[Garlon]

This comes down to the fact that you are not understanding that Range (PO + A)/9 innings is a completely antiquated and meaningless statistic. It should actually be more accurately titled Range Factor in the game though.


Your answers as to why Felix Millan is going to win the Gold Glove is right there on that page at the bottom right. Millan has a Defensive Efficiency of 1.099, which means he turns 9.9% more balls batted to him into an out than the average 2Bmen that season. Beckert has a Defensive Efficiency of 0.982, which means he is below average at turning batted balls to him into an out. Beckert is 1.8% below league average.

Millan made 360 Assists, and 360/1.099 = 328. 360 - 328 = +32 outs made. This makes sense considering he has a +18 ZR for the season.

Beckert made 459 Assists, and 459/0.982 = 467. 459 - 467 = -8 outs made. I expect Beckert will be about -4 or -5 ZR for the season. You said he was -9.8 ZR, and that may just be due to the base-out situations of the balls he fielded. Missing a groundball with nobody on base and 2 outs is going to be less detrimental than with the bases loaded.

The difference between Millan and Beckert is 40 defensive plays (+32 for Millan and -8 for Beckert). The difference between their ZR is 27.8 (+18 for Millan and -9.8 for Beckert). This makes sense because 27.8 runs over 40 plays = 27.8/40 = 0.695, and infield defensive plays are generally worth about 0.70 to 0.75 defensive runs per play.

There is no coincidence about it when Millan has 85 range rating and Beckert has 54 range rating.


You are getting caught up on the raw totals of Assists and PO. These are not meaningful. PO for 2B are going to go way up if a team allow more baserunners because there are more force plays at 2B. They will also go up with more flyballs to the infield. They will also go up with more balls in play in general. None of this has anything to do with pBABIP ratings.

Basically, you should completely ignore RNG because it is just an old stat that has always been reported in baseball fielding statistics and has never meant anything because the balls in play are very different from team to team, the balls in play to each position will vary from team to team, the GO:AO rate will vary from team to team, and so forth.

What is important is how often a fielder turns a ball in their zone into an out and that is reported as their EFF.

For outfielders, the most important rating is their Range. Outfielders do not make a substantial number of errors or assists, but they do make hundreds of PO.

For a 2B you will want to look at their combination of Range and Error.

For SS Range/Arm/Error all need to be very good.

For 3B Arm is going to be more important than Range.