GWJ OOTP League Thread

tboon wrote:

So the World Series will definitely be Man vs. Machine then, right?

Oops, sorry Far, I forgot Atlanta was your team (I routinely forget who the human-run teams are). Congrats on epic comeback!

Can we get this over with already? I'm bored.

garion333 wrote:

Can we get this over with already? I'm bored. :P

Hey! It's not all about you, man. Go back to your corner.

[size=10][color=#939393]Sorry if I'm not supposed to muddy the thread with single player OOTP, but here I go again. Someone tell me to stahp if I'm not supposed to do this.[/color][/size]

So I am apparently abjectly bad at this game.

IMAGE(http://i.imgur.com/AiC6z.png)

IMAGE(http://i.imgur.com/150I9.png)

But this is just cold.

IMAGE(http://i.imgur.com/0VLqC.png)

"So we're firing you as GM, but would you like to run our Triple A team?"

garion333 wrote:

Can we get this over with already? I'm bored. :P

Hell no! Take all the time you need! I need to recover from the trainwreck that was my freshman season.

It never occured to me that having the computer handle the minor league teams would be the dumbass CPU would put my drafted rookie reliever (Zach Cole I think his name was) out on waivers when he was the best damn pitcher I had on the squad. I didn't even notice it until I saw the message about New Orleans picking him up a few turns before the season ended.

Blech. Ahh well, lesson learned

New file! (We'll get back to in-depth wrap-ups soon, this has just been an insane, exhausting last week and a half).

Two teams up 2-0. Can Charlotte and Pittsburgh hold serve and advance to the championship?

New file!

Charlotte went up 3-0 in their series, defeating Atlanta 1-0 in Game 3 on just a single hit (and it wasn't a HR), but Atlanta won game 4 to stay alive. Can they manage the miracle twice?

Meanwhile, Pittsburgh and Buffalo are tied a 2 games apiece.

Who will advance? Stay tuned, new file tomorrow night!

We're doing our best!

New File!

Six games is a good length to take a series, it means you were competitive. What it means for us, however, is that it'll be an AI vs. AI Championship Series, as Buffalo and Charlotte advance in six games. Both did so by absolutely ripping the heart out of their opposition.

Pittsburgh managed to tie Game 6 in the bottom of the ninth thanks to a home run, a single, and a two-run blast that tied the game at seven. Things stayed tied until the top of the 11th, when Buffalo dropped a Touchdown on Pittsburgh, and kicked the extra point. Seven runs is a pretty large deficit to try and make up, and Pittsburgh ended up going down, 14-7. Pittsburgh's Greg Powell and Tom Mills will be drawing the ire of fans on talk radio in the coming days, for sure.

Charlotte allowed Atlanta to get things back to 3-2 and think "miraculous comeback" again before six innings. They were down 4-1 in the 7th inning when Glenn Anderson gave up a two-run homer, and then, in the top of the ninth, with a one-run lead, All-star closer Ken Newman blew it, giving up two singles and a double, watching two runs cross the plate as Charlotte finished off the Kings for good, winning 5-4.

So, unless I'm reading it wrong, it's AI vs. AI in the series, like I said. Which means, to speed things up, I will be simulating the entire League Championship tomorrow evening, and the next sim will begin the Off-season. Get ready for arbitration, and make sure your staff is signed, it's almost the silly season!

Pred - Can we sim the first week of the off-season slower than normal? Like 2 days per sim. Even if it means a sim per real day or something? I remember that at the end of last season that there were some complications in signing personnel post season. Like make an offer in one sim and then lose out because another team also put in an offer but you couldn't counter because the sim ran for a week?

I'm set this coming season but I remember last season this happened to a couple of folks' detriment.

I don't want to put more work on you but I think all the owners should have a crack at any personnel that get freed up by the end of the season.

I'm okay with that if everyone else is.

Yeah, I'd like to see no one get screwed on staff signings the way I and at least one other league member (IIRC) did.

Sounds good to me.

I thought we had the series in the bag when the Pierogies bagged the first 2 games but the Burritos came back and took 4 straight from us. Took the last 2 games from my 2 top starters, no less. I also didn't think it was going to be my bullpen that would ultimately give the games away. All season long the bats carried the team with the long balls and I'm proud and somewhat surprised that we got as far as we did.

I'm looking to upgrade my starting rotation via trades, specifically trading some of my established bats and top ranked prospects, for some established SP talent since the FA pool is pretty shallow.

Good season, guys.

I thought we had the series in the bag when the Pierogies bagged the first 2 games but the Burritos came back and took 4 straight from us. Took the last 2 games from my 2 top starters, no less. I also didn't think it was going to be my bullpen that would ultimately give the games away. All season long the bats carried the team with the long balls and I'm proud and somewhat surprised that we got as far as we did.

I'm looking to upgrade my starting rotation via trades, specifically trading some of my established bats and top ranked prospects, for some established SP talent since the FA pool is pretty shallow.

Good season, guys.

File = New.

Your new champions are the Buffalo Breakfast Burritos, who won in thrilling fashion. A series that features three walk-off wins and two extra-inning games, saw Buffalo defeat Charlotte in Game 7, as Jay Clifton wrote himself into NABL lore, belting a two-run walk-off home run in the bottom of the 10th to win the series and the championship. I'd say you can't make it up, but it happened.

So, it's day one of the postseason. We will sim the first 10 days of the post-season much slower to allow everyone to catch up on personnel moves. How much slower? Two days a sim, starting Monday. That will last until Friday, when we will switch back to a week a sim, unless someone has an issue with that. Sound good?

Questions!

Does the amount under budget go towards only player payroll, or is it for everything including staff payroll, draft expenses, whatever?
If the money under "Available $$ for free agents" is more than I have in budget space, is this just a war chest for future years in case I dump my payroll at some point and start over?
At least one or two of my guys that were supposed to go to arbitration extended themselves for another year at the minimum. Is this their option? It looks like they were guys that had a rough year.

Thanks! <3

Well, it's official, the Allen Osborne era for the Pittsburgh Pierogies is coming to an end. Osborne blindsided me and exercised his player option at the end of season and will become a free agent and test the open market.

As one of the premier catchers in the league, Osborne spent 3 solid years with the Pierogies as a fixture behind the plate and in the heart of the batting order. Osborne's acquisition and subsequent success in Pittsburgh paralleled our success in the standing, and while we are sad he chose not to continue his success with us, we wish him the best of luck and his service will be missed.

Good luck joining the Allen Osborne sweepstake, 5+ yr at $25M per year.

Well, it's official, the Allen Osborne era for the Pittsburgh Pierogies is coming to an end. Osborne blindsided me and exercised his player option at the end of season and will become a free agent and test the open market.

As one of the premier catchers in the league, Osborne spent 3 solid years with the Pierogies as a fixture behind the plate and in the heart of the batting order. Osborne's acquisition and subsequent success in Pittsburgh paralleled our success in the standing, and while we are sad he chose not to continue his success with us, we wish him the best of luck and his service will be missed.

Good luck joining the Allen Osborne sweepstake, 5+ yr at $25M per year.

Poor Novocain - he double posted through the tears!

Pred, the schedule sounds good to me. Thanks for doing this.

I'll probably be looking to unload Don Whittier. .300 hitter, consistently in that area. Top drawer on 2B/SS defense. I'd most likely be interested in prospects, as my minor leagues stink, but I could probably use some outfield help. Maybe some pitching, even.

New file!

I absolutely hate having to manage our payroll. Vancouver just said goodbye to the 38-year-old Ramon Gomez. If we'd kept him, we'd have been on the hook for $28M next year, and despite the fact that he went .332/.418/.618 with 37 HRs and over 100 RBIs....

.......

...If he doesn't have a MAJOR down year, i'm going to hang myself.

You know what, after reviewing the budget, we started negotiation for a contract extension with Allen Osborne. Maybe he won't be entering the FA sweepstake after all. Let's see if we could get it done in a month.

New file!

New File!

Novocain wrote:

You know what, after reviewing the budget, we started negotiation for a contract extension with Allen Osborne. Maybe he won't be entering the FA sweepstake after all. Let's see if we could get it done in a month.

So you went 6@20 per, I see.

tboon wrote:
Novocain wrote:

You know what, after reviewing the budget, we started negotiation for a contract extension with Allen Osborne. Maybe he won't be entering the FA sweepstake after all. Let's see if we could get it done in a month.

So you went 6@20 per, I see.

(I dont have my laptop in front of me, so the details are a bit hazy, I believe) he was asking for 6@21, and as a little experiment (as I'm learning about how to structure contracts and such,) I front-loaded the contract at I think @ $22M to start then decreasing every year. I guess I did receive a little bit of 'hometown discount.' I wouldn't be surprised if he was to receive a $25M/yr or $150M+ contract on the FA market.

My logic for front-loading the contract (whether it's correct or not, I have no idea) is that I'm paying the most when the player is younger and supposedly performing at their peak, and as they age and performance declines, I'm paying them less and might make them easier to unload if necessary. I'd be interested to hear anyone else's thoughts on that...

I think that's smart. I have a player that was signed to an escalating contract before I took the team over. The contract was signed when the player was 33 I think and still good (.300/.700 OPS 3rd baseman). But last year he made $15MM and was barely a starter and this year he made $16MM and rode the pine. I just signed my closer to a big contract and did not do what you did and hope like hell he can still play 3 years from now when he'll be make over $17MM.

Novocain wrote:

(I dont have my laptop in front of me, so the details are a bit hazy, I believe) he was asking for 6@21, and as a little experiment (as I'm learning about how to structure contracts and such,) I front-loaded the contract at I think @ $22M to start then decreasing every year. I guess I did receive a little bit of 'hometown discount.' I wouldn't be surprised if he was to receive a $25M/yr or $150M+ contract on the FA market.

My logic for front-loading the contract (whether it's correct or not, I have no idea) is that I'm paying the most when the player is younger and supposedly performing at their peak, and as they age and performance declines, I'm paying them less and might make them easier to unload if necessary. I'd be interested to hear anyone else's thoughts on that...

Holy hell, he's a catcher? Wow. Okay, I get it, the dude's one of your best players, but I wouldn't pay him anywhere near $20 mil and certainly not for as long as you did. Did you make a mistake? Possibly not, but it's really hard to know at this point. The way contracts have blown up, in large part because of the AI, drives me a bit crazy. I don't entirely need to be a miser, but I'd like to be (says the guy with one of the highest payrolls out there).

As far as front loading, I don't see anything wrong with it, but you are talking about a $1 or $2 mil difference and if you dump him for a roster spot he's still taking up $19 mil of your budget.

But, what do I know? I'm paying Jamie Moyer $25 mil this coming year.

There might be some risk in front loading if the AI is complicated enough to use the player greed score (or whatever) to determine whether they'll sit out on the back end. I know that happens in the real world. No idea about in OOTP! Other than that, I can't imagine that there's much risk.