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| Standings | |||||||
| Leaders | |||||||
| RESULTS | * | * | |||||
| Deals | |||||||
| Tradewinds(Ads) /Bargain Bin | |||||||
| Comet Tales | |||||||
| About MY Team | |||||||
| Up
from the Matt | |||||||
| Stepping to the Plate | * | ** | * | ||||
| Capital Ideas | * | * | * | * | |||
| What A Game! | |||||||
| Lighter Side | * | * | ** | ||||
| Mitt Section | ** | * | * | ||||
| My Mets | * | ||||||
| No Crying in BASEBALL | * | ** | ** | * |
Table of contents for this page:
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CBL LINKS
| 2018 CBL DRAFT ======================================================== ========================================================== Rolz.org dice room used for drafts |
Larks 3 at Cubs 2 Game 1 Larks 7 Cubs 6 Larks take a 2-0 lead in the 1st, Cubs get 3 in 2nd, Larks get 2 in the 3rd Cubs get 1 to tie. Larks score 1 in the 6th & 8th Cubs tie with 2 in the 9th. Larks win scoring 1 in the 11th. Jennings get a save Game 2 Larks 8 Cubs 7 Larks & Cubs again go extra innings. Larks leading 6-0 after 3 the Cubs battle back taking a 7-6 lead after 7 but the Larks get 1 in the 9th to tie and win in the 11th on a Sac Fly Game 3 Larks 6 Cubs 10 Scoreless after 3 both teams score 2 in the 4th. Cubs score 2 in the 6th, 4 in the 7th & 3 in the 8th. Larks had the Cubs worried scoring 3 in the 8th & come up with 1 in the 9th Game 4 Larks 8 Cubs 5 Snell throws a complete game gives up 3 Homers . Larks score in the 2nd, 4th, 5th & 6th innings while the Cubs score in the 4th,5th & 7th. Game 5 Larks 0 Cubs 4 Buchholz goes 8 2/3 innings K’d 7 as the Larks Schoop makes 3 errors to give the game away. Cubs scored all they needed in the 2nd on 2 hits Runners left on base: Larks 8 Cubs 12 Whiz Kids 2 at Ungulates 3 Gm 1: Ungulates put up crooked numbers in 5 different innings, Upton homers twice, in easy 11-2 win Gm 2: F Romero pitches into the 8th, allowing only two hits, and C. Maybin goes deep as Whiz Kids even series with a 4-0 victory Gm 3: Myers, Polanco, Brantley homer in 7-run 6th inning, Ungulates win 8-7 Gm 4: Flaherty and Bettis combine on 3-hit shutout, Ungulates win 8-0 Gm 5: Kepler and Marisnick homer, E. Rodriguez gives up 2 runs in 8 innings, Whiz Kids salvage the finale 6-2 Canes 3 at Rogues 2 Rogues 1 at Canes 4 The Boynton Beach Hurricanes take 7 of 10 in this face to face match up with the Canes crushing Rogues pitching by hitting .297 and outscoring the Rogues 56 to 38. Gm1-Rogues win 5-4 behind 3 rbi by James McCann. Gardner had 4 hits in loss. Zimmerman hr. Gm2-Canes explode for 18 runs on 20 hits and hitting 8-15 with RISP to win 18-7. JD Martinez had 5 hits including a homerun, double and 3 rbi. Manny Machado had a hr and 5 rbi. A. Cabrera had 4 hits, 2 rbi, hr. Osuna blasted a pinch hit grand slam. Gm3-Rich Hill was masterful against his old team by spinning a 2 hit 8 inning shutout. Strop with a 123 save in a 3-0 win. An error allowed 2 runs to score as only 1 earned run scored during the tilt. Severino allowed 7h, 1 earned run in 8.1 innings with 9 k's Gm4-Manny Machado singled in the game winner in the 12th in a 4-2 Canes extra inning win. Eovaldi allowed only 3 hits over 7 Darvish allowed 4 hits over 6. Canes left 11 on base. Cabrera, Franco, Gallo homer Gm5-Michael Fulmer allowed no runs on 4 hits over 5 innings in the Rogues 5-4 win. Gallo had 2 hits including a homerun. Gm6-moving to Boynton Beach Manny Machado went 4-4 with 2 doubles while David Price scattered 6 hits over 7, striking out 11 in the Canes 3-1 win. Gm7-Machado continued his onslaught with 3 more hits (7 in a row over 2 games) driving in 3 with 2 homeruns. JD Martinez had 3 hits. Franco had 3 hits including 2 homeruns in the loss. Gm8-Cabrera's grand slam was the key to a 4 run 5th that carried the Canes to a 6-4 win. O'Hearn 3 hits, Marte 3 hits in loss. Gm9-Canes ko Rodon in 3rd and take a 5-0 lead that the Rogues could not overcome in this 5-3 Canes win. Gurriel 2 hits, hr, 2 rbi. Harper hr, 2 rbi in loss. Gm10-after dropping 7 of the last 8 to the Canes the Rogues finally break through with Aaron Nola's 17th victory in a 7-4 win. Souza entered for injured Bellinger and went 3-3 with an rbi and sb. Gallo 2 hits, 2 rbi, hr. Avila hr. In the 10 games Canes outscored the Rogues 56-38, hit .297 to Rogues .203, with an ERA of 3.76 to the Rogues 5.26. Rogues did out homer the Canes 13-12. Manny Machado crushed the Rogues batting .425 with 17 hits, 3 doubles, 3 homeruns, 13 RBI. JD Martinez hit .410 with 16 hits, scoring 10 times with 5 doubles and 1 homerun. Cabrera hit .370 with 3 homeruns. Gurriel .421. 5 Canes relievers combined for a 0.00 ERA in 17.1 innings of relief. Rich Hill was 2-0 with a 2.45 ERA. Tony Kemp hit .438 for the Rogues. Mitts 2 at Ungulates 3 If the Mitts end up missing the playoffs by one or two games it will likely be their inability to defeat the Ungulates in Arrickdale to blame. gm 1- The Mitts, down 6-3 as they came to bat in the 8th, rally for three runs in the 8th to finally tie the game up. But in the home 9th Hedges triples with one out and then scores as Alvarado uncorks a wild pitch. Final 8-7 Ungulates. Bettis gets the win. gm 2- Mitts score seven of their 11 runs in the final three innings to break open what was a close game. Mitts win 11-2. Hitting star was Bregman who had two doubles and two singles in the game. Urena defeats Gray. gm 3- Justin Upton had 2 HRs for the Ungs. Lucas Duda had two HRs for the Mitts, but each Upton dinger had a man on and each Duda dinger didn't. Home team prevails 5-4 with Bieber the winner, Teheran the loser, and Giles collecting the save. gm 4- Sabathia and Flaherty were masterful. The teams went scoreless to the bottom of the 9th. With two outs Harrison Bader took Adam Warren deep resulting in a 1-0 Ungulates win. This was only the 3rd hit of the game for Arrickdale but that's all that was needed. Giles wins it, Warren (obviously) loses it. gm 5- Mitts were down 3-2 going to the 7th looking like the series would go against them 1 game to 4. Manny Pina hit a game tying homer and the teams were tied going to the 9th. This time the Mitts' offense stepped up and score 6 runs in the final frame. Vazquez had a 1-2-3 home 9th so the Mitts get out of Dodge winning just 2 of 5 in Arrickdale. Whiz Kids 4 at Titans 1 Gm 1: Alex Cobb, of all people, hurls a CG win for the Kids. He wasn't that good, but thanks to 12 walks from Titans pitching, and homers from Beltre, Carpenter ,and Thames, Whiz Kids won easily, 13-4 Gm 2: Both teams scored 2 in the first but then the bats fell silent until a J. Marisnick RBI single in the 12th gave the Kids a 3-2 victory. Gm 3: Galvis, Grandal 2-RBI hits in the the 7th as Titans erase a deficit and win 5-4 Gm 4: Beltre 3-run HR breaks the game open; Kids win 6-2 Gm 5: T. Ross the hard luck loser, as his 4 innings of 1-hit ball in relief leave him on the losing side. The one hit was M. Carpenter's solo HR in the 7th, which provided the difference in a 4-3 Whiz Kids win. Cubs 2 at Kids 2 Cubs 6 Kids 8-Carpenter 2 hits, HR, 2 RBI’s, Kids get Great relief pitching from Stewart Cubs 4 Kids 7-Marisnick 2 hits and 3 RBI’s…Minor gets the win. Cubs 4 Kids 3-Bryant and Altuve 4HR’s…Altuve 4 hits and 3 RBI’s Cubs 7 Kids 3-Bryant 2 HR’s, Solar and Carpenter 3 hits |
BLOCK DATES The esteemed manager from the great city of Lake Michigan points out that in the past this webpage has listed block dates and wonders whether they can be added. The answer is YES. BLOCK
2 - ended on June 22 BLOCK 3 - begins on June 28 BLOCK 3 - ends on August 6 BLOCK 4- begins on August 11 BLOCK 4 - ends on September 30 |
| Managers may trade draft picks for the next free agent draft only. As soon as the free agent draft begins, picks for the subsequent draft may be traded. A manager may trade as many of his draft picks as he wishes, but must have at least six draft picks at all times, two of which must be in the fourth round or earlier. |
...And
40 to Go...
The League Three-quarters of the way through the season, the Mavericks continue to lead the league with 76 wins, as well a 2.99 ERA. They are fifth in BA, runs scored, and home runs, and third in stolen bases. Sounds like a pretty balanced team. Two wins behind them, the Icons are fourth in both BA and ERA and first in runs scored with 631. The Icons pitching staff is also leading the league with 1,224 strikeouts, and its defense leads in X-ball conversions at 84%. The Hurricanes lead the CBL with a .266 BA, the Cubs lead with 173 home runs, and the Comets lead with 120 stolen bases. The now lowly Ungulates have given up an even 200 home runs. It would appear that at least some of the Mavercks' success this year is due to its pinch hitting. The Mavs' Christian Villanueva leads the league in PHing average at .500. And that's not something like 2-for-4, it's 9-for-18 with 3 home runs! Otherwise, the team's Ji-Man Choi is pinch hitting .346 (9-for-26) and Mitch Garver is at .364 (4-for-11). Interestingly, due probably to use as a platoon player (a righty with a 7L balance) Villanueva overall has hit .308 with 17 home runs in 156 at bats for the Mavs this year! Khris Davis is looking like the protypical player of the current era for the Blackjacks. He has already hit 45 home runs with 100 RBI -- both leading the CBL -- but has struck out 136 times. Meanwhile, Michael Brantley is leading the league with a .316 BA for the Ungulates. If that looks low, it is. In 2017 the Larks' D. J. LeMahieu led at .344, and last year the Mitts' Daniel Murphy took the crown at .358. And did you notice that the A's Brandon Nimmo is running away with the HBP title with 30. The Bombers' Jacob deGrom is handily leading the league in ERA at 1.66, more than a half run below his nearest competitor. He also leads with 4 shutouts. However, Corey Kluber has been equally impressive for the Huskers with no less than 14 complete games. If he did that for real these days, I imagine his arm would fall off. But there is no truth to the rumors that his lengthy CBL appearances have attributed to his numerous injuries in the Big Leagues this year. And how about Lucas Giolito of the Black Jacks, showing a 9-8 record despite a 6.19 ERA! Of course, much of his success can be attributed to his league-leading run support of 6.21 from the Atlantic City offense, which is second in the league with 583 runs scored. Three CBL regulars have not missed an X-ball chance this year, all OFs. They are Billy Hamilton of the Dream, Mike Trout of the Indians, and Jake Marisnik of the Whiz Kids. The Comets As for the Comets, their outlook is bleak; they have fallen two games below .500 and now have to face their Western Division opponents, three of them with winning records. Individual stats have been pretty weak for the team this year with top hitters being Paul Goldschmidt (.274-23-66), Ron Acuna (.261-20-63), and Jose Ramirez (.228-25-79). With the team leading the CBL in steals, Whit Merrifield leads the league with 37, and Travis Jankowski has 23. One oddity for the Comets this season is their right-handed DH Tyler White,who actually leads the team in BA at .298 in 151 at bats. In the Bigs in 2018 he had 210 at bats and 27 extra base hits. Through his 151 at bats inthe CBL, he has 17 extra base hits, not that far off from his real stats. However in real life he had 12 double, 3 triples, and 12 homers. In the CBL he has 2 doubles, 8 triples, and 7 homers. I have no idea where all those triples came from! Unfortunately, he has bottomed out in the Big Leagues this year, hitting just .208 with three homers and recently being traded from Houston to the Dodgers. On the mound, Jose Quintana has become the first Comet pitcher to reach double digit wins, now with a record of 10-7 and a 3.24 ERA. Based on my personal record in SOM, that ERA is pretty much unheard of for a lefty! And Mychal Givens continues to suprise in the team's closer role. He has pitched in 55 games and has a 1.76 ERA, a 7-2 record, and 21 saves. As many other Comets, he has had a very rough season in the Big Leagues this year. I'm sure you did not notice, but August 11 was doomsday for potential Comet closers next year. Givens -- trying to slowly improve his ERA after a few so-so games -- gave up 3 runs in 1/3 of an inning, and Comets' setup man Taylor Rogers -- who has been closing games for the Twins this year -- gave up 4 runs in 1/3 of an inning. And just to make the day as bad as possible, my closer in my other league -- Houston's Roberto Osuna -- gave up 3 runs in 2/3 of an inning. Thank goodness we have 40 or so games left in the Big Leagues so one or two of them can get their card back down to a useable level! Mea Culpa And finally, I concede to Matt as far as Shane Bieber. Despite Bieber's horrendous performance in the CBL this year, he has really come around for the Indians this year (12-5, 3.27, and 200 whiffs in 162 IP). On top of that, he was an all-star and even won the game's MVP, though I have to say it was a pretty weak choice for a guy who only pitched one innning...I figure it was a homer pick since the game was played in his home stadium. But, yes, Matt, I have to agree it was a good pick! CBL ERAs I have no idea if the chart below reveals anything at all. However, I have often thought of doing it, so I finally just did it! I'm not sure that it shows anything other than what is already a moot point, but note that the 10 of the 11 CBL teams with a winning record at the 3/4-point rank in the top ten as far as overall ERA, with the Mitts just below at 13. And each one of them has a lower bullpen ERA than its starting rotation. Of course, most other teams on the chart also have better relievers than starters, but their starting pitcher ERAs are higher. The three that have higher relief ERAs are all below .500. And of course obviously hitting comes into play, such as with the Whiz Kids who are at the bottom of the barrel in the standings, although their ERA ranks 14th and their bullpen is a little better than their rotation. However, they rank 19th in runs scored with just 435, which is 3.6 per game. Anyhow, I present this data for you to use as you wish...study it hard and store it away in the baseball node of your brain...or just ignore it! But that 2.99 overall ERA put up by Maverick hurlers is pretty impressive! And how about that Blackjack bullpen!
Just for Fun - An Advance Look at The End of the Season After a significant study of recent starting pitchers, a careful analysis of the baseball schedule, and phone calls to a few Major League teams, I have produced the following schedule to prognasticate starting pitchers for each team on September 30. Some seem to be obvious candidates; others are as good as I could do. Sometimes I think that someday the World Series really will be a world series! Monday, September 30, 2019All Times Eastern. Subject To Change.
|
  |  |
 from THE NY DAILY NEWS |  from THE NY DAILY NEWS |
 from SI.com |  from SI.com |
MITTS GET OFF TO GOOD START IN NETPLAY SERIES VS 1st PLACE BOMBERS With both the Mets and the Yankees off on Monday Mitch and I decided to try to get our 10 game block 4 series started via Netplay. It's been years since our two teams were vying for the same playoff spot so that, combined with improvements in Netplay itself, made it reasonable to knock these games off in face-to-face manner. We got four games in with the Mitts dropping game 1 but winning the next three. Game 1 saw the Bombers using their uber-ace Jacob deGrom and while the Mitts managed to ding him for three runs in his 8 inning stint it wasn't enough as the Bombers took that 4-3. In game 2 the Mitts bounced back in a big way winning 6-0 behind Urena with relief help from Adam Warren. Game 3 saw a dramatic ending as DJ Lemahieu, usually pathetic against righty pitching, doinked an RBI single in the bottom of the 9th off of David Hernandez to score the winning run in a 4-3 Mitts victory. Game 4 was a slugfest turned pitchers duel turned marathon. The teams were tied at 8 thru eight innings but stayed that way into the 13th. Justin Turner opened that frame with a double against the lefty Adam Conley. Bregman followed with the game winning RBI single. Some time later this week we'll find time for game 5 of the Bombers-at-Mitts series. |
UNLIMITED PLAYERS - WE HAVE ONE, SOON PROBABLY MORE Monday
morning's look at the Custom Team's report for the Mitts show that one
player has reached the magic 450 AB mark to make him unlimited in CBL
play next year. And happily he's one of the several players I
most want to have unlimited use of. The player is 2B/utility man
DJ Lemahieu. DJ's
card will also have ratings for 3B and 1B but unless someone very
surprising comes to us on draft day I can't see anyone but Lemahieu
manning 2B for the Mitts in 2020. Someone with a lot more plate appearances than Lemhaieu is Santana but that's because of the 55 walks that he has that Lemahieu doesn't. Still by this weekend I would expect that Santana will also have reached the 450 AB mark. Within the next 10 to 14 days I would also expect the unlimited status to come to Rosario, a non walker, and Bregman, a big time walk guy. Turner will probably get there too in September but I always worry about injury to the veteran 3Bman. One could say that he's the best bet of the four to not make it. The next two Mitts with the most ABs are Joc Pederson (357 ABs) and Daniel Murphy (339). Joc never starts against lefties. I doubt he'll get anywhere near 450 ABs. Murphy has been dinged a lot this year and also tends to sit against lefty starters. I wouldn't even bet he'll get to 400 ABs. |
KOLE CALHOUN - AN EXAMPLE OF MODERN DAY BASEBALL The new mantra of baseball is that strikeouts are fine, low batting averages are no problem, as long as a player walks enough and hits many HRs. The Criers' Kole Calhoun has a season that displays all this. Here's his career as of Tuesday morning.  The
guy I want (and Eric too since he has him on the CBL Comets) is
the 2014 version of Calhoun. But the .270+ batting average looks
like it's in his past never to return. The 804 OPS is a career best if you discount the half season of 2013. But he gets there mostly because of a career high .480 slugging percentage. He may finish with a career high total of walks. He's already surpassed his career high in HRs with a month and a half to go. Reaching a HR total in the mid 30s would seem possible. Stratwise we always need to check out the splits.  For
the Criers this dovetails well with his platoonmate Aaron Judge.
Judge is crushing lefties so we'll likely use Calhoun against
hard RHSPs and give Judge all the starts against backwards righties and
all the southpaws. To tell the truth I was close to cutting Calhoun off the Criers but still thought he had some good seasons left in him. Glad I wasn't rash there. |
GRICHUK- STILL NOT GOOD BUT IS COMING ON Had you asked me about Criers' 2nd round pick Randall Grichuk a few weeks ago I would have volunteered that it was another pick that just wasn't working out. And in reality that might still be the case. Fortunately for team Smithtown someone turned on a light switch for this player right around the first of this month. Let's look at some graphics starting with stats he's put up since becoming a major league regular.  His
batting averages don't match Khris Davis' for consistency but they are
eerily similar to each other. Both his OBP and slugging are down
this year from last although the OBP is close. His 2019 looks
almost identical to his 2017. In Strat it's the splits that tell a story.  He's
not looking good right now against righties so if the season ended
right now the most help he could be would be as a platoon RFer or CFer
(he hasn't played left this season unfortunately). Since he will
likely be a CF-3 and since Kiermaier is currently backwards it is hard
to see Grichuk getting a lot of CF time. He may need to soak up
time against lefties while playing RF. Between him, Kole
Calhoun, and the partial Aaron Judge season the rightfield slot should
be adequately covered. This last graphic shows how bleak things were until the August renaissance.  It's
unrealistic to expect him to keep OPSing over 1000 until the season
ends. When he cools off if he can keep his OPS somewhat
over 800 he will finish the season as a mild disappointment.
Considering where things were on July 31 we'll settle for that
level of disappointment. |
CBL's BEST INTEREST OF
THE LEAGUE
COMMITTEE Matt-
commissioner Mitch- league statistician Jordan- rules coordinator Mark - representing West division Wayne- representing Chicago division Bob- representing South division |
