How to Calculate a Catcher's Fielding Percentage

Baseball fans love statistics. Home runs, RBIs and ERA are just a few of the numbers baseball fans watch and calculate each season. Another statistic that gets less attention, but is equally important to the game, is fielding percentage. Fielding percentage is a statistic designed to measure a player's defensive ability.

Things You'll Need

  • Calculator
Show More

Instructions

    • 1

      Add up a catcher's putouts and assists. A catcher gets a putout every time he catches a third strike, tags a runner out or records a force out at home. A catcher gets an assist every time he fields a ball and throws it to a teammate who records a putout. For example, assume a catcher has 400 putouts and 100 assists, for a total of 500.

    • 2

      Calculate a catcher's total chances. Total chances is found by adding putouts, assists and errors. In our example, assume that our catcher has 400 putouts, 100 assists and five errors, for a total of 505.

    • 3

      Divide putouts and assists by total chances. In the example, it would be 500 divided by 505.

    • 4

      Round the answer to three decimal places. In the example, the catcher's fielding percentage would be .990.