All-Time Greats (A Promotion/Relegation League)

[boblight24]

Ironic that I posted in the General forum not too long ago about being lost and disheartened when it came to my own dynasties, but a little 'spring-cleaning' of my OOTP files and I stumbled upon something that piqued my interest once again, and I decided to write about it in hopes that by doing so, it would force me to stick with it this time.

The premise is simple, I downloaded Captain Walrus' All-Timers League Quickstart, thanks CW!! From his initial 48-team league I went through each team and created a ratings scale for the batters and pitchers and created a 'total' for each team. I then split those 48 teams into 3 leagues, similar to English football. Teams will be relegated or promoted based on a)their final position after 154 games or b)the fact that they won their league's promotion playoff.

There are no finances, no trades, no FAs, however with the large number of 'extra' players, I did create a AAA team for each team to be able to have some of the reserves have stats just for fun and in case of injury. FYI - I set injury to low. Oh, and the AAA leagues are promotion/relegation also!! Too much wordage, here are the leagues:

Rawlings Premier League:
Atlanta Braves (user team)
Birmingham Black Barons
Boston Red Sox
Chicago Cubs
Cincinnati Reds
Detroit Tigers
Houston Astros
Kansas City Monarchs
Los Angeles Dodgers
Montreal Expos
New York Mets
New York Yankees
Philadelphia Phillies
San Francisco Giants
Seattle Mariners
St Louis Cardinals

New Era Championship League
Arizona Rock Marrays
Brooklyn Robins
California Angels
Chicago Whales
Chicago White Sox
Cleveland Indians
Cleveland Blues
Kansas City Royals
Milwaukee Brewers
Minnesota Twins
New York Gothams
New York Highlanders
Pittsburgh Pirates
St Louis Perfectos
Texas Rangers
Toronto Blue Jays

Louisville Slugger Baseball League
Baltimore Orioles
Boston Bees
Boston Americans
Chicago Pale Hose
Chicago Redlegs
Detroit Wolverines
Louisville Colonels
Miami Journeyman
Oakland A's
Philadelphia Quakers
Philadelphia Athletics
Pittsburgh Alleghenys
Providence Grays
San Diego Padres
St Louis Browns
Washington Senators


The schedule is set-up for 2 game series, to keep things moving along and to keep things exciting. We'll see what happens!!

**Thanks to DAVWMS for the league logos!!!***

[boblight24]

I just want to post a quick overview of the Braves roster. We are all baseball fans here so we know what the greats of all-time bring to this game so I'm not going to waste our time re-hashing player bios.

interesting sidebar, Active rosters have been set to 30 players.



Rotation:
Greg Maddux
John Smoltz
Tom Glavine
Kevin Millwood
Phil Niekro

Bullpen:
Zane Smith (SS 20%)
Ken Johnson
Steve Avery
Gene Garber
Greg McMichael
Mark Wohlers (CL)

Position Players:
C -
Javy Lopez
Joe Torre
1B -
Joe Adcock
Fred McGriff
2B -
Marcus Giles
Mark DeRosa
Jeff Blauser
3B -
Bob Horner
Eddie Matthews
SS -
Denis Menke
Rafael Furcal
OF -
Lonnie Smith
Chipper Jones
Mack Jones
Rico Carty
Dale Murphy
Hank Aaron
Felipe Alou
Dave Justice

There are 42 players on the Durham Bulls (my AAA affiliate), highlights include Glenn Hubbard, Steve Bedrosian, and Bruce Benedict

[boblight24]

vv

[boblight24]

ATLANTA BRAVES (0-0) at SEATTLE MARINERS (0-0)

Atlanta 7 Seattle 4
WP: G. Maddux (1-0) LP: Ra. Johnson (0-1)
SV: M. Wohlers (1)

Felipe Alou singled home Chipper Jones in the top of the 9th to break a 3-3 tie and helped propel the Braves to a season opening victory in Seattle. Mariners' starter Randy Johnson lasted 8.2 innings, but was pulled after allowing a lead-off single to Chipper in the 9th and was subsequently stuck with the loss. POTG Marcus Giles led the Braves with a 3/5 day at the plate driving in 2. Greg Maddux went 8 strong innings for the Braves striking out 8 and closer Mark Wohlers came in for a 1-2-3 9th inning for his 1st save of the season.

Atlanta 5 Seattle 1
WP: K. Johnson (1-0) LP: A. Rhodes (0-1)
SV: M. Wohlers (2)

Seattle started Erik Hanson had a perfect game going until Mack Jones hit a line drive single left with 2 outs in the 8th and that apparently was the spark the Braves needed. Atlanta scored 5 runs in the 9th inning to steal one from Seattle. Homeruns for Rafael Furcal and Dave Justice put a crooked number on the board for Atlanta and chased Hansen and also gave Arthur Rhodes his first blown save of the season. Atlanta starter John Smoltz settled down after allowing 2 Mariner runs in the 1st, but was lifted in the 5th inning with what was later diagnosed with shoulder inflammation, but the Braves bullpen came in and allowed only 4 Seattle hits over the final 4 2/3 innings. Immediately after the game, Smoltz was placed on the 15-day DL and Pascual Perez was called up from AAA Durham to take his place in the rotation.

[boblight24]

LOS ANGELES DODGERS (0-2) at ATLANTA BRAVES (2-0)

Los Angeles 5 Atlanta 3
WP: O. Hersheiser (1-0) LP: G. McMicheal (0-1)
SV: J. Howell (1)

Steve Garvey and Dusty Baker each had RBI singles in the top of the 9th to propel the Dodgers to a win in Atlanta's home opener 5-3. LA's starter Orel Hersheiser was terrific in this one, tossing 8 strong innings, striking out 5. Hersheiser gave way to Jay Howell in the 9th and he closed out the game for this first save of the year. Atlanta jumped out to an early 2-run lead, but that was erased when POTG Steve Garvey hit his first homer on the young season, a 2-run shot in the 5th. Atlanta starter Tom Glavine, pitched 7 innings, allowing 3 earned runs on 10 hits, striking out 4 and he also picked up the loss.

Los Angeles 3 Atlanta 0
WP: D. Drysdale (1-0) LP: K. Millwood (0-1)
SV: J. Howell (2)

Ugh, getting shut out sucks. Leaving 12 men on base sucks. Getting 4 hits and 6 walks and having no one cross the plate, that all sucks. Enough ranting. Don Drysdale, in spite of his walk total, pitched one heckuva game. 8 innings allowing on 4 hits on 128 pitches. The only bright spot for Atlanta was that no one got injured.