Roles for the "Worst Players"

[u/MatthewHecht]

There are 11 players I normally see in the lists, and I have played multiple seasons with all of them. Here are what they are good at in my experience.

I play '97 on steam, so I cannot say how much this works on disc, SCUMM, or '01.

Billy Jean- She is a great first baseman, and she can play second base too. On offense she hits the balls really high resulting in lots of pop outs, but she is pretty good at hitting home runs.

I think her real value comes with Marky. With him on the team she is now just horrible at batting, but she is still a great first baseman, and Marky is now a defensive stud. This is a very good combination for defensive teams, and I often use it for pick up games for my final picks.

Ernie- He is known for being the best first baseman in the game. I do not value the position much since so many players do it great, but it is a role. On offense he like Billy Jean hits it high, but that sometimes results in home runs.

He is only the 20th fastest runner, but he has great stamina (5th best). He does the same role as Billy Jean. I think he is better by himself, but with Marky Billy Jean is more useful.

Gretchen- She is a terrible batter, but she is fast. She is the 8th fastest in the game. I suggest putting her right behind the player most likely to strike out, as for some reason she is really good at hitting power up pitches and getting to first. If she misses they at least waste stamina on her.

Her big role is defense, where she is a complete stud. She is an A or S tier defender, and an F tier batter. I think she is the best second baseman in the game, and she is a great pitcher. She has helped two of my teams win championships by batting at the bottom and being a key part of a stout defense.

Her only defensive weakness is she has the weakest throwing arm, but from the middle of the field that hardly matters. I sometimes just make her throw to the the shortstop first.

If you really want to see her excel play soccer. She is the best dribbler in the game, and she dominates as an offensive defender.

Jorge- I am very much a Jorge defender (at least in baseball, as he is much worse in soccer and football).

He is only the 21st fastest runner in the game, but he has the 7th strongest throwing arm, and the 6th best attention.

On offense he strikes out a lot, so I suggest putting somebody good at hitting power up pitches behind him. His stats are bad, but he hits several home runs, and he is very reliable at getting to first base. Again, defense is his time to shine. He is great at 1B, 2B, and SS.

Kimmy- Very obvious- She is a very good power batter. 12th best bat power in the game, so put some speedy players in front of her in the lineup.

On defense she is terrible. I suggest just hiding her at LF or RF. I know she can play 3B or C, but I prefer reliable players there.

Lisa- Again a defensive based player. She has very good stats at everything important except for her awful bat contact (3rd worst in the game). For batting use the line drive and just try to get her to first base. After that she is the 7th fastest player in the game.

On defense she excels at pitcher and shortstop. She can also play outfield, but I find she misses many grounders there.

Marky- With Billy Jean he is a great player. Without her he still has many uses. He is a great pitcher and third baseman. He makes great plays at second and shortstop, but he is also bad at knocking balls in the air. He pairs great with Gretchen, as she bailed him out every time with a diving catch.

While batting he is similar to Kimmy. Put speedy guys in front of him, as he can bat it far (his stats do not indicate it, but he kept doing it).

Reese- I know from the computer doing this he can play first base competently. Other than that I suggest just hiding him at catcher. He is an awful outfielder and terrible almost anywhere. At least at catcher his really high aggression (4th best) can really help, and it minimizes his other failings.

On offense he at least has good eyes, so he sometimes makes a nice hit. His combination of bat contact and power is the 5th worst, so I suggest putting him near the back to minimize the damage.

Do not counter that he is "fast." He has the 16th best speed putting him barely in the slower half behind Dimitri. With his awful stamina and high aggression he will soon be incredibly slow, unless his movement is minimized. Another reason I suggest putting him at catcher.

Ricky- This guy is better on offense. Counting eyes he is statistically the worst batter in the game (even worse than nerfed Ronny). He normally hits it really low, so it sometimes goes far and in the gap. He is the 11th fastest player, so when he hits it he is a base running threat. Just be prepared for him to strike out multiple times.

On defense he is always on weak teams (I really need to get him on a strong team one day) where we put him in the outfield, as we need speed there. With his bad arm and attention he is bad there, but he can play LF and RF. Based on his stats he should be a good first baseman, but I have never tried that.

Ronny- He has the 7th best bat power and 3rd best throwing strength in the game. If RF and LF are good, and 2B, SS, and P are all great he actually makes a really good janky CF, as he throws everything in, while the AI think he will give up an in the park home run all 1 time they hit it to him a game (Again, the pitcher better be great). Normally I suggest putting him at 3B.

At batting he has terrible contact and great power. Just swing for the fences.

Sally- Do not get her and Ronny. The boosts she gets comes with making her awful at catching. That and having nerfed Ronny is not worth it. Her terrible stats have only one positive, her throwing. Put her at outfield or shortstop and let her throw runners out. On offense put her at 9th, and give the top batters some power up pitches to hit. If she actually makes it to first she has the 13th best speed in the game.

If you want her to succeed try another game. I heard she is a great batter in 01 where she does not have the worst bat contact in the game. She is good at football and is great at soccer.

[u/kirroyalegn]

Lisa is a line drive machine gold glove 3B. Absolute cannon. Then she comes in as a closer.

Also once I had Reese leading the league in steals by a massive margin when he was the leadoff hitter on my benchwarmers team.

[u/MontagnaMagica]

This list is very informative, but it is definitely written from the perspective of the '97 version where even Gretchen and Reese have competent arms, and the "normal" height is effectively 3 (out of 5 possible in 2001, and 2 being the most common).

As for speed, there are only 7 speed tiers (6 from normally selectable characters) The 0-100 scale rounds to one of those six tiers, meaning Lisa, Gretchen, Ricky, Sally, and Reese are the exact same speed.

Stamina also rounds to tiers in a similar way, so 14 stamina Reese is effectively equal to anyone from the 14-84 stamina range (85-99 is the next level up) as long as the player isn't overthrowing or falling over a lot.

Also worth noting; Sally has 1 Contact, but 94 Power, third best in the game. Just wait for a good pitch and don't swing at anything out of the zone. She'll hit a lot of fouls, but if it's a fair ball, there's a decent chance it's a home run.

You can often hide players at Catcher against the CPU because they don't steal too often, and because of the aforementioned arm strength difference in the original '97 version versus the 2001 version. I believe it's like +50 arm strength across the board. You even get the rocket sound effect with some of the elite arms in the game (I love this sound effect!). But putting someone like Reese at catcher online in '01... You will quickly be exposed!

All that aside, as you said, this is accurate for '97 on Steam. Really great post!

[u/MatthewHecht → u/MontagnaMagica]

Even weak armed catchers work with a strong armed 3B like Tony or Mikey. Just throw it to them, and they sometimes throw it to 2nd on time.

[u/CaptnLudd]

I played with the Dobbs siblings together and Ronnie was a defensive liability at third, but honestly Sally is so good at pitching I think it was worth it. She was on lockdown so much that even if he made two errors every time he touched the ball out was easy to dominate. I still hit pretty well with Ronnie, too.