Replay from 1901

[phillupi]

I just started playing from 1901. I'm using no trades and injuries. I had my 1st HOF Inductee.

Comments welcome.

[McGuiser]

May I assume that your primary pleasure is playing each game, at-bat by at-bat? For me, building a team by trading is the primary pleasure.

Relying only on the draft and free agents -- my hat is off to you, especially since there is not (so far as I know) much chance that a free agent will perform significantly above his ratings, and no way to "scout" free agents to find a gem that others overlook.

[IAmC]

Originally Posted by McGuiser

...

Relying only on the draft and free agents -- my hat is off to you, especially since there is not (so far as I know) much chance that a free agent will perform significantly above his ratings, and no way to "scout" free agents to find a gem that others overlook.

I had a rather interesting experience with a free agent most recently. I'm doing historical replay and am currently in 2004 (having started with the Expos in 1977). After a few weeks in April, I checked the free agent lists and noticed that there was one in particular who was quite unusual.

Troy Glaus was a 28 year old SS/3B who was just coming off three consecutive years of 39+HR and 93+ RBI. His problem, though, was that he was likely demanding too much money. He was asking for $8 million, which would have been fair in January when teams had more salary room but likely was not affordable in April. After some negotiation, I signed him for $4 million.

After trying to sign him to a multi-year contract multiple times, he finally stopped hearing my offers and elected to go play out the season and go to free agency. So I traded him to a team that needed both SS and 3B. In exchange, I got a five-star outfielder who was #3 in home runs and #2 in RBIs, with a salary of just under $5 million. And an additional outfielder who has three-star potential. Yay!

So, sometimes free agency does work out beautifully in the most unexpected ways!

[phillupi]

I do like all the things you guys state. Trading, FA, Drafting and playing games as well as simming games. I am just trying this with no injuries or trading

My intent here is to just see how everyone pans out to present with career totals and see who makes HOF and who doesn't.

My post here is referring to the 1st HOF selection made by the game. Patsy Donovan not a HOF in real life. Sorry for the confusion.

[McGuiser]

IAmC, that was a great trade you made! Finding deals like this is a great pleasure in this game (especially as potential trading partners have apparently become increasingly unreasonable since iOOTP11, in my view).

Nevertheless, the free agent pickup was not exactly a sleeper, as his previous three years were great. No surprise that he would be easy to trade (I know that is not the same thing as easy to trade for a great return).

If you had not traded that 3B/SS bruiser, do you think you would have gotten a draft pick as compensation when another team signed him? I am not very good at anticipating who will be a type A or B or neither.

[paul.m.w.]

Looking forward to future updates.

[phillupi]

Originally Posted by paul.m.w.

Looking forward to future updates.

I'm assuming you mean my 1901 Replay. I'm in 1904 right now. Cy Young is trailing Kid Nichols for the all-time Wins lead. They're both still pitching.



And Ed Delahanty is the only player with at least 100 HRs. Babe Ruth is currently 9 years old but I hear he has a good fastball in the Baltimore Little League system.

[phillupi]

Just finished another year. Young has not caught Nichols and HR leader is still Delahanty.

Two more players were added to the HOF. Billy Hamilton and George Van Haltren.



In real life Van Haltren is not in the HOF and Hamilton was elected in 1961. Both are in the top 10 of a few categories but Hamilton is the All-Time SB leader at this time. 814.

[IAmC]

Originally Posted by McGuiser

...
Nevertheless, the free agent pickup was not exactly a sleeper, as his previous three years were great. No surprise that he would be easy to trade (I know that is not the same thing as easy to trade for a great return).

If you had not traded that 3B/SS bruiser, do you think you would have gotten a draft pick as compensation when another team signed him? I am not very good at anticipating who will be a type A or B or neither.

Something that I found interesting is that I shopped him every few days and noticed that the list of players that resulted grew as the season went on. That was a pleasant surprise. The five-star guy I got in return was not an option in the early results.

And Glaus definitely would have been a type A free agent. I've seen a lot worse become type A. In this case, though, the team that I traded him to signed him to a multi-year contract.