Contact ... can i get a hit?

[GreatScott]

dee-nee explains the meaning of contact rating as:
You got me... In the RBI manual and in RBI Manager each player has a contact rating. Numerically, the lower a player's contact number, the higher their contact rating. Unfortunately, I cannot figure out what this rating actually does. Most of the players with high contact ratings suck - the only good ones also have a high power rating. My guess is that a players ability to get hits is based on a combination of factors. Clearly, the power rating is the dominant factor in getting hits and homers, but the contact rating most likely plays a lesser role. Weak I know, but it does seems to be rather worthless, whatever the explantion...
   
ive always suspected that contact did have some meaning.  i mean, if it doesnt then why is wade boggs so much better than bergman (on detroit) and willie mcgee.  All three are lefties and all three have exactly the same power rating.  the difference has got to be contact.  

I decided to do a litttle experiment.  i went to nightwulfs rbieditor (which by the way is awesome) and turned the national league into a contact experiment.  i gave all the hitters a power rating of 850 ... which is a pretty good number in the world of rbi.  then i gave half the players a contact rating of 1 (best possible) and the other half a contact rating of 100 (worst possible).  I also turned jimmy key of the american league into a stiff pitching batting practice by giving him one speed (175 about 82 mph) and zero movement and sink.

After playing a couple innings it became clear that contact does play a real role in rbi.  the 1s tended to hit the ball hard and sharp.  Line drives, hard grounders into the gap and down the line, and homers were all pretty common.  pop ups were still around but they were few and far between.  

the 100s were different.  sure enough they could still hit bombs and hard drives into the gap.  but often the ball left their bat with nothing on it.  im talking slow, pathetic dribblers that just crawled to the ss or 2b.  nothing like that ever happened with the 1s.  in fact ive never seen the ball move that slow off the bat of anyone.  lazy pop ups and foul tips were also frequent.  

So whats to be gained?  Clearly contact influences how hard a ball is hit.  i would guess that contact works against power.  i figure the higher (worse) the contact rating, the more likely it is that the ball will leave the bat with less than maximum amount of power.  conversely, the lower (better) the contact rating, the more likely you will get a good rip out of your swing.  

so how much does this matter in rbi?  not that much really.  the worst contact hitter (sullivan on boston) has a rating of 38.  The best is that dirtbag wade boggs with a rating of 4.  so in the real game, the disparity between the best and the worst isn't so big.  
But this information could be useful for future roms.  maybe its time to give great hitters like ichiro and gwynn their due.  By using more of the contact spectrum, a creator could end the dominance of those .250 20+ hr guys who rule so many rbi roms.  how 'great' would Doug DeCinces or Darrel Evans be if they often hit crappy grounders or cans of corn?  how much more valuable would a wade boggs type guy be to a team in that kind of rom?  

[nightwulf]

http://forums.dee-nee.com/index.php?board=3;action=display;threadid=2752

Basic summary: if the ball is hit from the edge of the bat (too close to the hands or the end of the bat) then contact is subtracted from the batter's power rating for that hit.

Blame Gantry for not updating the FAQ.

Nightwulf

[GreatScott]

well you have definently got it down much better than i did.  go figure,  i guess i wasted my time.  

[fknmclane]

Nonsense.  You did some damn good research.