Addendum to that question: Is a catcher with a bad arm rating (say, D) better or worse at throwing out basestealers than an out of position A/A outfielder or SS?

I would guess better

Posted by Jtpsops on 1/28/2019 1:54:00 PM (view original):
That league is starting up again now. I suspect the Foxx team will have a huge advantage. Beyond that, it'll be a crapshoot. If you choose a catcher, you'll likely have by far the worst defense at the other positions on the field.

Side note: If you have an A+ defender (non-catcher) behind the plate, can he somewhat control the run game?

I suspect it doesn't matter who's behind the plate if they're not rated at catcher. Though maybe handedness might play a role?

I read once that a fielder's "arm" is roped into their fielding rating. Not sure if that's true or not, but if so, then in theory, an A fielding SS should be able to throw out a few runners.

Here's a data point to add to the discussion.

80M theme league, we're 158 games into the season. An owner has been using 1972 Ken Berry (OF rated A+/A-, not rated at any other position) at shortstop. Berry has played 132 games at SS so far. His stats:

FLD%: .760
Errors: 150
Plus Plays: 0
Minus plays: 20
RF: 4.03
DP: 46

I include that last stat, because it is by far the lowest total in the league. It doesn't get brought up much in this discussion, but in addition to the massive hit you will take in terms of errors and minus plays, Berry probably cost his team 40-50 double plays. The lesson: don't play an OF out of position at shortstop - ever - no matter how good his primary defensive ratings, and no matter how good his bat is.

Not even Mickey Stanley.

Trying the 1st basemen in OF strat. After 50 games 04 Pujols is on pace for 32 + plays! Although he does have a .950 fielding%

Posted by tpistolas on 1/4/2019 11:59:00 AM (view original):
Two questions regarding the 2% (and subsequent 4% hits) to fielding percentage as you move down the position spectrum:
1. Is range affected in the same way?
2. Is there also a fielding percentage adjustment by position? If not, why wouldn't you put 1B with .990+ at all of your lower-spectrum positions (like all 3 OF spots)? Even with large hits to his fielding percentage, that's still better than a lot of old-time OFs who were <.950.

An opinion on all of the "who would you rather move" questions:
I typically put my better fielder at the higher-volume position. For instance, in a standard OL I always reserve a starting spot for a AAA platoon, and I stash them in LF, regardless of their position. I'd much rather control who is playing 1B for me as they have much more volume than a LF whose range factor might be 2.0 at best.

This got me thinking so I've been toying around with the idea.

In a recent Theme League I did:

At the SkyDome:

2000 Todd Helton A-, B- (.995 fld%, 9.88 rff)

154 G in LF, 15 errors (.941 fld%) 4 + plays, 0 - plays


2003 Carlos Delgado B, B+ (.993 fld%, 10.20 rff)

145 G in RF, 7 errors (.971 fld%) 2 + plays, 1 - plays


At Coors:


2004 Albert Pujols B, A+ (.994 fld%, 11.90 rff)

155 G in RF, 13 errors (.941 fld%) 19 + plays, 0 - plays

He was on pace for like 35 + plays midway thru the season but all of a sudden stopped making them





BONUS!!!!

2007 Todd Helton A+, A+ (.999 fld%, 11.48 rff)

153 Games at 2nd Base: 56 errors (.919 fld%) 0 + plays, 9 - plays. He turned 92 double plays, and my team finished near the top in double plays turned.

I think the highest I saw him get his fielding % was like .939-.940.

Those OF #s aren't good but they are survivable

Semi related question, given that i often stash my best hitting AAA guy in a corner OF spot, regardless of his natural position...

If a park has considerably different dimensions in left and right (like AT&T, 367 and 420 to the respective power alleys), am I better off putting a higher-range natural OF to the larger side, or does it not matter? The park effects are like +1 1b, +1 3b so are those effects irrelevant of hit direction, or am I to assume those extra hits and triple are all in right center?

Likewise, would a lefty batter realize more of this effect than a righty in that park?

Having trouble parsing this...how bad would a C-/D+ 3B be at 2B? Progressive league issues...

extremely bad

Posted by 06gsp on 8/11/2021 12:13:00 PM (view original):
extremely bad

The closest historical example I could find is 1894 J.McGraw, 3B C-/D+, also 2B eligible listed at D-/D-. In 27 starts at 2B, 11 errors, 0 + plays, 4 - plays. Full season projects to 66 errors, 24 - plays. If we assume (can we ?) that his being eligible listed at D-/D- is better than not being eligible listed at all, then yeah, what he said.

That's not really how it works, in many cases the out of position player will be a lot better than the D-/D- fielder.

Also, the D- by itself doesn't tell the whole story, a .750 fielding percentage and a 0.01 fielding percentage are both D-, but there's obviously a huge difference.

In this case, you're getting a 2% hit to a C- fielding percentage for playing out of position, and then another 8% hit for moving the guy two spots up the defensive spectrum. So a 10% hit to fielding percentage and a 40% hit to his range (10% out of position, 15% for each move up the spectrum) should be enough to move the guy well into D-/D- territory.

So sinatra, unless you have an extra shortstop I would suggest trading for a second baseman rather than moving this guy to second, will not go well.

I am sure this was answered at one point in this thread - but how do players with multiple positions work?

I am considering moving 1970 Joe Torre to 2B - would he be a Catcher (B-/A), 1B (D-/D-) or 3B (C+/D) when it comes to calculating his out of position numbers?