Vol. III,
Issue #3 - November 2015
**
SOM Baseball World News **
(
a new periodic column for 2015 where we share special news
linked to the SOM Baseball Game and MLB .... stay tuned!! )
Notes from the Wolfman:
- Welcome once again as we have a few interesting and
special announcements happening recently that we think warrrant
your attention
to be included as important news in the Strat-o-matic Baseball &
MLB Worlds. In this issue, we again heard from John Dewan, owner
of Baseball Info Solutions. Well there is a free weekly
newsletter that John shares through Acta Sports, called "John
Dewan's Stat of the Week", it comes as an email. Well each
year, they vote for the best fielders in Baseball by position,
they call it the "2015 Fielding Bible Awards", which links to a
book John has done by the same title. So thought I would
share the results of these awards. And finally, we have a
very very special announcement from our good friend Bruce Bundy,
related to his yearly SOM Baseball Projection Sheets. Most
of you know already that we announced at the end of October, Mr.
Bundy was beginning to release parts of his projection sheets.
Well just in time for this newsletter, he has made a special decision that
might greatly affect your performace in your leagues for next year,
so you need to read this announcement below. Enjoy these
updates and remember if any of our members have any special news
they would like to share that would be of interest for everyone,
please feel free to contact us privately.
FLASH: "John Dewan's Stat of the Week - The 2015 Fielding Bible
Awards"
(Editor's Note - compare these awards to the actual winners
announced recently for the Gold Gloves given out for the
National & American league players.)
The
2015 Fielding Bible Awards
October 30, 2015
THE 2015 FIELDING BIBLE AWARDS have been
officially announced, and the discussion has to
start with center fielder Kevin Kiermaier. In his
first full season in the majors, Kiermaier saved the
Rays an incredible 42 runs in center field, the most
by a player in a season since Baseball Info
Solutions first measured Defensive Runs Saved in
2003. Previously, that record was held by Andrelton
Simmons, who saved the Braves 41 runs at shortstop
in 2013. Unsurprisingly, Simmons also won a Fielding
Bible Award this season. Both were unanimous
winners, as was Jason Heyward in right field.
Simmons and Heyward were two of the four total
repeat winners this season. Simmons has unanimously
won the Award in each of his three full seasons in
the majors and is the best defensive player in
baseball today. Former teammate Heyward won his
third Award in right field, though this year it was
as a member of the Cardinals. Diamondbacks first
baseman Paul Goldschmidt and Astros pitcher Dallas
Keuchel each won their second Awards.
The first-time winners include Ian Kinsler at
second base, Nolan Arenado at third base, Starling
Marte in left field, Kiermaier in center field,
Buster Posey at catcher, and Ender Inciarte at
multi-position.
A panel of 12 analysts, listed below, examined
the 2015 seasons of every defensive player in Major
League Baseball and then used the same voting
technique as the MVP voting. First place votes
received 10 points, second place 9 points, third
place 8 points, etc. A perfect score was 120.
One important distinction that differentiates
THE FIELDING BIBLE AWARDS from most other
baseball awards, such as the Gold Gloves, is that
there is only one winner at each position instead of
separate winners for each league. The goal of THE
FIELDING BIBLE AWARDS is to stand up and say:
"Here is the best fielder at this position in Major
League Baseball last season." Another key feature of
the system is that it also recognizes the runners-up
for each position. A complete record of the voting
can be found in
The Bill James Handbook 2016.
Here are the results of THE 2015 FIELDING
BIBLE AWARDS:
Position |
Winner |
Points |
First Base |
Paul Goldschmidt |
118 |
Second Base |
Ian Kinsler |
106 |
Third Base |
Nolan Arenado |
116 |
Shortstop |
Andrelton Simmons |
120 |
Left Field |
Starling Marte |
116 |
Center Field |
Kevin Kiermaier |
120 |
Right Field |
Jason Heyward |
120 |
Catcher |
Buster Posey |
116 |
Pitcher |
Dallas Keuchel |
115 |
Multi-Position |
Ender Inciarte |
94 |
The Panel
Bill James is
a baseball writer and analyst and the Senior
Baseball Operations Advisor for the Boston Red Sox.
The BIS Video Scouts
at Baseball Info Solutions (BIS) study every game of
the season, multiple times, charting a huge list of
valuable game details.
As the MLB Network on-air host of Clubhouse
Confidential and MLB Now,
Brian Kenny
brings an analytical perspective on the game of
baseball to a national television audience. He also
won a 2003 Sports Emmy Award as host of ESPN's
Baseball Tonight.
Dave Cameron
is the Managing Editor of FanGraphs.
Doug Glanville
played nine seasons in Major League Baseball and was
well known for his excellent outfield defense.
Currently, he is a baseball analyst at ESPN on
Baseball Tonight, SportsCenter,
Wednesday Night Baseball, and ESPN.com, as well
as a regular contributor to The New York Times,
and he is the author of the book The Game from
Where I Stand.
The man who created Strat-O-Matic Baseball,
Hal Richman.
Named the best sports columnist in America in
2012 by the National Sportswriters and Sportscasters
Hall of Fame, Joe Posnanski
is the National Columnist at NBC Sports.
For over twenty-five years, BIS owner
John Dewan has
collected, analyzed, and published in-depth baseball
statistics and analysis. He has authored or
co-authored four volumes of The Fielding Bible.
Mark Simon
has been a researcher for ESPN Stats & Information
since 2002 and currently helps oversee the Stats &
Information blog and Twitter (@espnstatsinfo). He is
a regular contributor on baseball (often writing on
defense) for ESPNNY.com and ESPN.com, and is the
author of Numbers Don't Lie: The Biggest Numbers
in Yankees History (published by Triumph Books
in June 2016).
Peter Gammons
serves as on-air and online analyst for MLB Network,
MLB.com and NESN (New England Sports Network). He is
the 56th recipient of the J. G. Taylor Spink Award
for outstanding baseball writing given by the BBWAA
(Baseball Writers Association of America).
Rob Neyer has
been a working writer for 25 years, and
FOXSports.com's Senior Baseball Editor for some of
those years. When he's not writing, he's thinking
about not writing. Rob will live in Portland, Oregon
for as long as they let him.
The Tom Tango Fan
Poll represents the results of a poll taken at
the website, Tango on Baseball (www.tangotiger.net).
Besides hosting the website, Tom writes research
articles devoted to sabermetrics and is the
co-author of The Book: Playing the Percentages in
Baseball.
Our three tie-breakers are
Ben Jedlovec, President of Baseball
Info Solutions and co-author of The Fielding
Bible—Volume IIII and The Fielding
Bible—Volume IV, Dan
Casey,, veteran Video Scout and Senior
Operations Analyst at BIS, and
Sean
Forman, the founder of Baseball-Reference.com.
Complete results and voting on THE 2015 FIELDING
BIBLE AWARDS are presented in
The Bill James Handbook 2016, published
on or before November 1 every year. For more
information on THE FIELDING BIBLE AWARDS,
visit
www.fieldingbible.com.
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The prize of our winter hibernation.
—Peter Gammons
The most essential
annual published
for the baseball fan.
—Rob Neyer
Simply put,
The Bill James Handbook 2016 is the best
and most complete annual baseball reference guide
available today. Avid stat fans look forward to it
every year, and casual baseball fans enjoy its
comprehensive content. This book contains a myriad
of stats on every hit, pitch and catch in Major
League Baseball's 2015 season.
New and key features include:
-
New!
Stolen Base Attempt Times
-
New! Painting the Corners
-
Updated Starting Pitcher Rankings
-
New! 2016 Bill James Hitter and Pitcher
Projections
-
The Fielding Bible Awards
-
Q and A on Shifts
Paperback, $28.95
(Member price is $26.06 which
includes a 10% discount when you use the code "SOMB")
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Copyright © 2015 by John Dewan.
Permission to reprint or broadcast this information
is granted only if used in conjunction with the
following citation: "Used with permission from John
Dewan's Stat of the Week®,
www.statoftheweek.com."
If you are not already subscribing to John Dewan's
Stat of the Week® and would like to start receiving
it e-mailed free to your inbox each week,
click here to go to our Registration page.
Make sure to check the Stat of the Week box before
clicking "Sign Up."
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FLASH: "Bruce Bundy makes an important announcement related to
his 2015 SOM Baseball Projection Sheets!" Check this out
...
Prior to the release of this
newsletter, Mr. Bundy released two versions of what he called
the Hitter's SOM Baseball Projection Sheets (the 1st edition
of the sheets). Now, as we go to press, we just
received the Pitcher's SOM Baseball Projection Sheets from Mr.
Bundy to complete the full packages of goodies he is offering to
our members. For those of our members who are new or not
heard of Bruce Bundy and these sheets before, you should check
out the page shown below where we interview Mr. Bundy and he
explains how he developed these sheets (which are spreadsheets).
But simply put, the Projection Sheets provide a powerful view of
how the new 2016 SOM Baseball Cards will look like, that will be
released next February, which Mr. Bundy is able to calculate via
some very sophisticated formulas that he uses and has dveloped.
Before we send you to the 2015
SOM Baseball Projection Sheet page, here is the special
announcement we are authorized to make, as the distributor of
the projection sheets:
"Mr. Bundy has decided to cut in
half the price of the sheets to only $4.95",
an unbelievable low price for such valuable information. Plus, plus, you
also are not going to receive just one Hitter's Projection Sheet (but 3,
sorted in different ways) and also four Pitcher's Project Sheets, again
with various views of the pitchers to make it easier for you to use.
As there are future updates to
the sheets, you will be contacted via email but essentially the
most vital and important information you need to know about the
new cards coming out is here in the current version of the
sheets.
To read more about the Bundy
2015 SOM Baseball Projection Sheets and how to get your copies,
please visit:
http://www.ultimatestratbaseball.com/Bundys-SOMProjectionSheets-November2015.htm
Hurry, before Bruce Bundy changes his mind and brings the price
back up to what he offered the sheets for last month ....
Note:
-- if you have a new story you think our readers might enjoy
linked to Strat-o-matic please feel free to email us your story
by contacting Wolfman at:
wolfman@ultimatestatbaseball.com
Support the Cause
If you are enjoying
the content and information our newsletter shares with you, why
not support us with your helpful donation for our minor expenses
and time?
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Contained inside this exciting issue of Ultimate Strat
Baseball Newsletter:
(to view the various interviews, articles, columns and special sections click on
the links {underlined} and
this will take you to the appropriate
webpage)
♦
RETURN TO NEWSLETTER MAIN PAGE
♦
ARTICLE with JOHN DEWAN, owner of Baseball Info Solution, chapter for a book about Bill
James .
♦
MLB STORY with BILLY SAMPLE,
Talks about "Bat Flipping" and Willie Montanez while a Ranger.
♦
ARTICLE with CHUCK TINKLER ,
another special article by Chuck, one of our members about a
real Strat Master he met in his early days of playing
Strat-o-matic
♦
SOM BASEBALL LEAGUE REPORT with WOLFMAN SHAPIRO
--
the editor of "The Ultimate Strat Newsletter" and 2012 CBA
Champion, the "Wolfman" puts out a call to
commissioners of various
Strat-o-matic Baseball Leagues that he finds on the internet and
three leagues respond to be interviewed and tell their stories!
To view any individual
interview, click on the links below or start with Part I and
finish with an in-page link to Part II for the two interviews,
more interviews given in the December issue coming:
INTERVIEW with Kurt Meunier, FVSL, P-I
(F2F League in Wisconsin)
INTERVIEW with
Robert Latorre, 60's Decade Keepers League, P-II,
(CDROM-email)
♦
REPORT with TOM
NAHIGIAN (1961 cards),
Personal friend of the Wolfman, known in Guzzo's book as "The
Collector", returns and we take a peak at some of the early
strat cards printed from 1961.
♦
STRAT WISE with MARC WASSERMAN
--
commissioner of the Cyber Baseball Association (CBA) renames
his column to "Strat Wise"
as he expands his sharing and reporting of our Strat-o-matic
Baseball Community. In this first part of his new column
he talks about the recent MLB World Series and discusses the
content of some of the special videos we have on our Ultimate
Strat Baseball Video Channel on Youtube.
♦
ARTICLE
with WOLFMAN SHAPIRO
--
the editor of "The Ultimate Strat Newsletter" and 2012 CBA
Champion, the "Wolfman" goes back into the far past and
pulls out one of his first articles to the Strat-o-matic Review
from 1973, when he really was becoming known as the "Wolfman"
(the Skokie Wolfman) as he
challenged one of the first female strat gamers, Donna Chevrette to a play
against him via play-by-mail. This is series used the MLB All Star players from 1971,
with the Wolfman taking the National All Stars and Chevrette
taking the American. The series became known in the Review
as "The Battle of the
Sexes". After this series was played, and a victor
uncovered, the combats switched teams and played a second series
(which is an article by Donna Chevrette) that will be reported
in our December issue.
♦
RECOMMEND
ON-LINE SOM RESOURCES
--
On-line Strat-o-matic and Baseball related websites
that offer amazing information, special tools and products to improve
your game play
that we strongly recommend. In most cases, we have had personal contact with
these sources who agree with the principle to work together and help promote each other.
♦
BOOKS TO
DIE FOR and Become a BASEBALL GURU
-- This page
is
specifically about special books we are finding that either will
expand your insights about the game of Baseball, help you in the
creation of your current league teams or with your replays and
learn more about the Strat-o-matic
Baseball Game and Game Company's
history. We
have a special arrangement with Acta Sports, who is a publisher
of a number of great baseball books (including Bill James
Handbooks) to offer for our members
a 10% discount. We will continue to add more books to this page in the future
as we uncover other gems our members should know about.
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