Strat-O-Matic Baseball Players Championship 2015 (Rules)

Yes, Strether I'd prefer a slight bonus be given for postseason wins, but I don't think that JPav's revision is out of the bounds of reason. It will still do a fine job of awarding the top teams, and I am willing to defer to JPav since he is doing all the unwanted hard work. I hope you join the tourney this year its fun, now go sign up in the sign up thread.

I understand the need to shorten the window for entering a league, but why make it so complicated? The method used for the Barnstormers tour is simple and works great.

I really like the scoring change, it makes a lot of sense to me.

mp,

I don't play ATG or Barnstormer's, but I thought the process for entering was exactly the same as I've done here. What's different and/or how can I make this better? From reading Moose's threads, I was trying to do more or less the same thing with maybe a few slightly finer points.

In fact, the posting of randomizers and ordering everything alphabetically, etc etc seemed a little unnecessary to me.
I think what is outlined is very straightforward, but I will hear you (or anyone that plays Barnstormer's) out on this.

Thx!

Thanks for taking the reins this year JPav! I have no problem with your point system...win and your in...simple. Look forward to a great Championship season, but will miss facing up against you!

Thank you.

This year has been by far my best year in SOM Online. However, you have been curb stomping me for seven weeks now in the 2014 semis and I have been somewhat disheartened. So I guess I mean to say, I will NOT miss facing you in the new season!*

*But so far, I like you a lot better in our first 2015 autoleague!

mp,

I don't play ATG or Barnstormer's, but I thought the process for entering was exactly the same as I've done here. What's different and/or how can I make this better? From reading Moose's threads, I was trying to do more or less the same thing with maybe a few slightly finer points.

In fact, the posting of randomizers and ordering everything alphabetically, etc etc seemed a little unnecessary to me.
I think what is outlined is very straightforward, but I will hear you (or anyone that plays Barnstormer's) out on this.

Thx!

You're correct on that everyone needs an email address to enter, however it's mostly so Mighty Moose can send out league information, not the other way around. Each event does have a 2 week window exactly how you plan to run it, which I think is great. But it's first come first serve for entering and there is no email necessary to state which week you plan on playing. When it's time to start a new event, we get an email from Mighty Moose on Saturday morning and everyone has about 10 days to join, although it's recommended to load earlier. Once we get to Weds or Thurs of the second week, he starts looking for fillers to close any open leagues by Friday night.

I think you might get in trouble with people forgetting the email deadline. Someone really won't be able to participate in Event 5, which starts on August 17th or 24th league if they don't send an email by August 7th? People are just going to forget. There were 123 people in last year's tourney, that is 615 opportunities for someone to forget.

One other thing I notice, apologies if I just missed it. Is there a +5 point bonus for joining all 5 leagues and do managers still get to drop their lowest score?

Thanks.

mp,

Thank you very much for the info. To answer your questions, no, there is no participation bonus this year. Another of the many problems with bonus points occurs during tiebreakers. If you needed five teams and a participation bonus to tie my four teams in the standings, which manager is better? Simple common sense dictates getting rid of anything that is not a win on the field. Secondly, yes, if you play five teams, you get to drop your lowest score.

With regard to how Barnstormer's works versus how I'm doing it here...

I'm okay with managing 100 or so names so we can have a genuine blind draw. I even plan to send out reminders and hopefully get OnlineGameSupport to help me keep managers reasonably informed.

However...

Some of the general problems with tour leagues is personal responsibility, accountability, and commitment. Managers have a full tour schedule in front of them today. You can buy a five pack right now and literally load five teams covering all the various formats. You can press a few buttons on your iPhone and set general reminders. You can circle your desk calendar at work.

I will be reasonable, but I will not provide everyone juiceboxes. I know everyone wants time to get more familiar with the card set, but I guarantee you half the managers are ready to go right now. Another fourth will be coaxed along. And the other fourth probably won't finish, regardless of how many banners, reminders and forum posts there are.

I would love to attract 200 willing and able managers. But I will work just as hard for only 12 sign-ups, because I guarantee you, after reading a seven page rules post, if they're still here, they're ready to play. "I forgot" is the excuse of someone who probably wasn't all that interested to begin with.

Moose may or may not have the problems on his side that we have. So if 20XX has to try a little harder to get where we want this tour to be, then let's all try a little harder.

If managers find it helpful to do so, I've already had several managers say "Put me in for all the first week events" or "Put me in all the second week events."

I have no problem recording that in The Book.

If some circumstance forces them to reconsider an entry, they always have until the deadline to say "Oops, I need to switch."

The "deadline for emailing" is only the last day you can select a start date. You can pick every single event entry today, if you wish to do so. So in case it's unclear, you do not email me ONLY ON THAT DAY (ie, April 10). You can email me whenever you wish. As we get close to deadline, I plan to post something like "the following five players from the sign-up sheet have not yet picked a start date."

So PLEASE, be sure your name is on the sign up sheet because that's what I'll be using to check against the emails I receive.

To answer your questions, no, there is no participation bonus this year. Another of the many problems with bonus points occurs during tiebreakers. If you needed five teams and a participation bonus to tie my four teams in the standings, which manager is better? Simple common sense dictates getting rid of anything that is not a win on the field. Secondly, yes, if you play five teams, you get to drop your lowest score.

First of all, J-Pav, I completely agree with having no participation bonuses. There should only be recognition and rewards for SOM accomplishments, not participation ones. However, the participation bonus issue in no way affects the bonus issue for SOM accomplishments like making or winning the event finals. So, common sense does not demand getting rid of bonuses for them.

Also, making the finals and winning the finals are just as much "wins on the field" as regular game victories. When a team wins the World Series, it wins both its game and the World Series on the field. So, making the event finals and winning the event finals are also "wins on the field." So, you can't justifiably not reward or represent them by using that excuse, which your point-plan will do.

This is clearly your Finals, and people clearly are ok with your running it as such. However, some of us will justifiably want bonus points for SOM achievements next year. So, you have no reason to mistakenly deride using them when you don't have to do so. The tournament is yours.

Good luck rounding up the participants.

Look, you do not need to keep repeating yourself, I hear you. I just don't understand your inability to grasp this. If you win enough to get the playoffs, you have an opportunity to win up to eight additional "BONUS" points with playoff victories. The Champ in any league wins maximum BONUS points (ie, eight). Everyone else in the playoffs, by definition of where they finish, gets zero to seven BONUS points. Everyone is equally and perfectly rewarded by accomplishment on the field.

Regular season wins = points.
Playoff wins = (bonus!) points (the non-playoff teams are not entitled to a bonus).

What part of achievement is not rewarded? If you make the playoffs, you can collect more wins/points. If you get swept, then maybe your team just wasn't so great after all. But your "achievement" was recognized. You had a fair opportunity to EARN those bonus points.

And if you're going to participate, please go to the sign-up sheet. If you're going to use this weird and illogical complaint to protest playing, then please stop posting here.

First of all, J-Pav, try and act like a Commissioner when you post and show a little decorum. There was nothing "weird" or "ilogical" about any of my posts, and I made no complaint, so save the personal attacks. I made perfectly clear with my first post that I was fine with your plan, even though I correctly pointed out its flaws. You are the one who decided to start a debate about it--despite your correct reservations--and you have kept doing so.

You clearly didn't "hear" me in my last posts. I made it clear that your system will only give the player who wins the finals one point more than the player who loses them. That reduces the value of winning to the Finals to the same as winning a mere regular season game. That is an inadequate recognition of and reward for winning the event Finals. The same goes for a player who wins 90 games and makes the playoffs as opposed to the player who wins 90 and doesn't. Your system would give those players the same points and would fail to recognize the achievement of making the playoffs.

I will probably sign up and have no interest in posting further. However, if you are going to continue to use your position as an opportunity to argue against using bonus points for SOM achievements, I will respond. I do plan to participate next year, and I have a right to defend their use.

Good luck with your tournament.