Good afternoon, folks.
There’s been a tickle of interest in a reboot of the computer baseball leagues I ran at my old newspaper in the late '80s and I’m inviting signups for a new league to launch in the spring of 2019.
This is different from “fantasy baseball” in that you’re actually assembling and running a full team – setting lineups and rotations, making trades, figuring out strategy, working around injuries and quite possibly more. (The current version of the computer game I hope to use – Strat-O-Matic – is likely more sophisticated and feature-rich than the ones I used 30 years ago.)
I don’t have it figured out yet, just the broadest strokes, and won’t until after the 2019 version of the game, based on the 2018 end-of-season stats, becomes available next spring.
But it will be free and open to everyone on a first-come, first-served basis. (We can accommodate up to 30 managers.) We could get by with 12, with the computer filling in for the other teams, but I’m aiming for 18 (which would allow me to assign three human managers to each MLB division).
As in the past, a baseball statistics book that includes 2018 end-of-season player stats would doubtless be useful in preparing for our draft. But these days you may well find something superior on the net.
Granted, running a team in detail can be a lot of work. But you don’t have to quit your day job, as the program can automate many manager and general manager functions. You can tinker at whatever level you can manage, or you can just sit back and enjoy the results.
Sign up below or via a PM – please include your email – and feel free to share!
Thanks!
Peter