Season 28 (2046) Discussion Thread

[JasonC23]

RIVALRY ALERT

In PT 1.0, the Singapore Slingers returned the favor, sweeping Huntley in a 2-game series in Singapore. Unless the teams somehow meet in the Perfect League Series, this concludes the season series with a 2-2 tie.

THIS HAS BEEN A RIVALRY ALERT

[Argonaut]

The random Perfect Leagues are pretty wild. It's really kind of luck-of-the-draw what division you get placed in, with such a wide range of roster value.

The Cowboys sit 30 games back of the division leader, yet are 4.5 games ahead in the wildcard race.

Meanwhile the Vikings are actually hanging tough with the division whale, the 7-time PL Champion Flagstaff 49ers, who we've been battling for the division lead all season. Pretty good considering the team value discrepancy numbers in the millions of PP.

[JasonC23]

After ending June with a 3-3 home stand, Huntley went 4-4 (and 6-5) to start July. Eventually, the Red Raiders found their footing to finish with a 16-8 record for the month, but that was not nearly good enough to reclaim the best record in the AC, as the Kingston Rockers shredded the AC to the tune of 24-3 in July (see what I did there?) to surge to a 6.5-game lead in the race for the #1 seed in the playoffs.

Prime culprits for the (relatively) slow month for Huntley included Ivan Rodriguez (.190/.320/.333), Jackie Robinson (.163/.192/.184), and George Brett (.236/.267/.306); on the pitching side, Lee Smith (8 games, 6.75 ERA, 63 ERA+) was the worst offender. Meanwhile, Kingston had the batter of the month in Roy Campanella (.440/.456/.733) and the pitcher of the month in Roger Clemens (5-0, 2.09 ERA, 204 ERA+).

In the NC, it is a highly contested race for playoff seeding between the Elon BrewBallers (64-39), St George Slammers (64-40), Belltown Bums (63-40), and Beantown Balkers (64-42).

Huntley did manage to finally complete the Athletics Collection missions, so to the reserve roster goes Cy Blanton and into the Red Raiders bullpen (for now) comes 100 Rube Waddell. I worry about his control vs righties, which is why he's starting in the bullpen; let's see how he fares in August...

[Marleigh]

Paragon City Heroes ended the sim at 56-49 despite a shaky patch around the ASG, we took 4 of 9 from the divsion leaders, which was unexpected. Colavito and Foxx made the ASG alongside Bob Friend who has been my star reliever this year

Bad News Bulldogs are 47-58 2n in the division and just 44 games back of the 92-15 Bville Baby Sharks, Pedro Martinez made the ASG, we also had some luck opening 2 packs and getting peak Rube Foster

Neuman Furshlugginers lead their division at 59-48, Gregg Jefferires, Pete Hill and Wilbur Wood made the ASG

[waittilnextyear]

The Frogs ended the most recent sim at 72-36 (+204) and hold an 18-game AC East division lead. It would take a collapse of epic proportions for the Frogs to miss out on the playoffs for a 2nd consecutive week. I'm back baby!

The 8-time PL champion Maine Gems (81-23, +302) have the best record in the AC and are knifing through what I thought would be a more competitive AC Central division. The Scottsdale Scorpions (73-33, +202) are trying their best to keep up, but the rest of the division has folded.

The Glendale Golden Grizzlies (87-19, +368) have the best overall record in the league. The Grizzlies are feasting on a super weak NC.

Tony Gwynn, Vida Blue, Johan Santana, and Luke Appling made the All-Star team for the Frogs. Appling is having his best year so far (.314/.413/.486, 5.0 WAR) and is a contender for MVP. Gwynn is only hitting .348 at the moment and trails a competitor's Luke Appling by 3 points in the race for the batting title. Lenny Dykstra checks in at 3rd place with his .332 batting average. Something has clicked with this Dykstra card and I like it a lot. Newcomer John Smoltz has already amassed 54.2 IP in his stopper role and sports an 0.99 ERA. The bullpen (Smoltz, Blue, Santana, Scherzer, and Paige) as a whole has a 2.39 ERA. The club is 1st in the AC in batting average (.298), OBP (.358), base running (+27.8), and zone rating (+36.7).

A few interesting box scores that I've noticed this season. Catcher Smoky Burgess had a 4-error game back in April. Amazingly, the Frogs allowed zero unearned runs in that game. Goes without saying that LaValliere was hastily subbed back in for Burgess. 100 Tom Seaver has been quite flashy in his own right with a 16-K "rocket game" and a 84-pitch 1-hitter in separate outings.

[old timer]

This looks like one of the weakest leagues we've been in and yet we're doing about the same as last year (.716 WPct last season) when there were 10 whales (plus some other good teams, of course). Only once before did we finish with the best RDiff and this year might be the 2nd. It's +308 right now and 2nd best is 225 (more evidence of how weak this league is). We've never finished with the best record so that's one thing I'd like to see happen. Well, that and go 11-0 in the post-season. That's not asking too much, right?

For some reason, all of our best seasons have come when there was better competition. When we get weaker competition like this year, we don't do any better. In fact, several times before in leagues with no whales, we finished with the 2nd best record to a team who had their best season ever. I won't be surprised if that happens again this year.

Poor Frank. Frank Robinson is having another terrific year at the plate (153 OPS+) as an extra (on pace for 359 PA), but like last year, there's no where to put him in regularly. In LF is Seymour with his superior defense and 139 OPS+ and at 1B is Ruth who's having another great year and then there's Ichiro in RF who's hitting .351 and playing great D.

Speaking of Ichiro... Both Ichiro and Keeler are great singles hitters and I personally think that this is more valuable than other statistical measures would indicate (just focusing on offense). Even though, we're only 10th in HRs and have no speed, we get on base a lot (partly due to all those singles) and hit for a very high average and then add in some pop with Ruth and Mays and all those extra singles make a really big difference (961 R pace). Of course, Appling, Ruth and Robinson walk a lot so that's also making a big difference.

[Orcin]

The P446 NC has turned out to be very competitive at the top, with my .731 winning pct. (79-29) as the lowest of the three division leaders. We have a fourth NC team at .623 with no team above .613 in the other conference.

The Colonels started off like a rocket (24-3 in April) and fizzled like one in June as it took a late streak to bring us back to 18-10 for the month. July was slightly better (16-8) but it is time to start playing like a champion again. Anytime now, guys. We will need to be at our best in October to survive the conference playoffs and home field advantage could be crucial.

A couple of players are having career years. Cy Young (20-3, 2,41 ERA, 2.49 FIP, 1.00 WHIP, 6.0 K/BB) was Pitcher of the Month in July and Mickey Mantle (.332/.420/.523, 4.5 WAR in 102 games) stayed hot to earn Player of the Month.

I have decided that I don't have position battles in the middle infield and outfield; instead, I have depth. Playing the hot hand between 100 Robinson, Appling, Trammell, and new addition Bill Dahlen has been productive in the middle of the infield. All are good defenders and Dahlen gives me a much-needed element of speed. The outfield this season has settled into Mantle, DiMaggio, and Aaron with Charleston playing some against RHP and Mays riding the pines.

I often think that I have too many points invested in "depth" but I can take advantage of it as long as I am around to shuffle the hot players in and out of the lineup. I thought that Mays would be valuable this season because the league is packed with LHP but he started poorly and has been the worst hitter on the team. Since I was watching closely, I was able to adjust by playing Aaron more and moving JoeD to CF.

[BKlip]

Originally Posted by old timer

This looks like one of the weakest leagues we've been in and yet we're doing about the same as last year (.716 WPct last season) when there were 10 whales (plus some other good teams, of course). Only once before did we finish with the best RDiff and this year might be the 2nd. It's +308 right now and 2nd best is 225 (more evidence of how weak this league is). We've never finished with the best record so that's one thing I'd like to see happen. Well, that and go 11-0 in the post-season. That's not asking too much, right?

For some reason, all of our best seasons have come when there was better competition. When we get weaker competition like this year, we don't do any better. In fact, several times before in leagues with no whales, we finished with the 2nd best record to a team who had their best season ever. I won't be surprised if that happens again this year.

I somehow stole 2 of 3 from you in July! Counted my blessings then.

So your Babe is a beast. I saw his season last year. What are your park factors??

[Westheim]

Rebs are 4 1/2 up, Accountants are 16 back, and the Coons… oh dear. The best ERA in the rotation (4.07) now actually belongs to … JERRY REUSS.

Accountants added 1983 Cal Ripken jr. to upgrade their Didi Gregorius-sized hole at short. But I am about to burn down that pile of 64k PP they were sitting on with other bids too.

[daves]

My Owlz team was relegated for the 2nd time from Perfect and are currently dominating Diamond.

I am really surprised how drastically different the competition is between the two levels. Maybe it was a lucky draw or lucky season? Bellinger is my only starter hitting below .290 at .278. I wonder what it is like below Diamond? Maybe there needs to be more than 6 levels?

[CrazyWR]

yea the leap from Diamond to Perfect is huge, mainly because there are no higher levels. Once you hit the top level, you range from the free to play mostly live teams that made a good run in the postseason in diamond and the super whales with a ton of historical perfects and all in between. You don't get the extra couple levels to go from a couple perfects and a couple diamonds to all perfects and diamonds to super whales. Here's the ocean buddy, swim or be eaten

[daves]

Originally Posted by CrazyWR

yea the leap from Diamond to Perfect is huge, mainly because there are no higher levels. Once you hit the top level, you range from the free to play mostly live teams that made a good run in the postseason in diamond and the super whales with a ton of historical perfects and all in between. You don't get the extra couple levels to go from a couple perfects and a couple diamonds to all perfects and diamonds to super whales. Here's the ocean buddy, swim or be eaten

Hmmmm. Maybe there should be an elite perfect level? You Win the World Series, you go to the elite perfect level? Only one promotion (WS champ) gets promoted from Perfect and one elite team gets relegated every season.

[Magus978]

Originally Posted by CrazyWR

yea the leap from Diamond to Perfect is huge, mainly because there are no higher levels. Once you hit the top level, you range from the free to play mostly live teams that made a good run in the postseason in diamond and the super whales with a ton of historical perfects and all in between. You don't get the extra couple levels to go from a couple perfects and a couple diamonds to all perfects and diamonds to super whales. Here's the ocean buddy, swim or be eaten

It's the point where if you're not willing (or not able) to spend on points, you're going to be a diamond/perfect yo-yo team. I have three teams in perfect right now flirting with disaster, one of which will certainly be relegated. The other two probably won't last past next week unless RNGjesus intervenes.

[Izz]

45-72 for the 'Glou. We are hovering 2 games above the relegation zone. FWIW, we've survived 9 weeks at perfect level and are an FTP team who only goes to the AH to fill collections (the last couple weeks we've been primarily packs only).

The season we got promoted we went 107-55, winning our diamond league (though I still think that season is an outlier, because our previous best at diamond was 83-79). Our best record in perfect so far has been 83-79. We scraped into the playoffs that year, for all of one game, but it's the only time we've broken .500. Interestingly (and anecdotally), I've noticed a dropoff in our performance since I've gone away from some of the high contact/poor defense cards like 69OVR Rod Carew.

[gemini615]

I've been pleased with the performance from my Ohio City team. We've got a 61-60 record and we're only 4 games back in the wildcard. Boudreau is hitting and POTM Bieber is outpitching my Bob Feller. I've even got Thome and Keltner platooning at first base and neither one is embarrassing themselves.
Pretty pleased with the Chefs

[old timer]

Originally Posted by BKlip

I somehow stole 2 of 3 from you in July! Counted my blessings then.

So your Babe is a beast. I saw his season last year. What are your park factors??

Your guys won the season series 4-3 too. I just noticed that it's your team's best season in perfect and will be your 1st perfect division title and playoff berth. Congratulations on a terrific season and good luck in the playoffs!

My park factors have been maxed out for hitting ever since we were in diamond. I feel like our hitters need the boost more than it hurts our pitchers. Maybe some day I'll get brave (not likely as long as we're doing well!) and try out neutral or maxed out pitching factors. It would be interesting to see over a number of seasons what kind of affect it would have on us.

[old timer]

Originally Posted by Westheim

Rebs are 4 1/2 up, Accountants are 16 back, and the Coons… oh dear. The best ERA in the rotation (4.07) now actually belongs to … JERRY REUSS.

Accountants added 1983 Cal Ripken jr. to upgrade their Didi Gregorius-sized hole at short. But I am about to burn down that pile of 64k PP they were sitting on with other bids too.

Wow, that's some really bad luck you're having with your Raccoons. I was happy for you last year when your guys made the playoffs and thought it might be a sign of things to come. But now this?! It's hard to believe Reuss is leading in ERA so far when you've got perfect Walter and Grove on your staff.

[JasonC23]

Huntley really put it all together in August, winning the first 12 games of the month in route to a 22-4 record that, well, still leaves the Red Raiders 4 games behind the Kingston Rockers for the best record in the AC but reduces our magic number to 4. So, we've got that going for us, which is nice.

August standouts included Ed Walsh (5 starts, 1.77 ERA, 240 ERA+), Dennis Eckersley (11.2 innings, 0.77 ERA, 550 ERA+), and Eric Gagne (10.2 innings, 6 saves, 0.00 ERA, 999 ERA+) on the pitching side, and George Brett (.353/.427/.553, in a nice bounce-back from July), Luke Appling (.361/.442/.518), and Mickey Mantle (.319/.390/.596) on the hitting side.

Rube Waddell appeared in 7 games, throwing 13.0 innings with a 15/5 K/BB ratio, 1.08 WHIP, 1.38 ERA, and 306 ERA+. I was worried about his poor control versus righties, and he did walk 4 righties vs 1 lefty, but oddly, he still dominated said righties to the tune of a 999 ERA+, while in 2.2 innings against lefties, he had a 6.75 ERA and 63 ERA+. Of course, the kind of ridiculous .625 BABIP against lefties may have had something to do with it...

Elsewhere, Aliquippa has an 11-game winning streak going; the Dodge City Prairie Dogs have a firm 11-game hold on the second AC Wild Card; the Gustavus Foxes have opened up a commanding 7.5-game lead in the AC East (Huntley travels to Gustavus for a 3-game series a week before the end of the regular season for what will very likely be a Division Series preview); the St George Slammers have surged ahead of the alliterative trio (Belltown Bums, Beantown Balkers, and Elon BrewBallers) in the NC to hold the #1 seed entering the final month of play; and the Rexford River Rats (seriously, PT 2.0 is a sucker for alliterative team names!) have surged ahead in the battle for the second NC Wild Card.

Penultimate standings follow...

[Marleigh]

Paragon City Heroes had a solid 18-10 August to move to 74-59, 2nd in the division and WC race, we have a 4 game series vs the 109-24 Everett Aqua Sox, which I'm not looking forward to.George Sisler played his way to the AH, an OPS+ of 81 just wasn't what was needed, despite his great speed on the bases he just failed to hit well enough

Bad News Bulldogs are the 2nd best of the sub 500 teams at 59-74 with a -111 run differential. Pedro Martinez as a stopper is 12-4, 15 saves, 3.15 era the only real bright spot on our pitching staff. Aaron and Duffy are the omnly regular members of the lineup with an OPS+ above 100, Rod Carew is currently hitting .226 at DH

Neuman Furshlugginers continue to lead the division despite a 10-16 August dropping them to 69-64, it wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing to miss the playoffs, if this team managed to get to Pl, they would be destroyed

[Westheim]

Originally Posted by old timer

Wow, that's some really bad luck you're having with your Raccoons. I was happy for you last year when your guys made the playoffs and thought it might be a sign of things to come. But now this?! It's hard to believe Reuss is leading in ERA so far when you've got perfect Walter and Grove on your staff.

Big Walt has reclaimed the lead now with a spiffy 4.05 ERA.

Yeah, I don't know. NOTHING has worked this season. The level of SUCK we talk about is as below. And Mel's far from the only one with that sort of stat line after years and years of more or less steady production.

There is no explanation. My ballpark stats slightly favor offense and have been for years. All teams in my division have neutral parks or parks that favor offense (except for homers). There is no reason Mel should bat one-****ing-ninety.

The Raccoons are currently in the red zone, 2 1/2 games out of a safe spot. At this point I don't know whether to laugh or cry or both.

Rebs are still 4 1/2 ahead in their division. The Accountants are 20 back and have nothing to play out but the string.