This is a test team I'm running. It's a 120mil league playing in Hilltop Park (+3 for singles, doubles and triples) and I want to see how many plus plays they make, and more importantly, what happens with each + play. Here's the squad - these guys are close to the top of the RRF charts at their respective positions but other than Douthit, they're not really the top guy.

LF Taylor Douthit 3.62 RRF
CF Richie Ashburn 3.40 RRF
RF Bernie Williams 3.20 RRF
3B Arlie Latham 3.98 RRF
2B Bid McPhee 6.45 RRF
SS Herman Long 6.58 RRF
1B Cap Anson 11.60 RRF

Through 23 games, we have racked up 36 + plays. 3 of them were by pitchers so the other 33 were made by these players.

Amazingly, Douthit doesn't have ANY in LF. Maybe putting him there was a mistake but I don't want to change things up at this point. Here are the raw totals:

Long 4
Latham 3
McPhee 8
Anson 7
Ashburn 5
Bernie 6

Of the first 36 plus plays:

2 of them were made on +/- plays where the player also made an error (one by Bernie and one by Long)
5 of them were + plays meaning they were "good plays"
The remaining 29 plays were ++ plays meaning they were "great plays"

Of the first 36 plus plays:

31 of them resulted in outs (!!!)
3 resulted in hits where an extra base was prevented
2 resulted in errors

Of the first 36 plus plays:

7 were "shallow flyouts" to the outfield
7 were "pop-ups" to the infield
9 were lineouts to the pitcher or to an infielder
8 were groundouts to an infielder
the rest were errors or saving extra bases

Of the first 36 plus plays, 10 of them resulted in an immediate saving of a run:

-2 shallow flyouts to the OF with a runner on 2nd
-2 pop-outs to the infield with a runner on 3rd
-5 groundouts to the infield with either a runner on 3rd or a runner on 2nd
-1 +/- play where there were runners on 2nd and 3rd, the infielder knocked it down and threw it away, the runner on 2nd didn't score

I'll try to update all of these numbers after another 25 or so games. Eventually I'd like to calculate the linear weights of each + play (for example, 1 out, runner on 2nd, shallow flyout to the outfield prevents a single... what's the differential between "run in, 1 out, runner on 1st" and "2 out, runner on 2nd"?)

This is my kind of thread.  I want to try a "home on the range" team with nothing but A+ range guys like Douthit, North, Ashburn and Ozzie, and then I want to contrast it with a big hitting "hands of stone" team with big hitters like Ruth, Cravath, Joe Jackson, Hornsby and Lajoie who generally can't field their way out of a paper bag, at least by SIM standards.  I want to track how many + plays the big range guys get, how many - plays and errors the hands of stone guys get, and who has the better season, although I realize that level of competition, types of ballparks and other factors will make an apples-to-apples comparison difficult.  I will try to spend almost exactly the same on each offense and use the same pitching staff for each team, if I can figure out how to choose the right ballpark(s).

I look forward to your updates.  Are you going to try to quantify how many runs are prevented by + plays and try to correlate with how many games are won as a result?

   

Very intriguing and looking forward to results over the length of the season.

any reason why you didnt choose Mike Cameron for the OF?

Posted by cameraeye on 6/19/2010 9:01:00 PM (view original):
any reason why you didnt choose Mike Cameron for the OF?

It was for a theme league where all players had to have 700+ PA/162 in RL. Cameron didn't.

I haven't forgotten about this. Here's a great example of what great range can do for you. I've got 3 run-saving plays listed in the same game.

2 outs, runner on 2nd, 5th inning, groundout to shortstop, ++ play gets him out
0 outs, runner on 2nd, 12th inning, pop-out to shortstop, ++ play gets him out
2 outs, 1st and 3rd, 15th inning, lineout to second, ++ play gets him out

Now my big question... did you win the game?  Your great fielding certainly kept you in it.