Highlights From Diamond Mind August 2023

NEW CLASSIC SALARIES

The latest salary adjustment for the Classic (career-rated) player pool came into effect earlier this month.

The Babe, at $33,686,000, continues to be the highest salaried player.

A trio of Negro Leagues stars – CF Oscar Charleston, 1B Buck Leonard and SS Pop Lloyd – received the biggest raises: Charleston, $2,502,000 to $24,517,000; Leonard, $2,458,000 to $19,193,000; Lloyd, $2,444,000 to $19,805,000.

Taking the biggest cut was Mickey Mantle: $2,814,000, to $27,445,000 (down from his all-time high salary of $30,259,000), which still leaves the Mick as the (distant) second-highest paid player in the Classic player pool.

In all, 1,940 players received raises, 3,010 took cuts, 159 remained unchanged and 248 are taking home the Classic minimum ($500,000). Total salaries for the entire player pool ($19,890,064,000) remain unchanged as always.

The hunt for the latest bargains is, of course, already well underway.

Click here to check it out.

ROUND 3B OF THE 2023 MASTERS IS UNDERWAY

The Masters is a four-round cumulative-scoring tournament with each round consisting of unique themes designed to challenge the creative and adaptive skills of the 60 participants. Both SSG and Classic themes are used to test the breadth of the participants’ skills across a wide range of league parameters.

Round 3 is a combined round comprised of two accelerated seasons. In Round 3A, teams used multiple versions of just seven different players to make up their SSG rosters. In round 3B, the Classic versions of these same seven players are required keepers for competitors’ Classic teams.

At the conclusion of Round 3A, five-time Masters champion Bob Jecmen sits atop the leaderboard, having overtaken two-time champion George Kreiner.

REGISTER NOW FOR SEASON 43 OF THE LADDER LEAGUES

Registration is now open for the Ladder Leagues Random 600 Association Season 43.

For those unfamiliar with them, the Ladder Leagues operate like European soccer, with a ranked leagues structure. At the end of each LL season, the top teams from that season are promoted to higher leagues and the bottom teams relegated to lower leagues for the season to follow. The Ladder Leagues promotion/relegation system ensures competitive leagues comprised of similarly-skilled owners.

RA600 leagues draft manually from random limited pools of 600 Classic (career-rated) players. They are set in the Moneyball Era of Play with or without the DH in alternate seasons. All other league parameters (cap, income, injuries, etc) are standard.

Many team owners say the RA600 leagues are their favorite format. Why not give it a try?

Click here to register.

ERRONEOUS…🤔

The modern record for errors by a shortstop in a single game is five, by Donie Bush for the Tigers on August 25, 1911 (although Ray Chapman for the Indians, on June 20, 1914, and Lenny Merullo for the Cubs, on September 13, 1942, nearly equalled that record with four errors each … in a single inning!)

Playing for Vincent (Vinnie) Allen’s Too Darn Hot team in The Great American Songbook 14 league, Alex Rodriguez shattered that record, committing 7 errors, leading to 5 unearned runs, in a 7-6 defeat to Eric (lawguy56) Klein’s Chances Are. But his record comes with an asterisk, as three of those errors were committed in extra innings, the last two in the bottom of the 13th producing the deciding run.

CUSTOM LEAGUES KINGS

This month we’re visiting with David Stern, the driving force behind the Completely Random leagues, which recently completed their 35th season.

Click here to read David’s feature here.

THE TIPPING POINT

Each month we’ll offer a few tips in this space that may come in handy for the beginner as well as the experienced team owner.

A recent message board post – A Theory on how the Sim “works” – produced a wide-ranging discussion and sometimes fanciful postulates about the DMO game engine. This seemed like a good starting point to address some “design features” of the game that might not be understood by everyone.

Good fielders do not offset bad fielders at adjacent positions. Your Ex centerfielder will not help cover for your Fr leftfielder; your rangy shortstop will not compensate for your immobile third baseman; your Gold Glove first baseman will not save throwing errors by your scatter-armed infielders. Each fielder patrols and is responsible for his own position.

Rangy outfielders are not more important in parks with big outfields.The frequency of singles, doubles, triples and home runs is impacted by park factors, not park dimensions. The range of your outfielders is equally important in parks with big and small outfields.

Baserunning bungles. Just as in real baseball, players will make baserunning mistakes. Managers can’t control those, and neither can you. (But there will be fewer of these in DMO than in real life.)

The computer manager will not choose the same tactic in the same situation every time. Replay the same game 1,000 times, and in a given situation in which the computer manager might bunt, or hit and run, or steal, or employ some other tactic, it will not do the same thing every time. The game engine will determine the likelihood in that situation of different tactics being employed, apply your Team and Player Instructions to vary those likelihoods, then generate a decision. There is always a possibility, however remote, that an unusual tactic may be employed.

The game is played (simmed) pitch by pitch. This includes the tactical decisions discussed above. In a potential bunting situation, for example, the decision whether or not to bunt is made (again) before every pitch, and the factors taken into account include the count on the batter.

Nothing is predetermined. The game engine is completely agnostic. It doesn’t know or care who owns the teams that are playing. It pays no attention to how well or how poorly a player has been hitting, for example, in deciding whether to pinch hit for him. It’s not concerned with things “evening out” over the course of a season. It doesn’t decide in advance what the outcome of a pitch, or an at bat, or a game, will be, then generate a result that conforms to that outcome. And it is impregnable; there is no way for anyone externally from Diamond Mind Online or otherwise to direct or influence how the sim unfolds.

That probably is only scratching the surface of misconceptions, myths and conspiracy theories that inhabit the DMO universe, but I hope it’s helpful to some who might have been wondering …