Vol. IV, Issue #4 - May 2016

** "Baseball Daily – 1st View" –  Wolfman Shapiro **
      (Starting on April 3rd, a new level of playing Strat-o-matic Baseball begins, it is
called Baseball Daily, here is my experience managing the 2016 Chicago Cubs!)

(Notes from the Wolfman:  Hello dear members, as we go to press, your editor is thrilled with how his favorite team, the 2016 version of the Chicago Cubs are doing in real life.  Finally with a superior manager at the helm; and their good young players who are becoming bonafide Major League Players and future stars; the off season trades and signing to obtain a few key veteran players to fill some holds has produced a very good and balanced team.  But, the test at hand is, can using the new level of game play called "Baseball Daily" show a similar result for the Wolfman's favorite team, the one he grew up in the Chicago area and which his father took him to Wrigley Field to watch the ballplayers play early on in his life?

The goal of this article is not only to show the results of my experience managing the 2016 Chicago Cubs but to go over how this new version of Strat-o-matic Baseball works {which isn't so complicated} as well as discuss the enhanced aspects of playing Strat this way along with a few challenges we had re-playing the Cubs games which no doubt will see enhancements to Baseball Daily for its second edition.  Certainly for myself, having a chance to play with the Cubs as they go along with this playoff bound year {where they stand an excellent excellent chance to make it into a World Series season for the Cubs}, has been fun and exciting instead of waiting till next year to replay this entire season. Plus, the changes to the player's cards each day reflecting the real performance also makes a big difference too.)

{Special Note - as we were about to go to Press -- SOM released on May 12th, a new patch for the computer game in particular to help with providing for you the lineups used by the teams in real life for each specific day - I did have a chance to test this patch before this article was finished and it gave me the proper lineup and starting pitching for May 13th with the game I played. We will continue to test Baseball Daily to see if this new capability continues.  The Patch is called 2016g Update Patch and on the SOM Website is information about this patch and how to download it at:

http://www.strat-o-matic.com/community/announcements/new-baseball-daily-lineup-feature }
 

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What is Baseball Daily All About?
Can we take the Cubbies to a Championship?

In this article I decided to report on my re-creation of the Chicago Cubs 2016 season using Baseball Daily through the victorious week of of Monday, May 2nd through Sunday, May 8th where in real life the Cubs showed they are a team of destiny. As they swept the Pittsburgh Pirates and the Washington Nationals, two of the best teams in the National League. While in my replay, the Cubs did not have the same success losing two out of three to the Pirates in Pittsburgh but they did sweep the Nats (I didn't walk Harper so much though), so we have come out at 24-8 versus in real life 24-6, with the two games difference being the two games the Cubs were rained out up to this point in the season.  In Baseball Daily, the season is played assuming no games are postponed.

My goal in this article is first to explain how Baseball Daily works, as I experienced it. However, there could be some aspects to this new version of SOM Baseball I missed which I will discover after this article is published and plan to do updates later as we go along. I played Baseball Daily assuming that I would be like any other gamer, learning how it works on my own and reading the help files.  After I explain what modifications have been done to the computer game so you understand how to play these so-called Daily Games, I will show how some of the key 2016 Chicago Cub player cards changed over time. In other words, how these player's card images started before their first game on April 4th (their projected card for 2016) and what their cards looked like as of May 8th (through the data that influence their card image is based on the games played in MLB through May 7th), so you will be able to get a visual and feel for how the card images are changing over time.

And then finally I will compare how my 2016 Cubs fared, with the two extra games verses the real life Cubs.  You will see from the Stats that our Cubs hit a bit better and pitched better but still the reason for our great success along with the real Cubs' team is that through May 8th, they were playing as a very balanced team.  In real life, they had good hitting, averaging over 6 runs a game and the best ERA in the league. As a matter of fact, the top teams in MLB for 2016 were those teams who had the best team ERA in all of baseball at this time period in early May. 

Therefore, if the Cubbies can continue this level of play, then I believe their 100+ year curse could be over and the movie, "Back to the Future", was just off by a year.  I still think they should try to get another outfielder by trade to replace Schwarber, to get another good hitting LH OF but other then this, the starting and relief pitching is doing well and for the most part a different positional player has come through as a hero on quite a number of different days as well as the relievers holding down the fort.

How does Baseball Daily Work?

First, let me describe in words the new additions to the game, so that you too can play along with the 2016 season with your favorite team or teams. Now I decided to only play the Chicago Cubs games, which I set to Manual in the Computer Game Schedule Window. This is the window which comes up when you want to play the next scheduled games of your season. Therefore, I auto played all the other games for each day by all the other 2016 MLB teams. 

Another aspect to Baseball Daily is that you can not play games ahead of the day that takes place in the real season.  In other words if today is May 9th, you can only play the games in your 2016 Baseball Daily League up through May 9th, you can't go ahead and play May 10th and later.

My understanding is the Baseball Daily stats or data, which you must download first before you begin that days play are ready to be acquired sometime during the afternoon (Eastern Standard Time) on each day.  Of course, if you are behind a few days, you can catch up at any time.

So to begin this new level of play you must first setup a new league that is shown in the main window of the computer game under Leagues, under the name of "2016 Major League Daily" (which also has some strange number also associated it (the year and a two digital number). You will see this strange league name when you backup this league and load the data. By the way, another requirement for each day you play is you must backup this league before you play the games and after. The game will prompt you to do this. The reason for this is that if for some reason you don't load the new Baseball Daily data properly - you could lose the whole season, so you can restart with the last backup and then add the new daily data. This did happen to me once when I thought the current Baseball Daily data had finished downloading when it didn't. So do be patient and let this process go to completion. (Note - under the League menu on the main page, you see messages of what is being added to your Baseball Daily league during the download process.)

Now the type of things I saw being added during the data download for your Baseball Daily league were the current rosters, an lzp file which had the latest image of the cards and other aspects of data for each team. 
This downloading takes about a minute and as you will see below, in the various screen images for the game I have provided, to load this new data, there is an option in the League Menu (4th item down) which is called "Download Next Daily Data Day" (I don't think it matters if you are pointing to the 2016 Major League Daily league or not as you can only play one such league at a time) and then as the game connects via the internet with the on-line data system that supports Baseball Daily, it begins sending the most recent data to your game and you see these status messages in the lower left part of the screen under the League menu pane.

Now one thing I think I saw, is that if I was several days behind, the data that was loaded was not from several days ago but the most current card image based on how the players were doing on the day I loaded the data.  I sent an email to SOM and they confirmed this is true for now.  This means that each day on the computer system where the Baseball Daily data is stored that it is updated just once so whenever you link in, even if you are a few days behind playing your Baseball Daily League, you get the most current data and card images.  Let me illustrate:

Say today is May 9th, 2016, and you have only played up to the games of May 5th. That means you are 3 days behind.  However, when you go to load the current data into your league, you will not get how the cards looked from May 5th, May 6th and May 7th, you will get the data through May 8th unless you wait till the afternoon when the next new data is ready.  What this means, if you truly want to play the season as it is happening you really need to try to play the games for your team on the day they take place or in the next morning.

Here is some other comments I received from SOM, as I was writing this article (from May 9th):

The playing of a Baseball Daily league is the same as any league you would do a replay with.  The main feature being tweaked (or perhaps added now) is the "asplayed" function.  The game will try to use the best lineups and starting pitchers for the games you do by Auto Play. Also before, if a game was rained out in real life, you still played the game in Baseball Daily. We will have to see if the new patch continues this trend or not. It is probably very difficult to get the simulation of the current season via Baseball Daily to be a 100% duplication of all the real-life circumstances.  Considering what Baseball Daily is doing so far, SOM needs to be commended!

Under the File menu, you will select "New Scheduled" to play the next available days game and in the Schedule window you can show which games to play manually.  You must always click on the League Option Menu - Download Next Daily Data Day - to load the current Baseball Daily Data into your game and league before you play your next games available to be played.  Everything else is the same when you play or replay the games.

For example, you can view the Team or League Stats.  When you are making your lineups for the game, you can accept the players on the roster the game shows you or bring up other players if you wish.  You may have an extra day to use a player who gets injured (like Bryant for the Cubs was out for a day, so I didn't use him for the same day's game) or have to wait a day for a new player who is brought up from the minors to appear unless you wait till the afternoon of the day of the games to download the most current daily data from the game (or games) you are about to play. So if you waited till the afternoon of May 10th and then play May 9th game, you would have the most current card images based on each players performance (this can be a little confusing however).

So really the only extra step is to wait for the latest Baseball Daily files to download to your computer which doesn't take long. But you will always be backing up your Baseball Daily league before you play the next games and after you finish.

Here is how some of the new menus look like with Baseball Daily ...........
 

(Before you can play your next schedule date of games, you have to download the latest Daily Data
which you do by clicking the option under the League Menu "Download Next Daily Data Day".
Then you will see in the lower window, under the list of Leagues (or seasons you have purchased
or rosters for the computer game) will be messages telling you the progress of receiving the
new Daily Data .... this takes about a minute to load with a fast internet connection.)
 

(Here we see the Schedule Menu, which is called up by selecting under the File Menu, the option
"New Scheduled". Here you can see which games are yet to be played.  In this case, I played the
three games scheduled in MLB on April 3rd automatically.  If I clicked on any of these games, I
could select in the upper left hand options menu on top to play the game manually or hold it. So
what I have done for my replay is to manually play all the Chicago Cub games with their opponents
run by the computer.  After the games play you see the scores in the Scheduled Games window.)

 

(In this screen, you see the name of the league created which is always called 2016 Major League Daily.  Just like any
other league you play, you see all the teams and the players on each team.  I was looking at the Cubs on April 3rd,
before I played their first game on April 4th - who were the players who showed up on their opening day roster.)

 

STARTING A NEW DAILY DATA LEAGUE

If you have an existing Daily Data league you must delete it before creating a new Daily Data League. To create the Daily Data league use the League / Create Daily Data League menu item.  This menu item shows up in the same spot where "Download Next Daily Data Day" option is at first.  This is because at any one time you can only have one Baseball Daily League active.  When the league is deleted then the the Menu Option goes back to "Create Daily Data League".  You just select this option and the league is created for you and you are ready to play the schedule games.
 

Lets see how the Cards Change Day by Day?

In this next section of my report, I show you three of the best Cub pitchers  and hitters, how their baseball daily card looked like before the season began and what their baseball daily card looked like on May 8th (based on their performance through May 7th).  You will see some cards just had subtle changes and others, you can see a big change due to the player performing poorly or on a hot streak. I added Zorbist card, because around this time he was on a hot streak with home runs and RBIs (but I didn't save his Day 0 card). Anyway, this section does confirm the player's cards are changing daily ....
 

2016 Cubs Pitchers
(Arrieta, Lester, Rondon)

Jack "the snake" Arrieta
(Day 0 - before the MLB season begins)

Jack "the snake" Arrieta
(Card Image from Stats through May 7th, 2016 )

(Analysis - Arrietta card doesn't change too much as he continues to pitch
as he pitched last year, against lefties he is unhittable in 2016 however. Also note
the more recent Arietta improves on his WP and error rating so far ....)

Jon Lester
(Day 0 - before the MLB season begins)

Jon Lester
(Card Image from Stats through May 7th, 2016 )

(Analysis - Lester's card hasn't changed much, except as you see he did give
up in real life quite a few home runs which are increased on his card.)


Hector Rondon
(Day 0 - before the MLB season begins)

Hector Rondon
(Card Image from Stats through May 7th, 2016 )

(Analysis - Rondon has been unhittable so far in 2016 so you can really see his
relief card is much better than it was projected to start at the beginning of the season)

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

2016 Cub's Hitters
(Rizzo, Bryant, Heyward, Zorbist*)

Anthony Rizzo
(Day 0 - before the MLB season begins)

Anthony Rizzo
(Card Image from Stats through May 7th, 2016 )

(Analysis - For Rizzo's card you can see his average of hits is a bit down from his Day 0 card
but that his May 7th version shows much more power as he has been hitting more power
plus he is continued to get his shares of walks which gives him a good OB card also.)

Kris Bryant
(Day 0 - before the MLB season begins)

Kris Bryant
(Card Image from Stats through May 7th, 2016 )

(Analysis - For Bryant his card is basically the same from his projected card on Day 0
through May 7th - just his power is down a little bit, so he is performing as expected.)
 

Jason Heyward
(Day 0 - before the MLB season begins)

Jayson Heward
(Card Image from Stats through May 7th, 2016 )

(Analysis - For Jason Heyward who is in a funk hitting wise and has yet to hit a HR in the
new season we definitely see a great decreased in his hitting but his other attributes such
as his fielding, arm, stealing and running remain the same - when he gets on fire as a
hitter, watch out what happens with this version of the Chicago Cubs ........)


Ben Zorbist
(Card Image from Stats through May 7th, 2016 * )

(Analysis * - I also am showing Ben Zorbist card because during the first week of May,
Ben went on a rampage and hit quite a few home runs.  Ben who has some power,
and if you think about the card he received in 2015 with KC, you will see vs. RHP, which
means when he batted LH {as a switch hitter} he really increased his home run ability.
I didn't record his Day 0 card image but it was similar to his 2015 card as I recall.)


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

And how are the Baseball Daily Cubs doing vs. Real Life?

Obviously, the last section we want to look at is how are the 2016 Chicago Cubs doing in my Baseball Daily replay vs. how they are doing in real life. Naturally, since I am managing the Cubs I do not have to go with the same lineups as they do, but I am following their rotation.  I am not sure if I would have gone with 12 hitters and 13 pitchers, but this is what they are using so I am duplicating it. It means at times in close games or extra inning games, the pitchers are having to be used as pinch hitters.  First I show the real life hitting and pitching stats and then I show my Baseball Daily Stats.  I will do my analysis after the hitting and pitching is given.
 

2016 Chicago Cubs
(Real Life Hitting Stats through May 8th, 2016)

RK	Player	Pos	G	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	SO	SB	CS	AVG▼	OBP	SLG	OPS
1	Cahill, T	P	10	1	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1.000	1.000	1.000	2.000
2	Kawasaki, M	2B	2	2	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0.500	0.500	0.500	1.000
3	Kalish, R	LF	5	5	1	2	0	0	0	2	1	0	0	0	0.400	0.571	0.400	0.971
4	Szczur, M	CF	21	30	9	11	1	0	2	10	4	4	1	1	0.367	0.441	0.600	1.041
5	La Stella, T	2B	19	47	10	17	6	1	2	6	6	5	0	0	0.362	0.444	0.660	1.104
6	Fowler, D	CF	29	106	24	36	12	2	3	17	21	26	6	0	0.340	0.462	0.575	1.038
7	Baez, J	SS	18	49	8	15	3	0	2	5	2	12	2	1	0.306	0.333	0.490	0.823
8	Bryant, K	3B	29	117	23	35	9	0	5	20	14	29	1	2	0.299	0.383	0.504	0.888
9	Zobrist, B	2B	28	101	21	28	5	0	5	25	23	13	1	1	0.277	0.406	0.475	0.881
10	Rizzo, A	1B	30	111	26	30	8	1	10	28	22	18	2	1	0.270	0.413	0.631	1.044
11	Arrieta, J	P	6	16	2	4	0	0	1	3	2	7	0	0	0.250	0.333	0.438	0.771
12	Russell, A	SS	27	99	12	24	3	1	2	18	17	24	1	0	0.242	0.361	0.354	0.715
13	Ross, D	C	15	45	9	10	2	0	2	8	8	9	0	0	0.222	0.327	0.400	0.727
14	Hammel, J	P	8	14	3	3	1	0	0	3	0	6	0	0	0.214	0.214	0.286	0.500
15	Heyward, J	RF	27	104	14	22	5	0	0	13	15	23	4	1	0.212	0.317	0.260	0.576
16	Montero, M	C	13	48	7	10	3	0	1	6	8	16	0	0	0.208	0.316	0.333	0.649
17	Federowicz, T	C	6	16	2	3	1	0	0	0	1	5	0	0	0.188	0.235	0.250	0.485
17	Lackey, J	P	6	16	0	3	0	0	0	2	1	7	0	0	0.188	0.235	0.188	0.423
19	Soler, J	LF	29	72	12	13	1	0	2	6	9	19	0	0	0.181	0.274	0.278	0.552
20	Hendricks, K	P	5	9	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	6	0	0	0.111	0.200	0.111	0.311
20	Lester, J	P	5	9	0	1	1	0	0	1	1	1	0	0	0.111	0.200	0.222	0.422
22	Richard, C	P	8	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0.000	0.000	0.000	0.000
22	Schwarber, K	LF	2	4	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	2	0	0	0.000	0.200	0.000	0.200
22	Strop, P	P	14	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0.000	0.000	0.000	0.000
22	Warren, A	P	11	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0.000	0.000	0.000	0.000
22	Wood, T	P	13	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0.000	0.000	0.000	0.000
27	Grimm, J	P	11	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0.000	0.000	0.000	0.000
27	Patton, S	P	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0.000	0.000	0.000	0.000
27	Ramirez, N	P	6	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0.000	0.000	0.000	0.000
27	Rondon, H	P	12	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0.000	0.000	0.000	0.000
	Team Totals			1025	184	270	61	5	37	173	156	234	19	7	0.263	0.368	0.441	0.809

2016 Chicago Cubs
(Baseball Daily Hitting Stats through May 8th, 2016)

NAME	BAVG	GM	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	SO	HB	SH	DP	SB	CS	E
T.Federowicz	0.500	5	16	2	8	1	0	0	3	2	3	0	0	0	0	0	0
M.Szczur	0.350	20	20	3	7	1	0	0	4	3	5	0	0	1	1	0	0
D.Fowler	0.341	32	123	25	42	9	0	4	15	28	28	1	0	3	7	3	0
K.Bryant	0.330	31	112	24	37	5	1	11	29	20	24	0	0	5	2	1	5
J.Heyward	0.323	32	124	20	40	5	1	5	17	14	14	1	0	0	10	1	0
J.Baez	0.317	20	60	8	19	4	0	3	16	4	15	0	0	0	1	0	0
T.La Stella	0.295	23	44	6	13	1	0	1	3	3	2	0	1	1	0	2	0
K.Schwarber	0.286	2	7	2	2	0	0	0	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
A.Rizzo	0.271	32	133	21	36	5	2	8	22	12	31	1	0	2	2	1	3
B.Zobrist	0.250	32	112	21	28	4	0	1	14	23	20	0	0	4	4	0	0
J.Soler	0.218	27	78	8	17	4	0	0	7	9	21	0	0	7	0	0	1
A.Russell	0.210	30	100	14	21	3	1	4	12	20	38	0	3	3	1	1	2
D.Ross	0.208	18	48	5	10	1	0	2	6	12	19	0	0	0	0	0	0
M.Montero	0.184	17	49	7	9	2	0	3	9	10	9	0	0	1	0	0	1
M.Kawasaki	0.000	3	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	1	0	0	0	0
R.Kalish	0.000	2	4	0	0	0	0	0	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
ALL PITCHERS	0.181	32	72	5	13	0	0	0	5	3	24	0	6	1	0	0	4
-----------------	----	---	---	---	---	--	--	--	---	---	---	--	--	--	---	--	--
TEAM TOTALS	0.274	32	1104	171	302	45	5	42	164	165	254	3	11	28	28	9	16

(Analysis  - I seem to be getting better hitting then the real Cubs, most due to Heyward hitting .300 but as he is
having trouble hitting now, his card is reflecting this. Bryant has hit more home runs than in real life and also I
I am stealing more than the Cubs do. Zobrist hasn't come up with his hot streak yet.  I am not scoring as many runs
as the real life Cubs but as a team overall I would say the two versions are quite a bit similar.  Now lets see pitching.)


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

Chicago Cubs 2016
(Real Life Pitching Stats through May 8th, 20016)

RK	Player	W	L	ERA▲	G	GS	SV	SVO	IP	H	R	ER	HR	BB	SO	AVG	WHIP
1	Patton, S	0	0	-.--	1	0	0	0	0	1	1	1	0	1	0	1.000	-
2	Rondon, H	0	1	0.79	12	0	6	6	11.1	4	1	1	0	0	18	0.108	0.35
3	Arrieta, J	6	0	1.13	7	7	0	0	48	26	7	6	2	16	44	0.159	0.88
4	Warren, A	3	0	1.35	11	0	0	1	13.1	6	3	2	1	7	12	0.140	0.98
5	Lester, J	3	1	1.58	6	6	0	0	40	33	7	7	4	9	38	0.228	1.05
6	Hammel, J	4	0	1.85	6	6	0	0	34	25	7	7	1	14	28	0.212	1.15
7	Strop, P	1	0	2.03	15	0	0	1	13.1	5	3	3	0	4	19	0.119	0.68
8	Cahill, T	0	1	2.92	11	0	0	0	12.1	11	5	4	2	8	10	0.220	1.54
9	Hendricks, K	2	2	3.10	5	5	0	0	29	23	11	10	1	6	23	0.219	1.00
10	Grimm, J	0	0	3.18	12	0	0	0	11.1	9	4	4	2	2	13	0.209	0.97
11	Lackey, J	4	1	4.02	6	6	0	0	40.1	34	19	18	4	10	40	0.236	1.09
12	Ramirez, N	0	0	4.50	6	0	0	0	6	4	3	3	1	4	7	0.200	1.33
13	Wood, T	1	0	5.00	15	0	0	0	9	7	5	5	2	4	9	0.206	1.22
14	Richard, C	0	0	7.71	7	0	0	0	4.2	6	6	4	0	3	4	0.333	1.93
	Team Totals	24	6	2.48	30	30	6	7	272.2	194	82	75	20	88	265	0.201	1.03

Chicago Cubs 2016
(Baseball Daily Pitching Stats through May 8th, 20016)

NAME	ERA	W	L	PCT	G	GS	CG	SH	SV	IP	H	R	ER	HR	BB	SO
C.Richard	0.00	0	0	----	4	0	0	0	0	2.2	3	0	0	0	1	3
P.Strop	0.69	2	0	1.00	13	0	0	0	2	13	6	1	1	1	4	16
J.Grimm	0.77	2	0	1.00	9	0	0	0	0	11.2	12	1	1	0	4	13
J.Lester	0.85	4	1	0.80	7	7	1	1	0	52.2	37	6	5	1	5	59
K.Hendricks	0.88	5	1	0.83	6	6	0	0	0	41	28	5	4	1	7	21
T.Wood	1.42	1	0	1.00	10	0	0	0	1	6.1	4	1	1	1	3	3
J.Arrieta	1.71	6	0	1.00	7	7	0	0	0	52.2	35	11	10	5	14	44
H.Rondon	2.53	0	0	----	11	0	0	0	5	10.2	12	3	3	1	3	14
N.Ramirez	3.00	1	0	1.00	11	0	0	0	0	12	7	4	4	4	1	16
T.Cahill	3.12	0	0	----	9	0	0	0	0	8.2	9	3	3	0	3	4
J.Hammel	3.68	1	3	0.25	6	6	0	0	0	36.2	36	19	15	3	15	36
J.Lackey	5.01	2	2	0.50	6	6	0	0	0	32.1	34	18	18	7	6	24
A.Warren	5.40	0	1	0.00	11	0	0	0	0	13.1	16	8	8	1	2	10
S.Patton	----	0	0	----	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
ALL NON-PITCHERS	----	0	0	----	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Team								2					0
-----------------	----	--	--	-----	---	--	--	--	--	-----	---	---	---	--	---	---
TEAM TOTALS	2.24	24	8	0.75	32	32	1	3	8	293.2	239	80	73	25	68	263

(Analysis  - My version of the 2016 Cubs are also seeing great pitching.  Lester and Hendricks have been
unbelievable so far and Arrieta is close to his real life states.  Warren is doing better in real life but if we
compare the two version of the Cubs from a team performance they are fairly similar.  I am trying to follow
how Maddon uses his pitchers which is going with his starters 6 or 7 innings, unless they are throwing a
shutout as he has quite an area of relievers to pick from to handle any type of LH or RH hitters.)
 

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

Final Comments from the Wolfman: I personally feel, that now to have the ability to be able to play along with your favorite team day by day in its current season is a total stroke of genius. And that with the players cards changing each day to represent the player's current performance, this is greatlyenhancing the realism of the game. I believe SOM should most definitely be applauded for this bold new feature and I thank the individual (Mr. Richman or staff) who came up with this idea.  While they were not able to add all the features they wanted initially I assume, with how quickly they released the new patch in May, Baseball Daily is coming pretty darn close to mirroring the 2016 aMLB season in this first attempt as the stats of the real life Cubs are close to the ones I have with my 2016 Daily Baseball Cubs so far. I have thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to manage with the Cubs manager Maddon, this 2016 version of this team.

First of all, when I watch the real-life games, since I know the capability of the players on the Cubs, I understand all the options Maddon has and what he can do to use his players to their highest capability.  I understand totally why he is choosing certain positional players to be in the lineup due to some of the Cub hitters who are going through a rough time hitting wise (like Heyward and Soler) while others are hitting well and need to be in my lineups.  The same is true for when to select a specific relief pitcher and to pick the right time when each one can handle different situations.  I can faithfully say I know this Cubs team very well. 

The only disappointment I had with the version of the game I was using for this article (that is prior to the patch given on May 12th) was not facing the same starters of my opponents as the Cubs did in real life.  However, it does now appear that the latest patch is fixing this issue and if you wait a bit longer into the day of the games to play them (playing the games of the current day) you should see the lineups match the boxscore for that day. At least when I played the May 13th games it did with the Cubs vs. the Pirates. Again you may want to read the page on the Strat-o-matic website that discusses this patch.  We will be reporting more on the experiences we are having with Baseball Daily in future issues, as it is true with any new software program, the first time it is released, there is always some tweeking that goes on.  SOM is doing a great job!

For the issue of what image of the cards you use each day you play during your league schedule, perhaps SOM will setup in the future a way to save the card images at the end of each day during the MLB season so the card images will always respond to the day you play instead of getting the latest version of the card image as reflected by the players current performance. Anyway we can see from the latest patch (16g) SOM is working hard to make Baseball Daily as realistic as possible. Glad we waited till May 14th (unlucky May 13th) to get our newsletter out to see how this patch worked!!

In any case, my 2016 Chicago Cubs seem to be performing very closely to the true abilities as in the real 2016 season and I think, unless they suffer some key injuries to their star players and they can acquire a good replacement for Schwarber, they are going to be a tough team to beat in 2016.