I’ve always thought that the importance of arm strength for CFs is undervalued. The CF handles more balls than any other OF, and makes more throws from the deepest parts of the park than any other player. If the most important throw an OF can make is the one that holds a runner at third base, the CF should make more of those throws than any other OF.

In addition, I think the CF has as many opportunities to keep a runner from advancing first to third on a single, which is the situation most cited for requiring the strongest arm in RF. The situations in which a strong CF arm stops the runner is a different set of situations – a strong-armed CF will have occasion to hold runners when he cuts off a ball in the gap.

I’m not saying that arm strength isn’t important for a RF. Clearly it is. I don’t find it immediately obvious that arm strength is more important in RF than in CF. And of course range is the most important factor for a CF; the first priority is to catch fly balls and prevent balls from getting through in the gaps.

LF AA = 5 (will be less tested so throws matter less)
LF SP = 4 (a ball past the LF is probably less costly than a ball rolling past the CF or RF)
RT for all the IF should go up or the OF should go down one
Why is RD less important for 3B vs 1B/2B/SS?

From what I’ve seen, defensive spectrum rankings pretty much universally rate second as a harder position to play than third. It also definitely seems like third basemen as a whole hit better than second baseman, which is in line with conventional wisdom and reinforces that third is probably easier.

However, the offensive positional adjustments that people like Tango and Dave Cameron use have the same adjustment for second as for third. Why is this? Are second and third actually equally scarce, or is there something else going on?

The only thing I can figure out is that maybe second and third are close to equally difficult to play, giving them an equal positional adjustment, but that the skills required for third base (quick reflexes, arm strength) naturally lend themselves more to hitting for power, causing third basemen to hit better on average.

Am I way off base? This is something I’ve been wondering about for a while.

is often given to much credit is ball skills. Ball skill are simply the abilty to make a play on the ball when you can get to the ball. Obviously range is more important seeing how getting to more balls is more important. But lets say you have to OF with all of the same skills you listed above (foot speed, reaction time, arm strength). It stands to reason that one of the players might be better at making a play on the ball when in a difficult situation. ex- People have always doubted Jim Edmonds range but its hard to deny his ability to make a play on the balls that he can get to. Therefore Jim Edmonds > outfielder with all of the same physical abilites as Jim Edmonds minus ball skills. I might be crazy but this makes sense to me.