Fielding percentage
When figuring or calculating fielding percentage (FP) of a baseball player, just use the following formula:
Fielding percentage = (Number of assists + number of putouts)/(number of chances)
Usually, the goal of a fielder is to prevent the other team from stealing bases or scoring.
They do this either with assists or putouts and by avoiding errors. An assist in baseball is a defensive play that helps in the making of a putout.
The difference between assist and putout is that putout is unassisted. This means that only one fielder is involved in the making of a putout whereas in assist you need someone to throw the ball at you.
An error occur when the fielder mishandles the ball resulting in advances by a player in the other team.
The higher this percentage, the better the fielder is at creating putouts.
When computing this percentage, we usually show the answer as a decimal rounded to 3 places.
A few examples showing how to compute the fielding percentage
Example #1:
During a baseball game, a player had the following performance:
7 Assists
8 putouts
1 error
Fielding percentage = (Number of assists + number of putouts)/(number of chances)
Number of chances = Number of assists + number of putouts + number of errors
Number of chances = 7 + 8 + 1 = 16
FP = (7 + 8)/(16)
FP = (15)/(16)
FP = 0.9375
After rounding 0.9375 to 3 decimal places, we get 0.938
FP = 0.938
Example #2:
During a baseball game, a player had the following performance:
18 Assists
24 putouts
4 errors
Fielding percentage = (Number of assists + number of putouts)/(number of chances)
Number of chances = Number of assists + number of putouts + number of errors
Number of chances = 18 + 24 + 4 = 46
FP = (18 + 24)/(46)
FP = (42)/(46)
FP = 0.9130
After rounding 0.9130 to 3 decimal places, we get 0.913
FP = 0.913
Example #3:
During a baseball game, a player had the following performance:
12 Assists
0 putouts
2 errors
FP = (Number of assists + number of putouts)/(number of chances)
Number of chances = Number of assists + number of putouts + number of errors
Number of chances = 12 + 0 + 2 = 14
FP = (12 + 0)/(14)
FP = (12)/(14)
FP = 0.85714
After rounding 0.85714 to 3 decimal places, we get 0.0.857
FP = 0.857