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As Jonah Keri wrote in 2012, "When Voros McCracken wrote his seminal piece on pitching and defense 11 years ago, he helped change the way people—fans, writers, even general managers—think about run prevention in baseball. Where once we used to throw most of the blame for a hit on the pitcher who gave it up, McCracken helped us realize that ...
In the sport of baseball, each of the nine players on a team is assigned a particular fielding position when it is their turn to play defense. Each position conventionally has an associated number, for use in scorekeeping by the official scorer: 1 (), 2 (), 3 (first baseman), 4 (second baseman), 5 (third baseman), 6 (), 7 (left fielder), 8 (center fielder), and 9 (right fielder). [1]
Baseball statistics include a variety of metrics used to evaluate player and team performance in the sport of baseball. Because the flow of a baseball game has natural breaks to it, and player activity is characteristically distinguishable individually, the sport lends itself to easy record-keeping and compiling statistics .
Proponents of the statistic advise that defense is best judged over three-year spans, as a given year contains a relatively small sample and can result in large statistical swings. [2] Former Major League Baseball shortstop David Eckstein says "a lot of defense is putting yourself in the right position to make plays."
In sabermetrics, the defensive spectrum is a graphical representation of the positions on a baseball field, arranged from the easiest (such as first base and the outfield corners) on the left to the hardest (such as the catcher and middle infielders) on the right.
In baseball statistics, fielding percentage, also known as fielding average, is a measure that reflects the percentage of times a defensive player properly handles a batted or thrown ball. It is calculated by the sum of putouts and assists , divided by the number of total chances (putouts + assists + errors ).
Shortstop, abbreviated SS, is the baseball or softball fielding position between second and third base, which is considered to be among the most demanding defensive positions. Historically, the position was assigned to defensive specialists who were typically poor at batting and were often placed at the bottom of the batting order .
Range Factor (commonly abbreviated RF) is a baseball statistic developed by Bill James.It is calculated by dividing putouts and assists by the number of innings or games played at a given defense position. [1]