It is the beginning of the end for once proud Scorpion franchise as today they dealt one of their key components. First sacker Ronald Aikin is heading to the great state of Ohio to help solidify the middle of the line up in Cleveland with LF Tyler Thomas and 3B John Grondin.
"There comes a time when a man needs to admit defeat, and today is that day," stated Los Angeles GM Michael Weintraub, "but the one thing I do know is that I am getting the building blocks to get back on top of the Zotti League and show Nate who is boss."
And building blocks he did get amassing 5 prospects and a draft pick in this deal. The main pieces heading to Southern California are AA LF Clarence Horta and AA SP Issac Moore. With Horta's new found power to go along with his OBP and Moore's unrealized potential, Los Angeles could have 2 key building blocks to the future.
Also in this deal the Scorpions score: AAA SS Carlos Gomez, A SP Ricardo Cardona and A 1B David Seibel to go along with the Steamers 3rd round pick in the 2015 draft. The Steamers also get AA MR Brian Pearson to complete the deal.
The Owner of Cleveland Jeremy Goldman was outraged at the deal. "What do you mean Peppers is not in the deal?!?!" He was heard yelling at his staff. "I gave you one order and that was to get Peppers and you guys failed. And you gave you 5 prospects and a draft pick, what were you thinking. In fact, I don't pay you guys to think, just to do what I tell you to do. All of you are fired."
This move of firing his staff could be beneficial because he is going to have to find some way to pay Aikin's $13.5M salary.
Will this be the last move by either organization? Does this mean that the Steamers are moving up for a chance to get into the playoffs this season? Exactly how much will Lutz get in the FA market? All of these questions will be answered shortly as pull into the home stretch of the 2014 season. I know I can't wait for the answers.
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Thursday, June 25, 2009
The Great Los Angeles Fire Sale of 2014
Okay, here's the deal:
If his name is not Ricky Peppers, and he makes more than the minimum, he's available for trade.
Do you need a top-of-the-rotation starter? How about Chad Nelligan?
Or, maybe some reinforcements in the rotation? Jeffrey Shuttleworth or Armando Carballo could help!
No, you need a bat, instead? How about a lead-off speed demon in Sean Arant? Or, a bases-clearing slugger like Ronald Aikin?
How about a catcher? I have about nine of them, take a look and make your pick. If you're dreaming of upsetting the Seattle/River Cities duality in this league, now is your chance to get a difference-maker!
If his name is not Ricky Peppers, and he makes more than the minimum, he's available for trade.
Do you need a top-of-the-rotation starter? How about Chad Nelligan?
Or, maybe some reinforcements in the rotation? Jeffrey Shuttleworth or Armando Carballo could help!
No, you need a bat, instead? How about a lead-off speed demon in Sean Arant? Or, a bases-clearing slugger like Ronald Aikin?
How about a catcher? I have about nine of them, take a look and make your pick. If you're dreaming of upsetting the Seattle/River Cities duality in this league, now is your chance to get a difference-maker!
July II: Who Uploaded?
Cleveland
Danville
Hickory
Houston
Los Angeles
Maui
River Cities
Seattle
League file has been uploaded, reports to follow shortly.
We're currently at July 31 -- the trading deadline.
Next sim will be next Wednesday.
UPDATE: The reports have been uploaded and are available at the "League Page" link in the right sidebar. In the future, the league files will be there.
Zev
Danville
Hickory
Houston
Los Angeles
Maui
River Cities
Seattle
League file has been uploaded, reports to follow shortly.
We're currently at July 31 -- the trading deadline.
Next sim will be next Wednesday.
UPDATE: The reports have been uploaded and are available at the "League Page" link in the right sidebar. In the future, the league files will be there.
Zev
Thursday, June 18, 2009
July I: Who uploaded
Cleveland
Hickory
Houston
Los Angeles
Maui
New York
River Cities
Seattle
Also, please note that I'm still figuring out where everything goes on the new server. For now, you can find the league reports here.
The next sim will take us through July 30, so as to allow trading for one more sim. And, as a reminder, injured players (even if they aren't on the DL) cannot be traded.
Next sim (July 16-30) will be next Wednesday.
Zev
Hickory
Houston
Los Angeles
Maui
New York
River Cities
Seattle
Also, please note that I'm still figuring out where everything goes on the new server. For now, you can find the league reports here.
The next sim will take us through July 30, so as to allow trading for one more sim. And, as a reminder, injured players (even if they aren't on the DL) cannot be traded.
Next sim (July 16-30) will be next Wednesday.
Zev
Sunday, June 14, 2009
Trade: River Cities sends All-Star Beeks to Hickory!
Dateline: Marietta, OH – In a move that caught relief pitcher Harold Beeks by surprise today River Cities owner Nate Wooley sent Beeks and left fielder Franklin Jackson to Hickory for a package of players, prospects, and picks. Coming to the confluence from Hickory are injured RF Lowell Maclin, young OF Robert Amos, and minor leaguers Malcolm Birdwell and Robert Turner. River Cities will also receive Hickory’s first round pick in next year’s minor league draft.
Beeks, reached at his palatial West Side estate in the Harmar region responded to questions by saying, “WTF? I’ve been with River Cities almost longer than anyone! Most of the guys I’m playing with weren’t even playing professionally when I came to the Sternwheelers for the 2008 season! Now I’m switching to Hickory?”
Reached at the Washington County, OH fairground where he was chaining himself to a fence near the farmer’s market River Cities owner Nate Wooley told this reporter, “Harry’s a great pitcher, sure. I can’t dispute that. But both Brown and Fullen in AAA have earned their opportunity to play in the majors. Also, why was I paying five and a half million dollars to some guy pitching 60 or so innings per year? Fah! Now help me get this thing locked up. Protests don’t happen by themselves, you know!”
Jackson, who joined the team last year from Cleveland, said he wasn’t surprised by the deal. “With the suspiciously fast development of Jesse (Dubreuil) it was only a matter of time. He’s really shown a lot of talent and poise and I know that I’ve been passed by someone younger, better, and cheaper. It’s the right thing to do.” Jackson then turned to a River Cities public relations executive and whispered, “Can I have my twenty now? I’ve got a train to catch.”
Reports from the front office state that Maclin will come to the team on the disabled list but the team is looking forward to seeing him perform when perfectly healthy. Amos will move directly into the major league roster backing up DuBrueil and right fielder Patrick Valdes. Birdsell and Turner will be assigned to AAA and AA, respectively.
Beeks, reached at his palatial West Side estate in the Harmar region responded to questions by saying, “WTF? I’ve been with River Cities almost longer than anyone! Most of the guys I’m playing with weren’t even playing professionally when I came to the Sternwheelers for the 2008 season! Now I’m switching to Hickory?”
Reached at the Washington County, OH fairground where he was chaining himself to a fence near the farmer’s market River Cities owner Nate Wooley told this reporter, “Harry’s a great pitcher, sure. I can’t dispute that. But both Brown and Fullen in AAA have earned their opportunity to play in the majors. Also, why was I paying five and a half million dollars to some guy pitching 60 or so innings per year? Fah! Now help me get this thing locked up. Protests don’t happen by themselves, you know!”
Jackson, who joined the team last year from Cleveland, said he wasn’t surprised by the deal. “With the suspiciously fast development of Jesse (Dubreuil) it was only a matter of time. He’s really shown a lot of talent and poise and I know that I’ve been passed by someone younger, better, and cheaper. It’s the right thing to do.” Jackson then turned to a River Cities public relations executive and whispered, “Can I have my twenty now? I’ve got a train to catch.”
Reports from the front office state that Maclin will come to the team on the disabled list but the team is looking forward to seeing him perform when perfectly healthy. Amos will move directly into the major league roster backing up DuBrueil and right fielder Patrick Valdes. Birdsell and Turner will be assigned to AAA and AA, respectively.
Come and Peer With Me Into the Future
The Favorite Toy is a tool devised by noted baseball statitician Bill James to project the final career value of a particular counting stat. It can also be used to calculate the chances of a player achieving a certain statistical milestone.
I thought it would be fun to run some projections on the OOTP league and see what comes out. I ran some projections on five stats (HR, Hits, Wins, Saves and Strikeouts).
So, who do you think has the best shot of hitting 500 homers? Well, you might think that it's Hikory's Gregory Mudge... but it's not (although, to be fair, the fact that he's out for the year does bias things a bit. If I run it again next year after he's hit some homers, his chances may go up again). The player with the best shot is John Hukill, who currently has 243 and is only 27 years old. In fact, Hukill is so good, that he is projected to have a 7% shot of hitting 900 (no, that's not a typo) home runs by the time his career is over.
Hits, on the other hand, seems to be a tougher sell. It seems that almost none of the current active career leaders have a decent shot of getting 3000 hits. The current leader, Michael Fay, is just about done at 2070 hits and age 37. The league's best shot for 3000 hits among the active leaders currently lies with Sean Arant, who has about a 9% shot of achieving that goal.
On to wins... where Chad Nelligan leads the pack with 193. He has about a 47% chance of getting to 250, but no reasonable chance of reaching 300. The best shot in the league rests with Juan Villatoro, who currently has a 47% chance of being the 300 club's charter member.
For saves, you might think that Timothy Vallejo has the best shot of getting 500 saves... but you'd be wrong. That honor goes to Junior Cuomo, who has one save less, but is two years younger. Cuomo has a 43% chance of reaching the 500 save mark. It might even have been higher, had not Mike used him as a starter for half a season. :)
For the last stat, strikeouts, there is no one who has a shot at catching Nolan Ryan (5714), but there is one player who has a chance of coming close. It isn't Frank Osborne (2396 K/ Age 35/12% chance of 3500). It isn't Demarcus Ramirez (2180/35/17% for 3000). It isn't even Placencia (1433/30/26% for 3500) or Villatoro (1077/26/20% for 3500). The answer is a young kid from New York named Joshua Giddings. He only has 781 strikeouts so far, but he is also only 23 years old. He actually has a 21% of reaching 4000 K, an 11% shot of reaching 4500 and a 4% shot of reaching 5000 K.
Here's the data. Have fun browsing.
I thought it would be fun to run some projections on the OOTP league and see what comes out. I ran some projections on five stats (HR, Hits, Wins, Saves and Strikeouts).
So, who do you think has the best shot of hitting 500 homers? Well, you might think that it's Hikory's Gregory Mudge... but it's not (although, to be fair, the fact that he's out for the year does bias things a bit. If I run it again next year after he's hit some homers, his chances may go up again). The player with the best shot is John Hukill, who currently has 243 and is only 27 years old. In fact, Hukill is so good, that he is projected to have a 7% shot of hitting 900 (no, that's not a typo) home runs by the time his career is over.
Hits, on the other hand, seems to be a tougher sell. It seems that almost none of the current active career leaders have a decent shot of getting 3000 hits. The current leader, Michael Fay, is just about done at 2070 hits and age 37. The league's best shot for 3000 hits among the active leaders currently lies with Sean Arant, who has about a 9% shot of achieving that goal.
On to wins... where Chad Nelligan leads the pack with 193. He has about a 47% chance of getting to 250, but no reasonable chance of reaching 300. The best shot in the league rests with Juan Villatoro, who currently has a 47% chance of being the 300 club's charter member.
For saves, you might think that Timothy Vallejo has the best shot of getting 500 saves... but you'd be wrong. That honor goes to Junior Cuomo, who has one save less, but is two years younger. Cuomo has a 43% chance of reaching the 500 save mark. It might even have been higher, had not Mike used him as a starter for half a season. :)
For the last stat, strikeouts, there is no one who has a shot at catching Nolan Ryan (5714), but there is one player who has a chance of coming close. It isn't Frank Osborne (2396 K/ Age 35/12% chance of 3500). It isn't Demarcus Ramirez (2180/35/17% for 3000). It isn't even Placencia (1433/30/26% for 3500) or Villatoro (1077/26/20% for 3500). The answer is a young kid from New York named Joshua Giddings. He only has 781 strikeouts so far, but he is also only 23 years old. He actually has a 21% of reaching 4000 K, an 11% shot of reaching 4500 and a 4% shot of reaching 5000 K.
Here's the data. Have fun browsing.
Thursday, June 11, 2009
June II: Who Uploaded?
Cleveland
Hickory
Houston
Los Angeles
Maui
New York
River Cities
Seattle
Next up? The All-Star Game.
Next sim on Wednesday
Hickory
Houston
Los Angeles
Maui
New York
River Cities
Seattle
Next up? The All-Star Game.
Next sim on Wednesday
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
OOTP X
Anyone else trying it out? I've just started my first league and, so far, the interface seems a little better, but I don't see anything insanely better yet. The pitching ratings model is sure different though.
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Los Angeles acquires star catcher
Buoyed by an 8-5 start to the month of June, and the return of starter Alberto Carballo to the rotation, Los Angeles GM Michael Weintraub announced a trade today with the Houston Armadillos.
"We just traded 28-year-old AAA starter James Markovich and a third round pick in 2015 to Houston for catcher Thomas Geter," Weintraub stated.
Geter, a 30-year old Los Angeles native, is hitting .294 with three homeruns and 36 RBIs thus far in 2014. He will take over the volatile backstop role for the four-time Cecil Cup winning franchise which has had 5 players squat behind home plate already this season. While he hit third for the Dillos, Weintraub indicated that Geter would bat lower in the order in Los Angeles's powerful lineup, forming a quality 6-7-8 with 2B James Grimes and 3B Joseph Barnett.
Markovich, originally from the Houston franchise, was 7-4 with a 4.14 ERA in 87 innings this season for AAA Arizona Bay.
Sunday, June 7, 2009
Seattle and Hickory Swap Minor Leaguers
In its third trade this sim, Seattle has agreed to send AAA outfielder Bill Elder to Hickory in exchange for AA shortstop Willie Cosner and Hickory's second round pick next year.
"Frank contacted us to talk starting pitching, but he was a little too late. So, I asked him about Maclin's recent injury and one thing led to another," explained Seattle GM/Owner Mack Shultz. "Bill's a promising outfielder, but we're pretty stocked at AAA and the majors in the outfield, especially when Paul Guerrero comes back from injury next year. We don't have much in the infield in the minors, so we thought there was a mutually beneficial deal to be made."
Elder is fighting off the effects of a dislocated finger, so the deal may be delayed depending on a ruling from the league office as to whether an injured player can be traded now or whether the teams will have to wait until the end of the month to consummate the swap.
"Frank contacted us to talk starting pitching, but he was a little too late. So, I asked him about Maclin's recent injury and one thing led to another," explained Seattle GM/Owner Mack Shultz. "Bill's a promising outfielder, but we're pretty stocked at AAA and the majors in the outfield, especially when Paul Guerrero comes back from injury next year. We don't have much in the infield in the minors, so we thought there was a mutually beneficial deal to be made."
Elder is fighting off the effects of a dislocated finger, so the deal may be delayed depending on a ruling from the league office as to whether an injured player can be traded now or whether the teams will have to wait until the end of the month to consummate the swap.
Saturday, June 6, 2009
Seattle Makes Two Deals
The Seattle Monarchs, still reeling from their rash of injuries in the early season and the breakdown in contract negotiations with star first baseman Dong Lutz, made two separate deals.
In the first trade, Seattle sent promising starting pitcher Robert Gibson to Maui in exchange for infielder Paulino Reyes.
In the second deal, Seattle dealt infielder Chet Edwards and fourth and seventh round picks next year to Walla Walla for A-ball first baseman George Hill.
"Well, we've got to start preparing for the future," said Owner/GM Mack Shultz. "We're going to lose Lutz to free agency and there's a number of our other players driving very hard bargains. We've got to be prepared to replace them."
Gibson was thought of by Seattle's front office as the next superstar starting pitcher, but the bounce back year by Joe Macaluso made Gibson expendable. "We wouldn't have dealt Gibson for anything but a premier prospect, but we think Reyes can be that player," enthused Shultz. He could be the next great leadoff hitter in this game." Seattle's fans, who had fallen in love with Gibson, are expected to be outraged by this trade.
In the other deal, Seattle acquired Hill because its scouting director gave the first baseman glowing reviews. "If our scout is right, George could be a very productive major league player when he's finished developing. We need a good first base prospect," explained Shultz. Although Hill is rated the #66 prospect in the game, Seattle's scouting department is much higher on him.
"We may not be done yet," claimed Shultz. "We feel we have some outfield depth due to a number of guys developing in AAA and we may be able to make a move there to further improve our squad."
In the first trade, Seattle sent promising starting pitcher Robert Gibson to Maui in exchange for infielder Paulino Reyes.
In the second deal, Seattle dealt infielder Chet Edwards and fourth and seventh round picks next year to Walla Walla for A-ball first baseman George Hill.
"Well, we've got to start preparing for the future," said Owner/GM Mack Shultz. "We're going to lose Lutz to free agency and there's a number of our other players driving very hard bargains. We've got to be prepared to replace them."
Gibson was thought of by Seattle's front office as the next superstar starting pitcher, but the bounce back year by Joe Macaluso made Gibson expendable. "We wouldn't have dealt Gibson for anything but a premier prospect, but we think Reyes can be that player," enthused Shultz. He could be the next great leadoff hitter in this game." Seattle's fans, who had fallen in love with Gibson, are expected to be outraged by this trade.
In the other deal, Seattle acquired Hill because its scouting director gave the first baseman glowing reviews. "If our scout is right, George could be a very productive major league player when he's finished developing. We need a good first base prospect," explained Shultz. Although Hill is rated the #66 prospect in the game, Seattle's scouting department is much higher on him.
"We may not be done yet," claimed Shultz. "We feel we have some outfield depth due to a number of guys developing in AAA and we may be able to make a move there to further improve our squad."
Thursday, June 4, 2009
June I: Who uploaded?
Cleveland
Hickory
Houston
Los Angeles
Maui
New York
River Cities
Seattle
League file was updated, reports are uploading now.
Next sim on Wednesday night.
Zev
Hickory
Houston
Los Angeles
Maui
New York
River Cities
Seattle
League file was updated, reports are uploading now.
Next sim on Wednesday night.
Zev
Monday, June 1, 2009
Catcher Will be Kicked to the curb
His eye offends him so the Piggy will pluck it out. Thomas Geter is available for trade. Prefers Starting Pitching, Picks and Prospects.
That is all.
That is all.
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