Bunting, H&R, Stealing Questions

[TXBuddy]

Can anyone explain exactly what checking the "Bunt More", "Steal More" & "Hit & Run More" boxes do? For instance Alex Cora is a: stealing-(B) *5,6/- (18-12)
By checking the "Steal More" box does he attempt to get a lead more often or try to steal with less of a chance of making it? Thanks in advance for any help... :lol:

[LMBombers]

I can't tell you exactly how the "steal more" works but I'll tell you how I would have my settings for Cora.

I would select steal more on his card and then control the overall team tendancy to steal by putting the Base Stealing setting of the Manager's Settings to Conservative unless I had a series with favorable matchups of C arm plus SP hold ratings. If this combo is +2 or more for at least 2 of the games I change the Manager's Setting to Normal on Base Stealing.

Like I said I can't tell you how it works but that is how I manage base stealing.

[Mean Dean]

I don't know the answer for sure either. The impression I've gotten is that conservative/normal/aggressive controls the success rate at which you'll try, while "steal more" controls the chance that, given that success rate, you'll try to go. For this reason, I always leave the tendency at "conservative" -- I never want to steal at [i:efcf9bbfc1]bad[/i:efcf9bbfc1] success rates -- and set individual basestealers to "steal more." This has always given me great SB%, and if the team has several basestealers, good SB totals as well. For instance, in 72 games, one of my current teams is 79-for-92 stealing (81%).

[cummings2]

From my understanding and limited experience I agree with Dean's oppinion above. I usually see it as the settings: Normal, Aggressive, etc... as setting the "threshold" and the the individual setting as being a "subordinate" to the general. -I know Dean described it much better than me :D -BTW I usually run with either conservative + do more of, like Dean or with normal + do more of.-

The question for me sometimes is what parameters are adjusted through those settings, for example, if I say steal conservative and more in the individual card, just what exactly am I telling HAL? Afterall I am assuming that HAL does not try to get a lead with all runners (this comes from playing nthe CD only) so the first thing that comes to mind is that the general tendency setting affects HAL's wanting to get the lead (remembering that if the runner gets the lead he must commit), therefore is the conservative/normal/aggressive mostly influenced by the overall chances of stealing a base (with or without a lead), by the greater chances of getting a safe lead, or by the greater chance of stealing [u:d05e8f7136]with[/u:d05e8f7136] a lead? From my limited observation it is a combination of the last two that I mentioned: Greater chances of getting lead and greater safe chanecs with lead. My feeling, but it's just a [i:d05e8f7136]feeling[/i:d05e8f7136] is that the settings (normal,etc) affect the threshold for those two factors.

I am glad this came up because I've been meaning to ask Dean a Q about stealing settings:

Dean, in another thread you refered to the "Do Not Steal" setting as "Do not steal [u:d05e8f7136][b:d05e8f7136][i:d05e8f7136]w/o lead[/i:d05e8f7136][/b:d05e8f7136][/u:d05e8f7136]" Is that what that setting is? Or is it do not steal, period?

[Mean Dean]

What the CD game says is "don't steal if held." If set, that does mean that a * runner should never be picked off, since they can only get picked off when going for the lead, and a * runner gets the lead automatically if not held. However, it doesn't prevent a * runner from getting caught stealing, since they would still be allowed to attempt a steal, as long as they were not held. And it wouldn't prevent a non-* runner from either getting picked off or getting caught stealing. Plus of course, there can be caught stealings on H&R attempts too.

Although of course one couldn't say for sure without being a programmer and reading the TSN code, I think it's safe to assume that TSN has not changed anything involving actual gameplay (other than increasing reliever fatigue penalties), and thus that the description of that setting as "don't steal" is not quite the full story.

[cummings2]

"Don't steal if held"

That's it. Thanks Dean. Subtle semmantical difference but quite substantial in game play IMO.

Thnx again. 8)

[durantjerry]

I just started a speed team on a pace for about 450 steals, so I have really been interested in the baserunning, as I usually go conservative or less and don't use steal more. From watching my results closely, it seems to mean exactly what it says, that those guys with the box checked attempt more steals. To me this means they go more often even when they don't get their lead. I think the key to whether or not you want to check this box is the runners steal rating when they don't get the big lead. My top guys like Figgens, Pods, W Harris, Pierre and Bruntlett, who all have a "15" on their bad lead are a combined 50-15 with the base stealing on stting on normal or aggressive for every game. I would assume the H & R and the bunting work the same way. That is, it is used more often with the selected guys in less than the optimum situation based on yoursetting. In my experience with H & R, it is rarely used to a acceptable percentage on anything less than a "conservative setting". Checking the box with speed in front of a "B" rated guy(who would become an "A") may insure that the H & R is used when the guy bats, where the "conservative" setting by itself might discourage the "A" rated player always doing the H & R. That is just my feeling having done a few teams over the years where I tried to make the H & R a part of my offense.

[durantjerry]

To add some more, I think it is an inexact science and dependent on what your settings are. As with my steal example, a team using "extra conservative" may want someone like Abreu to steal more even with his "13" second rating just to override the extra conservative team constraint due to the setting. For all we know, there may be a 95% success chance before a steal is attempted on "extra conservative", but Abreu may often see a 75%-80% chance of success and you want him to take it. I just made up those %'s to emphasize my point that I think the setting has a lot to do with it.