Vol. II,
Issue #1 - January 2014
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**
Commissioner's Corner - Part VIII- A Look at the CBA **
(by Marc Wasserman, Commissioner of the Cyber
Baseball Association {CBA} )
(Note from the Wolfman:
- Here is the eighth part of this column written by Marc Wasserman,
discussing his experiences and insights about being a
commissioner of a Strat-o-matic baseball league. Each month as
we continue this column, Marc will share with us different
aspects of the job of being a commissioner and what is necessary
to run a successful league. However, in this issue he
continues to showcase different Strat-o-matic Baseball Leagues
including the one he knows best. We hope this
column is helpful to enhance your own leagues or what you should
be prepared to do if you decide to form a new league and act as
its commissioner.)
A
Deep Look at a Successful Baseball Leage
As Howie Rose of the NY Mets broadcast team would yell after a
Met win "Put it in the books!" Another great season for our
league in 2013. This season was fun. It seemed to me to be one
of my league’s (the CBA) best ever. The competition was really
strong as the veteran GM's really established a great routine.
Our weekly computer manager return rate seemed to be at an all
time peak as teams sought to manage and micro manage their teams
series by series more often. In the CBA structure, teams play a
set of 2 series per 'block' of games each week. With 24 teams
in the league over a 162 game season. Jack Frost, one of our
league Presidents, creates manually a schedule that allows for a
majority of our games to be played within each teams own
division. The structure is two Conferences {Staub-NL, and
Clemente AL}. Each Conference is divided into 3 divisions.
To promote intense divisional rivalries and even identities, we
put into our schedule 22 divisional games with 12 games that are
outside the division against the other Conference teams. There
are no Inter-conference games as they offer in the Majors. That
is best left out we believe for the near mythical
inter-conference rivalries which builds up into our World
Series. Promotion of the rivalries and the inter-conference
Clemente-Staub rivalry is not accidental. It is by design. The
CBA encourages Net-played series when participants can, as they
must be played and the results submitted before the week's block
games are played which happens usually by the end of Thursday
evenings.
The inter-conference rivalry is integral in the theme of CBA. In
fact after 17 seasons, each division has built a reputation and
some type of unique identity. It comes naturally in an
organized league where the participants actually care and love
their teams. To maximize their winning, teams must prepare for
those 22 divisional games which take on added importance as the
seasons wears on and the pennant races open up into full bloom.
We often see managers, tweaking their teams to gain efficiency
if not better probabilities just for their division rivals.
With competition so intense in the CBA, a little edge gained by
tweaking the Team's CM for the divisional rivals can strongly
shift the probabilites or strategies which effects winning more
games. At this level, 1 game, 1 inning, or 1 key at bat has
often decided winning the division title, being a wild card
team, doing well in a 1 game playoff, or even winning the league
championship. It becomes a key move to bring in specialists,
who can play against certain rival teams within the division or
conference, or even using certain pitchers or batters at key
moments. Teams will move future commodities to go for these
special type of players. They will sacrifice perhaps years of
rebuilding, to stay in a pennant race as the current season
moves to its conclusion.
Being that GM's stay in CBA for many years, it could hurt a GM a
great deal going forward when making a trade they 'paid' to win
but losing out in big games at year's end. These type of
commodities are much the same in many of the other draft leagues
which exist. For example, trying to acquire young consistent
ballplayers who have a tremendous upside potential. Bryce
Harper comes to mind as such a player. In our league, there was
a key trade involving Harper who along with A.J. Burnett, and
Elian Herrera fetched Justin Verlander, Michael Saunders, and a
then injured Evan Longoria. The team who traded Harper
eventually won the 2013 CBA championship.
Trading for the races generally comes in different forms. In
many leagues the contenders trade with the non-contenders often
allowing a mutually beneficial exchange from a top down
standpoint in an active market which I call, "The trickle down
theory". However this type of market is a given with veteran
GM's. GM's who are shrewd will deal for platooners with good
cards trying to avoid altering transactions that will greatly
impact the franchise's direction. Considering the high
percentage of quality players who develop into serious talent
picked in the upper rounds of our draft, many GM's go in this
direction. It is a debatable strategy but a temporary solution
that can pay some quick dividends.
The platoon cards I am referring to are the limited at bat cards
of players who show good OBA or are good defensively perhaps for
just for that year. Maybe injuries or the steroid scandals took
their toll upon such a player as their value will likely not be
as high in the coming years. This route could help win pennants
cheaply though. It may cost a youngin' who's numbers in the
minors were good, but they haven't blossomed yet. You know the
type of future rookie who you thought may develop based on all
your research and your buddies tips. So you decide to go for it
and get into the playoffs and you deal away that developing
player or worse a high draft pick to get a quick fix for your
team as the Strat trade bug gets at you. Well, is this ok? If
you're convinced that you are so close to getting a playoff
birth or even better, if your divisional opponent who stands in
your way to win your division has some weakness you can exploit
in your head to head competition, then (I reason to think that
with such a fierce competition in your divisional rivalries not
withstanding) you best make this move and go to win it all no
matter what.
Thus, should you deal off that extra backup SS for that 1 year
pitcher's playoff card ? That SS could be the next Iglesias, or
Everth Cabrera. But your rival is stacked with righty power
hitting guys. Therefore I need a bal 4R to 9R type of pitcher
to keep 'em honest. Maybe you face that tough divisional rival 3
times in the late part of the schedule among other teams. A
trade like that may make sense. I feel that in a league's
documented history, no one remembers the losing teams that did
not make the playoffs. They rarely recall the teams that made
it into the 1st round of the playoffs, or perhaps some will
barely recall who were the semi-finals teams. But everyone will
remember who were the World Series teams and you have to be in
this last series to win it and secure your legacy in a league.
Many leagues now have shared their past histories on-line and
established little Halls of Fames, as well as compiling these
past records. Commissioners have started to record relevant
league events and special games. A scrap book and memory page
for each team or season is really something for members to
strive for. In the long term I have seen that the most
intensity happens during league action when the members have
something at stake like their pride and honor with a
recognition amongst their peers. League must acknowledge their
past through the league history.
For example,
keep
the winning percentage data on your league members. Let there
be competition for the best managerial active records. Use your
press channels and league press releases to inform your members
about various milestones and who's performances are best...and
worst! No one wants to be worst but really each GM to take
credit for how they played. Hey man, you won't be worst if you
plan and win some more games right? There is no cryin' in
baseball. Honor your past GM's. Enshrine them, and pay
respect to those who have exemplified the best qualities of
Strat-o-matic internationally and through gentlemanly play.
Mutual respect, longevity, and passion is the key. Set these
standards into a document or on your website and let the world
know!
The Strat Alliance
Featured League:
GUSSOMO ( www.gussomo.com
) is a league with whom some are already familiar with. I had a
brief dialogue via Email with Ralph Palumbo who is a league
officer. What struck me quite interesting about this great
league that is run by Jeff Fleischmann is it's longevity, as
well as it's GM loyalty. Certainly it is a model league which
in essence and it's routine, structure, and playability has kept
it active for 43 concecutive years! I'm awed and amazed that
this league stretches back so far. Originally designed as a
play-by-mail league (remember those?) GUSSOMO has GM's who have
had considerable involvement and made many friendships all
throughout the Strat community.
Their
website is quite concise and being user friendly is a big
plus. In their statistical archive, I found a nice little
feature comparing GUSSOMO players stats to real life
performances. Take a peek at this article at:
http://gussomo.com/index.cfm/ID/33/Statistical-Archives/
Little
things like this analysis help make a league stand out. The
GUSSOMO Hall of Fame is great example how a league can encourage
the Strat performances and careers of their long term players
(GMs). For a look at this (it is a good example of how to
enhance an already great league) go to:
http://gussomo.com/index.cfm/ID/22/Hall-of-Fame/
Finally, the
"Ultimate Strat Baseball Newsletter" would like to hear from you
is you are also involved in a solid, long running SOM baseball
league. I would like know more about how your league honor your
members. Perhaps you have a league hall of fame or a special
league website link to share. We are certainly interested in
this to learn more our Strat history and who the better league
players were or are. We would also like to hear about some of
your league records. Perhaps you had a player hit 5 homers in a
single game, or perfect games thrown, other rare records. If you
are interested to have your league featured in a future article
for this colum please feel free to contact me at
marc.wass@ultimatestratbaseball.com
To a great 2014 of SOM
Baseball Game Play
--
Let them dice roll!
Wass
(Marc Wasserman)
(Wolfman's
Note: Marc is the
initiator of a special alliances he created several years ago to
help create a network of SOM Baseball Leagues he called "The Strat
Alliance". The Alliance was expanded a bit last year when we
partnered with Star Tournament and Pure Strat to explore the
possibility of one-line tournaments which they are already
offering. We expect to bring back "The Strat Alliance" for the
leagues in the future, but the plan to do so is not set yet. If
your league would like to know more, you can contact Marc at any
time via email at:
info@stratalliance.net --
further
announcement will follow in future articles in this column.
|
Support the Cause
If you are enjoying
the content and information our newsletter shares with you, why
not support us with your helpful donation for our minor expenses
and time?
|
Contained inside this exciting issue of Ultimate Strat
Baseball Newsletter:
(to view the various interviews, articles, columns and special sections click on
the links {underlined}
and this will take you to the appropriate
webpage)
♦
RETURN TO NEWSLETTER MAIN PAGE
♦
INTERVIEW with DEL
NEWELL,
retired
Editor
of the "Strat-o-matic Review"
♦
SOM BASEBALL WORLD NEWS,
a new page to share interesting news related to
Strat-o-matic Baseball.
♦
STRAT THOUGHTS with
BRUCE BUNDY,
SOM Gamer, Creator of
Baseball Card Formulas, Baseball Strategy Advisor, Beta Tester
for the Game Company
(Continuation of his column of "Strat Thoughts", one of our
members has some great questions for Bruce about how the
baseball cards are created to show realism.)
♦
ARTICLE with MIKE
SANCLEMENTE,
founder of Stratogists.com
(Mike takes us on a delightful journey with his article "Koji
vs. Bill Gates" and then discusses how using Excel spreadsheets can take you far with your league's team
strategy)
♦
EARLY SOM
CONVENTIONS COLUMN with WOLFMAN SHAPIRO --
editor of
"The Ultimate Strat Newsletter" and 2012 CBA Champion.
Wolfman takes us back in
this article to the seventh national Strat-o-matic
Convention in 1979 held in Champaign-Urbana, IL, at the
University of Illinois as the Wolfman and his buddies organize
their sixth convention. Wolfman will be
our guide through the first nine conventions happening through 1980
of which he was present at each one. This particular column now
moves into the 1974-1980
era when the conventions moved to Illinois. We will continue to share one new convention in
each future issue till all of these early conventions are published.
Also we hope this column will inspire our readers to help us
create a SOM On-line Baseball Convention
in the near future.
♦
ARTICLE with WOLFMAN SHAPIRO
--
Wolfman discusses his strategies
how to build a very successful team
in a draft SOM
baseball league where you keep your players form year to year.
♦
RECOMMEND
ON-LINE SOM RESOURCES
-- On-line Strat-o-matic and Baseball related websites that offer amazing information, special tools and products to improve
your game play
that we strongly recommend. In most cases, we have had personal contact with
these sources who agree with the principle to work together and help promote each other.
♦
BOOK REVIEW with WOLFMAN SHAPIRO
Wolfman takes a peek at the
"The Bill James
Handbook
2014" created
by Bill James and John Dewan through Baseball Info Solutions (BIS) and
why if there is one book on baseball you must have, this is it!!
Also speaks to Ben Jedlovec of BIS to discuss the book a bit
more.
♦
BOOKS TO
DIE FOR and Become a BASEBALL GURU
-- This page
is
specifically about special books we are finding that either will
expand your insights about the game of Baseball, help you in the
creation of your current league teams or with your replays and
learn more about the Strat-o-matic Base Game and Game Company's
history. We
have a special arrangement with Acta Sports, who is a publisher
of a number of great baseball books (including Bill James
Handbooks) to offer for our members
a 10% discount. We will continue to add more books to this page in the future
as we uncover other gems our members should know about.
Contact Us for Questions or Submissions:
Wolfman Shapiro
co-Founder/Editor, the
Ultimate Strat Baseball Newsletter
email:
wolfman@ultimatestratbaseball.com
facebook:
www.facebook.com/wolfman.shapiro
twitter:
@StratBaseball4U
To Sign Up and Become a Member of this Newsletter
http://www.UltimateStratBaseball.com
(this provides direct emails when our bulletins
and next
issues come out)
To
Learn more about the SOM On-line Convention attempted
in 2013 and a bit more about the Strat Alliance
http://www.stratalliance.info
