Apparently I have a bandwagon, so it looks like I should do some work. To my most loyal and only fan, this is for you Boogerlips.

70 mil:
Hopes - Not to tank
Current - 31-37, 2nd place 15GB

What's going on - What the hell was I thinking. I always base my teams on balanced lineups. So what do I do in this league? Throw in a $8.2M Babe Ruth. He has been good, but no where near worth the money. I really like Wiess and Bishop on my team. They both have .420 OBP and decent defense for $3.5M each. If I could get a do over, I would scrap Ruth and go for a more balanced lineup.

80 mil: 91-00 Braves
Hopes - Staying around .500, sneak into the playoffs.
Current - 34-34, 3rd, 4GB.
What's going on - A pretty average team. Pretty boring actually. Decent hitting with good pitching. I hope the pitching staff can take it up a notch and get us to the playoffs.

90 mil: 1919 Washington Senators
Hopes - WS Title
Current - 46-22 1st 10 games up

What's going on - I thought that this would be a good team. Turns out it was a great team. They had a great core of players. Walter Johnson is the main reason I looked at the team, but the balance is what made me pick it. Johnson and Shaw made a decent staff to start with. Throw in Babe Adams and you got yourself a truely amazing rotation. Their line up had 4 players with an OBP of over .400 to start out with. Throw in a couple of FA's including the Babe, second best offense to the 98 Rockies in Coors and only by 12 runs. Second best offense with the second best pitchin staff makes a WS Title likely. By far my best team.


100 mil: 1996 Yankees Braves
Hopes - I have no idea what the hell is going on with this team.
Current - 42-26, 1st 6 games up.
What's going on - A true Yankee team. To begin the season, they drag their feet to a 12-20 record. An extreme case of underperforming. At the 32 game mark, their team average was .230. Since a good outrage by the boss, the team has turned it around. A LOT. They have managed to go 30-6 since with a 14 winning streak to boot. I know this can't hold up, but I am hoping for a playoff run.

120 mil:
Current - 44-24, 1st 7 games up
What's going on - I really didn't expect this team to be doing this good. Not a good sign. I can't say I really did much thinking on this theme. I took all the usual suspects, in fact I believe I came up first with the most common players. I do got to say, I did pick one uncommon player which I credit a lot of my success to. SS Joe Quinn. The only A glove at SS, so I knew I had to have him. He's been great with the glove, terrible at the plate. But with a cost of only $1.6M, I was able to beef up the rest of my lineup. I hope I can at least make it to the NLCS.


140 mil:
Hopes - Not to tank it too much more
Current - 31-37, 16 GB

What's going on - I learned my lesson here. Before the WISC, I never played above a $90M cap. That made these last two leagues way out of my element. I got a lot of help from the forums regarding IP's, so I managed to get that right at least. The lesson I learned the hard way is power underpreforms by quite a bit. My '32 Ruth is batting .196 and my '81 Schmidt is batting .224. My only hope is the fact I drafted 1600 IP, which seems like the magic number needed. My staff is in great shape with starters at 99%. That means I drafted enough innings, but at the same time not too many either. I can only hope that this will help me out later in the season.

Overall: 228-180 for a .559 winning % and good enough for 8th place. I see my teams over performing at this point, so I see myself dropping a bit in the standings. I still think I have a great chance of making the top 24 though, which is all that matters. With the first round only being worth 1/3 total, making the second round is what counts. Get to the second round, and you got yourself a chance at the title.

70M, League 1-D ($4M Bats, $6M Arms)

Pre-season comment
I do not play in many leagues with caps below 80M. And when I do, I focus on SBs since they are relatively inexpensive. Clearly, in this theme, SBs are devalued. So I really had no clue as to the best strategy when building my team.

I typically start building my team with starting pitching. I wanted 900+ IP/162 for my starting pitchers and about 300 IP/162 for my relievers with a few mopups thrown in. I wanted modern pitchers since 0.50 HR/9 normalizes better in the modern era. I also wanted pitchers who could hit since there is value there. I also knew I was going to spend around $35M on pitching.

I ended up with three pretty good hitting pitchers... 1993 Hershiser (.784 ops), 1971 Siebert (.821 ops) and 1975 B.Forsch (.803 ops). My fourth starter: 2006 Oswalt is the team's best starter (1.17 whip). Overall, my 1203 "good" innings average 1.19 whip, 2.92 ERC, 0.67 HR/9, .246 oav.

Hitting, I tried to keep the average as high as possible and the strikeouts relatively low. I only have two hitters with over 100 Ks. I did short myself a little in PA/162, averaging just over 600 per starting batter... My eight starting batters have the following totals... 193 HRs (my bench makes it up to 200), .273 avg, .345 obp, .467 slug. I do have all "A" and "B" defense in the infield and 2003 Mike Cameron's A+++ range in CF.

I really have no clue how this team will do. I would be happy with 85 wins, but wouldn't be surprised if I end up with 90 losses.

Comments after 68 games
W-L Record 39-29 (tied for 1st)

What's going on?
After an extremely slow start (12-17), the squad finally got it together (27-12 since) over the last two weeks. We're currently ranked 5th in HRs despite drafting exactly 200. Cy Williams (28) and Ben Oglivie (24) lead the team. My pitchers have not disappointed with their bats. Seibert (.373, 7 HRs), B.Forsch (.296, 2 HRs), Hershiser (.320), Oswalt (.250) are hitting a combined .314, with 9 HRs (better than sluggers Miguel Tejada and Jorge Posada). I shorted myself PAs so I've had to play my 200K players a bit. They've combined to hit 6 HRs in 106 ABs.

We're currently ranked 7th in ERA but when you take out the 32 innings of mopup, we'd be ranked 3rd (3.75 ERA). Hershiser has been my best starter (8-5, 2.81 ERA, good for 9th in the league). With a couple of key spot starts from the mopup guys, I've had no real fatigue problems with my 1200 good innings.

80M, League 2-D (St. Louis 84-93)

Pre-season comment
I hate to say it, but I didn't really look at any other options. I love SBs at this cap level and I knew there'd be plenty of high-percentage SB guys to choose from. I started with the '85 Cardinals and worked out from there. I wanted 93 Jefferies at 1B (my most expensive hitter), so that pretty much defined my 10-year period. I hated to downgrade '85 McGee to '90 McGee, but needed to in order to get the pitchers I wanted.

The pitching staff is pretty strong for an 80M league. '85 Tudor, '89 DeLeon, '92 Tewksbury and '86 Cox have a total of 973 IP/162 with the following averages... 1.03 whip, 2.13 erc, .221 oav, .55 hr/9. I am a little light in bullpen innings (237), but they're almost as good (1.08 whip, 2.32 erc, .220 oav and .61 hr/9). I do have 4 mopups to help with IP.

The offense is based on SBs of course, with 7 of my 8 hitters base-stealing threats... Jefferies 46/55, Herr 31/34, Pendleton 24/30, O.Smith 57/66, Coleman 109/131, L.Smith 50/63, McGee 31/40... for a total of 348/419 (83%). The other offense numbers aren't so great (.286, .353, .379).

I usually have pretty good success with these kind of teams. I would be disappointed if they didn't win at least 90 games. I do need to manage my innings carefully though


Comments after 68 games
W-L Record 31-37 (3rd place, 10 games back)

What's going on?
I wish I knew. I posted an update on the teams today and virtually all the 84-93 and 85-94 Cardinal teams are playing well over .500. Despite being last in HRs, this team is ranked 6th overall in runs scored, stealing an average of 2.4 bases per game (78% success rate). The top of the order... Coleman, Herr, McGee, Jefferies are all over .300. But the bottom of the order is aweful... Pendleton, L.Smith and T.Pena all at at below .600 ops.

What I thought was the strength of the team, the pitching, is massively underachieving (currently ranked 19th in ERA). After removing the mopup innings, the rank improves all the way to 6th. I guess the problem is that I've needed to use 64 innings from 200K players. 1210 innings just wasn't enough I guess. I've probably overused the mopup guys to keep my pitchers at or near 100%. As the season progresses, I can afford to start guys at 93% and give myself a better chance to compete. I still have a little hope.

90M, League 3-A (1924 White Sox)

Pre-Season Comment
I really had no idea where I was going to go with this theme, then I remembered a mini-tournament I ran 3-4 years ago, where each team got 3-4 free agents and the playoffs were based on most improved (i.e., sim record vs. real life record). It wasn't exactly the same concept, but it was close and I was able to find an old standings spreadsheet to give me some ideas on teams to consider.

I ended up using a team that I had success with in that mini-tournament... the 1924 White Sox (.431). They had a number of good hitters on that team with 1b Earl Sheely (.320), 2b Eddie Collins (.349), of Bibb Falk (.352), of Harry Hooper (.328). Willie Kamm gives me a solid glove at 3b (A / A-). The White Sox pitching isn't great but I get to add FIVE free agents.

of Babe Ruth (.378, .513, .739)
ss Joe Sewell (.316, .388, .429)

sp Walter Johnson (292 ip, 1.12 whip, 2.32 erc, .224 oav, 0.32 hr/9)
sp Dazzy Vance (324 ip, 1.02 whip, 1.93 erc, .205 oav, 0.32 hr/9)
rp Claude Jonnard (95 ip, 1.16 whip, 2.45 erc, .229 oav, 0.20 hr/9)

I also used Sloppy Thurston and Red Faber from the White Sox but overall, the pitching isn't very strong. Hopefully, with my offense, I can win 75% to 80% of the games that Walter and Dazzy start and be competetive in the other games.

Here are my averages (exlc. 200K players)
Batting: .317 avg, .405 obp, .455 slug
Pitching: 1.24 whip, 2.92 ERC, .25 oav, .33 hr/9 (ugh)


Comments after 68 games
W-L Reord 46-22 (1st place by 10 games)

What's going on?
I thought this team would be decent, but they're way better than I could have imagined. I was hoping to win 75% of the games that Dazzy Vance and Walter Johnson started. Well, Vance is 14-3 and W.Johnson is 13-3. In total, I've won 30 out of 37 games that those two have started (81%). Not surprisingly, Vance and Johnson are 1-2 in the Cy Young race. Even my two bad starting pitchers are a respectable 10-12. The bullpen is bad, but with a league-leading 18 complete games, it hasn't come into play that much.

Clearly, the offense is what is carrying this team. We're ranked #1 in runs scored, averaging 6.2 runs/game, leading #2 by 0.6 runs/game. We're first in AVG, first in OBP and first in SLG. Free agent, '24 Babe Ruth, is leading the MVP voting (.379, .497, .798). He is on a pace for 71 HRs and 229 RBIs. Bibb Falk is also hitting well (.394, .433, .566).

$70M - Is it possible to lead the league in Hits, lead in fewest Runs given up, and be in last place 4 games under? that's my $70M team. the numbers say this team is due for a breakout any time now.

$80M -$90M - $100M. these teams were all more fun to draft than they are to play. not much managing to do here. all hovering at .500 or a little better. ho-hum.

$120M - more fun than I expected. juggling my lineup to fight fatigue and to play the matchups. keeping pitchers rested enough to use the big bat pitchers as pinch hitters. I thought this league would be simple and the standings would be near parity but that hasn't been the case.

$140M - my best team and I'm not sure why. I expected to do better at the lower caps while being about even at the higher caps. The results are the opposite.

100M, League 4-C (2001 Boston Tribe)

Pre-Season Comments
I tried a number of combinations with this theme, although many centered around the 2001 Red Sox pitching staff. I started by looking at Pedro/Lowe teams when I discovered that I could also get Cone and Saberhagen in 2001. Now, I had to find the right 2001 offense. I tried StL and NYY but eventually settled on Cleveland. They have a great mixture of speed (Lofton, D.Roberts, Vizquel, R.Alomar = 210 SB vs 38 CS) and power (Thome, Fryman, Ju.Gonzalez = 102 HRs). Plus, all four infielders are "A" fielders. Including platooners, my offensive numbers are: .309 avg, .390 obp, .482 slug.

I have 1361 pretty good innings. My starters average 0.98 whip, 1.90 ERC, .205 oav, .56 hr/9. The bullpen is led by Rod Beck's 92 innings of 0.84 whip.

Some other teams I considered were 1931 Brk pitching / NYY hitting, 1981 Hou pitching / Mil hitting and 2006 Cubs pitching / Phi hitting. I never really tried to put a Braves pitching team together. I just didn't like their bullpen options. It will be interesting to see how all the 98 Atl/NYY teams end up doing.


Comments after 70 games
W-L Record 32-38 (3rd place, 6 games back)

What's going on?
The team is ranked dead last in AVG, OBP and SLG and of course, in scoring (3.6 runs per game). I don't normally draft power hitters and now I remember why. T.Fryman (.321, .392, .516 irl) is hitting .233, .287, .323. Basically, all my hitters are averaging about 60-90 points worse than their real-life average. Does this top-of-the-lineup strike fear into the opposing pitcher? Alomar .226 (.310 rl), Vizquel .266 (.333 rl), Lofton .263 (.325 rl), Fryman .233 (.321 rl), Ju.Gonzalez .247 (.314 rl).

Pitching has been just as disappointing... well one pitcher in particular. Our 4.11 team ERA is middle of the pack, but my stud pitcher... $11M Pedro Martinez has the worst era on the starting staff (4.50). It was at 5.85 just 4 starts ago. He started the season 0-9! He's supposed to be my freaking stud. Hell, I've had 200K pitchers pitch better than that. Now, he has won 3 of his last 4 starts to improve to 3-10. If he can continue to pitch like he's supposed to, I still have some hope. The other disappointment is closer Ugueth Urbina (1.01 whip, 1.30 era, .157 oav irl) who has been demoted from closer to setup to long A..... mopup is right around the corner. He's currently at 0-4, 3 blown saves, 1.65 whip and 7.23 era.

This by far has been my most disppointing and frustrating team.

120M, League 5-D (Stratton & Caruthers)

Pre-Season Comments
I probably should have tried to build a team before announcing this theme. I do suspect that there will be a lot of similarity in the rosters. Lowering the cap to $110M would have made for some tougher decisions. I started with Silver King, but couldn't get the rest of the team I wanted to fit right, so I instead went with a 2-man rotation of Scott Stratton (1.07 whip, .777 batting ops) and Bob Caruthers (1.06 whip, .975 batting ops). Obviously, I wanted pitchers who could hit. I drafted 1600 IPs but 200 are mopup. I only have 6 quality pitchers... the two starters already mentioned plus four stud relievers (Chamberlain, Ramsey, Leever, Handiboe). Overall, they total 1.02 whip, 1.80 erc, .213 oav, 0.07 hr/9. (The relievers average 0;91 whip in 400+ IPs)

For hitting, I avoided the really bad fielders (no D- infielders). Other than that, I took the best obp hitters I could find. I imagine these will be the most popular selections.

c: King Kelly .388 avg, 483 opb
1b: Roger Connor .349, .450
2b: Cupid Childs .338, .435
3b: John McGraw .391, .547
ss: Hughie Jennings .355, .463
of: Billy Hamilton .340, .453
of: Ed Delahanty .334, .426
of: Ed Swartwood .327, .444
Overall .350 avg, .459 obp


Comments after 70 games
W-L Record 45-25 (1st by 9 games)

What's going on?
The team is ranked 2nd in runs scored and that is directly related to my leadgue-leading 382 walks (2nd is 300 walks). Also, my hitters are alot closer to their real-life averages. K.Kelly .393 (.388 rl), Conner .328 (.349 rl), Hamilton .321 (.340 rl), Swartwood .318 (.327 rl), Childs .336 (.328 rl). Maybe they're due to start slumping....

The pitching is ranked 18th in ERA but if you take out the 111 runs in 70 innings (all 200K innings)... we'd be ranked 6th. I've tanked 6 games by starting 200K pitchers to keep everybody rested. Caruthers has been great and 2nd in the Cy Young race (20-3, 4.65 era). Statton has been so-so (14-10, 5.37 era) but he's hitting .375 compared to .264 for Caruthers.

All in all, this team is overachieving a bit, but is still good enough to secure a playoff spot.

140M, League 6-A (Simply Difficult)

Pre-Season Comments
For some reason, this theme gave me the most difficulty, despite it's seemingly simple concept (thus the team name). I think I spent more time building this team than the other five combined. I just couldn't get things to fit right. Even after I finally built my team and started the league, I later found out that I had an illegal team and had to fix it.

I started with four $10M pitchers plus Ruth, but I just couldn't find a firstbaseman that I felt comfortable using... so I took Gehrig and downgraded from "Tier 1" Dutch Leonard to "Tier 2" Kevin Brown. My other starters are '95 Maddux, '99 Pedro and '05 Reulbach. For whatever reason, the low-IP starting pitchers tend to do better in relief than pure relievers, so my entire bullpen consists of players like Toney, Nehf, Carlos, N.Maddox, etc. In total, I have 1452 IPs of 0.88 whip, 1.35 erc, .198 oav, .19 hr/9.

Since HR hitters severely underperform at the higher caps, I only took two HR hitters ('27 Ruth and '34 Gehrig). All the other hitters are high-ob guys, including cookies such as '93 Phillips, '86 Boggs and '51 Ashburn. I'm also using '30 Cochrane (.357, .424), '38 Vaughan (.322, .433), '91 Hamilton (.340, .453) and as DH, I'm trying the 1897 $4.6M John McGraw (.325, .471).

I tend to do well in high cap leagues, so I feel pretty good about this team.


Comments after 70 games
W-L Record 32-38 (3rd place, 9 games back)

What's going on?
I really screwed this team up when I drafted them. 1452 innings was not enough and I only took one mopup pitcher, so I've had major fatigue problems. I decided to sacrifice Ed Reulbach a bit as he gets to start games at < 90% in order to save the rest. Although he's actually pitched well the last few times out.

Overall, our hitting and pitching just plain sucks. We rank 20th in hitting and 16th in pitching. '27 Ruth and '34 Gehrig started the season extremly slow, hitting only 1 HR each through 22 games. Both are better now (Ruth .305 & 17 HRs, Gehrig .314 & 8 HRs) although neither are performing worth their salary.

There were 15 versions of 1995 Greg Maddux taken. My version has the most losses (with 8) and is 3rd-to-last in whip. There were six versions of 1999 Pedro Martinez taken. My version is last in wins (with 4) and 2nd-to-last in whip and oav... And what the hell was I thinking when I selected Kevin Brown in a $160M league (1.82 whip, 6.82 era)?

It's somewhat remarkable that this team is only 6 under .500.

Quote: Originally Posted By sgsmith on 8/28/2009Overall, I'm 14 games under .500 in 1-run games. Only one team of the six has a winning record in such games

16 games under in 1-run games now; best record of the 6 teams in such games is .500. Looking forward to that touted evening out as, in addition to(or as a result of) the ongoing struggles in close games, all 6 teams are playing below their "Exp. Pct.".

Quote: Originally Posted By schwarze on 9/03/2009
140M, League 6-A (Simply Difficult)

It's somewhat remarkable that this team is only 6 under .500.

Overall, I am +12 (60-48) in 1-run games, but most of that can be attributed to my 13-4 record in 1-run games by my 140M team, which now explains why they are ONLY 6 games under .500.

I am virtually even (47-44) on my other 5 teams.

had worked my way up to 7th overall...but have now gone 13-23 over the last six cycles and dropped to 19th (and just 1.5 games ahead of 25th). maybe if my fricking 70 mil team wasn't 20 games under .500....

Ok, who is playing under the alias "Elonsmitty?"

Quote: Originally Posted By SpotSell on 9/09/2009

Ok, who is playing under the alias "Elonsmitty?"

Not me. I asked--to deafening silence of a response--about a week ago if anybody knew who elonsmitty is. Ditto profcake -- but he's been heard from here, at least.

Quote: Originally posted by SpotSell on 9/09/2009Ok, who is playing under the alias "Elonsmitty?"

I'm wondering this as well. My guess is it's someone good who "retired" but had the itch to come back and didn't want people ragging on them about it.

I guess I can't hide out much longer. I was concerned to comment too soon, as the SIM God's have a way of paying people back. Lately the SIM God's seem to be paying back whether I post or not, so why not now (several avg to below avg cycles).

Certainly not a vet who "retired" and came back as an alias. Enjoyed the view from above, although short lived. Hopefully, I can hang in long enough to make it to the next round, without COMPLETE and total collapse.