He's pretty good, and was close to making the cut. I disagree that he is the premier pitcher though. I realize he is ranked as 4 balls, but that is based largely on his high stamina and since you are able to switch pitchers in and out with impunity, it doesn't make much of a difference
Kenny > Angela all day, but now that the player attributes have been mapped out, there's no doubt the pitching-by-committee approach is optimal in the original game. Pablo, Luanne and Pete all have amazing repertoires, they can all easily pitch 9 innings combined and, most importantly with all the comebackers to the mound, they gobble up grounders like Pac-Man. When I want to use one of the dedicated pitchers though Kenny's my go-to.
@@morphstarchangeling8024 He is, no question. Pablo's 3rd-best pitch, his Slowball, is rated similarly to all of Angela's best pitches. He really is still the Secret Weapon even to this day. I like starting Pete because he can get through more innings reliably and bringing in Pablo to pitch the 5th and 6th, but my most recent season I had Pete start home games, Pablo start road games, and used Maria (with pink unis) to close games. Had a blast with it, Pink Maria might be the second-most well-rounded kid besides Pablo. She's more of a natural starter than reliever, but she has to start every game in LF to get the pink bonus, so I dunno how often I'll use her again. Glad I did once though, that was a really fun pitching staff.
Great analysis! Recently some geniuses have found all of the players' (including the generic kids) true hidden attribute ratings (out of 100) in the game's code (as well as the 2001 and 2003 versions). Achmed actually has a better combo of power and contact than Pablo. Achmed has 95 power, 84 contact while Pablo has 100 power and 63 contact. Players also have a height rating, which affects the size of their catching radius. Pablo has a max 100 glove rating BUT that is for catches within a player's reach, since his catching area is so small many catches are out of his reach so he misses or drops the ball. Keisha has a nice glove rating of 69, but she is tall so it is much more likely that catches will be within her catching radius and not on the edge of it or outside of it which leads to flubbed and missed catches.
When Poofesure played this game and was making his team, he clicked on Amir thinking he was Pablo (because he couldn’t find him) and immediately said “screw you, you suck”😂
Not sure if it’s also true in the original, but in the 2001 and 2003 versions, the best player in the game if Maria Luna if you pick a team with a pink uniform. She’s either 9/10 or 10/10 in every category
This video is great. A lot of awesome info on what backyard kids are the best and why. In 2003 I would pair the Big 4 (Pete, Achmed, Pablo and Keisha) with Amir Ken Griffey Jr Sammy Sosa and Jeff Bagwell. Angela is pretty good too both pitching and hitting.
Mikey Thomas, cannon arm, good glove, power hitter. Only drawback is speed but you dont need that when you hit nukes like Mikey. Put him at catcher to throw out every would be bag stealer, third base to make those throw across the diamond, or first base to be a consistent glove as well as being a middle of the order bat. Definitely missed him. Hes better than 10-7 on the list. Great vid tho!
Dante, the Kawaguchis, the Delvecchios, Sally, Mikey, Stephanie, Jocinda, and Maria are the Mid 10 players after looking into the top 10 and bottom 10 players Dante is very fast, makes a good outfielder, but he's a so-so hitter; rely on speed for ground balls and bunts to get him on 1st. Vicki is not the best hitter, but is really fast and is one of the best fielders in the game, she can easily throw from 3rd to 1st in a flash (as long as the ball doesn't go out or hit someone for an error) Jocinda is a great power hitter, but slow, she does have good fielding too Kenny is fast and can be a good pitcher, but with his wheelchair, it gets in the way of batting, so his swing doesn't get much; a good ground ball and luck on speed can get him on 1st easily Mikey is like Jocinda in a way, strong power hitter, but slow runner; he's also decent at fielding Angela is the best pitcher amongst the Backyard Kids, her power is good, but she's very slow and not a good fielder, she can get clumsy when getting stuck in between bases; despite her speed, she's like Shohei Ohtani minus the good fielding Tony is aight, but in future games can rival Angela if you put the Delvecchios on seperate teams Sally is a well-balanced player whose stats get to 7 in '01 and '03; she has good power, nice speed, a nice pitcher, and a great fielder. Maria is fast, a decent fielder, but her swing has a bit of power, she can hit ground balls and line drives in such a way Stephanie, the last of the kids, who loves baseball, she's kinda #11 amongst the ranks of Backyard Kids, but can surpass Ashley and Sidney if they aren't on the same team
Alright, here's the story. I had put together what I thought at the time was the worst roster in the game: Luanne, Reese, Gretchen, Angela, Billy Jean, Tony, Marky, Jorge and Sally. (In that batting order once I got used to playing with them) Sally led off the bottom of the 13th inning in a scoreless game 12. She hit the ball into right field for a single. Then Luanne came up and grounded into a fielder's choice. Since she was almost at 1st already, the 2nd baseman decided to throw out Sally at 2nd. Massive mistake, I might add. I had Luanne steal second on the very next pitch. The catcher, wanting to do damage control, decided to throw to 3rd. His problem? The third baseman was not standing on the bag. So the ball went into left field, and Luanne rounded 2nd. Then came the other problem: the left fielder was not in position to catch the ball either. He was in the middle of left field. By the time he made it to the ball on the left field line, Luanne was already rounding 3rd and he had to throw home. Needless to say, the throw was not in time.
(Copying this here because you might not have seen it on the other video, sometimes RU-vid is weird with reply notifications) I remember you saying how you didn't see that much of a difference when you put Maria on a pink team vs without a pink team. Apparently, from what I've read(and also my testing, she's been waaay better when I do this), there's actually a bug with Maria's boost. I'm not sure if this is on ScummVM's part or if it's in the original copy, apparently you have to select her first in the team drafting portion, and put her in left outfield, and then Maria gets her boost. After testing her with and without the conditions (with her being on a pink team for both)it honestly makes a big difference. She became faster, a better fielder from left field, and became a top home run hitter when I met the conditions. I figured I'd let you know, incase you didn't know. At least to me(I respect the opinion if you disagree), she becomes an easy top 5(let alone too 10!) player when the conditions are met.
That's crazy. I've never heard you need to do all that, only that the team needs to be pink. I honestly didn't even know which pink to choose, there's two variations as far as I can tell. If it's all true, that would explain why I was underwhelmed by her. I just looked and saw a reddit user say the same thing, so that's two witnesses. Whaddayakno
Correction on what I said in the comment after reading what I was told(although, if you've seen the comment I'm talking about, you may already know): you don't have to always keep her in Left Field. All you have to do is make sure to end the game with her in Left Field, sorry about that. Also Yeah, it can be a bit confusing with the colors. The one to the more left next to the Red is Purple, while the one to the right next to the White is Pink(for you're information). If you have the time, you should definitely try Maria with the conditions met. At least for me(in which, the stats agree with me), Pink Maria is basically: Dimitri like power(her regular stats are a 67/100 power and 45/100 contact, while her Pink boosted batting stats are a 87/100 power and 75/100 contact) + Kiesha like speed, + Lisa, Pablo and Kimmy's arm(from a 43/100 to a 73/100 arm strength), she gets waaay better stamina her stamina goes from a 25/100 to a 60-something/100), and she goes from a pretty bad pitcher to a pretty good pitcher(her regular "pitching"kit is: 6/100 Heat, 80/100 Slowball, 43/100 Left Hook, and 47/100 Right Hook. While, on top of having better speed and a better arm for grounders and better stamina, her Pink boosted "pitching kit" is: 56/100 Heat, 80/100 Slowball, 73/100 Left Hook, and 77/100 Right Hook, on top of the other boosts in stamina, arm and speed) when the conditions are met.
@@longballhq3128Yeah, that's true. If you only count players affecting each other(and, at the same time, you don't count for team/field stat boosts) it still does hold up. Although, if you're reading this, would there be any additions/changes/tweaks you'd make to this list(and potentially the other one)if you went back to change it in hindsight(after learning about their true objective stats from the spreadsheet, and things people online have told you about the game, like how to actually get Maria's pink boost)?
@@thecrk9201 I still think my top 10 holds up. Maria is the only real question mark since I never came across the right info to test her boost apparently
Nice to see Amir on the list. Truly the most underrated player in the game. People who love this game always talk about Achmed but never mention little bro Amir. I've been using him for a while in teams with Achmed, since his "I wanna make my big bro proud" boost makes him into an amazing player.
This might be a 2001 version exclusive thing but one thing about Luanne Lui is that she can bunt for a hit pretty much every time. Pete fouls or pops up bunts pretty much every time, so I tend to go for a grounder with him if I need a guaranteed hit.
OK I make a hate for this, but I honestly think Pete is better than Pablo😅 I know what you’re saying no Pablo is the best I know he’s the best stat wise but character was Pete Wheeler is the best also he’s fast so that’s a plus anyways Pete is my favorite character in the game and no one can change my mind unless they put me in the game then I’m my favorite character
Top 10 Players that is NOT Pablo. Yes, the Webber Twins make the spots separately. Oh man, this is outstanding! Had a feeling Phillips was going to be on here, she's a beast!
I would have Mikey Thomas somewhere on here. He's slower than a turtle, but has a huge arm and average glove. If you have good plate discipline to wait for your pitch, he'll crush homers all day, which makes his severe lack of speed a non-factor. He might have the most power going to the other way in the game, but he does struggle with pitches that are in on his hands. I've had him lead my teams lots of times in HRs. He's obviously not the best hitter in the game, but if you know how to use him, he can absolutely rake.
I just started a backyard baseball 2001 season mode and of course i picked pablo sanchez the goat i even beat the royals who had leah wayne on there team whos considered the best generic kid in the game struck her out 3 times with amir
@@longballhq3128 Oh, absolutely, I recently started playing it because it wasn't released in my country I think, but I did my homework and also got addicted xD Pete just stuck out to me and now he's my favourite, because he always makes me laugh. My friend really likes Gretchen, so I put her on my team too, but she is sooo bad, for having 3 in running she is really slow xD
@@vampirtulpe3606 Gretchen isn't very good lol Yeah even though they show ratings 1-4, that is a rough estimate but only testing reveals their true skill.
@@longballhq3128 You're right. Gretchen is hot garbage and I know it, but I like her as a character xDD That's right, at first I thougth Vicky would be good, but I had real big trouble hitting the ball with her and her speed wasn't worth the hitting problems for me. But yo, man, you forgot the best players in the list, Kimmy, Ricky and Jorge, what are you doing man- xD
id love to see the whole squad ranked. As a kid, dante was my favorite behind pablo. I actually got accustomed to clicking early due to Dante's late swing and his solid speed helped me get him on base. With that said, he's not that great. Also, I remember stephanie Morgan being better...
@@TonyChopper_ lucky! it’s a cool name! When I was kid and i played this and told my parents Tony was my favorite, my dad told me there was a hockey player with that name.
@@demonkingbadger6689 you really don't though. They just have better stamina than other players but since you can simply sub out your pitcher whenever you need it's irrelevant
Have you seen the spreadsheet with all the player attribs? Great list but you might reconsider a couple of very minor things. Luanne's Speed rating is 96, Pablo's is 95 :p In general though your rankings are spot on, these are the 10 exact players I'd pick with only tiny differences in order. Nice to see someone actually crush it with one of these "best players in BYB97" articles/vids, most of them are pretty bad!
Most really are terrible, haha! Thanks alot! I hadn't seen the attributes when I made this but have now. I personally measured their speed by clocking their times to first on a stopwatch several times and taking the mean. Luanne was 4.1 sec. Pablo 4.8. So I'm gonna have to argue that it's more significant than the stat sheet lets on. She looks faster too
@@longballhq3128 Interesting. Might be the random hot/cold buffs/nerfs. I had no idea that was a mechanic in BYB97 until I had a game where Mikey was inexplicably fast and doubled four times for me, and one of the twins was noticeably slower than another despite having them both on my team. I asked on r/backyardbaseball and the spreadsheet guy told me that 97 also applies the hot/cold mechanic randomly each game, like the later games. Except 97 gives you no indication whatsoever that it's happening, until you notice Mikey is running the bases like Rickey Henderson and you wonder if you accidentally enabled some kind of cheat haha. Thanks for the reply, btw, it got me in the mood to try out a new season in 97. I've been playing Road to the Show in the different MLB:TS games on RPCS3, it emulates them pretty well nowadays. Wanted to do a franchise but decided against it because I didn't wanna worry about all the tiny little details. Then I saw this reply and said hey, great time to go back to BYB!
I might even argue Luanne Lui higher. I would just have like 6-7 games in a row batting 1.000 where she would just bunt and get an automatic single every time. I just can't imagine not wanting to draft her
Can’t tell you how much I enjoyed this video. What a throw back. Mikey Thomas not being on this list is truly absurd though, dude swings a tree trunk at the ball.
Mikey's a great hitter, but he's literally the slowest player in the game, even slower than Angela and Kimmy. A hit to center field that would be an easy double for Pete or Pablo will result in him getting thrown out at first. His hitting and throwing arm are almost enough to justify top ten status, but not quite.
A lot of these players (Luann, the Khan brothers, Pete) were ones I used. But I wouldn't play without Angela "Sugar Pop" Delvecchio. True, she had the speed of a slug, but if I could get her to rack up 10-12 K's in 6 innings, the other team didn't get up enough offense to matter. And because she didn't throw heat well, she lasted a long time on the mound.
Marina Luna can outperform Pablo! She may appear to have low stats, but when your team is *PINK* and you pick her, she goes from pink princess to beauty QUEEN just like that! The Backyard sports games have these little secrets that are revealed when you click on them and get to know them. Like the Webber Twins.
Yes! She's really slow which is enough to exclude her already, but also, she doesn't hit for much power. If I was going to tolerate slowness I'd rather MIkey Thomas, at least he hits dingers!
Can you explain in backyard baseball all the hidden stats? Like how siblings do better with or without eachother in a game? I know a few of them but would love a guide!
@@apricot8301 I'm not sure about the other siblings and what they get, but after playing and spectating this game, I'm positive the Webber twins get a boost being on the same team, because it seems they run faster and are better at bat.
@@MrAwesomeMattyAmir Kahn's description says that he gets a boost when on the same team as Achmed, and I think the Delvecchio siblings get a boost too
OK I think Mikey Thomas should have made it on the list. He is not the fastest but he has great power, surprisingly good defense and a cannon for an arm. seems like top ten worthy to me.
@@longballhq3128 I think for this to work, Maria has to be your first pick and positioned at left field, on top of having your team color being pink. You'll notice her strike zone box size expanding, giving her better contact ability
Great video, the most cerebral approach to this children's game I've seen on youtube. I agree with you, except that my own testing gave me slightly different numbers, and possibly an even more extreme version of some of the conclusions you make. Hitting matters, pitching really doesn't. Like you I only pitch low in the zone to minimize AI home run pop, although what I've found is that you only need one pitch, the slowball thrown at a low corner. So then it comes down to considering the pitcher as a fielding position, and I chose Pete there for much the same reasons you choose Luanne (Pete also has the tightest slowball circle in the game along with Kenny). So then it largely comes down to offensive production, and for that I used the following formula, which along with some consideration for fielding and other attributes, I used to determine my own ranking of the top players. (3 X OBP) + Slugging. I leaned hard towards on base for the following reason. The game against the AI on hard difficulty is really about getting the AI to a tipping point by reducing stamina. Not even as much the pitcher's stamina, but rather the fielders. Once you do that, the game becomes a foregone triviality as fly balls drop for base hits, and singles turn into extra bases against outfielders who can't run and can't throw. For that purpose, chaining hits is the most reliable way to reduce AI stamina, as opposed to hitting random home runs (although random home runs can win you games, especially when you get to the odd Super Entire tournament game or two which the AI will make prohibitively difficult.) From that formula here is my Offensive production numbers, which were based on multiple seasons of play, which I use to base my own top 10 ranking: Achmed - 3812 Keisha - 3199 Pete - 3167 Pablo - 2825 Dmitri - 2745 Amir - 2647 Webber - 2602 Tony - 2475 Mikey - 2414 Stephanie - 2283 Ernie - 1918 Jocinda - 1839 Maria - 1773 Luanne - 1750 Vickie - 1734 Lisa - 1712 Annie - 1534 The parallels with your own findings shows that there's an awfully tight group of universally agreed upon high performers. Achmed, Pete, Pablo, and for me also Keisha to form a Big 4 Superstars of Backyard Baseball. Any one of them can carry a team offensively, and together it's a murderer's row for the AI. The rest of the top 10 also pan out pretty close to what you found with a couple exceptions lower on your list. I found Luanne and Annie to be absolute stinkers with the bat during my testing, so they took themselves out of contention. Here's my top rankings below: 1. Achmed 2. Pete 3. Keisha 4. Pablo 5. Dmitri 6. Amir 7(t). Webbers 9. Tony 10. Mikey 11. Stephanie As you can see, I bumped Pete up over Keisha, basically for his freak speed being able to devastate the AI as a baserunner. I can't really see a reason to go below this top 11 group for a Backyard All Star team, and in practice I really always just picked Tony as part of the top 9 above. Luanne could be a decent shout for some hidden value due to her speed, as you found. Now that I got that info out that I've been sitting on guess all that's left to say is that everyone should play this kid's game from over 2 decades ago. It holds up to this day, and is surprisingly fun. Peace out and big ups to whoever read this wall of text.
Dude! This is great! OBP is not the end all for me because of how drastically different run speeds are. Guys like Mikey and Tony are so incredibly slow that even though they get base hits if the next guy up doesn't go yard, they're highly liable to be throw out trotting to second. This tends to show up in the runs scored column. Not sure why your success was low with Luanne and Annie, you saw the numbers I had with them 🤷♂️. Both solid OBP for me. Bold choice slotting Pablo 4th, gl staving off the pitchfork mob
@@longballhq3128 Haha, yeah I'm sure there's some sampling issues as to why we get different results. As for not placing Pablo number 1, he's still great, but for me he just don't mash, like Achmed or even Keisha do. Thems just the breaks. :P
@@shortpitched713 Achmed is the best power hitter. And Amir's number 2 if he's on the same team. Pablo came in third but has much better speed than the top 2 guys so I believe he deserves his reputation. Another thing about using OBP in this game: they count fielder's choice as a base hit which can skew its value as a stat. This is why I weighed in runs scored per plate appearance. Runs is what wins you ballgames after all
@@longballhq3128 Yup, just dropping some of my own info for you, my man. Not really attached to those ideas either way. :) And I'll definitely cede that you're probably a better hitter than me, with your stance shifting shenanigans, lol.
@@shortpitched713 Yo, the stance shifting is OP. Figured it out as a kid, it's a real game changer! It was fun to see your take, and I love that you delved so deep, as I did! haha
@@longballhq3128 yea she is kind of a snail but her batting is krisp. Either her or annie, I mean, there's nobody else as good as the others in the setup
Yup, you've said it about Pablo Sanchez. "#1 in our hearts." And yeah, I did notice about Pablo not able to catch the ball consistently when I put him in the outfield.
Maybe it’s just me but Maria Luna was an unexpectedly good player on my team, she hit a lot of home runs especially when the bases were loaded for some reason and she had decent speed
Pablo's my favorite player too. Also, I use Kimmy in the clean-up spot, because although she's not as good as him, she does have the ability to hit bombs like Pablo and a lot of other players in this game despite her below-average speed. I also use her friend Jocinda in the #3 spot, because of her swing.
(putting this here because the reply notifications on RU-vid can be a bid dodgy) Just wondering, do you have a Discord? I'm just wondering, cause I really like to talk about older games, like Backyard Baseball, with people who also care.