SOM Ratings Disk -- Buyer Beware

[tcochran]

In 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?

[Rant]

TC:

I think you have a lot of camaraderie over the well-chronicled 3.5" floppy. SOM is willing upon request to send a digital format by email. Not sure why they don't change over, seems like a cost savings to me, but I suppose it's hard to change processes.

The ratings disk has been a huge help to me (my W-L record notwithstanding), but it does take some manufacturing (eliminating the board game available players and multiple team listings; adding bp columns; adding in when to play the slick fielder data; and adding in TSN salaries and such). Good news is that you only have to do that once a season, and it's so worth the effort.

Unless, that is, you would prefer to save the time and use Joe the Jet's system.

(g)Rant

[visick]

The ratings book is fine by me.

[Stoney18]

Ditto on the 3.5 floppy. Archaic.

As for the data itself. Keep in mind that Strat-o-matic and TSN are two separate entities. Strat provided the data to TSN and they decide the salaries and who to include in the online game.

[MARCPELLETIER]

[quote:bba7c4d72c]
c) The chances on the cards, if you ignore BPSI and BPHR? [/quote:bba7c4d72c]

Answer c.

Same complaints here about the floppy disk, but I am fine with the Excel file, except for sorting out defense.

To identify players rejected by TSN, I simply download the Excel provided by bernie
http://fantasygames.sportingnews.com/stratomatic/about/player_set_2008.html
sort by names, makes it easy to spot them.

[RICHARDMILTER]

I wouldn't start a season without the ratings book. But now that I have all the numbers memorized, I do not refer to it much. But I will always buy it. There are other ones that actually rank the players for draft and keeper leagues. Lamana is the other big one, and his is actually encouraged by Hal Richman and the Strat company.

[ROBERTLATORRE]

Did they charge you $5 to ship it like the postcard weight authorization codes?

They should just price season disks at $27 instead of $22.

Why they still ship all auth codes and disks escapes me. Maybe someone should send them a link to Digital River.

www.digitalriver.com

[RICHARDMILTER]

Yes, they did charge me for shipping. But I do not remember how much, because I purchased several items at once. I agree that their shipping charges are too high on the simple authorization code cards.

They do a lot of things that make me scratch my head. And the tech guy, who I believe may be the number two to Hal Richman is a bit pompous. But the product is top notch, and that is the bottom line. Also Hal is supposed to be a real nice man.


ps. I hope the guy I am talking about does not see this, or I may be blacklisted over at Strat.