So to step outside the reality of the WPK a bit I'd like to discuss a few things I have been thinking about lately regarding this league, and would love it if anyone wanted to give any feedback or reactions to these ideas as well.
I will say that with the thanks button no longer being an option it does sometimes feel a bit like a tree falling in the forest situation around here- I'm not really sure if anyone is hearing any of this, though the numbers of views would seem to indicate that someone is reading (or at least glancing) at my posts in this thread. Mostly I do this for myself- it helps me to focus on aspects of the league I might not otherwise and it is a bit like talking aloud in the sense that sometimes you haven't fully processed a thought until you try to convey it to someone else. But it would be nice to know that this is meaningful, at least a little, to someone other than me.
Anyway, here are the things I've been thinking about
:
1) The Designated Hitter:
I will admit that my bias has been against the DH and allowing it to be a part of the WPK. While I do use the league evolution feature, the DH is one of the options I have not allowed. Having said that, I've been feeling some shifting in my opinion about this, both for the WPK and even for MLB IRL. To be clear, I'm not thinking about adding the Designated Hitter rule to the WPK at this time. But I am considering checking the box that makes this an option for league evolution and letting things happen as they will.
Any thoughts?
(I will say that one of my hesitancies around this is the fact that my Denver Brewers club has at least one really decent hitting starting pitcher in
Jim Atwell, and a few others, like
Sadahige Kawasaki and
Sekien Hamasaki, who are good enough that they seem to come up with some big hits not that infrequently. On the other hand, Erik Sloan is just pitiful at the plate and drives me crazy in that regard.
)
2) Expansion and league re-alignment/divisional play:
And this really is the big idea floating around in my head right now. I feel like it is time for the SJL and MGL to have a matching number of teams and I also feel like it would be good to introduce divisional play and expand the playoffs (just a bit.)
My attitude in the past has been to be very hands off with these sorts of things and let league evolution do its thing. That is still mostly my preference as philosophically and temperamentally I am inclined to not want to exert control over the details and would rather be surprised and have the feeling that the league is evolving very organically without my interference.
Having said that, I am inclined right now to reach in and exert a little divine intervention to make changes to the league structure as we head into the 1980's and add two teams to the MGL. After which I think I would turn off the possibility of expansion for a period of time, probably stretching at least a few game decades into the future.
Admittedly part of the impetus of this is the lack of a pennant race in the MGL this year and the minimal pennant race that exists in the SJL.
When I think about separating the two leagues into East and West divisions, I think about the possibility of an exciting pennant race this year between the Detroit Falcons and the Brooklyn Aces in the MGL East and the chance that an upstart team like the Falcons would have a better potential path to the Kinsella Classic Series. Granted, in the potential MGL West the Brewers would still be winning easily. But for me personally it would lead to another level of challenge in having to win an MGL playoff series before hoping to win a KCS championship series.
Over in the SJL, if the league had the divisions I envision, there would actually be less of a pennant race, with San Antonio easily running away with the SJL West while Columbus would have some competition from Philadelphia in the SJL East.
What I am trying to figure out is if I want to/should take the reins on this prior to the calendar flipping to 1980, not having any idea whether another expansion will kick in due to league evolution and how that would work out in terms of divisional play/re-alignment.
So, any ideas/concerns/opinions/advice?