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.

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