Starting the annual thread for owners to ***** about how they just got screwed, complain about player underperformance, or highlight notable/funny occurrences in round 1.

This morning's AM round will no doubt be my high water mark for the entire tournament. A 5-1 start. Somehow 1908 Ed Walsh pitched brilliantly at 140M but got hammered by the 1909 Cubs in the 100M.

Speaking of the latter game, since Joe Jackson ended it by grounding into a ++ 6-4-3 double play, I thought this was an appropriate time to comment:

These are the saddest of possible words
Tinker to Evers to Chance
Trio of bear cubs, fleeter than birds
Tinker to Evers to Chance
Ruthlessly pricking our gonfalon bubble
Making a {ChiSox} hit into a double
Words that are weighty with nothing but trouble
Tinker to Evers to Chance

1-5 start. Nice to see these boys came to play.

I'm going to be interested in seeing how many home runs end up getting hit in the $80M leagues. In my league, on day 1 there were 44 HRs hit, which projects to 297 per team for the season. The average team drafted 262 non-pitcher HRs. Ultimately I expect more of a HR bump than that, given the positive HR parks, but obviously one game is a small sample size and opening day tends to feature the best pitchers (starters and relievers). Still, my initial expectation of 70 dingers for my '79 Kingman (48 in RL) seems at first glance to have been grossly optimistic.

I have a bad feeling about my 69 Orioles in the $100M. I get impatient when researching and completely missed the 1906 Cubs and the 2021 Dodgers. Both look like significantly better options.

Let's see . . .

• Blow a 5-run lead after putting the subs in AND failing to score in the 8th and 9th against somebody named Biff Schlitzer? check
• Give up a 3-run bomb to a scrub 2B from 1931 with a 100 SLG+ ? check
• Give up a 3-run walk-off bomb after taking a 3-2 lead in the 8th? check

SUM total = 1 and 5 in round 1

Glad we got those out of the way so early! Now let's play ball, boys!

Wasn't Biff Schlitzer the bad guy in Back to the Future?

I’ll take a 4-2

$100 million team got beat by 10, but there’s always next game!

Posted by odalisgagne on 6/30/2026 11:30:00 AM (view original):
Wasn't Biff Schlitzer the bad guy in Back to the Future?

ROFL

Biff Tannen, for the record, but I still love this!

Posted by barracuda3 on 6/30/2026 10:06:00 AM (view original):
I'm going to be interested in seeing how many home runs end up getting hit in the $80M leagues. In my league, on day 1 there were 44 HRs hit, which projects to 297 per team for the season. The average team drafted 262 non-pitcher HRs. Ultimately I expect more of a HR bump than that, given the positive HR parks, but obviously one game is a small sample size and opening day tends to feature the best pitchers (starters and relievers). Still, my initial expectation of 70 dingers for my '79 Kingman (48 in RL) seems at first glance to have been grossly optimistic.

We hit 7 and scored 18 runs. I have a feeling we will normalize very quickly however.

I went 3-3. I think this .500 winning pct is the highest I've ever had in this thing


schwarze'd it. The good one! 9-3

Happy with a 4-2 start but not being one to respond to such outcomes rationally, I think I might have to freak out about the state of my 125 and 140 teams, the two losers.

My #1 starter Ron Guidry got lit up, surrendering three HR's at a tough HR park in PNC and the bullpen pitched in, sort of, with another 6 ER in 7-1/3 innings. Meanwhile, eight singles and a double plated one run for the offense. Having built a total platoon-driven lineup, that means when I'm facing RH arms all my RH batters are sitting and I think I like that lineup more than my vs. RHP lineup.

My 140 team got drilled, too, 8-4, though there was one very strange occurrence. Trailing 8-0 in the top of the 8th at Tropicana Field, the Monuments Men awoke by hitting four straight solo HRs off of Walter Johnson. This whole team was built to get on base so was hoping the dingers would translate into more runs but sure wasn't expecting four vs. 1913 Johnson.

Dan Quisenberry strikes out, while batting, twice, in the 8th and then the 9th inning, the last to end the game, a one-run loss.

My bench is very thin at this level, to be sure, but I'd rather have a washed-up Michael Tucker or Jason Thompson taking some waves ahead of an AL reliever. Our settings are for infrequent pinch-hitting but not none. Had plenty of arms and LH bats available.

Another one-run loss saw our bullpen give up single runs in the 8th, 9th and 10th innings. Too bad. However, Calvin Schiraldi, a guy I threw in here only to fit the salary puzzle, and who I had as Mop Up, came in with the bases loaded in the bottom of the tenth. Faced one batter, walked him, game over. Might have to just shut him down.

3-9 start with 5 one run losses, let the depression settle in quickly.

Posted by contrarian23 on 6/30/2026 7:00:00 AM (view original):
This morning's AM round will no doubt be my high water mark for the entire tournament. A 5-1 start. Somehow 1908 Ed Walsh pitched brilliantly at 140M but got hammered by the 1909 Cubs in the 100M.

Speaking of the latter game, since Joe Jackson ended it by grounding into a ++ 6-4-3 double play, I thought this was an appropriate time to comment:

These are the saddest of possible words
Tinker to Evers to Chance
Trio of bear cubs, fleeter than birds
Tinker to Evers to Chance
Ruthlessly pricking our gonfalon bubble
Making a {ChiSox} hit into a double
Words that are weighty with nothing but trouble
Tinker to Evers to Chance

Meanwhile, my twisted Joe Tinker (A-) committed 3 errors which led to 4 unearned runs and we blew yet another handsome lead.