Strat-O-Matic Baseball 365

It is important for new managers to the mystery card games to understand how to read the cards to help figure out which of the 5 years their players are in. Here is a rundown of the methods I've used. Hopefully other managers can add their insight also to help the new managers quickly get up to speed:

1. When a position player is injured - Position players can only be injured from a roll on their card. First find out how they got injured (HBP+inj, Lomax+inj, ground out+inj etc.). Also...did they get injured from a lefty or righty pitcher? Then...look at your players 5 cards to zero in on which seasons sustain that injury from the lefty or righty side of their card. This method may not pinpoint the year, but could eliminate some of the years.

2. When a pitcher is injured - Pitchers are injured during the DH at-bat. First find out how they got injured (KO, ground out etc.). Also...did they get injured by a lefty or righty hitter? Switch hitters will always be the opposite of the pitchers arm for their at-bat. Once you've checked out the injury and the batters hand, look at your pitcher card. Go to column 6 on the left or right side of his card (determined by the batters hand) and go to the result on line 12. If that matches the injury sustained then that year is a possibility. Check all 5 years. For illustration purposes, In the 80's game Soto gets injured by Eddie Murray (a switch hitter). The injury is sustained on a strikeout. Murray is considered a lefty batter vs the righty Soto. So now go to Soto's card and look at column 6, result 12 on all 5 cards. You will see that Soto is in either his '81 or '83 year. This method may not pinpoint the year, but could eliminate some of the years. Also...You can't tell anything in NON-DH leagues using this method.

3. HBP - Batters can be HBP only from their card. If a batter is HBP, look at each of their years that can get that result. Sometimes you can eliminate years that do not have a HBP result using this method.

4. Hitters injury duration - The length of the injury can help determine players years. If a hitter has 600+ plate appearances (at bats + walks), then he can only be injured for 3 games maximum. If a hitter has 680+ plate appearances, then he can only be injured for 0 games maximum. Don't be fooled by a hitter getting injured for only 3 games and believing it to be the 1 season he exceeded 600+ plate appearances. Remember...it's 3 games MAXIMUM. A player with 599 or less plate appearances can get injured 0-15 games.

5. Pitchers injury duration - A pitcher with 200+ innings work can only be injured for a maximum of 3 games.

6. Homeruns - Hitters with a "W" rating on a given side of their card can not hit a homerun off of the pitchers card. So if a hitter with a "W" on that side of his card does hit a homerun you may be able to eliminate some years. For illustration purposes, in the 80's game Brett Butler hits a homerun off of Guidry (lefty). Look at Butlers 5 cards...All 5 are "W" against lefty pitching. However...only 1 card ('84) does not have a homerun opportunity on it for Butler. Therefore...Once Butler homers against a lefty, you can eliminate his '84 year.

The above are all "Solid" reads. You can depend on their accuracy. Next...I'll list less-reliable reads.Jimmy_C


Less-reliable reads:

There are many, but I'll list a few of the more common ones I've seen. Sometimes, un-reliable reads will be the only thing you can run with when you need to make a player decision:

1. Performance - This is a really bad way to make a player "read" especially early on. But after 100 crummy at-bats you may want to use it to make a move.

2. Tilt - If a player is heavily tilted in one direction, it may be that 4L or 4R year.

3. Triples - If a batter has 1 card with an unusually high amount of triples chances, it may be that year.

4. Strikeouts - See triples above.

5. Strikeouts/Walks ratio - See triples above.

6. Intentional Walks - Is a batter receiving a high number of intentional walks? Could be that he's on a great year...OR...could be the guy next in the order is on a crummy year.

7. Leave lineup blank and see who the game engine puts in - There are managers who live by this method. As far as I'm concerned there is questionable reliability to it.

visick wrote:http://forum.onlinegames.strat-o-matic.com/community/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=807

Please see my question at the back (page4) of the link at bottom of this page, Thanks.

Leaving the lineup blank and letting HAL do it for you used to be a lot more reliable. When SOM made the big switchover, I believe they tightened up some of the mystery card programming. Since the switchover, I've tried the blank lineup method a few times and it proved to be unreliable. Another change is that now when a player gets injured, his replacement is inserted into the same lineup slot as the injured player, whether the injury is for one or multiple games. It used to be that HAL would re-order the lineup so that your hitters had a more "revealing" place in the order.

Kevin A

The blank lineup strategy is completely gone now. If you leave it blank it defaults to the order of C, 1B, 2B, 3B, SS...... no matter who the player is or what card they could be on.

From a 2013 post:

"The blank lineup strategy doesn't work anymore. But what about letting Hal chose what relievers to use? With relievers, you used to be able to leave them blank and see what HAL did. As far as I know, you couldn't tell exactly who your best relievers were but if he kept putting the same guy in for save opportunities, he is probably your best, and if he put the same guy in every time you were down by 10 runs, it was probably your worst."

Do people do this--leave the reliever settings blank and try to tell from what HAL does what players have good years?

JoeBob_33 wrote:From a 2013 post:

"The blank lineup strategy doesn't work anymore. But what about letting Hal chose what relievers to use? With relievers, you used to be able to leave them blank and see what HAL did. As far as I know, you couldn't tell exactly who your best relievers were but if he kept putting the same guy in for save opportunities, he is probably your best, and if he put the same guy in every time you were down by 10 runs, it was probably your worst."

Do people do this--leave the reliever settings blank and try to tell from what HAL does what players have good years?

Yes, I think HAL will do what you are saying if you leave reliever settings blank. But, HAL, possibly, could throw you a curve ball and act the sensible way only a certain percentage of the time. I haven't drawn a definite conclusion.

For new players: please read visick's post at the top of this thread. It contains the information needed to identify your players and have a successful season.

One more key thing. Each player plays only year for the entire season. For example, Mickey Mantle's card has the following years: 61, 62, 63, 65, and 66. In any one season, he only plays on one of those cards. Let's suppose he is facing a righty pitcher and hits into a double play and get's injured on the same play. This means that Mantle is playing his 1965 card, which is his worst card, and he should be cut. He will be on his 65 card all season and this will not change even if he is cut and picked up by another team.

A few more minor comments. The blank lineup technique does not work at all because the programming has been changed to insert players according only to their position and salary and does not adjust blank lineups according to hitting ability. However, pinch hitting substitutions are still a valuable clue. For pinch hitting, keep in mind that the computer values home run power over OBP. In fact, HAL continually over-rides my instructions on which pinch hitter to use because I favor OBP and HAL loves power.

Question - say you have a player who you know has a bp effect homer taken away. On all of that players cards he has a W power rating except for two cards where against righties he has an N. Only one of these cards has a bphr on it.

But, there is the pitcher card to also consider. The pitchers he faced also had bphrs on their cards. Would the player lose a bphr homer on the pitcher card if he had a W rating or would it just be noted as fly out since a home run was not possible?

Just wondering if this is a way to figure out or narrow down the card I might have for this player.

I have wondered this myself.