Archive of SportingNews.com's old SOM Baseball forum

I am reading different threads to get a better understanding of the game (curretnly I am in the draft stage of my first season), and one thing I have a question about is that I am always seeing people say they knew what year they had with a player based n the injury they had.

Does this mean that say if (for example) Mattingly missed 35 games in 1988, that if I get his 1988 card he will miss 35 games over the course of the season?

Or does it mean, in real life he got hurt in the month of May 1988 so when this game is playing what would be games in May, it somehow knows that Mattingly gets hurt?

Or does it mean something entirely different, and I should just keep quiet and let someone who knows what there talking about, answer the question. :lol:

You look at the boxscores to find the type of injury, then you find the result on the card.

For example, if Ryne Sandberg was injured when he fouled out vs. a LHP, you know you have his '90 card, as that year was the only time a foul out resulted in an injury.

Maybe I should add that not all injuries reveal a decisive result. The most common injury is on an 'lo max' (lineout into the maximum number of outs), and some players have that injury on three or four different years. Other injuries are more unique, like the Sandberg one above.

Let's say you get an injury vs LHP (say a lo max) that shows up for three different years. That does rule out some years. Maybe it rules out a player's worst year and already makes the card a keeper. Or maybe the remaining years are a mix of good and bad. Now you can start looking at platoon data, hit by pitch, triples and other rare occurances to further narrow down the year, as well as on home run rate, strikeout rate, and quality of performance. If a batter hits righties better one year and lefties better in the others, that might point to a particular year. Or, maybe he hits a lot of triples in only one year (e.g. Jim Rice in 1978).

Identifying the year is often a gradual process of deduction. Sometimes you arrive at certainty or near certainty. Sometimes you don't. But that's part of the fascination of the mystery card. :D

The number of games injured can often be used to identify (or exclude) certain years. If the guy has more than 600 PAs, he can't be injured more than 3 games. So, if a guy is injured for 7 games on a line out max against a LHP, but only has one "line out max" year with less than 600 PAs, then you know whatcha got.

There is also some threshhold (670 or something like that), where the guy cannot be injured more than the game in question.