Mystery Game Format - Advice for New Players

Since there are probably several players that have signed up that have not played in the mystery leagues, this post highlights the key features of the mystery game format for people that haven't yet played in the mystery card format.

1. Each player card has 5 seasons, but only one of those seasons is selected by the computer and that season stays the same for the entire Stratomatic season. That is why this is called the "mystery" game - because the player's season is a mystery until you figure it out.

2. Injuries are the easiest way to determine the season that the player has. The type and duration of injuries are the important features. If a player has 600 or more AB in a season, then that player can be injured for a maximum of 3 games from one injury. If a player has 680 or more AB in a season, then an injury can only be for the duration of one game. In a DH league, pitchers are injured only on a DH's roll of 6-6-6 which corresponds to column 3, row 12 of the pitcher card. In a non-DH league, the type of injury to a pitcher is not informative. In either type of league a pitcher that has 200 or more innings pitched can be injured for a maximum of 3 games.

3. HBP is another easy way to determine a player's season.

Example: Let's take Jimmy Wynn's card from the 60s. He could be 1963, 65, 66, 67, or 69. Suppose he is facing a right-handed pitcher and gets injured for 2 games on a strikeout. This means that he is on either his 1963 card or his 1969 card. Instead, suppose he is facing a right-handed pitcher and gets injured for 4 or more games on a strikeout. This means he is on his 1963 card and since 1963 was a terrible year for Jimmy Wynn, you should cut him immediately. Now suppose Wynn gets HBP; this means that he is either 65, 67, or 69 because 63 and 66 do not have HBP.

There are other threads that provide much more information, but the above pointers cover the basics that will allow everyone to field a competitive team.

That's it. Now let's go pound some Budweiser.

I just bumped up a thread "Help Reading The Cards For New Mystery Managers". Everything I know about "reading" the mystery cards is in there.

Thanks for the help/advice guys.

Please also remember... You are committing to AT LEAST 4 seasons. There are 4 qualifying rounds.

If you accumulate and qualify with enough points, you will be entered in the 5th and final round.

bump

Also note that leaving your lineup blank IS NOT a good idea, due to recent changes in the game logic. Check out the announcement by John:
viewtopic.php?f=15&t=633525&s

Sorry, if this is a dumb question...but is there a excel spreadsheet for the 70's and 80's games?

This would really be nice.

Thanks for your help,

Rob "the newbie"

Bump

Another question:
If I leave my rotation blank, will HAL set the rotation as best card to worst card, or most expensive to least expensive?

There is no spreadsheet, but YountFan's StratRat page can be a helpful tool in reading the cards.

http://apex.oracle.com/pls/apex/f?p=457 ... 5931::NO:::

Another question:
If I leave my rotation blank, will HAL set the rotation as best card to worst card, or most expensive to least expensive?

Good question. My best answer is: don't try it to find out.

in the past, the answer to your question was: a combination of pitcher salary and starting pitcher endurance, meaning your most expensive and most durable starters would be first in the rotation. I think that this would still hold true even after changes to the logic programs were made a few months ago. I also think that HAL would be more likely to start "*" starting pitchers (starters who only need 3 days of rest between starts) before any non-"*" starters (those who need 4 games of rest between starts).

So, for example, let's say you have a 60s team with Bob Gibson (S9*), Phil Niekro (S8*/R3), and Luis Tiant (S8/R3). Without having any idea which card any of them is on, I could almost bet you that if you left the starting rotation blank, Gibson would start before Niekro, and Gibson and Niekro would both start before Tiant.

I hope that helps... and if I am wrong, I hope that a smarter veteran than I will correct me.