Fan Fielding Survey

Tangotiger, who has one of the more interesting and informative sabermetric sites on the net, conducted a very interesting survey on defensive skills. He asked fans to rate the fielding skills of players on their favorite teams just based on observation. He instructed them not to use any stats at all. He also urged them not to vote based on what somebody else told them. He wanted them to just use their own eyes. They were the scouts. As you can see on the ballot, fans were asked to scout players on reaction/instincts, acceleration/first few steps, speed, hands, release/footwork, throwing accuracy and throwing strength.

He then tabulated the results which can be seen in detail on his site. I’ll summarize the results for the Tigers below. Note that the sample size for the Tigers was rather small but I think the results are still relevant.

I did tell him that I’d try to get more Tiger fans to participate in the survey. So, I hope that some of you will fill out the survey whenever you get a chance. It would be good to see a larger sample size the next time he updates the results.

Best Overall defense
1. Ivan Rodriguez
2. Placido Polanco
3. Brandon Inge

Reaction/Instincts
1. Ivan Rodriguez
2. Carlos Guillen
3. Carlos Pena

Acceleration/first few steps
1. Nook Logan
2. Brandon Inge
3. Ivan Rodriguez

Speed
1. Nook Logan (fans voted him #1 in all of baseball)
2. Omar Infante
3. Brandon Inge

Hands
1. Ivan Rodriguez
2. Carlos Guillen
3. Placido Polanco

Release/Footwork
1. Ivan Rodriguez
2. Placido Polanco
3. Carlos Pena

Throwing Strength
1. Brandon Inge
2. Ivan Rodriguez
3. Omar Infante

Throwing Accuracy
1. Ivan Rodriguez
2. Placido Polanco
3. Carlos Guillen