Archive of SportingNews.com's old SOM Baseball forum

I've been playing the actual Strat-o-Matic game for over 20 year and it seems to me that
there are WAY too many injuries in the web version. It seems that every team I've
managed has lost at least 3 or 4 guys who have injuries on a 2/12 on their card. And if the
injury is on something else you can bet on losing him at least 3 or 4 times throughout the
year. I lost one catcher who had an injury on a 3 and only played against lefties four times
in one season. It seems to me that the web version is more about survival than strategy,
especially when you lose your 40 HR 120 RBI guy who has been healthy all year in the
first playoff game! Coincidence? I think not!!

Injuries are pretty normal, really.

Think of it mathematically.
A guy with an injury on 2 or 12 will average the injury three times in one season.
108 different rolls per card.
Average full-time player will get 650-700 plate appearances. Let's say 650 for this example.
Divide 650 by 2 (half rolls on pitcher card, half on hitter card).
Take the 325 and divide by 108 (total rolls on hitters card divided by different rolls possible).
That's 3.
Take a guy with the injury on a 3 or 11, that's two times per card, or 6 times in a season on average.

And more than half the split rolls (1-20) on the injury chart are missed games.

Don't forget that players with 680 PA in real-life can only be injured in-game.
600-679 PA maximum 3 games injured.
599 PA and below, 15 games injured maximum.

Example 1: Eric Davis is a 2-12 injury guy with 483 PA, so he's a 15-game injury risk. He could easily miss as many as 45 games if I get the average three injuries and the maximum games out roll. I just had him play a full season missing only three games. I got the most out of him for sure.
Example 2: Chris Brown is a 3-11 injury guy, so he could get hurt an average six times per season. He just finished a season for me playing 153 games. Again, I got lucky that he missed only 10 games.
Example 3: Jesse Barfield is a 2-12 guy with 658 PA, but he missed 11 games for me in a season that just finished. Since 3 games is his maximum, he got injured at least four times that season.