How does APBA determine pitcher fielding ratings? A few thoughts on this critical matter…

635px-Photo_of_the_Day_Project,_Oct._27,_2016_-_Cubs_lefty_Jon_Lester_throws_a_bullpen_session_at_Wrigley_Field._(30504496142)

Recently, a discussion occurred over text among my fellow Illowa APBA League members prompted by Dennis Jennings.  The topic?  The critical and heavy issue of pitchers’ fielding ratings.

Dennis got things going:

Okay my APBA query (from a Cub fan): how can Jon Lester be rated as a 2 (good fielding) pitcher in last 2 years? Yes Cubs have found ways to cover his inability to make pickoff moves BUT his inability to throw to first and agreement not to field balls – is crazy and not exactly a secret. Any thought what causes them to grade accordingly. Okay yes could hardly be a less important question but still.

My first instinct was to look up Lester’s fielding stats.  As Dennis notes, Lester has been rated a P-2 the past two years.  While he made three errors in 2015, he hasn’t made any in 2016 or 2017.  I know the error stat is not a good indicator of a fielder’s ability but numbers don’t lie.  For what it’s worth, Jon Lester’s Master Game MF rating is +1.

However, that is not entirely the reason why Jon Lester was rated a Pitcher-2 in my opinion.

As our commissioner, Mike Bunch opined, the reason Lester received the higher fielding rating was “bump up” the overall defense of their teams.

I’ll take it a step further.  I think the extra “bump” is applied to winning teams especially those who went on to the postseason.  The Chicago Cubs of 2017 had a total of fifteen pitchers.  Only Mike Montgomery, Pedro Strop and Koji Uehara were rated a P-1.  All the others (even Jon Lester) were rated as a P-2.  Looking across the aisle, the AL Champion Houston Astros look similar.  Of their seventeen pitchers, only four were rated P-1.

On the opposite side of the spectrum, the last place Detroit Tigers were evenly split with eight pitchers rated with a 1 and eight rated with the superior grade.

There are exceptions.  The Dodgers of 2017 have a few more P-1s then I would expect (seven P-1s out of sixteen pitchers). Just a wild guess here but perhaps the cardmakers look at all the teams when they’re done and decide which ones need a boost.

While this is all valid, Chuck Lucas chimed in.  He said not all of this was team-related.  Pitchers like Jim Kaat and Mark Buehrle were always rated with a 2.  I’ll add Greg Maddux as well.

Thoughts?

 

Photo by Arturo Pardavila III from Hoboken, NJ, USA – Photo of the Day Project, Oct. 27, 2017: Cubs lefty Jon Lester throws a bullpen session at Wrigley Field., CC BY 2.0, Link

 

Thomas Nelshoppen

I am an IT consultant by day and an APBA media mogul by night. My passions are baseball (specifically Illini baseball), photography and of course, APBA. I have been fortunate to be part of the basic game Illowa APBA League since 1980 as well as the BBW Boys of Summer APBA League since 2014. I am slogging through a 1966 NL replay and hope to finish before I die.

2 Comments:

  1. what it is now, I do not know. The cards and ratings were intended to reproduce team strength, and usage, with the 20 cards per team set. I played ’69 and ’57 with those and it did.

  2. I had occasion to discuss things like this with Skeet Carr at last year’s convention. He said it’s a mix – errors, team strength and “reputation”.

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