Strat-O-Matic Baseball 365

1. All of the recent new card adds have spoiled the high cap leagues. They used to be a blast, with people desperately trying to trade their surplus to fill holes. Now, with 63 pure RP's having at least one card over $4 million, nobody ever has to trade for bullpen help. Similarly, there are 53 4-day starters with at least one card over $9 million, not to mention the dozen or so high-quality 5-day starters. And with 147 hitters with at least one card over $8 million, most positions have more than 12 competent players. So nobody trades any more.

2. 24 team leagues solve some of this dilemma. But I just joined a 24 team, $160 million league and there have been exactly 6 trades in the 3 days since the AD ran. I think 24 team, $140-160 million leagues are the most fun things available here other than Andy's historical franchise leagues. Why? Because there aren't enough players to go around. There are close to 750 owned players in this league, so you had better know the high end of the card set. But there are some 50 cent guys who are rostered, too, because the cap is low enough you can't really keep an $8 million bench bat.

3. The card set desperately needs to be repriced. One of our moderately experienced users just made a post about Carl Crawford. He thought the card was hugely overpriced. But someone got a 850+ OPS season out of him in Forbes 09, so maybe not. Still, there are some horrible inconsistencies in pricing.

4. There are some guys here who play with a micro-cap of $40 million. and then there is one of the most fun continuing leagues here - the Wipeout Zone, a 24 team, $60 million league that is on its 47th iteration. If you're bored by the same old leagues you've been playing, these leagues will get your adrenaline going.

5. More attention needs to be paid to adding players for some of the modern franchises like the Rays, Rockies, D'Backs, Rangers, Mariners, Padres, etc. Even the Mets and Astros, who just completed their 50th seasons, are underrepresented.

6. There needs to be a moratorium on adding modern players to the ATG set. I think no cards should be added unless they are at least 6 years old. After all, SOM's main baseball product is recent seasons; why should we cut into their profit margin when we are a small-potatoes market for them? I'll bet they sell more current year computer games than SOMO 5-packs in any given year.

rburgh wrote:4. There are some guys here who play with a micro-cap of $40 million. and then there is one of the most fun continuing leagues here - the Wipeout Zone, a 24 team, $60 million league that is on its 47th iteration. If you're bored by the same old leagues you've been playing, these leagues will get your adrenaline going.

I love the 40 mill cap leagues, it's much more of a challenge. You have to really zone in on the hidden gems or your toast.

That was also me with the Carl Crawford nice Forbes season and I still do think he's a tad overpriced. I just got a banner season out of him because he faced a lot of RHP's.

Cut it back to one card per player and it would be a whole lot more interesting come draft time. Back in the early days, the Autodraft was so important, if you missed on guys it was hard to replace them. Nowadays, anyone is replaceable because there is so much talent in the pool.

Yes, that was one of the things I forgot to think. (I think.)

The depth of the card set makes 12 team $200 million and up cap leagues more of a managerial exercise than a drafting and trading one. You have to micromanage your lineups and bullpen settings every day to do well. And 24 team leagues with caps above $160 million put no pressure on guys who got a lot of quality depth in the draft to move any of it.

rburgh wrote:Yes, that was one of the things I forgot to think. (I think.)

The depth of the card set makes 12 team $200 million and up cap leagues more of a managerial exercise than a drafting and trading one. You have to micromanage your lineups and bullpen settings every day to do well. And 24 team leagues with caps above $160 million put no pressure on guys who got a lot of quality depth in the draft to move any of it.

for me that's not really true.
I dont make daily changes at all and have done at least reasonably well at that level.

As far as trades go- much more depends on WHO the managers in the league are rather than which players
people get.
Certain managers fear making deals with anything more than their bench guys or in some cases at all.

Disagree with rburgh's main point about recent card additions having ruined the high cap game. More options = more scope for skill. That's been my mantra here for the past 14 years and it still works for me. Used to hate high cap autodrafts because one could not overcome an unlucky draft card. Now you can.

One does have to manage teams on a daily basis now, at least the way I draft them currently. I see that as a plus, not a minus.

The cards desperately need repricing. Only way that happens is if we get a petition with lots of signatures to let the community reprice the cards wherein Garcia only needs to enter a few lines of code to implement it. Clearly SOM is okay doing nothing positive for ATG and won't put any effort into it, so this would be a best case scenario. I'd settle for a random repricing every year with each card fluctuating up to 5% plus or minus its current value.

I like new players. Add away. Let's start with Trout's 2018 card once it becomes available.

Screw the one card per player suggestion. Just a bad idea IMHO.

The Last Druid wrote:Disagree with rburgh's main point about recent card additions having ruined the high cap game. More options = more scope for skill. That's been my mantra here for the past 14 years and it still works for me. Used to hate high cap autodrafts because one could not overcome an unlucky draft card. Now you can.

One does have to manage teams on a daily basis now, at least the way I draft them currently. I see that as a plus, not a minus.

The cards desperately need repricing. Only way that happens is if we get a petition with lots of signatures to let the community reprice the cards wherein Garcia only needs to enter a few lines of code to implement it. Clearly SOM is okay doing nothing positive for ATG and won't put any effort into it, so this would be a best case scenario. I'd settle for a random repricing every year with each card fluctuating up to 5% plus or minus its current value.

I like new players. Add away. Let's start with Trout's 2018 card once it becomes available.

Screw the one card per player suggestion. Just a bad idea IMHO.

yeah, most of this too is right- daily management does depend on what you want to do strategically.

5. More attention needs to be paid to adding players for some of the modern franchises like the Rays, Rockies, D'Backs, Rangers, Mariners, Padres, etc. Even the Mets and Astros, who just completed their 50th seasons, are underrepresented.

Wholeheartedly agree. My voting tends to help these teams (EXP) which make for better theme leagues.