8
December

More info on the 2011 data disk

On Between the Lines forum, Steve Radtke has uploaded an Excel spreadsheet populated with info gleaned from the BTL chat the other night.  Fielding ratings, pitchers’ grades and some hitting numbers of a few notables.  It’s attached to this forum post.

There are a few of you out there who don’t play the Master Game or Computer version of APBA Baseball and might not be familiar with the number system of pitching grades.

Here is the breakdown:

MG Grade Basic Grade
1-4 D
5-9 C
10-14 B
15-19 A
20-24 A&C
25-30 A&B

I hope that helps.  APBA adjusted it slightly around ten years ago lowering the grade requirement by one point.

There are multiple discussions going on at the Between the Lines forum right now surrounding the disk release.  If you haven’t stopped in yet, check it out and you’ll find some lively conversation.

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18
October

Starter/reliever splits data for 2011

John Briggs of the Roberto Clemente Memorial Baseball Association writes:

 

I’ve been doing the pitcher splits for innings as starter & reliever for many many years.
I used to do it for the APBA Journal for their last ten years or so and I still do it for our league (RCMBA) and several others who contact me annually.
This is this years version for 2011 MLB season.
It’s in an Excel format with two tabs… one by team and the other by player.

 

Check out John’s spreadsheet here.

For those of us, who wish to be as accurate as possible in replays, this will come in handy.

Looking at the spreadsheet, I notice that John has highlighted in red all the non-pitchers who have taken their turn on the mound in 2011.  To me, that’s interesting.  Is it me or has that phenomenon increased in recent years?  Since John has been doing this for a while, perhaps he can tell us.

thanks John!

2 comments

7
September

Buying, selling used APBA cards

I got an email from Richard with a question:

 

I am interested in selling my APBA baseball 1975 complete set with xb’s , lineup sheet and master game symbols in the original team envelopes.Can you give me any info on doing this?

 

I’d have to say of all the questions I get from APBA players over email, ones like these are the most popular.  Either someone wants to sell a card set or is looking to buy a used set.

Unfortunately, it’s not as simple as putting an ad in the local paper or even online sites like Craigslist. APBA games are such a niche product that you need to go to where other fans are.

Here was my answer to Richard:

 

You pretty much have two choices.  The first is putting it up for sale on Ebay.  You’ll certainly hit a large audience.  If you’re familiar with doing that, you might have good luck.

The other is posting an ad on the APBA Between the Lines forum.  There is a Classifieds section there and you might find a taker.  If you haven’t been to the forum, it’s free and only requires you to register.  Here is the address.

hope that helps!

 

I will add this.  I’ve bought a fair number of sets off Ebay in the past and haven’t had a problem.  That said, you will probably find a “friendlier” audience on Between the Lines (then again, your mileage may vary).

Do others have a source where they buy/sell used APBA products?

PS now that I’ve given Richard a free ad, I’d be happy to put anyone who is interested in his 1975 set in touch with him!

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13
February

Handy spreadsheet to keep APBA baseball stats

image Over at the Illowa APBA League’s web site, I uploaded an Excel spreadsheet which can be used to keep team’s stats throughout a season.

I debated whether there would be interest in it over here at the APBA Blog.  Walt Taylor however, thinks it will be very useful for his team at OAPBA.  So I’ll link to it in case anyone else is interested in a useful way to keep stats for a league team or a replay.

Some info about the spreadsheet

First, I claim no credit for creating this.  It’s a collaborative effort.  A lot of the work goes John Brandeberry, a manager in the IAL.  The master sheet was created by our commish, Mike Bunch.

I’ve used various forms of this spreadsheet to keep stats for my Twin City Thunderchickens for some five or six years, now.  This is the latest iteration.  I love it.  It is both efficient and customizable.  It has a worksheet for each player and pitcher.  On each player worksheet, stats are entered game-by-game.  Updated season totals are reflected on the master sheet.

For those leagues who impose limits on games, at-bats and innings for players, this spreadsheet has an added feature which is quite handy.  On the master sheet (labeled TEAM NAME), there is a place to put real life stats of your players.  Then for the rest of the season, your “limits left” (including players’ AB/G and IP/G) will be automatically updated for you.  As Walt notes, this would be handy for replays too.

I’ve entered in a few games of stats for a couple players and a pitchers so you get a feel how the whole thing works.

No doubt, you might want to make changes to it.  The spreadsheet it certainly customizable for your league’s (or replay’s) stat categories.

You can download the Excel spreadsheet from the IAL website.

I hope some of you find this useful.

1 comment

16
January

Some good stats resources for replayers

Recently, I got into an email discussion with Brian C of the Bridesburg Boys and Girls Baseball Baseball League about replays and such.  The topic of canonical standards for replays came up.  What is considered a REAL replay? 

My answer simply was that any replay that the player does that fulfills their particular ideals and standards is fine given time restraints and access to data.  As with many things with APBA, it is what you make it.  The main thing is that you have fun with it.

Now, I can hear some of you replay and simulation purists groaning out there.  “But it’s not a real replay unless you use the full roster”.  “And what about actual pitching rotations?” 

Stop it.  Plenty of fun can be had replaying a season while not paying strict attention to these details.

That said, it is true APBA fans do get a sense of “realism” when they pull this data up and use it when they replay a baseball season.  The issue is obtaining information such as schedules, stats, game logs especially when it comes to past seasons.  I’m hoping to part with some of the information and research web sites out there that might come in handy when doing a replay.  Some of you will be all too familiar with these sites and may have your own favorites (please share!). 

But let’s get the ball rolling. 

 

Past Seasons

There’s no doubt in my mind that the best baseball stat site out there is Baseball Reference.  I use it on a daily basis.  For those doing replays, it has multiple uses.  For seasons going back to the beginning of baseball, you can look up stats for every player cross-referenced by team.  Also useful for replayers are box scores which you can look up (I believe this goes back to the 1920s). 

B-R also has postseason and All-Star stats and box scores for those looking for that kind of data.

 

Retrosheet is another site worth looking at.  This organization has a very worthy cause (if you’re a baseball history nut).  If you see a baseball web site with loads of historical data, there’s a good chance they are getting their data from Retrosheet.   Like Baseball Reference, you can browse historical box scores not to mention lots of other very interesting data (totally off topic but they list every time a batter has batted out of turn… fascinating!)

Most importantly, Retrosheet allows you to download data files including schedules (yay!), game logs and “Play-by-play” files. 

Note:  as I understand it, the schedules that Retrosheet has are the original planned schedules.  Baseball Reference can give you the game log (the actual games played).  Here is an example from the 1999 Cubs. 

 

For those who want all the baseball stats so they can sort or filter them, Sean Lahman at baseball1.com has a free download of a data file which “includes individual and team stats for Major League Baseball seasons from 1871-2010”.  He also has a good writeup on the History of MLB Schedules.

For those who are into the advanced baseball statistics, check out Fangraphs.  In addition to current day MLB, they have access to stats going back to the 19th century. 

 

Modern Day Baseball

For modern day baseball (the last few years), the more mainstream sites do a pretty good job (though quite honestly, Baseball Reference is still my first stop since I like their interface so much). 

MLB.com has really responded to the needs of fantasy baseball (and APBA baseball fans) and souped up their stats area in the last 5-6 years.  They now have a sortable player stats section which also goes back a few years. 

ESPN’s baseball stats area is there but I honestly don’t use it much.  It goes back at least 10 years. 

I still have a soft spot for USA Today’s baseball stats section for current baseball stats.  The reason??  Okay, it’s not fancy and it doesn’t have a lot of bells and whistles but it’s one of the few places you can go where you can get a listing of one league’s stats (every player) on one page.  No clicking back and forth.  The same goes for the listing of box scores for the day (if you expand them). 

I’d love to hear if there are others I’ve missed.  I’m sure there are plenty.  If you do a season replay, what resources (online or otherwise) do you use??

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1
December

APBA Baseball 2010 disk is out

The disk is out!

I don’t have it in my hands but I’ve waded through most of posts on APBA- Between The Lines.  If you don’t have the disk yet and have that certain need to know, there are plenty of people who could tell you numbers and ratings. 

If you do have the disk and haven’t yet extracted the card data from it, rush on over to the Makojo.com website and download the the utility needed to read the cards from the disk.

The forum is mostly full of requests for card data but there are certain trends of thought throughout the postings:

- like the actual 2010 MLB season, pitching is strong and hitting is weaker

- NL MVP Joey Votto (1,1,6,6,10,10,8,8,8,9,9  and 5 14s) was robbed.  Just read the thread Votto…are u kidding me!!  and you’ll see what I mean.  As they say in the original post, Pujols (1,1,6,6,10,10,8,8,8,9,9  and 4 14s) didn’t fare so well either.

- Jeter was given a gift with his SS-9.  APBA perhaps could not be faulted as he won the Gold Glove

Anyway, this is the particular thread to go to with most of the card info for the time being.

66’s

TBZ

2 comments

20
September

NCAA APBA Cards available for download

argoapba

For those college baseball fans like me, there’s good news.  Steve Guthrie has come out with the 2010 NCAA Baseball card sets!  These cards are based on the Brian Davis Card Generator. 

You can download your favorite team or up to 150 teams from Steve’s website. 

Thanks to Chuck for passing on the info and PS Steve…  Willie deserves a OF-3

2 comments

29
January

10 tips for trading in an APBA league

With the Illowa APBA League’s rookie draft and opening day less than a month away, we’re smack dab in the middle of our trading season.  This is evident by the list of trades that our league has made.  I’ve stayed out of the trading fray so far but once we get together in person, it will probably be inevitable. 

Some managers make more trades more than others.  I’ve heard some say they prefer to draft their talent; others say they don’t trust themselves and prefer to trade.  So for those in APBA leagues, here are 10 tips to help in the process of trading with other managers.

 

1.  Know your strengths and weaknesses. 

Before the off-season, before you even think of making trade offers or consider anyone else’s offer, take stock of your APBA league team.  Get a good sense of your team’s strengths and be honest about your weaknesses.  If you’re serious, a depth chart would be nice. 

If your league imposes player limits, then definitely fill out a spreadsheet with your team’s limits so you know what you need to cover positions.  This is a must.  You don’t want to be scrambling post-draft trying to fill positions via trades.  When you are in a position of weakness, other managers know it.

 

2.  Understand your goal

Some teams are rebuilding.  Others are “going for it”, thinking they have what it takes to make the playoffs, championship, whatever their particular league structure allows. 

With each goal comes a totally different strategy of approaching your team drafting and trading.  That bum B starter isn’t going to be much worth to you if you’re rebuilding and next year, he’ll be a DW.  Consider trading him for high pick.  What about that position player that had a career year?  Same thing. 

And if you’re a top rung team, consider trading a player with loads of potential but little short term value to a rebuilding team for a low risk short term player (see above). 

 

3.  Know your opponents strengths and weaknesses

Just as important as knowing your own team is knowing the other teams in your league.  In the game of trading, it doesn’t help knowing your own team if you don’t know who you are trading for. 

At the very least, know the other teams’ weak points, strong points, areas of depth and areas of need.  If one team needs a shortstop and you have three, there might be a good match for a trade. 

 

4.  Make offers that help both teams

It might be tempting to contact a team manager and a say “What do you want for Nick Markakis?”.  If I got that, I might give it a thought or two but no more.  Be more specific.  Like I said in #3, learn your opponent’s team and find out what he needs.  When you come to him with a more concrete deal like “I have Nick Markakis.  Would you give me your #1 pick for him?”.  He’ll at least be more willing to come back to the table and talk.

 

5.  Leave room for negotiation

Despite what I said in #4, don’t give away the farm.  No one says you have to make an offer that your trading partner will accept right off the bat.  If I made a deal that a manager snapped up without thinking about it, it would certainly make me wonder if I offered too much. 

Leave some room for a little room for give and take.  Don’t be afraid to be flexible either.  If he wants that B* instead of that C* out of your pen don’t dismiss it out of hand.

 

6.  Don’t burn your bridges

Everyone has ideas of that one big trade that puts one over on the other guy.  But don’t go into trade discussions with that mindset.  If you get the reputation of a swindler, other managers aren’t going to want to trade with you in the future.  Be a fair trader and they’ll come back and more importantly, they’ll have a equally fair attitude toward you.

 

7.  Discretion is prudent

When you get into a protracted trade discussion over a blockbuster deal, keep the deal under wraps especially if the other manager requests that you do so.  Nobody likes a tell-all who replies-to-all over email.  Some managers have needs or wants that they would prefer to keep quiet. 

This is especially true when other managers confide their draft pick preferences.  For example, I wouldn’t want my buddy Brando to tell the other managers in the IAL that I’m interested in picking David Price with my first pick of the draft (oops!).

 

8.  Get advice

Ok I know, this goes counter to # 7.  If you’re in the middle of trade negotiations and ready to pull the trigger but just not quite sure, get a second opinion.  If there’s another manager who’s not affected by the deal and whose opinion you trust, run it by them.  Even if their opinion runs counter to your gut instinct, it’s good to get their feedback.

 

9.  Electronic is good, Talking is better.

In the old days, we in the IAL used to run up phone bills talking trade.  Thank goodness for email.  It makes thing a whole lot easier not to mention cheaper.  I think I even made a deal via texting last year.  That said, if it’s a complicated trade, the novel concept of TALKING doesn’t hurt either.  It removes some of the miscommunications that can occur with email. 

 

10.  Announce your completed trade. 

When you and your trading partner finally pull the trigger on your deal, announce it to your league.  Your commissioner will need to know, of course.  The other managers will too, if they are interested in any of the player involved in the deal.

Why not have some fun with the announcement?  Sometimes, IAL managers will format their email announcement like a press release MLB-style. 

***

These tips aren’t rocket science.  But they’re worth keeping in mind.  Sometimes I think I need to pay attention to some of them. 

If any of you have trading tips, experiences, even trading rules in your league, I’d love to hear about them.  Leave a comment and let us know.

1 comment

26
January

Cold weather headlines

This that and the other:

With the closing of the Geocities web hosting service, YABL has had to relocate their fine website.  You can now find them at http://webspace.webring.com/people/fb/burgda/.  Important not only to find out about their league but for another reason.  League member and webmaster Doug Burg maintains the APBA Baseball Card 12 List and Publication Data web page.  So many times APBA fans ask me if there is a way to identify their APBA cards… to find out what year they are.  I always point them to Doug’s APBA Card 12 List page.  Very handy.

***

glavine09

Not many times can you say that one player remains with the same APBA league team for 19 seasons.  Such is the case with Tom Glavine who has played for my Twin Cities Thunderchickens since 1991.  Glavine pitched his last game for the  Illowa APBA League last Saturday. 

He retires with an Illowa win-loss record of 241-195.  I posted a tearful farewell to Glavine over at the Illowa APBA League’s web site.

***

Marc Rinaldi wants us to pass the word about APBA Games’ Facebook page.  Be a fan or something.

***

It might be asking the world but Kindle Nation Daily would like to see some Kindle apps based on APBA, Strat-o-matic etc.  I’m not holding my breath.

3 comments

21
January

The last series of the year means watching the limits

limits This Saturday will be the last series of the year for my Twin Cities Thunderchickens.  No, I won’t be duking it out for a playoff spot.  We’ve got last place pretty much sewed up, thank you.  But that doesn’t mean there won’t be a little tension when I play the Green Rock Bombers this weekend. 

The Illowa APBA League, like many leagues, have a player limit system implemented.  In short, we need keep from over-using our players.  And I’ll be doing my best from doing that because there ARE consequences. 

Those consequences are a possible drop in next season’s draft order.  So you can see the incentive in dotting your ‘i’s and crossing your ‘t’s when it comes to players limits

Here’s the short version of our league’s player limits rules:  non-pitchers must not play more than their actual games and at-bats.  Pitchers must not pitch more than their actual games started, games relieved, and innings.  There are some further rules about secondary positions probably not worth mentioning but if you’re interested, check out the IAL Constitution.  One thing that IS worth mentioning… D pitchers have their games and innings limits doubled and straight D pitchers (not D*) can always start. 

So don’t think I’ve been playing my team all season without giving thought to my limits only to be faced with a multitude of limits issues this Saturday.  Our league members all (I hope) keep an eye on them all year.  It helps to calculate the AB/G of the games left in the season That way, I won’t get fooled if Albert Pujols has tons of games left but is low on at-bats.  The same goes for IP/G.

That said, the last series of the season is a bit of nail biter.  Unless we have been really good about resting our starters all season or REAL confident about our limits, it’s touch and go all series.  Not only are we trying to win games but we are trying to keep within our sacred limits.  Normally, we “do our limits” each month.  In our last series, many of us are calculating our limits left after each game especially for the guys on the fence.  And don’t get me started on the last game (“hold on I think this is Parra’s last out.  Let me check, ok?”)

So going into the Thunderchickens’ last series, we look pretty good… as far as our hitters our concerned.  Our pitching situation is tricky though.  I’ll get by ok but I’ll have to keep a close eye on it.

I won’t help our place in the standings but gosh darn it, I’m not losing that first pick in the draft.

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