redsox666666

From: mr_stickball
To: redsox666666

Subject:  Interview 

1. What is your favorite beverage? Explain.

 I am a whiskey drinker, and in particular I love a good old fashioned. Not the kind that most bars make, with fruit and things covering up the flavor. 1 sugar cube, bitters, a splash of water and Bourbon. Preferably Eagle Rare. Yum.

--Stick's Note: http://www.bourbonenthusiast.com/forum/DBvd.php?id=62&task=displaybottling

HBD Strategies

With Season 24 upons us, I thought maybe for a change of pace I'd open it up for your comments.

Notwithstanding the distracting photo herein, one of the strategies I've employed in the past is landing high contact and high eye guys, paying less attention to power and splits.  That was long ago, it seems splits and power are MUCH more important these days.  Anyone else notice trends in HBD with players, pitchers, coaches, manager settings, etc???

Comment below.

Season 21: Durham Bulls team report

Subject:

Durham Bulls team report

Message:

The bulls are in a rebuilding phase. Ranked dead last in the franchise rankings report, management was not happy about the power outage that kept us from entering a new budget for season 21. WIS helped out but couldn’t correct the poor scouting for this season. We are trying to build around a nucleus of SP Richard Collins, Tim Krause and Rafael Henriquez and Rule V pickup Willis Carroll. Position player, Miguel Andujar, adds a bat to a team built mostly on pitching and defense. My hope is that my focus on improving my coaching throughout the organization will help us improve on last season’s disappointing win total.

-Milton7

Season 21 New and Not-So-New Owners

Season 21 is underway and I wanted to post a special shoutout to our new owners.

Ronaldb03 is one of our ORIGINAL owners and an HBD friend of mine from Mr. October league.  He's back with his old franchise, the Scranton Beet Farmers.  I must say it felt like a coo of sorts when he enthusiastically agreed to return to the league.  Scranton, although wallowing in obscurity since Ronald left all those seasons ago, DID have a couple of good owners make moves in hopes of a bright future.  Trapapoodle and KCG67 were both good owners and tried to do the right thing for the franchise.  Now, with Ronald back at the helm, don't be surprised to see this team make the playoffs right away.  Consider some of the talent: Magglio Sosa, Yonder Romero, Vern Jones, and the really scary Kory Schilling.

Mgreed1954 takes over the franchise formerly know as the Oakland Sluggers (and before that, the long-standing franchise, the Tuscon Suns).  The new franchise is the Salem NRH StRangers, and I'm sure Mgreed is hopeful he can pull that franchise out of mediocrity.  He certainly has some of the tools in place to do it, with top notch leadoff hitter (and Stickball League All-Time Consecutive Hitting Streak leader) Craig Flair setting the table for up-and-comer, super hard hitting 2B Marcus Shipley.  The rest of Salem's offense is loaded with young, talented hitters.  When they come into their own, and if Mgreed can muster up at least half way decent pitching, they are going to be a major force to reckon with.

Agent_Wart takes over for one of Stickball League's great owners, Elixerr.  His franchise was known as the Salem Acid, and although the Acid never actually won Elixerr a WS title, they always seemed to be in the hunt.  With the notable exception of all-time great Tom Moore, Agent_Wart is stuck with a handful of above average veterans and a bunch of up-and-coming youngsters.  To my way of thinking, he has his work cut out for him competing this season, but down the road looks pretty good -- especially if he can make some smart moves as the team progresses.

Thanks to everyone for making this league of owners as great as it is.

REVISED GUIDELINES - PROPOSED

REVISED GUIDELINES – STICKBALL LEAGUE

1. MAJORS - NO TANKING - Re-building is fine; however, owner's need to field the most competitive ML team possible given their roster. Owners believed to be tanking will receive a trade chat and/or sitemail from the commissioner and steps will need to be taken to improve the owner's ML team or said owner will be removed from the world. 

1. EVERY new owner is asked to make a 3 year commitment;
2. 5 Season Minimum Wins: 54/114/180/245/308 (which is very reasonable – if you keep your wins North of 60, you'll have no troubles with this); and,
3. An owner may be given a 1 year "grace period" by the commish OR the vote of 10 owners (any owner can initiate the vote, but a brief check-in with the commish is appreciated).
   There is no salary cap in Stickball League; however new owners should stick to a budget somewhere between approx. $40M and $100M -- rule of thumb only, no strict enforcement. Also, there is a "Guide for HBD Newbies" on our official blog that may be of assistance.

2. MINORS – Owners should pay at least some attention to the minors. Having them automanaged is okay, but there must be enough pitchers on the roster to not run into extreme fatigue issues. While no exact number of players is a requirement, a good rule of thumb is to start the season with 29 players and 15 pitchers/level will automatically meet this guideline.

3. CASH IN TRADES - The amount of cash in a trade CAN exceed the players' remaining salary plus up to the HBD maximum allowable $5M. This is to be voted on using HBD's existing VETO TRADE system. Cash for players is allowed in Major League Baseball.

4. BALLPARKS - City changes for a returning owner are permitted, but discouraged, for consistency's sake. City changes HAVE been approved, so this is not a sticking point in Stickball League. If a new owner takes over a franchise, then they can choose any city they'd like – all parks are up for grabs, no ballpark restrictions in Stickball League.

5. REMOVALS - The commissioner has final say on removals. If something is not covered here, but warrants removal, the final say is up to the commissioner. No owner will be removed without being warned unless the owner blatantly goes about trashing his team in violation of fair play. In these cases, the fair play guidelines serve as the unwanted owner's warning.

Suggested Guidelines - Please VOTE to ratify, thanks.

GUIDELINES – STICKBALL LEAGUE

1. MAJORS - NO TANKING - Re-building is fine; however, owner's need to field the most competitive team possible given their roster. Owners believed to be tanking will receive a trade chat from the commissioner and steps will need to be taken to improve the owner's ML team or said owner will be removed from the world.

1. EVERY new owner is asked to make a 3 year commitment;

2. $30M minimal player budget (spent);

3. No ML players playing grossly out of position;

4. Competent major leaguers at the ML level;

5. No unwarranted fatigue issues in the majors;

6. 5 Season Minimum Wins: 54/114/180/245/308 (which is very reasonable – if you keep your wins North of 60, you'll have no troubles with this); and,

7. An owner may be given a 1 year "grace period" by the commish OR the vote of 10 owners (any owner can initiate the vote, but a brief check-in with the commish is appreciated).

2. MINORS – Owners simply must pay at least some attention to the minors. Having them automanaged is okay, but there must be enough pitchers on the roster to not run into fatigue issues. While no exact number of players is a requirement, starting the season with 29 players and 15 pitchers/level will automatically meet this guideline.

3. SALARY CAP - $100M ($40M min.). This somewhat minimizes the # of max salary contracts that can be offered, and is designed to guard against having to find an owner for a team with bad contracts if the original owner bails. Rule V exemption: It is possible that payments from having Rule V players drafted from a team will put said team over the cap. In this case, the owner will not be forced to transfer $, however, the "player payroll" will not be allowed to exceed $100 million.

4. CASH IN TRADES - The amount of cash in a trade cannot exceed the players' remaining salary plus $1M. Up to $1M cash in a deal is permissible in a trade involving otherwise equitable player-talent. Trades for a scrub plus cash are not permitted. This is to be voted on using HBD's existing VETO TRADE system. Expect venom in cases of abuse.

5. BALLPARKS - No city changes for a returning owner are permitted without commissioner approval. City changes HAVE been approved, so this is not a sticking point in Stickball League. If a new owner takes over a franchise, then they can choose any city they'd like – all parks are up for grabs, no restrictions.

6. REMOVALS - The commissioner has final say on removals. If something is not covered here, but warrants removal, the final say is up to the commissioner. No owner will be removed without being warned unless the owner blatantly goes about trashing his team in violation of fair play. In these cases, the fair play guidelines serve as the unwanted owner's warning.

5/28/2010 6:39 AM:

Josh Gray left the Durham Bull's facility after hitting the water cooler with his bat and cussing out the manager. He had just found out that he had been designated for assignment because the manager wanted Willie Gonzalez to be the starter coming out of the all-star break. WIS wouldn't allow it, under current restrictions, hence the extreme action by the manager. A player overheard Josh say he was heading over to WIS headquarters to give them a piece of his mind, but had trouble leaving the parking lot as he refused to let go of his bat while he drove!

-milton7