OOTP15 San Diego Acorns (Livestream Dynasty)

[Young Drachma]

BACKSTORY

It's the 10th season of my rebooted 300-year old dynasty league. I created a fork of the league ten seasons ago, cleared out all of the history and took the guys from whoever was in that 323rd season and they're the pioneers of this new voyage of the league.

So I'm about to take over the San Jose Acorns, who started as the California Seals and see if we can't make them good over a long period of time. I've never taken over a team and taken the slow route towards prominence.

I'm super curious whether a team can build around low round draft picks (5th and lower) in baseball and be successful or even just develop those guys into talented players.

Maybe worst case we end up like the Royals or the Rays forever and we hit paydirt 20 years in. Who knows? I'm just super curious if I can sustain the experiment to see what manages to emerge over time.

[Young Drachma]

Adding to the richness of what next season will look like. San Diego Acorns won the AL West this season.

This was my experimental year where only division champs made the post-season and no wild cards. There were three divisions where it came down to the final day, one had a tie for the division title and in the NL South, a team was only 3 GB at the end of the year. With results like that, I'm intrigued about restricting playoffs, but I don't think I'll do it. There are too many teams to do that.



I think keeping with the house arrest/empty cupboard idea, though, the playoffs probably should be harder to get into and not easier. I think my compromise is going to be 4 division champs and a wild card, so basically what real life is right now despite 48 teams in my majors vs. 30 in real life baseball.

We'll eventually expand the playoffs back to a higher number, but it seems fitting to make things more difficult for my team not to be able to skate into the postseason.

But as it stands right now, I'm going to at least have to break up a pennant winning team.

[Young Drachma]

We won't have to break up the Marlins in the form of the Acorns, as they lose in the LCS to the defending champs, who themselves go down to Los Angeles who win their 2nd title in 3 years.



Now it's my turn to take things over from the AI.

[Young Drachma]

There's an audio component to this but since I can't embed Soundcloud audio here, I'm going to have to rethink the audio podcasting part of this dynasty.

(Which is mostly a "I'm sort of sick of typing all of the time" response.)

[Young Drachma]

Episode 1 of life with the Acorns. We'll see how this goes, but I'd been kicking around the idea for a while, so I guess now is as good as ever. OOTP is surely the worst game or close to screencast with but...it's a hell of a lot easier than typing to dead air.

[Young Drachma]

As I say in the video, undrafted free agents don't really exist in this game because of the way my draft works. I only have drafted players coming out of my feeders. So rather than "only undrafted free agents" can be signed, I'll open it up to anyone who hasn't made a major league debut yet because this game releases so many draft picks anyway, so there's a glut of kids who aren't getting looked at that they might as well be undrafted for as fast as they get dropped.

[Young Drachma]

In Episode 2, we're gonna talk about the draft. Also snowstorms help progress.





Our team that's 47th in payroll in the bigs managed to have a winning record through May (at least at the time of my logging in to sim.) I haven't done anything with them and had the game simming overnight.

Today's episode we'll take a look at the ballclub thus far and see if there are any 1) players we ought to see if we can deal for something in return and 2) go ahead and start making some draft picks to build the future of this team.

[Young Drachma]

On the third episode:

We'll take a look at Season 11's playoffs and recap the Acorns season including a surprise from one of our draft picks.

[Young Drachma]

SEASON 12
Here's the deal.

While we wait for the Acorns to get their act together (slowly) what I'm wondering is about going for a team that actually has something to root for. The deal with watching something like this is having a rooting interest in players, teams, etc., that we can root for (or against) and so

While I create the future Tampa Bay Rays/Marlins/Royals on one hand, I'm going to think hard about creating a storyline around a Yankee-like behemoth juggernaut on the other that you learn to despise because they spend like crazy and in theory, win a lot though no guarantees that'll be a possibility.

I haven't decided what team yet, though.

I will pick three finalists and share them with you to help me decide.

I WILL STILL RUN THE ACORNS. I just...don't think they're compelling enough of a story to keep streaming about by themselves. Plus there are 47 other teams in this league. Surely we want to cover some of them.




For the people who were wondering what teams we have. Here's the league breakdown:

NATIONWIDE LEAGUE
NL EAST
New Jersey Generals
San Juan Autos
Boston Yanks
New York City Invaders
New York Gothams
Philadelphia Quakers

NL WEST
Los Angeles Seraphs
Salt Lake City Alpines
San Francisco Peanuts
Colorado Cubs
Texas Electrics
Seattle Pilots

NL CENTRAL
Indiana Racers
Milwaukee Zephyrs
Dayton Tigers
Chicago Red Caps
Kansas City Natives
Detroit Pontiacs

NL SOUTH
Charleston Palmettos
Baltimore Atlantics
Florida Rockets
Washington Maroons
Virginia Mariners
Louisville Spires


ALLIED LEAGUE
AL WEST
Hawaii 59ers
Portland Beavers
Boise Cutthroats
Arizona Wrens
San Jose Acorns
Los Angeles Bruins

AL EAST
Brooklyn Originals
New York Knights
Toronto Blue Collars
Providence Oaks
Worcester Hearts
Montreal Players

AL SOUTH
Memphis Hounds
Amarillo Gold Sox
Jackson Cottons
New Orleans Alligators
West Virginia Alleghenies
Houston Cosmos

AL CENTRAL
Oklahoma Outlaws
Eau Claire Paws
Great Plains Flycatchers
Erie Lakers
St. Louis Aviators
Chicago Rogues

[Young Drachma]

Okay, so here's the deal.

I told you I wanted a team you could hate. I could easily take over one of the New York teams and create an evil empire with one of them. But I won't.

Instead, I want to take a different approach.

The Providence Oaks moved there just a few seasons ago from Philadelphia where they were the Philadelphia Nationals. The team doesn't work for me though, the idea at the time was that getting them out of being the 2nd team in Philadelphia (they played in Camden anyway) made sense. I still support that idea, but I think Providence isn't really resonating with me.

They've been in Providence for eight seasons.

Still, their owners were old people who have died and the estate is selling off the franchise to the highest bidder. Most know the team is leaving Providence, but it's not clear where they are going.

Here are some ideas:

- Burlington (VT) to stay in New England and become the Maple Sox.
- Back to Philadelphia. (Is being Philly 2nd team better than being Rhode Island's first?
- Hartford, where I already have a Hartford Oaks uniform and logo ready.
- Somewhere in Ohio. Ohio doesn't have a team since the Players moved to Montreal. Putting a team in Cleveland that dominates could be a lot of fun...since that never, ever happens in real life.

The Erie Lakers are in the central division, so they could be relocated to the Eastern Division if I had a central division market to place our new club. I'd just prefer it be the only team in its market, so it has definitive space to thrive and I'd prefer it be a large(ish) market team if possible because I just think I'd prefer that.

So there's my debate. Whatever happens to them, that's going to be our 2nd team. Only small problem, they play in the same league as the Acorns and I'd prefer they played in the other league.

So we'll swap this team with a team from the NL next year, meaning we'll be a no-DH team. Feel free to chime in if you want...I just need to have a plausible uniform/look for the team already or else it won't work for me immersion wise.

Which is dumb, I know.

I'll decide tonight and probably shoot another episode to commemorate our new ball club, but rather than bore you with the moves I'll make, we'll probably pick up and recap both clubs at some point during the season.

Also because the game is simming so slowly (I have a lot of leagues, I might start cutting some of them tbh...) it might be easier to do a lot of stuff off-screen so we're not just staring at a screen all of the time.

[Young Drachma]

http://www.sportsmemorabilia.com/res...blue-jays.html

Here's the decision.

[Young Drachma]

SEASON 12
THE LOCKOUT YEAR



Ownership and the players were far apart on a labor deal. What ensued was a lockout where the owners considered using replacement players rather than unionized ones. (Unfortunately: OOTP doesn't make this easy to do...i)

The best 74 players which includes the highest paid players and rookies (anyone with an OVR rating over 75 at the time I started) will be "on strike" for the upcoming season.

What does this mean for baseball as the non-union members decide to play in their wake? I have no idea. It'll be a free-for-all that I can't even fathom, but we're about to find out what happens as a result of this.

The Blue Jays will move to Philadelphia this season and will be owned by the league until the new ownership group can be approved and I won't run them. We'll also leave the Acorns on autopilot and we'll rejoin the league at the playoffs and see what things have been done.

[Young Drachma]

The only wrinkle is, because it's a Philadelphia team they're staying in the AL East because the NL already has the Philadelphia Quakers.

[Young Drachma]

Also in an effort to speed things up, I've deleted the entire minors and we'll go to reserve rosters. Minor league stats weren't really all that useful to me anyway and the Vodacom League was a vestige of the forked version of this league and it never really fit here one we merged the top teams into a 48 team universe.

That should speed things up considerably once I have it purge old database records.

I didn't get to 300+ seasons by having the game sim slower than molasses.

[Young Drachma]

On this episode, we talk about the Top 75 players strike, what the AI did to the San Diego Acorns when we put them on vacation, introduce the Philadelphia Blue Jays and check out the season previews and see what we have to look forward to this year.

Let's just say things got really, really interesting all of a sudden.

[Young Drachma]

Here's the regular season results of the strike season:


Only 2 out of the 12 teams who made the post-season this year did so last year.

The Acorns, of course, hobbled by so many strike guys on the roster didn't make the post-season either. But man, next year....

I made one trade specifically because it positioned us well for next year, even though it does mean I have two catchers who can hit big.



He was too tempting to pass up when they said he was available. Like other strike guys he wasn't able to play this year and we gave up a really great young talent to get him, but...outfielders are a dime a dozen, catchers are harder to come by even if we had one already. I figure if we're gonna do this thing, go ahead and do it big.

We'll see how it all looks next year though.

But first, the playoffs.

[Young Drachma]

The strike year is complete.



Might seem weird when you consider that a 5th place team a year ago knocked off a team that finished last in its division a year ago to win its first title, but the whole thing really uncovered a lot of talent that was lurking beneath the shadows. It'll be interesting to see if those guys -- remember this league despite seeing ratings is stats only -- manage to continue their progress.

If nothing else, we'll also remember the strike season for what it did and can look back and remember the oddities of players who were elite in their primes just skipping a season entirely.

With that being over, now the next thing we'll do is proceed through the off-season into a new year with the Acorns thanks to our AI friend being in a position of trying to go all Marlins on the league and barring that, the firesale that'll take place at mid-season should be epic in its own way.

[Young Drachma]

Just a moment for a point of pride.

Last year, during the draft I struggled a bit on who to draft. I didn't record last year's draft because of the strike year, but I did stop to perform the first few picks. Anyway, the AI was trying to get me to pick this pitcher from Ohio State. He had good measurables, but I was a bit concerned and opted not to pick him.

Instead, went with the most sure thing player (an outfielder) left at our position in the draft.

That decision turned out to be a smart one, at least in the short term.

We picked Max Kastrati, the first Kosovari I know of to make the bigs in either of the iterations of this league.



AI wanted me to pick Theirno Strain



There were a few other guys I contemplated, but...in the end, I think we made the right choice.

We're near the All-Star Break in Season 13 (2135).

[Young Drachma]

Kastrati had not reached his full potential back when I drafted him obviously, so it wasn't as cut and dry a decision at the time.

[Young Drachma]

Six months later, I probably wouldn't have made this trade if I could do it again.

Idiot me didn't even think about the fact that I was trading TWO all-stars to a division rival.



Indeed they got two all-stars, we got one all-star and while Schuck might be good someday, he's not there yet. I think I thought we were getting over. Also I hedged that Matsuda wouldn't be that good and we'd be paying for him if he was terrible.

Oh well. We'll revisit it later.

[Young Drachma]

This was me getting excited about Johnson because I knew who he was and chasing a name player over two guys who were doing just fine and didn't need to be moved from where they were. Happens with real life players all the time, but I think to get that invested where you know a fictional player's track record and wanted him when he was on the market is kind of cool and it's not like he's bad. it's just...now that I look at the deal it's pretty obvious that Arizona got the better of it.

[Young Drachma]

With the 2nd Philly team present and my longstanding idea that the West Virginia team would represent all of western Pennsylvania too, the Erie Lakers are going to head 102 miles west to become the Cleveland Spiders.

Considered going the Colorado Rockies route (that is, where the baseball team takes the name of a dead hockey team from the same market) but opted for the Spiders instead as it seemed more "original" and the Cleveland Barons name...I dunno if Barons would work well in today's market, though admittedly, if the Spider isn't cuddly kids will be afraid of said mascot.

[Young Drachma]

Episode 5:



On today's brief episode, we'll look at the Acorns in Season 13 at the trade deadline. We'll discuss featured players and other interesting things around the universe and get excited for what we hope will be a post-season involving our San Diego Acorns for the first time!

[Young Drachma]

Last day of the regular season and there's a battle in the NL for the 2nd wild card. Here's the matchups.

[Young Drachma]

Kansas City 3, Indiana 2
Baltimore 2, Charleston 1
Louisville 13, Virginia 0

So we'll get a one-game playoff of Louisville v. Kansas City. Kansas City won the season series (3-1), so they'll have home field.

[Young Drachma]

Louisville won 2-1 in 11 innings.

[Young Drachma]

So it all comes down to this. Both teams are seeking their first championship. Sidenote: that Cleveland/Montreal matchup was interesting because the Players used to play in Ohio before moving north of the border.

I'll probably stream the final.

Sidenote: The '97 Marlins and the '35 Acorns are probably going to have a lot in common whether we win the title or not.

[Young Drachma]

Episode 6:

The San Diego Acorns take on the New York Gothams in the 13th Kerouac Cup Series

[Young Drachma]

I ditched those players and decided after moving guys away that we'd just sim and funny enough, the AI didn't go spending nearly as much and two years later the Acorns went back to the title and won it again.



Here's how they've done up to now.



I'm done with this one, though.