Strat-O-Matic Baseball 365

I have a basic question about reading pitcher cards, and how they relate to defenders best suited for various types of pitchers.

It seems every pitcher card has 20 GB-X, 7 FB-X and 3 C-X roll chances for a total of 30, that are referred to the defensive rating chart. And then there are roughly 45 to 65 roll chances that are outs, but highly variable in their distribution for each individual pitcher. A typical one may get 55 outs from 12 strikeouts, 18 ground balls, 20 fly balls, 3 pop ups and 2 line outs, while extreme cases - like Urban Shocker may get 3 strikeouts, 8 ground balls, 14 fly balls, 14 pop ups and 19 line outs, or Pedro Martinez at 67 strikeouts, 0 ground balls, 3 fly balls and 0 pop ups and 1 line out - get their "quota" of outs in very different ways.

My question is this - Does defense come into play on these type of dice rolls? (other than OF throwing arm for fly B?) My natural inclination would be to assume I wouldn't need as much defense behind a strikeout pitcher like Pedro or Randy Johnson, but IF defense is more important behind a ground ball pitcher and OF defense behind a fly ball pitcher. But is that really true, or does defensive range and errors only come into play on the 30 X-roll chances every pitcher has?

Thanks in advance for answering this question I've been wondering about for several weeks.

the short answer is yes, defense matters regardless of the pitcher.

you have to remember that roughly 50% of the rolls will come off of the hitters cards. there used to be a hyperlink on each players card that told you what the letters and punctuation marks meant. the letters are level of difficulty of the play. the worse the defender the less likely they are going to be able to make the play. the punctuation marks mean different things as well. for instance a # mean it is a ballpark home run, a < mean a ball park single and a # is clutch (if it falls on any sort of out it converts it to a single when men are in scoring position and if falls on a hit it turns in to an out). these are decided by the ball park ratings of the ball park you are playing that game in.

hope that helps a little.

-steven

My (admittedly incomplete) understanding is that defense DOES come into play on some rolls other than the X rolls.
Specifically, on fly balls (say fly B?) the arm and error rating of the outfielder will come into play. For example, Mickey Stanley 1(-2)e0 will never make a throwing error, but Ty Cobb 1(-1)e9 has a decent chance of making one, and Earl Combs 1(+3)e10 not only had a higher chance for a throwing error, but most runners will try his arm.

I'm not so sure, but I don't think that the infielder's error rating plays much except on X rolls. Their range does come into effect on GBA's when the runner is held. I also believe their ratings come into play on bunts/squeeze plays as well as hit and run situations.

Catcher T ratings can be huge, so do not ignore it when you are looking for defense.
There are a disproportionate number of throwing errors compared to the e rating of a catcher. A 2(-2)e8 t17 catcher -(Yogi Berra) will likely have many more errors than a 4(0)e3 t4 catcher - (Gene Tennace) especially if there are running teams in your division. Cookie Rojas would make an interesting study (although I do not suggest you try it) with 4(+5)e18 t0....but a PB rating of 20. He would get run on all the time, give up tons of SB even to slow teams, but have no throwing errors.

Another area of defense I found surprising at first is the large number of errors made by the pitching staff.

Perhaps someone else has more insight, but that reflects my understanding.

I'm pretty sure X rolls are the only ones where defensive (range / error) ratings come into play. But 30 chances out of 108 is a big factor to consider when building a team. So don't assume that defense doesn't matter since all pitchers have the same number of X chances. All other things being equal (which they rarely are) I'd say pick a pitcher with more A+ ground balls, which at least give you a shot at the great eraser - the double play - and more C fly balls, which don't score a runner from third (B) or move all runners up a base (A).

Defense does not matter with respect to pitcher's cards.

but IF defense is more important behind a ground ball pitcher and OF defense behind a fly ball pitcher.

Every pitcher will give up the same number of ground balls to shortstop. So you gain nothing by putting say an Ozzie Smith behind a ground ball pitcher. It would be better to have a 1 at SS than a 4 rated guy. But that 1 at SS will give you no better help with a ground ball pitcher than he does with a fly ball pitcher. Regardless of the pitcher the shortstop fielding chart will be referred to the same number of times.

My natural inclination would be to assume I wouldn't need as much defense behind a strikeout pitcher like Pedro or Randy Johnson

In real life you might be correct. But not in strat. Even Nolan Ryan will elicit the same number of rolls calling for the fielding charts as any other pitcher.

Bottom line. Pick you pitchers based on the non X-roll entries and pick your defense with no consideration for who is on your pitching staff.

I am saying defense is unimportant. I am saying it is independent of pitcher's card makeup.

when i read the post topic, i thought it would be about the pitcher's error rating. i've tried a staff of all 1's @ pitcher and they don't seem to win any better as a team. so the question would be, how much does strat factor a pitcher's fielding rating, into the makeup of the pitcher's card? and are there added on base rolls to compensate for the 1 fielding rating?

Defense for a pitcher is factored into the price of the card. Pricing assumes a constant result for all X rolls from the pitchers card when pricing pitchers (i.e. this is not a variable in the pricing model) with the exception of the pitcher X chance, because only the pitcher will ever field his own pitcher X chances.

Who is childsmwc, and how does he know how the cards get priced? All due respect but I'd like to know if he's someone who "thinks" he knows, or really does know (or is part of the process)...Because part of the problem on the boards (without giving specifics) is misinformation passed on..and on..until it's believed (in error) it's fact....We really need the rules we "pay" under to be posted and clear.

I second what nevdully just said. It is especially critical since most of what I know about the "rules" of how the game works I "know" from what I have read posted on the boards.

Well Nev I can not speak to all of the rules we play under since I am a user of the game just like you. However, as far as pricing the cards go I went by the name of Bbrool in a prior life so I am intimately familiar with the inputs which go into pricing the cards.