Another Saturday night drinking with the scouts at the Barleymoe

    Tonight Elijah Craig is joined by Jim Beam, George Dickel, and Johnny Walker

Elijah: Boys tonight we were supposed to talk about the upcoming draft. I checked the numbers and everybody still has over 6 million to spend.

George: So even though there have a few high priced internationals everybody is set to go.

Jim: Seems to me that the best internationals usually show up the week before the draft. Tempting all the owners to spend big and leaving them in a bind on the draft.

Johnny: Well the league certainly seems to have no clear disposition about how to acquire young players.

Elijah: Where are you going with this Johnny?

Johnny: The league average for College scouting is 11 million, 10 million for high school scouting, and 9 million for international scouting.

George: I think if an owner is putting most of his scouting in the draft it might be best to wait on the internationals .

Jim: Wait, wait for what. Unless you have the first pick you don't know who you're waiting for.  At least if you outspend everyone you get who you want.

Johnny: Fellows there are more drafted guys in the Hall of Fame than internationals.

George: I always thought if an owner put 9 million in international scouting he would only see about 9 players who should make the majors.

Jim: Some years are better than others , some are worse; but everybody sees a star or two. They just have to pounce when the star is available.

Elijah: Fella's I expected a little better discussion tonight.

George: You pick a limited topic and then want to blame us for a limited discussion.

Elijah: Well Seventy_77, asked if we could spend a little time discussing rookie of the year. Do they have a better chance at the hall of fame, etc. Please me better prepared next week.

Johnny: Okay we can do that.

Elijah:  Let's have one more drink and call it a night.

                    Another Saturday Night Drinking with the scouts at the Barleymoe

            Tonight Elijah Craig is joined by Jim Beam, Jack Daniels and Johnny Walker

Elijah: Well fellas what do you want to talk about?

Johnny: That is not how it works Elijah. You always tell us what the topic is.

Elijah: Well, I'm running out of ideas. So who has a topic for this week.

Jim: We might have already covered this but we could take another look at the season 45 draft.

Jack: Why that one Jim.

Jim: Well somethings nag me about that draft. Of the 10 highest drafted pitchers 6 have been on the disabled list.

Johnny: Seems high to me.

Jim: It is unusually high. Looking at the drafts before it, that many guys having DL time is high.

Jack: If you looked little closer the fielders have been on the DL almost as much.

Johnny: So can I guess Jim, you think that draft had a bunch of thoroughbreds.

Jim: I do. I think this may be the best draft class ever. If they stay healthy.

Jack: I hate to sound like George but EVER, really.

Jim: It was an unusual draft. 5 catchers drafted in the first round,  9 shortstops, 8 centerfielders.

Johnny: Well those numbers about right except for the the catchers. That is about 2 years worth of catchers.

Jack: And a lot of those guys rotate to corner infield and outfield and DH.

Jim: Still having a former shortstop at another position only makes the franchise better.

Johnny: Royce Howell has already moved to DH but he's hit 91 homers already in his major league career.

Elijah: What is the early look at this season draft?

Jim: Pittsburgh has 4 choices in the first round (1,16,33 and37). Colorado also has 4 (6,20,46,53).

Johnny: Florida has them both beat with 6 picks (14,30,34,39,47,52).

Elijah: The draft is September 6th. So all you guys be ready next Saturday to talk the draft. Okay?

Jack: Until next Saturday .

                                 First week of the season Dickles Pickles Top Five

1.) Seattle: record 9-2    Other than Missing Tripp Davis ,who he traded, it looks like the same team from last year.

2.) Fargo: record 8-3  Changes to the pitching staff here. Bridger Presley left for San Juan and replaced by Eugene Lo Duca from Pittsburgh.

3.) San Francisco: record 8-3   New owner has some guys in new roles and it seems like it's working.

4.) Charleston: record 7-4   The big change was trading second baseman Geraldo Bennett to Colorado and replacing him with former first round choice Hunter Varitek

5.) Augusta: record 7-4  The first thing you notice in Augusta is the rebuilt bullpen with a combination of youngsters from the farm and older more mature veterans

Things to watch this week:

                                           Stolmy Castro (COL) and his 12 game hitting streak

                                           Warren Frazier (OTT) has 9 home runs , already

                                           Welington Leon (SJU) has stolen 12 bases

                                            Pitcher Eli Saenz (LOU) has won 4 of the 7 games he has appeared in

                                            Pitcher Andy Hamilton (OTT) has 21 strikeouts in 20.33 innings

Best series this week:    Fargo at Augusta 8-20, 8-21

                                       Seattle at Charleston 8-20, 8-21

                                       San Juan at Las Vegas 8-21, 8-22

                                       Las Vegas at Toronto  8-23

From: thebigdogs

To: The Advisory Committee

Sent: 8/16/2020 2:12:00 PM

Subject: Hall of Fame 

Guys,

See if this works to communicate.  [Use the comments section below to reply].

Here are a few of my thoughts:

Not sure what you guys thoughts are for guidelines for this committee but I think we should recommend 3 guys at the most.  The last thing I want to do is take up everyone’s votes.  I think guys can be nominated for 5 years, so those we need to look at are: 

1. Seanez (soonest off ballet based off of retirement 52)
2. Tomilson (52)
3. Guerrero (52)
4. Feng (53)
5. Diaz (53)
6. Reyes (54)

Others:

1. Narveson (????might be off this year)
2. Harvey (????)
3. Patel (????)
4. Abreu (51)
5. Dresden (53)
6. Lowe (53)
7. Tanner (54)

Guys can be nominated 5 times and I can’t tell how many times they have been nominated.  Anyone know how to tell that?

                               Another Saturday night drinking with the scouts

        Tonight Elijah Craig is joined by George Dickel, Jack Daniels and Jose Cuervo

Elijah: Well fellas, we have another season. Once again we have failed to make preseason predictions.

Jose: I blame Stickman. We used to have a week or two between seasons and could figure things out.

Elijah: It is what it is. We could discuss the new owners or we could just talk about division stability.

Jack: If we discuss new owners, George is just going to upset them.

Elijah: Let's do it anyway. They have to get use to George anyway.

Jose: dudemac, maybe new to our league but has a lot of experience. 72 seasons total spread through 13 leagues. Looking at what he's done, he stays 8 or 9 seasons once he joins.

Jack: He will be a big improvement over the guys who come in for 1 season or 2; decimate a franchise and leave.

George: Every league has to have the young owner and we have one this year in san2snow. He also plays in the Vlad Guerrero league.

Jose: I think the previous owner of that franchise just left too early. Last season almost every hitter had a poorer season than the previous two seasons. That doesn't happen often and those guys should bounce back this season.

Jack: And we have the return of iam4real. 

Jose: Good to see him back. I wonder if he has changed much. First time he was in the league he was mainly a draft guy. He didn't sign any internationals that season.

Elijah: Fellas, we have three newbies, let's hope the older owners behave and don't abuse them with trades.

George: I think before we go someone should comment tmfran giving out 4 $10 bonuses. He must be going for it this season.

Jack: The nice thing about bonuses is you always have the guy for the next season at a much lower salary.

Elijah: Well that is it for tonight boys. Who needs an Uber?

Veteran's Committee (primarily for helping sort out HOF votes)

 xmasjjm, Seventy_77, pimpbotlove, thebigdogs, milton7, mr_stickball, and jc44 are the committee members, with jc44 willing to be a temp until another NL owner may want to swap out with him.  It's a very good mix of AL and NL, with folks pretty passionate about the HOF and us having a robust league.  I am honored.  -Stick

                                         Serious times at the Barleymoe

      Today Elijah Craig is joined by Henry McKenna, the drinking man's guide to the Hall of Fame

 Elijah: Henry you know more about the Hall of Fame than anyone I know, Do you think we can go over the lists of candidates.

Henry: We have 27 nominees this year. I can cover any that you ask me to, but I don't think we can cover all 27.

Elijah: Anybody you want to start with?

Henry: Yes, Francicso Perez is a good place to start.If he were elected to the Hall he would be the first member  who never made an all star team.

Elijah: So you would say it's not likely he will be in the Hall

Henry: The Hall belongs to the owners, they can vote anybody in that they want but history would suggest that Francisco isn't going to be inducted.

Elijah: So being selected to an all star game is important. What other things have you found.

Henry: The Hall has no shortstops in it. Which leaves Oswaldo Martinez standing next to Perez on the outside of the Hall. It's just hard to have the offensive numbers and play a position known for defense. The average batting average for a Hall of Famer is .294. The lowest batting average in the hall is .260 by Edgardo Jacquez,  a centerfielder with three gold gloves.

Elijah: You see anybody else in trouble?

Henry: Yes, Josh Delmonico. One fact that I find astounding is that Hall of Famers are either internationals or they were drafted early in the first round of the draft.

Elijah: No second rounders or later in the Hall.

Henry: None, and the latest anyone has been pick is 36th in the first round. Josh was a 47th pick ; so the odds are against him.

Elijah: NormanW5 put a plug in for  Darren Harvey (C), what are his chances.

Henry: Well we have two catchers on the ballot this season.  So they might split the votes of people who like players at a defensive position in Hall. The other is David Feng.  Feng had a longer career than Harvey. Other than Harvey having more power a lot of their offensive numbers are similar. My research shows that the average Hall of Famers has been in 7 All Star games.  Feng had 11 all star appearances to Harvey's 3. If Harvey made the Hall, he would still have more appearances than James Martin, who only was in 1 All Star game.

Elijah: jc44 put a pitch in for  Alfredo Diaz (2B). What do you think of him?

Henry: Diaz has better offensive numbers than the other 2 nominated second basemen; although they are prolific base stealers. The only second baseman in the hall is Emilio Tavarez. Emilio was a 5 time All Star, 2 time MVP, 8975 at bats, .263 average, 629 home runs, 371 stolen bases. Diaz's has 10 All Star appearances, 1 MVP  9323 at bats, .289 average, 348 home runs and 470 stolen bases.

Elijah: Are you making a point that Tavarez and Diaz are fairly similar? 

Henry: No I'm not making any points, I'm just throwing a lot stats out at you.

Elijah: Seventy_77 made a pitch for Yunesky De Los Santos. What are his numbers compared to the guys in the Hall of Fame.

Henry: Well he would 4th in wins in the Hall and second in strikeouts.

Elijah: Enough said.

Henry: Another guy that stands out to me is R.J. Santana. I can't imagine the league will have another 700 and 700 guy. 735 Homers and 717 stolen bases. He would be third in homers and first in stolen bases in the Hall and 4th in rbi.

Elijah: Are you available if any of the owners put a guy out there for consideration.

Henry: Sure, this is the only time of year you let me join you. Elijah, you do know that my views may upset some of the owners.

Elijah: We have a lot of owners who agree with Samuel Clemens.

Henry:Other than writing about Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn. How does fit in this discussion.

Elijah: Samuel Clemens said there are lies , damn lies and statistics.

                               Another Saturday night drinking with scouts at the Barleymoe

                    Tonight Elijah Craig is joined by Johnny Walker, Jim Beam and Jack Daniels

Elijah: Good evenings fella's. Tonight we decides who recieves the Branch Rickey award for most wins by an organization and the Dean comeback player of the year award.

Jim: Do we have a McBain award this year?

Elijah: To win the McBain award a team would have to win 136 regular season games. No team achieved that last year.

Johnny: Which franchise won the most regular season games this year in all competitions?

Elijah: As usual it was renrog with Santa Cruz. The Scream were the only franchise to win over 500 games. They were champions in both the double-a and the low-a.

Jack: You said something about the Dean comeback player of the year award. I forgot how we select the winner.

Elijah: To be considered a player must have made the all star team. Play in sufficiently more games than  the previous season.

Jim: Elijah, if George were here he would complain that only considering guys that made the all star team eliminates too many players from consideration.

Jack: Wherever George is he's complaining about something.

Elijah: Jim, do you really expect me research over 800 players. That would certainly cut into my drinking time.

Johnny: Elijah, you never leave here and Hugo has wifi at the Barleymoe. Hugo never changes the password unless you're not paying your tab. Are you behind again?

Elijah: No that MUST be some else who is here a lot that has run up a big bill.

Jim: Shouldn't we get back to the Dean award? Who qualified to be considered this year Elijah?

Elijah: Well Larry Clark qualified sort of. He made the All Star team and had a really good season for the Hot Mess. He had had a few poor season and started last year poorly and then mosley80 sent him to triple-A for maybe a week or two. After riding the bus he was great.

Jack: Anyone else qualify?

Elijah: Yes and I think this is the guy we're going to pick. Willie Cayones of Augusta had 19 wins last season. He had 16 wins in season 46 but in 18 games combined, in seasons 47 and 48 due to injury.

Johnny: He certainly deserves it after losing almost 2 seasons due to injuries.

Jack: Didn't he loose most of season 44 also to injury? His health rating must be pretty low maybe under 50.

Jim: I think he's just unlucky. I have him graded as a low 70 in health. All 3 DL stints have been for different injuries, groin , shoulder, elbow.

Jack: Well 19 wins after two season on the shelf certainly seems he earned the Dean Award.

Johnny: That is for sure. Elijah, you got anything else for us tonight? Are we going to do divisional expectations for the season 50?

Elijah: No. The league formed too fast and by the time we would have them done , we would be about 3 weeks into the season. I thought you guys might like to talk about Rey Jung. He won the NL MVP last year and is a free agent.

Jim: Well burton2231 still has negotiating rights to him and might lock him up.

Jack: He's sure to be a max player. Chicago only budgeted 73 million for players. I doubt he can get him in the early part of free agency.

Elijah: Have you guys heard of any teams opening up their  wallets a lot more this season than last.

Johnny: Jacksonville and Fargo have both added more than 15 million.

Jim: Actually 24 teams have 20 million or more in salary cap space. If his agent demands a 10 million bonus plus the max contract; it leaves 10 teams with the cap room to sign Jung.

Elijah: You boys have fried my brain with all those stats. Time to break it off till next week. Let me remind you of one thing. When in a stupor call an uber.