1961 Season

[leecemark]

--Mac, sorry the team batting and pitching files were empty. I assumed that by selecting the time period "league championship series" it would give the stats for the teams actually playing in that series. Not so much. These ought to be more enlightening.

[leecemark]

--The Knights put up one more display of the offensive fireworks that was their trademark all season, taking game 5 and the series 11-6. The LM crew belted 5 HR, 3 by MVP Jim Gentile as the icing on his fantastic season.
--Congrats on a great season Mac. It would have been no shame to have lost to the Hard Cider.

[catcher24]

but then got Naragan to ground out to end it.

Computer managers!! No way, with the tying run on base, a human manager lets Hal Naragon hit. Pinch hitting for him for SURE!

Mark, CONGRATULATIONS! Same to you, Mac. Your teams were far and away the best ones in the league. Would have liked to see the series go seven, but them's the breaks. Great season, both of you!!

And I agree with Chris - Diamond Classic Series does have a rather nice ring to it. I say we go with it.

[leecemark]

--Maybe. Naragan was a .300 hitter on the season and already had 2 hits in the game. The HC #1 PH, Jerry Lynch had already been used. Floyd Robinson was available, but it wasn't a no brainer to PH in that spot, especially with the pitcher up next to PH for if Naragan kept the inning alive.

[mac195]

.208/.300/.381 for the series from this lineup?

Hard Cider GM "Crabapple" McGilicuty said, "Heads will roll. Mr. five strikeouts and one RBI Mickey Mantle may as well pack his suitcase now. As far as I'm concerned he's gone. And some of these other overpaid bums will be out the door as well."

[leecemark]

--According to rumors McGilicuty is bringing his nephew, young Georgie Steinbrenner, in from Cleveland to assist in the front office.
--Further rumors out of Detriot say Knights slugging RFer Rocky Colavito is going to try his hand at the new fangled free agent business.

[mac195]

Mark, congrats on a fine season. I'm looking for a rematch in '62.

[leecemark]

--I doubt either of us will run away from the field as much as we did this year, but I do hope to be around at the end defending the title. For sure I'm not going to score as many runs next year. Gentile can't possible repeat his season (his real OPS+ drop by a third and he overperformed even his greta 61 season) and if I can't retain or replace Colavito that is 45 HR and 130 RBI gone (over 130 HR and 300 RBI between them).

[catcher24]

Posted by Mark:
Maybe. Naragan was a .300 hitter on the season and already had 2 hits in the game

As usual, you are right. In reviewing his career record, I note that 1961 was the second best season (1955 being the best) of his ten seasons. Didn't realize that, so was basing my comment on the rest of his career. Once again the computer manager knows more than I do!

[538280]

Congrats, Mark, for winning the first DM Classic Keeper League championship!

And Mac, congrats for a fine season as well!

[mac195]

I doubt either of us will run away from the field as much as we did this year, but I do hope to be around at the end defending the title. For sure I'm not going to score as many runs next year. Gentile can't possible repeat his season (his real OPS+ drop by a third and he overperformed even his greta 61 season) and if I can't retain or replace Colavito that is 45 HR and 130 RBI gone (over 130 HR and 300 RBI between them).

Yes, things should be a lot tighter in the upcoming season. I'll likely never have a lineup as powerful as the '61 version, certainly not in '62. Tommy Davis would have been my second best hitter in '62, but I traded him for Maris in hopes of nailing down this year's championship. Oh well... HC starting pitching should be pretty tough next year, led by Koufax and Aguirre.

[catcher24]

Now that the post-season is over, and the rookie draft is still a bit off, I will post comparison stats for DM and OOTP. My methodology was fairly simple: I compared our number of games played to the actual number of games played in 1961. We played .707 percent of the actual games. I then multiplied the real life totals by .707 to see how many of each stat our league(s) would need to be 100% accurate in reproducing the rate/total for that stat. Finally, the percentage indicated for each game is the percent over/under what a 100% accurate stat would be. Any questions, feel free to ask.

I was quite surprised to find that OOTP was more accurate at recreating the actual numbers for every single category I checked. I expected to find quite the opposite, since DM's forte is accuracy of replays, while OOTP aims more at reproducing the management/development end of the game. DM was particularly off in Runs, Homeruns and Walks. Since both games had virtually the same number of at bats (only a difference of 4 in 70,000+ AB!!), the huge disparity in scoring is most likely the result of DM's much larger number of both walks and HR's.

The standings were also pretty amazing. The standings in each division were exactly the same. Seven teams were within TWO GAMES of having identical records in both leagues. The biggest differences came at the extremes: Mark won 13 fewer games in OOTP and Mac won 10 less, while KC and Philly both won 8 more games in OOTP.

I found this interesting. Make what you will of it.

TEAM RECORDS

................................DM............OOTP ........Difference
Macs Hard Cider........117-51.........110-58........7
538280 Cannons........97-71............102-66 .....5
ElHalo Diablos............90-78............88-80........2
KC Athletics..............51-117..........59-109.......8

Leecemark Knights.....117-51..........104-64......13
PAp REdbirds..............94-74............95-73......1
Dudecar Gamblers.......80-88.............79-89......1
Philadelphia Phillies......60-108...........68-100.....8

Lew's Legends............93-75.............94-74......1
Nails Quakers.............91-77..............91-77......0
JW Skipjacks..............60-108............62-106.....2
Washington Senators...58-110............56-112.....2

As mentioned, standings in both games were the same.

STATS
Note: Projected Total is the figure that would be exactly the same as real life, factoring for our shorter season.

Stat....Projected Total....DM.....Percent......OOTP.....Percent

AB........68,602...........70,052....102.......... 70,048.......102
Hits........17,722..........19,255....109......... .18,788.......106
Runs....... 9150.............10,827....118..........9926...... ..108
2B............2810.............3052.....109....... ....2974........106
3B............533................646.....121...... .......562........105
HR...........1930..............2339.....121....... .....1839........95
BB...........6997..............7992......114...... ......7189.......103
K's...........10,571...........9889......94....... .....10,448.......99
BA.............258...............275......107..... ........268........104
OBP...........327...............353.......108..... .......338.........103
SLG............399..............437.......110..... .......405..........102

[leecemark]

--I'd appreciate it if everyone would update their roster page in the next week or so. If you aren't up to date on your trades that info will be helpfull to potential trade partners. Also the salary data will need to be updated.

[J W]

Congrats Mark, on becoming our first multiple champion. Thanks everyone for a very entertaining season, whether or not I had a miserable record.

I will state right now that my team WILL be more competetive in 1962. They won't have to sign anybody to do it either.

[J W]

--I'd appreciate it if everyone would update their roster page in the next week or so. If you aren't up to date on your trades that info will be helpfull to potential trade partners. Also the salary data will need to be updated.

Will this include team releases? If so I would suggest creating a '61 offseason thread where anything official can be posted there.

I'll probably be closing this thread down a little later so we don't get confused about what info is where. Is that allright with everyone?

[leecemark]

--The offical offseason thread will not be started for several weeks. It doesn't have to wait 3 if everybody wants to get going sooner, but the start of that thread will start the clock on various deadlines. Please hold off on officially releasing any players until then. Meanwhile we can either continue chatting in this thread or start an unoffical offseason thread for any discussions prior to offical offseason activity.

[J W]

I was quite surprised to find that OOTP was more accurate at recreating the actual numbers for every single category I checked. I expected to find quite the opposite, since DM's forte is accuracy of replays, while OOTP aims more at reproducing the management/development end of the game. DM was particularly off in Runs, Homeruns and Walks. Since both games had virtually the same number of at bats (only a difference of 4 in 70,000+ AB!!), the huge disparity in scoring is most likely the result of DM's much larger number of both walks and HR's.

At first glance I would say the result is from consolidation of teams... particularly with our added doormats. More lethal lineups were able to be constructed than stellar pitching staffs, perhaps. DM being more accurate by player would then show a skew in statistics towards the hitter, while OOTP being a closer approximation to MLB totals would adjust accordingly.

However, having most of the team records end so similarly leads me to believe the difference lies in something more specific. I think the disparity in the standings pertaining to the Knights/Hard Cider vs. the Athletics/Phillies is directly correlated with the increase in runs, HRs, and walks. Why OOTP was able to smooth that out I couldn't tell you.

[J W]

--The offical offseason thread will not be started for several weeks. It doesn't have to wait 3 if everybody wants to get going sooner, but the start of that thread will start the clock on various deadlines. Please hold off on officially releasing any players until then. Meanwhile we can either continue chatting in this thread or start an unoffical offseason thread for any discussions prior to offical offseason activity.

No problem. We'll still be in the rumor mill then.

For example, The Skipjacks have been busy scouting for the upcoming draft and their #1 selection. They have reportedly narrowed their choices down to three:

OF Tony Oliva
OF Willie Stargell
P Bob Veale

I'll try to get an article up on my team page, maybe start my fanclub.

BTW--I finally found a color scheme I like better for my logo, Lew, and I've uploaded it to my web space so, that's one less string tied to the OOTP site.

[leecemark]

--The Knights have been scouting too - but not the elite prospects. Who will be the best guy on the board when we get our shot at pick #27 ?

[J W]

Al Weis.

[catcher24]

Traded my first rounder this year, so I won't get any pick until #14, but then I also get 16 (Chris's) and 18 (Mark's). Not as bad off as Mark, but I'm sure not going to get fat, either.

[leecemark]

--Just in case anyone has missed it, Mac started a thread called "On the trading block". That should serve as our hot stove thread until the official off season activity starts. I've posted the 1962 ratings for all team there so ou can start planning for who you want to keep/replace and who might be a good fit for you in trade.

[J W]

Thread closed for obligatory purposes. On to 1962.