When was the last time any baseball fan you know got excited about statistics tracking the number of putouts and assists generated by an individual player or team? Unless you are a minority of one, the answer is “Never.”
Fielding performance is highly subjective and hard to quantify. Even today, with SABRmetrics and highly advanced measuring tools, accurately measuring fielding skills remains arcane.
Nevertheless, there are a few fielding performances that are interesting to follow during a replay. Whether or not you choose to keep them, of course, is totally optional.
For each replay I have done, I have kept three basic fielding stats:
- Individual errors for each player, recorded by position
- Passed balls for catchers
- Outfield assists for outfielders
Errors compilation usually confirms the fielding grades assigned by APBA. Once in a while there are exceptions but, by and large, the best fielders make the fewest errors and the poor fielders make the most errors.
The greatest number of outfield assists is usually totaled by right fielders or players with low-rated arms. That’s because right fielders often have high-rated arms and the ability to throw runners out and because lower-rated fields usually have poor arms and runners take more chances trying to run on them. This often results in lower-rated outfielders generating more assists simply because they have more chances to throw runners out.
What does not show up in the stats is how many times a strong-armed outfielder (e.g. modern day Yasiel Puig or, from a couple of decades ago, Dave Parker, or old-timer Harry Hooper) put the brakes on a runner thinking about going from first to third or scoring from second base. The high-rated arms of players like these don’t show up in the stats, but their effectiveness cannot be denied.
Next: A fielding performance chart
My biggest issue with this is the number of errors a “1” outfielder racks up in a replay. I recently finished up a replay of the ’70 Oriole’s. Don Buford committed 20 errors as compared to three in the actual season. This was even a mg replay.
Hi Tom –
I’m not sure how the master game affects errors in the same way that the basic game does, but I’ve incorporated the Error card into my play, and it’s DRAMATICALLY cut down on the number of senseless errors committed by prime defensive players. Before I started using it, Ozzie Smith was guilty of five errors in a span of three games. Since then? Only one in about 20 games.
Not sure if this would be valuable to you or not, but thought I’d bring it up. Happy Holidays!