Quote:
Originally Posted by chazzycat
Yep - that's a good one. He's got the extreme pull grounder tendency, and pretty good, but not elite bunting ability (75 rating). I plugged that 75 rating into the test and it did really well, only 2 points below the elite bunter I had tried earlier. So I guess they don't really need to be elite to beat the shift with bunting.
I ran a few more tests with various bunting abilities, and I think the break-even point is around a 60 rating. Players with at least a 60 "bunt for hit" rating and extreme-pull grounder tendency should (slightly) outperform a "spray" hitter of the same skill level, assuming the bunt slider is moved all the way over and your opponents shift slider is the same. This held true over hundreds of thousands of simulations.
At the very least, in my mind this carves out an exception to the "avoid extreme pull guys" rule. If they have a 60+ bunt rating they should be fine, or possible even better!
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Very interesting thread and interesting tests. Thanks for contributing. I also think your Smallballers team has a bit of the same DNA as my Fighting Frogs team that just made perfect level and is currently playing .500 ball there.
Do you think this bunt for hit finding extends to mere pull hitters as well? Or only extreme pull? I have a suspicion that one of the reasons my 66 Luis Aparicio is batting .270-.290 at diamond/perfect levels is this phenomenon you describe. He's only a pull hitter, but with a nice 82 bunt for hit rating. I suppose I could test this myself by putting his bunt for hit slider all the way up for a season and all the way back down for another season...the stats don't record bunt hits/bunt attempts but that would be a nice addition to the player cards in OOTP.