SportingNews just announced yesterday that the Strat-O-Matic Baseball: 2010 Season has been released. Whenever a new season arrives the first thing usually I do is browse the player cards. As I was going through the cards yesterday I was thinking that it would be great if there was a quicker and more effective way to find cards fit the type of ballpark I use (I usually choose AT&T Park as a ballpark simply because I’m a Giants fan 
). This year, the ballpark factors (si 10/10 hr 5/10) for AT&T Park mainly favor right handed players. When searching for pitchers that are best suited for AT&T Park one would look for pitchers who have low ballpark diamonds on the right side. Since the ballpark home run rating for AT&T Park on the left side is relatively low (1-5) one can still find an effective pitcher who’s ballpark home runs on the left side are on the high side.
Searching for a pitcher that suits AT&T park can be a bit tedious with the Player Set Browser because you basically need to go through and open each pitcher card to find their ballpark home run ratings. So, I decided to write a script to make this search a bit easier. At first, I was thinking about a way that would analyze each card and categorize cards with the type of ballpark it would perform well in. A high ballpark diamonds pitcher would be a better fit in a pitcher’s park and a pitcher with a low amount ballpark diamonds would be a better fit in a hitter’s park. Then you have ballparks that favors righties (AT&T) and parks, such as Miller Park, that favors lefties this year.
Since the average Strat-O-Matic manager already has a good understanding of ballpark advantages I decided to write a script that simply adds two columns to the Player Set Browser for each player’s left and right ballpark home run diamonds. Now, it’s a little easier and quicker to find those bargain pitchers for your ballpark.
Download: http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/98356
Griffith Stadium
I was browsing the ballparks for the ATG4 player set and Griffith Stadium ’41 caught my eye. The is the only ballpark with zero ballpark home runs from both sides. I decided to browse the pitchers from this set and came up with 9 pitchers that may fit well in a ballpark such as Griffth Stadium:
1. John Cerutti $1.23M (BP – 5 vs L, 6 vs R)
I couldn’t find any pitcher under 1M worth considering. John Cerutti at $1.54 was the first bargain found.
2. Floyd Bannister $1.54M (BP – 6 vs L, 5 vs R)
Cerutti’s card may be a little better than Bannister but Bannister only needs 3 days rest between starts.
3. Fred Norman $1.76M (BP – 7 vs L, 4 vs R)
This reverse lefty may be worth considering but he does allow quite a bit of triples against left-handed batters.
4. Jim Merritt $2.27M (BP – 0 vs L, 8 vs R)
I’m wondering how often this pitcher is chosen. Looks like a good card. He has 91% out chances against left-handed batters. 8 ballpark diamonds from the right side ideal for a pitcher’s park.
5. Pedro Ramos $2.33M (BP – 7 vs L, 3 vs R)
He was 11-20 in 1961 with Minnesota. I wonder how he would fare in Griffith Stadium.
6. Bruce Hurst $2.41M (BP – 8 vs L, 1 vs R)
Here’s another reverse lefty. His low double and triple chances are excellent.
7. Ed Whitson $2.89M (BP – 3 vs L, 8 vs R)
He can work on only 3 days rest. Doesn’t give up and singles against- right handed batters but all other chances are extra base hits.
8. Mike Scott $3.2M (BP – 0 vs L, 8 vs R)
This reverse righty must be hard to get. 81% out chances against left-handed batters. Most of his safe chances are walks which is something to look for in a starting pitcher.
9. Tom Browning $3.39M (BP – 4 vs L, 3 vs R)
Looks like a decent card. He has low bk and wp numbers and a -2 hold.
One of the most maddening things about Stratomatic is that you’re never done learning. Here are a few guidelines I’ve come to value over the years:
1. Defense up the middle is key. Even if it costs runs at the plate, the defense will more than make up for it. I almost always try to have a ’1′ or ’2′ at SS and 2B. If there are any 1′s available that are under 3-4M I’d seriously consider grabbing them.
2. Platoons, if used moderately, can be a better way to maximize your lineup and efficently utilize your budget. Make sure you aren’t using too many platoons because when a reliever comes in your batting order may suffer.
3. Build your roster to your ballpark. While having a star player is beneficial, finding a hitter or pitcher with the right BPSI/BPHR for half the money could pay huge dividends.
4. When building a team, do not ignore clutch ratings, GBDP chances, and strikeout chances. Having a great hitter in the 5 hole is great, but if he has a terrible clutch rating, that can cost dearly in crunch time. Having a lineup full of hitters who frequently ground into double plays is a rally killer. Don’t have too many high strikeout hitters. You need a few batters who can put the ball into play and move runners over.
5. Have a versatile lineup. Give yourself some flexibility in the lineup and on the bench to adapt to any injury. But, be wary not to spend too much money on the bench.
6. Follow the 50/30 batting and pitching balance rule as close as possible. For 80M leagues this would mean having a pitching staff worth about 30M.
Who is using the Stratomatic Baseball CD-ROM game to test your strategy for upcoming Stratomatic Online games? I do this whenever I have the chance. It can be quite tedious to setup, though. What I usually do is add all 12 teams in the league but I don’t even bother placing them in each of the 3 divisions. Before the season starts, I’ll setup my team and then setup one of the teams in my division and start simulating. I usually setup all of the teams in my division before the season starts and then I add rosters for other teams (from other divisions) as I face them.
It is a bit of a drag to keep up with all of the daily transactions being done in Stratomatic Online during the season. What I do is only update the roster of my upcoming opponent for that day. Of course, you will encounter some managers who go wild with adds and drops. In these cases, I either just wipeout their team and start over or not even bother simming that opponent.
After the first couple series of the season (6 games) I’m usually able to predict how each manager sets up their rotation. I also look back at previous games to view my opponents batting lineup patterns. Predicting lineups can be a drag when there are injuries involved but with a little work you should be able to determine what type of lineup you’ll be facing.
I usually play all 3 upcoming games in Spectator mode on the Stratomatic CD-ROM game. Yes, I sit there and watch how the game plays out. I may go through the series once or twice.
Below is a list of options from the CD-ROM game that are used for Stratomatic Baseball Online.
Main Rules
Maximum Level - Uses Maximum rules (see below).
Bunt for base hit
Improve out distribution
Improve baserunning realism
Home field advantage
More baserunning decisions
Realistic throwing errors
Allow extra pre-1920 errors
Pitch-Around option
Correct Board Game Excesses
Stealing
Super Advance Steal system
Miscellaneous
Use Miscellaneous Rules
Injures
Use injuries
Groundball A
Allow GBA on Pitcher Cards
BP/Weather/Clutch
Ballpark Effects
Clutch Hitting
Strategy
Super Advanced Strategy Charts
Closer
Use Closer Rules
Pitcher Fatigue
Use SADV Fatigue & Pitch Count
In the Stratomatic world, a 1-8 ballpark rating is usually considered neutral. So, let’s say between 1-8 and 1-10 is neutral. Most cards (hitters/pitchers) have the same amount of BP Single rolls. This means that the direct hit singles on a players card would be increased in the player’s card that played in a ballpark that has a 1-1 BP Single rating. A player that played in a ballpark such as Coors would have his direct hit singles reduced. This is why one should choose their players wisely. When you search for hitters under 1M, and you rank then by best OPS, SportingNews gives you the list of the best OPS in real life, not in Stratomatic. So, you might end up with 2 of the 3 top OPS players being Coors players. These players have inflated real life statistics. Guys like Hawpe and Greene had an OPS over .760, but their cards won’t reproduce at that level of performance in neutral ballparks. When looking at the top 10 best OPS hitters under 1M, look for ones coming from pitching parks.
