MILF (OOTP11)

[Young Drachma]

It's been a long time since I've had a sustainable, fictional dynasty going. I joined FOBL, then I started FOOL and there was just no more time to play solo. Well, I'm back to my roots as I'm not playing in any baseball leagues online at the moment, preferring to get back to my solo fictional roots.

The league I'm going to be profiling here is actually the subject of a dynasty already (http://operationsports.com/fofc/showthread.php?t=74759), but it wasn't very good and I was still playing in leagues when I started it.

The premise is the same. I've taken my fictional quickstart that I started in OOTP9, moved to 10 and now have imported into OOTP11 and that now had 216 seasons under it's belt and will be playing out and see what we can make happen. It's more fun now than in the beginning since there's a TON of history involved.

I've rebranded FOOL-D, as MILF: Modern Independent League of Fast-Sim

http://9thdown.com/league/images/major_independent_league_of_fast-sim_110.png

Mostly because I don't want to confuse people anymore and also because it took me that long to come up with a name and acronym that was half as clever as FOOL.

I'll give you an introduction to the league, it's teams and some of the players next. I already know what team I plan to take over, though I do plan (big shock for those who've read me over the years) to move them before I officially take the helm.

[Young Drachma]

http://9thdown.com/league/images/boston_yanks_40.pnghttp://9thdown.com/league/images/philadelphia_quakers_40.pnghttp://9thdown.com/league/images/almendares_alacranes_40.pnghttp://9thdown.com/league/images/new_york_gothams_40.pnghttp://9thdown.com/league/images/jersey_city_mammoths_40.pnghttp://9thdown.com/league/images/minneapolis_millers_40.pnghttp://9thdown.com/league/images/chicago_blue_collars_40.pnghttp://9thdown.com/league/images/pittsburgh_yellowjackets_40.pnghttp://9thdown.com/league/images/st_louis_terriers_40.pnghttp://9thdown.com/league/images/eau_claire_paws_40.pnghttp://9thdown.com/league/images/kenora_thistles_40.pnghttp://9thdown.com/league/images/seattle_pilots_40.pnghttp://9thdown.com/league/images/los_angeles_aztecs_40.pnghttp://9thdown.com/league/images/san_francisco_peanuts_40.pnghttp://9thdown.com/league/images/victoria_cougars_40.pnghttp://9thdown.com/league/images/tupelo_moonshiners_40.pnghttp://9thdown.com/league/images/houston_36ers_40.pnghttp://9thdown.com/league/images/dallas_haymakers_40.pnghttp://9thdown.com/league/images/charlotte_hornets_40.pnghttp://9thdown.com/league/images/baltimore_wrens_40.pnghttp://9thdown.com/league/images/brooklyn_originals_40.pnghttp://9thdown.com/league/images/toronto_blueshirts_40.pnghttp://9thdown.com/league/images/new_york_knights_40.pnghttp://9thdown.com/league/images/cleveland_broncs_40.pnghttp://9thdown.com/league/images/milwaukee_creamers_40.pnghttp://9thdown.com/league/images/colorado_gold_sox_40.pnghttp://9thdown.com/league/images/detroit_robins_40.pnghttp://9thdown.com/league/images/kansas_city_scouts_40.pnghttp://9thdown.com/league/images/edmonton_whiskeyjacks_40.pnghttp://9thdown.com/league/images/chicago_comets_40.pnghttp://9thdown.com/league/images/rio_grande_roadrunners_40.pnghttp://9thdown.com/league/images/hawaii_islanders_40.pnghttp://9thdown.com/league/images/salt_lake_city_elders_40.pnghttp://9thdown.com/league/images/los_angeles_silverhawks_40.pnghttp://9thdown.com/league/images/compton_browns_40.pnghttp://9thdown.com/league/images/charleston_seagulls_40.pnghttp://9thdown.com/league/images/washington_maroons_40.pnghttp://9thdown.com/league/images/miami_amigos_40.pnghttp://9thdown.com/league/images/habana_leones_40.pnghttp://9thdown.com/league/images/atlanta_firecrackers_40.png


At the moment, MILF is comprised of two leagues: the Allied League (AL) and the Federal League (FL).

Each league has 20 teams, with four divisions of five teams each. This past season was actually the first year of that new alignment, with playoffs being consolidated on an experimental three-year basis from 8 teams in each league back to just four (only division champions). This might change after the three year experimental period, but it was one of the concessions necessary to get owners to agree to expansion and also, to facilitate a cap increase. (Which led to a pretty widespread improvement in revenues for all teams top to bottom)

Here's the league alignments in the form of this past year's standings:


Federal League Standings
Eastern Division W L PCT GB
Boston Yanks 90 72 .556 -
Philadelphia Quakers 87 75 .537 3.0
Almendares Alacranes 83 79 .512 7.0
New York Gothams 75 87 .463 15.0
Jersey City Mammoths 54 108 .333 36.0

Central Division W L PCT GB
Minneapolis Millers 87 75 .537 -
Chicago Blue Collars 85 77 .525 2.0
Pittsburgh Yellowjackets81 81 .500 6.0
St. Louis Terriers 81 81 .500 6.0
Eau Claire Paws 79 83 .488 8.0

Western Division W L PCT GB
Kenora Thistles 103 59 .636 -
Seattle Pilots 94 68 .580 9.0
Los Angeles Aztecs 83 79 .512 20.0
San Francisco Peanuts 81 81 .500 22.0
Victoria Cougars 63 99 .389 40.0

Southern Division W L PCT GB
Tupelo Moonshiners 83 79 .512 -
Houston 36ers 82 80 .506 1.0
Dallas Haymakers 80 82 .494 3.0
Charlotte Hornets 77 85 .475 6.0
Baltimore Wrens 72 90 .444 11.0

Allied League Standings
Eastern Division W L PCT GB
Brooklyn Originals 127 35 .784 -
Toronto Blueshirts 85 77 .525 42.0
New York Knights 76 86 .469 51.0
Cleveland Broncs 73 89 .451 54.0
Milwaukee Creamers 72 90 .444 55.0

Central Division W L PCT GB
Colorado Gold Sox 88 74 .543 -
Detroit Robins 85 77 .525 3.0
Kansas City Scouts 80 82 .494 8.0
Edmonton Whiskeyjacks 66 96 .407 22.0
Chicago Comets 65 97 .401 23.0

Western Division W L PCT GB
Rio Grande Roadrunners 98 64 .605 -
Hawaii Islanders 83 79 .512 15.0
Salt Lake City Elders 80 82 .494 18.0
Los Angeles Silverhawks 78 84 .481 20.0
Compton Brothers 74 88 .457 24.0

Southern Division W L PCT GB
Charleston Seagulls 86 76 .531 -
Washington Maroons 83 79 .512 3.0
Miami Amigos 79 83 .488 7.0
Habana Leones 72 90 .444 14.0
Atlanta Firecrackers 70 92 .432 16.0



Here's how the post-season shaped up:


ALDS
Brooklyn d. Charleston 4-1
Colorado d. Rio Grande 4-2

FLDS
Tupelo d. Kenora 4-3
Minneapolis d. Boston 4-0

ALCS
Brooklyn d. Colorado 4-0

FLCS
Tupelo d. Minneapolis 4-2

2016 DAYLIGHT SERIES
Brooklyn d. Tupelo 5-0


The salary cap changes at the end of the post-season, just as the off-season starts. I use my salary cap calculator to determine the cap number. The cap for the upcoming 2017 season is $150,124,500. Each team gets $75m in media revenue from the joint media contract, which went up for $66m a few years ago, again thanks to expansion.

I don't plan anymore expansion for a long time, this was the first orchestrated expansion in decades. Usually, I'd just fold teams after a while and replace them with new ones without an expansion draft and that's how it went down for about 70 years or so, IIRC.

I like the 40-team alignment, the playoffs might be tinkered with over time, but that's up in the air. The other thing is, save for the team I'm about to take over and move, team moves should be on ice too for decades. I've spent the past ten seasons or so tinkering with that getting everything how I like it, uniforms, cities and all of that.

Mostly with the release of 11, I needed to get things where I wanted them. I've done that now and so, you can get used to the stability to things being as they are by and large, unless there is some compelling storyline reason to alter that, but right now I'm pretty focused on getting immersed with a new generation of players and focusing on gameplay results.

[Young Drachma]

Let's be visual, shall we?

Here are the current and historical streaks in the league since 1800.

http://i218.photobucket.com/albums/cc113/Dynasty_DC/streaks.png

[JetsIn06]

Will be following! Good luck!

[Young Drachma]

http://9thdown.com/league/images/compton_brothers_110.png

Despite the change in the number of teams over the 200+ years of league history, the number of games played in the regular season has always been 162. I've done this on purpose, to make it easier to compare players records and such to each others and I knew it'd be harder to do that if we had an inconsistent amount of regular season games.

I'm going to be taking over the Compton Brothers (http://9thdown.com/league/teams/team_146.html) franchise. Founded in 1891 as the Santa Ana Oranges, the Brothers moved to Compton in 1918 as the Hawaii Islanders though they never actually played on the island for more than one series a year before adopting the Compton name in 1926.

Despite their tenure in the league, they have the fewest titles of any franchise founded before 1900. They won pennants in 1892 before moving to the AL in the early years of that league and winning AL pennants in 1899 and 1930. After their lone title in 1933, they didn't again appear in the Daylight Series until 2005, losing out to the Colorado Gold Sox, increasing the franchise's playoff drought that still lasts well into the next decade. The team's streak now lasts at 83 years and counting.

Since that time, Los Angeles adopted another franchise in the Nevada (now Los Angeles) Silverhawks (http://9thdown.com/league/teams/team_217.html) who play in Riverside and are more popular than the Brothers who have a localized fan base who have continued to abandon them in recent years in favor of the flagship city team -- the Aztecs (http://9thdown.com/league/teams/team_144.html) (formerly known as the Seraphs)

The Brothers were purchased this offseason by English publishing magnate Olney Cox, who intends to use his prowess at leading teams -- he turned the fortunes of moribund Newcastle in the English Premier League to make them one of the best teams in all of soccer -- to turn the Brothers around.

This is likely to include a move out of metro Los Angeles, as many believe the area just isn't built to carry three teams, even if they're somewhat separated from each other. Where that will lead the team, isn't exactly clear at the moment but it's expected we'll know in the coming weeks.

[Young Drachma]

In the original FOFC version of this dynasty, there were three players who signed up to be included in the game. This was in the early years of the league, so they're loooong since retired, but two are embedded in the lore of the league's great history:

William Omark (http://9thdown.com/league/players/player_4231.html) (JetsIn06)
Jay Muns (http://9thdown.com/league/players/player_4911.html) (muns)
David Bowman (http://9thdown.com/league/players/player_4880.html) (Rawhide)

Let's take a look at some of the records in the league.

HOMER, HOMER
Little did we realize that Domingo Mendez (http://9thdown.com/league/players/player_817.html)'s record would still be standing close to 200 years after he retired in 1832. Yet, 886 remains the number to beat. The 800 home run club has six members to date and only one of them Albert Binaghi (http://9thdown.com/league/players/player_7544.html) (831, 4th all-time) played in the 20th century. Hoyt McPherson (http://9thdown.com/league/players/player_13772.html) (798, 7th all-time) is just two home runs away and is poised to break the record next year and he's a free agent, so it'll be interesting to see where he'll sign to allow us to witness history that we rarely get to see in this league.

Speaking of home-run records. Almost even more impressive, is that in a league where there are no injuries and there's over 200 years of history, the single-season home run record is still just 60. Only one man, Hall of FamerGreg Dean (http://9thdown.com/league/players/player_2285.html) in 1845 has ever reached that threshold. Two men in the 1950s got close, Hall of Famers Larry Simpson (http://9thdown.com/league/players/player_8426.html) and Rafael Marquis (http://9thdown.com/league/players/player_8981.html) both had 58 HRs in 1954 and 1958 respectively. We do have an active player who crept closer than anyone else ever has, though. In his rookie year, Lee Chambers (http://9thdown.com/league/players/player_14899.html) hit 59 home runs, but the Gold Sox star has yet to get back to that plateau since that time in 2006.

.400 IS STILL RARE
Another strange factoid is the fact that no one had ever hit .400 until Hall of Famer Bobby Starke (http://9thdown.com/league/players/player_10444.html) did it in 1979. Prior to that Konrad Rodinger (http://9thdown.com/league/players/player_161.html)'s .3996 average stood from the first year of the league in 1800 until Starke took it down. Since Starke's historic season, three other men have hit .400. All three of them (http://9thdown.com/league/history/league_100_leaderboard_season_0_101.html) did it during the juiced ball season of 1993 and so, few recognize their achievements as significant as Starke's historic year and remain pleased that he maintains the record to this day.

[Young Drachma]

MEET THE JUGGERNAUT

After decades of futility in Connecticut, the Bantam Originals (http://9thdown.com/league/teams/team_118.html) moved from Torrington and Waterbury to Brooklyn in 2013. The move has been a boon for the franchise. They've made the playoffs eight of the last nine years dating back to their last days in the Nutmeg state.

Most notably, the team won a title in 2014, ending a championship drought that dated back to 2014 and felt so good about that, they reloaded and returned for more in 2016.

The defending champs are quickly becoming well known for their penchant for spending and assembling one of the most fearest rosters in the history of the league. That's a big term, but never before have we seen a team this dominant since the 1800s.

Here are some of the names to remember:


http://i218.photobucket.com/albums/cc113/Dynasty_DC/Cards/billy_chapel_2016_2016.png
BILLY CHAPEL
He came over two years ago from Philadelphia in a trade that started the Originals floodgates of spending and dealing to get the best players the league has to offer, with other teams willing to make these deals. Chappy has been worth every penny and if it weren't for a teammate, he'd be collecting more Nelson Mares awards to add to the six he's already won.

http://i218.photobucket.com/albums/cc113/Dynasty_DC/Cards/pete_carroll_2016_all-star.png
PETE CARROLL
With 302 career wins at age 36, Carroll is already considered an elite pitcher. He'd have even more wins if he hadn't spent eight of his years playing for subpar teams in Detroit and San Diego (7 in Detroit, one in San Diego) Two-time Mares award winner, with both coming since he's been in Brooklyn, the former 1st overall pick in 1999 seems like he'll keep on trucking well into his 40s.

http://i218.photobucket.com/albums/cc113/Dynasty_DC/Cards/larry_hasenfus_2016_all-star.png
LARRY HASENFUS
The latest addition to the monster staff in Brooklyn, the Originals targeted the former Boston pitcher and offered them a top prospect, their #1 pick and the Yanks bit figuring they'd lose him as a free agent this coming season. So far, the best pitching prospect to come along in a generation is riding a career ERA that's just a smidge over 2.00 (2.01) and at age 27, already has 155 career wins. History in the making? Seems like he's already making it, having already collected four Mares awards in his young career.

http://i218.photobucket.com/albums/cc113/Dynasty_DC/Cards/leo_blume_2016_2016.png
LEO BLUME
This 8-time all-star second baseman was toiling away in Pittsburgh before being rescued by the Originals three seasons ago. The heart and soul of this team in their new city, the Aussie is what team ownership call a guy who was "meant to be an Original." That might explain their signing him to a 7-year deal worth nearly $158 million that will keep him in Brooklyn likely until the end of his career.

http://i218.photobucket.com/albums/cc113/Dynasty_DC/Cards/austin_herbert_2016_2016.png
AUSTIN HERBERT
The O's were in a saving mood, because when they picked up Blume, that same offseason they acquired Herbert, who just finished his 4th MVP season at age 27, hitting .398 and flirting with .400 with days to go in the regular season. Another Australian who is a fan favorite, the sweet swinging lefty leaves the Brooklyn faithful happy to have him on their side and not on the other team.

Of course, it's be a lot more fun to watch these guys if they were in the other league. But no, they play in the AL and any title run in Compton will go through them and that trains shows no signs of getting off track.

[Young Drachma]

COMPTON BROTHERS DAYS IN LA-AREA ARE NUMBERED

With the announcement that the Los Angeles Silverhawks would be moving to a new stadium development in Carson, CA, the Compton Brothers knew their time in the city was over.

An offer was made for the team to share the new development with the Silverhawks, who moved from Nevada in 2014 and despite having never made the playoffs were more popular amongst younger fans, due to their ownership by Viacom, who would broadcast team tie-ins on children's networks and other media holdings. The venerable Brothers franchise, who suffered from poor ownership for years were more popular with older fans, but the sign that a new stadium was going up for a team that's not the Brothers (due to a lack of anti-trust rules in MILF) was the sign the team's days in the Los Angeles area were over.

The Brothers have shored up their ownership situation in the form of new owner, English magnate Olney Cox, but now he found himself with a team and no city to play in.

The Brothers plan to make an announcement about their impending future in the coming days.

[Young Drachma]

2016 OFF-SEASON IN REVIEW

Just six pitchers remain on the active roster at the start of free agency. Team payroll is at $63.8 million at the start, largely due to the ridiculous contract that someone decided to give Kip Bray (http://9thdown.com/league/players/player_15232.html) worth $84.2 million over three years. His numbers didn't seem to warrant it and when I saw the AI made the deal, I was befuddled by it. Three straight 100+ RBI seasons and a batting average over .300 notwithstanding, I just wasn't sure what made him so in demand.

Anyway, since it's not likely anyone would take him off our hands (and to increase the degree of difficulty anyway) we're going to be stuck with him and in the meantime, I need to go out and essentially build a pitching staff without going crazy. The cap this year $150,124,500 and I determined it using my salary cap calculator.

One of the things I've tried to do in recent seasons is try to get some separation between teams. Before, you'd notice there would be teams with one or two good players or maybe more, but never an entire squad that seemed capable of dominanting. The cap didn't really allow for it and I just thought it was a bit silly, so I created that tool in part to allow teams to have the freedom -- within the confines of the league's economic system -- to assemble talent capable of winning at a high level even if it meant they'd acquire more talent than other teams. I wanted to see stars together, it helps for immersion.

Compton won't benefit from these reforms to the degree that a team like Brooklyn will, because I intend to ensure it doesn't happen. I've used Accountant X for OOTP within GMExcel to tell me what the team's payroll will be this year, playing under the constraints that my owner is an economizer who believes we should spend somewhere in the middle of the league and not in the Top 10.

The payroll it generated for me was $68,352,820 and so, that's going to be our payroll budget this year. I'm going to try to deal Bray (http://9thdown.com/league/players/player_15232.html) for whatever I can get for him, because that'll help a lot and then I'm going to assemble a pitching staff centered around guys who are under 31 and fill out the lineup (we specifically need a catcher...) and then I'll unveil the squad to you.

Last bit of news is, the team's not leaving Compton. We're going to become the Compton Browns and the LA Silverhawks are going to become the Hollywood Stars. Hopefully the updated links to player cards and such alike will keep this interesting for you and worth reading, I'm going to go at a brisk pace since this is a fast-sim league I run and I don't really want to get bogged down in details, but it's fun enough to share I think.

[Young Drachma]

WOULD YOU SIGN ARCHIE MOORE?

I'm not sure anyone will reply to this before I make a decision, but I'm still curious anyway. Here's Archie Moore (http://9thdown.com/league/players/player_14835.html), he's the best FA hitter on the market, the sort of guy that adds credibility to your franchise and puts butts in the seats. I feel like, he'd be the sort of guy that if I bring him in and replace Bray, it'd be a good long-term move for building the team's presence in the community.

He's not going to come cheap though, he's asking for $117.5 million over 5 years and you can be sure that'll jack up as teams start to bid for him. So the question is, do you go after him or pass? I'm not sure what I'll do yet, but...it's an avenue I might pursue.

[Young Drachma]

Compton-Chicago Deal Confirmed
Thursday, November 10th, 2016: The Compton Browns have parted ways with 29-year-old first baseman Kip Bray (http://9thdown.com/league/players/player_15232.html) in a trade with the Chicago Comets for 32-year-old starting pitcher Pierre Lejeune (http://9thdown.com/league/players/player_12441.html), 28-year-old catcher Chris Vina (http://9thdown.com/league/players/player_11227.html) and 38-year-old reliever Marc Roux (http://9thdown.com/league/players/player_14450.html). The Browns general manager confirmed the deal in an announcement this morning.

Bray has a lifetime .318 batting average and .344 on-base percentage in his 1065-game career with 1415 hits and 171 home runs.

Lejeune has a lifetime ERA of 5.51 with a record of 50 wins and 65 losses. He also has struck out 783 batters in 985 innings and allowed 1115 hits.

Compton, Hollywood Trade Made
Monday, November 14th, 2016: According to BNN there were mixed emotions by the players involved in the trade between the Compton Browns and the Hollywood Stars. As part of the deal, the Browns swapped 35-year-old right fielder Coy Winston (http://9thdown.com/league/players/player_13704.html) to the Stars getting 36-year-old starting pitcher Wyatt Peckford (http://9thdown.com/league/players/player_14596.html) in return. The players indicated it was good to get a fresh new start in another city, but it was difficult to leave your friends on the old team. Lucky for these too, the drive from Hollywood to Compton just isn't that far.

In his career Winston has racked up 1993 hits with a .300 average and .381 on-base percentage. His numbers include 247 doubles, 57 triples, and 100 home runs, along with 1067 runs scored and 775 RBIs.

Lifetime Peckford has posted 176 victories and 172 defeats with a 4.56 ERA.

[Young Drachma]

Hernández and Dalton Dealt
Monday, November 14th, 2016: Sometimes a change of scenery can be a beneficial to a baseball player. That is the hope in Compton and Boston as the teams came to an agreement today which sends 32-year-old center fielder Pedro Hernández (http://9thdown.com/league/players/player_14785.html), 26-year-old starting pitcher Jorge Ortíz (http://9thdown.com/league/players/player_17412.html), 20-year-old starting pitcher Norm Anderson (http://9thdown.com/league/players/player_16079.html) and 21-year-old minor league second baseman Roberto Cabrera (http://9thdown.com/league/players/player_16865.html) to the Yanks and 29-year-old starting pitcher Brendan Dalton (http://9thdown.com/league/players/player_15256.html) and 22-year-old right fielder Bo Picot (http://9thdown.com/league/players/player_17181.html) to the Browns. "In the end, it was hard to pass up a talent like Bo Picot, I felt like this improves our team now and in the future and not many deals offer that sort of benefit. This one did." said the Compton GM.

In his 1396-game career Hernández is batting .299 with 230 doubles, 41 triples, 161 home runs and 743 RBIs. He has stolen 65 bases and scored 828 times.

Since coming into the league, Dalton has a 68-70 mark and a 4.18 ERA. The 29-year-old hurler also has struck out 926 batters in 1283.2 innings and permitted 1336 hits.

[Young Drachma]

2016 FREE AGENCY, PRE-STAGE ONE

After all of that dealing, our payroll now stands at $30,497,750. We went from six pitchers to eight pitchers and now we actually have at least three guys in tow who'll start for us in some capacity this coming season. You can't beat that.

How signings go is like this. I give the AI a week to make offers and I make mine all in one day. Then I turn off all AI roster changes, sim for a few weeks and see where the chips fall. Then we do it one more time (That's FA2, the first time is FA1) and then we start the season.

I don't have spring training turned on, so we won't go through that. We'll have a draft just before the season starts, then start the year in mid-March.

[Young Drachma]

After making some signings and clearing payroll, I was trying to figure out the best move to make. Most of the deals I went after were piecemeal signings. I don't expect we'll have the chops to contend this first year.

At the same time, I've managed to take what was already here -- a decent number of prospects and some core players -- and build what I think is a serviceable major league ballclub.

Archie Moore (http://9thdown.com/league/players/player_14835.html) threw everyone a curveball, taking $104 million to play in Eau Claire for the next three years.

Meanwhile, in Compton we took the route of trying to build a team on a budget. Lucky for me, where inheirted some talented young players who are either at or near where they can be in order to be impact players in this league. That includes Sidney Johnson (http://9thdown.com/league/players/player_17651.html) and Alfredo Calderon (http://9thdown.com/league/players/player_16046.html).

Our top free agent acquisitions were all players who make less than $4 million dollars. There were just too many holes to fill and not enough players that made me feel emboldened enough to really pursue them without breaking the piggy bank and our budget didn't really lend us that flexibility.

Some of the newcomers via the free agency route include Duncan Moores (http://9thdown.com/league/players/player_15269.html) who should improve the offensive production of the team. The real story though is the work I did to get the pitching staff together. We lost pretty much the entire rotation in one form or another, but almost all of those guys were acquired via trade during the off-season.

Speaking of trades, there's one trade I'm about to make just before the season starts. Jeff Webb (http://9thdown.com/league/players/player_13192.html) is a 25-year old shortstop who hit .275 last year with 59 RBI as a full-time starter. Emboldened by my theory that 1st round picks end up getting more money even though they don't warrant it, Webb was the 8th overall pick in the 2010 draft. He's got the pedigree, but he's earning $6 million this season and it's his walk year and the guy doesn't hit for power at all and strikes out too much for my taste.

I've managed to send Webb and a 5th round pick to Colorado in exchange for Freddie Beauregard (http://9thdown.com/league/players/player_15254.html) and a prospect. Beauregard is 30 years old, in the last year of a deal that'll pay him over $15m this year, but even with the $9m salary increase, we'll be under our $68m salary mandate and I'll attempt to resign Beauregard immediately because he's that signature face player I was talking about. He played in Brooklyn for years before bolting for big money in Colorado three seasons ago. Best of all, he can play pretty much any position and so, you can't beat that sort of producitivity along with flexibility.

I think we'll be at, around or just over .500, but I'm not sure that's going to be enough to get us out of the AL West. Truthfully, I have no context for this division at all and so, we're all going to be surprised together when the results come down. Once I set the lineups and turn AI interference off, the game sims and I don't tinker until the season -- including the post-season -- is over.

[muns]

http://9thdown.com/league/images/compton_brothers_110.png

Despite the change in the number of teams over the 200+ years of league history, the number of games played in the regular season has always been 162. I've done this on purpose, to make it easier to compare players records and such to each others and I knew it'd be harder to do that if we had an inconsistent amount of regular season games.

I'm going to be taking over the Compton Brothers (http://9thdown.com/league/teams/team_146.html) franchise. Founded in 1891 as the Santa Ana Oranges, the Brothers moved to Compton in 1918 as the Hawaii Islanders though they never actually played on the island for more than one series a year before adopting the Compton name in 1926.

Despite their tenure in the league, they have the fewest titles of any franchise founded before 1900. They won pennants in 1892 before moving to the AL in the early years of that league and winning AL pennants in 1899 and 1930. After their lone title in 1933, they didn't again appear in the Daylight Series until 2005, losing out to the Colorado Gold Sox, increasing the franchise's playoff drought that still lasts well into the next decade. The team's streak now lasts at 83 years and counting.

Since that time, Los Angeles adopted another franchise in the Nevada (now Los Angeles) Silverhawks (http://9thdown.com/league/teams/team_217.html) who play in Riverside and are more popular than the Brothers who have a localized fan base who have continued to abandon them in recent years in favor of the flagship city team -- the Aztecs (http://9thdown.com/league/teams/team_144.html) (formerly known as the Seraphs)

The Brothers were purchased this offseason by English publishing magnate Olney Cox, who intends to use his prowess at leading teams -- he turned the fortunes of moribund Newcastle in the English Premier League to make them one of the best teams in all of soccer -- to turn the Brothers around.

This is likely to include a move out of metro Los Angeles, as many believe the area just isn't built to carry three teams, even if they're somewhat separated from each other. Where that will lead the team, isn't exactly clear at the moment but it's expected we'll know in the coming weeks.

You just like the team name :)

[Young Drachma]

You just like the team name :)

Actually no. I only took them over because they're a super old franchise and they've only one won title in league history. I won't stay here forever, just long enough to try to rebuild them and then onto another scenario or project.

I almost moved them, but figured that it would dampen the accomplishment of succeeding if we moved to a new city, though I am pondering still a move to Anaheim if they manage to get successful since they're playing in a ballpark in Compton that's nearly 100 years old.

I guess we'll see!

[Young Drachma]

STANDINGS AS OF JULY 6, 2017


Federal League Standings
Eastern Division W L PCT GB
Almendares Alacranes 56 40 .583 -
Boston Yanks 53 42 .558 2.5
New York Gothams 46 49 .484 9.5
Philadelphia Quakers 45 51 .469 11.0
Jersey City Mammoths 39 56 .411 16.5

Central Division W L PCT GB
Eau Claire Paws 53 42 .558 -
Pittsburgh Yellowjackets52 43 .547 1.0
Minneapolis Millers 46 50 .479 7.5
Chicago Blue Collars 39 57 .406 14.5
St. Louis Terriers 34 61 .358 19.0

Western Division W L PCT GB
Kenora Thistles 60 36 .625 -
Los Angeles Aztecs 52 44 .542 8.0
Victoria Cougars 49 46 .516 10.5
Seattle Pilots 49 47 .510 11.0
San Francisco Peanuts 40 56 .417 20.0

Southern Division W L PCT GB
Tupelo Moonshiners 58 37 .611 -
Charlotte Hornets 51 43 .543 6.5
Baltimore Wrens 50 46 .521 8.5
Dallas Haymakers 43 54 .443 16.0
Houston 36ers 40 55 .421 18.0

Allied League Standings
Eastern Division W L PCT GB
Brooklyn Originals 72 24 .750 -
Toronto Blueshirts 53 43 .552 19.0
Cleveland Broncs 48 47 .505 23.5
Milwaukee Creamers 41 54 .432 30.5
New York Knights 40 55 .421 31.5

Central Division W L PCT GB
Rio Grande Roadrunners 61 34 .642 -
Detroit Robins 52 43 .547 9.0
Kansas City Scouts 43 52 .453 18.0
Chicago Comets 40 56 .417 21.5
Edmonton Whiskeyjacks 31 65 .323 30.5

Western Division W L PCT GB
Compton Browns 61 35 .635 -
Hollywood Stars 58 38 .604 3.0
Colorado Gold Sox 42 54 .438 19.0
Hawaii Islanders 41 55 .427 20.0
Salt Lake City Elders 36 59 .379 24.5

Southern Division W L PCT GB
Atlanta Firecrackers 54 42 .563 -
Washington Maroons 52 43 .547 1.5
Charleston Seagulls 49 45 .521 4.0
Habana Leones 46 51 .474 8.5
Miami Amigos 35 60 .368 18.5


As I told you at the beginning of the season, I had no idea what to make of this division because I hadn't really been paying attention to it at all, so I had no context for how it would pan out.

So far, we're 4th in the AL in ERA, but our bullpen is 11th in team ERA and we're near the bottom of the league in strikeouts.

Offensively, we're somewhere in the top half in most categories. The Freddie Beauregard trade was a smart move, he's leading the team in hits and batting average, as well as RBI. Just so you know, Jeff Webb, the guy I traded away to get him also made the all-star team for Colorado.

We're still a flawed team and there's no telling whether we can hold on the rest of the year. Offensively, Hollywood is comparable to what we're bringing to the table, but they have worse pitching. So if we're meant to hold on, that'll be how we do it.

I guess we'll see how it goes.

[Young Drachma]

We have one more season of division winners only in the post-season before we need to decide what to do with it next. Should we go back to 16? Let the top 4 teams in per league regardless of division? I mean, it's fine when a team wins their division by a ton, but what happens when we have a situation where teams are close? Or where the 2nd best team in one division is clearly better than the division champ of another? Or when you play in a tough division?

Eight teams always felt like too many, but when you have 20 teams in each league that's not that many. No interleague play either and the schedule is unbalanced (18 games in division per team, 6 per team outside of it)

Thoughts?

[muns]

Actually no. I only took them over because they're a super old franchise and they've only one won title in league history. I won't stay here forever, just long enough to try to rebuild them and then onto another scenario or project.

I almost moved them, but figured that it would dampen the accomplishment of succeeding if we moved to a new city, though I am pondering still a move to Anaheim if they manage to get successful since they're playing in a ballpark in Compton that's nearly 100 years old.

I guess we'll see!

Well i like the damn name :)

ill be following here. You always do neat stuff

[JetsIn06]

We have one more season of division winners only in the post-season before we need to decide what to do with it next. Should we go back to 16? Let the top 4 teams in per league regardless of division? I mean, it's fine when a team wins their division by a ton, but what happens when we have a situation where teams are close? Or where the 2nd best team in one division is clearly better than the division champ of another? Or when you play in a tough division?

Eight teams always felt like too many, but when you have 20 teams in each league that's not that many. No interleague play either and the schedule is unbalanced (18 games in division per team, 6 per team outside of it)

Thoughts?

I'm always a fan of less teams, and if there are divisions, then division winners make the playoffs. Not a fan of wild cards.

I always think that a team being in a tough division just adds to the flavor. On top of that, I always make my playoff series 9 games, no matter what round. So if a team makes the playoffs, they'll have to prove they're meant to be there.

[Young Drachma]

END OF REGULAR SEASON STANDINGS, 2017


Federal League Standings
Eastern Division W L PCT GB
Almendares Alacranes 95 67 .586 -
Boston Yanks 86 76 .531 9.0
Philadelphia Quakers 78 84 .481 17.0
New York Gothams 76 86 .469 19.0
Jersey City Mammoths 68 94 .420 27.0

Central Division W L PCT GB
Eau Claire Paws 92 70 .568 -
Pittsburgh Yellowjackets92 70 .568 -
Minneapolis Millers 82 80 .506 10.0
Chicago Blue Collars 61 101 .377 31.0
St. Louis Terriers 54 108 .333 38.0
Western Division W L PCT GB
Kenora Thistles 97 65 .599 -
Victoria Cougars 90 72 .556 7.0
Los Angeles Aztecs 89 73 .549 8.0
Seattle Pilots 88 74 .543 9.0
San Francisco Peanuts 66 96 .407 31.0

Southern Division W L PCT GB
Tupelo Moonshiners 93 69 .574 -
Charlotte Hornets 92 70 .568 1.0
Baltimore Wrens 82 80 .506 11.0
Dallas Haymakers 72 90 .444 21.0
Houston 36ers 67 95 .414 26.0

Allied League Standings
Eastern Division W L PCT GB
Brooklyn Originals 114 48 .704 -
Toronto Blueshirts 83 79 .512 31.0
New York Knights 80 82 .494 34.0
Milwaukee Creamers 75 87 .463 39.0
Cleveland Broncs 70 92 .432 44.0

Central Division W L PCT GB
Rio Grande Roadrunners 111 51 .685 -
Detroit Robins 76 86 .469 35.0
Kansas City Scouts 74 88 .457 37.0
Chicago Comets 70 92 .432 41.0
Edmonton Whiskeyjacks 53 109 .327 58.0

Western Division W L PCT GB
Compton Browns 100 62 .617 -
Hollywood Stars 99 63 .611 1.0
Salt Lake City Elders 74 88 .457 26.0
Colorado Gold Sox 71 91 .438 29.0
Hawaii Islanders 67 95 .414 33.0

Southern Division W L PCT GB
Atlanta Firecrackers 95 67 .586 -
Charleston Seagulls 86 76 .531 9.0
Washington Maroons 82 80 .506 13.0
Habana Leones 78 84 .481 17.0
Miami Amigos 62 100 .383 33.0


Like I told you all from the outset, anything could've happened this year and it did. Another team that I'd been eying for a while -- the Pittsburgh Yellowjackets -- are in a duel with the Eau Claire Paws, for the FL Central title. We need to do a one-game playoff to determine the division winner there.

Then it'll be playoff time. I won't be making modifications to rosters, everything will stay as it is from the regular season. Mostly because OOTP doesn't make very good playoff adjustments and so, since it's a fast-sim league anyway it makes the most sense to just sim and play straight through including post-season and seeing how it goes.

http://9thdown.com/league/images/rio_grande_roadrunners_110.png
http://9thdown.com/league/images/compton_browns_110.png
ALDS PREVIEW: RIO GRANDE ROADRUNNERS (111-51) v. COMPTON BROWNS (100-62)
I built a team that I knew was capable of competing and we lucked out on some of the deals we made, too. We'll get Rio Grande in the ALDS, a team that won 111 games this year. That's no picnic, especially since they're a lot more talented than we are. We went 2-4 against them during the regular season.

The ace of their staff is Peter "Hoss" Robison (http://9thdown.com/league/players/player_11705.html) who has 256 career wins, all with the Roadrunners and Felix Gonzalez (http://9thdown.com/league/players/player_9057.html) has 250 career wins, also all with the Roadrunners.

The Roadrunners are pretty much second in every major offensive category and 1st or 2nd in pretty much every pitching category. So the task ahead of us will be formidable. I don't expect us to get out of the series, but it'll be good experience.

[Young Drachma]

Despite two runs scored in the top of the 9th, the Yellowjackets end up falling to the Eau Claire Paws 5-4, sending Eau Claire to the playoffs and the Yellowjackets home to reflect on their near miss.

[Young Drachma]

FLDS
Eau Claire v. Kenora
Tupelo v. Almendares

ALDS
Brooklyn v. Atlanta
Compton v. Rio Grande

[Young Drachma]

FLDS
Kenora def. Eau Claire 4-3
Tupelo def. Almendares 4-2

ALDS
Brooklyn def. Atlanta 4-2
Rio Grande def. Compton 4-1

ALCS
Tupelo def. Kenora 4-2
Rio Grande def. Brooklyn 4-3

DAYLIGHT SERIES
Rio Grande def. Tupelo 5-1

[Young Drachma]

As expected, Rio was a tough matchup for us. But as is turned out, we weren't the only ones vexed by their spell and so, that made it a bit easier to deal with in the end. A successful season in my mind though and the best season for the Compton franchise since 1994.

Of course, that's 32 playoff appearances in franchise history and still only one title. The team that won in 1933 won their division, but were only 85-77 that year when they won, which tells you that record doesn't have to determine everything.

I'm going to spend another season here trying to work things out, but I don't know that I'm going to chronicle everything or update every detail of the HTML. One of the things I enjoy about playing fast is that I can play at my own pace and if I start trying to slow down for dynasties, then it's like playing online and well, I do solo fast-sim precisely because I don't always enjoy working at other people's game pace.

So hopefully, I can find a way to keep it interesting as I go forward and if not, well...I guess that'll be apparent. :)

[Young Drachma]

The cap for this coming season is set at $122,675,337. It went down because I made some adjustments to my salary cap calculator, as I didn't like the way that it made the number so high.

Compton's payroll will be $73,850,565 for the upcoming season. There are a number of prospects who are coming up to contribute, so it'll be interesting to see how it flops out.

I'm going to go in a different direction with this, though. Rather than do the whole focus on the team thing, I'm going to start focusing on individual players and try to do a thing where I chronicle and profile them. In part because it means I can go faster because we'll want to hear the story lines of these players and their teams, but also because it means I can play how I want to play.

We'll see how this goes, but I think that's the direction I'm going to head in now.

[Young Drachma]

I'm going to break the dynasty up into individual scenarios within the same universe. The first is a sport agent idea that I've cooked up.

Here's the scenario:

I'm the agent for five young players. One will be a major league rookie or second year player, another two will be minor leaguers on their way up and the last two we'll get from this year's draft in March.

My goal is to make $20 million in agent commissions within seven years. That's going to be no easy task, but that's precisely what I want to try it. My standard commission will be 3 percent on the total life of all deals players make not counting any incentives.

I'll sim through each year, reporting on each of our guys and updating you on their progress and performance throughout. No editing or anything will be done to anyone from this point forward, so I'll either make it or break it...but it should be fun along the way.

Next post, I'll introduce the five players.

[Young Drachma]

Ok, here are three of the five players that have hired me, the other two we'll find closer to the draft.

http://9thdown.com/league/images/bb_cards/tommy_barton_2017_2017.png
Tommy Barton (http://9thdown.com/league/players/player_15779.html), 1B, Charlotte Hornets
(Age 20)

Tommy just finished his second full season in the majors. He's coming off back to back 100+ RBI seasons and he's a star in the making at age 20. He's making $5.5 million this year with the Hornets, since he was eligible for arbitration and of course, we won't get any of that at all since he's just hired me.

The 2016 Federal League Rookie of the Year, he wasn't an all-star this year and while he didn't have a sophomore slump, he's still trying to get his act together in a way that recognizes him as one of the best players in the league.

Tommy was actually a 10th round pick out of UNc by the Hornets, originally drafted as a pitcher but he had more potential as a hitter and so, that's what he does now.

http://9thdown.com/league/images/bb_cards/chip_hubbard_2017_rookie.png
Chip Hubbard (http://9thdown.com/league/players/player_17742.html), SS, St. Louis Terriers
(Age 20)

Chip was one of the most hyped players to show up in MILF in recent memory. The 1st overall pick of the 2016 draft, he's just finished his 2nd season in the minors, hitting 24 HRs and 110 RBI (at a .251 clip) for the Terriers Double-A club. He's considered the future for the Terriers and it's possible that he could be in the bigs within two years or sooner, depending on how it flops out for him.

We're really excited about his long-term potential.

http://9thdown.com/league/images/bb_cards/bo_picot_2017_rookie.png
Bo Picot (http://9thdown.com/league/players/player_17181.html), RF, Sacramento Solons
(Age 24)

The Compton Browns moved to Sacramento this off-season, but their hopes still rest on the shoulders of a 24-year outfielder that many think has star potential by the name of Bo Picot.

The 114th overall pick (3rd round, 36th pick) of the 2014 draft, Picot has taken a while to get ready compared to other prospects in this league. He was dealt last year by Boston in exchange for several other places in the deal that brought Brendan Dalton to Compton.

He was rated #8 rated prospect last spring by Baseball America and is likely to be in the majors this coming season.

http://9thdown.com/league/images/bb_cards/jc_coronado_2017_2017.png
J.C. Coronado (http://9thdown.com/league/players/player_18142.html), SP, Miami Amigos
(Age 20)

The 3rd overall pick of the 2016 draft, Juan Carlos Coronado has never pitched a day in the minors, but also has yet to start a major league game, despite 97 appearances in his two years in the bigs. He's one of those guys who has electric stuff and the ability to be a top flight starter, but until he fixes control issues and gets an opportunity to start games, it won't be that way. We're hoping this season is the year he gets to be a starter, but it'll depend on what Miami officials have in store for him.

He's the most interesting candidate of all of them.

=======================================================
That's four, I decided I needed an existing pitcher, so instead of two draftees, I'll just be taking one and it'll be a pitcher, just not sure who yet, but he'll be profiled once we pick him and he's drafted. No draft bonuses on here, so not another opportunity to collect there either since we're going to say that he signed with us after he signed his rookie bonus deal, not before.

In theory, these could all be sure thing guys who do great things, but I've seen players have a few good young years and then flop. Or end up on the wrong team and get buried and have careers suffer as a result. So there are no guarantees, but no matter what the entire process ought to be fun.

All of the names are linked to their player cards, in case you wanna see them.

[Young Drachma]

I'm going to take two guys out of this draft, because one of them really interests me and I just want to see where his career goes. I'll divide the money these two make in contracts by two to average out to one deal, so that it's not like I'm breaking my rule of five guys.

His name is Nate Murdoch is an 18-year old left handed sweet swinging stud who atually played a year at Tougaloo College in Mississippi before becoming draft eligible. He hit .377 with 17 HRs and 69 RBI in 62 college games, but we're talking against fair competition, so there's no real telling what he'll do against actual good players. Nonetheless, I feel like he's got the goods to be a real star in this league and should be among the top players selected in this year's draft.

Our last guy is SP Mal Thompson, he's one of the best high school pitching prospects in the draft and put up the best numbers of any of the high school pitchers who were primarily hurlers rather than solely two-way players in this year's draft.

He's probably the 12th best player on the board, depending on who's you're looking at and so, we'll see where he ends up.

[Young Drachma]

http://9thdown.com/league/images/bb_cards/nate_murdoch_2018_future_stars.png
Nate Murdoch (http://9thdown.com/league/players/player_15696.html) was the 3rd overall selection of the 2018 draft by the Chicago Redbirds (nee Blue Collars)

Hopefully, this card is worth something someday. :) He'll be stationed in the minors, but I rigged him onto the major league club just so we could snap a picture of him.

[Young Drachma]

http://9thdown.com/league/images/bb_cards/mal_thompson_2018_future_stars.png

Mal Thompson (http://9thdown.com/league/players/player_14112.html) was the 9th overall selection in the 2018 draft by the Chicago Comets

[Young Drachma]

What I like about the draft placement of both guys is they're headed to a major city franchises, both that need some help being successful. The Redbirds are so bad they finally changed their name upon returning to a stadium in the city after spending about thirty years over the border in Indiana, rebranding from the Blue Collars name they'd had since 1803. Their last championship came in 1907, though the team won FL pennants in 1996 and 2000, they haven't managed to translate that into a title to end their drought.

Meanwhile, the Comets joined the league in 2002 and moved to Chicago in 2006. They won the AL pennant in 2009, but went down to the Philadelphia Quakers.

The most successful team in Chicago history were the Red Caps and they folded in 2001, hence why the switch from Blue Collars to Redbirds is actually more tactical than it seems on the surface as there were probably more Red Caps fans in the city after their demise than Collars fans.

Now we'll see whether our two newest prospects to the city will be able to someday help their franchises raise the city to new, modern heights.

[JetsIn06]

Absolutely love the the agent idea. I look forward to seeing how these youngsters pan out.

[Young Drachma]

2018 SEASON RECAP
The Daylight Series was epic, Brooklyn beat Pittsburgh 5 games to 4, by winning Game 9 2-1 in 13 innings. It was one of the best series I'd ever witnessed.

Let's take a look at each of the guys and see how they did this first year:

Tommy Barton (http://9thdown.com/league/players/player_15779.html), Age 21, Charlotte Hornets

Tommy hit .325 this year, with 38 HRs and 129 RBI for the Hornets. He was not an all star, but did play in all 162 games this year, improving on his HR and RBI totals, as well as average for a year ago. Can't beat that.

J.C. Coronado (http://9thdown.com/league/players/player_18142.html), Age 21, SP, Miami Amigos
He went 16-15 with a 4.40 ERA for the Amigos this year, striking out 241 batters in 251 1/3 innings. The key thing here is they let him start and it's clear he's got the potential to be a top flight starter in this league, so that's good for business.

Mal Thompson (http://9thdown.com/league/players/player_14112.html), Age 18, SP, Chicago Comets
The moribund Comets are hellbent on ruining my rainmaker. They brought him straight to the majors this year, where he went 4-21 with a 7.01 ERA, throwing 201 2/3 innings. They want to ruin him and it's making me nervous as hell, but there's not much we can do about it, as I'm pretty sure demanding a trade would get us nowhere. Alas, we suck it up. He pitched two complete games, had eight quality starts and struck out 120 batters. Not bad for a kid who was pitching in high school this time last year. Let's keep our fingers crossed.


SS Chip Hubbard (http://9thdown.com/league/players/player_17742.html), Age 21, St. Louis Terriers
Chip played in St. Louis's Triple-A club this past year, hitting .240 with 14 HRs and 55 RBI. I don't exactly know what's wrong with him, but it seems he's not developing and that gives me pause. I don't know if he was just over matched at AAA after moving up from AA last year and single A the year before that, but...alas, that's a dropoff we're not pleased with. The Terriers might rush him to the majors next year, but he'd do better with another year of development I think.

RF Bo Picot (http://9thdown.com/league/players/player_17181.html), 24 yrs old, Sacramento Solons

Bo played in his first major league season this year after four years in the minors. He hit .244 with 8 HRs and 30 RBI in 164 ABs. Not exactly stellar because he didn't get into the lineup much, but that's to be expected when you play for a division championship team. There's a possiblity he's dealt depending on what the Solons feel they need to get over the hump to finally make a championship run, as they keep stalling in the playoffs.

I wouldn't mind seeing that happen, as he really needs to start while he has a chance to get better or else, he'll be a stalled talent. I was really hoping he'd be a money maker for us and now I'm thinking he'll not quite get there. I'm going to see what opportunities exist out there for him on the market.

RF Nate Murdoch (http://9thdown.com/league/players/player_15696.html), Age 19, Chicago Redbirds

Nate played his first pro season at the Redbirds AAA club, hitting .270 with 7 HRs and 66 RBI with 21 stolen bases in 493 ABs. A respectable first season for sure. You can anticipate that after one more minor league season that they'll bring him up. I think he's got the most upside of the prospect we're tracking at the moment. I'm glad I inked him when I did.

[Young Drachma]

CAP SET FOR 2019 SEASON
The salary cap for next season is $94,596,358. As I mentioned previously, I made some adjustments to my salary cap calculator that were going to result in the cap coming down over time and this is just another reflection of that. As of the first day of free agency, only three teams are over the cap -- Brooklyn, Pittsburgh and Tupelo, so I'll work with them to get those adjustments made since the AI doesn't have a "shed payroll because we're over the cap" mechanism within it.

BO PICOT TRADED

http://9thdown.com/league/images/player_17181.png
Having run the Sacramento franchise in Compton, I knew there might be a logjam, but I always had Picot in my plans as a future player when I ran the ballclub. They've decided to move a guy I had playing 1st base -- Sidney Johnson -- to the outfield, which gives them three star players playing in the outfield and three other guys including Bo as outfielders trying to get playing time.

It's not really fair to the kid and I think Sacramento could've benefitted from filling out some other gaps on their roster, so we quietly demanded a trade, letting them know if they were looking to make a deal anyway that we'd be happy to go along.

They were in the market for an ace pitchers and the market for Bo was pretty good. In the end, he was dealt to Dallas along with a minor league pitcher Bob Bennett in exchange for 38-year old hurler Felix Gonzalez (http://9thdown.com/league/players/player_9057.html) and a 1st round pick in next year's draft. This could mean that Dallas has a future stake in Bo's success, because they gave up present and future to acquire him. We're excited about the opportunity Dallas presents him and hope that it shows up on the field, too.

[Young Drachma]

http://9thdown.com/league/images/player_17742.png

Originals, Terriers Agree to Deal
Tuesday, November 20th, 2018: There were plenty of hugs and handshakes passed out as 31-year-old closer John Wise (http://9thdown.com/league/players/player_15366.html), 31-year-old center fielder Serguei Nemeshaev (http://9thdown.com/league/players/player_13500.html), 27-year-old catcher Kevin Alexander, 20-year-old minor league third baseman Glenn Gallagher (http://9thdown.com/league/players/player_17408.html), a 1st round draft pick and a 2nd round draft pick left the Brooklyn Originals today en route to joining the St. Louis Terriers organization. 21-year-old minor league shortstop Chip Hubbard (http://9thdown.com/league/players/player_17742.html), 23-year-old center fielder Dave Wilkins (http://9thdown.com/league/players/player_17380.html), 22-year-old catcher Bill Fish (http://9thdown.com/league/players/player_15158.html) and 31-year-old starting pitcher Leo Carter (http://9thdown.com/league/players/player_15247.html) will be traveling to Brooklyn Originals to complete the swap.

Wise has appeared in 547 games during his career, saving 269 of them. His record is 45-39 and he has struck out 854 in 669.2 innings, while putting up a 2.86 ERA.

In his career Carter has amassed 113 wins and 106 losses with an ERA of 4.67 and 1718 strikeouts.

[Young Drachma]

Brooklyn was over the cap and needed a shortshop of the future, St. Louis was under the cap and wanted to improve. The two teams managed to find common ground on what amounts to a blockbuster.

I'm happy with it because it means that Chip will surely get a chance to prove himself and he'll get to do so on a franchise that's emerged as one of the best in the game. When he was drafted, I think we all hoped he'd become a star in St. Louis, a city with a long legacy in the game looking for identities to latch onto and Chip is that sort of guy, but...I think this is a great jolt to his career and I'm glad it materialized how it did.

[Young Drachma]

2019 SEASON RECAP

FL East: Almendares 99-63
FL Central: Pittsburgh 100-62
FL West: Victoria 96-67 (won a tiebreaker game over Seattle)
FL South: Baltimore 89-73

AL East: Brooklyn 93-69
AL Central: Rio Grande 104-58
AL West: Sacramento 90-72
AL South: Habana 102-60


PLAYOFFS
FLDS
Pittsburgh def. Baltimore 4-3
Almendares def. Victoria 4-2

ALDS
Rio Grande def. Sacramento 4-2
Brooklyn def. Habana 4-2

FLCS
Almendares def. Pittsburgh 4-0

ALCS
Rio Grande def. Brooklyn 4-2

2019 DAYLIGHT SERIES
Almendares def. Rio Grande 5-2

Almendares are the first Cuban team to win a title in the 220 seasons of MILF.

PLAYER REPORTS

Tommy Barton is the first of our guys to become a free agent. The 22-year old finished his 4th full major league season hitting .310 with 37 HRs and 90 RBI, a dropoff from the year before, but his drop in VORP wasn't as substantial dropping from 63.2 to 54.9. Because of his age, he'll be an attractive candidate for some teams and his initial asking price so far at nearly $12 million per year. I haven't seen any offers come across the desk yet, but I'll be updating you all on this, since this is exciting! Our first contract negotation! (Except, we don't get to participate. ha.)

Nate Murdoch
20-year old Nate Murdoch actually spent his 2nd year a level lower than his first. Playing in Double-A, he tore up the place, hitting .346 with 16 HRs and 113 RBI (along with 13 triples) in his 2nd pro season. He also won a Bronze Glove at right fielder in the Double-A League. Baseball America rated him the #12 best prospect in baseball this past year, for the 2nd straight year.

Bo Picot
25-year old Bo Picot played his first full season in the majors this year after a trade to the Dallas Haymakers made that possible. He hit .244 in 579 ABs, belting 16 HRs and notching nearly a 100 RBI (97) on the season, with 40 doubles. What this season proved is that he's a major league talent. He didn't reach his full potential and isn't going to, but he'll still be a solid contributor at the MLB level. We can hope he'll improve and become a player that can earn a contract in the $5-7 million range by the time he's a free agent. One can hope, he's not there yet at all.

Chip Hubbard
22-year old Chip Hubbard spent his second year in AAA, the first as a member of the Brooklyn Originals organization. He showed improved in every major category, despite fewer at-bats. He hit .266 with 15 HRs and 79 RBI on the year. He's still got a ways to go, but I think he's got the potential to be a top prospect, even though he's no longer on the Top 100 list after ranking 69th in 2018.

J.C. Coronado
22-year old Coronado had a breakout year in his second year as a starter and fourth in the majors. He went 16-11, matching his win total from a year ago, but had nearly 300 strikeouts (298) and made his first All-Star team, representing the Allied League. He's a likely free agent next year and earned a $5.5 million one-year deal in arbitration this past season, which bodes well for his future free agent prospects. He had 22 quality starts out of 33 and 14 complete games.

There just aren't that many power arms available and even fewer with his upside. He's one to watch.

Mal Thompson
19-year old Mal Thompson had a rough rookie year, but his sophomore campaign was only better in the sense that he faced slightly less difficult competition. Demoted to Triple-A after a hard rookie year in the majors, he went 5-19 for the Comets AAA team. He pitched an identical number of innings from a year ago, struck out 167 batters in 201.2 innings and showed many of the same control issues he demonstrated his first season. Still recognized with huge upside though, the former 9th overall pick is one that many expect to see back in the majors within a few years and this time, as a dominant player. We're just hoping he grows into his competition in the minors and begins to develop.

[Young Drachma]

This year's salary cap will rise to $119,409,100 after two straight years of decreases due to market corrections.

[Young Drachma]

TOMMY BARTON (http://9thdown.com/league/players/player_15779.html) SWEEPSTAKES

http://9thdown.com/league/images/player_15779.png
Our first free agent is now on the market. I'm going to take a look and profile the teams that have the biggest need for a first baseman.

I won't intervene on any of the contract negotiations, won't make ghost offers to try to raise his value or anything like that. The only thing I'll get to do is reject offers. Otherwise, I'm not really being the agent, I'm just watching the action.

If I see a team that won't be a good fit for Barton leading in the negotiations, I have the right to withdraw that deal, effectively ending negotiations with that team. Since this is OOTP, that means I could be taking money off the table since the game is stupid and almost always takes the best deal on the table moneywise, even if it's otherwise a bad deal for the player, there's a logjam, cap issues or whatever else. Knowing OOTP as I do though, if I reject too many deals, teams won't sign him and he'll end up taking less and if he waits too long (Especially with the condensed format of fast-sim play) then he'll end up changing his expectations and taking a lower, shorter and cheaper deal just to get on somewhere. So, we can't be too picky here or else, he's gonna fire me.

Let's take a look at the preferred destinations. Our priorities are 1) a team with no entrenched first baseman 2) most cap space to give us the biggest deal possible and 3) a chance to win.

SHORT LIST
Atlanta (72-90) $45.8m
Baltimore (89-73) $36.2m
Brooklyn (93-69) $99.3
Charleston (83-79) $41.2
Redbirds (62-100) $5.1
Comets (92-70) $39.5
Eau Claire (75-87) $21.6
Edmonton (66-96) $26.5
Houston (83-79) $28.1
Miami (70-92) $43.3
Montreal (83-79) $82.6
Philadelphia (95-67) $59.3
Rio Grande (104-58) $78.1
San Francisco (67-95) $41.2
St. Louis (86-76) $75.2
Tupelo (77-85) $74.8
Victoria (96-67) $43.1

That last figure there is how much in payroll they currently have.

Ok, now the bad news. A few days into free agency and teams have already begun dipping their money out for the guys that they really want. Tommy Barton is not among them, so he's going to have to wait for the first wave of big free agents to get fed first, before teams, after having been spurned will bring their money along and see what they have to give him.

His starting price is 4 years/$60.17 million, which would in theory rise higher as teams begun to make offers. But so far, we're a week in and there's nothing quite yet. So let's dive in and begin to report.

[Young Drachma]

As far as personal preference at the moment. Naturally, I'd love for the Chicago Redbirds to offer him a truckload of money and a super long term deal, like six years and $85 million or something. But that's seems unlikely. Plus, they're terrible and I don't see a future where they'd get better and he'd be eating up a lot of their future cap space, though they're not spending anything right now.

Save for that Brooklyn would be perfect since they're committed to winning and have a window where I still think they'd be good. Except, they're not going to want to spend the money to bring Tommy there. At least, that's my initial read on it. I'll be able to tell more in the next few weeks as it becomes clear where the market is headed.

Charlotte has a young kid coming up in a few years, so going back there isn't an option. Rio Grande is a solid location in recent years, it could be a good landing spot. St. Louis is on the rebound and could also be a place worth going. Baltimore made the playoffs this past year and could be a good place to go, too, in a division where I think Tommy could help them be successful.

So the long story short is, I just don't know what to think yet. It's not just about our interest, it's seeing what teams want to do. So let's see what's happening out there.

STAGE ONE
So far, about fifteen teams have made offers on Tommy. Almost all of the deals at this point, save for just a few are three year guaranteed contracts rather than the four we went into this asking for. Eau Claire is the early leader in the clubhouse, but Tommy is pretty clear on the fact that he'd rather not spend the next three years "in a place where there's no black people," even though I told him that Minneapolis was nearby and he received a lovely tour of the city by the lone college student employed by the Chamber of Commerce there who was a black girl who said she'd grown up there and loved the place.

Tommy wasn't convinced and wants to beat the bush for better deals, saying if he's gonna take three years it won't be a deal where he's stuck in Wisconsin. Point well taken, sir. That's why I get the big bucks, I guess. To sort all of this out.

I haven't taken the Eau Claire off the table yet, though. I'm hoping that with some of the bigger guns signing and Tommy holding out until the 2nd stage of FA (late December, early January) that teams will have more money to throw his way in an effort to impress their fans with a big signing.

That's the "plan" anyway.

[Young Drachma]

http://www.textually.org/textually/archives/2010/01/13/las-vegas.jpeg

STAGE ONE: WINTER MEETINGS
We're in Vegas for this year's winter meetings.

So far, no major deals have been struck. But a relevant one did happen. Kip Bray (http://9thdown.com/league/players/player_15232.html), a 32-year old first baseman who I knew during my time in Compton (he played one year for us) signed a three-year deal worth $24.4 million with the Miami Amigos. The relevance? If a 32-year old first baseman who hasn't put up the numbers Tommy has over the past four years can get $8 million a year, Tommy feels like he ought to get double that. I feel like that's probably unrealistic, but I can understand the sentiment.

Privately, I'll tell you that I wonder how he's going to hold up these next few years and if he has a major dropoff in performance, negotiating his next contract in three years is going to be disasterous. Part of the problem this off-season is how many guys are out on the market. But if I could do it, I'd prefer to get him locked into a longer-ish term deal, just so that he's set and we're not as vulnerable to his performance issues. He's still young though and developing, which helps a lot, so we're able to sell that to a team. Still, the market is going to be a weird read if guys like Bray are getting that kind of cash.

Anyway, back to the phones.


MOTHER OF ALL WHOA
http://9thdown.com/league/images/charleston_seagulls_110.png

As I anticipated, once teams freed up some cash, they were going to start throwing it down our throats. A team that I did not expect to call, did and now we have a really difficult decision to make.

Charleston has made a preliminary offer of four years and $97.2 million. Friends, I have no idea where this one comes from, but it changes the game in a big way. It's not unusual in the sense that Tommy is young and now teams are starting to make real offers to him as their offers to other guys have been spurned, but I didn't expect the spending to go up this quickly and I never anticipated we'd be in that neighborhood. But it seems that the Kip Bray argument was a sound one after all.

So now, the dilemma is that the Seagulls aren't necessarily relevant. A newer franchise, they've made the playoffs three times in their history, most recently in 2016. They've been a steady ship for the most part, finishing over .500 four of the last five years. Last year, they signed LF Rolland Moreau away from the St. Louis Terriers by offering him an almost identical deal to the one they're offering Tommy (Moreau's deal is $95.45 million over 4 years) and so, it shows they're willing to be aggressive when they want to be.

The good sign here is that teams are starting to open up their wallets, so I want to keep the bidding going and see where it leads us. On my next update, I'll narrow it down to three finalists.

[JetsIn06]

Wow...what an offer. I'm excited to see the three finalists.

[Young Drachma]

Ok, before I get to the finalists here are some of the contracts guys have signed from the first stage. I think part of the reason that more didn't sign during the FA1 stage is because I was leaving on AI interference for longer since I wanted to see what Tommy would get and didn't want him to sign with someone before I got the chance to give everything the once over.

Just to give a sense of the other deals being signed, we're past January 1st and here are some of the more notable contracts that have been signed over the past week. I'm talking big money contracts:

http://9thdown.com/league/images/player_16043.png
LF Jarrod Cason (http://9thdown.com/league/players/player_16043.html) 3 yrs/$80 million (New York Gothams)

http://9thdown.com/league/images/player_13986.png
2B Richard Seaton (http://9thdown.com/league/players/player_13986.html) 5 yrs/$137 million (San Francisco Peanuts)

http://9thdown.com/league/images/player_14770.png
CL Scott Blessing (http://9thdown.com/league/players/player_14770.html) 2 yrs/$26.4 million (Milwaukee Creamers)

http://9thdown.com/league/images/player_13735.png
C Carlos Bautista (http://9thdown.com/league/players/player_13735.html) 2 yrs/$18.775 million (Los Angeles Aztecs)

[Young Drachma]

Here are some recent signings:

Friday, January 17th, 2020
Salt Lake City Elders: Signed free agent RF Ed O'Toole to a 2-year contract worth a total of $19,935,000.
Toronto Blueshirts: Signed free agent CL Landon Williams to a 3-year contract worth a total of $42,037,500.
Saturday, January 11th, 2020
Charleston Seagulls: Signed free agent CL Alonso Olivas to a 3-year contract worth a total of $35,437,500.
Friday, January 10th, 2020
St. Louis Terriers: Signed free agent 3B Vitorio Sosa to a 5-year contract worth a total of $123,340,000.
Seattle Pilots: Signed free agent SP Nolan Huss to a 2-year contract worth a total of $33,700,000.
Charleston Seagulls: Signed free agent SP John Carvalho to a 4-year contract worth a total of $68,487,500.
Monday, January 6th, 2020
New York Gothams: Signed free agent CL Enrique Zavala to a 3-year contract worth a total of $31,082,500.
Philadelphia Quakers: Signed free agent RF Gary Fletcher to a 3-year contract worth a total of $66,150,000.
Sunday, January 5th, 2020
New York Gothams: Signed free agent 3B Juan Gómez to a 2-year contract worth a total of $20,815,000.
Dallas Haymakers: Signed free agent C Finley Retter to a 3-year contract worth a total of $65,580,000.
Atlanta Firecrackers: Signed free agent CF Bob Dickson to a 3-year contract worth a total of $66,397,500.
Jersey City Mammoths: Signed free agent 2B Lee Dook to a 4-year contract worth a total of $18,720,000.
Saturday, January 4th, 2020
Los Angeles Aztecs: Signed free agent SP Ben Shafer to a 7-year contract worth a total of $135,537,500.
Friday, January 3rd, 2020
Los Angeles Aztecs: Signed free agent CL Aaron Rose to a 3-year contract worth a total of $24,267,500.
Thursday, January 2nd, 2020
Baltimore Wrens: Signed free agent MR Rich Powell to a 1-year contract worth a total of $8,252,500.
The Brooklyn Originals traded 35-year-old right fielder Max DuBois, 32-year-old starting pitcher Merrill Welch and a 1st round draft pick to the Chicago Comets, getting 35-year-old starting pitcher Darren Nisbet in return.

[Young Drachma]

All right, here are the finalists for the services of Tommy Barton

http://9thdown.com/league/images/chicago_comets_110.png
Chicago Comets
5 years/$132.4 million
These guys, with their ample cap room were able to open the flood gates in a way that other teams were not able to after Charleston broke down the door. The actual deal is 5 guaranteed years for $132,492,500 million with a no-trade clause and some apparent incentives that I can't see what they are that would bring the total value of the deal to $132,867,500.

Needless to say, that trumps the $80 million I expected. I'm new to this agent business and will officially stop thinking of things as a GM/owner where I think a lot more frugally and instead, shoot for the moon and land amongst the stars at the least.

Anyway, this is a huge deal. The Comets are home to one of my other clients, of course, Mal Thompson from last year's draft. We have a good relationship with the ballclub obviously and it wouldn't be a bad landing spot for him. I'm not convinced they're going to win this year or next, but this deal shows management is committed to winning at some point during the life of the deal.

I won't deny though, that this is not my first choice of a destination for him. I just feel like he should be someplace that's on the cusp of winning where he can showcase himself and where he doesn't have to carry the load.

http://9thdown.com/league/images/chicago_redbirds_110.png
Chicago Redbirds
5 years/$165.1 million, no-trade clause. This is actually a deal with a 6th year option that would make the total value of the deal $208.9 million, which is batshit insane.

The battle for Chicago. Both clubs haven't been very good for a while and the rebranded Blue Collars are making a heavy push to get good in a hurry. I guess Tommy Barton is something they want part of that. Not to mention, they'd hate to see him across town in Comets green.

I'd prefer to see him here, honestly. I have no idea why. I just feel like he fits here for whatever reason. It has nothing to do with money. It's just a gut intuition thing.


http://9thdown.com/league/images/baltimore_wrens_110.png
Baltimore Wrens
6 yrs/$177.7 million

With incentives, the total value of this deal is $181.6 million and unlike the Redbirds deal all six years of this deal are guaranteed. Tommy actually prefers to play here. It's less money, obviously over the total life of the deal and that part is worrysome maybe. Of the three teams that we've listed here, Baltimore is the only one that made the playoffs last year.

[Young Drachma]

http://9thdown.com/league/images/brooklyn_originals_110.png
Curveball alert.

There's still an offer on the table from Brooklyn. It's for substantially less money, 5 years/$89.8 million. Brooklyn is good, they win and I suspect there's at least one title run left in that team and ownership seems consistently interested in contending and winning, because in the eight years they've been in town, Brooklyn have basically taken over the New York fanbase from the Knights and Gothams, not to mention the irrelevant Mammoths from Jersey City.

Tommy seems hellbent on winning right now and says that he doesn't care as much about the money. I feel like that's what a 22-year old with good morals would say. Also, he's from the New York area and seems to think it'd be fun to win a title here and be a legend. Or so he seems to believe.

I'm not sure about this, but we only have about 24 hours to make a decision and then he's going to have to go with it. Right now, the Redbirds deal is the leader in the clubhouse, but if Tommy nixes it, we're going to Baltimore. The Comets seem an afterthought, but we're giving this Brooklyn thing some serious thought. I'd feel bad, as an agent telling him to leave so much money on the table...but he's quite young (he just turned 23) and would be able to make it back if he performed well on a good team. (And this is fast-sim, so we're not worried about injury, just a sustained decline in performance)

If you read this and have an opinion, please give it to us...consider yourself Tommy Barton fans and tell us where you'd want to see him if you had a choice. If not, that's okay too...we're gonna decide anyway. :)

[Young Drachma]

Here are some deals that just got done. None involving us, but the implications do touch us:


Monday, January 20th, 2020
Habana Leones: Signed free agent CL Harry Hamilton to a 3-year contract worth a total of $6,435,000.
Chicago Redbirds: Signed free agent LF Cary Passey to a 3-year contract worth a total of $8,287,500.
Brooklyn Originals: Signed free agent SP Sean Nelson to a 4-year contract worth a total of $76,240,000.
Chicago Redbirds: Signed free agent 2B Clark Chapman to a 4-year contract worth a total of $76,831,412.
Chicago Redbirds: Signed free agent LF Archie Moore to a 6-year contract worth a total of $195,412,500.
Miami Amigos: Signed free agent C Sandy Miller to a 3-year contract worth a total of $10,770,000.
Chicago Redbirds: Signed free agent SP Robby Starr to a 4-year contract worth a total of $61,750,000.
Chicago Comets: Signed free agent SP Felipe Hernández to a 5-year contract worth a total of $142,400,000.

[JetsIn06]

I'd love to see him in Brooklyn for selfish reasons. Plus, I think him really wanting to go to a team where he can win and actually doing it would be a great story!

[Young Drachma]

AND THE WINNER IS...

http://9thdown.com/league/images/milwaukee_creamers_110.png
http://9thdown.com/league/images/player_15779.png

MILWAUKEE
None of the original finalists. The table dried up, because teams spent money on other things while we waited to sort out our direction and then, that money wasn't out there anymore.

The Redbirds pulled their deal once a bunch of guys signed. Brooklyn never had enough real room to make a plausible deal work. Well, they almost did. They then traded for Milwaukee's 1st baseman and once they did that, the doorstop there was shut and Milwaukee appeared on our radar as the best possible option.

The Creamers are entering their 5th season of the franchise's history. They're still establishing themselves as a ballclub and what they sold us on was the idea that Tommy Barton could become the first name synonymous with Milwaukee and the Creamers organization.

That, coupled with the money made it the deal that seemed the best to us. In Chicago or Brooklyn, he'd have just been another guy that was in a long line of historical figures. Here, if he plays his cards right he'll be the first Creamer with his number retired and head into the Hall wearing the M cap.

The contract was for 6 years and $120.9 million, though the 6th season is a player option.

This is, of course, my first opportunity to turn a commission. We're heading into my 3rd season and $20 million is a long ways away. But we now have (provided all six years of the deal are consummated and he doesn't opt out after year five) $3,627,450 in the account.

30 PERFECT GAMES IN HISTORY

I was curious how many perfect games there'd been in the history of the league. The first one had the distinction ofalso being the league's first ever no-hitter. On March 29, 1801, Alex Romero of the Evansville Triplets threw a perfect against the Pacific Baseball Club.

The next one came in 1812 by Jack Mack, who also played for Evansville.

Since 1980, only eight pitchers have thrown perfect games. The last perfecto took place on September 1, 2017 when Nolan Huss of the Colorado Gold Sox managed the feat against the Miami Amigos. It was his second no-hitter in two years, as he'd also thrown the league's last no-hitter the previous year against Washington.

OK, SO I DID FOLD SOME TEAMS
I know I said I wouldn't, but with a 200-year old league, sometimes the team histories are unwieldly and too many team moves and it feels like the NHL team histories of the 1960s. Anyway, the Edmonton Whiskeyjacks were folded and were replaced by another Toronto team, the Mississauga Civics.

The Washington Maroons, who've been around a long time -- but date back to before Baltimore got Carolina's old team and the Carolinas got two more -- have been retired and were replaced by the San Juan Senadores. That gives the Caribbean three teams total, with the two Cuban teams. Habana now plays in the AL South, to give them a rivalry with Miami and San Juan in the east, so they can duke it out with New York and Brooklyn. Good for all of those fans who now live in the U.S. but want to root for the home island teams. It's a good move for the league and best of all, I had good uniforms for them. ;)

That's what's driven all of my moves of the last 20 years or so. Changing from uniforms I made myself for throwback jerseys I found via NoPepper at OOTP. Makes it easier for me to someday order jerseys of my favorite players of all time now that I just need to get their names emblazoned on the back of an old jersey. So sue me.

http://9thdown.com/league/images/boston_yanks_40.pnghttp://9thdown.com/league/images/philadelphia_quakers_40.pnghttp://9thdown.com/league/images/almendares_alacranes_40.pnghttp://9thdown.com/league/images/new_york_gothams_40.pnghttp://9thdown.com/league/images/jersey_city_mammoths_40.pnghttp://9thdown.com/league/images/minneapolis_millers_40.pnghttp://9thdown.com/league/images/chicago_blue_collars_40.pnghttp://9thdown.com/league/images/pittsburgh_yellowjackets_40.pnghttp://9thdown.com/league/images/st_louis_terriers_40.pnghttp://9thdown.com/league/images/eau_claire_paws_40.pnghttp://9thdown.com/league/images/montreal_wanderers_40.pnghttp://9thdown.com/league/images/seattle_pilots_40.pnghttp://9thdown.com/league/images/los_angeles_aztecs_40.pnghttp://9thdown.com/league/images/san_francisco_peanuts_40.pnghttp://9thdown.com/league/images/victoria_cougars_40.pnghttp://9thdown.com/league/images/tupelo_moonshiners_40.pnghttp://9thdown.com/league/images/houston_36ers_40.pnghttp://9thdown.com/league/images/dallas_haymakers_40.pnghttp://9thdown.com/league/images/charlotte_hornets_40.pnghttp://9thdown.com/league/images/baltimore_wrens_40.pnghttp://9thdown.com/league/images/brooklyn_originals_40.pnghttp://9thdown.com/league/images/toronto_blueshirts_40.pnghttp://9thdown.com/league/images/new_york_knights_40.pnghttp://9thdown.com/league/images/cleveland_broncs_40.pnghttp://9thdown.com/league/images/milwaukee_creamers_40.pnghttp://9thdown.com/league/images/colorado_gold_sox_40.pnghttp://9thdown.com/league/images/detroit_robins_40.pnghttp://9thdown.com/league/images/kansas_city_scouts_40.pnghttp://9thdown.com/league/images/san_juan_senadores_40.pnghttp://9thdown.com/league/images/chicago_comets_40.pnghttp://9thdown.com/league/images/rio_grande_roadrunners_40.pnghttp://9thdown.com/league/images/hawaii_islanders_40.pnghttp://9thdown.com/league/images/salt_lake_city_elders_40.pnghttp://9thdown.com/league/images/los_angeles_silverhawks_40.pnghttp://9thdown.com/league/images/sacramento_solons_40.pnghttp://9thdown.com/league/images/charleston_seagulls_40.pnghttp://9thdown.com/league/images/mississauga_civics_40.pnghttp://9thdown.com/league/images/miami_amigos_40.pnghttp://9thdown.com/league/images/habana_leones_40.pnghttp://9thdown.com/league/images/atlanta_firecrackers_40.png

[Young Drachma]

2020 REGULAR SEASON STANDINGS


Federal League Standings
Eastern Division W L PCT GB
Philadelphia Quakers 89 73 .549 -
New York Gothams 87 75 .537 2.0
Jersey City Mammoths 83 79 .512 6.0
Boston Yanks 76 86 .469 13.0
Toronto Blueshirts 73 89 .451 16.0

Central Division W L PCT GB
Pittsburgh Yellowjackets113 49 .698 -
Chicago Redbirds 96 66 .593 17.0
St. Louis Terriers 83 79 .512 30.0
Minneapolis Millers 64 98 .395 49.0
Eau Claire Paws 57 105 .352 56.0

Western Division W L PCT GB
Los Angeles Aztecs 93 69 .574 -
Seattle Pilots 79 83 .488 14.0
Victoria Cougars 78 84 .481 15.0
Dallas Haymakers 73 89 .451 20.0
San Francisco Peanuts 66 96 .407 27.0

Southern Division W L PCT GB
Baltimore Wrens 89 73 .549 -
Charlotte Hornets 83 79 .512 6.0
Houston 36ers 83 79 .512 6.0
Almendares Alacranes 79 83 .488 10.0
Tupelo Moonshiners 76 86 .469 13.0

Allied League Standings
Eastern Division W L PCT GB
Brooklyn Originals 97 65 .599 -
Cleveland Broncs 93 69 .574 4.0
San Juan Senadores 83 79 .512 14.0
New York Knights 78 84 .481 19.0
Montreal Wanderers 65 97 .401 32.0

Central Division W L PCT GB
Milwaukee Creamers 109 53 .673 -
Detroit Robins 88 74 .543 21.0
Chicago Comets 80 82 .494 29.0
Kansas City Scouts 76 86 .469 33.0
Mississauga Civics 73 89 .451 36.0

Western Division W L PCT GB
Sacramento Solons 96 66 .593 -
Hawaii Islanders 78 84 .481 18.0
Hollywood Stars 75 87 .463 21.0
Salt Lake City Elders 67 95 .414 29.0
Colorado Gold Sox 65 97 .401 31.0

Southern Division W L PCT GB
Habana Leones 94 68 .580 -
Rio Grande Roadrunners 87 75 .537 7.0
Charleston Seagulls 76 86 .469 18.0
Atlanta Firecrackers 72 90 .444 22.0
Miami Amigos 68 94 .420 26.0


The Chicago Redbirds have the misfortune of finishing with the 2nd best record in the Federal League, but miss the playoffs. I felt bad, but the schedule is unbalanced, so you play your division more than the rest of the league. Thus, you're really only competing against the teams in your division for a playoff berth, not as much the other teams in other divisions. So it's fair, even though it sort of sucks.

Here are the playoff matchups:

FLDS
-------
Pittsburgh v. Philadelphia
Baltimore v. Los Angeles

ALDS
-----
Milwaukee v. Habana
Brooklyn v. Sacramento

[Young Drachma]

Ok, let's do the recap of my players over this past year.

Tommy Barton, 1B, Milwaukee Creamers

Well, if there was any doubt that he would be worth it, those doubts was squelched this year. 42 home runs, 141 RBI, 109 walks in 628 at-bats. I was petrified that he'd turn out to be a flake after the ups and downs of his first few years in the majors, but then I had to remind myself that he's not even 24 yet. Anyone who didn't know who he was before, is well aware of him now.

While he was snubbed (again) for the all-star game, he's got an outside shot at an MVP award. Not a bad consolation prize, eh?

Bo Picot, RF, Brooklyn Originals

Bo was traded by Dallas to Almendares and was then flipped to Brooklyn when they needed someone to patrol the outfield. I always knew he'd emerged into a solid player and he proved me right.

He hit .281 with 21 HRs and 110 RBI this year for the Originals and will be heading to the post-season for the first time. He had 45 doubles and more hits (191 to 170) than Tommy Barton did this year, too. He's a solid player who is still a few years away from the open market (only has 3 years of ML service time) but I hope he can maintain it by the time we get him there.

Chip Hubbard, SS, Brooklyn Originals (AAA)

Chip played in AAA again this year and hit .284 with 25 HRs and 81 RBI. He struck out 120 times and stole 13 bases. He has potential and is still tapped as the Originals shortstop of the future. We'll just see what we get when he gets there. It could be next year or he still might be held another year. I'm not sure what to think about him, really.

Nate Murdoch, RF, Chicago Redbirds (AAA)

He hit .307 this year and stole 27 bases. He also had 17 HRS AND 74 RBI for the Redbirds Triple-A club. He's probably penciled in for next year as the team's starter. They don't have a ton of cap flexibility anyway and I think he'll be too good for them to ignore. But we'll see.

J.C. Coronado, SP, Miami Amigos

He went 15-15 with 2.64 ERA, 278 strikeouts in 261 1/3 innings this year. He had 11 complete games and a whopping 26 quality starts. The long and short of it, is that we need to get him out of there. He will be a free agent this off-season and has not been offered an extension in Miami as of yet. I hope he resists, because I can't stop it if it happens.

Mal Thompson, SP, Chicago Comets (AAA)
He went 14-8 with 2.86 ERA and 212 Ks in 214 innings for the Comets farm club. He's worked out his control issues, but still might be a year away from returning to the majors. It's hard to say. Nonetheless, he's only 20 years old and will be a solid starter once he's there. Sky is the limit for this young hurler.

[Young Drachma]

2020 PLAYOFF RESULTS

FEDERAL LEAGUE DIVISION SERIES
------------
Philadelphia def. Pittsburgh 4-2
Baltimore def. Los Angeles 4-2

FEDERAL LEAGUE CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES
---------
Philadelphia def. Baltimore 4-1

ALLIED LEAGUE DIVISION SERIES
-------
Milwaukee def. Habana 4-1
Brooklyn def. Sacramento 4-2

ALLIED LEAGUE CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES
----------
Milwaukee def. Brooklyn 4-2

2020 DAYLIGHT SERIES
-------------
Milwaukee def. Philadelphia 5-0

Philadelphia last claimed the title in 2010, which was their last appearance in the Series. Milwaukee was making their first appearance in the post-season and first in the Series.

[Young Drachma]

My free agents this year are J.C. Coronado and apparently Chip Hubbard has become a minor league free agent. We'll see how it goes, since both are at different ends of the spectrum.

[Young Drachma]

I've also contracted four teams and we've returned to a 3-division format. Still 162 games, but now there is one wild card. I felt like it was a more competitive setup this way and it also stems a bit of the of the talent dilution that'd been going on with having a ton of teams. We may someday return to 40 teams if I can get a schedule that works with say, two divisions setup...but for now, this will work.

[rjolley]

How did Barton do in the Daylight Series?

[Young Drachma]

I just updated his player card (http://9thdown.com/league/players/player_15779.html). .193 with 4 RBI, no homers in 16 post-season games, but he was walked 19 times in 57 at-bats, so he had an OBP of .395.

So he helped the team I guess, just not in the ways that we'd have expected.

[Young Drachma]

J.C. Coronado signed a 5 year deal worth $145.5 million with the Chicago Redbirds thi off-season.

Chip Hubbard resigned with Brooklyn on a one-year deal and will be starting in the majors this season.

The numbers were getting haywire, so I lowered the financial coefficient in half, so all of the financial numbers were halved, as well.

This might wreck having on my agent game, but I'm just going to still follow these guys through the seven year period anyway and then try another scenario provided I still feel like writing.

[Young Drachma]

I just finished two more seasons. I'm about to start another scenario now. I will check back in on the guys I've introduced you to before, but one of the things about playing fast-sim and dynasty writing is that I need to balance my desire to play a lot and sim fast with the need to write things down and share them with whatever audience there is.

I've put the financials back where they began, mostly because it worked better for me. We've expanded back to 38 teams (20 in the FL, 18 in the AL) and I'll explain why in a while, hopefully without confusing you (That is, if anyone is even paying attention to begin with.)

The more interesting story I've wanted to share is Gil Spence's 2021 season. The first man to ever hit .400 was Hall of Famer Bobby Starke who hit .407 in 1979, breaking a record that had lasted since 1800 when Konrad Rodinger hit .3996 the first year of the league. Three guys hit .400 during the offensive juiceball year of 1993, but that year is often looked upon derisively by most experts.

Gil Spence left nothing to doubt though in 2021 hitting .431 during his last season in Brooklyn. The 28-year old centerfielder signed a free agent deal with Salt Lake City after his monster year and has a career batting average of .400. Yes, that's his CAREER average. The guy only has 23 career home runs, but he's a hit machine otherwise. It'll be fun to watch the rest of his career.

PLAYOFF RESULTS SINCE 2020

We've crowned two champions since the Creamers claimed their title in 2020. If you want a full playoff breakdown, let me know. The Chicago Redbirds won their first title since 1907 in 2021, knocking off the Rio Grande Roadrunners.

In 2022, the Cleveland Broncs denied the New York Gothams a chance to exorcise a demon that's lasted since their last title in 1960. It was Cleveland's first title in ten years.

SOME COMING, SOME GOING
MILF broke ground on new territory, expanding into Japan starting with the 2022 season. The Milwaukee Creamers and Chicago Comets headed to Japan after two major Japanese companies offered their owners big money to relocate the teams.

This will trigger some realignment, which again, I'll mention in passing but won't get you bored with the minutia since I doubt it's interesting.

The City of Milwaukee sued MILF and the former owners of the Creamers, saying they had an agreement with the team that spanned 25-years and the team had only lived up to six years of that. Realizing the city had a case, MILF officials decided to expand the Federal League by two teams, awarding a team to Milwaukee (who would be renamed the Creamers) and one other city that has yet to be named, but is expected to be a western city within the Mountain Time Zone.

STATUS UPDATES

While I'm no longer playing the agent game, I feel like it's important to let you know how the guys we were following are doing and where they're all playing now.

J.C. Coronado, SP, Chicago Redbirds
The 25-year old Coronado has emerged into a real ace. In his second year in the Windy City, he's gone 50-5 with an ERA just over 2.00, logging over 600 strikeouts during that time. He's also won his back to back Nelson Mares awards, as the Federal League's top pitcher.

Mal Thompson, SP, Tupelo Moonshiners
Before shipping themselves to Japan, the Comets sent Thompson and a 1st rounder to Mississippi in exchange for Japanese hurler Kory Hamada. Thompson went 8-19 for the second straight year in the majors, with a 5.56 ERA in 32 starts. He's still considered a prospect, at just 22 years of age, but many are wondering if he'll ever get the form that will make him a top starter in the league and some skeptics are loudly beginning to doubt he'll truly ever be anything other than a middle of the rotation guy.

It'd be interesting to see him on a good team, something he's never done before, but lots of guys play on bad teams and find ways to excel.

Tommy Barton, OF, Osaka Braves
Oh, I didn't tell you the Creamers became the Osaka Braves? Well, that's their new name. And their favorite player? Barton-san. He's picked up where he left off, hitting .272 this past year and logging his third straight 40+ HR season. Despite this production, his last all-star appearance was during his rookie season and he's yet to win an MVP.

There's some discussion about whether he'll be reacquired by the new Creamers franchise and sent back to Milwaukee, due to his lack of a no-trade clause, as the leaders of that franchise look to get a foothold in the market.

Chip Hubbard, SS, San Diego Seals
After a trade from Brooklyn, Hubbard finally got his chance to be a starter at the major league level. The 25-year old shortshop hit .198 in 405 ABs for the Seals this past year. It's too soon to call him a bust, but many thought he'd be an active contributor at the ML level by now and he's yet to reach that potential.

Will he ever?

Nate Murdoch, RF, Chicago Redbirds
Nate was the 2022 Federal League Rookie of the Year after hitting .287 with 23 HRs and 93 RBI in his first full major league season with the Redbirds. The 23-year old outfielder is emerging as a star and should have a bright future ahead of him.

Bo Picot, RF, Brooklyn Originals
After two straight years of 20 + HRs and 100 + RBI, Picot had a dropoff this year hitting just .280 with 12 HRs and 82 RBI for the O's. The 28-year old is a local favorite, but is in a walk year this season. If he's not selected in the expansion draft, he'll be a free agent and it's not evident where he'll end up. He might not factor largely in Brooklyn's long-term plans.

[Young Drachma]

SCENARIO TWO: THE EXPANSION YEAR

The Milwaukee Creamers and Mendocino Kingfishers (Ukiah, CA) will be joining the Federal League.

My task will be to steer them through the first season, by setting them up with the best players I can in the expansion draft.

Then, my task will be to manage one of the two expansion teams for the year as their GM and attempt to get them a winning record. I will be restricted to making a maximum of five trades during the off-season, which if you've read me is no easy feat.

I'm going to take over the Milwaukee Creamers, mostly because the storyline of having the new Creamers coming back to town sounds like a fun idea to me, because the fans are going to demand a winner from the start since the old Creamers were good when they left.

So that's where we are next. If you have any ideas, feel free to post them. Should the new Creamers attempt to see if they can pry Tommy Barton out of Japan? Or should the new team try to establish itself out of shadow of the old Creamers?

[JetsIn06]

I would go after Barton, for sure. Would be a great story to have him go back and establish the new Creamers.

[Young Drachma]

I made the cardinal sin of having the game crash on me when I was deleting this strange ghost player in the retired player section after I'd run the season, but before it could save or backup anything good. So now I think my league is officially farked. I could go backwards to my older iterations of the league (like the ones I've posted on the web) but that'd be sacrificing quite a bit of history and I'm not sure I want to do that.

So I'm considering starting over with the same amount of teams or a more perfect setup, starting with OOTP11 and trying to see if I can import the same players into this new league if I set it up exactly the same way at least to start. Because if I could salvage my current generation of guys, that'd be awesome.

If not, well...I guess I'll be starting over to generate another set of history. Which probably isn't the worse thing in the world, especially now that I know to do it. But it's sort of sad, because I had a really good run going there.

I'll let you know what I figure out.

[Ramzavail]

oh man, that sucks.

[Young Drachma]

Ok, it's official. My league is toast. What happens is, since the season didn't officially end, the stats from that year are still there and won't clear. When that happens, they'll just keep cycling and the year never turns over. It's sort of ridiculous, but it's a perpetual OOTP problem that you can't really fix. And I didn't backup because well...I had the need for speed.

Sooooo...that means, I'm going to have to start over with a completely new universe, which means I'll need to decide what year I want to start it. Or go back to my quickstart so I don't lose all of my history entirely. I'm leaning towards that, because at least that way I could keep the continuity of the history over the past several hundred years. It'll suck to lose guys like Tommy Barton and others to the annals of history, but I guess I could go recreate them if I was feeling like it.

I sort of figured out what I wanted to do as I wrote this and I am going to do just reload quickstart and do the history from there, because what was special about this league was the fact that I had all of the history and stuff like that rather than starting over again with a parallel history that doesn't mesh with what happened before.

In a way, it'll be better this way...things were working fine and I made a lot of alterations in recent seasons mostly because I was tinkering around, so this will give me a starting point where I don't have to do that.

So while it's annoying and frustrating, it'll be interesting in the same way.

[Ramzavail]

in short, there will be no killing the Johansen boyz.

[JetsIn06]

Sorry to hear DC. Whatever you do, I'll still be following along.

[Young Drachma]

Thanks guys.

Here's the scoop.

I went back to 2012 and restarted from the beginning of the quickstart that I uploaded and released to everyone else. A smart decision in retrospect, huh?

I'm still sort of figuring out how I want to play, but what I've done so far is replace a few of the franchises with ones I liked from my recent sims (Milwaukee Creamers come to mind, as well as the two Japanese franchises, adding to them two Aussie teams too...) and have first off simmed a few years into the future.

I'm about to sim the 2019 season and my tentative idea (as I type this) is to start with the 2020 season and do something. What, I have no idea. There are 36 teams, I haven't expanded from the initial setup and I don't know if I will yet.

The two leagues are the Nationwide League (NL) and the Allied League (AL).


Here are your league champs since 2012:

2012: Cleveland Broncs def. Colorado Gold Sox
2013: Philadelphia Quakers def. Detroit Robins
2014: Rio Grande Roadrunners def. San Francisco Peanuts
2015: Colorado Gold Sox def. Detroit Robins
2016: San Francisco Peanuts def. Pittsburgh Yellowjackets
2017: Kansas City Scouts def. Jersey City Mammoths
2018: New York Knights def. Colorado Gold Sox

Which means we haven't had a team repeat as champions since the 1994-1996 Kansas City Blue Sox (now Scouts) who won three in a row en route to six straight AL pennants (and four titles overall during that stretch.)

I also do regular backups now. ;)

I'll probably start a new thread for the next iteration of the dynasty because it might be confusing for someone to start at the beginning and then pick up the league when we go back in time.

[Ramzavail]

what are the Japan teams names?

[Young Drachma]

Here's the 2019 regular season standings:


Nationwide League Standings
Eastern Division W L PCT GB
Wooster Wrens 96 66 .593 -
Buffalo Brothers 91 71 .562 5.0
Jersey City Mammoths 85 77 .525 11.0
Hartford Gothams 75 87 .463 21.0
Boston Yanks 72 90 .444 24.0
Philadelphia Quakers 70 92 .432 26.0

Central Division W L PCT GB
Minneapolis Millers 90 72 .556 -
Chicago Redbirds 88 74 .543 2.0
Eau Claire Paws 80 82 .494 10.0
Milwaukee Creamers 77 85 .475 13.0
Indianapolis Terriers 71 91 .438 19.0
Charlotte Hornets 63 99 .389 27.0

Western Division W L PCT GB
Colorado Gold Sox 99 63 .611 -
Los Angeles Aztecs 97 65 .599 2.0
Nevada Silverhawks 89 73 .549 10.0
San Francisco Peanuts 79 83 .488 20.0
Salt Lake City Elders 70 92 .432 29.0
Seattle Pilots 66 96 .407 33.0

Allied League Standings
Eastern Division W L PCT GB
Toronto Blueshirts 98 64 .605 -
New York Knights 95 67 .586 3.0
Miami Amigos 88 74 .543 10.0
Cleveland Broncs 86 76 .531 12.0
Brooklyn Originals 82 80 .506 16.0
Montreal Maroons 72 90 .444 26.0

Central Division W L PCT GB
Kansas City Scouts 89 73 .549 -
Detroit Robins 87 75 .537 2.0
Pittsburgh Yellowjackets86 76 .531 3.0
Rio Grande Roadrunners 75 87 .463 14.0
Dallas Haymakers 64 98 .395 25.0
Tupelo Moonshiners 64 98 .395 25.0

Western Division W L PCT GB
Tokyo Comets 95 67 .586 -
Hollywood Stars 84 78 .519 11.0
Victoria Cougars 84 78 .519 11.0
Osaka Braves 81 81 .500 14.0
Brisbane Wonder Workers 75 87 .463 20.0
Arizona Firecrackers 53 109 .327 42.0



As far as the team name changes, all of these moves occurred before I started the 2012 season, so basically these are the teams that deviate from the original quickstart file. No team was folded:


Baltimore Wrens became Wooster (OH) Wrens
Compton Brothers became Buffalo (NY) Brothers
New York Gothams became Hartford (CT) Gothams
St. Louis Terriers became Indianapolis (IN) Terriers
Washington Maroons became Montreal (QC) Maroons
Chicago Comets became Tokyo (JP) Comets
Atlanta Firecrackers became Arizona (Glendale, AZ) Firecrackers
El Paso Incredibles became Milwaukee (WI) Creamers
Portland Sockeyes became Osaka (JP) Braves
Hamilton Tigers became Jersey City (NJ) Mammoths
Monterrey Orioles became Brisbane (AUS) Wonder Workers
Victoria Cougars moved from Victoria, B.C., Canada to Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

[Young Drachma]

Here are the 2019 Playoffs in review:

NL DIVISION SERIES (BEST OF SEVEN)
Colorado def. Minneapolis 4-1
Wooster def. Los Angeles 4-1

AL DIVISION SERIES
Toronto def. Kansas City 4-3
Tokyo def. New York 4-3

NL CHAMPIONSHIP (BEST OF NINE)
Colorado def. Wooster 5-3

AL CHAMPIONSHIP
Toronto def. Tokyo 5-2

2019 FALL CLASSIC (BEST OF NINE)
Colorado def. Toronto 5-1

NOTES
The Gold Sox win their 2nd title in five years and second straight NL pennant. This was Wooster's first playoff appearance since 1992 when they still played in (South) Carolina, the franchise never played the playoffs while in Baltimore.

[Young Drachma]

As far as the cities are concerned, there are some cities that in my mind have a long fast-sim legacy because of my time with FOOL. So I try to move teams in my fictional leagues away from those places. Not always, but I tend to like to have balance between franchises/cities that I have a mental affinity for versus those that have cultivated an online league legacy to me.

That's why I sometimes will move teams, because part of why I play is the immersion of having connections to certain franchises and if it doesn't feel right, I have a hard time playing with those teams around. Which I know is a little weird, but it's always how I've played dating back to my super old dynasties (mostly over at OOTP rather than here...) with teams I cultivate over a period of time.

My plan is to retire the Colorado Gold Sox franchise, which I know seems weird given their recent titles, but for all intent and purposes the team is moving and the league left the Gold Sox name and colors and titles in Denver/Colorado Springs where the team has always been a la the Baltimore Ravens/Cleveland Browns.

Names we recognize, like Billy Chapel are still around and dominant, while there are other names that we don't who have picked up where their predecessors left off.

I've still got to figure out where to put the new team, but I'll come up with something eventually and go from there.

[Young Drachma]

NOVEMBER 13, 2019

Billionaire tycoon and software magnate Oliver Esmonde finalized his purchase of the Colorado Gold Sox. The franchise, in existence since 1812, has won 9 championships in their franchise history. But according to Nationwide League officials, Esmonde will not be permitted to take the Gold Sox name, colors or history with him when he moves the franchise to Twin Falls, Idaho for the 2020 season.

Esmonde has turned the sleepy Magic Valley outpost into his own personal playground afte founding his internet startup Verve there in 2008 and after an IPO, it made him one of the richest men in the world. He believed that baseball needed to be located in the state and was looking for a team to acquire and with the Gold Sox -- despite their success -- one of the cash poorest teams in baseball, they've always been vulernable to a move.

But at least NL officials have ensured the history will remain in Colorado, even if the players move elsewhere.

The new Twin Falls Magicians will begin play at Verve Stadium of Twin Falls next year.

[Young Drachma]

I think after 200+ years of the same history, I might have a bit of fatigue with this particular universe. I like the premise, I just have been trying to get back into it and I'm sure that being busy isn't helping but....ultimately, it's not working for me right now.

I came up with an idea in the meantime. I went back to OOTP9 and ran across the original version of this. As it turned out, I only played 2 years in there before moving it to OOTP10 and so, I had this league when it first first started before things had evolved at all. Even before I created minors. There were 8 teams and one league and that was it.

So I brought that version into 10 and then into 11 and I'm going to delete the original league with just 3 years of history (1800-1802) and create an alternate universe, so the original players will be the same from the 1st three years and whoever might be on the reserve rosters but then the other 217 years or so will yield us an entirely different crop of players, along with their own histories and so forth. My thought?

Getting to 2020 like I am with the original league and then merging them into one league if possible. Could be interesting. The franchises in the new league will be entirely different than in the other league, with different histories, existing in different cities and everything. It's likely to be a smaller city league, because that'd make for a better eventual story.

We'll see.