Rain Delay

The sim will be run tomorrow (Thursday). I need some information from two owners before we can continue.

Zev

Trade: River Cities and Ohio

Dateline, Cape Canaveral -- In the wake of the All-Star game hoopla River Cities and Ohio have pulled a deal that they hoped would pass unnoticed. River Cities sends minor league prospects SS Esteban Ordonez and LF Lai-Hsiang Xiang to Ohio in return for relief pitcher Larry Dull and Ohio's 4th Round pick in next year's amateur draft.

Reached at the pre-launch party for his upcoming space tourism trip and surrounded by oh-so-hot Ally Sheedy lookalikes hoping to audition for 'Space Camp II: Zero G Experimentation' River Cities owner Nate Wooley stated "We need some Dull around this place. It's constant noise and such. I thought by acquiring the guy with the name I could get some peace and quiet around here."

When informed of the trade Dull remarked...well, he said...err. Urm. Well, honestly he lived up to his name and this reporter fell asleep during his remarks. But I'm sure he said something, sports fans!

Will this be it for the Sternwheelers? Or is there more dealing ahead. River Cities may have the best record in the game right now but that hasn't stopped owner Nate Wooley from looking to improve in the past. Time will tell the tale!

Sim's Done

Welcome to July -- it's All-Star Season!

How things stand:

Adams:
Saskatoon 48-32
Seattle 48-32
Maui 41-39
Brooklyn 39-41
Houston 33-47
Hickory 31-49

Zotti:
River Cities 53-27
Cleveland 50-30
Ohio 37-43
New York 36-44
Los Angeles 34-46
Danville 30-50

Next sim -- next Wednesday.

Just a small administrative note -- next semester I have class on Wednesday nights, so in late January I'll be moving the sim to a new night. I'll make sure everyone has advance notice.

Zev

Hickory GM Fails to Come Up With Clever Headline to Announce Deal

Dateline - Hickory, June 15, 2015

The dismantling of the first playoff team in Hickory history began this week, as the Huskers dealt veteran lefty closer Harold Beeks to division rival Seattle. Acquired in a midseason trade with River Cities in 2014, the 33-year old Beeks helped Hickory seal its wild-card run by saving 21 games in the second half. This season, Beeks has been one of the few bright spots for the Huskers, converting all 14 save opportunities to date, but his productivity has been limited on a disappointing team that sits 16 games behind the first place Monarchs.

"Am I worried about helping the competition?" asked incredulous Husker GM Frank Ferrara at a press conference announcing the trade. "We are 16 games behind them. We're only their competition in the sense that Pompeii competed with Vesuvius. We'll be sorry to see Harold go, but there's not much point holding onto an elite closer at this point." Added veteran manager Todd Lee, "Yeah, and also, we're thinking about letting Frank Osborne close on the days when he's not starting." The press conference was then briefly halted as Ferrara repeatedly struck Lee about the head and shoulders.

Coming to Hickory in the deal are catcher Kareem King (.312/.352/.531 in limited time behind Seattle starter Alberto Grenado) and lefty reliever Jacobo Centeno (0-3, 3.86, 14 strikeouts in 21 innings at AAA Tacoma). At 28, King is old for a prospect, but the Huskers hope his outstanding defensive reputation and plus plate discipline will make him an immediate starter behind the plate.

Sim's Done.

In the Adams League, Seattle has a one game lead over Saskatoon.
In the Zotti League, Cleveland and River Cities are tied.

And the good news: no one was killed this sim! :)

Next sim will be next Wednesday.

Zev

The Sim'll Come Out... Tomorrow... You Can Bet Your Bottom Dollar That Tommorrow...

... theyre'll be sim.

I'm putting off the sim as a courtesy to an owner who asked me to do something for his team that I can't do. So, in order to give him a chance to make alternate plans, I'm giving him until tomorrow.

In addition, I'm working with Michael on a solution to the commish-overbudget issue. I put together an idea and sent it to Michael for his consideration. Once we both agree that it's a good idea and that it'll work, we'll let everyone know what we're doing.

Zev

Next sim tomorrow

Since there was no blog post with the last sim, I sent Zev an email asking if he was planning to run the next sim tomorrow. He responded yes, barring any unforeseen developments. Just passing it along FYI.

River Cities and Cleveland still tied!!!!

Nate, I guess it is not that odd what happened 2 seasons ago with you and Paul as we are tied for the lead again after another 15 days have passes. That makes 3 of the 4 sims in which we have been tied...will this continue???

Trade Pitching for Position Players

I have strength in pitching both at ML and AAA level. Who is ready to get some great pitching while allowing me to get some great position players. Very few are not marketable from my staff so take a look and let us see if we can help each other. Reach me at david@davidlocke.org

Sim's Done

Sorry, I'd post more, but as my FB know, I'm sick as a dog.

Next sim, next Wednesday

Zev

Apologies

Hey, all -

So, thanks to the vagaries associated with real estate transactions, I am temporarily between... er... homes at the moment, and have been for almost two weeks. I'm thus without Internet connection most of the time and without connection to the game ever. I'm finally closing on Friday and should be able to catch up then, but in the meantime, two things:

1. I apologize to anyone who has tried to contact me about trades or other matters in the last two weeks; I'm not blowing you off, but I am living in a hotel.

2. If a kind soul could do just one simple thing to my team, I would appreciate it considerably. Specifically, I would like my rotation changed from a 6- to a 5-man rotation (the rotation should be Osborne, Reuter, Hunnicutt, Shipp, and Morales, with Lawrence and Amell listed as Spot Starters. Everything else I'll just have to live with.

Really sorry. This sucks, because I had high hopes for my team this year and being unable to manage it for these three sims is helping to put me in a hole. Oh, well. I blame Omar Minaya, because basically everything bad is his fault.

Trade: River Cities and Maui

Dateline: Marietta, OH May 1, 2015 -- For the second time in the last six week of this new season River Cities has dealt a player under 25 for someone older. The deal, completed with the Maui Mashers, is already being dubbed by the sportswriters 'The Rainbow Connection'.

Leaving the questionable atmosphere of southeastern Ohio this time is 1B/OF Ronald Amos, acquired only ten months ago from Hickory. Leaving Maui to walk the sacred ground of Ohio is Maui starting catcher Thomas Geter along with 2B prospect Travis Sparrow from AAA Pukalani.

Amos, hitting .333 so far in 2015, said in a release, "YEAH, BABY! AWESOME! Who cares about baseball? I'm heading for Hawaii! Hits, schmits, I'm hitting the waves and the bikinis, dude!" Amos then went on to donate all of his cold weather clothes to the Goodwill on Greene Street and parade down Front Street in a colorful shirt and lei. "Get it", he continued, "Leied? Get it! That's me, man! That's ME!"

Reached actually AT Hawaii, River Cities owner Nate Wooley commented, "I just thought I'd make the young man's dreams come true. Amos is already from California, sadly from San Jose instead of southern Cali, so I hope he'll be able to adapt. Yes, dear, more lotion would be good. Wait, don't you print that!"

Rumors abound that, with the first base problem now resolved, owner Wooley is turning his attention to reworking his crowded outfield. With Maclin, DuBreuil, Birdsell, and Suarez something is likely to be done. Just what? This reporter couldn't say but it'll be interesting to watch.

Sim Done!

The game date is 5/1. The league file is up and the league pages have been updated.

In the Adams League, it's Maui in front by one game over Seattle. In the Zotti League, Cleveland holds a one game lead over River Cities.

Next sim - next Wednesday

???

So what's the deal? How am I to enjoy Thanksgiving without knowing that I beat Locke in this sim's opener? I'm hoping for a 90% victory rate against him this season.

Maui/Danville Trade

Wailuku, Maui - (AP): Under clear blue skies, with palm trees swaying lazily in the tropical breeze, Maui Mashers GM Matt Macario announced a trade with the Danville Dans today. The deal will send Maui's ace SP James Turner and veteran 1B/3B Brian Palazzo to Danville, in exchange for Danville's star SP Ferdinand Pineda.

Responding to vociferous criticsm by a clear majority of Maui's 87 known fans, who are apparently outraged over the loss of Turner and Palazzo, Macario said "haven't they seen how much money we threw at Dong Lutz in the offseason? Obviously, he runs the team now. Talk to him."

Sim's Done

It's now April 15. I hope all your players paid their taxes, or else you're liable to see "Player X out for five to fifteen years in prison."

That being said, it's Seattle in the lead with a 10-3 record and a 2 game lead over Maui in the Adams League and Cleveland and River Cities perched atop the Zotti League with identical 11-2 records.

Next sim on Wednesday night.

Sim Tonight

I'm sorry, but school and work interfered with yesterday's sim. I'll be running it tonight.

Zev

Where's the sim?

Inquiring minds need to know how badly I beat Locke!

2015 Seattle Monarchs Preview

So, as the 2015 season dawns, the greatest franchise in SDMB OOTP history prepares to kick off another season. With nine division titles in the last ten years, and five Cecil Cups in the last six, the Seattle Monarchs truly reign supreme. But, can they keep their throne, or will the peasants rise up to overturn their enlightened rule?

Well, we'll see. I have gone into many of the past seasons confident that there was no better team in the league. I'm not so sure any more. Time, financial pressures, free agency, some trade missteps, and injuries have lessened the Monarchs' dominance. We're still strong, but for the first time in years, I wouldn't be surprised if someone else won the division. Although, I do expect the Monarchs to at the very least qualify for the playoffs.

It's been an offseason of huge changes. What remains to uplift Seattle's loyal and adoring fans?

Starting Pitching: Although Seattle bid adieu to Thomas Cohen, the rotation is the strength of the Monarchs this season. They have five very good to great starting pitchers. The ace is Ronald Placencia, who is 37-6 over the last two seasons and was a perfect 4-0 in the playoffs last season. Christopher Hester provides a second ace starter, with a lifetime ERA below 3.00 and a career winning percentage of .774. The Monarchs happily welcome back Chad Nelligan from his one-year exile in Los Angeles. The Chad was the Monarchs' ace for more than three years and his 28 wins in 2011 are still a league record. The Seattle front office thinks he can fill in for Cohen on the field and also help nurture the team's young pitchers. With young studs Joe Macaluso and Jimmy Matthias in the back end, the starting pitching could lead the Seattle back to the promised land.

Bullpen: The end of the bullpen, with mainstays Timothy Vallejo, Dalton Davis, and Merlin Bohon, remains strong. But, the very young middle relievers are a question mark, as Nathan Vargas posted an ERA north of six last season in his first and only 19.1 innings in the majors and Daryl Welburn has never thrown a major league pitch.

Starting Lineup: This is the area of greatest change. The two best hitters from last year's team, Dong Lutz and David Kerry, are gone and took 83 home runs and 262 RBI with them. It's unclear whether the Monarchs will be able to fill the void, especially with the career-ending injury to Paul "The Dragon" Guerrero, who management heavily counted on to fill the power shortage. But, there are still a number of excellent young hitters. The lineup will rise and fall with the continued development of catcher Alberto "Nitro" Granado (23 years old), third baseman Eugene Alustiza (25), and outfielder Armando "Rimfire" Cedeno (24). With Guerrero's injury, Cedeno will move to a corner outfield spot, better suiting his defensive abilities.

The Monarchs fans, excited as they are about this young trio, are especially happy to welcome back first baseman Greg Mudge, long-time face of the franchise. The hope is that Mudge is fully healed from off his injury last season and can provide some of the power lost in the departures of Lutz and Kerry. Speed demon Duane Gerhardt, fresh off a league record 102 steals, will set the table for the big boppers and double play partner Carmelo "The Gimp" Deleon provides his steady performance. Deleon has hit between .326 and .332 in six of his seven major league seasons.

Otherwise, a number of youngsters will have to step up for the Monarchs this season. Bill Bivens, who can play almost anywhere on the field, will look to build on his breakout season last year. Rookies Stephen Jackson and Roger Nichols will get their first chances at regular major league jobs.

Reserves: The Monarchs have depth behind the plate. Kareem King will back up Granado with prospect Richard Heitz in AAA awaiting his chance. Seattle also features two good young infielders on the major league bench in Richard "Dick" Bender and Paulin Reyes. Outfield depth is a little more spotty.

In all, the Monarchs remain very optimistic about their chance of defending their throne. But, the other teams in the league are catching up and nervous fans question whether this is the beginning of the end.

SDMB OOTP / Talent Levels

Am I the only one who thinks the talent levels in the league, and especially the minors, are appallingly low? Looking through the minors, and discounting relievers, my scout sees one 5* player, one 4.5* player, four 4* players, three 3.5* players, and five 3* players. IN THE WHOLE OF THE MINOR LEAGUES -- ALL ORGANIZATIONS -- ALL TEAMS.

Now, those totals may go up some when players are sent back to the minors from Spring Training, but I'm not sure that they will go up all that much. I don't see a lot of highly rated prospects that appear to be on major league rosters just for Spring Training.

And, obviously, it seems like everyone agreed the most recent draft was ... not good in terms of talent.

Am I the only one who sees this? Am I the only one who thinks this is a potential problem?

ST is done

We're at March 29.

Please make sure to have your rosters down to 25 players by Wednesday night when we sim the first two weeks of the season.

Zev

No Love for the Bantonman?

The Piggy hates Sean Banton. He would not share his wings therefore he must go. His little friend Basil Napoles must go with him too. The Piggy want pick and prospects in return. As usual offers from Zotti teams have an edge.

That is All

Sim's Done...

... and still no more career ending injuries.

Next sim Saturday Night

Trade at the Confluence: Ohio and River Cities

Dateline: Marietta 3/15/09

In a move that stunned the world of the northwest territory this afternoon, River Cities and Ohio swapped young pitchers and pieces of flotsam.

Leaving the confluence of the Ohio and Muskingum rivers to go to the confluence of the Ohio and Muskingum rivers is River Cities #1 overall prospect starting pitcher Bruno Talamantez and back up infielder Matthew Rodrigue. Coming to Marietta from Ohio is catching prospect Bell and starting pitcher Danny Andrews.

Reached for comment at his secluded villa, surrounded by pretty girls of questionable age, River Cities owner Nate Wooley declared, "Losing Bruno hurts. Anytime you trade the top prospect in the game it requires some thought. But it was worth it to lose Rodrigue. I mean, for God's sake, what happened to the damn last 'z' on the guys name? How do you trust a player like that? You can't."

Reached for comment while packing, Rodrigue exclaimed, "Fuck that guy, anyway. Who the hell does he think he is? The guy who demoted me last year? I stand by my comment."

Talamantez, meanwhile, claims he's hoped his new location would have a drinking age low enough for him to buy beer. Told he was only moving 20 yards to another Ohio stadium he declared, "Crap. Now I'm going to have to get those kids at Marietta College to buy for me."

New Ohio owner, David Locke, commented, "I'm glad to broken my cherry in a trade that will potentially help both teams. And by the way, did I mention the free kegs of beer in the Ohio clubhouse?" Locke went on to add, "We'll continue to try to beef up our middle-infield defense and we're willing to entertain reasonable trade proposals from all other teams in the league."

Hickory-Seattle Finally Consummate Second Half of Trade

Some time in the early 1990s, Hickory and Seattle agreed on a trade that sent superstar David Kerry to Hickory in exchange for a gaggle of prospects. At the time, it was rumored that the greatest player in Monarchs' history, Greg Mudge, would be returning to Seattle in a second, linked deal.

Today, Seattle Owner/GM Mack Shultz proudly announced the return of Mudge, to a wildly cheering standing-room-only crowd at the Monarchs' home stadium. Mudge, who hit 330 of his 352 home runs in a Seattle uniform, said he was excited to be returning home. Mudge proclaimed, "I may have been born in Minnesota, but my true home is Seattle."

In addition to being second on the league's all-time home run list, Mudge is the career leader in RBI, 2nd in total bases, 4th in hits, 6th in runs scored, 7th in at bats, 9th in games played, 11th in doubles, 12th in OPS, and third in strikeouts. "Greg is a true legend, and we're thrilled to have him back," gushed Shultz.

In the first half of the deal, the Monarchs traded Kerry and $8 million in cash to Hickory in exchanged for reliever Nicolas Vargas, AAA infielder Miguel Salazar, A-ball reliever Fei-hsien Bao, and Hickory's first round pick in the 2015 amateur draft. The first round pick was later revoked when it became known that sly Hickory GM Frank Ferrara had traded his pick away twice. Now, in the second half of the deal, Seattle sent outfielder Lonnie Machen to Hickory for Mudge, $10.5M in cash, and Hickory's 1st and 4th round picks in the 2016 draft.

The most enthusiastic person about the trade was Seattle's Director of Finances, Scrooge McDuck. The first part of the deal was made on December 1, with the concluding half on March 16. In exchange for effectively lending Hickory $8 million, Seattle gained $2.5 in interest. "Even by my standards, a 31% return in three and a half months is pretty good," explained McDuck.

Sim Done...

... and this week I managed to not kill anyone.

Next sim is Thursday night.

Zev

Next Three Sims

OK, so it seems the consensus is to move forward.

That being said, the next three sims will be:
1. Wednesday night
2. Thursday night
3. Saturday night

Each sim will be one week of Spring Training.

Zev

Schedule Fail

I worked on the schedule and it seems to work fine... with one problem.

The game will not allow you to implement a schedule once spring training has started. That being the case, I'm afraid we may have to stick with the unbalanced schedule for this season and put the new schedule in place for next season.

Of course, if there are some other suggestions, I'm always open to hearing them. Otherwise, I think we should go on with the rest of Spring Training.

Zev

OK, I Think I've Got It

For the last two weeks, I've been working on the league schedule.

Jeremy brought to my attentiont that the home/away schedules for each team were out of whack. While each team played a total of 81 home games and 81 away games, the balance of home/away games that one team plays against another was sometimes out of whack. I saw one case where a team played only five home games against one team while playing 27 away games against the same team. So, I've spent the last two weeks working on a new schedule.

Let me say this... I have a newfound respect for the scheule makers in real-life baseball. I found this particular task to be very difficult -- and I didn't have to deal with real-life travel issues, hotel bookings, stadium conflicts, etc. I'm lucky that our teams don't care if they play three games in Seattle, then head to Miami for three games, then back to Nome for three games and then Tampa Bay again for three -- real life teams wouldn't do that, but I don't have that constraint.

In any event, I finally worked it out. Each team will play a total of 50 series of three or four games, resulting in a total of 162 games. It almost worked out perfectly, except that, in the end, I had to switch two games -- meaning that for four teams, a three game series becomes a two-game/one-game home and home series.

Nonetheless, in the end, all teams have 81 home games and 81 away games. Each team plays every other team in their division at home or away 16 or 17 times.

Before implementing the change, I just want to run this schedule in a test league and make sure there are no... hiccups. I'm going to do that tomorrow (Wednesday) night and hope to have the first week of Spring Training ready for either Thursday night or Saturday night.

Thanks for putting up with the delay.

Zev

Let's Try Again for Saturday Night

I'm sorry... life took a hectic turn on Thursday and I didn't get to run the sim. I'll try it again on Saturday night.

Zev

Injuries again.

I wouldn't mind discussing altering the injury frequency level down a peg. Would anyone else be interested?

First Week of Spring Training Done

The first week of Spring Training has been run.

The Seattle/Saskatoon trade has been processed.

I analyzed the schedule and found that it looks good. Each team plays every other team in their league either 32 or 33 times. So, I won't be changing the schedule after all.

Next sim (for the next week of Spring Training) will be on *Thursday* October 29.

Zev

Yes, I finished the draft....

I finally finished the draft very late last night and uploaded the results.

As Mack noted, the draft picks from his last trade were executed but the players weren't. The reason for that was because:

a) I simply forgot about the trade (D'oh!)
b) I ran the draft using Michael's very excellent spreadsheet (THANK YOU MICHAEL!!!)

I'll execute the player's portion of the trade (minus the draft picks, obviously) before the next sim.

I advanced the game to Mar 2, the first day of spring training. I will be running the first week of Spring Training next Wednesday.

Also, please note that the schedules are incorrect. As someone noticed last season, the schedule that the game generates is kind of kooky. I'm going to generate a more balanced schedule (where each team plays each other team roughly the same number of times) and upload it to the game. I am not, however, going to change the pre-season schedule.

Any questions? Fire away.

Zev

OK, I messed that draft up...

... but it's a good thing I made a backup before I started. :) Let's try it again...

The ultimate traded draft pick list

Okay, here's the deal...

Everything in this entry is in this Google Spreadsheet, so if you want to see it in a grid format, look there.

The game's draft order isn't 100% correct. Here's the correct order:

1. Danville (65 wins in 2014)
2. Saskatoon (69 wins)
3. Maui (72 wins)
4. New York (73 wins)
5. Houston (74 wins)
6. Los Angeles (75 wins)
7. Brooklyn (79 wins)
8. Ohio (81 wins as Walla Walla)
9. Hickory (83 wins)
10. River Cities (109 wins, ZL runner-up)
11. Cleveland (83 wins, ZL champion)
12. Seattle (109 wins, Cecil Cup champion)

I noticed that Hickory had traded its first round pick twice while compiling the list yesterday. The first trade was with River Cities, and the second trade was with Seattle. Since Zev is observing shabbot now, I'll let him sort this out when he gets back online, but I believe Mack and Frank are going to re-do the Kerry trade to save Zev and me a headache.

So, considering there's barely one round worth of decent prospects, here's what everyone cares about, the first round order:

1. Seattle
2. Seattle
3. Maui
4. New York
5. Houston
6. Los Angeles
7. Brooklyn
8. Ohio
9. River Cities (pending resolution of whom gets Hickory's pick, but River Cities "got" it first)
10. River Cities
11. Cleveland
12. Danville

Some interesting (or not) trivia:

- New York, Houston, Ohio, and River Cities all have their original picks, having traded none.
- Hickory can focus on sorting out the Kerry deal with Seattle, as they have no picks in the first 4 rounds. Hope you like those half-star MRs, Frank!
- Umm, that's about it. Have fun this weekend, everyone!

Anyone want a catcher?

I have three catchers on my majors roster without any minor league options left, so I'd like to trade one.

Available, in increasing levels of potential trade value are veterans Gerald Odum and Joan Hinkel, plus prospect Gerardo Herrera.

Odum and Hinkel are available for a middling prospect or draft pick, but I'd want something more valuable for Herrera.

Seattle and Saskatoon Swing Super Swap

In a major deal today, Seattle today sent SP Thomas Cohen and two prospects to Saskatoon in exchange for the #2 overall pick in tomorrow's draft and young C Richard Heitz.

In addition to Cohen, who the Amigos ("Amigos" means "friends," for all you non-native speakers out there) expect to front their rotation this season, Saskatoon received top OF prospect Luis Ramon and China's own Guo-ning Qaio in the deal. Seattle also acquired Saskatoon's fifth round pick in the deal.

Acquisition of Saskatoon's first round pick now gives Seattle the two top selections in tomorrow's draft. (Here's hoping its a Steve Emtman/Quentin Coryatt type of day for Seattle.)

Traded draft picks

I wasn't a very good junior commissioner this past season, and didn't keep a list of traded draft picks for the upcoming draft. So, please, help me compile it this weekend.

If you know of any picks you've acquired or traded away, please let me know and I'll add it to the list for Zev.

I'll keep updating this entry throughout the weekend.

Whoa! I noticed while compiling this list that Hickory traded its first round pick twice. Anyone want to sort that out?

Thanks!

Trade draft picks
Round 1: Hickory pick to Seattle (Kerry trade)
Round 1: Danville to Seattle (Jackson trade)
Round 1: Seattle to Danville (Jackson trade)
Round 1: Hickory to River Cities (Beeks trade)
Round 1: Saskatoon to Seattle (Cohen trade)

Round 2: Seattle pick to Los Angeles (Nelligan trade)
Round 2: Los Angeles to Brooklyn (Durand trade)
Round 2: Hickory to Seattle (Elder trade)

Round 3: Cleveland to Los Angeles (Aikin trade)
Round 3: Los Angeles to Houston (Geter trade)
Round 3: Hickory to Los Angeles (Soriano trade)
Round 3: Maui to Walla Walla/Ohio (Armendariz trade)

Round 4: Hickory to Los Angeles (Soriano trade)
Round 4: Seattle to Walla Walla/Ohio (Edwards trade)
Round 4: Brooklyn to Los Angeles (Durand trade)

Round 5: Saskatoon to Seattle (Cohen trade)

Round 6: Los Angeles to Seattle (Nelligan trade)

Round 7: Seattle to Walla Walla (Edwards trade)
Round 7: Brooklyn to Los Angeles (Durand trade)

Round 8: Saskatoon pick to Maui (Odegaard trade)

(See this entry for more information.)

Welcome to the 2015 Draft

Since enough people seem to want to use the in-game draft list feature, we'll give it a go.

I'm sure some owners will need some time to learn how to use it. I still have to learn how to use it from my end. :)

So, we'll schedule the draft for next Wednesday.

As an aside, I know that some owners are frustrated over the the vast disparity in the quality of the scouts. Frank had a suggestion in the last post about using a feeder league to at least give owners some stats to look at for draft choices, which are at least somewhat more objective than scout's ratings (and a measure that would be the same for all owners).

Would you like to have a college feeder league? Discuss.

Zev

Is this the thinnest draft ever?

It is, in my opinion. Every scout I've heard about reports on a severe limit of talent available in this year's draft. Can anyone remember a weaker class?

My scout, for example, shows only a couple of players above even 1 star. And two of those are middle relievers, if I recall correctly.

Oy.

Exchange of Prospects - Pitching for Hitting

Cleveland and Saskatoon exchanged young prospects today as the Amigos picked up some well needed pitching and the Steamers strengthened up their farm system in the OF and IF.

"In order to win you must have pitching, and now we have it," rejoiced Saskatoon manager Eric Lent. He gave us that quote with a big cigar in his mouth as he was heading up to his private suite at the one hotel in Saskatoon with two women on his arms. But alas, we could not tell if these were good looking women as they were wearing about 7 layers to warm up from the frigid winters.

The Amigos picked up young 19 year old closer Gregg Fiala; who became expendable with the recent signing of Junior Cuomo in Cleveland. Fiala had 11 saves last season with an additional 4 in the playoffs all before his 19th birthday. The word on the street is that he could be the next Junior Cuomo before his career is over. Also heading to the Great White North is SP Alfredo Herrero who will feel the cold seeing that he is from Mexico and LF Ariel Gutierrez who is from Venezuela.

In return, the Steamers get some IF depth in 2B Maurice Yee and OF depth with the well known CF Wayne Frederick. Both of these pickups are expected to start the season in AAA, but could become vital parts of the team as the Steamers try to push back to the Cecil Cup. They bring with them $2.5 Million that the Steamers will probably stuff under their bed for a rainy day now that they can carry over up to $25M from season to season.

Both teams are happy with the deal, and both believe that ultimately their organizations are greatly improved. With the draft and Spring Training right around the corner, this deal was finished just in time for these two franchises to set their season strategy, and there could be more deals to come before the season starts.

Next Sim on Wednesday Night -- Discussion About Amateur Draft

The sim was done last night, bringing us to 2/24. The next sim will be until 3/1.

In the past, we've done the draft by email, round-by-round, until we reached the point where the owners consented to let the remainder of the draft go through the computer.

OOTP9 has a draft-list feature that is available. If you want to use this feature this year, please respond and discuss in the comments to this thread. If enough people are on-board for it, we'll use it -- if not, we'll do it as we've always done it.

Zev

UPDATE: Make that Thursday night. It's almost 1AM... much too late to run it now.

Zev

Michael lies, or, there was a sim but not until the 15th

I just ran the sim, but not until the intended date of 2/15. I was only able to sim until 2/10 because Ohio had a player whose DFA time expired, and Ohio didn't have any free room on the 25- and 40-man rosters to stash him. So, David, please correct that ASAP and we'll be able to get on with the offseason.

In other news, I think there was just one major free agent signing, and it was 2B Bill Turek returning home to the Los Angeles franchise on a 4-year deal that could be worth $35 million.

The league file is up. Zev's got the next sim, on Sunday night.

Zev lies, or, yes, there will be a sim before Sunday

Zev has given me the okay to run the sim that was scheduled for last night. I'll run it either this evening (~7pm PDT) or tomorrow morning (~9am PDT).

The following sim will be on Sunday evening by Zev. I'll sim until 2/15 tonight, so I imagine he'll take us to the eve of the amateur draft on Sunday night.

Sorry.. .no sim last night

I ended up getting sick and falling asleep at about 7:30.

I'll run it on Sunday night.

Zev

Offseason surprises

It happens every year. Something weird occurs to your players over the winter months. I know Mack has mentioned that some of his prospects don't look so good now and I'm sure there are others.

So who surprised you? Tell your stories.

My first one is Bruno Talamantez. An 18 year old starting pitcher for me he's listed as the #1 prospect in the game. Great. But my scout thinks he's 2.5 stars now, tops. However, he obviously WORKED over the winter as he is now sporting SIX pitches in his repertoire. Fastball, Sinker, Splitter, Slider, Changeup, and Cutter. By contrast...

Villatoro has four pitches
Cohen has four
Hester has four

Seems excessive.

But what's YOUR surprise so far?

Next Sim -- Thursday Night (that's tonight)

Sim's done, reports are up. Next sim will take us to 2/14.

Oh, and be sure to check out the draft pool for this year.... it's available.

The Strange Tale of Oscar Costillo, OR What is Up With the Scouting in this Game?

So, a question about scouting:

Hickory's scout is 60-year-old Stephen Conway. Relevant to this conversation, Conway is rated 17 in terms of his ability to rate minor leaguers, and 17 in terms of his ability to rate amateur talent. In terms of the former (minor leaguers), that makes his rating fourth in the game (behind Seattle's Cash [19], River Cities' Collins [18], and Walla Walla's Shirai [18]). In terms of rating amateurs, he is tied with three others for the second-best rating in the game (behind only Cash [20]).

My understanding is that this rating should, hypothetically, mean that Conway will rate players more closely to their "actual" value than a league-average scout, or be accurate a higher percentage of the time.

So now we come to second baseman Oscar Costillo, currently on the major league bench. When I took over the franchise a few weeks into the 2013 season, Costillo was at AA Jersey City. Conway had him as a five-star prospect. This included a potential rating of 10 for contact and gap power, a potential rating of 9 for batting eye, and ratings of 6 for home runs and strikeouts.

Having no other way to judge Costillo, and again given that Conway is a highly rated scout, I assumed he would be a useful player at worst. His age-22 season in AA was mediocre (OPS = .693), but he wasn't completely overmatched in 120+ major league at bats during a desperation call-up in September, so he started 2014 at AAA Beulaville. His potential ratings still showed him as a 5-star prospect; his batting eye potential rating increased to 10, and his power potential rating increased to 7.

2014, his age 23 season, was a breakout for Costillo statistically. At AAA, he hit .315/.356/.499, with 11 home runs. His 82 RBI led all of AAA. He produced about 30 runs over replacement, didn't strike out a lot. In 25 major league at bats in September, he hit .360. At the end of the season, and indeed up until last night's sim, he continued to be rated a 5-star prospect with no change to his various potential ratings and steady increases to his actual rating. He sits on the major league roster right now; my plan was to teach him first base during spring training and use him as a caddy for Federico Soriano during the season.

Following last night's sim, all of his ratings have fallen 20 points or more. His potential has dropped from 5-stars to *one*; he is no longer a prospect, at least according to my scouting team. Again, this is following an age-23 season during which he hit extremely well in the high minors.

Hey, nothing's a sure thing, right? Perhaps so, but in this sim OF Dave Quinones (.302/.374/.479 with 24 steals for single A Avon as a 20-year-old), 3B Carlos Pais (admittedly a terrible .727 OPS season at AA Jersey City), and perhaps most frustratingly, OF Mario Lopez (my first round draft pick last year, hit .299 with 11 steals in his first season and at 20 years of age), ALL dropped from five stars to one. All also experienced huge drop-offs in current ability.

Am I missing something? The potential ratings provided by my scout, theoretically in the 75th percentile of all scouts, apparently have literally nothing to do with the player's actual potential. Neither, for that matter, does actual performance. A good counterexample is Bill Spurrier, who is now my starting second baseman. In 2013, Spurrier was rated with half-star potential. He OPSed .705 at AAA at age 26, which is notably worse than Costillo did in his age-23 season. Last year, I promoted Spurrier and he hit very well in the majors; after the most recent sim his star ratings have all been upgraded.

So I guess I don't get the structure of this game. Neither my highly-rated scout nor their comparative statistics would have suggested that Spurrier would be a better prospect than Costillo. My highly-rated scout was the only evidence I could use to pick Mario Lopez, and that after one decent season his rating has dropped from 5-stars to 1 suggests that the scouting reports are essentially useless, doesn't it?

I have noticed that when the other owners approach me regarding trades, they are often interested in players that my own scout considers marginal players, at best. When I made the Bill Dewall deal with New York last year, it was for Pais and Quinones, two five-star talents according to my scout. So clearly, our scouts vary tremendously in their assessments of players.

All of this strongly suggests to me that the various scouting reports are virtually unrelated to a player's actual chances of progressing well, that player development is literally random and thus completely unpredictable. Is there some aspect of this that I am not grasping?

OK, I Think We're Ready To Go...

I made the financial changes, moved the Walla Walla team to Ohio, and uploaded a new league file for David (or anyone else who wants to download it) and sent him the password for the team. As per a previous suggestion, I have added a link to the Links section of the blog with the league file.

The next sim will be Wednesday evening.

I have a proposal that I'm working on for a more permenant parity solution, but I still need a few days to work it out. Once it's done, I'll throw it up on the blog for discussion.

Zev

Sim last night?

It looks to me like Zev managed to get the budgets increased and fixed and uploaded a new league file last night. Do others see the same thing?

Update by Zev: I uploaded some files last night, but then my copy of the game crashed. I redid it this morning, including the team change from Walla Walla to Ohio.

I'm still working on getting a complete copy of the game to David. I hope to have that done at some point today. If not, then Monday night.

Zev

Hello to Everyone

Hello,

I am proud and happy to finally be owning my first baseball franchise -- a life long dream come true. Nate told me of this opportunity and here's hoping for some fun and good times.

As such are things in this world, Mayflower Van Lines is lining up at midnight tonite (Bob Irsey gave me their number) to move this franchise to the Great State of Ohio as the Ohio Buckeyes. Sorry if this requires additional travel time for those get away day day games.

Well anyway, I look forward to the coming season and quite frankly have a lot to learn about this game. Thanks for allowing me to join this league.

David Locke

Moving On...

I'm sorry, but I didn't get a chance to run the sim last night as I intended to. We'll pick it up on Saturday night.

I also want to apologize for the way things went in the last post. I appreciate the fact that people responded both publicly and privately.

Barring any objections, I think we can proceed from here. I will add cash to each owner's balance corresponding to the increase in the media contract. I'm also inclined to let the Lutz signing stand -- other owners in the past have been the beneficiaries of game quirks/errors -- but if there are objections, I'm willing to listen to remedies (short of actually rolling back the date).

Zev

New Walla Walla owner and middle relievers

If I understand right the new Walla Walla owner is on board. I'm sure he and Zev will introduce him shortly.

I was thinking about those enormously poor middle relief signings the computer manager made last week. $10MM, almost, per year for two middle relievers. I'm thinking it might be a nice gesture to maybe toss those two contracts back into the hopper. Without some communication issues David would have been on board prior to the signings and likely, though not certainly, withdrawn the offers.

Disclaimer: I am a personal friend of David's and feel like I should look out for him. It's a habit.

So, Here's The Story...

OK, everyone, here's the bottom line. I created a test league (with a 16 game season) and ran several seasons testing different financial scenarios.

What I discovered was this: changes in media contracts (as well as other financials) take effect the day after the playoffs end. Furthermore, the cash does not become available to teams to use for free agent signings until the *following* year.

To illustrate, here's the scenario I had with my test league.

The test league has a 16 game season that starts on July 1 and ends about July 22, followed by a five game playoff series. The league has a $10m cash cap.

On 7/1/2025, the Brooklyn team had the following financial info:
Cash: $10m
Media contract: $40m
$ avail for free agents: $55m

At that point, I simmed to August 2025 -- at which point the playoffs were over and the new fiscal year kicked in. That was when I removed the cash cap and changed the media contract for
Brooklyn to $800m (I chose a ridiculous amount so that I can see the change). However, since the fiscal year was over, no change actually occured. At this point, the totals don't even show up in the "Current Financial Overview" section.

I then proceeded to the end of the 2026 season. At that point, the huge amounts showed up in the "Current Financial Overview" section. However, the huge amount of money was not yet available for free agents. It did not show up there until I simmed to the end of the 2027 playoffs.

So, what does this mean for us? Well, since I did not change the media contracts until after the 2014 playoffs were over, that means that the changes will not show up in the available cash until after the 2016 season. Obviously, we don't want to wait that long.

The good news is that direct changes to cash totals take effect immediately. So, I think the obvious solution would be to take the amounts that I added to the media contracts and add them to the cash values of the teams.

At this point, I've spent a few hours going through this and learning how this works. It's now 2AM here in New York -- I'm going to sleep in a few minutes. Barring any objections, I will make those changes tomorrow and upload them.

We will discuss what (if anything) is to be done about the Lutz signing tomorrow.

If I may, I would like to conclude this with one parting thought:

Even though I am the commissioner of the league, I don't have an encyclopedic knowledge of the game and its mechanics. Therefore, there are times that I may make mistakes in implementing a policy which may result in some adverse change in the game.

In addition, I try to accomodate owners on special requests whenever possible. For example, if an owner is away from their computer, I have always made myself available to making changes, offers, etc. manually. When owners ask to make sure that certain players start on certain games, I try to accomodate them as well. In short, I try to accomodate any reasonable request that an owner might have. Matt's not wanting to have to wait a sim before making an offer to Lutz (during which he might sign with another team) was, in my humble opinion, a reasonable request; and so I made the offer manually - as I would have for anyone else who had asked for any other free agent. I was not aware that doing so would provide an "exception" to the rules (and, frankly, I'm still not sure how that happened). Indeed, when the offer went through, I took that as a sign that the financial changes too place. However, considering that no one else knew that, I can understand why some people might have thought there were some shady dealings going on - but I can tell you that all that happened was that I tried to accomodate a reasonable request from an owner -- as I have done for the last seven years. I will apologize for my ignorance in not knowing the effect that this would cause.

Nonetheless, I would like to make the following request: If you suspect that an individual owner or commissioner (whether myself or Michael) have done things that are questionable vis-a-vis the league -- please bring it to our attention *privately* before lobbing statements such as "calling BS" or stating that "something smells rotten." If, after commenting the person involved you still feel that something improper has happened, then, by all means, bring a complaint up on the blog.

If you feel that I have done something wrong, please bring it to me *privately* first. If you don't feel comfortable bringing it to me privately, then bring it to Michael and he will discuss with me without revealing your identity.

Overall, I've had a ton of fun running this league -- and I look forward to many more years of doing the same. Yes, I have made mistakes as commissioner over the years -- there's no question about that -- but I believe that I have always tried my utmost to maintain fairness in the league to the best of my ability. All I ask, is that if you have a problem with something I (or Michael) do, at least give us the courtesy of asking us privately what happened and allowing us to explain before writing comments that can be taken as being suggestive of impropriety (whether the comments were meant that way or not).

As always, if you have any questions, feel free to ask. But it's 2:20 now. I'm going to bed and I'll pick this up tomorrow.

Zev

Financial Help?????

So it was decided that there would be change to the Media contracts 2-3 sims ago (over a month of game time) and we have yet to see that money. I know that a number of us had changed our off season strategy because of this information (if we thought it was a good idea or not), and I know that some of us were planning on using that money to go after some high priced FAs in the market (some of which have started to sign - i.e. Lutz). Personally, I think this delay on the extra money has made the situation go from bad to worse, promising 'help' (and I use that phrase loosely), and then not coming through with that 'help', is not a good way to move forward in this league. I am wondering if there is a plan for when the media contracts are going to change, and if we possibly could HALT all sims until this is done. If we say we are going to do something let's do it so that we are all on the same level playing field and have our strategies aligned with reality. Sorry to be so blunt, but this needs to be taken care of ASAP if we want to have the illusion of parody in this league.

Walla Walla Ownership

I posted this as a comment in another thread but thought it deserved a higher profile.

Walla Walla needs an owner, badly. $10MM for two middle relievers is brutal. I know one of my pals has been in touch and is willing to take over. So what's the hold up?

Sim Completed

I ran the sim last night (at about 2AM) and the league files have been updated. The reports are unzipping now.

Next sim will be Tuesday night.

Zev

Sim Schedule

There will be sims on the following nights next week:

Sunday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday.

Each sim will cover a two week period.

Thanks,

Zev

12/15

It's now the 15th of December in OOTP-land and Walla Walla has just received an early Christmas present, having signed 2B Winston Satterlee away from Saskatoon, to a three year deal worth $10.83 million.

Other signings:

Saturday, December 6th, 2014
Saskatoon Amigos: Signed free agent 1B F. Lozada to a 2-year contract worth a total of $1,340,000.


Sunday, December 14th, 2014
Hickory Huskers: Signed free agent MR N. Lirette to a 1-year contract worth a total of $790,000.

Saturday, December 13th, 2014
River Cities Sternwheelers: Signed free agent C S. Herbert to a 1-year contract worth a total of $700,000.

Thursday, December 11th, 2014
Saskatoon Amigos: Signed free agent SP H. Orozco to a 2-year contract worth a total of $7,000,000.


River Cities also re-signed stud Juan Villatoro to a seven year, $87.5 million deal. I hope his arm lasts that long, Nate! (Actually, no, I don't.)

I've processed the Seattle/Los Angeles and Seattle/New York trades.

The league file is posted. Zev will let everyone know what the schedule is for future sims, but I would imagine we'll finish 2014 in the next sim (Thursday night?). Again, it's Zev's call.

So what's the schedule?

When's the sim and changes and stuff going down?

Out of Leftfield from Houston

Sean Banton LF and 4th or 5th round pick is available for the best offer. Zotti Teams and offers with Thirdbasemen and 1st or 2nd round picks are given preference.

Next sim

With a vote count of 7-3 (after my yes vote is counted), it looks like the proposal regarding adjusting media contracts and raising the cash cap has passed. It's a good measure and will do for this year, but I think a better model can be proposed. I'll be posting on that in the next few days.

I will be adjusting the contract amounts, which will provide extra money to the teams immediately (I tested this in a test league I have). I will then sim one day and upload the changes to the league server.

The next sim (and all the sims for the rest of the offseason) will cover a two week period. The next one will be run on Tuesday night.

I will update this post when I am done and the league file is available.

UPDATE: League upload complete. I also changed the minor league season length and playoffs as discussed and voted on in this post. All minor legue seasons are now 140 games in length and all end in a single playoff round of seven games between the division winners.

Party Like It's 2010!

The fanatical followers of the Seattle Monarchs, still buzzing from the rumors of the return of favorite son Gregory Mudge, were thrilled to hear of the Monarchs' latest acquisition: ace pitcher Chad Nelligan. Nelligan, the all-time SDMB OOTP leader in wins, returns to the city where he won three titles in four years. "I'm excited to return to Seattle. It's the scene of my greatest triumphs and the best fans in imaginary baseball. I look forward to celebrating my 200th win in a Monarchs uniform." Nelligan suffered through the first losing season of his celebrated career last year, going 10-14 in Los Angeles.

The Monarchs had taken some PR hits in recent days, losing Dong Lutz to free agency and dealing beloved outfielder David Kerry. But, combined with the three-year contract extension given to popular setup man Dalton Davis, the returns of Mudge and Nelligan may make up a lot of the ground.

"Chad's always been one of my favorite guys," said Owner/GM Mack Shultz. "When I heard he was available, I said to the rest of the front office that we need to make this happen. Even if Chad elects to go into free agency next year and it's only one more year in Seattle, that's just too good to pass up." Seattle sent two starting pitching prospects, Roland Maloney and Tuan Olmstead, along with a second round pick in the upcoming amateur draft to Los Angeles for Nelligan and a sixth round pick.

Other members of Seattle's 2010 championship squad were excited to hear about the nostalgic turn taken by the Monarchs front office. Free agent Waylon Blassingame is reportedly waiting eagerly by the phone while closer Sam Contreras, who abruptly resigned after the 2010 season, is now contemplating a comeback.

Infielder Free to Good Home

And by free, as in for a tenth round pick or whatever is the last round we have in our draft. Anyway, the guy is Marvin Cardozo. Cardozo was once the top prospect in the league, which is extraordinarily hard to believe now.

Is he good? No. Is he a useful guy to have on a major league bench? Yeah. He plays all infield positions and has some power in his bat. He makes the league minimum. My scout has him as a 2*/2* guy. But, I'd like to cycle younger players through the reserve spots on my bench, so Marvin must go.

Plus, he reminds me too much of the horrible deal where I acquired him from Nate along with another prospect in exchange for John Okane. Ugh.

So, first person to say he wants him, gets him.

File Upload Complete

I seem to be having some problem with uploading to the site, but I finally got the update uploaded.

Attempt to Bring Discussions on Changing Rules to Conclusion

In an effort to bring the somewhat meandering discussions about improving league parity to a conclusion, I'd like to present a proposal, to be voted up or down as a block, for everyone's consideration. I think the parity issue is very important for the long-term health of the league, so I urge everyone to vote - yes, no, or asbtain. Again, to get resolution, please vote on the package as a whole. We need to collectively get off the pot on this issue and resolve it one way or the other.

So, here's the package I propose:

1. Increase media revenues so that they fall into a range of $50M to $70M. The lowest teams get a boost up to $50M. Other teams get proportionate increases up towards the $70M ceiling. I get nothing. (grin) I'll post a list below of the specific changes I propose.

2. Raise the cash cap to $25M.

I would also propose that we make the changes effective immediately. There are good arguments for why we should wait until next offseason, but I think we're still early enough in the offseason that people can make use of these changes now without throwing off league balance. Yes, I've made moves too that I may not have if I knew we were changing the rules, but I think resolving the issue now is important.

I've dropped two elements from prior discussions. Free agent compensation doesn't work in the game, so I wouldn't advise it now. The idea of spending cash on non-salary items is appealing, but it's a complicated issue and I don't think it fundamentally addresses the parity issue. If people want that, I think it should be a separate discussion, especially as to the appropriate values for various changes.

Here's my table of specific proposals:

Brooklyn: Now $64M media revenue; increase media and budget by $2,5M
Cleveland: Now $35M; increase media and budget by $15M
Danville: Now $41M; increase media and budget by $12M
Hickory: Now $39M; increase media and budget by $13M
Houston: Now $41M; increase media and budget by $12M
LA: Now $49M; increase media and budget by $9M*
Maui: Now $35M; increase media and budget by $15M
NY: Now $46M; increase media and budget by $10M
River Cities: Now $58M; increase media and budget by $5M
Saskatoon: Now $64M; increase media and budget by $2.5M
Seattle: Now $70M; no change
Walla Walla: Now $64M; increase media and budget by $2.5M

* LA's raise subject to whatever arrangement Zev and Michael are working out on the other LA budget issue.

So, please vote in the comments on this package. Thanks.

Database Error?

Good morning, everyone -

So this morning I attempted to download the league file as usual and received a message about four fifths of the way through the download that the database was corrupted. It appears that the corrupted file was autosaved on top of my old league file, so I can't access the league file at all anymore.

Did this happen to anyone else? Should I just go fetch the league file and direct save it to my hard drive? If so, can someone send me the (long since forgotten) address at which I can do that?

Scorpions in search of a new home

The following players have told me that they would like to be traded away from Los Angeles. Please oblige them:

Chad Nelligan -- a top-of-the-rotation Game-1-in-the-Cecil-Cup-starting stud.

Sean "Six Rings" Arant -- a great lead-off hitter with a Gold Glove arm in the outfield.

Alan Callahan -- he had a successful 2014 after a career-threatening injury derailed him in 2013. How will he do in his second season back?

Donald Dinwiddie -- An All-Star back-of-the-bullpen lefty. There aren't too many of those around.

Jeffrey Shuttleworth -- An above-average starter who pitched well as my closer down the stretch last season. He can do it all!

Robert Young -- He's a serviceable middle infielder. You can never have enough of them!

I'm looking for young pitching and good hitting prospects in return. Hit me up at mweintr@gmail.com to discuss.

Seattle Deals Superstar Outfielder; Return of Favorite Son Rumored

Seattle Owner/GM Mack Shultz announced a huge trade today to a startled audience. On the heels of losing superstar slugger Dong Lutz to free agency, the Monarchs traded their biggest remaining power threat, rightfielder David Kerry, to division rival Hickory Huskers. Instead of a known commodity coming back in return, Seattle got a hodge podge of prospects in reliever Nicolas Vargas, AAA infielder Miguel Salazar, A-ball reliever Fei-hsien Bao, and Hickory's first round pick in the 2015 amateur draft. In addition, Seattle sent Hickory $8 million in cold, hard cash.

"I know, I know," said Shultz to a bristling audience packed with booing fans. "But, this isn't the whole deal. When you see what happens by Opening Day, you'll be happy." The fans were not amused, pelting Shultz with garbage.

"What the hell?" fumed Monarchs diehard Joe Schmoe. "I mean, I know we've won a lot of titles, but to lose Lutz and Kerry in one offseason? That's just nuts." Schmoe's point was well-taken, as Kerry led the Monarchs with 15 RBI in 13 games this past postseason.

"We really like the guys we got as some contributors to future Monarchs titles," explained Shultz. "We think Vargas can be a stopper, Salazar a starter in a year or two, and like Bao's potential. Plus, first round picks are always nice, even in crappy drafts."

As reporters left the press conference, rumors began to circulate of a handshake agreement between Hickory and Seattle on a second deal. Reportedly, the deal will include Monarchs injured outfielder Lonnie Machen going to Hickory when healed and former Monarchs mainstay Gregory Mudge returning to Seattle. Mudge had been traded to Hickory midseason in 2013 for Lutz and now apparently will be returning to claim his old position at first base. Cash and possibily an additional prospect are also rumored to be exchanged. However, consistent with league policy, no deals involving injured players can be final until the player heals. Machen is expected to recover from his torn back muscle around the start of Spring Training.

"What? Mudge is coming back?!?" exclaimed Schmoe when he heard the rumor. "That's f*&$ing fantastic! He'll be able to become the all-time home run leader in a Seattle uniform. Outstanding!"

The Monarchs front office was taking no steps to squelch the rumor, lending credence to it. Reportedly, recent acquisition Stephen Jackson may be seeing some playing time in the outfield, after Mudge's return. Jackson had no comment on the rumors or the day's events.

Rule 5 Draft

Welcome to the Rule 5 Draft!

Please send me your picks (if any) by 7PM Eastern time on Wednesday.

The draft order is:

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

Zev

River Cities-Saskatoon Trade

River Cities today acquired reliever Joey Chikao from Saskatoon, sending OF Santiago Salazar north to the Amigos.

Maui/Saskatoon trade

Today, Maui dealt AAA reliever Carl Odegaard to Saskatoon for Saskatoon's 8th round pick in the amateur draft.

Looking for a Reliever or a 1B?

Joey Chikao, who saved 13 games last year and posted an ERA of 3.79 (he's never gone above 4.oo in his career) can be had.

1B Kenneth Dolezal is also available.

Shoot me an e-mail if you're interested in one or both of these fine ballplayers.

eslent@yahoo.com

I'm looking for a SP, OF, or prospects in return.

Rule 5 Draft

I ran a sim last night and the current game date is Nov 29. The Rule 5 Draft is Dec 1.

Players eligible for the Rule 5 draft can be found on your transaction screens. The players eligible to be drafted have a # symbol next to their names. To protect them from the draft, you have to put them on the 40 man roster.

Tonight, I will bring the game up to Dec 1 for the draft. Please remember that in order to be eligible to draft players, you must have an open spots on your own 40-man roster and that any players you select must be kept on your major league roster all year (there is no offering them back to the old team as in real life).

For the draft, please send me a list of players (in order) that you would like to draft from other teams. Please be sure to include any specific instructions (i.e. "only draft one player," etc.) with the drafted players.

So, tonight is your chance to protect players.
Wednesday night will be the draft.

Any questions? Feel free to ask.

Zev

Matt's Last Comment in his post on changes

I noticed this comment of Matt's in his post and was not sure if everyone would see it or respond to it, so I am starting a thread with it so we can come to a conclusion to this talk.


Zev's suggestion is something I can support. With that framework in mind, and considering the comments above, I'm going to posit a few suggestions for voting or discussion. Would other owners support changes along the following lines?

1. Adjust media contracts to be roughly within $20 million of one another. Seattle's would stay at $70 million and other teams' media contracts would be adjusted upward with the lowest teams at $50 million. This is probably the best way to help league parity without taking money away from teams.

2. Increase the cash cap. There doesn't seem to be wide support for eliminating the cash cap entirely, so increasing the cap may provide a good compromise. Maybe $25 million?

3. Allow for free agent compensation.

4. Allow teams to spend extra cash on marketing or similar items as suggested in point 7 of my original post. This assumes that Zev and Michael are willing to shoulder the additional administrative burden of this change.

If the above framework is acceptable to other owners, my suggestion is that we implement them now while the issue is primed, rather than let another season go by.

Thanks to everyone for the good discussion so far.

Note On Rule Changes

An owner asked me via email when any rule changes that are being discussed will be implemented. He asked because (rightfully) the choices he makes depend on the answer.

Any changes that we decide before we flip the calendar to 2015 will be implemented when the calendar year flips.

As a result, I've decided to hold off on the sim until Monday night to give owners time to change their plans.

Free Agents: Wait, what?

Am I the only one bemused that when the game sent us the list of 'Top Free Agents' Lutz wasn't listed in the top 10?

Franklin Jackson? He's listed.
Hector Orozco? He's there.
Sergio Alonso? Oh, yeah, he's on the list.

But possibly the top talent player EVER to go into free agency in the league? Nah, best leave him off the list. No sense getting his hopes up only to have them dashed.

For the record, for me he wants a contract worth $24,990,000 per year.

Next sims: Saturday night -- Rule 5 Draft Coming up.

I just realized that I while I did run a sim last night, I forgot to actually notify people via the blog.

The free agents have filed -- so everyone can start making offers.

The current game date is 11/20/2014. The next major event is the Rule 5 draft, set for 12/1. The next sim on Saturday night will take the game to 11/29.

I will run the Rule 5 Draft on Monday night (Labor Day). I'll provide more detailed instructions for the new owners after the next sim.

Lastly, there is a discussion going on concerning the league issues brought up by Matt. Please continue the discussion as there are some important points that he brought up.

Zev

Crazy Nate's Ballplayer Swap! (formerly a used ballplayer swap)

Formerly 'used' because some of them have barely been off the lot!

Available for sale this offseason are these fine young players...you won't find players like this on any normal lot. At Crazy Nate's you find the special deals for special people. People like you, you, and especially YOU there in the back! Don't be shy! These deals won't last forever. Once the logjam is broken, once the quantum cusp is popped, once we know for SURE that Schrodinger's cat is alive or dead it will be too, too, TOO late, my friends. Step right up and take a look at:

Starting Pitcher John Okane - Take Okane off the lot and give him a test! Over the last three years Okane has gone 46-27 with a strikeout to walk rate of 587/177. That's 3.31-1 in the control department! And his ERA? Lifetime, 3.24. Last season? 2.88! He's getting better, gentlemen.

Ed Scull - Here's another fine piece of pitcher flesh. Only the truly discerning GM will know the true value of a pitcher who went 16-9 last year and has won at least 16 games each of the last four years. With an ERA consistently under four each of the last FIVE years and a lifetime mark of 3.58 he's a staff ace waiting for you to just pick him up. In addition, his 'Well Known' status should help your attendance!

On the offensive side of the ball I present for your edification...

Marcus Alcazar - A ***** hitting prospect who plays first base Alcazar at age 22 is a ready-to-play genuine prospect of the sort you don't see every day. And he can be yours! In a cup of coffee last September Marcus hit .333/.368/.444 on top of a AAA campaign in which he hit .316/.395/.422 and a AAA VORP of 34.5! Lest you think it's a fluke his lifetime AAA numbers are .322/.400/.415! If you need a man for the home team side of the field he's your man. And with years of minimum wage or arbitration ahead of him he's easy on the pocketbook!

Ronald Amos - Also a 1B but with versatility, Ronald Amos is another ***** prospect that plays 1B, LF, and RF and can provide both offense and flexibility to your lineup. Play him where you need him and watch the wins pile up! For River Cities last year Amos hit .294/.326/.417 in less than half a season. In AAA in 2013 he hit .318/.369/.473 and he could do it for you next year at one of three positions! At 24 he's another fine piece of young player that you can count on for a good five or six years before he gets pricey!

Jesse DuBreiul - Yes, friends, the 2014 Rookie of the Year could be on your team for opening day. With a hitting line last year of .319/.365/.526 this 23 year old monster can bring smiles to your face for years to come. Already rated as 'popular' at a very young age you can see that any team that has young Jesse will reap greats things both in the wins column and at the box office just by having him on your team!

Also available are useful parts like Bill Allen, Santiago Salazar, and Timothy Palacio.

Crazy Nate is selling brand new, shiny-shiny players this year! Take advantage of these special offers today! The crazy one takes young players under 23 and very high round draft picks. No credits cards accept but all proposals will be given solid, timely consideration. Apply today! I'm waiting to hear from YOU!

Seattle's 2014-15 Shopping Mart

So, updating my quick post, here are the players and prospects available at Mack's House of Stars:

1. Star Outfielder for Rent. It turns out that David Kerry wants to be paid like the awesome player he is. His $20M+ price tag might be affordable for some teams, and isn't unreasonable given his track record, but I've got salary issues. He's under contract for an outrageously low $8,000,000 for 2015 and then can be a free agent.

Now, I'm not afraid of playing out the contract, trying to win the title, seeing if his price drops, and letting him go to free agency if necessary (witness Dong Lutz). But, it occurs to me that he may be the difference between making the playoffs and not making the playoffs for lots of teams out there. So, I just wanted to let all know that he was available.

2. Master Thief Can Be Stolen.. Second baseman Duane Gerhardt stole a record 102 bases last year and has stolen an amazing 338 bases in 405 chances in his four full-time years in the big leagues. He also owns a lifetime OPS of .823, averaging 48 doubles per year. He's a perfect top-of-the lineup player. Has a reasonable three year-deal averaging $8M per season.

3. Young, Successful Starting Pitcher. 26-year-old Jimmy Matthias has established himself as one of the best pitchers in the game. In two years as a starter for Seattle, he's posted a combined 30-10 record with ERAs well below 4.00 despite abnormally high BABIP's. He doesn't strike a lot of guys out, but he also doesn't walk people and keeps the ball in the yard. He's a rock steady #3 starting pitcher miscast as a fifth starter for the Monarchs. He's making just $3M this year and is under arbitration control for one more season.

There's also the usual supply of other young, talented players, but the above three guys are the ones I'm most willing to deal. In return, seeking good relievers under control for more than one year, prospects, and/or draft picks.

So, if you're interested, drop me a line.

Commissioners trade

Zev and I have a trade to announce:

Los Angeles receives 1B Michael Slye and 3B Britt Maroney in exchange for starter Dennis Durand.

Additionally, Brooklyn receives my 2nd round pick in the next season's draft, and I'll get Zev's 4th and 7th round picks.

League Changes?

I have some concerns about competitive imbalance and the future of this league. I thought I'd make a post to see if anyone else shares these concerns, and if so, whether there is a way to address them. I started drafting this post a few weeks ago when we were still in the regular season, but I decided to wait until the new budgets and media contracts were announced to see if the problem is getting better or worse. I'm now convinced that it is not getting better and may be getting worse. A while back, I started a post about some possible changes to the financial settings. There was a good discussion but many of the suggestions either died on the vine or were voted down. Since then, we've all gotten a bit more familiar with version 9.0, so this seems like a good time to revisit the discussion.

My concern is that we basically have two teams that have accumulated such a high degree of talent and wealth that it will be extremely difficult (but not impossible) for other teams to remain competitive. Much of it is the result of excellent strategy and planning by the GMs of those teams and they deserve credit for doing so well. This post is not, in any way, an attack on those GMs who obviously play the game the way it should be played. :) But for me, at least, it's not a lot of fun playing in a David versus Goliath environment.

Here is a quick background to illustrate some of what I'm seeing. I took over my team just prior to the 2013 season. The team had a fan interest rating of 13. It was a terrible team overall, but I had a few really good young players that I could build around. I ended up with a 58-104 record in 2013. In 2014, my team's record improved to 72-90 and attendance/fan interest/revenues increased significantly over the prior year. As a result, I was hopeful that my 2015 budget and media contract would increase. But in the last sim I learned that my budget actually DECREASED by $3 million this year. This severely hampers my ability to compete in the free agent market and to acquire good players via trade, which makes it almost impossible to contend. It just doesn't seem right to me that an organization should be penalized for improving, which is essentially what has happened.

I'm competitive by nature, and honestly, it's just not fun for me right now playing in the current environment. It would be different if I felt that I had a decent chance to win in a few years, but I don't. Cleveland was a nice story this year, making it to the finals and coming ever so close to winning the championship, but (no offense intended to Jeremy whatsoever) given the difference in talent between the River Cities team and the Cleveland team, I view that as an extremely improbable and unlikely outcome. It happened, though, which cannot be denied. But even if I am wrong that Cleveland had no business getting to the finals in the first place, Cleveland's 2015 budget ($57 million) is barely higher than mine ($52 million) even after making it to the world series! That is just wrong.

So here is a list of possible changes for consideration and comment. This is not intended to be a complete list, just a starting point for discussion.

1. Impose revenue sharing and/or a luxury tax. According to the OOTP manual, revenue sharing only benefits teams that sustained a loss, so that is unlikely to benefit many teams. Personally, I don't like the idea of revenue sharing because it has a tendency to "reward" teams that lack financial restraint. A luxury tax is permitted by the game, but the manual doesn't explain how it works. If a luxury tax is implemented, I think we would probably need to do something about the cash cap. It wouldn't make sense to divide the proceeds of the luxury tax among the smaller market/less competitive teams, only to have that money be lost to the cash cap.

2. Impose a salary cap. This probably deserves its own topic because there are likely to be many opinions about it. But it's definitely something that should be considered.

3. Modify or eliminate the cash cap. I know we discussed this previously and the decision was made to keep it unchanged, but it can't hurt to revisit the issue now that we have another year of experience. My opinion is that the cash cap should probably stay even though it is artificial, because the most successful teams could just start hoarding cash and become even more dominant. But I do wonder whether it should be modified. At a minimum, it seems to me that the cash cap doesn't always work as intended. In at least one situation, the cash cap actually helped a team (Los Angeles) by capping its annual loss at $10 million when its actual loss was significantly higher. This isn't Michael's fault at all, but it has happened for 2 years now. Honestly, I don't know if the solution is to increase the cash cap, eliminate it entirely or do nothing - perhaps people with bigger brains can weigh in.

4. Adjust the media contract settings. The variance in media contracts in this league is extremely significant. Seattle's media contract exploded this year to $70 million, twice the amount of the two lowest teams (one of which is world series runner-up Cleveland, at $35 million). My team is one of the $35 million teams, even though I have a "Big" market. Every team in the league has a "Big" market or better, so it seems that "Big", in this case anyway, is actually small. It is my understanding from speaking to Mack that media contracts are renegotiated from time to time, but I don't know when that happens. The OOTP manual is somewhat confusing on this point. It says: "Media revenue is partially driven by team market size, fan loyalty, and fan interest. However, the biggest influence on media revenue are the Average Media Contract and Media Contract Fixed? settings." So possible changes include changing the average media contract amount (currently at $40 million), or fixing the media contract amount for all teams (each team gets the same amount in annual media revenue).

5. Change the "Team Owner Controls Budget" setting. I am not sure about this, but I think that changing this option to GM control will make more money available.

6. Free agent compensation. OOTP 9 permits this, but it doesn't always work very well. Still, it's another option for less competitive teams to get some compensation if they can't afford to resign their good players before they depart for free agency.

7. Greater flexibility in spending. Nate made some good suggestions in the last thread that are worth repeating. Some of the options he mentioned are allowing teams to spend their cash on things like (a) custom stadia (i.e., changing park dimensions, dome/open, adding seats); or (b) team "marketing" (to increase fan interest, fan loyalty, and/or market size). Adding these options will increase the administrative work for Zev, so that's something to consider as well.

I just re-read this post and I think I come across like a self-absorbed whiner, but I've spent far too much time on it already, and I'm not going to spend more on editing. :) So please accept my apologies for the tone. Thanks for considering the above. Any thoughts?

Postseason Awards!!

Slick Fielders:

Adams League
P Trey Albarado (BRK)
C Alberto Granado (SEA)
1B Dong Lutz (SEA)
2B Imatarou Natsu (MAU)
3B Robert Fout (HIK)
SS Reggie Perez (SAS)
LF Miguel Cuesta (BRK)
CF David Nightengale (HOU)
RF Hal Pires (HOU)

Zotti League
P Chad Nelligan (LA)
C Gary Williams (DAN)
1B Lincoln Rosetti (WAL)
2B Francis Amarendiz (WAL)
3B Edward Crim (DAN)
SS Ricky Peppers (LA)
LF Tyler Thomas (CLE)
CF Monte Gross (CLE)
RF Sean Arant (LA)

Outstanding Rookie
1B Preston Giorgi (HOU) -- .287, 18, 67.
LF Jesse Dubreuil (RIV) -- .319, 20, 90.

Outstanding Pitcher
Ronald Placencia (SEA) -- 18-4, 3.48, 228K
Juan Villatoro (RIV) -- 21-6, 3.09, 198K

Outstanding Batter
Dong Lutz (SEA) -- .351, 51, 137.
John Hukill (RIV) -- .309, 38, 99.

Last chance to get offers into your pending free agents tomorrow night.

Zev

Players Available...

Hey everyone,

I've got some players that are available. I'm willing to entertain offers.

The guys I have are:

SS Robert Camarena: underutilized by me because I have a good SS and a good 2B. Camarena plays both. In limited playing time last year, he hit .307 with 11 homers.

1B Michael Slye: Here's a guy who has the potential to be great, but I have Luis Jeon locked up at first ahead of him for years to come.

Onward and Upward

OK, I think I've allowed Mack to bask in the glory of his Cecil Cup championship long enough. Time to move on.

There will be two more sims for making offers to your pending free agents before they go free. The first will be Tuesday night and the second will be Wednesday night.

Zev

Monarchs Make First Trade of 2014-15 Offseason

Making the first trade of the offseason, the Seattle Monarchs struck quickly to address the looming hole at first base created by the impending departure of star slugger Dong Lutz. Seattle acquired from the Danville organization AAA first baseman Stephen Jackson. In exchange, Seattle sent two young arms from its minor leagues, AAA starting pitcher Salomon Candelas and AA starting pitcher Frank Ogrady. As part of the deal, Seattle and Danville also agreed to swap places in the first round of the next amateur draft.

Candelas is rated by Baseball America as the second-best prospect in the Seattle organization. Pitching in AAA Tacoma last year at the tender age of 22, Candelas posted a 3.97 ERA and won 11 games. "He's a live arm who is probably ready for the majors right now," said Seattle Owner/GM Mack Shultz. "But it's a crowded rotation ahead of him, so we thought we needed to send him somewhere he could progress."

Ogrady bounced back from a serious injury in 2013 to post a 2.86 ERA in 14 starts in class-A Kent last year. "We've always liked Frank's upside," explained Shultz, "but you have to give up something to get something."

The something Seattle got was a soon-to-be 27-year-old minor league first baseman in Stephen Jackson. Jackson has posted OPSs of .885 and .878 in AAA the last two years, but was trapped in the organization behind Juan Guzman.

Shultz was enthused about his new acquisition. "Like Candelas, we think Jackson is ready for the majors and just needs that opportunity. We're going to give it to him. We don't expect him to replace Dong Lutz, because nobody can replace a Dong that mighty. We just wanted him to come in and do what we think he can do. Whether that's as the everyday starter or in a platoon at first base will be sorted out in spring training."

Jackson was thrilled by the deal. "So let me get this straight, I get to get the hell out of AAA Debois County and go to the five-time champions, where they're going to give me a starting job in the majors? Sweet! Let me go pack before somebody changes their mind!"

Your 2014 Cecil Cup Winner...

Saskatoon

Testing to see if I now post as that wonderful Canadian city (town? province? wilderness?)

Change of Plans

Fellow owners/GMs/OOTP addicts,

I'm actually going to take over the Saskatoon franchise, which also apparently came open recently too. So I've got that going for me. I'll have to spend some time trying to learn that team (and the league), but hopefully will be up and running soon and can get started.

I'll also have to figure out how to change my posting profile on the blog here to avoid confusion.

And It All Comes Down To Game 7....

The Cleveland Steamers have pushed the Seattle Monarchs into a Game 7 with a 5-2 victory in Game 6 of the Cecil Cup.

Seattle jumped out to a quick 1-0 lead in the first inning on a Dong Lutz home run. Cleveland matched that with a run in the top of the second with an RBI single by SS William Midkiff. Cleveland took the lead for good in the sixth on Tyler Thomas' RBI single and an RBI groundout by John Clawson.

The Steamers added another run with an RBI single by John Grondin in the seventh. Seattle came back with one run in the eighth, but it wasn't enough.

Game 7 (for all the marbles) will be Monday night.

Hello, league

Greetings. My name is Eric Lent and I'm taking over management of the Walla Walla team. I've got some work to do getting up to speed on the players and league, but am excited to try and bring a championship to Eastern Washington, which has apparently been clamoring for a title. I look forward to being a part of the SDMB league.

Seattle Takes Game 5

The Seattle Monarchs took Game 5 of the Cecil Cup with a 6-3 victory over the Cleveland Steamers. Seattle took a 5-0 lead in the second inning on five hits (including two home runs0 and never looked back.

Game 6 will be simmed on Saturday night. (The Mrs. and I are going to see Avenue Q tomorrow night.)

Zev

Steamers Pitching Silences Monarch Bats... Series Even at 2 each

Next game on Wednesday night.

Seattle Wins Game 3, 10-1

The Seattle Monarchs won Game 3 of the Cecil Cup with a 10-3 victory. Unfortunately, it's too late in the day for me to write a summary.

Game 4 on Tuesday night.

Cleveland Pounds Seattle Pitching for 10-run 2nd; Takes Game 2

The Cleveland Steamers put on a hitting display in the first two innings of today's game, taking a 13-0 lead by the time the first inning and a half was over.

They started out by scoring three runs in the first off of Monarch starter Thomas Cohen on a walk and five hits, including a double by Monte Goss. But the Steamers were just getting started. After retiring the Seattle hitters 1-2-3, the Cleveland bats went to work again.

The inning started with Nathaneal Burton reached first on Thomas Cohen's throwing error. Next Goss singled, followed by a single by John Grondin and a throwing error by Seattle RF David Kerry. With an additional run in and runners on 2nd and 3rd with no one out, Thomas Cohen seemed to settle down. He got the next two batters to strike out (one swinging and one looking). But after that, he went into meltdown mode. Samuel Santos singled, bringing in both runners. That made the score 6-0.

At that point, the Seattle manager sent Thomas Cohen to the showers and brought in southpaw Ernesto Amell. Facing SS William Midkiff, he gave up a single. C Chet Daily then walked on four pitches to load the bases. Next up was pitcher Ernest Gerth, who hit a 3-2 pitch deep to left field for a double which scored all three runners. The score now stood at 9-0.

Having batted around, Burton came up again, this time reaching on a walk. Amell then threw a wild pitch, sending the runners to 2nd and 3rd. Goss singled scoring Gerth, making the score 10-0. Grondin hit a single scoring Burton for the eleventh run and the eighth of the inning.

Seattle then brought in Joshua Stoker, a 20-year-old lefty. Stoker's first pitch to Ronald Aikin went wild, moving the runners to 2nd and 3rd. Aiken then hit a single bringing home the two runners. Tyler Thomas then hit a single, bringing up Samuel Santos who grounded out to first to finally end the inning. 10 runs, 9 hits, two walks and two errors left Seattle thirteen runs in the hole.

Seattle managed to score a run in the third on two hits, but Cleveland responded with a solo home run by John Grondin in the fourth to make the score 14-1.

But Seattle didn't give up. They managed to string together three hits, two walks and a sac fly in the sixth to put a three-spot up on the board. And in the ninth, they did not go down without a fight. A double, two walks and a groundout put another run on the board. That was followed up by a three run homer by Eugene Alustiza, making the score 14-8. But that's all Seattle had as Pio Ramirez came in to retire Dong Lutz to end the game. But the efforts of the Seattle batters at least changed the game from a 13-0 laugher to a semi-respectable 14-8 loss.

Game 3 on Monday night.

Zev

Some Tech Help?

My specialty is in databases, not operating systems. Perhaps someone with some experience can help me out with this league related problem.

As you all know, I switched hosting companies about a month or two ago. When the league was hosted on Yahoo!, it was hosted on a Windows server. Now, we are on Linux. Since we are on Linux, I can zip up the league report files, upload the one zip file and then unzip the file on the server.

However, there is one small catch. I am in the Eastern Time Zone, whereas the server the league is hosted on is (I believe) in the Central Time Zone. As a result, if I try to unzip the reports right after I upload them, it fails because the timestamp on the files are in the future when compared to the server time. As a result, I often have to wait close to an hour after I upload the files before I can unzip them.

I suppose that one solution would be to change the time on my computer before generating the files and then changing it back when it's complete. However, I'm wondering if there might be a way to change the time on the server (and yes, I'm aware that the server is shared with others) so that I can unzip the files right away.

Anyone have any ideas?

Zev

Seattle Takes The Lead

The Seattle Monarchs took a 1-0 lead in the Cecil Cup series today with an 8-1 victory over the Cleveland Steamers. The Monarchs scored eight runs and punished the Steamer pitching staff with sixteen hits. Four Monarchs had three hits for the game, including Dong Lutz who had a solo homer and a double.

Reports will be up in the morning. Game 2 on Saturday night.

The Steamers Win The Pennant!! The Steamers Win The Pennant!!

The Cleveland Steamers have captured the Zotti League championship and earned their first trip to the Cecil Cup with a 4-3 victory over the Sternwheelers.

Cleveland took an early 1-0 lead in the third on a double by William Midkiff, a sacrifice bunt and a sac fly. They added a run in the fifth thanks to a single and another double by Midkiff.

The Sternwheelers started their comeback in the sixth when Timothy Palacio sent an Anthony Koepp pitch over the left-center field wall for a solo home run. Cleveland responded with another run in the eighth on three hits (including a single by Midkiff), making the score 3-1.

River Cities tied it up in the bottom of the eighth on a two-run blast by John Hukill. In the top of the ninth, River Cities brought in John Miller to pitch and his second pitch to lead-off hitter John Grondin went over the fence, giving Cleveland a 4-3 lead. In the bottom of the inning, River Cities tried to come back, getting the tying run on second base on a single and an error. However, with one out, John Hukill grounded into a double play, ending the game and clinching the series for Cleveland.

Game 1 -- Cleveland @ Seattle -- Thursday night.

Zev