Has anybody figured out which one of these two spots tends to get more action and thus, which spot to put your weakest OF in?

Antidotally, I've always thought RF was for the weakest player but I know some people who feel the same way about LF..... just curious if anybody has studied it and what if any factors might affect the numbers (RHB vs LHB, RHP vs LHP, park effects, etc.).

I have traditionally put my weakest defender in LF, especially if they're playing out of position. But I have no data to go on as to whether that's a smart move.

Just looking at some team-by-team stats on putouts from a current league:
LF 242, 263, 276, 223, 244, 210, 206, 230, 237, 248
RF 228, 224, 188, 205,196, 195, 218, 191, 207, 195

So 9 of the teams I checked had more putouts in LF than RF, and it looks like the average is around 15% more PO in LF. That probably does depend on LHB vs RHB, and to the extent that teams use platoons, that would depend on LHP vs RHP. The team with the biggest LF>RF difference in my list above did use slightly more LHP starters than RHP starters. The one team with more putouts in RF than LF has almost entirely RHP.

Taking park out of the mix, I’ve typically put my better defender in RF. Most of my starters are RH, I figured more hitters would be LH or switch hitter. More likely to pull, thus more RF putout opportunities.

Posted by dannyjoe on 7/27/2023 9:35:00 PM (view original):
Just looking at some team-by-team stats on putouts from a current league:
LF 242, 263, 276, 223, 244, 210, 206, 230, 237, 248
RF 228, 224, 188, 205,196, 195, 218, 191, 207, 195

So 9 of the teams I checked had more putouts in LF than RF, and it looks like the average is around 15% more PO in LF. That probably does depend on LHB vs RHB, and to the extent that teams use platoons, that would depend on LHP vs RHP. The team with the biggest LF>RF difference in my list above did use slightly more LHP starters than RHP starters. The one team with more putouts in RF than LF has almost entirely RHP.

Good info, thanks for sharing!