In the book, is consideration given to fielding position and skill required to man a given position when comparing players across positions?
Actually, the cases in the book are solely batter and pitcher focused – and the pairing of players in the book is based on relative career offensive value or relative career pitching performance. At times, in various cases, all-around play of the players may be discussed, but the basis for the cases where players are paired is not from the result of examining players in terms of all-around play – only their performance at the bat or on the mound. Since records/metrics are not as reliable in terms of fielding performance/skill and much of what anyone thinks about the importance of playing one position over another (or the importance of defense as a whole, for that matter) is somewhat subjective, it made more sense to stick to batting and pitching alone – where the cases made in each pairing could be supported with trusted data.
