The Season 2 (2020) Discussion Thread

[Kushiel]

Originally Posted by Whoofe

when you throw those numbers out it makes me look like a struggling northwoods league team compared to your Dodgers/Yankees budget

All you need is one lucky card pull to change everything.

[Whoofe]

Originally Posted by Kushiel

All you need is one lucky card pull to change everything.

oh I understand that


the problem is, I am not lucky

[Kushiel]

Luck runs in streaks, just like PT streaks. I hope you get a change soon.

[Maddox]

Originally Posted by Dorfmann

I'm not doing too hot this season.

There is no way I can compete in my current league without spending money, which is unfortunate. There are multiple teams that were obviously bought, including one in my division that includes a starting rotation all above 95 (two perfects) and a lineup of all diamonds and a few perfects.

Nothing to do but ride it out and let those whales get promoted on Monday.

[stealofhome]

Had a walk-off grand slam in the bottom of the 18th...second walk-off by Jody Davis this month.

[Morug]

Thats hurt playing against 3 of the best club on of My ny..I hate 4 games series.

[2002halos]

Originally Posted by Kushiel

There is no way that you know a team was or was not bought with money. All AH purchases are bought with PP, but how that PP was attained by individual players is obviously hard for you to understand. I sold a Lou Gehrig Perfect this morning for 188,000 PP. I got this card from a pack and it is not the first perfect that I have sold. I have bought 2 diamonds this morning and still have 137k of that PP. My team is dominant for now because I worked at it using the AH .

Remember its just a game. Have fun

My analysis shows that while it was originally very smart to buy a lot of packs and then sell a perfect or two if you were lucky to pull them, it's rapidly becoming smarter to just use the AH. The average value you can sell extra golds and even diamonds for is dropping to the point where unless you pull a perfect... And on average getting a perfect is one per 200 packs, so even there unless you get lucky, it's probably better to just save your PP until you can afford what you want, whether bought with money or achievements or selling duplicates. But at this point buying packs is at best break-even points wise, and only if you buy enough packs to pull desirable diamonds or perfects.

BTW, saw you talking with Walnut Creek. You're Thorp Springs, right? or are you Catalina Island?
I'm Targaryen Dragons, formerly Seven Kingdoms Knights.
I had the league's number last season, but Walnut Creek got lucky in the LCS. Tough to keep pace with you'all this season... My budget for this is evey other week. Hopefully I'll get revenge on him in the Wild Card.

[2002halos]

Originally Posted by Thalion

There are two fold issues in play during the playoffs because chances are you're playing the best.

Facing Elite Pitching
Facing Elite Hitting

What I'm surmising is that most people seem to be building elite hitting by acquiring power hitting players. After all, "chicks dig the long ball". I haven't figured out how to completely take elite hitting out of the game, but I'm going to minimize the effect of power by getting pitchers with high movement and control. (That and the fact that I've adjusted my HR factors). I attempt to reduce the overall effect of elite hitting by using elite defenders. If possible, I try to gain a favorable advantage on splits. I check the opponent's split records (and the makeup of the lineup) and may decide to stack my starting rotation heavily with right handers or lefties.

As far as attacking elite pitching, I anticipate that runs are going to be hard to come by so I approach it from that standpoint. All my position players are above average baserunners with good speed. I may not steal a lot of bases, but I am aggressive on the basepaths and will try to take the extra base. A run scored by sac fly counts just as much as one from a home run.

Obviously, due to the 14 day rule for the reserve roster changes, I can't just shuttle players into and out of my roster, so this is something I have to commit to from the start.

For me, it's high movement/control pitchers (stuff is great if I can get that too) and at least one righty and lefty starter in my bullpen so I can shift them in and out of my rotation.

Second, elite defense and good speed. High contact and gap. Power is optional, Good IF or OF ratings so I can train my players to play multiple positions. Rookie Ichiro and Omar Vizquel are perfect examples. I will trade early season defensive issues for late season or next season defensive positional flexibility.

Not sexy. Won't generate a lot of PP achievements. May not win a ton of games over the course of a long season. But give me a short series with a chance to set my rotation and I'll take my chances.

Not saying this is the only way,,, or even if I'm right. As I mentioned before, I'm still pondering this.

But, a roster like this is something you have to commit to from the beginning.

Just my humble opinion.

It worked for you in the short series last season when you beat my "favored" Seven Kingdoms Knights. (Saw somewhere you're Walnut Creek) Maybe I'll get revenge in the Wild Card game this season.

Ironically, my second team the American Angels won its league even more decisively than the Knights and came from down 3-1 to win the WS. I "restricted" it to only former Angels players (or managers, coaches, announcers and relatives of Angels players ) or players born in America and a lower budget than my first team. Turns out that outside of the Live cards most players are American born and with good point management it was easy to acquire a team that would have even given my Knights trouble. So I'm transitioning it to Angels only, plus the relatives, etc. I think it could still compete with the best teams if I manage it right.

It's been ages since I played OOTP, (around #5 or 6, I think.) so I'm still trying to make sense of their algorithms and discover optimal strategies. Some of my strategies have been similar to some of yours and it worked well for my Angels in the postseason, checking out the opponent and having the righty and lefty starters in the bullpen. Too bad my #1 team came up against someone else who's probably been playing OOTP longer.

[Westheim]

66-69 and washed up, but hey, I just drew my second Paul Goldschmidt card …! …

[vyshka]

I'm actually surprised my team has even made it to 65-70. They seem to be doing just well enough to possibly get pushed to gold so they can really be tortured next year.

[old timer]

After winning 15 games each month, my team decided to lose 15 in August just to change things up a bit. We're now 71-63 and clinging to a half game lead in the #2 WC spot. I'd really like to get it so I can get those extra PP for making the playoffs.

Speaking of playoffs, do you get PP for each round you advance or only for making it into the playoffs?

[Kushiel]

Originally Posted by 2002halos

My analysis shows that while it was originally very smart to buy a lot of packs and then sell a perfect or two if you were lucky to pull them, it's rapidly becoming smarter to just use the AH. The average value you can sell extra golds and even diamonds for is dropping to the point where unless you pull a perfect... And on average getting a perfect is one per 200 packs, so even there unless you get lucky, it's probably better to just save your PP until you can afford what you want, whether bought with money or achievements or selling duplicates. But at this point buying packs is at best break-even points wise, and only if you buy enough packs to pull desirable diamonds or perfects.

BTW, saw you talking with Walnut Creek. You're Thorp Springs, right? or are you Catalina Island?
I'm Targaryen Dragons, formerly Seven Kingdoms Knights.
I had the league's number last season, but Walnut Creek got lucky in the LCS. Tough to keep pace with you'all this season... My budget for this is evey other week. Hopefully I'll get revenge on him in the Wild Card.

I am Thorpe Springs We have a tough league across the top. Several of us including you and me have very good teams. I fully expected you to be in the World Series last year. Your team was way ahead during the season over both conferences. I had to make some changes during the last month last season to try to get ready. Walnut Creek was very good when the playoffs came and he beat you in the conference series and me in the WS This year I kept fine tuning and have had two win streaks over 14 games that helped me get ahead, The worry is cooling off when the playoffs start.

[Kushiel]

Originally Posted by vyshka

I'm actually surprised my team has even made it to 65-70. They seem to be doing just well enough to possibly get pushed to gold so they can really be tortured next year.

You have been winning more lately though my friend. So many people in our league this year have 1.100 hitting across the board that low movement starters can get into trouble against some of these teams with a lot of power.

Good luck fine tuning! I do not want to leave you behind because I enjoy playing you and discussing it. However, this time I hope you miss the cut because I think it will help you long term

[Maddox]

Well, I told myself that I was going to hold off on upgrades this season but I just found what I think are a few decent deals on the Auction house and picked up a starting pitcher and a bat that should help with my low HR totals.

But to do that I gave up my speed that I was relying on. Speed that consitantly hand me near the top of the SB rankings in my league.

[mess]

I like how we have two Raccoon owners in this thread.

Mine's the Rockin' Raccoons though.
Wanted to give my team the true Minor League Baseball ridiculous name treatment.

[vyshka]

Originally Posted by Kushiel

You have been winning more lately though my friend. So many people in our league this year have 1.100 hitting across the board that low movement starters can get into trouble against some of these teams with a lot of power.

Good luck fine tuning! I do not want to leave you behind because I enjoy playing you and discussing it. However, this time I hope you miss the cut because I think it will help you long term 1:

The problem right now is getting enough pp to do anything to the team. I might need to sell off a couple diamonds.

Congrats on the great job this season.

[mess]

Originally Posted by vyshka

The problem right now is getting enough pp to do anything to the team. I might need to sell off a couple diamonds.

Congrats on the great job this season.

I really want to sell my 99 OVR Kershaw but last time I checked he was leading my team in every single pitching category.

[sharknut]

81-61 with 20 games to go and I am tied for 1st in the WC with a team 1 game behind, so it's 3 teams for 2 spots. My next 4 are at the team that's 113-29 and the other two teams have 4 games series against sub .500 teams. If I can just get through this series going 2-2 I will still feel ok. But if I get swept, I'll probably be 2 back with 16 to play.

[stl jason]

just playing spoiler here with both my teams... (one just took 2 of 3 from the division leader... heh).

the really sad part is, one of my team's division is so dismal that even with my boys being 58-88, we're still only 12.5 games out of first place (division leader is an anemic 70-75)...

while on the other side of the league, there's a team that is 95-51 (.651 winning pct) with the 3rd best record in the league... and they are 33 games out of first place for their division behind the team with the comically cartoonish record of 127-17....

[old timer]

I decided to gamble and sold a relief pitcher so I could buy a better (I hope!) SP. I got lucky and got the SP for about 1K less than what others had been getting him for so hopefully that will work out.

So far, the new SP has gone 4-0 with a 0.34 ERA and my team now has a 4 game lead for the #2 WC spot with 18 games to go.