Loving the Mystery Cards

I just wanted to say how much fun the mystery card concept is. I just came back after some years and am enjoying myself immensely. I suggest this concept to anyone and everyone who is a strat fan. You can't recreate the experience with physical cards. I generally play cards and dice.

In my most recent league, I got screwed by Dale Murphy. I dropped him too early as he was hitting below the Mendosa line. Everything in his stats led me to believe he was on his 669 OPS year, so I got rid of him. However, I found out he hates me so much when another team picked him up he immediately began to get 2 to 3 hits a game. :/ I am not bitter, but that exemplifies the fun that the mystery card concept is. I played one season back in 2004 with the current set and it wasn't even a challenge. However, not knowing the exact card you are playing with adds so much wonder and excitement to the game as it progresses through the season.

I am wondering does anyone else have tales of cards they dropped too early that turned into superstars just to spite you or stories about the hidden gem you picked up out of someones discards that filled an important role on your team. Please tell your stories here.

A couple of 60s teams back, I picked up Bill Mazeroski after I determined he was probably on his best season. (He had three seasons where he had a lineout injury against a left-hand pitcher, but it was a 3-game injury which suggested '62; plus, his stats were consistent after over 100 games with his good season) Inexplicably, he was cut. Indeed he was on his best year 1962. If you see someone you like get cut, sometimes it pays to do the research to see if the opposing coach made a mistake.

My most recent team had three players (Dietz, Stuart, and Green) who were hitting so well for me that I was sure they each had their best seasons. They each got injured in turn and I discovered they did NOT have their best card. So disappointing!

I've certainly dropped players I regretted (usually pitchers). However, I am fairly patient and usually try to look for a clue that gives away which card a player is on. On the other hand, the best manager I have ever played against--Franky--had no patience at all. He's like a Strat-O-Matic wizard who can tell a stinker year by sense of smell! So, there is no right or wrong how long you wait on cutting a player...unless, of course, you discover later that you cut him too soon!

Yeah, I like to figure out the puzzle, and the mystery cards prevent the season from becoming a math problem with all the variables known.

It would be nice if they added a few players. like Kessinger in the 1960's set.

One of the things I failed to communicate in my original post is that beauty of the mystery card entails the inability to discern the environment the card is used in.

Its my understanding that the cards are designed to produce stats against an environment consisting of the league averages. A batter card, in the mystery league, exists in an environment made up of various years of pitching cards and vice versa. This in addition to the variation of the batters own card being used causes a unique environment which will generate different statistics. As a result, a batter/pitcher card will produce differently in a league made up of cards from other years where the league averages are different.

Adding the the variation is the stadiums in the league. This season, I am in Tiger stadium and another team in the league picked Tiger Stadium. This has suppressed batting averages in our division a little. The possibilities are endless. I remember when the Tigers signed Juan Gonzales in real life to open their new cavernous stadium. Tiger stadium was a low average power hitters park, and Comerica is unfriendly to hitters. The park ate Juan Gonzalez alive. He could hit a ball 500 feet for an out. Imagine if there were entire leagues made up of Kingdome stadiums or the Astrodome.

Of course the other factors are that you don't really know which card you have. This causes some mistakes in the decision making process which can really hurt or help you. That was the reason I created this thread in the first place. The final factor is the dice rolls.

So these are the reasons the mystery card format makes the game so much more interesting. I am anxious to see everyone's tales of woe or triumph regarding drops or finds that worked out well or not so well for you. I am disappointed more people have not posted, lets hear your story.

My first online team was a 60's mystery league. I had no idea what I was doing but having liked the Cardinals and Twins in that era, chose many names I recognized: Bob Gibson, Jim Kaat, Lou Brock, Dal Maxvill, Julian Javier, Harmon Killebrew, playing in Busch Stadium. First bitter lesson, I missed Killebrew in the draft and got Sal Bando. Second, whereas dropping players in other formats is frowned upon, you'll likely make changes in the mystery format. Bando '72 was quick to go, hitting .185 after 65 at bats and McAuliffe '66 was a great replacement. Cleon Jones hit .340 and I was convinced he was on the legendary '69 year (turned out to be '68). It was hard to pull the trigger on the .263/.292/.411 Lou Brock, but he injury revealed as '62 so he had been performing in line with his real stats (.262/.319/.412). I ended up making a lot of changes, dropping 32 players.

Dal Maxvill '62 stuck it out to the end, hitting .245. He got a championship ring along with the rest of the 94-68 team, final roster value of $69,370 million.

http://365.strat-o-matic.com/team/1111850

Sometimes you need to take chances. For example, I needed a catcher and power badly. Someone dropped Gary carter. He was exactly what I needed. I did the math to see how I could afford him and decided I would lose too much. Another team picked him from the pile and they are reaping the rewards of that, while I still have the same problem. That is another plus for the mystery card. In the book moneyball, it was stated you can recover from a bad deal, you can't recover from the good deal you fail to make. Gary carter thought me this lesson.

Hard to believe mo one else has some tales of woe or triumph.

I had the same experience you did in your Carter example. It was the 80s and Tim Wallach was raking for me while Schmidt was doing terrible and was dropped but no injury to check his year. While I tried to see how to get Schmidt onto my team while keeping Wallach someone else nabbed Schmidt. Turned out Schmidt was on his best year with a slow start and Wallach was on his worst year with a good start. My 40-20 start turned into a .500 record at the end.

I too really dig the mystery sets. It seems to me the closest thing to what a real life manager has to go through...
He knows the history and performances of all his guys but there's no way to predict exactly how they'll perform against all the variables thrown their way or if they might have a down year. Now the ATG set does contain many variables as well and I enjoy all the combinations and different caps...but to me, ATG really boils down to a math problem.

Chief78 - I think I have a league that you would enjoy. We're at game 69 in our second 80's season and we're looking for another mgr for our 90's decade...
viewtopic.php?f=11&t=639582

Current season
http://365.strat-o-matic.com/league/433744

rosie