How Bad Can You Be?

I think NOT using a ratings guide makes someone a lesser manager. Of course I did not buy one this year for financial reasons and because I mostly play mystery leagues now. Ratings guides are a great tool,..... if you want to win.

I think NOT using a ratings guide makes someone a lesser manager. Of course I did not buy one this year for financial reasons and because I mostly play mystery leagues now. Ratings guides are a great tool,..... if you want to win.

Don't agree with thAt either Rad, you are implying it is easier to win and/or only possible to win if you use a guide and that obviously is not the case. Many managers have been successful with or without using the guide. As I said its a time saver primarily.

In any given year there are between 600 and 800+ cards if you have that much time on your hands thAts way more than I have as a stay at home dad. And you keep implying using a guide makes someone a lesser manager even if you don't out and out say it. So much like you keep feeling the need to defend yourself when "attacked" I will too.

It takes me about two hours to do my 1st run through a new card set. That is more than enough time for this working dad. I also never implied using ratings guides makes one a lesser manager. I correctly said ratings guides help managers interpret cards; and if managers want or need that, that's fine.

As to radagast's curious assertion, it's way off. All not using a ratings guide means is one does not want and/or need help in interpreting cards. As niners pointed out, many managers--including myself--are very successful without them.

Stop saying "needing help" this is the phrase you keep using implying a lesser manager, I'm not a two year old learning to walk. I do like to save time. Plus the guide makes for good reading material on the john.

Dude, you really need to read my posts better. I said "want or need help;' that means some players may actually need the help, and some players may just want it. I'm sure you are a member of the latter group.

Now have an excellent New Years.

I think NOT using a ratings guide makes someone a lesser manager... Ratings guides are a great tool,..... if you want to win.

Curious how you come to this conclusion; it is a counter-intuitive position to take.

I think NOT using a ratings guide makes someone a lesser manager... Ratings guides are a great tool,..... if you want to win.

I am retired and very very lucky to be able to spend as much time as I want. Which is about 12 hours or so a day. I don't have time from studying the cards and my teams to read a ratings guide!!.

I mean look at the cards and determine whether or not the card would be a likely success. I mean looking for productive results on 6's-8's on a hitters card and the absence of such on a pitcher's card. I mean scanning for asterisks on hitters cards for your hitters park team and the absences of them on pitchers for that team. I mean looking at the make-up of the card's patterns and symbols and determining whether or not a card is worth its money and/or is good for your team.

Those of us well familiar with the meanings of a card's symbols and arrangements should be able to, and can, just look over a card and determine these things. We shouldn't have to count out a cards results to successfully, if not completely, do so. If you've seen The Matrix, you remember the guys in the ship who could just look at the green symbols and see the entirety of The Matrix itself. They were so familiar with the symbols and arrangements, they could just look at them and know what they meant. That is what experienced SOM players can do when they look at a card and read and interpret it.

You are describing pattern recognition, an advanced ability to read a card gained through repeated exposures.

Reading an EKG is similar. Experienced physicians learn to read an EKG quite quickly through pattern recognition. I have no doubts that such a thing is possible with experience.

Experience and success are not quite the same thing - in SOM or in reading EKG's. A master cardiologist once told me that he was surprised that many cardiologists miss findings when reading EKG's using only pattern recognition. When they combined pattern recognition with a quick checklist they often were much more accurate. I suspect that this is true in SOM also, but have no evidence of this.

I still think your system is a variation of card counting, even though you may see it differently. I suspect you do count the HR flags (recognizing that 8 may be better than 2 when in a HR-friendly stadium), or gbAs, etc that you see.

I am a somewhat experienced SOM player (although usually playing ATG lately), and have fairly frequently formed a different view of a card after crunching the numbers than I did before with just a pattern recognition analysis. Maybe I am just not as good at pattern recognition in SOM as you.

I started a post about the curse of the rating guide awhile back. I have had my worst year ever ( 0 Titles ) using the guide for the first time. Not sure if it is the guide or I am just joining up into the wrong leagues all the time with all the hall of fame managers. Think I will go guideless next set!

Hey l.strether.....Just a heads up that you are on deck in the 3 Kings live draft. You probably already know this but this is just a courtesy reminder.