Your Perfect Team news, stories and tidbits...

[tbonetim]

The Washington Justice return to the Diamond leagues again this week after going 97-65 last season in Gold but coming up short of a championship. It's still a period of roster transition with several long time starters whose production has declined at the Diamond level previously, expecting to be moved by the end of this week during the next round of FOTF mission related auctions. The Justice are hoping to remain competitive and stave off relegation again while management sets their sights on their team becoming an October Surprise in Diamond level play. After the front office found itself being too quick to acquire new talent that didn't produce as expected along with the limited budget set by the owner, a more methodical and patient approach has been adapted. Will this new vision towards fielding a consistently competitive Diamond league team pay dividends, or will it end it disappointment? In the meantime, if you suddenly see the old Green Day song, "Wake me up when September ends" trending on Twitter, it will no doubt be the result of countless suffering Justice fans hoping for a brighter future.

[bailey]

Welcome to Perfect League!



It looks like a long week for the Magpies. This is their second trip and the goal is to win more than the 70 games we won last time.

[tbonetim]

Originally Posted by bailey

Welcome to Perfect League!

Attachment 724530

It looks like a long week for the Magpies. This is their second trip and the goal is to win more than the 70 games we won last time.

Looking forward to seeing how things progress with your team this week at Perfect level. Keep the updates coming. Good luck!

[JasonC23]

Originally Posted by JasonC23

Of course, naturally, after posting this, the Red Raiders, despite finishing 108-54 and securing the #1 seed in the G326 AC, flamed out in the Division Series, losing to an 83-win Wild Card team, 3 games to 1, with each loss by 1 run. So a return appearance in Gold it is!

And (small sample size alert) the Red Raiders lost their first 4 games in the new season.

I'm never posting anything about the relative competitive level of Gold versus Diamond in PT 21 ever again.

[FuzzyDarkness]

Oh boy...

[Will_L]

Originally Posted by JasonC23

And (small sample size alert) the Red Raiders lost their first 4 games in the new season.

I'm never posting anything about the relative competitive level of Gold versus Diamond in PT 21 ever again.

Corsairs were in your division in Gold last season, figured your team was easily headed for the finals so it was a shock to read that you had lost so early in the playoffs.

[Magus978]

Welcome Home! Saints Re-Sign Jackie Robinson
100 OVR Special Edition Jackie Robinson was re-introduced to Saints fans this afternoon as the club signed him for a fee of 337,000 points. To finance this move, 100 OVR Face of the Franchise George Brett was sold as well as 100 All-Time Legend Joe DiMaggio.

"I was properly enjoying my time away from the club. Why did they have to sign me again?" Robinson said after putting on the Steelport Saints colors. He then sighed and left the room. GM Magus came in afterwards and immediately hit the reporters with his fly swatter of doom.

[bailey]

Originally Posted by tbonetim

Looking forward to seeing how things progress with your team this week at Perfect level. Keep the updates coming. Good luck!

There's not much to report. Nothing wrong that 2 million more points can't fix, but after the next 18 Face cards plus toppers get released, a makeover would be needed for 2 million more! Collingwood is 18th (out of 20) in runs scored and 19th in runs allowed. It's surprising I even have 12 wins (out of 29) and NOT in last place, but I am in the weakest division of the conference.

[FuzzyDarkness]

After a little more than one month in this new season for Croatia Clouds it seems they will have a hard time to escape relegation. It might be only one season for the team in the Iron League and not a fun one. They are second to last in the division with a record of 17-20.

Meanwhile the team unveiled an updated logo which means, fans need to buy new merchandise if they want to keep up to date.

[bailey]

Interesting tidbits from today's action:
1) Plunging into last place and realizing that in games where I score fewer than 5 runs the team is 3 and 24.
2) Giving up and dedicating the season for training: Biggio to finish 3B training and Lloyd to finish 2B training. Later, I will train Robinson at 3B as many PL teams use Robinson at 3B. This fires up the team and wins 7 of 9.
3) Note: Biggio is owned by 16 PL teams, but mine is the only one on the active roster.
4) Not wishing to test Andy Pettitte and his 9.94 ERA for another start, I substitute Tommy Bond who has the lowest ERA of starters in the bullpen. But, I forgot to check if Tommy Bond was ready to pitch. He was not and the AI substituted Charlie Buffinton as opener for 2 innings, Tim Hudson for 4 innings, and Jesse Tannehill for 3 innings for a combined 2-hit shutout.
5) When the team scores 5 runs or more they are 20 and 7.

[tbonetim]

Originally Posted by bailey

Interesting tidbits from today's action:
1) Plunging into last place and realizing that in games where I score fewer than 5 runs the team is 3 and 24.
2) Giving up and dedicating the season for training: Biggio to finish 3B training and Lloyd to finish 2B training. Later, I will train Robinson at 3B as many PL teams use Robinson at 3B. This fires up the team and wins 7 of 9.
3) Note: Biggio is owned by 16 PL teams, but mine is the only one on the active roster.
4) Not wishing to test Andy Pettitte and his 9.94 ERA for another start, I substitute Tommy Bond who has the lowest ERA of starters in the bullpen. But, I forgot to check if Tommy Bond was ready to pitch. He was not and the AI substituted Charlie Buffinton as opener for 2 innings, Tim Hudson for 4 innings, and Jesse Tannehill for 3 innings for a combined 2-hit shutout.
5) When the team scores 5 runs or more they are 20 and 7.

Ahh yes, those killer little situational game stats that make you scratch your head in frustration sometimes. I should probably train up my Biggio at 3B this week as well. Currently I have Appling at 3B and Jackie Robinson playing SS after selling off Bill Dahlen last week. I don't want to get relegated back to Gold though because its just easier to scout the latest FOTF players when the come out when I'm already in a Diamond league. I'm hovering a few games out of relegation and I really want to start upgrading my roster now, but I want to field as strong a team as possible going into the fall and want to see at least what new FOTF players come out tomorrow. As usual, the AH is pretty slow for top tier talent the day before the latest FOTF players are announced, though it is just after 730am at the moment.

[willat0660]

Tidbit... in a Bronze tournament game yesterday I saw that the AI pinch ran for Roger Cedeno (baserunning 100) with catcher A. J. Pierzynski (baserunning 11) in the 10th inning. WTF?

At the bottom of the box score, I see Cedeno was HBP, and ejected from the game for starting a "bench clearing brawl".

[tbonetim]

Originally Posted by willat0660

Tidbit... in a Bronze tournament game yesterday I saw that the AI pinch ran for Roger Cedeno (baserunning 100) with catcher A. J. Pierzynski (baserunning 11) in the 10th inning. WTF?

At the bottom of the box score, I see Cedeno was HBP, and ejected from the game for starting a "bench clearing brawl".

First...that is hilarious.

Second...I guess I need to add a couple more pinch running options on the depth chart.

[Hualalai]

Yup, no injuries in PT but I see ejections every so often.

The AI also tends to do something strange once in awhile with my lineups. Not resting someone who needs rest, or changing a player in the batting order for no reason.

Sometimes it is my fault, like once I had 2 outfielders who were backup to each other, bench when tired set. So they got more and more tired but neither could spell the other. Luckily I noticed it and fixed it.

[bailey]

At the All-Star break, Collingwood is doing respectably with 41-48 in 3rd place 6.5 games behind. 8.5 games behind in the wild card which is a misnomer in perfect league because every playoff team plays in the wild card round. Jackie Robinson is the lone All-Star representative who celebrated with a pinch-hit walk-off HR in the last game before the break.
The team is #1 in batting average, #1 in hits, but most of these are singles i view of being #17 in extra base hits. #6 in runs scored, so the offense is fine. Defensively we're 20th out of 20 and team ERA 19th.

[ianmleavitt]

At about the halfway point of the season, the Trojans are 54-39, 1.5 back of both the Division lead and the 2nd wild card spot. They stormed out of the gate in the early weeks, going 20-8 between March and April - but May was a different story, with the team struggling to a 13-15 record. Against the two teams sitting between us and the division lead, we are 10-2 and 2-8.

Greg Maddux (99) is single-handedly trying to keep the Trojans in the running, going 4-0 over his last 34.1 innings with 1 ER. Three of the Trojans' most recent acquisitions (Hughie Jennings, Jackie Robinson (97), and Richie Ashburn) are leading the team on the offensive side.

Meanwhile, the Haymakers are facing a *bit* more competition in the Iron League, currently sitting at 73-19. Historical Legend Mark Grace has been a welcome addition at 1B, though I wonder how long that will hold up...

[Caedus]

After a disappointing season in Diamond with only 1.7 WAR and a 5.00+ ERA, Christy Mathewson has rebounded in Gold, posting three (!!) straight CG shutouts in July.

My pack luck on Letterkenny has been quite good. If only Peak Clemens pitched as well as Mathewson...

[Tinkerman]

Just checked the latest FotF and had a quick look at my teams. Ron Guidry's doing so badly, I had to share!

[tbonetim]

Originally Posted by Tinkerman

Just checked the latest FotF and had a quick look at my teams. Ron Guidry's doing so badly, I had to share!

I don't have him but Guidry has been god awful lately. I see your Grackles team and mine our in the same league. I know its not the one you have Guidry on but the other teams that do have him are sporting over 5 ERAs aside from the one that has him in the pen. I just added FOTF Price this morning since he was running at just under 200K on the AH but I still have a long way to go at overhauling my pitching staff. I thought my staff would really have been in even worse tatters this morning when I had several okay but not great Diamond pitchers who I was going to sell. However, they will be sticking around as the payout for them on AH isn't really worth giving them up yet. Even the consistent Cy Seymour who thought he might be sold this week will be sticking around for a good while longer it seems.

[bailey]

The wheels have fallen off the Magpie train since the break: 5-18. Winning 70 seems a stretch at this point and training has been cancelled in an attempt to achieve this "milestone". Face Campanella was signed and stalwart Yogi Berra was let go. It's business, y'know; the accountants among us note that it was a 60k net upgrade. Sixteen of 40 teams in the league have already started using Roy and 11 other teams have him in "reserve".

Odd fact: My conference has only 7 teams out of 20 below .500 and 4 of them (including me) are in my division.

Ron Guidry has been league average for me. Maybe, he just loses focus in the lesser leagues!