** SOM Baseball Online - What is it All About**
Part II - How did the Wolfman do in his 1st Full Season?
(by Wolfman Shapiro, report of participation in the Barnstormer Tournament)

In my last article, I explained pretty much in great detail how the online version of SOM Baseball worked.  How one decided which player set (the type of cards you will use) out of the numerous sets that Strat offers, which you wish to use in a league or tournament you join. Plus, I discussed how the various leagues basically function as well as what is required to decide which players to draft which will perform the best within the  stadium (ballpark) that you select to play in.

Now, I will tell you this straight up before I go into detail how our team did, that this version of the game does not work the same as the table game or the computer game. Although it does many things which are similar to how the computer game functions and is played (of course following all the main rules of the game with how the images of the card are read and the results you obtain), the strategies you must use are going to be a bit different especially how the pitchers are used since there doesn't exist any usage rules. Rather a players availability to be utilized in your team's game is regulated by the rules linked to the time off due to injuries (further explained below).

I tried used the knowledge I had gained by playing the computer game and finishing 7 out of the 9 seasons I have participated in the CBA to qualify for the playoffs with four world series appearances, but the strategies I used from these experiences within the CBA did not work as well as I hoped as you will soon see.

I have also decided to write a 3rd part to this article to appear in our next issue, so I don't overwhelm my readers with too much information and analysis.  Therefore the focus of this arrticle will be to completely explain how I drafted our team, the Skokie Wolfmen, how our boys performed during our season and after our league ended (the final stats) and what I learned through this experience.  Before our season began, I thought fairly confidently that I had drafted a great team -- a team that would be invincible with power, defense, speed, on-base and that my pitching staff would do well enough. However sometimes reality bites you in the butt yes?  Especially when you are against other SOM Baseball gamers who have played in hundreds of leagues and have it all figured out already.  Now I am going to suggest also that if you have a serious interest to learn this version of Strat Baseball that you all read Mesquiton's interview as this Strat brother has seen a great deal of success in the online game in a relatively short period.

To summarize the type of teams I have drafted in the CBA that have taken me to this league's world series, it would be a team with hitting and power, that played in a hitters park, with a pitching staff that had few home runs chances on their cards (both starters and relievers), a good platooning system with excellent defense and speed. In other words dear members, a very balanced team which most likely in the real world would always make the playoffs. But you must understand as I entered the Barnstormers Tournament, this was my first time to play a full season.  (Note: I had done three trial leagues with a set based on the 2004 set of cards, which means I had a chance this system out for 21 games each.)

Now, of course every team in the league I joined was an all star team. And I was told that quite a few of the managers of this league had played in a number of leagues within this specific tournament.  Plus when you go to create your team you have over 4000 total players to pick from - and I didn't have a enough time to perform my normal intense analyze of all the cards as the tournament was starting quite soon after I joined.  I don't want our readers to assume however, that I am sharing these points just to explain my final performance, as this is not the case at all. I am just trying to give to my readers an idea of how challenging the Barnstormers tournament is and that if you decide to join a future one, that the proper time is needed to get yourself a competitive team.  Now as I explained before in my last article, the draft I was in, you had to make a request through the online system using a special form which players you wanted to have on your team and prioritize the order of the players wthin this list. You were expected to bid upon and receive 25 players to start and during the season you could go with a roster from 24-28 players with at least two players covering each position. Our salary cap was $100 million. So  the question then becomes what is the most effective way to spend this money?

(Reminder: INJURIES: In this league how long the player's injury lasts depends upon how much a player was used during the real season reflected by their card -- mostly this applied to the hitters as the pitchers hardly got injured and if a starter does he would normally just leave the current game but be available for his next start. For example if Bonds (based upon his legendary 2001 season) was injured he would be gone only for the current game, but a player like Joe Morgan (1976 Reds) when he got hurt, my scrappy 2B could be out 3-6 games at a time which would hurt our team.

Building the Skokie Wolfmen in the Barnstormers Tournament

So lets discuss who did I actually bid upon and why.  I think that I was able to retrace all the players I initially asked for or bid upon (shown below) as the online game keeps very extensive reports about players movement.  As stated I decided to pick a hitter's park so I chose Crosley Field 1966 which consisted of -Singles L 1-13 / R 1-18; -Home Runs L 1-19 R 1-19 (no weather effects or time of year rules were implemented so these settings were static for all of your home games and the same for all of your opponents).  Now of course, taking a hitter's park has it advantages and disadvantages. Even though I might have a team that had great power and hit supposedly well, this would also benefit my opponents too so I had to have some pretty good pitching as well.

To see all the players who are available to be drafted for a league using the All Time Great VII set (the game company just released the VIII set) that was used by Barnstormers, if you click on the link below you can get a copy of the spreadsheet that lists all of the draftable players.  This will give you an opportunity to see who we had a choice to bid on - click on the link below and save this MS Excel spreadsheet to your computer:

http://www.ultimatestratbaseball.com/USBN-10-2014/salaries_public_atg7.xls

Now that you know which Ball Park I had, here is how I decided to spend my millions. I am guessing this was somewhat the order I made my bids:

Bobby Bonds 2001 Giants LF 14.54 Million  (HRs hit 73)
Willie Mays 1955 Giants CF  10.42 Million  (I did not get him the system replaced him
(HRs hit 51)                                               with Turkey Stearnes Negro League All Star 10.41 Million)
Alex Rodriquez 2003 Rangers SS  10.63 Million  (HRs hit 47)
Joe Morgan 1976 Reds 2B  10.3 Million  (HRs hit 27)
Mike Schmidt 1980 Phillies 3B  9.27 Million  (HRs hit 48)
Johnny Bench 1970 Reds C 7.56 Million  (HRs hit 45)

--- (these were the top hitters I asked for but this meant I had spent 62.72 million of 100 million on just 6 players, maybe not so wise??)

Next, I needed to obtain the best two starters I could find who needed 3 days rest and no home run chances on their cards along  with a great closer, so I decided to select:

Dutch Ruether 1919 Reds L S8* 7.35 Million
Joe Wood 1911 Red Sox R R S9* 6.02 Million
Trevor Hoffman 1998 Padres C6 5.85 Million

--- (these three pitches cost me another 19.22 million or I had spent 81.94 million on 9 players leaving me only 18.06 million to spend on at least 16 more players to fill in a starting RF, 1B, DH, 2 or 3 more starters and a number of relief pitchers. Below are the other players I bid upon including minor players to backup my starting positional players and fill in our team):

Starters:
Mike Garcia 1952  Indians R S7* 5.47 Million
Rube Benton 1912 Reds L S7* 3.69 Million

(Notes -- this gave me four 3 day starters, each starter had virtually no home runs on their card for our stadium, this cost another 9.16 million so I had used up 91.1 million on 11 players and had about 8.9 million left)

Relievers:
Emil Yde 1927 Pirates L R5 - 0.5 Million (vs. left handed batters)
Bob Clark 1920 Indians R R5 - 0.5 Million (vs. right handed batters)
Guy Morton 1920 Indians R S7 R5 - 0.5 Million (vs. right handed batters)
Doug Bair 1988 BlueJays R  R2 - 0.5 Million (right ace reliever)
Bill Campbell 1978  Red Sox R R3 - 0.5 Million (Reverse righty)

(Notes - again I tried to get all relievers with low home runs, one left-handed reliever with aces against right handed hitters to setup Hoffman but as I soon learned in this league I would get killed as most of these pitchers weren't very good, I knew I would have to remake my relief staff and quickly dropped four of these five - anyway here I spent 3.35 million which left 5.55 million to add the rest of my hitters/positional backups.)

Hitters (Starters/Backups) 

Buck Martinez 1985 Blue Jays C  .50 Million
Don Wertz  1968 Tigers 3B .76 Million
Joe Birmingham 1907 Indians OF .90 Million
Jim Spencer 1978 Yankees 1B .86 Million
Al Weis 1969 Mets 2B-SS .55 Million
Vince Coleman 1985 Cardinals OF 1.13 Million
Ned Hanlon 1889 Pirates CF .55 Million
Vic Powers 1964 Phillies 1B .55 million
Hughie Critz 1934 Reds 2B .52 million

(Notes: Here we spent the rest of our money to fill in our lineup - tying to get RF covered with Birmingham and Coleman, 1B was to be a platoon between Powers and Spencer both fielding 1 at the position.  I obtained more speed so picked up Coleman (AAA) and Hanlon (AA).  Martinez to backup Bench, Wertz for Schmidt, Weis for Rodriquez and Critz for Morgan.)

So this was the team we started with. After we were told who were the players we received, which turned out to be all of the players I bid on but Mays, there was a period for a few days where we could put in a waiver claim - that is to exchange players we received that we didn't want and go after players who were not picked but done in an reverse order by which teams received the least amount of the players they bid on. So before the season started here were the moves I made again trying to get a team with power, good defense, on-base and speed and to improve my pitching staff.

1) I didn't like Stearnes who I received in replacement of Mays so I decided to release him and go after one of the best seasons that Mark McGwires had with the Cardinals at 1B since I had a weak platoon there of Spencer/Powers.  So I released 10.41 million from Stearnes salary plus Vic Powers at 1B at .55 million and picked up Mark McGwire 1999 Cardinals 1B 9.54 million with 65 HRs.  This gave me 1.5 million extra to work with but I would still be weak in CF with just Butler and Birmingham (or Coleman), both who didn't hit that well. So for McGwires I had to wait and see, since it was a waiver claim if I would get him and I did.

Mark McGwires 1999 Cardinals 1B 9.54 Million (more steady at 1B but lose in CF)

2) Now I didn't like my bullpen very much and I still needed help in CF, so this next series of moves before the season started where we didn't have a penalty to lose a percent of the salary of the players we released which went as follows: I dropped Hughie Critz at 2B (left Weis to cover 2B & SS), Emil Yde at RP, Ned Hanlon in CF, Don Wert at 3B, Bob Clark RP and replaced them with: 

Bob Shirley 1986 Yankees L R4 .85 Million (lefty ace reliever, to have a second lefty reliever)
Hank Berman 1946 Dodgers R R2 1.16 Million (middle relief)
Brett Butler 1982 Braves CF .64 million (CF-1 A stealer)
Ralph Garr 1973 Braves RF 1.07 million (a better RFer)
Lee Tannehill 1909 White Sox 3B .56 million (still 3B-1,  to backup Schmidt)

(Note: so I thought now I had a better RF in Garr vs. righties and reverse lefties and could use Birmingham in RF vs. lefties, improved my bull pen a bit, as I obtained a better lefty relief ace and a good middle reliever along with Brett Butler to help in CF vs. righties and a CF-1.  Also this move gave me a few more A stealers with Garr and Butler.)

3) The next change occurred to change my starters slightly, to go with a five man rotation instead of four and continue to beef up our relief staff.  So we dropped just before our first games: Joe Wood, Mike Garcia, Rube Benton, and Doug Bair and with the money we received back we picked up:

Will Bill Donovan 1902 Dodgers R S9* 5.98 Million (to replace Wood a more balanced card)
Grover Lowdermilk 1919 White Sox S6 R5 3.03 Million (to be both a spot starter and long relief)
Jack Billingham 1974 Reds S7* 1.77 Million (3rd-4th starter, better in pitcher's park, reverse righty)
Carl Weilman 1920 Browns S8 R3 1.6 Million (4th Starter, to use vs. a team with lots of LH batters)
Kent Tekulve 1982 Pirates R R2 C5 1.78 Million (righty ace, backup closer)
Jim Dygert 1909 Athlectics R5 1.85 million (middle reliever)

(Notes: As I learned, a reliever who is rated R5 doesn't get tired easily from game to game so I hoped Lowdermilk and Dygert could help us with middle inning relief is one of our starters, especially Billingham and Weilman were bombed, to come in and hold till it was time to use Hoffman. I thought that I could mix and match my 3-5th starters with Lowdermilk, Billingham, Weilman and that with Lowdermilk, Tekulve, Dygert that I had a much better relief staff to support Hoffman so I believed now my team was really ready to compete.)

======================

Season Begins

Each night we played a 3 game series so a season would take 54 days.  The season started on March 31st (2014) and after my first four series I had a record of 8-4.  But unfortunately after this we went 1-5 in the next two series and then around April 19th I was at .500 but never made it back to .500.  The best I did was 20-14 on April 11th but then lost 5 straight games after this. I noticed early on that we weren't getting enough hitting or run supports with our DHs, or from our CF platoon plus Mark McGwire was only hitting .208 with 6 HRs in 77 ABs. Therefore I decided (in the first 40 games you lose 5% of the salary of a player you drop) to try to get more consistent hitting at 1B along with a better OB so on April 8th I made my next moves to get more consistent hitting for our team which was like hitting only around .230 at this point, that in this type of league you won't go far:  So I dropped McGwire at 1B, Vince Coleman OF (also not hitting), Dygert (was getting bombed) and Al Weis and I picked up:

Frank Thomas 1993 White Sox 1B 6.7 Million (to give a more consistent hitting 1b)
Wally Backman 1986 Mets 2B .77 million (this was a steal, to be our DH vs. RHP and he did very well)
Omar Moreno 1980 Pirates CF 1.55 million (a better hitting CF vs RHP than Butler, AAA stealer CF-1)
Jim Hickman 1971 Cubs RF 1.85 million (to have a RH RF vs lefties or DH vs. lefties with power)
Charley Hall 1913 Redsox R R3 1.22 million (to replace Dygert as middle inning righty reliever)

(Note - due to these changes especially adding Thomas and Backman, our team hitting average became much higher plus Thomas and Hickman gave me more bats vs. LHP as with two of my key hitters being lefties, Bonds and Morgan and not a good DH vs lefties we were losing too many games this way).

However after April 19th, no matter what we tried to do we could never get our team to play consistently or even return to .500.  Also we lost too many games in the late innings due to our relief.  Even though the relievers and starters we had would do great in a regular type of league, verses the all star teams in this league with managers getting their teams to work well in their home parks, we just couldn't keep up.  A majority of the managers in our league went with pitching parks which hurt our club on the road as we didn't get the ballpark homers and for this league getting on base with walks wasn't enough - you need to have a team hitting .280 to .300 where hits advance men more than one base and gives you more of a chance to win in a pitcher's park.

On my birthday April 17th - by now 50 some games into the season - I tried one last time to help our club.  Rodriquez at SS wasn't doing as well as I hoped, with his average and power so if I dropped him with his high salary I had a chance to obtain more players to fill our remaining holes as I saw it. So in this last change to my roster I went for a good setup man for Hoffman, tried to help my starters a bit, added another LH bat at 1B and found a good hitting SS (without power) to replace Rodriquez.  So besides dropping Alex Rodriquez, we also released Charley Hall RP, Bill Campbell RP, Hank Berman RP, Kent Tekulve RP, Carl Weilman SP, and Jim Spencer 1B and we picked up from the free agents:

Derek Jeter 2009 Yankees SS 7.06 million (he did hit better than Rodriquez)
Rob Dibble 1990 Reds R RP R2 C3 4.01 million (to be our setup reliever)
Dave Roberts 1979 Pirates L R3 .99 million (to give us another solid reliver vs lefties)
Hugh McQuillian 1920 R S8* R3 2.47 million (give us a more solid 3 day starter)
Joe Pepitone 1970 Cubs 1B 1.40 million (another LH bat at 1B, with defense)

So now, let me now show you the full stats of our team, how we performed during the season and then discussed what worked and what didn't work, to explain why we were unable to qualify for the playoffs.

Skokie Wolfmen Pitching, Barnstormers, 1st Round, League 13

Name	T	End.	W	L	S	BS	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	HR	BkR	WpR	Bat	ERA	WHIP	BAL	Salary
Ruether, Dutch (1919)	L	S8*	16	17	0	0	306	341	173	159	127	107	45	0	4	4WL	4.68	1.53	E	7.35M
Donovan, Wild Bill (1902)	R	S9*	17	18	0	0	316.2	339	188	174	151	197	44	0	5	2NR	4.95	1.55	E	5.98M
Lowdermilk, Grover (1919)	R	S6/R5	9	7	0	1	163	186	104	92	75	106	16	0	6	1WR	5.08	1.6	E	3.03M
McQuillan, Hugh (1920)	R	S8*/R3	5	11	0	0	122	173	104	90	60	25	22	1	3	4NR	6.64	1.91	4R	2.47M
Billingham, Jack (1974)	R	S7*	9	13	0	0	134.1	193	111	108	54	50	31	3	3	1WR	7.24	1.84	2L	1.77M
Hoffman, Trevor (1998)	R	R1	5	10	26	6	81.2	73	50	45	41	92	16	0	20	1WR	4.96	1.4	E	5.85M
Dibble, Rob (1990)	R	R2	5	4	3	2	87.2	76	45	44	40	118	13	3	7	1WL	4.52	1.32	1R	4.01M
Roberts, Dave (1979)	L	R3	0	3	0	3	50.2	81	52	45	17	21	10	0	5	1WL	8.00	1.94	6L	.99M
Shirley, Bob (1986)	L	R4	3	0	4	3	55	79	49	44	27	30	9	0	2	1WR	7.21	1.93	8L	.85M
6 players no longer on roster
# Weilman, Carl (1920)	L	S8/R3	3	3	0	0	51.1	74	44	42	29	14	11	4	1	2WL	7.36	2.01	4L	1.60M
# Dygert, Jimmy (1909)	R	R5	0	0	0	0	11	19	17	16	9	11	2	3	7	3WR	13.1	2.55	E	1.85M
# Tekulve, Kent (1982)	R	R2	1	0	0	0	14.2	16	13	9	5	3	3	0	2	1WR	5.53	1.43	8R	1.78M
# Hall, Charley (1913)	R	R3	1	0	0	0	2	1	0	0	1	2	0	0	2	3WL	0.00	1	E	1.22M
# Behrman, Hank (1946)	R	R2	1	1	1	2	21.1	35	19	16	7	12	3	5	3	1WR	6.75	1.97	E	1.16M
# Campbell, Bill (1978)	R	R3	0	0	0	0	10	12	12	11	8	10	1	7	3	1WR	9.90	2	9L	.50M
TOTALS			75	87	34	17	1,427.10	1698	981	895	651	798	226				5.64	1.65

(Analysis - as you can see the main reason we didn't perform well was our pitchers weren't very effective. We didn't really have any pitcher, starter or reliever who had a great season.  Getting Dibble to protect Hoffman did help us a bit but even with Hoffman's unhittable card, he was constantly effective. Plus having an team ERA of 5.64 with 17 blown saves didn't help us much. The other teams we played average over 6 runs against us per game as well. We just didn't have enough money to create a move effective pitching staff after we got started even though I made all of these changes.)

Skokie Wolfmen Hitting, Barnstormers, 1st Round, League 13

Name	B	Pos	Def.	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	SO	SB	CS	E	Stl	BA	OBP	SLG	BAL	Salary
Bench, Johnny (1970)	R	C	1(-4)e7	597	106	150	25	3	50	124	51	108	1	0	14	D	0.251	0.306	0.554	4L	7.59M
Martinez, Buck (1985)	R	C	2(-1)e2	19	1	3	0	0	0	2	2	7	0	0	1	E	0.158	0.238	0.158	E	.50M
Thomas, Frank (1993)	R	1B	4e19	397	56	106	23	1	20	70	43	60	0	0	6	D	0.267	0.342	0.481	1L	6.70M
Morgan, Joe (1976)	L	2B	1e16	532	119	143	25	3	26	67	122	68	64	29	15	AA	0.269	0.401	0.474	5R	10.30M
Backman, Wally (1986)	S	2B	3e37	276	53	96	12	0	1	35	17	23	14	5	0	B	0.348	0.383	0.402	6R	.77M
Lanier, Hal (1965)	R	2B	2e19	42	4	12	1	1	0	3	2	3	0	0	1	E	0.286	0.318	0.357	3L	.52M
Schmidt, Mike (1980)	R	3B	1e31	549	98	141	23	8	42	107	55	137	1	0	25	B	0.257	0.327	0.557	2L	9.27M
Tannehill, Lee (1909)	R	3B	1e26	97	13	26	6	0	0	10	9	16	2	1	7	B	0.268	0.330	0.330	E	.56M
Jeter, Derek (2009)	R	SS	2e10	442	68	147	13	3	7	38	44	77	29	13	2	AA	0.333	0.392	0.423	3L	7.06M
Bonds, Barry (2001)	L	LF	2(+1)e7	515	138	147	27	2	78	160	153	122	9	1	11	B	0.285	0.454	0.800	3R	14.54M
Moreno, Omar (1980)	L	CF	1(0)e5	294	28	58	7	1	1	22	20	51	33	13	4	AAA	0.197	0.257	0.238	E	1.55M
Pepitone, Joe (1970)	L	CF	3(+2)e4	328	44	88	8	7	21	61	14	43	3	2	5	C	0.268	0.297	0.527	2R	1.40M
Birmingham, Joe (1907)	R	CF	1(-3)e9	265	30	62	6	4	1	29	17	48	14	4	1	A	0.234	0.278	0.298	E	.90M
Butler, Brett (1982)	L	CF	1(-2)e2	96	7	13	0	1	0	7	5	21	5	1	0	A	0.135	0.178	0.156	1R	.64M
Hickman, Jim (1971)	R	RF	4(-1)e6	213	25	54	3	2	9	28	21	38	0	0	2	E	0.254	0.325	0.413	4L	1.85M
Garr, Ralph (1973)	L	RF	4(+1)e12	450	60	136	22	5	10	60	15	55	28	12	9	A	0.302	0.325	0.440	3R	1.07M
5 players no longer on roster
# McGwire, Mark (1999)	R	1B	3e15	77	16	16	2	0	6	11	21	25	0	0	5	E	0.208	0.378	0.468	1R	9.54M
# Spencer, Jim (1978)	L	1B	1e14	13	2	1	0	0	0	1	3	2	0	0	1	E	0.077	0.235	0.077	5R	.86M
# Weis, Al (1969)	S	2B	2e28	8	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	2	0	0	0	C	0.125	0.125	0.125	1L	.55M
# Rodriguez, Alex (2003)	R	SS	1e8	196	35	52	5	6	6	22	28	50	2	3	2	B	0.265	0.368	0.444	1L	10.63M
# Coleman, Vince (1985)	S	LF	2(+2)e9	57	3	11	1	2	0	7	7	7	4	5	0	AAA	0.193	0.281	0.281	1R	1.13M
TOTALS				5463	906	1463	209	49	278	864	649	963	209	89	130		0.268	0.347	0.477

(Notes: Hitting wise we did better of course with many surprises which I have highlighted in the stats in red. Bench had 50 HRs and 124 RBIs,
Frank Thomas hit better than McGwire with 20 HRs and 70 RBIs, Joe Morgan stole 64 based and scored 119 runs with 26 Hrs, Mike Schmidt had 42 HRs with 107 RBIs and Jeter came in to hit .333 with 29 Steals. Of course Bonds lead the league in HRs with 78, RBIs 160, Walks 153 and with OBP at .454.  Joe Pepitone was a pleasant surprise with 21 HRs and 61 RBIs to complement Thomas at 1B. Wally Backman as a DH vs. RHP hit .348 and Ralph Garr finished at .302 in RF an area we thought might be one of our week points. Our team was one of the leaders in Home Runs and lead the leagues in Stolen bases as it seemed for most of the other managers in our league they ignored this part of the game.)

Other Interesting Stats:  Our team was shutout 5 times, 33 times we scored 9 or more runs in a game whereas our opponents score 9 or more runs 36 times so our strategy to outscore our opponents didn't really work.  We were kept to 3 runs or less 52 times or about 1/3 of the time.  So it seems that perhaps a team with better pitching and good hitting (not necessary power hitters) is the way to go.  Now lets look at the right life averages of the players we selected to see how they compared to what our players did.


Skokie Wolfmen Pitchers during leauge, Real Life Stats

NAME	YEAR	TEAM	T	ENDUR	G	GS	CG	SHO	W	L	S	IP	H	ER	HR	BB	K	WP	BK	HOLD	BAT	BUNT	FIELD	ERA	WHIP	BAL	SALARY
Ruether, Dutch	1919	CIN-db	L	S8*	33	29	20	3	19	6	0	242.7	195	49	1	83	78	4	0	-2	4WL	D	2e11	1.82	1.15	E	7,350,000
Donovan, Wild Bill	1902	BKN-db	R	S9*	35	33	30	4	17	15	1	297.7	250	92	1	111	170	5	0	1	2NR	D	2e24	2.78	1.21	E	5,980,000
Hoffman, Trevor	1998	SD-exp	R	R1	66	0	0	0	4	2	53	73	41	12	2	21	86	20	0	4	1WR	C	3e0	1.48	.85	E	5,850,000
Dibble, Rob	1990	CIN-exp	R	R2	68	0	0	0	8	3	11	98	62	19	3	34	136	7	3	7	1WL	B	4e0	1.74	.98	1R	4,010,000
Lowdermilk, Grover	1919	CHW-db	R	S6/R5	27	11	5	0	5	5	0	108.67	101	31	0	47	49	6	0	1	1WR	C	2e39	2.57	1.36	E	3,030,000
McQuillan, Hugh	1920	BSB-db	R	S8*/R3	38	27	17	1	11	15	5	225.67	230	89	3	70	53	3	1	-1	4NR	B	3e32	3.55	1.33	4R	2,470,000
Dygert, Jimmy	1909	PHA-db	R	R5	32	13	6	1	9	5	0	137.3	117	37	1	50	79	7	3	1	3WR	D	2e17	2.43	1.22	E	1,850,000
Tekulve, Kent	1982	PIT-exp	R	R2	85	0	0	0	12	8	20	128.7	113	41	7	46	66	2	0	0	1WR	C	1e11	2.87	1.24	8R	1,780,000
Billingham, Jack	1974	CIN-exp	R	S7*	36	35	8	3	19	11	0	212.3	233	93	16	64	103	3	3	-1	1WR	B	3e6	3.94	1.40	2L	1,770,000
Hall, Charley	1913	BOS-db	R	R3	35	4	2	0	5	4	2	105	97	40	1	46	48	2	0	1	3WL	D	2e16	3.43	1.36	E	1,220,000
Behrman, Hank	1946	BKN-pre	R	R2	47	11	2	0	11	5	4	150.7	138	49	3	69	78	3	5	1	1WR	A	2e22	2.93	1.37	E	1,160,000
Weilman, Carl	1920	SLB-db	L	S8/R3	30	24	13	1	9	13	2	183.33	201	91	6	61	45	1	4	-2	2WL	B	2e25	4.47	1.43	4L	1,600,000
Roberts, Dave	1979	PIT-exp	L	R3	47	4	0	0	5	4	4	80.67	89	26	4	30	38	5	0	-2	1WL	D	2e36	2.90	1.48	6L	990,000
Shirley, Bob	1986	NYY-exp	L	R4	39	6	0	0	0	4	3	105.33	108	59	13	40	64	2	0	-6	1WR	C	2e14	5.04	1.41	8L	850,000
Campbell, Bill	1978	BOS-exp	R	R3	29	0	0	0	7	5	4	50.67	62	22	3	17	47	3	7	0	1WR	C	2e28	3.91	1.56	9L	500,000

(Notes: as you can see in real life we had quite a few pitchers who did well - that our staff collectively did not give up many home runs but yet in this type of all star league we gave up over 200 homers.  In order to have a pitching staff with an ERA around 3 runs per game or less than four runs per game you have to have the very best elite pitchers who have virtually no hits at all on their cards. And since we spent too much of our funds on our top hitters we didn't have the funds to secure any of these elite (outside of Hoffman of which we discovered a closer in this league with an endurance of R1 is not as valuable as Mesquiton will discuss in his interview) especially the elite relievers that are rated R5 for endurance to help us with the end of the games.)

Skokie Wolfmen Hitters during leauge, Real Life Stats

NAME	YR	TM	B	FIELDING	G	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	K	HB	SB	CS	STEAL	RUN	B	H&R	BA	OBP	SLG	BAL	INJ	SALARY
Bonds, Barry	2001	SF-exp	L	lf-2(+1)e7	153	476	129	156	32	2	73	137	177	93	9	13	3	(B)	1-14	D	D	.328	.515	.863	3R	1	14,540,000
Rodriguez, Alex	2003	TEX-exp	R	ss-1e8	161	607	124	181	30	6	47	118	87	126	15	17	3	(B)	1-15	C	D	.298	.396	.600	1L	1	10,630,000
Stearnes, Turkey	NeL	NeL	L	cf-1(0)e7 / rf-1e7 / lf-1e7	154	573	164	207	37	17	36	126	63	69	0	19	13	(B)	1-16	C	B	.361	.425	.674	2L	1	10,410,000
Morgan, Joe	1976	CIN-exp	L	2b-1e16	141	472	113	151	30	5	27	111	114	41	1	60	9	(AA)	1-17	B	B	.320	.444	.576	5R	1	10,300,000
McGwire, Mark	1999	STL-exp	R	1b-3e15	153	521	118	145	21	1	65	147	133	141	2	0	0	(E)	1-8	D	D	.278	.424	.697	1R	1	9,540,000
Schmidt, Mike	1980	PHI-exp	R	3b-1e31	150	548	104	157	25	8	48	121	89	119	2	12	5	(B)	1-14	C	D	.286	.380	.624	2L	1	9,270,000
Bench, Johnny	1970	CIN-exp	R	c-1(-4)e7,T-11(pb-3) / 1b-3e22 3b-4e37 / lf-4(-1)e25 / cf-4e25	158	605	97	177	35	4	45	148	54	102	0	5	2	(D)	1-12	C	C	.293	.345	.587	4L	1	7,590,000
Jeter, Derek	2009	NYY-exp	R	ss-2e10	153	634	107	212	27	1	18	66	72	90	5	30	5	(AA)	1-16	A	B	.334	.406	.465	3L	1	7,060,000
Thomas, Frank	1993	CHW-exp	R	1b-4e19	153	549	106	174	36	0	41	128	112	54	2	4	2	(D)	1-12	D	B	.317	.426	.607	1L	1	6,700,000
Hickman, Jim	1971	CHC-exp	R	rf-4(-1)e6 / 1b-4e5 / cf-4e6 / lf-5e6	117	383	50	98	13	2	19	60	50	61	3	0	1	(E)	1-10	C	C	.256	.342	.449	4L	2	1,850,000
Moreno, Omar	1980	PIT-exp	L	cf-1(0)e5	162	676	87	168	20	13	2	36	57	101	2	96	33	(AAA)	1-17	A	C	.249	.306	.325	E	0	1,550,000
Pepitone, Joe	1970	CHC-exp	L	cf-3(+2)e4 / 1b-2e8 / rf-3e4	131	492	82	127	18	7	26	79	33	43	1	5	4	(C)	1-14	B	B	.258	.304	.482	2R	1	1,400,000
Garr, Ralph	1973	ATL-exp	L	rf-4(+1)e12	148	668	94	200	32	6	11	55	22	64	2	35	11	(A)	1-17	B	B	.299	.323	.415	3R	1	1,070,000
Coleman, Vince	1985	STL-exp	S	lf-2(+2)e9 / cf-3e9 / rf-3e9	151	636	107	170	20	10	1	40	50	115	0	110	25	(AAA)	1-17	B	D	.267	.320	.335	1R	1	1,130,000
Birmingham, Joe	1907	CLE-db	R	cf-1(-3)e9 / rf-1e9 / lf-1e9 / ss-4e29	137	476	55	112	10	9	1	33	16	0	0	23	0	(A)	1-15	C	B	.235	.259	.300	E	1	900,000
Spencer, Jim	1978	NYY-exp	L	1b-1e14	71	150	12	34	9	1	7	24	15	32	0	0	1	(E)	1-11	D	D	.227	.295	.440	5R	1	860,000
Backman, Wally	1986	NYM-exp	S	2b-3e37	124	387	67	124	18	2	1	27	36	32	0	13	7	(B)	1-16	A	B	.320	.376	.385	6R	1	770,000
Tannehill, Lee	1909	CHW-db	R	3b-1e26 / ss-3e32	155	531	39	118	21	5	0	47	31	0	0	12	0	(B)	1-13	A	B	.222	.264	.281	E	1	560,000
Butler, Brett	1982	ATL-exp	L	cf-1(-2)e2	89	240	35	52	2	0	0	7	25	35	0	21	8	(A)	1-16	C	C	.217	.291	.225	1R	1	640,000
Weis, Al	1969	NYM-exp	S	2b-2e28 / 3b-2e35 / ss-2e32	103	247	20	53	9	2	2	23	15	51	0	3	3	(C)	1-15	B	D	.215	.259	.291	1L	1	550,000
Martinez, Buck	1985	TOR-exp	R	c-2(-1)e2,T-8(pb-2)	42	99	11	16	3	0	4	14	10	12	1	0	0	(E)	1-9	D	C	.162	.239	.313	E	2	500,000
Lanier, Hal	1965	NYG-post	R	2b-2e19 / ss-4e38	159	522	41	118	15	9	0	39	21	67	0	2	1	(E)	1-12	A	C	.226	.256	.289	3L	1	520,000

(Notes: While we had hitters with plenty of power in real life and a number of players who could steal with good defense along with some players who had a good on-base percentage we didn't pick hitters with a high enough batting average as Jeter with a .334 average was the highest while other teams had hitters at .380 or above, including hitters that batted at .400 or more. Perhaps we should have kept Turkey Stearnes who was a five tool player that hit for a higher average and who was picked up by one of the other teams in our league quite quickly.  But mostly we didn't do as well as we hope because we couldn't figure out how to get a strong pitching staff and also how the game decided when to take out the current pitcher and who was the next best pitcher to bring in.  This gaming system doesn't quite work like the computer game even though similar aspects of a pitcher's endurance is specified. )

So What Did I learn about this version of SOM Baseball?

I think the key to succeed in this league is a combination of factors:

1)  As Bruce Foster told us in his interview in the May issue, if you can get four "KINGS", which is four solid 8* or 9* starting pitchers with an unhittable card in a pitcher's park, as most managers in our league playing this version of Strat Baseball focused on doing so they would play very well in their own parks - this seems to be the type of teams that have a greater chance to neutralize a strong hitting team as we hoped to build. Although as Mesquiton will tell you, if you know what you are doing you can win with a tremendous hitting and slugging team but it seems a bit more difficult to find that right balance until you have more experience in playing in this type of league using the ATG sets.  He did seem to indicate in his interview that what he calls the 20xx sets (which are the sets of players based on the years 2000-2013) that creating a hitting team like this might be easier to do and working with closers too.

2) Even though I tried to have pitchers with virtually no homers on their cards, if you go with a hitters park with the type of players in the ATG sets, it does help but its not enough. 

3) How the engine of the on-line game works when it decides to remove and change pitchers was a mystery to me for most of the season and this is why we had 17 blown saves - if we turned 10 or 11 of the blow saves around, we might have made the playoffs or been more competitive. I tried working with the pitcher settings at the end, trying all different type of combinations but I never show consistent results in our box scores. Again in my conversations with Mesquiton by email the comments he shared with me about this subject definitely confirmed that a key to win in these type of leagues is you have to master the settings for how to use your pitching staff (his comments on this will be shared in our next issue).  The rule of unlimited use with the R5 rated relievers can be a powerful strategy to use where you have a great reliever coming in at the end of your games that can pitch 200-300 innings in a season (not so realistic and these R5 rated relievers don't really exist in our modern age of baseball), but it is a rule that some of the on-line gamers think should be changed.

4) It is tempting to just leave your on-line manager settings from series to series and not check for the weaknesses of your opponent's team - but I think a key to success in these type of leagues is you must make tweaks for each team you play - see what their strengths and weaknesses are as well as try to get the best players you have that will work in your opponent's ball park when you are visiting.

5) It is tempting to go after some of the greatest hitters or pitchers, with a desire to have them on your team but to win in these type of leagues you need to find a balanced way to use your funds - if you go after too many expensive players, you won't have enough to build a balanced team and therefore will be weak in some key positions as I feel this happened to us.  I think one key is to have knowledge of the cards of players that can really help your team who can acquire cheaply - we had three hitters we obtained who really helped us that are examples of this: Wally Backman, Ralph Garr and Joe Pepitone. I think the successful on-line SOM baseball gamers know who such diamonds are which helps them be a more balanced winning team.  The other challenge is to have time to review 4000 cards.

Wolfman's Summary:  In this article (Part II of three part article) I have tried to present to our members an idea what is involved to create a competitive team in SOM Online Baseball.  Although I will clearly admit I am not an expert I did learn a lot plus I made some very special new friends.  I also gained a lot of respect for those veteran players I met in Barnstormers able to figure how how to be successful in such leagues or tournaments consistently.  My downfall I believe was figuring out how to use my pitchers effectively and win more in my opponent parks (mostly pitcher's parks) when I was the road team.

In Part III of this series of articles I am writing about my experiences with the Online Base Game, scheduled for the next issue, I am going to focus on the league I participated in more detail, take a look at the most successful teams and talk about why they were successful based upon the team they drafted and how their team performed both in their own parks and outside of their park.  Also the stats of the Barnstormers tournaments and the roster of the teams can be easily seen and reviewed on-line.  As long as you have a login and password to the Strat-o-matic Game website (www.strat-o-matic.com) you can go to the Community Forum by:  1st go to the Shop Menu and under "By Game Platform" select ONLINE GAMES. This will take you to another window where you will see a menu item called "Community" - click on "Discussion Forum".  Next you will see many forums that exist, pick the one called "--- ATG Barnstormers Tour" -- then you can select either "2013 Links to all Leagues" - and can view the stats of any of the leagues organized throughout the entire Barnstormer's 2013 Tournament (last year) including viewing the rosters of all teams and how their players did or you can chose "2014 Links to all Leagues through Event #6" which will give the stats on all league play during this current six event tournament including the rosters and player stats of all teams in the tournament including a team known in Event #1 as the Skokie Wolfmen. At the time of the release of this article, they are now entering the playoff leagues to determine their 2014 champion and Bruce Foster is still there but so is Mesquiton.