Another night drinking with the scouts at the Barleymoe

         Tonight Elijah Craig is joined by George Dickell, Jack Daniels, Johnny Walker and Tito.

Elijah: Fellas I thought tonight we could give a little preview of the upcoming season.

Tito: Free agency isn't even over. How can we be expected to make prognostications on a season that doesn't start for another 10 days.

Elijah: Tito I love to have you here but you got to know accuracy, relevance, and truth have nothing to do with our gatherings here at the Barleymoe.

George: Yea, if we can't upset one owner each meeting then we have waisted our time.

Elijah: Jack what do you think of the National League West?

Jack: As you know the NL west tied for the division with the most out of division wins last year with 263. That is going to be a pretty difficult goal for this group of owners this season. From what I can see so far Seattle is still loaded and still has 35 million to spend on free agents. I think Las Vegas has better starting pitching but unless my calculator broke, pimpbotlove  has used up his budgeted payroll. Vancouver has 26 million left to reinforce Hansel Fiers on the mound. The Dukes have 55 million left to spend. They very quietly are building up a strong group of arms on their staff, so most of that money will probably be spent on bats.

Elijah: Jack it's early but order of finish?

Jack: Same as last year.

Elijah: George what say you about the National League South.

George: Last season the NL South also had 263 out of division wins and I think they will top the 263 victories...

Tito: You just have to mess with Jack don't you George?

George: We are here to drink, talk, and have fun. What is more fun than sticking it to the Lynchburg lunatic.

Elijah: Could you please just give us a round up of the teams. 

George: As I was saying, I think Santa Fe has the best hitting. The 23 million they have left in their budget could provide a really good bullpen which seems to be their main weakness. El Paso has Max Campos and Vic Ingram at triple-A and they should really help out the Marty Robins. St. Louis has a steady group of ball players. They don't flash or sparkle but they play hard and win as a team. The defending Champs can go as far as the G's can take them (Enrique Gamboa-RF and Fausto Gonzalez-3B). The Rats have the least amount of money left for free agents with 7 million, all the other teams all have over 20 million.

Elijah: Order of finish please.

George: Charleston, Santa Fe, St.Louis and El Paso.

Elijah: Tito, you have the National League East.

Tito: The East is going to be tough this year Elijah.  Right now all four teams have between19 and 23 million to spend on free agents. From what I see Hartford will score the most runs with their loaded lineup. The pitching is almost as good. vdaino inherited a good strong group when he took over that franchise and he has a winners reputation so he should make it close. San Juan is always to tough and usually over looked in the preseason. mike1184 is laying the foundation of a dynasty like he had in seasons 32 through season 38 when he never won fewer than 100 games. The Augusta franchise went through  three owners last season, so joekendall, who is already committed to season 56 , is rebuilding around Theodore Cohen and Vic Mesa.

Elijah: How will they end up?

Tito:Hartford, Pawtucket, San Juan and Augusta.

Elijah: What do you know about the National League North , Johnny.

Johnny: This once proud division had the worst  out of division wins last year with 225. However the division has some of the best young talent in the minor leagues. Toronto has Stolmy De Paula  ready to bust into their lineup. Peter Donald heads up the staff that has a rock solid bull pen. Ryu and Sosa will provide plenty of runs for the Shamrocks. The Metro Transit Authority is in a rebuild. dherz_263 has done a remarkable job of drafting top pitchers so with this New York franchise it just a matter of time. I think the Detroit and Chicago franchises are good but not playoff bound this year. Both have talented lineups and some good starting pitching and are challenged in the bullpen. All 4 teams have a lot of money to spend on free agents so the situation in the north is fluid; and could change with each free agent signed.

Elijah: The order of finish please.

Johnny: Toronto,Chicago squeezing past Detroit  after they promote Angelys Alvarez and Francisco Chavez late in the season and New York,

                      Another night  drinking with the scouts at the Barleymoe       

      Tonight Elijah Craig is joined by Jack Daniels, Jim Beam and Jose Cuervo

Elijah: Does anyone here know anything about the new owners?

Jose: I thought you would would want to talk about the guys who mysteriously are no longer in the league.

Elijah: Well we can do that if you want.

Jack: No! No! he's going to start with that Captain Morgan stuff again. It's urban legend stuff. It never happened.

Jose: Really Jack, sportsguy93 had played 68 seasons of HBD and now he's not in any leagues.

Jack: In 26 seasons of the Stickball league he had 21 winning seasons. Until the last two season he had never had back-to-back losing seasons. He just got bored and is taking sometime off from his Cleveland teams.

Jose: You silly Americans. The Captain, he uses some of ports in my native Mexico. We talk from time to time and I know his ways. If a manager like sportsguy93 disappears between seasons you should consider that the captain is taking hostages and accepting ransom for their relief.

Jim: I believe Stickman has had opportunities in the past to enhance his recruitment of new owners, so maybe what you say is true.

Jack: The Stickman has never paid a ransom and he has never admitted to being asked to pay a ransom.

Jose: Jack, there is a reason why the DiMaggio League is short 14 managers. Commissioner Officialism4 refuses to pay the Captains price and can't recruit anymore manager because the Captain continues to capture his managers.

Jack: I know for a fact that bagpipes28 is in two other leagues.

Jose: That's true but brad11 has disappeared just like sportsguy93. The captain doesn't get them all but he gets most of them.

Elijah: Maybe we should talk about the new guys.

Jim: Well we finally got POKEYSAN to join the league. After 478 season he's finally joined our league.

Jose: How has he managed his teams in the past.

Jack: He has usually operated with really high payroll. Somewhere between the mid nineties to a hundred and forty million per season.

Jim: Well this season he only raised the payroll by 11 million. He's at 114 million this season.

Jose: Doesn't that give him the fourth highest payroll for the season?

Jim: Yes but it falls within the usual high payrolls of the league, historically.

Jose: That is a tough division. All the managers have over a.500 winning percentage. They all budget a  good amount in salary.

Jim: trapapoodle, usibjc, and bwb53 may not be excited by adding him but as a scout I am.

Jack: We also had an original manager rejoin the league, vdaino. In 24 seasons on our league he won his division 7 times.

Jose: Anything you know about him?

Jack: He has a .529 winning percentage. 4.7% world series percentage. 30% playoff percentage.

Jim: The last new manager is dan2044 has only played 15 seasons but made the playoffs a third of the seasons he 's been in HBD.

Elijah: It seems like we got a really good set of new managers. We should have really good season. Time to call the uber Fellas.

            Another night drinking with the scouts at the Barleymoe

   Tonight Elijah Craig is joined by Johnny Walker, Jose Cuervo and Evan Williams

Elijah: We'll fellas it time to talk about the changes to the the Stickball league in season 55.

Evan: Elijah we have some new ballparks.

Jose: Elijah the good citizens of Pawtucket have a franchise for the first time in 19 years.

Evan: About the ballparks the Powderfingers will loose a little bit of the power they had in Jacksonville.

Johnny: Evan both those parks are pitcher parks so it's not going to affect the league much.

Jose: Johnny, try telling that to Marvin Scheffer who hit 41 homers last season  at the baseball grounds of Jacksonville. That dead air in Pawtucket is going to cost him some dingers in his first arbitration year. All the the power hitters are signed long term so its only Marvin who will take an immediate pay cut for the move.

Johnny: The franchise was ninth in homers last year and it's not like they were playing in Hartford or Santa Fe. They will be fine. Are we trying to make a mountain out of a molehill?

Elijah: You guys are bickering just to hear your own voice. If I wanted this I would have invited Jack and George. I believe the baseball grounds Jacksonville have a new tenant.

Evan: Yes, iam4real moved leagues not cities.

Johnny: Elijah has that ever happened before?

Elijah: Not that I remember.

Jose: Are you telling me that the Jacksonville Bandits are now in the American League?

Johnny: Yes. iam4real took over the Cleveland franchise and moved them to Jacksonville. That's not much of a playing change. The fences are a little farther back in Jacksonville. The outfielders have more room to cover so maybe the batting average goes up a little.

Evan: The other franchise move is from Estadio Monterrey to Boon Stadium.

Jose: That is  great Evan where are you talking about.

Evan: Monterrey's team is now in Jackson.

Johnny: So the second best hitting team is now in a pitchers park. I'm shocked that Glen Martin was willing to make the move with the franchise. He's a great hitting coach but now he has a great challenge. I'm sure Gabriel Javier is happy about the move. He should be considered an early candidate for the Cy Young award this year.

Elijah: Didn't we have four franchises change leadership?

Jose: Yes we did but new owner POKEYSAN chose to keep the team in Santa Fe.

Elijah: Time to uber up guys. Lets have another drink and call it quits for tonight.

                                                 Season 54 Awards

THE Stickball League names our awards after retired owners.

The McBain award is not an annual award. To win this award you must exceed the previous high season win total of 135 wins. McBain was active in our league for 12 years , seasons 22 through 33. He's retired from HBD. In 207 seasons McBain made the playoffs 170 times while winning 20,618 games.The current holder of the McBain awards is the Fargo franchise and thebigdogs.

The Dean award is given annually  to the comeback player of year. Dean spent 21 years, and thousands of pixels on the chat board, in our league. Dean retired, due to poor health, in season 46. Knowing that our world chat lacked his presence Dean returned to the league in season 50. Like McBain, Dean is retired from HBD.

This years winner of the Dean award is Peter Donald. Donald, a season 49 international signing by the Shamrocks. Won 19 games last season after two rough seasons. Season 52 saw his era climb into the 4.60 range.Season 53 started in the 4.60 range until he was demoted to triple-A. Donald did his work and got back to the big leagues. Peter lead the team in starts, innings pitched and wins(19), allowing the Shamrocks to reclaim the National League North Championship.

The final award is the Branch Rickey award given to the franchise that wins the most games from their teams at all levels. mannytanner's Hartford Blue Frogs won 555 games; 7 more than the previous season. also in so intention for this award were renrog's Scream and dyoungquist's Rogue One.

                                               Season 54  Louis Roederer Report

         How Charleston won the world series in season 54

Total Coaches Payroll: 9 million

Total Payroll: $80,324,965

Number of pitchers with significant innings- 10

Number of position players with over 250 at bats- 9

Players Acquired through the draft: 12

Number of first round picks on the team: 9

Players Acquired by International signings: 2

Players acquired by trade:2

Players acquired as free agents:2

Player acquired through he rule 5 draft-1

Diamonds in the rough -3

                Another Saturday night drinking with thew scouts at the Barleymoe

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

Elijah: A while back pimpbotlove commented about the internationals being a stronger group than normal. I thought we should chat about it tonight.

Jose: It just wasn't pimpbotlove, dyoungquist and dherz_263 also commented about the IFA's.

Elijah: Well it too early to grade this group; but do you guys think this is a better class than previous years?

George: Looking back 8 years it seems good but not outside the norm. 10 IFA's got a bonus over $9.9 million which is about average. In 4 of the 8 years that was the case. 3 other years had 9 hitting that figure. Only season 50 was really bad with 6 players.

Jack: But this season's $177.4 million is much higher than the previous years. And none of those players approached the amount thuggis gave Wladimir Campos in season 53- $37 million.

Jose: A lot of money was spent on the top players but it is nothing like season 52, when 4 shortstops got the highest bonuses.

Elijah: Well that is two years playing time. We can compare how they are doing. Jose tell me who those players are.

Jose: The four guys are: Willie Espinosa $21.6 by Louisville Duoz

                                        Alejandro Lugo $21.0 by Burlington Blue hens

                                        Francisco Chavez $17.4 by Chicago Charge

                                        Stolmy De Paula $17.1 by Toronto Shamrocks

Elijah: George what do you know about De Paula?

George: Elijah, De Paula is at triple-A, still a shortstop and probably will stay there. his cumulative batting average is .306. Might be in the bigs next year.

Elijah: Jack what about Lugo?

Jack: Lugo has only made it to double-A so far. He's more of a power hitter; having won a silver slugger this year. Has an average of .292 in his career. Lacks a little bit of range and may have to move from shortstop.

Elijah: Jose give me some information on Espinosa.

Jose: Espinosa made the majors this season. His minor league average was .305. He has already moved off the shortstop position to third base. He hit a homer every 16 at bats in his age 21 season.

Elijah: Fellas, I'll  cover Chavez. He has been on the DL in each of the last two seasons. He has a .352 minor league batting average and is a true shortstop. If redsox666666 can keep him healthy I think he might be the best. I guess we will know in about 10 years. Time to go fellows until next time.

                       Another late night at the Barleymoe with Elijah Craig                                                                

                    Joining Elijah tonight are Johnny Walker, Jim Beam and John Jameson

Elijah: We'll fellas its been awhile since we've gotten together. I thought we should talk about the American  League west race.

Johnny: Yes, pimpbotlove and jc44 are really going at it ---again.

Jim: With 13 games left they both have won exactly the same number of games this season as last.

Elijah: So Seattle has a three game lead.

Johnny: Yes but it doesn't look like it can hold up. Las Vegas finishes at home and has a slightly easier schedule.

John: Do you think these guys hate each other yet or are they saving that for next season. 

Jim: They probably should hate each other with both having made the playoffs for the last 7 years.

Johnny: And in 5 of those seasons they met in the playoffs. jc44 has a 12-6 advantage in those matchups.

Jim: It gets worse, this season, pimpbotlove won only 4 of the 10 games. The teams split the two extra inning games, Seattle winning a 10 inning game and Las Vegas winning the 14 inning marathon.

John: It's even closer than that if you look at some of the stats. In the ten games Seattle outscored Las Vegas 41-36 but 7 of Seattle's runs came in one inning in a come from behind 8-4 win for jc44.

Jim: That was the game they had just a couple of days ago. Paul Young had that bad inning, His blown save in that game was half his blown saves for the season.

Elijah: It's been great being with you guys tonight.