400 seasons and counting (OOTP18)

[Young Drachma]

Most of the regulars know that I've had a running OOTP dynasty for almost a decade that I started in OOTP8 and have upgraded to every version of the game since then. Until this year, I really hadn't been able to make a lot of headway, but for some reason, this year I've played more OOTP than I had in the past and mostly simmed another 100 seasons.

OOTP is not really built to do what I'm doing and so, team histories and so forth are starting to break and also a lot of the records from the past are pretty hard to beat and OOTP doesn't make it super easy to keep up -- it starts to feel like real life, honestly -- so I'm about to do one more team for maybe 50 seasons and then call it a dynasty once I reach 500 seasons.

[Young Drachma]

About 7 seasons ago, I finally realigned the league back to 36 teams (we have gone and down over the centuries...not worth recalling.) because I found a bunch of schedules to use that fit my format (3 divisions per subleague)

With that change, I expanded the playoffs again so we went from 12 teams (3 wild cards, 3 division champs) to 18 teams, but it's structured so that the two 2 teams in each subleague get double-byes to the division series, the worst division champion does play in a Elimination Series after the wild cards duke it out in a one-game playoff.

FORMAT
WILD CARD GAME (1)
ELIMINATION SERIES (BEST OF 3)
DIVISION SERIES (BEST OF 5)
LEAGUE CHAMPIONSHIP (BEST OF 7)
GALACTIC SERIES (BEST OF 9)

Since the new format, only 3 wild cards have made the title series and only one has won.



That team: The New Mexico Suns, who went 82-80 in a middling regular season, squeaked into the post-season tied for the 6th wild card, but then the post-season happened and they went wild.




The trick is, they were the 2nd best hitting team in baseball and started hitting once the post-season started up. Their pitching wasn't bad, it just performed badly in their stadium.

I went back through the archives to see what similar teams were bad historically. I found two notable ones:

1813 Eau Claire Paws (81-81)
1937 Brookyln Originals (76-86)

The difference is, both these teams won their divisions en route to their titles. Pretty wild that an 8th place team in the league won a title and while it kinda feels like blasphemy, the fact they were a power hitting team that won 95 games the year after their title, made me feel like they were just really unlikely in their title season during the regular season and started to play up to their talent level once the playoffs hit.

I'll take a few wild cards like that over leaving 90+ win teams at home because of weird divisions or letting flukey division champs claim titles simply because they were in a weak setup.

Still, the fact that it took about 296 seasons or so until a bad team won a title again is pretty surprising.

[Young Drachma]

I'm going to take over the Iowa Chops franchise. They're a 10-year old club that's already won a title, but they're going to be moved (shock, I know) because there are a lot of teams clustered in the Midwest, so I feel like they don't have a natural fanbase outside of Iowa and parts of southern Wisconsin.



I haven't decided where they're going to move, but probably west. 16 of the teams are west of the Mississippi, the rest are in the east coast. Things are fairly distributed around the country right now and I'm pretty pleased with that.

8 teams in the South
6 in the East
8 in the midwest
2 in Texas
4 in California
5 in Intermountain West
3 in Canada

The biggest market without a team, Philadelphia would claim that spot, but I've been mostly avoiding big markets with teams opting for small ones, but I think I might head back to a major market with this team as we round things out.

California doesn't need more teams, Texas could take a 3rd team but it never usually works for me. Philadelphia is probably the most notable place to put a team outside of a 2nd team in New England.

Here's last season's standings (and where teams are).



We might spend one more season in Iowa so I can figure out where to put them. The other issue is, it's gotta be a team that I can find a logo/uniform for. Otherwise, I'd just do what I want.

[Young Drachma]

Philadelphia had a team from 1800 until 2227. So they've been without a team for 13 seasons. Over those years, they won only 8 titles. There were times when Philly had 2 teams, but I think I decided a charter city should go out the way they came in -- so I'm going to "buy" the Iowa Chops and move them to Philadelphia.

Titles won by Philadelphia baseball club (8): 1825, 1827, 1922, 1942, 2010, 2037, 2038, 2121

Overall, Philadelphia teams (including expansion teams that left) won a total of 17 pennants over the years. The current Indiana Racers franchise originally began in Philly as the Philadelphia Apostles and won the 2065 pennant (but didn't win a title in Philly)

Anyway, Philadelphia gets a team again next season (not in a year). No idea what to call them, but it won't matter, there are lots of uniform options for Philadelphia, so it won't even matter.

[Young Drachma]

We'll consider ourselves in the lineage of the original Philadelphia Baseball Club that existed from 1800-2227 and won seven Series titles over 4 centuries of baseball.

I never liked the Quakers moniker the original Philly club had for the majority of their history, so I'm going with a different nickname this time. There was a team in Philly called the Crickets who eventually became the Veterans before moving to Portland. That team folded some years back, but...I kind of liked the Veterans name, even if it's kind of boring.

After a playoff appearance 3 seasons ago, the club has been in a free-fall from 2nd to 4th to back to back last place finishes. We're going to be in the Associated League East starting next year, leaving the Central with the move to Philly. Not sure how it will matter, though.

The Vets are 7th in payroll, despite their last place finishes. My original idea was going to be to make a bunch of deals to put the team into contention immediately, but now I'm starting to think the better move some of these big contracts that are ill-advised, and start from there.

2240 OFFSEASON
This team is bad. Their farm system is 30th out of 36 teams in the bigs. So I immediately upgrade the development budget. Have no idea if it actually does anything to help, but our ownership isn't sparing any expense when it comes to getting the team back into contention.

My next move is to deal some of the overpriced deals we have. There was a run a few years ago of established international free agents I added to the pool mostly to inject a bit of diverse players into the game -- most for the World Baseball Classic, I was bored with the same teams playing -- but a lot of those dudes got overpriced contracts and it seems the old Iowa club signed a few of them.

OF Kerefese Guma, a 34-year old South Africa outfielder who was the team's leader hitter last year (.329, 82 RBI) and has a $14.6 million option for next year after making $17m this year. I opted to release him immediately to avoid the option, because there's no way we need to pay that much for a corner outfielder who spent 2 of the past 3 years on a last place team.

That gets us down to about $86m in payroll (13th in the league) but we still have 4 guys making over $10m and who are signed through next year -- SP Daniel Parker, 1B Kiris Wiki, CF Kamakakaoa Lihau & OF Clark Rollins.

We're going to likely offload a few of those contracts for something, try to rebuild the farm system and then see if we can't build from there. Not sure the franchise should just hit the FA market heavy and try to win early.

My goals with this club is similar to what I did with the Great Plains Flycatchers in earlier editions of the dynasty, except that team was good from the outset without human intervention, then I got involved and made sure they stayed good for decades.

But we had a few legends that stuck with the club early on, which was fun because then I had a history that started pretty swiftly. I'd like this new Philadelphia club to establish some memorable players that become fan favorites whether they win or not, over the next decade or two. The old club didn't have a ton of success over 4 centuries, winning only 8 titles during that time (1825, 1827, 1922, 1942, 2010, 2037, 2038, 2121) and were even relegated for a stint back when that was a thing.

It's been 13 seasons since Philly had Major League baseball though, so the hope is to create a new memorable era for fans there.

[Young Drachma]

I offloaded about $40m in contracts and made the only deal I really cared about in getting Joe Peters IX from Queens in a seven-player deal. Peters was demanding a trade out of Queens, but as he had no no-trade clause, the team sought to find comparable value for the 24-year old former MVP, who had a down year for him, but not for anybody else with a WAR over 5. Though it's possible that Peters won't manage to live up to his early career flair and that we potentially gave up a guy who was cheaper and younger to get him to Philly.

The Vets now have among the lowest payrolls in baseball. We're going to run through the '41 season with what we have and we'll see if it works, how it works and go from there. Honestly, I have no idea how the team will perform.

I built a new stadium for the Vets in Philly:



The talent distribution in our league is such that ratings aren't that important because most of the players are really good, so you just need stats to help you make sense of talent. It also means that guys can rebound from bad seasons because the talent is there, it's just a matter of how it gets applied and whether they can put it all together. I prefer this model, even if it makes it harder to play.

We're not signing any free agents, the trades I made this off-season will be the end of our moves until at least the all-star break.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Simply posting my respect for the longevity. That's the sort of thing I've tried (in theory) to create, but my microplaying tendencies usually interfere.

[Young Drachma]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

Simply posting my respect for the longevity. That's the sort of thing I've tried (in theory) to create, but my microplaying tendencies usually interfere.

I appreciate it! You'll be pleased to know OOTP is crashing a lot more now that I'm towards the end, the game is not happy that I'm still simming this far into the future and so, I'm not even sure how much longer I'll be able to continue before having to start over finally.

But it seems as long as I stick to simming and don't do too much else, the game is mostly stable.

[Comey]

I've often used the Grays and Quakers in my historical-fictional years. If you move from the Vets, others to consider:

Chestnuts
Southies (if you put the team in South Philly)
Old Cities
Citylines (City Line Ave is a big route through the city)
Founders

If I think of others, I'll write them down. I followed this over at OOTP...will do so here.

[Young Drachma]

2241 SEASON
72-90, 5th place, Associated League East



The Vets were surely bad, but we expected that given I inherited a last place team, gutted them of their stars, switched divisions and the only good player I got in the off-season turned out to be a massive dud.

So we knew we'd be bad. I hate our stadium, but I'm going to force the team to play in it for at least 10 seasons, because I don't really want it to be entirely easy.

Let's get around to the recap:

THE GOOD: Sal Castellano is in his 5th season with the franchise and had a career year hitting 32 HR/110 RBI, 33 doubles and 2.2 WAR. I was not expecting this at all, but we'll take it. He signed a one year extension worth $5.7 million for next year, is a fan favorite and another guy that if he can follow this season up will end up being signed to a long-term deal for the same reason we signed Peters despite it making any sense at all.


THE BAD: Coming off a season where he hit just .230 with 19 HRs and 50 RBI, Joe Peters IX, a two-time former MVP who is still only 23 years old, signed a 9year/$99m contract extension. Why would I sign him to a deal like that? I mentioned early in this storyline that I wanted iconic players on this team and while he's probably all washed up, it feels like the sort of move that we needed to make anyway, in the off-chance he finds his swing.

Despite his terrible average, his WAR was 3.3, the worst of his career, but not exactly negative.

Offensively and pitching wise, this team was terrible. I'm not entirely sure if it was just a talent thing (probably) or something else, but...the team just wasn't good. This off-season, we'll have to make actual moves to improve the team or else, we'll be bad again.

POST-SEASON


The LA Conquistadors won their 2nd straight title and made their FOURTH straight appearance in the Fall Classic, knocking off another fellow old club - Colorado Gold Sox.

RECENT CHAMPIONS

[Young Drachma]

2241 PHILADELPHIA VETERANS (72-90)

SEASON STAT RECAP. TL;DR: WE ARE NOT GOOD.







SALARIES

[Young Drachma]

Originally Posted by Comey

I've often used the Grays and Quakers in my historical-fictional years. If you move from the Vets, others to consider:

Chestnuts
Southies (if you put the team in South Philly)
Old Cities
Citylines (City Line Ave is a big route through the city)
Founders

If I think of others, I'll write them down. I followed this over at OOTP...will do so here.

This is excellent, thanks. I don't think we'll stay with Vets forever, so this is useful.

[Young Drachma]

[Young Drachma]

2041 OFF-SEASON SALARIES & PAYROLL (November)

[Young Drachma]

It might be worth mentioning that I am playing mostly stats only. I have ratings on for player's fielding ability, because otherwise it's just more onerous to look, but I don't have current or future ratings on, so it makes player evaluation more challenging. I literally only have stats to go on.

[Young Drachma]

OFF-SEASON

Traded LF Art Parsons to Brooklyn in a six player deal. Parsons, 32, came over from the Aussie league after a career there and had a solid impact making an all-star appearance for us last year. (But we were bad.)

Anyway, I liked him a lot, but he's 32 and Brooklyn made us an offer for front-line rotation guy (SP Angelo Rodriguez) and a solid reliever (RP Steve Lawyer) and since pitching is an area where we really stunk it up, I felt like dealing a veteran outfielder who is just a 2nd year player was worth it, even if he was a big part of our offense last year.



So here's the issue with this team as-is. There was no farm system, so it'd be years of a rebuild. Looking at free agency, I saw that Mick McBain was a free agent and I couldn't resist bringing him to Philly, so we got him. I did a deal with Wichita Falls to get 1B Sultan Sandeep from Wichita Falls.

The thing about the design of the league now, is that pretty much .500 record will get you into the playoffs. That isn't really worth a lot if you can't get far, but there's just no long-term incentive to tank. More importantly, I just wanted to get this club into a position to get local fans engaged.

For context, we went from a team that couldn't hit or pitch to acquiring two of the top 3 hitters in WAR in the AL last year. Hopefully, that means that we'll be more improved than last year. Or we're cursed. No idea.

At the very least, we should be a playoff team. Besides that? We'll cross that bridge when we get come to it. I'm excited about this team now and that's a good thing, even if I'm cautious about how the regular season will go.

Emmanuel Askew was the Iowa kid who came home to play for his hometown team and walked away from the game when the decision to move was announced. After a year away, he was coaxed back to the majors by the team he left behind. His motivation? "Maybe if I played for the Philly team, they'd still retire my number rather than just forget about me."

[Young Drachma]

After being near the bottom of the league in payroll last year, the Vets are back in the middle of the pack at 12th.



Because I'm sentimental, Clark Rollins is still on the roster, as the longest tenured guy on the team dating back to the Iowa franchise and now both years in Philly. He's getting old, isn't necessarily cheap for his production and I think he's going to be gone at the deadline.

Maybe it'd be more sentimental if we were still in Iowa, but since Philly fans barely know the guy and he's not a star, it's probably not as big a deal as it seems right?



POST-FA SALARIES
Mick McBain is the highest paid player in the game, as I overpaid to get him to Philly. We'll see if it pays off.

[Young Drachma]

The deal with this season really goes like this, I saw an opportunity and took it. We were in a really weird place after last year and with no prospects, a bit of talent in odd spots and some guys that were producing for us even if they weren't elite, I wasn't sure if we should really just start over or try to get a middling team into the post-season and go from there.

It wasn't especially methodical, we made some modest moves coupled with a bold one (signing McBain) and let the chips fall where they have. It's resulted in at least a playoff spot for this post-season, but besides that? No idea. We're taking it one year at a time at this point.

Virginia and Pittsburgh tied for the NL last wild card spot, Virginia knocked them off with Jeff Johnson, their third starter who in his 2nd big league season has gone 18-3 (2.79 ERA, 4.3 WAR), who is basically a pocket ace. They might be a dangerous playoff team provided they can get out of the Wild Card/Elimination Series gauntlet.

As for the Vets, a lot of the late season moves I made were the sorts of things you'd expect a real-life team to do that have no real impact in OOTP at all. Some of those moves were emotional, too. My two favorite players of this particular era were OF Joey Eccles, who I felt should have been better than he was. A three-time all-star, he spent two stints with Great Plains, but the past three years, he's been in a fairly severe decline and ought to retire. I saw him in the minors, couldn't help but bring him in for the rest of the year and he's played in 21 games for us.

There's no way I can keep him on the post-season roster though, though I'd like to see him win a ring if we can somehow get ridiculous.

I already mentioned Emmanuel Askew earlier, but after a year off he had a solid year hitting .302 with 13 HRs, providing solid defense and boasting a 3 WAR in 121 games played. I think his memory in Philadelphia despite one season will be secured no matter what happens. He has one year left on his contract too, so it's likely we'll bring him back unless he retires again.

Joe Peters IX isn't going to be an MVP ever again it appears, but the 24-year old progeny of legends had a much more respectable year this year. His WAR was 4.9, he started 154 games and led the league in at-bats and steals. He's likely to win his 8th gold glove too. Hard to argue with that performance, even if it's not up to his previous legendary standards.



This season was the best in franchise history, the only previous team the club won 100 games was 2234 the year after the Chops won the Galactic Series.

With a week off, we'll await the winner of the Cincinnati/Brooklyn/Montreal/Baltimore series. Obviously, the real goal here is not to go out in the first round. I think the talent is here for a deep post-season run, but it's hard to say.

REGULAR SEASON STATS

[Young Drachma]

We escape the Division Series against a tough Brooklyn team. I honestly thought we were toast in Game 5.



Now we face Huntsville in the ALCS for a shot at the Galactic Series.

[Young Drachma]

We went up 2-0 and I was sure we had them. But it wasn't to be. Huntsville won 99 games, are a very balanced team and wouldn't be denied. We keep our core intact, but if we want to go deep into the playoffs, what Philadelphia needs is probably at least one better front-line starter.




Indiana wins their first title in 31 seasons after getting past Huntsville.

[Young Drachma]

If you all ever get bored and want to help me build a new ballpark, feel free to use the web utility OOTP Park Gen and share your ideas. We're stuck at Veterans Stadium (my created one, not the IRL one's dimensions) for another 8 seasons per my original rules, but...I'd like something to look forward to.

[Young Drachma]

I really have some work I should be doing instead, so while I tinkered this off-season with the team in the hopes of getting back to the playoffs and beyond, after this season (2243), I'm just going to put the team on autopilot and let the AI have its way with the franchise.

For the next seven years, we're JUST GOING TO BE FANS of the Philly team. This will drive me insane if they do things like trade guys that I like or make other boneheaded moves that I can't justify, but the deal is, I really have some work I need to be doing right now, but I also want to sim seasons. Since I cannot in any way rationalize playing out any games, tinkering or trying to find trades in the league, I'm going to instead, just let the AI do what it wants to do and we'll just be pissed if they do something like trade Joe Peters or Mick McBain in the next few years.

It'll be interesting to see if they can win a title in this first wave. When I do come back to the team to manage them, we'll likely have an entirely new cast of characters that I won't know, but since I will be following the team throughout this phase of the story, we'll at least know who these folks are, I just won't get ANY say in what happens to them at all.

The control freak + fan in me will not enjoy this and if they don't win a title when I've set them up for one, I'm going to be really irate. On the bright side, when this whole period is done, I get to build a new stadium.

[Young Drachma]

OOTP IS SO STUPID I CANNOT STAND IT. HOW THE HELL DOES THE AI THINK IT'S SOMEHOW A GOOD IDEA TO SIT A GUY WHO MAKES $18M A YEAR IN THE MINORS FOR THE ENTIRE YEAR?!? THIS MAKES NO SENSE. HE 101 HRs THE PREVIOUS TWO SEASONS, I DEALT FOR HIM BEFORE I GAVE THE TEAM OVER TO THE AI TO MANAGE IN EVERY WAY.

THEIR MASTER STROKE? PUTTING MY STAR ACQUISITION IN THE MINORS FOR THE ENTIRE SEASON? DO I HAVE TO TURN ON OPTIONS JUST SO STUPID SHIT LIKE THIS DOESN'T HAPPEN? ARE YOU FUCKING JOING ME? ON WHAT PLANET DOES THIS MAKE ANY SENSE IT DOESN'T MAKE ANY SENSE THERE IS NO PLANET WHERE THIS MAKES SENSE WHAT THE HELL?



I will do a proper writeup on the aftermath of the 2243 season some other time.

[Young Drachma]

If there's anything this story has done for me, it's given me a team to root for. I haven't cared about a team this much in a sim in a while, regardless of the outcomes it's been fun to be invested in sims and less inclined to want the computer the screw up my team with really bad decisions that I could have prevented.

2043
I won't belabor this because nobody is reading this but me, but...we were able to deliver on our promise to get Philadelphia a championship.





I did not expect us to get out of the series against New Mexico, so when I pushed the "sim" button for Game 7, I gasped. The Galactic Series was anti-climactic by comparison. It was just a really well composed team that peaked that the right time. Immediately after the postseason was over, I knew several things 1) payroll wasn't going to go up dramatically and 2) we needed to figure out how to devise a repeat somehow without increasing salaries.



2044
The AI manager made a trade right after the season bringing Mandla Ngclosi to our club for 25-year old outfielder Jordan Cruz. Ngclosi had gone 16-12 last year and had front line starter chops and we needed that if we were going to repeat.

I wasn't sure if he'd deliver, to be honest. But he did, going 18-6 in a walk year and winning the Pitcher of the Year award on his way out the door.



Unfortunately, despite winning 102 games for the 2nd time in three years, when the playoffs hit, it wasn't to be for us. In fact, this was the first season in the 12 years since playoff expansion that two wild cards made the Galactic Series. So it just wasn't a great year to be a division winner, though the solace is that both of those wild cards won 90 games, so we're not talking about a really bad team that got hot.



Letting the AI run free agency is disastrous, so I've restricted it only to signing minor leaguers and doing everything but major leaguers. I still don't manage the team during the regular season at all or the playoffs, though I pay attention for stupid moves.

The biggest move this off-season was off-loading Joe Peters IX to New York in a 4-player deal. He was a solid leadoff presence, but his days as a potentially middle of the order guy on our team were never going to arrive, he was on a cheap contract given where the market is now (he was only making $11m/year) but I was afraid that his inconsistency might crater his trade value and so, while I felt like he had trade value to garner, I wanted to get something useful for him.

The Gothams get a middle of the order bat, his speed & hope he can propel them back to the post-season. In exchange, we get a front-line starter to replace one of the two we'll lose this off-season SP Justin Harris & Scottish OF Justin Harris, who was an all-star this season.

We'll see what 2045 brings. We're going to have more of the big contracts shedding after this year, but our core mostly remains intact, so it's not a make-or-break year. Still, we don't have much of a farm system, so our window of opportunity is really year to year when relying on older players as we are at core positions.

Once this era is finished, I am likely to go back and do more exhaustive recap of what happened. Right now, I'm just enjoying watching it play out after I make moves, seeing what happens and then doing it all over again.

That said, if this team only comes out of this era with one title I'm going to be pretty disappointed. I feel like there's at least one more ring out of this club, but...it's difficult with such unpredictable playoffs.

Honestly, after the way the Division Series went, I was considering expanding that Series to a best-of-7, but I like the symmetry of the playoffs right now, also things end before late October and I'd rather not extend the playoffs much longer. Alternatively, we could expand the Wild Card Series to Best-of-3 and that'd be a max of 6 games that wild cards would have to play to reach the Division Series.

Maybe we'll do that. The two extra games won't cause any rust even if it really existed.

[Young Drachma]

i couldn't take playing in a park that was so brutal to left handed hitters anymore.

[Young Drachma]

The latest issue I've discovered after expanding the Wild Card from a game to a best-of-three series (in advance of this year's playoffs) is for the first time the top wild card has a better record than the worst division champion. I know it seems amazing we went 11 years without this problem, but this year's especially problematic.

As a fix, I think the easiest thing to do is going to be is remove the "wild cards seeded lowest" requirement of the playoffs. I'm all for disadvantaging wild cards, but I don't want what happened in the NFL a few years ago where a team with a losing record got a home game solely because they won a shitty division.

[Young Drachma]

2245 SEASON




My whole mantra since taking over this team has really been about defense, speed & pitching. Well after the first year, anyway. And because old Veterans Stadium was doing us no favors, that's how we had to play.

It'll be interesting to see what the new stadium plays like starting next year, now that the move is complete. I'd hope it means that lefties don't get killed so hard when they play at home, because the disparity was really affecting our ability to entice free agents because they knew it would tank their numbers.





Corey Arentsen was a former 1st rounder of the Iowa franchise and a few years ago, when I had him near the cusp of the starting rotation, I almost traded him because I didn't think he had the chops to pitch on a contender and I wasn't willing to wait to find out.

With minor league stats in this league mostly useless for predicting future talent and ratings turned off, I just wasn't sure precisely what to expect from him, but man did he surprise me with his performance en route to the Billy Chapel award for best pitcher.

The boldest off-season move I'd made last year was dealing former MVP Joe Peters IX to New York in a five-player deal, in exchange for SP Justin Harris and OF Alex Brown. My logic in this deal was 1) to get out from under the Peters contract and 2) avoid the possibility that he might regressed even further playing in our park and 3) fill positions that could help us.

It worked as well as one could have hoped. Justin Harris went 14-6 with a 3.40 ERA (6.2 WAR) in his walk year, finished 3rd for Pitcher of the Year. OF Alex Brown was also in his walk year, hit .276 with 26 HRs, 76 RBI and a WAR of 1.4.

Together their WAR almost replaced what Peters did (7.9) in New York, the difference is I don't think he'd have produced that well had he stayed in Philly and we needed a top line starter more than I needed a leadoff hitting gold glove winner who wasn't putting it together at the plate.




As for the post-season, this was the first year in the 12 years of expanded playoffs that division champs were no longer given an automatic bye into the Elimination Series, after Halifax finished with the 2nd best record in the Nationwide League, but were going to be stuck playing in a Wild Card Series (which is now best-of-3, instead of just one game) and in the end, it worked out.

Both LCS featured the Top 4 teams in baseball and the champions -- for the 2nd time in three years, were the Quakers who boasted the best record in the game en route to a franchise record 105 wins.

So to recap, we cut payroll by about $37million and followed up last year's disappointment with more wins and a title.

Hard to argue with.


Like last year, we're going to have to let some heroes go. Before this dynasty, I really wasn't much in the mindset of teams/GMs that have to make such hard decisions about who to let go after a championship run. I tend to like to bring back the same core when it's possible and while we've done that, with this last few years of division titles in Philly, we've had to tinker a lot to keep things intact without blowing things up too dramatically.

Payroll is currently at $101m (but about $15m of that is dead money from trades I made...so it doesn't count) and so we're going to dip into the FA pool and pick up at least one middle of the rotation starter and perhaps an outfielder. The problem is, elite players are going for over $20m and so we kind of have to trudge the secondary market because I'm not inclined to really take on anymore long-term contracts that I can't deal unless it's a core guy.

We're a playoff team as-is, but the team we have now probably wouldn't repeat unless we got really lucky or someone had a breakout season somehow. I don't tend to like to leave these things to change, especially if there's an opportunity to bring someone in who can help AND deprive a potential opponent of said player as well.

We're 8th in payroll, but as a firmly big-market team, I'm enabling some latitude so long as things don't get past $125-$130m I think we're okay. That sounds like a lot, but it'd only get me maybe two really good players if we're lucky and we have holes to fill.



After this run is officially over, I'm going to go back and recap this era because I really did/do like these guys that we have on this team and it's been the most immersive club I've managed in a long while. I'll be sad to see this run end, but I don't know if it'll ever be a true "breakdown" of the club, as much as we'll probably just constantly be retooling while the plane is in the air.

Our minor league system is currently ranked 13th, a big step up from where it used to be, but that's not me managing it. I do make sure to get a prospect or two when I make deals with other teams, but given the inexact science of that, I've been getting guys who are a long ways away from the bigs.

Lastly, our 2242 1st rounder (5th overall) Jaiden Beatty is a Top 20 prospect. He's 22 and I'm not sure I'm willing to fly with him in the lineup, though as a 4th outfielder he's not the worst person to have around, he's young and under team control.

I am strongly considering shipping him off for proven talent if I can find the right deal, as I tend to think outfielders are pretty disposable unless it's someone elite. The beauty (difficulty?) of playing stats only like this, is I have no idea whether he's really good. I assume he is because he's highly rated, but I kind of want to sell high on him as a result.

[Young Drachma]

Seeing the 400+ years in context is fascinating.

[Young Drachma]

The Vets win their 5th straight NL East pennant.

The regular season was mostly anticlimatic, but I thought we could mostly plug in spots from last year's team and be successful. And that mostly proved true, along with some younger players sprouting up. Carlton Jackson came over on a 1 year deal worth $20m and provided (0.9 WAR) offense, playing only sparingly as it turned out that we didn't really need him. Our outfield was largely comprised of three former 1st rounders.

Jaiden Beatty (5th overall pick, '42), Marco Ramirez (2nd overall pick, '40), Rob Keith (18th overall pick, '44) combined for 8.2 WAR this season, offering this team a lot of boost and keeping defensive efficiency in the Top 5 in the league for another year.

In the post-season, the Vets grinded out a 7-game series victory against the NL West winners - New Mexico (92-70) - en route to their 3rd pennant in 4 years. Nonethless, in the finals it wasn't to be. The Washington Maroons were seeking their first title in over 80 years and they were not to be denied. On their roster included former Vets pitcher Mandla Ngcolosi who spent a one-year stint with us in '44. He was an integral part of their Series victory, claiming his 2nd ring of his waning career.

The Vets will be back, we're shedding a lot of payroll. We were 12th in payroll this year, but will be down to $95m in commitments heading into the off-season, pre-arbitration. We've got 4 prominent free agents including former ace Nehemiah Johnson who spent the first 8 years of his career on offense before switching to pitching and went 95-42 in five years with the Vets. It'll be tough to see him go, but he's 34 years old, his strikeout numbers are declining and he walks too many people. He also had a terrible post-season and I just think it's better to walk away now.

So he'll need to be replaced. With two titles in five years, it's not a risk of this club being considered a dud. And I do believe we'll be able to repeat again in the division with some tweaks, it's just building a club that has the skills to go the distance in the post-season.

There are lots of variables though, as always. Until next season.









TEAM STATS

[Young Drachma]

Judging on our salary situation, this is gonna be it basically. We're going to go for it this year, then we're going to retool the club entirely. For all of the grief I give a team like my real life favorite clubs, it's such an interesting conundrum to be in a situation where the farm system is relatively staid, you've been relying on FAs, trades and a few farmhands to keep things intact and now you've basically got to reckon with the situation as-is.



We're mostly from last year's team, bringing back most of the guys from the past few years. The biggest thing we'll need to do free agent wise is get another starting pitcher. Payroll is at $110m (10th overall) so we have room to work with, but the goal isn't to get into any massive long-term contracts to sign new guys, we want to keep who we have, short up the future where necessary and ultimately, glue this thing together for one last run at another title before re-assessing where the ball club is after next season and deciding where to go from there.

I'm probably going to play this one out slowly and try to savor it -- even if it doesn't go great -- because it'll be the last run with many of these guys if we do indeed blow the whole thing up after this year.

It's been a fun team to get immersed into and I'm hopeful we can piece the parts together for one last climb.

[Young Drachma]

2246 OFFSEASON
Queens Bees became the New York Empires (Queens doesn't have the recognition it'd need to keep a team with that name forever.)

New Mexico Suns moved to Oakland, CA to become the Oakland Oaks but as a new franchise entirely. (OOTP bug breaks my teams with 200+ years of history so I have to recreate them after time.)

Took the opportunity to do some realignment too.

[Young Drachma]

I think since there is SO MUCH history in this league, that now that the Philadelphia franchise is cruising fine without me, I should go take over a team that has a lot of history and we can recall that legacy. The best part of this dynasty is all of the retired numbers and legacies and would make more sense to showcase one of those teams than to spend time cruising with another dynasty.

Plus it'll be interesting to see if the AI can manage to keep the Vets atop the AL East or if they'll eventually squander what I've managed to glue together there over the past decade.

I'll need to decide what club to take over -- I'm enjoying winning, so it'll likely be a good team -- but that's going to be my next crusade.

[Young Drachma]

I've decided to do a short recap of all of the current teams in the league just so you have an idea of who is currently active and a bit about their history. 400+ years is a long time, after all.

Arizona Wrens (1800)

The Wrens are an original franchise who have spent their lives all over the place, but mostly between Raleigh, NC and Phoenix, Arizona. The Wrens have the most titles of any franchise in the dynasty with 21, the last title coming in 2202.

The greatest player in franchise history was one of the first stars of the ABA - Jiu-ling Zhao who amassed 3984 hits from 1867-89 all with the Wrens in Carolina. The 7-time MVP retired and immediately was inducted into the Hall of Fame.

Baltimore Atlantics (2212)

The Atlantics are an expansion club that began as the New York Skyliners and moved after five years to Baltimore, taking the name of the club that spent from 2048-2246 in Baltimore. That team won six titles in 198 seasons, the rebooted Atlantics have claimed one title (2227) since their return. The new club hasn't had any elite players, the players with the most hits and games played for them is recently retired SS Ben St. George, with over 1200 hits in a career that lasted ten seasons.

Boise Cutthroats (2233)

Another expansion club that took the moniker of a previous team in that city. The current team has made the post-season 5 times in their short history, most recently in '44. They have yet to win a title.

Boston Yanks (1870)

The Yanks have claimed 10 titles in their long history, the most recent coming in 2236 after an 83-year drought. They've only made the post-season once since then. The Yanks have retired 10 numbers in their history, the last coming in 2162 - SP Luke McDonah who went 182-134 in his time with the Yanks.

Brooklyn Originals (1812)

The Originals won three straight titles bringing their franchise total to 12 from 2222-24. The player with the highest WAR (101.7) in franchise history is finally someone from a relatively modern era. Pat Goldstein spent from 2104-2117 with the club, with a brief stint again in 2125 before retiring a year later. They've retired the numbers of 7 players in franchise history.

California Seals (2082)

An expansion team that joined the league in '082, the Seals have won 7 titles in their history, the last in 2203.

Charlotte Monarchs (2119)

The Monarchs first century began as the New York City Invaders, before they moved to Ottawa and then Kansas City, winning a title in each of those destinations. Since moving to Charlotte in 2200, they have not won a championship.

Chicago Rogues (2033)

Chicago's original "2nd" franchise became the lone team in that city after the Blue Collars franchise (who split their time between Chicago and Toronto) finally folded. The team has won just four titles, the most recent coming in 2218.

Cincinnati Crescents (2230)

I always avoided putting a team in Cincy, but finally ended that impasse in 2230 with the expansion Crescents. They've made the post-season 11 times in their short history, but have never won a title.

Colorado Gold Sox (1812)

The team spent a stint in Amarillo as the Gold Sox, but moved back to their original home. They've won 16 titles in franchise history, the most recent in 2231. 17 Gold Sox are in the Hall of Fame.

Florida Rockets (2028)

The Roswell Rockets moved to Florida and have been here ever since, the lone Florida franchise in the league for most of their existence. They've won 10 titles, the last coming in 2237. 7 Rockets have had their numbers retired over the course of the franchise history.

Great Plains Flycatchers (2033)

After an early start in Savannah, Georgia, The Flycatchers relocated to flyover country and became a juggernaut. They've won 15 titles but their last came in 2206, an uncharacteristic drought for this franchise that emerged from upstart to powerhouse. They have 16 retired numbers, largely because I ran the club for the early dominant years and over time, they've managed to always rebound and stay good.

Halifax Apollos (2225)
An expansion team that began in Austin, moved to Georgia and then left for Canada by their 5th year, the Apollos have never won a title, but are a perennial playoff team missing only twice since 2232.

Hawaii 59ers (2225)

Named after an old NABL franchise, the 59ers moved from Seattle (who moved from Columbus, from Chicago) in 2240, giving the league coverage from Atlantic to Pacific. They have yet to make the post-season since moving to Hawaii.

Huntsville Space Rangers (2201)

I am not usually so big on putting teams in the South throughout this dynasty, but I've gotten better about it in the later years. The Space Rangers joined as an expansion team and have stayed in the same place the entire time. They won their first Galactic Series in 2235 and have 20 playoff appearances under their belt.

Illinois Nationals (2228)
After starting their lives in Northeast Pennsylvania, the club spent 3 years in St. Louis before moving up north to Peoria in 2235. They've made 5 post-season appearances, but have no titles.

Indiana Racers (2025)

The Racers eighth title came in 2242.

Las Vegas Aces (2170)

The Aces were an expansion club and despite spending money, tanking and trying everything else, they've yet to win their first title.

Los Angeles Conquistadors (1867)

Originally the LA Seraphs, the club has won 13 titles in their history on 133 post-season appearances. Their last titles were back-to-back wins in 2240-41. They've retired 14 players numbers in their history.

Los Angeles Knights (1910)

The Knights were originally a New York team, moving to LA a few decades ago. They've won 15 titles total as a franchise, the most recent coming in 2232.

Louisville Spires (2118)

An expansion club originally, the Spires have won just three titles in over 100 years of baseball. Surprisingly, I have never considered moving them even though their region is kind of congested now.

Mexico City Toros (2170)

Originally the Montreal/Quebec Aloutettes, the Toros moved in 2219 to Mexico City, giving us the league's first Mexican franchise in centuries. They have yet to win a title south of the border, though.

Montreal Players (2089)

The Players bounced back and forth between Ohio and Montreal. They've won seven titles in franchise history, the last in 2216.

New Orleans Gators (2233)

Named for a previous club that folded, the new Gators have never won a title in 11 playoff appearances.

New York Gothams (1840)

The Gothams have claimed 16 championships in 147 post-season appearances over the course of their history. 15 retired numbers and their last title came in 2205.

New York Empires (2220)

The former Queens Bees franchise has won two titles in their history, the last in 2230.

Oakland Oaks (2247)

The Oaks took over the New Mexico Suns roster, but are considered an expansion team rather than a continuation of that franchise.

Pittsburgh Stars (2120)

The Stars were originally the Hollywood Stars before moving to Pittsburgh and replacing the Yellowjackets who folded over 100 seasons ago. The Stars have won 6 titles in club history, the last coming in 2187.

San Antonio Phantoms (2230)

Expansion team that won a title in 2234, but not since.

San Francisco Peanuts (1800)
The club won 16 titles in their history, moving to Georgia after centuries in San Francisco. In 2228, the team moved back to the west coast and reeled off back to back titles. Their last one happened just 2 seasons ago (2244) The club's retired numbers unlike many teams come from more modern players than anything deep in their past.

St. Paul Loons (2233)

The Loons are an expansion club with 7 post-season appearances in their history and zero titles.

Vancouver Pacifics (2215)

Another expansion team with no titles, they replaced the longtime Victoria Cougars franchise as the West Coast team for Canada when that club finally folded.

Virginia Mariners (2028)
The Mariners 5th title came in 2210.

Washington Maroons (1800)

The Maroons won their 20th championship this past season.

Wichita Falls Texans (2212)

The Texans won their first-ever title in 2238.

[Young Drachma]

455 seasons and these are the only people to win Triple Crowns.

1820	Todd Jones	56 Home Runs, .350/.425/.686, 173 RBI and 146 Runs in 657 AB, 8.2 WAR	 
1828	George Watkins	43 Home Runs, .358/.424/.632, 130 RBI and 136 Runs in 623 AB, 8.4 WAR	 
1835	Ernest Brown	45 Home Runs, .347/.400/.621, 168 RBI and 126 Runs in 654 AB, 8.2 WAR	 
1850	Eirik Negård	49 Home Runs, .383/.449/.700, 134 RBI and 130 Runs in 627 AB, 9.9 WAR	 
1875	Jiu-ling Zhào	47 Home Runs, .350/.427/.642, 159 RBI and 146 Runs in 651 AB, 10.2 WAR	 
1884	Jay Muns	50 Home Runs, .354/.409/.611, 164 RBI and 136 Runs in 653 AB, 7.9 WAR	 
1904	Jack Cole	46 Home Runs, .371/.452/.682, 158 RBI and 109 Runs in 614 AB, 10.1 WAR	 
1905	Jack Cole	44 Home Runs, .348/.432/.634, 142 RBI and 134 Runs in 626 AB, 8.9 WAR	 
1929	Alphonse Ritchie40 Home Runs, .301/.378/.513, 119 RBI and 103 Runs in 614 AB, 4.9 WAR	 
1932	Dennis Ratzlaff	45 Home Runs, .332/.390/.621, 135 RBI and 104 Runs in 647 AB, 8.1 WAR	 
1941	Albert Binaghi	49 Home Runs, .330/.395/.650, 141 RBI and 122 Runs in 651 AB, 8.0 WAR	 
1953	George Gregory	40 Home Runs, .353/.387/.638, 125 RBI and 108 Runs in 646 AB, 8.1 WAR	 
1992	Brian Nix	50 Home Runs, .332/.364/.605, 137 RBI and 128 Runs in 693 AB, 6.3 WAR	 
2013	Sam Marshall	52 Home Runs, .358/.401/.674, 157 RBI and 138 Runs in 682 AB, 9.5 WAR	 
2021	Sam Marshall	53 Home Runs, .367/.403/.674, 159 RBI and 143 Runs in 700 AB, 7.9 WAR	 
2033	Buck Parker	72 Home Runs, .394/.485/.809, 230 RBI and 198 Runs in 634 AB, 11.0 WAR	 
2042	B.J. Ashley	51 Home Runs, .399/.447/.657, 150 RBI and 127 Runs in 696 AB, 12.8 WAR	 
2046	Joe Peters	61 Home Runs, .402/.533/.812, 187 RBI and 189 Runs in 600 AB, 16.4 WAR	 
2049	Joe Peters	67 Home Runs, .410/.532/.789, 204 RBI and 207 Runs in 691 AB, 17.6 WAR	 
2049	Luke MacAlister	58 Home Runs, .361/.408/.654, 174 RBI and 151 Runs in 786 AB, 11.2 WAR	 
2055	Joe Peters	49 Home Runs, .364/.495/.683, 139 RBI and 141 Runs in 552 AB, 12.2 WAR	 
2059	Joe Peters	43 Home Runs, .381/.511/.703, 151 RBI and 135 Runs in 565 AB, 14.3 WAR	 
2066	Joey Power	98 Home Runs, .382/.495/.841, 200 RBI and 214 Runs in 709 AB, 18.6 WAR	 
2068	Javier Sanchez	44 Home Runs, .393/.485/.692, 125 RBI and 123 Runs in 598 AB, 14.3 WAR	 
2115	Dylan Ortega	42 Home Runs, .352/.465/.631, 141 RBI and 138 Runs in 593 AB, 13.8 WAR	 
2121	Mercedes Foerster	24-3, 1.35 ERA, 253.0 IP, 55 BB and 304 K	 
2122	Mercedes Foerster	21-4, 1.82 ERA, 261.2 IP, 54 BB and 293 K	 
2125	Mercedes Foerster	22-8, 1.28 ERA, 260.2 IP, 38 BB and 308 K	 
2125	Jeremy Angeles		21-5, 1.87 ERA, 240.2 IP, 60 BB and 289 K	 
2126	Mercedes Foerster	22-4, 1.36 ERA, 259.0 IP, 64 BB and 342 K	 
2127	Mercedes Foerster	20-6, 1.68 ERA, 257.0 IP, 33 BB and 316 K	 
2128	Mercedes Foerster	25-2, 1.69 ERA, 261.0 IP, 43 BB and 322 K	 
2129	Mercedes Foerster	22-4, 1.65 ERA, 266.2 IP, 39 BB and 323 K	 
2130	Mercedes Foerster	26-3, 1.56 ERA, 272.0 IP, 37 BB and 347 K	 
2134	Jeremy Angeles	21-5, 2.48 ERA, 272.0 IP, 40 BB and 260 K	 
2138	Curtis Carter	22-7, 3.10 ERA, 261.0 IP, 55 BB and 262 K	 
2143	Axel Lumby	57 Home Runs, .379/.410/.729, 156 RBI and 124 Runs in 642 AB, 7.7 WAR	 
2144	Okko Ronkainen	62 Home Runs, .382/.431/.722, 175 RBI and 140 Runs in 668 AB, 8.2 WAR	 
2149	Jose Galvan	21-6, 2.47 ERA, 277.1 IP, 49 BB and 313 K	 
2150	Junior Ortega	47 Home Runs, .367/.491/.654, 161 RBI and 147 Runs in 592 AB, 10.0 WAR	 
2157	Claude Bouton	21-4, 2.59 ERA, 240.0 IP, 58 BB and 238 K	 
2166	Jesse Workman	22-9, 2.54 ERA, 254.2 IP, 46 BB and 279 K	 
2172	Caleb Miller	20-7, 2.98 ERA, 232.2 IP, 22 BB and 293 K	 
2187	Justin Ramsdell	19-7, 2.59 ERA, 250.1 IP, 67 BB and 263 K	 
2207	Ethan Lloyd	47 Home Runs, .340/.422/.643, 114 RBI and 104 Runs in 605 AB, 11.4 WAR	 
2209	Alex Avalos	24-7, 2.21 ERA, 281.1 IP, 81 BB and 297 K	 
2217	Brendan McCalister	40 Home Runs, .368/.419/.628, 130 RBI and 109 Runs in 631 AB, 10.4 WAR	 
2222	Pete Jones		39 Home Runs, .357/.407/.590, 114 RBI and 111 Runs in 661 AB, 8.6 WAR	 
2228	Jason McClintock	47 Home Runs, .357/.416/.658, 122 RBI and 118 Runs in 647 AB, 8.6 WAR	 
2229	Mark Hughes		60 Home Runs, .338/.372/.713, 126 RBI and 116 Runs in 582 AB, 7.4 WAR	 
2247	Chris Richmond		36 Home Runs, .347/.463/.596, 148 RBI and 130 Runs in 559 AB, 8.9 WAR	 
2252	Donovan Conley		36 Home Runs, .379/.428/.663, 116 RBI and 117 Runs in 596 AB, 8.9 WAR

[Young Drachma]

I'm really about to end this save because pretty much everything causes it to crash. Clicking on the Hall of Fame causes it to crash, loading trade log causes it to crash, there are just so many things that cause crashes because we're so far into the future and I have no idea what's making the DB hate life, but it's just time to start over.

I think it's just reached its natural end, but I just need a few more seasons before I close up shop for good.


Illinois Nationals began their life as the Bethlehem Meteors, in the wake of the demise of the original Philadelphia Quakers franchise which began in 1800 and closed down in 2227. The Meteors only lasted three years before moving to St. Louis to become the Archers. After three years in the Lou, they moved up the river to Peoria, Illinois and became the Illinois Nationals.

The Illinois Nationals were a franchise that existed from 2074-2121 between the ABA and NABL, an older major league and shuffled between St. Louis, Peoria and Philly before shutting down with that league.

Since 2234 - the Nats first season - the club has been largely unremarkable. They've made 7 playoff appearances, have zero division titles and the most wins have been achieved twice in franchise history with 87 wins. ('43, '44)

Ownership put the team on the market last year coinciding with the end of the 20 year lease the club has on their stadium in Peoria. The city has attempted other inducments to keep the club in Western Illinois, but the desire for more a bigger market for the club. The lower Midwest is saturated with teams in Cincinnati, Louisville, Indianapolis and Chicago. St. Paul has a team in the Upper Midwest, but options like Milwaukee don't really move the needle for this club. Teams in Kansas City and the aforementioned St. Louis are already out of the picture as they've tried and failed to have clubs in the past.

Finland is the new Dubai and rich Finnish owners have decided to snap up a Major League Baseball team. The owners were opposed to a Helsinki team -- the consortium tried. One consortium bought the Illinois Nationals and moved them to Ottawa, where the Charlotte Monarchs franchise spent their early days as the Ottawa Nationals over 100 years ago (2122-2149) before moving to Kansas City and eventually becoming the Monarchs.

Another Finnish group not content to sit on the sidelines bought a second team, the Halifax Apollos who were a 2225 expansion team - the Austin Texans - for three years before moving to Atlanta for 3 years, before relocating to Halifax in '31. The team has been successful, winning the '47 title, making the post-season 19 times and winning 7 division titles during that time.

Still, Atlantic Canada is a small market and other owners considered this could be an opportunity to relocate the Halifax club to somewhere more lucrative since Illinois went to Ottawa rather than some of the other potential major markets that expressed interest in the team.

The Apollos moved to Nashville and became the Nashville Blues.

The Huntsville Space Rangers were sold this season (2255) to another Finnish consortium which is moving them to Portland, Oregon where they'll be the latest incarnation of the Portland Beavers.

Portland has had many forays of teams in this league over the years. No team that's played in Portland is still an active franchise FWIW.

1923-1973 Portland Roadrunners (moved to Rio Grande, came from Albuquerque)
2010-2016 Portland Sockeyes/Beavers (moved from Oakland, folded after 2016)
2064-2116 Portland Brewers (became the Jackson Cottons)
2158-2224 Portland Blue Herons (moved from Philadelphia, folded after 2224)

Titles won in Portland

Portland Roadrunners (1924, 1946) 1953 (AL Pennant)
Portland Sockeyes (2032 NL Pennant)
Portland Brewers (2074, 2099, 2111)
Portland Blue Herons (2201, 2213) 2215 (NL Pennant)

So it's fitting that the dynasty ends with a city that's won 7 titles with past teams rejoining the league and looking for #8 before I close up shop for good. I think we're going to play until 2300 season and call it quits. That's 44 more seasons, provided the file holds up that long.

[Young Drachma]

Even when I have my favorite teams, I like seeing champions parity and 10 straight years of 10 different champions is usually a good sign to me that we're spreading things around. Given the gauntlet of our playoff format, especially for wild cards/teams that finish with a record outside of the top 2/3, you have to win to move on.

Post-season still ends by the end of October or worse case, early November. Regular season ends a bit earlier and season starts sooner by shorter spring training in this league.

[Young Drachma]

The San Antonio Phantoms have been in that city for their entire 30-season history. But after only one winning season in 17 years and running massive debts, the team is moving to Chicago to become the city's 2nd team. Chicago hasn't had a 2nd team in well over 60 years (probably more, I don't recall)

The team will become the Chicago Red Caps, after the team that spent from 1898-2001 in the city winning four titles.

[Young Drachma]

So as I wind this thing down, I think my plan is to go through each team that still exists and explore their history, famous players who've played for them through the years.

2262: The Las Vegas Aces has been around for 93 seasons, but after that time have still never won a title. They're moving to Atlantic City next season and will remain the Aces.

The Pittsburgh Stars are moving to Houston, where Texas only has one team (Wichita Falls) in the wake of the San Antonio Phantoms move to Chicago. The Stars had been in Pittsburgh since 2158.

[tgray649]

Love the read, thank you!

[Young Drachma]

I did some experimenting -- it's god mode after all -- and had the St. Paul Loons -- who have never won a title -- go and sign a bunch of veterans who are still quite good. I have my aging settings at .500 or at least, I used to. It resulted in a lot of older guys lasting a lot longer than they needed to.

Anyway, a bunch of them all went to St. Paul where payroll is now around $250m and not surprisingly, the team is threatening to win more games than any other team.

What's bananas -- I didn't realize this -- the all-time wins record has held up since 1867. The Loons are a Nationwide League team and on September 1st already had 115 wins. The all-time record by a team was set by the 1869 and 1870 New York Gothams that both won 123 games. The 2058 Great Plains Flycatchers tied them on winning percentage (.759) but that team "only" won 120 games.

So St. Paul is in unprecedented territory with 15 games left in the regular season.

I can't even conceptualize a team breaking a record that's lasted 394 years, and how no team has won more games up to this point. Alas, here we are. Breaking the win percentage mark that was tied last in 2053 is a 210 year old record itself.

So this Loons club is certainly historic, but without a title, how will we regard their dominance? None of those previous teams had to play in a league with 36 teams, with expanded playoffs like we have now. If the Loons run the table, they'll have earned it.

[Young Drachma]

The Loons gamble paid off big time. After posting the best regular season in history with over .800 win percentage, they survive the post-season gauntlet to claim their first title in franchise history.

[Young Drachma]

Currently my favorite single-team player is Don Conley of the Vancouver Grizzlies. Will remind you of Andre Dawson on those old bad Cubs teams.

I wanted him to sign the extension that kept him in Vancouver through his prime, but wonder if he should go the Molitor route nearing the end of his career by being dealt to a winner so he can get a ring.

[Young Drachma]

The Blue Jays middling season make me think about running a middling franchise and what that experience must be like.

I'm not especially good at it. My other idea was to write a storyline around a fan and do a whole dynasty based on the fan perspective watching stuff play out and swearing when I see stuff happen that doesn't make sense to me or to have to follow a team and see them make dizzying decisions or just get really close to a title and miss out.

But I'm not sure I could keep that ruse going long enough to sustain an entirely storyline.

Here's the start of what I wrote over the weekend, but I haven't gotten any further. Mostly saving it here so I don't lose it entirely in a saved file somewhere. I'll revisit eventually, maybe.

I've been thinking about the ways I engage with teams even when I play in fantasy sports leagues. The way I play OOTP is a bit more active since I orchestrate moves, but it's not like you can control what happens, only influence it. I find this distance sort of interesting.

In playing with one of my fictional cities today, I was thinking about neighborhoods and how I don't typically spend a lot of time focusing on neighborhoods or even the more mundane workings of the city because it's hard to account for a lot of it. Still, I'm interested in a working story around a fan who lives in a city and keeps a diary of his life living in the city.

The types of things that interest me are what sorts of bus lines he takes to work or what subway lines he takes. Where he lives, where he eventually moves to and also, how he feels about his favorite team over time based on the decisions they make. If it works, it'll be because I'm able to get out of the binary of just posting stat dumps or telling you mundane facts about the city and what I did to "create it" but focusing on these simulations as abstractions of real-life experiences.

The challenge I face now is deciding what city I'm going to build this storyline around. I'm going to prefer to use a league and a city that I've already built because the tedium of building everything or adding on is where I tend to get lost and while it can be fun, it doesn't allow me to really tell an immersive story of what's happening on the ground.

I'm a huge history buff, so when I discovered the treasure trove that is baseball. With a 36-team league, dozens of teams that have come and gone, thousands of players who had interesting careers and more, I decided after I finished graduate school (finally) that I'd become a baseball fan.

You're probably wondering who I am? My name is Duncan Clarke. My parents moved me to Heart River, on the edge of New Helsinki when I was a kid. I didn't care much about baseball in those days, mostly because we were too far from the stadium for it to matter much. There's still no rapid transit link from Heart River to downtown, just a slow ass bus.

There isn't a team anywhere near where I grew up, so I have to pick a team from the 36 dotted all over the place. I didn't just want to pick a team as a fan, I wanted to get immersed. I wanted to know the history, understand who the past players were and be able to win bar trivia all about the factoids of my favorite team and maybe even the whole league.

It's been difficult to pick a team, because none of them are especially close to where we live.

That's as far as I got so far. I also can't help but intervene at times, so keeping myself honest and just writing about what I see might be the biggest exercise in doing something like this, especially since that's a challenge I have with topics even outside of fake baseball. Sitting down and telling a story, exploring the details, talking about the process in a step-by-step way.

So if I do, it'll mostly be an exercise in improving my storytelling skills and to come up with a structure and format for doing so. There are SO many good stories in this league not just now, but across history and since I've witnessed all of it, I have a lot of context for older stories, for the really really old players and how they performed in the past, etc., as well as more modern guys.

[Young Drachma]

Getting tired of the crashing and I'm about to get far less ambitious with this league and instead I'm going to probably just do my last few decades playing fantasy baseball with the league mostly as a way to 1) follow players over a few more seasons before I call it completely quits -- it's just beyond salvage -- and 2) see if I can come up with a format that's relatively simple to track.

The big problem with fantasy "against yourself" is that you have to create a bunch of teams and that gets tedious as hell to track constantly and that's kinda no point since it's just you playing against yourself.

But maybe there's some fun in benchmarking against yourself season after season to see when your best year was. When a certain player as a dominant year for me and I can remember how his monster season helped me or whatever.

But I can't ever seem to make that format work for me.

I have another idea that might be worth trying. It's comprised of one single house rule -- I always have to have the lowest payroll in the league.

If you've played with me in any online league, you know I'm always about spending and trading to spend and being willing to gamble so I can win titles. It sometimes works, depending on the league. But having to essentially force myself to deal guys when they get too expensive and not being able to spend will be...an interesting way of playing for me.

I'd like to take over a team without much of a history so I can see if there's a world where we can build.

I love continuity, but there's also something to be said for those teams that essentially have to buy low, sell high and either hope to get lucky or not to get lucky and deal with whatever hand we're dealt year after year. And to lose guys we develop when they get too expensive.

I simply haven't played this way a lot except in fast-sim and it's been years since I even did that in a league with a lot of wheeling and dealing.

Soo...would be interesting to play it out and see what happens? I dunno.

[Brian Swartz]

More than anything, I'm just impressed at the long-running devotion to the league.

[Young Drachma]

Thanks Brian.


In other news, here's a hilarious new favorite second nationality player I stumbled into the other night.

[Young Drachma]

I'm going to ditch the DH for a while starting this season. Offense has certainly been picking up the past few years -- I keep things mostly consistent around the league -- but I'd like to root out some of the older players in the league and this will help me do that.

In 2269, Charlotte Monarchs won the 469th Galactic Series title over the Philadelphia Veterans, who were seeking their 2nd title in 3 years.

Game crashes on all sorts of things now and I keep putting off ending the storyline once and for all. Maybe because I have no idea what I want my next story to be after I finish this one.

The usual story here for me, I'm going to take over a newer team and see if I can assemble some kind of history with them. It's the one thing I do better than anything else in this storyline.

The Sacramento Quakes are in their 2nd season, they took over all of the players of the California Seals (who played in Fresno), but have their own history. After two seasons, the Quakes weren't able to get a new stadium as the city originally agreed and they're going to move somewhere else. Ownership decided the team was staying in California no matter what and decided to move to San Bernardino, CA to become the 3rd team in the LA area.

They'll become the San Bernardino A's, because I have a good looking uniform to use for them, which governs half of what I do with this league, tbh.

There's a salary cap now (currently at $140m) which has helped parity considerably across the league and I like how it's mostly working.

[Young Drachma]

27 guys have hit 700+ home runs in the 478 seasons of this league.

[Young Drachma]

What an epic Galactic Series between Philly and Virginia.

Virginia comes back from down 4 game to 1 in the Series. Game 9 goes to EXTRA INNINGS.

[Young Drachma]

I'm going to take over the Las Vegas Aces. Despite over 100 seasons in Vegas (save for a few years in Atlantic City) the team has never won a championship. They only have one retired number over that time despite lots of stars starting their careers (or ending them) in the desert.

I always assumed they'd be able to win one and they never did. I'm going to replace the franchise with an expansion club. (I've stopped doing expansion drafts, the game just breaks my minor leagues when I add clubs via that method.)

The expansion team is headed to the Central Division, but not sure where we're putting a team yet.