Season 33 (2051) - Where All the Action Happens

[old timer]

The Raccoons had a 3 game series coming up with the WhoDats and with how lucky they'd been, I was thinking to myself that we'd probably lose all 3 games in extras. So what actually happened? In the 1st game, Honus Wagner hit a walk-off single to win it for the WhoDats in the bottom of the 14th. In the 2nd game, DiMaggio hits a walk-off single in the bottom of the 11th and in the 3rd game, Ripken hits a walk-off double in the bottom of the 9th. 3 straight walk-off victories for the WhoDats...

We're 38-16 .704, but are only 4-10 in 1-run games. Overall, the bullpen is doing really well so it just looks like bad luck at this point. Speaking of luck, we obviously got lucky with respect to division placement. I'd hate to be in the NC West. Speaking of which, I'm hoping for some revenge against the Texans. They kept beating us in those 2 seasons we were in the whale league together, although many of those wins were really close ones.

[JasonC23]

Thanks to an active 16-game winning streak, Huntley has vaulted past the Excelsior Dodgers for the best NC record (43-11 vs 39-16). Over in the AC, the Amberg Legends hold the top spot with an identical 43-11 record, but Huntley is currently first in the all-important, totally fictitious, and actually completely irrelevant RDiff Championship Scramble(TM) with a +172 to Amberg's +162, with the Dodgers in third at +136.

And that's all well and good, but let's take a minute to appreciate the hard luck of one Huntley staff ace Rube Waddell, who currently leads the league in ERA (1.39), ERA+ (312!), and FIP (2.36); is tied for first in quality starts (10); and is third in WAR (2.7), tied for fifth in strikeouts (82), third in K/9 (10.4), fourth in WHIP (0.96), second in rWAR (3.5), and second in OAVG (.171). All of this stellar pitching has carried Mr. Waddell to a won-loss record of...3-4.

If Rube didn't have bad luck...

Part of the reason for Rube's "just win, baby" difficulties would be the tough seasons currently being turned in by 2050 MVP 2B Arky Vaughan and 3B George Brett. Arky is following up on that stellar .346/.425/.484 award-winning campaign with a .233/.309/.337 batting line, and Brett is topping (bottoming?) even that with a craptacular .207/.263/.304 performance, including a cover-your-eyes-bad .106/.125/.191 vs lefties. Frank Thomas isn't helping at all, either, as a bat-first platoon hitter with a .203/.312/.281 slash line, including .059/.292/.059 vs righties (24 plate appearances, 1 hit [a single], 6 walks). Come on, regression to the mean!

Standings and Rube Waddell's game log follow...

[Argonaut]

My Rube is #62 as well. I wonder how OOTP chooses the uniform numbers for the historical players before numbers were a thing. Sometimes I go with their birth year as a number, so Rube would be #76 for 1876. But #62 seems like it's the one that fits him in the game and it's a unique number, so I'll leave him with it.

[CrazyWR]

I noticed last postseason that perfect Ruth was wearing #61 for me. Seemed really odd.

[Argonaut]

My biggest mistake of this week was unknowingly convincing the Glendale Golden Grizzlies to run their best lineup... they're now steamrolling a division that includes the Cowboys. Green Lake and Little Rock will be also-rans in this very tough P422.

On the other hand the Vikings are showing they can hang with the whales, at one point being 1st in the whole league on the weekly power rankings. Vida Blue tossed a no-hitter which was cool, 1 walk away from the perfect. And we're currently in a tough division with the Endor Yub Nubs, a mini-whale or dolphin team. They have some crazy Charlie Blackmon batter-of-the-month card with 100 CON and 91 POW. What???

[OMGPuppies]

Originally Posted by waittilnextyear

The Frogs find themselves in P457 this week. We've tinkered a little bit with ballpark factors after finding 100 Barry Bonds in a pack. But, the only other newcomers to the roster are SE David Wright (he's learning to play 1B) and old chum Garry Maddox to provide some OF depth.

P457 is not quite the gauntlet that P442 was last week. Teams with PL titles to their name in P457: San Dimas Wyld Stallyns (3, plus gratuitous use of the letter 'y'), Interstate 80 Defenders (3), St George Slammers (1), IB Breakers (3), and La Crosse Fighting Frogs (3). So, only 13 titles altogether. No super whales.

There are also some of "those teams" that are very solid and win 100+ games each season, but for whatever reason haven't bagged a medallion yet. The Bel Air Barleys have won 100+ games in each of the previous 4 seasons, but no titles. The Yokohama Mean Green have 9 division titles (and King Kelly leading off), but no titles. The Las Vegas Knighthawks are in a similar boat (but no King Kelly). The St. Louis River Raiders are a whale's secondary team judging by the "Sabastus2" manager name. Established in 2036 and no PL titles yet, but a host of high-tier whale cards and a .717 winning PCT.

The Fort Lee Christies require special mention. This team is full-blown whale and has a 3455-1752 lifetime record (.664). Has been in Perfect since 2023 and has seventeen 110+ win seasons. But, shockingly no PL titles yet. This week could be their chance...

Even though the league as a whole is not fear-inspiring, the Frogs have one of the tougher divisional placements in the NC West. That's because we're sharing the division with the 3-time PL champ IB Breakers and the whale-ish St. Louis River Raiders. This should be a spirited 3-way race all week long, and the 3rd place finisher might not make the playoffs at all because the St George Slammers look to be a strong wild card contender in a much weaker NC East.

The tanker in P457 (there's always one, right?) is the Subterranean Homesick Aliens. When I moused over their name, I noticed 3 Silver titles and 2 Bronze ones which is certainly odd. A cursory look at the roster reveals, yep, it's a tanker. Rolling with an all-bronze roster save for silver Bobby Jenks and gold J.T. Realmuto. With Ed Walsh, Luke Appling, Doc Gooden, another dozen diamonds, and another 50 golds looking on from the inactive roster. Reported!

Fighting Chickens!!!!!!!!!!!!

[waittilnextyear]

Originally Posted by OMGPuppies

Fighting Chickens!!!!!!!!!!!!

Is Ewa Beach one of your teams?

[waittilnextyear]

With these teams opening up a 3-game set and playing 6 games over the next 10 days, something has to give...

[waittilnextyear]

That went about as well as one could hope...

[Westheim]

Rebs are up to 49-31 and leading by a handful; them accidentally winning an LDS and tumbling into Perfect could make things *interesting*. … Chris Sale pitched a no-hitter in June, so that's "no PP" taken care of… at least as far as players named Chris Sale are concerned.

Here are the limits of my insidious pack luck of recent days though; THIS team would need a perfect card popped. But the best I could do in recorded history was a Michael Brantley….

The Critters have returned above .500, now at 44-37, half a game back in their division, thanks to a 14-game stretch where they won everything except one unfortunate encounter with Greg Maddux. They have not lost consecutive games since June 3. But a wild card will not be available - they will have to win the division to reach the postseason.

Finally, KC, who as expected are well off the pace at this point, 42-39, nine games removed from any sort of playoff spot, and still dropping. Especially games to them Fighting Saints, 1-5 with some ugly routs by now. Brrr!

[One Great Matrix]

Originally Posted by One Great Matrix

Tacked on 13 wins in 22 games today, struggling at the plate rather mightily...(after a very good month yesterday)..., so we sit at 34-14. I'd guess "the truth" is somewhere in between yesterday's show & today's 60%...See ya tomorrow.

It was a dreadful Wednesday. The switch-hitting Flyers played .500 and are now 49-32 on the season...That's good for the best record in the conference. I added Chipper Jones at third base to round out a starting 8 position players plus DH who are all switch hitters. Other than that change I've stuck with the same arrangement since the beginning of the season. But they've struggled to plate much more than 4 runs against those aces. I have some golden (diamond, & perfect) reserves but I'm figuring out who to leave in & who to leave out for the end of the season for now.

What a dreadful day. I don't know if the so-so performance or the other elements of this terrible Wednesday came first. Probably was some kind of package deal, lol.

[waittilnextyear]

I decided to pop open another 75 packs before bedtime while I play the weeks-long Al Hrabosky/Bob Gibson waiting game. Glad I did because this was one of the more productive mini-runs of late. I suppose when All-Star Gerrit Cole was the first card to come out of the first pack it was a good sign.

Paul Molitor might unseat Harry Heilmann as DH against LHP. I'd like to use the 100 Gooden, but I like my All-Star Max Scherzer just a little bit better. If only Doc Gooden could break through the 128 stuff barrier as a relief pitcher...

Here are the highlights (plus 5 LIVE, quicksellable diamonds not shown)...was a good run

[dancariaz]

Something is wrong with my league. It's July and I still have a winning record

[JasonC23]

Huntley ended Tuesday's simulations with an active 16-game winning streak that extended to 18 games before being broken by...the Cincinnati Redlegs! BigRed75's Redlegs actually split that series with Huntley, taking 2 of 4 on their home turf, and have won 4 of the 10 matchups with Huntley so far this season. At the beginning of July, the Redlegs are sitting at--wait for it--.500, 40-40, in third place in the NC East, 8 games behind the second-place Houston Ragin Cajuns, and 1.5 games behind the Miami Jeters in the race for the second Wild Card spot.

All this "Redlegs by Red Raiders" recap leads to is my humble observation that, if BigRed75 can claim that second Wild Card spot and then upset Houston, they will be in the coveted Wild Card Team That Finished Way Behind a Dominant Regular Season Huntley Team But Nevertheless Upsets Them in the Division Series position, held the previous 2 seasons by the Summit Dirigibles and the Bat Cave Bat Chain Pullers. The Chain Pullers even managed to build off the momentum of taking out Huntley by winning the Perfect League championship! So, BigRed75, you're nearly exactly where you need to be to have a great postseason run; grab that Wild Card!

As for the Red Raiders, with an 18-7 June, we sit at 61-18, putting a little distance between us and the Excelsior Dodgers (56-25) for the best NC record but also increasing the distance between Huntley and the Amberg Legends (68-14) for best overall P440 record. Individual player updates:

- Rube Waddell had another great month, with a 1.57 ERA and 278 ERA+ in his 5 June starts, boosting his W-L record to a stellar...6-5.

- Arky Vaughan shall henceforth (this season because I'll forget next week) be known as "Whiplash."
April: .361/.432/.569
May: .132/.210/.154
June: .282/.352/.538

- George Brett put together a nice .324/.381/.500 June, helped out by being benched against lefties in favor of Whiplash's mediocre .256/.304/.372 batting line against southpaws for the season, which far outpaces Brett's .145/.159/.226.

Standings, Rube Waddell's continuing struggles against his own offense, and the craziest WPA graph I've seen in quite a while follow...

[Catchthedamnball]

Slightly past the halfway point, the Mashers are 44-40-- a vast improvement on their inaugural season in Diamond. The difference seems to be vastly improved defense and starting pitching despite making no offseason changes beyond a full season of Andrelton Simmons at SS. I did quicksell Rafael Devers because I got too pack-hungry, and it remains to be seen whether George Kell's play at 3B will justify my desperation to pull a genuinely good card.

In the pitching department, the only starter with an ERA above 4 is Carlos Carrasco (4.71). I'm interested to see how long this trend will last. Not much longer, I imagine.
Kirby Yates is once again money out of the bullpen. The rest of it, however, has gone to seed. The usual suspects (Ohtani, Pressly, Stroman) are stinking it up, and both Hansel Robles and Trevor Rosenthal have returned to suckitude after great seasons.

Medford sports an average offense. Altuve and Judge are performing exceptionally well; Rocky Colavito rounds out the middle of the order with his typical power numbers despite below-normal OBP. Aside from Jerry Grote, who is hitting .300, the bottom of the order might as well not exist.

We are 3.5 games out of the division, and 2.5 games out of the Wild Card. A playoff berth is unlikely, but not without possibility.

Good luck to all in the second half of the season.

[Westheim]

I find it amazing that the Forest Raccoons are what they are, and yet their division is SIXTY-SIX games under .500!

Also, the Rebs had a 7-HR game, which is somehow not an achievement.

And the Accountants lost three more to the Saints, but at least they are in a general collapse and I don't have to curse at forum members that they're at fault for ruining my team's chances.

[scott1964]

The Denver Bears are not taking to being in Diamond.

[scott1964]

Trenton is rebounding from a terrible start of the season. Ac 20-8 June helps alot.

[waittilnextyear]

The Frogs cruised into the All-Star break with a 75-23 (+276) record and a 7-game lead over the IB Breakers.

The Interstate 80 Defenders have the top overall record (75-20) and RDiff (+295) in the league. But, I-80 plays in a much weaker division.

The Frogs only produced a trio of All-Stars, and all pitchers at that. John Smoltz is en route to another 5-ish WAR campaign as a stopper. Ed Walsh and Harry Brecheen are having good years as well in the rotation.

We may have had our best PP-producing game ever. In the final game before the All-Star break, the Frogs beat up on the Menasha Mallards with a 24-10 football score. The output was 7730 PP. 4000 was for a 'blowout inning' where the Frogs scored 17 runs in the 7th inning. 3000 was for a 'contact inning' with 12 hits in that same 7th inning. That game was about the equivalent of quickselling a couple of LIVE diamond cards. Neat-o. Wouldn't mind doing that all over again!

[OMGPuppies]

Originally Posted by waittilnextyear

Is Ewa Beach one of your teams?

Sure is!