DESCRIPTION:

Strategic Baseball Simulator (SBS) is a freeware text-based baseball simulation program that uses historical statistics to simulate Professional Baseball. Play head-to-head against the computer manager or against a friend. Let the computer manage both sides or run an entire league schedule while summarizing the statistical results! Players' performance will approximate their actual statistics. Includes data for many old-timer teams as well as teams from recent seasons. ("Active" player names are encrypted, but the data files are easily editable with any text editor). Optimized for fun and accuracy.

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS:
Windows

FEATURES:
Lets you create your own "Field of Dreams". Not an arcade game, but a text-based program that let's you pit your favorite teams (old-timer or modern-era) against each other. The SBS probability engine is instead based on the batter's performance versus pitchers whose effectiveness is rated against "league average" pitching for their year.

Versatility:
You can play against a computer-managed opponent or against a friend. You can pick the line-ups and call the shots. But perhaps the most fun is letting the teams play against themselves. You can simulate an ENTIRE SEASON while saving all the interesting statistics for later examination. You can use SBS as a tool to test different line-ups and batting orders for effectiveness. Discover which teams play better "on paper" than they do in real-life. Research specific matchups. Let's you make hypothetical trades to answer questions like "How would my favorite team have done if they only had a bullpen?" Edit teams files with any text editor (like NOTEPAD) and make "trades" to see how they would affect your team.

Speed:
An entire season for every team in a modern league can be played out on a vintage PC in about a minute. Newer PC's are faster.

Statistics:
Hitting statistics saved are: Batting Avg., Games, At-Bats, Runs, Hits, 2Bs, 3Bs, HRs, RBIs, BBs, HPBs, Strike-Outs, Stolen Bases and Caught Stealing. Pitching stats saved are: Innings, Hits, Runs, Earned-Runs, BBs, HPBs, Strike-Outs, Wins, Losses, Saves, Games, CG, Shutouts and Starts. Fielding stats (Errors, Put-Outs and Assists) are also tracked. Some extended "stats" like "Runs-Created/27 Outs" are also generated in the stat report.

Build your own teams!
Lots of old-timer teams are included. But you can also easily create your own teams from regular ASCII text files. Just use the existing ones as models.

OK, what does it NOT do?
No injuries (although playing time is handled by the computer manager). No weather factors/rainouts, no "career mode" stat compiles, no financial or GM modeling. No ejections, catcher's interference, run-downs or unusual plays. Rosters in the data files can handle up to 44 players. Program does not enforce a 25-man roster. Schedule files for replaying past seasons do not contain data about starting pitchers or exact lineups for individual games. Play-by-play is single-pitch style only.

PHILOSOPHY:
My philosophy behind SBS is "minimalist". My goal is to keep SBS as simple as possible while striving for a very good level of statistical accuracy. SBS remains a relatively small program that uses only readily available statistics that allows anyone to build their own teams. SBS does not compete with the depth and detail of the high-end commercial products. But you're not likely to find a better freeware baseball program either. It's about as accurate as anything out there and probably the fastest to my knowledge. This program is a hobby of mine (about 30 years now) and not a commercial pursuit, so I am very grateful to those who have contributed much time and effort in testing, debugging and especially creating teams (tedious work I really don't enjoy).

DISTRIBUTION POLICY:
You have permission to distribute the freeware in its original form as long as you:
1) identify it as freeware
2) leave all intellectual property (copyright) notices in place
3) stop distributing the software if I (D.B.Schmidt) so request

SBS Installation:

Example:
1. Download SBS48.ZIP
2. Create a directory for SBS
md \SBS
3. Change to the new directory
cd \SBS
4. Copy the file you just downloaded into the new \SBS directory.
5. Unzip it with a product such as PKUNZIP or WINZIP.
6. Run "basev48.exe" (Windows version) or "baseball.exe" (DOS version) from the command line or make a Windows shortcut to it on your desktop.

Email me at:  d  b  s  c  h  m  i  d  t  1  @  y  a  h  o  o  .  c  o  m  (remove the spaces)