Monday, July 29, 2019

Updated Top 25 Trade Deadline Acquisitions Including Puig vs. Bauer - Astros 3rd Ace in Greinke

We updated the top 25 pickups in the final week leading up to the trade deadline. These ratings are based purely on how good the projected Statis-Pro card was for the player is for the player and how much it upgraded the team (all player cards here and updated by current team). We look forward to the match-up of two of the biggest pickups when the Reds' Bauer faces the Indians' Puig in a game scheduled in our season (see grid of all games here, including NL Central vs. AL Central teams).


RankPitchers red/blueWhy good acquisition
Batters black
1Zack Greinkeastros9 No.3 starter on staff with 3 aces
2Yasiel PuigIndiansRF9 incredible bat, glove, speed, 3rd in order
3Corey Dickersonrayslf9 great defense, cleanup hitter
4Trevor BauerReds9 ace starter
5Scooter Gennettgiants2B8 would bat him 5th
6Marcus Stromanmets8 strong No. 3
7Ray BlackBrewers8 incredible setup
8Jake Diekmanathletics8 great setup, and left to 2-9 right
9Tyler Whitedodgers8 great platoon, top ph
10Franmil ReyesIndianslf8 excellent bat, no 5
11Tanner Roarkathletics7 no 3 starter
12Zac RosscupCardinals7 no 3 reliever
13Tony Kempcubslf7 great speed, defensive replacement
14Keon BroxtonMarinersss7 great speed
15Nick AndersonRays7 great setup
16Nicholas Castellanoscubsrf7 great platoon vs lefty in rf
17Jedd Gyorkododgers2b7 defensive or strong ph
18Jesus Aguilarrays1b6 strong ph, defensive replacement
19Joe McCarthygiants6 solid ph if called up
20Max Stassiangelsca6 solid bench
21Mark Melanconbraves6 setup reliever
22Sergio Romotwins6 set up, but one of many
23Jose PirelaPhillies2b6 decent platoon
24Shane Greenebraves6 added bull pen depth
25Martin MaldonadoastrosCA5 defensive replacement

Sunday, July 21, 2019

10 Shortcuts for High Volume Statis-Pro Seasons - with Dodgers and Braves Facing Off

In my first match-up of division leaders, the Dodgers defeated the Braves 5-3 and 3-2 to hold by far the best record in my NL Statis-Pro game at 32-16. While many play the great Statis-Pro Advanced all-time series with more focus on each game over time to replay perhaps one great teams entire 154- or 162-game season, I use several steps to get in as many games as possible in short period of time to have a little truer test.

The steps I used are below the photo of the actual condensed scoresheet of the Braves-Dodgers games (click here for projections of all 2019 players).


1. I always play 2-game series so I just write the line-up, shuffled my 4-sided Fast Action Cards once, and get in two games (or you can use dice of course).

2. Because teams have a 14% chance of a sweep in a 3-game series and 14% chance of winning a game by 5 runs I could each games as either a 2-to-1 win for the winning team, or they can get credit for a series sweep if they lead by 5-runs or more after the 8th inning WITHOUT using their best reliever available (some trial and error here, but bringing in the closer to hold a 5-run lead OR letting a team hit in the bottom of the 9th to try to get a 5-run lead both mess up the spirit of the game).

3. I use a 4-man starting rotation and each team starts either their 1st and 4th best pitcher or 2nd and 3rd best in each series so that even if one team gets ahead of another in games played they are both still using fairly "equal" parts of their rotation.

4. I only let relievers pitch in one of two games - another example of the above where Jansen and Kelly (the Dodgers 2 best relievers) were used to preserve the first win, so were not available in the second game. Then I typically just count down so the best relievers still available will be available for the 9th inning. So with those two gone and Buehler lasting 5 innings, the 4th best pitcher still available (Ferguson) pitched the 6th, then the 3rd best available (Rosscup) pitched the 7th, Stripling the 8th, and then the one other PB:2-8 in the pen - Alexander - pitched the 9th of Game 2.

5. I only let each reliever pitch one inning OR up to 4 batters in one of the two games. You obviously want to use the best pitchers as much as you can and there are great ways in the advanced game to decide on rest, BUT to get in volume of games this lets you see who was used in Game 1 of each series and not use them in Game 2. You can bring in a pitcher ahead of his inning to get out of a jam but unless he induces a double play as his only batter faced in one inning and then gets three straight in the next inning for a 1 2/3rd inning start, you are playing with fire because he may not be able to finish closing a game and then you end up with a lesser pitcher in a jam. My projected cards include any player who plays or is projected to play any measurable time in the current season, so you should have plenty of extra projected pitchers and pinch hitters to add to your set of cards even for a marathon extra inning game.

6. I leave a space between the two games to allow for platoon changes in the line-up or to mark pitch hitters. The 3 by Vedugo means he actually hit the 3rd time the No. 9 pitchers spot was due up, and the 4 by Taylor means he hit the 4th time.

7. In playing the current season in addition to the players from the past year, I do keep simple staple cards you can calculate based purely on projected ERA and OPS to change only the home run range to plug in a new surprise player like Alvarez for the Astros (click here for projected cards of all 2019 players including new ones). The disadvantage to this sheet is it lists only ranges for singles and doubles, unlike the cards that tell you if the hit goes to the infield (1Bf), left field (1B7), etc. When using a projected card for a new player without these ranges I just use the following:

If the last digit of the Random Number is a 1,2 or 3 he pulled the ball
If it is a 4, 5 or 6 he hits the ball to centerfield
If it is a 7 or 8 he goes opposite field

8. I only have injuries last for the rest of the game, but because I am using projected cards you don't get ridiculous ones for a player who only played a handful of games.

9. Since I do not actually calculate Clutch Batting (BD) ranges, I just convert the following on the offensive card: 1B becomes a base clearing 2B, 2B become Home Runs, all OUTs (but not strikeouts) become Deep Sac flies with all runners advancing, and I draw a new number if the first one was a Walk or Hit by Pitch - with all other results (3b, HR, K) staying the same.

10. Because the projected cards do not have a breakdown for facing left handers or righthanders, use the basic game adjustment of 88s turning into hits if it is a right-hander vs. left hander in either combination, an 11 turning into a strikeout if right vs. right or left vs left, and then a 12 also an out if left vs. left.

I realize some of this goes in the opposite direction of the great advanced rules that keep improving the game when playing the all-time teams where the roster is set and you know what players you will have in place for the whole year. But for any who do like trying to keep up with current rosters for some of their games, it gives the ability to get a more realistic test in a shorter season I believe.

For whatever it is worth, here are my standings so far this season in the balanced NL where it seems the only near certainty is that the Dodgers will win and the Marlins will lose any given series. (the standings continued to be updated on this google sheet with a line on every game played).


TeamDivisionWinsLossesGB
CubsNL Central27210
BrewersNL Central2220-2
RedsNL Central2022-4
CardinalsNL Central2226-5
PiratesNL Central1725-7
BravesNL East24180
NationalsNL East24180
PhilliesNL East24180
MetsNL East2220-2
MarlinsNL East1632-11
DodgersNL West32160
GiantsNL West2820-4
PadresNL West2220-7
DiamondbacksNL West2121-8
RockiesNL West1725-12

Tuesday, July 16, 2019

Statis-Pro Relives the Past ... and Maybe Predicts the Future

Many enjoy playing the 1927 Yankees against the 1976 Reds or entire replays of past seasons for their favorite historic teams using Statis-Pro cards available here. My best friend and I have also enjoyed playing with cards for the current rosters since the 1980s - rotating leagues to quickly understand each team's strengths and weaknesses in 30 minute games. (get free starter game here)

The only problem with playing the "present" season is that critics can jump on the game looking "unrealistic" whenever a team in a short Statis-Pro season has a much different record than their actual squad. Last year I had the AL and the Red Sox, Yankees, Astros and Indians ran away with the league - all finishing within a game of 38-22, but while that all seemed realistic, the Chicago White Sox were annoyingly decent in Statis-Pro while terrible in real MLB games.

However, as I took the NL this year I knew there was much more balance, and the biggest discrepancy between my current season based on projected Statis-Pro cards and the actual MLB season a few weeks ago was that the Colorado Rockies and San Francisco Giants seemed to be flipped.

In Statis-Pro the Giants were battling for first in the NL West while the Rockies were buried in last, while the actual standings showed the Giants at 32-42 and the Rockies were 40-34.
I do play with park neutral stats, so the Rockies line-up of All-Stars in the actual MLB only looked like a decent offense in Statis-Pro, but by the same token their pitching looked pretty good once adjusted for Coors Field.

Monday night the Giants took a series 4-2 over the Rockies – to maintain a big lead over the Rockies in our Statis-Pro standings:



TeamDivisionWinsLossesGB
DodgersNL West23130
GiantsNL West2418-2
DiamondbacksNL West1917-4
PadresNL West1917-4
RockiesNL West1725-9
CubsNL Central27210
BrewersNL Central2220-2
RedsNL Central2022-4
CardinalsNL Central2226-5
PiratesNL Central1620-5
BravesNL East22140
NationalsNL East2115-1
MetsNL East1917-3
PhilliesNL East1917-3
MarlinsNL East1224-10

That meant the Giants actually caught the Rockies at 46-49. That made me curious – since my Statis-Pro stats reflected a 42-game record how had each team done in their last 42 games?

It turns out with the Giants third straight win over the Rockies in the real MLB, the Giants are now 25-17 in their last 42 while the Rockies are 20-22. So the Statis-Pro Rockies are just three games worse than the real Rockies, and the Statis-Pro Giants are just one game better than the real Giants.

This is not the first time that the Statis-Pro cards seemed to show a team was much better or worse than their actual record to date - only to turn out to have predicted the future as the real team caught up.

I also actual watched their game Tuesday night, watching Giants closer Will Smith blow a 3-run lead in the 9th only to have the Giants respond with 4 runs to win.

This was an incredible match for real action in the following two updates I posted on my Monday night Statis-Pro double header in which Smith gave up 4 runs in the 9th to offset 3 Giants runs in the 9th.

The following are my actual updates on the final two games I played – so I entered these updates after midnight Monday night – less than 24 hours before an almost exact 9th inning explosion for both teams occurred (this link goes to my update on all games):

Col          Gray      8              SF           Bumgarner                         7              no                           Only a Rockies game - Belt's 3-run HR in top of 9th off Col closer Oberg made it 7-4, then Colorado tagged Giants closer Smith for 4 runs to win. Desmond's new HR24-31 card yielded 31 HR.

SF           Blach     9              Col          Senzatek                             8              sweep                  Col scored 4 in bottom of 9th again, but fell one short and gave up sweep due to 9-4 after 8 innings. Both teams scored 16 runs in the two game series.

Keep in mind my records are based on each game played counting as three games – with the winning team getting credit for a 2 games to 1 win UNLESS they lead by 5 or more after 8 innings without using their closer and hold the lead in the ninth (this works out well mathematically because teams sweep a 3-game series about as often as they win by 5 runs – 14 percent of the time.
While many people enjoy the great all-time series and even play whole 162-game seasons with Statis-Pro, and I love to do this in the offseason – playing off the current season with our projected cards may occasionally even predict the future J.

Though obviously any shorter season like I play can yield different results than a team sustaining their record over a true test in a 162-game season.

In addition to my free links to the game and all current player cards above, I just updated on the most improved 75 players here.

Monday, July 15, 2019

75 Most Improved MLB players; 23 Well Below expectations

We compared our 1200 Statis-Pro player cards to current stats, and found that about 1 in 12 (just over 100) were performing well above - or well below - the projected cards we gave them. In those cases we split the different between or original projections and their stats so far to come up with a compromise card and new projected OPS and ERA.

If you see and "upgrade" by a batter it means his OPS so far this year was at least 0.080 points higher than our projected card, so we added a HR number which ups his card OPS by 0.40. An "upgrade 2x" means had an ops of .160 higher than we projected so we added 2 HRs on his card to up him .080, and an upgrade 3.0 means we added 3 HRs to make his projected card result .120 higher. A downgrade likewise takes away a homer and lowers the card ops by 0.040.

For pitchers (the blue players) remember each pitcher has a PB: 2-9 (best), 2-8, 2-7, 4-7 (average), 2-6, 2-5 or 2-4 (worse). In these cases, if the pitcher's PB this year would be at least 2 better than we projected we split the difference by improving him 1, and if at least 4 higher than by 2. In the case of Mike Soroka of the Braves he was projected as the worst PB - a 2-4 - and is actually pitching at the highest level - a PB: 2-9. For that, we went just past halfway and gave him an above average PB: 2-7 as the player who has ost exceeded expections.

If you've already printed out the team sheets, you can just look at the players on a given team below to make the quick adjustment to the last HR number or to the PB. If you go to the link and print them now, these players are all updated to reflect below. The Rockies Desmond was the first to benefit on an Random Number of 31 on his new HR 24-31 range that was the difference in an 8-7 win (all game logs here).




Sunday, July 14, 2019

Statis-Pro Analysis Confirms Brewers Desperate to Add Starting Pitching (Dodgers 1st, Yankees 2nd, Astros 3rd)

The urgency for the Brewers to pick-up "Thor" (Mets starting pitcher Noah Syndergaard) or some other starting pitching after Dallas Keuchel chose the Brewers is apparent to me as I continue to play off the season with projected player cards in my free Statis-Pro baseball game.

Adjusted for ballparks, the Brewers have one of the better offenses (despite the weaker bottom of the linte-up) and fielding, with one of the top relief corp and base running teams - but ranks as only the 20th best starting rotations. This played out out in a series split I played Sunday that left the Brewers in almost the exact spot in the NL Central as they are in actual play. Even though I use injured players like Jimmy Nelson when I play - playing series after series with all teams just feels like they cannot get to the bullpen with a lead enough unless they add starting pitching.

Here are the two games I played out and the current standings in my game - counting down the final two weeks and who might be picked up. Of the 101,000 who have clicked on my site these first couple of years, more than 11,000 have clicked on this link to how to play the game with another link to the google sheet of all MLB players and likely players.

Most recent Statis-Pro Games and NL Central Standings


Chicago Cubs 4, Milwaukee 1 (Darvish vs. Nelson) - After Yelich singled and scored on a Moustakas single, but bryant and Schwarber drive in runs to make it 4-1 Cubs, the pitching settled  down with Kimbrel getting the save.

Milwaukee 11, Chicago Cubs 7 (Woodruf vs. Lester) Lester took 5-0 lead into 6th, but Brewers hit 4 HRs the final 4 innings (Moustakas 2, Grandal, Yelich) to salvage split and stay just 2 games behind the Cubs in NL Central.

Cubs      27- 21    0
Brewers               22-20     2
Reds      20-22     4
Cardinals              22-26     5
Pirates  16-20     5


Rating all MLB Defenses (Brewers 11th of 30)


As I played the NL Central this week in my current season (all updates and standing here), the first place Cubs avoided a sweep against the Cardinals due to two great defensive plays by two great defenders with Clutch Defense 5 rating - Rizzo (1b) and Heyward (RF).

I calculated who seemed to to have the best Statis Pro cards this season (see Statis Pro card of all players based on projections of all players here) by creating the first table below showing the starting player's CD of 1 to 5 at all eight positions for each of the 30 teams - but multiplying the shortstop rating by five, the third baseman by 3 and the second baseman by 2. The Giants had the best overall CD with 63 of a possible 75(if all eight players were a CD5).

The Dodgers nudged ahead of the Yankees for first and the Astros nudged ahead of the Nationals for third in their overall rating (second table below) that also weighted each team's starting line-up OPS (x4), starting rotation (x2), top six relievers (x1), these clutch defensive ratings (x2) and team speed (x1). (see post on original ratings before adding defense here.

This isn't perfect of course, for example I give only gold glove winners the top rating of "Clutch Defense 5" which means Lorenzo Cain only gives the Brewers the next best rating of "4" at centerfield even though his stats point to him being a 5.

TeamC1b2b3bSSLFCFRFTotal CD
1Giants448152514263
2Cardinals55892043357
3Padres4510151524156
4Rockies314152021349
5Athletics244122012348
6Dodgers312122033448
7Indians41862032347
8Yankees312122032447
9Angels41632044446
10Braves146121055245
11Brewers43461544343
12Cubs45461513543
13Rangers41862012143
14Astros118121024442
15Blue Jays44632031142
16Mets218121041341
17Royals41831554141
18Mariners112121513439
19Nationals118121011438
20Pirates21431543335
21Diamondbacks34231035434
22Marlins11291512334
23Rays42431045133
24Red Sox4443544533
25Reds4429521431
26White Sox11412532129
27Twins3243514426
28Phillies11231033225
29Orioles2426521123
30Tigers2343511120


Ranking Potential for all 30 Teams Based on Projected Playing Cards for 2nd Half


With the fielding rankings above incorporated into the previous rankings, the following is our current ratings of how good each team's Statis Pro cards look with the Dodgers ranked in first by averaging a ranking of almost 6th in the league once all aspects are averaged together, and the Orioles the worst with an average ranking of just better than 28th of 30.


OverallPark Neutral CardsLine-up OPSrnk (4)rotation erarnk (2)6 relieversrnk (1)OBR/SP Rnk (1)Total CDrnk (2)Wt Ave
1Dodgers0.81713.7283.545254866.2
2Yankees0.78673.6873.381124787.1
3Astros0.81323.99153.714342148.3
4Nationals0.77893.4933.6913438199.7
5Padres0.764143.88113.57765639.7
6Cubs0.78663.9123.59924431210.5
7Red Sox0.78953.4623.751622332411
8Cardinals0.78384.1183.74152957211.6
9Braves0.771113.7693.852015451011.7
10Indians0.74253.3713.598247712.6
11Brewers0.768134.24203.4749431112.7
12Angels0.80434.27214.21282846912.8
13Rockies0.744213.77103.7717149413
14Phillies0.79644.05163.671116252813.1
15Mets0.763153.6453.621020411613.2
16Rays0.752183.6763.54614332315
17Giants0.745204.28223.4432663115.5
18Athletics0.761164.35243.78181948515.9
19Pirates0.759173.92133.691217352016.3
20Reds0.77123.971442518312516.9
21Diamondbacks0.742243.5743.43223342117.1
22Twins0.773104.16193.852127262718
23Blue Jays0.745194.3233.922421421519.7
24Rangers0.714284.05173.851913431320.4
25Mariners0.743234.5274.092710391821.9
26White Sox0.744225.05294.01265292622.9
27Royals0.707294.46263.91237411723.2
28Marlins0.726274.38253.882230342225.4
29Tigers0.731264.61284.32308203025.8
30Orioles0.702305.28304.282911232927.8


Wednesday, July 10, 2019

AL Defeats NL 5-1 in Statis-Pro Game of Projected 2019 Cards

After getting back after 1 a.m. from a long work day, I put on the All-Star game to watch the AL win 4-3, and played my old school Statis-Pro All-Star game at the same time.

I used the current cards, using the projected stats from before the season, and how they have played during my current season. One nice aspect of this was that Carrasco was my second pitcher for the AL on a night when he was actually cheered while watching the game with his recently discovered leukemia.  Obviously some players have actually played above their projections, and others below, so the line-ups weren't the same.

The AL won the Statis-Pro game as well, having a little easier time with two runs each off Scherzer and deGrom including a two for two night and home run from Guerrero, who we projected as an All-Star before the season, to cruise to a 5-1 win. I actually put a few all-time great cards of members of the Big Red Machine alongside Bob Gibson's cards by an old school Statis-Pro Board I used years ago with the Reds players - but obviously they were not really in teh game.






Sunday, July 7, 2019

Top 20 Starting Statis-Pro Pitchers through All-Star Break

The following is the rough estimate of the top ERA's in the NL Statis-Pro season through 12 games (3 starts for each pitcher). We do a quick run of the teams score in each game, with a cap of 9, so this is really how many runs the team (including his relievers) allowed in his starts, followed by the team's record in those games.

RnkPitcherEst. ERAWinsLosses
1deGrom - NYM0.3330
2Fried - Atl1.0030
3Scherzer - Was1.3321
4Quintana - Chi1.6730
5Fedde - Was2.0030
6Velazquez - Phi2.3321
7Archer - Pitt2.3321
8Woodruf - Mil2.6621
9Gray - Col2.6703
10Lugo - NYM2.6721
11Pivetta - Phi2.6721
12Buehler - LAD3.0021
13Kershaw - LAD3.0030
14Paddock - SD3.0021
15Ray - Ari3.0021
16Ryu - LAD3.0030
17Syndergaard - NYM3.0012
18Reyes - StL3.3321
19Darvish - Chi3.6721
20Freeland - Col4.0021

All-Star Break: Yankees & Dodgers Tie for Best Projection Based on Statis-Pro MLB Cards

With 99,321 visits to www.pudnersports.com, it appears we will hit 100,000 by the first pitch of the All-Star game Tuesday. The two most popular clicks are for the instructions for how to play Statis-Pro baseball, and all current and likely 2019 Major League players and their Statis-Pro projected cards. Our Power Ratings indicate the Yankees and Dodgers are the strongest two teams going into the second half of the season, so to play them against each other just click on the two images below. You could start a game with Aaron Judge (top line, Yankees, black type indicates position players) batting against Clayton Kershaw on the Dodgers team below (starting pitchers in blue, relievers in red).

A roll of two six sided dice refers to the "Control" figure by Kershaw, a 2-8 meaning he keeps it on his card on those numbers, so a 9-12 roll puts in on Judge's card. You then need two 8-sided dice for an 11-88 roll to see what happens on that card. For Judge up to 13 (see 1b column below) is a single, up to 17 a double, 18 a triple, up to 27 a home run, up to 54 a strikeout, yo 71 for a walk, 72 is a hit by pitch and up to 88 an out.


You can literally play a Dodgers-Yankees game with those dice and the teams below, but you can also look at these instructions to add fielding, speed and any other aspects of the game. We track our ongoing NL season here, where the Dodgers have the best record at 23-13. My friend is playing the AL this year and said his biggest problem is figuring out how to fit stars into the line-up. In my All-Star game, the AL defeated the NL 5-1 with Guerrero Jr. going 2 for 2 with a homer.




The projections were all park neutral before the season started. (July 3 we updated all rosters with projections for any missing players, so the rosters are complete with suggested lineups and pitching rotations).

Standings at All-Star Break

Here is the blog tracking the standings in my game, and the standings follow:

NL Central W L GB
Cubs 22 14 0
Brewers 19 17 -3
Cardinals 16 20 -6
Pirates 16 20 -6
Reds 16 20 -6
NL East W L GB
Braves 22 14 0
Nationals 21 15 -1
Mets 19 17 -3
Phillies 19 17 -3
Marlins 12 24 -10
NL West W L GB
Dodgers 23 13 0
Giants 20 16 -3
Diamondbacks 19 17 -4
Padres 19 17 -4
Rockies 15 21 -8

These were the final two-game series for each team leading into the All-Star break with the new player cards and a few new rules in use, with notes on the most recent games.

SD beats SF 2-1 (paddock vs. Lamet) The 1st "average" pitcherwith a PB4-7, Suerez did his part with only 1 run allowed through 5 IP , but in the7th Machado GW -1b gave Padres 2-1; overachieving Giants fell from 3-way tie for 1st.

SD beats SF 6-3 (Suerez vs. Samardzija) Kinsler's Grandslam after Samardzija walked the 1st three of the 4th inning rallied the Padred from a 3-1 deficit en route to a 6-3 win to pull within 2 games of 1st in the NL West.

St. Louis 12, Kansas City 0 (Reyes vs. Junis) – (sweep credit) Cards broke out of an ice cold start when Molina's 3-run HR and DeJong's grandslam keyed 5-run 1st and 2nd innings. The rotation struggles led to 11-19 start, but Reyes' shutout.
St. Louis 6, Kansas City 4 (Martinez vs. Kennedy) - With 4-4 tie, Ozuna walked to start 9th and Cards only speedster Robinson pinch ran, stole 2nd, went to third on wild pitch, and just beat throw home on grounder to short for winning run. Kennedy was the first PB2-4 to ever start a current game for me.

Diamondbacks vs. Nationals
Washington 9, Arizona 2 (Strasburg vs. Greinke) – (sweep credit) After outdueling Astros Verlander & Phillies Nola, Greinke's 2-1 lead disappeared in a 4th inning in which 2b Flores errored, and misplayed easy CD grounder 2-run, then left after rain delay

Washington 4, Arizona 3 (Corbin vs. Godley) - Nats clean-up hitter Rendon hit 2 homers, and Corbin made it into the 7th before getting help from the great pen.
5 in 10 innings (Ryu vs. Wood) - Reds Erwin pinch ran in 8th, stole and scored tying run, then threw out Pollock trying to score from 2nd to force extra innings. However, Muncy's 10th inn HR of Lorenzen gave LA 9th straight.

LA Dodgers 12, Cincinnati 7 (Buehler vs. Castillo) - Dodgers pounded out 9 runs in 1st and led 12-0 when Buehler tired after 5 LA Dodgers 6, Cincinnati scoreless innings. However, Reds pounded out 7 off what was left of Dodgers bullpen after extra inning affair.

Colorado 5, Miami 0 (Marquez vs. Gallen) = Ace Marquez & Rockies pitchers are good away Coors Field. CG shut out, Rockies 12 hits, Marlins 2. No sweep because up 3-0 after 8, then Story and Arenado went back to back.

Colorado 3, Miami 1 (Senzatela vs. Yamamoto) -Blackmon and Arenado homers and 5 Rockies pitchers blanked Marlins for another 8 1/3 until closer Oberg gave up solo to Anderson in 9th.  C Alfaro ejected for arguing strike zone.

Atlanta 7, Philadelphia 4 (Keuchel vs. Arrieto) - 3 unearned runs of Arrietta after 1b Hoskins dropped the 3rd out, then Donaldson hit 3-run HR. Phillies avoided sweep with 4-run 8th w/ 4 staight hits (Seguara, McCutchen, Harper, Realmuto.

Philadelphia 8, Atlanta 3 (Pivetta vs. Foltynewicz) - Acuna went 7 of 10 with 4 steals in series and scored twice to avoid sweep. Phils 2 HRs (Franco, Williams) 2 triples (Hernandez), 2 doubles (Williams, Segura) 6 singles.

Chicago Cubs 3, NY Mets 2 (Quantina vs. Syndergaard) - Familia blew a 2-1 lead in the 8th, allowing homers to Rizzo and Schwarber. Kimbrel locked up a 4-out save (pitchers can finish and inning OR face up to 4 batters in my league rules.

NY Mets 7, Chicago 0 (Lugo vs. Hamels) - sweep credit - Alonso's 3-run homer capped the scoring for the sweep, and unlike the current season the Mets' Diaz is virtually untouchable in the game and pitched the 9th for the combined shutout.

Milwaukee 4, Pittsburgh 0 (Nelson vs. Taillon) - Three of the 1st 8 Brewers homered for an early 4-0 lead, and Nelson went 6 2/3 before turning it over to the Brewers great pen for the combined shutout.

Milwaukee 4, Pittsburgh 3 (Peralta vs. Musgrove) - Brewers 9 relievers 0 runs in series, but it took a homer by backup shortstop Dubon after a double switch to break a 7th inning tie. Grandal 2-run 3b, Cain RBI 2b, but error on Moustakas.

All-Star Break - all teams at 36 game record (12 actual games played - shooting for 23
For those who already play the game, the changes we made once every team had played 10 games, and some basic rules:

Rule Adjustments

PB: 2-4 and PB: 2-7 pitcher cards. For the first time in current play in my decades of playing, we have added the PB: 4-7 and PB: 2-4 cards - something we've already used playing the great all-time teams provided via the Statis-Pro Advanced Facebook page. I go through an pretty exhaustive breakdown of how I distribute the park neutral PB ratings here.

Relievers pitch 1 of 2 games in series - finish inning or can go to 4 batters total faced. To keep relievers to a reasonable number of innings, it is easiest to let each pitcher start and finish an inning, then move to the next reliever. If the pitcher has pitched to fewer than 4 batters when an inning ends, he can continue to pitch until he has pitched to 4 batters total. Due to a shortage of pitchers, we experimented with international rules the first 10 games of the season -starting players on 1st and 2nd base each extra inning and letting the 9th inning pitcher stay in the game to play it out. It was a fun twist, but now that each team has plenty of pitchers on the google sheet of players and the fact that teams will get down to PB2-4 pitchers to make runs more likely as it goes deeper in extra innings we are now playing normal MLB rules for each game.

11 = K if Righty vs Righty or Lefty vs. Left. 12 - F2 only if Lefty vs. Lefty. 88 = Single if Lefty vs. Righty. In addition to his great cards, we noted that the Advanced Statis-Pro facebook provider also changed the left-right match-ups so that you only change the Random numbers of 11 or 12 to outs in a lefty vs lefty match-up, and only change one number in the other combinations (righty vs. righty is changed to strikeout only on an 11, while the advantage of left vs. right no matter which the batter is and which the pitcher is now is only changed on a random number of 88 - turning from an out to a single with runner advancing two bases.

Because the free player sheets we provide only tell you if something is a single or double and not which field the ball is hit to like the actual player cards provided on the Facebook page - the direction of the hit is determined by the last digit of the random number on the card:

Who fields each hit. 11 = if the batter is an OBR A or B then check the next number for the CD to determine which of the 9 fielders played the single - this is the only chance for an infield singled but it could go to the outfielder. Otherwise:

The batter pulls the single or double if the last digit of the random number is a 1, 2 or 3 (11, 12, 13, 21, 22, 23, 31, 32, 33, etc.

All batters hit the ball to centerfield if the last digit is a 4, 5 or 6 (14, 15, 16, 24, 25, 26, etc.).

The batter his the ball to the opposite field if the final digit is a 7 or 8 (17, 18, 27, 28, etc.)

When a clutch batting (BD) is drawn with someone on the base and a projected card that does not have BD ranges then we use the batters card and make the following conversions:

1B - becomes base clearing double
2B - becomes home run
3B - stays triple
HR - stays home run
K - stays strike out
W or HPB - change to foul and draw RN again for BD until you get another result
Out - deep drive caught but all runners move up a base.

League Rules on Sweeps. Each game still counts as a three-game series with the winner normally getting credit for 2 wins and the loser 1 win. The exception is if one team has a 5-run lead at the end of the 8th inning without using their closer through eight and they need to just hold the lead in the 9th.

Season summaries are tracked in this google doc.