Strat-O-Matic Baseball 365

I only play the mystery format, so I don't know about other formats, but in the Mystery games, 9th inning baserunning is horrible and needs to be fixed. I know that occasionally, a runner will make a mistake, but far too often HAL sends a runner into a meaningless out in the 9th inning. For example, in tonight's games, twice, I was trailing by 2 runs and the runner on second was tagged out at home trying to score a meaningless run that would not tie or win the game. In the majors, it is very rare to a team trailing 4-2 in the 9th send a runner home on a close play to make the score 4-3. Obviously, hold the runner at 3rd because the 3rd run is meaningless. This needs to be fixed.

Agree

bumping this one. I don't think this has been fixed. Progress was made on the multi-player substitutions but we still sometimes see some crazy substitutions where players get excessively shuffled around. Overall, its a great baseball simulation but the 9th inning base-running drives me crazy - I "watch" a lot of the SOM games and I don't believe the computer makes adjustments for late inning base-running decisions. If you're in the bottom of the 9th inning, and it isn't the tying or winning run - don't send the runner on a close play!

Not only late inning situations but also all run scoring situations. How many times have you seen a runner get to second base in scoring position and then get thrown out trying to go to third, or get thrown out trying to steal third, or get thrown out going from second to home with less than two out? I understand that some people are setting their baserunning and/or basestealing to aggressive but I always set it on extra conservative but keep getting guys erased on the basepaths.

9th inning base running is an issue in all leagues--essentially HAL treats 9th inning as any other inning. (also extra innings)

If you go with aggressive running, as I usually do with a fast team, you just have to live with the fact the HAL does not know what a meaningless run is.

Not directly related to this problem, but in real life there are plenty of doubles that easily score a runner from first. However, in SOM this is rare (a few X chart chances to lesser outfielders).

I tried pointing out to SOM the fallacy of this. A fleet base runner hits a triple that scores a slug base runner from first no problem. However, if a slow batter hits the ball to the exact location the first hitter did, he'll stop at second and the runner on first has to take his chances to score. Why? The speed of the batter (obviously) does not--or at least should not--affect the speed of the base runner.

If there were more doubles that automatically cleared the bases, it would at lease eliminate a few of these base running faux pas.

In addition to X chances, you can score from first on an open double, IE a double hit to lf, cf or rf. If it is a double** then the runner will hold up at third. If its a double(lf) for instance, the runner will go using running speed + left fielders arm. Hal will decide to send him or not based upon your baserunning stategy.

Eddie E wrote:In addition to X chances, you can score from first on an open double, IE a double hit to lf, cf or rf. If it is a double** then the runner will hold up at third. If its a double(lf) for instance, the runner will go using running speed + left fielders arm. Hal will decide to send him or not based upon your baserunning stategy.

Yes, of course you can score from first on a double, but only on the rare X chart chance is it automatic without a chance of being thrown out. In real life, there are plenty of times a double clears the bases with 100 percent chance of success and this is not reflected in SOM which almost always has some chance of failure.

I guess I didnt understand what you were saying. In my opinion, in real life, it is never automatic scoring from first on a double. I dont even know if there is a site that tracks how many times a major leaguer scored from first on a double but I would guess that it happens equally or more often in Strat. Primarily because we are using the top 40% of the players and our teams are filled with really good players unlike major league baseball. We have 12 teams filled with 30 teams of players.

Eddie E wrote:I guess I didnt understand what you were saying. In my opinion, in real life, it is never automatic scoring from first on a double. I dont even know if there is a site that tracks how many times a major leaguer scored from first on a double but I would guess that it happens equally or more often in Strat. Primarily because we are using the top 40% of the players and our teams are filled with really good players unlike major league baseball. We have 12 teams filled with 30 teams of players.

Okay, if it's never automatic, why is it automatic to score from first on a triple? The difference between a double that clears the bases and a triple is dependent on the speed of the hitter. The speed of the hitter should not influence whether a runner on first should be able to (automatically) score on an extra-base hit.