SCORESHEET FANTASY BASEBALL: AL DRAFT / RULES PACKET
Fielding Range Numbers
For all position players, a Fielding Range number is given. The fielding range is used for a player when he is playing a particular position in Scoresheet Baseball for the entire season. Fielding Range can be thought of as equivalent to the number of outs made per nine innings (larger Fielding Range numbers are better). The range number is derived from a player's performance over the past two seasons, and incorporates fielding chances per nine innings, percentage of balls hit in his zone that he was able to field, double plays, his amount of playing time, and a bit of Scoresheet subjective analysis. Errors are NOT included in these numbers; a player's errors in Scoresheet Baseball are based on the number of errors a player makes each week of the major league season. Further, a player's season-to-date errors do not factor into Fielding Range calculations; a player with a lot of errors will hurt your team even if he has good range.
Fielding Ranges Explained
While pitching and hitting stats are more important, fielding range numbers should still be considered when ranking your players. For pitchers, less hits per week are given up in Scoresheet Baseball than they gave up in the majors when they are on a team with a high fielding range. A team with a low range will force pitchers to give up more hits per week than they actually gave up in the majors. A difference of .10 (one tenth) in fielding range is a difference of .10 of a hit per nine innings that your pitchers will give up in Scoresheet.
Simple rules of thumb when comparing two players at the same position:
For a full time player, each .10 in fielding range is worth about .025 in batting average; or, if two players have the same batting average, each difference of .10 in range is worth about five home runs. In hundredths, a difference of .04 in range is worth about 10 points in batting average (.01), or about two home runs.
Simply put, Fielding Range results in taking away hits from the other team. But when comparing two players, it is easier to think of a bad fielding range as reducing that player's offensive contribution to your team.
Position Qualifying
Any player listed at a position the Scoresheet Player List automatically qualifies at that position. If a player qualifies at an additional position because he played at least 20 games at that position in the majors last year, the range for that secondary position is also listed. If a player is not shown as qualifying at a position, he does NOT qualify at that position even if he happened to play at that position in the past.
In Scoresheet Baseball, to "qualify" at a position means that the player can play at this position without penalty. For Roster Balancing procedures during the draft, a player is considered at the primary position only (as he is listed on the Scoresheet Player List). However, once the season begins, a player CAN play at positions other than where he is listed on the Player List (except pitchers can only pitch, and only qualified catchers can be used at catcher. Also, only players who are qualified at any one of second base, shortstop or third base can play those positions in Scoresheet Baseball. Unless a player is shown on the Player List as qualifying at a position, or has played at least 10 games there in the majors during the current season, Scoresheet will consider him out of position. If a player becomes qualified at a new position during the season, his eligibility and new Fielding Range will be indicated in the weekly results. NOTE: Players who begin the season at a new position will qualify at that position for Scoresheet games during the first week. Rookies that are called up to the majors have league-average range at their position. Finally, if an outfielder switches from left field or right field to center field during the year (or vice versa), his Field Range will not change - the ranges for outfielders stay the same for the entire season, just as for all other players.
Penalties
Scoresheet has penalty formulas for a player playing out of position. These penalties increase his number of errors, and also raise opponents' batting averages due to the range limitations. Though this may not appear obvious on the game's scoresheet, this range penalty does, in fact, hurt your team the most when you play a player out of position. The severity of the penalty depends on to what extent the player is out of position.
Here are some examples of out of position penalties if you move a player to a position at which he does NOT qualify. These examples assume the player is an average fielder at his listed position, and combine both the range and error penalty. A good fielder at his primary position will perform a little better than what is shown below; a poor fielder will perform a little worse. (For players who are above or below average, if playing a "more difficult" position, you take the difference from the average a player has at his main position and add or subtract that difference from the numbers shown below. If moving to a "less difficult" position such as from second base to outfield, the difference added or subtracted to/from the numbers shown below is about half their real difference. Finally, a player's range can never be above average at a position he doesn't qualify at.)
- an average 1B has an: OF range of 1.94
- an average 2B has a: 3B range of 2.53; SS range of 4.40; OF range of 2.04
- an average 3B has a: 2B range of 3.97; SS range of 4.33; OF range of 2.01
- an average SS has a: 2B range of 4.14; 3B range of 2.61; OF range of 2.07
- an average C has a: 1B range of 1.73; OF range of 1.93
- a DH has a: 1B range of 1.70; OF range of 1.90 (in addition to making the average number of errors for that position in Scoresheet.)
In addition, any average infielder is assumed to be able to play 1B with average 1B range, and an average OF can play 1B with a range of about 1.79 (the average range for all positions this year is the same in the AL and NL). The adjustments above will automatically be done by Scoresheet before bringing in AAA players. Since the Scoresheet simulation system conducts position adjustments automatically, you should only list players on your lineup card at positions for which they really qualify!
Range Differences
A numeric fielding range difference has the same importance at all positions, (except for center field). A .10 difference between two shortstops is the same as a .10 difference between two left fielders. A player's Scoresheet errors are based on what he does in the majors each week of the current season, while range is based primarily on how he preformed the previous two seasons. The range of the player in center field is about 1.4 times as important as either the left or right fielder's range when determining your team's overall Fielding Range. This means you should have at least one high-range outfielder to play center field for you. The "average" center fielder has a range of about 2.15, while the "average" left fielder and right fielder have ranges of about 2.07. Since the range of your center fielder matters 1.4 times as much as at other outfield positions, it is better to have a 2.16-range player in center fielder, with two 2.07-range players in left and right fields, than it is to have three 2.10-range players filling your three outfield positions. (Most Scoresheet teams have a player with a range of at least 2.11 playing center field for them.) (AAA) players play third base with average range, play second base at .09 below average, play shortstop .14 below average, play first base with average range, have a range of 2.01 in the outfield, and have numbers of 0.83 and 0.18 when playing catcher.
