PT21 Diary - A Tale of Three Teams

[trman73]

The Frogs enter the Wild Card game against a Mets team that, like us, played above its run differential in the league. We finished 14 wins above expectation and they finished 13 games above, the two highest totals in the league. We beat them in 10 out of our 19 games.

This one’s all us as we score two in the first and hold a tight lead before scoring 10 in the 6^th and 7^th to win, 13-1. Adrian Gonzalez drives in five, and we’re on to the Division Series to face the best team in our league.

We lost five of six to the Central Mass Smash this year and they enter the series on a 13-game winning streak. But we go to their place and take Game 1 in 11 innings 3-2 thanks to a home run by Dave Winfield, who we acquired thanks to the Padres mission right at the end of the year. Greg Maddux shuts us down in a 2-1 Game 2 loss, but we’re hanging with these guys. Their bullpen closes the door on us over three innings and they take Game 3, 3-2. Game 4 is tied 4-4 in the 8^th until we get two in that inning. Jeff Russell closes it out and we’re on to Game 5 after a 6-4 win.

We hang tight in the final game and it’s 2-1 Central Mass in the 8th. We put the first two men on, but that’s the last time we get any baserunners, as we fail to take advantage in that inning and go down 1-2-3 in the 9^th to fall in the series.

[trman73]

Well if anyone’s reading I apologize for the lack of posts. Work.

Anyway, all three teams are in Gold this week and I can’t imagine any of them will be successful. But after Monday, maybe I was wrong.

The Hammers haven’t made any additions since we got Verlander et al. in the middle of last week. We’re in Gold 304, and at quick glance I thought 4^th in division, 12^th in conference. But after a day and a bit we’re 17-11 and have held our own. We’re in a division with one super-team, the Dallas Sun Devils, who I also saw last week. Nineteen games against them won’t be fun. It may be a slow churn toward packs this week, but so far so good.

Not so for the Warlocks in Gold 302, a 20-team league in which we’re currently 11-19. I’ve been kind of directionless with this team and it’s been hurt by my inability to scour the AH recently. We made one change, bringing in LH RP Sid Monge this week, and we replaced CF Mule Haas with Johnny Bates. We’re going nowhere for now and in a perfect world we get knocked down to Silver.

The Frogs continue to surprise a bit and have made the playoffs four times in five seasons. We’re unlikely to do that in Gold 314 and are sitting at 14-17 right now. But we acquired a few players though missions, the most notable being SP Randy Johnson, who steps into the top of our rotation. My focus for this group is not necessarily on on-field success right now.

__________________
Anything Goes


FTP


Packs Only

[trman73]

As we hit the halfway point in the 2025 season, it looks like once again we’ll be involved in post-season baseball.

And it’s the Hammers in Gold 304. This team’s been quite good, and is sitting at 51-32, with a 7.5-game cushion for a Wild Card spot. It’s been the pitching, specifically the bullpen, which is first in our conference with a 3.09 ERA. We were given a boost by our first good pack pull in a while, 1990 CL Rob Dibble (94), who slotted into the 8^th-inning role and has been excellent, posting an ERA under 2.00 and a WHIP under 1.00 before a tough mini-stretch. I hate the 61 control rating, but the overalls of 127-82-61 are fine. This allowed us to transition Ken Giles to middle relief and replace Todd Jones. The bullpen of Dave Smith-Dibble-Osuna-Giles-Burgmeier-Jeff Nelson-Ian Anderson is getting it done, and the starting staff has held its own, anchored by Noodles Hahn (10-4, 3.64) and Justin Verlander (10-5, 3.69). This may, just may, be a Diamond team next season.

The Warlocks and Frogs will not be. The Warlocks are 34-50 in Gold 302, and are just a half-game from relegation in this 20-team league. We are awful. Wainwright and Caldwell are having their second straight miserable seasons in Gold and I am scouring the AH for SP upgrades. I thought I had pieced together a decent Gold lineup but was wrong, as we’re 9^th in runs in our 10-team conference. Ugh. I really need to devote more time to this team.

The Frogs started off well enough but have cratered and are now 30-51 in Gold 314. As of right now we’re in the relegation zone. We’re just not scoring runs. Randy Johnson is 2-7 since joining us despite decent stats. Our mostly Silver bullpen is getting destroyed. On the plus side, we’ve completed 20 missions without spending a cent on the team, although it appears I’ve hit a wall there as well. There are just no bargains out there for live guys and I can’t spend 400 PP on the likes of Devin Smeltzer. It’s been a depressing week for my two non-pack teams.

[trman73]

Big Things on Saturday

Neither the Fort Worth Frogs nor the Minglewood Warlocks have had successful seasons in Gold, but they each had good days Saturday.

The Frogs overpaid for some Silver and Gold Astros to complete the AL West mission, which has added to the roster...

• 1B Jeff Bagwell (97) – Replaces 1B Adrian Gonzalez (84)
• CF ichiro Suzuki (92) – Replaces CF Casey Stengel (86)
• 2B Jose Altuve (86) – Replaces SS Nick Ahmed (77)
• MR Ryan Pressley (84) – Replaces MR Emanuel Clase (76)

Obviously the huge upgrades are Bagwell and Ichiro. I think I’ve hit the wall with missions without investing some actual cash, but this was the one I really wanted. I’ve knocked out 22 missions, with the following still remaining:

• Yankees
• White Sox
• Twins
• Braves
• Mets
• Cardinals
• Cubs
• Dodgers

All in all I’ve paid 63,391 PP for 629 players. I’ve made back 44,258 from sales related to completed missions, either by selling back the guy I just got or another player. The players I’ve kept for the roster have been...

• Bagwell
• Randy Johnson
• Ichiro
• Dave Winfield
• Jason Kendall
• Bucky Walters
• Al Rosen

None of this really helps the pitching, but we’re in way better shape.

As for the Warlocks, we’re in a relegation battle, but on Wednesday night I decided to knock out missions for that team as well. We started with about 5,000 PP in the bank and knocked out 11 missions for a profit of 8,036. And with those PP we were just able to upgrade our pitching staff with PEAK Jack Stivetts (96), who replaces the completely ineffective Mike Caldwell. Our rotation is now Stivetts-Blyleven-Mussina-Plank-Wainwright.

Meanwhile, the Hammers are fending off a challenge for a Wild Card spot in Gold, but I think we’ll get in. But the big news has been related to the other two clubs.

If anyone’s interested in seeing a spreadsheet on what each mission has cost me, including which were most and least profitable, I’m happy to post that.

[trman73]

The Warlocks’ season ends at 75-87, 13^th in the 20-team Gold 302. But, we go 38-35 after the All-Star break and new addition Jack Stivetts wins his two starts at the end of the season, so there’s a little hope here. Our next big project is to fix the bullpen, which is full of Silvers and posted a 5.55 ERA this season. With a decent enough rotation, a fair offense, and quality defense, the bullpen is going to continue to hold us back in Gold.

The season wasn’t necessarily about on-field success for the Frogs, which is a good thing as we go 62-100 in Gold 314 and wind up relegated back to Silver. I was kind of hoping for this so we can build up PP. I’m excited for this club next year, but the pitching will continue to be a huge issue unless we complete some pitching-focused missions or get lucky with some packs, as we basically shot our PP on the Astros mission.

But despite those failures, there will be some Sunday baseball for us, as the Hammers do in fact hold on for the second Wild Card spot in Gold 304. We clinch on the third to last game of the year, finishing 87-75, and will face the Greater Northdale Dynamo in the Wild Card game for a chance to advance to Diamond next season.

[trman73]

I set up the Hammers’ rotation so that our most effective starter, Noodles Hahn, would go in the Wild Card game against a Greater Northdale team that is far better than us. Hahn went 19-9 for us with a 3.32 ERA and a 3.8 WAR.

Two-thirds of an inning later, we’re down 6-0, as Hahn gets absolutely hammered and we wind up down 7-0 after an inning. That’s too much to overcome against Jason Schmidt, and we fall, 12-2, ending our most successful season to date.

[trman73]

Well if anyone's out there we had for the most part an awful week but accomplished a few things...

The Hammers were terrible in Gold 304, and were relegated after a 61-101 season. I devoted literally no time to this team and we earned just two packs all season, which were worthless. We should be fine down in Silver next season, and might be back in Gold in seven days time.

As for the Warlocks, also relegated from Gold after a completely miserable 60-102 season. But... we've now completed 18 Live missions and the team's in way better shape. Hopefully we can accumulate good points next week in Silver and complete a few more missions, or just upgrade a player or two.

The Frogs were our most successful team this week, making the Wild Card in Silver 267 and then losing to keep us in Silver next season. We've got just four Live missions left to go, so I'll happily take another season in Silver. Jeff Bagwell won the MVP for us.

I've continued to resist the urge to spend any actual money and am actually loving doing it this way, despite my teams all generally not being where I hoped they would be after seven weeks.

[trman73]

Well I hit a big work deadline yesterday and am now able to come back to PT after almost two weeks of borderline neglect. (Not really... just less obsessive than during the first few weeks of the season.)

All three of our teams are in Silver, and all three are having some success in 2027 as we hit the All-Star break.

We'll start with the Hammers, who are in Silver 260. Right now we’re a game up in the Wild Card race at 49-46. Offensively we’re solid, with PEAK Albert Pujols (3rd in OPS, 3rd in WAR in our conference), leading the way. But it’s been almost two full seasons since we got any pulls that made the team, when we added Rob Dibble (terrible) and Dustin May (good) to the bullpen corps.

Thankfully, we pull a guy in high demand, 3B Les Bell (85), who is part of the Roaring 20’s mission that gets you George Sisler. We get 24,000 for Bell, and that haul brings in two quality players. The first is SP 2016 Jose Fernandez (92), who promptly goes out and wins his first three starts.

And the second... is PEAK Brooks Robinson (98). With a dearth of good third basement in the game, I’ll absolutely take this. Pairing him with SS Ozzie Smith makes for an incredible defensive left side of the infield, and he’s a better hitter than Bill Bradley, who he replaces at third. It was a long wait for some quality additions, but I’ll take these two guys.

[trman73]

2027 Regular Season Recap

The Hammers completely botched their chance at the Silver 260 playoffs, turning a 2.5 game lead for a Wild Card spot into mush thanks to a nine-game losing streak late in the season. We finish tied for the final Gold promotion spot at 85-77, and according to the Pro-Rel Standings, we miss out on promotion to one of the teams we tied with. I have never, since I’ve been playing PT, figured out what the Pro/Rel tiebreaker is. We’ve got the best run differential of the three tied teams, but wind up behind one of them. Not that I’m complaining as I’ll take another year in Silver with these guys. It was a maddening collapse, as every half hour I would look at the new refresh and see that red line across my box score indicating another loss.

The Warlocks, meanwhile, go in the opposite direction in Silver 258. Thanks to some nice mission-related additions (Billy Williams, Eddie Mathews), we go 36-27 after the All-Start break and easily earn a Wild Card spot at 92-70, finishing with the 6^th best overall record in the league. In a conference that has a bunch of good but no dominant, 110-win teams, we may have a shot at this thing if we can survive a battle of Randy Johnsons in the WC game.

Finally, the big news with the Frogs is that we are just six cards from completing the live missions. This team was in a real dogfight for both the division in Silver 220 and the Wild Card, and after getting swept by the team we were chasing for the division we fell out of contention there and were a game back of the WC with three to go. But we tied it with a game to go, and then new addition Greg Maddux went out and threw a gem in the season finale, while the team we were tied with lost, and we wound up in. That’s six playoff appearances in eight years for the Frogs, and we’ve still been a FTP team. I’ve spent 15 bucks total on PT thus far and wasted that money on packs for the Hammers, which I’m regretting now that I’m so close to completing the live missions. I wish I had those PP right now. This team now looks like one of those mission-dominant teams I see when I check rosters Monday morning. If we survive the Wild Card game we’ll face a 124-win team, so we’re not going to bring home any hardware, but I feel good about this bunch.

[trman73]

I'm going to go to a twice-weekly report here as time is an issue...

To recap last week's playoffs:

The Warlocks were in the Wild Card Game and went down 6-0 after four, came back to tie it, we went to extras, and we lost, 8-7. So that was that.

The Frogs pounded Greg Maddux in their Wild Card game and we rolled something like 12-4. We faced a dominant, 120+ win team in the Division Series, and we hung with them to a fifth game, which we lost, 5-3. All five games were close.

After the playoffs, the Frogs COMPLETED THE LIVE MISSIONS!

Final tally:
131,476 points spent
74,271 points gained from sales
Net: -57,205 points

Easiest teams: Orioles (770 PP), Giants (837)
Hardest teams: Yankees (16,868 PP), Dodgers (12,382 PP)

First team: Tigers (April 14)
Last team: Yankees (May 17)
Total days: 33

Last player: Yankees MR Tommy Kahnle

Dollars spent: $0

[trman73]

2028 Season Recap

The Hammers, Warlocks, and Frogs all had successful weeks in their leagues.

The Hammers were promoted to Gold after a 97-win season that saw us take our division for the first time. Albert Pujols won a Great Bat and a Great Glove at 1B, and we had the top overall defense in our conference thanks in large part to the infield of Pujols, Brooks Robinson (also a GG winner), and Ozzie Smith. Switching in DJ LeMahieu for Jeff McNeil also made a big difference at 2B, both offensively and defensively. We faced a Detroit Tigers theme team in the Division Series, and after dropping the first game we won three straight to advance to the Sub-League Series. We faced the team we beat for the division crown, but fell in five games. This team will struggle in Gold and we didn’t get any roster upgrades from packs last week, so we’ll see where we wind up.

The Warlocks had their first winning season in Gold, going 84-78. For a while we were in contention for a playoff spot, but faded in August and September. We missed out on a playoff spot, and potential promotion, by two games. Roster-wise, this team is eight players from Live mission completion, which will be easier in Gold this week.

One team that will not be in Gold this week is the Frogs, because... we were promoted to Diamond after a 90-72 season that got us a Wild Card spot, and we won the Wild Card game before getting trounced in the Division Series. I was hoping we’d lose the WC game, as we’re not ready for Diamond, and a quick look at the division competition this week proves it.

Now I’m going to be one of those teams that’s stuck in Diamond hell... not good enough to compete, likely not bad enough to be relegated, and less than 3,000 PP to my name. I’m going to need some miracles. We did make one quality roster addition, picking up CL Dave Smith (94) for the bullpen.

[rburgh]

Most of their 4 silvers are trading over 2000 PP's and you need 6 from their 4 silvers 2 golds and 2 diamonds (Giolito and Grandal). And even the bronze cards have gotten expensive. And some of their irons and bronzes are very difficult gets.



I am glad that my 3 mission oriented teams did the AL Central early as I regarded the combo of Lyons, Nathan, and Blyleven as one of the more desirable rewards packages.


Best - AL West (Ichiro, Bagwell, Plank) (24,037)

2nd - AL Central (Blyleven, Nathan, Lyons) (28,921)

3rd - NL East (Carlton, Piazza, Klein) (29,228)

4th - AL East (Cano, Mussina) (38,757)

5th - NL West (Ott, Snider, Johnson, Tulo) (31,014)

6th - NL Central (Kiner, Williams, Wainwright, Kendall) (23,760)

[trman73]

I'm two cards away from completing the Live Missions for my second team, the Warlocks, and I must say I'll be glad to put this to bed for the year. I've found chasing deals on these cards to be a real frustrating bore.

The White Sox was just unbearable, waiting for those four silvers to dip below 1,000 each. The Yankees were also just a nightmare.

Here are my costs per division (not factoring in the players I already had on the roster once I started with the missions)...

AL East - 25,727
AL Central - 18,854
AL West - 19,263

NL East - 23,321
NL Central - 19,725
NL West - 24,586

I feel like now I can start playing the game... by trying to complement those Mission guys (which the majority of players in Silver and Gold seem to have) with non-mission players.

[trman73]

Wow rburgh, there's a big difference in our costs for the missions. I got very little pack help (no random Live diamonds to sell to help cover mission costs) and committed to not spending actual $$$, so I had to be patient and wait for costs to get to where I felt comfortable buying a silver card I would never, ever use in the actual game.

It probably says something about me that I would do an AH search for silver live Dodgers, see someone available for 950 PP, and let out a little yelp of delight.

What it says is, I may need to get my life priorities in order.

[rburgh]

Didn't spend any money on the missions. But I rarely tried to buy any card except via BIN. And I bought Bregman and Giolito rather than cheaper options because I thought I could use them. And I sold off lots of the rewards, including Bagwell and Cano, to finance other purchases.

[trman73]

As we head down the stretch run in 2029, there hasn’t been a ton of excitement for my three teams, but that doesn’t mean we aren’t making progress.

That is, except, for one team. The Hammers have really disappointed in Gold 369. I thought we were set up for some success, but we’re 51-59 and have been out of contention basically since Tuesday morning. Haven’t had a decent addition since Brooks Robinson more than two weeks ago. Every aspect of the team is struggling, but the bullpen has been the biggest disappointment. I got so fed up with Live Ken Giles I quick-sold him with no backup plan, got a bunch of junk from the four packs, and now am back to rolling with Ian Anderson (83) in the bullpen. Rob Dibble and his 6.8 BB/9 IP is just awful. This packs-only team has just a handful of guys who can have any sort of success at the next level: Peak Pujols, SP Noodles Hahn, MR/CL Dave Smith, Brooks Robinson, Gold Ichiro, and maybe Yelich. The perfect live pitchers, Verlander and Scherzer, are terrible. I am disheartened by this team and need a miracle pull.

Not so the Warlocks, who currently sport the 5^th best record in Gold 313, a pretty balanced league. Offensively, Live Mission completion has really boosted our lineup, and we’re 3^rd in the conference in scoring. We spent 16,000 PP on SP Charlie Buffington (96), and he’s been bad, but it’s allowed us to move SE Blyleven to the pen, where he belongs. We’re just a game and a half up in the Wild Card race, but despite our late-season collapse last year in Gold, I’m optimistic about this group.

I’ve actually been most pleased with the Frogs. Despite not being a contender in D369, our first season in Diamond sees us at 54-54 two-thirds of the way through. We brought in MR/CL Dave Smith (94) for the pen and DH Sherry Magee (93) for the top of the lineup, which I’m excited about as he brings good overall skills and a lot of speed. This team’s coming together. I’ve still got too many live guys getting run (LeMahieu, Taylor Rogers, Roberto Osuna), but we still haven’t spent any money and to be holding our own in Diamond at this point is a positive sign.

So... a real chance for no Sunday baseball this week, but I’m hopeful about the Warlocks and am excited about my primary team, the Frogs.

[trman73]

2029 Regular Season Recap

Not much to say about the end of the seasons for the Hammers and Frogs. The Hammers had a poor September and finished 75-87, good to stay in Gold next year by just three games. I thought the Frogs would fight to achieve a .500 record in Diamond, but we fell short, finishing 79-83. Still, a decent showing for our first Diamond season.

All of the big news in the final day of the season came courtesy of the Warlocks. We overcome a middling last month to finish with the 4^th best record in Gold 313 at 94-68. Unfortunately, we finished eight games back in the division and still have to play in the Wild Card game for a shot at promotion to Diamond.

But the bigger wins happened off the field. We built up enough points to bring in a quality new player to be our full-time DH... Peak Mike Tiernan (92), who is particularly strong against righties and allows us to platoon Duke Snider and Dave Winfield in right now.

We’d been puttering along with Bill Russell (80) at short since Day One, and he’s progressively been left behind both offensively and defensively as we moved up. I had been saving to bring in Rafael Furcal to replace him, but right before the end of the season we won a pack through a tourney, and wound up with our best pull yet... Perfect SS Joe Cronin! He isn’t the best offensively, but as a #9 hitter he’ll be more than fine, and his defense is elite. This pull filled our most immediate need.

And we celebrated all this by getting a no-hitter from SP Jack Stivetts on the last day of the season. So we enter the playoffs on a nice run both on and off the field.

[trman73]

If the Warlocks win their Gold 313 Wild Card matchup, there’s a great chance we’ll be in Diamond next season with our 4^th-place overall finish and six teams earning promotion. We face the Rankin Retrievers, a team that went 91-71 and had a strong September. We send Greg Maddux to the mound, while they send Johnny Allen.

They get a run off Maddux in the top of the first, but we respond with three in the bottom of the inning. Maddux settles down and allows just one baserunner over the next five innings. They score in the 7^th to cut it to 3-2, and we bring on Joe Nathan for the 9^th. He gets it done, and we secure a 3-2 win that will likely propel us to Diamond.

We face the Botticino Amatori in the Division Series, and get swept. But the way the rest of the playoffs play out does indeed get us into Diamond for 2030.

[trman73]

2030 Preview – It’s Gonna Be Rough

Well we enter Week 11 (otherwise known as the 2030 season) with two teams in Diamond and a team in Gold. If we start 2031 that same way I’ll be thrilled.

The Hammers are in Gold 308, in a division with teams that are dominated by collection mission guys. I’m pessimistic. I was forced into a decision about personnel last night, as after the end of the season we got enough points for a pack, and that pack got us 2B Bill Mazeroski (88). He’s absolute garbage offensively, but is elite as a defensive 2B. So... do we insert Maz over LeMahieu and have a defensive infield of Pujols-Maz-Ozzie-Brooks Robinson? Yes, we do. I can only imagine what this will do to my already anemic bottom of the order, but we’ll see how far elite infield defense will take us. (Thus far, we’re 1-4 with 15 runs scored in five games.)

The Warlocks move up to Diamond this week, and we look like the worst team in our division. But, with just six teams being relegated, I worry that we are not bad enough to be demoted back to Gold, and will be stuck here for the foreseeable future.

Same with the Frogs, who are in a weird, 26-team league in Diamond 359. This team also looks like the worst in our four-team division.

This may be a loooong week.

[trman73]

2030 Midseason Report - The Diamond Dream Is Crushed

As we approach the All-Star break of 2030, one thing has been made clear: I have three Gold teams. And it’s taken disastrous seasons in Diamond to figure that out.

But first, the Hammers, who are pretty much what I thought they’d be... good defense, decent pitching, and the worst offense in Gold 308. We’re 40-48 and out of it. 2B Bill Mazeroski has indeed strengthened our already solid infield defense, but he’s also fit right in offensively with a .596 OPS. The bottom three guys in our batting order (Pagliaroni, Mazeroski, and Ozzie) are just brutal, and I have no better options. Only Albert Pujols is keeping us from being historically bad offensively (I don’t know if “historically bad” is true but it sounds right). I’ve opened seven packs this week from a decent run of tourneys, and it’s all been trash.

Unfortunately, the Hammers have easily been my best team this week, as the two Diamond clubs are getting, well, clubbed. The Warlocks are 31-57 and appear primed to make the drop back to Gold. I brought in Bobby Shantz (93) as a lefty reliever, and he’s been my most effective bullpen arm. The jump from Gold to Diamond is indeed a steep one. I am trying to remind myself that Diamond this year is essentially Perfect from PT20. But whoa, this is ugly.

And it’s even worse for the Frogs, who have the worst record in Diamond 359 at 27-61 and are already a full 10 games back from the safe position. We are 100% being relegated. Steve Carlton is posting the devil’s ERA (6.66) in 19 starts. Joe Nathan has a 7.06. It’s ugly out there, folks. I need the warm embrace of Gold next week.