USPBL ENTERS IT's 44th SEASON!                      

Having begun as a league back in 1980 as a Statis Pro league, the USPBL Strat-O-Matic League will begin

it's 44th season in 2023. 

For the first time in several years, we have a full compliment of 20 managers on board, with three new arrivals. Oft-Open team 12, newly open team 11, and occasionally open team 17 all have been filled.

The TEAM ID PAGE shows all the managers, team info, ballparks and how many seasons they've been in

the USPBL. The SOM Code is the number or letter that your team is referred to by Strat. This is

only used when identifying game files. 

The Major Leagues have been coming up with new rules since the Covid shortened season in 2020.

In 2021, MLB played the full season, but retained some of the Covid season's rules. Some of the rules

had been planned already and were to be put into play over the next several seasons. The timelines

for the new rules were knocked out of whack but they are gradually being implemented.

Most of the time, MLB rule changes don't have an effect on the USPBL. Sometimes the Strat game

needs to make adjustments. If these adjustments are presented as options, we can either use them or not.

Until the Covid season, there was only one set of rules. Occasionally there were some options included

in the MAX rules for those playing retro versions of the game like using Pre-1920 errors.

Now there are 6 Rules Options. 

We will use the current season's Rules, and if there are options in the MAX rules we can dismiss, that's

how we proceed.

Coming into the 2023 USPBL season, the main rule that's causing concern is the 3-batter minimum. 

The primary purpose of the rule is to speed up the MLB game. Pitching changes cause the biggest delays.

Obviously this is not an issue for us. There are two problems for us. One is control of relief pitchers by the

computer managers, and the other is the Closer rules. An MLB pitcher doesn't tire after 1 batter but with

the Closer rule, this can occur. This is not so much an issue then with the 3 batter minimum, but with the

Closer rule. The Closer rule is a Strat option. We'll still be using it this season as Closers were still a valuable commmidity in the off-season.  If we do find it to cause problems, we can address it during our "Look At the

Rules"  discussion this summer. It will be new to us so we don't really know just how much of an affect it will

have on gameplay until we try it ourselves.

New to the USPBL this year is our usage format. Rather than a tiered system, we are going with a straight 110% boost for At Bats, Games Started, Games pitched (if it applies) and Innings.

The League file will show all these increases making the following of usage much easier for most players.

The Minimum Requirements for your Final Rosters has been discussed. All these minimums are the same as previous seasons, but there's the constant reminder that these are only minimums and not what we would recommend. 

 

TRADING - A DEEP DIVE INTO THE TRADELOG

The Beacon has often looked at the trades from a season in a general fashion. The number of trades made,

and sometimes even the numbers of trades made by each USPBL team have been written about before.

But this time we are presenting a real In-depth look at the trades preceding the 2023 season.

There were 95 trades this season. Last year there were 91 for our 202 season.  The year before 68 for

our 2021 season (which followed MLB's Covid season)  and the year before that 103 for our 2020 season.

So other than the shortened MLB season with no Minor league games preceding our 2021 season, we

are usually in the 85-105 range for trades per season.

When were the trades made?

The trade season started July 15th.  No trades were made until August.

August  2      Sept  8      Oct  11      Nov  6      Dec 28      Jan  10      Feb  26      March  4

In February, there were 2 made before the R-Draft, 7 during, and 17 after the R-Draft.

Who made the 95  trades?

1   LMD  GGM     4   SRR   MIR   CLC     5  OTB      6  CON  MVN/(EHH)

7  RVD     9  BRM     10  LSR     12  WIS  VAV     13  SSB  MIX     14  FMM   WDW

15  SAS     18  SCM   And The Trade King of 2023 is  Chris  CHC with 22 

What was Traded?

There were 123 players traded.

There were a lot of big names traded like Paul Goldschmidt, Kyle Schwarber, Josh Bell, Anthony Santander,

Maarcus Semien, Dansby Swanson, and Justin Verlander. 

There were 103 draft picks traded. Of these, 67 were for the 2023 draft and 36 for the 2024 draft.

There was 1865K traded in the 50 trades involving draft money. This is further broken down as.....

Pre-Money Draft there was 17 trades involving 1018K. During the money draft there were 7 trades with 92K.

From the money draft to the R- Draft there were 19 trades with 605K.  And since then 7 tades with 150K.