Tearers Leave Tears After Terrible Season

Let me see. Where do I begin? After coming off a demoralizing 77-85 record in 1998 I reviewed my team and assessed what was lacking and what could make the difference. With my fellow Gmers such as Bob and Joe gaining experience as we speak I knew the competition would be more difficult than ever.

With a very sub-par starting pitching draft a different approach would be required. The 15's or higher would be gone after round 1 and the quality would rapidly diminish from there. The low walk per innings pitch strategy was decided upon yet, having a 10 out there was dangerous with a runner on second and would lead to plenty of runs scored via singles to center. Mondesi was then a must as no one could compare to the 39 arm. Of course, Griffey Jr. would not be a bad match yet, I tried him the prior season in the first round (with the same picking position and a very similar season) and came away completely dissatisfied.

High on base percentage with speed and defense was a priority so Bagwell and Rolen fit those needs perfectly and I decided no one else would do. Unfortunately, I had too much time to think and analyze the draft so I traded three picks to move up to Chris's 6th round pick. Evidently, I traded away too much as my team was left a little thin in some areas.

After the draft was completed I played games with everyone's team. I would play either solitaire or the computer would play thousands of games with the micro-manager managing teams. I concluded that Chris, Keith and Greg would finish with about 90 wins, Steve, myself, Graham and Joe would finish somewhere around 80, Bob and Doug would finish somewhere in the lower 70's. I knew I had a lot of work to do and needed a lot of luck.

I had plenty of good luck throughout the season as my team came back to win plenty of games. Yet, I must have had some displaced runs as (whatever formula it is that is used to calculate- Pythagorean? - run differential vs. winning pct) the formula had me with a few extra wins than actuality! Upon comparing Joe's run differential to mine (as we had similar records) the answer may lie there.

Ken # of game Joe # of game Runs w/ differential Runs w/ differential +18 1 +13 1 +10 2 +9 3 +9 3 +8 4 +8 1 +7 1 +7 5 +6 4 +6 7 +5 6 +5 6 +4 9 +4 10 +3 4 +3 7 +2 15 +2 13 +1 32 +1 28 -1 28 -1 25 -2 15 -2 15 -3 13 -3 14 -4 11 -4 9 -5 5 -5 5 -6 5 -6 8 -7 1 -7 5 -9 2 -9 1

Generally, it is pretty similar (some potentially cool looking graphs) except for my 2 +10 wins, a +13 win and a plus 18 (sorry Bob). Displaced or misplaced who can tell.

Individual accomplishments included:
The big "skirt" Frank Thomas.
1st in doubles (55), 2nd in walks (127), 4th in OBA (.375), 4th in runs created (126.2), 4th in total average (.938), 5th in runs contributed (47.6) and 10th in runs (109). He led in plate appearances and he lost some runs as I pinch ran for him late in games. My team probably scored a few runs less as I did not pinch run sometimes.

First round pick Barry Bonds.
1st in runs (119), 3rd in 3b (10), 3rd in OBA (.383), 3rd in total average (.963), 3rd in runs contributed (49.6), 5th in runs created (125.9) and 5th in walks (101).

Other highlights included:
Bagwell was 4th in runs (114) and 3rd in walks (113).
Rolen was 3rd in RBI's (135). With luck he could have had 200.
My starting pitchers allowed 2.4 walks per/9.
My offense being 2nd in runs (823) and walking 714 times - 4.4 per game.
The offense also set a new standard for team sacrifice flies with 50.

The Internet play was at times frustrating and/or challenging. All in all I had a lot of fun and look forward to all future seasons.