Range factor

Baseball statistics have come a long way in the last decade or so, with fans now generally recognizing the value of on-base percentage over batting average, and how RBI totals can be deceiving.

But quantifying defense remains a real challenge. Among the possible solutions are different formulations of range factor, which attempt to measure how good a player is at getting to balls not hit directly at him.

The numbers still don't tell the story, though. Look at this play by Derek Jeter - how exactly would you put it into an equation?

http://mlb.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?content_id=20509057&topic_id=&c_id=mlb&tcid=vpp_copy_20509057&v=3

And let's not even discuss the fact that anyone watching Jeter (and many, many other players) realizes that his range tends to get somewhat wider depending on the game situation.