Strat-O-Matic Baseball 365

Be part of the league that helps to determine if exceptional pitching overcomes exceptional hitting or if a lineup of dominant hitters will prevail against an all-star caliber rotation/bullpen. This league will test that premise by setting up 6 teams which will emphasize hitting while the other 6 teams will emphasize pitching.

The basics:

Decade: 90s

$100,000,000 salary cap

Roster size—normal SOM rules

Drop Penalty-Standard

Trades; Allowed provided the rules regarding maximum salary levels are followed.

When you sign up, indicate if you would prefer to lead a “hitters” or “pitcher” team. I will take the last spot available.

Stadiums: You will know the ballparks for yourself and all teams prior to completing your draft card. Unique stadiums will be used and only the following stadiums are eligible for selection.

Ballparks—the following parks are available—the stadiums available to the owners of the pitchers and hitters are listed below. These are the only stadiums that can be selected for use. The numbers appearing after the stadium name is a summary of the 4 components of the stadium ratings.

Pitching centric:

Astrodome--8
Pro Player Stadium-14
Comiskey Park-24
Shea Stadium-25
Qualcomm Stadium-26
Turner Field-26
Memorial Stadium-28
Three Rivers Stadium-28

Hitting centric

Coors Field-76
Wrigley Field-55
Cleveland Stadium-54
Fenway Park-53
Riverfront Stadium-45
Skydome-43
Yankee Stadium-42
Arlington Stadium-42

Division structure

6 teams---4 in the East and 2 in the Central will be “hitting” centric

The other 6 teams-2 in the Central and 4 in the west will be “pitching” centric


Roster rules:

Hitting centric teams:

The maximum value of any starting or relief pitcher is $2,000,000

The Hitting team must use 3 roster spots for hitters with salaries of $1,000,000 or less. These players cannot be dropped once the season begins—they must remain rostered for the entire season.

The following players are not eligible for selection by the hitters owners. These players will be eligible for selection by the pitcher owners via a one round draft completed on the message board. The player draft will be held after stadiums are selected.


Barry Larkin
Omar Vizquel
Roberto Alomar
Ryne Sandberg
Ivan Rodriguez
Charles Johnson
Kenny Lofton

The owners that draft these players do not have to carry them all season-they can be dropped/traded subject to salary rules. If dropped, only the hitting teams can pick them up via waivers. The player not selected by a pitching centric team will be eligible for selection by a hitting centric team.

Pitching centric teams:

The Pitching team must use 2 roster spots for pitchers with salaries of $1,000,000 or less. These players cannot be dropped once the season begins—they must remain rostered for the entire season.

The maximum value of any hitter is $3,500,000.

Draft: We will use the autodraft for all picks other than the stadium and the six player draft for the pitching centric team—information on the drafts is included. If you are assigned a player that is not eligible for your team, please release the player before the season starts.

Once the league if full, we will run two randomizers—one for the hitting centric teams and a second for the pitcher centric teams. These randomizer will be used to establish the placement of teams in the divisions and the stadium draft order as well as the dispersal draft—pitching centric teams only participate in that draft.

Hitting centric teams—division assignment and stadium draft

The first 4 teams will be placed in the East. The next two will be part of the Central.

Pitching centric teams—division assignment, stadium and player dispersal draft

The first 4 teams will be placed in the West while the remaining two teams will become part of the Central. This randomizer will also determine the order of the 6 player dispersal draft and the draft order for stadiums.

For the stadium draft, the team we will use the 1-6 order.

Dispersal draft for the 6 players who cannot be selected by hitter owners.

For the player selection, a reverse order will be used—the team getting the sixth slot in the stadium draft will get the first selection with the team with the 5th choice of stadium getting the second choice of players and so on. That draft will be held on the message board after the league is full.

Sign up: (please be sure to indicate if you will be a hitter or pitcher centric team)

1. JJB92--TBD
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This is a great theme league, thanks for starting it. I currently am in too many leagues, so I'm trying to resist joining, but I might give in. I do have a quibble with one item - the player draft - there is a really big disadvantage to drafting last because one or two players on that list are way worse than the others. It's your league, but I think it would be fairer to add a player or two like Lofton to the list and put the pitching teams that got the first two picks in the Central. Just my 2 cents. Anyway, it seems like a fun and equally balanced theme.

1. JJB92--TBD
2.fench33 - hitting
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I am a compulsive pitching /defense guy, so I'll try the other side

Franky

Thanks for your input. Based on a closer review I concur the difference between the highest and lowest priced player was too significant. I added Kenny Lofton to the list. Regarding the division assignment observation, the teams with the first
two player selections will be in the central. We are using the inverse order from the stadium draft for the player picks.

Thanks and hopefully the allure of the theme will draw you (and others) in.

Great concept! Can you explain the reason for the 6 hitter draft for the pitching teams? Is there a sense that the hitting teams would be too strong without that compensation for the pitching teams?

Juiced JC wrote:Great concept! Can you explain the reason for the 6 hitter draft for the pitching teams? Is there a sense that the hitting teams would be too strong without that compensation for the pitching teams?

As I looked at the potential rosters, I wanted to offset the benefits of having "1" defenders at second, shortstop, catcher and center field. Since the pitcher owners were limited to $3.5 million, having access to at least one additional stellar defender with offensive benefits solved both the potential concern of the hitters compensating for their relatively weak pitching with "1" defenders at key postions.

In - Pitching

1. JJB92--TBD
2.fench33 - hitting
3.Burley Norseman-hitting (via message request)
4. Fatdaddy54 - Pitching
5. FALCON29 - Hitting
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Oh, why not? (I, too, have too many teams but this is an intriguing concept.)

1. JJB92--TBD
2.fench33 - hitting
3.Burley Norseman-hitting (via message request)
4. Fatdaddy54 - Pitching
5. FALCON29 - Hitting
6. BC Manager - Pitching
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