Season 18 (2036) General Discussion

[DawnBTVS]

Currently steamrolling my Iron League (35-6 with 335 RS vs. 144 RA) while utilizing a favorable power hitting ballpark. Roger Maris (platooning at DH with J.D. Martinez) and Cody Bellinger are pacing my squad with 14 & 13 HR respectively while my staff is locked in around Gerrit Cole (8-0, 2.65 ERA) and Sad Sam Jones (8-1, 2.57 ERA).

I massively upgraded my team overall in Season 17's 2nd Half but got knocked out in the Wildcard Round Managed to land Bill Mazeroski so I'm currently training him at SS, where he should end up around 88-89, to tag team with Jose Altuve at 2B.

For reference, my Home Ballpark: .984 BA, 1.055 2B, 1.030 3B, and 1.100 HR. Built my team mostly around HR hitters and Strikeouts on the pitching side which seems to be anathema to how the majority of squads are built in PT.

[Orcin]

Originally Posted by Cheesehead1964

I sold a bunch of cards so I can buy Willie Wells, probably the remaining card from the Negro League card set I can afford (last saw him for 85K PP). The Gashouse Gang collection is interesting though as I have a lot of those cards - diamond Paul Dean reward. I may complete that and switch to Barnstormers next season. Depends on how soon Willie Wells pops up in the AH...

I put my Wells out there today. He is trained to 70+ at both 2B and 3B, so he would be able to play any of those spots right away. Mine is the only one out there right now.

[waittilnextyear]

After day 2 of sims, the Frogs are treading water at 29-26. Six games out of wild card contention. No real outstanding performers, but 87 Raines (.296/.354/.467, 4 HR, 46 RBI, 23 SB) and 89 Eckersley (2.75 ERA, 14 SV) are having their usual productive years.

Considering the schedule so far, pretty pleased to be above .500 at all. We've played 7 games against Pineville (2-5), 7 games against Orlando (4-3), 2 games against Alabama (0-2), 3 games against Virginia Beach (0-3)--so that's 19 games against whale and near-whale teams. Toss in 3 more games against Suwanee (1-2), which is a good team if not quite a whale. Weak teams to fatten up on have come few and far in between.

I had been amassing some PPs to make a couple of substantial upgrades and saw 100 Nolan Ryan for 55K opening bid on a 15 minute timer. Of course had to beat back the opportunistic sniper that seems to wait on all cards with auctions about to expire, but got it for 62K after a little back and forth. Noticed the card had stats (of course) so I tossed it back on the AH overnight. It's probably for the best because I really wanted to make 2 significant upgrades for about 45K a piece.

As for the 'offensive catcher' experiment...mixed bag so far...

Craig Biggio (21 rating) is batting .340/.425/.532 on a 3.6 WAR pace in 20 starts as the less-utilized catcher (against LHP). Biggio also sports a 5.20 CERA (bad), a 48% CS rate (woah!), a +1.1 ZR (nice), a .978 FLD% (fine), a .764 EFF (bad), and a 7.02 range factor (eh, ok).

Smoky Burgess, as the main catcher in 35 starts, is also hitting well: .357/.419/.443 on a 4.0 WAR pace. Burgess is the team's defensive stud catcher (43 rating). He has a 4.10 CERA, 32.7% CS, -0.6 ZR, .986 FLD%, a .860 EFF, and a 7.64 RF. These numbers don't seem too far off of Mike LaValliere's (115 rating) numbers from last season (4.06 CERA, 46.8 CS%, +1.0 ZR, .994 FLD%, .867 EFF, 7.56 RF).

[Westheim]

Rebels sit 31-23 in their division, 1 1/2 behind … another team from Chattanooga. Probably some DAMN YANKEES!! (throws rocks in the direction of the nearest hill) … speaking of damn Yankees, D.J. LeMahieu hat a 5-hit game for the Rebs… AND a 6-hit game! I find it revolting to actually have four Yankees on the roster, but at least he's getting something done…

Critters are last in their division once more. Not much to say about that. I have never been able to generate offense in Perfect League, and I never will.

I feel like the Accountants are DUE a promotion. 34-19 in Silver now, but only three games clear in a strong division (collectively 12 over .500). They also have some of the absolute weirdest batting stats I have seen (and the dynasty Coons have given me some **** over the years…), as added below.

This team also sits on 22k PP and I still can't find a catcher, shortstop, or centerfielder at the diamond level that would be an improvement in hitting AND defense; at those positions I have in order Gabby Hartnett, Javier Baez (who keeps hitting zero) and backup Tony Fernandez, and a wretched platoon of Chili Davis and Jim Edmonds. None of those three spots work for me, still. At second I have paired Albies with Didi Gregorius, who is a quick learner, but in exchange isn't hitting the ball, either.

But I AM happy with the corners. Ken Boyer, Powerful Pete Alonso, Cleon Jones, PEAK Roberto Clemente are rakin' it.

[dancariaz]

My first perfect game in OOTP ever (playing since OOTP 9)

He only needed 78 pitches, pretty awesome!

[Charlatan]

In completely random news, The Harrisburg Atoms played the Annandale Atom Smashers in a 3-game series in G307 last month.

Turns out the teams were appropriately named, as the Atom Smashers won all 3 games.

[BigRed75]

The Lumber Company's newest pitcher, Jack McDowell, pitched the second no-hitter in team history on May 7. Not only that, but he was a poorly-timed Yoan Moncada error away from pitching a perfect game, striking out 9.

The rest of the team was inspired by Black Jack. We went on a 9-game winning streak and have opened up a 7 1/2 game lead at the end of May.

[BigRed75]

Just pulled my first Willie Mays!

Of course, it was 1973 OVR 62 stumbling-around-in-the-outfield Willie Mays, but still - it was cool to see his name come out of that pack...

[Orcin]

Originally Posted by waittilnextyear

Noticed the card had stats (of course) so I tossed it back on the AH overnight.

At this point, after four months of play, it is getting very hard to find cards with no prior stats. Apparently, not many people are opening packs these days. I share your desire for "clean" cards, but I have almost given up on finding them. I can't afford to waste the 10% auction fee every time I try to upgrade, so I am forced to either take what I get or hold out for cards that are extremely underpriced. The latter is also hard to find, again probably due to fewer packs being opened. Missions have also affected the AH supply with a lot of cards now forever locked.

[Argonaut]

Originally Posted by Orcin

At this point, after four months of play, it is getting very hard to find cards with no prior stats. Apparently, not many people are opening packs these days. I share your desire for "clean" cards, but I have almost given up on finding them. I can't afford to waste the 10% auction fee every time I try to upgrade, so I am forced to either take what I get or hold out for cards that are extremely underpriced. The latter is also hard to find, again probably due to fewer packs being opened. Missions have also affected the AH supply with a lot of cards now forever locked.

I've been pretty lucky lately and most of the cards I bought came in mint condition. Also, I've bought or generated a few Special Edition cards which are guaranteed (if generated) or likely (if bought) to be clean.

If the card comes with stats I'm usually able to recoup the tax by selling for /.90 the price. I imagine this would be harder for cards in the 50,000+ PP range.

Thank you to all the folks who sell cards without using them.

[waittilnextyear]

Originally Posted by Charlatan

In completely random news, The Harrisburg Atoms played the Annandale Atom Smashers in a 3-game series in G307 last month.

Turns out the teams were appropriately named, as the Atom Smashers won all 3 games.

I like to think that the game recap mentions this game as taking place at the Large Hadron Collider.

Originally Posted by Orcin

At this point, after four months of play, it is getting very hard to find cards with no prior stats. Apparently, not many people are opening packs these days. I share your desire for "clean" cards, but I have almost given up on finding them. I can't afford to waste the 10% auction fee every time I try to upgrade, so I am forced to either take what I get or hold out for cards that are extremely underpriced. The latter is also hard to find, again probably due to fewer packs being opened. Missions have also affected the AH supply with a lot of cards now forever locked.

Yup. I also figure that it'll get increasingly difficult to find "mint condition" cards (save for SE and new batches of cards for different occasions). I'm not mad about it because lord knows I put plenty of cards on the AH after using them myself! But, this is one of the reasons I am extremely selective with making upgrades. I will abstain from buying a card if I don't think I could flip it for at least my original fee. It adds more work and upgrades come slower, but I am just too stuck on having cards that are all my own team's history which puts their performance into a proper context for me.

I hope that Markus can add in an "erase card stats" option at some point to help those of us with this affliction.

[moalkha]

A brief recap at end of day 3.

Doha (54-27) is leading the division but New Image (52-28) and Kogarah (51-30) are very close behind. It appears that by battling between them, the 3rd team will most likely miss the playoffs entirely. It will be a fascinating battle.

Great Lakes (55-28) are leading the division by 7-1/2 games are are in a tight battle for the conference's best record.

Perugia (47-36) is leading the division by 6 games. If they get to the playoffs the road is blocked by 2 mega whales that are dominating the other 2 divisions with a .800 winng percentage.

[One Great Matrix]

I've played 74 cards or so through almost 90 games rotating a few players in & out for a few games.
We're in the wild card race & not entirely finished off in division yet.

[old timer]

The Raccoons are in a pretty competitive division. The 4th place team has a .590 WPct and is 3rd in the WC race. We somehow ended up back in 1st place due to a 21-4 June. We did abysmally in May with a 13-15 record and ended up in 4th place at the end of May.

July looks to be really tough. We've got 12 games with division foes all of which are playing very well and 6 with the Chicago Rampage who have a .775 WPct. This could be our 1st year where we don't make the playoffs or we could win the division. Either way, it should be interesting.

I've put 99 Appling in at 3B this season instead of Zimmerman and he's not performing for me nearly as well as he did for his previous owners, but I feel confident he will. He's already trained up to a 68 at 3B (he came with no training at 3B) and has a ways to go before he maxes out. So with him, I'll get someone who is a much better fielder and who gets on base more, but has less power. And if he's having an off year, I can always switch back to Zimmerman. I really like having at least two players who are close in overall ability at the same position so that I don't have to endure seeing someone slump all year - instead I can watch 2 players combine to slump all year.

[Whoofe]

lol my team in P402 is having an awful season. despite having a team with mostly diamond and gold players and a few silvers, I am just a few games ahead of the worst team in the league that's full of irons, and another team that's full of bronzes. talk about awful luck. I am starting to think that the difference between a100 and 90 is as big as the difference between a 90 and 70

[humboldt1498]

My defensive themed team is starting to show some impressive results. So far in P400 this season I am first in defensive efficiency, second in zone rating, and my FIP is half a run higher then my actual ERA.

LF: 100 Trout
CF: 99 Henderson
RF: 99 Mays
3B: 97 Rolen
SS: 91 Rizzuto
2B: 100 Ripken
1B: 97 Rodriguez
Utility: 97 Davis, 93 Tulo, 89 Dihago.

Still having some training to do for Mays, Rodriguez, Davis and Tulo, so my performance should only improve.

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[humboldt1498]

Forgot catcher where I run a 50/50 split between 92 Molina and 88 Rodriguez.

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[Marleigh]

Just my 2nd Season in PT. Going F2P.

The Paragon City Heroes (Bronze235) won a championship in Iron, so are in Bronze now, and haven't slowed down sitting at 66-30 but have just a 4 game lead as the team with the second best record in the conference is chasing me. Brought in Gary Sheffield for this season and he has produced (.331 23HR 84RBI) Soroka has been the ace pitcher so far (16-2 2.05ERA) and after initial issues with the bullpen we have managed to get a settled group.

The Bad News Bulldogs(Iron234) won 106 games last season but failed to win promotion, so some new faces came in and they are currently sat at 67-27 with a 12 game lead. Ken Singleton at DH hasn't disappointed leading the league in average, OBP and Slugging (.358, .469 .607) but in general the team has very little power, only 2 players have double figures in homers but they are number one in almost every team category, likewise with the pitching where the ace is Blyleven (12-3 3.06) but all of the pitchers are contributing to leading the league in almost every team category (other than strikeouts) backed by the number 1 defence in the league. Despite all of that they have hardly anyone in consideration for the all star game.

I also started a 3rd team in entry pool but not really decided how i will be building that, i want to try strikeout pitchers and a power lineup just to be different from my other teams, but we'll see how it goes

[neugey]

My poor tired pitching staff!!!

10-inning game, followed the next day by an 18-inning game, followed the next day by an 11-inning game. After the 18-inning insanity, I had to call up two fresh arms from reserves as entire pen was exhausted. Somehow we won 2 of 3. Just one more game before the All-Star break, couldn't come at a better time!!!

[neugey]

Originally Posted by Marleigh

Just my 2nd Season in PT. Going F2P.

Great first post, have fun. Looks like you have caught the PT fever.