Post by greeme on Mar 6, 2014 13:00:54 GMT -5
1. So, how are you enjoying the rebuild? How many years were you planning on rebuilding for and what are your plans now? Any chance you make the playoffs this year?
My plan was to rebuild through Bumgarner and Posey. I really wanted both of those guys. But its pretty apparent that I couldn't lose at the rate I wanted. I tried to dump players and I still felt like I won more games then the teams around me even in my own division. Really frustrating. Once Aaron decided to rebuild it really made no sense for me to keep on losing. Too much readily available talent throughout the league. No one likes to contend and consistently win. Its easier to lose then to win. And most tend to like whats easy. Its unfortunate though. I had a great run of winning and just wanted a small window to lose and rack up some youth and I couldn't. Sucks for me.
As for this year I have no chance at the playoffs. My team is much better then the start of the season but its still flawed. I have some defensive concerns. I don't have much depth and my pen is pretty bad. All of those things lead to a 550 team at best. I do like the pieces Ive ade and I feel like I have the ability to get more talent in the off-season. Next year I expect to challenge Shale for the NL West crown. Just need to make a couple big moves for a stud SP and maybe a stud OF bat.
Rebuilding takes too much time and luck for my taste. Once I get a decent team together I will try to consistently retool from teams that want to rebuild.
2. You have had a lot of good teams, which one was the best? Which one was your favorite? Do you think that your teams were underrated in the top 20 teams articles - bbsblthree.proboards.com/thread/4327/top-20-teams-10-1?
I looked through CATO for this one. I really liked my 1997 team a lot. I loved that offense. So many good hitters who had good years. In retrospect it seems impossible for my team in my park to have a 290 average. But my guys killed it that year. Barry Bonds. Matt Williams. Eric Davis. Bill Mueller. Mark Grace. All of them had great years. My pitching was solid, but the offense carried us. The lack of SP is why we didn't get farther in the playoffs.
I think my best team as the 1998 team. I added Glavine and Juan. Both were a huge help but IMO Glavine was key. Added that extra element and it really paid off with my first title. So much fun when everything comes together. But ya, going out and getting a star hitter and a star pitcher was huge. Really put me over the top. Kinda what Id like to do this off-season.
so just ignore my last question if you want to
3. Which is more important in the regular season, pitching or hitting? What about the playoffs?
I think in season its a combination of both. So many games. So many opportunities. I think the active GMs have the advantage sim to sim in the regular season. Lots of guys will miss injuries or lineup tweaks do to slumps in season. I constantly change lineups based on who's hot and who's not. I look at lefty/righty splits and injuries. Different lineups every sim. So having a balanced team and paying attention is key. In the post season everyone is on their game. Reset rotations. Ideal lineups. No injury holes. Its much more difficult to win in the playoffs. This is why dominant starting pitching is key. In my opinion all that you really want in the postseason is 3 elite type starting pitchers. That's the key.
hmmmmmm, I don't really do that, maybe i'll start
4. If you were starting a team from scratch which player would you start with?
If I could have one player in the league to start with Id take Miguel Cabrera. First off pitching is pretty watered down still. So many 7 and 8 AR guys that are mediocre. You really need 9 an 10 guys to be dominant. But you can acquire 7 and 8 guys easily and IRI or TIA them up to 9 and 10. So its not hard to get those elite type quality performances from pitchers. Hitters are tougher. Young hitters are so valuable. Everyone wants them Desire them. Needs them. No better young hitter then Cabrera. BRILLS everywhere. And at the most important spots. He could legitimately be a Triple Crown threat every year. 350/50/125/1100 is completely within reason.
Hard to argue with Miggy, I would probably take Wood though. Pitchers are key in the playoffs.
5. When you decided to rebuild, gms said that you received to little in return for your players; agree or disagree?
I did a horrible job selling. So bad. I got less then ideal value for all my big pieces. And I had to trade for my picks back. Horrible strategically. Never rebuild without your picks. Never trade your stars for less then a young stud plus. If I could do it all again I never would've rebuilt. I probably would be winning the division with my old team too. Very frustrating. In the future If I do try to rebuild again, which is pretty unlikely, I will wait until I own my firsts and i wont rush to trade my stars. Im sure my initial next rebuild will be much smoother.
Considering all of that I had pretty good PD luck and made a boat load of cash and made the rebuild work. I had 10-12 top tier spects and acquired lots of real good veteran talent while still keping the main guys I wanted to keep. Matt Kemp. Austin Jackson. Sergio Romo. Elvis Andrus. Joe Smith. Darren ODay. Alex Torres. Love them all.
My favorite part of the rebuild was turning down my offers and then taking worse ones. Bitter? nah.
6. I hate pds, nothing is worse than opening the player development page and seeing that your top 10 pick has had a bad pd. What is your take on pds? Should the pd rules be changed in any way?
I think PDs suck. But in my opinion we get as many good as bad. Its evens out. Its the games way of making ratings relative. If we all only got good PDs the league would be so watered down most of the PDs would be irrelevant. So I don't mind it much. Its just part of the game. I wouldn't change anything or allow for extra fixes. That would just water down league ratings more. Overall teams should rely less on development and more on making things happen. Make trades, Get better. Win games. Make money.
my first year was really tough. Pretty much every sim something bad happened. I also wasted money reversing players that there was no point reversing. meh. live and learn.
7. What was the worst trade you made? The best?
The worst trade I made was the Berkman trade with PITT. I got Jose Guillen, Robert Mina and Denny Stark. I just rushed it. But it was the first trade and it kinda pushed me in a direction. Berkman had also come off a disappointing year for me. And I wanted to do something big. I got decent stuff for all these guys individually but obviously I couldve gotten more.
My best trade was probably the Kason Gabbard trade. Although I ha a ton of very nice trades early on that could compare. I traded Fultz and picks for Juan Gonzalez. I traded Foulke for some nice peices from CIN early on as well. But the Gabbard trade was great. I got a first, Paul Maholm and James Urich(Dayton Buller). Maholm and Buller both got PDs and then I flipped them for solid VETs. I love waiting on PDs then moving those new sexy looking players. Works pretty well.
8. Which gms would you like to see join/rejoin? Is Ashes really gone? If you had to fire two gms, who would you let go?
I really wish Chris would come back. He was great in HOU. He has a good attitude and hes a very good GM. If he had the time he would be a great addition. Secondly Id pick an active Mark. He didn't have time before and I'm sure he doesn't now but hes a great person and a very good GM. He'd be a perfect fit again.
Ashes is in the Navy. Hell be gone for a couple months but hell be back. Just a temporary absence.
This one is tougher. Easy choice is DRowe. He takes a beating because he has a decent team that he cant get over the hump. He had a huge financial advantage to start the league. And he seems to just kinda coast too much. Even with trading Helton hes missing out on deals while he "waits for the right one". Sometimes waiting is bad. And Im not sure he has the time to be here.
As for my 2nd fire Id probably do BOHS. He seemed like he had a decent chance to be good but he didn't really follow a plan well and then just left. Hes been MIA for awhile. Cant be inactive for long amounts of time in BBSBL. Itll catch up to you.
Who is Chris? If he has a good attitude it can't be Marty. Bohs was active and then just disappeared. hope everything is ok.
9. Why haven’t you restarted BBS yet? What are you waiting for?
I don't have the time first off. I'm too busy. I work 40 hours a week over 6 days. I watch Jackson at least 20 hours a week when my wife works. I wake up with him every morning or most mornings so I'm usually going on almost no sleep. I have 1-3 MON thru FRI but almost no time on the weekends. So even if I did start BBS its be a MON-FRI thing. I couldn't do any weekend or evening stuff. It wouldn't be the same. Plus I have very contrasting views on it. Part of me doesn't miss it at all. Don't miss the work or the stress of it. And the other part of me is scared Ill spend too much time on it and itll piss of my wife or make me spend less time with Jackson.
So while I would never say never, I really doubt it'll happen again anytime soon.
Boo hoo. 40 hours. i'm probably at 60 most months. meh. I hate working. Get your act together and restart. Now. No excuses.
10. One of the things which I don’t like about the sim is that there is no parity between the teams. I understand that it is done for realism but it is just a sim, why should one gm have an advantage over another gm?
Realism. Just how the game is set up. Plus it allows for different scenarios for different GMs. More unique experience. Also winning cures all. Even I raised my revenue like 30 million over a couple years. Its not like these factors are locked in forever. It just takes a very structured plan that is put into motion and followed closely. Anyone can do it. Win and the game rewards you.
Meh, I thought that I made a big move to start winning when I got Fernandez/Reuter/Bradford but they just stopped pitching like they did last year.
11. Which teams have the top 5 minor league systems - bbs56.net/BBSBL3/BBSBL3/Site/topsystems.html? What have you noticed about the game’s rating system; which types of players does the game overvalue and undervalue? Is chris Dickerson really the top prospect around?
I still think Im top 5. Mostly through projection with my MRs Torres, ODay and Smith. But still Jackson and Kemp are rare talents.
I like the Padres but not as much as mine. I think some of their top spects are kinda mediocre. And raw. Time will tell.
I like the Phillies mostly because of Kershaw and whoever they get this year. They could have Kershaw and Bumgarner, Harvey or Price. Wow.
And put the Rays up there simply because of Dickerson.
Lastly Ill choose California. I like Buller alot and Pence some. Luebke an Mina are pretty good too.
The game in general over values range and duration. Doesn't knock pitchers down enough for allowing walks. Id take a E duration SP with a B in walks over an A duration SP with an A in walks. The game would see it the other way.
I think Dickeson is the top spect. BRILL walks is pretty rare. And all those Gs are nie. Get him to B/B in steals and you have a franchise worthy guy. Great leadoff hitter. Amazing player.
I love Dickerson but i'll obviously move him probably sooner rather than later
12. What are your pet peeves about ootp? What rules would you change/implement in order to deal with them?
Hmm. I guess just uneven simming. Guys that field worse then their ratings or hit or pitch below ratings. The fact that PDs happen when guys are hot. Probably that 37 kills all players. But hey its just a sim engine.
ummm, Larry Walker must not have gotten the message about dying at 37
13. We are about 40% in. I’m giving you a chance to redo your predictions.
AL East Winner: Toronto
AL Central Winner: Cleveland
AL West Winner: Seattle
AL Wild Card Winner: Oakland
NL East Winner: Montreal
NL Central Winner: Chicago
NL West Winner: Colorado
NL Wild Card Winner: Florida
AL Pennant Winner: Seattle
NL Pennant Winner: Montreal
World Series Winner: Seattle
In-Game AL MVP: Todd Helton
In-Game AL Cy Young: Roy Halladay
In-Game NL MVP: Juan Gonzalez
In-Game NL Cy Young: Kerry Wood
Your Team's Win Total: 75
I like my picks still. Maybe Chicago over Montreal for the WS. Kansas City and Cleveland was tough. LOL at DRowe losing to an un GMd team. Id probably switch out Helton for Rod at this point. Halladay is still a nice pick. Juan in COL is still a god pick. Maybe Vlad instead. Wood is always a good pick. Ill stick with it. Overall Im pretty happy with my picks. Even my b75 wins is looking about spot on.
I think Howry lost numbers when he took a talent hit. I wonder how that will affect the Expos
My plan was to rebuild through Bumgarner and Posey. I really wanted both of those guys. But its pretty apparent that I couldn't lose at the rate I wanted. I tried to dump players and I still felt like I won more games then the teams around me even in my own division. Really frustrating. Once Aaron decided to rebuild it really made no sense for me to keep on losing. Too much readily available talent throughout the league. No one likes to contend and consistently win. Its easier to lose then to win. And most tend to like whats easy. Its unfortunate though. I had a great run of winning and just wanted a small window to lose and rack up some youth and I couldn't. Sucks for me.
As for this year I have no chance at the playoffs. My team is much better then the start of the season but its still flawed. I have some defensive concerns. I don't have much depth and my pen is pretty bad. All of those things lead to a 550 team at best. I do like the pieces Ive ade and I feel like I have the ability to get more talent in the off-season. Next year I expect to challenge Shale for the NL West crown. Just need to make a couple big moves for a stud SP and maybe a stud OF bat.
Rebuilding takes too much time and luck for my taste. Once I get a decent team together I will try to consistently retool from teams that want to rebuild.
2. You have had a lot of good teams, which one was the best? Which one was your favorite? Do you think that your teams were underrated in the top 20 teams articles - bbsblthree.proboards.com/thread/4327/top-20-teams-10-1?
I looked through CATO for this one. I really liked my 1997 team a lot. I loved that offense. So many good hitters who had good years. In retrospect it seems impossible for my team in my park to have a 290 average. But my guys killed it that year. Barry Bonds. Matt Williams. Eric Davis. Bill Mueller. Mark Grace. All of them had great years. My pitching was solid, but the offense carried us. The lack of SP is why we didn't get farther in the playoffs.
I think my best team as the 1998 team. I added Glavine and Juan. Both were a huge help but IMO Glavine was key. Added that extra element and it really paid off with my first title. So much fun when everything comes together. But ya, going out and getting a star hitter and a star pitcher was huge. Really put me over the top. Kinda what Id like to do this off-season.
so just ignore my last question if you want to
3. Which is more important in the regular season, pitching or hitting? What about the playoffs?
I think in season its a combination of both. So many games. So many opportunities. I think the active GMs have the advantage sim to sim in the regular season. Lots of guys will miss injuries or lineup tweaks do to slumps in season. I constantly change lineups based on who's hot and who's not. I look at lefty/righty splits and injuries. Different lineups every sim. So having a balanced team and paying attention is key. In the post season everyone is on their game. Reset rotations. Ideal lineups. No injury holes. Its much more difficult to win in the playoffs. This is why dominant starting pitching is key. In my opinion all that you really want in the postseason is 3 elite type starting pitchers. That's the key.
hmmmmmm, I don't really do that, maybe i'll start
4. If you were starting a team from scratch which player would you start with?
If I could have one player in the league to start with Id take Miguel Cabrera. First off pitching is pretty watered down still. So many 7 and 8 AR guys that are mediocre. You really need 9 an 10 guys to be dominant. But you can acquire 7 and 8 guys easily and IRI or TIA them up to 9 and 10. So its not hard to get those elite type quality performances from pitchers. Hitters are tougher. Young hitters are so valuable. Everyone wants them Desire them. Needs them. No better young hitter then Cabrera. BRILLS everywhere. And at the most important spots. He could legitimately be a Triple Crown threat every year. 350/50/125/1100 is completely within reason.
Hard to argue with Miggy, I would probably take Wood though. Pitchers are key in the playoffs.
5. When you decided to rebuild, gms said that you received to little in return for your players; agree or disagree?
I did a horrible job selling. So bad. I got less then ideal value for all my big pieces. And I had to trade for my picks back. Horrible strategically. Never rebuild without your picks. Never trade your stars for less then a young stud plus. If I could do it all again I never would've rebuilt. I probably would be winning the division with my old team too. Very frustrating. In the future If I do try to rebuild again, which is pretty unlikely, I will wait until I own my firsts and i wont rush to trade my stars. Im sure my initial next rebuild will be much smoother.
Considering all of that I had pretty good PD luck and made a boat load of cash and made the rebuild work. I had 10-12 top tier spects and acquired lots of real good veteran talent while still keping the main guys I wanted to keep. Matt Kemp. Austin Jackson. Sergio Romo. Elvis Andrus. Joe Smith. Darren ODay. Alex Torres. Love them all.
My favorite part of the rebuild was turning down my offers and then taking worse ones. Bitter? nah.
6. I hate pds, nothing is worse than opening the player development page and seeing that your top 10 pick has had a bad pd. What is your take on pds? Should the pd rules be changed in any way?
I think PDs suck. But in my opinion we get as many good as bad. Its evens out. Its the games way of making ratings relative. If we all only got good PDs the league would be so watered down most of the PDs would be irrelevant. So I don't mind it much. Its just part of the game. I wouldn't change anything or allow for extra fixes. That would just water down league ratings more. Overall teams should rely less on development and more on making things happen. Make trades, Get better. Win games. Make money.
my first year was really tough. Pretty much every sim something bad happened. I also wasted money reversing players that there was no point reversing. meh. live and learn.
7. What was the worst trade you made? The best?
The worst trade I made was the Berkman trade with PITT. I got Jose Guillen, Robert Mina and Denny Stark. I just rushed it. But it was the first trade and it kinda pushed me in a direction. Berkman had also come off a disappointing year for me. And I wanted to do something big. I got decent stuff for all these guys individually but obviously I couldve gotten more.
My best trade was probably the Kason Gabbard trade. Although I ha a ton of very nice trades early on that could compare. I traded Fultz and picks for Juan Gonzalez. I traded Foulke for some nice peices from CIN early on as well. But the Gabbard trade was great. I got a first, Paul Maholm and James Urich(Dayton Buller). Maholm and Buller both got PDs and then I flipped them for solid VETs. I love waiting on PDs then moving those new sexy looking players. Works pretty well.
8. Which gms would you like to see join/rejoin? Is Ashes really gone? If you had to fire two gms, who would you let go?
I really wish Chris would come back. He was great in HOU. He has a good attitude and hes a very good GM. If he had the time he would be a great addition. Secondly Id pick an active Mark. He didn't have time before and I'm sure he doesn't now but hes a great person and a very good GM. He'd be a perfect fit again.
Ashes is in the Navy. Hell be gone for a couple months but hell be back. Just a temporary absence.
This one is tougher. Easy choice is DRowe. He takes a beating because he has a decent team that he cant get over the hump. He had a huge financial advantage to start the league. And he seems to just kinda coast too much. Even with trading Helton hes missing out on deals while he "waits for the right one". Sometimes waiting is bad. And Im not sure he has the time to be here.
As for my 2nd fire Id probably do BOHS. He seemed like he had a decent chance to be good but he didn't really follow a plan well and then just left. Hes been MIA for awhile. Cant be inactive for long amounts of time in BBSBL. Itll catch up to you.
Who is Chris? If he has a good attitude it can't be Marty. Bohs was active and then just disappeared. hope everything is ok.
9. Why haven’t you restarted BBS yet? What are you waiting for?
I don't have the time first off. I'm too busy. I work 40 hours a week over 6 days. I watch Jackson at least 20 hours a week when my wife works. I wake up with him every morning or most mornings so I'm usually going on almost no sleep. I have 1-3 MON thru FRI but almost no time on the weekends. So even if I did start BBS its be a MON-FRI thing. I couldn't do any weekend or evening stuff. It wouldn't be the same. Plus I have very contrasting views on it. Part of me doesn't miss it at all. Don't miss the work or the stress of it. And the other part of me is scared Ill spend too much time on it and itll piss of my wife or make me spend less time with Jackson.
So while I would never say never, I really doubt it'll happen again anytime soon.
Boo hoo. 40 hours. i'm probably at 60 most months. meh. I hate working. Get your act together and restart. Now. No excuses.
10. One of the things which I don’t like about the sim is that there is no parity between the teams. I understand that it is done for realism but it is just a sim, why should one gm have an advantage over another gm?
Realism. Just how the game is set up. Plus it allows for different scenarios for different GMs. More unique experience. Also winning cures all. Even I raised my revenue like 30 million over a couple years. Its not like these factors are locked in forever. It just takes a very structured plan that is put into motion and followed closely. Anyone can do it. Win and the game rewards you.
Meh, I thought that I made a big move to start winning when I got Fernandez/Reuter/Bradford but they just stopped pitching like they did last year.
11. Which teams have the top 5 minor league systems - bbs56.net/BBSBL3/BBSBL3/Site/topsystems.html? What have you noticed about the game’s rating system; which types of players does the game overvalue and undervalue? Is chris Dickerson really the top prospect around?
I still think Im top 5. Mostly through projection with my MRs Torres, ODay and Smith. But still Jackson and Kemp are rare talents.
I like the Padres but not as much as mine. I think some of their top spects are kinda mediocre. And raw. Time will tell.
I like the Phillies mostly because of Kershaw and whoever they get this year. They could have Kershaw and Bumgarner, Harvey or Price. Wow.
And put the Rays up there simply because of Dickerson.
Lastly Ill choose California. I like Buller alot and Pence some. Luebke an Mina are pretty good too.
The game in general over values range and duration. Doesn't knock pitchers down enough for allowing walks. Id take a E duration SP with a B in walks over an A duration SP with an A in walks. The game would see it the other way.
I think Dickeson is the top spect. BRILL walks is pretty rare. And all those Gs are nie. Get him to B/B in steals and you have a franchise worthy guy. Great leadoff hitter. Amazing player.
I love Dickerson but i'll obviously move him probably sooner rather than later
12. What are your pet peeves about ootp? What rules would you change/implement in order to deal with them?
Hmm. I guess just uneven simming. Guys that field worse then their ratings or hit or pitch below ratings. The fact that PDs happen when guys are hot. Probably that 37 kills all players. But hey its just a sim engine.
ummm, Larry Walker must not have gotten the message about dying at 37
13. We are about 40% in. I’m giving you a chance to redo your predictions.
AL East Winner: Toronto
AL Central Winner: Cleveland
AL West Winner: Seattle
AL Wild Card Winner: Oakland
NL East Winner: Montreal
NL Central Winner: Chicago
NL West Winner: Colorado
NL Wild Card Winner: Florida
AL Pennant Winner: Seattle
NL Pennant Winner: Montreal
World Series Winner: Seattle
In-Game AL MVP: Todd Helton
In-Game AL Cy Young: Roy Halladay
In-Game NL MVP: Juan Gonzalez
In-Game NL Cy Young: Kerry Wood
Your Team's Win Total: 75
I like my picks still. Maybe Chicago over Montreal for the WS. Kansas City and Cleveland was tough. LOL at DRowe losing to an un GMd team. Id probably switch out Helton for Rod at this point. Halladay is still a nice pick. Juan in COL is still a god pick. Maybe Vlad instead. Wood is always a good pick. Ill stick with it. Overall Im pretty happy with my picks. Even my b75 wins is looking about spot on.
I think Howry lost numbers when he took a talent hit. I wonder how that will affect the Expos