A ten dollar team, here we go

[Hualalai]

Gold 328 this week. And it appears that will be back in Silver next week.

30-40 at the moment, although the pythag is 37-33!

[dboeyr12007]

Gold is rough. I do FTP and grind a bunch of tournaments. My team has been stuck in Gold for about 12 weeks twice being demoted to silver. Thankfully I was able to win a card in a tournament that was worth 1.1 million points, so I sold it and now I am finally on pace to move up as long as I do not get upset in the playoffs. I have enjoyed reading about your journey.

[Hualalai]

I have 6 100 perfect players so far. Dibble, Finley, Rickey Henderson, Larken and Mike Schmidt. In addition to Yogi who I got from the live missions.

I finished all the live missions, and a number of other ones, combined with the points my team earns during a season and some decks I win in quick tourneys, I am able to open enough packs to get players to sell. Realizing I will never do gold or higher FOTF missions, and probably not silver, so have sold a number of those players where I had like 1 player out of 12 or something.\

[Hualalai]

Baseball is funny, last season Maddux got the award for most wins in league (he had 19). That and a great glove award for Ichiro in right were my only post season awards.

Anyway, this year Maddux, same player, same defense, same offense, same league, he is 1-10 with a 5.62 ERA.

[Hualalai]

all star team just announced. I have 2 that made it, Finley and Schmidt.

[Hualalai]

At the all star break, 33-42. Really bad luck this year, pythag is 41-34.

[Hualalai]

And so, the 8th season, second in Gold, comes to an end. Although the team was in the relegate group early in the season, once again they rallied. Final record 82-80.

The luck in the first half was really bad, 33-42 pre all star. Pythag says they should have won 93 games. 6th in runs scored and 4th in runs allowed, and barely finished over .500

Only post season award this year was Carlton won the league ERA crown.

Team had the best zone rating in the league. On the down side, 9th in the league in BA, homers and FIP.

At the point where there are no obvious black holes in the roster, which makes an upgrade simple (just replace a bad player with an average one). So now we need to keep saving up for a perfect player to put somewhere. first choice is to get Randy Johnson out of the rotation and into the bullpen, and move worst reliever to reserve roster. So currently looking for a starting pitcher.

[Hualalai]

And no sooner did I say that then I finished the mission for the standard edition Cy Young. He looks mediocre but his control is good, so Randy is now in the bullpen and my LOOGY last year, Aroldis Chapman is now in reserve.

Which means I can keep saving for a really good player.

[Hualalai]

And won two great gloves awards. Bagwell at first and Ichiro in right.

[Hualalai]

Starting out in Gold 339. 9th Season for the Guillemots.

quick look at the division, all the other teams are starting their 31st year, And they have all made the playoffs 9, 13, 14 and 15 times. So looks very tough.

As the team is now a .500 club in gold, our goal is to try to make the playoffs sometime. Getting promoted to Diamond level is out of reach, getting relegated to Silver is a real possibility with a run of bad luck like we had in the first half of last season.

[Hualalai]

I like to set my own lineups. If I use the AI, it is just to get a second opinion. I also have different lineups for RHP and LHP. I do some platooning, within the limits of a 4 man bench.

One thing to consider, is even if your batter doesn't have a large platoon split, some of the pitchers you face will have. And the outcome of an AB depends on batter and pitcher, not just batter.

Another thing I do that I am sure most do not, is I set the fatigue level at 80 percent for all the players. Then I almost always use the if tired setting for the bench players. That keeps my starters rested. I do not know if fatigue level matters if it is greater than zero, but just in case it does?

[Hualalai]

This season, we are in contention for the division lead.

53-42 pre all star game. And for the first time, zero players in the all star game! Boo!

We are 7th in runs scored, and 2nd in runs against. So not like we don't have any good players.

Big news today is finished the mission to get SE Rollie Fingers (gold). He isn't good enough to crack my staff, but in getting him the last player I bought was HL Vida Blue (peak) who is slotting into the rotation, moving SE Cy Young to the bullpen, and pushing poor Joe Nathan to reserve. Joe will be headed to the auction block today. I just can't get him to play up the his stats. Got him back in Rookie league. He was my closer in Stone and Iron, getting 34 saves and 36 saves.

In the last 2.5 seasons in Gold he has been worth 0.2, -0.1, and -0.2 WAR, which isn't getting it done. But he has struggled in silver and gold leagues. Tough call but fare thee well, Joe, if someone is willing to fork over enough coins.

[Hualalai]

Playoffs! A record of 92-70 was enough to win the division by 1 game.

This was the third season in gold, and the first in playoffs.

Only 4 teams will be promoted. In the first round we have to play a team with a 104-59 record.

[Hualalai]

Current starters, after 9 seasons

C Berra 100
1B Bagwell 97
2B Evers 97/Mazeroski 88
3B Schmidt 100
SS Larkin 100
LF Yastrzemski 99
CF Lynn 100/RHenderson 100
RF Ichiro 92
DH BWilliams 95

Hoiles is backup catcher, Longoria is backup 1/3. Maz is backup SS when not playing second.

[Hualalai]

Starting rotation

Maddox 99
Finley 100
Carlton 96
Gibson 95
Blue 98

[Hualalai]

Bullpen

Dibble 100
Hendriks 97
Foulke 96
Johnson 95
Young 91
Plank 91
Mussina 93
Blyleven 94

[Hualalai]

And we swept the division series, somehow.

So even though we had the 7th best record in the conference, I think because we are in the final four in the playoffs we will be one of the four teams promoted? I think that is how it works. If so, can't say i am looking forward to Diamond. Might be a short stay there.

And we lost in the playoffs, so no world series for me.

[dboeyr12007]

Yes, you will be promoted to diamond next week since you made the final 4.

[Hualalai]

As expected, promoted to diamond.

Do not think this team is ready to compete in Diamond, but we will see.

Only post season award anyone on the team got was another great glove award for Ichiro in right field.

[dboeyr12007]

It took me approximately a million PP to get a team that can go .500ish in diamond.