OL team goes 123-39...not only best record in the league but the #1 OL team among all listed in the Sim League Baseball Top 25.

Heads into the playoffs with everyone well rested.

Loses the first round of the playoffs to a team that won its division with a record of 82-80.

Addie Joss, who won the Cy Young and lost only 2 starts all season, lost twice and finishes playoffs with 1.73 WHIP and 6.75 ERA over 3 starts, all team losses.

Under various usernames, I've played this game going back to 2002; my teams have made the playoffs dozens of times.  Zero WS championships.

My first team ever actually made it to the WS, and was ahead 3 games to 1 before losing the series.

In 2006 I had a team go 130-32, and lost in the first round.

I recently had a team lead the league in both runs scored and fewest runs allowed, and lost in second round.   Before that I had a team lose the WS to a 76-win team that was lucky to even make the playoffs.

Ugh.

First of all teaparty - having just lost the first World Series I ever had a team in, and never really being in it (4-1 but it wasn't that close), I can imagine how it must feel. 

One thing I would say: you yourself see a pattern here: I think there are reasons that why teams with very high W-L records do not do that well in the postseason: some players work hard to develop strategies of drafting players of very high quality for say, 120 or so games, play AAA or 200K scrubs for 20, 30, even 40 or more games in a season, content to get the wildcard berth or narrowly win a division with the sort of 1973 Mets records you are describing. 

Then come the playoffs, they have not just a well rested team, but one whose actual record when regulars are playing might be more like 70-30, or 80-40, while it went 10-30 or something with scrubs in. So it looks on paper like an 85 win team, but in fact is very formidable, sometimes with pitchers it did not even use in the regular season, keeping their 40 IP or so ready for the playoffs. 

This may not be what has happened in the cases you describe: random luck plays a very big role and only evens out statistically over large sample sizes. But a team that won 130 games, while clearly very good, is not necessarily the best team in the league in a short series. After all, stretching, as it were, quality players over 130 wins may mean not concentrating their abilities as does a team based on say, 450 PA players hitting .340 and pitchers with 120 IP but un-hittable in short series. I am no good at all at this, which I think in a more extreme version was once called "The Fatigue Strategy" or "The Fatigue Team", before my time.

But I have learned that I need to set regulars down for a while, and while I try not to lose games and seek alternatives like decent spot starters, I know that the four  teams I have had make the playoffs have done well almost in inverse relationship to their W-L in the regular season. 

Still, it is frustrating, and I have only been at WIS for a few months. So after years it must be maddening.  Best wishes for next time. Don't give up. 

You'te suggesting that, instead of 5500 at-bats and 1400 IP, I'd be better served with better players with fewer ABs and IPs, and then play scubs and rookies to keep my starters fresh for the playoffs...

I had the same thing happen to me with some of my early teams. I had one team lead the league in ERA, scoring, and defense. It was swept in the first round. After that I started to draft teams for the playoffs instead of the regular season. You are better off drafting two stud pitchers and one inning eater than three good SP. The same is true of your 8 starters in the field. Spend 5m on a 650 PA and you get a BA of around 290 but spend it on a 400 PA guy and you are looking at 370 BA. Use your AAA players and 200k pitchers to manage your team to just enough wins to make the playoffs.

I just won an open league WS with a team that finished 20 games behind the division winner. My playoff pitching staff was well rested studs that accounted about 800 drafted innings. The rest of my pitchers were never used in the playoffs.

As for 08 Joss, he went 2-5 in the playoffs. This isn't that unusual because his weakness is singles hitters. If you are sending him against someone who has drafted a lot of high BA hitters he will get lit up.

Posted by teaparty on 6/21/2012 12:30:00 AM (view original):
You'te suggesting that, instead of 5500 at-bats and 1400 IP, I'd be better served with better players with fewer ABs and IPs, and then play scubs and rookies to keep my starters fresh for the playoffs...

I haven't had a team in years have over 5000PA or 1300 IP.

Posted by contrarian23 on 6/21/2012 11:35:00 AM (view original):
Has anyone looked at the team in question?  teaparty knows exactly what he is doing.  That's a killer roster that could easily win a WS in an OL.  It's by no means a team just built for the regular season. 

It's just bad luck, unless you're doing something really wacky with your team in the postseason.  Keep at it, the wins will come.

I agree, it is a great team.  While it is probably not a 123-win team in most leagues most seasons, this team would win at least 100-110 games in most OLs.  This looks like mostly bad luck.

Some people here have managed the knack of building a perfect team; one that will *just* make it into the playoffs... but then will be a perfectly honed machine when the chips are down.

Do-able in an OL... not so much so in a Prog or Theme league.  You should take your good team making skills to a a Prog or Theme league.

Thanks, gentlemen.  I just get frustrated by this damn game.  Ten years, ZERO championships. 

I play on and off, and start up a new username each time I restart.  I'd estimate 40 playoff teams, or so. With 8 teams in the playoffs, that averages out to 5 championships, but no luck with even one. Oh, well. 

OL's are a bad way of playing the SIM these days.  If there has been no update for a long time (like we're experiencing now), the experimentation with and varieties of teams gets less and less as owners discover the winning formulas and use them over and over again.  Then OL 's just become a lottery where everyone knows the winning numbers and all that's left is chance. 

There's a new update due in the Fall (so they say) and then, for a while, the playing field will be much more wide open again.  Until that happens I'd advise trying theme leagues or progressive leagues... then you can go back to OL's.  But, I bet you don't because, as has been said in this forum before, OL's suck.  Relatively speaking.

Posted by boogerlips on 6/21/2012 8:00:00 PM (view original):
I'm pretty sure that team has won hundreds of championships.

I know, right? Just not for me.

I named them "a big plate of cookies" for a reason.

Posted by wdfox on 6/21/2012 8:12:00 PM (view original):
Took a look at your team and couple of things I noticed.

First, I do not like to use dead ball pitchers in parks that are plus in Singles, Doubles. I use them in parks that are negative on singles.

Second thing I noticed is that several of your best relievers never played. Joss got lit up and you have a team ERA over 5 in the playoffs. I have my starting pitchers set to 5 in the playoffs. In fact, I have all of my pitchers set to 5. Take any borderline pitchers you have that have a WHIP over 1 and set them to mop or rest.

Third, your catcher was 0 for 6 in stopping SB. Get a better Catcher. Those singles turn into doubles with each SB.

Fourth, check your SB setting for your own team. Several of your players were only 50/50 success rate (13 of 21 overall) in the playoffs. In the reg season your players were successful 80% of the time. Looks like you went up against a top catcher. When that happens and I have an SB oriented team, I will reduce the number of SB attempts by players that do not have at least an 80% success rate.

Fifth, SIM we need an update now!  Even if it isn't a full update...please update the pricing of players to get rid of all the cookies NOW!

All borderline pitchers were on rest for entire playoffs.

My team used A+ arm catcher every playoff game. Threw out 40% during regular season.

Went up against catcher with 29% cs real life, 33% during regular season. Plus, he only threw out ONE of my basestealers during 12 regular-season games.

In regular season we stole 400 bases at 83% - attribute high percent to putting guys (esp. Bip) on zero v. Carter and the like. Don't consider 33% high enough to put brakes on those guys.

Can't get rid of cookies with updated pricing, as new cookies would be created (but they would at least be different guys, and maybe power teams would have an advantage...)

I think you're right about dead ball pitchers in plus singles parks, thanks