1965 Off-season thread

[Young Drachma]

About to FTP the file that starts free agency for 1965. Seattle signed a few of the castoffs from St. Louis including Catcher Ralph Nicholson and Hartford got Pete McKeane, the former StL closer.

Most of the star players including most of the rotation guys and such, as well as Christian Larsen, the second baseman are still available. Guess no one was willing to pony up the big bucks.

Let the bonzana begin!

Monday: Season review, Sim to start of free agency
Tues night: Sim to December 1st (Trade window begins from tonight's sim)
Wednesday night: Sim to pre-season
Thursday night: Trade deadline, Run Spring Training (no fatigue on), sim to opening day (trade window ends)
Friday night: Last chance to export (set lineups/depth charts, last chance to export before start of new season)
Saturday-Sunday: Season simmed, FOOL Classic on Sunday night sim.

[Young Drachma]

File is packing up now. I'll post when it's updated.

[Young Drachma]

Nevermind this. I fixed it.

[Young Drachma]

League file is 12.54 MB, dated October 19, 1965. Uploaded now.

[Huckleberry]

Pleased that I signed the St. George shortstop Bruce. My young SS Suárez lost 1-1/2 stars of potential last season although I haven't checked the ratings decline.

Had offers in on the starters as I'm sure most did. Obviously they're going to hold out for more.

[muns]

Originally Posted by Dark Cloud

About to FTP the file that starts free agency for 1965. Seattle signed a few of the castoffs from St. Louis including Catcher Ralph Nicholson and Hartford got Pete McKeane, the former StL closer.

Most of the star players including most of the rotation guys and such, as well as Christian Larsen, the second baseman are still available. Guess no one was willing to pony up the big bucks.

Let the bonzana begin!

Im estatic about getting Mckeane, and Ken Hale to sure up my Pen from St. Louis.

I like what Seattle did already. They may be able to be semi competitive the first season, which will be neat to see.

[muns]

anyone notice that all the young guys "D" suck? I havent played ootp since 6.5. Does the "D" improve at all or does it stay there?

[Young Drachma]

Originally Posted by muns

anyone notice that all the young guys "D" suck? I havent played ootp since 6.5. Does the "D" improve at all or does it stay there?

It'll improve eventually.

[Young Drachma]

Have to say that this is the first off-season I've anticipated so hotly. For obvious reasons, really interested to see how the league will look heading into December 1st, wonder what sorts of offers people are throwing out and where the castoffs, as well as the bevy of talent, will end up going.

[Young Drachma]

ok, its gametime

[Commo_Soldier]

Originally Posted by Dark Cloud

ok, its gametime

I can't wait to see which new players are coming to the Brown"Stones" to play at Cowpie Field.

[Tellistto]

I'll be happy to get any of the rookies I offered a minor league contract to. My team is in no position in which it can splurge. I'm going to have to get out from under salary in the not too distant future if I'm to keep the core of the team together.

Doesn't help that in the first year of a 5 year deal, Spindola appears to regress. Bleh.

That'll hurt, bad.

Tell

[Young Drachma]

I was gonna chronicle the moves for you all. But in the time it'd take me to write them all down, I could have the file done and up. So I'm gonna finish now.

[Young Drachma]

One move I did note, Seattle signed Raymond Carpenter to that free agent deal that none of us would give him last year.

[Young Drachma]

File is uploading now. The complexion of the league has indeed changed. Man o' man.

Some of the notable signings that I can remember:

Christian Larsen went to Colorado
Joe Morris to Texas
Stephen Ordonez to Charleston
Pancho Duran to Ann Arbor

There are lots of others, but I wasn't really paying too much attention, because I wanted to get the file out. Should be a pretty competitive year, I'd say.

The other thing I'd note is that even though players seem to spur teams that might offer more money, just think about "real life" for a second. Some players will rule out particular places before they even get started. Some players will use one team to leverage against another. Just seems that we shouldn't always assume that just because a team offers a player more money, that they'll want to play there, because the only reason we even get to make offers is because OOTP stopped doing a thing where players wouldn't allow certain teams even to talk to them.

I think that overall, it's a good thing. It causes us more problems than average, since we have so many rookies and younger players that come straight out of HS and college and we have no real rhyme or reason for knowing HOW they end up on teams, but..that's a problem endemic to our league and something we could fix down the road if we wanted to...

[Cringer]

Did I get my export in on time? I started working on things, then stopped to jog, then it slipped my mind as I showered and made dinner. Ran in here when I remember right before 9 unhappy because I never got to go do some of the things I planned (look through rookies and make some offers).

At least I got some veterans some offers, if my file was in.

[Chief Rum]

Originally Posted by Dark Cloud

Christian Larsen went to Colorado

Clay Darby who?

[Young Drachma]

Originally Posted by Cringer

Did I get my export in on time? I started working on things, then stopped to jog, then it slipped my mind as I showered and made dinner. Ran in here when I remember right before 9 unhappy because I never got to go do some of the things I planned (look through rookies and make some offers).

At least I got some veterans some offers, if my file was in.

I'm pretty certain you did. I went downstairs and got dinner at 9pm CST on purpose, to give people 5-10 more minutes to get stuff in and when I came back, there were a few more files that'd shown up.

[Young Drachma]

Originally Posted by Chief Rum

Clay Darby who?

Hahaha...indeed, indeed.

[Young Drachma]

Gotta say the Pancho Duran to Ann Arbor was the BIGGEST shocker of the day to me. Given how many players they lost in the expansion draft, you expected them to come back and reload. But that's a heck of a signing if they get players around him.

The final standings are ugly, but...the middle of the CL pack are full of teams that with a few moves will be able to take huge strides. Brooklyn is improving constantly, Hartford has to be the pre-season favourite, given all of those trades they made with me to poach valuable St. Louis players that I no longer have.

New York are the defending champs, of course. And you can't expect Boston to just roll over. We haven't even touched on Charleston yet, who now have the 1 and 2 best home run hitters last season on a squad that was pretty close to repeating as CL champ.

It's gonna be a crazy year. And we're not even done yet with the off-season.

File is at 31%, total size is 13.09 MB. I'll let you know when it's done, of course.

[Young Drachma]

File is up!

[Chief Rum]

Originally Posted by Dark Cloud

Hahaha...indeed, indeed.

Getting Larsen is just huge. I am still not where I was last year with Darby and Gibbs, power-wise, at least if I stick with last year's lineup (which I won't). But it fills a huge hole for us. 2B was the one position where we really didn't have much of an answer. Larsen goes right in, and since he is so popular, he will immediately help heal the wounds the departures of Gibbs and Darby caused.

With Larsen on board, potentially an all-new three-rookie OF (good talent all, with some power), two new starters and maybe four new top reliever arms, I can make a significant step forward, I think.

[Young Drachma]

Originally Posted by Chief Rum

Getting Larsen is just huge. I am still not where I was last year with Darby and Gibbs, power-wise, at least if I stick with last year's lineup (which I won't). But it fills a huge hole for us. 2B was the one position where we really didn't have much of an answer. Larsen goes right in, and since he is so popular, he will immediately help heal the wounds the departures of Gibbs and Darby caused.

With Larsen on board, potentially an all-new three-rookie OF (good talent all, with some power), two new starters and maybe four new top reliever arms, I can make a significant step forward, I think.

He's a heck of a talent. Sad that I only had one year with him, but I couldn't afford to pay him. He'll be great for you.

[Young Drachma]

Charleston is $20,480,000 over the salary cap.

[Young Drachma]

Seems the Ordonez signing put them over the cap. Now here's a first for us...

[Chief Rum]

Originally Posted by Dark Cloud

Charleston is $20,480,000 over the salary cap.

Wow, I didn't even know that was possible. Not a hard cap? When does it go into effect? And what happens if the Dog is still sailing above?

[Young Drachma]

Originally Posted by Chief Rum

Wow, I didn't even know that was possible. Not a hard cap? When does it go into effect? And what happens if the Dog is still sailing above?

It's not a hard cap, no.

Never been a possibility before, so I dunno when it goes into effect. But I'd say, conversely it goes into effect by the start of spring training, since that's the first time we play games.

So he can still deal players to get under the cap by February 26th or, in game time, by Thursday night. Conversely, if he wasn't over, then we'd void contracts signed since the time he went over the cap, meaning free agents or more specifically, Ordonez, since that's what put him over the cap.

But he still has two days to make any series of deals that get him back to $65 million or lower.

[Tellistto]

He was over it before that signing happened, I'm afraid to say. The html you put up earlier today has him at 67 mil with what he had going into FA.

Tell

[Young Drachma]

Originally Posted by Tellistto

He was over it before that signing happened, I'm afraid to say. The html you put up earlier today has him at 67 mil with what he had going into FA.

Tell

$69,480,000

Seems you are right. Hmm...well, I'll let him know.

[Commo_Soldier]

My first season my team had a payrol of 85,795,001. Needless to say Brooklyn was not in the black.

[Young Drachma]

Current Payroll Numbers
----
As of December 1, 1965

Rank Team Payroll
1 Charleston Chew $85,480,000
2 Hartford Harpooners $63,145,000
3 St. Petersburg Pelicans $62,670,000
4 Seattle Supersonics $62,160,000
5 El Paso Alligators $58,340,000
6 New York Highlanders $58,065,000
7 Colorado Rancheros $53,589,000
8 Ann Arbor Wolverines $52,925,000
9 Rio Grande Roadrunners $51,765,000
10 Boston Settlers $50,005,000
11 Texas Copperheads $47,310,000
12 Valdosta Peanuts $45,100,000
13 Brooklyn Brownstones $38,060,000
14 Baltimore Gothams $31,785,000
15 Long Beach Island Atlantics $26,225,000
16 Chicago Comets $5,155,000

[Young Drachma]

Originally Posted by Commo_Soldier

My first season my team had a payrol of 85,795,001. Needless to say Brooklyn was not in the black.

That calculation in the history isn't accurate. It's just an amalgamation of salaries including callups, minor leaguers and a bevy of other things. It's one of those stupid OOTP quirks in the HTML.

[Young Drachma]

Hartford gets Benny Myers, meaning that 3/5th of the old St. Louis rotation now pitches in Hartford. You have our old closer too. If muns doesn't win at least a league title, he's not doing it right.

[Commo_Soldier]

It might have been close to that because I was over $20,000,000 in debt the next season and could not afford any free agents. My problem was I allowed the AI to sign people and well they signed and dropped quite a few people so I ate a bunch of players contracts.

[Young Drachma]

Originally Posted by Commo_Soldier

It might have been close to that because I was over $20,000,000 in debt the next season and could not afford any free agents. My problem was I allowed the AI to sign people and well they signed and dropped quite a few people so I ate a bunch of players contracts.

That makes sense.

[Young Drachma]

For the record, Ben Gibbs (1B) for St. Pete is on the block. We're willing to swap big contracts or some combination of cash and players in such a deal. I'd like to get him moved today or tomorrow, if possible.

[Commo_Soldier]

Dumb AI, I offer Steven Harris 3,750,000 for one season and he tells me that he can't make ends meet then signs a minor league deal.

[Young Drachma]

Boston has really replenished their previously depleted farm system. Valdosta is back atop the top organization's list.

[Alan T]

Originally Posted by Commo_Soldier

Dumb AI, I offer Steven Harris 3,750,000 for one season and he tells me that he can't make ends meet then signs a minor league deal.

I offered him 13 million for one season and he turned me down too for a minor league deal, so don't feel too bad

[Cringer]

Well, I didn't expect to get all 3 of the infielders I tried for. None are exactly great but I only really needed one to start at 3B or 2B, maybe a second to be a backup. All three is fine though.

[Young Drachma]

Seattle has a hell of an offense, but their pitching staff is the pits.

[Young Drachma]

Meanwhile, in St. Petersburg, it seems that we are the prototype expansion team. No way we have the horses to compete with the rest of the league, given how they've improved. But we do have depth and our minor leaguers are full of guys that I think can contribute down the line.

I signed enough guys to where I wanted us to be able to be competitive and be in the thick of things, but...it's hard to look at this team and think "bonafide contender" by any stretch.

[Alan T]

If anyone is looking for a cheap (salary wise and dealwise) 1B that is servicable, I am looking for a 2B/SS/3B of the same type in return.

I have Von Rose available for trade who is making league minimum salary. Don't want alot back, basically a backup infielder who hits about the same as Von Rose with decent-plus fielding

[Young Drachma]

I sure do miss the DH right about now...

[muns]

Originally Posted by Dark Cloud

Hartford gets Benny Myers, meaning that 3/5th of the old St. Louis rotation now pitches in Hartford. You have our old closer too. If muns doesn't win at least a league title, he's not doing it right.

lol isnt that the truth. Im happy I nabbed him, as I think im just as strong as anyone pitching wise now...... Hitting and Defense well thats a different Story.

[muns]

Originally Posted by Dark Cloud

Meanwhile, in St. Petersburg, it seems that we are the prototype expansion team. No way we have the horses to compete with the rest of the league, given how they've improved. But we do have depth and our minor leaguers are full of guys that I think can contribute down the line.

I signed enough guys to where I wanted us to be able to be competitive and be in the thick of things, but...it's hard to look at this team and think "bonafide contender" by any stretch.

You def have the bats to compete now. If a few of your starters play over their heads I think you would be right there... I like what you did DC.

[muns]

Originally Posted by Chief Rum

Getting Larsen is just huge. I am still not where I was last year with Darby and Gibbs, power-wise, at least if I stick with last year's lineup (which I won't). But it fills a huge hole for us. 2B was the one position where we really didn't have much of an answer. Larsen goes right in, and since he is so popular, he will immediately help heal the wounds the departures of Gibbs and Darby caused.

With Larsen on board, potentially an all-new three-rookie OF (good talent all, with some power), two new starters and maybe four new top reliever arms, I can make a significant step forward, I think.

It is a huge deal. Congrats on Larsen. Should step in very very nicely for you.

I offered him 14 mil over one. You got me on that one

[Huckleberry]

Originally Posted by Dark Cloud

The other thing I'd note is that even though players seem to spur teams that might offer more money, just think about "real life" for a second. Some players will rule out particular places before they even get started. Some players will use one team to leverage against another. Just seems that we shouldn't always assume that just because a team offers a player more money, that they'll want to play there, because the only reason we even get to make offers is because OOTP stopped doing a thing where players wouldn't allow certain teams even to talk to them.

I think that overall, it's a good thing. It causes us more problems than average, since we have so many rookies and younger players that come straight out of HS and college and we have no real rhyme or reason for knowing HOW they end up on teams, but..that's a problem endemic to our league and something we could fix down the road if we wanted to...

I agree with you to a point. And that point is somewhere on the logical side of players spurning offers that are 6-8 times more money than they signed for after telling the big money team they were in the lead.

***still fuming about William Davis***

[gstelmack]

Originally Posted by Dark Cloud

Boston has really replenished their previously depleted farm system.

Now I just need more of them to actually develop into starters. Too many of them are petering out. I'm filling some lineup / pitching holes from them, but if we're going to compete I need a few more to pan out...

[Ben E Lou]

Originally Posted by Dark Cloud

Charleston is $20,480,000 over the salary cap.

Originally Posted by Chief Rum

Wow, I didn't even know that was possible. Not a hard cap? When does it go into effect? And what happens if the Dog is still sailing above?

Originally Posted by Dark Cloud

It's not a hard cap, no.

Never been a possibility before, so I dunno when it goes into effect. But I'd say, conversely it goes into effect by the start of spring training, since that's the first time we play games.

So he can still deal players to get under the cap by February 26th or, in game time, by Thursday night. Conversely, if he wasn't over, then we'd void contracts signed since the time he went over the cap, meaning free agents or more specifically, Ordonez, since that's what put him over the cap.

But he still has two days to make any series of deals that get him back to $65 million or lower.

Originally Posted by Tellistto

He was over it before that signing happened, I'm afraid to say. The html you put up earlier today has him at 67 mil with what he had going into FA.

Tell

Originally Posted by Dark Cloud

$69,480,000

Seems you are right. Hmm...well, I'll let him know.

Sorry guys. I knew we had a cap, but I was operating under the assumption that the little message that tells me how much I have to spend in free agency was actually accurate. Silly me.

I'll put up a trade block this evening, and contact Markus about this pretty big bug in the game.

*shurg*