Hobbs has rolled and we ended up with 2 unusual surprise openings. Jump in now and we'll be underway tomorrow.
We have a description of the available teams below, but
you should join Hobbs based on the world, not the team...your team will be what you want it to be in a few seasons, while the world is ultimately what provides you your HBD experience.
Ever wonder why some worlds fill instantly (*when they have openings), some never do, and most take a long time?
Why Spend Your Valuable HBD Time In Hobbs?
Reason #1: In the old days when there were enough players to fill all HBD's worlds, there were differences among worlds, sure. But the differences were small (compared to today). It made sense to hunt around for the optimal team.
Today, when there are more available teams than HBD'ers looking for teams, the differences among worlds are bigger. Obviously, some worlds don't fill and have to merge. Some worlds take a really long time to fill. And a select few fill immediately season after season. In this environment it makes more sense to look for the optimal world than the right team (after all, your team will be what you want it to be in a few seasons...the world is the thing that provides your HBD experience).
Reason #2: You're sick of waiting 10 weeks for worlds to fill, sick of public worlds, and sick of mergers where you lose all your historical records. You want a world that's going to fill fast and start soon after rollover..year after year.
Roy Hobbs Starts Within Hours Of Rollover...how do we do that?
Reason #3: We work very hard on recruiting, we start on it very early (obviously), and we involve a lot of people in it...not just the commissioner (for example, I am not the commish of Hobbs).
Reason #4: Because
we work recruiting hard and always have HBD'ers wanting to get in, we enforce our private world rules tightly, which of course helps retain good owners (our only openings for the upcoming season are for teams that missed the minimum win requirement).
Reason #5: Active blog with lots of contributors at http://www.hobbsnews.blogspot.com/.
Here's what our owners have to say about the blog:
- "Man do I think all the blog content is awesome. Thanks to all who contribute!"
- "I agree , the blog adds an element to this world that none of the other worlds I've been in have."
- "Big props on the blog. I know how time consuming it is and you're doing a really great job."
- "Agreed. A good blog makes a world and right now, this blog is by far the best."
- "Wow! Nice write-up. It's as if my thoughts were put down on paper by osmosis! .....really though...nice job analyzing the roster...you have a keen eye for talent and a great way of conveying the message on the blog. Kudos to you!"
Reason #6: Exceptional ownership group with over 100 World Series titles among us.
Reason #7: Most owners are pretty active in the world, so there's lower turnover than in many worlds.
Available Teams (2)
AL South (formerly Louisville):
"WHEELER-DEALER NEEDED FOR GREAT PAYROLL SITUATION WITH 6 MIN-SALARY WINNERS ON The ROSTER" It took some digging, but I figured out how this team won 85 games - they scored 882 runs (4th) with a bunch of hitters who have odd-looking ratings but were quite effective (see "The Good" below).
The Good: Raul Villa - slugging 25-yo C hit .320+/33+ HR/125+ RBI 2 straight seasons;
Brendan Aven - excellent defensive CF at min salary for 3 more years;
Cesar Santiago - promising RP also has 3 min-sal years left;
Doug Spivey - Season 28 #3 overall can play 3B, 2B, CF and SS in a pinch...3 min sal years left; 2B
Julio Mercado - great defender at 2B or CF, plus had 30 HR, 111 RBI last year; 1B/OF
Nicholas Wilkins - 27HR/75RBI in just 381 AB's, and...another with 3 min sal years to go;
Pablo Valbuena - 52 extra basehits as a rookie, excellent at 3B, very good at 2B, perfectly adequate in CF, with 2 more min sal years; DH
Wellington Calles - OPS'd .948 as a rook, 2 more min-sal seasons.
The other good news is they only have 6 long term contracts totaling about $28MM, and 4 of those ( around $18MM) are done outright after this year. The 5th is done after next year, and the last one is $5.9MM for the keeper Villa (see above). I'm sure they'll have the usual arb cases, but you get the idea - they payroll situation is in great shape (not something you find with most available teams).
The Bad: Pretty much everything else on the ML roster (and their pitching reflected it - 4.90 ERA, 12th in AL). So there's a whole pitching staff to put together.
The Plan: I'm certainly no HBD genius but here's what I'd do with this bunch: beg, borrow, wheedle, and trade to get as much of the deadwood as possible off the ML roster (releasing in arbitration will clear up some), then scrape together as much as possible to build a FA pitching staff. Then take the $18MM coming off the books next year and repeat. Their 6 min-salary guys aren't stars, but they're all pretty good and get paid nothing for 2-3 more years. This team will be able to buy more talent than anyone else this year and next precisely because they have a lot of good+cheap guys already on the roster.
Payroll/Prospects/Draft: Minors aren't empty but nothing great. They've been signing their #1's but none are spectacular. You know the payroll story already. They'll have the #22 pick in the upcoming draft.
NL East (formerly New York): Surged to win 91 (and the Division) this year despite losing ace
Derrick Dawkins for a chunk of the season. Dawkins is back as good as new and joins the team's other stars - OF
Rick Black (.270/29/88), RP
Charley Crudale (10-1, 3.03 in 95 IP), SS
Evan Crosby (20/0 good/bad plays), OF
Kenny Wolf (.274/21/79) and RP
Joaquin Balentien (3.79 career ERA).
The Problem: They have a huge number of expiring contracts, and a lot of those players will go free agency. But at this point in the season, you can't tell who's staying and who's leaving. The 2 big names are Cy Young winner
Lawrence Hannity (20-4, 3.11 in 205 IP) and closer
Bucky Champion (34 saves, 3.11).
YOU SHOULD PLAN ON THESE GUYS LEAVING.
Payroll/Prospects/Draft: Total payroll (including minors) entering the season is $54MM, so there's plenty of $$ to repace those FA losses. They took
Santo Pujols at #13 this season,
Steven Decker at #19 in Season 31 (plus supplementals at #38 and #54), and
Jim Quantril at #19 in Season 30. They'll be picking #26 this season.
What To Do
If you have an interest in talking with us about joining Roy Hobbs, add to the post below or sitemail blanch13