Well, Game 3 wasn't pretty. ROBOSOX went down 11-4. Ryne Sandberg 1996 and Ellis Burks 1993 are my sole bright spots. My pitching is pretty week, as Bill Hubbell 1924 was shelled, surrendering six runs on seven hits in 1.1 innings!

Next game is a must win, or the series is over. I pretty much need a miracle, as my starter is Steve Stone 1979, a man better known as Harry Carey's sidekick than a ball player.

good luck....hope the miracle comes through..

No miracles in Game 4. The ROBOSOX lost 8-4. Stoney made it 2.2 innings, giving up six runs on six hits. And most of my bats failed to do much (Ellis Burks 93 did hit .412 with 1 HR and 3 RBI, and Sandberg 96 had 4 RBI and hit .313).

So, I get a $3 discount on my next team, which I'll probably buy next week.

Not bad for a 15-plus year layoff.

nope not bad. pretty good showing. too bad you couldnt pull of the miracle. do you have link to the sit eyou use for this? I would like to check it out.

Juniper,

I think it is whatifsport.com.
I checked it out it looks pretty cool.
And you can do a trial sample for free.

Cory's right, it's whatifsports.com.

You can get a spring training team for free. Full season teams are $12.95. I got one free when I got a fantasy team on FoxSports.com (the sites are affiliated).

Well, I bought the new version of the ROBOSOX this morning. Here's the lineup:

C: Mike Lieberthal 2004, Jason Varitek 2004
1B: Cecil Fielder 1992
2B: Ryne Sandberg 1996
3B: Kevin Kouzmanoff 2007
SS: Spike Owen 1987, Nomar Garciaparra 2004
OF: Willie McGee 1983, Shane Mack 1993, Lou Brock 1976, Hank Aaron 1974
Bench: Scott Cooper 1992 (rated at 1B, 2B, 3B, AND SS )

Pitching:
Starters: Ron Darling 1984, Dave Stewart 1992, Jason Verlander 2006, Bruce Hurst 1986, Joe Hesketh 1991.
Relief: Paul Quantrill 1993, Mike Bielecki 1992 (long), Larry Andersen 1990, Dwayne Henry 1992, Troy Percival 2002, Billy Wagner 2004 (set-up), John Smoltz 2003 (closer), and Bob Wickman 2006 (mop-up).

Wickman has only 28 innings (I only picked him up with his Braves stats from '06), so he's going to the minors, and one of the minor league pitchers will fill in as mop-up , If, near the transaction deadline, either Percival or Wagner are almost out of innings, I'll bring up Wickman. Plus, I save needing to use slots for more back-ups by having Scott Cooper as the back-up for the infield (but I still have Nomar because I couldn't pass on his stats and defense at the price).

I brought back Lieberthal, Fielder, Sandberg, Kouzmanoff, Brock, and Aaron from the other team, based on how well they did in the sim. I had Owen as my original SS, but dropped him after 40 games (Alan Bannister 1977 had better stats and more ABs). Between Brock and McGee, I should have 150+ SBs (Lou stole me over 60 in around 100 games).

I am toying with getting another team, but I'd probably be better served to hold off.

how much do these cost? and how much goes into to playing the game?? I would be interested if it was relatively cheap and didnt take too much time....

Well, the current ROBOSOX aren't doing so well, despite the fact that I've turned the roster almost entirely over. I'm currently 29-35, 6 games out in my division, on a 3 game losing streak. I'm 20-11 at Fenway, but a miserable 9-24 on the road. The current roster:

1. Lou Brock 1976 (LF)--.294/1/21, but has 31 SB.
2. Spike Owen 1987 (SS)--.265/0/22.
3. Johnny Damon 1996 (CF)--.143/0/0 in 7 PA. I just picked him up yesterday.
4. Andres Gallarraga 1995 (1B)--.278/5/38.
5. Andre Dawson 1991 (RF)--.268/12/37.
6. Jason Varitek 2004 (C)--.342/2/17.
7. Jim Gantner 1983 (2B)--Just picked him up this morning to replace an underachieving Ryne Sandberg 1996.
8.Kevin Kouzmanoff 2007 (3B)--.307/4/35. Still playing well for me and exceeding his RL stats.

I'm not getting the big numbers I did with my last team, but this league has better pitching.

Well, my pitching is okay. My roster:

Starters--
Charles Nagy 1992--4-2/3.21/1.36
Dave McNally 1971--4-2/2.81/1.17
Pud Galvin 1892--3-3/3.24/1.30
Erik Hanson 1989--Just picked him up this morning.
Henry Thielman 1902--1-0/0.64/1.29
Relievers--
Gary Ross 1969--1-1/5.00/1.67
Don Sutton 1982--0-0/0.00/3.00. Just picked him up two days ago, and he's pitched 0.1 innings.
Marc Wilkins 1996--0-0/0.00/0.00. So far 1 IP.
Akinori Otsuka 2006--1-0/1 sv/2.00/1.44.
Billy Wagner 2004 (closer)--0-1/12 sv/2.25/1.00
Plus three AAA pitchers.

So, because th team is doing poorly, I went ahead and violated my "One Season At A Time" rule, and bought another team, which I hope does better.

ROBOSOX II
C: Jason Varitek 2004 (he rules the sim), Rick Sweet 1982.
1B: Eddie Murray 1993.
2B: Harold Reynolds 1988.
3B: Terry Pendleton 1993.
SS: Larry Bowa 1977.
OF: Lou Brock 1973, Andre Dawson 1991, Hank Aaron 1974, and Wes Covington 1957 (platooning to equal a 41 HR and 134 RBI switch-hitter)
Bench: Gary Sutherland 1971 (rated at 2B, 3B, SS, and OF) and Dave Fultz 1899 (rated at 1B, 2B, 3B, SS, and OF).
Starting pitchers:Henry Thielman 1902, Dave McNally 1971, Orel Hershiser 1992, Roger Clemens 2000, and Pud Galvin 1892.
Relief: Gary Ryerson 1972, Mike Lynch 1907, Dave Smith 1985, Marc Wilkins 1996, Akinori Otsuka 2006, Larry Pape 1909, Billy Wagner 2004 closing, and a AAA pitcher doing mop-up duties.

I'm hoping II does better.

Well, much has happened since that last post in May.

I ended up with three teams, ROBOSOX, ROBOSOX II, and ROBOSOX III. They won 69, 72, and 80 games respectively.

Since May, I've learned a few things. There's been some updates to the sim that have created some strategy changes. Plus, I've changed my strategy based upon what I've learned from discussion with other sim players. Specifically, I've learned to rely more on my AAA players, and not spend money on bench players. I spent a lot of time over the last couple of months running a number of ten game Spring teams trying out the new strategy, tweaking the lineups and running different players or versions of players through.

Today, I drafted ROBOSOX IV based upon that experience. The team is weighted toward pitching, but should have a very strong offense.

PITCHERS: Starters-- Peavy 07, Earl Moore 1904, Ed Daily 1886, Clark Griffith 1903.
Relief-- Sanchez 2006, Jack Pfiester 1910 (Long), Frank Williams 1986, Harley Young 1908 (Set-up), Papelbon 07 (Closer), four 200k scrub pitchers (one for mopup, the others to be waived).

C: Del Crandall 1959
1B: Eddie Murray 1993
2B: Jim Gantner 1984
3B: Matt Williams 1999
SS: Larry Bowa 1977
OF: Lou Brock 1970, Andre Dawson 1979, Andre Dawson 1987.
Bench: Four 200k scrubs to be waived.

I'll pick up one more pitcher off the WW with my left over cash after waiving the scrubs for set-up with 50-60 IP.

I enjoy reading the updates..

Thanks

Definatly keep us in the loop on how your teams are doing.

We've just passed the All-Star Break, and ROBOSOX IV is now 43-46. We're slowly climbing back into it, thanks to some good hitting (1999 Matt Williams is provong to be a sim stud), and some decent pitching (2006 Anibal Sanchez is a stud out of the pen in long relief). And I've been running 10 game Spring leagues with an eye to some improvements when I create ROBOSOX V.

If anyone is interested in playing sim baseball, I highly recommend whatifsports.com. Each team is $12.95, cheaper than Strat-O-Matic. I DO NOT recommend baseballboss.com. They sucker you with promises of how it's free, then if you want to upgrade at all, it'll cost you. And the sim there sucks.

ROBOSOX IV has just had a ten game winning streak, bringing me five games above .500 and closing to eight games out of first. After this afternoon's game, it's the transaction deadline, and you gotta go with who you got. I've recently dropped Jim Gantner for Brandon Phillips (giving him a tryout for possible future use), and picked up a Bob Gibson. I have some decent relief pitching, too.

Instead of doing another Open League next time, I'm going to do a theme league using several 2008 players. Everyone has to use some of the same players, like CC Sabathia (either full or partial season), or Manny Ramirez (same thing), plus there's a list of players to choose from. You can chose anyone for the remaining slots. Plus, it will be a 100 mil cap, with no waiver wire or AAA, but with trades and even injuries (for a game at at time). It should be interesting.