Here’s another entry for The APBA Blog Dice Shaker Project. My buddy John “Brando” Brandeberry designed and crafted a new dice shaker for fellow manager Todd Ventresca and presented it to him this past weekend.
Nice prize for the IAL Manager of the Year!
Unlike mine which nice and hefty, this ceramic cup is quite light. It has raised “dice” along the sides and also spells Todd’s team name, “Gamblers”.
Almost makes me a bit envious. Nice work, John!
I’ve gotten a few emails lately from people who have the older boards but have bought newer card sets. The dilemma arises with the newer pitching ratings, the ‘K’ and the ‘R’. How to handle these ratings when your boards don’t reflect these changes is the big question.
David Glancy is one of these APBA players:
I have been playing APBA baseball since 1962 with 2 other guys. We formed an 8 team league in 1982 and have been playing ever since. We have most of the seasons, 1962 through 2001 as well as many all time great teams etc. We play the old fashioned way with dice and only use the computer to do end of the year stats & all-star teams. We play a 162 game schedule with 8 teams and we do commit the sin of mixing players, years etc.
My question is: I recently purchased the 2010 season (we got down on the modern players because of steroids, player pay etc) and found the following symbols on some pitchers; K, R and there was no reference to them in the new boards & rule book I bought in 2001. So, they must be since then. What do they refer to, strikeouts, walks or ???
Thanks, Dave
The ‘R’ rating
As I said, I’ve gotten plenty of this type of question from readers. Put simply, the ‘R’ rating is to reduce the number of strikeouts (lower than the rate of a pitcher with no strikeout letters).
The ‘R’ rating has 4 rules it follows:
The ‘K’ rating
Conversely, the K rating turns fly outs, groundouts and pop outs into strikeouts… and there are MANY of these. The K pitcher will strikeout many more than the normal ‘XY pitcher. For example on the Bases Empty board, a ‘K’ pitcher will turn strikeouts on four extra results that a non-‘K’ pitcher will not. The ‘K’ also has added oomph since the results it effects are more common such as 28, 30, 24 etc.
Adapting to the new ratings
For those who are looking to adapt their new cards to old boards, there are a couple of options:
1. Buy the new boards.
Aside from getting up to date on the new ratings, there are some significant changes to the new boards. Most of them I even like. If it’s in your budget, I highly recommend getting them.
2. Adapt to a new K system
If you’re too in love with your APBA boards to part with them, you could treat the ‘K’ pitcher as an ‘XY’ rating and perhaps even add an extra number like 28 that would result in a added strikeout. Others could chime in. It may take more than one added result to achieve accurate numbers.
Seriously though, buy the boards. You’ll get better results. :)
Thanks to Paul Dylan who did a preview of the 2011-12 UEFA Championship Soccer teams on his site, One for Five. The two teams, Chelsea and Bayern Munich are available for free download on APBA’s site.
Dylan’s preview includes a simulation match which he details quite well. Very interesting for someone like me who has no idea how one would score a soccer match.
APBA Football fans should check out Greg Barath’s APBA Fan site, Oguard’s Replays. He launched it not too long ago and I plugged it then. He’s really added a lot to it since then. In addition to his replay info, he has info regarding some APBA Football innovations and Excel tools.
Speaking of new cards, APBA has the 2011 Golf Card set ready to go. You can see the list of golfer in the set here.
On a side note, I know everyone has their opinion of the new APBA official website. Personally, it’s not so much how it looks but that the info is getting updated.
The proof is in the pudding for me. When I get my Google News Alerts for the keyword “APBA” and for the first time ever, I’m getting links to the APBA Company’s site, that’s a good thing. I did pass that on to John Herson because I think it’s something he should know.
Give your web person a bonus, John. :)
For those looking for an updated “Pitcher’s Hitting Card”, this is what our league is using. It’s not much different than last year’s but we do respect APBA placement of the 12 so we did a switcheroo with the 26 and the 61.
This certainly isn’t meant to be an official or canon PHC or anything. No doubt, there are many versions of this modification out there. I just thought I’d pass on what we’re using.
I hope that’s helpful to someone.
[Update] I thought maybe it might be helpful to add a bit about the Pitchers’ Hitter Card for anyone who isn’t familiar with it…what it is and how it’s used.
Our league uses the PHC for any pitcher who had less than 10 at-bats in real life. If they had 10 at-bats or more, they use their own card.
The purpose is two-fold from my perspective. One, it gives those typical American League pitchers’ cards a little more oomph. Those pitchers have never batted (at least in that year) so they usually get the typical 7-8-9 card. Hardly seems fair compared to the average NL pitcher.
On the other hand, it prevents those Monster Cards (yeah, you know what I’m talking about) from getting an upper hand. Those relief pitcher that come to bat two or three times and get one hit and as a result get a card that Babe Ruth would be jealous.
Again, these are just our league’s rules. Other league’s rules may vary.
And for something totally unrelated: A Google News search for “APBA leagues” brought up this rather unusual result: the Andhra Pradesh Basketball Association, a basketball league in Vijayawada, India. Apparently, they’re holding a tournament now.
Go figure, usually the APBA searches I run into are the American Power Boat Association.
This tip might be a shot in the dark but I thought it was useful for my 1966 replay.
For those of you who are doing replays of past MLB seasons and strictly follow its schedule, you more than likely have a copy of that year’s schedule. However, people like me might want a calendar of that year. Maybe a calendar so you can cross off the dates as you slog through your replay. Or maybe you can look up and say “oh, the game I’m playing right now is on a Sunday”. In essence, to make the replay seem more real.
Of course, finding a actual calendar from say, the year 1930, 1966 or whatever, is pretty much impossible. That said, you can go to timeanddate.com and create your own calendar. Just type in whatever year you want and you it will display that year’s 12 month calendar. There are multiple design formats available to choose from and when you’re ready you can either save it to your desktop or just send it to your printer.
It’s not mission critical. Just something to add a little more flavor and fun to your replay.
Useful? No?
A few days ago, we discussed pitching fatigue modifications in the basic game. That prompted John H to write in about a slightly different topic relating to pitchers’ use.
Here are his thoughts:
Perhaps this might be a subject to explore; Starters, unrated as relievers, being used in relief.
Guys like Koufax Ford and Spahn and even some modern stars have been asked to help out in a pinch. I suggest that a starter can be used in relief .. but:
- He drops a grade immediately upon entering the game and drops a grade each inning of use.
- If there is less then two days between his last start and his relief appearance his grade drops two grades (not one) immediately upon taking the mound in relief.
- If he faces more then 3 batters he cannot start the next day
- If he faces more then 9 batters he cannot start for two days.
John brings up a good topic for discussion. With APBA, there’s no right way to do it. However, there are most certainly ways each of us hasn’t thought of.
First, let’s start off with the official APBA rules. What does the game allow? According to the APBA Baseball basic game, there aren’t a lot of restrictions as far as pitcher use in the bullpen. The only restriction to speak of is the asterisk which restricts that pitcher from being used as a starter (unless he is a split grade pitcher). But nothing in the official rules says you can’t use a Chris Carpenter as a reliever even though in real life he pitched 34 games and started all of them.
However, rules are rules and the beauty of the APBA basic game doesn’t prevent anyone from enhancing it (or mucking it up depending on your perspective) with modifications and extra rules. If you think regulating pitching use in the pen is warranted, then there’s nothing stopping you or your league.
What are the objectives here (and in most scenarios when implementing modifications)? Essentially, realism, accuracy plus ease of play. You may want to add the potential for starters to relieve for a variety of reasons but you don’t want a Koufax or Carl Mays to be the default go-to guy because of his nifty grade. John’s system does alleviate that to a point. It does penalize that Grade A starter should you make that call to the pen.
In my league, we use strict limits. Pitchers can only appear in the number of games started and games relieved throughout the season. No starter may relieve unless they did so in real life.
The only exceptions:
Coincidentally, we implement a rule similar to John’s 3rd and 4th point in the postseason for ALL relievers. No relief pitcher may pitch more than three innings in a span of two games. If he goes down one grade. The purpose of that is to prohibit overuse of highly graded relievers.
Thoughts anyone? It’s a highly specialized area but worth talking about.
John H by the way, is the one who came up with the Great Defensive Catchers vs the Stolen Base Chart I posted about a while back. That one is still being talked about so keep ‘em coming, John.
We’ve been discussing baseball basic game a lot recently. During the comment discussions, the Unusual Play Card and Error Chart have been brought up. I assumed a lot of APBA Baseball fans have used these modifications and if not, have at least heard of them.
Then again, there are a lot new APBA fans out there and others coming back to the game. Finally, I could be erroneous in my thinking. Perhaps the Unusual Play Card and its brother, the Error Chart may be popular in my neck of the APBA woods but not be as well known elsewhere. So I thought I’d pass both it on for everyone so could evaluate them and use them if they find them useful. Note: both of these modifications have been around for decades and I don’t know who was the original creator of either. If anyone knows, please inform me so I can give them credit.
The UPC and Error Chart both serve a similar purpose. While easy to implement, both serve to randomize result numbers that occur on players’ cards which mostly appear due the position that they position. For example, it addresses the question: “Is it right that a baserunner has a much higher chance to get caught stealing if a shortstop is at bat?”. It takes away the inherit unfairness that comes with the game.
With both modifications, it requires an extra dice roll every so often but not so much to extend the length game significantly.
I should say at this time that the cards displayed below and methods described are not canon. These are the cards that our league has used for used and I have used for replays. I’m sure there are variations that work just as well. If you like the concept but the rules or cards don’t quite work for you, feel free to change them. Better yet, let us know HOW you change them and why.
The rules for the UPC modification are simple:
If bases are not empty and the offensive manager’s result (red number on the card) is a 23 or 36-41, the offensive manager rolls two dice again and refers to the UPC.
The result (again the red number) is the actual result number the offensive manager will use to refer to the boards.
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Unusual Play Card 11-38 31-37 51-36 12-39 32-39 52-39 13-37 33-38 53-37 14-39 34-39 54-39 15-36 35-36 55-36 16-40 36-40 56-40 21-41 41-41 61-41 22-36 42-40 62-37 23-23 43-23 63-23 24-40 44-36 64-40 25-36 45-37 65-40 26-40 46-40 66-38 |
The Error Chart works much in the same way.
If the offensive manager’s result (red number on the card) is a 15-21, the offensive manager rolls two dice again and refers to the Error Chart (the Error Chart is referred to with bases empty unlike the UPC).
The result (again the red number) is the actual result number the offensive manager will use to refer to the boards.
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Error Chart 11-20 31-18 51-18 12-21 32-16 52-21 13-17 33-20 53-17 14-19 34-15 54-15 15-20 35-18 55-20 16-19 36-18 56-19 21-15 41-21 61-18 22-20 42-18 62-18 23-17 43-16 63-16 24-15 44-20 64-18 25-20 45-17 65-21 26-16 46-19 66-20
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One drawback (because someone will bring it up if I don’t) is the 15. I’m sure APBA uses the 15 to increase HBP totals on batters and using the Error Chart will skew this a little.
All in all if you don’t mind rolling the dice a few more times per game, these two modifications are pretty decent if you’re looking to randomize those position-related numbers. I’d like to hear from others who have used similar modifications. Did they work for you??
John Heneghan emailed me and told me about a modification he’s come up with for his 1965 replay. In keeping with the theme of my last post, it has to do with baserunning. In this case, it’s a way for good defensive catchers to have an effect on steals.
John says:
I have been replaying the last month of the APBA 1965 season in the National League. It has always bugged me that great catchers have no influence on base stealing so I devised a simple chart for catchers rated 8 or 9 in which the baserunner runs a risk if he rolls a result of 10 or 11 and decides to steal. I have found that using this chart, I increased the value of the 9 or 8 Catcher, raised the involvement level of the managers and placed a reasonable risk for players to steal a base against a good arm.
- I have found that I am more likely to hesitate to pinch hit or pinch run for a good fielding catcher
- In tight games I have to decide to bring in a defensive catcher for the later innings against a “running team”
- In the late innings in a tight game, its a nail biter when a 9 catcher is behind the plate and a batter rolls an 11 ..to steal or not to steal ?
- Finally it brings a little bit of reality to the stat, stolen bases vs caught stealing
Great Defensive Catchers vs the Stolen Base;
The charts below are used for catchers rated 8 or 9
when a batter’s first column 10 or 11 results in a
stolen base
Example: Ty Cobb’s roll results in an 11. If the opposing catcher is rated an 8 or 9 Cobb’s 11 no longer results in an automatic steal. First, Cobb’s manager decides to “Coach” Cobb and if he instructs him not to steal, Cobb remains on first & no dice are rolled. If Cobb is allowed to steal then Cobb’s manager rolls two dice & combines the dice. He then refers to the chart corresponding to the catchers rating *”Chance” refers to the percentage chance
I haven’t tried this so I can’t verify how this works but certainly looks interesting. John’s right in that the basic game doesn’t provide any disincentive for a player to not steal against a catcher with a cannon for an arm. Our league used to use a Catcher’s Throwing Chart on hit an run plays only but ditched it in our housecleaning move a few year’s back.
Thoughts anyone? Has anyone used such modification?
One of the questions I’ve gotten recently from APBA baseball fans centers around the Coxx Pitching grade system. I’ll be honest, I was pretty unfamiliar with the Coxx System. Never having used it, it was all new to me.
Essentially, Coxx uses the Master Game pitching grades and from there uses charts to randomize the basic grades not unlike how the Master Game randomizes fielding grades. In other words, your B pitcher won’t always be an B (but chances are, he’ll be in that range).
The charts are used whenever there is a potentially preventable single rolled. If this happens, another roll is made (in competitive play, I assume the defensive manager would roll) and the appropriate MG pitching grade chart is referred to determine the basic pitching grade to be used for that play.
Makojo.com has the charts on their web site plus full instructions on how to use the system.
Thanks to Steve Stein for pointing me to them! Steve points out that one advantage of the Coxx system is that it deters managers from “counting hits”. No more “Lemme see that card!”
If anyone has had experience with Coxx system, I’d like to hear their opinion, good or bad. Not having used it, it will be interesting to hear what people have to say about it.
Last month, our league had our yearly draft together in the Chicago area. As usual, we also played the first the 30 games of the season. At least we tried. Todd our manager from Pittsburgh just couldn’t make it to Illinois this year. “It’s too faarrr”, he said (I kid… I’m amazed at the effort Todd does put in to make the functions).
So he and I ended up playing by Skype. I’ve mentioned of playing APBA by Skype before. As I’ve said, if you couldn’t play in person, using Skype certainly beats playing by mail. Playing by mail lacks the human element and isn’t near as fun. Also as Todd said, it’s always frustrating when the other manager wins all his games and a little awkward when you win all yours.
And with Skype’s video capabilities, it adds a bit more fun than just playing over the phone. I’ve done that and it suffices in a pinch.
The hardest part with Todd and my series was trying to fit it in. We had to reschedule it twice. But last Tuesday night, we both sat down at our respective computers in our respective homes, him in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and me in Urbana, Illinois, and played APBA.
As you can from the screen cap, Todd’s so cheap he didn’t have a webcam (again, I kid). So all I saw the whole series was an icon that looked like a clothes hanger. But he was forced to look at my ugly mug. Skype fortunately does give you a window to give you an idea what you are broadcasting to the other caller.
The audio was clear and that was the important thing. We played a six game series and managed to chit chat about baseball and umpiring (Todd is an umpire in Division III).
Close to the end of our series, I noticed that Mike, our league commissioner, was on Skype. It wasn’t long before he started chatting with me using Skype’s internal instant messaging feature. Mike has long coveted Albert Pujols. With Albert’s slow start in the Majors, Mike thought he tried to pry him away from me with some EARLY trade talk.
Nice try Mike.
If you haven’t tried Skype and it sounds like something you might want to try, it is free. You can download it here. You and the other caller will both need to have it installed. A webcam is nice have for video calling but using audio is just fine. A headset with a mic is handy but if your webcam has a built-in mic like mine did, it’s not necessary.
Has anyone else used it (or other web conferencing tools) to play long distance APBA?
