Time Warp Baseball

[tward13]

Giants are averaging less than 19,000 per game in our ancient park. What's an owner to do?

But I'm sure NYC will come through with a plan to save the beloved Giants.

And no way TWB would leave NY without National League baseball.

[m0ng00se]

Originally Posted by Matt from TN

American League-Batter of the Month:
Charlton Brown (KCA)!
He batted .323 in 96 AB, with 14 homers and 24 RBI.

That's some serious power hitting. I was wondering how Ray Kress didn't get any awards despite going .427, 8HR, 20RBI, 17R, 22B.

Still, I'm just very happy to see the old Kress even if only for a month.

[Matt from TN]

Originally Posted by m0ng00se

That's some serious power hitting.

Brown just hit 12 HR and 22 RBI in the first *half* of June... unbelieveable... He's on pace for 79 HR's which is outrageous... he's bound to cool off soon.

Meanwhile, Arnie Stewart's on pace for about 49.

NY lost Bourbon & KC lost Bowen to injuries.

[rogmax11]

Which leads to a question Ive had for some time: how do you mitigate the potential for a stat spike that blows any semblance of reality out the door? Do you resim? Live with a seasonal HR total that sticks out like Ernie Lombardi's nose on Maria Sharapova's face?

I can live with a zinger like 33 HRs in 64 games; that type of explosion is possible short-term, before human managers would begin walking Brown a heckuva lot more than is happening thus far, or he chills back down to sub-Bondsian levels. But I would hate to have such a long and wonderfully realistic dynasty such as this despoiled by simply unbelievable deviations. In my own histories/replays/dynasties that has always been the main reason for terminating an endeavor--I just cant abide a sudden 80 HR season, or a 34-2 won-lost record, or relievers pitching 252 pitches in a game. And it occurs, at least to me, waaaay too often. So seriously, what methods or precautions have worked for you, Matt?

[Matt from TN]

Originally Posted by rogmax11

And it occurs, at least to me, waaaay too often. So seriously, what methods or precautions have worked for you, Matt?

I've had to do this before, either to prevent a .400 season, too many HRs, too many HRs, and more. Honestly, the easiest thing to do is drop a player's ratings for a period of time till it comes back to normal (I've even dropped a player's contact from an 85 to a 5 for a week or two while leaving them in the lineup to bring an avg down). Or you can raise the talents of people around him.

This is a whole other monster though, because it's a sim league w/ real GM's. Be sure I'll keep an eye on this.

On a side note, some will say Dietrich's K's are out of whack for the late 50s, but they're very similar to Koafax's totals which came a few yrs later. So those K's don't bother me as I just assume the 1st 300K pitcher showed up 5-8 years early.

In TWB, league total K's and HR's are right on track but you have to make sure *ratings* are in line to make sure the tops in the league are realistic. In the 20s,30s,40s, we've had HR totals right in line but occaisionally the league leaders were a bit too low - no Jimmy Foxx's, Hack Wilson's, Ruth's, Gehrig's, etc. Our guys stayed in the mid 30 HR range and never hit 40-58 except for Schwarz, Vancini and 1 season by Borgert. Anyway, if league totals are right in line (and ours always are) sometimes players ratings need to be tweaked to get the leaderboard results you want. I've done it in the past but never since we went live.

[rogmax11]

Thanks; somehow that response made me feel better about my own struggles.

[Matt from TN]

WEB PAGES UPDATED... INCLUDING PLAYER PAGES


June 1957

The A's came back to earth a little, going 15-13 in June. The Yankees went 17-9 and are back to within 5 games of the lead. A's first baseman Charlton Brown went through a stretch where he hit an amazing 14 homers in 16 games, putting him on pace for over 70 homeruns on the season. Then he hit .255 with no homeruns over the next 13 games, still leaving him on pace for a record 65 homeruns this year. Meanwhile, Boston's Mike Kreitenberg continues to impress with a .415 average.

In the NL, Pittsburgh followed up their fantastic May with a 8-18 June, dropping them th 4th. The Cubs took over first place, but the Reds moved into 2nd with a 18-9 record.

In The News

June 24: Prime Minister Kishi of Japan, wearing a Yankees cap, was one of 69,956 fans at Yankee Stadium to see New York defeat Baltimore 7-5. The Yankees led the game 3-2 before a Pete Pugliese triple tied the score in the top of the 8th. The next batter, David Lawrence hit a 2-run homer off starter Roosevelt Wurth to take the lead. Then with no outs and runners on the corners in the bottom of the inning, 3B Boris Zimyanin threw the ball away on a hurried throw to 1st and Wilford Woodworth scored. After walking Arnie Stewart to load the bases, Bud Ulrich gave up a bases-clearing triple to catcher Glen Vickers. After recording the 1st out of the inning, Ulrich walked Wurth and was pulled from the game. Reliever Joe Stahl walked the first batter he faced to load the bases, but he got the next two batters out to snuff out the rally. However, the Yanks had already taken a lead and reliever Bernard Client got three straight ground outs in the 9th to end the game.


American League-Pitcher of the Month:
Walter Pond (DET)!
He had a record of 4-0 in 7 games started, with an ERA of 3.25.

American League-Batter of the Month:
John Degal (BOS)!
He batted .443 in 88 AB, with 12 homers and 38 RBI.

National League-Pitcher of the Month:
Joe Helton (BKN)!
He had a record of 6-0 in 8 games started, with an ERA of 1.89 and 2 shutouts.

National League-Batter of the Month:
Mark Silcox (BKN)!
He batted .340 in 97 AB, with 8 homers and 31 RBI.

American League Standings 
  
Kansas City      53 25 .679 -
New York (A)     48 30 .615 5.0
Detroit          41 37 .526 12.0
Cleveland        39 38 .506 13.5
Boston           35 42 .455 17.5
Chicago (A)      35 45 .438 19.0
Baltimore        32 45 .416 20.5
Washington       28 49 .364 24.5
 
National League Standings 
 
Chicago (N)      50 27 .649 -
Cincinnati       49 28 .636 1.0
Brooklyn         47 32 .595 4.0
Pittsburgh       43 33 .566 6.5
Milwaukee        37 40 .481 13.0
New York (N)     30 48 .385 20.5
St. Louis        27 49 .355 22.5
Philadelphia     26 52 .333 24.5

AL AVG
.415 Mike Kreitenberg, BOS
.366 Paul Lett, CLE
.345 Hans Habermehl, KCA

NL AVG
.347 George Petty, NYG
.346 Rex Seelinger, NYG
.346 Mark Silcox, BKN

AL HOMERUNS
33 Charlton Brown, KCA
25 Arnie Stewart, NYA
24 John Degal, BOS

NL HOMERUNS
27 Abe Arsenault, MLN
20 Mark Silcox, BKN
20 Bobby Johnson, CHN

AL RBI
78 John Degal, BOS
66 Charlton Brown, KCA
58 Arnie Stewart, NYA

NL RBI
71 Mark Silcox, BKN
66 Matt Praks, PIT
64 Abe Arsenault, MLN

AL STEALS
33 Leo Emig, WSH
24 Lucien Arbour, BOS
22 Mike Kreitenberg, BOS

NL STEALS
23 Ben Cook, CIN
22 Asa Booker, PHI
20 Cognac Allen, MLN

AL ERA
2.14 Jackie Bowen, KCA
2.15 Bourbon Allen Jr., NYA
2.52 Van Melbourn, WSH

NL ERA
2.24 Randy Liebermann, CHN
2.59 Adam Sardina, CHN
2.69 Joe Helton, BKN

AL WINS
14 Martin Gwaltney, KCA
12 Jackie Bowen, KCA
12 Bourbon Allen Jr, NYA

NL WINS
14 Joe Helton, BKN
13 Adam Sardina, CHN
13 Jack Schoonover, PIT
13 Randy Liebermann, CHN
13 Tom Dufresne, BKN

AL STRIKEOUTS
164 Lukas Dietrich, WSH
141 Lex Tjeenk-Willink, CLE
141 Carpenter Erickson, NYA

NL STRIKEOUTS
155 Joe Helton, BKN
148 Randy Liebermann, CHN
96 Charley Harrington, STL

AL SAVES
20 Cal Granger, KCA
19 John Patterson, DET
14 Emilio Lobos, BOS

NL SAVES
16 Gene Lopez, CHN
16 Chris Delp, CIN
13 Barry Sammons, BKN
13 Mike Wielgosz, MLN

[canadiancreed]

Im feeling good about this season. It's the same feeling that I got in 1947...

[DamnYankees]

Matt, you edited players to prevent a .400 season? Why? I can see preventing a .500 season, but .400 is perfectly fine, I think. If someone were to hit .400 this year, like Mike Kreitenberg, why should we prevent that? Just because no one since Williams has done it in our world doesn't mean we shouldn't let someone do it in TWB.

[tward13]

I think all editing was done before we went live.

[tward13]

Nice return from nowhere for Pond! Good to see that.

[jdw]

Brown hit no HR in the last half of the June after hitting "9 homeruns in his final 13 games" of May and 12 in the first 14 games of June. Matt sort of soft sold that:

"A's first baseman Charlton Brown went through a stretch where he hit an amazing 14 homers in 16 games, putting him on pace for over 70 homeruns on the season"

Actually, it was for *21* HR in 27 games and he was on pace for 79.

Are the 0 HR for the 13 remaining games of June an adjustment, Matt? I find it hard to believe that Brown has many 13 game streaks without HR are his "normal" maxed out ratings... especially while running off a 9 game hitting streak in the middle of it.


Dropping from 33 of 80 hits being HR down to 0 of the next 12 is kinda odd.


John

[kreitena]

If you drop Mike's stats for a sim so he doesn't have a chance of hitting .400 I will kill you.

[ifspuds]

Guys, come on. He made adjustments *before* the Live Era. If he's making adjustments in the Live Era, then that's not fair to the human owners, and I highly doubt that Matt would do that.

[bigjas]

Originally Posted by jdw

Brown hit no HR in the last half of the June after hitting "9 homeruns in his final 13 games" of May and 12 in the first 14 games of June. Matt sort of soft sold that:

"A's first baseman Charlton Brown went through a stretch where he hit an amazing 14 homers in 16 games, putting him on pace for over 70 homeruns on the season"

Actually, it was for *21* HR in 27 games and he was on pace for 79.

Are the 0 HR for the 13 remaining games of June an adjustment, Matt? I find it hard to believe that Brown has many 13 game streaks without HR are his "normal" maxed out ratings... especially while running off a 9 game hitting streak in the middle of it.


Dropping from 33 of 80 hits being HR down to 0 of the next 12 is kinda odd.


John

He was going to have to hit the wall sooner or later. I don't think Matt would monkey with the ratings.

[tward13]

Matt has said that he hasn't and wouldn't change things during the season in the live era.

I believe him.

[jdw]

I put a smiley in there = joking.

My post was more at a comp for how torrid Brown was (21 HR in 27 games is beyond anything I've ever heard a major leaguer doing) and how he went in the other direction (0 HR in 13 games) the next SIM. Setting aside whether Brown's HR numbers are ridiculous or not (my opinion is well known), it was funny to seem him go from one extreme of 21/27 to the other of 0/13.

OOTP tends to do that more than Real Life. One of the stupidest I can recall was when the slugging 1B Ted McMurray was hitting 1 HR through the end of May one year, with the rest of his numbers generally poor as well. OOTP "corrected" this with back-to-back .451/.500/.725 and .407/.484/.565. Do people in Real Life have bad months and monster months like that? No doubt. But not a lot of power hitters of McMurray's quality go two months with just 1 HR while healthy and do so in their *good* years.


John

[Vris]

The Yankees led the game 3-2 before a Pete Pugliese triple tied the score in the top of the 8th. The next batter, David Lawrence hit a 2-run homer off starter Roosevelt Wurth to take the lead. Then with no outs and runners on the corners in the bottom of the inning, 3B Boris Zimyanin threw the ball away on a hurried throw to 1st and...

I count 4 former Brave farmhands. Oh what a team you could make up of players the Braves traded away!

[Matt from TN]

Originally Posted by DamnYankees

Matt, you edited players to prevent a .400 season? Why? I can see preventing a .500 season, but .400 is perfectly fine, I think. If someone were to hit .400 this year, like Mike Kreitenberg, why should we prevent that? Just because no one since Williams has done it in our world doesn't mean we shouldn't let someone do it in TWB.

Pre-live era. At the time we had had too many .400 seasons as we neared the 40s. I think our last one was in the late 30s or early 40s (Jon Wright?). After that I think was the time I did it. I had my reasons... and when necessary, I'll do what I need to do to protect the integrity (and believability) of TWB's history when something goes too out of whack.

Again, the league settings are fine, but if the player ratings aren't properly balanced, these things can happen. I could write more about what I mean, but I don't feel like it right now.

As for Brown, I would be fine with him hitting 60-65 again. I don't want to step in because it could affect the pennant race, whereas if he played for Washington, Chicago (A) or a similar team, I probably wouldn't mind preventing something unrealistic (i.e. 66+ HRs, .420 avg, 360 Ks, etc).

[bigjas]

Originally Posted by Matt from TN

As for Brown, I would be fine with him hitting 60-65 again. I don't want to step in because it could affect the pennant race, whereas if he played for Washington, Chicago (A) or a similar team, I probably wouldn't mind preventing something unrealistic (i.e. 66+ HRs, .420 avg, 360 Ks, etc).

I'm going to make you eat those words Matt.