1969 Season Thread (Postseason is complete!)
 

And so...who will be the miracles of the '69 season in FOOL? We will soon find out.

File is up.

Salary cap will now be calculated using the Active Roster payroll (Payroll by Roster) listed on the Front Office --> Advanced Info tab, so it cuts out the minor league salaries from the calculation starting now. Means that no one is over the cap.

SPRING TRAINING STANDINGS
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CL
New York 17-7
Rio Grande 15-9
Valdosta 14-10
Atlanta 12-12
Brooklyn 10-14
Long Beach Island 10-14
Texas 9-15
Baltimore 9-15

RL
Seattle 16-8
Boston 15-9
Compton 14-10
Colorado 14-10
Ann Arbor 12-12
Hartford 11-13
El Paso 11-13
Chicago 3-21

Just means we'll tank this year. Unless my pitching improves I don't expect a dern thing out of my team.

One thing I wonder about going forward. Will players really last past the age of 30? I could sign Fernandez for the next 5 or 6 years, till he'd be 34 or 35, but do I REALLY trust him to keep his ratings and stats at his current level? Guess I'll decide after the season whether my kids this season are up to the task of replacing a legend in New York.

Tell

I remember my depth chart and lineups being different for Spring Training. Not a huge deal but it makes me wonder, are there certain reasons the AI will kick in and override these and re-do them? If so, I want to avoid those. :)

It shouldn't unless you have the AI set to control your lineup or rotation setting in your manager options.

I played alot of my young guys this spring training and sat down alot of my veterans, and it looked like it took mine without any changes.

I had a question on this DC. If I recall you said you adjusted the development levels a little while ago to the ones that SkyDog proposed. In his developments they take longer to develop and then age slower right? So we should be able to soon have players that are playing well in their 30s as I am also leary of paying anyone huge cash that is over 29.

Maybe I just messed up yesterday with something. My pitching is exactly how I remember setting it, with three guys up from AAA in the first three starting spots. I just remember having young guys at 1B and C, but I probably messed it up. I am not crying foul anyways, it really doesn't matter as I saw enough to decide on guys.

What is getting me right now is I can't decide who to keep as a reserve player in the OF. The great defensive player with great baserunning skills, but few bat skills, or the young offensive prospect who tore it up in ST? I am leaning towards defense....

As for player ages, I hope they last into their 30's. I have Tanaka signed up until he is 33. 1B Reilly is 31 right now, Aguilera is about to hit 30. For pitching I have Medina and Pegan signed up until they are 31. If all these guys tank soon Rio Grande is dead in the water.

I believe DC is using the Ronco development modifiers. Normal out of the box modifiers tend to have players peak somewhere around age 23-25 which is a bit early. Ronco's modifiers has players peak on average between ages 26-29 I believe. The development up to age 26 is slower than out of the box, but it seems to me that the tail off from the peak isn't really slower but is actually a bit quicker. The trick is that the tail off starts several years (2-4 years) later so it seems slower is all.

Remember there are going to always be exceptions (young players that peak earlier, or players that last into their 40s), but for the most part players should be able to last until their mid-30s somewhere in most cases.. just most peaks will be in their late 20s just like in real life baseball.

Have we actually found many of these players yet? Keith Bond was the closest I came, and by the time he hit 30 he wasn't an ML-level talent anymore.

It is kind of hard to tell so far as we've had too much talent probably put in that was really good early. (like major league ready at age 18-22). Plus alot of the current older players actually developed prior to ootp9 or prior to the current modifiers.. so now that we seem to be settling down, this should be more the case in the future moreso than the past few years.

I do know that I had a few age 30ish players that performed fine. My ace pitcher finally hit the wall at around age 33-34, and my closer is still doing ok at I think age 32 (I don't have the game available here right now). I think my gut feel is that the older players that were around prior to fool going to ootp9 seem to be aging out a few years earlier though... and I fully expect this artificial talent that was added instead of the draft for a few years to have odd aging patterns as well though.

No, Ronco is the one who had proposed the development modifiers that would make players age twice as fast and develop half as fast. Needless to say, that was kicking our league's ass. So I decided to slow them down by half to the defaults of the game and it seems that it's working as more of our players are lasting longer.

I don't think we'll really be able to see it working better until the next generation of players, though. Now that things are finally stable, we're in a better place, I think.

Plus, we converted from the older version to 9 and there were some things in the background that changed that affect player development significantly.

DC, What are our aging modifiers set to just so we know? Would be useful to know when to expect players to peak and when it is time to give up on prospects for instance.

I had thought you previously said you were using Ronco's modifiers, but if they are a little different can you post what they are?

Thanks!

1.000 (AGING) and .500 (development) the latter is the same as Ronco, I just cut Ronco's aging modifier (2.000) in half to the game's default. The game's default development modifier is 1.000, too, but I like how guys develop (or don't) right now.

Looking at the players in the league, it seems the first wave of league stars are getting to be 35+ like Mike Wallace from the old St. Louis club (now in Atlanta), Bryan Hughes of Valdosta (nee Gary)

The best rated players over 30 are Gabriel Prado (33) (Valdosta..grr), Tom Williams (32) (Compton) Orlando Diaz (31) (LBI) Tyler Reilly (Rio Grande) (31)

Baltimore's Ben Harris is 30. It'll be interesting to see how far he drops off this year. But really, the next 5-10 years will represent a new era in FOOL, as we'll have guys retired who made the league what it was and start figuring out who our first "legends" are.

Long Beach Island is moving to Toronto, Canada and will be known as the Toronto Atlantics. The team will be owned by DizzyDizzyDinosaur and he'll be taking over this season.

Canadians? There goes the neighborhood.

Welcome DDD

An hour before we kick off another crazy year of FOOL action. Any predictions?

I predict that my team is going to get older and older and after a strong run the first half of the season (just like last year), I will tail off and end up second or third again (just like last year again)

I don't even want to anticipate what will happen in Compton. I mean, I've just ceased to have any real expectations. After I was stupid and didn't bother to resign Prado on the false assumption that his ratings would fade and then tried to resign him, but got sideswiped at the last minute by Valdosta, my plans were thrown into a frenzy in what was otherwise a pretty masterful offseason getting Tom Williams from Baltimore and a real doorshutter in Aaron Dailey out of Atlanta.

Fact of the matter is, though, once this win window is shut, we're gonna suffer for a long, long time. So...really, I need to get a title out of this year or next or I can pretty much forget it.

Are we definitely running the sim tonight? Because I had family dinner plans come up unexpected, and I am not done with my lineups. I can finish tonight, but I have to go to dinner, and can't be back before deadline.

Sure, we'll just wait for you. You're probably going to win anyway. :banghead:

Heh...don't be so sure. Too many good GMs here making moves this offseason while I couldn't do anything. ;)

Thanks.

I think we've got a shot at taking the conference pennant, if I don't have mass tankings in the roster. We're pretty solid top-to-bottom, although our bullpen is a touch weaker than last season. I really like my starting rotation, and if Patrick Perkins doesn't show his age we've got a pretty good lineup.

I say it's Boston v. Valdosta in the Classic this year. Boston has come close the past few years and their youth movement should be ready to soar this year. I'd watch out for Rio Grande again in the CL, Brooklyn is a possibility too.

In the RL, I'd say that the usual suspects. Colorado, Ann Arbor and maybe even Compton given our strong finish last year might have a shot at the pennant.

If we can get a great three way race in the CL between Rio Grande, Valdosta, and New York, then I wouldn't even care if I came out on the short end of that stick. I think it could be a great battle this year and I hope I am right.

Hall of Champions is very cool to look at DC. I didn't want to post in there just because I didn't want to ruin the perdy-ness of it.

Same!

Back!

I am wrapping things up right now. Thanks, everyone!

Doubt anyone's around, but I am exportée.

Awesome. I'll get it done eventually, too. I won't do the teams that have moved to other locales, because well...I just can't dredge up their logos, but I will do the existing teams that I've missed.

And away we go. 1969 is here!

STANDINGS AS OF MAY 1, 1969

STANDINGS AS OF JUNE 1, 1969

STANDINGS AS OF JULY 1, 1969

MID-SEASON STANDOUTS

Gabriel Prado of Valdosta is 8-4 with a 1.83 ERA so far this year.

Jose Torres, Pablo Gonzalez of Colorado and Bob Halpin of Compton all lead the FOOL with 12 wins.

John MacDonald of Boston leads the league with 136 strikeouts.

Aaron Dailey of Compton leads the league with 28 saves

Mauro Suarez of El Paso has a .388 batting average so far this year

Henry McKinney of Compton has a league leading 18 home runs

Sancho Lopez of New York has 68 RBI so far this year, tops in the FOOL.

Rich Lang, a VL import has 41 steals for Brooklyn, to lead the league.

STANDINGS AS OF AUGUST 1, 1969

I can't remember a time when we had an August where this many teams were in the hunt this late in the year.

David Barajas (ATL) threw the first no-hitter for the Firecrackers since they moved to Atlanta on July 30th, the first no-hitter in FOOL since 1967. He struck out 8 and walked 2. It was the 8th no-hitter in FOOL History.

Nelson Valdes (COL) threw the first no-hitter in Colorado history against the Seattle Armada on August 3rd.

1962 was the only other time in FOOL history when there were 2 or more no-hitters in the same season. Since that season (when there were 3) there have only been 5 and 2 of those happened this year.

The year of the no-hitter continues. Pete McKeane threw the first no-hitter in Compton history striking out six and walking zilch in a Compton win over Colorado on August 9th.

STANDINGS AS OF AUGUST 11, 1969

STANDINGS AS OF AUGUST 18, 1969

Sancho Lopez of New York has had 2 20+ game hitting streaks this year. He had a 23 game hit streak to start the season that ended on April 29th. He had a 21 game hitting streak that ended on August 16th. Needless to say, n oone else has ever done this in the same season before.

Since I kinda don't want to run through the rest of the season yet, I'm going to pour through the All-Star Game picks instead, that way...we'll know who made the teams in both leagues. And yes, we'll actually play the game this year, since people care about that. ;)

Stats of August 18, 1969.

CONTINENTAL LEAGUE ALL-STAR TEAM

REPUBLIC LEAGUE ALL-STAR TEAM
Stats of August 18, 1969.

STANDINGS AS OF AUGUST 25, 1969

SEPTEMBER 1, 1969