John Heneghan emailed me and told me about a modification he’s come up with for his 1965 replay. In keeping with the theme of my last post, it has to do with baserunning. In this case, it’s a way for good defensive catchers to have an effect on steals.
John says:
I have been replaying the last month of the APBA 1965 season in the National League. It has always bugged me that great catchers have no influence on base stealing so I devised a simple chart for catchers rated 8 or 9 in which the baserunner runs a risk if he rolls a result of 10 or 11 and decides to steal. I have found that using this chart, I increased the value of the 9 or 8 Catcher, raised the involvement level of the managers and placed a reasonable risk for players to steal a base against a good arm.
- I have found that I am more likely to hesitate to pinch hit or pinch run for a good fielding catcher
- In tight games I have to decide to bring in a defensive catcher for the later innings against a “running team”
- In the late innings in a tight game, its a nail biter when a 9 catcher is behind the plate and a batter rolls an 11 ..to steal or not to steal ?
- Finally it brings a little bit of reality to the stat, stolen bases vs caught stealing
Great Defensive Catchers vs the Stolen Base;
The charts below are used for catchers rated 8 or 9
when a batter’s first column 10 or 11 results in a
stolen base
Example: Ty Cobb’s roll results in an 11. If the opposing catcher is rated an 8 or 9 Cobb’s 11 no longer results in an automatic steal. First, Cobb’s manager decides to “Coach” Cobb and if he instructs him not to steal, Cobb remains on first & no dice are rolled. If Cobb is allowed to steal then Cobb’s manager rolls two dice & combines the dice. He then refers to the chart corresponding to the catchers rating *”Chance” refers to the percentage chance
I haven’t tried this so I can’t verify how this works but certainly looks interesting. John’s right in that the basic game doesn’t provide any disincentive for a player to not steal against a catcher with a cannon for an arm. Our league used to use a Catcher’s Throwing Chart on hit an run plays only but ditched it in our housecleaning move a few year’s back.
Thoughts anyone? Has anyone used such modification?
I like it!
I like this. I’m presently replaying 1916, where good defensive catchers are rare as hen’s teeth and each team seems to have at least three C-5s. Might as well make the good defensive catchers a little more valuable.
The only thing is, catcher ratings aren’t based only throwing out base runners. The pitcher’s ability to hold runners close should also factor into the equation. Maybe if there was some type of chart taking into consideration base stealing percentage versus caught stealing percentage of catcher, with number of attempts against a pitcher preventing runners from even trying to steal.
T. Ballgame is right but remember this the used only in the basic game. The charts purpose is recognize more value in a great fielding catcher and to do so in a “simple” way. A quick die roll & on to the next batter.
If there was a simple way to gauge “shut down” pitchers like Mark Buehrle useing APBA’s basic ratings then it would be easy to include his ability to hold runners into the equation.
Great system. My only question is shouldn’t the C(9) have more CS and runner holds than the C(8)?
Noticed that, too, Sean. I like the chart, but it does seem to weight 8s and 9s equally: Against either level catcher, a runner will have 8 steals, 1 caught, and 2 holds. I’m going to use this (thanks, John!) in my next basic-game project, but I’m thinking a tweak might be changing 8-1-2 to 6-4-1 for 9s and 7-2-2 for 8s, and maybe using a dice roll for the go/stay decision (I’m playing solitaire).
The Catcher 9’s have a better chance of throwing out or holding the runners. Note the percentages column in the far right column…there are more dice combinations that total 7 than that total 3…ditto rolling a 10 vs. rolling a 12…
Blake, you’re completely right; don’t know why I zoned out there for a second.
why not use the Master game modification???It takes into account pitcher; holding the runner on; and catcher arm rating…I made up a chart from the instructions and use it with the basic game