Fielding Percentage Calculator

Fielding percentage is the oldest way to measure a defender in baseball and softball, and it asks a simple question: of all the plays you had a real chance to make, how often did you handle the ball cleanly? The formula is (putouts plus assists) divided by total chances, where total chances is putouts plus assists plus errors. A putout is recording an out yourself, such as catching a fly or stepping on a base. An assist is a throw that leads to an out, the bread and butter of infielders. An error is a misplay the official scorer judges should have been an out.

So a shortstop with 150 putouts, 250 assists, and 10 errors has 400 successful plays out of 410 chances, a fielding percentage of .976. The number is always written as a three-digit decimal and read like a batting average, so .976 is said as ’nine seventy-six.'

Where do good numbers land? Major League Baseball (MLB) regulars usually sit between .980 and .990, with first basemen and outfielders higher, shortstops and third basemen a touch lower because their throws are harder. A perfect 1.000 means no errors in the chances counted.

Here is the catch every coach eventually learns. Fielding percentage only counts balls you actually reached. A slow fielder who never gets to the tough grounder is never charged with an error on it, so he can post a shiny number while quietly costing his team runs. That blind spot is why modern defense is judged with range factor and defensive runs saved, not this stat alone. It is still a fine, quick measure of sure-handedness on the chances a player does get to.