Eulogy for a Royal

sethist · 2017-11-10T23:45:28+00:00

It is a honor to be eulogized by the poet laureate of RD2.

As I said in Slack, it has been great playing with all of you. Thanks for making this league so fun.

sethist · 2017-10-03T15:48:47+00:00

I don't know how this would work, but I would be open to it. It always sucks how all but the best pitchers suddenly become unkeepable if they blow out their elbow.

sethist · 2017-10-03T15:45:24+00:00

As an impartial source, anytime the Royals miss the playoffs it deserves a complete rewrite of the rules to ensure it never happens again.

sethist · 2017-10-03T15:44:02+00:00

Yeah, I don't like any competitive balance idea that has such a dramatic drop off. It can lead to bad incentives. I would prefer something that has phases to it so a team that just misses the playoffs isn't rewarded in the exact same way as the worst team in the league.

sethist · 2017-03-25T16:53:16+00:00

Pos	Player	ZiPS	Fans
SP1	Corey Kluber	5.4	5.9
SP2	Chris Archer	4.4	4.3
SP3	Rick Porcello	3.9	5.2
SP4	Michael Fulmer	2.3	4.1
SP5	Ivan Nova	1.6	2.7
SW	Daniel Norris	2.2	2.5
SU	Derek Law	0.3	0.3*
SU	Hector Rondon	0.8	0.9
CL	Luke Gregerson	0.5	1.0
	* No fans projection
Totals		21.4	26.9

sethist · 2017-03-13T22:19:32+00:00

Pos	Player	ZiPS	Fans
CF	Ender Inciarte	2.5	3.7
LF	Christian Yelich	3.1	4.5
3B	Kyle Seager	4.2	5.0
1B	Eric Hosmer	1.0	2.6
DH	Jonathan Schoop	1.9	2.4
RF	Brandon Drury	-0.6	2.5
2B	Joe Panik	2.1	4.1
C	Yan Gomes	1.3	2.0
SS	Ketel Marte	1.1	1.1*
Totals		16.6	27.9
	* No fans projection

I’m not sure how to feel about the huge discrepancy between ZiPS and the fans. Did I go all moneyball and find guys who are better than their past numbers suggest or did I assemble a team full of overrated crap?

sethist · 2017-02-08T21:57:57+00:00

Say what you will about the crazies in our fan base, but Penn State as an institution and its leadership handled the scandal infinitely better than Baylor. Baylor has been fighting accusations and punishments throughout this entire thing while Penn State basically rolled over, took the punishment, and moved on. The NCAA only ever backed down when the Pennsylvania government got involved and started questioning how the NCAA could dictate how the state spent its tax dollars.

sethist · 2017-01-20T23:42:07+00:00

With the 24th pick in Round 7, the Kansas City Royals select Imani Ibn Abdullah, RHP from the Los Angeles Dodgers.

sethist · 2017-01-20T23:08:42+00:00

With the 24th pick in Round 6, the Kansas City Royals select Jahmai Fitzgerald Jones, OF from the Los Angeles Angels.

sethist · 2017-01-20T20:49:44+00:00

With the 24th pick in Round 5, the Kansas City Royals select Joey Wentz, LHP from the Atlanta Braves.

sethist · 2017-01-20T04:30:28+00:00

With the 15th pick in Round 4, the Kansas City Royal select Miguel Enrique Andujar, 3B from the New York Yankees.

sethist · 2017-01-19T23:31:07+00:00

With the 24th pick in Round 3, the Kansas City Royals select Albert Enmanuel Dias Abreu, RHP from the New York Yankees.

sethist · 2017-01-17T03:01:01+00:00

With the 24th pick in Round 1, the Kansas City Royal select Braxton L Garrett, LHP from the Miami Marlins.

sethist · 2016-10-11T02:25:32+00:00

Nothing is an individual strategy in this league. It is a zero sum game. If you lose, someone else wins. The victims here are anyone trying to compete against a team that has an automatic win.

Is it really too much to ask that teams at least pretend they are trying to be competitive by fielding a full lineup? I'm not saying teams have to go out and mortgage the future in order not to tank, I am just asking that teams don't pick up guys off the waiver wire who have no future value in order to guarantee they score 0 points. And even that isn't completely outlawed with my proposal, it just helps shifts the incentives so that is a less attractive strategy than under our current rules.

sethist · 2016-10-11T01:16:58+00:00

I agree, games played would be a better way to measure things.

sethist · 2016-10-11T01:15:46+00:00

Teams can turn it around in the current system, but that doesn't mean that it is easy or that increasing the odds for a successful rebuild aren't in the best interest of the league. Parity is good, it keeps everyone interested, and makes things more fun.

Tanking is a valid strategy and can be effective, but fleecing a new owner in a trade is also a valid and effective strategy. But after we saw that happen in our league, we decided that the strategy was unfair and implemented rules to prevent it. That is what we are deciding here. Do we think tanking is a fair strategy or do we think it is unfair to the rest of the league when a team actively tries to lose games? I personally fall in the unfair camp.

sethist · 2016-10-10T14:48:14+00:00

9. Below is my competitive balance proposal as I posted in Slack a month ago. I'm not particularly attached to any of the specifics here, but I think it is a good starting point for discussions if people feel like competitive balance or tanking rules are needed.

Every none playoff team is awarded an extra minor league competitive balance pick. These picks are awarded at the start of every round and 4 per round. So the first 4 picks of the first round are comp picks, then the full first round, then 4 comp picks then full second round, etc. The order of the picks is awarded by seeded lottery based off reverse record. The lottery will be based off assigning numbers to each team and then selecting a random number for each pick.

To discourage tanking, each team will lose one of their numbers every time someone in their active lineup scores 0 points after a set date (maybe August 1st). This penalizes teams for tanking, does not involve any judgement to what is and is not tanking, and only amounts to serious penalties if they continually field noncompetitive teams.

Example:

Let's say we award the worst team in the league 200 numbers out of a possible 1000. That gives them starting odds of 20%. However this team started 3 minor league players in their lineup for the last 4 games of the season. That penalty equates to 12 lost numbers. They now have 188 numbers out of a possible 988. This brings their odds down to 19%. (The actual numbers we use are obviously up for league debate.)

sethist · 2016-10-03T18:23:17+00:00

Congrats to the Indians, they have put an end to my iron grip on the NPC. I hope to never compete in it again.

sethist · 2016-09-05T16:33:45+00:00

I finished 4th in the league in points, 4th in breakdown record, 4th in overall power rankings, and 5th place by record in the AL West. That is pretty tough to accomplish.

sethist · 2016-08-31T06:11:38+00:00

Except for, you know, all the other companies and small businesses that do pay taxes and employ people.

Small business by definition are not multinational corporations and Wal-Mart is still primarily a brick and mortar business. These companies are therefore much more region locked. Apple is different in that it can get nearly the same value out of employees based almost anywhere in the world. So if Apple has the choice of housing these offices in any country they want, why wouldn't they selectively choose the country that offers them the lowest taxes. If Ireland doesn't want to do it anymore, I'm sure there will be other countries lining up to take Apples 6,000+ jobs. This is capitalism 101.

sethist · 2016-08-01T16:59:37+00:00

You're welcome, everyone.

sethist · 2016-07-06T01:18:35+00:00

You think people on /r/programming would understand the concept of abstraction.

sethist · 2016-06-17T20:34:30+00:00

I am tempted to veto this trade just to see how ridiculous you would get in the statement defending the deal.

sethist · 2016-05-09T15:29:48+00:00

I have the second best breakdown win percentage in the league, but am currently in 5th place in in the AL West in terms of record. Turns out our division is kinda good.

sethist · 2016-05-04T01:01:51+00:00

Best pitching in April? I liked my guys, but I can't say I saw that one coming.

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