In This Month’s Newsletter
Tournament News
As 2020 draws to a close there is plenty of action on the tournament front.
Bob Jecmen, originator and director of the Masters Tournament, clinched his fifth Masters title before the final round playoffs of the 11th annual Masters were even played.
The 14th Grand Open Tournament has moved on to the final round 24-team league.
The head-to-head 64-team bracket elimination SSG Tournament has reached the Sweet 16.
And Steve Strausler’s World Series Winners tournament has now completed 10 eight-team leagues. Steve described his tournament for us:
Running a series of eight-team leagues using the 96 World Series winners from 1922 – 2019 (excluding the 1981 Dodgers). Every team gets at least two chances to compete. As teams do poorly they are dropped from the competition. The teams are currently divided into three categories – pre-expansion, post-expansion with a DH and post-expansion without a DH. Have completed 10 leagues with four more either running or set up. I anticipate it will take 45 leagues before we get down to a final eight. That gives every team multiple chances to do well and advance.
Unlike other tournaments, which are contests between team owners, the World Series tournament is primarily a test of the teams, not their owners. As each league is formed, owners are solicited by Steve to manage teams in that league, and owners who have not yet participated in the tournament are welcome and invited to put their hands up to manage teams in upcoming leagues.
SSG V.4
We have a major overhaul of the SSG game in the works for January.
- We will be adding the 1920 and 1921 seasons, as well as the 2020 season, of course.
- We will be replacing the 1945, 1956, 1960 and 1962 seasons with completely re-rated versions of those seasons.
- We will be extending real-life splits for players from 1934 back to 1928.
- We have substantially revised our salary calculation formulas, so all players will be revalued.
The 2020 season has posed some interesting issues, because of its shortened length and new rules (like beginning extra innings with a runner on second base). Initially we will be adding the 2020 season using the “actual” stats of players from the 60-game season (with a modification to PTL for all SSG leagues that will adjust playoff PTL proportionately to overall PTL). Later in the year, as part of SSG v.4.2, we will be looking to add alternate “pro rata” versions of the 2020 season, as well as 1981, 1994 and 1995, which will increase player PA/IP and other counting stats proportionately to a 162-game season, with different player salaries calculated for those “versions”.
They Were Major Leaguers
Major League Baseball has announced that the Negro Leagues will henceforth be added to the list of recognized “major leagues”. This means, amongst other things, that the statistical record of players in those leagues will be added to the body official major leagues statistics and records.
When Diamond Mind Online was introduced in 2005, included in the player pool was a group of prominent Negro Leagues players, who were rated at the time based on historical evidence using players judged to be their most comparable major league contemporaries. With the extensive research and statistical data accumulated in the years since, the time has come to review the ratings for the players currently available and to add new ones. This will be a major project undertaken over the course of the coming year.
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.
Tinkering with your roster before the season even starts is perhaps the most entertaining aspect of playing of Diamond Mind Online. Here are a few simple tips for putting together the best possible team to start the season:
- Your team should be a good fit for your park. If you have a park that favors pitchers, you should have strong pitching; if it’s a band box, you should have a lineup loaded with HR power and OBP, and pitchers who restrict the long ball; etc.
- Your team should match up well against your division opponents. You play a lot more games against your division opponents than you do against teams outside your division. You should take cognizance of their parks, lineups and rotations and make sure you can match up effectively against them.
- Keep it simple. Don’t look for gaming-the-game strategies that you think will give you an “edge” over your opponents. Diamond Mind Online is the most realistic baseball simulation that has ever been created, so if your roster is built on sound baseball principles, it should succeed; if not, it won’t.
The season isn’t won, or lost, on Opening Day, or in the opening week(s) of the season.
- You need to have a sound “upgrade” strategy in place before the season starts. As the season progresses and upgrade money rolls in, you need to have an upgrade strategy already in place to get the maximum benefit from that extra cash.
You need to be patient. Patience is perhaps the most challenging and valuable commodity a DMO owner can possess. Many a good player or team has started a season badly (and many a bad player or team has started a season well). Don’t be discouraged by poor early results and begin “cashing in” good players, tearing down your team, and tearing up your plans. (And don’t be fooled by unsustainable early success either.)
The updates on the various tournaments are intriguing and I’m very, very tempted to get in the game but I don’t understand a lot of what is being written. Here’s an example of the kind of thing I get stuck on, “with a modification to PTL for all SSG leagues that will adjust playoff PTL proportionately to overall PTL). Later in the year, as part of SSG v.4.2, we will be looking to add alternate “pro rata” versions of the 2020 season, as well as 1981, 1994 and 1995, which will increase player PA/IP and other counting…”
Uh, what???
I’m completely new to DMB and I’m fairly new to baseball. I’ve spent a good deal of time on the relevant sites but I can’t make much sense of this stuff.
Is there a ‘beginner’s page’ or perhaps a ‘welcome to Online Play’ page or something?
Great software, great game and I’m hoping to get in the game soon.