Spring Training week 2

The second spring training sim has been completed. It's now March 18, 2024, and Brooklyn is the first team to win 10 imaginary games (which, in an imaginary universe, is even more meaningless).

There were no players signed to a major league contract in this sim.

The third spring training sim will be on Saturday night.

Sim's Done

Game Date:  Mar 11, 2024

The first week of Spring Training was run last night.  Next sim will be Wednesday night.

Zev

Spring Training!!

Game Date:  3/2/2014

Well, the amateur draft is in the books.  180 players have been selected and are on their way to anything ranging from stardom and the Hall of Fame to short, unnoticed minor-league careers.   How did this draft turn out?  We'll have to wait several years for the answer.

In the meantime, welcome to spring training, the time of year when hope springs eternal for all players and teams.

The spring training schedule will be as follows:

First week:  Monday night
Second week:  Wednesday night
Third week:  Thursday night
Fourth week:  Saturday night or Sunday morning (TBD)

Zev

Sim's Done

I ran the sim late last night.  We're currently up to the amateur draft.

The draft will be run by Sunday morning.  Please make sure that you upload your draft choices before then.  In addition, please check the traded draft picks sheet and make sure that it is up to date.

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

Zev

No. 1 Draft pick available

London has the No. #1 pick in the draft this year. If anyone is interested in making an offer for it, we'll listen.

Trading Block: Ohio, Part 2

Ohio is still looking to make some deals. I have a trio of outfielders who would make solid backups for most clubs.

Alvin Sherman - 20 HR and 50 SB last year, good enough for 5 WAR. 3 time winner of the Slick Fielder award at LF

George Vidal - good corner OF defense, can play CF in a pinch. One season removed from a 3 WAR season in part time play

Jesus Vela - Nothing special, but can be had for a 10th round pick OBO

Delay

Sorry, folks, but I had to work late today.  I'll run the sim Wednesday night.

Shackamaxon and London trade (again!)

"I lied," Shackamaxon GM Michael Weintraub said. "I said we were done dealing this offseason, but I was wrong. We just made another trade, and, again, it was with our new friends across the pond."

The Lenape acquired bullpen arm Tony Dominguez and a pick in the 3rd round of the upcoming amateur draft in exchange for reliever Orlando Apodaca and prospects Terry Dupré and Victor Rivera.

Sim's Done

Game Date:  2/26/2024

The draft pool for the amateur draft is now available.

The next sim (taking us up to draft day) will be on Tuesday evening
The amateur draft will be on Thursday evening.

Zev

Hall of Fame Standards: Middle Infielders

Continuing our look at league history in terms of potential Hall of Famers, we'll now look at middle infielders.*

There are 27 middle infielders who have played in ten or more seasons.  Here's a rundown of how they stack up:

Ricky Peppers	67	RETIRED
Ronald Quijada	52	ACTIVE
John Grondin	51	ACTIVE
George Labarre	48	ACTIVE
Timothy Mendiola	41	ACTIVE
Lincoln Rossetti	41	RETIRED
Carmelo Deleon	39	RETIRED
Richard Bender	37	ACTIVE
Winston Satterlee	36	RETIRED
Fred Smith	33	ACTIVE
Bill Turek	33	RETIRED
Chester Cohen	32	RETIRED
Derrick Raglin	32	RETIRED
Chet Edwards	32	RETIRED
Francis Armendariz	30	RETIRED
Jeff Wardlaw	26	ACTIVE
Royal Wilson	23	ACTIVE
William Midkiff	22	ACTIVE
Robert Camarena	19	RETIRED
Carlos Mccrea	19	RETIRED
Reggie Perez	19	RETIRED
Jeffery Drewry	19	RETIRED
Bill Mastrangelo	19	RETIRED
Danny Lorenzen	17	RETIRED
Roberto Ferrer	17	ACTIVE
James Franklin	16	RETIRED
Carlos Gomez	15	RETIRED

As you can see, Peppers, Quijada and Grondin are clearly in Hall of Fame territory.  A strong case could also be made for Labarre.

The median HOFS for this group is 32 and the standard deviation is 13.19.  That puts Peppers at  +2.65 SD, followed by Quijada (1.51), Grondin (1.44) and Labarre (1.21).

Peppers and Quijada both had a combination of speed and power.  Peppers had 455 HR and 338 SB.  Quijada (who is still active) has 396 HR and 372 SB.  Grondin scores high on the list as well, but he's only had 11 seasons.  A few more seasons could easily push his numbers even higher.

When looking at players with three or more years who have not yet retired, there are several young players who look like they may make an impact in the future.  Among them are:

Katsuhiko Jouda (3 yrs / 41 HOFS)
Norman Kuhn (3 yrs/ 41 HOFS)
Gene Reynolds (4 yrs / 39 HOFS)
Rick Bryant (4 yrs/38 HOFS).

Next time:  Outfielders.

* I did not make any corrections for positional changes over the courses of player's careers.  Position is determined according to the last primary position of the player.

Trade: London and Ohio

Ohio GM Brian Hockin is already shaking up the Buckeyes roster.

Ohio has traded 2023 Outstanding Newcomer winner Luis Rodriguez and AAA pitcher Julio Acosta to London for slick fielding SS Garry Nicholson.

"We hate to see Luis go, but we have a very capable backup in Masahide Ueda and could really use a Gold Glove caliber shortstop who isn't bad with the stick either", said Hockin during the press conference this afternoon.

The deal appears to benefit both ballclubs, but only time will tell.

Need OF depth?

I have an absolute glut of outfielders at AAA. Take a look at the Arizona Bay roster and if there's someone you're interested in (excluding Arroyo, Molina, or Swanson) odds are I'll require nothing more than a 10th round pick for him. Call it a clearance sale.

If you want Arroyo/Molina/Swanson, it'll take a bounty for any of them, be forewarned.

Sim's Done

Game Date:  Feb 19, 2024

Sim's done, but I'm too exhausted to do  a summary.  :)  I'll catch up on the next one.

Next sim:  Sunday night

Hi and welcome Brian cant wait to make my first blockbuster trade with you...

Sim's Done

Game Date:  Feb 12, 2024

Signings:
Ohio signed P Tomas Alarcon and LF Hsui-Chuan Ho (no previous teams) to minor league deals.

Next sim:  Thursday night.

Note:  I'm aware that the online report says that Scott took control of Ohio.  Nonetheless, Brian has control of the team.

Trading Block: Ohio

It turns out that finding the best trade chips on my team wasn't so hard. Pretty much anyone over the age of 27 is on the block. Ohio is open for business!

My owner seems to think that the only position worthy of note is 1B, so 1 (or both) of my decent first baseman are definitely available:

Luis Rodriguez - 2023 Outstanding Newcomer. Under team control for 5 more years. Should be a good addition to any club

Masahide Ueda - Routinely destroyed SDMB pitching until he was benched for the young(er) gun last year. He should really be starting for someone, and his current ask is for a 25+% pay cut for 2025 (his extension demand is 1 yr/$7.5MM after making $10.6MM for this upcoming season)

What I'm looking for: pitching, an upgrade at SS, or picks. Make me an offer!

Greetings SDMBers!

Some of you may know me from that "other" league, but for those of you who don't, I look forward to getting to know you. I'll spare you my life story and boil my existence down to a single sentence: My name is Brian, I live in Washington, DC, and I'm a SysAdmin for the government.

I'll be taking over the Ohio franchise, and while I haven't had a chance to download the league file, it appears that the Buckeyes need some work. I'll make another post in the next few days with who's available (probably everyone) and what I'm looking for (probably picks and prospects). If there's someone who you've had your eye on, shoot me an email (bhockin(at)gmail.com) and I'm sure we can work something out.

Happy preseason!

Another Vacancy... But Filled

Brief programming note:

The Ohio franchise also became available, but we have already filled the vacancy.  The new owner (whom some of you already know) will be along soon to introduce himself.

Zev

Moving On...

I'm going to put the New York team under computer control for now and resume sims.

The next sim will be Wednesday night.

If you know of anyone who might be interested in joining the league, please feel free to point them in our direction.

Zev

Hall of Fame Standards: Corner Infielders

In our continuing series on measuring players using Hall of Fame Standards, we will now look at the middle infields.

As a quick reminder, the Hall of Fame Standards is a metric designed by Bill James.  The average Hall of Famer should have a score of 50 on the test.

To start, here is the list of corner infielders who have played in the majors in at least ten seasons:

John Hukill	73	ACTIVE
Dong Lutz	58	RETIRED
Luis Jeon	51	ACTIVE
Bruce Parker	41	ACTIVE
Gregory Mudge	41	RETIRED
Gregorio Marzano	40	ACTIVE
Timothy Palacio	39	RETIRED
Russell Powell	38	RETIRED
Eugene Alustiza	38	RETIRED
Octavio Cabrales	37	ACTIVE
Tyler Thomas	33	RETIRED
Richard Campion	29	RETIRED
Brian Palazzo	28	RETIRED
Daniel Burdine	26	ACTIVE
Henry Diemer	25	RETIRED
Robert Fout	23	RETIRED
Ronald Aikin	23	RETIRED
Spencer Solomon	20	RETIRED
Bill Johnson	17	RETIRED
Joseph Michalski	17	RETIRED
Jonathan Dillow	16	RETIRED
Michael Slye	16	RETIRED
Reuben Caufield	7	RETIRED
Micheal Salzman	7	RETIRED
Douglas Stiger	4	ACTIVE

Mudge is already a member of the Hall of Fame.

Hukill, as you can see, tops the list by far.  In fact, Hukill ranks on top of the list for all players who have played in the league.  Hukill, of course, has been a monster in the league.  His lifetime .296/.415/.572 lifetime line, combined with his 562 home runs and 1631 RBI put him far ahead of everyone else.

Lutz, of course, is high up on most of the offensive lifetime lists, including games (2nd), At bats (2nd), Hits (1st -- 2653), runs (3rd), home runs (2nd), doubles (5th), RBI (3rd) and walks (3rd).

The guy ahead of him in most of those categories is the second guy on the list -- Luis Jeon.  Jeon has played in more games, had more at bats, hit more home runs, more RBI and more walks than any player in league history -- and he's still active.  However, he ranks behind Lutz because of the latter's substantial lead in batting average, on base percentage and slugging percentage.

Let's talk standard deviations.

The median HOFS score for all qualifying corner infielders is 28.

Hukill is the only player who is more than two SDs above the median, at 2.64.

Lutz (1.76) and Jeon (1.35) are the only players more than one SD above the median.

Seven corner infielders are between .5 and 1 SD above the median:

Parker .76
Mudge .76
Marzano .70
Palacio .64
Powell .58
Alustiza .58
Cabrales .52

On the flip side, there are three infielders who are more than 1 SD below the median.  Caufield and Salzman both had more than 100 career home runs, showing that even though they're on the bottom of the pile, they still had the ability to remain in the league long enough to rack up those numbers.  Stiger hit .246 with 51 home runs.  One wonders how he remained in the majors for ten years (although, to be fair, I employed Stiger for one season).

Next time, we'll look at the middle infielders.

The full dataset can be found HERE.

Rain Delay

We currently have an opening (New York), and so I'm going to hold the sims for a few days while we search for a new owner.  I have started a thread at the Straight Dope Message Board to see if we can find a replacement owner there.  Please feel free to give the thread a bump sometime later today.  In addition, if anyone knows of someone who might be interested, please feel free to have them send me an email.

Zev

Shackamaxon and London trade

The Shackamaxon Lenape, finishing up their offseason improvements, announced a trade with the London Dragons late last night.

The Lenape, who had a disappointing 76-86 record a season after their first playoff spot in 15 years, reïnforced their outfield by acquiring Tomas Kalakay from the Dragons.

Heading to the Dragons is a bounty featuring catcher Miguel Angel Ramirez (until recently the top prospect in the game, and a Rule 5 selection this season), outfielder Cheung Ying, infielder Qi-Zhen Huang, and shortstop prospect Roy Nickerson.

"We had two areas of interest in our lineup to improve this offseason, third base and right field," Lenape GM Michael Weintraub stated. "John Hukill, the best in the game, will improve us at the hot corner, and now Kalakay will complete our outfield, along with veterans Sherman Evanoff and Steve Keo."

The Lenape also acquired stud outfield prospect Duncan Swanson and a sixth round pick in the upcoming amateur draft.

"Our AAA OF is now full of top prospects, and we could afford to deal Ying and Huang since we got their replacements," Weintraub said. "It hurts to lose a good prospect like Nickerson, as well as Ramirez, but we have faith in our team to perform well and return to postseason glory this upcoming season."

Sim's Done -- Welcome To The Preseason

Game Date: 2/5/2024

Signings:
London:
RF Juan Lobo (Houston), minor league contract
C Brett Corbett (Houston), minor league contract
C Jorge Clemente (Shackamaxon), 1 yr/$1m
P Victor Valles (re-signed), 1 yr/$780k
3B John Lebouf (Shackamaxon), 2 yr/$2.1m
2B Man-chae Chong (Houston), minor league contract

Shackamaxon:
CF Jerry Head (Brick), minor league contract
P Gary Coleman (Brooklyn), minor league contract
P Mark Massey (Brooklyn), minor league contract
CF Brent Brown (Brick), minor league contract

Houston:
P Oscar Avendano (London), 1 yr/ $690k

Maui:
P Kyle Fike (re-signed), 2 yrs/$18m
P Joseph Curry (re-signed), 2 yrs/$1.7m

Injuries:
Seattle P Ichizo Sakamoto suffered a setback in recovering from his torn rotator cuff and will miss the start of the season.

Next sim:  Wednesday evening.

Dragons, Barracudas announce trade

The London Dragons and Brick Barracudas announced today that the Dragons were sending popular slugger Raul Ortega to the Barracudas in return for outfielders Ignacio Lopez and Luis Ramon, as well as Brick's 2nd round pick in the upcoming draft. 

Barracudas GM Goldfarb shrugged off concerns over Ortega's age - the right fielder turns 35 this season - noting, "Raul gives us an upgrade in power, an area where we've been lacking in recent years, and his veteran presence should be a great asset to our clubhouse". The GM noted that Ortega, with 318 career home runs, had played at least 155 games in eight of his nine seasons in the big leagues. 

London Dragons GM Urista acknowledged that the trade was part of the team's ongoing rebuilding process. "More than anything, we believe we need to get back to fundamental baseball: Catching, throwing, and fielding", he said, noting that the Dragons committed the most errors in the league last year. "Ramon is an outstanding outfielder, and Lopez will get a chance to show us he's closer to the player that batted .275 in 2021-22 vs the .219 hitter in 2023".

Hall of Fame Standards -- Catchers

I recently put up a post evaluating all of our pitchers using Bill James's Hall of Fame Standards Metric. 

Today, we'll discuss catchers.

The Hall of Fame Standards attempts to assign all players a score to determine whether or not they deserve to be enshrined in the Hall of Fame.  The score (for non-pitchers) is determined as follows:

• One point for each 150 hits above 1500, limit 10.
• One point for each .005 of batting average above .275, limit 9
• One point for batting over .300
• One point for each 100 runs over 900, limit 8.
• One point for scoring more than .500 runs per game.
• One point for scoring more than .644 runs per game.
• One point for each 100 rbi's over 800, limit 8.
• One point for driving in more than .500 runs per game.
• One point for driving in more than .600 runs per game.
• One point for each .025 of slugging percentage above .300, limit 10
• One point for each .010 of on-base percentage above .300, limit 10
• One point for each 200 home runs.
• One point if home runs are more than 10% of hits.
• One point if home runs are more than 20% of hits.
• One point for each 200 extra base hits over 300, limit 5.
• One point for each 200 walks over 300, limit 5.
• One point for each 100 stolen bases, limit 5.
• Defensive value: 20 points for catcher, 16 - shortstop, 14 - second base, 13 - third base, 12 - center fielder, 6 - right fielder, 3 - left fielder, 1 - first baseman, 0 - designated hitter

The average Hall of Famer should have a score of 50.

There are a total of a dozen catchers (both active and retired) who have played in the majors in at least ten different seasons. Their scores are:

Herman Gossard 43 RETIRED
Beau Manning 40 RETIRED
Alberto Granado 39 ACTIVE
Thomas Geter 36 RETIRED
Richard Bilbrey 35 RETIRED
Willy Guzman 34 RETIRED
Willie Kenna 33 RETIRED
Carlos Guerra 32 RETIRED
Zachary Whipkey 28 RETIRED
James Hardman 25 RETIRED
Gerardo Herrera 25 ACTIVE
Stephen Herbert 24 RETIRED
 
 It is interesting to note that, even with the 20 point adjustment for catchers, no one reaches the level of an average Hall of Famer.  The top 3 on the list, Gossard, Manning and Granado all fall a bit short.

Gossard is carried by the strength of his batting average.  Among all the catchers listed, only he and Willie Kenna managed a career batting average over .300.  His 2095 hits leads all other catchers by at least a two seasons' work.

Manning gets on the list by dint of his home runs.  No other catcher except Bilbery (288) approaches is 368 home runs.  His 1127 RBI is also tops among catchers.  However, his career average of .254 hurts his cause.

Granado   takes a middle approach.  His lifetime batting average is .289 and he hit 182 home runs.  Maybe not enough for a hall of famer, but certainly enough for a well-respected player.  Of course, Granado is still active and if he manages to get his career back on track, he could surpass Gossard and Manning.

It should be noted that there is a group of young, active catchers who could well be on their way to the Hall.  Of course, it's still far too early to make any definite statements about them, but from what we've seen so far, they certainly look like they're headed in the right direction.  They are:
 Steve Jones (4 years/ 48 HOFS), Seattle
Aaron Hampton (3 years/ 44 HOFS), Hickory
Brian Walker (4 years/ 43 HOFS), Houston
Barney Maxon (5 years/ 41 HOFS)

Zev

Sim's Done

Game Date:  1/29/2024

Signings:
Brick signed MR Keith Thompson (no prev team) to a minor league contract.

Next sim:  Monday night. 

Happy New Year!

Hi guys, sorry for the long radio silence. What was supposed to be a short business trip to Tokyo in October ended up being three months of constant travel, away from my main PC (man, I wish they'd let us sync PC versions of OOTP with the iPad version...). I might be moving back to Tokyo full-time later this year, but no final decision has been made yet.

Anyway, the London Dragons are back to having a full-time GM, and we're still heavy in rebuild mode, so just letting everyone know most of my established players are available:

Ken Lea is a decent 2B with some pop (50 HRs combined last two years) and he hit .290 in 2021 and 2022.

Raul Ortega is an average RF but is good for .280/25+ HRs

Riojas is a relatively cheap veteran left-hander; he'd make a very solid 5th starter or long-reliever.

And we'll consider any other offers for other players if anyone else is of interest. Ideally we'd like to get some draft picks or reasonably promising A / AA prospects.

Finally, a question for the other managers - how does the draft process work?

Sim's Done

Game Date: 1/22/2024

The preseason's getting closer...

Signings:
Shackamaxon: CF Orlando Beltran (Maui), minor league contract
Maui:  P Thomas Brasfield (re-signed), 1 yr/$850k
Atlanta: P Toby Thornton (Houston), 2 yrs/$1.15m

Next sim:  Sunday