Error (baseball)

In baseball, an error is the act, in the judgment of the official scorer, of a fielder misplaying a ball in a manner that allows a batter or baserunner to reach one or more additional bases, when such an advance should have been prevented given ordinary effort by the fielder. An error is also charged when a fielder fails to catch a foul fly ball that could have been caught with ordinary effort, thus prolonging the batter's plate appearance. The term error can also refer to the play in which an error was committed.

Statistical significance

Traditionally, the number of errors was a statistic used to quantify the skill of a fielder. However, fans and analysts have questioned the usefulness and significance of such a practice. The error has some flaws as a metric for fielding skill. Notably, mental misjudgments, such as failure to cover a base, are not considered errors.

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A more subtle, though more significant objection to the error, as sabermetricians have noted, is more conceptual—in order for a fielder to be charged with an error, he must have done something right by being in the correct place to be able to attempt the play. A poor fielder may "avoid" many errors simply by being unable to reach batted or thrown balls that a better fielder could successfully reach. Thus, it is possible that a poor fielder will have fewer errors than an otherwise better fielder.

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In recent times, official scorers have recognized this; they will usually take a fielder's supposed "extraordinary" effort or positioning into account when judging whether the play should have been successful given ordinary effort.

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