Author Archive

The Sleeper and the Bust Episode: 802 – Cartoon Character Draft

04/14/20

The latest episode of “The Sleeper and the Bust” is live. Support the show by subscribing to Fangraphs! With a standard $20 membership, you help maintain and improve our database of stats and graphs as well as our staff of 8 full-time employees and over 50 contributors. The premium ad-free membership at $50 year supports site growth and also includes faster load speeds and better site performance. You can also support monthly for just $3.

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CARTOON CHARACTER DRAFT

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Texas Red Bulls: 2022 Review and 2023 Outlook

Last time out, we were in mid-August with a remarkably nice 69-46. We finished 27-20, ending atop the division, but as the third-best division winner. Let’s take a look back at the 2022 playoffs and how we are looking as we enter 2023 (which actually started at 9 AM Central this morning, so we’ll be mid-April by the end of this).

PLAYOFFS

The playoffs were a griiiind!

In the division series, we played the 97-65 New Tecumseth Hammers, who also won their division by 5 games. The two teams traded punches, but we came away with a 3-2 series victory (I didn’t get to screenshot all the individual game results, so I apologize for the lack of depth in describing the series. I’ll know better for the future). Onto the LCS, we were set to face the Morrisville Mallards who won the wildcard game after posting a 92-70 record and then also found themselves in a 5-game division series where they edged out the 99-63 West Saint Paul Predators.

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Texas Red Bulls: A Nice Win Total in Early-August

Earlier this week I introduced the Texas Red Bulls. I’m building and managing the team via OOTP’s Perfect Team mode. After an ugly 10-16 start in April, we’re 59-30!! I swear I didn’t just wait until I had 69 wins to write this update! It’s remarkably nice that it turned out that way, but it wasn’t intentional.

AN OVERVIEW

The team is 69-46 as of August 10th, in first place with a 3.5 game lead. We have a +114 run differential which is actually the 2nd-best in the league despite having the 3rd-best record. There’s a team at 76-38 with a +191 and another at 74-41 with a +109 mark (they are 6 games over their Pythag. record). The latest Power Rankings came out two game days earlier and we are third:

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The Sleeper and the Bust Episode: 801 – Dontcha Just Hate Casual Weather?

04/09/20

The latest episode of “The Sleeper and the Bust” is live. Support the show by subscribing to Fangraphs! With a standard $20 membership, you help maintain and improve our database of stats and graphs as well as our staff of 8 full-time employees and over 50 contributors. The premium ad-free membership at $50 year supports site growth and also includes faster load speeds and better site performance. You can also support monthly for just $3.

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THINGS WE HATE ABOUT SPORTS DRAFT

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Paul Sporer’s Baseball Chat – April 8th, 2020

Chat transcript is below!

1:30

Paul Sporer: Welcome to my weekly chat!! Thanks for coming out!

1:32

Ben: who are your favorite lower tier closers to target for cheap?

1:34

Paul Sporer: Doolittle/Hudson (I like to take both), Kela, and Jimenez are my favorites on the cheaper end

1:34

Chuck Norris: I think we’re going to be OK. I heard Matt Wieters got coronavirus. . . .and now the virus is in 14 day quarantine.

1:34

Paul Sporer: Aww Matt Wieters facts were so fun back when he was supposed to be amazing

1:34

SBDaGOODness: Votto blamed his subpar 2019 on mechanics and process, trying to emulate his 2017

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The Sleeper and the Bust Episode: 800 – Sports Movies Draft

04/07/20

The latest episode of “The Sleeper and the Bust” is live. Support the show by subscribing to Fangraphs! With a standard $20 membership, you help maintain and improve our database of stats and graphs as well as our staff of 8 full-time employees and over 50 contributors. The premium ad-free membership at $50 year supports site growth and also includes faster load speeds and better site performance. You can also support monthly for just $3.

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NEWS

  • Discussing the potential start of a season

SPORTS MOVIE DRAFT

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Texas Red Bulls: A $20 OOTP Perfect Team

Welcome to Out of the Park (OOTP) Perfect Team. You may be familiar with OOTP, perhaps even recently via Ben Clemens’ journey with his Milwaukee Brewers. I checked with Ben to make sure he wouldn’t feel like his toes were being stepped on if I started an OOTP series and he was beyond chill with it because he’s just that kind of guy.

Perfect Team is a card collecting online mode. You build and mold your team through throngs of virtual cards with ratings relating to the year in question whether it’s the 2020 iteration of everyone on a current roster or an early-1900s flashback and everything in between. When you start a team, you get six free packs and 1000 Perfect Points (the in-game currency you can use to buy more packs or players off the Auction House). About 20-30 minutes after you create your team, you’re placed into Entry Pool which is essentially a Spring Training of sorts where games are simulated against other human-run teams every 30 minutes 24/7 until the next Monday.

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8 Players I Can’t Wait to Watch in 2020

We’d be a week into the 2020 season if things had gone as planned. A bunch of us would already be freaking out about our teams and Twitter would be littered with questions about cutting star-level players because they are 5-for-30. As much as those questions drive me insane, I do wish I was fielding them daily right now.

I don’t know when we’ll get baseball again, but here are 8 players I can’t wait to see when it does return:

Ozzie Albies | 2B, ATL

I love watching Albies play baseball. The 23-year old switch hitter has flashed an array of skills over his 1630 MLB plate appearances and his power/speed capability has made him a fantasy stud. I stilllll think there’s even more here, particularly with his speed. I could see a 25/25 or even 30/30 season from Albies at his best.

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The Sleeper and the Bust Episode: 799 – Hourlong TV Show Draft

04/02/20

The latest episode of “The Sleeper and the Bust” is live. Support the show by subscribing to Fangraphs! With a standard $20 membership, you help maintain and improve our database of stats and graphs as well as our staff of 8 full-time employees and over 50 contributors. The premium ad-free membership at $50 year supports site growth and also includes faster load speeds and better site performance. You can also support monthly for just $3.

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HOURLONG TV SHOW* DRAFT

*I didn’t realize Sherlock was a 90-minute show and I binged Weeds so I completely forgot it was 30 minutes. Those were unintentional exceptions here.

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The Sleeper and the Bust Episode: 798 – Board Game Draft

04/01/20

The latest episode of “The Sleeper and the Bust” is live. Support the show by subscribing to Fangraphs! With a standard $20 membership, you help maintain and improve our database of stats and graphs as well as our staff of 8 full-time employees and over 50 contributors. The premium ad-free membership at $50 year supports site growth and also includes faster load speeds and better site performance. You can also support monthly for just $3.

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BOARD GAME DRAFT

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