Developer Chat

SimLeague Baseball

tzentmeyer

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

1:00 PM - 2:00 PM EST


The LIVE portion of this chat will begin on

Wednesday, July 1, 2009 at 1:00 PM EST.

Welcome to the dev chat! Time to answer some questions...

Will there be a major re-design of the site as far as adding the Corners In, Double Play Depth bottons etc. to allow live owners to play games like they are played non live??? IF SO WHEN??? (lawman_185 - Hall of Famer - 1:07 PM)

The engine currently applies this logic during simulations. Based on a ton of research, the engine will play the infield in or corners in, etc. Adding these options to the managerial settings is possible, but we're not sure how necessary they are.

I'm considering transferring a 17 year old league to what if, and i have a few questions: each year GMs protect 8 keepers. in progressive mode, is there a way to use the live draft system with the 8 keepers already in place? the league uses a 4 year window that progresses where GMS can choose a season for their player. will the progressive function track career stats properly of say, Barry Bonds, regardless of what season is used or for what team owns him? thanks, jpccr (jpccr - Hall of Famer - 1:09 PM)

Several answers. As long as protections are announced ahead of time (forum or draft live chat area), you should be fine. The first X picks each team can make can then be those players and based on the theme settings, they won't be draftable again in the league. In terms of stat tracking, it's very easy to see how all the Barry Bonds (or whichever player) seasons have done in the history of the league.

Since trades amount to two people swapping AAA players, and causes a lot of suspision of collusion, is there any chance of making ke the open leagues to be default without trading? (paland - Hall of Famer - 1:10 PM)

We weren't aware of this being an issue in Open League play. If you ever suspect something, please submit a ticket with the details and we'll research as that would be a Fair Play violation. We'd hate to eliminate a good feature from Open Leagues if we can avoid it.

Why isnt there a way to limit SP to a certain number of innings??? If I set his PC to 105(average # for 7 innings) and he finishes the 7th inning with only 90 pitches thrown, he then goes back out for the 8th inning. I DONT WANT him to go out for the 8th inning, but there is no way to stop him. I want my setup guy to pitch the 8th, and my closer to pitch the 9th. (grayfoxx - Hall of Famer - 1:12 PM)

Good question and one that's been brought up in the past. The simple answer is that since the fatigue system is based on pitches thrown, the target and max settings follow suit. Changing to innings pitched rather than pitches makes sense in some areas but not in others. That said, we could always add an additional option for max innings as a secondary check for outing length. We can see the usefulness in it.

Why is playoff fatigue for pitchers so far off the regular season fatigue? (crackatoeha - Hall of Famer - 1:15 PM)

I'm not sure what you mean by that. Playoff fatigue works the same as regular season fatigue. There are a couple things to note, though. One, when playoffs begin all players start as if they had used up at least 95% of their allotment of plate appearances or pitches thrown. The other thing to remember is that the fatigue system is based on projected totals versus actual totals. The later in the season, including the playoffs, the projections are much more accurate since there's not as much opportunity remaining. There is also rest issued in the playoffs, which helps players recover.

Will pitchers,AAA or major league ever be able for use as DH or play the field,if their fielding grade warrant s it. (pete775 - Hall of Famer - 1:16 PM)

It's on our suggestion list. We can see the need for it, but are also concerned about some abuse cases since players that are pitchers fatigue based on pitches rather than plate appearances or innings in the field. We'd have to work though that, which probably means complicating the fatigue algorithm.

Not really a question, but a few suggestions. The time limit for a private league to turn into a public league is too short and often causes problems that delays league starts even further. That time should be extended at least a week or two. Secondly, when creating a league the commish should be able to set the cap up however they wish, instead of the preset amounts 60-80-100-120-140 etc.... (skonley - Hall of Famer - 1:18 PM)

Private leagues (non-theme) turn public quickly because our understanding of a private league is you have people you know that you want to play with you. As a result, the turnaround should be rather quick. With theme leagues, however, they never go from private to public because the premise behind those is you have a concept you want to use and it can take longer to fill. Adding an option for the user to specify a salary cap is on our suggestion list and makes sense to add. You'll see it at some point.

Is the design of the sim "aimed" at a certain league cap level, in terms of producing believable results? I think that most owners would say that the higher the cap is, the further away from any recognizable reality things get. Even so, all is not chaos in high-caps; there are definite strong patterns. Pre-1930's pitchers dominate; the greatest pitchers of the 1960's are close to being unusable; there is a large variability in the performance of HOF position players even in their career years. (rasluggo - Hall of Famer - 1:21 PM)

There is no target level outside of the fact it should jive with the interaction between the pitcher's season and his performance and the batter's season and his performance. With regards to realistic outcomes, it stands to reason that the smaller the cap the more realistic the odds because you're not dealing with as great of variation (meaning there's a certain percentage of all-stars, starters, bench guys). When you get into the high cap leagues, you're dealing with exceptional players across the board which means they aren't facing similar counterparts to their historical season.

tzentmeyer, What are the prospects for a couple changes to the Live interface that would be very helpful? 1-Increase the size of the sub button; 2-In the sub window, have Exit trigger the same delay before play resumes that Set Lineup does. (joshkvt - Hall of Famer - 1:22 PM)

First, let me say we can't wait to redesign LIVE from the ground up because it can be a million times better than what it is now. Due to some technical issues, we can't make any UI changes to the current interface. So, we have to wait for the complete re-do before we can make any user interface improvements.

Please define Game Winning RBI. (legaldh - Hall of Famer - 1:24 PM)

The RBI that accounts for the run that gives the team the lead that is never lost. So, if you are in a 3-3 game and you drive in a run, the game is 4-3. That RBI is the game winner. Say you score 5 more runs so it's 8-3. Then you give up 2 more runs so it's 8-5. The game winning RBI has not changed because the 1-run lead has never been lost.

Why does SIM not value fielding more highly? If it did, SIM would more closely resemble real baseball. (Giants62 - Hall of Famer - 1:26 PM)

Fielding is broken into 3 parts: fielding percentage, range and catcher arm. Range is based on a relative range factor approach. If the question is geared towards range, our response is it's working pretty well but it could be improved so that all positions see more variation in +/- plays. Fielding is straight up. We'd like to move to a relative fielding percentage system down the road. Catcher arm is also straight up, but is combined with the other stealing factors. I'm not sure if I answered your question completely. If not, please be more specific.

Suggestion : It would reallly help if the Player Hierarchy , Defensive Repalcement page ( Manager's Center area ) showed the fielding grades of the players , both primary and secondary positions. Would take a lot of space , granted, but it is necessary info... (tegesta - All-Star - 1:27 PM)

We'll review and see what we can fit in.

Since the format changed to allow 6 or 8 teams in each division, Is there any way you could adjust the team's position in the Team Center, under Active Teams? The position shows only 1st, 2nd, 3rd, or 4th if my team is in 5th, 6th, 7th or 8th (Heaven forbid), it just show "4th". Not a biggie, but it would be nice to have it accurate. (cardsfan - Hall of Famer - 1:27 PM)

We weren't aware of that bug -- we will correct.

Any way to help progressive leagues .For example if a vacancy occurs anyway WIS cam have a computer generated stand in so we are not delayed for long periods of time trying to find an owner.More play means more money for you. (jeff4noles - Hall of Famer - 1:28 PM)

Interesting idea. Please start a thread in the forums gathering feedback from everyone of what all would be needed and we'll see what we can do.

Is there any plan to normalize pre 1920 fielding? (rochayes - Hall of Famer - 1:28 PM)

Related to a previous question -- we are considering going with a relative fielding percentage concept similar to how we do range.

Why don't you have A, B & C leagues and put teams in according to overall records. It seems the same teams are winning all the ime! (richrollins - Hall of Famer - 1:30 PM)

We attempted something similar with our Champions League concept. Heightened prizes, restricted eligibility. But it appears most users would prefer to dominate with lesser competition. For those that do play in the Champion Leagues, we know they enjoy it. Doing a forced approach, like your idea, would result in more alias accounts and support requests of dropping out of a league until you get in one you like better. We've considered this approach, but it's one where the cons outweigh the pros.

why is it that Fatigue appeard so different from 1 league to another? I really think you need to change the fatigue factor and improve it somehow. (whatif40 - Hall of Famer - 1:31 PM)

I'm assuming the answer is because the usage varied from league to league. We do our best to spell out how the fatigue system works. If you hover over the fatigue indicator in the Manager's Office, it'll always tell you why a player is fatigued.

Does the WIS baseball sim use left-right splits, and in what way? (rasluggo - Hall of Famer - 1:32 PM)

Not yet. We use historical factors. As split data has become more and more available and with our recent site redesign providing more real estate, the chance of us introducing it has improved greatly.

Is it possible to expand splits to include stats vs individual teams?Perhaps even vs. individual pitchers and hitters? (Toejams - All-Star - 1:33 PM)

Is it possible? Sure. But you are talking a TON of data. The space isn't the issue, but the drain on the database is a concern.

Hello have you guys ever looked at making the first round of the playoffs the best of 7 also (amycox67 - Hall of Famer - 1:34 PM)

On our suggestion list is adding an option to the theme league wizard to allow the creator to specify this. For default leagues, we go with what the MLB uses.

Is there any plans to re-fix TOC fatigue. It needed adjusting, but instead of tweaking it you over compensated X4. Basically you changed the TOC into a different game than a regular season or even the playoffs. (grizzly_one - Hall of Famer - 1:35 PM)

We weren't aware of the TOC fatigue needing improvement. If many of you feel there is an issue with this, please create a thread and supply rationale.

Let's say I draft 2 pitchers, each with around 30 innings, and I set them both to Closer A. Now let's say one of them pitches really well against lefties and the other pitches very well against righties. Normally I could solve this problem using LH Specialist & RH Specialist, but what if I want them to remain as the closers, meaning a LH Specialist Closer and a RH Specialist Closer? (Ellpaul - Hall of Famer - 1:36 PM)

You can make them specialists that can only enter in the desired inning and not have a closer. This will give you what you want in a lot of cases but it won't be perfect as there's unique code tied to the "closer" role.

In the previous version, when setting your lineups in the manager center it used to be if you made a mistake, the lineup would only discard the mistake and save all valid changes. In this version if you make a mistake you have to redo the all of changes until the entire lineup is valid. That is more of an irritation than a huge problem, but could be fixed. Thanks. (skonley - Hall of Famer - 1:37 PM)

We'll review. I don't think we want it saving a partial lineup, but maintaining the partial lineup until you correct it and save makes sense.

If you can estimate CS figures for players and catchers before the statistics were kept, can you estimate fielding for DH? (legaldh - Hall of Famer - 1:38 PM)

We do. We assume DH players are 1B with slightly below D- averages. If they play another position, they follow the same spectrum adjustments as if they were a 1B.

Are there any plans to update the ballpark ratings? While Coors field is still a hitters parks, it isn't as crazy as it was a few years ago. (rochayes - Hall of Famer - 1:39 PM)

We'll continue to revisit every few years for existing parks that change play (such as Coors). In addition, we'll continue to add and update recent new parks.

Suggestions: It would really help if there were settings that would insure that players with relatively low fatigue were never rested by players with high fatigue, I understand you can manuallly set the rest hierarchy to achieve this result but an overriding (optional) setting would simplify things. (tegesta - All-Star - 1:39 PM)

In addition to the hierarchy, don't forget the player settings. If you don't want your star RF ever rested for player rest or defensive purposes (or PH or PR), you can uncheck the box. Then, they won't be lifted for that reason.

ROOKIES- Why do most rookies have very poor stamina? Also you should figure out a way to distribute the AAA players. Sometimes my season is over before my 1st game, seeing all the crappy rookies. You should #1 fix the rookies fatigue, they should all be at B or C level. Have a couple A and a couple F. Also the rookies pitchers are very hard to figure out. you should give each team at least 1 decent rookie pitcher. It seems 1 team gets 2 good ones and another team gets 2 really bad ones. (whatif40 - Hall of Famer - 1:42 PM)

The premise of AAA players in Open Leagues is to provide a supplement to the drafted team. The generated prospects are created from a range of salaried players. While a 1B prospect may have a low stamina rating, his other stats make up for it. On the flip side, you may have a 1B with high stamina, but his inferior other stats bring him down. These guys should not be playing a major role on your team. Part of the game play experience is figuring out how best to use each of these types of prospects in a meaningful way.

Would WIS consider creating standard open leagues ($80 million) that bar clones, as an option? (rasluggo - Hall of Famer - 1:43 PM)

The concept of this is great, but the implementation is a nightmare. 24 teams in the league, but why should team 1 get first crack at players?

Related to the fielding questions, how serious are you guys about implementing the relative fielding and how soon could we realistically expect to see that implemented? That's one of the features I've been most clamoring for for years. (just4me - Hall of Famer - 1:43 PM)

Very serious. Within the next 6 months.

followup on splits - ages ago I was told by support that you used actual splitrs for seasons from and after 1997 - presumably because that data was available - not true? (mamxet - Hall of Famer - 1:44 PM)

Not true.

It would be nice if we could switch pitcher before the game.If I was in the playoffs and the series was 2-2 and I lost game 5 I would to be able to put my best pitcher in for game 6 But if I won game 5 and was up 3-2 would like to not use my ace pitcher (amycox67 - Hall of Famer - 1:44 PM)

This is also on our suggestion list as a playoffs only feature. We're not sure how we'd implement it yet, though. We understand the need for it, though.

In determining the outcome of a plate appearance, is it true that the type of out is decided after the decision of whether the hitter is out? (legaldh - Hall of Famer - 1:45 PM)

We'd prefer not to answer this one.

Re your use of "historical factors" for lh/rh split results. I thought there was a single , constant factor applied to account for splts, eg. rh batter gets a 10% positive adjustment when he faces a left handed pitcher. On the other hand when you say "historical" do you mean there is some sort of year to year normalization involved ? (tegesta - All-Star - 1:45 PM)

Yes, historical meaning a flat constant for all players based on the 4 matchup combinations: RH/RH, LH/LH, RH/LH, LH/RH.

When a deadball pitcher like 1886 Bob Caruthers faces a modern hitter like 2004 Barry Bonds what era is the ball from? (legaldh - Hall of Famer - 1:46 PM)

The ball is partially from 1886 and partially from 2004. It's like one of those dual-sided baseballs Pizza Hut gave away years ago.

Related to my last question on fatigue, are there any plans or considerations for adjusting the projection models to something along the lines of what tellysavalas and johngpf have suggested that factor in the rest days and length of seasons by days rather than just games? (This would see pitchers like John Clarkson project closer to 700 IP rather than 900 and make them much more usable, as well as have a seemingly helpful affect on seasonal usage fatigue as well.) (just4me - Hall of Famer - 1:48 PM)

We have already built the lack of off days into the fatigue equation. Again, we're not saying our fatigue formula could not be improved, but it does account for the lack of offdays in the standard schedule. That's why it's based on projections vs actual rather than a pitch tank system like we use in Hardball Dynasty.

Please describe how the ballpark effect, for instance Baker Bowl's +4 for 2B, impacts the outcome of whether a particular hit is a double. (legaldh - Hall of Famer - 1:49 PM)

The chance of a type of hit for is increased by an underlying numeric factor. We choose to represent these factors by groupings rather than the actual values.

How about increasing the salary cap and removing the AAA players entirely? (tommymax - Hall of Famer - 1:51 PM)

The $80M cap is in place because we want our Open Leagues to be about realism and teams comprised of standard team elements: starters, platoons, bench guys, etc. The intent of prospects is to add some element of uncertainty, but not to tip the scale in favor of one team over another.

Are there any plans to try to work with the HBD style pitching fatigue that was considered before the last major update (before other bugs in the fatigue basically forced the scrapping of that plan) again as an improvement to the current fatigue system for pitchers? (just4me - Hall of Famer - 1:52 PM)

Yes. When time permits, we'd like to explore this.

Mop-up, designated to use either winning or losing, as of the 7th inning. Pull at 3, several other available relievers, since it's the first game of the season. With 2 outs in the sixth, mop-up is brought into a tie game. He surrenders several runs, and presto, now he is really the mop-up. So he stays for a couple of more innings, giving up more runs, 10 in all. That's ridiculous. Can anything be done to improve the logic? (rasluggo - Hall of Famer - 1:53 PM)

Without seeing the boxscore, I can't answer this one fully. Please submit a ticket and we'll review. If something can be improved, we'll do it.

Any plans for assisting progressives in posting keepers, drafting, tracking DL players and draft picks. The present use of the forums leaves something to be desired. (firecapt - Hall of Famer - 1:54 PM)

If this is a strong need for our progressive league players, we ask that you formulate ideas and wish lists in a forum thread and then bring it to our attention via a support ticket. We'll review and see what we can do. We knew when we put out the progressive league update that there'd be a follow-up update once everyone got the hang of them.

how can an owner use a pitcher in the pinch hitter priority list? (bluesguy - Hall of Famer - 1:54 PM)

Currently, he cannot. In LIVE play, you can.

There has been some interest expressed in the forums from time to time in a "create your own player" feature. While this does not particularly interest me, it does seem to have a following. Would you consider allowing a theme league option where users could generate a player with the statistics they wanted that would be priced according to the typical salary formula? (dahsdebater - Hall of Famer - 1:55 PM)

This is on our suggestion list. While it's a cool idea, we always have to weigh what feature would have the most impact. This one has always been lower on the list.

When can we have a wider variety in what we do in baseball? (poiuy123 - Veteran - 1:55 PM)

Not sure what you mean by this one. Please expand in a support ticket.

Why aren't certain listed such as ground into DP, BA w/ runner's in scoring position, etc? (bourne - Rookie - 1:56 PM)

We'd like to expand our stat tracking now that we have expanded our site's width. This'll happen sometime in the future.

How come i have a above average AAA player who has 8 control,3 velocity, and 3 effectiveness and he has the second lowest era on my team in a 140 million league? (aljon1331 - All-Star - 1:57 PM)

Without knowing how many games you've played thus far, my immediate answer is sample size. Give him time and, with those ratings, he should regress.

When will WIS add performance histories for all salary caps instead of just for open leagues? (legaldh - Hall of Famer - 1:58 PM)

Since any league without a $80M salary cap is a theme league, this info would not prove useful. Since theme leagues have many different rules, any output from a theme league wouldn't be very helpful.

There's a little glitch in LIVE play that fails to understand pitchers used as pinch hitters. For example, after 6 innings the game is tied at 2. You pinch hit for your starter in the top of the 7th with another pitcher. You score 2 runs in the inning and bring in a relief pitcher for the bottom of the 7th (or leave the pinch hitter in to pitch). The game credits the win to the pinch hitter, while according to the rules of the game it should go to the starting pitcher. Any chance of fixing this? (dahsdebater - Hall of Famer - 1:59 PM)

If you see this in a boxscore, please submit to support so we can review. This one can be fixed.

Does WIS have plans to add 1) Corners In, 2) Double Play Depth, 3) Guard Lines, and 4) Outfield Shallow to the LIVE game play? (legaldh - Hall of Famer - 1:59 PM)

In the re-design, most definitely.

In explaining why Rube Waddell was striking out so few batters, WIS explained the numbers were accurate because "About a third of his outs should be a strikeout" (see Ticket #76063). How important are K/9# and K/9+ in determining strikeout numbers for a pitcher? (legaldh - Hall of Famer - 2:00 PM)

It's the pitcher's K/AB ratio that's important. Along with the batter's K/AB ratio and the league averages from those two seasons. The /9 is just a variant on that ratio.

When pre-modern equipment players like 1887 Tip O'Neil take the field, do they have a modern glove? (legaldh - Hall of Famer - 2:01 PM)

No, they have the same glove they had in 1887.

Do you see any major revisions coming in the future to the SIM? Any pricing changes? (rocky2007 - Hall of Famer - 2:01 PM)

We are working on a minor update now. Nothing groundbreaking, but some nice solutions to various problems. Our next update will be larger in scope.

Thanks to everyone for participating. We hope you found it useful. Good luck in your leagues!

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