"Pre-Orders" A couple people have offered to pay now for the seasons listed above, but there are problems with taking money for a product that I won't have in stock until at least April. If you'd like, you can contribute to the "order fund" by buying the PDF version. The printed seasons include the PDF files for free. So, when you order the printed season, you can send me an email (cjd at sportsmogul dot com) to request a refund for the PDF version. Yes, I'm an Actual Human Person I feel bad launching this sale without any warning — because I'm human and I know there are people who bought things this week without this coupon. You can always use the coupon code FACEBOOK to get 10% off. But 20% is bigger than 10%. So hit me up if you'd like a retroactive discount (cjd at sportsmogul dot com).
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I got an email recently asking if Season Ticket Baseball was "stable". I've made changes over the last few months, and they wanted to know if they could buy the game without worrying about the need to re-print or re-purchase everything a year from now. Here's what I said: — I think the game was "80% done" in October of 2021 and it's now "95% done".  I've been working on this game, in some form or another, for a very long time. — The Player Cards haven't changed much, and won't change significantly going forward. Player Cards constitute the bulk of the investment (of time and/or money) needed to play. So I've worked hard to ensure that you don't need to re-print or buy new Player Cards. (For example, there was too much offense on the cards released in December, but this could be fixed by reprinting the Stadium Cards and continuing to use the same Player Cards.) — PDF purchases include permanent links to the most current files for every season. If you buy a season, that includes access to any fixes. To sum up, I feel the game is "stable", but there are still improvements that I plan to make. Just so you know, here's my current "to-do" list: 1. Release card sets for the 1950-1974 seasons. (Before the end of May.) 2. Make full printed seasons more affordable. I'm hoping to have an announcement on this soon. 3. Streamline and expand the Auto Manager rules. I have some ideas to simplify these rules, but it will take some time to get it right. 4. Fold the "Basic Game Rules" and "Sample of Play" into the main rulebook. I still haven't decided the best way to delineate the rules (e.g. "Basic", "Advanced", "Super Advanced"). 5. Changes to Rare Plays. I just added a few new results, and I'm seeking feedback on the "Alternate Rare Play Rules" on the Downloads Page. 6. Improve the Stadium Cards. I think the layout needs work and I still need diagrams for a lot of stadiums. And people keep asking why domed stadiums have weather tables, so I might do something to address that.
2. The data is incomplete. Most data sources don't include the number of Sacrifice Hits (SH) and Sacrifice Flies (SF) allowed by each pitcher. Because SH and SF aren't counted as at-bats, they need to be subtracted from the number of Batters Faced (BF) to calculate the Batting Average allowed by each pitcher. I estimate SH and SF allowed by each pitcher, causing the "BA vs. L/R" calculations to differ by a few points from other databases.
Because of this, early versions of Season Ticket Baseball include K23 results on every catcher's Defense Table. But here's the problem: I don't like the K23 result. It's not fun or interesting. (It is fun and interesting when the ball gets away from the catcher and the batter reaches safely. But this play is much rarer).
It's also not realistic to describe all these "dropped third strikes" as 'K23'. Sometimes the catcher tags the batter. And sometimes the batter just walks back to the dugout and is called out by the umpire. Finally, the rule is complicated. For example, if there is a runner on first and less than two outs, the batter is automatically ruled out — to prevent the catcher from intentionally dropping a third strike in order to create a double play — changing a 'K23' to a simple 'K'. Therefore, I'm in the process of changing all K23 results to "2-3" ground outs (and adjusting the results on other cards to make up for this change). If you think the K23 result is interesting and you don't like this change, you can interpret all 'K' results on the catcher's Defense Table as K23. This will fairly accurately represent the number of dropped third strikes without altering strikeout totals. Adobe Acrobat is the default application for printing PDF files. Unfortunately, it adds an (unwanted) margin around the entire page that can make the whitespace for each Player Card somewhat asymmetrical. To get around this: 1. Select “Properties” from the File Menu (or type Ctrl-D) and click the Advanced tab. 2. Change Page Scaling from “Default” to “None”. 3. Click "OK".  Alternatively. you can open the RTF folder included with each purchase and print the ".rtf" files using Microsoft Word, which doesn't have this problem.
I recently improved the result tables for the Hit & Run rules. The Hit & Run is still resolved in the same manner, but I've made some changes to the results that are affected, and how they are affected. My goal was to improve the statistical realism, but I also simplified the rules in the process.  In the previous rules, there were two double play results that became hits, depending on the handedness of the batter. For a right-handed batter, the second baseman would break to cover 2nd base on the Hit & Run play, leaving a hole on the right side (with the reverse being true for left-handed batters). This motion by the defense is part of the reason that the Hit & Run play raises batting averages by about 30 points in Major League Baseball, and this is the reasoning behind the old table (at right). However, I realized that real baseball doesn't work this way. Sometimes the defense switches things up in an attempt to fool the hitter. (A good example of this can be seen in Game 6 of the 1986 World Series, where Wally Backman covers 2nd on the Hit & Run, despite the fact that the left-handed Wade Boggs is batting). I looked into ways for the Hit & Run to create the correct benefits (increased batting average and prevention of the double play) without relying on the handedness of the batter. Digging into the math, the Hit & Run play in Season Ticket Baseball already increases batting averages by 30 points — by reducing the number of strikeouts. Being aggressive early in the count cuts down on both strikeouts and walks, and the rules correctly simulate this by changing both 'K' and 'BB' results into a 2-strike count that doesn't end the at-bat. In order to strike out with the Hit & Run on, you essentially have to roll a 'K' result twice. This rule, by itself, increases batting averages by 30 points — exactly the amount that I was trying to design into the system. These are the effects of the Hit & Run with the new rules:  It's tough to confirm whether this table perfectly match real-life, mostly because it's hard to identify all the Hit & Run plays in the statistical record. But I'm confident that they are pretty close. If you'd like an idea of the research I did, I recommend starting with this article at Baseball Prospectus.
The 2021 season will be available for purchase on December 10th, 2021.
All 30 teams will be available for download (print-and-play). Pre-printed teams will also be available in the store (shippable to the United States and Canada). |
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