Friday, April 30, 2021

Game tips on injuries and pitcher endurance as Cubs sneaks into 10th and final spot



Pretty hard to compete with the NFL draft, particularly when my last chance to play a 2-game set was Sunday in Colorado at 10,000 feet, before this Friday night game back in Alabama.

The two games tonight finished the 2 game series Sunday. As an fyi, 2 games take me a total of an hour while on my walking desk, for those of youbwho believe I have time to kill when playing these games.

First the Cubs truly backed into the final 10, being shut down for one run in two games by the Cards to get to 16-22, in 10th place of the 10 teams to make it, and just snuck in by a game over the Rockies and Marlins.

A Cubs homer by Pederson in the first game was we only run in either game in the losses of 2-1 and 6-0 (sweep in 2nd game made it 5 games to 1 on the record).

Game tip for others playing the Statis-Pro game is we only play that injuries last until the end of the we series. However Arenado was hurt in the first game so Carpenter came in at third base and then homered in game 2.



The Braves came back to win the second game against the Reds to split the series and stay at .500 at 18-18.

Bigger injury here as the Reds Senzel had a homer and two doubles and was then lost in the second game.

Also of note for Statis-Pro players is the decision regarding bringing in Martin in Game 2. You will see his card at the bottom left in the photo below. He had the best park neutral ERA available and his pb2-9 indicates he is in the top 5 percent of all pitchers. However his RR of 2 usually means he only pitches on inning because that is lowered means any time  a player reaches 1st (except on error) or scores, or an inning ends. Once two of those things happen he is a pb2-8- then every time another happens he is a 2-7- then 4-7, 2-6, etc.

Relievers can only pitch one inning or four up to 4 batters if they pitch in more than one inning, and after that if they still have rr they still lose one pb every batter faced.

In addition to that, in our league a team gets credit for winning three games in a row only if they lead by 5 runs at the end of the 8th AND they have not used the reliever available with the best era on his card has not been used by the 8th.

All of that being factored, the Braves led 5-1 going into the 8th, at which point if Dayton could pitch the top of the 8th and the Braves could add one run in the bottom of the 8th then they could claim the 3-game sweep with a 6-1 lead after 8 ad long as they held onto win the 8th.

However when Dayton gave up a 2-run homer and then walked runner to put the tying run on the plate, he dropped from a pb2-7 to a pb2-4, with Suarez coming to the plate as the tying run. Suddenly the focus turned to winning g the game to get 2 games to 1 credit with the sweep seeming out of range.

Martin came in to protect the 5-3 lead, thus forfeiting any chance for a sweep because he was used before the 9th inning.

Martin got the final out of the 8th, however the end of the inning meant his rr dropped from 2 to 1.

In the 9th he retired the first two batters, but he walked Naquin. At this point he was reduced to a pb2-8 - this would have happened because it was his 5th batter over more than one inning, or because the rr was reduced to 0, but you just give him the worst of the two methods you don't double down, so he became a pb2-8 to face Lorenzon, but would have dropped to a pb2-7 for the next batter etc due to being last 4 batters.

However, he struck out Lorenzen to wrap up the save, 5-3, and earn the split.



Tuesday, April 27, 2021

3 key links for this site

The key three links for this blog site the links to two free games with player cards - Statis-Pro Baseball Game and the Value Add Basketball Game - and the database rating all the college basketball players of this century at www.valueadddbasketball.com.

Rare Speed AA in Mets-Padres Showdown

 It was fun to see the rare On-base running (OBR) A, stealing-speed (SP) AA for Villar. Not many like that any more, the figure Rickey Henderwon basically invented for Statis-Pro and then went one step further with AAA. Villar bats 8th, but went 5 of 7. The last full season he stole 40 bases and he once stole 62, in a sport that largely gave up on the steal.

The Mets pulled out two hard-fought wins against the Padres to move into first place. If the playoffs started today in our Statis-Pro season, the Padres would play the Reds for the chance to play the Mets, and the Dodgers would play the DBacks for the chance to play the Brewers.

To even put the season all 10 NL teams on the grid will play each other in a series and each team will play 5 relegated teams - whether from the NL already played, or the 5 relegated from the AL.




Monday, April 26, 2021

Grid of 10 NL Statis-Pro Qualifiers


Now that 10 NL teams made the cut, the google sheet tracking team vs. team records includes only those five teams. Note the overall record of the 10 teams is 187-147, because the five relegated teams no longer listed were 40 games below .500. Teams record against relegated teams is listed in the Other column (wins) and row (losses).
 

Sunday, April 25, 2021

Cubs Arrieta, Braves Morton clinch with quality starts

As tempting as it would have been to play my Mets-Padres series after watching the real Fernando Tatis Jr. Rally the Padres from down 7-1 in the 7th to stun the Dodgers, we needed to finish playing our borderline teams to see which five teams were relegated. But really, Tatis scored the winning run after stealing 3rd to make the Padres the first team in eight years to steal five bases in back-to-back games, and Tatis was the first shortstop in history to homer three straight days in dodger stadium, the first two off former Cy Young award winners.

But enough about the real world, back to make believe for all my board game friends ...

The Cubs and Braves are both only 16-17, but both clinched finishing in the top 10 to advance to the rest of our season. Here are all 15 teams in alphabetical order with the five teams being relegated in small type, and below that details on the Cubs and Braves game-clinching games.

 We usually show both games of each 2-game series at once. However, with the Cubs and Braves trying to clinch the last two spots we just played the first game of their series.

The games were virtually identical with veteran starters for both teams getting identical 6 inning, 2 runs allowed quality starts in losses that nonetheless kept their team out of danger of losing by 5 runs and thus being considered SWEPT three games to none instead of the 1-2 record they earned for the losses of 2-1 (Cubs to Cardinals) and 4-2 (Braves to Reds).

That dropped both teams below .500 with identical 16-17 records, however that guaranteed them no worse than a 16-20 record at the 36 game mark when 5 teams are relegated. The only two teams with a chance.to catch them were the Marlins and Rockies, both at 15-21, so with the Cubs and Braves 1-2 marks both were eliminated and we are down to 10 teams for the rest of the long season.




Giants, Mariners Relegated; Contenders of Pretenders?

Note: Before breaking down the Giants and Mariners relegation below - The Giants joined the Phillies and Pirates as teams relegated and not participating in the rest of the NL Statis-Pro season. The top 8 teams have clinched a spot in the 10-team season. Colorado and Miami are also relegated UNLESS either the Braves or Cubs get swept in 6-game series. If that happens, then fewer than 10 teams would have 16 wins, and the teams with 15 wins would fill the final spot(s) based on the tie-breakers 1) head-to-head record, 2) best record of opponents faced, 3) if both those are tied then a round robin between 3 tied teams or playoff between 4 tied teams.
 
QualifiedWLNextWin%GB
NYM2010sd0.6670
MIL2313 0.6390
LAD2214 0.611-1
SD1812nym0.600-2
CIN1713atl0.567-3
ARI2016 0.556-3
STL1614chi0.533-4
Wash1719 0.472-6
Need 1 winWLNextWin%GB
ATL1515cin0.500-5
CHC1515stl0.500-5
Need helpWLNextWin%GB
Col1521 0.417-8
Mia1521 0.417-8
RelegatedWLNextWin%GB
Phil1422 0.389-9
SF1422 0.389-9
PIT1125 0.306-12

add 



As our Statis-Pro baseball leagues were trimmed from 15 teams to 10 teams for the duration of the season, the last two teams relegated were the Mariners (AL) and Giants (NL).

The Giants actually took both games from the DBacks, but neither the 5-3 or 5-2 wins qualified for 3-game sweep credit, giving them 4 games to 2 for the series to finish 14-22 and be relegated.

Mike Yastremski finished in style with a homer and double in a 4 of 8 series, and his T5 throwing arm held runners a couple of times.

These are the two relegated teams that are having great seasons in real baseball, leaving the question of if they are actually much better than their projections indicated, or if we should.expect them to come down to earth after hot starts.




Saturday, April 24, 2021

Double-switch, Pirates Hayes Likely End Marlins Season

10 Qualifiers So FarWLNextWin%GB
NYM2010sd0.6670
MIL2313 0.6390
LAD2214 0.611-1
ARI1812sf0.600-2
SD1812nym0.600-2
CIN1713atl0.567-3
STL1614chi0.533-4
ATL1515cin0.500-5
CHC1515stl0.500-5
Wash1719 0.472-6
Relegate Cut OffWLNextWin%GB
Col1521 0.417-8
Mia1521 0.417-8
Phil1422 0.389-9
SF1020az0.333-10
PIT1125 0.306-12

Above are the current Statis-Pro NL Standings and the current cutoff for the five teams who will be relegated at the end of the remaining 6-game series. Teams with an opponent listed under "Next" still have a series to play before the cutoff. The only teams that could still drop and be relegated are Atlanta and Chicago, while the only team with a chance to move up is the Giants - but in all cases this would take 6 game to none sweeps (wins by 5 runs or more in both games of the series to get credit for a 6-game to none series win).

The Marlins needed to win both games against the last place Pirates twice, one if them by at least 5 runs to guaranty their season would continue.

Anderson and Dickerson did their part in a 7-2 win and get the 5-run sweep credit in the opener. At that point all they needed was a win again Kuhl, a pb 2-5 pitcher.

However, Kuhl got through 5 innings down just 2-1 and a double switch was set up. With Kuhl scheduled to lead off the bottom.if the 5th, the pitcher batting spot was moved to the 8-spot and Evans batted to stay in the 9th spot and play right field. Evans walked, and Hayes stroked a 2-run homer to put the Pirates ahead.

That let Stratton come in and throw 2 scoreless innings (he averaged 2.1 innings pitched, and any pitcher to average at least 2 innings can pitch 2 in our game. While the Pirates don't have great stoppers, Stratton is solid and Crick and Rodriguez are both above average at pb2-7, and they both added a scoreless inning for a 4-2 win and a series recorded as just a 4 games to 2 win for the Marlins, leaving them 15-21 and likely done for the year.




Dodgers Explode to Kickoff Relegation Weekend, Eliminate Phillies

 When the real Dodgers started 13-2 and the Statis-Pro Dodgers started 17-13, something had to give. The two evened up during the real Dodgers current 6-game streak with the fewest hits of any Dodgers team since 1909 to fall to 14-6.

Unfortunately for the Phillies, they were relegated out of the Statis-Pro season when the Dodgers exploded to improve to 23-13, leaving the Phillies at 14-22 and 2 games short of the 16-20 needed to guaranty against relegation.

Kershaw and Jansen shut down the Phils in the first game and Seager singled in the game-winner in the 10th to give the Dodgers credit for a 2 games to 1 winner in the opener to mean the Phillies needed to win the nightcap to keep playing. Betts (3 of 7, homer for the series), Turner (4-8 ,hr) and Seager (3-8, double and triple in addition to first game game-winning single) led a late 7-1 outburst for sweep credit to improve to within one game of the Mets and Brewers for 1st in the NL.

This simplifies relegation:

8 teams have won 16 games already and are guaranteed to be in the 10 (or 12) team league for the rest of the season - Arizona, Cincinnati, LAD, Milwaukee, New York Mets, San Diego, st. Louis and Washington.

3 teams failed to win 16 and are out, except there is an chance 11 would qualify and thus we would need to keep Colorado as a 12th to keep it an even number of teams, but both Pennsylvania teams are out.

The Braves and Reds just need to avoid 0-6 to make it. The Marlins could go 5-1 or 6-0 against the last place Pirates to potentially also save Colorado, or the Giants could go 6-0 to do the same.

Standings and Dodgers-Phillies below.





Friday, April 23, 2021

Rockies host 4 at 8530' and 9600' altitude

 As serving up my Statis-Pro game while watching the Rockies rally for a 5-4 win over the Phillies in a real game on my hotel TV...

The Colorado Rockies are the 15th team to play their 5th round series, meaning they go back to back to host Milwaukee in what is really Milwaukee's 6th round game, then play Washington, who played Milwaukee in the 5th round.

Colorado is hosting all 4 games, which means on the Statis-Pro Baseball Park home run chart all DEEP readings on a batters card (11-88) are home runs due to balls taking of at Coors Field's 5200' altitude. However, I am actually playing these games at even higher altitude, with snow up against my window in Georgetown, Colorado (8530', temp below freezing) and tomorrow in Breckenridge, Colorado (9600' feet).

Maybe I should turn doubles into Homer's tonight haha. Below is a photo of me outside the hotel where the game will be played. Game stories for all four will be added below that photo. A lot on the line with the Rockies risking being relegated if they get beat up and the Brewers trying to keep lace with the Mets (who have the best pitcher's Park with all DEEP flies being deep flyouts.


Colorado 4-0, then Milwaukee 6-2

Marquez by far the biggest star with 8 shutout innings. No hitter on either team had more than 2 hits total in the two games. One note on the bottom left is the Rockies have one if the top fringe players in Ian Desmond. Note that his projected .750 OPS results in the fringe card with a 26-32 home run range.



Washington 8-0 sweep, then Colorado 6-4

Scherzer, Turner and Soto led a sweep to put the Nats out of danger of being relegated. A team needed to go at least 16-20 to guaranty they are not relegated, and the Nats are 17-19.

Either 10 or 12 teams will advance after the first 36 teams. 

The eight teams to win at least 16 of their first 36 games are guaranteed to advance and keep playing.

Two teams just need to go at least 1-5 this series to guaranty they continue - the Braves (against the Reds) and the Cubs (against the Cardinals). Assuming they do,, we know 10 teqms that will advance. 

The Phillies are the one team right on the bubble, needing to go 3-3 against the Dodgerss. If they don't then it is likely only the 10 teams above advance.

However Miami can advance with a 5-1 mark against last place Pittsburgh, or the Giants could advance with a.6-0 sweep of Arizona.

After Colorado fell to 15-21 they joined the Pirates with mo chance to reach 16-20.







Thursday, April 22, 2021

6th Round Set After Reds Rip Phillies on Harper's Misplayed Fly Ball

 The Reds and Phillies entered our Thursday game with .500 records in both real baseball and our Statis-Pro season, but as you can see below the Reds dominated the series 5 games to 1. The series wrapped up the 5th round of games and the schedule was set for the 6th round, when the lower part of the rotation is likely to give up more lopsided sweeps.

Here is the grid of matchups so far, with a screen shot below. I list the next opponent (or in Colorado's case next two opponents) next to the team name and on the grid. For series completed look across to see how many games of the 6 -game series the team won against each team. The teams most in danger of being relegated after the 6th round are Miami, Pittsburgh, San Francisco and Colorado, though if the Dodgers finally explode against the Phillies this series they could be in trouble.

Below the guide is the scoresheet of the Phillies-Reds series. The key to the second game came on when a z-play resulted in Bryce Harper misplacing a ball that many could have caught into a 2-run double.




3 key links for this site

 The key three links for this blog site the links to two free games with player cards - Statis-Pro Baseball Game and the Value Add Basketball Game - and the database rating all the college basketball players of this century at www.valueadddbasketball.com.

Wednesday, April 21, 2021

deGrom 15Ks, 1W, 1H - then CRAZY Statis-Pro inning

The Mets-Marlins game Wednesday night is worth a Statis-Pro post for all the ramifications of changes in the game since the original. The res hot Brewers series and standings are at the bottom of the blog, bit first all about the Mets.

1. Jacob deGrom's PB: 2-9 card (see his card in photo at bottom) the best 5% of all pitchers for those who don't know the game) is accurate with a hits allowed range of 11-23 - or 11 numbers of 64 from the 11-88 range. Based on the old, inaccurate Statis-Pro formulas deGrom's card would have had an unrealistic 11-16 hits range or so. That means that every time the action was on deGrom's card there was still a 17% chance for the batter to get a hit - and of course normally higher when on the batters card, and yet, and yet deGrom went through 24 batters without allowing a hit, until an "18" game up to allow Rojas to single and breakup the no-hitter with 1 out in the 8th.

2. Nonetheless, deGrom left after 8 innings on the verge of not collecting the win. He had gone 8 innings allowing only that 1 hit, 1 walk, and striking out 15, and yet the score was 0-0. This despite the Marlins' ace Lopez going only 5 inning with 0 strikeouts, 3 walks allowed and 5 hits allowed for a 1.60 WHIP.

Then a ton of neat Statis-Pro stuff happened in the bottom of the 8th inning for the Mets.

3. Lindor beat out an infield single. Earlier in the game both Lindor (OBR A, SP B) and Villar (A/AA) attempted steals which I do when playing the game solitaire if the baserunners speed is at least as good as the opposing catcher's throwing arm (Wallach is a Th:B). Yet both were thrown out. However, tie game in the bottom of the 8th and I held my breath and sent Lindor again and he stole.

4. With Villar up the Clutch Defense (CD) card came up, and the next card showed it was hit toward the shortstop Rojas, who has the highest clutch defense rating (CD5). A shortstop with a CD5 either makes a diving catch and turns it into a double play, or throws out the lead runner on an 11-78, but the ball somehow got past him on an "85" which is a single allowed and runners advance 2 bases - so unlikely Mets 1-0 and deGrom finally in line for the win.

5. Davis and Alonso then have an S7 and S8 on the scoresheet, indicating they had deep flies and the speedy Villar moved to 2nd and then with two outs to 3rd. Note for scoring, neither of these are really Sac Flies, because that only happens if a runner come home from 3rd. Officially these are just flyouts, but I record them that was to remind myself the runner advanced - and I know the batter still is charged with an at bat for the out unless I also have a small "1" to the top right of the S note to indicated a run did score.

6. The "1" would instead appear by McCann, who drove Villar home, 2-0 Mets.

7. Then the card innovation I made that really adds accuracy is that the CD-C - check the Clutch Defense of the catcher, came up twice on the Marlin's pitchers card. When Statis-Pro was invented, we didn't understand how important catchers were too defense, but now we do, so this field appears instead of passed ball after the wild pitch on a pitcher's card. This makes sense, since just having a pitcher indicated if the catcher screwed up did not make sense - but having more clutch defense ratings for the important defender behind the plate is accurate.

8. The Marlins McCann is only a CD2, and when the CD-C came up with McCann at the plate, McCann could not get to a slow roller in time, and we had our third infield hit of the inning with a 1B2 to up two on with 2 out. At this point the relief pitcher Bass was completely out of RR and would have been a PB2-4, so we brought in Propp, who despite being on the fringe card is actually the Marlins' third best reliever. See the fringe pitcher's card in the upper left of the photo - the numbers are the same for all pitchers except for the PB, which is an average pb4-7 for Prop due to his projected PB4-7. However, in this game his standard fringe card allowed two walks to make it 3-0 and then another CD-C on a 54, and once again McCann's weak defense hurt as he allowed a passed ball to make it 4-0.

9. At this point we had actually gotten to the 9th batter of the inning, which technically was still deGrom since he was done pitching but the Mets had not hit. Here the Mets got lucky. I had actually made a mistake. In their previous game I had pinch run Villar for the great hitter Conforto, and accidentally forgot to put Conforto back in the line-up for this game, so he was sitting on the bench and therefore available to pinch hit. He drove a single to right to score another run and it was 5-0 Mets.

10. Not only did 5-0 make deGrom safe in avoiding another tough non-win after a great performance, but in my league I play that if you win AND are up by at least 5 runs at the end of 8 innings, then you get credit for a 3 games to 0 sweep, whereas if you were not up 5 runs then you are credited with only a 2 games to 1 win for that game. The Mets did not even need to use Diaz to wrap up the win, Loup came in and with the "sweep" moved to 18-9 and 1st place in the Statis-Pro NL.

The Mets won the nightcap 3-0 to stay in first at 20-10.


Brewers also won their series though 4-2 instead of 5-1, so they finish round 5 tied with the Mets.

One note, Hader and Hand were allowed to go 3 innings only because they came in during the 9th. Usually I only allow relievers one inning, but if they don't come in until the 9th they can pitch based just on their rr stamina. They were both tired in the 11th with Hader down to a pb4-7 and Hand a pb2-8 before the winning run scores on a ground out with the runner bearing the throw home.


The Mets and Brewers are 20-10.






Sunday, April 18, 2021

Braves Double Sweep - Unique League Rules

A first glance at the final inning of my two game series in which the Braves crushed the Giants 1p-5 and 6-1 may look peculiar because both ace relievers were in the game. 

The following is the google sheet pictured below that you are free to copy for your own league. If you type in the teams in your league top to bottom and across the top, then add a win for every match-up, it will Tally each team's record. 

I thought this might give a good example to explain a couple of unique League rules I play in my games, but also stress these are not rules of Statis-pro baseball. My friend who always plays the opposite league plays straight up 1-game series between teams.

For me:

1. I play all 2-game series because I quickly free hand a scoresheet and don't need to even write the lineup in twice except for any platoon players.

2. Each game counts as a 3-game series, with the winner getting credit for a 2-1 edge, unless they led the game by at least 5 runs at the end of the 8th inning without using the reliever available with the best era. 

A. This series was only the second time in 34 series I'd played this season in which a team swept both games to get credit for winning the whole series 6 games to 0 (if you see the grid, Atlanta has credit for 6 wins vs. San Francisco just as Arizona did against Colorado.

b. If I had brought Martin in for the Braves before the start of the 9th they would have lost credit for the sweep, but in the 9th it was a use it or lose it since each reliever gets to pitch once in each series. Meanwhile I used Rogers to face the Braves in the bottom of the 8th as a use it or lose it since the Braves would have only hit in the 9th if the giants scored 5 in the top of the 9th.





Statis-Pro Padres 1 Ahead of Dodgers behind 4 Dominant Pirchers

By coincidence, Blake Snell pitched in my Statis-Pro game against the Pirates at the same time he was on TV in the final of a classic series with the Dodgers.

While the Dodgers dominate the early real season, the Padres just missed beating them the first two real games this weekend, and in our game the Padres lead them by one game (see NL Statis-Pro standings below).

The Pirates are just 9-21 in our game, and Snell pitches 6.1 shutout innings, allowing only a walk and 4 singles. With perhaps the best pen in the NL in our game, Snell stayed in for a batter in the 7th only because Polanco is much worse against lefties (12/--) indicates 11 or 12 on is card or opposing pitchers card changes from a hit to a strikeout).

I included Darvish, who won the first game, as a player of the game because his line should have been better than the 6.2 innings, 3 runs allowed. I made a managerial error by not taking Darvish out after he ran out or endurance on a 2-out pinch hit single by Evans. Darvish SR running out on that hit dropped from a PB2-9 to PB2-8 and sure enough a "9" put it on Hayes card who blasted a 2-run homer to pull the Pirates within 4-3 - though they held on.

Interestingly you would often leave a starter in to finish an inning with a pb2-8, but the Padres have the very unusual luxury of two relievers with a PB2-9, and if I'd put Austin Adams in he would have struck Hayes out. In fact Adam's came in and struck out the four he faced, then the other Padres PB2-9 reliever Drew Pomeranz retired the last 3 for the save.

I was however surprised Adams was a pb2-9, meaning one of the best 5 percent. When I pulled up the stats for him and Pomeranz (see below) I saw that both he and Pomeranz had FIPs below 3.00 in the last full season, 2019, which resulted in the great projections for our 2021 cards. An hour later I watched him come in and strike out all 3 Dodgers he faced on TV to go along with all 4 in out game today.

Melancion is the actual closer and Kela setup, and both have strong cards, but Adams and Pomeranz have the best Statis-Pro cards so I use them in the 8th and 9th if rested.


Austin Adams' stats including 2.95 FIP in 2019 with Seattle.



Drew Pomeranz stats.



Saturday, April 17, 2021

3 Key Posts - Hoops and Baseball Game and Player Ratings

The key three links for this blog site the links to two free games with player cards - Statis-Pro Baseball Game and the Value Add Basketball Game - and the database rating all the college basketball players of this century at www.valueadddbasketball.com.

5th Round Statis-Pro Schedule and Over- and Under-Achievers So Far

The 5th round AL series are set up for our Statis-Pro baseball season. The following are the standings and grid of games. The No. 1 and No. 2 starting pitchers from 12 teams will face each other in two game series. The three teams in the "round robin" between the 5th and 6th series will be Colorado, Milwaukee and Washington, and in those series each team will throw either the No. 1 and No. 4 starters or the No. 2 and No. 3 starters.

So far 10 of the NL's 15 teams have played within 2 games of their actual team in real baseball games. The two teams with much better results are Arizona (15-9 record would be 5 games ahead of their real team) and Milwaukee (16-8 would be 3 1/2 ahead of their real team). Three teams are well below their actual team, starting with the LA Dodgers whose 14-10 mark is good but would leave them a full 3 games behind their real team - which won a 12 inning shootout with San Diego last night. Also San Francisco's 10-14 mark and Pittsburgh's 7-17 mark are both about what we expected but 3 1/2 and 4 behind their real teams so far.


Records above are before the games below.

5th round

Dodgers 3-2, then Cubs 7-6. Bauer (7 innings, 2 runs, 10 strikeouts) and Hendricks (8 innings, 1 run) had a great pitching duel. However, they were both gone in the 9th when Betts doubled and Turner homered to give the Dodgers the 3-2 win. In the second game 9th inning Homers by Betts and Bellinger to tie the game, but in the bottom of the 9th Contreras hit a clutch batting walk off double after hitting Homers in both games.




Arizona 4-3 (11 inn) then St. Louis 6-3. Two long relievers had to go two scoreless innings for wins. We only allow relievers to pitch a second inning if they averaged more than 2 innings a game. Escobar for the DBacks and both Carlson and Edman for the Cardinals all went three for eight with multiple extra base hits.






Thursday, April 15, 2021

DBacks Surprise, Braves Disappoint and Injury Leads to Unlikely St. Louis Hero

We wrapped up Round 4 of our Staris-Pro NL season, with the No. 3 and 4 starting pitchers going for the second time in our season.

Interestingly the biggest disappointment of the season is the Atlanta Braves at 6-12. They have started a bit slow in the regular season as well, but their cards seem very strong so I assume they rebound in both.

The one team doing much better in the game than in real life are the Arizona DBacks at 15-9. While this is way out of line with their real season so far, they have put up.some huge run totals recently in real games so we will see if they take off in the real game (tough with the Padres and Dodgers in their division).

One note of interest to.other Statis-Pro players may be the Cardinals unlikely heros in the second game shown - outfielder Justin Williams and pitcher Carlos Martinez, who often would not play.

A z-play injury on a collision between O'Neill and DeJong in the first game put Carpenter and a Wilson in the game for the 3nd of game 1 and all if game 2. Since we use projected stats and thus don't have fluke cards, we don't use injury factors- just leave the players out for the rest if the series.

Williams drew a walk at the end of the first game after the injury put him.in the game, then went 4 of 4 in the second game with homer and a walk off 2-run double in the bottom of the 9th.

That rally was only needed because lock down closer was victimized by an error and clutch batting (bd) 3-run homer that chased him from the game with 0 outs in the 9th. That left emergency pitcher Carlos Martinez to come.in the game, and by getting the last 3 outs he kept the score at 5-4 and received credit for the winafter the rally for a 6-5 game.




Wednesday, April 14, 2021

Cubs' Kimbrel Best Reliever Again?

When Craig Kimbrel entered my Statis-Pro game to Save a 7-5 win over the Mets last night I did a double take. He is a PB2-7, placing him outside the top 15% of all pitchers based on ERA adjusted for ballpark and FIPs, so in the game he the action is on his card 7 of 12 the time of the time (die rolls of 2-7) and batters card on rolls of 8-12.

But his projected ratio of hits is incredible, only allowed hits on 5% of roll (11-13 on the two 8-sided dice, so 14-88 is NOT a hit). My cards are based on a combo of the projected stats going into last year, and to a lesser degree, his less than seller actual innings last year. (Note and earlier version of this story incorrectly indicated he had a pb2-9.

Could the projections on fangraphs have been overly optimistic for his return? After he shut down the Mets in my game I checked his real stats this year. Oh, 6 appearances, 10 strikeouts, 1 hit and no runs allowed. Still early, but maybe he is back.

Now as far as both teams having 12 hits in the first game, that was the real fluke. I'm not sure that has happened all year in my game and not sure the real Cubs have 12 hits total in their first 11 games LOL.



Only 2 series left in Round 4 with the bottom of the rotations. We will have the ace pitchers starting again for that round. The games are tracked on this google sheet.




Monday, April 12, 2021

Quick method to track pitching rotations and available relievers in board games

This video shows a method for keep your player cards together for any table top baseball game.


The game I had just finished was the Padres 2-game domination of the Nats to catch the Dodgers in my early Statis-Pro Baseball season. However it can just as easily be used by those who play APBA, Strat-o-matic, the more Advanced Statis-Pro game or any other baseball Board game.

Below is the 2-game series I just finished, by far the highest scoring series of my season which also included my first homer by a pitcher on a random number of "18" for Corbin on the Nats.


Sunday, April 11, 2021

NL Statis-Pro Baseball Card Locator By Team

 Here are the players we found for all 15 NL teams based on current rosters. We do not use players that are on 60 day DL or whose return is indefinite. The fringe players listed are players for whom we used a card below based on their OPS (for batters) or ERA (for pitchers) based on ESPN projections. 

The players listed in small letters at the bottom of each team card just represent players whose card was found with another team and moved to this team.





To get player cards to play the Statis-Pro Baseball game, click on the pitchers and batters. If you do not find a particular player card, then find the card that has the closest OPS for batters or ERA for pitchers. We recommend clicking here and typing in the player's name in the box to see his projected OPS and ERA.

 There is no chance for clutch batting (BD) on any of these cards, and always use the Cht of P instead of an SN, RN, LN, SP, RP or LP.




Batters' Cards (click on image below and print)

Print copies of the sheet of cards below. Anytime you do not have a batting card for a player, estimate his OPS. You can use a "Projected OPS," or for a strong hitting pitcher you can use a Career OPS or just take your best guess. Pick the card with the OPS that is closest, .450, .500 etc. If the OPS is .424 or less than you will use one of the batting cards on the sheet above.


Extra Pitcher Cards

The following is an extra sheet of just the pitcher cards from the top row of the image above. Since you will most often need extra pitchers that rotate in our out of a team roster.





Hank Aaron Memorial Classic - Atlanta vs. Milwaukee

I'm pasting all the scoresheets on our 4th Round recap, but my Hank Aaron Memorial series of Atlanta at Milwaukee made me go back and pull up the Advanced Statis-Pro Baseball cards for the 1957 Milwaukee Braves. The late, great Hammerin' Hank won the MVP and the World Series that year.

This series was desperation time for the most disappointing team (Braves 6-12) risking digging a hole with a trip to the most surprisingly hot team (Brewers 13-5). 

In the first game Charlie Morton continued to look like the best No. 3 starter in the NL game with only one run allowed while striking out 10 in six innings. However, his last inning was scary after singles by Yelich and Vogelback and Morton hitting Urias with a pitch to load the bases with one out.

Narvaez then drove a potential game-clearing shot to right but Acuna, who had homered earlier, used his Clutch Defense 5 (highest rating) to not only make the catch but keep Yelich (on base running A) from tagging and scoring. Shaw then hit a DEEP drive that would have been a grandslam in some parks but was caught at the wall to end the inning. Shaw was later robbed in the 8th of a game-tying double on a drive down the line when Ozuna made a clutch catch.

In the second game it was the Brewers who barely held on. After the Brewers jumped in front 3-1, Freeman homered in the 4th then singled home Acuna to tie it 4-4 in the top of the 5th. 

Shaw homered in the 6th to give.the Brewers back the lead, but in the top of the 9th threw away a grounder to third to put the speedy Incariarte at 2nd base with the potential game tying run. As it turned out, that was the only contact of the inning against the best pitching card in the NL, Hader, as he 




Saturday, April 10, 2021

Round 4 Statis-pro baseball matchups

 3rd - 4th round transition (3-team round robin)

Cincinnati (12-12) 7-5, 4-3 vs Arizona (15-9)

Split - Cincinnati 4-2, Colorado (10-14) 4-3

Arizona 8-2 (sweep)- 11-5 (sweep) vs Colorado

4th round

Split - Atlanta (9-15) 4-2 vs Milwaukee (16-8) 5-4

Split - Chicago Cubs (12-12) vs New York Mets (15-9)

Split - LA Dodgers (14-10) won 7-5 and Miami (10-14) won 5-4

Philadelphia (10-8) vs. San Fran (6-12)

Pittsburgh (4-14) vs. St. Louis (10-8)

San Diego (14-10) vs. Washington (11-13)

Set up for 3-team round robin followed by scoresheets of 6 games in round robin.








4th round scoresheets.




Cubs and Mets photo missing 

Standings - and playoffs if season ended today

Washington (5th) at LA Dodgers (4th), Winner faces Milwaukee (1st)

Philadelphia St. Louis playin (6th) At Arizona (3rd), Winner faces NY Mets (2nd)