"Our League" Season 4--Who Wants To Play Our Way?

[Madmarcus]

Every year I fiddle around being pack only but as others have said it gets a little dull. So my mind wanders in the direction of themes or simply filling out a persistent gaping hole in the lineup and it's off to the AH.

The Mad Brewers want this season to end! Everyone is underperforming. Ok, Pete Fox platooning in the OF is weak and the infield is defensive heavy (Howard, Dots Miller, Traynor, and Belanger) but this doesn't look like a .400 team. But it has been and the relegation to Iron can't come soon enough.

[Stanley Kuppchaser]

The fact that there is no Mays, Mantle, Snider, DiMaggio, Speaker, et al makes me worry that he won't come along until some weird mission is introduced. Getting Willie Mays, or at least the worry about getting him, is beginning to hamstring the Mundys. I am hoarding PP like one of those old people who are found after their demise with the tiniest of living space and surrounded by stuff they couldn't get themselves to part with.


My strongest motivation in building a team is to get players I enjoyed back in the day, or old timers from the storied past. That is why I didn't go after the special editions in earnest. Too many of them are players I have had recently, and wanted a change from, or are recent enough to be from the time I stopped following baseball. I'm not that worried where my team finally levels off because of OL. We have such a nicely diverse mix of approaches that it will result in having at least a few teams to compete against for the only prize that matters (to me at least) - an OL crown.


A question - do the rest of you get attached to players and, at some point, find it hard to move on from them?

[Madmarcus]

Originally Posted by Stanley Kuppchaser

A question - do the rest of you get attached to players and, at some point, find it hard to move on from them?

Sure. I'm now inordinately fond of Greasy Neale. I knew of him from his nickname. Now, with his staring role in my first few OL seasons plus the connections to my mini-theme I want to keep him around even though I know he's one of my weakest starters right now.

I've been a far of Moose Haas for similar reasons having to do with a Strat-O-Matic team in the 80's

[Bottom Of The Sixth]

Originally Posted by Stanley Kuppchaser

A question - do the rest of you get attached to players and, at some point, find it hard to move on from them?

I always follow my standard operating practice of "what have you done for me lately?"


If a player is preforming like he is suppose to, he plays.


If a player is having a lousy season and hurting the team, I'll bench him if I can, even if he has a 100 rating.


Just because he is highly rated doesn't give him an automatic spot on my starting roster.

[IanIachimoe]

Originally Posted by Stanley Kuppchaser

A question - do the rest of you get attached to players and, at some point, find it hard to move on from them?

yep.

[Stanley Kuppchaser]

Originally Posted by Madmarcus

Sure. I'm now inordinately fond of Greasy Neale. I knew of him from his nickname. Now, with his staring role in my first few OL seasons plus the connections to my mini-theme I want to keep him around even though I know he's one of my weakest starters right now.

I've been a far of Moose Haas for similar reasons having to do with a Strat-O-Matic team in the 80's

Oh, I definitely will tumble for a Strat-O-Matic player from back in the day. I was in a play-by-mail league for 15 years. My ex-players are always attractive to me. That is why Matt Williams was on my team every year until this one. Tommy Greene and Bruce Ruffin will be very hard to push off this year's version for the same reason. The minute Darrel Kile goes down to 50K, I think I'll be all in. I am also always on the look out for guys whose careers were cut short by injury, like Greene. There were one or two years that Shane Mack would have a really nice card in this game. Yeah, those were halcyon days. We would draft by phone, then later on line,although that happened only once or twice before I retired in (I think) 1999. It was a keeper league, so I had my first number one draftee, Benito Santiago the whole way.

The draft was the most fun because there were no internet resources so you had to read a lot - Baseball America, Baseball Prospectus and other such annuals, and comb through the Sporting News, et al, looking for tidbits. Strat use to release cards for players with minimal playing time, so you could grab good guys early on if you did the work. I think Santiago had only 40-50 at bats when he got his first card. You could also find gems if you were willing to suffer through the waiting years and lose a bit. One of my best drafts was picking at 7th or 8th one year, when there were an unusual amount of guys who got enough IP and AB to attract those teams in need of immediate help. I got Larry Walker, Marquis Grissom, and Dave Justice in the second through fourth rounds because of that.


My, but I do go on. That's what us old timers do. If you've read this far, thanks.

[stl jason]

Waffletown nabs a new pitcher off the waiver wire. Joining the squad:


100 - Tommy Bridges (1935)


to make room on the roster, J.J. Putz will be sent to the reserves. Bridges will join the bullpen as a long/middle reliever.

[Bottom Of The Sixth]

The regular season is about to draw to a close and OL teams are still shooting it out for Divisional Titles.


Shinebone-OL and Gettysburg-OL are still tied up with the magic number being 4.


Keystone-OL, who's magic number is 3, is barely holding on to a one game lead over Reading.




More to come in the 5 star late edition!


-30-

[Stanley Kuppchaser]

Originally Posted by stl jason

Waffletown nabs a new pitcher off the waiver wire. Joining the squad:


100 - Tommy Bridges (1935)


to make room on the roster, J.J. Putz will be sent to the reserves. Bridges will join the bullpen as a long/middle reliever.

He can only make the squad as a long/middle reliever? Ouch!

[Stanley Kuppchaser]

Huh?

[Vanden]

Originally Posted by Vanden

I'm a little late to the party, count me in again this year, might not get on with anyone in but a few hours, but added teams to friends list.

User name Vandennn

Team Iron Maiden, Wasted Years

Just wanted to chime in again, didn't see my name on the spreadsheet, thanks!

[Bottom Of The Sixth]

Gettysburg won their last 6 to win their Division.


Keystone barely holds on to win their first Division Title by one win!









R69 Playoff Picture looks like this:






-30-

[Bottom Of The Sixth]

Breaking News From Ireland....


Keystones locate another "Leprechaun" deep in the hills of County Cork! (came from a Drop pack from last night's show)


Just in time for the Keystone Kops 1st ever post season birth, the Kops have recruited David Justice as their 2nd player to wear and be tagged with being a "Franchise Player".




At the time of press, it is rumored that Mr Justice was first spotted by Keystone's Top Foreign scouts caddying at the Cork Golf Club. To pass some "down time", David was spotted hitting the golf balls 150 feet farther than Ben Hogan's record!


When asked if that was really him hitting those golf balls, David replied "ahh shucks, that ain't nothing. You should see me hit a baseball!"



When the scout asked him to try hitting a few baseballs, Justice knocked the cover off the 1st three balls he hit in a row!


In other team news: 100 SP Pitcher Burleigh Grimes becomes Keystones first 20 game winner, finishing the regular season with a 23-6 record.


Not to be out done, 90 SP George Mullin became the teams 2nd 20 game winner by sporting a 20-8 regular season record.

(For the record, both 100 rated Keystone cards have come from Standard Packs!)


-30-

[Stanley Kuppchaser]

The top three traded places all season long in I222 and the final month saw them each put forth Herculean effort to capture the crown. Nowhere, 11-6 in September, outlasted their rivals. Cary saw its skein of OL titles end despite rolling to a 9-4 mark down the stretch, while Waffletown excelled at 11-5, but could not break past its twin nemeses.


The PT playoff picture is attached. I have posted the final promotion standings, and by scrolling down a little, I was able to fit all the OL teams onto the table. From it you can see that all OL teams save two which remain in iron, will be promoted. Playoff results will not affect the promotions.


Pardon me, but I have a few packs to open and have to lay in some drinks and medicinals to soothe the Mundys after they get clobbered by the Syrups later today.

[Stanley Kuppchaser]

Congratulations! I think this is the correct logo to use. If not I have two others.

[Charlatan]

Congrats to Boulder City, winners of the OL Stone league crown.

Six OL teams make the playoffs, and the chance of an all-OL World Series is there. Good luck to all.

With 10 promotion slots, all of the playoff teams will be promoted to Iron next week (although I have to say I don't recall if this changes due to playoff losses, because there are teams with a better winning percentage that aren't being promoted. So there may possibly be updates to who specifically is being promoted). There were no relegations.

[stl jason]

Originally Posted by Stanley Kuppchaser

He can only make the squad as a long/middle reliever? Ouch!

I guess technically his ratings put him even with Sutton (my 4th slot starter), so he could break the starting rotation as a 4th or 5th starter.... but I figured he might get more work in the pen, and will help strengthen that side of the staff

Originally Posted by Vanden

Just wanted to chime in again, didn't see my name on the spreadsheet, thanks!

sorry, thought I had updated that before.... fixed!

[Edster007]

Sugar Hill won a weak NC West and gets the unenviable spot facing Cary in a best of five.

Prior to the series the Gang acquired three players. Phil Rizzuto and Clete Boyer now make up the left side of the infield while Roy Campanella takes over behind the plate.

Given the theme any upgrades need to be thought of as long term. So now I sit tight again and wait for more cards to fit the theme drop and hopefully grow the bankroll. I was looking at Joe McGinnity for the rotation but I am going to hope for a drop in price soon. Rizzuto's last 10 has been dropping and got him at a price I was good with paying. The outfield is a mess on my positional ranking page it doesn't list a left fielder.

This was probably too early to start a theme like this so it is going to be a really slow build.

[stl jason]

It was another successful regular season for Waffletown as they posted their best record yet in three seasons, finshing at 109-53. Unfortunately, that record was only good enough for 2nd place in their division as Nowhere claimed the division crown with 118 wins. (three seasons, win totals of 103, 96, and 109... and only 1 division crown to show for it. Tough crowd.)

On the mound, Cy Young was virtually untouchable this season, posting an impressive 26-3 record, with a 1.69 ERA and 239 strikeouts (and would claim the award for most pitching wins and best ERA). Not to be outdone by his teammate, Don Sutton posted a solid 22-4 record of his own, with a 2.60 ERA and 246 strikeouts.

The team overall had a solid offensive year (as usual, expected with the ramped up offensive park ratings of The Spile), ranking 1st in runs scored, batting average, and OPS; and 2nd ranked in on base percentage, batting WAR, wOBA , and base running.

The part of the team stats that still impresses me is the fact the pitching/defensive ratings didn't suffer due to the park dimensions. The Syrups ranked 1st in starters ERA, pitching WAR, and zone rating; 2nd ranked in runs against, bullpen ERA, FIP, and defensive efficiency; and 3rd ranked in strikeouts and errors.


Waffletown will host Port Ruppert in the wild card match. While the Syrups took the season series 5 games to 1, the regular season means nothing in the playoffs (and the pessimist in me expects nothing less than a spectacular flameout to cap off the year )

[Stanley Kuppchaser]

Congratulations!