Diamond Mind Email Newsletter

May 19, 2004
Written by Tom Tippett

Welcome to the second edition of the Diamond Mind email newsletter for the year 2004. Through these newsletters, we will try to keep you up to date on the latest product and technical information about the Diamond Mind Baseball game, related player disks, and our ongoing baseball research efforts. Back issues are available on our web site.

Topics for this issue:

Version 9 patch
In the pipeline
Updated Trilogy now available
Zack Scott to Red Sox
The Diamond Mind weblog has returned
And the nominees are

Version 9 patch

On Tuesday, May 18th, we posted a version 9 patch on our web site. That page describes the process for downloading and installing patches. The link at the bottom of the page takes you to the page with specifics about this patch, including a list of the bug fixes and the link that downloads the patch file.

We strongly recommend that all version 9 owners download and install this patch.

In the pipeline

And now for a quick report on where we are in our product release cycle.

As you probably know, version 9 began shipping in March and the updated 2004 Projection Disk began shipping in mid-April. We released a version 9 patch via our web site yesterday, and if necessary, we'll release a second version 9 patch later in the summer.

In June, we'll be releasing an update to the Historical Park Database. The update improves upon the 2001 edition of the database in two ways. First, it includes park information for the 2001-2003 seasons. Second, the park factors for a handful of past seasons have been improved based on a systematic review of the boxscores. Owners of the 2001 edition will be able to upgrade to the new version for $5.

This summer, we will also release an update to our All-time Greatest Players disk. This edition will include new players who are now eligible because they accumulated enough playing time in 2003 and/or performed well enough in 2003 to earn a spot. We may add a handful of historical players who just missed the cut last year, but that has not yet been decided. Upgrade pricing will be available to owners of the 2003 edition.

Work is underway on a few past season upgrades, too. An upgrade for the 1966 season is nearly ready for release, and we're working on the transactions and game-by-game starting lineups for the three Deluxe seasons (1993-95) that do not yet include this information.

Updated Trilogy now available

Using the newly-released version 9 edition of the Trilogy for DMB, you can find things like top single-game performances by players and teams, many types of streaks, batters hitting for a cycle, batter/pitcher matchups, situational batting and pitching stats, pinch hitting stats, grand slams, and too many other things to list here.

These tools were developed by Ron Gudykunst, a longtime DMB customer, and he has graciously made them available free of charge from the Trilogy web site, which can be accessed by following the link from our Utilities page.

Zack Scott to the Red Sox

We are happy to report that a highly-regarded member of our team has been called up to the big leagues.

Zack Scott, a valuable member of the Diamond Mind team for almost four years, was recently hired by the Boston Red Sox to work in the baseball operations department headed up by GM Theo Epstein.

Although Zack's baseball expertise, work ethic, good humor, and all-around skills will be missed, we couldn't be happier for him. Zack was in no hurry to leave here, but we've known from day one that his dream is to work in organized baseball, preferably with the Red Sox, the team he has lived and died with for most of his life. So it was with our full support that he pursued this opportunity, and we're delighted (but not surprised) that he succeeded.

Congratulations, Zack.

By the way, in case you're wondering whether this means we now have a job opening to fill, the answer is "not yet". We'll take some time to assess the skills we most need in order to accomplish our next set of goals, and when we're ready, we'll post something on the Jobs page on our web site.

The Diamond Mind weblog has returned

With the 2004 baseball season underway, we are again posting to the Diamond Mind weblog. In the past, little bits of research that didn't warrant a full article usually found their way into these newsletters. But rather than sit on a thought until the next newsletter is due, we think it's better to get it out right away through the blog. RSS is supported (for those of you who know what that means and how to take advantage of it).

And the nominees are

In our February newsletter, we mentioned that the good folks at baseballprimer.com had nominated us for two of their Primey awards. Our entry finished third in the voting for best baseball blog by a non-member of the Primer team. And we took top honors in the best research article category for our piece called "Can pitchers prevent hits on balls in play?"

We'll spare you the elaborate thank-you speech, but we would like to express our appreciation to the members of the Primer community. It's gratifying to know that they like our work.