While baseball fans are doing whatever it takes to fill the void as they patiently wait for the 2020 season to start, one game is above all the rest and getting plenty of attention, that being Strat O Matic Baseball.
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00:00We know true baseball fans like to nerd out,
00:03but how do they do that without baseball games going on?
00:05For more, I'm joined by our Yankees reporter,
00:07Max Goodman.
00:08Max, can you tell me a little bit about Strat-O-Matic
00:10and how it's helped fill the void
00:12for those who like to, you know,
00:13do the box score while they're at the game?
00:16So you might know Strat-O-Matic as the board game.
00:19Maybe you've tinkered with it a little bit online,
00:21but this year they're doing something new.
00:24They have a daily baseball simulation
00:26going on for this season.
00:27While there's no baseball,
00:28because of the novel coronavirus pandemic,
00:30and pretty much it's self-explanatory.
00:32You're gonna go onto the website and every day at 2 p.m.,
00:34they're gonna release the daily box scores.
00:37So for example, this past weekend,
00:39the Yankees are in Oakland.
00:40It's their first West Coast trip of the year.
00:43Garrett Cole got a 2-1 win against the A's
00:45thanks to a Gleyber Torres home run.
00:48It's every single day, very realistic.
00:51That's one of the perks as to using Strat-O-Matic
00:54if you're trying to choose between different simulations
00:57while there's no baseball going on.
00:58This is gonna give you very realistic results
01:01because of the attention to detail.
01:03I spoke to John Garcia this weekend,
01:05who's the head research director,
01:06and he designs all of the cards.
01:08And that's how it works.
01:09They make the cards based on how they thought players
01:12were gonna be on opening day.
01:13And those are gonna progress throughout the season.
01:15Injuries are factored in.
01:17Different form system players are gonna be called up
01:19throughout the season,
01:20and minor league options are gonna be used.
01:22So if you need your baseball fix,
01:24I highly recommend using Strat-O-Matic.
01:26It's easy to use, it's entertaining,
01:28and you can check in every single day.
01:30Now, how have you used it?
01:31You've been doing like simulated Yankees lineups?
01:34Yeah, so they gave me the opportunity to, you know,
01:37be the skipper for the Yankees on Sunday
01:39for that 2-1 game.
01:41Mike Fiers was on the mound for Oakland,
01:43so I got to choose the Yankees lineup.
01:46Got to put in a couple lefties
01:47because a righty was on the mound.
01:48Mike Ford is having a tremendous season
01:50for the Yankees so far.
01:51So I ended up benching Luke Voigt to put him at first.
01:54And that's basically how it is.
01:56I got that cool opportunity.
01:57I don't think, as a fan, you can necessarily simulate,
01:59but, you know, you can check in.
02:01I don't know if you want to place friendly bets
02:03with your friends and see how teams are gonna end up doing,
02:06but if it's your favorite team,
02:08you want to see how they're doing.
02:09The San Diego Padres and the Tampa Bay Rays, I believe,
02:12as of this weekend, have the best record
02:14in all of baseball, 12 wins
02:16through the first, you know, two weeks and change.
02:18But it's really realistic.
02:19The Yankees are actually struggling on offense right now,
02:22so I'm gonna write something up
02:24about how that's going and how they can't score runs.
02:27But that's chiefly because, you know,
02:28Aaron Judge is injured.
02:29He's not in this simulation right now.
02:31Giancarlo Stanton and Gary Sanchez,
02:33who are very injury-prone,
02:34got banged up in the first couple of weeks, too.
02:37So, you know, again, if you need your baseball fix,
02:40this is the way to go.
02:41See, I like to turn injuries off when I'm playing games,
02:43but thank you for the insight, Max.