To explain these ratings, I'll go through a sample player and explain everything about him on the Roster Report. (Leaders Report is self-explanatory.)
The first players on the Catchers Roster Report is Johnny Bassler.
CODES
YEAR TEAM BAL AB DO TR HR BAVG BB K'S RBI OB% SL%
Johnny Bassler
1 0
1921 DEA 1R
388 18 5 0 .307 58 16
56 .401 .379
The first two numbers under codes (1 0) can safely be ignored. It's purely used by the program to differentiate players. The year and team are rather obvious. The "BAL" rating is the first in need of explanation. Basically, this means how good a hitter is against right or left-handed pitching. You'll note how often the rating is E or 1L or 1R. This is largely because the 1921 season was created without Strat's detailed research, so most players were given simplistic balance ratings based on how they were actually used. Bassler's rating is a 1R which means he hits righties better than lefties, but not by a large amount (the number is equal to about .050 difference in On-base Plus Slugging (OPS) per point of balance rating). The rest of this line I hope I don't have to explain, but for those who are unfamiliar OB% is On Base Percentage and SL% is Slugging Percentage.
LEFT%
POWER BAT STEAL BUNT H&R RUN SUPPLEMENT-STEAL SB CS
Bassler 28
W/W
L
C
A
B
11
33% 8%
(15-8) 2
1
This is a little more complex. Left% is the percentage of at-bats the player was actually used against lefties. Bassler faced lefties 28% (and righties 72%). Power refers to the hitters' power capabilities-- N stands for Normal and W stands for Weak. This basically determines whether he can hit a homerun when that result comes off of the pitcher's card. Players with N power will hit one, players with W will get a single (runners advancing two bases) instead. Most players are either N/N or W/W, but some are N/W or W/N. N/W means a player has normal power against lefties and weak power against righties. W/N is the reverse. Bat simply shows the handedness with which the player bats. Bassler is a lefty. Steal, Bunt, and H&R are ratings for the player to do those respective things (H&R is hit and run). Steal is rated from AAA all the way down to E, Bunt is rated from A down to D, and Hit and Run is B, C, or D. Bassler is an average stealer, an excellent bunter, and a good hit and run man. Run is next-- this is simply the player's speed rated from 8 to 17 (17 being the highest). Bassler is an 11 which makes him about average. The supplement-steal ratings are complex, and I would suggest ignoring them for the draft, although they are useful when programming the player's tendency into the computer manager. The first percent (33%) is how often the player will get off to a good lead, the second percent (8%) is how often the player will get picked off attempting to get a good lead. The numbers in parentheses (15-8) indicate the respect "safe" chances out of 20 the player has if he attempts a steal. The first number is used if the player successfully got a good lead and the second number if he did not. (In this example if Bassler got off to a good lead he would steal 75% (15 out of 20) before modification for the pitcher's HOLD rating and the catcher's ARM rating. If he didn't get the lead, he would fall to 40% (8 out of 20).) Some players have a * rating in front of their supplement-steal ratings. This indicates that the player is a good base stealer. I'm not sure what the game effect is, actually, except that the computer manager can be programmed to automatically hold such players. SB and CS are, of course, Stolen Bases and Caught Stealing.
Catcher
1b 2b 3b ss lf cf rf ARM ClAv DP
Bassler 3e9 +0t10p4
.334
40
This section is for fielding (and a couple of miscellaneous things). The reason I used catchers is the much more complex fielding ratings used for catchers. Other positions are much simpler. Bassler's fielding rating is 3e9+0t10p4. He has no ratings for any other position. The first number (3 for Bassler) is the player's range rating on a scale of 1-5 with 1 being the best. Bassler has average range. The e9 rating is how many errors the player will make on average in a full season at that position. These two ratings are the only ratings used for the other fielding positions (except outfielders who are also rated on their ARM-- this is a number from -6 to +5 with -6 being the best arm and +5 being the worst). Catchers however are more complex. Catchers also get an arm rating (-4 to +5, low being good, Bassler's is +0, the third number in his catcher rating, which makes him average). This, obviously, is used to determine the results when a runner attempts to steal. The t10 is how often Bassler will make a throwing error which results in a stealing runner taking an extra base. A low number is good here. I'm not sure exactly what the range is, but based on the catcher ratings in the file, you should be able to figure out how good or bad the player is. The p4 is Bassler's passed ball rating, which determines what you'd expect. Once again a low number is good. Bassler is about average at preventing passed balls. ClAv is Clutch Average. This is used in a very specific situation when there are exactly two outs and a runner on 2nd or 3rd. I would ignore this when drafting players, but for people who like to frontload their lineups in order to score the maximum possible runs in the first inning, it may be a useful statistic to concentrate on in your #5 hitter since he'll often be coming up with 2 outs and you might want the guy with the highest ClAv there. (Personally, I never pay any attention to Clutch Average whatsoever.) DP is the total number of Double Play chances on the batter's card. High numbers are obviously bad. You'll note almost every player has a 40 here. This is because the 1921 season was done without the research so most players end up with average DP rates. A major exception to this is Babe Ruth. In order to get all his walks, strikeouts, home runs, singles, doubles, and even triples on his card so that his numbers would come out right over the course of a season, they couldn't put a single DP on his card so he has a 0. Ruth will still hit into double plays, though, but only off of a fielder's result. Still, he makes a great #2 hitter for those people who use DP rates to determine that. (Note for the irony-impaired: that was intended as a joke.)
Once again, I'll use an example. This time Red Faber.
CODES
YEAR TEAM THROWS START RELIEF CLOSER BATS
Red Faber 1 0
1921 CHA
R
8
5
0
#2WS
Once again the codes don't mean anything and the year and team are obvious. Throws is also obvious. The next three ratings are the endurance ratings. The first is the average number of innings this pitcher will be able to go while starting. Faber's is an 8 (5-9) making him pretty high endurance (although not exceptionally high for this era). The second is the same thing, only in relief (1-5). Faber's 5 is as good as it gets. The next number is the closer rating. (0-6, but also N which means he doesn't have a closer rating). Closer ratings can be ignored for several years, as we won't be using them. The final category on this line "Bats" shows which of the pitchers' hitting cards the pitcher uses. Red Faber's is #2WS. The two letters show he has Weak power (always W or N-- N being rare for pitchers) and the second letter is handedness. Red Faber is a switchhitter. Numbers 1-5 are the weak power cards with 1 being the worst and 5 being the best. 6-8 are the "normal" power cards (rare for pitchers) with 6 being the worst and 8 being the best. Red Faber is #2 which is below average (and considering he's a pitcher, pretty bad).
LEFT%
BAL WON LOST ERA IP HITS WALKS K'S HR GS SV
Faber
32
E
25
15 2.48 330
293 87
124 10 39
1
This line is pretty self-explanatory. Left% is the percent of the time the pitcher faced lefty batters, bal is the balance rating of the pitcher same as the batter (E stands for even) and the rest of those I'm sure we all know.
*-RATING
HOLD BALK WILD-PITCH DP FIELD STL BNT RUN
Faber
Y
+1
0
3
0
2e21 E
D 12
*-rating (either Yes or No) tells how much of a workhorse the pitcher is. A pitcher with a * requires fewer days of rest between starts. The Hold rating indicates how well a pitcher holds the runner and is used in conjunction with the catcher's throwing arm to determine whether a batter is able to steal. Low numbers are good here and the pitcher is rated from -6 to +9. Faber's is a +1 which is a little worse than average. Balk rating shows how likely the pitcher is to commit a balk (from 0 to 20). Faber's is a 0 meaning he will just about never balk. Wild-pitch is also a 0 to 20, determining how likely a wild pitch is. Faber's is a 3 which is pretty moderate (high numbers are pretty rare). DP is the number of double plays on the pitchers' card (other than the fielding results). You'll note that DP is just about always 0 (much like the batters almost always had 40). This is because 1921 is not a researched Deluxe season and since data does not exist for DP rates, just about every batter and pitcher matchup will produce the same amount of double play ground balls (defense however will still heavily influence DP rate, particularly middle infielders). Field is the pitcher's fielding rating just like any other position. You'll note the majority (if not all) of the pitchers have a 2 range (although the error rates are quite different). This probably doesn't have as much to do with the non-researched season as much as it does with the fact that nobody really talks about pitcher defense so it's very hard to make a judgment on who should get the better ratings. (This will change for the most part when Gold Glove voting becomes common.) Steal and Bunt are the steal and bunt ratings for the pitcher same as for a hitter and Run is also simply a measure of how fast the pitcher is, using the same scale as batters.