2010 MLB Season

[ghost of miles]

This is where you break out the Stat-o-matic board game!

Strat-o-matic!!!!

A proud player and owner from 1966-1969, even bought the "Hall of Fame" set somewhere in there...1927 Ruth vs 1966 Koufax, a kid's dream come true (and Koufax usually won).

It was like fantasy baseball only much more baseball than fantasy.

Yes! Me too! A proud player and owner from 1977-1981. I had the complete 1977 season...my brother had the complete 1978, and we had many of the teams from 1979-81. I also bought a few of those Hall of Fame teams as well. Man, I loved playing that game. Still have the cards, board-set, and a ton o' scoresheets somewhere in a closet at my dad's house.

Edited November 19, 2010 by ghost of miles

[JSngry]

How many triple plays did Maris hit into in 1961 (cf. 3-12)?

[ghost of miles]

There's a legendary Strat-O-Mat Johnson family picnic story, in which an uncle of mine, managing the 1977 Philadelphia Phillies, had Greg Luzinski, who sported a stealing rating of "E," attempt to steal home. Iirc this meant he had a 1 in 30 chance of succeeding (you drew small orange cards to determine the outcome). My uncle proceeded to draw a 1 card and Mr. Luzinski successfully stole home.

How many triple plays did Maris hit into in 1961 (cf. 3-12)?

He had 16 GDPs in 1961...no triple plays occurred in MLB at all that year (according to this chart).

Edited November 19, 2010 by ghost of miles

[JSngry]

Ah, the small orange cards...I still have my set in my closet...might be worth something (or not, it's pretty, uh... "heavily used"), but...

If Benji Molina can get a steal in the 2010 real-life postseason, Greg Lusinski stealing home in Strat-o-Matic is fair enough.

Anybody ever play APBA? I was tempted, but when your allowance is 25 cents a week, you learn to avoid lots of temptations, especially after discovering, what was it...The Card Collecting Company of America (?) somewhere in Pennsylvania(?), where you could buy 7th series Topps cards (!!!!) for, like a penny or three apiece once November rolled around...

[ghost of miles]

I was tempted by APBA too, but never bit... was that the game took into account the dimensions of the real-life stadiums in determining the outcomes of certain plays? That may have been yet another game (was there a third one in the 1970s?). I used to love seeing the ads for them in Street and Smith's baseball annual, which was a must-buy every spring when I was a kid.

And Jsngry, I know what you mean by "used"! My Strat-O-Mat set is well-thumbed and about as far from "mint" as one can get.

[thelbc]

We had 6-8 player Strat leagues in the day. We had a draft and played 162 games, plus playoffs. The shit was serious!!

When the Gwynn brothers moved into the neighborhood things really heated up. Charles, Tony and Chris were great guys, and besides their dad and our coaches, I know Strat hooked them on baseball. I was like 14 and Tony Gwynn was 7, and he did all the averages in his head...even after 400 AB's!!! Me and a future football player named Tony Hill (Cowboys '79-'88)just shook our heads at how smart and competitive those guys were.

The last full set I bought was '95.

[Dan Gould]

I don't know whether to admit this or not ... but I had the Sports Illustrated-branded version of Stratomatic and didn't even know of the original until much later. Same exact concept of player cards with outcomes based on season stats. IN the SI version, pitcher cards controlled the outcome most of the time. So there were pitcher numbers 2 - something. Ron Guidry '78 was 2-9 so almost always the result came off of his card. A shitty pitcher might be 2-6 so it was more likely the result came off the batter card. And there was the possibility of something happening off of some card with super rare events.

I always assumed that was how strat worked too.

My brother and I never bothered with replaying seasons. We always just replayed the 1978 1-game playoff.

And Bucky Dent never ever hit a fucking home run in literally hundreds of those games.

[Patrick]

I believe the SI version was actually Avalon Hill's Statis Pro Baseball. Played in a couple leagues of this in high school. The beast pitcher in the year we played was JR Richard. He was "2-9" so most plays appeared on his card. If I recall correctly, on his card any batter had a 1/8 chance of single, 3/8 striking out, 1/8 walking, and 3/8 retired some other way. My rotation also had Nolan Ryan, who did throw a no hitter! Ahh, memories.

This definitely a better use of the term fantasy baseball.

[ghost of miles]

I've still got this kicking around in a closet somewhere:

[Quincy]

I believe the SI version was actually Avalon Hill's Statis Pro Baseball.

Sports Illustrated was associated with a few different games. I had Superstar Baseball (which is pictured amongst the others) with the 96 greatest players. Another edition added 4 more players (I remember Dick Allen was one of the players added - I was jealous). The card was wrong for Jackie Robinson so he could only hit about .240. Later an Avalon Hill game magazine provided a proper card and small set of more modern players (Catfish, Schmidt, etc.) was sold too. I still recall that there was an 8.33% chance of rolling a 34 or 35 and some of the other combinations.

I later got Statis Pro because of the Avalon HIll connection. Then Earl Weaver for the Amiga...

[MartyJazz]

How could the Red Sox let Victor Martinez go the Tigers? Dan?

[zen archer]

How could the Red Sox let Victor Martinez go the Tigers? Dan?

I could of told you that the Sox were not interested in resigning Martinez.

They had their chances back in Spring training and during the season , I think one report had the Red Sox offering him a 2 year deal back in August.

The problem with Martinez is that the Sox feel he may give them 2 years behind the plate and then 2 years as a DH

and they would end up over spending for a DH.

I say they stick with Jarrod Saltalamacchia with Tek as a back up /tutor.....

Now they need to replace their #3 hitter with Carl Crawford.

Edited November 23, 2010 by zen archer

[Quincy]

How could the Red Sox let Victor Martinez go the Tigers? Dan?

I could of told you that the Sox were not interested in resigning Martinez.

He reminds of Gene Tenace in that while technically he can catch you're better off if you only let him do that 40-80 games, and more the lower end than the higher the older he gets. The Red Sox have Youk & Ortiz at 1st and DH so better to let Martinez go and spend the money elsewhere. Not sure if Theo or any GM is preaching the joys of cheap defense this season as after last season the M's probably have destroyed that a trendy catchphrase, but Martinez didn't fit that profile either. Of course if Youk or Ortiz are hurt much of next year it'll provide a lot of "told you so" ammo from bloggers, members of "the Nation" etc.

[JSngry]

Josh Hamilton - 2010 AL MVP!!!

http://texas.rangers.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20101123&content_id=16182426&vkey=news_mlb&c_id=tex

[Dan Gould]

It figured to happen given that their official offer started at 2 years. The Tigers demonstrated that "respect" = dollars and V-Mart went for it.

My guess is that the Red Sox make some sort of big move involving a bat, particularly Gonzales from San Diego, who knows they can't afford him and ought to get more for him now than at the trade deadline. They certainly can't go into next season without someone to approximate V-Mart's production.

[Brad]

Nah.

Koufax would beat Jackson that way once. The next time he'd rip it into the bleachers.

Gibson would feed Jackson nothing but hard stuff on the outside trying to get him to chase one. Maybe even a little "chin music" to get him off the plate. If he goes inside or hangs one on him, Jackson would knock the ball clear into the next week.

Then the next AB, Gibson would plunk him.

That is the true Gibson.

Considering that Koufax & Gibson faced Aaron and Mays I don't see why you're making a such a big deal about Jackson. I loved watching Reggie, but as the all-time strikeout leader it's not like he was in the class of Aaron or Mays.

Good point. Today's players would never have been able to crowd the plate against Gibson but if Gibbywas pitching today he couldn't have dusted players either, which makes the debate somewhat pointless; different times, different rules.

[zen archer]

It figured to happen given that their official offer started at 2 years. The Tigers demonstrated that "respect" = dollars and V-Mart went for it.

My guess is that the Red Sox make some sort of big move involving a bat, particularly Gonzales from San Diego, who knows they can't afford him and ought to get more for him now than at the trade deadline. They certainly can't go into next season without someone to approximate V-Mart's production.

I'm so surprised that the media guys here in Boston never saw this coming ,I am telling ya these guys on Comcast Sportsnet (whatever it's called?) know shit about baseball and that includes Framingham Lou.

Friggin' Merloni was flabbergasted by this ....Pitchers had a higher ERA and hitters a higher BA when V-Mart (stupid nickname) was behind the plate.

The Red Sox have money to spend they just didn't want give it to him....you had to see this coming when they only offered him 2 years at the beginning.

[Dan Gould]

And yet, with money to spend, and having basically said that they are OK giving Saltalamacchia the job, or to use him as part of a platoon with a veteran catcher who would mentor the kid, they didn't offer Varitek arbitration, in the belief that he would accept it and get a raise over his 3 million dollar salary.

So they are squeezing pennies when it comes to their captain, who not only accepted the backup role and worked hard to help Victor handle the staff but also hit better than he had in years. Not a lot of respect for the guy who has the "C" on his chest.

So I wonder if they actually intend to find some other veteran catcher to mentor Salty.