Strat-O-Matic 2020 Season Simulation Is MLB Fan Ready And COVID-19 Proof

Defending Champion Nationals Among Opening Day Winners In Strat-O-Matic 2020 Season Simulation

Major League Baseball fans can enjoy the Stat-O-Matic 2020 Season Simulation of opening day and regular season games because coronavirus has caused a leaguewide postponement of game activities. Fear not because COVID-19 hasn’t cancelled the market leader in sport simulations from producing game outcomes, stats, standings, and significant highlights. Len Schwartz is Strat-O-Matic’s Director of Research and Operations. He chatted with the Sports Techie community blog about this new MLB product and how his fellow workmates work from home with the exception being their single employee manager that ships products. In 2016, I spoke with the creator of the original fantasy sim game and company Founder, Hal Richmond, about their launch in 1962 and evolution to Daily Digital Player Cards. The Strat-O-Matic Baseball Daily Platform uses algorithms to produce 2020 gameday results that are then shared with the public each day at 2 p.m. ET / 11 a.m. PT on their website, social media handles and upcoming multimedia presentations not yet released. Stadiums and ballparks in North America may not have a single fan in them but the game must go on even with the threat of CODID-19 which is what Stat-O-Matic is making happen. Len’s team came up with the sim results idea several weeks ago to fill in the gap for baseball fans and Strat-O-Matic fanatics worldwide.

Baseball Daily 2020 Simulations

Len said Opening Day Stat-O-Matic simulations resulted in several clutch performances to note.

Thursday’s game results are listed below. Daily lineups and pitching matchups will be picked from a combination of fan input across social media, special guest managers and Strat-O-Matic’s own team of baseball experts. Full sim results, standings and boxscores are available at http://www.strat-o-matic.com/2020-season-simulation/.

“The opening day results reflect the realism and unpredictability of baseball,” said Richman. “I think it’s fitting that so many of today’s simulated results produced exciting finishes, and we look forward to how the rest of the Strat-O-Matic season unfolds, until the on-field games return.”

Digital Daily algorithms are turn key and easy to use but you need the right game engine to construct sims from a previous season’s Major League data. Performance projections are then added to a new player card produced daily for Strat-O-Matic cards. His staff does research for hitting, pitching rotations and pitching rosters as well as reaching out to teams for research info. Pitchers are on a short leash to begin the season and not many go 6 innings, a key trend reflected in the sim.

New York Mets pitcher Noah Syndergaard had successful Tommy John surgery today on his torn right ulnar collateral ligament and Len says he won’t be a part of the 2020 sim since he is projected to be out 12-15 months. Boston Red Sox starter avoiding Tommy John surgery for now but his elbow may require surgery at some point so he is also not being counted on anytime soon in any sims. Schwartz says Justin Verlander on the sign-stealing Houston Astros is recovering from groin surgery and the Yankee’s Aaron Judge has a collapsed lung yet both will be a part of the 2020 sim at some point but don’t expect their stats to be counted until their respective injuries heal according to a doctor or trainers guesstimate.

Fans with input, ideas and questions about the daily simulation are free to contact Strat-O-Matic at [email protected].

Opening Day Sim Excitement

Len’s favorite and local team is the Mets and they lost to the defending champion Washington Nationals in memorable fashion as Howie Kendrick socked a ninth-inning tiebreaking home run off closer Edwin Diaz to win it.

Rafael Devers’s ninth-inning solo shot off Ken Giles gave the Red Sox a 3-2 win at Toronto. Colorado’s Garrett Hampson’s RBI double followed by David Dahl’s two-run single keyed a 10-7, 10-inning victory at San Diego. And Kolten Wong’s leadoff bomb off Raisel Iglesias in the top of the ninth lifted the Cardinals over the Reds.

Pinch hitters also produced two late-inning heroics for wins. The Milwaukee Brewers walked off the Chicago Cubs, 7-4, on a bottom of the 11th, three-run home run by Brock Holt, while Johan Camargo came off the bench to take Yoan Lopez out of the yard in the top of the ninth to propel the Braves past the Diamondbacks, Chop On!

And though not a last at bat win, Baltimore scored twice off Adam Ottavino in the seventh inning to ruin the Yankees’ debut of Gerrit Cole in a 3-2 Birds win at Camden Yards.

Thursday, March 26, 2020

Atlanta 5, Arizona 3

Boston 3, Toronto 2

Milwaukee 7, Chicago NL 4 (11)

Colorado 10, San Diego 7 (10)

Cleveland 9, Detroit 1

Los Angeles (AL) 9, Houston 6

Oakland 5, Minnesota 3

Miami 4, Philadelphia 3

Pittsburgh 4, Tampa Bay 1

Los Angeles (NL) 10, San Francisco 3

St. Louis 4, Cincinnati 3

Texas 10, Seattle 0

Washington 4, New York (NL) 3

Baltimore 3, New York (AL) 2

Kansas City 5, Chicago (AL) 2

Online Work Crew

Schwartz says their research team, customer service and operators are all currently remote because of COVID-19. He has been with Strat-O-Matic for 25-years starting out with part-time work while in college. Len’s Dad was a Strat-O-Matic gamer and Len played as a kid. His next role was to covert games to DOS programming. This task was followed by uploading card sets to computer rosters. Len eventually become a full-time employee and is now the senior employee as many originals have retired. He is my brother’s age and has older kids that “love to play Xbox video games and sleep,” said with a chuckle as I told him my son was 6-years old as he made noise in the background. Schwartz was very understanding about the informality of our interview because he says all his work seems to be done via conference calls and Zoom video conferencing because of the Long Island stay at home order recommended by NY’s Governor Cuomo.

Normally there are 10 employees at their Glen Head, NY HQ along with several remote working programmers, researchers and project creation consultants located mainly on the East Coast.

About Strat-O-Matic

Strat-O-Matic was invented by 11-year-old Hal Richman in his bedroom in Great Neck, N.Y. in 1948 as a result of his frustration with the statistical randomness of other baseball board games. He discovered that the statistical predictability of dice would give his game the realism he craved. Over the next decade, he perfected the game at summer camp and then as a student at Bucknell University. After producing All-Star sets in 1961 and ‘62, he parlayed a $5,000 loan from his father (and made a deal that if it didn’t work out he would work for his father’s insurance company) into the original 1962 Strat-O-Matic Baseball season game. Needless to say, Hal never had to take a job with his father.

Strat-O-Matic, manufactures the top selling sports board games and realism/stats sports digital games. The Company publishes baseball, football, basketball and hockey games to play both on and off your computer and mobile screens. “Strat-O” games are known throughout the sports community for their statistical realism and accuracy. The Company has the world’s greatest sports game stat libraries with top-of-the-line seasons dating back to the early 1900’s. At the start of the 2016 MLB season, Strat-O-Matic introduced Baseball Daily, its first product featuring digital player cards that update every day to reflect real life current player performance as the season progresses.

Sports Techie, to my dismay, the Seattle Mariners took a “woodshed thumping,” according to Len on opening day losing 10-0 versus Corey Kluber who threw a 2 hit, shutout with 10 K’s for the Texas Rangers.

I asked Len some business related questions. He told me they are interested in sim sponsor but have not settled on a partner yet. Len said, “Companies have reached out, they (Strat-O-Matic) have called some, we would love to work with other people.” Seems like a good sponsorship opportunity for the right fit especially if the season delay runs longer than the projected June start.

MLB and MLBPA signed a new CBA today. I wondered aloud to Len if their sim stats could be used to help negotiate any part of it for the players. Len said in regards to my thought, “CBA arbitration, it would not shock me, it would take the whole season being lost.” Imagine a league representative going to the negotiating table in 2021 with Strat-O-Matic Season Sim results as a bargaining chip should COVID-19 cause the entire season to be cancelled.

In terms of the NFL and NHL, Len said he wondered if the leagues were going to end the regular season when they return and go right into the playoffs. With the NFL Draft, they could not do something in advance of this showcase event because they need to look at a previous season to make cards for prominent rookies, college football data would not suffice.

It turns out, Strat_o-Matic has provided sims for media outlets and writers looking for results.

Finally, the Negro League Centennial is May 2^nd featuring an event at the Negro League Museum. The anniversary celebration was scheduled to have legacy players but is postponed until further notice. The anniversary of the league’s first game was a showcase opportunity for the re-release of the Negro League Starter set and the Diamond Gem Lines featuring individual players making up 8 teams of the era’s best players. “Strat-O-Matic was going to donate some of the product sales to the Negro League Museum,” said Schwartz.

Well, you can either watch MLB, regional Fox Sports or SYN stream classic games or check out the 2020 Season Simulation, or do both. The former is all about the past, the latter is about the present and future all rolled into one thanks to Strat-O-Matic.

See you later sportstechie in Seattle, Atlanta and around the world!

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