The Ultimate Strat Baseball Newsletter: Vol IV, Issue #4, Main Page of the May 2016 issue

Ultimate Strat Baseball Newsletter - baseball hitter

Ultimate Strat Baseball Newsletter SOM Game Box

Vol. IV, Issue #4 - May 2016

** Welcome to USBN as the Strat Leagues move forward,
Baseball Daily is happening, and the Cubs rule in MLB!! **

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 ....

Wolfman Shapiro, editor of the Ultimate Strat Baseball Newsletter Hello again dear members - as we come to you again to share our 4th edition of our newsletter here in 2016. We were hoping to get our newsletter out monthly this year, but due to an important personal project that I am doing, as the newsletter falls into my hands to happily create, we have been delayed somewhat. But be that as it may, we still have for you here in this new edition, some great new articles and interviews, as we always do and I know you are gonna enjoy!

Well as far as my early projections for who we might see in the 2016 MLB World Series, it appears perhaps (unless there is a great fall in this team's performance or some injuries to key players) that I got it 50% correct, as the Chicago Cubs are clearly showing the world what they can do as they have been building up their team for several years now. And this is not the reason that I chose them to be the team I am managing in my 2016 Baseball Daily replay (which you will find my report about in this newsletter), it is because since I was young I have been a loyal and frustrated Cubs' fan, who will also cheer for the Chicago White Sox (when they are doing well of course). It would be nearly miraculous if it could be an all Chicago World Series, but I think the true team to prevail in the American League we may not see clearly yet. Anyway it is always interesting to speculate which ten teams will make the Major League Playoffs. There is always a chance one of the competing teams will make a key trade that could propel them forward as did happen to the New York Mets last year with you know who.

It is always exciting too, to watch all the new young players, the so-called prospects, who have super star potential, to see how they can assist their respective MLB teams. As all of us who are in SOM Baseball leagues using the current cards, we each dream and salivate to get such players on our league's team. Also let's not forget all the great new foreign players coming into MLB too. In one of the leagues I am in (the CBA), I took a gamble to get Maeda from the Dodgers, to bolster our starters (he was our first round draft pick), which is always a tough task to keep from year to year, to have five solid starters and it looks like that gamble is working out. And what is the Story on Story? I think we can all see that the 2016 MLB Season is going to be another great year of baseball which however, due to Baseball Daily, we can now enjoy playing it too instead of waiting for next year.

Ok then, lets move on to a brief overview of the goodies we have for you this month. Once again, the Strat Gods shined upon me, and I was able to find another ex-player, Don August, to interview. While he didn't play long in MLB, he has his own remarkable story to tell that I am sure you will enjoy to hear about from this ex-pitcher of the Brewers. Also finally this month, we have some stories linked to Retro Leagues and Replays which is another very popular way to play the game we love. Vinny Manchini, commissioner of the EGML, a retro league is based right now on players from the 1950's. We do a special interview with him to discuss the differences to play in such a league. Then we have my old friend Bart Ewing, from those early National Conventions in Illinois, who has his own special Championship Leagues he plays, to tell us his story and how he decides which teams from the past to include in his personal tournaments. It is always our goal to try our best here at Ultimate Strat Baseball to cover all types of SOM Baseball Game play, the wide range of ways the Game Company has setup for us to enjoy their premium game.

Then we see the return of two of new contributing writers. Chuck Tinkler finishes his epic tale about the Strat Master and Matt Eddy, one of the editors for Baseball America, shares with us his ten keys to put together a playoff roster. As we spoke before about new Baseball Prospects, via Matt's help, I was able to secure a great book done by Baseball America called the 2016 Prospect Handbook; so I do a review of this book for our members which gives you an analysis of the top 900 prospects (30 per team) currently available.

Unfortunately, there wasn't time to join a Baseball 365 league yet (as I wanted to write about Baseball Daily first and master how it works) so trying out Marc Pelletier's system is delayed (hopefully in July I will be able to begin this challenge). But as I stated, we did get the add-on product for Baseball Daily, and I have been playing day by day with the 2016 Chicago Cubs. So my article and review of this new way to play Strat (quite comprehensive) is included in this issue. And as always we give you our resource pages about various SOM and MLB on-line resources that we recommend with our book page and those recommendations.

** Lastly, we will need to take a break for the summer in June, as all the members of the USBN staff will be quite busy through the month of June but we promise to come back like a hurricane in July with even better and more exciting stories, articles and interviews. So enjoy this month's edition and you might want to also check our archive page shown below if you have missed any of the fine issues we have released since January of 2013!

** Additionally, we wish to encourage any member to consider to become a contributor to this newsletter. I have always said, the success of our newsletter is through its co-creation by all of us. So for example, if you have a special article or insights about the game, why not share this with our almost 1700 members? What about being interview about your unbelievable and enjoyable SOM Baseball League? Do you know personally any ex-MLB players that you could help us interview or even interview them for us? Or maybe you had a special game experience or story to share? What about discussing replays you are personally playing?

Also, the door is now open for any of our members to share their personal experiences with Baseball Daily!! As you will read in my report, SOM just added a new patch to this add-on product for the computer game to make the play even more realistic. They have really done a great job to provide us a way to play with our favorite team during the 2016 season. Let us know what you think about Baseball Daily. Also although our SOM Baseball News page doesn't appear this month, perhaps you have a great story to tell we can add there in a future issue? Any ideas or contributions you have, feel free to email me at: wolfman@ultimatestratbaseball.com

We have made this appeal and request before to our members in the past few months and several of you have answered this call, bless you all! But, if you really truly are enjoying the issues of the Ultimate Strat Baseball Newsletter and you are able to help us with a small donation, these funds are used to help us with the costs we have to maintain the newsletter and support special projects. We are very appreciative for any help you can give plus we also wish to thank those members who have given us such donations, even a few individuals are doing so with a contribution each month (wow!).

However for those of you who do make such a contribution for the newsletter this month, we continue to offer two special spreadsheets I have personally created to prepare for the two leagues I am currently a member in for this year. I would be happy to send one or both of them to you as my personal gift in appreciation for your support. These two spreadsheets are based upon 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 in 2015. 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 season is currently underway along with perhaps thousands of SOM Baseball leagues of all varieties already seeing their races heating up; Baseball Daily Leagues also are now becoming a happening as we play along with our favorite teams in 2016 -- what a great time to be alive aye? 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 as I said before, wish to become a contributor. Its all good! Enjoy this new edition!!

To a glorious 2016, enjoy your leagues, replays and tournaments,

Wolfman Shapiro
on behalf of the team at USBN

PS -- Late Reporting News from Strat-o-matic ....

On the Strat-o-matic Website it is reported that on June 6th of this year (Father's Day), the Strat-o-matic Documentary, depicting a history of the baseball game will be released. The film is entitled, "Managing to Win" - The Story of Strat-o-matic. The film will be available on a DVD and you will be able to get your copy directly from the game company. More information about the documentary is at:

http://www.strat-o-matic.com/community/announcements/strat-o-matic-documentary-be-released-monday-june-6

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 DON AUGUST, Ex-MLB Pitcher, Don August was a pitcher for the Milwaukee Brewers for four seasons. He 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, those who we recognize their names from their Strat-o-matic cards in past seasons. ♦ ARTICLE with MATT EDDY, Matt returns with his first article for USBN discussing ten keys how to set your playoff roster. Matt is a key editor for Baseball America as well as helps his SOM baseball league with their blog and website. ♦ ARTICLE with CHUCK TINKLER, The next article at the "Chuck Stop" by Chuck, one of our contributing writers, as he finishes his series about the "Strat Master". ♦ INTERVIEW with BART EWING, Bart Ewing an old friend of the Wolfman's, from the 1970 National Convetion days talks about the art of doing personal replays and what he calls his "Championship Leage" battles in this interview.

♦ ARTICLE with WOLFMAN SHAPIRO, Wolfman takes a good hard look at the new "Baseball Daily" game play with SOM Baseball as he decides to manage the 2016 Chicago Cubs day by day. He discusses how this new level of the computer game works.

♦ SOM BASEBALL LEAGUE REPORT with WOLFMAN SHAPIRO -- the editor of "The Ultimate Strat Newsletter" and 2012 CBA Champion, talks to 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 of a Baseball Retro League and how these leagues are different than the normal draft league. To read the interview, click on the link below:

INTERVIEW with Vinny Manchini, EGML Commissioner, P-VII (Computer)

♦ BASEBALL BOOK REVIEW with WOLFMAN SHAPIRO, editor of "The Ultimate Strat Newsletter" takes a peek at the 2016 Prospect Handbook published by Baseball America and tells you why this book is needed for SOM League Managers using the latest card sets.

♦ 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)