OOTP Multiplayer Dynasty: The FOBL's Seminole Honkies

[Daimyo]

History
The FOBL is a fanatic OOTP league that began about 25 months ago with most of the founding ownership pulled from FOFC. We are now in the midst of our 10th season and going stronger than ever. This is the chronicle of the FOBL's Seminole Honkie franchise, which I inherited after the league's first season. The FOBL consists of 36 teams divided into the Vaughan League and the Gindin League. By the grace of god, Seminole plays in the superior of the two leagues - the GL.

The Seminole franchise was founded in 2001 by former FOFC regular Petrochile. Seminole, otherwise known as Native America's Team, is located on the Seminole Indian Reservation at Big Cyprus. The franchise was founded as "Seminole Indian Reservation White SKinned Honkies", but now goes by the short name "Seminole Honkies." The following logos have been used at various points in the team's history:



For more information about the FOBL, please see Duke's Kentucky dynasty or visit the FOBL's forums.

The Original Honkies
Petrochile made great moves in the initial draft putting Seminole in great shape for the future. Twenty-two year old lefty Bobbie "Babyface" Applegate was the franchise's first draft pick fresh out of college. In one of the greatest second round steals Seminole selected switch hitting first baseman William Remy. Seminole pulled another steal out of the third round with on-base machine Burt Brooke in the third.

When the draft finished, SEM was left with a young, good defensive infield loaded with switch hitters and an aging, poor defensive outfield of solid lefty hitters. Led by Bobbie Applegate Seminole had a strong, young rotation and a non-existant bullpen.

The Wilderness
The Wilderness Division of the FOBL is what all the other divisions aspire to be when they grow up. In nine seasons of play it has produced five GL champions and three (different) FOBL champions. Seminole plays in the Wilderness division.

Joining SEM in the Wilderness in 2001 were the following franchises and their owners:


Durham Dragons - Malificient
The Durham franchise began with the selection of superstar slugger Gary Frances. As a 27 year old draftee he was already among the best outfielders in the FOBL with his combination of power, speed, and defense and he immediately became the face of the Durham franchise. He was their first player and I think if possible he'd be their last. Mali smartly filled out his lineup with guys who knew how to take a walk like 3B Hoops, OF Blaylock, and 1B Cancel, and OF Mak.

The Durham pitching staff was anchored by aging lefty ace Ronald Patton and 25-year old super closer David Wagner.


Norfolk Zippies - Fritz
More than any other franchise in the league, Norfolk was built around a concept: speed and stealing. Their first round pick, Guadalupe Hensler, was a slick fielding, lefty second basemen who somehow fell to them at the last pick in the first round. Kris "Doc" Vargas was the prototypical Zippy... he didn't have a great bat, but he could run and play defense and quickly became one of the most popular of the Zippies.

As much as Fritz liked speed on offense, he liked relief pitching on defense. Norfolk was famous in the early years for stockpiling relief pitchers starting with the first pick in the second round of the initial draft and superstud closer Ralph Janson. Norfolk's rotation was anchored by 32-year old Mariano Garrett and 24-year old John Natali.


Orlando Osprey - Vaj
Orlando's first round pick brought them starting pitcher Ed "No Shame" Brown, so named because there was no shame in losing when you faced him... he was that good. Orlando filled out the rotation with solid SP's Jacob Tomita and 21-year old James Thai.

Offensively the Osprey were led by catcher Shawn Youngberg and 3B/SS Jason Mooring.


Shreveport Hurricanes - Fishfan
Shreveport began its draft as only Shreveport could... with a closer. Twenty-six year old James Crose was a hard throwing righty with a weakness for doubles, but otherwise as good as you can get from a closer. The Hurricane rotation was anchored by aging vets Craig Heffron and Randy George.

Shreveport's first offensive pick was CF Michael Reid. Their most popular offensive player was probably first basemen Anton Stevens.


Virginia Woodchucks - Subby
Virginia picked 24-year old hurler Mark Flakes with their first pick and followed it with 25-year old Jerry Gabaldon.

The heart of the Woodcock offense was shortstop James Mosteller. Yes, this was a team built on pitching and defense.

[Subby]

Virginia also selected a young SP with its 3rd pick - Bernard Deryberry. Unfortunately, like his new teammate Darren Hittle, he suffered a crushing dev hit and never regained the form that made him so promising on draft day.

The 'Chucks were a fun team in 2001 - all pitching, speed, and defense, with no power whatsoever. As the fake seasons have rolled by we have gotten away from that philosophy to a degree, but one day I would like to get back to manafacturing runs and making huge defensive stops like we did way back when...

Seminole sucks.

[Fritz]

*bonus points to the person who can guess which FOFC member's penis the Zippys were named after*

[Daimyo]

2001

Disclaimer: I did not take over the team until after the 2001 season, so this first season will be brief and probably not very interesting.

Due to a general lack of experience when the league was created (way back in v3), the first couple years of the FOBL were plagued by absurbly high offense created by messed up league totals. Compounding the problem was that the two leagues were mostly divided up such that teams with pitcher friendly parks were in the Vaughan League and teams with batter friendly parks were in the Gindin. Seminole spent this era in the most extreme batter's park in the division known for extreme batting parks.

Aside from the extreme scoring, the 2001 GL was also known for its extreme parity. The Las Vegas Lightning led the league with 98 wins and the Norman Tornados needed only 90 wins to secure the wild card. Seven teams finished 10 games or less out of the playoffs. Davenport and Richmond tied for last place with 66 wins.

The Honkies played tough all season long and were in the thick of the playoff hunt right up until the end, but unfortunately fell short tying Durham at 88-74... three games back of the evil Virginia Woodchucks. The Honkie offense played well, helped by park effects, to lead the league in scoring by 183 runs over division rival Norfolk.

The offense was led by second round pick 1B William Remy who batted 372/450/700 with 48 HR and an FOBL leading 194 RBI and was named the GL's first Silver Slugger. Despite the amazing offensive performance, in retrospect, Remy was not even the team's MVP. That honor goes to rangey, switch-hitting 2B Victor Park who batted 385/438/564 with 17 HR and 128 RBI while playing outstanding defense at a talent thin position. Centerfielder Burt Brooke was an underappreciated stud and led the league in runs scored (158) after batting 385/469/535 with 17 HR and 114 RBI.

On the pitching side, ace lefty Bobbie "Babyface" Applegate had a very underappreciated season masked by the extreme park effects. The 22-year old went 15-8 with a 4.84 ERA in 219.3 IP contributing 19 winshares. Second starter Danny Galeana was the designated goat finishing the season 11-8 with a 7.14 ERA in 186.7 IP for 8 winshares.

Wilderness Update

  Wilderness Division 

Team        W  L WPct GB 

Virginia   91 71 .562  - 

Seminole   88 74 .543  3 

Durham     88 74 .543  3 

Orlando    83 79 .512  8 

Norfolk    81 81 .500 10 

Shreveport 68 94 .420 23

Virginia's young starting pitchers disapointed, but a balanced, effective offense and strong defense picked up the slack. 2B Garrett Mumford led the Virginia offense and probably should have won a gold glove for his amazing defensive performance. Virginia's pitching staff was led by closer Rocky Kelly who put up a 1.75 ERA (amazing in this offensive era) and picked up 47 saves (23 winshares). Despite the great performance Rocky was not satisfied to be a relief pitcher and forced a trade out of Virgina. Sadly he was not given the chance to start fulltime until much later in his career.

Durham 1B Charles Cancel was the ideal Moneyball player leading the team in walks (115-5th in FOBL) and OBP (405) despite batting only 289 (Gindin league BA = 294 in 2001). Durham's pitching was led by original super-closer David "The Choker" Wagner who put up a 1.97 era and 39 saves for 18 winshares.

I don't think Orlando's Shawn Youngberg was even mentioned in the Silver Slugger balloting, but the switch hitting catcher probably should have walked away with the award after batting 340/424/634 with 39 homeruns and 121 RBI in one of the Gindin's less extreme ballparks (32 total winshares). The Osprey also featured the best pitcher in the Wilderness with Ed "No Shame" Brown, so named because there was never any shame in losing to him. The gritty lefty went 16-6 with a 3.52 era for 20 winshares.

Norfolk star 2B Guadalupe "Loop" Hensler dropped past 35 owners in the initial draft before being snapped up at 36 by the Zippies. He spent the rest of his career making nearly everyone regret the slight. Mr Zippy began a career of dominance batting 390/458/612 with 26 HR, 116 RBI, and 79 steals (against only 15 CS). Despite the gaudy numbers 'Loop wasn't even the most famous Zippy in that first season... CF Kris "Doc" Vargas set a league record that will never broken by stealing 102 bases (23 CS), but even that, stud defense, and a 416 OBP was not enough to earn him an all-star spot.

The Shreveport squad underacheived all season, but still had a few individual performances of note. Switch hitting (noticing a pattern yet?) 1B Anton Stevens spent most of the season flirting with 400 and finished 391/449/567 to lead the Hurricane attack. The Shreveport pitching staff was led by starter Craif Heffron (15-10, 4.96 ERA) and 1st round closer James Crose (7-3-26, 3.60 ERA) with 14 and 15 winshares respectively.

Playoffs

The wildcard Norman Tornados were abandoned by former owner Sooner at midseason and it was the best thing to ever happen to the franchise as they immediatly went on a tear to take the Wildcard and upset the Vegas juggernaut in a first round sweep. The Chuckles took out the Prairie winning Arlington Bush Barbers setting up a match between Subby and Absentee. With the league championship on the line and no one standing in their way, Virginia still lost the series two games to four.

The Norman franchise was poorly managed, but led by the 2001's greatest offensive duo: first overall pick William Reedy (29 winshares) and Marcelino Prater (32 winshares). What I said above about Youngberg being the run away Silver Slugger? I was wrong or stupid or both. Prater was the man in 2001 batting 350/419/705 with 56 HR and 169 RBI. Oddly enough, one of these two was destined to stay with the franchise forever and the other to be passed around like a $2 whore.

Columbus won the VL championship on the strength of a walk off HR by super-amazing-baseball-god-amonst-men RF Daniel Berman. Berman was the kind of player Seminole only dreamed of having... Columbus also happened to feature the FOBL's first (and only) MVP Richard "Ice" Berglund (354/422/713, 64HR, 179RBI). Both players were acquired at midseason and along with a million other stud players and Croc-for-life 1B Carlos "El-Nino" Gatton they led Columbus to a second half surge and a 96-66 record. Unlike Norman, Columbus didn't forget to bring a pitching staff and thus made quick work of the poorly managed Tornados, winning the series in four games.

Awards

MVP: Richard "Ice" Berglund (Hollywood/Columbus)

GL
Silver Slugger: William Remy (Seminole Honkies)
Platinum Pitcher: Mark Smolen (Santa Cruz Sea Lions)
Fireman of the Year: Ian Beck (Las Vegas Lightning)
Rookie of the Year: SP Les Ownby (Arlington Bush Barbers)
Manager of the Year: NoMyths (Las Vegas Lightning)

VL
Silver Slugger: Michael Caldwell (Montana Monarchs)
Platinum Pitcher: Charles Foster (Montana Monarchs)
Fireman of the Year: Willie Schrupp (Essex Cougars)
Rookie of the Year: David Tiffany (Greenbelt Gophers)
Manager of the Year: TheMike (Columbus Crocodiles)

[Subby]

Not only did Virgnia lose 4-2, we were up 2-0 in that series

[Marmel]

You schlocks still use OOTP4? How sad.

[Subby]

Originally posted by Marmel
You schlocks still use OOTP4? How sad.

We aren't gullible enough to pay full-price, baby

[Marmel]

I thought it was you who once said, regarding the move from OOTP3 to OOTP4, "Those OOTP3 leagues that did not upgrade are just sad."

and don't call me baby, you know damn well I prefer 'sweet-cheeks'

[Subby]

Originally posted by Marmel
I thought it was you who once said, regarding the move from OOTP3 to OOTP4, "Those OOTP3 leagues that did not upgrade are just sad."

You are confusing me with Tiffany-Amber Thiessen.

[Marmel]

easy mistake to make with those breasts you have.

[RealDeal]

A couple of days ago, the FOBL approved, by a 28-8 vote, a move to v5, which will take place after our 2012 season.

[Simms]

Originally posted by RealDeal
A couple of days ago, the FOBL approved, by a 28-8 vote, a move to v5, which will take place after our 2012 season.

2011

[Marmel]

I am just kidding around. I feel it is my job to chide the FOBL whenever possible.

[sjshaw]

It's like you never left!

[Daimyo]

2002 Offseason

With 2001 in the books, the FOBL entered its first offseason. There would be two great additions to the league at this time: 1) the FOBL left behind OOTP's crappy ingame financial engine in favor of one created by our resident geniuses, ez and morgado; and 2) I took over Seminole.

The team I inherited was built for OOTP finances, but the new financial system was built to punish teams that overspend for mediocracy. Paying $56M for 88 wins, as Seminole did in 2001, was definately overspending for mediocracy. Faced with this dilemna I realized there were two directions for the franchise... either spend less for mediocracy or spend more for a contender. The last thing I wanted to do was "suck out loud" (TM - Kentucky) in my first season in the league... I had to prove I belonged! The choice was easy, Seminole was going to burn brighter by lighting the candle at both ends.

Seminole won 88 games in 2001 while Vegas led the league with 98 wins, so my goal for the season was to somehow add 10 wins without going over the $60M salary cap. I didn't really know anything about baseball when I took the team, but I learned fairly early on that in order to get 10 extra wins I'd somehow have to add 100 runs. Since my offense already led the league in runs scored by a wide margin, any improvement would have to come on the defense and pitching side I reasoned.

I went looking for pitching first, but getting it was a lot harder said than done. I inquired about SP Chris Johnson from Des Moines (Norman folded after 2001 and was moved to Des Moines by new media mogul owner TheDawgsAreOut), but found that he had already been traded to division rival Norfolk. My second target was Albany righty SP Michael Shimp. Shimp didn't rate well, but he led all Engineer starters in ERA at 3.39 after going 6-5 in 2001. What I failed to realize at the time that Albany was the league's most extreme pitching park and Seminole the league's most extreme batting park. WHOOPS! Not only did I take a bum and his million dollar salary, but I also gave Albany a cool $1M, my third round pick, and a promising relief pitcher to get him!

With the pitching well now officially dry I turned my attention to the defense. One area that really stood out for poor defense was the Seminole outfield. McFarland, Brooke, and Morales could all swing the bat, but each was more likely to kick the ball than catch it. In came Fat Albert Caviness, who was actually pretty thin, and enough cash to pay his salary through 2003. The cost? - Seminole and Virginia swapped first round picks (#23 to VIR, #24 to SEM). Caviness was the perfect player for the new look Seminole offense. He played LF better than anyone in the league and could run faster than anyone this side of Norfolk. Fat Albert was a real toolsy player - unfortunately he didn't own any of the ones related to actually hitting the ball.

He was about ten times better than what Seminole would acquire next. 2B Richard Kells and Frederick Robinson joined the club fresh out of spending the entire 2001 season at Capital City's AAA club. Looking back, it probably should have been a warning sign that neither guy was able to get any time even on a 65-97 team, but I didn't know anything about baseball - nor economics apparently since I was now wasting $2M on a couple guys who'd probably never even sniff a major league AB (at least they wouldn't deserve it).

Thankfully the draft came along or I might have made a habit out of ruining my franchise. Pre draft trading left Seminole with three picks for which I figured I could grab decent players: 1(36), 2(15), and 3(25). My goal was to grab the best starting pitchers and outfielders I could get since my infield was already very young.

High school phenom Fred Bush was the best pitcher in the draft by nearly all accounts heading into the draft and we knew we didn't have a shot to get him. I rated high school lefty Pete "Loin Cloth" Vanderford (seen here after a talent bump - he was avg/good/good/avg on draft day) and Bubba "Gonzo" Reddy (shown after a talent hit - he was avg/good/good/fair on draft day) as roughly equal at #2. Out of nowhere Hollywood grabbed Ossie Anthony at pick eight. Ossie was projected by most scouts as a closer, but Chief Whore Shaw was willing to give him a shot to start. Vanderford was the next pitcher off the board at 14 and I figured Reddy was sure to follow soon. By pick 23, four college starting pitchers were taken, but Reddy appeared to be slipping through the cracks! Reddy was not the kind of baseball player you could sell jeans with. He was chunky and didn't throw very hard, but he didn't walk very many batters and he didn't give up too many extra base hits. When he was still around at 27, I could no longer resist moving up to grab him. Seminole sent backup second basemen Jorge Reraci, 20-yo MR prospect Abraham Goodman and a second round pick (23) to Pasadena for 1(27) which I immediately used to make Bubba Reddy a Honkie.

As it turned out, Seminole was far from done on this draft night. The first couple rounds of the FOBL draft take place live in an IM chat. Sometime before the Reddy pick, Trenton owner pbot made an open trade offer to all in the room: as long as the guy he wanted was still on the board, he'd trade all-star slugging second basemen George Selders for the current pick. Selders was one of the top 2B in the league coming off a 285/338/476 season with 29 HR and 103 RBI and 38 stolen bases in the Vaughan League (pitching parks). His range at second was average, but he rarely played committed an error and he had speed. The FOBL was about to introduce the DH in 2002, and Selders seemed a perfect fit as he could also also backup Park at second. We IMed Trenton the offer: if their guy was still around at 36, we'd make the deal.

The big issue with Selders was cost. He was still owed $16.2M on a contract that ran through 2004 in a league where suddenly every dollar mattered. Trenton finished 2001 with the league's worst record at 63-99 despite a $56M payroll. As GM pbot wisely reasoned, why spend $56M to finish last when they could just easily spend a lot less and finish last. The team had already shipped off eight million dollar man, Joaquin Broomfield to Durham, and it looked like Selders would soon be joining the talent exodus.

In order to make room to afford the deal Seminole agreed to a deal with Rockford Punks GM TDR to send starting left fielder Edward McFarland and left handed starter Thomas Moretz to Rockville in exchange for the 25th pick in the second and third round. With cap space secured we waited and hoped that Trenton's mystery pick survived to pick 36.

Ben Pavlik was a little scouted 18 year old fresh out of high school. His fastball only topped out in the mid-80s so he didn't attract a lot of attention from pro scouts. If they had been paying attention they might have noticed his uncanny ability to avoid extra base hits - he didn't give up a single double or triple in his last two years of high school ball. Trenton had been paying attention. Ginger Dumais was a slick fielding college centerfielder with world class speed and a good batting eye, but little patience that Trenton also coveted. When both were still around at pick 36 Trenton decided to grab both of them and agreed to send Selders to Seminole for the 36th pick in the draft. And with that, Seminole had a new DH.

The rest of the draft was fairly uneventful. With pick 2(15) Seminole grabbed the guy they had planned to take with 1(36), corner OF Charlie Vaughn. Vaughn led the NCAA in walks his senior year in college, but only hit 4 homeruns in his entire college career. He was also a pretty good college quarterback and possessed a cannon for an arm. Seminole drafted another college walk machine in the third round by taking Notre Dame centerfielder Stan Martinez.

All in all, we felt very good about our first draft. We entered the draft with two mediocre picks and managed to bring in an all-star caliber secondbasemen, the third best SP on our draft board, and a couple of high-walk outfielders we figured could take over for Brooke and Morales in a couple years.

In free agency we made two low key signings inking left handed centerfielder James Rennie to a three year, $6M deal and catcher Travis Martinez to three years at $1.5M/year. Rennie was a singles hitter brought in to replace McFarland and shore up the defense. Martinez was a 29-yo catcher we intended to groom to replace 35-yo starter Kevin Pettaway who had missed half the previous season. Martinez had been the 41st overall pick in the initial allocation draft, but broke his wrist in the second week of the season. Richmond released him at the end of 2001 and it appeared his career might be over, but Seminole signed him anyway as a reclamation project.

Heading into my first season the team's pitching looked remarkably similar to 2001 (despite my best intentions) with Shimp replacing Holst at the 5 spot. Offensively we improved a lot by adding Selder's bat at DH. Defensively we improved a little bit by swapping out McFarland in LF for a platoon of stud defenders Caviness and Rennie.