Strat-O-Matic Fantasy Baseball Daily Digital Player Cards
Strat-O-Matic Baseball Daily is the newest baseball fantasy baseball simulation game developed by Strat-O-Matic Media LLC. The Sports Techie community blog chatted with the creator of original fantasy sim game, Hal Richmond, Founder and CEO of Strat-O-Matic, about the launch of their newest Major League Baseball digital product and the than 50 year history of the pioneering company that dates back to 1962 beginning with the creation of their original board game and now because of technology, Baseball Daily. Richmond is 79-years old and was a hoot to interview because of his fountain of sports knowledge. Hal’s passion for sport and his Company are kindred to the hundreds of other people I have chatted with the past six years, Richmond’s vision, passion and intelligence are all rolled into the kind of leadership that spans generations. The Company manufactures the top selling sports board games and realism/stats sports digital games. This sports tech news story is about the iconic baseball simulation game Strat-O-Matic breaking new barriers with a new digital product.
Strat-O-Matic – Fantasy Baseball Pioneer
“Strat-O” games have earned a reputation throughout the sports community because of their statistical realism and accuracy. The Company has a loyal celebrity following including well known sports broadcasters such as Bob Costas, Jon Miller and Dan Shulman, former MLB’ers Keith Hernandez, Doug Glanville and Cal Ripken Jr., and sports super fans including Drew Carey, Ben Bernanke, Bryant Gumbel, Spike Lee and Tim Robbins. I remember first playing in the late 70s’ with local neighbor friends in Redmond.
For more than 50 years, Strat-O-Matic games have been based on player performance from the previous season. Richmond was an 11-year old boy living in Great Neck, NY in 1948 when he decided to invent the game because of the arbitrary statistics found in baseball board games played at the time. Dice allowed him to use statistical probability as the key feature driving the games realism. During the 1950’s, his goal became to finalize a prototype at summer camp followed by his time as a Bucknell University student.
First came All-Star sets in 1961 featuring 80 players, next was a 62′ set with 120 players and 40 All-Stars. Richmond then secured a loan from his father for $5,000 resulting in the first version of the 1962 Strat-O-Matic Baseball season game. By 1963, all Major League Baseball teams were included for the basic game and soon thereafter, an advanced game was released from company headquarters in Glen Head, NY.
In 1986 a PC game for the Apple Commodore was made available; IBM computers were the last PC version to hit the market that year. Then, seven years ago an online game was created. The Company archives the world’s greatest sports game stat libraries with top-of-the-line seasons dating back to the early 1900’s. They publish baseball, football, basketball and hockey games to play both on and off your computer and mobile screens.
Recently, the Company released Strat-O-Matic Negro Leagues, the first sports simulation game to accurately reflect more than 100 Negro League players who never had the chance to show their skills in the major leagues. In June of 2012, two Strat-O-Matic Fanatics set a Guinness World Record for the longest marathon playing a board game, squaring off in continuous games of Strat-O-Matic Baseball for 61 hours and 2 minutes.
Baseball Daily
Baseball Daily digital cards reflect a combination of current season stats, recent performance, projected stats, and Strat-O-Matic’s proprietary algorthims and ratings. Historical data is factored into the cards at the start of the season, with current season stats having increased influence as the season progresses.
The result is an even more realistic experience for Strat-O-Matic gamers, who will now have a chance to manage their favorite players through the ups and downs of a long regular season.
“We are excited to offer Strat-O-Matic players, baseball fans and fantasy sports aficionados a new way to enjoy the game,” said Richmond. “Our games have always been the most realistic because of our attention to detail and the care we take in player analysis. This history of realism coupled with the algorithms we’ve developed to adjust the cards daily has brought a new level of realism that I never would have dreamed of.”
Strat-O-Matic conducted a simulation of the 2015 World Series using the Baseball Daily digital cards in October and the results were remarkable. The following were some of the predictions that came to life:
- Kansas City wins first two games at home
- Jeurys Familia blows the save in a game that ends in 14 innings
- Home runs by Alcides Escobar and Alex Gordon in Game 1
- Matt Harvey allows three earned runs in Game 1
- New York’s bullpen implodes in Game 1
- Jacob deGrom allows four earned runs in Game 2
- Johnny Cueto allows one earned run in Game 2
- David Wright hits a clutch home run in Game 3; New York wins the game
- Michael Conforto hits a home run in Game 4 (Conforto actually hit two HRs)
- Harvey dominates in Game 5: 7ip, 0 runs, 4h, 1bb, 8k (identical through seven innings, short of one strikeout)
Baseball fans across the globe can play with Baseball Daily digital cards in the Strat-O-Matic Baseball 365 online platform and the popular Windows game platform, both available at www.strat-o-matic.com.
In the online game, players can sign up for a Baseball Daily league at any point during the actual baseball season. Participants draft a team, set their lineup and preferences each night and check back in the morning as three games are simulated overnight. A full season is played out over two months. The Baseball Daily feature will also be an optional add-on for this year’s Windows game, allowing players the unique experience of managing their favorite baseball team through its entire current in-season schedule on a nightly basis. Long-time loyal players of the board game and Windows game will continue to have the option of playing Strat-O without the Baseball Daily feature.
Baseball Daily for the Windows platform is currently available for pre-order and will become accessible on Monday, April 4th, the first day following Opening Day of the baseball season. Baseball Daily leagues for Strat-O-Matic Baseball 365 will also begin on Monday, April 4th.
Sports Techie, fans of Strat-O-Matic Baseball Daily love the opportunity to be in the same position faced by MLB Managers the previous day. Deciding which pitcher is on a hot streak or when a player’s cold hitting streak will break is as challenging for professional decision-makers as it is for seasoned Strat-O masters. The Stratotmatic digital game breaks down player value changes, tracks changing averages and provides computer-driven fielding, running and fatigue ratings unlike other sim games.
Richmond spoke about Los Angeles Dodgers rookie CF Joc Pederson and his promising start to last season when he projected to hit a steady .260 at a 40-50 homerun rate but by early August, the power and average simply vanished. I wondered aloud to Richmond as to whether Pederson’s amazing 2015 All-Star Game Home Run Derby appearance may have contributed to his statistical slide over the second half of the season.
I asked Hal about the baseball trend away from stolen bases. Players like Ricky Henderson used to steal a ton now 50 sbs are considered a bunch. He said, “In order for a stolen base to be effective, a base runner must have a 70% success rate. Anything under that is a drag on the offense. As baseball has become more aware of this, even though the total number of stolen bases is down, success rates are now up from around 65% in the 1980s to over 70% today, leading to a more efficient offense.”
In terms of adopting the DH on the National League, Hal terms himself a baseball purist believing baseball players should field. The strategy and value of players are better and ultimately, Richmond says both leagues should have the same set ups. Personally, he likes nine positions but understands there is extra value using a DH because hitting is exciting.
A top bullpen in the era of pitch counts is vital to success. Fatigue factors for some pitchers is 7 innings, some its 5 innings, other bullpen specialists pitch one inning, seldom throwing a second inning. Once starters were a teams best pitchers, a remarkable 70% to 50% of games were completed by starting pitchers. This is one of the fundamental major changes in the game today. Relief pitchers thus have less pitches in their arsenal compared to most starters, Modern relief pitchers go as hard as they can for an inning putting more pressure on the arm. Staff inning eaters used to grove the ball and let fielders make plays enabling Cy Young to win 511 games and retire at age 50, not because of arm issues but simply old age. The Company used to give a 9 fatigue factor to many starting pitchers back in the day but today Hal says the average fatigue factor for a starter is 6, some are 5.
I asked Richmond if he liked the digital age. Richmond is from the board game era but he says there are limitations on board games. There are cards going back to 1911 and computer discs to the 1880s. After 55 years, the business is still profitable and the legion of fans keep things fresh. A mobile app is expected to release in April or June. Tablets are the next application to deploy. Other languages and boards to explore in the future include Japanese and Spanish version.
Richmond recommends having Sandy Koufax pitch against Babe Ruth. I like the idea of playing the 1995 Seattle Mariners team versus their 2001 squad. Mike Trout is a must have swinger to have in your lineup this season, his card analytics are off the charts.
The Daily game won’t be available until Monday, April 4th, in the mean time enjoy MLB Spring Training 2016.
Strat-O-Matic Baseball Daily, let’s play two.
See y’all later in Seattle, Atlanta and around the world.
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