Post by Erbes on Aug 18, 2014 10:12:29 GMT -5
Getting it in with Spencer!
What's up dudes... and break! LOLOLOL time for an interview with the king of cheating himself: Spencer! We talk about cheating, more cheating, and loves lost. Pull up your boot straps and shimmy on a magnum because it's about to get filthy all over your faces!
1. So how many teams are you running at this point? You've come under quite a bit of scrutiny for your trades with Seattle recently, and I for one am on the fence about the whole situation. It seems as though Nanz mysteriously would deal only you his studs and refused to even look at offers from other people. In particular, the Harden trade stands out to me. What's the deal with that?
I only run SF. I do help Nanz a lot with SEA. Hes super busy. I PM him about thing, make minor changes day to day and try and keep him in the loop. I never make trades for him. I just try and remind him of PD hits and things he should do. Day to day I do alot for him and his team.
As for the frenzy I was on him about rebuilding. His team salary was out of control and cash is so hard to get. I thought it was his best move and he was on board early. He thought rebuilding would be easier then competing with as busy as he is. I wanted Francisco Rodriguez and Jon Papelbon right away. I offered for Francisco Rodriguez and he actually said post. I was hesitant because I knew it was his best piece. I stepped back. I told him to look at other offers first. Then I wanted Jon Papelbon. Same thing. I offered he said post and I stepped back. I waited a bit and he said he had nothing imminent. He wanted to get to 8 trades for the frenzy. My deal was the best he had. So he said post again. As for Harden Nanz said he had no offers. None. I figured this was the case because well, we have about 15 GMs that are too afraid to make any moves at all. Rich Harden is solid but extremely overpaid. And it would've been his 7th trade. So he said post. He was obviously very easy for me to deal with. We get along well, but mostly it was the same thing that happens in all sim leagues. You make offers and you get things done. Then there are a flood of GMs who don't offer saying, "I didn't know he was this cheap!". Guess what. get off your ass and offer. Id rather offer something shitty then see a player I want go cheap somewhere else without an offer.
My only regret is that my vacation started around the end of the frenzy and I couldn't help Nanz get that 8th deal. Pretty sure we were both gone on the last day of the frenzy. On the other hand him making Jeter off limits was probably more the reason he didn't get to 8, which wasn't my fault at all.
Haters gonna hate.
I had no problem with the trades you made with Nanz. This was more of a troll question than anything. Dudes need to realize that Nanz went into full fire sale mode and was pretty much taking the first offer he got on a lot of guys. He was super dumb in not trading Jeter. I think I offered Koehler straight up. Maybe not enough to get it done, but didn't even get a reply! WTF NANZZ!!!!
2. Speaking of horrible trades, what happened during the frenzy? You dealt off all of your studs and received not studs in return. I think that frenzy set your team value back quite a bit. Did you have a strategy of getting worse going into the frenzy and not getting good value or did it just happen?
I'm so bad at selling. I really am. Ive made some bad trades when selling talented players. I look way more at how players will fit into my team or how they'll play in my park instead of value. Im horrible at getting value. With Joe Jackson In was worried about age. I thought Brandon Pray would be nearly as good in my park. I loved Nick Johnson for ATT. Lefties rake. I thought I could flip Robbie Erlin or use my TIA to BRILL on him. It was horrible though. Shouldve just keep JJ. As for Buehrle it was AJax. Just love that guy. Drafted him. traded him. Traded back for him. Traded him. Traded back for him. Man crush. Overvalue him. Its dumb. I just think hes a great fit for my park. Love his speed. And his defense. At the time I really thought Id use my TIA to BRILL on Ledezma. Buehrle is the best player in this game IMO. Horrible horrible value. But it was just me making moves without thinking it through. I was sitting at work the day before my vacation just trying to get the frenzy done. It wasn't some elaborate plan to get Steve passed Ashes. Just a bad deal.
I think Im pretty good at buying but I'm horrible at selling. Im successful because of my park, my ability to put mediocre players in my park and have them perform well, my activity and smoke and mirrors. Real talk. I'm really bad at getting value.
You might have had the worst series of trades I have ever seen. It almost looked like you were purposely trying to get horrible value for whatever reason. I will say, and I think someone mentioned this recently, that there just aren't a ton of equal value deals out there right now. Every trade is seemingly a rape job. Makes trading hard and pretty much squashes any deals of major leaguers for major leaguers, which we've never really had any of those anyways. Every big deal is usually a stud for spects. HIT THE SNOOZE BUTTON!
3. The NL West is as competitive as it's ever been, minus the Rockies of course. Is it the best division in BBSBL right now, minus the Rockies of course?
I think it is. I mean LA is pretty darned good and they have no hope of even 3rd place. Put the Dodgers in the AL WEst and I think they fight with Anaheim for the division. Dale is just an awesome dude too. Very funny. He has some talent now too. Very good across the board.
Darell has put together a great team. Pretty easily the best team in the AL West if we had done contraction differently. Amazing offense. Good pitching. Very good team. And another very good dude.
Aaron has done a great job in a bad market/financial situation. He is great at getting value. He doesn't overpay. He doesn't get raped. He plays it smart. Always goes after talent and fits it together later. Im a it worried about his financials this year, but he probably has the best team in the NL West.
My team is solid. I like a lot of my players. But I wouldn't be surprised to finish third. Itd be pretty crushing to go from 230+ wins in 2 seasons to a 3rd place finish. I need to work hard over the middle of the season to get things back together.
Shale needs to sell everyone that isnt Wright or Hart and start over.
Also, we have the best group of GMs. Personality wise and activity wise. Were also the most handsome and the most endowed physically.
We rock. You suck. Etc.
I wouldn't say you have the best personalities, I mean have you met Shale? I have no problem saying the NL West is best though. You could make an argument for AL East or Central, but top to bottom NL West has the best 4 rosters of any division. Now that the DH has been added to the NL, I wouldn't mind shuffling up the league a bit to even out divisions every so often. Would make things a little more interesting by playing a new team every couple of seasons. Plus, it could be used to align message board rivalries. Could you imagine a division with break, Shale, stutter, drowe, and Darell? That would be pretty fun to watch the fireworks after each sim.
4. Let's pick on some people. The first I'd like to address is Kobe. Here's a man (?) who puffed out his chest with a great team (that Styro built), won a World Series, and let everyone know that he was a real Boss Hog. Then to prove his doubters wrong he entered a rebuilding phase that is now entering its 4th season and he's disappeared. He's thrown out an excuse that he's 'out enjoying summer', but I think we all know he's just hiding in shame. You've been in leagues with Kobe before, is this normal behavior for him? Should we expect to see him reappear from a coke coma soon? What advice would you give him to get the Expos back on track?
This is Kobe for you. He is someone Id always want in a league I run but he goes through this uneven behavior. He Kills it when hes active. He really tries hard. He earns activity rewards. Hes making big moves. Going for the title. But when things go wrong he just turns off. He stops doing all the things that he did to succeed. He still has a ton of talent. He really needs to earn some board cash and do some spending. His offense is so bad, but he actually has some talent. So many guys are under performing. Seems like some IRIs would help. Or maybe he just doesn't have good lineups. IDK. He should be better there. He has some solid pitching too. Most of all he has some really good spects he could move as well. I think he's just snake bitten. He needs to get back into the groove.
Mehhhhh Kobe came in guns blazing, talking shit to everybody, and now where is he? I hate GMs like that. Plus all the shit about how I didn't like him when I was commish was just so dumb. I honestly don't have a problem with anyone in the league. Dave tried calling me so we could fight and we still make trades. I'm very forgiving. The bullshit excuses are dumb too. "Oh I have a life yada, yada, yada." Ashes' wife was in the hospital and he still found time to sim. Guess that's what separates the men (or in Ashes' case the gods) from the boys. Also LOLOLOLOL at Kobe being a cocaine addict. Had no idea people still did that drug. Guess I'm sheltered.
5. The next on my hit list is Shale. Let the record show that I'm not attacking his character as a person, but his skills as a GM. Those horrible GMing skills have gotten him into quite the mess this season. I believe at one point he proclaimed that you just handed him the division by trading away your studs. Clearly, delusions of grandeur on his part. He sits in the basement of the NL West just as he sits in the basement of his mom's house reading this. Already 17 GB, what advice would you give Shale, not just for this season, but for the future? What kind of skills can he try to acquire and master to become a serviceable GM, which I think would be a stretch to where he is now?
He overvalues his offense. I mean he should have the top offense every year and he seems happy with top 5. He listens to others too much when making trades. This guy will do so good in your park. And he buys it. Then you're paying Endy Chavez 10 mill a year to have a 500 OPS. All of his starters should be at or around 850 OPS. And he isn't close. He really needs to sell everyone but Wright and Hart and start over. He could do a quick rebuild and not really lose too many more fans. Get his finances in order, gain some young talent and hit FA hard in the offseason.
I have nothing to add to this. Shale takes shots in me in every interview he does. Only fair I get one in here.
6. Getting back to the frenzy - a lot of people started calling people out for either how difficult or how easy it was to deal with people. Obviously, you found Nanz especially easy to deal with, but who else are some of your favorites to banter trade with? On the other side of that, who are the people you want to punch in the face through PM if you could because of their sheer stupidity when it comes to trading? Just because we talked about Shale earlier doesn't mean he can't be included in an answer for that 2nd question.
I think overall I get frustrated with people not offering. I don't always offer. I only offer when I really want someone. But I think in most cases other GMs don't offer at all. I think too many guys are too scared to get raped and get flack on the boards. They are more worried about how a deal is perceived instead of trying to make there team better.
Sometimes the easiest guys to trade with are guys you shouldn't trade with. Play and Aaron are always easy. And they almost always get the better end of the deal with me. Play does tend to sell older guys reasonably. Aaron always tells you exactly how he feels. No posturing. Pirate Steve is easy to talk to. Greeme usually wants to deal.
Guys like Dave and Greg tend to be more difficult. I think Greg is hesitant because of our Patterson deal but Ill be honest, I wasn't moving Patterson for less then I did. Dave is just really tough to talk to. Some guys are untouchable an he over values guys too much. Bosoxi is the same as Dave.
I usually don't have a problem offering. If anything I always low ball at first, but it's not an overwhelmingly horrible low ball, it's just a low ball. I'm shocked at how many guys get pissed when they get a mediocre offer. It's like an affront on their mother's grave or something. Like this is how trading happens. Dude 1 offers a mild low ball, dude 2 counters with a mild high ball, and you meet in the middle. Too many guys out there trying to get the rape all of the time.
As for me, I enjoy dealing with Play as well. He always gets the best of me, but he's so tender in doing so. I struggle with guys like Broph and Aaron because I think we value players differently. Which is fine, no harm, no foul. The easiest guys to trade with are the guys who want to trade. Sounds dumb, but it's true. If a guy is worried he's going to get raped then he's going to ask for way more than he should and it ruins the talks.
7. I brought up in Winter Meetings the possibility of a cash trading cap. As a team who is routinely over budget and trading for cash, how would this affect your team? Would you prefer to see a luxury tax installed as you have proposed?
I'm a huge fan of the luxury tax. I think it's the most realistic way to curb spending. My spending will be directly affected by what the rules allow. So either a luxury tax or a cash trading cap will keep my spending down. And really that's what we need. I think people get unhappy with teams like mine even though I always play by the rules. It is slightly frustrating that Ive consistently said a luxury tax is a good idea, and it would hurt me, but it still gets voted down every year. I'm more in favor of a luxury tax then a trading rule. I think board cash and in game cash are assets. You should be able to use all possible assets to make your team better. Just my opinion.
I don't think I have an opinion either way on this. Player contracts have gotten a little out of hand over the course of the league and instituting a cash trade cap would probably put a stop to $20M per year contracts since teams wouldn't be able to afford them anymore. There are 5 guys making $20M or more! That's insane to me! But you're right - board cash and game cash are assets. You should be able to trade them. I'm just thinking it might be time to stop letting teams trade for $50M each offseason. It's a bit out of control.
8. Your offense is pretty horrible. Probably due to your massive ballpark. Would it be worth it to you to cut back on player expenses for a couple of seasons so that you could even out your very pitcher-friendly ballpark? This might mean sacrificing 10-15 wins now, but in the long run would provide you with a more balanced team (something you had when you won championships). Is that a trade off you'd be willing to make?
I had the same park when I had a more balanced team. My offense is just either under performing or not as good. I think I know what it takes to win in ATT. Lefites. Speed. Doubles and triples. Walks. I just need to tweak things a bit and get better. And get more performance from guys like JD Drew and Aubrey Huff, guys that have performed here in the past. I'm not too worried about the stadium. Im way more worried about the slumps and about my 2B situation. Plus I don't have any excess cash to change my stadium. Not an option IMO.
I was pretty interested to hear what you had to say about this. I think there's only been one team who adjusted their park and went on to have continued success after doing so - the Marlins. I will say that if I were to alter my park I would make it more hitter friendly. To me there isn't a whole lot of value in adjusting your ballpark to lower your staff ERA by half a run. To me the value comes in when you can turn a 15 homer guy into a 20-25 homer guy.
9. You and I are both ex-commishes now! We've got gray hairs on our balls, we sip scotch, and we roll our own taquitos by paying authentic Mexicans to do it for us because we can - in other words, we're men. I cannot believe Steve and Ashes gave this life up to get back in the game. It's like we get it guys you bleached your ball hairs to look younger, doesn't mean you have to show us! In all seriousness, they've done a tremendous job and I would say activity is at an all-time high. We have 28 GMs, of which only maybe 2-3 are ghosts? Solid ratio. But that's not to say things can't always get better. If it were you who took over this bucking bronco of a sim league what would you change or implement or remove or augment to improve the league?
Great question.
I think I'd really try and get the SAT and SUN sims earlier. I like early sims. I like having them up when I get up. I think it gives people the whole day to post about the sim, talk trade, make changes. Its a best case scenario for activity.
I'd only do an extra sim on WED. I think guys need FRI and MON for changes. Im all for go go activity and siming but baseball is different. You can make a ton of changes every sim that can make a difference. Plus it really turns off the more experienced owners when we sim too fast. So the regular sims lus maybe an occasional WED sim if deserved.
I really wanna get back to 7-8-7-8. Its like that for a reason. Its about the DL. I don't wanna miss a day of my healthy player if I dont have to.
I really want more frenzies. Not big ones, but an extra push for trading. In game cash. Board cash. TIBs. TICs. Fiedling %. Doesnt have to be big rewards but pushing guys to trade is important.
Drafts need to slow down. Too much talent. Let the top 5-8 picks be awesome. Sure, tank get rewarded. Bad teams need good cheap talent. Sure. But we shouldnt have 4 star position players in Round 2. End of Round one should be 3.5 star position guys.
I agree with everything you said. Early sims would be awesome, but I also realize that they might not jive with Ashes or Steve's schedule so that is what it is. Extra sims are great, but I agree that simming every day is going to alienate some people. We're pretty much on the same schedule as we were when I first started the league. I was simming 5-6 times a week and I remember I would routinely get PMs from guys telling me to slow down or they would quit. Well they did quit so maybe we've weeded out all of those types of people? Still, I think a couple of days a week where we know there won't be sims would be a good thing.
Frenzies can be tough. If you don't offer a great enough prize then people don't participate. If you offer too good of a prize, everyone participates, and drives ratings up. Which, by the way, I don't care about. If anything we're on an inflation space ship right now and the only way is up so why stop it? But it could be fun to design some contests that were for PD stuff and not just cash.
This past draft was pretty bad in terms of prospects, but the ones before that were pretty stacked, but I don't blame Steve or Ashes. I'm sure they were doing the same thing I did when I adjusted the drafts. I would see a player I knew, saw he was only a 3* dude and said, "Well I know his name so he must be better!" And then I would jack him up. Making the drafts is by the most laborious and grueling thing the commish has to do. So hard to keep the balance in check.
10. Your love for Chevy Chase is borderline creepy. He's funny, but is he that funny? If you say so. Here is your task: I'm going to give you a list of Chase movies and you have to match the character he played to the GM they most resemble. Granted I could resemble all of them because I'm so funny, but let's limit it to one character per GM. Okay here's your list: Fletch, Family Vacation, Three Amigos, Caddyshack, Funny Farm, Hot Tub Time Machine, and Spies Like Us. If you can think of any others feel free to ad lib.
Love him. Exactly my type of humor. An elitist asshole. Fun question.
Fletch. His best role. Amazing movie making. I pick me. Cool as a cucumber. Talented. Above it all. Unaffected by his surroundings. A true scholar an gentleman.
Vacation. Shale. Bumbling and loveable. Tripping through life. Good intentions. Bad results.
Three Amigos. Game. Mostly because hes probably one of two people that actually owns cowboy boots and a big buckle. Dale is the other. And he probably sings like a dream.
Caddyshack. Another cool character. Haberman. Is he serious? Is he trolling? Who knows. Just floating through life doing what he does. Above it. Beside it. Who knows. "I was born to love you / I was born to lick your face / I was born to rub you / but you were born to rub me first /... What do you say we take this out on the patio?"
Funny Farm. A little angrier. A little more dissuaded by life. Play. Pretty easy fit.
Hot Tub Time Machine. Such a small role. Crazy Mike. Nowhere to be seen. Then shows up outta nowhere. Usually after he's fired.
Spies Like Us. He kinda slept walk through this one. One of my favorites, but he wasnt invested. Kobe. Just sleep walks through certain points of BBS.
You would take Fletch for yourself. Homo. Have you watched Community? He's pretty awesome in it. He looks sooooo old in it though. Watch Fletch and then watch a later episode of Community. The difference is nuts.
11. How do the Warriors not include Klay for Love? Are they dumb? Because of the Warriors LeBron is going to go on and win like 4 more championships. I hope you're happy.
Eh. Cavs are overrated. They don't have a team yet. They're talented, but whatever. Miami didn't win everything when they were together. Best laid plans and all.
Realize it wasn't just because of Klay. It was the Klay/Lee combo for KMart and Love. Plus we were adding a first. Bottom line they saw a KMArt Curry defensive backcourt as a sieve. It would've been ugly. Plus KMart gets like 7 mill a year for 3 more years? Yuck. And they dont get any better defensively at PF with Love. Obviously Love is the best player involved. But overall they thought their D would be much worse. And its understandable. Having said that I would've done it. I love Klay, but Love and Curry are both top 15 players. maybe top 10.
Mehhhh Cavs have a team. Irving-Waiters-LeBron-Love-Varejao. I think the reason the Heat didn't win right away was because they didn't have a good PG and they didn't have post D. The Cavs have both of those things. Only true problem I see, outside of getting everyone to mesh, is the fact that Kyrie loves to shoot. Needs to realize LeBron is way better at scoring than he is lolololol. Plus, Love is like another PG out there. A 6 foot 10 PG who can shoot the J and rebound like nobody's business. Can we just both agree it'll be a Cavs-Warriors Finals and move on? Also, disclaimer: I know nothing of basketball except for what Chris Broussard tells me.
12. We have quite a few characters here in the league and not everyone always plays nice. Probably the product of so many alpha males. To me some of the trolling and fights is better than TV. I'll just get some popcorn and watch this place implode in a single thread. Who do you enjoy just sitting back and watching when it comes to trolling or arguments on the board?
Oh man. Pirate Steve is pretty good. Play trolls well. Aaron does a good job of trolling, I think. Ashes and Broph can be baited pretty well. Boston Steve will bite on almost anything. Love Boston Steve and Play interactions. Ashes and Pirate Steve. Shale and everyone. Danchevy tends to overreact. Styro is pretty mean. That's fun. Broph tends to really argue trolling which is fun. Dave is an asshole. Hes fun to watch explode.
Definitely have some good trollers in here and some people who are good at getting trolled lololol. I will say that a lot of people who say they are trolling aren't trolling at all and are pretty serious about what they're saying. The whole thing with Steve2 and Ashes... wtf was that? If you think he was trolling then damn.
13. Let's do a kill, marry, fuck. Your three are Goldie Hawn, Beverly D'Angelo, and Cloris Leachman. I tried to pick older women because you're old as shit.
Nummy nums. I like it.
Kill Cloris LEachman. She never did anything for me. Kinda funny in Young Frankenstein. No big loss.
Marry Goldie Hawn. Money and shes still skinny. Plus we can talk about how Chevy Chase was in bed. Fun stuff. Plus maybe we can do a mother daughter threesome with Kate Hudson. Worst case I can try and do a shower sneak in when shes over for the holidays.
Fuck Beverly D'Angelo. See those titties in vacation? Wow. Hottie. Short and buxom. Yes please.
I don't know man. This is way tougher than I thought. Cloris is a sex pro. She could please you in ways you haven't even imagined. Goldie is vivacious. Va-va-voom. And alright yeah those tits on Bev were delish. Grade A.
