$Unique_ID{BAS00750}
$Pretitle{}
$Title{The Fielding Register:  Introduction}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{}
$Subject{Fielding  Register Registers}
$Log{}

Total Baseball:  Registers, Leaders, and Rosters


The Fielding Register:  Introduction


The Fielding Register consists of the full fielding statistics, broken down by
position, of every man who played at least 100 games at any single position
since 1871, excepting those players who were primarily pitchers.
     The players are listed alphabetically by surname and, when more than one
player bears the name, alphabetically by given name--not by "use name," by
which we mean the name that may have been applied to him during his playing
career.
     Each page of the Fielding Register is topped at the corner by a finding
aid: the surname of, first, the player whose entry heads up the page and,
second, the player whose entry concludes it. Boldface numerals indicate a
league-leading total. Condensed type appears occasionally throughout this
section; it has no special significance but is designed simply to accommodate
unusually wide figures.
     The record for each man who played in more than one season is given in a
line for each season at each position, plus a career total line for that
position. No attempt is made to combine totals from different positions, for
such totals would be meaningless. If a man played for more than one team in a
given year, his totals for each team are stated on separate lines. And if the
teams for which he played in his "traded year" are in the same league, then
his full record is stated in both separate and combined fashion for that
position. (In the odd case of a man playing for three or more clubs in one
year, with some of these clubs in the same league, the combined total line
will reflect only his play in that league.) A man who played in only one year
will have no additional career total line, since it would be identical to his
seasonal listing.
     Fielding records for the National Association are not yet available; SABR
research in this area is ongoing. Gaps remain elsewhere in the official
record of baseball for hitting, pitching, and baserunning data, but fielding
data has always been available. The problem with this data, however, is that
it is often wrong. Modern research has corrected the errors and reconstructed
from newspaper accounts the fielding stats of nonregular players that might
not have been recorded in year-end summaries.
     As indicated in the Introduction to Part Two and the chapter on
sabermetrics, the editors are skeptical about the usefulness of the raw
fielding data offered here. As a rule, the significant stat for outfielders is
putouts and for infielders (even first basemen) assists. Outfield assists are
of enormous defensive value, but they are four times less prevalent today than
at the dawn of big-league play, when the less resilient ball of the turn of
the century permitted outfielders to play shallow and thus pile up assists.
The top fifteen outfielders in lifetime assists, excepting Max Carey and Sam
Rice, played all or most of their games before 1920; they did not all have
better arms than Roberto Clemente. And again because of the dead ball and
styles of play (little free swinging and consequently few strikeouts), infield
assist totals of the early years are also astronomical. Barehand play and
later the use of small, unconstructed gloves made error totals higher years
ago compared with today, at all positions. Chances accepted (putouts plus
assists, usually measured on a per-game basis) are more meaningful than the
fielding percentage, with its well-known reward for immobility.
     So what do the traditional fielding stats mean?  Without historical
context and manipulation, not a lot. But that is not to say fielding itself is
unimportant. A run saved in the field is the same as a run saved from the
mound, or one gained at the bat or on the basepaths. That is why the editors
advocate the use of Linear Weights Fielding Runs, modified substantially for
this second edition of Total Baseball. Its various formulas normalize to the
league average the number of chances accepted at each position (isolating left
field, center field, and right field for more accurate comparisons); are
calculated on a per-inning rather than a per-game basis; encompass within the
formulas double plays and errors as well as putouts and assists; and for
catchers Fielding Runs now give credit for handling a pitching staff. For more
on this, see the Glossary.
     For a key to the team and league abbreviations used in the Fielding
Register, flip to the last page of this volume. The stat abbreviations used at
the top of the columns are:

YEAR   Year of play (when a space in the column is blank, the man has played
       for two or more clubs in the last year stated in the column; if those
       clubs were in the same league, then the player will also have a
       combined total line for the position and year under review, beginning
       with the abbreviation "Yr" placed in the TM/L column)

Yr     Year's totals for play with two or more clubs in same league (see
       comments for YEAR)

TM/L   Team and League (see comments for YEAR)

PCT    Fielding Percentage (putouts plus assists divided by putouts plus
       assists plus errors)

G      Games

PO     Putouts

A      Assists

E      Errors

DP     Double Plays

FR     Fielding Runs (the Linear Weights measure of runs saved beyond what a
       league-average player at that position might have saved, defined as
       zero; this stat is calculated to take into account the particular
       demands of the different positions; see Glossary for formulas)