Broken Bat - League Forum: IV.7

Post ID	Date & Time	Game Date

#87654	04/12/2022 8:11:43 pm	Aug 9th, 2054
GrizzlyDan Joined: 06/30/2016 Posts: 199 Atlanta Braves IV.2	Well played, SLO. You are no longer worst in the West, and we have hit our stride. We have pitching we haven't had around here in a long time. Hey Kalamazoo! You got some chase in you?

#87692	04/16/2022 3:03:09 pm	Aug 22nd, 2054
Geech Joined: 01/12/2014 Posts: 594 San Luis Obispo Turtles III.4	The server problems prevented me from doing the first half standings for inter-division play, but you can't stop the signal. Or something. What I mean to say is: I have standings for the whole thing. Let's take a look! The East dominated inter-division play in 2053, so of course the West won convincingly this season. Why not, right? We went 193-167, for a .536 winning percentage. Despite a fairly pronounced advantage for the West, first place was actually a tie between an East team and a West team. The Queens Park Rangers and the Simi Valley Pirates both went 38-22 for an awesome .633 winning percentage. Really nicely done! But what's this? Who's the next team? It's the San Luis Obispo Turtles at 36-24 and .600! I feel like this merits some commentary. I've complained in many previous seasons that the Turtles have a history of playing worse against the East, and I stand by this. I think it's absolutely true. This year has been very different, though. Some of this is due to personnel changes. After our really bad start I sort of freaked out and brought in some expensive free agents to shore things up, and in at least some cases that has paid off. But I also think our really bad start was a product of bad luck. I had a lot of players playing poorly at the same time, and some of our big improvement was the pendulum swinging the other way. I don't think either our initial really bad start or our hot ID play is the true talent level going forward. In fact, if I could break out the first and second halves like normal, I think you would see that we played noticeably worse in second half ID. See for example, Atlanta returning the favor with a five game sweep of the Turtles right after the break. Here's the overall standings, though:

#87742	04/21/2022 5:26:22 pm	Sep 10th, 2054
Geech Joined: 01/12/2014 Posts: 594 San Luis Obispo Turtles III.4	There's plenty of season left, but that three game sweep of Fullerton feels huge. We're actually managing to create some separation and look like a legit second place team at the moment. Simi Valley is tantalizingly close, but I don't think we can close the gap. It's shocking how few wins they have considering the run differential (or may be how many we have considering ours?), but I think their advantage is bigger than a comparison of win/loss records would suggest. I don't think we can catch them, and if we do finish second in the West then I will feel pretty satisfied. That will feel like an accomplishment after our really rough start to the season. I expected to still be competing to avoid relegation.

#87893	05/03/2022 3:47:38 pm	Oct 29th, 2054
Geech Joined: 01/12/2014 Posts: 594 San Luis Obispo Turtles III.4	Congratulations to the 2054 league champion Atlanta Braves who capped an impressive season with an impressive postseason series win! Congratulations also to the division champion Simi Valley Pirates! Both teams won their respective divisions easily and look like they belong in higher level leagues. Updated Tuesday, May 3 2022 @ 3:48:07 pm PDT

#87904	05/04/2022 12:13:31 pm	Oct 30th, 2054
GrizzlyDan Joined: 06/30/2016 Posts: 199 Atlanta Braves IV.2	Thanks! See you again soon.

#88116	05/22/2022 8:02:47 pm	Mar 20th, 2055
Geech Joined: 01/12/2014 Posts: 594 San Luis Obispo Turtles III.4	Welcome to all the new IV.7 teams for the 2055 season! This is going to be an awkward season for the SLO Turtles, I think. I have a ton of young players trying to break into the bigs all at once, and I think we'll end up being less competitive for it. I have log jams at multiple positions, but the worst is probably my pitching. I have a glut of young, low to medium stamina pitchers ready to break into the big leagues, and I don't know how I'll manage to get them all playing time. I think I'm going to try experimenting with some relatively low stamina starters to try to make the roster work out. By the all star break I'll probably be desperate and abandon the plan. lol I've also got a bit of a jam at the OF and 3B, but I think age and/or effectiveness will clear those by the end of this season.

#88392	06/13/2022 5:06:30 pm	Jun 10th, 2055
Geech Joined: 01/12/2014 Posts: 594 San Luis Obispo Turtles III.4	We've finished the first "third" of the season, with the first 50 games of division play behind us and 60 straight games of inter-division lurking ahead. I though it might be a good time to check in on the standings and see how things are going. The numbers after each team name are respectively wins, losses, winning percentage, games back and run differential. 1 San Luis Obispo Turtles 30, 20, .600, -, +49 2 Mentor Giants 28, 22, .560, 2, +57 3 Daly City Dire Wolves 26, 24, .520, 4, -24 4 Fullerton Distortion 25, 25, .500, 5, -28 5 Federal Way Knights 21, 29, .420, 9, +15 6 Ventura Aces 20, 30, .400, 10, -69 1 Queens Park Rangers Cup 33, 17, .660, -, +53 2 Lowell Crusaders 27, 23, .540, 6, +24 3 Kalamazoo Bloody Tigers 26, 24, .520, 7, +13 4 Atlantic City Broadwalkers 22, 28, .440, 11, -23 5 Frankfort Eagles Bot 22, 28, .440, 11, -26 6 Miami Marlins 20, 30, .400, 13, -41 Over in the East, the Queens Park Rangers have built themselves an impressive lead for this point in the season. They probably have enough cushion to cool off a bit and still win the division, as long as they don't totally collapse. There's still a lot of season left, though, so the Crusaders or the Bloody Tigers could heat up and get themselves back into it. Things are tighter in the West, and our SLO Turtles are currently in the lead. If you've read my posts for a while, you've probably detected a continuing thread of pessimism. In that case this won't surprise you, but I don't really believe in our lead. lol! The truth is our performance so far is built upon some unlikely play from a number of players. Now, this can sometimes last all season. In 2048 we won the West division in league II.2 on the strength of career years from several key veterans. However, usually it doesn't last. Last season for example, we had a very cold stretch to open the season, a very hot stretch in inter-division play, and then a middling to cold stretch to close out the season. If the hot stretch had occurred first, 2054 might have looking just like 2055 for the first 50 games. As players regress to their true talent levels, I think we have more downside than upside. This doesn't mean we can't hang on to the lead, but I think we'll need more than two games of separation to do it. Updated Monday, June 13 2022 @ 5:07:50 pm PDT

#88483	06/22/2022 6:41:32 pm	Jul 16th, 2055
Geech Joined: 01/12/2014 Posts: 594 San Luis Obispo Turtles III.4	We've reached the All-Star break. We're halfway through the season and halfway through inter-division play, which means it's time for an update! The East won ID play in the first half with a comfortable 97-83 record, good for a .528 winning percentage. The top overall team was the Kalamazoo Bloody Tigers with an impressive 21-9 record. Queens Park was right behind them, however, with a 20-10 record. Nicely done, fellas! Queens Park is going to be very tough to catch in the East, but the Bloody Tigers are making a great effort. The top West team was a three way tie at exactly .500. That's right, no one in the West was better than 15-15 in ID play so far! My Turtles were only 14-16 for a .467 winning percentage, but this was actually roughly average in the West! Mentor had the exact same record, so we really didn't give up much ground. It was kind of a rollercoaster of a first half for us, suffering a five game sweep in one series and winning a five game sweep later on. Still, we can't count on everyone remaining as pathetic as we are. If we want to have a shot at holding onto the division, we're going to have to improve our play a bit from this level. Here are the standings:

#88501	06/24/2022 6:19:59 am	Jul 21st, 2055
geigerted Joined: 07/16/2018 Posts: 59 Inactive	@Geech thanks for writing these. I suspect the East will tighten considerably down the stretch as our (Queens') pitching and record in 1-run games are both unsustainable and mean regression has to rear its ugly head at some point. We might have just enough of a cushion to hold off Kalamazoo but it'll be a damned close-run thing.

#88566	07/01/2022 7:19:13 pm	Aug 21st, 2055
Geech Joined: 01/12/2014 Posts: 594 San Luis Obispo Turtles III.4	Inter-division play has come to a close, so let's take a look at the results. The East still had the advantage in 2nd half ID play, albeit with a much narrower margin. They won 92-88. The top 2nd half team went a blistering 22-8, for a .733 winning percentage. Pretty remarkable stuff! This amazingly hot team was none other than our own SLO Turtles. I don't know, folks, I can't explain it. This season is starting to feel like 2048, in which career years from established vets somehow coincide and carry us over the top. The second best record in the second half of inter-division was actually a tie between two teams: The Lowell Crusaders and the Fullerton Distortion, both at 18-12 and .600 pct. Nicely done! Fullerton tied with us for the most improved record compared to our first half results. Here are the complete 2nd half results: Overall, then the East won 2055 inter-division play with a pretty convincing 189-171 record, good for a .525 winning percentage. The top overall team was a tie between the Queens Park Rangers (no big surprise there), and us the Turtles. We were both 36-24 for a .600 winning percentage. Congratulations to geigerted! An honorable mention goes to the Lowell Crusaders, who were third in overall inter-division play with a 35-25 record for .583. As for us, I have no explanation. It's not what I expected. At the break we were two games in first with a comparable run differential to Mentor, and I was predicting a drop in performance. Instead our performance improved to a shocking degree, and we're now sitting on a 10 game lead. Anything that can be won over the course of 30 games can surely be lost over the proceeding 50 games, but at this point I'm feeling pretty good about our odds of hanging onto the division. shrug Updated Friday, July 1 2022 @ 7:20:55 pm PDT