Transactions

The FFTs released Chase Headley.

The Warpigs released Matt Shoemaker.

Updated Mock Draft

Okay, forget that earlier Mock Draft. This one is OFFICIAL!

1. Buckeyes - Kyle Schwarber. When you're looking to add offense, it doesn't matter how good they are on defense - it only matters which positions they play. And that they can hit. Schwarber can hit.

2. Drillers - Stephen Piscotty. The decision, with Schwarber gone, is between Piscotty and Conforto. Conforto probably has the better future, but Piscotty definitely has the better card - and the Drillers are a playoff team.

3. Mavs - Matt Duffy. He's the next best player available, and the Mavs need 3b. It's a no-brainer. My first LOCK.

4. Rhinos - Lance McCullers. The Rhinos, like the two teams drafting before him, could be headed for the post season, so it's nice to get a prospect who also has a good card AND fits your needs.

5. DVs - Michael Conforto. The DVs probably don't have the pitching to compete for a playoff spot, so might as well take the best young hitter available.

6. Warpigs - Jung Ho Kang. Another team with dreams of the playoffs; another player with a good card, although at 29, he doesn't really count as a prospect.

7. Nads - Steven Matz. Hey, Steven Matz may only have 36 innings, but he's 24 and already has a World Series start under his belt. He's the next stud in the Mets' rotation. By this time next year, with Stroman, Fiers, Tillman, and Matz, the Nads could have the best rotation in NASOMA.

8. Fungoes - Carson Smith. The Fungoes are the favorites to win the HWD. Smith makes a good bullpen into a great one, and he's going to be around for awhile.

9. Drillers - Logan Forsythe. The Drillers breathe a sigh of relief that Forsythe is still there. Devon Travis is younger and has a higher ceiling, but Forsythe can play every day and has better defense.

10. Tweeners - Francisco Rodriguez. The Tweeners are a bullpen away from being a playoff team, KRod is a good first step.

11. Goofs - Yunel Escobar. My second LOCK of the Mock Draft. He is this year's Casey McGehee. Yunel will be a Goof.

12. Zaps - Franklin Gutierrez. Well, why not? Because he's 33? Because he only has 171 at bats? Neither is a good excuse when you have one of the two best teams in the league. He'll be a regular in LF come playoff time, and if the Zaps don't take him here, he could end up on the Snakes, who have the next 3 picks.

13. Sidewinders - Jaime Garcia. The team with the best pitching needs pitching. Strange but true. Garcia is a good one.

14. Sidewinders - Hunter Strickland. And then they add a reliever. Limited a bit with his innings, but he won't have to do the heavy lifting on a team with Wade Davis, Aroldis Chapman, Andrew Miller, and Craig Kimbrel.

15. Sidewinders - Nick Hundley. The Snakes may go with a third pitcher here, but Hundley is the best catcher in the Draft, and with Mesoraco down, Grandal needs some help.

16. Tweeners - Odubel Herrera. He's young, he's got a good card with a lot of AB. The Tweeners could use an outfielder. Seems like a good pick, but I have no idea. This pick could easily be another reliever.

Transactions

The Rhinos traded Jake Lamb and pick 144 to the Warpigs for pick 117.

The Rhinos released Jorge Alfaro, Alex Avila, and Marco Gonzalez.

The SuperGoofs released Kyle Lohse, Daniel Nava, and James Russell.

Missed this one earlier: The Fungoes released Ryan Howard and reinstated Jarrod Dyson.

Screenshots

I've been playing around with the computer game. Here's a couple of screenshots of my game screen. I think the bright one looks better, but the darker one makes it easier to read the text on the screen.

Sad News

From The HEAD INMATE...

Gracie, the last remaining beer-swilling Baptist Bowl feline, died shortly after her 19^th birthday.

Depth Charts

Thanks to everyone for taking the time to cut some dead wood off their roster. I have now updated all the team icons on the homepage to link to your team's homepage, which includes updated depth charts of your current rosters. Let me know if there are any corrections to make.

Also, there are a couple of new things I will be adding soon. Back in December, the Buckeyes were interviewed by Ultimate Strat. Now Ultimate Strat has interviewed the Warpigs for their February newsletter, as well as a shorter feature on the Pigs and Fungoes making the trip to Strat-O-Matic's Opening Day. I will link all of that as soon as I figure out the best way to do it.

I recently sent you an lzp file of the updated league. I think I may have backed that league up before some recent cuts, but I know for sure that I accidentally dropped Jose Reyes onto the DVs instead of the Free Agent list. I'll keep updating with roster moves and send more lzp files out as needed.

Stay tuned for an announcement by the Commissioner regarding official cut down date.

Transactions

The Warpigs released James Loney.

The SuperGoofs released Michael Cuddyer, David DeJesus, Torii Hunter, Casey McGehee, and Rene Rivera.

The Fungoes released Tommy La Stella.

The Inmates released J.P. Howell, Pat Neshek, Zach Putnam, Aramis Ramirez, Wilin Rosario, and Kennys Vargas.

Transactions

The Mavs released Alexi Amarista, Homer Bailey, Billy Butler, Matt Cain, Greg Holland, Dominic Leone, Michael Morse, Wily Peralta, and Christian Vazquez.

Recommend Best Player

I put the new league together on the computer game and updated all the rosters to match what shows on your roster page right now. Then I asked the computer to suggest the best player available for you to draft. Here are the results...

Buckeyes: Mark Teixeira
Drillers; Logan Forsythe
Mavs: Nick Hundley
DVs: Kyle Schwarber
Zaps: Colby Rasmus
Sidewinders, Wahoos, and Goofs: Jaime Garcia
Warpigs, FFTs, Nads, Fungoes, Rhinos, Tweeners, Bees, and Inmates: Francisco Rodriguez

I'm not sure what this means, but I'm wishing hard for the Buckeyes to take Teixeira with the first pick of the draft.

Transactions

The Nads released Jeremy Affeldt, Jonathan Broxton, Jared Cosart, Carl Crawford, Alex Rios, Kurt Suzuki, and Chris Taylor.

The Nads traded Matt Shoemaker to the Warpigs for pick 192.

Opening Day at Strat-O-Matic

It was a fantastic last two days as the Fungoes and Warpigs flew to Glen Head, NY, to attend the 55th Anniversary of Strat-O-Matic and get in line to get their cards. And while a couple of guys from New Jersey and Philly showed up at 5AM (the doors officially open at noon), we were next in line (we got there at 8AM). We stood in 18 degree weather for 4 hours, but it was worth every minute of it. We chatted for those 4 hours with the 2 guys ahead of us and a guy in line behind us who drove there from Cleveland. We met all the SOM people, including Hal himself. All of them were as nice as can be (but then, we didn't tell them we know the Zapper). They provided coffee and donuts and free peeks at new cards. Derek and I were interviewed for a YouTube segment and later by a local newspaper guy. And when the cards started getting passed out, the Warpigs were the first to have their cards in hand.

We went over to find the place the day before, and they let us in and introduced us to Hal. It was a great two days.

Transactions - Opening Day at SOM Issue

The Fungoes traded Derek Holland to the Warpigs for Danny Farquhar.

Transactions

The Buckeyes released Dustin Ackley, Leonys Martin, Logan Morrison, and Jon Singleton.

Transactions

The Killer Bees traded pick 2 and Lucas Giolito to the Drillers for Neil Walker, Jimmy Rollins, Raul Mondesi, Alex Cobb, Mike Zunino, Zack Wheeler, and Maikel Franco.

Transactions

The Drillers released Joe Beimel, Dan Haren, Yusmeiro Petit, C.C. Sabathia, and Alex Torres.

New Features in SOM for 2016

IMPORTANT NETPLAY NOTE FOR WINDOWS 10(tm) USERS:
 If you are running Windows 10(tm) and are using Netplay, you must run the game in compatibility mode.  See the Netplay Compatibility Note in the Netplay section of the Help File.

List Of New Features And Improvements In Strat-O-Matic Baseball 2016

1) Daily Data (Optionally Available) - Our most exciting innovation in years is now available for play. Imagine playing Strat-O-Matic in parallel to the real-life baseball season! As the players go through hot and cold streaks, imagine seeing that reflected in their Strat-O-Matic cards! Imagine seeing a new Strat-O-Matic card daily for every player!! Well, imagine no more - this option is now available for Strat-O-Matic baseball fans! Please see the full description of Daily Data for restrictions and additional information. 

2) High Resolution Color Ballparks - Our ballpark option has been enhanced to include high-resolution ballpark pictures for all current major league stadiums. In addition, low resolution color ballparks will now be included with the game.
 
3) Individualized Pitcher Injuries - Starting with the 2015 season, pitchers will be assigned an individual injury rating. This new rating is designed to be used with the new Super Advanced Injury charts. Older seasons will use default ratings (based upon actual usage).

4) Card Image - Clutch Hitting - If you have purchased the Card Image Option, then the Clutch Hitting effects are now integrated into the card image displayed on the Game Screen Layout. In clutch situations (2-outs, runner(s) in scoring position), the clutch result will display instead of the original card result. This will make it easier to evaluate the current batter and pitcher and will make more sense when the clutch result is rolled with the dice. Note that the only place this is done is on the in-game batter vs. pitcher card image (where the dice are rolled). You can still view the player's original card image by clicking on the player's name to display his notebook. Also note that the Clutch Hitting results are shown in green (the color of money!) to indicate that the original card result has been replaced with the clutch result.

5) Super-Advanced Injury Charts - A new and improved set of Super-Advanced Injury Charts is now supported. The new charts alter the frequency and length of injuries to more closely simulate current real-life injuries than the original charts did. We recommend using these new charts when playing with the 2015 or newer season(s). However, they can be used with any league from any season. Use this option if you desire maximum board-game compatibility.
 6) Online Draft - The Online Draft logic for drafting players when an owner is not present has been improved.

7) Help File - If you are unable to read the older help file format, we are including a "New Help File" which can be accessed via "Start / Programs / Strat-O-Matic". It is not accessible directly from the game, though. Even if you are on Windows 10, you should be able to open the new help file.

8) WAR - Wins Above Replacement (WAR) has been added to the Main Game Screen for both batters and pitchers. WAR is an estimated measure of the number of wins a player contributes to his team. Our version of WAR is a combination of a player's wRAA, rWAR, and dWAR and attempts to value a player's total contribution in one number. This number should not be taken as the definitive measure of player value but as another tool to use when evaluating a player's performance. In addition to the player's replay WAR, we included a calculated WAR for the player card as well (that is located on the top line of the display). This roughly estimates the real-life WAR of the player's card, but is not an exact match of other WAR systems available elsewhere.
 9) Roster Report - The Roster Report (located in the Teams / Display Reports menu) now includes a count of the number of batters and pitchers on each team's roster. The counts are shown on the heading line, in a series of two numbers separated by a slash - the first number is the number of batters, the second is the number of pitchers. Two sets of numbers are shown. The first set is the number of eligible batters and pitchers. The second set is the number of ineligible batters and pitchers. Here is an example showing a team with 13 batters and 12 pitchers who are eligible, and 2 batters and 3 pitchers who are ineligible:
  

2014 New York (NL) Amazins Black=In Majors (13/12) Blue=In Minors (2/3) 

10) Sort Players - Sort Players has been improved to allow sorting of players by WAR. You can sort all players, just batters, or just pitchers by WAR. This capability will be especially convenient when looking at the free agent pool, as it allows you to sort all batters and pitchers into one list, which provides an idea of the relative worth of the batters compared to the pitchers in the pool.

11) X-Chart Improvements

- Super-Advanced Fielding Catch-X G3 Rare Play play-by-play has been changed to better reflect what might happen on such a play.
- Super-Advanced Fielding Catch-X G2 with the infield in, play-by-play has been changed so that it indicates the tag was made directly by the catcher instead of a throw being made.

12) Restore League Improvements

- The Restore League function now defaults to the Backup folder since that is where backups are normally stored.
- After you restore a league, it is now automatically selected in the league listbox as a convenience.

 13) Eligible Players - The Promote/Demote Minor Leaguers dialog now includes an "All" and a "None" button to make it possible to set all players eligible or ineligible with one click.
 14) Computer Manager - When a Double Duty Player pinch-hits for the pitcher, the computer manager attempts to keep him in the game to pitch. This year, code has been added to use another reliever if he is tired and there are two or more other relievers available in the bullpen.  

15) Turn Off Suggested Defensive Strategies - A new option is available in the Computer Manager section of the Game Preferences dialog that will prevent the computer from automatically overriding certain defensive strategies such as holding baserunners, positioning the infield, and positioning the outfield. 

16) Multiple Instances - A warning is now issued if you attempt to run multiple copies of the game at the same time. This is a dangerous practice that can lead to serious data corruptions! We allow you to ignore this warning, however, before doing so, you should read the documentation on Multiple Instances that has been added to the Help File.

17) Bugs Fixed 

- A very rare program hang was found and corrected in the Recommend Best Available Player routine. 
- The Blogger interface has been replaced, as we are no longer able to authenticate your blog credentials using the Blogger API.
- Sometimes the box score story would say that a leadoff hit plated a run, which is not possible unless it was a homerun.
- An extremely rare sequence caused an incorrect number of earned runs to be calculated. According to baseball rule 10.16, an inning that proceeds as follows should result in two runs allowed being credited to the pitcher, but only one earned run:  Out, out, catcher's interference, homerun, out. In essence, since there is no way to determine the final result of the at-bat due to the catcher's interference, that plate appearance is ignored for purposes of determining earned runs.
- In the Report Writer 2014 John Danks was displaying as "Jordan Danks" when viewing pitching reports.
- According to the Strat-O-Matic Rule Booklet, rule 25.21, which is for adjusting outfielders range ratings when playing out of position, is both an Advanced and Super-Advanced rule. This rule was not being used for the Advanced computer game, and that has been corrected.
- When using the Show Flight of Ball game option, home plate was reversed.
- Setting the lineup with your pitcher as the leadoff hitter was confusing the stats package. Sometimes two pitchers would get credited with a loss or the runs and/or earned runs for the pitcher were incorrect.
- Defensive Runs Above Average (dRAA) was being miscalculated for certain outfielders.
- Award icons were not showing in the Team Yearbooks for old seasons.
- A Catcher's Interference with the bases loaded should result in an RBI for the batter according to baseball's 2015 official rules, section 9.04(a)(2). The RBI for this situation has been added back (the RBI was removed in Version 10 as a result of an erroneous bug report).
- A Netplay bug was identified and fixed that could cause games to get out of sync after a message was displayed. For example, sometimes after the message that states the pitcher is tired was displayed the games would get out sync.
- The play-by-play for a rare play regarding the hidden ball trick was indicating that a double was hit down the line even though it was hit to center field.

18) New Seasons - Support for the new 2015, 2016 Daily Data, 1982 (Deluxe Super-Advanced), Hall of Fame 2016, 2015 Career Historical, 1874 National Association, 1908 Negro League, 1917 Negro League, 1935 Negro League, 1948 Negro League, and 2015 Japanese Baseball seasons has been added.

19) Ballpark Photos  

- 6 new ballpark pictures - Cleveland (day and night), Los Angeles (night), Texas (night), Anaheim (night), Houston (day).
- 34 new ballpark entry pictures - Cleveland-11, Los Angeles-5, Anaheim-6, Houston-4, Chicago-NL-6, Kansas City-2.

20) Play-By-Play 

- Over 1350 new lines of Nickname play-by-plays have been included!
- New and updated Trivia questions are included.
- All 30 team play-by-play files have been edited and updated for 2015 season.  

Transactions

The DVs released Trevor Plouffe.

Transactions

The Mavs traded Elvis Andrus to the Drillers for pick 73.

The Drillers released Conor Gillaspie and Chris Owings.