SOM Diary: the next project(s)

For this summer's vacation it was fun to play with what I had (the 1992 edition of Strat-O-Matic), and I intentionally didn't buy the 2012 set because the RedSox were just not playing well last year.

This year, they are playing great, though, and overall the AL East had an exciting year, with four teams stillin the competition for the playoffs into September. So I will obviously get the 2013 cards as soon as they are available.

The big question is what to do with them. I have toyed with three options how to do a 2013 season replay that
- has some real competition
- leads to meaningful player stats, i.e. covers at least 30-40 games per team so starters fet more than five games and offensive stats at least start to balance out
- has a manageable total number of games. For the 1992 replay I have managed to get in eight days so far, for a total of 32 games, in about three months real time (but playing a lot during my vacation and varying amounts otherwise).

So far I've come up with three ways to select some 2013 teams and get rolling.

1. Two divisions, AL and NL

This is similar to what I've tried in the 1992 replay:
Play AL and NL with one division @ 5 teams each (AL East and the division of the NL champion), teams play each division rival 7 times, one interleague rival in a 3 game series and the others twice.
Total 39 games per team (ca. 1/4 of a complete season), 195 regular games to be played.
Seven games world series between division champions.
Drawback: I'm not really excited to play a lot of NL games because a) they don't play the RedSox as often so I can't relate to their players as well and b) I find that NL games take much longer to play and are harder to interrupt due to the intricacies of switching in pinch hitters, double switches and everything else you have to consider when there is no DH. While this does mean that real life NL baseball is more interesting and, I guess, more challenging to manage, I'd rather get through three AL games than 2 NL games in a given time.

2. AL only

3 divisions with 4 teams each (dropping the worst team of each real one, e.g. the Blue Jays from the AL East although that means that I miss the chance to play the one remaining knuckleballer...), play each division rival in 3 three game series and two teams (based on 2013 real life rank - same rank from one div and 1-2/3-4 from other) from other divisions.
Total 33 games per team (ca 1/5 of a complete season), 196 regular games
Could be upped to 39/234 by doubling inter division games.
Playoffs: 5 game divisional series best 1st vs. Wildcard, 2nd vs 3rd 1st, then 7 game AlCS and a 7 game world series against the real life NL champion.
This limits the number of games (unfortunately also the games per team so statistics may be a bit off - on the other hand I highly doubt I will be able to colete these games within twelve months...) and should provide an exciting season as teams of similar strength face each other, especially in inter division games.

3. Mini full league

Two 4 team divisions per league (AL East and divisions of real life LCS contenders, each divison losing its last ranked team as in 2. above), play each division rival 3x3 times, each league rival 3x, two similar ranked (based on 2013 real life rank - same rank from one div and 1-2/3-4 from other) interleague rivals twice.
Total 43 games per team (bit more than 1/4 of complete season, 39 games w/o interleague), 344 (312) regular games
Playoffs: 5 game LCS, 7 game world series

This would also mean a lot of NL play , and the total number of games is probably way beyond what I can accomplish in a year or so.

So at the moment I'm leaning towards option 2 and focusing on the AL season. That would also make winter a nice preparation for next year- even the 1992 replay helped me bring some life to the names I read about from the time in the hardballtimes.com and other places.

Der Glubb gewinnt in Wien

Auf dem Heimweg aus dem Urlaub haben wir einen Besuch bei meinem Bruder in Wien gemacht, und wie der Zufall so spielt, just an dem Tag war dort das Freundschaftsspiel zwischen dem 1. FC Nürnberg und dem SK Rapid Wien.

 

Eigentlich war es vor allem ein Freundschaftsspiel der Ultras beider Vereine. In einem gemütlichen, kleinen Stadion, wo man nah am Geschehen ist, haben die beiden Fankurven zwei Stunden lang gesungen, getanzt, den eigenen und den anderen Verein und vor allem sich selbst gefeiert. Wenn die Fans mal miteinander feiern statt gegeneinander, kann das richtig nett sein.

 

Clubfarben von Wien und Nürnberg in der Rapidfankurve (vor dem Spiel)

In freundschaftlicher Athmosphäre wurde sogar jede Menge gezündelt, hier qualmt die Glubb-Kurve.

Das Spiel war eher Nebensache, der Glubb hatte mit der zweiten Mannschaft von Rapid (die meisten Stammspieler waren mit ihren Nationalmannschaften unterwegs) einige Mühe und ging durch zwei Kopfballtore nach Standards in Führung. Am Ende 3:1 verdient gewonnen, aber bei der Vorstellung erhöhen sich die Sorgen, dass das mit dem Abstiegskampf dieses Jahr ganz bitter werden kann.

Egal, nach dem Spiel haben wir sogar noch den Bus gesehen, der die Clubspieler zum Flughafen bringen sollte, und die Kinder haben jede Menge Autogramme abgestaubt.

Sogar die kleinsten bekamen Unterschriften auf den Rücken.

Foto mit Pinola, Neffe Maxi und dessen Papa - so nah sieht man die Spieler nach Pflichtspielen vermutlich nicht...

SOM Diary: 1992 replay days 6-8

Day 6-8: second three game series

TOR@BOS: 0-6, 9-2, 3-1
Game 1: Roger Clemens dominates the Toronto offense with a complete game shutout, allowing 5 hits and no walks while striking out 12. The Boston bats come alive with homeruns by Valentin and Hatcher and a total of 11 hits for 6 runs off starterJuan Guzman who takes his first loss of the season.
Game 2: In a complete reversal from the 1st game, this time the Boston bullpen melts down after starter Viola leaves the game with the bases loaded, giving up 5 hits and two runs. Toronto batters go on to hit nine more times, sending ten men to the plate in the 7th and adding another homerun by White in the eighth. The Boston offense remains quiet and will try to regroup tomorrow against Jimmy key.
Game 3: Jimmi Key nearly repeats Roger Clemens' dominating performance, allowing just two hits (inclusing one HR from Hatcher to avoid the shutout) and walking only four despite recording no strikeout over eight innings. His defense helps gain the win for the Blue Jays starter by turning three double plays.

BAL@NYY: 5-6, 9-6, 2-6 (Yes, the Yankees scored six runs in each game of the series...)
Games 1/2: Yankees and Orioles trade turnarounds, both come from behind to win one of the first two games of the series. In game 2, Steve Farr blows the save for New York in spectacular fashion, hitting Billy Ripken for a hand injury and giving up 4 runs total including a homerun. Scores are dominated by the two catchers: Yankees catcher Nokes hits two homeruns after going 2 for 17 to start the season, but to no avail as this feat is topped by the three long balls from Orioles catcher Hoiles.

CIN@SFG: 2-0, 7-3, 2-0
Game 1: pitchers duel, six scoreless innings, 5 Ks for Rijo and for the losing pitcher Swift. Most baserunners reached with two outs. Reds score first in the 7th inning after a leadoff walk to Paul O'Neill, run driven in by Sabo. Paul O'Neill adds an HR later for the 2-0 win, Norm Charlton gets the save after 8 shutout innings from winning Reds pitcher Jose Rijo.
Game 2: Giants bullpen turns a close game into a clear victory for the Reds. Giants threaten to rally in the bottom of the ninth but can't quite get there- Dwayne Henry barely hangs on and defends Swindells Win, the Giants leave three runners stranded in the last inning alone (10 total).
Game 3: Reds sweep the Giants in a close game. Belcher takes the win with six scoreless innings, allowing 3 runs. Charlton earns his second save of the season.

LAD@ATL: 1-6, 4-5, 5-1
Game 1: Atlanta starter Glavine struggled in the first, but got out of it with only one run although the bases were loaded. LA starter Candiotti saw the opposite happen: after a 1-2-3 first inning, he gave up 3 runs in the 2nd, 2 in the 3rd and one unearned run in the 4th before being taken out of the game. Although Astacio went on to pitch 4.2 nearly flawless innings for the Dodgers, giving up only 3 singles and no runs, the Dodgers offense couldn't score any more points.
Game 2: Both starters struggle and then settle down for a close game. Roger McDowell comes in with a two run lead but gives up five hits and the Braves walk off with the win.
Game 3: The Dodgers avoid the series sweep, scoring in each of the last 4 innings. McDowell closes out the game in a non-saving ninth, giving up a single but keeping it to three BF by inducing Greg Olson to ground into a DP. Butler, Sharperson and Anderson reach base three times each, showing that the Dodgers have some offense left. Strawberry returns from the DL with an unexciting offensive outing (1 for 5 and a FC), but a solid defensive performance.

Standings after eight days

AL East

#	Team	W-L	Win %	Strk
1.	Toronto	5-3	.625	W2
1.	Boston	4-4	.500	L2
3.	New York	4-4	.500	W1
3.	Baltimore	3-5	.375	L1

NL West

#	Team	W-L	Win %	Strk
1.	Atlanta	6-2	.750	L1
2.	Cincinnati	5-3	.625	W3
2.	Los Angeles	3-5	.375	W1
2.	San Francisco	2-6	.250	L5

Batting Leaders so far (OBP/SLG/AVG), min. 20 PA, AVG 350

Terry Pendleton (ATL) 429/1000/429, 5 HR, 16 RBI
Chris Hoiles (BAL) 481/1000/417, 4 HR
Wade Boggs (BOS) 529/593/407
Joe Orsulak (BAL) 419/552/379
Will Clark (SFG) 476/833/389
Eric Karros (LAD) 394/516/387
Dave Winfield (TOR) 400/724/379
Bip Roberts (CIN) 514/370/370
Brady Anderson (BAL) 421/485/364, 6 SB
Ron Gant (ATL) 447/394/364, 5 SB
Paul O'Neill (CIN) 529/520/360

Pitchers with two wins

Roger Clemens, 16 IP, ERA 0.00, complete game shutout

Tom Glavine (ATL) 13 IP, ERA 0.69

Tim Belcher (CIN) 13 IP, ERA 2.08
Scott Kamieniecki (NYY) 14 IP, 2.57 ERA

Coming next: four days of interleague play.

SOM Diary: first five game days

Days 1/2: two game series to get started

AL East: BOS@BAL 3-0, 3-5; NYY@TOR 0-2, 3-0
NL West: SFG@LAD 4-6, 10-4; ATL@CIN 1-0, 8-7

Day 3-5: first three game series

BOS@NYY 3-8, 5-1, 4-1
BAL@TOR 6-1, 4-5, 1-2
SFG@ATL 6-4, 2-7, 5-6
LAD@CIN 5-6, 4-2, 3-10

Standings after five days

AL East

#	Team	W-L	Win %
1.	Boston	3-2	.600
1.	Toronto	3-2	.600
3.	New York	2-3	.400
3.	Baltimore	2-3	.400

NL West

#	Team	W-L	Win %
1.	Atlanta	4-1	.800
2.	Los Angeles	2-3	.400
2.	San Francisco	2-3	.400
2.	Cincinnati	2-3	.400

Batting Leaders so far (AVG/OBP/SLG)

Wade Boggs (BOS) 500/619/812, 2 3B
Willie McGee (SFG) 500/500/682, 1 HR
Eric Karros (LAD) 474/450/632
Terry Pendleton (ATL) 409/409/909, 3 HR
Brady Anderson (BAL) 400/435/600, 1 HR
Will Clark (SFG) 389/476/833, 2 HR
Barry Larkin (CIN) 381/409/714, 2 HR
Dave Anderson (LAD) 375/444/1500, 3 HR
Mitch Webster (LAD) 375/444/750
Joe Oliver (CIN) 364/364/455
Mike Felder (SFG) 357/400/429
Chris Hoiles (BAL) 357/357/857
Jeff Blauser (ATL) 350/391/500, 1 HR


Coming next: another three game series, then the four days of interleague play.

SOM Diary: First observations

Even after playing only 10 or 20 games, I've already learned a lot about Strat-O-Matic in particular and about managing a baseball team in general.

Regarding Strat-O-Matic play,

• Overall it is remarkable how SOM games lead to wild swings in results, close games and not-so-close games, and individual hot and cold streaks for players. All this despite the fact that SOM players do not really change over time - the cards are always the same. It really makes you appreciate how much of actual baseball results are really just due to statistics and randomness, not due to real variations in the players' ability.
  
  On the other hand, this means that all attempts to keep tabs on players day-to-day performance, and adjust line ups and bullpen roles accordingly, are fun to do and make things feel more realistic, but are actually unfounded in reality. In the real game, a manager can and should observe how well players are doing and change team setups based on his observations, but in SOM any such changes are just for fun without a basis in actual player potential on any given day.
   
• I need some notes on how players are doing from game to game. I've started putting post-its on the player cards to track unusually good days for batters, when and how successfully I used pinch hitters (esp. in the NL) and, most of all, for pitchers performance so I get a feel who should be used in which role, especially in the bullpen. Over time I'm discovering more ways to use the iScore player stats to look up such things on the fly, but I think I'll stick to simple post-it notes as well so I can quickly select a potential pinch hitter or reliever from the by just flipping through the stack of cards. 
• Manage lefties / righties matchups: based on the percentage split how often a player faced left handed opponents, I've started to select pinch hitters, sometimes also starting position players. I'm nowhere near doing enough of this, however. I'm starting to mark this on the sticky notes per player...
• I find it hard to reflect things like occasional rest games and injuries. Yes, the player cards have some injuries on them, but so far I've only seen that for position players, and of course at the start of the season everyone is healthy. For the 2013 mini replay I'm thinking of additional injury die rolls for pitchers, and a random assignment of some spring training injuries. I'm sure the 2013 season would have gone very differently for the Yankees without all the regulars on the DL...
• I'm looking forward to playing with cards for the 2013 MLB players - I'll have a much better idea where to use starting and relief pitchers. 

More importantly, regarding real life managing: I notice that so far I've only looked at baseball games from the player's perspective. Playing SOM forces you to think about lineups and player changes in a manager's terms.

• Build a realistic line-up with fast, high OBP guys leading off, high AVG / RBI players cleaning up in position 3-5, the rest towards the end (ok, this is a very basic version, but hard enough to do for multiple teams whose players you don't know)
• The NL is much more interesting and non-trivial to manage, especially regarding pitching changes. You can't just wait for a pitcher to get tired, you also have to make a decision whenever the starting pitcher comes up for the third or fourth time. When starters are doing well, I find it hard to pull them after 6 innings just because they are up to bat again. I'm not watching enough real life NL games to know how real managers tend to handle this.

SOM Diary: Rediscovering Strat-O-Matic

I was reading a very interesting article about the "ancestors" of Magic the Gathering by Richard Garfield. He mentioned Strat-O-Matic with its possibility to mix-and-match player cards or even draft them in a way that resembles real world drafts in the US professional sports (and inspired the limited "draft" play of Magic that I like to lay).

That mention reminded me of the old copy of Strat-O-Matic I had lying around in the basement from I-don't-remember-when-or-where. I dusted it off, found that I don't recognize any but a handful of player names (it's the 1992 edition, long before I started following MLB baseball) but checked it out again.

I clobbered together a few lineups (totally ignoring any historical facts) and tried rolling the dice for a few games. I was immediately hooked to the opportunity to generate games, box scores and statistics with real players.

This year is going well for the Red Sox, and all the teams in the AL East are playing well, so I think I'm going to get the 2013 cards as soon as they cmo out. Until then I'm running a practice round of play in the 1992 season. Here's how I set that up:

Picked 4 AL teams (Red Sox, Yankees, Orioles and Blue Jays) and 4 NL teams (Reds, Dodgers, Braves and Giants), created a small league schedule in which each team plays each own league's team 5 or 7 times (let's see how far I get, I won't finish anyway...) and each team in the other league twice.

Threw together team lineups based on the cards provided per franchise (no drafting, no transfers):
- picked 5 starters to form a five man rotation, sorted them by ERA and W-L record
- picked 8/9 batters as as tarting lineup, again based on ABs and general stats per position
- arbitrarily assigned one reliever with many saves the closer role and normal relievers jobs to all others

I downloaded the iScore app for my Android tablet to do the scoring and statistics, and am very happy how it works so far. The only thing I'm missing is a quick way to aggregate league statistics, league leaders etc. but apart from that it's a very fast way to keep track of what happens (when there are no X-results rolled, a Strat-O-Matic inning can take less than a minute to play).

I'd like to use this blog to keep track of some learnings and developments.

Gallery update at coolminiornot

Obwohl ich dort sicher keine Höchstnoten kriegen werde, habe ich seit Jahren mal wieder ein paar Bilder auf coolminiornot hochgeladen: http://www.coolminiornot.com/artist/Kolja

Die Webseite ist interessant, man kann da hammergut bemalte Minis sehen und viele tolle Ideen für Umbauten, Farbschemata etc. finden.