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Baseball Statistics Glossary

By Benjamin Chase

Jun 12, 2016; Pittsburgh, PA, USA; A major league baseball rest in the grass prior to the game between the Pittsburgh Pirates and the St. Louis Cardinals at PNC Park. Mandatory Credit: Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports
Jun 12, 2016; Pittsburgh, PA, USA; A major league baseball rest in the grass prior to the game between the Pittsburgh Pirates and the St. Louis Cardinals at PNC Park. Mandatory Credit: Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports /
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Fielding

Basic Terms and Information

  • Assist (A) – Any play where a fielder fields the ball and throws to a base to make an out is an assist. Context is important, however. An average starting shortstop will have 400 assists on a season while an outfielder that reaches 10+ assists in a season has had a very good defensive season in throwing runners out.
  • Error (E) – Determined by the official scorer of the game, a play that is determined should have been made by the fielder but was not due to something that the fielder did.
  • Fielding Percentage (FPct) – Simple statistic that measures total chances minus errors and divides that number by total changes for the percentage of “clean” plays made.
  • Passed Ball (PB) – A pitch that gets by the catcher that it is deemed by the official scorer to have been due to fault of the catcher and not the wild-ness of the pitch thrown.
  • Position Numbers – When reviewing defensive statistics, you will often see positions referred to by their number. An error on the third baseman won’t say “E3B”, it will say “E5”. The positions are numbered as such: 1. Pitcher, 2. Catcher, 3. First Base, 4. Second Base, 5. Third Base, 6. Shortstop, 7. Left Field, 8. Center Field, 9. Right Field

More Advanced Stuff

  • Range – The amount of ground a fielder covers from his positioning when the pitch is thrown to where he makes the play on a ball put into play. Shortstops and Center Fielders are typically the infielders and outfielders expected to have the greatest range, respectively.
  • Route – The path that a fielder takes from his starting position to where he fields the ball, typically most utilized in fly balls and pop ups. This is especially utilized in reviewing outfielders.

A Few Sabermetric Terms To Know

  • Defensive Runs Saved (DRS) – A defensive statistic to attempt to quantify the value that a defensive player adds to his team by figuring the runs he either added to or cost his team due to his defense.
  • Range Factor (RF) – Statistic that takes putouts and assists, multiplies that by 9, and divides that number by the amount of innings played at a position. You’ll see it weighted as RF/9, which is range factor per 9 innings at a position.
  • Ultimate Zone Rating (UZR) – A statistic that attempts to measures what happens on a ball hit to a particular zone with an “average” fielder versus what happened with that particular fielder. Similarly to DRS, it is measured in runs saved or cost for the team. An exceptional UZR is anything over +15. This is also expressed often in UZR/150, which is UZR per 150 games.
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