If someone would have told me before we began that I'd be tied with ronthegenius at this point, I'd have been tickled. Ron and I are both struggling to get to .500 though...A couple of decent teams, but my $90M and $100M teams are getting hammered... I'm more than 20 GB of any hope of moving past this round. Not impossible, but it ain't pretty...

Doc, I'm actually at my highest point of the tourney right now (around 60th). Most of the first half of the season I've been ranked in the 80s with six different 0-6 cycles. 38 games below .500 was my nadir (I hope) but I've been slowly making my way back towards respectability. Complete fatigue has killed my 140 million team and poor drafting has sunk the other 5.

It looks like I have no chance of moving on but anytime I'm close to the likes of shaybee, DoctorKz, tracyr, and others it just goes to show the hgh level of competition here.

This is a tough one for sure. I spent alot of time ranked in the 60's early on. I've been hovering around 28-30 for about a week now. I need to make a move here. I don't want to count on winning 2 WS titles to barely crack the top 24 like I did last year.

It took me 190 combined games to finally reach .500. Lately, I've been ranked in the 20-24 range, but it's close enough where a couple of 1-5 cycles can knock me out of the top 24.

Imagine my sadness and embarassment having to run Round 2 without qualifying.

This is only my 2nd year participating, but the competition is incredibly intense this year. Which I guess is the point :)

No idea if my good teams will hang on and perform well enough to counterbalance my two disasters, but here's hoping...

I've been in this every year and my humble opinion is that it is the most competitive round 1 of all (round 2 last year was the most competitive I believe).....there are usually plenty of easy targets in the first round....those are few and far between this year....pretty surprising since this is the first year with 96 teams....

speaking of having 96 teams (and my team being stuck in purgatory around 35th-40th place), would there be any interest in a "consolation" round 2 for teams 25-48?

All 6 of my teams are listed as being in 2nd place this morning but 4 of them have records of 47-47, 47-47, 46-48, and 48-46. Talk about medocrity!

Actually, I am thrilled to be 18 games over .500 overall as I have never had any success against the competition in the three prior WIS Championships I've participated in. I'm sure it won't last but at least I've been competitive through nearly 100 games.

Quote: Originally Posted By mildnhazy on 9/10/2009....pretty surprising since this is the first year with 96 teams...

Actually, the last two years were the only times we weren't at 96 teams.

Quote: Originally Posted By schwarze on 9/10/2009It took me 190 combined games to finally reach .500. Lately, I've been ranked in the 20-24 range, but it's close enough where a couple of 1-5 cycles can knock me out of the top 24.

Imagine my sadness and embarassment having to run Round 2 without qualifying.

Well, hit the dreaded 1-5 this morning and now I'm just 2 games from being knocked out of the top 24. I find myself checking these 6 teams out even before checking my results in game 7 of any particular playoff series.

Quote: Originally Posted By schwarze on 9/11/2009

Quote: Originally Posted By mildnhazy on 9/10/2009
....pretty surprising since this is the first year with 96 teams....

Actually, the last two years were the only times we weren't at 96 teams.

oops.......bad memory...

6-0 gets us to .500! 291-291........

...i wanted to do it then too, but i'm in the middle of a huge project at work and have almost no free time at all...i was hoping to do another one this week end but now have to work a 7 day week so i'm not sure i'll be able to fit it in...

guess I'll throw in my belated review thoughts as well.


$70M: superpowerless, 62-47 (+.063 pyth), first place
Obviously I'm pleased with the way this team's working out. Hank Greenberg has been very effective, hitting .343/.411/.764 with a league-leading 51 HR and 138 RBI. Jimmy Key is 16-4 with a 3.38 ERA. I was worried about pitching fatigue, but so far it hasn't been an issue. I'm running my mop-up pitchers into the ground, of course, but my starters and relievers are all doing fine. Offensive fatigue hasn't been a serious issue either; my players seem to be pretty steady at 98%–99%. However, I have only a 2 game lead in the division, and the wild card leader is also at 62 wins, so there's not a lot of room for error with this team.

$80M: 1st in peace 24-33 sens, 73-36 (+.076 pyth), first place
This has been my best team since the beginning, and it's good to see something work out just as expected. The offense has been key, scoring the most runs in the league. Not really any studs in the lineup—Heinie Manush (.320/.355/.460) and Joe Cronin (.330/.405/.433) are the only real highlights—but it's a balanced lineup that doesn't give up a lot of outs (.346 OBP, third in the league). Pitching has only been about average, but it's been good enough. Garland Braxton hasn't been quite the ace I was hoping for, but he's still 15-7 with a 3.26 ERA. Relief pitching I thought might be a weakness, and while it hasn't been great, it's been good enough. Bobby Burke has been especially good (1.22 WHIP, 2.87 ERA). I have a solid 6-game lead in my division and the best record in the league right now, so I'm feeling pretty confident.

$90M: '24 bucs, babe and eppa, 64-45 (+.042 pyth), first place
Like my other two <$100M teams, this one has also performed pretty much just as I expected. Babe Ruth has been excellent, hitting .329/.440/.605 with 29 HR and 95 RBI, making this team the fourth-best offense in the league despite the fact that nobody else really hits worth a damn. Ruth and KikiCuyler (.340/.385/.490) are the only guys I have who top a .730 OPS. Max Carey has been a huge disappointment, hitting only .256/.335/.350, but fortunately it hasn't dragged down the whole team. Of course, one reason I took the Pirates was that their range was excellent even if they couldn't hit, and that's been the case: we lead the league in + plays with 27 and - plays with only 5. The pitching has been okay; although Eppa Rixey has been a disappointment (10-9, 3.22 ERA), Johnny Morrison has picked up the slack (15-5, 2.86). Babe Adams has been excellent as closer (29/32 saves, 2.81 ERA), although Arnie Stone has not been the setup guy I thought he'd be (6.04 ERA, 1.61 WHIP). We're not running away with the division (4-game lead), but we are tied for the best record in the league right now, so I think this team's in good shape.

$100M: phils+dodgers '89, 51-58 (+.112 pyth), third place (-5 games)
This team has been by far the biggest disappointment in the championship. I loved the 1989 Phillies twist offense, but it hasn't performed up to par at all. Mike Schmidt really makes or breaks the team, and he's hitting only .259/.373/.488. Dickie Thon and Dwayne Murphy have been abysmal. As a team we're hitting only .234/.327/.347, which is obviously just awful. The pitching hasn't been particularly good either, although John Tudor is having a great season (only 10-10, but 2.39 ERA and 1.10 WHIP). Shorting innings really hurt me here, as I've had to use my mop-up guys a lot and my offense doesn't really afford me that luxury. Since the rest of my division hasn't been particularly good either, we're still technically in the race, but as far as I'm concerned the best case scenario would be a .500 record.

$120M: king of all cosmos, 56-53 (+.054 pyth), third place (-7 games)
I don't really know what to say about this team; we're a few ticks below average both on offense and in pitching, but we're hovering around .500. I have the dubious distinction of the worst 1886 King Kelly in the league (.313/.417/.393) and the second worst 1894 Sam Thompson (.337/.386/.463), despite playing in the offense-friendly Baker Bowl. I thought 1899 Buck Freeman would be an overperformer with his fluke HR rate, but coincidentally I also have the worst one of him in the league (.236/.278/.341). On pitching I've been about average, but with my offensive struggles that hasn't translated to much success. All in all, I'm pretty happy that we're sticking around above .500, and hope to continue doing so.

$140M: 5 ft. high and rising, 61-48 (+.061 pyth), second place (-1 game)
Well, I did a good job drafting my offense for this team; we lead the league in runs and are hitting .320/.407/.475. Good old reliable cookie 1993 Tony Phillips has been particularly awesome, hitting .367/.449/.462 with 85 runs scored. My other usual suspects (Ruth, Williams, Boggs, Foxx) are all doing great, so nothing to complain about there. My pitching has not been good, with a 7.24 team ERA, but that's largely to do the predictable fatigue problems that have been plaguing me. I've had to burn two relievers to try and stay ahead, with obviously mixed results. Still, on the whole we're doing okay. I've been in a dogfight with homiealiens for the division for a while now, and with the current wild card leader is at 63, the playoff race is pretty crowded. I'm hoping that my recent sacrifice of another reliever for mop-up duty will give me enough breathing room to continue getting good innings from the remainder of my bullpen; obviously I'm really looking to secure a fourth playoff team in this league.