Post by stooolfan on Jan 21, 2015 19:32:55 GMT -5
1) This year what is going to be your biggest obstacle with making progress on your rebuild?
The 2 main factors of course would be development of my young spects and losing as many games as possible. Good PD's of course would help a ton for spect development and I'm hoping to get at least a few more in the future, but as far as number ratings go, Devon Travis and Christian Colon could both be ready by next season. My top hitter Stetson Allie maybe in 2-3 seasons. I can't wait for him to be up and rake at Coors Field. My pitching is behind my hitting though by a lot. Adam Conley, Kohl Stewart, Chris Stratton and Trey Ball, among others are all nowhere near being ready. So as long as I don't have pitchers ready to come up any time soon, I won't be ready to compete yet.
Obviously I'm trying to lose as much as I can, but it will be tough to catch the Expos and Braves at this point. A top 5 pick though looks realistic. There will be competition, but hopefully my awful pitching staff will allow the opposition to consistently out-slug my team. So yeah just losing more and more and hoping the competition does a bit better is the other big obstacle.
Stetson Allie is going to be really fun to watch. I tried to get him but, you were not having it...Oh well. You should build on your future by trading Wright.....but your Homer boner is keeping you from getting value out of him during a rebuild which makes zero sense. I agree with you..it seems the majority of the league is trying to tank which makes rebuilding harder. Hopefully, it will work out for you and you will be able to aquire a top 5 pick....still you should trade Wright...But good luck on the rebuild and hopefully it aligns when Arizona's and San Francisco's old teams fall off.
2) Who are the top 5 GM's in the league?
Well of course these are just my opinions so it's not like everyone will necessarily agree with me on this, but some definitely stand out from the rest for better or worse.
Ashes has clearly cemented himself as the top BBSBL GM. He has 5 championships now and won 4 in a row from 2008-2011. His 2010 team is what I consider to be the greatest team this league has ever seen and most certainly the best offense of all time. And to top it off, despite all the success he's had, he still has one of the best farm systems around and always has a lot of draft picks on hand as well. The Marlins could compete forever at this rate. Just amazing what Ashes has done in South Beach!
Spencer I'd still put at [HASH]2 even though he still hasn't been to the World Series since his 3rd title in 2001. Regardless, 3 titles in such a competitive league is second most of anyone and just about every season, Spencer has always been at least in the mix for contention and has absolutely dominated the NL West historically. He's been the first to admit his more recent shortcomings but he's still an elite GM and will remain one for the foreseeable future.
Play is obviously up there as well. I guess I'd put him at [HASH]3 despite just the one championship he has. But there's a lot more to it for Play. He is one of the best at developing young teams and has all the prospect depth in the world. He rarely ever loses any trades and makes very smart investments on players he feels can help him in the long run. Like Ashes, Play is always loaded with picks for drafts and clearly knows what he is doing. He dominated the NL Central for a long time and should continue to do so for a while going forward.
Broph is another top 5 GM because he has 2 championships of his own under his belt and makes shrewd trades all the time. He's another guy that really knows to build up a good young organization. He's definitely [HASH]1 among all AL GM's. There is no doubt about that.
The last spot was tough. I really considered Break, Erbes and Stevie B just for the historical success, but I'm gonna go with Chris, our Mariners GM to round out the top 5. Not everyone here knows Chris too well. He was the original Astros GM from 1996-2001 and came back here in 2011 to run the Mariners after Nanz left. Chris got 4 consecutive division titles from 1996-1999 and had one of the best lineups around with the Astros in the 90s.
Now with the Mariners, Chris turned them around from rebuilders into contenders in one season by making a lot of smart trades. The best one of course being the one where he acquired Mark Prior to be his new ace. Guess that's good compensation for missing out on Johan? The Mariners are back to being an elite AL team and all thanks to Chris knowing what he's doing and for being one of the best GM's around.
I would agree with you. All of the GM's you have listed seem to always have talented youth while still managing to compete. The dynasty FL has is ridiculous he has one of the best teams and farm systems in the league. I am super impressed. Hopefully, I can continue to learn this game and follow the example of these guys and compete at a high level. Break is like the Bills....he can't finish so I do not see how he could be top 5!
3. And who are the bottom 5 GM's?
As for the bottom 5 (and no personal disrespect to anyone in particular), I'm gonna lean towards the guys that aren't too active and could do more in this league. Crazy Mike is definitely on that list and if he put more effort into his team with making/claiming board cash, spending board cash on more TIA's etc, making more trades, maybe the White Sox would go somewhere, but if he continues to be the same, then I don't see any legit success happening on the south side of the Windy City.
Stutter isn't necessarily a "bottom 5 GM" in every possible way. In fact, I only really included him on here because of the self-proclaimed "half-ass effort" he consistently makes. He's made some good moves, but also some very head-scratching moves as well over time. He puts in effort with some things, but neglects effort in other areas that have hurt his team. And to top it off, he rarely ever has draft picks and more often than not, traded them for players and things that simply did not pan out for him. He finally has the Reds going in a much better direction now, but because of how bad the Reds were in the past for many seasons, I couldn't avoid including him.
Another bottom 5 guy would probably be Danchevy. When he returned here after his banishment got lifted, the Mets were a complete mess. He tried to win too early and as a result, the Mets suffered a huge setback as an organization. He's been picking up the pieces ever since but it will be a long time before the Mets do anything again in this league. Dan just made a few too many bad trades and his activity at times has been inconsistent. I got some faith in him though, as in I think he can do better going forward. He just needs to be patient and wait until the Marlins are not leading the NL East...whenever that ends up happening.
I thought HF had something good going on with the Braves after a decent rebuild and putting together that team of Gordon, Headley, Quentin, Baxter and all them. But his team ended up significantly underachieving, but what was even worse was that HF paid absolutely no attention to his finances. Because of his financial mess, he was forced to tear his team apart. But then, he goes out and makes some questionable trades in which most of them were probably not in his favor. I understand the efforts he made and he pretty much had to get rid of everyone because of his financial problems, but he could've done better with some of those trades and hopefully this is a learning lesson for him going forward. HF is a good guy. Don't get me wrong, but he's got some learning to do. And hopefully for his own sake, he becomes a better GM in the long run because of the recent mistakes he has made.
And even though he played a big role in the Expos winning the 2004 World Series, I'm gonna put Kobe here as well. No personal bias at all regarding my dislike towards him. The reason I selected him over guys like Max, Temp, Stool, Dale or Bosoxi (all of whom I'd put in the category of either "not having done too much yet with their teams" or "haven't been around long enough to do much in particular") was because of what Kobe and the Expos did after 2004.
The Expos had another big year in 2005 and barely missed another trip to the World Series. But then after missing the playoffs in 2006, Kobe decided to finally do the rebuild everyone said he couldn't do. And he put together a very impressive group of young prospects. He then made some very good trades to get a solid team together in 2011 when he won the Wild Card. But like HF, Kobe completely destroyed the Expos' finances and because of it, was forced to trade away his good players. He is still trying to move some of them today.
But the worst part of all this is that when the Expos were doing well, Kobe was around all the time and doing things on the forum. But when the Expos were a mess, Kobe was nowhere to be seen, wasn't exporting and had incomplete rosters. That, just as much as anything puts him as a bottom 5 GM. To me, a good GM puts in consistent effort towards making his team better in 1 way or another, regardless if the given team is competing or rebuilding. If a GM becomes less active during a rebuild, then it shows a lack of effort towards doing something with that rebuild.
All in all, if you aren't particularly active and/or pay very little attention to in-game finances, you shouldn't be considered a good GM regardless of any team success.
I really have no comment here. I do not know enough to really determine this..I just wanted to ask someone who has been around. But, good analysis..hopefully not to bias to your opinion's of others! My goal is to do well enough to not be considered a bottom 5 GM!
4) What is your biggest concern moving forward with your organization? What are your plans to overcome this issue?
My biggest concern is putting together elite talent to keep up with the current ratings that exist here. Being that my home park is Coors Field, it's imperative that I have a very elite pitching staff once I'm ready to compete. 9-10 runs, brilliant in hits and home runs at the very least will have to be there. I've got lot more hitting depth than pitching depth. So putting together good young elite pitching would definitely be my biggest concern.
Beyond drafting and making what I hope to be good trades, I'll have to pray for good PD's to happen to my spects I guess haha. Either that or make more trades and trade for more picks, which I'll probably do anyway.
Pitching seems to be key in this league. I agree, especially at Coors...you are going to need some studs to keep the ball in the park. Again, maybe you should trade Wright to land young pitching studs for your rebuild. Homer boner seems to hurt you. PD's are what we all can pray for....Lets Wacha Brill Hits is what I am praying for hahaha! But who knows what can happen.... Taylor going to brill hits was a wonderful surprise.
5) Which teams do you think will be up and coming in the future?
The A's have a bright future ahead of them and could make the playoffs as soon as this season. If not, they'll give the Mariners a run for their money in 2014.
The Twins also have a lot going for them and with a changing of the guard in the AL Central likely to happen short (as I'll explain in a bit), the Twins could take control of the division within the next three seasons. There is so much young talent and potential there. Once everyone on Styro's team is fully developed, they could dominate the AL Central.
With all the moves Dave has recently made, I'd hope for their sake the Tigers will be an up and coming team. He's got some good players on his team, but I'm a bit concerned their window won't last more than 3-4 seasons at this point. Still though up and coming for right now.
Clearly the Rangers have to be up and coming as well. I really thought Max would be tanking again this season, but the Rangers are above .500 now. So apparently, his team is now more ready to compete and that's something that hasn't been said about the Rangers in a long time. They are certainly due to break out for once and maybe 2014 is the year they really try to shake things up in the AL West. Getting past the Mariners and A's though will be tough but it's nice to see the AL West more competitive for sure.
It's tough to find up and coming teams in the NL with the expected contenders contending and most of the other teams in a rebuild phase.
I agree with you. I think the A's are on the rise and it seems Texas is getting closer to reaching the playoff's. It's also crazy to look at FL they will probably win the WS and their team is still on the rise with the tremendous talent he has in his minors. Twins will be close to competing and for a long time they have tremendous youth and some stud pitchers to help his team win and win for long time. I am not sold on the Tigers but we shall see as the season moves towards the conclusion.
6) Which teams do you think will fall off in the next few seasons?
The Indians clearly have aged enough that within 1-2 seasons, that core will simply be too old to keep up the production they've had from 2008 through today. DRowe had a nice run. He won 4 consecutive AL Central titles from 2008-2011 and made 2 trips to the World Series, but his whole rotation is 34 or older and a bad PD to any of them could destroy them with the new age limits for PD reversals. He has a few younger players, but most of his guys are 32 or older. Sure, he could have sold some of them off sooner to jump-start a rebuild, but I don't blame him for wanting to keep competing and until last season, he did a good job with that. This season might be it though before a long rebuild for the Tribe.
The Red Sox should last a season or 2 longer than the Indians, but by 2016, they'll have to pack it in and retool for the future. The Red Sox' core is starting to age and with the Yankees being a younger team, they've got a very bright future ahead of them as the Red Sox' run eventually comes to an end. Break better win a championship in the next 2-3 seasons or it's gonna be a while until he gets another chance to finally get that title he has failed to win quite a few times. Did I mention he's just about out of picks for the next few drafts?
The Reds should be able to last a couple more seasons in the NL Central, but their core also isn't young. The Reds' pitching is getting older and most of the hitters are in their early 30s if not older. There is pretty much nothing in particular in the Reds' minor league system and Stutter has already traded most of his picks for the next few seasons. The Reds will need to make the most of the present because the future looks dim.
The Diamondbacks and Giants are 2 other teams that having aging cores, but with the rest of the NL West rebuilding for the foreseeable future, both the Diamondbacks and Giants could continue competing for a few seasons by default.
Giants, Redsox, Arizona seem to be getting to old. Looks like break is down to one or two years to win the World Series. Honestly, with FL I do not think he is going to be able to win. Especially with New York and the team Erbes has built. With lack of picks Break is going to be irrelevant for a long time. Its a shame the Bills went to Boston. Arizona hopefully will be able to make moves for talent but, with a lot of his picks going to Chicago we shall see what he does with his team.
7) Did you like the tanking rules before? Are you glad they are back now?
I was ok with them in the past. I understood the purpose of them to not get people to abuse tanking by putting in the worst possible players. In the past, some people really did take it too far and I think it should be done in at least a somewhat respectable way. Full rosters (or at least 21-22 players) and lineups, depth charts and rotations all thoroughly filled out are essential. As for how bad players should be on tanking teams, they should have mostly average talents in my opinion with some fairs sprinkled in. 5+ in runs for all pitchers should be more than reasonable, as are 4-5+ in hits for hitters.
As for now, I'm fine with the old tanking rules back in place and know that after what happened last year with the Padres losing so many games to start the 2012 season, something was going to happen. I don't think Greeme intentionally tried to abuse tanking the way some others have in the past, but it just looked really bad and people were scratching their heads at the sight of the 4-30 record the Padres had at one point last season or whatever it was.
I'd hope people by now know better than to abuse tanking and hopefully, we won't have too many more problems with this in the future.
I like the new tanking rules. 43 seems like a good number. Hopefully, everything works out....but, who knows the rules change all the time in this league will just have to make sure we stay on top of the rule changes and comply so our picks do not drop. With all the people tanking who knows how hard it will be to get a good pick.
8) Who annoys you the most on this forum?
Everyone will think I'm gonna say Kobe, but I won't. Kobe is nothing more than an annoying pest. This is not to say he even annoys me because I don't take a single word he says seriously. He is the crumb of food on my desk I flick away at first sight. That's all he really is. And obviously, I'm not the only person Kobe has become enemies with because he clearly has very few if any legit friends in this league.
But I'll go with Styro on this one. Styro is more intelligent than Kobe and tries harder to dig deep into someone when trolling them. I used to get offended by Styro, but not so much anymore. But it's the fact that Styro still puts in actual effort into trying upset me in 1 way or another that makes him stand out. Just the fact that he even makes the extra effort when I clearly do not care of what he has to say anymore is annoying because it's like why can't he just realize that I'm past all that kiddie bullshit by now and finally treat me like an adult for once? Also, he's been calling me "retarded" recently. I saw that. Why is he talking like Break all of a sudden? I thought he'd never wanna be compared to Break in any way.
You and Break seem to have some Trolls who like to attack you. I find most people here pleasant and don't have an issue. However, I am starting to get the reputation of raping people in trades or not valuing players correctly. Which I will need to figure out so I do not make anyone angry! Kobe seems to get to you as do others....You should just ignore them and move on.
9) Which people do you enjoy conversing with on this forum?
I enjoy interacting with the majority of the community. Basically everyone except Kobe, Styro, Erbes and sometimes Stevie B as well. I feel like more often than not, when discussing this and that on the forum at any given time, I'll usually be interacting with Spencer, Steve, Darell, Stutter, Dale and Greeme the most of anyone. Break, Stoool, Game, Broph, Ashes, HF and Play are also good people to interact with regularly. Everyone else I haven't mentioned yet is on the quiet side generally speaking, but all good people to talk with as well.
There are a lot of funny and good people on this forum. I enjoy spending down times at work conversating on here. It really helps with the lack of fantasy baseball and now football. This game is a lot of fun and I am glad you all introduced me to BBSBL.
10) Predictions for the upcoming real life MLB...who wins it all?
It's still too early to really make a legit prediction just yet because the offseason isn't exactly over until at least a month from now. But I guess the safe bet right now would be your Cardinals. They've been to the postseason in 5 of the past 6 years and have that postseason experience. They know how to win in October and have proved it against elite teams like the Nationals and Dodgers in the past. I'm not gonna go with my Mets just yet. This year, a wild card berth could be possible, but I feel like they're still 1 year away from having a huge season. Hopefully, they finally get above .500...can't believe their last winning season was in 2008. Ugh.
Well I predict the Following:
AL: Angels over Boston
NL: Cardinals over Washington
WS: Cardinals over Angels
The 2 main factors of course would be development of my young spects and losing as many games as possible. Good PD's of course would help a ton for spect development and I'm hoping to get at least a few more in the future, but as far as number ratings go, Devon Travis and Christian Colon could both be ready by next season. My top hitter Stetson Allie maybe in 2-3 seasons. I can't wait for him to be up and rake at Coors Field. My pitching is behind my hitting though by a lot. Adam Conley, Kohl Stewart, Chris Stratton and Trey Ball, among others are all nowhere near being ready. So as long as I don't have pitchers ready to come up any time soon, I won't be ready to compete yet.
Obviously I'm trying to lose as much as I can, but it will be tough to catch the Expos and Braves at this point. A top 5 pick though looks realistic. There will be competition, but hopefully my awful pitching staff will allow the opposition to consistently out-slug my team. So yeah just losing more and more and hoping the competition does a bit better is the other big obstacle.
Stetson Allie is going to be really fun to watch. I tried to get him but, you were not having it...Oh well. You should build on your future by trading Wright.....but your Homer boner is keeping you from getting value out of him during a rebuild which makes zero sense. I agree with you..it seems the majority of the league is trying to tank which makes rebuilding harder. Hopefully, it will work out for you and you will be able to aquire a top 5 pick....still you should trade Wright...But good luck on the rebuild and hopefully it aligns when Arizona's and San Francisco's old teams fall off.
2) Who are the top 5 GM's in the league?
Well of course these are just my opinions so it's not like everyone will necessarily agree with me on this, but some definitely stand out from the rest for better or worse.
Ashes has clearly cemented himself as the top BBSBL GM. He has 5 championships now and won 4 in a row from 2008-2011. His 2010 team is what I consider to be the greatest team this league has ever seen and most certainly the best offense of all time. And to top it off, despite all the success he's had, he still has one of the best farm systems around and always has a lot of draft picks on hand as well. The Marlins could compete forever at this rate. Just amazing what Ashes has done in South Beach!
Spencer I'd still put at [HASH]2 even though he still hasn't been to the World Series since his 3rd title in 2001. Regardless, 3 titles in such a competitive league is second most of anyone and just about every season, Spencer has always been at least in the mix for contention and has absolutely dominated the NL West historically. He's been the first to admit his more recent shortcomings but he's still an elite GM and will remain one for the foreseeable future.
Play is obviously up there as well. I guess I'd put him at [HASH]3 despite just the one championship he has. But there's a lot more to it for Play. He is one of the best at developing young teams and has all the prospect depth in the world. He rarely ever loses any trades and makes very smart investments on players he feels can help him in the long run. Like Ashes, Play is always loaded with picks for drafts and clearly knows what he is doing. He dominated the NL Central for a long time and should continue to do so for a while going forward.
Broph is another top 5 GM because he has 2 championships of his own under his belt and makes shrewd trades all the time. He's another guy that really knows to build up a good young organization. He's definitely [HASH]1 among all AL GM's. There is no doubt about that.
The last spot was tough. I really considered Break, Erbes and Stevie B just for the historical success, but I'm gonna go with Chris, our Mariners GM to round out the top 5. Not everyone here knows Chris too well. He was the original Astros GM from 1996-2001 and came back here in 2011 to run the Mariners after Nanz left. Chris got 4 consecutive division titles from 1996-1999 and had one of the best lineups around with the Astros in the 90s.
Now with the Mariners, Chris turned them around from rebuilders into contenders in one season by making a lot of smart trades. The best one of course being the one where he acquired Mark Prior to be his new ace. Guess that's good compensation for missing out on Johan? The Mariners are back to being an elite AL team and all thanks to Chris knowing what he's doing and for being one of the best GM's around.
I would agree with you. All of the GM's you have listed seem to always have talented youth while still managing to compete. The dynasty FL has is ridiculous he has one of the best teams and farm systems in the league. I am super impressed. Hopefully, I can continue to learn this game and follow the example of these guys and compete at a high level. Break is like the Bills....he can't finish so I do not see how he could be top 5!
3. And who are the bottom 5 GM's?
As for the bottom 5 (and no personal disrespect to anyone in particular), I'm gonna lean towards the guys that aren't too active and could do more in this league. Crazy Mike is definitely on that list and if he put more effort into his team with making/claiming board cash, spending board cash on more TIA's etc, making more trades, maybe the White Sox would go somewhere, but if he continues to be the same, then I don't see any legit success happening on the south side of the Windy City.
Stutter isn't necessarily a "bottom 5 GM" in every possible way. In fact, I only really included him on here because of the self-proclaimed "half-ass effort" he consistently makes. He's made some good moves, but also some very head-scratching moves as well over time. He puts in effort with some things, but neglects effort in other areas that have hurt his team. And to top it off, he rarely ever has draft picks and more often than not, traded them for players and things that simply did not pan out for him. He finally has the Reds going in a much better direction now, but because of how bad the Reds were in the past for many seasons, I couldn't avoid including him.
Another bottom 5 guy would probably be Danchevy. When he returned here after his banishment got lifted, the Mets were a complete mess. He tried to win too early and as a result, the Mets suffered a huge setback as an organization. He's been picking up the pieces ever since but it will be a long time before the Mets do anything again in this league. Dan just made a few too many bad trades and his activity at times has been inconsistent. I got some faith in him though, as in I think he can do better going forward. He just needs to be patient and wait until the Marlins are not leading the NL East...whenever that ends up happening.
I thought HF had something good going on with the Braves after a decent rebuild and putting together that team of Gordon, Headley, Quentin, Baxter and all them. But his team ended up significantly underachieving, but what was even worse was that HF paid absolutely no attention to his finances. Because of his financial mess, he was forced to tear his team apart. But then, he goes out and makes some questionable trades in which most of them were probably not in his favor. I understand the efforts he made and he pretty much had to get rid of everyone because of his financial problems, but he could've done better with some of those trades and hopefully this is a learning lesson for him going forward. HF is a good guy. Don't get me wrong, but he's got some learning to do. And hopefully for his own sake, he becomes a better GM in the long run because of the recent mistakes he has made.
And even though he played a big role in the Expos winning the 2004 World Series, I'm gonna put Kobe here as well. No personal bias at all regarding my dislike towards him. The reason I selected him over guys like Max, Temp, Stool, Dale or Bosoxi (all of whom I'd put in the category of either "not having done too much yet with their teams" or "haven't been around long enough to do much in particular") was because of what Kobe and the Expos did after 2004.
The Expos had another big year in 2005 and barely missed another trip to the World Series. But then after missing the playoffs in 2006, Kobe decided to finally do the rebuild everyone said he couldn't do. And he put together a very impressive group of young prospects. He then made some very good trades to get a solid team together in 2011 when he won the Wild Card. But like HF, Kobe completely destroyed the Expos' finances and because of it, was forced to trade away his good players. He is still trying to move some of them today.
But the worst part of all this is that when the Expos were doing well, Kobe was around all the time and doing things on the forum. But when the Expos were a mess, Kobe was nowhere to be seen, wasn't exporting and had incomplete rosters. That, just as much as anything puts him as a bottom 5 GM. To me, a good GM puts in consistent effort towards making his team better in 1 way or another, regardless if the given team is competing or rebuilding. If a GM becomes less active during a rebuild, then it shows a lack of effort towards doing something with that rebuild.
All in all, if you aren't particularly active and/or pay very little attention to in-game finances, you shouldn't be considered a good GM regardless of any team success.
I really have no comment here. I do not know enough to really determine this..I just wanted to ask someone who has been around. But, good analysis..hopefully not to bias to your opinion's of others! My goal is to do well enough to not be considered a bottom 5 GM!
4) What is your biggest concern moving forward with your organization? What are your plans to overcome this issue?
My biggest concern is putting together elite talent to keep up with the current ratings that exist here. Being that my home park is Coors Field, it's imperative that I have a very elite pitching staff once I'm ready to compete. 9-10 runs, brilliant in hits and home runs at the very least will have to be there. I've got lot more hitting depth than pitching depth. So putting together good young elite pitching would definitely be my biggest concern.
Beyond drafting and making what I hope to be good trades, I'll have to pray for good PD's to happen to my spects I guess haha. Either that or make more trades and trade for more picks, which I'll probably do anyway.
Pitching seems to be key in this league. I agree, especially at Coors...you are going to need some studs to keep the ball in the park. Again, maybe you should trade Wright to land young pitching studs for your rebuild. Homer boner seems to hurt you. PD's are what we all can pray for....Lets Wacha Brill Hits is what I am praying for hahaha! But who knows what can happen.... Taylor going to brill hits was a wonderful surprise.
5) Which teams do you think will be up and coming in the future?
The A's have a bright future ahead of them and could make the playoffs as soon as this season. If not, they'll give the Mariners a run for their money in 2014.
The Twins also have a lot going for them and with a changing of the guard in the AL Central likely to happen short (as I'll explain in a bit), the Twins could take control of the division within the next three seasons. There is so much young talent and potential there. Once everyone on Styro's team is fully developed, they could dominate the AL Central.
With all the moves Dave has recently made, I'd hope for their sake the Tigers will be an up and coming team. He's got some good players on his team, but I'm a bit concerned their window won't last more than 3-4 seasons at this point. Still though up and coming for right now.
Clearly the Rangers have to be up and coming as well. I really thought Max would be tanking again this season, but the Rangers are above .500 now. So apparently, his team is now more ready to compete and that's something that hasn't been said about the Rangers in a long time. They are certainly due to break out for once and maybe 2014 is the year they really try to shake things up in the AL West. Getting past the Mariners and A's though will be tough but it's nice to see the AL West more competitive for sure.
It's tough to find up and coming teams in the NL with the expected contenders contending and most of the other teams in a rebuild phase.
I agree with you. I think the A's are on the rise and it seems Texas is getting closer to reaching the playoff's. It's also crazy to look at FL they will probably win the WS and their team is still on the rise with the tremendous talent he has in his minors. Twins will be close to competing and for a long time they have tremendous youth and some stud pitchers to help his team win and win for long time. I am not sold on the Tigers but we shall see as the season moves towards the conclusion.
6) Which teams do you think will fall off in the next few seasons?
The Indians clearly have aged enough that within 1-2 seasons, that core will simply be too old to keep up the production they've had from 2008 through today. DRowe had a nice run. He won 4 consecutive AL Central titles from 2008-2011 and made 2 trips to the World Series, but his whole rotation is 34 or older and a bad PD to any of them could destroy them with the new age limits for PD reversals. He has a few younger players, but most of his guys are 32 or older. Sure, he could have sold some of them off sooner to jump-start a rebuild, but I don't blame him for wanting to keep competing and until last season, he did a good job with that. This season might be it though before a long rebuild for the Tribe.
The Red Sox should last a season or 2 longer than the Indians, but by 2016, they'll have to pack it in and retool for the future. The Red Sox' core is starting to age and with the Yankees being a younger team, they've got a very bright future ahead of them as the Red Sox' run eventually comes to an end. Break better win a championship in the next 2-3 seasons or it's gonna be a while until he gets another chance to finally get that title he has failed to win quite a few times. Did I mention he's just about out of picks for the next few drafts?
The Reds should be able to last a couple more seasons in the NL Central, but their core also isn't young. The Reds' pitching is getting older and most of the hitters are in their early 30s if not older. There is pretty much nothing in particular in the Reds' minor league system and Stutter has already traded most of his picks for the next few seasons. The Reds will need to make the most of the present because the future looks dim.
The Diamondbacks and Giants are 2 other teams that having aging cores, but with the rest of the NL West rebuilding for the foreseeable future, both the Diamondbacks and Giants could continue competing for a few seasons by default.
Giants, Redsox, Arizona seem to be getting to old. Looks like break is down to one or two years to win the World Series. Honestly, with FL I do not think he is going to be able to win. Especially with New York and the team Erbes has built. With lack of picks Break is going to be irrelevant for a long time. Its a shame the Bills went to Boston. Arizona hopefully will be able to make moves for talent but, with a lot of his picks going to Chicago we shall see what he does with his team.
7) Did you like the tanking rules before? Are you glad they are back now?
I was ok with them in the past. I understood the purpose of them to not get people to abuse tanking by putting in the worst possible players. In the past, some people really did take it too far and I think it should be done in at least a somewhat respectable way. Full rosters (or at least 21-22 players) and lineups, depth charts and rotations all thoroughly filled out are essential. As for how bad players should be on tanking teams, they should have mostly average talents in my opinion with some fairs sprinkled in. 5+ in runs for all pitchers should be more than reasonable, as are 4-5+ in hits for hitters.
As for now, I'm fine with the old tanking rules back in place and know that after what happened last year with the Padres losing so many games to start the 2012 season, something was going to happen. I don't think Greeme intentionally tried to abuse tanking the way some others have in the past, but it just looked really bad and people were scratching their heads at the sight of the 4-30 record the Padres had at one point last season or whatever it was.
I'd hope people by now know better than to abuse tanking and hopefully, we won't have too many more problems with this in the future.
I like the new tanking rules. 43 seems like a good number. Hopefully, everything works out....but, who knows the rules change all the time in this league will just have to make sure we stay on top of the rule changes and comply so our picks do not drop. With all the people tanking who knows how hard it will be to get a good pick.
8) Who annoys you the most on this forum?
Everyone will think I'm gonna say Kobe, but I won't. Kobe is nothing more than an annoying pest. This is not to say he even annoys me because I don't take a single word he says seriously. He is the crumb of food on my desk I flick away at first sight. That's all he really is. And obviously, I'm not the only person Kobe has become enemies with because he clearly has very few if any legit friends in this league.
But I'll go with Styro on this one. Styro is more intelligent than Kobe and tries harder to dig deep into someone when trolling them. I used to get offended by Styro, but not so much anymore. But it's the fact that Styro still puts in actual effort into trying upset me in 1 way or another that makes him stand out. Just the fact that he even makes the extra effort when I clearly do not care of what he has to say anymore is annoying because it's like why can't he just realize that I'm past all that kiddie bullshit by now and finally treat me like an adult for once? Also, he's been calling me "retarded" recently. I saw that. Why is he talking like Break all of a sudden? I thought he'd never wanna be compared to Break in any way.
You and Break seem to have some Trolls who like to attack you. I find most people here pleasant and don't have an issue. However, I am starting to get the reputation of raping people in trades or not valuing players correctly. Which I will need to figure out so I do not make anyone angry! Kobe seems to get to you as do others....You should just ignore them and move on.
9) Which people do you enjoy conversing with on this forum?
I enjoy interacting with the majority of the community. Basically everyone except Kobe, Styro, Erbes and sometimes Stevie B as well. I feel like more often than not, when discussing this and that on the forum at any given time, I'll usually be interacting with Spencer, Steve, Darell, Stutter, Dale and Greeme the most of anyone. Break, Stoool, Game, Broph, Ashes, HF and Play are also good people to interact with regularly. Everyone else I haven't mentioned yet is on the quiet side generally speaking, but all good people to talk with as well.
There are a lot of funny and good people on this forum. I enjoy spending down times at work conversating on here. It really helps with the lack of fantasy baseball and now football. This game is a lot of fun and I am glad you all introduced me to BBSBL.
10) Predictions for the upcoming real life MLB...who wins it all?
It's still too early to really make a legit prediction just yet because the offseason isn't exactly over until at least a month from now. But I guess the safe bet right now would be your Cardinals. They've been to the postseason in 5 of the past 6 years and have that postseason experience. They know how to win in October and have proved it against elite teams like the Nationals and Dodgers in the past. I'm not gonna go with my Mets just yet. This year, a wild card berth could be possible, but I feel like they're still 1 year away from having a huge season. Hopefully, they finally get above .500...can't believe their last winning season was in 2008. Ugh.
Well I predict the Following:
AL: Angels over Boston
NL: Cardinals over Washington
WS: Cardinals over Angels