Season 9 (2027) General Discussion

[Orcin]

The Louisville Colonels appear to be headed for the second wild card spot in P403-AC, although home field in the wild card game is not out of reach. The team is 54-27 since June 1, led by new ace pitcher Curt Schilling (12-1, 1.84 ERA in 19 GS). I will set up my rotation for Schilling to pitch the wild card game and take my chances from there.

The remainder of my rotation is currently 99 Maddux (14-9, 3.48), 96 Clemens (15-9, 3.31) and a revolving door of Gary Peters, Adam Wainwright, Rick Reuschel, and Harry Brecheen in the last two spots. I intend to get serious about filling the last two spots this weekend. I have several options in mind, including some pitchers that I have previously owned and sold. I don't regret having shuffled through various starters because I always bought low and made a profit on every transaction. But I think it is time to settle on five starters that I can "set and forget" and move to improving the offense in order to contend in some of these tougher leagues.

My pitching staff is designed to capitalize on my strong infield defense but I would like to increase my strikeouts with these last two choices. One of my goals is to be better than the other team in every category. For example, my hitters have 122 HR (10th) but my pitchers have only allowed 74 HR (3rd) with a neutral home ballpark, so this is quite good even though my HR total is low. My hitters have 907 Ks (4th) but my pitchers only have 935 Ks (11th) and that's too close for my taste. I think that fewer Ks allow too many lucky grounders to become hits, especially in some of the jacked-up ballparks that I see in Perfect Leagues. I would like to see the pitchers and defense ranked in the top half of the conference, and they are in every category except Ks.

My hitters lag behind the midpoint in extra-base hits (11th) and HRs (10th). Down years by 98 Frank Robinson (.139 ISO) and Rendon (.091 ISO) have contributed to that, and I have hope that they will bounce back next season. If not, I may need to upgrade a corner position in order to reach my goal of being an annoying pest for the big whales. Overall, my runs scored ranks 8th but I have a tough time scoring at all against the best teams. I need a few more 3-run HRs to give me a chance to win some of those close game opportunities provided by good run prevention.

[Warhawk]

White Tigers are basically out of it, 67-69 10 games back in the wild card and both teams ahead of them in the division have already won 100 games. Black Panthers were hot to start the season and began the year at 47-36, they've gone 16-36 since and have fallen to third in their division, though only 3 1/2 games back. The Golden Lions are a bit better at 75-60, 3 1/2 back in their division but in the first wild card spot by 1 1/2 (and 4 1/2 ahead of the third place team in the wild card race).

[Westheim]

Pulled a Yasmani Grandal (91)! Maybe NOW all will be well.

[waittilnextyear]

Originally Posted by old timer

Speaking of tough matchups... The Fighting Frogs proved to be quite the challenge for the Raccoons. The Fighting Frogs won 3 of the 7 we played, but lost 2 of them by only 1 run. So far, they're the only team outside our division to beat us 3 times.

I think you have a pretty good team. Maybe you've just had some bad luck lately? I'm not sure if I want to root for your guys though since they gave us such a hard time.

Appreciate the comments! I am definitely trying to squeeze all the juice I can out of my team. As for being unlucky--in our matches I feel fortunate to have taken 3/7 even with those 2 close losses. The fact that both series came in the midst of a 17-games-in-17-days stretch makes me feel even luckier. I feel it could just as easily have been losing 6/7 on my end.

Where my team stands right now in perfect: the offense is solid and consistent but not spectacular. Defense is a calling card. Starting pitching is very underwhelming. So I am basically hoping: (1) for good years out of my bullpen (fewer blown saves by gold Bruce Sutter would be nice) and (2) to be placed in a conference that has a max of 4 great teams (like this season, with yours, Winterfell, Marshall, and Cleveland).

Still, it's encouraging to be marginally competitive in my F2P team's first season at Perfect level. Let's hope I don't become the guy serially starting a bunch of threads to complain about this or that in the coming weeks! lol

[Westheim]

With the Toronto Falcons going into their own death spiral in September, the Coons might actually make the diamond playoffs after all. Currently with a 2-game lead in the division, and a 6-game lead over the first non-wild card team with 13 to play.

The Rebels are 15 games out in their bronze division, but managed to get into an extended scrum for the second wild card. Any 1k PP would help, really...

[pappyzan]

Coming down to the final 2 games for the division. Auburn finishes up with Liberty and Washington with Dinger City.

[Westheim]

The Rebels made the bronze playoffs on the strength of a 7-game winning streak to end the season, snatching the second wild card over all the teams that played ho-hum to end their year. It's their first Sunday that's not spent watching the other teams play for trinkets in *seven* seasons… including two relegations…

And JUST in time for the playoffs, and with their playoff bonus, the Rebels pop from a pack... 1988 Andy Van Slyke! That's good! That's an 85 card. I was rotating bronzes through centerfield for … ever.

Raccoons? Held on to win their diamond division when the opposition couldn't be arsed to play better than 5-5 down the stretch either. We're now the #3 seed and will play the Newark Peppers rather than the Madison Tycoons, which would have been phonetically more appealing (Raccoons-Tycoons) AND would have given us another poke at the weirdest team. The Tycoons have ho-hum offense, but are first in ERA, first in D, and last in pitchers' strikeouts with an all-historical rotation of Cisco Carlos, Dick Ellsworth, Jerry Reuss, Willis Hudlin, and Dave Stieb. Their average stuff is 58.4, so that works too in diamond ball...

We went 3-3 against them in the regular season. Three times we scored seven or more. Three times we scored one or none.

Big Walt ended the season 17-10 with a 2.80 ERA and 251 K - easily his worst year ever. But given that he was 6-7 with a 4.08 ERA on July 3, I'd claim he's back to normal *now*.

Well, we'll see how that one ends. He gets the ball in Game 1.

[moalkha]

All 3 teams made the Perfect League playoffs again; Doha and Great Lake as division winners (both #2 seed) and Perugia as a wild card, after winning a thrilling tie breaking 163rd game.

With the high volatility of playoffs nothing is certain and anything can happen in these short series.

Good luck everyone and let the road to the WS begin

[waittilnextyear]

The Frogs faded down the stretch to finish 78-84 in P411. Ultimately 7 games out of the playoffs (42 games out of the division lead) and even slipped into 3rd place in the division by 1 game after being in 2nd for most of the season. If it's any consolation, at least I handicapped the division accurately before the season predicting the order of the teams.

Gonna have to do something about atrocious starting pitching. Ended the season ranked 14th in the conference with a 5.27 starter's ERA. Gerrit Cole (5.73 ERA) is like a batting practice machine at this level. Brandon Webb (5.03 ERA) is inconsistent and that control rating is not helping. The rotating cast of #5 starters, mostly Walker Buehler and Charlie Morton with a dash of Marcus Stroman, got lit up even worse with all having ERA's well north of 6. Harry Brecheen (4.28 ERA) and Steve Busby (4.19 ERA) held up best, but even they are guys you'd be more comfortable with as back end rotation depth.

Overall, not a horrible debut for a F2P team's first season in Perfect. Far from relegation territory, but lots of improvement needed to become a playoff team at this level.

[old timer]

I think it's safe to say that the Raccoons have been pretty consistent over the last 3 seasons. We had an off year in the pitching department, but were still #3 in RA.

We recently had a 4 game series vs the team with the best record, the Direwolves, and split with them. All 4 games were decided by a run. But before we can play them, we'll have to beat the Marshall Cardinals who are going to be tough to beat. Fortunately, we have the home field advantage where we've consistently won quite a bit more games over the past 3 seasons.

[RunninYakAngler]

My YakAnglers finished 1st in their division with a 91-71 record, and Altuve had his best season by far for me with a .332 average winning the batting crown. This was the most balanced league I've been in, with the best record winning 92 games and 20 teams winning 80 or more games. I'm not sure how I want the playoffs to go, winning the series would be great but I don't think this team is ready for Gold yet.

The Marathoners also won their division with 99 wins, winning game 163 against th Harvard Comets in the 12th inning on a surprising Dixie Walker homerun. The Comets and Marathoners fought each other all season, with neither team being able to pull more than a game or two away. My 69 Tony Gwynn won the batting title with a .341 average.

On the other end of the spectrum we have the Miners, a STL Cardinals only theme team that seems to be stuck with nowhere to go. They won 74 games albeit in a division with the Virginia Hunters who won 125 games. They have 5 perfects and 16 diamonds which 10 are 95 or better. They haven't had any luck in the playoffs in the previous two seasons.

The problem with the Miners is the Cardinals on the AH are either mediocre or a high priced diamond. And if a player does show up he's usually overpriced by several thousand. I'm not sure where I want to go with this team. Its been fun but is starting to get a little stagnant.

[PocketsAintFull]

Good Luck Everyone in the Playoffs

I have a third shot in a row at promotion from Silver, and a Wildcard shot in a weird 22-team Gold league

(also I 'successfully' had a relegation for Uecker's Underdogs, who are rebranding and investing the pp from their mid-season sell-off )

[Goliathus]

Funnily enough, the two F2P packs team of mine got into the Iron playoff despite me not touching them throughout the week. It's their first season out of the entry pool so I figured I will just field what I think is best and have them be there the whole season so I can review the number, make changes and be more serious next week. One even had a 101-61 record in what I assume is a league with all 30 F2Ps(or maybe some who have given up on the mode so, an idle team? Not like I can know).

[pappyzan]

Won the division by 1 game, but now facing off against Kushiel's Shanel Xtreme team in the DS. Pretty much the same team playing each other really.

[Orcin]

I lost the wild card game, so I will spend the day with one eye on the Indy 500 and the other eye on the auction house.

[daves]

Originally Posted by pappyzan

Coming down to the final 2 games for the division. Auburn finishes up with Liberty and Washington with Dinger City.

Doubledays ended season badly. And flopped in the WC game.


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[PocketsAintFull]

My Gold .327 team went down in flames in the DS (an odd one as WC, due to 22-team league) - though with 87 wins, recorded their first winning season since Silver, and are hopefully turning around *crosses fingers*.

Congratulations to the Jokeland Pathetics, 117 wins in the Regular Season and not much trouble with my guys

[Westheim]

Rebels beat the Nashville Sounds in the wild card game, 8-4. Xander Bogaerts had three hits, and eight guys in the lineup had at least one. Now up 2-1 on the Springfield Isotopes in the LDS, and thus one game away from returning to Silver. Jimmy Key (13-12, 4.86 ERA), who won the wild card game, will face Mark Mulder (15-7, 3.38 ERA) in Game 4.

The Raccoons are knotted at two against the Newark Peppers. They gotta tear up James Paxton (9-10, 4.52 ERA) in Game 5. On the mound for Portland? Big Walt! (17-10, 2.80 ERA). Given the raw amounts Paxton sucked for me in PT 19, I am rather confident.

[PocketsAintFull]

Division Series win! Islanders win!

Kevin McReynolds with a 2-out, top of 9th, Pinch-Hit 2-run Triple brings series glory home!

(I won a DS! Finally! )

(oh and this was incredible to watch having 'Hide Scores' on )

[Westheim]

I am in good mood for Game 5, but what would be the over/under on losses for this team in Perfect?