Recently, thewheaties took over from zeustis01 as commish of the Steinbrenner World and instituted a weekly trivia contest based on a mix of real-world sports contests (such as NCAA Football and MLB) and some questions about the goings on in Steinbrenner. We have been looking for a place to track picks/results etc. and it recently occurred to me that a rebranding of our world would be a good time to try again on the “WKRP” forum post.

WKRP dates back to csherwood and his long-successful Wichita team, where he would post updates at certain points in the season detailing how he’d been doing and how he made certain important decisions. At one point last year, I gathered all of those informational posts together and started using them to guide a rebuild in a thread that I named “WKRP makes a new hire.” Since his team was in Wichita, I decided to place my new rebuild in Wichita for consistency’s sake. As it happens, that rebuild was the team that I own in Steinbrenner. That thread didn’t gain a lot of traction, which is fine, but the information certainly helped me on my way to becoming a better and more successful HBD owner.

Since a number of my teams have been slumping lately, I figured I would turn back to csherwood’s posts for guidance. Combine that with the fact that Steinbrenner is looking for a place to post trivia results and I had a eureka moment: bringing back the “WKRP” idea, only under the name “WSTN” (for Steinbrenner) could provide a platform for both revisiting csherwood’s posts and publicizing trivia answers. So while this thread will probably make the most sense to current members of the Steinbrenner community, I welcome anyone who sees it to follow along and chime in if you have any ideas that you would like to share (or let thewheaties know if you would like to be considered for any future openings in Steinbrenner!)

Trivia Time! November 2nd, 2019 edition
The following questions were distributed via a Google Form to all owners in the Steinbrenner world for the weekend of November 2nd-3rd. Correct responses are worth 4 points each, and the top three performances win a gift card each week. At the end of the season, the three owners with the highest season point totals also win (more valuable) gift cards. Here are the questions, along with the all the responses that were submitted:

1. Winner of HOU vs JAX (NFL)

HOU: bruinsfan911, scoop015, zeustis01, thewheaties
JAX: sonofthebear

1. Winner of CHI vs PHI (NFL)

CHI: zeustis01, thewheaties
PHI: bruinsfan911, scoop015, sonofthebear

1. Winner of NY Jets vs Miami (NFL)

NYJ: bruinsfan911, scoop015, sonofthebear, zeustis01
MIA: thewheaties

1. Winner of MIN vs KC (NFL)

MIN: bruinsfan911, scoop015, zeustis01
KC: sonofthebear, thewheaties

1. Winner of TEN vs CAR (NFL)

TEN: sonofthebear, zeustis01
CAR: bruinsfan911, scoop015, thewheaties

1. Winner of DET vs OAK (NFL)

DET: bruinsfan911, sonofthebear, zeustis01
OAK: thewheaties, scoop015

1. Winner of CLE vs DEN (NFL)

CLE: bruinsfan911, scoop015, thewheaties
DEN: sonofthebear, zeustis

1. Phillip Rivers Passing Yards: Total (NFL)

0-299: bruinsfan911, zeustis01, sonofthebear
300+: scoop015, thewheaties

1. Dalvin Cook Rushing Yards: Total (NFL)

0-99: bruinsfan911
100+: scoop015, thewheaties, zeustis01, sonofthebear

1. Will Myles Garret get a sack? (NFL)

Yes: bruinsfan911, scoop015, thewheaties, zeustis01, sonofthebear
No:

1. Winner of NC State vs Wake Forest (NCAAF)

NC State: bruinsfan911, scoop015, thewheaties, zeustis01, sonofthebear
Wake Forest:

1. Winner of Georgia vs Florida (NCAAF)

Georgia: bruinsfan911, scoop015, thewheaties, zeustis01
Florida: sonofthebear

1. Winner of Kansas State vs Kansas (NCAAF)

Kansas St: bruinsfan911, scoop015, thewheaties, zeustis01
Kansas: sonofthebear

1. Winner of Army vs Air Force (NCAAF)

Army: bruinsfan911, scoop015, thewheaties, zeustis01
Air Force: sonofthebear

1. Winner of Florida State vs Miami (NCAAF)

Florida State: zeustis01, thewheaties
Miami: bruinsfan911, scoop015, sonofthebear

1. Will Clemson score 50+ vs. Wofford? (NCAAF)

no: bruinsfan911
yes: scoop015, thewheaties, zeustis01, sonofthebear

1. Winner of SMU vs. Memphis (NCAAF)

SMU: bruinsfan911, scoop015, thewheaties, zeustis01, sonofthebear
Memphis:

1. Winner of TCU vs. Oklahoma State (NCAAF)

TCU: bruinsfan911, zeustis01
Oklahoma State: scoop015, thewheaties, sonofthebear

1. Will Cole McDonald (Hawaii) throw for 300+ Passing Yards?(NCAA)

Yes: bruinsfan911, zeustis01, thewheaties
No: scoop015, sonofthebear

1. Chuba Hubbard (OK State) will run for 150+ yards (NCAA)

Yes: thewheaties
No: bruinsfan911, scoop015, zeustis01, sonofthebear

1. Winner of CLE vs SJ series on Nov. 2nd (Steinbrenner)

CLE: bruinsfan911, thewheaties, zeustis01, sonofthebear
SJ: scoop015

1. Winner of TUC vs PIT series on Nov. 2nd (Steinbrenner)

TUC: scoop015, zeustis01
PIT: bruinsfan911, sonofthebear, thewheaties

1. Will Matt Bowman-TUC get a hit vs. PIT during the 11/3PM game? (Steinbrenner)

Yes: bruinsfan911, scoop015, thewheaties, zeustis01
No: sonofthebear

1. Will Dennis Chatwood-HAR hit a HR vs. KC during the 11/3PM game? (Steinbrenner)

Yes: bruinsfan911, scoop015
No: thewheaties, zeustis01, sonofthebear

1. Will Rich Peters-RIC steal a base vs. WAS during the 11/3PM game? (Steinbrenner)

Yes: bruinsfan911, scoop015, sonofthebear
No: zeustis01, thewheaties

WSTN will step aside momentarily for a word from our sister station, WFYC, who has an exclusive look into the war room of the Texas Chargers leading up to the S49 Amateur Draft:
There has been some debate over the best way to set your Amateur Draft Settings. Some people believe in going for 25 guys from "Any" position. Personally, I do not use the Any Position theory, but instead go for 1-2 players at each position, including making certain to draft at least one DH, regardless of which league I am in (sometimes the DH guys you draft can actually play a real position. If not, they may still have trade value to an AL squad if you play in the NL). I always make certain to draft 2-3 Shortstops and at least 2 catchers. I also like to go for at least 7 starting pitchers, because I may need some of the late round guys to fill out my lineup.
***EDITOR’S NOTE: My initial strategy is going to be to go for 1 player at positions where I currently have an ML starter and 2 players at positions where I don’t have an ML starter. For SS and C, I’ll go with 2 when I have an ML starter and 3 when I don’t. I also plan on getting 7 SP’s. For RP’s, I’ll probably go with the 2 or 3 format depending on how many openings I have in my ‘pen at the time. Once I set those, I’ll set “any” to however many guys I’ll need to get to the total of 25 that I’ll end up drafting. In other words, if the positional targets above add up to drafting 20 players, then I’ll set “any” at 5. If it adds up to 22, I’d set it at 3 etc. We have plenty of defensive options at SS, so that gets set to "none." As always, we're looking for a slugging DH and 1B, so there aren't any positions where we'll target speed this season.

Finally, setting the aggressiveness is a factor of how high you pick and your prospect budget. You want to be conservative with a very high pick because you don’t want to risk losing him, but if you pick late in the first round or don't have a first round pick, you can be more aggressive and try to get someone that slipped through the cracks. The more Aggressive you go, the more money you will need to sign guys. EDITOR’S NOTE: There are 5 levels of aggressiveness and 32 first round picks. According to csherwood, you should be more aggressive the later you get in the first round. My initial thought is that 32 divided by 5 is 6.4, which means that you should be the most conservative if you’re within the top 6, the second-most conservative if you’re within the top 12 etc. Applying this line of reasoning would work out like this:

Picks 1-6 = Very Conservative
Picks 7-12 = Conservative
Picks 13-18 = Balanced
Picks 19-24 = Aggressive
Picks 25-32 = Very Aggressive

We are back with another look inside the war room of the Texas Chargers from WFYC...enjoy, and many thanks to csherwood for providing the insights upon which these posts are built!

Assuming I have a top 15 or so draft pick, I want to carefully rank my first few players so that I am absolutely certain the guy I draft with that first pick will be a stud. If I do not have a high first round pick, or for all players below the number of my first round pick, I am not quite as careful.
The way I rank players is very simply to load up the Manual Ranking screen and use the "profile" button on it to look at each guy in the order I see them. If the guy looks like a good prospect, I leave him where he is. If he is total garbage, I use the double arrow to drop him to the bottom. If he is ok, but not good enough to be close to the other guys I have recently previewed, I drop him down 10-20 spots with the single down arrow. If a guy looks a lot better than guys I have recently looked at, I push him up a handful of spots with the single up arrow.
This approach has served us well regardless of our place in the draft, but with a top-5 pick this season it's going to be especially important!

Our first official broadcast from WSTN comes to us during the All-Star Break, with the hometown Wichita Warriors playing almost exactly .500 baseball for the first half of the season...and yet they find themselves in a battle for the top spot in the AL West. Here's how management is approaching the tasks ahead of them:

IN-SEASON EVENT #2: ALL-STAR BREAK

During the 7AM off-cycle at the very end of the break, Diamonds in the Rough are announced. In about 7 or 8 of these Diamonds cycles so far, I have only seen 1 guy that has actually improved into projecting to be a major leaguer. Most of them are just garbage (only slightly worse garbage than they were before). If I do get a legitimate Diamond, I will evaluate the level that he is playing at and make certain I boost him up if he warrants it (for example, a guy with 3 years pro experience down at Low A - he should go to either AA or even AAA ASAP).
Here in Wichita, we only ended up with one DITR this season, and he's a long relief type that's probably got a ceiling of about 1 WAR per season. We will make sure to give him plenty of playing time this season and a promotion to the next minor league level before next year to maximize his development, but the chances of him having a major role on our big league team are minimal.

The only other thing I make certain to do at the All-Star Break is to double check who I have on the Trade Block and what my Trade Needs are currently listed as. There are only a handful of real life days between the Break and the Trade Deadline, so this is the time to begin preparing for any late-season wheeling and dealing. Keep an eye on World Chat as well, as people will now begin to advertise what they are looking for/looking to move.
As of this writing, there has been very little league-wide chatter on the subject of trade candidates. Since we're only playing .500 baseball but somehow still in the mix for a division title, we definitely won't be selling at the deadline but we're going to be cautious about giving up too much of our future for short-term rentals since a deep playoff run is unlikely. At the same time, though, if we can find a piece or two to address our needs without destroying the farm system we will not hesitate to pull the trigger and help our chances this year. Our offense has been on fire recently, but over the whole season that is probably the area that we'd like to improve on the most...specifically baserunning. If we could pick up a pinch runner/SB artist for the stretch run somehow, I like our chances of winning a few more games than we have been. We also need some more consistency out of our bullpen, but I feel we have the talent to make that happen already. To make this happen, we have put "Pinch Runner" out there as a Trade Need, and also listed a few guys on the Trade Block that we'd be willing to part with (each of whom is someone without a long term future in our organization for one reason or another.)