I am trying to understand how/why so many of the pre-ranked top owners are either on the border of or outside of The Cage. It would be different if these owners didn't have the history they do in this tournament, but that isn't the case.

Any hypotheses? Has the game changed? Are the themes that different than previous years? Something else?

Don’t know, but I’ll say the competition is stiff enough at the bottom of the cage that those two rotten sessions knocked me from 24th to 31st

I can't speak for anyone else, but I like to think I've improved a bit at this through research. I now look back at the write-ups by top owners from past tournaments for tidbits of wisdom I can glean for similar themes now.

I also think some of the themes this time around were a little more vague in terms of what strategies would work best (especially the variable theme).

My teams were flying high for the first half of the season and then for the most part all hit a big rough patch that I"m not very used to. Probably a combination of: better owners, the delta decreasing between top and bottom owners due to a lack of updates for so long, and some bad luck. I also have no idea why my variable cap team is so bad amongst some other strange things I have seen this year.

Not sure. There are pitching park teams winning, hitting park teams winning. More than a few ways to skin a cat. It is odd to see top owners build great teams but also build some real stinkers. There are a lot of us over .500, but few that will place more than 3 or 4 teams into postseason. Lots of parity.

Guys place a lot of emphasis on speed and defense. There is a line that if you cross it, you run the risk of struggling to score enough runs. I would be very interested in a breakdown of salary, pitching versus offense of each theme, regarding playoff bound teams.

I myself went back through the pinned threads before this kicked off, trying to find some information that might be useful. If I did anything different, I would say I tried to be a bit more aggressive towards building my offense, especially in the $120M and $130M themes. Not so much caution to the wind, just a subtle shift from what I would normally do.

I'm sure this increased success is fleeting. We possess no magic beans over here...

I've seen Mike whip higher cap teams in that variable cap theme he runs. A great $105M team will routinely beat a mediocre $110M team. If you built a good variable cap team, it probably doesn't matter if it is $152M or $160M. It works or it doesn't.

Posted by ozomatli on 9/27/2019 1:35:00 PM (view original):
I am trying to understand how/why so many of the pre-ranked top owners are either on the border of or outside of The Cage. It would be different if these owners didn't have the history they do in this tournament, but that isn't the case.

Any hypotheses? Has the game changed? Are the themes that different than previous years? Something else?

I'm pretty sure I'd be on the borderline or outside of the cage too (instead of comfortably being top 5) if it weren't for my $120M team being downright legendary.

I don't think it actually takes that much to just miss the cut... underestimate fatigue in the lower cap themes (so that you are always playing catch-up), have another team underperform its win expectancy by over 100 basis points, and pretty soon even a top ranked owner can be in danger of missing the cage.

Also, as I mentioned earlier, more fatigue hell death spiral teams feeding wins to other teams is pushing up the number of wins needed to make it, resulting in an extremely competitive situation at the borderline.

Help....I've fallen and I can't get up.

This division is ridiculous. . . . 3 great teams with NO breathing room.

$090M - Ed Walsh & Cy Seymour	86-50	0.632	-	27	6-4	L2	42-27	44-23	0-0	NebHusker
Honus and Claude	86-50	0.632	-	-	6-4	W1	46-23	40-27	0-0	jfranco77
b) Collins-White Syndrome	83-53	0.610	3	-	9-1	W4	42-23	41-30	0-0	BigScungil
Banks-Caruthers LET'S PITCH TWO	56-80	0.412	30	-	3-7	W1	31-34	25-46	0-0	gwhouse

You can't shine a flashlight between 'em...

Central	W-L	PCT	GB	Division	1-Run Games	Extra Inning	RS	RA	Exp. Pct.	Owner	LIVE
9 like me 8 like everyone else	76-62	0.551	-	15-15	22-18	5-4	752	707	0.530	daddyzander
$120M Six and Eight's a Running Mate	76-62	0.551	-	17-13	16-13	9-2	852	658	0.625	DoctorKz
Swinging On 1, Hurling On 4	75-63	0.543	1	16-14	20-22	4-7	725	637	0.562	discodemo
Chapter 8 Verse 3	69-69	0.500	7	12-18	23-22	7-9	711	671	0.528	Relkcirts

76-62 is also the wildcard too. Gonna come down to the last day(s) to see which two squeak in.

Posted by ozomatli on 9/27/2019 1:35:00 PM (view original):
I am trying to understand how/why so many of the pre-ranked top owners are either on the border of or outside of The Cage. It would be different if these owners didn't have the history they do in this tournament, but that isn't the case.

Any hypotheses? Has the game changed? Are the themes that different than previous years? Something else?

I'm embarrassed by this horrid performance of mine. You already know my reasons, but I feel I could have made some noise if I'd spent more time and energy putting teams together. The competitive part of my brain is kicking me right now.

You'll be back. And I'm sure we will see your "A" game. That goes for several outstanding players here that find themselves behind where they expected to be.

A 1-5 is our first lousy cycle in quite some time. We've been living a charmed life.