1-on-1 With Robusk

The Line on Mendoza recently sat down with the WS Champ Iowa Amiable Apartheid's owner robusk for a brisk back-and-forth on all things HBD.

Who is robusk in real life?

29 year old continuous improvement project manager for a transportation company in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Lived all over the world the last 10 years, but originally grew up in New York and Florida (summer/winter) and went to college in Hawaii.

What was the key to your championship run last season, and how do you rate your chances to repeat?

Well, my team started slowly (losing record at the break)as I didn't really have a lot of offense. I made a lineup swap and two massive trades at the All Star break, giving my team the best record in the world after the All Star break. I built the team around a couple of good young pitchers and a scrappy offense. I cut my post-season IP down to a couple of guys mostly and relied on clutch plays by the offense. I got lucky in the WS because on paper I was pretty outmatched. Repeating will be tricky. I believe I will have the best defensive team outside of Montgomery, and hopefully the strength of my bats will be enough to put me over him. My team is still young and the pitching is great. I would say 55% chance of making the LCS, 18% chance of repeating as WS champs.

Do you develop "man-crushes" on your HBD players?

I consider Woodie Jacobs on my Harold Reynolds team the best pure hitter in HBD. In my other worlds I have had a number of guys I always seem to bring back and have success with that no one else wants... and I do feel a sense of fondness for them. However, with the exception of Jacobs in HR, every player in every world is available for trade.

What's the most under-appreciated player rating and why?

r0b0t would say that I add like 20% to every rating if the hitter is a switch hitter... but that is probably an exaggeration. More than underrated, I think that Contact and Stamina are the two most overrated things for hitters and pitchers respectively. Things like velocity and patience and stuff suck too, but everyone knows that. I also don't care a lot about baserunning/speed.

Favorite moment of your HBD career?

World Series Championship in Shtickless world. I won over a team that tanked (and thus didn't deserve to win) and there are some of the sharpest minds (except for moy) in the game in that world. Also, in my championship in both that world and Harold Reynolds, everyone said my teams sucked, which made it better.

If you could change one thing about HBD, what would it be and why?

If I could change anything about HBD, it would be getting rid of the obsession to make the game more like real life and less like a game. Also, the simpler they make things, the easier it is for crappy owners to win. The game should be tricky, about exploiting things other people don't think of, and about effort.