Finally won a world series with a range team, but I was actually disappointed:
(1) "Only" 173 plus plays (100 more than anyone else in the league, but still, not up to the standards of this thread.  This was despite putting them in Hilltop, which I would have expected to yield a lot more opportunities.
(2) I cheated and used 1908 Joss, which I really prefer not to do in OLs.

Player	SN	Pos	G	GS	Inn	PO	A	E	DP	+	-	Fld%	RF
Lyons, Denny	1889	3B	157	157	1,391.0	163	396	36	24	32	0	.939	3.62
Lindell, Johnny	1944	RF	153	153	1,380.0	347	7	5	0	22	0	.986	2.31
Carey, Max	1921	LF	147	147	1,308.0	266	2	9	0	23	0	.968	1.84
North, Billy	1975	CF	142	138	1,244.0	361	5	14	0	23	1	.963	2.65
Collins, Eddie	1921	2B	142	138	1,237.0	348	523	30	85	12	0	.967	6.34
Carter, Gary	1975	C	142	138	1,233.0	288	70	10	2	0	0	.973	2.61
Lanier, Hal	1968	SS	141	137	1,202.7	299	469	15	86	22	0	.981	5.75
O'Brien, Billy	1887	1B	150	150	1,177.0	1544	139	10	102	22	0	.994	12.87
Joss, Addie	1908	P	48	0	365.3	17	22	0	1	2	0	1.000	.96
Willis, Vic	1907	P	50	0	334.3	16	23	1	0	0	1	.975	1.05
Summers, Ed	1909	P	47	0	324.3	21	26	1	1	2	0	.979	1.30
Reiber, Theron (P)	2015	1B	102	12	274.7	329	33	3	36	6	0	.992	11.86
Lamm, Christian (P)	2015	C	50	24	225.0	57	19	2	3	0	0	.974	3.04
Wedinger, Gordon (P)	2015	SS	50	21	201.0	58	83	5	19	0	1	.966	6.31
Asente, Benjamin (P)	2015	2B	39	20	182.0	59	70	6	14	1	1	.956	6.38
Donohoe, Jimmie (P)	2015	CF	36	19	171.0	54	0	3	0	0	0	.947	2.84
Steele, Elmer	1908	P	80	0	107.7	6	5	0	0	0	0	1.000	.92
Benz, Joe	1917	P	42	0	80.0	8	2	0	0	1	0	1.000	1.13
Guiler, Lincoln (P)	2015	P	22	0	68.7	4	6	0	1	3	0	1.000	1.31
Shoup, Antonio (P)	2015	3B	28	5	67.0	9	18	2	2	0	1	.931	3.63
Shoup, Antonio (P)	2015	LF	7	7	60.0	17	0	1	0	0	0	.944	2.55
Broadnax, Jason (AAA/P)	2015	P	18	0	51.0	2	1	0	0	1	0	1.000	.53
Wedinger, Gordon (P)	2015	RF	4	4	34.0	7	0	0	0	0	0	1.000	1.85
McDowell, Jack	1987	P	12	0	28.3	0	2	0	0	0	0	1.000	.64
Walsh, Ed	1915	P	29	0	27.7	2	3	0	0	0	0	1.000	1.63
Donohoe, Jimmie (P)	2015	LF	2	2	18.0	3	0	0	0	0	0	1.000	1.50
Donohoe, Jimmie (P)	2015	RF	2	2	18.0	4	0	0	0	0	0	1.000	2.00
Shoup, Antonio (P)	2015	RF	2	2	17.0	3	0	1	0	0	0	.750	1.59
Reiber, Theron (P)	2015	LF	2	2	17.0	4	0	0	0	1	0	1.000	2.12
Asente, Benjamin (P)	2015	SS	6	0	11.0	2	3	1	0	0	0	.833	4.09
O'Brien, Billy	1887	RF	1	1	9.0	1	0	0	0	0	0	1.000	1.00
Carey, Max	1921	CF	1	1	9.0	8	1	0	0	0	0	1.000	9.00
Littleton, Wes	2006	P	6	0	6.7	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000	.00
Delgado, Wilson	2003	SS	4	0	5.3	2	3	0	0	0	0	1.000	8.44
Shoup, Antonio (P)	2015	2B	4	0	4.0	0	1	0	1	0	1	1.000	2.25
Shoup, Antonio (P)	2015	SS	3	0	4.0	1	1	0	0	0	0	1.000	4.50
Medina, Luis	1988	1B	2	0	3.0	5	0	0	0	0	0	1.000	15.00
Shoup, Antonio (P)	2015	1B	3	0	2.3	2	1	0	0	0	0	1.000	11.57
Delgado, Wilson	2003	2B	1	0	1.0	1	1	0	0	0	0	1.000	18.00
Lamm, Christian (P)	2015	1B	1	0	1.0	3	0	0	0	0	0	1.000	27.00
Jennings, Hughie	1893	CF	4	4	34.0	12	1	0	0	0	0	1.000	3.44
Kazanski, Ted	1954	SS	4	4	34.0	12	15	3	3	0	0	.900	7.15
Gil, Gus	1967	2B	4	4	34.0	13	13	0	4	0	1	1.000	6.88
Oldfield, Dave	1886	LF	4	4	34.0	8	0	0	0	0	1	1.000	2.12
Bishop, Bill	1887	P	4	0	25.0	0	0	0	0	0	1	.000	.00
Diaz, Alex	1998	LF	12	0	21.0	7	0	0	0	0	0	1.000	3.00
Figueroa, Nelson	2010	P	12	0	13.0	1	0	0	0	0	0	1.000	.69
Matusz, Brian	2011	P	1	0	9.0	0	1	0	0	0	0	1.000	1.00
Shaw, Jeff	1990	P	1	0	9.0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000	.00
Laskey, Bill	1985	P	1	0	8.0	0	1	0	0	0	0	1.000	1.13
TEAM TOTALS	--	--	1925	1296	13,122.0	4374	1966	158	384	173	9	.976	--

The team obviously made a lot of errors (158), and gave up a fair number of hits:

Player	SN	T	G	GS	CG	SHO	W	L	SV	SVO	IP	H	R	ER	HR	BB	SO	OAV	OBP	SLG	WHIP	ERA
Joss, Addie	1908	R	48	47	13	2	29	6	0	0	365.3	358	125	110	4	35	78	.253	.273	.316	1.08	2.71
Willis, Vic	1907	R	50	44	9	0	21	16	1	1	334.3	363	162	131	12	83	61	.273	.317	.351	1.33	3.53
Summers, Ed	1909	R	47	47	2	0	26	12	0	0	324.3	328	149	125	13	75	67	.261	.306	.351	1.24	3.47
Steele, Elmer	1908	R	80	0	0	0	9	2	9	13	107.7	95	27	25	1	12	22	.231	.255	.280	.99	2.09
Benz, Joe	1917	R	43	6	0	0	6	2	3	3	80.0	102	44	39	4	15	16	.302	.334	.417	1.46	4.39
Guiler, Lincoln (P)	2015	L	22	6	4	0	1	7	1	1	68.7	157	142	141	9	88	7	.464	.574	.666	3.57	18.48
Broadnax, Jason (AAA/P)	2015	R	18	3	3	0	0	5	1	2	51.0	107	91	82	7	50	19	.421	.514	.626	3.08	14.47
McDowell, Jack	1987	R	12	2	2	0	1	2	3	3	28.3	29	20	15	0	15	8	.259	.341	.321	1.55	4.76
Walsh, Ed	1915	R	29	0	0	0	2	1	21	23	27.7	23	10	9	0	8	18	.219	.274	.276	1.12	2.93
Littleton, Wes	2006	R	6	0	0	0	1	1	0	0	6.7	5	3	3	0	2	0	.200	.259	.200	1.05	4.05
Bishop, Bill	1887	R	4	4	3	0	0	4	0	0	25.0	57	56	50	2	28	7	.432	.545	.583	3.40	18.00
Figueroa, Nelson	2010	R	13	0	0	0	4	1	0	1	13.0	20	16	16	1	10	3	.351	.441	.544	2.31	11.08
Matusz, Brian	2011	L	1	1	1	0	0	1	0	0	9.0	30	25	25	4	8	2	.545	.603	1.000	4.22	25.00
Shaw, Jeff	1990	R	1	1	1	0	0	1	0	0	9.0	15	12	7	2	6	2	.366	.447	.659	2.33	7.00
Laskey, Bill	1985	R	1	1	1	0	0	1	0	0	8.0	9	2	2	0	5	2	.321	.429	.393	1.75	2.25
TEAM TOTALS	--	--	375	162	39	2	100	62	39	47	1,458.0	1698	884	780	59	440	312	.288	.340	.384	1.47	4.81

The team's ERA is highly misleading...take out the performance by mop-ups and AAA guys and the ERA is 3.23 (in Hilltop remember). 

The offense did well enough to win...here are the stats for the starters:

Player	SN	B	G	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	SO	HBP	SB	CS	AVG	OBP	SLG	OPS	STRK	L STRK
Lindell, Johnny	1944	R	153	663	105	221	29	12	18	136	43	57	5	2	0	.333	.375	.495	.869	1	16
Lyons, Denny	1889	R	157	663	117	245	49	8	13	117	73	51	8	0	0	.370	.436	.526	.962	3	42
Collins, Eddie	1921	L	143	618	114	211	14	4	1	64	59	21	4	0	0	.341	.402	.382	.784	4	29
Carey, Max	1921	S	148	612	128	202	40	1	12	93	70	26	8	27	14	.330	.405	.458	.862	2	16
North, Billy	1975	S	142	576	97	183	26	5	0	79	62	63	4	25	18	.318	.385	.380	.766	4	16
O'Brien, Billy	1887	R	151	560	88	168	20	5	27	109	36	27	4	0	0	.300	.342	.498	.840	1	10
Carter, Gary	1975	R	145	560	85	171	14	3	15	111	57	74	1	0	0	.305	.367	.421	.788	3	15
Lanier, Hal	1968	R	141	516	49	118	15	0	0	57	11	49	2	0	0	.229	.246	.258	.504	0	8

They went 11-4 in the postseason, and just won round 1 of their TOC, 3-1.

So, still not quite the success I was looking for (200 or more plus plays AND a world series title), but probably my most successful range team to date.

Posted by doubletruck on 1/31/2015 12:36:00 PM (view original):
I really don't understand much of this. First, how can team fielding that steals 1.3 hits a game make much difference over the long haul of a season, especially if having a weaker offense might cost you two hits or more per game? Second, are there other hit-robbing plays that don't show up as plus plays?

Based on total chances in 1987, Garry Templeton made 5.2 plays per game, and is WIS rated for range at A. Ozzie Smith made 5.1 PPG and is rated B+. Barry Larkin made .539 PPG and is rated C and Craig Reynolds made 4.4 PPG and is rated D-. So, does the difference of making only an additional 0.8 PPG merit the difference between having A range and having D- range? If not, then what else is being considered in range ratings -- and how would anything other than chances handled bear on one's range rating?

1.) First, how can team fielding that steals 1.3 hits a game make much difference over the long haul of a season, especially if having a weaker offense might cost you two hits or more per game.  The tradeoff between offense and defense (or more specifically "offense plus defense plus playing time" versus "cost") is one that every owner has to make with every team.  What this thread is about is trying to understand if it is possible to build a winning team by spending extra money on high range players... and for me it's specifically about trying to understand if this strategy for putting together roster is an alternative to the generic "switch-hitting singles hitters with high SB and SB%" team that dominates most OLs.  Clearly there have been enough owners who are successful with this strategy that the answer is "yes, it is."  As to a weaker offense costing you 2 or more hits per game, there is no way the difference is that big.  If it is, you are clearly doing something wrong.  In the league that I most recently posted about here, the team I used ended up with 1782 hits.  Which was the second highest total in the league, and only 11 hits fewer than the #1 team.  We scored 910 runs, 5th most in the league.  Yes, we played in Hilltop, but the other top offense teams also played in plus parks for offense.  I didn't sacrifice anything close to 300 hits in putting together that team.

I guess you COULD put together a high-range team with a really terrible offense, but again, that would mean you are really screwing up the strategy.  The trick is realizing that with the higher range you can spend less on PITCHING, not on hitting.  Trade down either the quality of your pitching (OAV, WHIP, ERC) or the quantity (IP) or both...because the range is going to make up some of the difference.

2.) Are there other hit-robbing plays that don't show up as plus plays? No.

3.) So, does the difference of making only an additional 0.8 PPG merit the difference between having A range and having D- range? If not, then what else is being considered in range ratings -- and how would anything other than chances handled bear on one's range rating?  WIS doesn't use the raw number of plays made (putouts and assists) as their sole factor in determining the range grades.  The knowledge base is not specific about this.  Here's what they say: Range factors are based on WhatIfSports.com's Relative Range Factor values that take actual stats and better account for actual team makeup and balls in play allowed. I take "actual team makeup" to probably mean number of innings pitched by lefties versus righties... Bill James and others have demonstrated that this has a huge impact on the distribution of putouts and assists.  I take "balls in play allowed" to mean that they consider the strikeout rate - and possibly other factors - of the actual pitching staff.  Teams with large numbers of strikeouts obviously tend to have fewer putouts and assists by the rest of the team. 

If you search for the regular shortstops in the 1987 NL, and sort them by RRF-SS, you get the following:

Player	Team	PA	RRF	SALARY	SS
		/162	SS
Thomas, Andres	1987 Atlanta Braves	346	5.73	$1,767,517	C-/A+
Templeton, Garry	1987 San Diego Padres	561	5.61	$3,488,853	B/A
Smith, Ozzie	1987 St. Louis Cardinals	706	5.31	$6,872,047	A+/B+
Uribe, Jose	1987 San Francisco Giants	340	5.26	$2,684,964	B/B
Santana, Rafael	1987 New York Mets	470	4.97	$2,538,980	B/C
Dunston, Shawon	1987 Chicago Cubs	362	4.96	$1,996,468	B/C
Larkin, Barry	1987 Cincinnati Reds	488	4.91	$2,838,613	B-/C
Jeltz, Steve	1987 Philadelphia Phillies	337	4.72	$1,570,898	B/D+
Stillwell, Kurt	1987 Cincinnati Reds	433	4.41	$2,117,935	D/D-
Brooks, Hubie	1987 Montreal Expos	459	4.21	$2,282,721	C-/D-
Reynolds, Craig	1987 Houston Astros	416	3.90	$1,793,142	B/D-

There is a perfect correlation between RRF and the letter grade assigned to range.  The difference between A+ and D- range for a shortstop is roughly 1.25 plays per game. Which is a huge difference.

D-FENS  45-34 at the All-Star Break (Stats below are after the 82nd game - a win in which Billy North made a + play)

Player	SN	Pos	G	GS	Inn	PO	A	E	DP	+	-	Fld%	RF
Lajoie, Nap	1908	2B	82	82	736.3	211	277	14	57	23	0	.972	5.96
Donaldson, Josh	2014	3B	82	82	701.3	75	206	8	15	19	0	.972	3.61
Lemon, Chet	1977	LF	82	82	725.0	157	1	4	0	16	0	.975	1.96
Tulowitzki, Troy	2007	SS	81	81	730.3	142	303	6	52	14	0	.987	5.48
Erstad, Darin	2002	1B	82	82	738.3	948	59	0	71	14	0	1.000	12.27
Cameron, Mike	2003	CF	82	82	719.3	229	0	1	0	13	0	.996	2.87
North, Billy	1973	RF	75	75	678.0	157	2	3	0	7	0	.981	2.11
Steele, Elmer	1911	P	15	0	103.3	7	8	0	0	4	0	1.000	1.31
Smith, George	1918	P	37	0	34.7	1	5	0	1	3	0	1.000	1.56
White, Doc	1909	P	15	0	112.0	1	10	1	1	1	0	.917	.88
Nichols, Kid	1905	P	12	0	92.3	4	7	0	0	1	0	1.000	1.07
Beltran, Carlos	1998	CF	6	0	11.0	5	0	0	0	1	0	1.000	4.09
Tudor, John	1988	P	12	0	90.3	2	3	0	1	1	0	1.000	.50
Dyson, Jarrod	2010	LF	8	0	12.3	1	0	0	0	0	0	1.000	.73
Willard, Samuel (P)	2015	3B	8	0	19.0	3	4	0	0	0	0	1.000	3.32
Scheiner, Cole (P)	2015	3B	12	0	19.0	1	2	0	0	0	0	1.000	1.42
Darpel, Clarence (P)	2015	C	13	0	24.3	11	0	1	0	0	0	.917	4.07
Valenzuela, Fernando	1994	P	34	0	29.7	0	1	0	1	0	0	1.000	.30
Darpel, Clarence (P)	2015	LF	1	0	1.0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000	.00
Dummitt, Ellis (P)	2015	P	35	0	37.0	1	0	0	0	0	1	1.000	.24
Densler, Robert (P)	2015	RF	7	7	59.0	12	0	0	0	0	0	1.000	1.83
Young, Cy	1910	P	13	0	90.0	2	5	1	0	0	0	.875	.70
Tobias, Nicolas (P)	2015	P	14	0	11.0	0	1	0	1	0	0	1.000	.82
Willard, Samuel (P)	2015	SS	1	1	9.0	0	4	0	0	0	0	1.000	4.00
Ames, Red	1912	P	16	0	99.0	3	8	0	0	0	0	1.000	1.00
Dyson, Jarrod	2010	CF	6	0	8.0	1	0	0	0	0	0	1.000	1.13
Willard, Samuel (P)	2015	2B	1	0	3.0	1	0	0	0	0	0	1.000	3.00
Beltran, Carlos	1998	RF	2	0	2.3	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000	.00
Darpel, Clarence (P)	2015	CF	1	0	1.0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000	.00
Bench, Johnny	1968	C	82	82	715.0	238	36	4	3	0	0	.986	3.45
Beltran, Carlos	1998	1B	1	0	1.0	3	0	0	0	0	0	1.000	27.00
Beltran, Carlos	1998	LF	1	0	1.0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000	.00
Quinn, Jack	1913	P	36	0	32.0	1	1	0	0	0	0	1.000	.56
Wilson, Highball	1904	P	1	0	8.0	1	1	0	0	0	0	1.000	2.25
TEAM TOTALS	--	--	956	656	6,654.0	2218	944	43	203	117	1	.987	--

I tried a variation on this idea recently, with the following lineup:

C: 1958 Berra
1B: 2007 Youkilis
2B: 1966 Helms
3B: 1954 O'Connell
SS: 1989 HoJo
LF: 1937 Ott
CF: 1946 Hopp
RF: 2001 ManRam

Not a high range team, but each of the above guys fielded 1.000 at the position indicated (which was often not their primary position).

The team finished 86-76, but were in a weak division which they won rather handily, and I rested the starters quite a bit down the stretch...they were probably a 90 win team.  The team fielding percentage was .996, with a total of 23 errors.  

Of those 23:
1 was made by a bench scrub
3 were made by pitchers
14 were made by AAA players
and 5 were made by the starting lineup...all 5 by Yogi Berra, and I believe all 5 were throwing errors during an SB attempt.  Other than that, the lineup fielded perfectly.

The team played in AFCS and scored 874 runs.  They gave up almost 1000 but many of those were allowed by AAA and mop ups...the regular pitching staff was quite good:
08 Joss (27-11, 3.12)
09 Summers (23-14, 3.72)
81 Righetti (6-8, 2.51 as the front half of a tandem)
19 Nehf (12-7, 4.38 as the back half of the tandem)
18 Toney (7-1, 2.66)
plus a handful of other guys.  

That's more cookie than I like to have on the mound, but the defense was expensive enough that I had to emphasize value with the rest of the roster.  

The team lost in the 2nd round of the playoffs.

As with many of the high-range examples noted above, I believe it's possible to put a competitive team in an OL built around fielding.  The only real cookie in the lineup is HoJo; the rest of those guys aren't seen all that often.  This was only the 2nd time Helms has been used in an OL, according to his performance history, for example.

Yeah...I did mostly to avoid playing guys with any fatigue...interesting challenge though...could make for a cool theme.

I've tried a couple of times to go through a season without any errors in positions 2-9, and never made it for various reasons (i.e. catcher throwing errors and AAA players used to avoid fatigue). I recall once using HOJO at SS and let him drop to 97 or 98% fatigue, and he made an error. This led me to believe the threshold for defensive dropoff is higher than I thought.

I see a few examples in this thread where pitcher's parks are used despite having the super A+++ range defense. Isn't the advantage A+++ range provides heightened in a park like Mile High?

Hadn't tried this strategy in a while, but just completed a season with a super range team in an OL and won the championship.

Team was called Pasta Diving Jeter and played in Hilltop. 85-77 in the regular season, though that is misleading as I rested players frequently to try to keep them at 100% and also rested players once we clinched a playoff spot so that my pitchers would have max IP left for the postseason. We ended up with something like 25-30 games started by mopup pitchers...this team was really more of a .640 winning percentage team when playing at full strength.

C: 1997 Ivan Rodriguez (no plus plays, of course, but I used him to cut down my opponent's running game...he allowed only 15 SB all season, throwing out 19 of 34 attempted steals.)
1B: 1914 George Burns (20 plus plays in 131 games)
2B: 1933 Hughie Critz (31 plus plays in 142 games)
3B: 1974 Brooks Robinson (18 plus plays in 142 games)
SS: 1920 Dave Bancroft (26 plus plays in 132 games)
LF: 1977 Chet Lemon (24 plus plays in 142 games)
CF: 1984 Kirby Puckett (30 plus plays in 142 games)
RF: 1973 Bill North (20 plus plays in 141 games)

The pitching staff contributed another 15 plus plays, 14 of them by the starting rotation of '03 Joss, '33 Hubbell, and '16 Rudolph. AAA players added four more. Total 188 plus plays. AAA players and scrubs made 13 minus plays, and the team made 105 errors (Bancroft made 29).

Overall the team scored 733 runs (terrible, ranked 22nd out of 24 teams, and that's with Hilltop as our home park.) They allowed 899 runs (18th out of 24 teams). But again both of those totals are misleading, given the number of games we weren't at full strength. Well more than half of those runs were allowed by AAA pitchers or mop ups. This team was actually the best in the league at run prevention - despite playing in Hilltop.

Rudolph (23-13, 6 saves, 2.69 ERA, 1.15 WHIP), Hubbell (25-12, 5 saves, 3.03 ERA, 1.10 WHIP) and Joss (23-10, 3.01 ERA, 1.17 WHIP) finished 1-2-3 in the Cy Young award race. And we won 8 out 9 gold glove awards, with only Kirby Puckett failing to take home the hardware.

The best part of this team for me was the postseason though. They went 11-3 in winning the World Series, outscoring the opposition 65-50 and making 16 plus plays in 14 games.

Four of those plus plays came in the world series clincher, and three of those happened in crucial situations. In the first inning, with 2 on and 2 out (and 3 runs already in for our opponents), Brooks Robinson speared a line drive off the bat of Trea Turner to end the inning. At least 1 run saved.

Brooks was at it again in the 5th inning. 1st and 2nd, no outs, he snagged Chipper Jones's hard grounder and turned it into a force play. Riggs Stephenson singled later in the inning to score 1 run. I assume at least one more run would have scored had Jones's ball been a single. So at least 1 more run saved.

And finally, after we rallied to take a 5-4 lead in the top of the 9th, Hughie Critz turned an Eddie Taubensee grounder that was ticketed for right field into a 4-6-3 double play that effectively snuffed out the last rally. Ed Walsh (1915) got the final out for a 5-4 win and a 4-2 series victory.

The other WS highlight had nothing to do with defense...it was our 4 run rally in the bottom of the 9th of game 3 to win 5-4, capped by Puckett's walkoff 3 run HR. Puckett hit zero HR in real life in 1984, so this was unexpected to say the least.

So, you can still win with a super range team in WIS, and it's fun to run a team out there that is specifically designed to beat the high-single, high-SB offenses that predominate in OLs.

Oh one final note...this was my 100th WIS title, which also made it special.