Subject: Re: Hits Stolen -- Centerfield 1992
From: grabiner@math.harvard.edu (David Grabiner)

In article <steph.735350048@pegasus.cs.uiuc.edu>, Dale Stephenson writes:

> NHS -- Net Hits Stolen -- Extra outs compared to average fielder
> NEB -- Net Extra Bases --  Extra bases prevented compared to avg. fielder

> National League

> Name            HS   NHS   NEB   DCON    DOPS
> Lankford, R.    39     4   -12  -.007    .844
> Martinez, D.    21     5   -16  -.017    .660
> Butler, B.       1   -29     5  -.088    .716

> American League
> ---------------

> Name            HS   NHS   NEB   DCON    DOPS
> Wilson, W.      47    26     0   .125    .787
> Felix, J.       22     0    32   .063    .713

I suspect that splits such as these are the result of positioning.  An
outfielder who is fast and gets a good jump would be expected to catch a
lot of balls, preventing both singles and doubles, and also cut off more
uncatchable balls, turinging doubles into singles.  However, a fielder
who plays shallow will catch more short flies and fewer long flies; this
means that he will allow fewer singles but more doubles.

Has anyone seen these players' positioning?  Do Butler and Felix play
deep, and Lankford, Martinez, and Wilson shallow, or is this a park
effect?  I thought Butler liked to play shallow.

--
David Grabiner, grabiner@zariski.harvard.edu
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Disclaimer: I speak for no one and no one speaks for me.
