In
this article, I will try to explain
how one signs up for a league and
the basic principles how to draft
your team in the league or
tournaments you participate it
connected with this way to play SOM
Baseball on Strat-o-matic
online-gaming system.
To Sign Up for an on-line SOM
Baseball League
the home page is at:
http://onlinegames.strat-o-matic.com/
Now in order to be able to play in a
league you must have a sign-on to
the strat-o-matic on-line system at
the game company website:
http://www.strat-o-matic.com
(If you have ordered products from
Strat-o-matic online or are
downloading the computer game and
rosters and other digital products,
you already have a sign-on.)
Now, the next concept to understand
to participate in any of the various
versions of the SOM Baseball Leagues
which are offered (and there are
quite a few simultaneously going on
at the same time) is the idea of a "PLAYER
SET".
Strat-o-matic has built different
player sets which encompasses MLB
players (or the cards they have
created from all of their seasons
over the year) that are part of the
seasons they have released either as
printed cards or computer image
cards. Below is a summary of
the sets that are currently
available although you do have the
option I believe, to make other sets
of players for a league you start:
a) the 2013 based cards (just
released)
b) All Time Greats VII (the
7th set of the very best seasons of
MLB players including the 1890
teams,
MLB ballpalyers from 1900 to fairly current and the
Negro league based players)
c) Superstar Sixties (best
players from the 1960's using the
mystery card, explained below)
d) back to the 90s (best
players in the 1990's, using the
mystery card)
e) back to the 80's (best
players in the 1980's, using the
mystery card)
f) back to the 70's (best
players in the 1970's, using the
mystery card)
g) Other Single seasons
include 1986, 1999, 2007-2011
So what this means is, that for
example in the All Time Greats vers.
VII - you have access to draft the
cards of the players who had the
greatest seasons ever (2500+ hitters
plus 1700+ pitchers) so for the
Skokie Wolfmen in Event #1 of the
Barnstormers tournament I was able
to pick Bonds when he 73 homers and
my favorite seasons with Joe Morgan,
Johnny Bench, Mike Schmidt and Alex
Rodriquez (but I will talk more
about this team in the next issue).
So each set above has the best cards
every within the years that are
used. You are able to view the
players cards on-line to help you
build your team.
What is the Mystery Card?
Here is how
SOM defines this type of player's
card for these leagues: The
Mystery Card format is an innovation
in simulation baseball that opens up
new spectrums of strategy and
analysis. In a Mystery Card league,
for each player you have on your
team, you get one card out of his 5
possible pre-selected years... but
you never find out which one.
For example, in the
Back to the
'90s
set, Rickey Henderson's 5 years are
1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, and 1996.
You might get his MVP year, or you
might get a sub-par year. The only
clue you have is how he hits for
your team.
How
the leagues which are formed, what
they are based upon:
a) which player set above or
part of a player set you wish to use
b) how much money you have to
spend to purchase players (as
each player has a salary or value
attached to them, the players with the most powerful hitting
or pitching card will naturally
carry
the highest value - how many of these high price players can
you afford?)
c) whether your league will
have a DH or not
d) you also must pick a ball
park to play in (over 100 choices to
pick from)
e) will the league use a
draft by bids or a live draft.
On the home page of the online
gaming, is a button to click on if
you wish to join a league. Once you
decide which player set you wish to
use, you can see if there are some
leagues building for that set that
need new members (either leagues
setup by a specific individual or
automatic leagues which the online
system creates) and also determine
if you agree with the money
available to you to buy players
(called a salary cap) and whether
there is a DH or not. For leagues
setup by an individual you might
need to get a password from the
commissioner to join.
Finally, the online community
figured out over time how to run
tournaments through the online
gaming system which consists of a
series of leagues you play in with
the individuals with the best
records qualifying for a
championship league to compete in.
The Barnstormer tournament is an
example of one such league that
during the event I participated in,
there were 13 leagues and 156
participants. But again, lets
delve into this tournament more when
we interview our other two guests
for this issue.
There is a fee that Strat-o-matic
charges for being part of one league
or they have a special fee if you
join five leagues. It is not unheard
of, since all control of your team
is done via your browser, to have
members of the online community
playing in a number of leagues at
the same time. Sometimes, as was my
case, you can receive or earn
credits to allow you to play in a
league. Strat-o-matic still
has the trial leagues available so
you can try it and see how it works.
Building Your Team via a Draft:
After you have paid for whatever
credits you wish to have, you will
be asked first for a name of your
team. This is how your team will be
referred to via your league but also
your SOM logon name shows up too
(your SOM name). Then there
are two versions of the draft to
build an initial team of 25 players
as mentioned above. A "Live" Draft
allows all the members of your
league to meet on-line and draft
your players one by one - so this
way you know who you will receive.
The second version of the draft, you
request your team on a special form
on-line, listing the players you
wish to have, sharing in a priority
order which players you have the
strongest desire to obtain. Of
course in both drafts, you have to
make sure you do not exceed the
money given to you for the salary
cap. In the more secret
bidding draft, the second version if
you do not obtain a player you asked
for (for example I wanted to have
Willie Mays as my CF) then the
online system will pick for you,
another player who is close in value
and abilities. Both drafts use
inverse order to pick from round to
round.
Below is a small version of the
online "Free Agents" you could build
on if you were using the All Time
Great ver. VIII player set:
This is the top ten hitters ranked
in the All Time Great set. You
see the 1921 Babe Ruth has a value
of 15.10 million. When you only have
a salary cap of 60 Million or 80
Million you probably can't afford to
have Ruth and sacrifice the quality
of the players at your other
positions. In the league which
I played in, we had a salary cap of
100 million and I chose to take the
2001 Barry Bonds when he hit 73
homers - you will see next issue if
that was a good choice or not.
So here is the highest value of the
hitters with the lowest value for
your backups at 500 thousand.
Usually each team has to have a few
players at the lowest value for on
the field backups or relief pitchers
in specific situations. Also when
the players are shown like this, you
can click on their name and another
window comes up which shows the
player's advanced card
(lefty-righty) for that year and the
other seasons that are available for
the same player. In the Barnstormers
tournament, once a team has any
season of a player (like you see
above three seasons for Babe Ruth
and two for Barry Bonds) no one else
can have that particular player on
their roster.
So we needed to bid on 25 players
(during the season we could have on
our roster from 24-28 players) and
afterwards we were informed by email
that the draft was concluded. Then
we could log in to the on-line
gaming system and look at our team
and see our roster (if we did the
blind draft, which players we
received). Now I will share
the rules used in the Barnstormers
Tournament league since this is the
only league I have played in so far.
After you see the roster you
received, you have a few days to
release any players you don't want
(receive their salary back as money
available to buy other players) and
then you can pick any free agent to
take his place in your roster,
assuming you have sufficient funds.
During this short window, before the
season starts, there is no penalty
to drop a player. For example
I didn't like the player I received
for Mays, a very good CF from the
Negro Leagues so I released that CF
and went with a combination of good
fielding outfielders (CF-1) but low
salaries and enhanced my 1stbaseman
by picking up Mark McGwire when he
hit 66 HRs, to place him around
Bonds. However, once the
season begins, there are penalties
you have to pay on a player's salary
who is released of 5% up to game 41,
10% between game 42-81 and 20%
thereafter, so its best to try to
get your best team's roster early
on.
Another powerful feature of the
online gaming system is the "Search"
function on the free agents. This is
very helpful when deciding how to
initially draft your team - as you
go position by position. You can
specify to look only at the players
who are at a specific position
(hitters by defensive position,
pitchers by starters, relievers or
both) or by a value of their salary.
Then once you go into the season and
want to make changes to your team,
again having access to the Search
function of the free agents will
greatly assist you how to plug your
holes. And if you make any requests
which exceed the money you have left
in your salary cap, the system also
tells you. For my first full
season in the Barnstormers
tournament I wound up releasing 11
players which did improve my team in
some ways (more about this when I
report in the next issue how the
Wolfmen did in this tournament).
How
to Setup Your Team Strategy to
Prepare for your League Games:
As with MLB, each league is 162
games. Recently SOM changed
their rules so a league can have as
few as six teams but most will go
with 12 or 24 (3 or 6
divisions of four teams each).
In the Barnstormer league I was in,
we had 12 teams and of course played
the teams in our own division more
than the others. Without
including the playoffs to find a
champion for your league, the season
takes 54 days as you play 3 games (a
series of 3 games verse a specific
team) each night.
In this section of this article, I
want to give you an idea of how to
setup the strategy for your team.
For those members who use the
computer version of SOM baseball,
some of this will be similar but the
way the game plays is not (again
discussed in the next issue).
The beauty of the whole online
gaming system is that you do
everything to setup your team via
your browser. You have to have
your most recent team strategies
(lineups and starting pitchers)
decided before 10 PM EST each day.
The games are played, between, as I
have observed 11:30-midnight EST.
So although it would take too long
to show you all the screens you will
see, I will go through each menu so
you have an idea of what kind of
information is available to you and
how you setup your team strategies.
FRONT OFFICE
The Front Office page shows (example
above) the results of your latest
games as well if you click the
binocular icon (called the watch
function) on the right corner of the
box score, provides another page
that allows you to drill down into
either the details of the box score,
give you a list of the results of
each at bat in the game or you can
literally watch the game be played
player by player. The Front
Office page shows any news and the
standings as your division. As
stated, you play three games each
night, so you see those results here
and also who you will play for your
next three games and the starting
pitchers for those games for both
teams.
Your Team Menu
Roster
- this is where you see the current
stats for your players at this point
in time, with the pitchers shown
first and the hitters below.
Also which players are on your major
league roster and who you have let
go off during the season.
Schedule
- shows the outcome of all the games
you played so far in your season,
plus you can select the watch
function of any game from here also.
Setup Your Lineups
- setup lineups for your team
against Normal RHP and LHP, and
reverse RHP and LHP. Also you
specificy up to two backup players
for each position (in Barnstormers
we used a DH, so for the DH also).
Set Your Default Rotation
- if you plan to go with a four or
five man consistent rotation and
don't want to change it, or have to
update your rotation set the order
from pitcher 1 to pitcher 4 (or 5)
if you wish a five man rotation.
(Note: - rest
for a starter is the same as in the
regular game, an asterisked pitcher
needs three days of rest and a
non-asterisked pitcher needs four
days of rest - there are injuries
for pitchers with the DH card but
the 3 day starter is only out the
rest of the game. Therefore
theoretically you could draft four
starting pitchers with 3 day rests
needed and this is all you need for
the whole season.)
Per Game Starting Pitchers
- In this section you list every
game who wish to start and the
system will validate if that
starting pitcher has enough rest.
Hitter Prefs
- Preferences on your hitters which
include the following areas of
strategy: for each player
their bunting /h&r /stealing
abilities, if you wish to avoid a
certain type of pitcher, when to
substitute for defense if at all and
when to pinch run (all done by check
boxes).
Pitcher Prefs
- Here you define how to utilize
your starters and relievers: how
many innings to pitch maximum (if
you wish to limit), fatigue factor
when to remove, quick or slow hook
plus additionally for the relievers,
when to bring the reliever into the
game, blowouts, maximum innings to
use in a game.
-- plus 10 categories to
define how to use your bullpen
(select top two relievers for): who
are your closers, righty and lefty
ace relief pitchers, middle relief,
when the game is close or mopup, etc
....you rank the the relievers in
these categories (drop down menu
choices).
Team Strategy
- How aggressive do you want your
team on the basepaths (stealing and
running), closer and relief usage,
bunting and hit and run frequency,
how often to give an intentional
walk and what inning to bring the
infield in for your team.
-- plus Who to Pinch Hit vs
LHP and RHP, who to pinch run and Up
to four defensive replacements.
Team Preferences:
Where and When to send Emails and
Players to Watch (for trading)
(Note: - there is no
player usage in the online gaming
system. So starters can go over 300
innings in a season and you could
also see relievers pitching over 200
as well. The same is true for
the hitters, although players with
less then 600 PAs when injured could
be out for up to 15 games. Hitters
are ranked for injury frequency with
some players never injured, some the
remainder of the game, some up to 3
games and the rest up to the maxium
number of games.)
------------
YOUR LEAGUE MENU
Scores
- scores of all the games in your
league by weeks (other sections on
this page include league stats,
injuries, head to head play and more
.. all the pages in this menu have
these extra sections ...)
Schedule
- the entire schedule of season for
all teams in your league.
Standings
- the current standings of your
league with various breakdowns on
team performances.
Free Agents
- all the players who have not been
picked by any team that are
available to acquire (free agents
can be acquired at any time if you
have funds,the salary of the player
shows their value you have to pay,
see example above.)
Head to Head
-- How all teams have performed
against each other in league play.
Transaction
- a listing all players dropped and
acquired over time by each team.
Stats
- Leading hitters and pitchers in
your league sorted by various
categories.
Injuries
- current injuries in the league and
how long the injury will run for
each player.
Roster Chart
- current rosters of all the players
on each team in the league.
------------
INBOX - This system has an
internal mail system that you can
send people in your league messages
so the inbox shows if you have any
messages.
COMMUNITY
Discussion
Forum
- there is a fairly extensive forum
to discuss any aspect of on-line
gaming and also to send messages to
other gamers. There are various
categories of forum you can
participate in (including some where
experienced games share tips).
Barnstormers had its own Forum to
discuss its tournament.
Leagues Forming
- a list of Leagues that are
currently forming which seek members
to join. These leagues are either
open leagues created by individuals
or Strat-o-matic or are private
leagues you have to get a password
to join from the league
commissioner.
Mock Live Drafts
- the second type of draft that has
just been released is a live draft
that provides for the league's
members a chance to get together at
one time and do the draft live. This
option gives you a chance to test it
out this new draft system and see
what it is like.
Record books
- best performance by All Time Great
players in a season on Wiki -
according to Mighty Moose, the
commissioner of the Barnstormers
Tournament, for a time he was
keeping this record book but then
stopped so it is no longer
up-to-date. However, in the
Forum System linked to the SOM
Baseball Online system, is a special
forum for the Barnstormers
Tournament - within that Forum is a
section dedicated to keeping
up-to-date records from the All Time
Great set. To view this information
go to:
------------
INFO/HELP
Game
Rules
-
these pages discusses how to play
SOM Baseball on-line, more details
than we can provide in this article.
Player Set Browser
- the listings with a search
function on all the players
available in the set you are using
for your league - this includes the
players that are already picked on
league teams and the free agents,
search by positions and salary.
League Directory
- a list of all the Open leagues
(the same option as Leagues Forming
in the other menu)
Contact Us
- contact Strat-o-matic for help
with questions or problems with the
Online Gaming.
-- Start a New Team Button -
when you are ready to go through the
process to create a new team and
join a new league based on the
Player Set and Salary Cap, whether
the league is Open or Private.
Wolfman's
Summary:
In
this article (Part I of three
articles for my new column this
month to discuss the SOM Baseball
Online gaming) I have tried to give
to our members a high level overview
about this version of SOM Baseball.
It has a rich history and many
devoted players who are skilled in
playing the game as those of us who
play C&D (Cards and Dice) or the
computer game. There is no
telling how many leagues are going
on at this precise moment or how
many have completed since 2002 when
this version began. The beauty
of this system is you do not need to
own any version of SOM, just a basic
knowledge how the game works and how
to read the cards, everything else
is provided for you. In my
interactions with some of the
dedicated and well known players in
this community, there is a whole
other world of game playing here.
In Part II of this column, I would
like to introduce you to Mighty
Moose, the commissioner of the
Barnstormers Tournament since 2003
who will describe how this
tournament started and how the
tournament works. In Part III
of this column, I was able to
interview Bruce Foster who just won
the 2013 Barnstormers tournament and
will share with our readers his
strategy for drafting teams that
brought him a victory. I have been
told that no one has repeated yet as
a Barnstormer champion from year to
year.
Before we head out to visit with
Mighty Moose and Bruce, let me
discuss a little bit what will be
coming up in the next issue. As I
always do, I jump into the fire
myself and participated in
Barnstormers Event #1 (out of six
events or leagues which Mighty Moose
will explain) in League 13. There
were 156 participants in 13 leagues
(of 12 teams each) competing - which
now a days that is a lot of SOM
baseball gamers are playing in one
tournament. I will discuss my
personal experiences, what type of
team I drafted, how I did and why.
Also I have Mesquiton doing an
interview plus various tips he will
offer and I hope one other interview
to share. With the articles
this month and our next issue I
expect if you have never played in
an online league with this system,
you will be better prepared and if
you have and struggled perhaps we
will provide a key to take you into
the playoffs of your league or
tournament.
