Pitchers Arm Slot

[mars001]

There was some talk of this new addition early on, but I haven't seen much about it lately. So far it hasn't been part of my game experience at all... Is this meaningful to others? How are you using the information? What kind of impact does it have?

[NoOne]

i lookedinto editor a bit..

it affects L/R splits. if you only change that, it will affect "stuff" of vsL and vsR.

this doesn't mean their splits will be better etc... it just means all other things remaining the same, it will shift it. if the player is created with large difference due to movement or control, it's not necessarily going to shift it far enough etc... or vice versa.. it won't be a detriment if it's the type that increases a split in ratings. (i.e. if the guy walks 10x more lefties or there's no movement to that handed batter, it simply won't matter much if side arm or over the top etc)

with that said, it obviously will correlate to good/worse splits.

can't recall if it was stuff only or also movement control etc... have to go look in editor with comissioner on and do a little trial and error.

[Syd Thrift]

I also *think* that sidearm causes the game to not select certain pitch types as available for a pitcher during player generation (and I guess random talent bumps). In the 70s when we saw a wave of these guys, they were mostly relievers who threw sinkers and sliders. The arm angle doesn't really work to throw a cutter (well, to some extent, I guess, because of the extreme angle all fastballs a sidearmer throws are cut fastballs in terms of the direction they travel but whatevs) and pitches like the screwball or knuckle-curve are hard to impossible to throw.

But yeah, it's mainly platoon splits. I don't *think* the game does much with control against either handedness, the theory being (I guess) that a guy who is wild is wild with everyone, and movement for whatever reason doesn't change either (maybe because they figure that movement is kind of a version of control, being the ability to keep the ball off the meaty parts of the plate). I would guess that arm slot would have the same (lack of) effect on both of those. I will add that as the primary (almost complete) effect of stuff is to increase strikeouts, and a pitcher who strikes a batter out is a pitcher who can't give up the longball, you should still see fewer HRs vs same-handed batters as opposite-handed ones.