Season 8 Team Defense rankings

Well, I've been meaning to post this for awhile now. We hear all about the individual accomplishments of hitters and pitchers, but rarely do we recognize the contributions of team defense. A quick, and very unscientific study of team defense follows. Three categories are ranked:

Balls in Play: A rough measure of a team's ability to turn hits (no walks or K's) that don't leave the yard into outs. This is an approximate measure, but roughly in line with the Moneyball theory.

Fielding Percentage: assists plus putouts all divided by total chances (assists + putouts + errors)

DP Rank: A rough approximation of a teams ability to turn a double play given a double play opportunity. It's not really a percentage, but I've reporting it that way.

Below you'll find each team's rank from Season 8 in each category and a weighted average for determining an overall score. These metrics may favor NL teams a bit as the AL doesn't get to face the pitcher who is known to hit tappers on the infield.

Franchise	Owner	BIPA	Fpct	DP%	BIPA rnk	Fct Rnk	DP Rnk	Average
Sioux Falls Dakota	jwendt	0.311	0.988	22.0%	2	3	16	4.45
Las Vegas Double Downs	gtce98	0.318	0.993	22.8%	4	1	14	4.45
Mexico City Bandejos	dyuen	0.324	0.988	27.7%	8	4	1	5.55
Los Angeles Outlaws	PirateFan13	0.318	0.987	23.9%	3	9	8	5.85
Helena Hound Dogs	dberube7	0.320	0.987	23.7%	5	11	9	7.70
Burlington Bulldogs	mike1184	0.311	0.986	21.0%	1	13	20	8.05
Augusta Storm	hartel	0.333	0.990	21.2%	12	2	19	9.55
Cheyenne Seminoles	jrooster35	0.320	0.986	22.9%	6	17	12	10.75
Wichita Shockers	bigking0505	0.339	0.987	24.1%	14	8	7	10.85
Pawtucket Quahog Crush	sriram12078	0.342	0.988	23.3%	16	5	10	11.25
Toledo Boonse Farmers	hockey_brian	0.326	0.985	24.7%	9	18	5	11.55
Monterrey Conquistadors	kmueller	0.347	0.988	25.2%	18	6	3	11.55
San Juan Crownrificos	wang35	0.322	0.986	20.4%	7	14	24	12.00
Cincinnati Great Americans	cincyredlegs	0.329	0.984	26.2%	11	23	2	13.85
Pittsburgh Poon Fingers	goblkngld	0.328	0.986	19.8%	10	15	28	14.45
Nashville Harmonies	drennantom	0.333	0.985	22.9%	13	19	13	15.10
Richmond Confederates	szavsza23	0.344	0.987	20.0%	17	10	25	15.75
Rochester Rockets	ewd330	0.355	0.986	23.3%	19	16	11	16.75
St. Louis Hell Hogs	jets12	0.359	0.987	20.5%	23	7	23	17.40
Scranton Nittany Lions	camaro31st	0.358	0.986	19.9%	21	12	27	18.75
Texas Riders	jying98	0.340	0.983	19.3%	15	24	30	20.40
Houston Heavy Hitters	rudedogg44	0.370	0.984	25.0%	26	20	4	20.60
Salem Grand Salamies	bossmao	0.365	0.984	24.5%	25	22	6	21.10
Vancouver Jets	hcohenmb	0.356	0.981	22.5%	20	27	15	21.70
Honolulu Dolphins	dspahlinger	0.359	0.982	21.2%	22	25	18	22.45
Washington D.C. Honor and Courage	darrenmaybee	0.362	0.982	21.3%	24	26	17	23.65
Kansas City Monarchs	hodgenice	0.373	0.984	20.7%	27	21	22	24.15
Montreal Clouseaus	jackster89	0.388	0.979	19.9%	28	29	26	28.05
Colorado Mountain Oysters	buck18	0.405	0.979	20.8%	30	30	21	28.65
New York Hellraisers	madmuldoon	0.398	0.981	17.1%	29	28	31	28.95
Santa Fe Fire Hawks	reigny	0.416	0.979	19.5%	31	31	29	30.70
Atlanta INFUEGO	sonenlaw	0.433	0.969	10.3%	32	32	32	32.00

Sioux Falls and Las Vegas tied for the best overall ranking. Vegas had the best fielding percentage in the league and was #4 in BIPA. Mexico City comes in third as the best double play turning team in the league. The top 3 teams all won their divisions. The top AL team, Wichita, narrowly missed the wild card, while the next 4 AL teams (Monterrey, Cincinnati, Richmond, and Rochester) all made the playoffs.

Also, the long lost sonenlaw's Atlanta INFUEGO managed to finish dead last in every single category, but a fairly substantial margin.

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