As a huge stats/ratings nerd, I'm constantly interested in what the best way is to accurately represent players and their skills in this game. For people who enjoy sim-style baseball and accumulating stats that are almost indistinguishable from real life, it can be really satisfying when you get it right. A lot of the mainstays like contact and power have been around forever and are fairly cut-and-dried to model with IRL stats and convert them into ratings.
I am interested in brainstorming about new player attributes that could possibly be incorporated into the game. There are so many varieties of stats and data being collected (fielding has only begun to be addressed, imo) that there are endless possibilities for customizing a player to behave in a certain way. If some attributes are mentioned over and over again and if SCEA agrees it's a good idea to include additional attribute programming in the future, this type of brainstorming could help add another layer (or several layers) of customization/personalization to the game.
1. For starters, I would like to see an attribute for aggressiveness at bat. We already have DISC for BBs and VIS for Ks, but can we further discriminate by who swings at the 1st pitch most often? Who sees the most pitches per PA? Which players go up there to sit dead red on 0-0 counts? At the attribute level, if done properly, this could add even more strategy to the pitcher-batter duel. This data is also very easy to come by in order to rate players.
2. It's becoming more and more common to talk about "framing" in the context of catchers with quiet gloves or not. Imagine a "framing" attribute that can interact with the umpiring "close calls" logic...you'd potentially get more borderline strikes using a catcher with a higher "framing" rating.
3. We already have contact and power divided into splits, why not go a bit further and separate vision and discipline by split. For example, Jason Heyward strikes out at a 18.5% clip and walks at a 10.8% clip throughout his career overall. But against RHPs, he Ks at a 16.5% rate and walks at an 11.6% rate. Against LHPs, he Ks at a much higher 23.1% rate and walks only 9% of the time.
4. This is a weirder request, but the clutch rating should probably be removed. The most detailed research on the subject indicates that if there is a "clutch" skill, then you'd need several thousand (6000-7000) plate appearances for each player to know if they have it (like baseball midi-chlorians so to speak) or not. Almost no MLB players have that many PAs and most that do show fluctuations from year to year that are larger than the actual clutch effect itself. I know I've looked at WPA/LI and related stats and there is frustratingly little correlation from year to year.
These are only a few ideas and there's a lot more that could be done with catchers, infielder actions, pitchers as contact managers, batted ball authority, etc etc.. I'm sure nobody wants 500 attributes per player so there is a risk of overdoing it, but I am curious as to what other ideas are out there.
I am interested in brainstorming about new player attributes that could possibly be incorporated into the game. There are so many varieties of stats and data being collected (fielding has only begun to be addressed, imo) that there are endless possibilities for customizing a player to behave in a certain way. If some attributes are mentioned over and over again and if SCEA agrees it's a good idea to include additional attribute programming in the future, this type of brainstorming could help add another layer (or several layers) of customization/personalization to the game.
1. For starters, I would like to see an attribute for aggressiveness at bat. We already have DISC for BBs and VIS for Ks, but can we further discriminate by who swings at the 1st pitch most often? Who sees the most pitches per PA? Which players go up there to sit dead red on 0-0 counts? At the attribute level, if done properly, this could add even more strategy to the pitcher-batter duel. This data is also very easy to come by in order to rate players.
2. It's becoming more and more common to talk about "framing" in the context of catchers with quiet gloves or not. Imagine a "framing" attribute that can interact with the umpiring "close calls" logic...you'd potentially get more borderline strikes using a catcher with a higher "framing" rating.
3. We already have contact and power divided into splits, why not go a bit further and separate vision and discipline by split. For example, Jason Heyward strikes out at a 18.5% clip and walks at a 10.8% clip throughout his career overall. But against RHPs, he Ks at a 16.5% rate and walks at an 11.6% rate. Against LHPs, he Ks at a much higher 23.1% rate and walks only 9% of the time.
4. This is a weirder request, but the clutch rating should probably be removed. The most detailed research on the subject indicates that if there is a "clutch" skill, then you'd need several thousand (6000-7000) plate appearances for each player to know if they have it (like baseball midi-chlorians so to speak) or not. Almost no MLB players have that many PAs and most that do show fluctuations from year to year that are larger than the actual clutch effect itself. I know I've looked at WPA/LI and related stats and there is frustratingly little correlation from year to year.
These are only a few ideas and there's a lot more that could be done with catchers, infielder actions, pitchers as contact managers, batted ball authority, etc etc.. I'm sure nobody wants 500 attributes per player so there is a risk of overdoing it, but I am curious as to what other ideas are out there.
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