Calculating Baseball Statistics - Fielding Percentage (FP)

In the world of baseball statistics, In addition to hitting and pitching statistics, there are several fielding statistics that are useful when evaluating a player. In this article, we'll take a look at one of the most common.

Fielding Percentage, or FP for short, is a statistic designed to show what percentage of plays that a fielder attempts to make that they completed successfully. In other words, of the balls the player attempted to catch, in what percentage did he not make an error.

To calculate Fielding Percentage, you need a fielder's Putouts, Assists, and Errors. A Putout is an instance in which a fielder makes an out by himself, for example, by catching a fly ball or fielding a ground ball and tagging a runner or base. An Assist is when a player is part of a play that creates an out, but does not create the out himself, such as a throw to a base that retires a runner or to another fielder that tags a runner. For example, on a ground ball to the shortstop, the shortstop fields the ball and throws to first in time to retire the runner. On this play, the shortstop gets an assist, and the first baseman gets a putout. An Error is when a player attempts to make a play, but fails to do so, either by failing to catch a ball or making a bad throw. An error is a physical error only - a mental error, such as throwing to the wrong base, is not counted in a players error count, although it can certainly hurt a team.

Once you have these fielding statistics, you calculate Fielding Percentage using this formula:

Fielding Percentage = (Putouts + Assists) / (Putouts + Assists + Errors)

For example, in 2005, Seattle Mariners Right fielder Ichiro Suzuki played 158 games in the field. In those games, he racked up 381 Putouts, 9 Assists, and 2 errors. Plugging those numbers into the formula, you get:

(381 Putouts + 9 Assists) / (381 Putouts + 9 Assists + 2 Errors) = 390 / 392 = .995 FP