In This Month’s Newsletter
New SSG Seasons
We have added the 1920, 1921 and 2020 seasons to the SSG player pool. With their addition, Babe Ruth’s 1921 season assumes top spot in the salary list at a whopping $45,579,000, topping his 1927 season, which, at $39,590,000 was the previous high.
Still to come is an adjustment to salaries of the rest of the SSG player pool; extension of real splits from 1934 back to 1928; and replacement of the 1946, 1956, 1960 and 1962 seasons with newly rerated versions.
New Classic Players
We’ve added 85 new players to the Classic player pool. Topping the salary chart are C.C. Sabathia ($10,906,000) and Curtis Granderson ($8,756,000).
Although heavily weighted toward those more recently retired, the incoming group includes players from throughout Major League history, including, for example, pitcher Ed (Cannonball) Crane (1884-93), catchers Willard Hershberger (1938-40) and Bill Salkeld (1945-50), and 1970 AL Rookie of the Year runner-up Roy Foster (1970-72).
Some players who “failed to make the cut” in this group – like Benny Agbayani and Masanori Murakami – are on deck for inclusion in the next group to be added. The most prominent recent retiree so far, Dustin Pedroia, also has been added to the list.
Round Trippers
We though this month we would highlight some impressive home run performances.
In the SSG head-to-head bracket elimination tournament, the Gold Dust Bowlers bashed 11 HR in a 19-8 thrashing of the Killarney Harriers at the Polo Grounds. Hank Greenberg led the way with three HR; Hack Wilson, Mel Ott and Frankie Hayes chipped in two each; with Joe Gordon and Woody English also clearing the fence.
In the Name Extreme League, where every player on each team has exactly the same first name, 8 different Alex’s homered in a 23-6 pummeling of El Jeffe.
And in the Keeper Progression 1994 league, Ken Griffey Jr had a season for the ages, posting a .315/.364/.683 slash line and tallying 65 HR, 151 RBI and 150.48 RC, punctuated by two three-HR games and two four-HR games.
Register Now for The Ladder Leagues
Registration is now open for Season 47 of the Ladder Leagues Standard Association and Season 35 of the Random 600 Association.
For those unfamiliar with them, the Ladder Leagues operate similarly to European soccer. The Standard and Random 600 Associations are presently comprised of six ranked leagues each. At the end of each Ladder Leagues season, the top teams from each league are promoted to higher leagues and the bottom teams are relegated to lower leagues. The promotion and relegation system in the Ladder Leagues ensures competitive leagues with similarly-skilled owners.
The Standard Association leagues are autodraft leagues utilizing the Classic (career-rated) player pool. The rules for the Standard Association are identical to classic standard leagues with DH on and DH off in alternate seasons. For Season 47, the DH is on.
The Random 600 Association comprises manual draft leagues using limited randomly-generated pools of 600 players, also from the Classic player pool. They are set in the Moneyball Era of Play with DH on and DH off in alternate seasons, with all other standard league defaults applicable. For Season 35, the DH is on.
There is an SSG Ladder Leagues Association also, with the Season 4 playoffs currently in progress. Registration for Season 5 will commence after the changes currently in the works for the SSG player pool are implemented.
The Tipping Point
Each month we’ll offer a few tips in this space that may come in handy for the beginner as well as the experienced team owner.
Many Custom Leagues are based around “captains”, where each team selects one or more players as captains, and then are limited to using players who were teammates of their captain(s). Others are based around one or more real teams, where team rosters are limited to players who played on one or more real teams, perhaps with additional limited options to augment or upgrade their rosters.
The fun of such leagues begins with the challenge of selecting your captains or core real-life teams. Here are some tips to help you find a winning combination:
Captains Leagues
It’s certainly a good thing to have captains who are great players and great values. But it’s more important to have captains who had a great assortment of teammates. A great captain won’t offset the disadvantage of a comparatively limited assortment of teammates.
The pools of teammates in captains leagues also often overlap. Selecting a captain with a number of key teammates who were not teammates of any other captains can be a huge advantage, since it gives you greater scope in your draft to prioritize other teammates of your captain(s) for whom you will have to compete with other teams.
The salary cap in a captains league is also an important determinant in select your captain(s). In a league with a relatively high cap, you are looking for a deep, star-laden pool of teammates. In a league with a lower cap, captains with less impressive looking pools of teammates may nevertheless be good choices, since the cap limits the star power of your roster.
“Real Team” Leagues
These leagues are especially popular in SSG, where owners select one or several real teams and are limited to players who played on those teams. For “one team” leagues, owners may be allowed to use any season/version of the players who played on their team.
Competition for players tends to be less of an issue in “real team” leagues, since there typically are no or very few overlaps between “real team” player pools. So the primary focus is on whether the team rosters available to you are complementary and will enable you to put together a quality team commensurate with the league’s salary cap.
When evaluating possible player pools for a captains or “real teams” league, a good place to start is with key positions and roles. For your line up, you might start by making sure you’ll be well set up for centerfield, shortstop and catcher. Make sure you have a decent spread of starting pitchers, from ace(s) to back-of-the-rotation innings eaters, and cost-effective relievers (with an emphasis on “effective”).
Finally, while some captains or “real team” leagues will give you some leeway to sign “ineligible” minimum salary players, make sure you’ve got plenty of cheap guys available. There’s nothing more frustrating than putting together a great value line up, only to blow the money you’ve saved on an overpriced bench.
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