Strat-O-Matic Baseball 365

Hi Fellas, hope everybody is feeling good.
I'm a novice player but have made a conscious effort this past year to be a better player.
The first year or two I was just winging it.
I even challenged myself to get in Barnstormers Tour this year and qualified in 47th position.
It was a fun road, I hardly dropped but a few players during the tourney and then in the semi-final lost my mind, but hey a good showing nonetheless.
Thing is I've qualified in roughly 16-18 playoffs this past year and I haven't won a single one!
16-18 playoffs without a lucky roll so to speak. This time of year I turned my focus to NFBC and spend some $$ and
closely follow the MLB. I've got 3 teams still in Strat, 2 in 1st, 1 in 2nd, honestly I feel if I don't come away with a championship I could be done, at least for a long while.
Strat is great and I love numbers and support what Hal has accomplished, good community of players
but god dang what a drought!
good luck
Go Giants (well maybe in 2023ish)

I am not particularly great at play-offs, either. One thing you can is manage your team more closely. That has actually been something I have been slow to do but I believe it helps some. Adjust your line-ups based on injuries. It's even possible that if you have suitable players you can load up against certain one-sided pitchers. You might change your strategy based on the other team's arms in the outfield, their catcher's arms. You might change your relief settings based on the park. You got to bring every possible advantage to the table you can.

Freeman's advice is good, but the thing to keep in mind is that the most important thing in the playoffs is luck. Sure, having the best team in the playoffs can improve your odds of winning, but only slightly. It's one of the more frustrating aspects of this game. However, it's not unlike real life where any team can win. For example, I still remember the Mets beating a vastly superior Orioles team in the 1969 World Series*.

Here's anecdotal evidence from my own experience of how much luck plays a part.

I have had three 100+ game winners. One made it to the finals and lost. The other two were eliminated in the semi-finals.

I defeated the best team I ever saw in the semi-finals. They had an amazing 119-43 record (.735 pct) and a +289 run differential. Of course back then, it was even more luck dependent; semi-finals used to be a best-of-five series.

I have played thirty 90s teams with a respectable .531 winning percentage. My overall winning percentage in all playoff games (for all my teams) is .530. I made the playoffs 13 times in the 90s. Yet I have never won a single 90s championship.
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Hang in there. For me, the meat of the game is the regular season where you are fighting for a winning record, a positive run differential, and, most importantly, a playoff spot. If you've done that, you've done your job. Now you have a chance to roll the playoff dice and hope you get lucky. Play well, and the elusive championship will eventually come.
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If anyone's interested, here's a link to that monster team, managed by AdamKatz, that I beat many years ago:
https://365.strat-o-matic.com/team/405903
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* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1969_World_Series
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My SOM365 record: https://365.strat-o-matic.com/member/10770207

Adam Katz was one of the best players to ever play the game with a .565 winning pct and 78 championships in 265 teams...

Though Coyote has a 20% win rate which aint too shabby...

I read in a book about probability and randomness ("The Drunkard's Walk" by Leonard Mlodinow - should be required reading for all stratomatic conspiracy theorists) that a "best of" baseball series would need to be a 27 game series for the better team consistently to win it.

The playoffs really, really are about luck. My best advice is not to get emotionally attached to playoff results and to find the greatest satisfaction in how your team performs in the regular season, which is a much better measure of how good your team is.

That said, some small ways to tweak would be:

(5-man rotation) adjust your starters for the last few series before the playoffs - if you have a 5-man rotation and your #1 and #2 starters are your best guys, they will otherwise pitch the last 2 games of the season and won't be ready to start the playoffs for you, which means they won't get to pitch games 6 and 7. This will require using a roster spot on a throwaway 6th starter and planning for this.

(4-man rotation) a common roster strategy is to load your starting pitching dollars into the top 3 guys and skimp on the 4th. This is because starters 1,2, and 3 will pitch twice in a 7-game series and the 4th guy will only pitch once, meaning you're investment in him is partially wasted in the postseason.

Rest your good position players that have potential for injuries of longer than 3 games for the last series or 2.

Don't rest any guys or mess with your starters at the end if your playoff spot is in doubt. Also, I would make having the best regular season record - and therefore home field advantage - your number 1 priority, so if that is a possibility that will be affected by the last 2 series I also wouldn't mess around- and just focus on winning in the here and now.

-matt

Well thank you fellas for the insights and support! I just came across an old friend who has only ever played the Strat board game and he says its great! so I'm going to get into it, maybe most of you started there.
Cheers!

tmfw30 wrote:(4-man rotation) a common roster strategy is to load your starting pitching dollars into the top 3 guys and skimp on the 4th. This is because starters 1,2, and 3 will pitch twice in a 7-game series and the 4th guy will only pitch once, meaning you're investment in him is partially wasted in the postseason.

I saw/read/heard....somewhere in the last week or so that SP's with the * will no longer start on 3 games rest in the 20XX game. So 4 man staffs are no longer an option. I can't for the life of me remember where I saw it.

I saw/read/heard....somewhere in the last week or so that SP's with the * will no longer start on 3 games rest in the 20XX game. So 4 man staffs are no longer an option. I can't for the life of me remember where I saw it.

You're right - it was in a top-of-the-page announcement that has since been replaced by the notification link re the credit card hack.

Thanks Stephen!