Importance of Pitching Ratings

[RoteLaterne]

Out of the 5 core ratings for pitchers -


Stuff - Movement - HR Rate - PBABIP - Control


which one(s) seem to be more important than others?


Can we rank them?


I am playing mostly in Low Diamond.

[LeeD]

Movement is just the amalgamation of HRA and PBABIP, which are the two most important ratings. In my estimation, Stuff and Control are "floor" stats where you don't want to be below a mysterious and upward-moving floor. I definitely wouldn't be running anyone below 110 Stuff or below 100 Control at upper levels like Diamond at this point, but the extremely high ratings aren't nearly as good as the extremely low ratings are bad.

Cwhit probably has this calculated and will have a more thorough opinion than mine if he's around, as I don't spreadsheet anything and go by eye-balling and experience.

[HRBaker]

Originally Posted by LeeD

...but the extremely high ratings aren't nearly as good as the extremely low ratings are bad.

Can't put enough underlines under this !!! Even one extremely low rating will ruin a cards usefulness.

[Pelican]

Agree with the above. Stuff is really only critical with a RP where you absolutely need a strikeout (e.g. runner on third, less than two out, tie game).

[usa_hank]

Agree with the above. To stress the comment about Stuff only needing to be above a certain level, I'm in Low Diamond. I've got Atlee Hammaker, with a stuff rating of 113 pitching 9.8 K/9 right now, and Dazzy Vance with a stuff rating of 173 pitching 4.9 K/9. The 60 points of extra Stuff for Dazzy Vance has no effect on his K/9 numbers.

I will say that I have personally noticed that pitchers with high stuff AND high movement typically have worse numbers than pitchers with average stuff and high movement. This seems to follow trends in the game for other ratings. Ratings all seem to affect each other, which is even more pronounced in batting (i.e. a batter with a high Contact/BABIP and a high Eye will hit for far less average than a batter with high Contact/BABIP and mid Eye), and may be due to the order of dice rolls involved in each pitcher vs batter scenario.

One last additional comment about pitching here - keep in mind that when you start a lefty, smart opposing teams will likely be stacking their lineup with right-handed-batters against him. So your lefty's high vs LHP ratings aren't as important as him being "decent" against RHBs. And vice versa. CC Sabathia (102) is a good example of this. He's a stud vs LHB with 140+ ratings across the board, but his vs RHB has a relatively low (for diamond-level play) 119 rated PBABIP. Hence, he very rarely has a great season in Low Diamond and above as a starter. Now put him in as a reliever and specialist vs L, and he's a stud. Then again, I say that and there's one team in my LD league where he's got a 2.88 ERA and is basically the front runner for the Cy Young. For me, his dice rolls haven't been kind.

Hope this helps!

[LeeD]

Originally Posted by usa_hank

Dazzy Vance with a stuff rating of 173 pitching 4.9 K/9. The 60 points of extra Stuff for Dazzy Vance has no effect on his K/9 numbers.

You need to move Dazzy to Ebbetts Field as his home park. Ever heard this story about him? Apparently, his release point in home games was right in front of where people across the street would hang out sheets to dry. Opposing hitters couldn't pick up the ball because of that and the fact that he'd cut and bleach his undershirt to the elbow. It's a great story that a few people have attempted to debunk, but it's awful hard to explain away his home-road splits on strikeouts: 1267 at home, 780 on the road. That's a lot of extra K's in the extra 640 batters he faced at home.

[cwhitman]

Originally Posted by LeeD

Movement is just the amalgamation of HRA and PBABIP, which are the two most important ratings. In my estimation, Stuff and Control are "floor" stats where you don't want to be below a mysterious and upward-moving floor. I definitely wouldn't be running anyone below 110 Stuff or below 100 Control at upper levels like Diamond at this point, but the extremely high ratings aren't nearly as good as the extremely low ratings are bad.

Cwhit probably has this calculated and will have a more thorough opinion than mine if he's around, as I don't spreadsheet anything and go by eye-balling and experience.

This is pretty reasonable in terms of advice in the broad sense. Definitely matters where you are on the curve. Once you're in the "good" region obviously more numbers are good, but the differences between good pitchers is really so small especially in the pen that you probably won't notice much year in and year out.


OP had some good advice given on discord too, but wanted to follow up as well.