A real fantasy: Rookie takes on celebrity Strat-O-Matic fanatics
When I was growing up, I loved playing all kinds of games.
Wiffle ball, H-O-R-S-E and street football took up most of the daylight hours. Then after dark, my brother and I would play tabletop hockey, electric football, ping-pong basketball or a makeshift game we invented called gyroball.
What I donāt understand is how I never became an avid Strat-O-Matic player.
I remember seeing ads for it in Baseball Digest magazine. I even sent away for the free cards they would mail out to introduce people to the game. But somehow it never became an essential part of my childhood as it was for so many other baseball fans.
It wasnāt until I visited one of my best friends who had moved to North Carolina that I began to understand how a simulated baseball game played with cards and dice could take oneās enjoyment of the national pastime to a completely new level.
Managerial strategy, lineup construction, platoon splits, the importance of defense ā¦ they were all there. After playing a few games, it became hard to look at real baseball games the same way.
And it was a happy coincidence that my favorite major league manager, Earl Weaver of the Baltimore Orioles, was also the best tactician in the game. How fun it was to pretend I was the Earl of Baltimore when I played. (Minus the colorful language, of course.)
Although I do have a sim league team (we use Dynasty League Baseball) among my 10 different fantasy baseball leagues, itās still a mystery why I never managed to join a Strat-O-Matic league. Itās not like I havenāt had opportunities, itās just that the timing never seemed to be right.
Until now. (And even if you donāt play in sim leagues, stay with me here ā¦ there will be at least a partial fantasy baseball payoff.)
Blending old and new
Strat-O-Matic came out in 1961, but this winter, the company announced a new version of the game called Baseball Daily, in which player cards arenāt based solely on the previous seasonās stats but are updated each day based on what those players do during the current season.
To introduce the new game, they formed a 12-team media/expert league. I was thrilled to be invited but wasnāt prepared for the level of competition.
ā¢Doug Glanville, ex-major league player, now an ESPN baseball analyst
ā¢Joe Posnanski, NBCSports.com
ā¢Jon Miller, San Francisco Giants play-by-play broadcaster
ā¢Will Leitch, Sports on Earth
ā¢Jack Curry, YES Network
ā¢Joe Sheehan, Sports Illustrated writer and editor of the Joe Sheehan Baseball Newsletter
ā¢Chad Finn, Boston Globe
ā¢Marc Stein, ESPN
ā¢Joe Lemire, Vocativ.com and frequent USA TODAY Sports Weekly contributor
ā¢Stuart Miller, author of Good Wood: The Story of the Baseball Bat
ā¢Hal Richman, founder and CEO of Strat-O-Matic
How do I compete against these folks, many who played full Strat seasons for decades? By using the daily fantasy element of the game to my advantage.
My team
The draft consisted of everyone filling out an optimal roster that fit under the salary cap. Once we put our players in priority order, rosters were auto-filled to give us as many of our preferred players as possible.
Fantasy industry types have been accused for years of not putting pitchers high enough in their overall rankings or waiting too long to draft pitchers. Perhaps thatās true, because the other Strat owners placed a much higher priority on getting aces.
I did, however, get my first two choices: catcher Buster Posey and third baseman Manny Machado. Theyāre one of, if not the best at their positions, both offensively and defensively. Thatās hugely important in sim leagues.
Though I targeted preseason favorites Madison Bumgarner and Carlos Carrasco, my top starters ended up being Jon Lester and Michael Pineda.
Not great, especially when I look around the league and see Sheehan with Clayton Kershaw and Max Scherzer at the top of his rotation. Or Posnanski with Chris Sale, Corey Kluber and Carrasco. Or Miller with the Giants trio (shocker!) of Bumgarner, Johnny Cueto and Jeff Samardzija.
Iām confident I can field a competitive team. With an offense aimed at maximizing on-base percentage and slugging, Posey and Machado are excellent cornerstones.
In an earlier column I named Machado as someone I thought would be overvalued in fantasy because the Orioles planned to put him in the leadoff role. While leading off is normally a positive for a playerās fantasy value, it works against Machado because it reduces the number of times heāll hit with runners on base. An astute reader called me out, asking what I thought of Machadoās hot start. At the time, he was hitting .407 with six homers and seven RBI.
While those totals are impressive, my point held to a degree, because five of his six home runs had come with the bases empty. I also wrote that the Oriolesā free-swinging lineup would lead to fewer stolen-base attempts. And after swiping 20 bases in 2015, he has tried only twice this year (and was thrown out both times).
Machado is now hitting second instead of leading off, but heāll have trouble returning first-round value if he isnāt driving in runs and stealing bases.
But in a simulation league, I can slot Machado wherever I want in my batting order. And on opening day against Richman and his ace, Jake Arrieta, the Madison Square Gardners lineup looked like this:
DH Dexter Fowler
C Buster Posey
LF David Peralta
3B Manny Machado
RF Jose Bautista
1B Jose Abreu
SS Brandon Crawford
CF Kevin Pillar
2B Rougned Odor
Taking advantage of the impact in 2016 on the player cards, Fowler was a no-brainer to lead off, even if there wasnāt room for him in the outfield. He has a career on-base percentage of .366 and through Sunday, was hitting .385 with a .506 OBP. Of his 25 hits this season, 13 were for extra bases.
Posey is perfect in the No. 2 spot, and Peralta gives me a lefty bat at the top of the lineup who mashes right-handed pitchers.
Machado (35 homers in 2015), Bautista (40) and Abreu (30) give me plenty of power in the middle of the lineup without an overabundance of strikeouts.
Crawford and Pillar are defensive stalwarts (this is a sim league, remember) who can also hit a little, while Odor is an emerging talent whose best days are ahead.
The final thing I hope gives me a winning edge is the bench, where Iāve stashed several players I believe will see their values rise.
Rookie Tyler White (1B, DH vs. LHP) wasnāt well-known, but he hit his way into the Houston Astrosā lineup the same way he has done at every stop in the minors. Heās off to a fantastic start (.298 batting average, .369 OBP, .632 slugging percentage, five homers and 12 RBI) and will be a leading candidate for AL rookie of the year.
Eugenio Suarez has crushed left-handers and can play third or short. Brock Holt, off to a fast start, can play everywhere except catcher and pitcher. Gerardo Parra is an above-average defender who has started slowly but could put up career-best numbers for the Colorado Rockies.
A rotation of Lester, Pineda, Jaime Garcia and Jake Odorizzi might not scare opponents, but if Iām going to take my lumps as a Strat rookie, at least Iāll go down swinging.