Yep. One of those threads. That being said, I really am seeing an obscenely huge number of walks. I play some LIVE, and in my last few games I have issued double digit walks every game using only fresh pitchers. The league for most of these games is a 2009 draft league; the player pool is clearly limited enough to prevent the sort of effect that can be seen from very high salary offenses. In my most recent game I allowed 15 walks, including the ones that lost me the game in the bottom of the 9th.

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I would like to particularly direct your attention to the bottom of the 9th inning, in which a number of walks and a hit batsman contributed to a blown save, and the bottom of the 3rd, in which 4 consecutive walks were issued with a runner on first to drive in 2 runs. You may also note that there were several hit batsmen to go along with the 15 walks...

I have seen an increase in HBP sor sure in the LIVE games I have been playing.

Dont ***** about it. I have tried 3 times over the last year to bring this up. Every time I get told that Bonds eye is what caused him to walk so much, not IBB or that Maddux would really pitch around him with Babe Ruth on deck.....

The starter that pitched 6 innings has a '1' control rating. LOL. And pitched 117 pitches with a 'C' stamina rating. Surprised it went that well.

Retarded thread of the year nominee

One game is a pretty small sample size, esp. when it's started by an AAA with a horrible control rating who threw more pitches than he should have.

Here are the BB/9 rates from my 1987 prog team (Cleveland Screaming Eagles, MLB86483) for pitchers with at least 100 IP (after 159 games):

Real Life/SIM

Mike Morgan: 2.30/1.36
Greg Harris: 3.59/3.77
Kent Tekulve: 2.49/3.45
Larry Andersen: 3.64/3.34
Danny Jackson: 4.38/3.71
Joe Magrane: 3.18/2.94
Rick Reuschel: 1.67/1.38

5 of the 7 had better BB/9 than in RL.

But as The_Creeper helpfully points out, they didn't face Bonds and Ruth every PA, so if you put them in a 255M league I'm sure the rates would be much worse.

Quote: Originally posted by boogerlips on 11/17/2009The starter that pitched 6 innings has a '1' control rating. LOL. And pitched 117 pitches with a 'C' stamina rating. Surprised it went that well.

I once played in "The League that Broke the Sim" and walks were out of control in that league too, and so were Home Runs, they should look at it for sure.

I like how the douchebags like booger manage to look only at my AAA starter and ignore the fact that my closer (3.10 BB/9, a little high but below league average and facing in-season competition) came in and retired one batter before issuing 3 consecutive walks. Not so concerned with the single which actually lost me the game - for that one PA he was tired. It's the 3 walks in a row which get to me... The batters he walked were not particularly high-walk players.

And as I said, it's not really a one-game sample size. Another thing I'm noticing recently - pitchers' hits are going way up.

Quote: Originally posted by dahsdebater on 11/18/2009I like how the douchebags like booger manage to look only at my AAA starter and ignore the fact that my closer (3.10 BB/9, a little high but below league average and facing in-season competition) came in and retired one batter before issuing 3 consecutive walks. Not so concerned with the single which actually lost me the game - for that one PA he was tired. It's the 3 walks in a row which get to me... The batters he walked were not particularly high-walk players.

Again, small sample size. But as you say, Heath's RL BB/9 isn't great, and the players he walked were in fact pretty good at getting walks in RL: Pujols (115 walks), Zobrist (91 walks in 599 PA) and Dunn (116 walks).

Dunn was 2nd and Pujols 3rd in all MLB in 2009 at drawing walks. And Zobrist was probably top 20 (10th place had 94).

Quote: Originally posted by dahsdebater on 11/18/2009And as I said, it's not really a one-game sample size.  Another thing I'm noticing recently - pitchers' hits are going way up.

Well, you only gave us a 1 game sample to look at. I gave you stats from 159 games of my prog league. Can you give us something like that?

after 162 games, lge 86505

'95 maddux 1.16 w/9

'05 clemens 3.55 w/9

'81 ryan 6.12 w/9

'68 gibson 3.09 w/9

'88 milacki 1.71 w/9

'87 mcdowell 4.88 w/9

'01 pedro 2.30 w/9

91 duane ward 3.12 w/9

'95 charlton 2.96 w/9

'22 cooney 4.01 w/9

.43 niggeling 4.88 w/9

'03 gagne 1.70 w/9

'45 lanier 2.52 w/9

Not that there haven't been a few games that i would have liked to have turned out better, but those numbers are acceptable to me.

Quote: Originally posted by dahsdebater on 11/17/2009I would like to particularly direct your attention to the bottom of the 9th inning, in which a number of walks and a hit batsman contributed to a blown save...

I haven't noticed that the total walks have increased, but the timing of walks has gotten bad. For example, I've had pitchers with RL BB/9 <2 that have walked 1 batter in their last 10-15 IP come in to pitch with the game on the line, and walk 3 of 4 batters faced, often forcing in a run. Those 3 walks would result in a very realistic 2.5 BB/9 over the 15 IP. And this happens way too often: "[Pitcher] enters the game to pitch. [Batter] walks."

But, I recently had 1936 Carl Hubbell @ 100% give up 4 HRs in 4.1 IP in an open league. (Hubbell allowed just 7 HRs in 320 IP in 1936.)

In the same league that i refernced above, Gibson was SHELLED every outing thru the first part of the season. I would have released him, and tried my luck with someone else, but there was no WW in this league. eventually, he came around, and, while he seldom pitched the way i thought '68 gibson should, he did ok. I don't have answers for the anomalies that occur in these simulations, but we simply have to accept that they do, in fact, occur. I have examined the choices other managers have made regarding player selection, and i know for a fact that '68 gibson has had some outstanding seasons in the game. why he didn't do that for me is a mystery.