Post by Hoss on Aug 24, 2013 12:33:06 GMT -5
Note: These answers were sent a few days ago when Broph was still the article moderator. I updated my own answers but I'm not going to have Spence re-do the few questions that involved Broph. The reason it took so long to post up was because I planned on creating a huge powerpoint presentation for the lulz to mock the micromanaging with formatting. No point not to without Broph here now though.
1. Hitting is obviously a lot more valuable in BBSBL than pitching is. There is a surplus of pitching but very little hitting to go around. Do you think the current level of value discrepancy is justified when talking trade?
Yes. Young bats are rare. Super valuable. I think that when there is too much of something, like P right now it’s hard to value it. Everyone seems to have young pitching. When a young stud hitter is available everyone jumps into the trade talk process. Drives the price of the player up. Unfortunately the same cant be said for older players. I think even more then the hitter pitcher disparity is the fact that more then half the league over values youth. Lots of great older players around that could be had much more cheaply.
Me: I disagree. Supply and demand, fine, I’m OK with valuing the young stud hitters over the comparable pitchers based on ratings/production. The issue I have is this idea that a hitter is more valuable than a pitcher pretty much regardless of who we are talking about. I know that’s an exaggeration but it’s not a huge exaggeration at all. I’ve had trade talks for Bascik where I’m getting offered complete crap but it’s justified because they’re offensive players. No, they’re not very good and this guy is a really good pitcher. So I can’t get A-Gone for one of my SP prospects, fine, no problem. But it’s gone way too far in my mind with the offensive value compared to pitching. People are blindly saying no to pitchers, or acting as though completely average hitters have a ton of value, just because of the perception around the league. It’s stupid.
2. Discuss the expansion process. What would you do differently if you could make changes?
The main problem was the available players. It’s impossible to draft without knowing who’s available. Also the lack of updates through the draft process. Essentially you drafted blind and then couldn’t see your roster until after FA. It just wasn’t a fun process. I was so excited for expansion I was a bit jealous. After seeing the process I was happy I wasn’t part of it. Hopefully we never do it again, but if we do we need to have a league file where all available players are in the FA pool. Those players can be viewed more easily. Would make the process 100 times better.
Me: The process was done horribly but I’m not familiar enough with OOTP to know how we could truly change it beyond the obvious. We needed an actual list where we could click on the names, sort, etc. I got incredibly lucky because Nannini/Bascik are both a lot more valuable than Uggla but I had no business getting those two at 2/3 of the first round when he had first pick. The fact that a top pitching prospect was passed over speaks volumes to how fucked up the expansion process was.
I also think Aaron’s suggestion that we start with some money is a good one but I’m flush with $$$$ now so I don’t care anymore. If we ever do expansion again the list of available players has to be significantly overhauled.
3. Broph as the article dictator has led to tons of problems. Is it a Broph issue or is it just a thankless job?
It’s a completely thankless job. It’s a lose-lose job. I wouldn’t want it. But he’s doing what Erbes asked, to kill interviews and roundtables. I think Erbes overreacted. Voting isn’t perfect but it promotes activity. If you’re worried about articles and roundtables being too easy, then drop the limit to 2 of each. Or one of each. If you think too much cash is floating around, make PD reversals more expensive. More then one way to fix perceived problems.
Me: Completely agree. It’s a horrible job and he’s doing the best he can. He’s taking the job seriously and as a result is coming off as a dictator with the whole thing but realistically it’s lose-lose. Either he does what Jeff asked him to do and kills interviews or he just gives all 5’s in which case the job is irrelevant. I wouldn’t do it unless I was given a ton of board cash. Plus, is he really reading all of these articles? That’s tough lol. I just wrote some Mets article and would not want to have to read it. Give me 5 for it though k thx.
Update: Broph has quit since these were written. I don’t blame him. Who the hell wants to take this abuse without getting paid? Awful.
4. You seem to have a different view on value than most GMs here, choosing to focus on veterans. Why do you think vets are undervalued? Do you think this is an inefficiency that will eventually revert or is it more of a psychological thing?
I think in all sim leagues guys value youth. They want a long-term core. 22 YOs at every spot. It’s unrealistic. Not only is it insanely expensive to do that, but then you have a bunch of studly FAs at the same time. You can have a mix of VETs and youth and do much better IMO. I’m only adding some youth to curtail salary constraints. And I usually only keep the surprise PD guys. Why trade for a sick 19 YO that isn’t ready? I don’t get it. I wanna win.
Me: I think it’s a psychological thing. People love youth. My core, my future, etc. The same thing always happened with FBB, but at least with FBB the development was more of a sure thing. Far easier to predict who would be great in FBB and who would suffer than it is here, particularly after the first TC. I’m going the youth/cash route for now but I don’t plan on tanking/winning/tanking/winning once I actually develop a foundation. That’s not fun to me and it also doesn’t seem like an efficient way to play OOTP.
5. San Francisco vs. San Diego. Who wins more championships over the next five seasons?
Me. I think my SP is better. Sp is key. I think after some more board cash Ill have 4 9 AR SPs 2 of which will be 10 AR studs. I love Griff and Juan but Ill take my SP over them any day. I do love competing with Habes though, he’s a treat.
Me: SP is key and yet everyone improperly values it. Just my opinion. I’m not saying young hitters shouldn’t have more value than young pitchers because they obviously should based on supply and demand, but the value discrepancy between third-tier hitters and second-tier pitchers is an absolute joke when it is so obvious that a great staff wins.
6. Let’s ignore the fact that CC was franchised by the Marlins. Should Play have been allowed to make such a franchise-altering deal on Ashes behalf without this power explicitly noted to the league as a whole?
If the deal was good, sure. If I’m away and I choose someone to run my team, I’m gonna be specific. Id say don’t trade this guy, do trade this guy. And Id trust him to make a deal. I just didn’t like the deal. With the PD reversal system I would’ve let Miggy and CC ride a little longer either way.
Me: Yes, because I’d be stunned if someone was going away for two months and just wanted their rosters set. That’s a really long time to be away. A lot can happen. I assume he trusts Play and was allowing him to use his judgment here so it wasn’t a big deal to me. It didn’t need to be explicitly noted on the forum. It’s probably a good idea that the deal got vetoed though because it’s a sticky situation that is better off not dealt with.
7. Top 3 GMs in BBSBL, excluding yourself.
1 - Ashes. He’s won a title and rebuilt up nice again. If he didn’t go away I think he would’ve made moves to win last year.
2 -Broph. Another title winner. He not only wins, but he gets top tier talent. He knows how to blend youth and VETs.
3 -Play. He needs to learn to not overvalue youth. To go and get role players occasionally. Plus he gets bored. I think he tends to take a good deal on a major league ready guy just to get good value. Why not try and win and go all out. I think his spects are too important to him.
Me: I have no idea. Play and Broph seem to know what they’re doing. I haven’t overlapped with Ashes. It will be easier for me to answer the next question because I can base it on PMs that I’ve had.
Going off of Spence’s point though, I do get the impression that adding little role players is critical in OOTP. Spence used to say that Krupinski did a great job in BBS adding 8th, 9th, 10th men when others didn’t really bother. I think that’s true but I also thought it wasn’t that big of a deal, particularly because I’d run an 8 man rotation in the playoffs pretty much every time. But in OOTP you can really mess around with the lineups so it makes a ton of sense to constantly improve your roster, particularly when it’s so easy to upgrade for board cash.
8. Bottom 3 GMs in BBSBL, certainly feel free to include yourself lol.
1. Stutter. Sorry dude but you’ve been horrible. Your value system is out of whack. You’re way too reactionary. You really have no idea what you’re doing and you make moves like you do. Just lose for a couple years. Save money. Don’t trade any salaried players and add talent though the draft and FA.
2. DRowe. He has so much talent and yet has nothing to show for it. He has done a bad job of surrounding guys around Helton. He seems to value players poorly. He doesn’t return PMs consistently. Ill talk trade with him and then hell get back to me the next season. Doesn’t use his resources well. Says he’s waiting for FA and then signs no one. Just doesn’t keep up.
3. DaveDean. he’s a new guy so it isn’t entirely his fault but he doesn’t put the effort in. I try to talk to him about strategy and DCs and he doesn’t really respond. Hasn’t been on in almost a week. Can this dude.
Me: The only two I can really comment on are Stutter and d2a. Stutter should have done my Upton offer, or at the very least thought about it, but didn’t because he had just gotten burned in a previous deal with me and pretty much refused to talk as a result. The previous deal was a sunk cost and this was going to improve his team but I don’t think he had gotten over getting blasted in the trade thread. Also 5 minutes had gone by before I messaged him trying to trade again lol.
D2A is the motivation for a lot of the pitcher/hitter stuff I have said so far. He wanted to give me jackshit for Bascik because of the value discrepancy between hitters and pitchers. It’s so damn stupid and I can’t stand the logic. I’m not going to repeat my point again though, I’ve said it too many times through this point.
9. Stutter has been blasted recently for his trades. Is the league too hard on him?
Yes they are, but also he’s bad. He needs to hook onto a good GM and get some advice for a bit. He also really needs to slow down and just gain cash and board cash and try to build slowly. I think he has ADD, which will make it hard to be calm and move slowly, but it’s a must in a OOTP league.
Me: I’m going to say yes because I think it’s the cool thing to do to gang up on people in sim leagues. Most people are probably average GMs here but you get comfortable and start bashing someone because everyone else does.
10. How long do you see BBSBL lasting?
IDK. Erbes seems like he’s over it and certain points. Other times he’s so into it. Luckily I think that well get a season or 2 outta Steve after Erbes quits. Id love to see this league last 20 years. That’s my goal.
Me: I’m not sure either but I think it has some legs for a while. The forums are active and the minor league season is ending soon. Didn’t this league start last fall when he didn’t have as much to do at work? That time is coming again.
11. I recently came across a report detailing the various personalities within BBSBL. Do the “cliques” within the league help or hurt it overall? What role do they play in trades?
Totally help. Cliques require friendships. People that have friends in a league check the league more often. Sometimes it’s the only line of communication between friends with busy lives. They come on the forum, see what’s up with their dudes. Have some happy repartee and then move on with the rest of their day. Good stuff.
Me: Good answer, I totally agree. I could never be in sim leagues if my friends weren’t in them. I was in BBS before my friends joined and it just wasn’t even close to as fun. It kind of sucked before they joined and then once they did it was all we talked about for like three years lol. Maybe more, probably four years. That’s incredible to me.
12. Nothing will ever be what BBS was (age, free time, etc). What changes do you think can be made to make BBSBL more “BBS-like”, if anything?
Hmm. Not much can really recreate that. Id say upgrading the final 3-5 spots. Better more active Gms. I think the core here is great, but the last 3-5 are dead weight. If you could replace them with really good, really active guys this league would be close to what BBS was.
Me: Agreed. It’s just activity. That was the key to BBS. Three more GMs posting dumb shit would do a lot to get BBSBL closer to that point. Nothing will be BBS again though. Best thing ever.
13. You recently called out your best friend Mark in two separate articles and he responded by assembling a core that dwarfs your own. Your thoughts?
LOL. Is this a short joke? Dwarfs? WTF? Your team sucks. You have no idea what a PD is yet. No idea what an IRI is. STFU noob.
Me: Short joke? No lol, I didn’t know you were short. It’s a damn word Spence, don’t be so sensitive you dwarf. Go overrate Baron Davis some more and than come back to me.
Hopefully someone is still reading and catches my joke in the above sentence.
14. Will Broph give this a 5?
Definitely. We killed this. No doubt 5. Gonna be the example of 5's in the future. We just blew up the class curve. Fuck yall.
Me: He’s giving it a 5 because I’m going to blow the doors off of the formatting, just watch.
Update: Welp, decided not to blow the doors off after he quit. I was creating a powerpoint for this article for the lulz but there is no point if he’s not the article mod anymore.
15. Jackson and Andrea. Pros and cons of each.
Oh ya!
Andreas pros. She’s my rock. She’s so opposite of me its good, it keeps me up. Keeps me grounded. Never get to down. We even each other out. She’s amazing. She can cook. She’s great with Jack. I’m gonna keep it PG so Ill stop there. Pros for Jack. Boy, he’s amazing. Such a funny kid. So much energy. He loves to laugh and have a good time. Such an amazing combination of Andrea and I.
Andrea’s cons. Hmm. Not much. She tends to worry about stuff a little much for my tastes. She loses stuff a lot. Cant find things. Oh, she almost never answers her phone. Hate that. For Jack. well he doesn’t listen. He doesn’t communicate well. Cant string together a sentence to save his life. Like 3 words at most. C’mon kid, what do you want! He goes overboard on apples. I mean geez kid, apples don’t grow on trees!
Me: Now we’re cooking with gas. Andrea pros: She is Spence’s rock and is thankfully the opposite of him. Never gets too down, even when he misuses too and to. Andrea cons: She ruined BBS and I will never, ever forgive her. I’ve never called her but holy shit do I hate when people don’t answer texts. You should try and text my friend James and see if he responds, he won’t do it.
Jack pros: Seems to make Spence happy as long as he doesn’t have too many apples. Cons: at some point it’s just rude to not speak in complete sentences.
Bonus comment: Spence’s cons. Seems to not understand anything about apple trees.
16. Excluding me (since I will also answer the question and name myself lol), who was the best GM in BBS history and why? Who was the worst?
I guess Id have to go with Repole. Towards the end he was pretty dominant. It was amazing some of the teams he put together. Honorable mention goes to Play, you and Habes. You all did so well when you're interest levels were there. Skillz was pretty great too.
Me: Repole, was not expecting that. I was never in the league with him before but I do remember reading the forums and thinking holy shit this guy is impressive. LMDO at Air. Also I’ll leave this here.
1993 - 51-31
*1994 - 62-20
1995 - 57-25
*1996 - 68-14
1997 - 60-22
1998 - 47-35
1999 - 47-35
2000 - 38-44
2001 - 20-62
2002 - 36-46
2003 - 64-18
2004 - 60-22
2005 - 46-36
2006 - 44-38
*2007 - 48-34
---------------------------- ?
2008 - 29-53
2009 - 14-68
2010 - 56-26
2011 - 55-27
2012 - 59-23
*2013 - 57-25
2014 - 54-28
2015 - 50-32
2016 - 57-25
2017 - 60-22
2018 - 60-22
2019 - 57-25
2020 - 51-31
Edit: Worst GM was Steve. GTFO.
17. When are you coming to NYC? Will you call me?
Its probably not gonna happen for a while. We cant really afford a trip like that when we do stuff like Tahoe and Disney every year. Plus I doubt Jack could handle that long of a trip right now. Maybe when he's older. Id love to see the Giants v the Mets or a interleague game with the Yankees. Might be a fun father son trip in 8-10 years. as for your number I don’t have it anymore. I lost all my contacts at some point and literally don’t have more then like 5 or 6 numbers from BBS.
Me: 8-10 years? WTF Spence. By that time you’ll be toasting me at my wedding in NY. Just need to find a girl lol.
18. What is your favorite non-Fletch Chevy Chase movie?
Oh boy. Tough one here. I love the Vacation movie. Caddyshack is obviously amazing. There is a couple older ones with Goldie Hawn I like a ton too, Seems Like Old Times and Foul Play. Funny Farm is great. Cops and Robbersons has its moments. Three Amigos is LOL funny. Id have to say my favorite other then Fletch has got to be Spies Like Us though. I love buddy comedies and Dan Akryod and Chase are good together. Love the buddy travel movies. Did you know this is a homage to a series of Bob Hope and Bing Crosby movies called the Road movies. The Road movies also inspired the Family Guy Stewie and Brian travel episodes. Funny stuff.
Me: Hilarious that this is your longest answer. Speaking of family guy, here is a Chevy Chase Family Guy line I always loved:
Brian: I guess you can't judge a Brooke by her cover. [Laughs] You can cut that out right? Oh, and maybe you can cut out when I said junk earlier, the whole Chevy Chase thing. Seems like he's probably the kind of guy that would sue, he's gotta have no money left
19. Which calendar year was your favorite for BBS? Do you miss it?
Oh geez. Its all a blur. I loved the beginning of every version. I love the excitement. I loved that everyone was so into it at the beginning. New ratings. New rules. New Gms in different spots. Potential new rivalries. ant narrow it by year. Sorry. Maybe the start of 3? Not sure. The one where I wasn’t working and spent like 6 months essentially just commishing BBS.
Me: Which one was 3? My favorite year was 2008. The perfect time in our lives to be completely obsessed with it and truly care. I remember I won a title against play in 2011 and was pumped but it had kind of dulled for me by that point. I was in a class and was obviously happy but didn’t feel like I needed to start screaming. When I won one in 2008 I absolutely lost it lol. And then fucking baron signed with the Cavs a few days later for less money and I got pissed off. Great times.
Hoss Seat Featuring Spence
1. Hitting is obviously a lot more valuable in BBSBL than pitching is. There is a surplus of pitching but very little hitting to go around. Do you think the current level of value discrepancy is justified when talking trade?
Yes. Young bats are rare. Super valuable. I think that when there is too much of something, like P right now it’s hard to value it. Everyone seems to have young pitching. When a young stud hitter is available everyone jumps into the trade talk process. Drives the price of the player up. Unfortunately the same cant be said for older players. I think even more then the hitter pitcher disparity is the fact that more then half the league over values youth. Lots of great older players around that could be had much more cheaply.
Me: I disagree. Supply and demand, fine, I’m OK with valuing the young stud hitters over the comparable pitchers based on ratings/production. The issue I have is this idea that a hitter is more valuable than a pitcher pretty much regardless of who we are talking about. I know that’s an exaggeration but it’s not a huge exaggeration at all. I’ve had trade talks for Bascik where I’m getting offered complete crap but it’s justified because they’re offensive players. No, they’re not very good and this guy is a really good pitcher. So I can’t get A-Gone for one of my SP prospects, fine, no problem. But it’s gone way too far in my mind with the offensive value compared to pitching. People are blindly saying no to pitchers, or acting as though completely average hitters have a ton of value, just because of the perception around the league. It’s stupid.
2. Discuss the expansion process. What would you do differently if you could make changes?
The main problem was the available players. It’s impossible to draft without knowing who’s available. Also the lack of updates through the draft process. Essentially you drafted blind and then couldn’t see your roster until after FA. It just wasn’t a fun process. I was so excited for expansion I was a bit jealous. After seeing the process I was happy I wasn’t part of it. Hopefully we never do it again, but if we do we need to have a league file where all available players are in the FA pool. Those players can be viewed more easily. Would make the process 100 times better.
Me: The process was done horribly but I’m not familiar enough with OOTP to know how we could truly change it beyond the obvious. We needed an actual list where we could click on the names, sort, etc. I got incredibly lucky because Nannini/Bascik are both a lot more valuable than Uggla but I had no business getting those two at 2/3 of the first round when he had first pick. The fact that a top pitching prospect was passed over speaks volumes to how fucked up the expansion process was.
I also think Aaron’s suggestion that we start with some money is a good one but I’m flush with $$$$ now so I don’t care anymore. If we ever do expansion again the list of available players has to be significantly overhauled.
3. Broph as the article dictator has led to tons of problems. Is it a Broph issue or is it just a thankless job?
It’s a completely thankless job. It’s a lose-lose job. I wouldn’t want it. But he’s doing what Erbes asked, to kill interviews and roundtables. I think Erbes overreacted. Voting isn’t perfect but it promotes activity. If you’re worried about articles and roundtables being too easy, then drop the limit to 2 of each. Or one of each. If you think too much cash is floating around, make PD reversals more expensive. More then one way to fix perceived problems.
Me: Completely agree. It’s a horrible job and he’s doing the best he can. He’s taking the job seriously and as a result is coming off as a dictator with the whole thing but realistically it’s lose-lose. Either he does what Jeff asked him to do and kills interviews or he just gives all 5’s in which case the job is irrelevant. I wouldn’t do it unless I was given a ton of board cash. Plus, is he really reading all of these articles? That’s tough lol. I just wrote some Mets article and would not want to have to read it. Give me 5 for it though k thx.
Update: Broph has quit since these were written. I don’t blame him. Who the hell wants to take this abuse without getting paid? Awful.
4. You seem to have a different view on value than most GMs here, choosing to focus on veterans. Why do you think vets are undervalued? Do you think this is an inefficiency that will eventually revert or is it more of a psychological thing?
I think in all sim leagues guys value youth. They want a long-term core. 22 YOs at every spot. It’s unrealistic. Not only is it insanely expensive to do that, but then you have a bunch of studly FAs at the same time. You can have a mix of VETs and youth and do much better IMO. I’m only adding some youth to curtail salary constraints. And I usually only keep the surprise PD guys. Why trade for a sick 19 YO that isn’t ready? I don’t get it. I wanna win.
Me: I think it’s a psychological thing. People love youth. My core, my future, etc. The same thing always happened with FBB, but at least with FBB the development was more of a sure thing. Far easier to predict who would be great in FBB and who would suffer than it is here, particularly after the first TC. I’m going the youth/cash route for now but I don’t plan on tanking/winning/tanking/winning once I actually develop a foundation. That’s not fun to me and it also doesn’t seem like an efficient way to play OOTP.
5. San Francisco vs. San Diego. Who wins more championships over the next five seasons?
Me. I think my SP is better. Sp is key. I think after some more board cash Ill have 4 9 AR SPs 2 of which will be 10 AR studs. I love Griff and Juan but Ill take my SP over them any day. I do love competing with Habes though, he’s a treat.
Me: SP is key and yet everyone improperly values it. Just my opinion. I’m not saying young hitters shouldn’t have more value than young pitchers because they obviously should based on supply and demand, but the value discrepancy between third-tier hitters and second-tier pitchers is an absolute joke when it is so obvious that a great staff wins.
6. Let’s ignore the fact that CC was franchised by the Marlins. Should Play have been allowed to make such a franchise-altering deal on Ashes behalf without this power explicitly noted to the league as a whole?
If the deal was good, sure. If I’m away and I choose someone to run my team, I’m gonna be specific. Id say don’t trade this guy, do trade this guy. And Id trust him to make a deal. I just didn’t like the deal. With the PD reversal system I would’ve let Miggy and CC ride a little longer either way.
Me: Yes, because I’d be stunned if someone was going away for two months and just wanted their rosters set. That’s a really long time to be away. A lot can happen. I assume he trusts Play and was allowing him to use his judgment here so it wasn’t a big deal to me. It didn’t need to be explicitly noted on the forum. It’s probably a good idea that the deal got vetoed though because it’s a sticky situation that is better off not dealt with.
7. Top 3 GMs in BBSBL, excluding yourself.
1 - Ashes. He’s won a title and rebuilt up nice again. If he didn’t go away I think he would’ve made moves to win last year.
2 -Broph. Another title winner. He not only wins, but he gets top tier talent. He knows how to blend youth and VETs.
3 -Play. He needs to learn to not overvalue youth. To go and get role players occasionally. Plus he gets bored. I think he tends to take a good deal on a major league ready guy just to get good value. Why not try and win and go all out. I think his spects are too important to him.
Me: I have no idea. Play and Broph seem to know what they’re doing. I haven’t overlapped with Ashes. It will be easier for me to answer the next question because I can base it on PMs that I’ve had.
Going off of Spence’s point though, I do get the impression that adding little role players is critical in OOTP. Spence used to say that Krupinski did a great job in BBS adding 8th, 9th, 10th men when others didn’t really bother. I think that’s true but I also thought it wasn’t that big of a deal, particularly because I’d run an 8 man rotation in the playoffs pretty much every time. But in OOTP you can really mess around with the lineups so it makes a ton of sense to constantly improve your roster, particularly when it’s so easy to upgrade for board cash.
8. Bottom 3 GMs in BBSBL, certainly feel free to include yourself lol.
1. Stutter. Sorry dude but you’ve been horrible. Your value system is out of whack. You’re way too reactionary. You really have no idea what you’re doing and you make moves like you do. Just lose for a couple years. Save money. Don’t trade any salaried players and add talent though the draft and FA.
2. DRowe. He has so much talent and yet has nothing to show for it. He has done a bad job of surrounding guys around Helton. He seems to value players poorly. He doesn’t return PMs consistently. Ill talk trade with him and then hell get back to me the next season. Doesn’t use his resources well. Says he’s waiting for FA and then signs no one. Just doesn’t keep up.
3. DaveDean. he’s a new guy so it isn’t entirely his fault but he doesn’t put the effort in. I try to talk to him about strategy and DCs and he doesn’t really respond. Hasn’t been on in almost a week. Can this dude.
Me: The only two I can really comment on are Stutter and d2a. Stutter should have done my Upton offer, or at the very least thought about it, but didn’t because he had just gotten burned in a previous deal with me and pretty much refused to talk as a result. The previous deal was a sunk cost and this was going to improve his team but I don’t think he had gotten over getting blasted in the trade thread. Also 5 minutes had gone by before I messaged him trying to trade again lol.
D2A is the motivation for a lot of the pitcher/hitter stuff I have said so far. He wanted to give me jackshit for Bascik because of the value discrepancy between hitters and pitchers. It’s so damn stupid and I can’t stand the logic. I’m not going to repeat my point again though, I’ve said it too many times through this point.
9. Stutter has been blasted recently for his trades. Is the league too hard on him?
Yes they are, but also he’s bad. He needs to hook onto a good GM and get some advice for a bit. He also really needs to slow down and just gain cash and board cash and try to build slowly. I think he has ADD, which will make it hard to be calm and move slowly, but it’s a must in a OOTP league.
Me: I’m going to say yes because I think it’s the cool thing to do to gang up on people in sim leagues. Most people are probably average GMs here but you get comfortable and start bashing someone because everyone else does.
10. How long do you see BBSBL lasting?
IDK. Erbes seems like he’s over it and certain points. Other times he’s so into it. Luckily I think that well get a season or 2 outta Steve after Erbes quits. Id love to see this league last 20 years. That’s my goal.
Me: I’m not sure either but I think it has some legs for a while. The forums are active and the minor league season is ending soon. Didn’t this league start last fall when he didn’t have as much to do at work? That time is coming again.
11. I recently came across a report detailing the various personalities within BBSBL. Do the “cliques” within the league help or hurt it overall? What role do they play in trades?
Totally help. Cliques require friendships. People that have friends in a league check the league more often. Sometimes it’s the only line of communication between friends with busy lives. They come on the forum, see what’s up with their dudes. Have some happy repartee and then move on with the rest of their day. Good stuff.
Me: Good answer, I totally agree. I could never be in sim leagues if my friends weren’t in them. I was in BBS before my friends joined and it just wasn’t even close to as fun. It kind of sucked before they joined and then once they did it was all we talked about for like three years lol. Maybe more, probably four years. That’s incredible to me.
12. Nothing will ever be what BBS was (age, free time, etc). What changes do you think can be made to make BBSBL more “BBS-like”, if anything?
Hmm. Not much can really recreate that. Id say upgrading the final 3-5 spots. Better more active Gms. I think the core here is great, but the last 3-5 are dead weight. If you could replace them with really good, really active guys this league would be close to what BBS was.
Me: Agreed. It’s just activity. That was the key to BBS. Three more GMs posting dumb shit would do a lot to get BBSBL closer to that point. Nothing will be BBS again though. Best thing ever.
13. You recently called out your best friend Mark in two separate articles and he responded by assembling a core that dwarfs your own. Your thoughts?
LOL. Is this a short joke? Dwarfs? WTF? Your team sucks. You have no idea what a PD is yet. No idea what an IRI is. STFU noob.
Me: Short joke? No lol, I didn’t know you were short. It’s a damn word Spence, don’t be so sensitive you dwarf. Go overrate Baron Davis some more and than come back to me.
Hopefully someone is still reading and catches my joke in the above sentence.
14. Will Broph give this a 5?
Definitely. We killed this. No doubt 5. Gonna be the example of 5's in the future. We just blew up the class curve. Fuck yall.
Me: He’s giving it a 5 because I’m going to blow the doors off of the formatting, just watch.
Update: Welp, decided not to blow the doors off after he quit. I was creating a powerpoint for this article for the lulz but there is no point if he’s not the article mod anymore.
15. Jackson and Andrea. Pros and cons of each.
Oh ya!
Andreas pros. She’s my rock. She’s so opposite of me its good, it keeps me up. Keeps me grounded. Never get to down. We even each other out. She’s amazing. She can cook. She’s great with Jack. I’m gonna keep it PG so Ill stop there. Pros for Jack. Boy, he’s amazing. Such a funny kid. So much energy. He loves to laugh and have a good time. Such an amazing combination of Andrea and I.
Andrea’s cons. Hmm. Not much. She tends to worry about stuff a little much for my tastes. She loses stuff a lot. Cant find things. Oh, she almost never answers her phone. Hate that. For Jack. well he doesn’t listen. He doesn’t communicate well. Cant string together a sentence to save his life. Like 3 words at most. C’mon kid, what do you want! He goes overboard on apples. I mean geez kid, apples don’t grow on trees!
Me: Now we’re cooking with gas. Andrea pros: She is Spence’s rock and is thankfully the opposite of him. Never gets too down, even when he misuses too and to. Andrea cons: She ruined BBS and I will never, ever forgive her. I’ve never called her but holy shit do I hate when people don’t answer texts. You should try and text my friend James and see if he responds, he won’t do it.
Jack pros: Seems to make Spence happy as long as he doesn’t have too many apples. Cons: at some point it’s just rude to not speak in complete sentences.
Bonus comment: Spence’s cons. Seems to not understand anything about apple trees.
16. Excluding me (since I will also answer the question and name myself lol), who was the best GM in BBS history and why? Who was the worst?
I guess Id have to go with Repole. Towards the end he was pretty dominant. It was amazing some of the teams he put together. Honorable mention goes to Play, you and Habes. You all did so well when you're interest levels were there. Skillz was pretty great too.
Me: Repole, was not expecting that. I was never in the league with him before but I do remember reading the forums and thinking holy shit this guy is impressive. LMDO at Air. Also I’ll leave this here.
1993 - 51-31
*1994 - 62-20
1995 - 57-25
*1996 - 68-14
1997 - 60-22
1998 - 47-35
1999 - 47-35
2000 - 38-44
2001 - 20-62
2002 - 36-46
2003 - 64-18
2004 - 60-22
2005 - 46-36
2006 - 44-38
*2007 - 48-34
---------------------------- ?
2008 - 29-53
2009 - 14-68
2010 - 56-26
2011 - 55-27
2012 - 59-23
*2013 - 57-25
2014 - 54-28
2015 - 50-32
2016 - 57-25
2017 - 60-22
2018 - 60-22
2019 - 57-25
2020 - 51-31
Edit: Worst GM was Steve. GTFO.
17. When are you coming to NYC? Will you call me?
Its probably not gonna happen for a while. We cant really afford a trip like that when we do stuff like Tahoe and Disney every year. Plus I doubt Jack could handle that long of a trip right now. Maybe when he's older. Id love to see the Giants v the Mets or a interleague game with the Yankees. Might be a fun father son trip in 8-10 years. as for your number I don’t have it anymore. I lost all my contacts at some point and literally don’t have more then like 5 or 6 numbers from BBS.
Me: 8-10 years? WTF Spence. By that time you’ll be toasting me at my wedding in NY. Just need to find a girl lol.
18. What is your favorite non-Fletch Chevy Chase movie?
Oh boy. Tough one here. I love the Vacation movie. Caddyshack is obviously amazing. There is a couple older ones with Goldie Hawn I like a ton too, Seems Like Old Times and Foul Play. Funny Farm is great. Cops and Robbersons has its moments. Three Amigos is LOL funny. Id have to say my favorite other then Fletch has got to be Spies Like Us though. I love buddy comedies and Dan Akryod and Chase are good together. Love the buddy travel movies. Did you know this is a homage to a series of Bob Hope and Bing Crosby movies called the Road movies. The Road movies also inspired the Family Guy Stewie and Brian travel episodes. Funny stuff.
Me: Hilarious that this is your longest answer. Speaking of family guy, here is a Chevy Chase Family Guy line I always loved:
Brian: I guess you can't judge a Brooke by her cover. [Laughs] You can cut that out right? Oh, and maybe you can cut out when I said junk earlier, the whole Chevy Chase thing. Seems like he's probably the kind of guy that would sue, he's gotta have no money left
19. Which calendar year was your favorite for BBS? Do you miss it?
Oh geez. Its all a blur. I loved the beginning of every version. I love the excitement. I loved that everyone was so into it at the beginning. New ratings. New rules. New Gms in different spots. Potential new rivalries. ant narrow it by year. Sorry. Maybe the start of 3? Not sure. The one where I wasn’t working and spent like 6 months essentially just commishing BBS.
Me: Which one was 3? My favorite year was 2008. The perfect time in our lives to be completely obsessed with it and truly care. I remember I won a title against play in 2011 and was pumped but it had kind of dulled for me by that point. I was in a class and was obviously happy but didn’t feel like I needed to start screaming. When I won one in 2008 I absolutely lost it lol. And then fucking baron signed with the Cavs a few days later for less money and I got pissed off. Great times.
