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Who is EACadca?
My name is Mike. I'm going into senior year at Hamilton College in upstate New York, double majoring in creative writing and computer science. EACadca doesn't mean anything, and I've been meaning to change my username for a while.
How did you learn about whatifsports.com?
I found the baseball simleagues linked from MLB.com ... geez, five years ago.
Which games of ours have you played?
Besides HBD, I used to play all sorts of baseball theme leagues, and I've tried out football, HD, and GD for a season or two.
Besides sports, what are some of your other interests and hobbies?
Songwriting, fiction/comedy writing, and playing guitar. I'm a pretty big geek about music, sports, and video games.
Which five people, past or present sit at your dream roundtable discussion?
I have no idea ... Kurt Vonnegut, Jon Bois, Isaac Brock, Benjamin Franklin, and Jorge Luis Borges.
Who are your favorite players of all-time?
Greg Maddux, Tim Naehring, Christy Mathewson, Pedro Martinez, Edgar Martinez, Lou Merloni
Which are your favorite teams of all-time?
'97, '02 Red Sox, '95 Mariners. Apologies for my limited lifespan.
Did you play baseball or basketball (or other sports) growing up?
I played rec baseball and basketball, but was never very good. I was a decent junkball pitcher.
What is the top sports related thing you want to do in life that you have not yet done?
Realistic: Start up an IM baseball or basketball team with my friends. Learn to throw a knuckleball.
Unrealistic: Play baseball at a major league park. Learn to throw a gyroball.
You have won a Hardball Dynasty Major League World Series, and a few in SimLeagues. What would you consider your greatest WIS moment?
Once I made a crazy SLB team with Mark Bellhorn, Matt Williams, and no pitcher over 160 innings or .190 BAA. A bunch of people in the league forum remarked that it was a terrible idea. It was #1 on the Top 25 teams for a while, and won about 120 games.
In Hardball Dynasty, how do allocate your budget?
I put whatever I need into players, max out training, and put a bunch into prospect budget. I haven't figured out a good balance for the different types of scouting yet.
How do you approach off-season events with players such as arbitration and free agency?
Free agency was insane a few seasons ago, but now it's cooled down and it looks like you can get some pretty good deals. I try to keep players until they start declining, which luckily is pretty easy to predict. I have no idea what I'm going to do when all my pitchers get old at the same time in a few seasons.
What is your general strategy for hiring/re-hiring coaches?
I don't really care about the strategy rating for my bench coach. I try to get a low discipline in my hitting coaches, because who needs bunting and contact? I used to save money by hiring top minor league coaches to higher level jobs, but I can't get away with that anymore. I find that 12-13M is still usually enough to get top tier major league coaches.
How do you finalize rosters at each level? What role does spring training play in your decision making?
I just let the prospects play spring training. Usually I'll have a few good (future ML) prospects at every level, and the rest of the minor leagues is pretty much interchangable filler.
What is your basic strategy for setting your starting lineups and pitching rotation?
I think defense is important up the middle, but mostly I go with whoever will produce the most runs. I'm trying a catcher in right field this season, that will be interesting. I've also switched from a more conventional lineup to "just put your best hitters up top," so I'll have to see how that goes.
What do you believe are the most important individual player ratings for performance?
Batting eye and control are probably most important. A hitter can succeed with good power and little else, but I try to hold out for the best possible splits. I used to value pitching splits way more than pitch ratings, but I'm starting to weigh them more equally.
How do you approach in-season player events like the draft, international prospects, waivers and promotions/demotions?
I rank all the players that could make the majors or even AAA. Then I rank players with funny names. I promote/demote sparingly, and try to get one great player per season internationally (though same with everyone). I usually take somebody in the Rule 5, moreso because it's cool than because it's helpful.
Do you think your strategy will be conducive to building a multi-season dynasty? Or, do you feel that your team may be great for a couple seasons, but then must rebuild?
I'm trying to keep enough cost-controlled players to keep my payroll low enough to acquire good prospects. I don't know if I'll be able to keep it up, though. I'll have to be able to trade off some expensive players for prospects, and make some "few good prospects for one elite prospect" trade.
Do you have any favorite players from any of your HBD teams?
My favorite players are probably Rex Wilkerson and Damon Cornelius. It was cool seeing them go from top prospects to good ML players.
How much time do you spend on your Hardball Dynasty teams? How much do you think is necessary to be competitive?
I spend a bunch of time in the offseason getting everything ready. I rarely spend more than a few minutes a day during the season to check lineups and pitching staffs, though sometimes when I'm bored I spend a while thinking up possible trade proposals.
Who are the users you respect the most?
Everybody in my league, of course, especially kbrick for the ton of work he's done back since the old AAA theme leagues. Back when I was starting out, I got a lot of help from the people on both sides of jmbreslin's Veterans vs. Newbies Challenge league.
What is your favorite aspect of HBD?
I like drafting players. Sometimes I wish I had a crappy team so I could stock up on top prospect, like Tampa Bay ended up doing in MLB. I also like trying out crazy strategems to try and "beat the system." And of course, I still always read the boxscores in play-by-play mode.
What is your least favorite aspect of Hardball Dynasty? As it is still a relatively new game, if you could change three things about HBD, what would they be?
I don't like how predictable player development is. With decent advance scouting, you can pretty much tell exactly how good a player will be and when. There's not a whole lot you can do to fix that short of something completely radical, such as replacing projected ratings with automatically generated scouting reports, but anything like that would end up angering way too many people. I'd like to add player search by projected ratings, and individual SB settings instead of pitching settings for position players. My dream addition would be a graphical browser app that lets you watch a simmed game. That would be a good work time waster.
If you were in one of our games, which sport would you play? At which position? And, what would you be rated?
I'd be one of those HBD pitcher with great stamina and control, but terrible splits. Pitches: Changeup, curveball, slider, cutter, palmball, none rated over 30.
