As we tried to point out to you regarding Franklin Gutierrez, defense is not about raw speed, though having speed helps...when I say a half-step lost, I don't mean the difference of 3 hundredths of a second in sprinting time...I mean literally as the play unfolds, the player, through a combination of his technical abilities and his physical abilities, is a half step or a full step behind some other version of himself. That's 5-8 feet if you think about how long an outfielder's stride is when he's running as hard as he can...and that can make a huge difference on the non-routine plays that separate the bad fielders from the good ones.
I'm not sure you have a complete appreciation for the large gap in value over the course of a season between a guy who catches most of the hard plays and a guy who catches not very many of them. The vast majority of the numerical weight in range factor is on the plays that ALL of the players make...the range...though small, is crucially significant to run prevention and the value differences can be surprisingly large.
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