How's your top F2P or PT+ team doing?

[bailey]

I beefed up my main team considerably to 20 perfects and cruised to a Gold League championship. Getting stomped this week, though. Probably was not a good idea to stick with Baker Bowl (20% boost to HR both sides)!

I spent most of the points I had left for the Locomotives on Schmidt and Mantle and won their 2nd Gold League championship. Mantle was MVP in all 3 series. First time also I can ever remember winning the first 3 games of a league final and also game 7, instead of adding to my tales of woe.

[LeeD]

Originally Posted by bailey

I beefed up my main team considerably to 20 perfects and cruised to a Gold League championship. Getting stomped this week, though. Probably was not a good idea to stick with Baker Bowl (20% boost to HR both sides)!

I spent most of the points I had left for the Locomotives on Schmidt and Mantle and won their 2nd Gold League championship. Mantle was MVP in all 3 series. First time also I can ever remember winning the first 3 games of a league final and also game 7, instead of adding to my tales of woe.

I can remember this happening to me several times in PT22 (reverse sweep), but both times I've blown a 3-0 lead in PT23 my team also won Game Seven.

[the_hangman]

First time trying perfect team, haven't bought anything except PT+ to try it out and after starting a second team I now realize my main team has had an insane amount of luck with pack pulls.

I'm in silver now (hopefully with a bit more playoff luck on the way to gold) and I still have a few pack pulls in my starting lineup: 98 OVR Lou Gehrig at DH (Mize is at 1B), 99 OVR Biz Mackey at C, and 100 OVR Robin Yount at SS. It's been a bit ironic though, I got Gehrig in the diamond pack from the Johnny Mize mission and Yount was a few days after I finished Willie Wells. I also got 99 OVR Roy Face, 99 OVR Don Newcombe, and 93 OVR Matt Thornton from packs and they are all still pitching in my pen.

And the best pull of all was John Tudor, who I got from a standard pack I won in a quick tournament right before the Cardinals mission dropped. I should've sold him when the mission dropped and he shot up to 650k+ but I didn't know the price would drop back to 200k so quickly



Either way it's been super fun to watch him absolutely stomp his way through the lower levels, and I guess having fun is kind of the point of playing games.. he'll never earn the points I could've had selling him but his stats so far are ridiculous

[LeeD]

That Tudor card is one that should hang around until end of cycle. They'll release enough cards between now and February to push him back some, but I doubt anyone will have him on the reserve roster. He'll at least be good enough to fill a spot in the bullpen.You probably should've sold him for the 650K, but he'll still be a key team member going forward.

My best card pull of the year is 100 LE Fergie Jenkins. Seriously thought about selling him, but I held on and let him play as my team moved from Iron up to Gold. First four seasons have gotten me 100 wins, 24 WAR, 3 Cy Young awards, and 2 championships. Certainly worthwhile despite him earning only 15,000 PP out of the 175,000 or so I could've gotten from a sale.

Bottom line: In some cases, you have to say "Yeah, I want this guy on my winning team, and screw the points."

[bailey]

The only news was that I did not get relegated. The team was 24 perfects and 2 diamonds, but after watching the PeL champions go 13-0 in the PeL playoffs I opted to "downgrade" my SS to a diamond: Mark Belanger. Don't fight the meta! I paid 25% over L10, but there were 6 people lined up to buy it on the cheap.

[the_hangman]

Rode a dominant pitching staff (2.94 team ERA) to the best record in my league only to go down 2-0 in the Bo5's. Luckily won three straight and then went on to win another championship and we're on to gold.

Saved all season and was able to buy Bullet Joe towards the end of the season to finish off NeL 2 for Gibson, who wound up being the DS and WS MVP. Now back to saving and spamming tournaments, I think my team is more than ready for gold.

Let me know how Belanger is, hard to imagine his defense makes up for the lack of bat but can't argue with a championship

[the_hangman]

Originally Posted by LeeD

That Tudor card is one that should hang around until end of cycle. They'll release enough cards between now and February to push him back some, but I doubt anyone will have him on the reserve roster. He'll at least be good enough to fill a spot in the bullpen.You probably should've sold him for the 650K, but he'll still be a key team member going forward.

My best card pull of the year is 100 LE Fergie Jenkins. Seriously thought about selling him, but I held on and let him play as my team moved from Iron up to Gold. First four seasons have gotten me 100 wins, 24 WAR, 3 Cy Young awards, and 2 championships. Certainly worthwhile despite him earning only 15,000 PP out of the 175,000 or so I could've gotten from a sale.

Bottom line: In some cases, you have to say "Yeah, I want this guy on my winning team, and screw the points."

Yeah, now that I know how extreme of a price 650k is I think I'd pull the trigger on that sale every time. But I'm doing just fine without the extra points I could've had and he just finished runner up for the Cy Young again. 3 Cy Young Awards and 2 2nd place finishes in 6 seasons now, he's been my workhorse. He also finished MVP runner up one year but he was robbed, the winner had like 6.3 WAR and Tudor had 8

[LeeD]

Update, halfway through the 2045 season.

Ho hum. San Diego Sharks won 104 games (league best) last season in Diamond but were again turned back in the playoffs. Tied for first so far this season, and have completed all Negro League missions. This appears to be Hubbell and Paige's designated week to suck (they're also sucking on my other teams), so they've been moved to the pen and replaced by Hilton Smith and Max Manning.

Petrograd Soviet and Last Chance Texaco were relegated to Gold, where they're both playing winning ball. Last Chance completed Baseball Ref, adding Lynn, Mize, Hubbell, Tommy Harper, and Harry Brecheen. Satchel Paige moved to the pen after going 3-7, 4.88 in the rotation.

Wherever Whatevers have reached Diamond and are holding their own at 40-40.

Seventies Bombers theme team are running away with their Bronze division at 60-20. They ought to be good up until they hit Gold, when I'll find myself unable to purchase the very small set of great 1970s cards.

[bailey]

At the half, I'm 1 game behind a wildcard spot and 2 games ahead of being relegated. Short leagues s**k. I wish they balanced things with 32-team leagues instead of short leagues.

[the_hangman]

Won a 5th straight championship and made it to diamond this week. Took a lot of playoff luck and definitely wasn't the best team in the league but a ring's a ring. Pitching staff was still decent but the offense is probably going to need a few upgrades that I can't afford yet.

Looks like I'm in the same diamond league as the mosquitos this week

[Magus978]

Survived in diamond despite my best efforts. Made 368k off of live spec, so now I have buy offers out on 100 Jackie, 100 Schmidt, and 100 Ernie Banks. They would improve my offense tremendously. Not concerned about the pitching since we're playing at Coors Field and the pitching is a punt.

[HomerD]

PT+, no other expenditures.


C - Gibson, FL Francisco Alvarez
1B/DH - Suttles, Mize
2B - Lloyd
SS - Yount, Davis
3B - Wells
INF - Dandridge
LF - Stearnes (fully trained)
CF - Lynn (Yount vs. LHP)

RF - Betts
OF - Cedeno



SP - NeL Paige, Scherzer, Hubbell, Foster, Donaldson
RP - Plesac, Lavelle, Foulke, Dibble, Chesbro, Smokey Joe Williams, Wilbur Wood, Santana


Have won rings at all four completed levels so far, although it took me 5 seasons in Bronze - made the playoffs every year, first two years lost to better teams, 3rd year I lost to a joke team, 4th year I ran into two very srtong teams in my own division and barely made the playoffs. All of these were in the DS or earlier) and 5th year I won 122 games and the ring. Now 31-13 in Silver, with the best record in the league.

[LeeD]

My earlier assessment of the San Diego Sharks was correct. Window of opportunity for promotion to Perfect League has passed as new missions and the attendant flurry of activity have come and gone. Under .500 last week and this week, and I'm not sitting on my 21st straight Diamond season only to see another 72-90 which just misses relegation.

I've blown up the team and sold everyone worth selling in search of PP, which means I expect to get clobbered in the second half this week. Gone: Jackie, Mantle, Lynn, Hubbell, Scherzer, Paige, Hilton Smith, and a few others in exchange for about 700,000 PP, which I intend to spend on the next round of Spotlight packs. It's the only way forward since I'm not about to open the spending tap. We'll see how far those packs go in filling out the lineup, which actually looks pretty good as a Gold league entrant if my expected relegation happens this week.

What's left:

Ca - Gibson and Mathis
1B - Mize
2B - Doby
3B - Diamond Jackie
SS- Yount and Bancroft
LF - Billy Hamilton
CF- Mookie Betts (Yount v. lefties)
RF- Torriente (Betts v. lefties)
DH- Snider and Kiner

SP- Donaldson, Blyleven, Lolich, Manning, and Newcombe
RP- Roberts, Santana, Dotel, Ryan, and Jansen

Definitely time to switch back to a park that smothers home runs, as I'm looking to fill out with high BABIP hitters and don't have a lot of power bats with this (un)build.

[bailey]

That's sorry news, indeed. The "Hail Mary" pack rip rarely works. My team has established itself in diamond and I have enough PP in reserve to pick up some new cards in the coming weeks. I use the Korean park which is last on the list of PT+ parks. It extremely nerfs BABIP and XBH while slightly boosting HR. Works great if you can tolerate low batting averages. But, I'm thinking of switching to a hitter friendly park next week just to see what happens.

[LeeD]

Spotlight packs seem to be an exception, although I'd obviously have to get more than just the Silvers. We'll see. In any case, if I crap out then I can probably sell those new-mission Silvers for enough to restock elsewhere. When Jackie is rated as the 25th-best second baseman in Diamond league, it's time to rebuild.

[bailey]

The Hamtramck Tigers (debut 2036) made it to diamond already on just achievement points and login rewards alone. Shockingly, they are 55-55, but with a huge negative run differential, I'm expecting a collapse at any moment. Basically, followed LeeD's advice for new teams.

"Imagine, it's easy if you try." --- Beatles.

[ubernoob]

Got lucky with a couple pulls (Maddux, Molina) and finished off the Future Legends finally.

Might make Diamond this year, still just slow going.

[LeeD]

Well now. The fire sale didn't keep the Sharks from qualifying for their 22nd straight season in Diamond. They finished only 70-92 but avoided relegation by five games.

I was thinking that my Hail Mary strategy had only gotten me into field goal range until I pulled Kevin Brown and Doc Gooden from the last two Immortal packs. New additions to the Sharks roster include Mike Piazza and Walker Cooper, Norm Cash, Rafael Palmeiro (reserve), Billy Williams, Tony Gwynn (mission reward) and Jose Canseco, plus Brown, Gooden, Pud Galvin, Jack Chesbro, Pat Neshek, Dave Laroche, Orval Overall, Jack Stivetts, and Kyle Hendricks.

Quite an entertaining ride. I'm not at all sure the team is better, although they should score more runs. A downgrade on the mound perhaps, but Hubbell and Paige had been mediocre the last couple of weeks. Brown and Gooden give me a killer one and two, and I'm fairly close to acquiring more Immortal packs from mission completions. Still a work in progress.

[bailey]

Nice going! I wish I had that kind of luck because from my immortal series 3 packs I got 2 Eric Davis and Hack Wilson, so basically blowing a 7 out of 8 chance to get at least one perfect. I guess I used up my pack luck when I pulled Gunnar Henderson in a "warm-up" standard pack and Mike Trout in the very next pack. From the 8 historical diamond packs, I got 7 humdrum diamonds (and one gold) while the 8th disappeared into the ether because of a "failure of the server" or some such BS. Looking over my list of 89 unique historical diamonds not locked down nothing stands out, but the game assures me that "my cards were not lost".

On the fun side, my Bengals team, which is an iron card theme team, got kicked back to rookie league after 18 weeks in stone. Those login packs that I've been saving are going to be opened today, so I can make a Rookie league team for the ages, just like LeeD does it. Bye, bye theme team! Just for laughs, it will be further boosted by 30 days of PT+.

The Tigers did not collapse and finished up 81-81 in diamond. Celebrated by adding Joss, Plank, Phillips, and McGriff, so I only have to replace 6 more diamonds and this team will be totally Perfect. It won't be a team that will compete "at the top", but I had fun making it.

I think maybe the secret to having fun at this game is to start your 4 teams on opening day, log in every day to all of them, but only play 1 until it gets "stuck", then start the 2nd with a bunch of saved login packs and so on starting each time with ever more saved login packs each time.

[noryan34]

Made it PeL again last week but went under .500 so back in diamond. Really could use some pitching upgrades