Sitting at 32-34... This is the high-water mark for me since 0-0. Will we hit .500 soon? I have had only 3 winning sessions out of 11.

Posted by rbow923 on 6/12/2020 4:25:00 PM (view original):

Posted by redcped on 6/12/2020 11:13:00 AM (view original):
Something I hadn't paid much attention to before was the catcher's actual fielding percentage. I'd seen OOP catchers put up awful numbers in some strange theme leagues, but anyone who actually played some catcher didn't seem to fare too badly.

But I apparently wasn't paying close enough attention, because Buck Ewing might just be my downfall here. I used the 1892 version to great success on a recent 100M, and when I was searching for catchers for the 90M here his 1887 year popped up because of the lower fielding grade. He had an A- arm, his salary fit, and he looked pretty solid to me.

In fact, when I built the 120M team his name showed up again and I took him a second time. ...

Turns out, he had an .818 fielding percentage as catcher that year, something I hadn't looked at. He. Is. Killing. Me.

In one league he has 12 passed balls and 4 errors in 9 games. In the other, 6 passed balls and 1 error in 7 games. He's giving runs away left and right. He makes up for it some with his bat and he throws out some runners when he doesn't chuck it into center field, I guess. Nothing to do now, though.

Position players with a secondary rating of D- at Catcher can make a ton of passed balls. I've used Cap Anson for his hitting until i noticed how many PB he made. More than 1 per game.

Alas, I missed that memo. Live and learn. Though the WISC is not the best place to make these discoveries ...

Posted by doctorcc on 6/12/2020 4:38:00 PM (view original):

Posted by chargingryno on 6/12/2020 12:59:00 PM (view original):
I splurged and picked up 1975 Munson for the 90m. Throws out 50% of base stealers with his A+ arm with a respectable .962 fielding %.

+1 on 75 Munson. I figured he could at least throw out some of the baserunners that reach on an error.

Thought about it but I didn't think many people would draft a SB team for that league

Posted by ozomatli on 6/12/2020 5:17:00 PM (view original):

Posted by doctorcc on 6/12/2020 4:38:00 PM (view original):

Posted by chargingryno on 6/12/2020 12:59:00 PM (view original):
I splurged and picked up 1975 Munson for the 90m. Throws out 50% of base stealers with his A+ arm with a respectable .962 fielding %.

+1 on 75 Munson. I figured he could at least throw out some of the baserunners that reach on an error.

Thought about it but I didn't think many people would draft a SB team for that league

But I’ve noticed some owners don’t pay enough attention to their SB settings. They’ll draft a deadballer who ran wild and got caught 40% of the time or whatever and leave the default settings.

I usually draft the best C arm I can to erase those players unless I’m in a theme like Homer Madness where steals are meaningless

That's a good point. Maybe since they're low % success to begin with they'll still get caught enough to not make a difference between W/L

On my $110M team Cochrane & Cobb are batting a combined .139... Mostly in the 3 & 4 or 4 & 5 spots in the lineup... And my record reflects it. I keep telling myself its still early......

'17 Cobb on my variable team is batting .167 in the 3 hole...
Variable cap pitching staff is getting utterly screwed as well.... The numbers I drafted are fantastic.... My ERA is in the bottom 75% of my league.. Nonsense.

I've seen SB #'s of SB 9, CS 15 and SB 6 CS 12 so I don't think those guys have adjusted their settings.

Also saw a team with 43 SB already and just CS 10 times. I didn't look at his record though. Stolen bases are like HR's, some people just romanticize about them.

Posted by redcped on 6/12/2020 2:13:00 PM (view original):

Posted by tigerrott on 6/12/2020 12:53:00 PM (view original):

Posted by redcped on 6/12/2020 11:13:00 AM (view original):
Something I hadn't paid much attention to before was the catcher's actual fielding percentage. I'd seen OOP catchers put up awful numbers in some strange theme leagues, but anyone who actually played some catcher didn't seem to fare too badly.

But I apparently wasn't paying close enough attention, because Buck Ewing might just be my downfall here. I used the 1892 version to great success on a recent 100M, and when I was searching for catchers for the 90M here his 1887 year popped up because of the lower fielding grade. He had an A- arm, his salary fit, and he looked pretty solid to me.

In fact, when I built the 120M team his name showed up again and I took him a second time. ...

Turns out, he had an .818 fielding percentage as catcher that year, something I hadn't looked at. He. Is. Killing. Me.

In one league he has 12 passed balls and 4 errors in 9 games. In the other, 6 passed balls and 1 error in 7 games. He's giving runs away left and right. He makes up for it some with his bat and he throws out some runners when he doesn't chuck it into center field, I guess. Nothing to do now, though.

I picked 1887 Ewing. I moved him from C to 2B after I saw the .818 FPct. He has five errors at 2B.

I don't have anywhere near enough catcher PA available to move him. I usually don't have that type of flexibility. The plan is the plan.

I drafted Wally Schang to play C before I entered my team.

Gah. Mario Mendozalike numbers from my entire $110m lineup except Speaker and Pudge Rodriguez. MENDOZAAAA!!!

The thing about catcher arm is you might pay a lot more for that A+ than you would for a B+, but the question is what does that money buy you exactly? The difference between 40% CS and 30% CS matters more if teams are running a lot. But if the average teams are only attempting 50-60 steals a season, then you're only erasing a handful of runners. I'm not sure I want to pay much at all for that, all other things being equal.

Posted by redcped on 6/12/2020 6:23:00 PM (view original):
The thing about catcher arm is you might pay a lot more for that A+ than you would for a B+, but the question is what does that money buy you exactly? The difference between 40% CS and 30% CS matters more if teams are running a lot. But if the average teams are only attempting 50-60 steals a season, then you're only erasing a handful of runners. I'm not sure I want to pay much at all for that, all other things being equal.

Well, there’s a lot of variety in A+ arms. B+ means 33% CS, but A+ can mean anywhere from 38 to 60% caught.

Lately I’ve been experimenting with reducing runs however I can in the field: low errors, high CS%, ++ range. We’ll see how it pans out in the WISC. Munson has caught 2 out of 5 in twelve games, and teams in my $90m league are 10 for 16 on average, for whatever that’s worth.

So Munson costs $6.17M for a .797 OPS# but he also gets you 670 PA so you don't need a backup. And historically he throws out 47% of runners.

I didn't spent as much as $6M on any hitter in that league, but I can say that if I had it would have been for someone with at least 150 more OPS points and not just for the arm. I feel like that amount of offense over 650-700 PA is a much bigger impact on a season than those extra 20 guys caught stealing, but I don't have any math to back that up.

Meanwhile, my catcher in the 80M, Heinie Peitz is also OOP but with an A+ arm and C FLD. He's played 86 innings without an error or a PB and no one has attempted a steal against him.

I usually don't care about my catcher's arm along as it isn't D-. I have 2 good armed catchers in the $80M league but only bc it just fell that way, not really by design. Catcher arms cost more than they are worth imo.

A 50%+ RL arm can completely shut down the running game. Not only will they throw it 40%+ of runners in sim, but they’ll also stop the running game altogether. A full season in an OL with a B+ arm and you’ll have 250+ attempts against you. With a 60% arm you’ll have 40 attempts and almost half of those will be caught. The entire offense they’ve paid for becomes non-existent. I’d rather draft a guy like ‘61 Dalrymple for the arm than a guy like ‘93 Clements in any league where even an eighth of the teams might have SB.

12 cycles so far, 9 of them 3-3. At least we're not sinking.