Week 3 of Spring Training is Done...

... and Seattle didn't lose anyone. I guess the bubble-wrap and the KFC chicken sacrifice worked.

The next sim (Saturday night) will finish off Spring Training and take us to Opening Day.

Zev

Monarchs Acquire New Victim

The Seattle Monarchs today acquired a new outfielder, and a familiar face at that. Seattle reacquired Lonnie Machen from the Hickory Huskers in exchange for $8 million in cash and left-handed reliever Guadelupe Rodriguez.

Machen went to Hickory last season as part of the blockbuster Greg Mudge / Dong Lutz trade. Now, desperate for more people to play the outfield, Seattle was forced to pay richly for Machen's return. Machen is expected to start in centerfield while Armando Cedeno heals and then share left field with Bill Bivens.

When reached at his home in New Hampshire, Machen sounded less than thrilled to return to his former squad. "First, they refuse to give me a starting position for two and half years. Then, they cast me aside to Hickory. Then, they pay how much money to bring me back so that I get killed instead of that prima donna David Kerry? They're heartless bastards."

Meanwhile, Guadelupe Rodriguez just sounded relieved. "There was a team meeting where they discussed putting pitchers in the outfield to fill in. Thank the heavens I got traded before that happened."

In other news, Seattle planned today to sacrifice a live chicken to appease the baseball gods who have struck down the team's outfielders. Unfortunately, they could only rustle up a bucket of KFC. It is unknown whether the fabled Secret Recipe will be sufficient to lift the curse.

Seattle Announces Player Protection Program

In response to a federal government report issued today, the Seattle Monarchs announced a series of steps to improve working conditions for its employees. The Bureau of Labor Statistics released its annual report on the most hazardous jobs in the United States. The previous year's top ten list had included famously dangerous jobs such as fishing and logging. But, the new list placed "Seattle Monarchs Outfielders" squarely at the top.

Ned Schneider, spokesman for the Bureau of Labor Statistics, admitted that there have been no fatalities yet among the Monarchs outfielders, but claimed, "It's only a matter of time. I mean, we've got 67% of the work force injured in just two weeks. The outlook is not good."

In response, Owner/GM Mack Shultz announced a series of steps to improve working conditions. "First, David Kerry has been transferred into the witness protection program. Right now, it's safer to snitch on the mob than to play the outfield in Seattle."

The second step by Seattle was to open dialogue with the league's front offices on incorporating "designated fielder" rules. "We don't think it's a coincidence both Guerrero and Cedeno went down making defensive plays. It's a dangerous job out there. We've got to find someone more expendable to shag fly balls. I mean, we can only play Rosato in one position at a time." Reserve outfielder Raymond Rosato refused to comment for this story, and walked away muttering obscenities.

Third, the Monarchs have begun to rethink their practice of holding Spring Training games in abandoned and rusted factories. "We thought this was a great sustainability initiative. You know, reusing things and cutting down on our environmental footprint. In addition, it was really, really cheap. But we've discovered that playing on unstable floors, with leaking pipes and machines falling all around our players, may not be the best way to go."

In what must be a coincidental move, the History Channel announced a new television series exploring the life of Monarchs outfielders. Executive Bill Wussmeyer explained, "Hey, with the success of Ax Men and Deadliest Catch, how can we go wrong?"

Spring training sim 2 done

Zev had me pinch hit tonight and I ran the sim. I also processed the Maui/Walla Walla trade and we're now at March 16, 2014.

Bad news continues for Mack: Seattle's star OF Armando Cedeno strained his rotator cuff throwing a ball in a game and is out for eight weeks. I bet Mack is starting to regret trading Sean Arant back to me.

Saskatoon also had a player get dinged up, but it's not as serious. Reggie Perez will be out for two weeks due to a torn thigh muscle.

The league file is up. Zev's got the next sim, on Thursday night. We'll cover week three of spring training and see whom Mack loses next! Stay tuned!

Maui/Walla Walla Trade

In the hopes of making spring training more interesting, the Maui Mashers and the Walla Walla Federal Duck have agreed to a trade. Maui sends 2B Francis Armendariz and its 3rd round pick in next year's amateur draft to Walla Walla in exchange for rising prospect SS Justo Munoz.

And there was much rejoicing. *yay*

First Spring Training Sim Done

The second week of ST will be done on Tuesday night.

Zev

No Spring Training?

???

Draft Done. Welcome to Spring Training 2014!

The amateur draft has been completed. Personally, I'd love to fast-forward five years and see how this wacky draft worked out... but I suppose I'll have to wait just like everyone else.

In the meantime, we are now at Spring Training. I'll be running ST one week at a time, for a total of four ST sims. You can find information on how ST is running at the online game manual.

The first week of ST will be run on Saturday night.

Zev

Round 4 Done. Round 5 Tomorrow Night

Let's try to make this a bit easier.

I will proceed to finish the draft tomorrow night if one of the following two things happen:

1.  The majority of owners say to finish it.

2.  No one sends me a list.  :)

If you want to send a list for Round 5, please send it before tomorrow night.

Zev

Round 3 Done

Here are the picks:

Round 3, Pick 1 - Maui Mashers: LF I. Overdevest
Round 3, Pick 2 - Cleveland Steamers: CL J. Contreras
Round 3, Pick 3 - Walla Walla Federal Duck: SS S. Bennett
Round 3, Pick 4 - Danville Dans: 3B J. Velázquez
Round 3, Pick 5 - Houston Armadillos: MR L. Young
Round 3, Pick 6 - Los Angeles Scorpions: 2B R. Martínez
Round 3, Pick 7 - Hickory Huskers: CL A. Alvarado
Round 3, Pick 8 - Saskatoon Amigos: C F. Johnson
Round 3, Pick 9 - Brooklyn Wolves: C R. Rivera
Round 3, Pick 10 - River Cities Sternwheelers: MR G. Gonzáles
Round 3, Pick 11 - New York Gothams: SS M. Rivera
Round 3, Pick 12 - Seattle Monarchs: SP C. Reed

Round 4 will be Sunday evening.

If the majority of owners are willing, I can just have the computer do the rest of the draft.  If you would prefer that option, just let me know in the comments.

Zev

Hickory Shopping RF Maclin

After being rebuffed in efforts to deal solid but unspectacular outfielders Alva Mendonca and Lonnie Machen, Hickory has begun quietly shopping outfielder Lowell Maclin, sources indicate. The left-handed Maclin, 30, had his best season in 2013, hitting .355, with an on base percentage of .429 (good for fourth and eight in the league, respectively), and a slugging percentage of .456. 

When questioned regarding whether trade rumors might affect Maclin's performance if he remains in Hickory, Husker GM Frank Ferrara replied, "We don't expect that they will. Lowell is a consummate professional and understands the reality of the modern game. Also, as a purely imaginary construct built of electrons and named by a random generator, he does not tend toward strong emotional responses to stress."

Interested parties are encouraged to contact the Hickory front office at ferrarafc@comcast.net before the conclusion of the ongoing amateur draft.

Maui/Los Angeles Trade

In the first non-blockbuster of the offseason, Los Angeles sends 1B/LF John Hodge to Maui in exchange for AA LF Steve Keo.

Round 2 complete

Round 3 will be done on Saturday night.

Zev

First Round done

As someone who is privy to all choices, I feel that it's only fair to share this with the rest of the league -- there must be a WIDE divergence of opinions among scouts in the league, as I saw owners select players whom my scout predicted to be career minor leaguers. Likewise, I'm sure some of you are going to look at my selection and say "He picked Heida when X was available?!"

Furthermore, in previous versions of the game, most owners would submit similar (if not identical) draft lists. Yeah, they may switched a guy or two, but there was a high degree of similarity between the lists. In this year's first round, I got vastly different lists from different owners -- no two lists were very similar -- further leading me to believe that the opinions of scouts in this league are not consistent at all. I'm really curious as to who's scout is right (if any)...

First round choices:

Maui: 2B Fransisco Perez
Cleveland: C Bill Miller
Walla Walla: 1B Lindsay Walker
River Cities: 2B Anthony Lysons
Houston: SP Eric Rogers
Los Angeles: 2B Lawrence Richardson
Hickory: CF Mario Lopez
Saskatoon: CF Wayne Frederick
Brooklyn: SP Kenshin Heida
River Cities: C Gabriel Feliciano
New York: 2B Wes Harris
Hickory: MR Forest Powell

Round 2 on Monday night
Round 3 on Thursday night

Zev

Feb II: Who signed whom?

Not much activity this sim:

Houston signed 3B Claudio Hernandez:  2 years, $2,340,000 total

New York signed SS Carsten Rasch to a minor league contract

We will begin the amateur draft on Saturday night.

The draft order for Round 1 is as follows:

1. Maui

2. Cleveland

3.  Walla Walla

4.  River Cities (from Danville)

5.  Houston

6.  Los Angeles

7.  Hickory

8. Saskatoon

9.  Brooklyn

10.  River Cities

11.  New York

12.  Hickory (from Seattle)

We'll do the first round of the draft on Saturday night.  Please send in your picks to myself and Michael by then.

For the new owners:  The way the draft works is as follows:  If you have the first pick, send me one name.  If you have the second pick, send two names -- if your top guy isn't taken, you'll get him, if he is taken, you'll get the second choice.  If you have the third pick, send three names, and so on.

Zev

Traded draft picks

Based on my less-than-thorough records, I have the following draft picks traded for 2014 (the date is the real-world date the trade was announced on the blog):

LA 4 -> RIV 10/20/08
LA 5 -> CLE 12/8/08
DAN 1 -> RIV 1/25/09
NY 5 -> MAU 1/23/09
SEA 1 -> HIK 1/14/09

If I've missed any, please let me know.

Zev

Who signed?

Maui
MR Hector Orozco, 2 years, $12,050,000 total
MR Gaby Casella, minor league contract

New York
C Joan New, minor league contract
MR Nicholas Farrier, minor league contract

Los Angeles
CF Juan David, 1 year, $500,000

Upcoming Schedule:
Feb II sim -- tomorrow night
First round of Amateur Draft -- Saturday night.

Zev

I'll be away....

I'll be on vacation from Friday the 10th to Friday the 17th. I should have email access, but I won't have my copy of OOTP with me.
Not sure what I'm going to miss on the preseason schedule... I should have my regular season roster and lineups set before then.

- Paul / New York

Sim Done: We're at Feb 1

Some more signings:

Walla Walla

SS Lincoln Rosetti, 5 years, $72,850,000

River Cities

SP Matthew Cassity, minor league contract

C Gerald Odum, 1 year, $1,100,000

SP Floyd Janik, minor league contract

Cleveland

CF Michael Fay, 1 year, $750,000

MR Tobias Guttierrez, 2 years, $3,700,000

SP Samuel Santos, 1 year, $750,000

Hickory

1B William Torres, 1 year, $500,000 

Maui

RF Deon Tarango, minor league contract

Los Angeles

CF Bas Bijkerk, minor league contract

Houston

1B Gavin Mendleson, minor league contract

New York

RF Frank Dejean, minor league contract

Also, the first year player pool has been published.  Take a look at who will be available.

Next sim (Feb 1-15) will be on Monday night.

Zev

Seattle/Los Angeles trade

The only two teams to have won four Cecil Cups apiece have completed yet another trade between the two most illustrious franchises, and, as befitting their stature in league lore, it's a doozy.

Los Angeles sends starter Thomas Cohen to Seattle for starter Chad Nelligan and outfielder Sean Arant. Arant brings his six Cup championships back to the franchise he won his first two with.

"We're thrilled to bring Sean back home. Let's hope he can win four more rings so he'd complete all ten fingers," Los Angeles GM Michael Weintraub announced in a hastily-assembled press conference outside the team's vernal clubhouse in Ventura, Calif.

"I hadn't considered moving Thomas in a deal, but when Mack came calling about Sean, I had little hesitation to pull the trigger. When he threw Nelligan in, it was just a bonus."

Sean Arant is one of the premiere lead-off threats in the league, with a +.400 OBP and 70-steal speed. He will form a powerful combination with George Aguinaldo at the top of the line-up, giving base-clearers Ronald Aikin and Ricky "I'm innocent!" Peppers plenty of opportunities to drive in runs for the Scorpions.

Chad Nelligan, long one of the league's top pitchers, will slide into Cohen's spot at the top of the Los Angeles rotation. Nelligan pitched brilliantly in Seattle's drive for the 2013 championship, as he went 3-0 in the postseason, including two dominant starts against new Zotti League rival New York.

"We're back," Weintraub explained. "After a year of below .500 ball -- our first, ever -- we're ready to challenge the Paddlewheelers and Gothams for Zotti League supremacy."

More signings

Brooklyn
RF Emilio Beauvais, minor league contract
RP Wan-fu Chu, minor league contract

Houston
C Ricardo Perez, minor league contract

Los Angeles
RP Pedro Elizalde, 2 years, $4,800,000 total
LF Alan Callahan, 4 years, $47,000,000 total

... and there were some retirements

Cleveland
1B Russell Powell retires (.281, 395 HR, 197 SB)

Danville 
Albert Boll retires (93-110, 4.37)

Los Angeles
William Augustin retires (67-45, 843 G, 3.97)

Saskatoon
C Lorenzo Mendoza retires 

Next sim -- Sunday night (to the end of January)

No Sim Last Night

I'll run it tonight. My apologies.

Zev

Commissioner's Parity Plan

In the spirit of increasing parity in the SDMB OOTP league, I am hereby announcing the "Commissioner's Parity Plan."  This plan is designed to make it easier for teams that have never won a Cecil Cup to make it to the playoffs.  It is also designed to discourage the centralization of talent in only one team located on the North Pacific.

The plan works as follows:  For every Cecil Cup that a team has won, they must contribute a player to a parity pool.  Furthermore, the winner of the previous year must contribute two players. Therefore, by way of example, Seattle would have to contribute five players to the pool this year (one for each of their four Cecil Cup wins and one additional one for being the last winner).  Houston, on the other hand, would have to contribute two, for their two victories.

The players to be placed in the pool will be selected by the owners of the teams that will be drafting the players (i.e. those that do not contribute any players).  

Once the player pool has been formed, teams that have not won a Cecil Cup will draft from the pool in team number order.  

This will continue until every team has won a Cecil Cup -- or at least until Brooklyn does.

Zev

Cleveland options Thomas to A ball

In a move that is as startling as the Peppers release early this morning, the Cleveland Steamers organization announced that newly acquired LF Tyler Thomas has been optioned down to the minors where he will be patrolling left for the A level Tennessee Tossed Salads becoming the highest paid player ever in single A in any league at any time throughout history.

This move baffles the 7 fans that are still hoping for a Steamers World Series Victory sometime this century, but the GM of the Cleveland squad thinks that it will help out the team. "The fan interest in the team nearly doubled when we signed Tyler, imagine how much it will increase when he helps us win just about every game in the SBMB A league. It should go through the roof," said Mr. Goldman after finishing off his 7th rum and coke while shooting dice at the Mandalay Bay in Vegas.

Will this move pay off? Probably not, but this team is trying everything it can to make sure that it never ends up in the World Series as long as Mr. Goldman is in charge.

Los Angeles releases star SS!

Rumors around the Southland proved true this morning as Los Angeles GM Michael Weintraub announced that the Scorpions, the only franchise to win four straight Cecil Cup championships, has released star shortstop Ricky Peppers.

"Ricky is no longer a member of our team," Weintraub said, curtly, in a one-line prepared statement. "Thank you. I will not answer any questions at this time."

Reports over the weekend of a single-car crash involving a Ferrari Enzo on Pacific Coast Highway near Malibu early on Saturday morning that caused the death of a young women centered on the fact that Peppers was the driver. The car, with 35PEPPRS as the license plate, is registered to the star shortstop.

The young victim, April Fule, was a nineteen-year old waitress at a popular Malibu bar, and Peppers was seen flirting with her all night after arriving at about midnight Friday night. Peppers, 30, is a committed family man. He is married to local TV newscaster Marisa Lopez-Peppers, and the couple has a young set of triplet daughters.

While Peppers has not been charged in the accident, toxicology reports are due early in the week, and it is widely assumed that Peppers was intoxicated when he left the bar. "I saw him talking to her," fan Roberto Dawson said. "She was really hot, and I remember saying to my friend that Ricky's going to hit a homer tonight."

Sadly, Peppers barely made a triple out of the parking lot of the bar, as the Enzo crashed barely 200 feet down PCH. Peppers, who slugged 42 homeruns for the Sluggers in 2013, looks to be spending the 2014 season behind bars.

Welcome to 2014!!

Current Game Date: 1/1/2014

Who signed fre agents in December II:

Brooklyn
2B John Blackmer 2 years, $2,350,000 total

New York
MR Winford McCullum, minor league contract

Los Angeles
MR Karl Hatch, minor league contract
MR Max Mendoza, minor league contract
C Emiliano Torrealba, 2 years, $1,350,000 total

Cleveland
LF Tyler Thomas, 5 years, $100,250,000 (is this the first nine-figure contract in league history?)

Next sim: Tomorrow night -- 1/1 to 1/15.

As an aside, please remember that when you acquire a player, he goes on the DFA list and the 18-day DFA period starts. Please remember to assign players you acquire. If you don't, I'll do my best to place your new players on the major league roster, but if there is no space available, I will make my "best judgement" guess as to which players you want sent to AAA to make room.

Zev