SOM Ratings Disk -- Buyer Beware
Posted: Wed Sep 09, 2009 8:43 amIn order to prepare better for upcoming drafts in the 2 new keeper leagues that are now forming, I recently ordered the SOM 2008 Baseball Ratings Disk.
It seemed a bit archaic that I could not simply buy and download from their site, but I figured a few days extra for them to mail the CD to me would not be a problem.
When it arrived, however -- as a 3.5 inch floppy disk !?!@! -- that led to a scavenger hunt, to locate an antique machine that could still read that ancient format. I finally found one in deep storage in the basement and grabbed the data over our local network.
That's when I learned that the data presentation in the resulting spreadsheets is also an amateur effort. It's simple enough to decipher the column headings, I suppose, but it would not be that much extra effort for them to include a legend of some kind, would it?
And there are still some "*" and "+" notations that escape me. Perhaps only SOM card set owners are meant to understand those notes?
Finally, it's also annoying that the disk includes players who are not part of the online game. These are just simple spreadsheets, so how hard would it be for them to have both a physical-game version and an online version available for sale?
It's frustrating to pay $18.50 for this old-fashioned disk (including shipping) and then still have to take the time to identify and exclude the 34 extra batters and 3 extra pitchers! Ugh...
One last question for some expert out there: When they show the chances for hits and homeruns in the spreadsheets, are these results based on:
a) An "average" ballpark at perhaps 1-8 BPSI and 1-9 BPHR?
b) The individual player's actual results?
c) The chances on the cards, if you ignore BPSI and BPHR?
It seemed a bit archaic that I could not simply buy and download from their site, but I figured a few days extra for them to mail the CD to me would not be a problem.
When it arrived, however -- as a 3.5 inch floppy disk !?!@! -- that led to a scavenger hunt, to locate an antique machine that could still read that ancient format. I finally found one in deep storage in the basement and grabbed the data over our local network.
That's when I learned that the data presentation in the resulting spreadsheets is also an amateur effort. It's simple enough to decipher the column headings, I suppose, but it would not be that much extra effort for them to include a legend of some kind, would it?
And there are still some "*" and "+" notations that escape me. Perhaps only SOM card set owners are meant to understand those notes?
Finally, it's also annoying that the disk includes players who are not part of the online game. These are just simple spreadsheets, so how hard would it be for them to have both a physical-game version and an online version available for sale?
It's frustrating to pay $18.50 for this old-fashioned disk (including shipping) and then still have to take the time to identify and exclude the 34 extra batters and 3 extra pitchers! Ugh...
One last question for some expert out there: When they show the chances for hits and homeruns in the spreadsheets, are these results based on:
a) An "average" ballpark at perhaps 1-8 BPSI and 1-9 BPHR?
b) The individual player's actual results?
c) The chances on the cards, if you ignore BPSI and BPHR?