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| Fielding Bible | |
|---|---|
| Name | Fielding Bible |
| Type | baseball analytic publication |
| Founded | 2005 |
| Founder | John Dewan |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
Fielding Bible is an annual analytic project and publication that evaluates defensive performance in Major League Baseball, emphasizing objective metrics and expert panels. It complements traditional statistics advanced during the late 20th and early 21st centuries and intersects with developments in sabermetrics, Baseball Prospectus, and the growth of data-driven analysis in professional sports. The project has influenced personnel decisions across franchises such as the New York Yankees, Boston Red Sox, Los Angeles Dodgers, Chicago Cubs, and San Francisco Giants.
The project produces the Fielding Bible annual, which ranks defenders at each position using metrics and expert voting drawn from a panel of analysts affiliated with institutions like Society for American Baseball Research, STATS LLC, Fangraphs, Baseball-Reference, Nippon Professional Baseball, and KBO League observers. It introduced metrics that compete with traditional defensive measures used by franchises such as the Oakland Athletics, Tampa Bay Rays, Cleveland Guardians, Houston Astros, and scouting departments of the Los Angeles Angels and Philadelphia Phillies. The Fielding Bible's approach has been discussed alongside advances from Bill James, Voros McCracken, Kirk Goldsberry, Tom Tango, and organizations including Retrosheet and SportVU.
Methodology integrates player positioning data, play-by-play records from Retrosheet and PITCHf/x eras, and subjective panel votes informed by film review and statistical models developed by analysts with backgrounds at University of Michigan, Yale University, Princeton University, Carnegie Mellon University, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The process compares defensive runs saved analogues to zone-based metrics used by Defensive Runs Saved practitioners and by researchers from Harvard University and Columbia University in sports analytics symposia. It accounts for factors noted in reports from Major League Baseball Advanced Media, ESPN, The Athletic, and research presented at conferences such as the MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference.
Founded in 2005 by statistical analyst John Dewan, the Fielding Bible emerged during a period of rapid innovation alongside publications like Baseball Prospectus and platforms such as Rotowire and CBS Sports. Early coverage connected it with debates involving veterans like Ozzie Smith and contemporaries like Derek Jeter and Andruw Jones as defensive paradigms shifted. The annual evolved through collaboration with experts who previously contributed to works by Bill James, The Hardball Times, and contributors from Sports Illustrated and The New York Times baseball desks. Technological advances from entities like Hawk-Eye Innovations, TrackMan, Microsoft Research, and Google's data labs influenced later editions.
Core contributors include John Dewan alongside a rotating panel of analysts and former players, scouts, and statisticians drawn from teams and institutions such as the Chicago White Sox, Detroit Tigers, Milwaukee Brewers, Pittsburgh Pirates, Atlanta Braves, St. Louis Cardinals, and international scouts familiar with Nippon Professional Baseball and Liga Mexicana de Béisbol. Publications related to the series have appeared in outlets including Baseball America, The Sporting News, USA Today, Bloomberg, and academic venues like Journal of Quantitative Analysis in Sports. Contributors have included figures associated with Fangraphs and Baseball Prospectus, as well as analysts who presented at the American Statistical Association and contributed to compendia published by Oxford University Press and Cambridge University Press.
Teams from Major League Baseball organizations have integrated Fielding Bible insights into scouting, roster construction, and defensive shifts implemented by managers such as Joe Maddon, Terry Francona, Alex Cora, Dave Roberts, and Joe Girardi. Media coverage spans broadcasters at MLB Network, columnists at The Wall Street Journal, and podcasts hosted by analysts from Rotoworld and The Ringer. Its outputs have shaped award debates involving the Gold Glove Award and have been cited in front office decisions by executives like those at the New York Mets, Cincinnati Reds, Minnesota Twins, and Washington Nationals.
Although the Fielding Bible itself is not an award granted by Rawlings—the maker of the Gold Glove Award—its annual selections have influenced public perception and have been referenced in discussions of Gold Glove Award voting, as well as in nominations for honors presented at gatherings like the Baseball Hall of Fame annual meetings and industry awards from the Sports Business Journal and the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum. Analysts associated with the Fielding Bible have received recognition from SABR and citations in academic award contexts from universities such as Stanford University and University of Pennsylvania.
Critiques often reference limitations similar to those leveled at early PITCHf/x and Statcast implementations: sample-size sensitivity for defenders on teams like the Baltimore Orioles or Toronto Blue Jays, park effects tied to venues such as Fenway Park and Coors Field, and challenges reconciling subjective panel votes with automated tracking data from Statcast and Hawk-Eye Innovations. Scholars from University of Chicago and Duke University have debated methodological assumptions in articles echoed by writers at The Athletic and Baseball Prospectus. Additional criticism concerns comparability across eras, a matter also central to scholarship on figures like Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb, Jackie Robinson, Lou Gehrig, and Joe DiMaggio.
Category:Baseball statistics