My new Random Debut League

[italyprof]

The National Baseball Association, starting in 1947 as an Independent League, based on the idea that MLB is suspended and does not start back up after WWII.

So various leagues start up, including the NBA, which is in small and medium-size cities (of that era). In the inaugural draft, Babe Ruth, age 34, and Honus Wagner, age 41 showed up. I think this is great, because it has an element of realism: these guys, were they still playing in 1947 and without a major league system in existence, would be playing in one or another of the competing, but good quality independent professional leagues, like my NBA.

We have 16 teams, and an Eastern and Western League.

The East has the following teams:

The Binghamton Bluebirds is my team - I studied and taught at SUNY Binghamton, a city that is the northernmost city of Appalachia, in central-southern tier of New York State, near the Pennsylvania border. And from the OOTP17 logos mod there is one of a Bluebirds team that I like for my fictional teams.
So:
Binghamton Bluebirds
Newark Bears
Albany Senators
Rochester Red Wings
Richmond Rebels
Bethlehem Steelers
Providence Patriots
Louisville Colonels

The Western League has:

Denver Broncos
Green Bay Packers
Oakland Oaks
San Francisco Seals
Kansas City Monarchs
St. Paul Saints
Lawrence Lawmen
Cedar Rapids Kernels

I am using 3-year recalc with real stats and doubling the impact of current year.

We are using 1978 as historical year.

I gave each team a current ballpark - Green Bay is in Miller Park, Providence plays at Fenway, Louisville plays in Wrigley, the Newark Bear in Citi Field, and my team plays in Camden Yards, with that factory wall alongside the ballpark, which fits with Binghamton's history as an industrial, now ex-industrial city.

[italyprof]

Now, as many of you know, I have been searching for the right kind of random debut league.

One problem in the past was either that there were a lot of good players, but not enough players that I liked that I would want to start my opening team for the league's start.

But I recently realized that I had another problem. When I did draft say, Yankees or Mets players I liked when they played in real life, there was a sense of unreality that took something away from the enjoyment - Bobby Murcer or Don Mattingly, but in 1901 or whatever and with players from the 1960s. It just did not work right for me, at least not for the first decades of a new league.

I realized that part of the problem was that regardless of the makeup of the inaugural draft pool, I would usually end up drafting players that played between say, 1965 and 1995, because I saw them play. So there was no sense of mystery for me, and I was still relying on what I knew, so it may be a random debut league, but there was nothing random about how I drafted.

Trying to let the AI draft for me just resulted in teams that bored me: who wants your favorite player ever in a league, and not draft him?

What to do?

Then it hit me: just include only players from 1901-1960. That is what I did this time.

So for the first few decades ONLY players from 1901-1960 will be included. At some point, once the league has enough history to it to be a realistic world, I will include players from say 1961-2001, and then much later on only more current players.

So initially, while some of the players are famous, and others I know from having had them on virtual teams, as a group the players are largely unknown to me, or have an air of mystery, especially when combined with fictional teams from smaller cities, in an era that preceded my 1960 birth.

The pitchers from the 1950s for example, have a certain working class aura to them - they are probably as good as the 1960s pitchers who had the advantages of the raised mound and increased strike zone, but Robin Roberts, Harvey Haddix, even Warren Spahn don't seem as glamorous as Tom Seaver, Sandy Koufax, Bob Gibson. So it fits the era somehow, almost in a steampunk way.

I try to never draft the very best players available, in part to give my team a challenge, in part to have the sense of managing a gritty small-town team that has good players but needs to build to be a contender over time.

So I did not draft Stan Musial, or Babe Ruth (aging or no). I did allow myself Yogi Berra, age 20, a great, great player, but catchers (maybe the exception is Johnny Bench) are not really superstars and are not glamorous or showy. Nicknames like "Pudge" or "Yogi" speak to that.

[italyprof]

So in round 1 we drafted Robin Roberts, a very good ace for the staff. Round 2 I decided I could now take whoever the best remaining player was and it was Yogi, which made me happy. I took Honus Wagner, age 41, in his last real season for our Shortstop. The only other really first-rate player we drafted is a very young Frank Baker. He is probably 2-3 years away from full-time play, but since our only other 3B is Debs Garm, whom I like because he is named for my hero Eugene Debs (yes, really, and Honus Wagner was a socialist too, but I digress), and seems to embody the hardscrabble life of rural Texas in the 1930s, I have him on our Binghamton roster and Baker and Garm will share the 3B duties.

At 1B is Vic Power, and a Wally Pipp also in his last season or two as backup or pinch hitter. Second is Julian Javier, who must have just made the 1960 cut. The outfield is Bill Tuttle in center, a very young Smead Jolley in left, Ben Chapman our leadoff hitter in right, with Andy Pafko a youngster on the bench.

The rotation is Robin Roberts, Don Newcombe, Sad Sam Jones (how can you NOT like a player with a name like that?), Vice Lindemann (who?) and Phil Ortega.

The bullpen has Joe Black as stopper and Ed Walsh in his end of career phase as set up with Lefty Williams, a future starter for us, and Hank Aguirre past his starting pitcher career.

When Honus Wagner retires in a season or two at most, Bill Hunnefield will take over - he is now on our AAA team. That is a big change huh? From Wagner to ...who?. Still, I like the prospect of it, and with Home Run Baker and Yogi Berra as our stars in the near future, we may be competitive but not likely dominant.

I like the team. I like the league. I gave each team their own logos (I don't do uniforms), and a ballpark, but I set the ballparks to being neutral, so no additional park effects. I just like playing in different stadiums and hope to be able to switch to the historical parks in 3D at some point when they are available.

The league has a realistic feel to it. A history before my birth, real baseball, a realistic backstory. Should be fun. I will keep you all posted.

For now: Opening Day: Play Ball !

[Reed]

Interesting. I have not really tried random debut. I thought once you started a league with a certain range for years (say 1901-1950) you just had to leave it at that range but by reading your post, I guess you can change that range later on. Hmmmmm.
Now I wonder if you start a regular historic league (say 1901) can you later change it to a random debut league. Probably not but that would be cool. I guess I can look at my game to see if it is an option.

[italyprof]

Reed, you can. All you have to do is go to "Game Settings-League Settings-Rules" and then change the "import historical rookies" to rookies from all eras, and then set the minimum and maximum years you want.

[Edster007]

Love this idea, I blew up my RDL and plan to start over this weekend and may poach this method. Thanks for sharing. As a side note, I let the AI draft and take over team that intrigues me with a challenge. The game I just ended I picked the team solely because there was a 24 yr old Bobby Murcer on the roster.

[italyprof]

Thanks Edster007, that may be the solution to my Bobby Murcer problem.

There are certain players: Don Mattingly, Daryl Strawberry, Bobby Murcer, Thurman Munson, Tom Seaver,Catfish Hunter being the main ones, that I HAVE to have on my team if they are in the league, even if it means passing over Barry Bonds or Walter Johnson. A few non-NY ones include Ozzie Smith, Andrew McCutchen, Curt Flood. But letting the AI sim the draft and THEN picking a team, but one that won't be overwhelmingly my own choices, is a clever solution. Thanks !

[italyprof]

National Baseball Association – 1947 Inaugural Season

The Binghamton Bluebirds ended up in last place in the Eastern League in our inaugural season. Very disappointing despite many bright spots.

Mainly we could not find reliable fourth and fifth starters.
Sad Sam Jones had good reason to be sad, starting out 1-11 with an ERA above 7.00. Vive Landemann went 7-19 with an ERA of 6.00. Phil Ortega 4-11 and 5.60.
We traded an AAA level backup outfielder for Fred Blanding who became our third starter, finishing 10-12 with a 4.63 ERA. Of our starters, only Robin Roberts, 11-13 with a 3.09 ERA and Don Newcombe 11-7 and 3.49 were consistent.
Joe Black was good in the bullpen, pitching 83 innings with 3.47 ERA. Hank Aguirre, also helped with 52 innings at 3.63 ERA. But they had no help until we brought Jim Konstanty up from the minor toward the end of the season giving us 28 good innings with 3.28 ERA.
Our offense had more success. Here are the results of our starting lineup:
C Yogi Berra, .289 30 HR
1B Vic Power .272 18 HR
2B Julian Javier .286 6 HR
3B Frank Baker .292 7 HR 15 stolen bases
SS Honus Wagner .324 7 HR and 29 stolen bases
RF Ben Chapman, leadoff hitter and, .251, .351 OBP, 29 steals
LF Smead Jolley .306 16 HR
CF Bill Tuttle .261 11 HR

With a rich bench of OF prospects, including Andy Pafko and Lee Magee, who both hit well in part-time roles this season, and with Smead Jolley showing up as a full time player, we traded Tuttle for pitcher Dolly Gray. We will likely bring up some pitching prospects to try to fill in the rotation, while giving Landemann and Sad Sam Jones another shot as well, and hope for the best.

Our 59-95 record will give us first pick in the first-year player draft for 1948.
Meanwhile, three young players, Jolley, Baker and Berra, showed incredible promise in their first seasons. They are a solid basis for a competitive team in the future, and they are all young enough that we have time find the missing pieces.

As for the rest of the league:
The Rochester Red Wings and Kansas City Monarchs won the Eastern and Western League pennants respectively. They will face off in the National Baseball Championship Series.

Stan Musial, the 24-year old star of the Green Bay Packers won the Western League batting title, leading both leagues with a .367 average and 48 home runs.
But Jim Greengrass was second in both batting and HRs, at .327 and 41 respectively, and Walter Holke hit .324 for third place. So I am learning about players new to me.
Socks Seybold’s 129 RBI led the league, ahead of Musial’s 110. But the West also saw a dominant pitching star: Kansas City’s Christy Mathewson won 21 games, had a 2.47 ERA and struck out 251 batters to win the pitching triple crown.
But the Eastern League saw lesser-known names rise to the fore:
George Burns of Newark hit .353 to lead the league. Moose McCormick, an even lesser well-known player hit .348 to end up in second place, with Al Kaline of Albany in third at .347.
Wally Westlake of Richmond hit 48 homers to lead the East, and he led with 136 RBI as well.
Fred Beebe (who?) of Providence won 19 games and had a 2.51 ERA to lead in both categories. Carl Weilman of Rochester won 16 and Dolly Gray, now with our team, won 15. I have never heard of any of these three league-leading pitchers.
Pat Malone and Luke Hamlin were second and third in ERA in the East.

So, just as I hoped, even though some very familiar names led batting and pitching in one league overall, players who were lesser stars showed up pretty big.
Now to the Championship Series for 1947, and the new player draft, and then on to 1948.

[actionjackson]

Originally Posted by italyprof

National Baseball Association – 1947 Inaugural Season

The Binghamton Bluebirds ended up in last place in the Eastern League in our inaugural season. Very disappointing despite many bright spots.

Mainly we could not find reliable fourth and fifth starters.
Sad Sam Jones had good reason to be sad, starting out 1-11 with an ERA above 7.00. Vive Landemann went 7-19 with an ERA of 6.00. Phil Ortega 4-11 and 5.60.
We traded an AAA level backup outfielder for Fred Blanding who became our third starter, finishing 10-12 with a 4.63 ERA. Of our starters, only Robin Roberts, 11-13 with a 3.09 ERA and Don Newcombe 11-7 and 3.49 were consistent.
Joe Black was good in the bullpen, pitching 83 innings with 3.47 ERA. Hank Aguirre, also helped with 52 innings at 3.63 ERA. But they had no help until we brought Jim Konstanty up from the minor toward the end of the season giving us 28 good innings with 3.28 ERA.
Our offense had more success. Here are the results of our starting lineup:
C Yogi Berra, .289 30 HR
1B Vic Power .272 18 HR
2B Julian Javier .286 6 HR
3B Frank Baker .292 7 HR 15 stolen bases
SS Honus Wagner .324 7 HR and 29 stolen bases
RF Ben Chapman, leadoff hitter and, .251, .351 OBP, 29 steals
LF Smead Jolley .306 16 HR
CF Bill Tuttle .261 11 HR

With a rich bench of OF prospects, including Andy Pafko and Lee Magee, who both hit well in part-time roles this season, and with Smead Jolley showing up as a full time player, we traded Tuttle for pitcher Dolly Gray. We will likely bring up some pitching prospects to try to fill in the rotation, while giving Landemann and Sad Sam Jones another shot as well, and hope for the best.

Our 59-95 record will give us first pick in the first-year player draft for 1948.
Meanwhile, three young players, Jolley, Baker and Berra, showed incredible promise in their first seasons. They are a solid basis for a competitive team in the future, and they are all young enough that we have time find the missing pieces.

As for the rest of the league:
The Rochester Red Wings and Kansas City Monarchs won the Eastern and Western League pennants respectively. They will face off in the National Baseball Championship Series.

Stan Musial, the 24-year old star of the Green Bay Packers won the Western League batting title, leading both leagues with a .367 average and 48 home runs.
But Jim Greengrass was second in both batting and HRs, at .327 and 41 respectively, and Walter Holke hit .324 for third place. So I am learning about players new to me.
Socks Seybold’s 129 RBI led the league, ahead of Musial’s 110. But the West also saw a dominant pitching star: Kansas City’s Christy Mathewson won 21 games, had a 2.47 ERA and struck out 251 batters to win the pitching triple crown.
But the Eastern League saw lesser-known names rise to the fore:
George Burns of Newark hit .353 to lead the league. Moose McCormick, an even lesser well-known player hit .348 to end up in second place, with Al Kaline of Albany in third at .347.
Wally Westlake of Richmond hit 48 homers to lead the East, and he led with 136 RBI as well.
Fred Beebe (who?) of Providence won 19 games and had a 2.51 ERA to lead in both categories. Carl Weilman of Rochester won 16 and Dolly Gray, now with our team, won 15. I have never heard of any of these three league-leading pitchers.
Pat Malone and Luke Hamlin were second and third in ERA in the East.

So, just as I hoped, even though some very familiar names led batting and pitching in one league overall, players who were lesser stars showed up pretty big.
Now to the Championship Series for 1947, and the new player draft, and then on to 1948.

If that's Home Run Baker that you're talking about, and you're using recalc, you've got an absolute beast on your hands.

[italyprof]

Yeah I know ActionJackson. He and Yogi are really the team going forward. Honus Wagner has maybe one more year playing half the games with us, Smead is good for a while and Andy Pafko is pretty good. But team is really Home Run Baker and Yogi Berra, with Robin Roberts and Don Newcombe anchoring the staff.

Potentially a very good team when the other parts fit together. We are at Opening Day of the second year, Baker is still not yet at one of his RL major league seasons, so his performance will be unpredictable this year, but I have Garms who can play third in emergencies.

I traded Tuttle, so the OF is now Lee Magee, Andy Pafko and Smead Jolley.

The infield is a mess however: Vic Power is near the end of his career, but we were lucky to draft Dee Fondy, who, however, is not yet a full-time player according to his RL stats. One of them will hopefully emerge as our regular 1B for this year, 1948, but neither hit well in Spring Training.

Second base: Javier is also near the end of a career. I like Burgess Whitehead, whom I had never heard of before (I am REALLY HAPPY about the choice of having only 1901-1960 in the inaugural draft, it has forced me to learn a whole bunch of new names), but he also is a year away if the RL stats are telling. Ted Kazanski hit very well in Spring Training, but in theory should be a platoon or bench player. He might have to start at 2B on opening day however, but maybe not. Anyone, I have 26 players on the roster and one of them needs to be sent down, but I have been writing this partly to put off the decision about which one that is.

Baker did not hit in ST, but will start at 3B with Debs Garms in reserve. SS: Wagner and Mickey Witek, a name I know only from playing What If Sports leagues online in 1940s era leagues, are at short, and Hunnefield is in waiting in triple-A.

So, clearly a transition season.

Pitching: I went with Spring Training performance and sent down some pitchers who will be called up if needed. Based on ST the rotation is Roberts, Newcombe, Mike Garcia obtained in the draft, Vive Lindeman (ANYONE ever heard of this guy?) who bombed out last year, but did well in the Spring, same for Sad Sam Jones, whom I like but hopefully will exceed last year's sad performance.

Bullpen is Fred Blanding, LR, Jim Konstanty - a useful spot starter LR type, Lefty Williams (of the 9 men out of the Black Sox scandal, a future starter for us), Junior Walsh and Harry Krause, now a reliever but hopefully also a future starter.

I don't have great expectations for this season, but think we are building a potentially competitive team a brick or two at a time.

[Edster007]

What happened to Ben Chapman?

[italyprof]

Originally Posted by Edster007

What happened to Ben Chapman?

He is still on the team. Pafko replaced him as a full-time player essentially. But he is our fourth outfielder.

We have finished our second season. We went 76-78 in 1948. Yogi hit .300 with 25 homers, but HR Baker had a bad case of sophomore jinx. His RL major league stats start now though, so he is our full time 3B.

We drafted Red Schoendienst in the first round, so we have a good 2B as well !

We are weak at SS and I am looking to trade for one. Have to run to the airport. Will give a full season report in 3 or 4 days when I return.

[italyprof]

So, let's see if this method worked to finally be able to post screenshots:

Here are the 1948 standings and leaderboards:

[italyprof]

Stan the Man is the best player in baseball. Babe Ruth, playing for Oakland, age 35, has hit 31 and 43 homers respectively the past two years, and hit in the high .300s.

But there are, as I hoped in designing this league, lesser lights who are shining brightly as well: Pete Runnels, Wally Westlake, Bruce Campbell, Al Kaline, Among pitchers, Pat Malone, Luke Hamlin, Willard Schmidt (who?) who led the Western League in wins.

[italyprof]

Binghamton changed its team name to the Barnstormers. The Bluebirds I like, but fit a New Jersey or Hudson Valley team (other places I have lived) better than a 1940s Binghamton team nor did it fit with the other team names in the league. Barnstormers is the kind of gritty name that works in this league.

Here are our team batting results for 1948:

[italyprof]

Seeing that our SS situation was inadequate, we traded Dick Fowler RP and Lew Drill backup catcher for Billy Jurges. With Hunnefield as a backup, we should be okay.

That means the the OF will be Pafko in center, with the other two OF positions being some platoon of Smead Jolley, Garms, Chapman, Magee and young Dave Philley if he turns out to be ready to come up to the majors.

We drafted Red Schoendienst in the first round, and now have a very good 2B.

So our starting lineup figures to be something like this for 1949:

Red Schoendienst 2B
Ben Chapman/Debs Garms, LF/RF
Home Run Baker 3B (we expect him to make a comeback as his RL stats take hold.
Yogi Berra C
Dee Fondy 1B
Lee Magee/Smead Jolley/Dave Philley LF/RF
Andy Pafko CF
SS Billy Jurges
P

[italyprof]

Here is how our pitching did in 1948: as you can see, a distinct improvement, with three reliable starters - Newcombe, Roberts and Jones, and two mediocre to lousy ones, but a good bullpen, led by Joe Black:

[italyprof]

I like how the league stats are working out. I like having leading pitchers or aces with ERAs under 3, good ones with ERAs just above 3, mediocre to weak ones with ERAs over 4, but not too many in the 5.00 plus territory.

I like HR leaders with 40 plus homers - 50 home runs in a season should be a big and relatively rare accomplishment - one or two players in a decade, not a yearly event as it has mostly been since the 1990s.

So, away we go with 1949.

[italyprof]

Update: still unsatisfied with both the shortstop situation and the outfield, I traded Phil Ortega P and two infield backups: Mickey Witek and Ellis Clary, for Mark Keonig, formerly SS for the 1927 Yankees, but now age 25, outfielder Frank Demaree, who will likely start for us, creating some competition for the third OF starting position among those named above, and outfield backup Ernie Koy and catcher Earl Tyree. So shortstop will be shared between Keonig and Jurges, or one will win out as starter with the other as backup, and either is a good bench player at 2B, 3B and SS, with Garms also able to play third when needed.

We have a bunch of former relievers who have arrived at SP stats this year - Lefty Williams, Dolly Gray, Mike Garcia, and maybe even Harry Krause. So along with Newcombe, Roberts and Sad Sam Jones we had a surplus of starters, which is why I felt that we could trade the two that seemed weakest to me for some needed pieces on the field, while still having enough in the bullpen - Konstanty, possibly Krause, Junior Walsh, and of course Joe Black, plus four or five other competing through Spring Training.

[actionjackson]

Originally Posted by italyprof

Stan the Man is the best player in baseball. Babe Ruth, playing for Oakland, age 35, has hit 31 and 43 homers respectively the past two years, and hit in the high .300s.

But there are, as I hoped in designing this league, lesser lights who are shining brightly as well: Pete Runnels, Wally Westlake, Bruce Campbell, Al Kaline, Among pitchers, Pat Malone, Luke Hamlin, Willard Schmidt (who?) who led the Western League in wins.

Al Kaline is a lesser light? I'm telling David Watts on you! You're gonna get it now!!!