Season 10 (2028) General Discussion

[bonalditaylor]

Heya P402 peoples! Yup Id agree my pitching is underperforming. I may have to address my defence in the outfield postseason and see if that helps it. Iam playing in a batters park, so ya overall Id expect to have my bats win games for me, but Im sure we three will make the playoffs. Good luck!

[Magus978]

21-34 after two days of Silver play, and I'm pretty much resigned to the fact that we're going straight back down to Bronze. I've never taken this whole failure thing well at all, but there's literally nothing I can do. Hard to fix anything when you only make 200 points all day.

That said, who'd like to come to my relegation party? There will be alcohol. Lots of it...

[waittilnextyear]

The Frogs continue to work at a respectable week in P415. Squad is 33-22, 3rd in the division with a 3.5 game lead for the last wild card spot. The division is likely out of the question as the Pine Tar Pirates are on another level. The current 2nd place DDingu Eagles also have a much better roster.

The inverted rotation-bullpen pitching experiment continues. I expanded to a 5-man "rotation" of all lefties because there were very few off days and the "starters" were making their starts at ~60% stamina. Even with a rough schedule that included 2 stretches of 13 games in 13 days, and a 21-1 defeat at the hands of the Pine Tar Pirates, the pitching is hanging in there. Starter ERA is 5.24 (was 5.27 last week with actual starting pitchers). Bullpen ERA is 3.85 and this is the number that I'm considering most because the "bullpen" is accounting for 7+ innings of each game with this setup.

Some interesting tidbits in the pitching stats--the team is 2nd in strikeouts whereas it was 12th last week. The stuff boost starting pitchers get from pitching out of the bullpen is the main thing here I suspect. The team is 9th in runs allowed (vs 11th last week). The team has the lowest batting average allowed (.231), but is 13th in BBs and 14th in HR allowed despite playing in a HR-suppressing ballpark.

I also finally snagged the gold Richie Ashburn card I'd been looking for. That card doesn't last long in the AH and paying the average price (just 3800 PP) makes it all the more sweet.

[Findest2001]

Originally Posted by Magus978

21-34 after two days of Silver play, and I'm pretty much resigned to the fact that we're going straight back down to Bronze. I've never taken this whole failure thing well at all, but there's literally nothing I can do. Hard to fix anything when you only make 200 points all day.

That said, who'd like to come to my relegation party? There will be alcohol. Lots of it...

I'm in your division, so I feel your pain :P Good luck. I hope the PP starts raining in for you.

[Westheim]

The free pack-packing Rebels are 30-25 in Silver at this point, leading their division by a sneeze and a prayer. Amusingly(?) nobody on the teams stands out. They are all rather ho-hum. F.e. nobody on the team has an OPS+ higher than 114. There's a 76 and a couple of 81s. The 76 is actually the most mind-numbing, since it's Giancarlo Stanton, who should on paper be my very, very best batter. Hitting .198 so far!

The all-out Raccoons (also in Perfect .402) are just baaarely hanging on. 25-28 and sinking. Right near the bottom in defense and ERA, which puzzled me a little bit, but then I have bit by bit given up on the watertight infield defense to get the offense going in the last few seasons, and right now I have only Dick Bartell at short (106 DEF) left as position player with a defense of 80 or better at his assigned position… so, what now? Switch out the entire hitting corps? At the very least I have to find a replacement backup for the left side of the infield with Brandon Crawford coming up with a .439 OPS. Also, find some river to drown the collossal disappointment Yasmani Grandal in. .195/.301/.256. Woof! Woof!!

And then there is my Accountants, who are in an entry pool for the week and playing under .500. I am going all-market on those, and they are also free to play (like the Rebels). Hey, I'm only a small accountant, I can't afford to finance three competitive teams.

Trying a market approach with them, including finding deals to make some PP on the side. So far this has not worked out I have yet to sell a single player I bought for profit.

[old timer]

Originally Posted by pappyzan

Senators are 43-10. If this team is winning at a .800+ clip, something is up. I mean, they should usually compete for a playoff spot, but P404 is scraping the bottom of the proverbial barrel. Totally expecting Karma to do its thing and put this team in the WC game and watch the dice roll.

That's how I feel about my Raccoons who are 46-9 .836 (+3 Pyt, +164 RDiff). No way this team is that good. The previous 2 seasons in perfect, we won at a .704 clip which seems about right. I keep waiting for a losing streak to bring us back to earth. So far, we've had two losing streaks of 2 games and that's it. Weird!

The bullpen has been amazing so far with a 1.77 ERA and my SPs are doing great as usual, but Spahn is a surprise. He's my #5 and I'm saving up PP to replace him, though I'm afraid it might take a while to find anyone on the AH these days.

My Mudhens are dead last in silver and I just don't think they're that bad. Their pitching went from 1st to worst in 1 season. I'm hoping to get some pitching upgrades soon. Our defense was great last year, but is underperforming this season so that's no doubt part of the problem.

[X3NEIZE]

I actually think your team is that good when compared to the rest of the league.... There are some well built teams, sure but it's hard to overcome the difference in raw ratings this season for many of those teams.

[Westheim]

Yaay, first profit to pencil down for the Accountants, making 93 PP on a 2012 Jim Johnson card. I just hope I can contain myself and not drink it all away at once.

[Orcin]

Originally Posted by Westheim

Yaay, first profit to pencil down for the Accountants, making 93 PP on a 2012 Jim Johnson card. I just hope I can contain myself and not drink it all away at once.

At this rate, you only have to sell 6,000 more cards to get that perfect Walter.

[X3NEIZE]

Originally Posted by Orcin

At this rate, you only have to sell 6,000 more cards to get that perfect Walter.

More like 6500

[Magus978]

Originally Posted by Findest2001

I'm in your division, so I feel your pain :P Good luck. I hope the PP starts raining in for you.

It will...next week, when I'm back in Bronze after my first humiliating relegation.

[Westheim]

Originally Posted by Orcin

At this rate, you only have to sell 6,000 more cards to get that perfect Walter.

The thing is, the margins are not really all that great at the silver level, and I don't have the funds to splurge on gold cards.

Although I *did* pick up two "better" silver cards for like half market value. One of those is 1959 Nellie Fox, who I got for 300 rather than the recent 699 PP. I thought that he might also be able to contribute a bit on the field before turning him into a bag o' cash, but in 18 games he accumulated *zero* PP. And this *does* include team achievements! The Accountants got NO team achievements in any of the 18 games Nellie played in.

Nel, you're bad luck. Pack your crap and get outta here!

Similar story with all the dough you get for those one-time "first" achievements. I wrapped those into a 1950 Hoot Evers card, who I have a soft spot for after playing that 1950 Tigers season last year, and I have Hoot in left now, but he's not really raking it, either…

[HRBaker]

My F2P team, Collectors, just finished a 22 game winning streak to follow a 13 game streak earlier in the season. This is the team that spent too long in Iron (4 seasons of 100+ wins) and I'm currently 54-8 in Bronze.

[Westheim]

After two days, I have more silver+ cards on my market-only team than I have on my pack-only team that started to play on the first day PT 20 went live. That probably means something...

[waittilnextyear]

Originally Posted by Westheim

Similar story with all the dough you get for those one-time "first" achievements. I wrapped those into a 1950 Hoot Evers card, who I have a soft spot for after playing that 1950 Tigers season last year, and I have Hoot in left now, but he's not really raking it, either…

He could be a real Hoot against left-handed pitching...

Originally Posted by HRBaker

My F2P team, Collectors, just finished a 22 game winning streak to follow a 13 game streak earlier in the season. This is the team that spent too long in Iron (4 seasons of 100+ wins) and I'm currently 54-8 in Bronze.

Ah, I thought that team name sounded familiar. I was scrolling thru the PT universe yesterday sorted by team wins and that team stood out as having a whole lot of wins for a team still at bronze level. I don't think this is the case here, but I almost thought it was a team that was trying to intentionally stay in a lower level to rack up PP faster to do the "collecting"/purchasing of all the cards in PT. But, bad playoff luck I think is the real reason now that I think about it more.

[HRBaker]

Originally Posted by waittilnextyear

He could be a real Hoot against left-handed pitching...



Ah, I thought that team name sounded familiar. I was scrolling thru the PT universe yesterday sorted by team wins and that team stood out as having a whole lot of wins for a team still at bronze level. I don't think this is the case here, but I almost thought it was a team that was trying to intentionally stay in a lower level to rack up PP faster to do the "collecting"/purchasing of all the cards in PT. But, bad playoff luck I think is the real reason now that I think about it more.

Bad playoff luck is exactly the problem.. I lost twice to wild card teams, once in a division series, and once in a subdivision series, before I finally broke through. That was after 4 seasons totalling 457 wins and 191 losses.

[Thornbreaker]

As of this morning, I was actually in the running for a Wild Card spot with a positive record in the PL. Tough tough division though as the top 3 are vying for both wild card spots and the division seed.

My other teams dance toward mediocrity again.

[waittilnextyear]

June 3rd, 2028 and the Frogs are 49-32 in P415. Nine games out of the division, but with a sturdy 7.5 game lead for the final wild card berth. The team is 4th in scoring and 7th in preventing runs. It's still early but cautiously optimistic of making the playoffs as a wild card team.

The inverted bullpen-rotation experiment seems to be working. Halfway through the season and the team's "bullpen ERA" (mostly converted starters with 3 actual late-inning relievers in the pen) is 3.61. This was 3.25 at the end of Monday, 3.85 at the end of Tuesday, and now has dipped back down a bit. Compare to last week's 5.27 starter ERA. Encouraging! Shaving ~1.5 runs per game off the old team ERA should result in many more wins while avoiding paying ransom prices for starting pitching.

Now, the downside of this experiment? Really haven't been able to drop below 13 pitchers on the active roster due to fatigue levels. I will play with pitch counts and manager hook a bit more, but 4 "starters" + 9 "relievers" or 5 "starters" + 8 "relievers" seems to be necessary at all times, with the "rotation" size depending on how many/few off days are on the schedule.

[Westheim]

Rebels slithered back to .500 in Silver with a weak June and don't look like much of a playoff case right now.

Raccoons did end an 8-game winning streak in the last sim of tonight's cycle by blowing a 3-run lead in the ninth. Thanks, Blake. Even with that 8-game winning streak, they still only made it back to 36-44 thanks to an 1-8 run immediately before the streak…

Accountants have a new record deal, +293 PP on a 2016 Rick Porcello card. Still not good enough to enter the gold market, though.

[Orcin]

Originally Posted by waittilnextyear

Now, the downside of this experiment? Really haven't been able to drop below 13 pitchers on the active roster due to fatigue levels. I will play with pitch counts and manager hook a bit more, but 4 "starters" + 9 "relievers" or 5 "starters" + 8 "relievers" seems to be necessary at all times, with the "rotation" size depending on how many/few off days are on the schedule.

I highly recommend Adalberto Mondesi if you don’t have him already. He can train to green levels at every position except catcher, and he is a great pinch-runner. That helps a thin bench.