Earl Weaver Baseball League

Justin Johnston

November 10th, 2008 by Admirals GM

Do you realize just how hot he's been recently?  On the "top performances" page, he owns 3 of the top 12 single game offensive performances of the year.  And all three took place between July 6th and July 12th.  That's one hell of a week.

 

July 6th vs. St. Louis: 4-5 with 3 runs, 2 HR and 4 RBI

July 8th vs. St. Louis (again): 5-5 with 4 runs, 2 HR and 4 RBI

July 12th vs. Philadelphia: 3-5 with 4 runs, 2 HR and 6 RBI

 

He's making a serious run at the MVP crown.  If so, he could be the first MVP + Angel Rosa Winner in the same season.

Ramon Camacho

November 9th, 2008 by Admirals GM

Of Boston has a kind of fucked up contract.  Here's what he's scheduled to make over the next 4 years.

 

1993: $4.5M

1994: $2.5M

1995: $4.7M

1996: $4.7M

 

Makes me think I should arrange my contracts more creatively.  Sergio Garcias gets $12M in even numbered years, but 0 in odd number years; for mike Robinson, it's vice versa.  Just for shits and giggles.

 

By the way, any chance a Sim is going to be uploaded any time soon?  I am getting killed by grading, but there's no end in sight.  Would be nice to have an excuse to take a break.

Theory behind the Tex Robinson trade

November 9th, 2008 by Admirals GM

My main theory is just this: it was a rip-off, and although the A.I. is designed to make trades generally good, it allows your occasional rip-off to get thru.  This is plausibly a feature rather than a bug: rip-offs happen in real life.

 

Here's an alternative theory; I can't say I really believe it, but I thought I would pass it on.

 

EWB overrates third basemen.  This is reflected in the fact that so many mediocre third basemen get such huge contracts: Jaime Colon, Reggie Phillips, Dong-min Kim, etc.  If so, then rip-off trades will occur when a 3B is getting traded for something non-3B.  The guy coming over to L.A. in exchange for Robinson (and a throw-in!) was a 3B.

Heshel Himmelfarb

November 9th, 2008 by Admirals GM

the "Hebrew Hammer," has seen his potential drop a bit.  In his primte (1992), he was rated as 5-4 potential; now, he's down to 4-3.  Still solid, but no longer on track to being an elite superstar.

 

Incidentally, Himmelfarb is another one of those foreign players who signs a contract with a team (San Antonio) without going thru the draft.  Is there any easy way we could be made aware of such players?  Offhand, my guess is probably not.  If that's right, we're doomed to miss out on the Himmelfarbs, the Luis Altagracias, and so on.

 

The drop in Himmelfarb's potential is just one more reason that things look as bleak as ever in San Antonio.  The organization will face a real test this offseason, when infamous manager Wally Reynold's contract is set to expire.  Is he re-signed yet again by new G.M. Pablo Lara -- a fairly infamous character in his own right, but at least one who has a history of shaking things up?

 

Clearly, the minimal sign that they need to make to indicate to their players and fans that they're serious about turning things around is to let Reynolds go.

Jonathan Rodgers

November 9th, 2008 by Admirals GM

of Detroit is pretty-underapreciated.  I don't know much about him, other than that he had a big year in 1991, when the Cruisers went to the playoffs.  But right now, he's among the league leaders in VORP and is actually ranked higher than Jimmy Garrett among 3B (Rodgers is 1st, Garrett 2nd).

 

By the way, Detroit has an amazing $20M in salary coming off their books this year, with most of that money being tied up in washed-up players who aren't contributing (Emilio Cabrera, Stephen Caldwell).  Look for them to be huge free agent players this offseason.  They might be able to turn things around sooner than later.

Ken Cooper

November 9th, 2008 by Admirals GM

Has fallen apart for Pittsburgh.  After his near MVP season in 1991, he went .230/29/100 in 1992, and now is .227/13/52 so far in 1993.  He's looking pretty Kevin Maas-like.  The ratings rank him as the 30th (worst) 1B in baseball.

 

I'm doing a lot of grading today, and so will probably throw in comments here and there just to keep my sanity with breaks.

Admiral Moves

November 9th, 2008 by Admirals GM

1. Offer Sergio Garcia 3 years @ $6.8M per year.

2. Find out how much R. J. Jacobs wants for an extension.

 

Commentary: I'm not sure if Garcia will accept this first offer, but we assume at this point that we're eventually going to work something out.  If so, that probably knocks us out of the sweepstakes this offseason for the very top tier of free agent starters -- Michael Bowden, Ernie Owen, maybe one or two others.  We might still be interested in a good, second tier starter, but even that's a little in doubt, given how unbelievably good our starters have been this year.  On the other hand, if Garcia plays hardball and refuses to sign for anything near what we're offering, then we might very well go all in for one of those top starters.

 

Regarding those second-tier starters, here's a rumor: we might be interested in George Banks this offseason as a free agent.  But, only if he were willing to agree to $6M a year or so, which is probably doubtful.  $6M is very little for a 4-time Gibson Award winner; on the other hand, it's a lot for a guy with fading ratings and coming off a +5 ERA season.

 

Here's another rumor: the Banditos will let Banks go, and then spend a lot of money to sign one of those top tier starting pitchers.

One More Admiral Move

November 7th, 2008 by Admirals GM

Again, I know that the Sim might not happen for awhile, but I've got one more move that just occurred to me.

 

1. Send down Patrick Cole to AAA Tacoma.  Make him play 2B there.

2. To replace him, promote 3B Jason Christensen, and make Christensen the top backup at 3B & 1B.

 

RATIONALE: Cole's future is quickly dimming with us.  We kind of want to sign 3B Porter Scott for next year (1994), and then ideally we would hand the job over to prospect Karl Fox not long after that (1995).  That would leave Cole the odd man out.  We could try to trade him, but the offers we received when we shopped him just a little bit ago were pretty underwhelming.

 

Maybe, though, Cole can learn to play a respectable 2B.  If so, his value with us would go up immensely.  Since 1991, our starting 2B has been Daniel Smith.  Smith, now 29, has regressed each year from 1991 to the present.  And he only plays a 4 defense, even though 2B is his natural position.  In addition, we are horribly, horribly weak with 2B prospects across our organization.  Cole seems to have a fair amount of natural defensive talent: 10 at 1B, 7 at 3B.  If he could manage to play like a 5 or 6 2B -- which isn't that tall of an order, given that 2B is a relatively easy defensive position -- he could platoon with Smith for the job, and possibly take it over full time as early as next year.

Quick Notes

November 7th, 2008 by Admirals GM

1. Early in the season, I noted that the AL ERA was like 4.75, well above what the real AL was in 1993.  It's generally been falling since then, down to 4.42 right now.  That's still ahead of real life AL in 1993, but not by a ton.  Accordingly, it seems clear that we aren't full-blown into the steroids era yet.  Joe Warren might hit 50 HRs this year, and Justin Johnston is just barely on pace to do so as well, but we won't see the big crowd of +50 that you saw in 1987, or that we'll see in 1998.

 

2. Speaking of Johnston, he leads the NL with 96 RBIs.  No one else has more than 72.  That's a remarkable lead.

 

3. Presently, Gustavo Chavez from Washington leads the AL in ERA and Pitcher's VORP.  He's had a kind of weird career trajecotry.  Back in 1990 and 1991, Rob would talk shit about him, and he couldn't stay in the rotation for the whole season (too inconsistent).  In the second half of 1992 he had something of a breakthrough, where he was sensational from the All Star break on.  And now, he would be a leading Gibson contender if only we got him more wins.  We expect him to regress to the mean in the second half of 1993, but we at least regard him as a big time contributor.

 

4. Joe Murphy for Kansas City is presently on pace to break the EWB saves record of 52 set by Mal Collier.

 

5. Vincent Carter is at 499 HR right now, one away from becoming the first EWB memeber of the 500 club.  He's also contending for the MVP once again.

 

6. Just when it looked like Paul Sims was going to fall back to earth, he hits .462 so far in July, pushing his average back up to .388.

 

7. Aurelio Davila recently posted the best pitching performance of the season by any starter: a 2-hit complete game shutout against New Orleans where he struck out 8 and walked 0.  He's emerging as a possible Gibson candidate at this point.

 

8. Frank Hearn has returned to the bullpen for Boston.  With a recent surge, Boston is now tied atop the Colonial Division.  Coincidence?

 

9. Cleveland has an amazing offense, averaging 5.7 runs per game.  For a compairson, Omaha leads the AL scoring 5.5 per game, and Omaha has the advantage of a DH.  The fifth best BA hitter on Cleveland is hitting .312; their top batter is league leader Forest O'Herlihy, at .367.

 

10. Cleveland's division rival, the Pittsburgh Crusaders, are just the opposite.  Led by Tom Capbell and his 1.38 ERA, Pittsburgh tops the NL in just about every pitching stat.  But their offense is horrible: 14th in BA, 16th in OBP, 13th in runs scored, etc.  In the division race between Cleveland and Pittsburhg, you have an almost perfect case of good hitting vs. good pitching.

 

11. Don't forget about St. Louis, which is the team that actually leads the Ohio Valley at this point.  They've suffered a big setback recently, though, with the injury of Tom Mills, lost for 4 weeks.  Mills otherwise probably would have reached the 30/30 club yet again this season.

 

12. St. Louis is where human's old middle relievers go to die: first Felipe Lopez, now Whit Gaul.

 

13. Austin is pulling away as the best team in all of baseball.  A lot of that is Joe Warren, but you can't ignore their pitching staff.  Their starters' ERA ranks 2nd in the NL, while their bullpen ERA ranks first.  Looks like the loss of Ned Gordon hasn't hurt them too badly.  Gordon's replacement, Renaldo Salinas, leads the NL in saves, although his +3.00 ERA is less than ideal for a closer.

 

14. Miami is underperforming their PYT by 7 games, the worst margin in the league.  Meanwhile, Memphis is outperforming their PYT by 4 games, 2nd best in the AL behind Las Vegas.  This should make you think that Memphis isn't going to hang around long to compete for the division.  In general, teams that underperform their PYT have bad bullpens -- that was the case with Washington, for instance, in 1991, when we had a very good PYT for a long part of the season but a bad record.  In Miami, this isn't the case.  Does the blame fall on Jack McKeon?

 

15. Even prior to his injury, Ken Hamilton was sucking badly for D.C., batting .201 on the season, in lots of at bats.  The good news is that backup catcher Carroll Holden is probably better than Hamilton at this point in his career, so for the Diplomats it's actually addition by subtraction.  The bad news is that D.C. is still on the hook for Hamilton for nearly $5M a year thru 1996.

 

16. How is D.C. still in the division race?  This is a team with few discernible strengths.  Plus, injuries are starting to add up for them: not just Hamilton, but also Jesse Quick is out for the next 4 weeks.  And yet, they're 6-2 in July (after a disastrous June).

 

17. Boston had a sensational June, going 17-8, to get back into the thick of things.  Again, I think it's big news that Hearn is back in the closer role.  Conventional Wisdom says: the division might be theirs to lose.

 

18. How is New York sub .500 and 5 games back?  Didn't see this coming.  Call it the curse of the algorithm: prior to 1992, the algorithm proclaimed L.A. the best team in baseball, and yet the Gargoyles finished barely above .500; this year, it was supposed to be New York who dominated, and yet they and Montreal are the only Colonial Division teams not tied for the lead.  With the one exception of Shannon Townsend, their offense has really crashed and burned this year.  I guess German Ortiz made a huge difference.  Their starters' ERA is also way, way down.  Sometimes, a team with lots of talent struggles, and you feel like they're eventually bound to turn it around.  I'm not sure you can say that about New York right now.  It might be time to simply revise expectations, and conclude that they aren't a great team anymore.

RAGE !

November 6th, 2008 by Wolverines GM

I am sick and fucking tired losing to the Admirals. "I don't know what is is but we cannot beat those fuckers." It's really pissing me off.

Quick Note

November 6th, 2008 by Banditos GM

- We are now officially at the half way point.  81 played, 81 to go.

- 2nd Quick note.  Miami is starting to panic.  What the hell is wrong with George Banks????  Kevin Morris is sucking too.  Ben Stinson is by all accounts our Ace, unbelievable.  Our bullpen might be statistically good but has some real flaws, none of our guys is looking like a Shut Down pitcher.  In the aggregate we have good stats, but game by game there are several breakdowns by every single one in that bullpen.  Our hitting is the same way, it seems we accumulate reasonable numbers in our blowouts, however we get shut down quite a bit.  Unlike Omaha, who seems to consistently put up offense on a game to game basis, ours is in big spurts and usually when it doesn't matter.  I mean Torres will hit 2 HR's when were up or down by 9, but god forbid if bases are loaded and we are up or down by 1 he can come through.  Sorry just ranting.

Re: Omaha Moves

November 6th, 2008 by Banditos GM

Apparently Lyndon Bray let his All Star Status go to his head.  By the way, I noticed he has more positions rated defensively than I've seen from most players.  He also has 8 Greed and 10 Intelligence, watch out Mike he's trying to extort you.  Meanwhile, Ricardo Hernandez has 3 Greed and 2 Intelligence and 3 Desire For a Winning Team.  Hernandez is like the dumb ol' slugger....he needs to hire a good agent.  Nah, that's probably a bad idea too, he'll be one of those athletes that gets robbed by all these financial advisors.  Tell Hernandez we have some Icebergs to invest in, and some Gold Mining Projects.

Omaha Moves

November 5th, 2008 by Wolverines GM and Admirals GM

Admirals Question:  You've just given up on re-signing Ricardo Hernandez then?  He could be an attractive free agent.

Omaha Answer:

NO !, what I am doing is in three steps...

 

1) Re-sign all good players that are eligible at the end of the season for FA because I can use my 3 million in extensions to sign all 3. I can't re sign Diaz or Hernandez right now because I don't have the money for what they want.

 

2) I might try and trade Diaz and Hernandez after the season before they become FA, but I don't know how that works as far as if you can do that.

 

3) Try to make a run at Hernandez in FA. That's really my only option right now as I stated I cannot sign him now so we hope he comes back to us. As far as Diaz we might let him go depending on what he wants, if it's 4 to 5 million a year for us then we will probably pass. Are number one objective is to re sign Hernandez, but if he wants too much then we have other options as far as Ben Lindsay, Joe Murray or other options.

 

So ultimately we considered trading both or one right now but we are in this to win it and it would be devastating to our fan base and ultimately to me as this is our best chance to win it all and we are not trading key players right now even if we were to benefit greatly with young talent. The whole point of running an organization is to win it all and I'll be damned if I let this one get away. So other GM's (Miami Banditos) might take note and not trade away key players( Joe Murphy) while making a run at the World Series.

Gelling Effect

November 5th, 2008 by Admirals GM

Again, the gelling effect theory says that in EWB, a team which has just made a bunch of major additions will underperform, for the first year (or so).  But, after that transition period, once the team has "gelled," they will play up to their talent below.

 

Omaha and El Paso arguably help support the theory, this year.  El Paso signed all their big free agents after 1991.  But, according to the theory, 1992 was too soon for them to play up to their potential.  They needed to "gell" first.  That has happened at this point, and so in 1993 they are playing up to their talent level.  Similarly, Omaha made bigger additions prior to 1992 than they did this past offseason.  (With Omaha, you have to remember it's all relative.  Trading away Aaron Ellis and signing Gerald Lewis qualifies as a "quiet" offseason, by their standards.)  Omaha in 1992 hadn't "gelled" yet, and so they performed well below their talent level.  At this point they have gelled, and so they are playing up to their talent level.

 

Carolina seems to provide further confirmation.  The Colonials added a slew of free agents prior to 1993.  According to the theory, they should underperform this season.  So far, they certainly have done that.  Next, the theory predicts that they should improve significantly in 1994, after they've gelled.  We'll have to wait and see on that.

 

I should say, I'm not sure I really believe in the theory.  Might all be just a coincidence, at this point.  (I should note, though, that there are other confirming bits of evidence for the theory, including the Austin Marshalls from 1991 to 1992.)

 

But, if the theory is right, there is strong incentive for maintaining team stability.  As long as things are jumbled up, with lots of new additions, a team is likely to underperform.

Mid Season Awards

November 5th, 2008 by Admirals GM

Here's my quick, casual take.  Don't have time to put as much thought into it as I did last year, but here goes anyway...

 

AL MVP: Jimmy Garrett, Omaha.  Omaha has the best record in the AL, and Garrett leads the league in HR & RBI.

 

Other Serious candidates: Rick Sloan, Hector Garcia Portland.  Portland really is the Montreal of our league: small market, they keep losing stars to other teams (Whitfield, Robinson, Hopkins, etc.), and yet they keep re-loading.  These two 24-year-old third basemen are putting up unbelievable stats.  I doubt they can keep it up over the 2nd half, but we'll see.

 

Also: Vincent Carter (as always), Paul Sims (.388 BA, although I doubt he makes a serious run at .400).

 

Dark Horse: Artie Bicknell.  If Bicknell can stay healthy in the second half, look out.  The guy is hitting a ton for me.  He made the All Star team despite nearly missing a month of the season.

 

AL Gibson Award: Nate Harris, Minneapolis.  League leader in Wins, #4 in ERA.  I give him the slight edge over Ed Jackson, but it's super closer.

 

Other candidates: Besides Jackson, Joe MacGregor is a contender again, as is Emilio Romano.

 

NL MVP: Joe Warren.  Austin has the best record in the league, and Warren is #1 in HR, #2 in RBI.  On pace to crack 50 HRs again.  And he's hitting .342

 

Other candidates: Don Kelly.  Another Kelly/Warren showdown is setting up.  Kelly always puts up a big 2nd half, and El Paso is getting back into contention.  This has got to be the greatest individual rivalry in EWB.  Also: You know Kelly can count on the computer's MVP vote (computer hasn't voted for someone besides Kelly for MVP since 1984).

 

Also: Keith Whitfield, Justin Johnston.  By the way, if Johnston is Rosa-eligible, he's the rookie of the year by a ton.

 

NL Gibson Award: Tom Campbell.  The easiest race to call at this point.  Campbell is going all Maddux so far this year: 10 Wins, a 1.30 ERA.  You can ask an interesting question of whether the 36-year-old Campbell belongs in the Hall of Fame.  Only a 181-154 career record (expect him to get like 220 wins in his career, by the time he retires), but a tiny 2.73 ERA.  His win total has been deflated by the fact he's a lifetime Crusader, but his ERA is remarkable.

 

Other Candidates: This award is Campbell's to lose.  As long as he stays healthy, and has merely an okay 2nd half, I don't see how anyone wrests it away from him.

Re: Vindication...

November 5th, 2008 by Banditos GM

I'm not going say I'm happy for the guy, he caused a lot of distress and pissed us off, but I will say it's cool to see a player have a re-emergence.  Most guys that fall off the edge never come back.

Karl Fox

November 5th, 2008 by Admirals GM

Is now up to 5 Power Potential.  Look for him to be a top 10, maybe even a 10p 5 prospect in next year's rankings.

 

Can't really claim credit.  I will say this: back in 1991, he was my last draft pick, prior to handing over authority to Chuck Tanner (I remember this because I remember I drafted thru 15 rounds, and Fox was my 15th round pick).  But, I had no inkling of his potential.

 

Also, it's not like he's really kicked all that much ass at any level.  If you look at Jose Garcia's minor league career, you'll see that the guy put up some serious stats.  In 1991, he went like .350/24/110/45 across 4 different levels (R, SA, A, and AA).  Last year, in AAA, he hit like 28 HR, which was near a franchise record for Tacoma.

 

In contrast, Fox has been alright, stat-wise.  But nothing exceptional.  Nevertheless, his potential keeps going up.

Tyrone "Skull Crusher" Taylor

November 5th, 2008 by Admirals GM

Also an All Star, for New York.

 

In exchange, Patrick Cole for me is hitting sub .200 and is on the bench.  (New York also got Ken Milligan in the trade, and after spending 1992 in AAA, he's doing well for the ML team this year.)

 

Yet another brilliant Admirals trade.

Vindication...

November 5th, 2008 by Admirals GM

For Aurelio Davila: 1993 All Star.

 

Good for him.  I guess it was a big mistake for me not to throw in that AAA CF in order to get him added to the trade this past offseason.  Especially given that Medina has been sucking for me.

6/27/1993 Uploaded

November 5th, 2008 by Banditos GM

Internet working again, can't believe on frickin election night I don't have internet.  See this post on possible Obama cabinet.  Obviously I am really excited about Hagel's chance at Secretary of Defense but look at possible Supreme Court nominees and you'll see Hillary Clinton....interesting.

- Lyndon Bray won AL Player of the Week.  Round of Applause.  Also, Bray made the All Star team, I was a little surprised.

- CF Lloyd Kelly of the Oneonta Warriors suffered a career ending injury.

- Look at how I won my last game against Atlanta, TWO BALKS by Jovan Simic!  Incredible.  Here's the game log:

Bottom of the 12th - Miami Banditos batting - Pitching for Atlanta Confederates : RHP J. Simic
Batting: RHB P. Castaneda	0-0: Swinging Strike 0-1: DOUBLE (Line Drive, 78S)
Batting: LHB L. Carranza	Balk! P. Castaneda to third 0-0: Intentional Walk
Batting: RHB C. Morgan	Balk! P. Castaneda scores
Game Over ... Miami defeats Atlanta, 4 to 3

- The AL won the All Star Game.  Couple of quick observations: 
1) I was struck by how many great hitters are on both rosters.  Joe Warren was batting 7th for the NL! 

2) El Paso and Portland really placed a lot of players for non human teams.  In fact El Paso's triumvirate of Jose "OG" Garza, Don Kelly and Keith Whitfield all made it.

- Newsmaking trade this sim.  Montreal sent Javier Martinon, who lost his spot to Chris Kilvington, to El Paso for SP Ed Lewis and a minor leaguer.  El Paso is really making a play.  They currently lead the Wildcard and still can contest Austin for the division.  Martinon will start for them and is still a 2.5/3.5 star player, hitting .317/5/18 this season.

- All Star Pitchers status now for rotation moves:
- Ed Jackson is at 35%.  Probably should start at #3 or #4 in rotation.
- Emilio Romano is at 63% Probably should be #3
- Joe MacGregor is at 63% Probably should be #3

Omaha Moves: Lenny Dykstra

11/4/2008 by Wolverines GM

         The Omaha Wolverines would like to announce the hiring of Lenny "Nails" Dykstra as a roving hitting instructor/coach for our minor league system. Lenny's duties will be as follows : hitting instructor, base running, defense, and attitude.

          We are very happy that Lenny is joining our organization as he has the grit and knowledge we are looking for for our young players in our farm system. We believe that Lenny will teach our players the right way to play the game, that is hustle, effort and balls to the wall baseball.

          We know that most players that suit up for our organization will never see Omaha, but we believe the players that do play for our organization will play the game the way it is supposed to be played. So again we would like welcome Lenny to the Wolverine family.

Memphis Razorback's History: A Fact Sheet

November 4th, 2008 by Banditos GM

MANAGERS

Jose Machado (1970-1978) - Machado is one of the more well known managers of EWB.  In 1970 Machado was appointed to manage the Razorbacks.  Only 35 years old at the time, Machado was one of the youngest managers but very well respected.  Machado had torn his knee so bad as a Catcher in the Ohio Valley Independent League that he could no longer function on the baseball field.  He took his knowledge of the game and calm demeanor to the bench of the Razorbacks.  Machado struggled in Memphis, his best record was in 1975 going 85-77.  After 3 bad years from '76-'78, Memphis let him go.  Memphis was loyal to Machado giving him ample time, finally at their split they also gave him a glowing recommendation to other clubs.  Since his part with Memphis, Machado has been employed as a Manager in EWB every year, including this year, except for '90-'91.  He is now currently the Manager of the Carolina Colonials.

Gabriel Barrios (1979-1982) - Replacing Machado was Gabriel Barrios.  Barrios had an undistinguished minor league managing career in the early '70's and had spent most of the '70's as a hitting coach in the minors.  Barrios had a reputation as a player's manager although his baseball acumen was sometimes challenged.  Barrios kept the chain of mediocrity continuing in Memphis, never winning more than 80 or losing more than 88.  After he was let go by Memphis in 1982, St. Louis hired him.  It was as the Savage's manager that Barrios made a name for himself.  He led the Savages to 3 straight 90+ win seasons and 3 playoff appearances from 1983 to 1985.  He was let go in 1986 and returned to the minors where he coached on and off.  He retired at the end of last year.

Esteban Diaz (1983-1984) - Diaz came to Memphis fresh off managing 3 years in Miami and 2 in Dallas.  Prior to that Diaz had 8 years experience in the minors, winning a Southern League Championship in 1975.  In his first season Diaz took Memphis to a 96-66 record and more importantly, their first Sunbelt Division Pennant.  The next year, with expectations set so high, the team fell back into reality.  The high expectations Diaz created also cost him his job.  Diaz never got another EWB job and headed back to the minors, he won his 2nd Championship in 1988 with the Fort Myers Killers of the Florida State League.

Sparky Anderson (1985-1988) - Memphis knew that they had a talented group of youngsters in their organization, now it was a matter of finding the right manager to cultivate them and create a winner.  They settled on Sparky Anderson.  Prior to 1985 Anderson had managed the pitiful Aztecas and the sorry Cleveland Rockers.  However, in 1983 he took the Rockers to a 90 win season, their best season since the start of the league.  Anderson's reputation grew and by 1985 Memphis was able to lure him away from Cleveland.  Anderson had two mediocre years, but during that time he was able to implement his systems and baseball ideology and garner the respect of the young Razorbacks.  1987 was the year of the Razorback and Anderson was immortalized.  Greener pastures called him in 1989, unable to turn down the large dollars and the allure of a big market team, Sparky Anderson went to Boston where he currently manages.

Domingo Salas (1989-mid 1990) - Salas was appointed to replace Anderson, a near impossible task.  Salas has a reputation among the league as one of the top hitting coaches around.  He spent 1972-1975 managing the NY 5 Points and doing quite bad, never finishing above 4th.  Salas went back to the role he excelled, hitting coach.  In 1989 with the '87 fresh in everyone's mind, the Razorbacks appointed Salas.  Salas was under pressure from the moment he took the job.  Used to the anonymity of hitting coach, Salas developed a confrontational relationship with the Memphis media, which heaped constant criticism on Salas.  Salas still managed to guide the Razorbacks to an 88 win season and a 2nd place finish, however, 1990 saw a 8-24 start and Salas was canned.  Today Salas serves as the hitting coach of the Cincinnati Rebels.

Pete Rose (mid 1990-Present) - It's always better to "be the guy after THE guy."  Rose is a former star in the Great Lakes League and his charisma made his hire an instant hit.  Gritty and hard assed was what he was to bring to Memphis.  Rose has had a tough go so far.  He's had 3 straight last place finishes and is loaded with veterans.  Many think 1993 is do or die for Rose.

MINORS

AAA Syracuse Chimpanzees (IL) - Syracuse is perenially bad, their .467% is the worst in the International League.  They've had 3 playoff appearances and 0 championships over the course of their history.

AA New Hampshire Envoys (EL) - On the other hand, AA affiliate New Hampshire has really been a great franchise.  They have the highest W% in the Eastern League at .523, 12 playoff appearances and 3 Championships.  They made the playoffs every year from 1981 to 1989 and won 3 Championships.  Not surpisingly this run corresponds with Memphis' 1987 success.

A Dunedin Sandtigers (FSL) - They have the 3rd highest W% in the FSL however they have the most Championships (5).  11 playoff appearances and they too have a great streak from 1980-1986.

A Elkhorn Antlers (NEB) - Elvis made sure to secure a Nebraska League spot as well.  The Elkhorn Antlers are one of the better organizations in the league.  They had most of their success in the mid-late '80's.  They have a .521%, 5 playoffs and 3 championships which is tied with several others for most in league history.

SA Auburn Zebras (NYPENN) - 3rd winningest organization in the New York Penn League with a .554%, 9 playoffs, 3 Championships.  From '84 to '89 made the playoffs every year but one.  Won the Championship last year, 1992.

R Pulaski Copperheads (APP) - Extremely mediocre, but not necessarily horrible.  .481%, only 1 playoff appearance ever (1991), and one pennant (1991).  Burlington (R KC) dominates the league.

R Dunedin Tempest (GCL) - 2nd Dunedin affiliate in the organization.  .541%, 7 playoffs, 2 championships.  Most notable is their first to worst years, in 1988 they went 112-50 and in 1989 60-102.  That has to rank up there among most dramatic drop offs.

HALL OF FAME

**** Memphis is not represented by any member of the Hall of Fame.  No HOF member ever played in Memphis.

TROPHY ROOM

1983 Sunbelt Division Pennant
1987 Sunbelt Division Pennant
1987 WORLD SERIES
1972 Angel Rosa Award, Bob Smith - Smith had a great 1972 and then slipped into mediocrity.
1987 MVP, Martin Diaz

MISCELLANEOUS

- Memphis has never had a 20 game winner in its history.  However, they have had two 20 game losers.

- Thomas Richmond is the all time best Razorback pitcher but still had a below .500 record at 174-179.  His 149 CG's ranks 5th All Time.

Admiral Moves

November 4th, 2008 by Admirals GM

1. We are now tied with Portland, and the two of us are pulling away a little bit from Las Vegas and Los Angeles.  Based on their statistical rankings, the Fog Devils look to be for real.  Whereas L.A. has good offense but poor pitching, and Las Vegas has a really bad offense and poor pitching (look for them to continue to fall), Portland looks pretty good on both fronts.  They've had some young players develop nicely.  We expect them to be in it all year.  In fact, it's not even inconceivable that they could pull away from us at some point, if we aren't smart.  And so, we're giving up on the hope that our run on the division title is going to be a landslide.  We expect a real fight.

 

2. Do not place R. J. Jacobs on the DL; he's only out for a week.  However, move Leonard Crockett from Mop up to MR in order to help take up the slack.

 

3. End the platoon in LF.  Make Latham the primary starter there, and let Rivera play once every 3 games.

 

4. Switch Mark Jackson and Porter Scott in the lineup.  That is: Scott should bat 3rd, and Jackson 6th.

 

5. For AAA Tacoma, release Eric O'Lenahan and Dean Kelly.  Again, we have a lot of pitchers at lower levels who are rated "ready to advance," by our scouts, and O'Lenahan and Kelly are getting in their way, without having any real chance of making the majors themselves.

 

6. After his third blown save of the year against Miami, we are now looking in earnest for a replacement for Mauro Medina.  There's no guarantee that a move will be made, but that's how we're leaning right now.  Obviously, Whit Gaul is an option.  We're also interested in Houston's set up men of Bill Young and Herman Thomas (Koigi is now there closer).  The fact that Houston has financial troubles and is out of the race makes them attractive as a trading partner, but we aren't sure we have what they want (what they absolutely need most is starting pitching).  Carolina is another possibility: they have a solid bullpen but horrible starters. 

Carolina Offense...

November 3rd, 2008 by Admirals GM

Has some pretty puzzling stats.  In fact, based on a casual glance, I have to say I have a really hard time understanding how their offense works.  Here's why...

 

They are 1st in Runs Scored in the AL.  That doesn't seem too surprising by itself -- they have Rafael Valentin, and Kenneth Brown, and German Ortiz, and lots of good hitters.  But, it does seem kind of surprising given some of their other rankings...

 

They are 13th in batting average, at .248.  You might think, well, that's kind of surprising, but not absolutely shocking.  Maybe they walk a lot, which makes up for the low BA.  Well, not exactly....

 

Although they are 1st in walks with 281, they are still 11th in OBP at .331.  So yes, they do walk a lot.  But, you would think, not enough to make up for their horrible BA, given that their OBP is still in the bottom third of the league (11th).  The walks help, to be sure.  But given that the OBP is still so low, you wouldn't expect them to be #1 in runs.

 

Okay, maybe even if Carolina has a low BA and OBP, the hits they do get count for a lot.  After all, they have a bunch of sluggers on their team.  Maybe they're just slugging their way to their runs.  There's some truth in this, but it's not that simple...

 

They are 8th in SLUG at .407.  Obviously, 8th in SLUG is better than 13th in BA or 11th in OBP.  But again, we're talking about the #1 offense in the league.  (A) I would assume that the #1 offense would be better than 8th in slugging, and (B) I would especially expect that they would be way better than 8th, once you stipulate that they're so bad in OBP and BA.  In other words, once you tell me that they're #1 in runs but horrible in BA and OBP, my guess would've been that they must be off the charts in SLUG, not #8.  Now, even their slugging rating is a bit mysterious, given the following...

 

They are #1 in HR, and #5 in Extra Base Hits.  This is really weird.  I mean, SLUG depends largely on the Home Runs and Extra Base Hits you get.  If you're #1 in HR and #5 in EBH, then you should be in the top third of the league or so in SLUG.  But Carolina isn't.  Even aside from the question of how they score the runs they do, this is strange.

 

Finally, are their other strengths to the Carolina offense that maybe we're missing?  Doesn't look like it...

 

They are #14 in Ks and #12 in SBs.  So, it's not like they're manufactoring runs via stolen bases and hitting runners over.

 

So again, I don't fully understand how Carolina ends up scoring as many runs as they do, or even how their statistics cohere together in any sort of intelligible way.  To see a contrast case, compare Omaha.  The Wolverines are #3 in Runs Scored.  In addition, they they are #1 in BA, #1 in OBP, #3 in SLUG, #4 in HR, and #4 in SB.  There is something that they are bad at: they are only #12 in BB.  But, given their other high ratings, it's easy to see how they could have the third best offense.  I feel like I "get" the Omaha offense, I understand how they "work."  They don't walk much, but they make up for it with lots of hits, including home runs, and the occasional steal here and there.

 

I feel like I don't really get how the Carolina offense "works."  Their numbers are too much of a jumbled mess for me to understand.

 

One last thought.  Given the internal incoherence in Carolina's stats, my hunch is that there's a lot of "luck" in their statistical totals right now, and that they won't finish the season with the same sorts of ratings they have right now.  (Analogy: consider a player who right now has 13 HR and 2 Doubles.  That's really hard to do.  As the season goes on, you expect that ratio to change: he will either hit more Doubles (say, he's have 20 HR and 19 Doubles by the end of the year), or he'll hit fewer home runs (say, 14 HR and 10 Doubles).

 

In Carolina's case, I don't know if they've been having "good luck" or "bad luck."  If it's bad luck, the idea would be that Carolina really has an even more potent offense than they seem to have right now, and as the season wears on, their SLUG/OBP/etc. will rise to correspond to their high run total.  If it's good luck, the idea would be that the Carolina offense really isn't all that great, as indicated by their low SLUG/OBP/etc., but they've been fortunate to score runs thus far.  As the season wears on, you should expect their rankin in runs scored to drop, so that it corresponds to their low rankings in other categories.  By the end of the year, they'll be more like #6 in runs scored, not #1.

 

I don't know which it is, but I suspect there's luck involved.

Re: Trade Offer

November 3rd, 2008 by Banditos GM

Well he's not untouchable but I can't find many trades that I think we can mutually agree on.  I am leaving for work but will be able to access email from phone.  Here are players we could be interested in (not necessarily straight up for Delzoppo but in a structured deal)

Jose Garcia
Britt Murphy
Gustavo Chavez
Sergio Garcia
Possibly Swan Scott but not sure about that one.

Jake Wilkinson

Are biggest priority is either upgrade right now at SP, or trade for SP prospects.

Re: Trade Offer

November 3rd, 2008 by Admirals GM

Is Tom Delzoppo up for negotiation?  I'm much higher on him than I am on Hinkle.  What we really need right now is a high OBP guy, and if we got Delzoppo that would displace Daniel Smith.  (I still believe Smith is good, but we've got plenty of run producers right now, and he's one of our lesser ones.  What we need are table-setters.)

Re: Trade Offer

November 3rd, 2008 by Banditos GM

Hinkle and Whit Gaul for Britt Murphy and Jake Wilkinson.

Wilkinson is now rated .5/.5 stars, has a potential of 333 and looks to be a bust.  We'll take the risk.  Now you have two major league contributors.  The AL looks strong this year, you may be able to win your division without these guys but remember you're going to have to face some strong Plains Divisioon teams if you make into the playoffs.  Bullpen is key.  .366 OBP is nothing to laugh at either.

Re: Trade Offer Again

November 3rd, 2008 by Banditos GM

1) Hinkle is major league proven.  He was a bonafide Angel Rosa Award contender last year, hit .299/6/71, had a .366 OBP and 32.4 VORP.  He is a great leadoff or 2nd slot hitter.  There's no reason to believe he won't consistently produce those numbers.

2) He plays a quality 2nd base, 7 range, 7 error, 7 @ 2nd.  Plus he runs well and is good a sacrifice bunting.  Those are intagibles that are really important in game time situations.

3) You're making his rating drop too dramatic.  He could have simply slipped a couple of points to a high 3.  That is far more likely than him having a major drop off.  Plus he also has unfulfilled Power potential, currently at a 1 he has 2 potential.  This could be the difference from 6 HR's to 12-13 HR's.

4)  Britt Murphy just suffered a major injury, who knows what he's going to do.  Plus the guy is at best a 3rd starter with his 334 Potential, currently he's only a 333, those are a dime a dozen.

5)  Opportunity cost, were taking all of it.  Murphy is going to be doing shit but sitting in the spa for 11 more months.  Hinkle is ready to contribute right now, at a time when your team could use a spark and a leadoff hitter.  You're getting the guy practically for free since you're not giving anything up until 11 months from now.

6)  Were open to further negotiation, but name names.

Re: Trade Offer

November 3rd, 2008 by Admirals GM

What is your thinking here?

 

Last year, Hinkle had a 4 contact rating for much of the year; now he's down to 3 (and 3 potential).  Looking at his ratings, he projects to be steady backup, an acceptable platoon player, or a marginal starter.  Last year's stats aren't a great predictor for future performance, given his ratings drop.

 

Meanwhile, as of this moment Murphy still has 10 point potential, which projects to adequate 2nd starter, or solid 3rd.  Plus, his 4 potential rating is in control, arguably the most important.

 

Talent-wise, then, right now I think Murphy has a big advantage.

 

But, Murphy did just suffer a major injury, and there's no assurance that he will come back with the same potential ratings next year that he has this year.  Also, given his injury, it's guaranteed that he'll make no contribution this year, while Hinkle could.

 

But, anyway, right now I'm very disinclined to do the deal.  What are you trying to sell me on?  That Murphy is a gamble, given the injury?  Something else?

Trade Offer

November 3rd, 2008  by Banditos GM

We'll trade Hinkle for Britt Murphy.  Of course Murphy couldn't be traded until he is healed, so it would have to be Hinkle for $1 and a player to be named later and you ship us Murphy after he gets over his injury.

2 Things

November 3rd, 2008 by Admirals GM

1. First, regarding Shawn Carr.  It's a judgment call, of course.  I think I personally wouldn't do it if I were in your situation, just because your pitching staff is doing so well right now.  But, it's not an open and shut case.  My top draft pick this year, Alfredo Gallardo, is a MR with 13 pt. potential and 5 endurance.  A big part of the attraction was that he could possibly become a starter.  Again, though, I would say this.  While there are certain obvious advantages to turning such a pitcher into a starter, there are certain less obvious disadvantages as well.  If Carr is a starter, I predict he won't get very many decisions; like Hearn and like Sergio Garcia, the most wins he'll get over an entire season is probably 13 or 15 or so.  For another thing, he'll tax your bullpen.  And that will not just affect you in that one game he's pitching, it will also affect you in future games.  With Garcia, and potentially with Gallardo, I think it may be worth the tradeoff.  It's an open quesiton though.

 

2. Hey Rob, are we keeping track of which players retire on 1/1 of each year?  My concern in asking is the Hall of Fame ballot.  When putting together the ballot, if we only look at player who retire at the end of the season (like in September or October), we'll miss those players who become free agents, don't sign with anybody, and then officially retire on January 1st of the next year.  This question arose in my mind when doing research on Mempis, and Quinones in particular.  Quinones isn't retired yet, and he won't retire until 1/1/94 (unless someone signs him before then), but I wouldn't want to miss him on the ballot down the road.

Re: Shawn Carr

November 3rd, 2008 by Banditos GM

I think Justin laid out the situation best when he wrote about Mounds Hearn.

1) The pitcher has to be highly, highly talented.
2)  Maybe most important, you have to have a Great and DEEP bullpen.  Starting a guy with 3 or 4 endurance will tax a bullpen.
3)  You have to measure his value in the bullpen vs. a starter.  As we saw with Hearn Boston could possibly use him in the bullpen more effectively than as a starter.

My thoughts for your particular situation is this, I think your starting pitching is well above average and your bullpen has 3 solid players and 3 iffy players.  Carr being one of the really solid players.  Carr also eats a lot of innings for you in MR, who's going to replace his role if you move him to starter?  If I were in Omaha, I don't think I would make Carr a starter.  Carr is basically what Steve Halter is for me and Halter is probably more valuable to me than my closer.  Halter is closer-material but actually probably used more optimally.  Halter is the guy that comes in the tough situations, the guy that gets me from the 6th to the 9th, the guy I want in when were down by 1 or tied or up by 1.  Let McKeon throw Bennett in for the generic 1 inning saves, Halter is the guy he goes too when I feel it really matters.

Shawn Carr

November 3rd, 2008 by Wolverines GM

We see Shawn as a Joba Chamberlain type, he is a dominant MR and has 4 endurance. We are contemplating the idea of using him as a starter in the future. We are not sure how to go about this as far as sending him to Lincoln and have him start some games or start some games in Omaha, but on the other hand we don't want to ruin him in the long run. I don't think he will gain any endurance by switching to a SP by looking at the Frank Hearn experiment so we are like I said looking at the possibility in the future. So any thoughts from either of you if you were in my situation ?

Re: 1987: The Year of the Razorback

November 3rd, 2008 by Banditos GM

Elvis sure as hell made a lot of waves in the formation of EWB, if you remember in the Cincinnati history post he was a factor in that organization as well.  Living up to his larger than life personality.

1987: The Year of the Razorback

November 2nd, 2008 by Admirals GM

Looking back, 1987 was one of the most remarkable seasons in EWB history.  It's fitting that the World Series that year was won by the Memphis Razorbacks, a truly remarkable team.

 

Back in 1970 when EWB was forming, Memphis was not on anyone's short list to land a franchise.  Rather, the original plan was for there to be a 2nd team in California -- probably San Francisco, although San Diego was also mentioned as a possibility -- and leave the Sunbelt as the 4 team division, giving the Mountain West 5 teams instead.  The problem with this plan was that the old California Baseball League, unlike other regional leagues, was trying to put up a fight.  They refused to bow down to the upstart EWB; they wanted to compete instead.  They had a ton of resources, a huge media market all to themselves, and a storied history -- you'll remember that back in the 1940s, Joe DiMaggio of the San Francisco Seals was the face of baseball.  Anyway, through a series of lawsuits and clever maneuvering involving stadium leases, the California League was able to make things extremely difficult for the Los Angeles Gargoyles franchise, and to completely block a 2nd California team from being added to the EWB.  Now, in the long run the EWB would win this competition: the California League was poorly managed in the early 1970s, and was forced to shut down prior to the 1974 season.  But, their efforts explain why there is no 2nd California team in EWB to this day.

 

Forced to alter their plans at the last minute, EWB was scrambling in late 1969 to figure out where their 30th team was going to play ball the following spring.  Always looking to make a splash in P.R., league executives put in a number of calls to various entertainers and celebrities to see if they would want to head some team of financiers to bring a team to their city.  They landed a coup when on a lark, none other than Elvis Pressley agreed not just to head such a team, but to put all his own money in and buy a franchise outright.  The league wasn't overly thrilled that this would require the franchise to be set up in Memphis, a smallish market, but the publicity which would be attached to having The King as an owner was impossible to resist, and so they gave in.  Looking to get over racial tensions during the tumultuous 1960s, the city of Memphis immediately took to their Razorbacks, and there continues to be an especially close link between these fans and their team.

 

The Razorbacks have made only two playoff appearances in franchise history: 1983 (when they made it to the ALCS) and the 1987 Championship year.  Don't let this fool you, though.  The Razorbacks are a proud franchise, not an Azteca-like laughing stock.  They have generally played around .500 in their history -- except for the last few years (1990-1992), which have been an abomination -- and have a remarkable number of second place finishes.  Specifically, they've finished 2nd 6 separate times, including a 4 year stretch from 1979-1982, and the 1987 season itself, when they got into the playoffs via the Wild Card.  This long run of 2nd place finishes shaped a tragic sensibility in their fan base.  If you were a Razorback supporter at the time, you were convinced that you were doomed to be always the bridesmaid, never the bride.

 

To understand the 1987 Razorbacks, you need to get your mind back into the framework of the 1987 season.  And to do this, you need to get a sense for the ways in which 1987 is continuous with the EWB of today, and the ways in which it's wholly different.  Start with some of the continuities.  For one thing thing, the top 3 batters in the AL that year were faces that are still familiar: at the top was Mike Robinson (then for Portland) at .356, then Luis Carranza at .344, and then Vincent Carter at .343.  The ERA leader list included Carlos Pena, George Banks (just 21, in his first All Star year), Jamie Rees, and Shawn Price.  The NL MVP was Don Kelly while the HR leader was Joe Warren, who socked an EWB record of 62 for Austin (while his teammate Will Lund added another 51 for the last place (!) Marshalls).  The Angel Rosa in the NL went to newcomer Rafeal Valentin, who put up triple-crown-like numbers for Boston; and the Gibson Award winner was Luis Altagracia, who had just signed a free agent deal with St. Louis out of the Mexican League and won the honor without pitching a single game in the minors (he was already 26).  These are all familiar names; 1987 wasn't so long ago.

 

But now, consider the discontinuities.  First, and most significantly, 1987 was the year of the "juiced ball," and offense was way, way up.  The AL league ERA was 4.87, the highest it's ever been.  4 different players reached 50 home runs: Warren with 62, Carlos Perez of Denver with 54, Will Lund with 51, and Michael Long (then with Cleveland) with 50.  Only one starter in the whole AL had an ERA below 3.00 (Carlos Pena), and only 4 had an ERA below 3.60: Pena, George Banks, Shawn Price, and Wolverine Scott Allddritt.  Speaking of Alldritt, this was his Gibson Award winning year for Omaha, going 22-9 with a 3.14 ERA.  There were, though, some worrisome signs in his season: he had a remarkable 17 Complete Games, well more than anyone else in the league, and threw an astonishing 286.1 IP, when no one else had over 260.  So, he worked a lot for a 23-year-old, and it doesn't seem especially surprising in retrospect that he broke down shortly thereafter.

 

In this year of the long ball, two offenses stood out above all others: the Denver Amigos, who averaged 6.4 runs per game and won an EWB-high 103 games, and the Memphis Razorbacks, who averaged 6.2 and made it to the playoffs as a Wild Card.  Here's a run down of the Amigos offensive leaders, together with their stat lines: Vincent Carter .343/30/108 (still slugging away in 1993); Carlos Perez .298/54/154 (now with Carolina, and all washed up); Ben Barnard .327/33/98 (now all washed up and getting paid a ton by Detroit); Len McGinnis .333/21/76 (in just 384 AB, presently an un-signed free agent after spending 1992 with D. C.); Jesus Reyes .326/23/93 (Angel Rosa Award winner in 1987, now with Kansas City and continuing to have success); and Roberto Reyes .291/21/93 (the "quadriplegic" who played sparingly with Washington back in 1990, due to injury problems).  That's a lot of players putting up some gaudy numbers.

 

Memphis was almost as good.  To start off, you had league MVP Martin Diaz patrolling LF and going .314/44/139.  Diaz is a legend in Memphis, a Razorback from his rookie year back in 1982 all the way to today.  Diaz, now 35 (29 back in 1987), is out for all of 1993 with a fractured skull, and there's a lot of discussion among Razorback fans about whether he will be re-signed after the season (at much less than his present $8M price tag) -- their hearts say Yes but their heads say No.

 

If Diaz isn't the greatest Razorback of all time, then that honor must go to second baseman Ivan Quinones.  Quinones was a monster in 1987, going .333/39/139/22 and winning a gold glove, one of 10 in his career, the most all time.  Like Diaz, Quinones was a lifetime Razorback: from his debut in 1976 all the way up to 1992.  Presently sitting out as an un-signed free agent, the best way to get Razorback fans' blood boiling is by even raising the question of whether Quinones deserves a spot in the Hall of Fame once he officially retires.  Of course he does, they'll insist.

 

The Razorbacks had another solid bat in veteran 1B Richie Farrell.  After first making a name for himself with Austin in the early 1980s, Farrell came over to the Razorbacks in a one-sided trade prior to the 1984 season.  In the magical year of 1987, he would his .290/23/75 for the Razorbacks, and give the team a big boost in the playoffs with 5 HR and 18 RBI.  Later in his career, Farrell is known for playing with Kansas City (back in 1990-1991), and then heading over to the Washington Admirals for the end of the 1991 campaign (at which point he retired).

 

At DH, Memphis had the notorious slugger Jose Rodriguez.  Known as much for his strikeouts and low average as for his prolific home runs, Rodriguez batted .245/23/93 in just 469 AB for the team. However, despite being just 26 years of age, 1987 would turn out to be Rodriguez' last productive year, and he never got more than 187 AB a season from then until his retirement just a few months ago (1/1/1993).  Also known for spending time with the Banditos in 1991, Rodriguez never lived up to his extraordinary minor league hype: he hit 74 HR and and 205 RBIs in 1981, in time split between A and AA in the Razorbacks system.  I mean, he had some nice ML years -- 41 HR in 1984, 38 HR in 1985 -- but he never managed to be the second coming of Angel Rosa that fans anticipated.

 

Finally, at SS the Razorbacks had the ever-dependable Kyle Gregg, who went .286/7/63/16.  Ofering substance over style, the Razorbacks loved the gritty Gregg.  To this day, they have a hard time seeing how this could be the same guy who today is living the high life in Detroit, with the 2nd biggest salary in all of baseball.

 

Go back through the Razorbacks' Record Books, and these are the names you'll see.  For instance, the top 4 all time VORP leaders are Diaz, Quinones, Gregg, and Farrell, in that order.  As a franchise, Memphis had the good fortune to have its greatest players in team history all peak around the same time: the mid 1980s.  On the other hand, this largely contributed to the franchise's demise in the early 1990s, as all these players either aged or moved on.

 

On the mound, the 1987 Razorbacks were notable for having probably the worst pitching staff for a World Series winner in EWB history.  Their staff ERA was 5.00, which was high even for the time.  Their nominal ace was Rich Jones, a member of the 1978 Washington Admirals Championship team and a 4th or 5th starter for the Admirals in the early 1980s.  In his first year with Memphis in 1987, Jones posted a 4.08 ERA, which was able to get him a 17-10 record behind the powerful Memphis offense.  No other starter had an ERA below 5.00 (well, that's not quite right: Brandon Hutchins had one of 4.99).  Closing out games, the Razorbacks had Antonio Cruz, still in his prime then (29 years old) but having a comparatively down year (4.09 ERA).  Today, you might know Cruz from his time in the Chicago Samurai bullpen as a set up man.  He had a pretty good career as a closer though with Mempmhis, putting up 387 Saves.  One more notable thing about the Memphis staff: a young rookie named Adam Hamilton made a couple of starts for them during the year, before moving on to Omaha and then Houston.

 

Finally, let's talk playoffs.  It was an interesting field, especially in the AL.  In the Sunbelt Division, Miami won the pennant for the first time in the decade (and what would be the first of 4 straight pennant titles).  The Banditos were filled with very, very young stars with lots of potential: 23-year-old Luis Carranza, 26-year-old Ken Hamilton, 25-year-old Jose Ortiz catching, 21-year-old George Banks, 22-year-old Julio "Punk" Perez, 22-year-old Joe Murphy, and 25-year-old Mauro Medina.  You will rarely ever see a team filled with so much talent in their early and mid 20s.  This made Miami an especially popular team across the country -- think Devil Rays -- and their 96 Wins made them a serious contender.  Not far behind Miami was Memphis, whose 91 wins assured them the Wild Card.  In the Plains Division you had Denver (already described above), whose 103 wins gave them the title by a whopping 24 games over 2nd place Chicago.  (Omaha finished in 3rd at 77-85.)  And finally, in the Mountain West division you had a great 4-way race, where all 4 teams were within 3 games of one another.  After the final day of the season Washington and Las Vegas had identical 85-78 records, and so a one-game play-in game was scheduled, which Washington won.

 

The first round of the AL playoffs were fascinating.  In one series, you had Memphis pitted against Denver, two of the greatest offenses in all of EWB history.  The Razorbacks pulled off the upset, 4-1.  In the other series, you had the youthful, up-and-coming Miami Banditos pitted against the veteran Washington Admirals, who were still being led by 40-year-old Luis Delgado, 38-year-old Forest Thomas, and 33-year-old Brad Robertson.  (At the plate, the Admirals were led by Dave Tyle, Reggie Phillips, George McFarland, and Oliver Cole.)  Age triumphed over youth, and the Admirals took the series in 6 games.

 

.In the ALCS, you had pretty much all of American rooting on the Razorbacks -- everyone was sick of Washington.  Despite falling behind 3 games to 2, Memphis was able to pull of the come back, taking the series in 7.  Memphis, and not Washington, was going to the World Series.  Razorback fans couldn't quite believe it.

 

Once there, the Razorbacks would face the Boston Irish, probably the most talented NL team of the late 1980s.  On their roster they had players like Valentin, Gerald Lewis, and Jordan Tamblyn.  They had a bullpen which included Hall of Famer Mal Collier, Jovan Simic, and Frank "Mounds" Hearn.  Oddsmakers regarded them as the favorites over the Wild Card Razorbacks.  The city of Memphis ended up willing their Razorbacks to the Championship though, and they toppled the Irish in 6 games.

 

In some sense, Memphis has been paying for it ever since.  On the one hand, Memphis seems to be an especially loyal franchise -- as noted above, both Quinones and Diaz have spent their entire careers with the team.  On the other hand, given how good the players on this team were, loyalty was bound to cost money, and it took big contracts to keep Quinones and Diaz.  This made it impossible to keep some of the other key members of the 1987 team, and they eventually had to trade off Richie Farrell and let Kyle Gregg depart via free agency (where, again, he landed an astronomical contract).  After trailing off to 86 wins in 1988 and 88 wins in 1989 -- both years, narrowly failing to miss the playoffs -- the bottom really fell out in 1990, and the Razorbacks could manage just 58 wins against 104 losses.  With their aging nucleus and bloated contracts, things haven't improved much in 1991 or 1992, when they won 69 and 68 games respectively.

 

The Razorbacks have one of the smallest budgets in all of baseball.  Despite having a player payroll of just $25M in 1993, they're still $1.1M over budget.  They should have some money this offseason, as the contract for legend Martin Diaz expires.  But they will need to use their money wisely.  Even if the team isn't playing all that well this year-- they're 28-38 -- the horrible state of the Sunbelt Division leaves them just 4 GB.  Razorback fans will surely take it, given how bleak things had been the last few years.

Admiral Moves

November 1st, 2008 by Admirals GM

I'm pretty concerned.  Our offense continues to sink like a stone -- it's impossible to see how we're the same team from April.  And our pitchers continue to suffer injuries.  The Dan Fulton trade looks almost immediately foolish for us; there's actually a chance we would call him up now if we still had him, and if we suffer another starter's injury, we almost certainly would.

 

I'm feeling pretty bleak about our team.  The one hope I do have is that maybe once Bicknell gets back in the swing of things, or perhaps once Robinson returns (3 weeks), our offense will return to form.  Here are our moves/assessments...

 

1. Place Jeff Blanchard on the 60 day DL.  I'm going to eventually replace Blanchard in the rotation with Doug Kelly.  Unfortunatley, Kelly is too tired to pitch right away (Blanchard is scheduled to start our next game).  So, here's what I want to do instead.  Call up either Roger Wright or Antonio Aranda (whoever is less fatigued).  Have Wright/Aranda pitch our next game (6/14 vs. Carolina), in place of Blanchard.  And then, immediately after that start, send down Wright/Aranda, and place Kelly in the empty rotation spot.  Once you send down Wright/Aranda, call up Leonard Crockett (you will need to add Crockett to our 40 man roster, but that shouldn't be a problem given Blanchard going to the DL).

 

2. After the Wright/Aranda send down, we want our pitching rotation to be configured as follows...

 

SP1: Joe MacGregor

SP2: Doug Kelly [new]

SP3: Reginald Wilson

SP4: Gustavo Chavez

SP5: Sergio Garcia

Mop up: Francisco Perez [new, used to be MR]

Mop up: Leonard Crockett [new addition to team]

MR: Cory Davidson

MR: R. J. Jacobs [new, used to be Set up man]

Set up: Russell Ramsey

Closer: Mauro Medina

 

You'll note that I'm following Omaha, having just one set up man.  The main reason for this is that Bob Washington has such a boner for Russell Ramsey that the 2nd set up man never gets to pitch -- this was true back when Davidson was the 2nd set up man, and it continues to be true after making Jacobs the set up man instead.  Bob Washington fucking loves Russell Ramsey.

 

3. We have a new lineup as well, in our constant struggle to find an offense.  It goes like this...

 

  1. Roy Wilson, CF [no platoon]

  2. Leo Kennedy, C

  3. Mark Jackson, RF

  4. Artie Bicknell, DH

  5. Dale Reinert, 1B

  6. Porter Scott, 3B

  7. Daniel Smith, 2B

  8. Jose Garcia, SS

  9. Gerald Latham/Jose Rivera, LF [platoon]

 

Commentary: Tell Bob Washington to give Roy Wilson a serious pep talk.  Wilson has been sucking badly in 1993, after his breakthrough season in '92.  If Wilson can have a decent remainder of the year, we're willing to lock him up with a contract to be our CF/leadoff man for at least 2 years.  His ratings are still good, and we still believe in him.  Also tell him to talk to Jose Garcia, but to take a sterner tone.  For Christ's sake, Garcia is the 10th rated prospect in baseball, and he was bitching all last year about not being on the ML team.  Now we promote, and he's sucking horribly.  Again, we realize that rookies are bound to be inconsistent -- we're used to it from last year with Patrick Cole, Dale Reinert, and others.  But, you only qualify as "inconsistent" if you shows downs and ups.  If it's just downs -- as it is with Garcia so far -- you aren't "inconsistent," you just suck.  Finally, remind Porter Scott that he's playing for a contract.  We would love for him to get 3,000 hits with us, but we're not going to pay him what he's asking for if he's only hitting .270.

 

4. Shop Patrick Cole.  Slowly, we are starting to hate Cole.  The guy has a .171 BA and a .493 OPS in extended playing time.  I can undestand if he's disappointed that he didn't start the year as a starter, but he's now gotten plenty of playing time, and if he were hitting only .250, he'd continue to start.  With Karl Fox lined up behind him, and the option of signing Porter Scott for one more year until Fox is ready, Cole's future with us isn't looking very bright right now.

 

5. We might be interested in Michael Quint (or some other IF) and/or Whit Gaul.  On the one hand, our offense is so bad right now that we would like to add any bat we can; on the other hand, we still aren't sold on Medina as a closer, although he has been pitching better recently.  I can't guarantee that we could get a deal done; in fact, I think it's less likely than yes.  But I wanted to pass on my interest.  In connection with a trade possibility, I would mention that we have an organizational strength in lower level (AA and below), B and C caliber pitching prospects (like 10 pt. thru 8 pt. pitchers).  This is reflected in the many pitchers we have at those levels who are ranked at "ready for next level."  Don't know if that's what you're looking for, but thought I would mention it.

 

6. I don't really have anything else.  Just shooting the shit because I'm disgusted by the Nebraska game.  The Sunbelt Division is pretty horrible.  If Omaha were in it, they would be up by 9 games right now instead of down 1.  Our division is looking pretty mediocre ourselves, so I shouldn't say too much.  I still have to think we're the favorites, and that we'll be able to make a 2nd half run (ala the Banditos of 1992), but we've been playing very badly for over a month now.  I would rank Omaha as the favorites to win the whole AL right now -- Minneapolis is playing over their heads.  But, you never know what will happen come playoff time.  I just hope we can get there.

Miami Banditos Complaint to Commissioner

November 1st, 2008 by Banditos GM

Commissioner Koenig,

I am writing this letter to formally complain with your office's scheduling decisions.  We are currently scheduled to fly out to Portland for 3 games and then we'll head to LA for 3 games.  After those two series we'll fly all the way back to Miami to host Denver, and then fly out to Seattle to face Washington.  We think the more common sensical approach would be to fly to Denver, then LA, then Portland and finish in Washington before heading back to Miami.  We are sure that we could get our home series in at a later time in a convenient and fair method for both teams.

This cross country traveling takes a toll on our players and staff.  In addition, it is making my owner's pocketbook much lighter and I am taking the brunt of his complaints.  Please resolve the situation.

Respectfully,

Rob M
President and General Manager
Miami Banditos

All Star Host

November 1st, 2008 by Admirals GM

Who do we want to host the All Star game in 1987?  I nominate Memphis.

 

The case: It was in the NL last year (Cincinnati), so if we want to alternate, it should be in the AL this year.  If we want to "discover" a new team's identity, Memphis seems like about as good a candidate as anyone.  And, most importantly to my own nomination, Memphis won the World Series in 1987, and the 1987 season looks pretty fascinating in retrospect -- not just for Memphis, but all three of our teams.  In fact, the main thing I want to do here is do a write up on the 1987 season, and along the way I figure I can turn it into information on the Razorbacks' franchise more generally.

 

Any other nominations?

RE: Felix Rojas

November 1st, 2008 by Banditos GM

Yeah, I've given Rojas up for dead so many times.  The guy does continually surprise me.  I can't believe he continues to succeed with his ratings and injuries, I've always thought of him as one bad start away from a AAA career.  Kinda like how I feel about Stinson and how Justin felt about Aranda.  Thing is, for me, Stinson is the same way.  He just keeps chugging along.  Both players have a high tolerance for pressure, considering every outing is almost like proving that they belong again.

Felix Rojas

November 1st, 2008 by Wolverines GM

Felix Rojas continues to amaze me. Before losing to Rob this sim he had won 5 straight and only given up only 4 earned runs in those 5 starts. He will always have a spot on the Wolverines roster, injuries permitting, for the rest of his career. We can't thank him enough for all the hard work and dedication he put in getting back to 100 % after all his injuries. It says alot about a man's character and how he goes about things. Felix will have a spot in our organization in the future, hopefully a pitching coach someday or as a manager.

Re: Frank "Mounds" Hearn

November 1st, 2008 by Banditos GM

I totally agree with the point about the impact on the bullpen's fatigue.  By the way, Hearn's averages 83 pitches per game.  One thing I have insight to is the fatigue level of the pitchers in real time and I can definitely say it effects who the manager chooses to use and their performance.  When a pitcher is fatigued he pitches much worse, obviously. 

Long 15 inning games often have an impact on both teams for the next few games, until their bullpen can get caught up on rest.  That's one reason I like to have some inning eaters.  This year I have Forest Thomas eating some mop up innings and for the last two years Halter has been able to give me good quality multiple inning outings, many time he would go 2.2 or 3 innings in tight spots and do well.  I don't think the Hearn experiment will spawn a bunch of copycats however it will open eyes to new possibilities.

We have an interesting player, Bernard "Reach" Glass, who is phenomenal.  He has Hearn's like potential, he was drafted as a SP but only has 5 endurance.  His official position is still SP but Cal Ripken Sr. has been using him in the bullpen his entire minor league career.  We intend to let him try out the starter role and see how it goes.   This year Glass has yet to give up a run in 23.1 AAA IP and 2.1 AA IP.  Like Justin said regarding Garcia though, 5 and 6 are really different than 3 or 2 in terms of being able to start.

Frank "Mounds" Hearn

October 31st, 2008 by Admirals GM

Frank "Mounds" Hearn was scheduled to be a free agent this offseason, and we had some hope of trying to sign him, possibly as a starter but more likely as a closer.  It won't happen: recently, Hearn signed a three year extension with Boston for just short of $6M per year.

 

The thing I especially wanted to point out, though, was this.  We are now about 2 months thru the season -- more than a third of the way.  During this entire span, Hearn has been a starter for Boston.  He has not missed any time to injury.  He has made 13 starts, and in those 13 starts he has a 2.77 ERA and an exceptional 0.91 WHIP.  That leaves him with a pitcher's VORP which is just outside of the top 5 in the entire NL.

 

So, he's been very, very good as a starter.  And at least so far, using him as a starter hasn't led to any injuries.

 

But, what is his record?  It's 1-1.  That's right, after 13 starts, Hearn has registered just 2 decisions.  That's really kind of amazing.  To have some perspective, Hearn is on pace to go 3-3 over the entire season (actually, it's more like 2.85-2.85), even on the assumption he's healthy and makes all the starts he's supposed to make.  How do you get so few decisions?

 

Part of the problem has to be Boston's bullpen, which is awful.  Their bullpen ERA is 6.10, last in the NL, and compares very poorly to their starters' ERA of 3.86 (4th in the NL).  Now, this point by itself is already an indictment of the Hearn-as-a-starter strategy.  After all, if Hearn were anchoring that bullpen, I would guarantee that their ERA wouldn't be the worst in the league.  But, this criticism doesn't necessarily tell you that any attempt to use Hearn as a starter is a mistake.  Suppose Miami signed him, for instance.  With Miami's great bullpen strength, maybe then it wouldn't be a bad idea to use Hearn as a starter.  Or would it?

 

Well, here is another factor.  Given Hearn's very limited fatigue (3), he just isn't able to go very deep into games at all.  The problem is compounded by his being such a strikeout pitcher: strikeout pitchers put up greater pitch counts, further limiting his ability to go a long time.  Here's the IP and ER in his last 6 starts: 5.1 IP (1 ER); 4.2 IP (1 ER); 5 IP (2 ER); 6.1 IP (2 ER); 6.1 IP (2 ER); 4.2 IP (3 ER).  As you can see, he's generally pitched pretty well: often just 1 ER, and never more than 3.  But, he's barely able to go even 5 IP -- 6.1 IP in a really good game.  Because of this, Hearn doesn't have a single decision over the span, even though he's pitched well just about every time.  Sometimes, the problem is that he just isn't going long enough -- 4.2 IP isn't long enough to even qualify for a W.  Other times, the problem is that even if he qualifies for the W, he has to rely on the bullpen to do just way too much work: even if Hearn goes 5.1 IP with 1 ER, he still requires the bullpen to go the last 3.2 IP.  If you have Boston's horrible bullpen, that's a big problem.  But, even if you had Miami's solid bullpen, that would be pretty taxing.  Everytime thru the rotation, you would know that your guys are going to get pretty fatigued covering for Hearn.

 

In fact, here's a possible theory: maybe the reason Boston's bullpen is struggling so much is precisely because they're being forced to pitch so many innings during Hearn starts, leaving them tired in the following games.  I don't know if this is true, but it's an idea.

 

By the way, I think this problem isn't unique to Hearn.  My own Sergio Garcia is himself a converted closer.  Now, Garcia has more fatigue than Hearn does (6 vs. 3), and because of that he gets more decisions.  But still, he's somewhat limited, and because of that, Garcia has never gotten more than 17 Wins in a season (and he did that only once), even during those years when he was one of the best starters in all of baseball.  When I'm hesitant about re-signing Garcia, his fatigue is a serious factor in my hesitancy.

 

So, my final conclusion is that even if Boston did otherwise have a good bullpen, it would probably be a mistake to use Hearn as a starter.  Or, at least, it wouldn't be as good for you as a team as you might otherwise think, given that he's a 14 point pitcher.  I think this is probably a good thing for the league.  Things would be unrealistic, and cheapaned a bit, if we could all just convert top closers (who generally have 12, 13, or 14 point ratings) into top starters (where top starters are generally more like 11 or 10 point guys, with maybe a few 12 point pitchers). 

Hall of Fame

October 30th, 2008 by Admirals GM

Did you know that Daniel Pena enterred the Hall of Fame as an Admiral?  Even though he spent just 1 year with us (1990), while he spent 7 years with Indianapolis (had his most success there; probably his best pick), 4 years with New Orleans, 2 years with Miami, and 3 years with Los Angeles.

 

Carlos Gudino enterred as a Carolina Colonial.  That move doesn't make a ton of sense either -- he should have gone in as an Austin Marshall -- but it's not as bad.

Bob Washington's Mistake

October 30th, 2008 by Banditos GM

This is the mistake I was referring to in the upload notes.  I checked the game log in this game because I noticed Punk Perez gave up two hits in the 9th inning of a 1-0 Wolverine lead but the Admirals failed to score.  It went like this:

Perez comes in to pitch the top of the 9th and close the game out (it's at Omaha.)

He'll face Reinert, Scott, Kennedy.

Reinert comes up and K's looking.  1 down.

Porter Scott comes up and K's looking.  2 down.  Not looking good for Washington, Perez looks to be on and Omaha is 1 out away from closing the game down.

Leo Kennedy comes up and hits a 3-1 pitch for a DOUBLE.  Whooaaahh!!!  Stop the presses, game is still alive, tying run on 2nd now with Daniel Smith at the Plate.

Here's where Washington screws up Kennedy, the tying run has a 5 speed.  Instead of pinch running B. Washington leaves him in.  B. Washington has backup OF Mitchell Henderson available who has 10 speed AND he still has backup C Lopez to replace Kennedy defensively.

So next at bat Daniel Smith hits a SINGLE but Kennedy is held at 3rd and does not score.  Would Henderson have scored?  I don't know but I guarantee he would have had a hell of a better chance than Kennedy.

So with men at 1B and 3B  Patrick Cole comes out and grounds out to second to end the game. 

Here is the game log from that half inning below.

Top of the 9th - Washington Admirals batting - Pitching for Omaha Wolverines : RHP S. Carr
Pitching: RHP J. P�rez
Batting: RHB D. Reinert	0-0: Swinging Strike 0-1: Ball 1-1: Swinging Strike 1-2: Ball 2-2: Strikes out looking
Batting: RHB P. Scott	0-0: Ball 1-0: Swinging Strike 1-1: Ball 2-1: Ball 3-1: Foul Ball, location: 2F 3-2: Strikes out swinging
Batting: SHB L. Kennedy	0-0: Called Strike 0-1: Ball 1-1: Ball 2-1: Ball 3-1: DOUBLE (Line Drive, 3D)
Batting: RHB D. Smith	0-0: Ball 1-0: Foul Ball, location: 2F 1-1: SINGLE (Groundball, 4D) (infield hit) L. Kennedy to third
Batting: SHB P. Cole	0-0: Called Strike 0-1: Swinging Strike 0-2: Ball 1-2: Ground out 4-3 (Groundball, 4)
Top of the 9th over - 0 run(s), 2 hit(s), 0 error(s), 2 left on base; Washington 0 - Omaha 1
Game Over ... Omaha defeats Washington, 1 to 0

5/26/1993 Uploaded

October 29th, 2008 by Banditos GM

- I mentioned how McKeon loves to go to Halter, well he did it again.  This time injuring Halter.  Halter has a DTD injury which occurred in the 3rd game of the Memphis Series. 
    - That day McKeon let Halter pitch 28 pitches.
    - The night before Halter pitched a couple of inning throwing 26 pitches.
    - 3 days before Halter pitched 37 pitches
    - Halter is on pace for 145.1 IP.  We are going to move him from #1 MR slot to #1 Setup hoping that McKeon will use him more judiciously.  We liked him at the #1 MR because he did get a lot of quality innings but at this point McKeon is just throwing him whenever.

- Speaking of managers, Justin, I think Bob Washington made a serious mistake this sim by a move/non-move.  See if you can find what I'm referring to.

- Jang-lu Lew of Detroit had his career ended by injury.  The only reason this is notable is because Justin called him the ugliest player he's seen.  EWB will miss Lew, perhaps he can find a coaching position somewhere.

Re: New Pitching Stars in the Plains Division

October 29th, 2008 by Banditos GM

I'm uploading as I type but in reference to the email below, check out Davila.  He's really starting to put his shit together.  He's had several good outings lately.  I think Davila is one of those players who got cocky and arrogant, lived the high flying athlete's life of women, drugs and partying.  Then after getting cut by Miami, getting league minimum from Pittsburgh and getting waived and claimed by Denver, he finally got his head back on his shoulders.  We'll see if he can recover from the damage to his reputation and neglecting his pitching work.

Evaluating the 25 Highest Contracts in the Game

October 29th, 2008 by Admirals GM

Here is a run-down ot the 25 highest players in EWB right now, with an assessment of whether their contracts are good or bad for the teams who are paying them.  I think you'll see a surprising number of these contracts look pretty bad.  In ascending order...

 

#25: Francisco Murillo, 1B, Denver.  Getting $7.9M thru 1995.  Contract Grade: C-.  After being a .300/20/90 player for years, Murillo dropped off dramatically last year, the first year of his contract, going .257/11/61.  And he's 33, meaning he'll be 35 when his contract runs out.  He's off to a decent start in 1993 though.

 

#24: German Ortiz, RF, Carolina.  Getting $7.9M thru 1994.  Grade: B+.  It's doubtful that 34-year-old Ortiz will duplicate his MVP year of 1993, but Carolina gets a lot of credit for keeping his contract short.  Even if Ortiz fades -- and he's off to a decent start this year -- Carolina hasn't overly committed themselves.

 

#23: Martin Diaz, RF, Memphis.  Getting $8M thru 1993.  Grade: D.  Diaz, a lifetime Razorback (and one of the key components on their 1987 World Series team), used to be one of the better players in the game.  At this point, though, he's washed up: .245/11/50 last year.  Worse, he's out for all of 1993.  The contract was signed back in 1990, and Diaz has been nowhere near the 23rd best player in the game during its duration.

 

#22: Desmond MacGilp, SP, Las Vegas.  Getting: $8M thru 1993.  Grade: B.  MacGilp, a former Gibson award winner (1986), lost 20 games last year for Las Vegas, but he's still a decent pitcher at age 31.  Projected to be a free agent after the year, I bet he he gets a decent deal this offseason, not too far from his current contract.

 

#21: Ben Barnard, LF, Detroit.  Getting: $8M thru 1994.  Grade: F.  A horrible, horrible deal.  It was originally signed with Denver, back in 1990: 5 years for $40M.  Based on his production up to that point -- he was like .268/22/80 in 1990 -- it already looked like a mistake for the team.  But then Denver traded him to Detroit in exchange for Cruisers' legend Tom Mitchell, and Barnard responded by breaking his kneecap.  With age and injuries, the guy is just a shell of his former self.  He batted .186/0/16 in 1992, and he's hitting just .210 with extensive playing time so far in 1993.

 

#20: Dong-min Kim, 3B, San Antonio.  Getting: $8.1M thru 1993.  Grade: C-.  Would be lower, but for the fact it ends after the year.  This contract always seemed like a bad idea, and it's gotten even worse, as Kim has fallen off.  After batting .245/11/58 in 1992, Kim is off to a .220 start in 1993.  The guy still has a heck of an agent, so who knows, maybe he'll get another over bloated deal this offseason.  Looks like Miami unloaded him at the right time.

 

#19: Correy Dillon, 3B, Austin.  Getting $8.23 thru 1996 (thanks to an extension).  Grade: C+.  Look, Dillon is an alright player -- last year he went .266/15/65.  But he's 35 now and his ratings are starting to fade.  His original contract was supposed to run out after 1993; why Austin agreed to an extension is beyond me.  Fearless prediction: the grade of this contract will drop to D or F by 1995.

 

#18: Cory Bradford, OF, New York.  Getting: $8.2M thru 1994.  Grade: F.  The mind boggles at how good New York could be if they weren't carrying around this atrocity.  Even in his prime, prior to signing this deal, he wasn't that great: he regularly batted .220 with 28 HR or so back in the mid 1980s.  Why New York thought this merited a 5 year $40M contract prior to 1990 is beyond me.  But now, he's dropped far below even that level of production.  His ratings are down to 2-3 contact-power.  It would be unsurprising if New York eventually cuts him and eats the remainder of the deal.

 

#17: Vincent Carter, C, Denver.  Getting $8.4M thru 1994.  Grade: A.  Obviously, one of the best players in the game; perhaps even the best ever.  Things will get more complicated when Denver considers re-signed the mid-30s Carter next year.

 

#16: Kevin Morris, SP, Miami.  Getting $8.5M thru 1995.  Grade: B.  Too early to say, but off to a great start.  Think of the B grade as a default setting.

 

#15: Mike Smith, RF, Cleveland.  Getting $8.5M thru 1993.  Grade: C.  One of the premier power hitters of his era (the 1980s), Smith has dropped off recently with age (he's 35).  He hit like .228/23/80 last year.  Still, he is at least something of a producer, and given that the contract runs out after the year, Cleveland gets a bit of a pass for taking him on via trade. 

 

#14: George Banks, SP, Miami.  Getting $8.5M thru 1993.  Grade: A-.  On the one hand, Banks has been the best pitcher in baseball over the last 5 years or so.  On the other hand, he's fading.  Did Banks merit a one year deal worth this much right now?  I mostly give Miami the benefit of doubt, but dock them a half letter grade given Banks' slows start in 1993 (hence the A- instead of straight A).

 

#13: Stephen Caldwell, LF, Detroit.  Getting $8.6M thru 1993.  Grade: F.  You'll notice that this gives Detroit two F contracts (the other was Barnard); at least the Caldwell deal ends after the year.  Caldwell was a solid producer back in his prime, in the mid 1980s: he had 5 contact 4 power then, and was consistently a contender for the batting title with Houston (he won the thing in 1986).  Then Atlanta signed him to a huge 7 year, $55M deal prior to 1987.  In the first several years of the deal, Caldwell continued to be pretty good.  But then, with age and injuries, he started to fade a little in 1989.  After Detroit traded for him in 1991, he really took a nosedive, and his 3-2 ratings have led him to be limited to just 8 pinch hitting at bats this year.  That's a lot to pay a bad pinch hitter.  Again, those 7 year deals almost always are a mistake -- it's so hard for a good player so sustain himself for 7 years.

 

#12: Don Kelly, RF, El Paso.  Getting: $8.5M thru 1995.  Grade: A.  Fact: his ratings are fading a bit -- he'd down to a 4-4 hitter (5-4 potential), off of 5-5 in his prime.  Still, he's one of the best players in the game today.

 

#11: Dan Johnson, 2B, Cincinnati.  Getting: $8.9M thru 1995.  Grade: A-.  Johnson is one of the most overlooked players in the game.  He's also one of the best: went .337/17/84/41 last year, the first of the deal.  The only reason I down grade the deal is that Johnson is about to turn 33, and I worry a little about his age.

 

#10: Michael Bowden, SP, Dallas.  Getting: $8.9M thru 1993.  Grade: A-.  Still one of the best ranked pitchers in the game (12 pts.) at age 35, the contract is downgraded slightly due to the fact that Bowden lost 18 games last year (despite having a 3.38 ERA).  A free agent to be after the season, Bowden should still be able to command top dollar.  In fact, his yearly salary might well go up, even though he'll be 36 next year.

 

#9: Reggie Phillips, 3B, Chicago.  Getting: $9.2M thru 1996.  Grade: C-.  I think the best move that my predecessor in the G.M. office for Washington made was not to re-sign Phillips after 1989.  I mean, don't get me wrong, Phillips is a decent player -- he went .273/17/94 last year, and continues to be ranked among the best 3B in the game.  But does that sort of performance really merit the 7 year, $64M contract he got prior to 1990?  Hardly.  Plus, 1996 is a long ways away still.  There's every reason to think Phillips skills will diminish significantly between now and then, making the contract even worse.

 

#8: Jaime Colon, 3B, Atlanta.  Getting $9.4M thru 1994.  Grade: C+.  Call him Reggie Phillips Jr.  Since we took over back in 1990, Colon has been consistently among the highest paid players in the game (across multiple contracts).  Hard to see why.  He's a decent player, but how much better off would Atlanta be if they had funneled that money elsewhere?  Colon gets graded above Phillips because the deal is shorter.

 

#7: Norman Hopkins, 3B, Austin.  Getting: $9.6M thru 1993.  Grade: B-.  Here is what we're learning: if you are a decent third baseman, you can earn a ton of money.  Again, Hopkins is a nice player, just as Colon and Phillips are (and Kim used to be).  But really, $9.6M?  The market for third basemen seems over-inflated.  That probably redounds to Porter Scott's advantage.

 

#6: Emilio Romano, SP, Omaha.  Getting: $9.9M thru 1996.  Grade: B+.  Romano has been very good in his first year and a quarter with Omaha -- in fact, he's been one of the best pitchers in the game.  And he's still young at 27.  Still, he hasn't yet gone out and posted a Gibson-caliber year, and the length and money with the contract leave me a little nervous.  If Romano goes on to win a Gibson award, this contract could be upgraded.  If he starts to lose pitching points, it could be downgraded.

 

#5: Paul Sims, 1B, Kansas City.  Getting: $10M thru 1994.  Grade: B+.  Sims' ratings have slipped a little, but he's off to a red-hot start in 1993, and he was pretty good in both 1991 and 1992.  Still, I suspect Omaha could have signed him for less.  Remember the lesson of Gerald Lewis: Lewis asked for like $12M, but signed for just $7M.  Sims asked for $10M, or maybe slightly more, and Omaha gave in.  This isn't a big criticism, because none of us knew what we were doing back then -- if I had gone after Sims, I would have offered him exactly what he was asking for too.  In retrospect, though, I think Omaha (and now K.C.) could have gotten Sims for less.

 

#4: Mike Robinson, LF, Washington.  Getting: $10.3M thru 1994.  Grade: B+.  Signed after the 1988 season, the deal has had its ups and downs.  Ups: Robinson won the AL MVP in 1989 and 1992, and Washington won the World Series in 1989 while making an appearance in 1992.  Downs: in both 1990 and 1991, Robinson struggled while Washington missed the playoffs.  Still, the ups outweigh the downs.  A year from now, I will be interested in re-signing Robinson to an extension.  I hope I can get him to come down from his $10M price tag, though.

 

#3: Emilio Cabrera, RF, Montreal.  Getting: $10M thru 1993.  Grade: F.  The gold-standard of bad contracts, it's hard to see why Montreal was willing to take him off the hands of Carolina last year.  The good news for the Knights is that the deal ends after this year, meaning they will have a lot of money to work with this offseason.  Could be interesting, given that they're an up-and-coming team as it is.  This is what Cabrera, a two-time-MVP has been reduced to: when he leaves your team, its' great news because you now have way more money.

 

#2: Kyle Gregg, SS, Detroit.  Getting: $10.8M thru 1993.  Grade: C-.  Really?  Kyle Gregg is the 2nd highest paid player in EWB?  How?  Again, the guy is a decent player, and unlike others on the list, he's not fading too badly with age (he's 33).  But look, he's a guy who will go like: .292/5/50/20.  That's what he's been for years, and it's not like he was dramatically different from that before he signed his present deal.  Again, we see a pattern in Detroit: horrible, horrible contracts.  Does this force a re-evaluation of their past GM?  (I forget his name, but I think he's now with Las Vegas.  In his defense: Las Vegas seems to be turning things around as a franchise, since he took over.)

 

#1: Aaron Ellis, 2B, Houston.  Getting: $11M thru 1995.  Grade: B.  A very good player, who has even competed for MVP honos on occasion.  But as I mentioned in connection with Sims, this contract was from our earlier, more naive era.  Again, think Gerald Lewis: Lewis asked for $12M, settled for $7.5M  Ellis asked for $11M, but I bet he would have settled for $6.5M or so.  Again, I don't blame Omaha; we didn't understand how things worked back then.  But, it means that the contract receives a lesser grade than it otherwise might.  Also: must be noted that 3 of the top 6 contracts here were handed out by Mike (although Ellis and Sims went on to new teams).  Makes you think that EWB agents loved having a 13-year-old run Omaha.

 

GENERAL CONCLUSION: On the whole, a C+ average.  Avoid long term contracts, especially 7 year deals.  Third basemen seem to be especially overpaid.  And the best way to get undermarket players is to sign them to extensions before they can even come up for free agency (Vincent Carter, Doug Kelly, etc.).