Newsletters — Newsletter 2007

DMB News July 2007

Diamond Mind Email Newsletter

July 20 , 2007

Welcome to the second edition of the Diamond Mind email newsletter for the year 2007. 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, www.diamond-mind.com.

Topics for this issue:

A Word on the Future of Diamond Mind Baseball
The 9c Patch is Here!
2007 Projection Disk Additions
David Pyke Joins the Diamond Mind Team
Diamond Mind in the News

A Word on the Future of Diamond Mind Baseball
by Dayne Myers

Given some of the most recent posts on the DMB Forum, I thought it might be a good idea to provide some more information about how I got involved with Diamond Mind Baseball, our plans and goals for the company and the product and also to share the good news about the 9b patch.

History
I grew up near Youngstown, Ohio, about an hour from Pittsburgh, and was a die-hard Pirates fan. It sure was a good time to be a boy cheering on the Bucs...I started getting into baseball in 1971 (which turned out to be a fantastic year to start) and when the Pirates won the series for the second time in the 70’s in 1979, I actually felt like I was family.

Soon after becoming a baseball fan, I became enthralled with baseball simulation games. I started by playing Strat-o-Matic and eventually graduated to Earl Weaver Baseball when PCs came about. I started to sour on baseball with the strikes, and I swore off the game after the World Series was cancelled due to the lock-out in ’94. However, it would be a baseball simulation game that brought me back - a friend pushed me to play the Bill James Classic Baseball (BJCB) game in 1996, which used DMB as its sim engine. I was hooked again!

After leaving my last company, I considered a lot of different options but kept coming back to how much I enjoyed baseball simulations and how big an opportunity I thought there was in bringing sports simulation and other strategy games to a wider audience, and that’s when I decided to start Simnasium (now called Imagine Sports). In particular, I believed that many more sports fans would get into simulations if they were done right, and the internet provided ways to get those greater numbers of players than had existed before.

I knew from playing BJCB that the Diamond Mind engine is the most realistic baseball simulation, and I decided that we really needed DMB if we were to produce a great online baseball game. So, I called Tom, and we discussed our visions and opportunities for utilizing DMB and bringing it to a wider audience. We started with a license agreement.

During the design process for our online game, I played DMB over and over again and came to appreciate
even more what a truly great game it is. As you already know, the meticulous attention to detail and incredible baseball knowledge of Tom and the DMB team is evident throughout the game. I also realized that a lot more could be done with the game, and we set out to do just that.

After a very intense development process, the online version of DMB launched under the name "Total Baseball" in March 2006 to very good reviews. We believe the game offers an interesting variation on the PC game experience by allowing players to compete online against other players from around the world without the need to download software or rely on anyone to run the games. By automating the process, many more can enjoy DMB competing against others. We have been very happy with the feedback on the game to date. We have also been excited to see ESPN use DMB for a number of its feature stories in the last few months including its season preview and recent stories about the Hall of Fame, Jackie Robinson and Roger Clemens, as well as the big season preview, all of which generated significant interest in DMB.

Soon after we launched "Total Baseball," Tom and I both realized how well our teams were working together and that it would make good sense to merge our efforts. Tom was also becoming more busy with
non-DMB obligations, and joining forces would allow him to focus his DMB time exclusively on the aspects of the game he does best and, in fact, finds most rewarding (like refining the game engine) and leave the rest (marketing, operations, etc.) to us. Most importantly, as a combined entity we’d have more resources to devote to improving the game and bringing it to a broader audience.

But you should know that we are still working on improving the core PC Game. In fact, Tom and I agreed
that once he had transferred the business functions, our first priorities should be to get the 2006 season and 2007 projection disks out on time and get out the 9b patch. Since you all had waited so long for that patch, we also decided to add in some things that were planned for version 10, such as the play-by-play enhancements, at no charge. It’s just a little something extra to thank you for your patience.

Current Plans
I know there have been a lot of rumors on the message board forums about our plans for the offline and online versions of DMB. Let me start with by directly addressing the biggest concern:

We do not have any plans to discontinue the offline (PC) game.

Quite the contrary, actually...we are working on improving it.

First, we will be releasing the 2007 Season Disk in December and 2008 Projection Disk in the beginning of 2008. We will actually start taking pre-orders for the 2007 Season Disk and the 2008 Projection Disk before the end of the 2007 baseball season.

Second, we have already looked at making a lot of improvements to the core game play and user interface
in the PC version of DMB. Right now, we are figuring out how to best update the code base to make these changes possible.

Finally, we have added an additional tech support resource. David Pyke joins the team to help Luke Kraemer with tech support issues so that Luke will now have more time to work on improvements to DMB. (See Luke's article in this newsletter for more info on David's joining the team.)

I'm looking forward to a bright future for Diamond Mind Baseball!

The 9c Patch is Here!

In case you haven't heard...the 9c Patch is available now! Just go to www.diamond-mind.com to download the 9c patch.

NOTE: It is important that you complete any games in progress and have the DMB game shut down completely BEFORE you install the patch.

Enhancements in the version 9c patch:

• All of the play-by-play additions that were previously intended for version 10...this represents a 30-40% increase in an already large play-by-play library...also fixed all known play-by-play bugs
• A few minor modifications to allow DMB to run on Windows Vista
• Updated the Historical Era file to include recent seasons
• Updated the master player file (which is used when you're creating players) to include players who have made their big-league debuts and/or qualified for a DMB projection disk in recent seasons
• Altered the adjustments for players who are out of position, increasing the penalties for certain moves to more difficult positions and decreasing the penalties for certain moves (e.g. center field to a corner outfield spot) to easier positions
• Based on some new research, made a small adjustment to the fielding logic so the spread between range ratings is a little larger than before
• Made substantial changes to the computer manager's logic for relief pitching; the most significant difference is that it will now be more aggressive in going to the closer at the start of an inning even when a good starting pitcher is doing well and is not yet tired
• Improved the computer manager's logic for making double-switches
• Improved the computer manager's logic for choosing an emergency starter when the scheduled starter is injured
• Improved the computer manager's logic for choosing pinch hitters
• Improved computer manager's pinch hitting logic for certain game situations to put more emphasis on overall hitting ability and less emphasis on specific skills like hitting for average and getting on base
• Improved computer manager's pinch running logic for situations where a team's closer reaches base while protecting a lead...now refrains from replacing the closer with a runner when appropriate
• Improved computer manager's logic for putting a defensive team on the field after an offensive half inning when players were injured or replaced...when appropriate, the computer manager will give up the DH by moving him to a fielding position (at which he is rated) when necessary to avoid using another player out of position
• For relief pitchers who are making an emergency start, reduced their durability so it is much less likely that they will be able to pitch deep into the game
• Made minor modifications to the rates of WP and PB in different baserunner situations
• During migration, the relationship between teams and parks is now carried forward to the target database, the league schedule is reset, and the playing time limits are saved in the target manager profiles
• When importing a DMB season into the encyclopedia, a new option allows you to exclude boxscores and game-by-game stats in order to speed the process
• Overhauled the play-by-play commentary for ground ball plays where the managers are queried about running and throwing decisions...now provides better information about the likelihood of a double play and more suspense about the outcome of the play

Scoring bug fixes in version 9c patch:

• Corrected a problem with assigning earned runs after a play where a runner was picked off first and thrown out trying to steal second
• Improved the logic for assigning earned runs in certain multi-pitcher innings in which a relief pitcher gets a ground ball double play
• Corrected a problem with assigning earned runs when one or more runners scored on an inning-ending play where the batter was thrown out trying to take an extra base on his hit
• Corrected an inconsistency on certain plays when a fly ball is dropped for an error; previously, the game credited the hitter with an RBI and a SF but didn't treat the run as earned to the pitcher
• Corrected the logic for assigning earned runs when the lead runner is retired on a ground ball or bunt
• Stopped using the scoresheet notation POSB for stolen bases after a pickoff throw

Other bug fixes in version 9c patch:

• Corrected a problem in the leader boards where ties for the last displayed position were created by a new entry higher on the leaderboard
• Fixed a variety of minor bugs associated with certain reports and the reporting system in general
• Substantially reduced the frequency of errors on dropped throws by catchers - updated help system to correct a few typos and provide current contact info
• Modified computer manager logic to prevent relief pitchers from being used prior to a scheduled start (except in emergency situations)
• Corrected a problem in the leader boards where ties for the last displayed position were created by a new entry higher on the leaderboard
• Fixed a 9b NetPlay bug that occurred when the connecting manager tried to take a pitch in batter mode

2007 Projection Disk Additions
by Tom Tippett

Each year, when we're selecting the players who appear on the March edition of our Projection Disk, we strive to include everyone who is likely to show up on an opening day roster. When those rosters are finally revealed, I'm never happy when I see names that don't already appear on the disk.

To be fair, it may be unrealistic for us to bat 1.000 when picking those players. To do so would require that we cast a very wide net, perhaps wide enough to include 2500 or 3000 players instead of the 1800-plus we cover now, and it's not at all clear that adding hundreds of marginal players would add enough value to the disk to justify all the extra work.

There are many reasons why a player might not make our first cut. Someone can come out of retirement unexpectedly. A young player might be promoted all the way from the low minors based on a good spring. A well-traveled veteran who doesn't project to be good can snag a job based on experience and a top-flight attitude. A rash of injuries can temporarily open a roster spot for a replacement-level player.

Still, it's always a bit disheartening when we miss someone. In past years, we've generally found the need to add 6 to 12 players to the April update. This year it was a record total of 15, so we wondered whether this was just an anomaly or whether our selection methods were somehow lacking.

After further review, we've concluded that there were good reasons why most of these players were excluded. Here are their stories (stats through July 3):

Alberto Castillo, c, Bal -- This veteran backup catcher was promoted after starter Ramon Hernandez was placed on the disabled list. He didn't make the first disk because he's 37 years old and appeared to be well down the Boston depth chart before he was traded to Baltimore in late March. In the first half of the season, he batted .161 in 31 atbats.

Gustavo Molina, c, ChA -- Strictly a catch-and-throw guy who wasn't on our March disk because his bat didn't measure up. It took him seven years to reach AA and he didn't hit when he got there. His minor-league career OPS is .652, and it was worse in 2006 when he split time between AA and AAA. Molina was demoted after going 1 for 18 in the first six weeks of the season.

Josh Hamilton, of, Cin -- Perhaps the most intriguing story in the NL this year, Hamilton didn't make our first cut because his well-chronicled battle with addiction limited him to 55 relatively unsuccessful plate appearances over the past four seasons. But he had a great spring, he has a ton of talent, and he's been a significant contributor so far in 2007.

Alejandro De Aza, cf, Flo -- A speedy center fielder with a career minor-league OPS of .720 and only a half-season of experience above A ball, De Aza batted .354 in the Grapefruit League to snare the starter role at a position that was a major hole for the Marlins going into spring training. After two weeks, he was sitting near the .322 OBP we projected for him, but a stress fracture in his ankle has kept him off the field ever since.

Joakim Soria, rhr, KC -- Soria wasn't on our first disk because he did most of his recent work in Mexico. But he's off to a great start with the Royals, posting a 2.27 ERA in 32 relief appearances.

Joe Smith, rhr, NYN -- Smith is a legitimate prospect who was taken in the third round of the 2006 draft and is ranked 9th in the Mets system by Baseball America. We didn't include him on the March disk because he's so new to professional ball, having pitched 20 dominant innings in low-A and 13 unimpressive innings in AA last year. Like Soria, Smith got off to an excellent start in 2007, tossing 15 scoreless innings before allowing his first run in mid-May. Since then, however, his ERA has been in the fives.

Jay Marshall, lhr, Oak -- This soft-tossing side-arming lefty specialist posted a stunning 1.04 ERA in 62 relief innings in the high-A Carolina League last year. He's been successful throughout his minor-league career, but it took him four seasons just to get out of rookie ball. His lack of experience in the higher minors was the reason we left him off last time around. But the A's jumped him all the way to the big leagues, so they must be impressed with his sub-.400 career OPS allowed against lefties. In the majors, he's been getting lefties out (.617 OPS) but has been pounded by righties (.945 OPS) en route to a 5.60 ERA.

Don Kelly, if, Pit -- Kelly showed enough promise to make our projection disk in past seasons, but he didn't make the cut this time because his career stalled in the high minors and he's gotten a little old to retain his prospect status. His OPS in two AAA seasons is only .620, and this year he batted .154 in 26 atbats before being sent back down.

Brandan Morrow, rhr, Sea -- A very highly regarded prospect, Morrow was taken with the fifth overall pick in last year's amateur draft. The only question is the speed with which he has been promoted. Morrow logged only 16 pro innings last year, and while he was successful, he did walk 9 batters in those 16 innings. In 2007, he's been hard to hit (.236 average, .318 slugging) but has walked 33 in 31 innings.

Sean White, rhr, Sea -- Unlike Morrow, White is not a top prospect, but he does have over 400 innings of pro experience. Still, this was a puzzling choice, because White had a career ERA of 4.00, struggled at AA last year, and had never pitched in AAA. Evidently, he won the job because of a 1.59 spring ERA, but 5 walks and 6 strikeouts in 17 spring innings doesn't impress me much. Before going on the DL a few weeks ago, White's ERA was 7.03 in 24 innings.

Jamie Burke, c, Sea -- Like Castillo, Burke is a veteran backup catcher, but Burke has done most of his work in the high minors, while Castillo has logged over 1000 major-league atbats. Many teams lean toward defense when choosing a backup catcher, but Burke's more of an offensive threat than a catch-and-throw guy. To date, Burke has batted .385 in 52 atbats.

Gary Glover, rhs, TB -- Glover is a 30-year-old pitcher who missed all of 2006. Primarily a starter in the minors and reliever in the majors, Glover has posted career ERAs between 4.50 and 5.00 in both roles and pretty much at all levels. We didn't include him in March because he projected as a replacement-level pitcher. And he's performed at a replacement level with a 5.36 ERA in 42 relief innings.

Matt Kata, super sub, Tex -- You probably saw him first when he had a decent half-season for Arizona in 2003, but his major-league numbers declined slowly from there and he spent most of 2005 and all of 2006 in the minors. In recent seasons, he has added all three outfield positions to his former utility-infielder profile, and that versatility is his biggest asset today. Nevertheless, he was designated for assignment after batting .186 in 70 atbats, elected free agency, and then signed with the Pirates.

Levale Speigner, rhr, Was -- A marginal prospect who is ranked 29th in the Nationals system by Baseball America , Speigner has had a decent minor-league career, mostly in relief. He allowed 14 baserunners in his first 5 innings, settled down to produce a string of good results out of the pen, and then got crushed in six starts - 31 earned runs in 20 innings - to push his ERA to 8.78 at the mid-way point.

Jesus Flores, c, Was -- Flores is a legitimate prospect who is ranked 11th in his team's system by Baseball America and has belted 33 homers in 912 minor-league atbats. So why wasn't he on the March disk? Mainly because he's only 22 years old, and even though his defensive skills are impressive, it's extremely rare for a team to trust a major-league pitching staff to a young catcher with no experience above A ball. (Feel free to insert your own comment about whether the Nationals actually have a major-league pitching staff this year.) A .634 OPS indicates that he still has work to do offensively.

There you have it. Fifteen players who were left off the March disk because they didn't project to be good enough to win a job, didn't have enough experience at higher levels, or played in a foreign league.

With hindsight, we might have been able to make a case for including a couple of these guys, but in my view, none of them was a clear mistake given the information we had in late February.

David Pyke Joins the Diamond Mind Team
by Luke Kraemer

I’d like to welcome David Pyke to the DMB Tech Support team! Some of you know David by his DMB Forum username of "diesel." David will be taking responsibility for DMB tech support issues so that I can spend more time working on enhancements to the Diamond Mind software. I’ll be working closely with David in his first month or so to train him on our procedures and be sure you receive the same level of service you are accustomed to. Accordingly, since David and I are on opposite sides of the country, please use email as your primary means of communication with us and as your first method of requesting support (support@diamond-mind.com). This will ensure that your issues are handled in a timely manner. We understand that some issues are more pressing than that, so you can continue to use the 800 number (800-400-4803) when needed. Pat will direct the request to whoever is best suited to respond. I’ll still be involved in tech support, overseeing David’s work and working with him to solve any major issues that may come up.

Welcome David!

Diamond Mind Featured in ESPN Headline Stories on the Return of Roger Clemens!
By Charles Wolfson & Luke Kraemer

ESPN asked Imagine Sports what we thought about the return of Roger Clemens and what impact he may have on the Yankees’ hopes of turning the season around. We ran the DMB simulation to produce likely outcomes, and ESPN featured the story on its home page on the day of the Rocket’s return!

You can find the article at http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2898563

 

DMB News March 2007

Get The Latest DMB News

Welcome to the first edition of the Diamond Mind email newsletter for the year 2007. 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, www.diamond-mind.com. 

We're Still Here! 

There has been a great amount of talk lately about Diamond Mind’s future. In case you missed it on the message boards, Tom Tippett addressed a number of your concerns last week. Following is a reprint of his initial post:

“Hi, everyone,

It's been quite a while since I've discussed what we've been working on, and I thought this would be a good time to jump in. I won't try to answer all of your questions with this one post, and I suspect you'll have some questions that I won't be able to answer at all, but I'll be on the forum for a couple of hours tonight and will do my best to answer as many questions as I can.

I've done a couple of chats since the Simnasium/DM deal took place last August, but I thought I'd do this as a forum thread this time so there'd be a permanent record for others who didn't participate in those chats and who don't happen to be here tonight.

Last August, I said that my goal was to get the 9b patch finished by the end of September, before we got buried by our busy season, which extends from early October to early April. Obviously, that didn't happen.

As I've said before, among the many reasons I thought the Simnasium/DM combination would be a win-win was the opportunity to hand off a lot of my management and administrative duties so I could focus a very high percentage of my time on product-related work.

The good news is that 95% of that transition is complete and I've been able to focus almost entirely on technical work for the past few weeks. Unfortunately, it took a lot more time to make that happen than I anticipated six months ago.

And you know what? I should have seen it coming and set my own expectations, and those of the DMB customers I was chatting with, at a more reasonable level.

Although each individual handoff went about as well as one could expect, the number of handoffs was large enough to chew up a lot of the time that I was planning to spend on the 9b patch and other improvements to the game. This should have been obvious to me, but for some reason it wasn't. I guess I'd been running the company for so long -- more than 19 years -- that I forgot how many things had to get done for everything to work.

As a result, we didn't get the 9b patch finished before the 2006 Season Disk took over as priority number one. As soon as the season disk was released, we got to work on two projects, the 9b patch and the 2007 Projection Disk.

I'm happy to report that the 2007 Projection Disk is almost done and will begin shipping on schedule (on March 9th). And I'm also happy to report that we're getting much closer to releasing the 9b patch.

I know that you expected the 9b patch to be done by now. So did I. But last month we chose to increase the scope of the 9b project in three ways. First, we decided to do some work on the computer manager that previously had been scheduled for version 10. Second, we discovered a couple of compatibility issues with the new Microsoft Vista operating system that we wanted to address in the 9b patch if at all possible. (Luke is making good progress on that front.)

Finally, Jack Wood has added a large amount of new text to the play-by-play library. His work was going to be one of the main features of version 10, but we decided to include everything he's done to date in the 9b patch instead. This is a major enhancement -- a 40-50% increase in the size of an already very large library -- that we will make available to version 9 owners at no charge.

Our near-term goals are very simple. Between now and the end of April, we want to get the 2007 Projection Disk out on time, get the 9b patch into field test, release the April update to the Projection Disk, and make the 9b patch available to all version 9 customers as soon as the field test has confirmed that it's ready.

We know there are other things you're interested in hearing about, but I'm going to stop at that for now. We need to deliver these things before we can move on the rest of our agenda, so that's our focus.

Before ending this initial post and waiting for your questions, I'd like to address one issue that has been raised by the Diamond Mind community over the past several months. The folks who run Simnasium have been accused of focusing all of their energy into the Total Baseball online game and ignoring the DMB product line.

As one of the people who is directly involved in these projects, I must disagree. Since early October, virtually all of my time has been spent on things that directly benefit the DMB community -- the 2006 Season Disk, the 2007 Projection Disk, and the bug fixes and enhancements that make up the 9b patch. We haven't done a very good job of communicating those facts in recent months, but that's the truth.

Tom"

2007 Projection Database

The 2007 Projection Disk is scheduled to begin shipping tomorrow, March 9th. It will include more than 1600 players and will be released in both version 8 and version 9 formats. And, yes, it will include Daisuke Matsuzaka of the Boston Red Sox, already touted in the media as possible Rookie of the Year!

If you purchase the 2007 Projection Disk prior to March 31st, you will receive two editions of the disk: the March 9th edition and a free update in early April that reflects the opening day rosters and events from the remainder of spring training. Orders placed after March 31st will include only the April edition.

After the first disk is issued, we'll create a few new players if some long shots make the opening day rosters, and we'll update the rosters and manager profiles to reflect late player moves. But we don't plan to make any changes that would affect the performance of players included in the March edition.

Place your orders now – order online at www.diamond-mind.com, via phone (800-400-4803) or fax (503-531-4006) or print a copy of the order form from the website and mail to the address on the order form.

Q&A with Dayne Myers

We thought this would be a good forum to address some of the more common questions that Dayne has been asked lately as well:

What’s taking so long on the 9b patch?

As Tom described in his recent posts on the DMB Forum, it took a lot more time – especially Tom’s time – to hand off the business matters of Diamond Mind to Simnasium personnel than we anticipated. Once that was accomplished, Tom needed to work on the 2006 Season Disk to get that out on time. Since then, Tom has been working hard on the 2007 Projection Disk and, yes, the 9b patch. The 2007 Projection Disk is just about done and will ship on March 9th (yay!). The work on the 9b patch is continuing, mainly because we chose to increase the scope of that project to include improvements to the computer manager and the play-by-play commentary that were originally planned for version 10.

As many of you know, we've also encountered a couple of compatibility issues with Microsoft's recently-released Vista operating system. We'd like to be able to address those issues in the 9b patch if at all possible, so we're taking some time to diagnose those problems. Luke has determined some fixes needed and has started testing them.

OK, so when are we getting it?

We understand that you’ve been waiting for the 9b patch and are working to get it out as soon as possible. We have begun internal testing, and our hope is that we can begin field testing by the first week in April and then release it to customers shortly thereafter. The plan is to release the fixes and enhancements that are already in place as quickly as we can. If any additional work is needed after that, we'll release a 9c patch later in the year.

Since you’ve had to wait on the 9b patch, we’d like to show our appreciation for your patience by including the enhancements to the computer manager and the play-by-play library in the 9b patch. Those enhancements were originally planned for version 10, but we have decided to include all of that work in the 9b patch. This is a major enhancement -- a 40-50% increase in the size of an already very large library -- that version 9 owners will receive at no charge.

Is DMB taking a back seat to Simnasium’s Total Baseball?

I can understand why some may have that impression, but that’s not the case. For one thing, we’ve had some limitations due to the fact that no one other than Tom and Luke is capable of working on DMB code at this time. We’re trying to change that. We thought about recruiting a new programmer to work on DMB, but Luke is more familiar than anyone else and fully capable…who would be better? The limitation in the past is simply his time – he is needed on tech support. So, we’re looking to find some help for Luke on tech support. We’d like to find some people in the community willing to volunteer to do “light stuff” and some contractors to help on more difficult things. Luke will be posting job descriptions and leading that search.

You should also know that since the acquisition, practically all the work Tom has done on Simnasium’s game was also applicable for the 9b patch.

Then why does STB get frequent upgrades while we DMB customers wait and wait?

That’s a fair question, due to the frequency of upgrades at STB, but it’s really an apples vs. oranges sort of thing. Just about every STB upgrade over the past 6 months has been something that our web programmers can do on their own, such as web functionality or game adjustments, while DMB requires different programming skills and Tom’s expertise. In fact, most of the recent upgrades to the online game involved implementation of functionality that already exists in DMB but had not yet been implemented on STB.

Further, there are fewer compatibility issues with an internet application, and testing is much easier and faster. Some of that testing is also benefiting DMB. As a result, we can push upgrades and fixes more frequently on the web side. That’s true of software applications in general – web apps can be upgraded on a frequent basis, but PC apps require new versions. So, it’s normal for web upgrades to be smaller but more frequent, while PC software upgrades tend to be less frequent but much more substantial.

What is the situation regarding Vista?

We heard rumors early on about some of the Vista issues, so we made it a priority as soon as some of you reported problems. Since then, one of Luke’s primary tasks has been working on Vista to see what issues arise with DMB. As noted above, he has determined some fixes needed and will be starting the testing soon with the objective of including those in the 9b patch.

If you are having issues with Vista, please contact Luke (support@diamond-mind.com) describing the behavior. It would really help if you're able to capture a screen image to include. A way to do this is… while holding down the Alt key on your keyboard, press the Print Screen button. If you're unable to paste it into an email, you should be able to paste it into a Word document which you would attach to the email.

What happened to the DMB ad in Sports Weekly? Are you no longer marketing DMB?

Some have noticed that we did not run the usual DMB ad in Sports Weekly recently and have even speculated that this means we are not supporting Diamond Mind. To the contrary, we are exploring how to market DMB (as well as Total Baseball) more effectively. As part of that effort, we wanted to test the effectiveness of those ads, so we stopped them for a couple of months. If you check the most recent edition of Sports Weekly, you will see that we are now trying larger ads and some different ad copy . (And the ads are the same size as the Simnasium ads, so there’s no “backseat” there!) We are also placing additional ads in the Sports Weekly special edition for fantasy baseball and have done some articles with ESPN.com. The net result is, we hope, better marketing for DMB.

What’s in store for the future? When will we see version 10?

Our immediate goals are to release the 2007 Projection Disk, the 9b patch, and the April update to the Projection Disk. After that, we'll get back to work on version 10.

We also want to increase our capacity to develop new features for DMB at a faster pace. One way to do that is to add to our technical support staff so Luke has a lot more time to work with Tom on product development, as mentioned above. If you would be interested in volunteering to help out on simpler issues or a contractor job for technical support, please review the qualifications that Luke will be posting and, if you qualify, send your resume to Luke at support@diamond-mind.com.

Why have we not heard more from you?

Well, that’s a good question. First, I never saw the communication as lacking, I guess. It’s only been a few months since we did the chat, and Luke’s here daily and keeps me informed of what’s going on. There were also some strong emotions and concerns surrounding the acquisition, so we thought it might be better to let things settle down a little bit and deliver. So, we were determined to make sure the season and projections disks shipped on schedule and to get the 9b patch out as soon as possible. Since you’ve had to wait so long for the 9b patch, it will include play-by-play upgrades free of charge that were intended for version 10, as described above. We didn’t want to announce a schedule until we could feel confident as to when we could get that done.

Also, I sort of felt like I’d be intruding on Tom and Luke’s space. You all have built up a relationship with them over the years, and I felt like an outsider. None of that is an excuse, and I now realize we should have been more communicative here and will be from now on.

I’m looking forward to building a strong relationship with you in my own right!