Daylight Fading: A solo fast-sim dynasty

darkcloud4579 · 10-04-2009, 02:11 PM

So I created a FOOL variant for my personal use called FOOL-Daylight which essentially is my own fiefdom of baseball clubs in a solo league universe I control.

I run teams for a period of time, sim into the future and rinse, wash, repeat the process again.

I started it in the 1800s so I could simulate a ton of history, but effectively it's played out like it's modern times, with financials using current dollars. Salary cap is at $75 million.

I started my career with the Victoria Cougars from 1800-1812 and won three league titles in 1803, '09 and '10. After that, I took off 36 years and came back in 1848 to take over the Washington Maroons from 1848-1850 and then again in 1852. During that time, we made the playoffs each year, but didn't win the title.

After a four year break in 1866, I took over the Rio Grande Roadrunners, leading them to a 112-win season and a loss in the Daylight Series (a best of nine series) to the Manchester Elephants.

Well, in '67 the landscape has changed a bit. The Roadrunners folded just two months before the season was to begin. Replacing them was an expansion team - the Los Angeles Seraphs.

The Seraphs inherited the Roadrunners organization and players, but not their records.

Thus '67 is the first season for the league's first expansion franchise in 27 years.

My format for this dynasty is season recaps. Because FOOL is fast-sim in nature, I run my dynasty the same way. One straight shot, no second chances. I don't tinker or anything with the lineups or anything else during the season and the AI doesn't either. Or the postseason.

Then we do the off-season, then go back into it.

I'm the GM of the Seraphs this year and we're wanting to be the first expansion club to capture a title in its first year. The Eau Claire Paws won a title in their second season (after going 81-81 and using a playoff system that's since been changed to squeak in and then run the table) but no other team has done it that fast.

darkcloud4579 · 10-04-2009, 02:12 PM

After a 117-win season -- a league record -- the Seraphs road the backs of their three aces (Gunner Carter, Earl Smith and Nelson Mares) to the post-season to face off against the 83-win Eau Claire Paws. The playoff format is 2 teams from each division makes the post-season and then the seeding is based on records. So the Paws were the 2nd place team in the Central Division, but the #8 seed.

Despite that, they dispatched the Seraphs in seven games to advance to the Division Championship Series against Jacksonville who sent them home in five games. In the Daylight Series, the Washington Maroons beat Jacksonville in seven games to claim their third title in five years.

The Seraphs were the highest salary team in the league that year, bringing in perennial all-stars such as Kurt Born and Nelson Mares to compliment a team of future Hall of Famers including ageless wonder Lars-Erik Johansen who is our version of Babe Ruth - only better - with over 200 career wins and 600 career home runs.

In the end, though, our first year was a success during the regular season and a huge disappointment in the post-season. So we retooled, came back and tried again for the '68 season.

darkcloud4579 · 10-04-2009, 02:12 PM

Same old, same old in LA. Year two, we tried not to tinker too much with the lineup. We used some younger guys like Michael Clayton and 21-year old rookie phenom Michael Bowles to propel us to the promised land. We replaced Johansen who went back to Washington with 40-year old David Sullivan who won 20 games.

The results? Another 117-win season for the Seraphs. You just can't make this sorta stuff up. But in the end? The result was the same in the post-season. Facing the #8 seeded 86-win Eau Claire Paws, the Seraphs couldn't bring it together and as a result, lost to the Paws in six games and were dispatched from the post-season for the second straight year.

The team rumored to be considering firing Dark Cloud after the season, because it was just so frustrating, but team officials recognized they hadn't made significant improvements to the team and considered one more year to bring it all together.

darkcloud4579 · 10-04-2009, 02:13 PM

Another year. Same old Seraphs. The team was retooled and aided by a $10 million salary cap increase, the team was able to make some moves. Players were dealt, new guys were brought in and well...for the third straight year, the team won 117 games.

But this time, it wasn't a record, because the New York Gothams, a team that has never won a championship since being founded in 1840, decided to put it all together, winning a league record 123 games during the regular season.

After trading up to get the first pick in the draft, they did it to get 3B phenom Mat Johansen, the son of -- you guessed it -- Lars-Erik Johansen who said he'd keep playing (he's now 47 for those of you counting at home) until his son made the majors.

Well, lucky for Lars that his son didn't give him long to wait, as he did it during his rookie campaign as a 20-year old.

The Angels tried their best, armed with another rotation led by Gunner Carter, Nelson Mares and Paul Castle -- all 20-game winners -- the ballclub again had the best pitching staff in the league and was 1st or 2nd in most batting categories, as well.

This year's playoffs were a bit kinder to the boys from Hollywood, as they faced off against Colorado City, the #7 seed in the playoffs and swept them to advance to their first-ever Division Championship Series takng on the Triplets of Evansville, who won the Central Division title at 98-64. It took six games, but they knocked them off setting up the battle EVERYONE wanted to see -- New York v. Los Angeles. When the league approved a new team in LA after the demise of Rio Grande, literally this was the sort of series that folks were hoping for.

The Seraphs were not favored against the Gothams, who had been rollng on all cylinders for most of the year. Rookie Mat Johansen led the team with 34 home runs, his father led the team with 22-wins, despite his age and a balanced rotation of Jim Miller (19 wins, 234 K), Van Anderson (16 wins, 230 K) and Jeff O'Rorke (21 wins) thwarted the Seraphs in their bid to claim a Daylight Series title, giving the Gothams their first EVER Union League championship winning the series 5 games to 1.

So where do the Seraphs go from here? No decision has been made on the future of Dark Cloud or many of the players. The core is still intact and with a few modest moves, the team would be easily back in contention again. Maybe it'll take some creativity to ensure the team has its horses in places for a long postseason run, but...in the end, Los Angeles is learning is that it's not just about regular season wins, but stringing together 13 wins in October to claim the league's ultimate prize.

darkcloud4579 · 10-04-2009, 02:13 PM

MOVE, REALIGNMENT
Sioux Falls will move to Buffalo, New York for the 1870 season after 39 years in South Dakota. They'll retain the Blue Wings name.

Buffalo will transfer to the Eastern Division, Washington to the Central from the East and Shreveport to the West from the Central.

PLAYOFF/TITLE DROUGHTS (as of 1869)
----
BANTAM (1865) (1833)
BOULDER (1868) (1828)
BROOKLYN (1847) (1846)
BUFFALO (1867) (1845)
CAROLINA (1866) (1841)
CHICAGO (1862) (1862)
COLORADO CITY (1869) (1868)
EAU CLAIRE (1868) (1844)
ENDERBY (1860) (1827)
EVANSVILLE (1869) (1829)
HOUSTON (1869) (1850)
JACKSONVILLE (1867) (1861)
LOS ANGELES (1869) (NONE, founded in 1867)
MANCHESTER (1868) (1866)
MINNEAPOLIS (1853) (NONE, founded in 1840)
NEW YORK (1869) (1869)
PITTSBURGH (1865) (1857)
SAN DIEGO (1868) (1865)
SANTA ROSA (1864) (1854)
SHREVEPORT (1866) (1839)
ST. LOUIS (1869) (NONE, founded in 1812)
ST. PETERSBURG (1867) (NONE, founded in 1840)
VICTORIA (1867) (1860)
WASHINGTON (1869) (1867)

darkcloud4579 · 10-04-2009, 02:13 PM

1870 OFF-SEASON
Bottom line, this is the last shot ownership will give me to right the ship here. I considered resigning during the offseason, not sure if I could really get this team where it needed to be, knowing we couldn't really spend a lot of money to get ourselves where should be.

Playoffs? That doesn't worry me that much. It's more about whether we have the horses in the post-season to really get it done.

Because this is a fast-sim dynasty, I make NO moves after the off-season. Once I set the team, that's what we have all season long and through the post-season, because I've added the degree of difficulty of not allowing myself a chance to tinker with the roster between the regular season and post-season, which if I didn't, I probably would've won a title just because of being able to set my rotation from 5 to 4. But that's the price of playing this way...

So what moves did we make? Well, I thought you'd never ask. Here's what I did:

I acquired Chance Madole from Bantam for three players. (Here. They. Are.)

The logic? We needed to cut payroll and yet, we needed more pop and I think he's the sort of guy that could deliver that, even though it's the tail end of his career. And yes, he's an LA native and I love human interest stories. Sue me.

I traded one of our dependable ace types - Nelson Mares - in a straight up salary dump for Danny Wheeler. The deal here? We saved about $8.5 million by getting rid of Mares. He's getting old (38) and despite three straight 20 win seasons for us since coming over as a free agent from Colorado City (where he spent his whole career) I decided to sell high here. No doubt the absolute riskiest move of the offseason, but...Wheeler can play all four infield positions AND left field. We need that kind of depth come playoff time.

Speaking of, then feeling like the middle infield wasn't really where it needed to be, we called up the Bantam squad again to pick up Jeff Wilder for another stud kid pitcher in Tom Allen and a veteran infielder. Allen and some of the others we've dealt would've ensured this team was good for years beyond this one, but honestly, the financial constraints were such that we'd either have to kick up the kickstand on this season and try to compete in a few years or compile all of our assets and try to make some magic happen this season. That was the job I was tasked with and so, that's precisely what I did. We've still got a good number of solid prospects anyway. Plus Allen's control worried me.

Finally, I made a few more deals to pick up some veteran relievers in Brown, Higgs and Lee.

Bob Bradford was our only free agent signing this offseason, another bullpen guy.

In the past, we were riding with too many half-piece guys who I don't think were getting the job done with it mattered. I think we've fixed that problem now and as a result, we're in a pretty good place heading into this season.

You'd think it'd be easy to play Cashman, to be the guy who has to run the squad that isn't supposed to lose, that spends tons of money and goes out there and dominates, but...remaking a 117-win team is just not as easy a task as you'd think.

Payroll right now for the top 5 teams in the league ($75m cap) are:

Colorado City: $73,979,640
Boston: $73,708,500
Los Angeles: $73,437,000
New York: $73,052,000
Memphis: $67,818,500

Boston is just like Los Angeles, in that, it's an expansion team created in the demise of an established club (Brooklyn) going under. So they're in their 1st season. Memphis moved from Manchester, as the two England clubs relocated (Enderby went to Philadelphia) and so, we'll see some different cities this season.

This is my last season playing for a while, I'm going to sim into the 1900s after this season regardless of the outcome, so...it's important for us to finish strong, though naturally the playoffs always worry me because they're so flaky.

Anyway, here goes nothing.

darkcloud4579 · 10-04-2009, 02:14 PM

1870 SEASON
Well, as expected the regular season was something of a formality. We did, however, end our streak of 117 games in three straight years. This year, we won 120.

1870 Final Standings

Code:

Union League Standings
Eastern Division	W	L	PCT	GB
New York Gothams	123	39	.759	-
Philadelphia B.C.	87	75	.537	36.0
Boston Yanks		85	77	.525	38.0
Bantam Originals	82	80	.506	41.0
Buffalo Blue Wings	80	82	.494	43.0
Pittsburgh Grays	68	94	.420	55.0
Jacksonville Red Caps	63	99	.389	60.0
St. Petersburg Pelicans	62	100	.383	61.0

Central Division	W	L	PCT	GB
Washington Maroons	86	76	.531	-
Eau Claire Paws		84	78	.519	2.0
Memphis Elephants	83	79	.512	3.0
Chicago Blue Collars	80	82	.494	6.0
Minneapolis Millers	78	84	.481	8.0
Carolina Wrens		75	87	.463	11.0
St. Louis Stars		75	87	.463	11.0
Evansville Triplets	72	90	.444	14.0

Western Division	W	L	PCT	GB
Los Angeles Seraphs	120	42	.741	-
Colorado City Gold Sox	100	62	.617	20.0
Houston Buffalos	95	67	.586	25.0
Boulder Profs		80	82	.494	40.0
San Rafael Keepers	78	84	.481	42.0
Victoria Cougars	67	95	.414	53.0
Shreveport Gassers	63	99	.389	57.0
Santa Rosa Peanuts	58	104	.358	62.0

FOOL-D News: Playoffs begin
Thursday, September 22nd, 1870: Some clubs have coasted to make the playoffs -- others have scrapped tooth and nail to get here. After a long, sometimes seemingly endless regular season, it gets down to who can win a short series -- by hook or crook, talent or luck. That's what it takes to capture the FOOL-Daylight championship. The top teams will vie in the Daylight Series starting today:

Eau Claire Paws versus New York Gothams, Philadelphia Baseball Club versus Houston Buffalos, Washington Maroons versus Colorado City Gold Sox and Boston Yanks versus Los Angeles Seraphs.

So we get to face off against a team with a payroll almost as big as ours, despite them being the #7 seed. They're better than our usual nemesis in Eau Claire, but...they're a troublesome team to face off against.

darkcloud4579 · 10-04-2009, 02:14 PM

OPENING ROUND SERIES RESULTS (BEST OF SEVEN)
-----------
New York def. Eau Claire 4-2
Philadelphia def. Houston 4-2
Colorado City def. Washington 4-3
Los Angeles def. Boston 4-0

(Note: LA went 3-0 against Boston during the regular season, so it seems we just had their number all year. I'm okay with this. After finishing 20 games ahead of Colorado City during the regular season, I hope this one pays off.)

DIVISION CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES (BEST OF SEVEN)
-------------
Philadelphia v. New York
Los Angeles v. Colorado City

darkcloud4579 · 10-04-2009, 02:14 PM

DIVISION CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES RESULTS (BEST OF SEVEN)
-----
New York def. Philadelphia 4-2
Los Angeles def. Colorado City 4-1

Well, it's a rematch of last year's Daylight Series with the defending champion Gothams taking on the Seraphs from the left coast.

We went 2-1 against them in the regular season for whatever that's worth. Their lineup is pretty potent featuring Mat Johansen, the 21-year old phenom and umm..his 48-year old (yes, I unretired him) father Lars-Erik Johansen who is pretty much the Babe Ruth of this league, except better. After pitching last year for the Gothams, it seems he's been batting 3rd in the New York order this year to end his career as a hitter, rather than a pitcher.

It's important to note that Johansen played for Rio Grande for a year and a season in LA before retiring and then unretiring to finish his career in Washington (where he spent the bulk of it) but then left there, went to Bantam half a season and then after that, came back when New York moved up in the draft to pick up his son, so they could play together.

How's that for fatherly love?

In any case, I have no idea what to predict for this season, so let's just end the suspense.

darkcloud4579 · 10-04-2009, 02:15 PM

New York wins the 1870 Daylight Series 5 games to 3.

Which sucks. A lot. I'm half tempted to come back for another year just to see if we can't put it all together, because I've become pretty attached to this squad. But too many guys are leaving and it's going to be a lot more frustration than I want to put up with right now.

So I'm going to sim forward into the 1900s and start tinkering more with history and such alike, find a new team to adopt and see if we can't find some success there. Maybe I'll come up with a different approach with a squad like that, I dunno yet.

darkcloud4579 · 10-04-2009, 02:16 PM

Also:

If you're interested in participating in this dynasty by having me create a player for you, do let me know, as we're so far into the past, that it'd be interesting to have some guys throughout history that we could follow with special interest.

Just post it and lemme know.

Some created guys on another forum -- well two of them anyway -- had really successful careers, with one of them ending up as the all-time leader in wins (and losses, incidentally) so it's a fun twist to things if you're intrigued.

darkcloud4579 · 10-04-2009, 02:16 PM

1871 OFF-SEASON PRIMER

I've decided to come back for another season in Los Angeles. The core will stay intact, we have some young guys who might be able to contribute coming up (or who can be dealt) and I think that we can unload a few of those crap deals and move on with building a ballclub that might be able to compete for a title against next year.

If not, oh well. But I'm not quite ready to give the club up yet.

darkcloud4579 · 10-04-2009, 02:17 PM

THE ORIGINS OF SOME TEAM NAMES...
A look at some team names:

EAU CLAIRE PAWS

The Eau Claire Bears were a minor league team from 1933-1942 and again from 1946-1962. I loved their logo and decided immediately I had to have a team there, but wanted to deviate from the Bears name since it was so generic, so I called them the Paws.

SANTA ROSA PEANUTS

Charles Schultz, creator of Peanuts cartoons hails from Santa Rosa. Peanuts are a name of great historical value in the FOOL universe and so, it was a match made in heaven.

PITTSBURGH GRAYS
Based in Providence until the 1867 season, the Grays are an homage to the Homestead Grays of the Negro Leagues who shared time between Homestead, PA & Washington, D.C.

VICTORIA COUGARS
The Cougars are named after the 1925 Stanley Cup Champion Victoria Cougars who eventually disbanded, but had most of their players relocate to Detroit to a franchise named the Detroit Cougars (an homage to their defunct club) and who eventually became the Detroit Red Wings.

We're just scratching the surface, with these. There are others. Half the fun of a league like this is coming up with and researching names for squads.

Remember, we're operating in modern times, despite the way the years look. I just didn't want to start in the 2000s and sim into the 2100s, because that's jarring to me, so I decided to sim from an earlier time to generate history instead.

darkcloud4579 · 10-04-2009, 02:17 PM

1872 LOS ANGELES SERAPHS SEASON PREVIEW

1872 LOS ANGELES SERAPHS
TEAM PREVIEW

Incoming:
2B Justin Cripps (FA)
3B/SS Mat Johansen (FA)
CF Mark Wilkinson (Trade)

We decided if you can't beat them, steal them. I don't keep up with upcoming free agents on other teams, so much to my delight, Mat Johansen was a free agent and I was hellbent on doing whatever I had to, in order to bring him here. Not just as a trump card to New York (though, that helped) but more because he's precisely what we needed. So I was delighted when he signed with us. Joining him from New York is infielder Justin Cripps. He wasn't a key member of the title team, but I felt like he was a nice upgrade for us anyway.

Wilkinson is on the tail end of his career, but spent the entire bulk of it with the Baseball Club whether in Pacific, WA or Enderby, England or most recently in Philadelphia...he's been the constant on that franchise. But a falling out with management resulted in him being put on the block and we snapped him up in exchange for SP Haden Perris

PROSPECT TO WATCH FOR:
SP Jaime Juarez
We're in LA. And this guy has been generating buzz since the day we drafted him three years ago. I brought him up last year to get some experience and now he's poised to head into the rotation for real. He's got some pretty outstanding measurables and like I said, it's not often a rookie sells jerseys like this before he even gets his first MLB start, but this kid has the whole city eating out of his hand.

LF Ramon Escarceja
We acquired him in the deal back in '67 that sent Lars-Erik Johansen to Bantam (I was confused, we dealt him to BAN, then he went back to WAS before signing with New York to win three titles with his son and then retire again.) and the only reason I could feel comfortable with that deal was knowing this guy would be the real deal. Again, it's straight up pandering to the Hispanic community in LA, but the team is still new here and we've been successful, but I wanted guys on the club that people could identify with and well, he's one that will accomplish that for 'em.

In any case, I think after last season, I feel like this year's club is better no question. And I feel like we're more poised for the playoffs, too. It's hard to say, such a crapshoot and such. But, if we were ever going to do it, I guess this is the year it'd happen.

Or at least, for the future of my job I hope so. Because no title this year and I will be fired.
=========================
The soup de jour in this league is parity. Good teams win early if they draft and sign well, but once that ends, they end up having to pay the guys who play for them, they're usually not able to afford the big ticket guys and have to jettison them and start again. New York experienced this after their three-peat, as many of the core members of that squad went away.

The league is designed this way on purpose. Parity is no accident, but teams can still reel off playoff runs and title defenses, yet, it's not the sort of league where teams can stockpile cheap talent and hold onto it for years on end.

By design.

darkcloud4579 · 10-04-2009, 02:18 PM

ON FIRINGS...

I took a cue from this thread about firings in multi-player to create a formula for myself to determine how I keep my job from year to year.

It's developed from the start of my career, though if I wanted to, I could start from scratch after each gig too. I'm not yet, but could in the future since I've had such a long career.

In any case, the formula starts like this:

(Season Wins + 50) - (Previous Season Wins + 75)

After that first season, it's like this:

(Season Wins + Playoff Bonus + Previous Yr Score) - (Previous Season Wins + 75)

If a team wins over 100 games, the bonus you get for making the 1st round of the playoffs is negated. The playoff bonuses are:

1st round: 50
2nd round: 100
League Finalist: 150
Champion: 300

So over my fairly long career, I've won 3 titles and made the finals six times. Still, at present I only have 157 points.

The reason? I've been on a team that's won a lot, so if you can't maintain that standard in the post-season, then your numbers dwindle quickly and you're in jeopardy of losing your job. Once you're in the negative, you lose your job.

For instance, if I managed to win 92 games this year and miss the playoffs (unlikely, but go with it) and won 87 games next year and did the same thing, I'd get fired.

But that's really because I've built up quite a bit of credit over the years. I wasn't using this formula until now, but had I been using it earlier in my career, I'd have been canned twice. In 1802 after seasons of 73 wins, 71 wins and 70 wins in Victoria and again in 1808 after seasons of 75, 68, 64 and 77 wins in Victoria (and mind you, during that time I had a title and a finals appearance the following year. So I'd have been fired four years after making the title series.)

So the formula is neat, a nice solo twist and I'm going to start using it now. Here's a link to it, if you're interested.

darkcloud4579 · 10-04-2009, 02:19 PM

LAST SEASON IN LA
This is surely the last year in LA for me. We've got too many holes really to try to rig this hitch for another few years, at least at the level we've been at and I'm going to retire my current GM guy and create a new one, since having a guy exist for over 100 years would be strange.

I think we'll be fine qualifying for the playoffs, the real story is going to be whether I've arranged the team appropriately to outlast everyone else in a playoff run. It's a crapshoot, but...I'd like to go out on top.

darkcloud4579 · 10-04-2009, 02:20 PM

Here's the 1872 Regular Season Final Standings

Code:

Union League Standings
Eastern Division	W	L	PCT	GB
Buffalo Blue Wings	92	70	.568	-
New York Gothams	92	70	.568	-
Philadelphia Baseball 	84	78	.519	8.0
Boston Yanks		82	80	.506	10.0
Bantam Originals	77	85	.475	15.0
Jacksonville Red Caps	74	88	.457	18.0
St. Petersburg Pelicans	74	88	.457	18.0
Pittsburgh Grays	67	95	.414	25.0

Central Division	W	L	PCT	GB
Washington Maroons	107	55	.660	-
Carolina Wrens		96	66	.593	11.0
Memphis Elephants	91	71	.562	16.0
Minneapolis Millers	81	81	.500	26.0
Evansville Triplets	80	82	.494	27.0
Chicago Blue Collars	68	94	.420	39.0
St. Louis Stars		66	96	.407	41.0
Eau Claire Paws		62	100	.383	45.0

Western Division	W	L	PCT	GB
Los Angeles Seraphs	112	50	.691	-
Boulder Profs		90	72	.556	22.0
Colorado City Gold Sox	84	78	.519	28.0
Santa Rosa Peanuts	84	78	.519	28.0
Victoria Cougars	79	83	.488	33.0
Houston Buffalos	74	88	.457	38.0
Shreveport Gassers	70	92	.432	42.0
San Rafael Keepers	58	104	.358	54.0

Here are the results from the ORS:

Los Angeles def. Santa Rosa 4 games to 0
Buffalo def. New York 4 games to 1
Carolina def. Memphis 4 games to 2
Washington def. Boulder 4 games to 3

DIVISION CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES MATCHUPS

Los Angeles v. Boulder
Washington v. Carolina

Los Angeles def. Buffalo 4 games to 1
Washington def. Carolina 4 games to 3

Los Angeles 1872 Daylight Series Champions
Friday, October 25th, 1872: At Angel City Stadium today Los Angeles outclassed the Washington Maroons 7-3 and won the FOOL-Daylight Daylight Series for the 1st time in its club history.

The Seraphs rounded out the 1872 season with a 112-50 mark and wound up in first place in the Union League Western Division pennant chase.

We won the Series 5 games to 4, after being up 4 games to 1 in the series.

darkcloud4579 · 10-04-2009, 02:21 PM

MOVING ON
I've retired my human manager, will sim into the 1900s and then start with a new guy. What's nice about fast-sim solo is you can go as fast as you want to.

Just so you know, there will be another expansion sometime in the 1900s too that will expand the league from 24 teams to 30 teams. We'll go from 3 divisions to 5 divisions and the playoffs will go from Top 2 teams in each division + 2 wild cards to division champs only and 3 wild cards.

That should be probably 50 years away, but...just an FYI.

darkcloud4579 · 10-04-2009, 02:21 PM

1890 CHANGES
For those of you scoring at home, at the end of the 1890 season, a few changes happened in the league.

The San Rafael Keepers folded and were replaced by the Santa Ana Oranges. The Keepers players went to Santa Ana.

The Boulder Profs merged with the Colorado City Gold Sox. But only some of their players went over. Basically their best prospects and major leaguers who weren't FA to be went to Colorado City, the minor leaguers who weren't stayed in the minors to be shifted to a new club and the rest of the major leaguers were all released.

The team that replaced the Profs are the Salt Lake City Elders.

Playoffs format has also been changed slightly. Instead of there being 3 wild cards and 1st and 2nd place teams from each division qualifying for the playoffs, it's now division champs from the 3 divisions and 5 wild cards. Meaning that tougher divisions could qualify more teams, squeezing out fluke teams from weak divisions that advance as a result of that.

darkcloud4579 · 10-04-2009, 02:23 PM

KEEPING IT IN THE FAMILY
Mat Johansen's son and Lars-Erik Johansen's grandson Thom Johansen was drafted in the 1st round (9th overall pick) by the Los Angeles Seraphs in the 1892 draft. He's a pitcher like his grandfather was and I doubt he'll be as dominating, but..I thought it was neat that was good enough to go in the 1st round like his dad and that he fell to the 9th pick to the same team that both of those guys played for. Again, wish I could've orchestrated it, but I didn't...it was just the magic of the game.

All the better, really. And yes, I do intend to keep the Johansen family saga going for pretty much the entire dynasty, because it's kinda fun. I've even edited their player cards to indicate they relations. I just edited a guy who was already in the draft to be Thom Johansen and had him born in Houston (since Mat played there for the bulk of his career)

There will be another son who'll show up when this iteration of sim stops in 1900, too. Probably an infielder, but I haven't decided yet...maybe a full-time outfielder. Not sure, though.

Alou brothers eat your heart out.

Also, I'm going to at some point in the first part of the 1900s, create a second league and move some of the teams from the UL over to this new one. I just think it looks a little better and better to do it now than to wait 50 years, I figure. There might be an expansion team or two as a result, but we'll just see.

10-04-2009, 02:11 PM	#1
darkcloud4579 Hall Of Famer Join Date: Jun 2003 Posts: 8,308 Blog Entries: 32	Daylight Fading: A solo fast-sim dynasty So I created a FOOL variant for my personal use called FOOL-Daylight which essentially is my own fiefdom of baseball clubs in a solo league universe I control. I run teams for a period of time, sim into the future and rinse, wash, repeat the process again. I started it in the 1800s so I could simulate a ton of history, but effectively it's played out like it's modern times, with financials using current dollars. Salary cap is at $75 million. I started my career with the Victoria Cougars from 1800-1812 and won three league titles in 1803, '09 and '10. After that, I took off 36 years and came back in 1848 to take over the Washington Maroons from 1848-1850 and then again in 1852. During that time, we made the playoffs each year, but didn't win the title. After a four year break in 1866, I took over the Rio Grande Roadrunners, leading them to a 112-win season and a loss in the Daylight Series (a best of nine series) to the Manchester Elephants. Well, in '67 the landscape has changed a bit. The Roadrunners folded just two months before the season was to begin. Replacing them was an expansion team - the Los Angeles Seraphs. The Seraphs inherited the Roadrunners organization and players, but not their records. Thus '67 is the first season for the league's first expansion franchise in 27 years. My format for this dynasty is season recaps. Because FOOL is fast-sim in nature, I run my dynasty the same way. One straight shot, no second chances. I don't tinker or anything with the lineups or anything else during the season and the AI doesn't either. Or the postseason. Then we do the off-season, then go back into it. I'm the GM of the Seraphs this year and we're wanting to be the first expansion club to capture a title in its first year. The Eau Claire Paws won a title in their second season (after going 81-81 and using a playoff system that's since been changed to squeak in and then run the table) but no other team has done it that fast.

10-04-2009, 02:12 PM	#2
darkcloud4579 Hall Of Famer Join Date: Jun 2003 Posts: 8,308 Blog Entries: 32	1867 los angeles seraphs After a 117-win season -- a league record -- the Seraphs road the backs of their three aces (Gunner Carter, Earl Smith and Nelson Mares) to the post-season to face off against the 83-win Eau Claire Paws. The playoff format is 2 teams from each division makes the post-season and then the seeding is based on records. So the Paws were the 2nd place team in the Central Division, but the #8 seed. Despite that, they dispatched the Seraphs in seven games to advance to the Division Championship Series against Jacksonville who sent them home in five games. In the Daylight Series, the Washington Maroons beat Jacksonville in seven games to claim their third title in five years. The Seraphs were the highest salary team in the league that year, bringing in perennial all-stars such as Kurt Born and Nelson Mares to compliment a team of future Hall of Famers including ageless wonder Lars-Erik Johansen who is our version of Babe Ruth - only better - with over 200 career wins and 600 career home runs. In the end, though, our first year was a success during the regular season and a huge disappointment in the post-season. So we retooled, came back and tried again for the '68 season.

10-04-2009, 02:12 PM	#3
darkcloud4579 Hall Of Famer Join Date: Jun 2003 Posts: 8,308 Blog Entries: 32	1868 los angeles seraphs Same old, same old in LA. Year two, we tried not to tinker too much with the lineup. We used some younger guys like Michael Clayton and 21-year old rookie phenom Michael Bowles to propel us to the promised land. We replaced Johansen who went back to Washington with 40-year old David Sullivan who won 20 games. The results? Another 117-win season for the Seraphs. You just can't make this sorta stuff up. But in the end? The result was the same in the post-season. Facing the #8 seeded 86-win Eau Claire Paws, the Seraphs couldn't bring it together and as a result, lost to the Paws in six games and were dispatched from the post-season for the second straight year. The team rumored to be considering firing Dark Cloud after the season, because it was just so frustrating, but team officials recognized they hadn't made significant improvements to the team and considered one more year to bring it all together.

10-04-2009, 02:13 PM	#4
darkcloud4579 Hall Of Famer Join Date: Jun 2003 Posts: 8,308 Blog Entries: 32	1869 los angeles seraphs Another year. Same old Seraphs. The team was retooled and aided by a $10 million salary cap increase, the team was able to make some moves. Players were dealt, new guys were brought in and well...for the third straight year, the team won 117 games. But this time, it wasn't a record, because the New York Gothams, a team that has never won a championship since being founded in 1840, decided to put it all together, winning a league record 123 games during the regular season. After trading up to get the first pick in the draft, they did it to get 3B phenom Mat Johansen, the son of -- you guessed it -- Lars-Erik Johansen who said he'd keep playing (he's now 47 for those of you counting at home) until his son made the majors. Well, lucky for Lars that his son didn't give him long to wait, as he did it during his rookie campaign as a 20-year old. The Angels tried their best, armed with another rotation led by Gunner Carter, Nelson Mares and Paul Castle -- all 20-game winners -- the ballclub again had the best pitching staff in the league and was 1st or 2nd in most batting categories, as well. This year's playoffs were a bit kinder to the boys from Hollywood, as they faced off against Colorado City, the #7 seed in the playoffs and swept them to advance to their first-ever Division Championship Series takng on the Triplets of Evansville, who won the Central Division title at 98-64. It took six games, but they knocked them off setting up the battle EVERYONE wanted to see -- New York v. Los Angeles. When the league approved a new team in LA after the demise of Rio Grande, literally this was the sort of series that folks were hoping for. The Seraphs were not favored against the Gothams, who had been rollng on all cylinders for most of the year. Rookie Mat Johansen led the team with 34 home runs, his father led the team with 22-wins, despite his age and a balanced rotation of Jim Miller (19 wins, 234 K), Van Anderson (16 wins, 230 K) and Jeff O'Rorke (21 wins) thwarted the Seraphs in their bid to claim a Daylight Series title, giving the Gothams their first EVER Union League championship winning the series 5 games to 1. So where do the Seraphs go from here? No decision has been made on the future of Dark Cloud or many of the players. The core is still intact and with a few modest moves, the team would be easily back in contention again. Maybe it'll take some creativity to ensure the team has its horses in places for a long postseason run, but...in the end, Los Angeles is learning is that it's not just about regular season wins, but stringing together 13 wins in October to claim the league's ultimate prize.

10-04-2009, 02:20 PM	#17
darkcloud4579 Hall Of Famer Join Date: Jun 2003 Posts: 8,308 Blog Entries: 32	Here's the 1872 Regular Season Final Standings Code: Union League Standings Eastern Division W L PCT GB Buffalo Blue Wings 92 70 .568 - New York Gothams 92 70 .568 - Philadelphia Baseball 84 78 .519 8.0 Boston Yanks 82 80 .506 10.0 Bantam Originals 77 85 .475 15.0 Jacksonville Red Caps 74 88 .457 18.0 St. Petersburg Pelicans 74 88 .457 18.0 Pittsburgh Grays 67 95 .414 25.0 Central Division W L PCT GB Washington Maroons 107 55 .660 - Carolina Wrens 96 66 .593 11.0 Memphis Elephants 91 71 .562 16.0 Minneapolis Millers 81 81 .500 26.0 Evansville Triplets 80 82 .494 27.0 Chicago Blue Collars 68 94 .420 39.0 St. Louis Stars 66 96 .407 41.0 Eau Claire Paws 62 100 .383 45.0 Western Division W L PCT GB Los Angeles Seraphs 112 50 .691 - Boulder Profs 90 72 .556 22.0 Colorado City Gold Sox 84 78 .519 28.0 Santa Rosa Peanuts 84 78 .519 28.0 Victoria Cougars 79 83 .488 33.0 Houston Buffalos 74 88 .457 38.0 Shreveport Gassers 70 92 .432 42.0 San Rafael Keepers 58 104 .358 54.0 Here are the results from the ORS: Los Angeles def. Santa Rosa 4 games to 0 Buffalo def. New York 4 games to 1 Carolina def. Memphis 4 games to 2 Washington def. Boulder 4 games to 3 DIVISION CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES MATCHUPS Los Angeles v. Boulder Washington v. Carolina Los Angeles def. Buffalo 4 games to 1 Washington def. Carolina 4 games to 3 Los Angeles 1872 Daylight Series Champions Friday, October 25th, 1872: At Angel City Stadium today Los Angeles outclassed the Washington Maroons 7-3 and won the FOOL-Daylight Daylight Series for the 1st time in its club history. The Seraphs rounded out the 1872 season with a 112-50 mark and wound up in first place in the Union League Western Division pennant chase. We won the Series 5 games to 4, after being up 4 games to 1 in the series.

10-04-2009, 02:14 PM	#7
darkcloud4579 Hall Of Famer Join Date: Jun 2003 Posts: 8,308 Blog Entries: 32	1870 SEASON Well, as expected the regular season was something of a formality. We did, however, end our streak of 117 games in three straight years. This year, we won 120. 1870 Final Standings Code: Union League Standings Eastern Division W L PCT GB New York Gothams 123 39 .759 - Philadelphia B.C. 87 75 .537 36.0 Boston Yanks 85 77 .525 38.0 Bantam Originals 82 80 .506 41.0 Buffalo Blue Wings 80 82 .494 43.0 Pittsburgh Grays 68 94 .420 55.0 Jacksonville Red Caps 63 99 .389 60.0 St. Petersburg Pelicans 62 100 .383 61.0 Central Division W L PCT GB Washington Maroons 86 76 .531 - Eau Claire Paws 84 78 .519 2.0 Memphis Elephants 83 79 .512 3.0 Chicago Blue Collars 80 82 .494 6.0 Minneapolis Millers 78 84 .481 8.0 Carolina Wrens 75 87 .463 11.0 St. Louis Stars 75 87 .463 11.0 Evansville Triplets 72 90 .444 14.0 Western Division W L PCT GB Los Angeles Seraphs 120 42 .741 - Colorado City Gold Sox 100 62 .617 20.0 Houston Buffalos 95 67 .586 25.0 Boulder Profs 80 82 .494 40.0 San Rafael Keepers 78 84 .481 42.0 Victoria Cougars 67 95 .414 53.0 Shreveport Gassers 63 99 .389 57.0 Santa Rosa Peanuts 58 104 .358 62.0 FOOL-D News: Playoffs begin Thursday, September 22nd, 1870: Some clubs have coasted to make the playoffs -- others have scrapped tooth and nail to get here. After a long, sometimes seemingly endless regular season, it gets down to who can win a short series -- by hook or crook, talent or luck. That's what it takes to capture the FOOL-Daylight championship. The top teams will vie in the Daylight Series starting today: Eau Claire Paws versus New York Gothams, Philadelphia Baseball Club versus Houston Buffalos, Washington Maroons versus Colorado City Gold Sox and Boston Yanks versus Los Angeles Seraphs. So we get to face off against a team with a payroll almost as big as ours, despite them being the #7 seed. They're better than our usual nemesis in Eau Claire, but...they're a troublesome team to face off against.

10-04-2009, 02:15 PM	#10
darkcloud4579 Hall Of Famer Join Date: Jun 2003 Posts: 8,308 Blog Entries: 32	New York wins the 1870 Daylight Series 5 games to 3. Which sucks. A lot. I'm half tempted to come back for another year just to see if we can't put it all together, because I've become pretty attached to this squad. But too many guys are leaving and it's going to be a lot more frustration than I want to put up with right now. So I'm going to sim forward into the 1900s and start tinkering more with history and such alike, find a new team to adopt and see if we can't find some success there. Maybe I'll come up with a different approach with a squad like that, I dunno yet.

10-04-2009, 02:16 PM	#11
darkcloud4579 Hall Of Famer Join Date: Jun 2003 Posts: 8,308 Blog Entries: 32	Also: If you're interested in participating in this dynasty by having me create a player for you, do let me know, as we're so far into the past, that it'd be interesting to have some guys throughout history that we could follow with special interest. Just post it and lemme know. Some created guys on another forum -- well two of them anyway -- had really successful careers, with one of them ending up as the all-time leader in wins (and losses, incidentally) so it's a fun twist to things if you're intrigued.

10-04-2009, 02:17 PM	#13
darkcloud4579 Hall Of Famer Join Date: Jun 2003 Posts: 8,308 Blog Entries: 32	THE ORIGINS OF SOME TEAM NAMES... A look at some team names: EAU CLAIRE PAWS The Eau Claire Bears were a minor league team from 1933-1942 and again from 1946-1962. I loved their logo and decided immediately I had to have a team there, but wanted to deviate from the Bears name since it was so generic, so I called them the Paws. SANTA ROSA PEANUTS Charles Schultz, creator of Peanuts cartoons hails from Santa Rosa. Peanuts are a name of great historical value in the FOOL universe and so, it was a match made in heaven. PITTSBURGH GRAYS Based in Providence until the 1867 season, the Grays are an homage to the Homestead Grays of the Negro Leagues who shared time between Homestead, PA & Washington, D.C. VICTORIA COUGARS The Cougars are named after the 1925 Stanley Cup Champion Victoria Cougars who eventually disbanded, but had most of their players relocate to Detroit to a franchise named the Detroit Cougars (an homage to their defunct club) and who eventually became the Detroit Red Wings. We're just scratching the surface, with these. There are others. Half the fun of a league like this is coming up with and researching names for squads. Remember, we're operating in modern times, despite the way the years look. I just didn't want to start in the 2000s and sim into the 2100s, because that's jarring to me, so I decided to sim from an earlier time to generate history instead.

10-04-2009, 02:18 PM	#15
darkcloud4579 Hall Of Famer Join Date: Jun 2003 Posts: 8,308 Blog Entries: 32	ON FIRINGS... I took a cue from this thread about firings in multi-player to create a formula for myself to determine how I keep my job from year to year. It's developed from the start of my career, though if I wanted to, I could start from scratch after each gig too. I'm not yet, but could in the future since I've had such a long career. In any case, the formula starts like this: (Season Wins + 50) - (Previous Season Wins + 75) After that first season, it's like this: (Season Wins + Playoff Bonus + Previous Yr Score) - (Previous Season Wins + 75) If a team wins over 100 games, the bonus you get for making the 1st round of the playoffs is negated. The playoff bonuses are: 1st round: 50 2nd round: 100 League Finalist: 150 Champion: 300 So over my fairly long career, I've won 3 titles and made the finals six times. Still, at present I only have 157 points. The reason? I've been on a team that's won a lot, so if you can't maintain that standard in the post-season, then your numbers dwindle quickly and you're in jeopardy of losing your job. Once you're in the negative, you lose your job. For instance, if I managed to win 92 games this year and miss the playoffs (unlikely, but go with it) and won 87 games next year and did the same thing, I'd get fired. But that's really because I've built up quite a bit of credit over the years. I wasn't using this formula until now, but had I been using it earlier in my career, I'd have been canned twice. In 1802 after seasons of 73 wins, 71 wins and 70 wins in Victoria and again in 1808 after seasons of 75, 68, 64 and 77 wins in Victoria (and mind you, during that time I had a title and a finals appearance the following year. So I'd have been fired four years after making the title series.) So the formula is neat, a nice solo twist and I'm going to start using it now. Here's a link to it, if you're interested.

10-04-2009, 02:19 PM	#16
darkcloud4579 Hall Of Famer Join Date: Jun 2003 Posts: 8,308 Blog Entries: 32	LAST SEASON IN LA This is surely the last year in LA for me. We've got too many holes really to try to rig this hitch for another few years, at least at the level we've been at and I'm going to retire my current GM guy and create a new one, since having a guy exist for over 100 years would be strange. I think we'll be fine qualifying for the playoffs, the real story is going to be whether I've arranged the team appropriately to outlast everyone else in a playoff run. It's a crapshoot, but...I'd like to go out on top.

10-04-2009, 02:21 PM	#18
darkcloud4579 Hall Of Famer Join Date: Jun 2003 Posts: 8,308 Blog Entries: 32	MOVING ON I've retired my human manager, will sim into the 1900s and then start with a new guy. What's nice about fast-sim solo is you can go as fast as you want to. Just so you know, there will be another expansion sometime in the 1900s too that will expand the league from 24 teams to 30 teams. We'll go from 3 divisions to 5 divisions and the playoffs will go from Top 2 teams in each division + 2 wild cards to division champs only and 3 wild cards. That should be probably 50 years away, but...just an FYI.

10-04-2009, 02:23 PM	#20
darkcloud4579 Hall Of Famer Join Date: Jun 2003 Posts: 8,308 Blog Entries: 32	KEEPING IT IN THE FAMILY Mat Johansen's son and Lars-Erik Johansen's grandson Thom Johansen was drafted in the 1st round (9th overall pick) by the Los Angeles Seraphs in the 1892 draft. He's a pitcher like his grandfather was and I doubt he'll be as dominating, but..I thought it was neat that was good enough to go in the 1st round like his dad and that he fell to the 9th pick to the same team that both of those guys played for. Again, wish I could've orchestrated it, but I didn't...it was just the magic of the game. All the better, really. And yes, I do intend to keep the Johansen family saga going for pretty much the entire dynasty, because it's kinda fun. I've even edited their player cards to indicate they relations. I just edited a guy who was already in the draft to be Thom Johansen and had him born in Houston (since Mat played there for the bulk of his career) There will be another son who'll show up when this iteration of sim stops in 1900, too. Probably an infielder, but I haven't decided yet...maybe a full-time outfielder. Not sure, though. Alou brothers eat your heart out. Also, I'm going to at some point in the first part of the 1900s, create a second league and move some of the teams from the UL over to this new one. I just think it looks a little better and better to do it now than to wait 50 years, I figure. There might be an expansion team or two as a result, but we'll just see.