Winter Games
Nope, it's not the luge or figure skating nor even curling which is all the rage at my house this winter. It's Simnasium Historical Fantasy Baseball, which is an entertaining a timewaster as anything I've found lately.
Here's how it works, in a nutshell. You get $100,000,000 to draft a team, using pretty much everyone who ever played the game for any amount of time, including Negro Leaguers. Once your team is drafted, you set lineups and pitching rotations, assign roles to your bench players, and play a 162-game schedule against 11 other baseball nuts who all think that they are a better GM and manager than you, Jack. The games are played using some version of Diamond Mind Baseball, which is frankly the most realistic baseball simulation out there.
I'm running three teams, and so far, so good for two, with the third off to a slow start. Wait, let me bore you with some details.
The Mud City Manglers are my entry in the Gary Peters League. I think that Simnasium just picks random players and names leagues after them; it makes as much sense as the Conn Smythe Division. The Manglers started kicking ass and taking names early, and are in first place in their division with an 18-12 record. My strategy was to play in a big ballpark (Forbes Field), build a strong pitching staff, and back it with a good defense. Offensively, the idea was to get guys on base at the top of the order. I decided to spend big bucks on two starters, Robin Roberts and John Donaldson, and then found two guys I consider bargains in Dizzy Dizmukes and George Earnshaw. I also decided that this team would play a lot of low scoring, close games, so a top closer was critical, so I spent about $8M on Goose Gossage. What, you thought I'd mess around with someone like Matt Mantei here?
Topsy Hartsel and Dick McAuliffe are at the top of my batting order, two lefthanded bats I can count on to reach base. Dick Lundy and Eddie Murray are there to drive them in, but I'm not getting much out of my #5 guy, Jim Northrup. I'm trying to find a way to sign Stan Musial, but I'm about $14m shy of that right now. The rest of the lineup is Doug Rader at third, Mike Kreevich in center, and a catching platoon of Chad Krueter and Bill Haselman. Hey, don't laugh at my catchers; running a team on a $100m budget is harder than it looks.
So far this team has scored 124 runs in 30 games, fifth best in the league. Not bad considering that my #3 and #4 hitters have been a bit disappointing, and my #5 guy has been terrible (.192 with no home runs). Pitching and defense has carried me, as planned, with only 91 runs allowed, best in the league. I expect the pitching to stay at this level all year; if I can patch up the offensive weak spots I think I'll blitz this league.
I just realized; I can serialize this and get three days worth of posts out of these three teams. I'll learn to be a lazy professional columnist yet! See you tomorrow when we discuss...the Owls!
Here's how it works, in a nutshell. You get $100,000,000 to draft a team, using pretty much everyone who ever played the game for any amount of time, including Negro Leaguers. Once your team is drafted, you set lineups and pitching rotations, assign roles to your bench players, and play a 162-game schedule against 11 other baseball nuts who all think that they are a better GM and manager than you, Jack. The games are played using some version of Diamond Mind Baseball, which is frankly the most realistic baseball simulation out there.
I'm running three teams, and so far, so good for two, with the third off to a slow start. Wait, let me bore you with some details.
The Mud City Manglers are my entry in the Gary Peters League. I think that Simnasium just picks random players and names leagues after them; it makes as much sense as the Conn Smythe Division. The Manglers started kicking ass and taking names early, and are in first place in their division with an 18-12 record. My strategy was to play in a big ballpark (Forbes Field), build a strong pitching staff, and back it with a good defense. Offensively, the idea was to get guys on base at the top of the order. I decided to spend big bucks on two starters, Robin Roberts and John Donaldson, and then found two guys I consider bargains in Dizzy Dizmukes and George Earnshaw. I also decided that this team would play a lot of low scoring, close games, so a top closer was critical, so I spent about $8M on Goose Gossage. What, you thought I'd mess around with someone like Matt Mantei here?
Topsy Hartsel and Dick McAuliffe are at the top of my batting order, two lefthanded bats I can count on to reach base. Dick Lundy and Eddie Murray are there to drive them in, but I'm not getting much out of my #5 guy, Jim Northrup. I'm trying to find a way to sign Stan Musial, but I'm about $14m shy of that right now. The rest of the lineup is Doug Rader at third, Mike Kreevich in center, and a catching platoon of Chad Krueter and Bill Haselman. Hey, don't laugh at my catchers; running a team on a $100m budget is harder than it looks.
So far this team has scored 124 runs in 30 games, fifth best in the league. Not bad considering that my #3 and #4 hitters have been a bit disappointing, and my #5 guy has been terrible (.192 with no home runs). Pitching and defense has carried me, as planned, with only 91 runs allowed, best in the league. I expect the pitching to stay at this level all year; if I can patch up the offensive weak spots I think I'll blitz this league.
I just realized; I can serialize this and get three days worth of posts out of these three teams. I'll learn to be a lazy professional columnist yet! See you tomorrow when we discuss...the Owls!
posted by Jim at
6:16 PM
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