ok, it's August 5 and Killebrew seems to be channeling the spirit of McGwire

[David Watts]

Originally Posted by uruguru

Don Mincher was the Twin's backup 1B. He started 19 games at 1B, hit 7 HRs with 22 RBI and a .209 average over 129 AB. Real world: 20 starts, 9 HR, 29 RBI, .240 avg.

Vic Power was the everyday 1B for the Twins. He started 141 games at 1B, hit 7 homers with 57 RBI and a .310 average over 516 AB. Real world: 141 starts, 16 HR, 63 RBI, .293 avg.



My player evaluation for the AI is set to 0/60/30/10. No ratings, just on-field performance with a strong recency bias. My sim starts in 1961, and includes minor leagues. As a result, Mincher's real-world .188 average in 1961 is what the AI sees.

In mine, Mincher crushed it in 61 and 62. The Twins then moved Killebrew to 1B in 63, so Mincher became the backup and played sparingly. I'm now playing 64. Killebrew moved to LF and Mincher is back starting at 1B, He's second to Mantle in the AL in rbi's.

[uruguru]

I just assigned the post-season awards:

AL MVP: Harmon Killebrew, 59 HR, 161 RBI, .288 AVG

NL MVP: Willie Mays, SF, 54 HR, 153 RBI, .307 AVG

AL CY: Al Downing, NYY, 21-8, 3.25 ERA.

NL CY: Larry Jackson, STL, 23-3, 3.05 ERA


For the WARmongers, Downing was 6th among AL pitchers with 5.0 WAR, while Jackson was 9th in the NL with 6.2 WAR. May led NL hitters with 10.0 WAR while Killebrew was 3rd in the AL with 6.5 WAR. But of course WAR didn't exist in 1962 so none of the voters knew those things.

The OOTP AI agreed with me on Killebrew, Mays & Downing. He wanted to put Jackson 3rd in the Cy Young voting after Koufax (17-9, 2.80) and Drysdale (22-10, 3.03)

[David Watts]

Originally Posted by uruguru

Just thought I'd share. This is my first "serious" save for OOTP 25, where I actually play out every game and track everything. So it's taking me a while to progress... maybe 3-4 games every day.

However, over in the AL Harmon Killebrew is having a monster season. He and Willie Mays have been off and on a pace for 70 homers most of the season but both seemed to do the expected fade after the All-Star Break.

While Mays' pace is still at 62 (42 homers currently), Killebrew has decided that, no, he is definitely going to set the record. He just had his third 3-homer game of the season, which the league has now informally dubbed the "triple triple" although that might change if he does it again.

He's now up to 49 home runs on with 53 games left to play. Maris and Mantle are WAAAAYYY behind him, with 33 and 28 homers, respectively. It's to the point where if my wife sees OOTP up on my laptop, she asks how Killebrew is doing.

I've never seen a home run pace this insane in the 1960s and excited that it's happening in my daily play save so that I can savor it as it gets closer

edit: it's a 5-year recalc, no doubling of current season. fielding set to 3-year averages but I've zeroed out experience of unplayable positions.

Just curious, how many stolen bases did your AL and NL league leader have during this season? I'm playing the same period without recalc and my stolen base leaders have been extremely low. Thanks.

[uruguru]

Originally Posted by David Watts

Just curious, how many stolen bases did your AL and NL league leader have during this season? I'm playing the same period without recalc and my stolen base leaders have been extremely low. Thanks.

In 1962, Maury Wills was the MLB leader with 48 steals. It was lower than I expected. I've run 1962 sims where he typically steals 80+.

He stole 104 in 1962 in real life, but this sim is using 5-year unweighted averages. So over that recalc span, the real Wills stole 50, 35, 104, 40 and 53. That's a real average of 56 over the 5 years, so maybe the 48 isn't that bad. Luis Aparicio led the AL with 36 steals.

I just finished 1963 and Wills led the majors with 36 steals. But Aparico and Kaline had 35, Willie Davis had 34 and Joe Morgan had 33.

It feels lower than what I would have expected, but not so low that I am going to conclude something is broken without more data.

My league settings are intentionally locked at 1962 levels, so the league settings are Stolen Base Attempts = .578, Stolen Base Success % = 1.319. In general strategic tendencies, "Stealing Bases" is set to Average.


edit: I've attached the simulation accuracy report. You can see that 1962 seems to be almost spot on at the league level. Obviously 1963 is going to be off because my sim is locked at 1962 levels.