Season 10 (2028) Discussion: 2/4/19-2/10/19

[DonkeyKongSr]

My Van Mungo took on the Fargo Sun Dogs' (#1 Win team in PT, #3 Win %) Perfect Pedro (Career 214-41 with 2.39 ERA) and won!

[Westheim]

Raccoons are in a fatal plunge, now the worst team in the league, after going into a 6-27 tailspin since the middle of July.

[Maddox]

Woot, Sad Sam Jones threw, what I believe, is the first no hitter of any of my pitchers through 10 seasons.

He then followed that up with a complete game shutout!

The Hungary Hungry Hippos are currently enjoying an 8 1/2 game lead in their division and look to be poised to make a run for their 4th straight division title. Too bad they fold in the playoffs.

[mrbucket]

It's amazing the difference a league shuffle makes. The Laser Kiwis are just one win away from matching last season's 78 wins. Could be our first 100 win season.

[naterg1]

The Peoria Flames (S328) are 72-51 with a 5.5 game lead in the NC Central. They have one of the better records in the league and are playing their best ball in August, going 13-3 so far. Larry Dierker and Dennis Martinez are leading the pitching staff despite having a couple of higher overall rated guys in the rotation. The team is 5th in the NC in both runs scored and runs against.

The Krathan Garrickes (B255) are 76-46 with a 5 game lead in the AC West. They have the 2nd best record in the league and the best record in the AC. They had a great April (19-9), a rough May (12-14) and a fantastic June (21-6). They were a little up and down through parts of July and early August but have played very well lately, winning 6 of their last 7.

The Casper Troopers (B227) are 77-45 with a 13.5 game lead in the ACWest. They have the 3rd best record in the league and 2nd best in the AC. They recently had one of the wildest wins I’ve seen. After falling behind 10-0 through 5, they scored 1 in the 6th, 1 in the 7th, a Roger Maris grand slam in the 8th and after giving up one more in the 9th, scored 5 in the bottom the inning to send the game to extra innings. They gave up a run in the 13th but Ichiro won the game on a walk-off single. Apparently, coming from behind to win after trailing by 10 runs is worth 4,000 points. Time to go shopping!

[Maddox]

That moment when you compare your team's Zone Rating against the rest of the league and realize just how far you pushed the defensive envelope. I have two fielders with higher zone ratings than any other team in the league.

[old timer]

Originally Posted by Maddox

That moment when you compare your team's Zone Rating against the rest of the league and realize just how far you pushed the defensive envelope. I have two fielders with higher zone ratings than any other team in the league.

Oh wow, that's really cool! I've never seen such a discrepancy in ZR before. And to have 2 different players with higher ZRs than all other teams total ZR... I'd say your defensive experiment has been a resounding success. Now if you can just get lucky in the playoffs. I've never won a playoff series yet, so I know what it's like to keep failing in the playoffs. But I assume you won in the bronze level playoffs to make it to silver?

[Maddox]

Originally Posted by old timer

Oh wow, that's really cool! I've never seen such a discrepancy in ZR before. And to have 2 different players with higher ZRs than all other teams total ZR... I'd say your defensive experiment has been a resounding success. Now if you can just get lucky in the playoffs. I've never won a playoff series yet, so I know what it's like to keep failing in the playoffs. But I assume you won in the bronze level playoffs to make it to silver?

I made it to the conference Championship round in bronze which was good enough to boost me to silver

[DonkeyKongSr]

Oh do I love Van Mungo. No hitter in Perfect Leagues. EDIT: Faced only 28 batters due to 2 Double Plays. Awesome.

[mcdog512]

Originally Posted by DonkeyKongSr

Oh do I love Van Mungo. No hitter in Perfect Leagues.

He signed a contract with me earlier this season.

Love it....

[DonkeyKongSr]

Originally Posted by mcdog512

He signed a contract with me earlier this season.

Love it....

This is his "worst" season yet for me. And he's pretty much Top 5 in the conference for most of the important stats...

[DonkeyKongSr]

Oh, and I just grabbed a Perfect Bench for 45K to swap out for my Perfect Campanella (worth 40K+). They are virtually interchangeable offensively, but Bench is a much better defender, so I hope to shave off a few more runs for my whole staff.

[scott1964]

Bears reeled off another 8 game winning streak Still the best record in Bronze272

[old timer]

Originally Posted by scott1964

Bears reeled off another 8 game winning streak Still the best record in Bronze272

Congratulations! I see the Denver Bears are so good, they have both the best and 2nd best record in the league. Impressive!

[Izz]

Originally Posted by Maddox

That moment when you compare your team's Zone Rating against the rest of the league and realize just how far you pushed the defensive envelope. I have two fielders with higher zone ratings than any other team in the league.

Awesome!

I've got the Chili Chili Peppers in my division, another team built around defense. They're 6 games below Pythag right now, otherwise they'd be right on my heels (though I'm 4 games below Pythag if we're using that as a measuring stick). Their problem is they struggle to hit (BA .252, SLG .367). They've allowed 37 less runs than any other team in the conference.

Contrast them with the Northern Bears, who are the 3rd-worst fielding unit in the entire league. They're 5 games above Pythag and looking good for a wildcard when they should be struggling to play .500 ball (their offense is pretty middle of the road, so it's not like they're overpowering defenses by sheer weight of hitting).

[scott1964]

Originally Posted by old timer

Congratulations! I see the Denver Bears are so good, they have both the best and 2nd best record in the league. Impressive!

Now if I can get Trenton to actually get out of its hole

[Izz]

Oh, we also had this epic 21-inning loss earlier this month:

[DonkeyKongSr]

Van Mungo still on a tear, going 24 straight innings without an Earned Run. Here's a quick look at the variance of a Van Mungo. Mostly 0 to 2 run games, then blows up randomly for 5+. I couldn't help but laugh at giving up zero Earned Runs and losing a game.

[Maddox]

My pitching staff (2 golds & 3 silvers) has racked up these stats this season

27 complete games
18 Shutouts
1 No Hitter
2.91 Team ERA
216 opponents average

[Izz]

The Hoggs had an 18-10 August. 77-57 overall (now 5 games below Pythag!), with the Chili Chili Peppers 6 games behind us. They had a 19-9 month and the way they're playing are a pretty good chance of chasing us down. We play them 3 times next month, and also end the regular season with a 4-game series against the best offense in our conference, the Madtown Maniacs. Madtown are hitting at a .285 clip (we're next-best on .271), and have scored 74 more runs than anybody else in the National.

Seybold tops the homerun chart with 35, while Corbin shares the win lead, with 16. Ron Santo's 6.4 WAR leads the league. He's having an MVP-caliber season (.307/.379/.601, 42 doubles, 1 triple, 31 homers).

All our starting pitchers now have ERAs below 4, though Whitey Ford's been beat up his last 3 starts (his FIP is still above 4 at 4.16).