Ultimate Strat Baseball Newsletter #6, Strat Thoughts with Bruce Bundy, Oct. 2013

Issue #6 - October 2013

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** Strat Thoughts with Bruce Bundy **
(a return of this column with the strat insights of Bruce Bundy)

(Wolfman and Marc Wasserman): We are very honored and grateful to be able to share with our members periodically this column which provides the insights and information from the legendary Bruce Bundy. Bruce and Marc have been friends for a long time and Bruce is also a manager in the Cyper Baseball Association (CBA) of which Marc is the commissioner (see his commissioner's column) and Wolfman is a GM (2012 Champion). Bruce is known for the formulas he has shared with others how to make SOM Baseball cards. He has a special relationship with the people who work at the game company where he has been a beta tester and is well respected for his insights and knowledge. Additionally, he has contacts with many of the well-known gamers and developers of Strat-o-matic Baseball.

So we hope you enjoy this third edition of this thought provoking column as Bruce Bundy offers his tremendous insights into the game we love and tips how to help us improve our game play. Thank you again Bruce for deciding to be a contributor for our newsletter -- it is greatly appreciated!!

Wolfman Shapiro & Marc Wasserman

Bruce is a professional musician as well.

Bruce Bundy's Bio

Bruce has been playing Strat-o-matic since 1969 and he is definitely one of us, an SOM Fanatic. Now with Bruce in the computer baseball league I am in (the CBA), our Skokie Wolfmen have a tough time beating his boys.

--> Bruce has published over 30 (up to about 60 now) formulas on how to create Strat-O-Matic Baseball cards from scratch along with other articles and antics with his friend Glenn Guzzo (shared when the Strat-Fan SOM Magazine existed).

--> He ran the official "Strat-O-Matic BBS" Bulletin Board from 1987 to 1992. At Bob Winberry's
request, Bruce recruited Will Kolodzie's SOMWorld as our official SOM Online Magazine (now supplemented with this newsletter) - and, I also recruited Dan Patterson for our Official Strat-O-Matic Web Forum.

--> Bruce has been a Strat-O-Matic Beta Tester for many years which has resulted in various improvements within the SOM Baseeball game.

HERE are the STRAT THOUGHTS for September/October, 2013 by Bruce Bundy

Pitching Issues (Starting Pitching)
-- for Replays, F2F (Face-to-Face) and Netplay Leagues

There are many ways people play SOM. Season Replayers are generally ignored but are an incredibly valued asset to our SOM game. I only hope that I can reach out to them from time to time, as these fine individuals have done for me over all these years. They are the most passionate SOM players I have ever met. I hope this following article reaches out to our Replay brothers, that offers to them even more fun in their SOM experiences!

--> Take a moment to focus upon any and all your teams - proportion your pitching staff well! Plan on 350 quality relief innings for every 900 innings in total for your pitching needs (for 162 game season). Underestimating your relief staff's needs is a very sophomoric act! Using this ratio will allow you to prepare for the proper proportions of starting and relief innings needed as will recommended in this model I am presenting ...

INTUITIVE PITCHING MANAGEMENT

--> Strat-o-matic baseball tries to mimic real life baseball in several ways. "Point of Weakness", however, is the vital link to numerical success with your team. If you have not tried this method of playing SOM before, you don't know what you are missing!......

OK - So, the idea runs like this. If you have the recommended amount of innings I have suggested, this will be a big asset. Again, I will use 162 games as my model here. Many players use cognitive logic for how to use their total team's pitching innings. If a pitcher has 100 innings then you figure he will have 20 starts at 5 innings per game. In this kind of logic, all pitchers are than equated in the same way. This will make for maximum usage of the required innings of your team. If your roster can take it, there may be room for a few subs if a pitcher or two fails even. As sure as you begin to maximize your innings, this then abandons SOM logic. However, let me suggest an alternative method to consider that will empower your team.

Try to get PAST every starting pitchers' Point Of Weakness (5, 6, or 7) to pitch a complete game every time if you can. But, at the same time, you have to be like Captain Hook too. As soon as your opponent's 3rd run crosses the plate, you need to pull the starting pitcher. Thus, this is no easy task but here's why this works:

Strat-o-matic baseball lineups are built to maximize kill-power in the 4 advanced food groups - Lefties, Righties, rev. Lefties, and rev. Righties. Your lineups may be strong, but the bench has now been depleted, feeding this lineup. Your starter will either succeed or fail using 3 runs as the measure. In a game-by-game scenario, failure is OK because that allows for more innings for your starter the next attempt. The REALLY important innings are the ones your starter pitches past his POW - these are the innings where he is pitching effectively. Therefore, your opponent has no better personal to bring in, and therefore you don't have to waste relief.

These extra innings by your starter will buy your relief squad the time you need when you have to save a game by pulling the starter in the 3rd inning (remember you still need a closer, BTW)! Do this system for all of your starters, whatever type of rotation you have. If you need another starter or two, this is good news for you! But if your starters are failing too regularly (giving up those 3 runs too early in the game), you need to tweak up the number of runs to pull your starter to "4" QUICKLY (monitor your numbers, kids), because you will all too soon deplete that monster relief staff of yours!

BB: Next up - "how to build your monster relief corp" (you need to know the whole plan)!

which will be included in the next issue of this newsletter!

(Wolfman: I highly recommend you take a look at Bruce's website as it has the formulas he shares linked to creating your own cards, some interesting interviews and video blogs. Also if any of our readers have some specific areas of the Baseball Game you would like for Bruce to cover, just email us directly and we will pass your suggestion on to Bruce.)

Bruce Bundy Website: http://www.cba-bb.net/Bundy.htm

Link to his Small Ball Video - take a look: http://users.wowway.com/~faust05/bb1.flv

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 ADAM ROSEN, Marketing Director of Strat-o-matic

♦ INTERVIEW with BUD PODRAZIK, Graphic Artist of SOM Fanatic Logo

♦ NEVER BEFORE HAS THIS TOURNAMENT BEEN OFFERED!! by the Strat Alliance
-- A complete discussion about the revolutionary new convention to be offered in
October offering a unique baseball tournament that has never been offered before organized by the Strat Alliance of Groups! Will you be the 1st Champion - this is an On-line Tournament using Netplay and the 2012 Roster - There is still Space for you to Join!!

♦ 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 sixth national Strat-o-matic Convention in 1977 held in Champaign-Urbana, IL, at the University of Illinois as the Wolfman and his buddies organize their fourth 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 as an inspiration for the SOM On-line Baseball Convention this month.

♦ ARTICLES with LARRY BRAUS, newsletter assistant and contributor, three new articles covering Larry thoughts and experiences with Strat over the years.

♦ ARTICLE with WOLFMAN SHAPIRO, the Wolfman's performance during the playoffs of the Pure Strat June Skype Draft Tournament - Part Three of Three Parts (Playoff Game Reports)

♦ COMMISSIONER's CORNER with MARC WASSERMAN -- commissioner of the Cyber Baseball Association (CBA) continues his column about what it is like to be a League Commissioner. In this article he focuses upon his first of several parts to "Take A Closer Look at Your League - The Themes".

♦ 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.

♦ BOOKS TO DIE FOR and Become a BASEBALL GURU -- This page is a new page we are adding for the newsletter that 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. At the time of the release of this newsletter we have a special arrangement with Acta Sports to offer our members a 10% discount. We hope to add more books in the future.

Wolfman Shapiro
Founder/Editor, the Ultimate Strat Baseball Newsletter

email: wolfmanshapiro@gmail.com
facebook: www.facebook.com/wolfman.shapiro
twitter: @StratBaseball4U