quote:Originally posted by NDD:
In relating this thread to the other one about RF, I'm not sure I understand touches. Can you give a case example on a ground ball?
I’ll try to do that, but I warn ya, since I posted that, “touches” have changed.
The way a “touch” is defined at this particular point in time is 1) when a player is the 1st player to touch the ball on a base hit, who could be charged with an error, given an asst, or a Po, or 2) if a player makes a play that doesn’t get an out or cause problems.
Ex for 1: Batter hits a slow roller to 3rd, but beats it out for a single. Had the fielder thrown the ball away and allowed the batter to move to 2nd, he’d have been dinged with an error. Under the current methodology, he isn’t credited with anything. Another example would be a line drive double off the wall in left. Had F& bobbled the ball or made a bad throw allowing a runner to move up, he’d have been dinged.
Ex for 2: Pitcher attempts a PO at 1st. Pitcher gets a touch for making an errorless throw, and F3 gets a touch for making an errorless catch. Same would go for a catcher trying to pick off a runner.
I guess I could characterize what I’m trying to do, something like making sure every base acquired is accounted for. The way the defensive numbers are done for the most part, don’t do that. If a fielder doesn’t get a PO, Asst, or an E, there’s absolutely nothing, but that’s not how the game works in my mind.
There’s nothing that measures an outfielder cutting off a ball to keep a batter from going to 2nd or a runner scoring. There’s nothing that measures an F5 or F3 diving to knock a ball down that would have gone into a corner, or an F6 or F4 from doing the same thing on a ball between them and another fielder, but is still a base hit. I’m not advocating scorers try to guess what might have happened which would be subjective, but rather simply acknowledging that they participated in a play.
I’m not on a crusade, nor am I trying to make up numbers out of thin air. I’m just trying to give a manager/coach something else to look at and consider. FI, let’s say that a HS coach looks at the defensive numbers the way I do them, and sees his RF touches one heck of a lot of balls on hits, but seldom gets a PO, Asst, or E. If suddenly his regular RF isn’t available, he might want to 2nd guess just shoving someone out there who might allow extra bases, or worse.
The link is to a game from yesterday. Don’t get caught up in the names because I’m in the middle of changing teams, but do look at the positions and the plays. As you can easily see, it pains the outfielders in a really different light. On the one team, the 3 OFrs almost had as many plays as all 4 IFrs.
I don’t expect this to revolutionize the game, but for me at least it looks as though it’ll give me just a little more info than the guy who doesn’t do it.
http://www.infosports.com/scor.../images/touches1.pdf