OOTP16 MLB Dynasty (2022-)

[Young Drachma]

I can never finish a full season without fast-simming and making a million trades. This is an exercise in seeing if I can get through an entire season. The team is based in my fictional city (http://www.operationsports.com/fofc/showthread.php?t=90492) on the Ohio River, a metropolitan area spanning Kentucky and Illinois called Churchill.

Churchill is basically Denver on the Ohio River with suburbs over on the Illinois side too.

I'm mostly going to focus on baseball here and again, just see how far I can get before I give up. Might last a week of games, might last a month or might not even make it to the start of the year before getting distracted.

We'll see.

HOUSE RULES
I've been playing OOTP since OOTP5 so just ask me if you wonder my logic is behind certain decisions or whatever and I can tell you why I play a certain way, but most of you know how I groove by now.
- I don't play with coaches & scouts, so those are turned off.
- AI settings: 10/60/15/15
- Trade difficulty: Average, Favor: Neutral
- Aging: .591 (B)/.623 (P) Development: 1.000
Talent Change Randomness: 135
Injuries: HIGH until the All-Star Break, then NORMAL until September. LOW from September through post-season.
Position Player Fatigue: Low
Suspension Frequency: Low

Player Actual Ratings: 2 to 8
Other Player Ratings Scale: 2 to 8
All other ratings are not displayed.


We just expanded MLB by 2 teams last year (Salt Lake City & Montreal) and after one year of returning to the 2-division setup, we've gone with the 4-division setup. I hate 4 team divisions, but I found a schedule that has teams playing EVERY team in the bigs including all of the NL teams and I like this idea because it seem silly to play 162 games and not play everyone at least once.

So we're going to try it out this year and see how/if it works for us. Probably won't use it every year, because I like the idea of schedule variety, but let's not get ahead of ourselves when I haven't even simmed one year yet.

[Young Drachma]

http://i.imgur.com/h5dL48Z.png (http://imgur.com/h5dL48Z)

[Young Drachma]

I had to lower the financial co-efficient by half because it was too difficult for me to make sense of those inflated numbers (even though I like them) in general.

Anyway, our challenge for this team in a new city is figuring out what to do with them. We have a few parts to work with, but very little money. If this were my normal posture, I'd give myself more money and just start making deals and getting guys. But I'm legitimately trying to do a "realistic for me" dynasty and so, I'm not going to do that.

This sucks.

http://i.imgur.com/a9u50ZE.png (http://imgur.com/a9u50ZE)

So if you've ever seen me do a dynasty or been in a league with me, you know that I don't really do .500 teams(or for that matter "slow leagues") and so it's going either be a complete implosion of what we have here or we're going to find a way to go for it.

Well there's no way to actually go for it in this case, which means we can either reboot the entire roster because we're going to be in a new city, but is it a really good idea to show up to a new place and stink for a while?

I dunno, the Nats did it and it paid off. I guess that's just going to be our approach? I dunno what to think, but basically this first year we're going to get familiar with the major league roster and the organization.

Destroying the entire Japanese league means that there will be an infusion of decent players showing up that should turn the league on its head, so I'll go look for something and see if I can't find some value that can serve us well.

But mostly, my goal is to get through the first season and then work from there.

[Young Drachma]

The first guy I signed as the Blue Collars was CF Cristian Olivo who spent a few years in the minors of the Japanese League for some odd reason despite being ready to actually play. I switched the Japanese League minors to become the Lincoln League minors (since they swapped) and well anyway, I stumbled onto him and bought his contract.

One assumes he'll be at least somehow useful?

http://i.imgur.com/PyL8QSz.png (http://imgur.com/PyL8QSz)

The Angels offered me a trade for Keon Barnum for two minor leaguers, so I took the deal. I hope I didn't trade a future star to them, but one of the perils of not playing with future ratings is you can only see a guy's stats and how good he is right now. I think it's a brilliant way to play because you can't tell when you're trading a potential superstar away.

http://i.imgur.com/zBpebdd.png (http://imgur.com/zBpebdd)

To be honest, I just want to get to the season going and see what this team is made of (not much) because I'm not invested enough to stick with the off-season. I'll get to the Rule V draft and then after that, it's time to get to work.

[Young Drachma]

Here's my Hall of Fame ballot. Absolutely one of my favorite OOTP features added in ages.

http://i.imgur.com/N2AlAUt.png (http://imgur.com/N2AlAUt)

[Young Drachma]

I did the Rule 5 draft and loaded up on veteran names that fans will know, even though none of them will be very good. I did this deliberately less for them since they aren't real and more for me.

I did also realize we had this guy:

http://i.imgur.com/HT4ngfI.png (http://imgur.com/HT4ngfI)

Which is interesting. I wonder what he'd fetch on the open market after he had a break out year last year. He's relatively cheap, but if I can get a minor leaguer for him, I'd love to do it. I think he's a perfect sell high kind of candidate for a team, but he might be someone we don't trade until around the deadline. I'll just hit the market, see what's an option and go from there.

Ended up trading him Toronto for prospects.

I've had enough of the off-season, I'm going to sim through now to the start of spring training and get the season started. I need a season under my belt and as usual, I took way too long to get things setup.

[Young Drachma]

Albert Pujols and C.C. Sabathia were inducted into the HOF.

[Young Drachma]

This team had more talent than I think I realized, but they were also bad which didn't help. The few deals I made helped and the only free agent signing I made was to throw a huge 1-year deal at Cole Hamels, precisely because as I said before my only goal in this situation was to create a team that was mostly veteran laden to given the fans something to root for early on, with some familiar names.

http://i.imgur.com/RUeviWL.png (http://imgur.com/RUeviWL)

http://i.imgur.com/KlReYCC.png (http://imgur.com/KlReYCC)

http://i.imgur.com/CZpGMKE.png (http://imgur.com/CZpGMKE)

ACCORDING TO THE PREDICTIONS..
The relocated Blue Collars are projected to finish first in the new AL Central. Obviously injuries will tell the story, but it's encouraging. (I hate 4-team divisions.)

Our post-season setup is maintained from last year so there are 12 teams in the post-season total. So the two worst division champs play against the two best wild cards to get into the division series. It's a best-of-three rather than a 1-game playoff and I shortened spring training by three weeks, so that the post-season is now projected to start in mid-September.

http://i.imgur.com/IMf5H6O.png (http://imgur.com/IMf5H6O)

[Young Drachma]

We had more free agency money than I thought, it was just that the AI had the money tied up into shitty contracts for guys I had no interest in signing so I dropped those deals.

So we still have about $14m to spend and our payroll went from 29th to 15th. Respectable.

One of my Rule 5 draft signees apparently came with a $14.6m price tag. I did not realize this because I did not look. I've put him on the market to see if I can offload that deal because I don't need him that bad.

http://i.imgur.com/dkzN1rT.png (http://imgur.com/dkzN1rT)

[Young Drachma]

You know how every team has a guy who you know becomes your favorite player and then you're invested in that team because of that guy? Well Grant Burton is that guy for me with this Blue Collars club. He was a former 1st rounder for the Rays and I knew that while I have no idea how he'll pan -- he's already out -- I wanted to ink him to a long-term deal while we have control because he's the kind of guy who if it works out you want to retire on this club.

http://i.imgur.com/p1jzQFs.png (http://imgur.com/p1jzQFs)

We'll see if he takes it, but it's a 10-year deal/$34m deal

[Young Drachma]

http://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/08/05/0e8dcdbdb869160394650efd4e51eb31.jpg

[Young Drachma]

http://i.imgur.com/apf4Wg1.png (http://imgur.com/apf4Wg1)

Wanna know why we're #2 in home runs? We play in a bandbox.

http://i.imgur.com/zhRMQyU.png (http://imgur.com/zhRMQyU)

[Young Drachma]

Here's the 2023 All-Star rosters. I have it set to 32 players and every team gets at least one representative.


MLB News: The All-Star Game Rosters Have Been Announced
Sunday, June 18th, 2023
It's that time of the season again, when the best of the best battle it out for Major League Baseball bragging rights. Yes, its time for the annual All-Star game! The American League All-Stars will take on the National League All-Stars in a star-studded showdown.

Leading the way for the American League All-Stars will be:

SP Connor Green (TOR) - 10-4, 2.57 ERA, 129.2 IP, 0.83 WHIP, 8.8 K/9, 2.2 WAR
SP David Holmberg (HOU) - 8-5, 2.95 ERA, 116.0 IP, 1.17 WHIP, 7.7 K/9, 3.4 WAR
SP James Needy (KC) - 8-7, 2.03 ERA, 133.0 IP, 0.93 WHIP, 8.4 K/9, 4.2 WAR
SP Michael Sandborn (SEA) - 10-3, 2.79 ERA, 116.1 IP, 1.04 WHIP, 10.1 K/9, 3.2 WAR
SP Michael Santos (MTL) - 5-5, 2.54 ERA, 99.1 IP, 1.05 WHIP, 8.4 K/9, 2.3 WAR
SP Kyle Serrano (MIN) - 10-2, 2.33 ERA, 108.0 IP, 1.06 WHIP, 8.1 K/9, 2.8 WAR
SP Marcus Stroman (TOR) - 11-2, 2.06 ERA, 126.2 IP, 1.01 WHIP, 6.0 K/9, 2.8 WAR
RP Matt Barnes (TOR) - 5-0, 5 SV, 1.38 ERA, 32.2 IP, 0.86 WHIP, 6.3 K/9, 0.2 WAR
RP Joe Claver (HOU) - 3-3, 2.09 ERA, 43.0 IP, 1.07 WHIP, 8.8 K/9, 1.1 WAR
RP Edwin Diaz (SEA) - 2-2, 1.60 ERA, 33.2 IP, 1.01 WHIP, 12.0 K/9, 0.8 WAR
CL Cody Allen (CHA) - 4-2, 15 SV, 2.29 ERA, 35.1 IP, 0.82 WHIP, 14.0 K/9, 1.1 WAR (Injured)
CL Reagan Bazar (BAL) - 9-2, 11 SV, 2.57 ERA, 73.2 IP, 0.88 WHIP, 13.7 K/9, 2.0 WAR
CL Joe Ortiz (NYA) - 4-1, 23 SV, 0.86 ERA, 41.2 IP, 1.03 WHIP, 6.7 K/9, 0.2 WAR
CL Riley Pint (DET) - 0-0, 21 SV, 1.74 ERA, 41.1 IP, 0.87 WHIP, 12.6 K/9, 1.0 WAR
C T.J. Collett (BOS) - .342/.415/.600, 310 AB, 20 HR, 1 SB, 179 wRC+, 4.8 WAR
C Oscar Hernandez (SAC) - .257/.311/.441, 315 AB, 13 HR, 0 SB, 110 wRC+, 2.4 WAR
C Shedric Long (NYA) - .259/.293/.491, 228 AB, 11 HR, 0 SB, 122 wRC+, 2.1 WAR
1B Keon Barnum (CHU) - .280/.312/.596, 322 AB, 28 HR, 0 SB, 158 wRC+, 2.6 WAR
1B Tyler Kuresa (MIN) - .289/.324/.509, 342 AB, 18 HR, 1 SB, 135 wRC+, 2.4 WAR
1B D.J. Peterson (BAL) - .267/.336/.483, 315 AB, 17 HR, 5 SB, 135 wRC+, 2.4 WAR
2B Xavier Edwards (TOR) - .307/.372/.440, 336 AB, 6 HR, 20 SB, 133 wRC+, 3.1 WAR
2B Jonatan Hinojosa (MIN) - .300/.362/.472, 320 AB, 11 HR, 3 SB, 140 wRC+, 2.3 WAR
2B Tyler Wade (NYA) - .284/.371/.498, 317 AB, 17 HR, 3 SB, 148 wRC+, 4.0 WAR
3B Xander Bogaerts (BOS) - .318/.374/.520, 302 AB, 12 HR, 0 SB, 158 wRC+, 3.2 WAR
3B Parker Kelly (TEX) - .292/.375/.544, 250 AB, 16 HR, 3 SB, 166 wRC+, 3.0 WAR
3B Manny Machado (BAL) - .287/.327/.439, 314 AB, 9 HR, 1 SB, 122 wRC+, 2.8 WAR (Injured)
SS Willy Adames (CHU) - .266/.357/.470, 304 AB, 12 HR, 7 SB, 138 wRC+, 2.6 WAR
LF Garrett Benge (TEX) - .259/.359/.489, 309 AB, 18 HR, 0 SB, 142 wRC+, 1.0 WAR
CF Dariel Alvarez (CLE) - .293/.339/.430, 263 AB, 7 HR, 3 SB, 119 wRC+, 2.1 WAR
CF Enmanuel Garcia (TEX) - .246/.303/.434, 341 AB, 14 HR, 2 SB, 111 wRC+, 3.1 WAR
CF Simon Muzziotti (CHA) - .279/.387/.425, 226 AB, 5 HR, 19 SB, 136 wRC+, 2.4 WAR
CF Brett Phillips (LAA) - .333/.385/.558, 120 AB, 6 HR, 4 SB, 178 wRC+, 1.2 WAR
CF Mike Trout (TOR) - .304/.407/.549, 273 AB, 16 HR, 7 SB, 167 wRC+, 4.7 WAR
RF Nomar Mazara (TEX) - .308/.383/.526, 312 AB, 15 HR, 2 SB, 159 wRC+, 3.8 WAR


While the National League will feature these star players:

SP Roenis Elias (ATL) - 6-4, 1.76 ERA, 61.1 IP, 0.88 WHIP, 7.9 K/9, 1.0 WAR
SP Jacob Evans (ATL) - 6-2, 2.05 ERA, 110.0 IP, 0.96 WHIP, 8.1 K/9, 3.1 WAR
SP Kevin Guzman (LAD) - 10-5, 2.76 ERA, 117.1 IP, 1.20 WHIP, 7.1 K/9, 2.4 WAR
SP Grant Holmes (SD) - 11-1, 1.90 ERA, 113.2 IP, 0.96 WHIP, 9.9 K/9, 2.4 WAR
SP Kodi Medeiros (CHC) - 10-4, 1.87 ERA, 115.2 IP, 0.99 WHIP, 8.1 K/9, 2.6 WAR
SP Rob Rasmussen (LAD) - 7-3, 2.04 ERA, 101.2 IP, 1.03 WHIP, 8.7 K/9, 3.6 WAR
SP Keith Weisenberg (PIT) - 5-3, 2.72 ERA, 109.0 IP, 1.06 WHIP, 9.4 K/9, 3.0 WAR
RP Brad Hand (SLC) - 6-4, 2.15 ERA, 75.1 IP, 1.21 WHIP, 9.1 K/9, 1.7 WAR
RP Trey McNutt (SLC) - 1-2, 1.59 ERA, 51.0 IP, 0.92 WHIP, 8.3 K/9, 1.2 WAR
CL Aroldis Chapman (WAS) - 2-4, 25 SV, 2.92 ERA, 37.0 IP, 0.97 WHIP, 14.1 K/9, 0.9 WAR
CL Craig Kimbrel (CHC) - 2-2, 23 SV, 2.02 ERA, 35.2 IP, 0.84 WHIP, 10.9 K/9, 0.9 WAR
CL Phil Klein (ATL) - 3-1, 19 SV, 2.27 ERA, 39.2 IP, 1.34 WHIP, 12.3 K/9, 0.8 WAR
CL Evan Scribner (LAD) - 3-0, 20 SV, 2.33 ERA, 38.2 IP, 1.11 WHIP, 10.0 K/9, 0.8 WAR
C Bryce Carter (MIL) - .285/.339/.461, 295 AB, 9 HR, 0 SB, 132 wRC+, 2.7 WAR
C Li-Jen Chu (STL) - .268/.315/.414, 239 AB, 5 HR, 0 SB, 114 wRC+, 1.8 WAR
C Jason Goldstein (CIN) - .300/.404/.467, 287 AB, 10 HR, 2 SB, 154 wRC+, 3.7 WAR
1B Josh E. Bell (WAS) - .354/.399/.567, 319 AB, 14 HR, 1 SB, 184 wRC+, 3.6 WAR (Injured)
1B Justin Chigbogu (LAD) - .276/.323/.479, 330 AB, 19 HR, 4 SB, 135 wRC+, 1.6 WAR
1B John Devine (MIA) - .307/.359/.475, 280 AB, 7 HR, 9 SB, 143 wRC+, 3.4 WAR
1B Ibandel Isabel (SF) - .317/.409/.495, 202 AB, 6 HR, 0 SB, 158 wRC+, 1.6 WAR
2B Domingo Leyba (PHI) - .289/.337/.419, 346 AB, 5 HR, 8 SB, 118 wRC+, 2.3 WAR
2B Brendan Rodgers (ARI) - .313/.367/.511, 319 AB, 10 HR, 13 SB, 152 wRC+, 4.4 WAR (Injured)
3B Mathew Annunziata (SLC) - .284/.336/.422, 327 AB, 6 HR, 8 SB, 122 wRC+, 2.3 WAR
3B Dustin Geiger (WAS) - .258/.331/.453, 318 AB, 15 HR, 0 SB, 121 wRC+, 1.3 WAR
3B Julian Infante (NYM) - .275/.344/.449, 236 AB, 9 HR, 0 SB, 134 wRC+, 1.9 WAR
SS Xavier LeGrant (PHI) - .278/.315/.469, 277 AB, 12 HR, 5 SB, 125 wRC+, 2.6 WAR
SS Corey Seager (LAD) - .288/.380/.449, 274 AB, 7 HR, 0 SB, 146 wRC+, 3.6 WAR
LF Phil Ervin (CIN) - .259/.336/.482, 251 AB, 16 HR, 12 SB, 136 wRC+, 2.0 WAR
CF Clay Casey (PIT) - .315/.375/.503, 197 AB, 5 HR, 4 SB, 157 wRC+, 2.4 WAR
CF David Dahl (COL) - .296/.330/.436, 328 AB, 8 HR, 13 SB, 117 wRC+, 2.5 WAR
CF Terrell McCall (CIN) - .261/.346/.450, 291 AB, 13 HR, 15 SB, 128 wRC+, 3.7 WAR
RF Andrew Benintendi (ATL) - .294/.355/.465, 310 AB, 13 HR, 1 SB, 137 wRC+, 2.1 WAR
RF Nick Longhi (SLC) - .252/.296/.486, 282 AB, 17 HR, 2 SB, 126 wRC+, 1.2 WAR
RF Taylor Trammell (ARI) - .311/.399/.457, 328 AB, 9 HR, 4 SB, 148 wRC+, 3.0 WAR

[Young Drachma]

Blue Collars payroll is 22nd in the majors.


Rank Team Payroll
1 Texas Rangers $108,510,000
2 Los Angeles Dodgers $107,005,000
3 Chicago Cubs $99,072,500
4 Minnesota Twins $96,524,500
5 Philadelphia Phillies $96,217,500
6 Arizona Diamondbacks $92,142,875
7 Toronto Blue Jays $92,025,000
8 Colorado Rockies $90,981,250
9 Seattle Mariners $86,164,125
10 Detroit Tigers $80,825,375
11 Houston Astros $78,328,750
12 Washington Nationals $77,296,250
13 Kansas City Royals $76,305,750
14 Baltimore Orioles $67,904,688
15 Cleveland Indians $66,127,500
16 New York Mets $64,696,250
17 San Diego Padres $64,379,500
18 Cincinnati Reds $63,674,938
19 San Francisco Giants $61,450,375
20 Milwaukee Brewers $61,385,375
21 Boston Red Sox $60,363,063
22 Churchill Blue Collars$57,350,500
23 Chicago White Sox $56,449,500
24 New York Yankees $56,020,000
25 Atlanta Braves $54,844,313
26 Miami Marlins $48,585,625
27 Pittsburgh Pirates $45,815,938
28 Sacramento Athletics $42,116,625
29 Montreal Expos $36,700,000
30 Los Angeles Angels $34,101,625
31 St. Louis Cardinals $31,165,688
32 Salt Lake City Alpines $20,554,125


http://i.imgur.com/eEuJYGQ.png (http://imgur.com/eEuJYGQ)

[Young Drachma]

http://i.imgur.com/h2v8ny3.png (http://imgur.com/h2v8ny3)

So at mid-season here is where we are. I think the problem is we don't really have the pitching to hang and our offense isn't even that good outside of hitting home runs in that band box of a stadium we play in.

So while I am loathe to do it, it seems like the best thing to do for this year is to break the team up and see if we can't get some prospects for some of the rentals I have on the roster. Cole Hamels could help a contender, as could a few of our Japanese imports who are on one-year deals.

We have a decent core in place to build around and we'll have about $30m to spend next off-season, which isn't a ton, but enough to pick up a few pieces. Still this isn't a title team and even if we could somehow fluke into the postseason, I doubt we'd get very far.

So better to give up now and come back next year and see what we are working with.

[Young Drachma]

http://i.imgur.com/Bs1Ly0G.png (http://imgur.com/Bs1Ly0G)

[Young Drachma]

2023 RECAP: 79-83 (2ND IN THE AL CENTRAL)
The first season in Churchill for the Blue Collars was not as predicted. Publicly, the team looked like it had all of the goods to contend and for a while, they were going to. But injuries took their tool and the team wasn't able to rebound. While it was disappointing, for the team that used to be the Tampa Bay Rays, this was a step forward into a market with fans who actually showed up to games and cared about their new team that they'd wanted to get for so long.

http://i.imgur.com/oLKNpXZ.png (http://imgur.com/oLKNpXZ)

WHO WE'RE EXCITED ABOUT THIS YEAR:
2B Avery Romero (2.6 WAR)
RF Grant Burton (6.3 WAR)

OFFSEASON SETUP
As I've outlined before, my goal here is to really get through some seasons. I want to immerse myself into this franchise without resorting to simply simming and playing God mode. So instead, I'm going to reboot my fast-sim style of play from my old FOOL/SLOP setups and what we'll do is just restrict the numbers of moves I can make in a given year.

Since my goal is sim 25 seasons which does not include the past season since it was me getting things setup and really getting a sense of the league, etc., I'm going to institute a few house rules to keep things simple. I don't really like playing with a lot of constraints because it makes things unnecessarily onerous but I do want to be 1) brisk and 2) not allowed myself to get mired in a ton of details right now.

- 25 years, 25 moves.
What this means effectively is that I can make 25 transactions over the next 25 years. This is just trades and/or free agents, not anything else like having to release guys or whatever because it starts to get impractical. This is just to keep me from going crazy. It also institutes constraints without it being insane. This also includes signing my own guys for now, it'll probably piss me off down the road if there's a guy I really want to keep but can't because I'm out of moves, but maybe that'll make the story better for you to read.

So that's the only house rule for now. 25 moves and I have to document each one of those moves for you.

I'll recap each pre-season with an overview of the team and then I'll produce an off-season report too. That's basically it. I don't want to get mired in slow stuff because with OOTP it's easy to end up spending hours researching Russian names even though you don't even have any fucking Russians. It's insane.

Let's get to work.

[Young Drachma]

2024 SEASON PREVIEW
Looking at the team as composed, I thought we had a realistic chance at a playoff spot, but I wasn't sure how I felt about acquiring anyone overpaid. I considered standing pat with what we had, but decided after last year's debacle with hurlers we needed at least one guy who was a relative ace throwing for us at the top of the rotation. We also needed a third basemen.

Offers don't count against my moves only signings. Fast-sim style, I made my offers and if I struck out on whoever I offered then sucks for me during that cycle.

MOVE #1: SP Chad Kuhl (8 years/$58.7 million)
Kuhl is a middle of the rotation guy who has spent the past few years in Colorado. He won 18 game last year there somehow and so, I thought if he could pitch there he could pitch for us and I felt like the fact he played there made him less desirable to other teams. I didn't really want to give a 31-year old pitcher an 8 year deal, but that's what he was asking for and it was still cheaper than some of the other stuff I could've done. But he seemed to have a clean bill of health and it was worth the try for us.

BYE BYE LINCOLN LEAGUE
I will eventually return to the premise of a small league just within the Churchill city limits, but I don't really think I can generate that story right now and instead, I'm just going to focus on this big league club. I killed the league off because I felt like a league like that is just a loophole for me to route players and so, I just wanted to kill it off.

NEW BALLPARK IS READY
As I mentioned, I didn't put any real thought into the ballpark when the team moved because I was just trying to get things going, but we moved them into a brand new stadium thanks to the eriqjaffe stadium builder. It's a bit more balanced and so our hurlers should have an easier time of surviving there.

http://i.imgur.com/WZEysGF.png (http://imgur.com/WZEysGF)

MY 2024 HALL OF FAME BALLOT
http://i.imgur.com/hu4lStR.png (http://imgur.com/hu4lStR)
King Felix was inducted with 77.8% of the vote.
http://i.imgur.com/goImNIH.png (http://imgur.com/goImNIH)

BIGGEST OFFSEASON MOVES
35-year old Stephen Strasburg left Washington to sign with the Braves. They also reloaded with Aroldis Chapman, who I was close to signing before they swooped in and I decided I wasn't willing to spend close to $10m for a closer. Ever.

[Young Drachma]

2024 SEASON
- I turned on the DH in the NL. Since I don't play out the games, the charm of having separate rules isn't really as vital for me. The opportunity for another 16 guys to get a chance to play who don't right now, to me, trumped whatever opposition I had before that.

- We played with a more traditional interleague schedule this year as opposed to the one last year where everyone played everybody. We'll revisit that schedule once every decade or so, just to mix things up.

MOVE #2: Traded 3B Grant Bodison and a minor leaguer (SS Ricardo Baez) for 3B Erik Jagielo & RP Jacob Niggemeyer.
This deal was not one I wanted to make, necessarily. But Bodison can't hit and we really needed to upgrade at 3B and relief, so bringing both these guys in might help us do that for a lot cheaper than a free agent, even though Jagielo has a $4m price tag and Bodison was still pre-arbitration. I really didn't want to waste a move on this, but it's the 2nd time that deal was offered to me so I took it.

2024 SEASON RECAP
SEASON OPENING PAYROLL: $54.3 million (23rd in MLB)

THE SEASON
RECORD: 79-83 (4th, AL Central)
LAST SEASON: 79-83 (2nd, AL Central)

The team hovered around .500 all the way through the end of July. With four-team divisions, that can be good enough in theory. Grant Burton was our only All-Star this year. By the end of August, reality set in and we were six games under .500 and clearly going to miss the post-season again. I had to think about what the future of this team was and what I wanted to do this off-season. I'm thinking pretty hard about pulling a Marlins and dealing off any of my current major league talent in favor of prospects, with the idea that if I can go out and build a team that we might have a decent future ahead of us.

We don't lose any of our core though going into next year, so maybe I should try to sign a few free agents before completely giving up on this team?

Let's look at the bright spots, our offensive and pitching MVPs

http://i.imgur.com/co2Ka27.png (http://imgur.com/co2Ka27)

http://i.imgur.com/aQ4BALp.png (http://imgur.com/aQ4BALp)

I have 23 moves left and 24 more seasons to get through.

OOPS
Remember when I told you I traded Brawlun Gomez to the Blue Jays? Well he was in MVP form this year, Mike Trout will win the award, but Gomez will finish Top 3 after a career year. Oops. Could've used that bat.

http://i.imgur.com/KrYBVgy.png (http://imgur.com/KrYBVgy)

OTHER NOTES
- I turned on the DH in the NL. Since I don't play out the games, the charm of having separate rules isn't really as vital for me. The opportunity for another 16 guys to get a chance to play who don't right now, to me, trumped whatever opposition I had before that.

- I also removed protection for division champs where they would get home field even if they had a worse record than a wild card. Because bad division champs are more prevalent in a 4-team division which is why I hate them. I could create a bypass rule to avoid letting division champs who have a bad record make the playoffs at all, but it seems silly with an unbalanced schedule to punish teams who win their division with no post-season especially with so many games.

- We played with a more traditional interleague schedule this year as opposed to the one last year where everyone played everybody. We'll revisit that schedule once every decade or so, just to mix things up.

- There are way too many players in the FA pool, so I lowered the draft to just 1 round. Not sure how long I'll keep it that way, but I'd like to thin out the field without having to do a mass delete but there's no way to do a selective delete, so I'm just going to have to wait.

http://i.imgur.com/ZzhFoPJ.png (http://imgur.com/ZzhFoPJ)

[Wolfpack]

The division alignment would look better this way to me:
AL East: Toronto, NY Yankees, Boston, Baltimore
AL North: Minnesota, Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland
AL South: Churchill, Kansas City, Texas, Houston
AL West: Seattle, Sacramento, LA Angels, Salt Lake

NL East: Montreal, NY Mets, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh
NL North: Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Louis, Colorado
NL South: Washington, Atlanta, Miami, Cincinnati
NL West: San Francisco, LA Dodgers, San Diego, Arizona

Something about San Fran and LA getting split and Chicago and St. Louis getting split and having St. Louis and Chicago both play in divisions half a continent away from them just begged me to figure out how to get them back together. :D Also, it makes sense from a historical perspective that Montreal would return to the NL if a team came back, while swapping them for Salt Lake makes a more geographically compact AL West come together as well.

[Young Drachma]

I appreciate this. I was kicking around it for a while and decided to just do it quickly. Here's my current setup from my most recent season. Your point about Montreal is compelling, but conventional wisdom these days is they need to be with Toronto for some kind of "rivalry" or something, but I didn't even have them in the same division, so there's that.

http://i.imgur.com/RqXj0Oe.png

You motivated me to make some changes though given our new structure.

[Young Drachma]

Just finished the 2029 season and I'll eventually start recapping again, but I did have to trade my favorite player on the Blue Collars away today. He's 29 and I just couldn't stand to see him continue to be terrible. Took him out of the starting lineup and after the postseason where we lost in our 2nd World Series in 3 years, I decided it was time to send him packing too.

http://i.imgur.com/huiPDEJ.png

He's a Met now.

Here's the last few years results. I'll start storytelling again when there's some drama. Right now, I'm just trying to get more immersed into this team and the league as a whole, because it makes it easier to tell the story. Right now, I'm mostly waiting to see when I'm going to commence with breaking up this team, because that'll be a story worth sharing. Not yet, though.

http://i.imgur.com/gNomjel.png

[Young Drachma]

http://www.cincinnativiews.net/images-2/Logo%201993-1998.JPG

The Cincinnati Reds are moving to CHURCHILL? The city has grown exponentially and the Reds, facing a declining population in Cincinnati and an aging stadium have worked out a TV revenue sharing agreement to move to the city.

I have not decided where their new stadium will yet, I'll probably let the fans decide in a different thread, though not sure I'll post it here since that isn't as interesting to people.