Season 21 Discussion thread

[dkgo]

Is that team able to successfully switch Gibson from catcher to DH on rest days or does Gibson just DH full time? That would take some real depth chart magic to get to work right.

[Nero]

Originally Posted by One Great Matrix

Which Joe Morgan?

It was the 100 Morgan, loved him for his bat, could not hide his glove.

[Nero]

Originally Posted by dkgo

Have I been seeing a different perfect Gagne? He's sold for right at 80K for several weeks and is great value compared to the other 200-250K perfects.

He's on the market now for 150/220 and I'm with you, I'm used to seeing him in that 75-80k range.

[CrazyWR]

Well Re:Gagne I didn't check his recent price, but he was up for that last night. People have been posting players at inflated rates recently though (at least pitchers I've been watching) so it wouldn't surprise me if 80k was the recent value. Makes a lot more sense.

EDIT: Typo

[Nero]

The Express:

Had a 14-13 May, and Exeter and I headed into June tied, which was a gut punch, because he picked up 4 games right there, and he's rounding in to form. Never doubted he'd run past, but always that glimmer of hope that everything comes together. Hot 12-2 start in June has me back up 2 games, and I've taken 4 of 6 head to head...but now he's hot...so...hoping I don't see him for awhile.

Defense has killed me. .655 Efficiency, -16.8 Zone Rating, and it's no shock that opponents BABIP is .334. The good news was that the peak Mays was on the AH last night, and I bought it, and he is stabilizing CF, and that allowed Joe D to move to right, where he was a massive improvement, so I've got some hope that'll be a big step in the right direction moving forward. Trying not to read too much into the pitching struggles because I see a lot of contributing factors, like poor defense. That said, lefty in the pen struggles this season, but have one bright spot. In completing the Negro League mission, I picked up Leon Day, and because the shuttle to the reserve roster was getting long, I needed some options. Leon has come up, and done a really solid job in the pen. He's not a lefty, but his contribution has been solid.

Barry Bonds though is on the market, too many disagreements with management over his lackadaisical play in the field, and his absence of power the past season and a half. Buyer beware, if we had some HGH to spare, we'd throw it in the package.

Tombstone Glory:

Coming along nicely, and have mostly been Cubbified. Still holding strong though at 2B with Bump Wills. He makes it as an ASU grad, and Cub, even if on his card he's a Ranger. Of all people, Don Kessinger has driven in 18 runs in his 17 games since he came in from the 7 hole. Bill Madlock is sitting pretty at .348 at DH, and '87 Rick Sutcliffe ended up going to the bullpen, and I moved Kerry Wood back into the rotation. I kind of like seeing if Wood ends up walking 7-8, or striking out 10+. In the same vein, I'm shocked that Mitch Williams has not walked a single batter in his 5 innings. Why do I sense an implosion on his part soon?

Putting together a Cubs team has been fun, and still other spots to fill, without going up for better players, it's been look and wait for a few cards.

[Nero]

Originally Posted by CrazyWR

Well Re:Gagne I didn't check his recent price, but he was up for that last night. People have been posting players at inflated rates recently though (at least pitchers I've been watching) so it wouldn't surprise me if 80k was the recent value. Makes a lot more sense.

EDIT: Typo

Same here...I had the Walter Johnson no price auction tagged, just to see what he would end up going for, and I had to laugh they had him started so low (sub 20k). He went for 425ish, so lower than I usually see him go, but that's an exception. Of late, like you, I'm seeing a lot of inflation with pitchers, heck, a lot of inflation on guys I was watching, position players too, which is why I'm still sitting and hoping to wait a few out...

[dkgo]

A card like that is unique since only a tiny tiny minority of players have half a million points lying around at a given time. Back in the day he could at least have been auctioned for a week to give people the chance to sell off some things to bid.

Inflation seems natural given that people are always earning points and very few buy packs, a lot of teams are going to be in the market for that higher diamond but not quite top of the top class of player at this stage of the game.

[old timer]

98 Frank Robinson is having his best year ever, even better so far than his MVP year. In one season, he hit 41 HR and had 157 RBI, but so far this year, he's also hitting for a high average and walking a lot so his OPS+ is 187 and he's on pace for 42 HR and 169 RBI with a .349 AVG. I'm quite certain he can't keep hitting for such a high average. He also has the biggest lead in RBIs I've ever seen, leading the league with 73 RBI to Brett's 49.

In our quest to finish with the best record, we're 1 game behind the top team and 1/2 game ahead of the 3rd place team. We also have the best RDiff so far.

I'm definitely going to try out the whale league just for a different kind of experience. In that one season where the Raccoons ended up in this league, we had 107 W and made the playoffs as a WC and made it to the conference finals. Only 1 of the whales (the Wormburners) did really well against us, but that was partly luck (meaning, they're a better team, but they got lucky in going 7-0 against us). I've not kept track, but it feels like we've played about even against the top teams in the past and I'd consider it a success if we can play .500 ball against them in the future.

[Orcin]

Originally Posted by old timer

I'm definitely going to try out the whale league just for a different kind of experience.

Please keep me posted. I have a bit of experience in this realm, and I would be interested in your take.

[Charlatan]

My packs-only team, which is languishing in Perfect, had a game where they got just shy of 10k points. The highlight was Frank Robinson getting 5k for having 10 RBI. This will undoubtedly be the highlight of their season!

[Izz]

B'sin'Glou is currently 1 game above the relegation zone, along with about a half-dozen other teams. We're playing better than .400 ball atm. Seems like this week's league doesn't have any obviously weaker teams and no mega-whales (not that I've gone through every roster) either.

[One Great Matrix]

That'd be something if they win the 1-game WC, like making up 40 reg. season losses with one W

[One Great Matrix]

Originally Posted by Nero

It was the 100 Morgan, loved him for his bat, could not hide his glove.

Interesting, because the problem with the 97 Morgan in Perfects, at least for me, in the time he played was he never hit for any average and had low contact ratings for what I expected to be my 2nd baseman, end of story. I gave up on him. His glove was pretty good. I think he is one of the best 2nd basemen in the game (ever) but he frustrated me as well.

[One Great Matrix]

Because people seem interested in this topic, the possibility of a 4-man rotation, I just started Bob Gibson randomly at 71% stamina & he threw 6 scoreless innings, 5 hits, 8 K, one of his better outings in awhile...and maybe the AI accounted for the fact he wasn't really 100% & removed him after 6 innings and 96 pitches?

[Nero]

Originally Posted by One Great Matrix

Interesting, because the problem with the 97 Morgan in Perfects, at least for me, in the time he played was he never hit for any average and had low contact ratings for what I expected to be my 2nd baseman, end of story. I gave up on him. His glove was pretty good. I think he is one of the best 2nd basemen in the game (ever) but he frustrated me as well.

I looked hard at the 97 Morgan too, because his glove was excellent (and I agree, I think he's an absolute sabermetric delight) but his bat, if I remember right was the issue. The 100 version was a consistent .270/.390/.485 guy with 60-70 SB a year, and he made the plays when he got to the ball, but his zone rating was awful, and his efficiency as well. I agree with you that he is one of the best 2B ever, and I feel like OOTP criminally under rates Roberto Alomar (at least to my eye/memory test), so I was really sorry to let him go.

[Marleigh]

Paragon City Heroes keep on chugging along at 42-40 despite me selling most of the players and switching to using locked players and collection rewards only. In my current division 42-40 is good for last place, I'd be in 2nd in 3 other divisions and 1st in one, the bottom four teams of my division are the top 4 teams in the WC race, guess i got unlucky with being placed in a loaded division. Just done the collections for Plank and Gentile, working on the live cubs now

Bad News Bulldogs have managed to move to 43-37 2nd in the division, 1st in the WC. Apart from Jose Rijo my pitching still sucks and my defence seems worse than it should be, so I added Frank Robinson at RF because at some point i will have enough offence to make up for the pitching


Neuman Furshlugginers are 40-39 in 2nd place but a ling way back in the division and WC and are just playing for PP at this point, apparently a lineup of silver sdoesn't do so well against a full diamond pitching staff as i got swept in two series against the division leaders. We are last in OBP but 1st in BA, the weakness of just using silvers seems to be they are not that well rounded. Will have to come up with a new theme for next season.

[Westheim]

The Raccoons ended their above-.500 rush in style, losing 11 in a row in the second half of June, and 7-19 for the month overall. Whee, fun times …!

Rebs are crummy, 36-43, in a middling division. There isn't much to say about them. Pitching is crummy, defense is crummy, offense is crummy. Everybody's is around 23rd or so in everything…

Accountants hold themselves 1 1/2 games out in their Gold division, which, y'know, could still swing either way...

[One Great Matrix]

Originally Posted by Nero

I looked hard at the 97 Morgan too, because his glove was excellent (and I agree, I think he's an absolute sabermetric delight) but his bat, if I remember right was the issue. The 100 version was a consistent .270/.390/.485 guy with 60-70 SB a year, and he made the plays when he got to the ball, but his zone rating was awful, and his efficiency as well. I agree with you that he is one of the best 2B ever, and I feel like OOTP criminally under rates Roberto Alomar (at least to my eye/memory test), so I was really sorry to let him go.

Roberto Alomar...
Yes, he's on a team of mine that isn't "actualized". A sort of favorite players of mine scribble in my notebook.

[CrazyWR]

Welp, headed out of town for the weekend, won't be back til Sunday evening, so unless I make the WS in a miracle run, this season is over for me. We were about 4-5 games up when I went to sleep last night, but that was a bit inflated due to going 13-0 vs the bottom team in our division (and 7-2 vs the 4th place team) so I expect us to fall back towards the pack as our schedule toughens up in the 2nd half.

99 Chapman is killing it so far as my stopper/high leverage guy, era of like 1.6 through 16 innings, but Schooler (SE) had an era around 7 through about 9 innings as closer, so that isn't helping. I think Rivera (diamond) had his ERA actually go up to 5.75 if my memory is right from low 5s when he was closing, so unless they all miraculously get it together, we'll probably fall out of first and lose in the WC game

[ABButters]

Originally Posted by JasonC23

Or...

DOWN GOES FRAZIER! DOWN GOES FRAZIER!

Ha! Yeah, that series didn't go as planned. The pursuit of the record books will have to wait for another week.