Strat-O-Matic Baseball 365

So I am about to play in my first 999 mil league. Is it considered bad form (Cheating? against fair play?) or a normal part of the game and strategy at that level to switch between a players various cards depending on your opponent or park? I can see arguments for both sides and my limited searching did not pull up any discussion of it.

What do you mean "switch between a player's various cards"?

For example, one day you may, depending on the circumstances, want to play Willie Mays 1962 card and another you may want to play his 1965 card. Drop penalties would generally prevent you from switching cards in low money limit leagues, but with 999m it appears you could do it a lot without any significant problem.

Is this frowned upon or part of the game?

No, you should be able to do what you are asking, unless stated before hand that it is against the rules of THAT league..... People should set the rules in advance, none of this "unwritten rule" b.s, or changing the rules after the league has filled. I do not like that....... That's my three cents.

Well, we strongly recommend $250M caps rather than $999M caps precisely because Radagast Brown used to have a veritable taxi squad of guys he would drop and then pick up...again and again when he did live drafts. It is considered by some -me for one - as just gaming the game. Sort of like beating your neighbors wife, just not done in the best circles.

Most of us who do live drafts find such behavior to not be particularly welcome, although it is technically not illegal. Not sure why some of the guys who start the live drafts have recently veered away from the $250M, I assume it is just not giving the matter much thought, because it usually isn't an issue when just one manager out of the 50+ guys who do live drafts engages in the behavior.

I would start the leagues myself to ensure the $250M cap gets used, but I rarely start leagues as they seem to fill faster when others start them and I jump in later.

I did it once with Wagner, not every day, but I went from the 5L card to the 2R back and forth. I first did it without much thinking about it, but when I heard it made some GMs unconfortable, I did not repeat it. This said, I agree that a 999M league has this flavour of "anything goes" that a 225M does not have.

don`t forget though that the number of transactions allowed in a season is limited.

There are also a few rules that appear to me questionable regarding pitcher usage that we should decide as a community if we accept them or refused them based on unwritten rules. I`ve seen all the usage described below at least once in the context of ATG.

ACRONYM: RRS (Relief-Relief-Starter)
WHAT IT IS: For an important series, a manager sets his rotation so that he can use a fresh SP/RP as a reliever for the first two games of the series and still use him as a starter for the third game.
STATUS: unethical. It is forbidden by the Strat book. Book says a reliever should rest after two games (at most, under strict usage, a reliever can be available for a third game of relief, but he should not be available to start for the three games). The pitcher can start in fact because of flaws on the on-line game.

ACRONYM: SRS (Start-Relief-Start)
WHAT IT IS: A SP/RP starts game 100, comes in relief in game 104, and then starts game 105.
STATUS: Very borderline, but I think we must accept it. The reason I think we should accept it is because sometimes this behaviour is created by HAL, not by the manager, even though most of the times, it is forced by the manager.

ACRONYM: RSO (Relief after a short output)
WHAT IT IS: A SP/RP starts game 100, but has a very short outing (example 2 innings). He comes in relief in game 103. And he is fresh for his regular start in game 105.
STATUS: Acceptable. It is within the rules of the STRAT manual. The Strat rules allows a manager to use a pitcher after 1 day of rest if he's removed before the end of the first inning, or after 2 days of rest if he's removed before the end of the 3rd or 4th inning (can't remember exactly). Moreover, the pitcher has a full rest before starting his next game.

ACRONYM; OSR (Open-Spot-for a Reliever)
WHAT IT IS: This rule is beneficial in leagues where cap is no limit (or is played as if no limit). I don`t want to give too much details but with some tweaking and some critical free agents transactions, there are ways to force HAL to start up to 3 games by a super-reliever instead of a legitimate starting pitcher.
STATUS: Unethical. Relievers starting a game should be kept for emergency only, such as when an injury occurs.

ACRONYM: ISR (Injury-Spot-taken-by-a-reliever)
WHAT IT IS: This is similar to the previous usage, except that the starting pitcher is lost to a long injury instead of being dropped to the FA pool. Again, with a few twists, a manager can set his rotation so that a reliever starts the game instead of the 5th starter.
STATUS: Within the limits of ethics. Otherwise, we are forced to accept that a reliever starts a game when injury occurs for rotations based on 4-day rests (when no other starting pitcher is available) while we wouldn't accept it for rotations on 3-day rest.

ACRONYM: EDT (Extra-day-per-trade)
WHAT IT IS: The pitcher fatigue status gets waived when traded. Thus he can pitch on consecutive days for two different teams.
STATUS borderline I guess. The advantage is small if done only once. But it would be highly unethical if two owners agree to repeat that. Both owners could otherwise end up with 54 starts of either Pete Alexander or Walter Johnson if they accept to trade one for each other instead of 41 starts of either alone.

Question for you, Marc, in regards to the scenario: RRS (Relief-Relief-Starter)

Say that pitcher has his two relief stints and then starts game 3, and pitches well into the game. How many games after that will Hal use him in relief again? Is there a hard rule which makes him unavailable for a set number of games? Or does he come in with a fatigue penalty?

Druid, I played within the rules, and won the championship, nothing more needs to be said... You have been playing the same league for 15 years in a row, if you do not have enough foresight to get the rules straight the first time, that's your fault... I don't know all your "Unwritten rules".

This from a guy who is afraid to play in any league that is a little different from the one he has played 1500 times.

ggyuppie wrote:Question for you, Marc, in regards to the scenario: RRS (Relief-Relief-Starter)

Say that pitcher has his two relief stints and then starts game 3, and pitches well into the game. How many games after that will Hal use him in relief again? Is there a hard rule which makes him unavailable for a set number of games? Or does he come in with a fatigue penalty?

No penalty. He would be under regular rest rules which are (going from memory)

1 inning outing--1 day of rest
2-4 innings outing--2 days of rest
5-8 innings outing--3 days of rest
9 inning+ outing--4 days of rest

This rule doesn`t apply at the end of a playoff series because of a flaw in the online game. The rest meter starts only at the beginning of the next series. So a starting pitcher who wins the series in game 4 with a complete game is not available for the bullpen before game 5 of the next series regardless of the days off en though he could start in game 1 or game 2 depending of his *sp status. yes a major flaw.