If you visit the Advice message board, you’ve undoubtedly noticed that one of the most prolific contributors in recent months has been Tyler Ensor. A relative newcomer, Tyler first registered with Diamond Mind Online in May. At the time of writing, however, he already has eight active teams and an impressive 381-303 .557 record overall.
We contacted Tyler and asked him to tell us something about himself. Here is what he had to say:
Tell us a bit about yourself: when and where you were born, your occupation, family, etc.
I was born in Guelph, Ontario, Canada in 1989. I grew up in Ontario, then moved to Newfoundland for graduate school. I was in Newfoundland from 2014 to 2019. I moved to Bakersfield, CA in 2019. I’m a cognitive psychologist by training and work as a professor. I study human memory—the factors that lead to successful remembering and unintentional forgetting. I primarily teach statistics, research methods, and cognitive psychology.
Have you always been blind?
I have been blind since the age of three. So, not always blind, but I don’t have any memory from when I could see.
Have you tried playing other sim or fantasy baseball games?
I have not. I searched for a game like this for years. However, it was necessary that any game be screen-reader accessible, and all that I encountered prior to this one were not. I’m thrilled this one works with my screen-reading software. Major websites are usually accessible, but small, niche sites like this one often are not.
What do you find most enjoyable about DMO? Most challenging?
I really like that player salaries are based on usage/demand rather than actual player value. It adds an excellent, strategic dimension to the game.
I love statistics, so that’s a major draw for me, too. I’ve read about sabermetrics for years, but this is the first time I’ve been able to put my knowledge of sabermetrics to use. MLB managers usually bat their best hitter third, even though the data indicate this is suboptimal. Here, if one thinks the two spot is where the best hitter should bat, one can do so.
I’m also amazed by the realism of the simulated games. Like in real baseball, good teams lose to bad teams on a semiregular basis. You can do everything right as an owner, and still end up with a team that underperforms due to bad luck (the reverse is of course true too). I’m a big fan of the PBP, too.
If you could add or change one thing about DMO to make it better, what would it be?
It’s hard to imagine what could be changed to make the game better. I’ve seen a lot of complaints about bullpen usage, and I’ve found myself irritated on occasion by the sim manager’s decisions. At the same time, I recognize the complexities inherent in programming effective bullpen management. It’s also one of those areas of baseball where smart people routinely disagree about the best move. Should the closer always pitch the 9th in a close game, or should you use the closer in the highest-leverage situation, regardless of the inning? I’d lean toward the latter, but I know a lot of people prefer the former.
There’s a lot to learn when one starts out with this game, and one thing I think would make the game better would be if new players were explicitly warned about the death spiral. Maybe they are—I certainly remember reading about it somewhere before I started my first season. However, I often see players in standard leagues (I assume they’re generally new players) engaging in extreme roster churn. One league I’m in right now has a team worth about $70 mill because of roster churn. I worry that some new players may do this, become frustrated, and then leave this game forever. I’m not sure what could be done to fix the problem though.
Do you have a favorite (real) team (major, minor, Negro leagues or other)? Favorite player or players (historic and/or current)?
I used to be a Toronto Blue Jays fan. This season, however, they ended their radio broadcast, which makes following the team virtually impossible for a blind person. TV feeds assume viewers can see what they’re talking about, and thus often skip over parts of the game (e.g., they don’t tell you every pitch, or will sometimes exclaim “Look at that!” in lieu of describing the play). This year, I started out following the Padres, but it’s not really the same, so I’m sort of between teams right now.
As a former Blue Jays fan, some of my favorite players include Roy Halladay and Jose Bautista. For players on other teams, I really like Alex Rodriguez. I know that’s an unpopular pick because of his PED use and his—somewhat off-putting—personality, but I find it sort of endearing how much he loves baseball. In Joe Torre’s book, The Yankee Years, Torre discussed how Rodriguez would go home after games to watch west coast games. That has to be incredibly rare for players. I’ve also heard him say in interviews that he hasn’t missed a World Series in decades.
Since starting here, I’ve also become a big fan of players I didn’t used to know about. Ross Youngs is one of them. (Youngs should not be in the Hall of Fame though.) I love high-walk guys, probably to the point where it interferes with my player evaluation. I also love Jack Crooks, although he’s probably not worth his current salary (at least, there are better options).
Blue Jays radio broadcasts are available on mlb.com audio