PT21 Diary - A Tale of Three Teams

[trman73]

Halfway through the 65 packs...

COMPLETELY AND TOTALLY WORTH IT!!!!!!!

[trman73]

Stats thus far (32 of 65 packs opened)...

3 Diamonds
PEAK Albert Pujols (99)
1902 3B Bill Bradley (92)
Live CL Ken Giles (92)

8 Golds
Live SP Kenta Maeda (82)
2005 CL Todd Jones (86)
Live CL Craig Kimbrel (87)
Live MR Giovanni Gallegos (85)
Live SS Xander Bogaerts (89)
Live SP Sonny Gray (82)
Live 3B Eugenio Suarez (85)
Live SP Chris Archer (80)

15 Silvers
2004 Ichiro (77) – Duplicate
Live LF Andrew Benintendi (74)
Live LF Jay Bruce (74)
Live C Austin Hedges (74)
1B 1964 Bill White (78)
Live LF Lourdes Gurriel, Jr. (73)
Live OF Michael Tauchman (71)
Live SP Adam Wainright (70)
Live 1B Mike Ford (71)
Live 1B CJ Cron (70)
Live CL Daniel Hudson (71)
2009 RP Michael Wuertz (77)
Live 2B Luis Urias (72)
Live 1B Joey Votto (76)
2014 MR Jeremy Affeldt (70)

[trman73]

Got through the 65 packs. In the final 33 packs, we did not get a Perfect or a Diamond, but we did get three Golds who join the club.

The final tally:

390 total cards

• 0 Perfect
• 3 Diamond (2 Historical, 1 Live)
• 12 Gold (3 Historical, 9 Live)
• 22 Silver (6 Historical, 16 Live)
• 141 Bronze
• 212 Iron

Players joining the club from this pull:

• 1B PEAK Albert Pujols (99) – Valued at 300,000 in AH overall, clearly the prize here.
• 3B 1902 Bill Bradley (92) – Pushes Rendon to DH, which is totally fine.
• CL Live Ken Giles (92) – Primary setup man for Dave Smith.
• SS Live Xander Bogaerts (89) – Trying him at second as a platoon with Jeff McNeil. Ugly defense at 2B.
• MR PEAK Tom Burgmeier (88) – Long relief. Solid control and movement.
• MR 2005 Todd Jones (86) – Has enough to get by in the pen.
• C Live Willson Contreras (83) – Splits time with Jimmy Archer. Catcher still a problem.
• RF 1927 Paul Waner (82) – Platoons with George Foster in right.

Random Notes:

• My three Diamonds came in three consecutive packs (Packs 25, 26, and 27).
• I did not get one starting pitcher that bumps any of my awful starters out of the rotation.
• I feel like I’m set at 1B (Albert), 3B (Bradley/Rendon), DH (Rendon), LF (Yelich), and RF (Waner/Foster) for the time being.
• The offensive upgrade makes starting Ozzie at short a lot easier.
• The current 7-day AH value of the eight guys listed above is 332,390 in the AH. Pujols is 300K. The next best is Bradley at 12K.
• I have yet to sell off all the dead weight yet, but as of right now the sales I’ve done based on this pull have gotten us 25,288.

[trman73]

2022 Late Season Update

Spent almost all of my game time the last two days with the Hammers, opening the initial 65 packs from the Lajoie sale and then another 52 today from sales related to the 65 packs (plus a four-pack tourney win). I’ve still got 27 guys in the AH as of 3 p.m. Today was a lot of completely fruitless pack opening, as of the 312 cards today we got two players who join the big club: Live SP Shane Bieber (92), who basically becomes our default ace, and 2013 SP Clay Buchholz (89), who steps into the #5 slot for now.

So the final tally on the return from Lajoie is 10 players for the main team, and another 10 who join the Bronze tourney team.

Total value of those players right now is 342,893 – 341,507 for the man guys (with 300,000 being Pujols), and 1,386 for the Bronze tourney guys. That’s a good ROI for a 99 Nap Lajoie. I’d swap Pujols straight up for Nap any day, so the rest of the guys are just gravy.

The team itself has rallied and for a very short while it looked like we might escape relegation, which I’d prefer not to do. We’re three games back right now at 37-108, although we’ve moved up to 29^th overall! Pujols has a .980 OPS and Waner is at .976. The rest of the guys are, like our team, just playing out the string. I’d prefer to just go back to Bronze next season.

The Warlocks, meanwhile, remain the best team in our conference in Bronze, with a 9.5-game lead in our division. We’re second in our league in runs allowed and have the best starters’ ERA. This team may make the Bronze Series, although there are much better teams than us in the other conference.

I’ve abandoned the Frogs for now and it shows, as they are 72-74 and right now are in the final promotion spot in Iron 158. There is a team in our league that is 125-21, and has a +809 run differential – the Groveton Groundhogs. They’ve won both their Rookie and Stone Leagues, and look like they will do the same in Iron. They’ve scored 1,236 runs in 146 games.

[trman73]

With only one team in the playoffs this week it’s time to focus attention on the Warlocks, who finish 104-58 in Bronze 211 and win 15 straight before losing the regular-season finale. In anticipation of the playoffs, we make a couple upgrades with our accumulated PP to beef up the offense.

OUT: CF 1971 Al Oliver (75)
IN: CF 1961 Vada Pinson (84)

OUT: IF Live Gavin Lux (79)
IN: 1B 1958 Joe Cunningham (86)

Simple switches. Pinson is both a better offensive player than Oliver (although Oliver was better than I expected), and a better defensive center fielder. He can also play against lefties. Cunningham is 78-74-75-92-83 against righties and plays a decent enough first base. He pushes Howie Kendrick to a utility role and makes Lux expendable.

We face a division foe, the Denton Doompincers, in the Division Series. They’re good, with mission players everywhere (Ichiro, Bagwell, Klein, etc.). Offensively, they are way better than we are. My pitchers will be challenged. They went 92-70 in the regular season and won our season series, 10-9. I consider us slight underdogs here despite winning 12 more regular-season games.

Game 1 is all Warlocks as Mike Mussina tosses a six-hit shutout and we rack up 14 hits in a 10-0 win. In Game 2, our 18-game winner, Mike Caldwell, has nothing and we go down 10-1 after six, falling 10-6 as they bang four homers. We fall meekly to Eddie Plank in Game 3, 7-0, and face a must-win in Game 4 with Cal Eldred on the mound. And he answers the call, giving us seven shutout innings as we win 3-1 to force a Game 5. We sent Moose to the mound again, and he’s excellent again, giving up just a solo homer in seven innings, and we win 3-1 to advance to the Sub League Series.

[trman73]

The Warlocks face the H-Town Sluggers in the Sub-League Series, another good offensive team but one that we should be able to score against. We hold a 4-3 lead in the eighth of Game 1 when Giovanni Gallegos gives up a meatball to Pete Alonso, and we lose, 5-4. We win Game 2 in an uneventful game, 5-2. Anthony Rendon looks like the hero for us in Game 3, breaking a 4-4 tie with two-run homer in the ninth, but Osuna blows the save and we fall, 7-6. Argh. But Game 4 is ours thanks to a combined two-hitter, and it’s a three-game series after a 4-0 win. The pivotal Game 5 is all theirs, as Mike Caldwell gets torched and we fall, 7-0. So it’s back home needing two wins.

We don’t get it. Adam Wainright is awful in Game 6, and we’re down 8-0 after six. We fight back to 8-5, but ultimately lose the game and the series.

This is a fine team that will no doubt struggle next year in Silver. Upgrades are needed.

[trman73]

Hammers Season Recap

There's not really much to say. We went 41-121 and finished 29th in the league. The new guys look good and I'm excited for a full season of them, especially since...

The team comes in second in a 16-team tourney this evening, and earns a pack. We strike gold on it... Historical Legend PEAK Ichiro Suzuki (88).

This Ichiro is way better than the one I’d been playing, and is not far off from the Special Edition. His center field ratings are great, and that’s where I need him to play. The other Ichiro goes up in the AH after three very solid years for us. I now really like our outfield with Yelich in left, Ichiro in center, and a platoon of Paul Waner and George Foster in right. Other than catcher and second base, I actually like this team’s offense, despite our meek offensive performance in Silver this year.

Primary Lineup:
CF PEAK Ichiro (88)
DH Live Rendon (96)
LF Live Yelich (100)
1B PEAK Pujols (99)
RF ’27 Paul Waner (82)
3B ’02 Bill Bradley (92)
2B Live Jeff McNeil (83)
C Live Omar Narvaez (81)
SS ’82 Ozzie (68)

Bench: C Live Contreras (83 – starts vs. LHP), IF Live Xander Bogaerts (89 – starts vs. LHP at 2B), SS Live Bo Bichette (82 – splits time w/Ozzie vs. LHP), LF ’76 George Foster (87 - starts vs. LHP), OF Live George Springer (87 – straight backup)

The pitching? Not so much, although the bullpen is fine for now. The starters are just awful.

Live Shane Bieber (92)
Live Blake Snell (93)
’11 Mat Latos (85)
Live Zach Grienke (86)
Live Aaron Nola (86)

CL PEAK Dave Smith (94)
SU Live Ken Giles (92)
SU Live Roberto Osuna (87)
MR ’05 Todd Jones (86)
MR ’95 Jeff Nelson (83)
MR Live Aroldis Chapman (97)
LR PEAK Tom Burgmeier (88)

[trman73]

Warlocks 2022 Recap

A quality regular season comes to an end with a frustrating loss in the Sub-League Series. Knowing what happened to the Hammers in Silver this year, this team is equally unprepared for the next level. So despite having the top starters’ ERA in the league, we make two moves:

OUT – SP 1992 Cal Eldred (88)
IN – Special Edition SP 1905 Eddie Plank (91)

OUT – SP 1982 Joaquin Andujar (87)
IN – SP 1960 Bob Friend (89)

Eldred and Andujar combined to go 27-14 for us this year, but really they are not going to be good as we move up. I feel better with the two guys we got. So the rotation for next year is Mussina-Plank-Wainwright-Caldwell-Friend. We’ll see how that goes.

Offensively the moves for next season were Pinson and Cunningham, so this is the team heading into tomorrow morning.

[trman73]

2023 Season Previews

The Hammers are my first team to be relegated, and we’re in Bronze 219. Other than the starting rotation I like where we are. There are no true powerhouses in our division and with our offense we should be fine.
Prediction: 2^nd in Division, 5^th in Conference, challenge for Wild Card, promoted to Silver

The Warlocks move up to Silver and are in S260. Our pitching doesn’t look like it stacks up with other teams in the conference. But... this team has surprised me each week and so I’m giving it the benefit of the doubt. I think we have the bats to at least be competitive despite our talent disadvantage against a number of the teams in the league.
Prediction: 3^rd in Division, 9^th in Conference, no playoffs, remain in Silver

Finally, the Frogs are up in Bronze in B223. I’ve done nothing with this team but we’re in a very winnable division (assuming no big buys by our competitors). Our conference also doesn’t seem to have a dominant team in it. So I’ll go crazy and say...
Prediction: 1^st in Division, 3^rd in Conference, out in Sub-League Series, promotion to Silver

[trman73]

The Hammers are 12-10 in Bronze and are plugging along fine. But after a fourth straight terrible outing by Blake Snell I quick-sell him for 4,000 PP as I just can’t take the walks. The feeling is if we don’t get anything for him, I’ll just plug 2013 Clay Buchholz in there and deal with it. But we do get a decent return on the last of the four packs, as we pick up Future Legend SP Ian Anderson (83). His stamina is lacking but his stuff is decent and after a year and a month of Snell I actually consider Anderson an upgrade despite him being worth about half the PP in the AH. Anderson’s main pitching ratings are 86-67-67 compared to Snell’s 98-64-51.

We get better news about an hour later after we collect on the dead weight we put up in the AH, including all of our non-roster Silvers. Our quest for an ace ends, and I feel much, much better about this team.

[trman73]

2023 First Half Report

Haven’t had much time to focus on the game in the past week as other priorities have taken precedence. But as we enter the All-Star break, all three clubs are close to where I thought they’d be in the Monday predictions.

Hammers
I thought this team would be 5^th in our Bronze conference and challenge for a playoff spot. At the break we’re 51-44 and a half-game back of the second Wild Card spot. We look like we’ll be promoted back to Silver next season. And no surprise, it’s thanks to the offense. PEAK Albert Pujols has been awesome: .333-19-66 with a .991 OPS. He was joined by Ichiro, Yelich, and Bill Bradley on the All-Star team. Ichiro was POTM in June, and Albert won it in May. Overall we’re third in runs scored. The pitching’s been up and down but the offense has carried us.

We enjoyed a decent run of packs that got one player for the big club, Live Freddie Freeman, and also brought us Live Kirby Yates and Trea Turner, as well as C Andy Semnick (88). We didn’t need those guys so they went up for sale.

Warlocks
This was the team I thought would struggle most this season, and they’ve surprised a bit at 48-48. We’re just a game out of the Wild Card at the break. The offense has scuffled in Silver (10^th in the conference) but the pitching’s been good. I’ve done nothing roster-wise since last week, as we are building up PP.

Frogs
I’ve focused all of my attention this week on these guys, completing five live missions and getting ready to knock out five more by the end of the week, while spending zero dollars. I’m logging the cost of all the players I buy for missions to see what the total cost is. The team itself is doing what I thought it might do, leading a division that doesn’t have a dominant team by 4.5 games. We’re 51-45 and heading toward a fourth promotion in four weeks. With the team as is, we won’t make it five for five if we wind up in Silver next week, as we remain very average. The only roster addition has been Al Rosen through the Indians mission, as the other four guys we got from missions have been sold to fund further missions.

[trman73]

2023 Playoff Pushes

All three of our teams entered Saturday with a decent shot of making the playoffs. Two got the job done, and the other fell apart.

Hammers - Playing Sunday for the First Time
The Hammers rolled in September in Bronze 219, going 20-8 to run away with a Wild Card berth. Almost all of our new additions made major contributions, led by Albert Pujols, who looks like he’ll walk away with an MVP. Pujols, Ichiro, and Yelich finished 1-2-3 in the batting race, and Albert led in OPS (.980) and WAR (6.8). He, Yelich, Ichiro, and Bill Bradley all won a Batter of the Month Award. Overall, we go 95-67 and qualify for the playoffs for the first time, where we will play a division rival, the Welland Weirdos, to kick the festivities off tomorrow.

Warlocks - Watching From Home
The Warlocks were my only team to make the playoffs in each of their first three seasons, but they did not make it four straight. We entered the day just a game back of the Wild Card and proceeded to go 12-15 in September, including a 1-9 stretch that basically knocked us out of it. We rebounded at the tail end of the year and finished 85-77. Not bad for our first year in Silver, and we’ll be in Gold next season, where I can’t imagine we’ll do that well. Still, we built up good PP and completed the Pirates mission for Jason Kendall, a player we already had and could therefore sell for 5,000 PP (4,500 to us). This allowed for two moves:

OUT: DH Bobby Abreu (79)
IN: DH Special Edition Check Klein (93)

OUT: RF Hank Bauer (76)
IN: RF Special Edition Frank Robinson (88)

OUT: SP Bob Friend (88)
IN: TBD

This prepares us for next season in gold a bit better. The RF platoon of Verdugo/Bauer wasn’t going to cut it, and Abreu had basically topped out in Silver. Our offense was middle of the pack this year and we needed these upgrades for Gold.

Frogs - Sunday Baseball Is Back
Finally, the Frogs cruised to a division title in Bronze 223 with an 18-9 September. We rebounded after a bad year last year to go 93-69 and completed seven missions in the process this week. I thought this team would win its division and make the Sub-League Series, and that may very well happen. This is a balanced team that isn’t really great at anything but is slightly above average at everything at the Bronze level. We finish third in our conference in runs scored and fifth in runs allowed.

[trman73]

The Hammers’ first playoff appearance ends in frustrating fashion in the Wild Card Game. After trailing 2-1 in the eighth, we get a two-run homer from an unlikely source, C Omar Narvaez, to take a 3-2 lead. But the reliable Dave Smith loads the bases with no one out, and after getting two outs he gives up a 3-run triple to Johnny Hopp and we lose, 5-3.

Still, a good season for this team and at least offensively we are way better prepared for Silver than we were last time around.

The Warlocks make two final deals to prepare for next season in Gold:

OUT: SP Bob Friend (89)
IN: SP Special Edition Bert Blyleven (94)

OUT: CF Vada Pinson (84)
IN: CF Mule Haas (80)

We got Blyleven for 7,584 PP, a deal I could not pass up. We had to surrender Pinson to get it done, but I wasn’t hugely impressed with him in his one season with us. Haas is a place-holder that we got for 1,037, so he can be quick-sold when the time comes if emergency PP is needed.

The rotation is now all Special Edition guys, who I’m sure I could have gotten cheaper if I had the patience to do missions for this club. Still, I’m pretty pleased overall with this team even though the bullpen will struggle in Gold and the offense has some big issues at the bottom of the lineup.

Hammers and Warlocks final 2023 team home screens below.

[trman73]

I should have waited on the season recap for the Hammers, as we're all over awards season...

• Ozzie Smith wins his second straight Great Glove at SS
• Dave Smith wins Reliever of the Year
• Albert Pujols, Christian Yelich, Bill Bradley, and Ichiro all win Great Bats
• Pujols wins MVP
• Pujols, Yelich, Bradley, and Ichiro finish 1-2-3-4 in MVP voting.

I suppose that's some consolation after our Wild Card loss.

Update: The three packs from this Awards haul? ALL TRASH.

[trman73]

The Frogs opened their playoff run in B223 with the Jonestown Punch, a team that finished a half-game ahead of us thanks to having to play a one-game playoff for its division crown. We’re pretty evenly matched with them having a slight offensive advantage and our pitching being marginally better.

We exploded for eight runs in the 2^nd inning of Game 1 and cruise, 15-3. The bats went silent against Shohei Otani in Game 2 and they take it, 3-1. We split Games 3 and 4 in our place, going to extras in Game 4 before giving up four in the 11^th to lose, 6-2, setting up a Game 5. In that game, we stranded 10 guys in the first five innings before finally breaking a scoreless tie with three in the 6^th. Mike Caldwell went the distance for us and we win, 5-1, to advance to the Sub-League Series.

We faced the best team in our conference in the SLS, the Bras-D’Apic Tireless Lumberjacks, who went 128-34. We were huge underdogs, and we lived up to that label by getting drilled in Game 1, then having nothing in a 5-1 Game 2 loss. After falling again in Game 3, we salvaged one game with a 5-3 win in Game 4. Then, we got a combined 2-hitter from Mike Caldwell and Jeff Russell and a walk-off single from Jason Kendall to take Game 5, 3-2, and there was hope. That hope is snuffed out in the sixth and final game, as we fell, 4-2, to a team that is significantly better than us.

[trman73]

2024 Season Preview

This is going to be a lost week both in terms of the success of each of my teams and my ability to play the AH/team building game, as I have a lot of work this week. But, a quick Monday morning glance...

The Hammers are in Silver 264 and I’m excited to see our offense at this level. We won a whopping 41 games in Silver two weeks ago, but we’re way better than we were then thanks to some fortunate pack additions. Still, on first glance we will top out at third in our division if things break our way, and middle of the pack overall is the best we can hope for.
Prediction: 4^th in Division, 9^th in Conference, remain in Silver

The Warlocks are in Gold 302, and we’re going to struggle. There’s a real distance here between the haves and the have nots, and we’re a have not despite a decent rotation. I think our bullpen will be one of the worst in the league, and offensively we just don’t stack up. I wouldn’t be upset at all if we bumped back down to Silver next week.
Prediction: 4^th in Division, 12^th in Conference, remain in Gold (barely)

Finally, the Frogs have their hands full in Silver 260, but we’re in a conference that is very, very Silver, so I think we’ll survive. I won’t have the time to continue to work on missions, which is frustrating, but oh well. No aspect of this team right now is set up for success at the mid-levels (Silver, Gold).
Prediction: 3^rd in Division, 10^th in Conference, remain in Silver

So... I believe this will be my first week with Sunday completely off. I guess I’ll be able to check in with my PT20 teams. All I’m doing with those teams is checking twice a week and spending my PP on packs. Last week my Frogs pulled a Perfect HOF Jeter, and sold it to buy some guys I’d always coveted – Eckersley, Fingers, and Frank Robinson. Then I opened 200 packs, which was not all that fun. The team itself went 124-38 and lost in the Wild Card game. Good times.

[trman73]

As we approach the one-third mark of the 2024 season, it’s been a big day for one of our teams.

The Hammers sold a couple players during the night and squeaked past 1,000 PP, good for a pack. And that pack included Live 100 SP Max Scherzer.
Just about 12 hours later, we earned another. And our great luck continued with Negro League Star SP Slim Jones (86)!

Negro League Stars are in super-high demand right now, and while Slim’s ratings are nice, I put him up for 64,444. He sells within five minutes, and I have 58 packs to open to continue building this team.

I don’t have the energy to log the results, so we’ll just see what we get. It’ll take a couple days to rip through these.

[trman73]

We open the 58 packs and I'm pleasantly surprised...

58 Packs – Gold and above
PERFECT – Live SP Justin Verlander (100)
Diamond – Live C Yasmani Grandal (95)
Gold – 1947 SP Walt Masterson (89)
Gold - Live SP Mike Soroka (89)
Gold – Live 3B Justin Turner (86)
Gold – 1964 C Jim Pagliaroni (85)
Gold - 1903 SP Bill Dinneen (83)
Gold – Live SP Sonny Gray (82)
Gold – Live SP Trevor Bauer (81)
Gold – Live SP Carlos Carrasco (81)

That’s not at all bad. Verlander easily joins the rotation as our #2 starter. Grandal and Pagliaroni become our catching tandem, replacing Narvaez and Andy Seminick. And Masterson replaces the surprisingly effective Ian Anderson in the rotation as the #5, pushing Anderson to long relief and knocking Mat Latos off the staff entirely. The rest of the guys go to the AH.

So the trade, essentially, is SP Slim Jones for two starting pitchers and a new catcher pairing. This addresses two areas of concern for us, so all in all, I’ll take that trade.

[trman73]

All-Star Break Report 2024

Well, of my three teams I’ve got two playing slightly over their heads and one that’s right where I expected.

The Hammers have been all over the map in Silver 246, with a season that’s included two seven-game losing streaks and a shocking 11-game winning streak. We’ve settled in at 51-46, good for 6^th in our conference but far, far off the Wild Card pace. We’re not making the playoffs but the team’s been a pleasant surprise. Of the new additions, Scherzer’s been fine, Verlander’s been awful, the catchers have stunk, and Walt Masterson has been great in four starts. We get two All-Stars... RP Tom Burgmeier, and Albert Pujols, who I imagine will make this a regular thing. I expect us to flounder a bit in the second half but ultimately we can finish something like 84-78, which would be fine. We’re six games clear for being promoted to Gold, so it looks like that’s happening.

The Warlocks are the team doing almost exactly what I thought they would, which is struggling in Gold 302. We’re just not good enough for Gold right now. We get no All Stars, and what I thought would be the strength of the team, the starting pitching, is 14^th in our conference. Adam Wainright has been particularly awful and I’m not sure I can take him anymore. We’re stuck in no-man’s land right now... not good enough to compete, but not bad enough to get relegated at 43-54. Boring.

The big surprise for me has been the Frogs in Silver 260, where despite a grotesque -36 run differential we actually have the 8^th best record in the league at 55-42. We head to the break on a five-game win streak and are tied for the Wild Card lead. I’m not sure we can keep this up. But for now I’ll take it. We’ve played 32 1-run games and gone 21-11 in those games. I still think this team will be on the outside looking in come Sunday, but whatever.

[trman73]

2024 Recap

At the All-Star break I said I’d be happy if the Hammers finished 84-78 in Silver 264. We bested that by two games, finishing 86-76, good for 6^th in our conference but ultimately more than 20 games off the playoff pace. We had a +27 run differential and will be in Gold next season. The good players (Pujols, Ichiro) did what was expected. The new players acquired from the mid-season pack pulls...

Scherzer – 14-8, 4.00, 1.28 WHIP, 3.2 WAR in 30 starts
Verlander – 7-11, 4.61, 1.30 WHIP, 3.0 WAR in 23 starts
Masterson – 8-4, 3.40, 1.32 WHIP, 0.9 WAR in 14 starts
Pagliaroni - .250/.339/.381 for a .720 OPS in 160 AB
Grandal - .189/.313.300 for a .613 OPS in 180 AB

So... it’s Gold next year and we could really use some solid additions.

The Warlocks totally fell apart in the final two months in Gold 407, finishing 66-96 and just a game out of relegation, which I was actually hoping for as the season wound down. We were not good in any facet but the starting staff was particularly terrible, with Blyleven (5.26), Wainwright (5.11) and Plank (5.11) all struggling mightily. The bullpen, with the likes of Brad Hand, Zac Gallen, Danys Baez, and Alejandro Pena, needs a big upgrade as well. The streak of promotions every week is over, and it deserves to be.

Finally, the Frogs are the team that had the greatest success this season, as they stumbled in September but still finished 89-73, good for the top Wild Card spot in our conference in S260. We finished with the 7^th-best overall record in the league despite a -65 run differential. The team we face in the WC game, the New York Mets, finished a game behind us in the division and has an equally poor -56 differential, so we’ll see. The winner gets the Central Mass Smash, which went 122-40 in the league.