Season 35 (2053) - Discussion Thread

[mcdog512]

Congrats on Elk Grove besting me in the NLCS....well played.

[JasonC23]

And the P420 AC Sub-League Series will go the distance, as Amsterdam wins a relatively ho-hum game 6, 6-2, to force a game 7. The Armada's Tim Keefe will face Huntley's Roger Clemens...

[One Great Matrix]

Originally Posted by JasonC23

And the P420 AC Sub-League Series will go the distance, as Amsterdam wins a relatively ho-hum game 6, 6-2, to force a game 7. The Armada's Tim Keefe will face Huntley's Roger Clemens...

That punk Clemens is going down. I'm sorry, are you Huntley's manager?

Well...Good Luck anyway.

[JasonC23]

In the end, the fleet of the Armada proved too much for the Red Raiders, as Amsterdam completed the comeback from down 3-1 in the Sub-League Series by winning easily twice in Huntley, 6-2 and 5-0, to reach the Perfect League Series. If Huntley never sees MVP Honus Wagner (.531, 4 homers, 15 RBIs, 8 runs scored) again, it will be too soon. Good luck to the Armada as they pursue Perfect League title number 4 against the upstart Seattle Mac!

[brrrdt1]

Over in P.465, the Dolphins made it to the WS with a sweep of the Flatbush Dukes in the NCCS and the St Peters Warbirds continue their improbable postseason run with a 6-game ACCS victory over the 94-68 Cant Evens.

If the Warbirds pull off the Word Series upset, it'll be one for the ages. They finished 83-80, getting into the postseason with a one-game playoff. They sport a run differential of -24 and a pythag record of 79-84. Meanwhile, the Dolphins had a down year offensively and still finished with a run diff of +522.

But we play the games for a reason...let's see if the Warbirds have one more surprise in store or if the Dolphins add another trophy to the case.

[pappyzan]

35 PL titles in the final 4 of P455. Would be quite the feat for the Senators to pull it off, Gold Saucer has won WS in 5 of the last 6 seasons. The year they didn't win it, their team ERA was 1.93. So far, nearly all SPs for both teams are hot, and neither team has won at home yet in WS. Good luck EK, but not too much alright?

[dbqs]

Got swept by the Delaware Blue Hens in the P437 WS. The Chicago Machine's hunt for our first PT title continues! Always the bridesmaid...

However, Sisler just went OFF for an MVP season, so that was pretty cool.

[waittilnextyear]

Stepped away from OOTP for a few hours to...you know, live and stuff...and came back to see my Frogs had dispatched the Stags in 6. Over in the AC, the SmallBallers and Dodgers had one of the more competitive series I've ever seen. It went to 7 games with the SmallBallers emerging. None of their games were decided by more than 2 runs. 29 runs scored vs 28 runs allowed.

Currently, the Frogs and SmallBallers are locked in a 2-2 ordeal. It would be the Frogs' 5th PL title, or the SmallBallers' 3rd PL title.

[brrrdt1]

In P.465, the unlikely Warbirds run came to a definitive end on the wrong side of a 4-1 series against the now 8-time PL Champion Somerset Dolphins. Walter Johnson picked up his 3rd pitcher of the year, after leading the league in W, IP, WHIP, HR/9 and WAR. He gave up an astonishing 4 HR in 260.2 IP, falling just short of his prior high mark of 4 HR in 264.1 IP. Walt also fell short of his first MVP award by a handful of 1st place votes.

Over in the AC, the Raccoons' Curt Schilling picked up MVP and Pitcher of the Year--always an impressive achievement.

[JasonC23]

With a 4-0 sweep of the Seattle Mac, the Amsterdam Armada complete a banner year by conquering P420 and earning a superscript 4 next to their Perfect League medallion.

For such a dominant regular season, Huntley's postseason award haul was light; C Yogi Berra (.271/.325/.408, 102 wRC+, 2.4 WAR), 3B George Brett (.293/.336/.513, 26 HR, 122 RBI, 129 wRC+, 5.3 WAR), and SS Luke Appling (.290/.394/.416, 130 wRC+, 4.9 WAR) earned their fourth, sixth, and fourteenth Platinum Sticks, respectively, and that was it. Ed Walsh (21-4, 2.12 ERA, 0.90 WHIP, 201 ERA+, 6.9 WAR) earned 3 first-place votes for the AC Pitcher of the Year, finishing second to Amsterdam's Cy Young, and Brett, Mickey Mantle (.287/.387/.496, 21 HR, 82 RBI, 143 OPS+, 5.4 WAR), and Walsh finished in the top 10 in Player of the Year Award voting, won by the Blue Farm Bombers' Babe Ruth.

Congrats to all 2053 champions! On to 2054!

[waittilnextyear]

The Frogs have retaken the initiative from chazzycat's SmallBallers in following up a G4 win with another in G5. The Frogs got 9th inning back-to-back jacks from SE David Wright and LIVE Yelich to put the game away 3-1.

Seeing the extreme LHB/RHB strategy that the SmallBallers utilize, I decided to yank SE Brecheen and SE Johan out of their reliever roles and into the rotation. It went swimmingly. Also made use of 7-day lineups to bypass some of the opponent-derived strategy decisions as well.

The series goes back to La Crosse for G6 and a fully rested stable of 100 Walsh, 99 Coveleski, and 100 Smoltz. If this isn't enough to win 1/2 of the remaining games, we don't deserve a 5th medallion.

[Maxfire5]

Topeka Defenders: After losing out in Game 7 of the World Series last week, we made a return this week. This time, we won in 5 games! First ever Perfect League win! Not too shabby for an old OL member. Waddell also earned a Cy Young and ERA crown awards, Ichiro won a batting title, Keith Hernandez, Smoky Bugress, Joe DiMaggio all win silver sluggers, and Walsh and Willie Wells win gold gloves. Oddly, Ozzie misses his first gold glove. Someone's 98 Ripken posted some ridiculous defensive metrics also helped by 0.9 park factors.

Love the return to the World Series to finish what we couldnt last season. Very similar to the Royals in 14-15. Lost in game 7, and won the following season in 5 games. Now, let's hope we dont go back to being irrelevant like the Royals have....

[bailey]

Originally Posted by macacks

I lost to a division opponent in 3 games that I had a 19 game lead and massive run differential on...but history played out as they handed us 13 (30%) losses in the regular season as well. I have spent hours trying to figure out what tactical advantage they have.

The Lefty Swindle Strategy beats me often unless I notice it and have the time to micromanage. The team starts all lefties and limits their pitch count to 20-30, then has all righties in the pen. My team has several right-handed hitters than do poorly against righties, and so it was in the Division Series my opponent tried this strategy. I won game 1 3-2 in 13 after Mariano Rivera blew the save, but lost game 2 3-2 after Clemens blew the save and no one bailed him out. That's when I noticed the dreaded LSS used against me. A few lineup tweaks gave me game 3 10-2, but game 4 was lost 5-4. Nothing to do, but pray for Game 5 to go my way and it did 3-2 in 15 innings. The LCS was a breeze 4 games to 1, but the finals went all the way to game 7 as Mariano Rivera blew the save in Game 6. Anyway, I was able to use my favorite postseason strategy to seal the deal: Win the Odd Numbered Games. (WONG).

[pappyzan]

Gold Saucer was too much for the Senators to handle. Key moment was blowing a 1 run lead in the 9th inning of game 3, would have put the Sens up 3 games to none. Instead it was the first of 4 straight wins for the Wonder Squares. Congrats to Gold Saucer for winning in 6.

[waittilnextyear]

Not a bad way for the Frogs to hoist #5.

Congrats to the SmallBallers for having a great season on a much tighter payroll.

[Renfro]

I was so caught up in tourneys that I hardly checked in on my Xenos, and when I did, it was a veritable dumpster fire. At some point late in the week, we were actually in danger of being relegated. Was that 2050 season, the season where we made our first - and only - Perfect League WS appearance, just a statistical anomaly? It seems so! But the kids got it together to finish 68-94 and avoid relegation. Turns out, most of the team's spent their energies barnstorming in tourneys. That 96 McGwire? For some reason he's indispensable in Daily Deadball.

Which is kind of a raw deal because I know I could sell him for at least 20k and inject some much needed funds to actually improve the team. But Daily Deadball's the only Open tourney where this team has had any real modicum of success. So that kind of means something.

As for my Mision Futuros ... this was a team that was in a serious existential crisis this season. After going 207-279 in 3 season in Perfect, we got punted back down to Diamond, where we had already won 2 titles. (We had one prior to changing to the theme of Future Legends and Rookie Sensations.) We had nothing to prove in Diamond. Not making any changes to the roster, we cruised through the regular season and had the 2nd best record coming into the playoffs, where we met the team with the best record. And then we won our 3rd Diamond League title.

On that note, Mision Futuros is closing up shop. That is, until we can raise 100k to entice Vlad Jr. The team under a different name will largely stay intact because there's not that much to upgrade to. The only batter who was really languishing in the reserves was Buck Leonard. But that means we'd say goodbye to Pete Alonso, who just hit .300 with with 33 homers and put up a 5.5 WAR to earn the Great Bat for 1B. In 4 season in Perfect, though Alonso still hit for power, averaging 27 HR, his batting average suffered mightily.

The real question is going to be the pitching. In our last season in Perfect, we put up a 5.23 staff ERA, ranked 14th. In this Diamond championship season, we put up a 3.79, 2nd best. Yes, the gulf is that wide. Consider that my starting rotation is going to consist of Forrest Whitley, MacKenzie Gore, Francisco Liriano, the recently picked up 94 Warren Spahn (ATL mission related), and Nate Pearson. Wish me luck!

[Westheim]

Portland lost LCS Game 6 by the narrow score of 8-7, then held a 4-2 lead in the eighth in Game 7. Then THAT happened.

It's back to the drawing board for a bullpen, because I will need a new one once I have climbed this tree the miserable suckers have fled up, each of them holding on a flimsy branch while bickering in utter panic. (shouts up the tree) No point in crying, suckers!! Your pelts are mine! (wedges knife handle between teeth while reaching for the first branch)

[Marleigh]

to say i'm shocked is an understatement. Our 3rd straight season in Perfect League, our first division win all with a 81-81 record, the conferences 13th best offence and 5th best pitching

We were huge underdogs in every round of the playoffs and won every series in the final game

Martin Dihigo carried us in the Division series a 3-2 win over NC Dinos (90-72)

Micky Cochrane hit .435 to win mvp honours in the SubLeague series with Matt Morris and Smokey Joe Williams picking up 2 wins apiece

In the perfect series, Buck Leonard of the Excelsior Dodgers won the MVP but he couldn't stop us as we won 2 behind Don Newcombe. We were thoroughly outplayed in 3 games getting beaten heavily but won 3 1 run games and a 2 run game. We were outscored in the series 38-29, but i guess we made our runs count

Dihigo hit .304 with 20RBI in the playoffs

I feel sorry for the Excelsior Dodgers owner, they have been at Perfect level for 29 seasons failing to make the playoffs twice but never winning. I didn't even shorten my rotation or make any tactical changes as i presumed i'd be bounced in the first round

[Westheim]

It's six hours later and my jaws are still firmly lodged in my left fist for this mother of meltdowns.

Kinda hard to type like this.

[HelpDodgers]

Originally Posted by waittilnextyear

Not a bad way for the Frogs to hoist #5.

Congrats to the SmallBallers for having a great season on a much tighter payroll.

Congrats. Well deserved Championship. SmallBall is a tough team. Maybe Frogs and Belfast will see each other again.