May II Sim Done. Amateur Draft Ahead

Game Date:  Jun 1 2031

Who Uploaded?:  Everyone!  :)

Standings:
Adams: Brick leads Brooklyn by seven games.
Zotti:  Seattle is two and a half games over Antelope Valley
Signorino: Philadelphia is two games ahead of Wilmington

Awards & Accomplishments:
Highland 1B Ben Turner named Player of the Week (5/19)
Maui C Aaron Hampton named Player of the Week (5/26, 4th career award, 2nd this season)
Philadelphia RF Jorge Benavides named Rookie of the Month
Philadelphia's 60 million dollar man, Tian-bai Chen named Pitcher of the Month
Philadelphia C Tony Cannon named Batter of the Month

Significant Injuries:
Antelope Valley LF Ray McJannett has a bruised kneecap.  He'll miss 2-3 months.
Brick SP Jose Rodriguez has an elbow inflammation which will keep him sidelined for three months.
Brooklyn RF Luis Santiago has a fractured finger.  He'll be out for six weeks.
Atlanta CF Carlos Ortega will miss an additional four weeks
Highland will be without LF Flint Francis for six weeks as he recovers from a sore shoulder.

Batting Line of the Sim:
Seattle's Sung-heun Hwa went 4-4 with a HR, 5 RBI and 3 runs scored vs. Brooklyn, 5/27

Pitching Line of the Sim:
Wilmington's Hector Valdez pitched eight two-hit shutout innings with 7K vs Appalachian 5/21.

Milestones:
Houston's Gene Reynolds scored his 1000th run.

Previous Trivia Question:
Who is the only person to play 165 games in a Major League Baseball season?

Fred correctly answered that Maury Wills played every game for the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1962 -- all 162 games of the regular season and all three games of the tie-breaker series vs the Giants.

This Week's Trivia Question:
Who is the only person to be inducted into both the Baseball Hall of Fame and the Pro Football Hall of Fame?

Amateur Draft
The amateur draft will held next sim.  Please make sure to upload your draft lists.  Also, please make sure to check the Traded Draft Picks page and make sure that you are properly credited with all the draft picks that you are entitled to.  That is the page that I will use when setting up the draft.  We will not entertain appeals for missing draft picks after the draft.

Next sim:  Wednesday night.

Team with extra catchers seeks team with extra AA 1B

I'm rather overloaded with catchers in AAA, plus in the majors. I'm looking to deal one of my AAA catchers (Flores, Duran, Hayashi, or Murillo), or possibly major leaguer Steven Broadbent.

In return, I'd like a 1B who is ready for AA, and maybe something else to even things out in a deal. With the exception of Duran, who is somewhat of a prospect, the other catchers at AAA are pretty much majors-ready, in at least a backup role.

If you think there's a match, let me know.

Will Trade Draft Picks for Pitching and/or OF Help

Willing to trade any or even all of my draft picks in this year's draft for (1) Starting Pitching and/or (2) OF upgrades.  Pitching being the higher priority and will get the higher round picks.  Perfect for rebuilding teams and draft junkies alike!!

Philadelphia/Houston trade

The Philadelphia Hornets are proud to announce the acquisition of CF Albert Ramirez from the Houston Armadillos in exchange for three farmhands: AAA SP Jorge Villegas, AA RP David Torres, and A SP Curt Horne.

"Ramirez will help provide power and outfield defense with Arnold Miller on the DL," stated Hornets GM Michael Weintraub. "We are confident Albert will see better pitches to hit in our lineup and return to the All Star player he was last season."

Draft Scouting Help

I know nobody wants to give away their trade secrets, but I was wondering if anyone could/would want to help with the following:

In the draft pool list I have the players sorted by potential (either my scout or OOTP scouting, doesn't matter).  But when I click on the player, then click on the Scouting Reports tab, the potential rating (both mine and OSA) are often quite different from what was displayed (and sorted) in the Draft Pool tab.  I assume this info is more accurate and current that what is displayed (?).  Is there some way to see, or export, the info in the Scouting Report Tab?  Or do I really have to click on 837 individual Player Profiles to get the real scouting dope!

Trade between Brick and Houston

• GM Fred Goldfarb today announces a 5 player trade...Brick sends to Houston Darryl Fuller 3B ML Don Helton 2B AA and John Knight SP AAA and receives back the following players...Julian Roman CF AAA and Jose Poli LF AA.....

Appalachian Players Available

The Black Bears season has not started out as planned, so it's time to retool the team a bit with an eye towards the future. All of the players below are available for the right price. Make me some offers!

1B Arturo Sanchez - Has never hit less than 44 HRs in a full season since entering the majors. I'd love to keep him, but I have a couple of good prospects knocking down the door, so it's time to explore my options.

P Roberto Norales - Doesn't quite have the stamina for starting, but should be a shutdown setup/closer for any team.

CF Marcos Rodriguez - The quintessential leadoff guy - tons of speed, high ratings in contact and gap power. Bonus points for Gold Glove caliber defense in RF (and perfectly capable of playing CF). He's another guy that I'd love to keep, but his replacement will be ready soon, so I doubt I'll sign him long-term

C Jean-Charles Gauthier - has filled in as backup catcher/1B/DH for me for years. Still has plenty of pop and is only 27.

May I sim done

League Date: May 16, 2031

Who Uploaded? Everyone!

Standings:

• Adams Division: Brick leads Brooklyn by 4 games
• Zotti Division: Seattle leads Antelope Valley by 2.5 games
• Signorino Division: Philadelphia leads Maui by 4 games

Transactions:

• Maui signed SP Luis Salazar (extension) - 1 year, $6.5m
• Maui signed SP Jose Montanez (extension) - 4 years, $4.2m
• Houston signed 1B Howard Rogers (Wilmington) - 1 year, $920k
• Atlanta signed RF Eric Halliwell (Brooklyn) - 1 year, $1.66m

Awards:

• Brick LF Salvador Velasquez - Player of the Week (5/5)
• Mepkin Abbey CF Pedro Munoz - Player of the Week (5/12)

Injuries:

• Philadelphia 1B Manuel Hidalgo - 7 months (torn labrum)
• Antelope Valley SP Josh Dunlap - 4 weeks (elbow inflammation)
• Philadelphia RF Arnold Miller - 6 weeks (torn hamstring)
• Mepkin Abbey OF Cheung Ying - 3 months (concussion)
• Atlanta CF Carlos Ortega - 6 weeks (knee sprain)
• Philadelphia 3B Basz Marievska - 2 months (herniated disc)
• Antelope Valley CF Petero Hokualohi - 3 weeks (strained hamstring)
• Highland SS Art Whitaker - 1 week (concussion)
• Houston RP Matt Matthews - 1-2 weeks (sore shoulder)
• Antelope Valley LF Ray McJannet - undiagnosed

League News:

• The web reports are not updated. I have uploaded the files for Zev to unpack on Thursday.
• The next sim will take us to the Amateur Draft. Please use the transactions screen within the game to make your draft lists. 
• I adjusted the schedule for the Low A league to have its season 80 games long.
• If you missed the OOTP Developments blog post about our league's 15th anniversary, here's the link again.

Next Sim: Next Wednesday night, 12/27/2017. This will take us to the June 1st amateur draft.

We're famous!

A few weeks ago, thanks to Mack's tip to their marketing department, Zev and I were interviewed by Out of the Park Developments so they could write up our 15th anniversary.

A blog post with our interview went live yesterday. Check it out!

Apr II Sim Done

Game Date:  May 1 2031

Who uploaded?
Everyone  :)

Standings:
Adams: Brick leads Brooklyn by two games.
Zotti: Antelope Valley is a game and a half up on Seattle
Signorino: Philadelphia's lead over Maui and Wilmington is a game and a half.

Awards & Accomplishments:
Maui C Aaron Hampton named Player of the Week (4/21, 3rd career award)
Appalachian SS Martin Costa named Player of the Week (4/28)
Seattle LF George Hendricks named Batter of the Month (3rd career award)
Maui's Luis Salazar named Pitcher of the Month
Brooklyn LF Bill Abrams named Rookie of the Month

Significant Injuries:
Atlanta RF Mike Peoples has an ankle sprain.  He'll be out for 3-4 weeks
Brick 1B Martin Cox will be out four weeks with a fractured foot.
Appalachian 2B Michael Lambert has a herniated disc.  Six weeks is his estimate.

Batting Line of the Sim
Seattle's George Hendricks went 4-5 with a home run, 3 runs scored and 5 RBI vs Atlanta (4/30)

Pitching Line of the Sim
Philadelphia's John Ryan pitched a two hit, eight strikeout shutout vs. Atlanta (4/22)

Answer to Last Week's Trivia Question:
Who are the only two players to play more than 1100 for two different teams?

I'm kind of surprised that no one took a stab at this one.  After all there aren't too many players who have played at least 2200 games and both answers are Hall of Famers.

The answers are:  Eddie Collins, who played 1156 games for the Philadelphia A's and 1670 games for the Chicago White Sox and Dave Winfield, who played 1172 games for the Yankees and 1117 for the Padres.

This Week's Trivia Question:
Who is the only person to play 165 games in a Major League Baseball season?

Next sim:  Next Wednesday.

Another Philadelphia/Atlanta trade

The Philadelphia Hornets tonight announce the acquisition of closer Ralph Turner from the Atlanta Hurricanes. While an ace closer, Turner will serve in an 8th inning role, helping fellow former closer Pino Pontoni set up for Anthony White.

In return for Turner (and $2,500,000 cash), the Hurricanes receive RP Sergio Lujan, AAA SP Steve McClain, and AAA RP Gregory Griffith. All three are expected to join the Hurricane's major league roster.

Atlanta rebuilding!!!

Atlanta has started slow and with a thin minors are looking to trade all players that could help out a team. Young players or picks are needed

Raptors Looking for OF Depth

With the injury to Angel Banuelos, Antelope Valley is looking to add some OF depth.  The Raptors are actively shopping Utility Infielders Mario Silva or Miguel Rodriguez.  Both are solid hitters (career .280s), good defenders capable of playing 2B/SS/3B young and have minimal contracts.  Due to their ability to step in and start, we will also consider dealing older star 3B Andres Velasco.  He has a rather large salary, but next year is a team option (250K buyout) so he can be jettisoned after this year if desired. 

Prefer a comparable rated 4th OFer, capable of playing CF.  Speed and defensive ability preferred.  Not looking to add an aging, high salary veteran, unless it's for Velasco.

April I Sim Done

Game Date:  Apr 16 2031

Who Uploaded:
Everyone  :) 

Standings:
Adams:  Brick is two games up on Brooklyn
Zotti:  Highland has a half game lead over Antelope Valley
Signorino:  Wilmington is one game up on Philadelphia

Awards & Accomplishments:
Highland's Jesus Valdez named Player of the Week (4/7)
Wilmington's Jose Vega named Player of the Week (4/14, 2nd career award)

Batting Line of the Sim:
Brick's Ken Reed went 3-4, 2 HR, 4 R, 5 RBI vs Antelope Valley, 4/10

Pitching Line of the Sim:
Maui's Juan Ramirez pitched a three hit shutout with 5 K vs Wilmington, 4/3

Significant Injuries:
Houston CF Miguel Cantu fractured his rib on Opening Day.  He'll miss 5-6 weeks.
Brooklyn 3B Katsuhiko Jouda has a torn labrum.  He's going to miss four months.
Antelope Valley RF Angel Banuelos has a fractured ankle and will miss 4-5 months.
Atlanta CF Armando Burgos has a fractured finger and will miss six weeks.

Trivia Question:
Who are the only two players to play more than 1100 for two different teams?

Next Sim:  Wednesday night

Philadelphia/Atlanta trade

Hours before the start of the 2031 season, the Philadelphia Hornets and division rival Atlanta Hurricanes announced a prospect-laden trade. Four of the top 50 prospects in the game change teams in this deal.

Philadelphia sends AAA IF Lawrence Connolly (#6 prospect), AAA SP Juan Velez (#15 prospect), and SP Paul Reed to Atlanta for A SP Eric Hammond (#18 prospect), A SP Rodrigo Padilla (#46 prospect), and a 2nd round pick in the 2031 draft.

Atlanta and Highlands make minor trade

New Atlanta Gm was looking for some role players on a team starving for help, called Highlands and made a minor trade. Coming from Highlands in the trade are LF Ismael Rodriguez,1B Roberto Benitez AAA, SP Kieran Jenkins AAA and going to Highlands is CF Jesus Hernandez AAA, SP Alfredo Rivera A, and and a 4th,5th and 7th rd pick in this up coming draft.

Rain Delay

An owner asked for some additional time to get ready for Opening Day, so I'm delaying the sim until Saturday night.

The second sim, however, will still be the following Wednesday night.

Zev

Atlanta has a new GM

Coming back to the league to take over Atlanta is an old face to the league. Thomas Carrano who was GM of Norfolk and had to leave do to health reason is back.... " I wanted a second chance to prove I'm better then what I left in Norfolk". So with that I look forward to helping Atlanta make playoffs and hopefully a championship.

Opening Day!!

Game Date:  Apr 1 2031

Welcome to Opening Day!

The first sim of the new season (our 30th!) will be done on Wednesday night. 

Please, please, please, please make sure that your active roster is down to 25 players before the sim is run.  Please don't put me in the position of having to send down/release your players to make sure the sim is run.  If you do not have access to the game, please feel free to send an email to Michael and myself with instructions and we will execute them for you.

With that, there is only one thing left to say -- PLAY BALL!

Next sim:  Wednesday night.

Sim's Done! Opening Day is Next!

Game Date:  Mar 31 2031

Signings:

• Appalachian signed P Chad Harrison to a 1 year extension for $500k
• Mepkin Abbey signed RP Ray Lewis (Atlanta), 1 yr/$690k
• Appalachian signed SP Dale Long to a one year, $610k extension.

Significant Injuries:

• Philadelphia C Jesus Duran has a fractured thumb which will cost him five weeks.
• Brick 1B Martin Cox inflamed his elbow while trying to win a prize by knocking down all the bottles at the county fair.  He may have won a prize, but he (and Brick) have lost two weeks.

Answer to Trivia Question:

There is only one player who has exactly the same number of hits for a franchise as the number of games he played for that franchise (with a minimum of 1000 games for that franchise).  Who is the player and which team?

The answer is Hall of Fame second baseman Joe Gordon.  Gordon played exactly 1000 games for the Yankees and had exactly 1000 hits for the franchise. 

There are several players who are close, but just miss the 1000 game/hit requirement:

George Stovall (Cleveland) 955 games/hits
Pete Runnels (Washington Senators) 921
Bill Sweeney (Boston Braves) 902

Other Hall of Famers who did this (again without the 1000 game minimum) are:

Andre Dawson (Red Sox) 196 games/196 hits
Hughie Jennings (Brooklyn) 188
Al Simmons (Boston Braves) 93
Tony Lazzeri (New York Giants)  13
Flick Elmer (Philadelphia A's) 11
Roger Bresnehan (Washington Senators) 6
Mike Piazza (Florida) 5  (remember that week?)
King Kelly (Boston Reds -- American Association) 4
Dizzy Dean (St. Louis Browns) 1*
Jack Chesbro (Boston Red Sox) 1
Jesse Haines (Cincinnati) 1 

* Dean was retired and a broadcaster for the Browns in 1947.  The Browns were awful (as they usually were) and Dean had commented on the air that he could pitch better than the current staff.  Management took him up on his offer and allowed him to pitch the final game of the season.  Dean proved his point by throwing four scoreless innings and rapped a double in his only time at bat.

(Just to be clear -- I did know about Gordon, but not all the others.  I certainly don't know everyone's stats off the top of my head.  It helps to download a database and know how to write a SQL query.)

Next sim:  Monday night -- a one-day sim to take us to Opening Day.  I expect Opening Day to be simmed on Wednesday (with the regular sims being on Wednesdays throughout the season).  I will confirm with tomorrow's post when the actual Opening Day sim will be.

trade between Brick and Antelope Valley

Brick needing to upgrade the shortstop position dealt the following players Derek Hanson SP Miguel Hernandez 2B and Wang 3B to Antelope Valley for Rich Chase 2B/SS ....this move improves both are defense ans offense at the shortstop position all three players became expendable with the recent free agent signings....Chase only 27 cements the infield quite awhile ...youth is now served at second and shortstop plus with Santiago coming back in 3 weeks he well slot right in to rotation

Raptors Announce 4 Player Trade with Brick

The AV Raptors pulled the trigger on a 4 player trade with the Brick Barracudas.  Heading out of the AV is long time infielder Rick Chase for 3 prospects:
SP Derek Hanson (27 years old)
2B Miguel Hernandez (23) and
3B Tzu-hsia Wang (24)

"We hated to part ways with Rick", said Raptors GM Bill Sauerwald.  "But Brick came in with really good offer at a time we were looking to get younger.  In addition to adding some much needed pitching depth, we really like the potential of Hernandez and Wang - especially Hernandez's speed and defense.  They will probably slot into AAA, at least when we break camp.  But I think both can be contributors by the end of this year or early next."

"Rick's been a solid contributor since we drafted him in 2025", continued Sauerwald, "batting .280 for us over the past 5 years.  But with our team in a slight rebuilding mode, we felt it best for the fans to bring in some youngsters who may be ready in a year or two."

(Nearly) Free Players!

I have quite a few players who are out of options and probably not going to make my team. I will end up waiving and designating them for assignment, so if you want, they'll be free to claim soon.

But, if you aren't high on the waiver list, and don't want to risk having them claimed by someone else, I'm offering them for trade now. They are:

• C: Jesus Flores
• IFs: Adrian Sanchez, Garry Nicholson
• Ps: Paul Reed, Kwang-Sub Kim, Jim Knowles, Sergio Lujan

I'm not looking for much in return for the above: a mid-round draft pick or a 1-2 star prospect that catches my eye, maybe.

Additionally, I'm shopping the following players who are going to otherwise make my team, or still have options to go to AAA:

• C: Steven Broadbent
• IFs: Tokuma Kanno, Javier Cisneros, Javier Ortiz, Ieyasu Suzuki, Jonathan Locker, Jesus Mejia
• OFs: Ramon Gonzalez, Alejandro Garcia, Julio Quintana, George Candler, Jose Molina
• Ps: John Ryan, Steve McClain, Ben Cloherty, Julio Lopez

I'm also open to trading prospects like Juan Velez and Elwood Bolden. Let's make a trade this weekend.