Ratings Challenge, Season II (The Rematch)

[ArrylT]

Haha good call on the sweep JTJ! Good luck to all in the playoffs. Be warned I plan to improve by another 2 wins in Round III (76 wins!!)! :lol:

[gkhd11a]

It will be interesting to see if Munich_Man will come back to rue not accepting the Frankie Frisch for Eddie Collins trade that sat unanswered for 2 and 1/2 days. I have no doubt Joe would never had made it to the playoffs with Gehringer and Steinfeldt instead of Frisch and Boggs, but I had to make a change to try and get my team on a roll, and ran out of time waiting on a response there. Good job by all the winners, Munich Man's pitching was unbelievably consistent all year. Lost 8 one run games to him. That and going 7-14 with Pete Alexander & Babe Adams starts were total killers to my team, next league is looking very tough. Again if I can end near .500 I will be happy in hopes of making a year end run which I never quite got in position for this time.

This league has changed my entire philosophy towards ATGIII and every team I have started since this league is doing much better with much weaker starting pitching. Don't argue with HAL it is useless.

For Joe the Jet - the trade and Felipe Alou playing 153 out of 162 games (in another league for me he has missed 30 of 32 games) so far were keys to overcoming his negative run differential. Very good playoff matchups. I think Joe's team is better in the playoffs than the regular season but Munich Man's team is so strong offensively.

[joethejet]

The trade helped us, but it's hard to say if the other two wouldn't have caught fire too. Clearly both Frisch and Boggs rolled on their own cards a lot except for Frisch's six HRs which he clearly got off of the pitcher's card which Gehringer would have gotten too. The biggest thing was the steals that Frankie got, I don't think the combo of Gehringer and Steiny would have gotten as many.

Still we like have the Fordham Flash even with his higher e rating.

Jet

[Proverbial Psalms]

Recently off the Injured List...

• Weintraub, Phil, healthy for Semi-Finals Game 1

:) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :)

The most welcome news my team's received all season- that Mr. Weintraub and his .331 average and .454 onbase will be ready for the series opener (at edbazo's raodkills playing in Griffith). Gaspar just wasn't the same :wink:

[Munich_Man]

Hey Charlie, I was off skiing, came back and saw an "invalid" trade offer in my box. Never had a chance to accept or respond. I might have done that trade!

Collins sure put up some good numbers for me though, and I don't know if Worrell would have upset my bullpen dynamic that worked so well during the season. I guess we'll never know.

I too have definitely changed my philosophy for ATGIII, but I did it a bit earlier. Definitely have spent less $$$ on starting pitching. I think I have had more $9 mil+ hitters already in ATGIII than I did in all ATGI & II combined!

Good luck in the playoffs everyone.

(_)ß

[Munich_Man]

In the interest of full disclosure, I left the new league, changed my stadium from Astrodome to Busch '87, and re-entered. Just saw that Busch doesn't have a title in the stadiums list and wanted to change that. :D

[joethejet]

Well, predictably, we lost two straight at Sneller. I thought we had the better of the pitching matchups, Dean v Kaat and Longborg v Tiant, but it certainly wasn't the case tonight. :( :evil:

Dean was lit up for 6 runs on 10 hits in 6 IP :roll: and we actually had only two fewer base runners and the only SB of the game. :shock: But, a pair of DPs and a caught stealing didn't help and we left 7 OB. No clutch hitting I guess. Be nice if my good pitchers would pitch that way. <sigh> Dean has sucked all season this time around. Final score 6-3. :(

Game two was worse as Tiant 3 hit us. Ouch. And, Lonborg, our stalwart all season, gives up 5 in 4 IP. Final 6-0. (BTW, not meaning to say Tiant sucks, but getting 3 hits off of a 3.83 pitcher always stings. He *is* a great fit for that park however!)

Well we'll have to hold serve at home to give Dean a chance to earn his money. We'll see if our bozos have enough left in the tank.

Hit an amazing .206 against those two guys. I *thought* our offense was a *little* better than than, but I guess not. The 6.19 ERA doesn't help much either. :(

Jet

[Munich_Man]

Nice to get the two at home, my road rcord isn't so hot. At least we're playing in Forbes for 3&4, almost like home!

[Proverbial Psalms]

The Excel's managed a split at Roadkill... Roadkill had a sharp .642 winning percentage at home during the regular season... at 52-29, so I consider a .500 split a big accomplishment.

We lost the opener 6-2, leaving 12 men on base (roadkill left just one on base!) as Wynn buckled down against us every time he got into any kind of jam... my fondness for Weintraub is being tested, as he allowed a single+error in the 8th inning, allowing the two men already onbase and the batter to score on the play- it turned a 3-2 ballgame into a 6-2 runaway win.

In game 2, Cal Ripken had two HR's (in Griffith!) and all 4 RBI's as lefty Brazle outpitched Bunning in a 4-3 duel. With Harrah out (injured in game 1), Excels had John Kennedy and his .243 onbase card leading off (he naturally went 0-4),

Now it's back to the (hopefully) friendly confines of Polo '34 for games 3 and 4, as Winter & Rixey take the mound and Weintraub takes over as leadoff hitter for the injured Harrah.

[joethejet]

Well, we're done. All the bad stuff we did to put us in a hole early in the season we did in the playoffs:

Lousy starting pitching (Hurst 4 runs, 3 earned in 5 IP tonight),

Shoffner pitching with the game on the line (a 5-4 lead in the 8th) because we'd pinch hit for Miller and Podbielan already,

leaving 12 OB (to his 4) despite getting 2 HRs (both solo), 2 2bs, and 20 total runners,

left 2 on in the 7th (after having the bases juiced with no out, scoring only once :( ) and the tieing run at 2b in the 9th,

had three runners thrown out at the plate (one on a single the others on FC),

an unearned run turning out to be the winning run in a 7-6 loss.

The bottom line was our pitching underperformed all season and it did again in the playoffs. You would think that Dean, Lonborg and Hurst would, at least ONE of them have an ERA better than 5.40 even against a squad as good as MM's. Dean and Lonborg had ratios > 2.3 :shock: Someone was rolling on his card *quite* a bit! (hint, it wasn't me! ;))

OTOH, the much maligned Shantz actually threw 5 scoreless IP in the first two games. Imagine that! :shock: ;)

Before anyone gets the wrong idea, I'm not saying we're better than Sneller, he has a great squad and posted a great record overall so the end result isn't a shocker. It's just that it's a LOUSY way to go out. Getting swept and leaving 12 guys on base in a one run game that you lose due to an unearned run. Ouch. :evil: :( :cry: :cry:

Oh well, at least we made the playoffs.

It's been great playing with you guys. Good luck in Round 3.

Jet