. was .985 and they had a range factor of 1.44. In 667 games they had a net 864 positive plays. That would work out to be about 209 PPPS

My 6 seasons of C/DH types in RF accounted for 5013 innings or 557 games. They made 660 Putouts, 15 Assists, 26 Errors, had O + plays and 67 minus plays. They had a Fld. % of .963 and a RF of 1.25. In 557 games they made a net 582 Positive Plays. That would work out to be about 169 PPPS.

With a difference of .19 Range Factor, the "good" RFs make about 30 more plays a season and boot a few less balls.

A booming DH/C type with an arm in the 60's plays well in RF. It remains true.

Such a great way to get a big bat in the lineup. The C/DH playing in RF has changed the way I draft and has resulted in several starting players for me in RF.