A Tale of Two Franchises

 Season 51 had several interesting franchises but this blog is going to put a microscope on two.

The first franchise is the National League Champions, Charlotte Wharf Rats. The Wharf Rats were one of  the wild card teams to make the playoffs. My guess is that trapapoodle thought that this was about time. 97 wins in season 47 the Rats were eliminated in the NL championship by Toronto. A 103 win season 48 ended in the NLDS beaten by wild card Helena. Season 49 saw the Rats win 98 games but  was beaten in the play-in round by division mate St. Louis. Season 50 saw the Rats win fewer games (95) but win their division; again Charlotte was eliminated in the NLDS, by Toronto. Last season trapapoodle's team won the identical 95 games. Tying his fewest wins for the last half decade. The Rats made it past division rival St. Louis in  the first round and beat 118 win Seattle in the NLDS. Facing 97 win Montreal in the NLCS. the Rats won the National League Championship in 5 games. Charlotte took the juggernaut Fargo to seven games in the  world series.

The second franchise selected is Monterrey. Six franchises won 10 more games in season 51 than season 50, Seattle, Jacksonville, Hartford, St. Louis, New York, and Monterrey. Monterrey won 26 more games in season 51 than it did in season 50. Monterrey scored 30 more runs in season 51 compared to season 50. bagpipes28 pitching improved by 272 runs allowed. Looking at additions to his staff both his trading ability and his farm system factored into the improvement. Ruben Nova was acquired for stud prospect Quilvio Escalona. Nova  replaced Anthony Rogers in the Marauders rotation. Nova gave up 41 fewer runs in 20 more innings. The farm system added, Dominican  Gabriel Javier, to the rotation. His spot in rotation added 62 innings and gave up 58  fewer runs. Another international, Odrisamer Diaz, improved greatly in his second major league season. bagpipes28, a veteran HBD owner, did it his way; no major free agent signing just player development.

                                                    Dickell's Pickles

Top Five

1.)Las Vegas(10-4) plays Santa Fe, San Juan, Toronto, Montreal, and Chicago

2.)Montreal(10-4) plays Toronto, Vancouver, Santa Fe, San Juan, Las Vegas, Hartford

3.)Santa Cruz(11-3) plays Ottawa, Fargo, Houston, Louisville, Burlington

4.)Jacksonville(10-4)plays Hartford, Cincinnati, St.Louis, Seattle, Vancouver, Albuquerque

5.)Sioux Falls (10-4)plays Fargo, San Francisco, Monterrey, New York, Honolulu, Boston

Early Leaders: Homeruns and RBI

Marty Sisler- Colorado- 10 homers 22 RBI

Cy Eaton-Vancouver- 10 homers  22 RBI

                         Stolen Bases

Benny Rondon - Las Vegas- 9 our 10 attempts

                        Hitting Streaks

Jesse Foster - St. Louis all 14 games played

Dave Taylor- Cincinnati all 14 games

Interesting team notes:

Boise is the only team that hasn't given up an unearned run

4 teams with over 20 stolen bases: Seattle, Fargo, New York, Sioux Falls

Worst Injury

 Louie Tejada- San Francisco  out for the season. Last season 208.2 ip, 2.89 ERA, 12W-9L

  Trenton, New Jersey: (AS)

    The New Jersey gaming commission has posted the odds for the up coming Stickball 51 season.

   According to the Commission:

Seattle 3-2

Toronto 5-2

Fargo 7-1

Santa Fe 10-1

Jacksonville 12-1

St. Louis 13-1

Monterrey 18-1

Santa Cruz and San Francisco 19-1

New York 22-1

Montreal and Las Vegas 24-1

Boston and Hartford 30-1

Charleston 31-1

Colorado 32-1

Dover 33-1

Vancouver 34-1

Ottawa, El Paso, and Louisville 35-1

Chicago, Sioux Falls and San Juan 50-1

Honolulu, San Antonio, and Burlington 100-1

Washington, Houston, Boise, And Albuquerque 200-1

Cincinnati 300-1

If we ever let Allenjegg back in  the league 1000-1

 For help with a gambling problem

 ( Para ayuda con un problema de juego)

       ncpgambling.org

             Another Saturday night drinking with the scout at the Barleymoe

       Tonight Elijah Craig is joined by  Jack Daniels, Jose Cuervo and Hiram Walker

Elijah: Well fellas we made it through the Free Agent period and there is very little left to sign at the big league level.

Hiram: I amazed at how many left handed pitchers are still available.

Jose: There are a lot of marginal left-handers still available but they are MARGINAL.

Hiram: Marginal or not left handers are just different.

Jose: I'm left handed and I don't feel different. Would you like to tell me why I'm different.

Hiram: Jose, no offense meant but it's built into the game. For a long time people have discriminated against left handed people. Parents used to train their left handed children to be right handed. Abner Doubleday insisted that his children be right handed. So when he codified the rules of baseball obviously he thought of things for right handers. We run the bases counter clockwise because our first forward step after hitting the ball is with our right foot. Hell even the term southpaw is derogatory.

Jose: Do you know what you're talking about? I mean Doubleday and all that.

Hiram: Jose, we're here drinking in a bar and you think I would embellish the history of baseball-REALLY. Back to the point there are a lot of left-handed pitchers available and some of them probably would have a good season; it's just hard to decide which one is due for a good year.

Jack: Among hitters, a couple of left fielders are still available; Socks Gross and Jeff Brinkley. Gross is a type B free agent. I believe he is last guy that would give draft compensation to his former team.

Elijah: Why don't you guys talk about the signings.

Jack: Sammy Oliva got the biggest contract. He got $60 million for 5 years; with this season counting for $22 million.

Hiram: So Boise, gave up a $22 mil and a second round pick for Sammy.

Jack : Yea, Dover got a complimentary pick also, so they will be have 48th pick and 70th pick for losing Sammy.

Jose:  Dover signed Clyde Dickerson, from El Paso, to take Sammy's spot in their rotation.

Hiram: What did it cost sportsguy93?

Jack: $7 mil another 2nd round pick. The second biggest contract went to Jose Lee. He got $14.25 from Colorado. Stickman signed three pitchers for $27.25 mil; Russell Evers, Adam Waltman, and Jose Lee.

Jose: Colorado scored 981 runs last year but gave up 903. Seems like they moved their money to try to cut down on runs scored.

Jack: The $27.25mil spent on pitching kept them from resigning Stolmy Castro, who went to Washington D.C. for $5.5mil.

Hiram: Stickman is taking big gamble in that park.He has spent 36 of his 51 seasons in Colorado and has only had 4 years with a runs against lower than 903.

Jose: Is your point that his pitching was unusually good last season and you doubt the new guys will improve his team that much.

Hiram: My point was that you don't spend money on pitching at altitude.  Stolmy Castro had a runs created last season of .199 per at-bat. That's about a run per game. He could have resigned Stolmy and kept his run scoring high.

Elijah: That's something that will be interesting to look back on at the end of the season. Mr._Stickball has a .530 winning percentage, I would say that's a lot higher than your's Hiram.

Elijah: Who wants to talk about Jose Cordero and the $13.75mil he got from Hartford?

Jose: Elijah, mannytanner got the ace he needed for his pitching staff. Cordero will be on the Blue Frogs when stud minor league pitcher Angel Camacho  joins the big league team. The Blue Frogs have a stable of high quality  young bullpen arms. By season 55 the Blue Frogs should be ready to make  arun in that division. I think it's funny that mike1184 replaced his Cuban ace, Cordero, with another Cuban ace Renato Viriato. 

Jack: I want to talk about Seattle signing Marcell Sanchez. jc44 won 118 games last season and he added Sanchez to replace long time ace Ydwin Brinkley. jc44 got younger but it will be hard for Sanchez to match Brinkley's 19 wins last season .

Hiram: Ydwin Brinkley started the season with 173 wins. That was enough that vegascowboy offered him $12.5mil to join a strong pitching staff.

Elijah: It seems like you guys could go on about the free agents all night. I'm worn out trying to keep all this straight. Call the uber let's go home.

                                                THE REST OF SPEC'S REPORT 

TOP TEN FIRST BASEMEN

 1.)  Gerardo Montanez - Santa Cruz

 2.) Jose Encarnacion - Montreal

 3.) Leonys Nieves - Dover

 4.) Vic Almadova - Seattle

 5.) Antonio Jennings - Vancouver

 6.) Keith Spivey - Santa Fe

 7.) Joshua Balester - Monterrey

 8.) Kris Watanabe - New York

 9.) Lou Cook - Jacksonville

10.) Fausto Acevedo - Honolulu

TOP TEN SECOND BASEMEN

 1.)  Phil Searle - Boston

 2.)  Rich Winn - Jacksonville

 3.)  Elmer Witt - Vancouver

4.)  Alberto Moreno - Seattle

 5.) Manny Gordon - Hartford

 6.) Randal Myers - Montreal

 7.) Tony Jacquez - Monterrey

 8.) Grayson Goldstein - New York

 9.) Dariel Adams - El Paso

10.) Alcides Villarreal - Las Vegas

TOP TEN THIRD BASEMEN

 1.) Yan Nunez - Louisville

 2.) Mark Ryu - Toronto

 3.) Oscar Matheson - Hartford

 4.) Miguel Fernandez - Las Vegas

 5.) Stolmy Castro - Washington D C

 6.) Theodore Cohen - Dover

 7.) Tripp Davis - Jacksonville

 8.) Fausto Gonzalez - Charleston

 9.) Rafael Pimentel - Santa Fe

10.) Jesse Foster - St. Louis

TOP TEN SHORTSTOPS

 1.) David Oropesa - Seattle

 2.) Julio Hollands - Fargo

 3.) Renyel Vizquel - Seattle

 4.) Geovany Diaz - Santa Cruz

 5.) Moe Ledesma - St. Louis

 6.) Cameron Burns - San Francisco

 7.) Yasmany Arruebarrena -El Paso

 8.) Aroldis Peron - Dover

 9.) Vic Mesa - Seattle

 10.)Benito Martin - Fargo

TOP TEN LEFTFIELDERS

 1.) Rey Jung - New York

 2.)Alex Fernandez - Santa Fe

 3.)Mikie McDonald - Jacksonville

 4.) Eugene Lee - Monterrey

 5.) George Paul - Fargo

 6.) Randy Davis - Monterrey

 7.) Benny Rondon - Las Vegas

 8.)Wayne Butler - Sioux Falls

 9.) Jeimer Ortega - Toronto

10.) Dana Maddox - Dover

TOP TEN CENTER FIELDERS

  1.) Emilio Jose - Burlington

  2.) Markus Roth - Santa Fe

  3.) Keith Jenkins - Seattle

  4.) Tony Funaki - Washington D C

  5.) Carlos Calles - Fargo

  6.) Bart Cooke - Seattle

  7.) Luigi Cruz - Toronto

  8.) Max Halter - Free Agent

  9.) Edgardo Blanco - Ottawa

 10.) Marvin Scheffer - Jacksonville

TOP TEN RIGHT FIELDERS

  1.) Ronald Lewis - New York

  2.) Vasco Henriquez - Seattle

  3.) Enrique Gamboa - Charleston

  4.) Aurelio Wong - Fargo

  5.) Bob Skinner - Jacksonville

  6.) Alfredo Vargas - Louisville

  7.) Cole Kelley - Chicago

  8.) Alex Martinez - Monterrey

  9.) Marty Sisler - Colorado

 10.) Ivan Tomas - Montreal

TOP TEN STARTING PITCHERS

 1.) Anthony Boudreau - Boston

 2. Bud Rucker - Burlington

 3.) Carlos Chantres - Fargo

 4.) Jimmie Urbina - Ottawa

 5.) Donald Miles - Sioux Falls

 6.) Slim Stewart - Charleston

 7.) Clarence Paul - Vancouver

 8.) Shayne Ashby - Burlington

 9.) Ralph Collier - Colorado   

10) A.J. Moreno - Las Vegas

TOP TEN RELIEF PITCHERS

 1.) Miguel Margot - Toronto

 2.) Jose Lee - Colorado

 3.) Howie Merrick - Seattle

 4.) Eugene Lo Duca - Fargo

 5.) Pete Krick - Montreal

 6.) Yangervis Mendez - Montreal

 7.) Brad Griffiths - Hartford

 8.) Renato Hernandez - Seattle

 9.) Rick Silva - Toronto

10.) Josmil Corpas - Santa Cruz

                             Another night drinking with scouts at the Barley Moe

      Tonight Elijah Craig is joined by, George Dickell,Jose Cuervo and Johnny Walker

Elijah: Tonight fellas I thought we would review this report I got from my private special assignment scout...

Johnny: Is that the guy they call Specs?

Elijah: Yes that's him.

Jose: Why do they call him Specs?

Johnny: Jose, he's called Specs because he is legally blind. And often he shows up to games without his glasses.

George: So he rates hitters by the sound the ball makes when the batter hits it.

Johnny: Something like that.

George: Are pitchers ranked by the sound the catchers glove makes?

Johnny: I believe so but this guy is so weird, he says he can judge a player by their aura. He says he has a sixth sense about baseball players.

Jose: Elijah, you use this guy; really.

Elijah: He is amusing and amazing at the same time. Sure I use him.

Jose: Before we get to his scouting report, Johnny tell me more about him.

Johnny: Eccentric underestimates this guy. When I was a young scout he was emphatic that he had this sixth sense. Wanted to teach people the ways of Aura. Wanted us all to put down the stop watches and statistics and feel the greatnesses or mediocrity of the players.

Jose: More than a little out there.

Johnny: That's not the half of it. He convinced his wife to name their first daughter Aura. She's about 15 now, goes by the name Noelle.

Jose: How did he get Noelle out of Aura.

Johnny: When he told friends her name was Aura, they thought he said Laura. He kept having to tell people her name had no L in the name. Soon enough she was Noelle.

Elijah: Elijah could we get back to baseball. Specs has ranked the top ten catchers in the league.

George: You know if we do this we are going to catch hell from the owners.

Jose: Scouting is not what it used to be in HBD. They added an element of chance about ten years ago making the scouting vague.

Johnny: I remember when they did that. I thought it gave me an excuse for some of my mistakes.

Elijah: All the owners know we are just sitting here at bar drinking; if they take an offense at what we say here; I will take them to the first AA meeting I ever attend.

Johnny: Well what are Specs ratings.

Elijah: He's ranked the top two catchers in the league as Steve Washington of Chicago and Santa Fe's Royce Howell.

Johnny: Washington, other than his rookie year has always hit above .270. Seems like he hits between 25 and 35 homers a year with 100 rbi. Even Specs get it right every now and then.

George: Howell of the Raiders isn't as consistent but has a higher batting average for his career. He's hit over .300 three times and has a little more power than Washington.

Jose: Washington's defense is a little better . I wouldn't want to have to say who is one and who is two. The other catchers Spec ranked who are they?

Elijah: He has a group of five: Monterrey's Erick Standridge, Terry Randall of Las Vegas, Willie Mejia and Frank Yarnall from the Canadien clubs; rounding out the group of five is  Colorado's Josh Farrell .

George: Amazing, all those guys are  making less than 1.5 million a year. We have a whole bunch of good young catching.

Elijah: Spec's last group is Deven Perez, Fernando Doubront, Irving Astacio, Paulie Hill

Johnny: The only veteran is Cincinnati's Fernando Doubront. He's making $3.635 mil. The others are making 2nd and 3rd year money.

Jose: Kind of amazing for the aura man; he got 3 of the 4 All Star catchers from last year and one of the two Silver Sluggers.

George: Obviously Spec doesn't value defense, since neither of the gold glove catchers made the list.

Jose : Specs can't count either. His top ten has eleven on the list.

Elijah: We did say he's a little out there; didn't we. Time to go fellas

                   Another night drinking with the scouts at the Barley Moe

       Tonight Elijah Craig is joined by Jack Daniels, Jim Beam and George Dickell

Elijah: Well fellas we have a new season with new faces and new ballparks.

George: It's not quite what it seems, Elijah. sportsguy93 is back for his 24th season in the Stickball league.sportsguy93 has only had 3 losing seasons in his previous 23 seasons in the league. He has run three franchises in the league but mainly the Dover franchise. He had 17 seasons running the Cleveland Steamers. He won 1545 games as the leader of the Steamers. There  was even a rumor that the Browns wanted him to takeover and run the football team.

Jim: Yea sportsguy93 was the man in Cleveland.

George: I'm not finished Jim. The Honolulu franchise kind of changed owner.

Jack: George, what the hell do you mean.

George: Well in season 25, one of our founding owners passed away and breeolad took over the franchise.When he approach the age of 70 he got another account because he thought it was stupid to have a handle with the term lad in it. Now breeolad is using croninkin for his franchises.

Jim: Elijah, do we only have 2 new owners this season?

Elijah: That is how it seems. We all knew Dean, due to health, wasn't going to come back. kblack2778  chose not to return , although he's in the Cy Young league and a few more. Technically boys Captain Morgan has left alone for an offseason.

Johnny: So who are the new guys, Elijah?

Elijah: Allenjegg, took over Dean's franchise. In 52 seasons that franchise has only had 7 owners. r7gordon had the franchise for 25 seasons, Dean for 19. Hopefully Allenjegg is treated fairly and decides to stay a decade or 2.

Elijah: The other new owner is brad11. He also is new and we're hoping he puts a decade or two running a proud franchise that bingles ran for 33 seasons.

George: Do you think the old folks will be nice and not try to fleece the new guys in trades?

Jack: Well b2goofy told them to ask if they need help. If one of the new owners has questions about a trade; they should just check in with another owner from the other league and ask if they would make that trade.

George: The other league, what are you talking about.

Jack: If one of the new owners is making a trade within their league; any owner in the other league has nothing to gain. If they are trading between the American League and the National League then they should pick one owner in each league in a division not involved in the trade.

Jim: They really shouldn't trade their first season but as long as they are advised and careful it should be alright. If it gets terribly out of line a trade will be vetoed.

Elijah: Does anyone have any comments on the change of ballparks?

Jack: I'd start with Barry Owen. If he can hit 35 homers in Pittsburgh, he might be good for 50 in Cincinnati. Allenjegg did Barry a favor by movingPittsburgh to Cincinnati.

George: Well, Allenjegg has a big job ahead of him rebuilding the pitching staff.

Elijah: And what does brad11 have to look forward to?

Jim: brad11 moved the franchise from Florida to Santa Fe and the ballparks have identical affects.brad11 can pretty much look at last year and know what he has to work with.

Elijah: Is anyone surprised sportsguy93 didn't move the franchise back to Cleveland?

Jack: I am. he has played 65 season of HBD and 53 of those seasons his team was the Cleveland Steamers, over 3 leagues.

Elijah: I've called the uber, lets call it a night.

                                                       Season 51 awards

The Branch Rickey award goes to dyoungquist . For new owners we recognize the organization that wins the most games the previous year; majors+minors. Boise won 535 games up 43games from the previous year. Jacksonville won 520 games, 10 down frommthe previous season.Toronto made a strong showing winning 514 games, an increase of 65 wins from the previous season. renrog, who owned this award for several season still won a dangerous 498 games.

The Dean comeback player of the year was won by Ryan Newson, The Rattler's Newson had a disastrous season 50. Shoulder inflamation and a trip to the  DL reduced him to 90 innings in Season50. At 34 years old it seemed Newson was probably a Oldson. Yet the vegascowboy and pitching coach,Doug Brown, saw the determination and the talent to return him to the rotation. Newson's ERA was down over a run per game and he almost doubled his inning pitched from the previous season.

We have no McBain award winner for season 50. Maybe this is the year some franchise can beat thebigdogs record of 135 major league wins in the regular season.