Season 14 (2032) Discussion: 3/4/19 - 3/10/19

[Kushiel]

If you set your park factors extremely like you have, I believe it is better to fully commit to the LH strategy. Every LH hitter that you can get and remember LH pitchers to turn your opponent around too. You want him batting RH.

[Westheim]

With under 20 games left, the first-place Coons just whacked the second-place Whackers (yes, actually), 14-3, behind a 5-hit, 6-RBI outing by struggling Albert Pujols, who was THIS close to being removed from the roster. That extends our lead to three games over the Whackers, and 6 1/2 over the Beavers, the second wild card and the first team out, respectively. There is no middle ground in this league; there are only six winning teams.

That was also the 17th win for Craig Swan. Just my favorite card, totally.

I hope Swannie will also be in 20.

[Comte]

Last time I was in Perfect league we got completely destroyed. Tel Aviv Blue sox then were delegated to Diamonds where we had an awful slump year. Our second year in Diamond after several moves and a name change to the "Tel Aviv Stars" we managed to somehow win our diamond league world series. First championship I have won since the beginning. Been some close calls but finally got something in the trophy case. This season we are back up to Perfect and are getting creamed. It seems we were sort of middle of the pack for our division and then completely dropped off to the bottom. Looks like another 2 year rebuild after this. Finally pulled a perfect card. Got a Mike Trout perfect about halfway through this season. I have been only ripping card packs since the OOTP 20 announcement stopped hording points to buy from the auction house. Anway will be facing regulation again soon back down to the diamonds as it looks we have no shot at the playoffs in perfect this season.

[humboldt1498]

Sounds like most F2P teams. Good enough for diamond, but get slaughtered in the P2W perfect leagues.

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[Izz]

The Hoggs are in a dogfight for their division (and a wildcard). We're 6 games below Pythag. It's become so usual for us to be below Pythag at the end of a season (can't remember the last time we weren't) that I don't think it's bad luck but something I'm not doing right re roster management. Just haven't been able to figure out what that is yet.

[waittilnextyear]

The Coulee Cubs have hit the 100-win mark after 153 games played in Bronze 312. Not bad for their first season of existence, grinding away at investing the earned PP into an upgrade here or there. Those steady upgrades have paid off as Coulee went 23-5 in August and 17-7 in September.

If the 100-53 Cubs are fortunate enough to make it to the World Series, a pair of tough opponents could await--the Sin City Aces (10th season in bronze) are 121-32 and the ttTTT Gold Rush (8th season in bronze) are 93-60 and have added 3 diamond-level players to the active roster in recent weeks.

Carlos Beltran has had a very productive season for the Cubs as an everyday corner outfielder (.269/.370/.509 with 30 HR and 48 SB). Pete Rose has been doing some things as the other corner outfielder (.315/.372/.469 with 57 doubles). Brett Butler (100 hits in 68 games) and Jose Altuve (101 hits in 69 games) have been hit machines since being acquired in season. Patrick Corbin has been arguably the staff ace (17-4, 3.43 ERA). All that's left is to keep winning games in the postseason, baseball gods willing.

[Izz]

The Hoggs have booked their 7th straight trip to the postseason. They finished with an 85-77 record, 6 games below Pythag. As usual their pitching and defense was strong, the 4-man rotation not affecting that (3.43 ERA & 585 runs against) but, also as per usual, their hitting was inconsistent. They only scored 670 runs, worst in the entire league (as mentioned up-thread, this is a 20-team league).

We're off to play the wildcard Helos Haruspex, who finished with a 94-68 record, in the Division Series. The Haruspex are built around base-stealing and strong pitching and defense. They stole 586 (!!) bases this season and play in a park built for extra-base hits - but not for singles or homeruns. They're not great at getting on-base, though, so if we can restrict them in that area we might have a chance.

Sadly, I am not going to be around to micro-manage the team tomorrow, so will only know what happened with the season when I get to check in the evening.

[Maddox]

My Hungary Hungry Hippos shocked me by winning their division in Diamond with only 87 wins. Part of me knows that this team will probably struggle if it somehow advances. But on the other hand none of my three teams have gone that far yet so I am kind of wanting it to happen before we roll over to 20.

[mrbucket]

I'm gutted, at its peak my team had at least a 9 game lead in the division (and had a 5 game lead going into today) but a late season collapse saw them drop to one game outside the wildcard spot. With 5 games to go, we were still holding on to the lead and the pennant race screen gave us a 90% chance of making the playoffs. I got back home to find we'd lost the division AND completely fallen out of the playoffs. Damn this alternate reality where the 10% option won out.

[DrTobiasFunke]

The Tucson Sidewinders took the .286 Silver by storm and have captured the top spot in the NC. 96-66 is not bad at all, and even better we took the top spot in a three game series against the next closest team to finish off the season. How did we get there?



It was not by hitting, that's for sure. You can see the outlines of the strategy, trading HRs for gap power and running the basepaths, but it doesn't look so hot when the bats are cold. Lonnie Smith and Pete Rose combined to be my best bat (114-120 OPS+ respectively) while Hack Wilson hit two home runs in the final two games of the season to finish with 15 (!). Tony Fernandez was a late season addition to the roster to take the RHP burden of Jeff Cirillo at SS, but it looks like the Sidewinders are going to have to rely on defensive to finish out the season.

Thankfully, defense has not been a deficiency, with a great defensive season aiding a good pitching season.



Wes Ferrell will be in the running for the Cy Young with the ERA crown and 22 wins, while Pete Schourek was good but unlucky (26 quality starts for a 11-15 record). Kerry wood and Bob Ojeda earned their weight in PP and were solid, while I traded between Steib and Ellis for that final starter spot. In relief, it was mostly a story of Vic Raschi having a season for the ages. 5.2 WAR, .183 average against, a simply ridiculous FIP- of 36 over 95 innings. His insane season combined with decent performance of the rest of the starters turned relievers means we're now running a bare bones 5 man pen. I suppose we should be hitting better with that being the case.

Of course, all of this goes out the window now that it's playoff time, good luck to all the other qualifiers out there, unless you're in my league.

[Westheim]

Not only did the Raccoons eek out the division by one game in the end, nope, J.D. Martinez also eeked out 5,800 PP in terms of achievements with an absolutely scalding finish to the season. In the last ten games of the season, he had 3+ hits FIVE times, belted four bombs and drove in 14 to rally to the front in all the hitting crown categories after not being remotely close to the lead in at least batting average when I went to bed.

(whistlingly buys another pile of packs that will yield nothing but broccoli and HPV)

[rudel.dietrich]

At 82-81 we win our division in our first season in the Gold league. If this teams wins just one playoff series it will be off to Diamond where my team is completely not prepared to play in.

[waittilnextyear]

The California Cutthroats came calling to Coulee Park to face off against the Coulee Cubs in the "ACDS"--fans were almost thunderstuck by that news. The Cutthroats finished in 2nd place behind the Cubs in the AC West--a mere 18 games back. The Cubs shook that division all night long.

Behind a strong start by late-season acquisition Larry Dierker, the Cubs eeked out a 4-3 victory in game 1. Interestingly, I was debating on whether to add Adrian Gonzalez or Jimmy Rollins to the playoff roster for this series and it was A-Gone that hit a go-ahead solo homer in the bottom of the 7th inning. A power load.

Buster Posey and Max Muncy homered for the enemy team, while Bob Elliott and Andrelton Simmons homered off Orel Hershiser for the good guys. Pete Rose obtained double #60 of the season (59 in the regular season).

Game 2 was even more of a thriller as the Cubs triumphed over a 7-5 9th inning deficit by scoring 3 in the bottom of the 9th inning. Cubs starter Patrick Corbin was clearly not at his best and couldn't escape the 4th inning, but his teammates were able to hook the Cutthroats' Kenley Jansen late (a thing they've done a time or two against poor Kenley this season). It was big boppers Jim Thome (2-RBI double) and Cecil Fielder (walkoff RBI single) that powered the win in the 9th inning. TNT at Coulee Park.

All of the other division series are tied 1-1 and the Cubs will turn to El Presidente as they go on the road for game 3 and the series sweep (hopefully).

[mcdog512]

Both of my teams missed the playoffs as well as the team my buddy runs for me.

My high dollar team is in Orcin's Mini Whale perfect and the other two are gold level. They both narrowly missed relegation to Silver.

[waittilnextyear]

After racing out to a 2-0 lead in the "ACDS," the Cubs find themselves heading back home in a winner-take-all game 5.

Luck is a fickle mistress. After winning a pair of one-run games, the Cubs dropped a pair of them on the road. Dennis Martinez was outdueled by Carlos Martinez in game 3 and David Cone got rocked in game 4. The Cub offense scored 4 times in the final 3 innings of game 4 to make things interesting, but it wasn't enough in the 9-8 loss.

The stage is now set for Larry Dierker to face off against Dallas Keuchel in game 5.

Will the Cubs win and keeping pushing toward a promotion to silver? Will they lose and fight another year in bronze to rake in PP? Stay tuned!

[Westheim]

Swannie got bombed for 12 runs (…) in 1.2 innings by Cave Hill in Game 4 to send the Raccoons home after the LDS.

I am now very sad.

…

[waittilnextyear]

Things weren't looking stellar for the Cubbies at first as ace Larry Dierker was touched up for 2 runs in the first inning. But, series MVP (imo) Adrian Gonzalez hit a game-changing 3-run homer against Zack Wheeler in the 8th inning to give Coulee the 5-3 series-clinching win.

Up next for the Cubs are the Marxalenes Nayeli--a club that won 88 games in the regular season and took their LDS in 5 games. Coulee beat Marxalenes 4 times in 6 tries during the regular season.

[Maddox]

The Hippos - 8 Playoff appearances in 8 seasons since they were created. Not a championship to their name.

[waittilnextyear]

The Cubbies haven't made things quite as automatic as their manager waittilnextyear would like, but are now heading to the Bronze .312 World Series. Coulee dispatched California 3 games to 2 in the LDS and then topped Marxalenes 4 games to 2 in the LCS.

Now, fans of Bronze .312 (which I count to be 1-2 persons) get what they've been waiting for. The 105-win Cubs (first season of existence) were the clear best team in the American Conference--and they'll need to deal with the beast from the other east (the west) in the 126-win Sin City Aces. The Aces (10th season in bronze) have rode roughshod over a weak playoff field in the National Conference. Now it all comes down to this.

In a bid to throw everything at this series, Coulee is activating two recent acquisitions--relievers Will Harris and Craig Stammen--for this series.

[dkgo]

anyone else like me who doesn't make any roster moves towards the end of the year? I already have upgraded players waiting on the reserve roster to start next season but want to give my guys the chance to finish it off