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03-14-2009, 03:16 PM
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#1 | ||
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Dark Cloud
Join Date: Apr 2001
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The neverending saga of the California Whiskeyjacks (OOTP)
After 50 years of running, the original Front Office Offseason League came to an end. While the league is reorganizing with new league names, teams and who knows what else, the original league file was released to the wild much like the FOOL home kit 30 years earlier, for anyone to play and live out their FOOLish dreams.
So I did just that. Starting with the 2011 season, I restarted with the intention of coming back and taking a team someday, but not until the player file normalizes a bit. I'm presently in the year 2027, 17 years after the last online league season of FOOL. We'll recap the previous 17 years, chronicling what teams moved and some of the milestones along the way. The League HTML can be viewed here. Last edited by Young Drachma : 03-16-2009 at 07:11 PM. |
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03-14-2009, 03:28 PM
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#2 |
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Dark Cloud
Join Date: Apr 2001
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I'm going to do fairly swift recaps of the seasons between 2011-present (2027) really only telling you:
- standings - really key milestones - franchise moves, etc. - playoffs That's pretty much it. Here are the first 50 champions of the league, because that'll probably provide context, as well: 1961: Baltimore Gothams (CL) def. St. Louis Terriers 4 games to 3 1962: Baltimore Gothams (CL) def. St. Louis Terriers 4 games to 0 1963: St. Louis Terriers (RL) def. Worcester Browns 4 games to 0 1964: St. Louis Terriers (RL) def. Charleston Chew 5 games to 2 1965: New York Highlanders (CL) def. St. Louis Terriers 5 games to 3 1966: Colorado Rancheros (RL) def. New York Highlanders 5 games to 4 1967: Ann Arbor Wolverines (RL) def. Valdosta Peanuts 5 games to 2 1968: Rio Grande Roadrunners (CL) def. Colorado Rancheros 5 games to 3 1969: Brooklyn Brownstones (CL) def. Compton Brothers 5 games to 4 1970: Valdosta Peanuts (CL) def. Compton Brothers 5 games to 3 1971: Valdosta Peanuts (CL) def. Colorado Rancheros 5 games to 3 1972: Valdosta Peanuts (CL) def. Colorado Rancheros 5 games to 0 1973: Colorado Rancheros (RL) def. Atlanta Firecrackers 5 games to 3 1974: Valdosta Peanuts (CL) def. Quad City Thunderstorms 5 games to 1 1975: Chicago Thunderstorms (RL) def. Toronto Osprey 5 games to 1 1976: Columbus Crusaders (RL) def. Valdosta Peanuts 5 games to 4 1977: Hartford Harpooners (RL) def. Valdosta Peanuts 5 games to 4 1978: Baltimore Gothams (CL) def. Hartford Harpooners 5 games to 2 1979: Baltimore Gothams (CL) def. Hartford Harpooners 5 games to 2 1980: Hartford Harpooners (RL) def. Atlanta Firecrackers 5 games to 3 1981: Toronto Osprey (CL) def. Hartford Harpooners 5 games to 3 1982: Napa Valley Winemakers (CL) def. Hartford Harpooners 5 games to 3 1983: Napa Valley Winemakers (CL) def. Hartford Harpooners 5 games to 1 1984: Hartford Harpooners (RL) def. Atlanta Firecrackers 5 games to 2 1985: Baltimore Gothams (CL) def. Hartford Harpooners 5 games to 1 1986: Hartford Harpooners (RL) def. Baltimore Gothams 5 games to 4 1987: Colorado Rancheros (RL) def. Atlanta Firecrackers 5 games to 4 1988: Hartford Harpooners (RL) def. Brooklyn Brownstones 5 games to 3 1989: Valdosta Peanuts (CL) def. Colorado Rancheros 5 games to 4 1990: Colorado Rancheros (RL) def. Valdosta Peanuts 5 games to 3 1991: Hartford Harpooners (RL) def. Valdosta Peanuts 5 games to 3 1992: Colorado Rancheros (RL) def. Rio Grande Roadrunners 5 games to 2 1993: St. Louis Terriers (RL) def. Rio Grande Roadrunners 5 games to 1 1994: Valdosta Peanuts (CL) def. Colorado Rancheros 5 games to 2 1995: New York Panthers (CL) def. Colorado Rancheros 5 games to 4 1996: St. Louis Terriers (RL) def. Valdosta Peanuts 5 games to 3 1997: New York Panthers (CL) def. Chicago Thunderstorms 5 games to 2 1998: Valdosta Peanuts (CL) def. St. Louis Terriers 5 games to 1 1999: St. Louis Terriers (RL) def. Valdosta Peanuts 5 games to 4 2000: Brooklyn Brownstones (CL) def. Ann Arbor Wolverines 5 games to 4 2001: Napa Valley Winemakers (CL) def. Hartford Harpooners 5 games to 1 2002: Compton Brothers (RL) def. Valdosta Peanuts 5 games to 3 2003: Napa Valley Winemakers (CL) def. Colorado Rancheros 5 games to 1 2004: Valdosta Peanuts (CL) def. New York Heroes 5 games to 4 2005: Colorado Rancheros (RL) def. Valdosta Peanuts 5 games to 4 2006: Valdosta Peanuts (CL) def. Compton Brothers 5 games to 1 2007: Atlanta Firecrackers (CL) def. Boston Settlers 5 games to 4 2008: Atlanta Firecrackers (CL) def. Compton Brothers 5 games to 1 2009: Valdosta Peanuts (CL) def. Detroit Wolverines 5 games to 0 2010: Boston Settlers (RL) def. Atlanta Firecrackers 5 games to 1 Last edited by Young Drachma : 03-14-2009 at 03:50 PM. |
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03-14-2009, 03:36 PM
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#3 |
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Dark Cloud
Join Date: Apr 2001
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2011 Season Results
Code:
League Championship Series Atlanta over Valdosta, 4-1 League Championship Series Compton over Boston, 4-0 FOOL Classic Atlanta over Compton, 5-2 Last edited by Young Drachma : 03-14-2009 at 03:37 PM. |
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03-14-2009, 03:41 PM
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#4 |
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Dark Cloud
Join Date: Apr 2001
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2012 Season Results
In 2012, FOOL expanded by two teams. The Philadelphia Quakers (CL) and Rio Grande Roadrunners (RL) joined the league. Rio Grande is an expansion team that bears the same name of a defunct franchise, but this iteration of the Roadrunners play in the RL, while their predecessors were a CL team.
For the uninitiated, the Republic League is a DH league and the CL is not. With the switch to the 14-team schedule, FOOL now has interleague play. Teams play 20 games within their league against each team and 6 games against each team in the other league. 2012 STANDINGS Code:
League Championship Series Valdosta over Montreal, 4-1 League Championship Series Compton over Boston, 4-2 FOOL Classic Valdosta over Compton, 5-2 |
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03-14-2009, 03:42 PM
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#5 |
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Dark Cloud
Join Date: Apr 2001
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2013 Season
2013 STANDINGS
Code:
League Championship Series Brooklyn over Atlanta, 4-2 League Championship Series Compton over Colorado, 4-3 FOOL Classic Brooklyn over Compton, 5-2 |
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03-14-2009, 03:46 PM
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#6 |
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Dark Cloud
Join Date: Apr 2001
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Here are some recent Hall of Fame inductees:
Andres Aguilar (312-152 career record, 3.53 ERA) Doug Frazier (251-136 career record, 3.11 ERA) Tomas Valenzuela (.326, 2516 career hits, 346 HRs) |
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03-14-2009, 03:48 PM
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#7 |
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Dark Cloud
Join Date: Apr 2001
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2014 STANDINGS
Code:
League Championship Series Brooklyn over Atlanta, 4-2 League Championship Series Colorado over New York, 4-0 FOOL Classic Brooklyn over Colorado, 5-3 |
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03-14-2009, 03:52 PM
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#8 |
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Dark Cloud
Join Date: Apr 2001
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2015 STANDINGS
Code:
League Championship Series Valdosta over Napa Valley, 4-1 League Championship Series Rio Grande over Hartford, 4-0 FOOL Classic Valdosta over Rio Grande, 5-3 Last edited by Young Drachma : 03-14-2009 at 03:52 PM. |
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03-14-2009, 04:08 PM
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#9 |
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Dark Cloud
Join Date: Apr 2001
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Felipe Aguilera is FOOL's home run king and he's now a Hall of Famer. (624 HRs, .317 BA, 3915 hits)
Hugh Glassey (342 HRs, 3097 hits, .312 BA) Tomas Santos Career leader in stolen bases, hits (when he retired) and BA (1591 SBs, .342 BA, 3565 hits) Jorge Rosas (.286, 276 HRs, 2805 hits) |
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03-14-2009, 04:10 PM
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#10 |
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Dark Cloud
Join Date: Apr 2001
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In 2016, the Atlanta Firecrackers moved to Toronto, the Compton Brothers moved to Chicago and the Valdosta Peanuts moved to Vallejo, California.
2016 STANDINGS Code:
League Championship Series Baltimore over Vallejo, 4-0 League Championship Series Boston over Rio Grande, 4-2 FOOL Classic Baltimore over Boston, 5-0 |
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03-14-2009, 04:13 PM
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#11 |
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Dark Cloud
Join Date: Apr 2001
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After the 2016 season, Napa Valley, Vallejo and Montreal all folded.
They were replaced by the Peoria (IL) Distillers, Tuskegee (AL) Airmen and the Kansas City Beagles. The minor league systems were split, but Peoria mostly acquired Napa Valley's former players, Valdosta's former players largely went to Tuskegee and Kansas City got most of Montreal's former players. The Toronto Firecrackers moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico for the 2017 season. 2017 STANDINGS Code:
League Championship Series Baltimore over Tuskegee, 4-1 League Championship Series Boston over Detroit, 4-3 FOOL Classic Baltimore over Boston, 5-0 Last edited by Young Drachma : 03-14-2009 at 04:15 PM. |
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03-14-2009, 04:27 PM
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#12 |
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Dark Cloud
Join Date: Apr 2001
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2018 STANDINGS
Code:
League Championship Series Kansas City over Baltimore, 4-3 League Championship Series Rio Grande over Detroit, 4-3 FOOL Classic Kansas City over Rio Grande, 5-0 |
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03-14-2009, 04:28 PM
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#13 |
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Dark Cloud
Join Date: Apr 2001
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2019 STANDINGS
Code:
League Championship Series Tuskegee over Baltimore, 4-3 League Championship Series Rio Grande over Boston, 4-3 FOOL Classic Rio Grande over Tuskegee, 5-3 |
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03-14-2009, 05:02 PM
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#14 |
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Dark Cloud
Join Date: Apr 2001
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2020 STANDINGS
Code:
League Championship Series Baltimore over Tuskegee, 4-1 League Championship Series Chicago over Colorado, 4-1 FOOL Classic Baltimore over Chicago, 5-4 |
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03-14-2009, 05:14 PM
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#15 |
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Dark Cloud
Join Date: Apr 2001
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Here are the playoff results from 2021-2027:
2021: Albuquerque Firecrackers def. Hartford Harpooners 5 games to 4 2022: Hartford Harpooners def. Kansas City Beagles 5 games to 1 2023: Brooklyn Brownstones def. New York Heroes 5 games to 4 2024: Chicago Brothers def. Baltimore Gothams 5 games to 3 2025: Boston Settlers def. Albuquerque Firecrackers 5 games to 3 2026: Tuskegee Airmen def. New York Heroes 5 games to 3 2027: Hartford Harpooners def. Peoria Distillers 5 games to 2 |
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03-14-2009, 05:15 PM
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#16 |
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Dark Cloud
Join Date: Apr 2001
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2035 will be the 75th season and I'll do a retrospective of the best players across the eras. Starting with the upcoming season, (2028) the league is going to expand by 2, to get back to the original league size of 16 teams and I'm going to take over a team and sim seasons.
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03-14-2009, 06:19 PM
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#17 |
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Dark Cloud
Join Date: Apr 2001
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The two expansion teams are:
California Whiskeyjacks (CL) & the Yellowstone (WY) Rangers. (RL) Also, the Albuquerque Firecrackers moved to Portland, OR for the 2027 season. Here's a map to see where all 16 FOOL franchises are located (you can move it around) View Larger Map Last edited by Young Drachma : 03-14-2009 at 06:29 PM. |
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03-14-2009, 06:37 PM
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#18 |
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Dark Cloud
Join Date: Apr 2001
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I'm going to take over the Whiskeyjacks. The last time I ran a team was 1988 and all 26 seasons I managed in the league have all been in the Republic League, but this will be my first foray into the Continental League.
I'll manage this team under my alter ego Sonny Dayes to see how the two stack up against each other careerwise. So far, I'm only going to have one real house rule. If I need others, I'll add them. 1. Team Payroll cannot exceed $35 million for the first 3 seasons. |
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03-14-2009, 06:52 PM
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#19 |
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Dark Cloud
Join Date: Apr 2001
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Here's Dark Cloud's managerial record (26 seasons, 2291-1877, .549)
Code:
Notes: (1) St. Louis Terriers folded in 1965. (2) Compton Brothers were moved to Ann Arbor in 1981, moved to Detroit in 2006 (3)Chicago Comets were moved to Quad Cities in 1970, moved back to Chicago in 1975 (4)New Orleans Rens moved to Boston in 1981, moved to St. Louis in 1987. |
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03-14-2009, 07:27 PM
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#20 |
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Dark Cloud
Join Date: Apr 2001
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Ok, it's expansion draft time.
I don't know if I really have a strategy for this. We really can't go taking on much salary, given the constraints. I could go out and try to get guys that we could deal elsewhere, but..it's probably more sensible just to sign a bunch of prospects and core guys and then just the rest in the pool. It's not exactly the deepest class of players to begin with, so..I think it might be better to just target the "best available" players we can find. And by best, I mean that extremely loosely. |
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03-14-2009, 07:47 PM
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#21 |
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Dark Cloud
Join Date: Apr 2001
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Here's the post-expansion draft payroll:
Code:
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03-14-2009, 08:18 PM
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Dark Cloud
Join Date: Apr 2001
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Team Roster (If you want to see the player cards, you'll need to use this link...not the table below, as the links won't work right)
It's a team full of old timers and guys from the minors. The question is, with a free agent class for the ages out there, what sort of signings are we going to make for this club. We're on a 1-10 rating scale, too.
Last edited by Young Drachma : 03-14-2009 at 08:18 PM. |
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03-14-2009, 08:34 PM
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#23 |
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Dark Cloud
Join Date: Apr 2001
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I isolated our free agent search to players who have ratings over 2 stars and who are under the age of 33. That took the available player pool from 93 to 11 players.
Here are our targets: 3B Shun Hirata 3B Benn Ferrell CF Hiro Inoue SP Joey Johnson SP Roberto Artega 2B Ramon Arce 3B Corey Carter So there you go. Now, with payroll capped at $35 million for the next 3 years, I'd be silly to spend it all in this first season, so I'll have to see what these guys are asking for, prioritize and see what we can bring in for this first year. It's gonna be rough regardless. |
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03-14-2009, 09:21 PM
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#24 |
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Dark Cloud
Join Date: Apr 2001
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Two new house rules I just came up with:
No negotiation. I'm already running this like FOOL in terms of the way the season goes (off-season is done in one-sim) but for me, the additional rule is I don't get to offer a contract to the same guy twice in one off-season. Also, no incentives can be offered. |
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03-14-2009, 09:38 PM
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#25 | |
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Dark Cloud
Join Date: Apr 2001
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Ok, here are the guys we signed:
Quote:
Those signings, coupled with what already had puts us at $37.2 million in payroll. You might look at Hirata's contract and wonder what I was thinking. But we had to have someone to put butts in the seats and he should do that. I'm going to find a way to trade Alejandro Romano who makes $3.1 million and that'll get us under our $35 million cap for this year. We dealt him, along with two prospects (CF Jose Palliagua and SS Alberto Lopez) to the Colorado Rancheros for SS Julio Gonzales and 2B Jorge Garcia. |
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03-16-2009, 08:32 PM
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#26 | ||
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Dark Cloud
Join Date: Apr 2001
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Well, that's one season in the books. I'll produce some statistics for you soon and we can get into the details, but the long and short of it, is that we were just really, really bad. You can check out the site or click on us in the standings to see the team page.
Code:
Things in the league are weird right now. FOOL's talent numbers were always off, so the talent was off the charts. I went to fix that with the most recent iteration of players and it's the reason I simmed into the future, because I wanted a normal base of talented players. Well so now you have this aging set of veterans who are WAY better than the talent beneath them. I lowered the aging modifier too, so they're lasting longer than they would otherwise, but only into their early 40s or so. In any case, the talent dropoffs are huge and so, the otherwise good players get rated as 1-2.5 star players often when they're a lot better than that, were it a normal league. It'll all be fixed in the 5-7 years, but we're not there yet. In any case, the other teams are hording oldsters in an attempt to win and it's sorta funny (and strange) to watch. As a result, the end of the season came and I had a pretty hard (easy?) decision to make. Go for it and try to contend early or sell off all of our useful pieces and try to contend for a title in a few years, playing with prospects in the meantime. I chose the later solution, something I've never done in fast-sim. Here are the stats of our money players: Quote:
Despite the decent numbers from our big hitters, we were pretty much awful at everything. 8th in most major offensive categories in offense and pitching, except we were 2nd in the CL in stolen bases and 5th in bullpen ERA, 3rd in hits allowed, 4th in Opp. avg and 1st in BABIP. But oh well. So I traded anyone of value after the off-season came. Payroll is now at $5.1 million, I cut a level of minors and now there are just Double-A and Single-A and I don't anticipate trying to sign anyone else this off-season, instead just rolling with the guys we have. Quote:
YELLOWSTONE becomes the first expansion to win a title in their first year. Whoa. I do love that the advent of another western-based team gives Colorado a rival and that rival kept Colorado out of the playoffs, by forcing them into a regular season tie with HARTFORD for the wild card in the RL, which Hartford won. In the old days, that would've stoked the fires of the Hartford-Colorado rivalry to epic proportions. In any case, we're not going to be good for the next few years. Make no mistake. But if my prospect development skills are worth anything, we'll be a contending team by Year 5 of the experiment in California. I've never run a club with a salary under $20 million or so and this will be an experience for me, because the losing is hard for me to watch. But the talent on this squad is unquestionable and so, it's going to come down to how success we can be at development and how much the rest of the league catches up. Last edited by Young Drachma : 03-16-2009 at 08:34 PM. |
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03-18-2009, 08:51 PM
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#27 |
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Dark Cloud
Join Date: Apr 2001
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I force retired a great number of the older players in this universe, as they were really clogging things up and making the free agent market and other things unrealistic and as a result, hard to play. There are still oldsters left, but I've tried to rid myself of enough of them, that under 30 players feature fairly prominently among the Top 20 hitters and pitchers in the league.
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03-20-2009, 11:35 PM
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#28 |
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Dark Cloud
Join Date: Apr 2001
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The single-season home run record in FOOL was 48 set in 1997. It took about 28 years, but in 2027, Felix Aragon hit 54 HRs and broke the record. Roger Sims tied that record last year (2028) and this season (2029), Will Jackson -- who hit 51 HRs in '27, smashed the record to pieces hitting 67 home runs at the age of 36, to become FOOL's all-time single season home run king.
I'll get to the season results, but that was a story that was too exciting not to share. As usual, I run this league just like the FOOL season. Off-season done in one day, season done in one sim as well. |
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03-20-2009, 11:41 PM
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#29 |
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Dark Cloud
Join Date: Apr 2001
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2029 REGULAR SEASON STANDINGS
Code:
We had a 22 win improvement over last year. So that makes me pretty happy, to put it mildly. Especially when you see our payroll. Code:
Florida Marlins eat your heart out. Our squad was effective, hard working and really squeezed every dollar out the roster this year. Our purging those expensive veterans and getting prospects was probably a bit lucky, but...I think it was a smart move and our rebuilding project continues. It'll be harder to improve from Year 2 to Year 3, because we have a lot of kids improving and ready to come up, but I'm not sure how ready for prime time the team is yet. I need to really take a look @ the roster and assess that better. |
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