Defensive Efficiency

[ScudDawg]

I have a very high Defensive team who is usually top 3 in Zone Rating every year. I noticed this season my Defensive Efficiency is 15th. I do not play with sliders for my defense. Is that something that would help some or is my team just under-performing this week? I was wondering if anyone has some good tips. My team in question has these guys:

C - Berra
1B - Bagwell
2B - Evers
3B - Ward
SS - Tinker (last year 20/20 player, this year 1HR 323AB, lol)
RF - Gwynn (weak link)
CF - Ichiro
LF - Rickey Henderson

I am not losing my mind over this, just wondering what the heck is happening, lol.

[chazzycat]

how's your ZR this season? Generally, if ZR is good but DEF is bad, that's just some bad BABIP luck and should correct itself. Assuming you didn't change your park factors.

When you say defense sliders, are you referring to the infield shifts? Leaving that at neutral is probably not ideal...I would recommend bumping that up to the right a bit for sure. That could be part of the problem...bad positioning would affect DEF more than ZR

[Orcin]

Originally Posted by chazzycat

how's your ZR this season? Generally, if ZR is good but DEF is bad, that's just some bad BABIP luck and should correct itself. Assuming you didn't change your park factors.

When you say defense sliders, are you referring to the infield shifts? Leaving that at neutral is probably not ideal...I would recommend bumping that up to the right a bit for sure. That could be part of the problem...bad positioning would affect DEF more than ZR

I would recommend moving it to the left if your infield range is high. Why position yourself to be unable to make a play?

[chazzycat]

I've always thought that more shifting just means the positioning is tailored to the batters tendencies more frequently. I.e. loading up the right side against extreme-pull lefties. No shifting would mean "leave the fielders in the standard positions at all times" i.e. old school baseball. I'm pretty sure analytics and whatnot have proven that shifts work...otherwise they wouldn't be rampant in MLB

[Orcin]

Originally Posted by chazzycat

I've always thought that more shifting just means the positioning is tailored to the batters tendencies more frequently. I.e. loading up the right side against extreme-pull lefties. No shifting would mean "leave the fielders in the standard positions at all times" i.e. old school baseball. I'm pretty sure analytics and whatnot have proven that shifts work...otherwise they wouldn't be rampant in MLB

As you are fond of pointing out... this isn't real baseball.

[chazzycat]

It's pretty close though as far as simulations go! Generally speaking, it's fairly safe to assume that stuff that works in real baseball also works in OOTP. Until proven otherwise with data. That's usually my approach at least.

[Orcin]

Originally Posted by chazzycat

It's pretty close though as far as simulations go! Generally speaking, it's fairly safe to assume that stuff that works in real baseball also works in OOTP. Until proven otherwise with data. That's usually my approach at least.

The experiments that I saw with last year's version (can't remember the exact thread) showed that the slider didn't have that much impact anyway, so it probably is a moot point. I agree my view is clearly "old school" and the modern anal-lytics prove me wrong.

P.S. I am going all-in on your park factors / roster comp theory, so I will let you know if it works. I won't hold you responsible if it fails. It is my belief that I can't do any worse so might as well try it for the sake of the knowledge.

[ScudDawg]

Originally Posted by chazzycat

how's your ZR this season? Generally, if ZR is good but DEF is bad, that's just some bad BABIP luck and should correct itself. Assuming you didn't change your park factors.

When you say defense sliders, are you referring to the infield shifts? Leaving that at neutral is probably not ideal...I would recommend bumping that up to the right a bit for sure. That could be part of the problem...bad positioning would affect DEF more than ZR

My park factors are the same as last season. I have another team with slightly higher ratings that is first in ZR and Def Eff. with the same settings, could be some bad luck. Yeah sliders I was referring to were the infield shifts.