I have two players with good fielding ratings who came off the bench in the same inning today.  One is Oscar Kennedy, whose defensive #'s are 85/76/73/65, and the other is Eduardo Aquino whose #'s are 92/80/98/88.  

BOXSCORE:
http://www.whatifsports.com/x.asp?r=567617&u=/HBD/Pages/Popups/Boxscore.aspx?gid=34964158


Here's the rub: Kennedy was assigned to SS and Aquino to 2B, which seems contrary to common sense given their numbers.  It also happens to be contrary to my coaching decisions too, as far as I understand them.  Let's pan over to my Defensive Replacement Hierarchy, where Kennedy is my #1 2B and #4 SS.  Aquino is my #3 SS and is not listed for 2B.  Why would Kennedy go to SS?  Why would Aquino go to 2B?  I have both listed with all infield positions on their secondary fielding assignments. 

The best rationale that I can think of right now is that the bench coach is a putz.  But with an 87 strategy rating he is among the 10 best in the league.

Did I screw up somewhere I can't think of, or is this a coding problem in the game?  Should I send in a ticket?

Aquino came into the game as a pinch runner for the guy who pinch hit for your 2B.

Kennedy came into the game as a pich hitter for your SS.

It seems as though Sparky "locked" theses guys into the postions they replaced in the lineup, rather than shift them to more appropriate positions defensively when they actually took the field.

This has been a long known problem, in which the engine will not move players around defensively in the middle of the game.  Once they come in at a certain positon, they play that position the entire game or until they are removed.

Can't hurt to send in a ticket.  But I think this is related to a long-standing problem that's been a part of the engine since the beginning.

They did say at somepointthey would fix it and move guys to better positions, but apparently not.

Posted by Crump123 on 2/26/2011 7:53:00 AM (view original):
They did say at somepointthey would fix it and move guys to better positions, but apparently not.

It's been on their plate for over a year.  I believe it will be corrected eventually... it's too big a problem for it to be ignored forever. 

Thanks for the insight, tec.  I guess I will send in a ticket and see what comes of it.

Moving players around mid-game isn't very realistic.  Check MLB box scores this season and you won't see a lot of "2B-SS" in them.    So I'm not sure it's that big of a problem. 

Here ya' go.  Check for yourselves.

http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/

I'd wager it happens quite a bit.  You're a Yankee fan...I'm sure a lot of the big budget teams don't have to rely on it as much.  But lower tier teams (or even small ball teams) play to every advantage they can get.  If a team takes out their 2B and his replacement is a better defender than the SS, you will occasionally see the "double switch".   Though I'd say it happens more in the OF...where a replacement will go into CF and bump the CF to a corner and the COF out of the game.

Posted by Jtpsops on 2/26/2011 12:28:00 PM (view original):
I'd wager it happens quite a bit.  You're a Yankee fan...I'm sure a lot of the big budget teams don't have to rely on it as much.  But lower tier teams (or even small ball teams) play to every advantage they can get.  If a team takes out their 2B and his replacement is a better defender than the SS, you will occasionally see the "double switch".   Though I'd say it happens more in the OF...where a replacement will go into CF and bump the CF to a corner and the COF out of the game.

"Though I'd say it happens more in the OF...where a replacement will go into CF and bump the CF to a corner and the COF out of the game."

The ability to do this would be a really slick addition to the game.  Anybody who is in a world with me and pays attention to the boxscores knows that I use my bench very reguarly.  I routinely fit in 3-5 bench players either as defensive replacements, pinch hitters, or pinch runners EVERY game.  The ability to slide a CF to a corner and put in a new CF would make for some cool tricks

Posted by MikeT23 on 2/26/2011 11:43:00 AM (view original):
Here ya' go.  Check for yourselves.

http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/

I repeat "Check for yourselves".

Just pick random games.  Or whichever team you think would do it.   It just doesn't happen that frequently.

I picked a day at random.  August 11th.  12 players played multiple positions in 7 of the 13 different games.  Did you "check for yourself"?

Posted by jonas1102 on 2/26/2011 3:58:00 PM (view original):
I picked a day at random.  August 11th.  12 players played multiple positions in 7 of the 13 different games.  Did you "check for yourself"?

The surprising (to me) thing was that it was AL teams, too, not merely the NL (which I expected).

Hell, even the Yankees had 3 guys play multiple positions in this game - Swisher at RF & 1B, Kearns at LF & RF, and Gardner at CF and LF. You also had Granderson PR for Berkman (who was at 1B) and then go into the field to play CF (which I believe is also beyond the current AI abilities).

Mike: it's not going to be a defensive switch in a real life boxscore because a player isn't assigned a position in real life until he actually plays it.  In this circumstance, in real life, you aren't a SS simply because you PH for one.  The two guys would both be put in the game on offense, and then would be assigned defensive positions.  There would be no "position swapping."  Positions and lineup spots are totally independent in real life.

As for players switching positions, it happens all the time.  So, while there isn't likely to be a 2B/SS swap, one player moves from one position to another when someone else comes in the game.  It's actually fairly common, as others have pointed out.

No, it isn't "fairly common" at all.    It happens.  I randomly checked a dozen or so games before I posted the link.  2 of them had multiple positions.

A dozen or so....out of how many thousands of games? Shouldnt you get a meaningful amount of games to sample first? A dozen or so, just in one season, would be insufficient data. It does appear to be fairly common. Guys shift for defensive replacements all the time. Not sure how you've been missing that.


FYI: 12 games is .0024% of a full MLB season.