Koaches' Korner

(It's amazing how many c-words you can change to k-words!)

In today's article, we konfront the issue of defensive styles.  From baseball we receive the konventional wisdom that strong pitching — pitching that's just plain hard to hit — does win games. Our komputer simulations have also demonstrated that an algorithmic pitcher who tends to choose prime and low-factor kards is surprisingly effective.  By this, we're referring the pitching algorithm in Kardball for iPhone.

In kontrast, a pitching style that tempts batters to put a kard in play kan also be successful. But we feel this approach is hard to reduce to a formula; it often depends on too many factors, like the kurrent score, the kard kount, and the kapabilities of the particular person at bat.

Kase in Point

(We are done with the k's now.)

Our data indicates that aggressive pitching in Kardball creates more strikeouts, but does not necessarily win games. The best example of this is the case of the pitcher's Ace.  Consider this scenario:

• Pitcher:  A, 7, 8
• Outfield:  3, 3, 4, 8, 9, 10, J, K

The strongest pitch in Kardball is the Ace. But ... if we pitch away the Ace for a likely strike, we weaken the defense against a home run.  Hence the dilemma.

There's no K in Team

But alas, Kardball needs coaching, and unlike poker, Bunco, Uno or your other second-favorite game, you can freely coach your Kardball pitcher from your chair next to the beer cooler or budgie cage.  There's potentially no single style that prevails in every situation.  It's the patience and wisdom of you, the self-proclaimed Kardball expert coach, that will win the day!