Worst strat throwing arm ever

Having mellowed a lot in my old age I am inclined to give Chance a pass on the +5 catcher arm since he was not primarily a catcher. Can anyone remember some players where catcher was the primary position and still got the +5?

Strat tends to give anyone who played a position sparingly a bad rating. So be interesting to see if anyone remembers a catcher who logged at least 80-100 games behind the plate and got the old +5 vote of no confidence.

Rod Barajas in the 2012 set was a 3(+4)e7

http://onlinegames.strat-o-matic.com/player/51/2012/1/2012

Boudreau is a +5 arm at catcher as well. I find it hard to believe that a tremendous defensive shortstop really had that weak of an arm. Of course maybe he was just terrible at throwing the ball from behind the plate. Also outfield assists can be misleading in terms of how good a guys arm is. If they have a lot it typically means that guys run on them all the time because they have a weak arm. The rocket arms don't get a lot of chances to throw guys out because runners get the red light.

Outfielder assists are overrated....Ichiro and Clemente and Colavito have powerful arms...and runners will exercise caution when trying to run against them...But the Billy Hamilton / Johnson arm would generate a lot of runners to gamble on his arm...so if he can throw out 10 to 15% of the runners who try to advance it can fool you into thinking he should have a more powerful arm...the true test would be to evaluate arms on how many runners attempted to advance and how many did they toss out,,,,,,,,,,,,Boudreau is another story only appered in 1 game as a catcher in the year he was carded (and only 1 game in '43 and '44 for a grand total of 3 games behind the plate)...should be removed just like Wilcy Moore's starting rating was removed a few years back...just saying

1916 John Henry 1(+5)e7

He played 116 games behind the plate. He threw out 73 runners of the 190 who attempted.

In the 1970's strat came out with a HOF card set (basic rules only) and our neighborhood played several leagues based on the cards. The cards got so worn out that we had to hand-copy them onto 3X5 cards like monks in the middle ages. Of course we didn't need to look at the cards anyway unless we rolled a 2-12.
(Lou Gehrig....3-7.... homerun 1, double 2-20)

Lou Boudreau was SS-1, C-4 (no throwing arm on those cards). He was only used at catcher.

I think the +5 arm was meant to discourage us from using him as a catcher when we graduated to the advanced version.

BTW, I think Ben Revere has a chance at the +5 this year.

In 2011 Johnny Damon was a 5(+4) and in 2010 Chris Carter was a 4(+4) (both in leftfield -- can't imagine anyone using Damon at catcher).

Boudreau is another story only appered in 1 game as a catcher in the year he was carded (and only 1 game in '43 and '44 for a grand total of 3 games behind the plate)...should be removed just like Wilcy Moore's starting rating was removed a few years back...just saying

Agree, I would use that Boudreau card a lot if not for that catcher rating that is useless and erases the bullet proof value of having just 2 catchers.

.the true test would be to evaluate arms on how many runners attempted to advance and how many did they toss out

I agree on this too. Problem is I doubt this information was readily available at the time Strat made up the cards and ratings for early baseball seasons. And strat has shown a lot of resistance to changing a card once it is created, printed, and released.

I do wonder though given all the information that is now available how much of it is actually used in creating the fielding ratings for the 200x seasons. I am not suggesting Strat publish their actual formulas. But wouldn't it be fascinating if someone from the game company came on the boards occasionally and discussed such things? Even if all they did was say we use zone ratings but do not use this other saber stat. Even better if they shared why they trusted one stat over another.

This also brings up another thought. The media is all over some saber stats like WAR but I rarely hear them talk about most of the fielding stats. Be cool if they would discuss which OFers got challenged the most and which ones got challenged the least. Are league wide tables available on any sites with such information that we might be able to sort and stuff for discussion here?

Boudreau is a +5 arm at catcher as well. I find it hard to believe that a tremendous defensive shortstop really had that weak of an arm. Of course maybe he was just terrible at throwing the ball from behind the plate. Also outfield assists can be misleading in terms of how good a guys arm is. If they have a lot it typically means that guys run on them all the time because they have a weak arm. The rocket arms don't get a lot of chances to throw guys out because runners get the red light.

I'm inclined to believe the reason for the +5 (as with Chance) is to prevent people from using him at catcher.

The 1940 Greenberg is a +5 in LF