Sim 4 (May II): Who uploaded?

Cleveland
Hickory
Houston
Los Angeles
Maui
New York
River Cities
Seattle

I also made the following minor rules changes:

I increased the DFA and waiver periods to 18 days. This will allow teams to make claims for players. I also reinstated the DH at the AAA level (since that's how we had it back in 6.5).

In addition, I also reset the passwords of the owners who requested it.

Next sim on Thursday night.

Zev

We'll try for Monday Night

I was all set to run the sim tonight. However, there was a trade made (which was not put up on the blog -- hint, hint) which I cannot process since it involves an injured player. Therefore, I've notified the two owners and asked them to please advise on what they want done.



I'll wait to hear from them by tomorrow and then run the sim.



Zev

Password problems

Apparently, a few owners have told me that they are having password problems. Please check to see if you are having a problem and, if so, let Michael and I know via email or by posting here. I'll reset your passwords on Sunday night.

Thanks,

Zev

Sunday Night Sim

I'm sorry, folks, but I'm going to have to delay the sim until Sunday night.

Zev

Sim 3 (May I): Who uploaded?

Cleveland
Hickory
Houston
Los Angeles
New York
River Cities
Walla Walla

Next sim on Thursday night. Please make sure to upgrade to 9.2.11.

Zev

Please upgrade to 9.2.11

Thanks to Frank, I found out that there is a new patch available (described at "definitely the final patch for OOTP9"). The new patch upgrades the game to 9.2.11. However, there's a catch... the in-game upgrade tool doesn't recognize the new patch. To get the new patch (which was released on 12/12) you have to download it from the site. The page with the announcement and download instructions is here.

The sim is still in progress. I'll advise when it's done.

Zev

Sim Delayed

There was a problem with a team's import. I'm going to put off the sim until Saturday night so that the team import can be done correctly.

Zev

DH in the minors?

I am just looking for clarification, because it looks like I was burned with my lineups in some of the Minor League teams.

It looks like we use the DH in AA and A but not in AAA. Was this by design?

I am just wondering which lineups I need to set up in the minors. I thought because there was no DH in AAA that it was not used at all in the minors.

I personally like having the DH in the minors in that it gives you one more slot to place a batter that needs development.

What does everyone else think?

New Guy Checking In

Hello, all - 

My name is Frank; I use the screen name "storyteller0910" at the Straight Dope. It looks like I will be the new owner of the Hickory franchise in your league. Zev has asked me to post to this blog introducing myself and generally saying hello. So, uh, hello!

I'm going to download the OOTP 9.0 software tonight (I have a previous edition of the game), and get started orienting myself to the league's rules and SOPs. In the meanwhile, though, Zev has said that I should engage in trash talking, and so:

Your mama. All of you. My hordes of no-doubt elite talent will soon descend upon this league, as soon as I learn who, precisely, is in those hordes. Fear me.

And thanks for letting me join!

Cash Cap

Please consider this post as an invitation for dialogue, as I'm not sure that (a) I've identified a real problem; or (b) my proposed change will have any impact on the problem if one exists.

Here is my concern: I think it will be more difficult for rebuilding teams to become competitive in version 9.0 compared to version 6.5, particularly if a cash cap is in place. Is the $10 million cash cap still in effect in this league? I am wondering if we should consider eliminating it as a way to improve the competitive balance of the league.

According to the manual for 9.0, the primary way to increase a team's fan interest is by "winning." If other methods exist, the manual does not disclose them. Right now, the talent gap between the competitive teams and the rebuilding teams in this league is so great that "winning" is simply not realistic for many teams. This is compounded by the fact that promotional days are a thing of the past in 9.0. In 6.5, even a bad team could find at least a few games where it had a good chance of winning (against other bad teams), and hold promotional days during those games. For a rebuilding team, adding even a few fan interest points over the course of a season can be valuable.

Another difference between 9.0 and 6.5 appears to be the importance of player morale. From what I can tell, players on bad teams (like mine) tend to have low player morale, while players on good teams are markedly happier. This makes sense. But when you consider that the manual says unhappy players actually perform more poorly than they otherwise might, this presents another challenge for rebuilding teams. Furthermore, it will probably be more difficult for low morale teams to sign coveted free agents.

If the cash cap is removed, a rebuilding team could help to offset these obstacles by stockpiling cash. Then, at an appropriate time, the team could use that cash to acquire more talented players, either via trades or via free agency, to jumpstart its competitiveness. I play in another OOTP league without a cash cap, and it appears as though this strategy is being employed by at least one rebuilding team in that league, perhaps more.

Obviously there is some unavoidable bias here because I run one of the rebuilding teams. But if I am right that eliminating the cash cap might improve the competitive balance of the league, I think it is something worth considering for the league's long term survival. Greater competitiveness makes it more interesting, I think, regardless of where your team stands on the scale.

It is possible that eliminating the cash cap would have no effect on competitive balance, or perhaps even the opposite effect. But assuming that greater competitive balance is a goal we can all agree upon, perhaps there are other ways to get there even if the cash cap isn't the solution.

Any thoughts about any of this?

New Recruitment Thread Is Up

Here's the thread to recruit for a new owner for Hickroy. Please feel free to respond and answer any questions* that people may have.

Thanks,

Zev




* In case you weren't aware, the SDMB went back to free posting, so anyone can answer questions that prospective new owners may have.

A little light numbers crunching

There are all sorts of fun SABRmetric things available in OOTP9 of which I approve. I figure I'll occasionally riff on some of them.

Here's a means of calculating cost-effectiveness of players. That uses (VORP/salary*league minimum) as the metric. In effective, it penalizes you for paying too much, even for an effective player.

Here's the top 10 players in cost effectiveness:

New York	Mohammed Stelly	17
Brooklyn	James Banks	15.1
Seattle	Duane Gerhardt	14.1
Maui	Octavio Cabrales	13.9
Los Angeles	Thomas Cohen	13.3
River Cities	Frank Wooster	13.1
New York	Joshua Giddings	10.1
Walla Walla	Fernando Estrada	10.1
Hickory	Donald Hunnicutt	9.9
Hickory	Allen Reuter	9.8
Cleveland	Monte Gross	9.1
Danville	Fermin Perez	9.1
Cleveland	Christopher Pearsall	8.2
Los Angeles	Roger Painter	8.1

And here's the least cost effective:

Maui	Donald Goris	-7.8
Houston	Harry Johnson	-6.8
Cleveland	Nelson Garcia	-6.7
Houston	Coy Hendon	-5.6
Walla Walla	Joseph Bendel	-5.6
Hickory	George Labarre	-5.3
Houston	Basil Napoles	-5.3
Hickory	Jesus Morales	-5
Maui	Juan Henriquez	-4.8
Cleveland	Oscar Avendano	-4.4

Ain't numbers grand? There's a LOT of noise in these numbers over the first month. It'll be interesting to see how things develop as the sample size gets larger.

More fun: Win and run cost effectiveness. This is nothing more than the cost each team has racked up for these stats (how much salary spent/win or run). Yay!

Cost per win
Walla Walla	1,223,363
River Cities	1,066,824
Brooklyn	1,031,020
Los Angeles	952,473
Seattle	865,737
Saskatoon	749,628
Houston	714,535
Hickory	699,608
New York	626,860
Danville	521,381
Maui	480,347
Cleveland	354,912

Cost per Run
River Cities	128,019
Los Angeles	102,332
Walla Walla	97,869
Brooklyn	95,909
Seattle	93,090
Hickory	81,621
New York	81,414
Saskatoon	72,080
Houston	64,425
Danville	51,116
Maui	48,574
Cleveland	38,718

Thank God for deep pockets, that's all I have to say.

Sim 2 - April II: Who Uploaded?

Cleveland
Los Angeles
Houston
Maui
New York
River Cities
Saskatoon
Seattle

It's still Seattle and New York in front with identical 20-7 records.

The league file is ready for download. Reports will be uploading through the night.

In other news, I'm going to start recruiting on the boards for a new owner for Hickory.

Next sim on Thursday night.

Zev

REAL TRADE: River Cities and Maui make blockbuster!

Date: Putnam Street, Marietta!

Just two weeks into the season and the first huge trade of the year is confirmed! Maui has sent long time River Cities second sacker Timothy Palacio back to the Ohio River in exchange for a package of current and future talent! In return for the world class middle infielder Maui is receiving star prospects Robert Estill, Hugh Fortner, and current River Cities 2b Francis Armandariz.

Palacio, who was traded to the then Saskatoon franchise for Ronald Quijada at the beginning of last season, released this statement through his agent: "I'm glad to have this resolved. The rumors surrounding my trade from Maui have been unnerving. Given the respective state of the two franchises I'm thrilled to be going back to River Cities. I'm just a little frustrated that the year I'm not there they win the ring I've been hoping for. With luck I'll pick one up this year."

Reached for comment at his cabana retreat in Costa Rica, River Cities owner Nate Wooley says "C'mon, I did it as a favor to the guy. Saskatoon to Maui? What's up with that franchise? That sort of climate swing that they could all get the pneumonia or something? Plus, think of that infield now? Marzano, Palacio, Hukill, and Quijada? That's a murderers row around the basepaths."

Sources close to the team HQ informed this reporter that finances were also a large part of the deal. Palacio, locked in for this year and three more at less than $9 million per year, provides security at performance at a reasonable price. Locked in until he's 32 River Cities has a reliable 2B with great offense through his peak years.

Carrying his own bags at Canton-Akron airport prospect Estill said "Well, I was sort of hoping for a promotion. Izzy, my agent, told me I was RIGHT on the cusp of being called up. Now this happens. I hope I get a chance to contribute to the Mashers quickly. Of course, the bikini action in Mauii isn't going to hurt my morale."

Hugh Fortner, living above the Levee House Cafe in Marietta, only commented, "Huh, I'm surprise they remembered I was here. I've been patentiently performing in A-ball for a couple of years now."

Trade: Marietta and Seattle

Yet another Marietta-Seattle deal as Marietta acquires pitcher Juan Mandeville in return outfield prospect Rudolph Fu.

Los Angeles/Cleveland trade

Three second basemen were traded today in a deal between the Los Angeles Scorpions and Cleveland Steamers. Heading to California is 2B James Grimes, in exchange for 2B Nathanael Burton and hot 2B prospect Leon Cardoso. Also heading to Cleveland is MR prospect Richard Kane, who is rumored to be wondering if he's being converted to the infield, too, as well as Los Angeles's 5th round pick in 2014, which this reporter assumes will be used by Cleveland to draft another 2B.

"We knew going into the season that we needed another bat in the infield," Los Angeles GM Michael Weintraub announced from his seaside office at the Scorpion Pit, the team's oceanside stadium in Redondo Beach, CA. "We've inquired about the big names at the keystone position, but we either got no response, or the other GMs wanted too much. Jeremy was an easy sell."

Cardoso, one of the top prospects in the meagre Los Angeles farm system, was a recent first round pick (#12 overall) in the amateur draft.

Wondering Where The News Stories and Player Pages Are?

Yep, I know that there are a bunch of broken links... I messed up last night while uploading the files. They are on the site, but you just have to know where to look. I ended up uploading some of them into the wrong directory on the site.



If you find a broken link in a URL, try eliminating the /html portion of it. For example, the story about Bill Turek's injury should be here:



http://ootp9.izev.com/reports/html/leagues/league_100_news_158.html



But in reality, it's here:



http://ootp9.izev.com/reports/leagues/league_100_news_158.html



I'll try to fix it over the weekend.



Zev

Sim 1: Who Uploaded?

Cleveland
Houston
Los Angeles
Maui
New York
River Cities
Seattle
Walla Walla

So, what's happened?

Well, Seattle (11-3) and New York (12-2) are off to fast starts.

Good news for New York: Bradford McGreevey threw a shutout against Danville.
Bad news for New York: 2B Bill Turek is gone until next spring with a ruptured back.

Next sim is next Thursday.

First OOTP9 Trade

Seattle and Maui today agreed on the first trade under OOTP9 rules. Seattle is sending the wildly popular reliever Wesley Elton and minor league starter David Milam to Maui for reliever Dalton Davis and minor league starter Kevin Stephens.

"We're excited to have Kevin rejoin the organization," said GM Mack Shultz. "He's been a big help in the past and will be a great insurance policy in case of injury. We also welcome Dalton to the bullpen. We think he's been misused in the past in the Maui franchise and hope he'll take a big step forward for us."

The trade was somewhat puzzling to the rest of the baseball community, as Elton has been outstanding the last two years with a career ERA of just 2.83, is making the league minimum, and is very popular among Seattle fans. But, scouts have often claimed that Davis's ceiling is very high, and that may have been worth the expected backlash from fans. Plus, the sentimental value of bringing Stephens back into the Seattle fold was significant for the softie Shultz.

Meanwhile, the Seattle fans did not feel the same. Sharon Love, co-founder of Wesley's Women, protested outside the Seattle front office. "We still love the Monarchs. But this is just intolerable. Wesley was hot. Really, really hot. I loved watching his muscles ripple underneath that uniform." The rest of Ms. Love's account is, unfortunately, unsuitable for printing in a family blog.

Welcome To Opening Day 2013!

It's that time of year! Welcome to Opening Day! The grass is green, the mound is inviting and, as Ernie says, let's play two.

Unless there are strong objections, I'm going to change the sim schedule a bit. Instead of doing a two-week sim, Instead we'll do a half-month sim. Thus, the first sim will be Apr 1 - 15, the next sim Apr 16-30, the following sim May 1 - 15, the next one May 16-30, etc. The few games in October before the playoffs will have their own sim (i.e. they won't be appended to the September 16-30 sim).

Please note that I updated the links on the right side of the blog to reflect the new version of the game. As always, if you have any questions, please feel free to ask.

Apr I sim will be Thursday night.

Zev

Happy Thanksgiving! Next Sim On Sunday Night

The game date is now 3/1. I'd like to bring the next sim to 4/1, putting up withing striking distance of Opening Day. Any objections?

Sunday morning sim finished

I just ran the sim. The league date is 2/14/2013, so happy Valentine's day everyone.

I hope I didn't do anything incorrectly. There was no news of note in this sim.

The league file is updated and available for download within the game.

Zev and I will discuss how to proceed from here, but I think we'll be starting the regular season within a week.

*tap, tap*

... Hellooo, is this thing on?

Sim Was Run Last Night...

... and the league files updated. Next sim (2 weeks) will be tonight.



Has anyone released any coaches yet? Is anyone going to do so before the season? Because if not, I think we can skip right to opening day. Thoughts?



Zev

Next Sim Monday Night

I ran tonight's sim. Next sim (2 weeks) will be Monday night.

Zev

Next Sim on Sunday Night

OK, so it seems that my coaching plan has passed. Just to formalize it, so that we all know the rules, here they are:

1. Any team may, over the course of the 2013 REGULAR season release any of the coaches/scouts that were assigned to them during the upgrade from 6.5 to 9. The team will be reimbursed for any unearned salary that they have to pay the coach.

2. In order to receive a refund, the team must release the coach AND send notification to myself and/or Michael.

3. This rule does not apply to any coach who is signed during the 2013 season to a contract or an extension. (i.e. if you release a coach, then sign him back to a 3 year deal, you don't get to re-release him again with a refund).

4. The last time a team may take advantage of this rule is the sim of the first playoff game.

That being said, I think we're ready to move on. I'll be running the next two weeks on Sunday night. So, send in your updates with coaching releases, etc.

If you have any questions, please feel free to ask.

Right, now what

With the coaching problem resolved what's the next step?

Time for a vote on the coaches/scouts

We've had a week to listen to proposals for how to deal with the coach/scout situation. I think it's time we put the matter to a vote.
We've had the following proposals:

Michael's proposal:
Release all coaches/scouts -- the fact of the matter is that the coaches/scouts that we got in the upgrade to 9 are completely different than the ones we had before. Therefore, we should, in essence, start over with them.

Nate's proposal:
Allow each team to release ONE scout/coach this year and next year. This will prevent the all-out chaos that could result from suddenly having a bunch of coaches flood the market.

My proposal:
Give team's the option of releasing any coaches they want during the 2013 season.

Please vote on one of these proposals in the comments section of this thread. Voting will be closed Tuesday evening.

Zev

Coaches, issues, and releasing them.

Taking time out from election coverage to chime in...

I, too, am against releasing all the coaches. That would be disastrously inflationary and unnecessarily punish those teams without big wads of loose cash at this point.

However, I also see the point about the change in talent base on coaches. I, myself, not a tools guy, ends up with one. Ugh.

Allow me to propose this alternative. Allow each team to release ONE member of their staff for this year and next. That should cut down on the inflationary pressure and move things forward in as best a way as we can.

I posted this here instead of in the last post because I think, like Mack does, that this requires more debate than it would get there.

First Sim

OK, the first sim is underway. The following teams were successfully imported:

Cleveland
Houston
LA
River Cities
Walla Walla

The sim's not done yet. I'll update when it's done.

Zev

EDIT: OK, sim's done. I advanced the game one day. I uploaded a new league file (see below) but did NOT upload the league reports.

I checked all the players mentioned in the previous comment thread and, of them, none had their major league/minor league contract status changed, and none had their service time changed. Therefore, I just moved anyone in the big leagues back to AAA (where the owner didn't do it himself).

The league file has been updated. To download the league file, you don't have to download the compressed file, unzip it, etc. as you used to do. All you have to do is go to your manager home page and click on the Check For Updated League File link. The game should do the rest. If, when you're done, the game date is 1/2, then it worked.

As for the scouting, I'm in favor of going to individualized scouts as well. However, I'm concerned about the fact that some people may be stuck with inferior scouts for a longer period of time (i.e. contract status) than others. One possible solution, I suppose, is to give any owner the opportunity to opt out of his current scout contract during the next year if he thinks there is a better scout out there. This way, he can get out of a long-term scout contract if he has a bad scout (which he got through no fault of his own), or he can keep the scout. The last day to excersize the option could be one year from today (1/2/2014).

Of course, I'm open to other suggestions as well.

Zev

Zev

Welcome to OOTP9!

The league file has been converted to OOTP9. It is currently available at the following link:

Download the League File

Download the league file, put it in a directory somewhere and unzip it. Then start OOTP9 and load the game.

In the future, you will not need to download, unzip, etc. as you have been doing in the past. The game takes care of this. All you will need to do is go to your Manager home page, and click on the "Check For Updated League Files" link.

Game Version

I remember in the past, we had some problems with players not using the same version of the game. Please make sure you're using the latest version of the game, which is 9.2.2. You can check to see if you are using the latest version by going to Game -> Check For Updates in the game. If you are not using 9.2.2, please download it and install it.

League Rules

Below are the rules that I've applied to the OOTP9 league. Where a rule was covered in the old game, I simply applied the same rule. Where there was a new rule opportunity, I applied what I thought was the best rule (for example, I disabled drug suspensions). Of course, if anyone wants any of the rules changed, I'm always willing to listen to arguments and put the matter to a league vote.



Password

I've assigned a new password to all team owners and will email them to you separately. Of course, you're free to change the password once you've logged in.

League Date

The conversion process put the league date at Jan 1 2013. This gives us some time to iron out any bugs, make roster changes, etc. The season begins Apr 1. Since we already finished the amateur draft, I omitted it for the 2013 season.

League History and New League Site

The conversion process pretty much wiped out much of the league history. However, any major league stats are still available. In addition, I'm going to keep the old league site (ootp.izev.com) up for historical reference. The new league site is here. For the moment, it's still a work in progress. If there are any reports that you'd like to see that aren't there, please drop me a line.

Rosters

When the game imported, it only imported the major league teams. The minor league teams were NOT imported. I recreated all the minor league teams (for those of you who did not name your minor league teams previously, I left the ones that the game generated randomly). The players that were on those minor league teams, however, were left in a sort of limbo -- they weren't on any team and you could not reassign them through the transaction screen. There were two ways out of this: (1) you could go to your individual team rosters, select all the players in your organization and then assign them one by one to the appropriate minor league teams. After about 25 players, I found this very tedious. The other option was to simply have the AI assign everyone and then allow the owners to adjust them as they will (since they would then be availble through the transaction screen). In the end, I opted for the second option. So, please go through your minor league systems and re-assign anyone whom you feel should be at a different level.

What Can You Do and What Do I (or Michael) Have To Do?

According to the game manual, here's the scoop: Individual owners can:

• Change Scouting Assignments
• Change Lineups, Depth Charts, Pitching Staff, or other team settings
• Offer contracts (free agents and extensions) to players and team personnel
• Player transactions (promotions, demotions, DL, releases, etc.)
• Coach firings and new jobs/assignments
• Waiver wire claims
• Human manager player and staff shortlists
• Mail message status
• Manager options

Things that must be done in commissioner mode:

• Simming
• Trades
• Team Options (relocations, renamings, etc.)
• Writing news articles (feel free to write them and I'll submit them in the game)
• Game setup and commissioner rules

So, Where Do We Go From Here?

Well, the first thing everyone should do is download the file and make sure they can get into the game. The next thing is to look over your rosters and see if there are any problems that may have occured during conversion (missing players, etc.). Once we have a list of things that need to be attended to before the season starts, Michael and I will draw up a schedule for them. If possible, I'd like for all owners to make sure that they can use the game no later than Thursday. Please either email Michael and myself or else post a comment here on whether or not you can download the game file, use it and export your changes to the FTP site.

As always, if anyone has any questions, please feel free to ask.

Zev

Edit: Hmmm... it's not so easy to cut and paste a Word table into the blog. I'll have the league ruleset up shortly.

Edit (3:06 EDT) -- I changed the league file from a tar.gz to a standard zip.

Edit (10:10 EDT) -- New league file with 40-man rosters. Also, please see Nate's note in the comments about Minor Leaguers who were brought up to the majors by the AI.

Zev

Spring training complete!

All right, now comes the fun part...

Spring Training is complete and the league date is April 1st, 2013, aka Opening Day. The league file is NOT updated, however, as there's no reason for anyone but Zev to download it now.

The web reports are uploading, so you can review your team from there.

The next step? I have no idea. Zev will take it from here. He will convert the league file to OOTP9 (I can't do that due to a bug in the Mac version of OOTP9) and we'll start the 2013 season in the new game.

Stay tuned for the schedule.

Palacio

OK, my first order of business as GM will be to solicit trade offers for 2B Timothy Palacio. He's a stud, and he's signed to a very reasonable contract. I am of course looking for prospects and/or picks in return. If there is any interest, please email me at guitar_shark@hotmail.com.

Los Angeles/River Cities trade

Los Angeles keeps chipping away at River Cities's rotation. Today's trade:

Los Angeles sends MR prospect Casey Erickson and a 4th round pick in 2014 to River Cities for SP Dennis Durand.

Los Angeles needs a pitcher

Even with the acquisition of Sherman Wheeler, I still need one more starter going into the season. If you have a middle-to-bottom of the rotation guy that won't cost me too much (in trade, not salary), let me know. Ideally, a RHP with 2 stars or higher, with an ERA under 4.30.

The best time of year!

Spring training is here! All across Florida and Arizona, players are stretching out and remembering how to hit curve balls. Spring fever is in the air as the addition of a Wild Card in each league has nearly every team in contention.

As for you, team owners, you need to upload your free agency plans by Thursday evening.

The Rule V draft is now complete. The following players were selected:

Round 1:

• Maui: CF Harold Freeman from Cleveland.
• Cleveland: P Pio Ramirez from Hickory.
• Houston: C Nicholas Cornwall from Cleveland.
• Saskatoon: 1B Fede Lozada from Houston.

Round 2:

• Cleveland: RF Jose Martinez from New York.
• Houston: P Jim Edgar from Saskatoon.

Round 3:

• Cleveland: P Agustin Vasco from Saskatoon.

The league file is up, and the web pages are on their way. Upload your spring training plans to the server by Thursday evening!

I've gotta say...

... so far, I'm impressed with the commissioner automater in OOTP9. It's going to make my life so much easier!

Rule V draft time!

The annual Rule V draft is upon us. The 40-man rosters are locked, and, if you have free space on your 40-man roster, you're able to draft players that are eligible for the Rule V draft.

A quick rehash of the rules:

1. Draft a player from another team.
2. Keep the player(s) you select on your 25-man roster (or DL) all season.
3. ?
4. Profit!

Please e-mail me and Zev your selections by Thursday evening. Please be clear about how you want to pick players if you want more than one. The draft order will be the same as the amateur draft.

A few administrative points:

• Matt Macario is now the owner of the former Hartford franchise, the Maui Mashers. I also took it off computer control. Matt: Let me know if you didn't get the e-mail with the password.
• I put the Hickory Huskers on computer control, and hopefully it won't be there for too long.
• I made the executive decision, too, to add the two stud prospects Hickory acquired prior to Mark leaving the league to the 40-man rosters. So, if you had your heart on George LaBarre or Alan Reuter, sorry. I did this to keep things fair (as everyone else in the league sent in an upload, and the team wasn't on CPU control long enough for HAL-9000 to do the move itself) and to have some attractive prospects for the new Hickory owner. I hope no one has any objections to that move I made. If so, keep them to yourself. :)

The league file is up, and the Rule V draft is, again, on Thursday, with Spring Training a week from Thursday. I hope you've all gotten your copies of OOTP9 by now!

New GM

Thanks for the invite, Zev.

Hi to all - I've agreed to take over the dormant Hartford franchise. For those who don't know me, I've played in the other OOTP league run by Nate and Mack for the last couple of years. Looking forward to playing in another competitive OOTP league!

Attempting to rebuild the Hartford franchise looks to be a considerable challenge, given the team's fan interest rating of 13. Hartford fans are obviously pretty unhappy, so this presents as good a time as any to announce a team relocation and name change. The team is moving to the tropics, a region not normally known for its baseball history (Shane Victorino and Kurt Suzuki notwithstanding). The franchise formerly known as the Hartford Hitmen will be whisked across the Pacific to Maui, the birthplace of its new GM, who apparently values nostalgia higher than the impact of a brutal travel schedule on his players. The new team name, at least until I think of something clever, will be the Maui Mashers.

The Plan

Okay, I feel a little like Moses on Mt Sinai here, but Zev has spoken, and this is the plan:

We are migrating to OOTP 9 for the new season. Before that, though, we will need to finish the pre-season in OOTP 6.5, which means the Rule V draft and Spring Training.

The Rule V draft will be done on Thursday night. Please upload your roster before Tuesday night. There will be a sim that evening and all players eligible for selection in the Rule V draft are fair game.

After the Rule V draft on Thursday, Spring Training (the best time of year!) will happen the following Thursday night. Once we complete that, the fun really starts, as we'll transit the league to OOTP 9 and reconfigure the league in the new game to match the current settings as best as possible.

For now, I'd suggest buying a copy of OOTP 9 if you haven't yet, and get used to the game. There are a lot of new features and bug fixes compared to 6.5, and I think we'll all be happier with the game play in it.

Don't forget to upload your rosters in 6.5 by tomorrow night, though, first!

(Oh, and we may have found a new owner to take over one of our free franchises, but if you know someone else who may be interested in either Hartford or Hickory, have them contact Zev and me.)

Is It Time To Upgrade to OOTP9?

As many of you have already seen, we lost another owner this today. This gives us two vacancies -- in the same division.

I think at this point, we have to seriously consider upgrading to OOTP9. Attracting new owners is going to be very difficult while we are using a version that is over three years old. I purposely didn't look for a replacement for the Hartford franchise because I knew that we were going to upgrade at some point soon, and I couldn't see asking a potential owner to fork out money for both 6.5 and then 9 a season or so later.

I would have liked to have had more time before asking for an upgrade, but I think Mark's withdrawl makes the potential upgrade more imperative. Going the entire season with two computer-run franchises in the same division is probably not a good idea, IMHO. If we upgrade, I think we'll have a much better chance of attracting new owners.

If you need a reminder, the new league would look like this on the website.

Anyway, I'd like to start a discussion on this. Please let me know what you think.

Zev

League status

Expect a post by Zev this evening about the future of our league. With Mark's withdrawal from the league, we're putting the offseason on hold for a few days while we sort things out.

So, no sim tonight or anytime soon, I think.

Withdrawing in Hickory

I appreciate that this isn't the greatest timing in the world, but any later would be worse timing -- I have to drop out of the league. Won't bore anybody with details, but don't have the time, don't have the resources, bla bla. I don't want to run this franchise into the ground by missing sims or not responding to emails, etc. and I think I'm definitely headed squarely into that territory.

So, sorry to say it, and I'm going to miss my squad, but you guys have another vacancy on your hands. I've enjoyed it, fellas. Take care.

Mark

Free agency finished, Rule V upcoming!

The free agency period is now complete. I don't think there were any non-MLC signings in the last five days.

The next sim will be an administrative one so you can lock your 40-man rosters in preparation for the Rule V draft. Please upload your team file by Monday evening. The Rule V draft will be held on either Tuesday or Wednesday night (I have to check with Zev), with spring training and Opening Day soon to follow after that.

The league file is now up.

New York Players on the market

I'm a little over where I want to be on payroll right now, and although I'm generally happy with my team, I'm always looking to improve.

So in the right deal, I'd be willing to move:
Brian Bingham, 2.5 star SS/LF/RF
Henry Diemer, 2.5 star 3B, 4 time all-star
Juan David, 1.5 star OF

and in a bit higher category,
Bill Turek, 3.5 star 2B
Hector Orozco, 4.5 star MR who can start in a pinch.

If you've got interest in anyone, let me know!

Days 21-25 complete

Two signings this period: CF Samuel Santos was signed by Hartford, and I got a LOOGY named Balta Riojas.

The remaining days of free agency will be simmed Thursday night, and then we can finally get ready for the 2013 season. As I've been flying solo this week due to Zev's non-OOTP life being busy, I haven't discussed anything with him, but I imagine we'll run the Rule V draft on Monday night (with a Saturday night sim to lock your 40-man rosters) with Spring Training a week from tonight, and, well, I'll let Zev decide the rest. :)

Oh, now that the draft is finished, I processed the first 2014 draft pick trade. It's part 2 of my acquisition of Sherman Wheeler from River Cities. I sent my 2nd round pick in 2014 and OF Dave "Don't call me Jerry" Steinfeldt to River Cities for IF Nathanael Burton.

The league file is up. Go and find those minor league scrubs that will fill out your minor league rosters!

Days 17-20, rest of draft completed

Just one signing these past four days: Houston signed 3B Joseph Michalski to a contract of $1,958,250 per year, for 2 years.

The amateur draft is complete. Please let me know if I screwed up anything in trading drafted players.

The league file is up, and the web pages will get there some time before the morning. Days 21-25 will be simmed Wednesday night.

Days 14-16, Round 5 results

Finally, the big signings have been made. The two biggest free agents this offseason have signed, one to a perennial big spender (umm, yours truly), and the other to the computer-guided Hartford franchise.

Day 14:

• Hartford: Free agent 2B Timothy Palacio has been signed to a contract of $8,987,000 per year, for 4 years.
• Brooklyn: Free agent P Guillermo Bazan has been signed to a contract of $850,000 per year, for 2 years.

Day 15:

• Los Angeles: Free agent C Bill Grim has been signed to a contract of $350,000 per year, for 1 years.

Day 16:

• Los Angeles: Free agent 1B Ronald Aikin has been signed to a contract of $13,500,000 per year, for 4 years.
• Hartford: Free agent P Alex Pedroza has been signed to a contract of $424,000 per year, for 1 years.

Round 5 of the draft is also complete. Round 6 (and the rest of the draft, if Jeremy would please stop sending in his picks :P) will be Tuesday night, as will days 17-20 of free agency.

Finally, Happy Rosh Hashanah to everyone! Between the (real) baseball playoffs (Go Phils!) and the impending start of our 2013 season, it's a great time of year!

Days 11-13 / Round 4 done

Only one signing in this free agency period. I re-signed reliever (and future member of the Scorpion Wall of Fame) Frank Carroll to a one-year, $500,001 deal.

Round 4 of the draft is complete.

Days 14-16 will be run on Monday night, as well as round 5 of the draft. There are still a few good free agents left, so get your offers in, and e-mail your draft picks to Zev and me!

Day 8-10 Done. 11-13 Saturday Night

Signings:

Day 8 :
Hartford : C Stephen Herbert, 2,486,000 per year, for 3 years.
Hartford : SS Juan Henriquez, 444,000 per year, for 2 years.
New York : P John Eyman, 540,000 per year, for 2 years.

Day 9 :
Cleveland : P Amos Maloy, 900,000 per year, for 3 years.
River Cities : P Floyd Janik, 640,000 per year, for 1 year.

Days 6 and 7, Round 3 complete!

A few signings this period:

Day 6:

• Los Angeles : LF George Rawlins, 2,450,000 per year, for 1 year.

Day 7 :

• Hartford : RF Nelson Broman, 460,000 per year, for 2 years.
• New York : LF Dion Melendez, 770,000 per year, for 5 years.
• Houston : 2B Gerald Mingus, 525,000 per year, for 3 years.

Round 3 of the draft is also complete. Here are the selected players:

1. Hartford pick: P Christopher Sheffield. Signing Bonus: $25,000
2. Cleveland pick: SS Benito Ugarte. Signing Bonus: $25,000
3. Danville pick: P David Rutledge. Signing Bonus: $95,000
4. Houston pick: 1B Arturo Ortiz. Signing Bonus: $60,000
5. Walla Walla pick: C Marcos Lopes. Signing Bonus: $25,000
6. Seattle pick: P Roland Maloney. Signing Bonus: $60,000
7. Saskatoon pick: C Moses Frances. Signing Bonus: $25,000
8. Brooklyn pick: CF Tito Rosario. Signing Bonus: $87,500
9. Los Angeles pick: LF Lawrence Fenster. Signing Bonus: $25,000
10. New York pick: 2B Paul Hereford. Signing Bonus: $62,500
11. Seattle pick: 1B Mauro Torres. Signing Bonus: $25,000
12. River Cities pick: 1B Jewel Anderson. Signing Bonus: $60,000
    

The league file is up, and the web pages are on their way. Days 8-10 of free agency and round 4 of the draft will be Thursday night. Send your draft picks to Zev and me!

Day 5 Done. Days 6-7 tomorrow night.

Also, round 3 of the draft will be done tomorrow night.

Day 4 / Round 2 results

One signing on day 3, SP Thomas Brasfield by Walla Walla, $540k for two years.

Round two of the draft is in the books. The parents of the following players are very proud of them, I'm sure.

1. Hartford pick: CF Steve Keo. Signing Bonus: $161,000
2. Cleveland pick: P Gregg Fiala. Signing Bonus: $105,000
3. River Cities pick: P Bruno Talamantez. Signing Bonus: $98,000
4. Houston pick: 2B Herman Kerr. Signing Bonus: $105,000
5. Seattle pick: P Tsumich Yoshida. Signing Bonus: $119,000
6. Los Angeles pick: 3B Joseph Barnett. Signing Bonus: $98,000
7. Los Angeles pick: P Jorge Aponte. Signing Bonus: $129,500
8. Brooklyn pick: 1B Walter Tucker. Signing Bonus: $73,500
9. Hickory pick: 2B David Lopes. Signing Bonus: $77,000
10. Los Angeles pick: RF William Kersh. Signing Bonus: $105,000
11. Seattle pick: RF Antonio Bustillos. Signing Bonus: $105,000
12. River Cities pick: C Vincent Tran. Signing Bonus: $35,000

(Again, the game swapped picks 11 and 12, but I chose Mack's pick before Nate's.)

The league file is up, and the web pages are en route. Day 5 and round 3 will be Tuesday night. E-mail your draft picks to Zev and me.

Big Trade Among Adams League Contenders

Even though locked in mortal combat for playoff berths, Seattle and Hickory agreed to a big deal today, exchanging some top talent. Seattle traded away top infield prospect George "Terminator" Labarre, starting pitcher / swingman Allen "Roto" Rueter, and outfield prospect Malcolm Birdsell. Although these three prospects are a heavy price to pay, the Pisces are banking on getting bang for their buck in the #1 prospect in the SDMB OOTP league, Paul "The Dragon" Guerrero, and reliever Jimmy Matthias.

"We all kind of held our breath, swallowed deeply, and made the trade," said Owner/GM Mack Shultz. "Depending on how the players pan out, we'll either look brilliant or incredibly stupid. Right now, it's probably both."

The trade should strengthen the Huskers' bid for a wild card. Labarre, the #6 prospect in the game, had seen his path to the majors blocked by the Monarchs' current starting infield of Gerhardt, Deleon, and Alustiza. Now he's expected to start for the Huskers, filling the hole left by Timothy Palacio's flight to free agent riches. Meanwhile, Rueter will finally get his chance to start every day and prove that his ERA last year of 3.00 was no mirage.

Seattle meanwhile gets one of the game's top-regarded prospects in Guerrero. Inside sources suggest that the Monarchs hope Guerrero will be ready for prime time when star outfielder Sean Arant begins to slip. And, Matthias is expected to take over Rueter's role as emergency starter while also adding some front-line talent to the already deep Seattle bullpen.

Free Agency Day 3 / Amateur Draft Round 1

Only one signing on day 3, MR Henry Ringler by Walla Walla, $2,000,000 per year, for 2 years.

I also ran the first round of the draft. The results are as follows:

1. Hartford pick: 3B Jason Lefebvre. Signing Bonus: $1,144,000
2. Cleveland pick: P Oscar Villalpando. Signing Bonus: $1,173,000
3. River Cities pick: P Buster Ducharme. Signing Bonus: $164,900
4. Houston pick: LF Phillip Verner. Signing Bonus: $361,000
5. Walla Walla pick: 2B Stefan Cienfuegos. Signing Bonus: $125,000
6. Los Angeles pick: P Robert Morrill. Signing Bonus: $350,000
7. Saskatoon pick: RF Herman Diestefano. Signing Bonus: $192,000
8. Los Angeles pick: SS Carmelo Paredes. Signing Bonus: $172,800
9. River Cities pick: LF Ernest Skelly. Signing Bonus: $50,000
10. Houston pick: 3B John Leboeuf. Signing Bonus: $194,000
11. River Cities pick: P Damian Coppock. Signing Bonus: $123,500
12. Los Angeles pick: 2B Leon Cardoso. Signing Bonus: $49,000

Nate: The game had you picking 11th and my pick (from Seattle) as 12th. I didn't do a trade to correct that because the remaining players on our draft lists differed, but, if you want, I'll give you the $74,500 cash to make up the difference in draft spots.

FA Day 4 and Round 2 of the draft will be held on Monday night (probably by Zev, but e-mail me your draft picks just in case). The draft order in Round 2 is:

1. Hartford
2. Cleveland
3. River Cities (from Danville)
   
4. Houston
5. Seattle (from Walla Walla)
   
6. Los Angeles
7. Los Angeles (from Saskatoon)
   
8. Brooklyn
9. Hickory
10. Los Angeles (from New York)
    
11. Seattle
12. River Cities

The league file is up, and the HTML pages are en route.

Free Agent Day 2 Signings

The only signing on Day 2 is Michael Fay, who signed with Houston.

Day 3 will be done on Saturday night. We'll also be doing Round 1 of the Amateur Draft. Please send your picks to me and Michael.

Zev

OK, Let's Try It Again...

... I zipped up the league file again, and unzipped it. When I ran the unzipped file, I had the free agent offers report.

I uploaded the zipped file to the FTP server, re-downloaded it, and ran the file again (I don't think the problem was in the uploading and downloading, but hey, let's rule it out) and again, I have the free agent offer report.

Can other people please check it out and see if it works on their machines?

Thanks,

Zev

Free Agency Day 1: No one signed

Day 2 will be tomorrow night. You also might want to start sending me your first round draft picks, as we'll be doing the first round of the amateur draft when we do Day 3 of free agency later this week.

Zev

UPDATE: If you downloaded the league file before 12:30AM on Monday morning (Eastern time), please re-download it.

Thanks,

Zev

Day 1 free agency...

is delayed (by rain?) until Saturday night.

Zev

Trade: Stockholm and River Cities

It has come to pass, people.


First, River Cities sends starting pitcher Sherm Wheeler and minor league OF Dave Steinfeldt to Stockholm for UT Bill Allen.

Four star pitcher available

Yes, friends, Crazy Nate is on the move again.

I will move Four Star Pitcher Sherm Wheeler for a 2nd round pick. Salary has been biting me fierce and I have someone at least sort of ready to fill the gap.

Sherm Wheeler
Four stars
STF 45
CON 61
MOV 84
END 7

A true, four-pitch hurler Wheeler throws a fastball, change up, curve and slider for outs.

Injured last year there's just no place for him on this year's edition of the River Cities squad. That's why I'll GIVE him away for just a second round pick next year!

Attention K-Mart Shoppers...

... free agents are currently on sale in aisle 8. We carry a full selection of pitchers, catchers, infielders, outfielders, has-beens, never-weres and ne'er-do-wells. Please bring your selections up to the registers by Thursday night.

Coaches -- Day 5 Thursday Night

Coaches: Day 4 Tuesday night

Sorry for the delay in getting day 3 done.

Zev

Historical Standings

Published at one owner's request, with some extra info.

SEA: 1130-652 0.634 (7 league titles, 3 Cecil Cups)
LA: 1061-721 0.595 (5 league titles, 4 Cecil Cups)
RIV: 1059-723 0.594 (5 league titles, 2 Cecil Cups)
SAS: 980-802 0.550 (1 league title)
BRK: 960-822 0.539
NY: 756-702 0.519
WAL: 855-927 0.480
HOU: 800-982 0.449 (3 league titles, 2 Cecil Cups)
DAN: 789-993 0.443 (1 league title)
HIK: 626-832 0.429
HAR: 526-932 0.361
CLE: 502-956 0.344

Zotti League Historical Note

As of right now, here are two Zotti franchises' all-time records:

Los Angeles: 1061-721 (0.595 W%)
River Cities: 1059-723 (0.594 W%)

Will there finally be a switch in all-time Zotti League supremacy this year?

Scouts/Coaches Day 3...

... on Thursday night.

Zev

UDPATE: Sorry, it's going to have to be Saturday night. Family emergency last night.

Zev

Starting Pitcher Available

Man, I go on a four-day vacation and come back to see that the year rolled over as expected and that the first day of coaching signings has come and gone.

In any case, there will doubtlessly be a bigger "What Seattle's Offering" post later, but I wanted to get the word out early that I'm looking to move 3.5* SP Isidro Frau this offseason. Nothing against Frau, but given financial and roster constraints, he's likely the odd man out of my set of six starting pitchers.

Frau won 18 games last year, has never posted an ERA above 3.50, has only a $3.65 million salary this year, and is under arbitration control for 2014 and 2015 as well. I'm looking primarily for draft picks and/or prospects in return, as my major league roster is pretty much set going into this season.

Email me at the usual address if you're interested.

Coach Signings Day 1 Complete

Day 1 is complete. Day 2 coach signings are due by Monday evening.

To make things easier, the following teams still have coaching positions open:

Brooklyn -- AAA
Houston -- Pitch, Hit, AA
Saskatoon -- Pitch, Scout
Seattle -- Pitch , AA, A
Danville -- AAA, A
New York -- Hit, Scout
Cleveland-- Scout
Walla Walla -- Scout, AAA

Zev

(Note: The league file was not updated, nor will it be until Coach signing is completed.)

Welcome to the New Season!

Welcome everyone to the year 2013. It's going to be a great year in SDMB OOTP history. This year we're implementing a new playoff format whereby the top two teams from each division make it into the playoffs. In addition, there is the possibility that we might upgrade to a new version of the software by Opening Day. But before we get there, we still have some unfinished business to attend to.

The first order of business is the signing of coaches, scouts and minor league manager for the next season. The first day's bids are due in by Sunday night. Please remember not to overpay for a scout... regardless of his current ability, it's going to be set to average.

If anyone has any questions, please feel free to speak up.

Zev

OK, here's the plan...

The rollover to 2013 will be done on Thursday night. It looks like no one objected* to the Wild Cards playoffs so we'll incorporate that for next season.

As for OOTP9, we still have a little time as the upgrade, if it is going to happen, can't happen before opening day. So, we'll allow debate on that to continue for a bit longer.

Zev

* Actually, I hate wild card playoffs, but then again I'm an old-school purist. But I'm clearly out-voted here.

So where are we?

When's the roll over and are we upgrading to OOTP9?

Inquiring minds want to know!

2013 draft order and traded picks

Following Mack's theme of "doing Zev's job for him," here's the final order of draft picks for the 2013 amateur draft, as well as picks that were traded in the past season.

Draft order:

1. Hartford (44 wins)
2. Cleveland (56 wins)
3. Danville (62 wins)
4. Houston (65 wins)
5. Walla Walla (72 wins)
6. Los Angeles (81 wins)
7. Saskatoon (83 wins)
8. Brooklyn (87 wins)
9. Hickory (89 wins)
10. New York (105 wins)
11. Seattle (118 wins -- Cecil Cup loser)
12. River Cities (110 wins -- Cecil Cup winner)

And, now, the traded picks. Under each round, I've listed them by chronological order, based on the league date the trade was processed:

1st round:

Hickory to River Cities - 3/2/12
Danville to River Cities - 3/2/12
Brooklyn to Los Angeles - 5/27/12
Seattle to Los Angeles - 5/27/12
New York to Houston - 7/8/12

2nd round:

Danville to River Cities - 3/2/12
Walla Walla to Seattle - 3/2/12
Saskatoon to Los Angeles - 7/22/12
New York to Los Angeles - 7/22/12

3rd round:

Los Angeles to Seattle - 3/2/12
Hickory to Los Angeles - 3/2/12

4th round:

Los Angeles to New York - 3/12/12
Walla Walla to Seattle - 5/27/12
Hickory to Los Angeles - 6/24/12

5th round:

Brooklyn to Los Angeles - 5/27/12

6th round:

7th round:

8th round:

New York to Houston - 7/8/12

9th round:

Los Angeles to River Cities - 7/22/12

10th round:

11th round:

Seattle to Los Angeles - 5/27/12

(Hmm, Nate, do you want to trade me your 11th round pick? Mack's isn't going to work for me.)

Any questions or corrections?

2012 Team Season Records

If we upgrade to OOTP 9, this may be the final installment, but it's time again for the annual rite of passage where I post the team season records that have, for good or ill, fallen in the past season. We'll start with the positives.

1. Best home record: Seattle, 65-16, .802 (2011 River Cities, 64-17, .790)
2. Best extra inning W%: Seattle, 10-3, .769 (2011 Los Angeles, 13-4, .765)
3. Most runs scored: River Cities, 965 (2011 River Cities, 942)
4. Fewest hits allowed: Seattle, 1167 (2009 River Cities, 1195)
5. Lowest opponents' batting average: Seattle, .218 (2009 River Cities, .220)
6. Most shutouts: Seattle, 10 (2007 Saskatoon, 9)
7. Best fielding percentage: Seattle, .986 (tied six previous teams)
8. Fewest errors: Seattle, 84 (tied 2004 Butte)

And now, the negatives.

9. Most extra inning losses: Houston 15 (2005 Brooklyn, 13)
10. Worst W% in one run games: Houston, 13-32, .289 (2009 Covington, 13-31, .295)
11. Fewest home runs: Hartford, 59 (2010 Houston and 2011 Denver, 68)
12. Fewest runs scored: Hartford, 442 (2009 Covington, 454)
13. Fewest triples: Danville, 15 (2007 Houston, 17)
14. Lowest team OBP: Hartford, .267 (ties 2009 Covington)
15. Lowest team SLG%: Hartford, .293 (2011 Denver, .309)
16. Lowest team OPS: Hartford, .560 (2011 Denver, .581)
17. Lowest R+ (runs scored relative to league: Hartford, 64 (2009 Covington, 65)
18. Lowest OPS+: Hartford, 80 (2004 Butte, 82)
19. Fewest RC (runs created): Hartford, 463 (2011 Denver, 501)
20. Fewest shutouts pitched: Hartford and Cleveland, 0 (tied with nine previous teams)

As always, if you have any questions about any team stats for this year or over the years, just post them in a comment.

2012 Award Winners

Since Zev's been busy with league administrative stuff, I thought I'd save him the trouble and throw this up for the owners to see.

Adams League Outstanding Newcomer Award:
Joseph Macaluso (SEA)!
He had a record of 15-6 with an ERA of 2.85 and 4 shutouts. In 26 games started, he pitched 189.1 innings, fanning 138 and walking 46 batters.

Zotti League Outstanding Newcomer Award:
Christopher Pearsall (CLE)! He batted .299 in 571 AB, with 4 homers and 58 RBI.

Adams League Outstanding Pitcher Award:
Chad Nelligan (SEA)! He had a record of 24-4 with an ERA of 1.96 and 3 shutouts. In 35 games started, he pitched 238.1 innings, fanning 224 and walking 33 batters.

Adams League Outstanding Batter Award:
Brian Frison (SAS)!
He batted .314 in 557 AB, with 43 homers and 124 RBI.

Zotti League Outstanding Pitcher Award:
Juan Villatoro (RIV)!
He had a record of 23-5 with an ERA of 2.10 and 2 shutouts. In 37 games started, he pitched 240.1 innings, fanning 245 and walking 43 batters.

Zotti League Outstanding Batter Award:
Patrick Valdes (RIV)!
He batted .342 in 602 AB, with 43 homers and 160 RBI.

Adams League Slick Fielder Award Winners:
Pitcher: Charles Midgett (BRK)
Catcher: Thomas Geter (HOU)
First Base: Kenneth Dolezal (SAS)
Second Base: Timothy Mendiola (HOU)
Third Base: Robert Fout (HIK)
Shortstop: Reggie Perez (SAS)
Leftfield: Josias Juarez (HAR)
Centerfield: Alva Mendonca (HIK)
Rightfield: Brian Frison (SAS)

Zotti League Slick Fielder Award Winners:
Pitcher: Albert Garcia (RIV)
Catcher: Joan Hinkel (LA)
First Base: Brian Palazzo (NY)
Second Base: Derrick Raglin (WAL)
Third Base: Alfred Scott (WAL)
Shortstop: Chester Cohen (NY)
Leftfield: Barry Brooks (CLE)
Centerfield: Christopher Pearsall (CLE)
Rightfield: Monte Goss (CLE)

Upgrading to OOTP9 -- your thoughts?

The other matter to discuss is a possible switchover to OOTP 9. If we are going to do this, it has to be on Opening Day (the conversion software requires that the league be on opening day).

I think going to OOTP 9 has several advantages:

1. Better gameplay.
2. Much more customization. For example, we can actually set the DFA and waiver periods to 14 days, which match our cycle. We can fine tune and customize schedules, financials, etc. to match the way we run the league.
3. Better owner recruiting. I think that when we need to recruit new owners (and we need at least one now), it will be much easier to do with the current version. New owners will be more willing to plunk down the bucks to buy the software for the new version rather than one that's several years old.

There are other selling points as well. I'm not asking for a formal vote yet, but I wanted to gauge the interest in possibly upgrading on Opening Day. If you're curious, you can see what the league would look like at this link.

Please, let me know. Any concerns? Questions?

Wild Cards?

I've put off the season switchover for a few days, because I want to gauge the interest in a few items.

The first one involves wild cards in the playoffs. I've had a few owners ask me about the possibility of including them in for the next season. The only real setup available to us is to have the two second place teams as the wild cards. We don't have enough teams to go to three divisions.

What do you think? Discuss, cast your vote and let us know.

Thanks,

Zev

Wonder What Our League Would Look Like In OOTP9?

Wonder no more...

(Note: I advanced my test league to the next season and went through free agent signings, etc., so you may see some strange players on your team. But don't worry about it, this is only a dummy test, not our real league).

Zev

Palace Coup! Sternwheelers Dethrone Monarchs!

River Cities captured the 2012 Cecil Cup today with a 6-5 victory over Seattle. This is the second title for River Cities, having won the 2008 cup against the Seattle Monarchs.

Box Log

There will be one more sim for making final offers to your free-agents to be. Please have them to me by Wednesday night.

Zev

Bad League File

It looks like I didn't zip the file correctly before uploading. I'm at work right now and don't have access to the file. I'll try to do it when I get home this afternoon before the Sabbath. If not, I'll do it Sunday night. If I do it Sunday night, then Game 5 will be on Tuesday.

Zev

UPDATE: Since both Nate and Mack agree, we're going to just do the sim on Sunday night regardless of whether or not I get the new file up.

Zev

Sternwheelers' 7HR, 16 Runs Crush Monarchs

Two homers each for Anton Suarez and Wasaburo Ichiro. Macaluso, Frau hit hard.

Box Log

Sternwheelers have a 3-1 lead. Game 5 on Sunday night.

Zev

River Cities Takes 2-1 Lead in Series

Box Log

Game 4 on Thursday Night.

Zev

Fielding Woes Make It A Hull Of A Game For The Sternwheelers

You knew it wasn't going to be a good game for River Cities when the first two Seattle hitters reached base on errors. You knew it was going to be worse when both scored and Seattle never gave up the lead from then on.

Box Log

Game 3, Tuesday night

Callahan, Villatoro Shines, Nelligan Lays An Egg -- Game 1 to River Cities

Callahan 4-4, HR, 3 RBI
Villatoro 6IP, 0R, 5H, 7K

Box Log

Game 2 Saturday Night

OOTP 9

Michael Weintraub and I are testing out the new version of OOTP with a fictional league. My personal opinion is that it may well be worth upgrading. For instance, downloading the league file is preposterously easy in the new version. One click of the mouse and the game smoothly takes care of the rest.

But, we're way too early in the process to have a final recommendation to offer to either Zev or the rest of the owners. I do though want to ask everyone in this league (and the OEL) if there's anything in particular they want us to check. I'd like to have a list of things people want us to check out in the new game so we can report back to the group on them.

So, is there anything in particular you'd like us to check on OOTP 9? Bugs in 6.5 that trouble you? Things you like and want to make sure still work? Drop a comment. Thanks.

2012 Playoffs are here!

First order of business.... who uploaded?

Seattle
Hickory
Houston
Saskatoon
River Cities
New York
Los Angeles
Walla Walla
Danville
Cleveland

Next order of business... the playoffs!

For the fifth season in a row, it's Seattle vs. River Cities. So far, it's 3-1 in favor of Seattle. Can Nate's crew rain on Mack's parade? We'll find out... Game 1 on Thursday night.

Lastly, keep those offers for your potential free agents coming in. Even if you're not in the playoffs, you can still make offers to your players.

Zev

Player stats?

I think something's screwy in this sim...

None of the players' pages within the game, nor their normal player screen stats are showing up for the past sim, but their web pages are fine. I noticed this while setting up my final rotation (I have games against both RC and NY, so I can play spoiler!).

Any idea what's going on?

Sim 13: Who uploaded?

Los Angeles
Seattle
Saskatoon
River Cities
New York
Walla Walla

Well, it's down to the wire in the Zotti League. With only five left to play, New York is four down. Can they pull off the biggest upset in the history of the league?

In other news, the password issue (which is resolved) caused me so much grief that I forgot to make the free agent offers that people sent in. I'll do them for the next sim.

This is why Zev usually does the sims...

Nate brought to my attention that the league file was incorrectly posted last night. As of 6.30 PDT this morning, it is correct, so if you downloaded the league file last night or earlier this morning, please re-download it.

Thanks!

Sim 12: Seattle clinches!

Sim 12 is done, we're at the 16th of September, and a familiar asterisk is in the magic number column for the Seattle Monarchs. Yes, they've clinched yet another Adams League title. Can Mack tie my record for most consecutive Cecil Cup titles? Time shall tell...

Over in the Zotti League, River Cities holds steady with a six game league over upstart New York, but, in perhaps the biggest news of the sim, they'll be without star shortstop John Hukill for the rest of the season! He tore a ligament in his elbow on the 13th against Cleveland during the 8th inning of a 7-3 victory for the Sternwheelers. Perhaps the only drama left this season is if River Cities can hold off the Gothams in the waning days of the 2012 season.

Other injuries this sim were to Walla Walla's Christopher Moss and Houston's Thomas Geter. Tough breaks for all involved.

League file is up and the web pages are en route. Next sim will be by Zev next Tuesday night!

Sim on Wednesday night

Zev had asked me to do the sim this evening (whoo! Zev's letting me do my first in-season sim!), but since the All Star Game is running late (no thanks to Billy "the Rat" Wagner), I'm going to run it on Wednesday evening, around 6pm PDT (9pm EDT).

If you have any contract offers or other roster moves to e-mail, please send them to both Zev and me before that time tomorrow.

Thanks!

September Call-Ups in Seattle

AP (SEATTLE) -- The Seattle Monarchs released their list of September call-ups today. While the list included three of the usual suspects, there was one big name: Seattle's top prospect, infielder George "Terminator" Labarre.

Manager John Willer stated that Labarre was not coming up just to soak in the major league atmosphere, but to play. "We're going to be starting him all over the infield, at second, short, and third. We expect him to get six starts in his first week alone, as we rest Gerhardt, 'Gimp' Deleon, and Alustiza for the playoffs."

Joining Labarre as call-ups are catcher Alvin Medina, infielder George Wilde, and oufielder Raymond Rosato. All three spent time on the major league roster earlier this year. No pitchers were promoted, but the Monarchs were already carrying a 12-man staff.

"In addition to playing Labarre a lot, we're going back to using 'Nitro' Granado as our usual starting catcher. That will give Alberto more experience while letting us rest Blassingame and use him as a spot starter and pinch hitter extraordinaire. I'd also expect our starting outfielders and first baseman to start getting some more rest."

These moves follow Seattle's decision a few weeks ago to go to a rigid five-man starting rotation and to stop skipping starts by fifth starter Joseph Macaluso. In addition to resting the Big Three of Placencia, Nelligan, and Hester, the move rewarded Macaluso for his stellar season. The youngster's 2.55 ERA is currently fourth in the league and he paces all of the majors with six complete games and four shutouts.

"We've had a great campaign," said Willer. "Now we're just looking to finish it out playing well, keeping everyone healthy, and peaking for the Cecil Cup series."

Sim 11: Who Uploaded?

Seattle
Saskatoon
Houston
River Cities
New York
Los Angeles
Danville
Cleveland

Two quick notes:

1. It's September out in OOTP land -- that magical time of the year when the current crop of rookies comes ready from the farm. Time to bring up the extra hands.

2. For the remainder of the regular season, the sims will be on Tuesday nights instead of Wednesday nights. I'm starting a new semester next week and I'll be on class on Wednesdays.

Zev

Sim 10: Who uploaded?

Houston
Seattle
Saskatoon
New York
River Cities
Walla Walla
Cleveland
Los Angeles

Sim 9: Who uploaded?

Houston
Saskatoon
River Cities
New York
Los Angeles
Walla Walla
Cleveland

Los Angeles keeps on dealing

Proud Mary keep on rolling, Los Angeles keep on dealing...

Los Angeles sends single A OF Howard Bergeron and a 9th round pick in 2013 to rival River Cities for C Joan Hinkel.

"We needed a catcher," Weintraub shrugged. "And Nate answered the phone first. Since we traded away Barrera today, I needed someone to go behind the plate. Joan will do a good job, I think."

Is that it for Los Angeles? Time will tell...

Los Angeles / Saskatoon trade

The bleeding of talent from southern California continues in the frentic hours leading to the 2012 trade deadline! This morning, Los Angeles GM Michael Weintraub announced a deal with the Saskatoon Amigos. Heading up to the Canadian prairie is All Star catcher Carlos Barrera, returning to the team that traded him to Los Angeles barely a season ago.

"It's sad to see these players leave," Weintraub stated from his seaside office at the Scorpion Pit. "But, we're building for the future. Between this trade, and the deal with New York, we now have six picks in the first two rounds next season. The infusion of talent we'll be getting is incredible."

Heading to Los Angeles's A-level team on the distant planet of Caprica is 1B Santiago Delrosario, a 2011 1st round pick who has posted an 859 OPS thus far this year. Los Angeles also received Saskatoon's 2nd round pick next season.

"There's still some time before the clock strikes midnight," Weintraub stated as he watched the sun set for the last time before the trading season ended. "We're still in discussions with at least one other owner about making the future even brighter here in the city by the sea."

NY - LA trade

Or, the Gothams get a decent closer.

Don't have time for a detailed post, but New York is happy to announce the acquisition of 4 time All-World closer Junior Cuomo from Los Angeles.

He comes at a hefty price, as Los Angeles gets two of New York's top prospects, in Marvin Heilman and Federico Soriano, as well as minor league catcher James Johnstone and New York's 2nd round pick in 2013.

New York also receives $1.5 in cash.

New ideas for next season?

Zev and I had a brief chat today about making some changes to the league structure for next season, and he suggested I post my ideas to the group for discussion. There are no promises that anything will be adopted, but we'll see what happens.

Idea 1: Interleague play -- Despite all the trash talk, I'm personally not in much of a hurry to have the two leagues intermingle, but I know that some owners will want this.

Idea 2: More playoff teams -- This I'm very much in favor of doing. Either via splitting each league into two divisions, or adding a wild card spot for the 2nd place team in each league. While we probably don't have enough teams to have four divisions, I think I'd prefer to have four three-team divisions than have a wild card. (Call it the baseball purist in me.)

Idea 3: Re-alignment -- Perhaps do it geographically, or randomly, or via a pre-determined method (i.e., the 2nd, 4th, and last place teams in each league are swapped after this season). I just thought of this idea, and think it might be fun.

Idea 4: Salary cap -- Not the best idea, I know, but maybe we can self-impose a luxury tax (I'm not sure if this is possible in OOTP6.5, or even feasible). But, an equalization of the league finances wouldn't be a bad thing.

So, feel free to discuss, or offer any suggestions of your own. Let's make this the best league we can!

OOTP 9 First Impressions?

Out of the Park Baseball 9 was released this past week. I remember several people saying that they pre-ordered it. Any first impressions?

2013 traded draft picks

Guys, here's the list (as I have) of the traded draft picks for 2013. Please let me know if I need to make any corrections:

1st round:

• Hickory to River Cities - 3/2/12
• Danville to River Cities - 3/2/12
• Brooklyn to Los Angeles - 5/27/12
• Seattle to Los Angeles - 5/27/12
• New York to Houston - 7/8/12

2nd round:

• Danville to River Cities - 3/2/12
• Walla Walla to Seattle - 3/2/12

3rd round:

• Los Angeles to Seattle - 3/2/12
• Hickory to Los Angeles - 3/2/12

4th round:

• Los Angeles to New York - 3/12/12
• Hickory to Los Angeles - 6/24/12

5th round:

• Brooklyn to Los Angeles - 5/27/12

6th round:

7th round:

8th round:

• New York to Houston - 7/8/12

9th round:

10th round:

11th round:

• Seattle to Los Angeles - 5/27/12

They have been dealt with!!!

Traitors will not be tolerated. A deal had to be made.

Trade between Houston and New York :

New York gets :
3B Herman Gossard
P Gene Brobst
LF Kenneth McGlone
RF Jose Martinez
P Balta Riojas

Houston gets :
P Harry Johnson
1B Preston Giorgi
1st round draft pick
8th round draft pick

Herman Gossard congratulating Thomas Geter or is all Star selection was the last straw. How dare a career .300 hitter congratulate last years rookie of the year's Adams Rookie of the year for his selection when he has never been selected. Envy and hate should have filled his heart. The Piggy will let go that Geter thank Gossard in helping become a better catcher. The Piggy fells Geter should hate Gossard because he was trade in 2007 to make room for Gossard. There should not be any of the the move helped me become a better player crap.

I hope Mr. Johnson and Giorgi will get with the Dillo Deally-o

Thank is all

Sim 8: Who uploaded?

Hickory
Houston
Seattle
River Cities
New York
Los Angeles
Walla Walla
Cleveland

Please note that the trading deadline is in the next sim, so get those trades going.

Also, a thank you to Mack for updating the Award Histories Page. Thanks Mack!

Zev

He is not amused

The Piggy does not enjoy traitors. If you would like one among these heathens you must take them all. Would like a 1st round pick and middle relief, but other offers will be looked at.

Herman Gossard, Third Base (Catcher Too)
Gene Brobst, Starting Pitcher
Kenneth McGlone, Leftfield
Jose Martinez, Rightfield
Balta Riojas, Starting Pitcher

That is all

Sim 7: Who uploaded?

Seattle
Hickory
Saskatoon
Houston
Cleveland
River Cities
Los Angeles
New York

Saskatoon-Cleveland swap

Saskatoon (CP)

The Saskatoon Amigos bolstered their bullpen Friday, picking up closer Curtis Barksdale from Cleveland in exchange for outfield prospect Ariel Gutierrez.

The deal is a homecoming of sorts for Barksdale, 28, who was drafted by Saskatoon in the 50th round of the 2002 draft. He was a Zotti League all-star as a rookie in 2011 and has 12 saves so far this year.

Barksdale will share the set-up duties for Amigos' closer Teodoro Amaral, said Saskatoon GM Trevor Pritchard.

"We're happy to bring one of the original Amigos back into the fold," said Pritchard.

"With (current set-up man Glenn) Harvell we've now got a potent one-two punch before Amaral gets into the game."

Coincidentally, Harvell was picked up by Saskatoon from the Seattle Monarchs in 2009 in a deal involving Barksdale.

Unnamed sources say that the Amigos may be looking to move Amaral, a potential free agent who has 15 saves and a 2.83 ERA in 36 games this season.

Gutierrez was hitting .327 with single-A Tisdale before Friday's deal.

Los Angeles / Hickory trade

Continuing the good relations forged by the offseason Shunk/Cohen, et al. trade, the GMs for Los Angeles Scorpions and Hickory Huskers are proud to announce another trade of a Scorps superstar to the Adams League challenger.

Heading to the prairie is strikeout maestro Johnny Cowherd, a solid setup reliever who may step into the closer's role with the 2nd place Huskers. The Scorpions receive 2B prospect Roberto Ferrer and a 4th round pick in the 2013 draft.

"Yes, we are," LA owner/GM Michael Weintraub affirmed when asked if the team was undergoing a fire sale. "I can't deny that the past ten seasons haven't been productive and rewarding, but now our time is over. It's time to plan for the next ten."

Recent trades involving Luis Jeon and Duane Gerhardt have both brought younger prospects and high draft picks, and Weintraub hopes the trend continues.

"We have plenty of good players still available for trade, like catcher Carlos Barrera (on his way to his fifth All Star appearance), two-time All World shortstop Ricky Peppers, versatile infielder Robert Young, consistent 3.00 ERA starter Jeffrey Shuttleworth, and, of course, the best pitcher in the game, closer Junior Cuomo."

Weintraub rattled off a few more names, but it's clear his mind was elsewhere. "Anyway," he finished. "The other owners know how to reach me if they want to make a deal. Until then, I'll be sitting on the beach here, waiting for my iPhone to ring, and sipping margaritas until Mexico runs out of tequila!"

Sim 6: The "Seattle is perfect sim" Who uploaded?

Seattle
Hickory
Saskatoon
Houston
River Cities
Los Angeles
New York
Danville
Cleveland

Career Accomplishments

I saw some things of interest when I was glancing at the Career Leaderboard today.

On June 2, Michael Fay became the first player in league history to steal 500 bases. Fay also picked up his 300th double on June 4, only the fifth person to reach that mark. Fay also scored his 1,000th run on May 21, the second person to crest that plateau. Sure, 99.9% of his stats came playing for Saskatoon, but he's hit these significant milestones as a Monarch!

On May 18, Gregory Mudge became the third player in league history to hit 300 home runs. He should soon pass John Redman and move into second all-time on the home run list. On May 5, Mudge also became the eighth person to accumulate 1,500 hits. Mudge is also 31 RBI away from becoming the second hitter to reach 1,000.

Anything on the career leaderboard catch your eye?

Sim 5: Who uploaded?

Seattle
Hickory
Saskatoon
Houston
River Cities
New York
Los Angeles
Danville
Cleveland

Seattle Acquires All-Star Second Sacker

May 27, 2012
AP (SEATTLE)

The Seattle Monarchs today acquired second baseman Duane Gerhardt from the Los Angeles Scorpions in exchange for reserve infielder Cristobal Santoyo, elite pitching prospect Roger Painter, and the Monarchs' first and eleventh round picks in next year's draft.

"We're delighted to add someone with Duane's talents to the team," said Seattle Owner/GM Mack Shultz. "He brings a good bat and his speed and basestealing is off the charts. He'll step right in as a starter and go into the top of the lineup given Sean Arant's injury. When Arant comes back, we think we'll have a pair of basestealers that this league has never seen."

Rumors swirled last year that the Monarchs had tried unsuccessfully to acquire Gerhardt before he was dealt by Covington (now Cleveland) to Los Angeles. Gerhardt went on to steal 82 bases and post an OPS of .889 while winning the Slick Fielder Award at second.

"We're also happy that Cristobal Santoyo likely will get a chance to start for Los Angeles. He's been great for us off the bench, and has been a very useful utility infielder," said Shultz. Santoyo has posted a .348 batting average and .452 OBP in 115 at bats over the three years since he was selected in the Rule 5 draft.

Roger Painter jumped to elite prospect status over the last offseason when he simultaneously improved his stuff, movement, and command. A fourth-round pick in 2011 by Seattle, he had a 2.08 ERA in five appearances last year with the Monarchs and has a 2.22 ERA as a starter this season in AAA Tacoma. "We liked Roger a lot," mused Shultz, "but we weren't sure whether he would fit best as a starter or reliever. Hopefully, he'll grow into a great starter for the Scorpions."

It would appear that Shultz has lost patience with prospect Danny Lorenzen, who will likely replace Santoyo as utility infielder alongside Robert Ramsey (who is three for four since coming over from Los Angeles in an earlier trade).

- Correspondent Max Mercy

Brooklyn Bags A Bomber

The Brooklyn Wolves are pleased to announce that they have acquired slugging 1B Luis Jeon from the Los Angeles Scorpions. Jeon, 26, a four-time All-Star, will immediately take over a first base and anchor a lineup that is already in second place in home runs hit this season. Jeon already has 200 career home runs (12th on the all-time list), 650 RBI (17th) and 599 walks (7th) is expected to lead the Wolves offense as they make their run against the Seattle Monarchs.

Going to left coast in this trade are 1B prospect John Hodge (who, ironically, was acquired from Los Angeles two seasons ago), RP Matthew Vowels and two draft picks in next year's draft (1st round and 5th round).

Minor League Trade within Washington

The Seattle Monarchs today traded minor league reliever Darin Sitton across the Cascade Mountains to Walla Walla today for minor league outfielder James Thomas and a fourth round pick in next spring's draft. Sitton posted an ERA of 2.53 in AAA Tacoma last year and had a 3.38 mark this season.

Seattle Director of Player Personnel Michael Shultz explained that the Monarchs didn't see a role for Sitton on the major league squad, but felt that he was ready to contribute and were happy to find him a team where he had a better future. It's longstanding Monarchs policy not to unnecessarily stall players' careers.

Meanwhile, Thomas was added to the Monarchs' continuing RFP project ("Rehabilitating Failed Prospects"). Although the Monarchs' efforts in this direction have borne no fruit so far, they will continue to try.

Sim 4: Who uploaded?

Seattle
Saskatoon
Houston
River Cities
New York
Los Angeles
Walla Walla
Danville
Cleveland

Sim 3: Who uploaded?

Seattle
Hickory
Saskatoon
Houston
River Cities
New York
Danville
Los Angeles
Walla Walla
Cleveland

Seattle Marches to the Beat of Its Own Drum

April 29, 2012
AP (SEATTLE)

Maybe it's the rain. Maybe it's the coffee. Maybe it's success that has gone to their heads. For whatever reason, the Seattle Monarchs front office does things its own way, bucking conventional wisdom.

After two weeks of the 2012 campaign, Seattle unexpectedly stood at 5-9 and in last place. General Manager and Owner Mack Shultz shrugged it off, saying only, "They'll be fine."

The last two weeks saw the Monarchs tear off an 11-game winning streak before dropping yesterday's game in Brooklyn. Now, with everything seemingly working, the Mad Tinkerer is at it again, making multiple roster moves.

Despite having the best pitching in the league, Seattle has changed its field general. Alberto "Nitro" Granado has been promoted from AAA Tacoma to the major leagues and takes over as the starting catcher beginning tonight. Three-time Slick Fielder and two-time All Star Waylon Blassingame is being sent to the bench with only spot starts and pinch hitting appearances in his immediate future. Although off to a slow start at the plate, Blassingame did hit .350 last year, winning the batting title.

Meanwhile, last year's successful acquisition Stanley Raabe has been traded to New York, where he is expected to start, for minor leaguer Roger Nichols. Raabe had been Seattle's starting backstop against left-handed starters in a platoon with Blassingame and was one of the few Monarch hitters meeting preseason expectations. Now, suddenly, he's shipped off for an 18-year-old outfielder who has already been traded twice since the season started and is charitably described as a fringe prospect.

The Monarchs front office hasn't stopped there either. Seattle traded minor league reliever Angel Vinyals to Los Angeles for veteran infielder Robert Ramsey. Vinyals had been a ninth-round pick in this spring's draft and a revelation at AA Olympia, posting a 1.80 ERA. Meanwhile, Ramsey was hitting a pathetic .105 for Los Angeles and has a two-year contract for almost three million dollars per year.

The biggest loser in these changes was long-time Monarch George Wilde, who had done everything asked but now finds himself shipped back to AAA Tacoma. An excellent baserunner and cutup in the clubhouse, "The Wilde Man" had stolen a base and scored five runs as a pinchrunner. He even tripled in his only plate appearance of the season. Now, he gets to waste another year of his dwindling career in Tacoma.

Shultz addressed the media this morning, announcing the changes and answering questions in his typical manner. "Have you seen Granado hit?" Shultz condescendingly snapped at one male reporter. "He's as ready as he's ever going to be and it's his time to start. What would you have him do? Lead the minor leagues in hitting?"

When the reporter followed up by asking if the fact that the promotion of Granado was too late in the season to allow Granado to accrue a full year of service time was mere coincidence, Shultz glowered and loftily declared, "We don't screw our players over." (Isaac Frau, who was unreasonably shifted to AAA for a month last season despite a superb campaign and had arbitration and free agency delayed by a year as a result, may beg to differ.)

"Stanley was a valuable contributor," Shultz patiently explained to another reporter, an attractive female covering the team for GQ magazine, who asked about Raabe. "But he's 34 and the chance to get any kind of prospect for him was too good to pass up. Nichols may not be great, but he's young and has potential to improve. With Granado now starting every day and being a right-handed bat, Stanley just wasn't going to have much of a chance to play."

Sensing Shultz's mood, the press corps decided to let the leggy brunette keep asking the questions. When she asked about the acquisition of Ramsey, Shultz further explained his reasoning. "We were after Bob Ramsey in free agency, but he signed with LA. We were willing to offer him as much money as he got from Weintraub for this year alone, but we understood Michael kept Ramsey locked in a room until he signed. We also considered dealing for him in Spring Training, but couldn't reach agreement. Now, after a tough start, Michael was in a more reasonable mood and we found common ground. Vinyal is off to a good start, but he's a right-handed reliever and they're a dime a dozen."

"We don't expect Ramsey to be a hero. If he gets a few pinch hits and runs the bases well while stealing a few sacks as a pinch runner, we're good. In any case, let's discuss it over a drink," Shultz said as he led the journalist from the room, ending the press conference.

A scout for another team who asked to remain anonymous professed surprise at Seattle's moves. "The team is stuggling and he does nothing. They go 11-1, and he turns over the roster. Who knows what that idiot is doing?"

- Correspondent Max Mercy