Season 37 (2055) - Once More Into the Breach

[HelpDodgers]

Belfast reporting in.

Insane tough division in PL .435

Belfast will get into playoffs. Top 3 in division will get in playoffs. Other side has Lions.

Very tough division. Bronx gets to .500 and everyone in division over .500. They are at .483 now.

I got upset midseason and took out Rickey Henderson from lineup and put Mondesi. They both can't get on base much but when they do they steal so a single by them is a double/triple.

I have two long relievers after July. I start all lefties, limit to 50, then Niekro and Clarkson go in. Not cheating. Trying to get other manager to start their weaker lineup. Next season I may start 5 righties, limit to 50, then have 2 lefties for long relief. Then it goes back to righties. Mass confusion.

So, Wish luck.

[Westheim]

The 92-70 Raccoons took home their usual wild card, for the third week in a row, and are my only playoff team once more. This time they barely made it, two games ahead of the nearest competitor, and 30 games back of the Forest Raccoons, by whom they were stomped, 5-14.

The Rebels came rock-bottom in Diamond League, 62-100, and will be relegated to Gold. Nothing works with that roster. I think about selling everybody do a construction company, maybe they'll do better as road bed filling.

...and a complete second-half crash dropped the Accountants to 63-99, just two games above the relegation zone. There's another team that has absolutely nothing going for it...

[waittilnextyear]

The Frogs' week of lefty cheese is coming to a close. Early returns are positive, but we'll see how the team fares in the playoffs.

The 2055 regular season was a success, as the Frogs tied a franchise high water mark of 127 wins (2052). The team's 2.56 ERA also ties a franchise-best mark (2050). The team's 946 runs scored topped the old record by a single run (2052). The team's 438 runs allowed missed tying the franchise mark by 6 runs (2050). Winning the division by 51 games is probably a team record as well. The Frogs will enter the 2055 postseason with the #1 overall seed in P426 despite 4 other 100+ win teams. Having home field throughout will be critical for continuing the lefty cheese strategy in the playoffs.

The Frogs will face the winner of the West U Roughnecks (98-64) and the Motown Greatest Hits (80-82). No offense to those old Motown records, but it would be preferable if they were to take care of the Roughnecks for me. The Roughnecks (est. 2049) are a fairly new team that has raced up the promotion ladder, spending two weeks at diamond but only one week at each other level. I imagine that a whale got bored with his team and started a new one. And the Roughnecks were born. And a solid team, indeed. The Roughnecks are rostering: 100 Randy Johnson (the good one), 100 Lefty Grove, 100 Sandy Koufax, 100 Carl Hubbell, 100 Nolan Ryan (obviously going for PP earnings for Ks). 100 Honus Wagner, 100 Hornsby, 100 Ruth, 100 Trout, 100 Bench, and 99 Ted Williams anchor the offense (PP earnings for HR). The bullpen is weak (by whale standards) and has a good deal of LIVE cards in it. The team doesn't platoon, either, so hopefully that can be exploited. Even better, let's hope the Roughnecks are unable to put those old Motown records back on the shelves.

Statistically, this has been one of the more interesting (and lucrative) weeks in the annals of Frog baseball. I made much ado about Tom Seaver winning a cool 23 games in a row out of the bullpen, then getting beat and earning 7K PP. Then, SE John Smoltz put up an 18-game winning streak that netted a crisp 1000 PP. And, what do we have here? Christy Mathewson ended the season with a 28-0 mark, so that should be another nice raft of 7K PP (or more?) when the check clears. Moral of the story? Cheesing the L/R pitching staff (and having good cards to boot) will earn a significant amount of PP simply for long winning streaks by "relief" pitchers. Seaver finished 28-1, Smoltz 19-2 (1.57 ERA), Scherzer 19-3 (1.75 ERA). Ruffing and Walsh combined for 44 saves and an ERA of about 1.75 in 253 IP of stopper work. With Seaver and Mathewson tying for the conference lead in wins, they both got 400 PP, which I found to be a fitting final touch to the week of Cheese-topia '55.

Offensively, it was like a team from another planet with no Frog DNA at all. The Frogs (est. as a plucky F2P with smallball tactics before going to the dark side of the opened wallet) used to be content to muster 100 HR in a season. This past week, they hit 200 for the first time. 100 Barry Bonds led the way (37), followed by LIVE Yelich (28), SE Sisler (26), SE Nettles (23), and SE Prince Fielder (21). Interestingly, despite selling out for LHB park factors, Bonds' 37 jacks weren't a career high for him as he blasted 40 in his rookie season. He did manage to lead the conference in RBI (124) and SLG (.574). Bonds was also one of three Frogs to do 20/20, along with Sisler and Yelich.

I surmise that the Frogs will earn about 35K PP in achievements for this week. A good week, indeed.

[old timer]

The Raccoons finished with 122 W this week, but looking over at the AC I feel like our chances of winning a title this week are very slim. The 3 top teams in the NC all seem superior to the best teams in the AC so it's going to take some good luck for one of us to win it.

Speaking of good luck, the Layton Calicos finished 1 game ahead of the Spokane RipTide. Layton's Pythagorean record was 93-69 while Spokane's was 117-45. That's the biggest difference in a division I've seen with respect to Pyt record.

Unfortunately for our fellow Raccoons, they'll have to beat Spokane to make it to the division round. Layton would have been a much easier opponent. If the Raccoons beat Spokane, they'll play the other Raccoons in the division round. If that happens, I'll definitely be rooting for the Raccoons.

Good luck to everyone in the playoffs!

[old timer]

Originally Posted by Westheim

The 92-70 Raccoons took home their usual wild card, for the third week in a row, and are my only playoff team once more. This time they barely made it, two games ahead of the nearest competitor, and 30 games back of the Forest Raccoons, by whom they were stomped, 5-14.

I'm rooting for our fellow furballs to take out the RipTide, so don't let us down!

You know, you've got a pretty good team there. I didn't realize how much your guys had improved since we were last in a league together. Too bad you don't have Walter Johnson available for the WC game. Of course, if you win, you can start him against us. Like I said, it's too bad you don't have him available for the WC game.

Good luck against Spokane!

[daves]

All 3 of my teams are wildcards. It can be a short day,

Ironically the Doubledays are the number 2 wildcard seed with 112 wins,

[Westheim]

Originally Posted by old timer

I'm rooting for our fellow furballs to take out the RipTide, so don't let us down!

You know, you've got a pretty good team there. I didn't realize how much your guys had improved since we were last in a league together. Too bad you don't have Walter Johnson available for the WC game. Of course, if you win, you can start him against us. Like I said, it's too bad you don't have him available for the WC game.

Good luck against Spokane!

Yeah, about six to eight weeks ago when I first snapped and bought $50 worth of packs and fired off all those lucky pulls (what was it, four high diamond/perfect historical cards in a long weekend?), got the Senators/Twins collection on the side, that was when the Critters changed from door mat team in Perfect to a habitual, if casual contender.

I checked; six weeks since winning promotion again, and five 91+ wins seasons. As many playoff appearances, all wild cards. I am still full of resent for Lee Smith blowing a 3-1 LCS lead almost single-handedly against... I forgot... another forum user. Who won the ribbon then. That should have been ours, Lee. That should have been ours.

I can't send (or don't want to send) Big Walt on short rest against the Riptide, who I had in my league just like two weeks ago and who ripped right through us without tidying up afterwards. But I should get Lefty Grove on short rest, which beats the diamond Tom Seaver any day of the week.

[Orcin]

Pretty tough conference in P447 this week with 39 PL titles in there... should be an interesting playoff to see which team makes the final round.

[Westheim]

Originally Posted by old timer

Good luck against Spokane!

Nope. They're all yours. 8-3.

[JasonC23]

Originally Posted by Orcin

Pretty tough conference in P447 this week with 39 PL titles in there... should be an interesting playoff to see which team makes the final round.

Attachment 663170

A conference in which the Singapore Sluggers have the 5th-best record...holy cow.

THIS HAS BEEN A RIVALRY ALERT

[JasonC23]

Huntley claimed the top spot in the AC playoffs with a 120-42 record. Warning: First World Problems Alert: This was actually Huntley's worse record since 2049 and the first time scoring fewer than 900 runs (865) since 2047. Part of that was the (relatively) slow start thanks to the musical chairs infield (April: 15-9), but the other 2 months in which the Red Raiders had winning percentages lower than .650 were August and September (18-10 in both), this after a boffo 3-month run in May, June, and July (combined 65-12!). In other words, Huntley has found it difficult to hit on all cylinders the last third of the season.

A possibility teased earlier in this thread has come true: both #1 seeds will be facing divisional foes in the Division Series. Over in the NC, the Eureka Mallards only went 11-8 versus the Murphy BRMest 1985; in the AC, Huntley actually avoided a similar fate when the favored Utah Stingers defeated the Valinor Eagles, as the Red Raiders were the same 11-8 versus the Eagles but a surprisingly better 13-6 versus the Stingers (Medallions). Utah led the AC in runs scored (883), so this will be a heck of a challenge for the Red Raiders, especially since in their final 6 regular season matchups in September, all played in Utah, the teams split 3-3, with Utah shutting out Huntley twice and holding the Red Raiders to 2 runs twice (Huntley did manage to win one of those, 2-1).

Warning: Division Series Kiss of Death Alert: Looking ahead to potential Sub-League Series matchups, Huntley went 5-2 versus the 5DK Dragons but a mere 2-5 versus the Pistol Pete Cowboys. The Cowboys swept the Red Raiders back in April, winning 7-2, 9-8, and 5-1 at home; now, one could argue that, because that was during the most musical of the musical chairs infield period, the results aren't as relevant as they might appear, but then how to explain the 4-game series in September, in which Pistol Pete earned a split in Huntley and absolutely shut down Huntley's offense (1-4, 5-3, 0-2, 3-1)?

In any case, final standings and playoff bracket are below. Good luck to all in P455!

[JasonC23]

Huntley's Rube Waddell vs the Utah Stingers, regular season: 3-1, 2.95 ERA, 21.1 IP, 21 HA, 7 ER.

Huntley's Rube Waddell vs the Utah Stingers, Division Series game 1: 1.2 IP, 5 HA, 5 ER.

Combine that with Mariano Rivera giving up 2 ninth-inning runs to blow game 2, and Utah is 2/3 of the way to a sweep of the Red Raiders. Ugh.

[pappyzan]

Originally Posted by Orcin

Pretty tough conference in P447 this week with 39 PL titles in there... should be an interesting playoff to see which team makes the final round.

Attachment 663170

Wow, that's as tough & top heavy for a random conference as I've seen so far. Good luck!

[JasonC23]

Originally Posted by JasonC23

Huntley's Rube Waddell vs the Utah Stingers, regular season: 3-1, 2.95 ERA, 21.1 IP, 21 HA, 7 ER.

Huntley's Rube Waddell vs the Utah Stingers, Division Series game 1: 1.2 IP, 5 HA, 5 ER.

Combine that with Mariano Rivera giving up 2 ninth-inning runs to blow game 2, and Utah is 2/3 of the way to a sweep of the Red Raiders. Ugh.

Thanks to Ed Walsh's 8.1 IP, 3 ER, and Rube Marquard's 9.0 IP, 2 ER performances, Huntley wins twice in Utah to force a game 5. Here's hoping this is where the eerie recreation of the real-life 2019 World Series stops!

[JasonC23]

In game 5, the Red Raiders' Rube Waddell bounced back from his horrid game 1 performance with 6.0 shutout innings. Huntley plated 3 in the bottom of the 2nd off Utah's Hal Newhouser, and the Red Raiders entered the top of the 8th up 3-0 and looking to win its third straight and take the Division Series.

In the 8th, the Stingers' Stan Musial led off with a grounder that 2B Lou Boudreau (up to a 79 at 2B!) threw away, allowing Musial to reach second base. After tagging up on a Babe Ruth flyout, Musial scored on another grounder, cutting Huntley's lead to 3-1, which is where it stood entering the 9th inning.

Mariano Rivera, off a league-leading 47-save season, was greeted by singles by the Stingers' Yogi Berra and Lou Boudreau. Robinson Cano grounded into a fielder's choice, with pinch runner Ken Griffey Jr advancing to third base with 1 out. Rickey Henderson promptly knocked the third single of the inning off Rivera, scoring Griffey, cutting the Stingers' deficit to 3-2.

On his way to the mound, Huntley's manager signaled to the lefty in the bullpen. Vida Blue jogged in, tasked with getting 2 more outs, with runners on first and second. Blue promptly struck out Ty Cobb on 4 pitches, and the Red Raiders were 1 out away from taking the series.

But then...Blue's first pitch to Stan Musial got away from Ivan Rodriguez, and the runners advanced to second and third. After a foul ball, Musial knocked a single into the outfield. Cano scored to tie it up at 3. Rickey Henderson raced home. Mickey Mantle's throw was on line, but late, and Henderson slid home with the go-ahead run. After a walk to Babe Ruth, Blue struck out Vlad Guerrero, but it was too little, too late.

In the bottom of the 9th, Huntley's Lou Boudreau greeted Randy Johnson with a single. Joe DiMaggio followed up with a single of his own...but Boudreau, going for third, was thrown out. That was a critical error, as Jackie Robinson followed up with a third straight single--one that should have retied the score. Instead, Hank Aaron flew out and Ivan Rodriguez grounded out, and the Stingers had stuck it to the Red Raiders, winning the game 4-3 and the series 3-2.

Good luck to all who remain in the 2055 playoffs! After that pathetic display, I'm taking a break from this and will check in with a season recap later.

[Marleigh]

Paragon City Heroes were in one of those weird 22 team leagues in perfect 456. We had the best record in the NC with 99-63 (3rd time missing out on 100 wins by 1) We are currently waiting to see who we will face in the finals, as the AC was far tougher, either the 5 time PL winning LA Bruins or potential first timers Springfield Cardinals.

Over in Perfect 442 both my Bad News Bulldogs and Neuman Furshlugginers ended up in the same division and both finished with identical 74-88 records

[Will_L]

It's only a Silver league but the Soho Elitist Scum in S357 are on one heck of a roll. They closed the season out with a 17 winning streak (4,000PP) and haven't looked back so far in the playoffs, sweeping both the division series against the Toronto Raptors and the sub-league series against the Melbourne Stars.
Update: Winning streak ended at 26 games, up 2-1 in the Silver level series against Roubaix Bibou managed by Euclid.
Scum did win the championship, their first. Not sure how it went after game 3... went to bed :-)

[waittilnextyear]

The Frogs are hot on the trail of PL medallion #6. The journey to the PL series has been one of the least fraught-with-peril to date. No needing to topple 130-win whales. No winner-take-alls. Just a business trip so far.

The Motown Greatest Hits took down the West U Roughnecks in the WC game (as I had hoped). Then, the Frogs took out Motown after dropping the series opener. Same pattern with the Madison Tycoons (a defense-first team that had toppled the stronger Billinge Bangers). Let fellow conference teams take out the more dangerous teams for me, then the Frogs take them out. Effective.

Now, the Frogs get the 104-win Mesquite Bullriders in the PL series. The Bullriders have been in Perfect since 2028. They've been winning 90-100 games in the average season. Yet, they haven't won it all.

It would seem that this wouldn't be Mesquite's week, either. The Bullriders are very right-handed in both the lineup and the rotation. They are throwing LIVE Scherzer and LIVE deGrom in games 1 and 2. They don't platoon. The Frogs have the home field and are running a lefty cheese strategy, which should maximally punish Mesquite.

The stars are aligned for another PL title for the Frogs. But, the RNG gods will ultimately have their say first.

[waittilnextyear]

Frogs swept their way to a 6th PL title! Ended up earning 35.5K PP for the week. Not bad.

Good luck to those still simming!

[Renfro]

Congrats on all the playoffs winners. We are not among you.

I set the Xenomorphs on cruise control and we sailed through Diamond League regular season to finish with a 94-68 record. That solid record hid a late-season collapse that lost us a chance at the division crown and had me oddly worried for our chances at a playoffs that, frankly, I did not care too much about. Still, despite Ward leading the league in saves, I tried to shore up the bullpen. But it didn't matter. We were shutout twice as we were swept in the CS. Our last game was a lackluster effort wherein we failed to score over 13 innings.

But behind the scenes, we're now one step closer to signing Perfect Cash and then it's to the back of the Freehan queue.

The Wind-Up Birds' first season in Perfect resulted in a 75-87 record, 24 apace of the division leaders.

This club is still mostly composed of Future Legends pieces, and what little success some of the players earn is cause for real celebration. To wit: 97 Forrest Whitley finished with 44 saves, a 5-3 record, a 2.41 ERA, a 1.11 WHIP,a 0.6 HR/9, and a 9.9 K/9. And 93 Nate Pearson (8-7, 4.28) proved to be the best righty in the rotation. But that's not exactly saying much since the other two righties were FL Sixto Sanchez (6-14, 5.30) and FL Chris Paddack (5-14, 5.54).

Behind the scenes action was a mixed bad. I had spent too much of the Wind-Up Birds' funds acquiring players for tourneys. While that proved to have some measure of success, I was cash poor when the much needed OAK Fingers came on the board. A hastily put together fire sale, with the sad realization that Eloy Jimenez doesn't command higher than 15k, could not raise enough funds. Alas, the wait for Fingers / Vida Blue continues.