Archive of SportingNews.com's old SOM Baseball forum

how big of an impact do defensive ratings have on the overall game? For instance, does is a 1 rating in CF that much better than a 2? How many runs am I saving? Does the game recognize say the importance of having a CF1 @ Polo Grounds or a CF1 @ Yankee Stadium because of all the territory to cover?

does a 1 rating for a catcher affect a pitchers's performance?

Defense plays a critical role in the game. Especially in the infield and up the middle. 2's aren't that bad in the OF. I would hestitate to play a 3 in Centerfield. OF arms, especially in right and center are pretty important. Catcher arm actually matters much more than the catcher fielder rating which isn't that important. No variable effects from park to park based on defensive rating. So Polo CF1 is the same as CF1 Griffith.

On a given roll there are 30/216 chances that the outcome will be directly produced by the defense. Of those 30 chances, 13 are SS or 2b defensive chances. No other position has more than 3.

One thing I've always wondered.

Using an example from a team I have now ...which is the better defensive 2b?

Ferris at 1e42 or Lacy at 3e19?

Lacy is a 4e19 at 2b. But even if he were a 3 Ferris would still be much better defensively. There will probably be 180+ chances at 2b for the year. Lacy would thus give up 36+ more hits than Ferris and make 23 fewer errors. But the double plays Ferris turns would dwarf Lacy's.

It's a little hard to interped, but it'll give you the "which is better" answer:

[url]http://www.baseballthinkfactory.org/btf/pages/basesim/stratfldg.htm[/url]

Johnny don't forget that defense in SOM is a cumulative process. the more 1's you have the better your D will be on a collective basis. To think just in terms of one psition or one player's e rating (errors) and range factor(1,2,3,4), is limiting to the overall concept of great team defense.
Many ATG managers will not field a team without a 1 at 2b, ss, and cf, many managers will not have any 3's in their lineup anywhere. Combined with awesone SP which is easy to find, defense and team speed, make up most of the sucessful small ball teams out there. I like to add lots of power to my teams, give up some d and some pitching to have no automatic outs in my lineups. If you can't fill out a lineup vs lhp and rhp with 7-8 great bats, then you can platoon your way to the promised land with one or two positions split. It all comes down to how much give and take between pitching, defense, and offense. But don't settle for two poor batters in your lineup ever. Also look at as many championship teams to see how they did it, especially the non star players they used to get there.

Thanks!