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Who is buddy_bee?
My name is Peter. I am 22 and attend Yale University. I am from Hartford, CT and Buddy Bee was the name of the mascot of the former Red Sox AA affiliate in New Britain, CT.
How did you learn about whatifsports.com?
I read an article on Slate.com about an “addiction” to online simulated baseball and figured I’d check it out. I stared playing a little more than one year ago.
Which games of ours have you played?
Except for one sad forgotten season of Gridiron Dynasty, only HBD. I bounced around a few leagues and had multiple teams at one time, but now the Wichita Thatitas are my only HBD team.
Besides sports, what are some of your other interests and hobbies?
Music videos, movies, singing, politics.
Which five people, past or present sit at your dream roundtable discussion?
Michel Gondry, David Foster Wallace, Jhumpa Lahiri, Neil Armstrong, Jacques Cousteau, and a sixth: Magellan
Who are your favorite players of all-time?
Ken Griffey Jr., Ichiro Suzuki, Tony Gwynn, Ricky Henderson, (and hopefully on that list will be Kevin Youkilis and Dustin Pedroia when I am an old(er) man)
Which are your favorite teams of all-time? Did you play baseball or basketball (or other sports) growing up?
Played baseball year-round until my size or lack thereof, 4’8” 90 lbs. soaking wet, led me to track and cross country in high school.
What is the top sports related thing you want to do in life that you have not yet done?What would you consider your greatest WIS moment?
Having not yet had too much playoff success, I have to say knocking off the three seed the last 2 years as the six seed in the NL playoffs.
In Hardball Dynasty, how do allocate your budget?
I have kept my payroll pretty low (around $60 million) since I took over this team, but I am looking to make a push in upcoming seasons as I have a very solid young core of players who I think can help me move further in the playoffs. I am very interested to see how I decide to manage my payroll as they become arbitration eligible and I decide who gets long-term deals. It will really depend on how well I have drafted. I have some very big payroll decisions to make in about 3-5 seasons. I like to max out Training and keep Medical pretty high. I do about $11-$12 million for Coaches and have been satisfied with the results. I will look over my minors and see which levels have my better players and spend on better coaches there.
How do you approach off-season events with players such as arbitration and free agency?
I have been really reluctant to give away draft picks in the last few seasons because players stick to singing slot money and for $10 million in a draft you can get 5 times the return on an IFA, so I have been pretty low-key in signing type-A FA’s. However, I have been able to make some solid signings with B’s and waiting until after the free-agent signing period. I prefer to have stability in my payroll and so I will usually sign a guy long-term or cut him loose after two arb-cycles at the most. I also like getting back draft picks so I try to plan to be able to let guys go and have a replacement ready so I can pick up some extra draft picks.
What is your general strategy for hiring/re-hiring coaches?
I hate having to re-hire coaches every year. I am willing to overspend a little money in the minors where I will have the players I see as definite future MLers and to get solid ML coaches.
How do you finalize rosters at each level? What role does spring training play in your decision-making?
My ML roster is usually finalized before the season starts and then I use FA or trades to fill any holes that I see in my roster. Spring training is only a development tool for me and has no effect on my rosters. My ML roster is the only roster where I am looking to win. I consider all the minor leagues to be only a development tool and besides my legitimate ML prospects I could care less about most of the minor league players. I keep tabs on all my legit prospects and make sure they do not sit in low levels and try to sneak an extra promotion growth bonus. I start all prospects (good IFAs included) in Rookie ball to take full advantage of possible promotion bonuses. I move my prospects up a level a year and base promotions not on performance but on how close they are to their projected ratings.
What is your basic strategy for setting your starting lineups and pitching rotation?
For batting it is all about OBP and SLG. Get guys on base and then drive them in with homers. I have made a concerted effort to get walks as I play in a pitchers park and now for the first time I am leading the Majors in BB which is pretty exciting.
What do you believe are the most important individual player ratings for performance?
Batting Eye and Power for offense. Control and L/R Splits for pitching, although I have come to put more stock in individual pitch splits as well. I think that finding a good pitcher (aside from obvious studs) is a bit more nuanced than hitting.
How do you approach in-season player events like the draft, international prospects, waivers and promotions/demotions?
I am always checking out waivers to try and grab some who can help. I got Scott Priest off waivers and he is a real solid SP2. I am very careful about promotions with legit prospects and try to time them to get an extra improvement cycle, and I never demote a legit prospect. But if I don’t think a guy will be an MLer I don’t care where he plays and will move guys all around my minor league system to fill holes. I like the draft a lot. First I set my draft settings and then I go through the lists of players sorting them by projected stats to eliminate high overall rated but not good players. I always hand rank through my second round picks so that I know who the worst guy I can get will be. This last draft I actually got the first guy on my board with the 19th pick because I think people had concerns about his health, but if I can keep him healthy and get him to the ML he will be probably the best 2B in the game. I only look at IFA’s after the draft. Then I know my payroll situation and can transfer extra if I want and I can go after the guys I want without having to worry about signing draft picks.
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?
If I can keep bringing in good talent in the draft I think I definitely can. Ask me in 4 seasons because I will have a lot of young talent that will be hitting arbitration and needing long term deals and if I can keep payroll under control and still bring in good players in the draft then I should be OK. I don’t think I will let myself totally sellout the future and go high payroll but if I really want a WS, who knows.
Do you have any favorite players from any of your HBD teams?
I like Ricardo Ordonez because he was my first draft pick after I took this team over, as well as Scott Priest because he was one of the first players I brought in.
How much time do you spend on your Hardball Dynasty teams? How much do you think is necessary to be competitive?
A few more hours than I should right after rollover and the draft, but besides from that just enough time to check in and maybe explore a trade now and then. I don’t think it takes too much time, but again ask me in 3 seasons after my remake of the franchise is almost totally put in place and we’ll see if I’m right.
What is your favorite aspect of HBD?
Play by play box scores, without those I think the game would be too shallow to really enjoy.
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’ll just say coach hiring since it always bugs me whenever I have to do it. But three changes hmmm … The only real change I can come up with would be to allow some way for established leagues and owners to exceed some of the precautionary measures against team destruction like 5 year contracts and limited budget changes year to year. I plan on staying in this league for a while and it would be nice to sign a good player to a longer deal than 5 years, as well as have total control of my budget. Just a random though I had while filling this out. I don’t expect HBD to be exactly like MLB (and don’t think it would be best), but I find the greatest disconnect is that HBD is much more of a budget management game because of the predictable player development and well defined attribute system. This means that the value of drafts picks increases exponentially because the only uncertainty is the depth a the talent pool, not the talent of individual players. When you give up a pick it is not on a possible Mler, you know exactly what you passed up immediately after the draft and it will certainly affect your team down the line. However, without solid play growth models and defined attributes it would be extremely hard to define talent and really frustrating to develop and draft players. I see HBD as much more of a strategy game between owners, especially with the same budget, as opposed to the “business” of baseball and the tough job of picking and developing possible ML talent.
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 a singles hitting defensive oriented CFer with a high OBP and 35-40 stolen bags a year.
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