[Argonaut]

I was inspired by my musings and conversations with chazzycat, along with his simulations to undertake a test. I think I have some conclusions.

Question: Does an actual smallball approach work in Perfect Team?
Hypothesis: Given the prevalence of the infield shift in modern baseball and in Perfect Team, perhaps players or a lineup focused on "bunting for hit" could provide an advantage. Simulations enforce the idea, especially if a player is a (lefty) pull-hitter.
Short Answer: No, it doesn't really work.

Long Answer: So I decided to run with an entire lineup of bunters, with individual strategy settings set to max bunting for hit. Might as well go all out. There was a minimum requirement of 60 BFH rating, and if that requirement was met I looked at other things like defense and regular hitting ability. There wasn't enough lefty pull-hitters to fill a team, so I let other guys in as well. This was my lineup for the Little Rock Crayons:

C Ivan Rodriguez 71 (Hardware)
1B Roberto Alomar 82 (All-Star)
2B Chris Sabo 73 (All-Star)
3B Bert Campaneris 79 (All-Star)
SS Luis Aparicio 66 (All-Star)
LF Rickey Henderson 70 (Record)
CF Kenny Lofton 75 (Rookie)
RF Tim Raines 77 (All-Star)
DH Darryl Strawberry 80 (All-Star)
C Roger Bresnahan 76 (Legend)
1B/DH Gregg Jefferies 72 (All-Star)
IF Rafael Furcal 68 (All-Star)
OF Ron LeFlore 67 (All-Star)

That's about as good as it gets for a bunting lineup, limiting the roster to Gold cards and below. There's some names that could improve it above that, but if you're running Ty Cobb on your team because of his bunting ability then I dunno what to say!

Other Factors: I decided to go minimum park factors... 0.9 AVG/HR and 0.5 doubles/triples. I don't know if bunting is affected by AVG sliders (logic says that it shouldn't?), but certainly suppressing gap hitting and homers should have helped me. My pitchers were all groundball specialists because my corner outfielders were a bit weak in the field, and I had a great infield defense.

Results: I ran this setup for a few seasons to make sure everyone was trained up at positions. The results were middling. In the last season, I managed a record slightly above .500 but out of the playoffs at Bronze level. If this lineup can't win at Bronze I doubt it's a viable strategy. Although Bronze is quite strong nowadays, especially in Our League.

My winning as is was more due to my strong groundball pitchers and infield defense. Offensive categories were all near or at worst in the league, even in park-adjusted formats. Interestingly, great bunters tend to be great basestealers, and I put up stealing numbers that would have shattered MLB records. But basestealing doesn't add much value. I think Rickey swiped 88 bags and wasn't caught much, but even then that was only worth about 1.0 WAR on its own. But with a team focused on bunting and stealing, it's definitely true to smallball.

Tim Raines, Luis Aparicio, and Roberto Alomar were probably the best players, but that's because they are already good cards on their own.

Conclusion: Although fun to try, real smallball (bunting and stealing) isn't a viable strategy in Perfect Team. BFH ratings can maybe enhance a card a bit against the infield shift, but it's not good enough to be a team-wide strategy.

I only have the time to do these long sort of posts at work and away from OOTP, so sorry that I don't have more specific details.