Sim's Done

Game Date:  12/21/2022

My apologies.  I know the sim was due on Thursday night, but real work caught up with me.

Signings:
The following players were signed to minor league contracts:
C Ralph Peters, with Ohio (Maui)
P Matt Stevens with Houston (Maui)
P Tony Gonsales with Ohio (last with Los Angeles in 2016!!)
3B Shunsho Nakamura with Ohio (Maui)

Injuries:
Antelope Valley 2B Robert Camarena was injured with an unspecified injury and has retired.
'
News:
The 2022 Amateur Draft Pool is now available.  Click the links to see the pitchers and position players.

Next sim:  Monday night.

Sim's Done

Game Date:  2/14/2022

Signings:
Atlanta signed SP Marcus Santoro (Houston) 3 yrs/$9m

Next sim:  Thursday night

Sim's Done

Game Date:  Feb 7, 2022

Signings:
Hickory signed 3B Kenneth Lea (Monck's Corner) 2 yrs/$9m
Altanta signed P Victor Valles (Maui) 1 yr/$500k
Atlanta signed P Tony Errico (Antelope Valley) 1 yr/$690k
Atlanta signed P Leo Carrero (Houston) 1 yr/$660k
Antelope Valley signed 1B Carl Watson to a 4yr/$20m extension
Shackamaxon signed P Alejandro Cruz (no previous team), minor league contract

Next sim:  Wednesday night

With Antelope Valley's acquisition of  2 new infielders, we are looking to move one or two spare infielders for Outfield help.  Will also consider a middle to back end of the rotation starting pitcher.  Looking mostly for a 1 to 1 trade, but will consider packaging 2 for a better player. 
Infielders being shopped:

Robert Camarena 2B
John Calvert 3B/SS
Theron Miller 1B
Hernando Albacete 2B/3B/SS


Also - does anyone want to give some general advice to newbie?  I've got a crap-ton of single star potential guys down in Single A, most quite young.  When do you give up on a one star player and just release him?  I assume having too many players will rob some of playing time and make it harder to develop them?  Is there a 'sweet-spot' for roster size in the lower minors?

Sim's Done -- Preseason Has Begun

Game Date:  1/31/2022

Signings:
Antelope Valley signed SS Ronald Quijada (Seattle) 3 yrs/$55m
Atlanta signed P Timothy Vallejo (Ohio) 1 yr/$600k
Houston signed P Franklin Erickson (Hickory) 2 yrs/$2.4m
Houston signed 1B Rod Young (New York), minor league contract
Houston signed P Lu-Fang Xiu (no prev team), minor league contract
Atlanta signed P Buster Ducharme (Shackamaxon), minor league contract
Atlanta signed P Trey Albarado (Brooklyn), minor league contract

Notes:
The preseason has begun.  Now is the time to adjust your scouting and player development budgets for the coming year.

Next sim:  Saturday night.

Sim's Done

Game Date:  1/24/2022

Signings:  Maui signed 2B Jason Lefebvre to a three year extension at $32.9m

Next sim:  Thursday night

And don't forget, if you haven't already done so, please check out our new Hall of Fame.

Zev

Announcing the Grand Opening of the Hall of Fame

As you all know, there are four players that are currently enshrined in our Hall of Fame.  However, other than a simple webpage listing of their stats, the Hall had no home.

I am pleased to announce that our new Hall of Fame has been dedicated and plaques honoring the four members have been constructed and installed.  You can find the link to the plaques at the top of this blog.

Hopefully, as more members are enshrined, I will have the pleasure of installing more plaques in our new Hall.

Zev Steinhardt

Sim's Done

Game Date:  1/17/2022

Signings:
Shackamaxon signed CF Tony Reyes (Hickory) 1 yr/$800k
Maui signed LF Dave Johnston (Atlanta) minor league contract
Shackamaxon signed P Sergio Alvarez (New York) minor league contract
Shackamaxon signed 2B Khatib bin Majd (Seattle) minor league contract
Ohio gave P Pedro Ramos a three year extension for $4.5m

Next sim:  Monday night

Last Men Standing

With the recent New Year retirements, I thought I would check in again on who is left from the early days of the league.

There are five players left from the original inaugural draft:

SP John Okane (MON, 6th round, pick #48)
2B Timothy Palacio (OH, 15th round, pick #113)
RF Christopher Moss (OH, 42nd round, pick # 329
2B Robert Camarena (ANT, 44th round, pick # 346)
LF Tyler Thomas (BAR, 44th round, pick # 348)

There is only one player left from the 2003 expansion where teams filled out their AAA rosters:

MR Dale Beene (HOU)

There are five players left from the 2003 amateur draft, which was eight rounds and which was the first amateur draft:


SS Ricky Peppers (ANT, 1st round, pick #2)
RP Junior Cuomo (SHK, 1st round, pick #7)
SP Fernando Estrada (SEA, 2nd round, pick #13)
SP Jeffrey Brunton (OH, 3rd round, pick #22)
RP Timothy Vallejo (SEA, 5th round, pick #37)

There is only one player left from the 2004 expansion where the teams again filled out their AAA rosters after expansion to 12 teams diluted the talent base:

SP Jeffrey Shuttleworth (MAU)

There are seven players left from the 2004 amateur draft, where due to a bug we didn't even have enough players to fill out seven rounds:

RF Brian Frison (BAR, 1st round, pick #2)

CF Kevin Rubio (NY, 1st round, pick #9)
RP Pedro Ramos (MON, 2nd round, pick #17)
SP Ronald Placencia (NY, 2nd round, pick #21)
SP Christopher Hester (SEA, 3rd round, pick #27)
RP Alfonso Cabaña (MON, 5th round, pick #53)
RP Tony Errico (NY, 7th round, pick #81)

Looking at later drafts:   2005:  10 active players 2006:  13 active players 2007:  24 active players 2008:  31 active players 2009:  26 active players 2010:  51 active players

Scouting and Player Development Budgets?

When can we adjust these?  I do not want to miss the short window.

Added A Bit of History

For those that are curious, I added a list of the #1 draft picks throughout the league's history.

There was no draft in 2012 and for 2013, I only found data for Round 3 and later.

Zev

Sim Done

Game Date: 1/10/2022

Signings:  None

Next sim:  Saturday night

Game update re-uploaded

Some people could not download the update from last night's sim.  It's very possible that I simply did something wrong.  So, I re-uploaded the update.

Game Date: 1/3/2022

Signings:
Ohio signed MR Pedro Ramos (Seattle) 2 yrs/$2.8m
Antelope Valley signed SP Dave Klien (discovered in Canada)  1 yr/$450k

Retirements of note (main team(s), years played, notes):
P Larry Young (Houston, 2018-20)
CF Charles Sallee (Cleveland, 2014-20)
P Joshua Lewis (Danville, 2013-20)
RF Hal Pires (Houston, 2009-20, 3x Slick Fielder, still only 32 years old)
C James Hardman (Walla Walla/Ohio, 2009-20)
C Herman Gossard (Houston/New York, 2008-20, 2095 career hits)
P James Cropper (Maui, 2010-21)
LF Miguel Cuesta (Brooklyn, 2006-20, Slick Fielder, 2139 hits, 403 HR, 1300 RBI)
3B Malik Harder (Houston 2014-20)
P Tomas Ramirez (Hickory 2015-20)
2B Donald Lor (Cleveland, 2013-20)
CF John Jacobs (Brooklyn, 2012-20)
CF Clarence Horta (Los Angeles 2015-20)
2B Albert Peavy (Saskatoon 2014-20)
SS Freddie Mejias (Houston 2013-20)
P Dwight Murphy (Houston, 2014-20)
P Santos Gonzales (many teams, 2005-20)
CF Lonnie Machen (Seattle, 2008-20)
LF David Kerry (Seattle, 2006-20, 374 HR, 1231 RBI)
SS Brett Garson (Ohio 2015-20)
1B Basil Napoles (Houston, 2012-15, 2020)
P David Roberts (Houston, 2007-20)
P James Flietas (Ohio, 2013-20)

Next sim:  Wednesday night

There Was A Sim Last Night

I just didn't wait for it to finish (it took a long time since it was the end of the year).  I'll post a summary later tonight.

Next sim:  Wednesday night.

Need power?

I'm toying with the idea of trading Sherman Evanoff. His low salary ($1.3m in 2022) and immense power (30-plus HR each of the past five seasons) make him both affordable and valuable.

I'm hoping to get some pitching help in exchange for Evanoff.

Let me know if you're interested in adding a middle-of-the-order power bat to your lineup.

-- Michael / Shackamaxon (michael@symbiola.com)

Sim's Done

Game Date:  12/27/2021

Signings:
Hickory signed the following players to minor-league contracts:

• C Gregory Graham (Hickory)
• 2B Jeffrey Dutil (Antelope Valley)
• LF Mario Lopez (Hickory)
• 1B Perry Peach (Shackamaxon)
• RF John Brooks (Antelope Valley)
• C Ramon Reyes (Antelope Valley)
• SS Taizo Tanaka (Shackamaxon)

Shackamaxon signed CF Pyeong-min Pae (New York) to a minor league contract.
Antelope Valley signed MR Ken Rogers (Maui) to a minor league contract.
Shackamaxon signed CF Juan Arroyo (no previous team) 1 yr/$450k
Ohio signed SP Pio Ramirez (Brooklyn) 4 yrs/ $41.2m

Next sim:  Monday night.

Sim Delayed, but done

Game Date:  12/20/2021

My apologies for the delay.  I was sick last night and went straight to bed when I got home.  I'm feeling somewhat better today.

Signings:
Shackamaxon signed CF Rich Harris (Brooklyn) to a minor league contract.
Ohio signed 2B Billy Cremeans (Houston) 3 yrs/$4.8m
Shackamaxon signed MR Billie Pfeiffer (Houston) 1 yr/$460K
Atlanta signed SS Richard Bender (Barstow) 5 yrs/$55m
Seattle signed SP Lan-Quing Shu (discovered in Taiwan) 1 yr/$450k.

Next sim:  Saturday night

Sim Done

Game Date:  12/13/2021

Signings:
Antelope Valley signed 3B Bruce Parker (Maui) 4 yrs/$55m
Shackamaxon signed P Donald Castanon (Hickory) 2 yrs/$2.2m
Hickory signed P Tuan Olmstead (Shackamaxon) 4 yrs/$22.9m
Ohio signed P Ethan Moyer (New York) 3 yrs/$10.6m
Altanta signed 3B Joseph Barnett (Shackamaxon) 2 yrs/$1.5m
Ohio signed P Jose Lopez (no previous team) 1 yr/$450k

Next sim:  Wednesday night

Sim Done

Game Date:  12/6/2021

Signings:
Maui signed MR Joseph Curry (Shackamaxon) 3 yrs/$3.9m
Houston signed MR Abel Phillips (Danville), minor league contact
Houston signed MR Luis Dardy (Monck's Corner) 1 yr/$510k
Antelope Valley signed SP John Okane (Hickory) 2 yrs/$2.7m
Atlanta signed SP Brad Buckley (New York) 2 yrs/$2.2m


Notes:
The owner of the Atlanta franchise emailed me concerning the Rule V draft.  He had selected Jesus Garcia, but the game did not actually select the player for him with the first pick.  As a result, Garcia was selected by Hickory.

I considered various alternatives before realizing that, unlike Solomon, I actually *can* split the baby.  As a result, I decided to clone Garcia and award the twin (Ramon "Copycat" Garcia) to Atlanta.

Please note that this is a one-time decision and should not be used as a precedent for any further player disputes.  I will try to figure out a way to prevent this from happening again in the future.

Next sim:  Monday night