Vol. IV, Issue #3 - March 2016
**
Welcome to USBN as the Leagues begin,
Baseball Daily is due, MLB is set to go ....
**
Comments from the Wolfman about
this current issue as we begin our fourth
year (2016) of publication with a new year of excitement. As we
provide for our
readers
the most unique and interesting aspects of Strat-o-matic Baseball
with links
to Major League Baseball. Time to meet some of the most interesting people who
are connected to
the game we love -
2016 is
gonna be a big ride with all the
new products and services that Strat-o-matic is offering - stay tuned -
from your staff at the Ultimate Strat Baseball Newsletter ....
Hey
- here we go again withanother great edition of our newsletter,
the 3rd edition of this year, stocked full with new
interviews and articles along with new videos on our USBN
Youtube channel to keep you entertained. We also want to
thank our members who have personally written to us and
expressed their appreciation for the newsletter (this means a
lot to us) and for those members who shared donations with us
last month. . I have
always said and will always believe that this free on-line publication
in combination with our video channel is a co-creation by all of us. Every single member
has their own stories to tell, has had their great moments in their Strat
lives and we are here to share it.
Well,
the MLB exhibition season is basically in its last week of play.
Each team is deciding their 25 player rosters for the start of
the season. Opening Day actually is Sunday, April
3rd, with 3 games including, what could be some of the teams that we
will see in October: the Cardinals at the Pirates and the Mets
at the Royals. But for those of you who will be exploring the special
new add-on to the game, Baseball Daily, this will kick
in after the games finish on April 4th. And as I stated,
yours truly will be managing my Cubbies. We plan to devote
future issues of the newsletters to cover what Baseball Daily is
all about and how it works. Plus, we also welcome any of
our members to share their own experiences with it. It will be very
interesting how this new service will change our game playing
landscape, don't you think? Also I am curious to see how this will work in
Baseball 365 when they play each night 3 games.
Well,
before I share what goodies we have for you this month (and we
have some special treats indeed), I want to do my traditional
projection about who we might see in the 2016 MLB World Series.
I have done so before in our earlier issues, at this time of
year. So let's see how I do this
time. It is amazing to me, but the last time I checked, the Cubs
were the favorites to win it all according to the odds makers. Of course, I don't want
to be bias, and there are still quite a number of good teams in
the National League who could contend of course. Its an even year so
we can't exclude the Giants, they did a good job to fill their
holes via their trades and free agent signings. The Arizona Diamondbacks also look
pretty good with the added pitching they brought in and have done
very well in the exhibition season. We obviously can't count out the
NY Mets with their fantastic young pitchers and most of their
team returning and what about the Pirates, the Cardinals and the
Nationals? Anyway in the National League, even though the
Cubs might be the favorite they will surely be tested as any
team in NL will be, but with Joe Maddon, and their good young
players, I will stay with them.
Now the
American League, even though they have the World Champion KC
Royals, who have been to the series the last two years, I think
their starting pitching has to prove itself losing Cueto. Toronto
still has a good team but I think the Yankees could challenge
for the division and don't forget about the Redsox who acquired
some key pitchers to go with all the good young players they have.
In the Central I think Detroit will give KC a run for their
money, they have a lot of good hitters and improved their
relief staff. Cleveland too with their pitching can't be excluded
either. I think the dark horse for the AL Crown is going to rest
in Houston. They qualified last year as a wild card team - they
could be the next KC. In their division we shouldn't
dismiss the Angels or Texas but I think this going to be
Houston's year. So the final verdict, I predict it will be the
Cubs and Houston, both teams who's recent success has been built
with youth and great prospects.
Now
moving on to give you a brief overview of the goodies we have
for you this month. I always try each month to interview a
new ex-MLB player and via an old friend, who helped me find Tony
Brizzolarra, I was able to contact Roger Erickson, formerly of
the Twins and Yankees, who nows has a baseball school. He
has some interesting stories to share with our members.
Then we bring back Marc Pelletier to finally offer a true peek
into his special system for drafting a team for the 20XX leagues
in Baseball 365, and specifically discuss my preparation to join
a 2015 league in April.
For some
time I have been trying to interview either Len Durrant or Gary
Simonds who are in charge of a dynamic team of volunteers who
are creating computer rosters (seasons) of the Negro Leagues,
some Japanese seasons, Cuban Seasons and the early early
baseball teams of the late 1800's. Anway, I think that Mr.
Durrant asked one of their volunteers, Ken Wenger to
contact us and Ken via my interview with him and a beautiful
article gives us a good view of what it takes to make these
seasons which then are offered to us - this will be another
special part of this issue of our newsletter.
The Wass
is back with his column, talking about the video interviews he
conducted with various members of Strat-o-matic recently
(including Mr. Richman), as well as his own memories of visiting
the game company since he was young and the respect he has for
the Strat-o-matic Creator along with links to the lastest videos
added this month on our very successful video channel on Youtube.
Another old friend comes back, Larry Braus who was an early
contributor of our newsletter in 2013 with a suggestion about some
oldie but goodie players you should consider to pick or trade
for to add to your 2016 league teams based on the 2015 set.
Then, we
continue with our coverage of Baseball Leagues as we meet the
commissioner and their reigning champ from the World Baseball
League, a 14 member league that has been around since 1977.
Yours truly, also shares a report from a new league I joined in
March, called the Minor League SOM (MLS) - which offered some
revolutionary steps on to how to built our teams, including an
auction of players and with a key focus on not only building your Major
League but your Minor League franchise as well.
We have another version of our SOM World News page - which
includes some goodies I found on the Strat-o-matic website you
might not be aware of, with some cool reports from various
leagues during their drafts with photos on SOM's Facebook page.
We get another view at MLB stats from the weekly report sent out
by fellow SOM gamer John Dewan in his "Stat of the Week"
email broadcast put out
by Acta Sports dealing with a new view of the affectiveness of
the current MLB relievers. And finally, we received our first report
of one of the live tournaments held by the Strat Tournament
Player's Club (which began their first tournament at the end of February),
with a recap of
their New Jersey tournament in early March including a short
interview with the champion. Plus of course, we have our
traditional pages with on-line SOM and MLB resources and books
to die for.
Finally, as we have requested in the past few months, if any of
our members are able to help us with a small
donation,
we are very very appreciative as these funds are used to help us with the costs we have to
maintain the newsletter and support special projects. However for those of you who do make a
contribution for the newsletter this month, just as I offered
last month, there are
two special spreadsheets
I have personally created to prepare for the two leagues I am a
member in for this year which I could send to you as my personal gift in
appreciation. (Thanks to our members who sent to us
donations last month.)
I am
not allowed to sell these spreadsheets as the core information
was obtained for free on the internet from mlb.com and baseball-reference.com and
I re-organized it (which took
quite a
number of hours). But in appreciation for your kind
donation, I am very happy to share these spreadsheets with you
which might help you with your leagues. What I have is, #1 - MLB.com's future
projections on over 800 players for 2016; and a spreadsheet with
all the minor league stats for all the Major League American
farm teams, as it shows every player who played for those teams.
For a donation of just $3 you can request either "2016
Predictions" or "Minor League Stats" which I will personally
attach your spreadsheet of choice to an email or for a $5
donation or more, I will email you both spreadsheets. Here
is how to get the spreadsheet(s) you wish:
As you
know on each page of the newsletter, we have a little area called "Support the
Cause" where we ask for your donations.
Just click on the "DONATE" button which takes you to paypal, and
if you do a $3 donation, write in the message to us which of the
two spreadsheets you wish. Obviously with a $5 (or more)
donation we know you want both. This is our way to thank
you for this help.
Note (our
monthly reminder): Once
again, if you have just joined us recently or haven't had a chance to
read all of our bulletins and prior newsletters (since January
of 2013), you can find
everything you desire by visiting our archive webpages at:
http://archive.aweber.com/stratbaseball
So here we are go
again,
as the MLB teams are preparing for their 2016 Season, many of our SOM Baseball leagues have
already done their draft and started (or will soon) their season; with
Baseball Daily coming soon -so what a great time to be alive.
Please accept this latest and greatest version
of your newsletter that we happily offer to our members. We thank you
again for your kindness and support
and don't be shy to contact us if you have some suggestions how
to improve the newsletter or wish to become a contributor. Its all
good and enjoy this next edition!!
To a glorious 2016, enjoy
your leagues, replays and touraments,
Wolfman Shapiro
on behalf of the team at USBN
|
Support the Cause
If you are enjoying
the content and information our newsletter shares with you, why
not support us with your helpful contribution 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)
♦
INTERVIEW with
ROGER ERICKSON,
Ex-MLB Pitcher, Roger Erickson, for the Minnesota Twins and New
York Yankees, talks with the Wolfman about his insights on the
game of baseball and what
experiences he had during his major league career, as we
continue to interview more ex-MLB players which we recognize
their names from their Strat-o-matic cards in past seasons.
♦
INTERVIEW/ARTICLE with KEN WENGER, Ken is a volunteer
for the support group that works with Len Durrant and Gary
Simonds who have been producing cardsets that work with the SOM
Baseball Game for over 20 years that include computer
rosters/teams from the Negro Leagues,
Japanese Leagues and the National Association. Ken
talks about his experiences being a part of this team and what it takes to make these
computer card set images.
♦
ARTICLE with MARC PELLETIER
& WOLFMAN SHAPIRO,
Wolfman Shapiro now becomes Marc's student as he is guided to
work with Marc's system to build a playoff bound team for one of
the new 2015
based leagues that are be offered in Baseball 365. Marc
explains his blue print how to build a team and shares with us
key spreadsheets to show how he evaluates the players in the
2015 cardset. The Wolfman shares his feedback upon the Pelletier
system and how it will guide
him to draft his team for the on-line Baseball 365 league that he will
join in April.
♦
STRAT WISE with MARC WASSERMAN --
commissioner of the Cyber Baseball Association (CBA) continues
his new column sharing various perspectives on SOM Baseball. In
this issue he discusses about the coming of "Baseball Daily",
his many visits to the Game Company since he was young, and the
recent video inteviews done with Hal Richman, John Garcia and
Adam Rosen.
♦
ARTICLE with LARRY BRAUS
--
Wolfman's old friend Larry, who he has known since the 1970's from
Chicago and the early national conventions, as well as was an early contributor
of our newletter in 2013, returns in this issues with some insights on former
star players you shouldn't write off just yet ...
♦
ARTICLE with WOLFMAN
SHAPIRO, Wolfman
discusses a totally new Computer (CM) based league he joins
which is based upon
salaries for the players with a salary cap, plus has a big focus on
building your minor league
players. Through this league he participates in his first time
ever an on-line auction to add players for his team. He reports
about his experiences joining this league and the strategies
he used to build a team made for the playoffs plus ....
♦
SOM BASEBALL LEAGUE REPORT with WOLFMAN SHAPIRO
--
the editor of "The Ultimate Strat Newsletter" and 2012 CBA
Champion, talks to members members of various Strat-o-matic Baseball Leagues that he
has discovered on the internet about the history of their league
and their experiences. This is the first time we get to speak to a
League
Commissioner and their Champion in the same month as we find
out about the World Baseball League (WBL).
To read their interviews, click on the appropriate link below:
INTERVIEW with Jeff
Chaput, WBL Commissioner, P-VI (Computer)
INTERVIEW with Ted Wesley,
WBL Champion, P-II (Computer)
♦
SOM/MAJOR
LEAGUE BASEBALL WORLD NEWS with WOLFMAN SHAPIRO
, editor of "The Ultimate Strat Newsletter"
roams the world for interesting news linked to SOM or MLB. For
this month he shares some gems he found on the Strat-o-matic
website and SOM's facebook page, offers another "Stat of the
Week" bulletin by John Dewan talking about current relievers and
gives the first report of a Strat Tournament Player's Club
tourney held in early March in New Jersey.
♦
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
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
Baseball 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)
