Archie's Blog

[rburgh]

Welcome to my blog. I am a veteran of about 26 weeks of PT 2.0, setting sail on my first full season. I bought 2 licenses, s I have 6 teams running. Three of them are going primarily for collection missions and 3 will mainly use the auction house. In each group of 3, there will be one extreme pitchers' park (all Avg and HR park factors set to 0.9) one park with AVG set to 1.1 and HR to 0.9, and one with HR set to 1.1 and Avg to 0.9.


Of my six teams, two each came out of the Entry league into iron leagues, two into Stone leagues, and two into Rookie leagues. I will discuss the in pairs by ballpark type.

[rburgh]

Both of these teams were seeded into the Rookie league. In part, that's because it's very hard for pitching and defense teams to score PP's until the pitching staff becomes overpowering. But also, I put my teams with the worst lineups into this group.


West 35th Gumshoes (for those of you not in on the joke, 5 of my six managers are character from the Nero Wolfe mystery novels, which revolved around a reclusive genius who lived on West 35th in Manhattan and employed Archie Goodwin as his leg man and the narrator of the stories. Archie is my manager, my Discord name, and the narrator of this blog.)


Our opening day lineup will be (players tagged with an asterisk were acquired with the starter packs and the 2 bonus gold packs)


Joey Votto 1B 76
*Nori Aoki RF 70
Ray Durham 2B 89
Vlad Guerrero Jr. 3B 83
*Shin-Soo Choo DH 62
*Wil Myers LF 69
*Al Bumbry CF 62
*David Freitas C 69
*Mark Belanger SS 75

SP
*Bruce Berenyi 89
*Doug Drabek 84
Dennis Rasmussen 69
* Nelson Briles 59
*Joe Orrell 60

Pen
*Craig Kimbrel 87
and a bunch of roster fillers

As you can see, all 3 of my starting Golds were pitchers, it was an easy decision to make this a pitching and defense team. But the team earned only a little over 5000 PP's during the entry season, and more than half of that went into buying Durham about halfway in. He didn't disappoint, he earned over 700 PP's thanks to a cycle that included a leadoff HR and a couple of other leadoff HR's.

Montenegro Partisans - manager Nero Wolfe


This team is also in a Rookie league. As you will shortly see, I got virtually no hitter of consequence from my starter kit.


Lineup
*Fred Tenney 1B 62
*Starling Marte LF 70
Alex Verdugo RF 75
Gio Urshela 3B 74
*Rob Wilfong DH 70
*Hanser Alberto 2B 65
Harrison Bader CF 86
Christian Vazquez C 78
Billy Jurges SS 72


SP
*Kevin Gausman 84
*Bruce Kison 82
*Larry Dierker 75
Roger Moret 68
Al Fitzmorris 67


Bullpen
* Mike Crudale 84
and a bunch of bronzes, mostly purchased.


The original OF for this team was Marte, Midre Cummings, and the 57 Rookie Sensation Jeffrey Leonard, POW rating 4. And yes, another team with all the starter kit golds on the bump.

.

[rburgh]

Central Park Pirates, manager Lily Rowan


Stone level



This team only made two acquisitions, Crosetti and Shamsky. And Shamsky was purchased after the entry league season ended,


*Manuel Margot CF 71
*J.D. Davis 3B 75
*Lou Clinton RF 77
Art Shamsky DH 84

*Billy Conigliaro LF 77
*Max Muncy 1B 87
*Deivy Grullon C 67
*Kolten Wong 2B 81
Frankie Crosetti SS 84


SP
*Daniel Norris 68
*Curt Young 67
*Larry Jaster 60
* Rogelio Armenteros 59
*Glenn Sparkman 57


Bullpen
*Kirby Yates 88
*Jesse Orosco 68
and some more original issue bronzes.


Once I fix CF, I will work on bringing the pitching staff into shape.



Berkshire Bees - Manager Kit Halley (not a NW character)


This is an Iron level team. As you will see, it was greatly gifted by the starter kit.


CF Darryl Hamilton 67

3B Manny Machado 88
1B *Derrek Lee 89
RF *Art Shamsky 84
DH *Miguel Andujar 76
SS Trevor Story 90
2B *Tony Bernazard 79

LF *Khris Davis 69
C Carson Kelly 82


SP
Zach Davies 74
*Brad Keller 65
*Framber Valdez 68
*Joe Ross 61
*Ken Holtzman 57


Bullpen
*Ryan Pressly 84
*Joe Jimenez 81
*Hansel Robles 69
*Brandon Workman 69
etc.


As you can see, this team was gifted with 3 Gold power hitters and two nice Gold relievers. Early in the season, I bought Alan Ashby for 100 PP's to back up the 68 roger Bresnahan, who is now my backup C and also is a 74 at 2B.

[rburgh]

Manhattan Freelancers, manager Saul Panzer


Stone league



*Asdrubal Cabrera 3B 77
Carl Crawford LF 77
*George Hendrick CF 83
Bob Hazle DH 86
*Derrek Lee 1B 89
Corey Seager SS 88
*Tommy Edman 2B 65
*Joe Orsulak RF 64
Buster Posey C 79


Hazle was bought for 6000 mid-season with the PP's earned in a 25-6 thumping of some team. Seager was bought a little later, when I got tired of seeing Shawon Dunston in my box scores. Crawford was a late season add, he played very few games. And Posey was a post-season buy.


SP

*Cliff Melton 89 (Never heard of him, did you? He was dynamite.)
Steve Blass 79 - a personal favorite
Silvio Martinez 78
*Dylan Cease 69
*Sam Zoldak 59


Bullpen
*Joe Borowski 71
*Rafael Montero 67
*Dale Mohorcic 61
And more random bronzes.


This team was chugging along at about a .450 pace until I bought Hazle, then it took off, and when Seager was added it got very hot.


Ontario Street Urchins, manager Lionel Cramer


Iron League



lineup
*Eddie Moore 66 DH
*Andrelton Simmons 81 SS
*Brandon Lowe 73 2B
George Burns 85 LF
*Evan Longoria 68 3B
Harrison Bader 86 CF
*Casey Kotchman 59 1B
*Felix Jose 61 RF
*Bob Boone 65 C


SP
*Corey Kluber 87
*Sid Hudson 80
*Sid Shea 80
*Randy Tomlin 78
*Jason Marquis 65


Bullpen
*David Hernandez 77
*Rich Garces 76
*Ryne Stanek 69
*Jesse Orosco 68


I almost made this this my second pitcher's park team but the hitters I got mostly had much better contact than the Partisans' hitters. But it started off slowly - the original OF was Ian Happ, Michael Hermosillo, and Felix Jose. Felix remains, but he is the next guy on the chopping block. I will basically run with this pitching staff for a long time, probably only adding to it as a part of my collection missions.

[rburgh]

My Ontario Street Urchins got punked by the 99 Greg Maddux to begin May. That made my team 11-16 and his 15-11. So I looked at his roster, and his lineup was:


Suzuki CF
Soto LF
Sisler DH
Bagwell 1B
Klein RF
Arenado 3B
Frisch 2B
Realmuto C
Baez SS


Frisch is the lowest OVR at 88. So I figured he had a trash staff and had just added Maddux. Well, I was right about Maddux, but the rest of his rotation is deGrom, Trout, the newly added Carlton, and Bucky Walters. WOW


So I looked at the league - there are 4 teams with more than 20 wins and fewer than 9 losses, including a 27-2. YIKES.


Meanwhile, my Berkshire Bees are 21-8 - I've spent nothing except earned points. They have the best record in that league by 3 games.

[rburgh]

First, the best. My Berkshire Bees, a power team in an Iron league, laid a whooping on one of their opponents, to the tune of 4000 PP's worth of accomplishments. Art Shamsky was the principal contributor, going 6 for 7 with a double and a homer, scoring 5 runs, and driving in 4. Trevor Story contributed 3 dingers to the cause as well. But there's nothing I really wanted to buy with the points, so I made a few small pitching upgrades by replacing some of my bronzes with high end silvers.


My Manhattan Freelancers are the other end of the spectrum, they're a small-ball team in an iron league that is 24-31 with a positive run differential. I guess I need to buy a couple of arms for the pen.


Both my pitching and defense teams are in Rookie leagues and are dominating. They are a combined 72-36; one is in a dogfight with another strong squad in its division, the other is traoling only Michigator's whale squad for the best record in the league. Sadly, we're in the same conference, so I doubt I will be getting a ring with that team.


My Stone league power team is 25-30 with a run differential of -2, but I have settled the pitching staff down and now am saving up for a good catcher.


And my Iron league Small ball team made a big purchase in the morning, buying George Burns to play LF. He hit .322-7-29 for the day, raking in 295 AP's. They;re stuck in the middle of the pack, I am saving up for a RF upgrade from Felix Jose.

[rburgh]

This team is currently playing in an Iron league and doing quite well. I had a huge offensive game yesterday which netted over 4000 PP's. So I purchased Ozuna (replacing Khris Davis), Tewksbury, Paddack, and Gonzales (replacing Framber Valdez, Joe Ross, and Brad Keller) and Tom Hume to bolster my bullpen. My team is now:



Darryl Hamilton CF
Marcell Ozuna LF
Derrek Lee 1B
Art Shamsky RF
Trevor Story SS
MIguel Andujar DH
Tony Bernazard 2B
Manny Machado 3B
Carson Kelly C


Rotation - Tewksbury, Medich, Davies, Marco Gonzales, Paddack
Bullpen - Pressly, Joe Jimenez, Tom Hume, Hansel Robles, Kiko Calero


I'm just going to let this team churn out PP's for now while I use those to pick up cards for missions. I'll make a few buys along the way (this team has the makings of a solid Silver tournament team if I can just get the 77 Ichiro into the fold) to bolster my bullpen and such, but that lineup is only going to get changed as a part of completing my collections.



I'm going after the NL West Mission first since Randy Johnson, Duke Snider, Jeff Kent, Dave Winfield, Tulo, and Mel Ott all would fit well on this roster.

[rburgh]

Both my pitching and defense teams in the Rookie leagues are doing well. Neither has much support for the All Star voting, since neither has a really good starter yet.


West 35th is 54-29 with a 16.5 game lead in its division, and is 20.5 games behind the Pawtucket Poets for the best record in the league. Unfortunately, they are in our conference, so it looks like we will be promoted to the Stone level without a ring. I am just hoarding PP's hoping to be able to buy a solid starter on Sunday evening.


The Montenegro Partisans are 52-29 with a 2 game lead in the division and also for the best record in the league. Actually, the third place team in my division is only 5 games behind us. But we have 4 likely all-stars - closer Mike Crudale is a solid 4th in the RP voting, starters Larry Dierker and Pat Rapp (!) are 1-2 in the SP voting, and SS Billy Jurges is leading the SS voting with a .280-10-38 stat line. Not bad for a guy with 72 OVR and 50/55/31 OVR batting ratings.


My average and on-base teams are struggling, and one is in danger of being relegated.


The Manhattan Freelancers are 40-40 despite a run differential of +34. My last two purchases have been a couple of 79 OVR guys, Les Lancaster (60/80/82) and Eddie Watt (55/86/86). Along with starter kit 71 OVR Joe Borowski (76/62/77) they will be handling the late innings. Borowski has a 1.57 ERA in 30 G, Lancaster 1.93 in 9 (he was acquired yesterday) and Watt is busy meeting and greeting his new teammates.


The Ontario Street Urchins are 33-49 at the Iron level and appear to be headed for the Stone level next season. This morning's acquisition, Wally Joyner, replacing Casey Kotchman who ends his brief run as an Urchin with a 262/313/366 triple slash line, should help but we are still running Feliz Jose out in RF. Since this team started with Kotchman at 1B and Ian Happ, Michael Hermosillo, and Jose in the OF, I am please to have replaced 3 of them in only 6 days of play (counting the Entry league). But our only player on the All Star voting leaderboard is LF George Burns, who is only about 100,000 votes behind voting leaders Yaz and Soto.


The stone level Central Park Pirates are 36-47 with a -20 run differential. We're only 6 1/2 games out in our tightly bunched division. And we're hoping to get a boost from yesterday evening's acquisition of John Buzhardt in the rotation. We also have one sure All-Star in J.D.Davis at 3B and one of our relievers (61 OVR John Schreiber) is among the leaders in the RP voting.


The Iron level Berkshire Bees are our flagship franchise so far. They're 52-30 with a 5 1/2 game lead in the division and a 1 1/2 game lead for the best record in the league. They have stabilized their roster and are currently busy with their collection missions.Curiously, their closest pursuer for the best record in the league is being led by Suzuki who is hitting .410. But it's Kurt, not Ichiro. And it's a 21 game sample size.

[rburgh]

August 12th, 1966. The Pittsburgh Pirates (68-46 and in first place in the NL) visit the Cincinnati Reds (58-56, 6th) on a warm summer Friday night.


The Pirates lead by a run at 7-6 in the bottom of the 8th, when Shamsky is sent up to pinch hit for reliever Joe Nuxhall with Jimmie Coker on first and one out. Shamsky homers against reliever Al McBean to give the Reds an 8-7 lead after 8.


The Pirates tie it up in the 9th on a pinch homer by Jerry Lynch against Don Nottbart. And Willie Stargell homers off of Nottebart in the 10th. Shamsky, who has stayed in the game, homers off of Roy Face to tie the game at 9.


The Pirates score a pair in the 11th on a two-out double by Bob Bailey off of Billy McCool. And Shamsky ties the game in the bottom half with a two-run homer off of Billy O'Dell.


But the Pirates score 3 in the 13th, and mercifully manage to end the game before Shamsky bats again.


Two days later, Shamsky (who did not play in the Reds' 11-0 blowout the day between these two games) Shamsky has a 2-run pinch homer against Vern Law to account for all the Reds' scoring in a 4-2 loss.


That's right, 4 homers in 4 consecutive plate appearances.

[rburgh]

Two teams had big months


The Berkshire Bees went 17-8, increased its lead for the overall best record in the league to 4 1/2 games, and completed the SF Giants mission, acquiring Jeff Kent who will slot in at 2B replacing All-star selection Tony Bernazard. It's a tough world where you can get voted to the All-Star team and lose your job a week later.


The Manhattan Freelancers parlayed a 17-8 month that included earning over 5K PP's into the 89 OVR Gerritt Cole and the 8 OVR Buddy Myer, replacing Silvio Martinez and Tommy Edman in the lineup. Edman moves to the super-sub role, and Martinez will be auctioned.


Two teams sunk to new depths, the Central Park Pirates are looking to be relegated to the rookie level and the Ontario Street Urchins are flirting with relegation to stone.


And the two rookie league pitching and defense squads, the West 35th Gumshoes and Montenegro Partisans, both continued their solid showings. Both have over 60 wins with a couple of months ago, and both pitching staffs are performing well. The Partisans even got an all-star appearance from SS Billy Jurges, who is hitting miles over his head while flashing a 100+ glove.

[rburgh]

Nothing much happened, all 6 teams had slow earning months.


The Gumshoes continue to rock in their division, with a 20 game lead (Mag#10) in the AC West at 85-48. But the Pawtucket Poets are 113-19 in the AC East and clinched the division a week and a half ago. The Gumshoes lead the league in DER; the Poets lead in every other individual and team category. And our Doug Drabek was the POTM in August, somehow beating out all of the Poets' HOF starters.


The Bees continue with the best record in the AC at 80-53. We have a 4 game lead for the best record in the conference, and also a 4 game lead in the division. We start the month with 4 on the road against our closest pursuers, a split will leave us happy. We are officially in Mission Only Mode (MOM) now, as our team hs reasonable players at every front-line position. Next season, we will jack the park factors up as high as possible, valuing accumulation of PP's right now far more than wins.


The Freelancers made a couple of strategic additions in the month, as Gerritt Cole and Buddy Myer helped them post their second consecutive 16 win months. We are 3rd in the AC Central, 6 games out in the division race and a game out for the 2nd wild card. I would just as soon not make the playoffs, as this team seems to be my best PP producer right now and a season to make hay at the stone level would be good right now. But I will play it straight, and try to earn that promotion to Iron. We, like the Gumshoes, are now in the mode where all future acquisitions will be players that can be productive in high end leagues, so I predict that both teams will change slowly from here on out.


The Pirates had their 5th straight losing month, going 10-17 to fall to 54-81. They are a sure bet to be at the Rookie level next season, where, like the Bees, we will max out all the park factors at the Bee Hive to accelerate the PP earnings, and damn the record.


The Partisans treaded water in August, going 13-13 and drifting down from first in the division to 3rd, 7 games out and half a game out of the 2nd wild card. Bruce Kison leads the league in wins, and overall we are 2nd in DER, 2nd in runs allowed, and 3rd in SP ERA. But we have entered MOM and see little change in the roster until the mission rewards start rolling in. We could be in for several seasons at the Rookie level. It appears to me that the best way for us to maximize PP earnings will be to collect a standout rotation, so we are focusing on missions with high end SP's as rewards.


And the sad-sack Urchins (I apparently, and unintentionally, picked an apt nickname for the team.) may have finally turned it around with back to back 13-13 months and acquisition of 88 CON Ralph Garr at DH (replacing Choo) and 82 CON Arraez at 2B (replacing Brandon Lowe) to add length to our lineup. They will bat 1-2 against RHP and against LHP Arraez will drop down to 7th in favor of the more balanced Adam Eaton in the leadoff slot. It looks like we will avoid relegation to Stone, and return to the Iron level for another go.

[rburgh]

Can't resist this - the Bees have completed the Padres Live mission and added Dave Winfield to their OF, bumping Art Shamsky to DH and Miguel Andujar to the bench. Our OF is now Ozuna, Hamilton, and Winfield and the infield is Machado, Story, Kent, and Derrek Lee, and the catcher is Carson Kelly. They will be playing at the Bronze level, as promotion has been assured for some time.


The Gumshoes have clinched their division at the Rookie level, and have a nice chunk of PP's to spend to upgrade for the postseason. We are scouting SP's and the CF troika of Bader, Robles, and Buxton. We're leaning toward Robles right now, as we believe he has more upside once the season begins, but they are very close.

[rburgh]

I'll go from worst to first here:


Urchins - this was my least gifted team from the starter kit, and the fact that it got seeded into the Iron level is proof that miracles do happen. Its record by month: 10-15, 15-13, 6-21, 13-13, 13-13, 11-16, 2-1 (70-92 total). But we made lots of progress with acquisitions, gaining Luis Arraez, Ralph Garr, Harrison Bader, 77 OVR Wally Joyner, and Adam Eaton in the field and Jesse Barnes in the rotation. We'll be back in the iron level, and hope to do much better, with the whale team (128 wins) gone from our division.



Pirates - I was disappointed by this team for most of the year, but it closed with a rush and will remain in the Stone level. Its record by month: 12-14, 13-15, 11-17, 7-17, 10-17, 18-8, 1-2 (72-90). Major acquisitions this season included Art Shamsky, Mike Sirotka, Dean Chance, John Buzhardt, Jason Castro, Chris Martin, Moose Haas, and Don Larsen. We expect to kick a$$ on our second tour at the Stone level.


Freelancers - This team disappointed for the first two months of the season; but put it together starting in June. Records by month: 10-15, 13-16, 17-8, 16-8, 16-12, 15-12, 4-0 (91-71). But that's only part of the story. Languishing in 4th place on September 1st in a division full of fairly good teams, it put together a stretch run to remember, winning 12 of their last 13 games to steal the division crown. Major acquisitions for the year were Buster Posey, Steve Blass, Silvio Martinez, Terry Mulholland, Alex Verdugo, Doc Medich, Les Lancaster, Eddie Watt, 89 OVR Gerritt Cole, Buddy Myer, and Bret Saberhagen. Notable individual efforts came from Cliff Melton and Bob Hazle. Melton was 22-9, 3.13 and led the league in wins. Hazle hit .292-19-116 with 63 doubles and played all 162 games.


Partisans - The team started strong, but tailed off and clinched the 2nd wildcard on the next to last day of the season. Record by month: 17-8, 16-11, 18-10, 11-14, 13-13, 14-13, 2-2 (91-71). Major acquisitions were few, as this team won only 5485 PP's on the year. But they did land Kal Daniels, Shed Long and Jesse WInker to upgrade the DH spot and remove a couple of irons from the lineup. They also made a great deal of progress on the Oakland Athletics Mission, with the intent of installing Eddie Plank as the staff ace once the mission is completed. And Bruce Kison led the league in wins.


Berkshire Bees - They finshed the season with the best record in the conference, although it was a struggle since the second best record in the conference was also in our division. Record by month: 20-6, 17-11, 15-11, 17-8, 10-17, 16-11, 1-2 (96-66). Acquisitions for the year included Jeff Kent and Dave Winfield via completed collection missions, preseason acquisitions Trevor Story, Darryl Hamilton, Carson Kelly, and Zach Davies. Davies overachieved, leading the league in wins and practically returning his purchase price of 444 PP's. And Hamilton made the All-Star team, at a cost of 125 PP's. In-season acquisitions not related to the collection missions included Marcell Ozuna, Doc Medich, Bob Tewksbury, Tom Hume, and Marco Gonales. Several mission cards also found their way onto the roster, including Chris Paddack, Drew Pomerantz, and Trent Grisham. The team earned 11,385 PP's for the season.


Gumshoes - This team cruised to a division title, winning 102 games and clinching the division very early in September as the 2nd place team finished at 81-81. Notable achievements included Dennis Rasmussen's 18-3, 2.45 season, which got him banished to the cheap seats for the playoffs in favor of Charlie Liebrandt. Other acquisitions for the year included Vlad Guerrero, Jr. and Joey Votto in the preseason, Zane Smith and Carson Kelly in May, Cody Allen in June, Al Zarilla in August, and Chuck Stobbs and Charlie Liebrandt in October. Ray Durham had a 20/20 season, and led the entire league in WAR which may land him the MVP award for his .310-28-116 batting line. Bruce Berenyi and Doug Drabek tied Rasmussen in the win column. The team generated 8325 PP's on the season; I expect it to do much better with a big rotation next year in the Stone level.


All in all, a great first season. And I stayed up to the bitter end to watch the Freelancers, Partisans, and Bees battle for playoff spots and/or seeding. In fact, it's 2:37 AM as I put this missive on the server.

[rburgh]

The Gumshoes, as expected, won their DS to face the 128 win Poets. We took them to extras in game 6, but Cano hit a walk-off 2-run jack to end the series. A valiant effort. Now for the serious business of deciding who (and if) to buy this evening.


The Bees, also expected to win their DS, fell in 4 games to the Arizona Aces. We have scrunched down foul territory to accommodate more field level boxes for the upcoming season, so there will be far fewer foulouts and therefore more hits. And some of the necessities of construction have created some odd angles on the low wall which will make for additional doubles and triples too.


The miracle Freelancers got swept in the DS by the Asheville Cosmic Possums. And the pitching and defense Partisans won their wild card game 2-1, then got swept by the top seeded Searsport Sea Captains.


On to next season.



The Partisans, Bees, and Urchins are all in mission mode, they will be in Stone, Bronze, and Iron leagues respectively. But W-L records at this stage of the game are irrelevant, the important thing is how many high-end cards you can accumulate before starting your run up the pyramid.


The Gumshoes and Pirates will be in Stone leagues, with opposite philosophies. The Pirates are out to plunder PP's with their bats and the Gumshoes with the guys on the bump and the leather.


And the Freelancers will be in an Iron league next year, again trying to pile up PP's without necessarily hitting a lot of homers.


None of these last 3 teams are likely to make a big splash in the AH right now; the Freelancers acquired Liebrandt and Stobbs in October, and the other two teams are going to need 2 or 3 days to get their PP balances up to the point where it is sensible to use them to acquire a player.


The Pirates have also started a challenge mode game, successfully getting the 1969 Pirates to the 7th game of the World Series while acquirnig Yaz and several young pitchers while turning 2B over to ROY Dave Cash and his 80 (of 80) glove. We are confident of a WS or 2 in the near future.

[rburgh]

Gumshoes *

Durham 20/20 and Great Bat 2B
Nori Aoki - Great Glove

Freelancers *

Melton Most Wins, Pitcher of the Year
Seager - Great bat at SS

Pirates
Billy Conigliaro - GG LF
Kolten Wong - GG 2B
Kirby Yates - 24 save streak


Partisans *

Bruce Kison - Most Wins
Bader - GG


Urchins
George Burns - 20/20


Bees *

Zach Davies - Most WIns


Teams with asterisks got the great score 1000 PP bonus as well as the playoffs bonus.

I thought that my Bees, by virtue of their playoff appearance, would have been promoted. But since they lost in the DS, they have remained in Iron.

Bees - I181
Urchins - I177
Partisans - St106 and eagerly awaiting the arrival of Eddie Plank to bolster their rotation.
Pirates - St147
Freelancers - I152
Gumshoes - St128

If you're in any of these leagues, post a note here.

[rburgh]

Gumshoes (Stone, run prevention) 15-11, 10th runs scored, 2nd runs allowed, 1st DER, PP's earned 1580, players added - Rafael Devers (takes over 3B, moves Vlad Jr. to DH) and Byron Buxton (takes over CF from Al Bumbry)


Partisans (Stone, run prevention) 18-7, 11th runs scored, 1st runs allowed, 1st DER, PP's earned 3030 (triple play), players added - Eddie Plank from the A's mission. Most of the earnings went towards missions.



Freelancers (Iron, small ball) 15-11, 3rd runs scored, 9th runs allowed, DER 15th, PP-s earned 830, players added - Jeff McNeil (replacing Alex Verdugo in RF; Verdugo becomes a 4th OF)



Urchins (Iron, small ball) 14-12, 3rd runs scored, 5th runs allowed, PP's earned 1900, players added - Keone Kela. Most of the earnings went towards missions.



Pirates (Stone, offense) 13-13, T-4th runs, 14th RA, 13th DER, PP's earned 475, players added - Emmanuel Clase for bullpen depth, saving up for major pitching additions. I'm surprised the DER is so bad, all of my up the middle defenders are at least 75, and SS is 100. And only RF is below 50. Maybe things will turn around as I start to upgrade the roster. There seems to be a critical mass sort of phenomenon on offense, where eventually you make the addition that causes everything to fall into place. 13th in BA and 6th in OBP suggests that I need a good contact bat somewhere.



Bees (Iron, offense) 14-12, T 1st R, 7th RA, 15th DER, PP's earned 1660, players added - Adam Kolarek. Most of the earnings went towards missions. Season highlight so far, splitting a series on the road against Lemandria's Pirates. We lost the first 3-2 and won the 2nd 7-0 behind a CG 5-hit shutout by Marco Gonzales. Oh, yes, winning 19-0 on opening day was nice too.

[BigRed75]

How are you finding the mission prices? Or are you just sticking with Live missions for now? My missions-only team is just gathering points because of the low quantity of non-Live missions and high demand. I have targeted two, and occasionally make half-hearted attempts at checking the auction house, but for now it's just accumulate and wait. We can stay in Rookie for the time being.

[rburgh]

First of all, to Big Red, I find the AH prices pretty hilarious. but I have found a methodology that seems to be keeping me moving forward. And I am focusing on two missions at a time, so I do get gratification in terms of increasing my PP production whenever I complete one.


Bees - now 27-25, so a slight losing month. Marcell Ozuna was the conference batter of the month, he is now hitting .364-15-42. The team is 2nd in runs scored and T-6th in runs allowed, so the record is somewhat disappointing compared to the underlying stats. But we generated 2235 PP's for the month, so I am pretty happy about that. And we were able to put a big dent in our current Dodger mission. Oh, and we split our home series against Lemandria too, winning the 2nd game on a 12th inning 3-run jack by Derrek Lee.



Pirates - another team hovering a little over .500 at 28-26. This power team, though, is onl T-7th in runs scored and 14th in runs allowed, so its record is pretty good, considering. We added Michael Conforto to replace Lou Collier in RF, but in 7 games Conforto is at .111-0-0. An ugly start to his Pirates career. And the team generated only 640 PP's for the month, so things are not looking good for a turnaround.


Urchins - stop me if you've heard this before, but we are 2 games over .500 at 28-26. We are 3rd in runs scored and also 3rd in runs allowed (and 3rd in DER), so our Pythagorean record is 33-21. I suppose that bodes well for the rest of the season. We generated only 900 PP's for the month, and the bulk of that came from one game by sub Ian Happ, who generated 440 PP's by virtue of a 4/4 game with a granny and 8 RBI's. The slacker only scored one run, though. We made a couple of minor bullpen upgrades for the month, but are in striking distance of completing a couple of missions that should both greatly enhance our team.



Freelancers - Yet another team that is 2 games over, at 27-25. This is believable, though, since we have scored 288 and allowed 279, good for 2nd and 10th respectively. And we produced a mediocre 760 PP's for the month, so were unable to make a significant acquisition, but just picked up 85 OVR Mel Harder for a bargain 1500 PP's. He will replace Doc Medich as the 5th starter and will bump Rafael Montero to the reserve list.


Gumshoes - 27-27, despite fine production from last month's acquisitions Rafael Devers (.292-8-23) and Byron Buxton (.269-2-10). Overall we are at 224 runs for and 196 allowed, good for 13th and 1st respectively. And our DER is an outstanding .722, again 1st in the conference. But we generated only 700 PP's. Devers was responsible for 210.


Partisans - 38-15, including a 10 game winning streak from late April to early May. Runs for are 239 (11th), allowed are 146 (1st by a mile, the 2nd place team is at 222). Our DER is also 1st at .729. We are working a couple of missions, and made good progress thanks to a fine month's production of 1545 PP's. Plank tossed a Maddux and another CG shutout for the month, both also without walking a batter, so he generated 700 PP's for the month. And we are at 22/26 for a couple of missions, so may have an acquisition in a day or two.

[rburgh]

Gumshoes - we've sunk to 38-44, dropping to 4th place and 18 1/2 games out. We are still +15 in run differential, 15th in runs scored and 1st in runs allowed. And we're also 1st in DER with a gaudy .726 mark. We earned a paltry 460 PP's on the day. Ugh.


Partisans - we went 13-15 on the day, reaching the halfway point of the season with a 51-30 record and a 3 1/2 game lead in the division. We completed two missions on the day, acquiring Jason Kendall and Bret Saberhagen. Kendall is hitting .195/.267/.366 in his first 11 games; Sabes is 2-1, 2.33 in his first 3 starts. We have a run differential of 341-273, ranking 12th in runs and 1st in RA. And our DER is also 1st at .719. And we earned 3130 PP's on the day' the biggest chunk courtesy of Kevin Gausman, who struck out 4 batters in the 1st inning of one of his starts to contribute 2500 of them.


Freelancers - we went 18-10 on the month, and now stand atop the division at 45-35 with a 1/2 game lead. We started the day purchasing Mel Harder for 1500 PP's and he logged a 3-0 mark in his 6 starts. Our run differential is 503-442, 2nd and 13th respectively, and our DER is an ignominious .634, last in the conference. But our team BA is .308 and we logged a healthy 2840 PP's on the day, with 49 separate achievements. We kicked off the day with 400 PP's thanks to an 8 RBI day from Derrek Lee (currently .352-24-70), and logged another 400 when we had hits in an inning a couple of weeks later. And Lee was the conference's BOTM with a .387-11-29 mark. All systems appear to be "GO." We kicked off the morning by grabbing Curt Flood and his 90 contact, 80 glove off the AH for 3000 and installing him in CF. For now, we've bumped George Hendrick to RF and bumped Jeff McNeill to a utility role.


Urchins - we went 16-12 on the month, currently 44-38 and 3rd, 1 1/2 games out in the division. We are 2nd in R at 462, 9th in RA at 381, and 3rd in DER at .701. And we have crept within 1 card of acquiring Jason Kendall and 5 of Mike Caldwell, so we are poised for a big upgrade in talent in the next couple of days. We earned 2070 PP's on the day, the biggest chunk thanks to a cycle by 77 OVR Wally Joyner, his 2nd on the season.


Pirates - we had a big month, at 17-11, and currently stand at 45-37, 2 1/2 games out and 2nd in the division. Our team metrics are 405 R (T 2nd), 408 RA (11th), and .678 DER (11th). But the big story on the day is that we earned 7010 PP's on the day, many thanks to Max Muncy who earned 5270 with a 7 game HR streak (5000), 7 game RBI streak (125), 9 game run streak (125) and a 20 point double dinger along the way. So we bought Eddie Mathews to go along with Tuesday's acquisition Michael Conforto. But they have so far contributed little to the cause - Conforto is at .163-1-7 in 33 G and Mathews .239-1-5 in 17. We have hopes that they will begin living up to their batting ratings soon. Max Muncy was BOTM with a .258-11-19 line.


Bees - we went 13-14 on the month, and now stand at 40-39, 4th in the division and 7 1/2 games out. Our metrics are 464 R (2nd), 389 RA (5th) and .649 DER (15th). Our pythag of 46-33 would put us 3rd, 1 1.2 games out, but big bopper teams seldom play to their pythag. We are nearing completion of the Live Dodger mission, with 4 cards to go. But of course they are all expensive, I have little hope of completing the mission this week and not much more of completing it next week. But our PP earning rate continues to be strong; we earned 3060 this past week and acquisitions A.J. Pollock, Blake Treinen, and David Price should help improve the record. Pollock has a platoon role in CF and has already had a double dinger game; Treinen is waiting for us to consolidate the roster so he can join the bullpen, and Price was acquired a few minutes before our last game of the day. I plan to grab Cory Seager and train him as an IF backup, perhaps eventually platooning with Kent at 2B if his defense gets high enough, and backing up Machado, Story, and Derrek Lee.


Lessons learned so far - major acquisitions are good, incremental updates lose their usefulness as soon as you purge your team of Iron card regulars. Power teams in max offense parks can earn PP's in prodigious chunks. Small ball teams are steady earners once they get going, but it takes time to get them there. I understand now why Ichiro is so valuable.

[rburgh]

Gumshoes - We had a solid month, going 15-9 to even the record at 53-53. And we're on a 6 game winning streak. But our playoff hopes are remote, we are 4th overall in the WC race and the 3 teams we are chasing are all very good. Our runs are 445-392, 11th and 2nd in the conference respectively. And our DER is .723, still 1st. We earned 1750 PP's on the month, easily our best of the season. Notable achievements were A-S Devers, POTW awards for Devers and Durham, and a 15-0 Down and Out thumping of one of the weaker teams in the league. Currently saving up for our first diamond, we're at 3300+ right now.


Partisans - 17-9 on the day, and 67-40 with a 3 game division lead. Our runs are 450-359, 12th and first, and our DER is .721, again 1st. We earned 1740 PP's on the month, on the strength of a cycle by Alex Verdugo and 5 A-S nods - Jesse Winker, Shed Long, Eddie Plank, Bruce Kison, and Larry Dierker. We also completed the Live Pirates and Live Royals collection, installing Kendall as the everyday C and Saberhagen as the 5th starter. And we're currently working to complete the rest of the AL Central missions, as Nathan, Lyons, and Blyleven seem like good fits for the squad.


Freelancers - A 12-13 month saw us drop from atop the division to 57-48 and 4 1/2 games out in 3rd. Our runs are 637-585, 2nd and 12th, and our DER is a sad .637, 15th. We did acquire Curt Flood (90 contact, 80 glove) so that George Hendricks could take his 56 glove to RF, where he has already trained up to a 25. We earned 1215 PP's on the month, sending Derrek Lee and Bob Hazle to the ASG and getting a 7 G RBI streak from Hazle as well.


Urchins - A 15-9 month saw us ascend to a tie for the division lead at 59-47. Our runs are now 588-487, and our DER is .694; 2nd, 7th, and 3rd in the conference respectively. We completed the Live Pirates mission and have installed Kendall in the cleanup spot (!), keeping George Burns in the leadoff spot with his 24 HR and 36 SB on the year. We had a big PP month, earning 3140. Big chunks came from a 4 OFA game, for 1000 PP's, another 1000 from a 13 G run streak for George Burns, and 100 apiece for ASG nods to Burns, Andrelton Simmons, Arraez, Joyner, and Bob Boone. Kendall is thriving in the 4 spot, with 20 RBI in 19 games.



Pirates - We had a huge 19-6 month, currently sitting atop the division at 64-43 and 4 1/2 games in front of the pack. Our runs are 565-510, 1st and 8th, and our DER is .677 (12th). We acquired Marcell Ozuna and installed him as the everyday LF, bumping Billy Conigliaro into a platoon RF role with Conforto. And Conforto and Eddie Mathews started to hit. Conforto was .296/.394/.630 for the month and Mathews .311/.422/.644. We earned 2195 PP's on the month, becoming the first of my squads to pass the 10,000 PP mark for the year. Major contributions came from a cycle and POTW for Frankie Crosetti (!), a 10 game winning streak, and an ASG nod for Muncy.


Bees - We had a 9-14 month and drifted down to 4th in the division at 51-53. Like Lemandria's LPP team, we are in a league littered with whale teams. I count 4 of them, all with at least 68 wins. Our runs are a respectable 595-515 (2nd and 7th), and our DER is still awful at .652 (15th). We earned 3460 PP's on the month, though, creeping closer to completing the Live Dodger mission to replace our CF platoon of Hamilton and Pollock with the Duke; we are at 24/26. Corey Seager is trained up to a 22 at 2B and is hitting .383/.439/.633. Jeff Kent is demanding a trade, though. Notable PP chunks - ASG MVP for Shamsky, a nod also to Ozuna, and an immaculate inning for Joe Jimenez for 1000 PP's.