Earl Weaver Baseball League

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.).

Re: Stat of the Day

October 29th, 2008 by Admirals GM

If you're interested...

 

Bicknell: .258, 4 HR & 9 RBI in just 31 at bats.  (That's a lot of HR in RBI in so few at bats; it projects to 80 HR and 180 RBI over 620 AB.)

 

Reinert: .265, 3 HR & 7 RBI, in 34 at bats.  Again, that's a good number of HR and RBI.

 

*More generally, I would say that we've won a lot of come-from-behind games based on late inning rallies this season.

Re: Stat of the Day

October 29th, 2008 by Admirals GM

Out of curiosity, what are Bicknell and Reinert doing in that situation?  Because I can tell you, each has won or at least prolonged multiple games based on 9th / Extra Inning Home Runs or extra base hits.  Bicknell in particular had a dramatic 2-out, come from behind grand slam which won us a game.

Stat of the Day

October 29th, 2008 by Banditos GM

Top 3 starters so far in Washington, Miami, and Omaha in "close/late" hitting.

Washington
1)  Mike Robinson .450 AVG, 9-20, 3 Doubles, 0 Ks
2)  Mark Jackson  .364, 8-22,
3)  Daniel Smith  .316, 12-38, 4 Doubles, 6 RBI's

xxx)  Gerald Latham  .158, 3-19, 6 K's
xx)    Roy Wilson  .200, 5-25, 11 BB's (BB's are a big mitigating factor for Wilson)
x)     Patrick Cole  .217, 5-23

Miami
1)  Michael Quint  .450, 9-20
2)  Carl Morgan  .333, 13-39, 3 HR 10 RBI, 1 K
3)  Luis Carranza  .318, 14-44, ONLY 2 RBI
Note:  Miami has 6 players hitting above .300 in this stat.

xxx)  Ken Bryant  .190, 8-42, BUT 3 HR 9 RBI
xx)    David Fields  .250, 4-16
x)      Pedro Castaneda  .265, 9-34

Omaha
1)  Chi-ming Khu  .412, 7-17
2)  Gerald Lewis   .385, 15-39, 4 SB
3)  Rickey Hernandez  .372, 16-43

xxx)  Lyle Washington  .211, 8-38, 10 K's
xx)    Paul "CreamPie" Kelley  .250, 7-28
x)     Frank Patterson  .258, 8-31

Assorted Thoughts

October 29th, 2008 by Admirals GM

1. Why is Carolina struggling so badly?  They're way underperforming their algorithm ranking.  Possible explanation: the gelling effect strikes again.  Again, I'm not fully sure the effect is real, but it does seem to arise again and again.

 

2. How is Washington D.C. playing so well?  Their offensive stats are generally bad (lower third of the NL), and their pitching stats are generally mediocre (middle of the pack).  I expect New York will overtake them before long.

 

3. If you really do plan to trade Whit Gaul, we might be interested.  Mauro Medina has been struggling for us, although he only has one blown save.  (Most of his bad outings have been in tied games, where he comes in and gets the loss.)

 

4. I feel like no matter what I do to my pitching staff, my starters' ERA will be among the best in the league (right now we're 1st) and my bullpen ERA will be among the worst (10th presently).  That's been true for several years, even though the makeup of my staff has changed considerably over that time.  This year in particular, I don't get it -- I feel like my starters kind of suck, or at least are much worse than they have been, and I feel like my bullpen is much more talented than they have been.

 

5. Our closer's role has been a revolving door since I took over in 1990.  During that time, here are pitchers who have been named closer for us (i.e., not simply players who have earned a save, but players we have put in the closer's role, and not merely on the basis of injury): Herman Thomas (1990), Tokaji Yamashita (1990, 1991), Ben Fleming (1991), Ken Milligan (1991), Ernesto Perez (1991), Carlos Hernandez (1991-1992), Cory Davidson (1992 playoffs), Mauro Medina (1993).  That's 8 pitchers in 3 years, and we might soon be looking for a 9th.

 

6. The demise of Los Angeles continues to be an interesting story.  Prior to 1992, L.A. was coming off a World Series appearance and the algorithm ranked them as the best team we have yet seen (New York was the top ranked team in 1993, and they were nowhere near the ranking of L.A. 1992).  And then they fell apart.  I sort of thought that might be a one year fluke, and L.A. would return to at least 85-90 wins this year.  But right now they're looking horrible.

 

7. The algorithm predicted they would take a fall, but St. Louis is looking good again this year.  Their pitching has been very good, and Tom Mills keeps chugging along.  Quietly, he might be putting together a hall of fame career.

 

8. Prediction: Austin is headed for a fall.  Maybe not this year, but soon.  They have too much money invested in aging players like Corey Dillon and Joe Warren.  That's what prevented them from re-signing players like Ned Gordon and Cliff Webb.  It might be a smart move for them as a franchise at this point: might as well stick with these guys, and try to capture even more titles before your championship window closes.  But, I seriously doubt Austin will be competitive by say 1995 or 1996.

 

9. I take Las Vegas slightly more serious than I took them last year, but I still think they probably aren't good enough to compete with us over the course of the season.  Last year, even when Las Vegas was closer in the standings, the team I always worried about was Los Angeles.  Now, I'm not too worried about the Gargoyles.  Portland is a complete afterthought.  We absolutely should win our division this year.  In fact, if we don't win it by a lot, that would be a disappointment.

Sporting News: News and Notes by Johnny Orker

October 29th, 2008 by Banditos GM

-  Omaha has been on fire.  After getting swept by the Chicago Samurai they won 8 straight and have gone 11-1 in that stretch.  Two big factors in their recent success have been the bullpen and Frank Patterson.  The bullpen, which had been struggling, is starting to look tight.  In the last 6 games they only had one breakdown, in the last game vs. LA.  However, their powerful offense saved the day and the win against LA.  Prior to that game the bullpen had given up two runs in the 5 games.  Frank Patterson, after a miserable April, is finally finding his groove.  His addition to an already powerful offense has made Omaha look nearly invincible.

-  Omaha has however faced a somewhat weak schedule so far in May.  They swept New Orleans, Memphis, and LA, arguably the weakest teams in the AL.  They also won 2 of 3 from the weak Fog Devils and got swept by the weak Samurai.  Omaha faces a big test in the next six games, going to Denver for 3 and then returning home to face the Washington Admirals.  The Admirals have dominated the Wolverines for years now.  If Omaha can put up a winning record in the next 6 games, Wolverines fans have to wonder how far they can go this year.  World Series?

-  The Admirals are facing their biggest enemy, injuries.  With a new team trainer and a relatively injury free April, most Admiral Fans thought that last year's problems were a thing of the past.  However, with the loss of Robinson, Jackson and Bicknell fans are starting to get worried.  The Admirals are strong this year, in fact, by many estimations the team to beat.  However, the AL (or I guess the Plains Division) is showing a lot of strength this year and the Admiral fans are losing their sense of inevitability that 5 Championships and last year's World Series appearance affords them.

-  The Admirals biggest concern has to be pitching.  Basket Case Garcia is not looking like his old self.  Aranda and Roger Wright are big question marks.  The bullpen is thin.  Washington cannot rely on Reginald Wilson in the bullpen, RJ Jacobs is carrying a 5.00+ ERA and Medina is spotty so far.  Luckily the offense has been spectacular, however if the injury bug keeps up it could really be problematic for Washington.

-  One of the bigger surprises of the early season is the Montreal Knights.  Montreal was picked near the bottom by most prognosticator, all predicting that the strong youth movement was a year or two out.  Montreal has been able to push to a near .500 record and 3rd place in the Colonial Division, AHEAD of perennial power Boston Irish.  Statistically Montreal is still somehat weak, having one of the worst pitching staffs and near last in Batting Average.  However, in other hitting categories Montreal is respectable.  Due in large part to Roy Payton who is emerging as a star 1B.  Payton is hitting .210/13/37.  Also Chris Kilvington is up from AAA and starting at 3B, putting up .305/5/15.  Montreal is really struggling at SP, although they have star Ernie Owens, #2 through #5 are pitching horribly.  Montreal GM Joe Steines has to wonder if now is the right time for Bill Wright and his loaded AAA team to make the step up.  With DC and NY still playing strongly, I predict Steines will wait until 1994 to make his move.

-  Pythagorean Record.  The Miami Banditos are the furthest under their Pyth. Record of 24-18 at -4.  The Washington DC Diplomats are the furthest over at +5 of 22-20.  Divisionally, the Sunbelt should be better and so should the Texas Divison whereas, the Colonial and Plains division may be playing over their head.

-  The Washington Admirals are an extremely adept fielding team, at least in the sense of not committing errrors.  Admirals only have 14 E's all season, significantly better than the rest of baseball.  Also a league best .992 Fielding percentage.  Do not steal on Austin (48.8 CS%) or Memphis (41.5%) but do steal on Carolina (17.1%).  Their respective Starting Catchers, MEM Jorge Hernandez, AUS Rafael Cortes, and CAR Graciano Silveiros.

- Matt Egghead is doing quite a respectable job in Minneapolis.  Egghead's moves to Mutiny success:

1) Hiring Pepe Vargas.  Take a look at Vargas' resume, the guy is a winner.  11 Playoffs, 3 championship, countless winning seasons several 100+ win seasons.

2) Trading for Steven Ferguson.  During last offseason's winter meeting Egghead was able to swindle Dallas.  Colleagues say that Egghead has an unassuming, confused look going into most dealings but they say don't underestimate him as a bumblefuck.  Most around the league are convinced that his persona is a disguise and really he is a shrewd, machiavellian GM.  Only sources in Omaha, Washington and Miami disagreed with this assessment.

3)  Bringing up LF Mike Rogers full time.  Rogers, a prospect, is kicking ass in his 1st season and a large part of Mutiny success.

4)  Signing CF Enrique Castro in April.  This FA signee is starting in CF and is playing well.

Miami Notes

October 29th, 2008 by Banditos GM

Had to hurry the sim last night.  Notes:

- Utterly horrible sim for us.  We got swept by Las Vegas at home and lost 2 of 3 at Carolina.

- The Jeff Dewalt trade is looking disastrous.  We traded away one of our best prospects for Dewalt thinking Dewalt, rated 433, could fill a #3 or #4 role for us this year.  With the injuries to our SP we needed someone plus we had no faith in Forest Thomas for the whole year.  Dewalt has been bad, 1-2, 6.95 ERA since he came to Miami.  When Banks came back we designated Dewalt to Little Rock and kept Bo Clark up.

-  Bo Clark was called up from AAA when Kevin Morris was injured.  Clark was a former prospect of ours who never lived up to expectations.  He pitched a little in 1990 when he still he was up and coming, a full year in 1991, and a little in 1992.  So far Clark has been great for us this year, he's rated 333, and has put up 1-1 2.35 ERA in 4 starts.  We are keeping Clark in the rotation and moving Forest Thomas to Spot Starter/Mop Up.

-  To say we are worried about George Banks is an understatement.  Banks, who is very injury prone, has already missed 4 weeks.  His statline is 0-2, 6.46 in 4 games, 1.89 WHIP.  Banks had a decent outing last game in a 2-1 loss BUT he was only able to go 5 innings.  Banks always seems to have a high pitch count, it's normal for him to reach 100+ pitches in 5-6 innings.  This concerns us.  Fortunately we have a bullpen that is adequate, however, we would definitely prefer to have Banks go 7-8 IP.

-  Our bullpen has been doing well with the exception of a few hiccups and Whit Gaul.  Whit Gaul is upset he's not the closer.  We may have to look at unloading him.  Our concern with our bullpen is that it is being overworked and this has a direct effect on performance.  One, our SP have not gone deep in too many games.  Two, we've played some long extra innings games.  This hurts us the next few games.  I think in the series against the Admirals our bullpen was perpetually tired which leads to poorer performance.

- Steve Halter is again looking great.  The stats don't reflect it because he had some bad outings early when he was struggling with a Day to Day injury and McKeon kept using him.  McKeon loves Halter, he pitches him regardless if he's injured or tired.  We're going to hint to Jack to be a little more conservative with Halter's arm, especially now that we are carrying 12 pitchers and moved Forest to the bullpen.

-  Our offense is sporadic.  We can light it up and then get completely shut down for a series.  Broadly, right now I'm not too worried.  We have moved Delzoppo from the 2nd spot to the 7th and put Castaneda in the 2nd slot.  Castaneda is really starting to blossom.  We had almost given up on him and had not projected him to start this year.  Meanwhile, Delzoppo still isn't showing any potential of ever hitting .300 again.  Hinkle will be returning soon and decisions will have to be made.  It's unfortunate that those two are so limited in their IF postitional abilities because really Quint should be the odd man out.

-  We love our OF but Miguel Torres is starting to fade from his hot start.  We had hopes that he had turned the corner and would be closer to a .270 hitter.  Instead he looks to put up a similar statline as last year.  However, that meets our expectations.

- Ken Bryant is on pace to have 162 RBI's.  Bryant has always been a big RBI guy and we like what he's doing.  We believe he should be hitting higher than .276, we see him in the .290 range.  Our hitting coach, Ned Tucker, is working with him.

-  Our division is admittedly weak.  We like our chances, it's a matter of pulling out of this funk, staying injury free, and getting continued production out of SP's Bo Clark and Ben Stinson.   Morris and Banks will do what they do.  Carolina looks like they're coming around, beating us 2 of 3 and climbing to two games back.  Atlanta is nothing special but they are steady.  We just need to make it into the playoffs.

Trade Log: Miami Banditos

October 28th, 2008 by Banditos GM

Joe Murphy
07-26-1990Was traded by the Miami Banditos to the Portland Fog Devils, along with SP W. Allen, LF S. Long, in exchange for RF O. González, SP R. Stapylton, 2B R. Hinkle, MR A. Crespo.

Chin-yau "Salute" Chua
03-31-1991Was traded by the Miami Banditos to the Omaha Wolverines in exchange for 2B M. Myers.

Dave Harris
05-08-1991Was traded by the Miami Banditos to the Montreal Knights in exchange for 1B J. Rodríguez.

Dong-min Kim
11-16-1991Was traded by the Miami Banditos to the San Antonio Aztecas in exchange for LF M. Torres.

Mitchell Henderson
05-07-1992Was traded by the Miami Banditos to the Washington Admirals in exchange for SP V. MacWhirter.

Cesar Martinez
07-27-1992Was traded by the Miami Banditos to the Portland Fog Devils in exchange for C D. Fields.

Ray Stapylton
11-24-1992Was traded by the Miami Banditos to the Portland Fog Devils, along with MR S. Miles, MR H. Manley, in exchange for CF C. Morgan, MR J. Moreno.

Lee Dalton
Jeff Dewalt and Miller

Trade Log: Washington Admirals

October 29th, 2008 by Banditos GM

Roland Ward
06-02-1990Was traded by the Washington Admirals to the Las Vegas Renegades in exchange for MR D. Erwin.

Dale "Old Nick" Erwin
07-24-1990Was traded by the Washington Admirals to the Los Angeles Gargoyles, along with SP C. Hunter, in exchange for 3B R. Abbott, SP D. Fulton.

Manuel Perez
12-09-1990Was traded by the Washington Admirals to the Los Angeles Gargoyles in exchange for 1B D. Smith.

Dave "Pony" Tyler
05-11-1991Was traded by the Washington Admirals to the Austin Marshalls in exchange for 1B W. Lund.

Roy Abbott
07-05-1991Was traded by the Washington Admirals to the Kansas City Wheat Kings, along with C G. McFarland, in exchange for C A. Morín, 1B R. Farrell, SP C. Rodríguez.

Tokaji Yamashita
07-12-1991Was traded by the Washington Admirals to the Chicago Samurai, along with $500,000, in exchange for MR E. Pérez, SP C. Jones, RF H. Vázquez.

Tyrone "Skull Crusher" Taylor
07-28-1991Was traded by the Washington Admirals to the New York 5 Points, along with MR K. Milligan, MR A. Suárez, in exchange for 3B P. Cole.

Ty Moore
11-18-1991Was traded by the Washington Admirals to the Carolina Colonials in exchange for LF A. Bicknell.

Vic MacWhirter
05-07-1992Was traded by the Washington Admirals to the Miami Banditos in exchange for RF M. Henderson.

Ben Fleming
07-24-1992Was traded by the Washington Admirals to the Montreal Knights, along with SP C. Rodríguez, CF C. Graham, in exchange for RF I. Escobido.

Clyde Moore
05-08-1992Was traded by the Washington Admirals to the Cleveland Rockers, along with SS K. Glenn, in exchange for SP B. Murphy, C D. Wells.

Oliver Cole
11-26-1992Was traded by the Washington Admirals to the Denver Amigos, along with RF I. Escobido, in exchange for MR M. Medina.

Trade Log: Omaha Wolverines

October 28th, 2008 by Banditos GM

Bruce Cochrane
05-22-1990Was traded by the Omaha Wolverines to the Detroit Cruisers, along with SP J. Gallardo, 1B J. McCormick, in exchange for 2B G. Buckley, 1B B. Lindsay.

Juan Bravo
05-26-1990Was traded by the Omaha Wolverines to the Houston Black Gold in exchange for SP E. Jackson, SP F. Long, 3B T. Kojima.

Ken Cooper
07-24-1990Was traded by the Omaha Wolverines to the Pittsburgh Crusaders, along with MR L. Rosário, LF D. Bryant, CF K. McCarthy, SP E. Donahue, in exchange for 3B J. Garrett, RF C. Pierce.

Matt Myers
03-31-1991Was traded by the Omaha Wolverines to the Miami Banditos in exchange for LF C. Chua.

Paul Sims
04-27-1991Was traded by the Omaha Wolverines to the Kansas City Wheat Kings, along with SP V. Machado, in exchange for SP O. Díaz, RF L. Washington, SP F. Gordon.

Javier Martinon
06-29-1991Was traded by the Omaha Wolverines to the Montreal Knights, along with 1B C. Kilvington, MR A. Durán, MR C. Crus, MR K. Williams, in exchange for 1B S. Townsend, SP T. Merritt, SP R. Ortíz.

Rafael Cortes
07-28-1991Was traded by the Omaha Wolverines to the Austin Marshalls, along with CF A. Díaz, MR J. Martínez, LF K. Harris, in exchange for CF T. Jordan, MR S. Adams.

Mauro Medina
10-25-1991Was traded by the Omaha Wolverines to the Denver Amigos in exchange for C J. Rodríguez.

Shane Adams
11-25-1991Was traded by the Omaha Wolverines to the Chicago Samurai in exchange for CL N. Hess.

Herman Thomas
06-08-1992Was traded by the Omaha Wolverines to the Atlanta Confederates in exchange for MR A. Ayala.

Shannon Townsend
06-28-1992Was traded by the Omaha Wolverines to the New York 5 Points in exchange for SP C. Jones.

Bill Wright(0 unread) Yahoo! Mail, odb_72
10-25-1992Was traded by the Omaha Wolverines to the Montreal Knights, along with LF T. Brown, MR J. Roe, in exchange for 1B F. Patterson.

Aaron Ellis
11-15-1992Was traded by the Omaha Wolverines to the Houston Black Gold, along with SP A. Hamilton, MR F. Gordon, in exchange for SS J. Muñíz, RF B. Dawson, C J. Ramos.

Tom Jordan
11-24-1992Was traded by the Omaha Wolverines to the Boston Irish in exchange for LF C. Belcher.

Randall Garner
02-05-1993Was traded by the Omaha Wolverines to the Austin Marshalls, along with RF J. Thompson, SP M. Leyland, SS H. Pérez, in exchange for MR A. Dunlap.

Bill Dawson
05-06-1993Was traded by the Omaha Wolverines to the New Orleans Dukes in exchange for CF P. Kelley.

New Pitching Stars in the Plains Division

October 28th, 2008 by Admirals GM

1. In Omaha you have 21-year-old rookie Ed Jackson, arguably the best starter in the entire AL so far.  (Jackson pitched a little in the majors last year, but he's still officially a rookie.)  And you also have 22-year-old rookie Shawn Carr, a 1992 draftee who has been arguably the best middle reliever in baseball.

 

2. In Kansas City you have 24-year old rookie Bartolo Barios, a 12-pt. pitcher with a 3.24 ERA and a ML-leading 6 wins so far.  (Like Jackson, Bartolos pitched a little in 1992.)  And you also have the newly acquired Joe Murphy, who's leading the majors with 15 Saves.

 

3. In Minneapolis you have former Gibson Award Winner Steven Ferguson.  After posting a 4.43 ERA in 1991 and a 5.35 ERA in 1992, Ferguson looked washed up, especially in light of a fractured elbow injury which had him out for 12 months during the time.  Because of this, Minneapolis was able to trade for Ferguson this offseason in exchange for nothing: they gave up highly overpaid backup C Tony Garcia, a player who only has 29 at bats for Dallas this year despite being paid $7.3M.  For Minneapolis, Ferguson is 4-3 with a 2.22 ERA, and has Matt looking like a genius.  You also have 22-year-old Domingo Lopez, an 11 point middle reliever.  Lopez is interesting because he spent 1992 with Memphis, and then was traded to K.C. this offseason for Matthias Marquis, a decent OF prospect (3-4 potential).  Somehow, Kansas City ended up placing Lopez on waivers this spring even though they just acquired him and gave up a lot to get him.  Minneapolis snatched him up from their division rival, and Lopez has responded with a 2.30 ERA.

 

4. In Denver you don't really have any new pitching stars, but you do have Aurelio Davila, who has now put up 4 very good outings in a row.

 

5. In Chicago you don't have even that.  What you have instead is the ongoing Carlos Pena disaster.  Remember, back in 1990 Pena won the AL Gibson award for a 2nd time, going 20-7 with a 2.08 ERA.  The next season, Pena was struggling in his free agent year.  Despite his struggles, Chicago G.M. Pablo Lara ended up signing him that August to a massive 7 year contract worth a total of $55M, almost $8M per year.  In terms of dollars per year, that contract was high but not insane -- Pena probably could have gotten $7M per year on the open market.  The insane part was the length of the contract: 7 years, meaning that Pena is signed thru 1998, at which point he'll be 37.  So far, the contract is looking absolutely horrible for the Samurai: in 1992, the first year of the contract, Pena was 11-14 with a 4.42 ERA; in 1993, he's started off 4-3 with a 6.52 ERA.  This is what Chicago is paying almost $8M a year for.  On the bright side, they only have to do this for the next 5 and a half years.

 

You can almost singlehandedly attribute the downfall of Chicago as an organization to this contract.  In 1990 and 1991, they were a playoff team.  In 1992, the first year of the contract, they fell apart, winning just 74 games.  In 1993, they look even worse.  Plus, the Pena and Reggie Phillips contracts really limit their options going forward -- Phillips is scheduled to make about $10M per year thru 1996, and he's a decent player, but not one of the best in the game, which is what his contract demands.

 

This year, Chicago has the 3rd highest payroll in baseball at $52M, but they're in last place with a .444 winning percentage.  (Comparison: the #1 payroll of New York has a .556 Win percentage; the #2 payroll of Kansas City is the best team in all of baseball.)

 

Oh, and one more thing.  Chicago has a horrible, horrible farm system -- Ranked #30 in baseball.  Even this might not do full justice to their badness, so think about this: their top ranked prospect is an outfielder with just 3-2 (contact-power) potential, with 1 eye.  In my evaluation, that means that their top prospect projects to be -- at best -- a marginal 4th or 5th OF.  (He does have top ranked speed and defense, but a 3-contact 1-eye batter can't cut it as a starter, if you don't have power.)   This is the best thing they are producing: a marginal 5th OF.

 

You will be hard-pressed to find another franchise whose future looks more bleak right now than Chicago's.  Good job Pablo Lara, former G.M.

Re: The Life of a Backup Catcher

October 28th, 2008 by Banditos GM

FYI.  We waiving and designating for assignment Stan Kirby.  Kirby's time with Miami is essentially over.  We will demote him to AAA and use him in case of injury, however he might not even be the choice to bring up.  In his place the young rooke Jeff Hicks will come up and get a shot.  We like what David Fields has been doing and we like Fields' defense.  We would also like to slowly bring Hicks in, so we will have a daily platoon between Fields and Hicks.

Kirby has degraded quite a bit recently at age 35.  His arm is like wet spaghetti, it's dropped to a 3.  His contact has gone down, he used to be able to hit pretty well and pretty clutch.  Now Kirby is hitting below .200.  It's been good, we've appreciated Kirby's service, but now is the time to move on.

Re: Omaha Wolverine Promo days

October 27th, 2008 by Admirals GM

I appreciate that you booked Pearl Jam for a game against us.  I will be sure to travel with the team and be in attendance at the game on May 24th.

 

Also appropriate: that "Whoomp (there it is)" will be played on the July 20th game against Miami.  I remember the real summer of 1993, and Rob was always listening to that song back then.  He loved it.

 

Finally, Matt Eggheaderr and Whitney Houston make for a good pairing.  I feel, though, that there's a developing Omaha/Minneapolis rivalry.  Again, approrpriate.

Omaha Wolverine Promo days

October 27th, 2008 by Wolverines GM

It will be a summer of fun at Sears Field this season and a summer full of concerts.

 

Here are the promotional days and activities this season....

 

Saturday May 8, 1993 New Orleans Dukes @ 1:05 PM

 

We will be having the popular 50 cent beer and hot dogs day at the ballpark, which includes sodas for the kids, so come out to Sears Field and have a beer and a dog for a buck.

 

 

Monday May 24, 1993 Washington Admirals @ 7:05 PM

 

Come see the hottest band on earth, as Pearl Jam will be performing their record selling CD, Ten, before the ballgame. We will also be giving away Ricardo Hernandez bobbleheads to the first 5,000 fans. So come out and get a bobble head and see the hottest rock band since the Beatles perfrom as the Wolverines take on the Admirals.

 

 

Wednesday June 9, 1993 Minnesota Mutiny @ 2:05 PM

 

Come out and get an authentic bat that the Wolverines use themselves at the plate. We will be giving them out to the first 500 fans through the gates. After the game multi Grammy Award winner Whitney Houston will be performing after the game. She will be performing her number one hit " I Will Always Love You " along with other number ones so bring out the mothers and daughters to see one of the greats perform.

 

 

Tuesday June 29, 1993 Portland Fog Devils @ 7:05 PM

 

Come out and get your Jimmy Garrett bobblehead. They will be going out to the first 5,000 fans through the gates. Also to all fans you will be getting the team photo magnet.

 

 

Sunday July 4, 1993 Denver Amigos @ 3:05 PM

 

This 4th of July will be one you do not want to miss. Not only will you be getting the Greatest Fireworks show in the world, you will be in for a treat as the Omaha Wolverines are bringing in the biggest show in the world right now, Metallica and Guns 'N Roses. Watch two of the greatest rock bands play in ONE night. Come see James Hetfield, Lars Ulrich, Kirk Hammett and Jason Newsted and for GNR Axl Rose, Slash, Izzy Stradlin, Duff McKagan, Steven Adler as they rock the night. This is a night you don't want to miss. This is our present to the city of Omaha, fans of Wolverines and to our great country.

 

 

Tuesday July 20, 1993 Miami Banditos @ 7:05 PM

 

It will be Dash for Cash night at Sears Field, the first 100 kids under the age of 12 will be allowed to go onto the field before the game and a helicopter will dump $5,000 in ones onto the field. You will have 2 minutes to grab as much cash as you can and keep it for yourself. ( the participants parents/guardians are responsible for the taxes at the end of the year) After the game the Wolverines bring you the two hottest hip hop groups in the country, Tag Team with their number one hit "Whoomp (there it is)" and Wreckx-N-Effect with their top hit "Rumpshaker". So come out and see these bands and bring the kids for Dash for Cash.

 

 

 

Wednesday August 11, 1993 Los Angeles Gargoyles @ 1:05 PM

 

Come out and get team signed baseballs and Omaha Wolverine bumper stickers as the team balls will go out to the first 500 fans and the bumper stickers will be given out to everyone. and after the game stick around for the hottest alternative bands around as Nirvana and Kirk Cobain will be performing. coming off their number ine album Nevermind. This is a band that transcends old and young as their music brings tears to many.

 

 

Thursday August 19, 1993 Washington Admirals @ 1:05 PM

 

Come on out to Sears Field and not only see the winningest baseball organization in EWB history get beat, and to the first 15,000 fans you will get a Wolverines floppy hat and to all fans you will get a Wolverines rally towell.

 

 

Saturday September 11, 1993 Chicago Samurai @ 1:05 PM

 

This is 70's disco days. Go into your closets and pull out all of your garb and wear it to the ballpark. There will be 70's prices too. 50 cent beer, soda, hot dogs, hamburgers, peanuts etc. After the game the Bee Gees and KC and the Sunshine band will be performing and a special appearence by Susan Olsen, Susan as you know played who????? Cindy on the Brady Bunch. So come out have some drinks and food, enjoy the show and get an autograph if you can from Susan.

 

 

Tuesday September 28, 1993 Denver Amigos @ 2:05 PM

 

The last home regular season game of the year. Come out to the field and meet the players before the game, gates will open up at 11:35 and close at 12:35, so meet your favorite players and get their autographs. After the game our GM and Team President Mike G had to move heaven and earth to make this happen, so with out further adu the Omaha Wolverines Organization would like to present.........The Beatles thats right the remaining members agreed for ONE NIGHT ONLY. See Paul,George, Ringo and John's son Julian as they will perform after the game. Folks this is the biggest show of ALL time and it's coming to Sears Field. Get Your tickets NOW.

 

Re: Questions for Omaha G.M.

October 27th, 2008 by Wolverines GM

1) We would ideally like to sign both, now that may not be in the cards financially, but I appreciate immensely what Ricardo and Orlando have done for this organization. Their performance is not the reason we didn't make the playoffs as there numbers were great and we would love to keep them both. We are continuously working on their extensions and it takes time maybe even till the end of the year and it also is in their hands as far if they want to test the free agent market so we want them back and we are working on it.

 

2) I think Justin makes an astute observation and that probably is true in most aspects but there is no cookie cutter way to run organizations. He has different circumstances that he has and that I don't and vice versa. He may take over an organization that was winning and doesn't need to change much so team chemistry never becomes an issue because he has the pieces in place and doesn't need to make overhaul change. As opposed to myself who needed to make change and that team chemistry may be an issue, but my FIRST priority is building a foundation for our organization and to get the players so we can have them playing together for years and I think we are about there.

 

3) NO ! let's get some perspective here, we are only 30 games into the season if you evaluate new managers or coaches on the first 30 games then you have problems so I think that is a ridiculous question.

Re: Questions for Omaha G.M.

October 27th, 2008 by Admirals GM

Gary Java, KKAR 1290.

Re: Questions for Omaha G.M.

October 27th, 2008 by Wolverines GM

First off who am I speaking to ?

Questions for Omaha G.M.

October 27th, 2008 by Admirals GM

1. Is there going to be an effort to re-sign Ricardo Hernandez and Orlando Diaz?  You have to understand that with the constant player turnover in Omaha, it's hard for fans to get too attached to any one player.  But somehow, Hernandez, with his cindarella story, has managed to rise above many of the other Wolverines and capture the hearts and minds of most Omahans.  The "New Mr. Wolverine," in many people's eyes.  So, are you going to be able to free up money to sign him up?

 

2. This past offseason, Washington Admirals G.M. Justin T. offered his theory of teams "gelling," according to which, even if you have a talented team, that talented team will underperform if they haven't played together enough -- haven't "gelled."  Do you believe in this theory?  Do you think Omaha's biggest problem is that they haven't had enough time to gel?  If not, what do you think there biggest problem is?

 

3. Given that Omaha is presently in 4th place, 9 games back, is your new manager's job already in jeopardy?  If not, shouldn't it be?

Re: New Commissioner's First Test

October 27th, 2008 by Admirals GM

By the way, I do think it's funny that all these issues arise just as our old commissioner died (the suspension, steroids, the lag time during the last playoffs, etc.).  And it's also funny that our hesitancy to choose a new commissioner corresponds pretty well to the real MLB timeline, when they had trouble picking a new commissioner.

 

Anyway, I strongly recommend Larry Koenig at this point.  Let me acknowledge in advance that I suspect the humor factor of having Koenig as commissioner will wear off over time, and so by 1995 or 1996 or so, we'll want to appoint a new commissioner.  So, this isn't a Pete Rozelle-like 30 year appointment.  Even so, I recommend Koenig for the job in the strongest possible terms.

New Commissioner's First Test

October 27th, 2008 by Banditos GM

Check this player out, Jesus Jiminez.  Jiminez has an interesting story.  Currently he's the backup catcher on Houston, I stumbled across him looking at their team.  He was suspended so I checked him out.  I was shocked to see he was suspended for 152 Games!!!  What the hell?  Looking at his history, I saw he had a 10 game suspension in 1991 while with the Wheat King organization.  The Wheat Kings kept him until prior to the 1992 season when they made the decision to cut him, he wasn't worth the shame and trouble.  Jiminez sat out all of 1992 unable to serve his suspension, presumably.  In the last offseason, Houston signed him and he's now on their active roster except he has a substantially higher suspension.  Perhaps he failed another drug test?  But it's not on his history.

My assumption is that somehow this is a glitch, maybe it occurred switching over to the new patch or something.  The thing is Houston is idiotic keeping him on the active roster.  Their starting C Barnes is dying of fatigue and will continue that way for another 152 games.  The new commissioner must decide whether Jiminez should get a commuted sentence as it looks like a clerical glitch from the Fay Vincent office.  Once again Vincent shows his incompetence.  Well, thoughts?

I think Jiminez should get the suspension down to time served, no more suspension, or at the most like another 5 games.

Re: trade

October 27th, 2008 by Wolverines GM

I would do that since I probably would send Dawson down to AAA if the previous deal were completed. So yes I will do that deal and save money.

Re: trade

October 27th, 2008 by Banditos GM

The GM said to submit and I did.  I put the probability of it being accepted at 0%.  Here's why:

1)  They don't need a 1B they have one of the best in the league, Dave Page.  Even his backup Ken Harris would start over Lindsay.  New Orleans lists their weaknesses as slight weakness at 3B, LF, CF and bullpen.  Weakness in SP.  This trade addresses none of that for them.

2)  Paul Kelley for Lindsay most likely wouldn't have been accepted, let alone with "throw in" Ramsey.  Ramsey is a 3 star prospect in AA.  Essentially any player that has any type of star in OVR or POT can't ever really be considered a "throw in."  He needs to be factored for.

3)  Paul Kelley is rated as a 2.5/3 star player and is their starting CF.  While not necessarily being great, he's 22, star rated and therefore regarded by the computer, decent ratings, plays a valuable position well, is an EWB starter.  Meanwhile Lindsay is a 26 year old, 1/1 star, pretty much busted prospect at the least premium offensive position, 1B. 

4)  Paul Kelley's nickname is "CreamPie."  Interesting.  Either Kelley is an avid fan of the dessert or this is some sort of sexual connotation.  Either way, the Dukes don't want to part with any player that adds fan interest to their boring team and brings fans to the stadium.  In fact they're thinking of having CreamPie day.  1st 1000 fans get a Cream Pie, they're never going to clarify which one before the game.  Strategic marketing.

So, like I said, the trade has been submitted.  When I put Kelley up there by himself and asked "Make this Work Now", they of course listed all your stars but also Bill Dawson.  They would trade Kelley for Dawson.  Which seems to be fair on both sides and accomplishes Omaha's goal of acquiring Kelley.

1)  Dawson is around 2.5 or 3 stars as well.  So equitable on the stars which the computer relies on.
2)  New Orleans lists a slight weakness at LF, Dawson would help.  Though not sure how the trade would help their slight weakness at CF, it's really not my concern.  They seem to like it.

Re: trade

October 27th, 2008 by Admirals GM

You didn't give his full name.  It's Paul "CreamPie" Kelley.  Kind of like Gerald "Rimjob" Latham, except that my guy's real nickname is "Rimfire," while Kelley's nickname really is "CreamPie."

 

Regarding Lindsay, I will note that his potential power still is 4, even if his actual power presently is 5.  I'm not implying that this is problematic for the trade, just noting it.

 

I wait to see what New Orleans says before looking at the players carefully enough to pass judgment.  If they say YES, I'm probably on board with it.

trade

October 27th, 2008 by Wolverines GM

We would like to offer the following deal to New Orleans....

 

Ben Lindsay to New Orleans for CF Paul Kelley and AA Montgomery 3B Bill Ramsey.

 

Evaluation

 

New Orleans is one of the worst power hitting teams in baseball and they could use the 5 power of Ben Lindsay. We get a 10 rated CF for defensive purposes, and we get Ramsey as a throw in.

 

If they also want an OF in return we will throw one in.

Our Pitching Situation

October 26th, 2008 by Admirals GM

Our long-term pitching situation is pretty up in the air.

 

1. Sergio Garcia is scheduled to be a free agent after the season.  He's dropped a point this year, from 11 down to 10.  Corresponding to that, his production has dropped a bit during the first month of the season -- a 3.50 ERA rather than the 3.00 (or so) we're used to, and he's give up almost as many HR in the first month as he gave up all last year.  Also, the fact that he has low fatigue (he was originally a closer) is something we don't love -- it always limits his win totals.  We might be willing to re-sign him, but probably at nowhere near what he's asking.  In particular, his demand for a 5 year contract is impossible for us.  Maybe, he would give him 3 years at the $7M per year range, but even this is a little doubtful.  There's a very realistic chance this will be Garcia's last season in Washington.

 

2. Roger Wright is scheduled to be a free agent after the season as well.  There's no way we retain him.  In fact, there's even a chance he won't spend the whole season in our rotation.  From 1988-1991, Wright was probably our staff ace, regularly winning 15 games or so and posting an ERA in the mid 3.00s.  But back then, he was an 11 pt. pitcher.  Now, he's down to 8 pts. with just 7 pt. potential.  Wright is not an old man, at 27, but he's already sharply fallen off his peak in his early 20s.

 

3. Antonio Aranda does not appear to be long for this world.  Frankly, I'm surprised he's stayed on the major league team thru April.  Aranda is down to a 7 pt. pitcher, with 6 pt. potential -- that doesn't even cut it as a marginal AAA starter.  To Aranda's credit, he's started the season 4-0, and is among the major league leaders in wins even though we accidentally skipped one of his starts.  But, his 4.26 ERA isn't anything special.  Forget about next year, I will be surprised if Aranda is still on our ML roster by August of this year.

 

That still leaves Joe MacGregor and Gustavo Chavez in our rotation, and they both figure to be around for awhile with us.  But even so, this means we might need to bring in 3 new starters over the next year.  We have some in-house options: Jeff Blanchard is looking good in AAA, and we're still hopeful for Britt Murphy; there's also Doug Kelly and Reginald Wilson, who are presently filling relief roles for us at the ML level.

 

There are other options as well though.  If we decide to let Garcia go, we will almost certainly spend money this offseason to pursue an ace starting pitcher.  Maybe Michael Bowden, or Ernie Owen, or George Banks.  Also, Mark Jackson's last year of arbitration eligibility is 1994.  Rather than lose him as a free agent after that season, we might try to trade him at some point, and land a starter in return.

 

THE question for us during the remainder of 1993 figures to be, do we have enough pitching to make it to the playoffs, and to go deep once we get there?  Other things could potentially derail us -- like injuries -- but the real concern is pitching.  Our offense is dominant.  It may be that Kansas City is scoring a few more runs right now, but I doubt this will hold up.  Barring injuries, we should have the top scoring offense in the game by the end of the year, perhaps by far.  Just to give you a sense, here are the stat lines that our 2-7 hitters project to put up...

 

#2: Porter Scott: .304/32/124

#3: Mike Robinson: .333/22/60 (HRs and RBIs a little low b/c he's missed time to injury)

#4: Artie Bicknell: .345/54/162

#5: Dale Reinert: .342/54/141

#6: Mark Jackson: .324/27/97

#7: Leo Kennedy: .268/32/60

 

Obviously, there's no way all these numbers can hold up.  If they did, we would put the 1927 Yankees to shame.  But, it's not like any single player here is playing way over his head.  Porter Scott and Mike Robinson are hall of famers who are still near their primes, ratings-wise.  Artie Bicknell has as good of hitter ratings as anyone playing today.  Dale Reinert has 5 power, and the rankings like him as a top 5 First Baseman in all of baseball.  Mark Jackson has an established history of stat lines in the neighborhood of .315/20/100.  And Leo Kennedy has 4 power, and given his playoff explosion last year, 30 HRs for him isn't unthinkable, assuming he stays healthy.  So in short, we might be overachieving right now, but if so we aren't playing WAY over our heads.  We're playing a little bit over our heads.

 

Given this offense, even if we have average pitching, we should make the playoffs.  In fact, though, so far our pitching has been better than average: our starters' ERA has been 2nd best in the AL.  We worry that this is just smoke and mirrors, though -- our starters HAVE been playing WAY over their heads.  We'll see how things unfold.

Omaha Bullpen

October 26th, 2008 by Admirals GM

1. Punk Perez is struggling badly.  He has a 9.00 ERA and a 2.00 WHIP.  He only has one official blown save -- against us (we also gane him his *only* blown save in 1992, in the Rimfire Latham broken face game) -- but that's just because he's sometimes pitched so badly, that he's been removed from the 9th inning before he could officially collect a blown save.  He has personally Ed Jackson at least 2 wins.

 

2. 22-year-old Shawn Carr has been lights out, with a 2.05 ERA so far.  But is Omaha in danger of over-using him?  So far this year, he's pitched 30.2 IP thru 30 games.  That means he's on pace to pitch 165.2 IP over the entire season, all out of middle relief.  That's probably unsustainable -- 100 IP is a ton out of middle relief, while 165.2 is unthinkable.  Omaha doesn't want to burn out Carr: right now, he's a  10 pt. pitcher, but he has 12 pt. potential.

5/6/1993 Uploaded

October 26th, 2008 by Banditos GM

- April Awards were announced:  Jimmy Garrett wins AL Player of the Month.  Round of Applause.  Joe Warren destroys the month of April, check him out.  Justin Johnston picks up his first piece of hardware, April NL Rookie of the Month, presumably the first of many.  Feel good story Juan Velazquez of Denver picks up AL Rookie of the Month.

- Ty Moore is 1-5 and Carolina is well below expectations.  Can Moore and the Colonials right the ship?

- Leo Kennedy is out 1-2 Weeks.

- Porter Scott sent Justin an email requesting a contract extension.  He would like to play with Washington next year.  I can't imagine Justin giving him the contract that he's asking for though.

- Ben Stinson is out for 1-2 weeks.  So up to this point Miami has suffered injuries to their number 1,2, and 3 starters.  Just when we get Morris back Stinson goes.  If we hover around .500 until we get Banks back, we'll be content.  Luckily, it looks like the Sunbelt will be wide open again this year.  Carolina struggling and Atlanta is a little better than a .500 team.  The division is ours for the taking, and we'll do anything necessary to ensure a divisional title.  No amount of money will be spared, no prospect is too valuable, and no player is un-cuttable or untouchable.

-  KC is incredibly hot or incredibly good.  Omaha lost a lot of ground this sim.  Also in that division Denver is playing great, and Minneapolis is chugging along.  Who woulda thought?  Was the Escobido/Cole trade and the pickup of Velazquez the surge that Denver needed to become competitive?

- Houston lost Frank Gordon for a couple of weeks, and then just lost Ellis for a couple of weeks.  Houston looked competitive but is really struggling with injuries, especially for a team without a lot of depth.  Scott Riley, the Ralston native, is gone for the year leaving Gordon as the Ace.  Wow, I bet Mike, or anybody, ever thought Gordon would have occupied the number 1 slot in any rotation.  However, Gordon had been stepping up, pitching quite well.

Trenton Captains

October 26th, 2008 by Banditos GM

JTT, have you noticed how shitty Trenton has been since 1985?  They too shared the glory days of the late '70's along with the parent club then slipped to mediocrity before their descent into the world of shitty minor league team.  Are you going to make any effort to improve the Trenton organization or do you not care how they finish as long as they develop little Admirals?

The manager, Luis Zumaya, has a lot of experience, he's been at the helm of a minor league team since 1970 and has a degree of success.  This is his first year at Trenton but it doesn't look like the 62 year is what Trenton needs to turn the ship around.  Perhaps a new young fiery coach, although Washington definitely has a preference for the older, experienced coaches.

Bottom line is that Trenton has been really bad for years now.

Re: Trade Proposal

October 25th, 2008 by Banditos GM

I agree with the trade not making sense for Dallas.  It's so early in the season and many publications had them in contention, there's really no reason they would trade Rosa right now even if the talent levels are acceptable.

That being said  we would like to target rebuilding teams.  We would like to offer our number one prospect Lee Dalton to New Orleans:

Lee Dalton
FOR
SP Jeff Dewalt
Lawrence Miller (Single A Columbus) - A midline (3 star prospect years away from EWB, looks to be AT BEST a good utility IF in EWB)

I really need to complete a trade before the sim continues.  The computer agrees with this.  All I need is one human ok, I know Mike is at the Movies, so Justin if you're out there give me a yay or nay.

4/23/1993 Uploaded-Notes

October 23rd, 2008 by Banditos GM

- Miami is still exploring options regarding a trade.  In the meantime we brought up Bo Clark from AAA to make the start.  Clark pitched great, we may have to take another look at him.  Clark was a member of the 1991 Miami Rotation before getting sent down to Little Rock AAA in 1992.

- Miami lost SP Kevin Morris for one week, so one or two starts.  He will not go to the DL but complicates our pitching dilemma.  By the way, Forest Thomas threw a beauty of a game in Chicago, going 7 IP, 0 ER and getting the W.  Every time I doubt him he surprises me.  We really need him to pitch well right now.  Ben Stinson is pitching lights out for us.

- Ismael "Spike" Escobido wins Player of the Week.  Escobido is playing great for Denver, who is surprisingly right behind KC.  I've personally always thought Escobido was pretty good, all the way back to when Washington was negotiating with Montreal.  We wish Escobido and Denver well.

- Hubert "Hulk" Hogan gets called on a lot to come out of the bullpen for LA.  Thing is, he sucks.  This is of course anecdotal but it seems I always see the guy fucking up and losing.

- CF Michael Long of Dallas is on the trading block.  His situation parallels the Emilio Cabrera situation, I believe Long is signed through 1996 with '97 being a player option.  Fuck that.

- I know I've brought this up a couple of times but I forgot ANOTHER Carolina 1B, Flint Evans.  Here is a run down of Carolina's depth at first which is not just interesting because there is a lot of quality but more so because of the names involved.

Rafael Valentin - starting 1B Carolina
Flint Evans - starting at DH Carolina
Carlos Perez - Backup 1B and C Carolina
Ben Fowler - 3rd String 1B Carolina, Young 25 year old.
Jesus Lopez - starting 1B Norfolk
Adam Coker - starting DH Norfolk
Gonzalo "Cougar" de la Torre - Backup 1B Norfolk
Robert Huot - 3rd string 1B Norfolk

With the exception of Fowler, all of these guys are notable and at one time were starters.  Many of them still could start, I just find it amazing that Carolina has so much depth at 1B.

- Ken Hamilton, signed with Washington DC in the offseason, lost his starting job at C to 24 yr old big star prospect Carroll Holden.  Hamilton, however, will platoon at 1B.

- One of the reasons why I haven't pulled the trigger on the Rosa trade is because after scanning my minors, I was a little disturbed by Miami's lack of prospects.  Trading Lee Dalton, probably our top offensive prospect, would further weaken our system.  It will take a while to mull over my options.

Ft. Lauderdale Pitching

October 23rd, 2008 by Admirals GM

Maybe I shouldn't knock Shockey.  So far this year Ft. Lauderdale is 9-5 and has a team ERA of 3.52, despite having no pitchers on their entire squad.  The Gulf Coast League is a bit pitching-dominant -- the league ERA is just 3.10.  Still, the Ft. Lauderdale pitching numbers are respectable, if a bit below average.

 

The real loser with the recent pitching signings may be Hurricane Second Baseman John Lambert, who had found something of a second calling.  Lambert was drafted in the 24th (next to last) round of the 1992 draft, and has quite modest hitter ratings.  He is not a prospect.  Or at least, not as a batter.

 

As a pitcher, though, he might have potential.  So far on the year, he's 6-3, and is only giving up 9.91 hits per 9 innings (a respectable number), and even better he's walking just 1.79 men per 9.  That gives him a decent WHIP of 1.30.  But that's not the half of it...

 

Again, Lambert is 6-3.  That's a lot of decisions, you might think, given that we're only 2 weeks into the season and Ft. Lauderdale has played just 14 games.  Well, it's because Lambert has started all 14 games for the Hurricans.  And it's not like he just starts them, pitches an inning, and then comes out.  No, in Lambert's 14 starts, he has thrown 95.1 IP *already* this year.  For a comparison: the next highest in the league is Julian Anderson, with just 31.1 IP -- less than a third of what Lambert has pitched.

 

So, not only is Lambert starting every single game, he's also averaging 6.81 IP every time he goes out!  If he were to keep up this pace, Lambert would pitch over 1,050 IP over the entire year!  Not even those old time pitchers from the 1800s could match that.

 

And again, I repeat, using Lambert as their one and only starting pitcher, Ft. Lauderdale is in first place in their division at 9-5.

 

Lambert must be some sort of freak of nature.  Don't let him miss his calling; convert him into a pitcher!

Forest Thomas

October 23rd, 2008 by Admirals GM

Wants a Kareem Abdul Jabbar-like send off.  As he visits various away stadiums this year, he wants to be given motorcycles and such.  That doesn't happen if he had retired back in October.  The only way it happens is if he announces his retirement early in the season.

 

But then, why didn't he announce a planned retirement last year, at the beginning of 1992?  Because it wasn't a sure thing back then that he was going to get to 300 wins.

 

So, Thomas wanted to do two things: (1) surpass 300 wins, and (2) Get a grand send-off, of the sort you can only get if you announce your retirment plans early on.

 

He did a good job of achieveing this.

Stat of the Day

October 23rd, 2008 by Admirals GM

So far this season, Carolina's starters' ERA is 7.90.  Their bullpen ERA is 3.09.

 

More generally, Carolina has a pretty good bullpen right now -- a lot of 10 and 11 point pitcher.  We're sort of thinking about the possibility of making a trade down the line -- we give them a starter, like Doug Kelly or Jeff Blanchard or Reginald Wilson, and they give us a reliever back.

 

Then again, given that Ty Moore is struggling so far with a 10.97 ERA, the Colonials might be done with former Admiral pitchers.

Re: Trade Proposal

October 23rd, 2008 by Admirals GM

Talent-wise, I don't necessarily have an objection.  (FWIW: I see Rosa used to be an 11 point pitcher, but has fallen since then.  That neither speaks in favor or against the deal, just thought it was interesting.)

 

Given that Dallas looks like they might compete, I might prefer it if you added in someone who was major league ready, even if that meant Dallas had to add a throw-in of their own.

 

I don't feel strongly about it, but for the sake of realism, I do think I might prefer it.

 

One last thought: as I'm sure you know, teams set themselves at either WIN NOW, NEUTRAL, or REBUILDING.  We hardly ever discuss this in connection with trades, but I see how it could be relevant -- a team that ranks itself as REBUILDING might evaluate trades differently than a team that hopes to WIN NOW.

 

At any rate, Dallas is presently self-ranked as REBUILDING, for what it's worth.

Trade Proposal

October 23rd, 2008 by Banditos GM

We are interested in trading for Isaias Rosa SP for Dallas.  Rosa 3/3 star, rated 333, and is 25yrs old.

We were thinking before the season it might be necessary to acquire another SP.  Now that Banks is out it has accelerated our intentions.

We would like to offer AA Prospect Lee Dalton, the computer likes the deal.

Rationale:

Dallas is competitive this year and has a strong pitching staff, in fact Rosa is their 4th starter.  They also have a pretty good lineup with the exception of C and LF, which currently has Jared Roberts starting.  Roberts is a weak player and Dallas could seriously afford to give up some pitching to upgrade at LF.  I was initially trying to offer them someone to fill that spot, however they were interested in Dalton OF.  Dalton is a 4.5 star prospect playing in AA but probably capable of at least being in AAA.  It may be a little early to be in EWB.

To help Dallas now I'd be willing to add some players.  Either two marginal EWB/AAA players at MR and OF or one fairly good MR or OF, that would definitely make their EWB roster.

Thoughts?

The Life of a Backup Catcher

October 23rd, 2008 by Admirals GM

Is pretty good in EWB, at least for our backups.

 

In Miami you have Stan Kirby, a guy who's been with the team since back in 1982.  That makes him the longest tenured Bandito.  Now 35 years old, Kirby has never played more than 77 games -- in fact, his typical year has been more like 30 to 40 games -- he has a .264 lifetime batting average, and his career highs in homeruns and RBIs are 5 and 30 respectively.  Also, at this point in his career at least, his defense is pretty poor: 5 rating, 3 arm, leading him to throw out less than 25% of all baserunners last year.

 

In Washington, you have Carlos Lopez, who's been with the Admirals since 1987.  That ties him for the longest tenured team member.  Now 32 years old, Lopez has never played more than 36 games in a season, he has a .203 lifetime batting average, and his career highs in home runs and RBIs are 4 and 22 respectively, set way back in 1987.  His defense at least is quite solid, which is what has kept him in the majors -- 10 defense, 10 arm.

 

In Omaha you have Ron Newton, who has been with the team since 1989.  That might not sound like too long, but remember this is the Wolverines we're talking about -- very, very few pre-1990 players are still with the team.  (In fact, based on a quick look, the only others I can see are Chi-ming Khu and Julio Contreras.)  Newton's personal high is 106 games back in 1991, though it's more typical for him to play in 60 or so.  He has a lifetime batting average of .235 (he hit .197 last year), and he has personal highs in home runs and RBIs of 12 and 45.  Defensively, he's a little above average: 8, 6 arm.

 

Summing up, if you're a backup catcher, you can really kind of suck, but your team won't care and you'll be able to stick on the roster for years and years and years.  Kirby, Lopez, and Newton have a pretty good racket going.

4/16/1993 Uploaded

October 22nd, 2008 by Banditos GM

-  Rain Delays.  If you've noticed they happen, especially this time of season.  How it affects your team is the starting pitcher usually doesn't make it through a long delay, or relievers tend to get rocked after delays if they stay in.

- Ricardo Hernandez, who's had a phenomenal start, had his hitting streak ended at 28 games.

- Bret "River" Martin and Juan Vargas signed.  All other offers made it clear that they were highly offended at Omaha's offer of a minor league contract.

- Geoffrey Williams said he evaluated the Washington depth at 1B and decided it was not worth his while to take a minor league offer.  Why he wasn't offended and Omaha's offers were is a mystery to me since Williams is pretty reputable.

- Jimmy Garrett wins AL Player of the Week.  Round of Applause.

- With all the negative talk about Davila, he went out and had a great outing.

- Note:  The Joe Murphy Miami-Portland trade is mentioned often, but the forgotten part was Stan Long, a Bandito prospect sent to Portland with Murphy.  Well Long has cemented the RF spot in Portland in 1993.

- Victor Pereira of NO is injured for 8-9 weeks.  Big blow.

- KC scored 5 runs in the top of the 15th to beat Miami in one game.  Fuck me.  You can't score ALL game and then score 5 in the 15th?

- George Banks is injured for 4 weeks.  This is big as we are weak in SP as it is, although Morris is kickin ass.  We haven't decided how to deal with this situation.

- Dear Rob,
I've talked with my wife and family, and I think it's time to call it quits.  I've had some good times.  I'm thankful for those, but I want to retire while I'm still young and in good health to enjoy the rest of my life.  Hope you understand.
Forest Thomas

- Dear Forest,
You made this decision one week into the season!?  Couldn't you have just pulled the trigger in October of last year, cause to tell you the truth that's what we would have preferred!  Are you gaming me for $400K?  We may have to cut your ass and send you into early retirement.  Hope you understand.
Rob M

Bart Giamatti's Speech

October 22nd, 2008 by Banditos GM

Here is a transcript of Bart Giamatti's speech at the Earl Weaver Baseball League 1991 Hall of Fame Induction.  It was to be his last Hall of Fame Induction.  Alex Hendrix and Mal Collier were the inductees.

http://mason.gmu.edu/~rmatz/giamatti.html

Re: Aurelio Davila...

October 22nd, 2008 by Banditos GM

We keep it steroid free down here in Miami.....cocaine....well that's another story.

Re: Aurelio Davila...

October 22nd, 2008 by Admirals GM

2 things...

 

1. It's not exactly the same, but the Cole/Escobido situation reminds of Roland Ward, the crap 3B I was stuck with back in 1990.  Ward was batting like .125 for me a month into the season, and I was badmouthing him left and right.  Then I traded him to Las Vegas for Dale "Ole Nick" Erwin.  Not long after that, we were playing Las Vegas and Ward hit a go-ahead pinch hit home run for the Renegades, which I think won them the game against us.  I wasn't happy to lose, but I had to acknowledge it must have been pretty good revenge for Roland Ward.

 

2. Looking at the updated history page, I see that the AL League ERA in 1992 was 3.92.  That's the lowest it's been in EWB since 1974, which was a notorious pitcher's era.  So far, our league ERA in 1993 is 4.77, so almost a full run higher than last year (more precisely, it's a 0.85 difference).  Admittedly, it's very early yet, but we have played 84 games so far as a league, so it's not like we have a completely insignificant sample.

 

Our 4.77 ERA so far is less than the EWB record of 4.85 -- set by the AL in the juiced-ball era of 1987 -- but it's the 2nd highest ever.  Also, it's much higher than real life ERA in the AL in 1993, whih was just 4.32.  So then, either...

 

(a) The high offense so far is a bit of an aberration.  As time passes, we will see comparatively less offense in the weeks ahead, and our league ERA will sink toward the 4.32 real life figure.

 

--or--

 

(b) EWB is in for even more of an offensive explosion in 1993 than real baseball saw.  For more comparison: our present 4.77 ERA is higher than the real life ERA was in 1998, but lower than it was in 1999.  In other words, we're already right in the middle of the steroids era, offensively, if we keep this pace up.  I'm looking at YOU Jimmy Garrett, Artie Bicknell, and others off to such a hot start.

 

Bicknell is an especially suspicious case.  In 1992, he had just 7 home runs in 365 At Bats (over 99 games).  Then, he shows up in spring training with a new body, claiming he's "worked out a lot."  Combining his stats from spring training and the first weak of the season, in 1993 Bicknell has 12 home runs in just 119 at bats.  Already, 5 more home runs than last year, in 246 less at bats.  Again, suspicious.

Re: Aurelio Davila...

October 22nd, 2008 by Banditos GM

Davila is inexplicably bad.  His ratings, although they may have gone down in the last year, were never too bad.  The computer still rates him as about a 2.5 star if I remember correctly.

He was a never ending source of frustration for us in Miami, coupled with the fact that we were paying him $4.5 mill/yr.  We chalk it up to a bad attitude and cut his ass.  Better to get that cancer off your team and eat the salary.  Probably one of the few times you'll see an outright cut of such a highly paid player in EWB.

Re: Aurelio Davila...

October 22nd, 2008 by Wolverines GM

That's great and all but how do you explain the other two beat downs.