Division Series Game 1: Monarchs, Steamers Take Lead

Seattle took Game 1 of the Adams League Division Series from the Hickory Huskers with an 11-6 victory. Seattle jumped out to a three run lead by the end of the second and never looked back. Ronald Placencia went 7 2/3 innings, giving only 2 runs for the win. Armando Cedeno pitched in with a 4-4 day in the leadoff spot.

It took all nine innings for the Cleveland Steamers to pull a victory out against the River Cities Sternwheelers. River Cities took a commanding six run lead in the first inning (all the runs are marked as unearned... but I'm sure that that's wrong) on the strength of a William Ward grand slam. A solo home run by Patrick Valdez in the second made the score 7-0.

It took until the fifth inning for the Steamers to get on the board. Seven hits (including a lead-off triple by Nathaneal Burton) put a five-spot on the board for Cleveland. River Cities added an insurance run in the bottom of the sixth to make the score 8-5.

Gary Smith, however, just couldn't hold it for the Sternwheelers. A missed third strike and a single put two runners on for Tyler Thomas who hit a 356 foot shot to left to tie the game at 8-8. And so the score stood until the top of the ninth when longtime River Cities reliever Willie Egan lost the game. Michael Fay, possibly playing the last season in his storied career, came off the bench to hit a pinch-hit two run home run in his first playoff at bat to put the Steamers ahead for good.

The league file is up and reports should be along shortly.

Game 2 -- Saturday night.

October I: Who Uploaded?

Cleveland
Hickory
Houston
Los Angeles
Maui
New York
River Cities
Seattle

Game 1 of the division series will be on Thursday night.

Hickory @ Seattle
Cleveland @ River Cities

Congrats to the two first-time playoff contenders and to the two perennials.

Reports will be up in the morning.

Zev

Just A Gentle Reminder....

.... that the next sim is tomorrow, Tuesday night -- and not Wednesday night.



Zev

Financial Rules Settings

As per Matt's request, here are the financial rules settings currently in use:

Avg. Attendence per game: 28000
Avg. Ticket Price: 10
Visitor's Team Gate Share: 20%

Avg. Media Contract: 40 million
Media Contract Fixed: No, based on team market size
Salary Cap: 0
Team Owner Controls Budget: Yes
Revenue Sharing: No
Cash Maximum: 10 million
Avg. Scouting Budget: 2 million
Avg. Coach Salary: 200,000
Minimum Player Salary: 300,000
Superstar Quality Player Typical Salary: 15 million
Star Quality Player Typical Salary: 10 million
Good Quality Player Typical Salary: 6 million
Above Avg. Player Typical Salary: 3.5 million
Avg. Player Typical Salary: 1.5
Below Avg Player Typical Salary: 1 million
Fair Player Typical Salary: 600,000
Poor Player Typical Salary: 450,000

September II: Who uploaded?

Cleveland
Hickory
Houston
Los Angeles
Maui
New York
River Cities
Seattle

League file is updated. Reports will be available in the morning.

Scheduling note: The next sim (to the end of the regular season) will be next *Tuesday* night.

Zev

UPDATE (7/23 10:30AM Eastern): Reports are up -- and the blog got the official "okey-dokey" from Google/Blogger -- so we're not going to get shut down. :)

Zev

Google Thinks This Blog Is Spam...

I just received a warning from Google that they think this is a spam blog. I've sent a request for them to review it. But if there are some difficulties posting until that is done, you know why.

In the meantime, if there is league news and I can't post here, I'll send out info by email.

Zev

Come see the Steamers and get a cheap show

Cleveland (AP) - In a move that is sure to create some excitement in Cleveland and the entire state of Ohio, the Steamers have announced that for the rest of the season they are dropping the ticket price for the entire stadium to only $1. This should create a run on tickets in Cleveland and the stadium should be packed for the rest of the season. "We just wanted everyone to experience the excitement that we are feeling around this team," said Owner/General Manager Jeremy Goldman. "We are financially sound, and just want to give back to the fan(s) that have been following this horrible team for years. We will even be accommodating to the Bandwagon fans that just figured out we existed."

The Steamers who have surprised everyone this season by leading the Wild Card race in the Zotti League by a game with 16 games to go in the 2014 season. With 72 wins, the Cleveland Steamers (formally the Covington Demons/Austin Pioneers/Michigan Dragons) are 7 wins away from their most wins ever (79) back in 2006, their last season in Austin. Their highest finish in the standing was 4th that season, and with their current standing they are looking to better than mark and make their first playoff appearance in franchise history.

The rumors of the financial troubles of the franchise seem to be over blown, as many people close to the team had concern when adding the $13.5M contract of 1B Ronald Aikin and during the offseason adding $100M+ worth of salary over 5 years in the form of LF Tyler Thomas. Both of these additions have produced at the plate and in the field, helping the team score the second most runs in the Zotti League this season with 704. Those numbers are expected to rise next season as Aikin will have his first full season in Cleveland. The team is on firm financial standing, and is ready for its first playoff run ever.

Financial settings

Zev or Michael, can one of you describe the financial settings in this league? Here is a link to the relevant section of the manual. I am just interested in knowing the applicable settings in our league. My chief interest is in the settings for the media contracts. Is there a way to find out when (and how often) the media contracts are renegotiated?

Thanks for any help!

Administrative Note -- Expanded Schedule

Tegarding the expanded minor league schedule, it seems taht we have six yes votes if I count right (Mack, Nate, Jeremy, Matt, Frank [his caveat notwithstanding] and Michael). I agree with this too, and so, we'll make it a true majority.

I'll implement this for next year.

Zev

August II: Who Uploaded?

Cleveland
Hickory
Houston
Los Angeles
Maui
New York
River Cities
Seattle

Reports will be unzipped in the morning.

Next sim (to Oct 1) will be next Wednesday.

Zev

August II

Zev asked me to run tonight's sim and forwarded along an e-mail an owner had sent to him. Before I give you the shocking news as to who the AL and ZL front-runners are, I'm going to gently remind all owners to please cc: me on any roster moves, trades, league issues, or whatnot that you e-mail Zev.

There.

And, to keep everyone further in suspense, here are the teams still in contention for the Commissioner's Trophy for League Participation. Note that everyone's favorite commissioner is not on the list:

Cleveland
Hickory
Houston
Los Angeles
Maui
New York
River Cities
Seattle

Now onto the standings report...

In a result that no one could've foreseen, both River Cities and Seattle lead their leagues by a combined 48 games. The Monarchs have a 26 game on AL Wild Card leader Brooklyn, and over in the ZL, River Cities leads Walla Walla by only 22 games. Don't go start printing those playoff tickets yet, Nate...

The Wild Card races are far more interesting. As mentioned, Brooklyn and Walla Walla are pacing the rest of the also-rans, but their leads are much more tenuous. Brooklyn leads Hickory by two games, with Houston five behind the Wolves, and Maui still holding onto hope in Hawaii with eight games to make up in the final month of the season.

Walla Walla has but a game's lead on the surprising Steamers of Cleveland, while last year's ZL champ New York is five behind the Federal Duck, and this reporter's favorite franchise, the Los Angeles Scorpions are just 10 games behind the leaders in the race to decide who gets to play River Cities in the first round of the playoffs.

It's now the first of September, which means that 40 is the new 25, so go ahead and call up some prospects to see what they can do. Perhaps one will tip the balance between playing in October or not.

The league file is on its way up. Expect it by midnight EDT/9pm PDT. Zev will unzip the league reports in the morning.

Next sim? Next Wednesday!

Minor League Schedule Suggestions

Some of you may have noticed that the minor league seasons in A and AA have already ended and that there's only a few games left in AAA. I have two suggestions to improve the minors for next year and I'd like to hear what people think about them.

1. Extend the minor league seasons to either 140 or 145 games.

The A and AA seasons are 120 games long and end about August 10. AAA goes 130 games to about August 20. I think we'd be better off making them 140 or 145 games. That way, the minor league seasons would last through the end of August and up to major league roster expansion. If we did this, everyone's prospects would get more development time, especially more games played on defense which would speed development there.

2. Add championship series to the minor leagues.

I think it would be fun to have one round of playoffs for each minor league, something like a five-game championship series between the division champions.

What do others think? If Zev's on board with these proposals and a majority of owners support them, I think these would be good additions for next season.

29 Goose Eggs...

... and it ends with a wild pitch!

August I: Who uploaded?

Cleveland
Hickory
Houston
Los Angeles
Maui
New York
River Cities
Seattle

League file is up, reports will be up soon or in the morning.

Next sim on Wednesday. That sim will run to 9/1, when the rosters expand.

Zev

Maui / New York trade

The deals continue with a minor trade between Maui and New York. Long-time Gotham Brian Palazzo, who's a FA to be after this year, is sent to Maui for AA 3B Craig Buchan and $800,000 in cash.

New York's GM said: "Well, with the addition of Marzano, Palazzo really didn't have a starting job anymore. And as our corner infield is set for the next couple of years with Marzano and Campion, I wasn't really planning on resigning Palazzo. We're happy to move Brian to a place where he can play. He's been a good player for us for a long time. Buchan gives us a prospect for the future, and lord knows we need the cash."

There's been no word from Palazzo's best friend on the team, closer Junior Cuomo, to see what his reaction is.

Trade: River Cities and New York

Dateline: Marietta, OH --

In a move some predicted River Cities owner Nate Wooley has dealt off one of his prized possessions this afternoon, just hours before the trading deadline.

This time the big name involved in the deal is all star 1B Gregorio Marzano. Marzano is going to a New York team in he midst of a very competitive wild card race and will see action straightaway with New York.

In return for the 26-year-old slugger, who has a lifetime line of .297/.395/.467, the Sternwheelers receive a trio of prospects. Going to the confluence this time is the #14 overall prospect, first baseman Marcos Alcazar, the 21st overall prospect starting pitcher Michael Bernardo, and relief minor leaguer Michael Bing.

"With the acquisition of Amos earlier we determined that we had an opportunity to restock our farm system while realigning the team a bit", said River Cities owner Nate Wooley, reached in a secure bunker pinging life-sized photos of retired politicians with a BB gun. "Really, there's too much talent for us not to take the opportunity to do some minor league loading."

"WTF?", screamed Marzano, reached at his hotel room. "Payback's a bitch, man. He should never have dealt me within his own division. That's just disrespectful and I'm going to do everything I can to make him regret this!"

Amos, reached at his traditional furthest-from-the-postgame-spread locker, said only, "Awesome. Maybe I can get some playing time now."

Breaking News in Hickory

On the heels of a disappointing start, and with the recent acquisition of Armando Carballo and Thomas Geter by wild-card rival Maui, there are reports out of Hickory that management may be reconsidering its previously hard-line stance on retaining superstar outfielder Paul Shunk. With only a few hours remaining before the trade deadline, a move would be unlikely, but Hickory management is quietly letting interested teams know that any player, including Shunk, could be available in the right deal.

Er... says a highly placed source in the Hickory organization.

(ferrarafc@comcast.net)

The Los Angeles Selloff Continues

The Los Angeles Scorpions were involved in another trade today, this time with a team outside of the Zotti League. The lowly Maui Mashers, a team with more holes than most, was eager to partner in the Los Angeles rebuilding process.

In this deal, Maui will receive SP Alberto Carballo, and star catcher Thomas Geter. In return, Los Angeles will receive several promising prospects: SP Brian Hersh, MR Jose Ahumada, MR Antonio Cuellar, and RF Igor Overdevest.