How to bring BABIP down

[LittleHurt81]

Our pitching staff is last in the league in BABIP, thus affecting team ERA, Runs Against, etc. Is it just as simple as having better defenders? Any other potential solutions?

[Argonaut]

Better defense, especially SS/2B/CF.
It also could be the park factors, or plain bad luck.
Check your team ZR and you may be able to answer a couple of those questions.

[Syd Thrift]

Yeah, defense has a huge, some would say outsized effect in OOTP.

[Brad K]

I am suspicious of a statistic that can be improved by something bad happening. (Turning off the wall doubles into HRs.)

[LittleHurt81]

Originally Posted by Argonaut

Better defense, especially SS/2B/CF.
It also could be the park factors, or plain bad luck.
Check your team ZR and you may be able to answer a couple of those questions.

Both defensive efficiency and zone rating are last in the league... I play in Coors Field, but my outfield has decent defensive stats for the most part minus my normal everyday CF.

At one point we had a middle of the pack ERA and then things bottomed out. Even though the arms are better than when I took the team over, this is the worst year of restults. I'm just a loss for figuring out what to do next... Do I trade for defense?

[LittleHurt81]

I know what the easy answer is... get out of Coors

[Daniel_09]

Originally Posted by LittleHurt81

I know what the easy answer is... get out of Coors

Give more starts to Frelick (CF) and Adames.

[Rain King]

Yeah, when you are in an offensive ballpark like that there isn't much you can do except have as strong of a defense as possible. That park is a problem though, just too much ground to cover and the ballpark factors are set to replicate that.

I guess you could adjust the ballpark factors to make it a little less of an issue, your game!

[brotherblues]

Originally Posted by Syd Thrift

Yeah, defense has a huge, some would say outsized effect in OOTP.

I would say ginourmous personally but to each his own.

[Brad K]

47 games.

[Scottiedog43]

I have a custom park in my solo game
It’s definitely a pitchers park, so I had similar issues.
I have a great defensive CF with decent offense.

It really made a huge difference over when took over everyday role over my former CF that was his opposite.
Give it a try and see if that helps my friend

[LittleHurt81]

Originally Posted by Daniel_09

Give more starts to Frelick (CF) and Adames.

Adames

[NoOne]

short and sweet - better corner OF (assuming CF at least decent and ootp mimicing RL factors that highly correlate to BABIP factor of a ballpark) and better pitching. Some pitch types in ootp are better for babip than others.. google that for a good idea. KB is one for certain.

Coors field is a dumpster fire. Not much you can do there. it'll always be higher. it's one of the worst fields for a high BABIP. It is a rising tide... you get same effect. Question is are your chances of winning better at a higher or lower babip given several different other coinciding factors, lol... no guarantee it is the same, but like getting upset about someone taking a bad hit at a blackjack table with upto 10 decks of cards ("stealing your card"), it's probably a very slim change of probability for you.

maybe more volatility with more offense? easier to get 'lucky' so lesser teams can go on runs even if it averages out over time.

----
you can see where i found better info than what i initially perceived

the pitches your staff throws has an impact on BABIP. I'd wager it correlates as well as defense... i'd wager defense has severely diminishing returns above some minimum level of competence... whether that's ~average or something else...

at the top you start splitting hairs to differentiate... half a step slower in the outfield isn't going to amount to many different plays over 162 games. at some point it becomes more than negligible, of course. dynamics of assessing fielding... diminishing returns vs increasing offense that is only limited by payroll, availability and a willingness to play for your team. I wouldn't sacrifics many runs worrying about BABIP. (*probably wrong about the OF portion here*)

Also, look into why it is high... is it bad luck? is it an unusual amount of HR relative to other hits for the various player's histories on your team? was the league average high that year? asjust perception to that... etc etc...

hahah amazing what you find... i was at least half wrong about defense after a little superficial research. certainly can't rule it out, especially OF defense - likely more so at the corners than CF, unless you have a severely incompetent CF.

https://blogs.fangraphs.com/babip-pa...ll-connection/

the correlation coefficient table clears up some thigns too... e.g. gb% has vurtually no correlation to BABIP -- i'd wager this throws a wrench into infield defense having much to do with babip. it's inversely related, albeit weakly, with FB%. How much of that is home runs and OF defense, i don't know... but this is where i'd wager defense is helping the most. Also biggest range of defender quality at positions that require the least (CF being different than the corners)

So, parks that are spacious and augment line drive hitter's production are likely to increase BABIP. I'm sure some funky designs can throw that on its head, too. Fenway is a circus attraction (ha, further into article they touch on it...), ffs. weak fly balls are home runs, wtf is that stupidity?

when you remove circus attractions and 'suspicious' data points, lol (groundskeepers? eneven data colection parameters?)... .872 correlation coefficient in the equation below for BABIP factor for a ballpark.

BABIP factor = 0.552*LD% + 0.320*GB% + 0.124*HR/FB


here's some real world coors field pitcher rankings, lol

2011 – .312 (29th)
2010 – .326 (30th)
2009 – .317 (29th)
2008 – .315 (29th)
2007 – .316 (26th)
2006 – .321 (28th)
2005 – .333 (30th)
2004 – .336 (30th)
2003 – .315 (t-30th)
2002 – .321 (30th)

>10% above league average in some years, i'd wager above average every year, which is pretty hard to do.

[LittleHurt81]

Frelick

[NoOne]

oh, i'd make sure the league is ~normal BABIP for what you want to see.... adjust that and re-assess.

depending on size of league, it'll sway bit in any one year... i have all 30 teams in 1 league.. think itls +/- 0.010ish? with a low chance of a crazy year?

[LittleHurt81]

Originally Posted by NoOne

short and sweet - better corner OF (assuming CF at least decent and ootp mimicing RL factors that highly correlate to BABIP factor of a ballpark) and better pitching. Some pitch types in ootp are better for babip than others.. google that for a good idea. KB is one for certain.

Santander is my RF and his defensive stats are solid (329 IN, +1.6 ZR, 1.067 EFF) and he's a 60/60/55 (POS/Range/Error). The more I look at the stats, the more it looks like Lowe is the problem in my outfield.

Does anyone know how much the 'RANGE' stat matters? There's no team stat, but see it with individuals and hard to tell when just looking at guys on your own team what is good.

I'll Google the pitch thing, because it is definitely something I have thought about. Mainly I have tried to buy guys or aquire players with high stuff (not a new idea) so they miss more bats.

[LittleHurt81]

Originally Posted by NoOne

oh, i'd make sure the league is ~normal BABIP for what you want to see.... adjust that and re-assess.

depending on size of league, it'll sway bit in any one year... i have all 30 teams in 1 league.. think itls +/- 0.010ish? with a low chance of a crazy year?

Seems normal. Was up a bit in 2021, but back down last year. We don't have the highest in all of MLB, just trying to search for answers on why my team sucks.

My starting CF and SS have missed time (Adames is still out), my 5 FA signings have produced 0.2 WAR in 47 games, overall it has been a nightmare scenario.

Only thing going for me is I have 2 ROTY candidates in the OF (Veen mostly playing DH).

[LittleHurt81]

Originally Posted by NoOne

Coors field is a dumpster fire. Not much you can do there...

hahah amazing what you find... i was at least half wrong about defense after a little superficial research. certainly can't rule it out, especially OF defense - likely more so at the corners than CF, unless you have a severely incompetent CF.

https://blogs.fangraphs.com/babip-pa...ll-connection/

the correlation coefficient table clears up some thigns too... e.g. gb% has vurtually no correlation to BABIP -- i'd wager this throws a wrench into infield defense having much to do with babip. it's inversely related, albeit weakly, with FB%. How much of that is home runs and OF defense, i don't know... but this is where i'd wager defense is helping the most. Also biggest range of defender quality at positions that require the least (CF being different than the corners)

From that table on FG I feel better about getting rid of flyball pitchers whenever possible. Seems Coors' FB/HR rate is insanely high.

What I need to really pull out is what pitch mix has success in our park.

I signed Marcus Stroman in 21/22 offseason (extreme groundball pitcher in the game) and that has turned out to mostly be a disaster... Looking at his pitch ratings I can see why now. Nothing about a 55 in any of his 5 pitches

[Argonaut]

Honestly for Coors I would still stick to regular defensive philosophy in OOTP.
Have a great C, SS, 2B, and CF defensively. Catcher Ability and IF/OF Range is king.
LF/RF I would still prioritize big bats, to take advantage of Coors offensively. Outscore your opponent.

Where I would look to change things up is the pitching staff. Focus on bigtime Stuff pitchers. Movement will be important too, should be at least 50. Strike guys out, keep the balls in play to a minimum. If you have great Catcher Ability you can sacrifice on Control a bit and pump up your Stuff.

[LittleHurt81]

Originally Posted by Argonaut

Honestly for Coors I would still stick to regular defensive philosophy in OOTP.
Have a great C, SS, 2B, and CF defensively. Catcher Ability and IF/OF Range is king.
LF/RF I would still prioritize big bats, to take advantage of Coors offensively. Outscore your opponent.

Where I would look to change things up is the pitching staff. Focus on bigtime Stuff pitchers. Movement will be important too, should be at least 50. Strike guys out, keep the balls in play to a minimum. If you have great Catcher Ability you can sacrifice on Control a bit and pump up your Stuff.

This is great feedback! Thanks!

Should I keep y'all posted on updates here or start a new thread? Title?