Labor Ratings trash talk section

[Play By The Rules]

LOL the 9:59 switch is perfectly legal, and typically Petro. He did it all season against me, somehow thinking he'd gain an advantage by not showing me he's throwing Grant and Hunter against me each and every series. Didn't really fool anyone, but I guess it makes him feel better...

[The Last Druid]

OK Jet. I don't select my starters typically until I go over the teams each evening around from around 8 to 10 p.m. Prior to that Hal automatically lists the starters it thinks should start. With this team I selected the starters for the series last night around 8ish, for the first and only time. End of story. Your anticipated apology is accepted in advance.

PBTR, I'm surprised at you. You play the game regularly Joe doesn't. Thus his misplaced paranoia is somewhat understandable, but you should know better how HAL operates. :roll:

[Play By The Rules]

Ah, I select my starters per game a week in advance with the only exception being the "no reliever gambit" I ran in ATGII.

It's not like it was ever a surprise or anything.

[The Last Druid]

I had a reaction identical to Joe's when I first started playing. Only in this case the manager deliberately listed his two worst pitchers for each playoff game, and switched at the last minute. I let him know how I felt, and used the word bush myself (the ultimate four letter word today). It doesn't matter when someone does that sort of thing as my lineups don't change nor would my starters change. But someone doing what Joe alleges really is bush. I construe such behavior as hostile and / or insulting, right up there with the folks who propose ridiculous one sided trades and generally lose any respect I had for the practitioners of these behaviors.

[joethejet]

Petro,

If that is your standard practice, I apologize. As I said in my note, "Maybe it's on the up and up" if not, it appears we would both agree that it's a bad practice. That's what I was trying to say, albeit poorly.

I guess from my perspective, you had three days to put your starters in. Just surprising to me that you didn't do it until the last minute. However, I do take your word that it is your standard practice and I apologize. I should have been more clear in my note, what I meant was the practice of switching is bogus, it wasn't clear to me if you had done so and I'm sorry for implying that you did.

I do tweak things in my lineups on this team, nothing major mind you, but I would have started Billings over Dickey and would have had herndon higher if knew it was Krause instead of Barber. I doubt seriously that would have changed the outcome, but it's possible. I would have done nothing different v Klipp.

In any case, on we go. I know now when to look for possible pitching changes and that's the main thing. Sorry dude.

Thanks,

Joe

[The Last Druid]

It might be your standard practice too if you have 40 active teams.

From the perspective of selecting the best pitchers for the park, it was a no brainer; I had to start the two that I did. Hell, you are the main reason those two are even on my team!! And for games 3 and 4 I saved my two best starters because they don't give up ballpark homeruns whereas Klippstein and Krause do. Game 5 was the only problem as Grant and Hunter were added specifically for PBTR's squad and they don't really match up that well against you. Hopefully, the series gets settled before then. You're at a big disadvantage tonight with your two starters and their proclivity for giving up the long ball, not that it necessarily means anything as anything can happen in a given game. I [b:4a512202c4]was [/b:4a512202c4]thrilled to split last night. I would have started Feller in games one and five and saved Dean for game 3. Granted you couldn't use this strategy as Feller pitched the last game of the season, but I believe that was a serious mistake. It was a meaningless game and you should have used your fifth starter, IMHO. Dean is an extraordinary value in my park whereas Feller shines in yours, as does Knepper. Obviously Dean is your best pitcher but I would have ignored that in favor of park matchups. Besides apart from the ballpark hr's Feller's only liability is his hold which means nothing against my team. In game 2, I would have pitched Knepper, as he is a really tough pitcher in a small ball venue and considerably less effective in my park. Plus my lineup vs. lefties depends on cheap ballpark hr. guys to stay competitive. Hopefully your decision will prove a fatal mistake. :D

[joethejet]

[quote:bdeb35ef26]It might be your standard practice too if you have 40 active teams. [/quote:bdeb35ef26]

True enough!

We talked about doing things differently, but decided it was better to have our best get, potentially two starts. Knepper has a good w/l in your park so we decided that it would be OK, besides, I *think* you only start one LHB v LHP and that's where most of his HRs are. Two BPHRs is a lot, but not *that* much for Nolan and Knepper.

Guess we'll find out if the park makes that much of a difference. Ames might be an advantage, but his high OB v LHB should be an advantage to us and give us more shots at the BP HRs on our cards. Same for Barber. Unlike PBTR, we *do* have some power. I think we finished 5th in HRs.

Bottom line is that it will depend on the die rolls between two very good teams.

I like our chances if we can get to Game 5, but in my other ATG3 team, we had Hubbell against Martina and ended up getting two hits and lost 8-0. :roll:

Playoffs come down to luck, plain and simple. (Even more so than the regular season)

Jet

[The Last Druid]

Losing game 3 7-6 was a total disaster. I fully agree about the dice. You have a huge edge in game 5. Congrats.

[joethejet]

Well, we got some breaks tonight, Petro hits 5 HRs off of Knepper and 4 are solo shots! Like I said it's a dice game, but it helps that Knepper has a low OB v RHB.

We pull it out in the 11th on a triple by Billings and a wild pitch. :shock: Consuegra was tired, but that's still pretty lucky. In addition, Agate makes 3 errors leading to one unearned run, but clearly I was hot on the X-chart!

OTOH, I've gone 4 games w/o a HR and playing 2 games in Polo. We do have some power (Dickey, Ott and Alou all hit >= 23 HRs reg season) and we're hitting .215, almost 70 points below our season average. Course Agate is hitting worse, but he only hit 247 on the season and he's had no shortage of HRs. Ott is 0-15 :shock: and Alou 1-13! Looks like Petro's got a few of those too.

In any case, Hunter versus Dean. I'm just hoping it's not a repeat of the Hubbell/Martina debacle. :?

Couldn't do anything against Barber or Krause after hitting .300 against LHP during the season. :roll:

Great series as expected. We're just hoping to survive.

Meanwhile the other series is going 5 also with both sides holding serve so far. Every game but the last has been a 1 run affair!

Jet

[joethejet]

Petro,

Edge Smedge, See Hubbell v Martina for the ultimate in edges, doesn't mean squat!

Jet