Fiddling with fielding stats on a Saturday morning...
Here are some different ways to measure the Reds' team fielding this year:
| Stat | Data | Comments |
| bUZR | +43 runs | 2nd in NL |
| DER | 0.706 | 3rd in NL |
| THT "Fld" | +44 plays | 3rd in NL; ~35 runs equivalent |
| xRR | +73 runs | 1st in NL; |
| ERA-FIP | -0.38 | 1st in NL; ~60 run equivalent |
| BtB PwrRnk | +49 runs | 1st in NL; "my" stat is based on bUZR, THT Field, and catcher fielding |
If one of the front office's major goals heading into this season was to improve the team's fielding, they seem to have succeeded: the Reds are clearly one of the best fielding teams in the league.
How much does it matter? Let's run with a figure of +50 runs this season, which is where I have the Reds in the BtB Power Rankings, and is a rough average of all the other run estimates. Add that to the average of ~40 runs below average that Reds teams have been from 2004-2008 (by bUZR), and you have a total of a 90 run improvement in fielding this year compared to the 2004-2008 teams. In the current NL run environment, that's roughly a 10-win improvement compared to the 2004-2008 teams!
Of course, the counter to this is that the Reds were roughly an average-hitting team over the entirety of the 2004-2008 span (+65 in 2005, -72 in 2008, roughly average in other years, according to FanGraphs), and are now on pace to be ~125 runs below average by the season's end (~14 wins).
So, their 10-win improvement in fielding is countered by a 14-win decline in hitting. ::sigh::