[benderguy1]

Like many of you, I also just finished the LIVE missions and now have the cookie-cutter team, so it's a transition year for me in Bronze. Removing many of the LIVE players who have done so well for me in Stone and Iron, with only a few hanging on to a roster spot.

McNeil continues to rake while killing me with his glove. It seems his best landing spot is LF where he has a ZR of +1.0, however, that means benching Yaz, Billy Williams, Kiner to play him. Kirby Yates was the Reliever of the Year in my Iron league last year with 46 saves and an ERA of 1.40, WHIP 0.92 and a BABIP of .226, this year he has been taking it on the chin and is now in a mop-up role in the bullpen and probably on his way out after I sell a couple of cards in the AH. Bregman was just exiled to the Reserve Roster after a very unproductive start in Bronze .213/.312/.324/.639 so that I can train SE Cano over at 3B (which is painful). The rest of the bullpen arms that served me well (Osuna, Hendriks and Pressly) -- all gone. Taylor Rogers continues to hold his job with a sparkling start to the 2032 campaign. Guzman in the pen now serving in a set-up role to Aroldis Chapman. Ted Lyons in MR, along with Joe Nathan, who completely blew up in his audition as Closer (0-5 with 4 BS in just over a month). He was one of the SE cards that I was most looking forward to acquiring -- now, not so much.

So I guess now it's either bide time waiting for the team to produce PP or go after it in the tournaments. To date, I have won exactly ZERO points, packs or cards in the Tournaments. I've made it to deciding games in rounds where a win would ensure me at least a single pack, only to be thwarted. I'm trying to track my stats as much as possible, but I just wish there was an easier way to do it. The cut and paste method into Excel is tiresome.

I can see that this is going to get a bit boring as I progress this team to Silver, Gold and possibly Diamond as when I glance at the Gold and Diamond teams, I don't see a whole lot of personality at those levels. Right now, I have a brand new Expansion Rookie team killing it with the Starter pack pulls of DJ Lemahieu, Harry Howell and an upgrade at SP to Tyler Glasnow along with a bunch of Bronze players -- and it's far more interesting to me. So far I've just been taking the points from that team and buying packs looking for quick hit upgrades. The best one so far was RP Robert Gsellman who I installed as the team's closer -- he's killing it with 15 saves and a 1.86 ERA. At least when I look at this team, it's my team, not the team that the game has sort of forced my hand to play.

Maybe I'll sell everything and just build my team around old Mets players -- we may not make it to the far reaches of Diamond and Perfect, but at least it'll be a team that I want to root for.