Welcome To The Roaring 2020s

Game Date:  1/6/20

Signings:

Danville:
LF Alfonso Fernandez $540k/1 yr

Ohio:
C Beau Manning (Brooklyn), $11.6m/2 yrs

Shackamaxon:
MR David Roberts (Monck's Corner), $830k/1 yr

Next sim:  Wednesday night

Sim's Done

Game Date:  12/30/2019

Signings:

Maui:
MR Alfonso Cabana (Houston) $1m/ 1 yr

Ohio:
3B Lou Appleby (Maui), minor league contract

Shackamaxon:
SP Bill Mobely, minor league contract

Next sim (and the roaring 2020s) on Tuesday night.

Sim's Done (11/26/11)

Game Date:  Dec 23, 2011

Signings:

Brooklyn:
SP Pio Ramirez (Cleveland), $27.9m/ 3 yrs

Danville:
CL Dale Beene (New York), $15.7m/ 2 yrs

Houston:
LF Clark Wright, minor league contract
CL Lucas Sweeney (Brooklyn), $5.3m/2 yrs

New York:
LF Armando Cedeno (Danville), $3.9m/3 yrs
MR Sean Sheppard (Shackamaxon), $540k/1 yr

Seattle:
C James Hardman (Ohio), $890k/1 yr

Shackamaxon:
MR Tony Lozano, $1.5m/1 yr

Next sim:  Monday night

So, does anyone need a shortstop?

Late last season, when my contract negotiations with Ricky Peppers looked dire, I signed free agent Fred Smith (who went unsigned after the 2018 season) to a $2.3m deal for 2020 as insurance.

Resigning Peppers has stretched my budget and rendered Smith irrelevant. So, I'd like to trade him in a small salary dump.

Other names I'd consider trading for the same purpose are C Gerardo Herrera, 1B/OF Michael Slye, and OF Sherman Evanoff.

Sim's Done

As Michael previously noted, the sim was run last night.  Here are the signings:

Danville:
P Bill Dewall (Ohio), $3.6m/2 yrs
2B Robert Camarena (New York), $7.7m/2 yrs

Hickory:
C Kareem King (Maui) $2m/2 yrs

Maui:
P Gary Smith (Monck's Corner) $750k/ 1yr

New York:
C Dave Woods, minor league contract
P Allen Boyd, minor league contract
1B David Clifton (re-signed), minor league contract

Seattle:
P Jose Santos, minor league contract
2B Khatib bin Majd, minor league contract

Shackamaxon:
SS Ricky Pepper (re-signed)  $32m/2 yrs
P Joshua Lewis, $1.2m / 1yr

Next sim:  Saturday night.  Have a wonderful Thanksgiving everyone!

What I'm thankful for this year...

Ricky Peppers signed a 2-year contract with the only franchise he's ever played professional ball. He'll make $15m in 2020, with a mutual option for $17m in 2021.

"I took one look out there in free agency and knew that Philadelphia was my home," the reigning Outstanding Batter said, moments after signing, perhaps, the last contract of his career. "Especially with the unstable situation in Danville, I knew I wanted to finish my career where it began."

In other news, the league file has been posted by Zev.

New League File Posted

I posted a new league file to the server.  You can download it by clicking the link at right.

Next sim will be Wednesday night.

Zev

Slight Schedule Change

One of the league owners is having trouble with the league file, so I'm going to upload a new file for him tonight.

As a result, I'm going to put off the next sim until Wednesday night.

Zev

Sim's Done

Game Date:  12/9/2019

Free Agent Signings:
New York signed MR John Eyman (Shackamaxon) $310k/1 yr
New York signed SS Royal Wilson (Saskatoon) $3.9m/3 yrs
Danville signed MR Timothy Brasfield (Ohio) $61m /3 yrs

Next sim:  Tuesday night

Draft's done

The Rule V draft ha been run.

Next sim will be Monday night.

Zev

All I'll Say Is This...

... it is sometimes difficult when you manage two completely different Blogger profiles and two very different blogs.

If you don't know what I'm talking about, then don't worry.  

Enough said.  :)

Zev

Sim done last night

It appears that Zev did the sim that takes us up to the Rule 5 Draft. I'll let Zev take it over from here, but I wanted to let folks know that the league file was, in fact, updated.

*Oh, and don't select Granado. He should have been put on the 25-man roster after the trade that was processed during this sim.

EDIT (by Zev):  The Rule V Draft will be run on Saturday night.

Back In Action

Game Date: 11/29/2019

It looks like the server problems have been resolved.

Free Agent Signings:
Shackamaxon:  MR Ricardo Sanchez (Seattle), minor-league contract.
Seattle:  CF Jae-Chun Kim, minor-league contract

The next sim will take us to Dec 1 and the Rule V draft.  This sim will be run on Wednesday night and the draft will be done on Thursday night.

Zev

Where We Stand

As you know, we've been having problems since Thursday downloading/uploading files from the server.  I've tried several times, including today, to upload the latest game file with no luck.

I contacted GoDaddy (the host for the site) and they were unable to spot anything immediately wrong.  They are going to escalate the matter to their higher ups, but it could take anywhere from 24 to 72 hours to resolve.  

I'll keep you posted.

Zev

Major Trade Between Seattle and Hickory

November 29, 2019 (SEATTLE) - The Seattle Monarchs and Hickory Huskers announced a major trade this morning. Seattle is sending superstar catcher Alberto "Nitro' Granado" along with two prospects to Hickory in exchange for fading star catcher Thomas Geter, a prospect, and two draft choices.

"I'm outraged," spluttered local yokel Cletus Spackler. "We lose to those doofuses from Maui and the front office's response is to trade away the best catcher in the game? They're morons. I don't want to build for the future. I want an eighth championship t-shirt, not another damn draft pick!"

Granado has won four Gold Glove awards and has hit 154 home runs over his eight years with the Monarchs. The 28-year-old had his best year ever at the plate last season, hitting .304 with 28 home runs and 111 RBI. However, he was deemend expendable by the front office due to the rise of top prospect Steve "Sinner" Jones, who is expected to be ready for the majors sometime during the 2020 season. Granado has one year remaining on his contract at $12 million.

Geter is 36 and the whispers of his decline grew pronounced last year. His batting average has dropped from .323 to .298 to .264 over the last three years and he hit just six home runs last season. Geter is owed slightly more than $15 million this year and his contract has a mutual option for another season at the same price.

Coming to the Monarchs along with Geter is relief prospect Carlo "Basher" Humphrey, a third-round pick last year. The draft choices will be Hickory's selections in the first and second rounds on next Spring's draft.

Leaving with Granado is rookie reliever Shigenaga Murakami and AAA outfielder Manuel Cardona, a former #1 overall pick. Murakami, an international signing in 2017, made his debut with the Monarchs this year. Cardona had been the top pick in the 2015 draft and reached AAA Tacoma this season. Seattle is also sending Hickory $2 million in small, umarked bills. The money reportedly will pay for playboy financier Frank Ferrara's expense account for October.

"So, we traded away our star catcher and a former #1 draft pick to get an old fart and another draft pick. Great job, front office," fumed Spackler.

Good News and Bad News

First, the good news...

I ran the sim tonight up to 11/29.  This will enable teams to protect players from the upcoming Rule V draft.

Now the bad news...

I seem to be having some problems uploading the league files to the site.  I will try to upload them tomorrow afternoon or Saturday night.

Zev

Seattle-Shackamaxon Trade

The first item on the Seattle Discount Rack has been sold. Reliever Tsumich Yoshida has been traded to Shackamaxon for an eighth round pick in the upcoming draft.

Surely, other buyers are interested at these low, low prices. I mean, Tabito Hara is the #80 prospect in the game and just hit 30 home runs in AAA. There's nobody that could use a solid bat off the bench?

Sim's Done

Game Date:  11/25/2019

Signings: Shackamaxon signed LF Charles Sallee ($760k, formerly with Cleveland) and LF Robert Estill ($720k, formerly of Maui) to one year contracts.

Next Sim:  Thursday night

Sim's Done

Game Date:  11/18/2019

Free Agent Signings:
Maui:  LF Chris Stewart (minor league contract)
Shackamaxon:  C Douglas Stiger, 1 year, $740k.

Next sim will be Tuesday evening.

In addition, Brent has announced that he is stepping down from the league.  I will be putting his team on auto-control pending a new owner taking over the team.

Zev

Available Merchandise at the Seattle Shopping Center

Some of the players available at the Seattle Shopping Center this fine offseason.

Tiffany Division (highest quality, highest priced merchandise)

C Alberto "Nitro" Granado. The best catcher in the game right now. Could be moved only because Steve "Sinner" Jones is almost ready. He only has one year left before free agency, so the price would be tempered by that, but it would still take a strong offer to get Granado away.

I also thought I'd be shopping SP Nicholas Vargas, but he re-signed at a bargain, so I'm probably holding on to him for now.

Macy's Division (reasonably priced, quality merchandise)

LH RP Joshua Stoker. A dependable arm from the bullpen, Stoker is simply the most expendable of my windfall of great left-handed relievers (see also the 3C's: Ch'On, Chiappo, and Campbell).

RH RP Dalton Davis. One of the better right-handed relievers in the game, Davis is a year away from free agency and I'm unlikely to keep him. Priced accordingly.

3B Gregorio Reyna. Reyna is a good but probably not great third baseman who was lights out in 2018 (more than 70 VORP) and solid last year (13 VORP). He's also cheap ($300K this year) and under club control (three years of arbitration). But I've got other infielders coming, most notably Ivan Castillo, who look like they're going to take Reyna's job away by the end of 2020, if not sooner.

CF Steve Keo. I honestly don't know what to make of Keo. He's tremendous on defense and should be a better hitter than he's showed. For instance, he was really pissed (rightfully so) at his crappy 2019 campaign. Still just 25, still at a minimum salary with arbitration years ahead of him, I think he just needs a chance to play every day. But, he's never going to get that chance in Seattle, so I'd like to move him for his own benefit.

Wal-Mart Division (very cheaply priced, but not useless merchandise)

Here are prospects who have played well, but will simply never get a chance to make the majors in Seattle in the near future. These guys are available more or less for the best offer received.

AAA 1B Tabito Hara. Coming off a AAA MVP season where he hit .327 with 30 home runs. But, no room at the inn in the majors for him.

AA SS Paco Martinez. An international signing last year, played well in A-ball and AA last season. Brilliant defensively. But getting older.

AAA/ML P Shigenaga Murakami. Solid reliever who is only 23 and who might be able to start. Passed up by other prospects.

AAA MR Tsumich Yoshida. A 0.97 ERA in AAA last year. Only 23. Just has too many guys ahead of him in line for a major league job. UPDATE: SOLD to Shackamaxon for the low, low price of an 8th round pick.

My scout has Martinez 1*/1*, but the other three as all better than that. But, make your best offer.

Sim's Done (11/11/2019)

Sim's Done.

Due to requests from various owners, the next sim will be on Saturday night.

Zev

Sim's Done

Game Date:  11/4/2019

The sim was run last night.  This is your last chance to make offers to impending free agents.

The next sim will be run tonight.

Zev