Hal Richman's 2009 fielding rankings

[Mean Dean]

Via [url=http://www.billjamesonline.net/fieldingbible/complete-votetally.asp]fieldingbible.com[/url].

When the Fielding Bible puts together everyone's votes, they give 10 points for a first place vote, 9 points for a second place vote, etc. They only display voter-by-voter ballot placement for the players who ultimately end up in the top 10 at their position. If Hal didn't vote for a player who ended up in the top 10, then his ballot will have one or more "blank spots." In that case, all we can do is narrow it down a bit by figuring that he must have voted for someone who got enough overall points to have been chosen in that ballot slot.

1B:

1. Teixeira
2. Pujols
3. Ad. Gonzalez
4. Youkilis
5. Kotchman
6. One of (Dan Murphy, Helton)
7. Loney
8. D. Lee
9. Overbay
10. One from #6 group, or (C. Davis, Morneau, Ad. LaRoche, C. Pena, Berkman, M. Cabrera, Konerko)
Top 10 overall, but no vote from Hal: K. Morales (7th overall), Ishikawa (8th)

2B:
1. O. Hudson
2. B. Phillips
3. Pedroia
4. A. Hill
5. Ellis
6. Barmes
7. One of (Kendrick, Cano, R. Roberts, Iwamura, B. Roberts, Carroll)
8. One from #7 group, or M. Izturis
9. Utley
10. One from #8 group, or (J. Lopez, J. Nix, K. Matsui)
Top 10 overall, but no vote from Hal: Kinsler (4th), Polanco (6th), Zobrist (9th)

3B:
1. A. Beltre
2. Rolen
3. Zimmerman
4. Longoria
5. Hannahan
6. Feliz
7. Inge
8. Crede
9. One of (Kouzmanoff, I. Stewart, An. LaRoche, B. Hall, D. Wright)
10. One from #9 group, or M. Reynolds
Top 10 overall, but no vote from Hal: Figgins (3rd - tied), C. Blake (10th)

SS:
1. Tulowitzki
2. J. Wilson
3. Rollins
4. Y. Escobar
5. One of (Bartlett, E. Aybar, S. Drew, Hardy)
6. A. Everett
7. Janish
8. One from #5 group, or (Furcal, As. Cabrera, Jeter, H. Ramirez)
9. C. Izturis
10. Andrus
Top 10 overall, but no vote from Hal: B. Ryan (4th), Scutaro (7th)

LF:
1. C. Crawford
2. N. Morgan
3. DeJesus
4. One of (Josh Anderson, David Murphy, Podsednik)
5. Dickerson
6. Pierre
7. One from #4 group, or (Headley, Braun, Ibanez, Spilborghs)
8. Bay
9. Holliday
10. One from #7 group, or (C. Lee, G. Parra, F. Lewis, Damon, Raburn, Balentien)
Top 10 overall, but no vote from Hal: J. Rivera (4th), L. Nix (6th), S. Smith (8th)

CF:
1. T. Hunter
2. C. Beltran
3. F. Gutierrez
4. One of (Rasmus, Victorino, Kemp, BJ Upton, Gardner)
5. G. Sizemore
6. M. Cameron
7. One from #4 group, or (J. Hamilton, Span, W. Taveras)
8. One from #7 group, or (Rowand, V. Wells)
9. One from #8 group, or Adam Jones
10. C. Gomez
Top 10 overall, but no vote from Hal: C. Granderson (3rd), Ra. Davis (4th), Bourn (5th), Gwynn Jr. (6th), C. Young (10th - tied)

RF:
1. Ichiro
2. Markakis
3. One of (Bruce, Venable, Rios, Francoeur, Swisher)
4. Pence
5. One from #3 group, or Choo
6. Church
7. JD Drew
8. R. Sweeney
9. Werth
10. N. Cruz
Top 10 overall, but no vote from Hal: J. Upton (4th - tied), R. Winn (10th)

C:
1. Y. Molina
2. Mauer
3. R. Martin
4. Mathis
5. Laird
6. One of (Varitek, I. Rodriguez, Montero, Hanigan, B. Molina, Napoli)
7. K. Suzuki
8. One from #6 group, or (McCann, Kendall, Wieters)
9. C. Ruiz
10. One from #8 group, or (Iannetta, Navarro, Pierzynski, Shoppach)
Top 10 overall, but no vote from Hal: K. Hill (8th), Rob Johnson (9th), Barajas (10th)

P:
1. J. Santana
2. Marquis
3. A. Cook
4. Buehrle
5. One of (F. Hernandez, Geer, C. Zambrano, J. Vazquez, Hamels, Carpenter, Lester, Laffey, Dempster)
6. Z. Duke
7. One from #5 group, or (L. Hernandez, Zito, Kawakami)
8. Greinke
9. Garland
10. Pineiro
Top 10 overall, but no vote from Hal: Bergesen (5th), Oswalt (10th)

[FRANKMANSUETO]

No Votes for A-Rod at 3B. :? :shock:

[maligned]

A few observations from this:
1. Tulo has probably been in the league long enough, paid his penance, and gets a 1.
2. Everyone was high on Figgins' defense all year, but Hal doesn't notice despite the fact that he's given him a 2 at 3B in the past.
3. Utley gets ranked very high by every objective analysis possible every year, but Hal still barely has room for him on his ballot. Still might eke out another 2.
4. The jury's still out on Zobrist. Everyone was slow to rank him well in this balloting since he had such limited time at 2B. Again, his data suggests he should be the top 2B easily. He almost saved the most runs at 2B of anyone for the season--and he only played half the games. If there's any justice, Hal gives him at least a 2.
5. Hal doesn't seem to adjust his ballot much from year to year. Data reveals a guy like Kinsler to be worlds better than he was 2 years ago, but Hal's opinion of guys takes a long time (or a gold glove) to change. You can pencil in O. Hudson at #1 on Hal's ballot for next year as long as he plays most of the time for L.A. He's always there.

[keyzick]

No votes for Ellsbury in CF? If you read James's comment on the Fielding Bible link, he says subjective, "what you see with your eyes", is very important.

I witnessed Ellsbury running down everything from the CF fence to behind home plate! (ok, kidding about home plate). But seriously, other than a slightly below average arm, his glove work and range is outstanding.

[FRANKMANSUETO]

Does that mean that A-Rod and Ellsbury will be 5's in the field or are these ratings/voting method worthless. At least thats the way I see it.

[Mean Dean]

Of course it doesn't mean that. All it means is that Hal doesn't think they are top 10 at their positions. Two things about that:

1. Hal is not the only person involved in assigning the SOM ratings. It's a group effort.

2. Hal and SOM do understand that CF is the toughest OF position, and that any CF is competing against all the other best defensive OF in baseball.

My guess is Ellsbury 2, A-Rod 3.

[Ninersphan]

[quote:34d374bbe9="DeanTSC"]Of course it doesn't mean that. It does mean that, if Hal doesn't feel they're among the top 10 in baseball, they're unlikely to be 2s or 1s. However, [b:34d374bbe9]Hal is not the only person involved in assigning the SOM ratings. [/b:34d374bbe9]So although these rankings generally predict the ratings SOM gives, it is not 100% predictive.[/quote:34d374bbe9]

Yup, I'm pretty sure Keith Hernandez is invloved, he mentions Strat all the time on the Mets broadcasts, even slipping range ratings into to his commentary from time to time.

[Palmtana]

I read an interview with Steve Barkan of Stratomatic on Somworld regarding range. He says they use 12 criteria, 9 of which are formulas, to determine range ratings. Reports from game observers are used but they usually match what the formulas come up with.

[Jerlins]

As a Yankee fan living in RI, I get to watch plenty of Sox games, but heres one Yankee fan that thinks anything less than a 1 for Elsbury is a total injustice. The man can flat out get to anything.

[drew6013]

Jerlins, You're a Yankee fan? And I thought I liked you. :wink: