Epic Comeback 22-1 over last 23 games

[Urishade]

Thank you Glen for getting back to me with your methodolgy and thank you TeamNasty for bringing some rationality back into this thread. It reached its nadir with Shinsational's extensive post further telling me he how he fels about me and my positngs instead of adding to the discussion about bullpen usage. I think he missed my original point that it doesn't matter to me what some random person a message baord thinks of me. Shinsational is certianly entitled to his opinion but I am also just as entitled to not put any stock in it whatsoever.

But anyway is there a possibly of employing the mega closer theory while reinforcing the rest of the pen to provide solid, if unspectacular, supporting relief in order to avoid those blow out losses? Basically if you had several middle of the road ($1-$3) releivers who were more evenly balanced to eat up the innings that came up when your starter got knocked out early then that would prevent getting blown and possibly allowing you to stay in games while giving your offense a chance to come back.

I guess the issue with that though is, as Glen alluded to, money. If you are going to spend $6 on a mega closer and field a respectable starting rotation then that doesn't leave a lot in the kitty for extra middle of the road relievers. But I would be interested to see how things would work out with a team based in a hitters' park that went with a very inexpensive startign rotation (say $8-10 total) and then employed the mega closer with a couple of stronger complementry relievers to go along with him.

Thereby acknowleding that your starters would at best get through five good innings but then turn it over to a bullpen that actually had superior abilites than the starters themselves. So say if your starter went five and gave up five runs but then your bullpen gave up only one more and even no more runs then you'd have a good chance to win every game given that you would have a very strong offense in place that should be able to score 6 or 7 runs a game. It would be a system based more on cosistency than trying to win only those games that are close while just giving up on any games that started to get out of hand.

[caimrisek]

I've been playing Strat for over 29 years and have heard and seen a lot! Way back in the day it was only the board and dice and we used to put our slumping hitters/pitchers in the freezer or leave them in a hot car or whatever to try to get them going again! The dice and/or random number generators don't care about previous results. So, in effect, you could "roll" a 1-2 or 6-12 result everytime. Two of the same results hardly ever happen back to back...although I've seen it happen where the die "roll" was the SAME for FIVE "rolls" in a row!

I've also played in many PBM leagues and a few online here on TSN. Of course I've gotten into many teams with the free '86 season and have done pretty good on a few. One particular team from the 2005 set (2004) stands out in relation to this thread. Best team in the league record wise (if someone tells me how to put the link to league here I will do it) and get swept away in the first round of the playoffs. Did I expect it...no...but I accepted it.

Another team I set up as a hitters team in a hitters park with "decent" starting and relief pitching and ended up with 62-100 record. Guess they couldn't score enough to overcome the runs given up. But hey...I tried.

The worst travesty (in my mind) in sports history happened to my beloved Chicago Cubs. No...not '69 as you might think...but waaaaay back in 1906. That was the year the Cubs had the BEST record (winning percentage still stands to this day) in baseball and lost the Series to the lowly crosstown (Hitless Wonders) White Sox 4 games to 2. Would anybody think that could happen? Was it fixed? Bottom line is that it happened. Did anyone think Colorado could do what it did last year?

That's why sports, and games in general, are so great. The unpredictability!!! Why watch or become interested if you think the favorite or the team with the better record will win every time?!? If you think just because you had created the best team, whether it's by run differential or won-loss record automatically entitles you to the championship let alone the division...you MUST clearly start to think another way! Anything can happen and usually does! If you are going to quit playing online here at TSN just because one (or more) of your teams falters unpredictably or something happens because YOU think it shouldn't happen, then maybe you should quit. Because what you are saying is up until this point everything has gone your way and you liked it that way. As soon as one thing goes against you, you're going to jump ship? What's to say you put together a great team and all of your key players get hurt or underperform? Statistically it could happen...but it shouldn't.

All of us here are paying $24.95 to play a game that, if we are the champions, we get to play again for free. It's not that serious...can you imagine if you had some real money involved here? I love playing this "game" and I'm content with putting up my $24.95 to be involved with this community. My first foray into the tournament(s) will start soon and I'm looking forward to going up against the best there is online. I don't expect much except the fact that I will have fun tinkering with my team, dialing them in, and watching the whole experience "play" out! Hopefully I can take the experience(s) and make my future teams better.

Bottom line: I thank everyone for the experience, TSN for hosting and S-O-M for creating and evolving a game that I have loved for over 29 years!

Phew! Sorry so long! Hope you've enjoyed reading...!

[durantjerry]

My two biggest SOMO travesties:
1)I lost two seventh games on the same day and both teams had been up three games to one game in the series'.
2)rmilter actually took two out of three in a series from one of my 1986 teams
Maybe rmilter should be #1?

[glennglenn]

if you play enough- you will see all sorts of things happen- i have been both the victim ( lost 18 of 21 to finish a season) as well as the benefactor-(won last 9 in a row to get wild card). The computer doesnt have memory- every roll is unconnected so that overtime strange things can happen- but over time with a large enough sample size- the results (in the right ballpark) mimic real life stats. the challenge for us is to come up with the right combination for 80k. And using the same strategy doesnt work everytime as it is contingent on what your opponents do. this is what makes strat fun and a challenge. (and makes us keep coming back). BTW glen -you're link to the current team that did the 'impossible' doesnt work- I would like to see both your team and the valiant second place finisher...

[durantjerry]

urishade, please stay. Your posts are great. So dry and dripping with sarcasm.

[LARRYLANG]

Some interesting posts...Here is a 69 team I had a couple of years ago that won either 17 or 19 straight early in the season. We had a big lead and then my lack of OBP and run production became a problem. Ironically, I also had my first 20 game looser on this team in Gary Gentry but Marichal was superb....What is funny is Gentry lost his 20th in the same game my opponent pitched a no-hitter (Messersmith). This was a fun team to play though. After my initial success in the early part of the season, I tried everything to right the ship but nothing worked and we finished 81-81. Thats just the way it goes. I have had other teams that were completely dominant in the regular season and then play like scab replacements in the playoffs. Just chalk it up as BASEBALL, and keep on plugging. :lol:
http://fantasygames.sportingnews.com/baseball/stratomatic/1969/team/team_other.html?user_id=22905

[Urishade]

As I expected would be the case the Doggies did in fact complete their magical mystery tour and took home the championship this evening. After much debate and venom on my part it became obvious that the Doggies were in fact the best team of that season. By my calculation they finsihed the year on a 34-10 run including the playoffs, which also included the amazing 18 game winning streak.

So after all this talk let me be the first one to congratulate them on their tremendous comeback and well deserved championship.

[teamnasty]

lol brummer won it all! First champion ever to overcome allowing 1000+ runs. Must be the devious in-game management! Congrats dude, was a fun league.

[GlenBrummer]

Thanks guys! Team played in a HR park and gave up and scored lots of runs. Team hit 31 homers in the playoffs.

[wavygravy2k]

Can you provide links? The links on the first page didn't work because that don't have an user_ids.