The Season 2 (2020) Discussion Thread

[Westheim]

**** just got real …!!

[old timer]

Originally Posted by Kem

Three Durham teams in the same conference

That's the conference I'm in too. Somehow my team has started 5-2. Looking at some of those teams, it won't last though.

[Kushiel]

Originally Posted by Morug

I'm in your league, let you find me:P

I found you already when I noticed the Expos were there. I was just having lunch and had not made it back to edit the post. We are going to have fun


Edit: Now I just logged into PT and seen you beat me 2 of 3 in that first series. I had seen one coming up but did not remember the dates/times.
As I said we are going to have fun. Several active posters here with nice teams are in the league.

[old timer]

Originally Posted by jedao

Uh, i notice some increase in competition. This time I will not be favorite, not with this team in the league:

That's the New Orleans Brees. They're in the same league as my team, but the other conference. I take it your team is the Kallisti Disocrdians? If so, we're in the same division. My team is the Chesapeake one. No need to worry about it challenging though.

[old timer]

If only my final pitching numbers would look like it does now. I've got 5 golds and 6 silvers on my staff, but they did perform well at the end of the last season, but the competition is tougher now. Plus, the way I'm playing (no selling of cards on AH, no using money and no opening packs) makes upgrading slow.

[mrbucket]

Could be in for an interesting battle in Tau Gamma.The Gotham Dark Knights are an obvious favourite to take out the whole thing so I'll just need to set my sights on the division title.

The AC West could be a bloodbath!

[Matt Arnold]

Originally Posted by Morug

Wich Carter card you talk? I have seen a Expos Carter at 97 ov...very rare and very costly too and a Expos Larry Walker at 97 too..in the same price range, 30K pp and more.

Yeah, that's where I'm going to have to decide my "rules". The crazy good Walker card is from the Rockies - his Expos card is from 1992 and is an 81 overall. Got lucky to buy that last night for only like 2.5k. I really want the Pedro card as an Expo, but it's usually listed for 25k+, but his Mets card is going for under 10k, so might be more attainable.

Carter has 2 cards as well - one crazy good one that I think I've only seen once at auction once, and I'm guessing if it came back, probably would only sell for like 50k or more. For him, I'll probably have to settle for his Mets card, too, which I think is only a low-80s overall, so should come in at a better rate.

Of course, my "rules" will be to collect anyone who played for the Expos. Including the Moises Alou (only card is an Astro) or Pete Rose (who was maybe known more for him time outside of Montreal). Prefer their Expos card (have the Expos versions of Walker and Vlad), but might have to stretch my rules, especially since I'm not actually sure there's a second catcher who played for them in the current roster set.

[Westheim]

Originally Posted by mrbucket

Could be in for an interesting battle in Tau Gamma.The Gotham Dark Knights are an obvious favourite to take out the whole thing so I'll just need to set my sights on the division title.

The AC West could be a bloodbath!

Oh look, that is my league. Just the other conference.

[mrbucket]

Originally Posted by Westheim

Oh look, that is my league. Just the other conference.

I saw you got paired with the Malibu Waverunners in your division. They absolutely rampaged through the other conference in my bronze league, finished with a 141-21 record. Good luck!



I'm off to a nice start, 7-2 so far.

[Matt Arnold]

Originally Posted by mrbucket

I saw you got paired with the Malibu Waverunners in your division. They absolutely rampaged through the other conference in my bronze league, finished with a 141-21 record. Good luck!



I'm off to a nice start, 7-2 so far.

FYI, there are 4 teams that are called "Malibu Waverunners". One of them was that 141 win team, another only won 57 games, so just because you recognize a team name doesn't mean it's unique.

[Thalion]

Originally Posted by zrog2000

I have no idea how a team would be more likely to win in the playoffs than in the regular season. I'm all ears.

Now there is a theory that you need players who can hit elite pitching to do well in the postseason. There are a lot of players who feast on bad to mediocre pitching but can't hit elite pitching at all. But some don't drop off, and these are the guys who will do well in the postseason generally.

However, how would OOTP handle that in a way anyone can figure out? Do you need more Contact and Avoiding K's? I'm not sure. And I'm also not sure what kind of pitchers are better in the postseason.

It will be pretty impossible to figure much out with such short sample sizes though regardless. The worst team in baseball can sweep the best team in baseball. It happens all the time.

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.

[Morug]

Originally Posted by Matt Arnold

Yeah, that's where I'm going to have to decide my "rules". The crazy good Walker card is from the Rockies - his Expos card is from 1992 and is an 81 overall. Got lucky to buy that last night for only like 2.5k. I really want the Pedro card as an Expo, but it's usually listed for 25k+, but his Mets card is going for under 10k, so might be more attainable.

Carter has 2 cards as well - one crazy good one that I think I've only seen once at auction once, and I'm guessing if it came back, probably would only sell for like 50k or more. For him, I'll probably have to settle for his Mets card, too, which I think is only a low-80s overall, so should come in at a better rate.

Of course, my "rules" will be to collect anyone who played for the Expos. Including the Moises Alou (only card is an Astro) or Pete Rose (who was maybe known more for him time outside of Montreal). Prefer their Expos card (have the Expos versions of Walker and Vlad), but might have to stretch my rules, especially since I'm not actually sure there's a second catcher who played for them in the current roster set.

Pretty sure I have seen a Walker in the 90-97 range with Expos logo..maybe i'm wrong on it, only seen this card once, must be the Colorado one after all.

I forgot that Rose played for the Expos, he is now on my list too, but I have many players to bought and my budget is low...I dont spend real money on my club for now..its a long process.

My next big card I want is Pedro expos version, but I dont want to put more then 15-20k pp on it. And Vlad too but I have Rusty for now at RF who play well so i'm looking for a bargain for Vlad. I had him in beta, and he was not consistent, only 20-25 homers with an under .250 batting average. And Tim Raines is missing too in my collection. So many thing to do with my club.

[Westheim]

Originally Posted by Matt Arnold

FYI, there are 4 teams that are called "Malibu Waverunners". One of them was that 141 win team, another only won 57 games, so just because you recognize a team name doesn't mean it's unique.

Betts, deGrom, Sale, Seaver, Trout on that roster - I doubt it's the 57-win team

Also, teams seem to stick together at this point in the promotion cycle.

Almost everybody who was in my bronze league and got promoted is here: all of the AC West; Seattle and Davidson; Mankato and (I think) Stardew Valley; Rimavaska Sobota, and Roseville; all of my division except Malibu; and Bremen;

[Kem]

Originally Posted by old timer

That's the conference I'm in too. Somehow my team has started 5-2. Looking at some of those teams, it won't last though.

Doing better than I am!

[Westheim]

Originally Posted by mrbucket

I saw you got paired with the Malibu Waverunners in your division. They absolutely rampaged through the other conference in my bronze league, finished with a 141-21 record. Good luck!

My Craig Swan just outpitched his Jacob deGrom in our first game of the year, a 5-2 Raccoons win.

I'm good.

[strakapoud]

My division got an interesting start for sure...

[Kushiel]

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.

You are indeed a tough opponent. I enjoy that. Playing teams where the manager has a plan that I must earn my wins against is much more fun than passing out participation trophies

[Thalion]

Originally Posted by Kushiel

You are indeed a tough opponent. I enjoy that. Playing teams where the manager has a plan that I must earn my wins against is much more fun than passing out participation trophies

Thank you, Kushiel. That's high praise coming from you, and I say that with all sincerity and humility.

I've purposefully been fairly quiet about my team. I don't like calling attention to myself. I'm actually uncomfortable trumpeting up my team, it's players, or accomplishments. My grandmother taught me that.

I'm going to enjoy the challenge. The brief look I had around the league this morning leads me to believe it won't be easy.

I'm really not in it to win. I mean, I'm trying to, but the most important thing for me is to play with "my boys", the guys I always identify with back when life was much simpler.

[mrbucket]

Does anyone know if you can filter by whether or not a player is on the active roster vs reserve roster on the Player Search & Shortlist screen? Thought it might be an interesting way to gather some stats on my league but at the moment it includes 2031 players. A far cry from the 750 max a league can have on active rosters.

Most popular card in my league (includes players on reserve rosters) is Greg Minton's 1982 Historical All-Star (69 rating) with 8 sprinkled around the league. James Paxton (89 rating), Hyin-jin Ryu (66 rating), and Kevin Pillar (66 stars) also have 8 cards around though one team has a duplicate for each of them.

Best I can tell, James Paxton (89 rating), A.J. Minter (85 rating), and J.D. Martinez (86 rating) are the most common cards on active rosters with 6.

Most common Diamond cards in active rosters are Gerrit Cole (93 rating), Edwin Diaz (91 rating), and Francisco Lindor (98 rating) with 3 of each around the league. There are four Mike Trout cards which make him the most popular perfect card.

[el_gringo]

Originally Posted by Thalion

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.

100% this.

The strategy seems to hold its own just fine, at least for me so far. I've gone the same route (elite defense, stuff<movement<control for every SP and most relievers, generally elite bullpen, lots of contact hitters with no power, etc.) and won my last league's WS against playoff teams that all had Mike Trout and a raft of other power hitters.

The power hitting game works pretty well over the course of a season, but against the right pitchers and defense it's inconsistent enough in a short series to be extremely problematic. And, usually, clumsy power hitters will make at least an error or two in the field (Trout excepted, because he's Trout and somehow does both), which is all a fast, smallball team needs to win games.

You're completely correct though that the strategy needs to be committed to 100% for it to work. There can't be any holes in your defense, and all your pitchers and park factors need to support leaning into that defense hard. Then, the offense has to be carefully bolstered without sacrificing defense (boost gap power modifiers, and wreak havoc with relatively cheap contact/gap power guys that still have good defense - Paul Blair is an excellent CF when 2B/3B ratios are at 1.5, for example... Put up 7.6 WAR for me, and is much cheaper than Trout).