Out of curiosity I was checking his numbers. In 2018 he has enough AB and IP to qualify as both a hitter and pitcher. There may be a couple of old timers that could do this also. Yet the game only list Ohtani in 2018 as a hitter. Why? Programming?

Posted by fatguyrd on 5/18/2021 4:01:00 PM (view original):
Out of curiosity I was checking his numbers. In 2018 he has enough AB and IP to qualify as both a hitter and pitcher. There may be a couple of old timers that could do this also. Yet the game only list Ohtani in 2018 as a hitter. Why? Programming?

Yes. This has been a subject much discussed in olden days on this site about all the deadball era and 19th century players that were both pitchers and position players. In the SIM here, they are always listed only as one or the other. So the same with Ohtani.

Thanks prof

Many early pitchers played the field when not their turn to pitch. Some guy with a girl's name comes to mind. Ruth I think...Joe Wood, Bob Caruthers are a few more examples.

They are listed here based on which they played more games in a particular season, as a pitcher or position player.

I wonder if this is something that Adam could add to the list as the code is updated. Maybe they can figure out a way to have hitter and pitcher seasons available, with the option to play them in the field when they aren’t pitching

It's been discussed. Perhaps on new software they can add it in. On this current format it's impossible.

Having a 1915 Ruth on your bench would be quite a weapon.

They had it coded in once around 2007 or so, but it also allowed for hitters to be used as pitchers. But during beta testing no matter what they tried they couldn’t get hitters who had no pitching stats to be hit hard. You’d have Mark Grace and Ichiro throwing a no hitters every start... after a couple of months of tinkering, they shelved it with a goal of bringing it back in a future update. Never got much of a look after.

These days, with the new code, I’d imagine the could use 2020 Jordan Yamamoto as a baseline and just assign all hitters with no pitching stats Yamamoto’s line and take on a pre-determined penalty. That should allow us to play pitchers in the field and hitters with pitching stats as pitchers (Abner Powell, Tony Mullane and many others in addition to the ones mentioned above).

Doc I have Ruth and Wood in a rotation and usually bat them 6 or 7

They have to rethink how they'll handle Ohtani for 2021. Even if they have to do what fantasy leagues do and make him two separate players, it would be disappointing to leave out his pitching season (which seems the one more likely to be lost).

I think that being able to use one of the greatest players of this period is crucial in order to grab a new generation of WIS players. Figuring a way to utilize not just ohtani, but all two way players should, IMO be a top priority for the admin team going forward.

Posted by just4me on 5/20/2021 7:43:00 PM (view original):
They had it coded in once around 2007 or so, but it also allowed for hitters to be used as pitchers. But during beta testing no matter what they tried they couldn’t get hitters who had no pitching stats to be hit hard. You’d have Mark Grace and Ichiro throwing a no hitters every start... after a couple of months of tinkering, they shelved it with a goal of bringing it back in a future update. Never got much of a look after.

These days, with the new code, I’d imagine the could use 2020 Jordan Yamamoto as a baseline and just assign all hitters with no pitching stats Yamamoto’s line and take on a pre-determined penalty. That should allow us to play pitchers in the field and hitters with pitching stats as pitchers (Abner Powell, Tony Mullane and many others in addition to the ones mentioned above).

So, in other words, no one ever DID get a hit off Ichiro, so THAT is his performance basis as a pitcher?

Oy vey.

What’s intriguing is I’ve had pitchers who never homered in any RL season hit them here. So if they can give them the ability to do a thing they never did, you’d think that concept is already in the game.

Agreed Redcped. I think j4m’s suggestion of giving all hitters without pitching stats Yamamoto’s stats, maybe with some sort of “out of position penalty” similar to on defense, that would do the trick. Similar to your example on pitchers who never hit in RL being able to hit poorly in the sim, a catcher who never played SS can be played there as well with higher penalties.