Comparing Strat-O-Matic Baseball vs Statis Pro Baseball

[@GeraldM_inNC]

I found one major flaw in Stratomatic. Pitchers who seldom gave up home runs in real life would give up much higher ratios of homers to innings pitched in Stratomatic -- and hence their e.r.a. would be far higher than in real life. This could easily double a reliever's e.r.a. The cause is that if the at bat ends up on the batter's card, there's nothing to stop the pitcher from giving up a home run. I routinely had relievers who had actually allowed two home runs a year or less giving up 5-8 homers off the batter's cards. Conversely, a batter who goes 600 at bats without a single home run could hit 5-10 home runs off the pitcher's card. I never found any way around this fundamental flaw.

[@sportsmanz5948]

Well, in the advanced game a WEAK batter wouldn't have a HR on his card and in many cases would not be able to get one off the pitcher, either. It would instead be a SINGLE**

[@GeraldM_inNC]

@@sportsmanz5948 I haven't played since the '80s. By "advanced" are you referring to something newer than the '80s? If so, how would it go about preventing a weak power hitter from getting a home run off the pitcher's card?

[@sportsmanz5948]

@@GeraldM_inNC I think they had the advanced game out in the 80's. But, a batter will be designated as either normal for power or weak vs. each handed pitcher. If a roll of a HR happens on the pitcher's card and it's a HR, it will usually say HR N, which means a HR for a normal power hitter. If the batter is Weak, they would instead get a SINGLE**. Email me at [e-mail] (if you want) and I can send you an image to see what I mean.

[@GeraldM_inNC]

@@sportsmanz5948 That must have taken place after 1982, the last time I purchased. And how does the "advanced" game prevent a reliever who allowed zero homers from allowing homers on the batter card? I had relievers whose e.r.a.'s were doubled because of homers off the batter' s card.

[@sportsmanz5948]

@@GeraldM_inNC It actually DOESN'T prevent that, unfortunately. It also doesn't prevent a pitcher who never walked anyone (David Wells) from walking way too many guys.

[@rabbakahn]

I had been a statis pro person for decades after having been strat person before hand. Now, however, I am a strat-o-matic fan as my hands shake enough to make flipping the FAC far too difficult. Now I need to an assistant to keep score for me as I have difficulty reading my hand writing. (edit) I have recently revisited Sherco Baseball as it is also a dice game. Not as quick as strat-o-matic, but it does have it's charm.

[@carlkolchak4437]

As a kid strat-o-matic was expensive so I played negamco.

[@johnnysmoke612]

I speculate Statis Pro rates their pitchers by how well they did against their league competition better than league average. If a pitcher gets more results from his card it's a way of circumventing the SOM possible random skewing of too many dice rolls on a batters card. That is just the nature of the randomness with variance. The closes one can get, which isn't perfect, is sampling without replacement. Simple example, as a batter hits or a pitcher pitches the result is removed from their result table. A batter that was 100 for 300 ab's gets a hit now his results left are 99 for 299 ab's and the same process is done to the pitcher side. Basically, the hitter went from a .333 hitter to a .331 hitter. So the skewing of randomness with luck variance is some what contained within each player's own sphere of influence.

[@DeViLzzz2006]

Thnx for the vid. Enjoy your games.

[@djt4546]

When i was a kid, my friend had strat o matic, and i had statis pro baseball. But for some reason, we played statis pro baseball all the time. Maybe it was easier, im not sure. I would love to get back into statis pro. Is there any way to get seasons after 1991? I believe that was the last yr they published. I could be wrong, though.

[@MarkLevine-oc7vk]

Ahhh ❤

[@TheGrooveMaster10]

Dude, the bowing shelves are classic! 😂 ♥️⚾ Stratomatic over Status Pro hands down.

[@OBESPRING1982]

I got Statis Pro in 1984 and enjoyed it but at the time I purchased it (along with SOM Football), it was a thing where I wanted to try a game from each publisher and the football game SOM put out seemed superior to Avalon Hill's product. These were the first sports sims that I have any real recollection of acquiring, though I got a card game NBA sim in my senior year of HS. It might have been Negamco. Anyway, I kept going back in the game store located in the long since now-condemned Regency Mall in Augusta, Georgia and eventually got SOM baseball, as well. I liked the way Statis Pro handled the pitcher batter confrontation (the old saw that good pitching stops good hitting) but SOM advanced has the left / right splits whereas Statis Pro had a generic rule to address platoon situations. Of, course, Derrick Beckner with his Statis Pro Advanced game has addressed that issue, years after Avalon Hill stopped publishing the game.

[@sportsmanz5948]

They are both excellent games...just different.

[@DrSeuss-nv9hw]

Statis Pro Advanced is almost a completely different (and better) game than the original product.

[@johnsain]

SOM wins....no contest.

[@turbochargedsports6327]

Hey Bob - great video! Statis Pro was my first baseball game. I got Statis Pro baseball & basketball at the same time in 1979. Re: between Strat & Statis Pro, I like both. Like w Payoff Pitch, I would lean toward SP in the pitcher-batter interaction which takes SP out of the pure 50/50 method of play. What you mentioned about SP & the Mickey Klutz card: I MUCH prefer how Strat handles it. I don't want badly skewed outlier cards impacting games. Takes away from the realism. Tip of the cap to Strat for doing a better job there. Bottom like: I like both games but probably would give the edge to Strat.

[@DevilLobster]

Never played Statis Pro, but Dice Baseball is based on the SP system from what I understand, and I have played the demo for that game. I like that system, but Dice Baseball uses dice (not cards, obviously) and it has the problem of games running a bit too long, and having to use too many die rolls to get an at-bat result. You roll to see if the pitcher is in control, if not, then you roll on the batters card, get the result, then if it is a hit, you roll again to see where the ball was hit, then you roll again to check for errors. You don't roll for errors on a pitchers result, so if you have a pitcher who is dealing then the game goes a bit quicker. It actually drags the game out to have the hitters be dominant. It does have the pitcher fatigue rating, and a nice injury and random event charts for some really fun chrome to the system though. Strat-O-Matic is still my favorite Baseball game, but I haven't played a lot of them like APBA or Replay Baseball. Hopefully I will one day.

[@johnnysmoke612]

Enjoyed the review Sportsman. I'm a totally vested SOM PC baseball and football player. SOM baseball cards both pitcher and batter are based on pro rated team competition faced excluding their own team stats. Simple example, a .300 hitter faces an overall pitcher allowed average of .200, then his batter card would bat .400. (1/2 * .400)+(1/2 * .200) = .300 batter hitting. Of course, all the pitchers stats overall may represent a league average of .250. Both batter and pitcher sides are formulated based on competition faced.

[@bruinsfan9645]

Strat Rules, Nothing beats the 50/50 game engine for unpredictability in my opinion. I like Statis-Pro, But I’m not big on FAC’s being used in a season replay, I feel I would be shuffling the cards quite a bit to get the randomness in results I would be happy with. The other issue I have with Statis-Pro is I’m not to fond of how they implemented the Pitcher Rat on every at bat, A good pitcher with a large Rating spread on his card is going to dominate almost every at bat and that to me hurts the realism of the Batters opportunity to get a hit. Thanks Bob

[@sportsmanz5948]

Yes, I've noticed that about Statis Pro.

[@ronsperski7132]

Payoff Pitch is the new King of baseball Sims!☺️

[@bruinsfan9645]

@@ronsperski7132 You’re Kidding, Right?

[@sportsmanz5948]

@@ronsperski7132 Very good game. I like how it integrates the pitcher w/ the batter for a result.

[@ronsperski7132]

@@bruinsfan9645 For me it is now.Started in SOM in 1981 but the lack of seasons they offer now are a huge turnoff.Strat super advanced has way too many errors also.

[@farpointgamingdirect]

The Statis Pro box you show in your thumbnail is an entirely different game from "regular" Statis Pro Baseball; it uses an APBA-like dice roll mechanic

[@kevindickson2178]

stratomatic handles fielding much better than statis pro. in statis pro fielding range is not included really...only a clutch rating that does not completely reflect a fielder's ability to make difficult plays. s-o-m fielder ratings are in my opinion spot on. a "1" rated SS is very valuable. but if you have a "4" rated 1B, he better hit. basic s-o-m is easy and quick to play. SP is fun but w/o fielding range, it's incomplete IMO.

[@sportsmanz5948]

All true. Statis Pro takes quite a while to play. Even if you know the game well.

[@ericazuhlke388]

You like Strat the best! Who are you kidding?

[@southpaw5483]

Mickey Klutts, 1981 season....

[@sportsmanz5948]

Ahhh yes. Great Statis Pro card.