Season 44 (2062) - Discussion Thread

[macacks]

Anyone seen this achievement before?
[ATTACH][/ATTACH]

[Germaniac]

Coincidence? Same team name, same logo?

[pappyzan]

Standings at the halfway point of the AceHole January Invitational, including a pic of teams currently near the relegation line. 246 PL titles in the league. With 20+ whales and a handful of other mini-whales, nobody is safe.

League contains:

RH SPs
22 Cy Young (100), 21 Walt Johnson (100), 20 Hoyt, 18 Walsh, 17 Maddux (100), 14 Pedro (both 100s), 13 Schilling, 12 Coveleski, 12 Ruffing, 11 SE Gooden, 10 Alexander, 8 Keefe

RH CLs
18 Rivera (100), 15 Eckersley (100), 12 Lee Smith (100)

LH SPs
19 Rixey, 14 Kershaw (both 100s), 14 Marquard, 12 Waddell (100), 10 Hubbell (100)

292 elite arms, averaging 9.7 per team. Filthy!

This is my virgin shot in the monthly whale tourney put together in Discord; pleased to be hanging in around .500, pretty content to just not get relegated. Awaiting an appearance of the Old Timer 5 (or whatever the # is now) for the next one!

[dkgo]

Wow. The standings actually look like real baseball is being played.

[HelpDodgers]

Going to be interesting in PL 409

Belfast is looking for a wild card berth in a tough AL Central. Nomadic and Louisville as expected are fighting it out for first. One will be going to be the host team in the wildcard.

My final 3 games in October are going to be against Nomadic at home. Those games should be to see if I am a WC or not and if they are division champions or not. I will probably review and see if I will go all lefties for the first 50 pitches before righties or switch it around. Belfast's hitting is good so it will come down to pitching (our weak spot).

The Lou's added Tony Gwynn Legend today and put Reggie Jackson legend in AH for 13K starting. We will work on pitching after our hitting is set.

The Bears are doing as expected.

[JasonC23]

Originally Posted by pappyzan

Standings at the halfway point of the AceHole January Invitational, including a pic of teams currently near the relegation line. 246 PL titles in the league. With 20+ whales and a handful of other mini-whales, nobody is safe.

League contains:

RH SPs
22 Cy Young (100), 21 Walt Johnson (100), 20 Hoyt, 18 Walsh, 17 Maddux (100), 14 Pedro (both 100s), 13 Schilling, 12 Coveleski, 12 Ruffing, 11 SE Gooden, 10 Alexander, 8 Keefe

RH CLs
18 Rivera (100), 15 Eckersley (100), 12 Lee Smith (100)

LH SPs
19 Rixey, 14 Kershaw (both 100s), 14 Marquard, 12 Waddell (100), 10 Hubbell (100)

292 elite arms, averaging 9.7 per team. Filthy!

This is my virgin shot in the monthly whale tourney put together in Discord; pleased to be hanging in around .500, pretty content to just not get relegated. Awaiting an appearance of the Old Timer 5 (or whatever the # is now) for the next one!

Wait, wait, wait...this is supposed to encourage the Old Timer # to join the Whale Invitational?

[JasonC23]

At the P466 All-Star break, the Huntley Red Raiders are sitting pretty, with a 70-26 record that has the team a comfortable 17.5 games ahead of its closest NC Central competitors, the Hermosa Beach Banana Hammocks and Motown Stars -OL, both with identical 52-43 records. True, the Red Raiders are still trailing the awesome Minnesota Bold North for overall best NC record, but it's a mere 2.5-game deficit, with the North at 73-24. So, overall, things are going swimmingly for the Red Raiders...

...or they would be, if Pythag records were what counted.

Instead, Huntley is a staggering 7 games below its Pythag, with a "real"-world record of 63-33. Meanwhile, the Motown Stars -OL are 3 games better than their Pythag, and the Red Raiders' mortal enemies, the Banana Hammocks, are a Dark Mirror image +7, leaving the true gap between the teams 7.5 and a mere 3.5 games, respectively. And guess who comes to Huntley to open the second half of the season? LeroyJenkins' Banana Hammocks, naturally.

The only bright spot is that Minnesota is now 2 games below its Pythag. But that, of course, is balanced by the NC West-leading Fargo Buscemis - OL being +1, giving them a 64-34 record and landing them in a virtual tie with Huntley in the race for the #2 NC seed.

And the strangeness carries over to the AC, where the La Crosse Fighting Frogs (68-29) are a comfortable 15 games ahead in the AC West but 4 games below their Pythag. The AC Central-leading Old Hoss Radbourns are also 4 games below their Pythag, so even though their 69-26 record is worse than it "should" be, the Radbourns' 2-game lead over the Frogs for the #1 AC seed is legit.

And finally, the sad truth is, Huntley shouldn't even complain, as old timer's Evergreen Forest Raccoons are outpacing AC East division mates Cigar City Lagers -OL by 100 runs in RDiff, +209 to +109, and yet, thanks to the Raccoons being 4 games below their Pythag and the Lagers bettering theirs by 5 games, it's the Lagers that hold a 0.5-game lead at the All-Star break, 63-32 to 63-33.

P466 is weird, folks. Exciting and fun, but weird.

[LeroyJenkins]

Originally Posted by JasonC23

P466 is weird, folks. Exciting and fun, but weird.

Couldn't have said it better myself. Very odd first half to be sure. Plus, I sure hope you enjoyed that 12-0 beating you put on my Hammocks in the rubber game of our three game set!


Should absolutely be an interesting second half of the season. I may need to do a little tinkering to maintain my WC spot, but hey... that's all part of the fun.

[waittilnextyear]

The New Age Old Timer 3 Of The Ages is having some misunderstandings with the ghost of Pythagorus. But, other than that, the only real hardship this week has been...no old timer. Wherefore art thou, old timer? Your # needs their leader.

I will focus on the AC in P466 because JasonC23 has so eloquently recapped much of his own home conference...

AC East: The Evergreen Forest Raccoons are getting hot, but still only a scant 1 game ahead of the Cigar City Lagers. The concerns old timer expressed recently about combating lefty-cheese teams seem prescient as Cigar City is textbook lefty cheese.

AC Central: The Old Hoss Radbourns left their division-mates behind long ago and currently maintain a 29-game advantage over the peloton. The Radbourns seem to be hitting their stride as a 2-time defending PL champ at the present moment. They're gunning for that elusive 3-peat. These Radbourns have been remarkably consistent with their roster composition (whereas personally I like to sub in/out from week to week)--the only "new" card they're running out there this week is 100 Carl Hubbell. Not a bad one to have. I also like that they've still got 78 DeVo on the active roster.

AC West: The Frogs don't quite have a Radbourns-level lead in the division, but have essentially hopped away from the rest of the pack to the tune of a 17-game lead. So, things are pretty good. Ed Walsh had himself an immaculate inning today (atta boy, Big Ed). The Frogs placed 5 All-Stars (Bonds, Cash, Berra, Walsh, Coveleski). And, did I mention that we got Pedro Martinez in a pack a couple days ago? And 100 Lefty Grove late last week? Well, that duo is 21-2 so far this week. Adequate.

The only troubling aspect of the season so far for the Frogs (I have given up trying to account for/combat cheese) is losing records against the main contenders to represent the AC in the PL series. The Frogs dropped 2/3 to the Raccoons in their historic first encounter (7-9, 6-2, 0-7) and have dropped 4/6 to the Radbourns. We'll see how the Frogs do when the Raccoons come calling, but the playoffs could be a bumpy ride. The race between the Radbourns (74-29), Bold North (76-29), Frogs (74-29), Raccoons (70-34), and Red Raiders (69-35) for top seed in P466 could get quite steamy...

[One Great Matrix]

Originally Posted by pappyzan

Standings at the halfway point of the AceHole January Invitational, including a pic of teams currently near the relegation line. 246 PL titles in the league. With 20+ whales and a handful of other mini-whales, nobody is safe.

League contains:

RH SPs
22 Cy Young (100), 21 Walt Johnson (100), 20 Hoyt, 18 Walsh, 17 Maddux (100), 14 Pedro (both 100s), 13 Schilling, 12 Coveleski, 12 Ruffing, 11 SE Gooden, 10 Alexander, 8 Keefe

RH CLs
18 Rivera (100), 15 Eckersley (100), 12 Lee Smith (100)

LH SPs
19 Rixey, 14 Kershaw (both 100s), 14 Marquard, 12 Waddell (100), 10 Hubbell (100)

292 elite arms, averaging 9.7 per team. Filthy!

This is my virgin shot in the monthly whale tourney put together in Discord; pleased to be hanging in around .500, pretty content to just not get relegated. Awaiting an appearance of the Old Timer 5 (or whatever the # is now) for the next one!

Wow!

[scott1964]

[Orion]

Guardians are rolling again, I could hardly be more pleased. We ended up losing to the Whips in the Sub-league but took them to 7 games. This year we are running away with the division and have a chance at another series run, helped by last years late add of Frank DiPino to bolster my otherwise rather shoddy bullpen. We had one player we trusted last year back there, thankfully he was reliever of the year. Using starters as elite stoppers feels a bit cheesy but harder to compete with a conventional bullpen setup so...

[macacks]

Originally Posted by macacks

The Warbirds find themselves in P435 this week.

They are in an extremely top heavy conference again this week which includes some frequent tournament combatants.

Scottsdale Scorpions (10 PL), Bridgeville Bucs (8PL and 6 of the last 8 years) hold down the NC East. There is more than meets the eye here though...

The Warbirds are in the NC west along with one time PL Champs Bensonhurst Blackbirds and Arkport Wolves. Both strong teams but the Warbirds should win the division.

NC Central with no previous champs.

4PL champs in the AC with three teams.

Now...joining the Scorpions and the Bucs in the NC East is this team...
Attachment 669332

That will add interest to the division and conference.
The Warbirds have clashed with Vermont in many tournament games as Vermont tested their ability for Perfect. there is no doubt they are coming in confident but will not have an easy path in the NC East.

The Warbirds have a fairly tight 5 game lead in the divison after trailing for the first 2 months. This could be the toughest season, with regards to competition, in quite a while. It does have some PL champs but it also has many non-winners with very good teams that were not noticed/scouted at the beginning of the season.
There will be 9 teams finishing with 100 wins. 1 won't make the playoffs though due to one weaker division.

Pythag has the Warbirds 5 games behind their 4th place RD.
Pitching has been firing bb's and on pace for a record ERA and RA.
The offence has been dragging. The post All-star game acquisition of Zack Wheat (98 OPS+) has not paid dividends as of yet. The Warbirds do have more PP (due to nice pulls on packs) to add another player or two if the opportunity presents itself.

[JasonC23]

Well, this was a nice sight to see upon opening OOTP tonight...

[LeroyJenkins]

Originally Posted by JasonC23

Well, this was a nice sight to see upon opening OOTP tonight...

I just kept seeing your lead in the division growing and growing. That was a really nice tear the Red Raiders went on. Looks like I'm going to have to try and make it through the wild card this season if the Hammocks want to try and make any noise at all!

[One Great Matrix]

I see Orion already posted the standings. Welp, here they are again...Congratulations to you, Larry Walker & you, Derek Jeter, wherever you are on making it to the Major League Baseball National Hall of Fame. I pulled a Jeff McNeil card tonight. Sweet dreams!

[Orion]

Hi Flyers, might be seeing you in the playoffs! I'm already in training mode. Been looking for a Chipper Jones (95) for ages, finally saw one and he was 5k under avg price to boot. Good times.

[One Great Matrix]

Yeah, I'll see you in the playoffs if that pans out, Orion. I like Chipper as well, and I'm a Mets fan...He played on the Flyers a little bit, on one of the teams that won a Perfects League...Good luck to both of us.

[Orion]

I'm a huge old Dodgers fan, at least pre-Fox era. I never liked the Braves or the Cards but I respected them. Those 80's turf Cards were fun to watch and that's kinda the theme/strategy I built around.

[Magus978]

Spurred on by their all-in purchase of 100 Walter Johnson tonight for 350k, the Steelport Saints have managed to avoid relegation in whale league! A huge victory for us and we'll take that into Monday in search for our 2nd title in a hopefully more favorable league.