Earl Weaver Baseball League

Re: Kansas City trade offer

March 6th, 2009 by Wolverines GM

That looks like a good deal to me.

Re: 1994 End of year notes

February 18th, 2009 by Banditos GM

10.)  I don't think the Serrano release is to controversial.  Serrano had been the Manager since 1988 and last year was the first year he made the playoffs.  He had the best record in the NL and failed to make the World Series.  Obviously it's kind of hard to justify firing him after his best year instead of one of his previous worse years, but overall he has not done much for Houston.  If you're of the belief that their success is due more to Vallone than Serrano becomes expendable.

That being said, their choice to replace Serrano is very questionable.  37 year old, Joseph Reed was tapped to take over the team.  Reed's only experience as a manager was with the Quebradillas Seamen in 1991 and 1992 (another former Admiral Organization Personnel makes it to EWB).  JTT let him go after a poor 1992, here was his statement:

 

****Manager: NO OFFER YET for Joseph Reed (used to be the up-and-comer in our system, but now eclipsed by Luis Delgado; his .413 record this year has us leaning toward letting him go)

-  Other notable transactions include Cincy SS Dan Johnson voiding his last contract year option and becoming a FA. 
- Emilio Cabrera FINALLY hung up the cleats after finishing the year in AAA Round Rock.
-  Not only did NY Manager John McNamara retire but so did Chicago Manager Joe Stewart.  Stewart led Chicago to an incredible season and finished 3rd in the AL Manager of the Year voting.
-  LA completed the coaching purge by firing the hitting Coach Tony Rodriguez.  Essentially everybody associated with the 1994 team is gone except for perhaps the trainer.
-  Pittsburgh did not renew Manager Ty James allowing him to be succeeded by former Philly MA Luis Romero.

1994 End of year notes

February 16th, 2009 by Admirals GM

1. Ron "Tugboat" Taylor retired at age 44.  He actually saw some action back in 1970, so he's an inaugurral player.  The last ever?  I'm not fully sure, but maybe.

 

2. Fred Andrews of KC exercised the last option year on his contract and then immediately retired.  Does he get money for that?  Dick move, if so.

 

3. Michael Suggitt of Las Vegas retired after posting one of the worst years by a SP ever: 2-14, 12.21 ERA, in 104 IP.  I documented this atrocity earlier.

 

4. "Real life" manager John McNamar, who had been affiliated with New York, has now retired.  (In real life, McNamara managed the 1986 Red Sox.)

 

5. Carolina re-signed manager Jose Machado to a 2-year extension.  Again, Machado is the all-time manager leader in Wins AND losses.

 

6. Pete Rose got a contract extension with Memphis (2 years).  That was very much in doubt.

 

7. Denever managerial legend Art Howe, who originally took over the team way back in 1979 (he had a stint in the mid 1980s with LA), has left the team.  Whoever eventually hires Howe will get a great, great manager.

 

8. Denver's new manager, 61-year-old Tim Howell, had a long, long affiliation with the Admirals.  He was our AA Trenton manager from 1970 until 1983, winning 2 Championships and making 8 playoff appearances during his tenure.  He also won a pair of Californian League Championships in the early 1990s.  Yet another mL manager who gets a ML shot late in life thanks to an impressive, impressive mL resume.

 

9. In Las Vegas, GM Brody Harvey was re-signed despite his controversial moves (e.g., the Helmick signing), while manager Don Montgomery was let go (former Bandito).  It's well known that Harvey and Montgomery failed to see eye-to-eye.  Harvey's extension was only 1 year.

 

10. The fact that manager Luis Serrano of Houston was let go -- that's hard to understand.  By the way, Serrarno managed the 1985 Wolverines to the World Series title.

 

11. Wally Reynolds of San Antonio got yet another 1 year extension.  This guy has lived year-to-year for forever.

Re: entrance songs

February 18th, 2009 by Banditos GM

This is what we play when the Omaha Wolverines take the field in Miami

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQtlrBziyzI

entrance songs

February 16th, 2009 by Wolverines GM

This league is consuming my life when I am thinking about what song Punk Perez comes into. Like Trevor Hoffman comes in the game with AC/DC "Hells Bells" or when John Rocker was at his peak with Atlanta he came out to Twisted Sisters "I Wanna Rock" so I was just curious if you guys envisioned any particular players coming out to music.

 

Here is what Punk Perez comes out to (minus the video)

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJChh7ghGnE&feature=PlayList&p=FB38C0EBBE0C24E4&playnext=1&index=5

 

This song is what the players take the field to before the start of each game at Sears Field

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xMUgmU_Hsjc&feature=PlayList&p=C836B0793066E42C&playnext=1&index=41

 

Just thought if things were real this is what I would do with my team at home, curious if you guys had any or I am losing it.

1994 World Champions

February 16th, 2009 by Banditos GM

---

    1994 World Champions

             

                Omaha

                

                             Wolverines

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sogKUx_q7ig

1994 AL and NL Awards

February 16th, 2009 by Admirals GM

Here are the overal vote totals, including the computer (ignore the e-mail "Subject")

 

NL MVP

1. Johston 18 (2)
2. Rogers 15 (2)
3. Perez 5

4. Kelly 2
4. Brown 2
4. Cartwright 2
 
NL GIBSON
1. Altagracia 18 (2)
2. Koigi 15 (2)

3. Armstrong 8

4. Tracy 2
4. Hearn 2
 

(editorial sidenote: Koigi got screwed.  He should have added his name to the list of those few closers who've won a Gibson Award.)

NL FIREMAN
1. Koigi 18 (3)
2. Villanueva 8
3. Olson 7
 
NL ANGEL ROSA
1. Brown 20 (3)
2. Velasquez 14 (1)
3. O'Rourke 8
4. Borges 2
 
NL MANAGER OF THE YEAR
1. Reynolds 10 (1)
2. Anderson 9 (1)
3. Serrano 6 (1)
4. Lee 5
5. Stevens 3
 
NL EXECUTIVE OF THE YEAR
1. Backman 15 (2)
2. Vallone 8
3. Gordon 6 (1)
4. Steines 3
5. Valera 2

AL MVP

1. Bicknell 24 (4)

2. Valentin 10  

3. Sims 3

3. Lang 3

5. Patterson 2

5. Picot 2

 

AL GIBSON AWARD

 

1. Morris 24 (4)

2. Jackson 11

3. Barrios 6

4. Perez 3

 

AL ANGEL ROSA AWARD

1. Belcher 24 (4)

2. Ortiz 12

3. Christian 4

4. Juarez 2

4. Ruiz 2

 

AL MANAGER OF THE YEAR

1. Machado 9 (1)

2. Morgan 8 (1)

3. Stewart 8

4. Green 6 (1)

5. McKeon 3

 

AL EXECUTIVE OF THE YEAR

1. Mike 18 (3)

2. Johnson 8

3. Rob 5

4. Clayton 2

1994 Official AI Award Ballot

February 16th, 2009 by Banditos GM

Justin, when you get a chance can we get an official final tally.

AL MVP
1)  Artie Bicknell, WAS
2)  Caleb Lang, LA
3)  Rafael Valentin, CAR

AL BOB GIBSON AWARD
1)  Kevin Morris, MIA
2)  Julio "Punk" Perez, OMA
3)  Ed Jackson, OMA

AL ANGEL ROSA AWARD
1)  Craig Belcher, OMA
2)  Lucio Ortiz, MEM
3)  Jose Ruiz, NO

NL MVP
1)  Jonathan Rogers, DET
2)  Justin Johnston, BOS
3)  Don Kelly, ELP

NL BOB GIBSON AWARD
1)  Mohammed Koigi, HOU
2)  Luis Altagracia, STL
3)  James Tracy, DC  -  An odd choice as he wasn't on the ballot for BG or Fireman Award.

NL ANGEL ROSA AWARD
1)  Pedro Velasquez, PIT
2)  Jacob O'Rourke, AUS
3)  Tommy Brown, MON

Also, Felix Rojas won the P Gold Glove and Jeff Hicks won the C Gold Glove.

1994 Postseason

February 16th, 2009 by Banditos GM

- Uploaded 10/30/1994

- Omaha wins World Series.  Round of Applause.  Probably have more on this later.

WASH.
- I dropped Cesar Lopez because I didn't see your email and we couldn't proceed without doing something.  I didn't think it would matter because he was a FA to be.
- Chuck Tanner Retired.
- Arthur Ayers Retired.
- Owner set budget at $53,556,287.

MIA
- A HUGE, HUGE mistake was made by the Miami Banditos Front Office.  Apparently it slipped by everyone's notice that AL Bob Gibson Award Winner to be, Kevin Morris, was to enter the last year of his contract after the season and that last year was a Player Option.  Morris exercised his Option and decided to enter Free Agency after his spectacular year.  Apparently Morris is more concerned with getting paid than staying on a contending team.  This really shakes things up for us.  We were planning on staying pat for the most part this offseason, now we have to really examine our options.
- Owner set budget at $52,156,888.

OMA
- Owner set Budget at $48,037,144.

FIRINGS
- Austin fires GM Travis Garner and Manager Richard Pacheco.
- El Paso fires GM Dave Baker and Manager Marcos Cabral.  Both El Paso and Austin won the World Series in the last two years.  Unfortunately, they both underacheived greatly this season.  I look at the Texas Division as similar to the AL East where there's an Arms Race every year and it's ultra competitive.  The Texas teams like to go big or go home.
- Cincinnati fires GM Ken Branch and Manager Salvador Villalobos.
- Philadelphia fires Manager Armando Ortiz.

Vegas Odds Championship Series 1994

February 15th, 2009 by Banditos GM

Current Las Vegas Odds for the Series:

Omaha  -210
Minneapolis  +190

Boston  +100
Houston  -120

At those odds I'll take both dogs.

Why we lost

February 13th, 2009 by Banditos GM

Watching the games it seems we hit into an inordinate amount of DP's and had a lot of crucial errors.  So I went back over the box scores and over the course of the series:

Miami  7 Errors/ 9 Ground into DP

MIN  1 Error/ 4 Ground into DP

So as you can see the numbers don't lie.  Those are MISTAKES, not lack of talent but fucking MENTAL MISTAKES.  It seems like we were flat the whole series and I realize Minneapolis was playing red hot and peaking but we have to have more focus than this.

A lot of this could fall on McKeon's shoulders.  Perhaps he's too old to get this team ready?  We have to think hard about this series and his future.

Game 7's Uploaded

February 13th, 2009 by Banditos GM

Will have comments later.  But like Justin's Fuck you to Haberman, my attitude towards Minneapolis has really taken a turn south.

I used to think they were cool, ya know, a computer team hanging with us with GM Egghead.  After playing that series I hate that fuckin team.  They're annoying, and not even that good but fuckin lucky.  Pieces of shit.  Also, I will never invite Matt to watch a game with me in my owner's box ever again.  He annoyed the hell out of me with his nonsensical baseball talk and constant drumming.

I can't stand Brian Whitesides and Shawn Martin, for that matter I can't stand Jeff Hicks anyore either.

Thoughts on Wiederanders

February 12th, 2009 by Admirals GM

Wiederanders is a borderline Hall of Famer; it will be interesting to see which side of the border he falls on.  On the plus side, he won a Gibson Award and 2 World Series Championships (1982 with LA, and 1991 with NY).  On the minus side, his career totals are generally solid, but not indisputable Hall of Fame material.  (Less than 240 Wins, a career ERA around 3.45, etc.) 

 

By the way, Portland could now become real players on the FA market.  For one thing, Wiederanders walked away from $6.7M guaranteed to him for next year.  The Fog Devils are now free to use that money on someone else.  For another thing, Steve "Red Beard" Page is voluntarily taking a whopping $5M pay cut for next year.  Making $5.2M in 1994, Red Beard has agreed to a 1 year extension in 1995 for just $265K.  This was almost certainly a salary mistake on Page's part -- if he became a free agent, I'm sure some team would pay him at least $1M or so (even with his fallen ratings).  But maybe Page just loves Portland so much he's willing to stay there for less.

 

Going beyond Page, Portland has gotten a bunch of players to take dramatic pay cuts for 1995.  1B George Love is going from $2.2M to $575K, even though he's coming off a fairly productive year: .275/30/92.  SP Bob Peterson is going from $2.235M this year to $275K next year.  Now, Peterson is an aging veteran who wasn't very good this year (+5 ERA), but it still is significant that Portland gets to keep him on next year for pennies on the dollar.

 

The Fog Devils have $17.5M in salary commitments for 1995, which is about 1/3 of Washington's commitments (the Admirals already have a payroll pegged around $51M).  Looking at this year's budget, and taking into account that Portland actually lost a little money this year, I assume their budget will be around $32M in 1995.  That gives them about $15M to spend on free agents and/or big salary players acquired through trades.  That's a ton of money for such a small market team.  In fact, I would bet offhand that never in Fog Devils history have they had so much money to throw around in an offseason.  Let's see if they can use that money to good end, and knock off the faltering Admirals.

Playoff HR Leaders

February 12, 2009 by Banditos GM

Among ACTIVE, although the top 4 are also top 4 in history as well.  Sherwood Johnston comes in 5th with 14 HR.

Download Playoff HR Among Active

Download Playoff HR Leaders

Fuck Dave Haberman

February 12, 2009 by Admirals GM

Well, Omaha clearly was the better team this year.  They dominated us both in the regular season and in the playoffs -- not only did we lose 4-1, but it felt like we were almost always trailing in these games.  I bet that out of the 45 innings played during the series, we were behind for like 35 of them.

 

As a closing thought, fuck Dave Haberman.

Re: Minor League Happenings

February 11th, 2009 by Wolverines GM

That's amazing that a team, Ft. Lauderdale, can win 90 games and finish 33 games back.

Minor League Happenings

February 11th, 2009 by Banditos GM

CURRENTLY

PCL:  There's 2 games left in the PCL and Little Rock and Lincoln both look like they'll clinch their division and go into the playoffs.

EL:  Connecticut won their division winning 96 and Erie won their division winning 100.  So in EWB, AAA, and AA Miami and Omaha have won their divisions.  Currently Connecticut is down 0-3 in their playoff series vs. Bowie and Erie is down 1-2 vs. New Britain in their playoff series.

FSL:  The Lakeland Hillbillies made the playoffs as a wildcard, fininishing 2nd in their division behind Sarasota.  Sarasota went on to defeat Lakeland 3 games to 0 in the 1st round.

NEB:  Ralston won the division winning 92 and Dundee finished right behind them with 87 wins.  In the other division Gretna won 103 and Elkhorn 96.  Currently Dundee is down 1-2 to Gretna and Ralston is down 1-2 to Elkhorn.

NYPL:  Oneonta claimed the wildcard spot with 95 wins, however lost to Staten Island in Round 1, 1-3.  The Wolverine organization placed every minor league team in the playoffs but their Rookie League team, Fort Lauderdale.  Fort Lauderdale finished in 2nd place in their division with 90 wins but were 33 games behind the 123 win Bradenton Manatees, the Pittsburgh R Affiliate.

LA Move Again

February 10th, 2009 by Banditos GM

I was checking the transactions and LA made another big move by claiming RF Ben Springer off the waivers.  Springer was a mainstay in the Cincinnati Rebel OF since 1980 and is a career .299 hitter. 

That's pretty big news.  Cincy must just be trying to revamp after a horribly disappointing 1994.  Can't think of why else Springer would be on waivers, as he is still rated well too.

LA Trades

February 10th, 2009 by Banditos GM

On the first day of the playoffs the Gargoyles made 2 trades.  LA looks like they're saying fuck this we need to improve.  First, Tom Travis was traded to Las Vegas for mL CF Lou Sullivan and mL 2B Felix Sanchez.  Travis was always going to be stuck behind Lang, however he looked like he would make a good DH.  LA receives what looks to be a decent future 2B in Sanchez and a borderline throw in player with Sullivan.

LA then proceeded to trade C prospect 20 yr. old Manny Mendoza to Philadelphia for 25 yr. old MR Colin Evans.  Evans is nothing special but with a bullpen as bad as LA, I'm sure he'll help.

In review, I think the Travis trade is questionable at best.  Travis had a pretty good rookie year and is already a contributor.  They didn't receive any surefire prospects, instead only bit players that may develop.  The Mendoza trade is more reasonable.  Evans should come in next year and contribute, whereas Mendoza is years away.

1994 Washington Admirals NL Award Vote

February 11th, 2009 by Admirals GM

My ballot...

 

MVP

 

1. Justin Johnston -- I do factor in team record.

2. Jonathan Rogers -- good, but Johnston edged him in SLG and OPS, and Johnston was injured a little.

3. Albert Perez -- still feels underrated to me.

 

GIBSON

 

1. Mohammed Koigi -- I'm willing to vote for relievers in rare circumstances.  This is one: no dominant SP, but a dominant CL.

2. Luis Altagracia -- year-in-year-out, the guy is good.  In contention with Ed Jackson for best SP in the game.

3. Earl Armstrong -- if he had been healthy in September, probably would've gotten my vote.

 

FIREMAN

 

1. Mohammed Koigi -- no-brainer.

2. Gary Olson -- keeps finishing 2nd.

3. Jesus Villaneuva -- his save percentage is through the roof.

 

ANGEL ROSA

 

1. Tommy Brown -- Unbelievable rookie year.  I feel bad I couldn't rank him in the top 3 for MVP.

2. Pedro Velasquez -- won't be as good a player in the future, now that his ratings have fallen.

3. Jacob O'Rourke -- might turn out to be the best player in the rookie class.

 

MANAGER

 

1. Wally Reynolds -- might vote might be influenced by the idea of casting such a weird vote

2. Sparky Anderson -- has stood out in a way few EWB managers have

3. Bert Lee -- did it all with no real talent on the team

 

EXECUTIVE

 

1. Wayne Gordon -- I like the Velasquez/Hopkins moves

2. Cedric Blackman -- Like Rob said, big credit for the constant tinkering

3. Aroghetto Vallone -- more for longterm recognition than this year alone

1994 Miami Banditos NL Award Vote

February 10th, 2009 by Banditos GM

MVP

1)  Jonathan Rogers, DET
2)  Justin Johnston, BOS
3)  Marv Cartwright, IND

NOTES:  All around Rogers had the best numbers in a full season.  He had a better AVG and more HR's than Johnston.  The fact that Johnston plays for a playoff team weighs little for us.  Cartwright deserves the recognition and once again had an outstanding season under the radar.  Kinda like the Dave Page of the NL.  However, even though they're both under the radar they are different styles of hitters.  If both Don Kelly and Keith Whitfield would have had full seasons they would have definitely gotten a lot more consideration from us.

BOB GIBSON AWARD

1)  Luis Altagracia, STL
2)  Earl Armstrong, CLE
3)  Frank "Mounds" Hearn, BOS

NOTES:  Altgagracia was a pretty easy choice despite the strong performance of Armstrong.  Altagracia is just one of those year in year out dominant pitchers.  The pitching of St. Louis was definitely the key to their success and Altagracia once again led them.  Armstrong did well this year but doesn't yet have the Altagracia aura or standing.  Hearn is an impressive pitcher in general.  He's a big K guy, switches from starting to bullpen and plays for a big market playoff team.  All those factors led us to vote for him over MacGilip.

FIREMAN OF THE YEAR

1)  Mohammed Koigi, HOU
2)  Jesus Villanueva, PIT
3)  Gary Olson, NY

NOTES:  Koigi is a no brainer.  One of the most dominating closer performances in a while.  The other two fall into place statistically.

ANGEL ROSA MEMORIAL AWARD

1)  Tommy Brown, MON
2)  Jacob O'Rourke, AUS
3)  Pedro Velasquez, PIT

NOTES:  I flip flopped a little on this but ultimately it's impossible to deny Tommy Brown this award, he was just too good.  O'Rourke was a damn close second though.  For that matter Velasquez wasn't too far behind either.  Strong rookie class.

MANAGER OF THE YEAR

1)  Sparky Anderson, BOS
2)  Alexis "Buckles" Stevens, STL
3)  Wally Reynalds, SA

NOTES:  Anderson has proven to be one of the most ingenious coaches in EWB.  His moves make differences, in a good way.  Anderson consistently makes Boston a contender even when it appears they're ready to drop off.  Stevens brought his team roaring back to capture the Ohio Valley Pennant and did it with little offense.  Stevens is quickly gaining the reputation of a young EWB managing prodigy.  Wally Reynalds gets third place out of both sympathy and blowing away poor, poor, poor expectations.  Lets face it, most of the Manager of the Year vote is based on exceeding expectations.  Reynalds, by being so shitty for so long, has set himself up to do well in this award.

EXECUTIVE OF THE YEAR

1)  Cedric Backman, CLE
2)  Joe Steines, MON
3)  Arroghetto Vallone, HOU

NOTES:  Justin documented Backman well and pointed out his tendency to "tinker."  We think this is a great trait, especially when it works.  His tinkering worked out great for Cleveland who contended seriously for a pennant.  Steines has a reputation and a well deserved one.  We're impressed with what he's done in Montreal.  I'm sure he'll be up for this award again in the years to come.  Vallone made a couple of trades that's put Houston back on the baseball map.  He's got a long tenure there so his fingerprints are all over this Texas Division Pennant.

1994 Omaha Wolverine NL Award Vote

February 10th, 2009 by Wolverines GM

MVP

 

1) Johnston

2) Perez

3) Brown

 

Gibson

 

1) Altagracia

2) Armstrong

3) Koigi

 

Fireman

 

1) koigi

2) Villanueva

3) Olson

 

Rosa

 

1) Brown

2) Velasquez

3) Borges

 

Manager

 

1) Serrano

2) Lee

3) Reynolds

 

Exec

 

1) Backman

2) Vallone

3) Lara

1994 NL Awards Ballot

February 10th, 2009 by Admirals GM

NL MVP (OVERALL NOTE: A weird year, with no completely obvious candidate.  A lot of the best years stat-wise were posted by players who weren't in the playoff hunt.)

 

Norman Hopkins, SS, Pittsburgh.  .343/25/118/11, ranking 1st in BA, 8th in RBIs.  Also: T1st in Hits (215), 8th in TB (344), 4th in 3B (8), 7th in VORP (63.3).  Pittsburgh finished 3rd in the Ohio Valley division at 88-74, and were pennant contenders most of the season.  Note: If we had a comeback player of the year award, Hopkins would be a strong candidate.

 

Keith Whitfield, LF, El Paso.  .331/25/82, ranking 2nd in BA.  Also: 2nd in OBP (.442), 3rd in OPS (1.002), 5th in VORP (67.9).  El Paso finished 3rd in the Texas at 81-81, and were never serious playoff contenders.  Comment: Whitfield, the reigning MVP, was limited to 121 games due to injury.

 

Jonathan Rogers, 3B, Detroit.  .337/42/111, ranking 3rd in BA, 5th in HR.  Also: T1st in Hits (215), 3rd in TB (378), 9th in Runs (118), 10th in XBH (76), 6th in SLG (.592), 5th in OPS (.997), and 1st in VORP (80.8).  Detroit finished 4th in their division at 69-93, and were never in the playoff race.  Comment: I ask the same question I asked last year for Rogers: can he Andre Dawson himself to some MVP votes?

 

Cesar Leal, 2B, St. Louis.  .336/15/73/23, ranking 4th in BA.  Also: 4th in Hits (208), 1st in 2Bs (55, 3rd straight year he's led the league in 2Bs), 6th in 3Bs (7), 5th in Runs (122), 9th in XBH (77).  St. Louis won the division behind a 95-67 record.  Comment: He also plays .989 defense at 2B.  Leal is an unconventional candidate -- kind of a Barry-Larkin-in-1995 candidate -- but his across the board numbers really are impressive, and probably is the best offensive player on the Savages.

 

Dan Jamison, 2B, San Antonio.  .334/17/93/30, ranking 5th in BA.  Also: 8th in Hits (197), 2nd in 3Bs (10), 4th in Runs (123), 3rd in OBP (.433), 10th in OPS (.954), 3rd in VORP (74.7).  San Antonio finished 2nd in the Texas at 84-78, and were in the playoff hunt much of the year; this was their first winning season since 1970.  Again, a kind of Barry-Larkin candidacy.  But that 3rd in VORP stands out.

 

Don Kelly, RF, El Paso.  .324/28/86/10.  Also: 1st in OBP (.460), 2nd in OPS (1.014), 2nd in VORP (80.3).  El Paso finished 3rd in Texas at 81-81, and were never serious contenders.  Comment: Kelly keeps plugging along, although he's clearly not the most feared player in the game anymore, the way he used to be.

 

 Justin Johnston, 1B, Boston.  .329/40/118, ranking 8th in BA, 8th in HRs, 8th in RBIs.  Also: 6th in TB (350), 3rd in Runs (124), 7th in XBH (79), 7th in OBP (.407), 2nd in SLG (.610), 1st in OPS (1.017), 4th in VORP (70.2).  Boston won their division with a 94-68 record.  Comment: arguably the most conventional candidate, in the sense that he had a big year as a slugger from a playoff team.

 

 Albert Perez, RF, Montreal.  .312/49/149, ranking 2nd in HR, 2nd in RBIs.  Also: 6th in TB (350), 1st in SLG (.611), 9th in OPS (.973), 10th in VORP (57.3).  Montreal finished in 3rd place at 81-81, on the fringes on the playoff race.  Comment: Perez has had a phenomenal first 2 years in the league.  Really, an Albert Pujols-like first 2 years.

 

Tommy Brown, LF, Montreal.  .312/44/152, ranking 3rd in HR, 1st in RBIs.  Also: 8th in Hits (197), 2nd in TB (383), 8th in 2B (44), 1st in XBH (93), 3rd in SLG (.603).  Again, Montreal was 3rd at 81-81.  Comment: did this all as a rookie.

 

Roy Payton, 1B, Montreal.  .301/43/118, ranking 4th in HRs, 8th in RBIs.  Also: 4th in TB (357), 1st in Runs (147, *new EWB record), 7th in XBH (79), 10th in SLG (.569), 8th in OPS (.973).  Comment: again Montreal, see above.  Comment: is anyone on Montreal not an MVP candidate?

 

Denny Turner, 1B, St. Louis.  .269/47/131, ranking 2nd in HRs, 3rd in RBIs.  Also: 10th in XBH (72).  St. Louis won their division.  Comment: the top slugger on a playoff team.

 

Marv Cartwright, 1B, Indianapolis.  .327/42/118, ranking 5th in HRs, 8th in RBIs.  Also: 3rd in Hits (212), 1st in TB (385), 7th in 2B (45), 2nd in XBH (88), 4th in SLG (.594).  Indinapolis was last in their division at 65-97.  Comment: Cartwright gets underrated in rankings b/c he's bad at VORP/BBs.  But the guy can hit.

 

Jacob O'Rourke, 2B, Austin.  .332/29/130, ranking 6th in BA, 4th in RBIs.  Also: 2nd in 3Bs (10), 5th in SLG (.593), 7th in OPS (.977), 6th in VORP (66.0).  Austin finished 4th in the division at 76-86.  Comment: overlooked a little bit because of the Marhsalls' down year, but the guy is an instant star at 2B.  And, another rookie.

 

Arturo Borges, 1B, Austin.  .329/38/98, ranking 9th in BA.  Also: 5th in OBP (.420), 8th in SLg (.579), 4th in OPS (.999), 9th in VORP (60.6).  Again, Austin finished 4th at 76-86.  Comment: Another Austin rookie from the right side of their IF.

 

Will Gray, 3B, Cleveland.  .300/29/126, ranking 5th in RBIs.  Also: 5th in K's (137), 5th in 2Bs (47), 4th in XBH (82).  Cleveland won the Wild Card with a 91-71 record.  Comment: probably the best offensive player for the Rockers.

 

Pedro Velasquez, 1B, Pittsburgh.  .313/41/123, ranking 7th in HRs, 7th in RBIs.  Also: 5th in TBs (353), 6th in XBH (81), 6th in OBP (.411), 7th in SLG (.584), 6th in OPS (.996), 8th in VORP (62.6).  Pittsburgh finished 3rd at 88-74.  Comment: Another rookie, Velasquez trailed off just a little after a sensational start.

 

Dave Franklin, 3B, Houston.  .293/40/106, ranking 8th in HRs.  Not in the top 10 in any oher category.  Houston had the best record in the NL at 97-65.  Comment: listed because he's probably the best offensive player on the best team in the league.

 

Mohammed Koigi, CL, Houston.  49 Saves in 51 chances (96.1%), 1.16 ERA, 0.90 WHIP, 86 K's in 69.2 IP, 11.11 K/9, opponents BA around .160, VORP of 35.6.  Houston had the best record in the NL.  Comment the most dominant player on the best team in the league, Koigi is the rare closer who might get MVP votes.

 

BOB GIBSON AWARD

 

Earl Armstrong, SP, Cleveland.  14-7, 3.05, 160 K's in 180 IP, 1.21 WHIP, ranking 7th in Wins, 1st in ERA.  Also: 5th in Win % (.667), 8th in K/9 (8.00), 9th in QS (19), 5th in QS% (.613), 4th in CG (2), 7th in VORP (51.5).  Cleveland is the Wild Card.  Comment: Armstrong was probably the leading candidate for the award prior to his injury on 9/6.

 

Desmond MacGilip, SP, Montreal.  14-10, 3.27, 180 K's in 212 IP, and 1.21 WHIP, ranking 7th in Wins, 2nd in ERA, 8th in K's, 4th in IP, 10th in WHIP.  Also: 1st in QS (24), 2nd in QS% (.686), 3rd in VORP (59.2).  Montreal finished 3rd at 81-81.  Comment: MacGilip won the Award back in 1986.  He seems to thrive in the NL as opposed to the AL.

 

Luis Altagracia, SP, St. Louis.  16-6, 3.27, 194 K's in 231 IP, 1.11 WHIP, ranking 1st in Wins, 3rd in ERA, 5th in K's, 1st in IP, 3rd in WHIP.  Also: 1st in Win % (.727), 6th in QS (20), 3rd in QS% (.667), 1st in VORP (70.9).  St. Louis won their division.  Comment: Somehow or other, Altagracia worked his way into yet another Gibson Award contention.  Altagracia won the award in 1987 and 1992.

 

Norman Banks, SP, New York.  15-12, 3.29, 196 K's in 227 IP, 1.11 WHIP, ranking 3rd in Wins, 4th in ERA, 4th in K's, 3rd in IP, 2nd in WHIP.  Also: 1st in QS (24), 2nd in QS% (.686), 2nd in VORP (61.9).

 

Frank "Mounds" Hearn, SP/CL, Boston.  12-6, 3.36, 186 K's in 169 IP, 1.05 WHIP, ranking 5th in ERA, 6th in K's, 1st in WHIP.  Also: 5th in Win% (.667), 1st in K/9 (9.91), 1st in K/BB (9.30 -- that's a remarkable figure), 10th in VORP (44.4).  Boston won their division.  Comment: should figure in that he had 7 Saves this year as a closer as well.  Quesiton: did Hearn wear out over the year as a starter?  Consider his month-by-month ERA: 1.44 in May (1st full month as starter), 2.04 in June, 3.31 in July, 4.86 in August, 6.41 in September.

 

Tom Campbell, SP, Pittsburgh.  12-10, 3.36, 181 K's in 203.1 IP, 1.20 WHIP, ranking 6th in ERA, 7th in K's, 8th in WHIP. Also: 7th in K/9 (8.01), 3rd in QS (23), 1st in QS% (.697), 2nd in CG (4), 54.1 VORP (4th).  Pittsburgh finished in 3rd in division at 88-74.  Comment: Campbell won the award last year.

 

Victorio Aguirre, SP, St. Louis.  15-7, 3.73, 213 K's in 198 IP, 1.18 WHIP, ranking 3rd in Wins, 10th in ERA, 2nd in K's.  Also: 4th in Win % (.682), 3rd in K/9 (9.68), 5th in QS (21), 4th in QS % (.656), 5th in VORP (51.6).  St. Louis won their division.  Comment: Aguirre's current ratings: 4-4-4.  Aguirre's potential ratings: 2-3-3.  The scouts, then, are predicting a burnout for the 23-year-old Aguirre.

 

Carlos Valencia, SP, Cleveland.  16-13, 3.89, 91 K's in 208 IP, 1.25 WHIP, ranked 1st in Wins.  Also: 6th in QS (20), 8th in QS % (.583), 4th in CG (2).  Cleveland won the Wild Card.  Comment: For the 38-year-old Valencia, this has been a career year.  Really, the guy has hardly any years among the league leaders in anything prior to 1994.

 

Jeff Baird, SP, Pittsburgh.  15-8, 3.57, 172 K's in 211.2 IP, 1.19 WHIP, ranked 3rd in Wins, 7th in ERA, 5th in IP, 6th in WHIP.  Also: 7th in Win% (.652), 9th in QS (19), 6th in VORP (51.5).  Pittsburgh finished 88-74.  Comment: last year Baird lost a league leading 18 games.

 

Mohammed Koigi, CL, Houston.  49 Saves in 51 chances (96.1%), 1.16 ERA, 0.90 WHIP, 86 K's in 69.2 IP, 11.11 K/9, opponents BA around .160, VORP of 35.6.  Houston had the best record in the NL.  Comment the most dominant player on the best team in the league, Koigi is the rare closer who is a serious, serious Gibson contender.

 

Jesus Villanueva, CL, Pittsburgh.  43 Saves in 45 Chances (95.6%), 3.32 ERA, 7.65 K/9, 1.24 WHIP, 16.9 VORP.  Ranked 2nd in Saves.  Pittsburgh finished 88-74, good for 3rd.  Comment: Another big season for Villaneuva.

 

Edward Clark, CL, Cleveland.  40 Saves in 47 Chances (85.1%), 3.93 ERA, 8.52 K/9, 1.50 WHIP, 12.6 VORP.  Cleveland won the Wild Card.  Comment: that WHIP is startlingly high for a closer.  Don't expect Clark to last long in this role.

 

Gary Olson, CL, New York.  39 Saves in 43 Chances (90.7%), 2.70 ERA, 9.85 K/9, 1.16 WHIP, 19.2 VORP.  New York finished 2nd in their division.  Comment: Olson keeps coming in 2nd for the Fireman Award.

 

FIREMAN OF THE YEAR

 

Mohammed Koigi, CL, Houston.  49 Saves in 51 chances (96.1%), 1.16 ERA, 0.90 WHIP, 86 K's in 69.2 IP, 11.11 K/9, opponents BA around .160, VORP of 35.6.  Houston had the best record in the NL.  Comment the most dominant player on the best team in the league, Koigi is the rare closer who is a serious, serious Gibson contender.

 

Jesus Villanueva, CL, Pittsburgh.  43 Saves in 45 Chances (95.6%), 3.32 ERA, 7.65 K/9, 1.24 WHIP, 16.9 VORP.  Ranked 2nd in Saves.  Pittsburgh finished 88-74, good for 3rd.  Comment: Another big season for Villaneuva.

 

Edward Clark, CL, Cleveland.  40 Saves in 47 Chances (85.1%), 3.93 ERA, 8.52 K/9, 1.50 WHIP, 12.6 VORP.  Cleveland won the Wild Card.  Comment: that WHIP is startlingly high for a closer.  Don't expect Clark to last long in this role.

 

Gary Olson, CL, New York.  39 Saves in 43 Chances (90.7%), 2.70 ERA, 9.85 K/9, 1.16 WHIP, 19.2 VORP.  New York finished 2nd in their division.  Comment: Olson keeps coming in 2nd for the Fireman Award.

 

ROOKIE OF THE YEAR

 

Tommy Brown, LF, Montreal.  .312/44/152, ranking 3rd in HR, 1st in RBIs.  Also: 8th in Hits (197), 2nd in TB (383), 8th in 2B (44), 1st in XBH (93), 3rd in SLG (.603).  Again, Montreal was 3rd at 81-81.  Comment: did this all as a rookie.

 

Jacob O'Rourke, 2B, Austin.  .332/29/130, ranking 6th in BA, 4th in RBIs.  Also: 2nd in 3Bs (10), 5th in SLG (.593), 7th in OPS (.977), 6th in VORP (66.0).  Austin finished 4th in the division at 76-86.  Comment: overlooked a little bit because of the Marhsalls' down year, but the guy is an instant star at 2B.  And, another rookie.

 

Arturo Borges, 1B, Austin.  .329/38/98, ranking 9th in BA.  Also: 5th in OBP (.420), 8th in SLg (.579), 4th in OPS (.999), 9th in VORP (60.6).  Again, Austin finished 4th at 76-86.  Comment: Another Austin rookie from the right side of their IF.

 

Pedro Velasquez, 1B, Pittsburgh.  .313/41/123, ranking 7th in HRs, 7th in RBIs.  Also: 5th in TBs (353), 6th in XBH (81), 6th in OBP (.411), 7th in SLG (.584), 6th in OPS (.996), 8th in VORP (62.6).  Pittsburgh finished 3rd at 88-74.  Comment: Another rookie, Velasquez trailed off after a sensational start.

 

Mike Sharp, SS, Cleveland.  .297/29/124, ranking 6th in RBIs.  Also: 10th in Runs (116), 9th in OBP (.406).  Cleveland won the Wild Card.  Comment: Sharp also played .988 defense at SS.

 

David Alexander, SS, El Paso.  .323/9/57/18.  5th in Hits at 200.  El Paso finished 81-81.  Comment: looks like a great table setter for years to come in El Paso.

 

Tom Rogers, SS, San Antonio.  .300/15/47/35, ranking 5th in SBs.  San Antonio finished 84-78.  Comment: with still some potential yet to fulfill, Rogers looks like a star in the making.

 

Lawrence Britton, MR, Boston.  5-2, 2.02, 98 K's in 75.2 IP, 14.21 K/9 (check that again), 1.28 WHIP (47 BBs in 75 IP, but just 50 Hits allowed), 31.2 VORP.  Boston won their division.  Comment; Britton is Hearn's replacement as closer.  The guy is 5-4-3 actual, 5-4-5 potential.  A 1993 draftee, the only question is: When will Sparky Anderson move him to the rotation?

 

MANAGER OF THE YEAR

 

Sparky Anderson, Boston.  The guy is probably the most innovative manager in the league: Mounds Hearn in the rotation, Pancho Urive playing 3B, it doesn't stop.  And he gets special credit for leading Boston back into the playoffs this year after New York had a huge lead early in the season.  With a manager like Anderson, it's fair to say he's got to be one of the best regarded managers in baseball.  The only question is, is this one of those years when you reward him?  Boston improved 11 games this year, from 83 Wins in 1993 to 94 Wins in 1994.

 

Felix Cabrera, Montreal.  In his 2nd season in Montreal, Cabrera led the Knights to a 12 game improvement, going 81-81 after a 69-93 season in 1993.  Cabrera gets credit for getting insanely good production out of his young sluggers.  On the other hand, though, Montreal hasn't quite reached the promise land just yet.  So Cabrera might be a season off the award.

 

Alexis Stevens, St. Louis.  The Savages improved 6 games this year, going 95-67 in 1994.  Year after year, Stevens gets great production out of his starting rotation.  Here's a notable fact.  St. Louis was 12th in the NL in BA (.266), 14th in OBP (.329), and yet they still managed to be 4th in runs scored.  In part, this is because they're so good at running: 2nd in stolen bases.  On the downside, he probably should've gone away from closer Ismael Pineda at some point this year (a 5.15 ERA and just a 75.6% Closer percentage, but still used as closer all year long).

 

Bert Lee, Cleveland.  After a long, fairly successful minor league career, the 62-year-old Lee finally got his big league shot in 1994, and Cleveland came out of nowhere to win the Wild Card.  The Rockers went 82-80 last year, so there 91-71 record this season qualifies as a 9 game improvement -- good, but hardly unheard of.  Still, it was only the Rockers 2nd playoff appearance in franchise history, and Lee was able to lead the team through Earl Armstrong's traumatic September injury.  Lee got a career year out of journeyman starter Carlos Valencia, closer Edward Clark, and a variety of offensive player.  Looking up and down their roster, you still don't see that much talent.  Cleveland simply overachieved this year, and the credit for that often goes at least in part to the manager.

 

Luis Serrano, Houston.  Serrano has been in charge of the Black Gold since 1988, and team management has been patient with him: staying with him for 7 years now despite the fact that he never made the playoffs prior to this year.  Finally, he had a breakthrough this year.  Houston improved 17 games this year, going 97-65 after going 80-82 last season.  That's the 2nd biggest improvement in all the NL.  Houston had an amazing Pythagorean Differential of +12 -- according to the formula they only should've won 85 games this year instead of 97.  That's the biggest differential in all of EWB.  In part, that might just be due to Koigi in the bullpen (the formula notoriously has trouble accounting for dominant closers), but in part Serrano gets credit: he got more wins out of the team than he "should" have.

 

Wally Reynolds, San Antonio.  I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that this is the first year Reynolds has ever appeared on the manager of the year ballot.  But he deserved it.  First, the team had it's first finish above last place since 1987.  That's stunning.  2nd, they had their 1st finish better than 4th since Reynolds took over way back in 1978.  In fact, their 84-68, 2nd place finish is tied for the greatest in franchise history: they also went 84-68 and finished 2nd way back in 1970.  They had not finished above .500 since then until this season.  Besides this awful history, Reynolds has some serious credentials this year.  The team went from 65 Wins in 1993 to 84 in 1994, a 19 game improvement.  That's the biggest improvement in all the NL, and I believe in all of EWB.  And, the fact is that Reynolds did this without hardly any talent in the starting rotation.

 

EXECUTIVE OF THE YEAR

 

Takuma Endo, Boston.  Endo had an up-and-down year.  He traded stud Pedro Velasquez for veteran SP Thomas Graham, a deal that clearly favored Pittsburgh.  (Even with Justin Johnston ahead of Velasquez, Boston should've tried to get more in exchange.)  He signed FA 2B Teko de Bode for the league minimum on 4/21 of the year, which earns a lot of credit.  But then he traded de Bode to Carolina for MR Lou Murray, who was nothing special for the team.  He traded RF Daniel Pena, who looks like he might bea solid ML starter (4-3 actual), in exchange for San Antonio Closer Allen Williams, who's okay but really just a seat warmer until Britton takes over the job.  Also, there's always a kind of competition for credit between manager and GM, and Anderson (rightly or wrongly) gets a lot of the credit in Boston.

 

Joe Steines, Montreal.  Steines was the architect of Dallas' 1990 World Championship team, and he's making a name for himself in Montreal as well.  He signed SP Desmond MacGilip and 3B Porter Scott this offseason, 2 huge additions.  Also continues to get credit for the Frank Patterson/Tommy Brown trade: Steines recognized Montreal had a glut at 1B, and was able to get a bona fide star for the star Patterson.  One concern: Is it too early to vote for Steines for this award?  That is, should you wait until Montreal makes the playoffs?

 

Cedric Backman, Cleveland.  Backman hired manager Bert Lee, which looks like a great move given that he's led the Rockers to their first playoff appearance since 1988 and 2nd ever.  He acquired utility IF Conan Worley (a non-trivial contributor) for next to nothing form Austin.  He signed Chi-ming Khu as a cheap offseason free agent ($390K), and then turned around and traded Khu during the regular season for veteran SP Manny Pineiro (11-11, 4.58 on the year), who will be Cleveland's Ace for the postseason, given the loss of Armstrong.  He signed veteran LF Herbert Hayes to a free agent contract for the EWB minimum, and then Hayes went on to have a pretty productive year, going .288/10/56/17.  Might not sound like much, but moves like this are crucial for tiny market teams like Cleveland.  He signed 4 time Gold Clove CF Phil O'Roddam for the league minimum during the season (in fact, on 5/15), and O'Roddam played huge down the stretch, going .348/4/10/2 with a 9.3 VORP all in September (after spending the first several months in AAA), which was badly needed because Cleveland was fading badly during the month.  I could keep listing minimum contract in-season signees, but the list goes on forever.  Backman really liked to tinker and experiment with EWB riff-raff.  (Although one notable signee: Emilio Cabrera, who re-signed with the Rockers after beginning his career there from 1979-1985.  Cabrera spent all of 1994 in AAA.)  One notorious move: the Earl Armstrong for Diaz/Hernandez trade.  Especially bad because Hernandez in turn was traded to Atlanta for nothing special.

 

Wayne Gordon, Pittsburgh.  Pittsburgh faded a bit in July/August, but made a September push to end up at 88 Wins, just 3 games out of the Wild Card.  If the Crusaders had made the playoffs, I think Gordon might be a lock for the award.  His 2 biggest moves were this.  First, he traded nobody SP Thomas Graham to Boston for rookie 1B Pedro Velasquez, an MVP and Angel Rosa candidate in 1994.  Second, he signed free agent SS Norman Hopkins to an unbelievable cheap $730K deal, even though Hopkins was coming off a $9M per season contract.  In his one year with Pittsburgh, Hopkins won the NL batting crown and was an MVP candidate.  Two excellent, excellent moves.  On the downside, his signing of FA MR Eric Seymour looks like a costly mistake ($3.8M per for 2 years, and Seymour had a +5 ERA in 1994).  And also, he failed to make any significant in-season moves, even as Pittsburgh was fading.  How heavily does that count against him?

 

Aroghetto Vallone, Houston.  The only Italian GM in the league to my knowledge, Vallone gets credit for Houston's NL leading 97 Wins.  He traded nobodies to get 38-year-old SP and 4th starter Jesus Gomez from D.C., where Gomez went 12-9 and 4.51 on the year.  Aside from that, Houston didn't make hardly any offseason or inseason moves.  Instead, they patiently reaped the rewards of player development.  Remember, for years the Black Gold had one of the highest mL systems in all of EWB.  Well, those mLers contributed at the ML level this year.  Most obviously there's Koigi, the most dominant closer in baseball.  There's also Chris Edgar, Juan Bravo, Dave Franklin, and Alfredo Lopez, all young offensive players who either came up through the Black Gold system or at least first flourished with them.

 

Pablo Lara, San Antonio.  Lara is one of the most famous GMs in all of EWB thanks to his free-wheeling days in Chicago.  He has already made a stir in San Antonio.  The magnitude of the Aztecas improvement this year was already covered above in connection with Reynolds.  Here, let me focus on Lara's unique contributions.  For one, he kept Reynolds on as manager, despite all the world of criticism against the move, and now Reynolds is a leading candidate for manager of the year.  He acquired RP Daniel Munoz from Portland in the offseason, where Munoz was one of those solid relievers who made up the team strength of the Aztecas, the bullpen.  He traded SP Joe Sampson to DC in exchange for LF Greg Cooper, who went on to hit .280/10 for the Aztecas this year, and shored up a glaring weakspot for the team: OF.  He managed to sign upcoming star 2B Doug Jamison to a year deal for $2.6M per year to cover his arbitration period, a huge move for the small market Aztecas given that Jamison looked like a star this year who could've commanded much more.  He traded RP Allen Williams to Boston in exchange for LF David Pena, a 4-3 player who contributed nicely down the stretch.  This move was especially notable for how much sense it made for the Aztecas: they had a comparative strength in the bullpen and a horrible weakness in OF, and the move addressed that nicely.  He acquired Doug Kelly from Washington for a minor league SP, and then turned around and signed Kelly for a 1-year extension well under what Kelly was demanding from the Admirals.

1994 Washington Admirals Award Vote

February 10th, 2009 by Admirals GM

My ballot...

 

MVP

 

1. Bicknell, pretty self-evident.

2. Rafael Valentin.  Valentin keeps getting screwed.  He also posted a phenomenal year in 1990 with Boston, only to be edged by an even better year by Don Kelly.

3. Frank Patterson.  Best offensive year from a player from the best team.

BOB GIBSON

1. Kevin Morris.  Obvious in the sense that he's just a little bit ahead of everyone in just about every major category.

2. Ed Jackson.  In all likelihood, this will be Jackson's 2nd straight year finishing 2nd for the Award.  If it makes up for it, you can tell him I regard him as the best pitcher in EWB today.

3. Bartolo Barrios.  Sort of the forgotten man among young star pitchers today.

 

FIREMAN

1. Julio "Punk" Perez.  Still just 28-years-old.

2. Stu MacNiter.  When we started EWB, the best closers in baseaball were this generation: Ned Gordon, Frank Hearn, Punk Perez, Joe Murphy, Cris Rosario.  With the exception of Perez and maybe Murphy, that generation has now been supplanted by players like MacNiter and Koigi: the new generation of dominant closers.

3. Duane Lawrence.  Underrated.

 

ROOKIE OF THE YEAR

1. Craig Belcher.  I predict the computer won't vote for Belcher.

2. Lucio Ortiz.  Instead, they will vote for Ortiz.

3. Wilfred Christian.  As assistant GM, let me pass it on that KC would be willing to trade Christian, because of their tremendous 1B depth in the mL system.

 

MANAGER

1. Jose Machado.  Maybe I'm being influenced by sentiment.

2. Joe Stewart.  Chicago objectively sucks.

3. Dave Morgan.  Obvious reasons.

 

GM

1. Mike.  I meant that last season's voting was "screwy" only in the sense that Mike was too "noble" to vote for himself.  If he had, he would've won (regardless of Miami's vote).

2. Rob.  Miami both made moves for this season and positioned themselves well for the next several years.

3. Robbie Johnson.

1994 Official Miami Banditos AL Award Ballot

February 10th, 2009 by Banditos GM

MVP

1)  Artie Bicknell, WAS
2)  Paul Sims, ATL
3)  Rafael Valentin, CAR

NOTES:  I think Bicknell was an easy choice, after putting up one of the best statistical seasons in EWB history.  After Bicknell it becomes much more difficult.  There's about 4 -5 players that could qualify for a 2nd place.  Ultimately we felt that Paul Sims overall stats were a tad better than everyone else's, and his much higher average pushed him over Valentin.  I would have liked to give Vincent Carter a vote but the fact that he only played 110 games hurt him and the fact that he played for Denver.  Although of the three human voters I feel like we give the least weighting to team performance.  Another serious consideration was Caleb Lang, it was difficult not to put him into the top 3.  It seems like I end up saying this each year but this has got to be the deepest offensive MVP class we've seen.

BOB GIBSON AWARD

1)  Kevin Morris, MIA
2)  Ed Jackson, OMA
3)  Bartolo Barrios, KC

NOTES:  Compared to the MVP voting this was by far easier.  I think Morris was slightly ahead of Jackson and Barrios and really had no competition for the number one spot.  Morris really "gelled" in his second year in Miami and what really should be noticed in his performance in the second half of the season where he was practically unbeatable.  Jackson and Barrios are two great pitchers that are very similar, however one plays for a good team and the other for a shit team, hence the 3rd place for Barrios.  After these 3 the pool really drops off.  As a rule, we don't usually consider relievers for the award.  They'd have to be unbelievable good and pitch a great deal.  MacGregor, Pena, Harris, and Jones had decent season but nowhere near BG calibre.

FIREMAN OF THE YEAR

1)  Julio "Punk" Perez, OMA
2)  Duane Lawrence, CAR
3)  Stu MacNiter, MIN

NOTES:  Perez had by far the best numbers.  The only thing he was beat in was SV% by Duane Lawrence.  Perez also played for the team with the best record, and the their record was in a large part due to his ability to excel.  I think the bullpen and closer is one of the most important facets of EWB.  Perez is an ideal closer.  Lawrence was the second best closer in terms of numbers and MacNiter the third.  Murphy and Davidson are a notch lower than the top 3.

ANGEL ROSA MEMORIAL AWARD

1)  Craig Belcher, OMA
2)  Lucio Ortiz, MEM
3)  Alfredo Juarez, MIA

NOTES:  Belcher and Ortiz were both legitimate MVP candidates and it's unfortunate for Ortiz that he was in the 1994 class.  Any other year and the award would have been his.  Juarez had decent cumulative totals but he put up some of the best performances of the season, including a NO HITTER.  Juarez would have burned his name into every voter with his awesome games, despite an above average ERA.  Although in this era that ERA is very respectable.  Like a Volquez.  We like what Manley did in Portland, plus he's an ex-Bandito.  For a bad team Manley really pitched well.  Mike Schmidt is an interesting player with his speed, kind of refreshing amidst all these sluggers.

MANAGER OF THE YEAR

1)  Kevin Green, MIN
2)  Joe Stewart, CHI
3)  Jack McKeon, MIA

NOTES:  Green overcame the challenge of taking over for Pepe Vargas' 97 win team.  It took a while for the team to get it together but Green got them playing well and contending again.  Most impressive was the Mutiny's late season drive.  They came back from a deficit to overtake both Chicago and Carolina.  When those teams were folding to the pressure, Minneapolis was rising and this is due in great part to Kevin Green.  In the last sim Minneapolis won 4 out of 6 including a 3 game sweep IN OMAHA.  All of this to TIE for the wildcard and then they won a tough play in game.  Much props.  Stewart gets credit for really putting his strong identity on this team and making something out of nothing.  Chicago is offensively challenged, really challenged.  But instead of trying to slug it out with the big boys, Stewart decided to mold this team into a running, small ball team with strong pitching.  His strategy worked and Chicago surprised everybody.  An example of great managing.  The third slot was a toss up between Morgan and McKeon.  They basically have the same argument:  they both took good teams to the next level.  So given that it's a toss up we are going to do the logical thing and go with our guy.  Machado should really take responsibilty for the collapse of Carolina, they played horrible in September.

EXECUTIVE OF THE YEAR

1)  Mike G, OMA
2)  Robbie Johnson, CAR
3)  RobM, MIA

NOTES:  Johnson isn't responsible for his team's collapse.  He gave them the tools to win.  His mid season trades are what allowed them to surge to contenders, and were very shrewd.  Johnson should fire Machado.

1994 Omaha AL Award Vote

February 9th, 2009 by Wolverines GM

MVP

 

1) Bicknell------not a question

2) Valentin----any other year he is MVP

3) Picot----awesome season, in a year where there was just too much in front of him

 

Gibson

 

1) Morris-----great year

2) Jackson-----a down year in his standards but still 2nd best pitcher this year

3) Barrios-----almost a mirror image of Jackson's stats, but he played on a shitty team

 

Fireman

 

1) MacNiter-----great year and clutch for Minneapolis down the stretch to make the playoffs

2) Perez-------Great numbers, but MacNiter was MORE valuable to Minneapolis

3) Lawrence------impressive year for Lawrence

 

Rosa

 

1) Belcher-----no question, will be a stud for years to come

2) Ortiz-----in any other year he has the numbers hands down to win Rosa, but not this year

3) Christian-----solid first year for KC, a building block for the future

 

Manager

 

1) Morgan-----what can I say, he is the Phil Jackson of EWB, don't know if it's players or coach. We think coach

2) Machado----Great run for Carolina---it's a fucking sham they were left out

3) Stewart----a surprising season for the Samurai, just overshadowed by Carolina a little

 

Exec

 

1) Mike G----I really didn't want to vote for myself, but I had a good year

2) Johnson----Carolina had a great year and again were screwed

3) Clayton-----Chicago had a great year and Clayton deserves credit

 

Re: 1994 AL Awards Ballot

February 9th, 2009 by Banditos GM

Some quick comments:

Not quite sure why Shawn Carr gets so much love but Matt Martin is totally ignored.

Matt Martin  12-3, 2.60 ERA, 94K's in 90.0 IP, 9.40 K/9
Shawn Carr  11-2, 2.94, 161 K's in 141 IP, 1.12 WHIP

Carr had a better WHIP and more IP, Martin had a better ERA and more W.  Essentially though, they both have great, similar numbers.  But everyone always talks about Carr and Martin isn't even mentioned on the ballot.  Martin was 12-1 going into September.

In addition, I'm not sure how Bernard "Reach" Glass doesn't get a mention for Angel Rosa.  He led rookies in saves by a large margin and his numbers from the time he was put as a Closer are dominant.  Of course you can't ignore his numbers as a starter (although they weren't bad), but you have to acknowledge his performance as a closer.  Look at July, August, September.

Finally, not sure what JTT is talking about when he says Mike would have won if not for a "screwy vote."

Our players want the respect that they're due!!!!! 

1994 AL Awards Ballot

February 9th, 2009 by Admirals GM

AL MVP

 

Frank Patterson, DH, Omaha.  .355/33/121, ranking 1st in BA, 9th in RBIs.  Also: 1st in Hits (228), 4th in TB (358), 8th in R (115), 8th in OBP (.404), 9th in OPS (.962), and 6th in VORP (63.3).  Omaha finished with the best record in all of EWB at 107-55.  Comment: I don't know if it matters, but Patterson saw no action defensively this year.

 

Craig Belcher, LF, Omaha.  .346/35/122, ranking 2nd in BA, 8th in RBIs.  Also: 6th in Hits (195), 8th in TB (328), 5th in OBP (.417), 8th in SLG (.582), 5th in OPS (.998), and 8th in VORP (58.2).  Again, Omaha had the best record at 107-55.  Comment: Belcher did this all as a rookie.

 

Artie Bicknell, CF, Washington.  .343/51/159, ranking 3rd in BA, 1st in HRs (tie), 1st in RBIs (setting a new EWB record in RBIs).  Also: 5th in Hits (194), 1st in TB (388), 1st in Runs (141), 3rd in OBP (.426), 1st in SLG (.669), 1st in OPS (1.095), 1st in VORP (104.7, which is the 6th highest VORP total in EWB history).  Washington finished in the Mountain West, going 88-74.  Comment: Bicknell also played a respectable CF (started there most of the year), a prime defensive position.

 

Rafael Valentin, 1B, Carolina.  .303/51/137, ranking 1st in HRs (tie), 3rd in RBIs.  Also: 1st in Games (162), 2nd in TB (387), 6th in 2Bs (42), 6th in Runs (117), 1st in XBH (94), 3rd in SLUG (.617), 4th in OPS (1.003), 4th in VORP (64.7)  Carolina finished tied for the Wild Card at 86-76, but got screwed out of a play-in game.  Comment: This is the 3rd time in Valentin's career he led the league (or tied for lead) in HRs.

 

Caleb Lang, 1B, Los Angeles.  .333/39/130, ranking 6th in BA, 7th in HRs, 4th in RBIs.  Also: 8th in Hits (193), 6th in TB (350), 10th in Runs (110), 2nd in OBP (.435) 5th in SLG (.604), 2nd in OPS (1.039), 2nd in VORP 74.8.  L.A. finished with the worst record in all of EWB at 55-107.  Lang can't be blamed for L.A.'s bad season; he continues to produce at a remarkable rate, under the radar; kind of reminds me of what Will Clark was supposed to be.

 

Lucio Ortiz, SS, Memphis.  .337/21/117, ranking 5th in BA.  Also: 7th in Hits (194), 1st in 2Bs (49), 7th in XBH (72), 6th in OBP (.410), 5th in VORP (64.1).  Memphis finished 3rd in the Colonial Division at 77-85, making their first run at a playoff appearance in years before fading down the stretch.  Comments: As measured by his defensive stats, Ortiz also played a competent SS.

 

Carl Morgan, CF, Miami.  .307/23/123.  Also: 8th in SFs (8).  Miami finished 1st in the Colonial at 98-64.  Comment: plays CF.

 

Miguel Torres, LF, Miami.  .269/43/114, ranking 6th in HRs.  Also: 9th in SLG (.563).  Miami finished 1st in the Colonial at 98-64.  Comment: keeps improving each year.

 

Mike Robinson, DH, Washington.  .332/20/92/25, ranking 8th in BA.  Also: 4th in Hits (202), 5th in 3Bs (8), 4th in Runs (123), 7th in XBH (55), 4th in OBP (.426), 3rd in VORP (73.0).  Washington finished 1st in the Mountain West at 88-74.  Comment: Robinson was primarily a DH this year, and so made little defensive contribution.

 

Paul Sims, LF/1B, Atlanta.  .329/49/141, ranking 10th in BA, 3rd in HRs, 2nd in RBIs.  Also: 2nd in Hits (214), 6th in K's (141), 3rd in TB (386), 7th in SLG (.593), 10th in OPS (.961), 7th in VORP (61.1).  Atlanta finished 4th (tied for last) in the Colonial division at 74-88.  Comment: Sims always strikes me as a no-shit mercenary who will put up huge offensive stats wherever -- he kind of reminds me of an Albert Belle type.

 

Ben Lindsay, 1B, Omaha.  .293/47/125, ranking 4th in HRs, 7th in RBIs.  Also: 5th in K's (142), 5th in TB's (356), 7th in XBH (72).  Again, Omaha had the best record.  Comment: Kind of remarkable that Lindsay only ended up with a 6.9 VORP; so according to VORP, Lindsay is far less offensively valuable than Brandon Kent is for me (who hit .264/14/47).  What gives?  This: Lindsay only walked 24 times on the year, and so only had a .318 OBP.  In my view, you can take this as another illustration of the limitations of VORP.

 

Clinton Picot, C, Minneapolis.  .307/46/121, ranking 5th in HRs, 9th in RBIs.  Also: 7th in TB (329), 10th in XBH (71), 4th in SLG (.612), 6th in OPS (.997), 10th in VORP (56.7).  Minneapolis won the Wild Card this year with an 86-76 record (+ play-in win).  Comment: As a catcher, Picot nailed 35.1% of opposing baserunners.

 

Jimmy Garrett, 3B, Omaha.  .294/38/130/13, ranking 9th in HRs, 4th in RBIs.  Also: 10th in TB (322).  Omaha finished with the best record.  Comment: The reigning MVP made significant strides in the field this year, posting a .962 Fielding % after seasons of .933 and .936 the previous two years.

 

Dave Page, 1B, New Orleans.  .312/27/95.  Also: 1st in OBP (.460), 7th in OPS (.996), 9th in VORP (58.0).  New Orleans finished 4th (tied for last) in Colonial Division at 74-88.  Comment: Would've been a stronger candidate if injury hadn't limited him to 127 games.

 

Vincent Carter, C, Denver.  .301/38/109, ranking 9th in HRs.  Also: 2nd in SLG (.636), 3rd in OPS (1.011), 5th in VORP (61.3).  Denver finished 5th in the Plains at 76-86.  Comment: Carter put these numbers up in just 110 games due to injury; projected over an entire 162-game season, he's hitting around 55 HRs with 160 RBIs.  Also: baserunners are stealing way more on Carter than they used to when he was younger.

 

NO PITCHERS HAVE BEEN INCLUDED, AS I DON'T THINK ANYONE IS WORTHY OF THE AWARD THIS YEAR

 

BOB GIBSON AWARD

 

Kevin Morris, SP, Miami.  19-4, 3.18, 187 K's in 223.2 IP, 1.22 WHIP, ranking 1st in Wins, 1st in ERA, 6th in K's, 3rd in IP, and 3rd in WHIP.  Also: 1st in Win % (.826), 6th in K/9 (8.05), 1st in QS (22), 1st in QS% (.667), 2nd in VORP (64.8).  Miami won their division.  Comment: From June until the end of the season, Morris was 11-0 with a 2.63 ERA.

 

Bartolo Barrios, SP, Kansas City.  13-7, 3.33, 214 K's in 208.1 IP, 1.27 WHIP, ranking 2nd in ERA, 1st in K's, 9th in IP, and 4th in WHIP.  Also: 7th in Win % (.650), 2nd in K/9 (9.24), 2nd in QS (21), 4th in QS% (.618), 3rd in VORP (60.1).  Kansas City finished 4th in their division at 83-79.  Comment: If Barrios had any run production whatsoever (KC's offense was worst in the AL), he might have been able to win close to 20 games.

 

Ed Jackson, SP, Omaha.  18-8, 3.34, 210 K's in 215.2 IP, 1.09 WHIP, ranking 2nd in Wins, 3rd in ERA, 2nd in K's, 4th in IP, 1st in WHIP.  Also: 3rd in Win % (.692), 5th in K/9 (8.76), 5th in QS (20), 2nd in QS% (.645), 2nd in CG (3), 1st in VORP (65.8).  Omaha had the best record in baseball.  Because Omaha was so far ahead, they limited Jackson to just 3 September starts, keeping his season totals down a bit.

 

Joe MacGregor, SP, Washington.  16-9, 3.94, 152 K's in 203.1 IP, 1.30 WHIP, ranking 4th in Wins, 5th in ERA, 7th in WHIP.  Also: 8th in Win % (.640), 5th in QS (20), 3rd in QS % (.625), 7th in CGs (2).  Washington finished 1st in the Mountain West.  Comment: I find it kind of amazing that a 3.94 ERA could be good enough for 5th in the league, but there you have it.

 

Carlos Pena, SP, Chicago.  11-12, 3.64, 184 K's in 200.1 IP, 1.33 WHIP, ranking 4th in ERA, 7th in K's, 8th in WHIP.  Also: 2nd in QS (21), 4th in QS % (.618), 7th in K/9 (8.27), 4th in VORP (54.5).  Chicago finished tied for the Wild Card at 86-76, but lost the play-in game.  Comment: something of a comeback year for the 2-time Gibson winner (1986, 1990).

 

Nate Harris, SP, Minneapolis.  17-9, 4.13, 155 K's in 213.1 IP, 1.17 WHIP, ranking 3rd in Wins, 8th in ERA, 5th IP, and 2nd in WHIP.  Also: 5th in Win % (.654), 2nd in QS (21), 6th in QS% (.600), 7th in VORP (43.9).  Minneapolis won the Wild Card, going 86-76.  Comment: another solid season for the free agent to be.

 

Clayton Jones, SP, Omaha.  16-8, 4.34, 149 K's in 164 IP, 1.36 WHIP, ranking 4th in Wins.  Also: 4th in Win % (.667), 8th in K/9 (8.18).  Omaha had the best record.  Comment: Injuries limited him to 28 starts; if he had a full season, could've possibly gotten to 20 Wins.

 

Shawn Carr, MR, Omaha.  11-2, 2.94, 161 K's in 141 IP, 1.12 WHIP, ranking 5th in VORP.  Also: 2nd in Games (74), 6th in Holds (18).  Omaha had the best record.  Comment: It's unusual to include a MR in consideration for the award, but it's unusual to have a MR rank in the top 5 in VORP.  After struggling in April and May, Carr was phenomenal the rest of the way.  He had 10.28 K/9, and check out that win-loss record.  I suspect that Carr was a big part of why Omaha had such a good record in extra inning games.  A major playoff weapon as well.

 

Stu MacNiter, CL, Minneapolis.  42 Saves in 47 Chances (89.4%), 2.32 ERA, 9.15 K/9, 1.00 WHIP, 24.5 VORP.  Ranked 1st in Saves.  Minneapolis is the Wild Card.  Comment: this is the 3rd straight season MacNiter has led the AL in Saves.

 

Joe Murphy, CL, Kansas City.  41 Saves in 48 Chances (85.4), 2.38 ERA, 9.50 K/9, 1.21 WHIP, 28.0 VORP.  Ranked 2nd in Saves.  Comment: Kansas City finished 4th in the Plains Division.  Comment: still great, but that save percentage is a little low.

 

Cory Davidson, CL, Washington.  39 Saves in 46 Chances (84.8%), 3.22 ERA, 6.14 K/9, 1.31 WHIP, 15.6 VORP.  Ranked 3rd in Saves.  Washington won their division.  Comment: I think like 5 of his 7 BSs came vs. Omaha.

 

Duane Lawrence, CL, Carolina.  39 Saves in 42 Chances (92.9%), 2.17 ERA, 8.95 K/9, 1.06 WHIP, 24.2 VORP.  Ranked 3rd in Saves.  Carolina finished tied for the Wild Card, but got screwed by the play-in system.  Comment: the bullpen was arguably Carolina's top team strength, and Lawrence was their anchor.

 

Julio "Punk" Perez, CL, Omaha.  38 Saves in 42 Chances (90.5%), 1.32 ERA, 9.83 K/9, 0.90 WHIP, 31.1 VORP.  Ranked 5th in Saves.  Omaha had the best record in baseball.  Comment: The ERA and WHIP obviously stand out.

 

FIREMAN OF THE YEAR

 

Stu MacNiter, CL, Minneapolis.  42 Saves in 47 Chances (89.4%), 2.32 ERA, 9.15 K/9, 1.00 WHIP, 24.5 VORP.  Ranked 1st in Saves.  Minneapolis is the Wild Card.  Comment: this is the 3rd straight season MacNiter has led the AL in Saves.

 

Joe Murphy, CL, Kansas City.  41 Saves in 48 Chances (85.4), 2.38 ERA, 9.50 K/9, 1.21 WHIP, 28.0 VORP.  Ranked 2nd in Saves.  Comment: Kansas City finished 4th in the Plains Division.  Comment: still great, but that save percentage is a little low.

 

Cory Davidson, CL, Washington.  39 Saves in 46 Chances (84.8%), 3.22 ERA, 6.14 K/9, 1.31 WHIP, 15.6 VORP.  Ranked 3rd in Saves.  Washington won their division.  Comment: I think like 5 of his 7 BSs came vs. Omaha.

 

Duane Lawrence, CL, Carolina.  39 Saves in 42 Chances (92.9%), 2.17 ERA, 8.95 K/9, 1.06 WHIP, 24.2 VORP.  Ranked 3rd in Saves.  Carolina finished tied for the Wild Card, but got screwed by the play-in system.  Comment: the bullpen was arguably Carolina's top team strength, and Lawrence was their anchor.

 

Julio "Punk" Perez, CL, Omaha.  38 Saves in 42 Chances (90.5%), 1.32 ERA, 9.83 K/9, 0.90 WHIP, 31.1 VORP.  Ranked 5th in Saves.  Omaha had the best record in baseball.  Comment: The ERA and WHIP obviously stand out.

 

(NOTE: Shawn Carr isn't eligible for this award because even though he's a reliever, he's not a closer.)

 

ANGEL ROSA MEMORIAL AWARD

 

Craig Belcher, LF, Omaha.  .346/35/122, ranking 2nd in BA, 8th in RBIs.  Also: 6th in Hits (195), 8th in TB (328), 5th in OBP (.417), 8th in SLG (.582), 5th in OPS (.998), and 8th in VORP (58.2).  Again, Omaha had the best record at 107-55.  Comment: Belcher did this all as a rookie.

 

Lucio Ortiz, SS, Memphis.  .337/21/117, ranking 5th in BA.  Also: 7th in Hits (194), 1st in 2Bs (49), 7th in XBH (72), 6th in OBP (.410), 5th in VORP (64.1).  Memphis finished 3rd in the Colonial Division at 77-85, making their first run at a playoff appearance in years before fading down the stretch.  Comments: As measured by his defensive stats, Ortiz also played a competent SS.  Ortiz actually had a higher VORP than Belcher.

 

Jose Ruiz, LF, New Orleans.  .297/14/79/34, ranking 7th in SBs.  Also: 1st in 3Bs (12), 10th in Runs (110).  New Orleans finished tied for 4th (last) in their division.  Comment: the guy only had 5 CSs vs. his 34 SBs, and he had 39 2Bs to go with those 12 3Bs and 14 HRs.  He walked a lot: .383 OBP.  And his VORP was solid at 42.4.  Looking at his ratings and track record, I never would've expected him to have such a solid year.

 

Jeff Bullkely, LF, Carolina.  .310/20/83/15.  Also: ranked 7th in OBP (.407) and had a VORP of 41.1.  Carolina finished tied for the Wild Card but got screwed.  Comments: Carolina is pretty good at producing young OFs.

 

Danny Welch, 2B, Atlanta.  .311/17/78/14.  Had an OPS of .888 and a VORP of 33.8.  Atlanta finished tied for 4th (last) in their division.  Comment: a solid rookie season, but given Welch's ratings and the fact that he was the #10 prospect coming into the year, I assume Atlanta wants him to turn it up a notch in 1995.

 

Wilfred Christian, 1B, Kansas City.  .333/30/95, ranking 7th in BA.  Also: 6th in SLG (.593), 8th in OPS (.988), and had a VORP of 38.8.  Kansas City finished 4th.  Comment: Christian posted these numbers in just 118 Games.  Give him a full season and he projects to about 40 HRs and 130 RBIs.

 

Mike Schmidt, SS, Atlanta.  .292/4/43/61, ranking 3rd in SBs.  Also: 1st in 2Bs (49), 8th in 3Bs (6), 9th in Runs (112), and had an OBP of .372 and VORP of 31.4.  Atlanta finished 4th (tied for last).  Comment: a prototypical leadoff hitter, Schmidt could improve a bit defensively (.966 fielding % as a SS).

 

Lonnie Douglas, LF, Las Vegas.  .305/28/115.  Also: had 128 K's, an OPS of .888, and a VORP of 31.0.  Las Vegas finished 3rd in their division.  Comment: One of the few bright spots on the Renegades depressing year.

 

Howard Manley, CL, Portland.  8-8, 2.21, 13 Saves, 82 K's in 89.2 IP, 1.16 WHIP, and a 34.2 VORP.  Portland finished 2nd at 73-89.  Comment: Manley only became a closer late in the year, which explains his low Saves total.  Still, he pitched a lot, as evidenced by the 89.2 IPs.

 

Alfredo Juarez, SP, Miami.  7-7, 4.07, 113 K's in 128.1 IP, 1.16 WHIP, 24.6 VORP.  Ranked 1st in the AL in CGs (4), and 1st in ShOs (3) despite only 19 starts.  Miami won their division.  Comments: Very often-or-on, as shown by his having 3 Shut Outs in 19 starts (a ton) but still only a kind of high 4.07 ERA.  If he becomes consistent, watch out.

 

Kenny Williams, MR, Miami.  5-5, 2.31, 83 K's in 58.1 IP, 1.17 WHIP, 22.4 VORP.  Also: had an astounding 12.81 K/9, which is off the charts; lefties batted just .131 against him, while righties hit .214; could work on walks though, with 29 BBs in 58.1 IP.  Spent roughly the first 3rd of the season in AAA.

 

MANAGER OF THE YEAR

 

Jack McKeon, Miami.  Miami won 98 games this year, a 9 game improvement over 1993.  He had to deal with an assortment of injuries, and had to figure out how to manage youngsters like Alfredo Juarez.  Cutting against McKeon, perhaps, is the fact that Miami did make some big additions this season, including most obviously free agent Ernie Owen.  (Point being: hard to credit McKeon too much if there's another explanation available for the team's improvement.)

 

Jose Machado, Carolina.  Machado is the all-time EWB leader for manager wins (1715) and for manager losses 1867.  That also means he's the all-time leader in games managed.  He's had stints in Memphis (1970-1978), Omaha (1979-1980), Las Vegas (1981-1983), Indianapolis (1984-1985), Atlanta (1986-1989), and now Carolina (1992-1994).  In all his many years, he's taken only 2 teams to the playoffs: the 1982 Las Vegas Renegades (who lost in the ALCS) and the 1987 Atlanta Confederates (who lost in the ALDS).  In light of this track record, Machado and Carolina were something of sentimental favorites coming down the stretch run.  And yet, the league screwed them over on the playoff format.  I suspect this adds to Machado's candidacy as manager of the year.  In terms of on the field performance, Machado's most notable trick was that he got decent production out of a starting staff which on paper looked horrible; I already mentioned this in connection with my post on Carolina's pitching coach.  He managed egos effectively in the bullpen, even though he has 3 proven closers back there who still appear to be in their primes (Lawrence, Wynn, and Lara).  Oh, and Carolina's 86 wins this year are an 18 game improvement over the 68 they won last year.  That's the biggest improvement in the AL.

 

Dave Morgan, Omaha.  After winning a league leading 98 games last year, Morgan managed to get an impressive 9 game improvement this year, pushing the Wolverines all the way up to 107 Victories.  Omaha does well in a range of stats that reflect well on Morgan: they are 12-3 in extra-inning games, 28-9 in 1-run games, and their Pythagorean Differential is +7, highest in the AL.  Anytime a team wins 107 games, their manager immediately becomes one of the frontrunners for manager of the year, even if he did win it last year.  By the way, did you know Morgan is 62?  I didn't.

 

Joe Stewart, Chicago.  Stewart gets credit for an 8 game improvement this year, moving Chicago from 78 Wins in 1993 to 86 in 1994.  And it's impressive that he did it despite the fact that just about everyone thought Chicago would suck bad (e.g., the algorithm thought this), and despite the fact that ace Michael Bowden missed 2 months.  If you look at Stewart's lineup, you'll see about 4 scrubs -- they have a remarkable number of starters with negative VORPs.  Question: Does the fact that Chicago ultimately slided out of the playoffs, after being poised to win the Wild Card most of the year, count against Stewart?

 

Kevin Green, Minneapolis.  First year manager Green had a difficult job replacing last year's manager (don't remember the guy's name) who led the Mutiny to 97 wins in his one and only season.  On the one hand, Green won 9 less games this year despite the free agent addition of Jesus Reyes, so that presumably counts against him.  On the other hand, Minneapolis did mount a furious late season comeback, when most people counted them out.  And that counts for him.

 

EXECUTIVE OF THE YEAR

 

Rob, Miami.  Most notable moves included the free agent signing of Ernie Owen (although Owen wasn't too great in his first season as a Bandito), and the managing of various young pitchers, including Bernard Glass, Kenny Williams, and Alfredo Juarez.  With their young talented staff, Miami looks poised to continue to dominate the Colonial for years to come.

 

Robbie Johnson, Carolina.  Johnson has a very mixed record.  On the plus side, he continues to get credit for the signing of Rafael Valentin, who was a serious MVP contender this year.  Johnson also acquired 3B John Rouse this year from St. Louis in exchange for veteran MR Sean Young, and Rouse looks great: at 28, he went .284/35/89 in time split between the two leagues.  He also traded CF Gavin James away for 3B Jack Saunders, and acquired 2B Teko de Bode from Boston for mediocre MR Lou Murray, and de Bode is ranked among the top 2Bs in the game.  On the negative side, there was the free agent signing of 2B Glenn Hill to a massive 4 year $41M contract, and Hill looks like a disaster, posting a -7 VORP his first season, and making the acquisition of de Bode necessary.  Let's put it this way: Johnson makes lots and lots of moves.  Some work out, some don't.  One more thing: he deserves some credit for sticking with re-tread manager Jose Machado.  I guarantee you people in Carolina were very disapointed at last season's decision to bring Machado back.

 

Matt Egghead, Minneapolis.  Last year's award winner, Egghead again managed to slip his team into the playoffs.  He craftily signed free agent 1B Bill Thomas right before Omaha tried to sign him (the guy is shrewd).  He traded Rich Sawyer to Memphis in exchange for 1B Shawn Martin (actually, that move looks better for Memphis; Martin's struggles led to the signing of Thomas).  He continues to reap the benefits of claiming Richard Goff off waivers from El Paso in 1993: Goff went 15-9 for Minneapolis in 1994.  And most notably, he signed free agent Jose Reyes this offseason, and Reyes produced big time offensively.

 

Ashton Clayton, Chicago.  Chicago made an 8 game improvement, and just got squeezed out of the Wild Card thanks to the play-in game.  This was a surprise: no one excpected the Samurai to compete in 1994.  Trade acquisition Artie Dunlap struggled for Chicago -- in fact, you can blame him for blowing the play-in game vs. Minneapolis -- but that can't be pinned on Clayton, it was the fault of his assistant.  The most notable move Clayton made was to sign FA SP Michael Bowden, who produced decently in his first season in Chicago.

 

Mike, Omaha.  As always, there's lots of moves to consider.  Especially notable pre-season moves: the acquisition of SP Lawrence Jordan and the promotion of 1B Ben Lindsay, who almost hit 50 HRs this season.  Surely, though, the thing that stands out most was the flurry of moves right before the trade deadline, the most notable of which involved sending off Emilio Romano.  I think it's fair to say that no other GM in EWB would've made those trades -- why rock the boat?  And yet, Omaha went 36-17 in August/September -- that is, they actually won a higher percentage of their games after the moves.  Obviously, you can't forget that Omaha won 107 games this year.  And, if not for the screwy voting last year, Mike would own an Executive of the Year Trophy already.  But he doesn't own one.

Ron James

February 9th, 2009 by Admirals GM

Before I start composing the NL ballot, did you know this?

 

Ron James, SS for the Minneapolis Mutiny, suffered a career-ending injury in the 9/28 play-in game vs. Chicago.  James, 25, used to be a big prospect: ranked #33 by Baseball America in 1992.  In his 3 seasons as the Mutiny's starting shortstop, though, his offensive production has been pretty mediocre.  This year, he went .267/4/52/1.

 

For the playoffs, it appears that Minneapolis' plan is to play Brian Whitesides at SS.  During the season, Whitesides split time for the most part between 1B and 3B, posting numbers of .258/24/85.  So he'll be a good offensive shortstop.  Defensively, though, he leaves much to be desired: a 3 rating, and a .950 Fielding Percentage over the season in limited action at Short.  Give credit to Whitesides for stepping it up for his team in their time of need.  Where Minneapolis really will see a drop off is in with Miguel Candelaria, who will be replacing Whitesides at 3B.  On the year, the 30-year-old Candelaria hit .224/7/41 in 400+ ABs, which adds up to a staggering -37.8 VORP.  It's hard to get a negative VORP so high.  On the bright side, Candelaria is a defensive standout, receiving a 10 rating at every IF position.  Makes you wonder: why not play Candelaria at SS and Whitesides at 3B?  Maybe Minneapolis will figure this out on their own.

 

Let's see how Minneapolis handles this time of crisis.  By the way, the injury to James was torn ankle ligaments.

EWB Records set in 1994

February 9th, 2009 by Admirals GM

1. Runs, 147, set by Roy Payton of Montreal.  Previous record was 136 set by Vincent Carter in 1990.  (Note: Artie Bicknell also surpassed the old record by scoring 141 runs.)

 

2. RBIs, 159, set by Artie Bicknell.  Previous record was 155 set by Jimmy Garrett just last year (1993.)

 

3. Strikeouts by a batter, 172, set by John Pittman of New Orleans.  Previous record was was by Mike "Expert" Farrell, with 169 in 1989 for Minneapolis.  (By the way, this season Pittman was .247/39/129, so very much a free swinging slugger.)

 

4. Games pitched, 87, by Esteban Gonzales of Austin.  Previous record was 85, set by Tony "Fury" Valenzuela just last year (1993) for Dallas.

 

Playoffs

February 9th, 2009 by Banditos GM

Ok, so this situation sucks.  I was curious to see how the play in games would work and simmed the Chicago/Minneapolis game.  Minneapolis won.  However, there was no following games with Carolina involved.  It went straight to the playoffs.  So apparently Carolina gets shafted somehow in a seemingly arbitrary way.

I've been scouring the forum to try to find out how this situation is resolved and still can't find a solid answer.

I did find this post from the last version of the game:

http://www.ootpdevelopments.com/board/ootp-8-2007-general-discussions/155663-3-way-tie-wild-card-but-2-team-playoff.html

This guy pretty much had the exact same situation occur.  Apparently this was never fixed or addressed.  I also learned that throughout the 132 seasons of baseball there has never been a 3 way tie, so 1994 EWB is historic in that sense.

Unfortunately, at this point there's nothing we can really do.  It kinda sucks as I was interested in seeing how things would go in a 3 way, and was kinda routing for Carolina because they're a more interesting and fresh team.

I think Larry Koenig really dropped the ball on this one.

Re: Pancho Urive

February 9th, 2009 by Banditos GM

That is interesting.  You would think their GM, Takuma Endo, would have enough foresight to see the glut at 1B and maybe let Urive try to learn a new position in the minors instead of throwing him into the mix in EWB.  That Sparky Anderson isn't afraid to shake things up a bit, he's the one that started that fad of using a closer as a starter.

By the way, even though Weaver is listed as starter, they're actually platooning.  Urive is starting every other game.

Pancho Urive

February 8th, 2009 by Admirals GM

So I was looking at EWB's top 20 players list, and I see that a new batter has cracked the list: 27-year-old Pancho Urive of Boston.  This is notable because Urive is a 1B (with 4-3 ratings), and so I was wondering how Uriver was getting any playingtime with Justin Johnston around.  (By the way, both Johnston and Pedro Velasquez, a former Boston 1B, are on the list as well.  Boston really is a 1B factory.  Any theories on how they're so good at developing this one position?)

 

Back to Uriver, the answer is that manager Sparky Anderson has been playing him a lot at 3B rather than his natural 1B position -- in fact, Urive saw action in 73 games at the hot corner, as compared to just 11 games at 1B playing primarily when Johnston was injured.  Offensively, the move seems reasonable: Urive went .336/15/57 this year in just 277 ABs, and he compiled an impressive .963 OPS.  Defensively, though, he's been an unmitigated disaster.  He has committed 22 errors in his 73 games (just 53 of which were starts, so if you project those numbers to about 150 starts, he's on pace for around 60 errors.)  His fielding percentage is a God-awful .860.  And his defensive rating at 3B is just 1.

 

With respect to the computer's AI, this strikes me as a pretty interesting move.  On the one hand, I can understand their felt need to get Urive into the game.  I think it's interesting that they would say fuck it to defensive constraints, and try to make it work at 3B.  I could see a human being trying this.  If I had some great offensive threat at 1B behind Reinert, and couldn't play him at DH, I would probably try to experiment with him playing some other position.  Surprising that the computer would do this though.

 

By the way, on their official lineup as it's set up for playoffs, Urive is no longer at 3B.  Instead, rookie Jason Weaver (a middling hitter but solid defender) is in the spot.

Quick Notes

February 8th, 2009 by Admirals GM

1. I'm going to wait to do the Awards Ballots until the regular season is officially over.  (Play-in games count as regular season.)  The main reason to do this is that, until the regular season is over, you don't get the official leaderboard entries at the bottom of a player's page.  So for instance, if you click right now on Artie Bicknell and scroll to the bottom of his page, you can see where he ranked on various 1993 leaderboards, but not where he ranked in 1994.

 

2. Did you see the final game of the season between Chicago and Atlanta?  Here's the context.  Chicago came into the day tied with Carolina for the Wild Card, with Minneapolis 1 GB. During the day, Minneapolis wins their game 5-3 over Omaha, while Carolina gets killed in their game.  Upshot: if Chicago wins, their in the playoffs, no play-in game necessary.  Then they get 2 more in the 8th thanks to a Steve Hayes HR, to make it 6-4.  That's the score when the top of the 9th starts.  I can't fully tell what happens in the 9th, b/c the game log is unavailable, but I do know that veteran Martin Diaz (former Memphis star, and 1987 AL MVP) hits a crucial 2 out 1-run scoring triple for the Samurai, and Chicago scores 2 runs in the inning to tie the game up at 6.  (By the way, closer Ned Gordon wasn't in the game for Atlanta, because he had been used as a starter by the Confederates for the 1st game of the series against Chicago.  This was the 1st game Gordon had started in months, and only the 3rd start he made all year long.  Somehow or other, Atlanta manager Carlos Vasquez decided that in this huge, end of the season series vs. Chicago, with playoff implications on the line, he wanted to use Gordon as a starter.  At any rate, Atlanta won the game Gordon started, so maybe it was a good move.)

,

Atlanta fails to score in the bottom of the 9th, so we're heading to extra innings.  In the top of the 12th, Chicago scores 1 run, and so as they head to the bottom of the inning they are just 3 outs away from clinching a playoff spot.  In the bottom of the 12th, Atlanta gets 2 runners on for C George McFarland, the former Admiral and current Atlanta backup.  (McFarland is only in the bame because Atlanta had previously pinch hit for their starting catcher.)  With 2 outs, McFarland hits a 2-run double, giving Atlanta the victory and dashing Chicago's playoff hopes, at least for the moment.

 

3. As far as the play-in format, I guess I'm okay to just see what the computer has set up and live with the consequences.  For what it's worth, here are the three teams head-to-head records...

 

Carolina (7) vs. Chicago (5)

Carolina (5) vs. Minneapolis (10)

Chicago (5) vs. Minneapolis (7)

 

So cumulative, Carolina was 12-15; Chicago was 10-14; and Minneapolis was 17-10.  Carolina's record is not as good as Minneapolis's, but better than Chicago, both with respect to winning percentage, games back, and also with respect to heads-up.  So I'm going to assume Carolina isn't officially eliminated at this point, at least if whatever tiebreaker there is happens to be based on head-to-head record.

 

4. Speaking of head-to-head record, things are looking pretty bleak for the Admirals heading into the playoffs...

 

Washington (5) vs. Omaha (10)

Washington (5) vs. Miami (7)

Washington (5) vs. Chicago (7)

Washington (4) vs. Minneapolis (8)

Washington (7) vs. Carolina (5)

 

So, the only possible playoff team we have a winning record against is Carolina, and against them it's just barely winning.  For what it's worth, here are the other human teams record vs. the possible playoff teams (excluding Washington, which was just listed)

 

Omaha (11) vs. Chicago (1)

Omaha (8) vs. Miami (4)

Omaha (9) vs. Minneapolis (6)

Omaha (8) vs. Carolina (4)

 

Miami (7) vs. Carolina (5)

Miami (8) vs. Minneapolis (4)

Miami (7) vs. Chicago (5)

 

So, Omaha was a winning record against everyone, and really pretty much a dominating winning record against everyone.  Miami has a winning record against everyone except Omaha.  So, the ALCS everyone will expect is Omaha vs. Miami.  And, in addition, given their extremely high regular season win total, and their great record against all these playoff teams, it's fair to say that Omaha has to be regarded as the heavy favorites for the AL playoffs this year, as well as the World Series.

 

As for Washington, I'll readily concede that we go into the playoffs this year with much less confidence than we've ever had at this point of year.  As a reflection of this point, consider that we have no real idea who our Game 3 and Game 4 starters will be for the first round of the playoffs, or even which SPs will be left on our playoff roster.  There's a chance that rookie Matthew Spencer could be our Game 3 starter, and there's a chance he could be left off the team completely.   Washington has the worst record of any division winner this year, and we've clearly fallen behind Omaha (in fact, 19 GB from Omaha) and Miami (10 GB).  Obviously, we'll give it our best, and the baseball playoffs are enough of a crapshoot that you never know how things will unfold.  But again, we aren't feeling very confident at all.

Josh Shelton

February 8th, 2009 by Banditos GM

An interesting observation about the AI.  In San Antonio CL Steffen Larsen was replaced and moved to setup man.  Probably deservedly so, he was sporting a +4.00 ERA and had 7 BS.  What's interesting is that they replaced him with Josh Shelton, who is rated worse.  He's rated worse in actual numbers and stars, however he put up decent stats.  Not only is he rated worse but he's not a prospect at age 31.

I just think it's cool that the computer has the chutzpah to replace a struggling Larsen and it doesn't have to be strictly based on ratings.



***Side Note:  JTT if you want to put out Awards Ballots, that's cool.

Very Interesting EWB Situation

February 8th, 2009 by Banditos GM

I am in the process of uploading now, hopefully I can get it finished before I go to work.  I will send out the regular upload email with the notes but I wanted to share this tidbit now.  Carolina, Chicago AND Minneapolis all tied for the Wildcard.  The thing is is that I have no idea how the game handles this scenario.  Right now Chicago and Minneapolis are scheduled to play.  I've looked and searched as much as I can in the manual and forum but haven't been able to find a concrete statement of how the 3 way tie works in the game.  I'm sure it's available somewhere, just cant find it.  However, if it's like this one guy's league it will go like this:

"The teams drew lots to be designated as A, B, and C. The first three games played were then:

Day 1: B at A
Day 2: C at B
Day 3: A at C

if all 3 teams win one game, repeat, untill someone wins 2 games."

Only problem with that is that it could repeat for a while until a team wins 2 games, which was what he was complaining about.  I also believe you can customize the playoffs somehow, but that's something I would rather not venture into for fear of fucking everything up.

The easiest way to find an answer was to just go ahead and sim forward but I wanted to upload so you guys could be aware of the drama and it's implications.  It does affect our playoffs too.

Also, neither of you suffered any injuries so if you want to go ahead and pare down your rosters to the playoff size, that's cool.

Montreal

February 7th, 2009 by Admirals GM

Rob has pointed to the Knights before, but I really do want to say that they look like a phenomenal young team.  I have a hard time understanding how they are only barely above .500 this year -- you look at their individual stats, and you feel like they should be a .600 team, or so.  But at any rate, they look like a possible dynasty in the making.

 

Both Albert Perez and Tommy Brown are going to hit around 45 HR's this year with somewhere near 150 RBIs.  In the entire history of EWB, I doubt there's ever been 2 teammates to reach these totals.  Then there's Roy Payton, who's going to be around .300/43/120 this year, just barely a notch below.  And then 3B Leonard Lynch, who will be around .300/38/100.  There is no team in baseball who is even close to matching 4 power/average hitters producing at that level -- not Washington, not Omaha, not anyone.

 

As far as supporting cast, you then have Porter Scott, who still managed a .400 OBP this year despite getting older (also about .280/15/55).  The other position players are decent enough not to weight the offense down.

 

Among their SPs, Desmond MacGilip has returned to Gibson-contention after signing with Montreal; right now, his contract is looking like a steal.  Chris "Peach Tree" Dunham has had his struggles this year -- 5.86 ERA -- but the guy is an 11 pt. pitcher at age 23, and was ranked among the top SP prospect in all of baseball prior to the season.  The rest of their rotation right now is filled out with 30-year-old 8 pt. pitchers, so there's room for upgrade.  But down in AAA, they have David Standard, a potential 11 pt. pitcher who is already 10 actual, and has been pretty dominant this season, striking out 257 in 220 IPs.  I actually think the Knights can be criticized for not bringing up Standard this season for their pennant run, but at any rate Standard is a lock to be in the rotation next year.  Assuming he can move up from his 10 pt. actual to his 11 pt. potential, the Knights then figure to have 3 different 11 pt. pitchers in their rotation next season.  I'm pretty sure that no other EWB team can say the same.

 

One more thing.  The Knights still have 2B prospect Danny "Sunshine" Beasley in their system, and he's still looking pretty good -- 5-4 contact-power potential, and he's put up some pretty good stats this year in A ball.  It's probably unrealistic to think that Beasley will see EWB action next year (he's still just 20), but he's on pace to become a big time contributor in 1996 or 1997.

 

The one potential problem for the organization is their tight budget.  They are overbudget this season, and next season they already have more salary commitments than they do this year, without adding any free agents or anything.  This is largely because of the expensive Scott and MacGilip signings last year.  In retrospect, the Scott signing was probably a mistake.  Scott is still a contributor, and because they shelled out the Knights were able to get The Swan for hit #3000, but $11M is a lot per season.  They could've kept that money and then invested it this offseason in pitching -- especially bullpen.  Still, the Knights look poised to go on a serious run in the Colonial Division over the next few years.

Re: 1994 Algorithm Prediction

February 7th, 2009 by Admirals GM

Looking back, the algorithm again had a decent year.

 

Start with the Sunbelt.  It rightly saw that Miami would run away with things (in fact, it saw that they would be the 2nd best team in baseball).  It has Carolina #2, which was right as well.  It underestimated Memphis and overestimated Atlanta, but it basically got things right.

 

The Plains.  The Algorithm both saw that this would be the strongest AL division, and that nevertheless Omaha would run away with it.  One thing it did get wrong was Chicago -- it didn't really see how good they would be.

 

In the Mountain West, the algorithm saw both that Washington would be a notch below the team they had been in the past, but that nevertheless they would run away with the division. It saw that this division was going to be truly awful, and that LA had the worst team in baseball.

 

The Colonial Division is probably the one the algorithm got most wrong.  It thought Boston would finish 3rd, although I should note that it thought this was a close 3rd.  The team it really fucked up, though, was Philadelphia.  The algorithm thought the Quakers would repeat their division title of 1993; instead, they've been last.  Philly has had a lot of tough injuries this year, but even so the algorithm overrated them.

 

In the Ohio Valley, the algorithm saw that St. Louis and Pittsburgh would be good (although it overrated Pittsburgh a bit), and that Indianapolis, Detroit, and Cincinnati would be bad.  It gets special credit for Cincinnati -- I tried to explain in my notes why I thought the algorithm might be underrating the Rebels, but it turns out I was wrong and the algorithm was right.  The one team it missed badly on is Cleveland.  I've noted this before, but I'll repeat it here: the one thing the algorithm is worst at predicting is how a good young team will do.  Because good young players don't have solid stat lines from previous years, their positional rankings are a little low, which is why the algorithm screws them up.

 

Finally, the Texas.  The algorithm way overrated Austin -- it loved the Marshalls, and didn't see their 4th place finish coming at all.  To be fair, looking over the Marshalls as their assistant GM, I think they have a hell of a team myself.  I know they had a horrible 1994, but I think that without any signifcant changes at all, they could be contenders again in 1995.  The algorithm did rightly see that Houston was good, pegging them 2nd.  The other team it missed was San Antonio.  Hard to blame it for this, in a sense, but still the algorithm pegged the Aztecas as among the worst 10 teams in all of EWB, instead of playoff contenders.

 

On the whole, I think it was a so-so year. 

The algorithm has been tweaked a bit this year.  In the past, I don't think it valued pitching highly enough.  So, this year, I've adjusted the values just a little bit, and the predictions are slightly different than what the old algorithm would've said.  If the predictions turn out more accurate, I'll stick with this adjusted algorithm in the future; if not, I'll return to the old version.

 

AL SUNBELT

1. Miami

2. Carolina

3. Atlanta

4. New Orleans

5. Memphis

 

AL PLAINS

1. Omaha

2. Minneapolis*

3. Denver

4. Kansas City

5. Chicago

* = Wild Card winner

 

AL MOUNTAIN WEST

1. Washington

2. Las Vegas

3. Portland

4. Los Angeles

 

NL COLONIAL

1. Philadelphia

2. New York

3. Boston

4. Montreal

5. Washington D. C.

 

NL OHIO VALLEY

1. St. Louis

2. Pittsburgh*

3. Cincinnati

4. Cleveland

5. Indianapolis

6. Detroit

 

NL TEXAS

1. Austin

2. Houston

3. El Paso

4. San Antonio

5. Dallas

 

ALDS: Miami over Minneapolis, 4-1; Omaha over Washington, 4-1

NLDS: St. Louis over Philadelphia, 4-2; Pittsburgh over Austin, 4-3

ALCS: Omaha over Miami, 4-2

NLCS: St. Louis over Pittsburgh, 4-3

World Series: Omaha over St. Louis, 4-2

 

POWER RANKING: The Top 10 (New Feature!!!)

1. Omaha

2. Miami

3. St. Louis

4. Pittsburgh

5. Austin

6. Philadelphia

7. New York

8. Denver

9. Kansas City

10. Houston

(note: Washington didn't crack the top 10, but if Jose Garcia was healthy, they would rank roughly 5th, competing with Austin)

 

WEAKNESS RANKING: The Bottom 10 (New Feature!!!)

21. Las Vegas

22. Washington D.C.

23. New Orleans

24. Portland

25. San Antonio

26. Dallas

27. Memphis

28. Indianpolis

29. Detroit

30. Los Angeles

 

NOTES

 

1. The three division races in the AL are projected to be run aways.  Miami should win their division by, like, 17 games or so.  Omaha should win their division by like 7 or 8.  And Washington should win their division by about 20.  The Wild Card race is close though, with Minneapolis, Kansas City, and Denver all neck-and-neck (you'll notice, all those teams are from the Plains Division).

 

2. The Mountain West division is absolutely horrible, with the exception of Washington.  Each of the 3 other teams in the division is in the Bottom 10 of the entire EWB, with Los Angeles projecting dead last.  This continues an unbelievable drop for the Gargoyles, who were projected by the algorithm to be an unbelievably good team back in 1992 (again, the 1992 team was the strongest team ever, according to the algorithm).

 

3. The Sunbelt gives the Mountain West a run for its money as far as most lopsided division in baseball, but loses out because Carolina and Atlanta are both a slight notch above anyone the Mountain West has to offer to compete with Washington.

 

4. The Plains Division is the toughest in baseball, but Omaha is still good enough that they loom over everyone else by a wide margin.  The Plains Division pitching staffs are unreal: Omaha has Jackson, Romano, Punk Perez, and various others; Minneapolis has Steven Ferguson, Nate Jackson, Stu MacNiter; Denver has a very underrated staff (5th best starters, 1st best relievers, 4th best closer) led by Mark Smith and Cris Rosario; Kansas City has Bartolo Barrios and Joe Murphy (they rank 7-8-1 in starters-relievers-closer); and even last place Chicago has a top 3 of Michael Bowden, Carlos Pena, and Shawn Price.  You won't find better pitching anywhere else.

 

5. To further the point about the strength of the plains, consider this.  If you exclude Miami and Washington, every single Plains Division team is ranked higher that every other AL team.  Or in other words, suppose you take Chicago, the worst team in the Plains.  Chicago is projected to be better than every Sunbelt team besides Miami, and to be better than every Mountain West team besides Washington.  So Mike is the only one who looks to have competition this year.  On the other hand, Omaha is so loaded that it shouldn't matter, they should still win going away.

 

6. After the Plains division, probably the best division top-to-bottom is the NL Colonial.  Philadelphia and New York are neck-and neck once again, while Boston and Montreal are both solid teams. (D.C. is not.)  Montreal might be especially a team to watch, as the algorithm has a history of underrating youthful teams.  (E.g., Tommy Brown is ranked as only the 25th best LF in EWB, and this is all the algorithm knows about him.  But surely, at the end of the year, Brown will be much more highly ranked that this.)

 

7. No team made bigger strides this offseason than Pittsburgh.  Pittsburgh already had a solid pitching staff, led by ace Tom Campbell and closer Jesus Villaneuva.  But this offseason, they added powerful 1B Pedro Velasquez, in one of the biggest rip off computer trades in a long time, and they also signed free agent SS Norman Hopkins for just $730K!  What's especially remarkable about the deal is that Hopkins is coming off a 3-year contract with Austin where he was making more than $9M a year.  Hopkins still has recent contact-power ratings of 4-3, and last year at age 30 (not over the hill) he .280/15/52, which isn't horrible.  But his bad, bad eye kept his salary down: he has a 1 eye rating and an OBP of just .288 (compared to his .280 BA).  I feel like this is an excellent bargain deal for a small market team like Pittsburgh -- I envy their ability to sign Hopkins for so low.  I regard GM Wayne Gordon as an early candidate for NL Executive of the Year.

 

8. Don't count out Cincinnati even though the algorithm has them 3rd.  I'm starting to suspect that another flaw with the algorithm is that it ranks pitching excellence too highly over pitching depth.  What I mean is this.  Imagine two pitching staffs: the first has two excellent starters (like Jackson and Romano) together with 3 dreadful pitchers to fill out the rotaiton, while the second staff has 5 consistently above average pitchers but without any studs.  The first staff has what I'm calling "excellence," the second has "depth."  Anyway, Cincinnati doesn't really have any stud pitchers, but they do have solid depth: 1992 Angel Rosa winner Scott Laws is projected as their 5th starter.  So, maybe they can compete.

 

9. In Austin, the algorithm loves the signing of Francisco Neri to play 2B, while David Waters and Jim Spencer continue to progress in the OF to give Austin the top ranked OF in the NL, with the exception of bitter rival El Paso.

 

10. A team to really keep an eye on this year is Houston, who are projected to finish 2nd.  You'll remember that the Black Gold were contending for 1st in the division last year prior to the loss of ace Scott Riley due to injury.  If Houston can get even average starting pitching, they figure to be serious contenders.

 

11. The NL has won the last 4 World Series.  NL dominance might coninue, as 5 of the top 7 teams in all of EWB come from the league.  On the other hand, the top two teams are from the AL: Omaha and Miami.

 

12. Overall, I'd say that the predictions are kind of boring this year.  In the AL, the algorithm is predicting the exact same playoff results we saw last year: Washington, Omaha, and Miami, with Minneapolis in the Wild Card.  In the NL, the algorithm likes Austin and Philadelphia to repeat for division titles, while St. Louis is hardly a surprise pick for the other division.  The only truly interesting playoff selection is Pittsburgh for the Wild Card.

Wolverine org. Coaches

February 7th, 2009 by Wolverines GM

From now on I am going to send you yearly or if a coaching change is made my coaches throughout my organization....

 

Omaha as of 9-15-94

 

Left
Mike Gilmore	General Manager	17	5	$0	0
Dave Morgan	Manager	62	31	$420,000	1
Lou Frye	Bench Coach	47	4	$350,000	2
Andy Hanson	Pitching Coach	41	8	$145,000	4
Simon Glenn	Hitting Coach	53	14	$145,000	3
Jacob Webster	Team Trainer	55	24	$225,000	3

 

 

Lincoln

 

Lou Piniella	Manager	50	43	$315,000	4
Norberto Martínez	Pitching Coach	46	12	$170,000	5
Christian Hart	Hitting Coach	53	19	$195,000	4

 

 

Erie

 

Warren Burch	Manager	36	6	$365,000	2
Duane Hale	Pitching Coach	37	4	$115,000	3
Peter Glover	Hitting Coach	47	10	$115,000	4

 

 

Lakeland

 

Michael Hamm	Manager	51	16	$140,000	2
Will Byers	Hitting Coach	47	15	$375,000	4
Wilford Ford	Pitching Coach	47	10	$105,000	3

 

 

Dundee

 

Bobby Smith	Hitting Coach	49	9	$305,000	4
Alberto Colón	Manager	49	18	$310,000	4
Millard Williams	Pitching Coach	46	8	$135,000	3

 

 

Oneonta

 

Wilbur Porcell	Manager	60	52	$260,000	3
Josh Pittman	Hitting Coach	58	38	$265,000	3
Javier Jáquez	Pitching Coach	50	16	$110,000	3

 

 

Ft. Lauderdale

 

Name	Occupation	Age	Exp	Salary	Years Left
Cameron Murphy	Manager	48	4	$150,000	3
Curt Kelly	Pitching Coach	47	0	$195,000	2
Jong-yun Kim	Hitting Coach	50	2	$130,000	3

Miami Coaches

February 7th, 2009 by Banditos GM

Up for renewal:

AAA MA Michael Carter - Carter was picked up in 1990 and installed as the head coach of AAA Little Rock.  Prior to that I believe he was in the Wolverine Organization as a coach of some sort but got fired due being unable to place him.  Carter is a young 47 and has done reasonably well in Little Rock.  Although he's not our top coaching prospect in the system, he's still talented.  He's a little expensive so we are awaiting the results of this year's Little Rock title chase before deciding whether to renew or not.

AA HC Dewitt Price - The 62 year old Price has been with us for a long time.  We are not renewing him as we believe it's time to start promoting some of our younger, talented coaches to higher levels.  That means getting coaches like Price out of the way.

A MA Jonathan Reynolds - By far the toughest decision.  Reynolds has coached the South Omaha Vacqueros since 1978!!  He's 60 years old has won 3 Championships in his career, 2 with South Omaha and as recently as 1989.  His ratings are below average but he gets results and is legendary in our organization.  We offered him a contract but he's denied us twice.  So he's basically forcing our hand and we will be letting him go.  A quality manager will be hitting the market next season.

R MA Pedro Silva -  Last year we scrambled to find someone to manager Coral Springs.  We felt Silva was a good catch considering the circumstances.  The 62 year old had adequate ratings for a Rookie League Manager and had real experience in EWB as a manager.  Silva managed the Montreal Knights from 1979 to 1981, taking them to the playoffs in 1980.  Corals Springs was his first managing position since then.  Well Silva has failed horribly this year, and since he was nothing more than a fill in we are letting him go.

So essentially we are not renewing any of our mL coaches with exception of possible Carter depending on his results.  This is good in the sense that it will allow us to promote some of the talented coaches we've hired over the years.  It will also give us an opportunity to find new talent.

Ralph Small

February 6th, 2009 by Admirals GM

I think it's fair to say that we don't focus on other team's coaches (as opposed to their managers) hardly at all.  And that's reasonable.  But one coach who has really stood out this year is Ralph Small, pitching coach for the Carolina Colonials.

 

If you look at the positional rankings, you'll see Carolina has the 29th (2nd to last) best rated SPs.  And that's about exactly right.  Their ace is 25-year-old Ricardo Huertas, a 3-3-2 pitcher who posted a 5.28 in his rookie season of 1993.  This guy is a marginal AAA ace, at best.  Their 2nd starter most of the year was 38-year-old Jamie Rees, who is down to a 9 pt. pitcher (1-4-4) and who posted a 5.11 ERA last season.  3rd starter Ty Moore is 9 pts. (3-3-3), and has really lost the strikeout capacity he had early in his career (in 1990, Moore struck out 242 in 228 IP for Washington; this year, he has just 107 K's in 174 IP).  4th starter is 43-year-old Sherman Jarvis, again an 8 pt. pitcher (1-3-4) who's been in EWB since way back in 1974.  He won the Gibson Award way back in 1977, but hasn't posted a sub-4.00 ERA since the 1980s.  And then you have 5th starter Brian Johnston, a 40-year-old washed-up has-been (or more like never-was), who's down to a 7 pt. pitcher.  That's your group: 3 guys close to their 40s who look every bit their age (Rees, Jarvis, and Johnston), a young but fairly washed up Ty Moore, and a complete nobody in Huertas.  And yet, that group has posted the 5th best starters' ERA in the AL.  Moreoever, the entire Carolina staff has combined to put up the 2nd best team ERA in the entire league at 4.15.  I haven't focused as much on their bullpen, just because they're bullpen really is talented (unlike their starting staff).  But even there Small deserves credit -- a number of their bullpen pitchers are pitching up to their potential in ways they hadn't in recent years (e.g., Mike Wynn).

 

Anyway, Small has really stood out as a coach this year.  And here's something interesting about him.  Based on the information available on the web, Small's contract is set to expire after this season.  And, although he's been serving as a pitching coach (and has a 20 Rating for teach pitching), his natural position is actually manager.  His ratings make him a pretty good ML managerial candidate: 19 (rookie) 13 (veteran) 16 (handle players) 20 (hitting) 20 (pitching) 11 (fielding).  Maybe especially for a young team, given that 19/13 rookie/veteran split.  Anyway, I wonder if there's any chance the 49-year-old Small will get a chance at a manager's job, either this offseason or sometime in the future.  I can at least say that he's certainly been picked up by the Washington Admiral radar, perhaps for sometime down the line.

Re: omaha moves

February 6th, 2009 by Banditos GM

Chickenshit!  Bring on Jackson, but I understand you don't want to ruin the confidence of you're team as they get shattered at Polo Grounds.  Now they'll have the excuse that they are sitting players. 

Who cares anyway?  Jackson isn't even the best pitcher in that stadium.  That honor goes to Kevin Morris who is without a doubt the frontrunner for the AL Bob Gibson Award.  Too bad the Wolverines just missed him.  They'll see him in October though, bet on it.

Alfredo Juarez

February 6th, 2009 by Admirals GM

Alfredo Juarez now has 3 of the top 14 ranked pitching performances of the entire year, #2, #6, and #14 (strangely, his no hitter comes in at only #6).

Random Short Notes

February 6th, 2009 by Banditos GM

- Miami has by far the least amount of team stolen bases in the AL with 53.  The next lowest is 60 by Denver.  However, Denver has only been caught 26 times, Miami 45.  Yes that's right, Miami gets caught stealing almost 50% of the time.  Big problem we need to work on.  I will say that we have de-emphasized baserunning and speed since we initially took over.  On the flipside, Chicago runs an incredible amount with 189 SB.

- It's somewhat surprising but Washington does have the dominant offense.  Watching game by game and looking at player stats, Omaha would appear to have it but they don't.  If only judged by Runs, Washington has a huge AL lead but they also lead in OBP, SLG and are 2nd in AVG. 

- Omaha has the least amount of BB's in the AL.  Omaha doesn't walk, however they do hit because their OBP is still high.

- Among the human teams, pitching is where Washington really falls off and Omaha excels, though Miami is right behind Omaha.  Miami also dominates in K's.

- In an earlier email I mentioned that an Omaha-Carolina matchup would be an offensive explosion, let me retract that.  It would probably be an extra innings affair as the bullpens of both teams enter the game and shut down the other team.  Omaha and Carolina have by far the most dominant bullpens in the AL.  In fact Omaha's bullpen is actually sporting a sub 3.0 ERA at 2.99 and Carolina is at 3.04.

- Defense is the hardest to quantify but it looks like Miami may have the best human D.  Miami has the least amount of Errrors and PB's, hightest F%, and almost the same CS% as Washington.  Miami takes pride at trotting out great fielders especially up the middle.

-  Missed this injury last sim but SP Jamie Rees is out 6 weeks for Carolina.  Another big SP injury for a playoff contending team.  Too bad.

- The EWB All Time Record Holder for consecutive Games with a hit (hitting streak), Cory Banks, is currently in AA Dundee.  In 1990 Banks hit safely in 44 consecutive games, now he's not even good enough to help the AAA Lincoln Wolves win a pennant.  Sad.

- Top 6 in IBB, an interesting stat that can be taken 2 ways.  1) You're an Extremely dangerous hitter it doesn't matter who's behind you.  2)  You're a dangerous hitter but you have no protection behind you.
Artie Bicknell 18
Jose Garza 16
Don Kelly 12
Coy Rollins 11
Caleb Lang 10
Dave Page 10

- Both Romano and Doug Kelly seem to be good additions to their team.  Both are pitching quite well with sub 4.00 ERA's.

- Minneapolis is 4 games behind Carolina in the wildcard.  There's a large sense of goodwill towards Minneapolis among the EWB media because so many of them want to see Ronald Ramsey get back into the playoffs and have shot at winning a World Series.  Ramsey is a sure fire HOFer and may be one of the top 5 players ever in EWB, he's also a fan favourite because of his community work.  Ramsey is 42, plays a pinch hitting/UIF role for the Mutiny and this may be his last year, though he's made no formal announcement.

- Joe Warren recently passed Stefano Lopez for 2nd all time in HR's.  We are going to look back at Lopez's induction into the HOF and consider it a mistake.  For the record I voted no.

Rock 'n Roll is dead

February 5th, 2009 by Wolverines GM

Bad news for Cleveland as Earl Armstrong is lost for 7 months due to a torn back muscle. Cleveland was leading the Ohio Valley division by a game. Armstrong was 14-7, 3.05 ERA. That's a big blow for the Rockers as this was the first year since the Rockers won the division in 1988 that they could have won the division. The only year the Rockers have EVER won the Ohio Valley was in 1988. The Rockers are by no means out of it, but this makes things very tough.

Impact of AL Wildcard

February 5th, 2009 by Banditos GM

By Carolina taking over Chicago in the Wildcard, it changes the playoffs, quite dramatically.  If Chicago makes it then Omaha will host Washington and Miami will host Chicago.  Miami prefers this scenario.

If Carolina wins the Wildcard then Omaha hosts Carolina and Miami will host Washington.  We don't prefer this, but I will say that I think Carolina has a better chance of knocking Omaha off than Chicago does.  Actually, the Carolina at Omaha series might be intriguing and definitely will be a offensive explosion at Sears Field.

Montreal

February 5th, 2009 by Banditos GM

Montreal is starting to make a push.  They are 5 games behind Boston in the Colonial Division.  Their offense is unbelievable, they lead the league in HR's and they have a murderers row that puts El Paso's to shame,  Payton, Perez and Brown.  Throw in Porter Scott at the top of the lineup and Leonard Lynch at the 6th spot and this team is incredibly dangerous.  Should be interesting to watch.

Unfortunately this September doesn't have the excitement of years past with most races already decided.  The AL wildcard is definitely still in play but other than that it would take a lot for a team to overcome their spot now.

Today's Trivia

February 4th, 2009 by Admirals GM

?: Who was the last team in EWB to finish the regular season with the single best record in all of EWB, and then go on to win the World Series?

 

 

 

 

A: The 1983 Washington D.C. Diplomats.  (Note: the 1990 Dallas Brahmas were tied for best EWB record in 1990, and won the World Series.)

 

 

Also: Since his trade, Gerald Latham has taken on a real sourface.  That didn't use to be true of him.

Re: A Few Notes

February 4th, 2009 by Admirals GM

1. I'm a little worried about our age, but only really at SP.  Our offensive starters are: C Leo Kennedy (age 25); 1B Dale Reinert (26); Brandon Kent (27); 3B Patrick Cole (26) with Karl Fox (24) and Henry MacPherson (23) figuring in our plans as well, and Fox still looking solid; at SS there's Jose Garcia (23); in LF there's Jose Rivera (21); CF has Artie Bicknell (27, but he was a late rookie and so still isn't arbitration eligible).  The only starters we have over 27 are RF Mark Jackson who's only 31 and putting up his best VORP season since 1991, and DH Mike Robinson who's 33, and is going about as strong as ever -- he's 2nd in the AL in VORP behind just Bicknell, and would presumably be the computer's MVP vote if Bicknell weren't playing.  We don't have a lot of big prospects in the system, but that's in no small part because we've just churned out a bunch of young players, including Kennedy, Reinert, Fox, and Garcia, each of whom is about All Star caliber (or has already made an All Star team).  Plus, our offense is ranked #1 in the entire EWB, even though we've been missing two crucial starters for most of the year (Freitas, Fox).  So it's hard to worry about our offense for the foreseeable future.  But I take it that offense wasn't really what you had in mind anyway.  Probably what Mike and you were thinking about was pitching.

 

Our bullpen has been better this year (4th in the AL at 3.80), but we'd still like to see improvement.  Thankfully, just about everyone we have is young and so figures to improve.  There's Reynaldo Muniz (23-year-old rookie), Pablor Vargas (24-year-old rookie), Roberto Hernandez (24-year-old rookie), Russell Ramsey (still just 23), Luis Musquez (25), and closer Cory Davidson (25).  That's about as young a bullpen as you'll see. (I am leaving out R.J. Jacob's who's 34, but on the 60 day DL.)  And again, based on group ERA, they're above average.  We would like to upgrade at closer -- we think Davidson is a great setup man, but only an average closer.  What we aren't sure about is whether we should add a veteran closer, or just wait for one of our various young prospects to blossom -- reliever is probably our organization's strongest suit as far as prospects go.  We have 17-year-old Bennie Tyler in AA and already ranked "ready for AAA" (he has 4-4-5 potential), 18-year-old Dave Warren in A and ranked "ready for AA" (he's 4-4-4); and 19-year-old Alfredo Gallardo also in AA, but we're leaning toward making him a starter right now.  At any rate, while I have some concerns about my relief corps for the upcoming playoffs -- I wish we had our own Punk Perez -- I'm not especially worried long-term, just because we have so much youth and potential there.  Our question is this: is hoping for Tyler (e.g.) to make the majors by 1996 pushing him too fast?  Is there even an outside chance he might be ready for 1995?

 

The only place I do worry though -- and I assume that this is what you and Mike really had in mind -- is starters.  Our starters' ERA this season is 5.03, only 8th in the AL.  And we don't really have any young starters.  One option would be to trade away a bit of our offense this offseason, our some of our relief depth, to try to acquire some young starters.  I think we probably have enough depth that we can do this, but we'll see.  At any rate, if the worry is just focused on starters, then I think you may have a point.

 

2. Another thing we'll have to consider as we go into the offseason is this: to what extent have we simply been unlucky this year?  If it's just bad luck, then it doesn't make sense to make wholesale changes.  But, if it isn't luck, then changes might be called for.  Here are some reasons to think we're unlucky: our Pyt. Difference this year is -4, 2nd worst in the AL (worst is L.A.).  Our record in 1-run games is 17-24, again among the worst.  And our record in extra-inning games is 2-8.  These are the totals that sabermetric-folks often look at to predict whether a team can turn things around next year.  The idea is that 1-run games, extra-inning games, and Pyt differential are really just matters of luck, and so if a team fares badly one year, there's no special reason to think they'll do badly the next year.  I'm not fully convinced that's right -- maybe certain teams just have a kind of will to win, that allows them to win a surprisingly high number of extra inning games -- but I'm not fully convinced it's wrong either, and the sabermetric people have some really accurate predictions using their system (e.g., they saw Tampa Bay had a surprisingly bad Pyt Record in 2007, leading them to predict that they'd be much better in 2008).  Anyway, if you look at Pyt Record instead of real record, then we're only 6 games behind Omaha instead of 16 games behind.  (Omaha is either especially "lucky" this year or they have special talents in pulling out close games: they're 11-2 in extra-inning games, and 26-8 in 1-run games.)  Anyway, I don't have any firm convictions yet one way or the other, but it's something I'll have to figure out before I make whatever moves I'm going to make.

 

3. Final thought.  One thing I sometimes wonder in our interactions with Rob is how differently he views things because he sees the players' stars while we don't.  Take for example Leo Kennedy.  I was always high on Kennedy as a prospect, because he had 3-4 ratings which are hard to find in a catcher.  I thought this clearly made him a projected major league starter.  But Rob said he was always surprised by how highly I rated him.  And, my impression was, this was because Kennedy always had low stars.  But now he's in the majors, and Kennedy is producing exactly like you'd expect a 3-4 batter to perform: he'll hit about 30 HR's this year with 105 RBIs or so.

 

Anyway, here's a theory, and I'm not sure if it's right.  Sometimes, it seems to me, the stars let you see a player with potential, when otherwise it's not obvious.  For instance, if there's one 3-3 LFer who has 4 star potential, and another 3-3 LFer who has 1.5 star potential, well then presumably the first one is better in ways not reflected by their (coarse-grained) numerical ratings.  But on the other hand, I wonder if sometimes the Star Ratings are distorting.  For instance, when I did my first year player draft for my 1985 league, one thing that was really strange was that Dale Sveum was ranked among the top players in the entire draft with respect to stars.  He was ahead of Bonds, Palmeiro, etc.  But when the teams got to drafting, no one picked Sveum.  They took Bonds 1st, McGwire 2nd, Maddux 3rd, etc., and Sveum fell to the middle of the 2nd round.  Anyway, it made me wonder whether I've been screwing up my own EWB drafts by putting such stock in the stars system.  Have I passed over a Bonds or McGwire to select a Sveum?

 

Just a thought.

A Few Notes

February 4th, 2009 by Banditos GM

1) Mike and I had a long fruitful discussion about EWB last night.  He's very concerned about the future of the Admirals.  He stated that they have no prospects and their team is getting frightfully older.  Players like Jackson, Robinson, Garcia, MacGregor etc., etc.  are just not what they used to be.  I had to concur.  I'm not sure why he couldn't write the email himself but he wanted me to ask you about this problem and your future plans.

2)  Min-chul Pak was signed on 7/3 to an EWB contract with the St. Louis Savages.  Pak is 3rd string UIF and is glad to be reunited with Oliver Cole and Spike Escobido.  Together they are forming the fringes of what looks to be a playoff bound Savage team.

3)  The acquisition of Wilson Rocha by Miami has really worked out well in the sense that it has pushed Jeff Hicks to develop.  Hicks was in serious danger of permanently losing his job and any hope of a future with Miami.  However, his monthly AVG/OPS

APR .183/.544
MAY  .161/.390

JUN  .296/.898
JUL  .293/.871
AUG  .275/.833

4)  I was surprised that there was no BJ Keller call up.  In my opinion it's either now or never for Keller, he's really losing any trade appeal as well.  I see his Contact potential is at a mere 2.  Keller was a 2nd round draft pick and highly regarded by the Admiral Organization....I think.