Question about fielding practice.

by sammy on Apr 23, 2009 6:16 PM PDT

Why isn't there more of it, Japanese/Korean style? I would have to think that a really rigorous fielding practice schedule would reduce the number of errors on this team, which lately has gotten pretty ridiculous. Every once in a while, a team will play poor defense and take extended fielding practice, but my impression is that MLB fielding sessions are nothing compared to the Asian counterparts. I'd love to see Bobby Valentine manage a big league team again, just for curiosity's sake.

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Wakamatsu's teams do bunting practice instead.

by Decatur on Apr 23, 2009 6:20 PM PDT reply actions

Which are actually just as important as not making errors

St. Louis Cardinals... defying win expectancy since 2008

by vivaelpujols on Apr 23, 2009 6:29 PM PDT up reply actions

What do you mean?

I’m confused.

by Decatur on Apr 23, 2009 6:42 PM PDT up reply actions

I think he's being sarcastic.....?

by .Taylor on Apr 23, 2009 7:07 PM PDT up reply actions

?

...and now I'm here

by CapSea on Apr 23, 2009 8:15 PM PDT up reply actions 5 recs

Maybe a different player?

It's hard to convince people to let you eat them if you're an asshole. - Thingray

by Faux on Apr 23, 2009 8:19 PM PDT up reply actions

?

...and now I'm here

by CapSea on Apr 23, 2009 8:20 PM PDT up reply actions 10 recs

Perfect.

It's hard to convince people to let you eat them if you're an asshole. - Thingray

by Faux on Apr 23, 2009 8:30 PM PDT up reply actions

Awesome, Librocrat.

I hope that this gets used in gamethreads.

angels fan in seattle

by Eyebrows on Apr 24, 2009 7:47 AM PDT up reply actions

The cost of doing a lot of extra fielding work is wearing down your players more

The Korean season appears to be 133 games long and the NPB season seems to be 144 games long. Also, unless I’m missing something, both of those leagues are single time zone leagues and there’s a lot less travel, so more time to get work done.

I’m also not sure how much extra fielding practice is going to reduce errors, or by how much. If players are at all tired from extensive fielding practice earlier in the day, it could actually lead to more errors or slightly reduce their range.

It could be a good idea, but I’m not sure it’s an obviously good one. If I was a major league GM, I would probably try to test the idea out in the minors to see how things went, though even there you have a shorter schedule.

by ubelmann on Apr 23, 2009 7:23 PM PDT reply actions

From some 2008 NPB stats I ran across...

…it seems like the league average in fielding percentage is about 98.6%. In MLB in 2008, the average fielding percentage was 98.4%. I have no idea how strict NPB scorekeepers are compared to MLB scorekeepers, though.

In 2008, the International League fielding percentage was 97.7% and the PCL fielding percentage was 97.8%. It’s difficult to tell how much of the difference between MLB and AAA is talent and how much is field conditions, though. It almost certainly can’t be all talent, because I have difficulty believing that you could boost the average MLB fielding percentage to something like 99.5%. No matter how often you practice, talent is going to impose some sort of limit on the fewest number of errors you can have in a season and 30 team errors in a season seems highly improbable.

If errors are what you are trying to avoid, looking at these numbers, I think that the absolute most you could hope for in terms of increasing your fielding percentage by having more extensive fielding practice would be about 0.5%, or 30 errors. That’s conceivably 2-3 extra wins, which would be good in and of themselves, but I have to believe that the extra labor players will exert is going to sap you of wins elsewhere. My intuition is that fielding percentages are already so high that you’d be better off spending more time working on hitting than on fielding, as long as fielding practice won’t help your range.

by ubelmann on Apr 23, 2009 7:39 PM PDT reply actions

"As long as fielding practice won't help your range[…]"

My hunch is that it does, but it’s nothing more than that: a hunch. Seeing balls hit into your ‘zone’ on a repetitive, more consistent basis would, I think, sharpen your reaction time and allow you to get a better jump. That said, there’s obviously a balance to be struck and where that balance lies I would have no way of knowing.

by sammy on Apr 23, 2009 8:04 PM PDT up reply actions