Quote:
Originally Posted by stevem810
Hey,
I enjoyed reading about the under rated players at the positions. Of course, this could only really take place in a league like yours with full immersion by the league overseer.
How did you determine who was under rated? Awards? Your unfamiliarity of the players? Something else?
Chat with us about your own familiarity of the league players, in general.
The part I am curious about is how many of the players you recognize and know about vs. guys you may never have heard about.
side note: When I was a little kid one my uncles used to introduce me to other adults as someone who knew every player in baseball. Being both shy and modest at the time I'd retort, 'just the American League, Uncle Charlie'. Because it was true, I did know every player.
So, I'm curious about your knowledge throughout your own world.
Thanks, in advance!
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The underrated was mostly about players who are near the top of the pile at their position but haven't received much attention for it yet, in terms of awards, All-Star appearances, that sort of thing. And, I suppose, also in terms of being talked about much here in this thread.
Anyone on this list would have been at least somewhat familiar to me. I do, purposefully, move slowly enough with this league that I know most of the players, at least by name and probably a bit about what kind of player they are. Especially, of course, if they play in the MGL, since I play out all of the Brewers games. (That's my version of "just the American League, Uncle Charlie".)
But this time of year, after roster expansion, there are more of those little surprises where I find myself saying, wait, who's this guy? Which is actually quite fun.
The longer the league goes on the more immersed I become, which can actually almost be a bit of a problem as I kind of want to move slower and slower so I don't miss anything, while not wanting to move so slow that things get bogged down. Both for me and for anyone following along here.
I definitely go day by day, during the season at least, and I look at the scores and overview of each game played in the WPK. Then maybe go a bit deeper and look at boxscores, etc. of games that catch my eye. And since I tend to have quite a few players shortlisted for each amateur draft- and I don't bother to get rid of the shortlists (I mean, eventually I'll have to clear out the oldest drafts from my shortlists to make room), a lot of news stories come up also about minor league players, and I pay at least a little attention to every one of them. So even before players make it to the big leagues many of them have name recognition for me.
Even though the Brewers are currently in the midst of an era of something like dominance (and I'll probably have to do something about that eventually- I'm always looking for new approaches to limit my ability to win with the team) for me that isn't really the fun of this thing. It is the history developing, the storylines, the mythology, the characters, the rise and fall, or vice versa, of franchises. It is the jerk Joe Brodeur winning the MVP award in 1973, then getting busted for PED's not long after, only to return and slowly fade from his earlier glories, and now, still in his prime, he's having a year where he will finish in negative WAR territory. It is the hero and ultimate team captain Bud Lindsay over-coming early career injury issues to capture two straight MVP awards and now on the verge of a likely third while trying to lead his San Antonio Keys to their first SJL pennant. (It looks like they will fall short, but gloriously very possibly because the long-time doormats of the SJL, the El Paso Dawgs, will get there first.) It is the great Jesus Casiano, who had maybe the best season in the WPK history thus far in 1970, at age 36 having moved to first base from third and, although still having a great game now and then, mostly a shell of his former self, while his even older third base counterpart, Jesus Hernandez, is on the verge of leading the league in HR's and has a decent shot at his second MVP award. They both of are probably Hall of Fame bound, but somehow Hernandez seems to have found the fountain of youth while Casiano is apparently just about done as a meaningful player.
It is a whole wonderful world to me, this W.P. Kinsella league. It is baseball and it is life. And I love it!