Relationship between range and fielding pct.

[lynchjm24]

Originally posted by Skipaway

ZR has been around since the 80s. Just can't find them on the net. As for UZR, it's available for even less years, and I think it's been shown that ZR isn't that much worse from UZR, unless you are going for detailed player comparisons.

UZR isn't widely available, I don't think there will be any correlation between fielding percentages and advanced defensive metrics anywhere.

Michael Humphries just published a very interesting study at baseballprimer.com where he uses regression to develop an advanced defensive metric that can be applied throughout the history of baseball.

It's pretty advanced stuff, but it was in 3 parts and is still on the front page over there. I think it's the most interesting defensive work I've seen.

[Crapshoot]

lynchjm, Im curious as to your thoughts on Humphries DER system- its certainly complex, but it seems to pass the logical test at first grasp. More so, I agree that the best fielding evaluation out there today is probably UZR"s- Win Shares doesn't do it for me.

[sporr]

Originally posted by Vajracchedika
Well, until I see numbers from the 50's, 60's, and 70's, I'm not going to conclude that the correlation is minimal. To me, it's straight forward. Range Factor clearly tabulates outfield putouts and assists. You can't argue with the fact that many great defensive players have put up much larger assist numbers from the outfield than other players. Those assists are part of RF, but if you want to throw out RF, then just look at the assists. A player with great range is going to have more chances to cut down hits into the gap and make shorter throws. And they may also tend to have better throwing arms. The assist numbers clearly support this. You often see high assist totals for players with, say, a .989 fielding percentage in the outfield. They didn't just get all of those assists because the baserunners were slow.

What you have to remember also is that high assist numbers don't necessarily mean that the OF had a better arm or made the play more. If an OF has a reputation for having a good arm, then not as many runners are going to test him, thus he'll have fewer assists.

[lynchjm24]

Originally posted by Aadik
lynchjm, Im curious as to your thoughts on Humphries DER system- its certainly complex, but it seems to pass the logical test at first grasp. More so, I agree that the best fielding evaluation out there today is probably UZR"s- Win Shares doesn't do it for me.

I like it a lot. It makes sense, it's pretty well explained, the results seem to hold a lot of water. I don't think there will ever be a perfect defensive system... but DER is pretty cool.

I think part of the problem with UZR is that MGL is such a prick that people can't get past that to embrace the system. At least it seems that way to me.