Presenting: FLOP. For when FOOL isn't fast enough.

[kaosfere]

Based upon the suggestion/discussion in this thread, DC and I have created a concept even more warped than that of FOOL. We have put together a small league designed for lightweight, super-fast weekend play, with the intention of those of use who are fast-sim-obsessed to have something to do during the FOOL offseason.

I would like to introduce to you to FLOP: The FOOL League of Offseason Play.

The league has been created with the following basic structure:

8 teams
1 division
124-game season
Custom playoffs with all 8 teams involved in a 3-round tourney
No minors
No draft
No arbitration
No DH
5 year free agency
FOOL-style development and strategy settings
Financial co-efficient of .1 (1/5th the money of FOOL)

The sim schedule will be:

10pm Friday to set up your season.
Sim entire season and post-season on Saturday.
Release post-season file.
10pm Saturday deadline for extensions.
Sim to free agency.
10pm Sunday deadline for free agency.
Sim to start of season Sunday night or Monday.
The rest of the week will be available for trades and such, and all off-season moves will be due and processed Friday night/Saturday.

The idea is to have very small-market baseball. I have gone over the list of United States Micropolitan Statistical Areas at Wikipedia to find a good batch of small-but-not-tiny markets, and picked out a number of candidates that covered the US fairly evenly. These, of course, can be changed, and I randomly generated nicknames, because I was sure those would be changed. The remaining available clubs are:

Bozeman Dinosuars of Bozeman, MT
Fortuna Slam of Fortuna, CA
Traverse City Parasites of Traverse City, MI

This is very experimental, and the first season or two we'll try to figure out as we go along, but feel free to sign up now if you're interested, and pick one of the above named teams if you'd like one, otherwise try to suggest a suitable alternative location.

Questions, comments, suggestions, or dirty rumors about my sanity are welcomed.

Current Signups and Requested Teams
kaosfere: Tombstone Outlaws
TimGuru: Tupelo Moonshiners
Dark Cloud: South Hill (VA) Anglers
Tasan: Lufkin Linemen
ekcut: Harwinton Hurlers

[kaosfere]

For the record, I'm signing myself up for the Tombstone Steeldogs, rename possibly to come, but I'll relinquish them if someone else would love to live in Tombstone.

[Young Drachma]

I'll take Torrington Black Flies of Torrington, CT

I'll be moving them to South Hill, VA and where they'll become the Anglers.

I'd love to stay in Torrington, but given that my FOBL team is in nearby Bantam, I figure that's enough online league love for Connecticut.

[Young Drachma]

All I can do is laugh at this. I mean, seriously. This is so deliciously hilarious that I can barely stand it.

kaosfere is the Commish of FLOP, so if you hate me and my hegemonic regime, this is your weekly respite from that.

[kaosfere]

Ok, I have edited the first post with a sim schedule.

And the DH info.

[TimGuru]

I'll take Hilton Head, and it turns out I will move them to Tupelo, MS (pop 132k and growing). How I could I resist the birthplace of Elvis AND the cradle of Krusty the Clown's performing career????

They will be the Tupelo Moonshiners. I considered naming them the Kings after Elvis, but this is a small potatoes league so I went instead with a nod to Van Morrison (who had the album Tupelo Honey).

[TimGuru]

(If someone wants the 'Head, I'll take whatever, as long as it relocates to Tupelo)

[kaosfere]

Alright. As of 10pm tonight, I will be releasing a league file with the initial owners, so we can get a draft going. Draft deadline will be 10pm tomorrow. Anyone who signs on between now and then can get an interim update with them in it.

[kaosfere]

You want that over Sandwich, Tim?

[TimGuru]

Yeah, that link to the wiki was too cool to not make use of. And its a pretty neat city. Uh, y'all.

[kaosfere]

Roger. Tupelo it is.

In order to preserve the geographic spread, at least until the league starts, I'll be moving a geographically proximate team for you. Unless someone strongly objects.

That means the Gulf Shores Hurlers will move to Tupelo to become the Moonshiners, and the Hilton Head Elite will move to South Hill to become the Anglers.

That ok with y'all?

[Young Drachma]

I'm cool. You're the boss.

[Tasan]

Hey, didn't I sign up already in the other thread? ;- )

I'm in, I'll take the Alabama squad, and if possible, move it to someplace in Texas.

[Tasan]

Err, any other squad would be okay, too.

Did see that til I hit post.

[kaosfere]

Since there's a team in Michagan, I'll move LaSalle to Texas.

Hmm. Let's see... Huntsville? Marshall? Lufkin? Gun Barrel City?

(I love that last one)

Have a nickname in mind?

[Tasan]

Originally Posted by kaosfere

Since there's a team in Michagan, I'll move LaSalle to Texas.

Hmm. Let's see... Huntsville? Marshall? Lufkin? Gun Barrel City?

(I love that last one)

Have a nickname in mind?

I'm thinking Lufkin, but I'll need to think of a nickname. I'm from that general area, so I'm trying to come up with some local flavor.

[kaosfere]

Righto. I'll get you down for the Lufkin Goldbugs, and we can change that when you come up with something appropriate.

[ekcut]

Originally Posted by kaosfere

Bozeman Dinosuars of Bozeman, MT
Fortuna Slam of Fortuna, CA
Gulf Shores Hurlers of Gulf Shores, AL
Hilton Head Elite of Beaufort, SC
LaSalle Goldbugs of LaSalle, IL
Tombstone Steeldogs of Tombstone, AZ
Torrington Black Flies of Torrington, CT
Traverse City Parasites of Traverse City, MI

This is very experimental, and the first season or two we'll try to figure out as we go along, but feel free to sign up now if you're interested, and pick one of the above named teams if you'd like one, otherwise try to suggest a suitable alternative location.

Questions, comments, suggestions, or dirty rumors about my sanity are welcomed.

Current Signups and Requested Teams
kaosfere: Tombstone Steeldogs
TimGuru: Tupelo Moonshiners
Dark Cloud: South Hill (VA) Anglers

I would like the Hurlers if possible please!

[kaosfere]

Originally Posted by ekcut

I would like the Hurlers if possible please!

I'd switched them up for Tupelo, but I can assign another team to be Gulf Shores if you'd like!

Torrington doesn't really need a ball club... we have too many T teams.

[ekcut]

I don't care about the city...I just wanted to be a Hurler!! Saturday night Hurling....just like being a teenager again!

[Tasan]

Lufkin Linemen

Lufkin is known for its power pole production, and its major manufacturing outside of that is oilfield and power transmission equipment, so I thought it was appropriate. Plus, we can play "Wichita Lineman" by Glenn Campbell a lot ;- )

[kaosfere]

Fair enough! We'll rename the Black Flies to the Hurlers and move them to nearby Harwinton, for alliteration's sake. That sound good?

[Young Drachma]

I'm getting excited. I'm sitting here fumbling with Flash and it's driving me crazy, but...I'm about to give up in favor of making logos for FLOP.

[Young Drachma]

Originally Posted by kaosfere

Fair enough! We'll rename the Black Flies and move them to nearby Harwinton, for alliteration's sake. That sound good?

I like this. In part because I just love that part of Connecticut. LOL..I'm sure someone will come and move them.

[kaosfere]

Originally Posted by Tasan

Lufkin Linemen

Done!

[kaosfere]

Originally Posted by Dark Cloud

I like this. In part because I just love that part of Connecticut. LOL..I'm sure someone will come and move them.

Hee. Sorry, I was vague there. I was going to rename the Blackflies to the Hurlers and move them out of the T-city.

[Young Drachma]

Originally Posted by kaosfere

Hee. Sorry, I was vague there. I was going to rename the Blackflies to the Hurlers and move them out of the T-city.

No Harwinton, Torrington, Litchfield. All the same to me. Same area, not much difference.

[kaosfere]

Originally Posted by Dark Cloud

No Harwinton, Torrington, Litchfield. All the same to me. Same area, not much difference.

Yeah.

They'll be in Harwinton, as long as ekcut is cool with that.

[Tasan]

I'm very interested to see how this works with just 1 day of free agency. Will that be enough to get everyone signed? I potentially see several guys not getting signed and teams with holes.

[Young Drachma]

Playoff names? I'm guessing the lesser rounds could just be the quarter-finals and semi-finals. The championship?

The Saturday Series?
The Main Event?
The Divac Cup?

How many games in the playoffs? Best of 7-7-9? Or something else?

[Young Drachma]

Originally Posted by Tasan

I'm very interested to see how this works with just 1 day of free agency. Will that be enough to get everyone signed? I potentially see several guys not getting signed and teams with holes.

Well it'd be one day on Sunday, then whoever is left over, it could like FOOL where you could make an offer for them on opening day, leave roster space open for them and if they get signed, you bring 'em in or if not, they'd go to the reserve roster?

kaosfere can address it more. The idea was just to speed the process up and not to have it drag. Plus, the only way FAs won't sign is if somehow someone lowballs them. If someone meets their demand and goes higher, they'll sign with somebody.

[Tasan]

If we went 7-7-9, that makes the playoffs 23 games, approximately 1/6 of the season. Not complaining, just pointing out.

[kaosfere]

Originally Posted by Tasan

I'm very interested to see how this works with just 1 day of free agency. Will that be enough to get everyone signed? I potentially see several guys not getting signed and teams with holes.

It's possible. If it becomes an issue, we can figure out a way to fix it. I'm sure we'll run into some problems, since this is even less of a standard way to play than FOOL is. We'll get them nailed down and try to keep the league as weekend-only as possible.

[Young Drachma]

Unless there is way to condense it into two 12-hour weekend phases to get it done by Sunday night?

[Young Drachma]

Originally Posted by Tasan

If we went 7-7-9, that makes the playoffs 23 games, approximately 1/6 of the season. Not complaining, just pointing out.

That's the beauty of it!



The marathon within the marathon.

Or would you all rather just a bunch of 1 game series to determine the winner. Now that'd be high stakes.

I'm just throwing out ideas. Don't mind me.

[Tasan]

Originally Posted by Dark Cloud

Unless there is way to condense it into two 12-hour weekend phases to get it done by Sunday night?

Since this is a highly specialized league, I could see us having maybe 2 runs on Saturday, the first for the extensions that would be due early Saturday, so you stay up after the Friday season is run and do those quickly. Then you run a FA session on Saturday evening, and another on Sunday.

[kaosfere]

Originally Posted by Tasan

If we went 7-7-9, that makes the playoffs 23 games, approximately 1/6 of the season. Not complaining, just pointing out.

I have initially set them to 5-7-9. I'd thought about 7-7-9, but ran a couple season sims and didn't see too much difference in underdogs making it or favorites blowing up.

(In one of my sims with 7-7-9, the Traverse City team were worst in the league, 15 games back at the end of the year, and still pulled it together in the playoffs to win. That was the biggest surprise I saw.)

[Tasan]

Originally Posted by Dark Cloud

That's the beauty of it!



The marathon within the marathon.

Or would you all rather just a bunch of 1 game series to determine the winner. Now that'd be high stakes.

I'm just throwing out ideas. Don't mind me.

Nope nope. I kinda like it. I was just crunching the numbers in my head, and decided I might as well share my simple math with everyone else. Wouldn't want my elite math skilz to go to waste there ;- )

[Young Drachma]

Originally Posted by kaosfere

I have initially set them to 5-7-9. I'd thought about 7-7-9, but ran a couple season sims and didn't see too much difference in underdogs making it or favorites blowing up.

(In one of my sims with 7-7-9, the Traverse City team were worst in the league, 15 games back at the end of the year, and still pulled it together in the playoffs to win. That was the biggest surprise I saw.)

Sweet.

[Young Drachma]

[kaosfere]

That is damn sexy looking.

[kaosfere]

Alright. I have just finished running around in the dark trying to pull an escaped cat out of a tree. Now I will produce the draft file.

[Alan T]

If you all are having everyone make the playoffs.. I don't understand the purpose of the regular season! Might as well just do a round robin of three game series among the 8 teams (should be 21 games total I think off the top of my head). for the regular season to determine the seeding and then have the playoffs be the main season. 21 game regular season plus off days would all take place in one month, then the playoffs expand over the next two months and would be more games than the regular season.

How rediculously psychotic would that be?

[Young Drachma]

Originally Posted by Alan T

If you all are having everyone make the playoffs.. I don't understand the purpose of the regular season! Might as well just do a round robin of three game series among the 8 teams (should be 21 games total I think off the top of my head). for the regular season to determine the seeding and then have the playoffs be the main season. 21 game regular season plus off days would all take place in one month, then the playoffs expand over the next two months and would be more games than the regular season.

How rediculously psychotic would that be?

Regular season = stats

Playoffs = fun

[kaosfere]

Originally Posted by Alan T

How rediculously psychotic would that be?

More evil ideas!

[kaosfere]

Come and get it!

[TimGuru]

Originally Posted by Dark Cloud

This had damn well better be the Moonshiner logo. If it is, I <3 u. If its anyone else,

[Young Drachma]

Good work!

[Young Drachma]

Originally Posted by TimGuru

This had damn well better be the Moonshiner logo. If it is, I <3 u. If its anyone else,

It is indeed, sir.

[Alan T]

Originally Posted by Dark Cloud

Regular season = stats

Playoffs = fun

You can have stats in the playoffs too!!