Meet the Hawthorn Fighting Hawks

[bailey]

September 2032 opened with the team fighting for first place, so I took the proceeds from selling Special Edition Lefty Gomez and picked up Mike Trout and added Greg Maddux (89) and Ubaldo Jimenez to the starting rotation. The result was a division championship. The team sailed through the division series, finishing with a finale of 17-2(?). The team continued its winning ways through game 4 of the sub-league series, but stumbled in games 5 & 6. Ubaldo Jimenez was the starter for game 7 and he had been money in his 6 starts for the team to that point, but the final score was a mirror image of the division series, 17-2(?). Don't really remember how many runs the losers scored, but the winners had 17 in each case. So it's on to the perfect leagues, without winning a championship at any of the lower levels. Edit: For the record, PP income was 14,925.



The plan moving forward is to complete the Chicago White Sox collection which is a tall order for a F2P team. Roughly 200K is needed, and my balance is about 2K with 40+ cards needed. Too bad I sold Cisco Carlos earlier. My only hope is for Franmil Reyes to catch fire. The match has been lit, though, as he had 4 HR last week and is back to OVR 79. Approximately 40 weeks remain until PT21 for me to achieve my goal of a Perfect championship without spending money.

[bailey]

The Fighting Hawks had a rough time in Perfect League and finished below .500 for the first time since 2021. The record was 78-84, 35 games off the pace. There were 2 teams in the central division that won at least 130 games and my guys lost all 13 games played against them, but I think it was poor results in 1-run games (16-28) that doomed the team. 77 wins was enough to win the west division, but alas, we were in the east. And just look at the staggering 25 game swing in pythag:





The Yonkers Stompers were so lucky they even defeated the 130 win team in the wild card game.
Despite failing to gel as a team, there were some individual heroics: Mark Loretta edged out 2 players for the batting championship in the 4th decimal place and Babe Ruth was the HR champion by a wide margin. Surprisingly, neither got the great bat award, but Lavalliere and Maddox earned gold gloves.
In addition to winning the fewest games since 2021, it was also the fewest PP earned since 2021 and just the 3rd time below 11K: 8120PP.

[bailey]

I opted to join forces with the NFTP league -- near free to play in an attempt for a more competitive environment and I succeeded. The team was in the thick of the playoff hunt from the beginning, but was never a dominant force. Babe Ruth led the way with 54 home runs including 7 that were struck in 7 consecutive games for a cool 5000p. The awards are beginning to pile up for him.



Newcomer Mike Trout had 48 dingers of his own and edged out the Babe for team lead in OPS--1.002 to .993. In the end it came down to the last day 1 game behind for 2nd wildcard. We won our game and got the help we needed to force game 163 with Weston Pointe. The pitching choice was Ubaldo Jimenez and Chris Short, and since Chris Short had previously stunk in all 4 outings against Weston Pointe the choice was easy and we won that game to qualify for the playoffs. Of course, that left Chris Short to pitch the wildcard game, but he was excellent in a shared shutout victory. That would be the end of the story as the team bows out in the Division Series 3 games to 2.

I like the new league, but we need a few more players to sign up as it always seems to be 3 or 4 teams short of full. Please inquire if you want to be a part of it and have a team in perfect with $100 or less invested.

Franmil Reyes watch: 2 hits and a bases loaded walk in 3 games last week. Still hangs in at 78 OVR.

Chicago White Sox collecting: proceeding nicely with more than half the cards needed in hand. The budget for the remaining cards is 150K or so, and we closed 2034 with 2K in the kitty. Even so, the team earned 17,320 points in 2034, so if I can earn just 10K per week, I should complete the collection in about 15 weeks.

[bailey]

There is not much good news to report in 2035. The team slumped to 74-88 just 7 GB in a weak division, but very strong conference. Pitching was a disaster led by Greg Maddux 89, 10-18, 5.53 ERA, which is not bad compared to where he was on July 5, 2-11, 8.39 ERA. Hitting was no better with just 703 runs scored and a team batting average of just .260, the worst marks in team history for both categories. Old reliable, Babe Ruth 94, was MVP for the 4th time and led the conference in HR with 52.

I've concluded a rebuild is necessary and Mike Trout was the first to go. The funds are needed to help complete the CWS collections. More sales to follow, which means I'm not playing to win now. I'm not trying to tank back to iron, but this team as built is not a very strong one.

Edit: The PP income was also a new record low: 7,465p.

[bailey]

3rd place 85-77 was the respectable finish 6 GB the division leader and only 2 behind the wildcards. Selling Trout may have been a mistake although his replacement, Lefty O'Doul, was not too shabby: .271/.335/.438. O'Doul came to the team by way of completing the Lefty/Righty collection. Babe Ruth won the HR championship again while Dave Righetti took home top honors for ERA and pitching wins. OVR 100 Bob Feller was in the conference so he had no chance to compete for the final leg of the pitching triple crown.
PP earned so far is 8575 and we should win a few awards to push that over 9K, maybe 10K if MVP and/or best pitcher is captured. Righetti is 2nd in pitcher WAR to Mike Mussina, I don't know why that is because Mussina is not in the top 3 in any category on the standings screen.

[bailey]

Awards did indeed enable me to surpass the 10K mark in 2036. Dave Righetti, Best Pitcher, 1 Great Bat: Babe Ruth, 3 Gold Gloves: Mark Lavalliere (C), Mark Loretta (1B), Joe Cronin (SS).

The bad news is that I was kicked out of the F2P league. My theory of keeping only 1 friend failed. The new random perfect league I am in enables me to predict confidently 5th place in my division. I'm not wasting time looking at the rest of the league....

[bailey]

It's been over a year since my last post and at least 6 months since I looked at the team. They've managed just fine without me, though, winning 2 diamond championships, in 2056 and 2062. They've remained in the Perfect League since 2063 winning their division 6 times and a wild card entry 7 times, but no championships.

The team has 400K which I'm going to blow on packs and see if the expected 2 perfects and 13 diamonds can improve the team.
That is, unless somebody has a better idea.