OOTP Developments Forums - View Single Post - The Turn DP rating—does it do anything?

Furious · 02-24-2021, 03:51 AM

I’m now going to take a swing at this from a different angle. I’m going to try to think like a programmer, even though I’m not one.

Since tests indicate that even players with the lowest possible Turn DP rating can turn double plays in OOTP, it would appear that the programmers have essentially built in some “automatic” double plays. The rating of the fielders is irrelevant on these plays—anyone with a pulse can turn them.

This is not inappropriate in my opinion. The game assumes that every professional player—even one with no middle infield experience—is capable of fielding an easy ground ball and making a short throw to the other middle infielder, not every time but certainly some of the time. That seems correct to me. The “zero point” in double plays should not be zero, but something higher than that, something that includes some percentage of the plays that all players are capable of making.

So the issue, I think, is simply that the zero point has been set way too high. In Isryion’s test a guy with the lowest rating possible turned over a hundred double plays in a season. That result would suggest that the game is saying that about 100 double plays a season are automatic. 100, or thereabouts, is the zero point.

Well, in some major league seasons, there are teams that don’t turn 100 double pays in a season, and of course those teams aren’t starting the real-life equivalent of a one-on-a-scale-of-one-to-a-hundred double play turner in the middle infield. If something in the neighborhood of 100 double plays a season were “gimmies”, all teams would turn far more than 100 double plays every year.

Yes, I know that double play opportunities vary from team to team and season to season. Yes, I know that pairing up Player X with a good double play partner means Player X is going to turn more double plays, and pairing up Player X with a lousy double play partner means Player X is going to turn fewer double plays. Yes, I know the League Totals Modifiers will affect the number of double plays turned. I’m not saying any of that is irrelevant. I’m saying that all those variables aren’t nearly sufficient to explain how a player with a rating of one-out-of-a-hundred was able to turn 100+ double plays in a season. It’s not a fluke. It’s a matter of the game “giving” a certain number of double plays to anyone.

I don’t know what the right amount of “gimmies” or “automatic double plays” should be. I know it shouldn’t be a hundred. Are there stats that tell us how many double plays are “routine”? If there are, that might be a good starting point. The lowest-rated DP-turners should be able to turn some (but definitely not all) routine double plays. Whatever that number or percentage is should be the zero point.

02-24-2021, 03:51 AM	#50
Furious Major Leagues Join Date: Aug 2012 Posts: 313	I’m now going to take a swing at this from a different angle. I’m going to try to think like a programmer, even though I’m not one. Since tests indicate that even players with the lowest possible Turn DP rating can turn double plays in OOTP, it would appear that the programmers have essentially built in some “automatic” double plays. The rating of the fielders is irrelevant on these plays—anyone with a pulse can turn them. This is not inappropriate in my opinion. The game assumes that every professional player—even one with no middle infield experience—is capable of fielding an easy ground ball and making a short throw to the other middle infielder, not every time but certainly some of the time. That seems correct to me. The “zero point” in double plays should not be zero, but something higher than that, something that includes some percentage of the plays that all players are capable of making. So the issue, I think, is simply that the zero point has been set way too high. In Isryion’s test a guy with the lowest rating possible turned over a hundred double plays in a season. That result would suggest that the game is saying that about 100 double plays a season are automatic. 100, or thereabouts, is the zero point. Well, in some major league seasons, there are teams that don’t turn 100 double pays in a season, and of course those teams aren’t starting the real-life equivalent of a one-on-a-scale-of-one-to-a-hundred double play turner in the middle infield. If something in the neighborhood of 100 double plays a season were “gimmies”, all teams would turn far more than 100 double plays every year. Yes, I know that double play opportunities vary from team to team and season to season. Yes, I know that pairing up Player X with a good double play partner means Player X is going to turn more double plays, and pairing up Player X with a lousy double play partner means Player X is going to turn fewer double plays. Yes, I know the League Totals Modifiers will affect the number of double plays turned. I’m not saying any of that is irrelevant. I’m saying that all those variables aren’t nearly sufficient to explain how a player with a rating of one-out-of-a-hundred was able to turn 100+ double plays in a season. It’s not a fluke. It’s a matter of the game “giving” a certain number of double plays to anyone. I don’t know what the right amount of “gimmies” or “automatic double plays” should be. I know it shouldn’t be a hundred. Are there stats that tell us how many double plays are “routine”? If there are, that might be a good starting point. The lowest-rated DP-turners should be able to turn some (but definitely not all) routine double plays. Whatever that number or percentage is should be the zero point.