International League/Random Debut League

[David Watts]

Originally Posted by Bill Veeck

Random debut seems to be working well

Very much so. Didn't buy the game till late this year, but so far I'm really impressed.

[LansdowneSt]

Love seeing the NeL’ers making an impact (and just feeling the fun radiating off the posts).

[David Watts]

Originally Posted by LansdowneSt

Love seeing the NeL’ers making an impact (and just feeling the fun radiating off the posts).

Got a question. Does Satchel Paige import as part of the 200+ Negro League players, so for his entire career, or do we only get him from 41 years old on?

[LansdowneSt]

Great question. I hope it’s been fixed but the game had trouble WRT players that startled the color line in real life. Had they used the mod as an alt /stats folder, it would definitely be his whole career but on the approach they used I logged some bugs on those straddlers. Have not checked back on them so curious what it does with him in your game.

At the moment I am adding players so I can the mod back up for 26. I’ll be following along to when and how Paige enters. Fingers crossed.

[David Watts]

Originally Posted by LansdowneSt

Great question. I hope it’s been fixed but the game had trouble WRT players that startled the color line in real life. Had they used the mod as an alt /stats folder, it would definitely be his whole career but on the approach they used I logged some bugs on those straddlers. Have not checked back on them so curious what it does with him in your game.

At the moment I am adding players so I can the mod back up for 26. I’ll be following along to when and how Paige enters. Fingers crossed.

I will let you know. Last week for kicks I fast simmed a random debut starting in 1947 all the way through to around 2010 or later. With all the back and forth about pre-calc, I just wanted to see it in action. When I get home, I will check and see if by chance Paige imported for that league at any point.

[David Watts]

Originally Posted by LansdowneSt

Great question. I hope it’s been fixed but the game had trouble WRT players that startled the color line in real life. Had they used the mod as an alt /stats folder, it would definitely be his whole career but on the approach they used I logged some bugs on those straddlers. Have not checked back on them so curious what it does with him in your game.

At the moment I am adding players so I can the mod back up for 26. I’ll be following along to when and how Paige enters. Fingers crossed.

Here is Paige in the pre-calc fast sim I ran. As you can see he imported at the age of 40 and only played 5 seasons.

[David Watts]

Birmingham defeated the Toledo Mud Hens 4 games to 1, winning the 1957 League Championship Series. Mel Ott had an impressive 6 post season home runs for the Barons. Ott now has around 18 post season home runs over the course of his career. Ott's in his early 30's, so there's a good chance he will add to that number. The Barons have now won 3 of the last 4 league championships and 4 out of the last 6. I think that has to be called a dynasty. The 1958 preseason predictions have the Barons finishing down in the standing, but I will believe it when I see it.

[David Watts]

31 year old Dave Brown just became the first pitcher to reach 200 wins. Brown is 200-118, 3.39 over the course of his career. Brown pitched the first 5 seasons of his career for the San Antonio Missions. In October of 1951, Brown was traded to the Memphis Redbirds for RP A.J. Puk and RP Will Smith. He would pitch only one season with Memphis going 16-12, 3.75, before signing a 7 year deal with Birmingham. Brown has 71.66 career WAR putting tops on the career leader board. His current teammates Webster McDonald(65.59) and George Hunter(58.57) are next on the list. Brown is a 5 time All-Star(All-Star game didn't start till 1952) and a has won 4 International League Championships, 3 with Birmingham(54,56,57) and one with San Antonio(49). He's won 2 Cy Young Awards(48 and 55).

Meanwhile, 38 year old Tom Seaver remains a unsigned free agent as of July 5th 1958. Seaver sits at 194-145, 3.59, just shy of 200 wins. He was 6-18, 5.53 for the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers in 1957. Seaver is also just shy of 2000 strikeouts with 1962. Seaver has accumulated 53.4 WAR over his career. He's a 3 time All-Star. He's a 2 time IL Champion with the Memphis Redbirds(47 and 53) and a 1 time Cy Young award winner in 1950. Seaver pitched the majority of his career(10 seasons) in Memphis before a season in Dayton, and then a season in Wisconsin.

[David Watts]

Still find it interesting that I'm getting all-stars using a 1 subleague setup. When I created this league I had 12 teams and no all-stars were selected. Once I expanded to 14 teams, that changed. Thing is, the actual All-Star game does not display in a way that allows me to watch or play the actual game. When the All-Star break arrives, I have no games scheduled on Monday. When I get to Tuesday, the day of the game, there are no games scheduled. When I hit continue to move to the next day, I will get a news story detailing the results of the All-Star game with a link to the game log and box score. Not a huge deal, as I never play or watch the All-Star game in my leagues. I just enjoy the players being selected.

What I worry about is whether the All-Star selections will happen when I decide to expand to 16 teams and then on to 18 teams. Will have to wait and see.

[David Watts]

Strange finish to the 1958 season. I decided to do away with the wild cards and just let the two division winners face off in the League Championship Series for all the marbles. Decided to go with a best of 9 series. Set it up to have 3 home, 3 away and 3 home. Got to the series and Fort Wayne the team with the best record somehow got awarded the entire series at home. Even stranger is, the playoff preview screen showed the series as 3 games at home for Fort Wayne, 3 games at home for Louisville and the final 3 at home for Fort Wayne. Not sure went wrong. Just going back to a best of 7, 2-3-2. Ugh.

[David Watts]

Yaz entered the final weekend of the 1958 season a top the leader board in batting average, home runs and RBI. The triple crown was only 3 games away. Sadly Rudy York stepped in as a spoiler and took over the final home run lead, 35 to 34. Yaz did take home the batting title with an amazing .397 batting average. He also led the league in RBI as well(at work).

George Hunter became the second Birmingham Baron to reach the 200 wins total. Did so in his last start of the 58 season. Hunter joins teammate Dave Brown as the the leagues only 200 game winners. Teammate Webster McDonald barring injuries is pretty much a sure thing to join them a few seasons down the line.

Birmingham failed to make the post season in 1958. Will be interesting to see if the dynasty is over, or if they just needed a season to regroup.

[David Watts]

Ugh, Tom Seaver retired following the 1958 season. Was hoping he would latch onto some team for one last try to reach 200 victories. Now the 5 year wait begins, before we see in Tom Terrific makes the Hall of Fame.

Oscar Charleston is roughly 7 home runs shy of reaching 300. I'm pulling for him. This could be his last season.

[David Watts]

Got a question for any of y'all that play random debut. Over the last couple versions, do think the number of modern day guys showing up in your random debut leagues has noticeably decreased? Sure seems like it to me, but maybe it's a huge case of confirmation bias. I have Jose Ramirez and Austin Riley in my current league, but in the past it sure seemed like a lot more modern day guys showed up in the inaugural draft and the yearly amateur drafts. Just curious what others are seeing.

[David Watts]

Bobby Doerr has joined the 300 home run club, joining Juan Gonzalez, Mel Ott and Greg Luzinski. Sadly it looks like Oscar Charleston will fall 3 short of joining the club. Charleston has 297 home runs, but as of July 1st 1960 he remains unsigned. Got my fingers crossed that he gets signed and gets a shot at 300, but I doubt it will happen.

Juan Gonzalez is within 10 of the 400 home run club, but it won't happen in 1960. Juan is on the IL with a season ending injury. Now we will have to see how he bounces back in 61. Gonzalez is also the leagues RBI leader with 1400+.

Mariano Rivera is 40 years old and still pitching. He's pushing to become the leagues first 300 saves guy. Pretty impressive considering the time period we're playing.

Hank Aaron received 37 per cent of the votes in his first year of Hall of Fame eligibility. Aaron becomes the first player in league history to receive enough votes to not simply be dropped in the first eligibility year.

[David Watts]

Fred Clarke is giving it his best to become the first International League player to hit .400 for a season. Clarke is sitting at .410 on August 12th 1960. His average fell to .397, before he went on an absolute tear to get himself back on pace. Clark of course is a product of the new way OOTP is doing things in terms of pre-1900 players. I have my minimum set to 1901, so in past years Clarke would never enter a league unless he was part of the inaugural draft.

With Juan Gonzalez out for the year with an injury and therefore stuck on 394 home runs, Mel Ott is doing his best to catchup to Juan for most all time home runs and maybe even be the first to reach 400 bombs.

Jim Thome is fast approaching 300 career home runs.

Mariano Rivera is up to 278 career saves.

[David Watts]

Carl Yastrzemski continues to be a dominate force at the plate. Yaz has been in the league since roughly 1952(at work). His career batting average as of August 12th 1960 is an amazing .330. Yastrzemski signed a free agent deal with Peoria during the offseason.

[David Watts]

Mel Ott becomes the first player to reach 400 home runs early in 1961. Ott's 35, so his days may be numbered. He retired at the age of 35 in real life. Will have to see how long the OOTP Gods keep Ott chugging along. His average is way down so far in 1961, so he may be starting to feel his age.

Jim Thome joined the 300 home run club in the final weeks of 1960.

Webster McDonald is a few wins away from reaching 200, but he's having trouble staying healthy. First time in his stellar career that the injury bug has hit McDonald.

Al Oliver continues his quest to become the International Leagues first batter to reach 3000 hits.

[David Watts]

Hank Aaron upped his percentage of Hall of Fame votes to 45 per cent in his second year on the ballot. That's up from 37 per cent. Pedro Martinez became the second player to receive enough votes to move on to a second year of consideration following the 1960 season. I'm pulling for both these guys to get over the hump and enter the Hall.

Hugh Duffy came into the league this year as part of the inaugural draft. Hugh was the number 1 pick in the draft. Another guy with pre-1901 statistics. Fred Clarke just finished the 1960 season with a .365 batting average. Clarke toyed with the idea of hitting over .400 for the season till around mid August or so. So far, I haven't made up my mind if I like this new feature that allows guys from prior to 1901 to enter my random debut leagues. Clarke and Duffy should go a long way in helping me make up my mind. Cool thing is, if I don't like it, I will just go with 1912 as a minimum in the future.

[David Watts]

This will probably won't end well. To spice things up, I decided to take a job as a manager. Turned off commissioner mode and checked to see what jobs were available. Only 3 were available, but the one that made the most sense was that of the Lansing Lugnuts. The Lugnuts are struggling big time. They're in last place in the Northern Division roughly 4 or 5 games behind the Dayton Dragons. Now my runs as manager usually don't last long, as I usually grow bored or discouraged and simply go back to watching games. Going to really try and stick with this for at least the rest of the season.

The Lugnuts have the makings of what could turn into a good team. The Nuts were able to nab Francisco Lindor in last years amateur draft. Lindor is already contributing, leading off against right handers and batting 3rd against lefties. A very young and just starting to shine David Ortiz is the teams DH/1B. Ortiz has 16 home runs and may be on his way knocking in 100+ in 1961. Another player I'm hoping to have in my lineup for some time is Jeff Kent. Problem is, I haven't been brave enough to check his contract status. It's mid July, so I may find out the hard way what that status is, even If I don't check. Hoping he's signed for at least 3 or more years.

We have bunch of aging players starting for us as well. Dom DiMaggio is the teams starting RF. Dom has 2300 career hits, but isn't doing to well so far in 1961. In fact, it seems that he's grown a permanent snowflake next to his name on the lineup card. Since taking over, I've actually been platooning DiMaggio with Josh Lowe. DiMaggio makes up the weak side of the platoon, so that might not be helping his snowflake condition. Plus, Josh Lowe has been absolutely on fire during the the 12 games I've been in control. Another aging veteran starting for the Lugnuts is Sid Gordon. Gordon continues to drive in runs and hit for decent power. Jay Buhner is starting for the Nuts in LF. Thing is, it's July. I can honestly see any one of these guys being traded if their contracts are close to being up. Will have to wait and see.

The rest of the lineup is pretty much guys I have to check to see if they actually played Major League Baseball. I think that pretty much tells you what you need to know.

The one guy we could really use is Juan Gonzalez. Problem is, Juan is on the IL. Gonzalez missed all but the first few weeks of 1960. He hasn't been available at all so far in 61. Juan's only a few home runs shy of reaching 400. I will check when I get home to see when his expected return is. When he does return, I wonder if he will reemerge as one of the leagues top sluggers, or fade into retirement?

The Pitching is a mess. We do have last years reliever of the year Jake McGee. In the 12 games I've managed I've managed to raise Jakes ERA around 50 or so points. There have been whispers that he may leave the team to join his Dad Travis on the Busted Flush. Three of the Nuts starting rotations are from the early days of baseball, Pete Donohue, Cy Seymour and Jack Scott. We also have a cat with the last name Jessup in the rotation, whom I'm guessing might be Gentry Jessup a Negro League player. Will check when I get home. My wife has been on me for years in regards to improving my ability to identify folks by their full names. The other starter in the rotation is Reynaldo Lopez.

The bullpen is the aforementioned Jake McGee, Kyle Barraclough, Mike Garcia, Jack Billingham and another guy that I think may be a made up player. Will check later if he actually has a baseball reference page. Even then what's to stop OOTP from creating a fake BR page.....I'm kidding. The Tiger fan in me is jazzed to have Jack Billingham, but so far he's been rather inconsistent for me. Garcia is old and looks like he may only be worthy of mopup innings at this point.

I haven't checked reserve roster as of yet. The GM did trade a player in my short life as manager. Will Smith the relief pitcher was traded for some little known catcher. The catcher became our backup catcher, replacing an even littler known player.

Over under on me making it till August will be posted in Vegas later today. Making it till the end of August will post tomorrow. Make sure you get your bets in.

[David Watts]

I'm 6-6 in my early days with the Lugnuts. .500 ball for a team mired in the cellar. Glass half full, that's a good sign. Glass half empty, I think 7 of the 12 games I've managed were against the 6th place Dayton Dragons. The Dragons were a International League powerhouse at one point, winning back to back titles. They've been awful for 5 years running now. The games against the Dragons were fun to watch due to matchup of rookie of the year candidates, Francisco Lindor for the Lugnuts and Hugh Duffy for the Dragons.