Sports Reference Blog

Batting Splits by Defensive Position

Posted by Neil on July 2, 2013

I got a couple of questions about this today, so I thought it would be valuable to highlight this feature in blog-post form.

Essentially, the question was regarding what kind of batting production a specific team has gotten from a given defensive position this season. For example, a user wanted the combined season stats for Yankees players this season, only while playing 3B.

Veteran B-R users will know that to get this information, you need to go to the team's main 2013 stats page, then mouse over the menu option marked "Batting ?", and choose "Splits". Scroll down until you find the table marked "Defensive Positions", and you'll get a list of every position along with the batting stats from players while they were in the game at that position:

Split G GS PA AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB CS BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS TB GDP HBP SH SF IBB ROE BAbip tOPS+ sOPS+
as C 82 288 254 34 59 8 0 6 23 4 0 22 51 .232 .300 .335 .635 85 11 4 5 3 0 2 .265 87 82
as 1B 82 332 302 28 65 18 1 12 46 4 2 25 78 .215 .278 .401 .679 121 10 2 0 2 2 3 .248 97 74
as 2B 82 354 311 48 92 17 0 19 53 5 0 36 49 .296 .371 .534 .905 166 10 3 1 3 11 6 .297 162 148
as 3B 82 328 300 27 68 13 0 4 23 2 0 19 80 .227 .288 .310 .598 93 9 7 2 0 1 1 .296 76 64
as SS 82 323 286 27 57 11 2 2 17 11 1 23 82 .199 .266 .273 .539 78 5 5 4 5 1 3 .266 59 60
as LF 82 340 319 35 72 10 0 10 32 8 3 18 54 .226 .265 .351 .616 112 6 0 0 3 0 8 .240 79 66
as CF 82 369 334 50 99 22 6 8 33 13 6 28 71 .296 .352 .470 .822 157 5 1 5 1 1 1 .355 139 125
as RF 82 329 304 30 80 9 2 8 22 9 3 20 41 .263 .310 .385 .695 117 8 1 3 1 3 5 .281 103 83
as DH 77 327 290 37 62 6 1 14 41 3 0 34 82 .214 .303 .386 .689 112 5 3 0 0 3 2 .247 101 84
as P 5 11 10 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 6 .000 .000 .000 .000 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 .000 -100 -100
as PH 40 51 45 7 9 2 0 2 9 0 0 5 17 .200 .294 .378 .672 17 0 1 0 0 1 0 .269 96 112
as PH for DH 9 9 7 3 2 0 0 2 3 0 0 2 1 .286 .444 1.143 1.587 8 0 0 0 0 1 0 .000 346 272
as Infield 82 1625 1453 164 341 67 3 43 162 18 1 125 340 .235 .302 .374 .676 543 45 21 12 13 15 15 .275 98 87
as Outfield 82 1038 957 115 251 41 8 26 87 23 11 66 166 .262 .310 .403 .713 386 19 2 8 5 4 14 .292 108 92
at Def. Pos. 82 1334 1185 159 307 58 8 35 126 28 6 109 253 .259 .325 .410 .735 486 31 13 15 12 13 12 .299 115 107
at Off. Pos. 82 1329 1225 120 285 50 3 34 123 16 6 82 253 .233 .285 .362 .647 443 33 10 5 6 6 17 .266 89 72
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 7/2/2013.

You can even click on the red text for each position, and get a table of the individuals who contributed to those team-wide totals at the position:

Rk G GS PA AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB CS BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS TB GDP HBP SH SF IBB ROE BAbip tOPS+ sOPS+
1 Kevin Youkilis 22 88 79 10 21 6 0 2 7 0 0 5 19 .266 .341 .418 .759 33 3 4 0 0 1 0 .328 134 106
2 Jayson Nix 28 95 86 7 23 2 0 0 7 2 0 7 22 .267 .330 .291 .620 25 1 1 1 0 0 0 .359 105 72
3 Chris Nelson 10 37 36 3 8 2 0 0 2 0 0 1 11 .222 .243 .278 .521 10 3 0 0 0 0 0 .320 80 42
4 David Adams 26 100 91 7 16 3 0 2 7 0 0 6 24 .176 .242 .275 .517 25 2 2 1 0 0 1 .215 105 41
5 Alberto Gonzalez 3 8 8 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 4 .000 .000 .000 .000 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000 -100 -100
Team Total 82 328 300 27 68 13 0 4 23 2 0 19 80 .227 .288 .310 .598 93 9 7 2 0 1 1 .296 76 64
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 7/2/2013.

One final note -- if you want to know where the team ranks among others at the position, you can go to league splits and find the same table -- clicking the position tooltip will give you a list of every team's production from that position, which you can then sort:

Rk G GS PA AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB CS BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS ? TB GDP HBP SH SF IBB ROE BAbip tOPS+ sOPS+
1 DET 81 376 322 64 118 20 1 25 83 2 0 49 58 .366 .455 .668 1.122 215 13 4 0 1 10 0 .388 186 202
2 OAK 83 351 310 45 95 22 1 13 53 2 2 36 60 .306 .376 .510 .886 158 9 1 0 4 1 2 .340 141 140
3 TBR 83 361 322 50 91 17 2 18 46 7 2 34 78 .283 .352 .516 .867 166 8 2 0 3 3 1 .319 130 134
4 TEX 82 349 326 49 99 20 0 15 44 4 0 22 41 .304 .350 .503 .853 164 9 1 0 0 2 4 .311 130 130
5 BAL 83 380 359 53 115 38 2 6 42 6 4 15 59 .320 .349 .487 .837 175 9 1 5 0 0 3 .371 116 126
6 SEA 82 359 327 40 87 22 1 11 35 3 3 29 65 .266 .326 .440 .766 144 3 1 0 2 0 1 .300 123 107
7 BOS 84 342 318 36 79 20 1 10 36 3 2 17 81 .248 .290 .412 .702 131 8 3 1 3 0 3 .300 76 89
8 TOR 82 342 309 39 67 15 2 13 37 3 1 24 63 .217 .278 .405 .682 125 11 4 0 5 0 7 .227 85 84
9 LAA 82 331 296 39 78 14 0 4 33 1 2 26 45 .264 .320 .351 .671 104 5 1 3 5 2 2 .294 80 84
10 MIN 79 335 300 31 70 13 1 7 32 2 0 26 50 .233 .303 .353 .657 106 5 5 2 2 0 5 .257 85 79
11 CLE 82 326 298 31 62 11 0 11 28 3 1 24 83 .208 .276 .356 .632 106 7 4 0 0 1 4 .250 68 71
12 HOU 83 314 294 29 64 14 0 11 44 0 0 11 51 .218 .247 .378 .624 111 14 2 2 5 1 3 .224 84 68
13 KCR 79 311 286 25 64 13 0 7 23 1 3 18 42 .224 .277 .343 .620 98 9 4 1 2 1 1 .238 80 69
14 NYY 82 328 300 27 68 13 0 4 23 2 0 19 80 .227 .288 .310 .598 93 9 7 2 0 1 1 .296 76 64
15 CHW 79 312 287 25 64 9 1 6 27 1 1 20 52 .223 .269 .324 .593 93 6 0 0 5 3 1 .248 76 62
TOT 1226 5117 4654 583 1221 261 12 161 586 40 21 370 908 .262 .320 .427 .747 1989 125 40 16 37 25 38 .293 104 102
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 7/2/2013.

An alternate way of getting this would be to go through the brand-new Split Finder, recreating a similar table using the options in the form:

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 7/2/2013.

4 Responses to “Batting Splits by Defensive Position”

  1. Graham Says:

    This is awesome! Can you sort the play values (WAR level?) by defensive position by team?

  2. Neil Says:

    Unfortunately, WAR is one of those stats you can't really compute at that level. Too many moving parts and league-wide adjustments, etc.

  3. Tim Says:

    I think you should also put the team's win-loss record with each starter at each position, much like you do in the batting order position splits in the play index thing. Those are always interesting.

  4. Sooziegoo Says:

    What in the waste of a world is going on here? Bwhahaha