Legends - Random Debut League

[OzzyOz23]

The Preamble (Part 1)

OK, so the interest of full disclosure, the thread title isn't completely accurate. This isn't a league full of legends, otherwise I'd use the fantastic Baseball Greats mod and call it a day. Rather, this is an RDL project I've pondered for a few years, where each team begins with 6 core players associated with the franchise, with the rest of the roster filled via inaugural draft.

My first attempt at this project two years ago taught me some important lessons. Primarily, double dog and triple dog check my settings and back up frequently before kicking off the season. I also realized that I prefer a very large league, and the bulk of players to be from the era of baseball I know best, the "Defensive Era" and onward.

I'd like to break now to thank Action Jackson, David Watts, JaBurns, and others whom I may have missed, for their invaluable contributions regarding RDL league settings. I learned a lot reading through their posts and tried applying all that I could to this project.

[OzzyOz23]

The Preamble (Part 2)

As a long time OOTP player, I've consistent played 2 types of long term sims with each release. A modern day New York Mets dynasty had been a staple, although recently I've used the Brewers to scratch my modern day itch. Additionally, I like to find an interesting historical team to take on. In earlier versions classic Mets teams struck my fancy, with 1984/85 being a particular favorite. In recent iterations, I've enjoyed "what could have been" teams - the 1979 Expos, 1969 Astros, and 1986 Reds stick out as particular favorite long term sims. I'm a national league guy if you can't tell already.

A few versions ago, I tried using an expansion franchise - the Marlins. It was great fun, but I benifited hugely from knowing how the players would turn out. There aren't enough house rules to combat 20/20 hindsight. Thus, I tried a modern day expansion, helming the Brooklyn Cyclones as they entered the league, and returning NYC baseball to 3 teams, thus giving me reason to edit down the Mets and Yankees market sizes. I did this again a couple versions later and have just completed my eight season, playing out every game.

Two seasons into the sim, in an effort to blunt my advantages, I decided to import a superstar/HOF type of player (70+ rating on a 20-80 scale) to every team in the league beside my own. This became a ritual on the last day of each spring training, as I'd replace the weakest regular on each of my opponent's teams with a historical superstar. It definitely spiced up my league, but also kind of broke it as suddenly a slew of players put together video game numbers. I didn't mind it, even when Tris Speaker batted 436 as a rookie, topping Ty Cobb and his 424 line. Joe Jackson didn't have a chance at 392. However, a couple of seasons ago I noticed all of the resulting negative WAR players, as having a dozen or so players batting over 340 in each league using modern settings led to a ton of players hitting below the Mendoza line and producing just awful WAR lines. Thus for this project, rather than import players at their peak, I will mindfully import a season that is representative of their abilities.

[OzzyOz23]

After spending countless hours creating and editing teams, I have hit a wall. My league does not import draft classes, which is a game breaking issue. I am playing with the settings now to figure it out and running test leagues, but have had no success sorting it out. A forum search shows that this is something that others have encounteres, but I do not see a fix. If anyone has any insight, please let me know.

[OzzyOz23]

A minor update --

In light of the hours I put into creating these teams, including importing over 250 players, setting up logos, ballparks, uniforms, flipping comparable players to teams they are associated with when fair, etc. - I've adjusted my plan. All players of consequence (50+ rating on a 20 - 80 scale) have had their ages edited to 23 years old. This way, the foundation is in place for long careers and I won't have to worry about la large group of retirees. Additionally, each season I will import 3 new players per team - a 60+ SP/position player (70+ for the last place finishers in each division), a 45+ RP, and a 30+ role player. It will be limited to players from the 1970's and onward. I'll try to post some pictures of the league set-up and rosters in my next post.

[OzzyOz23]

After spending countless hours tweaking the league and rosters, I am this close to kicking off the inaugural season of the Legends League. Over the next few posts, I'll discuss some settings and preview the upcoming season.

First things first, here are the 42 teams that will kick off the 1980 season.



The last time I put together an RDL league, one of my bigger regrets was that I set it to 1969 teams, when there were only 24 franchises in MLB. In my current modern day save, I added 6 expansion teams before starting the 2019 season and loved how it played out. For this project, I've upped the ante and added 12 new teams:

New Franchises
Brooklyn Cyclones
Charlotte Knights
Hawaii Islanders
Havana Sugar Kings
Las Vegas Aces
Mexico City Diablos
Montreal Expos
Nashville Sounds
Portland Beavers
Salt Lake Bees
San Antonio Missions
Vancouver Canadians

All schedules, uniforms and logos were sourced on this forum and I'd like to share my deepest gratitude to the modders for the incredible work they do. The level of immersion added by their contributions is immeasurable.

With a staggering influx of new teams, there is opportunity to reimagine the makeup of each league. To build upon local rivalries and reduce travel, teams have been grouped geographically. The NL East is northeastern teams, the AL East southeastern teams. The NL Central is south-central teams, while the bitter AL Central contains north-central teams. The western divisions are similarly situated with the AL containing the northwestern teams and the NL having the southwestern teams. It wasn't a perfect fit - I would've preferred San Antonio was in the same division as Houston and Texas for rivalry purposes. I'm also slightly perturbed about Las Vegas being in the A.L. west when a rivalry with the D-Backs and the L.A. teams seems natural. But, I did my best to make it geographically logical. Having grown up wondering why the Braves and Reds were in the NL West while the Cubs and Cards were in the NL east, I can rest easier knowing this league makes geographic sense.

Any feedback is always welcomed.

[HumanRainDelay]

I like the idea of your local rivalry groupings. The thought of the Mets, Red Sox, Yankees, and Brooklyn fans constantly arguing about whose team will make the playoffs this season, is enough for a displaced Southerner's ears to ache.

[webrian]

I think this is brilliant.

I am going to follow along and see how it develops.

[OzzyOz23]

Thank you for the positive feedback, fellas. Although I've been a long-time OOTP player, this is my first go at chronicling a league. It's nice to know someone's out there along for the ride.

Back to ballin' -

As mentioned above, I made some swaps to place players that are closely rated on teams they are affiliated with. It started as a handful of logical moves like flipping Matt Carpenter, a mid-round Orioles pick rated in the low 60's, with Mexico City's similarly rated Brooks Robinson. With everyone the same age and no service time, I thought it fair. Well, my OCD took over and this turned into a days long project that included bench bats & loogys by the time all was said and done. Many players remain with the team that selected them in the inaugural draft, as there was no fair trade to be had due to position or lack of a ratings match. I think seeing players with the teams I associate them on will contribute to immersion. Additionally, when fair, I made efforts to trade Cuban born players to the Sugar Kings and Mexican born players to the Diablos. The Cyclones turned into a hodgepodge of Mets, Yankees, & Dodgers players.

Here is a sampling of some rosters. If someone would like to see a specific team, let me know and I'll post an image.

[daveh2018]

Like the concept and I will try to follow along - would love to see the Phillies roster.

One question - did you have the teams specifically draft players that played for their franchise or did that work out that way from all of the swapping? I'm running a random debut as well and one thing I did was to have AI draft the teams, which resulted in Musial landing on the Pirates, Cody Bellinger on the Braves and so forth.

[OzzyOz23]

After several test runs and tweaks along the way - specifically fixing pitcher stamina since I hadn't remembered that starting pitchers logged around 15 complete games per season and made it up to 260 - 280 innings into the mid 80's, the Legends League was finally ready for Opening Day. I rarely, if ever, test my leagues. Though after working so hard on this one, I decided it's a good idea to make sure it plays the way I'd expect. I was able to get complete games down to about 10 or so for the league leaders, with innings still topping out in the mid to high 200's by setting pitcher stamina to "normal" with a "very quick hook" (-5). Along the way, I solved my problem with draft classes not being imported- I only had 1 of the 2 boxes ticked off for automatically importing historical rookies and from specific era's. An unexpected plus.

This is actually a good oppportunity to discuss some of my settings:

With the knowledge of which players should turn out, I decided to turn off auto recalc and set TCR at 115 and let the OOTP development engine take over. Stats are set to 1984, as the consensus seems that it is a great year to use. I toyed with the idea of using 1991 to have an increase in strikeouts, or 1987 just for the homers and steals. However, one of the main reasons I am using stats from the 80's is that I am tired of playing modern day games revolving around strikeouts, walks, and homeruns. I may try 1973 for the next season depending on how this one plays out. If anyone has season stat prefernces, I'm open to suggestion. I use a 20 - 80 scale, however now that the season has begun, I have brought it down to 2-8 to increase the fog of war. Scouting is set to normal, injuries low, and fatigue normal, although I may drop it down later in the season. Trading is set to low, although I may eventually tweak that as well.

I'll GM and manage the New York Mets in this sim. I prefer to play out every game, so it may take a while to wrap up a season. A serpentine draft was set for the initial free agent draft and I took Wade Boggs 1-1, Pedro Martinez in the second round and then Roger Clemens back to back as my third round pick - so maybe I should've planned to take over the Red Sox. Surprisingly, the computer AI scooped up all of the relevant position players early and top starting pitchers didn't go off the boards until later in rounds 3 and 4. This led to the Mets being supremely under-powered with the bats, but loaded with a top notch pitching staff. Art imitating life.

Over the next few posts, I'll preview some teams and give minor updates on what's happening in the league.

The Philadelphia Phillies are a good emodiement of how the teams in this save look.



The Philies began with a core group of 6 players like every other franchise.

65+ - Aaron Nola, Mike Schmidt
60+ - Roy Oswalt, Lenny Dykstra, Jimmy Rollins
60 + Brad Lidge

Additionally, when possible, I traded for players that played for Philly, such as Darrin Fletcher, a solid hitting catcher that had a cup of coffee with the Phils before having a nice little run up in Montreal. The Phillies had a mid 50's catcher they scoooped up in the draft that I then flipped with Fletch. It took a lot of dealing - I spent a week or so flipping players, using my memory of old baseball cards to guide me. RDL does not distribute players to the teams they played for in real life, so even though it was a time consuming project, I know I'll be happy with the outcome.

The Phils chose Phreddie Phreeman in the Phirst round, and there was no comparable trade to be made - the best former Philly 1B in the league is Jim Thome, who was rated about 20 points less, so I left him be.



I have the Opening Day game file saved in my Google Drive, so if anyone is into this hodgepodge of 80's and onward players, let me know and we can find a way to get it to you to try out.

[daveh2018]

Originally Posted by OzzyOz23

The Phils chose Phreddie Phreeman in the Phirst round, and there was no comparable trade to be made - the best former Philly 1B in the league is Jim Thome, who was rated about 20 points less, so I left him be.

Love the nickname. Now, if we can only get the Braves to trade him to us in real life...this Phillies Phan would be happy.

[OzzyOz23]

We are about three weeks into the inaugural season of the Legends League and some interesting things are taking place.



We are going to have to get HumanRainDelay some Advil, as the Mets, Yankees, Cyclones, Phillies, and Red Sox are bunched up at the top of the NL East standings. For the Mets, it has been a lot of smoke and mirrors, as they are 9 - 4 in 1-run games. 13 one-run games out of 22 overall to start the season. I am definitely digging the 1984 stat settings.

80's offensive settings has had little impact on Mark McGwire though. Big Mac is tearing it up as one of the original 6 for Las Vegas, winning the player of the week award the past 2 weeks running on the back of 9 homers, 25 rbi, and a 1.150 OPS, good for a 215 OPS+. Maybe next time I'll try 1968 settings and see if that can contain him.



On the pitching side, I couldn't help but notice hard luck hitting original sixer Chris Carpenter of the Blue Jays. 0-5 with a 3.26 ERA and 114 ERA+. Someone cue Brian Kenny for another rant about pitcher wins being overrated.



And finally, the coolest moment of my first batch of games was when Babe Ruth came to the plate for his first at bat against Roger Clemens. I just knew the Bambino would take the Rocket deep, and boy did he! A mammoth first inning blast that absolutely hooked me into this RDL. It helped of course that it ended well for the Metsies, as a late rally against Brien Taylor and Mariano Rivera was capped off by a walk-off hit hit by Jose Cruz Sr. in the bottom of the eleventh.



Many thanks to Reds1 for helping me with a new method of posting images. I think the sizing is a little better now, but I'll keep playing with the settings to try to make the thread more visually appealing.

[OzzyOz23]

Now that we are over a month into the Legends League, some interesting stats and storylines are unfolding. Let's discuss!

Playing Perfect Team the first year it came out gave me an opportunity to put a face and results to players that seemed inaccessible previously. I took the idea of Perfect Team and applied it to this league by integrating players from the (distant) past. Many of them landed as Core 6 players on one of the twelve expansion teams. Case in point, Cy Young. Although his inclusion forced me to rename the award given in his honor (now called the Hurler of the Year - I don't love this name), the Nashville Sounds are happy to have the most famous pitcher of all time anchoring their staff.



Meanwhile, Colorado had no pitchers that came to mind for their Core 6, so they were granted the great Christy Mathewson. Even Matty can't tame the beast that is Coors Field. Although his elevated babip implies his rough start may be attributable to some porous defense behind him. Further analysis is required.



Speaking of rough starts, the league LVP thus far has been Mr. Marlin, Jeff Conine. He may need a new nickname. The Vegas Aces left fielder is already at -1 WAR on the back of his interstate batting average. I'm sure the fans have some choice monikers in mind. It's a good thing Big Mac is on fire to balance out Conine's atrocious start.



With the focus of this post on the National League, here are the pitching leader boards. A lot of familiar faces in familiar places, except for the Rocket, April's Pitcher of the Month. He has made my painstaking decision (I actually turned the game off and slept on it!) to take him over Kevin Brown a wise choice thus far.



On the offensive side of things, Pudge Rodriguez came on huge to close out April, climbing up the leader boards in the triple crown stats on his way to the Player of the Month award. As an aside, as weird as it is to see Paul Molitor on the Red Sox - particularly after he beat the Mets with a bottom of the 8th bomb off Jesse Orosco, I do love seeing Joey Votto on the Expos. Babe Ruth with 6 triples though is my favorite moment as I perused the leader boards.

[

As far as my Metsies, the squad caught fire at the end of April against a slew of sub .500 teams, winning 14 games in a row! That was followed up by losses in the next two games, particularly stinging because of injuries to Rick Reed (2 - 1, 4.03) for 3 months due to shoulder inflammation, and Scott Kazmir (5 - 1, 2.22) to the ominous "diagnosis pending". Despite using reserve rosters, we couldn't wait on Kazmir, placing him on the disabled list (to keep it real-ish), as we are in the midst of a 14 game in 13 day swing. Welcome to the rotation Nelson Figueroa and Bob Stoddard. That 5.5 game lead over the Yankees seems awful perilous.

[OzzyOz23]

Six weeks into the 1980 season, here are the updated standings. In the American League East, Tampa Bay is the only team above .500, opening a 2.5 game lead over the Nationals. Small Sample Size alert! - Dick Schofield is the team leader with 6 home runs through the first third of the season. It seems the light hitting shortstop ran into a few, as his overall line of .195/.244/589 has yielded a +68 OPS to go along with only 0.2 WAR. In the AL West, the Giants and A's are neck and neck, just 1 game apart at the top of the standings. This A's squad resembles the money-ball team of yore, as the Tony LaRussa helmed crew is pacing MLB with a league leading .357 team OBP. A potential pennant race may unfold between the two bay area teams- something to keep an eye on as we head into the meat of the season.




As far as the AL Central, we will highlight the Pirates offense in this post. Pittsburgh is currently fourth in the league in runs scored, fueled by a .774 team OPS. Starting off with Jason Kendall, Honus Wagner, and Bobby Bonilla provided a foundation that the team added to expertly in the draft, picking up Andy Van Slyke and Aubrey Huff to provide additional firepower. Van Slyke has catapulted himself into the MVP discussion, slashing .296/11/30 in the Triple Crown stats, yielding nearly 2 WAR through the first quarter of the season. Team defense is an issue, as would be expected of any squad starting both Jose Offerman and Bobby Bonilla. We'll see if the Buccos can build on their 3 game lead over the Brew Crew.



Moving over to my Mets, we'll take a look at the early going for Shohei Otani. Sho Time is an old favorite of mine, as I have closely followed his career since he was an 18 year old all star in ***. I've added him to every team I've used since OOTP began offering Japanese players. Initially, I was fascinated by the juggling act of getting him at bats and innings in an optimal manner. Now, I just love watching his seasons unfold. He imported without fielding ratings, although he had aptitude at first base so I played him there throughout spring training. He has provided a much needed power bat, strong eye, and surprising aggressiveness on the base paths on his way to slashing .269/.357/.835 through 28 starts in the field and 7 toeing the hill. He has been the beneficiary of outstanding defense, as his microscopic .212 BABIP attests. Otani has totaled 1.6 WAR between the dish and hill, and although my hope that he would be the founding member of the 20/20/20 club (homers/steals/wins) may not come to fruition, he has been an absolute rock as the best performer of the Mets' original 6



While we are discussing the Mets, let's shift focus to The Almost Met.

'Ode to Kevin Brown

The Amazin's were fortunate to receive the first pick in the draft. With it, they took Wade Boggs, who despite his warts on defense, could be counted on to provide something north of a .300/.400 line - production that would be hard to come by in 1980. Top offensive players then flew off the board for the rest of the first and second rounds in this serpentine draft. When the Mets finally picked again, with the 84th and 85 picks, it seemed pitching was the most sensible area to focus on. The top starters offered by the RDL gawds were all available for the taking. Five stood out as heads and shoulders above the rest - Steve Carlton, Roger Clemens, Pedro Martinez, Randy Johnson, and Kevin Brown. Now, although this may seem like a "one of these is not like the others" activity on Sesame Street, I would counter that Kevin Brown pitched like a HOF'er and, if not for being a HOF jerk to the writers, might have been enshrined in the mold of a Roy Halladay type of entry. Getting caught up in the steroids scandal at the end of his Yankees days probably didn't help matters much either.

Anyway, Pedro Martinez was a no-brainer. So he went with the 84th pick. The Big Unit's control issues crossed him off the board, and Lefty has personality issues that nixed him as well. That left Roger Clemens and Kevin Brown. The Rocket reminded me a lot of Pedro, and his high greed could be problematic. My scouts and OSS both loved the groundballer Brownie, who had slightly higher ratings, both currently and potentially. Additionally, his personality ratings were through the roof () as he is a good teammate with leadership qualities that could catapult him into a captain role on a pitching staff eventually. Neither played for the Mets, although both played for the Yankees, so no tie-breaker there. After going back and forth, I decided to return to the decision the next day. Following a good night's sleep, I decided I had to take Kevin Brown! The Rocket was drafted by the Orioles with the very next pick and that was a wrap. Or so I thought. As I edited other teams, flipping players, I couldn't help but remember that the real Kevin Brown had a bounce back season in Baltimore after flaming out in Arlington. Meanwhile, in one of the greatest what-ifs in Mets history, Roger Clemens was a high school draft pick of the Amazins back (or is it forwards?) in 1981, failing to sign before heading off to college. Could you imagine him and a young Doc Gooden heading a rotation during the mid-80's? I surmised that this must be serendipity and flipped them with one another. Since no games had been played, and I had spent more time than I care to admit debating the choice in the first place, I felt ok about giving myself this mulligan. Brownie is off to a so-so start in Charm City, but I'm sure Earl Weaver and Ray Miller will straighten him out soon. This is a comparison I will continuously return to throughout the sim.



Here is a glimpse of the AL leader boards. I wanted to share it because Hammerin' Hank is atop the home run leaders, and with his passing recently, it seemed an appropriate time to highlight his awesomeness. Yes, it is bizarre seeing him in a Charlotte Knights jersey. The Braves already had Dale Murphy as an original sixer, and with the Knights having the DH to play with in the American League, they were the beneficiaries of receiving perhaps the greatest right-handed hitter of all-time. The middling Knights are only 15th in the AL in runs scored, but it's through no fault of The Hammer, as he has a .973 OPS and is already in double digits in both home runs and steals.


Finally, to pay homage to HumanRainDelay, here are the early season numbers of his namesake, Mike Hargrove. He hasn't done much in the early going, although he is the least of Brooklyn's problems, as their gasoline pouring bullpen has the second worst ERA in the National League. Hargrove really shouldn't be a starting right-fielder, especially with Duke Snider and (old) Barry Bonds joining him on the grass, combining for a -9.5 zone rating among the trio. However, Gil Hodges is at 1B, backed up by both Edwin Encarnacion and Lucas Dudu, so the Human Rain Delay looks to keep taking his starts in RF for the foreseeable future. Hopefully his stick will pick up to make up for the iron glove.

[OzzyOz23]

We are now 10 weeks or so into the 1980 season, and it is a fine time to take a look at the updated standings since we last checked in. Not much has changed at the top of the divisions, as the Giants are fending off the slumping Athletics in the AL West, while the Pirates are staying strong atop the AL Central. Meanwhile, in the AL East, the surging Braves have overtaken the Rays for the division lead. We'll return to the Braves in just a bit. In the Senior circuit, the NL West has earned a few words. The division looks a bit upside down as the expansion teams in San Antonio, Hawaii, and Mexico City have been surging, while the flagship franchises in LA, Anaheim, San Diego, and Arizona have lagged behind. An interesting start out west. Meanwhile, in the NL East, the early season donnybrook between Brooklyn-Queens-Bronx-Boston-& Philly at the top of the division has gone by the wayside, as the Cyclones have dropped to the division's basement, while the Blue Jays have surged to within 3.5 games of the division leading Mets. The Jays have a very strong offense that could bash their way to a playoff birth.



When we last checked in, the surging Yankees were nipping at the heels of the Mets. The Amazins had just lost two starters to injury, although Scott Kazmir recovered quickly after a short 10 day dl stint. Nelson Figueroa has done an admirable job in the #5 slot subbing for Rick Reed, using smoke, mirrors, sandpaper, and the Gerrit Cole approved sticky stuff to pitch to a 2-1, 3.12 line in 12 appearances, including 6 starts. Figeuroa's 19:24 bb:k rato and .246 babip belie his 4.17 FIP. Although the Yankees came to town hot, as the Mets slumped, the Amazins still managed to take 2 of 3 in the series. However, in Game 2 of a double-header, we saw our first no-hitter of 1980, hurled by Andy Pettite against the Amazins. The Mets could not touch Pettite, who threw 8.2 shutout innings against the Amazins the last time he faced them. Someday, the Mets may scratch a run off the young Yankee southpaw.



Ode to Gary Roenicke

Like many of you, as a child I collected baseball cards. One of the coolest cards I remember unpacking was Gary Roenicke. I started collecting in 1987, after getting a couple of Ralston Purina cards in my cereal box and wondering, "what the heck do I do with these?" So, I started watching it on tv to figure out how to play with these picture cards. I remember spending a quarter at the ice cream truck for a pack of the wood bordered Topps cards and unpacking a certain DH-OF, wondering why his card listed him on the Yankees despite my seeing him on TBS playing for the Braves. I was too young to know just how terrible the team was, but this Roenicke guy just looked like a masher. A grownup had to explain to me that players sometimes get traded, or can even become free agents that get to choose their teams. In 1988, I unpacked another Gary Roenicke card, this time in a Braves uniform, although I recognized the shot being from Shea Stadium. I remember being struck by how much this guy just looks like a hitter.




Ode to Gary Roenicke Part 2

As mentioned previously, the first 2 rounds of the inaugural draft saw a run on just about every strong hitter in the league. Although the Mets took Wade Boggs with the first pick, the next three were spent on starting pitchers: Pedro Martinez, Roger Clemens, and Rick Reed. By the time the fifth round kicked off, with the 169th pick, the Amazins were finally ready to draft some hitters. As the draft unfolded, the Mets found themselves penciling in Jose Cruz Sr-Lee Tinsley-Ryan Church in the outfield left to right. With a pair of lefties in the corners, and Gary Roenicke hanging out in the mid-rounds, we pulled the trigger on the slugging righty with the intention of using him in a platoon with Church. Having read stories of Earl Weaver using John Lowenstein/Gary Roenicke in a platoon that put up all-star caliber numbers, I decided to borrow the idea for my low-wattage outfield. Roenicke has been a godsend, leading the team in homeruns and providing average production in RF since taking over the bulk of the playing time due to inconsistent production from Cruz and Church. Roenicke started ice cold, turned red hot, and has stabilized somewhere in the middle, providing a 107 OPS+ with 11 longballs. Considering the relative weakness of the rostered outfielders, Roenicke has an opportunity to settle into the clean-up slot the rest of the way.



The Atlanta Braves have come up in this post time and again, so it seems appropo to discuss their squad. The Braves as a franchise are known for many things, including incredible pitching throughout their dynastic run in the 90's and early 'oughts. The first place Braves of the Legends League are similarly strong, with Smoltz and Glavine doing their thing at the top of the rotation. This version of the Bravos feature a third HOF caliber pitcher, Phil Niekro. While Knucksie is off to a slow start, Steve Avery, the ace that could've been, is coming on strong with 7 wins and nearly 3 WAR already. Julio Teheran rounds out the starting staff. If you're wondering, Greg Maddux was a draft pick of the Rangers, another team with a rotation to drool for.

The Braves pen looks to be solid as well, with John Rocker and Mark Wohlers providing a boffo lefty righty combo in the late innings. This is a team that promises to be reckoned with as the season unfolds.



Finally, although this is a historical sim, I realize that I am spending an inordinate amount of time discussing players from the (relatively) distant past. Thus, I offer you Mike Trout. The Millville Meteor is off to his typical, ho-hum jaw-dropping start, with a 157 OPS+ and a 9 WAR pace. As art imitates life, the Angels are currently 31 - 40, just a half game ahead of the Diamondbacks to stay out of the cellar of the National League West. It seems bad luck has bitten the Halos in the backside, as they are underplaying their Pythagorean record by 7 games! They "should" be 38 - 33, so hopefully lady luck takes a shining to the Halos as we chug along towards the All Star break.

[HumanRainDelay]

Originally Posted by OzzyOz23

After several test runs and tweaks along the way - specifically fixing pitcher stamina since I hadn't remembered that starting pitchers logged around 15 complete games per season and made it up to 260 - 280 innings into the mid 80's, the Legends League was finally ready for Opening Day. I rarely, if ever, test my leagues. Though after working so hard on this one, I decided it's a good idea to make sure it plays the way I'd expect. I was able to get complete games down to about 10 or so for the league leaders, with innings still topping out in the mid to high 200's by setting pitcher stamina to "normal" with a "very quick hook" (-5). Along the way, I solved my problem with draft classes not being imported- I only had 1 of the 2 boxes ticked off for automatically importing historical rookies and from specific era's. An unexpected plus.

This is actually a good oppportunity to discuss some of my settings:

With the knowledge of which players should turn out, I decided to turn off auto recalc and set TCR at 115 and let the OOTP development engine take over. Stats are set to 1984, as the consensus seems that it is a great year to use. I toyed with the idea of using 1991 to have an increase in strikeouts, or 1987 just for the homers and steals. However, one of the main reasons I am using stats from the 80's is that I am tired of playing modern day games revolving around strikeouts, walks, and homeruns. I may try 1973 for the next season depending on how this one plays out. If anyone has season stat prefernces, I'm open to suggestion. I use a 20 - 80 scale, however now that the season has begun, I have brought it down to 2-8 to increase the fog of war. Scouting is set to normal, injuries low, and fatigue normal, although I may drop it down later in the season. Trading is set to low, although I may eventually tweak that as well.

I'll GM and manage the New York Mets in this sim. I prefer to play out every game, so it may take a while to wrap up a season. A serpentine draft was set for the initial free agent draft and I took Wade Boggs 1-1, Pedro Martinez in the second round and then Roger Clemens back to back as my third round pick - so maybe I should've planned to take over the Red Sox. Surprisingly, the computer AI scooped up all of the relevant position players early and top starting pitchers didn't go off the boards until later in rounds 3 and 4. This led to the Mets being supremely under-powered with the bats, but loaded with a top notch pitching staff. Art imitating life.

Over the next few posts, I'll preview some teams and give minor updates on what's happening in the league.

The Philadelphia Phillies are a good emodiement of how the teams in this save look.



The Philies began with a core group of 6 players like every other franchise.

65+ - Aaron Nola, Mike Schmidt
60+ - Roy Oswalt, Lenny Dykstra, Jimmy Rollins
60 + Brad Lidge

Additionally, when possible, I traded for players that played for Philly, such as Darrin Fletcher, a solid hitting catcher that had a cup of coffee with the Phils before having a nice little run up in Montreal. The Phillies had a mid 50's catcher they scoooped up in the draft that I then flipped with Fletch. It took a lot of dealing - I spent a week or so flipping players, using my memory of old baseball cards to guide me. RDL does not distribute players to the teams they played for in real life, so even though it was a time consuming project, I know I'll be happy with the outcome.

The Phils chose Phreddie Phreeman in the Phirst round, and there was no comparable trade to be made - the best former Philly 1B in the league is Jim Thome, who was rated about 20 points less, so I left him be.



I have the Opening Day game file saved in my Google Drive, so if anyone is into this hodgepodge of 80's and onward players, let me know and we can find a way to get it to you to try out.

Now those were memorable first three selections by your Mets. I would bet that in 20 years, a statue will be commissioned in your honor to celebrate the years of dominant pitching.

[OzzyOz23]

Originally Posted by HumanRainDelay

Now those were memorable first three selections by your Mets. I would bet that in 20 years, a statue will be commissioned in your honor to celebrate the years of dominant pitching.

Pitching indeed, HRD. This Mets franchise will only go as far as the pitching staff takes them, as they were drafted under the premise that pitching, speed, and defense wins ballgames. They had been been ranked towards the bottom of the league in runs scored much of the season prior to a 3 game explosion in Minnesota just before the all star break, plating 40 runs in a sweep of the Twins. A closer look shows the Mets are first place in most pitching categories, zone rating, defensive efficiency, and stolen bases. It has made for a lot of exciting games, although it really feels like every run is a grind when we're rolling out a lineup with a .685 team OPS.



Since HRD is on my mind, it reminded me that I wanted to follow up on his namesake, Mike Hargrove. When we last checked on the Cyclones right-fielder, I may have said some harsh words about the slow start to his season. And, apparently, he may have taken it personally, as shortly after my commentary, he single-handedly eviscerated the Cyclones. The Human Rain Delay went 2 - 3 with his first homerun of the season, driving in all 3 runs in a 3 - 1 victory over the Mets on May 17, 1980. The very next day, Grover hit his second homer of the season in a 9 - 3 loss. On the series, Hargrove went 5 - 15, 2 hr, 4rbi. This seems to have kickstarted his season, as his numbers have been trending upwards since feasting on the Mets pitching staff. So, apologies are in order. Although, I do stand by my statement that he has no business as a starting rightfielder, owing to his -7.9 ZR through 95 games. I would, of course, fall over myself to plug a guy like this into RF for the Mets.

Hargrove sticking it to me for a series after I questioned his abilities is a close second to my call of The Babe taking Roger Clemens deep in their first faceoff, as far as the coolest things that have immersed me in this sim.



The All Star Break is upon us! Not much has changed in the standing since we last checked in. The Mets and Braves have padded their leads in the eastern divisions. While out west, the Giants and Missions continue to lap their rivals. The central divisions look to be the tigthest right now, although with the dog days of August just around the corner, there could be a shakeup in the standings coming soon.



With the Mid-Summer Classic upon us, that also means the trade deadline is coming in less than two weeks. While there are some very interesting players to target - Jay Payton would be a fantastic fit, and who wouldn't want Bobby Grich at the key stone? - I am not sure what can really be offered in barter. As the league currently has no free agency, a relatively sparse 15 man reserve roster, and no draft pick trading as I continue to debate how to add new players following the season - I don't really see what can be done on the trade front without giving up legitimate MLB pieces. Which I suppose is fair - do I trade from strength and attempt to swap Scott Kazmir for a Ryan Zimmerman type to plug into the middle of the order? I'm a tinkerer by nature, but the relative dearth of depth gives me pause. Additionally, I can't help but note that almost all of the "name" players on the trading block have personality issues. Although the clubhouse is humming and can absorb a difficult character, it may not be a great idea to experiment with team chemistry mid-season. I may have to stand pat this trade deadline, but will be sure to report on any blockbusters that come down the pike.



Finally, with the all-star break here, let's highlight some of the stars chosen for the mid-summer classic.

The leading vote-getters in 1980 were Matt Carpenter of the Salt Lake Bees in the American League and Ellis Burks of the Colorado Rockies in the National League. I couldn't reset popularity prior to starting the season, although I did make it of low importance towards All Star voting. Nonetheless, these two players have been absolutely tearing up their respective leagues and are deserving honorees.



Here are some of the pitching stars of the first half:

Dock Ellis has already won 17 games to pace the American League, 3 wins ahead of Hal Newhouser of the Tigers. HIs 30:52 BB:K ratio falls in line with the times and isn't too big of a concern. Can Dock Ellis get all the way to 30 wins?

Roger Clemens is leading the National League in the Triple Crown pitching categories, although Nolan Ryan is nipping at his heels with just 6 fewer strikeouts, and All-Star snub Steve Carlton has just one less victory than the Rocket. Clemens has cooled a bit of late, losing three of his last four decisions. It will be interesting to see if he can continue his record pace.

Arguably the most dominant left handed pitcher in the National League is Clayton Kershaw, who has managed to put up a 12 - 6, 2.69, line for a Dodgers squad that is struggling to get to .500. Can Kersh win the coveted Hurler of the Year Award for a losing team? Can I come up with a better name for the pitching award, specifically one that does not invoke images of aces vomiting? Time will tell on both fronts.

Finally, out of the pen the highly controversial Roberto Osuna of Mexico City is off to a tremendous start, notching 13 saves on his way to accumulating 2 WAR coming on in relief. Osuna has only given up 3 earned runs during the first half of the season, and is an early front-runner for the Fireman of the Year Award in the National League. The Diablos are actually a very interesting squad and we'll be sure to take a deep dive on them in a future post.



On the offensive side of things, let's take a look at some of the stars of the first half of the season.

Reggie Jackson has been a central figure of the A's potent offense, leading the AL in WAR and putting himself in the Most Valuable Player conversation. The A's are currently in second place in the standings, giving him a leg up on other offensive standouts playing for less competitive squads, such as Miguel Cabrera.

Miggy, while absolutely blistering the ball at a .348/.414/.532 clip, is performing in relative anonymity as the Cleveland Indians, the team that picked him 9th overall, flounders along with a 40 - 58 record, 22 games back of the division leading Pirates. Perhaps Miggy will be in consideration for the Golden Spikes Award, an honor meant for the best hitter in each league.

Finally, in the National League, an early MVP candidate continues to be Babe Ruth, of course. His 11 triples on the year is still my favorite part of his statline, as he could post the first 20/20/20 (doubles/triples/homeruns) statline I have ever seen. Babe continues to lead the league in home runs, slugging, OPS, and general awesomeness. His WAR may be dinged for his defense, but it's been a real treat seeing him light it up at the dish.

Speaking of legends doing legendary things, I'll just sneak in a peak at Ty Cobb before signing off. The Georgia Peach is leading the AL in batting avg, hits, runs, doubles, extra base hits, and total bases. Unfortunately, he sprained a knee and will spend the next 4 weeks recovering, forcing him to miss the all star game. We'll see if the Tigers can continue their strong start without him.