The GTOAT (Greatest Team of All Time) League!!

[tavo2311]

The Greatest Team of All Time (GTOAT) Tournament that was run over two years ago (June through September 2020) has finally evolved into a full season league! The best teams of all time (very subjective!) will get to play out full seasons with promotion and relegation between four tiers of major leagues!!

As a refresher, the 64 original entrants were chosen by me while bored during the early days of COVID. I played them out in a tournament of best of 7 series’ and the recaps can be found here http://forums.ootpdevelopments.com/s...ghlight=GTOAT). It was actually a fun trip down memory lane as I haven’t read it since. Also, the original brackets are below for your viewing pleasure!

GTOAT League Format:
Four tiers of Major Leagues (Premier, Tier 2, Tier 3, and Tier 4).
Two sub-leagues, with four total divisions in each league.
Division winners play a best of 5 LCS, and then a best of 7 World Series.
The last place team in each division will be relegated to the tier below.
The first place team in each division will be promoted to the tier above.
The last place teams in Tier 4 will lose their place in the league pyramid entirely! We will choose four new teams that missed out on the original 64-team tournament and introduce them into Tier 4, giving them their chance to work their way up and prove me wrong for excluding them to begin with!!
The promoted and relegated teams will be randomly assigned into their new leagues.

League Draw:
Premier League: Will be made up of the Sweet 16 teams from the tournament, and randomly placed into the four divisions.
Tiers 2, 3, and 4: Completely random draw made up of all 48 others. No previous seeding or tourney performance matters. There may be some lucky and unlucky teams here!

I fully expect some wonky results. I am not smart enough to figure out the best settings to create an even playing field for teams from over a century apart. We also have other issues such as many of the dead-ball teams not even having enough players for a full 26-man active roster. I have played with the settings a bit and hopefully we get to something which keeps all teams with a fighting chance.

Next up: We will draw the teams into their respective tiers and divisions using random.org and announce them here!

Original GTOAT Tournament

[tavo2311]

The Sweet 16 from the original tournament were drawn randomly below.

First glance, the American East is stacked with both the tourney winners 1970 Orioles, and the 1986 Mets. The National East has an old fashioned New York Yankees and Brooklyn Dodgers matchup. And the National West looks to be the most fun offensive division. Look at those four team's bats!

[tavo2311]

The 2nd tier of the GTOAT league is below.

Interestingly, quite a few of the "weaker" teams were lucky enough to be drawn into this tier, meaning they would have to finish last multiple times to be relegated from the league entirely. Quite a lucky break for the 1993 Blue Jays, 2005 White Sox, 1984 Padres, 2012 Rays, and 2007 Rockies....to name just a few.

First impression here is this is my least favorite of the tiers.

[tavo2311]

The third tier is a more interesting one in my opinion. Honus Wagner and the '61 M and M boys in the same division, and both having to face Walter Johnson and Steve Carlton. In the American West we have Ty Cobb, Mickey Mantle, and Willie Mays. What a treat that will be. And with all of that star power, the favorite still might be the '94 Expos.

Making a case for the most top heavy division in the whole four leagues is the National East. 1906 Cubs and 1998 Yankees together! Only one can win the division and get promoted up to GT2. The other will have to wait at least another year.

If you're a Tigers fan, this is the Tier for you to follow, with three different iterations.

[tavo2311]

Finally we have the fourth tier. The danger zone!! Finish last in your division here, and you are booted from the Majors altogether! Who knows if we will ever let them back in! The rules of this thing are open to be made up as we go along.

We have some interesting matchups in this tier. In the American East is the 2001 Mariners, one of the best ever if judging by regular season wins! And my personal favorite, the 1985 Yankees. This team only made it in to the original tournament because I wanted to make sure Don Mattingly could take part. They put up a valiant effort vs. the powerhouse '95 Indians, but fell short. Probably rightfully in Tier 4, with a 1 in 4 chance of being booted after year #1.

This tier sees multiple examples of teams very close by each other. Two teams from 1942 (Cardinals and Dodgers), the 1917 White Sox and 1919 Reds, (almost a "black sox" reunion, and coincidentally a rematch from the first round of the original tournament), the 2018 Red Sox and 2019 Nationals, and 1911 A's and 1912 Red Sox.

It will be fun to watch these teams battle for their future inclusion!

[tavo2311]

Here are my predictions for year #1:

GT Premier League:
Division Winners: 1986 Mets, 1975 Reds, 1927 Yankees, 1995 Indians
Relegated to Tier 2: 1933 Senators, 1921 Yankees, 2015 Blue Jays, 1989 A's

World Series: 1927 Yankees over 1986 Mets
AL MVP: '70 Frank Robinson
NL MVP: '27 Babe Ruth
AL Cy Young: '01 Randy Johnson
NL Cy Young: '29 Lefty Grove

GT2 League:
Division Winners: 1977 Royals, 1939 Yankees, 1965 Twins, 1995 Braves
Relegated to Tier 3: 2005 White Sox, 1984 Padres, 1902 Pirates, 2007 Rockies

World Series: 1965 Twins over 1977 Royals
AL MVP: '77 George Brett
NL MVP: '65 Harmon Killebrew
AL Cy Young: '04 Christy Mathewson
NL Cy Young: '69 Nolan Ryan

GT3 League:
Division Winners: 1924 Senators, 1953 Yankees, 1998 Yankees, 2011 Phillies
Relegated to Tier 4: 1909 Pirates, 1909 Tigers, 1957 Braves, 2002 Angels

World Series: 1953 Yankees over 1998 Yankees
AL MVP: '54 Willie Mays
NL MVP: '57 Hank Aaron
AL Cy Young: '24 Walter Johnson
NL Cy Young: '06 Mordecai Brown

GT4 League:
Division Winners: 2001 Mariners, 1983 Orioles, 2018 Red Sox, 1912 Red Sox
Relegated from the majors!: 1985 Yankees, 1919 Reds, 2019 Nationals, 1978 Yankees

World Series: 2001 Mariners over 2018 Red Sox
AL MVP: '98 Jeff Bagwell
NL MVP: '78 Reggie Jackson
AL Cy Young: '17 Eddie Cicotte
NL Cy Young: '11 Eddie Plank

[tavo2311]

On the eve of the season starting, here are OOTP's generated predictions. First thing I notice is that the system is rating the dead-ball teams MUCH more strongly than I am. The biggest disparity is the 1902 Pirates in GT2, who I picked to get relegated and the game is picking to win 117 (!) games and run away with the GT2NE division!

[tavo2311]

OOTP's previews for GT3 and GT4

[tavo2311]

Opening day is finally upon us! All of the talk and speculation is done and it is time to start the process of crowning the greatest team of all time!

Opening Day schedules are below. In the GTPL we have a Yankees vs. Red Sox rivalry series at Fenway Park right off the bat! And in St. Louis we get Sid Fernandez vs. Bob Gibson in the game of the day.

In GT2 the 1902 Pirates and their staff that is expected to stifle opponents get their first test by going to Colorado's Coors Field. An interesting early litmus test for this polarizing team. David Price and Greg Maddux is an enticing pitching match-up in Atlanta.

GT3's game of the day features lefty Steve Carlton leading the '77 Phillies into Montreal to face 1994 Pedro Martinez.

Finally in GT4 where the pressure will really be in from the get-go I'm very interested in the all-Red Sox series at old Fenway, starting with Chris Sale vs. Smokey Joe Wood.

Should be just the first of many exciting days. Looking forward to the action!

[Pelican]

Big red flags (and I don’t mean a pennant for Cincy) in the individual player preseason predictions. The HR totals are astronomical, and your starting pitchers average 50-70 games (presumably starts) with multiple winners of thirty games. i suggest you take a close look at your settings before starting. You don’t want arcade baseball.

[tavo2311]

Originally Posted by Pelican

Big red flags (and I don’t mean a pennant for Cincy) in the individual player preseason predictions. The HR totals are astronomical, and your starting pitchers average 50-70 games (presumably starts) with multiple winners of thirty games. i suggest you take a close look at your settings before starting. You don’t want arcade baseball.

Thanks. I am struggling with finding a middle ground with the settings when playing teams against each other from 120 years apart.

I backed up the save at opening day and keep simming through a couple weeks to see some results, then tweak some stuff. Hopefully I'll get to something reasonable soon and then can start in earnest.

[italyprof]

Great league! But you need the 1953 Dodgers in there. Much better than the '42 team which did not even win the pennant.

[tavo2311]

Originally Posted by italyprof

Great league! But you need the 1953 Dodgers in there. Much better than the '42 team which did not even win the pennant.

Maybe they can get their shot in Season 2 if I ever get this thing off the ground! I've had to go back to the drawing board, so we'll see...

EDIT: The '53 Dodgers are in there! They made the Sweet 16 of the original tournament and so are in the top tier (Premier League). You had me doubting myself , but I was on mobile and missed it myself.