Bunting

[Cowboys3356]

I have noticed that in historical leagues about 90% of players have a bunting rating of 1 or 2 (not counting pitchers who are always very high). Is there something that can be done to improve the sac bunting and bunting for hit ratings?

Having such poor bunting players really eliminates a bit of the strategy when you are playing the games out.

[daves]

Good point. Also, bunting is not a visible rating when drafting. I like to draft a good bunter or two for strategy purposes.

[SteveP]

Originally Posted by Cowboys3356

I have noticed that in historical leagues about 90% of players have a bunting rating of 1 or 2 (not counting pitchers who are always very high). Is there something that can be done to improve the sac bunting and bunting for hit ratings?

Having such poor bunting players really eliminates a bit of the strategy when you are playing the games out.

It's another dimension of the problem with bunting in OOTP. The reason is clearly that there are no bunt stats in the Lahman DB in earlier years, so the game invents ratings so that there is something there. Of course, the ratings are so low that no one bunts. It has been argued that this is necessary because otherwise batting averages would get screwed up. I do not share that view. However, fixing it is difficult. I can tell you some pointers for getting better bunting behavior, but part of it involves exporting rosters and doing extensive rating manipulation in Excel or some similar program.

You can get a better distribution of sac bunts between pitchers and batters without fussing with ratings. However, there is some complication to that as well. What you have to do is change the league strategy for bunting to "Very Often" and then radically adjust the League Total Modifier for sac bunting to offset the effect of this change (using a technique like the one described here: Steps for getting more realistic stats in your first season). The result of doing this will not be completely realistic but more so than the default settings.

There are also changes you can make in the config file, but I'll won't get into that now.

Of course, the easiest solution is to just accept that no one bunts in OOTP historicals.

Hope that helps.

[Left-handed Badger]

Well, looking at baseball-reference EVERYBODY just about could bunt. Babe Ruth would drop a couple of sac. bunts a year. Many other great hitters would put up 10+. (guys nobody today would ever ask to bunt because it'd take their .350 hitting bat out of the lineup.) I'd say about 90% should get at least 2 of 5, and probably 80% at least 3-5. (well less in the 1940-70 era)

[Left-handed Badger]

Originally Posted by SteveP

It's another dimension of the problem with bunting in OOTP. The reason is clearly that there are no bunt stats in the Lahman DB in earlier years, so the game invents ratings so that there is something there. Of course, the ratings are so low that no one bunts. It has been argued that this is necessary because otherwise batting averages would get screwed up. I do not share that view. However, fixing it is difficult. I can tell you some pointers for getting better bunting behavior, but part of it involves exporting rosters and doing extensive rating manipulation in Excel or some similar program.

You can get a better distribution of sac bunts between pitchers and batters without fussing with ratings. However, there is some complication to that as well. What you have to do is change the league strategy for bunting to "Very Often" and then radically adjust the League Total Modifier for sac bunting to offset the effect of this change (using a technique like the one described here: Steps for getting more realistic stats in your first season). The result of doing this will not be completely realistic but more so than the default settings.

There are also changes you can make in the config file, but I'll won't get into that now.

Of course, the easiest solution is to just accept that no one bunts in OOTP historicals.

Hope that helps.

Well, I know you are kidding by your smilie. But, if no one can bunt in historicals, then it pretty much is no use to play historicals.

Though, it seems your suggestion would just result in more people attempting to bunt, but failing badly at it.

[SteveP]

Originally Posted by Left-handed Badger

Though, it seems your suggestion would just result in more people attempting to bunt, but failing badly at it.

Yes. For most OOTPers, that is what they would see.

I put it that way because solving the problem is complicated and involves a lot of trial and error. I did some work on this with OOTP9, and am starting to get back into it now with an historical league in OOTP10. Basically, the solution involves changes to league strategy settings, possible changes to team strategy sliders, massive changes to bunt ratings, and changes to the config file. All of which can have negative consequences if people aren't really experienced with these elements of the game. For anyone who feels they are up to the challenge (), I'd be happy to provide some guidance from my own experiments with this problem. As I say, it's still a work in progress for me.

[SteveP]

Originally Posted by Left-handed Badger

Well, looking at baseball-reference EVERYBODY just about could bunt. Babe Ruth would drop a couple of sac. bunts a year. Many other great hitters would put up 10+. (guys nobody today would ever ask to bunt because it'd take their .350 hitting bat out of the lineup.) I'd say about 90% should get at least 2 of 5, and probably 80% at least 3-5. (well less in the 1940-70 era)

An example of how this subject can be confusing. There is historical data on SHs. That data is reflect in the SH ratings for historical players. However, in OOTP, there is problem in the distribution of SHs between pitchers and batters. Pitchers SH too often, and as a result, batters don't get to SH has much as they did IRL. That is also a problem in all OOTP games, not just historicals.