A ten dollar team, here we go

[Hualalai]

Started my first team, a "ten dollar team" last week. Had a winning record in the entry level (a team with all diamonds had the best record).

Today is my very first venture into Rookie league (139, Guillemots).

I have 9 gold cards total so far, nothing higher. Have done a few of the easy collection missions, and have entered some tournaments but no luck so far.

One thing I noticed, in looking around my league, is the teams that have been playing a long time. I assume some of these are on autopilot and have been bouncing around the lowest levels.

There are seven teams in their 23rd year (out of 30) plus three in their 22nd year.

Can't help but think OOTP will have to figure out a way to weed out the dead teams someday. Assuming they are really dead.

[Hualalai]

Had a first good day, 18-8. There is only one other winning team in my division, and that team has played 18 seasons and has never been in the playoffs once, so my chances of making the playoffs look good. Mike Yaztremski got a player of the week award in the first month.

I fully expect that the team will bounce around between stone and iron for a few seasons as I save up and get some better players,

My next step, later this week, is to take the advice I have seen given on the forum many times, and work on the live cards missions, and get players I will need that way.

[Hualalai]

And I realized they come out with a new version like every year.

[Hualalai]

March 1-3
April 20-7
May 10-16
June 17-6

[Hualalai]

and won my first tourney last night (after trying about 9 times).

It was a quick silver and netted me 1000 pp.

Silver or bronze seems to be where I participate for now, not enough gold or diamond to even try the higher level ones.

[Hualalai]

A 20 game win streak, when it ended got 4,000 points. Wow.

Now I can finish up a bunch of those live team missions.

And Randy Johnson (who I got from the Diamondbacks mission) pitched a no hitter.

[Hualalai]

Won it all, now on to Stone League. With the points I earned I will keep working on the live card missions. Got the AL Central and AL West done.

[Hualalai]

First year went 114-48 and won the Rookie League WS.

Off to a great start in Stone League in the Guillemots' second season. How far until a $10 team hits the wall? Looks like will give the iron level a shot next season.

Continuing to work on the live card missions. Just finished the American League. The Yankees were very difficult and expensive to complete. I think they were the hardest. Any high bronze or silver level Yankee either was never on sale in the auction house, or was going for gold level prices.

Maybe the A's were the second toughest in the AL. Now on to the National League collections.

[Hualalai]

All star game in second season, first in stone league.

Had a LOT of all stars team members from the Guillemots.

Joey Bart, C
Jeff Bagwell, 1B
Evan Longoria, 3B
Troy Tulowitzki, SS
Randy Johnson, SP
Ted Lyons, SP
Bret Saberhage, SP
Eddie Plank, SP

Bagwell got the most popular award

[Hualalai]

Guillemots did even better in Stone than they did in Rookie in the regular season.
127-35

Playoffs are today.

The big three starting pitchers lead the league in ERA, Lyons, Saberhagen and Johnson. And were the top three in quality starts.

[Hualalai]

and knocked out by a wildcard team, 3 games to 2.

On to iron league.

[Hualalai]

Iron league was same story for Guillemots. best record in league, got through first round in playoffs but knocked out in the championship round so no world series.

Rookie 114-48
Stone 127-35
Iron 120-42

Now on to Bronze. Competition looks to be much stiffer here, teams in my division have lots of diamonds and a scattering of perfects. And fewer teams will get promoted this season, so excellent chance we will be repeating Bronze next season. Hopefully not relegated back to Iron, but if that happened, oh well, dominated there last season.

What gave the Guillemots the leg up on the lower levels was that I focused on the live missions. Finished them all and got Yogi during last season. The rewards from those missions is a great foundation to build on. Not sure what to do next as the FOTF missions appear all but impossible to complete, so perhaps will be saving up points to get a key player somewhere. Biggest holes are probably at third where platooning Mathews and Chapman currently, or of course could always use another great starting pitcher. But the players I would want are very expensive, so probably not this year. Maybe not next.

[Hualalai]

Getting packs from completing missions. Using points earned for needed cards. The original 10 dollars is long gone of course, but it helped with the earnings in entry and rookie weeks.

So far been selling only duplicates with a couple exceptions:

Sold two SE diamond hitters that were in demand but that I knew I was not going to use. Have one diamond pitcher on the market currently.

[Hualalai]

The Guillemots had another good season. Got the second best winning record in Bronze League. Won the World Series, for their second one (Rookie and now Bronze.) The winning percentage for the season went down as the competition has improved.

102-60

Yaz won MVP. Yaz and Bagwell got Great Bat awards. And Ichiro got a Great Glove.

Maz did not win a defense award this season as he was spliiting time at second with Cano, and also was training up to be my backup shortstop going forward.

Starting rotation was very good, bullpen not quite as good. But still good enough to win it all.

[Hualalai]

It turns out that the answer to my original question, namely at what level a 10 dollar team (that focused on the live card missions first) will hit the wall is...

Silver League.

[Hualalai]

Things looked grim in the first season in silver, with the team falling to 8 games behind the division leader. But we clawed back and ended up in a dead heat for the lead. We lost the one game playoff for the division title, and are now a wildcard team.

87-76

During the season we had 3 players in the all star game (no pitchers made it) and Bagwell lead the league in homers.

Hitting was down for just about every player, facing diamond starters every game will do that. Pitching also got worse. I only made a couple of tweaks during the season, adding a starting pitcher and swapping out a couple of relievers. But those changes didn't really account for the team getting better in the second half, that was random.

I think my biggest hole is at third base. I did swap out Eddie Mathews, who was bad for me, and brought back Longoria who was also poor but at least is a better fielder.

[Hualalai]

Won the wild card game, but lost in the division series so staying in Silver this week.

Still saving up to by a perfect player in the AH.

[Hualalai]

Finished a second season in Silver. 87-75, got blown out in the division series in the playoffs. Had a very weak division, so won the division easily even though we had a losing record at the all star break.

I thought we would be repeating silver but somehow even with a not great record and losing in the division series, still got a promotion to gold. This will be the first season at gold, and fully expect to be returning to silver next season based on finishing two .530 seasons in silver.

Lead the league in starter ERA, was in the top half in offense, but the bullpen was not good.

Have bought a total of 3 perfect players in the auction house so far, with Yogi that makes 4 on the team. Biggest weakness right now is the bullpen, and maybe DH. so once again am saving points. Have sold players that are for missions that I know I will never be able to complete (like gold missions). So that has boosted my points. And won some more packs in the quick tourneys, but those packs never produce much of use.

[Hualalai]

In their first year in Gold, the Guillemots were 85-79, meaning we will be repeating gold.

They had just barely gotten into Gold from Silver, so was not expecting much, and they only won about a third of their games in April, so figured it would be back to Silver. But no, they clawed their way back and ended up tied for the last wildcard spot. Lost the single game tiebreaker, and so this was the first year with no playoffs.

Picked up two perfect cards with saved points this season, a closer and a shortstop. The bullpen took a big step forward, so now need to figure a way to get better hitting. Finished about 8th in runs scored and runs allowed in Gold.

Don't have many points left, so maybe improve at backup catcher this season. And then think about who to target next year. Maybe a starting pitcher or else a DH/OF type with high contact.

[dboeyr12007]

Which Gold league are you in?