$20 and some pack luck and I own 5 of the top 10 rated pitchers in my league

DonkeyKongSr · 12-09-2018, 11:38 AM

I was planning to post about my elite historical pitching find (Dolf Luque) who might be the favorite for Cy Young in my conference when I realized that my elite rotation was more elite than I thought. I'm running a perfect (Sale), 3 diamonds (Cy Blanton, Luque, Severino), and an 89 gold (Corbin), which gives me the top 3 rated pitchers and 5 of the top 10. Corbin is relegated to the bench now that I've switched to a 4 man rotation.

How I got here: I started out free and pulled Odalis Perez as my Gold. He was my ace in Entry Pool, but I got tired of being a middling team and spent $20 to prep for Bronze League, using it entirely on standard packs.

I originally planned on buying maybe a couple gold packs and if I was having terrible luck with opening standard packs, but I was pulling Gold+ probably every 4th pack on average, so kept pressing my luck. I pulled Luque, Severino, and Corbin from those packs. Seriously great luck.

Then yesterday I wake up to 5000 new PP from 2 Hi Def Innings (4 K's) on Friday night. Thought about buying some help, but tested my pack luck again, hitting Sale and Blanton. Insanity.

I've posted both Luque and Blanton's profiles below as I know historical diamonds are super-rare.

Luque has such nice ratings. Elite Stuff and Stamina, with an awesome 3 pitch repertoire. On paper, I think he's comparable to many Perfects. He leads my entire league in WAR by a lot, at 8.4. He went 13-2 before some crap outings and running bad on run support, finishing 18-10.

Blanton doesn't look quite as nice, but has insane movement, a nasty screwball, and the standard overpowered stamina of the old-timers. He performed at Cy Young levels in his short 5-game stint so far with me (even got me a Maddux!). Sale was elite, as usual, pitching one 16 K game in his 6 games and winning pitcher of the month in his only month. If my so-so starting line-up can get me 3-4 runs a game, I think I've got a good shot at this title. I've got Hook SP on ultra-slow, of course.

DonkeyKongSr · 12-09-2018, 12:15 PM

Oh yeah, got one more pack luck story from the beta.

It's the last playoffs before the reset. My team is stacked with a few diamonds and the rest gold because I used all the PP exploits that OOTPD has supposedly banned (PP funneling and meatballing vs. my alternate teams). I mostly build the team through the AH. I'm tearing through the playoffs and get 1000 points for making the finals. Open a pack and pull Chris Sale and Aaron Judge in the same pack. Drop them in my lineup, win the World Series 4-1 with 2 wins by Sale and Judge as the MVP. If there ever was an argument for set playoff rosters, that's it.

I miss that team, but this starting rotation right now may be better than what I ended up with (Sale, Kershaw, Corbin, Larry Dierker, and Len Barker).

DonkeyKongSr · 12-09-2018, 01:48 PM

I might need to turn down the Hook SP, or put limits on the old-timers. They sometimes get 140+ pitch games, but they do seem mostly fine in those. I just noticed Blanton went 9.2 innings with 143 pitches in an extra innings win during the season. Luque just pitched 145 in a No Decision that ended up being a win to sweep the first round.

EDIT: Luque started the season with a 150 pitch outing. Broke 120 pitches 14 times.

el_gringo · 12-09-2018, 04:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DonkeyKongSr

I might need to turn down the Hook SP, or put limits on the old-timers. They sometimes get 140+ pitch games, but they do seem mostly fine in those.

FWIW, I have my SP hook set pretty quick, and my rotation is mostly old-timers with 100+ stamina. They'll still routinely go 7+ innings, and had 25 CG between them (including a half dozen or more Maddux/other notable achievements). They'll often throw over a hundred pitches, but don't go more than 110 most of the time (rare exceptions, of course).

Knuckleballers in are a weird case of course - Wilbur Wood had 11 of the 25 CG.

DonkeyKongSr · 12-09-2018, 05:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by el_gringo

FWIW, I have my SP hook set pretty quick, and my rotation is mostly old-timers with 100+ stamina. They'll still routinely go 7+ innings, and had 25 CG between them (including a half dozen or more Maddux/other notable achievements). They'll often throw over a hundred pitches, but don't go more than 110 most of the time (rare exceptions, of course).

Knuckleballers in are a weird case of course - Wilbur Wood had 11 of the 25 CG.

I'm wondering if Hook is only for guys in trouble/tiring? Like, if these high stamina guys are cruising at 100-120 pitches, do they get to keep going?

Blanton just got smoked pitching 147 pitches in 5 innings, giving up 10 runs before he was pulled. Obviously he should have been pulled way earlier, so it looks like my slow hook plan backfired on me. I turned down the hook a couple notches, but I sure hope he and Luque still get to play to 120-140 pitches when they are on their game.

EDIT: Next game, before I turned down the setting, Luque got to only 88 pitches (giving up 4 runs, but striking out 11) and my bullpen almost blew a 6-3 lead. Not sure how that happened right after the Blanton blowup, unless the AI coach remembered the game before.

DonkeyKongSr · 12-09-2018, 06:09 PM

Oh damn, I'm glad I was paying attention. Chris Sale went 140 pitches in his first start and didn't recover in time for Game 5. There was an off day and I thought everyone recovered to 100% after a 4 day break, but I guess not. Threw Corbin in for an emergency start in Game 5.

12-09-2018, 11:38 AM	#1
DonkeyKongSr All Star Reserve Join Date: Dec 2018 Posts: 777	$20 and some pack luck and I own 5 of the top 10 rated pitchers in my league I was planning to post about my elite historical pitching find (Dolf Luque) who might be the favorite for Cy Young in my conference when I realized that my elite rotation was more elite than I thought. I'm running a perfect (Sale), 3 diamonds (Cy Blanton, Luque, Severino), and an 89 gold (Corbin), which gives me the top 3 rated pitchers and 5 of the top 10. Corbin is relegated to the bench now that I've switched to a 4 man rotation. How I got here: I started out free and pulled Odalis Perez as my Gold. He was my ace in Entry Pool, but I got tired of being a middling team and spent $20 to prep for Bronze League, using it entirely on standard packs. I originally planned on buying maybe a couple gold packs and if I was having terrible luck with opening standard packs, but I was pulling Gold+ probably every 4th pack on average, so kept pressing my luck. I pulled Luque, Severino, and Corbin from those packs. Seriously great luck. Then yesterday I wake up to 5000 new PP from 2 Hi Def Innings (4 K's) on Friday night. Thought about buying some help, but tested my pack luck again, hitting Sale and Blanton. Insanity. I've posted both Luque and Blanton's profiles below as I know historical diamonds are super-rare. Luque has such nice ratings. Elite Stuff and Stamina, with an awesome 3 pitch repertoire. On paper, I think he's comparable to many Perfects. He leads my entire league in WAR by a lot, at 8.4. He went 13-2 before some crap outings and running bad on run support, finishing 18-10. Blanton doesn't look quite as nice, but has insane movement, a nasty screwball, and the standard overpowered stamina of the old-timers. He performed at Cy Young levels in his short 5-game stint so far with me (even got me a Maddux!). Sale was elite, as usual, pitching one 16 K game in his 6 games and winning pitcher of the month in his only month. If my so-so starting line-up can get me 3-4 runs a game, I think I've got a good shot at this title. I've got Hook SP on ultra-slow, of course. Last edited by DonkeyKongSr; 12-09-2018 at 11:46 AM. Reason: fixed pic sizing

12-09-2018, 12:15 PM	#2
DonkeyKongSr All Star Reserve Join Date: Dec 2018 Posts: 777	Oh yeah, got one more pack luck story from the beta. It's the last playoffs before the reset. My team is stacked with a few diamonds and the rest gold because I used all the PP exploits that OOTPD has supposedly banned (PP funneling and meatballing vs. my alternate teams). I mostly build the team through the AH. I'm tearing through the playoffs and get 1000 points for making the finals. Open a pack and pull Chris Sale and Aaron Judge in the same pack. Drop them in my lineup, win the World Series 4-1 with 2 wins by Sale and Judge as the MVP. If there ever was an argument for set playoff rosters, that's it. I miss that team, but this starting rotation right now may be better than what I ended up with (Sale, Kershaw, Corbin, Larry Dierker, and Len Barker). Last edited by DonkeyKongSr; 12-09-2018 at 12:19 PM.

12-09-2018, 01:48 PM	#3
DonkeyKongSr All Star Reserve Join Date: Dec 2018 Posts: 777	I might need to turn down the Hook SP, or put limits on the old-timers. They sometimes get 140+ pitch games, but they do seem mostly fine in those. I just noticed Blanton went 9.2 innings with 143 pitches in an extra innings win during the season. Luque just pitched 145 in a No Decision that ended up being a win to sweep the first round. EDIT: Luque started the season with a 150 pitch outing. Broke 120 pitches 14 times. Last edited by DonkeyKongSr; 12-09-2018 at 01:51 PM.

12-09-2018, 06:09 PM	#6
DonkeyKongSr All Star Reserve Join Date: Dec 2018 Posts: 777	Oh damn, I'm glad I was paying attention. Chris Sale went 140 pitches in his first start and didn't recover in time for Game 5. There was an off day and I thought everyone recovered to 100% after a 4 day break, but I guess not. Threw Corbin in for an emergency start in Game 5.