Mystery Card Determination

[hechojazz]

So as a newbie to the 80s game, I'm curious about when and how one goes about trying to determine which of the 5 possible player cards you've been dealt on a particular hitter or pitcher? I imagine a healthy time interval needs to pass, but after how many AB or IP do you feel a reasonable basis exists to make a judgment? And at that point what do you do to reach some conclusion about the various cards?

Another question: If a player gets dropped and another team gets him, will he definately have the same card the team that dropped him had?

:?:

[YountFan]

[quote:490fcc1d46]Another question: If a player gets dropped and another team gets him, will he definately have the same card the team that dropped him had? [/quote:490fcc1d46]
Yes, the card never changes.


It takes some time. 100 AB min, 50 IP, but some are quick. I wait 27 games or more. Its a game with computerized dice, so anything can happen. For the studs, wait even longer and if a stud is dropped, consider him.

Try this thread: http://forums-beta.sportingnews.com/viewtopic.php?t=10283

[AdamKatz]

The "easy" way to determine the card is by injuries. If a player gets injured hitting a Foul Out against a lefty look at his card and see which of the 5 lefty sides has an injury on a Foul Out.

also, a card has more than 680 plate appearances (ABs + BBs) a player can't get injured more than the game he is currently in. If card has more than 600 plate appearances (ABs + BBs) a player can't get injured more than some number of games less than 10. ( I forgot).
So, if your player is out for 15 games, it narrows down which card it can be.

Pitchers get injured when rolling 6-6-6 against the DH. Look at the pitchers 6-12 space (depending on LH or RH)


This is a very sadistic game where you hope that all of your players get injured.

[Outta Leftfield]

[quote:509cb4ec4c="AdamKatz"] If card has more than 600 plate appearances (ABs + BBs) a player can't get injured more than some number of games less than 10. ( I forgot).
[/quote:509cb4ec4c]

The number is three games--so if somebody is injured for more than 3 games, it means that the had less than 600 PA (plate appearances.) This helps alot when there are several years that have the same injury event (lo max--lineout in to the maximum possible number of outs--is the most common). Sometime four of the five cards will have "lo max." If you can rule out the years with more than 600 PA because of a long injury, that can really narrow down the years.

Beyond injuries, there are a lot of other indicators that can be extremely helpful. One is rare events, like HBP, triples and such. Another is platoon data--is the player hitting righties or lefties better? Often that varies from year to year and can really narrow things down. Combining platoon data with triples (or HR or doubles) can often help a lot. Lets say a player has a year when he has a lot of triples against LHP (but no other year is like that.) If he's hitting a lot of triples for you against LHP, you've got a strong indicator that that is your year. These kind of indicators can help a lot by preventing you from dropping a player who is in a good year, but has had some bad rolls early on.

One excellent source of platoon specific statistics is "retrosheet"
http://www.retrosheet.org/

This site is kind of a bible for the 80's game because it gives platoon data for every player year.

[MARCPELLETIER]

Another way to help you know what cards you have is to let Hal decide the line-up early in the season (perhaps the first 3 games or 6 games). You can be sure that the players hitting 3rd-4th in the line-up are the ones with the most hrs among your team, and that the players at the bottom of the line-up must be probably weak hitters.

[cplake]

I typically let HAL make my relief pitching decisions early on. The theory here is that HAL knows what cards are entered into the game engine and will use the better ones more often. Some believe this, and some do not. It has been a hotly debated topic on these boards in the past. I am a proponent of this theory and have used it somewhat successfully.

Also, pay attention to the injury substitutions that HAL makes. One season I had multiple injuries to one of my outfielders in a short span of time. HAL kept substituting Gerald Perry instead of RJ Reynolds. Perry was my backup first baseman and happens to have a LF rating (barely). After the season completed it was revealed that I had the '84 Perry (decent year - good OPB) vs. '88 Reynolds (his worst card -- low BA & sub .300 OPB).

Hope that helps. Good luck!

[hechojazz]

"After the season completed it was revealed that I had the '84 Perry (decent year - good OPB) vs. '88 Reynolds (his worst card -- low BA & sub .300 OPB). "

Is it the case that once the season ends, you get confirmation of which years you got for your players? Or do you mean that once the season was completed, you felt you had sufficient evidence from the stats to confirm the cards yourself? If it is the former, how are you given this information?

[bjs73]

[quote:fc3278022b]Is it the case that once the season ends, you get confirmation of which years you got for your players?[/quote:fc3278022b]

Yep. That was a feature added just this past year. [i:fc3278022b]Finally.[/i:fc3278022b]

The game engine reveals which cards you had about 1-3 days after the finals have completed. Nice feature and it was a long time coming. The only weakness to the feature is that you can't see the years for the free agents list. So, you'll never know if you pulled the trigger too soon on an underachieving all star.

Nor will you ever have the chance to kick yourself for not taking a chance on a pickup you should have made... :twisted:

bjs73

[hechojazz]

Okay - just trying to see if I've got this straight. Gibson went down for 8 games last night. He did so facing lefthander Joe Sambito, following a lineout doubleplay.

First off, only one of Gibson's five years has him over 600PAs - '88. So I didn't get that card (unfortunately). I didn't get '85 because that card's injury accompanies a foulout. So it is either '83, '84 or '86. Now, '83 and '86 each have a lineout max + inj, so I can't decide between the two right now. Am I correct that I can also rule out '84, because the injury chance there is a gb(2b)A+inj? I think that is right.

So this begs the question, if I have '83 I need to dump him, right? Bad year. But if it is '86...not one of his better years, but would you keep him? I've looked through the LF-eligible free agents, and with under 4mil to spend if I dump Gibson, I'm not sure there's anyone I should be looking to nab...Paciorek? Gladden? Hatcher? Youngblood? I was looking to Gibby for slugging against RHP, and I need acceptable D out there too...perhaps I should hold on until I can see if I've got the crap year or the average one?

http://fantasygames.sportingnews.com/baseball/stratomatic/80s/team/team_other.html?user_id=73110

:?:

[Ducky]

As you stated, '83 is a definite dump, '86 is probably a keeper. Try Claudell Washington if he is available. He can play all three outfield positions and has a bit of speed and a little pop in his bat as well.

Mike