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Post by blazertaz13 on Sept 1, 2013 20:43:13 GMT -5
Just for fun, I am going to try and do a dynasty with the new build (I will try and keep this going even as new builds come about). I am going to be writing this on the fly and I don't really have any idea of format, so please bear with me as I go. I am hoping that this will keep me motivated to play.
Now to the fun. I would like to introduce my fictional baseball league, the United States Baseball League. We are a ten year old league consisting of sixteen teams , which may or may not expand in the future. There are two conferences with two divisions of four teams. Currently we do not have inter-league play (something that maybe introduced in future seasons) and we do not have the Designated Hitter in our league (I hate the DH). Currently on division winners make the playoffs. The 16 teams currently in the League are (2012 standings):
Federal Conference:
Adams Division: Chicago Zephyrs (84-78) Honolulu Islanders (87-75) Baltimore Paladins (76-86) Toronto Maples (77-85)
Washington Division: Seattle Sea Dogs (85-77) San Diego Sailors (76-86) Denver Miners (89-73) Buffalo Lawmen (74-88)
Republic Conference:
Franklin Division: Raleigh Cougars (85-77) Las Vegas Coyotes (76-86) Atlanta Generals (76-86) Providence Pride (76-86)
Jefferson Division: Cincinnati Phantoms (93-70) Hartford Sea Lions (68-94) St. Louis Diamond Kats (94-69) won a one game playoff over Cincinnati for division Dallas Stallions (81-81)
If anyone can tell me how to post pictures, I would appreciate it. It will help with some of the future postings.
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Post by blazertaz13 on Sept 1, 2013 20:51:23 GMT -5
Well as you can see based on the above 2012 standings, I was offered two GM/Managing Positions. The first was from the Baltimore Paladins (lowest GM score) and the Hartford Sea Lions (worst record). Since I like a challenge, I decided to sign on with the Hartford Sea Lions. They appear to be in the toughest division, have a small budget and based on the PSPN reporters pre season Power Rankings dead last.
I am not sure the best way to introduce the team, so I guess I will have to do it as I go (I want to get involved in the games and get to know the team). The hard part of simming a league history is that the simming ends on the first day of the new season. I hope to meet and get to know the team as everyone else does. I plan on building primarily through the draft and supplementing periodically with a few free agents or trade.
Feel free to question anything that I am doing as I learning as I go.
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Post by Oldtimer on Sept 1, 2013 22:18:54 GMT -5
Great name for the Hartford and Buffalo teams ... tell me about your options ... I imagined you have the managers for each team, any particulars - the same options for General Tendencies? ... injuries set as 250? ... how about the Finances ... equal or not, default ...
Looking forward to your read!!!!
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Post by blazertaz13 on Sept 2, 2013 16:29:39 GMT -5
Since after simming the first 10 years of the league, we will start our little story on the first day of the 2013 season. Since I am just learning the players on my team, I will go with what the prior management team left me with and make changes as needed starting in May. I will give all of the guys a shot first and then hope that it will work.
With that said here is the opening day roster for my Hartford Sea Lions. First up the pitching staff:
Starters (throw) - last season team, record, ERA and WHIP Peter Paille (R) - Hartford 16-8, 3.26 and 1.07 Steve Replogle (L) - Hartford 10-16, 4.43 and 1.41 Frank Hoover (R) - Hartford 10-18, 6.07, 1.48 Greg Wallace (R) - Hartford 9-13, 4.62 and 1.42 Eric Soucie (R) - Hartford 10-11, 4.75 and 1.42
Relievers (throw) - last season team, record, ERA, WHIP and Saves if any Raymond Thompson (L) - Hartford 6-6, 4.67, 1.14 and 1 save Eric Brophy (R) - Hartford 1-4, 4.00, 1.43 Gary Ballenger (R) - Hartford 0-0, 3.20 1.12, spent most of season in AA Andrew Shields (R) - Hartford 0-3, 4.35, 1.65 Gregory Lowe (R) - Hartford 0-0, 0.00, 1.00 spent most of season in A
Closer (throw) - last season team, record, ERA, WHIP and Saves if any Steven Cosey - Hartford 3-6, 4.48, 1.15 and 40 saves. Led the USBL in saves last season, not bad considering we had the worst record last year.
As you can see, we don't have a very good mix of righties and lefties for our rotation nor in our bullpen. Something we will look to correct during my stay. I do have concerns about the bullpen as we don't have a lot of experience, but since we have a smaller budget than most we might as well use some of our capable young guys. If needed, I will send them back down for more seasoning. Unfortunately pitching is the least of my worries. In my next update, I will post my position players. I just hope I don't get too frustrated early on.
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Post by blazertaz13 on Sept 2, 2013 16:45:36 GMT -5
As promised earlier, here are our position players. I will show them based on the batting order and then our bench. Here is the positional lineups for our team:
Vs Lefties (bats) - last year's team, batting average SS Matthew Myers (R) - Hartford (AA, .215) LF Keith Overlock (R) - Hartford .292 3B Cecil Bratcher (R) - Hartford .296 C William Jackson (R) - Hartford .287 - our best power hitter as he hit 26 last year RF Jesse Rossi (R) - Chicago/Hartford .220 1B Jason Peeples (R) - Hartford .206 2B Marquis Almonte (R) - Hartford .236 CF Horace Turner (S) - Hartford .219
Vs Righties (bats) - last year's team, batting average SS Mathew Myers C William Jackson 3B Cecil Bratcher LF Willie Mateer (L) - Hartford .294 - he was our lone all star representative last season and also earned a gold glove RF Keith Overlock 1B Stewart Manning (L) - Hartford (A, .322) CF Anthony Vannest (L) - Hartford .236 2B Marquis Almonte
Bench RF/LF Todd Hawkins (R) - Hartford .237 1B/3B Mitchell Matta (R) - Hartford .182 1b/3B Lawrence McBurney (L) - Hartford (AAA/ML, .304/.183)
As you can see we are going to be hard press to score a lot of runs unless some of our players start getting a clue while at the plate. I am hoping that we can get good pitching and defense, while scoring a couple of runs every game. If not, we could be in for a long year. With the writers already saying that we are the weakest team with their power ranking, I hope that we will teach them not to give up on us. I don't expect to win it all the first year, but I would like to be around .500 at season's end, which might be tough considering we are playing in the toughest division in the league.
Feel free to tell the GM/Manager if we are not meeting expectations or even if we are doing okay. I am not quite sure how I will do updates as the season progresses, so please bear with me (suggestions are welcome).
Now that you have met the team, we are home for three against the Cincinnati Phantoms. The Phantoms finished in a tie for fist last season, but lost one game playoff to the Diamond Kats.
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Post by blazertaz13 on Sept 2, 2013 16:52:19 GMT -5
Great name for the Hartford and Buffalo teams ... tell me about your options ... I imagined you have the managers for each team, any particulars - the same options for General Tendencies? ... injuries set as 250? ... how about the Finances ... equal or not, default ...
Looking forward to your read!!!! Thanks Tomas, as to particulars here you go: Finances are on. There will be market differences, so some teams will have an advantage when it comes to budget. Manager Tendencies are as follows: Pitcher Hook - Very Quick Hook Juggle Lineups - Often Rest Players - When ok (or worse) Rest Injured - minor (or worse) Injuries are set for both pitchers and fielders at 250. Hopefully at these settings it won't be over done, but I do believe injuries are apart of the game. I could adjust as I start managing out my games if it becomes too much of a problem. I am hoping that while playing out my games (managing), I will not only have fun but I might be able to help where there might be inconsistency issues.
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Post by blazertaz13 on Sept 2, 2013 18:59:55 GMT -5
SEA LIONS TAKE OPENING SERIES FROM PHANTOMS TWO GAMES TO ONE
What I can only call success full start to the season, we were able to take the first two games from Cincinnati by the scores of 5-4 (11 innings) and 3-0. Unfortunately we did lose the last game 3-4, on a home run in the ninth.
In game 1, we started off shakily as we ended up committing three errors. One big positive note was that after managing only one hit in the first eight innings, we were able to score three runs to send it to extra innings.
In game 2, we led this one from basically the start scoring our three runs in the third. From there Steve Replogle was able to keep Cincinnati off balance through eight, with Steven Cosey coming in to close it out in the ninth.
As mentioned above, we ended up losing game 3 on a homer in the ninth. We had led this one for most of the game, but our pitching was living dangerously with walks and hit batsmen most of the game.
We hit five homers during the five games with Keith Overlock hitting 2 and Cecil Bratcher, William Jackson and Willie Mateer with one apiece. We did lose 2B Marquis Alomonte to a minor knee injury (knee cap) and to place him on the 15 day DL. We called up Eric Winters from AA to take his spot on the roster. Not much of a hitter, but he will be solid defensively.
Up next we head to Dallas for three games with the Stallions, who are coming off a three game sweep over St. Louis.
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Post by Oldtimer on Sept 2, 2013 19:07:43 GMT -5
Sounds like you're in for a wild ride of this season, up to the last out ... (how exciting, mate!!!)
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Post by markvacc1 on Sept 3, 2013 10:52:51 GMT -5
As for names, the most stand out to me would be to change the name Honolulu to Hawaii. It sounds alot better and besides, a market like that would identify more with the state rather than the one majorcity on one of the islands. As for frustration with your team, that's just 1/3 of the fun, the other two being playing the game and the attempt, successful or not of making your changes over the years to build winning teams. As for fictional players, I will try to follow along as best I can as I identify much better with real player names. If you could, keep posting progress with your players and Ps might make it easier. One thing I did like right off was the one player spent most of last year in AA and the other was in A. Little messages like that add so much to an already great read, IMO. Don't care about the rest of the league, just the one team you are running. But is ok if you add great highlights along the way like a no hitter or big game at the plate, hopefully guys from your team. I also like to follow KG Erwin's read about his Pirates.
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Post by Oldtimer on Sept 3, 2013 11:07:05 GMT -5
At first, with Fictional, I didn't like it - mainly because of associating with real ballplayers that I have love to follow ... but, in time, I realized that I needed a challenge ... With the unknown factors that came with the Fictional League, had connected me to my boyhood days ... of me wanting to know those players that had existed before me ... hence, my childlike passion has been reunited, once again ... Now, I wouldn't play without ... Thanks to the Sandbox mode, now I have the best of both worlds ... It's a blast !!!
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Post by markvacc1 on Sept 4, 2013 12:37:54 GMT -5
I wonder if you might get the same thing using real players with no ratings and alternate reality.
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Post by Oldtimer on Sept 4, 2013 14:41:38 GMT -5
I had never tried that approach, with no ratings ... but still may know a little bit, regarding to their stats history ... have you ever gone through this route before, Mark?
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Post by markvacc1 on Sept 4, 2013 19:13:56 GMT -5
Not exactly. I have used scale 1-100 with alternate reality while simming those previously mentioned seasons and really do get some quite different results than expected. The best P in a season might have really benn mediocre and a mediocre P that same season could end up the best P. Theings could change a bit the following season. Same with power and averages. As I had mentioned before while simming the Yankees starting in 1983 and currently in 1998, I have had Seattle and Texas win two WS each and the Yankees lost in one early season playoff and a late one as well. One of Seattle's wins was a season after introducing the wildcard and Seattle won their div with a sub 500 record, but managed to win the WS. My plan is to eventually try a team doing that above but would love to see some ratings, but not others like you know from practice somebody has a great arm for OF or you know a guy is really fast for stealing bases while having the rest of the ratings unkown and relying on performances to make decisions. Using my house rules as they are, regardless of ratings and important game or not, everybody on the roster gets used in several games. This game is just flat out gold no matter which way anybody plays. There are times I like to do something different and this game has many ways to do just that.
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Post by Oldtimer on Sept 4, 2013 21:05:20 GMT -5
You are definitely correct regarding to doing, in so many possible ways, with this Game, and yet the Game is so Pure and simple to play ...
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Post by blazertaz13 on Sept 5, 2013 19:27:38 GMT -5
Sorry for the delay in the next update. Unfortunately life took over a little bit. I just finished my forth game of the season and hope to have my next update sometime this weekend. Thanks for following.
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