All Statis-Pro sheets are now organized batters, fielders then pitchers for each team. Click here for the Statis-Pro cards for all 30 teams then print any two teams and follow instructions in the free Statis-Pro baseball game. If a players has an "add HR" or "minus HR" you only adjust the Home Run Range, then the next three numbers from that are the DEEP numbers and the next number is the new beginning of the strikeout range. Do not change the end of the strikeout range.
.png)
Sometimes our actual jobs get in the way and we just don't have time for board games, but we finally did finish up the Statis-Pro World Series.
In the actual World Series the Texas Rangers tied the Houston Astros in the regular season atop the AL West standings, but lost the tie-breaker for a bye, then beat them in a 7-game AL Championships and then won World Series. In the Statis-Pro season it was the Astros who took the AL and then won the World Series in a come-from-behind Game 7 (see below).
In the actual NL the Arizona Diamondbacks beat out the Chicago Cubs by one game for the last wildcard spot, then went all the way to the World Series. What might have been if the Cubs had won one more game, as in Statis-Pro they made the surprise run from wild card to the World Series before losing to the Astros. The box score of Game 7 is below.
.png)
Since going to the 6-team league playoff format the last two years, the average World Series contender has gotten there despite winning only 0.566 percent of their games. Our joke now is that the Statis-Pro World Series is more accurate than the real World Series because the top teams do not suffer from "rust" while waiting for the 3-game wild card series before they can get back on the field.
As the chart shows at the bottom of this blog, the average Statis-Pro World Series participant has had a 0.602 winning percentage in the actual MLB season in which they made the Statis-Pro World Series, and those teams have also had a 0.587 winning percentage the season before - important because the Statis-Pro rosters are the same as the current MLB roster, but the cards are derived from stats either completely or mostly based on the previous season stats.
In other words, Statis-Pro is more likely to produce a better regular season champion than the actual current MLB Playoff system where the four best teams have to wait several days between games.
Here is the decisive Game 7, followed by a list of our Statis-Pro World Series matchups over the years:
As in most games in this Statis-Pro World Series, the Cubs jumped on top. Patrick Wisdom launched a solo home run and then two batters later Ian Happ smacked a 2-run homer.
Chicago took another 3-0 lead.
At a time in which small ball is returning due to the bases being closer together to enable more advancing on the bases, a sacrifice fly RBI (Altuve) and an RBI groundout (Tucker) helped the Astros fight back to within 3-2 after six innings.
Next, it was time for the Cubs’ bullpen to crack, Brandon Hughes surrendered the big 2-run blast to Kyle Tucker. Houston added an insurance run, while the bullpen held on for the 5-3 win.
Astros are champs again!
And here is the history of Statis-Pro World Series champs.
| Season | Statis-Pro World Series | Actual MLB | Prev Sea |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | Astros (champ) | 0.556 | 0.654 |
| 2023 | Cubs | 0.512 | 0.457 |
| 2022 | Dodgers (Champ) | 0.685 | 0.654 |
| 2022 | Yankees | 0.611 | 0.568 |
| 2021 | Red Sox (Champ) | 0.568 | 0.400 |
| 2021 | Dodgers | 0.654 | 0.717 |
| 2020 | Dodgers (Champ) | 0.717 | 0.654 |
| 2020 | Rays | 0.667 | 0.593 |
| 2019 | Astros (champ) | 0.660 | 0.636 |
| 2019 | Nats | 0.574 | 0.506 |
| 2018 | Diamondbacks (Champ) | 0.506 | 0.574 |
| 2018 | Guardians | 0.562 | 0.630 |
| 2017 | Red Sox (Champ) | 0.574 | 0.574 |
| 2017 | Cubs | 0.568 | 0.640 |
| 2016 | Astros (champ) | 0.574 | 0.531 |
| 2016 | Cubs | 0.640 | 0.599 |
| Average | Average Statis-Pro WS Win% | 0.602 | 0.587 |
| 2023 | Actual MLB/12-team format | Win % | |
| 2023 | Rangers (Champs) | 0.556 | |
| 2022 | Diamondbacks | 0.519 | |
| 2022 | Astros (Champs) | 0.654 | |
| Phillies | 0.537 | ||
| Average Actual WS Win% | 0.567 |
While the Texas Rangers were winning a thrilling Game 1 of the World Series with a game-tying homer in the 9th and game-winning homer in the 11th, the Cubs were winning the opening series in your "what if" Statis-Pro playoff and will now face the Los Angeles Dodgers. The Braves will play the Phillies in the other series, and the Astros have already won the AL Statis-Pro.
In actual MLB it was the Diamondbacks who made the playoffs by 1 game over the Cubs and are now in the World Series while in Statis-Pro it was the DBacks who missed the playoffs by one game and the Cubs trying to make the same run.
Joc Pederson homered off Jason Steele in the first inning to give the Giants a 1-0 lead, but Steele did not allow another baserunner in seven innings and the Giants hit only 0.145 in the entire two game sweep.
Webb, the first of two PB 2-8 starters for the Giants, made the 1-0 lead hold up until Cody Bellinger tied it with an RBI triple and then scored on a Dansby Swanson single to make it 2-1. In the eighth Seija Suzuki singled and Ian Happ doubled him home and the 3-1 lead held up.
| No. | Pos | Cubs Batter | AB | R | H | BI | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2B | Nico Hoerner | 8 | 2 | 0 | 0 | |
| 2 | 1B | Cody Bellinger | 9 | 3 | 5 | 1 | 3b, 2 SB |
| 3 | RF | Seiya Suzuki | 9 | 2 | 3 | 3 | HR |
| 4 | LF | Ian Happ | 7 | 1 | 4 | 1 | 2 SB |
| 5 | SS | Dansby Swanson | 9 | 0 | 2 | 1 | |
| 6 | 3B | Jeimer Candelario | 8 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2b |
| 7.5 | PR | Alexander Canario | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | CS |
| 7 | SS | Patrick Wisdom | 7 | 1 | 4 | 1 | HR |
| 8 | DH | Christopher Morel | 9 | 0 | 3 | 0 | |
| 9 | C | Yan Gomes | 8 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Cubs .297 BA | 74 | 10 | 22 | 7 | |||
| No. | Pos | Giants Batter | AB | R | H | BI | Notes |
| 1 | 2B | Thairo Estrada | 8 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 2b |
| 2 | 3B | Casey Schmitt | 6 | 0 | 1 | 0 | |
| 3 | 1B | LaMonte Wade Jr. | 7 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| 4 | DH | Joc Pederson | 7 | 1 | 1 | 1 | HR |
| 5 | 3B | JD Davis | 7 | 0 | 2 | 0 | |
| 6 | RF | Mike Yastrzemski | 7 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| 7 | LF | Michael Conforto | 6 | 1 | 1 | 0 | |
| 8 | C | Blake Sabol | 6 | 1 | 1 | 0 | |
| 9 | DH | Mitch Haniger | 8 | 0 | 1 | 0 | |
| Giants 0.145 BA | 62 | 3 | 9 | 2 |
The Chicago Cubs faced the misfortunate of closing the season at Atlanta and Milwaukee, losing the first four of those games by a total of five runs and ultimately losing the last playoff spot to the Arizona Diamondbacks by just one game with a 83-79 record.
The lack of any home field advantage in baseball playoffs was proven once again as both the ALCS and NLCS featured a road win in Game 7 - meaning the visiting team still has an all-time edge in baseball Game 7s while the home teams in other sports dominate.
How close were the Cubs to returning to the World Series?
With wildcards seeming to dominate in the new playoff format against the top teams with wins, the Cubs may have been very close. Once again the dominant teams - the 100-win Braves and Dodgers - were cast aside and the Diamondbacks that barely caught the Cubs are now representing the NL in the real World Series starting tonight. Arizona has the worst record ever to make the World Series except for the 1973 New York Mets (lost World Series) and the 2006 St. Louis Cardinals (won World Series).
In Statis-Pro it was the reverse, The Cubs grabbed a Wild Card spot and it was the Diamondbacks who fell one game short.
The Cubs have taken most advantage of the new stolen base opportunities, with three players upgraded and in the line-up - the biggest surprise is Ian Happ calculating as an OBR/SP: C/A meaning he is average getting around the bases (C), but so far a good base stealer this year (A). Nico Hoerner is upgraded to an AA, and Cody Beglinger to an A to give the Cubs great basestealing.
We also had to show Daniel Vogelbach's card at the other extreme as an "E." If a player steals just one base all year they become a "D," but as we know from the commercial this is year No. 8 in which he is an E for no steals. Vogelback is a D running the bases, and once gutted out a run home after badly straining a hammy coming around 3rd base.
However, he was out for today's game against a lefty starter, so we thought this would be a good game post to go over times you change from the 11-88 result on the card.
11-14 - If a batter does not hit as well against either left- or right-handed pitching, then the number 11, 12, 13 or 14 will appear before (for facing lefties) or after (for facing righties) a dash near the bottom of his card. When this happens, he strikes out on 11 through that number. So Vogelbach has a really good batting card BUT against lefties like our Cubs starter Justin Steele today his "14" means he strikes out on 11-14. Most important, this happens whether the number is on the pitcher or batter card so 11-14 kills a batter. When the Mets face a lefty we sub Tommy Pham into the game - and in this case he homered twice against Steele to key a 7-2 "sweep" win.
Top Number on Home Run range. Using Vogelbach's cards as an example, he hits home runs on 18-24. Certain 2023 pitchers have a line on the bottom of their card saying to turn the top number on a home run range from a home run to an out - so if he faced one of those pitchers then a 24 would become a deep fly out with all runners advancing one base. Home runs only occur on the batters card.
Lowest Number on Out Range. To balance this, some pitchers like the Mets and Verlander have a note that the lowest number in the out range becomes a homer. Obviously Vogelbach will not face fellow met Verlander, but if he did then his 66-88 would tell us that a 66 is now a homer rather than out for Vogelbach. This is only on the batters card.
78-84 on pitcher's card convert outs to strikeouts in 2023. This fixes a mistake in our calculations this year. For years, the Statis-Pro batting card formulas were set assuming there would be an average of 11 strikeouts on each pitcher card. However, when going back to the dead ball era, that number had to be shifted to 7 or less, and in more reason seasons it had to be increased to 17. Whatever that number, it has to be set as the average number of strikeouts for pitchers. This year I accidentally set it at the old number of 11, but then subtracted 17 when calculating each batter's card, so in the end all pitchers have 6 too few strikeouts on their 2023 projected cards. Luckily the numbers 77-84 are almost always outs, so as long as that result on a pitcher's card would have been an out, change it to a strikeout and all cards are completely accurate.
85-88 can change out to single, runners advance two bases. If instead of a number from 11-14 (see above) a player has an 85, 86, 87 or 88 before or after the dash at the bottom, then they change that result up to 88 to a single and runners advance two bases. Remember this is a huge improvement, because it adjust that number on both the batter and opposing pitcher card. As you can see, Vogelbach has an 88, so when he is facing a right-handed pitcher the result of 88 on either his card or the pitcher's card becomes a single instead of an out.
Below this first photo, we show the scoresheet in the Mets 7-2 "sweep" of the Cubs. With that result, the three NL teams that won 100 games last year - the Dodgers, Mets and Braves - are now the only three teams in our Statis-Pro baseball season with at least 13 wins.
Trout, LaMahieu and Judge had three hits each, including Judge's 2-run homer that gave the AL a 5-3 win and sweep of our 2-game All-Star series. (the results of Game 1 of our 2-game All-Star series are here, while the free player cards and games are here).
Like the first game, it ended with Chapman striking out all three that he faced in the bottom of the ninth.
The NL utilized their speed on the bases to execute the hit and run to perfection - going 2 of 4 and advancing runners the other two times including Posey's RBI single in the third and RBI groundout in the 5th. Betts drove in the third and final NL run with his second double and third hit of the game.
Overall there were more than twice as many hits as in the AL 1-0 win in game 1. In that game both teams had just five hits, but the AL outhit the NL 13-8 in the second game to sweep.
We joke about the "statis-pro gods" making things happen sometimes, and we had one if those funny moments. The AL Commissioner put Rays close Nick Anderson on his AL roster, even though I had left him out of my interleague play because he tore something in his elbow early in the season and has been out for months. I left him in the pen for the 1st all-star game, but in the second game brought him in after Ohtani's 5 innings. The very first card was a Z-play, and the result was Anderson had to leave the game before facing one batter. The official z-play was an ejection for arguing balls and strikes, but im considering it an injury. The AL's four relievers who stepped in went four scoreless innings, and in real baseball Anderson is throwing off a minor league mound for the first time in months, so hopefully he returns.
The AL does not have as long a winning streak in Statis-pro as in real baseball. The NL did win 1-0 last year, when we used the pb 2-9 cards that were too strong mathmatically. However, the AL did dominate our 2019 game 5-1 and won on back-to-back Astros homers in my first year back in 2018, making the AL 4-1 since i resumed playing.
Only Patrick Corbin's pb 2-8 (great) with a ton of hits allowed (11-26, while 11-23 is average) can allow nine hits in 6 innings without allowing a run.
The Cubs actually outfit the Nats 11-9 but the Nats won the game 8-0 counting as a 3-game sweep. Contreras hit a 3-run homer to cap a 5-run first, but the Cubs could not hold the 5-run lead for sweep credit, settling for a 6-3 win and credit for winning 2 games to 1.
The Nats win the series 4 games to 2 and the Cubs drop further back into last place (10th).
In the final series of this round, the Reds need to go at least 3-3 to stay in the "for now" last playoff spot, but if they go 4-2 the would create a 5-way tie for 2nd place at 27-21. If they go 2-4, they would create a 4-way tie for the last playoff spot at 25-23.
If the Brewers go 5-1 they would tie the Mets for 1st place, but they just need to go at least 3-3 to stay in second.
| Team | W | L | Win% | GB |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| NYM | 30 | 18 | 0.625 | 0 |
| MIL | 25 | 17 | 0.595 | -2 |
| ARI | 27 | 21 | 0.563 | -3 |
| LAD | 27 | 21 | 0.563 | -3 |
| STL | 27 | 21 | 0.563 | -3 |
| CIN | 23 | 19 | 0.548 | -4 |
| ATL | 25 | 23 | 0.521 | -5 |
| SD | 25 | 23 | 0.521 | -5 |
| Wash | 25 | 23 | 0.521 | -5 |
| CHC | 21 | 27 | 0.438 | -9 |
Other 5 teams relegated for failing to win at least 16 of first 36 games.
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.
