1975 Season Thread

[Young Drachma]

1975 Classic Schedule

19: @ Toronto
20 @ Toronto
21 @ Chicago
22 @ Chicago
24 @ Toronto
25 @ Toronto
27 @ Chicago
28: @ Chicago
30: @ Toronto

[Young Drachma]

fixed that.

[kaosfere]

Hah! yeah, forgotten you'd name-changed, too. Seems to do the trick.

Going to post any fun stats for us, or just hurry and get the file up?

[Young Drachma]

Tuesday, September 16th, 1975: FOOL News: The All-Star Game Rosters Have Been Announced
Showcase for the Stars -- The Front Office Offseason League All-Star Game. It's a great game for the fans. The All-Star Classic comes around each year at this time to the delight of every baseball fan. All of gifted and talented players from the Continental League and Republic League come together and show their wares on the baseball diamond. The top players go toe-to-toe with one another to get the bragging rights for their league.

Selected to play for the Continental League All-Stars are:


SP A. Wiley (TOR)
SP C. Gonzáles (VAL)
SP M. Saito (TOR)
SP C. Wilson (VAL)
SP D. Barajas (ATL)
SP S. Davis (TEX)
CL A. Barbosa (VAL)
CL F. Padilla (TOR)
CL T. Patrick (BAL)
CL J. Mockly (RG)
MR L. Finley (TOR)
MR D. Marnane (TEX)
CF R. Lang (BKN)
1B B. Evans (NYH)
LF E. Reyes (ATL)
C H. Tanaka (RG)
RF R. Pagán (VAL)
3B R. Inman (VAL)
2B E. Meyer (TOR)
C A. Alvarado (BKN)
SS J. Medina (TEX)
CF C. Vázquez (ATL)
1B B. Arnold (VAL)
3B A. Luján (TOR)
2B J. Higman (BAL)
CF T. Ewing (BAL)
LF R. Lord (TOR)
LF P. García (VAL)


The Republic League All-Stars will have these players on their roster:


SP G. Perreault (CLB)
SP C. Miner (HAR)
SP S. Godbout (CGO)
SP R. Ramos (ANN)
SP C. Davis (COL)
SP R. Padilla (HAR)
CL T. Ishibashi (COM)
CL P. Castillo (BOS)
CL D. Hennessey (HAR)
CL A. Dailey (CLB)
CL D. Brewer (COL)
CL K. O'Quinn (ANN)
1B L. Mendoza (CGO)
LF J. Hunt (BOS)
RF M. Rasmussen (CGO)
C Á. Ramírez (CLB)
CF R. Mendoza (CLB)
3B A. Vargas (CLB)
SS R. Cruz (CGO)
2B J. Reyes (CLB)
C J. Moya (COM)
LF A. Corona (CGO)
RF W. Magner (BOS)
1B M. Brooks (COM)
3B A. Summers (HAR)
CF R. Spencer (BOS)
LF M. Suárez (HAR)
SS A. Stanley (ANN)

[muns]

Congrats to both DC and Toronto..... Hell of a season guys!!!

[Young Drachma]

Mac Rasmussen had 124 RBI this year, the most RBI of any player in FOOL since 1968

[kaosfere]

Wow, Saito is an all-star? I was hoping for a solid performance, but not that!

[Young Drachma]

Fernando Spindola hit .236 this year, but had 15 HRs and 43 RBI and is perched at 399 career home runs.

Joe Morris got his 200th win this year (208-129 for his career)

Orlando Diaz got his 400th save (424 for his career)

Hideaki Tanaka notched his 1500th career RBI (1540 for his career, Spindola is #2 with 1344)

Rich Lang is 2nd all-time in steals at 528 (642 is the record)

Christian Larsen is 59 hits away from 2500 for his career.

[Young Drachma]

Packing and uploading the file now.

[muns]

Alright Fellas.... Heading off to the GF'S be back for sundays sim, and to be depressed about this file.... Talk to you all then

[kaosfere]

Have fun, muns!

[Young Drachma]

It'll be the Rich Haas v. Cary Andrew Bowl.

Didn't even see how either of them did this year, either. That'll be fun to check out.

I'll prepare the HTML after the file goes up too.

[kaosfere]

Originally Posted by Dark Cloud

It'll be the Rich Haas v. Cary Andrew Bowl.

Didn't even see how either of them did this year, either. That'll be fun to check out.

He played in AAA. Once I picked up Elmer Meyer, he was a lock on second, and Rich had to duke it out for first. Was a very tough call there, but he ended up being third on a list with only room for two.

Ah well.

[Young Drachma]

[Young Drachma]

54% and counting...

[Young Drachma]

Seems to have frozen up. I might need to restart. Ugh.

[kaosfere]

Eek! No worries. I'm storm-watching and will be up a good while longer.

[TimGuru]

Well, I fell 3 wins short of the franchise goal but 72 wins on the heels of a 58 win season is acceptable. I can't complain.

Congrats to the Classic teams.

[Young Drachma]

Originally Posted by TimGuru

Well, I fell 3 wins short of the franchise goal but 72 wins on the heels of a 58 win season is acceptable. I can't complain.

Congrats to the Classic teams.

I enjoyed getting gripped into 75 in 75 fever. Heck of a year and on the right track for your ballclub.

Kudos to Colorado for rebounding strong. Boston too, even though I know it wasn't the result he hoped for.

[Young Drachma]

I just restarted and had to restart the upload again. Let's see if we can't get it up this time.

[kaosfere]

I'll give you one of those wins back, but you need to get the other two elsewhere.

[Young Drachma]

I'll make a better banner for Toronto than the original one I made. I'm not feeling creative tonight and I'm in the midst of writing some presentation notes, so..I'm not "all there." But it'll get there.

File @ 9%

[ekcut]

What the HELL happened to Baltimore????
A hugely disapointing season. I knew trading Summers was going to set me back a year, but man o man did we stink the place out. That is too good of team for 2nd last...I cant wait to see the file to see what went wrong

[Young Drachma]

Apparently, the file is up. I have no idea why it kept freezing up at 54%, but it's apparently been up for a while.

So..yeah, have at it.

[kaosfere]

I got it, expanding. Looks good. Thanks, DC.

See you... tomorrow night!

[Alan T]

If any team is looking to rebuild after a bad season.. I have alot of nice prospects willing to be traded. I'm looking for a stud hitter of some kind somewhere that I can plug in.

Following prospects are available for the right deal:

SP Pedro Silva - My top draft pick this year, my top prospect in my organization (#25 overall)
1B Ron Howard
RF Antonio Garza
SP Jose Aguilar
CF Daniel Beck

[DanGarion]

Originally Posted by Dark Cloud

He did the first few days, yes.

Sorry, I just had such a busy week at work. Feel like I flaked out already .

[gstelmack]

Well, decent year. Pitching was down this year, hitting did well. John Hunt had a career season (in a contract year of course) to show that his spring training was in fact a fluke, and rookie SS Luke Crawford hit .285 in an effort to get into the Rookie of the Year picture.

Fortunately I've got 3 young pitchers (2 starters, one reliever) who are likely to get called up next season which should shore up the pitching. We're hoping the hitting doesn't take too much of a beating; if it can hold out one more year, I've got some youngsters who should be coming up for '77.

2B Ed Chamberlain, who has done a whale of a job for us for a long time, is starting to show some aging effects and is not quite the hitter he was. But he's being reasonable on resigning demands, so we're hoping to keep him around to let him finish out his career with us.

John Hunt on the other hand wants almost $12mil per year. We're hoping he'll take a bit less.

[Young Drachma]

Originally Posted by DanGarion

Sorry, I just had such a busy week at work. Feel like I flaked out already .

Just glad to know you are still here, don't worry.

[Young Drachma]

Provided they don't run into any "setup" issues, we'll have two new owners.

fairly will be taking over New Orleans and Anthony will be taking over Ann Arbor during next week's season.

fairly almost joined a few seasons ago, but had to back out once his correspondence chess career was getting going, but seems he has time now. And of course, the artist formerly known as Hell Atlantic has a long history around these parts.

We're glad to have them!

[magic_number]

Originally Posted by Dark Cloud

SUSPENSE DOWN THE STRETCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Very good year indeed, I was hoping for a 500 yr & got it... by the skin of my teeth. Now I'm gonna DL & see we're I did good & not so good. As long as my team gets better I'm a happy GM. I'm super pooped out, been getting all my things done now so I can be in Yankee land this mon & tues, so I missed it last night... looks like it was a blast.


Congrats to all.

[magic_number]

Originally Posted by Dark Cloud

Provided they don't run into any "setup" issues, we'll have two new owners.

fairly will be taking over New Orleans and Anthony will be taking over Ann Arbor during next week's season.

fairly almost joined a few seasons ago, but had to back out once his correspondence chess career was getting going, but seems he has time now. And of course, the artist formerly known as Hell Atlantic has a long history around these parts.

We're glad to have them!

Cool, more FNGs. Welcome & good hunting...

[Chief Rum]

Who was in New Orleans again?

Welcome, guys. I am the resident league fan.

[magic_number]

I want to cut a guy out of his 76 contract (& my cap), but it still says I owe him for 75 which is now over... If I cut him now with our last file (9/16/75) will I pay for 76 only or both (75 & 76)? In other words do I have to wait b4 I make this cut??

I won't be here on Monday so I'll like to cut & resign my players by Sun's export. Not sure on how to proceed.

[Young Drachma]

Originally Posted by magic_number

I want to cut a guy out of his 76 contract (& my cap), but it still says I owe him for 75 which is now over... If I cut him now with our last file (9/16/75) will I pay for 76 only or both (75 & 76)? In other words do I have to wait b4 I make this cut??

I won't be here on Monday so I'll like to cut & resign my players by Sun's export. Not sure on how to proceed.

There is no money paid out for '75 since the season is over. It'll just be for '76 and beyond that you'll pay out.

[Young Drachma]

Just kidding. allpro wrote and said he's back. Anthony will wait for an expansion team...

[Young Drachma]

Season HTML should be online within the next hour or so.

[magic_number]

Originally Posted by Dark Cloud

There is no money paid out for '75 since the season is over. It'll just be for '76 and beyond that you'll pay out.

Cool & thx for setting up my minor league parks as well

1 more Q: If I'm not gonna resign a player who is still good, should I shop him around 1st? If yes, I'm assuming the only incentive teams have to acquire such a player is to avoid bidding for him during free agency by locking him up via contract extention, correct? Assuming this is true and since I'm going to be gone on Monday, I should shop such players tonight so by Sunday nights deadline I will have him traded or cut to free up cap space so that I may be able to resign players that I want to keep, right? Additionaly, are we able to make trades that put us over our cap first then make the necessary cuts to get under or is it like free agency and you have to make cap room before hand?

I'm going into a semi-rebuilding mode. My team is capable of lots of walks and homeruns but also strikes out alot and has a very low batting avg which is prompting me to make some changes. We also do poorly on defense and stealing bases. How much of a premium should I put on defense when trying to balance it against scoring runs, in other words how productive does a player need to be to justify his crappy defense? My SS and 3B are making me wonder whether it's best to sac them in favor of cheaper talent with better defense but worse offense. This probaly should have been it's own thread but I got carried away, sorry. Also under finances there is an option to change your clubs focus from - win now / normal / rebuilding- does this have any bearing?

I'm trying to analyze the stat results from last season and this season to draw solid conclusions about my teams capabilities. Some stats like homeruns are easy to interpret other such as RVOP (player replacment value?) are not. I honestly have not gone through the help file well enough to know the meanings of all the stats, however that still won't tell me how to weigh each stats value. For example, I know that the range of a C should be weighed less than the range of a SS when considering overall fielding ability. I guess I'm just looking for you FOOL vets to school me a bit on the big picture when it comes to interpreting season stats or anything else you'll be willing to chime in with. My understanding of this game is growing but with that, just comes more questions. I feel like I have to learn the nuances of this game/league before I'm fully capable of adjusting team/player strategies... I'm sure I'll have hundreds if not thousands of more questions as time goes by so I thank you guys in advance for your assistance.

P.S. I know my Q's can take a whole book to answer, but I don't expect as much. That's why VOIP will be a great feature to add to our league. In the absence of such a utility, maybe we should have a permanent thread for FAQ/Q & A's to hoard our collective knowledge? It will also save us valuable time. Did I mention that I hate typing?

Hope I'm still awake long enough to read some replies

[Young Drachma]

Originally Posted by magic_number

Cool & thx for setting up my minor league parks as well

1 more Q: If I'm not gonna resign a player who is still good, should I shop him around 1st? If yes, I'm assuming the only incentive teams have to acquire such a player is to avoid bidding for him during free agency by locking him up via contract extention, correct?

Umm...depends on the guy. Only guys who are hot commodities or fill a special need are gonna be pursued. Otherwise, you're better off just letting them walk. Why give up something when a person knows they can have a shot to get him for free and pay him what they want?

Assuming this is true and since I'm going to be gone on Monday, I should shop such players tonight so by Sunday nights deadline I will have him traded or cut to free up cap space so that I may be able to resign players that I want to keep, right? Additionaly, are we able to make trades that put us over our cap first then make the necessary cuts to get under or is it like free agency and you have to make cap room before hand?

You can make trades, but they won't be processed until tomorrow night's sim. You can't make trades that put you over the cap.

I'm going into a semi-rebuilding mode. My team is capable of lots of walks and homeruns but also strikes out alot and has a very low batting avg which is prompting me to make some changes. We also do poorly on defense and stealing bases. How much of a premium should I put on defense when trying to balance it against scoring runs, in other words how productive does a player need to be to justify his crappy defense? My SS and 3B are making me wonder whether it's best to sac them in favor of cheaper talent with better defense but worse offense. This probaly should have been it's own thread but I got carried away, sorry. Also under finances there is an option to change your clubs focus from - win now / normal / rebuilding- does this have any bearing?

The win now/rebuilding/normal means nothing for an online league.

I'm trying to analyze the stat results from last season and this season to draw solid conclusions about my teams capabilities. Some stats like homeruns are easy to interpret other such as RVOP (player replacment value?) are not. I honestly have not gone through the help file well enough to know the meanings of all the stats, however that still won't tell me how to weigh each stats value. For example, I know that the range of a C should be weighed less than the range of a SS when considering overall fielding ability. I guess I'm just looking for you FOOL vets to school me a bit on the big picture when it comes to interpreting season stats or anything else you'll be willing to chime in with. My understanding of this game is growing but with that, just comes more questions. I feel like I have to learn the nuances of this game/league before I'm fully capable of adjusting team/player strategies... I'm sure I'll have hundreds if not thousands of more questions as time goes by so I thank you guys in advance for your assistance.

P.S. I know my Q's can take a whole book to answer, but I don't expect as much. That's why VOIP will be a great feature to add to our league. In the absence of such a utility, maybe we should have a permanent thread for FAQ/Q & A's to hoard our collective knowledge? It will also save us valuable time. Did I mention that I hate typing?

Hope I'm still awake long enough to read some replies

The other stuff, I'll let Alan help you with.

[Alan T]

Originally Posted by Dark Cloud

Umm...depends on the guy. Only guys who are hot commodities or fill a special need are gonna be pursued. Otherwise, you're better off just letting them walk. Why give up something when a person knows they can have a shot to get him for free and pay him what they want?



You can make trades, but they won't be processed until tomorrow night's sim. You can't make trades that put you over the cap.


The win now/rebuilding/normal means nothing for an online league.



The other stuff, I'll let Alan help you with.

What makes one player better than the other? Usually just perception. Who was a better player George Brett or Al Kaline? Heck if I know, both were pretty good. The most important lesson I ever learned years ago in how to be successful at OOTP is worry less about which player is better and worry more about which fits into your system better.

What is your overall team strategy that you want to use to try to win? Do you want to focus an entire team around players who will get on base the most, even at the expense of everything else? (including power and defense) Or do you want to focus a team solely around pitching and defense, even if it means a light hitting team that doesn't score many runs? Do you want a balanced team where you just try to find the best fit based on position instead? (ie: have slick fielders at specific positions, and no-fielding big bats at other positions?).

You have to know how you want to answer those questions before you can really begin, or you will always find yourself spinning your wheels. If you constantly try to get the best player available without consideration for what type of player it is, you will endlessly run into the situation where you have to figure out which you would rather have Derek Jeter or Ozzie Smith. I can tell you easily which one will get you more hits, get you more runs.. but will the runs that Ozzie Smith prevent by his amazing fielding make up the difference?

This is where various stats, including some not included in OOTP (Such as Win Shares) comes in, trying to determine which player actually contributed more towards the number of wins their team had in a season. I know I haven't hardly gone into any detail regarding how to view the various stats yet, but that is because in some cases you have to view how you want to judge those stats. As you said, it is pretty cut and dry when looking at Home runs, who had more.. But that is not what always is considered, sometimes you have to figure out if the 40 home runs player A contributed is worth as much as the .400 OBP that player B contributed. Which helps create more runs for your team? That is where the Runs Created stat comes in that you can find in OOTP.. but then that does not take into any consideration if someone played in a hitters park or not. To add to that, none of the offensive stats that you find in OOTP will tell you diddly about how much defense a player added either...

The defensive stats that OOTP provides is pretty lacking when trying to create a big picture unfortunately. It gives you an attempt at Range factor based on number of plays the player participated in vs number of total plays they were in the game for. Fielding pct is pretty self explanatory as well. The rule of thumb obviously is for some positions such as SS you want as much range as possible and as high of a fielding pct as possible, but you are left to try to tie it all together to determine which player ends up being the better overall player. That goes back to what your team strategy is and how you want to mold your team.

As an example, if you sat down 10 GMs and said they could do things over again starting from 1965 and pick who they wanted on their team... 9 out of 10 GMs would pick Spindola most likely for their Right fielder. I would be the one that didn't, and I would not have any doubt about it in the world that I made the correct choice.. Spindola is a fine player, one of FOOL's all time best, but he just isn't right for my system of teams.

I know I was less than helpful probably, but its tough to address stats without asking what it is you are actually looking for in them.

[Young Drachma]

I didn't want Spindola either, FWIW. In the initial draft, I went pitching all the way. You can always find a guy to play in the outfield, but paying a guy a boatload of cash to mash homers and not do much else just doesn't work for me.

And I never really thought Spindola was as good as his numbers suggested.

Of course, it's easy to say that now that he's a light hitting veteran shell of himself.

[magic_number]

Thx for the info guys, I'll sleep on it.

Later

[Young Drachma]

League HTML is up.