The 2080's decade - Discussion thread

[bailey]

No sense going year by year, anymore.

The $100 Hamtramck Tigers added their 12th perfect card this morning. 100 Boggs will replace 87 Boggs at the hot corner. The old Boggs will finish out the current season with new Boggs joining the team for the playoffs.

For the record 87 Boggs was exemplary
.300/.366/.391 in 24,931 perfect league plate appearances
Rumor has it that 100 Boggs has done somewhat better
.318/.405/.494 in 30,000+ PA.

After this replacement, 5 gold cards remain on the team.

[Izz]

Hey, hey!

So the 'Glou are still in Perfect. 80-82 in 2077 was followed up by 84-78 in 278, then 90-72, 88-74, and 93-69. Interestingly while the 90-win and 88-win seasons got us wildcard berths the 93-win season did not.

This season we landed in the same division as the Tahiti Good Boahs, constant Perfect postseason contenders, and the Vlad News Bears, also constant postseason contenders. Both typically win 100+ games a season. We also landed in the same conference as the insanely good Gonzaga Bulldogs, who have won 110+ games a season every season since 2055, except for 2073 when they inexplicably went 107-55, and were coming off two 130+ win seasons. 3-time Perfect champions the Walnut Creek Geezers were also in our conference, as well as the Miami Jeters, who might not have won a perfect title yet but had 100+ wins in 5 of their last 6 seasons.

The goal this season for the 'Glou, therefore, was not a wildcard, but to play .500 ball.

And we fell short. 78-84 (1 game below pythag). SE 90OVR Larry Hisle started the season playing LF against lefties but didn't last long before being replaced by 93OVR Rookie of the Month Eloy Jiminez (a pull from a couple weeks back). He didn't last all that long either, getting sent back to the minors in favor of the always dependable 88OVR Roberto Clemente, who mashed .273/.280/.545 in 93PA over the last third of the season. Jiminez's RotM card has better offensive ratings but Clemente provides good defense to go with his swing-at-everything approach.

Gave SE 82OVR B.J Surhoff a go at catcher this week. He was mediocre. 87OVR Ernie Lombardi earns a call back up next week after a 5-season absence, 89OVR Carlton Fisk the primary catcher for the previous 4 seasons to this one.

Peak Pedro finished with the best pitching WAR (10.1) and most Ks (253) in our conference but only went 17-12, his rWAR the lowest of his career at 7.3. Peak John Matlack, a mission reward acquired at the end of the 2080 season, had another good year, going 16-13 with a 3.39 FIP and a 6.0 WAR (6.6rWAR, if anybody's interested).

Am closing in on completing the Houston Astros live mission, which will complete the AL live missions, which in turn will give me an automatic major bullpen upgrade and the opportunities a couple diamond packs offer. After buying the live Bregman I decided (against my heart because I'm no fan of cheaters) to swap him into the roster for Arenado. Arenado offers better defense but the Bregman card is undeniably more offensive (see what I did there?).

I had two really nice pulls this week. Like, really(!!) nice. First was 98OVR Hitter of the Month Austin Meadows. My lineup vs RHP isn't the greatest, in all honesty, so his 95 contact and 95 power vs RHP, and his 66 eye, will see him hit cleanup vs RHP for me going forward while camping out in LF. Interestingly, neither Meadows or Jiminez are included in the 2019 Players of the Month mission.



After that pull I didn't expect to see another diamond for a couple weeks. But today, from a batch of 5 tournament reward packs, I ripped...



Suddenly my rotation looks a whole lot stronger! Peak Pedro, Rixey, Matlack as my top 3, with SE Eddie Plank (whose FIP of 4.05 across 6 perfect seasons vs his ERA of 4.58 shows my defense has been letting him down some) at 4 and live deGrom at 5. It was a tossup between moving deGrom or SE Russ Ford to the pen. I decided Ford would give me better value in the later innings, but my mind may change midway through next season. Ideally I'd like to move deGrom off the active roster entirely but I don't have anybody good enough to replace him yet. SE Hippo Vaughn got sent to the reserve roster ahead of 89OVR Curt Simmons, who's been a reliever for the last 6 perfect seasons and been consistently excellent, going to 3 of the last 4 All Star Games. In fact this season was his worst, his FIP of 5.23 the first time his FIP has been above 3.69 in the pen at Perfect.

Waffle nearly complete! Roster snapshot below (I missed deGrom but can't be bothered redoing the pic):

[daves]

Owlz came close many times, but finally got their 1t title!

[Izz]

Originally Posted by daves

Owlz came close many times, but finally got their 1t title!

Nice!

[bailey]

Hamtramck wins their 4th PL title, but Collingwood falters in the finals after being up 3 games to 1.

[Zorian77]

I'm happy to report the Ktown Rustics went 14-2 in their last 16 games in 2082 to squeak into the wildcard slot by 2 games, making it to 3 straight Perfect League postseasons. ;D

Almost makes up for someone bidding up and sniping Paul Waner's peak card (immediately putting it up for resale) and preventing me from completing the Pittsburgh tree right before the season ended.

Also the Hamtramck Tigers swept me last season after I made it through the divisional series for only the 2nd time in Perfect League. I figured whoever won that series would win the whole thing and I was the underdog, but I was a bit disappointed I got 4-0ed.

[daves]

Perfect September 26-0.

[One Great Matrix]

For when I turn my team into the 1984-1989 New York Mets so far I know of these cards...I was wondering if you know of any others.

Ron Darling
Sid Fernandez
David Cone
Dwight Gooden
Bob Ojeda
Jesse Orosco
Doug Sisk

Gary Carter
Wally Backman
Keith Hernandez
Howard Johnson
Lee Mazzilli
Darryl Strawberry
Mookie Wilson

That's 14 out of 25, and some non-Mets cards I know of that played in that period of time

Kevin McReynolds (SD Rookie)
Rick Aguilera (Twins)
George Foster (Reds)
Tim Teufel (Twins?)
Lenny Dykstra (Phillies)
Ray Knight (Astros?)

That's 20. I'd like to fill out the whole 25 man roster for maybe the 2086 season. And somehow be competitive in Perfect League level, hopefully I get ...a good "draw".

I've done some further research into their players from 1984-1989 and the available cards and I think I can field a halfway competent (or perfectly awesome) team, lol... umm, the only thing is it seems Carter may have to catch all the games. Hopefully that won't make much of a difference.

[dkgo]

Checked in after a weekend vacation to see a much better record than I was expecting.

Never gotten to DiMaggio's hit streak but I matched it with wins. Too bad it's still only worth the 4K.

[Izz]

78-84 for the Glou last season to 109-53 this season a World Series appearance.

The differences? Eppa Rixey (17-11, 2.77 ERA, 2.84 FIP, 6.9 WAR) and Austin Meadows (.281/.348/.482, 22HR, 128OPS+) both had good starts to their careers.

Peak Pedro went 27-4, with a 1.59 ERA and 259 strikeouts, falling 1 win shy of another Triple Crown (dammit).

Partway through the season I finished the AL live missions, earning Peak Gossage, who immediately replaced 89OVR Dennis Eckersley as my closer (an emotionally tough decision as Eck had been my closer since 2024, racking up 1809 saves across all levels). Gossage appeared in 33 games across the last half of the season, going 1-0 with 23 saves and a 0.88 ERA.

In one of the diamond packs for finishing the final AL division mission I ripped 96 OVR Al Hrabosky, who also immediately came into my bullpen. He went 5-0 with 3 saves and a 2.49 ERA in 26 games as my setup guy.

I also finished 8 games above pythag.

However, the biggest reason for my excellent season was that I ended up in one of the weakest perfect league conferences I have seen, as evidenced by 1 wildcard having an 81-81 season and 2 teams on 77-85 having to go to game 163 to see who would get in as the second wildcard.

The only team of any real strength on my side of the league was the 4-time PL champs the Pawnee Swansons who boasted 24 perfect cards on their active roster. They went 122-40, though their unusual strategy of running 15 pitchers and only 10 hitters had to cost them a few wins.

We swept the Arizona Dangersnakes in the Division Series and went on to face the Swansons. Peak Pedro got some small revenge in Game 1 for missing the Triple Crown by defeating 28-game winner Ed Walsh. We lost the next one but then won the 3 at home to progress to the World Series... where we promptly got swept by the San Francisco 49ers, who picked up their 12th perfect title.

We finished the live Brewers mission this week also, which means perfect Yelich will join the team next season as a replacement for 76OVR Tony Gwynn. In one of the diamond packs for finishing that NL division we pulled 92OVR Gary Peters, who I wouldn't use as a starting pitcher but am tempted to bring into the bullpen to replace long-serving LHP Hong-Chih Kuo. Still no replacement yet for live deGrom as my 5th starter. I'm aiming to finish the Nationals live mission this week, my first target of the remaining cards Rendon, who will replace live Bregman. That's still a couple days away, though.

[bailey]

Collingwood in the finals tied 3 games apiece. So far, the home team has won all the games and the Magpies are on the road for game 7. But, they have the 1 million point arm, Peak Pedro starting the game. Is he worth the price? Check the flag below--if it's 25 championships then yes he was worth it. Check after 10:30pm EST.

[Orcin]

Perfect league championship #12 for the Colonels, beating the 11-time champ Edmonton Snowplows 4-1 in the finals. Mickey Cochrane's walk-off tenth-inning single was the final blow.

[dkgo]

Anyone have 97 SE 2B Willie Randolph buried in their reserves somewhere? Want to try him out paired with eddie collins for a few seasons.

[One Great Matrix]

Originally Posted by Orcin

Perfect league championship #12 for the Colonels, beating the 11-time champ Edmonton Snowplows 4-1 in the finals. Mickey Cochrane's walk-off tenth-inning single was the final blow.

Congrats to 17 2.0 Perfect Championships between One Great Matrix & Orcin.

Couldn't buy a hit in the playoffs vs. him.

Scored a gazillion runs in the regular season... Strange I saw it coming, too...not that weak an offensive performance, but you beating me in the playoffs.

[Izz]

So, are the 'Glou now a competitive team at perfect level?

We made only one change to the roster this season, live Yeli coming in to replace 76OVR Tony Gwynn. Yelich was my starting LF against RHP, batting leadoff, and backup RF against LHP. He started only 6 games vs LHP. For the season he hit .274/.367/.450 in 578PA, with 21 dingers. He had a .335 BABIP, which looks high but he is not a mint card and has a whole lot of other seasons at perfect level, and looking at those a .335 BABIP is only mid-range.

Anyway, enough about Yelich. We went 110-52 for the season, 4 games *below* pythag. While we were in a weakish division, it wasn't as weak as last week's, with the Franconia Red Foxes having won a Perfect League World Series in 2080 and with 5 playoff appearances in the last 6 years (they finished 84-78 this season). The overall conference had some strong teams, with 4 teams other than us registering more than 100 wins.

We scored 835 runs and conceded only 517. Peak Pedro went 24-3, with a 1.87 ERA and 256 strikeouts. That was only good enough for top spot in the ERA column. Tassie Thunder's Lefty Grove racked up 272 Ks for most strikeouts (the 4-time champion Thunder went 117-45 for the best record in the conference and are currently tied 1-1 in the subleague series). And our own Eppa Rixey beat out Peak Pedro in the wins column, notching 25. We almost had three 20-game winners, John Matlack finishing 19-8.

Trout put up 6.5 WAR (2nd-best in the conference) with a .256/.373/.463 slash-line, his 30 homers 3rd-best in the NC. Austin Meadows, this season a full-time DH vs RHP, had an MVP-candidate season, hitting .312/.389/.595, his slugging and OPS best on our side of the league. He hit 36 homers, 2nd-most, to go with 33 doubles. 5.8WAR isn't too shabby for a DH.

I packed live Tatis Jr this week, so changed focus from finishing the Nationals live mission to finishing the Padres and Dodgers. There's no place on the active roster for Tatis Jr or Bellinger, though. In the diamond packs for finishing that division I ripped 98OVR Willie Wells:



Great player who will train up to an excellent 2B but I don't know if I can fit him on the roster. My current starting 2B against RHP is 85OVR Cecil Travis, who gives me a good LHB (he hit .314/.367/.427 overall this season) and decent defense. My starting 2B against LHP is *gasp* live Bregman, subpar defensively but who will OBP close to .400 vs lefties. Seeing as I have a 'only sell duplicates' policy I can't sell Wells. I'm working towards the SE Pee Wee Reese, so maybe I wait until getting him before deciding if Wells fits on the roster. My initial thought at that point is to move 91OVR Travis Jackson to 2B and demote Cecil Travis but perhaps they both go down and Wells comes in to play 2B. I'll also have live Rendon in the mix by that stage too, who was going to be a straight swap for Bregman but maybe it's not that simple.

Interesting things to think over.

As far as the playoffs went, we got swept out in the first round by 13-time PL champs the Groom City Aliens who went 115-47 for the season, also 4 games below pythag.

[daves]

Owlz on a roll. Wins 2nd title. Very close in AC championship, but dominated the world Series!

[bailey]

Collingwood is matched against the La Crosse Fighting Frogs in the finals which is tied 2-2. So far, the visiting team has won all the games.
Looking for #26 in the next couple of hours.

[daves]

Good week for my PT20 teams as the Doubledays pick up Perfect title number 12.

[JasonC23]

The PT20 Huntley Red Raiders have been to 5 straight Perfect League Series, winning the first 2 and then again last week in a 7-game upset of the Bellevue Black Knights. The Red Raiders' reward?

THIS IS A RIVALRY ALERT

[One Great Matrix]

Hey, Stranger. Been following. Seemed like your team had been under-achieving a bit for all their regular season success. Of course it's an over-achieving team on the whole...:-/ Congrats...

And congrats to you, too, bailey, fancy pants. 26! Takin' frogs out of their pond? I lead the all-time series 2-1, don't I? ha ha ha ha.