so disheartening...or, my personal b-itch thread Topic

pinotfan
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I have a different approach to the game - maybe it's something that comes with time.  First of all, like all of us I want to win - but that's not the main reason I get into a league.  Ultimately, I want to  have fun; I'll set goals for many of my teams that may have nothing to do with W-L.  For example, I haven't played OLs for a while but two months ago there was a thread about steals, and I thought WTF - let's put together a steals team for sh*ts-n-gigggles and put it in an OL.  That's also why I play so many  random-based themes - they let me try (and learn about) players I never knew before.

So why approach it this way?  If you don't make the playoffs, a season is 162 games - with three games a day, that's 54 days (call it two months).  If your sole goal is winning the league, let's face it: you'll know within the first 40 games if you have a realistic chance.  That's two weeks: if you aren't competitive, you are now consigned to six weeks of maintaining a team for which you do not care.  But what if you looked at the team you were dealt (assuming a random league), and decided you can't win a championship but your team could excel at _______?  Build your team to achieve that goal, and every day you're excited to see how that team is doing, even if it's mired in third place.

I don't believe in 'punting' a team: I'll always field a competitive roster (unless I'm resting for the playoffs).  Still, there's no dishonor in an OL - or in a random league where you got a bad hand, or in many other iterations of this game - in saying "I'm going to have fun with this non-competitive team" and enjoying every day of the two-month season, as opposed to slogging your way through 80% of it.
6/23/2012 4:04 AM
redwingscup
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Posted by italyprof on 6/20/2012 7:56:00 PM (view original):
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. 
despite the professor's newness on the site, he articulates the reality of SIM quite well.   It took me a few years (I started playing in May of 2003) to get my first WS win.  
6/26/2012 7:19 PM
cwillis802
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I believe Contrarian and Zubinsom are right. It's just bad luck. It also could be partly due to the way your team matched up with the other team. Sometimes there are teams that simply match up well against you.  I'm in an OL right now with a rather mediocre team, but it beats the best team in the league practically all the time. I have won 7 of 9 meetings.  I've been on the other side of this as well, having a team win with over 115 wins and lose in the first round.  In fact, I have another team that has the best record in the league that just got swept by a cellar dwellar.  It's hard to explain, but it happens.  It happens a lot in real baseball too. 

Why would you want to have more than one username Teaparty?  I don't understand why anyone would want to have more than one username.  Just curious is all.
7/2/2012 10:54 PM
DoctorKz
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One season is a small sample size, who knows how an individual player much less an entire roster will perform...Park use varies from league to league, and some leagues have more cookies than others. At $80M you only have so much control, at higher caps it's a real crapshoot. Control what you can....pitch counts, fatigue settings, make as many good managerial moves that you can. Try to win your divisional games. Avoid early season fatigue...Utilize your AAA whenever possible, especially early in the season. You might get lucky. SFord had a AAA player lead the league in hits and BA one season, the guy hit over .400....you never know.
7/2/2012 11:12 PM
DoctorKz
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Teaparty probably has an alias, Left Wing Loons or something like that....haha
7/2/2012 11:13 PM
teaparty
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Nothing so sinister, lol. I play for awhile, then quit for awhile, and just prefer to start fresh when I come back to it.
7/3/2012 7:49 PM
tribechamp07
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teaparty - I feel your pain man.  I've actually been getting really frustrated lately with this game.  The past few months I have routinely built 105-115 win teams, at least a dozen or so since the start of this year, and have only had one of those teams win the world series.  I've tried different ballparks, different strategies, different settings, you name it.  I've tried everything under the sun.  Since my surgery six weeks ago I've found a lot of time on my hands and have actually went through and looked at my peers teams and strategies, and taking notes; using almost an entire notebook up in the past few weeks.

Overall I have been on this account since 2007 and had 48 playoff teams, only 16 reaching the WS, and only 4 winning the entire thing.  I also have been a member on the site since '02, my first account had its posting rights banned permanently so I made the tribechamp07 handle.  On my old account I won 3 championships and I would estimate I made the world series 12-15 times.  Overall on both accounts I've been to the series about 30 times, only 7 championships.  I can win 100 games like clockwork, using any kind of strategy and even using limited cookies, but I can never seem to win the "big one." 

We'll have to try and put our minds together sometime and see if we can figure this s*it out.
7/3/2012 8:28 PM
crimsonblue
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Posted by DoctorKz on 7/2/2012 11:13:00 PM (view original):
Teaparty probably has an alias, Left Wing Loons or something like that....haha
I don't believe in conspiracies but. I wouldn't rule out sabotage by the pot smoking angry left winged 17 year old SIMleague monitor/administrator that was punched and kicked at a Teaparty rally.  You never know what goes on behind the scenes. lol.  Reminds me of the overworked guy that used to do backroom restaurant bowling with 2 liter sodas and the Roy Rogers chicken.  Nothing like eating chicken after a guy just converted the 7/10 split with it.........Don't worry, my nephew reported the guy.
7/4/2012 8:53 AM
teaparty
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Posted by teaparty on 6/20/2012 10:23:00 PM (view original):
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.

OK, so I'm done  ******** now.  Finally won a WS after 10 years, with essentially the same team as the one I was referring to when I started this thread.

I did get lucky, though:  my rookie 1B was rookie of the year, batting .372, and I saved him up enough so he was able to play throughout the playoffs w/o resting, finishing at .346 with 6 triples and 20 rbis in 16 games. 
 

8/8/2012 6:24 PM
dahsdebater
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How can you knock over even 1 2-liter soda with that chicken?  Month late I know, but wow...
8/8/2012 7:01 PM
teaparty
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Posted by biglenr on 8/9/2012 11:19:00 AM (view original):
Congrats... Now that you accomplished that, will we see you in challenging leagues that limit cookies? 


I've almost exclusively built HR-hitting teams and played at Coors. Such teams are at a disadvantage in OLs, as the game is currently configured, come playoff time. I switched to speed-based, all-cookie teams for these last two to give myself an opportunity to finally win a WS.

I'm now fiddling around with improving upon my WS-winning team, but I'm also assembling a team to renew my attempt to win a WS at Coors and a team comprised entirely of Minnesota Twins.
8/9/2012 1:33 PM
frazzman80
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Posted by teaparty on 8/9/2012 1:33:00 PM (view original):
Posted by biglenr on 8/9/2012 11:19:00 AM (view original):
Congrats... Now that you accomplished that, will we see you in challenging leagues that limit cookies? 


I've almost exclusively built HR-hitting teams and played at Coors. Such teams are at a disadvantage in OLs, as the game is currently configured, come playoff time. I switched to speed-based, all-cookie teams for these last two to give myself an opportunity to finally win a WS.

I'm now fiddling around with improving upon my WS-winning team, but I'm also assembling a team to renew my attempt to win a WS at Coors and a team comprised entirely of Minnesota Twins.

Sounds like a theme league to me. 80 million cap with only Twins draftable and a few exclusive players. Make everyone use Coors. Not saying I'd sign up, but if that's your goal, then that's your league.

8/9/2012 2:36 PM
teaparty
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Posted by frazzman80 on 8/9/2012 2:36:00 PM (view original):
Posted by teaparty on 8/9/2012 1:33:00 PM (view original):
Posted by biglenr on 8/9/2012 11:19:00 AM (view original):
Congrats... Now that you accomplished that, will we see you in challenging leagues that limit cookies? 


I've almost exclusively built HR-hitting teams and played at Coors. Such teams are at a disadvantage in OLs, as the game is currently configured, come playoff time. I switched to speed-based, all-cookie teams for these last two to give myself an opportunity to finally win a WS.

I'm now fiddling around with improving upon my WS-winning team, but I'm also assembling a team to renew my attempt to win a WS at Coors and a team comprised entirely of Minnesota Twins.

Sounds like a theme league to me. 80 million cap with only Twins draftable and a few exclusive players. Make everyone use Coors. Not saying I'd sign up, but if that's your goal, then that's your league.

Thanks.

In terms of Coors, the challenge for me is to win an OL, where I think the odds are stacked against home run teams.

I suppose a theme league where everyone picks a different AL franchise,  and we use a DH and a $80-90 mil cap would be a theme league I'd be interested in for the Twins.  But it seems like theme leagues are hard to fill so I'll probably just field a Twins team in an OL. 
8/9/2012 4:12 PM
biglenr
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No offense, but why?

(1) - You will need to buy more IP to pitch in Coors.  If you need 1300 IP for a pitching park, you'll need another 100-150 IP at Coors.  That will cost you another $4m for those IP, reducing your salary for hitters.

(2) - You'll be facing a bunch of deadball pitchers.  These pitchers TRULY suppress HR's much better than you would think.  So you're essentially taking your team strength, and throwing it away.

Assuming that you draft the best team possible, you're giving up 5% of your team to buy extra IP, and you're arming yourself with weapons that will be ineffective.

Essentially, you're bringing a knife to a gun fight.  And a small knife at that.

WIS is what it is.  It gives the pitchers more ability to stop HR's than it gives hitters the ability to hit HR's.  The fatigue model argues for pitching parks.  Trying to swim up stream and force the sim to do what you want it to do seems to be a recipe for frustration and a waste of time and money to me. 

Of course, it's your time and your money, so you can use it however you want.  You didn't ask for advice, but I'd tell you anyway to try to find a HR friendly league... Even something like no players before 1930 would work..

Good luck.



8/9/2012 4:28 PM
pfattkatt
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This makes me wonder what may have happened to Grizzly_One? I haven't seen him for a while.
8/10/2012 8:08 AM
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so disheartening...or, my personal b-itch thread Topic
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