Pretty Good Drafting?

My goal is to make as few moves as possible and it has paid off quite well. Almost nothing can be gleaned from a pitcher who pitches 1.2 innings or a batter who has 9 ABs and then is cut.

The goal should always be to make as few moves as possible. But sometimes as few moves as possible is 5-10 moves and sometimes as few moves as possible is 30+ moves. I' (and many others) have been successful doing both; I've won 102 games with one team by making 38 moves and I led one team to the finals by only making 5. And while it is ridiculous to cut a pitcher or a batter too early, it is also ridiculous to hold on to a player (or players) with a bad card too late (or forever). When a player's performance (after 20+ games, sometimes less) and/or information gleaned from injury or triple indicate the player has most likely (if not definitely) hit a bad card, then it is best to replace him....and sometimes crafting a winning Mystery team requires making many such replacements.

I think this is proof we are all over-managing like crazy, and that standing pat while everyone else destroys their team is a solid strategy. I also think he let HAL draft his players. He has 2 left handed hitters on the Tiger Stadium team that went 93-69.

I think this is proof we are all over-managing like crazy, and that standing pat while everyone else destroys their team is a solid strategy. I also think he let HAL draft his players. He has 2 left handed hitters on the Tiger Stadium team that went 93-69.

Um, Ths, what are you referring to?...Who let Hal draft his players and who has 2 left handed hitters on the Tiger Stadium team?

Also, as i explained in my post above--and many others have noted in their posts--standing pat when you've been dealt bad cards for some or most of your players is foolish. You'll get beat by the managers whose players have mostly hit on good cards and/or the managers who made changes and replaced players with bad cards with players with good ones.

I agree that DurantJerry is a very good manager who I learned a lot from early on, but I would never make 50 moves in one season, ever! And of course luck plays a big part in Strat-O-Matic baseball, real baseball, poker, life and even more so in Mystery League SOM baseball. I have found out I had a player's worst card and kept it anyway if it was past the halfway point. .... Sticking with my players is just one of my things, unless of course I find out early on that they are on a lousy year. That is an automatic cut.But unless I found out 50 players (over half a season) were on their worst year, I would never make that many moves and I think it is foolish to do so. I like seeing my competition go through 30 pitchers, it just does not pay often.

I would go as far as saying, anytime I see a team making over 25 moves before mid-season I almost wonder if they are tanking on purpose. And when I see a team making few moves, I think here is a patience manager who knows what he is doing. Of course I always could be wrong, it could just be an absentee manager. ..... The manager in question is not new to SOM but maybe he is new to Mystery ball, or just busy with life outside of SOM. Anyway, I love me some SOM baseball, especially Mystery SOM baseball! ... Good luck to all you fellas! This tournament was a great idea with a good rate of participation. I hope to compete in ALL events next time it is done.

I would go as far as saying, anytime I see a team making over 25 moves before mid-season I almost wonder if they are tanking on purpose. And when I see a team making few moves, I think here is a patience manager who knows what he is doing. Of course I always could be wrong, it could just be an absentee manager. ..... The manager in question is not new to SOM but maybe he is new to Mystery ball, or just busy with life outside of SOM. Anyway, I love me some SOM baseball, especially Mystery SOM baseball! ... Good luck to all you fellas! This tournament was a great idea with a good rate of participation. I hope to compete in ALL events next time it is done.

Um, nobody mentioned dropping 25 games at the half, so i'm not sure why you mentioned that. We both agree that you need to cut a player if it's on a bad card. However, as I mentioned in my post above--which you didn't fully address--sometimes you have to make many moves, particularly because you sometimes exchange a player with a bad card for ANOTHER player with a bad card who also needs to be replaced. Anyway, we both agree that you should make as few moves as possible--I've won a division making as few moves as 4. But sometimes as few moves as possible is actually many moves (I've had a team win 102 after 38 moves) so you shouldn't begrudge managers that (very often successfully) make those moves.

Good luck to you (and all) in your tourney teams as well.

Um, Ths, what are you referring to?...Who let Hal draft his players and who has 2 left handed hitters on the Tiger Stadium team?

The guy this whole thread is about: thisisdan26. Here's his Tiger Stadium Team that HAL drafted, HAL managed, and that went 93-69: http://onlinegames.strat-o-matic.com/team/1119564 Also, he had at least 3 guys in their worst years: Yastrzemski, Eddie Yost and Bob Allen. The result doesn't look foolish to me at all. The result looks like he stood pat, let the rest of the league destroy their teams with silly waiver moves, and strolled into the playoffs.

PS: He's 1-1 in the first round.

I didn't say it wasn't possible to make many moves and still win, anything is possible. And I assume when a good manager like DurantJerry makes a move he has a good reason. But I would advise new players to only cut a player with good reason and a high probability of getting someone who can perform better.

If there was some theme league where by you either had to make 40 moves or none at all, I would take the none at all every time.

The manager referred to at the top of this thread is a manager I have seen a lot of in the 200X games (unless someone else has a real similar name) and he is usually a good manager. Maybe he just wanted to compete in the tourney but then did not have the time to put into his teams, who knows?.... I wanted to compete in the whole tourney but I was only able to be an alternate in an 1980s tourney league do to time constraints. But next time there is a Mystery Tournament like this I plan to enter all the events.

I don't agree with some of the comments on this post at all. One of the great components of playing the Mystery game is that active management can make poor teams competitive, competitive teams great, and great teams win championships.

I am a very active manager, I have no problems making as many moves as it takes to get my team where it needs to be. 1 mil. players can play better than 9 mil players so I am not worried about losing some salary cap.

I don't assume that just because another player tried someone and dumped them that they may not work on my team.. i often find that people dump hitters that batted below the mendoza line for 20-50 AB's but they dominated against either LHP or RHP. Perhaps I can add that piece to my team and boost my lineup against LHP or RHP.

I am in the mystery tourny and will post my links here:

60's team - 100 win team, 1 pitcher & 15 hitters replaced http://onlinegames.strat-o-matic.com/team/sim/1119706

70's team - 101 - 52 so far, 7 pitchers & 19 hitters replaced http://onlinegames.strat-o-matic.com/team/1120321

80's team - 41-49 so far, 15 pitchers & 30 hitters replaced http://onlinegames.strat-o-matic.com/team/1120700
STARTED OUT 14-34 START THE TEAM IS 27-15 IN THE LAST 42!

90'S team - 31-38 so far, 14 pitchers & 16 hitters replaced http://onlinegames.strat-o-matic.com/team/1121875
Team is still not there yet. still needing 1-2 more starters on the pitching staff and Piazza has been less than impressive but he doesn't have a bad card so a big second half is expected for this team.


If someone wants to say that managers that turn over their teams trying to build a winner are inferior to those who hold players than explain why I am in second place in the tourny.

I can say this without trying to bragg but to defend the strategy... if someone is willing to sit on a team of players that are underperforming their salaries all season then I am going to get the better of them in the league more times than not.

Phen

And for the record, my 70's team that may win 106 or more games this season started out 26-20 through 46 games so it wasn't like that team came out of the gate as a great team. They were a good team. And even with a good team I made 26 roster moves to turn it into a team that went 75-32 from that point on.