In light of moving this entity of suck to Blog*Spot, I have decided to start writing in it again. In this incarnation, I will chronicle my underachieving Strat-O-Matic team, the San Antonio Gunslingers. First, a brief history. The United States Strat Platoon started in the winter of 1993 on the 16-bit graphical interface of Prodigy, an unbeloved and long since vanished "on-line service", as such dinosaurs were called. Prodigy, Compuserve, MSN, and AOL were islands of content that could be reached only by telephone modem and only by signing up for an exclusive account. AOL was probably the flashiest, but it also was the biggest resource hog on your computer, and they were constantly sending you CD's in the mail to get you to sign up. Compuserve was one of the earliest and had a nice, simple clean Windows interface, but the information content and interactivity with other users was pretty sparse. MSN was Microsoft's fairly late attempt to get into the game, and was not very well executed. Prodigy was my service of choice, because of the number and the varied interests of users and for all the ways you could interact with them. It was also colorful, simple, and easy-to-use and navigate, and relatively cheap.
In 1993, about the time I was starting to date my future wife, I joined an interest group on Prodigy for Strat-O-Matic players. Strat is a Major League Baseball simulation game that began in the 1960's as a card and dice game, and had evolved by the 1990's into a crude computer game. I won't go into much detail about Strat itself, which is too broad a topic to cover in a blog post; suffice it to say that it was a routine early-year obsession for me from the age of about 9 to obtain the new player cards for the most recent season and start playing a carefully crafted schedule of games between the best teams, dice roll by dice roll, until a champion was crowned sometime in May. When the computer game came out in the early 90's, I could pick and choose the games I wanted to play "by hand", as it were, while the computer played the rest automatically. This was a fundamental change that allowed me to play a much bigger schedule of games, but that took some of the fun out of the whole endeavor. I didn't "own" the whole process any more, and it seemed to get out of my control, and wasn't as enjoyable. By 1993, I was looking for a new way to play Strat that would allow me to use the best features of the computer game, but still give that sense of excitement that I had in the early days. The Prodigy interest group presented the perfect answer: join a league with other players and play by e-mail.
I had heard of play-by-mail leagues throughout my adolescence, but that idea seemed hideously cumbersome. You would play games against the other players using their mailed instructions, and then mail out the results to the league commissioner. All this paper would be flying back and forth, and some poor sap would have to tabulate all the results by hand. I never felt like I was obsessed enough or had enough time to go through all that pain and suffering, and I kept my game-playing to myself. With Prodigy, however, there was a way to e-mail instructions and game results files and tabulate everything electronically. It seemed like the wave of the future, and I jumped on enthusiastically. The other guys in the league were all about my age, early-to-mid 20's, some married, some with kids already, some still single and just out of college or med school (yes, we did, and still do, have a league physician). Most were originally from the Northeast or had some Yankee ties of some sort. We had a couple of Californians, a fellow Texan, a Floridian, and even an Alaskan. The first commissioner was a brash kid named Mike who I believe was still in college, or at least of college age.
There were sixteen original members. We all spent about a month hashing out the format and original constitution of the league, with Mike going off on long rants why things should be this way or that. As the process dragged on, I began to think Mike was a little unstable, as did many of the other original members. A few other of the older, more reasonable guys started taking firmer control of things and eventually we got through the birthing process well enough to schedule the initial draft. The first draft was serpentine, with each team being assigned a number from 1 to 16, and the picks proceeding from 1 to 16 and then 16 to 1 and so on. I was number 11. To this day, I think this number explains a lot about my mediocrity in the league. It wasn't a high number, where I could get Ken Griffey, Jr., or Randy Johnson, and it wasn't a low number, where I could get two really good players early. It was somewhere in between, where I could get second-tier star early, and a third-tier star in the second round 10 picks later. The other problem was, I knew nothing whatsoever about properly evaluating player talent (and I still don't pretty much).
My first selection was Padres 1B Fred McGriff. This was supposed to be my Bopper, a guy who could deliver those three-run homers so coveted by the likes of Earl Weaver. In round 2, I took the Reds' hard-throwing righty, Jose Rijo. He was my Stopper, a starting pitcher who could stop losing streaks. In round 3, I took Expos CF Marquis Grissom, my Burner, a leadoff man who could get on base, play the outfield, and steal bases. In the 4th round, I selected my Closer, Doug Jones, the portly junkballer from my home town team, Houston. I figured with my Bopper, Stopper, Burner, and Closer, I had established the four main roles that any winning team needs, and the rest of the guys were pretty much filler. Man, what a moron I was. This strategy in and of itself wasn't so bad, but the guys I selected were terrible for these roles. McGriff was a one-dimensional slugger who had just played his age 28 season and was headed for decline, and despite his commercials on ESPN for Tom Emanski's defensive drills, a lousy defensive player. Jose Rijo wasn't a bad selection, but he had had a huge workload since he was 21, and two years later at 30 his career flamed out spectacularly. Grissom's OBP of .322 was not high enough for a leadoff hitter. And then there was Doug Jones...ugh. He had been a journeyman reliever until he changed leagues in 1992, and his assortment of slop was baffling to National League hitters that year. It should have been apparent to me that once the hitters adjusted, he would go back to being a glorified batting practice pitcher, which is a terrible occurence for a guy in a high leverage position like closer.
Predictably, with that feckless foursome as my "stars", that first year finished with an embarrassing 72-90 record, good for last place in my division. Mike the commissioner quit after a couple of months, and the older, wiser Adam took over. Adam remains one of only four owners I have ever met in person. Adam gave way to JJ and then Drew (both of whom I have also met). My turn is probably coming, since I am one of the last remaining original members. In 1995, we expanded to the 20 teams we still have today. As for my team, things have never much improved. My highest winning percentage to date is .549, in 2005. I have never had a 90-win season, and it's not looking good this year, either. I have made some really ugly, lopsided trades that have set me back years, and I have never been able to select or acquire a decent starting pitching staff. My first ever trade occurred in mid 1993, I believe. I traded Fred McGriff, who I had become disillusioned with, and a promising young reliever, Mike Perez, for Shane Mack and Cal Eldred. The killer of the deal was that I also gave up my 1st round pick in the next draft. I really liked Eldred, and felt he could be a solid replacement for Rijo, who was in the process of washing out in Cincinnati when the trade was consummated. If you recall, Eldred himself had all kinds of arm problems and never did amount to anything after a stellar half-season debut. Mack was a complete waste, and I no longer had that coveted draft pick, which was a pretty high pick, to help recoup my losses.
I've made some other real bonehead draft picks and trades that spring to mind. I selected Rick Ankiel when he was a pitching prospect in an early round of one draft. I got one good MLB season out of him before he went all Nuke LaLoosh on the Mets in the 2000 playoffs and couldn't even hit the bull mascot if there was one. I traded him for that noted wastoid, Travis Lee, and missed out on his good years as a CF with St. Louis. I drafted Kosuke Fukudome with the 9th pick in the draft as recently as last season when I could have had Yunel Escobar. That hasn't turned out well. I'll just never learn. I traded Jamie Moyer in 2002 for an extra first round pick, who I turned into K-Rod. That was OK for a while, but then I re-drafted Moyer last year and they both had awful years in 2009 and now they both suck for me.
Well, that's the sort-of brief history. I am currently picking 8th in this year's draft after another mediocre season. Here is my team right now:
Hitters
Abreu, Bobby
Cabrera, Miguel
Fukudome, Kosuke
Gonzalez, Adrian
Hill, Aaron
Martin, Russell
Pence, Hunter
Quentin, Carlos
Ramirez, Alexei
Snyder, Chris
Torres, Andres - 2010 6th round draft pick
Uribe, Juan
Wright, David
Pitchers
Buehrle, Mark
Millwood, Kevin - 2010 2nd round draft pick
Sanchez, Jonathan
Kawakami, Kenshin
Moyer, Jamie
Miller, Andrew
Matusz, Brian
Oliver, Darren
Ramirez, Ramon
Rodriguez, Francisco
Masset, Nick - 2010 3rd round draft pick
Gregerson, Luke - 2010 4th round draft pick
Mijares, Jose - 2010 5th round draft pick
Prospects
Crow, Aaron
Green, Grant
Sheets, Ben
Smoak, Justin
White, Alex
Perez, Martin - 2010 1st round draft pick
Christian Colon - 2010 4th round draft pick
I have some quality hitters there - Wright, Cabrera, Gonzalez, Hill, Abreu, and Pence. Quentin has plantar fascitis and may never duplicate his earlier successes. Alexei Ramirez is a decent SS, but not a star, and Russell Martin has suddenly turned into Jason Kendall after a great start. Uribe and Fukudome are role players that will have more plate appearances for my team than they should. Torres is a defensive replacement who clobbers lefties, which should be somewhat helpful. The overall team defense is mediocre, especially at LF, CF, SS and 3B. I do have three 1's with Gonzalez, Hill, and Martin.
As for the pitchers, it's such a horror show, I can't bear to look at it, but I will try. Buehrle is serviceable, and Sanchez has some upside, but Kawakami and Millwood are strictly league-average innings munchers, and Moyer is a mess. Brian Matusz could end up taking Buehrle's role as my "ace", such as it is. We'll have to see what Ben Sheets can do in Oakland this year. I've had Sheets for his whole career, and I've just about had enough of his constant injuries. I think I've improved the bullpen going forward with Gregerson, Masset, and Mijares, but I always say that and it never seems to happen. K-Rod might be on his last legs, or he might re-emerge as dominant if the Mets stay healthy this year, although with my history, you should bet on the former.
In the minors, I have high expectations for Justin Smoak and Martin Perez, and I think at least one or two of the other guys (Colon, Crow, Green, and White) will emerge as decent players. I expect to fill the prospect coffers with my final few picks this year.
The draft is going pretty well for me, I think, although I would be one of the last persons you should ask. I made a solid pick at #8 with Perez, who held his own at AA at the age of 18 and looks like the next Johan Santana. I got Millwood to fill a gaping hole at Starting Pitcher, and I have improved the bullpen at least for the time being. I took a flyer on Colon in the late fourth round. He's been compared to Derek Jeter in terms of leadership, and he has all the numbers you would want from a college player. Torres will platoon in CF with Fukudome, who is miserable against lefties. I have pretty much finished building my 2010 team, and will now focus on either acquiring more prospects or trading for 2011 picks. 2010 looks like another down year because of inconsistent starting pitching. If Sheets, Matusz, Buehrle, Sanchez and maybe even Millwood and Kawakami have good years, perhaps 2011 will look better.
In future posts, I will finish out the draft, follow my guys in Spring Training, and then detail the 2010 Strat and real seasons. Gives me something to do, anyway.
