Meet the Owner: seattleace

Welcome to our first "Meet the Owner" series!  Based on some feedback I've gotten on blog ideas, this seemed like a good way to get to know some of the other owners around the league.  I figured I would start with one of our original owners, seattleace who has led his team to 10 AL pennants and 7 titles in KML's first 20 seasons.  Thank you so much to seattleace for doing this and giving some great responses!  Without further ado, here is what we learned about seattleace:

Who are your favorite sports teams and/or athletes?

Seattle everything.  The Mariners are at the top, but love the Seahawks and like the Kraken.  Miss the Sonics. Edgar Martinez is my all time favorite, with Griffey Jr, Russ Wilson, Harold Reynolds (personal experience with him), and Steve Largent + Jim Zorn right up there. 

What has been your favorite real-life sports experience or memory?

#1 is '95 ALDS, when Edgar drove Griffey home to beat the Yankees.  Personally, I played HS sports, but our school stunk across the board and I was pretty average.

What about your favorite HBD experience?

I'd say finding my game.  It took awhile.  There are 2 parts to this game; GM and Manager.  The amount of time I have spent using Excel and PPT to map out which part of the field hitters are hitting to (using play by play, "line drive single to LCF - I'd color code these onto a PPT), then putting them into Excel, apply opposing pitcher strengths/weaknesses, i.e. GB/FB, Velocity, et al.  Even looking at pitch types.  It was a colossal waste of time.  This may change with new ownership, though the "weighting" of so many attributes are inferior to a handful of core ones.

Once I found a rhythm in my gameplay strategy, the GM role came into place, organically.  Ballpark IS a very big piece.  So what works for me in Seattle, with a deep LCF & RCF, may not work so well, in say Madison.  And if you are in Yankee stadium, your CF wall is 100 feet shorter than most all other ballparks...you play 81+ games there.

So I've gotten to a point where I feel good about playing Seattle, weighting that short list of core player attributes, updating manager settings, and using historical stats more than anything.  All the data is there.  Just one example; if a hitter has a number of GIDP compared to PA, don't put him after a singles or high walks rate hitter.  If your opponent attempts a ton of SB, make sure your catcher has a good arm = high CS rate.

So that's it.  Just getting to a point where I am both comfortable with playing the game, having fun with it, and not overthinking it and wasting a bunch of time on finding low-likelihood predictors.

What advice would you give to a newer user that is just starting HBD?

Number 1, look at what experienced and successful owners are doing.  My first ring came in Hornsby, and there was a player named mcbain10, who not only did I dig deep into how he sets his rosters day to day, and his gameplay settings,  but where he allocated his budget, etc.  and what were the most common attributes of his players, and which ones he did not prioritize.  Plus, he was cool.  He'd answer questions that many players would not, due to the competitive nature of this game.  So reach out to owners.  We'll all be better as a world, if you get better and stick around for a long time.  

Number 2, know your ballpark, and have a strategy around it.  Build your entire team around your ballpark.  Look at other worlds, go look at other franchises who play in your ballpark.  Are they successful?  What's making them successful?  A good tactic for this is to look at players stats, then apply Home vs. Away splits.  Do they overperform at Home (or in my case with Seattle, are they even or close)?

Number 3, not all Attributes are equal.  Not even close.  My opinion, for pitchers and batters alike, vs.R is King and vs.L Queen.  That's not to suggest you ignore the others, they are important (most of them), but a player's dynamic and likelihood for success (in your ballpark, mainly), becomes an equation that you'll want to understand sooner than later.  99 Power is useless if he has 7 Contact and his splits are 24/26.  100 Velocity is useless if his control is 37, and his splits are low.  If you're playing Yankee stadium, a hitter with 85 PWR and 50 GB/FB, is probably going to hit more HR's at home than a RH hitter with 92 PWR and a 33 GB/FB in Safeco, because my LCF is 388, and Yankee stadium's CF is 308.

Number 4, Last thing, despite much of what I said above, it's NOT easy to be successful.  You're playing with people who have 100's of seasons of learnings and failures.  Focus on finding your game.  Be it Whitey-Ball with staunch defense, baserunning, and pitching, and the occasional 3-run homer...or whatever, find where you begin to identify understandings and build on those.

So with all that said, know your ballpark, look at player attributes, but most importantly, use the data - the stats.  At scale, it doesn't lie.  And use them for both building your team, but also gameplanning your opponents.

Outside of HBD, what are some of your other interests and hobbies?

I play a lot of pickup soccer and basketball, some crappy golf outings, work a lot, family time...try to watch sports, but less so now when trying to find a game is like a scavenger hunt with all the apps out there.  But HBD is my biggest "time suck", but I enjoy it.  Especially this world.

Thank you once again to seattleace!  Great information here!