Season 40 (2058) - Discussion Thread

[pappyzan]

Tale of the tape through the first half season:

If playoffs started today, Sens would have been 14-11 against playoff teams which is easily a number I can live with. However, last half of the season looks ridiculously hard as we're playing 47 games against Southern, Evergreen, Huntley, Tassie, Fargo, and Memphis -- only 36 games against everybody else. A ROUGH last half season schedule. Would not be shocked to be odd man out of the postseason, Southpaws are simply hanging in for now but could easily move up a spot or 2 or 3 in the division, pushing the Sens out of the postseason. They just swept Sens in 4 to start July.

As expected, BABIP and great defense are real in the OL league. Sens currently sitting 25th!!! in the league in def efficiency with a good defensive team who so far has committed the fewest errors in the league, and a good pitching staff that leads the league in Ks and 4th in runs allowed (2nd, 3rd & 4th best are in NC East). Minnesota Bold North leading in this stat.

This was exepcted to be pretty competitive amongst the 5 of us when we agreed to join up for a week or two. Adding in the remaining OL league with it only makes it even more competitive. By a lot. Really wish I'd have friended my former-OL lefty-cheese team and brought them in as well for old time's sake (technically not OL any longer since adding Yelich, but they're still FTP).

Good luck down the stretch!

[pappyzan]

Airing out the dirty laundry, showing how OL league is crushing/destroying these good cards this season. Limited to 5 pics in a post, but my Tom Seaver is still getting plenty trampled as RP, and Evergreen's Babe Ruth is so far a shadow of his former self hitting .231 en route to his worst season so far while in the Racoons' lineup. The most violent offenders are Tassie's Ty Cobb 96 shown below (hitting .203 vLHP), and Huntley's Griffey (hitting .211 vRHP).

[Magus978]

OL teams don't mess around. Having been a member of OL for a long time with several teams, I can attest to the many impressive ways that these guys can compete with the best.

As for Steelport, they themselves a former OL member, they are destined to a WC1 spot as Santa Maria have pulled out to a 5 game lead. Turns out that when I said that they best not miss, they didn't. They kept winning while we kept losing to vastly inferior teams. You hear that, kids? That's the Magus Curse intensifying.

I did, however, pick up 90 Ozzie Smith for 55k, as well as packing a lot of other flippable cards. Might be able to parlay that into another big-ish pickup once everything sells.

[old timer]

An interesting season so far! Somehow we're in 1st at the moment (by 2.5 with the best record in the league) and have an easier schedule the rest of the way compared to the Senators (not sure about the other 2) since we had the tougher schedule to start with.

I've had to make more changes this season than in quite a while due to some unexpected problems. For example, Keeler has now played 29 complete season with the Raccoons and has averaged 221 H with 6434 total. He did not get that many hits by having problems hitting left-handers (his vs LHP contact is 102, 116 vs RHP). But this season, he's been hitting them so poorly (.175 AVG), I started playing him only vs RHP which has never happened before.

So I've got Babe Ruth as the DH vs LHP instead of Keeler and he's doing well hitting .306 though his SLG is a bit low at .514. But Ruth is having his worst season ever (as pappyzan mentioned) due to his poor performance vs RHP where he's hitting only .209. So I finally decided to platoon him too (which I've never done before).

So I sent Spahn back to the reserve roster and brought in HR Baker who hasn't played regularly in 13 years and who's only played 104 Gs in those 13 years. He'll play 3B while Boggs will move over to 1B to replace Ruth. This will improve our defense but will Baker be able to hit any better than Ruth has?

The end of the season will be quite the challenge for the Raccoons. We've got 3 vs the Senators at home, followed by 3 "easy" games and then it's 4 at home vs the Southpaws and then 3 vs Huntley on the road and finally 3 more at the Southpaws park to end it all - which might just end it all for the Raccoons. Should be fun! (Or at least interesting )

[old timer]

Originally Posted by waittilnextyear

Merry Christmas to all!

The Frogs (56-26, +222) had themselves a Merry Little Christmas of their own, extending the division lead from 2.5 games to a lofty 10 games. Changes made to the defense seem to have helped as we've gone from 13th/14th in DEff/ZR to 9th/11th after just today's sims. We're really feeling the home/road splits now: 33-10 (home) and 23-16 (away). Feel that burn! The Frogs are also benefiting mightily from not being in the NC East DIVISION OF DOOM, and from not having crossover games against them either. Not having to play 3 of Huntley/Washington/Evergreen Forest/Southern 19 times a piece has certain benefits. One of them being that the Frogs have ever so gently and fleetingly taken the P466 lead in run differential. Speaking of run differential, how about that 34-2 win on June 29th? Yikes. I'm almost positive that scoring 34 runs is a new single game record for the Frogs (their Hank Aaron was on to pitch by the 5th inning). The Frogs also scored 15, 10, 12, 14, 13, 17, 11, and 11 runs in other June games.

Even so, it figures to be a fight to the end with the very strong Minnesota Bold North (58-25, +194) currently having a better record by 1.5 games. This Bold North team is interesting because this side was just floating along for weeks and weeks as a .500 quality team in PL and them BAM! all of the most desirable missions are completed (Mets! Dodgers! Yankees! Cardinals!) and a first PL title was achieved just last week. Interesting progress being made! Although I don't think this one is an OL team?

I'm also keeping one eye squarely on the Fargo Buscemis (53-29, +150) as they seem to be one of the more successful OL squads judging by the 5 PL titles. Funny, I remember back when the Buscemis and my Frogs were in the same league in 2034 and they got relegated back to diamond (and my Frogs almost got relegated themselves after trying a very unsuccessful ultra-defense strategy). Seems that the Buscemis have really responded well since then becoming a "ringer" team of sorts in this league.

The Raccoons had the best RDiff for a short while and just a couple of games after last checking, I checked again and lo and behold those Frogs of yours had leapfrogged over us into 1st which didn't seem possible considering the gap. Then I checked and saw that 34-2 blowout and understood. I've never seen such a one-sided victory before. So how much PP did you make from that game?


p.s. - Congrats on your 4000 W!

[waittilnextyear]

Originally Posted by old timer

The Raccoons had the best RDiff for a short while and just a couple of games after last checking, I checked again and lo and behold those Frogs of yours had leapfrogged over us into 1st which didn't seem possible considering the gap. Then I checked and saw that 34-2 blowout and understood. I've never seen such a one-sided victory before. So how much PP did you make from that game?


p.s. - Congrats on your 4000 W!

Thanks! I believe I am the slowest one of the "old timer 5" to get that 4000th. I wonder if we get some PP for 5000? I think it has been 500, 1500, and 3000 win milestones so far.

For the 34-2 game, I don't know exactly how much PP. But, it's at least 5000 and here's the list of game notes...

[Jackgoboom]

Originally Posted by pappyzan

Airing out the dirty laundry, showing how OL league is crushing/destroying these good cards this season. Limited to 5 pics in a post, but my Tom Seaver is still getting plenty trampled as RP, and Evergreen's Babe Ruth is so far a shadow of his former self hitting .231 en route to his worst season so far while in the Racoons' lineup. The most violent offenders are Tassie's Ty Cobb 96 shown below (hitting .203 vLHP), and Huntley's Griffey (hitting .211 vRHP).

I'm not sure I should be thanking you for this post, but it is relevant to my struggles.

He is just a few seasons removed from an MVP as well. One of the main drivers of my offence has tanked. My main run scorer and stealer of bases is toast I cry...

[Jackgoboom]

Originally Posted by pappyzan

This was exepcted to be pretty competitive amongst the 5 of us when we agreed to join up for a week or two. Adding in the remaining OL league with it only makes it even more competitive. By a lot. Really wish I'd have friended my former-OL lefty-cheese team and brought them in as well for old time's sake (technically not OL any longer since adding Yelich, but they're still FTP).

Good luck down the stretch!

I'm glad you didn't. Quite enough lefty cheese as is mate.

[Jackgoboom]

Originally Posted by pappyzan

Airing out the dirty laundry, showing how OL league is crushing/destroying these good cards this season. Limited to 5 pics in a post, but my Tom Seaver is still getting plenty trampled as RP, and Evergreen's Babe Ruth is so far a shadow of his former self hitting .231 en route to his worst season so far while in the Racoons' lineup. The most violent offenders are Tassie's Ty Cobb 96 shown below (hitting .203 vLHP), and Huntley's Griffey (hitting .211 vRHP).

Looking at my season as a whole the picture is intriguing. I was just putting down my struggles to some lefty cheese, which is obviously the case with Cobb, but my starting pitching struggles seems to be more complex.

Three fingered Brown a righty, normally the weak spot in my rotation is having a great season for him. Yet all my other right handers have had their struggles. Bullpen Righties seem to be fine as well.

Our record is also better against lefties than righties, and we are better on the road rather than at home, despite some of the lefty stadiums. Curious.

Our record against our fellow members of the Old Timer five though is dismal. Especially early. That first month was brutal especially for the pitching. So thanks guys.

[old timer]

You know, I never realized that players fatigue from playing in the all-star game. I was wanting Schilling to start today vs the Senators, but he's now slightly tired which will reduce how many innings he can give me due to pitching 1 inning in the ASG.

It was nice seeing Huntley and Washington beating up on each other (they split a 4 game series). We have a 3 game series coming up against the Senators. We currently have a 1.5 game lead and it would be nice to add a little to that, but facing that pitching staff (Walter Johnson, Schilling and Walsh), I don't feel too confident about that happening. Then again, maybe we'll get lucky and Seaver will come in to pitch against us.

[dkgo]

the allstar game is stupid. set your players to rest for a day and they wont play in it

[One Great Matrix]

The "new" Flyers won their first dozen games and I felt like maybe what I normally do plus having to keep it all-Mets might have somehow resulted in an even better team ...but now we're in one of those phases where we're wandering around the field cluelessly, giving up that home run instead of hitting it, striking out 10x a game. We'll snap out of it. So as of now that's 12-0 + 3-5 = 15-5 for July. That does already tie our best month and we did go from the playoff hunt to 1st place for now...A couple more days, months, left in the season...who's counting?

Goodnight, y'all.

[JasonC23]

The P466 NC East. You know it. You fear it. And yet, you don't know the key to understanding it.

Oh, sure, it seems as if the head-to-head matchups among the Raccoons, LyinCheatin Senators, Red Raiders, and Southpaws-OL will determine who wins, whose cards are wild, and who is left out in the cold.

But what if I told you that we are, all of us, overlooking the true team of destiny--the team that will decide who wins and who loses?

[pappyzan]

Originally Posted by old timer

You know, I never realized that players fatigue from playing in the all-star game. I was wanting Schilling to start today vs the Senators, but he's now slightly tired which will reduce how many innings he can give me due to pitching 1 inning in the ASG.

It was nice seeing Huntley and Washington beating up on each other (they split a 4 game series). We have a 3 game series coming up against the Senators. We currently have a 1.5 game lead and it would be nice to add a little to that, but facing that pitching staff (Walter Johnson, Schilling and Walsh), I don't feel too confident about that happening. Then again, maybe we'll get lucky and Seaver will come in to pitch against us.

Ha, yeh Seaver came in for one of those 3 games and somehow escaped unscathed, only giving up 2 hits but no runs. Dude's ERA is now 6.79, FIP 4.11, WHIP 1.49 and BABIP .373. Could swap him out with Mort Cooper or maybe Rigney (both locked for collections), but I'm kinda interested to see how deep this hole is gonna be for him at the end of the season.

[pappyzan]

I'll take the points, but Washington is 5-8 against Evergreen

[pappyzan]

Originally Posted by JasonC23

The P466 NC East. You know it. You fear it. And yet, you don't know the key to understanding it.

Oh, sure, it seems as if the head-to-head matchups among the Raccoons, LyinCheatin Senators, Red Raiders, and Southpaws-OL will determine who wins, whose cards are wild, and who is left out in the cold.

But what if I told you that we are, all of us, overlooking the true team of destiny--the team that will decide who wins and who loses?

Some next gen stats right there They have what 40 games remaining against the division too?

Southpaws-OL are 40-8 over their last 48 games. Was 32-23 at end of April.

[Jackgoboom]

Originally Posted by pappyzan

Some next gen stats right there They have what 40 games remaining against the division too?

Southpaws-OL are 40-8 over their last 48 games. Was 32-23 at end of April.

I'm their go to team for an easy win

Funny old month. Lose six games by a run, players go cold, by end of month getting trounced. Just when we looked to be turning the corner as well. No bonuses being handed out for Christmas to my guys....

Speaking of bonuses. This is the only online game I play that didn't gift anything to its loyal player base who actually logged in over the holidays. Lift your game you tight wads

[Magus978]

Big improvements made to the Saints yesterday, as a few big names came to the club via auctions and packs.

100 Ed Walsh (195000)
100 Richie Ashburn (199999)
100 Willie Mays (125000)
100 Max Scherzer (POTM) (Pack)
99 Joe DiMaggio (70000)

Unfortunately this has not helped the team's league situation. Santa Maria has pulled away from the Saints, who have slumped by playing down to teams that they really should be beating.

[JasonC23]

Here's where things stand before Friday's game action begins...

(And yes, there is a non-zero chance that I am posting this because of the last-10 Huntley record...sue me.)

[Splitter24]

My pack only team just had an usual thing happen (at least for me). I've opened a metric crap ton of packs, but I think this is the first time I've ever had an all-bronze pack. Obviously, not a helpful pack. But at least it was something different.