Month: April 2020

Life in a division

…that is not dominated by a single rock-crushing mega-team. We don’t have a top seed bashing our brains in this season, and facing merely human (rather then robotic perfect) pitching, we get some chance to see what the bats can actually do.

13-9 in May, 27-25 overall. We clawed back from our typical miserable start, at least a little bit. Div 3rd Ovr 15th. There are cars that need towing in this city!

The park changes seem to be doing the job, generating more O. The pitchers aren’t liking it so very much, but it’s mostly the bullpen taking horrific beatings at the moment. I’ll need to address the bullpen eventually. RS/RA is just about balanced (-7).

Giambi woke up, helping drag the team, kicking and screaming, out of the gutter. He’s not our ideal 1B, too much pop and not enough average, but he does help us on the road. Roush is earning a living with his stick, but giving away a steady dribble of hits into CF–we’ve got to get him out of the OF somehow.

This is, defensively, the worst the team’s ever looked, I’ve compromised too much to generate a little more stick. Back to the basics in the OF, I think, we need a Dykstra or a good Ichiro, maybe Brett Butler out there in CF–any defensive wizard with a rock steady average. Perfect Trout would do, too, of course–if anyone has a spare, mail him over please.

Looks like four teams battling the rest of the season out, no one’s pulled out of the pack (yet).

 

Well that didn’t work

I watched several teams tank right past me in the downward direction, and I had one decent month this entire season (.643 in August). Apparently I simply wasn’t committed enough to losing, so we’ll stick around in Gold for another season.

Final results: 63-99 Division 4th Overall 25th Relegation +4½. Our pitching is not good enough to progress, particularly bullpen. Our outfield is too weak to progress. Time to scout some warm bodies, and I think we’ll be looking at some ballpark changes.

And maybe we won’t draw the top seed for the third consecutive time.

Cold stare @OOTP.

Nothing to report from the minors, most of them are standing pat. Found their working levels, I suppose. A lot of .500 teams in the minors in 2024. Maybe OOTP has found their working levels, as well. I wonder how they decide when it’s time to turn on Full Mobility? We should be seeing the first PL in ’25.

Towed

Rather a wasted season, which may have achieved the worst possible result.

76-86 (.469), Division 3rd (1 and 2 totaled more that 200 wins). Buzzsaw. We’ve run into that one before, and we’ll surely run into it again.

The problem is that under the current paradigm, that .469 is jusssst enough to get promoted–I won a single game too many.

We get to go to Gold, after limping through Silver (hiss).

 

Looking forward to another cross-training season in 2024!

Jul 31

All Star game came and went. No Pirates were in attendance. They’re always afraid we’ll tow cars from the ASG parking lot.

48-59, Division 3rd Overall 20. Silver seems to be our level for the near future, while we siphon enough gasoline to pay our bush league players.

Trickle of tournament packs continues to produce only duplicates and iron players, I don’t really believe in fire pulls.

Welcome to the team:
Boone
Rookie sensation Bob Boone, fresh up from the CAA farm team. We’ve heard wonders about his defense, he should fit the team nicely.

[Editor’s Note: we understand the C defense is still “broken,” as far as anyone can determine. But the team’s theme essentially demands this pick.]

 

Grim and bear it

Face first into a buzzsaw. No other way to describe it, this division is just that stacked. All four teams are objectively better than LPP, and the big shark is massively so. We’re going to bounce from 103-win season to a .300 (and relegated) season.

Yes, we are under-performing. Yes, it is only the first month of the season. But I’m not gonna pull this one out of the fire.

So this will be a cross-training-and-just-bank-PP season, I’ll continue building the team I set out to build, at the pace I set out to build it.