Vol. VI, Issue #1 - February 2018

** Interview with Derek Bain
Fantasy Baseball Gamer and a published
Baseball Author, Baseball Stat Researcher **

(A chance meeting on Linkedin, allows me to meet with another fantasy baseball
gamer and baseball stat researcher, who has played SOM and also written
a very interesting book in 2015 that could help you build you strat team.)

(Notes from the Wolfman:  As you all know, from the first or main page of our newsletter, it has been almost a year since we at USBN put out a newsletter.  I actually met Derek on Linkedin back in March or April of 2017, which is when I interviewed him.  I was curious to hear Derek take on the fantasy baseball scene, as he has played almost every baseball simulation game out there as well as Strat-o-matic.  Plus based on the book he has published and all the articles he writes, he is quite knowledgable about baseball stats and how to work with them to enhance your play with the fantasy baseball of your choice, in whatever form it comes.  As always, the key to becoming a student of SOM Baseball and to see success is to learn and listen to others.  Derek was contacting me over last year, asking when his interview would be published, as he has some special things to share with our members. So finally I am able to introduce you all to a fellow brother on the same path as ourselves, Mr. Derek Bain.) 
 

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Wolfman:　I am happy to introduce to our members Derek Bain, who I became friends with on LinkedIn last year. After reading the bio that Derek sent to me, it seems he has tried almost every fantasy baseball game out there and is also the author of a very interesting book called "Hardball Retrospective" (2015) as well as is an author of many baseball articles based on his personal research and love of stats and analytics.  He has also played SOM Baseball back in the 1990's. I am sure you will be interested in the unique insights which Derek will be sharing in this interview with our members.

Derek, welcome to the Ultimate Strat Baseball Newsletter.

Derek: Thanks, I appreciate the chance to talk baseball with you!
 

Wolfman:  Now Derek, based on the bio I read, it seems you have been very interested in all aspects of baseball - when you were younger, where did you grow up, and what team did you root for?  Did you have any favorite players? Derek:  I was born and raised in New Jersey. My interest in baseball began in the early 80's. My great-grandmother was a fan of the Mets, along with my grandpa. We watched plenty of Mets games on WOR (Channel 9) - her favorite player was Mookie Wilson. My father and several other relatives and family friends rooted for the Yankees, and we eventually attended many Sunday games during the 80's and early 90's. We enjoyed watching Rickey Henderson on the base paths, Don Mattingly's sweet swing and "Big" Dave Winfield's cannon arm in right field. The first game I attended was the Angels vs. the Yankees in August 1984. Bobby Grich homered off Ray Fontenot and the Angels won 2-1. I followed in my cousin's footsteps, becoming an Angels fan and joining Little League that year. My favorite players are Rod Carew, Wally Joyner and Mike Trout. My family and I try to visit at least one new ballpark every year.

Wolfman:  When you were younger, did you actually play any baseball and if so what was your best position?

Derek:  I got a late start in Little League, only playing 3 seasons. I was most comfortable playing first base.

Wolfman:  Now, it seems you have tried many baseball fantasy games, mostly either linked with the computer or video games - when did this start  and why do you feel so inspired to play all these games?

Derek:  My interest in video games and computers started in the early 1980's when we received an Intellivision system for Christmas. I enjoyed the Major League Baseball game for Intellivision and pumped a lot of quarters into Championship Baseball and World Series: The Season in the arcades (I ended up buying a used WS:TS upright arcade game in the late 90's!) I moved on to the Commodore 64 in 1983, playing Star League Baseball, World's Greatest Baseball Game, SSI Computer Baseball. My favorite game on the C64 was MicroLeague Baseball. I spent countless hours playing against my friends or the computer manager. The General Manager and Box Score add-ons allowed us to keep track of our player's statistics. I have vivid memories of playing Earl Weaver Baseball on my friend's Amiga 500 computer. EWB for Amiga featured amazing graphics and sounds. The names were spoken (you could teach it how to pronounce names) and in my opinion, EWB is the finest computer baseball game ever developed. I also enjoyed the Tony LaRussa Baseball series from Stormfront Studios into the mid-90's.

Fast forward to 2015 - I contacted Don Daglow, the developer / executive producer for the Earl Weaver Baseball and Tony LaRussa Baseball games.  He actually created the first computer program to simulate an entire baseball season back in 1971!!  Don wrote an amazing foreword for my book.

Wolfman:  Now although we are partial to Strat-o-matic Baseball, tell us about your experiences with this game in the 1990's - what was your opinion of the game, understanding now 20 years later there are many enhancements which have been added to it?

Derek:  I have a limited recollection of my experience with Strat, as I only tried an early edition of the DOS-based game. I remember being impressed by the high level of statistical accuracy and attention to detail with regards to the player cards. Around that timeframe I also tried Pursue the Pennant (later Diamond Mind Baseball), but I became partial to the APBA computer game, Baseball for Windows. The later editions featured play-by-play with Ernie Harwell along with the Bill James Baseball Encyclopedia CD, which allowed the user to import players from any MLB season through 1997. That was a major benefit over purchasing season disks or entering the player data by hand.

Wolfman:  Are you still involved with fantasy baseball games now - do you play replay seasons or have you participated in any leagues or tournaments?

Derek:  Over the past two years, I have utilized Digital Diamond Baseball and Out of the Park Baseball for season replays in support of "Hardball Retrospective". I regularly post the league updates on the Baseball Analytics forum (Facebook), Twitter (@HardballRetrosp) and my website:

http://www.tuatarasoftware.com

I run the leagues solo so I can generate the results quickly. I also participate in two fantasy baseball leagues - my "hometown" league is entering it's 26th season! Regarding the table / dice games, I've only played a handful of "APBA 66" contests with my son.

Wolfman:  Now as a very knowledgeable researcher and statistician - how accurate do you the fantasy baseball games are to give gamers a chance to experience what it is like in real life to manage players?

Derek:  The computer baseball games that I've played recently are very accurate. There are many options that the user can tweak, which becomes necessary if you're including ballplayers from different eras. I wrote an article  "Rotisserie vs. Reality" which discusses whether the standard Rotisserie Baseball categories provide an accurate method to measure what it takes to put together a winning team in real life. To read this article, click here.

Wolfman: Can you explain to our members the type of baseball statistics and analytics you are involved with - I understand you have a strong computer background which no doubt helps you with your analysis?

Derek:  I've had an interest in computer programming ever since we purchased a Commodore 64. I wrote BASIC programs to keep track of our wiffleball and stickball statistics! I completed college courses in C, C++, Java, Oracle and Microsoft Access along with online courses in R and SQL, which help immensely when sorting through multiple seasons worth of baseball data. I am a huge fan of the Bill James Baseball Abstracts (1982-88) and his work on "Win Shares", a  statistic which is meant to assess a player's value in terms of his ability to help his team win games.

Wolfman:  Is there some special way to look at baseball stats and analytics that can help gamers with evaluating players for their leagues especially those who are involved in keeper leagues using the latest version of the most active MLB players.

Derek:  Both of the fantasy leagues that I participate in allow each owner to retain a different number of "keepers". We increase each keeper's salary so it becomes a judgment call to determine whether that player is worth keeping or returning to the free agent pool. In one league, it would have cost me $58 to retain Mike Trout.  I threw him back into the pool and was able to re-acquire him in the auction for $48.  You need to have a feel for the tendencies of the other owners in your league (how high are they generally willing to bid), what are their favorite teams or players (can you get them to overpay?) As far as statistics and analytics, I generally look at the averages from 3 fantasy baseball publications and tweak the amounts that I'm willing to pay for the available players, depending on my team's needs. I will look for bargain closers and starting pitchers, and typically spend at least 70% of my budget on offense. For example, I drafted Ryan Madson and Jeremy Jeffress as my closers in 2016. I always look for setup relievers who may get an opportunity to close later in the season. I'm also partial to drafting several prospects instead of selecting mediocre talent towards the end of the draft.

Wolfman:  Now I mentioned before that you had written a book in 2015, can you tell our members what this book is about and why you were inspired to write it. Could our members use the information in this book to help them with their game play?

Derek:  When I was playing computer baseball simulations, I always found myself tinkering with the team rosters and lineups. I usually ended up creating All-Time teams for each franchise. I wrote several articles about the Angels for Seamheads in 2010, and I was working on another project when I found myself asking the question, "what if I put every baseball player on their original team, and tried to determine who had the best and worst organizations on a yearly basis?

After reading "Baseball Hacks" by Joseph Adler, I realized that I could merge the Lahman Baseball Database with the Transactions Database on Retrosheet along with the Baseball Gauge @ Seamheads to accomplish this task. I incorporated Bill James' Pythagorean Winning Percentage, and later added Wins Above Replacement and Win Shares to offer three data points for each team-season. In terms of strategy, "Hardball Retrospective" solidifies the theories of drafting wisely, developing talent and not trying to solve problems with quick-fix solutions. Time and again I found that a number of organizations failed to properly evaluate their talent on hand and their trades tended to back-fire over the long term.

Wolfman: I know you have tried many fantasy baseball games but is there any overall strategies or tips you could give to our members for their own leagues with Strat-o-matic to help them see more success with their teams?

Derek:  Look at statistics that provide consistent results. Batting averages and ERA can fluctuate wildly from season to season, but most batters will have similar ratios for strikeouts/AB, walks/AB, etc… ?Pitchers will typically maintain their strikeout/walk ratios. In my fantasy leagues, I will look at WHIP, SO/9 and BB/9 for pitchers while many owners still draft players with impressive win or save totals and ugly peripherals from the previous season. Park factors are also important for projecting minor league talent as well as players who have moved to a new team.

Wolfman:  What kind of baseball articles are you writing?  Which baseball on-line groups do you write these articles for - I have talked about Fangraphs to our members related to the early player predictions they share - why should our members know about these on-line groups?

Derek:  I currently submit my articles to Seamheads and Fangraphs. Seamheads has a lot of interesting content for historical research and it is home to the Baseball Gauge database (which includes WAR and Win Shares data), the Ballparks database and the Negro Leagues database. Fangraphs maintains a wealth of information relevant to current and past seasons. I find the "Rotographs" section particularly helpful during the regular season, specifically the "Roto Riteup" and "Bullpen Report" articles.

Wolfman: In your bio you said you like to share various analytic results you are doing with baseball statistics - what are you working on now.  What analysis have you done most recently that would provide some insights to help our members with their game play?  Where can our members read about these results?

Derek:  I'm currently working on my second book. “Hardball Retroactive” is a modest collection of selected articles that I have written for Seamheads.com since 2010. Exclusive content is incorporated into the book, with additional charts and graphs that were omitted from the original posts as well as three new compositions. Several chapters may be of specific interest to the tabletop strategy or fantasy player including “Rotisserie vs. Reality”, “BABIP by Location”, “Baseball Birthplaces and the Retro World Baseball Classic” and “Minors vs. Majors”. Tentative release date is the Spring 2018. You can find a complete list of my articles which is available here:

http://www.tuatarasoftware.com/articles.html

Wolfman: Is there anything else you would like to share with our members about your insights in baseball stats or analytics that was not touched on by my earlier questions I asked but you think would be important for them to know?

Derek:  I discovered that I did not have enough room in the print edition of "Hardball Retrospective" to squeeze all of the material into the book without doubling the page count, so I uploaded a variety of tables and charts to the Supplemental Statistics, Charts and Graphs page on my website. I often find myself referring to the All-Time Rosters, Batting and Pitching Registers, and the Leader Boards to come up with new ideas.

http://www.tuatarasoftware.com/statistics.html

If you enjoy research and analytics, I highly recommend the Bill James books, Baseball Prospectus, Hardball Times, Fangraphs, Seamheads? I also spent hours on Baseball-Reference and Retrosheet. If it's offered again, do yourself a favor and take the SABR101 online course!

Wolfman:  If a member wanted to contact you Derek and speak to you directly, what is the best way for one of our members to get in touch with you?

Derek:  You can join the Baseball Analytics forum (Facebook) or message me on Twitter (@HardballRetrosp) and LinkedIn.

Wolfman:  Would you consider to come back to Strat-o-matic and play one of our members live at some future time?

Derek:  I would certainly be willing to do this. You would need to bring me up to speed on the Strat-o-matic rules. :-)

Wolfman: Thank you so much Derek for your time and continued success with all your baseball projects.
 

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Contained inside this exciting issue of the 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

♦  INTERVIEW with RON SHANDLER - PART I, In the first part of Mr. Shandler's interview we have a chance to meet Mr. Shandler and learn about his background and projects.  Then he shares with about his latest fantasy draft system called BABS which is like no other system you have heard of.

♦  SOM Baseball and MLB World News - February 2018, This is our periodic column where we share any exciting news and updates linked to either the SOM World or MLB. In this issue, we discuss all the new baseball products that the Game Company released for 2018, the new teams, the new version of the computer game and more plus, a reminder about the amazing new USBN 2018 Essential Draft Guide, that our group is putting out yearly to help you with your keeper's league upcoming draft as the key players available are all evaluated ....

♦  STRAT WISE with MARC WASSERMAN commissioner of the Cyber Baseball Association (CBA) continues his new column by giving us a complete report about his experiences at 2018 Strat-o-matic Opening Day along with the videos we have available on our Youtube USBN channel from interviews taken on this day.

♦  SOM BASEBALL LEAGUE REPORT with WOLFMAN SHAPIRO -- the editor of "The Ultimate Strat Newsletter" and 2012 CBA Champion, turns his attention to talk to members of various face-to-face Strat-o-matic Baseball Leagues that he has discovered through the league registry service offered on the Strat-o-matric website. This month we follow up on the "Winter Need a Life League" by speaking to their 2017 champion. To read the interview for this month, click on the link below:

  INTERVIEW with STEPHEN KAHN,Winter Need a Life League Champion from
  their 2017 season (Netplay)

♦  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 idea and key principle about working together to 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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