The playoffs and off- season
For the first time in 3 years the Architects will not be in the GLBL Fall Classic or even the playoffs. That meant I really wasn’t interested in them but I guess we will cover them anyway.
US Divisional Series
Toledo Neptunes 82-62 vs Duluth Sea Gulls 88- 56
Game 1 - September 19th Toledo vs Duluth - Toledo wins 13-9
Game 2 - September 20th Toledo vs Duluth - Duluth wins 3-2 series tied 1-1
Game 3 - September 22nd Duluth vs Toledo - Duluth wins 6-2 Duluth leads series 2-1
Game 4 - September 23rd Duluth vs Toledo - Toledo wins 2-1 Series tied 2-2
Game 5 - September 24th Duluth vs Toledo - Toledo wins 7-3 Toledo leads series 3-2
Game 6 - September 26th Toledo vs Duluth - Duluth wins 8-1 Series tied 3-3
Game 7 - September 27th Toledo vs Duluth - Duluth win 6-3 Duluth wins Series 4-3
Canadian Divisional Series
Kingston Comets 80-64 vs Hamilton 83-61
Game 1 - September 19th Kingston vs Hamilton - Kingston wins 5-3
Game 2 - September 20th Kingston vs Hamilton - Hamilton wins 4-3 Series tied 1-1
Game 3 - September 22nd Hamilton vs Kingston - Kingston wins 14-2 Kingston leads series 2-1
Game 4 - September 23rd Hamilton vs Kingston - Kingston wins 3-1 Kingston leads series 3-1
Game 5 - September 24th Hamilton vs Kingston - Kingston wins 3-2 Kingston wins the Series 4-1
GLBL Fall Classic
Kingston Comets 80-64 vs Duluth Sea Gulls 88-56
This series was interesting mainly because neither team had won a Fall Classic since the mid-20’s. Kingston last won in 2026 and Duluth the wait was all the way back to 2020. My guess was this would be Duluth in 5 games. They have just been the better more consistent team all season.
Game 1 - September 29th Kingston vs Duluth - Kingston wins 3-0 Kingston leads Series 1-0
Game 2 - September 30th Kingston vs Duluth - Kingston wins 4-2 Kingston leads Series 2-0
Game 3 - October 2nd Duluth vs Kingston - Duluth wins 2-0 Kingston leads Series 2-1
Game 4 - October 3rd Duluth vs Kingston - Duluth wins 4-2 Series tied 2-2
Game 5 - October 4th Duluth vs Kingston - Duluth wins 5-4 11 innings Duluth leads Series 3-2
Game 6 - October 6th Kingston vs Duluth - Duluth wins 5-4
Duluth wins Series 4-2
So the Sea Gulls win their first GLBL Fall Classic since 2020. Their GM, who was the former GM of the Architects, took 5 seasons but he did build a winner. Something that we have not done in Chicago, at least not winning it all. My career record in the GLBL is 394-328 for a 546 winning percentage. We have won 1 US Division crown (55 season) and been to the Fall Classic twice (54,55) losing both in 6 games to Thunder Bay.
As soon as the Fall Classic was over, the league had been discussing rule changes all season. These were primarily on the financial system (since OOTP 26 is broken in regards to teams being over budget).
- The Cash Max/Min was raised to $75 million
- No trades could be completed if it caused either team to go in debt. If a team was in debt prior to the trade that team could not increase its debt.
These proposals were primarily instituted because Thunder Bay has a payroll in 2056 that was just shy of $300 million, on a budget of $180 or so. The Architects in the name of trying to win it all, when we thought we had the team to do it, went all in on SS Mulford and even moreso on SP Motouki Inoue. Inoue's contract was $38,000,000 in 2056 and $36,000,000 in 2057. His arbitration estimate for 2058 was estimated at a league shattering $54 million. The rule changes will greatly effect our decision making process for that option season. Even if we can sign him to a deal lower the arbitration number and extend him, we will have to really try and figure out what we are going to do.
The reason the club is in such a bind is the free spending ways that their GM (me) has gone on in search of that elusive league championship. I really thought this was our year and I really feel strong about our chances next year with Inoue here for a full season. But we will have to really look at our expenses as we lost money this last season, and we are now in debt $8,958,500. So while we are well under the $75 million ceiling, we are a bit hamstrung as our projected payroll for 2057 is roughly $197,000,000 and our budget is $180,000,000. So without a significant playoff run we are looking at losing $25,000,000. With a significant playoff run we can probably get that down below $15,000,000 million for the season. But the issues just grow with our projected payroll of over $235,000,000 in 2058 (including Inoue's outrageous $54 million arb estimate). There are ways to whittle that down with a couple of contracts namely SP Yale Hulburt's $17,000,000 team option for 2058 and oft-injured DH Jose Aranda's $25,000,000 team option for 2059.
Even with those the road ahead financially is murky at best in the next 3-5 years. Not making the playoffs this year really hurt, because if we had made it back to the Fall Classic this season for the 3rd straight year, we would not have had a loss for this season.
Below is our payroll numbers for the next 6 seasons. 2061 really is the first year that we might be below our budget and without the playoffs in future seasons we could have a long period of budgetary issues.
Lesson learned that it isn't always best to exploit a bug and just go for it, when the end goal of winning doesn't materialize.