Reply to "Hit or error?"

Baseball is a funny game and change is very slow. Over the last 5-10 years the value of defense has begun to evolve and as a result there are more and varied attempts to quantify it than ever. So delving into the effectiveness of pick off moves is probably a little ahead of the curve but getting at things like the range of fielders, speed to the plate and pop times have all seen increased value placed on them.

Used to be you'd only talk about the slick fielding SS or speedy CF and they are still the core of good defensive clubs but athletic corner players are becoming more of a norm. For example plays are made every day all over MLB by 3rd basemen that only Brooks Robinson or Mike Schmidt might have made 30-40 years ago. This string starts with a question about a play that sounds like it would have been an excellent defensive play had it been completed. Assuming that's true it shows how much things have changed that the question is being asked at all. I attribute it to the proliferation of "Web Gems" that has hieghtened the level of defensive expectations.

So all of this ties back into defining and trying to get more consistency in how the records are kept. It is ironic that for a sport that worships it's stats that the way they are determined has been so erratic. I don't see that changing any time soon at the lower levels either because scorekeeping is both partially subjective and poorly understood.

To prove my point ask 5 people at a HS game what a Fielders Choice is. It's sort of like watching those Jay Leno man on the street interviews. The answers you get are VERY entertaining!