Contents this issue: Letters to the EditorWords of Wisdom: The Changing Face of SPARF
Pontification: From 0-2 to 2-2: WPD No Longer Stands
For Wallamaloo Philosophy Doormats
Forum: What good is Mark?
The unbalanced defender
Mistake of the Week
Random thoughts for new managers
From: Michael Sander <344LWKC@CMUVM.CSV.CMICH.EDU>
*From the Admission, Blaming, and Clarification Division (ABCD) {:-)!} of the Greymoor Gladiators, Diamond Leauge, SPARF.*
Admission: Yes, it was I (Mike Sander) who sent the latter opinion on how much I thought free agents should be worth. However, see Clarification #1.
Blaming: Well, don't blame me if I never start a "flame war" with another member of SPARF-- I've mentioned my opponents before (and usually after my matches, but so far, no one has mentioned mine {*slight fume!*}.
Clarification #1:
When I said that free agents should be around 3K, I meant the Age 0 and 1 players usually traded and heavily (at least more than others) available as free agents. This is especially true for us expansion teams -- I can't imagine spending even 8K for an Age 0 or 1 player that is (usually) worse than the ten players of that age that I got for free! Next year, however, I'll probably do something like it without blinking an eye...
[Editor's Note: This is a good point. Occasionally you may have the oppor- tunity to purchase an above-average player, either from someone else or because someone cut a player that is actually useful. For these players, it's not a bad rule of thumb to determine your needs and extrapolate from the amount you're willing to pay for a more common, less skilled player. But who knows? Let the buyer beware, I suppose...]
Clarification # 2: When I said that my Star at RW didn't accomplish anything, I meant he didn't (couldn't, really) score like he would have if he had been if he were at say, FF, where he is THIS week.... Oh, AND I didn't read the rules carefully either {:-)!}.
[Editor's Note: Yes, this is a valuable distinction. If you plan well enough to shuffle stars in and out of positions, a star in the midfield can get the stars up front more opportunities to score. However, if you only have a few stars, they should ostensibly be put where they can do the most damage, and I'd have to say that RW is probably not that place. I may not know a LOT about ARF, but it sure seems like a long way from midfield to the goal posts on television...]
Commisioner's Notes: New things you might see in the future of SPARF!
This we I'll talk about some new features I'm working on for SPARF. The biggest of all these (which has been getting the majority of my free time lately) is the auto-reply daemon. What the deamon will do when it is fully functional is process your order as soon as they arrive by email, and send you an answer immediately to tell you if there were any errors. The nice thing about this is that I can disable all of Munch's "error correction" (also known as "random order generation") code which still does some stupid things like replacing the second instance of a duplicate player with someone whose fatigue indicates that he might come back in a body bag. The biggest obstacle in completing this is that the local operating system is not set up correctly, and refuses to execv binaries from mail periodically (not always, just sometimes --- really infuriating) Originally I was told that this had to do with some progrom be setuid root which shouldn't, but now I think it's just a problem with the competency of the local sysops. (Don't worry if I lost you, the point is: it doesn't work yet.)
Another big feature which doesn't work well enough is the possession stat. When I finish this (I try to say when to convince myself that I will actually finish this someday) it will show a counter of how much the ball was in what area of the field. The problem is that I'm not sure exactly how to measure that. It certainly isn't enough to just count the number of times it entered, as that would provide ridiculous results if ever there was a loose ball being knocked around near a border. Also just timing things isn't enough as you'd probably like to know if the LHF of the defense is getting the ball on a regular basis and having no trouble unloading it quickly. I have a few ideas on what would be useful, but I'm not having the best of luck so far. Most of the good ideas involve making the "zones" overlap, and not counting the ball as having moved until it completely leaves the old zone (so that the border conflict doesn't get counted as a zillion swaps) If anyone else can think of a good way to fix this or come up with a simple, but useful stat, I'm all ears.
Another thing that's likely to show up a lot sooner than the above two is a boxscore program/shellscript. What it will do is take a scouting report and a rawstat file and combine them to make a scoring/markmanship summary. This will allow you to put the data all in one easy to read place.
One thing you WON'T be seeing is a stat on tackles. Why not? It's because of two things. The first of which is that most good defensive plays don't happen as simple one-on-one tackles like gridiron, since there isn't the incentive to the player to hold onto the ball (if tackled, he will lose the ball). What usually happens is that a defender will ruin the pass or shot of a player, or make the player make a stupid handpass in the general direction of another player who is tightly covered anyway. Also, most of these plays involve the combination of two or three defenders, and there is no one person who deserves the credit. Again if there is a stat you do think is useful for defenders, I'd be glad to hear about it. Be careful if the stat you list is "turnovers" as there is the case that a bunch of people are all piling up around a loose ball trying to knock it clear to someone who can pick it up without being mauled.
Next week: more new features
[Editor's Note: Instead of commenting on the individual points here, I will make this a Forum of sorts. Carbon Copy me on any ideas you send to Mel and I will collect them up for the next issue.]
Well, back to work.
This week, I shall pontificate (always use "shall" with "pontificate" because it adds a pompous air) on How To Improve. Behold my scouting reports from weeks 2 (a reasonably close loss) and 4 (a crushing win).
Week 2:
Player Name Mark Kick Scram Defense Age LFP Bruce Hobbes GOOD VGOOD VGOOD VGOOD 4 FF Bruce Schlegel MDCRE AVG MDCRE MDCRE 5 RFP Bruce Plato MDCRE AVG AVG POOR 3 LHF Bruce Kierkegaard AVG GOOD GOOD MDCRE 2 CHF Bruce-Paul Sartre MDCRE AVG MDCRE POOR 3 RHF Torpedo Thomas MDCRE AVG MDCRE POOR 3 LW Bruce Marx MDCRE MDCRE AVG AVG 2 C Bruce Spinoza MDCRE AVG AVG AVG 2 RW Bruce Aquinas MDCRE MDCRE AVG MDCRE 2 LHB Bruce Zeno MDCRE MDCRE MDCRE GOOD 5 CHB Juan-Pedro Valdez POOR POOR POOR GOOD 3 RHB Dragan Borovic AVG MDCRE GOOD GOOD 2 LBP Bruce Stuart Mill MDCRE MDCRE MDCRE GOOD 3 FB Erlend Agelvik LOUSY LOUSY LOUSY TRIFC 2 RBP Bruce Wittgenstein MDCRE MDCRE AVG AVG 3 ROV Bruce Locke AVG GOOD AVG AVG 4 RKM Bruce Hume VGOOD VGOOD VGOOD VGOOD 4 RKR Bruce Aristotle VGOOD VGOOD VGOOD GOOD 4 IC1 Bruce Lao-Tzu MDCRE MDCRE AVG MDCRE 2 IC2 Bruce Russell MDCRE AVG MDCRE POOR 3 Week 4: Player Name Mark Kick Scram Defense Age LFP Bruce Locke AVG GOOD GOOD AVG 4 FF Bruce Kierkegaard AVG GOOD GOOD MDCRE 2 RFP Dragan Borovic AVG AVG VGOOD GOOD 2 LHF Bruce Marx MDCRE AVG GOOD AVG 2 CHF Torpedo Thomas POOR AVG AVG POOR 3 RHF Bruce Plato MDCRE AVG GOOD POOR 3 LW Bruce Schlegel MDCRE AVG AVG MDCRE 5 C Bruce Lao-Tzu MDCRE MDCRE AVG MDCRE 2 RW Bruce-Paul Sartre MDCRE AVG MDCRE POOR 3 LHB Bruce Zeno MDCRE MDCRE AVG GOOD 5 CHB Juan-Pedro Valdez POOR LOUSY POOR VGOOD 3 RHB Bruce Stuart Mill POOR POOR MDCRE GOOD 3 LBP Bruce Wittgenstein MDCRE MDCRE AVG GOOD 3 FB Erlend Agelvik LOUSY PTHTC LOUSY TRIFC 2 RBP Bruce Aquinas MDCRE MDCRE AVG AVG 2 ROV Bruce Hume VGOOD VGOOD VGOOD VGOOD 4 RKM Bruce Aristotle VGOOD TRIFC TRIFC VGOOD 4 RKR Bruce Hobbes VGOOD VGOOD VGOOD VGOOD 4 IC1 Bruce Russell MDCRE AVG MDCRE POOR 3 IC2 Bruce Berkeley POOR AVG AVG POOR 0
So what's the difference? Well, first off, check out the Scramble of my forwards. Much better, isn't it? That's because of the first couple of Issues here, where it was finally hammered home that Scramble is how you get shot opportunities. Now look at the ROV. I tried to pop a serious star in to get shots from LFP in week 2, which failed dismally because I couldn't get him the ball. Cranking the Defense of my mobiles a bit and letting the best players be there made a big difference. Finally, notice that the in- creased Scramble of my mobiles gave them the ball more often, so I played "keepaway" from my opponent.
The moral of the story is that although I am a notorious sand- bagger, my team really has improved quite a bit since the season started. And for anyone in my division who thinks I'm giving away something by showing you my scouting reports, two points: several of you already have them from cable, and the rest can be assured that I move my folks around from week to week. Or don't. See if I care.
Last week, ToW asked about the Mark skill. As I said before, I would expect that you would see a noticeable NEGATIVE effect if one of your stars up front had a LOW Mark since he couldn't get many uncontested shots, but I remain less than fully convinced that cranking the Mark of a forward is really that fruitful. Fred Moody, any comments?
Next, a word from the Mandarins, who have two valuable points:
From: sarge@cs.uq.oz.au
In relation to marking, I wouldnt have a clue, except that you mobiles need marking in order to win ballups. (especially your RKM) (I discovered this was the case when I accidently played a guy who couldnt mark at that position.
I also have this gut feeling that marking can be combined with kicking. So that a player with good kicking skill gives a pass to a player with good marking skill who catches the ball (without having to rely on his scramble) and is able to kick. I remember Mel said that at the start of season one (why do I remember trivial comments from more than a year ago?) that he balanced all the skills so that a team full of 30 mark 25 everything else players played a very even game against a team full of 30 kick and 25 everything else.
[Editor's Note: Ah, yes! I remember that now! But the point about the RKM is a good one, people: I have a hard time distinguishing the characteristics of the mobiles; I just know they hog the ball. This helps differentiate the positions a bit, and I'd bet that the ROV and RKR would be well-served by having a high Scramble because of their positions' descriptions.]
This week, ToW takes a look at those ridiculous defenders people build, with Defense of 50 and Mark/Kick/Scramble of 5. How high should you make those other skills to guarantee this guy isn't going to have to retire when he ages, and how much does a pure defender need in the other skills, anyway? He must have SOME Scramble, after all...
This week, ToW awards the Honorary Borg Award to the Wimbledon Litter Collectors and the Tasmanian Devils for injuring half their starting lineups in a single match. Ouch! These guys is trade fodder, folks...
The actual Mistake of the Week I can document comes from Wallamaloo, who experimented with an "imbalanced" lineup last season. The idea is not bad per se, but it requires more attention than I paid it.
The idea was to stock the right side of my lineup with my best players, with good ones in the center and lousy ones on the left. Basically, I thought I could "overload" the opposing defense, and not understanding how scouting reports worked or how skills get matched up, kept wondering why I kept blowing close games.
The reason of course is that I played everyone in my division twice, and apparently they learned faster than I did. So although I started out 5-1, I ended up 8-3-1 and got waxed in the playoffs. Moral: Don't be so bloody predictable. If an opponent knows you always put your best scorer on the right forward pocket, guess where his best defender is going to go? The same goes for the mobiles, BTW...
This is almost Pontification, because I am not really sure as to how true it is, but it at least makes some sense. Now that you know that players match up head-to-head (see the shell script from issue 3), hasn't SPARF become some sort of arcane guessing game, where you have to try to guess where he will put his best forwards? I mean, what if he goes Longball a la' Van? WHat if he doesn't put his best forward at FF? Aren't I wasting my best defender at FB if he puts a "sacrifice" player at FF and puts stars in the forward pockets instead? What if he's at CHF instead of FF?
Relax. What if the moon is made of green cheese? Instead of fretting over how EXACTLY to match your players with his, keep in mind that at least in real life, it's harder to make a goal from RHF than it is from FF. It's just plain farther away. So although it may be sound OFFENSIVE strategy to put a fine player on the "second line" (the HF's), it's probably pretty sound DEFENSIVE strategy to keep the better defenders back towards the goalposts. If you guess wrong with better players in back, you give up a few spectacular crowd-pleasing boomers. If you guess wrong with better players at HB (against his HF's), though, you'll probably give up a LOT of boring old goals.
Am I talking out of the top of my hat? Beats me. But it sure sounds reasonable. Comments?