Season 21 Discussion thread

[scott1964]

Trenton Minutemen pound out a 32-6 win over Scarborough, good for over 7500 PT .

[Marleigh]

Originally Posted by BigRed75

Good luck with that Paul Derringer. He's been an absolute flaming bag of dog poo for me.

He's already been moved to the reserves a 7+ era over 4 games

[waittilnextyear]

Originally Posted by bailey

The Ann Arbor Space Cadets have been using a 4 man starting rotation for many weeks effectively. He uses 8 bullpen pitchers to make it work. And you cannot argue with 28-1 to start this season. It is a good bet that one of the wild card teams will be a 120+ game winner. He has 1 starter I don't have: Curt Schilling and 1 starter in common: Ed Walsh. His other 2 starters I also have, but in my bullpen. On paper, I have a stronger pitching staff, but I am now 5 games behind. Perhaps, it will be like last week where my team muddled about and surged after the All-Star break when I had a streak of 36-1.

Yeah, I think his team is the only one I've seen use that strategy successfully all regular season long. I don't think my team has the bullpen depth/stamina to pull it off. Plus, it helps to have 4 scary monsters (Schillings, Madduxes, Cy Youngs, Walter Johnsons etc) rather than just 4 pretty good starters to help pull this off.

[old timer]

Originally Posted by waittilnextyear

Yeah, I think his team is the only one I've seen use that strategy successfully all regular season long. I don't think my team has the bullpen depth/stamina to pull it off. Plus, it helps to have 4 scary monsters (Schillings, Madduxes, Cy Youngs, Walter Johnsons etc) rather than just 4 pretty good starters to help pull this off.

In our league, the Cleveland Crushers are having much success with 4 SPs and only 5 RPs. How?! Look at his pitching staff below. He's got only the 97 Johnson and 99 Maddux, by the way. He also has only 2 SPs in the bullpen. And how are they doing? They're #1 in the league in RA (we're #1 in our conference, but 2nd in the league). His team has done this successfully before and I don't get it. Heck, my team was successful with 4 SPs and a tired out bullpen for a 2 month period when I realized my mistake and added back a 5th SP. But my staff didn't do any better with that 5th SP! So I'm not sure what to think at this point.

[waittilnextyear]

Well most teams would kill to have perfect Smoltz, Pedro, and Clemens in the rotation (and only 99 Maddux and 97 Walter, and I'm guessing perfect Eck, Kimbrel, collection mission Garber, PEAK Spahn) so I'm not sure that team is really representative of most teams. That said, with your example and the other one mentioned, it's clear that a 4-man rotation can work if you have the right personnel.

[One Great Matrix]

The Flyers finished last season 105-57, 1st in their division. In the playoffs, we swept the DS, 3-0 & were then beat 1-4 in the LCS. The highlight of the LCS was a Gooden no-hitter our lone win. (There have been 2 postseason no-hitters in MLB history, I think.)

So far this season, we haven't changed much, & the results are somewhat similar so far except for things being a little ineffective offensively...pitching has saved the day in a few 1-0, 2-1 games... 32-17 after 49 regular season game. 5.5 game lead in the division.

[joehart]

Originally Posted by Magus978

Coming off 103 wins and an anger-inducing LCS exit to an inferior team, the Brooklyn Dynasty are playing in P408, and again it's a fair league. No real uberwhales, a few whale-like clubs that are beatable, and the rest is very competitive. Got a 2-time PL champion in my division (Eden Gladiators), as well as Dishnet's Motor City Togers. This one's gonna be a nice league to keep an eye on this week.

Oh nice. You got moved into the league with the boys.
Watch out for the Woodinville team in the American League and the Renton team in the National league.
Also, another good OL manager has his Spurs team in the same league as well.

Good luck keeping up with the teams in your division.

[Magus978]

Originally Posted by joehart

Oh nice. You got moved into the league with the boys.
Watch out for the Woodinville team in the American League and the Renton team in the National league.
Also, another good OL manager has his Spurs team in the same league as well.

Good luck keeping up with the teams in your division.

We've had no success. The performance so far has shown me that the 103 win season was a total fluke. Ton of work to do to become properly perfect-ready.

[One Great Matrix]

Originally Posted by Nero

Wholeheartedly dove in to the "next phase", okay...even I'm calling B.S. on that one....I'd decided before to send Joe Morgan off, and find a different path, but I kept looking at Joe on the reserve roster, and looking for ways, and reasons to bring him back up. I listed him on the AH, went to run some errands and take care of some work, and I came back a couple of hours later, with every intention of pulling him down, and putting him in the lineup again. To my dismay, he'd already been bought, and to whom ever got him...enjoy. Loved his production, hated his glove, but you'll have a hell of a player, use him well!

I laugh a bit because I have created that rivalry with Exeter, after he knocked me out of the playoff's last year, and this year we find ourselves as division mates. Hell, he doesn't know who I am, and his roster is a hell of a lot deeper and better. That said, I opened up the first week with some struggles, and my defense has been even worse than anticipated. We started putting it together, and ending the evening we had a 3 game series against Exeter, and I took 2 of 3, with Roy Halladay outpitching Waite Hoyt. (Justifying my hope yesterday that I like Halladay in the 5th spot, and that he's a great investment so I can invest in other spots. Ask me again in a few weeks, lol, that's subject to change) When things closed up for the night, I had a 2.5 game lead in the division, but I'm not sure that will last. We got there with hot hitting, and we needed it, because errors and D-inefficiency is rough. Still hoping to find either the perfect Mays or the '54 version that had the high D rating. I missed a couple last week, and figured I would eventually find one, but that led me to platooning Vada Pinson and Roberto Clemente for last year, and those two guys are still out there for me this season in RF. No complaints, but it always seems to be the case that once I decide on who I want, (and there are a ton of choices while I'm looking) that guy disappears from the AH. Who knows? Still debating in a few other places trading off some offense for improved D.

Iron level team is playing well, and I'm slowly trying to assemble old Cubs, and some of my favorites from when I was growing up. Randy Hundley has had a hot start, and looks like an all-star behind the plate, Kerry Wood has turned into Kerry Wood, he's had flashes of brilliance (two games with 15+ K's) and a couple of games with 8 BB. It does remind me of his early years. I suspect this team will settle in the Gold League eventually, I don't think I want any Diamond Players. and I'd like to keep things in the Late 60's to early 90's.

Completed the Negro League mission last night, and immediately called up Buck O'Neill because I love his glove at 1B. The fun part was the two diamond packs that came with, and pulled a 95 Tris Speaker, which I'd love to use, but another subpar defender is too much, so will probably move him. The second pack gave me a Roy Halladay, which would have been great a week ago, when I had bought Halladay...hopefully can earn that back.

The wife passed her good news (yeah...she is a baseball fan, and our first date so many years ago was to a Cubs game). She has toyed on and off with OOTP, largely because she liked doing some 80's replay seasons, she saw me playing PT, and decided to give it a shot. I do believe she is sliver or gold right now? She's off and running, and and is in first place in her division....we will see how the week plays out!

Which Joe Morgan?

[One Great Matrix]

Originally Posted by Magus978

We've had no success. The performance so far has shown me that the 103 win season was a total fluke. Ton of work to do to become properly perfect-ready.

I wouldn't rush it, either...because then by the time you make the playoffs you'll be well-rounded. For me, something snuck in anyway & wanted to win the regular season games except in the seasons I was more experimental. But I wasn't told to get my team "Perfects Playoffs" ready, neither. Then again, whatever floats your boats.

[waittilnextyear]

It was a tale of 2 teams for the Frogs today. Things looked promising opening the day with an 11-game winning streak to hit a high water mark of 31-8. But, then things thudded to a disappointing 2-13 conclusion, complete with several losses to eminently beatable teams, and a resulting 4 game deficit in the division.

In other news, the Frogs can no longer claim to be F2P. It was a nice run of 7 playoff berths, 2 championship series appearances, and 1 perfect level title, but now the team is somewhere between NFTP and dolphin status based on cash infused.

As any good degenerate gambler worth his salt would do, gotta keep playing the odds. So a modest cash infusion was.....uh....infused into the team in the quest to obtain a perfect card in a pack. Just one perfect card. And, did the dam ever break. After not getting a single perfect card in 414 free packs/challenge mode packs etc, this whack of 350 packs netted 5 perfect cards. I can now say I know what it looks like to get one. The biggest highlight of the bunch was perfect Christy Mathewson who is now fronting the rotation. Others included All-Star Cody Bellinger (doesn't fit my team so looks to be good for about 80K PP), Mike Trout, Max Scherzer, and Fernando Tatis Jr. I already have the All-Star Scherzer, so I will probably sell the regular one given the cloudy outlook on his injury progress and of LIVE cards in general. I also packed 10 historical diamonds or so with 96 Cal Ripken Jr and PEAK Satchel Paige looking most useful to my team.

Phase two of the cash infusion is the arduous process of listing all the duplicates and junk cards on the AH and there could be ~250K PP or so to be recouped in this manner for further AH purchases. Now that I've accomplished my mission to get a perfect card, I'll probably go back to strict AH with only challenge mode packs from here on.

[Westheim]

Critters maintain a winning record, but hang on with a single claw… but hey not losing 90 for once would already be a success!

Accountants pick up Freddie Freeman to play first with some semblance of D and move PEEEEEETE to DH since his defensive ratings continue to get no love and the promised "other ratings" update has yet to arrive. No way, Pete should be a 48 at first base…

Still not able to find a shortstop or centerfielder to my liking...

[Marleigh]

Paragon City Heroes finding gold tough 27-27 thanks to pitching but 13 games behind, decided to sell up everything apart from my locked cards and probably open some packs, let lady luck decide how bad my team will be, expect that will result in a relegation

Bad News Bulldogs continue to be the best offence in the league with horrible pitching (apart from Jose Rijo) currently 27-26 6 1/2 games behind, our Pythag record is 31-22 suggesting a bit of bad luck


Neuman Furshlugginers have been a bit up and down but are 29-23 2 games behind, they have a solid pen, ok starting pitching, subpar defence and a below average offence so no idea how they are doing so well

[old timer]

The Raccoons are 41-15 .732, which is 3rd best overall. The Raccoons have 4 championship wins including 2 perfects, but have never had the best record. At the moment, I'd rather finish with the best record than win the WS. So that's my hope for this season. I'd also like to join the whale league (assuming they'll add a mini-whale - anyone know?) for a season or two, but I'm not sure if I'll do this next season or wait one more. I'd like to get one more offensive upgrade since that's our weakest aspect (though we are #1 in R so far, but we also have our park factors maxed out) and that might take an extra season so maybe I'll see about joining then. But I'm strongly tempted to not wait, because I'm curious to see how we'll do when we have to face more top teams.

So far, Schilling (my most expensive purchase, with only Keefe being close) has been the victim of bad luck. His BABIP has gone down to .336 and his FIP is 2.87 which makes him 2nd best amongst the SPs. Hubbell wasn't doing well, so I moved him to the bullpen and moved Johnson back to the starting rotation and that's worked out well so far. It's nice to be able to move a slumping SP to the bullpen, since that stuff boost seems to really help them. Then again, Spahn has done great in the bullpen for 8 seasons now and yet got only a +2 stuff boost, so I'm not sure why he's done so much better since being moved to the bullpen.

[bailey]

I think the whale league takes anyone who wants to be there.

My 1 roster move for the week replacing the 25th man. Ivan Rodriguez to the reserves replaced by Lou Boudreau in an effort to see if he can replace Ozzie Smith. It's worked out so far: Boudreau leads the league with .359 after 54 games.

I'm one game up on my duel with the Ann Arbor who lost more than 1 game in May. Meanwhile, I note 2 other teams in the conference have the grit to stay above .500. I foresee 2nd wildcard 40+ games behind the 1st.

[CrazyWR]

Added 99 Chapman (all star version I think) and SE Schooler (Mariners mission) to my bullpen. Was sick of watching my diamond Rivera blow games. He's been moved to setup and may get sent fully to the reserves shortly if he doesnt improve. Chapman compares decently with perfect Gagne but was only 40k compared to Gagne's like 140 or 150. We'll see how it goes.

Currently holding a narrow 2.5 game lead last I checked last night after a great April but only around .500 in May.

[JasonC23]

Rare mid-day Huntley Red Raiders/P421 update: Huntley, currently on a 6-game winning streak, is on top of the NC East with a 42-17 record. We are about to begin a 3-game series at league-best Pawnee Harvesters, who are 50-8, including a perfect 30-0 home record so far. Yes. 30-0.

I will report back later whether Huntley managed to break that streak, or if it was carnage. I'm predicting carnage.

[dkgo]

Originally Posted by CrazyWR

Added 99 Chapman (all star version I think) and SE Schooler (Mariners mission) to my bullpen. Was sick of watching my diamond Rivera blow games. He's been moved to setup and may get sent fully to the reserves shortly if he doesnt improve. Chapman compares decently with perfect Gagne but was only 40k compared to Gagne's like 140 or 150. We'll see how it goes.

Currently holding a narrow 2.5 game lead last I checked last night after a great April but only around .500 in May.

Have I been seeing a different perfect Gagne? He's sold for right at 80K for several weeks and is great value compared to the other 200-250K perfects.

[JasonC23]

Originally Posted by JasonC23

Rare mid-day Huntley Red Raiders/P421 update: Huntley, currently on a 6-game winning streak, is on top of the NC East with a 42-17 record. We are about to begin a 3-game series at league-best Pawnee Harvesters, who are 50-8, including a perfect 30-0 home record so far. Yes. 30-0.

I will report back later whether Huntley managed to break that streak, or if it was carnage. I'm predicting carnage.

Or...

DOWN GOES FRAZIER! DOWN GOES FRAZIER!

[JasonC23]

Seriously!