Do defensive ranks in tournaments even matter?
 

Since cards won't be able to learn positions for tournamanets, or even learn them during tournaments, I did a small experiment to see how cards with incredibly low defensive rates and cards with no training at all would fare. The sample size was only a few games at most, but I noticed that my cars that actually were playing in position were, in some cases, even performing worse than the ones that were not.


Frank Howard at 1B is example #1. His rates at 1B are all under 20. He's pretty much dreck. However, after starting him in 4 games, he had a perfect fielding percentage, a positive zone rating, and an effenciency over 1.000.


Julio Franco (76 SE) at 3B is example #2. In three games starting vs. lefties at 3B, his stat line defensively was twice as good as Hank Blaylock's despite not even having the position learned.


Has anyone else been messing around with this in tournaments, and if so, what are your findings and thoughts? If it's seriously just gonna be "plug and play anyone anywhere except catcher", then it really kinda ruins the experience in my opinion. Everyone will just start their "best" cards wherever on the field and run away with massive offensive explosions with no penalty to their defensive capabilities.

the beauty of the game is you can experiment and decide for yourself what matters and how much

but I would recommend a sample much, much larger than three games lol

3 games? Seriously?

Yeah, I wouldn't put any coin on performance for a couple games. I'm certainly stretching what I'm willing to accept more than I would otherwise, but there's still limits to what I'll run with.

In 3-4 games at 1B or 3B you may not get more than 1 ball that's out of any decent corner infielder's range...

At first, it might just mean he didn't make any errors and fielded a few routine grounders. Look at total chances, assists & that, and know that defensive statistics are limited. At third, there are only a few Brooks Robinson's with unusually good range. It isn't so unusual for even the least serviceable of MLB 1B/3B to go 3-4 games without making an error, and I don't know, but that may be the most important statistic at those positions. Frank Howard may have just gotten nice throws from his fellow infielders. :laugh: