Archive of SportingNews.com's old SOM Baseball forum

Hey folks. Looking into my first BT80's team.

I've noticed some stuff on the cards, that i have some questions about.

For starters, I haven't seen the + symbol on any of the hitters cards is this a newer game mechanic?

Secondly, I've noticed that the cards aren't quite what they say they will be. For example, large Braves fan that I am, my first choice was Dale Murphy who is supposed to be a E hitter, however upon closer examination of the card he is definitely weighted to face righties (I'd have made him a 3R at the minimum). Are alot of the cards like this or is this an anomaly (don't know how to spell anomely?)?

Thanks for your help.

OK. I've just answered my own question about the card. If you never know which card a player is using, how can you effectively set your team up?

This will no doubt drive me crazy.

How is the best way to approach setting up yuor teams?

There is a newbie thread somewhere around here that will help, but as for figuring out which cards:

1) Let the player get some AB's under his belt (100 or so). Check L/R splits during season, to include power numbers, K/W ratio, etc., and make an educated guess (same with pitchers, esp. HR's, walks).

2) When a gets injured, check the roll result in the box score. This might reveal a range of cards (perhaps 3 of the 5 have "lo max + inj," for example), or perhaps even the card itself (maybe just one card has a "strikeout + inj" rating versus righties, etc.).

3) The fewer good years a player/pitcher has, the easier to spot obviously.

That said, remember that a player can have a good card but still perform beloe expectations. I had Hrbek's rookie year (.301, 23 HR's) and I had him in Wrigley (well, I'm 99% certain it was that card). With about 40 games to go, he was hitting .260 with only 16 HR's. His card was "E" (even), but he was hitting lefties much better than righties because that side had fewer BP HR's. Dude was hitting a lot of flyouts versus lefties. I needed pitching, so I dumped him. Already have enough people who hit lefties well. Actually my entire team rips lefties -- better hitting, better pitching against lefties -- markedly better. That hurt, as 66% of the pitchers are RH.

Anyway, check the newbie thread (and sorry about the tangent).

The mystery card really is the cream of the crop in my opinion. I understand your hesitation with trying to figure how to manage a team when you have no idea what cards you start out with. Anxiety. (That's part of the fun in my opinion too.)

Indeed, there is a great topic for newcomers. Also, posting here on the board guarantees that you'll get answers to your questions.

Lastly, I've made a couple of posts in my blog about the 80's game. Nothing too terribly extensive but I did just give some advice on digesting stats and turning them into your clues about which cards you have.

Click the blog link next to my name to the left if you are interested.

bjs

Not that I'm that much of a veteran, but several threads have suggested patience is a virtue and I've discovered that even after 100 abs, you can't judge a player.
Sticking with proven performers longer has paid off for me far more than judging a player on his performance.

You certainly can't be 100% without the injury factor and lots of data. I find it interesting to note that the constants in real baseball tend to be the constansts in this brand of STRAT: defense and speed. That, and the player's bat handling (Bunt, H/R) are constant, at least.