by Paul Semendinger
March 9, 2024
***
Well, they arrived - the new Strat cards. Strat-o-Matic makes playing cards for their game every single season. These printed cards are designed to replicate each player's performance based on their stats, performance, and probability.
In essence, the game is very sinple to play. To start one rolls a white die. If the number rolled is a 1, 2, or 3, you would next look on the batter's card to get a result. If the roll is a 4, 5, or 6, you'd look on the pitcher's card.
Once you go to the batter's or the pitcher's card, you'd roll two dice. The most common number to roll with two dice is a seven. The next most common numbers would be six and eight, followed by five and nine and so on. The least common numbers are, of course two and twelve. On a card, events that occur closest to seven will happen more often while events that happen with twos and threes and elevens and twelves will happen less often.
Let's take a look at Gerrit Cole's card representing his 2023 season:
You can see in column 5 especially, against right-handed and left-handed batters, that Gerrit Cole is going to strikeout a lot of batters.
Also note that Cole is good for six innings. After that, he'll tire out. That seven in column 5 becomes a single when a pitcher is tired.
Now here is Aaron Judge's card.
Note that this is almost the ultimate three outcome card. Judge is going to hit a ton of homers, he's going to walk a lot, and he's going to strikeout a lot.
Strat also rates each player's defense (range), probability for errors (e-rating), throwing arm, stolen base strength, bunting, and their speed on the bases.
The fastest runners in the game are ranked 1-17. (This is on a scale of 1-20.) The 2023 Yanks have no runners that fast. Their best two runners are 1-15, IKF and Anthony Volpe.
A slow runner is usually 1-9. The Yankees have two of them - Jose Trevino and Kyle Higashioka. Worse, Giancarlo Stanton is a 1-8. That's terrible.
A great defender would rank as a 1 defensively. A bad defender would be a 4 or a 5.
Aaron Judge ranks as a 1 in right field. (In center, he's a 3, not so good.) At shortstop, Anthony Volpe is a 2. IKF is a 4 in center field. Giancarlo Stanton is a 5 in right or left field.
Also note the strength of Aaron Judge's arm. It's a -4. That's great. A runner loses four "points" if he challenges Judge's arm in trying to take an extra base. (As such a 1-15 runner becomes a 1-11 with the 20-sided die.) In real life, and in the game, it would be foolish to challenge Judge's arm!
Strat-o-Matic has been making games since the early 1960s. They have built a reputation for developing accurate cards. One can see with the cards from the 2023 Yankees that the team will struggle. They don't run well, they don't field well. We already know they didn't pitch well (outside of Gerrit Cole) and they didn't hit much (outside of Judge and Gleyber Torres).
Still, the cards are always fun to look at and play games with. I have accumulated virtually every Yankees team set they have made. (They have not made them cards for every season.) I don't collect many items any longer, but I always buy the new Strat cards.
If you've never played the game, I recommend you give it a try.
