All-Stars Only Association

motnahp · Post by **motnahp** » Tue Apr 21, 2009 7:01 pm

This association uses only those players who appeared in All-Star games between 1969 and 2008. After about a week of setup and testing, it's ready to roll.

Players who appeared in more than one All-Star game during that period were imported in the year of their first appearance (1969 or later). The association has twenty teams, ten AL and ten NL.

There ended up being over 400 players in each league. AL teams ended up with 40 or 41 players and NL teams ended up with 42 or 43 players. All players were assigned randomly, with a balance at each position ensured. Thanks to retrosheet.org for the All-Star game boxscores. Players were assigned to an AL team if their first All-Star appearance (after 1969) was for an AL squad; same thing for NL.

For the assn cities, I referenced wikipedia and selected twenty cities with just over 100,000 population each. The most fun part of the setup was choosing the nicknames. Here they are:

AL North
Berkeley (CA) Protesters (their logo is a peace sign)
Billings (MT) Yellowstones (geyser logo)
Daly City (CA) Quakers (no not that kind - the logo is a sidewalk with a fault line in it)
Fairfield (CA)Jellybeans (corporate HQ for Jelly Bellies, I learned)
Richmond (CA) Ohlones (not very PC here - Ohlones are American Indians)

AL South
Burbank (CA) Entertainers (logo is a star, but NOT from the Hollywood Walk of Fame)
Norwalk (CA) Cerritos (apparently a cerrito is a small hill......yawn)
Pueblo (CO) Racers (Nat'l Street Rod Assn reference)
Ventura (CA) Chiles (HQ for Ortega, although Ventura Highways would've been cool)
West Jordan (UT) Miners (I'd never heard of this place and I'm good with geography!)

NL North
Cambridge (MA) Puritans (logo is an ugly black top hat sort of thing)
Erie (PA) Navigators (they have a state park with a lighthouse......yawn)
Green Bay (WI) Puants (French for smelly, as in smelly green water.....look up the city history!)
Lowell (MA) Moxies (first mass-produced soft drink was a Moxie; endorsed by Teddy Ballgame)
Portsmouth (VA) Colonials (logo is a tall sailing ship.......forehead bangs into keyboard)

NL South
High Point (NC) Coltranes (home of saxophonist John Coltrane...name sounded cool!)
Midland (TX) Derricks (Laura Bush came from here, but the logo is an oil well)
Palm Bay (FL) Bombardiers (um.....a branch of the Bombardier Recreation Corp is here...yawn and rub eyes)
Pompano Beach (FL) Pompanos (it's a fish, if you care)
Wichita Falls (TX) Cyclones (area known for killer tornadoes, stadium is Twister Field)

In case you're wondering (if you are, you're a "twisted" soul), Robin Ventura did NOT get asigned to the Ventura Chiles. Mike Lowell, however, DID get randomly assigned to the Lowell Moxies!

Assn Parameters:
DH in AL only
No finances or AI trading (multiplayer with all teams under human control)
Injuries ON (gotta find a way to get more players involved)
Five-man rotations
Modern Closer OFF (I wanna see some pitchers pitch 1-0 & 2-0 shutouts)

I grabbed some fictional stadium dimensions and paintings, then tinkered with a few, as some teams had only one left-handed pitcher, no right-handed power, etc. I tried to make the park fit the roster.

I imported a 20-team sked from the OOTP site. This sked has 80 games in-division, 70 games in league, opposite division, and 12 interleague.......Here we go.......If Berkeley and Cambridge somehow end up winning their leagues, I will know my computer has been hacked by super geeks!

Wrathchild · Post by **Wrathchild** » Wed Apr 22, 2009 10:06 am

I love the team name commentaries. People were probably wondering why I was sitting in my office and laughing to myself.

motnahp · Post by **motnahp** » Wed Apr 22, 2009 4:00 pm

Glad to be of service. Unfortunately, this assn will be more fun to create than to play. I'll sim day-by-day, occasionally stopping to "watch" a game with a good pitching matchup. I'll be responsible for putting guys on the DL, taking them off the DL, and doing the Auto Roster Adjust twice per month for each team.

I've actually played into late April and I've seen some disappointing things, almost as if I've somehow corrupted the program:

(1) There are many teams playing guys way out of position. EVERY team has at least two players at all spots, but the program's AI is either corrupt or has a sick sense of humor. Although the roster has at least ten legitimate outfielders, one team has first baseman (i.e. lead butt) Don Mincher in CF!

(2) There are some teams with only one catcher on the 25-man roster. I addressed this 2-3 years ago with Shaun and it was fixed......it's baaaaaaaack. One of those teams now has Rafael Furcal behind the plate.

(3) On one team, all of the outfielders must be PS studs, because they all seemed to make the 25-man roster. They're playing all over the place, too. Meanwhile, MLB All-Star caliber infielders and catchers are in AAA, no doubt muttering, "WTF?".

The pitching seems to be OK. I did notice that many batters and pitchers have very low ratings. I ass-u-me that these ratings are because they are rated against all the other players in the assn? I understand that in every group there must be the low-ranking ones. That would make sense, except.......

Possible XML issue:

When I first imported players (sandbox), I checked player ratings after importing each team. I wanted to see what the individual player ratings were. I noticed Evan Longoria'08 imported with a CONT of 5. How did PS know who would be imported and how many total players there would be? I would like to know what, exactly, his CONT of 5 is based on. Knowing this would shed light on a lot of things for me. Any help would be appreciated.

Wrathchild · Post by **Wrathchild** » Thu Apr 23, 2009 10:22 am

Do the out of position players have secondary positions? Maybe it's using those, or maybe it's just deciding that the person is the best one for the job. These are the types of things I wish we had more inside info on. I had a situation last night, as I decided to start doing more simming than managing, where my starting catcher had an injury making him unable to play, but the AI manager never put him on the DL or took him out of the lineup.

motnahp · Post by **motnahp** » Thu Apr 23, 2009 2:59 pm

This is just a case of the AI deciding that batting skills far outweigh fielding. I find this odd, because I haven't seen the AI do this sort of thing for quite some time.

Two or three years ago I had a similar assn where the AI would often carry only one catcher, play him until he was bright red (or injured), and leave 2-3 other catchers in the minors. Shaun fixed this and it's been OK for a long time. There must be something in a recent update that brought the problem back.

In the meantime, I'll just let the AI do it's thing, letting it "teach" guys like Furcal how to play catcher and base cloggers like Mincher learn to patrol center field.

Somewhere in the XML this can be fixed, but I'm not gonna dig into it. Maybe the new release won't have these sorts of issues.

motnahp · Post by **motnahp** » Mon Apr 27, 2009 1:07 pm

Standings at the end of May, followed by batting average and ERA leaders:

motnahp · Post by **motnahp** » Mon Apr 27, 2009 1:09 pm

Batting Leaders:

motnahp · Post by **motnahp** » Mon Apr 27, 2009 1:09 pm

ERA leaders:

motnahp · Post by **motnahp** » Tue Apr 28, 2009 1:34 pm

Standings through the end of July:

motnahp · Post by **motnahp** » Tue Apr 28, 2009 1:35 pm

Batting Leaders:

motnahp · Post by **motnahp** » Tue Apr 28, 2009 1:35 pm

ERA leaders:

motnahp · Post by **motnahp** » Tue May 05, 2009 12:06 am

Final Assn Standings:

motnahp · Post by **motnahp** » Tue May 05, 2009 12:06 am

Final Batting Leaders:

motnahp · Post by **motnahp** » Tue May 05, 2009 12:07 am

Final ERA Leaders:

motnahp · Post by **motnahp** » Tue May 05, 2009 12:15 am

ALCS: Daly CIty vs Burbank

NLCS: Lowell vs High Point

ALCS Game 1:
Daly City (Ron Guidry: 14-13, 2.90)
Burbank (Frank Viola: 12-14, 3.30)

DC_____6___8___1
BUR____2__10___0
Harmon Killebrew (DC): 2B, RBI
Daly City leads series 1-0

NLCS Game 1:
Lowell (Randy Jones: 9-13, 2.81)
High Point (Tom Seaver: 16-7, 2.55)

LOW_____5___9___0
HP_______8__16___1
Will Clark (HP): HR, 2 RBI
Felipe Lopez (HP): 4-5
High Point leads series 1-0

motnahp · Post by **motnahp** » Tue May 05, 2009 12:29 am

ALCS Game 2:

DC: Johan Santana (12-13, 2.83)
BUR: Sam McDowell (15-9, 2.85)

DC_____1___6___1
BUR____6__10___0
McDowell (DC): CG, 12K, 4 BB
Thurman Munson (DC): 4-4, HR, 2 RBI
Willie Horton (DC): 3B, 2 RBI
Series tied 1-1

NLCS Game 2:

LOW: Mike Scott (11-11, 2.96)
HP: Phil Niekro (14-7, 3.19)

LOW_____10__17___1
HP_______1___5___0
Scott (LOW): CG, 6K, 1BB, 3-5, 2B, RBI
Mike Piazza (LOW): 2-5, HR, 3 RBI
Rich Aurilia (LOW): 2-5, 3 RBI
Series tied 1-1

motnahp · Post by **motnahp** » Tue May 05, 2009 9:25 am

ALCS Game 3:

BUR: Ken Holtzman (13-11, 2.79)
DC: Bret Saberhagen (17-10, 2.83)

BUR_____2__11___0
DC:_____0___6___0
Holtzman (BUR): CG SHO, 3K, 1 BB
Vernon Wells (BUR): 2-4, 3B, RBI
Burbank leads series 2-1

NLCS Game 3:

HP: Jerry Koosman (11-14, 3.36)
LOW: Dennis Martinez (12-10, 2.11)

HP_____0___5___1
LOW____3___8___0
D. Martinez (LOW): 7 IP, 4H, 5K, 1 BB
Pete Rose (LOW): HR
Derrek Lee (LOW): 2-3, 2B, RBI
Lowell leads series 2-1

motnahp · Post by **motnahp** » Tue May 05, 2009 9:36 am

ALCS Game 4:

BUR: Jon Garland (14-12, 2.84)
DC: Mark Buehrle (13-13, 3.15)

BUR_____5__10___1
DC:____10__14___1
George Scott (DC): 2-4, 2B, HR, 3 RBI
Harmon Killebrew (DC): 3-run HR
Series tied 2-2

NLCS Game 4:

HP: Pascual Perez (15-7, 3.02)
LOW: John Smoltz (11-6, 2.48)

HP_____1___8___0
LOW____2___5___1
Smoltz (LOW): 7 IP, 0R, 6K, 3W
Rich Aurilia (LOW): 2-3, 2 2B, 2 RBI
Lowell leads series 3-1

motnahp · Post by **motnahp** » Tue May 05, 2009 9:45 am

ALCS Game 5:

BUR: Viola
DC: Guidry

BUR_____0___2___1
DC______3___5___0
Guidry (DC): CG SHO, 8K, 1W
Harmon Killebrew: 2B, 2 RBI
Daly City leads series 3-2

NLCS Game 5:

HP: Seaver
LOW: Jones

HP_____1___8___0
LOW___5___6___1
Jones (LOW): CG, 6K, 1B
Pete Rose(LOW): 2-4, HR, 3 RBI
Lowell wins series 4-1

motnahp · Post by **motnahp** » Tue May 05, 2009 9:50 am

ALCS Game 6:

DC: Santana
BUR: McDowell

DC_____7__10___0
BUR____0___3___0
Santana (DC): CG SHO, 12K, 0W
Carlton Fisk (DC): 2-4, 2 RBI
DC scored all 7 runs in 1st inning
Daly City wins series 4-2

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