7 throws in a row to 1B

[RchW]

Originally Posted by Zimmer

Sweed, re your "I don't think anyone here is being unfriendly ... and "Tone and inflection doesn't carry well in written responses on a message board." ...

I was not referring to those who responded to me as being unfriendly, I was referring to me, myself and I ... I warned you ahead of time that you may not like my response and wanted to stress "Look everyone, I am new and want to be friends and stay friends ... however, I am surprised at all your responses." I wanted all of you to know I am friendly and respect everyone.

So you are right about tone and reflection and message boards because you did not interpret (read into) what I said the right way. You thought one thing and I was acting out opposite to what you thought.

Also Sweed re "as far as I can tell, you are only posting about a one time thing" ...

The way the math works is such ... as a new player and seeing this behavior for just a few times, it was VERY clear that the great odds are what I am seeing is "the norm", "the average behavior for pressing 4". Now, those 7 throws could have been an outlier but the odds are what I saw reflected a bias toward a lot of throws to 1B. The math simply is that there are less odds you see an outlier in a one time new thing and greater odds you are seeing the norm or close to the norm ... none of which means a lot because a meaningful observation must include a large sample size to be meaningful but it is anecdotal info that leads to an assumption.

By the way, I got fed up with the 7th throw and just stopped attempting to steal and autoplayed the next pitch so who knows how any times that pitcher would have continued to throw to 1B.

Regardless, I will note the behavior after playing a larger sample size and come back to this thread and comment where I assume I will be giving some data about the number of throws and if it is excessive compared to real life.

Can you post a couple of screenshots showing the PbP? Here is a few out of 10 or so I just took from a played out ST game. Zero throws by the pitcher.

[Zeth]

Originally Posted by Curve Ball Dave

Which means the runner would just take off after the second attempt. If you've pitched at any competitive level you know that your job is prevent the other team from scoring runs, not to entertain the audience. If the pitcher has a very good reason to believe the runner is going to steal then the pitcher's job is to try to prevent that happening. If he can't pick the runner off, he can at least prevent him from getting a good jump and giving his catcher a fighting chance to throw the runner out. If that means throwing over multiple times, so be it. The last thing the pitcher is thinking, "I shouldn't throw over, it will bore the fans."

Welll...

1) The pitcher doesn't have a job unless fans want to watch him work. There are some points, in any sport, at which good strategy is at odds with good entertainment. The pitcher most definitely does not and should not care whether fans enjoy watching him. The enterprise of Baseball MUST care about that, however, and adjust the rules as necessary to keep the game interesting.

2) You didn't quite understand what James was suggesting: that after the two freebies the pitcher gets charged a ball if he throws over WITHOUT picking off the runner. If the runner takes too long a lead the pitcher can and will still pick him off. Stolen base attempts WOULD increase, and that's fine; stolen base attempts are exciting. But they wouldn't spiral out of control as you leapt to the conclusion they would, in your visceral repulsive reaction to the suggestion that maybe baseball could be improved.

[Curve Ball Dave]

Originally Posted by Zeth

your visceral repulsive reaction .

Thanks for the laugh.