Random Debut Gold

[David Watts]

Of course, the very next batter, Doc Gessler took Harris deep.

[David Watts]

Thinking about expanding again. Right now I have 30 teams and I'm using the current day MLB setup. Thinking I want to expand, so I can do away with interleague play.

Plan is to expand by 2 teams, giving me 16 teams in AL and 16 teams in NL. Will go with 2 divisions of 8 teams in each league.

Here is my current setup

AL East
Baltimore
Boston
Buffalo
Philadelphia
New York

AL Central
Cleveland
Detroit
Indianapolis
Louisville
Toronto

AL West
Dallas
Houston
New Orleans
Memphis
Kansas City

NL East
Atlanta
Charlotte
Cincinnati
Washington
Pittsburgh

NL Central
Chicago
St. Louis
Milwaukee
Minneapolis
Nashville

NL West
Los Angeles
Las Vegas
San Francisco
Seattle
San Diego

Trying to decide how best to divide leagues up into 8 team divisions

Baltimore
Boston
Buffalo
Cleveland
Detroit
New York
Philadelphia
Toronto

Louisville
Memphis
Indianapolis
Dallas
Houston
New Orleans
Kansas City
Expansion team(OKC, Denver, San Antonio, Phoenix or Miami)

NL East
Cincinnati
Atlanta
Washington
Nashville
Charlotte
Minneapolis
Milwaukee
Pittsburgh


NL West
Chicago
St Louis
Los Angeles
Las Vegas
San Francisco
San Diego
Settle
Expansion team(Phoenix or Denver


Or should I add Milwaukee or Minnesota to NL West and add expansion Miami to NL East? Adding Milwaukee keeps the Chicago, St Louis rivalry in place.

Debated switching Nashville to AL West and adding two expansion teams to NL.

Ugh any thoughts

[Clovidequano Dovatha]

You could perhaps put all teams east of the Mississippi in the Eastern Divisions and all teams west of it in the Western Divisions, or at least for the most part you could, I think.

East of the Mississippi, you have 19 teams. West of it, you have 11. So if you want to balance the leagues out, you'll want to try and add more teams to the western half of the configuration, if you want to do it geography-wise.

I would keep the Chicago-St. Louis rivalry, and a potential Nashville-Memphis rivalry in place, if they're already in existence, for instance. If they aren't, then you could set things up so that such rivalries could eventually develop over time.

You could base your new configuration on pairs or quartets of teams that would most likely be considerable rivals to each other, I think. Perhaps you could even consider putting those teams closest to each other in various pods or clusters of teams. By that, you could put four teams that are the least geographically separated between each other in a single division, for travel's sake, and go from there, as needed and/or desired.

Then give each division unique names that are inspired by certain important people in your game world, if not by certain people from reality who are from those areas or had major enough impacts on those areas historically. And then see how those divisions develop in the future, of course.

These are just a few thoughts of mine about this sort of thing for you here, that's all. Please take them as you like and can, and go from there as you wish. It is your game world, after all, you know, of course, and only YOU can determine what you'd like your league here to look like for sure, in any case. CD out.

[David Watts]

Originally Posted by Clovidequano Dovatha

You could perhaps put all teams east of the Mississippi in the Eastern Divisions and all teams west of it in the Western Divisions, or at least for the most part you could, I think.

East of the Mississippi, you have 19 teams. West of it, you have 11. So if you want to balance the leagues out, you'll want to try and add more teams to the western half of the configuration, if you want to do it geography-wise.

I would keep the Chicago-St. Louis rivalry, and a potential Nashville-Memphis rivalry in place, if they're already in existence, for instance. If they aren't, then you could set things up so that such rivalries could eventually develop over time.

You could base your new configuration on pairs or quartets of teams that would most likely be considerable rivals to each other, I think. Perhaps you could even consider putting those teams closest to each other in various pods or clusters of teams. By that, you could put four teams that are the least geographically separated between each other in a single division, for travel's sake, and go from there, as needed and/or desired.

Then give each division unique names that are inspired by certain important people in your game world, if not by certain people from reality who are from those areas or had major enough impacts on those areas historically. And then see how those divisions develop in the future, of course.

These are just a few thoughts of mine about this sort of thing for you here, that's all. Please take them as you like and can, and go from there as you wish. It is your game world, after all, you know, of course, and only YOU can determine what you'd like your league here to look like for sure, in any case. CD out.

Thanks. Great ideas. So much to think about.

[Clovidequano Dovatha]

Or you could even do octets with that sort of premise for them as well, if you prefer to have eight-team divisions, instead of four-team ones, of course. It's all up to you how you reconfigure that game world of yours, you know, after all. CD out.

[David Watts]

Well it appears the end of the road may be in sight for Babe Ruth. The New York Cannons have dropped him to 7th in the batting order. The Babe is currently sitting at 391 home runs. We are just exiting the first week of September 1992, the leagues 13th season. I have my fingers crossed that Ruth somehow grabs a second wind and sticks around a few more years. Ruth is currently in the last year of his contract, so it will be interesting to see where he plays in 1993.

Ruth should have never left KC for the bright lights of NY. Since his arrival in New York the Cannons have only made one trip to the post season. Meanwhile KC is pretty much a post season lock each and every year. The flipside of Babe Ruth would be Tris Speaker. Speaker started his career in Cincinnati when that squad was a post season power, then signed with San Francisco right when the Spiders dynasty was getting started(San Francisco has been to the World Series 5 times, winning 4 of them) and has since moved on to Kansas City.

Toad Ramsey notched strikeout 3000. Miguel Cabrera tallied hit number 2500.

[Reed]

Tris Speaker probably should get more recognition IRL than he gets.
How is Bonds doing?

[David Watts]

Originally Posted by reed

tris speaker probably should get more recognition irl than he gets.
How is bonds doing?

[David Watts]

Ruth signed a free agent deal with Milwaukee prior to the 1993 season. He now has 414 career home runs. Kind of cool, I was just able to watch him go yard 3 times in a game. Cool that was the random game I decided to watch that day.

Barry Bonds reupped with Boston prior to the 93 season. Looks like he could play his entire career there.

Tris Speaker has actually passed Babe Ruth in career WAR.

Mike Trout is now in the league. Spent the majority of his rookie year on the DL.

[David Watts]

Ruth finished the 93 season with 37 home runs. Sadly Milwaukee failed to make the post season, continuing Ruth's string of bad luck in that department. Can't wait to see if Ruth can keep the train a rolling in 1994 at the age of 40.

Mike Trout continues to find ways to end up on the injured list for extended periods of time. This season it was a bad hamstring that ended his season early.

So hoping Joe Garagiola shows up in my upcoming draft and gets selected by Philadelphia. Philadelphia currently has Andres Galarraga and Nomar Garciaparra in their starting lineup. In fact, at time the two bat 2 and 3 in the order.

[David Watts]

Just wrapped up season 14.

Lefty Grove retires

14 seasons 2nd overall pick(round 1) inaugural draft-Milwaukee Vulcans

JAWS 65.8
Black Ink 57
Gray Ink 171
HOF Standards 42
HOF Monitor 144

2 times Player of the Week
5 times Pitcher of the Month
2 times Rookie of the Month
3 times Pitcher of the Year
1 time Championship Winner, but the championship came in his final season with KC. He was not on the post season roster.
11 times All-Star Selection

192-129, 3.16 416 games, 410 games started. 3078 innings pitched, 2761 hits allowed. 2277 Strikeouts, 893 Walks. 1.19 WHIP. 6.7 K/9 2.6 BB/9 ERA+121 2.99 FIP 77 FIP-

Final WAR 78.5 rWAR 74

Post Season
3 times in post season
2 times with Milwaukee
1 time with Cleveland
1-1 3.48 18 strikeouts, 11 walks.

Christian Yelich retires

14 seasons Drafted in the 1980 inaugural draft by the San Diego Railhawks(Round 3, pick 6)

JAWS 49.9
Black Ink 9
Gray Ink 126
HOF Standards 47
HOF Monitor 71

5 times Player of the Week
2 times Batter of the Month
3 Silver Slugger Awards
1 Playoff Series MVP
1 All-Star Selection

.263 career average 2566 Hits, 1318 Runs, 1164 RBI. 376 Doubles, 93 Triples and 241 Home Runs. 1320 Strikeouts, 1068 Walks. 256 Stolen Bases. .381 OBP, .455 SLG, .836 OPS 132 OPS+ .370 wOBA 134 wRC+

Career War 60.6

Yelich was a bit of a nomad. 3 seasons in San Diego, 4 in Indianapolis, 3 in Philadelphia, 1 in Nashville, 2 in Cleveland and the final season in New York

6 trips to the post season 76 games, 297 At Bats, 85 hits .286. 7 home runs, 38 RBI.

[David Watts]

Jack Flaherty throws a no hitter against Louisville.

[David Watts]

Looks like Babe Ruth has reached the end of the line. All Star break 1996 and remains an unsigned free agent.

[David Watts]

ActionJackson

[actionjackson]

Originally Posted by David Watts

ActionJackson

Oh my goodness! Freddy's a monsta! And the Bambino winding down his professional baseball career where he began it, I see. Unless he managed to sign on with another team.

[David Watts]

Ruth and Speaker both retired following the 1996 season. Ruth did not play in 96 and a couple posts up is a screenshot of his final numbers. Here is a screenshot of Tris Speaker.

[David Watts]

Sitting here at work and as usual I'm thinking about my league. I'm about to wrap up 1997, as the League Championship Series are about to get under way. Once again Kansas City is right in the thick of things. Pretty darn amazing. 18 seasons of baseball and the Kansas City squad has only missed the post season two times. Now, I admit I love post season baseball, so I probably allow too many teams to qualify, but I still think it's unbelievable that Kansas City has continued their run of success for so long. On the other side of the coin, Dallas has yet to ever make the post season. They have come close, but always seem to fold down the stretch and miss out.

What's amazing about KC is, they always seem to attract the best players in the league. As you can see in the screenshot above, Babe Ruth played his first 8 seasons there. Tris Speaker played 3 seasons there. The current team features Freddie Freeman.

[David Watts]

So will Barry Bonds return? Bonds is 43. Bonds hit 22 bombs in 97 with a league leading 135 base on balls. His average was in the .240's. Bonds is now 2 home runs shy of joining the 400 home run club. He sits 3rd on the career WAR list behind Tris Speaker and Babe Ruth.

[Reed]

In your opinion, how does KC end up with so many good players? Do you play with financials on?
How many teams are in your league now?
Sounds like you have had a good run with this league.

[David Watts]

Originally Posted by Reed

In your opinion, how does KC end up with so many good players? Do you play with financials on?
How many teams are in your league now?
Sounds like you have had a good run with this league.

Yes Financials are on. I think they do have the highest payroll, but I pay so little attention to that stuff. They just seem to be smart when it comes to acquisitions. For example, they signed an aging Warren Spahn a couple years back. Dude has been lights out for them over the last few seasons. Pretty amazing to see a guy pitch some of his best ball ever as he reaches his 40's. Spahn won a Cy Young in 96 and may do so again in 97.

32 teams.