Can someone please explain the difference in a catcher's stat line between CS and FCS. I have been following my son this summer and Pointstreak uses FCS and sometimes CS for "Caught Stealing." I can't figure out what the F in FCS refers to. I have been trying to figure it out on by searching different references and can't find it. Driving me crazy. Thanks.
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Can you give me a link where I can see all the catcher's stats with FCS included?
http://www.pointstreak.com/bas...e.html?gameid=323845
I suspect that there is a very simple explanation and I will probably feel stupid after it is explained.
On this boxscore under fielding, you will see that Catcher Wenson shows one FCS and one SBA. On the other side, Catcher Santiago has one CS and one SBA. In the game each of these catchers threw a runner out at second, which I would think would be a CS. I can't figure out what the F in FCS is? I see that a lot with Pointstreak and I am simply trying to figure out what the FCS is as I believe it relates to "caught stealing" but not sure how.
What comes to mind is Field's Choice Stolen (no throw attempted). Catcher ate the ball and did not make a throw? Maybe was not in a position to make the throw? Not Defensive indifference, but a choice? Not sure, but would definitely love to know what the answer is.
I talked to Mike at Pointstreak and got this explanation. FCS is Fielder’s Choice on a strikeout. Ex: Runner on 2nd 2 strikes on batter. 3rd strike isn’t caught but catcher throws to 3rd instead of 1st and the FCS indicates how the runner reached 1st.
Personally, I’d have marked the batter reaching 1st on either a WP or PB, so FCS isn’t something you’ll see on a scoresheet of mine. But who am I to question a Canadian company tracking stats for the Cape Cod League? 
Great catch MTCATCHERDAD14!
I have noticed the same thing. In the same game a catcher on one side gets listed as FCS for a caught stealing and the other side will have a CS for a caught stealing. In the play by play the description of the play is the same caught stealing (2-6). My son has had both stats CS on some games and FCS on others. Can't figure it out. Catspop suggestion of Field's Choice Stolen wouldn't work since the catcher threw out the runner and the description in play by play was caught stealing 2-6 etc. I hope someone will enlighten us on this. MTCathersdad14 I'm with you on this, probably a very simple explanation but can't find the answer anywhere.
Stats4gnats the link from the cape cod game doesn't have the FCS occurring on a strikeout. The caught stealing was the third out but the batter was not out, thus lead off the next inning. Am I missing something? maybe it just means the 3rd out of the inning was on the CS?
123ABC posted:
Stats4gnats the link from the cape cod game doesn't have the FCS occurring on a strikeout. The caught stealing was the third out but the batter was not out, thus lead off the next inning. Am I missing something? maybe it just means the 3rd out of the inning was on the CS?
All I can do is pass on what the guy at Pointstreak said. Give ‘em a call. They sure seemed cordial and tried to help. I called the Support number. 866-734-3585.
Still confused so I took Stats4gnats suggestion and called Pointstreak. The guy I spoke to at first had no idea what FCS was. During our call he pulled up a past game from the Cape Cod League and he went through the play by play to figure it out. What he came up with is that there is a scorekeeper's option for a Fielder's Choice Stealing. The issue is that it is the discretion of the scorekeeper to use it. So my theory is simply that there is operator error here with respect to some of the scorekeepers using the wrong input. That is why the same play in a game sometimes is listed as a CS and sometimes as a FCS in the boxscore.
If anyone can come up with a better theory on this I would like to hear it. Thanks for the help on this.
MTCatcherDad14 posted:
Still confused so I took Stats4gnats suggestion and called Pointstreak. The guy I spoke to at first had no idea what FCS was. During our call he pulled up a past game from the Cape Cod League and he went through the play by play to figure it out. What he came up with is that there is a scorekeeper's option for a Fielder's Choice Stealing. The issue is that it is the discretion of the scorekeeper to use it. So my theory is simply that there is operator error here with respect to some of the scorekeepers using the wrong input. That is why the same play in a game sometimes is listed as a CS and sometimes as a FCS in the boxscore.
If anyone can come up with a better theory on this I would like to hear it. Thanks for the help on this.
I didn’t want to say it because I didn’t know enough about what was going on, but you got the same sense of what was taking place that I did, i.e. they don’t really have any idea what the heck is going on with that symbol.
If it’s as they told me, I think they’re wrong and not following the scoring rules of baseball. If it’s as they told you, i.e. it’s up to the sk to use it or not, they definitely aren’t using the scoring rules of baseball because there is no option like that.
Now what becomes the question is “How is that being reflected in the stats they produce?”
After looking at the play by play of quite a few games from different leagues, I've seen the pattern of fcs being used when the third out of the inning is on a caught stealing by the catcher. the abbreviation sure seems to suggest something about fielders choice, but like said above I don't see how there is a fielders choice involved in that play when its in the middle of an AB, and only a runner on 1B.
I think you're correct that the pattern is that it is used on the third out. That might suggest that the "F" stands for "Final Out" of the inning. I completely agree that "Fielder's Choice" makes no sense, especially in the context of how it is being used.
123ABC posted:
After looking at the play by play of quite a few games from different leagues, I've seen the pattern of fcs being used when the third out of the inning is on a caught stealing by the catcher. the abbreviation sure seems to suggest something about fielders choice, but like said above I don't see how there is a fielders choice involved in that play when its in the middle of an AB, and only a runner on 1B.
Of all the explanations so far, that one makes the most sense to me. How many games did you have to look at in order to see that pattern?
Looking at my sons games, I came up with a pattern and then checked some games from different leagues and it seems to be consistent. I wonder if pointstreaks automatically puts it in that fcs category if its a 3rd out cs? Hard to image all scorekeepers would be consistent if its a manual choice.
123ABC posted:
Looking at my sons games, I came up with a pattern and then checked some games from different leagues and it seems to be consistent. I wonder if pointstreaks automatically puts it in that fcs category if its a 3rd out cs? Hard to image all scorekeepers would be consistent if its a manual choice.
Personally I don’t track final outs on CS. I have no problem with anyone doing it, but in my experience an inning ending on a CS wasn’t something happening a lot. Out of curiosity I looked at all 26 games last season and found 17 innings ended on a CS. That was a lot more than I thought but I still don’t know what the information would be used for. That doesn’t mean I think it’s a worthless metric but it’s not one I going to spend my time tracking unless a coach specifically asks for it.
