Fellow list members:

My apologies if it seems as if I've been neglecting the group the last
two-plus months. Believe me, I haven't. I just haven't had anything to
add to the discussion lately. I guess I'm just biding my time, waiting
for Strat to announce those "strategic alternatives" it's been
investigating. :-)

I have to admit, my Strat playing time is down radically this year,
at least in part because of the addition of a GameCube to the
household last Christmas. So far, with the 2006 cards I've played a
grand total of one -- yes, one -- game, a 1-0 Cleveland victory over
the Twins.

I expected to play more, but frankly, the weak Indians team is such a
letdown from the 2005 version that I'm lacking a lot of motivation to
pull out the cards and dice. I'm also irked by the fact that first
basemen Ben Broussard and Eduardo Perez didn't get separate Indians
cards. They both had outstanding half-seasons with the Indians before
being traded to the Mariners, where they then both forgot how to hit.
So if I want to play a first-half game, I'm stuck with mediocre stats
if I use their Seattle cards. I know I'm ranting, but honestly!

I also think I've discovered a bug in the closer-ranking system.
Fausto Carmona, who's having a breakout season as a starter this year,
was the closer for about two weeks last year, when in the course of a
week he had four losses and three blown saves. In fact, he lost his
job as closer without ever getting a save. So wait ... despite the
fact that he *was* a closer, and brought in as one at least a handful
of times, he has a closer rating of "N." So the Strat manager,
according to the rules, can *never* use him as a closer. Not that
Carmona is a great choice as one, but if he was a closer for part of
the year, shouldn't he be allowed to, well, close?

I'd like to, ahem, close this discussion, but before I do, this seems
to be the same kind of problem that Strat has with assigning starters
their "stars" -- a system that distributes them based solely on a
pitcher's innings, and not on the number of his starts. If I were
rating pitchers on whether they should be allowed to start regularly,
I'd look at -- drum roll, please -- how many starts they had. But
that's just me.

-Gary