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Yay!
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Oct 6, 2023 23:51
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| # ? May 9, 2024 10:42 |
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The people demand baseball
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Oct 16, 2023 03:36
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A specter is haunting Something Awful--
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Oct 16, 2023 04:08
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2047 MLB Season After a LONG haitus, a move, new job, AND new baby welcomed, it is time for baseball. I may abbreviate the updates a little bit as my time is now far more limited, but we should be able to cover the major beats without issue! All of Gen 1 has retired, and now Gen 2 begins to rise to power and fame. Here's Gen 2's current status: Overall/Potential   Sorted by Status   Gen 2   Where we resume in January of 2047, we have 14 goons on the MLB rosters, (a doubling of 2046!), 1 free agent (Peppers), and 4 already retired. Gaht deserves a mention as one of our more dramatic fallen goons - she was highly touted and starting to realize her potential, only to so brutally tear her (human) rotator cuff, that she had to be Last season also saw the return of the goons to the All-Star game, with Howard Duck and Willie Bloomquist being the first Gen 2 goons to make it, ending our 8 season All-Star nod drought, having last had a goon make it in 2038! (I think it was Prince Vegeta, but someone can correct me on that). Contract Status  As a reminder - in baseball, rookie players are under team control for 6 seasons, first being paid an automatic base salary for 3-4 seasons (pre-arb), then undergoing arbitration for 3-4 seasons, during which the team and player negotiate a salary under arbitration. After their pre-arb and arb years are up, they become free agents, and teams can freely bid on them. This is when they usually make the big bucks. The vast majority of goons are wee babbies, and only Jones has reached the point where he's what we call "arb eligible". Trunks and Bastard are in their second year. Marx is following the famous Mr. Panda path of becoming an early free agent (as is peppers)). Once a player is released and becomes a free agent, they follow free agency rules and never return to arbitration eligibility. Clayton Jones looks to be the first goon who will enter free agency by using up his arb years - and is still a ways from it. Oh and as a reminder, the current league setup:  A combination of automatic league expansion and goon votes, MLB currently has 34 teams - 17 in each league, with the AL central having a stupid 7 teams in it. The new teams are the Montreal Expos, Mexico City Quetzalcoatls, Charlotte Orb Weavers, and the New Orleans Vamps. The Rockies also randomly renamed themselves the "Blue Hens" and I liked it, so we kept it. Detroit was also saved from relocation to Indianapolis, and renamed the beisbolcats while we were at it. A big league/playoff re-org is absolutely in the cards, and first among my priorities.   The only pre-season drama is the signing of Pepper, who manages a 3 year, 2.5 million deal. Not bad, but most importantly, he avoids unemployment. Spring Training goes by without a hitch - well, mostly:   Marsh and Stevenson BOTH tear their UCL's, missing a big chunk of the season. Marsh has also taken a huge hit to his ratings - and weirdly, the AI is using him as a reliever. Remember that Marsh is, if anything, BETTER rated as a batter, so I'm not quite sure what the plan is here.    Come opening day, 12 goons make the majors rosters! More are sure to follow, as our gen two begins truly thriving, led foremost by Willie Bloomquist. It's a quiet start to the season:   Nacho Chez makes some headlines down in AAA with the Jumbo Shrimp. Great name, and great mascot!  He ultimately would get promoted to the Marlins not long after, and as we''ll see later, is off to a great start.   Our ever struggling boy Shinya Arino faces more hardships, as he suffers a nasty oblique injury. Those can be nagging and quite irritating for players, but hopefully the month and a half off does him some good.   That's personally terrifying to me - Bloomquist somehow scratches his cornea after being hit by a pitch, implying he got whopped right in the eye??? That's scary, but it shouldn't be too serious an injury. Let's hope he recovers quickly.   Lol, welp.  O'Stickly doing work down in AA. Did any of our guys or gals make it to the All-Star game this year!?   They did! Bloomquist and Jones make it this year - Jones' first, and Willy's second in a row! Howard does not return, sadly, but many more All-Star opportunities will come his, and the other goons' way.   Jones is awarded the save in the All-Star game - I think the first All-Star save for any goons, while Bloomquist manages a hit and 3 K's. Exciting as far as All-Stars go for our guys, as the AL wins 2-1. But here's what we truly care about... the stats! 2047 All Star Batting  Bloomquist is the standout so far offensively and defensively among the goons - his 4.3 WAR leads, alongside his 138 OPS+, and a fantastic .360 OBP. Look at those walks! He hits for power, decent average, draws walks, and is still good defensively at SS - easily our best goon right now. Howard Duck is tied for the most dingers with Willy, but appears to be more of a power-first guy (duck?). His other stats are not great, as he strikes out waaaaay too much, and doesn't hit safely enough to make up for it. Still, the power's there, and his BABIP is a full 60 points above his average, so good chance he improves a bit through the second half. Trunks is the opposite of Howard - little power, but the best on base percentage and batting average among the goons. And 14 steals, too! A speedy contact guy, we love 'em. The other goons are all riding mediocrity, with Fat Bastard standing out at the biggest straggler right now. A .161 average is abysmal, and a 34 OPS+ is... yikes. He will get demoted soon if he doesn't improve. Special nod to Nacho Chez, who doesn't have a big sample size yet, but may end the season above trunks as the speedy contact guy. But he also has a few dingers to his name - watch out Willy! Calyton being on this list perplexed me - he's not a two way guy! But then I remembered... the American League (correctly) did away with the DH! So expect our AL pitchers to show up on here occasionally. Batting over .200 as a pitcher is pretty good! 2047 All Star Pitching  Clayton once again stands out as our premier pitcher - the only one to log over 100 IP, and the only regular starter (though windom may be creeping up). A 2.50 ERA is phenomenal, one might say, even Vegeta-like when accompanied by a 9.6 K/9. This is not only Clayton's best first half but one of the better our goons have seen on the pitching side of things. I'm excited. That FIP suggests not a single biut of this is luck, and I can find nothing else in his peripherals to cause any concern. Windom surprised me a bit here by earning a spot as the Expos starter - 4th on their rotation. Small sample, but great in what we've seen! Itoh and Pepper are having rougher seasons - neither is excelling, with Pepper having a disastrous 7 ERA. Still early, small sample, etc, but we don't love to see it. Stoch and Stonearm both got promoted right before the halfway point, and are perfect in what little they've seen! Should have more info on them at the end of the season. What else will this season have in store for us?  O'Stickly is traded for totally real named guy "Chase Twymon", and will now be a Brave.   Stoch's hot start since promotion earns him a Rookie of the Month award!   Those loving UCL's. We lose Martin for an entire season to yet another UCL injury. Bloody hell.  Fat Bastard rallies a bit, hitting 6 dingers in one week! This should help his struggling season a lot.   Howard heard me poo poo talk him and compare him to Willy - and in his Ducklike rage, proceeded to smack 3 dingers in one game. Get 'em Howard.  It would earn him a player of the week, too!  Oh, and of the month. gently caress yea. Ducks rule! That's... it for the regular season! A quiet end, but what of the playoffs?  Ring Potential: CLE - Duck NYY - Stoch MIL - Bloomquist WAS - Itoh, Pepper MIA - Chez Not bad - 6 goons, mostly one each to a team, will be in contention for a ring. A Duck-Bloomquist WS would be fun as hell.   Howard Duck helps push Cleveland over KC, with a 2-0 series win.  We also see Itoh's Nationals advance:   Itoh plays well, starting game 3, surrendering 2 runs on 7 hits, but not quite earning the win. Pepper does not appear. The next round will see at least one goon removed from contention.   Over in the AL, Duck's Guardians cannot overcome Detroit, and his own play was mediocre at best.    Weirdly, this time Itoh doesn't appear while Pepper does - and it doesn't go well! His one appearance saddles him with the loss in game 1, while Bloomquist does as we would expect and crushes it all series. He does tally an error though, tsk tsk. Chez's Marlins advance, but he has yet to appear.  SOMEONE's going home with a ring!  Stoch makes his first playoff appearance, pitching 2.1 fantastic innings in relief.  Bloomquist is excellent against Miami, where Chez once again does not appear. Looks like Willie is trying to be this generation's Bob Glass, and is off to an early start as the leader in most postseason appearances and stats.  And there we have it!   Willie Bloomquist III caps off yet another fantastic season with his first World Series Ring! Congrats Willie! Kamil Stoch at least gets to say he made it to the WS, and nearly earned a ring himself, in his very first season! Oh, and what's this?  Willie Bloomquist wasn't just a Ring Getter - he managed to secure Division AND WS MVP honors as well! This might be one of the best postseason performances by a goon yet - very Bob Glassian, only that it actually ended in a championship! Will the season be capped by an NL MVP award again as well? Before we get to awards, I witness an extremely rare and bizarre event:  Apparently players are converting to Buddhism to achieve one-ness and meditate. Okay.   Bloomquist nabs a GG award for his play at SS, just to show how dominant he is. Howard Duck and Bloomquist are also awarded Silver Sluggers for their play at 3B and SS, respectively. Nice!   Bloomquist and Duck both show up in the voting for MVP, but neither manages to secure any first place votes, let alone the award itself. Rats. As the year closes, we check in on our goon's status, to find two new tragic losses:     Lenin and Atreides, hero of the Libyan WBC team, decide to retire after being released by their orgs. to some real ones.By the year's end, no other goons are released or end up in free agency (that I could see, though some may have immediately re-signed with other orgs):   The MLB swells with goons!   We're at the point where the new inductees are mostly fictional players or guys who were too young to have any real world stats when we started the simulation - as such, I'll probably stop showcasing the non-goons who get in. I do see Vegeta and Kalan chilling in the list - Vegeta takes a huge jump up 11% to 53%, keeping him alive, while Kalan jumps some 6%. Come on, I want a HoF goon! All that's left is to see the final season stats! 2047 Season Batting  Bloomquist once again shows why he is, so far, the best of the generation - he not only had a GG to his name (at a tough position, SS, too), but managed an impressive 41 dingers, insane .357 OBP, nearly .900 OPS, all culminating in a 7.9 WAR and a championship ring. We've got an elite player on our hands, even if this season ended up a bit down from his last one - with his OBP and AVG taking a significant hit. Still can't complain. Howard Duck also can't complain - remember how we said his peripherals suggested some bad luck? Well, it seems I was right - his second half was much, MUCH better than the first, with his average rising to a respectable .243 from a much sadder .214. That OPS+ and all other stats rose in turn - and we'll choose to ignore the 200 K's, because that's the cost of being a power hitter. If only he hadn't just tied Bloomquist. I sense a rivalry growing. Trunks and Arino also had decent seasons - Trunks apparently stopped stealing at the half and quietly regressed to an alright contact guy. Arino rallied a bit and turned into a terror on the basepaths, and both are reliable at getting on base, though with little power. Fat Bastard had a much better second half as well, though he had a pretty big uphill climb. 19 dingers is not going to be worth a .184 average - doubly so if you're hogging a spot at first base. The Expos may not have much more patience, as that lower PA count suggests. Chez didn't end up playing as much as he's like, but what he did play, looked great. The Marlins are fools if they don't get him in right field regularly. He's currently in their depth charts as a DH, which may be for the best, as his fielding is pretty bad. It was MUCH closer than I expected, but I gotta give the 2047 Goon Batting Award to Willie Bloomquist! Howard was close, but Willie is just a bit better across the board (and with a GG!). 2047 Season Pitching  It's getting crowded on the mound now! Jones was once again our most reliable starter in 2047, and while he didn't quite keep the 2.50 ERA, a 2.95 ERA is among the best by any goon with this massive a sample. For reference, Vegeta only cracked 3.00 ERA 3 times in his career, twice 2.93 and once 2.97, making this the third best season by ERA (among starters), I believe. His FIP suggests he even got a tiny bit unlucky too - as his HR/9 and K/9 were great and he had a 1.9 BB/9. The dude averages less than 2 walks per 9 innings, 41 walks across nearly 200 innings pitched! Not gonna give up a lot of runs doing that. A fantastic season, and how Jones didn't get even single vote for the Cy Young is beyond me. How did the actual Cy Young winner do anyway, to crush our boy so completely?  Oh, wow, okay. Never mind. But lest we get too excited take a look at what Fire Windom cooked up for us - our favorite Kaiju started the season as an elite reliever, snatching 12 saves, and then proceeded to start 16 games and cruise to a phenomenal 2.64 ERA and 166 ERA+. Most of the other stats make Jones look weak - with a similar walk rate but even fewer hits across their starts! Broken down, the ERA is 2.41 as a starter, and 3.42 as a reliever, so Windom is thriving in their role in the Montreal Rotation. The sample is smaller than Jones, so Windom will have to keep up this level of play across a whole season, but the potential is there. Itoh and Pepper finished about where they started - pretty poorly. Pepper did get that ERA down to a less horrible 6, but both were above 5 and struggling. Let's hope this season was a fluke, because an opposing average of over .300 isn't going to keep you in the league for long. Stoch was another surprise this season, and he cruised to an impressive 22 saves and godlike 0.98 ERA over 36 innings with the Yankees. This guy is stupid good, and already, the name Mariano Rivera is being brandied about over in the Bronx. Another season like this, and we may need a separate closer/starter award, because this is nearly immaculate. Armando Perez and Brion Stonearm made more substantive impacts in the second half, and looked great in what little we saw. Both played well enough to earn their spots in their respective bullpens - though I know Mr. Worldwide is aiming for a starting spot in Philly. Also, his personality note:  O'Stickly made the news but ended up in mediocrity, in his small sample. Next season will be better. This one's tough. I think Stoch, Windom, and Jones all have cases for the Vegeta Award. I'm going to begrudgingly give the 2047 Prince Vegeta Award to Clayton Jones, but only because his ERA over nearly 200 innings is absurd. Neither Windom nor Stoch had a full season beneath them - do what they did again, across a whole season, and the awards will flow. Thus ends the 2047 season and my long hiatus. I apologize for the long wait, and updates will be less regular than before - but do not fret, we will lead generation 2 to glory! Coming up - a check back in on our coaches, as well as some proposals for league restructuring in 2048. JosefStalinator fucked around with this message at 07:54 on Oct 16, 2023 |
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Oct 16, 2023 07:52
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Yay, I'm glad this is back! Is Alface still the coach at the Brewers?
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Oct 16, 2023 09:15
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Oh hell yeah Jonesy, tear em up! This is the point where he's doing so well I start to get incredibly nervous he's going to get sat on by an elephant or something. Delighted this is back!
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Oct 16, 2023 12:40
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36 IP is not that much in the grand scheme of things, but 0.98 ERA sure is a way to make a splash. Good on Kamil, it felt like it took forever to get him to Major contention. No way to maintain this level in the long run, of course, when the workload increases, and he did collapse in the World Series, but he is looking very, very solid. Although I just checked and apparently he had a 9-0 season in the minors in 2042 when he pitched a 0.19 ERA... EDIT: Also, is there some way to tell what exact work profile a non-starting pitcher has? Closer, long relief, short relief, LOOGY? Tevery Best fucked around with this message at 12:47 on Oct 16, 2023 |
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Oct 16, 2023 12:45
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Never tell Howard he can't do something, unless you want him to do that thing
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Oct 16, 2023 14:45
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I'm glad that Stickly even managed to get to the show already. Not the best first impression, but it did seem like he went straight from AA to MLB after switching teams, so that's not the most unexpected outcome, honestly.
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Oct 16, 2023 14:59
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I'm two for two in making players that start off awful and don't get much better. At least Lenin didn't string me along for years....
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Oct 16, 2023 15:30
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Oh Jim Bob....
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Oct 16, 2023 19:35
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well worth the wait. hope bloomquist can stay healthy 
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Oct 16, 2023 23:28
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I don't think Martin is gonna make it to the MLB 
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Oct 17, 2023 19:53
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Hell yeah, Fire Windom! Nice!
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Oct 18, 2023 07:17
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Worried about Billy-Joe Bobby Jim still being in rookie league after a full season. Any chance you can share his statline or if he was injured? Also, Willie Bloomquist had a great year but holy cow Nelson Escobar. I'm assuming that .333/57/162 gets him the Triple Crown (led the league in batting average, dingers, and RBI) which has happened only once since 1970 when Miguel Cabrera put up .330/44/139 in 2012 and won the MVP despite Mike Trout really being better overall. habeasdorkus fucked around with this message at 15:37 on Oct 18, 2023 |
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Oct 18, 2023 15:33
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Mr Worldwide getting MLB innings is nice to see
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Oct 18, 2023 23:45
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Life continues to hit hard - expect more updates, but somewhat irregularly! Better than in the Summer though, of course!Average Lettuce posted:Yay, I'm glad this is back! Good question - I'll do a deeper dive later into coaches, but Alface at least...  Oh poo poo, good catch!  That's a huge milestone! Jose Alface is the first Goon Manager of the Year! That's about the only award that OOTP gives to coaches, and it means that while Alface never got a ring as a player, he has a beautiful 2047 WS ring AND shiny manager of the year award for his trophy case! Hell yea! He's got another 4 years left on his contract, and with this under his belt, we'll watch with great interest. So far he's our most successful post-player goon. Future Video GamesUK posted:Oh hell yeah Jonesy, tear em up! This is the point where he's doing so well I start to get incredibly nervous he's going to get sat on by an elephant or something. Delighted this is back! So far he's avoided the dreaded UCL tear aka "getting gaht'd". Tevery Best posted:36 IP is not that much in the grand scheme of things, but 0.98 ERA sure is a way to make a splash. Good on Kamil, it felt like it took forever to get him to Major contention. No way to maintain this level in the long run, of course, when the workload increases, and he did collapse in the World Series, but he is looking very, very solid. Small sample indeed, but he couldn't really have had a better debut season. The game does tell us how the AI is utilizing players - it changes constantly though, based on team needs, skills, etc:  There's Kamil, as well as the drop down of some of the roles you can give them. "Specialist" is the LOOGY guy (much rarer nowadays). Kamil immediately became the Yankees closer, which is pretty impressive for a rookie. Also, just randomly saw his personality:   Explosionface posted:I'm glad that Stickly even managed to get to the show already. Not the best first impression, but it did seem like he went straight from AA to MLB after switching teams, so that's not the most unexpected outcome, honestly. Eh extremely small sample. Stickly's ratings are still fine, and Atlanta seems fully intent on keeping him in their bullpen next season. Lumpy posted:I'm two for two in making players that start off awful and don't get much better. At least Lenin didn't string me along for years.... This makes me sad and your dude is one of the ones I was most tempted to secretly boost. But my integrity! Humbug Scoolbus posted:Oh Jim Bob.... Fun fact about Jim Bob: As a pitcher:  As a catcher:  So even if his arm explodes on him, he remains a super elite hitter at a rare position! His two-way path may be closing though. Nea posted:I don't think Martin is gonna make it to the MLB  I wouldn't panic - for some reason Martin's just a late bloomer  His potential is still plenty high.habeasdorkus posted:Worried about Billy-Joe Bobby Jim still being in rookie league after a full season. Any chance you can share his statline or if he was injured?  BJBJ's ratings remain sky high with a nice potential of 69, but it hasn't transformed into reality yet. A fellow late bloomer like Martin, most likely. Have faith. Here's Nelson Escobar's stats:  Looks like he led the league in HR's and RBI's twice - but missed out on average both times. The leader, at least in 2047, was Chris Radmer with .347 average. He was ALSO second place in '46 to Kevin Uram, who ALSO hit .347. Poor Nelson, no triple crown for you! KYOON GRIFFEY JR posted:Mr Worldwide getting MLB innings is nice to see  HereticMIND posted:Hell yeah, Fire Windom! Nice!  Admiral Joeslop posted:Never tell Howard he can't do something, unless you want him to do that thing  Mr. Fix It posted:well worth the wait. Willie's a stud and I refuse to comment on his health lest I jinx it.
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Oct 30, 2023 03:36
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I still can't believe they made a Howard the Duck movie.
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Oct 30, 2023 14:26
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Lumpy posted:I still can't believe they made a Howard the Duck movie. Every goddamn time I see the character in the movie it strikes me how much he looks like writer Harlan Ellison. rickiep00h fucked around with this message at 02:32 on Oct 31, 2023 |
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Oct 30, 2023 14:50
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Lumpy posted:I still can't believe they made a Howard the Duck movie. I can't believe I liked it as a kid. I tried watching it a year ago, and was floored by how awful it is.
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Oct 30, 2023 19:29
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Yay finally something good happened to one of my guys!
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Nov 2, 2023 20:57
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Average Lettuce posted:Yay finally something good happened to one of my guys! What's that like? 
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Nov 2, 2023 21:05
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