Strategy Forum/Newbie Advice thread

alright I have searched high and low but can't quite figure out the mechanics of clutch hitting. is there an indicator on the player card as to how clutch he is? I know the dollar sign indicates a clutch hit/pop out but what determines the outcome? I have a feeling i'm missing a big part of lineup building and its about to get my manager fired. thanks for the help.

Clutch hitting comes into effect with a runner on second and/or third with two outs. Score and inning have no bearing.

When clutch hitting is in effect, SINGLE$'s become outs and out$'s become SINGLE**.

thanks. I had read that but couldn't quite relate it. problem was everybody I looked at was not clutch, so I didn't see both sides of the coin. the key to unlocking the mystery was in the misc sim stats. there I could see the effects of clutch, and find clutch players to compare to. I made some lineup adjustments to get my only 2 clutch players in the 4/5 slots.
puig has been killing me. 6 missed hits already in the 1st 1/4 of the season.

help me figure out the defensive side of things. errors and arm strength are easy to understand. I can't find anywhere how range effects things. it seems like it should. someone please answer how it factors in to things.

help me figure out the defensive side of things. errors and arm strength are easy to understand. I can't find anywhere how range effects things. it seems like it should. someone please answer how it factors in to things.

Sorry I didn't get back to you sooner. There's a fielding chart table on this web page:

http://somonline.wikia.com/wiki/Charts

but I can summarize it quickly:

Infielders -
Range/Chance for a base hit
1 / 0%
2 /10%
3 / 20%
4 / 30%
5 / 40%

Outfielders
1 / 0%
2 / 15%
3 / 30%
4 / 55%
5 / 75%

For outfielders, the chances of doubles and triples increase as the range rating increases. For infielders, the base hits are singles only. However, for both infielders and outfielders, the chance of the existing base runners taking an extra base also increases as the range rating increases (per the fielding chart only, not an optional extra base).

For infielders, the chance of obtaining a double play ground ball is higher with a lower range rating.

cummings2 saved these from the original SN forums (pre July, 2005):

saber stuff from old forums

Catcher Defense (from old forums)

Run differential (pythagorean) no longer matters?

Arm/Range studies

Run differential (pythagorean) no longer matters?

Palmtana, I read through this link, but I'm not sure I agree with everything I read on the catcher arm, passed balls and wild pitches. I just want to post my "notice of rebuttal" for now. I want to confirm my understanding of the online game directly with strat. I also want to do some more reading. Once I've done that, I want to post my own understanding of how the online game works with respect to catchers arms, passed balls, and wild pitchers. In my experience, catchers like Yadier Molina have a larger effect than the posts seemed to imply. More later from me on this./Geoff

Arm/Range studies

Re my previous post, this is the link that I meant to quote, re arm/range studies for catchers and outfielders.

The overall conclusions from the simulations mentioned in this thread is that the arm/range effects are not that large, in terms of runs allowed.

My argument is more empirical/andecdotal. For now, I'm just looking at my actual gaming experiences where my main catcher had an arm of -2 or better.

I'm a bit of a late convert to the value of a strong catcher arm. I've only had 10 teams in 200X (not including keeper or theme leagues) that had a catcher arm of -2 or better. But those teams have significantly out-performed my overall teams for those leagues. For the 10 teams with catcher arms of -2 or better, they've averaged 89 wins, they made the playoffs 8 out of 10 times, and won the championship 3 times. One of those 8 playoffs was in a 24 team league, back when only the division winners made the playoffs. 3 of these teams had Y.Molina at -4 (in 3 separate card years!), 3 of them had -3 catcher arms, and 4 of them had -2 catcher arms.

I'm doing some experiments with the value of arms, and baserunning. So far, my thinking is that they are more valuable than previously thought. I'm going to keep working on this. If I come up with a coherent theory on the value, I'll share it on this board. I know gamers like DeanTSC have published run production theories that incorporate this, as have other gamers here at strat. Most of what I've heard so far seems to suggest that the value isn't that high.

Keep in mind that those 10 teams that I've had were all in salary cap leagues, 200X, with no themes or keepers. They were all very competitive leagues. So 89 wins and an 80% playoff rate has got me thinking that the value of the "super" catcher arm may be greater than the related salary cost. If I can come up with some ideas that are solid, I'll post them here.

I look forward to what you come up with, gb. All my recent teams (I only run two at a time) have catchers with -3 arms. (Call me a believer!) I think it makes a difference, but with such a small sample set, my recent success is only anecdotal.