Quote:
Originally Posted by dward1
did you make that +/- graph? it looks like OOTP design, I really like it
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You can find it on the Team Home Screen. If it doesn't show for you, check open up the menu in the top right "Screen Setup", and it'll be listed as "Division Graph" Hope that helps!
V. 1897 SEASON
SUPER LIGAN
Pre-Season
The Titans of Omfattandestad made a couple of big splashes during the off-season, with the October signing of First Baseman Marten Osterqvist replacing the outgoing strikeout machine Kim Moe, who eventually found a home across-town with the Jonestan Broncos. Osterqvist had slightly lower numbers (.263/.383/.590) last season compared to 1895 (.320/.423/.643), but his OBP was much higher than Moe's allowing him to slip into the second spot on the line-up. The big news out of the capital was the acquisition of former Blidområde and Humoor 3B Alberik Hölderlin who became the highest paid player in the league when the 31-year old signed a four year deal to join the Titans. An excellent contact hitter who avoids striking out, he has career lifetime stats of .360/.448/.617 in 294 games with just 161 strikeouts. Despite the beefed up bats, the Titans did nothing to help their bullpen which will probably keep them lingering around 500 ball for the 1897 season.
Reigning champions the Blidområde Wild when they managed to re-sign 30-year old LF Marten Dahllöf to a five-year deal. The power-hitting outfielder finished last season with 99 career home runs and a slash of .259/.407/.579, missing just 9 games for the Wild in the last two years. Despite dabbling in the free agency market with a few minor acquistions, the 3rd of December was a huge day for the Wild fans, when the team unveiled two signings outside the stadium. The first was former-Embleton star Pitcher Neo Olsen (29-14 lifetime, 2.76 ERA, 401.2 IP, 1.00 WHIP, 512 K, 15.7 WAR) to a seven-year deal, and then the poaching of Gunner Fredriksen from Ny Aucklanda. The 30-year old made 58 stars for the Warlocks in the last two years, average 9 strikeouts a game which severely dented the Ny Aucklanda's famed rotation.
Another team who was busy in Free Agency was Sandford Stad, grabbing veteran Catcher Johannes Egerman , SS Alfred Palstrom (.307/.355/.373) whilst also splashing the cash on RF Torkel Koch (.324/.393/.506) who spent the last two years languishing in the Viksida Bombers team. The 26-year old contact hitter will spend the next three years at the Bulldogs, following a season where he went 5-for-5 twice. The Doggies also bolstered their Bullpen with Niclas Walfridsson, Melvin Isacksson and Jan Kalling.
The Conneaut Centurions are expecting another tough year, despite completing a trade with the Warlocks that saw 32-year old 3B Karl Karlsson (.233/.331/.521) leave to Ny Aucklanda, with The Hundreds receiving 22-year old 2B Lorens Dalhqvist (#32 Prospect) and 21-year old CF Lars-Erik Lindberg (#61 Prospect) in return.
It was a tough off-season for Grenada and Ängelar too, but despite some solid signings, it's expected to be another long season with the Kings in particular losing Hannes Jarl from their rotation for the first month of the season, whilst RF Fabian Arnesen (.306/.398/.406) - who was acquired in Free Agency from Embleton - will miss the first couple of weeks with a hamstring injury.
The Koanian Dagbladet believed that Blidområde would probably repeat as Champions, but Ny Aucklanda and Vizhune would be right on the heels of the Wild, with the latter continuing their power-hitting offense for a third straight year. Humoor weren't expected to do as well as they did last season, but they would probably still regress with Sandford Stad making a leap up the standings, whilst Embleton and Conneaut prop up the Original 10, with Ängelar and Grenada behind them.
Regular Season
The 1897 Super Ligan season was the third season of professional baseball within the Koana Islands. It began on 30th of March 1897 and concluded on the 19th September the same year. The schedule was unchanged from the previous season, with teams playing 154 games; 14 games each (7 at home and 7 away) against all other teams within the league.
The Blidområde Wild retained the Super Ligan title, becoming the first team to win back-to-back pennants, but needed results to go their way in the final days to clinch the league. After dropping the final game of a 3-game series against Vizhune, the Wild sat 3.5 games clear of the Vipers but having played an extra game. A three-game road trip awaited the reigning Champions against Omfattandestad who were chasing another year of 500 ball, having sat 10 games below the line at the start of September. The Viz, meanwhile, had a tricky four-game homestand against Sandford Stad who only a week earlier won 19 straight games (including a sweep of Blidområde) to make a late charge for the title.
Vizhune needed 11 innings to see off the Bulldogs on the 16th - Blidområde's off-day - with Mats Skovhus hitting the walk-off single. The last time Skovhus got the walk-off hit was a grand slam against Ny Aucklanda in July 1896. An emphatic 8-0 win followed for Vizhune, whilst the Wild lost their second straight game with a 6-4 loss to the Titans after a 5-run 7th by the home side, which closed the gap to two games at the top of the standings.
The next day was a near carbon copy for Blidområde as Omfattandestad came from 6-1 down in the bottom of the 6th to win 8-6 after Aron Blomqvist's 3-run homer in the 7th. Ultimately, the loss didn't make a difference as the Bulldogs rallied against the Vipers to claim a 4-2 win with Torkel Koch hitting the go-ahead solo blast in the 8th after seeing a 2-nothing lead evaporate in the 7th from a solo shot by Mats Hultman - the eventual winner of the Best Batter award and unanimous winner of the Most Valuable Player for 1897.
With the final day being dead rubbers, the Titans swept the Wild 5-4 to finish above 500 for the second straight year, patching over what was a thoroughly disappointing season for a team with title-aspirations that spent the vast majority of the year below 500. Blidområde's season meanwhile, took a massive hit in early July, with the news that Neo Olsen was done for the season after tearing his triceps. The 28-year old hurler led the league in most categories, finishing the season with a 10-2 record from 18 games, with an ERA of 1.96 and a WHIP of just 0.83, fanning 175. If that news wasn't bad enough, 9 days later a torn rotator cuff ended reliever Regnvard Alfonsson's season, too. The 33-year old was throwing decent numbers in 26 innings over 19 games: he struckout 24, walking 12, whilst giving up 18 hits and 8 earn runs for an ERA of 2.77.
The bad luck with injuries also ended André Westermark's season 6 weeks early, with the superstar going down with a partially torn labrum in early August. The RHP was not having the best year - by his standards at least - posting an ERA of 2.56 from 23 starts, striking out 220 and walking just 29. Despite his season ending prematurely, the 25-year old still led the league in K/9 for the second time, with 12.5. The season-ending injury against the Broncos could be the last time Westermark plays for Ny Aucklanda with the hurler hitting arbitration at season's end. The Warlocks slumped heavily following the news of the injury, which included a string of 7-straight defeats against Humoor and Viksida to put them right out of the hunt for their second title having been there or thereabouts up to that point.
By far the worst news of the year was the retirement of Alberik Jössi, the 22-year old rookie pitcher for the Grenada Kings. Poached from under the nose of Omfattandestad during the off-season, the right-hander had a bright future in the Super Ligan, posting solid numbers of 7-12, 4.26 ERA, 1.48 WHIP and 2.2 WAR in 25 starts for a team still reeling from a poor debut season. However, on the 9th of August, just days after Westermark was shut down for the year, the youngster partially tore his UCL in a quality start against Humoor (which the Hawks went on to win in extra innings, 2-1). The news soon filtered through the league that his injury was too severe and his career was over. The Kings lost 12 of their next 14 games to all but secure their second last-place finish in a row. It wasn't all bad news for Grenada's pitching corp though, with Michael Parmer moving into the rotation following Jössi's injury and eventually claiming Rookie of the Year.
Elsewhere, Jonestan Broncos GM Jönn Fulke completed six trades in July, before the trade deadline, as they announced the team was going to go for a complete rebuild. Some of the big names leaving the club included SP Gunnar Valqvist to Ny Aucklanda, Catcher Bjorn Aune (.259/.372/.395) to a fast-improving Ängelar Armada, Shortstop Hermann Sonnenberg (.229/.299/.317) to fellow stragglers Embleton (who lost their star CF Lage Jensen for six weeks after he was hit by a pitch during his first AB on Opening Day), and off-season acquisition, power-hitting 1B Kim Moe (.253/.348/.517) who performed well for Humoor following the trade.
It was a difficult season for the Hawks who started the year with 13 losses from their first 15 games before a slow rise through the standings in the months of May and June. Unfortunately, the early season form hurt the team's record badly and they were never able to challenge the top four teams.
Viksida Bombers had a completely opposite season. With a poor season predicted, the Bombers stunned the nation by sitting top of the Standings towards the end of May, before a huge dip in form over June and July saw the Bombers eventually cling on to 6th place. The season wasn't a complete failure though, with Left Fielder Tommy Lagerroth setting a new season record for hits with 237, eclipsing the previous record of 236 held by Blidområde 3B Halvar Nilsson that he set last season. Lagerroth's previous best was 230 that he also set last year.
Vipers SP Lage Gulliksson claimed the Best Pitcher award after starting 29 games and compiling a 21-5 record with an ERA of 2.39 in 203.1 innings and 246 strikeouts whilst reliever Tobias Kihlstedt helped a Vizhune whitewash during the awards, claiming the Reliever of the Year. On the season, Kihlstedt pitched 96.1 innings, with 121 strikeouts and an ERA of 2.15. He also had 3 saves in 50 relief appearances.
Owner Meetings
1897 was a busy year for changes in the Super Ligan. Following the comments made by Grenada Kings owner Mattias Svan's brother that the league had too many blowout scorelines, Commissioner Thomas Petersson pushed a motion to raise the pitching circle by a handful of inches in an attempt to curb the rampant scoring that was taking place. This was initially seen as sacrilege by fans and the media alike, with one journalist claiming: "the need to change the rules shows the Super Ligan's poor on-field product". Despite these sometimes quite hostile complaints which included a death threat telegram sent to the Super Ligan office in Omfattandestad, the teams unanimously voted for the introduction of a "pitchers mound", with Mattias Svan in particular claiming "the blowout scorelines were affecting [his] bottom line".
This wasn't the only major news that broke during the off-season. Viksida Bombers owner Alexander Mednick announced that his team was no longer sustainable in the nations second biggest city and that he would move the team to Uckford on Nihnby Island and re-brand to become the
Ducks of Uckford. This news was poorly received in Viksida and the Super Ligan, with many claiming relocating a team for profit goes against everything baseball stands for. Nevertheless, Mednick was unperturbed and sent a message to the
Viksida Merkurius newspaper stating: "my pockets are not for your hands. We [sic] don't worry about your feelings when my money is wasted in your city". The message included attendance records for the league which showed Viksida having the lowest attendance and season ticket revenue whilst a fan spokesman was quick to retort with numbers of his own showing that the Embleton Gunners budget was a 30% larger than Viksida's despite revenue being just 10% of the Bombers.
Armada owner Kristoffer Forsbrand pointed out the complications of needing to travel by steamboat followed by a long road trip to reach Uckford, particularly with the distance his team would have to cover from home, and pushed for consideration of splitting the league into sub-leagues following the talk given last year. The owners met and agreed that should any split happen for next year, the league would need to expand by 4 teams to make pennant races more exciting and yet not increase the number of games in a season; except for any series between the winners of the two sub-leagues. The process could not be agreed upon even when expansion without splitting the league was suggested, at least until the new "pitchers mound" rule was introduced. However, newspaper outlets across the country announced that the Körsbärstad Devils and Thomassmåstad Eagles baseball clubs had been told to get their finances in order to join the Super Ligan for 1899.
GÜNSOVÖLKFactory owner Kristian Riemer, older brother of Ängelar Armada RF Ferdinand Riemer, formed the
Günsovölk Baseball Meisterschaft in January with the intention of forming a professional league of his own in the nation of Günsovölk following a visit to the Koana Islands to watch his brother play. So impressed with the league and organisation of baseball within the Koana Islands, he cut his holiday short and returned to Ledigstadt.
Unbeknown to the 30-year old, a league was already being formed on Gilsemans Island by business partners Leon Schreiber and Marcel Fuhrmann, the largest island in the county. In a strange coincidence, Schreiber and Fuhrmann were on the lookout for a potential team owner in Ledigstadt and had yet to formally settle on a name for the league. After much discussion, Kristian Riemer agreed to sell the name
Günsovölk Baseball Meisterschaft to Schreiber and Fuhrmann in exchange for his own team in his home city.
Leon Schreiber and Marcel Fuhrmann officially unveiled the league in August, with 8 teams:
Druten Stadt Centurions
Küstestadt Boxers
Schönheit Anglers
Shoof Pirates
Ahnüü Otters
Hüll Clippers
Jeuman Windmills
Ledigstadt Mustangs
The league will begin play next year with teams playing 140 games; 10 games (5 at home and 5 away) against all other teams in the league.