Quote:
Originally Posted by BruceM
A release date that coincides with MLB opening day.
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How does Opening Day 2011 suit?
Quote:
Originally Posted by AirmenSmith
Oh since we can set a salary cap how about a salary floor. That is something I wish the real MLB had, then those teams, marlins, would actually spend the money that the yankees give them.
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This is the Yankee-fan backlash to justify their obscene payroll. They complain that the zillions of dollars they pay into luxury tax go towards horrible non-ballplayer related things like keeping the team out of bankruptcy, making payments on their stadiums, or paying vendors at the ballpark. For shame that you don't have the endless resources of the Yankees!
New Pitches
Since we have a new pitching system, this is the rate of historical importance of each major pitch type that came from my pitch research (historical importance is roughly something like number of pitchers who threw the pitch combined with how important it was in their repertoire:
Pitch (Historical Importance)
Fastball (205527)
Curve (132346)
Slider (98897)
Change (91579)
Sinker (41087)
Palmball (14255)
Knuckleball (11533)
Splitter (11094)
Screwball (9686)
Cutter (8769)
Forkball (8648)
Spitball (8139)
Knuckle Curve (1669)
Circle Change (1544)
Slurve (1485)
Blooper/Eephus (286)
Foshball (285)
Gyroball (8)
As you can see, Palmballs and Spitballs are pretty high up there. I was surprised how many recent pitchers were reported by scouts to be throwing a version of a Palmball.
I would rank that Palmball as a pitch to consider adding in a future version, along with the Spitball and the Eephus. Of course we both mentioned the additional coding that might have to go into a Spitball, and frankly, the Eephus might need some special coding to prevent the AI from throwing it more than a few times a season.
Gyroball is a special case. It's not thrown in the US, but it seems to be a pitch attributed to a number of players in Japan. While it may not be useful for an MLB league, it would be useful for an NPB league.
I also included the Foshball as a separate pitch, but I'd rate it as questionable as the Slurve. It ranks in about the Eephus, but frankly, the Eephus is clearly a unique pitch type, where as Slurves and Foshballs are less distinct than their Slider/Forkball counterparts.
And the best news is that with all that research done, I'm ready to generate another file for OOTP should any of these pitches make it into the game.
Extra Spitball Functionality
Spitballs would need need a lot of new functionality around them:
- You'd need a bit field or year field at the league level for if the Spitball is legal.
- You'd probably a bit field at the player level for those who were grandfathered after it was banned.
- After it is banned in the league, if caught, they could have that Disliked rating that you have for substance abusers.
- You'd probably want to still generate spitballers after they were illegal at a very low rate. To be honest, rather than generate the spitball at player creation, it may be better created for an older (30+ year old) player triggered by an injury event. In fact, maybe it can piggyback off those new "player has decided to retire" events during rehab. A small change that for a pitcher, rather than retire, they get a pretty good rated spitball and decide to return.
Standard pitches by year
And it would also be nice to have a group of acceptable pitches by year, possibly fed in through a database file. That way, you don't have Circle Changes being thrown in your fictional 1800s league. You'd have Fastballs, Sinkers, Curves and Changes. While I was researching, I noticed that every AAAA pitcher in the 50s and 60s seemed to have a knuckleball that they were using as a change of pace pitch.