Here are a few baserunning tips to think about when deciding on a lineup.

1.  Think more aggressive against a quality starting pitchers.  Taking more baserunning chances against guys like Tim Lincecum makes perfect sense.  There usually aren’t very many baserunning opportunities against these pitchers so you need to make the most out of these chances.

2.  Be less aggressive on the base paths against pitchers like Nick Blackburn.  These pitcher cards allow a high number of singles and other on-base chances which means you’ll have an ample amount of scoring chances.

3.  Be aware of the home field advantage max rule.  When you are playing on the road you may lose some rolls due to the home field advantage rule so you may want to run a little more aggressively.

One of the cool things about playing the Strat-O-Matic Online baseball simulation game is you get to decide, as a manager, when you want to start a real-life journeyman over a real-life All-Star.  What you know about these players in real life doesn’t matter.  You don’t need to consider how old they are and you know they won’t get better or worse over time because their true talent levels are already laid out on the player cards.  It’s all about probability.

I was able to find some match ups where my .50 cent pitcher out performed the opponents multi-million dollar starting pitcher.  I’m sure I would have found a lot more of these matchups but TSN had to remove some box scores from 2001-2005 because of space issues.

1969 Season: Ken Brett (.50M) vs Dave Boswell (6.92M)

Ken Brett blanks Cats, 2-0

Ken Brett pitched a complete game shutout despite allowing 6 walks.  Brett ended up 1-4 for the season but had a lot of no decisions.  He pitched well for me.  He ended up with a 3.02 ERA in 12 starts.

2003 Season:  Paul Abbott (.50M) vs Tim Hudson (8.87M)

Holey Sox beat Bosox 10-3

I found a few box scores from the 2003 season.  In this game, Hudson got rocked in the 2nd inning as my team scored 5 runs with 5 if the 6 hits being singles.  Abbott was 12-4 after this game but ended up with a 13-9 record.

2003 Season:  Paul Abbott (.50M) vs Barry Zito (7.13M)

Holey Sox blow out Brunswick Bosox, 12-0

Abbott went 7 strong scoreless innings striking out 6 batters and walking 1.

Lefty killer, Edgar Renteria, blasted a home run in the bottom of the third inning.  Three batters were walked after that which led to three other runs in the inning.

2007 Season: Kevin Slowey (.50M) vs Fausto Carmona (7.00M)

Kevin Slowey shuts out Panthers, 10-0

Kevin Slowey pitched a complete game shutout with 9 strikeouts in AT&T Park while Fausto Carmona went 8 2/3 innings allowing 5 earned runs.

6 other Slowey vs ‘Goliath’ matchups:

Another match up against Fausto Carmona (7.ooM)

Javier Vazquez (5.44M) charged with the loss

Cole Hamels (4.96M) loses pitching duel

Matt Cain (4.75M) is the losing pitcher

Javier Vazquez (5.44M) absorbs another loss

A.J. Burnett suffers the loss

Earlier, I wrote about using the Strat-O-Matic Baseball Online: All-Time Records to help with player selection.  Studying the team records section (Team 80) can help in determining what makes a successful team.

First, take a look at the Most Wins section.  Looks like you might need to go extreme when deciding on a park to play.  Two teams chose hitter parks and three teams went for pitcher parks.

You probably can’t really determine what makes a winning team by going through these other categories.  The leaders under Team Errors – Fewest, however, showed quite a bit of success.  These teams averaged 88 wins.

Defense

Looking back in the Most Wins section, it looks like you must have at least 3 or 4 starting 1’s in your lineups.  These record holding teams averaged 4.5 starting ‘1′ position players.  A team called The Wrong Stuff 441 had 8 1’s in their starting lineup!

All teams have a ‘1′ at second base.  This is no surprise as there appears to be plenty ‘1’s in the player set.  At short stop, however, there’s only 10 players with a ‘1′ range so you will see more 2’s being used at shortstop.  The bottom line is that you need good defense up the middle.  No 3’s or 4’s.

Hitting

In outfield, you will see that Frank Robinson was used a couple times.  It’s quite a solid card.  He hits for power, has good OBP, has speed.

Tony Gwynn, Tris Speaker, and Bobby Bonds also appear on at least 2 teams.

Pitching

These top $80 million dollar salary teams averaged about 24M for their pitching staffs.

Of the 6 teams, there were only 5 pitchers over $5M.  3 out of the 6 teams didn’t have a pitcher over 5M.  Using a staff with pitchers who can pitch on 3 days rest is the way to go.  John Clarkson was picked up twice as well as Fred Norman.

It looks like the key to winning is to not spend much on relief pitching.  Of the 6 teams, there’s not one relief pitcher over 4M.  I see Ron Perranoski appearing a couple times.  Firpo Marberry had success a couple times.

Griffith Stadium

I was browsing the ballparks for the ATG4 player set and Griffith Stadium ‘41 caught my eye.  The is the only ballpark with zero ballpark home runs from both sides.  I decided to browse the pitchers from this set and came up with 9 pitchers that may fit well in a ballpark such as Griffth Stadium:

1. John Cerutti $1.23M (BP – 5 vs L, 6 vs R)
I couldn’t find any pitcher under 1M worth considering.  John Cerutti at $1.54 was the first bargain found.

2. Floyd Bannister $1.54M (BP – 6 vs L, 5 vs R)
Cerutti’s card may be a little better than Bannister but Bannister only needs 3 days rest between starts.

3. Fred Norman $1.76M (BP – 7 vs L, 4 vs R)
This reverse lefty may be worth considering but he does allow quite a bit of triples against left-handed batters.

4. Jim Merritt $2.27M (BP – 0 vs L, 8 vs R)
I’m wondering how often this pitcher is chosen.  Looks like a good card.  He has 91% out chances against left-handed batters.   8 ballpark diamonds from the right side ideal for a pitcher’s park.

5. Pedro Ramos $2.33M (BP – 7 vs L, 3 vs R)
He was 11-20 in 1961 with Minnesota.  I wonder how he would fare in Griffith Stadium.

6. Bruce Hurst $2.41M (BP – 8 vs L, 1 vs R)
Here’s another reverse lefty.  His low double and triple chances are excellent.

7. Ed Whitson $2.89M (BP – 3 vs L, 8 vs R)
He can work on only 3 days rest.  Doesn’t give up and singles against- right handed batters but all other chances are extra base hits.

8. Mike Scott $3.2M (BP – 0 vs L, 8 vs R)
This reverse righty must be hard to get.  81% out chances against left-handed batters.  Most of his safe chances are walks which is something to look for in a starting pitcher.

9. Tom Browning $3.39M (BP – 4 vs L, 3 vs R)
Looks like a decent card.  He has low bk and wp numbers and a -2 hold.

If you look at my profile (SOM) you’ll notice that I have rarely played in any All-Time Greats leagues.  I prefer playing in 200x leagues where I can simulate the outcome with the CD-Rom game.  I still enjoy browsing the ATG card sets every once in a while, however.  ATG IV was released a while ago and I haven’t really studied the cards until now.

While browsing the set I was wondering how I could build a competitive team without having any ATG4 experience.  Then, I remembered that official records for ATG leagues are kept by Mighty Moose, Strat-O-Matic Baseball Online’s official record keeper.  For newbies, this data can be quite valuable for selecting a new team.

Batting

Take a look at At Bats and Hits leaders.  You’ll see George Sisler a few times.  Now, take a look at his card.  .407 batting average, a 1 at 1B, AA base stealing, with 1-17 speed.

Under the Doubles section you’ll notice Bob Meusel listed in the top 2.  He hits 15% of his doubles against lefties and 9% against righties.  He could be a good pick for a pitcher’s park.  He has a ‘-5′ throwing arm is a 1 in the outfield.

Ralph Kiner is dominating the leader board in Home Runs.  Look how many home run chances he has on his card.  It would be nice to have him on any team.  I wonder how hard it is to grab him.

Bobby Bonds and Jose Canseco are the only ones listed as Strikeout leaders.  I would probably avoid these two.

Pitching

You see Pete Alexander listed all over the leader boards.  I’d like to see if there’s been a team with Alexander that had a losing record.  This guy only allows singles on his card.

Dick Radatz shows up twice under the Relief ERA leaders.  When deciding on relief pitchers for your team, make a note of his best results.  The higher the better.  Anything over 40 is good.  Radatz is 44 against lefties and 51 against righties. Also check out the leaders under opponents batting average.  Radatz is listed twice there as well.

You’ll find Bruce Sutter and Dennis Eckersley listed the most times under Relief WHIP.  I would probably prefer Eckersley ($4.71M) over Sutter($5.19M) because I like Eck’s 66 best results against righties.  Also, Sutter has a high wild pitch count (wp-20).

I’m not sure if the Games Finished leader board will help us decide on a pitcher but if Wilcy Moore is the ‘all-time leader’ he has to be popular.  He’s only $.3.5M.  Wait a minute.  Take a look at his relief endurance – r5.  Now I see why he has the all-time record in games finished.  I would have to say that I must go after this pitcher.

Noodles Hahn ($7.02M) gives up a lot of hits but with a name like that it would be neat to have him on my team.

Juan Marichal shows up a quite a few times under Home Runs allowed.  If you are in a pitcher park I suppose he might be a good addition.

J.R. Richard is dominating the leaderboard in Strikeouts.  Also check out the leaders for Strikes Per 9 Innings.  He has 49 strikeout chances against righties.  He is definitely worth considering as one of your starting pitchers.

My first hurdle was learning about .htaccess .  I’ve forgotten exactly what .htaccess is for but I used it to redirect query results of players so each player will have their own unique URL page.

I then had to determine a way to separate the batting and pitching queries so when a pitcher is being searched you will get his pitching stats rather than batting stats.   Later, I’ll should be able to have all of these stats on each player page

I thought it was important to be able to access Babe Ruth’s batting and pitching stats.  So, I added pitching stats to position players who also had pitched in their career.  Check out Jose Canseco and Steve Finley’s pitching stats.

If you are familiar with databases you know that every record must have a unique ID.  When dealing with the current 2009 season, one of the challenges was trying to find a way to generate a unique ID for all rookie players.  First, I needed to find a way to determine if a player is indeed a rookie.  Then, I had to find an automated way to generate a unique ID.  I spent a few days working on a stored procedure.  This stored procedure will scan the entire master database for duplicates and if duplicates are found, the number at the end of the ID will be incremented.

The method I was using for determining rookies had a flaw because I was searching for players who were playing in the 2009 season but hadn’t played in 2008.  The drawback to this was that some players, like Kris Benson, had been out of baseball for a few years so they weren’t actually rookies.  I had to go back and find the IDs for these players and ensure they weren’t considered new rookie players.

Each day I work on the database I always seem to find a mistake somewhere.  The other day, I noticed Scott Rolen’s 2009 AB totals were a little off.  For some reason, I missed the stats from one day in June so I had to go back and fix that.

Another thing I noticed was Miguel Tejada’s batting average in my database didn’t match the batting average from other sites.  After some research, I found that if a game was suspended due to rain I wasn’t updating the database.

Another glitch is I don’t have any 2009 stats for HBP, BK, and WP categories for pitchers.  I still need to find a way to gather this data.

I’m sure I’ve overlooked some other things.  If anyone notices any errors please let me know.

In 2018, I was finally able to reach a level where I’m dominating at the plate.  I got my batting average up to .300 but then I was hit with an injury which landed me on the 60 day disabled list.  I think I hurt myself legging out a single or I may have fielded a ground ball the wrong way.

Update on hitting tips

1.  Never swing at first pitch – In the first at bat of a game, it seems like I’m always able to get to a 3-2 count.  Be very patient in your first at bat at the beginning of the game.  In the following at bats, I never swing at the first pitch unless I’m in a hot streak or if I’m facing a tired pitcher.

2. Guess the sides with two strikes in the count – I always guess fastball with two strikes in the count.  As a right handed-batter, I’ll guess for a fastball outside if I’m facing a right-handed pitcher- especially if he has a slider in his arsenal.  If the pitcher doesn’t throw very hard breaking balls I’m more comfortable guessing from the inside of the plate, however.  The idea is not to let the pitcher make you chase balls outside of the zone.

Against a left handed pitcher, I tend to always guess inside even through I’m more comfortable guessing outside pitches.  The CPU would tend to take advantage because I kept getting tied up on pitches inside.  To avoid this, I will guess inside pitches.

Darryl Strawberry hit a two-run walk-off home run in deep center field on Jason Jacome in the Yankees 3-2 victory over the Royals. It was Strawberry’s 300th career homer.

“He’s not up there to walk,” Torre said. “We wanted him to hit the ball.”

Twice in the game Strawberry had batted with runners on, and he struck out twice against Royals starter Kevin Appier. Perhaps he was trying for No. 300 too hard.

Take a look at this box score. In the 13th inning, Jim Thome hit a three-run home run. In the 12th, Kenny Lofton made a game-saving catch to rob Roberto Alomar of a two-run homer.

In another 13 inning game, Jesse Levis singled home the winning run for the Brewers. Randy Velarde went 4 for 6 for the Angels. Velarde ended up having a fairly good season. He hit .285 with a .799 OPS.

Alex Fernandez pitched well for the White Sox by pitching eight innings without an earned run. Fernandez raised his record to 10-7. Ron Karkovice and Tony Phillips homered.

The Tigers scored 14 runs in the win over Seattle. Cecil Fielder homered twice and drove in five runs.

The Blue Jays beat the A’s 1-0 in a pitching duel. Pat Hentgen (12-6) pitched a three-hit shutout for his fifth straight victory. He went on to win the Cy Young in 1996.

Sammy Sosa had a big day at Coors field. He had four hits including his league-leading 35th home run of the year. Sosa ended up with 40 home runs and 100 RBIs in 1996.  Galararraga ended up winning the home run (47) and RBI (150) crowns in 1996.

Gary Sheffield set a Marlin record with his 28th homer. Sheffield had 3 hits and 3 runs. John Flaherty’s 27-game hitting streak ended. Flaherty’s streak was the longest in the majors. Flaherty was 0 for 3 against Al Leiter who allowed 2 hits (and 6 walks!) in 6 2/3 innings.

Orlando Miller hit a walk-off home run in the ninth inning for the Astros to beat the Dodgers

Giants rookie Shawn Estes outpitched John Smoltz (17-5) and Barry Bonds hit his 27th homer and drove in four runs. Smoltz won the Cy Young in 1996 and ended up with a 24-8 record.

Other news on this date:

Cincinnati Red owner Marge Schott returned to Riverfront Stadium for the first time since being banned from her office by major league baseball (she was initially banned for her remarks about Adolf Hitler, women and Asians). Schott was on the field with her St. Bernard dog before the Reds’ game with the New York Mets. Baseball had allowed a partial lifting of the ban but Schott was still barred from going to her executive office, and from taking part in day-to-day operations.

The Detroit Tigers, World Champions in ‘84, started the year with a record of 35-5!  They then went on a three game losing streak but ended up when 104 games that year.  On this date, Jack Morris (9-1) pitched a complete game allowing one run and striking out 10 batters as the Tigers beat the Angels 5-1.

Phil Niekro (7-2) pitched well for the Yankees going seven innings and striking out seven batters in a combined shutout.  Dave Righetti got his 6th save.

Take a look at Bob Dernier’s performance.  He went 5 for 5 with two runs scored.  Leon Durham went 3-4 and had two home runs and six RBI’s.  The wind must have been blowing out at Wrigley Field – Cubs 10 Braves 7.

My program is still buggy when it finds doubleheaders so the score for the second game of the doubleheader at Wrigley Field should actually be Cubs 7 Braves 5.

The Phillies won in the bottom of the ninth when Juan Samuel hit his 7th triple of the year (he ended up with 19 triples that year).  Len Matuszek singled to drive in Samuel.

What’s your manager strategy for Stratomatic’s online baseball game? I feel that over the course of a season my team will be more productive if I set most of my managerial settings to normal:

Base running – normal
Base stealing – normal
Relief usage – normal
Bunting – normal
Hit and Run – normal

Intentional Walk
I will set Intentional walk to Conservative.  Depending on the series,  I might set “IBB less with this pitcher” individual settings for all of my pitchers.  This is especially necessary if my opponent is batting a high clutch hitter in front of a superstar. If you don’t have “IBB less with this pitcher” individual settings set,  HAL will usually always have your pitcher intentionally walk the high clutch hitter to face the superstar.

Hit and Run
Depending on the situation, I may sometimes turn the “Don’t hit and run” individual settings on for all of my starting lineup.   More often than not the hit and run play results in a waste of an at bat.

Setup man/Closer
Back in 2002 when Strat-O-Matic had its ’super relievers’ I would always draft a ’super reliever’ and drop him into the setup role and leave the Closer settings empty. Chris Hammond, who pitched 242 innings, for one of my teams was a favorite back in the 2002 season.

Now that the ’super reliever era’ is gone, I usually always try to land a decent closer within the 3M-6M range. I will usually keep the Setup Man settings empty unless there’s a good matchup with my opponent.