PT21 Diary - A Tale of Three Teams

[trman73]

My teams are all having awful days. As nice as it is to be "working" from home, there is something to be said for going hours without being able to check in, then seeing how you did during the first portion of the day. Under normal circumstances I would not even glance at my teams until 6 p.m., then would check back in from 10-midnight and do my AH purchases and team changes.

Now, I get to watch every 30 minutes as my teams continue to lose to clearly superior competition.

[trman73]

All-Star Break – Fort Worth Frogs

The Frogs rebounded from a tough stretch and now trail in the wild card race by just three games, which seemed unimaginable 24 hours ago. We get four All-Stars: DH Riggs Stephenson, who’s been one of the best hitters in the league; CF Casey Stengel, an All-Star for the second straight season; 3B Justin Turner, who’s hitting .350; and CL Jeff Russell. I have to remember that this is still just Iron, so it’s nothing to get too excited about, but with the additional of 85 Jason Kendall at catcher, I like this offense.

Since the break we’re 5-1 and now just two games back of the WC.

[trman73]

Not much to report here at the end of Friday as the teams are essentially in the same positions they were yesterday.

Hammers
We win a 16-team best-of-five bronze tourney in the morning and are rewarded with two packs. I’ve given up on the team making the playoffs as we’ve faded back to .500 and are falling fast.

The packs are nothing, and we just plug along for the day hovering at or near .500. Until... we get a high-def inning from Aroldis Chapman in the ninth of a 4-3 win, and suddenly we have three packs. We really need something here. We get 13 Irons, and five Bronzes that will never crack even my tourney roster. Good God. What an awful week. We’re 69-69, and six games out of the wild card race. This thing’s basically over.

Warlocks
The bullpen has been a real problem so I shore it up with two value righties: 1988 Alejandro Pena (77), who isn’t great but is better than pinball machine Paul Sewald. And then PEAK Danys Baez (77), who, seriously, does not need to have a PEAK card. Career WAR? 0.6. PEAK? Lol, come on guys.

Anyway, team struggled today but is fine... eight clear of the wild card with 24 to go.

Frogs
These guys have been up and down all day. We’re eighth overall in the 30-team league but right now are on the outside looking in for the playoffs at 2.5 back of the WC. No moves for this team in the last couple days as I’m searching for an acceptable starter and building up the PP, slowly.

[trman73]

2021 Regular Season Recaps

Hammers – A Futile Playoff Push

We’re eliminated from the playoff race with five games to go, so we focus our attention on finishing .500. And we do it, finishing 82-80, an 18-game improvement over last year despite the promotion to Bronze. We basically finished where I predicted. I thought we’d be 3^rd in our division and 6^th in our 12-team conference. We finished 2^nd in the division (a mere 44 games back of the Utah Stingers), and 6^th in the conference.

In the 22-team structure, we’re easily promoted to Silver. I have a feeling this will be our last promotion for a while, unless we strike it big with some pack pulls.

Record: 82-80
Runs Scored/Against – 5^th/6^th (out of 12)

Additions (w/OVR):

• RF George Springer (87) – Wound up starting only against lefties; .786 OPS vs. LHP
• LF George Foster (87) – 14 HR, 45 RBI, .809 OPS in half a season
• SP James Paxton (82) – Lost his first four starts but came on; 5-5, 3.87, 1.34 WHIP in 86 IP
• MR Eddie Guardardo (69) – Serviceable at best

Packs Opened - 20

I opened 20 packs and got those four usable players. Three golds in 120 cards is slightly better than the odds, but it was still a disappointing week of pulls, as none of those three golds will help me as we progress.

Final team screen below.

[trman73]

2021 Regular Season Recaps

Warlocks – Stumbling Into the Postseason

We clinch the wild card with five games to go despite frankly being awful since July. But we built up enough of a wild card lead early to hang on despite going 33-48 in the second half of the year. Unfortunately, our total collapse (we lose 10 of our final 11), bumps us to fourth in the conference, and we get the 130-32 Old Hoss Radbourns in the Division Series.

I thought we’d be 3^rd in our division and 5^th in the conference, missing the playoffs. We finish 2^nd in the division, 4^th in the conference, and tied for 6^th overall out of 18 teams. Our +89 run differential is 3^rd overall in the league.

Promoted to Bronze, obviously. But expect a very short playoff run tomorrow.

Record: 86-76
Runs Scored/Against – 3^rd/4^th (out of 10)

Additions (w/Cost in AH):

• SP Mike Mussina (5,502) – Went 2-6 in August/September; still our ace; 14-11, 3.38, 1.09 WHIP
• SP Cal Eldred (2,200) – Solid #4 starter
• C Jason Kendall (4,002) – More than fine
• MR Alejandro Pena (974) – 3.00, 0.73 WHIP in 15 IP
• MR Danys Baez (1,001) – 0.71 WHIP in 8 IP

Total Spent – 13,679 PP

[trman73]

2021 Regular Season Recaps

Frogs – Late Surge Into Sunday

I bring in a starter to replace the surprisingly effective Eric DuBose for the stretch run, and it’s 2001 Randy Wolf (87). Then I add a couple Live guys on the cheap for the bullpen in lefty Brad Hand (79) and righty Emanuel Clase (76).

We enter the day 2.5 games back of the second wild card, with three games against the team we’re chasing, the Hades Heat. We win the three games in advance of that pivotal series, then sweep Hades to go up a game. We keep the streak going as they go into free fall, and with 14 to go we find ourselves 3.5 up.

We pull away thanks to a 14-2 stretch and run away with the last playoff spot thanks to a 21-9 September. This team was the exact opposite of my Warlocks down the stretch, and we’re in the post-season for the second straight year. This was the one team I thought would make the playoffs, and it did. We finish with the 5^th-best record in the 30-team league and a +150 run differential thanks to the 2^nd-best offense overall.

Record: 96-66
Runs Scored/Allowed – 2^nd/4^th (out of 15)

Additions (w/cost in AH):

• 2B CJ Abrams (5,000) - .377 OBP, 4.0 WAR from the leadoff spot
• SP Charlie Morton (1,800) – Struggled early but we won 18 of his 28 starts; 3.0 WAR
• SP Eric DuBose (60) – Went 8-2 thanks to offensive support; replaced by Randy Wolf
• C Jason Kendall (2,374) – Fantastic; .905 OPS, 3.7 WAR in 70 games
• SP Randy Wolf (1,778) – Up and down but won big games down the stretch
• MR Brad Hand (555) – 3 baserunners in 8.2 IP; 0.35 WHIP
• RP Emmanuel Clase (400) – Just 6 IP; walked 5 guys

Total Spent – 11,967 PP + 1 pack

We’re slowly building while still sitting at $0 actual dollars spent. We’re on the road for the Wild Card Game but I’m generally feeling okay about these guys.

[trman73]

Since I'm bracing for a short playoff run today, I check in on my PT20 teams. The FW Frogs are in P418, and FIVE teams in our conference won 110+ games. I'll be following those playoffs as that's quite a battle.

The PT20 AH is dead. On the first five pages of Historical listings, there are 13 total bids, and five of those are for SP Matt Kilroy (!!!).

[trman73]

Playoffs

Frogs – ST109
The Frogs are in the Wild Card Game against the 99-win Bayushi Scorpions. We face James Paxton, a guy who we should be okay against with our offense.

We’re not. We have absolutely nothing and bow out meekly, managing just four hits against Paxton en route to a 6-0 defeat. The 96-win season ends quickly.

Warlocks – I186
In the Division Series we get an Old Hoss Radbourn team that dominated I186, finishing 130-32 and beating us 10 times in our 14 games. Obviously this will be a struggle. They’ve got 20 Diamonds plus a Perfect Joe DiMaggio. Ugh.

Game 1 is a back-and-forth affair but they score four in the 6^th to go up 7-4. In the 9^th they have Chris Sale in there to close it out, and we explode on him, scoring five to shock the Radbourns in Game 1, 9-7.

Game 2 is a pitcher’s duel between their Bill Swift and our Joaquin Andujar. It’s scoreless until we put up four in the top of the 6^th. They score three in the bottom of the inning, and that’s the score in the 9^th. Our closer, Roberto Osuna, gives up three hits in the 9^th but no runs, and we win 4-3 to go up 2-0.

We head home for Game 3 and are never in it. We have nothing against Jim Whitney and lose, 9-0.

Game 4 is epic. We tag Eddie Plank for five in the 1^st, and are up 9-4 in the eighth. But like they did in Game 1, we blow the lead fantastically, as Danys Baez (PEAK!!!!) and Giovanny Gallegos combine to give up six. We lose, 10-9, and head to a Game 5 that I basically already know the result of.

In Game 5 Mike Caldwell hangs with Steve Carlton, and we go to extras tied 2-2. We load the bases with one out in the top of the 10^th, but don’t score. They do, on a walk-off homer by Jeff Bagwell off Roberto Osuna.

The series reflects our season... good at the beginning, fall apart at the end.

My day is over.

[trman73]

Well the two teams that knocked me out in the playoffs both went on to win championships, as the Old Hoss Radbourns rolled through the rest of the playoffs and swept the I186 Series and the Bayushi Scorpions take ST109.

The Hammers get shut out of awards season but we still have an interesting Sunday. We win a 16-team tourney, which gives us two packs that wind up being useless. But we sell some guys and earn another, which is very intriguing, as it includes:

• SP Live Blake Snell (93) – My second Diamond player; and
• SS 1982 Ozzie Smith (68)

I’m posting Ozzie’s card below. Look at those defensive ratings! Right now my SS is Dick Schofield, also a light-hitting, great glove guy, but this is next-level defense at short.

So... Ozzie is going for 2,000 PP in the AH. Thankfully, someone in my league started him the whole year, so I can get a sense of what he is: .200/.273/.273 for a .546 OPS in 506 AB; that is just terrible, and it’s Bronze. Next year we’ll be in Silver and he’s going to be one of the worst offensive players in the league.

But... he had a 2.0 WAR thanks to a +27.1 Zone Rating (!!!!!!!!!!!). Unreal. I’ve got to go with him despite the terrible, terrible offense.

One player from the Warlocks takes home both a Great Bat and a Great Glove: SS Bill Russell. We’ll sit on our PP for now and hope that we can make some noise in Bronze next season.

For the Frogs, Justin Turner and Riggs Stephenson win Great Bats, and I get the 1,000 Great Score! Bonus. We’ll sit on our 3,932 PP as well.

Until next week!

[trman73]

Card-Stravaganza!

My philosophy on my FTP and PO teams is pretty simple. There are only three outcomes for a card:

1. It makes the active roster
2. It makes my Bronze tournament team
3. It gets sold

For these teams I keep only about 55 cards... the 25 (now 26) that are active, another 26 for a Bronze tourney team, and then just a handful of extras. Everyone else is sold. Bronze is the only tourney type I play. Silvers, Golds, etc. are more valuable to my packs-only team being sold in the AH. I try to hit tourneys hard. Obviously with a FTP team that includes AH buys, there’s more strategy to it, but for packs only, every guy that isn’t going to play is more valuable sold.

All of this is to say...

I lasted three weeks before making my first PP purchase late last night. I spent $15, and threw $10 into packs for the Hammers. I saved the rest.

Then, during the night, the Hammers won 32-team and 16-team Bronze tourneys. So... 12 packs last night, and I awaken to six packs today and another 4 from AH sales.

Next... the reveal!

[trman73]

First, the 12 packs from my real money.

12 Packs:
Pack 1: Best player - Live SP Tanner Roark (65)
Pack 2: GOLD – 1B Live Rhys Hoskins (80)
Pack 3: SILVER – C Live Danny Jansen (70)
Pack 4: Best player - Live OF Jordan Luplow (68)
Pack 5: GOLD – SS Live Didi Gregorius (85)
Pack 6: Best player - SP 2013 Joe Kelly (59)
Pack 7: Best player - SP 1966 Chris Zachary (69)
Pack 8: GOLD - SP 2011 Mat Latos (85); SILVER - RP Live Andrew Kittredge (76)
Pack 9: GOLD - 3B Live Rafael Devers (88)
Pack 10: Best player - SP Live Rich Hill (62)
Pack 11: Best player - 2B Live Breyvic Valera (67)
Pack 12: SILVER - 1B 1945 Phil Cavaretta (79); SILVER - C 2005 Michael Barrett (74)

Stats:
72 cards
0 Perfect
0 Diamond
4 Gold
4 Silver
23 Bronze
41 Iron

Current Average 7-day Values in AH
6,699 for the four golds (1,674.8 per card)
1,426 for the four silvers (356.5 per card)
2,009 for the 23 Bronze (87.3 per card)
1,127 for the 41 Irons (27.4 per card)
That’s 11,261 total current value in the AH for 12,000 in packs. Pretty fair.

Of these cards, four join the actual club.
1B Phil Cavaretta – Becomes DH against righties. Matt Olson is put in AH, and Josh Bell becomes full-time 1B.
3B Rafael Devers – Takes over for Seager
SP Mat Latos – Takes over for Chris Archer
RP Andrew Kittredge – Takes over for John Gellnar

So Gregorius, Olson, Archer, and Hoskins go to the AH, joined by silvers Jansen, Seager, Dick Schofield, and Barrett. All the Irons go to the AH, as do most of the Bronzes. A bunch of 'em sell during the night, and I awaken to six tourney packs and 5,190 PP from sales.

[trman73]

Tourney Win Packs:
Pack 1: Nothing
Pack 2: SILVER SP 2011 Philip Humber (79)
Pack 3: Nothing
Pack 4: Nothing
Pack 5: SILVER RP 1988 Alejandro Pena (77)
Pack 6: SILVER RF Live Jorge Soler (79)

Well that helps the bullpen as Pena goes to middle relief and Humber replaces Chris Paddack as my long reliever for now (I’ll test him there and keep Paddack just in case).

I’m going to wait to see how many PP I get from my sales before opening my packs from the cash I spent, so I can measure the value of the players vs. the actual dollars spent.

I can afford to wait on more packs because unless a miracle happens, I’m being relegated this week. Just saw the Silver Division I’m in. I may not win 40 games.

[trman73]

Quick 2022 Preview

Hammers
We’re in Silver 252 and so clearly don’t belong it’s not even funny. My focus is on opening the packs I’m accumulating. It’s no exaggeration to say that if we finish anything other than 15^th in our conference, I’d be shocked.
Prediction: 5^th in division, 15^th in conference, relegated to Bronze.

Warlocks
Bronze 221. Right before the start of the season I make a move...
OUT: 3B Future Legend Nolan Jones (85) – sold for 6,099 PP
IN: 3B Live Anthony Rendon (96) – Bought for 5,100 PP
Pretty simple upgrade and pocketed 1,000 PP in the process.
Prediction: 4^th in division, 7^th in conference, just miss promotion, remain in Bronze

Frogs
In Iron 158 with a monster in our division, the Boca Bears. But overall, not bad.
Prediction: 3^rd in division, 6^th in conference, no playoffs, promoted to Bronze.

[trman73]

I wind up earning eight packs from my sales off the cards I purchased for the Hammers.

Pack 1: Nothing
Pack 2: Nothing
Pack 3: SILVER LF Live Lourdes Gurriel Jr. (73)
Pack 4: Nothing
Pack 5: Nothing
Pack 6: Nothing
Pack 7: GOLD CL Live Roberto Osuna (87)
Pack 8: FINALLY!

[trman73]

Hammers Packapalooza Final Tally

We earn one more pack from sales off the original $10 investment, and our slight string of good luck continues with Diamond SS Live Javier Baez. But I don’t want him, so he goes up and fetches exactly 4,000.

I’m down to the final five packs to close out this adventure. They are all complete junk, and I’m done with my initial $10 spend. The final tally:

Active Roster adds, with AH value at time of pull:
LF Christian Yelich (100) – 27,999
SP Mat Latos (85) – 2,000
CL Roberto Osuna (87) – 2,000
3B Rafael Devers (88) – 1,999
1B Phil Cavarretta (79) – 1,001
MR Andrew Kittredge (76) – 500

Bronze Tourament Team adds:
SP Chris Zachary (69) – 100
MR Kiko Calero (66) – 100
SP Dustin May (61) – 99
1B Jose Martinez (69) – 90
CF Jason Heyward (66) – 84
RF Jordan Luplow (69) – 65

Add that up and that’s a current value of 36,037 in the AH. Of course, 78% of that comes from one guy, but for 10 bucks I’ll take Yelich and the rest of these guys.

Of course, none of them are helping right now, as we’re 4-14 in our league and enduring an eight-game losing streak. Forget about this week for the Hammers.

[trman73]

Big News This Morning!


Well the Hammers have had an interesting day. We're 5-30 in Silver 252, and riding a 15-game losing streak. Some lowlights:

• We're giving up 7 runs per game.
• Our starters have a 7.09 collective ERA.
• Blake Snell, my one Diamond starter, is 1-6 with a 9.16 ERA.
• My best starter is Mat Latos - he's 0-5 with a 5.59 ERA.

And yet... today has been my best day of the game thus far. Because, after finishing second in a Bronze tourney, I got this...

[trman73]

Well if anyone out there is reading, I'd love some feedback...

Nap Lajoie is going for 112,500 in the AH right now.

So... one of the best 2B in the game, or 100 packs?

[trman73]

Quick Wednesday Updates

We're approaching the halfway point of the 2022 season and my three teams all over the place in terms of success at their current levels.

For the Hammers, we put Nap Lajoie up in the AH and he did not fetch the average 7-day rate, so we pulled him and are now starting him. He’s hitting .320 with an .823 OPS in a handful of games. We earned some packs with tourney wins and got a Live Yordan Alvarez out of it, which is fine I suppose.

The big news is that this team has had not one, not two, but three two-game winning streaks! Woo Hoo! We are 16-54, a mere 31 games out in our division, and on pace to go 37-125. This would easily be my worst season in my PT history. We are not a Silver-level team yet.

Ozzie Smith watch: .238/.292/.335 for a .628 OPS. And a +11.4 ZR at short.

The Warlocks are a different story in Bronze 211. After a 3-9 start, we’ve gone 40-16 since and just took over first in our division. The only move we’ve made since the Rendon pickup was bringing in Live Brad Hand. The bullpen is a wreck but we’re first in runs scored and first in starters ERA. This team continues to surprise me and we’ve built up more than 7,100 PP.

I thought the Frogs would have moderate success in Iron 158. We’ve had winning streaks and losing streaks and sit at 34-33. We’ve got two quality teams in our division. We’re 5-16 against them and 29-17 against everyone else. But 17 more games against those clubs is likely to cause us to watch the playoffs from the sidelines.Roster-wise, I replaced Lance Lynn and Charlie Morton in the rotation with 87 Mike Caldwell and 88 Billy Loes. It’s helped.

__________________
Anything Goes


FTP


Packs Only

[trman73]

All-Star Break Update

Hammers – Silver 252
A lost cause at 22-75. Ugliness all around. We’re 30^th in the league and five games back of the relegation zone, which we will not get out of. Last in both runs scored and runs allowed. On the plus side, some good tourney results got us a few packs, and one of them included PEAK CL Dave Smith (94). He’ll probably get about five opportunities to close over the last two months of the season, but he’s a keeper. This also allows me to move gas can Aroldis Chapman to middle relief.

Warlocks – Bronze 211
The exact opposite of the Hammers. Rolling at 64-34 and eight games clear of the second-best team in our conference. To bolster, I got a couple guys on good deals in the AH:

• Special Edition SP Adam Wainright (91) – bought for 5,500
• PEAK CL Jose Mesa (87) – Bought for 2,110

Wainright certainly isn’t a long-term answer, but I’ve seen how my pitchers are doing this year in Silver, and at the very least he can pair with Mussina to give me a decent shot. He’s 4-1 with a 2.70 ERA since we got him.

This team had six All-Stars – Mussina, SP Mike Caldwell, and then the first four guys in our batting order: Brendan Rodgers (.337-16-70), Jason Kendall, Bobby Abreu, and Anthony Rendon.

Frogs – Iron 158
I’ve devoted very little attention to this team as very soon I’ll just pour some real cash into it. That neglect is showing, as we’re just 51-46, although we’re on a five-game roll. Our lone All-Star was SP Mark Guthrie, who’s generally been really good through Iron. Despite the mediocrity, we’re just a game back of the Wild Card, and on track for promotion.

[trman73]

Well, at 25-81 in Silver, and with clearly a roster that needs some serious upgrades, I cash in on the Hammers' most valuable asset. After going down in price three times, I sell 2B Nap Lajoie (99) for 70,000, 63,000 of which comes to me. I had a good morning with a tournament win during the night that got us Live 3B Anthony Rendon, so this is now my chance to see how much we can upgrade in exchange for a guy who, when all is said and done, will hopefully yield a bigger return than his actual value.

I have the PP for 65 packs, or 390 cards, and I'm logging the results.

Odds:
0.36 Perfects
2.6 Diamonds
7.8 Golds
19.5 Silvers