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Posts: 9161
01/06/07 01:20 PM
Quote:Playing out of postionYou can use a player at a defensive position for which he is not rated, but his performance will suffer. How much? It depends.Players can make a relatively painless transition to an easier position that is similar to one they're already rated for. The penalties are much greater for moving to a very different position that is also more difficult to play.For example, a CF can play LF or RF without suffering much at all. Both positions are similar and easier than the one he's rated for. A LF or RF moving to CF has a more difficult time because there's more ground to cover. Similarly, a move from SS to 2B won't cost you too much, while a move from 2B to SS will hurt more. And the moves that will hurt the most are (a) from any position to catcher, (b) a catcher moving to any position except 1B, and (c) a 1B moving to CF or another infield position.How will these penalties show up? In lots of ways. More balls in their zones will go for hits. They'll make more errors. Guys without outfielder throwing or catcher throwing ratings will be easier to run on. Unrated catchers will have more passed balls. Unrated middle infielders won't start as many double plays on balls hit to them, and they won't turn two as often when they're the pivot man on the play. Pitchers without hold ratings will be easier to run on.You might ask why we apply penalties even when a player is moving to a less difficult position. Couldn't a top-rated SS play 2B as well or better than the average 2B? In the many years that we've been assigning fielding ratings, we've seen a lot of players get higher ratings when they make the transition from a harder position to an easier one (especially SS -> 2B, 3B -> 1B, and CF -> LF), but we've also seen plenty of cases where the player needed some time to learn how to play the new position.Every position requires mastery of a different set of skills. A CF moving to RF needs to learn how to play the caroms on balls hit down in the corner. A 3B needs great reflexes to handle the hot smashes that come his way, and that might not be the strong suit of a middle infielder moving to 3B. A SS moving to 2B must learn how to make the pivot with his back to the runner.If our out-of-position adjustments assumed that every player could instantly adapt to a new position, even an easier one, we think it would create too many opportunities for managers to abuse the game by moving players around in ways that real-life managers would never get away with. So the game imposes penalties of varying degrees on all out-of-position players.
Quote:5.2 What is better to have on the field -- a Fr range, 90 error rating or a Vg range, 115 error rating?You're usually better off with the guy with better range unless there's a huge difference in the error ratings. A typical full-time player has more than 500 balls hit into his zone per year, and the top fielders will make 30-40 more plays than the average fielder. Because the average fielder makes anywhere from 6 to 20 errors per full-time season, depending on the position, it takes a very large advantage in error rating (or fielding percentage) to make up for a significant deficiency in rang
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