Saturday, March 21, 2020

Injuries reconsidered

My collection of superadvance team cards can be divided into three distinct groups:
  • Reissues of pervious sets: 1924, 1961, 1969, 1973
  • First-run sets with additional players: 2009, 2017
  • First run sets without additional players: 2019
It is that last one-season classification that is creating a bit of a problem.

The first group has generally thin rosters. Few if any teams churned their roster as we're become accustomed to seeing in recent years. The disabled list -- which may not even have existed in 1924 -- was seldom used. The result: The vast majority of at-bats and innings are represented on most of the reissued rosters (there are some exceptions, because of late-season waiver deals), and players who missed significant time for injuries have adequate backup.

The second group comes from a era of roster churn. The disabled list is heavily used and pitchers work fewer innings, but the extra players provide a cushion.

I chose to skip the additional players with the 2019 set. The result: Rosters as thin as the reissued teams, but with higher injury risk and fewer innings.

I'm not planning to replay any seasons with 2019, so that's not a problem, but after playing five series in Tournament Three I have realized that taking players out of action for as many 10 or 15 days -- the maximums on the injury chart -- without having the expanded rosters is a problem. This realization started with the first series (2019 Orioles-2019 Yankees) and was crystallized with the 2019 Rangers.

I have adjusted on the fly. Henceforth:
  • A player with mimimal injury chance (comes on a 2 or 12 roll) will miss no more than two games and more likely one. Such players will need those 10- or 15-game rolls to miss two.
  • The same applies to catchers on teams with just two catchers or whose injury roll is a 3 or 11. 
  • Easily-injured players can have longer injuries, but I reserve the right to reactive one or more if the list of available players gets too thin. I'm not going to play guys out of position in a Game Seven.
  • (end of first round addition): Players playing under injury will have their defensive values reduced by one range factor.
I've been doing some of this on the fly, but I am here making a vague attempt to formalize it.

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