Archive of SportingNews.com's old SOM Baseball forum

Not super-experienced in Strat... first team was in ATG4. I used Bobby Bonds for the first time on a team recently and was struck by something that I usually don't see. I rarely see players meet their BA, OBP and SLG, and have come to expect that. On the flip side, it usually isn't unreasonable to expect a player's HR numbers to meet or exceed the # on the card.

On the previously mentioned team, [b:1b4e9c56b9]every[/b:1b4e9c56b9] starter had more HRs than his card except for Bonds, and it wasn't even close. He has 39 on his card and w/6 games left he has just 24 in 617 ABs. 2 of 4 parks in my division are ideal (home park is Wrigley '59) for RH HR hitters.

Not complaining, just want to know if there's something that is inherent in his card that others have experienced??? I rarely see him used am now wondering if his card consistently under-performs...? I never see Kirby Puckett or Dale Murphy used... is Bonds the 3rd leg of this disappointment tripod?

As a general rule mid-level power hitters tend to under homer in strat. I am thinking Bobby, Barfield, and a few others. Once you go to the next higher tier they seem to over homer and more closely approach what you expect from looking at their card.

I just went back through some of my teams and have found quite a few
mid-range HR & price players that exceeded their HR numbers.

Joe Gordon
Joe Medwick
Wild Bill Wright
Rico Petrocelli
Graig Nettles
Dave Parker
Dave Winfield
Bob Horner
Ellis Valentine ($3 mill version)
Kiner ($6 mill version)

Some of these guys are really inexpensive while some creep into the mid $8 mill range. Bonds would fit right in the middle of this bunch and yet his HRs are way low. There has to be a reason why the guy is rarely used...

Bud two questions. Did you have to put those guys in bomber parks to get the numbers? Did their overall performance hold up. For example a 30 HR guy might hit 35 exceeding his HR total but have a BA 100 points lower than expected. That card has underperformed.

Also, were the teams you checked lower cap leagues or high cap leagues?

RH Hitters were in RH HR home parks, leftys in LH HR parks. Bonds is in a bomber park right now. I've only done 1 small ball team. Salary caps were $140, $100, $80, some all the way back to my ATG 4 teams and some teams that are still playing.

I mentioned in my first post that I don't expect players, even the most expensive ones, to match the stats on their cards. Seems like that is part of the game. But HR hitters in HR parks tend to get very close or many times exceed their HR numbers.

In this league, Bonds gets to face 4 teams that have 0 pitchers over $5 mill in value and 4 other teams that have 1 ace and then the remaining starters are $6 mill and lower.

Yet he has these anemic power #s. I was just trying to get a pulse from people as to whether or not this was standard operating procedure for Bonds or just a glitch.

You are in Wrigley59. One thing you do not mention is how has the balance of pitchers faced (L/R) gone. If I were in your league you would not so much look at my ace but rather at my lesser priced specialty pitchers. If I could fit them on my team I usually have an extra starter or 2 for just such parks. I make sure unless my lefties are real aces that I only throw righties when I visit your park, especially if you are loaded up on hitters like Bobby Bonds.

So look at his home/away stats. Significant difference?

Look at his L/R stats. What percentage of the time is he facing righties. Yes, I know Bobby is a 2R balance but that might not matter if he is facing a lot of hard righties. His numbers could still get depressed.

Of course as to whether what you see is generally typical you could just check diamonddope actuals. But I am trying to address what he has done this season on your team.

A little surprised I am the only one responding. A question like this would have drawn a dozen responders at one time. Not saying those on boards now are less helpful. I think it is because so many prolific posters have disappeared from the boards for various reasons.

Just checked DD, and Bonds has 44 hr per 700 pa. I'm also wondering if maybe he's just seeing a lot of righties.

I used Bonds recently, playing in Robison, and he still managed 15 homers in 302 at bats at home. Interestingly he had only 10 homers in 315 at bats on the road, in a division that included Dunn, Petco, and Hilltop. Clearly at Hilltop he faced nothing but righties.

His platoon splits were 6 hr/153 ab vs. LHP and 19 hr/464 ab vs. rhp, a fairly similar rate.

Though he only had 25 homers he didn't underperform relative to the team.

[quote:26a6a2cb10="Valen"]A little surprised I am the only one responding. A question like this would have drawn a dozen responders at one time. Not saying those on boards now are less helpful. I think it is because so many prolific posters have disappeared from the boards for various reasons.[/quote:26a6a2cb10]

Agreed. I appreciate your input but thought there'd be more opinions. Unfortunately it looks like the game is dying on the vine...

LHP 264 Abs 8 HRs .220 ba, .292 obp .402 slg
RHP 364 Abs 17 HRs .258, .337, .453

Home 311 17, .257, .339, .498
Road 317 8, .227, .298, .366

This is an $80 mill league. No teams can spend enough to have heavy R and L 'specialist' starting pitchers on their rosters. The only pitcher who is truly dominant in my league is Sutter (my main reliever) who with 3 games left is mvp and cy young of the league.

anytime you are using one season from a player, it really is a small sample size and subject to a great deal of variance from his actual numbers.