For the baseball addicted, here”s a chance to get your fix each and every day without paying big-league prices for parking, tickets, souvenirs and concessions.
For you armchair quarterbacks out there who think you can do a better job than anyone else when it comes to assembling a team, putting the right lineups out there every day and keeping your team”s minors loaded with talent, here”s the ultimate put-up-or-shut-up challenge.
Are you a shrewd trader? Well, we”re going to find out. Do you have an eye for talent in the drafts? Maybe you do, maybe you don”t. Can you hold up under the pressure of the playoffs? That remains to be seen.
If this sounds like a challenge you”re interested in, you may want to give simdynasty.com a shot. It”s fantasy baseball to be sure as you run every aspect of your team, assuming owner, general manager and manager duties all at once. Every detail of the game is left in your capable (or not) hands. Simdynasty.com is a collection of simulated baseball leagues. Each league has 16 owners ? eight in the National League and eight in the American League. The top two teams in each division qualify for the League Championship Series, and the LCS winners advance to the World Series.
There are no salaries or agents to contend with and no simulated steroids. Otherwise it”s pure baseball the way baseball is supposed to be, and you”re 100-percent in charge. Owners communicate through instant online messaging and each league has its own forum where any number of topics can be discussed. The number of games each league plays depends on the league. For beginners, three games a day is the norm. You can even learn how to play the game for free in what is known as a single-season league. Pay leagues include dynasty (three games a day for the most part), private and speed leagues. Some leagues play six games a day, some nine, with increments of three all the way up to 18. All leagues use a 162-game schedule, so depending on the number of games a day your league plays, one season can last up to 54 real days (such as dynasty) or as little as nine real days in 18-game-a-day leagues, which are definitely for the more advanced and more involved owner.
After the World Series is completed in every league there is an offseason when players can improve or, if they”re 34 or older, lose skills and even retire. The amateur draft follows the next day with five rounds. Each team has one pick in each round and the team with the worst record (in most cases) picks first in each round. Of course, you can trade draft picks just like players or move up in a draft or down, just like the big boys.
Each team can accommodate up to 25 players in its minor leagues although 15 is the number most shoot for because of the improvement system. Every team is allotted 15 improvement points and up to five can be placed on one player. The more improvement points on a player, the faster he tends to improve, so assigning them to the blue-chippers in your system is essential.
Each player is assigned letter grades (in most leagues) that denote certain skills. For batters, there is contact against left-handers and right-handers, power against left-handers and right-handers, speed, range and arm. These categories fluctuate as a player progresses or regresses in these skills. Other categories such as bunting ability and health are static, so if your guy has F health, he won”t play in as many games as an A health individual.
The primary categories for pitchers are endurance, velocity and control. However, pitchers also have static hitting, bunting and health grades.
Depending on what these grades are, the sim computer, known as ABE, generates an outcome each time a pitcher and hitter meet.
There is no interleague play, at least not yet, and there is no midseason All-Star game. There are injuries, which strike at random, a disabled list and statistical categories ? individual and team ? so that owners can see how their players are doing and how they stack up with others in the league.
Trading is one of the more enjoyable parts of the game ? and one of the most frustrating.
There”s a lot to simdynsaty.com that you”ll have to learn by doing rather than reading. But if baseball is your game and passion, this is something you don”t want to miss. Try a free single-season league and see how you like it. The pay leagues (which can be anywhere from $40 to $80) give you many seasons of fun before the renewal date.
I first tried simdynasty.com five years ago and I”m genuinely hooked five years later. I”ve had teams come out of nowhere to win it all and teams that should win fail miserably in the playoffs.
There are no more guarantees in simdynasty.com than in real baseball.
For the baseball connoisseur, simdynasty.com is a must-do activity.
