CF range

Hello All. I have a player with CF and LF eligibility range 1 in LF and 2 in CF. Another player with range 3 in all OF spots. Traditionally, I like to play a minimum 2 in CF and I feel that the CF handles more plays than corner outfield. Am I completely wrong to play the 2 in CF vs getting his better range rating in LF? I figure someone must have the raw data on amount of plays each OF handles on average in this game???
Brian

PS anyone else extremely thankful for this game right about now???

There's probably not a absolute answer for which strategy to deploy. Looking at past teams and fielding results, I've had teams where my centerfielder and left fielder pretty much played a full season and the number of x out (chart x) chances for the center fielder were not more than 10 % above that of the left fielder. Sometimes my center fielder would get a significantly greater number of chances than the left fielder over a full season, say 40% or 50 %. Yes, your centerfielder will get more chances than the left fielder, but, not as many as you might think. 10%? 40%? Who knows?

I will say that if you have an outfielder who can play CF-2 and LF-1 you probably have paid a pretty price for that player and to use him exclusively in CF might not hurt team performance overall, but, there's a good chance you will have overpaid for that player if he never gets to flash his glove in LF. So, if your so-so fielding LF never gets injured and does well you're still probably going to have a CF you overpaid to get. If on the other hand, your LF is frequently injured and the CF needs to shift over to LF 25-30 games a year, then, at least, you're getting some extra value from the CF who, while good, is playing out of position most times.

So, generally speaking, the problem with playing him in CF-2 when he could be a LF-1 is that you might be overpaying for that player's value, especially, if the random roll of the dice has your left fielder having 80 % or 90% as many opportunities as the CF, which is entirely possible.

I don't how much you know so I'll repeat the basics. Every pitching card has 108 chances; of that are 3 chances are for CF and 2 for LF (X chances). Now, the pitcher get half of the chances. So if there are 5000ab in a season and 2500 on the pitcher's card, then you'll see something like 69 chances from your cf and 46 from the lf.

But Dean Carrano calculated that for every 108 chances on his batting card a 1 LF would be two runs better defensively than a 2 CF (assuming the same number of errors and not factoring in arm rating). So based on those calculations you're losing 6-7 runs a season by playing that 1 LF/2 CF in center field.

Thank you both!

https://www.baseballthinkfactory.org/bt ... atfldg.htm

This chart basically tells you OPS (in card chances) allowed by the fielder--but you don't really need to know that--it's the ratios that matter.

You didn't give E rates or throwing arms--if one has a much better arm you may want him in CF--as more balls go there, and LF gets a -2 advantage to 3rd base throws anyway. (RF +2 to 3rd)

add the per game H+E and TB together for both combinations you mentioned--whichever combo adds to lowest total will be your best fielding usually--but a +2 arm and a -3 arm would swing it for me if it is within 5 points or so.

-1 arm for the 1 LF and 0 arm for the 3 every OF position guy. sounds like it is pretty close but slight edge to playing Gardner in LF at all times, except when he will sit for straight LH pitcher, of which I have none in my division, Starters I should say

I like Freeman's explanation above. I'll add another way to look at it.

Centerfield has three chances to come up. Leftfield has two chances. So...

CF 2 * 3 = 6
LF 3 * 2 = 6
(6+6)/5 = 2.4 average defense for the two positions

versus

CF 3 * 3 = 9
LF 1 * 2 = 2
(9+2)/5 = 2.2 average defense for the two positions

However, having a -1 arm in center (and the 0 arm in left) probably makes it close to a tie.