Why Don't We Steal Away Into The Night?

[RubeBaker]

I'm an aggressive manager by nature & I'm not one for playing station-to-station baseball. I LOVE the National League-style of play & much prefer it over the American League. That being said, I also am a great admirer of Earl Weaver's & when it comes to stealing bases in OOTP, I try not to get too greedy. Accuracy is more important than speed IMHO. I usually set a goal each year to have the team be successful 75% of the time on steals. Anything lower than that, what's the point? I don't just steal bases for the sake of stealing bases.

I WILL say that I miss the days when guys like Rickey Henderson & Tim Raines stole 50-100 bases a season. Nowadays you don't even have teams that steal that many. I believe that the stolen base is an effective weapon when it is used properly & it can help you win more games by scoring more runs.

I look at a guy like Billy Hamilton whom I have on my Reds team. If Hamilton got on base more consistently, he'd easily steal 100 bases a season. He usually gets off to a hot start in OOTP & then fizzles out. There aren't many great base stealers left anymore. In fact, I think that the one record that may never be broken is Rickey Henderson's stolen base record. I think Joe DiMaggio's hitting streak & Barry Bonds's home run record * have a better chance to be broken than Henderson's record.

I know that some OOTP players complain that their teams get thrown out often during stolen bases, but I've had some success with mine although I don't steal very often.

[msupoke]

Play with the Astros. I can steal pretty successfully against almost anyone with them.

[TuckerDuckson]

I think the reason is due to the default OOTP settings basically set that guys with 80 speed, 80 stealing, and 80 base running are the only guys who can consintently steal 25+ bags a year

So far in 2020, Billy Hamilton has around 50 steals in late September, Ozzie Albies has around 45. Both of them are 80/80/80 in S/ST/BS. Mickey Moniak by comparison is 70/70/70 in S/ST/BS and he only has 15. Moniak has hit better than Hamilton, has almost 60 more points in OBP and has played 20 more games than Hamilton, and he still is dwarfed by around 35 steals for some reason. Albies and Moniak are batting around the same and played in the same amount of games but Ozzie has more than 30 steals over Moniak.

And I know Moniak's big thing isn't stealing bases or even speed (He's just a fast guy) like Albies and Hamilton. However, he can hit better and still shouldn't a kid with only 10 less rating in speed relative to the highest base stealer (whilst also destroying him batting wise) be stealing more bases than just 15 through the course of a season?

And usually I change the modifiers, just a tad to increase the steal rate, because that is a vital part of baseball, but then I had the problem of Hamilton getting into a hot streak for three months and being projected to steal 150 bases by late June.

[NoOne]

the choice will be finding a happy spot for the # of SB attempts (LTM).

i wouldn't just look at the "top" guys. maybe pick a middle of the road guy, above average and 80/80 guy. see what happens (make sure their other ratings are comparable... a .300 hitter likely will get more attempts than a .250 hitter, right? so, avoid that)

make a few of these sguys and sprinkle them across league. shortlist or soemthing and dink around with the LTMs related to stolen bases. in addition to paying attention to league-wide #'s and keeping them sane to your eye.

i haven't tried, but i don't thikn you'll be able to get a 100sb/yr guy without raising it a bit too high... could be wrong. (even if it's a 1/generation type running talent -- i.e. ratings approaching "250" in editor).

if you "auto-calc" you should see 60's, maybe 70's, as high-water marks. to get higher, you'll have to dink around with the LTM.

500-600 career marks may be the most you see without 100's of years simmed for that 1 crazy ratings guy to show up then, maybe 700-800, tops. (default, auto-calc type LTM for mlb 2017+)

[One Post Wonder]

I usually set my stolen base settings really low, then ramp them up to maximum for the one or two players who are really good at it. I don't waste outs on anyone else, at least when I'm handling strategy myself.

My beef with OOTP stolen base attempts is when I let the AI take over the settings, and you get a guy (I play with a 1-20 system) with 22 speed and 12 stealing, and he winds up with 25 stolen bases and 28 caught stealings or some crap like that. No thinking manager would allow that to happen. I don't feel that the AI differentiates between good and bad base stealers enough when sending guys. Stealing ability is far more important than speed with base stealers IMO. I'd take a guy with 14 speed and 20 stealing over a 20/20 guy.

A couple of years ago, I had a league with 1985 settings, and I had a player who was the perfect base stealer. Great speed, perfect technique, and top rated contact and eye. I made a point to set his individual strategy to max stealing aggressiveness and he averaged way over 100 steals a year. I think he might have stolen 150 or something one year... so it can be done with the perfect player.

Don't forget, Rickey lost steals because 25 of his hits each year were home runs. My guy had no home run power. I think the perfect OOTP guy, with an 80's style of play at least, can beat any SB record.

[texasmame]

Is this something else they changed in this year's edition of the game - like the OF assists? I find it much harder to steal this year.