Has 2006 killed off the "Old Guard"??

[MARCPELLETIER]

J-Pav,

I agree with pretty much everything you said in the last post. Glad to see we reach some consensus 8) (oh! and sorry for the confusion between the threads, I was confused myself).

One thing I wanted to add...this is perhaps obvious for you, but I'll make the clarafication nonetheless. When you say that the variation is approximatively +/- 8 wins, this might be the variation for any single season, but it is greatly reduced once you start accumulating the season.

As for your frustrated season (being that you finish first in scoring and third in pitching, with a .500 team), I noticed that strat is way different than real-life baseball with RS/RA. In Strat, but not in real-life, a lot of teams go with restricted bullpen such as they often stucked with a reliever who is extremely tired (first difference). Also, Hal has logic that is absent in MLB, which is to leave a reliever on the mound when nobody else is available ( not available because of restrictions set by the player or by SOM) up until the reliever allows his 10th run (second difference). In MLB, teams usually go with deep bullpen, and they usually remove a pitcher well before his 10th earned runs.

If you have a lot of wins in such situations, and if you avoid losing this way, then obviously, your run production will not be representative of the true value of your offense.

And I definitively that the discussion has been fun.

[jdmercha]

Along with the old guard vanishing, so are the number of ways that you can cheat. Perhaps the people who have left are the ones that liked using the super-releiver strategy.

As far as bargains go, I think they still exist in 2006. Bargins I've seen on 2006, Irod, Lenny Harris, Matt Murton and Juan Pierre. Busts include AJ Burnett and John Smoltz. Then there is Clemmons and Abreu, though not busts they seem overpriced.

And there all also the one-team oddities. Although I've seen Varitek do well, I got twice the offense out of Adam Everett. And Mariano Rivera with a .99 WHIP and an ERA of 3.61. With 9BS out of 21 chances.

I think the pricing models and rule changes have evened things out quite a bit over the years. So I don't build my teams to win. I build them to reach certain milestones, and I hope that translated to wins. The teams I choose tend to lead the leagus in BA and OBP. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. My 1st team finished 2nd. I finished 1st in BA, by .011. I finished 2nd in OBP, and 5th in overall offense. My current team is 1st in both BA and OBP but only 8th in offense. It doesn;t look like this team will be over .500.

[Zimharry]

I go back to Feb. 2001 and can remember picking up Santos from the FA pool on my first and very mediocre team.............There have been some very good points made. People come and go......I still wake up and after tending to the cat, the coffe and the wife, strat is the first thing I do. Not a ratings guy or # cruncher either, I love the fact that there are no clearly super mispriced guys in 2006. There is even more card reading and plotting involved. There are still gems to be had. There will always be a new "old" guard as people gain and lose interest.

If you ask me , the community took the biggest hit during and after the whole Nicole fiasco. That seemed to take the wind out of a lot of sails and caused a major reduction in postings, in my opinion. I know it made me more cautious on the boards and in league messaging..........

[LARRYLANG]

[quote:cdf43ec7da]J-Pav----I guess everythings been all talked out and all thats left is the starting 2b recommendations of some bored .480 win pct manager..

That's me except the bored part :D When I read that statement I done some research on my past teams....In ligit leagues my W/L record is 1070-941...A little better than .480 :D What the ratings do not take into account is there a several players like myself who enjoy theme leagues and I usually always play a longshot to see if I can make things work for the team...To me, that is the fun of the game...I could care less about some manager ratings...(try playing the devil-rays team in 06') :shock: ...When I say legit leagues I am talking about teams where I was actually trying to win and not a theme league with restrictions....Even though I think I would do much better with the game if I stayed out of theme leagues, I would much rather play them because of all the twists and ideas the guys come up with...There are some really good managers who play in alot of theme leagues which hurt their manager ratings ie: LMBombers--Doctax1--CATom--Ehlekev--BoDean--and the list goes on and on.......My point is---you can't really make a blanket statement like that without taking this into consideration..

Another thing I do that hurts me is I have a penchant to pick favorite players.....I will pick certain guys in every league I am in if it is not a theme...I know that is crazy with stadiums and all factored in but I do it to see how they perform in different places....I don't really care whether I win the league or not....It's trying to get guys to perform the way you want them to and the manager interaction in the leagues that keeps me playing....Take away theme leagues and manager BS THEN I would be a bored manager :wink: [/quote:cdf43ec7da]

[J-Pav]

[b:4c2dd03c83]Aray:[/b:4c2dd03c83]

[color=darkblue:4c2dd03c83]If it indeed shakes out that the '06 trend is to manage series-by-series, then shouldn't the more experienced managers tend to win more of these series? And if it's a veteran vs a newbie, in some if not most cases, wouldn't the result be a sweep? [/color:4c2dd03c83]

You would think; however, just the other day I got swept in a series against an all righty line-up when my worst of the three pitchers was 7R. Last year I would've bet my house on taking two of three. (I think I even platooned a few extra lefty bats against his hard righty pitching, to add insult to injury).

[b:4c2dd03c83]Zim:[/b:4c2dd03c83]

I'm enjoying our battle in tour league two. You gotta love how I'm sweeping three, getting swept three, then losing two of three yet still managing to keep it within striking distance. Good luck the rest of this week! Maybe we can both sneak into the playoffs...

[b:4c2dd03c83]Pelz:[/b:4c2dd03c83]

The point I'm trying to make, how ever inconsiderately it may sound, is that in the past the better players had a louder, more helpful voice.

I don't know you, so I have no reason to believe you think the blanket statement was directed towards you. Few guys care about the SOM ratings points, because anyone who plays regularly knows who are the guys that can manage. When I'm flipping through the posts, (which I'm doing less and less and less and less), I'm not seeing the guys who I think have something to contribute. I'm seeing lots of names I don't recognize, saying things that aren't inspiring lots of dialogue.

If you're new to the game since mid-2005, you have no idea how far off the table the discussions have fallen.

Maybe we're just at the bottom of a trough in a rolling trend that will cycle its way back upward. Maybe from the cutting edge new generation of players we'll see some interesting ideas, renewing interest in the game. For now, the vets are all talked out (for the most part) it seems, and plenty have left to pursue other things.

[J-Pav]

Sorry, double tapped that last post.

[J-Pav]

[b:d87c3b1f2c]ArrylT[/b:d87c3b1f2c]:

You started this fun thread. Your final thoughts?

[BC Manager]

I wasn't mentioned in AT's original post -- in fairness, I've never been as active as Penngray and the lot. But I used to be one of the main creators of new theme-leagues for the 200x game, since the first season.

As for 2006, I'm just about to play my first season. I only intend to play the game twice -- to keep my commitments to the two keeper leagues I started 3 or 4 years ago. And for those, I've stepped down as commish, as I'm not invested enough to continue with that responsibility.

Vince had it right. I've become addicted to the 80s game. It just has so many more dimensions than any of the other games, because of the mystery card. It's such a different game when you don't know what cards you're going to have for your players. And it lends itself to intriguing theme possibilites. I'm currently running a 10-year keeper league based on the 10 years of the 80s and the years of cards for each player. Many in the league have said it's the best theme league they've ever been involved in.

Anyway, my lack of involvement with 2006 doesn't really have to do with the 2006 game -- given I haven't even played it yet. I can say the last time I played 2005 - in a theme I initiated - I became bored part way into the season and stopped even checking my team.

So for those of you haven't tried the 80s game you should give it a shot. And maybe if it gets even more popular they'll come up with another mystery card game -- for the 90s, 70s, 60s or ATG.
:)

[cummings2]

[i:641e676a1a]Has 06 killed the old guard?[/i:641e676a1a]

IMHO it's not the case: from the long time vet SOMers that I know of most of the ones who've taken leaves is simply because life (real life) has been placing some extra demands...that's all.

The way I see it soon (hopefully) they'll all come back and sweep the floor with me...so I better try and get as many rings while they let me have some fun :wink: