OK - it's been awhile, so I am going to try and demolish the + plays record. I think the key is to draft BAD pitching. So that's what I did. I entered a team in an open league (only my 5th or 6th open team ever).

I got a bunch of pitchers with whips in the 1.30 to 1.50 range. Of course, they are all A++++ range. My starting eight batters include '14 Speaker (1b), '87 C.Welch (2b), '88 Bonilla (3b), '18 Bancroft (ss), '57 Ashburn (of), '73 B.North (of) and '28 Douthit. I am playing in League Park II. Keep in mind that I'm not trying to win games, so I spent only $27 million on my pitching staff (although I drafted 1446 IP).

good luck, 318 is the number to beat!

I might try another one too with similarly bad pitching but different hitters in a different park, but I hate running teams that I know will rack up the losses and hurt my owner-level win%

that's what ozomatli2's for

does range get discounted the same as fielding % when you move up or down the fielding spectrum? if not, you could also play all these guys out of position, where they'd make relatively more errors but the same + plays...

I've actually thought about this effect before and wondered if you could make an entire lineup of A+ range 1B...for instance it looks like '94 Doyle makes a ton of errors but some + plays at SS based on performance history...

Posted by schwarze on 7/22/2019 4:49:00 PM (view original):
OK - it's been awhile, so I am going to try and demolish the + plays record. I think the key is to draft BAD pitching. So that's what I did. I entered a team in an open league (only my 5th or 6th open team ever).

I got a bunch of pitchers with whips in the 1.30 to 1.50 range. Of course, they are all A++++ range. My starting eight batters include '14 Speaker (1b), '87 C.Welch (2b), '88 Bonilla (3b), '18 Bancroft (ss), '57 Ashburn (of), '73 B.North (of) and '28 Douthit. I am playing in League Park II. Keep in mind that I'm not trying to win games, so I spent only $27 million on my pitching staff (although I drafted 1446 IP).

Maybe my thinking is wrong here, but does bad pitching really make that much of a difference? There are 27 outs per game, regardless of who is pitching. Can you get a + play on a play where an out isn't recorded?

If not, then all that really matters is balls in play, which can be achieved with low-K pitchers, good or bad.

Bad pitchers = higher likelihood of a hit = higher likelihood of needing a + play to record an out

I've entered a team into a $120M no-DH league. Once the league starts, I'll publish my roster. I went with good (but not great) pitching for that cap level. But since I'm playing in Hilltop Park and my pitchers are low-BB/low-K/higher-OAVG types, they're not necessarily optimal for that environment. However, I wanted to be competitive and having solid pitchers who fit this description in a park that doesn't favor them should increase the number of balls in play.

Posted by Jtpsops on 7/23/2019 4:51:00 PM (view original):

Posted by schwarze on 7/22/2019 4:49:00 PM (view original):
OK - it's been awhile, so I am going to try and demolish the + plays record. I think the key is to draft BAD pitching. So that's what I did. I entered a team in an open league (only my 5th or 6th open team ever).

I got a bunch of pitchers with whips in the 1.30 to 1.50 range. Of course, they are all A++++ range. My starting eight batters include '14 Speaker (1b), '87 C.Welch (2b), '88 Bonilla (3b), '18 Bancroft (ss), '57 Ashburn (of), '73 B.North (of) and '28 Douthit. I am playing in League Park II. Keep in mind that I'm not trying to win games, so I spent only $27 million on my pitching staff (although I drafted 1446 IP).

Maybe my thinking is wrong here, but does bad pitching really make that much of a difference? There are 27 outs per game, regardless of who is pitching. Can you get a + play on a play where an out isn't recorded?

If not, then all that really matters is balls in play, which can be achieved with low-K pitchers, good or bad.

with a couple rare exceptions (throwing out the lead runner on a sac bunt, first baseman saving an infielder a throwing error), the only way to get a + play is when the batter gets a hit (good range outfielder turns a triple into a double or a double into a single) or would have gotten a hit without the great play by the defender.

so if your pitching is giving up 18 non-HR hits per game before taking defense into account, that's twice as many chances to get a + play then if your pitching is giving up 9 non-HR hits per game. K rate doesn't matter at all, all that matters is the rate at which the pitcher allows non-HR hits.

Just take a look at the defensive leaders in the Good-Bad-Ugly theme. There were some pretty big + numbers for guys who all played on BAD teams. That's where I got the idea.

I've entered one in an open league. But I think a Theme league would be better because you can use a more extreme Ballpark like the Palace.

Pitchers need to have a high OAV#, medium to low BB#, and medium to low HR # to give the fielders plenty of chances to make + plays. Basically bad dead ball pitchers.

Depends if you’re trying to win or not. If you’re not trying to win, then BB/9 and HR/9 don’t matter since neither has anyimpact on the number of future chances in that game

This is the lineup I have for the $120M league. I'm using Speaker at 1B but I could just as easily have him in the OF and flip Erstad to 1B. The bench players have A+ range except for C. I briefly looked at trying to maximize range w/ pitchers but decided there wasn't enough upside to make it worthwhile. The team will play at Hilltop.

Name (Bats) Pos Order % PA/162 AB/162 HR RBI SB AVG OBP SLG $
Billy North '73 (S) CF* 1 100 642 554 5 34 53 .285 .376 .348 5.63M
Tris Speaker '14 (L) 1B^ 2 100 708 605 4 90 42 .338 .423 .503 9.36M
Ivan Rodriguez '96 (R) C * 3 100 685 639 19 86 5 .300 .342 .473 5.84M
Matt Chapman '18 (R) 3B* 4 100 616 547 24 68 1 .278 .356 .508 5.76M
Troy Tulowitzki '07 (R) SS* 5 100 677 605 24 99 7 .291 .359 .479 7.82M
Mike Cameron '03 (R) RF* 6 100 612 534 18 76 17 .253 .344 .431 5.89M
Darin Erstad '02 (L) LF* 7 100 663 625 10 73 23 .283 .313 .389 5.91M
Hughie Critz '33 (R) 2B* 8 100 645 595 2 33 4 .246 .279 .306 4.49M
BENCH
Name (Bats) Pos Order % PA/162 AB/162 HR RBI SB AVG OBP SLG $
Kyle Barns '19 (R - AAA) 3B* Bench 100 188B 200K
Kelly Dransfeldt '99 (R) SS* Bench 100 57 53 1 5 0 .189 .232 .264 201K
Kenya Durso '19 (R - AAA) C * Bench 100 665F 200K
Kevin Jordan '95 (R) 2B* Bench 100 65 61 2 6 0 .185 .228 .315 209K
Marv Olson '31 (R) 2B* Bench 100 69 57 0 5 0 .189 .306 .208 217K
Joe Rickert '01 (R) LF* Bench 100 76 71 0 1 1 .167 .206 .250 298K
Christin Stewart '18 (L) LF* Bench 100 72 60 2 10 0 .267 .375 .417 495K

STARTERS
Pitcher Role % G W-L SV IP/162 ERA OAV WHIP K/9 BB/9 $
Christy Mathewson '09 (R) 100 37 25-6 2 292.0 1.14 .200 0.83 4.88 1.18 15.48M
Bill Bernhard '02 (R) 100 27 17-5 1 259.0 2.20 .216 0.94 2.36 1.41 9.37M
Doc White '06 (L) 100 28 18-6 0 236.0 1.52 .207 0.90 3.90 1.56 9.60M
Kevin Brown '96 (R) 100 32 17-11 0 233.0 1.89 .220 0.94 6.14 1.27 9.90M
BULLPEN
Pitcher Role % G W-L SV IP/162 ERA OAV WHIP K/9 BB/9 $
Fred Toney '18 (R) 100 11 6-2 1 112.0 1.69 .192 0.73 2.00 0.74 7.38M
Andy Rincon '81 (R) 100 5 3-1 0 57.0 1.77 .214 0.91 3.31 1.27 2.15M
Cla Meredith '06 (R) 100 45 5-1 0 51.0 1.07 .170 0.71 6.57 1.07 3.04M
Dennis Rasmussen '92 (L) 100 5 4-1 0 38.0 1.43 .197 0.82 2.87 1.43 2.01M
Dizzy Dean '38 (R) 100 13 7-1 0 80.0 1.81 .226 0.96 2.66 0.97 3.03M
Elmer Steele '08 (R) 100 16 5-7 0 125.0 1.83 .209 0.83 2.82 0.99 5.29M

After a slow start, the team has 21 + plays through 18 games with a 10-8 record. We're on pace for 189 overall but recent games have been stronger after none in four of the first five games. This is a $120M cap league with no DH.

Regular Season Fielding SimStats (Totals)
Player SN Pos G GS Inn PO A E DP + - Fld% RF
Speaker, Tris 1914 1B 18 18 162.0 228 18 0 16 2 0 1.000 13.67
Cameron, Mike 2003 RF 18 18 160.0 28 0 0 0 1 0 1.000 1.58
Rodriguez, Ivan 1996 C 18 18 160.0 44 5 0 0 0 0 1.000 2.76
Critz, Hughie 1933 2B 18 18 158.0 34 72 5 11 6 0 .955 6.04
Tulowitzki, Troy 2007 SS 18 18 158.0 39 60 0 13 2 0 1.000 5.64
Chapman, Matt 2018 3B 17 17 149.0 11 45 1 2 4 0 .982 3.38
Erstad, Darin 2002 LF 16 16 144.0 32 0 0 0 1 0 1.000 2.00
North, Billy 1973 CF 16 16 140.0 45 0 1 0 2 0 .978 2.89
Mathewson, Christy 1909 P 5 0 39.0 2 1 0 0 0 0 1.000 .69
Bernhard, Bill 1902 P 5 0 28.7 2 1 0 0 0 0 1.000 .94
Brown, Kevin 1996 P 4 0 25.7 3 2 0 0 1 0 1.000 1.75
White, Doc 1906 P 4 0 20.0 1 3 0 0 0 0 1.000 1.80
Erstad, Darin 2002 CF 2 2 18.0 7 0 0 0 0 0 1.000 3.50
Toney, Fred 1918 P 7 0 14.7 0 2 0 1 1 0 1.000 1.23
Barns, Kyle (P) 2019 3B 2 1 11.0 2 6 1 0 0 0 .889 6.55
Dean, Dizzy 1938 P 8 0 10.7 2 1 0 0 0 0 1.000 2.53
Rickert, Joe 1901 LF 1 1 9.0 2 0 0 0 1 0 1.000 2.00
Stewart, Christin 2018 LF 1 1 9.0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000 .00
Rincon, Andy 1981 P 6 0 7.7 0 0 0 0 0 1 .000 .00
Steele, Elmer 1908 P 6 0 6.7 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000 .00
Meredith, Cla 2006 P 6 0 5.7 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000 .00
Dransfeldt, Kelly 1999 SS 2 0 4.0 2 2 0 1 0 0 1.000 9.00
Rickert, Joe 1901 CF 2 0 4.0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1.000 2.25
Olson, Marv 1931 2B 2 0 4.0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000 .00
Rasmussen, Dennis 1992 P 5 0 3.3 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000 .00
Jordan, Kevin 1995 3B 1 0 2.0 0 1 0 0 0 0 1.000 4.50
Stewart, Christin 2018 RF 1 0 2.0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000 .00
Durso, Kenya (P) 2019 C 1 0 2.0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1.000 4.50
TEAM TOTALS -- -- 210 144 1,458.0 486 219 8 44 21 1 .989 --

Posted by schwarze on 7/22/2019 4:49:00 PM (view original):
OK - it's been awhile, so I am going to try and demolish the + plays record. I think the key is to draft BAD pitching. So that's what I did. I entered a team in an open league (only my 5th or 6th open team ever).

I got a bunch of pitchers with whips in the 1.30 to 1.50 range. Of course, they are all A++++ range. My starting eight batters include '14 Speaker (1b), '87 C.Welch (2b), '88 Bonilla (3b), '18 Bancroft (ss), '57 Ashburn (of), '73 B.North (of) and '28 Douthit. I am playing in League Park II. Keep in mind that I'm not trying to win games, so I spent only $27 million on my pitching staff (although I drafted 1446 IP).

Through 48 games, we have 72 + plays. Broken down as follows:

1B: '14 Speaker 5 (really low for him)
2B: '87 Welch 10
3B: '88 Bonilla 6
SS: '18 Bancroft 11
LF: '57 Ashburn 14
CF: '73 North 11
RF: '28 Douthit 7
All pitchers; 8

(Zero negative plays)