Quote:
Originally Posted by SteveP
An update on my experimentation in this area. I did a wholesale adjustment of player bunt ratings. Roughly speaking, the original rosters created from the Lahman DB had the peak of the distribution curve for bunt-for-hit ratings somewhere in the 15-20 range (on the 0-250 scale). So nobody bunts. I raised these so that the peak is somewhere in the 90-100 range. I also raised the sac bunt ratings for position players, but only about half as much. There was no science behind this, just trial-and-error. Since I haven't a clue how the original ratings were derived or how they are supposed to work (and, of course, they don't work anyway  ), I was just taking my best shot. The point is that the result of this much change is quite striking. Bunting is now truly part of the game, and I can now use the available tools to adjust this to get pretty authentic results. Some people might think it unhistorical to see a Willie Mays or Hank Aaron occasionally lead off an inning with a bunt, but in fact this did happen. I now can get this sort of behavior in the game (along with the AI's somewhat eccentric decision-making of course, but that's unavoidable  ).
OTOH, I still have yet to see the AI call a squeeze bunt. Has anyone? I suspect it is either not in the AI's repertoire, or it's been given a much higher rarity value than should be the case. |
I think I understand what you are trying to do but using Mays and Aaron as examples is not the best. Mays had 13 sac in 22 seasons 6 in the decade of the 60's. Aaron quite amazingly had 21 in 22 seasons
but 18 of those were in his first 3 seasons 1954-56. He did not have a sac in the 1960's. So I would be on the "unhistorical" side if Mays and Aaron are bunting in a 60's league.
BTW that applies to many power hitters in the 1960's.
Yazstremski 13/23 seasons
Frank Howard 7/16 seasons
Frank Robinson 17/21 seasons
Harmon Killebrew 0/16 seasons
Mantle 14/18 seasons
McCovey 5/22 seasons