Archive of SportingNews.com's old SOM Baseball forum

This is probably a very basic question, but I looked at teh how to read a stratomatic card section on the players cards and can't find my answer:

ON a catcher's card, what is the T rating and how does it affect gameplay?

Additionally, catchers have supplemental ratings, e.g. "T-7(pb-5)". The "T" number means that the catcher has a 1-7 chance out of 20 to commit a throwing error when there is a throwing error chance (throwing error chances occur on 15% of all steal attempts). The "pb" number means that the catcher has a 1-5 chance out of 20 to allow a passed ball when there is a passed ball chance (passed ball chances occur 2.5% of the time when runners are on base).

Thanks. Do any of you have slek imposed guidels as to what an acceptable T score is?
Or catcher ratings period? I have mickey cochrane (arm -3) in an atgIII league, andthrough the first week he led teh league in steals allowed. I know this hurts me, specially since I ma playing a small ball park, so I majust looiing for any advice you guys can offer.

That's supposed to read self-imposed guidelines above.

A catchers arm is only half the equation. The pitcher's hold rating is the other half. If you have a bunch of SP with +2 or worse hold ratings that could be why. Otherwise I would think your opponents would be conservative in SB attempts against a -3 catcher.

Thanks for the info. Clearly, I will have to look more carefully at my pitchers ratings in the future. How often do pick offs happen in the game (with a runner on at first , for example). I havent' seen any in the box scores, but then again, I don't always look that closely.

Every time a baserunner goes for a lead, there's a 5% chance of a possible pickoff. Whether the pickoff then happens depends on the runner's second stealing number. For instance, if he is (15-12), his second number is 12 and he thus has a 60% chance (12 * 5%) of making it back successfully. If he were (13-6), his second number would be 6 and his chance of making it back would be only 30% (6 * 5%). etc.

I thought the second number was the runners chance if he tried to steal w/o a good lead. Where is that number?

You're correct; it serves that purpose as well. (Of course, on the steal, the number has to be adjusted for the catcher's arm, the pitcher's hold and whether the runner is held on.)