Passed balls

Can someone more familiar with the board game or CD-ROM game help me understand passed ball ratings? I'm experimenting with Jack Clements at catcher in a league. He's rated at PB-12, but through 100 games he has 38 (!) passed balls. Another team in this league has Bresnahan catching, who is rated PB-15 but has 30 PBs through 100 games.

Is there something that causes catchers with high PB ratings to go way over their ratings consistently? I know I see this every time I use the top Josh Gibson card as well.

I'm not smart enough to explain anything but I love Clements. I use him a lot.

He has 42 PB on this team but is raking it at the plate!

https://365.strat-o-matic.com/team/1643357

Pretty sure that it's NOT like an Error Rating, it is the number on a twenty sided die that represents the chance of the PB happening EACH time it is checked. PB's are a thing few people check, but they can cost you games, lots of them sometimes. Personally, I like my catchers to have a PB rating in the 0-3 range whenever possible.

https://stratomatic365.fandom.com/wiki/ ... ssed_balls

PB rating is checked on 1 out of 40 rolls. Say 6000 rolls in a season on defense. Say half of those with runners on base. Say your starting catcher receives 90% of those. 2700/40 = 67.5 PB checks. Clements rating of 12 means 60% of those 67.5 will get past him. So back of the napkin you can expect around 40 PB for Clements over a full season. Adjust up or down depending on offensive environment obviously, more baserunners means more passed balls.

Also if worse fielding (4-5) catcher gets a roll on the X chart, there are several opportunities for passed balls that refer to the pitcher's Wild Pitch rating.
So your catcher will get a lot of passed balls if your starters have high wild pitch ratings.
I though this was strange but it makes sense. A good fielding catcher will handle marginally wild pitches better than a poor catcher.

Good point, forgot about those passed balls off the fielding chart. I think of them as wild pitches in my head because that's what's being checked, but they are indeed scored as passed balls. So for a 4 like Clements, that'd be 2700*3/216*0.6 = 22.5 additional chances, determined by the pitcher WP rating.

I have lost Finals because of PB's and WP"s. So I avoid them like the plague whenever possible.

Good info, guys - thanks. I finally surrendered and moved Clements to DH and signed Ed Bailey - only to have him get a 15 game injury in his second game. Then I tried Johnny Edwards... and he got a 10 game injury in his second game. Apparently Mr. Clements will be my catcher, passed balls be damned!