Question from an inexperienced Mystery Card Player

I'm a semi-experienced online strat player, but this is my first attempt at Mystery Cards. My question(s) is this:
When in the season do you guys usually figure out what card your players have? How much does it vary from player to player and season to season? Do you ever not find out until the end of the year?
Thanks

I remember my very first mystery card league--the 70s. I made Mike Schmidt my very first pick because I felt he stood out over all other third basemen. He got injured in the first series and the injury revealed he had his stinker year. So, in this case I found out immediately!

However, there is no easy answer to your question because it varies so much. The 90s mystery cards are the hardest because the majority of injuries are HBP with some players having all their injuries being HBP. So, injury reveals aren't so revealing in many cases. In the 90s, sometimes I don't know which card I have until the season is over.

With pitchers I usually don't know the specific season in any iteration of the game until the season is over. I've also made some painful mistakes in judging which card a pitcher has. But making good decisions about whether a pitcher has a card worth keeping is critical to your team's success.

Finally, with the recent change to the mystery card game how it handles blank lineups, it will be much, much harder to determine who you have. It's dangerous to make a move too soon and foolish to wait too long. Not knowing where the line is separating the two is what makes mystery games so interesting!

PS. Sometimes a good trait for a player that is overlooked is if they have a unique injury for a really bad (or good) season.

I bumped a link to the top called "Help Reading Cards...". Take a look at it. By reading the card injuries etc. you can figure out or at least narrow down which cards you have. You do not want to wait to the end of the season to see what cards you have.

thanks Jimmy. That helps a lot.

Hey Lev, I am trying a 1970s Mystery League for only the second time and the first time I did not know what I was doing.

Here is my current team, . http://onlinegames.strat-o-matic.com/team/1112538

I still have some money left and maybe a couple moves to make...

I wonder is it ever wise to keep a half a million to start the season for when you get injuries and find out you have a bad card?

If you find out you have a player's third best card early on, do you always drop him?

Thanks for moving that help for new players to the top.

I wonder is it ever wise to keep a half a million to start the season for when you get injuries and find out you have a bad card?

If you find out you have a player's third best card early on, do you always drop him?

500K is not that much so having that is reserve is not a bad idea but I wouldn't reduce a starting player to a lesser player to begin the season just to have a half million bucks.

If you find that you have a player's 3rd best card I don't always drop him. There are many factors to consider. Some players have 4 good cards so the 3rd best is still a good card to have. If you gamble and drop a player's middle card for some other player you could easily be going backwards unless you hit on the new player's best card. It is a gamble. Also the middle card may fit your ballpark just fine but in a different home ballpark it may not be a card worth keeping.

Thanks for the help LM Bombers, Coyote and Jimmy C. Good luck with your mystery card team, Lev!

I wonder is it ever wise to keep a half a million to start the season for when you get injuries and find out you have a bad card?

If you find out you have a player's third best card early on, do you always drop him?

If you find that you have a player's 3rd best card I don't always drop him. There are many factors to consider. Some players have 4 good cards so the 3rd best is still a good card to have. If you gamble and drop a player's middle card for some other player you could easily be going backwards unless you hit on the new player's best card. It is a gamble. Also the middle card may fit your ballpark just fine but in a different home ballpark it may not be a card worth keeping.

To add to what LMB has said, you might find that a player's 3rd or 4th or even 5th best card is a good platoon card. In that case, before you drop, look for a potential platoon partner on your roster or in the free agent pool. I often start the season with a team stocked with cheap potential platoon players as backups, so I can make minimal drops and changes.

thanks again guys..
Just fyi, this is the team that I ended up going with (pretty good so far):
http://onlinegames.strat-o-matic.com/team/1113468

I haven't been able to make much progress with the cards, though.

Hi Lev.

I sent you a pm. Please take a look.

Thanks,

Artie