Ballpark Diamonds / Clutch Rating

Can someone provide me with a clear, lucid explanation (or refer me to an information source) for BALLPARK DIAMONDS and CLUTCH RATING?

I'd like to be able to incorporate these into my drafting strategy, but I don't understand how they work. I have the dataset ($) from Strat-o-Matic which includes these ratings, but I'm not sure exactly how they work.

Thanks very much!

Ballpark Effects

The particular ballpark that a given game is being played in has a significant effect on the game. Certain line drives fall in for singles more often in some ballparks than others. Certain deep fly balls are homeruns in some ballparks, and caught at the track in others.

Ballpark single chances Whenever a play reading has a > next to it, it is a chance for a ballpark single. A 20-sided die is rolled, and if it is less than or equal to the ballpark's single rating (for the corresponding handedness of the batter), it is a single. If it's greater, it's an out.

Ballpark homerun chances Whenever a play reading has a # next to it, it is a chance for a ballpark homerun. A 20-sided die is rolled, and if it is less than or equal to the ballpark's homerun rating (for the corresponding handedness of the batter), it is a homerun. If it's greater, it's a deep flyout.

Relatedly, some players' card probabilities are more affected by their ballpark than others, i.e. they have more results taken over by ballpark SI/HR chances. This element of the game's design allows a player whose real-life homerun totals were lowered by playing in an extreme pitcher's park to hit more homeruns in more hitter-friendly settings, and vice versa.


From the Strat WiKi page

(30.7) CLUTCH HITTING ($): Ignore this symbol - and accept the original result - unless there are two out with at least one runner at second or third base. But when this clutch-hitting situation exists and the batter's dice roll yields a result with a (horseshoe) to the left of it, handle the results this way:

If the original reading is any type of out, make it a SINGLE** (all other runners advance two bases) instead.

If the original reading is a SINGLE, make it a popout instead

http://somonline.wikia.com/wiki/Strat-O ... Game_Rules

In general, however, I would say that clutch means VERY little. In the league I'm in currently playing game 106 tonight, clutch has come into play an average of 9.7 times per team all year. The low was 4, and the high was 20.

For comparison, on my team, ballpark effects have come into play 471 times. (324 potential BP-SI and 147 potential BP-HRs and my team is an extreme pitcher's park team with VERY few BP-HRs in play on my cards, so I'm near the league low there)

The two aren't even on the same planet as far as importance. I guess I wouldn't want a team absolutely filled with super high negative clutch guys. I never take it into account when picking players, and the data I have seen makes me comfortable with that strategy.