Capra Hardball Dynasty League

W ith robocoach back in Capra, this is a good time to revisit how one of Capra's bigger dramas unfolded. normandevils' Pawtucket Patriots finished Season 1 of Capra with a putrid .198 win % and did not return for more in S2. robo came aboard and promptly turned the team around by winning three straight division titles, a streak that was then continued by jeclapton123 for five more seasons and running. As the inheritor of a .198 team in S2, robocoach also owned the #1 pick in the draft. robo waivered between Patrick Spencer and Al Maurer , before finally deciding on the former since pitching is so key in HBD. robo offered Spencer a 3-year major league contract in addition to the 6m bonus Spencer was asking. However, Spencer turned down the offer remained undecided about signing for 40 some-odd cycles. Of course, robo was nonplussed to say the least and let us know about his frustration on the chat page. Still unsure about the Spencer's status, robo signed two quality intern...

crickett13's Scranton squad compiled a 14-4 postseason record, including a 4-0 World Series sweep over the St. Louis Archers, en route to earning their first World Series trophy. The Breakers entered the postseason as a Wild Card, the AL's 6th and final entry, but got off to a quick start by sweeping the Albuquerque Roadrunners, and then outlasting Montgomery Montreal, before making quick work of the Archers.

Being that we are officially in season ten of Capra baseball, it seems fitting to look at some upcoming individual milestones as well as whatever else I stumble upon looking at league records. I also included some real-life comparisons with stats through the 2007 season. Brett Simms and Julio Johnson can join all-universe slugger Walt Cashman as the second and third men to hit 400 career doubles. In real life, 154 players have hit this milestone. The aforementioned Cashman is just a hit away from 2,000. Nobody else has 1,800, and only 24 active players have 2,000 MLB hits. He could also score his 1,350 th run to pace the field. Henry Menechino should easily reach 500 home runs this season. Rudy Lombardi (argh!) leads a list of guys just a stone's throw from 400 after he hit exactly 100 in the minors. This year, Gary Sheffield became the 25th player to hit 500 home runs. Kip White , Trenidad Prieto , et al lead the pack behind Menechino and Lombardi. If history...

things have been a little slow around here these last couple weeks as it's been the start of the semester for me and i've been busy gearing up to teach. i'll try to do some smaller posts to keep regular.

sanderbear offers a new ranking that looks at balance(derived at by considering the highs and lows in MLB in BA, ERA, and team Wins since 2001) and stability(# of teams lost at rollover compared to hbd average). you can read a more full explanation of sanderbear's rankings, and the rankings themselves, here: 133 Worlds Ranked Capra clocked in at #26. Combined with our other rankings at #18 and #22, we can confidently say that we are in the top 20 or so worlds of the approximately 150 on the site. now if we could just get Fargo to stop dominating us and spoiling our competitive balance ;-)

A recent trend in the HBD forums has been to attempt to rank all 150 or so HBD Worlds using varying methods. Somebody devises a statistical methodology and then punches in data for all the worlds and posts the results, which are followed, of course, by many pages of debate on the validity of said rankings. tecwrg recently posted his rankings which are based upon the # of -(minus) plays within each world's most recently completed season. His theory is that quality worlds care about defense and will not either play people out of position or in spots that will be detrimental to the team's ability to execute the fundamentals. Out of 142 worlds, his system ranked Capra at #18. Not bad. Another way to think about his rankings, though, is to consider the positive difference between + plays and - plays(see his chart). If his rankings were ordered that way, Capra would come in at #5 overall. Now that's more like it. 98greenc5 posted a different set of rankings this morning that is ...

Will feature the following players: P Sammy Reyes , Ottawa Ice. $4.8m bonus. C Raul Ortega , Little Rock Travelers. $4.8 bonus. P Michael Li , Toronto Beavers. $4.5m bonus. P Orlando Armas , Pawtucket Patriots. $3.9m bonus. P Ugueth Rosado , St. Louis Archers. $3.5m bonus. 3B Julio Wilfredo , Chicago Vipers. $3.3m bonus. P Matty Calvo , Buffalo Hunters. $3.2m bonus. SS Del Gabriel , Oklahoma City Drunken Ducks. $2.9m bonus.