I thought I saw this asked but had not seen an answer from anyone who had done it. Has anyone tried an A/A catcher at SS?

Posted by fanatic86 on 1/22/2019 11:56:00 AM (view original):
I thought I saw this asked but had not seen an answer from anyone who had done it. Has anyone tried an A/A catcher at SS?

Someone needs to start an all-Catcher league, with nobody having secondary positions....

Could be entertaining...

Posted by toddcommish on 1/22/2019 4:01:00 PM (view original):

Posted by fanatic86 on 1/22/2019 11:56:00 AM (view original):
I thought I saw this asked but had not seen an answer from anyone who had done it. Has anyone tried an A/A catcher at SS?

Someone needs to start an all-Catcher league, with nobody having secondary positions....

Could be entertaining...

Hmmmmm or maybe a league where each division is all a particular position (C, 1B, 2B, 3B, SS, OF) and then see which position ends up winning

I feel like the last time I played in a catcherless league, there wasn't really any rhyme or reason to who made the best catchers. Like, Ted Williams wasn't noticeably different from Robin Yount.

I'm curious as to what people think is the optimal strategy if you are forced to use a position player at catcher for a season.

Select a pitchers park so fewer balls are in play, thus fewer baserunners to advance on passed balls? Low K pitchers, since I'm assuming high K pitchers would result in more pitches, thus more passed balls?

That seems intuitive but I'm not sure if more pitches really would = more passed balls. More specifically, I'm not sure how passed ball vs no passed ball is calculated. Someone with good knowledge of the decision tree might know though?

I'm not sure how passed ball versus no passed ball is actually calculated, but a passed ball is lumped in with the "unusual event" section of the decision tree. Unusual events are determined independently of the Normal PA part of the tree and everything that follows after. Since unusual events are determined before the outcome of the PA is determined, I don't think a total number of pitches for the PA is assigned to the pitcher for fatigue prior to a passed ball. If true, it would make total pitches insignificant to passed ball rates.

Makes sense. Regardless, I'd still go with low K pitchers in Jtpsops's scenario, since I'd presumably need to spend it on hitting or defense to make up for the extra runs I'd give up due to passed balls

Or spend a ton on the best low-OAV/low-BB pitchers, since PBs can only occur with runners on. Either way, the key is to find a way to minimize baserunners.

Just finished a season in a double progressive where someone used 2001 Phil Nevin at C for 93 games (713 innings).....168 passed balls....2-79 throwing out baserunners...

How did the team fare?

Won their division..won almost 100 games....team was stacked.

That's about 2 passed balls a game, which is probably not as bad as it seems. I guess it depends how many of those are actually costly. If it lets a guy go from 1st to 2nd with two outs, and the next batter gets out, it really didn't do any harm.

Posted by combalt on 1/22/2019 4:21:00 PM (view original):

Posted by toddcommish on 1/22/2019 4:01:00 PM (view original):

Posted by fanatic86 on 1/22/2019 11:56:00 AM (view original):
I thought I saw this asked but had not seen an answer from anyone who had done it. Has anyone tried an A/A catcher at SS?

Someone needs to start an all-Catcher league, with nobody having secondary positions....

Could be entertaining...

Hmmmmm or maybe a league where each division is all a particular position (C, 1B, 2B, 3B, SS, OF) and then see which position ends up winning

IIRC, while it wasn't division specific, there was a league a few years back where you had to clone a single player to form your entire group of hitters. Because of the lack of catching in the league, Rickey Henderson dominated and easily cruised to a pennant... until he ran into Jimmie Foxx in the World Series who could actually throw him out. So I suspect there would be a sort of three-way matchup metagame: base-stealer teams crush all non-catcher teams, who get crushed by catcher teams, and catcher teams lose to teams that actually have good hitters in the field. (I'm presuming catcher is the weakest offensive position, which might not be totally true, but it's certainly weaker than a lot of them.)

That league is starting up again now. I suspect the Foxx team will have a huge advantage. Beyond that, it'll be a crapshoot. If you choose a catcher, you'll likely have by far the worst defense at the other positions on the field.

Side note: If you have an A+ defender (non-catcher) behind the plate, can he somewhat control the run game?