Quote:
Originally Posted by Charlie Hough
My experience with holding runners is that you really need to do this almost always, no matter who is on base. This is not so much to prevent steals but to prevent the runner from easily picking up an extra base on a base hit. I have experimented with not holding the runner in some situations based on the assumption that it might keep the fielders in better position for ground balls to the left side of the infield, but it seems to have a very negative impact by allowing the baserunner to get extra bases. You'll start giving up runs in a hurry. It goes without saying that you will give up steals more readily as well, but bad base stealers don't get enough of a benefit to become all that effective.
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I agree. You see comparatively few runners from first taking third on a single after having been held on.
In general, I find the way that base stealing works in this game to be a pretty satisfactory balance between pitcher's ability to hold the runner, the catcher's arm, and whether you play "hold runner" for your pitch selection. When all that works well, I don't really miss pickoffs in one-pitch mode very much.