Season MJ (23) Discussion Thread (2041)

[One Great Matrix]

Originally Posted by Argonaut

Has anybody ever run into the Glendale Golden Grizzlies? I'm pretty sure they have the best roster in all of Perfect Team. PEAK Bonds, Ripken, and Ruth and about 30 other Perfects on the reserve roster. All the best pitchers of course. I can't even guess how much PP he bought... maybe $50,000 worth? More?

So, my Cowboys beat him 3 games to 1 in this year's matchup. And I am running some absolute trash on my team as I wait for PP to build up. Jim Bunning 88 in the rotation, and he even won a game against them. Terry Leach 68 in the bullpen. Anyway I thought that was funny.

Yes, I faced them last season? I have run into a few teams that seem about as difficult as them. You can look up their all-time records in the managers & rankings. Right now the Grizzlies rank about 90-95th in win pct. among Perfects teams with at least 2000 wins. Seems I've faced all these juggernauts. About half of them anyway. Been good with not getting stuck in the same division as them but there are often 2-3+ in the same league as my team.

It feels good to win games with players with low expectations just like it's disappointing to lose games when you've set an optimal lineup and pitching staff.

[One Great Matrix]

My pyth is -6 and we just didn't compete very well this season. There are a few very good teams that could win the league. 4-12 against Sluggers so far...1-5 against Freaks. And didn't help that we didn't do particularly well against the other teams in many cases either. 3 out of my 5 starters had particularly rough seasons.

I had a worse Run differential in a season that I finished 30 games above .500 … the importance of timely hitting. Wonder if my batting order was ill-conceived or I was just unlucky this season and lucky the other one. Of course I kind of packed it in with 20 games left in the season (put in all my super subs) but my record would only be maybe 2 games better had I not.

+61 at 80-80
+54 at 96-66 in 2037.

[Izz]

B'sin'Glou are 72-81 and very nearly officially eliminated. After staying around .500 up until September, we've gone 6-14 so far in the month. We're 5th in runs scored, with isn't a bad result (though 677 isn't all that many). Dean Chance is 16-10, and Strasburg just threw a Maddox for his 14th win. Also, we're now 2nd in baserunning!

[One Great Matrix]

Originally Posted by Izz

B'sin'Glou are 72-81 and very nearly officially eliminated. After staying around .500 up until September, we've gone 6-14 so far in the month. We're 5th in runs scored, with isn't a bad result (though 677 isn't all that many). Dean Chance is 16-10, and Strasburg just threw a Maddox for his 14th win. Also, we're now 2nd in baserunning!

My monthlies have been like no other season I've had so far:

14-14
15-13
12-15
11-13
18-8
9-11 with 9 games remaining.

So far in the very good seasons I might have a month or two around .500, but in my other seasons I haven't made the playoffs I didn't have a month as good as my August this season. Of course this is the first time since my first season in diamond I am going to finish with 80-something Ws. I was more consistent that season the way I remember it.

[JasonC23]

Originally Posted by Argonaut

Has anybody ever run into the Glendale Golden Grizzlies?

From the Season 21 discussion thread (http://www.ootpdevelopments.com/boar...d.php?t=305905)...

Originally Posted by JasonC23

The Golden Grizzlies defended their home turf well, winning 3-2, 7-4, and 2-1 to take the Sub-League Series 4-1 over the Huntley Red Raiders.

Originally Posted by JasonC23

The Glendale Golden Grizzlies finished off a spectacular 12-2 playoff run with a 4-1 Perfect League Series win versus the Ottawa Knights.

[yno88]

My KC Athletics team made the last wildcard at 78-84. The other 4 teams in the NC making the playoffs have win totals of 126, 120, 120, and 109.

Got 'em where we want 'em now.

[JasonC23]

In the AC, the Chicago Cubbies held off the Dyersville Ghosts to win the AC West and claim the top seed. The Wild Card matchup will be one to watch, as 113-win Dyersville takes on the 101-win (and Perfect League champ just last season) San Dimas Wyld Stallyns.

Over in the NC, if you stared off into the distance and squinted really hard, you could just barely make out the fading lights of the Austin Express as they chugged far, far, far away from everyone else, pacing P425 with an amazing 128 wins. The other Division Series matchup will be intriguing, with the 92-win Central Falcons matching up with the #2 seed 102-win Guelph Diamond Cats.

As for the Huntley Red Raiders, we finished a distant second to Austin in the NC West with 106 wins. Our reward? Hosting a win-or-go-home Wild Card game against the Novato Condors. Huntley finished 24 games ahead of the 82-80 Condors and went 7-0 against them during the regular season, so, naturally, I assume the Condors will clobber Ed Walsh and the Red Raiders and move on...

Standings and bracket follow:

[Dogberry99]

SE George Sisler led the AC in Home Runs with 34 and led the entirety of P427 in SLG with a robust .596. Not too shabby for a card based on a year in which the slugger hit 19 home runs

[Magus978]

It's time for the weekly recap...

New York Patriots (G307, OL): 92-70, NC West champions. New York pulled away in the 2nd half with a 39-25 Post-ASG record, taking advantage of some terrible Post-ASG records in their division. Willie Keeler is presumably the NC MVP-elect, winning the batting title by a mile with his .361 average as well as leading batter WAR at 6.0. They'll face the Janesville Onyx in the postseason.

Brooklyn Dynasty (P429, $): 78-84, last in NC Central. Despite an excellent bounceback season from Cy Blanton (19-6, 3.13), the Dynasty finish rock bottom of their division. Massive letdown seasons from last week's batting champion Jeff McNeil (.277, 7 HR, 80 RBI), Garry Maddox (.261, 4 HR, 57 RBI), and Hugh Duffy (.255, 10 HR, 68 RBI) as well as an abysmal season from the bullpen all combine for a poor season.

Connor Joe Appreciation Society (S292, Meme): 82-80, 2nd in NC Central. This club was all kinds of meh all season, never straying too far from .500. In fact, they were so uninteresting, I can't think of anything worth writing about. Next!

Blitzkrieg Boppers (P414, OL): 90-72, AC Central champions. The Boppers pretty much go wire to wire and hang on for their first trip to the playoffs at this level. Great seasons by Vada Pinson (.273, 24 HR, 105 RBI), Hugh Duffy (.299, 23 HR, 102 RBI), and Rickey Henderson (.276, 19 HR, 80 RBI, 6.9 WAR) as well as a great season on the mound by Whit Wyatt (18-7, 3.78). The Boppers will face off with AC East champion Asgard Warhammers (94-68) in the divisional round.

New York Mets (S314, OL): 77-85, 4th in AC Central. This was a team that just could not hit well enough to win consistently. Despite diamond-caliber cards in Gregg Jefferies (.263, 20 HR, 90 RBI) & Roberto Alomar (.258, 15 HR, 68 RBI), the Mets could not get it going with the bats. This team will begin a massive sell-off tonight and be re-branded as the Northeast Corridor Capitals, a team that features players from New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Massachusetts, Delaware, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Washington D.C.

Metuchen Mariners (D363, Pack Only): 79-83, 3rd in NC West. A batting title year from Harry Walker (.348, 4 HR, 57 RBI) as well as great season from Al Kaline (.341, 21 HR, 86 RBI) could not prevent the Mariners from being a disaster with regards to their pitching. Warren Spahn (15-10, 3.42) led the way for a very disappointing staff. It is believed that the Mariners will look to sell not just Spahn, but the rest of their starting rotation in order to finance open tryouts for the 2042 season.

Raleigh Rage (S330): 82-80, 3rd in AC East. An unwillingness to focus on improving pitching has resulted in another disappointing season for the Rage, who seem hell bent on brute forcing their way through everything even though it is no longer proving successful. Jeff Kent (.290, 22 HR, 96 RBI) led the team with the bats, while Ryan Brasier (3-3, 2.36 in 72.1 IP) had the only sub-3.00 ERA for the entire pitching staff.

St. John's Silver Sox (I198, Pack Only): 113-49, AC West champions. The Silver Sox have been at this level for 7 weeks now, and after a big season from Whitey Ford (20-6, 2.50), Carlos Rodon (19-4, 2.76), and Al Cowens (.298, 28 HR, 125 RBI), St. John's will be expecting to at least make it out of the divisional round, where they await the wildcard round winner.

Steelport Saints (S314, OL): 90-72, 2nd in AC West. A late charge failed to materialize for the Saints, who despite the total domination of Lefty Grove (23-5, 2.34), were pretty much undone by the rest of their pitching staff. In spite of their incompetence on the mound, they still won a wildcard spot and will face the Asylum Keepers in the opening round. If they're going to secure what would be an unexpected promotion to gold, they'll need the pitching to wake up.

[waittilnextyear]

Most everything went right for the Frogs in the 2041 regular season. They finished 117-45, winning the division by 21 games. 96 Roger Clemens pitched a no hitter. Christy Mathewson recorded 22 wins and 8.1 WAR (likely the best in franchise history in both categories). SE George Sisler went 30/30, led the conference with 156 RBI, placed 2nd in batting average (.321), and 2nd in HR (35). Sisler also led the conference in runs (118), doubles (65), hits (214), and SLG (.586). He's got a decent shot at MVP although another team's perfect Ted Williams had a similarly great season. SE Rickey Henderson led the league in SB (59) despite not becoming a true starter until mid-way thru the season. 77 Tony Gwynn took home his 3rd batting title for the Frogs with a .343 AVG. The team set franchise bests in wins (117), RDiff (+347), runs scored (912), and batting average (.299).

It wasn't quite enough to take the #1 overall seed in the playoffs--the Whatevers ended up 119-43 despite the Frogs having a slightly better RDiff. So the Frogs will meet the #3 seeded Pittsburgh Hurons in the DS. The Hurons won 97 games, scored the most runs (932), and hit the most HR (247) in the conference. This is a team that went 152-10 in their inaugural season in Iron back in 2032 so not to be taken lightly. I hope that my home field advantage and minimized HR ballpark factors will help take the edge off of this team a bit. They have an all-perfect lineup with a nice mix of LIVE (Trout, Lindor, Yelich, Rendon), historical (Hornsby, Williams, Aaron, Campanella), and POTM (Bellinger).

[Marleigh]

Paragon City Heroes are at the end of a 3 year rebuilding process and had a league best 104-58 record. Very pleased with that.

The team was led by the pitching staff who were unreal. Max Scherzer (24-6 2.86) missed a triple crown by 20Ks, Catfish Hunter (15-8 3.30) led the league in IP, and Greg Maddux (14-13 3.88) was the unluckiest pitcher on the staff, he led pitcher in WAR (5.5) and also FIP (3.44) considering I have one of the best defences in the league they must have really underplayed for him, though, i'm guessing Madlock is to blame for most of that though. Lee Smith led the league in saves (43). Scherzer must be a lock for pitcher of the year

On offence, the late/between season pickups of Kirby Puckett and Bill Madlock really shone. Puckett was the undoubted star though, winning a batting title (.327) and RBI crown (111) though he was never going to challenge for a triple crown with just 23 HR. Madlock was 4th in average (.314) and RBI (104). I think Puckett definitely has a shot at MVP. Gwynn was brought in for the last third of the season and performed well at DH and Gehringer looks to have solved my 2b problems. Next up will be the purchase of a SS who can hit, and i may look at replacing Maddux for a non groundball pitcher


Bad News Bulldogs won their division with a 90-72 record in their first diamond season despite having the leagues worst bullpen. I really don't want to win in the playoffs as we would get obliterated in perfect league. Robinson (22/26) and Davis (21/66) both went 20/20. No one really put up any great numbers but we had 3 guys with 90+ RBI and 2 with 80+ the only category we led the league in was steals, a lot of that was due to strategy and having Eric Davis

Neuman Furshlugginers could have forced a 1 game playoff with a final day win, but they lost 12-1 to end up on 79-83, 9 games out of the WC spot. the only bright spots on the team were Gregg Jefferies hitting .330, stealing 31 bases and being top 4 in the league in OPS+ and Bob Friend with his 14-7 record. I tried a lot of different players during the season and hopefully i can get it right for next year

[Will_L]

All three of my teams made the playoffs.
Corsairs take their division by 3 games and gave up the home advantage with a so-so September.
Reavers won by six games and have home advantage in their Division series.
Subway Rats take the second wildcard spot beating out the Jilin Diamonds by one and Indianapolis Settlers by two games respectively. The division went to the Wey-Yu Xenomorphs and September was great with Wey-Yu, Jilin and the Rats jockeying back and forth the entire month.

[Westheim]

Only playoff team this week are the 99-63 Accountants, who clinched the best record in their league despite a remarkable absence of outstanding individual performances. The exception might be Dave Righetti with a 1.26 ERA and 45 SV. No starter with an ERA better than 3.84, no batter with an OPS over .852; then again, nobody was exceptionally terrible, either, f.e. only two batters slightly under 100 in terms of OPS+ and those were backups / platoon players. Is that enough? Assemble a roster of "oh it's alright"s and win it all?

The Rebs stunk the entire season, coming 75-87 in a division with three playoff teams, and just barely managed to outpace 3k PP for the year. That was one year to forget. They had *one* silver achievement all year long.

Coons? A meh 78-84, 14th consecutive losing season in their 14th consecutive Perfect season. Big Walt (21-8, 2.30 ERA) won the ERA crown. Everybody else filed applications for the wood chipper.

Defense was particularly bad down the road, but I blame that solely on Tatis jr. getting put stone cold at second base. He has trained up to 41 now in just 40 games. I don't know where that calculator is or how it works, but from his ratings I'd guess he'd top out somewhere in the 62-68 range at second, which ain't pretty, but I hope his bat will make the difference. He hit .277/.356/.438 with five dingers in 130 at-bats. That would be a 116 OPS+, and that's third on the team in the category…

...except that he of course doesn't qualify for a lack of PA. Neither does second place Chris Taylor (!!) or first place Mel Ott. None of them had 502 PA. The highest OPS+ put up by a qualifying player is 95 by DH SE David Wright.

Buuut… I sold enough cards to have 78k PP, so I will continue to mindlessly tear my way through packs. Maybe today's the day where I draw FIVE spanky historical diamonds and perfects.

Or where I draw nothing but lint. I know all about drawing lint.

[Westheim]

Here it is. Y’know the drill (no lives below gold listed, and no historical bronzes, except if they give me a mission). 75 packs opened this time. If you are annoying you just tell me to **** off. Anything of value that is noted with an * for cards I already had is surely going to wind up on the auction house with a buy-it-now ending in 15, denoting quality mint cards. And maybe some more without an * too.

Here’s that loot:

(40) – SP Philip Humber – 2012 Unsung Hero *
(49) – SP Russ Meyer – 1955 Unsung Hero

(70) – SS Al Dark – 1940 Rookie Sensation
(72) – CF Ken Berry – 1972 Hardware Heroes
(72) – LF Joe Medwick – 1936 Record Breaker
(73) – C Elston Howard – 1958 All Star
(73) – RF Roger Maris – 1961 Record Breaker
(74) – C Charles Johnson – 1997 All Star
(74) – 2B Frank White – 1986 Hardware Heroes

(80) – SP Luis M. Castillo – Live *
(80) – RP A.J. Minter – Live *
(80) – RF Giancarlo Stanton – 2017 All Star
(80) – RF Darryl Strawberry – 1987 All Star *
(80) – RP Sam Tuivailala – Live *
(82) – SS Amed Rosario – Live *
(85) – SP David Price – Live *
(85) – CF Victor Robles – Live *
(88) – SP Jerry Reuss – 1980 All Star
(89) – RP Dellin Betances – Live *
(89) – SP Carlos Carrasco – Live
(89) – C Willson Contreras – Live

(93) – CL Tom Henke – 1987 Record Breaker

Lint.

Well. That’s it. That busting noise was the end of the pack opening bonanza. No way I can recoup more than a fraction of the 75k PP from this one. And what did I get? No awesome historical diamond/perfect. Not one. Henke is not really better than any of the live relievers with 128 stuff.

(sigh)

[BigRed75]

Quick review:

Cincinnati Redlegs (OL) - P409, 76-86, 4th place NCC: Well, we stayed up. That was the main thing, and we managed to do it. We still don't have much in the way of PP for upgrades, I have a hard choice to make about selling some unlocked (read: non-Reds) cards that are in other collections. Dolf Luque (15-8, 3.53 FIP, 152 ERA+) was everything I'd hoped. Roger Clemens, on the other hand - well, it was out of character and I hope he regresses to the mean. He wasn't this bad our last time out in Perfect.

South Side Lumber Company (White Sox) - S298, 84-78, 4th place ACC: The Lumber Co. have this bad habit of playing well in September after elimination is secured, thus giving me false hope for the future. Exhibit A: our 13-game winning streak from September 16th to the 30th. Dick Allen won the HR crown in S298 with 34. Who needs Frank Thomas? Billy Pierce, our newest pitching acquisition, threw a Maddux. We still need two more players to earn 99 Appling and 100 Walsh. I'm patient.

Amarillo Gold Sox (OL) - S314, 80-82, 3rd place ACW: The Gold Sox won the battle of Amarillo, finishing 12 games better than the Armadillos after a 19-10 September. What was the difference? Perhaps it was Eddie Plank. Van Lingle Mungo won his second-straight ERA crown - could a second straight Cy Young be in his future? Fernando Valenzuela and Don Drysdale struck out 10 each on back-to-back nights.

Rottnest Island Quokkas (FTP) - D399, 67-95, T4th place NCC: The Quokkas did get relegated, not even a 17-12 record in September could save us. It's probably for the best. We'll go down to Gold, dominate again, hopefully bounce back up and try not to have every hitter have season-long cold streaks next time around.

Everett Aquasox (Mariners) - I195, 109-53, 1st place NCE: They didn't quite match Big Brother's 116 wins, but the Froggies comfortably grabbed the No. 1 seed in Iron. Of course, there's a potential banana peel in that the only other 100+ win team is lurking as a Wild Card an potential Division Series opponent. That'd be about right. Ichiro was the batting champ, Mark Langston went 19-9, good enough for most wins. I may regret moving James Paxton out of the bullpen and into the rotation, but he has better numbers than Dave Fleming and they're both lefties.

Charlotte Monarchs (Pack Only) - S293, 76-86, 5th place ACE: It will indeed be seven packs to open on Monday as the Monarchs didn't make the playoffs. Long shot, anyway. A wheel-spinning season where the most notable accomplishment was breaking an 11-game losing streak.

Baltimore Orioles (Orioles/Browns) - S282, 85-77, 1st place ACC: Jim Palmer was a 20-game winner for the Orioles this season, we only need to win three games to get promoted. That's what I'm aiming for. A trophy is probably out of reach. This is the Birds third Silver playoff appearance in six seasons and second straight.

Clinton Lumber Kings (Offense only) - B225, 79-83, 3rd place ACW: My points team kept grinding in September. So far this season we've earned 16,745PP - 5,000 of that thanks to Mel Ott's 7-game HR streak. But it was Greg Luzinski's 38 homers that led the league - Ott and Miguel Sano chipped in for 34 each. Kirk Gibson got his 20/20 season with 29 HR and 24 SB. I'm probably going to play with the SB sliders next season in a bid to get him his 30/30 season (and earn us even more points). What do to with all these points I'm collecting? I'm open to suggestions.

Thetford Mines Mineurs (Canada) - I243, 88-75, 2nd place ACW: The Mineurs lost game 163 and got sent to the Wild Card. It's our third straight playoff appearance. It would be nice for the Mineurs and Aquasox to finally escape Iron. I'm not banking on it, though. However, it would surprise me if the Froggies lost the Division Series at home in Game 5 and the Mineurs managed to win the whole damn thing as the 2nd WC.

[dancariaz]

@Westheim: keep the pack opening results coming, I like them.

I also opened some packs today and it was by far the best outcome I've had so far. I opened 25 packs and had:
- 4 historic diamonds: Rick Sutcliffe (90), Dizzy Dean (94), Gavvy Cravath (94) and Chase Utley (91).
- 3 golds (2 historic) but nothing special.

The diamonds are worth about 50-60k. The best pull in terms of value was Sutcliffe, he's worth almost 30k. Must be part of a pretty valuable mission. As I said it was by far my best pack opening session. My pack counter without a diamond was at 72 though when I pulled the first one today, so I was very glad that drought finally ended

[Nero]

Originally Posted by JasonC23

Over in the NC, if you stared off into the distance and squinted really hard, you could just barely make out the fading lights of the Austin Express as they chugged far, far, far away from everyone else, pacing P425 with an amazing 128 wins. T

Huntley finished 24 games ahead of the 82-80 Condors and went 7-0 against them during the regular season, so, naturally, I assume the Condors will clobber Ed Walsh and the Red Raiders and move on...

Was hands down my best record in Perfect, and set the team historical records for least runs allowed, and best team ERA, with the 2nd best offense.

You'll take the Condors, and I'm still buying that the eventual WS Champ will be one of us. Hopefully we avoid any big cold streaks, keep our pitchers hot, and walk away with a championship! Good luck to ya!

[Westheim]

Originally Posted by dancariaz

@Westheim: keep the pack opening results coming, I like them.

Nothing more to come; if I can make 20k from the last one, I will have to consider myself lucky.

As usual, and as with everything I do, this ended in terrible failure.

[Argonaut]

Originally Posted by Westheim

Nothing more to come; if I can make 20k from the last one, I will have to consider myself lucky.

As usual, and as with everything I do, this ended in terrible failure.

Thanks for your results, they were helpful. I think you were actually quite lucky with the first couple, getting +EV. But I suppose if you gamble long enough, the house always wins.

[Will_L]

Subway Rats take the D383 AC wildcard 3-2 in 10 innings. Used Walker Buehler as the opener with Len Barker as the follower (first time using an opener for me) and it paid off. Buehler gave up 2 runs in 1.2 innings then Barker was great with 7.1 scoreless and getting the win, Carrasco closed out the 10th for the save.
Next up the OKC Dodgers.