1857 Off-season Thread

[Young Drachma]

Ok, we might be expanding by 4 rather than two. Lemme see if we can get a 16th owner. We won't expand past 16 for a while, if we get there. I just prefer the schedule at 16 versus at 14 to be honest and if we're going to get there anyway...I figure that it's easier to just expand now and get it over with.

Meanwhile, gonna throw some HOF candidates out to you all. Discuss, vote and all that shit.

[Young Drachma]

On second though, no one that I didn't induct was borderline enough though. If you see anyone worth discussing, I guess.

[Subby]

Are we sticking to the same schedule for this season? I know you had kicked around using Mondays at some point.

[Young Drachma]

Originally Posted by Subby

Are we sticking to the same schedule for this season? I know you had kicked around using Mondays at some point.

Good question.

Off-season schedule will remain the same Tue-Fri situation. Only the in-season schedule will switch with the off day on Tuesday rather than Monday, so people have an extra day to do their draft lists.

[Gomer]

It probably says this somewhere in the Ronstitution, but how many min-sal seasons do guys get?

[Young Drachma]

Originally Posted by Gomer

It probably says this somewhere in the Ronstitution, but how many min-sal seasons do guys get?

5 service years before they become free agents. So I guess it's 5 years at $250k.

[Young Drachma]

Ok, so the Skip to 16 is complete. Ben E Lou will be rejoining SLOP with the NL expansion Shem Creek (S.C.) Shrimp.

claphamsa will be taking over the Los Angeles Banditos and I'll be steering another expansion franchise this time in the A.L.

We're going to go to a divisional schedule

26 games against each of 3 other teams in division (13H/13A)
# 13 games against each of 4 other teams in league (6-7H/6-7A)
# 4 games against each of 8 teams in other league (2H/2A)
#
# Games are very roughly evenly spread among 2-game, 3-game, 4-game series
# Usually 5-6 but as few as 4 games in a week per team
# Teams may have 2 and even rarely 3 consecutive offdays
# Only league-wide offday is day of All-Star Game
#
# Last week of series is 7 doubleheaders for all teams (14 games in 7 days)
#
#
# No cases of more than 14 straight days without offday
#
# Homestands and roadtrips stretch as long as 17 games

I feel like if the league has doubled, we ought to have more than just two playoff spots per league, especially in a divisional setup. But I'll kick that dirt around a bit longer and come up with something that makes sense.

[Young Drachma]

Getting the file up after I add the teams and get the exports.

[Young Drachma]

Now looking

NATIONWIDE LEAGUE STANDINGS
Eastern Division
Carolina Kings
Brooklyn Titans
Gettysburg Gomers
Shem Creek Shrimp

Western Division
Chicago Hornets
Rio Grande Rough Riders
Los Angeles Banditos
Kauai Emeralds

ASSOCIATED LEAGUE STANDINGS
Eastern Division
Memphis Smokers
Syracuse Stars
Hilton Head Heroes
Columbus Crusaders

Western Division
Winnemucca Choo-Choos
San Diego Fathers
Lake Tahoe Syndicate
Milwaukee Blue Sox

There will be two division champs, joined by the best team in each league that didn't win their division. I feel like this is for those years where the 2nd best team in the league is stuck behind another team in a tough division. Plus, we doubled the size of the league, so I'd like to add a sliver of incentive to teams to try to reload at a shot at the ultimate prize.

So what I've done is set the Elimination Series to be a best-of-five game tilt and the wild card only gets one game at home, the other four are played on the road at the division champ. I kicked around a best-of-three, but felt like that might open the door to too many fluke victories. Plus, it sets our playoffs up for a 5-7-9 situation which I think works best symmetrically.

[Young Drachma]

Shem Creek will pick 5th in year's draft and Milwaukee will pick 6th.

[Young Drachma]

File is up. Tomorrow we're going to sim FA1. Quite a group out there, too. I'll get the HTML updated too. (Started this morning...should be up in a little while.)

[Young Drachma]

Tonight's deadline at 10pm EST is for FA1.

[Cole]

Originally Posted by Dark Cloud

Now looking

NATIONWIDE LEAGUE STANDINGS
Eastern Division
Carolina Kings
Brooklyn Titans
Gettysburg Gomers
Shem Creek Shrimp

Western Division
Chicago Hornets
Rio Grande Rough Riders
Los Angeles Banditos
Kauai Emeralds

ASSOCIATED LEAGUE STANDINGS
Eastern Division
Memphis Smokers
Syracuse Stars
Hilton Head Heroes
Columbus Crusaders

Western Division
Winnemucca Choo-Choos
San Diego Fathers
Lake Tahoe Syndicate
Milwaukee Blue Sox

There will be two division champs, joined by the best team in each league that didn't win their division. I feel like this is for those years where the 2nd best team in the league is stuck behind another team in a tough division. Plus, we doubled the size of the league, so I'd like to add a sliver of incentive to teams to try to reload at a shot at the ultimate prize.

So what I've done is set the Elimination Series to be a best-of-five game tilt and the wild card only gets one game at home, the other four are played on the road at the division champ. I kicked around a best-of-three, but felt like that might open the door to too many fluke victories. Plus, it sets our playoffs up for a 5-7-9 situation which I think works best symmetrically.

I don't get it... How many teams are in the playoffs now?

Four division winners plus two wildcards for six teams total? How does that work with matchups?


Or, you said two division champs, does that mean PER division ... So two winners in each division = 8 teams, plus two wildcard teams, equals 10 total teams? That doesn't work either?

I must be missing something. How does this work?

[Young Drachma]

Sorry.

Division champs plus one wild card per league.

The lower seeded division champ will play the Wild Card in a best-of-five series (1-4) and the top seeded division champ gets a bye. There's no rust in the post-season (Confirmed via Markus) so there's no disincentive for getting a few days of rest while the other teams have to play and will get their normal fatigue for having done so.

The winner of the elimination series plays the top seeded division champ in the LCS, best of seven like normal. Sunset Series still at 9 games.

[TurnerONU22]

DC, based on our earlier conversation, just a heads up that I have uploaded. Thanks!

[Subby]

I need 15 extra minutes - if possible.

[Young Drachma]

We can add a second wild card, I wasn't sure that we were cool with half the league in the playoffs. Or go to a divisional setup where there's a division championship series, but that would water down the regular season in my mind.

I just think if we're going to be at 16, that having another playoff spot to dangle will make things even more competitive. It's gotten a bit stale over the years and the mid-season break hasn't really ever been a chance for a team to reset, regroup and decide to gut it out in some kind of dogfight towards the post-season in a while. Would be nice to see that.

We could kill divisions and stick to a single table if that feels more comfortable. And it's me, so most of you know I can conjure up all kinds of absurd playoff scenarios. I just figure with a season every week, you don't want it to feel like playing the Powerball.

[Young Drachma]

Originally Posted by Subby

I need 15 extra minutes - if possible.

Have at it, Cap.

[Young Drachma]

I have an idea. How about I just effectively move the export deadline every night to midnight? Now that we have more people (and more schedules to navigate) and given that I don't usually run the file immediately anyway, it's just formalizing what was once a pretty informal understanding.

With me being two hours behind, it works and this way, in the off-chance we ever end up with someone on the west coast, it gives them a bit more time too.

TL;DR: Deadline is now at 11:59pm eastern on export days.

[Ben E Lou]

Originally Posted by Dark Cloud

Ben E Lou will be rejoining SLOP with the NL expansion Shem Creek (S.C.) Shrimp.

Howdy, all. For those wondering what the heck Shem Creek is...

Shem Creek - A seafood and water lover's paradise!

[Cole]

Originally Posted by Dark Cloud

We can add a second wild card, I wasn't sure that we were cool with half the league in the playoffs. Or go to a divisional setup where there's a division championship series, but that would water down the regular season in my mind.

I just think if we're going to be at 16, that having another playoff spot to dangle will make things even more competitive. It's gotten a bit stale over the years and the mid-season break hasn't really ever been a chance for a team to reset, regroup and decide to gut it out in some kind of dogfight towards the post-season in a while. Would be nice to see that.

We could kill divisions and stick to a single table if that feels more comfortable. And it's me, so most of you know I can conjure up all kinds of absurd playoff scenarios. I just figure with a season every week, you don't want it to feel like playing the Powerball.

I definitely don't want half the league to make the playoffs. This isn't hockey, make it still mean something.

I don't mind the setup you've got now...

Although I think just two divisions of 8 might be good.... 2nd and 3rd seed play off in first round, winner plays division champ in LCS.

Where it's quick sim I don't think there's any real "division rivalry" factor so I think it would be better for the sake of playoff races (and for the three best teams always making the playoffs) to just have two 8-team divisions.

Anyway just my two cents ... How did you decide the division alignments, anyway?

[Young Drachma]

Originally Posted by Cole

I definitely don't want half the league to make the playoffs. This isn't hockey, make it still mean something.

I don't mind the setup you've got now...

Although I think just two divisions of 8 might be good.... 2nd and 3rd seed play off in first round, winner plays division champ in LCS.

Where it's quick sim I don't think there's any real "division rivalry" factor so I think it would be better for the sake of playoff races (and for the three best teams always making the playoffs) to just have two 8-team divisions.

Anyway just my two cents ... How did you decide the division alignments, anyway?

I found a schedule that works for our current setup, 22 games per team against your league and 4 games against each of the teams in the other league.

I think I initially went after divisions for differentiation, but...I think sticking with the single table makes sense and you are right.

Division alignments were random. The only thing I wanted to ensure is that each of the new expansion teams weren't bunched together in the same division. I think my original setup had Milwaukee elsewhere and I flipped them since they were with another expansion club. But it was tedious, I was tired and it was late...so I did it pretty fast and it came out better than I thought to be honest.

[TurnerONU22]

Yeah, I'm with Cole in that I would like to keep just one wildcard as well. Even if it takes me a few years to get my expansion team in the playoffs, I want to earn it by playing well in the regular season.

[Young Drachma]

Ok, FA1 is up. We'll sim FA2 tomorrow. Bring your checkbooks!

[ekcut]

Originally Posted by Dark Cloud

Ok, FA1 is up. We'll sim FA2 tomorrow. Bring your checkbooks!

Is anyone else having the games say there is no updated league file?

[muns]

Originally Posted by ekcut

Is anyone else having the games say there is no updated league file?

yep I get the same thing.

[ekcut]

Originally Posted by muns

yep I get the same thing.

Good....Cause nothing else computer related is working for me tonite! At least this one isn't my fault!

[Young Drachma]

Lemme look. Give me a second.

[Young Drachma]

Try it now. Should be good.

[muns]

Originally Posted by Ben E Lou

Howdy, all. For those wondering what the heck Shem Creek is...

Shem Creek - A seafood and water lover's paradise!

Welcome guys!!

Ben how far is that from Hilton Head?

[Ben E Lou]

It's a couple of hours. The area of Shem Creek where the shrimp boats dock is just maybe 5 or 6 miles by car and probably less by boat from downtown Charleston. Hilton Head is down near the border with Georgia.

[Jack Raden]

With Charlie Taylor's sudden change of heart, he's gone from asking for $25MM+ when he declared free agency a week ago to hanging it up.

He's certainly merited discussion re: HOF. 251 wins over 15 years (55 of them in just his last two seasons), a career 3.79 ERA, and nearly 2900 Ks. He also holds the record for the most complete games of any player in SLOP history (175 - next closest active player is Hank Griggs at 122), as well as the single season mark (17).

[chicago_gm]

Originally Posted by Jack Raden

With Charlie Taylor's sudden change of heart, he's gone from asking for $25MM+ when he declared free agency a week ago to hanging it up.

He's certainly merited discussion re: HOF. 251 wins over 15 years (55 of them in just his last two seasons), a career 3.79 ERA, and nearly 2900 Ks. He also holds the record for the most complete games of any player in SLOP history (175 - next closest active player is Hank Griggs at 122), as well as the single season mark (17).

Great numbers.
Deserves Hall of Fame for sure.

For kicks I compared him with Bobby Foster
15 seasons to Foster's 14.
251-169 to Foster's 243-132.
2872 Ks to Foster's 3425.
Interesting that Taylor spent a year as a closer with 30 saves after winning 22 games the year before.
What's rather astounding is Foster's total VORP of 954 to Taylor's 674.
Similarly Foster's WAR is 120 to Taylor's 85.

Two great pitchers.

[Young Drachma]

Speaking of hall of famers, what do you all think of Jay-Man Yun as a Hall of Fame possibility?

Player Report for #27 Jay-man Yun

[Young Drachma]

Also, when this league was just a concept league...there was a rule we talked about that I feel like might be useful here. It was basically the "Sandman" rule where any owner can essentially have a guy who has just retired unretired. Because OOTP auto-retires guys at 45, you won't see dudes playing in OOTP or SLOP past 46 at the latest. I think this is silly, especially in fast-sim, provided a guy is producing and still doing well. Taylor isn't 45 or anything, but the spirit of the rule still works here.

Anyway, it's never really been an issue before because we'd never see anyone actually do this. But if there were ever a guy to invoke the Sandman for, it'd be Taylor.

Just figured I'd throw that out there in case someone found the idea worthwhile.

[Young Drachma]

Because if so, my vote is to bring back Quincy deVaal and Habib Sajib.

[Jack Raden]

Originally Posted by chicago_gm

Great numbers.
Deserves Hall of Fame for sure.

For kicks I compared him with Bobby Foster
15 seasons to Foster's 14.
251-169 to Foster's 243-132.
2872 Ks to Foster's 3425.
Interesting that Taylor spent a year as a closer with 30 saves after winning 22 games the year before.
What's rather astounding is Foster's total VORP of 954 to Taylor's 674.
Similarly Foster's WAR is 120 to Taylor's 85.

Two great pitchers.

Taylor also spent 1843 as a two-way player - making 15 starts and getting 330 ABs in the OF. He actually won two OF Silver Gloves in the minors (though, those were pre-LEGACY designation).

[Young Drachma]

Originally Posted by Jack Raden

Taylor also spent 1843 as a two-way player - making 15 starts and getting 330 ABs in the OF. He actually won two OF Silver Gloves in the minors (though, those were pre-LEGACY designation).

I totally forgot about that! There was a time when it looked like he'd keep doing both for a while.

[Young Drachma]

FA2 is up. We'll sim the 3rd stage of FA tonight and tomorrow we'll sim to the start of spring training. Friday is spring training and then we start the new season on Monday with the sim of the 1st half of the season.

I'm getting the HTML ready to go now and it should be updated by morning.

[Young Drachma]

We're going to try it.

This year,

SP Charlie Taylor

OF Quincy de Vaal

and C Hajib Sajib are going to come out of retirement at the mid-season break. (So with Monday night's file.)

Curious to see how this works and spices things up bringing back guys who hung it up too soon. I realize Taylor will be a Hall of Famer who is active because we induct as soon as they're gone, but that just adds to the narrative of interestingness IMHO.

[Young Drachma]

Also, you all should be able to see the updated HTML and the newly loaded schedule that includes single tables in each league. We're good to go there. This is also a note to myself to load minor league schedules tonight once spring training starts.

[Young Drachma]

Finally, after having to do 12 pre-season team reviews last year, I decided I was a bigger glutton for punishment this year now that there are 16 teams. I'll come up with a better format perhaps, but I think it's handy for everyone see the guys around the league.

[Young Drachma]

For the new owners: Draft is 10 rounds and you are able to trade picks but are only able to do so for the active year. So any draft picks you want to trade can only be for this year's draft.

Players come entirely from our feeder leader, STREP which you can find in-game or online. Players are usually eligible for the draft at 19, though there might be years where we need to make that 18 if there aren't enough eligible 19 year olds to fill up a 10-rd draft.

This year seems we shouldn't have such problems.

[Young Drachma]

Another clerical note (aka, a note for myself for tonight) I need to set the all-star game to determine home field advantage in this year's Sunset Series as the vote passed 6-3.

ekcut will pick the AL squad and chicago_gm will pick the NL squad. They're able to pick two other GMs to be on their "coaching staff" to help pick, if they want to.

Here's the updated GM list in case you were wondering who is where.

[Young Drachma]

Ok, we're at the start of spring training. File is up. We'll sim Spring Training tomorrow. Trade deadline is Sunday night, 1st half sim is Monday night.

[Young Drachma]

ST is a good time to train players at a new position, see if you can't get a bump from a guy who is close to ML quality and not necessarily just to see how your team might operate in the season. So feel free to experiment.

[claphamsa]

I just exported, but it did not give me the option for expanded ST roster... still only 25.

[Young Drachma]

Originally Posted by claphamsa

I just exported, but it did not give me the option for expanded ST roster... still only 25.

Everyone only has 25. I just did a test. Apparently because I don't have "expanded roster size" set to 40, everyone just only has 25 all of the time, because I have that rule disabled. It's just sort of how we've always done it over here.

[Gomer]

Originally Posted by Dark Cloud

Everyone only has 25. I just did a test. Apparently because I don't have "expanded roster size" set to 40, everyone just only has 25 all of the time, because I have that rule disabled. It's just sort of how we've always done it over here.

I think it would be worthwhile to expand spring rosters to 40. I don't know about everybody else, but I like to dump a few near-ready AAA guys and a few not-so-near-ready AA guys (especially superstuds) into my ML roster for the spring, to try to help move their development along. I don't necessarily play them a lot, but I like them to at least be on the roster.

Not a bid deal though. It's not like I'm waiting a long time for these guys to develop anyway.

[Young Drachma]

I'll fix it for next year. It's easy to do.