Strat-O-Matic Baseball 365

This is an annual tradition for me, attempting to get my team to have an overall >.300 BA for the season (most of you know me by my main account of "Schnoogens").

Here's my attempt this year and it is going quite well, although the hitters' rolls have also slanted in my favor considerably to-date:

http://onlinegames.strat-o-matic.com/team/820942

For record keeping purposes, as of 3/14 the team BA is .326

One other note: the intention is to not only have a >.300 BA, but also to make the playoffs. So this is not an all-or-nothing offense team.

I would probably bet against your team finishing with a .300 batting average. But with 25% of the season over you are on pace to win 110 games. Good luck!

After 72 games (42-30) we are sitting at .298

Still in striking distance but it will be tough.

cool team -- looks like you got unlucky in the number of LHPs you're facing -- 44% of AB!

so that ends up with Cano's .218 BA in 133 AB vs. LHP

not counting Cano's line vs LHP, your team BA is .2997 (not a typo) -- if you faced an ordinary percent of LHP in your league, you'd be above .300, probably

just wondering why not go with a big hitter's park?

Steve, I can't speak for pip, but I used to try to build similar teams that hit for batting average but not necessarily power, and I always liked Kaufman because it is a singles park. If you are building strictly around batting average you don't necessarily want a home run park because a lot of your high average guys like Mauer don't have a ton of homers. When you do not have a lot of (wasted) ballpark home runs on your players' cards but your opponent does it gives you a big home field advantage. A team like that can make it's living off of singles, doubles and triples and the manager is not paying for home runs that will be wasted. The really successful general managers here build their teams around their park almost to an obsession. This was one of the things I had to learn when transitioning from the board game to the on-line game.

Radagast Brown wrote:Steve, I can't speak for pip, but I used to try to build similar teams that hit for batting average but not necessarily power, and I always liked Kaufman because it is a singles park. If you are building strictly around batting average you don't necessarily want a home run park because a lot of your high average guys like Mauer don't have a ton of homers. When you do not have a lot of (wasted) ballpark home runs on your players' cards but your opponent does it gives you a big home field advantage. A team like that can make it's living off of singles, doubles and triples and the manager is not paying for home runs that will be wasted. The really successful general managers here build their teams around their park almost to an obsession. This was one of the things I had to learn when transitioning from the board game to the on-line game.

Pretty much nailed it right here. Kaufman (and other singles parks) are my favorite parks to build around. It also allows you some leeway with your own pitchers as you can afford to go with guys who have a lot of BPHR's but not many other hits on their cards and I believe there's a lot of value there.

It's been awhile since I've revisited this thread because the team never really flirted with .300 after dropping below in my last post, but we did end up at .289 and the best news of all is that the team won the Championship!

Jerry Blevins and Wilton Lopez were the studs of the relief staff, and Blevins is a perfect example of a good pitcher to use in a park without many BPHR chances.

On the offensive side, David Cooper delivered value ($2.73) with 46 2B's and a .297/.337/.415 line while being the everyday DH. Kevin Frandsen ($5.14, .338/.385/.449) and Jeff Keppinger ($4.34, .329/.370/.408) were amazing.

I don't think Cano was worth it, in the end. .284/.337/.477 is great for playing impeccable defense at 2B (157 out of 164 "X" chances made) but not for $11.82. But he was the only player on the team with more than 20 HR's and I needed the power to come from somewhere. To put the defense in perspective, one of the other more expensive 2B, Aaron Hill, made 139 out of 163 "X" chances. So how much value do you place on the 18 base hits that Cano prevented? Cano also converted 15 more double plays...how much value did that create as well? I don't have an answer.

pip_the_midget wrote:

Radagast Brown wrote:Steve, I can't speak for pip, but I used to try to build similar teams that hit for batting average but not necessarily power, and I always liked Kaufman because it is a singles park. If you are building strictly around batting average you don't necessarily want a home run park because a lot of your high average guys like Mauer don't have a ton of homers. When you do not have a lot of (wasted) ballpark home runs on your players' cards but your opponent does it gives you a big home field advantage. A team like that can make it's living off of singles, doubles and triples and the manager is not paying for home runs that will be wasted. The really successful general managers here build their teams around their park almost to an obsession. This was one of the things I had to learn when transitioning from the board game to the on-line game.

Pretty much nailed it right here. Kaufman (and other singles parks) are my favorite parks to build around. It also allows you some leeway with your own pitchers as you can afford to go with guys who have a lot of BPHR's but not many other hits on their cards and I believe there's a lot of value there.

It's been awhile since I've revisited this thread because the team never really flirted with .300 after dropping below in my last post, but we did end up at .289 and the best news of all is that the team won the Championship!

Jerry Blevins and Wilton Lopez were the studs of the relief staff, and Blevins is a perfect example of a good pitcher to use in a park without many BPHR chances.

On the offensive side, David Cooper delivered value ($2.73) with 46 2B's and a .297/.337/.415 line while being the everyday DH. Kevin Frandsen ($5.14, .338/.385/.449) and Jeff Keppinger ($4.34, .329/.370/.408) were amazing.

I don't think Cano was worth it, in the end. .284/.337/.477 is great for playing impeccable defense at 2B (157 out of 164 "X" chances made) but not for $11.82. But he was the only player on the team with more than 20 HR's and I needed the power to come from somewhere. To put the defense in perspective, one of the other more expensive 2B, Aaron Hill, made 139 out of 163 "X" chances. So how much value do you place on the 18 base hits that Cano prevented? Cano also converted 15 more double plays...how much value did that create as well? I don't have an answer.

Congrats on winning the championship! The proof is in the pudding!

It almost looks to me like you might have had some bad luck on this team - especially with your starting pitchers. For playing in Kauffman, they gave up a lot of home runs! I looked at the misc page - again for playing in Kauffman, Lohse gave up a lot of ballpark home runs! The rest of the starters didn't give up so many ballpark homeruns, but they also gave up a lot of "natural" home runs (not off ballpark readings). To me, their homerun chances on the pitcher cards aren't huge- if anything just a tiny bit worse than average. I'm thinking you might have been playing divisional rivals with more home run parks and hitters. Still, kinda looks like a bit of bad luck to me.

Re your hitters - great! I've had good experiences with Dirks as well so far - I like the way he hits for average.

.287 is a GREAT batting average! Fun to shoot for .300, but .287 did the job very well for you.

Re Cano - your points are all well made. I notice that he (and the team) faced about 40% lefty pitching. I think if the team had faced more RHP, Cano's stats would have been MUCH better (check out his l-r split on the stats). Of course, your L balanced hitters (like Melky) would likely have done worse, so it cuts both ways. His doubles are awesome - maybe more important than the homeruns at Kauffman. If he'd faced more RHP, he would have had over 50 doubles for sure. With hindsight, if you're going to face 40% lefty pitchers, you might put the $ to work in more L balanced hitters - but then your division rivals might have had more RHP and fewer LHP, and so it goes... Overall - I really like unbalanced cards like Cano's, and he fits Kauffman nicely in many ways. Maybe just needed more RHP. The defense is usually worth it, too, IMO.

http://onlinegames.strat-o-matic.com/team/543930

This was one of my favorite teams that hit over .300 SGT D