After listening to that, I have new respect for Mark Grace.

Disagree w/ the approach. You need quality "coaching" not beer bellied softball players to bust the slump.

Cross-promoting here ... If anyone participating in this tournament has not yet signed up for the WISC, I really hope you'll give it a look. Great challenging themes, plus prizes!

https://www.whatifsports.com/forums/Posts.aspx?topicID=537300

I have 23 teams in round 3. These are my six worst teams... no idea why I can't win with the Cubs or Yankees as my first pick. Terrible job by me wasting Top 20 picks on the '16 Cubs and '61 Yankees.
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Team Name	League	Pick#	W-L	Rank
2015 Cubs (16 CLE - 14 LAD)	10	17	24-41	232
2016 Cubs (16 LAD - 17 NYY)	10	3	27-38	206
1961 Yankees (61 BAL - 62 LAD)	5	1	30-35	168
1978 Yankees (80 LAD - 80 MIL)	7	16	31-34	158
1956 Yankees (56 CHI - 55 MIL)	5	7	32-33	134
1918 Cubs (18 WAS - 20 STL)	2	16	32-33	132

After a strong start to Round 3, my teams have mostly coalesced around .500 territory. Where once 8 of my 9 teams were over .500, now only 3 are. But there are two at 40-41, one 39-42 and two 38-43 ... and only two teams wouldn't advance if it ended today.

I have 18 of 23 teams over .500, and two more at 40-41, but most of my teams are in the 42-45 win range. I just posted the standings and I would have ZERO "Top 14" selections. No real juggernaut team this round.

The sim Gods don't like me having too many teams over .500, so they punish me with a 8-15 session, including 0-4 in extra innings.

Make that back to back 8-15 sessions, this time with four games lost in the 9th inning.

Make that three straight 8-15 sessions, highlighted by a game I lost 10-9 after allowing 3 runs in the 8th and 5 runs in the bottom of the 9th.

A RL nugget for you fans of records in 1-run games ...

The Marlins are, as of this writing, 11-0 in 1-run games this season. They are 6-18 otherwise and being outscored 141-74 in those games.

This is to say, don't count on them making a wild-card run despite being basically a .500 team right now.

What a brutal run since the half-way mark for many of my teams. These teams were all on a pace to advance thru 81 games. Three* of these teams still have positive run differentials despite being a combined 35 games under .500.

1918 Cubs, 53-68 (started 42-39, 11-29 since)
1930 Robins, 58-63 (started 41-40, 17-23 since)
1956 Yankees*, 51-70 (started 38-43, 13-27 since)
1961 Yankees*, 57-64 (started 41-40, 16-24 since)
1964 White Sox*, 56-65 (started 40-41, 16-24 since)
1978 Yankees, 54-67 (started 43-39, 12-28 since)
2006 Twins 59-62 (started 42-39, 17-23 since)

In total, 287-280 (.506) thru 81 games, 102-178 since (.364).

In an unrelated note, three different teams gave up a 5+ run inning in extra-innings in this morning's run. Out of my 23 teams, only 5 have an above-500 record in extra inning games, as my teams are a combined 28 games under .500 in extra innings.

And just for kicks, the tournament's best pitching team started a series vs the tournament's worst offense. Lost 12-7.

I used to look forward to reading boxscores after every session. Not so much anymore.

Balanced vs. Unbalanced. Currently I have 6 teams that are on pace to miss advancing to the next round (at least 77 wins) and one team that is right on pace. It may just be my teams but this season having an unbalanced team is really hurting when looking to qualify for the next round. My arbitrary definition of an unbalanced team is either 20th-24th in runs scored or runs let up. So in theory you could have a team that is the best pitching team and the worst hitting team (extreme example of unbalanced). Of my seven teams that are on a pace, that puts them in jeopardy of not advancing, six of them are "unbalanced", the 7th is just bad. My question is, does anybody have an "unbalanced team that is playing really well?

My best team in the round (my ONLY good team in the round) is unbalanced. $77M for offense and only $48M on pitching.

I have no idea why the SIM-Gods are hating me in this tournament. This round with ten teams, I was hoping for at least seven of them to advance on. Three weeks ago after the 81-Game mark, I had five above the cut-off line and two just below, so I was liking my chances.

Since then, every one of my teams has been playing below .500 - and some of them are playing below .400 (if not .300). Every one of them. I've been trying to figure this game out for nearly twenty years and I'm no closer to doing it now then I was in 2004. I'll be lucky to have two or three teams advance...