Season 40 (2058) - Discussion Thread

[waittilnextyear]

The Frogs are off to a 19-8 (+61) beginning in P466 (a.k.a. OL Happy Fun Time Mashup) this week. This is good for a 3.5 game lead over the Virginia Freeloaders. Pitching hasn't been very good as Ruffing, Seaver, and Scherzer all have ERAs above 4. Hopefully that doesn't last.

It's too early to tell how the exclusively RHB thing is going to work out. I mean, we are on pace for 1014 runs scored, which would be a franchise record by a healthy margin. But, again, whether that's due to the RHB strategy or F2P opponents not having the correct amount of 100 Cy Youngs on their teams is hard to tease out. It should also be noted that 2 teams in my division (Virginia Freeloaders and Pablo Pandas) have ballpark factors/teams modded for low offense and the other 2 teams (Cigar City Lagers and Shasta Black Bears) are employing the max-lefty strategy. My Frogs could have a severely pronounced home/road split for these reasons. I could see struggling on the road and mopping fools up at home. We'll see.

99 SE Rickey Henderson is having an interesting season so far. He's on pace for 10.7 WAR to go with 30 2B, 30 HR, and...30 3B! A 30/30/30 XBH bonanza would be truly noteworthy. Especially considering his very modest 62 GAP POWER rating. But, Rickey is a hot dog.

100 SE Mike Schmidt has embarked on a training regimen at 2B. He should max out around 92 at the keystone. He's attained a 53 rating there already. One of the reasons I like using this Mike Schmidt card this week is because he's pretty neutral on his splits, and actually gets on base better against RHP. Important that a team of all RHBs aren't dead meat against RHPs.

The 98 SE Dick Allen card I was worried about sucking is actually off to a strong start: .337/.450/.609 with 6 HR/20 RBI. And neutral defensive grades at both 1B (defensive sub) and 3B (where he starts).

I haven't looked through all of these OL teams yet, although I'm looking forward to seeing what these people are doing with their teams. I also find it interesting that some OL-labelled teams look a little bit less FTP than others...not naming any names or impugning any characters but it would be impossible to prevent someone from cheating here if they really wanted to not play by the rules. Surely there can be tremendously loaded F2P teams at this point, and we've all seen the threads about them, but I just find the whole ethics things interesting. Would I cheat if I were in a league like that?

[old timer]

The Raccoons are off to a good start which I didn't expect to happen. We've had 21 games versus teams that won 110+ games last year and we're 14-7 against those teams. That can't last, but it is encouraging.

Our defense is 13th in ZR (very low for us) and our D Eff is 30th in the league, but our pitching is 2nd in RA (1 more than Huntley's 95 RA). Our BABIP is .344(!) which makes it even more surprising that our pitching is doing so well. Of course, it helps that we're 2nd in K and 1st in BB and 1st in HRA.

I think the biggest surprise has been our hitting. Considering the level of pitching we've been up against, I didn't expect them to be doing so well. We're hitting .302 and lead the NC in R and we're 2nd in HR (we're usually near the bottom). No one is hitting a lot of HR, but most everyone is contributing.

Too bad the Froggies ended up in the other conference. They're not even on our schedule for the year. Maybe we'll get lucky and meet them in the WS. But even if we don't make the playoffs, I'm sure it will be fun. It's going to be a good fight for the top 3 spots in the division which I expect will produce the 2 WC teams. Good luck to everyone and thanks for making this a fun week.

[old timer]

Originally Posted by waittilnextyear

The Frogs are off to a 19-8 (+61) beginning in P466 (a.k.a. OL Happy Fun Time Mashup) this week. This is good for a 3.5 game lead over the Virginia Freeloaders. Pitching hasn't been very good as Ruffing, Seaver, and Scherzer all have ERAs above 4. Hopefully that doesn't last.

It's too early to tell how the exclusively RHB thing is going to work out. I mean, we are on pace for 1014 runs scored, which would be a franchise record by a healthy margin. But, again, whether that's due to the RHB strategy or F2P opponents not having the correct amount of 100 Cy Youngs on their teams is hard to tease out. It should also be noted that 2 teams in my division (Virginia Freeloaders and Pablo Pandas) have ballpark factors/teams modded for low offense and the other 2 teams (Cigar City Lagers and Shasta Black Bears) are employing the max-lefty strategy. My Frogs could have a severely pronounced home/road split for these reasons. I could see struggling on the road and mopping fools up at home. We'll see.

99 SE Rickey Henderson is having an interesting season so far. He's on pace for 10.7 WAR to go with 30 2B, 30 HR, and...30 3B! A 30/30/30 XBH bonanza would be truly noteworthy. Especially considering his very modest 62 GAP POWER rating. But, Rickey is a hot dog.

100 SE Mike Schmidt has embarked on a training regimen at 2B. He should max out around 92 at the keystone. He's attained a 53 rating there already. One of the reasons I like using this Mike Schmidt card this week is because he's pretty neutral on his splits, and actually gets on base better against RHP. Important that a team of all RHBs aren't dead meat against RHPs.

The 98 SE Dick Allen card I was worried about sucking is actually off to a strong start: .337/.450/.609 with 6 HR/20 RBI. And neutral defensive grades at both 1B (defensive sub) and 3B (where he starts).

[snipped]

You know, one thing I really like is how you aren't afraid to experiment. Your team consistently performs very well even though you keep trying so many different things. It also makes your team more interesting. My management style is so conservative and boring by comparison. Now that things are winding down in PT 20, I should start some experimenting myself.

[One Great Matrix]

I started this season as an all-time Mets theme team. (Yes, that's right, I can't quite promise I'll finish that way)… There are something like 3 current (LIVE) Mets, 19 or so former Mets AS Mets, 4 or 5 Mets AS [different team] cards, & one wrinkle: Lefty Grove is in the starting rotation. Call it an A's thing. (And insurance in these wicked waters.) (ha ha) …

We had an alright first month, played above .500... Olerud & McNeil got off to scorching hot starts to light up the R column, our row on the linescore and scoreboard.

Amazin'.

[Magus978]

21-8...most seasons I'd be ecstatic with that start for the Saints. This season, I'm not...because Santa Maria is 23-5. It's almost like RNGjesus doesn't want me to ever have an easy ride...which is fitting because I keep ordering easy leagues and never get them!

<thonking intensifies>

[pappyzan]

Originally Posted by old timer

The Raccoons are off to a good start which I didn't expect to happen. We've had 21 games versus teams that won 110+ games last year and we're 14-7 against those teams. That can't last, but it is encouraging.

Our defense is 13th in ZR (very low for us) and our D Eff is 30th in the league, but our pitching is 2nd in RA (1 more than Huntley's 95 RA). Our BABIP is .344(!) which makes it even more surprising that our pitching is doing so well. Of course, it helps that we're 2nd in K and 1st in BB and 1st in HRA.

I think the biggest surprise has been our hitting. Considering the level of pitching we've been up against, I didn't expect them to be doing so well. We're hitting .302 and lead the NC in R and we're 2nd in HR (we're usually near the bottom). No one is hitting a lot of HR, but most everyone is contributing.

Too bad the Froggies ended up in the other conference. They're not even on our schedule for the year. Maybe we'll get lucky and meet them in the WS. But even if we don't make the playoffs, I'm sure it will be fun. It's going to be a good fight for the top 3 spots in the division which I expect will produce the 2 WC teams. Good luck to everyone and thanks for making this a fun week.

Yeh BABIP has been off the charts against the Sens so far as well. Added in a few defensive subs in late innings hoping that may help a little.

There's 2 cards I wanted to add to my team before PT21 rolls in and 1 was available late yesterday morning so I snagged it up, 100 Big Walter. I'd been saving up for quite a while waiting for that card to finally show up in AH when I had enough PP for it. Any other time it's been in AH I never had the points to get it.

The other card is either 100 Kershaw or 96 Rixey to replace Brecheen in BP. Doubtful I'll have enough PP to grab Rixey any time soon so it'll probably Kershaw. It's price should fall enough by the time I have PP for it.

Other than those 2 cards, I think I'm done with swapping players out on this team. With AH prices falling so much recently, I've probably swapped out around 12-14 cards over the past 6-8 weeks. I'd like to have a few of those new TOTD cards, but those will come from pulls only as their price is bound to be through the roof for a long while. Never pulled a perfect or even a great diamond card on this team, so probably not pulling TOTD card any time soon.

Enjoying this week so far, started 6-6 and finished up last night 18-8. We'll see how this week shakes out, expecting it to be real competitive all week long.

[JasonC23]

I won't have a whole lot of time today to analyze Huntley's performance so far (at this exact moment, 19-13, fourth place, 3.5 games behind those LyinCheatin Senators, who swept a 3-game series in Huntley, twice winning 2-1, mere hours after complaining about poor RNG luck...not that I'm jealous or bitter in any way ), but it's fairly clear where our struggles lie at the moment: the Red Raiders are currently first in P466 in runs against (112) and a much less impressive 12th (6th in the NC) in runs scored (159). That +47 run differential is good enough for a 21-11 Pythag record, meaning Huntley already has a stark red -2 next to its name in the Expanded Standings, and lo and behold, we find ourselves 4-5 in 1-run games and a head-scratching 1-4 in extra-inning games, not to mention 8-8 at home.

So, in other words, it's all bad luck, and everything will be just fine.

(Did that sound convincing?)

[pappyzan]

Some of the stats so far this week have been pretty wild to say the least. Take a look at this Seaver card. Not shown in this pic is his runners allowed per 9 innings which is SEVENTEEN.

[Jackgoboom]

Originally Posted by waittilnextyear

I haven't looked through all of these OL teams yet, although I'm looking forward to seeing what these people are doing with their teams. I also find it interesting that some OL-labelled teams look a little bit less FTP than others...not naming any names or impugning any characters but it would be impossible to prevent someone from cheating here if they really wanted to not play by the rules. Surely there can be tremendously loaded F2P teams at this point, and we've all seen the threads about them, but I just find the whole ethics things interesting. Would I cheat if I were in a league like that?

The moral dilemma. I wonder... The tournaments would really help though. Lots of cards, PP and packs up for grabs for the non mega whales.

[dkgo]

If you are spending money on points then you will have more success out there with the general populace of inexperienced players and mostly abandoned teams instead of grinding out OL with highly engaged users even if they are all true F2P. Effort surpasses points very quickly so cheating doesn't really help you.

[QuantaCondor]

Originally Posted by Jackgoboom

The moral dilemma. I wonder... The tournaments would really help though. Lots of cards, PP and packs up for grabs for the non mega whales.

The vast majority of OL teambuilding occurred before tourneys, and it was all pretty well documented (you can do searches by username in the OL thread if you're curious). OL isn't cutthroat enough or competitive enough to warrant cheating, and in any case I think there are lots of examples of how to build those whale-like OL teams from scratch.

[Jackgoboom]

Originally Posted by QuantaCondor

The vast majority of OL teambuilding occurred before tourneys, and it was all pretty well documented (you can do searches by username in the OL thread if you're curious). OL isn't cutthroat enough or competitive enough to warrant cheating, and in any case I think there are lots of examples of how to build those whale-like OL teams from scratch.

Not sure I want to do that deep a dive mate. Merely musing on previous points. I'm sure tourneys will be an interesting element for you guys next game version then, given the lack of impact this time.

[Jackgoboom]

Originally Posted by dkgo

If you are spending money on points then you will have more success out there with the general populace of inexperienced players and mostly abandoned teams instead of grinding out OL with highly engaged users even if they are all true F2P. Effort surpasses points very quickly so cheating doesn't really help you.

Some fair points. Although excessive tinkering by engaged users such as myself can also be detrimental.

I have seen a very successful team with multiple perfect league titles, that has obviously been on autopilot for at least 5 or 6 of those wins. Just a little caveat.

[gemini615]

My most optimistic team to win a PL title (Fort Jefferson) has been slotted into a death division this year and is currently bad enough to be relegated. I've made a few changes like adding Arky Vaughen and giving Jim Bottomley the pink slip but if things don't turn around soon, the Pirates will be pillaging in diamond next season. I find this sad, seeing as Ohio City (all Indians) and Hiram College (pack only) are much easier prey to be sucked up as plankton in the perfect league ocean.
If anyone in my division wants some free rum for the holidays, the Pirates can help you

[Catchthedamnball]

It's been a while since I posted, and a lot has changed, so I figured I'd give a quick rundown of the changes that have taken shape on the Mashers in the last month.

Flipping some collection pieces along with some incredible pack luck has transformed my team into a diamond league contender. Flipping Sisler got me Buck O'Neill (which I kept) and Chris Hoiles from one of the diamond packs (which I sold). I then took a determined crack at knocking out the A's collection, interrupted only by a brief detour to satisfy a months-long urge for some quality Mets historicals (97 Seaver and SE 96 Matlack). My effort was hastened by pulling LIVE Bellinger and Arenado from tournament packs, and the diamond packs from 'Bash Brothers' and 'The Fastest' yielded 97 Kershaw and 95 Maddux, which hastened my pursuit of 89 Eck, 90 Simmons, 91 Collins, 94 Rickey, 94 Rollie, and 96 Grove. Despite a horrible mistake committed today involving the purchase of the incorrect diamond Rollie, I was able to finish off the team collection and acquire my first historical perfect, Rube Waddell.

My contact, steals, and OBP heavy offense figures to top the conference in most metrics aside from HR as soon as Eddie Collins remembers how to use his bat. I have excised LIVEs from my starting rotation, and LIVE Yates and Rollie should form a formidable enough back end in the bullpen. Currently Medford stands at 29-17 and first in their division.


I'm still contemplating whether I'm going to use or sell 98 Vida. I'm aware he's one of the better lefties in the game, but if I am to field a strong team in PL when I eventually land there, I need a lot more pitching and upgrades at SS, 3B, and potentially RF, much as 96 Colavito has served me well. I just don't know how many leaks I'll be able to patch given the slow drop in Vida's L7...

[OMGPuppies]

Originally Posted by Jackgoboom

Some fair points. Although excessive tinkering by engaged users such as myself can also be detrimental.

I have seen a very successful team with multiple perfect league titles, that has obviously been on autopilot for at least 5 or 6 of those wins. Just a little caveat.

Magus wrote the book on excessive tinkering. Heh. Nice seeing all those OL teams together. OL is a great bunch with competitive teams and I couldn't win my first PL title until I went off on my own.

[JasonC23]

JasonC23 gets home, logs onto PT 2.0.

Oh, wow, the Red Raiders had a 10-game winning streak today and are now in third place in the NC East and in the second NC Wild Card spot! Awesome!

Takes a closer look...

But, wait, we were 3.5 games out of first before the 10-game winning streak and are now 5.5 games out...what the--

Looks up at the top of the division to see that Pappyzan's Washington LyinCheatin Senators have an active 14-game winning streak.

Shakes fist

Pappyzan!

[waittilnextyear]

Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house not a creature was stirring, not even a...frog.

The Frogs ended day 2 in P466/OL Nation with a 36-18 (+119) record and a meager 2.5 game division lead. A cursory look at some stats tells the story of why the Frogs aren't ~5-10 games ahead instead...

First of all, the defense has been putrid. Godawful. Bad, bad, bad. The team is 13th in the conference in defensive efficiency and 14th in the conference with a very un-Frog-like -10.2 ZR. The pitching has suffered through this defense (despite being 1st in the conference in FIP and pitching WAR). The starters are ERA'ing 4.05. Seaver is at 5.21; Walsh and POTM Scherzer are near 4.20. Who woulda thunk (thonked?) that playing Jimmie Foxx at 1B (48 defense), Dick Allen at 3B (47 defense), training Mike Schmidt from zero at 2B (77 defense there now), and rolling with Luke Appling at SS (76 defense) would be a bad idea? lol. I made some adjustments to rectify this glaring problem by banishing Foxx, moving Dick Allen to 1B (71 defense), continuing to train Schmidt at 2B (77-->90 ish), moving Appling from SS to 3B (82 defense), and elevating 100 Ripken to full-time SS (88 defense). Plus, the late innings have Schmidt swapping with Appling where they both increase to ~90 DEF, and Rizzuto coming on to play SS (109 DEF) while Ripken slides over to 1B (111 DEF). Might be overcompensating a bit, but the defense has been so, so bad. Oh, and SE Cesar Cedeno is making good progress in his LF training (89 DEF).

The second trend becoming apparent is the RHB strategy is happening. The Frogs are playing 20-6 (.769) ball at home and 16-12 (.571) ball on the road. Those ballpark factors, tho. We're also playing .706 ball against LHP and .649 ball against RHP. The other issue about going 100% RHB is I can't pluck a Super Ichiro or SE Ashburn/SE Dykstra or 100 Ozzie off the bench for defense.

Hopefully the defensive adjustments mentioned above will catapult this team to a big second half. Those Virginia Freeloaders and Cigar City Lagers (OL teams) are both nipping at my heels in the meantime. Not to mention needing to keep pace with the Minnesota Bold North and Fargo Buscemis in the race for #1 seed.

[Westheim]

The Critters are a freaking 40-13 in Perfect. For the first time ever they look like they know what the **** they're doin' ...!

Rebs also lead the division, but I already forgot their record and I am too overeaten (burp!) to check back in.

KC is hangin' in there at least, in a very weak division, 27-25 with 2.5 GB on the leader.

[scott1964]

As long as the Bears stay north of the Mendoza line we are staying put in Diamond. Cy Young is 7-1 after a disastrous start to the season.


Trenton on the other hand is It will be long season.