Meet Your Hall of Famer: Robert Jacome

 

Bio:   Robert Jacome was born in Penasco, NM (Pop. 1200 50 miles north of Santa Fe). Jacome was a 2-time All-State player in New Mexico before attending University of Louisiana at Monroe. At Louisiana Monroe he was a 3-year starter with his Junior year becoming a 2nd team All-American.

Draft: Was the 6th pick in Season 30 by Cincinnati (deandg).   Signed for $3.54 Million.

Scout Rodger Henry- “He is an above average pitcher in all aspects of his game.  Pluses: he can throw a lot of innings and is left-handed.  I project him to be a 2 or 3 starter. 

Career Earnings: $75,349,000

Career: Robert Jacome was the 6th pick in Season 30 by Cincinnati where he played 10+ seasons (Cincinnati, Ottawa, Tacoma).  He also played for Toronto, and San Juan.  He made his Major League debut in Season 33.  During his career, he won the Cy Young Award in Season 37 and won a World Series in Season 35 with Ottawa.  He also threw a No-Hitter in Season 39 while being a 5-Time All-Star throughout his career. Although he won the Cy Young in Season 37, Season 39 was his best season.  In that year he had 18 wins to 2 loses, 207.1 IN, 190 K’s, .201 OVA, 1.04 WHIP, and 1.74 ERA.  Over his career he won 200 games, threw 3016.1 IN, 2459 K’s, .229 OVA, 1.17 WHIP, and 3.09 ERA. 

Speech Highlight- “I have been doubted in baseball all my career. I am extremely grateful for owner deandg for taking a chance and drafting me.  I have tried to have an impact on others (fake baseball players, ha) as deandg did to so many who have played HBD long enough to of interacted with him.  He was no doubt one of the best owners HBD has ever seen.  And this enshrinement is a testament to him!"

Meet Your Hall of Famer: Donald Miles

Bio:   Donald Miles was born in Ridgway, CO (Pop. 924 located in the middle of the state in Western Colorado). Miles played his youth baseball in the Colorado Baseball Academy.  The highlight of playing at the Academy was throwing a no-hitter in the championship game of the Colorado Classic held in Denver.  A 96-team tournament with teams from all over the country.  He also led the high school basketball team to a playoff appearance.

Draft: Was the 1st pick in Season 33 by Kansas City (nacholibre).   Signed for $6.2 Million.

Scout Max Ligtenberg- “Great presence on the mound. He is a winner.  A few small adjustments to his mechanics could lead to great control.  His sinker, slider and curveball are above average pitches. And he pitches well to left handers.”

Manager (dfdarby): “Donald Miles was a true workhorse who could be counted on for 33 to 38 starts a season on his way to 761 career starts. He won 15 or more games in 11 straight seasons, including his 22-3 Cy Young campaign in Season 46.  He followed that with a no-hitter on Opening Day of Season 47 and compiled a season-best 1.06 WHIP.  And he stuck with our nomadic organization for 22 years as we moved from Philadelphia, to Detroit, Chicago, Montreal, Milwaukee, Cincinnati, Sioux Falls, Toledo, and finally Chicago again.  A true Hall of Famer who finished with exactly 100 more wins than losses (326-226), he probably could have won 400 had we traded him to a perennial contender.

Career Earnings: $159,350,000

Career: Donald Miles was the 1^st pick in Season 33 by Kansas City and played his entire professional baseball career in that organization (8 different Cities).  He made his Major League debut in Season 35.  During his career, he won the Cy Young Award in Season 46 and was a 10-time All-Star.  He also threw a No-Hitter on opening day in Season 47. Although he won the Cy Young in Season 46, Season 49 was his best season.  In that year he had 18 wins to 4 loses, 251.1 IN, 176 K’s, .208 OVA, 1.07 WHIP, and 2.40 ERA.  Over his career he won 326 games, threw 5265.1 IN, 3624 K’s, .245 OVA, 1.27 WHIP, and 3.52 ERA.  He holds 2 Career World Records for Innings Pitched at 5265.1 and Quality Starts 492!  He also holds single season records for the current Cincinnati Franchise in OVA .208 (47), ERA 2.40 (49) IN 277.7 (43), Shut outs 4 (47), K’s 223 (40), WHIP 1.06 (47) and Wins 22 (46).  As well as Career marks for Cincinnati in OVA .245, CG 65, ERA 3.52, IN 5263.3, Shutouts 21, K’s 3624, WHIP 1.27, and Wins 326.

Speech Highlight- “All I ever wanted to do is win baseball games.  I felt I owed it to the fans to be on the mound every time it was my turn to pitch.  I was lucky enough to be able to do that with one organization my entire career.  I want to thank the Cincinnati organization for allowing me the opportunity to do that."

                                         Season 57 Annual Awards

McBain Award: Awarded to the franchise that breaks the single season record for wins 135.  Not awarded. Las Vegas won the most games last season --105.

Dean Award : Given to a player who overcomes an injury or some other hurdle and has a really good season.  The winner  is Geovany Diaz of the Las Vegas Galaxy.  Geovany had 1- 60 day stint on the Disable List in season 56. In season 56 he had 397 at bats hitting .237. After rehabbing his back injury in the off-season Geovany hit.317 in 605 at bats winning the Silver Slugger award for third basemen.

Kobelesky Award: Given to the franchise that wins the most games throughout all six playing levels.The winner is the Rogue One. They won 541 games;  a .664 winning percentage.

Season 57 Awards Voting

In discussions about the Hall of Fame and the All Time Team, I've been using a metric that I've taken to calling the "Importance Score." That is the player's WAR per year average as a baseline and then they can earn bonus points for World Series Rings, Pennants, MVPs, Cy Youngs, years with 4+ WAR and leading the league in certain categories. It occurred to me several days ago that this would also be a good metric to use to compare the candidates for the end of year awards (although the Cy Young/MVP bonuses wouldn't be applied in this case.) In an effort to use the Importance Score this season, I've taken a look at the league leader boards before doing the WAR math...here are the results:

AL MVP 

• Carlos Romero (LF-Jackson), 10.51 WAR
• Charles Banks (CF-Houston), 7.47 WAR
• Ronald Lewis (RF-New York), 8.94 WAR
• Eugene Lee (2B-Jackson), 7.67 WAR
• Gerardo Montanez (1B-Santa Cruz), 3.98 WAR

NL MVP 

• Kent Stoops (CF-Hartford), 7.27 WAR
• Alex Fernandez (RF-Santa Fe), 6.45 WAR
• Geovany Diaz (3B-Las Vegas), 6.81 WAR
• Dennis Morgan (RF-San Juan), 5.12 WAR
• Rich Winn (CF-Pawtucket), 6.15 WAR

AL Cy Young

• Gregory Brush (SP-Houston), 4.25 WAR
• Kendry Calderon (RP-Boston), 1.85 WAR
• Jimmie Urbina (SP-Ottawa), 3.89 WAR
• Tucker Burton (SP-Louisville), 2.85 WAR
• Cal Langfeld (SP-Houston), 2.73 WAR

NL Cy Young 

• AJ Moreno (SP-Las Vegas), 6.91 WAR
• Jeimer Rodriguez (SP-Hartford), 1.03 WAR
• Anthony Boudreau (SP-Seattle), 6.51 WAR
• Bud Rucker (SP-Santa Fe), 6.25 WAR
• Albert Perez (SP-San Juan), 3.37 WAR

AL Rookie of the Year

• Joel Glaus (SP-Jackson), 1.79 WAR
• Vince Fonville (RF-Ottawa), 2.01 WAR
• James Brock (SP-Santa Cruz), 3.07 WAR
• Jose Cervantes (RP-Houston), 1.72 WAR
• Francisley James (RP-Boise), 0.17 WAR

NL Rookie of the Year

• Bob Haywood (LF-Santa Fe),  3.08 WAR
• 
  

         Another Saturday night drinking at the Barleymoe

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

Elijah: Fellas I think we haven't talked about defense in a long time. Tonight I thought I might like to pick your brains on the subject. We aren't that far from starting season 58 and the worst thing for a  franchise is if their fielding coach retires or won't resign. Let's start there in our discussion.

Johnny: Last year the average fielding coach made just over 1 million dollars. eleven guys made $750,000, 10 made $500,000, 2 made a salary between those numbers and one guy squeezed a team for a little more than $750,000. That leaves use with 9 fielding coaches making more than a million dollars.

Jack: None of those nine came close to the Mac Daniels contract signed in season 33 for 8.3 million dollars although one guy got 7.1 million.

Jim: Well that was Acosta. He always get paid big money. In the last 10 seasons he's been paid 23.7475 million dollars.

Elijah: Is there any correlation of money to results?

Jack: Acosta took a below average fielding team in season 56 and had them ranked 6th in season 57.

Johnny: Looking at the stats for the season I was  most surprised by Boise having 124 more plus plays than minus plays. Only 5 teams had over 100 plus plays and the Rogue One led all teams with 137 plus  plays.

Jim: I like to give a shout out for the Blue Hens who also had over a 100 plus plays and led the league with just 5 minus plays for the season.

Jim: The average runs scored last season was 4.78 runs per game. The most unearned runs given up by one team last year was 105. That almost 22 games  worth of runs.

Jack: Don't be stupid 105 runs isn't 22 games worth of runs; it's .65 runs a game.

Johnny: Either way it shows the importance of defense and why in the not so distance future managers are going to be bidding money that could go to prospects or free agents on guys that once the season starts are forgotten.

Meet Your Hall of Famers: Kris Watanabe

 

Bio:   Kris Watanabe was born in Monroe, MI (Pop. 20,733 located 40 miles south of Detroit). Watanabe made that 40-minute trip north to attend Clarenceville High School (Trojans) in Livonia, MI, a suburb of Detroit.  There he lead the Trojans to back-to-back Division 2 final appearances, coming up short in both chances.  He was selected to the Detroit All Metro team in his Junior and Senior seasons.  He also led the high school football team to a state finals appearance as the starting QB.  

Draft: Was the 1st pick in Season 34 by Albuquerque (danxmcgraw).   

Scout Paul McKnight- “A true 5 tool player, above average in all 5 areas.  Hits for good contact but does not sacrifice power.  Has above average speed and can steal some bases.   His defense is very good and could develop into a Major League SS with good range and a quality arm.”

Career Earnings: $160,609,000

Career: Kris Watanabe was the 1^st pick Season 34 by Albuquerque and made his MLB debut in Season 37. He played the first 11 years of his career in the Albuquerque/Wichita organization before finishing the final 9 years in New York.  During his career, he was a 7-time All-Star with 5 Silver Sluggers (41, 42, 43, 44, 46) and 1 Gold Glove (52). Season 44 was his best season when he hit .301 AVG, 45 HR and drove in 166 runs.  He added 143 R, 202 H, 35 2B, 5 3B, 73 BB, 31 SB and .939 OPS that season. Over his career he accumulated .282 AVG, .853 OPS, 1695 R, 2766 H, 516 2B, 84 3B, 482 HR, 1625 RBI, 1052 BB and 438 SB. He holds single season records for Albuquerque/Wichita (currently Colorado Springs) in Runs 143 (44), and RBI 166 (44).

Speech Highlight- “I have always tried to live up to the city of Detroit.  Hardworking and earning everything I accomplished.” 

Meet Your Hall of Famers: Jeimer Ortega

 

Bio:   Jeimer Ortega was born in Monte Cristi, DO (Pop. 42,657 located northwest region of the country in the coastal lowlands near the border with Haiti.) Ortega was found by scouts after he hit 8 homeruns playing in the World Baseball Classic for the Dominican Republic (8 games). 

International Signing: Signed for 19.1 million in Season 36 (2^nd highest that year) by Toronto (Seventy_77)

Scout Paul McKnight- “Is a true power hitter.  The ball sounds different when he squares it up.  He has above average contact and a good eye to go along with his power.  Fielding is below average but the bat overshadows it.”

Manager (Seventy_77): “Best player for our franchise ever.  Unbelievably consistent.  Kind of funny, but back when I made that blockbuster trade with Las Vegas to acquire the stud pitcher De Los Santos and dealt 2 of my top 3 prospects.  In less than a week later I was gifted Ortega in IFA.  He did get to play his entire career in Toronto.  Got lucky the year he went into free agency that it was same year as Rey Jung was also a free agent and was a few years younger and everyone was bidding on him and Ortega just happened to sign early and I got him cheaper than I thought I would.  And Ortega and Jung seemed to battle it out for MVP’s in the NL until Jung went to the AL.”

Career Earnings: $109,887,000

Career: Jeimer Ortega was an International Free Agent in Season 36 by Toronto and made his MLB debut in Season 39. He played his entire 21-year career in the Toronto organization.  During his career, he won 6 Most Valuable Player Awards (41, 44, 45, 47, 48, 50), and was a 9-time All-Star. He also won Rookie of the Year in Season 39 and 10 Silver Sluggers (40, 41, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50). He was also part of the World Series Campion team in Season 45. His third MVP award in Season 45 was his best season.  In that season he hit .311 AVG with a 1.065 OPS, and added 135 R, 28 2B, 3 3B, 49 HR, 118 RBI, and 15 SB. That lead him to amass career numbers of .300 AVG, .957 OPS, 1760 R, 2688 H, 403 2B, 31 3B, 652 HR, 1570 RBI, 1256 BB and 288 SB. He holds single season records for Toronto in Hits 217 (50), and 171.86 RC (50). He also has Career records for HR 652, R 1760, RC 1996.55, and BB 1256 for Toronto.

Speech Highlight- “I lived the baseball dream, from my youth leagues in the Dominican to playing in the World Baseball Classic to the tops of the Major Leagues.  I have been able to accomplish it all and now to top it off with being inducted into the Hall of Fame.”