You Can't Trust These Cubs (OOTP)

Young Drachma · 02-23-2015, 08:53 PM

Based in Denver, the Colorado Cubs are in their first season after relocating from Salt Lake City. The franchise spent their entire history -- from 1891 until last season (2020) in that city playing as the Elders, though last year they went by the SLC Wonders.

The Elders left the ABA in 2088 to join the Union of Professional Baseball or UPB, which had major league status from 2074 until 2119. The Elders rejoined the ABA again in 2116 shortly before the demise of the ABA. They left for competitive reasons and were successful during their time in the UPB, winning three titles over there.

But fan support didn't go along with it and when they came back, the bottom feeding club struggled to keep things together. The last time the Elders won an ABA title, were when their Elders were around, back in 1979. So their Kerouac Cup drought is now up to 151 seasons and counting.

Meanwhile, Colorado always had a team. The Colorado Gold Sox began as the Colorado City Pastors back in 1812. The team made the post-season 121 times in their history and won 9 titles, the last coming 18 seasons ago in 2102.

Nonetheless, the Gold Sox decided to relocate after 308 seasons playing in Colorado Springs and became the Amarillo Gold Sox for the start of the '21 season. Meanwhile, the Elders/Wonders ownership took this as a chance to get their team a start without leaving the overarching area of their franchise, but get a larger market to draw from, while keeping their current TV market.

They announced the Salt Lake City Wonders would become the Colorado Cubs in time for the '21 season. Colorado fans were glad their baseball fix wouldn't go interrupted, but they traded one of the best teams in the division for the worst one. Not only that, but the Gold Sox remained in the division meaning they'll have to see their own squad 8 times at home against their new team.

I'm going to chronicle the story of the Colorado Cubs and their chase of respectability.

Young Drachma · 02-23-2015, 08:54 PM

COLORADO CUBS

PREDICTION: 55-107 (al central)
FIVE YEAR WIN TREND:

STADIUM: Coors Field

Gone are the Elders from Salt Lake City. Well not really. The team still exists as the AAA club of the Cubs. Gone are the Gold Sox, too. Except they're not really gone. They're just 385 miles to the south in Amarillo.

Say hello to the Colorado Cubs.

Two years removed from their last playoff appearance, whatever is left of this team's core is gone and they're essentially a bottom feeder seeking to get out of a hole.

After an off-season that was best described as "one of the worst of all of the teams in the majors," it'll be an uphill climb in a new market trying to convince fans to support a franchise that was once their longtime rivals down I-80.

New GM Matt Mills, the architect of championship teams in Great Plains and most recently the two-time defending champion Washington Maroons inherits a team with no farm system (like Great Plains) or the ability to spend to a title (like Washington) and so, can he pull a rabbit out of a hat a third time?

Not this year, no.

Worst off-seasons by team: (by WAR)

ROTATION:

BATTING:

PLAYERS TO WATCH:

24-year old Philippine import starting pitcher Jeremy Angeles is a rookie. We purchased his contract from the Indian League before he could ever make a start there after hearing about him (Note: he's actually a created player of someone from the main dynasty this is a spinoff of.) and knowing this team needed SOME kind of core talent, we're hoping he'll be that guy.

1B John Larsen came to us from the West Virginia Alleghenies in a trade where we sent four guys. The problem with him is the 19-year old is too good for AAA but teams were reluctant to start him after a hot year for the New York Gothams (5.7 WAR two years ago), he got traded to West Virginia at the deadline last year but they still missed the playoffs. He was then stuck behind another big bopper and we plucked him in the hopes that he can provide some infusion of something and rebuild his career before it sputters.

OF Jayden Fralin is another guy who we picked up. He was actually in the free agent draft as the 7th pick by Memphis. But I knew we needed an outfielder and he's only 20 years old (0.5 WAR) and came from the NABL, so he's technically a rookie. I feel like he can offer something.

I also claimed a few other guys off the scrap heap who'll be familiar to ABA fans like Joe Peters IV.

We're playing stats only in this league, but I do have stars on because it's nice for clerical purposes when I want to go quickly.

I think overall this team will not be very good. We'll have a few good guys. I wish we could trade our overpriced ace pitcher Thabit, but no one wants him (Trust me, I tried...) and overall, we'll just try to get through this season.

I NEVER play out every game, I'm a GM type, but for the first time EVER on these forums, I'm going to going to do a game-by-game dynasty where I post the results. I'm trying to cut down on my post work typing though so I might just do a lot of posting of box score screenshots and then chime in with limited dialogue when the situation calls for it.

Young Drachma · 02-23-2015, 09:27 PM

So you want to know about this league. It's based off this quickstart that at the time I posted it had 270 years of history dating back to OOTP2007 or something. No idea when I started.

Anyway, it's now season #322 now. After lots of changes to the majors since I posted it, we now have 40 teams in the ABA. The top 14 teams make the postseason. I've debated going to 16, but 14 has proven to be enough honestly.

Here's who they are:

NATIONWIDE LEAGUE
EASTERN DIVISION
New York City Invaders
Philadelphia Quakers
Baltimore Atlantics
Boston Yanks
New York Gothams

WESTERN DIVISION
Los Angeles Seraphs
San Francisco Peanuts
Victoria Cougars
El Paso Sun Kings
Boise Cutthroats

CENTRAL DIVISION
Eau Claire Paws
Indiana Racers
Toronto Blue Collars
Detroit Pontiacs
Minnesota Chiefs

SOUTHERN DIVISION
Louisville Spires
Texas Electrics
Memphis Hounds
West Virginia Alleghenies
Virginia Mariners

ALLIED LEAGUE
EASTERN DIVISION
Brooklyn Originals
Ohio Players
New York Knights
Worcester Hearts
Washington Maroons

SOUTHERN DIVISION
Baton Rouge Red Sticks
Orlando Wizards
Carolina Wrens
Jackson Cottons
Florida Rockets

WESTERN DIVISION
Portland Beavers
Hawaii 59ers
San Diego Surge
California Seals
Tacoma Thrashers

CENTRAL DIVISION
Amarillo Gold Sox
Chicago Rogues
El Paso Sun Kings
Great Plains Flycatchers
Colorado Cubs

RECENT CHAMPIONS

Young Drachma · 02-23-2015, 09:35 PM

Since my team is terrible and I won't really care that much and want to sim quickly, I need an incentive to care about the rest of the league. So I devised a spreadsheet which is essentially a way for me to play hands off fantasy baseball for the whole year.

The model doesn't allow me to pick rookies. Basically, I have a formula that calculates a dollar value based on three sabermetric categories and that's their cost, the goal is to pick who make me more money the following year. I've converted this to use it to determine whether our budget goes up or goes down next year.

I didn't make any signings on the free agent market this year save for those few trades I mentioned, so this is whatever was here when we took over minus whoever they lost in FA.

If my side game goes well this year, then the owner would have decided to spend more to endear the new market fans to this new found team. Otherwise, he might do what the cheap owners of the Rockies do in real life and choose not to spend.

Code:

Rank	Team	Payroll
1	Washington Maroons	$242,215,650
2	Philadelphia Quakers	$223,091,100
3	New York City Invaders	$182,243,550
4	Baltimore Atlantics	$158,805,900
5	Great Plains Flycatchers$135,234,561
6	Minnesota Chiefs	$129,756,800
7	New York Gothams	$125,416,421
8	El Paso Sun Kings	$120,213,250
9	Orlando Wizards		$115,328,700
10	San Diego Surge		$113,587,400
11	Amarillo Gold Sox	$106,771,800
12	Toronto Blue Collars	$105,021,800
13	Worcester Hearts	$102,741,350
14	Texas Electrics		$101,594,075
15	Ohio Players		$101,561,050
16	Arizona Desert Dogs	$99,983,850
17	Louisville Spires	$92,570,900
18	Brooklyn Originals	$92,160,472
19	Detroit Pontiacs	$89,691,050
20	Carolina Wrens		$87,268,700
21	West Virginia Alleghenies$86,509,518
22	Boston Yanks		$84,310,100
23	Portland Beavers	$79,292,350
24	Boise Cutthroats	$79,224,750
25	Indiana Racers		$78,431,500
26	Victoria Cougars	$71,666,800
27	Hawaii Fifty-Niners	$70,217,300
28	Eau Claire Paws		$67,863,900
29	Los Angeles Seraphs	$65,627,800
30	Jackson Cottons		$65,521,650
31	Florida Rockets		$64,161,800
32	Tacoma Thrashers	$63,906,350
33	Memphis Hounds		$62,356,050
34	Colorado Cubs		$59,170,250
35	San Francisco Peanuts	$59,101,800
36	Chicago Rogues		$58,230,500
37	Baton Rouge Red Sticks	$53,812,400
38	Virginia Mariners	$53,046,650
39	California Seals	$51,788,700
40	New York Knights	$40,431,800

Young Drachma · 02-23-2015, 11:01 PM

Okay my fantasy team is picked. The rules were pretty basic. Not allowed to surpass our team payroll, no rookies and only 1 player max from any one team.

Based on how this fantasy team does determines what happens to our budget for next season, independent of what happens on the field.

I am not a field manager, so I won't manage any of these games. Instead, we'll sim everyday and just monitor what's happening and assess what to do from there.

Here's the April schedule. After an opening home series against the Seals, we welcome back the Gold Sox to Colorado after abandoning their home of 229 seasons to head about 5 1/2 hours south.

Do you think in a real life scenario like this, that fans would still support the team? Not tons of them, obviously, but die hard fans. I mean, if the Dodgers moved to say...Dayton rather than Los Angeles would the fans still be loyal for the most part? Because essentially that's what happened here, except a lot more years though think about this dynasty less as "in the future" and more "consistently in the present for 300+ years."

But seriously, how many Gold Sox fans % wise do you think abandoned the team after it moved? How many switched to become Cubs fans? Surely the name change helped -- I doubt Colorado fans could've accepted becoming Elders fans but...it's essentially what they've been asked to do.

Young Drachma · 02-23-2015, 11:04 PM

First game in Colorado Cubs history is a win.

Young Drachma · 02-23-2015, 11:15 PM

Electrics had this kid blocked in AAA for some reason after signing a veteran to play the position. We needed to upgrade at catcher and they were willing to take a few prospects, as well as the veteran Joe Peters who is off to a slow start, but he's a former all-star that wasn't even a starter for us.

Young Drachma · 02-23-2015, 11:24 PM

Don't get tricked by this first month schedule. We're up a 1.5 games in the AL Central because of a few things: 1) a few teams are underachieving to start the year 2) we had an easy schedule to start outside of those Great Plains games and Amarillo isn't on fire in their new home so far and they won the division last year.

Still, it's a real shot in the arm for everyone here that this team is playing so well so far. I am not making anymore moves before the all-star break and even then...I might only take offers from the AI, we'll see.

After the first month, we're tops or #2 in all team offensive categories in the AL, but our pitching is near the bottom. We're also 6th in defensive efficiency and so, I think that's the real story here. We'll see what happens, but bear in mind that the Gold Sox played at Mile High before they got here and so, I don't really know if it's the Coors effect or if it's something else, but...without better pitching, this team won't get much further.

And if it really is the Coors effect, then hitting the road for any extended roadtrips should torpedo this joyride.

STANDOUTS
1B JOHN LARSEN (.446 BA)
LF YOSHI TAKAHASHI (.347 BA/27 RBI in 120 ABs)

Takahashi was a 6th round pick in this year's free agent draft. I didn't even draft him, by that time I'd let the AI take over.

The free agent draft is simply a deal where anyone left in the FA pool at the start of spring training is eligible. I started it new the past two seasons because I hated how OOTP would let otherwise quality guys just sit because of contract disputes because it didn't seem to make sense the types of players who were sitting out for a whole season.

It's been working well, so far.

Young Drachma · 02-23-2015, 11:39 PM

STANDINGS AS OF JUNE 1, 2121

Code:

NATIONWIDE LEAGUE STANDINGS
Eastern Division	W	L	PCT	GB
New York City Invaders	35	14	.714	-
Philadelphia Quakers	29	20	.592	6.0
Baltimore Atlantics	26	24	.520	9.5
Boston Yanks		24	25	.490	11.0
New York Gothams	21	30	.412	15.0

Western Division	W	L	PCT	GB
Arizona Desert Dogs	26	23	.531	-
Los Angeles Seraphs	26	24	.520	.5
San Francisco Peanuts	25	25	.500	1.5
Boise Cutthroats	22	27	.449	4.0
Victoria Cougars	20	30	.400	6.5

Central Division	W	L	PCT	GB
Toronto Blue Collars	29	21	.580	-
Indiana Racers		28	21	.571	.5
Minnesota Chiefs	26	23	.531	2.5
Detroit Pontiacs	18	32	.360	11.0
Eau Claire Paws		17	33	.340	12.0
Southern Division	W	L	PCT	GB
Louisville Spires	28	22	.560	-
West Virginia Alleghenies26	23	.531	1.5
Virginia Mariners	26	24	.520	2.0
Texas Electrics		24	27	.471	4.5
Memphis Hounds		17	33	.340	11.0

ALLIED LEAGUE STANDINGS
Western Division	W	L	PCT	GB
California Seals	30	20	.600	-
Portland Beavers	28	21	.571	1.5
San Diego Surge		25	25	.500	5.0
Hawaii Fifty-Niners	21	28	.429	8.5
Tacoma Thrashers	19	31	.380	11.0

Eastern Division	W	L	PCT	GB
Washington Maroons	35	14	.714	-
Worcester Hearts	32	18	.640	3.5
Brooklyn Originals	25	25	.500	10.5
Ohio Players		22	27	.449	13.0
New York Knights	21	29	.420	14.5

Southern Division	W	L	PCT	GB
Jackson Cottons		28	23	.549	-
Florida Rockets		26	24	.520	1.5
Orlando Wizards		25	25	.500	2.5
Baton Rouge Red Sticks	24	26	.480	3.5
Carolina Wrens		18	31	.367	9.0

Central Division	W	L	PCT	GB
Great Plains Flycatchers32	18	.640	-
Colorado Cubs		28	23	.549	4.5
El Paso Sun Kings	24	25	.490	7.5
Chicago Rogues		å21	28	.429	10.5
Amarillo Gold Sox	17	32	.347	14.5

There are no words, friends. None. While the Cubs lead the AL in batting average, it's not the Coors effect, as the team is 11th in HRs. But whatever it is, it's insanity.

Here were the preseason predictions for the AL Central and like I said, I didn't make but three modest changes. I traded for Larsen, I bought the contracts of Angeles and Fralin, but those were just good moves and regardless that's just THREE dudes and it doesn't explain any of this.

Larsen still leads the AL in hitting and while I'm sure that West Virginia would love to have him back, they had him riding the minors pine well into spring training and it just made no sense to me.

So there you go. No Cubs anywhere on that list. I am mystified by all of this, but it makes me want to make some moves to get this team into a chance to make some noise this postseason, because this is COMPLETELY unexpected. But to answer my question from earlier, the best possible scenario for establishing the Cubs in this new market is to win AND to have the Gold Sox be completely terrible.

That's playing out and their payroll is 12th overall at $110m and ours is still 34th in the bigs.

I don't want this ride to end, so I'm going to sim to the all-star break and that'll let me know exactly where this team sits. I'm not going to make any moves like I said through the all-star break and then we'll assess what to do, I'll post stats and we'll go from there.

Young Drachma · 02-23-2015, 11:48 PM

We have a few injuries, but here's the current lineup. H.B. Xi is out until after the AS break, he's our starting 3B and was hitting .259 when he left.

Tommy Hamblin is another one of my bargain basement finds. He was a 2nd rounder four years ago, but somehow managed to find himself released and playing in the NABL, one of my independent circuits. I'd remembered him from his HS career -- he was on my HS team (in-game) -- and I was surprised no one had claimed him, so we purchased his contract.

He finished the year in AA (my minor leagues are staggered...) and so he's now in the bigs and we'll see if he can give us a boost at all.

Here's the day-today breakdown of how May went:

Here's the June schedule:

Young Drachma · 02-23-2015, 11:59 PM

Spreadsheet tells me ownership is gonna slash and burn like a MFer after this season unless my picks start turning it around. So there won't be any money to spend, meaning I need to squeeze what I can out of our existing budget I think we have some wasted cash on some of these pitchers who aren't very good.

Our farm system isn't very good, so basically it'll be a lot of dealing some low-level prospects that someone might take, coupled with salary dumps if I can manage it, coupled with taking on expiring contract dudes because the playoff run would pay for them. We can't take back any salary after this season.

Hilariously, we might be able to take some Amarillo guys and repatriate them if there were any talent down there worth taking.

Again, gonna sim through June (AS game is mid-July) and see where we sit.

Young Drachma · 02-24-2015, 12:19 AM

Reality has set in and we're in that awkward spot between wild card contender and division pretender.

We're 18th in starters ERA. If we could get even the faintest bit of respectable pitching up here, I think we'd make a run for the division. This is a weird season where other than Washington, the AL is completely wide open and I think we could make a run if we aligned the team right.

But our pitching is so bad and my 3rd best pitcher is out 5-6 weeks with an injury. So things just got even worse.

The smart play here is probably to just deal off all of our assets worth a damn and stockpile prospects. Sell high and just start from scratch because we're working with $64m or so with minors and we're not in a position to add. I could probably bundle two of my guys with some others to get one or two things back, but we'd be ripping ourselves off in the process.

A playoff race would be really exciting though and some of these guys -- Larsen & Fralin are dudes who I'd love to see stay Cubs for their whole careers, because they're young and valuable.

Here's how June went:

Here's some standings action if you're into that:

Without making any deals in our favor, this team will surely miss the post-season barring a lot of luck and some injuries from opponents. It'd be a missed opportunity to let this go by without at least cashing in whether it's playoffs or dealing and going Marlins style.

What would you do?

Young Drachma · 02-24-2015, 12:48 AM

Tonight when we finish a three-game set against the 59ers, a few guys will end up changing locker rooms. We dealt Tom Carnahan and Tom Thatcher to Hawaii where that team desperately needed offensive talent as they rank near the bottom of the league in most offensive categories and I had a need to drop Carnahan's $9.875 million salary that he was signed to before we managed to bring Larsen in and rendering his presence entirely moot after the latter became the John Olerud of this league. The two middle relievers were in the minors, but will promote for us and we'll give them a whirl...and Jaso moves into the starting 3B spot, so it was not a bad deal for us at all.

Dropping that deal helps us a lot, because all of a sudden I can now go out and find someone to fill that space if I wanted to make a run for a postseason spot. That deal dropped us to 38th highest payroll in the league and next year, we clear a lot of these off the books so we'll end up only being committed so far to $26.3 million in deals.

We need pitching bad. I still haven't decided what I'm going to do with this team tho, I feel like we owe it to ourselves to make a run for it especially if that means doing so within budget.

Here's July's schedule:

Young Drachma · 02-24-2015, 07:24 AM

It occurred to me last night that I should scour the independent leagues to see if there were players that might help our cause. Fewer guys end up there now, but those leagues still pay well -- our setup is more like European basketball is to the NBA -- so it's possible to find a guy who is excelling in one of the international leagues.

I've got a tentative deal to trade our highest paid player to Baltimore along with two other guys for a minor league starter. It's basically a salary dump. A lot of these guys that I picked in the FA draft are also potentially trading chips, but...the point here is, I can deal a lot of dead weight and still try to go for it.

Right now, if I had to compare this team to real life, it'd be something like the last year of the Expos in Montreal with Omar Minaya went making all those deals to try to get them into the postseason when they turned to be better than anyone thought, but MLB wouldn't let him increase payroll.

Coupled with the 1993 Blue Jays, where they went out and remade their '92 roster and got guys like Henderson, Dave Stewart and other proven winners to work around their core group.

This team is somewhere in the middle. I think we have the offense to make the post-season, we just need more reliable pitching and the Coors effect is real, tho not as pronounced as it might seem.

Since I inherited this whole roster, it's a different story.

Young Drachma · 02-24-2015, 07:34 AM

So do I deal him?

On paper, a trade would make us look worse. He's actually having a really solid year. That contract though is terrible and I'm not sure that I believe he can consistently pitch at this level and if we miss on him, well...we're stuck with that deal. If it torpedoes our playoff chances, I'm okay with it, if I can find someone who'll take that contract and it appears I have, even if it means all I get back is a AAAA pitcher who I have no idea how well he'll perform.

(Remember, stats only league)

I tried dealing him pretty much all year and there are no one-for-one deals, I had to pair him with two low minor leaguers (one who is ranked 59th overall in ABA on prospect list) to be able to get them to take the contract on.

Also we did acquire someone last night from the Indian League. We purchased the contract of SP Ethan McGowan who has been an all-star in the past over there. He actually played in Colorado for a year before being swept up in my all leagues free agent draft I did a few seasons ago. Then he ended up veering out of the majors later and has been in India ever since.

Just so you, no one comes from the Vodacom League with those kinds of numbers and then comes over here to the ABA and plays that well. I suspect he'll just be solid, but if he can just stay healthy and pitch OK, that'd be a huge boon for us.

Young Drachma · 02-24-2015, 07:58 AM

In case you were wondering: UPB guys cost $1m, NABL guys cost $750k and Vodacom League (Indian/Middle East/Africa) cost $100k.

All 3 used to be major leagues, Vodacom got demoted first and then I ran a FA draft with EVERYONE in all the leagues to get talent out of those leagues and back into our league -- about 4 seasons ago -- but their salary structures didn't change because 1) I kind of forgot and 2) I wasn't really concerned about it.

So you still get guys who can get a good payday over in those leagues (UPB is rated a 7, NABL is a 6 and Vodacom is a 4 now) so people will do it though obviously far fewer than during the days when it was still a major league.

Hence the Europe/China = Basketball comparison to our league's setup at the moment. This is not in the quickstart tho, this setup came in the last 50 years or so and then was swapped more recently. I'll release a new version with OOTP16 tho.

Young Drachma · 02-24-2015, 08:03 AM

Here are all three so you can see the teams involved, if you're new to the setup it might be confusing.

I won't be covering those leagues at all, just wanted to give you a sense of what teams were still in those leagues. UPB was created from a merger of the Japanese league which was international and a breakaway group of ABA clubs back in 2074. It's since expanded.

Same thing with the NABL, it was the Canadian league and another breakaway group of ABA clubs coupled with some expansion.

Vodacom was always international and then I promoted it, but none of those teams were ever ABA and never will be.

timmae · 02-24-2015, 08:42 AM

Greta start but with the dynamics throughout the league your Cubs look to be in as much trouble as the real life Cubs. Following along...

Young Drachma · 02-24-2015, 11:12 PM

So July 1st is draft day in my league and because this team was terrible last year, we have the 2nd overall pick. There are no aces in this draft at least at the top, no one who can help us now. But it's baseball so that's not weird. I'm more interested in getting someone we can deal elsewhere than I am trying to get someone who'll help us.

Draft pick trading is not on in my league because OOTP handles it poorly but I do allow teams to deal players they draft. So...I'm looking to flip someone essentially and I'm only going to make our 1st round pick and then let the AI do the rest of the draft after that.

Here's our 2nd overall pick in the draft, a 19-year old 1B out of Delaware who is Dutch by birth named Andrew Derksen. He's actually fully reached his potential and it's possible he could play in the bigs now, which is why I'm more interested in him than those other players.

I've kept up you updated on my deals. Oh there was one more. Denver has a UPB team too and I bought their closer's contract. Bullpen is one of our issues.

I'm simming through the end of July and we'll see what the deadline looks like. I might play slower through July, because at this point, I'm sort of sure I want to get into the post-season with this team.

Young Drachma · 02-25-2015, 08:47 AM

I made a mistake. I meant not to trade Ethan McGowan to Baltimore, it was supposed to be my big money pitcher Thabit. I could rescind the deal and get him back and do the trade I actually had setup, but it turns out they might be able to work out another deal that gets him back here and where we can get another one of their stashed relievers to come with him.

I figure if we're making the playoffs or not, I need that Thabit contract off the tables. I submitted a deal that includes Silas Delaney's contract too and three other low level prospects and some cash to pay for part of Thabit's deal for this year in exchange for three dudes, all minor leaguers from Baltimore.

They're in the tough NL East which is a bloodbath, so they're trying to reload to catch up with the top teams there (my NL East is a lot like the real AL East right now...) and so...that's why the deal makes sense.

If this deal goes through, here's what it'd look like. They'll probably ask for something else, tho. We'll see. That'll teach me to screw up trading the wrong dude.

Young Drachma · 02-25-2015, 09:24 AM

So I got them to take Delaney and Thabit, but had to pay the rest of this year and all of next year's salary of his to do it. We still save $26m on the last two years of the deal, so even with that it was worth it because again, I just don't know what to think.

At this point, I'm going to focus less on trying to sneak into the postseason this year and focus more on building a core for this team by deciding who should get a long term deal and who we ought to let walk.

Young Drachma · 02-25-2015, 09:32 AM

Remember Tommy Hamblin? Considering it cost us less than $1m to buy his contract, I want to deal him while he still has value. He's young and I think could grow into a solid player for someone. I could also hold onto him.

It probably doesn't hurt to just keep him. If I were serious about the postseason this year tho, he'd be a solid trade chip because of his age and potential.

Young Drachma · 02-25-2015, 09:50 AM

Someone talk some sense into me. The ghost is over. We're 6 out of the WC and 7.5 GB in the division and falling fast from 3rd place on.

Payroll is down to $42 million.

After typing that, I made a deal with the devil. We made a deal with Amarillo who were shedding payroll for their #2 starter who we're on the hook to pay $11.8m next year but it expires after next season. I feel more comfortable with him as a top starter than Thabit, the deal is for less time and there's the whole warm fuzzies of a guy who was on the Gold Sox coming back to play for the Cubs.

But seriously, convince me not to attempt a playoff run. I don't know if I can be dissuaded, especially by the time you read this. At a certain point, need to just throw in the towel on this season and attempt to get things in place for next year.

Young Drachma · 02-25-2015, 10:29 AM

Young Drachma · 02-25-2015, 10:34 AM

4.5 out of the wild card with 3 weeks to go in August. My trade deadline is August 31st right now. For a long time I debated between July 31st and August 15th or so, but end of August is easiest and ensures that players move before September and screw waivers and all that.

We'll see how things go now. I've made a lot of shifts in July and if nothing else, we have few liabilities going into next year, but a solid core of young guys who are free radicals. This team is rudderless and has no real identity, but I can see one evolving with guys like Larsen, Fralin and Angeles on board.

August 11th: 5.5 GB
There are six other teams all duking it out for position at this point for that spot and it makes me think we're kind of sacked.

Payroll at $41m. I am strongly considering going after a few high dollar expiring contracts from bad teams in the hopes of giving us a bit of a push towards the end.

No idea who that'd be and I haven't gone looking yet, but...I feel like this is our window year to at least make an appearance and then we can go from there, but there's too much working with here to just let the idea die. If we miss out or fall short, so be it. But I don't want it to be because we didn't try to get to go for it.

Young Drachma · 02-25-2015, 07:42 PM

Showed back up today into this storyline and decided to sim to the trade deadline. I've pretty much given up on a postseason appearance at this point, I just want to finish strong, establish a core and we'll go from there. I can't really tell you what the identity of this team is yet, as I'm really getting reacquainted with the league as a whole, because it appears there's a lot of pitching talent and if there was ever a reason to not trust stars, I've turned them off because they're really distracting to my talent evaluation efforts.

I'm just going to rely on stats only -- as that's how I was playing.

We're 7.5 GB in the division and 4.5 GB of a wild card.

Still all of September to play plus three days in October.

Did I mention the Gold Sox come back to town in September for a 3-game set with us fighting for a playoff spot and them in last place?

I think we have to at least TRY to make a run for it.

SEPT. 1ST

SEPTEMBER SCHEDULE

El Paso, San Diego and Great Plains are all contenders. We end the year on a 3-game set with Tacoma. I think we have a legitimate shot to do something if we decide not to suck now and peak late.

But let's not get our hopes up. Don't trust these Cubs.

Young Drachma · 02-25-2015, 07:44 PM

Young Drachma · 02-25-2015, 07:55 PM

I don't trust the computer not to screw this up. And I've decided that rather than come back next year and run this club, I'm doing this like Omar Minaya style and running it like it's my last year with the team. Our owner is in his 70s and he's about to sell the team to new local owners here in Colorado and so...this is our last hurrah at this deal and I think it'd be good for the new fans to get invested in this run if we can manage to pull it off.

So I'm doing what I NEVER do and I'm going to actually play out games. Or at least setup lineups and make sure the AI doesn't fuck it up because I am not convinced they won't

Young Drachma · 02-25-2015, 08:08 PM

Young Drachma · 02-25-2015, 08:24 PM

I wasn't manager but I was bench coach for the Hawaii series, setting the lineups for the start of each game and making sure the starter was who I wanted in there and then I let the AI do the rest.

We swept the AL West last place 59ers and pulled to within a one game of El Paso in the Wild Card race.

Oh and apparently look at that in our division...we're only a game and a half out of the division race.

What do we have here? Parity is what. Makes me feel better about retooling this team after the hot start and makes me kinda wish we'd done it earlier.

Anyway, not out of the woods yet. We have our last off day today and then we're going to be playing through the end of the year.

Every game counts.

Young Drachma · 02-25-2015, 09:42 PM

The division ain't happening. It's wild card or bust.

We have a 3 game set against El Paso and then we end the year against Tacoma and there is an offday between them. Tacoma is pretty bad, El Paso is in the same dogfight for the wild card we want.

Young Drachma · 02-25-2015, 10:09 PM

So we drop 2 of 3 to El Paso. They lost to Chicago on the 1st day of October games and that puts us a game behind them for a wild card spot, but Florida lost and so we're tied with them for the final wild card spot and that'd force a playoff if the season ended today.

So now we have 3 games to go against Tacoma.

FLA (vs. CAR (69-94) A four-game set to end the year.
ELP (vs. CHI (78-81) A four game set.

So we need to win at least one against Tacoma and we need Florida to lose 2 of 3. Or to lose their last 3. Some variation of that. El Paso could help and lose more too, but..we're really competing with Florida right now for that last Wild Card spot in the AL.

Young Drachma · 02-25-2015, 10:15 PM

10/3: Carolina 11, Florida 3
Chicago 5, El Paso 3

So we got the help we needed. We just need to do our part tonight in Tacoma in the first of this three game set to end the year.

Florida losing, El Paso losing and us winning is fantastic news. It puts us in sole position of a wild card spot with a magic # of 2. If we win tomorrow and El Paso or Florida lose, we clinch a postseason spot.

Young Drachma · 02-25-2015, 10:17 PM

10/4: Florida 9, Carolina 5
El Paso 7, Chicago 3

This means we need to win to keep parity. If we lose, El Paso clinches a post-season spot and we tie with Florida for that last spot.

Young Drachma · 02-25-2015, 10:25 PM

My bench coach skills are masterful. I do this the same way every time. I set the lineup. I then start the game and turn over substitution power to the AI. I think immediately sim to the 6th inning because I think they should shorten all major league games to six innings. Anyway, then I sim through the rest of the game usually by inning because I feel like OOTP inning sims are a lot like playing video slots where you wanna feel like you have control but you probably don't.

ANYWAY. This win is huge because now we have two games to clinch a playoff spot. A win in the next two days or a loss by El Paso either day and we're in. Get swept by Florida and if El Paso wins at all and we're then gonna be stuck in a wild card tiebreaker against Florida for the last spot.

Not bad for a team that was supposed to win 55 games, right?

Young Drachma · 02-25-2015, 10:29 PM

I was laughing because even if we miss the post-season at this point we'd still get into the champions league and I think this team could mess around and win that title. I'd prefer a shot at the real ring, but...funny right?

Anyway, no matter what happens the next two games -- and I'm not going to bench coach them, I'm just gonna sim and let it play out -- I'm really proud of this team for getting this far. I had no high expectations for this team when I started this dynasty and thought surely we'd be writing a boring story about a team with no stars and that would take me a while to make sense of and it'd be fast to sim.

Instead...we got this.

Young Drachma · 02-25-2015, 10:33 PM

Carolina beat Florida 5-1 (10/5) and so, we clinched a playoff spot!

Young Drachma · 02-25-2015, 10:36 PM

Young Drachma · 02-25-2015, 10:40 PM

10/7:
Colorado def. Washington 3-1

Young Drachma · 02-25-2015, 10:43 PM

We hadn't beaten Washington all year. 0-6 against the Maroons. Wild Card round is best 2 out of 3.

We just swept the two-time defending Series champions by posting a crooked number in the top of the 9th. On the road.

I'm just simming the playoffs, not bench coaching or anything. I'm mystified but ecstatic.

Young Drachma · 02-25-2015, 10:46 PM

Young Drachma · 02-25-2015, 10:49 PM

Orlando was definitely the matchup we preferred over Great Plains our division champ. Given all three of our teams made this round, gotta think we played in the toughest division in the AL this year.

Anyway, Orlando won the South. But apparently, that didn't mean a whole lot when we went all '07 Colorado Rockies on them too.

I CANNOT believe this team is headed to the LCS. To play the EL PASO SUN KINGS who upset Great Plains 3 games to 2.

This is insane. Best of 7 for a chance at the Series.

Young Drachma · 02-25-2015, 10:53 PM

All good things come to an end. But what a season?!?!

Also there isn't a person on the planet that had El Paso v. Victoria vying for a title this year. Victoria's been out of the postseason for 11 years. Their last title came 13 years ago. El Paso had a modest 4 year playoff drought, their last title came 17 seasons ago.

One fan base will walk away happy, but either way, I think this year proved to me how much more fun the 16 team model was. I'd have felt that way even if I wasn't running the Cubs this year and they had the success they did. I liked how this turned out for teams that are underserved and if we're gonna have 40 teams, I'd like more to have a chance to at least taste the post-season unless it's a year with losing records...I'll probably amend the rules for those.

Young Drachma · 02-25-2015, 10:59 PM

In the Champions League for the first time ever, the semi-finals are all ABA teams that advanced. Florida beat Boston to claim the first-ever all ABA Champions League title.

And in that instance, it felt like the Champions League was the NIT to the NCAA tourney that is the main title.

Young Drachma · 02-26-2015, 08:54 AM

It's the start of FA and most of our lineup and rotation are coming back. Payroll is even lower than when I started last year. Do I come back for another year? Or do I end this story here?

Young Drachma · 02-26-2015, 10:08 PM

I thought about it and I'm not ready to give up on this team yet. I like the core we've built and I feel like the work I did to get things where they are now, coupled with that surprise run to the ALCS makes me want to see if last year was a fluke or if this new team can be even better.

So going to give it another year and see what happens.

02-24-2015, 08:42 AM	#18
timmae College Starter Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: Chicago	Greta start but with the dynamics throughout the league your Cubs look to be in as much trouble as the real life Cubs. Following along... __________________ Interactive OOTP 15 Dynasty (Single Season) CHAMPION!! Oh yeah... Happy New York Day everyone!

02-23-2015, 08:54 PM	#2
Young Drachma Dark Cloud Join Date: Apr 2001	2121 PREVIEW COLORADO CUBS PREDICTION: 55-107 (al central) FIVE YEAR WIN TREND: STADIUM: Coors Field Gone are the Elders from Salt Lake City. Well not really. The team still exists as the AAA club of the Cubs. Gone are the Gold Sox, too. Except they're not really gone. They're just 385 miles to the south in Amarillo. Say hello to the Colorado Cubs. Two years removed from their last playoff appearance, whatever is left of this team's core is gone and they're essentially a bottom feeder seeking to get out of a hole. After an off-season that was best described as "one of the worst of all of the teams in the majors," it'll be an uphill climb in a new market trying to convince fans to support a franchise that was once their longtime rivals down I-80. New GM Matt Mills, the architect of championship teams in Great Plains and most recently the two-time defending champion Washington Maroons inherits a team with no farm system (like Great Plains) or the ability to spend to a title (like Washington) and so, can he pull a rabbit out of a hat a third time? Not this year, no. Worst off-seasons by team: (by WAR) ROTATION: BATTING: PLAYERS TO WATCH: 24-year old Philippine import starting pitcher Jeremy Angeles is a rookie. We purchased his contract from the Indian League before he could ever make a start there after hearing about him (Note: he's actually a created player of someone from the main dynasty this is a spinoff of.) and knowing this team needed SOME kind of core talent, we're hoping he'll be that guy. 1B John Larsen came to us from the West Virginia Alleghenies in a trade where we sent four guys. The problem with him is the 19-year old is too good for AAA but teams were reluctant to start him after a hot year for the New York Gothams (5.7 WAR two years ago), he got traded to West Virginia at the deadline last year but they still missed the playoffs. He was then stuck behind another big bopper and we plucked him in the hopes that he can provide some infusion of something and rebuild his career before it sputters. OF Jayden Fralin is another guy who we picked up. He was actually in the free agent draft as the 7th pick by Memphis. But I knew we needed an outfielder and he's only 20 years old (0.5 WAR) and came from the NABL, so he's technically a rookie. I feel like he can offer something. I also claimed a few other guys off the scrap heap who'll be familiar to ABA fans like Joe Peters IV. We're playing stats only in this league, but I do have stars on because it's nice for clerical purposes when I want to go quickly. I think overall this team will not be very good. We'll have a few good guys. I wish we could trade our overpriced ace pitcher Thabit, but no one wants him (Trust me, I tried...) and overall, we'll just try to get through this season. I NEVER play out every game, I'm a GM type, but for the first time EVER on these forums, I'm going to going to do a game-by-game dynasty where I post the results. I'm trying to cut down on my post work typing though so I might just do a lot of posting of box score screenshots and then chime in with limited dialogue when the situation calls for it.

02-23-2015, 09:27 PM	#3
Young Drachma Dark Cloud Join Date: Apr 2001	So you want to know about this league. It's based off this quickstart that at the time I posted it had 270 years of history dating back to OOTP2007 or something. No idea when I started. Anyway, it's now season #322 now. After lots of changes to the majors since I posted it, we now have 40 teams in the ABA. The top 14 teams make the postseason. I've debated going to 16, but 14 has proven to be enough honestly. Here's who they are: NATIONWIDE LEAGUE EASTERN DIVISION New York City Invaders Philadelphia Quakers Baltimore Atlantics Boston Yanks New York Gothams WESTERN DIVISION Los Angeles Seraphs San Francisco Peanuts Victoria Cougars El Paso Sun Kings Boise Cutthroats CENTRAL DIVISION Eau Claire Paws Indiana Racers Toronto Blue Collars Detroit Pontiacs Minnesota Chiefs SOUTHERN DIVISION Louisville Spires Texas Electrics Memphis Hounds West Virginia Alleghenies Virginia Mariners ALLIED LEAGUE EASTERN DIVISION Brooklyn Originals Ohio Players New York Knights Worcester Hearts Washington Maroons SOUTHERN DIVISION Baton Rouge Red Sticks Orlando Wizards Carolina Wrens Jackson Cottons Florida Rockets WESTERN DIVISION Portland Beavers Hawaii 59ers San Diego Surge California Seals Tacoma Thrashers CENTRAL DIVISION Amarillo Gold Sox Chicago Rogues El Paso Sun Kings Great Plains Flycatchers Colorado Cubs RECENT CHAMPIONS

02-23-2015, 11:01 PM	#5
Young Drachma Dark Cloud Join Date: Apr 2001	Okay my fantasy team is picked. The rules were pretty basic. Not allowed to surpass our team payroll, no rookies and only 1 player max from any one team. Based on how this fantasy team does determines what happens to our budget for next season, independent of what happens on the field. I am not a field manager, so I won't manage any of these games. Instead, we'll sim everyday and just monitor what's happening and assess what to do from there. Here's the April schedule. After an opening home series against the Seals, we welcome back the Gold Sox to Colorado after abandoning their home of 229 seasons to head about 5 1/2 hours south. Do you think in a real life scenario like this, that fans would still support the team? Not tons of them, obviously, but die hard fans. I mean, if the Dodgers moved to say...Dayton rather than Los Angeles would the fans still be loyal for the most part? Because essentially that's what happened here, except a lot more years though think about this dynasty less as "in the future" and more "consistently in the present for 300+ years." But seriously, how many Gold Sox fans % wise do you think abandoned the team after it moved? How many switched to become Cubs fans? Surely the name change helped -- I doubt Colorado fans could've accepted becoming Elders fans but...it's essentially what they've been asked to do.

02-23-2015, 11:04 PM	#6
Young Drachma Dark Cloud Join Date: Apr 2001	First game in Colorado Cubs history is a win.

02-23-2015, 11:15 PM	#7
Young Drachma Dark Cloud Join Date: Apr 2001	Electrics had this kid blocked in AAA for some reason after signing a veteran to play the position. We needed to upgrade at catcher and they were willing to take a few prospects, as well as the veteran Joe Peters who is off to a slow start, but he's a former all-star that wasn't even a starter for us.

02-23-2015, 11:24 PM	#8
Young Drachma Dark Cloud Join Date: Apr 2001	Don't get tricked by this first month schedule. We're up a 1.5 games in the AL Central because of a few things: 1) a few teams are underachieving to start the year 2) we had an easy schedule to start outside of those Great Plains games and Amarillo isn't on fire in their new home so far and they won the division last year. Still, it's a real shot in the arm for everyone here that this team is playing so well so far. I am not making anymore moves before the all-star break and even then...I might only take offers from the AI, we'll see. After the first month, we're tops or #2 in all team offensive categories in the AL, but our pitching is near the bottom. We're also 6th in defensive efficiency and so, I think that's the real story here. We'll see what happens, but bear in mind that the Gold Sox played at Mile High before they got here and so, I don't really know if it's the Coors effect or if it's something else, but...without better pitching, this team won't get much further. And if it really is the Coors effect, then hitting the road for any extended roadtrips should torpedo this joyride. STANDOUTS 1B JOHN LARSEN (.446 BA) LF YOSHI TAKAHASHI (.347 BA/27 RBI in 120 ABs) Takahashi was a 6th round pick in this year's free agent draft. I didn't even draft him, by that time I'd let the AI take over. The free agent draft is simply a deal where anyone left in the FA pool at the start of spring training is eligible. I started it new the past two seasons because I hated how OOTP would let otherwise quality guys just sit because of contract disputes because it didn't seem to make sense the types of players who were sitting out for a whole season. It's been working well, so far.

02-23-2015, 11:48 PM	#10
Young Drachma Dark Cloud Join Date: Apr 2001	We have a few injuries, but here's the current lineup. H.B. Xi is out until after the AS break, he's our starting 3B and was hitting .259 when he left. Tommy Hamblin is another one of my bargain basement finds. He was a 2nd rounder four years ago, but somehow managed to find himself released and playing in the NABL, one of my independent circuits. I'd remembered him from his HS career -- he was on my HS team (in-game) -- and I was surprised no one had claimed him, so we purchased his contract. He finished the year in AA (my minor leagues are staggered...) and so he's now in the bigs and we'll see if he can give us a boost at all. Here's the day-today breakdown of how May went: Here's the June schedule:

02-23-2015, 11:59 PM	#11
Young Drachma Dark Cloud Join Date: Apr 2001	Spreadsheet tells me ownership is gonna slash and burn like a MFer after this season unless my picks start turning it around. So there won't be any money to spend, meaning I need to squeeze what I can out of our existing budget I think we have some wasted cash on some of these pitchers who aren't very good. Our farm system isn't very good, so basically it'll be a lot of dealing some low-level prospects that someone might take, coupled with salary dumps if I can manage it, coupled with taking on expiring contract dudes because the playoff run would pay for them. We can't take back any salary after this season. Hilariously, we might be able to take some Amarillo guys and repatriate them if there were any talent down there worth taking. Again, gonna sim through June (AS game is mid-July) and see where we sit.

02-24-2015, 12:19 AM	#12
Young Drachma Dark Cloud Join Date: Apr 2001	Reality has set in and we're in that awkward spot between wild card contender and division pretender. We're 18th in starters ERA. If we could get even the faintest bit of respectable pitching up here, I think we'd make a run for the division. This is a weird season where other than Washington, the AL is completely wide open and I think we could make a run if we aligned the team right. But our pitching is so bad and my 3rd best pitcher is out 5-6 weeks with an injury. So things just got even worse. The smart play here is probably to just deal off all of our assets worth a damn and stockpile prospects. Sell high and just start from scratch because we're working with $64m or so with minors and we're not in a position to add. I could probably bundle two of my guys with some others to get one or two things back, but we'd be ripping ourselves off in the process. A playoff race would be really exciting though and some of these guys -- Larsen & Fralin are dudes who I'd love to see stay Cubs for their whole careers, because they're young and valuable. Here's how June went: Here's some standings action if you're into that: Without making any deals in our favor, this team will surely miss the post-season barring a lot of luck and some injuries from opponents. It'd be a missed opportunity to let this go by without at least cashing in whether it's playoffs or dealing and going Marlins style. What would you do?

02-24-2015, 12:48 AM	#13
Young Drachma Dark Cloud Join Date: Apr 2001	Tonight when we finish a three-game set against the 59ers, a few guys will end up changing locker rooms. We dealt Tom Carnahan and Tom Thatcher to Hawaii where that team desperately needed offensive talent as they rank near the bottom of the league in most offensive categories and I had a need to drop Carnahan's $9.875 million salary that he was signed to before we managed to bring Larsen in and rendering his presence entirely moot after the latter became the John Olerud of this league. The two middle relievers were in the minors, but will promote for us and we'll give them a whirl...and Jaso moves into the starting 3B spot, so it was not a bad deal for us at all. Dropping that deal helps us a lot, because all of a sudden I can now go out and find someone to fill that space if I wanted to make a run for a postseason spot. That deal dropped us to 38th highest payroll in the league and next year, we clear a lot of these off the books so we'll end up only being committed so far to $26.3 million in deals. We need pitching bad. I still haven't decided what I'm going to do with this team tho, I feel like we owe it to ourselves to make a run for it especially if that means doing so within budget. Here's July's schedule:

02-24-2015, 07:24 AM	#14
Young Drachma Dark Cloud Join Date: Apr 2001	It occurred to me last night that I should scour the independent leagues to see if there were players that might help our cause. Fewer guys end up there now, but those leagues still pay well -- our setup is more like European basketball is to the NBA -- so it's possible to find a guy who is excelling in one of the international leagues. I've got a tentative deal to trade our highest paid player to Baltimore along with two other guys for a minor league starter. It's basically a salary dump. A lot of these guys that I picked in the FA draft are also potentially trading chips, but...the point here is, I can deal a lot of dead weight and still try to go for it. Right now, if I had to compare this team to real life, it'd be something like the last year of the Expos in Montreal with Omar Minaya went making all those deals to try to get them into the postseason when they turned to be better than anyone thought, but MLB wouldn't let him increase payroll. Coupled with the 1993 Blue Jays, where they went out and remade their '92 roster and got guys like Henderson, Dave Stewart and other proven winners to work around their core group. This team is somewhere in the middle. I think we have the offense to make the post-season, we just need more reliable pitching and the Coors effect is real, tho not as pronounced as it might seem. Since I inherited this whole roster, it's a different story.

02-24-2015, 07:34 AM	#15
Young Drachma Dark Cloud Join Date: Apr 2001	So do I deal him? On paper, a trade would make us look worse. He's actually having a really solid year. That contract though is terrible and I'm not sure that I believe he can consistently pitch at this level and if we miss on him, well...we're stuck with that deal. If it torpedoes our playoff chances, I'm okay with it, if I can find someone who'll take that contract and it appears I have, even if it means all I get back is a AAAA pitcher who I have no idea how well he'll perform. (Remember, stats only league) I tried dealing him pretty much all year and there are no one-for-one deals, I had to pair him with two low minor leaguers (one who is ranked 59th overall in ABA on prospect list) to be able to get them to take the contract on. Also we did acquire someone last night from the Indian League. We purchased the contract of SP Ethan McGowan who has been an all-star in the past over there. He actually played in Colorado for a year before being swept up in my all leagues free agent draft I did a few seasons ago. Then he ended up veering out of the majors later and has been in India ever since. Just so you, no one comes from the Vodacom League with those kinds of numbers and then comes over here to the ABA and plays that well. I suspect he'll just be solid, but if he can just stay healthy and pitch OK, that'd be a huge boon for us.

02-24-2015, 07:58 AM	#16
Young Drachma Dark Cloud Join Date: Apr 2001	In case you were wondering: UPB guys cost $1m, NABL guys cost $750k and Vodacom League (Indian/Middle East/Africa) cost $100k. All 3 used to be major leagues, Vodacom got demoted first and then I ran a FA draft with EVERYONE in all the leagues to get talent out of those leagues and back into our league -- about 4 seasons ago -- but their salary structures didn't change because 1) I kind of forgot and 2) I wasn't really concerned about it. So you still get guys who can get a good payday over in those leagues (UPB is rated a 7, NABL is a 6 and Vodacom is a 4 now) so people will do it though obviously far fewer than during the days when it was still a major league. Hence the Europe/China = Basketball comparison to our league's setup at the moment. This is not in the quickstart tho, this setup came in the last 50 years or so and then was swapped more recently. I'll release a new version with OOTP16 tho.

02-24-2015, 08:03 AM	#17
Young Drachma Dark Cloud Join Date: Apr 2001	Here are all three so you can see the teams involved, if you're new to the setup it might be confusing. I won't be covering those leagues at all, just wanted to give you a sense of what teams were still in those leagues. UPB was created from a merger of the Japanese league which was international and a breakaway group of ABA clubs back in 2074. It's since expanded. Same thing with the NABL, it was the Canadian league and another breakaway group of ABA clubs coupled with some expansion. Vodacom was always international and then I promoted it, but none of those teams were ever ABA and never will be.

02-24-2015, 11:12 PM	#19
Young Drachma Dark Cloud Join Date: Apr 2001	So July 1st is draft day in my league and because this team was terrible last year, we have the 2nd overall pick. There are no aces in this draft at least at the top, no one who can help us now. But it's baseball so that's not weird. I'm more interested in getting someone we can deal elsewhere than I am trying to get someone who'll help us. Draft pick trading is not on in my league because OOTP handles it poorly but I do allow teams to deal players they draft. So...I'm looking to flip someone essentially and I'm only going to make our 1st round pick and then let the AI do the rest of the draft after that. Here's our 2nd overall pick in the draft, a 19-year old 1B out of Delaware who is Dutch by birth named Andrew Derksen. He's actually fully reached his potential and it's possible he could play in the bigs now, which is why I'm more interested in him than those other players. I've kept up you updated on my deals. Oh there was one more. Denver has a UPB team too and I bought their closer's contract. Bullpen is one of our issues. I'm simming through the end of July and we'll see what the deadline looks like. I might play slower through July, because at this point, I'm sort of sure I want to get into the post-season with this team.

02-25-2015, 08:47 AM	#20
Young Drachma Dark Cloud Join Date: Apr 2001	I made a mistake. I meant not to trade Ethan McGowan to Baltimore, it was supposed to be my big money pitcher Thabit. I could rescind the deal and get him back and do the trade I actually had setup, but it turns out they might be able to work out another deal that gets him back here and where we can get another one of their stashed relievers to come with him. I figure if we're making the playoffs or not, I need that Thabit contract off the tables. I submitted a deal that includes Silas Delaney's contract too and three other low level prospects and some cash to pay for part of Thabit's deal for this year in exchange for three dudes, all minor leaguers from Baltimore. They're in the tough NL East which is a bloodbath, so they're trying to reload to catch up with the top teams there (my NL East is a lot like the real AL East right now...) and so...that's why the deal makes sense. If this deal goes through, here's what it'd look like. They'll probably ask for something else, tho. We'll see. That'll teach me to screw up trading the wrong dude.

02-25-2015, 09:24 AM	#21
Young Drachma Dark Cloud Join Date: Apr 2001	So I got them to take Delaney and Thabit, but had to pay the rest of this year and all of next year's salary of his to do it. We still save $26m on the last two years of the deal, so even with that it was worth it because again, I just don't know what to think. At this point, I'm going to focus less on trying to sneak into the postseason this year and focus more on building a core for this team by deciding who should get a long term deal and who we ought to let walk.

02-25-2015, 09:32 AM	#22
Young Drachma Dark Cloud Join Date: Apr 2001	Remember Tommy Hamblin? Considering it cost us less than $1m to buy his contract, I want to deal him while he still has value. He's young and I think could grow into a solid player for someone. I could also hold onto him. It probably doesn't hurt to just keep him. If I were serious about the postseason this year tho, he'd be a solid trade chip because of his age and potential.

02-25-2015, 09:50 AM	#23
Young Drachma Dark Cloud Join Date: Apr 2001	Someone talk some sense into me. The ghost is over. We're 6 out of the WC and 7.5 GB in the division and falling fast from 3rd place on. Payroll is down to $42 million. After typing that, I made a deal with the devil. We made a deal with Amarillo who were shedding payroll for their #2 starter who we're on the hook to pay $11.8m next year but it expires after next season. I feel more comfortable with him as a top starter than Thabit, the deal is for less time and there's the whole warm fuzzies of a guy who was on the Gold Sox coming back to play for the Cubs. But seriously, convince me not to attempt a playoff run. I don't know if I can be dissuaded, especially by the time you read this. At a certain point, need to just throw in the towel on this season and attempt to get things in place for next year.

02-25-2015, 10:29 AM	#24
Young Drachma Dark Cloud Join Date: Apr 2001

02-25-2015, 10:34 AM	#25
Young Drachma Dark Cloud Join Date: Apr 2001	4.5 out of the wild card with 3 weeks to go in August. My trade deadline is August 31st right now. For a long time I debated between July 31st and August 15th or so, but end of August is easiest and ensures that players move before September and screw waivers and all that. We'll see how things go now. I've made a lot of shifts in July and if nothing else, we have few liabilities going into next year, but a solid core of young guys who are free radicals. This team is rudderless and has no real identity, but I can see one evolving with guys like Larsen, Fralin and Angeles on board. August 11th: 5.5 GB There are six other teams all duking it out for position at this point for that spot and it makes me think we're kind of sacked. Payroll at $41m. I am strongly considering going after a few high dollar expiring contracts from bad teams in the hopes of giving us a bit of a push towards the end. No idea who that'd be and I haven't gone looking yet, but...I feel like this is our window year to at least make an appearance and then we can go from there, but there's too much working with here to just let the idea die. If we miss out or fall short, so be it. But I don't want it to be because we didn't try to get to go for it.

02-25-2015, 07:42 PM	#26
Young Drachma Dark Cloud Join Date: Apr 2001	Showed back up today into this storyline and decided to sim to the trade deadline. I've pretty much given up on a postseason appearance at this point, I just want to finish strong, establish a core and we'll go from there. I can't really tell you what the identity of this team is yet, as I'm really getting reacquainted with the league as a whole, because it appears there's a lot of pitching talent and if there was ever a reason to not trust stars, I've turned them off because they're really distracting to my talent evaluation efforts. I'm just going to rely on stats only -- as that's how I was playing. We're 7.5 GB in the division and 4.5 GB of a wild card. Still all of September to play plus three days in October. Did I mention the Gold Sox come back to town in September for a 3-game set with us fighting for a playoff spot and them in last place? I think we have to at least TRY to make a run for it. SEPT. 1ST SEPTEMBER SCHEDULE El Paso, San Diego and Great Plains are all contenders. We end the year on a 3-game set with Tacoma. I think we have a legitimate shot to do something if we decide not to suck now and peak late. But let's not get our hopes up. Don't trust these Cubs.

02-25-2015, 07:44 PM	#27
Young Drachma Dark Cloud Join Date: Apr 2001

02-25-2015, 07:55 PM	#28
Young Drachma Dark Cloud Join Date: Apr 2001	I don't trust the computer not to screw this up. And I've decided that rather than come back next year and run this club, I'm doing this like Omar Minaya style and running it like it's my last year with the team. Our owner is in his 70s and he's about to sell the team to new local owners here in Colorado and so...this is our last hurrah at this deal and I think it'd be good for the new fans to get invested in this run if we can manage to pull it off. So I'm doing what I NEVER do and I'm going to actually play out games. Or at least setup lineups and make sure the AI doesn't fuck it up because I am not convinced they won't

02-25-2015, 08:08 PM	#29
Young Drachma Dark Cloud Join Date: Apr 2001

02-25-2015, 08:24 PM	#30
Young Drachma Dark Cloud Join Date: Apr 2001	I wasn't manager but I was bench coach for the Hawaii series, setting the lineups for the start of each game and making sure the starter was who I wanted in there and then I let the AI do the rest. We swept the AL West last place 59ers and pulled to within a one game of El Paso in the Wild Card race. Oh and apparently look at that in our division...we're only a game and a half out of the division race. What do we have here? Parity is what. Makes me feel better about retooling this team after the hot start and makes me kinda wish we'd done it earlier. Anyway, not out of the woods yet. We have our last off day today and then we're going to be playing through the end of the year. Every game counts.

02-25-2015, 09:42 PM	#31
Young Drachma Dark Cloud Join Date: Apr 2001	The division ain't happening. It's wild card or bust. We have a 3 game set against El Paso and then we end the year against Tacoma and there is an offday between them. Tacoma is pretty bad, El Paso is in the same dogfight for the wild card we want.

02-25-2015, 10:09 PM	#32
Young Drachma Dark Cloud Join Date: Apr 2001	So we drop 2 of 3 to El Paso. They lost to Chicago on the 1st day of October games and that puts us a game behind them for a wild card spot, but Florida lost and so we're tied with them for the final wild card spot and that'd force a playoff if the season ended today. So now we have 3 games to go against Tacoma. FLA (vs. CAR (69-94) A four-game set to end the year. ELP (vs. CHI (78-81) A four game set. So we need to win at least one against Tacoma and we need Florida to lose 2 of 3. Or to lose their last 3. Some variation of that. El Paso could help and lose more too, but..we're really competing with Florida right now for that last Wild Card spot in the AL.

02-25-2015, 10:15 PM	#33
Young Drachma Dark Cloud Join Date: Apr 2001	10/3: Carolina 11, Florida 3 Chicago 5, El Paso 3 So we got the help we needed. We just need to do our part tonight in Tacoma in the first of this three game set to end the year. Florida losing, El Paso losing and us winning is fantastic news. It puts us in sole position of a wild card spot with a magic # of 2. If we win tomorrow and El Paso or Florida lose, we clinch a postseason spot.

02-25-2015, 10:17 PM	#34
Young Drachma Dark Cloud Join Date: Apr 2001	10/4: Florida 9, Carolina 5 El Paso 7, Chicago 3 This means we need to win to keep parity. If we lose, El Paso clinches a post-season spot and we tie with Florida for that last spot.