Sim's Done

Game Date:  1/23/2023

Signings:
Maui signed RP Jose Gonzalez (Shackamaxon), minor league contract.
Houston signed CF Guillaume Fournier (Hickory), 2 yrs/$2.6m
Hickory signed SP Theodore Ozuna (Barstow), 1 yr/$700k
Maui signed CF David Hurst (New York), minor league contract.

Next sim:  Tuesday night

Sim's Done

Game Date:  1/16/2023

Signings:
Monck's Corner signed 2B Kenneth Lea (Hickory) 3 yrs/$22.8m
Atlanta signed SP Fernando Estrada (Ohio), 2 yrs/$31m
Monck's Corner signed RP Victor Valles (Atlanta), 1 yr/$482k
Barstow signed LF Ricardo Lopes (no prev team), minor league contract.

Next sim:  Sunday, not before noon.

Apologies...

I'm sorry, folks, but life's been a bit crazy.  I did not get to run the sim last night.  I'm going to reschedule it for Thursday night.

Zev

Sim's Done

Game Date:  1/9/2023

Signings:
Maui:  SP Emilio Perez (no prev team), minor league contract
Atlanta:  SS Callum Ganyon (Ohio), 2 yrs/$9m
Monks' Corner:  2B Pancho Garza (no prev team), minor league contract
Shackamaxon:  C Douglas Stiger (Monk's Corner), 1 yr/$800k
Seattle:  SS Javier Chalen (no prev team), 1 yr/$500k

Retirements:
With the flip of the calendar page, a number of former players have turned in their retirement papers, including several notables.  Among the retirees with significant playing time are:

• SS Paulino Reyes
• Longtime Seattle 3B Eugene Alustiza who retires with 218 HR
• SP Jesus Morales, 107-76, 4.09
• CL Alfonso Cabana, 148 SV
• CF Kevin Rubio, who patrolled CF for New York for 11 years.
• 1B Tyler Thompson, 15 years, 291 HR, 1194 RBI, .293 Avg, .852 OPS
• LF Christopher Moss, who played most of his career for Walla Walla/Ohio, 483 HR, 1506 RBI, .893 OPS
• 2B/1B Timothy Palacio, 336 HR, 1299 RBI, .289 Avg, .876 OPS, 130 OPS+.
• OF Patrick "Mr. Outside" Valdez who played his entire career for the (current) Monks' Corner franchise.  463 HR, 1461 RBI, .285 Avg, .902 OPS, 134 OPS+.

Next sim:  Tuesday night

Sim's Done. Welcome to 2023!

I ran the sim last night which flipped the virtual calendar to a new year.  Those sims tend to take a long time and I did not wait up last night until it was finished.  However, the sim was completed and I did upload the league file this morning (although I did not update the online reports).

Next sim:  Sunday.

Shackamaxon/Seattle trade

Frequent trade partners – and division rivals – Shackamaxon and Seattle have completed a trade.

Coming to Philadelphia (né Shackamaxon) is starting pitcher Juan Morrales and minor league OF Antonio Gonzales, in exchange for AAA infielder Salvador Berrera and A reliever Javier Lugo.

The teams will also swap spots in the second round of the 2014 amateur draft.

"We expect Morrales to challenge for the #5 spot in the rotation this season," GM Michael Weintraub of Shackamaxon announced.

Tomorrow, Tomorrow, We Love Ya, Tommorow...

I'm going to have to delay tonight's sim to tomorrow night.

See ya then.

Zev

Sim's Done

Game Date:  12/26/2022

The sim's done, but I don't have time to do a summary now.  I'll include it in the next sim.

Next sim:  Tuesday night.

Zev

Starting Pitcher For Sale

I've flipped back and forth a million times this off-season on what to do with my pitching staff. I tried to trade for starters and then ended up spending a lot of cash to sign Fiala and convert him.

In the end, completely opposite to what I've already done, I think I should deal one of my pitchers. I've got six good starting pitchers, and it's dumb to keep one around just in case of injury. So, on the market is one Juan Morrales. Here's a rundown of his pluses and minuses:

Pluses:

His performance on the field:

2018: 10-4, 3.89 ERA as a rookie
2019: 19-7, 3.40 ERA
2020: 22-6, 2.84 ERA
2021: 19-7, 2.84 ERA
2022: 16-6, 3.44 ERA

If you prefer WAR, he's 22.6 wins above replacement in his five-year career in the major leagues. That's probably why the OSA ranks him the #14 pitcher in the league.

His contract. $3M this year, $3M next year. I'd probably even be willing to throw in some cash into a deal, if that matters.

Minuses:

His OSA ratings aren't very good. My scout doesn't love him either. Morrales' ratings weren't very good last year, and they're worse now. He might be declining. But, I thought as much last year, even removing him from the rotation at times. Turned out, he was great again. Finished 5th in ERA, 5th in wins, 10th in innings pitched, 8th in K's per BB, 3rd in WHIP, etc.
Maybe he's declining and won't be good any more. But maybe he's one of those guys who pitches well despite low ratings. I don't really know.

Rather than have him pine away riding the pine, I'd like to deal Morrales to a worthy home. If you're interested, email me an offer. I'm a motivated seller.

P.S. I made a commitment to James Turner ($10M over the next two years), and I'm planning to use him as my #5 starter. He also has the same sin as Morrales (low ratings) and I figured his bigger contract, higher ERA last year, and greater age (34) would make him less attractive to others. But if you prefer Turner to Morrales, and want to make an offer on him, that's ok with me too.

Sim's Done

Game Date:  12/19/2022

Signings:
Barstow signed SP Serjio Lujan (no previous team), 1 yr/$450k
Hickory signed LF Hidekazu Iwasaki (Atlanta), 1 yr/$800k
Hickory signed 3B Esteban Ordonez (Ohio), 4 yrs/$34.4m

Next sim:  Monday night

Sim's Done

Game Date:  12/12/2022

Signings:
New York signed CF Scott Johnson (Seattle), minor league contract
Shackamaxon signed C Gerrado Herrera (Atlanta), 1 yr/$700k
Brooklyn signed P William Lawrence (Maui), 3 yrs/$41m
Antelope Valley signed P Lucas Sweeney (Shackamaxon), 3 yrs/$16m
Maui signed P Thomas Brasfield (Antelope Valley), 2 yrs/$6.2m
Shackamaxon signed P Donald Allen (Brooklyn), minor league contract
Monk's Corner signed P Ronald Placencia (Seattle), 2 yrs/$13m
Barstow signed P Sergio Lujan (no prev team), 1 yr/$450k
Maui signed SS Hyun-jong Chin (no prev team), minor league contract

Notes:
All trades have been processed.

Next sim:  Sunday

No Sim Last Night

My apologies everyone.  It was a crazy day and I didn't finish work until after 2 AM.

We'll try again tonight.

Zev

Trouble in Lizard town...team management put out a statement that the trade was done at Jamie Cruz request saying he wanted a change of scenery  but cause he was unhappy with the team.... unnamed sources said it was because of a fight with the star pitcher Romero  when Cruz tried to initiate a wife swap between him and Romero's wife apparently their was alot of punches thrown and  had to be pulled apart by a third unnamed team mate . All parties involved said no conment

Raptors Acquire SP Jamie Cruz for Two Baby Birds

Antelope Valley, CA -- In an effort to bolster their thin starting staff, the Raptors have acquired career journeyman Jamie Cruz from the Barstow Lizards for minor leaguers Enrique Martinez and Tim Alvarez.  Cruz will join staff ace Jim Walton, along with Joe Sterner and Alan Blessing to complete 4/5ths of the Raptors starting rotation.  Hopefully Sterner can revert to his 2021 form where he threw for 13 wins and to a 3.34 ERA and 1.36 WHIP.  The Raptors have also recently added fireballer Nelson Feliz via the Rule 5 draft to add some depth to the bullpen.  This move should allow Armando Sanchez an extra year in AAA to hone his skills with the Bombers.  Last year the Raptors' much improved offense was done in by their lack of pitching.  Serious injuries to starting pitchers Brasfield and Sterner, along with closer Hone, plus injuries to offensive free agent acquisitions Bruce Parker and Ronald Quijada, dug the Raptors into a hole they could not dig themselves out.  Hopefully the improved pitching will allow the Raptors to outslug a few teams during the year.

Enrique Martinez, the 23 year old first baseman, was the number 5 prospect in the Raptors organization. number 84 overall.   Martinez impressed at AA Quincy last year, batting .312 over 22 games, but struggled slightly at AAA DuBois.  Martinez saw his path forward blocked by Carl Watson and Carlos Fernandez at the ML level, and Jorge Torres (a natural 1B but playing SS at the present) at AAA.  Tim Alvarez was no more than organizational depth at this time.

Sim's Done

Game Date:  12/4/2022

Signings:  None

Notes:  It looks like the vote is overwhelmingly in favor of allowing the trading of acquired draft picks, so I will be processing the trade on the next sim.

Next sim:  Wednesday night

Rule 5 Draft Completed, Voting On A Rule Change

Game Date:  12/2/2022

Draft 5 Results: 
Hickory selected LF Cale Page (Ohio)
Antelope Valley selected MR Nelson Feliz (Hickory)

Signings:
Monk's Corner signed C Kevin Craig (Shackamaxon) 1 yr/$2.2m

Notes about the Seattle/Hickory trade:
I did not yet process the Seattle/Hickory trade, as, technically, it is against the rules.

OOTP does not allow a team to trade acquired draft picks.  In the past, it was difficult (if not impossible) to alter the amateur draft order for each round, so we could not allow a team to trade an already-acquired draft pick.

Under later versions, the commissioner now has the power to alter the draft order for each round individually.  While the software will still not allow a team to trade an acquired draft pick, the commissioner can always get around that by simply changing the draft order for that particular round at draft time.  As such, I don't see a reason to disallow trading draft picks anymore.

Nonetheless, the rule does still exist and I think that the matter requires a vote before agreeing to change it.  So, therefore, I'm putting the matter to a vote:

Should teams be allowed to trade already-acquired draft picks.  The voting deadline will be Tuesday evening at 8PM.  Feel free to put your vote in the comments here or send them by email (all votes will be made public anyway).  If the matter passes, I will process the trade as-is.  If not, then Seattle and Hickory will need to re-work the trade.

A Note on the Upcoming Rule V Draft

Last year, there was an issue with the Rule V draft, where the computer failed to draft a player that an owner wanted.  That player was Jesus Garcia.  As a result of the dispute, I awarded a "copy" of Jesus Garcia (named Ramon Garcia) to Atlanta.

When I awarded Ramon Garcia to Atlanta, I put him on the team's active roster, but I failed to put him on the 40-man roster as well.  That was an oversight on my part.

As a result, Garcia was never added to Atlanta's 40-man roster.  I can't blame Jeremy for failing to notice that Garcia wasn't on the 40-man roster since, logically, any player who is on the 25-man roster should be on the 40-man roster (and wasn't in this case only due to my oversight).

Jeremy has emailed me that since Garcia has been on his major league roster all year, he should be on the 40-man roster.  I agree with him, especially in light of the fact that it was solely my error that led to Garcia not being on the 40-man roster. 

As a result, I have added Garcia to Atlanta's 40-man roster.  In addition, I am declaring that he is ineligible to be drafted in this year's Rule V draft.

If anyone has any questions, I will be more than happy to address them here or by email.

Zev

Hickory-Seattle Trade

Frank Ferrara knew that the Hickory Huskers held a valuable chip, despite their disappointing 2022 season. In fact, because of their disappointing 2022 season. The #1 overall draft pick. Well, Frank has cashed in that pick in a trade today with the universally hated Seattle Monarchs, acquiring a raft of help for the Huskers.

In the trade, Hickory acquired from Seattle the following valuable assets:

Shackamaxon's first-round pick (#9 overall)
ML 2B Pedro Campos
AA RP Jesus Cruz
AA SP Ho Zhong
A OF Guillermo Ramirez

Quite a haul to simply drop back eight spots in the first round.

Meanwhile, Seattle now will send its scouting staff out on round-the-clock assignments to scour every player who might be available in the draft. Because missing on that pick, after investing this kind of capital, is the kind of thing that gets general managers fired.

Rule 5 Draft

Game Date:  12/1/2022

We've reached the Rule 5 Draft.  The draft will be run no earlier than Sunday at noon (Eastern).  Please make sure to have your draft lists in by then.

If anyone has any questions, please feel free to ask.

Zev

Sim Delay

We have one owner who is having password issues.  I'm uploading a new file for him, but, as a result, I'm going to delay the sim until tomorrow night.

Zev

Sim's Done. Rule V Draft coming up...

Game Date:  Nov 28, 2022

The next sim will take us to the Rule V draft, meaning that this sim will be the last chance to set your roster and protect players. 

Next sim:  Wednesday night.

Sim's Done... Rule V Draft On The Way

Game Date:  11/25/2022

Signings:
Monck's Corner:  SP Jeffrey Brunton (Maui), 2 yr/$16m
Brooklyn:  RP Bill Dewall (Maui), 2 yrs/$13m
Seattle:  CL Gregg Fiala (Shackamaxon), 4 yrs/$70m
Brooklyn:  SP Allen Reuter (re-signed), 2 yrs/$4.2m
Atlanta:  SP Cesar Palacios (no prev team), 1 yr/$300k
Maui:  SP Stephen Dunn (no prev team), minor league contract
Shackamaxon:  CF Antonio Gonzales (Monck's Corner), minor league contract
Maui:  SP Norm Harrington (Brooklyn), minor league contract

I purposely stopped this sim short of the Rule V Draft to give teams a chance to protect players by adding them to the 40 man roster.  The next sim (which will still leave us a day or two short of the Rule V draft) will be held on Monday evening.

Zev