What's a Fella Gotta Do?

[LeeD]

Jerry Reuss, last two starts:

9 innings, no-hitter, complete game shutout
1 walk, faced the minimum, Domination, Throw a Maddux

9 innings, 2-hitter, complete game shutout
no walks, Throw a Maddux, In Control

Not on the Hot List. Really? Methinks the list needs a little bit of expansion, especially with Red Ames (2G, 1-1, 0.60 ERA) and Kevin Brown (2G, 1-0, 1.20 ERA) being listed.

No, I'm not really upset about this. It's just...curious.

[bailey]

The code for that feature is so old they probably don't want to mess with it for fear of breaking something.

[Hwilensky]

Originally Posted by bailey

The code for that feature is so old they probably don't want to mess with it for fear of breaking something.

You get the award for "Best Post of the Year"...Coffee came out of my nose when I read this.

[Vapier]

I've played this game since the very first perfect team I think 19 maybe? I don't know forget and still to this day, can't figure out the best time to pull or play roster. If doing well of course i leave it, but to stop bleeding during a season i start changing out, sometimes to better, but most the time to worse effect. So I am wondering when the Randomness of a player kicks in is it when you add and remove from roster, or beginning of season, or do they random per game, it really should be told how the code works so people don't waste their time and effort benching a guy, for a game, season, etc. especially with the rewards geared to long term playing guys for PP points for the major rewards like at 3000 hits etc. So if anyone knows a good management plan please let me know have searched the net and no one has addressed this topic, I assume everyone just lets the season play no matter player performance but interested if people bench like me and if there is a better benching method i may be missing...

[LeeD]

Ahh, the randomness. My three teams are all in Diamond, all are pretty much BAL and NL with the usual lucky Perfect draws like Ames or Mays, all are slightly above or below average defensively, and all have 100 Kevin Brown. Here he is, times three:

14-9, 2.61 ERA, FIP 3.57, BABIP .272, SIERA 3.76
7-15. 3.95 ERA, FIP 3.53, BABIP .317, SIERA 3.88
11-16, 4.04 ERA, FIP 3.83, BABIP .300, SIERA 4.11

This looks like random distribution to me, although you'll note that won-loss record is heavily influenced by BABIP (my three pens are also very similar, so the fire brigade isn't wrecking Brown's stats after he departs).

Now, here's Aaron times three:

.283-.358-.488, 21 HR, OPS+ 130, wOBA .372
.256/.324/..438, 19 HR, OPS+ 104, wOBA .335
.221/.291/.358, 11 HR, OPS+ 77, wOBA .285

This might be random distribution, although my Aarons have tended to bounce between good and bad seasons by the week.

Second part of the story is that Aaron #3 has been benched, but any and all replacements seem to automatically hit worse than he does (Walker, Minoso, et al).

Third part of the story is the imbroglio about five weeks ago concerning Jerry Reuss' ratings, where players discovered that the ACTUAL, DISPLAYED ratings differed between individual cards prior to Monday morning league starts. This didn't just affect Reuss. There were graphs on other cards such as Sid Fernandez.

I think that this is the real reason we're seeing so much volatility: under-the-hood manipulation of ratings through what the Discord crew euphemistically terms "Random Number Generation."

Conclusions:

Nothing can be done. If your Brown or Aaron or Reuss or Fernandez stink this week, smile, bury them as much as possible, and try to win with the rest of the roster. Or spend 250,000 PP on a meta card that makes any of them extraneous.

Finally:

My #1 team just missed promotion to Perfect League last week when they were blown out in the Diamond World Series. This week, they are getting full seasons out of Reuss and Red Ames (my single best card pull this year) and should certainly be better, right?

Nope. 63-73. My #1 defense has regressed despite the addition of Cool Papa Bell in right field, this team has the 7-15 Kevin Brown (18-9, 3.13 last week), and Vida Blue has gone from 18-7, 2.97 to 9-14, 4.62.

RNG, indeed.

------------------------------------------------

Just for sh*** and giggles and because GO is finally out, I've started Team #4. Lots of fun starting fresh, with prices for older missions way down (remember spending 2500 PP for live silver Milwaukee cards?) and already knowing what works and where to spend. Week 2, Rookie League, 123-12 and on a 36-game winning streak (I know, I should lose on purpose to collect the 3000 PP, but that's just wrong).

Here's good old 76 Boog Powell through 135 games:

.313/.377/.712, 63 HR, 181 RBI. On track for 76 HR and 217 RBI, which would beat my personal best season in PT22 (Hack Wilson with 70 bombs and 211 RBI, which I believe was in Bronze League).

He won't last into Diamond (and probably no longer into Gold), but this card is flat-out fun at the lower levels.

[Tinkerman]

I've got Andrelton Simmons and Joe Tinker, both with 100 range, both playing everyday on different teams in the same gold league. Simmons produced 21.9 ZR, Tinker 8.5. Whatever it's down to, seems like OTT randomness to me!

[LeeD]

Originally Posted by Tinkerman

I've got Andrelton Simmons and Joe Tinker, both with 100 range, both playing everyday on different teams in the same gold league. Simmons produced 21.9 ZR, Tinker 8.5. Whatever it's down to, seems like OTT randomness to me!

I brought this up a while ago concerning randomness. Point of fact is that very, very few superstar players (Perfects and High Diamonds) had truly awful seasons mixed in with the great ones. The roller coaster rides are reserved more for the ordinary major league player (Silver and Bronze). Despite this, PT seems to produce the same variability as the base game, which also has too much variability among the higher-end players. It's one thing to be outclassed, like Chris Carpenter facing a lineup full of all-time sluggers. It's quite another to see those all-time sluggers go from 40 home runs one season to 18 the next and then back to 40.