1941 Ted Williams is Broken

[Stanley Kuppchaser]

Can anyone explain, outside of ratings error, how it is possible for Ted Williams to be so far off in performance, after 21 seasons (16 in gold)?


PT - 95 BB, 150 K, .242 BA (this is playing full time, seasonal averages)
Actual - 147 BB, 27 K, .406


Seems Teddy Ballgame might have been squeezed a bit on his ratings.

[bailey]

No, the OOTP game engine just switched some of your man's hits into outs to aid your opponents in a dastardly bid to steal your championship.

[Stanley Kuppchaser]

Originally Posted by bailey

No, the OOTP game engine just switched some of your man's hits into outs to aid your opponents in a dastardly bid to steal your championship.

Nah, not the game engine, just my lousy pitchers.

[dkgo]

Because you cant have every hitter ops over 1.000 and every pitcher with an era at 3. Every card people use is based on a hall of fame level season, put them all together and you get average seasons.

Then theres the way the game engine works but someone else can explain that

[tbonetim]

He's a groundball pull hitter on this card and depending on how many teams in your leagues over the years have infield shift set to max on their strategy settings it will effect his stats accordingly. Max infield shift usage nearly universally used at Diamond and above and because a lot of teams like mine that have spent nearly every season at Diamond have been getting relegated more often in the past 10 seasons of play, you are seeing more teams that use max IF shift at that level too.

Not sure if there will be any adjustments made by the developers for OOTP 22 in this area, but a whole lot of historical cards of players who raked back in the 1990's and before (e.g. Steroid Bonds) but were dead pull hitters are nearly worthless in PT above Silver levels due to the shift. They only help in OBP for walks if they have good eye/discipline otherwise. This is why I use the extreme shift because it not only works against most pull hitters but also because the AI does a pretty good job of not using the shift against normal/spray hitters (I watched some replays to make sure).

[chazzycat]

I don't think the pull tendency is really that game changing to be honest. Everything said above makes sense in theory, and is true to some extent. But also some "extreme pull" guys for example Roger Connor, are some of the best cards in the game. I think most of the impact of their batted ball profile is already incorporated into the BABIP rating. So overall I would say that pull tendency is probably no higher than the 3rd factor, behind what dkgo mentioned (just facing an extremely talented level of competition making it impossible for everyone to have nice stats) and secondly, the game engine penalizing power hitters.

[tbonetim]

Originally Posted by chazzycat

I don't think the pull tendency is really that game changing to be honest. Everything said above makes sense in theory, and is true to some extent. But also some "extreme pull" guys for example Roger Connor, are some of the best cards in the game. I think most of the impact of their batted ball profile is already incorporated into the BABIP rating. So overall I would say that pull tendency is probably no higher than the 3rd factor, behind what dkgo mentioned (just facing an extremely talented level of competition making it impossible for everyone to have nice stats) and secondly, the game engine penalizing power hitters.

This is certainly true. It definitely helps to have a very high "avoid K's" rating that is at least above a 90 vs RHP & LHP if they are ground ball pull hitters (or any hitter for that manner). A trait found in few cards with power ratings above 90. And yes, Diamond level pitching is going to take its toll on your good hitters.

[Stanley Kuppchaser]

I think that your analyses shows that this particular Ted Williams card has ratings which don't reflect his actual ability for the season. I have noticed there is another card based on the same season which has higher ratings across the board. Huh? It would seem that 27 Ks in 650+ PA should yield an "avoid K" which results in a much lower number of strikeouts than the 150 he has averaged. By the way, Williams faced extreme shifts quite often throughout his career, and would occasionally poke the ball toward left field if the strategy of the occasion dictated it. I just think one of the greatest hitting seasons of all time was short changed.

[chazzycat]

That's just because the ratings are generated by comparing players to their peers. That's really the only way to go about making things fair in a game that encompasses all of baseball history mixed together at once.

For example Joe Dimaggio only struck out 13 times in 1941, less than half of Teddy's total. Relative to his peers, Teddy's strikeout avoidance skill was great (top 10 in the league) but not elite. You need to be elite when compared to the best of the best of all time.

[jaysdailydose]

It sounds as if you have the third-best Ted Williams, to me... and there's a not-negligible difference between the second and third-best.

It's only gold, so I would figure it to be effective still, but there is definitely still a difference. I'd definitely be trying to platoon that card against righties only, for sure...

[One Great Matrix]

Originally Posted by chazzycat

That's just because the ratings are generated by comparing players to their peers. That's really the only way to go about making things fair in a game that encompasses all of baseball history mixed together at once.

For example Joe Dimaggio only struck out 13 times in 1941, less than half of Teddy's total. Relative to his peers, Teddy's strikeout avoidance skill was great (top 10 in the league) but not elite. You need to be elite when compared to the best of the best of all time.

Still seems his BA should be higher than (.190-something one season) & strikeouts lower but the peak & special cards in the game on top of the gold or even silver and higher level leagues do make it pretty tricky.