OF Arms
Posted: Fri Jul 07, 2023 5:20 pm
So based on a recent thread exploring catchers' arms, I decided it was time to revisit and challenge some of my constant values for arm strength I use when pricing. The following are some of the key historical assumptions that I was making when valuing arm strength:
1) CF is the most important position for OF arms since that is where plays default if the card does not distinguish a fielder (i.e. CF'ers get more chances to use their arm than LF and RF).
2) Similar to catchers I would expect that the primary impact of a good arm is that it prevents runners from even attempting to take an extra base (in addition to reducing the safe chances).
After a recent examination of a couple of leagues I believe some of those assumptions to be incorrect. I now believe the following to be true:
1) RF is the most important position for the arm (or possibly equal to CF in importance). What I found in my research was that players such as Suzuki routinely get 20 assists a season, which on the surface does not make sense, because I would expect very few players attempting an extra base on an arm this strong. In fact if you look at equivalent CF seasons such as Mays, you will find that they are averaging close to 10 assists per season and it isn't until you get to the -3 arms in center that you see assist numbers go up because runners actually are attempting to take extra bases on the CF arm. So why doesn't RF follow this same mechanic?
I believe it to be the option for runners to take 3B on singles. If the hit is to RF the RF'er's throwing rating is with a +2 penalty. So now with Suzuki's arm now at -3, the CF corollary applies and that runners will attempt the extra base at this arm strength, which allows Suzuki to produce assist numbers equivalent to CF'er's with -3 arms.
So while my original hypothesis was that CF'er get more arm throwing chances, I now believe that due to the 1st to 3rd running option RF'ers get the same number of throwing chances as CF'ers and becuase of the +2 penalty runners will go on them much more than strong CF arms.
The flip of this is also true for LF'ers. They see the fewest throwing opportunities because they get a -2 on that 1st to 3rd runner. So its not until we get down to -1 arms in LF that we see larger assist numbers, and therefore you can get away with a much worse arm in LF.
I have always valued RF/LF arms equivalent, but I think I am going to make CF/RF arms equal with a drop off for the same arm in LF.
Have I reached an incorrect conclusion based on limited data? Give me your thoughts.
1) CF is the most important position for OF arms since that is where plays default if the card does not distinguish a fielder (i.e. CF'ers get more chances to use their arm than LF and RF).
2) Similar to catchers I would expect that the primary impact of a good arm is that it prevents runners from even attempting to take an extra base (in addition to reducing the safe chances).
After a recent examination of a couple of leagues I believe some of those assumptions to be incorrect. I now believe the following to be true:
1) RF is the most important position for the arm (or possibly equal to CF in importance). What I found in my research was that players such as Suzuki routinely get 20 assists a season, which on the surface does not make sense, because I would expect very few players attempting an extra base on an arm this strong. In fact if you look at equivalent CF seasons such as Mays, you will find that they are averaging close to 10 assists per season and it isn't until you get to the -3 arms in center that you see assist numbers go up because runners actually are attempting to take extra bases on the CF arm. So why doesn't RF follow this same mechanic?
I believe it to be the option for runners to take 3B on singles. If the hit is to RF the RF'er's throwing rating is with a +2 penalty. So now with Suzuki's arm now at -3, the CF corollary applies and that runners will attempt the extra base at this arm strength, which allows Suzuki to produce assist numbers equivalent to CF'er's with -3 arms.
So while my original hypothesis was that CF'er get more arm throwing chances, I now believe that due to the 1st to 3rd running option RF'ers get the same number of throwing chances as CF'ers and becuase of the +2 penalty runners will go on them much more than strong CF arms.
The flip of this is also true for LF'ers. They see the fewest throwing opportunities because they get a -2 on that 1st to 3rd runner. So its not until we get down to -1 arms in LF that we see larger assist numbers, and therefore you can get away with a much worse arm in LF.
I have always valued RF/LF arms equivalent, but I think I am going to make CF/RF arms equal with a drop off for the same arm in LF.
Have I reached an incorrect conclusion based on limited data? Give me your thoughts.