does anybody else over-occupy themselves with the stats from finished OL seasons???? i try to only do one OL at a time (or slight overlap), and i spend more time than i should trying to find the secret ingredient... at first i thought it was net bases stolen, then i was sure it was net home runs (although i still think it''s a strong indicator), and now i'm in a quandary...

i think the real winning formula is expected OPS/expected OPS against minus expected WHIP/expected WHIP against. that being said, i'm having a hard time getting the spreadsheet(s) to behave.

anybody? Bueller? Bueller?

Number of wins is the best indicator.

An old sergeant of mine once said "a piece of *** is a piece of ***, hog dog or frog"... I don't think it matters how you win...just win, baby...

DrKz, that is literally the best answer i could have hoped for. i hope this doesn't sound sarcastic, but there is no better answer than yours. My son and i cant stop laughing at the elegant simplicity of your answer. Thank you...

Always happy to be of help... ;)

The "net home runs" line reminded me of a team I had in a theme league a few years ago. Here's what I posted about that team:

https://www.whatifsports.com/forums/Posts.aspx?TopicID=450102&ThreadID=9882910#l_9882910

The regular season just ended for a team of mine in an 80M clone league. I went with cheap home runs (a bunch of Dave Kingmans, a couple of Rudy Yorks, with two good OBP Eddie Stankys at the top of the order) and a deadball pitcher (Jack Quinn x 10) in a big HR park (Yankee Stadium III). The plan was to overwhelm other teams with home runs and not allow many ourselves.

As it turns out, my team led the league in HR by a wide margin: we hit 247 (2nd place hit 153, 3rd 118, no other team over 100, the average was 67). My all-Jack Quinn staff was also very successful at preventing HR: only 36 allowed, good for 7th best in the league.

We hit about 7 HR for every HR we allowed. Sounds good, right?

Nope! We finished 81-81 and two miles out of a playoff spot!

Believe It or Don't!

'23 Cy Williams hit 68 HR's for me recently in an open league. We didn't win it all, but it was fun to see. I used GABP.

Looking at performance history, he averages 44. Not shabby.