Posted by ozomatli on 9/8/2025 10:43:00 PM (view original):

Posted by justinlee_24 on 9/8/2025 10:38:00 PM (view original):

Posted by ozomatli on 9/8/2025 10:33:00 PM (view original):
That would be a bigger benefit with the old playoff scoring system, I think. My guess is you still have a better chance of ending up with more total points if you're building from the better player pool.

something else to consider... both of the "super" divisions are in the same conference though so arguably you could score more points by going into the other conference and playing against "weaker" opposition.

As someone who's won this tournament twice and also finished outside the Top 24 multiple times, I'd argue the difference between #1 and #24 from Round 1 is smaller than a better vs worse roster

but it's not just the fact that you're facing "weaker" owners, but they also have weaker players just like you. The choice is have stronger players and face "stronger" owners with those same stronger players or face "weaker" owners with weaker players.

If the super divisions were not in the same conference I'd be inclined to agree with you.

I hear you but idk, I don't think the seedings represent owner quality. For example is jbohrman really the 19th best among this group? I think you'd be hard pressed to make that case. So I don't think we can say that you'd be playing against "weaker" owners in that example. You'd just have worse players.

Posted by ozomatli on 9/8/2025 11:04:00 PM (view original):
I hear you but idk, I don't think the seedings represent owner quality. For example is jbohrman really the 19th best among this group? I think you'd be hard pressed to make that case. So I don't think we can say that you'd be playing against "weaker" owners in that example. You'd just have worse players.

I agree that the seedings don't always reflect owner quality, which is why I put it in quotations.

I play Rule V a lot, so I'll use it as an illustration of what I mean:

Schwarze posts Rule V franchise history, so everyone gets to see roughly which franchises perform well and which ones don't.
Note: Division alignments are determined by franchise winning %, so the ones with the highest winning % wind up in the same division.
The AL West for example, always has the 4 franchises with the most historical success and therefore is almost always a super division.

Meanwhile, I recorded the 3rd most wins in the past Rule V season with the Rockies franchise, which has close to the worst overall historical winning %. I almost certainly did not have the 3rd best roster, but I finished with more wins than all the teams in that division except the division winner of the AL West. A big reason for that is that being in the other conference, I got to for the most part avoid playing those teams.

Long story short, superior managerial/roster building skills might matter more against weaker overall player pools than they do against loaded teams, because those teams have fewer weaknesses.

Sure, it's possible to put together a good team in any scenario and outlier results do happen. You can overcome the odds. But I'm just thinking in terms of those odds / probabilities.

Also I would argue that while the Rule V league has great owners, there is nothing that really compares to the parity we see in Round 2 of the WISC.

I have very little chance to win this thing, so I might as well have some fun. I'll take the 1st pick in the 1924-25 league. And I have no idea yet which player I will be selecting.

Well that blows. The one division I wanted and all 3 spots go in the 3 picks before me. And now on top of that, I’m stuck picking 3rd. Worst result possible.

Posted by schwarze on 9/8/2025 11:27:00 PM (view original):
I have very little chance to win this thing, so I might as well have some fun. I'll take the 1st pick in the 1924-25 league. And I have no idea yet which player I will be selecting.

Ruth and Hornsby will tear up that 60s pitching.

Posted by ozomatli on 9/8/2025 9:47:00 PM (view original):
I take the fact that every selection so far has been for one of the top 2 divisions before any others were selected once as validation of my POV on this theme lol.

It was your logic that helped seal my pick, it's really hard to predict past the third round of a draft

Posted by Jtpsops on 9/8/2025 11:30:00 PM (view original):

Posted by schwarze on 9/8/2025 11:27:00 PM (view original):
I have very little chance to win this thing, so I might as well have some fun. I'll take the 1st pick in the 1924-25 league. And I have no idea yet which player I will be selecting.

Ruth and Hornsby will tear up that 60s pitching.

Yes, but the pitching in these two years is pretty weak. Especially relief pitching.

Posted by Jtpsops on 9/8/2025 11:28:00 PM (view original):
Well that blows. The one division I wanted and all 3 spots go in the 3 picks before me. And now on top of that, I’m stuck picking 3rd. Worst result possible.

At least you're able to pick which division you want to draft in. Highly likely I won't have that luxury.

Yeah, I thought I had the worst place in the draft but I think it will end up being buddhagamer. We'll see.

Not feel great about my position regardless, but we'll go with 63-64.

Posted by ozomatli on 9/8/2025 11:39:00 PM (view original):
Yeah, I thought I had the worst place in the draft but I think it will end up being buddhagamer. We'll see.

The big problem with this theme is the moment a division is almost filled, the dominant strategy for the next owner up is to fill the division. If the point was to try and get the bottom owners the first overall pick, that's not what's happening and it's totally predictable that this would happen.

schwarze, I have the 3rd pick in the 85-86 draft. Need to correct the alpha list.

Posted by Jtpsops on 9/8/2025 11:30:00 PM (view original):

Posted by schwarze on 9/8/2025 11:27:00 PM (view original):
I have very little chance to win this thing, so I might as well have some fun. I'll take the 1st pick in the 1924-25 league. And I have no idea yet which player I will be selecting.

Ruth and Hornsby will tear up that 60s pitching.

I’m more than a little worried about those offenses. I tend to favor pitching, but I certainly have seen plenty of great offenses dominate. I mean, d_rock97 just won the $100m league with a loaded 1890s Orioles offense with a 60/40 split.