Strat-O-Matic Baseball 365

After about a dozen 80s seasons playing smalley at SS in a good year on good teams... and losing, I prefer to play .75 "2" fielding SSs in the 80s game to any 3s (my experience may be different from others, but this worked for me).

However, Ernie Banks is not in the 80s game.

What are people's theories on SSs in the 60s game. There are several "3" SSs that are offensively significantly better than any "2"s. How often are they used, and do people win when using them?

I made the playoffs with Ernie Banks at SS. Had his 1960 card, so his .929 OPS helped offset his defensive lapses. I was in Fenway, and my team ERA was 0.5 runs higher than league average. Not sure I'd stick with Ernie if I had a lesser card though. His relatively low error total, 21, helps a bit, plus he's passable at 1b if he's killing you at SS. I also had Richardson at 2b (who was brutal offensively) to get more outs from the side of the infield.

I got Maury Wills in the mystery league tournament and will be interested to see how he does.

no idea why I am doing this because i am uber competitive, but here:
http://www.baseballthinkfactory.org/btf ... atfldg.htm


that should answer all questions about 2 range versus 3, personally, you have to have a lot of help with playing a 3 at ss in any set. however, if you do have the pieces to pull it off, it can do wonders:

http://onlinegames.strat-o-matic.com/team/1115866

AdamKatz wrote:After about a dozen 80s seasons playing smalley at SS in a good year on good teams... and losing, I prefer to play .75 "2" fielding SSs in the 80s game to any 3s (my experience may be different from others, but this worked for me).

However, Ernie Banks is not in the 80s game.

What are people's theories on SSs in the 60s game. There are several "3" SSs that are offensively significantly better than any "2"s. How often are they used, and do people win when using them?

My success rate isn't great in the 60's--5 seasons, two playoffs, no championships--so take my suggestions with some grain of salt. However, I think going for the cheap 2 shortstops--e.g. Wills, Kubek, Cardenas, and Belanger--is probably smarter than gambling on more expensive 3s, particularly since there aren't any 3s with many great seasons on their cards to justify the difference in range (Banks being the only exception).

This will also allow you to save money to fill positions less dependent on defense with some of the good hitters who are not plentiful in the sparse 60's hitters pool.

Howdy,

I don't see much sense in splurging for SSs in the 60s or 70s. Gimme a "2" for cheap and save the $ for positions where a guy can actually chip in offensively. YMMV.

Get Maury Wills and call it a day.

Maury is a good value but, he is not easy to get. I have had him 3rd on my draft list and lost him to another team.

Maury is very difficult to get. So, unless you're going for the speed team, it's probably wiser to save the top 5 pick usually needed to get him and pick up Cardenas, Kubek, McMillan, or Belanger much later in the draft.