Sodo Oh No

Wow! I just finished three straight hours of catching up on the M's blogs - that's what happens when you miss a week! I haven't even got to the new entries I've heard about. I've been working on the draft leagues quite a bit and that's been cutting into my blogging time. The good news is that my server difficulties have been solved and the MBSBL is back online and should be a lot more responsive. The other good news is that I've started playing games for my work league and I've got a better feel for how the simulation works and I can pass on some information.

For a preview of what it will look like when the games start, check out the FSBL Stats site (my team is the Bainbridge Bashers and John is the Kings of VORP...hmm, can you guess our draft strategy :-) I'm impressed so far with the variety of the simulated games. In the first few weeks there have been close games, blowouts, come from behind wins, and even ejections! Here is an example box score (I'm sure that John won't mind that I chose his team's gut-wrenching opening day loss where his bullpen coughed up a 5 run lead in the 9th :-)

Now for some FAQs:
Q: What about injuries?
A: There will not be any! Draft accordingly.

Q: How will players with limited playing time be handled?
A: The philosophy of the simulation is that it won't hinder them because of the time that they played. This allows the simulation to be use for experiments like "what would have happened if the star player had not been injured half-way through the season." John and I put some controls in place to avoid the problem of a Joe Blow with a HR in 2 ABs being super-human over the course of a season. No player with less than 240 PAs is available. With pitchers it's harder to do but all the pitchers are rated as a starter or reliever and relief pitcher won't be allowed to start games.

Q: Can I play a player at a position he does not have a rating for?
A: The short answer is no. The longer answers is you can't assign a player to be a starter at an unrated position, but in the course of a game an emergency situation might arise and the computer will have to move the player there.

Q: How much control do I have over the computer manager?
A: After the draft I'll be having the computer generate what it thinks is a good manager profile for each team and I will send it to all the teams to modify. You control starting rotation, bullpen rolls, lineups vs. left and right starters and a bunch of manager tendencies (bunting, hit-and-run, etc.) So far I'm more impressed with the Diamond Mind manager than I was with the Strat-o-Matic one that I've used in the past. It does a good job of in-game substitutions and I haven't seen anything really stupid happened to my team.

I want to thank Mariner Optimist and San Shin for doing some great write-ups on the draft as it has proceeded. It looks like the participants are having a good time as we struggle through waiting for Spring Training.

I'll try to add two cents about the Mariners soon here as well.

posted by Mike @ 1:52 AM