Carded teams from the 1968 Season for Statis-Pro Baseball
Dropbox Link to the 1968 National League for Statis-Pro Baseball
Dropbox Link to the 1968 American League for Statis-Pro Baseball
Long before I ever made any other teams, I made seasons to play for Statis-Pro Baseball. I think I first made Mexican League teams on index cards using long division in the summer of 1979 from the data in The Sporting News Guide, so I've been doing this for nearly forty years. I do my teams differently than they advised in the ruleset, for one thing I rate fielders (CD) as they really were as fielders, not by the stats. I use the LeSeuer method for pitchers, and the later individualized method for calculating BD results.
You could say my teams look like the 1987 Statis-Pro set (as far as format) and you wouldn't get much argument from me. I use a special method using PB and innings pitched to ensure the average pitcher in each league is exactly between a 2-6 and 2-7, and I check each team's pitching to make sure it makes sense relative to ERA and runs allowed. I don't do r/l splits, because I like to keep the game simple and playable. I'll let you download and judge for yourself their quality, but suffice it to say, if I don't know the season, I won't make the teams.
1968 of course hosts one of my all-time favorite Statis-Pro teams...I'm from Detroit, and the Tigers are superb. This was the hallowed team of my youth, and I once wrote an exposition on Denny McLain's thirty wins. But, well, the favorite team is actually the Cardinals. I decided a couple of years ago to make the NL teams to do a Bob Gibson challenge, to see if he could get to a 1.12 ERA. In my latest iteration Gibson is 7-1 with 4 CG, 3 shutouts and a 1.10 ERA in ten starts. I fell in love with El Birdos as a Statis-Pro team.
The Cardinals just do a lot of things well...their starting lineup all field for high percentages and have good CD numbers. The bench guys either field well, throw well, or run well. They don't have a lot of homerun power but they do hit a lot of doubles, they can bunt, and they have good team speed. They are very good at manufacturing runs off of good pitchers, maybe not a lot of runs, or in bunches like the Tigers, but they are always getting guys on base, and they can advance them.
Small ball teams in general in Statis-Pro are fun to play because you can use the SP and hit and run charts and anything can happen. It's not designed to be a strictly speaking station to station simulation. I like teams that play varying styles in baseball Sims because I watched every Tiger team take dead aim at the right field overhang at the old ballpark throughout my youth. That said, the Tigers really are the better team; they field well, too, and in most Series replays they can get enough guys on base to take advantage of their stellar individual BD power cards, where they have a big advantage. It's hard to run enough to make up for a barrage of three-run homers.
Original Publication Date: July 24, 2017
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