This will be the most popular thread. Want to share the daily ups and downs of your tournament? Do so here.

Answer: Christmas morning as a kid & Opening Day in a What-if-Sports tournament.

Question: What two days do you look forward to the most?

Note that the first series of the season is always outside your division, so in most cases, you probably won't be playing a similar team. Here are some interesting series coming up, involving my teams.

2000 Oakland Athletics
My team takes on the much superior 1999 team that I wish I had taken earlier. I was happy that njbigwig's 1999 team got pushed out of the AL West.

1915 Boston Red Sox
Mine was the first Red Sox season taken. The second Red Sox season taken was... 1914. That is my opponent in the first series. Ruth x 2 and Speaker x 2. Basically the same pitchers. My team was fortunate to get pushed out of the deadball NL East and will have to beat out 1936, 1939 & 1940 to win my division.

1908 Chicago Cubs
Since there are eight teams between 1906 and 1916, I will playing against the same players quite a lot. redcped's 1911 squad is my first opponent. Same roster, except he has Fred Toney to shut the door in the late innings

2011 Detroit Tigers
Seven consecutive Tigers teams were taken (2008, 09, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14) so it's not a surprise that I would be facing a similar team. mllama54's 2009 team has Curtis Granderson (I do not) but I have Victor Martinez and Max Scherzer (he does not).

1970 Minnesota Twins
The entire AL East consists of mid-to-late 1960's Twins teams. I am playing harrelson's 1968 team. He's got Dean Chance x 2. I have Luis Tiant and Bert Blyleven x 2.

1922 Washington Senators
When I opened things up for folks to select a second team in a league, footballmm11 jumped in and grabbed a 1928 Washington Senators team that he doesn't expect to have much success. I jumped in to grab a 1922 Washington Senators team that that I don't expect to have much success. We are facing off against each other. My two great Walter Johnsons and not much offense vs his great offense but bad pitching. A perfect opening series.

None of my teams are under .500 or in last place. Let’s play two!! (or 15)

Predict how many of your teams will advance to round 2.

I have 17 teams. I will predict 12 will advance to round 2. I won't say which 12, but it's more likely that the teams I took in the earlier rounds *should* advance, although it wouldn't shock me if a couple of my early picks suck and a couple of my later picks surprise.

I’ll say 10 of 15. I don’t have a ton of standout teams but definitely some manageable or crapshoot divisions.

1931 Brooklyn Robins
My first series is against the 1966 Los Angeles Dodgers. I made the decision early on in the draft to take a contrarian position. I knew there would be 8 or 10 teams with two Koufaxes and two Drysdales. Instead of studying the rosters and grabbing one of those teams, I chose to take a team with a lot of hitting and reasonable pitching. The 1966 Dodgers have combined pitching staff totals of 0.92 WHIP and 2.24 ERA. My '31 Robins have a a 1.12 WHIP and a 2.43 ERA. Clearly, the '66 Dodgers' staff is much better than the '31 Robins. However, the '66 Dodgers offense has a combined Hitters OPS of .790 while the '31 Robins have a Hitters OPS of .916. With all 8 teams in the NL Central and West Divisions having 2 Koufaxes, I expect that I'll be facing similar series many, many times throughout the season.

I'll go optimistic and say 8 out of 16. Competitions here is tough - pretty much every owner is a WIS legend. A lot will depend on divisional draw. A lot will depend on luck.

I also predict that, via the 1952 Red Sox, I will have the team with the worst overall record in round 1.

My Tigers team allowed 32 runs on opening day, but in the 7 leagues I’m in I found two higher totals. There was a 51 in the Orioles and 39 in Red Sox. Can’t say fatigue factored in either.

My third highest scoring games was a 7-6 game, between two Mordecai Browns, in the Cubs league.

1914 Red Sox vs 1915 Red Sox, the four stud Babe Ruths combined to go 1 for 11, while the worst hitter on both teams, Everett Scott combined to go 3 for 6. Seems plausible.

Posted by redcped on 10/28/2024 1:49:00 AM (view original):
My Tigers team allowed 32 runs on opening day, but in the 7 leagues I’m in I found two higher totals. There was a 51 in the Orioles and 39 in Red Sox. Can’t say fatigue factored in either.

I was the benefactor of that 51 game. Sadly, I wasted my good Arrieta, who held the opposition to 1 run.

All in all, a 10-5 start for my teams. I'll take it.

Quick recap. A 9-8 session for me overall.

I won two close games.
My 1962 Cardinals beat 2007 Cardinals 14-12 in 12 innings. Lindy McDaniel blew a 3-run 8th-inning lead in that game for me.

My 2011 Tigers beat 2009 Tigers 6-5. I was up 5-1 and 6-3, before giving up 2 runs in the 7th. Nobody scored in the 8th or 9th.
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I lost six close games.
My 1915 Red Sox lost to the similar 1914 Red Sox 4-2. Nothing really notable in this game except the four Babe Ruths went 1-11.

My 1908 Cubs lost to 1911 Cubs 7-6. I was down early, took a brief lead in the 5th but never really threatened.

My 1963 White Sox lost to 2022 White Sox 4-2. Hot Wilhelm gives up 2 runs in the 8th and takes the loss.

My 1917 Braves lost to 1960 Braves 5-3. '08 Ed Walsh didn't pitch well (8 hits & 4 walks in 5 IPs). '19 Art Nehf takes the loss, allowing 2 runs in 8th.

My 1995 Orioles lost to 1971 Orioles 6-5. My two Doug Jones each allows a run in the 9th to blow the lead with 2 outs.

My 1970 Twins lost to a similar 1968 Twins team 4-2. '64 Dean Chance outduels Bert Blyleven. I scored 2 in the 1st and got only 3 hits after that.


The other games were blowouts (3+ run margins). I went 7-2 in those games, which is a good sign.

11-5 for me. Ironically, my most dominant win was a 12-5 rout for the 1952 Red Sox against their 1940 counterparts (it was 12-0 until we let up a little in the late innings). This is the same team that I predict will have the worst overall record in all of round 1.