MyBaseballTeam.com: An Online Multiplayer Experiment v.1

darkcloud4579 · 01-12-2009, 11:07 PM

After doing a bit of thinking, I wanted to try to combine my love of dynasties with an online league.

But in a collaborative, community centered sort of way.

Enter the Columbus Crusaders of the Front Office Offseason League (FOOL)

FOOL is a league that sims an entire season in ONE DAY each week. During the rest of the week, GMs make trades, sign players and draft. It's intense, interesting and unlike anything else out there.

After thinking about it, we thought we could leverage the success of myfootballclub.uk to create a community-owned FOOL franchise in the same way.

FOOL went into a freeze after 1988, simming ahead until 2000. Then after an auto redraft, owners returned to their teams in 2001 and we've continued on our way, heading now into our 42nd season of play.

The Crusaders have had a bit of success, making the FOOL Classic in 2000 before losing. Well, now their owner has left and a new ownership group has taken over. But rather than run the team themselves, they want YOU the community to make team decisions.

Everything from who to trade, who to sign and who should start. All of the decisions could come from YOU!

We'll even allow you to move the team and change their name, if you think it'll help!

Daily, we'll post "Decisions" in this thread that need to be decided on by the fans. Based on your input, we'll make decisions on the squad and inform you of what's going on. You'll also be able to view the team and league HTML to get updated information, too.

If you're feeling particularly intense, there is a league file available with a login for the "community owners" for Columbus, allowing you to login, make changes and monitor the league from you game.

Without further ado, let's get started!

Afino · 01-13-2009, 12:00 AM

Awesome idea.

I'll certainly be a part of this!

darkcloud4579 · 01-13-2009, 12:01 AM

The Crusaders payroll is currently set at $23,547,425.

The salary cap is $65 million.

No real huge contracts on the squad, so we have a lot of room to work with here in terms of going out and trying to improve the team that was really in the thick of things until the last few weeks of the season last year.

The best player on the team is a 26-year old catcher by the name of Greg Harris. (.284/17 HR/103 RBI/21.4 VORP) and last season, he came into his own. He's still on his minimum contract ($100,000) but he'll be arbitration eligible next year and is projected right now at about $2.1 million.

Another standout is 27-year old shortstop, Canadian Kai-ge Yeh who hit .302 last year and had a 24.1 VORP. He's on the last year of his deal and will make $2.2 million next season.

LF Terry Ellis (.294/27/104) and RF Tomas Valenzuela (.328/30/126) are two of the best outfielders in the league. Especially Valenzuela, who is 32 years old, but an off-the-charts talent player who anchors the team's offense. He's had three straight 100+ RBI seasons, too.

Really, what the ball club is missing is hurlers. We don't have strong starters in the rotation and I think that's our real problem, to be honest.

Our ace is 38-year old Christian O'Halloran. He went 14-7 last year with 209 Ks and 105 walks in 33 starts. Part of that is just the offensive explosion that's hit the league the past decade and part of that is that he's old as hell.

27-year old Tony Ibarra is solid (13-9, 6.12 ERA) but gets smacked for too many homers and never really reached the potential he had, to begin with. He's a leftie tho and as a result, he'll always be a commodity. Just shouldn't be at the top of anyone's rotation.

We'll explore free agency next and see if there is anyone worth having or whether we ought to stand pat, explore trades or something else.

darkcloud4579 · 01-13-2009, 10:38 PM

Here's the team ratings:

It's the first night of free agency tonight and really, with the lack of pitching the team has, it seems plausible that we ought to blow the team up, seek out prospects and see if we can't come back in a few years and dominate.

It just seems like the most sensible way to do this.

If you see some way of salvaging it, looking at that roster, then feel free to let us know.

More details after night 1 of FA, in which we can take a look at other teams that might be interested in our players. Or they might just post here and tell us directly.

Afino · 01-13-2009, 11:00 PM

Is everyone in the league so highly rated???

Or is that just because it's the OSA ratings?

darkcloud4579 · 01-14-2009, 12:27 AM

Yeah, the ratings in FOOL have always been kinda out of whack.

Top Players

It actually adds to the degree of difficulty because well...how do you rate a bunch of guys who seem to have maxed out ratings? Stats come into play pretty heavily in the league for that reason.

It ebbs and flows. For about a decade and a half, pitchers dominated and now we're back to an era where hitters are the dominant cast of characters for the past decade or so.

Columbus only has one guy on the Top 20 players list of hitters or pitchers, so...that gives an idea of what sort of talent they're up against.

darkcloud4579 · 01-14-2009, 05:53 PM

Here's the league schedule:

Quote:

Sunday - Playoff sim

Monday - Last export to re-sign potential FAs on your team. Sim to the start of free agency. Draft is run in this sim, too.

Tuesday - Make offers on FAs. First day of FA. Game is simmed to mid-December.

Wednesday - Second night of free agency. Sim to start of pre-season.

Thursday - Spring training gets simmed this night.

Friday - Exports are due by 10pm EST. Must be under salary cap to avoid penalty. (Sims from opening day until the last day of the season) Season is run sometime on Friday night or sometime Saturday.

Afino · 01-14-2009, 05:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by darkcloud4579

\
Columbus only has one guy on the Top 20 players list of hitters or pitchers, so...that gives an idea of what sort of talent they're up against.

I was going to say - please let that be Valenzuela!

Obviously, he's the most valuable trading chip if the decision is made to blow it up. I wouldn't touch Ellis, at least not yet.

darkcloud4579 · 01-14-2009, 08:52 PM

It might be safe just to stand pat and see where the chips fall. Based on what you see, what does the team need? Pitching seems to stand out to me, but I'm not sure if I'm reading that right...

Tonight is the 2nd night of free agency, so it might be a good opportunity to pick up something on the cheap. The real question is, do we bring back Christian O'Halloran?

Afino · 01-14-2009, 09:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by darkcloud4579

It might be safe just to stand pat and see where the chips fall. Based on what you see, what does the team need? Pitching seems to stand out to me, but I'm not sure if I'm reading that right...

Tonight is the 2nd night of free agency, so it might be a good opportunity to pick up something on the cheap. The real question is, do we bring back Christian O'Halloran?

If his ratings haven't taken a hit in the last few months, I'd say yes if it's on the cheap.

Otherwise, if he's already on a steady decline in ratings (and judging on his 2002 season, it may not be the case), I'd stay away.

Only thing that's sticking out to me on offense is RF could use an upgrade from Johnson. I like the OBP, but a corner OF should hit for more power than that.

And what the hell happened to Ibarra?? Fell off a cliff - we either have to hope he bounces back or pick up another lefty in FA. Unforunately, I can't see anyone

Also, I'd think about picking up MacKinney and stashing him in the minors.

darkcloud4579 · 01-14-2009, 11:01 PM

Saturday, January 4th, 2003
Columbus Crusaders: Signed free agent SP C. MacKinney to a 3-year contract worth a total of $1,332,500.

Wednesday, January 1st, 2003
Columbus Crusaders: Signed free agent 2B K. Morse to a 2-year contract worth a total of $3,320,000.

O'Halloran was asking for a multi-year deal at $10 MILLION a year. Needless to say, I told him thanks for his work and sent him away.

darkcloud4579 · 01-14-2009, 11:03 PM

Colorado has these guys on the block too...

Might be worth talking to him, dunno what we'd send him, tho.

darkcloud4579 · 01-14-2009, 11:06 PM

Thursday, January 9th, 2003
Columbus Crusaders: Signed free agent 1B G. Castillo to a 2-year contract worth a total of $1,217,500.

darkcloud4579 · 01-14-2009, 11:41 PM

If you want to take a look at the league file, you can download the .dat files here. Save them in a FOOL.lg folder in your saved_games in OOTP. After that, you could access in-game downloads of the online league files each night just like the other owners in the league do.

The user is called Columbus Community and there isn't a password on the account.

darkcloud4579 · 01-15-2009, 01:04 AM

Some guys that might be worth asking for in a trade, maybe.

Alfredo Chavez IF (2b/SS) (Montreal)

Raul Rivera IF (Montreal)

I think looking at the roster, some of these guys might be worth trading.

LF Tomas Valenzuela

OF Ken Makino

Closer Cal Murdoch

Maybe someone else on the roster, too. But I'm thinking that going out and getting some of the ample young pitching out there is gonna be key to getting the team back, because it's the hardest thing to get in this league.

darkcloud4579 · 01-15-2009, 01:06 AM

The team can be relocated, too, if that'll help with immersion and a "sense of ownership."

Any ideas?

darkcloud4579 · 01-17-2009, 12:26 AM

Tonight is the first season under group control.

We'll see how it goes. Have little to no expectations. O'Halloran lowered his price, so we could make an opening day sign of him, but would have to go with a 24-man roster for the chance to sign him and if he didn't sign, we'd play short all year.

Seems like it's better not to do that and just let the year ride out, I say.

Well in any case, here goes nothing!

darkcloud4579 · 01-17-2009, 01:36 AM

We led for most of the regular season, but down the stretch, I think our pitching was exposed and we faltered. It's sad, but not to be unexpected. Here's the season thread with the month-by-month standings

Considering there were few expectations that we'd be able to make it to the playoffs, I have to say I'm really proud of our ballclub and I really look forward to what we can do with them in the off-season. Also, I think it'd be great to move the team to a new city and really invest in the identity of the club and create a new legacy for the franchise going forward.

It was a good year, I think and we have a foundation to build on. Let's make some deals and see if we can't be the first community-owned team to make the playoffs next year!

FINAL REGULAR SEASON STANDINGS

Code:

Continental League Standings
			W	L	PCT	GB
Napa Valley Winemakers	97	65	.599	-
Valdosta Peanuts	96	66	.593	1.0
Montreal Maroons	87	75	.537	10.0
Brooklyn Brownstones	80	82	.494	17.0
Atlanta Firecrackers	76	86	.469	21.0
Baltimore Gothams	50	112	.309	47.0

Republic League Standings
			W	L	PCT	GB
Boston Settlers		99	63	.611	-
Colorado Rancheros	95	68	.583	4.5
Columbus Crusaders	86	76	.531	13.0
Hartford Harpooners	79	83	.488	20.0
Compton Brothers	77	86	.472	22.5
Ann Arbor Wolverines	51	111	.315	48.0

darkcloud4579 · 01-18-2009, 05:09 PM

The Columbus Crusaders are moving to either New York to become the Heroes of New York or to Philadelphia to become the Philadelphia Quakers.

Which do you prefer?

Afino · 01-18-2009, 06:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by darkcloud4579

The Columbus Crusaders are moving to either New York to become the Heroes of New York or to Philadelphia to become the Philadelphia Quakers.

Which do you prefer?

New York.

01-12-2009, 11:07 PM	#1
darkcloud4579 Hall Of Famer Join Date: Jun 2003 Posts: 8,663	MyBaseballTeam.com: An Online Multiplayer Experiment v.1 After doing a bit of thinking, I wanted to try to combine my love of dynasties with an online league. But in a collaborative, community centered sort of way. Enter the Columbus Crusaders of the Front Office Offseason League (FOOL) FOOL is a league that sims an entire season in ONE DAY each week. During the rest of the week, GMs make trades, sign players and draft. It's intense, interesting and unlike anything else out there. After thinking about it, we thought we could leverage the success of myfootballclub.uk to create a community-owned FOOL franchise in the same way. FOOL went into a freeze after 1988, simming ahead until 2000. Then after an auto redraft, owners returned to their teams in 2001 and we've continued on our way, heading now into our 42nd season of play. The Crusaders have had a bit of success, making the FOOL Classic in 2000 before losing. Well, now their owner has left and a new ownership group has taken over. But rather than run the team themselves, they want YOU the community to make team decisions. Everything from who to trade, who to sign and who should start. All of the decisions could come from YOU! We'll even allow you to move the team and change their name, if you think it'll help! Daily, we'll post "Decisions" in this thread that need to be decided on by the fans. Based on your input, we'll make decisions on the squad and inform you of what's going on. You'll also be able to view the team and league HTML to get updated information, too. If you're feeling particularly intense, there is a league file available with a login for the "community owners" for Columbus, allowing you to login, make changes and monitor the league from you game. Without further ado, let's get started!

01-13-2009, 12:00 AM	#2
Afino Hall Of Famer Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: Buffalo, NY Posts: 3,828	Awesome idea. I'll certainly be a part of this! __________________ GUBA: Moscow Enforcers

01-13-2009, 11:00 PM	#5
Afino Hall Of Famer Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: Buffalo, NY Posts: 3,828	Is everyone in the league so highly rated??? Or is that just because it's the OSA ratings? __________________ GUBA: Moscow Enforcers

01-14-2009, 11:01 PM	#11
darkcloud4579 Hall Of Famer Join Date: Jun 2003 Posts: 8,663	some signings on Day 2 Saturday, January 4th, 2003 Columbus Crusaders: Signed free agent SP C. MacKinney to a 3-year contract worth a total of $1,332,500. Wednesday, January 1st, 2003 Columbus Crusaders: Signed free agent 2B K. Morse to a 2-year contract worth a total of $3,320,000. O'Halloran was asking for a multi-year deal at $10 MILLION a year. Needless to say, I told him thanks for his work and sent him away. __________________ ------ My Mods Managerial Strategy Pack Competitive Balance Tax Calculator Major League Women's Baseball (OOTP24) quickstart Indian Premier League \| 300+ years of baseball quickstart \| Expatriate League quickstart \| Off-Field Injuries Update \| Women's Name File for OOTP \| ---- Dynasty classics: Centurion comes to OOTP5 \| DC Moneyball Dynasty (2004)

01-17-2009, 01:36 AM	#18
darkcloud4579 Hall Of Famer Join Date: Jun 2003 Posts: 8,663	We led for most of the regular season, but down the stretch, I think our pitching was exposed and we faltered. It's sad, but not to be unexpected. Here's the season thread with the month-by-month standings Considering there were few expectations that we'd be able to make it to the playoffs, I have to say I'm really proud of our ballclub and I really look forward to what we can do with them in the off-season. Also, I think it'd be great to move the team to a new city and really invest in the identity of the club and create a new legacy for the franchise going forward. It was a good year, I think and we have a foundation to build on. Let's make some deals and see if we can't be the first community-owned team to make the playoffs next year! FINAL REGULAR SEASON STANDINGS Code: Continental League Standings W L PCT GB Napa Valley Winemakers 97 65 .599 - Valdosta Peanuts 96 66 .593 1.0 Montreal Maroons 87 75 .537 10.0 Brooklyn Brownstones 80 82 .494 17.0 Atlanta Firecrackers 76 86 .469 21.0 Baltimore Gothams 50 112 .309 47.0 Republic League Standings W L PCT GB Boston Settlers 99 63 .611 - Colorado Rancheros 95 68 .583 4.5 Columbus Crusaders 86 76 .531 13.0 Hartford Harpooners 79 83 .488 20.0 Compton Brothers 77 86 .472 22.5 Ann Arbor Wolverines 51 111 .315 48.0

01-13-2009, 12:01 AM	#3
darkcloud4579 Hall Of Famer Join Date: Jun 2003 Posts: 8,663	The Crusaders payroll is currently set at $23,547,425. The salary cap is $65 million. No real huge contracts on the squad, so we have a lot of room to work with here in terms of going out and trying to improve the team that was really in the thick of things until the last few weeks of the season last year. The best player on the team is a 26-year old catcher by the name of Greg Harris. (.284/17 HR/103 RBI/21.4 VORP) and last season, he came into his own. He's still on his minimum contract ($100,000) but he'll be arbitration eligible next year and is projected right now at about $2.1 million. Another standout is 27-year old shortstop, Canadian Kai-ge Yeh who hit .302 last year and had a 24.1 VORP. He's on the last year of his deal and will make $2.2 million next season. LF Terry Ellis (.294/27/104) and RF Tomas Valenzuela (.328/30/126) are two of the best outfielders in the league. Especially Valenzuela, who is 32 years old, but an off-the-charts talent player who anchors the team's offense. He's had three straight 100+ RBI seasons, too. Really, what the ball club is missing is hurlers. We don't have strong starters in the rotation and I think that's our real problem, to be honest. Our ace is 38-year old Christian O'Halloran. He went 14-7 last year with 209 Ks and 105 walks in 33 starts. Part of that is just the offensive explosion that's hit the league the past decade and part of that is that he's old as hell. 27-year old Tony Ibarra is solid (13-9, 6.12 ERA) but gets smacked for too many homers and never really reached the potential he had, to begin with. He's a leftie tho and as a result, he'll always be a commodity. Just shouldn't be at the top of anyone's rotation. We'll explore free agency next and see if there is anyone worth having or whether we ought to stand pat, explore trades or something else.

01-13-2009, 10:38 PM	#4
darkcloud4579 Hall Of Famer Join Date: Jun 2003 Posts: 8,663	Here's the team ratings: It's the first night of free agency tonight and really, with the lack of pitching the team has, it seems plausible that we ought to blow the team up, seek out prospects and see if we can't come back in a few years and dominate. It just seems like the most sensible way to do this. If you see some way of salvaging it, looking at that roster, then feel free to let us know. More details after night 1 of FA, in which we can take a look at other teams that might be interested in our players. Or they might just post here and tell us directly.

01-14-2009, 12:27 AM	#6
darkcloud4579 Hall Of Famer Join Date: Jun 2003 Posts: 8,663	Yeah, the ratings in FOOL have always been kinda out of whack. Top Players It actually adds to the degree of difficulty because well...how do you rate a bunch of guys who seem to have maxed out ratings? Stats come into play pretty heavily in the league for that reason. It ebbs and flows. For about a decade and a half, pitchers dominated and now we're back to an era where hitters are the dominant cast of characters for the past decade or so. Columbus only has one guy on the Top 20 players list of hitters or pitchers, so...that gives an idea of what sort of talent they're up against.

01-14-2009, 08:52 PM	#9
darkcloud4579 Hall Of Famer Join Date: Jun 2003 Posts: 8,663	It might be safe just to stand pat and see where the chips fall. Based on what you see, what does the team need? Pitching seems to stand out to me, but I'm not sure if I'm reading that right... Tonight is the 2nd night of free agency, so it might be a good opportunity to pick up something on the cheap. The real question is, do we bring back Christian O'Halloran?

01-14-2009, 11:03 PM	#12
darkcloud4579 Hall Of Famer Join Date: Jun 2003 Posts: 8,663	Colorado has these guys on the block too... Might be worth talking to him, dunno what we'd send him, tho.

01-14-2009, 11:06 PM	#13
darkcloud4579 Hall Of Famer Join Date: Jun 2003 Posts: 8,663	Thursday, January 9th, 2003 Columbus Crusaders: Signed free agent 1B G. Castillo to a 2-year contract worth a total of $1,217,500.

01-14-2009, 11:41 PM	#14
darkcloud4579 Hall Of Famer Join Date: Jun 2003 Posts: 8,663	If you want to take a look at the league file, you can download the .dat files here. Save them in a FOOL.lg folder in your saved_games in OOTP. After that, you could access in-game downloads of the online league files each night just like the other owners in the league do. The user is called Columbus Community and there isn't a password on the account.

01-15-2009, 01:04 AM	#15
darkcloud4579 Hall Of Famer Join Date: Jun 2003 Posts: 8,663	Some guys that might be worth asking for in a trade, maybe. Alfredo Chavez IF (2b/SS) (Montreal) Raul Rivera IF (Montreal) I think looking at the roster, some of these guys might be worth trading. LF Tomas Valenzuela OF Ken Makino Closer Cal Murdoch Maybe someone else on the roster, too. But I'm thinking that going out and getting some of the ample young pitching out there is gonna be key to getting the team back, because it's the hardest thing to get in this league.

01-15-2009, 01:06 AM	#16
darkcloud4579 Hall Of Famer Join Date: Jun 2003 Posts: 8,663	The team can be relocated, too, if that'll help with immersion and a "sense of ownership." Any ideas?

01-17-2009, 12:26 AM	#17
darkcloud4579 Hall Of Famer Join Date: Jun 2003 Posts: 8,663	Tonight is the first season under group control. We'll see how it goes. Have little to no expectations. O'Halloran lowered his price, so we could make an opening day sign of him, but would have to go with a 24-man roster for the chance to sign him and if he didn't sign, we'd play short all year. Seems like it's better not to do that and just let the year ride out, I say. Well in any case, here goes nothing!

01-18-2009, 05:09 PM	#19
darkcloud4579 Hall Of Famer Join Date: Jun 2003 Posts: 8,663	The Columbus Crusaders are moving to either New York to become the Heroes of New York or to Philadelphia to become the Philadelphia Quakers. Which do you prefer?