Another night drinking with the scouts at the Barleymoe

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

Elijah: Tonight is the 57th rule 5 draft for our league. I asked you guys to look through the history of the draft and give me some insight as to what will happen tonight.

Jack: Elijah, in last ten years half the drafts went 5 rounds. Only one went 10 rounds and the shortest was season 54, which only went 3 rounds.

Jim: No player selected in the rule 5 draft has made the Hall of Fame yet, maybe tonight-who knows.

Johnny: A couple players  have made 4 All star games; Phil Combs and Alton Howard. Combs was drafted in season 9 and Howard in season 14.

Jack: One interesting guy was Steve Beer. He was picked in season 27 in the fifth round  and played 15 years in the big leagues.

Johnny: We never had a guy named Steve Beer, what are you talking about?

Jim: You now how he gets when he drinking. I bet he is thinking of Esteban Cerveza.

Jack: Yes that is the guy. He had 766 pitching appearances in his career.

Elijah: Anything else you guys noticed about the rule 5 draft?

Jim: It seems like a good place to acquire gold glovers, Billy Ray Goulet had 7 gold gloves after he was drafted in season 34 by Milton in the third round.

Johnny: I noticed that Milton really works the rule 5 draft. Takes a lot of players and keeps them around for several seasons.

Elijah: Well boys what do you see happening tonight?

Jack: Typical rule 5. A couple of special guys and a whole bunch of role players. The uber is here Elijah it time for to go.

                                      Season 56 Annual Awards

McBain Award: Awarded to the franchise that breaks the single season record for wins 135.  Not awarded. Hartford Blue Frogs won more games last season than any  other franchise --114.

Dean Award     : Given to a player who overcomes injury and has a really good season.  The winner  is Miguel Fernandez of the Los Angeles Galaxy.  Miguel had 2, 60 day stints on the Disable List in season 55. In season 56 he played in 139 games, had 42 homers and drove in12.87%of the Galaxy's runs.

Kobelesky Award: Given to the franchise that wins the most games throughout all six playing levels.The winner is Boise Rogue One. They won 582 games;  a .607 winning percentage.

                         

Meet Your Hall of Famer: Fautino Saenz

 

Bio:   Fautino Saenz was born in San Juan De La Maguana, DO (Pop. 169,032 located in western region of Dominican Republic founded in 1503.).  He was the starting catcher for the Junior Olympic team where he earned all-tournament honors. 

International Signing: Signed for 6.5 million (8^th highest that year) by Louisville (xmasjjm)

Scout Paul McKnight: “Fautino was average catcher that had above average power but had great control of the strike zone and hits righties exceptionally well.  His intangibles are what set him apart.  He had great makeup and was the on-field manager.”

Manager (xmasjjm): “I was elated that I had just enough cash to sign him late as an IFA.  His bat and plate discipline were lineup changing as he was in the heart of many playoff and championship teams.  Truly a difference making hitter.  Was he the best defensively, no, but that’s what backup defensive catchers are for! Hell of a career.”

Career: Saenz was signed in Season 33 by Louisville and broke into the Majors for one game in season 35. He went 1-2 with a 2-run homer and 2 BB.  He played his entire 22 pro baseball career with Louisville.  During his time, he was a 10-time All-Star, 7 Silver Slugger (37, 40, 41, 44, 46, 47,49) and won 2 Gold Glove Award (42, 46). He was also on 3 World Series Champion teams (38, 40, 44). His best season was Season 47 when he had an .323 AVG, 1.001 OPS, 84 R, 142 H, 19 2B, 4 3B, 28 HR and 80 RBI.  Over his Career he accumulated stats of .300 AVG, .886 OPS, 1331 R, 2413 H, 339 2B, 15 3B, 357 HR, 1286 RBI, and 1227 BB.  He still holds the career record for Louisville for with 1436 walks.

Speech Highlight: “I did not really worry about myself, I just wanted to make everyone else and the team better.” 

Meet Your Hall of Famers: John Lofton

 

Bio:   John Lofton was born in San Antonio, TX (Pop. 1,434,625).  He attended Lutheran High School (Nickname: Mustangs) where he was a 2-sport athlete (Football and Baseball).  At Lutheran, he was a 2-year starter for the Mustangs (6-Man football smallest classification).  In baseball he set a small school record with 12 homeruns in only 18 games. 

Draft: Was the 7th pick in Season 36 by Jacksonville (b2goofy). 

Scout Paul McKnight- “John is not the biggest player but gets everything out of his swing.  Big time power and great speed.  Fielding is ok but not great.  Could play 1B or COF.  Should project to be an All-Star with his bat.”

Career: Lofton was drafted in Season 36 by Jacksonville and broke into the Majors late in Season 39.  During his career he played most of his career in Jacksonville/Houston (13 seasons), and Louisville (5 seasons).  During his time, he was a 4-time Most Valuable Player (44, 45, 46, 48), 4-time All-Star, 5 Silver Slugger (40, 44, 45, 46, 48) and won a Gold Glove Award (48). It is interesting how he won an MVP in Season 48 when he was not an All-Star.  His best season was Season 46 when he was a 40-40 player with 51 Homeruns and 40 stolen bases.  He also added an .316 AVG, 1.102 OPS, 118 R, 173 H, 34 2B, 9 3B, and 137 RBI.  Over his Career he accumulated stats of .299 AVG, .960 OPS, 1454 R, 2270 H, 408 2B, 100 3B, 529 HR, 1544 RBI, 829 BB, and 325 SB.  He still holds season records Jacksonville/Houston organization of 59 HR (44), 146 RBI (44), and 13 3B (40).  He also has career records of 985 R, 245 SB and 68 3B.

Speech Highlight- “I have been able to live the perfect baseball dream, from 1^st rounder, to All-Star, to MVP, to Hall of Fame.  I owe a lot of people who helped me along the way.”

An Update on HOF Calculations/Metrics

 As I mentioned at the end of my previous blog post about the HOF, I am in the middle of calculating park adjusted Wins Above Replacement totals for a number of the leading candidates because I find that makes comparing careers faster and easier (once the numbers are crunched.) This past season I used the following scale as my initial judge of HOF worthiness: 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.  

However, I am going to make a couple of tweaks to that particular system going forward: first of all, I am going to add a category at the bottom ("No HOF Case At All") so that I might save myself some time in the future and only make deep dives on guys with a legitimate chance at the HOF. The other change that I'm going to make is that I'm going to start using a metric that MLB.com made up to rate the best free agent signings of all time...in the article they published where they introduce it they call it "a junk stat" that is "hastily thrown together and somewhat arbitrary" but I like it a lot. The reason I like it a lot is that it combines the two aspects of professional sports that are usually debated as being the most important into one metric: winning titles & individual performances (aka stat-stuffing.) 

In case you didn't click the link above and read what they wrote, here's how they combine those two aspects rather quickly and efficiently: The "Baseline Score" is a player's average WAR/year and then they get bonus points for World Series Rings, Pennants won, Cy Youngs, MVPs and each year they produced at an "All Star Level" (which they define as 4+ WAR.) 

The last piece of the puzzle is turning my previous scale into a scale that makes more sense with this metric. Since my previous scale was based on MLB totals, and MLB players have to play at least 10 seasons to be HOF eligible, this is where my mind goes right off the bat, as it were: 

100 WAR over 10 seasons = 10.0 WAR/year = Slam Dunk HOF Candidate

70 WAR over 10 seasons = 7.0 WAR/year = Definitely HOF Worthy

50 WAR over 10 seasons = 5.0 WAR/year = Strong HOF Case

and this is where the new category comes in:

30 WAR over 10 seasons = 3.0 WAR/year = Weak HOF Case

29 or fewer WAR over 10 seasons = 2.9 WAR/year or less = No HOF Case At All

So my thought is that starting next season, I'll look at players who averaged 3.0 WAR/year or better and see where their various awards get them on the scale presented in italics above. 

Meet Your Hall of Famers: Carl Harvey

 

Bio:   Carl Harvey was born in Winona Lake, IN (Pop. 4,908, 50 miles South of South Bend, IN).  He attended James Whitcomb Riley High School (Nickname: Wildcats) where he was a 2-sport athlete (Football and Baseball).  At Riley, Carl led the football team to back-to-back playoff appearances as QB.  He was also a 2-time baseball All-State pitcher and holds the AAAA (biggest classification) State Tournament record of 16 k’s in a playoff game (7 inning game).

Draft: Was the 2^nd pick in Season 26 by New York (brentcnb).  

Scout Paul McKnight- “Carl has a live arm.  He tops out at 96 mph with his Split FB toping out at 88.  His mechanics can be cleaned up to help with control and add more velocity.”

Career: Harvey was drafted in Season 26 by New York and broke into the Majors in Season 30.  During his career he played for New York/Indianapolis, Pittsburg, and Huntington/San Antonio.  During his time, he was a 6-time All-Star and won a Gold Glove Award (32). His best season was Season 38 when he won 15 games, had a .198 OAV, 1.00 WHIP, and 2.37 ERA, while striking out 221.  Over his Career he accumulated stats of 183 Wins, 2804.2 Innings, 2684 K’s, .234 OVA, 1.21 Whip and 3.20 ERA. 

Speech Highlight- “Ever since I started playing baseball, I knew it was all I wanted to do.  I was blessed with ability to be able to do it.  This award is for all those that took a chance on me.”

WHAT DO YOU VALUE AS AN OWNER?

by Mr_Stickball

We all value different things in our teams, but one thing I have always put value in is NP/PA (number of pitches seen per plate appearance).  On the other side of the ball, I at least try to put emphasis on strong defense up the middle.  The main idea here is to attempt to put stress on your opponent's Starter by stretching out each out as much as possible, while lessoning stress on your own Starter by gaining some extra outs with good defense.

In Season 23, Ripken0713's  San Antonio Papaya (Today's San Antonio Rustlers) attained Stickball World's Best NP/PA of 3.76.  AND they were very strong up the middle.

That Papaya team, which won 102 games and the WS Title, had some real stars on it's roster.  Anchoring the lineup were two future HOF'ers: 

1. Playing Left Field, the truly amazing Will Stevenson (.302|.391|.570, with 42 HRs and 110 RBIs); and, 
2. Catcher/DH, Bruce Sandberg (.296|.360|.587), with 39 HRs, 97 RBIs, and a career high ERA Against of only 3.42.  He happened to make the All Star Team and win the Home Run Derby that season as icing on the cake.

Adding to that duo, although not HOF Inductees, the S23 Papaya offense featured some other incredible All-Star talent:

• Playing a flawless 1B, Miguel Andujar hit (.292|.385|.588) with 43 HRs and 113 RBIs and made the All-Star team;
• Playing Center Field, Harry Sanchez, who was nearing the end of his amazing Gold Glove laden career, managed to hit (.271|.337|.406) and although declining, fielded well; 
• Despite his weak bat -- which makes the team NP/PA record even more impressive -- playing a quite rangy (RF 5.33) Shortstop and truly shoring up the defense was the then quite young Philip Jackson.  Jackson managed to win a Gold Glove that season; and, 
• Shoring up the middle infield defense at Second Base was a platoon of veteran Alton Howard (3 time All Star who, while declining, still managed a RF of 4.81) and then rookie, Hack Brown (who played a decent 2B despite his inexperience, and managed to draw a lot of walks with his good batting eye).  Considering Brown played a defensive position, he finished that season with a NP/PA of a not-too-shabby 3.71.

And that combination of a high NP/PA (which tires out the opponent's starter) and strong defense up the middle, with some very good pitching to be fair, led to one of the more impressive teams in the World's History.

It's worth noting that in Season 26 Ripkin won another WS title with a similar formula. He still had Bruce Sandberg (C), Miguel Andujar (1B), and for half of the season had the then-aging Will Stevenson (LF), but by then Phillip Jackson  (SS) was an All-Star as well as a GG winner, and Ripken had managed to actually improve at CF with the Silver Slugger and All-Star, Morgan Venafro. 

In all, we lost a great owner when Ripken hung it up, but I think his formula for success was quite sound.  

As of this posting, Redsox666666's Chicago Charge is on pace to tie the World record, with Mr_Stickball's Colorado Stickballers nipping at the record with a close-but-no-cigar NP/PA of 3.75.  Can either of these squads dethrone Ripken's S23 SA Papaya?  And do these metrics really matter very much in your opinion?  What do you value most as a GM/Manager?