SEMI-ACE Boost for HMB Express
Credit to Jose Francisco Morales on unsplash.com for the awesome SEMI-ACE pitcher photo!
Heads up, we're making a small (optional) change to the HISTORY MAKER BASEBALL Express Game rules booklet, to give a little help to the SEMI-ACE pitcher. Going forward, whenever a SEMI-ACE (ACE•) pitcher takes the field in HMBX (either as a starter or as the designated “bullpen hero”), before the action begins, you can roll the decider die. If it's a "bullet," he'll be an ACE pitcher for this game, no decider rolls needed. If it's a "blank," then he remains "semi" ACE. That is, you'll check the decider die on all ACE readings from the game board.
A small adjustment--just a single die roll, which will be called for in only about 10% of games (of the 550 pitchers carded for the upcoming 2022 Pro Season, there are 44 SEMI-ACE pitchers)--which will strengthen the SEMI ACE's standing in the HMB pitching hierarchy as roughly half-way between ACE and STAR. It's "saving grace" for the Semi-ACE.
I feel bad for the SEMI-ACE, this is not the first time it's been short-changed in game action. Long-time HMB-ers will remember the change we made (in 2014) to automatically award "ACE or STAR?" checks to the SEMI-ACE. (Example) Prior to 2014, the SEMI-ACE would get the "otherwise" result on those readings with a decider die "blank," while the ACE or STAR would get the benefit. That didn't seem right, given that a SEMI-ACE is supposed to be better than a STAR pitcher. The overall effect was to make the SEMI-ACE closer to a STAR than an ACE--until we made that change.
A similar phenomenon has occurred in the express game (you'd think we would have learned, ha!), where the SEMI-ACE has performed more like a STAR than an ACE. Much of the discrepancy can be explained by an acknowledgement of the game's architecture. Essentially, the only way to get more SEMI-ACE results is to add more ACE results--but that creates it's own problem (namely, making the ACE rating WAY too strong). The solution we came up with (first paragraph of this post) does what needs to be done: it strengthens the SEMI-ACE, puts some distance between it and the STAR quality, without adding strength to the ACE.
It's also worth noting that the express game is designed to abstract a lot of action in the name of faster game play. In that regard, all of the qualities--not just the SEMI-ACE, indeed, not just the pitching qualities--necessarily have less impact than you would see in a full play game of HMB. Think about it: a starting pitcher is going to get, on average, just five to seven checks of his pitching qualities, total, in a game of express baseball. Its difficult to get a lot of granularity with so few dice rolls. A game of full-play HMB, you'll check the pitcher's qualities four or five times per inning, for a total of 20-35 quality checks in all.
As an aside, the express game's SEMI-STRUGGLER gets a bump in effectiveness for the same reason that the SEMI-ACE gets tamped down. It's not as noticeable, because SEMI-STRUGGLERS don't see as much action, but you may want to account for it nonetheless. You can use the same rule for SEMI-STRUGGLERS that you'll use for SEMI-ACEs: roll a decider die when they enter the game (either as a starter or as the game's "bullpen hero.") If it's a "bullet," he'll be an STRUGGLER pitcher for this game, no decider rolls needed. If it's a "blank," then he remains "semi" STRUGGLER. That is, you'll check the decider die on all STRUGGLER readings from the game board.
If you have any questions, please let us know--we're happy to help! We'll demonstrate how this works in our 2023 Baseball America Spring Training YouTube stream, scheduled for Thursday 01.26.23, 6pm MST (8pm EST). We'll intentionally choose a handful of SEMI-ACE pitchers for our seven-inning exhibition games. Hope you'll join us!