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2006 Strato Guide Reviews

Dell Rides Again: A Review of Dell’s 2006 Strato Guide

It’s another Strat-O-Matic baseball season and Terry Dell and his 2006 Strato report dive deep to find the best and worst cards of the set.

Getting the guide is a lot easier this year. Dell has changed the guide from a print format to a .pdf document delivered via email after purchase. This move reduces the cost of the guide but also lets you get your hands on his material much faster. Plus, the cost of the guide has dropped dramatically without the printing and shipping costs. $11.00 is the price of admission to Dell’s guide.

Here’s how the guide breaks down. It starts with the 2005 card set trends and then it moves into a positional analysis. Here’s where you pick up a number of tidbits of wisdom and golden nuggets from Dell. He provides advice on what positions to hit first in a start-up or tournament draft. He also tells you what factors should be of importance for each position. For right fielder, Dell says to look for power, then on-base, and finally speed on the bases.

Next we move to specific draft strategies. Getting lopsided relievers serves as a critical Strat drafting strategy not noticed by a lot of managers. Dell has a section on situational lefties and when to take them in a draft. Those cards may not work in all situations but Dell says they can come up big with Barry Bonds at the plate.

The “quirks” and “spanked” sections offer interesting insights into some of the more bizarre ratings in the 2005 card set. Dell lists 4 pitchers that have the “Strato Death Card” in this set.

The middle of the guide brings Dell’s comments on the undervalued players in the set, whether for the 2005 or 2006 season. Dell really likes Adrian Beltre and Curt Schilling and thinks they’re worth going after in your league.

Then we move to the position ratings and analysis. Dell ranks the cards according to the criteria of average, OB, TB, HR, speed, range, and throwing arm (for outfielders). Then he offers commentary on the player cards. This is a useful section for anyone who plays Strat-O-Matic.

Dell’s Top Player by Position

C – Victor Martinez
1B – Derrek Lee
2B – Brian Roberts
3B – Alex Rodriguez
SS – Alex Rodriguez
LF – Miguel Cabrera
CF – Andruw Jones
RF – Vladimir Guerrero
SP – Roger Clemens
RRP – Mariano Rivera
LRP – Billy Wagner

The final part of the guide contains a Q/A session with subscribers, a draft-day planning sheet, and his mock draft board. The latter is particularly valuable for the start-up and tournament drafts. You also get Dell’s list of “Freak Show” cards, the limited AB players with fantastic performances in certain areas like Jeff Francoeur and Mike Jacobs.

While you can’t cram everything into 61 pages, Dell does a good job of hitting the highs and lows of the new card set as well as providing sound drafting/playing advice for managers of all levels and styles.

Dell’s guide includes many baseball cartoons and colorful, acerbic comments. These things almost make the price of the guide worthwhile in and of itself.

You can learn more about the 2006 Strato Guide by visiting Dell’s website at www.stratostrategy.com

2004 Strato Guide Reviews

Somworld.com Review - Ted McAllister

Hardcore Strat Smackdown

Terry Dell bills himself as the “hardest working man in Strato.” That may hit the nail on the head because few people put as much effort into helping you get the most for your money in this hobby.

Previous owners take note that this is a much larger publications (62 pages) than from the first go around of 38 pages. Dell Version 3.0 is almost double the size of the first one. That’s a good thing.

This guide isn’t about predictions or telling you the best Strat card in 2010. Dell says go get a Magic 8-Ball. He sticks with position rankings, card set evaluation, and top strategies for the 2003 season. This book doesn’t have any sugar coating. Dells offers the straight poop and nothing but the poop. He says he wants to make you a better manager, with greater confidence and knowledge, with more skills and insights into what makes Strato success.

These are strong words for anyone, even with all of the posturing and narcissism that occurs throughout tournaments and FTF draft leagues on a regular basis. The proof is in the pudding, as they say.

Page 8… Good insight on building teams based on specific circumstances…

Page 9… The world finally knows what’s wrong with the Jason Schmidt card. You may say Dell states the obvious with Schmidt. He is the first person I’ve heard mention this fact.

Page 11… Dell gives the goods on how to select a second tier starter…

Page 12… Not all categories are the same for first base cards. Some are more important than others. Dell tells you what to look for and what to avoid like the plague.

Page 13… Big surprise statement on Soriano. No one else has made this claim.

I could go on and on… but there’s no reason to give away the entire story. Simply stated, the Dell guide drips with insightful nuggets on each page. The guide has 11 pages for position ratings. You get the good, bad, and ugly. Dell tells you about the qualities of each grouping, for example, what to look for in the first and second tiers at third base.

Dell also does a very nice job in describing the quirks and freaks of the 2003 set. This provides a nice perspective on some of the more subtle aspects of the latest Strat release. The guide also has the undervalued hitter and pitchers card for the set. This is a nice section although Dell has more faith in Pat Burrell than I do. We’ll see if he’s right about this guy after next year.

The “Top Prospects” section is a nice touch for those interested in keeper players or future draft sets. Many of the names on these two pages will play in an All-Star game someday, perhaps even for your team if they’re not swiped by the Yankees by then. Just kidding. Star Tournament players take note that Dell has a “Mock Draft Board” for you. He also tells you how to modify the board for your own league. This includes making changes for left-handed pitchers. I like the new “Questions and Answers” section. This might be Dell’s strongest suit. He does very well responding to these questions. You wish he’d devote a couple of additional pages for this part in future guides.

The BIG STORY with Dell is the Player Rankings System. This additional 22 page segment has a fantasy baseball magazine format. Dell has charts for the top 15 players at each position (more with pitchers). He’ll give stars to players with certain amounts of hit, on-base, total base, and home run chances, plus range and arm ability. Javy Lopez has the most stars at the catchers position, with A.J. Pierzynki right behind in second place. This is a great way for comparing players and analyzing strengths and weaknesses.

The new Dell system also includes a chart for defensive range ratings and a valuable commentary section. This last part includes all of those wonderful Dell witticisms that we’ve come to love over the past three years. Dell says that Troy Glaus has fewer hits than Vanilla Ice. It’s certainly looking that way

There are a few negatives to toss in Dell’s direction. The guide isn’t perfect. I wish he’d cut out a few of the graphics and reduce the font size. I’d like to hear his thoughts on the bench/role/replacement players. What does Dell think about Julio Lugo? A majority of the guide deals with the top 20 players per position, except for pitchers. I’d like to know about some of those guys in that bottom 10 or 20.

I don’t think the guide needs any more pages. It’s big enough. Reducing the font size and condensing some of the discussion will create more room for future growth plus keep printing costs and subscriber prices down. There is a lot of progress. This third effort far surpasses the two previous ones. There’s more progress in Dell Version 3.0 than in the Strat-O-Matic football Version 3.0. So Dell is working at making this a better, bigger effort every year. I applaud him for always striving for the next level.

There is a need for the Dell insights and wisdom in the Strat-O-Matic community. I play in three Strat leagues where Dontrelle Willis was a top five draft pick. These are the guys that need Dell’s help. Not surprisingly, I’m sure they’re the last persons to come to such a conclusion.

Dell is for everyone, young or old, rich or poor, advanced or beginner. Dell keeps you in the game. That’s a good reason to buy this product

Ordering Information
www.stratostrategy.com

2003 Strato Guide Reviews

Fox Sports Broadcaster - Bill Vargas

Dell's Strat-O-Matic Guide Review

When Terry Dell wrote a couple of articles for Strat Planet previewing his new "Strato Guide," I just had to order it. I thought the idea of publishing a guide detailing ways to be successful in Strat leagues and tournaments was an interesting proposition.

Like you, I've read many Strat related articles over the years, but as far as I know, no one's ever endeavored to put together a comprehensive publication like this one. After reading the Guide, I still think it's a great idea, and I think Terry did a good job of turning that idea into reality.

Terry Dell says he wrote his guide primarily to help people who are relatively inexperienced at Strat--the kind who join a league thinking they can compete, then get frustrated and quit after a couple of years because they find they are in way over their heads. As for those of us who have been playing Strat as long as Terry (15 years) or longer, there's a tendency to feel that we have mastered the game. "What could this Guide possibly tell us?" we wonder. But there's always a chance to learn something new if you keep an open mind, so I decided to order the Guide. I was anxious to see what I would get for my $12. What arrived was a professional looking, 37-page publication, officially titled "Terry Dell's 2001 Baseball Strategy Guide."

Once I started reading it, I found myself becoming very intrigued. I'm not sure I was reading anything that was new to me, but it's always fun to compare your own theories with those of others, and many of the things Terry's Guide discusses are subjects that you don't want to talk about with fellow league members, and never see in print.

I became even more intrigued when the Guide moved from discussing Undervalued Cards and Top Prospects to a secret about dice. We all know that after doing all the evaluations of the cards and scouting of the opponent, the games always come down to who gets the lucky dice rolls anyway. So this tidbit about dice--now this was something I could definitely use! I don't want to give the secret away (c'mon, don't be so cheap, you can afford $12 to find out yourself). But it involved some information about why it's possible that a certain type of die will roll the number one more frequently than other numbers (and that's all the more important, given the fact that Strat usually gives one-column cards to the best hitter on each real-life team.) The theory was supported by an experiment Terry had done for a statistics class when he was in college, although he also warned that the experiment was based on 1000 dice rolls, which may not be enough to be conclusive. As it turns out, I tried it with a die I had in my possession, and still couldn't get it to roll the number one very often. ( I'll keep trying, but it looks as though I'm doomed to another season of not being able to hit anything on Vlad Guerrero's card.)

As I suspected, most of the other information in the Guide is stuff that you already know if you're a Strat veteran, but it still serves to remind, underscore and reinforce some very important points. Maybe the most important one is Terry's emphasis on having good defensive middle infielders. We all probably know the importance of having good fielders at short and second, but Terry reinforces the point with a statistical breakdown of their X-chart fielding chances. Terry also repeatedly harps on the difficulty lefty starting pitchers will face in draft leagues. And, in that respect, the Guide may have helped me in my league, because last year I drafted Rick Ankiel, and I already had Mike Hampton. And I started thinking that maybe I should add a third lefty. After all, in my league players can only start one game for every 100 real-life plate appearances, meaning a lot of those part-time lefty crushers can only start 1 or 2 games. If I got Barry Zito, teams simply wouldn't be able to use their lefty-crushers against all three. Besides, the best team in our league has several left-handed hitting stars, most notably Jason Giambi and Todd Helton, who's power is far less frightful against left-handed pitchers. (Helton's power against lefties is literally half as much, since he has 7.2 homers and ballpark homers versus lefties, and 14.4 against righties. Giambi's is even more dramatic, 7.6 against lefties and 18.8 against righties.) But the Guide kept screaming at me to avoid lefty starters at all costs. As fate would have it, I got an offer for Hampton that I couldn't pass up, and someone drafted Zito ahead of me. Partly because of the Guide, and partly because there were no other lefties available close to the level of Hampton and Zito, I abandoned my plan, although I did draft starter/reliever Mark Buerhle with the plan to use him out of the bullpen and give him a spot start against the team with Giambi and Helton. (I should add, though, that there is a guy in our league with 3 lefty starters, and after the first month of play he has one of the league's best records, at 13-7.)

My criticisms of the Guide are minor. A little better job of proofreading would have avoided some confusion. The Guide advises us to draft situational hitters and "Get those righties who crush lefties early, or they'll be gone before you know it. Later in the draft, nab those righties who kill lefties." That's an obvious contradiction. Terry tells me that what he meant to write was, "get those lefties (batters) who crush righties (pitchers) early.. then later in the draft... nab those righties who crush lefties." And, he says, the correction has been made on the most recently printed editions of the Guide. For some reason, Terry also capitalizes some players names and never capitalizes others. I know that's nit-picking. Besides, Terry uses colorful expressions in his writing, and keeping things interesting and entertaining is more important than dotting every "i" and crossing every "t."

The only real drawback is that the people for whom the Guide would be most beneficial, the guys who aren't able to compete, probably won't end up buying it. As the Guide itself states in regard to preparing for a draft," If you want to step up and play with the big boys, be prepared." Unfortunately, the same guys who fail to consult scouting reports and spend time pouring over information in preparation for the draft probably won't buy the Guide, either. So, in that case, let those of us who already jump headfirst at every little opportunity to gain even the slightest edge over our competition be the ones that benefit from Terry Dell's Strategy Guide. It's certainly worth the price.

2002 Strato Guide Reviews

Somworld.com Review - Will Kolodzie

Terry Dell's Strato Guide Review

I'll admit I approached this product with great trepidation when I first heard of it. Terry Dell has produced a guide that doesn't crunch numbers, but instead proposes that he can help you become a better Strat player. After playing Strat for 21 years, Dell's claim gave me quite a chuckle. What could Terry Dell possible know that I don't? Well, it turns out that Dell's Strato guide has a little something for everyone, hints and suggestions that will benefit the beginning and advanced Strat gamer.

For beginners, the guide helps with understanding everything from understanding the card layout to the fielding X chart. Tips for catcher selection and evaluating hitter cards are informative and concise. Needless to say, some aspects of the guide will be familiar to the experienced Strat player. My bet is that there are some things in it that you've forgotten or just haven't thought of in years. I know this was the case when I read Terry's comments regarding the range ratings for infielders.

The biggest surprise is that this guide is a print publication. Web-based publications or e-mail newsletters is certainly an easier way of presenting information in the Strat community. On first glance, you might think that print publications are a thing of the past. This isn't so. SOM print publications are thriving nicely. In fact, the demand for them has never been stronger. John LaManna's SOM baseball bulletin is one of the biggest. I haven't bought it but I know many people swear by it. There's also Steve Frediani's "The Statman," a personal favorite that analyses the current card sets by tournament, card, season values, etc... The SOM Ratings book is very successful in its own right. It sells out a few months after its release.

What makes the guide really unique is that it offers a comprehensive look at how to play the game. Terry takes you from reading the cards to drafting your team, from playing your games to making personnel decisions. In essence, Terry's guide is a "How to Play Strat" manual. The real bonus of it's success is that NO ONE has ever tried to put all of this information together. Various SOM endeavors have written about the same topics, but Terry is the only individual who has attempted to put everything into a single publication.

The guide is divided into 11 sections: 2000 card set, drafting information, drafting strategy, during the draft, basic strategy, basic managerial decision-making, advanced strategy, advanced card scouting, stadium selection, setting a team goal, and setting lineups. The largest portion of the guide is devoted to the advanced strategy suggestions. There are nine different topics in it. Some of these topics are really good. His discussion of the "unbalanced theory" will probably add a couple of wins for your draft league team. The stadium selection section isn't as long as the other parts of the guide; it only runs one page in length. It doesn't need to be any longer. Terry gets a lot of mileage out of a few words. There are 5 solid strategies for stadiums that are worthy of reflection for any SOM manager.

Needless to say, there are a couple of items in the guide with which I don't agree. I don't necessarily agree that your team has to have players with great stealing ratings. Don't get me wrong, there's nothing wrong with having Luis Castillo at the top of your lineup. Personally, I tend to put a greater emphasis on more OBP and fewer DP chances at the top of the lineup. I think if you have a lead-off hitter who can get on base regularly and go from first to third on a SINGLE (RF), then you're probably not losing very much. As with most things, Strat guys love to argue baseball, strategy, and card ratings. Most strategical options are context-related. You have to be careful with formulating general rules about certain topics. This is something that Terry does well in certain areas of the guide. He'll give you two or three strategy options for approaching a particular issue.

This is particularly evident in the section about setting lineups. Terry offers a number of suggestions for those having problems in the area. It's also a nice refresher for those of us who think we have this skill down perfectly. Setting a lineup is often more a matter of taste than anything else. I remember an ongoing discussion about the topic in STRAT FAN a couple of years ago. I thought both individuals brought out valid arguments. Even if you still have those old STRAT FAN issues, the comments in the guide are very useful and entertaining.

The guide costs $12. It's worth the money. I'll go on the record and say that Terry has made a valuable contribution to the hobby. The 2002 version, which can be ordered next February, promises to be even better as Terry is going to have a rating section that will include every major player in the card set. I hope that Terry will offer a special upgrade price, say $10 for existing customers, the next time around. I'd also like to see the guide divided into specific sections for overall strategy and strategy regarding specific card sets, plus extended discussions on the use of probability and utilizing unbalanced hitters and pitchers. Terry has a great sense of humor. We'll rate it PG-13 to give you an idea of what to expect.

The Dell Strato Guide is invaluable for beginners to the game. Experienced players will also find the guide a worthy companion. Terry has promised email updates for his subscribers so be sure to include your address when contacting him.

Fox Sports Broadcaster - Bill Vargas

2002 Strato Guide Review

Anyone who doesn't buy Terry Dell's 2002 Baseball Strategy Guide should be slapped around like a trailer park wife. Okay, I don't really believe that, and I really hate violence against women, but I've got to admit, the use of visual expressions (including trailer park wife references) makes the Strategy Guide fun to read, whether you agree with its theories or not.

Dell advises stocking lots of lefty hitters by saying, "Be all over those lefties like a cockroach on a cracker." He's not too enamored of a certain lefty hitter named Griffey, though, as he says, "Junior's stock is falling faster than Monica did on President Clinton." And, he warns, if you stack too many lefties together in your lineup, and the opposing manager can counter with a righty reliever who kills lefties, "Then you're boned like a salt-water haddock during lent."

Terry Dell is obviously a very colorful guy, and very certain of the correctness of his ideas. Not everyone agrees with his ideas, of course. In fact, I've talked to a couple of managers who don't much care for the Guide because they don't agree with some of its conclusions. But for me, I enjoy the Guide, even when I don't agree with it, because it stimulates thought. I can read his arguments, and then try to figure out where I disagree and why. I don't feel compelled to do everything the Guide says, but I do feel compelled to know why I disagree with a particular theory.

Let's face it, the variations from one Strat league to another make it impossible for anyone to make blanket statements that will apply in all cases. One of Dell's cornerstone arguments is that you should never draft lefty starters. Most people I know who manage in a draft league or play in the Star tournaments also follow this theory. But isn't it also true that the more teams you have in a league, the more valuable lefties can be because it becomes harder for opponents to load up on those right-handed hitting part-time players who crush lefties?

So you have to take his statements and evaluate them and tailor them to your own situation. In my own league, for example, there are three or four teams that are actually more susceptible to left-handed starters. I'm not going to carry an extra lefty starter all year just to face a handful of opponents, but it does make the lefty starter/reliever extremely valuable, as he can come out of the pen against most teams, and get the occasional spot start against the team that has Helton, Giambi, Larry Walker and Brian Giles in the middle of its lineup.

The unfortunate thing is that the 2002 card set contains virtually no really good lefty starter/relievers; they all give up lots of ballpark homers. Sort of reminds me of what Dell says about this year's shortstops, after he discusses the benefits of A-Rod, Jeter, Aurilia and Tejada: "You might actually hurt your eyes looking for other shortstops of quality. It's recommended to use a magnifying glass to prevent future retina damage."
Speaking of which, one of the ways this year's Guide has improved over the initial version is that it not only discusses general principles, but gets down to the specifics of analyzing this year's cards, position-by-position. Again, how much value this has to you depends on your league. The Guide, like many of the articles here at SOMWorld, evaluates all of the top cards, although in keeper leagues you might never have a shot at those players. And you may not even agree with all of the evaluations-Dell likes Billy Koch a whole lot more than I do.

But where else can you get card evaluations, draft day tips, advice on the art of making trades and game day strategy all rolled together in one package? Dell's Strategy Guide is the only place. For some reason, Terry also felt compelled to include several pages on the merits of contraction. It seems out of place to me, since part of the reason I play Strat is to just enjoy the game without all of the peripheral B.S. of a sport that seems intent on strangling itself. Of course, you can skip over the contraction discussion (contract the contraction?) and get right to the Strat stuff.

There's another addition to this year's Guide--$3 to the price. It now costs $15. I think it's worth it, though, whether you're relatively new to Strat and need to learn the nuances of the game, or a longtime veteran just looking to stimulate your thinking. You might pick up a new idea here and there. And even if you don't, you should be entertained.