Fielding Numbers
For all position players there is a fielding number given, showing the player's Scoresheet fielding range. That range will be used for that player when he is playing that position in Scoresheet for the entire season! Range can be thought of as equivalent to outs made per nine innings (meaning larger range numbers are better). This range number is derived from that player's performances over the past 2 seasons, including chances per 9 innings, percentage of balls hit in his zone that he got to, double plays, his amount of playing time, and some Scoresheet subjective analysis. Errors are NOT included in these numbers; a player's errors in Scoresheet are based on what a player actually does each week of the upcoming major league season.
While pitching and hitting stats are more important, these fielding range numbers should still slightly influence how you rank players. The way ranges work is that pitchers for a Scoresheet team with a good fielding range give up less hits per week than they did in the majors; a low range team will force pitchers to give up more hits per week than they actually did in the majors. A difference of .10 in fielding range is a difference of .1 (a tenth) of a hit per nine innings that your pitchers will give up. We have come up with a fairly simple rule of thumb when comparing 2 players at the same position. For a full time player, each .10 in range is worth about .025 in batting average - or another way to look at it is that each .10 in range is worth about a difference of 5 home runs if the two players have the same batting average. To go into hundredths, a difference of .04 is worth about 10 points in batting average, or about 2 home runs. What fielding range really does is take away hits from the other team. But for comparing 2 players, it is easier to think of a bad fielding range as taking away from that player's offensive contributions to your team. Please note that a player's season-to-date errors do not factor into these range calculations; a player with a lot of errors will hurt you even if he has good range.
Any player listed at a position in our draft packet automatically qualifies at that position. If a player qualifies at an additional position because he played at least 20 games there in the majors last year then a range for that secondary position is also listed. If a player is not shown in this draft packet as qualifying at a position then he does NOT qualify there even if he did play some at that position in the past.
In this context, to "qualify" simply means that the
player can play this position without penalty once the season
starts. For roster balancing during the draft, a player only
counts at the primary position he is listed at in this draft
packet. But once the season starts, a player CAN play at positions
other than where he's listed on our enclosed player lists (except
only pitchers can pitch, and only qualified catchers can be used
at catcher in Scoresheet. Also, only players who are qualified
at any one of 2B, SS or 3B can play those positions in a Scoresheet
game). Unless a player is shown in these draft lists as qualifying
at a position, or has played in at least 10 games there so far
in the majors in the upcoming season, we'll consider him
out of position. If a player becomes qualified at a new position
during the season we will indicate his eligibility and new range
in the weekly results. *NOTE: Players who start the season at
a new position will qualify there for the very first week's games.
Rookies that are called up have league average range at their
position. Finally, if an OFer switches from LF or RF to CF during
the year (or vice versa), we will not change his OF range - the
ranges for outfielders stay the same for all of the season, just as
for all players.
