Competitive balance discussion

[Westheim]

Q: How many of those above does one need to actually compete?

A: More than four, I can tell ya.

[Matt Arnold]

Originally Posted by Orcin

If by differences you mean guys like Williams, Bonds, Anson and Koufax, then I would say sure because those are expensive upgrades over the cookie cutter build. If you mean top teams running with none of these guys and instead using those gold, silver, and bronze nuggets, I would say show me.

Doubt many top teams have none of them, but the guy who won my league the first year is running Oquendo at 2B ahead of Ramirez. And a couple teams are running guys Simmons at SS.

I'm happy with Tulo (rookie) and Rose being bench/platoon players, but I'm not at the top guys level. Sadly, one more save from Doolittle last year (or counting his playoff save in his save streak) and I would have gotten enough points for one of those diamond arms. Sigh.

[freedavebrown]

Originally Posted by Matt Arnold

Doubt many top teams have none of them, but the guy who won my league the first year is running Oquendo at 2B ahead of Ramirez. And a couple teams are running guys Simmons at SS.

I'm happy with Tulo (rookie) and Rose being bench/platoon players, but I'm not at the top guys level. Sadly, one more save from Doolittle last year (or counting his playoff save in his save streak) and I would have gotten enough points for one of those diamond arms. Sigh.

What are the achievements for save streaks? I got 175 PP for one last year. Are there multiple tiers?

[Matt Arnold]

Originally Posted by freedavebrown

What are the achievements for save streaks? I got 175 PP for one last year. Are there multiple tiers?

Yes 20/30/40 games, for 175pp/800pp/a lot

[freedavebrown]

Originally Posted by Matt Arnold

Yes 20/30/40 games, for 175pp/800pp/a lot

A lot like it´s a secret? Is there a place where we can see all the achievements?

[Matt Arnold]

Originally Posted by freedavebrown

A lot like it´s a secret? Is there a place where we can see all the achievements?

There's no direct place we've released them all. I know in the discord people have started putting together a sheet of them, but they may not have all of them in there.

No point in keeping it secret, but I like making you people guess. Let's just say it would have been more than enough to buy any of the low diamond starters, probably enough for Kluber, and maybe not quite enough for Kershaw. I still got 800 for the silver achievement, but that gold bonus would have been really nice.

[SayHey1]

Originally Posted by Matt Arnold

Yes 20/30/40 games, for 175pp/800pp/a lot

My closer had his streak snapped last season at 39. I was happy for the 800, but now am crying....

[Bunktown Ballers]

Blasted out the dugouts the 1st 14 games with a 2 wins 12 losses start. Day in and day out I face these pitchers in order. started this week vs Sale, Koufax, Sale, Scherzer, Snell, Nola, Paxton, Corbin, Kershaw. That is only my curent 7 day roster is facing.


Why did I get promoted to GOLD? No way in hell I belong in this league. I'm in same division with 2 teams that was in finals. They averaging 110 wins a season. Probably going to be my last week. I'll no doubt finish with 110-120 or more losses. Only good thing is 400 PP bonus when/if I break the losing streak. Something needs to change that helps us better in right leagues or the MONSTER teams in right leagues. Team I'm facing now is 12 wins 1 loss already..Maybe I can ask to sit out a week...i dunno...I prolly be promted with 110 losses. Jeez Markus & team...Not remotely fun...Check my team out too....RATINGS DON'T MEAN JACK



BB
Louisiana Crawdads

[DonkeyKongSr]

Essentially true for the team that won my silver league by 18 games and then only lost 3 games in the playoffs. He ran the Yelich-Trout-Betts outfield, plus a few couple others on your list, then even better diamonds or historical players in most of the other spots.

[Kushiel]

My Lineup is part of your cookie cutter and some nice 80's that I like better
:
C - Mike Lieberthal OVR 85
1B - John Olerud OVR 93
2B - Red Schoendienst OVR 87
3B - Manny Machado OVR 89
SS - Francisco Lindor OVR 98
LF- Cleon Jones OVR 88
CF - Mike Trout OVR 100
RF - Mookie Betts OVR 100
DH - Bryan Harper OVR 96

[Dunzie]

The good news is that it's only a week, you will be surprised at the PP you can still gain, if it IS that bad you'll be relegated while other teams move up, and the two teams in my gold league that have more diamonds and gold on the reserve roster than most other teams are off to a rotten start.

Chin up man! With your expectations this low you can only go up from here.

[NYY #23]

Originally Posted by Orcin

Look at the best teams in your league. They will mostly look like this:

C Posey/Grandal
1B Goldschmidt/Freeman
2B Altuve/Ramirez
3B Arenado/Rendon
SS Lindor
LF Yelich
CF Trout
RF Betts
DH J.D. Martinez

SP deGrom
SP Sale
SP Kershaw
SP Syndergaard
SP MLB2018 diamond
CL Treinen/Diaz/Doolittle
RP Minter/MLB2018 diamond starter

Of course, there are exceptions, especially for some coveted historical cards such as Randy Johnson. But for the most part, this is the team you need if you want to play with the big boys.

Edit: I forgot to add the standard DH.

I exported my league and looked at the 21 players you specifically names there is 147 instances of those players, or an average of 4.9 per team.

Sean Doolittle is the most popular, appearing on 19 of the teams, 13 J.D. Martinez, 12 A.J. Minter, 10 Mike Trout, 11 Jose Altuve, 10 Buster Posey.

The only player who doesn't appear is Goldschmidt.

The top three teams by winning percentage have 12, 11, and 11 - the most in the league.

You may be on to something, although I will say the next three teams by winning percentage are more unique.

[Dunzie]

Yeah... my gold team has about 8 of those. But I'm trying to find a different angle or two... maybe even on my two silver teams. Hard to argue against most of them at the price they are vs say a 100 Clemens or 100 Bonds or even some of the rarer 80's and 90's.

[DonkeyKongSr]

Originally Posted by NYY #23

I exported my league and looked at the 21 players you specifically names there is 147 instances of those players, or an average of 4.9 per team.

Sean Doolittle is the most popular, appearing on 19 of the teams, 13 J.D. Martinez, 12 A.J. Minter, 10 Mike Trout, 11 Jose Altuve, 10 Buster Posey.

The only player who doesn't appear is Goldschmidt.

The top three teams by winning percentage have 12, 11, and 11 - the most in the league.

You may be on to something, although I will say the next three teams by winning percentage are more unique.

If you were to use his list as essentially the bare minimum, it probably even more correct than your analysis shows. The best teams just have more perfects or diamond historicals than that lineup, and rarely have a lesser quality player in any of those positions.

EDIT: For SP #5, it's probably Carrasco, Severino, Snell or pseudo-diamond Corbin.

[Willie M]

People keep forgetting this game mode is not a one week mode. I've seen so many people upset about something that is only going to last one week.

If it's not for you, fine, but it's not like your next 20 weeks will be like this. You clearly have done a good job for 2 weeks getting to Gold, one bad week isn't the end of the game.

[Kushiel]

Now you see that, you have an idea how to do better. The OVR rating is just a very, general guideline.


Get a plan and build to the plan using the ratings that affect that plan.

[Zorro]

Originally Posted by Bunktown Ballers

Blasted out the dugouts the 1st 14 games with a 2 wins 12 losses start. Day in and day out I face these pitchers in order. started this week vs Sale, Koufax, Sale, Scherzer, Snell, Nola, Paxton, Corbin, Kershaw. That is only my curent 7 day roster is facing.


Why did I get promoted to GOLD? No way in hell I belong in this league. I'm in same division with 2 teams that was in finals. They averaging 110 wins a season. Probably going to be my last week. I'll no doubt finish with 110-120 or more losses. Only good thing is 400 PP bonus when/if I break the losing streak. Something needs to change that helps us better in right leagues or the MONSTER teams in right leagues. Team I'm facing now is 12 wins 1 loss already..Maybe I can ask to sit out a week...i dunno...I prolly be promted with 110 losses. Jeez Markus & team...Not remotely fun...Check my team out too....RATINGS DON'T MEAN JACK



BB
Louisiana Crawdads

Just build a team you have fun watching. Like Willie said, You did something right to get to Gold. But most of all, Just have some fun.

[Matt Arnold]

You've probably had some terrible luck to start the year, because I do agree that your roster is fairly solid. But keep in mind the competition is insane, still. I mean, the team you just lost 2/3 to, Charlotte, has 4 perfect cards on their roster, and they're yet they're already 13 games back of the division leader and we're barely a month in.

Personally, I would probably chalk up the year to bad luck, try to stay out of the top-16 in the league (and out of the bottom-2) and try again in the gold league again next year, when the real crazy top teams have moved on. Maybe you have a lucky June and make a run for the playoffs, which actually could be a bad thing if you do make it into the top-16 to move up a league.

[Maddox]

You could hit off my Patrick Corbin. He had a 4.53 era last season and at the end of the day yesterday was a 4.35.

[Whoofe]

2 more weeks and all those near perfect teams will be in the perfect leagues

everyone else should be settled in or near the league they "belong" in