Worst strat throwing arm ever

It seems that arm strength is one of the most -- if not the most -- subjective thing to rank in this game.

In real life, a player with decent arm strength who consistently hits the cutoff man and throws to the right place is worth more than someone with a monster arm who keeps trying to show it off by throwing the ball all over the park.

On plays at home plate when the ball comes from deep in the outfield, it is usually a matter of hitting the cutoff man and having him make a strong and accurate throw home. Not sure how you factor a good cutoff man into the arm rating for an outfielder.

An excellent point. If strat really wanted to go for realistic sim they would have some mechanism for determining if OFer hit cutoff man and they would have some type rating of infielders ratings for arm strength completing that relay. Gotta believe as an OFer whether I hit the cutoff man or fling it all the way depends not only on my own arm strength but has to be a little influenced by my confidence in that cutoff man to make a strong relay.

After watching a lot of Giants' games in recent years, I would say that their SS Brandon Crawford is very good at that play, gets rid of the ball quickly and makes great throws. Just one of the little things that can win you a couple games over the course of a season, but would be difficult for Strat to rate.

Maybe it helps out Angel Pagan's arm ranking.

I'm in a theme league where I'm using a backup 1B / LF named Jim Beauchamp for the first time (Mets 1972, .52M).

His defensive line in LF is: 4(+5)e25.

I guess there may be worse defensive OF in SOM, but that's bad enough for government work.

I'm not sure I've seen a worse arm than +5 on any OF.

Danielz pointed out Hank Greenberg's left field +5 arm from 1940. Frankly I think that could be a travesty, as he had 14 OF assists that year according to baseball reference. He was just a left fielder that year, as the team had Rudy York playing first every day. Baseball ref doesn't even list any first base results for Greenberg in 1940, and yet his card for that season is rated there and makes him a safer play there than his regular position. He was MVP that year, and I could have sworn I once heard it said that he played left well that MVP year. Makes one wonder whether arm was assigned appropriately.

How well do you know your SOM Baseball Cards?

Question 1
Which Catcher or Catchers has had the worse throwing arm rating in the history of the game? Give the name of the catcher, the year he played and team and what was his terrible throwing arm rating. To win this question you must name all of the catchers who held this dishonorable distinction - even if its the same player in different years.

Eric Wedge, 1992 Boston Redsox, +5 throwing arm
Pedro Feliz, 2007 San Francisco Giants, +5 throwing arm
Carlton Fisk, 1979 Boston Red Sox, +5 throwing arm

source: http://www.ultimatestratbaseball.com/us ... il2013.htm

I remember the Fisk card. Absolutely made the 79 Sox a bad strato team

Thanks for sharing the link. Couldn't help noticing the picture of the Fisk card, most notably the writing at the bottom. Reminded me of the old days. First thing I always did when I got a new set was sit down with paper and pencil, calculate the BA, OBP, and SLG for each side of the card and wrote the resulting slash line on the card for easy reference. Was so excited when mom bought me my first calculator. Realize now I never thanked her properly because those things were expensive in those days. One of my regrets of life.

Danielz pointed out Hank Greenberg's left field +5 arm from 1940. Frankly I think that could be a travesty, as he had 14 OF assists that year according to baseball reference. He was just a left fielder that year, as the team had Rudy York playing first every day. Baseball ref doesn't even list any first base results for Greenberg in 1940, and yet his card for that season is rated there and makes him a safer play there than his regular position. He was MVP that year, and I could have sworn I once heard it said that he played left well that MVP year. Makes one wonder whether arm was assigned appropriately.

Rating Greenberg as a 1B dates back to earlier times--maybe ATG3? Nobody was using Greenberg because of that +5 arm, and there were far fewer top players in those days. All players in the set were then derived from SOM's selection of pre-made "All Time Great" teams, such as the 1940 Tigers. So a pragmatic command decision was made (by good old Bernie) to rate Greenberg at his old position of 1b too, so the card would be usable. And the rest is history.

Thanks for bringing up Greenberg's 14 assists in '40. I checked baseball-ref and Hank actually led all outfielders in assists. It's hard to figure where that +5 comes from.

One of my most painful strat memories in a face to face league involved getting swept by my cousin in a 3 game series in which he had to use a +5 arm catcher due to injuries. Murphy's law being what it is, I returned the favor in the last 3 game series of our regular season to make the playoffs--this time he had his -2 arm catcher!