Another Way to Measure Range

In an earlier post about individual defensive performance, I discussed the complications of measuring range. Specifically, I introduced Range Factor and Zone Rating and listed the limitations of each statistic. In a more recent post, I discussed an alternative statistic – David Pinto’s Probabilistic Model of Range. In this post, I’ll discuss another range statistic created by David Gassko. Gassko introduces his range measure in The Hardball Times Annual, a book I recommend for all fans of sabermetric analysis.

To calculate his range measure, Gassko first estimates how many balls were in a fielder’s zone based on the number of ground balls, fly balls and line drives allowed and the number of balls in play against LH and RH batters when that player was in the field. Then he determines how many plays were made by the fielder and how he compares to the major league average. Finally, he translates this number into number of runs above or below average a player contributed defensively. He also prorates the result to 150 games played. The table below includes the results for all Tigers with 600 or more innings played at each position and how they ranked among other players at their position.

As you look at the results, please note that this is a new statistic with only one year of data. I like his concept and I think it is probably a better measure than range factor or zone rating but we’ll need more data before we can get a really good idea of its reliability. According to this measure, Brandon Inge and Nook Logan had the best range in baseball at their positions. Placido Polanco was about average and Carlos Guillen was a little better than average. Chris Shelton was the worst in baseball and Magglio Ordonez and Craig Monroe were among the worst.

I’ve done a lot with range this winter but I’m not done yet. I’m currently working on getting range factor, zone rating, Probabilistic Model for Range and Gassko’s Range into one database. I will then aggregate the four measures to get a final range rank for each player. If I can get a hold of other range statistics such as Ultimate Zone Rating, I’ll throw them into the mix as well. I’ll post the results of this exercise in coming weeks.

Table: David Gassko’s Range Statistic

Position	Player	Runs Above Average (150 games)	# of players at position	Rank
1B	Shelton	-29	30	30
2B	Polanco	1	29	14
3B	Inge	22	26	1
SS	Guillen	7	29	11
CF	Logan	36	27	1
RF	Monroe	-20	27	23
RF	Ordonez	-22	27	24