Joining the conservative baserunning club

Wow. Before a 12-game losing streak I was 22-10. There's no doubt I've been hit pretty hard with the injury bug. But, I also noticed that I'm leading this 2014 league with 15 failed extra base attempts! The runner up only has 10. These types of outs are killer. That "Normal" baserunning setting is bogus!

I always used to set my baserunning tendencies based on outfielder arms but learned from others that this isn't necessary.

I wish baserunning results made more of an impact on pitchers effectiveness. If you are a good team on the basepaths you should be somewhat rewarded by forcing the opposing pitcher into more stress innings - which also bumps up their pitch count. Maybe these baserunning results do somewhat make a small impact on the pitcher's "mindset" but it's not as evident when reading the play by play account.

I use "aggressive" base running much of the time with my small ball teams. What bothers me is runners trying to steal third base.

Agree I like aggressive base running with small ball teams but it des effect the fast runners who are not good base stealers. I then check steal less on them.

In the past, I was an advocate of the position that using "Agressive" base running was not a good strategic move unless your team was extremely fast. I have used "Agressive" and "Very Agressive" base stealing in the past with extremely fast teams who basically ran crazy, stealing 100's of bases(one stole 700+) with good to very good success rates. However, they ran so crazy that it would almost certainly be unsuccessful with an average team. I assumed that "aggressive" base running had the same or similar level of aggressiveness as "Agressive" base stealing, therefore it would not be a good strategic move for an average team. I think my assumption is logical, but that doesn't mean it is true. I have never really measured it or paid attention to it as WG did, but it would be an interesting experiment. My only additional comment is that I always(98%) go "Conservative" base running and "Extra Conservative" stealing, regardless of the league, park, OF arms, catcher arms, etc. and I am usually at the top or near the top in offense. I just finished up a 70's league where I led the league in offense in the Astrodome by 60 runs(95 Wins), which is pretty hard to do. My Astrodome team was Conservative/Very Conservative with regards to running/stealing.They did steal 88 bases, good for 7th in the league. However, they batted .300/.368/.475. Point being if your hitters are good you really don't want to be running around bases too much anyway and until someone can convince me that "Aggressive" base running is a lot different than "Aggressive" stealing, I am more than happy with the "Conservative" setting.
http://onlinegames.strat-o-matic.com/team/sim/1395106
Here are their base running stats(1st time I've ever looked at this):
It would be 83%+ success without Hebner & T Simmons who account for only 10 of the 112 "Safe's" and another 10 of the 33 "Outs", so maybe an individual control wouldn't be bad, as those are definitely two guys I would pick to stay put.
Opportunities=464(2.86/Game)
Attempts=145(31.25% of Opportunities)
Out=33(22.75% of Attempts)
Safe=112(77.24% of Attempts)
I can see where getting thrown out would be a problem, considering even with the "Conservative" setting and some slow runners, I'm still getting three(3) opportunities per game. I am quite interested in this new found(for me) stat. I think you may soon be seeing my all time team base running summary. Maybe one of you "Aggressive" guys can chip in some stats for comparison.

I would be more interested in stats for 20XX teams--or single season (1986) leagues---with ATG or large player pool sets, the arms are mostly all very good (catchers and OF) most pitchers with good hold ratings, so conservative settings is logical.

With most of my 20xx teams I get about a 75% to 80% steal rate with normal settings and the do not steal boxes checked on low steal players and steal more on 18/19 rated stealers (the 15-17 guys I leave blank generally). Also the get lead numbers matter---a 2/- (20-6) guy I check do not steal--he will get picked off more than he gets the 1/36 chance of a good lead.

Usually I'm around 80-100 SB---If you go Aggressive stealing there are too many outs trying to steal 3rd for me--even at normal settings 3rd gets stolen some by my guys set at steal more.

I agree Running is the harder one to figure---I will take 40% chances scoring, but taking 3rd has to be about 85% for me---the CD rom version has the control to do this--but online I have no clue how the odds work for the various settings.