[rcbuss]

I'm curious as to how roster makers in general come up with defensive range ratings. They seem to be among the most difficult skills to quantify, and generate a lot of controversy, to say the least.

Taking the Yankees, for example, from the three roster sets:

Womack, Jeter, Rodriguez, Williams
2b/ss ss 3b/ss l/c/r

65/53, 77, 64/67, 48/61/50
62/25, 77, 64/67, 45/41/45
65/53, 77, 64/67, 48/61/50

Fr/Pr, Fr, Vg/Vg, Av/Pr/-- (DMB 2005 home-brew)

Baseball Prospectus-whipping boy Jeter gets a very good range rating, while Rodriguez, who has historically been a superior shortstop, gets inferior ratings. Contrast these ratings to those from a DMB 2005 prediction disk (can't remember who made it, but I downloaded it from the Baseball Primer website).

By the way, my intention was not to start a "Jeter is great/no he's not" flame war.