It took me over FOUR years to complete this simulations. As you (hopefully) recall, it started with 30 different managers drafting 30 different teams. The results of the draft can be found HERE for an explanation of the rules and the full First Round of the draft, and you can go HERE for a breakdown of the various teams as well as some voting from the respective managers on how they felt the teams stacked up.
In brief recap, the teams were made of players from 1991 thru 2021, as the draft was held prior to the 2022 season. Teams had a 9,000 pt salary cap, had to field 13 hitters and 12 pitchers, and could draft any eligible player as long as that player was not already drafted -- for example, when the Athletics selected 1996 Mark McGwire in Round 1, it meant that the Cardinals could not take 1998 Mark McGwire for their team.
Thanks to the simulator created by Savard, we were able to plug in every team's 25 man rosters and simulate a full 162 game season... 101 different times!!! We did a series of posts that you can find under the blog's "30 for 30" tab on "Year 0," which ended with the Red Sox defeating the Diamondbacks in the World Series.
In the remaining 100 years of simulations, 55 did not need a "Game 163" or tiebreaker. Those 56 seasons were successfully simulated by Savard, leading to fully computerized results for 56/101 seasons. The results of the 31 playoffs from years "1 through 50" can be found HERE. Unfortunately, Savard's laptop was destroyed and the simulator was lost between the completion of the 56
seasons and when the various tie breakers could be simulated. He was unable to recreate the simulator... and thus, the greatest MLB Showdown marathon of my life began - as I played out BY HAND a total of 45 different postseasons, meaning I played out 484 different series, not counting various play-in games and tie-breakers for division titles. Overall, I expect I played nearly 2,000 games over the last 4 years to get this done... it has been a grind that I am very pleased to cap off now -- first with this post that gives a broad overview, and then subsequent posts on a team-by-team basis to properly memorialize the highs and lows, as well as team building lessons, from each of the franchises.
