Issue #3,
April, 2013
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**
Commissioner's Corner - Part III - Notes
from the Commish
**
(by Marc Wasserman, Commissioner of the Cyber
Baseball Association {CBA} )
(Note from the Wolfman:
- Here is part three of this new column by Marc Wasserman,
discussing his experiences and insights about being a
commissioner of a Strat-o-matic baseball league. Each month as
we continue this column, Marc will share with us different
aspects of the job of being a commissioner and what is necessary
to run a successful league. We hope this
column is helpful to enhance your own leagues or what you should
be prepared to do if you decide to form a new league and act as
its commissioner.)
Setting up a successful Strat League.
Designing Your Constitution
(Part I)
Last
month we discussed some of the techniques used for maintaining
good league wide communication. This month, as the new baseball
season opens in MLB, so have many Strat baseball leagues as
well. General Managers (GMs) have already spent a great deal of
time pre-planning their seasons as well as designing and
sculpting their franchise into what they feel will lead them
into a league championship. The incentive to win is hopefully
within the GM as they strive for this "Holy Grail".
What is
that players in our community want from their league? What is
the driving force and the motivation that compels so many of us
to put our heart and soul into our leagues? To receive a simple
league trophy for the championship must have meaning. There
must be more than just an e mail entitled 'Congratulations dude'
appearing upon your league mailing list. Is it just
satisfaction that they want? These are simply minor components
of the larger picture for your league which comes from the
"Satisfaction" of the organization of your league.
The routine and guidelines which are firmly established that
give direction and focus to their gaming experience. I think
playing the game isn't enough for the community.
As we
delve in the type of league setup you will find that
different themed leagues will necessitate different
frameworks. All the rules within your league have tremendous
impact on so many aspects of league play and this is what I hope
to address in this column today. If you have a core group of
managers, then a consensus opinion for a league theme should be
decided initially. League theme is the first step and the
premise that your league will be based upon. The framework that
sets the pacing, routines, the rules, and expectations that
brings the playing of Strat-o-matic Baseball beyond a mere
game. The structure of leagues creates the all around fantasy
experience that gamers immerse themselves in. The league
'Constitution' (capitalized for importance) is the foundation of
all, let's discuss this now.
It's
quite apparent why the Constitution is so important especially
if the league members agree that they want a solid framework for
the league to operate upon. Keeping in mind about our
responsibility to our friends (our fellow GMs) we must therefore
take a good deal of time to develop a strong and air tight
constitutional document which does take some homework.
Established leagues that are already running should take time
periodically to review their own document and look at it
carefully for clarity and concise terminology. As leagues get
more competitive, the living breathing Constitutional
document evolves and should become increasing clear about
its wording to describe league rulings and how to interpret
these rules. I'll hopefully get back to altering the
Constitution and consequences of such, at a later time.
I'd
like to focus briefly upon league start-up situations. I
would recommend to any of my readers who are looking to
establish a league that they should first gather up the league
ideas for a theme which refers to the style of play and purpose
of your league. For example, will you be what is called a
"retro league" that begins in a year of a past season? Or
perhaps, you wish to start with the latest Strat-o-matic old
timer season that was just released and continue year by year
like the All American Baseball Retro League does? Do you wish
to run your league in the spring from year to year using the
lastest issue of the MLB cards like the Left Coast Strat-o-matic
Baseball League? Are you a winter based 24 team league like
GMBL is? Is your league "Face to Face" with 10 teams like the
USBL in Toronto Canada, or perhaps an 8 team Negro league in the
making?
The
commissioner should first decide how many GM's the league's
council can handle efficiently. It takes more man hours to
guide 24-30 teams than it does a smaller number. There are
"League Economics" to consider when making this
determination. I will use that term regularly in my columns
from now on. The "League Economics" represents the delicate and
interdependent balance, cause and effects of membership, Teams,
Roster sizes, League Usage, Draft structure, Cuts and Free agent
availability, Transaction types and the Rate of Transactions;
what effect all of these activities will have upon an
established league.
Therefore, the New Constitution will need to be based upon the
league theme. The "League Economics" which are desired will
shape the outline and body of this vital league document. Of
course, the amount of teams will determine the dilution of
talent throughout the league. Stating the obvious, fewer teams
mean more super stars per team within the league. Do you want
to increase the role of the non iron man superstar types?
Increasing their value may mean more teams in the league are
needed. You can further fine tune the trade market value of the
role players and superstars with a balance of usage, roster
sizes, protections, and so on. We'll cover that too later.
A 10
team league will generally mean each team will have the top
players at each position in active use. The trade market values
of the players will be very weighted towards the very best at
each position. Be prepared for good talent to have lesser
value. More teams equals more players needed at each position.
Unless the Constitution denotes specific measures that can be
taken what's to stop a trade market from running wild with over
payment for superstars at the various positions. The solution
is the creation of this demand by tweaking the League Economics
balance. If it's the realism you crave at the start of your
league, this may come from establishing a 24 team league.
However I share a warning, if you go with the larger sized
league, you will need stronger leadership, more defined usage
rules, roster max sizes, and the Economic management needs to be
more pronounced. This will provide more realistic player usage
and a wider trade market with more functionality for mid level
and role players. I recommend this structure for more advanced
Commissioners with experience handling the nuances of running an
effective league. They may have a wider grasp on the delicacies
of the League Economics and thus it would be easier for them to
maintain control.
Therefore, I recommend a twenty team league for most start up
situations in a Spring draft league. The reason being is that
you may not want to administer as much in such a league where
you can expand once you have reliability with your GM base and
the league routine is consistent. Smaller specialty leagues
will have a greater amount of reserve talent available to
maintain usage and facilitate trades and they are easier to
maintain. Perhaps whimsical leagues that feature only select
type of players like the All East Coast League should start with
a smaller base of GMs as teams will have ample reserve to
consider for player's usage. This type of league's focus would
shift upward toward higher levels of talent with less emphasis
on reserve role players. This is more of a superstar league but
not really too much.
The
draft is the primary highlight of most leagues. GMs love to
prepare for the draft and create a plan of which players they
hope to acquire. There are several great leagues I am familiar
with who use live drafts whereas other leagues use Email drafts
or chat room drafts. Some leagues use automated draft
websites. The draft preparation is a business in itself of
course. With so many great books or guides published discussing
qualities about the players available for the draft and the
on-line information sources the GMs benefit greatly if the GM
will consult these sources. A great league must have a great
draft. Decide what type of draft you want and ensure that your
draft will meet those expectations by providing great players to
stock your draft. Your Constitutions rules will dictate how
which players are eligible for the draft and the level of apathy
and interest your GMs will have not only in your draft, but in
the league itself. The draft is "THAT" important. Players will
base their entire season around the draft and how their team is
reconstructed. Another part of the draft and the strategies
used by your GMs will be if you allow draft picks to be traded,
this can change the complexion of your league if you do.
The
inter dependency of the quality and depth of the draft and
amount of players protected at the time when your teams must cut
down and release players into the draft will determine the
interest of this league activity and most importantly the value
of each draft pick. The more cuts you allow, the more available
talent there will be. In a 20 team league for example if you
cut down to 25 players, this will allow some prospect collection
"farming" of young developmental talent. If you allow further
cuts (players released) this will be directly in proportion with
the quality and value of the available Free agents the most cuts
allowed, it's a direct relationship. Naturally, with only 20
teams, 20 players are selected in each round. Your top 40 will
go within two rounds. Really the question here is how much do
you want to let teams stockpile young talent? The more players
that are stockpiled, the less quality players will be
available. I recommend keeping 34 or 35 players after the draft
with your team cuts down to 24 or 25 players.
How do
you decide which player limits to go with per team (players
before cuts/maximum players on your team: 20/33, 20/34, 20/35)?
These numbers will depend upon what your player usage is set
to. Your usage will determine how you want your statistical
database will look. If you want realistic performance stats
from the players then use 100% as the maximum for a player
appearance (plate appearances or innings pitched). If you do
this then you will not see those inflated numbers like a "Barry
Bonds" hitting 85 Homers. The numbers will come more in line
with the actual MLB performance. Many leagues allow a
contingency of up to 110% of player usage or more. I personally
dislike that, since I'm a numbers guy who wants to see more
creditable and realistic totals. The 100% usage rule means GMs
will need to make use of their role players more often thus
creating more value for them and a greater draft depth. If you
have 35 men on roster at 100% usage as a beginner you will find
most GMs will not need to pay attention to player's usage as
closely making your life as Commish far easier.
But if
you want competition in your league and you want your GMs to
make more trades and facilitate more roster movement, keep the
roster maximum size lower and your members will need to make
deals to keep usage restrictions and stay more active and
participant. I like to keep my league the CBA at 24/100%/34/24
meaning - 24 teams, 100% usage, 34 max roster size, 24
protections before our draft. We also keep player appearance
minimums restricted to 35 AB's, 30 IP using the printed cards,
but also we allow players with computer cards to be available
for the draft as well.
To
further spice up the CBA, we allow the drafting of one minor
leaguer or non-US player who have never receive a
strat-o-matic baseball card to be able to fill a roster spot.
The CBA is an advanced well established veteran league which has
a consistent routine, thus we use a more complex structure for
our 24 teams. The cut to 24 players and the extra minor league
pick combined with the limit of 34 players and an active roster
of 25 players mean that hoarding is much more difficult in our
league especially with our strict usage rules and penalties. Our
GMs just can't afford to hoard youngins' and the draft stays
stronger. We typically get greater strength in the late rounds
under this league theme.
Next
month, in Part II, I will look further into the building of
you league Constitution and League Economics. I will
discuss what are the elements you need to incorporate into this
structure? Once you've decided what your league theme is, will
your managers subscribe to the same ideals? Will the league
economics that are designed sustain a league well into future
years with ease? Our CBA is now entering its 17th
season. A league like ours can be well organized if you heed the
basic elements and understandings of league communication,
economics, facilitation, and routine. We will explore these
issues further next month.
Marc Wass
Websites:
www.ultimatestratbaseball.com
www.cba-bb.net
( contact me at ultimatestratbaseball.com )
(Note from the
Wolfman:
If you have a particular aspect
about being a League Commissioner or some questions you would
like Marc to cover in the future, feel free to contact him via
his email at:
)
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
♦
INTERVIEW with JEFF POLMAN,
Writer, SOM Website Columnist, Replay Expert.
♦
INTERVIEW with JIM CALLIS and KEN
DAVIDOFF,
Jim is Executive Editor of
Baseball America and Ken is a baseball columnist for the NY Post
♦
EARLY SOM
CONVENTIONS COLUMN with WOLFMAN SHAPIRO --
editor of
"The Ultimate Strat Newsletter" and 2012 CBA Champion.
Wolfman takes us back in this article to the third national Strat-o-matic
Convention in 1974 held in Champaign-Urbana, IL, at the
University of Illinois as the Wolfman and his buddies organize
their first convention. Wolfman will be
our guide through the first nine conventions going through 1980
of which he was present at each one. We now begin the era from 1974-1980
when the conventions moved to Illinois. We will continue to share one new convention in
each future issue till all of these early ones are published.
♦
INTERVIEW with PETE
NELSON, (STAR),
Board Member of the Star
Tournaments Association, discusses what the Star Tournaments are
all about.
♦
INTERVIEW with WILLY
DOMINQUEZ,
January 2013 STAR Worlds
Champion
♦
INTERVIEW with TERRY
BARTELME,
SOM Gamer, Discusses his
experiences with
the Negro and Japanese Players working with private developers.
♦
INTERVIEW with BILLY SAMPLE,
Ex-MLB Player (TEX,NYY,ATL),
Sportscaster
♦
SOM BASEBALL CARDS QUIZ
- our test of your knowledge of the SOM Baseball Cards,
questions and answers provided by Marc Wasserman. In this issue
we give the answers to
Quiz #2,
explain our new format for this column, introduce some early SOM
Baseball cards from the 1960 and 1961 seasons thanks to Tom
Nahigian who is also interviewed in this issue in his own
section.
♦
INTERVIEW with
TOM NAHIGIAN
--
SOM Gamer, Baseball Card Collector
♦
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 a new page we are adding for the newsletter that 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 Base Game and Game Company's
history. At the time of the release of this newsletter we
have a special arrangement with Acta Sports to offer our members
a 10% discount. We hope to add more books in the future.
Contact Us for Questions or Submissions:
Wolfman Shapiro
Founder/Editor, the
Ultimate Strat Baseball Newsletter
email:
wolfmanshapiro@gmail.com
facebook:
www.facebook.com/wolfman.shapiro
twitter:
@StratBaseball4U
