Quote:
Originally Posted by Rain King
The effective range isn't better for your center fielder. They just get more easy balls. Their raw number does not represent their range. I'm not sure where the term "effective range" comes from?
The game tracks plays in the following categories. Routine, Likely, Even (i.e. 50/50 plays), Unlikely, and Impossible.
There is a lot more value per play as you move to the right of that spectrum.
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Yes, I agree. And in a world where pitcher's don't affect BABIP, you would see these different difficulties more evenly distributed for fielders.
But pitchers with good BABIPs force more balls to be converted to outs. That's an observable fact. If I had to guess at the implementation, I think that would mean that the difficulty of batted balls against them become easier (thus more become outs).
So fielders behind pitchers with good BABIPs would have fewer difficult balls to catch, and that makes the defensive ratings of players on those teams less important. That was sort of the point I was trying to make.