The 2012 Strat-O-Master League Chat Room

Well that was fun, at least for me it was, but was certainly not without its drama. Golden Tongue's wagging notwithstanding, I've never been in a season where 7 teams all had a shot at the playoffs on the last night and none of them had clinched. VERY close, and could have gone any number of ways. I'm sure glad the "dice" rolled in my favour that night. If I'd lost that last regular season game to Eastbound and Down, instead of going into the playoffs with the best record there would have been a 3-way tie for 1st in the East Division, and since I had the worst +/- of the three I think I'd have been out.

As far as the finals goes, it should go down as possibly one of the closest sweeps in history if that makes any sense. Misslonlyhearts put up a better battle than it might appear. The last 3 games were won by my relief pitchers, and all by one run.

Now I have to take time to rebut the less-than-flattering comments about Neil Walker. Of all the players in the 2012 card set who can play 2B, only Robinson Cano and Aaron Hill have better cards against RHP. Ben Zobrist is about equal, but I had him too. Walker sucks vs. LHP, but only 23 of his 351 regular season AB were against lefties, so I don't care much about that.

Aside from that, I thoroughly enjoyed and looked forward to AKW's daily posts. He did an excellent job as Commissioner and kept us all interested throughout the season.

Finally, not meaning to sound arrogant, (well not much anyway), let's do this again with a different card set, and I challenge all of you to try and knock me off.

Tuesday, 12-2-14:


GAME 3 FINALS ACTION:

Matt Kemp opened the top of the 1st inning with a home run and Kyle Seager hammered a 2 run shot in the 8th to give Pollard a 5-4 win over misslonlyhearts and a 3 games to none lead in the series. It was the second straight game that Kemp led off with a bomb. In game 1 of the finals, he doubled to start things off.

The Kangaroos continued their magic with the dice when it mattered. In the 4th inning with the score tied at 2, Pollard had Neil Walker on 1st and Kyle Seager on 3rd. There was 1 out. For the season, Walker (C steal) was 4 out of 6 in stolen bases; Seager (B steal) was 5 of 8. You guessed it. The "Roos" pulled off the double steal with Seager scoring the lead run at the time. If that wasn't enough for mitcho to swallow, in the 6th inning, with Michael McKenry (+2 arm) catching and Mike Fiers (0 hold) pitching, Andrew McCutchen got caught trying to steal 2nd base for nate's west. When you're hot - you're hot.


GAME 4 FINALS ACTION:

The big news was Matt Kemp struck out to start the game. Regardless, Pollard swept the finals with a 5-4 win over misslonlyhearts.

This time Chris Seddon was the miraculous story. He came in to relief pitch for the Kangaroos during the middle innings. Seddon is a left handed pitcher who is pathetically weak against right handed batters. nate's west is a team that hits much better against left handed pitchers than it does righties. You guessed it. Left hander Seddon worked a remarkable 3 innings allowing 1 hit and 0 runs, with 2 strikeouts and 0 walks. Coming into the game with a runner on 3rd base and nobody out, Seddon got the next 3 batters and kept the runner on 3rd from scoring. Either FALCON29 is blessed, or he sold his soul to the devil.


THE FIRST EVER "STRAT-O-MASTER" - FALCON29:

In the beginning, twelve master strategists drafted teams that they thought would earn them the title of "Strat-O-Master". As cited by FALCON29 in his post from yesterday, with only 3 games left in the regular season, seven master strategists were still in the hunt and no team had yet clinched a playoff spot. From start to finish, it was a hotly contested race to "strat-o-masterdom".

However, the Pollard Kangaroos were consistently good. They held 1st place in the tough East Division for nearly the entire season. On the last day of regular play, the "Roos" would win their division with the best record in the league - go 4 and 2 in the semi-finals - and then sweep the finals. FALCON29 built the best team in the league as evidenced by its performance. He is deservedly the initial and reigning "Strat-O-Master" of the Strat-O-Master League.

In yesterday's post, saying he didn't want to sound arrogant, FALCON29 challenged the eleven other master strategists to try and dethrone him as "Strat-O-Master". It's not arrogance FALCON 29. Your team was without question the best in our league and you are worthy of all accolades that come your way. Congratulations. You did it. You are the "Strat-O-Master".


FINALS MVP:

We'll let FALCON29 decide who was the "most valuable player" of the finals. But Matt Kemp has to be a candidate. He went 9 for 18, with 3 doubles, 6 home runs, 10 RBI and 6 runs scored - all as a leadoff hitter in the lineup. What a performance.


THE CONTROVERSIAL TRADE:

Our season was not without controversy. A seemingly illogical trade 3/4 of the way through the journey roused the ire of some owners. Others were bewildered by the exchange. My feeling was - and is - that someone was offered a really good deal and he took it. The person who made the bad deal contended that he didn't think it was so bad. Someone really wise once said, "Let he who is without sin throw the first stone." I know if that trade had been offered to me, and if I had done nothing unethical to cause it, I would have taken the deal. Maybe I'm naive, but I tend to give people the benefit of the doubt - with the expectation that the person who offered the deal understands it was the consensus of his peers that the trade was absurdly unbalanced. Only the parties involved know for sure, but if that trade was transacted with unscrupulous intent, then neither individual is welcome back.


THE STRAT-O-MASTER LEAGUE II:

The plan is to have another season of Strat-O-Master League play. If there is, it won' be for awhile. Certainly not until after the holidays. Also, it will not be with the 2012, 2013 or 2014 player cards. Nor will we use any "ATG" or "mystery" card sets. Ideally, I would like to compete with the 1977 player cards. It was a year that featured many great stars. Unfortunately, I don't believe that set is available for on-line play. If anyone knows if or how that can be arranged with Strat-O-Matic, please let me know.

Although we have had 1,450 hits in this forum in just over two months, some of our master strategists may not be reading these posts on a regular basis. As such, I intend to send private messages to everyone concerning the next season of play. It is likely that some people will not return. If so, we will have to recruit new players. All current players who desire to come back will be given sufficient notice so they can start forming their teams before the league is created on-line.


THANKS

We got really good players to compete in the Strat-O-Master League. There were no pushover teams. Even those few teams that had a poor record never were an easy win. And it seems like those teams were being managed well to the very end.

My posts were meant to maintain interest in the Strat-O-Master League over a long season of play. I hope we did that. And I hope everyone enjoyed the ride.

You may be hearing from me in this forum from time to time to comment on things that I have found of interest relative to this season of play.

Have a blessed Christmas and a great New Year.

AKW