Season 32 (2050) Discussion Thread

[Catchthedamnball]

Originally Posted by bailey

You must be referring to fielding percentage. That is bad, very bad.

Whoops. Didn't specify that I meant OPS. His fielding percentage is .978 (+.4 ZR).

[JasonC23]

So, Huntley continues to cruise in P432 and is on its way to, quite easily, its best regular season ever, but that doesn't matter. Huntley had its second-best month of the season in August, putting together a robust 25-2 record, but those 2 losses? They were to the Bat Cave Bat Chain Pullers and Oquendos Friendos. And, lo and behold, if the season ended today, guess who would be the 2 AC Wild Card teams?

(The mental games we play with ourselves to preemptively lessen the potential sting of disappointment...)

[waittilnextyear]

The Frogs have been playing pretty good baseball this week in P442 (93-38, +321). Interesting that despite a 'good feel' to this week and a commanding division lead (28 games), we're somehow 8 games off of our pythagorean expectation. The bullpen has been very good (2.23 ERA, 3rd) so it's not like we're blowing games late. I'd pin it more on lopsided wins against weaker teams and close losses to strong ones. And some bad luck with sequencing (17-17 in 1-run games).

All-Stars this week included:

LIVE Christian Yelich (.260/.342/.463, 23 HR 73 RBI 20 SB)
99 Yogi Berra (.289/.332/.456, 14 HR 59 RBI)
Ed Walsh (17-5, 1.86 ERA)
100 Tom Seaver (17-4, 2.39 ERA)
100 John Smoltz (9-4, 20 SV, 2.42 ERA)

Newcomers SE Harry Brecheen (17-8, 2.96 ERA) and Stan Coveleski (4-1, 17 SV, 0.70 ERA) have helped to fortify the pitching staff. Coveleski in particular has been a revelation sharing stopper duties with Smoltz. Coveleski's Frog career started with 36.1 scoreless IP, followed by allowing 5 runs over a 2-inning span, followed by another long scoreless streak of 25.2 IP that is still active. In other words, if you overlook that 2-inning blip, he would've bested Orel Hershiser's consecutive scoreless innings mark.

Other miscellany includes SE George Sisler being so excited to rejoin the active roster that he posted a steal of home and hit for the cycle in a 1-month span.

The Frogs have only gone 3-7 against the likes of the Singapore Sluggers (104-26, +504), Exeter Blue Hawks (99-34, +420), and Slumberton Slumlords (103-24, +508). So that's a bit disconcerting for upcoming postseason action, but not altogether unexpected considering the strength of those teams. It's actually an incredibly top-heavy league (50+ PL titles) as only 9 teams have positive run differentials, and 8 of those are 200+.

Finally, I've been watching the AH pretty closely for the final card I need to obtain 100 Ozzie Smith, but the supply of those 2 cards has predictably bottlenecked. I've amassed over 200K PP, which is plenty to purchase the card I need even at current sky high rates, but am not willing to pay extortion prices...very stoked to have only spent 158K net on the Cardinals missions and not about to ruin that fiscal discipline now (lol). So I continue to wait. And open packs. Right now, I'm in the midst of another 200-pack opening, and the first 25 said packs have yielded 90 Joe Hesketh, 83 Rod Carew, FL Sixto Sanchez, LIVE golds Machado, Devers, Realmuto, Hendricks, and Acuna. Also another 82 Odalis Perez to add to the vault for when the Dodgers missions come out.

[Izz]

After a slow start to the season thanks to the 'Glou hitters forgetting how to hit, things are starting to even out. We're 70-63, with our pitchers surprisingly posting the 2nd-best FIP in the conference. We're in 3rd place in the division, 4 games back. We're also 3 games out of a wildcard. Still, we went 18-10 in August and are 2-0 in September so far. If we keep playing as we are we'll be in the frame come the pointy end.

I've had a couple of duh moments - like today I realized I could have much better options than Syndergaard in my rotation. He'll stay there for now, though, but I think I'll elevate Severino back to starting and bring Busby up as my long relief guy next season. I've also decided Aparicio is too much of a handbrake on offense to be playing every 2nd game, so he's playing every 3rd game instead. That has meant Rod Carew is starting 2 of every 3 games at 2B, though, but he's hitting .327/.385/.409 so far for the season, so his offensive output seems to be making up for his defensive terribleness.

[Westheim]

Raccoons enter the day with an 8 1/2 game edge in the wild card chase, but almost as far away from winning the division, so that's probably that. Also with the Lake Monroe Doctrine collapsing I don't find it unreasonable that we meet in the wild card game in an epic battle TO THE DEATH.

Rebs are tied for a relegation spot, but I believe in them to have one more losing streak in them.

The Accountants have risen to 13 games over .500 and are just 1 1/2 games away from the division lead, but in third place, and in a 4-way battle for the two wild cards.

As far as forum battles TO THE DEATH are concerned, the Accountants swept the Zurich Golden Lions to make up a 1-3 deficit from April and win the season series, 4-3. And the Coons took a 4-2 season series win from Lake Monroe in August/September. (looks smug)

[Westheim]

I declare the Raccoons' search for a centerfielder over.

Or do I cash him for 40k?

Oof.

[HelpDodgers]

Everything seems to be going as planned. Worked hard but brought in Ichiro (82) and Lance Parrish (90) for some extra defense. Having troubles getting pitching, but pulled a Goose Gossage card so I put him in the bullpen.

Lyman Bostock continues to perform as a PH. 17 games, 24 AT, 11 hits (2 2b, 2 3b, and a HR). 8 runs scored and 8 RBI, .500 OPB but was also HBP twice.

So, it looks like a WC game coming. That was expected.

I did beat the Chicago Cubbies 2 out of 3 in the last series in August. Proud of them as Cubbies are team to beat but in my division, the Whips own Belfast.

Let's all hope hitting can beat pitching this season!

[BigRed75]

The Beltways enter September with a slim 4.5% chance at making the playoffs, with their 65-68 record. Disappointingly, their pythag is 70-63, which is the record the two WC teams currently hold.

Fun fact about G354 - there are six teams within five games of the two wild card leaders. Of those six teams, five of them have pythag records that are even or better than 70-63. And the two holders are both playing out of their skins and have pythags worse (one team's is actually below .500!)

Anyway, the -5 in expected wins makes me wonder if all this defensive shuffling is costing us a playoff spot.

Goose Goslin's stats have gotten even better - he's now slashing .326/.422/.547 but his defense is still awful.

The Quendas have all but locked up a playoff spot, having worked up a 80-53 record and 7-game lead through September. Casey Mize remains the standout pitcher and mid-season acquistion, while Pete Alonso have left the other players in the dust, home-run-wise, with 26.

Over in P456, the Redlegs probably won't be relegated, but Hammertime laid the wood to the whole division. We're in third place, and still 32 1/2 games out. Colorado Lions and Jersey Revolutionize have both already clinched. The Lions are currently 100-33, and Jersey is a mere 1/2 game back at 100-34 - setting up a humdinger of a battle to avoid the wild card.

[Orcin]

Originally Posted by Westheim

I declare the Raccoons' search for a centerfielder over.

Or do I cash him for 40k?

Oof.

Play him.

[Westheim]

Originally Posted by Orcin

Play him.

Yeah, I had quite the revolving door in the last few seasons, and nobody made me happy. Tommie Agee was the latest one because I picked him up anyway for the Amazin' Mets mission, but he was struggling to hit for a .600 OPS in Perfect.

I don't think Trout will.

Yeah. Also, completing the few scraps left over from the live Angels mission will give about 15k's worth in rewards in itself.

Edit: Ack! No Andrew Heaney cards to be seen…!

[Westheim]

What?

[waittilnextyear]

So this is where all the good pulls have been going. Good to know. I'm on a pretty depressing run of 200 packs myself. Where the highlight has been a LIVE Nolan Arenado to go with zero historical diamonds worth more than 10K.

[daves]

There is not a true tight pennant race in the P400 as the teams are divided up nicely between divisions. Surprisingly all 3 of my teams have a shot to make the P400 playoffs.

Glendale Grizzlies and the Jefferson City Capitals are heavily favored for a WS matchup.

[tallywood]

Sitting at 90-57 and just clinched the division! I'm hoping this is the year we break into Perfect... but the NC looks pretty dang difficult this year

[Westheim]

A 13-4 September has the Accountants narrowly in first place.

The Rebs have sunk to 62-87, worst in their league, but still only one game off a safe spot. There's probably seven teams that all still have a chance to get relegated, separated by only four games. But they have nothing going and it looks quite bad for them…

The Critters have a wild card spot almost secure, and are also two games away from being eliminated from first place in their division. And while we're all fawning over my pretty cards… all the newcomers this year are terrible. Brooks Robinson hits .243; Frank Thomas .234; Mike Trout .123 (!); there's so much more potential here, boys!

[emilempenza]

Quick question, when is the last day you can change your team before the playoffs? As I'm comfortable top of my division by my entire lineup has decided to simultaneously slump just at the wrong time, I've lost 8 of my last 10 including 7 in a row and I seriously considering having a bit of a panic purge! Does player form carryover into the playoffs, as if so I'm in trouble!

[Catchthedamnball]

Originally Posted by emilempenza

Quick question, when is the last day you can change your team before the playoffs? As I'm comfortable top of my division by my entire lineup has decided to simultaneously slump just at the wrong time, I've lost 8 of my last 10 including 7 in a row and I seriously considering having a bit of a panic purge! Does player form carryover into the playoffs, as if so I'm in trouble!

You can change your lineup at any time. I don't believe in streakiness within sports simulations (unless I'm expressly told such a modifier is written into the code, and nobody has yet). As long as your players have solid ratings I wouldn't worry.

If you do make changes, just remember that players moved to the reserve roster can't rejoin the active roster until 14 days have been simulated.

[emilempenza]

Originally Posted by Catchthedamnball

You can change your lineup at any time. I don't believe in streakiness within sports simulations (unless I'm expressly told such a modifier is written into the code, and nobody has yet). As long as your players have solid ratings I wouldn't worry.

If you do make changes, just remember that players moved to the reserve roster can't rejoin the active roster until 14 days have been simulated.

Really? I thought those hot and cold icons meant they were "playing up", so to speak? Or are they just cosmetic to highlight a fortunate run?

[mcdog512]

Originally Posted by emilempenza

Really? I thought those hot and cold icons meant they were "playing up", so to speak? Or are they just cosmetic to highlight a fortunate run?

Cosmetic I believe the devs said.

[Orcin]

Originally Posted by emilempenza

Really? I thought those hot and cold icons meant they were "playing up", so to speak? Or are they just cosmetic to highlight a fortunate run?

They indicate recent past performance, which is not an indicator of future results.