I decided to do a little more work on individual fielding stats. I've always contended that there are no such thing as individual fielders, every team has a generic fielder at each position. Many agreed with me in terms of throwing arms, but some though that certain fielders were faster than the others. I remember Mike Beales (of RBI Tourney fame) say as much, and I honestly didn't know if it was true. So I did some experimenting:
Game One
Using California, I purposely bunted a ball to the wall. I then moved the SS (Schofield, speed 130), CF (Pettis, speed 140) and RF (Jackson, speed 128) to the centerfield wall. When all were lined up horitzonally against the wall, I had them run down towards home plate. The results?
Jackson and Pettis were the exact same speed, they got to the bottom at the same time. Schofield was a few steps behind.
To me, this shows that the outfielders all have the same set speed. Shortstops are slower than outfielders, regardless of who the manual says they are. If there were individual fielders, Pettis and Jackson would not be the same speed.
But we need more testing..
Game Two
Since the shortstop was slowest when using California, I decided to pick a team with a faster SS. Using Detroit, I repeated the same experiment with Trammell (138), Lemon (122) and Herndon (122). Given the disparity in speed, you would figure Trammell would get to the bottom first. The result?
Exactly the same as with Cali - the two outfielders got to the bottom at the exact same time with the SS trailing a bit behind. I figured one more test, especially since the outfielders in this test were the same speed.
Game Three
I took St. Louis since they have the fastest "shortstop" in the game, Ozzie Smith (140). I subbed in the slower Steve Lake (124) for McGee and kept Ford (130) in right. Three fielders with three different speeds. I also subbed the faster McGee with the slower Lake to see if subbing affects the speed. The result?
Exactly the same as the first two, Steve Lake and Curt Ford hit the bottom at the exact same time, while Ozzie Smith was a few steps behind...
To me, this clearly shows that there are no individual fielding stats for speed. And coupled with my conclusion that the arms are the same (though never proven), I am 100% convinced that there are no individual fielders and nobody plays a position..
Discuss...
Good job, Gantry. So I guess it would also be possible for different arm strength by position, also.
i totally agree. jose canseco plays the outfield just as well as eric davis and andre dawson. translation: there are no fielding grades.
You've wasted your life.
I would say so, but that's next to impossible to prove by playing the game. I would venture to guess that the arms are all the same, throwing well is a matter of button timing and the angle at which you are throwing. Center fielders and catchers seem to have worse arms but I think that's because you have to throw vertically with them. If you move a LF or RF over to center to throw to a base, I'm guessing the results would be the same...
But that's a theory, too lazy to prove that one. Too much human error involved when testing arms..
QuoteYou've wasted your life.
You're damn skippy! I though my analysis would be post of the day but you beat it in the same thread. I salute you sir..
Gantry, thank you for wasting your life. I love the research.
As do I, which is odd that I haven't done more work to get to the nitty-gritty of RBI...
I'll be going to Ohio with my old man tomorrow. Flying there, driving back (dad is getting a free Caddy from my Uncle). So I have 8 hours to work on RBI-related stuff. Not bringing anything but a laptop, no clothes...
hoy shit I am jeaolous. How \cN I GET HOOKed up with a gig like this? I want some dee-nee consultant action. I DO COMPUTRERS FOR A LIVING DAMMIT!!!!
As long as you're willing to work for free, there's plenty of dee-nee consulting action for ya...
Played three games so far in my quest to beat all the Japanese teams. I'm using team "M" - they certainly don't have the stats, you have to manufacture runs. Usually by them screwing up a ground ball...
I stand corrected on the pitching - some of those guys are straight filthy. I'm striking out all over the place, some of these guys need to whoop my ass for a couple innings before I can do anything. Nasty curves, they break the pitch at the last second...
QuoteI've always contended that there are no such thing as individual fielders, every team has a generic fielder at each position.
Good experiments. I always new that different positions (and I should have clarified that instead of saying 'different players') in the field had different speeds. One thing I'm confused about... are you saying that the speed for each fielding position is the same for every team (hence, all left fielders have the same speed as those on every other team while all short stops have the same speed in the game)?
Beales
www.rbibaseballcotut.com - The R.B.I. Baseball COTUT
If there's any individual fielding stats in RBI, I haven't found them. If certain positions appear to have better performance than others, it's probably a by-product of the game engine rather than intentionally being coded that way.
Nightwulf
QuoteOne thing I'm confused about... are you saying that the speed for each fielding position is the same for every team (hence, all left fielders have the same speed as those on every other team while all short stops have the same speed in the game)?
Since all three teams had the same results, it is very likely that each fielding position is the same speed across the board. Should test more to see LF and the rest of the infield. I'm guessing all outfielders are the same, which is slightly faster than the infielders....
If you're correct, that's really odd that all positions have the same speed and that the outfielders are faster than the infielders. I suppose they'd do that because the outfielders have more ground to cover.
Beales
www.rbibaseballcotut.com - The R.B.I. Baseball COTUT
That's a good guess, infielders typically dont' have to run very far. I should test mroe with left field and the other infield positions...
Good stuff. I knew some were faster than others because we ran them all to the wall like that one time but never actually paid attention to which players or tried different teams. I wouldn't be surprised if throwing was the same way. It really does seem like every RF has a cannon but it could always be the angle you're throwing from.