Hitting Catchers

[Ron.]

Just starting 2034, but it's been like this for years in my league. Anyone else seeing too many good hitting catchers being generated?

[Danbo80]

I noticed this in OOTP 16 as well. Usually happened in future years of a MLB quickstart. I don't know what to make of it. IRL Catcher is one of the few positions that has a very high defensive requirement which weeds out alot of good hitters. They often get moved to other positions, maybe the game isn't doing this.

[Ron.]

Originally Posted by Danbo80

I noticed this in OOTP 16 as well. Usually happened in future years of a MLB quickstart. I don't know what to make of it. IRL Catcher is one of the few positions that has a very high defensive requirement which weeds out alot of good hitters. They often get moved to other positions, maybe the game isn't doing this.

Good point. If I get a below-average defensive catcher I look to move him(if only for the sake of realism) but the game generates a lot of catchers that aren't capable of moving to another position--they don't even have the infield ratings for 1B.

Perhaps related, it is very hard to find good "true" first basemen. The game generates them but it doesn't seem like their hitting potential is any higher on average than the generated middle infielders (which can be converted into elite defensive 1Bs as needed).

[jpeters1734]

i do wish it was easier to move catchers to different positions. most of the time its either crappy defensive catcher or crappy 1B

[Number4]

You can move everyone to 1B. Or let them DH. I really like my backup catcher to be my otherwise everyday 1B or DH - backup catchers tend to suck and are a waste of a roster spot 9/10 days.

[Ron.]

Originally Posted by Number4

You can move everyone to 1B. Or let them DH. I really like my backup catcher to be my otherwise everyday 1B or DH - backup catchers tend to suck and are a waste of a roster spot 9/10 days.

Of course it's possible, but most have a 0 at IF range so they're an even bigger liability at 1B than at C. Right now it looks like catchers are being created how 1B should: big bats without the tools to play anywhere else on the field. Only catcher is a premium defensive position, so you have a lot of super-valuable catchers dominating the league.

[Izz]

I recall this happening in 15 too, but was fixed in a patch. Don't recall anybody raising it as an issue with 16, though i might've missed the thread. Maybe something's come undone in the code?

[ttaka808]

I've seen this as well. There aren't even many good hitting catchers in the bigs right now (Posey, Lucroy, McCann, Martin, Perez on the top of my head) so it wouldn't be really realistic to generate eight catchers that hit 30+ HRs a year.

[NoOne]

most catchers simply don't have range... that's probably why they were catchers as kids, lol. always exceptions, but .... the ones that move to 3rd or elsewhere, played those postions at some previous point... very few can do this.


a 50 con 80 power is only going to be good for a short window of time, most liekly. keep track of how many you think are "good hitters" and see how many names stay on the list for more than a couple years at a time.


about the real-life players:
They are boosted relative to created players - if the same as previous years... this will change once they retire. you are not wrong in thinking there are too many highy rated... my suspiscion is that teh developers do this to avoid the loud-mouthed homers that complain about some middling player, for which they have an affinity, not being an All-Star quality talent.

[NYY #23]

I'm in 2053 and seeing quite a few dominant hitting catchers:



By wRC+ that's seven catchers with a wRC+ better than Posey's 138 last year. Two players beat Javy Lopez's 42 homers in a season.

It looks like this did happen with 16 too though based on numbers catchers have been putting up.

[oriolesmeep]

I'm in 2041 - not too many.

There's been a few great hitting catchers, but not so many that it comes out as an anomaly. At this point, all my players are mostly fictional. There's only one offensive dominant catcher, and he's also a gold glover defensively. Over the past 8-10 seasons, at most, there's been two or three everyday catchers with bad defensive ratings (and one of those has Coors-inflated stats so that's debatable) per year.

Last season, only five everyday catchers had a wRC+ greater than 120. Most of the rest have wRC+ between 90-110, which seems realistic.

[Kent814]

Remeber a couple years ago when SS was a league wide weakness and now were having a SS influx. Maybe the same thing happens to catchers in your game

[SirMichaelJordan]

Originally Posted by Danbo80

I noticed this in OOTP 16 as well. Usually happened in future years of a MLB quickstart. I don't know what to make of it. IRL Catcher is one of the few positions that has a very high defensive requirement which weeds out alot of good hitters. They often get moved to other positions, maybe the game isn't doing this.

Yea catchers are pretty much the premium position years into a save. Best players outside of MLB are usually catchers and teams spend a lot of money having two good catchers on the active roster.

[NoOne]

Originally Posted by NYY #23

I'm in 2053 and seeing quite a few dominant hitting catchers:

Attachment 448454

By wRC+ that's seven catchers with a wRC+ better than Posey's 138 last year. Two players beat Javy Lopez's 42 homers in a season.

It looks like this did happen with 16 too though based on numbers catchers have been putting up.

Well, this could be your LTMs. e.g. if HR are elevated compared to "normal" (whatever that is, not the point), players with high power numbers will benefit the most from that elevated LTM. they will get the bulk of the 'extra' homeruns. those 50con 80pow guys go from .250ish hitters with 30ish hr to .270-.300 and 40-50HR.

what's your league's average slash line (you'll need ~50 years to be +/- a minimal % error for this endeavor)? if it's quite a bit higher than .255/.320/.400 (slugging probably the key) that's more likely the cause of huge offensive numbers and in quantity. make sure all other factors are not the cause of what you are seeing, then test your hypothesis.

once you've done that, the only way to know if they are out of proportion is to keep track of talent distribution each year for many, many, many, did i say many? years. this will invovle subjective assessment of RL MLB talent distribution... so, it all depends on your (plural) ability to be objective... LoL... people are generally good at that, right?