Advice for the New Strat-O-Matic Gamer

By Thomas Fischer
07/23/2005

If you are new to the game of Strat-O-Matic Baseball and have many questions, a good place to begin is to go to the help section of the game where some of your answers on the ratings can be answered. The help section index can facilitate the ideas and statistics that are essential to understanding the how the game works. As for what makes a good Strat card, many Strat-O-Matic Fanatics have been trying to figure that out for about 43 years. For hitters you want to look at OPS (On Base Percentage plus Slugging Average). This is how the game itself determines who the best hitters are but it also will take into account positions and usage (usage is usually the last item that the game engine takes into consideration).

Ideally you'll want guys that get on base and have power i.e. Barry Bonds, Todd Helton, Jim Edmonds etc. Since these types of players are limited, you want to try to balance between them and the great pitchers when you draft your first 2-4 rounds of the initial draft.

In following drafts, the aforementioned player types will become increasingly difficult to acquire. Secondarily you want to draft players with good defense that will get on base, steal bases, score runs and have clutch ratings that will come in handy when the need arises. You want your secondary players to be similar to Luis Castillo, Torii Hunter, Bill Mueller, and Derek Jeter etc. Thirdly, you want support players that will be the backbone of your team. One might think that the backbone is the stud hitter or the outstanding hurler that takes the hill every fourth or fifth day.

It is the conviction of this author that the strength of any Strat team or real MLB team for that matter is the support cast behind the great players. Players like Bengie Molina with his excellent defense and throwing arm, pitchers like Steve Trachsel and Jon Lieber who, despite getting hit hard by lefties can give you 30 starts and be effective enough to give your 12-14 wins. Players like Mark Grudzielanek who will play 2b everyday and give you a good, not great but good enough, lead off or number two hitter.

Now for pitchers, you want starters, as they will help you more than relievers. Relief pitchers are going to be around for a while in your draft and they are a dime a dozen. The great pitchers like Martinez, Wood, and Maddux are the elites, and you want to draft a #1 rotation type guy within your first three picks of the draft. These pitchers will generally have low ERA's, high K/bb ratios, and BR/9 ratings under 10.0. The 2004 card set does not have many pitchers that are under 10.0 BR/9 with over 180 IP. These are the rare cards like Johnson, Santana, and Sheets.

Now another thing Strat guys have to be aware of is free agency. Unlike in Rotisserie Baseball, which considers the immediate impact of trades and free agent acquisitions, the Strat owners must consider what may lie down the road the next year or the year after when a player’s card is released from the new team he went to. Pitchers like Pedro and Randy both going to New York as free agents or hitters like Troy Glaus going to Arizona and Magglio Ordonez going to Detroit. The Strat owner has to be aware when players jump teams or are traded because of their new environment and the new team around them. It is something to consider for the future but not a primary concern when drafting your team for the current season.

The bottom line is go with your gut. Strat fanatics have been around the game for a long time and understand the stats behind the players, and the players behind the stats. They understand the game of baseball and the ins and outs of what makes a good player. In Strat-O-Matic baseball, the stats and the cards are of primary concern but there should always be an eye on the non-statistical factors as well.