The New Jersey Gaming Commission has posted the odds for the up coming Stickball 56 season.

Seattle               2-1                             Hartford   3-1

Washington       4-1                             Santa Fe  6-1

Jackson             8-1                             Burlington 17-2 

  Louisville        21-2                            Charleston  21-2 

  Boston          10-1                              Chicago (NL)    11-1                                                                                                                 

Chicago(AL)    11-1                            Toronto    11-1 

  Pawtucket        12-1                          Las Vegas   12-1

San Francisco  12-1                            Detroit     12-1

 El Paso  23-2                                     Colorado  Springs     25-2

Honolulu  25-2                                    Houston   13-1

St. Louis 29-2                                     San Juan    16-1

Jacksonville 31-2                               Santa Cruz  31-2

Ottawa 33-2                                        Colorado   33-2

New York (AL) 35-2                           San Antonio   35-2

Vancouver  35-2                                  Boise  37-2 

 New Your Metro  50-1                      Fargo   60-1

Season 56 Hall of Fame Review

 First and foremost, I want to say thank you for having me and letting me help with both the HOF Committee and the blog...those are the things that made me really excited to join this world and it has certainly lived up to the hype so far! 

Now that introductions are out of the way, I want to take a few minutes to review the HOF process and explain a little more about the Wins Above Replacement metric that I brought to the discussion this season. There are two WAR metrics that I typically use: one is a rough estimate that only takes a few minutes to calculate (and is position adjusted for position players) and the other one takes significantly longer but is also park adjusted for both hitters and pitchers. 

However, I also knew that unlike my other leagues where I'm pretty much a one-person HOF Committee, there were other people here who were much better qualified to speak to the HOF worthiness of the various candidates. My metrics are mainly intended to be a starting point for discussions rather than providing a list of people who should be voted for and overruling the Committee decisions. Keeping this in mind I stayed with the estimated WAR totals for this year and let the rest of the Committee know the scale that I typically use, which is the following: 100+ WAR = Slam Dunk HOF Candidate, 70-99 WAR = Definitely HOF Worthy, 50-69 WAR = Strong HOF Case and 49 or fewer WAR is a Weak HOF Case. 

At the suggestion of the Committee, I started by evaluating those players who were nearing the end of their HOF eligibility and we went from there. As of right now, here are all of the Estimated WAR totals that I have calculated along with a quick description of their HOF worthiness and an MLB comparison where I could find one: 

                            (Note: Those highlighted players have been elected to the HOF)

These numbers did get all three of our suggested locks (Lofton, Saenez & Carl Harvey) elected, but as I mentioned before I find the park adjusted totals to be a much better judge of a player's candidacy. Additionally, I'd like to get to the point where we can say things like "the average HOF player at this position had a career WAR total of X, and this candidate had Y career WAR so they do/don't deserve to be elected", so my plan going forward is to evaluate the three who were elected this year plus the next five vote totals who fell short this season using the more in depth method to see how things go. 

In short, I want to have park-adjusted totals calculated for the following players by next HOF voting season: John Lofton (elected this year), Fautino Saenez (elected this year), Carl Harvey (elected this year), John Servais (8 votes short), Willis Tanner (8 votes short), Darren Harvey (9 votes short), Gabriel McKain (11 votes short & highly debated) and finally Roosevelt Curtis (12 votes short.) 

Meet Your Hall of Famer: Chuck Brewer

Bio:   Chuck Brewer was born in La Porte City, IA (Pop. 2.284, 20 minutes Southeast of Waterloo, IA).  He attended Union Senior High School (Nickname: Knights) where he was a 3-sport athlete (Football, Basketball and Baseball).  At 6-6 he was an All-Stater in all three sports.  In baseball is known for going 15 for 15 in their State Tournament run. Still an Iowa record for consecutive State Tournament hits.

Draft: Was the 12^th pick in Season 31 by Colorado (mr_stickball).  

Scout Rex Brantley- “In classic small-town lore, I stopped to eat in a café in Ames (2 hours away), and this group of 4 older gentlemen was talking about this high school baseball player that was the best hitter they ever saw.  I finally caught the name Brewer and told them I was a scout and, on my way, to see him.  One of the guys said “sign him up, he is Hall of Fame caliber already.”  That’s when I knew he was something special.”

Manger (mr_stickball)- "He stayed with the franchise through thick and thin, even during the dreadful Portland days, for two full decades.  Easy player to get to re-sign. Managed to play an "okay" 1B despite his ratings never being close to what you'd call "non-DH". His pithing efforts were hilarious, but on the other side of the ball he was "Mr. Clutch". He leads the franchise with a total of 717 RBIs with two outs! He spanned the time between some of the world's all-time greatest hitters during his career.  He filled the stands after nobody thought we'd see as exciting of a player as Jose Johnson, and was a major influence on today's Colorado "big draw", Marty Sisler. 

Career: Brewer was drafted in Season 31 by Colorado and broke into the Majors in Season 33 for 44 games, where he hit .364.  He played his entire 22 year in the Colorado/Portland organization.  During his time, he was a 3-time All-Star and won a Silver Slugger Award (44). He also won a World Series Ring in Season 34.  His best season was Season 35 when he hit .350, 1.031 OPS, 101 R, 39 2B, 33 HR, 153 RBI and stole 6 bases.  He did not have any huge seasons, but had 17 very solid seasons to accumulate career stats of .311 Ave, .899 OPS, 1595 R, 3059 H, 465 2B, 44 3B, 425 HR, 1829 RBI, and 26 SB.  He still holds the Colorado/Portland career records for 2B (465), hits (3059), runs (1595), rbi (1829) and walks (1490).

Speech Highlight- “My goal in baseball was always to entertain people.  I loved this game and wanted other to enjoy me playing it.  I give mr_stickball and the entire Colorado/Portland organization for the opportunity to do that. ”

 Another Saturday night drinking with the scouts at the Barleymoe

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

Elijah: Well fellas we are about to start random free agency. What are your thoughts about the coming season.

Johnny: Too much money is paid to too many players.

Hiram: Johnny, now is not the time to be frugal, or as the Ontario natives say scottish.

Johnny:Are you slurring my ethnic background, my clan?

Hiram: You know I'm not Canadian. I was born in Massachusetts. I got my first scouting job from kcg67  with the Boston Irish II. But my distillery is in Canada and that is what the local people call frugal people, scottish. They call people from Scotland -Scots. 

Jack: Before this conversation gets off the rails, does anybody know how these contracts work out.

Hiram: I was looking at the 10 players that signed contracts before this season that will be paid more than 10 million dollars for season 56. Of the 10 only 4 made an all star team after signing the big contract.

Jack: Who got the biggest contract?

Hiram: Aurelio Wong signed a 5yr 91million dollar contract prior to season 55. A two time all star, one time silver slugger with 4 world series rings. In the first year of the contract he hit .283 with 53 homers and slugged .604.

Johnny: He was beaten out for the all star game by Enrique Gamboa who hit .305 with 45 homers and slugged .614.

Hiram: Don't go all scottish on me. He was paid 9.25 million for the year; he still got paid a lot of money.

Johnny: About half of Wong's money.

Jack: Point taken

Hiram: The most accomplished player with a big contract is Rey Jung. Jung is a three time MVP, Rookie of the year. Twice he was the All Star game MVP out of his ten all star appearances. He signed for 62 million over 4 years. He did make the all star game after signing for big bucks.

Elijah: Are you telling me that it paying a lot of money doesn't guarantee success.

Jack: It is no worse than injuries. Just part of the game.

Johnny: That doesn't explain the relief pitchers in Ottawa.

Hiram: Somebody is joining to claim them.

Elijah: Next time fellas we will know who are the free agents signing with new clubs. the uber just pulled up.

 Another Saturday night drinking with the scouts at the Barleymoe

Tonight Elijah Craig is joined by George Dickell, Jose Cuervo and Jim Beam.

Elijah: Fellas did you notice that Alex Boscan retired.

George: Elijah lots of guys retire, why should we be so surprised that a 39 year old pitcher retired.

Jose: George how many guys retire with the season he had?

George: Was there something unusual about his season?

Jim: George maybe if you drank less ...oh never mind

Jose: Boscan made the All Star team for the second time last season; then was waived by Jacksonville. Vancouver then signed him and had him pitch in the rookie league and low-A. how many guys make the All-star team and pitch in the rookie league in one season?

Jim: My guess is that picc818 signed him to have the inside track on him being a pitching coach this season.

George: Didn't the Voodoo's first pick also pitch in both the rookie league and low-A last year?

Jose: Yes Ronnie Gil did. So you think Boscan was picked up to mentor the stud draft pick? picc818 got a look at who might be a great pitching coach and developed his first round pick at the same time.

Elijah: You fellas are missing my point. You seem to be saying that picc818  is playing three chess, which he always does, but your'e not looking at it from iam4real's point of view.

Jim: I get your point Elijah. iam4real is also playing upper level chess. He picks up an aging starter moves him to the bull pen, gets a good half season out of him. Later in the season he needs a platoon player to match with Neftali Mota and gives the new left fielder Boscan's spot on the roster.

George: You guys are going a little fast for me. Can you do that again in 33?

Jose: George, Neftali Mota is the a good player that doesn't hit lefties. When iam4real acquired a guy that kills lefties, Brian Blair, he has to drop a player. The choices are demoting a young player or releasing a very old pitcher that the team has already gotten more than they expected from.

Jim: Boscan had to go. Sooner or later he was going to hit the wall. iam4real saw it coming and acted before he hurt the team. Boscan was a good major league player. started 500 games in the majors.Won 172, lost186. He had an era of 4.01. In season 55 pitching only in relief had a 2.27 era. There was no way he would last to the end of the season with out blowing up.

George: Are you telling me that iam4real cut his losses before he had losses.

Jose: Now you're figuring it out.

George: Isn't that like eating your cake and having it too?

Elijah: Obviously we've been here to long, drank too much. I've called the uber

                                            Season 55  Louis Roederer Report

         How Seattle won the World Series in season 55

Total Coaches Payroll: 9 million

Total Payroll: $121,000,000

Number of pitchers with significant innings- 9

Number of position players with over 250 at bats- 8

Players Acquired through the draft: 7

Number of first round picks on the team: 7

Players Acquired by International signings: 10

Players acquired by trade:1

Players acquired as free agents:1

Player acquired through he rule 5 draft-0

Diamonds in the rough -0

                       The Stickball League names our awards after our retired owners.

The McBain award is given to a franchise that breaks the single season number of wins . In season 47 Fargo won 135 games. Seattle led our league last year with 107 wins. So the McBain award still belongs to the thebigdogs.

The Dean award is given to the player who has overcome a 60 day disable listing the season before. This year's player is Pat Carter of the Wharf Rats. Season 54 saw Carter limited to 4 starts and 19 innings. In season 55 he overcame a forearm injury to make 34 starts and win 14 games in 185 innings.

Previous to this season we had a Branch Rickey award for the franchise that won the most total games at all levels. Starting this season the award will be named the kobylesky  award. kobylesky was an original owner in this league and the original blogger.

The kobylesky award this year goes to dyoungquist and the Boise franchise. Rogue One won 546 games. All his teams made the playoffs. He won the world series in all the minor league levels except the rookie league.