Highlights From Diamond Mind November 2022

GOT XVI FINALISTS ARE SET

At the time of writing, the regular season of the penultimate round of the Grand Open Tournament XVI has concluded. The playoff teams from the six Round Three leagues will advance to the 24-team Finals, and there was still plenty of drama right up to Game 162.

Dominating proceedings was Jarred (jarreds7) Scott’s GOT Lucky III team in the Bill Freehan League, with 103 wins, the only team from the six Round Three leagues to reach the century mark.

BASEBALL IN NOVEMBER

With the start of the 2022 regular season delayed and the expanded playoff format, this year’s World Series already was scheduled to end later than any other.  In fact, after Game 3 was delayed a day by rain, the finishing date was pushed out even further.

The Series went into November for the first time in 2001, when, in the aftermath of 9/11, the regular season ended a week later than scheduled.  But way back in 1911, despite playing just a 154 game regular season, and going straight to the World Series, the Giants and Athletics nearly battled into the month of November.  John (Chief) Meyers recalled that tumultous series in The Glory of Their Times:

That was the Series that didn’t end until about the start of November.  We had six straight days of rain in Philadelphia between the third and fourth games.  We were behind two games to one at the time, and don’t think that wasn’t hard on the nerves!  Superstitious McGraw, he had us dressed in black uniforms, because that’s the way the Giants had dressed when they beat the A’s in the 1905 World Series.

But it didn’t work this time.  Matty beat Bender in the first game, 2-1, even though Charlie gave us only five hits and struck out 11.  I scored the winning run myself in the seventh inning, after I got a double off Charlie.  In the second game, though, Eddie Plank beath Rube Marquard when Frank Baker hit a home run to win the game.  That’s the Series that gave Baker his name, “Home Run” Baker.  He hit one of Rube in the second game and another off Matty the next day.

AN UNBROKEN RECORD

In all of major league history, from the introduction of the foul strike rule and the advent of the American League at the turn of the 20^th Century, there have been just 100-odd seasons played.  But in Diamond Mind Online, taking into account Classic (career-rated) Standard League seasons alone, there have been thousands.  So virtually any and every significant record or achievement has been bettered.

For example, only recently, one of baseball’s most remarkable and noteworthy records – Joe DiMaggio’s 56-game hitting streak – was exceeded by Ty Cobb for the first time in a DMO Standard League.

But there is one remarkable record that remains unbeaten in DMO: Owen (Chief) Wilson’s 36 triples for Pittsburgh in 1912 (in Wilson’s case, he was not a Native American and the nickname Chief had a different origin).  The next closest tally was 26, by Sam Crawford in 1914 and Kiki Cuyler in 1925.

In DMO, the closest anyone has come in Standard Leagues is Honus Wagner with 32.  So, there you are, the gauntlet has been thrown down!

CUSTOM LEAGUES KINGS

If you want to play in a tried-and-true format and create your team right now, standard leagues (Classic and SSG) are open to the public 24/7.  But if you want to try something different, Custom Leagues – created by customers – are there in abundance.

There are franchise leagues, progression leagues, captains leagues, high and low salary cap leagues, “rags to riches” leagues, alphabet leagues, place of birth leagues … the possibilities are limited only by your imagination.

Diamond Mind Online would not be the same if the Community did not include some of the most clever and prolific creators of Custom Leagues.  We’ll be featuring one of these in this space each month.

This month we’re visiting with Andy (ascub89) Clark.

Q: Tell us something about yourself: age, occupation, marital status, where you live, and interests (apart from DMO, of course).

A: I am 44 years old, married with 3 children (14, 11, 6), live in North Alabama and I am a farmer and part-time engineer. I took over the farm full time from my father a couple years ago, but still keep up my previous job as a controls engineer outside of planting and harvest seasons. My primary interests are just sports in general, but I don’t get to follow it as much as I used to between work, the kids’ activities, and general life.

Q: When did you start playing DMO and how did it first come to your attention?

A: I started playing in 2011. A good friend and his dad play here and they got me in a couple leagues. Over the years they still play off and on, but I’ve become pretty much addicted to it. This has become my primary hobby and my wife’s bane. 

Q: You’re a regular participant in leagues created by many of the most prolific Custom Leagues creators.  What have been some of your favorite leagues?

A: I like the name-your-own-theme leagues and ones that involve a bit of research. Hunting for hidden gems and causing you to come across new players and stories is always an enjoyable experience. A few repeating leagues I’ve been in for a while now are the States and Nations league, based on player birthplace, and the Stalwarts league, based on cheaper players that were with a franchise for several years.

Q: What do you think makes a good Custom League?

A: I really enjoy leagues with restricted pools. Sometimes a full pool, especially in the Single Season Game, can be kind of daunting and the tendency to stay in comfort zones can be too strong.  So, I think a good custom league is one that restricts choices a bit, either through the pool or through the salary cap, and makes you make the hard choices. I also like the injuries being turned ON in most leagues, as it makes building out the full roster more important. There are some cases where it doesn’t work like single season replays, but generally it is more fun to have to deal with a little adversity.

Q: Is there any advice you would give to people who haven’t created a Custom League before, but would like to give it a go?

A: I guess the biggest bit of advice I would give is to be creative and a little flexible. When you’ve got an idea that you think will work, just float it on the message boards and be willing to get a little help in fleshing it out. I’ve had several leagues where the general idea seemed good, but I didn’t always see pitfalls or potential improvements that others could see right away. The community is really helpful and insightful in getting things just right. Of course, making sure you double check the league settings before hitting submit is probably a good bit of advice too. I’ve had to contact Support more times than I should to try and fix my mess-ups when going through all the selections too quickly.

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.

The Cambridge Dictionary defines “aphorism” as a “a short clever saying that is intended to express a general truth.”

There are many well-known aphorisms that could be applied to player selection and roster construction in Diamond Mind Online.  Unfortunately, for each one of these, there tends to be another that counsels the opposite.  So, for example, when loading up on hitting, pitching or fielding, you can have “too much of a good thing,” but “a chain is only as strong as its weakest link.”  Let’s explore this dichotomy further.

You win games by outscoring your opponent.  You achieve this by scoring lots of runs yourself, and limiting the runs scored by your opponent.  How well you limit your opponents’ scoring will depend on your pitching and fielding.

Hitting.  There are nine spots in a batting order and 162 games in a season.  Dividing 162 by nine equals 18.  So, all things being equal, over the course of a season each spot in the batting order will make the last out in a game 18 times.  This means that the ninth spot in the batting order will get 144 less plate appearances than the first spot in the order.

So, if you’ve got pricey players at the bottom of your batting order, you’re not getting full value for them, because they’re getting fewer PA than if they were at the top or in the middle of the order (“too much of a good thing”).  But wait …

If you have better hitters throughout your batting order, they’re going to hit more, and so keep passing the baton on to the next guy (no “weakest link”).  So everyone is getting more PA than they would otherwise.

Fielding.  Loading up on “all Ex” fielders may seem like a good strategy, but there are only so many outs to go around in a game.  When one of your Ex fielders takes a hit away from the opposition, that’s one less opportunity for your other eight Ex fielders to flash their leather.  So, on a team of all Ex fielders, you don’t get maximum value from their hit-saving ability (“too much of a good thing”).  But wait …

Suppose the ball is hit to (one of) your player(s) in the field who is NOT an Ex fielder (your “weakest link(s)”), and he allows a hit that an Ex fielder would/might have prevented?  That may give one of your Ex fielders another opportunity to make a play, but the damage has already been done.

Pitching.  There are only so many innings to go around.  So you want your best pitchers maximizing their innings, and pitching in the most important situations.  Spreading your spending on pitching too evenly across your staff and/or putting pricey pitchers in back-of-the-rotation or pen roles (“too much of a good thing”), makes it difficult to optimize the run prevention you achieve from your pitching investment.  But wait …

Pitchers have limited endurance.  If you have cheap pitchers at the back of your pen or rotation, when your front-line pitchers are gassed, the weight falls on them (your “weakest link(s)”).

Allow me to conclude this inconclusive Tipping Point with an extended (and, I hope, entertaining) excerpt from Jim Brosnan’s 1960 classic, The Long Season:

Hemus asked me how my arm felt after throwing for a few days.  “I’m planning to use you as long man this season,“ he went on, “and we want that arm strong and ready to go.”

My bowels began to roar as Hemus confirmed the press report.  “Why long man, Solly?  I don’t want to sound like a troublemaker, but hell, I was a long man for my first three years.  By now, I think I’m ready for a better job.”

He donned his best diplomatic attitude and said, “Now Professor, don’t get mad.  If what you’re worrying about is money, and how much you’re going to make being a relief pitcher, don’t worry about it.  We’ve got the kind of pitching staff where you’re gonna be more valuable as long man.  And what’s good for the club is good for you.” 

“Well, yes,” I said, “but my experience has been that pitchers who win, or save, games get the most money.  Last year I think I proved that I could do both.  Now, as long man, I won’t be getting much chance to do either.   Or doesn’t ‘long man’ mean the same thing to you as it does to me?”

“Look,” he said, “I’ve got four starting pitchers.  If one of them goes bad, and I take him out when we’re still in the game … say, one run down, or we’re tied, or still ahead … then you come in.  Whether it’s the third, or fifth, or eighth, or ninth.  You can go long and short.  We know that.  You stop ‘em for a couple of innings and we get a chance to come back.  Then I got Grissom and Kellner to pitch an inning or two.

“As for making more money.  If you do the job I’ll see you get what you want.  Relief pitchers are becoming more and more valuable every day.  You gotta have good ones who can pitch every day, or damn near it.”

His plan made my arm sore. 

First of all, if he thought he had four major league starting pitchers I’d like to know who in hell they were.  And “if one of them had a bad day,” I wouldn’t be surprised if all four got bombed four days in a row.  And if he thought I, or any other pitcher, could stop major league hitting for three or four innings four days in a row … !  As a master plan, it looked great.  You could almost work it out with an IBM machine.  Now, if I had a plastic arm …

“Solly, you gonna be my agent next spring?” I asked, smiling partly to myself, partly in resigned agreement to his wishes.  Even if I didn’t quite understand him completely, and even if I didn’t agree with what I understood, he was offering me the prospect of steady employment.  Considering the high cost of good living, there is plenty to be said for opportunity.  Only I wish to hell he’d find a better title than “Long Man”!