I don't Know....

Like so far tonight.....Ten series results in so far and I've lost Nine of em.

24 active teams so who knows how it'll turn out... my son is usually asleep by 9:00 and my wife by 10:00 so this is what I stay up for lmao.

So it's not just me? I'm a relative newbie (my first season team is less than a week from finishing the regular season, and I'm in one heck of a pennant race... and I only have 3 teams total) but that's what my evenings are like too.

The last thing I do is spend time online checking to see how my teams did. Only three times, and it seems like the first result is around 9, the last right around 10, and the other somewhere in between (although which results get announced first varies - and I don't understand that).

For my first team, I print all the recaps/boxscores, and play by play and analyze the heck out of the games on my commute home... even though it's nothing I can really control.

This game is definitely highly addictive, fun, and frustrating at the same time... many times I would be better served by getting some extra sleep and starting fresher the next day at work, but that just doesn't happen.

I hear ya Nev but the empathy never reaches where it should. That empathy arrow I shoot at you starts drifting as I realize you are so much better then most of us and if you are struggling with any of this then what hope do I have. It's like reading the Flash complaining about arriving late for the movie, or superman doesn't have any idea what play the quarterback is calling in the huddle.

Before I give you sympathy I have to get over my dissolution that you even might not understand every single jot and tittle of all this stuff. I can live with the fact I won more championships my first year playing than I have in the what 10-12 years since combined because in my only 2 times meeting Nev in the finals I won. Maybe Strat rigged those so I could feel good and keep playing. Maybe they rigged them so you would not get too bored and feel there was still some challenge left.

More than anything else though I have to overcome that sick feeling in the pit of my stomach and the back corners of my mind that if Nev struggles with anything on this stuff I might as well fold my tent and bury my dice.

My most frustrating team ever was my first live draft team. We drafted via the boards with a 2 hour time limit. The draft took about a week to complete. After 81 games my team had the top ERA in the league. And I was leading the league in runs scored. And naturally held best record in the league. I was satisfied but had to tinker. I am like that wasp who got a ride across the river from the fox. Tinkering is in my nature and I am going to do something.

Made a handful of tweaks to my team settings. No roster changes, just settings. Team started spiraling downward and I could never stop it. Missed the playoffs and if I remember right that team finished with losing record. For the longest time I recorded every little thing I did with screenshots, etc. so I could back out the changes when I messed something up.

I have concluded there is a fine line between winning and losing on this. Discouraging sometimes because I just cannot see where that line is. Encouraged though because the thought that I might some day locate and see that line I can return to the more frequent success I had that first year.

This is an interesting thread...I go through much of the same all of you have mentioned. Right now I have 14 teams going and although I am not much better than average, I am beginning to avoid those 4th place teams. I still have them but not nearly as often and I tend to attribute them to poor luck in drafting and picking my home stadium.

Anyway, this is what I have figured our about SOM to date (10 years of this):
1) The number one factor in my success is not so much what I have done with my team but the stadiums the other managers have picked. Go for homers when lots of teams go small ball in no HR ballparks is a killer.
2) While I love the freedom of $140M drafts, both $100M and $80M drafts can give you a better advantage in drafting and hence, team performance.
3) There is a real advantage to lop sided ballparks like Minute Maid or HIlltop or Penmar Park or Yankee Stadium. But when everyone is doing the same thing, I notice these teams get thinned out and teams with other ballparks benefit. I can't tell you how many times there have been 4-5 Minute Maid teams in the same league!
4) I hate losing to teams that go all in on hitting and spend very little on pitching. Probably because I seldom see this strategy work and when it does, it pisses me off! I would really love to do this successfully but I'm too chicken.
5) Finally, when I go out early in the playoffs and this happens most of the time, I have noticed one thing - teams with the better pitching seems to be the difference. I've been out slugged before but its usually the better pitching that does it.

Mark

Lou Brock- (its the 1-17 running one just to be clear)

381 at bats as a leadoff batter- 6 SBS 7 CS
(he got 3 SBs in one game btw)

Steal setting is on normal.

I'm not familiar with these problems.

My teams always do what I want them to. My pinch hitters are always brought in at the perfect time. Likewise, my platoon guys are always pinch hit for perfectly. My guys never steal third (or home). My teams perform as I expect them (if not better). Sometimes even during the beta replay I regret a setting and voila my mind is able to adjust the setting to what I intended during the game.

My closers never melt down, and my guys never get injured.

@Salt

Nice post Mark, and I agree that good pitching almost always wins out - however, there is a "law of averages" and every now and then a Fenway '67 team that spent 15 mil on pitching will win......it's inevitable!!!!! I've won quite a few championships with pitching heavy Petco teams where my philosophy is "Do everything you can to keep the other team from scoring".

-The Sheik