Barry

Barry has taken a 21-15 lead now through 40 games.

How are everybody's free agents doing? Which players are doing the best? Which are doing the worst?
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Here is my free agent report...
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League 1
1902-03 Pirates (w/Bill & Ed), Record 25-23
'02 Bill Bernhard: 38 games (all in relief), 75 ips, 3-3 record, 14/16 in saves, 1.45 whip, 3.72 era (Grade B)
'02 Ed Delahanty: .341, .426, .462, .888 ops is 13th in league (Grade A-)
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1905-06 Giants (w/Cy & Nap), Record 37-21
'05 Cy Young: 18 starts, 135 ips, 8-4 record, 1.33 whip, 3.06 era, ranked 24th (Grade B)
'05 Nap Lajoie: .329, .369, .407, 13+ plays at 2b (Grade B)
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1913-14 Athletics (w/Walter & Tris), Record 23-35
'13 Walter Johnson: 16 starts, 132 ips, 10-2 record, 1.00 whip, 1.56 era 3rd in league, 2nd in Cy Young (Grade A+)
'14 Tris Speaker: .371, .424, .433, 15 doubles, 0 triples! 11+ plays in CF, .858 ops is 20th in league (Grade A)
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League 2
1926-27 Yankees (w/Ted & Rogers), Record 32-26
'27 Ted Lyons: 16 starts, 108 ips, 5-7 record, 1.54 whip, 5.27 era, worse than team average (Grade D)
'27 Rogers Hornsby: .329, .390, .458, not in top 25 in any offensive category, worst Hornsby in league, by a long shot (Grade C-)
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1927-28 Giants (w/Dazzy & Paul), Record 30-28
'28 Dazzy Vance: 14 starts, 5-3 record, 1.42 whip, 3.86 era, ranked 23rd in league (Grade B)
'27 Paul Waner: .360, .416, .526, ranked 9th in batting avg (Grade A)
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1941-42 Dodgers (w/Elmer & Ted), Record 32-26
'41 Elmer Riddle: 37 games (all in relief), 2-4 record, 10/11 in saves, 1.09 whip, 2.83 era, ranked 1st in whip, 4th in era (Grade A)
'41 Ted Williams: .389, .539, .600, only 40 RBIs, 5th in OPS (Grade A)
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1944-45 Cardinals (w/Hal & Snuffy), Record 27-31
'45 Hal Newhouser: 16 starts, 9-6 record, 1.35 whip, 3.88 era, 25th in league (Grade B+)
'45 Snuffy Stirnweiss: .312, .393, .445, 8+ plays, but a league leading 12 errors at 2B (Grade B)
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League 3
1953-54 Dodgers (w/Warren & Willie), Record 35-23
'53 Warren Spahn: 16 starts, 110 ips, 5-6 record, 1.23 whip, 3.43 era, ranked 20th, a losing record for a team 12 game over .500 (Grade C)
'54 Willie Mays: .288, .337, .589, 17 hrs, 57 rbis, 16+ plays in CF (Grade A)
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1960-61 Yankees (w/Dick & Norm), Record 33-25
'61 Dick Donovan: 32 games (all in relief), 60 ips, 4-3 record, 14/16 in saves, 1.01 whip, 2.72 era, ranked 4th in whip, 10th in era (Grade A+)
'61 Norm Cash: .318, .437, .594, ranked 12th in ops (Grade A)
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1972-73 Reds (w/Don & Darrell), Record 28-30
'72 Don Sutton: 15 starts, 104 ips, 9-4 record, 1.01 whip, 2.33 era, ranked 5th in whip, 7th in era (Grade A+)
'73 Darrell Evans: .220, .327, .475, 15 hrs, 45 rbis, worst avg and obp on team, but only 4 errors at 3B (Grade D+)
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League 4
2002-03 Braves (w/Pedro & Todd), Record 30-28
'02 Pedro Martinez: 29 games, 3 starts, 66 ips, 4-2 record, 2/2 saves, 1.36 whip, 3.82 era (Grade C-)
'03 Todd Helton: .272, .359, 447, real life slash is .358, .458, .630 (Grade D)
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2002-03 Giants (w/Derek & Alex), Record 28-30
'02 Derek Lowe: 15 games, 11 starts, 74 ips, 2-6 record, 1.49 whip, 5.01 era (Grade D)
'02 Alex Rodrioguez: .237, .336, .443, 38 rbis, only 1 error at SS (Grade C-)
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2004-05 Cardinals (w/Randy & Barry), Record 32-26
'04 Randy Johnson: 14 starts, 92 ips, 4-9 record, 1.32 whip, 5.40 era, top ranked offense behind him, playing in pitchers park, WTF? (Grade F)
'04 Barry Bonds: .315, .533, .617, 51 runs scored, ranked 3rd in runs, 1st in obp, 3rd in ops, 2nd in MVP (Grade A+)

Generally speaking, the free agents should mostly get A and B grades. These are supposed to be the best or nearly the best players on your team. For most of my teams, my free agents are doing as expected and I've given out 17 grades of B or better (out of 26 players).

But man, some of the performances of my stud free agents are head-scratchers.
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2004 Randy Johnson was arguably the best SP of 2004, with real life stats of: 0.89 whip#, .197 oav# and 1.70 ERC#. I put him in Busch Stadium (0, 0, +1, -2, -2) to help keep the HRs down. The defense behind him is ranked 7th in fielding% and 3rd in range (i.e., difference between plus and minus plays). Oh, and just for kicks, my catching is ranked 3rd in highest CS%. The offense is ranked 3rd overall in run scoring (2 runs from 2nd place). The team is 32-26. Yet, somehow despite all these advantages, Johnson is 4-9, with a 1.32 whip and a 5.40 ERA. The other '04 Johnson is pitching in Yankee Stadium for a team 26-32, and is 4-7 with a 1.16 whip, and 4.89 era, with 10 fewer HRs allowed in the same number of innings.
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For my next huge bust of a free agent pitcher, let's do a blind comparison.
Pitcher A: Real life stats: .243 oav#, 1.33 whip#, 0.49 hr/9#, 3.81 bb/9#
Pitcher B: Real life stats: .257 oav#, 1.25 whip#, 0.51 hr/9#, 2.47 bb/9#
Pitcher C: Real life stats: .210 oav#, 0.97 whip#, 0.36 hr/9#, 1.97 bb/9#
Pitcher 1: Sim stats: 6-4, 3.73 ERA
Pitcher 2 : Sim stats: 6-3, 4.40 ERA
Pitcher 3: Sim stats: 2-6, 5.01 ERA (3rd worst ERA on team)

Yep, I made it easy for you...
Pitcher A = Pitcher 1 = '02 Russ Ortiz
Pitcher B = Pitcher 2 = '03 Sidney Ponson
Pitcher C = Pitcher 3 = '02 Derek Lowe

I even said it in my pre-season writeup. I should have taken 2003 Tim Hudson instead of 2002 Derek Lowe. Somehow, this team is only 2 games below .500 despite Lowe having the 3rd worst ERA on the team and my best RP, Joe Nathan having the 2nd worst ERA on the team (5.79). I expect Ortiz and Ponson to start pitching to their sucky real-life numbers anytime now, so it only makes sense for Lowe to start pitching better too.

League 3, 69-70 Baltimore Orioles, first team picked in league 3. Bill Singer 2-11, rest of the team 25-22.

kstober,
I remember commenting on the choice of your free agents in a site-mail with footballmm11. We were discussing others' FA choices, especially when they differed from our preferences. This is an excerpt from the site-mail exchange.... Not saying that I expected Singer to suck this much, but I wouldn't have gone that direction.

From: schwarze
To: footballmm11
Sent: 8/12/2023 9:41:00 PM
Subject: RE: Free Agents

kstober changed his keepers for his 69-70 Orioles team.

He still isn't going with Bench, but is going with Petrocelli instead. Belanger or Brooks Robinson aren't that bad.

Also, he switched from Marichal to Singer. I like Marichal better.

Of course, I was about as wrong as I could be on another controversial FA choice I commented on. I was stunned when DarthDurron took Menke over Mays for his '63-64 Yankees team, especially given how offensively challenged that team is. To his credit, DurthDurron's team is 43-18 and Menke has the team's 2nd best OPS. (Of course, a 17-6 record in 1-run games certainly helps, but his .592 ExpWin% is still best in the entire league).

Posted by schwarze on 9/7/2023 9:54:00 AM (view original):
kstober,
I remember commenting on the choice of your free agents in a site-mail with footballmm11. We were discussing others' FA choices, especially when they differed from our preferences. This is an excerpt from the site-mail exchange.... Not saying that I expected Singer to suck this much, but I wouldn't have gone that direction.

From: schwarze
To: footballmm11
Sent: 8/12/2023 9:41:00 PM
Subject: RE: Free Agents

kstober changed his keepers for his 69-70 Orioles team.

He still isn't going with Bench, but is going with Petrocelli instead. Belanger or Brooks Robinson aren't that bad.

Also, he switched from Marichal to Singer. I like Marichal better.

I was sure I would be able to pick the 21-22 Dodgers in the top 8 draft as footballmm11 already picked the 20-21 Dodgers. Had to scramble for my pick when he picked the Dodgers again and I settled on the 69-70 O's. For the FA pitcher it was close between Marichal, Singer and even Dierker for me. Even if Singer pitches just .500 ball it would give the O's a much better chance to advance. Maybe Singer will get hot the rest of the way. One can only hope.

A brutal 13-26 run over the last 3 sessions for my 13 teams. Went from eleven teams at or over .500 to eight teams in just 24 hours (plus another team about fall below). Nothing like opening up the Team Center page and seeing this...

L: 8-0
L: 5-4
W: 7-5
L: 4-1
L: 4-0
L: 6-4
L: 7-3
L: 10-3
etc...

Not a great season as a whole for me, but some days like this are better than others.

All 5 of my pm2 games were shutouts. At least we won 1 of them.

It appears that a .500 record will be required to advance to the next round. 48 out of 96 teams will advance.

I have FIVE teams with a 43-44 record. I find it disturbingly funny to think about the fact that I could have the 49th, 50th, 51st, 52nd and 53rd ranked teams after game #162.

As of Game 104, I would have no playoff teams this round. My two best teams are both a game out of a spot. My others are 4, 5, and 8 games out. Not meeting projections this round at all. Must be the lousy manager.

Woke up to an 0-10 session. Cool

Ugh... that's the worst. Ruins the entire morning.