Post by maxwell on Sept 9, 2014 9:20:55 GMT -5
1. I feel Spencer took some shots at you in his latest interview with Ashes. From my perspective, you two are joint commissioners and do an excellent job. What is it like to share the duties? Do you two get along or are there ever commissioner arguments?
There were no shots. It was just the way Spencer posed the questions. I think. If he was taking shots then I will wreck him. But it’s really nice to have two guys. It makes sims much more seamless when we don’t have to worry about one of us being gone for the night. It’s pretty rare that both of us are unavailable. It also helps a ton with sim fatigue. It’s certainly not a secret that GMs in this league are ruthless in their demand for sims. Splitting those responsibilities allows us to keep up with that. Having multiple dudes also makes decision-making stuff surprisingly easy. A quick PM chain with Ashes and Erbes and it’s done. It helps that we’re almost always on the same page. Can’t ever remember an argument, we’re pretty easygoing for the most part. The best was our PM chain around the DH snafu. Oh lord we were lol’ing so hard at everyone freaking out. Good times. Love these dudes.
Great to hear that you two have such a strong relationship. That really is a key to success!
2. What is the worst part about being a commissioner? What grinds your gears?
I always said back in the day that it was a thankless job. Nobody appreciates what you do, they just complain when you do something they don’t like. But this version of the league is different. Feel like most dudes here actually do appreciate the time we put in. Guys thank me for simming and that gives me a warm feeling in my groin. So the worst part is probably the thought that my team winning is somehow invalidated when I sim. Like there’s someone out there who thinks I’m cheating. Obviously, most dudes here know that (a) I’m usually a good guy and would never cheat, (b) I never win anyway, and (c) this game makes it almost impossible to cheat without being blatantly obvious like our good friend Bobby B. But I’ll still have this nagging thought when I sim and go 7-0, or the Indians get a SEI or something. Not helped by people who actually make posts about that, whether trolling or not. So those posts grind my gears. Ummmmm also hate the sims where there are like 10 PMs that all have a billion changes. Obviously it’s cool to send those changes our way, there just seem to be random sims where it takes an hour to input them.
Thank you for being a commissioner and taking time out of your week to provide the rest of us with entertainment.
3. This league has a TON of activity. Do you feel it ever gets to be too much? Overwhelming?
Not usually. Love the activity. There’s always someone around so I can always get on here when I’m bored. Even at 4 am you’ll probably see Greeme and Shale. The only time it’s overwhelming is during the frenzies. Holy hell, this last one there were about 500 trades to input. Ashes is a saint for doing that. I love that guy. I also hate getting home and seeing a thread with like 6 new pages of activity, and then I have to go through and read all of them just in case I missed a Break argument or a Crazymike sighting. But in general, no. Activity is awesome.
4. How do you feel about the “post inflators?” I won’t name names, but I see a lot of people (I’ve done it a couple of times) who turn one post into ten. Isn’t this against the spirit of the game? We seem to just be handing out cash.
I’ll name names. SPENCER YOU POST WHORE. It can get kind of annoying, especially when his phone makes triple posts. Or when I go to a thread and it’s just 8 pages of Spencer saying “Padres?” It’s whatever though. The reward encourages activity so I can handle a couple post whores if it means we get other GMs active. The other reason I like it is because the GABL dudes hate it so much that they (I think) delete posts that are extraneous. I’m all about your First Amendment rights. Oh yeah, I was going to name names. Shale does it too.
Named Names
.
5. Who needs to be voted out of the league? I know a couple of people who would be great gms if there were open teams. Could we not pull a Survivor and vote someone off the island every year?
Well first off, please don’t hesitate to invite them. Unless it’s Maletto. Fuck that guy. I don’t think we can arbitrarily vote someone off every year though. That would be pretty rough. If we do have a strong wait list though, I don’t see why we can’t take a hard look where our weakest GMs stand. Having competition for GM spots can only be good for activity. First name that comes to mind is DanPPD. Maybe I just having been paying attention, but I feel like I haven’t seen him around at all, and his payroll is gargantuan for his record. Definitely a lot of stuff he could have done with his team, and I can’t think of much that was done. Also want to see Kobe do more. Wouldn’t vote him out or anything, but he’s been pretty quiet since winning the title his first year. Crazymike is a popular choice and that’s a tough one since his team is actually good. But no frenzy trades was a pretty bad look. And he’s missed some big reversals he needed to make. So leggo Mike. The one that I don’t typically agree with is DRowe. I see him get flak a lot, and he certainly doesn’t post much. But I think he does enough. Posts his reversals. Has one of the best teams here. Only knock on him is being a Pats fan, which could be a fireable offense.
I was really hoping that you would be in for the survivoresqe method of eliminating people. Heck, we could even call it the weakest link. However, I do appreciate the honesty and you sticking up for DRowe. I would personally love to see Maletto, little Harp, and TJ in the league. We all know TJ needs the escape now that he is a married man.
6. The Brewers were very quiet during the trade deadline. Did you fall asleep at the wheel? Did you lose track of time in the strip club? The people want answers.
Well, trades are not exactly on my mind when I’m with Cassandra. But I am already by nature very conservative with my team. Add a tiny market where I can’t really support a payroll over 50 mil, and it makes it very difficult to add the pieces that people are advertising. Like, I’d love Wood but his contract would wreck me. I did have some potential deals lined up for some fairly expensive dudes (9-10 mil) and figured I’d work around those contracts, but those GMs backed out at the last second.
You are definitely a conservative GM, which is not a bad thing. However, it does seem that you are going to need to “go for it” within the next 2-4 years.
7. You’re currently fighting for a playoff spot in the AL Central. You’re three games behind Tampa Bay. Are you making the playoffs? What are the keys to success? Is your team going to swoon like the 2014 Real Life Brewers? Editor Note: This question was asked prior to the final two – three sims, but Steve answered as if he would not be making the playoffs.
No. We suck. Unlike the real life Brewers, we never really had a playoff spot this year. We’ve been perpetually 3 games back. We’ve been great against the bad teams and not so great against the good teams. Can’t make the playoffs that way. Jenkins got hurt and that kind of sucked. Didn’t have great depth to fill DH. Pagan has been underperforming after having a great year last season. Drew Meyer is well off his career numbers. Pitchers in my bullpen not pitching to their ratings. All these excuses! I really need one more stud starter in my rotation. They’ve all been pitching well this season, but a Kendrick game is almost always a win, while a Kensaku game is more of a crapshoot. Having a Wood or Paps in there would have made a huge difference.
I believe Kendrick did give up a career hit to a certain someone! Thank goodness we have the news feed!
8. How do you feel about the Brewers being in the AL Central? You’d also be three games back in the NL Wildcard race. Even though Houston was contracted, do you feel 2014 would be a good year to move the Brewers to the NL Central? It just feels odd seeing you in the AL.
You sweet summer child, I already was in the NL Central. Started in AL, moved to NL, then moved back to AL with contraction. I don’t want to move back because I don’t want to have to modify the Export Tracker for the 9th time.
I was unaware that you had moved back and forth, but I would love to see you update the Export tracker again. 2014. Change. Change we can believe in.
9. You currently have the 7th lowest payroll in the league at just over 51 million. You have some young players locked up to small contracts putting you in position to really do some damage over the next few years. Whether you make the post season or not, are there big moves in store for your off season?
Valid point about 7th lowest payroll, but I’m pretty much maxed out with what I can support. If I go any higher I’ll go back on probation I’ll probably try to shave some payroll this offseason somewhere and get a pitcher. Or maybe try to boost Moreno’s duration in ST and throw him into the rotation. We’ll see. I already know I won’t be able to participate in FA without moving some guys that wouldn’t make sense to move. So I’ll probably just get Prior off of Stevie B and call it a day.
I really believe that there is more money in brats and beer than you are letting on. Where is all of that extra cash going? It’s obviously not going into the team coffer…
10. Tell me about the Rangers. What are their keys to success over the next five years?
Stick it out. You’ll be bad again next year. You have some really nice spects, keep acquiring that talent. Also earn as much board cash as you can. Most of the guys who are successful here know how to get cash and where to most effectively spend it. Key to success for you might be what you do with your pitching. You have decent hitting spects, but not nearly enough pitching to put a rotation together. You’ve noticed how many dominant pitchers we have in this league (pitching ratings are a bit inflated) so you really have to have great pitchers in order to win.
I agree with your assessment. Pitching is a challenge with the inflated ratings. The top spec in this draft is great, but the others just do not stand out as influential pitchers given the inflated ratings that we have here in BBSBL. Next year will be a little boring with all of the tanking, but I hope to be able to snag the top pick and also luck into some great PDs along the way.
11. When “fake” players being to be created, will Iron Horse Horton make a return? (Throw back to BBSBL)
Duh. Iron Horse will probably make the same draft as Patricia “Crystal” Stier. I really am excited for fake drafts though. Won’t have all the complaining about everyone’s favorite player. Will probably get a bit more creative. Maybe through in some special stips or something. It’ll be fun.
I’m excited. I think it should be a goal for the top five specs to have a nickname every year. Iron Horse is making a return!! I’ll even participate in the conspiracy to make sure that Maletto gets him.
12. Your man RYAN BRUAN was caught juicing. Which one of your players would most likely be caught juicing and suspended? Which league player is most likely juicing? We need more testing. Crack down.
He just had herpes! Give him a break! I have a feeling that on the BBSBL Brewers, Casey McGehee and Drew Meyer have been sharing some tips. Casey started as a decent spect but had a nice PD and ended up near the league lead in homers this year. Meyer started as an awful spect and somehow turned into an absolute freak. I think we know the only way that is going to happen is a little of that good stuff. Across the league…do I really need to answer this? It’s Miggy and it’s not even close. Everyone in the clubhouse knows. Everyone in the suite knows. Even Ashes knows. It’s no secret. Miggy has little packets of gummies in the dugout. No shame.
I’m glad you went with the obvious answer. However, I was hoping for a little more insider information or you taking on one of your division rivals.
There were no shots. It was just the way Spencer posed the questions. I think. If he was taking shots then I will wreck him. But it’s really nice to have two guys. It makes sims much more seamless when we don’t have to worry about one of us being gone for the night. It’s pretty rare that both of us are unavailable. It also helps a ton with sim fatigue. It’s certainly not a secret that GMs in this league are ruthless in their demand for sims. Splitting those responsibilities allows us to keep up with that. Having multiple dudes also makes decision-making stuff surprisingly easy. A quick PM chain with Ashes and Erbes and it’s done. It helps that we’re almost always on the same page. Can’t ever remember an argument, we’re pretty easygoing for the most part. The best was our PM chain around the DH snafu. Oh lord we were lol’ing so hard at everyone freaking out. Good times. Love these dudes.
Great to hear that you two have such a strong relationship. That really is a key to success!
2. What is the worst part about being a commissioner? What grinds your gears?
I always said back in the day that it was a thankless job. Nobody appreciates what you do, they just complain when you do something they don’t like. But this version of the league is different. Feel like most dudes here actually do appreciate the time we put in. Guys thank me for simming and that gives me a warm feeling in my groin. So the worst part is probably the thought that my team winning is somehow invalidated when I sim. Like there’s someone out there who thinks I’m cheating. Obviously, most dudes here know that (a) I’m usually a good guy and would never cheat, (b) I never win anyway, and (c) this game makes it almost impossible to cheat without being blatantly obvious like our good friend Bobby B. But I’ll still have this nagging thought when I sim and go 7-0, or the Indians get a SEI or something. Not helped by people who actually make posts about that, whether trolling or not. So those posts grind my gears. Ummmmm also hate the sims where there are like 10 PMs that all have a billion changes. Obviously it’s cool to send those changes our way, there just seem to be random sims where it takes an hour to input them.
Thank you for being a commissioner and taking time out of your week to provide the rest of us with entertainment.
3. This league has a TON of activity. Do you feel it ever gets to be too much? Overwhelming?
Not usually. Love the activity. There’s always someone around so I can always get on here when I’m bored. Even at 4 am you’ll probably see Greeme and Shale. The only time it’s overwhelming is during the frenzies. Holy hell, this last one there were about 500 trades to input. Ashes is a saint for doing that. I love that guy. I also hate getting home and seeing a thread with like 6 new pages of activity, and then I have to go through and read all of them just in case I missed a Break argument or a Crazymike sighting. But in general, no. Activity is awesome.
4. How do you feel about the “post inflators?” I won’t name names, but I see a lot of people (I’ve done it a couple of times) who turn one post into ten. Isn’t this against the spirit of the game? We seem to just be handing out cash.
I’ll name names. SPENCER YOU POST WHORE. It can get kind of annoying, especially when his phone makes triple posts. Or when I go to a thread and it’s just 8 pages of Spencer saying “Padres?” It’s whatever though. The reward encourages activity so I can handle a couple post whores if it means we get other GMs active. The other reason I like it is because the GABL dudes hate it so much that they (I think) delete posts that are extraneous. I’m all about your First Amendment rights. Oh yeah, I was going to name names. Shale does it too.
Named Names
.
5. Who needs to be voted out of the league? I know a couple of people who would be great gms if there were open teams. Could we not pull a Survivor and vote someone off the island every year?
Well first off, please don’t hesitate to invite them. Unless it’s Maletto. Fuck that guy. I don’t think we can arbitrarily vote someone off every year though. That would be pretty rough. If we do have a strong wait list though, I don’t see why we can’t take a hard look where our weakest GMs stand. Having competition for GM spots can only be good for activity. First name that comes to mind is DanPPD. Maybe I just having been paying attention, but I feel like I haven’t seen him around at all, and his payroll is gargantuan for his record. Definitely a lot of stuff he could have done with his team, and I can’t think of much that was done. Also want to see Kobe do more. Wouldn’t vote him out or anything, but he’s been pretty quiet since winning the title his first year. Crazymike is a popular choice and that’s a tough one since his team is actually good. But no frenzy trades was a pretty bad look. And he’s missed some big reversals he needed to make. So leggo Mike. The one that I don’t typically agree with is DRowe. I see him get flak a lot, and he certainly doesn’t post much. But I think he does enough. Posts his reversals. Has one of the best teams here. Only knock on him is being a Pats fan, which could be a fireable offense.
I was really hoping that you would be in for the survivoresqe method of eliminating people. Heck, we could even call it the weakest link. However, I do appreciate the honesty and you sticking up for DRowe. I would personally love to see Maletto, little Harp, and TJ in the league. We all know TJ needs the escape now that he is a married man.
6. The Brewers were very quiet during the trade deadline. Did you fall asleep at the wheel? Did you lose track of time in the strip club? The people want answers.
Well, trades are not exactly on my mind when I’m with Cassandra. But I am already by nature very conservative with my team. Add a tiny market where I can’t really support a payroll over 50 mil, and it makes it very difficult to add the pieces that people are advertising. Like, I’d love Wood but his contract would wreck me. I did have some potential deals lined up for some fairly expensive dudes (9-10 mil) and figured I’d work around those contracts, but those GMs backed out at the last second.
You are definitely a conservative GM, which is not a bad thing. However, it does seem that you are going to need to “go for it” within the next 2-4 years.
7. You’re currently fighting for a playoff spot in the AL Central. You’re three games behind Tampa Bay. Are you making the playoffs? What are the keys to success? Is your team going to swoon like the 2014 Real Life Brewers? Editor Note: This question was asked prior to the final two – three sims, but Steve answered as if he would not be making the playoffs.
No. We suck. Unlike the real life Brewers, we never really had a playoff spot this year. We’ve been perpetually 3 games back. We’ve been great against the bad teams and not so great against the good teams. Can’t make the playoffs that way. Jenkins got hurt and that kind of sucked. Didn’t have great depth to fill DH. Pagan has been underperforming after having a great year last season. Drew Meyer is well off his career numbers. Pitchers in my bullpen not pitching to their ratings. All these excuses! I really need one more stud starter in my rotation. They’ve all been pitching well this season, but a Kendrick game is almost always a win, while a Kensaku game is more of a crapshoot. Having a Wood or Paps in there would have made a huge difference.
I believe Kendrick did give up a career hit to a certain someone! Thank goodness we have the news feed!
8. How do you feel about the Brewers being in the AL Central? You’d also be three games back in the NL Wildcard race. Even though Houston was contracted, do you feel 2014 would be a good year to move the Brewers to the NL Central? It just feels odd seeing you in the AL.
You sweet summer child, I already was in the NL Central. Started in AL, moved to NL, then moved back to AL with contraction. I don’t want to move back because I don’t want to have to modify the Export Tracker for the 9th time.
I was unaware that you had moved back and forth, but I would love to see you update the Export tracker again. 2014. Change. Change we can believe in.
9. You currently have the 7th lowest payroll in the league at just over 51 million. You have some young players locked up to small contracts putting you in position to really do some damage over the next few years. Whether you make the post season or not, are there big moves in store for your off season?
Valid point about 7th lowest payroll, but I’m pretty much maxed out with what I can support. If I go any higher I’ll go back on probation I’ll probably try to shave some payroll this offseason somewhere and get a pitcher. Or maybe try to boost Moreno’s duration in ST and throw him into the rotation. We’ll see. I already know I won’t be able to participate in FA without moving some guys that wouldn’t make sense to move. So I’ll probably just get Prior off of Stevie B and call it a day.
I really believe that there is more money in brats and beer than you are letting on. Where is all of that extra cash going? It’s obviously not going into the team coffer…
10. Tell me about the Rangers. What are their keys to success over the next five years?
Stick it out. You’ll be bad again next year. You have some really nice spects, keep acquiring that talent. Also earn as much board cash as you can. Most of the guys who are successful here know how to get cash and where to most effectively spend it. Key to success for you might be what you do with your pitching. You have decent hitting spects, but not nearly enough pitching to put a rotation together. You’ve noticed how many dominant pitchers we have in this league (pitching ratings are a bit inflated) so you really have to have great pitchers in order to win.
I agree with your assessment. Pitching is a challenge with the inflated ratings. The top spec in this draft is great, but the others just do not stand out as influential pitchers given the inflated ratings that we have here in BBSBL. Next year will be a little boring with all of the tanking, but I hope to be able to snag the top pick and also luck into some great PDs along the way.
11. When “fake” players being to be created, will Iron Horse Horton make a return? (Throw back to BBSBL)
Duh. Iron Horse will probably make the same draft as Patricia “Crystal” Stier. I really am excited for fake drafts though. Won’t have all the complaining about everyone’s favorite player. Will probably get a bit more creative. Maybe through in some special stips or something. It’ll be fun.
I’m excited. I think it should be a goal for the top five specs to have a nickname every year. Iron Horse is making a return!! I’ll even participate in the conspiracy to make sure that Maletto gets him.
12. Your man RYAN BRUAN was caught juicing. Which one of your players would most likely be caught juicing and suspended? Which league player is most likely juicing? We need more testing. Crack down.
He just had herpes! Give him a break! I have a feeling that on the BBSBL Brewers, Casey McGehee and Drew Meyer have been sharing some tips. Casey started as a decent spect but had a nice PD and ended up near the league lead in homers this year. Meyer started as an awful spect and somehow turned into an absolute freak. I think we know the only way that is going to happen is a little of that good stuff. Across the league…do I really need to answer this? It’s Miggy and it’s not even close. Everyone in the clubhouse knows. Everyone in the suite knows. Even Ashes knows. It’s no secret. Miggy has little packets of gummies in the dugout. No shame.
I’m glad you went with the obvious answer. However, I was hoping for a little more insider information or you taking on one of your division rivals.
