Any Given Sunday

[NYY #23]

You've heard the expression, on any given Sunday anything can happen. From the remarkable plays, the standout performances, the great comebacks, and the passionate fans. Players running around the field playing a child's game, knowing every play is important, and every game matters. Each team taking the field with the goal of making it to the playoffs, where the sense of urgency increases. If you win you move on, and if you lose you go home.

It's that sense of urgency and passion that makes the game great. Not only is baseball the most popular sport in the country, but it is also the oldest. At least that's the theory I'm going with. I'm going to go back to the beginning of baseball, and reimagine the history of baseball using a completely different structure.

-----------------------------

I was reading something the other day - Rule change: Baseball At 16 Games | Joe Blogs that was the inspiration for this idea. After reading it I began thinking that I did that in OOTP before didn't I? And sure enough I did. It was a 100% fictional league which ran for about 10 years, and after spending some time looking it over recently it definitely changes things quite a bit. Some things were expected, others were initially a surprise, and given the small sample size of any season you can't rule out flukes either.

With games once per week a good starting pitcher makes a big difference. However, there were a couple of championship teams that used there bullpen very effectively because they didn't have that ace.

Gone is the possibility to win 300 games, collect 3000 hits, or hit 500 home runs. Gone are the five man rotations, the specialized bullpens, and the seven game World Series.

I thought that it would be fun to go back to the beginning of baseball and see how baseball evolves with a 16 game season from the beginning. Will a great starting pitcher be the key to winning the World Series? Will this bring more parity to the league? What will it take for someone be able to establish a dynasty? Who will emerge as the league greats?

Stay tuned to find out. I'll plan on reviewing the settings that I'll be using next and go over more of my plans.

[NYY #23]

In order for things to work properly with the schedules that I've found for a 16 game/week season I'll be using a 32 team league, with 4 divisions of 4 teams in each of the sub leagues. In order to ensure there were enough players in the early years teams were filled with fictional players to start, with real life players coming into the league.

I'll be using the Spritze database, and I don't mind some fictional players mixed in, but I'll see how things develop.

Rosters will be limited to 17 players - 5 pitchers, and 12 hitters. That should force teams to use their players wisely. Injuries have been set to very low. Playoffs are NFL-style, with each of the division winner advancing to the playoffs along with two wild card teams. All playoff series will be one game only.

The initial leagues will consist of:

American League:
East
Boston Rebels
Hartford Blues
Philadelphia Athletics
Providence Grays

North
Brooklyn Atlantics
Buffalo Bisons
Rochester Broncos
Syracuse Stars

West
Chicago White Stockings
Cleveland Lakers
Fort Wayne Farmers
Indianapolis Hoosiers

South
Atlanta Generals
Baltimore Black Sox
New Orleans Crescents
Washington Olympics

National League:
East
Boston Americans
Brooklyn Gladiators
New York Giants
Philadelphia 76'ers

North
Detroit Wolves
Milwaukee Bisons
New York Rangers
Pittsburgh Keystones

West
Chicago Lincolns
Cincinnati Reds
Cleveland Spiders
St. Louis Browns

South
Baltimore Canaries
Louisville Colonels
Nashville Vols
Washington Nationals

[CatKnight]

I think my teams will have to be my old and new homes: The Hartford Blues and Cleveland Spiders.

How do you have the schedules set up? For example: 2 against each divisional rival, two other divisions and two 'other'? More or less random?

[NYY #23]

Originally Posted by CatKnight

I think my teams will have to be my old and new homes: The Hartford Blues and Cleveland Spiders.

How do you have the schedules set up? For example: 2 against each divisional rival, two other divisions and two 'other'? More or less random?

I found this http://www.ootpdevelopments.com/boar...ml#post2450665 set of schedules and from my testing they work great. It pretty much follows how the NFL schedules work today, without the byes. I'd love to eventually work in the byes, but for now they work great. The only problem so far is the playoffs that are automatically scheduled. The workaround is a bit of a pain, but doable.

[dynaboyj]

I'm excited to see this. It's something I've always considered but have been too lazy to do.

[NYY #23]

Originally Posted by dynaboyj

I'm excited to see this. It's something I've always considered but have been too lazy to do.

I saw a couple of really cool things happen during my test runs, so hopefully it will turn out to be pretty interesting.

[NYY #23]

As I look to get things started I'm planning on moving forward a week at a time and briefly highlighting some interesting things that occur. I'd like to move fairly quickly from week to week and just call out anything interesting from this experiment rather than give a detailed recap of each game. We'll see how this works, and adjust if necessary, but hopefully that will give a flavor of the leagues happenings. If there is anything specific that you'd like to see please let me know though.

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Perhaps nobody had a worse debut than the Cincinnati Reds in week one. Not only did they lose at home to the Milwaukee Bisons, they gave up 18 runs, 24 hits, and committed 11 errors. Shortstop George Wright committed three of those errors, was hitless in his final three weeks and left three batters in scoring position at the plate.

The Reds won't have it much easier next week when they travel to Brooklyn to take on the Atlantics and 38 year old David Hallquist who pitched a complete game shutout in his debut.

Boston native Jordan Bernard is disappointed that he couldn't sign on with one of the two Boston teams, but the 36 year olds debut with Rochester was very impressive. Bernard was 4-5 on the night with a walk. Bernard hit a 3 run home run, drove in 6 runs, and scored 3 times in the Broncos 13-3 win over the Hoosiers.

The Cleveland Spiders and Chicago White Stockings each committed a league high 13 errors in their openers. Both teams lost, with the New York Rangers beating Cleveland 21-7 and the White Stockings falling 12-4 to the Buffalo Bisons.

The AL East, AL West, and NL West have yet to win a game this year, while the AL North, NL North, and AL South have yet to lose a game.

Power Rankings
1) Washington Capitols (182.0)
2) New Orleans Crescents (182.0)
3) Baltimore Black Sox (182.0)
4) Milwaukee Bisons (182.0)
5) Pittsburgh Keystones (182.0)
6) New York Rangers (182.0)
7) Detroit Wolves (182.0)
8) Nashville Vols (182.0)
9) Louisville Colonels (182.0)
10) Atlanta Generals (182.0)
11) Syracuse Stars (182.0)
12) Rochester Broncos (182.0)
13) Buffalo Bisons (182.0)
14) Brooklyn Atlantics (182.0)
15) Philadelphia 76'ers (182.0)
16) Brooklyn Gladiators (182.0)

[NYY #23]

After week 2 there are 9 teams that have failed to win a game, and four of those teams play in the AL East. Providence lost an ugly 19-12 game on the road in Detroit in which they committed 11 errors. The Boston Rebels fell 5-3 to the Milwaukee Bisons and 27 year old Micah Joles, who improved to 2-0 with a 2.00 ERA in 18 innings.

Things were closer for the other two teams in the AL East though, as the Athletics led the Rangers 5-4 heading into the bottom of the ninth before surrendering back to back doubles to end the game. The Blues got a much better effort out of starter Jon McDaniel who left game 1 with a 11.37 ERA, but he allowed 3 runs (2 earned) in 9 1/3 innings in the 3-2 loss to Pittsburgh.

Just last week David Hallquist looked like one of the best pitchers in the league while the Reds looked like one of the worst teams. The Reds showed why the games are played though, as they defeated the Atlantics 9-5 and gave Hallquist his first loss.

26 year old 3B Kyle Forsythe became the first player to hit 2 home runs in a game when he went 3-4 with 5 RBI and 4 runs scored in the Capitols 18-7 blowout.

Jon Vargas of the Boston Americans picked up the first win of his career, and was a perfect 5-5 at the plate in an 8-7 win over the Americans.

Greg Thornton of the Wolves also picked up 5 hits today, raising his average on the year to .700.

Adrian O'Shields of the Bisons pitched a complete game shutout to win the American League player of the week. In the National League 22 year old Art Allison was 5-6 to win the Player of the Week award, and raised his average to .636 for the season.

Pitcher Micah Joles of the Bisons leads all players this year with 3 sacrifice hits.

Power Rankings
1) Washington Capitols (184.0)
2) New Orleans Crescents (184.0)
3) Milwaukee Bisons (184.0)
4) Pittsburgh Keystones (184.0)
5) New York Rangers (184.0)
6) Detroit Wolves (184.0)
7) Nashville Vols (184.0)
8) Atlanta Generals (184.0)
9) Buffalo Bisons (184.0)
10) Seven teams tied (91.0)

[NYY #23]

The Milwaukee Bisons are fortunate to have one of the best pitchers in the league, 27 year old Micah Joles, to take the mound every Sunday. They Bisons and Joles improved to 3-0 with a 10-6 win over the previously undefeated New York Rangers. Joles is one of three pitchers to win every game, and leads all pitchers with a 1.0 WAR.

Sometimes it's better to be lucky than good, and that appears to be the case for Brendan Mason who also improved to 3-0 with the Keystones 3-2 win over the Detroit Wolves. The 34 year old Mason isn't one of the elite pitchers in the league, and wasn't even expected to start, but he's pitched every inning so far for Pittsburgh, and hasn't lost yet.

The last of the 3-0 pitchers is Ryan Thompson of the Atlanta Generals who does have the talent, but at 35 years old many felt was past his prime. Thompson and the Generals defeated the Washington Capitals 8-5 to remain the last unbeaten team in the AL South.

Ryan Katz pitched his second straight shutout with a complete game 4 hitter in the Spiders 6-0 win over the Reds and won the NL Player of the Week.

Power Rankings
1) Milwaukee Bisons (186.0)
2) Pittsburgh Keystones (186.0)
3) Atlanta Generals (186.0)
4) Buffalo Bisons (186.0)
5) Cleveland Spiders (123.0)
6) Indianapolis Hoosiers (123.0)
7) Chicago White Stockings (123.0)
8) Baltimore Black Sox (122.0)
9) Louisville Colonels (122.0)
10) Rochester Broncos (122.0)
11) Philadelphia 76'ers (122.0)
12) Brooklyn Gladiators (122.0)

[NYY #23]

The Pittsburgh Keystones and Milwaukee Bisons are sitting atop the NL North with identical 4-0 records. The Keystones rolled over the Spiders 9-4 with five players collecting 2 hits.

The Bisons needed a 4 run 8th inning to squeak by the Lincolns 7-6 and to remain unbeaten. The Keystones and Bisons will face off for the first time this year in three weeks.

The only other unbeaten team is the 4-0 Atlanta Generals, who rolled 13-4 over the Boston Rebels. Atlanta took advantage of 11 errors by the Rebels, and pounded out 16 hits.

Three teams remain looking for their first win (Philadelphia Athletics, Hartford Blues, and Cleveland Lakers).

Ross Barnes of the Detroit Wolves went 3-5 to raise his average to .450 for the season. Barnes scored 4 runs and drove in 4 batters and has hit safely in every game.

Al Waddington of Milwaukee leads the majors with a .647 average.

Power Rankings
1) Milwaukee Bisons (188.0)
2) Pittsburgh Keystones (188.0)
3) Atlanta Generals (188.0)
4) Baltimore Black Sox (139.0)
5) Rochester Broncos (139.0)
6) Philadelphia 76'ers (139.0)
7) New Orleans Crescents (138.0)
8) New York Rangers (138.0)
9) Detroit Wolves (138.0)
10) Buffalo Bisons (136.0)

[NYY #23]

And then there was one - The Pittsburgh Keystones jumped out to a 7-2 lead, and held on for a 7-5 win over the Philadelphia Athletics to improve to 5-0. Brendan Mason gave up 12 hits, 5 runs, and raised his ERA to 3.13, but got his 5th win of the year for the Keystones.

The Bisons dropped their first game of the year on the road to the Providence Grays (3-2) when the Grays scored 7 unearned runs in the fifth inning in the 10-9 loss.

13 errors led to 13 unearned runs, and the Atlanta Generals first loss of the year as they fell to the Americans 18-3. Shortstop Andy McCoy made 6 of the 13 errors for the Generals. Their loss puts the Generals in a three way tie with the New Orleans Crescents and Baltimore Black Sox with identical 4-1 records. If the season ended today all three teams would make the playoffs.

The Philadelphia Athletics handed the starting pitching job to Amir Dorsey at the beginning of the season, but may be regretting that decision after they fell to 0-5 with Dorsey losing all 5 games with a 5.40 ERA and 1.71 WHIP.

The Blues are in the market for another starting pitcher after Jon McDaniel allowed 10 runs in 3 innings to raise his ERA to 6.68 and drop his record to 0-5 after a 17-2 blowout to the Detroit Wolves. Ross Barnes was 3-6 with 2 runs and 2 RBI in the Wolves win.

Nobody seems to want to take control of the NL South as the Washington Nationals, Nashville Vols, Louisville Colonels, and Baltimore Canaries are all tied at 2-3.

Power Rankings
1) Pittsburgh Keystones (190.0)
2) Baltimore Black Sox (150.0)
3) New Orleans Crescents (149.0)
4) Detroit Wolves (149.0)
5) Milwaukee Bisons (146.0)
6) Atlanta Generals (146.0)
7) Providence Grays (112.0)
8) Syracuse Stars (111.0)
9) Brooklyn Atlantics (111.0)
10) Boston Americans (111.0)

[NYY #23]

Things finally caught up to the Pittsburgh Keystones as they were blown out by the Boston Americans 12-3. Pittsburgh is now in a three week tie atop the NL North with the Milwaukee Bisons and Detroit Wolves.

The Wolves needed a 7 run ninth inning to win 9-4 over the Brooklyn Gladiators for their third straight win. Ross Barnes hit two triples on the night and drove in a pair of runs.

Before this week's game the Athletics made a change to their rotation, inserting Asa Brainard as their starting pitcher but the results were the same as the Athletics fell to 0-6. Brainard pitched well giving up 1 earned run in 6 innings, but 8 errors led to 8 unearned runs as the Athletics remained one of two winless teams.

The Hartford Blues were tied with the Syracuse Stars at 8 runs each, but allowed an unearned run in the bottom of the ninth as the Stars squeaked by and the Blues fell to 0-6.

The New York Rangers .352 team batting average is the highest in the league. Their lineup consists of three .400 hitters, Gene Gandhil (.469), John Levine (.452), and Mike Lawrence (.400) and their 61 runs scored is 2nd in the National League, but the 3-3 Rangers have allowed the 2nd most runs in the league.

Power Rankings
1) Baltimore Black Sox (158.0)
2) New Orleans Crescents (157.0)
3) Detroit Wolves (157.0)
4) Milwaukee Bisons (155.0)
5) Pittsburgh Keystones (153.0)
6) Providence Grays (126.0)
7) Syracuse Stars (125.0)
8) Brooklyn Atlantics (125.0)
9) Boston Americans (125.0)
10) Washington Capitals (124.0)

[NYY #23]

The Cleveland Lakers have the lowest ERA in the majors (2.09), the third best defense, but their 29 runs scored is the lowest total in the majors. Their 5-2 win over the Farmers was just their second of the year. 28 year old Jonathan Posey is the only regular to have a batting average over .300, as the left fielder is hitting .313.

The cross town Spiders improved to 4-3 and are tied atop the NL West after a thrilling 17-16 win over the Chicago Lincolns. Spiders' right fielder Jeremy Danielson scored 4 runs in the game which featured 33 runs, 34 hits, 15 errors, two innings where 10 or more runs were scored, and two lead changes in the ninth inning.

The Reds kept pace with the Spiders with a 21-17 win over the St. Louis Browns. Down 15-14 heading into the 8th inning the Reds scored 1 to tie, and 6 in the ninth to win. George Wright was 3-4 at the plate with a pair of triples, and committed 4 errors in the field. It's hard to keep his .469 batting average out of the lineup, but difficult to watch him in the field.

In a recent poll of the top twenty hitters in the league the Syracuse Stars had two players in the top five:

1) Travis Losch, SYR - .514, 0 HR, 8 RBI
2) Matt Maddock, SYR - .469, 1 HR, 13 RBI
3) Tim Wright, BUF - .462, 0 HR, 8 RBI
4) Ross Barnes, DET - .444, 0 HR, 8 RBI
5) Kevin Riesenberg, BRK - .500, 0 HR, 4 RBI

After going 4-0 with a 1.95 ERA 29 year old Jeff Sharman won the AL Pitcher of the Month award. Sharman improved to 6-1 with a 2.65 ERA on the season.

Power Rankings
1) Baltimore Black Sox (164.3)
2) New Orleans Crescents (163.3)
3) Detroit Wolves (163.3)
4) Milwaukee Bisons (161.3)
5) Providence Grays (136.6)
6) Brooklyn Atlantics (135.6)
7) Indianapolis Hoosiers (134.6)
8) Pittsburgh Keystones (129.6)
9) Cincinnati Reds (106.9)
10) Cleveland Spiders (105.9)

[NYY #23]

The hottest team in the league is the Providence Grays, who have now won six straight games. The Grays started off 0-2 and starter Chris McKeehan gave up 14 earned runs during those first two games and 9 2/3 innings. Since then McKeehan has lowered his ERA from 13.04 to 5.31 and pitched well enough to keep the Grays in the game and atop the AL East.

Things couldn't get much worse for the 0-8 Athletics, but they lost 23 year old Amir Dorsey for the season with a shoulder injury, before dropping their 8th game to the Crescents 14-7.

The Baltimore Black Sox lost their top spot in the power rankings after falling to the Boston Rebels 7-3.

Power Rankings
1) New Orleans Crescents (168.5)
2) Detroit Wolves (168.5)
3) Providence Grays (145.0)
4) Brooklyn Atlantics (144.0)
5) Pittsburgh Keystones (140.0)
6) Baltimore Black Sox (138.0)
7) Milwaukee Bisons (138.0)
8) Buffalo Bisons (116.5)
9) Philadelphia 76'ers (116.5)
10) Indianapolis Hoosiers (113.5)

[CatKnight]

Have you given any thought into how you want to handle tied records at the end of the season?

For example, if A and B are tied for an NFL playoff spot, then they start looking at conference records, division records, point differential and so forth.

OOTP just plays an extra game because after having played 154/162 one more isn't really a burden. That's not necessarily true here.

[NYY #23]

Originally Posted by CatKnight

Have you given any thought into how you want to handle tied records at the end of the season?

For example, if A and B are tied for an NFL playoff spot, then they start looking at conference records, division records, point differential and so forth.

OOTP just plays an extra game because after having played 154/162 one more isn't really a burden. That's not necessarily true here.

I actually have given quite a bit of thought to it, but I'm still not 100% sure yet. I'm leaning towards implementing NFL style tie breakers and manually scheduling the playoff series, but I haven't done that yet. I've got a test league with three tie breakers after week 16, so that's on the agenda for tonight to play around and make sure I can get that to work.

If not I'll consider letting OOTP play out the tie-breakers, but make sure I manually reset the fatigue so everyone plays at full strength. So stay tuned, and wish me luck on that. That's the most difficult part I've encountered so far.

[StLee]

Geaux Crescents!

[AlexPoland]

This is an awesome idea that I've been wanting to try for a while. I'll definitely be following this closely!

[NYY #23]

Originally Posted by NYY #23

I actually have given quite a bit of thought to it, but I'm still not 100% sure yet. I'm leaning towards implementing NFL style tie breakers and manually scheduling the playoff series, but I haven't done that yet. I've got a test league with three tie breakers after week 16, so that's on the agenda for tonight to play around and make sure I can get that to work.

If not I'll consider letting OOTP play out the tie-breakers, but make sure I manually reset the fatigue so everyone plays at full strength. So stay tuned, and wish me luck on that. That's the most difficult part I've encountered so far.

So after doing some testing with the ties I think I'm going to be forced to go with the less desirable option of letting the tie-breakers play out. It seems that if I delete the tie breaker games, they'll automatically reschedule the next day. Disabling the playoffs seem to work, except the offseason begins right away, and all the champions have to be maintained outside of the game.

Looks like I can adjust the dates without too much difficulty though, so I can build a tie breaker week into the postseason.

[NYY #23]

AL East
The Grays won their seventh straight game with a 3-1 victory over the New York Rangers behind a two hit gem by Chris McKeehan.

The wait is over for Athletic fans as the A's shocked baseball when they handed the Wolves their second loss of the year and won 5-2. Robert Brown made the most of his first start of the year with a complete game 4 hitter staking his claim to the starting pitcher job in Philadelphia.

AL North
David Hallquist struggled as the Atlantics fell 14-10 to the Browns to fall into a tie with the Buffalo Bisons atop the division after the Bisons knocked off the Spiders 7-5.

AL West
Every team in the AL West won this week, but the Indianapolis Hoosiers hung on for the 12-10 victory to maintain their 1 game lead despite giving up 4 runs in the bottom of the ninth to the Washington Nationals.

AL South
The Crescents blew out the Giants 17-1 and held on to a 2 game lead in the South, but Mark Batch left the game in the seventh with an injury. The extent of his injury wasn't known, but New Orleans will be forced to turn to Rynie Wolters or Malachi Thompson in the even Batch isn't ready to go next week.

NL East
David Bailes swung the big bat going 3-5 with a pair of RBI's in the 76'ers 6-5 win over the Black Sox to maintain their 1 game lead in the NL East.

NL North
The NL North could send three teams to the playoffs with the Pittsburgh Keystones, Milwaukee Bisons, and Detroit Wolves sitting atop the division with identical 7-2 records.

NL West
After a 1-3 start the Reds have gone 4-1 in their next 5 games and now hold a 1 game lead in the NL West.

NL South
The NL South is the division nobody wants to win with each team losing this week, and the Baltimore Canaries leading the division with a 4-5 record, one game ahead of the Washington Nationals, Nashville Vols, and Louisville Colonels.

Power Rankings
1) New Orleans Crescents (173.0)
2) Providence Grays (152.0)
3) Pittsburgh Keystones (147.0)
4) Milwaukee Bisons (146.0)
5) Detroit Wolves (144.0)
6) Buffalo Bisons (126.0)
7) Philadelphia 76'ers (126.0)
8) Indianapolis Hoosiers (124.0)
9) Brooklyn Atlantics (122.0)
10) Baltimore Black Sox (121.0)