The LIVE portion of this chat will begin on
Friday, October 16, 2009 at
2:00 PM EST.
Welcome! We hope you have had a chance to see all the improvements and changes within the update. Now's your chance to ask questions.
Let's get things started by pointing you to a new page intended to help everyone understand the concept of normalization and how it pertains to fielding and the batter/pitcher matchup. It's been wired up in the Player Search, the Player's Guide and the Stat Legend.
MLB League Averages ( Moderator - 2:04 PM)
In the past, strong armed catchers have been too effective in stopping basestealers from even attempting steals. Will this be more realistic in this update? (dontrellew - All*Star - 2:05 PM)
The rate of strong armed catchers nailing baserunners has not changed (it's very accurate) but the price of catching arm has changed so strong armed catchers are now more expensive.
There's mean forum talk about tinkering with the Live Draft feature to make it more useful for progressive league drafts. Is a Live Draft revamp on the to-do list? (sheller - Hall of Famer - 2:07 PM)
We plan on tackling some progressive league improvements to help everyone with their teams, especially the commissioners. It'll include changes to help owners maintain players from season to season. We can revisit the live draft feature and see what improvements can be made.
Any chance for NeL in WIS? (rasluggo - All*Star - 2:08 PM)
Yes. Adding negro league players for SimMatchup and theme leagues is something we've always wanted to do. It's on our list, but it hasn't made it to the top yet.
Does WIS have any hope or plan to introduce eras of play for a league, so that all players in that league could be normalized to that era, rather than against each other across all eras? (rasluggo - All*Star - 2:09 PM)
Yes, we've got this item on our suggestion list. The theme commish would be able to specify the season to normalize against rather than use the batter or pitcher or fielder season league average. I'm not sure when it'll be introduced, but we're sure it'll add some more flavor to theme leagues.
There are two things that happen in RL with pitchers. One is that during a game, a pitcher will tire and at some point be ineffective. Another is that sometimes a pitcher will settle down and actually become stronger during a game. Does WIS account for both of these things? (rasluggo - All*Star - 2:31 PM)
There is in-game fatigue, so pitchers definitely tire and become less effective. Each pitcher has an internal set pitch count that, when reached, they begin to lose effectiveness. Pitchers can struggle and bounce back, but that's just part of the probability and statistical fluctuations. Such as pitcher gives up 3 runs in the first on 5 hits, then settles down to throw 6 scoreless.
Is there any chance of adding "Fielding Grades" button to the Roster Display in the GM's office. There is one on the Manager's page, but it would be helpful in the GM. Now you to have to look up each player separately when making roster decisions. (Merkle - Hall of Famer - 3:03 PM)
Yes -- we can add that.
Do the AAA defensive ratings match up with the fielding grades in the draft center? (winnetka1 - Veteran - 3:17 PM)
Yes
The new pitcher stat HR/9# is displayed to several decimal places in the search engine. However hitter HR/100AB# is still displayed as integers. With over 18,000 players with 0 HR/100AB#, over 10,000 at 1, 7000 at 2 & 4400 at 3 there's no way make choices within these very large groups. The same is true of # data for 2b, 3b, & 1b. Could an extra digit or 2 be added to the search results display for these stats. (Merkle - Hall of Famer - 3:45 PM)
We'll see what we can do to expand these values.
Thanks everyone. We hope you enjoy the update!
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