Congrats to the Unionville-Sebewaing’s Softball Team!

The Unionville-Sebewaing high school softball team won its state championship with an amazing walk-off 1-6-3 triple play to end the game! With the tying runs on base and no outs in the final inning, the batter lines a pitch off the pitcher’s elbow… and straight to the shortstop, who steps on second base and throws to first base to complete the triple play, ending the rally and the game and winning the state championship.  Wow.

Click here for the story and a video of the play!

Has it ever happened in Diamond Mind Online?  Yes, in fact.  It was several years ago, but a team indeed reported a walk-off triple play.

Speaking of rare plays…

Michigan executes double suicide squeeze

In the regional title game of the NCAA baseball tournament, the University of Michigan Wolverines scored 2 runs on a squeeze bunt. You can watch the play in the video within this article (about 1:30 mark):

But it’s not the first time Michigan has done it – this was at least the third time in the past two seasons, including a game-winner against rival Michigan State last year, a play featured on mlb.com:

https://www.mlb.com/cut4/two-run-squeeze-bunt-wins-game-for-michigan/c-269596548

Interested in a history of the (now very rare) double suicide squeeze?  Here’s a good article:

WHAT’S NEW?

Back by popular demand – the ladder leagues!

The Ladder Leagues return to Diamond Mind Online.

For those unfamiliar with them, the Ladder Leagues operate like European soccer: there are a number of ranked leagues, and at the end of each season, the top teams are promoted to higher leagues and the bottom teams relegated to lower ones. The promotion/relegation system ensures competitive leagues at all levels with like-skilled team owners.

There will be three different Ladder Leagues Associations. These will be (re)started in succession over the next two months.

First off the rank will be the return of the Random 600 Association. The RA600 uses a random pool of 600 players from the classic player pool. It is the only manual draft Ladder League association. The leagues alternate between DH on and off and are set in the latest season “era” of play (so the upcoming RA600 leagues will be played with the DH in the AL 2018 era of play). All other settings (salary cap, weekly money, injuries, etc) are standard.

Next up will be the Standard Association, which will get underway three weeks after the RA600 Association. The Standard Association uses the full classic player pool and alternates between DH on and DH off. All other settings are standard.

With the resumption of Ladder Leagues play, the old (classic player pool) Custom Association has been disbanded. It will be replaced by a new SSG Association. The SSG Association will get underway three weeks after the Standard Association. The rules will be announced closer to the commencement date.

RA600 Association has just started, and registration for Standard Association will start shortly.   Notification will be posted on the general message board.

WHAT’S NEXT?

Single Seasons v.3 is Coming!

We’ve been working hard on SSG version 3 and are getting close to releasing a slew of improvements.  Some you will see; some are “under the hood”:

  • The “fielding ratings project”: there will be literally thousands of changes, additions and deletions of fielding ratings throughout the player pool. This project does not involve qualitative re-rating of players (changes to range ratings), but rather changes to quantitative (i.e., error and passed ball) ratings, and corrections to positions being rated (for example, outfielders who were rated for the “wrong” outfield position because breakdowns of outfield positions played were not available at the time the particular season was created).  Also part of this project is making the rating of secondary positions consistent throughout the player pool, including whether a player is given a rating for a secondary position they played very minimally, and replacing 0 error ratings given to such players with ratings more consistent with their performance at other positions and/or in other seasons at the same position.
  • Replacing the “original” 1961 season with the “deluxe” re-rated season: the PC game team is gradually working their way back through seasons originally created many years ago and re-rating them from scratch. These are sold to PC game customers as so-called “deluxe” seasons.  When deluxe seasons are released, they also replace the online season, and 1961 is ready to go.
  • Introducing the 1922 season: this season is ready to go and will be introduced as part of SSG v.3.
  • Extending real splits: in SSG v.2, we took real splits back to 1944; for SSG v.3, new data means we’ll take them further back, to 1937.
  • Regenerating counting stats ratings for seasons with updated park factors: for SSG v.2, the park factors for nearly 40 seasons were updated based data that became available in the years after they first were created. We’ve continued to refine those seasons behind the scenes, and will be regenerating player ratings for those seasons based on this refined data.
  • Applying a new and better methodology for estimating doubles and triples allowed by pitchers for seasons prior to those for which this data is available.
  • Recalculating salaries for the SSG player pool incorporating all of the above.

These changes will be implemented in August and will affect leagues in progress, so we’re giving every advance notice so you can plan your leagues accordingly.