Strat-O-Matic Baseball 365

The Strat Tournament Players Club (http://strattpc.com) has started their season and there are plenty of links available at their website to assess the 2014 players pool. I believe these used to be called the STAR Tournaments.

I am surprised by some of the chosen rankings, however, it's still early and the rules they play by are somewhat different than how we would use them according to SOM Online salaries and rules. Several if not all of our high-injury players are excluded from their pool, and the leagues are run face to face.

Anyway, it's out there if you're interested -

I am pretty familiar with their rules. While those players tend to be great game decision managers the GMs who are really good here probably understand the long game and percentages better as a generalization.

Before I found on-line SOM I always wanted to do more STAR Tournaments.

I used to play STAR. I always felt you had to go for strengths, as in a short tourney there isn't nearly enough time for the odds to even out overall. Speed and defense also take on more meaning, since those generally don't go away in an 18 game "season" (just an example, you'll play anywhere from 16 to 32 games usually, but under the old rules, you had to finish in the top 4 the first day to make the playoff, The first day was usually 16-18 games)

Three biggest differences between STAR and STRAT are:

1- injuries are only for the rest of the game in STAR.
2- lefties are quite less effective in STAR (because all teams have at least one or two lefty-crushers)
3- All starters can pitch with 3 days of rest (*SP are not distinguished from SP

What do you think of Duda's rank at 1B?

J-Pav wrote:What do you think of Duda's rank at 1B?

Well, considering their are usually 8-10 teams in each draft, Duda is not a starter in this format. Possible platoon but mostly pinch hitter. I'd argue that Moss or Adams might be better in this roll, but I think Duda is pretty close to where he should be

Wow, 21st on the average pick sheet???

I just don't see it that way, but again, that's me and I do realize some of those listed ahead of him also play other positions.

Perhaps I spoke too soon, I'd take him in a platoon. Looking at it more closely, at the very least he should be higher than Lind, A-Gon, and Morneau.

http://strattpc.com/star/2015_star/d_anal/aps_pos.htm

Here's the link to compare players.

As I wrote above, you must recall that there is no injury beyond the rest of the game. So with this in mind, it's no surprise that Martin is right up there with Posey and Lucroy, with mesocaro just behind. Som's salaries make sense to the star tournament players.

Besides the three differences noted in the post above, there is no dh in star tournaments, and some players are missing because they don't have the requisite numbers of PA/innings.

Looking at the rankings, with the caveats in mind, it clearly shows that a few players are would be considered as overpriced in star tournaments.

Catchers: Santana is way way back, ranked among 4m players, just like Gattis.
1b- Abreu, way way down despite having the same salary than Rizzo--
2b- Dozier and Altuve are behind Cano by 30 spots---their salaries shouldn' match Cano's.
But again, all these players are better against lefties--so perhaps
3b- Donldson at the same rank than Sandoval--a 3m gap---looks huge

but again, all these players are better vs lhp--if you assume that Donaldson faces 32% of lefties in Strat vs 23%, maybe the salary gap is worth it. Still, I do believe that most of these players are overpriced in SOM.

Perhaps the biggest surprise is Frazier. Strat has it as the 6th best 3rd baseman--7th if you include Turner---in a virtual tie with Carpenter--- yet he's ranked 14th--15th with Turner included. Quick anecdote, in a recent no-cap league I was in, nobody had interest in Frazier, I traded him for a 5th starter if I recall correctly. So it seems that coaches prefer to use their platoons rather than relying on Frazier as their everyday player at the hot base.

Aybar looks quite high too. Maybe the full control of bunt A and H&R B attracts some coaches.

Holt looks very high for the card's value, but his value comes from the Star rules---you need at least one player at each position, and you have a strict limit of 25--- so with Holt, almost all positions are covered, so you can draft plenty of pinch-hitters.

They consider Dozier substantially over-priced? How shocking...