Sunday, October 9, 2011

Fielding percentage and its relationship to wins

There is a certain amount of debate in baseball about how important fielding is. Old school baseball people usually consider fielding to be the utmost importance, while many sabermatricians dismiss it all together (or at least dismiss stats like errors and fielding percentage). So I wanted to look at the past several years in the American League and see if there is any kind of correlation between fielding percentage and wins. In 2011 the rankings were:







1Tampa Bay 91 wins
2Chicago Sox 79 wins
3LA Angels 86 wins
4Boston  90 wins
5Kansas City 71 wins
6NY Yankees   97 wins
7Detroit 95 wins
8Toronto 81 wins
9Cleveland 80 wins
10Seattle 67 wins
11Baltimore 69 wins
12Texas 96 wins
13Minnesota 63 wins
14Oakland 74 wins







2010: 







1NY Yankees 95 wins





2Minnesota 94 wins





3Tampa Bay 96 wins





4Toronto 85 wins





5Oakland 81 wins





6Chicago Sox 88 wins





7Baltimore 66 wins





8Texas 90 wins





9Detroit 81 wins





10Cleveland 69 wins





11Seattle 61 wins





12Boston 89 wins





13LA Angels 80 wins





14Kansas City 67 wins












2009:

1Toronto 75 wins





2Minnesota 87 wins





3Boston 95 wins





4LA Angels 97 wins





5NY Yankees 103 wins





6Detroit 86 wins





7Baltimore 64 wins





8Cleveland 65 wins





9Tampa Bay 84 wins





10Oakland 75 wins





11Seattle 85 wins





12Texas 87 wins





13Chicago Sox 79 wins





14Kansas City 65 wins












2008:
1Toronto 86 wins
2NY Yankees 89 wins
3Boston 95 wins
4LA Angels 100 wins
5Tampa Bay 97 wins
6Cleveland 81 wins
7Kansas City 75 wins
8Seattle 61 wins
9Oakland 75 wins
10Baltimore 68 wins
11Chicago Sox 89 wins





12Minnesota 88 wins





13Detroit 74 wins





14Texas 79 wins












2007:
1Baltimore 69 wins





2Boston 96 wins





3NY Yankees 94 wins





4Oakland 76 wins





5Seattle 88 wins





6Cleveland 97 wins





7Minnesota  79 wins





8Toronto 83 wins





9Detroit 88 wins





10LA Angels 94 wins





11Kansas City 69 wins





12Chicago Sox 72 wins





13Tampa Bay 66 wins





14Texas 75 wins









2006:







1Boston 86 wins





2Minnesota 96 wins





3Oakland 93 wins





4Seattle 78 wins





5Chicago Sox 90 wins





6Kansas City 62 wins





7Texas 80 wins





8Toronto 87 wins





9Baltimore 70 wins





10NY Yankees 97 wins





11Detroit 95 wins





12Tampa Bay 61 wins





13Cleveland 78 wins





14LA Angels 89 wins












2005:








1Seattle 69 wins





2LA Angels 95 wins





3Oakland 88 wins





4Chicago Sox 99 wins





5NY Yankees95 wins




6Toronto 85 wins





7Minnesota 83 wins





8Cleveland 93 wins





9Baltimore 74 wins





10Texas 79 wins





11Boston 95 wins





12Detroit 71 wins





13Tampa Bay 67 wins





14Kansas City 56 wins












So is there any correlation? No team that had the worst fielding percentage in the American League had 90 wins in this time (although the Angels had 89 in 06). The '06 Angels were the only team in this period who had the worst fielding percentage and a winning record. However, 3 times the team with the best fielding percentage had a losing record. The team with the worst record in the league averaged being about 11th in fielding percentage and was never better than 7th. The team with the best record in the American League averaged being about 4th in fielding percentage, with no team leading in both fielding percentage and wins. If one looks at one case study, Tampa Bay, one notices that when they were a bad team 05-07, they were near the bottom of the league in fielding percentage. When they have been been good 08, '10-11, they have been around the top in the league (being the best in 2011). When they were mediocre in 2009, they were in the bottom half. A relatively similar story can be told about the Minnesota Twins, while the Yankees and Rangers seem to be exceptions. There does seem to be a correlation between fielding percentage and wins, but there are exceptions and it is not absolute. It does seem to be a general rule, at least recently in the American League, that the better fielding percentage usually leads to better win percentage.

















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