[Markus Heinsohn]

While spending the weekend in bed with a damned flu, I had some time to think about poise and what it was supposed to do, and what it is/may be in real life.

Actually it was intended as a rating that slightly influences all numbers that a pitcher has control of, so K's, BB's and HR's... the intend was to being able to create a wider variety of pitcher types. However, this would have been a completely random rating when importing historical seasons. And how should it work in the player development? Is this really a talent you can develop? Also, I didn't like the term 'poise' from the start, since it is easy to misunderstand and you can interpret all sorts of stuff into it.

So, with all the discussion going on, and with some further thinking, I came to the conclusion that this is nonsense. So, the rating was scratched.

Here is the final list of pitcher ratings:
Stuff (heavily influences Ks)
Movement (Influences HRs)
Control (Influences BBs, and slightly Ks and HRs)
Velocity (Slightly influences Ks)

Endurance, Hold Runners, HBP, Balks and WPs.

Cheers,
Markus

[Crapshoot]

You rock Markus!

[dougaiton]

Good stuff! Historical league capability would have been a real problem. Cheers.

[Mike D]

Hope your feeling better so you can hurry with the new game and produce some screen shots.

[Karen Lutz]

hey Markus, are you "serious"?

[clarnzz]

Good news Markus. I feel like the ratings in themselves tend to create pitchers who already reflect what you were going for with "poise" anyways, so it won't be missed by me. The youngster with great stuff that hasn't developed his control and movement, the crafty veteran who relies on his control and movement to be effective despite medicore stuff. Looking forward to the finished product!

Thanks for the update.

[Dargone]

I think that is a good idea Looking forward to OOTP6...

[obaslg]

Thanks, Markus!

[draven085]

Excellent news Markus. Your official StatHeadzzzz membership card will be in the mail later today.

[matskralc]

Thanks, Markus! Keep up the good work!

[rcbuss]

Echoing my thoughts in the other thread, a BABIP rating (as opposed to "poise") wouldn't be a bad idea, however keeping this rating "hidden" would make sense, given that this is something about a pitcher that is often only known retrospectively. See excerpt from my post in that thread below:

"We know now that many pitchers have the distinct ability to prevent hits on balls in play over the course of a career (see Tom Tippett's excellent article on this at http://www.diamond-mind.com/articles/ipavg2.htm), however this is something that is often known only retrospectively about a pitcher, after he's pitched several seasons. For this reason, keeping this rating "hidden" makes sense."

[Swan]

Bravo Marcus! Take a bow!

[mlyons]

So apart from the "gap" rating for hitters, ratings will be essentially unchanged from OOTP5 if you were already using the reduced ratings system, right? That ought to make it pretty easy to convert leagues.

[draven085]

Originally posted by mlyons
So apart from the "gap" rating for hitters, ratings will be essentially unchanged from OOTP5 if you were already using the reduced ratings system, right? That ought to make it pretty easy to convert leagues.

I'm quite certain that despite sharing a name the ratings will not mean the same thing in version 5 and version 6. Since there won't be an 'avoid hits' rating at all, everything will change.

[Carlton]

If Velocity has a very little effect on anything but K's why not scrap that too?

As for HBP, WP and balks...I always hated that being a rating.

Why isn't that determined by control??
And those 3 things might have been a good thing to just combine and throw into a Focus or Poise type talent. Less talent, more Hit batsmen, wild pitches and balks

At the very least make those 3 things random, hidden or thrown into the Control aspect.

[Giants44]

I am clearly in the minority here - but I thought the Poise rating was a good idea, and one of the things I was looking forward to most in v6.

Stats are one thing, and actual baseball is another. Poise does matter for a pitcher - I have seen far too many real baseball games for some stat-head to convince me with some numbers otherwise.

[LivnLegend]

No public outcry for the return of poise? How unshocked am I?

[sporr]

Yes, Markus has already said that the game will much more accurately reflect how the outcome of a plate appearance is determined, so only the rating names will be the same in OOTP6, but not their actual effect.

As for velocity, it seems to me that it is a distinct rating that couldn't be lumped in with any other.

The same goes for HBP and Balks. You don't necessarily have to have poor control to hit a lot of batters or balk a lot. A pitcher like Pedro Martinez has great control but still hits a lot of batters for other reasons.

[BaseballMan]

Originally posted by Giants44
I am clearly in the minority here - but I thought the Poise rating was a good idea, and one of the things I was looking forward to most in v6.

Stats are one thing, and actual baseball is another. Poise does matter for a pitcher - I have seen far too many real baseball games for some stat-head to convince me with some numbers otherwise.

Well theres nothing wrong with havent another opinion.
But are the pitcher's stats a result of poise or poise the result of his stats.

[Bluenoser]

Originally posted by LivnLegend
No public outcry for the return of poise? How unshocked am I?

I'm not surprised there's no public outcry for the return. What surprised me was the public outcry against it when nobody really knew what they were getting to start with. A lot of speculation was made about what it might be.

I was never for or against it. I was quite happy to take the wait and see approach. As I said previously, if it didn't work, or was just plain wrong, I'm sure Marcus would have made the necessary adjustments promptly given his past record on dealing with issues in the game.