How to Win the Imagine Sports Historical Baseball Simulation Game

Sandy Koufax rears back and fires a fastball. Babe Ruth takes a mighty swing and belts the ball to deep right. Going back is Clemente. Back, back to the ivy in Wrigley. It's gone. A grand slam for the Bambino!

Imagine Sports classic historical baseball simulation allows you to create your own team using players from throughout history. In the standard league you compete against 11 teams created by your opponents. You choose the players and set the lineups and manager settings as your club fights for the pennant through an exhilarating 162 game season. The games are simulated by the website using the Diamond Mind game engine created by expert statman Tom Tippett.

Here's how to blow your opponents out of the water:

1. As a first timer, purchase a standard league team for $19.95. More complicated "custom leagues" add wrinkles such as different eras of play, roster rules, and higher or lower salary caps.

2. Remember that the game not won by baseball strategy alone, but by wise use of your budget. Spend your $100 million carefully.

3. On the draft page, click on "use sim stats" and then choose the filter "all parks." If you want to draft a shortstop, there are two secret, elegant, but simple parameters to add to the basic search: FLD:SS and injury. Next to FLD:SS select the choices AV to EX. This rating refers to the fielder's range, rated here from PR (poor), FR (fair), AV (average), VG (very good), EX (excellent). Next to injury, enter normal to iron. In this way, you will have weeded out the less desirable players for your championship team.
Next, click the search players button. When the list of players is returned from the search, click RC600 to sort by runs created per 600 PA. This will rate the players by their offensive value. Now, scan the list for the players who give you the highest fielding rating with the best offense for a good value. I prefer to stay with VG or EX rated players at most positions. One or two AV fielders might be ok if you get adequate offensive production from those players at a good value salary.

4. Defense is critically important in this game. Be sure to play close attention to getting mostly VG and EX rated fielders at all infield and outfield positions. Your pitcher's his allowed and extra base hits allowed will decrease with a better defense behind them. This is built into the game at a level that is even more pronounced than real baseball. Pitcher fielding is not important. For catchers, simply look at the catcher throw rating and be sure not to use anyone lower than AV. For CF and RF, it is important to have at least OF Throw ratings of at least AV.
5. RUN rating: Try to have several players with VG and EX run ratings as they will use their speed on the bases to help you score more runs.
6. Starting Pitchers. There are many strategies for success with a pitching staff. The easiest for a beginner is to pick a durable 4-man rotation with one ace. Here's how:

On the draft page, click on "use sim stats" and then choose the filter "all parks." For position, select SP. For the ace, enter a maximum salary of $9 million. Then enter the parameters WHIP, injury and SPDur (starting pitcher durability). For injury, choose normal to iron. For SPDur, choose VG to EX. Click search players. When the list of players is returned from the search, click WHIP (walks and hits per inning pitched). Select the best available starter. Repeat this process for the other three starters using $6 million as the maximum.

If possible, carry one emergency starter to fill in for any injured starting pitcher during the year.

7. Bullpen. Choose a closer in the $3-5 million range, a RH setup man in the $2-3 million range, and a LH setup man and long reliever both in the $1-3 million range.

8. Besides your starting position players and the 8 pitchers listed above, do NOT spend over $500,000 on any other player on your roster. This is a key to resource allocation, allowing you to put the most money into the players who help you win the most. Be sure to have backup players at each position with a minimum AV defensive rating. This will allow you to adequately cover for the occasional injury to your starters, typically 5-15 games for those rated "normal" for injury.

9. Set your lineup with the best OBP players in position 1 and 2. Put your best overall RC600 players in the 3,4,5 positions with the others at 6-9 in order of RC600.

10. Team settings. These are fun to tinker with, but for a championship team, here's the easiest way to handle it: Set everything to 5 except for:
Pickoffs-1, Using relievers-3, Using closer-3, Infield in-2, Guarding the Lines-2, Hold Runners-3.

11. If a player starts out the season performing poorly, do NOT trade him in. This will waste resources. He will come out of the slump and perform according to his usual stats as the season progresses.
These simple 11 tips will provide the foundation for a World Series title with some good breaks and luck. As you play more, you can add more advanced nuances such as building a team for a particular ballpark or using the cheap pitcher strategy. Enjoy the game and good luck!