On a slow day, I'm trying to chase down how Torii Hunter can be considered a great CF, but PB calculates that he has very little range.

The raw stats show that he catches more balls than Finley, and his Stats Zone Rating is higher, so he should at least as good as Finley.

BUT, says Mike, PB goes beyond those raw stats and considers the teams' pitching staffs K rate and GB/FB ratio. These would affect the total FBs available to an OF. Aha! I was able to confirm that the ARI OF had fewer FBs available, so Finley's fewer catches were actually a lot better than Hunter.

BUT, say T hart, more FBs doesn't mean more FBs to CF. And he's right.

First, Zone Rating. It is based on the number of balls hit to a specific section of the field. It is not a perfect measurement; for one, the zone does not shift with the fielder (unless he makes a play). It assumes that everyone always plays straight-away. (FYI, Carlos Lee and Ben Grieve both have higher Zone ratings than Hunter or Finley.) So Mike's approach of taking an average of different measurements reduces the quirks of any single measurement and seems reasonable.

But it may be the choice of measurements that is penalizing Hunter. ESPN.com has a wealth of stats and I was able to look at where FBs go versus each team. It does turn out that although the Twins gave up a lot more FBs (350 more), only 12 more were hit to CF. There were 237 more FBs hit to MIN LF/RF than ARI's, and 103 more to "uncatchable" Zones.

To summarize what I think I have learned: PB severly discounts Hunter's range factor because the Twins Pitching staff had a low strikeout rate and a low GB/FB ratio. However, all those extra FBs went to LF or RF (all but 12). So, the calculations appear correct, but they may not be the right calculations. They assume that the ratio of balls hit to each OF spot is the same for each team. The PB range factor reflects my previous calcuation that Finley takes away a lot more hits than Hunter.

Maybe just using the Zone Rating is better even with its own flaws.

I didn't look at all other teams (I do have a life, really) but compared to the Diamondbacks and Braves, the Twins had a much lower percentage of FBs to CF. The Braves gave up 342 fewer FBs than the Twins, but actually 35 MORE balls to CF.

This is a significt quirk in the stats that the k-rate and GB/FB misses; actually misleads as T hart said.

There, I think I explained it. Did I?