Quote:
Originally Posted by Skadan
Sports simulation in my opinion, though, has it's foundation in the "what if" scenario, so I can't understand why "what if there were female players" is any more or less valid than "what if Reggie Jackson played in 1909" or "what if there was a salary cap."
(snip) Differing physical characteristics... speculate about women's potential performance to your heart's content. You can adjust HR power, speed... whatever you want. Not a problem here.
(snip) With your new nation you could also set your "baseball level" to whatever you think it should be if you want to muck around with how viable women would be in "real" baseball leagues.
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Overall an excellant post. My favorite is the first paragraph quoted.
I had forgotten that nations are ranked by 'level' in OOTP. I was thinking in terms of a development cap, such as AA, which seems reasonable to me.
The differing physical abilities seem to me to be the crux of the matter. What baselines do you choose? Arm .73? (roughly approximates javelin throws, which use a similar motion) Speed .93? (ratios for 50, 60 and 100 meter dashes) Range same as speed, or .97? (since anticipation would be gender independant and relexes would be in the women's favor) Power .33? .50? Gap .67? Who knows? And how do you translate any of this to pitching?
Many of the skill abilities (base running, base stealing) would be gender independent, and some of them might even slant toward the women. I wouldn't be at all surprised if women made fewer fielding errors, drew more walks (better eye and a smaller strike zone) and made more contact than men.
Or maybe not more contact. They wouldn't be trying to go yard, so they could choke up and have more bat control. Could they come around fast enough on a fast ball? No proof either way, but the 17 year old girl who ran the batting cages here in Watertown had no problems pulling a 90mph pitch. And there's that reflex thing again. A women can sit longer on a pitch before committing to a swing. On the other hand, they probably couldn't check swing to save their lives.
One important difference would be injuries. Women are much more prone to sports injuries (especially knees, elbows and shoulders) due to lack of muscle on either side of the joints, but they tend to recover a little more quickly due to their tendons and ligaments being a little more stretchy. And women have better endurance, so they wouldn't tire as much over the course of a season.
Women would also have higher ratings for intangibles such as coachability (work ethic) and team spirit (loyalty), and a lower rating for greed (women are accustomed to being paid 75-80% of what men make in most jobs, and more like 10% in sports).
As this thread goes on it's getting more thought provoking. Thank you.