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Posted By: jay behrens

The problem with that is an infielder that that players for a team with a pitching staff that gives up a lot of fly balls gets penilized, while pitching staffs that cause most batters to ground out will cause their infielders to a lot mroe chances to field the ball. Range also makes a difference. Compare Ripken and Ozzie Smith. Ripken's Fielding Percentage was .979, Smith .978. Essentially a tie, but no one would ever confuse Ripken's ability at SS with Smith's. If you look at Total Chances Ripken had @12,000 in 17 years at SS while Smith @17,000 in 19 years. This means that SMith was getting to a lot more balls than Ripken. This also means that he was getting charged for errors on some balls that would have been base hits if Ripken were playing instead.

Jay

I love pinatas. You get to beat the crap of something and get rewarded with candy.