My team plays in Philadelphia and the past two season I have had well above average fielders at 3rd base and 2nd, yet they both where leading the league in errors. Last season I had Player Profile: William Zhang - Hardball Dynasty Baseball | WhatIfSports playing 3rd base, committed 50 errors in 3 season. This season he started at 3rd and had 5 errors in 16 games, now played 78 games at SS and only a -3 with 8 errors.

Player Profile: Horacio Guillen - Hardball Dynasty Baseball | WhatIfSports is at 12 errors, putting him on par with players with mid to low 70's in range, glove and arm strength.

This has been an annoyance of mine for a few seasons now, can some explain why the errors are so high?

Both players are very young so their fielding ratings were lower in previous years, but none of us can see what they were in previous seasons so it's difficult to analyze.

I do see that the team is top five in the world in ground ball rates so the counting stat of errors will be generally higher than league average, but it still goes back to the player's fielding ratings at the time of all of those errors.

Both of these players will generally overplay 3b and 2b with their current fielding ratings, but I'm not sure about previous seasons because I can't see their Fielding ratings in those previous seasons.

Finally, variance in fielding is similar to variance in hitting. A guy who has a 900 ops one season can have a 775 ops the next season. Same goes for fielding. A guy could win a gold glove one season and then be a slightly above league average fielder the next season.

This is Guillen's first year in ML, so I'll give it a few seasons. But I had to move Zhang because he was actually becoming worse. In season 40 (last year) his fielding splits were 80/82/85/85 and this year before the move to SS, he was at 80/83/85/86. I'm not saying he shouldn't commit errors, especially because I try to get pitchers who induce groundballs. But year after year when I see players who perform better consistently with lower fielding attributes its a little annoying.

I wouldn't over react to a small sample to start the season with Zhang. He has a good track record as a 3B. Any player can have a rough spell.....Zhang had 4 errors in 7 games to start the season.....he also had 3 plus plays during that time. Take the 7 games and extend it out to the entire season.....is he going to have 80 errors and 60 + plays this season....no.......it will all balance out.

I've always thought second base is a position where you can see a wide range of performance related to their fielding ratings. Someone that is maybe low 60s across the board...I'll throw him at second and he have a .990 fielding percentage year. You can also have someone like Guillen that you think should be a good second baseman.....he throws a .970 fielding percentage. It just happens due to the variability of the game.

He's getting a ton of plus plays due to his range but that range means he's also getting to a lot more balls than 3B's with 65 range so he's getting more opportunities to commit errors as well. Think of it less as committing more errors and more so getting to balls that most 3B can't even get to.

Same thing with SS's that have godly range like 95-100. They're fielding % actually goes down compared to 80 range SS because they get to everything and therefore make more E's. But they also make a ton of plus plays.

Posted by brianplath on 8/31/2021 5:49:00 PM (view original):
He's getting a ton of plus plays due to his range but that range means he's also getting to a lot more balls than 3B's with 65 range so he's getting more opportunities to commit errors as well. Think of it less as committing more errors and more so getting to balls that most 3B can't even get to.

Same thing with SS's that have godly range like 95-100. They're fielding % actually goes down compared to 80 range SS because they get to everything and therefore make more E's. But they also make a ton of plus plays.

I know this is a thing at the CF position because I have seen the (+/-). I have not seen it on an infielder, but I have not super studied it. Is it the same thing -- the infielder gets scored as a +/- (+ for getting to the ball/ - for making an error)?

Pretty sure I got this idea from an old vet. I haven't looked at the boxscores closely either so maybe my reasoning is off. I was basing my logic on the fact that whenever I look at the fielding% and +/- leaders at the end of the season, the 3B's with low range but good gloves are almost always at the top while my not quite SS guys are always falling lower down the fielding% list but tops on the +/- side.

Found it. It's true. The box scoring language does not make sense because it reads it was a routine play. Not sure it's a routine play if he gets a + play out of the deal, but nonetheless, it is true that you can get more errors with a higher range.

+-	T.Person boots a routine grounder and B.Wilson reaches on the error. N.Estrada scores.

https://www.whatifsports.com/hbd/Pages/Popups/Boxscore.aspx?gid=114058264&tab=box&mode=classic

If I have three outfielders, a LF and RF with range in the 80's and a CF with 90+. Theoretically Their individual errors will be suppressed because they all have the ability to get to the ball, distributing the errors between three instead of the one player in CF with the 90+ range. Or is that not how the sim works?

The range rating will allow each outfielder to get to more balls. However, it will also result in slightly more "errors". The SIM has wacky scoring. In real life, if an outfielder made an outstanding play to just get to the ball, but was just barely unable to hang on, it would be scored a hit. In HBD, it is scored a plus play and an error. At the end of the day, the outfielders are still offering a net positve in the aggregate out there. Sure, maybe they miss out on a gold glove due to the way that HBD scores the fielding and maybe this needs to be updated, but if you have the luxury of putting big range or big arms out there, do it.

Posted by tlowster on 9/1/2021 12:08:00 AM (view original):
Found it. It's true. The box scoring language does not make sense because it reads it was a routine play. Not sure it's a routine play if he gets a + play out of the deal, but nonetheless, it is true that you can get more errors with a higher range.

+-	T.Person boots a routine grounder and B.Wilson reaches on the error. N.Estrada scores.

https://www.whatifsports.com/hbd/Pages/Popups/Boxscore.aspx?gid=114058264&tab=box&mode=classic

To be clear on this play, Person got a plus play while making a fielding error. He had a plus play and an error in the box score. And I would agree that the language describing the play makes no sense.