P404 (2025)

[PhysicsTeacher]

Welcome to 2025. I run the Florida Phoenix, and this is our first season at the perfect level. Unlike some of the other perfect leagues this season, this one is fully subscribed with 30 teams.



Let's get some dialogue going!

[Medici]

Originally Posted by PhysicsTeacher

Welcome to 2025. I run the Florida Phoenix, and this is our first season at the perfect level. Unlike some of the other perfect leagues this season, this one is fully subscribed with 30 teams.



Let's get some dialogue going!

Hey PhysicsTeacher! My IB Breakers are also in their first season of Perfect League. Some extremely hot-out of the gate starts for the division leaders! Hoping to bounce back a little tomorrow.

[PhysicsTeacher]

Originally Posted by Medici

Some extremely hot-out of the gate starts for the division leaders!

Definitely! The Coyotes are 21-2, Hagerstown is 19-3, that is very impressive! At least we're not in their divisions ...

[joehart]

Coyotes checking in. Looks like the re-shuffle was more kind this time around.

My Coyotes were in the PT universe with 3 of the top6 teams in the entire universe for way too long. Going against teams with 20+ Perfect cards was starting to get a bit stale.

I really like your Breakers. Ozzie with four GGlove awards. Wow.
Looks like Mookie took over his spot and he is now just a backup.
I have not given up on him yet and will give another year at SS (despite his terrible start). Looks like we meet later in July for 3 games.


I will meet your Phoenix for 6 games this year. We will have to wait a few more days but it should be interesting.
You have solid pitching and a great set of relievers. A nice set of two All-Star catcher and power everywhere. Looks like you ended in the toughest of the divisions.

[PhysicsTeacher]

Originally Posted by joehart

I will meet your Phoenix for 6 games this year. We will have to wait a few more days but it should be interesting.
You have solid pitching and a great set of relievers. A nice set of two All-Star catcher and power everywhere. Looks like you ended in the toughest of the divisions.

I'm a big fan of McCarver. I always try to setup a L/R catcher platoon.

You've got little Vlad. I would love to get him for my team.

I see you subscribe to the using starters as short/middle relief approach. That seems like an expensive way to go about it. How has it worked out for you? Also, I have played around with the LH/RH specialist deal, but I didn't really give it enough time to play out. I just couldn't spare the extra bullpen roster slot, with my penchant for platooning.

Finally, I'll note that you have an interesting set of park factors. How did you arrive at those numbers? Are you modeling a real-life stadium? Our park is completely maxed out as a pitcher's park. My hitters hate it.

[joehart]

Agree, McCarver has been fairly reliable.

I am not set on the 92 Bench yet. I traded up from a Fosse but the results so far have been identical (but at a much higher cost). Looks like your Downing provides the same excellent abilities with a good OPS+.

I have never gone the specialist route before (except for Doolittle).

It seems the Middle Relief guys go in first and then hand it off to the Stoppers or King Felix (my Long relief guy...very strange). I don't see them get used very often.
Given their good stats, I was hoping I could send them in a lot more often (wish there was an option that tells them to get used more often, against power guys, high contact guys, …)
My plan was to test it and see how it works and go from there. I don't really have enough data to say one method is better than the other.

So far I am happy with the extra starters in the bullpen. Most of them were on my teams and I have some *unnecessary* attachment to them. Also, too often the closers I wanted were not available (100 Eckersley, 86 Rivera, ..)

Take a look at your losses and see if you have no available relievers. I found that I would lose quite a few games per season because my 6 relievers were exhausted and gave up lots of hits and earned runs. I have not seen it happen with 7-8 relievers.

The Park dimensions are a carry over from the first season. At the time, I had a lot of lefties (Corbin, Wood, Luzardo, Keuchel, Paxton, Haddix) so they received a little extra benefit against RHB.
I have been wanting to go back to adjust the stadium but keep arriving too late or forgetting about it.

I tried to have your stadium dimensions with my other team but never achieved the results I wanted.
I could not score at all and teams coming in ended up with lots of wins at my park. I ended up getting all my wins on the road suggesting that my team was not meant for it. On the other hand, I have seen your dimensions with some 20+ 100card teams that had lots of contact and power. Not sure if they gained an advantage from the stadium dimensions or because they were in the top10 of all teams in the PT universe.

I wish I tested it in the beta with a few identical teams in the same league. Maybe on the to-do list for OOTP20 to collect data and measure the differences.

[joehart]

Since you have lots of platoons, do you see your batters vs LHPs get cold or end up with worse than expected stats.
Take a look at your Pujols, Speier, and Thomas data.
For some reason, when I play them every day I see excellent platoon stats (against LHPs) but when I start them only every few days against LHPs, they tend to underperform.

I used to platoon 1B but after looking at 30K players from the last few years, it was easier to just settle on Edgar Martinez.
He gave me 2.6 WAR twice in a much stronger PT division.
If you ever need an extra player, see what you get from McCovey when you play him every day. I don't have enough instances of him playing across the PT universe, but he performed
well for the 3 teams that had him the last 2 seasons (~2.5-3 WAR) and played him every day.

[Medici]

Originally Posted by joehart

Coyotes checking in. Looks like the re-shuffle was more kind this time around.

My Coyotes were in the PT universe with 3 of the top6 teams in the entire universe for way too long. Going against teams with 20+ Perfect cards was starting to get a bit stale.

I really like your Breakers. Ozzie with four GGlove awards. Wow.
Looks like Mookie took over his spot and he is now just a backup.
I have not given up on him yet and will give another year at SS (despite his terrible start). Looks like we meet later in July for 3 games.


I will meet your Phoenix for 6 games this year. We will have to wait a few more days but it should be interesting.
You have solid pitching and a great set of relievers. A nice set of two All-Star catcher and power everywhere. Looks like you ended in the toughest of the divisions.

Hey Joe! Congrats on a great start with your Coyotes! I've never seen a team start off 22-4. Your team is very balanced. Really like the Ty Cobb in center. That's on my wishlist someday ;-)

You are right, I transitioned from Ozzie at 2B to Mookie last year. While Ozzie performed great, I needed the extra offense. I started with a defense first mindset but slowly began replacing players with bigger bats. Ozzie was still worth 1.5WAR off the bench and he'll stay on the roster.

[joehart]

Agree, never seen such a hot start with any of my teams.
Usually it is the other way around. I am usually always catching up after day 1.

Ty Cobb has been one of the few amazing pack finds in our family. His ratings have been great these last 3 years. Initially, I considered a re-train to RF and leave Trout in CF. But so far it worked out ok with him in CF and Trout in LF (106 defensive rating).

I used to have the same 90 Tony Gwynn card but switched back to the 87 card which has a 87 Defensive rating for RF and seems to hit as well.
Hope your 97 Randy Johnson starts to turn things around. I had the same trouble with him before and ended up selling him because of it.

[PhysicsTeacher]

I've been very disappointed by the Phoenix start, and today we had a major housecleaning. Eleven players out of 25 were replaced. Three of the new players arrived via the auction block; the others were already in our system. I'd like to say that our hitting couldn't have been any worse, but I know that I would be tempting the OOTP gods if I said that, so I won't.

Ted Williams and Jose Ramirez went on the block, and Jose sold immediately. Ted has been a major disappointment for some time, and I need to repurpose those PP.

The bullpen got a thorough housecleaning, with four new faces. We have a new DH platoon, new full-time middle infielders, and a new CF. Trout is now playing LF.

I took the advice to let McCovey play 1B full time.

[PhysicsTeacher]

Originally Posted by joehart

Since you have lots of platoons, do you see your batters vs LHPs get cold or end up with worse than expected stats.
Take a look at your Pujols, Speier, and Thomas data.
For some reason, when I play them every day I see excellent platoon stats (against LHPs) but when I start them only every few days against LHPs, they tend to underperform.

Speier has managed league average production almost every season for me, with one outlier at the silver level where he posted a 128 OPS+. This season, his .206 BA and .572 OPS had to go.

I don't have any long-term experience with the other two, but Pujols has amazing splits ratings vs LHP. I'll keep him around and give him another chance next season.

[PhysicsTeacher]

Originally Posted by joehart

Take a look at your losses and see if you have no available relievers. I found that I would lose quite a few games per season because my 6 relievers were exhausted and gave up lots of hits and earned runs. I have not seen it happen with 7-8 relievers.

That has not been an issue for me. I keep an eye on it.

[PhysicsTeacher]

Originally Posted by joehart

I tried to have your stadium dimensions with my other team but never achieved the results I wanted.
I could not score at all and teams coming in ended up with lots of wins at my park. I ended up getting all my wins on the road suggesting that my team was not meant for it. On the other hand, I have seen your dimensions with some 20+ 100card teams that had lots of contact and power. Not sure if they gained an advantage from the stadium dimensions or because they were in the top10 of all teams in the PT universe.

I've used this stadium with strong results. My approach has been to focus on hitters with high EYE ratings, as that is not affected by the stadium factors. I figure if we can get enough base runners, perhaps some of them will find their way home. Also, it helps get into the other team's pen faster.

[Zorro]

Originally Posted by Medici

Hey Joe! Congrats on a great start with your Coyotes! I've never seen a team start off 22-4. Your team is very balanced. Really like the Ty Cobb in center. That's on my wishlist someday ;-)

You are right, I transitioned from Ozzie at 2B to Mookie last year. While Ozzie performed great, I needed the extra offense. I started with a defense first mindset but slowly began replacing players with bigger bats. Ozzie was still worth 1.5WAR off the bench and he'll stay on the roster.

Hey Medici, Welcome Breakers to the perfect league.....

[joehart]

Originally Posted by PhysicsTeacher

I've used this stadium with strong results. My approach has been to focus on hitters with high EYE ratings, as that is not affected by the stadium factors. I figure if we can get enough base runners, perhaps some of them will find their way home. Also, it helps get into the other team's pen faster.

I am very interested to see how this works out. I was able to put people on base easily in the earlier leagues but it is getting so difficult with all these amazing 95-100 pitchers.

I looked at players with 80+ Walks/season for Perfect leagues and
the number of players to achieve this are pretty short (and mostly outside my budget):
100 Trout, 100 Bonds, 100 Ted Williams, 100 Babe Ruth, 100 Mickey Mantle, 98 Joe Morgan, 86 Harper, 97 Jose Ramirez

On my team only the following players seem to be on track:
89 Edgar Martinez, 100 Trout, 95 Altuve, 100 Mookie Betts and 96 Vlad Jr


I fear getting lots of walks is an expensive trial. It may take a long term approach over multiple seasons and ongoing small improvements.
I really hope this works out.

[joehart]

Originally Posted by PhysicsTeacher

I've been very disappointed by the Phoenix start, and today we had a major housecleaning. Eleven players out of 25 were replaced.
The bullpen got a thorough housecleaning, with four new faces. We have a new DH platoon, new full-time middle infielders, and a new CF. Trout is now playing LF.
I took the advice to let McCovey play 1B full time.

Let's see how this plays out....here is our mini 1B competition:

Edgar Martinez, .277 AVG, 26 Walks, 7 HR, 131 OPS+, 1.2 WAR in 50 starts

Willie McCovey, .258 AVG, 23 Walks, 8 HR, 137 OPS+, 0.8 WAR in 43 starts


Also, looks like our two teams will face each other tomorrow night. Good luck.
Hope you can climb in your division to stay within striking distance of a playoff spot.

[thehitcat]

Hi guys Raymond Landlocked Salmon here. My team is made up of Boston players (primarily Red Sox and a couple Braves) This is my second season in Perfect and my team is just starting to find its sea legs (but sadly in a division with Redmond I don't think a couple over .500 is going to cut it.)

Good luck to all

[joehart]

Hi Raymond Landlocked Salmon, very impressed with your team.

Our split is 4-2 for now but I would be surprised if it stays in my favor.

It looks like you had some bad luck in April but were the better team in May.
Pedro is the top pitcher in the game. Your Pedro Martinez/Cy Young combo is to be avoided at all cost in the playoffs.
I am sure you would run away with the division if you decided to remove your self imposed restrictions.

Have you tried the Ted Williams card yet. He has some great stats vs RHPs.
Manny Ramirez adds the missing good platoon stats vs LHPs.

Looking for any other specific card?

[Medici]

Originally Posted by thehitcat

Hi guys Raymond Landlocked Salmon here. My team is made up of Boston players (primarily Red Sox and a couple Braves) This is my second season in Perfect and my team is just starting to find its sea legs (but sadly in a division with Redmond I don't think a couple over .500 is going to cut it.)

Good luck to all

Hey hitcat! Good to see you on here. I enjoy following the historical teams. No Ted Williams on the all time BoSox team? Your 100 Pedro Card must be the best starting pitching card in the game!

Your team is much better positioned to chase Redmond than mine. Good luck!

[Medici]

Originally Posted by joehart

Agree, never seen such a hot start with any of my teams.
Usually it is the other way around. I am usually always catching up after day 1.

Ty Cobb has been one of the few amazing pack finds in our family. His ratings have been great these last 3 years. Initially, I considered a re-train to RF and leave Trout in CF. But so far it worked out ok with him in CF and Trout in LF (106 defensive rating).

I used to have the same 90 Tony Gwynn card but switched back to the 87 card which has a 87 Defensive rating for RF and seems to hit as well.
Hope your 97 Randy Johnson starts to turn things around. I had the same trouble with him before and ended up selling him because of it.

I've given the same thought about swapping Gwyn's out to trade a little contact and power for better D and Speed. I'll definitely keep an eye on the other 87 Gwyn's performance and evaluate.