Sacrifice Bunts in APBA
Do you think J. Richard Seitz had any idea what sacrifice bunt patterns in real baseball were actually like when he created his first sacrifice booklet?
We know that the sacrifice booklet came with the 1951 edition (1950 season) of APBA Baseball. However, we also know that there are problems.
Play result number 13 with a runner on at third base will always result in the player being caught trying to steal home. If the batter is unlucky enough to roll a 13, the runner on third is forced to attempt to steal no matter what, and the batter misses the pitch.
I find this frustrating, especially since these boards carried over to Skeetersoft NPIII without alteration. If I’ve got a pitcher up in 1908 with less than two out and a runner on third, I naturally want to bunt. However, I can’t, because a 13 means the precious run simply can never score.
Any ideas about what I should do? I’m interested in any and all input.
Even the "Safety Squeeze" rules from the Master Game don't make much sense. I realize they didn't have Retrosheet when APBA was designed. But it's Baseball 101 that the runner on 3rd tries to score on a "safety squeeze" if the batter gets the bunt down (e.g. in a baseball strategy book that I have from the 80s that was written for high school and college coaches). It's weird that APBA pretty much forces you to choose between a suicide squeeze or a super-conservative bunt that focuses on advancing the runner from 1st to 2nd and only sometimes scores the runner on 3rd.
I wish I was familiar with the APBA math as I am with Strat. We could probably come up with some better rules.
You could roughly cut the odds of getting hung out to dry in half by saying that a 13 is a foul strike (and re-roll) the first time you roll it. Most human players would probably call off the bunt after that first roll. But it could work for replayers.
The problem is that APBA doesn't let you differentiate between a suicide squeeze and a safety squeeze with a lone runner on 3rd, so I think you just need to make new tables. Or borrow a table from another game.