PT21 Diary - A Tale of Three Teams

[trman73]

My recent streak of not being able to watch Sunday playoff matchups continues. But the Warlocks take on the Hockessin Penguins for promotion to Diamond. This is a battle of 100-win teams as these guys finished just two back of us at 103-59.

We split the first four games. Game 5 comes down to Maddux vs. Maddux. And we each get 10 hits in the game. Unfortunately, we don't plate any of our runners, they put up a 3-spot, and we lose, 3-0, to end our season and keep us back in Gold in 2044.

Pretty disappointing last couple days of the season for these guys. I saw the writing on the wall with our late-season swoon. Still, nine innings from promotion and a good shot at another medal, but it wasn't to be.

Oh well.

[trman73]

Entering the final day of the 2044 season, once again Face of the Franchise has had a great impact on our teams.

For the Hammers, thanks to sales and a couple very fortuitous pack pulls (live Verlander, and the big one, Jake Peavy, who sells for 68,000), we find ourselves with 112,000 PP. That’s a lot of packs to open and we’ve already done about 30, securing a decent backup catcher (maybe) in Mickey Tettleton (93). I haven’t had the time to rip a ton of packs and will have to pace myself here. But if we can get three contributors from this haul, I’ll consider it something of a success. The team is fighting for a division title, and is currently three back at 72-67.

The Warlocks pull a Peak Hack Wilson from the FOTF missions, and sell him to finally put us over the top to make a move I’ve wanted to make for weeks and weeks:

OUT: SE IF Carlos Correa (94)
IN: SE SS Honus Wagner (100)

Glorious. I was fully prepared to sell Joe Cronin to make the Wagner move, but with the PP accumulated we were able to retain Cronin and instead dump Correa. So Cronin stays and starts vs. lefties, and Wagner gets inserted into the #2 spot in the lineup.

The season itself has been maddening. At 76-62 we have the 7^th best record in Gold 353, but are fourth in our own division and are four back of a playoff spot. Still, Wagner is a big improvement for us.

The Frogs had the bad luck this week as we earned 27 packs from FOTF and did not get one quality pull. Still, we built our PP back up to 40,000, so there are some opportunities here. The team is out of it in D367.

[trman73]

The Frogs’ final record was 73-89 in D367, good enough to stay up but certainly disappointing, as it represents a 12-win drop form a year ago.

The Warlocks finished with the 6^th-best record in Gold 353 and yet not only did we not make the playoffs, we finished four games back of a spot. We were in a really tough division. I still like this team and am chalking this up to just bad luck.

Which leaves the Hammers, who surged on Saturday in G322, going 18-10 to win our division at 89-73. The only adds we made from the first half of our massive collection of PP have been two catchers, as Jason Kendall (85) and Jim Pagliaroni (85) are replaced by Mickey Tettleton (93) and Rudy York (92).

But the big news is that after losing our first two games of the Division Series, we tie the thing up with 6-1 and 1-0 wins, and in Game 5 we explode offensively, winning 13-3 to advance. Which means that this packs-only team is in Diamond next season.

We face a 101-win New York Knights team in the SLS, and we fall, 4 games to 2. But we’re in Diamond next year, where I assume we will be one of the worst teams in our league and will be right back in Gold in two weeks.

[trman73]

I’ve probably opened 200-ish packs for the Hammers since Thursday’s FOTF, and finally finished today, pending 19 cards still up in the AH. It beats following the actual team, which is 13-33 in D369 and heading right back to Gold next Monday. We’re on pace to allow about 1,150 runs. Go team!

Overall, the percentage of Perfects and Diamonds in the pulls was very, very good. We pulled four perfects... a Live Scherzer (sold), a Live Yelich (sold – duplicate), and two cards that remain on the club. We pulled at least a dozen Diamonds, most live, including three Manny Machado cards. I did not keep track of the pulls, but I feel like overall this was a quality collection, and we have many, many cards we’re holding on to for the final FOTF drop.

So, five guys join the club from these pulls...

Peak C Mickey Tettleton (93) – Pulled Thursday, was solid in our Gold playoff run last week, is hitting to a .726 OPS in Diamond right now.

HAS C Rudy York (92) – Backup. Has a .650 OPS. Not that good but better than what we had.

Peak CL Francisco Rodriguez (96) – My God. Has an 11.08 ERA and 2.87 (!!!!!) WHIP thus far.

Live Jacob DeGrom (100) – In the bullpen. Horrible in Diamond. Will wait till next week to see him in Gold.

And... the piece de resistance, which came with just 11 packs left to open...

[trman73]

I don’t think I can keep up this log with multiple posts per week, as work is taking up more and more PT time. But as we hit the final week of the first half of PT21, here’s where we are...

The Hammers went 48-114 in our first week in Diamond, which isn’t surprising. We desperately need pitching, as we allowed an incredible 1,054 runs. But all the help we’re getting with packs has been for our lineup. Jackie Robinson was, not surprisingly, a solid addition, and should be great at the Gold level. We finally gave up on Live Yelich as a starting left fielder, quick sold him, and crossed our fingers that those packs would get us a replacement LF. They did... Historical Legend Johnny Damon (93), who posted an .857 OPS in 18 games for us. So taking that chance worked out. I fully expect us to be battling for a promotion spot next week in Gold.

The Frogs needed a late surge to remain in Diamond next season. We finish 71-91, clear of relegation by just a game. We did make an addition, dumping Robbie Cano as a starter in favor of FOTF Craig Biggio (100), who had an .807 OPS in 28 games. This team looks like it’s going to continue to be just good enough to stay in Diamond, but not contend.

Which leaves the Warlocks, who had another excellent regular season in Gold, going 107-55 to finish with the best record in Gold 317, the best record for this team at any level. We sweep the division series, guaranteeing our promotion, but are thwarted in our quest for another medal as we get swept in the SLS. We drop Cano as our starting 2B in favor of Peak Arky Vaughan (100), who teams with SE Honus Wagner to form a quality middle of the infield. We have another move coming as well, I hope. I think this team is equipped to be a decent Diamond club. We also purchased all Bronze and Iron players for the final five FOTF clubs, so there will be packs on Thursday.