Fielding percentage

When figuring or calculating fielding percentage (FP) of a baseball player, just use the following formula:

Fielding percentage = (Number of assists + number of putouts)/(number of chances)

Usually, the goal of a fielder is to prevent the other team from stealing bases or scoring.

They do this either with assists or putouts and by avoiding errors. An assist in baseball is a defensive play that helps in the making of a putout.

An error occur when the fielder mishandles the ball resulting in advances by a player in the other team.

The higher this percentage, the better the fielder is at creating putouts. 

When computing this percentage, we usually show the answer as a decimal rounded to 3 places.

A few examples showing how to compute the fielding percentage

Example #1:


During a baseball game, a player had the following performance:

7 Assists

8 putouts

1 error

Fielding percentage = (Number of assists + number of putouts)/(number of chances)

Number of chances = Number of assists + number of putouts + number of errors

Number of chances = 7 + 8 + 1 = 16

FP = (7 + 8)/(16)

FP = (15)/(16)

FP = 0.9375

After rounding 0.9375 to 3 decimal places, we get 0.938

FP = 0.938


Example #2:


During a baseball game, a player had the following performance:

18 Assists

24 putouts

4 errors

Fielding percentage = (Number of assists + number of putouts)/(number of chances)

Number of chances = Number of assists + number of putouts + number of errors

Number of chances = 18 + 24 + 4 = 46

FP = (18 + 24)/(46)

FP = (42)/(46)

FP = 0.9130

After rounding 0.9130 to 3 decimal places, we get 0.913

FP = 0.913


Example #3:


During a baseball game, a player had the following performance:

12 Assists

0 putouts

2 errors

FP = (Number of assists + number of putouts)/(number of chances)

Number of chances = Number of assists + number of putouts + number of errors

Number of chances = 12 + 0 + 2 = 14

FP = (12 + 0)/(14)

FP = (12)/(14)

FP = 0.85714

After rounding 0.85714 to 3 decimal places, we get 0.0.857

FP = 0.857