When comparing all aspects
of baseball, and how they compare to a SOM
league we find out that we have the closest
thing to real MLB to date. In
fact the only thing that I know of that
varies from MLB is the amount of
platoons, as we will platoon way more
in our leagues than actually happens in
MLB.
I often wonder why I
don't see more platoon situations in baseball. I
mean baseball has become a specialized
sport, statistics are available to
everyone, and the lefty/righty concept
has been around for years! One reason
for this could be a player's health. If
a full time player is nursing a
nagging injury then the manager will give
him days off whenever he is
favoring his injury regardless of the
opposing pitcher for that game, but by
far the number one reason is money! If
I have Ray Lankford, and Ron Gant on
my team they are going to platoon in left
Field. I don't think any team in
MLB would carry those kinds of salaries
for one position let alone two or
three positions. Teams tend to adopt what
I call financial platooning where
they use their bench players to give regulars
days off against certain
pitchers, and their regulars get about
100 at bats more than they would in a
straight platoon situation. Finally, with
all the offense around any extra
roster spots were needed for pitchers,
and pitching staff's were still pushed
to the limit.
One thing that will
happen in baseball as well as in life is that things
will change, and in some cases change
back. It has been announced that
baseball will go back to an old concept
of the game, and some of you may
remember it, a strike zone. I like this
move and hope it helps out the
pitching. We could have decent pitching
in our leagues, and naturally MLB
managers will counter with more position
players, and thus more platoon's
which would put a few more players in
our draft. So keep you fingers crossed
that a balance between pitching and hitting
can be achieved in MLB.
In our SOM leagues it
is easy to see why we platoon at positions so
much. Leagues rarely exceed 24 teams so
there is a surplus of players to use,
and be it to cover at bats, or to have
your best hitters in the lineup, every
team will platoon if they want too compete.
By using the lineups in the
computer manager we will always be able
to start the game with the best side
of our platoon, but there is no guarantee
that HAL will pull the trigger, and
pinch hit with the other half of your
platoon when its the 7th inning and
your clinging to a one run lead, and sure
could use some insurance runs.
There are a few options at your disposal
to try to increase the odds of HAL
making the move. Using the avoid rightys,
and avoid leftys under the players
options is a must. You can also take the
two players from one of you platoons
and insert them into the pinch hit vs.
lefty, and pinch hit vs. righty in the
batters page of your computer manager.
I even go as far as to check the boxes
next to don't PH vs. lefty and righty
in hopes that HAL will pinch hit for
him when the time comes because it is
the only time the settings will allow
for him to be pinch hit for. Use these
ideas as they will help you get the
most out of your team, and may all your
split rolls be low!
TEST YOUR SOM KNOWLEDGE:
Since it is my first article I just couldn't
resist throwing this one at you.
We all know that just about anything that
can happen in baseball can also
happen in SOM. In fact in all my years
there is only one thing I know of that
will happen on rare occasions in baseball,
but can never happen in SOM. This
is what my trivia question is about. If
you know the answer e-mail it to me.
The first one to answer it correctly will
win nothing more than a mentioning
in my next article. This is just for fun.
QUESTION: When players are at bat in SOM
what is the one thing that can only
happen to position players, and will never
happen to any pitcher while they
are at bat?