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.

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.

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

1.  Disregard all readings on the offensive card and replace it by a template card.  The better the rating, the better the outcome.
2.  Walks and strikeouts are transformed into “ground out, runner advanced to second”.

What does this lead to?  You’ll want to use hit & run with weak offensive players who have a good hit & run rating in situations where the batter will hit with runners have their stealing *.  This strategy should be maximized even more against stellar pitchers such as someone like Peavy (2007).  The most frequent result of the hit & run is, by a large margin, “ground out, runner goes to second”.  In this case, you need clutch hitters to back-up players who have good hit & run ability.

What type of weak hitters should you go after for your team?  The ideal type is a player with perfect defense (1e10) that also has a *star rating and his hit & run rating is B.

What about the steal rating?  Having a good steal rating forces the opponent to hold the runners.  When runners are held, hitters have their hit & run rating upgraded by one letter (a rating of B becomes a rating of A).  Runners without the *star rating but with good stealing numbers (e.g. 7/- (15-6) should be just as good to force opponets to hold runners as well.

The B rating should be the minimal rating to start with the hit & run strategy.  For all players not having a B rating, you should go to the individual settings and select “never use hit-and-run with this player”.  Maybe one exception would be very weak hitters with a C rating.  Also, I would recommend turning off the hit & run for players with good offensive cards even though they have a B rating.

Hit & Run Strategy and Opponent
You should switch to conservative hit & run for games when you play against teams with weak pitching. The reason for this is that the hit & run strategy turns singles read on pitcher’s card into outs.  So, it is a strategy that pays when the opponent pitcher has a few singles on his card.  But, it’s costly when the opponent pitcher has many singles on his card.

Line-Up
You should set-up a line-up so that your fast runners are in front of the B-rated hitters, and that slow runners are in front of not qualified hitters.

Hit & Run works better in what type of park?
Take advantage of as many singles out of the ballpark as you can.  The ideal ballpark may be AT&T Park.

1. It is better to have a player with more on-base coming exclusively from hits in the second or third spot of the line-up and to have a lead-off with a bit less of on-base.

2. Avoid sluggers with several BP(Ball Park) home runs. Of the one or two sluggers that will make your team, go for those players with the most direct home runs.

3. In pitcher parks where the on-base is high (AT&T Park, Fenway Park), a good strategy is to turn to players with many doubles and triples.

4. For pitchers look for WHIPS that are composed of short singles and walks. A pitcher that gives up some BP home runs is fine in a pitcher park but pitchers that give up a lot of long singles (SI**) and doubles will be a problem. Also, a good hold rating is important since stealing becomes a little more important in a pitcher park.

5. Good defense up the middle