An Experiment of 3 Teams - Page 9

Orcin · 05-09-2019, 12:03 PM

Only Live cards are updated.

chazzycat · 05-09-2019, 12:16 PM

Yeah honestly I have been trying to move away from most of my live cards recently...since I am going for specific skills, the ratings changes can be pretty annoying.

All three teams are currently on track to make the playoffs, even the SaberCats with their +16 run differential, who are somehow the only of the three teams actually leading their division. If they get prematurely promoted AGAIN to perfect I am not going to be happy. They somehow keep lucking into these weak divisions, winning 1 playoff series and getting promoted. They are nowhere close to being as good as the Smallballers. If the SmallBallers do get promoted, on the other hand, that would be cool. But they will have to win a wild card game then another series to get there. The Balancers are still playing like the best team in their league by run differential, but -5 at pythag and in a tight division race. So they could even be a wild card too. I just upgraded gold Warren Spahn to the Diamond version, so maybe that will help. He's pitched dominantly in 3 starts so far as my new ace.

chazzycat · 05-12-2019, 01:09 AM

All three teams are headed to the playoffs again this week. The Balancers ended up separating from the division yesterday, and are up 10 games now. The Sabercats clinched their division just now with 2 games left in the season. The SmallBallers have had the wild card spot locked down for a long time. They had a great season, winning 100 games, but that wasn't anywhere close to catching the whale in my division (125 wins).

Of the three teams, I'll be rooting hardest for the Balancers tomorrow. They have just had such bad luck to still be in silver, they really deserve the promotion. The SaberCats, if they win one series, will find themselves in perfect level next week. That is actually kinda terrifying for a team that barely won 90 games with a +30 run differential in diamond. The SmallBallers though, might have some kind of fighting chance to not get completely destroyed at perfect level. So if they do manage to get promoted it wouldn't be too bad. But they are facing the toughest odds...they would have to win a wild card game and then beat the whale.

chazzycat · 05-12-2019, 04:36 PM

The Balancers are finally getting out of silver! They actually haven't lost a game in the playoffs yet, and are just one win away from the world series right now.

The SaberCats lost in the first round, so that's a relief. The SmallBallers won their wild card game, but lost to the whale in the second round. So no promotions to perfect this time around.

chazzycat · 05-12-2019, 11:06 PM

Victory!! The Balancers, after sweeping the first two rounds, capped it off with a 4-1 World Series victory. I think this was the best playoff run I've ever had. Anyways, we're saying goodbye to silver league in style.

Never get tired of seeing this:

Charlatan · 05-13-2019, 02:36 PM

Congrats! My SaberCats team is sitting happily in Diamond. They have either just made or just missed the Wild Card game the last couple of years. I keep looking for upgrades but I don't think I have the available PP to make any changes. The one thing I did do last season was replace Frey with Robin Ventura. Ventura can train to 94 at 2nd so I figured his bat would be a slight upgrade there without much of a loss on defense. I guess I'll see how that works out.

I probably should stop frittering PP away and save up for a really big upgrade though.

chazzycat · 05-13-2019, 09:13 PM

I've somehow resisted the urge with the Sabercats - over 30k pp banked now...it's got Mike Trout's name on it

chazzycat · 05-14-2019, 08:39 PM

Things are looking pretty good so far this week, mainly in that all three of my divisions are whale-free. That's fairly rare, and much appreciated.

The SmallBallers are showing last week was no fluke. They have the 2nd best record in the league currently, and they are doing it with a combination of offense & run prevention - they are 4th overall in runs scored (1st in AVG) and 3rd in runs allowed. Their lifetime winning percentage sits .658, and it seems pretty clear at this point they are dominating the "experiment".

The SaberCats are also showing that last week was no fluke - they deserve to be in diamond too. They are not a dominant team though...far from it. They are currently a few games over .500. Their lifetime winning percentage is .565. Mike Trout is finally getting close to being within reach...maybe within another week or so. His price seems to be dropping a bit, which is fantastic. I'm a bit worried about Paul Goldschmidt now though...his rating has kept dropping from 95 and is down to 91...I'll have to keep a close eye on him this week. If he is in danger of dropping to gold I might quick sell and get a historical guy. The ratings changes on the live cards are kind of annoying TBH when you're going for specific skills. Here's hoping Judge & Stanton just stay on the DL all year

The Balancers seem to be experiencing a bit of a post-WS-victory hangover. So far, their performance in gold is not super impressive. They are a few games under .500, although their run differential is at least positive (+5) indicating a bit of bad luck. It's still pretty early in the season...they could pick it up. There don't appear to be any dominant teams around, so anything could happen. Lifetime winning percentage: .598. So even though they've been in silver all this time, they still win far less than the SmallBallers.

Thornbreaker · 05-17-2019, 11:56 AM

Chazzy,

Do you steal much with your smallballers?

My Gold Ichiro is hitting .375 in PL this week, but he's about 30 for 58 in steal attempts.
I'm wondering if the poor ratio is worth keeping or if I'm just running myself into too many extra outs.

For awhile I had 89 Boggs batting 2nd behind him with Hit n Run set to high on Boggs. But I didn't really see a noticeable increase in run production. So now Boggs is batting 5th with HnR set to high to help avoid double plays on my slower 3 and 4 hitters.

I don't set my whole team to steal, just the basestealers like Ichiro and Apricio.

chazzycat · 05-17-2019, 01:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Thornbreaker

Chazzy,

Do you steal much with your smallballers?

This is a really good question. I had definitely intended to make base-stealing a huge part of this team's offensive strategy, and I have spent a lot of time tinkering with baserunning strategies. Each player has their own customized sliders. Early on, I was stealing really heavily, and leading my leagues in SB. But the closer I looked at the stats, they were not really adding a lot of value. The CS always mounted up alongside the SB, to the point where my wSB values were negative a lot of the time. So over time I adjusted the base stealing aggressiveness downward. In my experience it seems like really only the super-elite basestealers (100+ in all 3 ratings) consistently add value with steals. On my team that was basically Steve Sax. So when I moved away from him and upgraded to Kiura at DH, that was like the final nail in the coffin...now they are just an average base-stealing team. Truth be told, the SmallBallers are now more built around gap power (and conversely, outfield defense) than anything else.

However, that's not to say baserunning isn't still important to this team. My overall baserunning value is tops in the league. They have added +26 runs this season on the basepaths...it's just not from steals. It's definitely worth tinkering with the individual sliders. For example - the only flat-out SLOW dude on my team is Mike LaValierre. But by setting all his sliders to the left I have made sure he doesn't hurt the team too much. His overall baserunning value over 6+ seasons is actually positive.

chazzycat · 05-17-2019, 01:59 PM

Some other updates:

The SmallBallers continue their strong play. They have run away with the division at this point, and clearly one of the top 2 teams in the league. The offense is 6th best in the league (1st in AVG, OBP) while the pitching/defense is 3rd best (1st in Bullpen ERA, 2nd in FIP, 2nd in Defense). Overall there is only one team with a better run differential...that team has 3 perfect cards and 15 diamonds compared to my zero perfects and just 5 diamonds.

I made two upgrades recently that both seem to be doing well so far. First was Joe Cronin, to replace Jose Fernandez as Ozzie's compliment at SS. He's been producing really well, with that super-elite glove as well as OBP/gap abilities. I am trying to split the ABs between them evenly, and they are also the backups for the other infield positions when resting, so they are both getting plenty of chances to contribute.

The other pickup was forced by Sean Doolittle's decline this year. He was my top lefty in the pen, and from the ratings declines his performance was falling off. Overall the lefty contingent of my bullpen was really faltering earlier this week. So I got rid of the lowest rung guy, demoted Doolittle to middle relief/setup, and got myself a new lefty stopper. I ended up with 92 rated Willie Hernandez and he has been fantastic so far (1.7 ERA). This stabilized my bullpen, and now they are the best unit in the league (2.5 ERA).

The SaberCats are still hanging around in diamond as a below average, but above relegation team. Considering I haven't really made a single upgrade in the past month, as I save for Trout, that is not so bad. And I am inching ever closer to Trout...I should have him by next week hopefully. Aaron Judge has been the only bright spot on the offense this year, putting up a 141 wRC+, leading the team in homers and OBP. Otherwise the pitching/defense is what's keeping this team from relegation territory.

The Balancers seem to just be struggling at gold level. Can't call it a hangover anymore at this point. Maybe they are just a .500 gold team? It's a bit early to reach that conclusion, but it seems that way right now. I do think there is some bad luck going on...the team is almost dead last in HR, but the entire offense has pretty good power ratings? So that's just weird. I'm kind of in wait-and-see mode.

Sipimi · 05-17-2019, 04:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by chazzycat

Some other updates:

The Balancers seem to just be struggling at gold level. Can't call it a hangover anymore at this point. Maybe they are just a .500 gold team? It's a bit early to reach that conclusion, but it seems that way right now. I do think there is some bad luck going on...the team is almost dead last in HR, but the entire offense has pretty good power ratings? So that's just weird. I'm kind of in wait-and-see mode.

I'm in the same league as your Balancers (NL Conference) and the competition is stiff. All divisions are close (5 GB or less except 1) and there are many quality players on the rosters. You're still in the division race plus you have that wildcard spot, so I think the Balancers are pretty good!

I believe the lack of HR on your team comes from the fact that there are many batters with 80 PWR or better (+60), so your powerful bats lose their relative advantage because of that. Looks like there are many pitchers with green/blue MOV rating too. Haven't checked the BP factors but that could be another reason to it (mine are set at the minimum).

chazzycat · 05-17-2019, 04:43 PM

Yeah, I'm not expecting them to bash a ton of homers, or lead the league. But I just checked the numbers, and the average power rating in our league is 60, while the average power rating on my team is 62. So an average-ish amount of homers seems like a reasonable expectation. Last time I checked we were ranked 26th in the league...since then we have moved up to #23. So it's headed in the right direction.

Thornbreaker · 05-17-2019, 06:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by chazzycat

This is a really good question. I had definitely intended to make base-stealing a huge part of this team's offensive strategy, and I have spent a lot of time tinkering with baserunning strategies. Each player has their own customized sliders. Early on, I was stealing really heavily, and leading my leagues in SB. But the closer I looked at the stats, they were not really adding a lot of value. The CS always mounted up alongside the SB, to the point where my wSB values were negative a lot of the time. So over time I adjusted the base stealing aggressiveness downward. In my experience it seems like really only the super-elite basestealers (100+ in all 3 ratings) consistently add value with steals. On my team that was basically Steve Sax. So when I moved away from him and upgraded to Kiura at DH, that was like the final nail in the coffin...now they are just an average base-stealing team. Truth be told, the SmallBallers are now more built around gap power (and conversely, outfield defense) than anything else.

However, that's not to say baserunning isn't still important to this team. My overall baserunning value is tops in the league. They have added +26 runs this season on the basepaths...it's just not from steals. It's definitely worth tinkering with the individual sliders. For example - the only flat-out SLOW dude on my team is Mike LaValierre. But by setting all his sliders to the left I have made sure he doesn't hurt the team too much. His overall baserunning value over 6+ seasons is actually positive.

Yeah, in the past I've maybe gotten at best about 65% success rate out of Ichiro. His slider is max on steal, but avg on baserunning.

Moseby, nicely has a good ratio this season. He's usually pulling around 50%. Moseby isn't so much a gap hitter, but I haven't replaced him yet.

And yes, I've put the Mike Lavalierres, Boggs, etc sliders all the way to the left. I like to max hitters where they're proficient and min where not. So like Apracio's slider for bunt for hit is almost all the way to the right.

Cheesehead1964 · 05-17-2019, 06:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by chazzycat

Finally upgraded my DH on the SmallBallers. Steve Sax has been truly awesome, and I have been waiting to find a card I really love to replace him. Today I found this guy for just 4,200 PP:

dat gap power

Hopefully the improvements across the board in hitting ratings will be enough to offset the loss of speed compared to Sax. But I am pretty confident it should.

I got Keston early in the game in a pack, and he's been beastly on my two-time champion Bees. Currently batting .326 - second in my conference and third in the whole league!

And he just got promoted to my real MLB team, the Milwaukee Brewers!

Cheesehead1964 · 05-18-2019, 03:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by chazzycat

So, last year in PT19 I ran two highly specialized teams as follows:

Type A - Small Ball: Offense focused on contact, gap, baserunning. Park factors favor AVG & GAP, penalize HR. FB pitchers favoring strikeout/walk ratios over HR suppression. Outfield defense is the priority.

Type B - Moneyball: Offense focused on power & eye ratings. Park factors favor HR and penalize AVG/GAP. GB pitchers focused on HR suppression. Infield defense is the priority.

Overall both teams were pretty successful, making it to perfect level. However the small-ball team was my "main team" and I spent money on it (probably about $200?), while the moneyball team was basically FTP.

Due to that imbalance in spending, obviously the two teams were not on the same level and so it was hard for me to get a read on which strategy was more effective. So this year I am trying to run a more controlled experiment, to ensure a level playing field between the two teams, and really see which is superior. And also adding a third category:

Type C - Balanced
To serve as a control group, I'm trying to make my 3rd team be as generic as possible. Basically, this team just tries to get the best possible players who have well-rounded skills and no major weaknesses. Park factors set to 1 across the board. Anthony Rizzo comes to mind as the prototypical player for this category - just green bars of similar length, across the board.

The plan was originally for all three teams to be 100% FTP and also with zero pack openings. The purpose of "no packs" is to remove the randomness of pulls from the equation. So all my upgrades will come from PP earned from achievements and then scouring the auction house. No challenge mode packs either.

However when I opened my bonus gold packs, I got a diamond Justin Turner in what became my Type A team. Obviously, getting a diamond that early is a huge boon and throws off the relative balance between the three teams. So, to level the playing field I purchased some points and bought a live-diamond 3B of the same caliber for the other two teams.

So my HR team has added live Matt Chapman, and my "Balanced" team added live Anthony Rendon. I don't plan on spending any more $$ at this point.

I have started remaking the rosters to fit the parks, but am not finished yet. I plan to complete this process over the remaining week in the entry pool, and hit the ground running with all 3 teams next Monday.

That's all for now, I just wanted to get that written down. I'll keep the thread updated as I progress through the seasons.

Chazzy, great thread and forgive me if I missed this somewhere in the thread.

What are the minimum values you look at for say, defense, contact, power, eye, pitching (and which pitching attributes do you value the most)?

When I hit the wall (I'm guessing in diamond) I may retool a team or two around a specific strategy or theme. My Negro League Giants will stay the same but will take a long time to upgrade as I'm only lacking higher value players that qualify (diamond Mays and Campanella are next on my list for around 20K PP).

Charlatan · 05-18-2019, 05:34 PM

I've been a protege of chazzycat's for a while, and I gotta say the themes here are a lot of fun to play with.

My first team that got promoted to Diamond too quickly was refashioned into a HR hitting, GB-pitching team. After a season or two of adjustment, they've done fairly well, finishing above .500 each season and either barely qualifying for or barely missing the playoffs each year. They tend to lead the league in HR but have BAs in the .240s at best. And my pitching always does pretty well too. At this point upgrades cost a lot so with this team I'm mostly saving up for a big purchase.

I also have a second team that plays smallball - just started last week, and they're doing well. It's pretty easy to assemble a bunch of smallball hitters, and they do well when you adjust the ballpark factors to favor XBH. I've been slowly upgrading their pitching staff and after a pretty even start, they have caught first since August - they went 23-4 last month and have the 2nd best record in their league. From stocking this team I've come to see how important the "Avoid K" rating is. I think it's widely underappreciated, and before starting this team I didn't see the value in it - now it's something I look for in a player.

So color me a satisfied customer.

As for the specific values you should look for, he lays it out pretty clearly in the start of the thread so I suggest you re-read the 1st or 2nd page to see the structure of the teams. Good luck!

Cheesehead1964 · 05-19-2019, 01:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Charlatan

I've been a protege of chazzycat's for a while, and I gotta say the themes here are a lot of fun to play with.

My first team that got promoted to Diamond too quickly was refashioned into a HR hitting, GB-pitching team. After a season or two of adjustment, they've done fairly well, finishing above .500 each season and either barely qualifying for or barely missing the playoffs each year. They tend to lead the league in HR but have BAs in the .240s at best. And my pitching always does pretty well too. At this point upgrades cost a lot so with this team I'm mostly saving up for a big purchase.

I also have a second team that plays smallball - just started last week, and they're doing well. It's pretty easy to assemble a bunch of smallball hitters, and they do well when you adjust the ballpark factors to favor XBH. I've been slowly upgrading their pitching staff and after a pretty even start, they have caught first since August - they went 23-4 last month and have the 2nd best record in their league. From stocking this team I've come to see how important the "Avoid K" rating is. I think it's widely underappreciated, and before starting this team I didn't see the value in it - now it's something I look for in a player.

So color me a satisfied customer.

As for the specific values you should look for, he lays it out pretty clearly in the start of the thread so I suggest you re-read the 1st or 2nd page to see the structure of the teams. Good luck!

Thanks!

My Bees just got swept in a series by a team that led the league in AVG and ERA. Only a few diamonds. Several silver and even a few bronze.

I might reset one of my teams around a small ball concept. Actually my Negro League theme team is pretty much a small ball team.

How do you set the ballpark factors exactly? What numbers?

chazzycat · 05-19-2019, 05:46 PM

just got back from a couple days away, and it looks like all three teams will be in diamond next week! The SmallBallers had another great season, winning over 100 games again. But without any guidance they lost in the division series, so no promotion.

The SaberCats finished the season a few games under .500, but with a positive run differential, so they are pretty much an average diamond team. And I am quite close to snagging Mike Trout, finally. Whether that turns an average team to a playoff team remains to be seen.

The Balancers are the real surprise though. Somehow they managed to snag the 2nd wild card spot with 86 wins, to make the playoffs with just a +11 run differential. Since then all they've done is go 7-0 in the playoffs, so far. They are just 1 win away from their 2nd straight world series appearance. I have to say, their playoff performance has really been impressive to date. I kind of wonder if the "no weaknesses" approach is more beneficial in short series...

chazzycat · 05-19-2019, 05:48 PM

@Cheesehead - the park factors for small ball are the maximum for AVG and GAP (1.1 and 1.5 respectively), and the minimum for HR (.9).

05-12-2019, 11:06 PM	#165
chazzycat All Star Starter Join Date: Dec 2014 Posts: 1,685	Victory!! The Balancers, after sweeping the first two rounds, capped it off with a 4-1 World Series victory. I think this was the best playoff run I've ever had. Anyways, we're saying goodbye to silver league in style. Never get tired of seeing this: Last edited by chazzycat; 05-12-2019 at 11:24 PM.

05-14-2019, 08:39 PM	#168
chazzycat All Star Starter Join Date: Dec 2014 Posts: 1,685	Things are looking pretty good so far this week, mainly in that all three of my divisions are whale-free. That's fairly rare, and much appreciated. The SmallBallers are showing last week was no fluke. They have the 2nd best record in the league currently, and they are doing it with a combination of offense & run prevention - they are 4th overall in runs scored (1st in AVG) and 3rd in runs allowed. Their lifetime winning percentage sits .658, and it seems pretty clear at this point they are dominating the "experiment". The SaberCats are also showing that last week was no fluke - they deserve to be in diamond too. They are not a dominant team though...far from it. They are currently a few games over .500. Their lifetime winning percentage is .565. Mike Trout is finally getting close to being within reach...maybe within another week or so. His price seems to be dropping a bit, which is fantastic. I'm a bit worried about Paul Goldschmidt now though...his rating has kept dropping from 95 and is down to 91...I'll have to keep a close eye on him this week. If he is in danger of dropping to gold I might quick sell and get a historical guy. The ratings changes on the live cards are kind of annoying TBH when you're going for specific skills. Here's hoping Judge & Stanton just stay on the DL all year The Balancers seem to be experiencing a bit of a post-WS-victory hangover. So far, their performance in gold is not super impressive. They are a few games under .500, although their run differential is at least positive (+5) indicating a bit of bad luck. It's still pretty early in the season...they could pick it up. There don't appear to be any dominant teams around, so anything could happen. Lifetime winning percentage: .598. So even though they've been in silver all this time, they still win far less than the SmallBallers. Last edited by chazzycat; 05-14-2019 at 09:13 PM.

05-17-2019, 11:56 AM	#169
Thornbreaker Minors (Double A) Join Date: Sep 2014 Location: Mississippi Posts: 155	Chazzy, Do you steal much with your smallballers? My Gold Ichiro is hitting .375 in PL this week, but he's about 30 for 58 in steal attempts. I'm wondering if the poor ratio is worth keeping or if I'm just running myself into too many extra outs. For awhile I had 89 Boggs batting 2nd behind him with Hit n Run set to high on Boggs. But I didn't really see a noticeable increase in run production. So now Boggs is batting 5th with HnR set to high to help avoid double plays on my slower 3 and 4 hitters. I don't set my whole team to steal, just the basestealers like Ichiro and Apricio. __________________

05-18-2019, 05:34 PM	#177
Charlatan All Star Starter Join Date: May 2006 Location: Leesburg, VA Posts: 1,491	I've been a protege of chazzycat's for a while, and I gotta say the themes here are a lot of fun to play with. My first team that got promoted to Diamond too quickly was refashioned into a HR hitting, GB-pitching team. After a season or two of adjustment, they've done fairly well, finishing above .500 each season and either barely qualifying for or barely missing the playoffs each year. They tend to lead the league in HR but have BAs in the .240s at best. And my pitching always does pretty well too. At this point upgrades cost a lot so with this team I'm mostly saving up for a big purchase. I also have a second team that plays smallball - just started last week, and they're doing well. It's pretty easy to assemble a bunch of smallball hitters, and they do well when you adjust the ballpark factors to favor XBH. I've been slowly upgrading their pitching staff and after a pretty even start, they have caught first since August - they went 23-4 last month and have the 2nd best record in their league. From stocking this team I've come to see how important the "Avoid K" rating is. I think it's widely underappreciated, and before starting this team I didn't see the value in it - now it's something I look for in a player. So color me a satisfied customer. As for the specific values you should look for, he lays it out pretty clearly in the start of the thread so I suggest you re-read the 1st or 2nd page to see the structure of the teams. Good luck! Last edited by Charlatan; 05-18-2019 at 05:35 PM.

05-09-2019, 12:03 PM	#161
Orcin Hall Of Famer Join Date: Aug 2010 Location: Indiana Posts: 9,798	Only Live cards are updated.

05-09-2019, 12:16 PM	#162
chazzycat All Star Starter Join Date: Dec 2014 Posts: 1,685	Yeah honestly I have been trying to move away from most of my live cards recently...since I am going for specific skills, the ratings changes can be pretty annoying. All three teams are currently on track to make the playoffs, even the SaberCats with their +16 run differential, who are somehow the only of the three teams actually leading their division. If they get prematurely promoted AGAIN to perfect I am not going to be happy. They somehow keep lucking into these weak divisions, winning 1 playoff series and getting promoted. They are nowhere close to being as good as the Smallballers. If the SmallBallers do get promoted, on the other hand, that would be cool. But they will have to win a wild card game then another series to get there. The Balancers are still playing like the best team in their league by run differential, but -5 at pythag and in a tight division race. So they could even be a wild card too. I just upgraded gold Warren Spahn to the Diamond version, so maybe that will help. He's pitched dominantly in 3 starts so far as my new ace.

05-12-2019, 01:09 AM	#163
chazzycat All Star Starter Join Date: Dec 2014 Posts: 1,685	All three teams are headed to the playoffs again this week. The Balancers ended up separating from the division yesterday, and are up 10 games now. The Sabercats clinched their division just now with 2 games left in the season. The SmallBallers have had the wild card spot locked down for a long time. They had a great season, winning 100 games, but that wasn't anywhere close to catching the whale in my division (125 wins). Of the three teams, I'll be rooting hardest for the Balancers tomorrow. They have just had such bad luck to still be in silver, they really deserve the promotion. The SaberCats, if they win one series, will find themselves in perfect level next week. That is actually kinda terrifying for a team that barely won 90 games with a +30 run differential in diamond. The SmallBallers though, might have some kind of fighting chance to not get completely destroyed at perfect level. So if they do manage to get promoted it wouldn't be too bad. But they are facing the toughest odds...they would have to win a wild card game and then beat the whale.

05-12-2019, 04:36 PM	#164
chazzycat All Star Starter Join Date: Dec 2014 Posts: 1,685	The Balancers are finally getting out of silver! They actually haven't lost a game in the playoffs yet, and are just one win away from the world series right now. The SaberCats lost in the first round, so that's a relief. The SmallBallers won their wild card game, but lost to the whale in the second round. So no promotions to perfect this time around.

05-13-2019, 02:36 PM	#166
Charlatan All Star Starter Join Date: May 2006 Location: Leesburg, VA Posts: 1,491	Congrats! My SaberCats team is sitting happily in Diamond. They have either just made or just missed the Wild Card game the last couple of years. I keep looking for upgrades but I don't think I have the available PP to make any changes. The one thing I did do last season was replace Frey with Robin Ventura. Ventura can train to 94 at 2nd so I figured his bat would be a slight upgrade there without much of a loss on defense. I guess I'll see how that works out. I probably should stop frittering PP away and save up for a really big upgrade though.

05-13-2019, 09:13 PM	#167
chazzycat All Star Starter Join Date: Dec 2014 Posts: 1,685	I've somehow resisted the urge with the Sabercats - over 30k pp banked now...it's got Mike Trout's name on it

05-17-2019, 01:59 PM	#171
chazzycat All Star Starter Join Date: Dec 2014 Posts: 1,685	Some other updates: The SmallBallers continue their strong play. They have run away with the division at this point, and clearly one of the top 2 teams in the league. The offense is 6th best in the league (1st in AVG, OBP) while the pitching/defense is 3rd best (1st in Bullpen ERA, 2nd in FIP, 2nd in Defense). Overall there is only one team with a better run differential...that team has 3 perfect cards and 15 diamonds compared to my zero perfects and just 5 diamonds. I made two upgrades recently that both seem to be doing well so far. First was Joe Cronin, to replace Jose Fernandez as Ozzie's compliment at SS. He's been producing really well, with that super-elite glove as well as OBP/gap abilities. I am trying to split the ABs between them evenly, and they are also the backups for the other infield positions when resting, so they are both getting plenty of chances to contribute. The other pickup was forced by Sean Doolittle's decline this year. He was my top lefty in the pen, and from the ratings declines his performance was falling off. Overall the lefty contingent of my bullpen was really faltering earlier this week. So I got rid of the lowest rung guy, demoted Doolittle to middle relief/setup, and got myself a new lefty stopper. I ended up with 92 rated Willie Hernandez and he has been fantastic so far (1.7 ERA). This stabilized my bullpen, and now they are the best unit in the league (2.5 ERA). The SaberCats are still hanging around in diamond as a below average, but above relegation team. Considering I haven't really made a single upgrade in the past month, as I save for Trout, that is not so bad. And I am inching ever closer to Trout...I should have him by next week hopefully. Aaron Judge has been the only bright spot on the offense this year, putting up a 141 wRC+, leading the team in homers and OBP. Otherwise the pitching/defense is what's keeping this team from relegation territory. The Balancers seem to just be struggling at gold level. Can't call it a hangover anymore at this point. Maybe they are just a .500 gold team? It's a bit early to reach that conclusion, but it seems that way right now. I do think there is some bad luck going on...the team is almost dead last in HR, but the entire offense has pretty good power ratings? So that's just weird. I'm kind of in wait-and-see mode.

05-17-2019, 04:43 PM	#173
chazzycat All Star Starter Join Date: Dec 2014 Posts: 1,685	Yeah, I'm not expecting them to bash a ton of homers, or lead the league. But I just checked the numbers, and the average power rating in our league is 60, while the average power rating on my team is 62. So an average-ish amount of homers seems like a reasonable expectation. Last time I checked we were ranked 26th in the league...since then we have moved up to #23. So it's headed in the right direction.

05-19-2019, 05:46 PM	#179
chazzycat All Star Starter Join Date: Dec 2014 Posts: 1,685	just got back from a couple days away, and it looks like all three teams will be in diamond next week! The SmallBallers had another great season, winning over 100 games again. But without any guidance they lost in the division series, so no promotion. The SaberCats finished the season a few games under .500, but with a positive run differential, so they are pretty much an average diamond team. And I am quite close to snagging Mike Trout, finally. Whether that turns an average team to a playoff team remains to be seen. The Balancers are the real surprise though. Somehow they managed to snag the 2nd wild card spot with 86 wins, to make the playoffs with just a +11 run differential. Since then all they've done is go 7-0 in the playoffs, so far. They are just 1 win away from their 2nd straight world series appearance. I have to say, their playoff performance has really been impressive to date. I kind of wonder if the "no weaknesses" approach is more beneficial in short series...

05-19-2019, 05:48 PM	#180
chazzycat All Star Starter Join Date: Dec 2014 Posts: 1,685	@Cheesehead - the park factors for small ball are the maximum for AVG and GAP (1.1 and 1.5 respectively), and the minimum for HR (.9).