I am in the offseason for one of my worlds and I'm starting to think ahead to my opening day lineup / how I am going to organize that lineup.
Had me thinking what are the most important positions for fielding value?
SS, CF, 2B, C, 3B, COF, 1B?
Curious about other HBD owners' thoughts.

Start with SS and CF. Those are by far the two most important fielding positions. I try to make sure I have a SS with over-80s across the board, and a CF with 80+ range and glove and 65+ for arm strength and accuracy. As long as I have those two fielding positions covered, then I organize my 1-9 batting order for offensive strength. For fielding at the other positions, you can get by at 2B with a 70+ glove and range, and arm strength in the mid 50's. 3B would be OK with 60+ across the board. I like to have a LF with decent range and glove. RF is the one position where you can put a C out there, as long as he has at least some range (10+) and glove (30+). His arm might get you a handful of + plays during the season.

Agree on many fronts. My concern is between 2B and 3B. I have an extra SS basically. Where is he more valuable 3B or 2B?

If you have someone acceptable to play 3B, I would put your "extra SS" at 2B. Mine is essentially a second SS with an inaccurate arm and he's a Gold Glove 2B. The 2B handles more chances per game than the 3B does.

Posted by damag on 4/1/2023 7:13:00 PM (view original):
If you have someone acceptable to play 3B, I would put your "extra SS" at 2B. Mine is essentially a second SS with an inaccurate arm and he's a Gold Glove 2B. The 2B handles more chances per game than the 3B does.

+1 -- SS playing 2b has huge impacts

I like more def. Of course if they are stud hitter then take that in to account and allows for some flexibility but generally I like 85+ in all 4 def ratings at ss. 75+ at 3rd. 85 + range and glove at cf and 2nd. The rest I look for great hitters.

SS, CF and 2B are the most important. I will have a backup catcher sometimes with high pitch calling. 3B, LF, RF and 1B and my starting C I will sacrifice defensive play for a better bat. Like someone said earlier, having a 2B with a great glove, range and arm can really rack up the + plays which means less runners on base to deal with.

Giving away all of my secrets but if I have a SS and CF that can't hit a lick but are above average defensively and can run and steal bases, that is the perfect player at those positions for me.

2B is the position I focus on the most because the player has to be as close to perfect as possible. Defensively has to be good, has to be able to hit, run. Usually these are the guys I focus on the most in the draft and free agency.

Jimmie Merced was the perfect example of this, but again, I picked him 7th overall and still ended up losing him to free agency.

I have noticed that my teams that can pitch well and field well tend to do the best in the playoffs. My slugging teams have a tendency to lose early.

Both could have similar regular season win totals but one does better against the best competition while the other struggles. Anecdotal but it has led me to be more focused on SP1-3 while securing great SS/2B/CF. I focus less on 3B/C/RF/LF/1B.

Some of this flies in what I thought of as the conventional wisdom regarding second base/ 3rd base/centerfield Fielding ratings, but looking into it, the numbers don't lie. Second base sees way more balls hit their way followed by third base and centerfield being a distant third place in that case, I'm thinking of shuffling some players around to see how it plays out. I currently have chan ho at 2B, Jensen at CF and Sanchez at 3rd, but based on this discussion I am thinking I would switch chan ho to CF and Jensen to 2B. Thoughts?

Player Profile: Chan Ho Abe - Hardball Dynasty Baseball | WhatIfSports

I have no empirical evidence but my concern would be that CF errors could be more damaging. Multi-base errors as OF would be worse than a single base error from an IF.

Posted by Zbosco13 on 4/8/2023 8:41:00 AM (view original):
Some of this flies in what I thought of as the conventional wisdom regarding second base/ 3rd base/centerfield Fielding ratings, but looking into it, the numbers don't lie. Second base sees way more balls hit their way followed by third base and centerfield being a distant third place in that case, I'm thinking of shuffling some players around to see how it plays out. I currently have chan ho at 2B, Jensen at CF and Sanchez at 3rd, but based on this discussion I am thinking I would switch chan ho to CF and Jensen to 2B. Thoughts?

Player Profile: Chan Ho Abe - Hardball Dynasty Baseball | WhatIfSports

Player Profile: Midre Sanchez - Hardball Dynasty Baseball | WhatIfSports

Player Profile: Timothy Jensen - Hardball Dynasty Baseball | WhatIfSports

This all tracks except my concern with Chan Ho is his relatively low range. And low range in a CF doesn't translate into Errors but rather into more base hits. I played a guy with 75 Range at CF one season and I thought it was fine until I looked at the league stats and saw that he had the lowest Range Factor in the league - by a LOT.
These players are all good hitters so unless you have some sluggers in the corner positions already, I would move Chan Ho to LF and find a cheap glove-only CF. But then maybe if you have that many good hitters a little sacrifice on Defense is totally acceptable.

Yes, it tracks as a - play.

Posted by yumen442 on 4/8/2023 12:13:00 PM (view original):
I have no empirical evidence but my concern would be that CF errors could be more damaging. Multi-base errors as OF would be worse than a single base error from an IF.

True-- but the (-) plays also go for more bases in the outfield. In general I prefer range to glove in CF.

Also remember, due to a weird programming flaw, outfielders don't make throwing errors-- at all-- in HBD. This devalues AA somewhat in the outfield. Not completely, since an inaccurate outfield throw can result in an extra base being take without there being an error, but all things being equal I'll put an arm at 2B instead of CF.

AH! That was it, I had forgotten. It was my second season playing HBD, I was playing a guy who should have been a utility infielder in CF because my top prospect CF was only 21 in AAA. 3/4 of the way through the season a fellow owner who was helping me learn the game sent me a TC: Geez your CF is making a lot of Bad Plays. Yes he was leading all CFs in bad plays. I brought the prospect up and he was my starting CF from that point on.

In terms of Range and Glove, if you were choosing between two players to play CF and 2B, where would you play at 85/75 vs 75/85?