As some of you know, I conduct Sim Auctions in which we select 5 or 6 great historical teams, make all the players free agents and then from that player pool, we create five new teams via a salary cap auction conducted live on ZOOM. A day or two after the auction we determine the best team by simulating entire seasons with the newly created teams using the APBA computer game (Baseball For Windows). In our version of the World Series, the team that wins 4 seasons, wins the Sim Auction championship. By simulating entire seasons, we eliminate the randomness inherent in a short series, and clearly identify the best team.
The premise is simple – if you knew what statistics you could expect from a player and you were given a $260 salary cap (not real money, just a means to conduct the auction) how would you construct your team of 26 players, how would you value those players to create the best team, how would you value hitters versus pitchers, how would you manage your auction dollars, how would you manage your bidding strategy against your opponents? All these questions and more are what makes a Sim Auction fun and challenging! Our next Sim Auction is scheduled for Saturday, August 9, 2025. If you find this concept intriguing and would like to participate, please contact me at baseballsimauctions@yahoo.com
Although full season simulations will always be the preferred mode for identifying Sim Auction champions, I thought it would be fun to play a traditional 4 out of 7 World Series between the top two teams in a Sim Auction to see how often the results would deviate from the full season simulations. This is also a good opportunity to see the APBA game in action, since during the season simulations you only see the instantaneous result and not the inning by inning outcome of the game.
In the games/videos listed below, the voice of the APBA game, Hall Of Fame broadcaster Ernie Harwell will do the play by play and I will add color commentary. Five of the six games were very competitive, featuring several late game comebacks, including a dramatic walk-off homer by Hack Wilson in game #1.
Game #1
Game #2
Game 3
Game 4
Game 5
Game 6
Original Sim Auction World Series simulating entire seasons.
I've been a baseball fan since 1974, I was originally a New York Mets fan, but in 1989 I discovered Fantasy Baseball, in the span of a few years, I switched my allegiance from the Mets to the yearly batch of players on my Fantasy Teams. I'm still the commissioner of the two Fantasy Baseball leagues I started in 1989! In my work life I'm a Compliance Manager for a Hearing Aids manufacturer. In my spare time, I like to read, play baseball game simulations and spend time binge watching science fiction shows with my wife.
