| Sun | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat | |
| 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:
| |
CBL LINKS
| ======================================================== ========================================================== ========================================================== CBL RULEBOOK - March 2019 editionRolz.org dice room used for drafts |
| Kids drop under .500 but rest of the East remains bunched up. Larks and Penguins fight it out for Chicago division title while the other three are looking toward the lottery. McConchies dominate the south. And oh how the Icons have fallen. Mavs and A's are in a virtual tie for the Western division lead. |
Comets 3 at Ponies 1 Game 1. Comets, 14-7. Roark vs. Bauer. Poor Ponies starter Trevor Bauer was left in for 7 innings, giving up 13 runs. He ended up throwing 133 pitches with a 119 pitch tire mark. Five home runs in the game, Ponies Yoan Moncada and Adam Frazier and Comets Jose Ramirez, Alex Verdugo, and Ron Acuna. Tanner Roark gave up 5 runs in 6 IP, but got the win. Game 2. Comets, 1-0. Quintana vs. Leake. Two so-so pitchers might have pitched their best games of the year! The only run came in the 3rd inning when Comet catcher Roberto Perez tripled and Adalberto Mondesi doubled him home. Ponies managed only four hits, all singles. Comet closer Taylor Rogers got his 13th save. Game 3. Comets, 5-0. Soroka vs. Matz. Again solid pitching on both sides. Comet Daniel Murphy hit a 3-run home run in the 3rd inning that pretty much decided the game. Comet starter Mike Soroka gave up just 2 hits, and the Ponies Steven Matz went 6 innings and did fine except for that 3rd inning. Ron Acuna also homered for the Comets. Game 4. Ponies, 6-2. A. Sanchez vs. Ray. The Ponies bunched their hits for the win, despite being outhit 14 to 8. No homers in this game – surely the “largest” stadium in the league with a ballpark homer rating of 1 – but two Comet errors and 4 doubles helped the Ponies to an easy win. Moncada had 3 RBI. Two walks, two wild pitches, and Frazier’s second double of the game scored two runs and put the game away in the 8th. Robbie Ray lasted just 5 innings, but got the win, and Jesse Chavez fired 3-1/3 innings of shutout ball for the save. Larks 3 at Huskers 1 Game 1 Larks 1 WOM 2 Maeda & Bailey have a pitcher’s duel as Maeda goes 7 innings while Bailey goes 6. Larks score 1 st with a run in the 3 rd and held the lead till the 7 th when the Huskers tied the score as Maeda gave up just 2 hits. In the 9 th Font gave up a solo Homer to A. Gordon for the win. Game 2 Larks 5 WOM 4 Huskers take an early lead with 1 in the 2 nd. Larks finally scored in the 8 th with 5 runs. Huskers make a game of it with 2 in the 8 th & 1 in the 9 th. Homers by Gordon and Peralta. Game 3 Larks 2 WOM 1 The Larks and Mavs go extra innings as both teams scored early the Huskers with 1 in the 1 st and the Larks with 1 in the 2 nd. Pitchers took over the game as zeros were on the board until the 10 th when the Larks with 2 out Newman & Pillar singled Gregorius then singled to right scoring Newman for the win Game 4 Larks 11 WOM 1 The Larks bats came alive as they pounded out 16 hits scoring in the 2 nd,3 rd, 4 th, & 5 th innings The Larks Cease, Font and Hughes held the Huskers scoreless till the 9 th when Hughes gave up a solo Homer to D. Peralta Crabs 1 at Titans 3 Gm 1. Crabs 6 Titans 15. Crabs’ pitchers BAnderson, CMartin, and NRamirez each get hammered by the relentless Titan attack. Arenado had 4 hits, 3 RBIs, HR... Soto 3 hits 3 RBIs, HR... MRojas 2 hits, 5 RBIs.. Desclanfani earns the ‘W’... Gm 2. Crabs 4 Titans 6. Lucchesi defeats Junis.. Soto with 3 more hits, HR .. JHIcks hit 2 dingers, 3 RBIs... Gm 3. Crabs 2 Titans 1. Crabs Clevinger tossed 6 hitless and scoreless inning for the win.. Lorenzen went 2 innings surrendering an Arenado home run for the Titans only hit and run while Chapman picked up the save. Gm 4. Crabs 1 Titans 3. Hartford takes the series behind LCastillo who went 7.7 innings allowing only a Reddick HR. (The only Crab HR of the series.) Robles hit a solo shot for Hartford while Vogelbach hit a 2-run single for Titans’ other runs..Workman earned the save. Mitts 2 at Blackjacks 2 What started out well for the MidHudsonites ended badly thanks mostly to the play of Manuel Margot. gm 1-Justin Turner had three hits while Julio Teheran, for a pleasant change, gave the visitors 6-1/3 solid innings. Mitts win 5-2 with the Jacks scratching out just four hits. gm 2- Mitts rough up Giolito and win a laugher 10-3. Three Mitts (Bregman, Freese, C.Santana) had three hit games. Kelly and Hector Rondon split the game with Kelly going 5 and Rondon the last 4. gm 3- This one was tied 4-4 as the Bjacks came to bat in the home 6th. Margot's 3 run HR was part of a four run inning that busted things open. Jacks take it 8-4. In a battle of the V's Velasquez wins it while Vargas loses it. gm 4- Margot had two HRs in this one, both coming in 6-run innings. Musgrove cruises to a 13-2 win. Tommy Milone had a rare bad outing. Penguins 2 at Comets 2 Gm 1: Lots of action in a back and forth contest. The teams combined for 25 hits; and in the end, it was the Comets on top by a score of 8-6. Comets' Perez (originally drafted by the Dream) had a pair of HR's, while Matt Olson did the same for the Penguins, Gm 2: Roberto Perez must have found a new energy drink! The Comets catcher had another pair of HR's to lead the California team to a lopsided 12-7 victory. Five Comet players recorded a multi-hit game, as the home team cruised in this one. Gm 3: Penguins got a solid pitching performance from Chase Anderson - 1 run on just 4 hits in 7 IP. Matt Olson homered and Markakis had 3 RBI for the Penguins in the 7-1 win. Gm 4: Penguins scored 10 runs on 17 hits to win the finale 10-4, and gain a series split. Alberto, Hamilton and Olson each had 3 hits for McMurdo. One of Olson's hits was his 18th HR of the season. Larks 2 at Mavs 2 Game 1 Larks 5 Mavs 6 Mavs score 2 in the 2nd but the Larks comeback with 3 in the 3 rd. Larks then add 1 in the 5 th and 7 th for a 5-2 lead. Mavs pick up 2 in the 8 th 5-4 Larks. In the 9 th The Mavs tied the game when C. Dickerson leads-off and lofts one into the Cheap seats 2 outs later 3 walks and a single by Vargas brings home a winner Game 2 Larks 5 Mavs 0 Yarbrough throws a complete game. He gives up just 6 hits 2 walks and K’s 9. The Larks Reyes and Rizzo (2) go deep and Rizzo is 2-4 with 2 runs scored and 2 RBIs Tanaka gives up 3 Homers Game 3 Larks 2 Mavs 1 The Larks and Mavs have a pitchers duel a rare thing these days going extra innings till the 11th. Miley goes 6 innings walks no one, K’s 7, 1 HR to M. Cabrera. Cole goes 8, walks 1, K’s 13, Osuna gets the loss. Mavs pitchers K’d 17 while the Larks K’d 11. Mancini goes deep for the Larks but it's Gregorius’s solo in the 11 th for a win Game 4 Larks 3 Mavs 4 The Larks and Mavs again have a close game Larks score 2 in the first, Mavs get 1 in the 4 th & 5 th to tie. Larks score 1 in the 7 th only to have the Mavs with 2 outs in the 8 th get a Garver single and Ohtani takes Hughes over the centerfield fence for the win Penguins 3 at Athletics 1 Gm 1: A's had just 6 hits, but 3 of them left the yard. The last one, a Grandal 2 run shot in the top of the 9th, got the home team within a run. That was all she wrote, as the next 3 hitters went down in order. McMurdo won the opener 6-5. Gm 2: Both starters, Ryu for the Penguins and Woodruff for the A'a, were terrific! The game was scoreless heading into the home half of the 8th. Ryu put up a pair of K's for the first 2 hitters, and then uncharacteristically hit Rendon. Josh Bell immediately sent one into the cheap seats, and that was the ball game. A's evened the series with a 2-0 win. Gm 3: Last time out, Greinke had a perfect game vs the Penguins, This time, the magic was no where to be found. Penguins got to the A's star for 4 HR's - 2 of them from Realmuto. Penguins were in control of this one all the way, and won it 7-3. Gm 4: A's led it 3-0 heading into the 7th. That's when Chatwood came in to relieve SP, Pedro Lopez. The starter had tossed 6 innings of shutout ball, holding the Penguins to just 2 hits. But then …………. the wheels came off quickly, as the Penguins scored 6 times. The key blow was a Matt Olsen grand slam. Penguins bullpen recorded 3 scoreless innings, and McMurdo won it 6-3. Larks 4 at Comets 0 Game 1 Larks 8 Comets 6 Larks open with a 6 spot in the 1 st with Newman hitting a Grand Slam. The Comets battle back with 1 in the 3 rd& 5 th a 3 spot in the 8 th and another run in the 9 th but the Larks added 1 in the 8 th & 9 th. Homers by Dozier,Mancini,Newman,Schoop, McCutchen Acuna, & Murphy Game 2 Larks 7 Comets 6 The Comets get 1 in the 2 nd, Larks take the lead with 2 in the 4 th Comets tie the score with 1 in the bottom half. Comets take the lead with 1 in the 5 th but the Larks take it back with 4 in the 6 th. Comets try to comeback with 2 in the 7 th and in the 8 th both teams scored 1. Gurriel, Verdugo, Acuna & Mancini (2) all go deep. Game 3 Larks 6 Comets 1 Larks Mancini was the big hitter as he hit another Homer & had 3 RBIs. Larks get 1 in the 1 st and never looked back as they scored 1 in the 4th as did the Comets. Larks broke the game open with 4 in the 7 th. Game 4 Larks 8 Comets 6 The Comets lead 3-2 after 3 increased the lead to 5-2 scoring in the 4 th & 6 th. Larks score 1 in the 7 th as do the Comets 6-3 In the 9 th the Larks score 3 to tie 6-6. In the 11 th with 1 out the Comets make an error and with 2 outs a walk and a single loaded the base where Dozier hits a 2 run scoring single. Stallings had 3 RBIs on 3 Homers for the game. Whiz Kids 2 at Blackjacks 2 Gm 1: Kids overcome first ining pitcher injury with heroic 8+
innings in relief from E. Hernandez. Y.Diaz, Kepler 2 HRs each. Kids
win 12-3 Gm 2: Lugo 2 1/3 perfect innings in relief for win, Jacks string together singles in the 10th to win 3-2 Gm
3: Jacks come back again, this time with 3 runs in the bottom of the
9th to win 7-6, Devers 2-RBI triple ties it, Ervin single wins it Gm 4: Odorizzi 2 hit, CG, Tatis 2 HRs as Whiz Kids win 6-2. |
| 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. |
|
THE TALENT LEAGUE A very long time ago, I played a solitaire “league” for a several
years that was similar to what I now call the Talent League. I call the league I played recently “Talent,”
because the names of the teams are based on the talent of their position players. The top team has multi-talented players who
are bound to win the championship, and the players on the lowest team have
almost no talent of any kind and will certainly end up dead last by a long
way. I have always played the league not
to see who will win, but rather just to see how wild the statistics turn out. My prior play was before I joined any play-by-mail league
and was before the Strat computer game was developed. So, I spent many hours playing the leagues
with dice and the basic side of Strat cards.
This time, I spent a few hours setting up the Talent League, but once I
had it set to go, the computer played the entire season in under a minute! The Talent League is made up of four teams. They are 1.
The Hollywood Stars have players for the eight
fielding positions with very good hitting and very good fielding talent. 2.
The Las Vegas Bats have eight players have very
good hitting and very poor fielding. . 3. The Chicago Gloves hit very poorly but field very
well. 4.
The New York Clowns just don’t do anything well
at all. Hitting very good in the Talent League means a player who
hits both lefties and righties well, and fielding very good means having a “1”
fielding rating. Hitting poorly means
just what it sounds like, and fielding poorly means having a “4” fielding
rating. Due to the difficulty every year
of finding players that meet these qualifications, there are always one or two
players on each team with slightly worse fielding ratings than prescribed. So the “1” teams usually have a player or two
with a “2” rating, and the “4” teams now have one or two players with a “5”
rating. Also, the basic cards I used
years ago had no error ratings, so I did not pay much attention to those in assigning
players to teams in the Talent League looking strictly at the range number. In addition to eight position players, each team has a DH
and 11 pitchers, 5 starters and 6 relievers.
The pitching staff make-up was slightly different in my original leagues. However, in all the leagues I’ve played these
pitchers and DH are identical for each team.
For example, Nelson Cruz is the DH for the Stars, and an identical card
with the initials N.C. is the DH for the other three teams. The pitchers were re-named in the same
way. Pitchers were selected that had
ERAs relatively close to the league average 4.49. The only change made to the cards were 1) I
revised Carlos Quintana to a “3” reliever because I could not find a long lefty
with an ERA reasonably close to 4.49 and 2) I removed positions from the player
cards that they were not assigned to play, so that the computer manager would
use them only in the position I intended.
Computers managers were automatically generated. Teams played 50 games against each opposing team, using a
schedule generated by the computer.
Injury and control of over-usage rules were not used, so each position
player and the DH were in 150 games, and each starting pitcher started 30
games. I also checked to make sure that
Raisel Iglesias and his clones were designated as the closer for each
team. So, on to the stats!
First, the league’s final standings and some team stats:
As far as individual stats, some of the league leaders for
basic stat categories were: ·
BA – Anthony Rendon, Stars - .368 ·
HR – Mike Trout, Stars – 58 ·
RBI – Anthony Rendon, Stars – 160 ·
Runs – Mike Trout, Stars – 160 ·
Slugging Pct. – Anthony Rendon, Stars - .682 ·
SB – Jarrod Dyson, Gloves – 59 (and 24 caught
stealing) ·
Errors – Tim Anderson (SS), Bats – 29 (and a
61.5% X-ball success rate) ·
ERA – Joe Musgrove, Stars – 2.71 ·
Wins – Noah Syndergaard, Stars – 20 ·
Losses – Robert Ryder (Robbie Ray), Clowns - 24 ·
Saves
– Rob Ingala (Raisel Iglesias), Gloves – 29 ·
CG – Noah Syndergaard, Stars and Jim Miller (Joe
Musgrove), Gloves - 12 ·
Strikeouts – Robbie Ray, Stars – 280 ·
HR Allowed – Robert Ryder (Robbie Ray), Clowns –
61 On the awards and all-star screen that the Strat computer
provides, the five top players in both the MVP and Cy Young Awards are from the
Hollywood Stars. Interestingly, Trevor
Story edged out Anthony Rendon for the MVP, 372 to 365. Redon’s solid season is shown in the individual
stats above, along with his 47 home runs and a .449 OBP. For anyone who thinks the Stars 3B-man should
have been Nolan Arenado, it was a hard choice, but it looks like I made t he
right one! To snatch away the MVP, Story
carved out a splendid season with a BA of .311 (the Stars overall BA was .310),
146 runs scored, 127 RBI, 44 home runs, 36 stolen bases, and just 5 errors in
150 games at shortstop. His X-ball
success rate was 96.6%, and he tied Rendon with 210 hits. Only SS Tim Anderson of the Bats had more
hits, with 238. Meanwhile, DH Nelson Cruz and his clones all hit 50 or more
home runs and slugged.585 or higher. Because
they all faced the same pitchers, their numbers were surprisingly close despite
differences in the opposition’s fielding.
Individual stats were: 1.
Nelson Cruz, Stars - .320-51-127 2.
Nathan Clark, Bats - .298-56-125 3.
Nick Cooper, Gloves - .300-53-115 4.
Norman Carson - .285-50-99 Two others also hit the 50-homer mark, Cody Bellinger of the
Stars with 56 and Yordan Alvarez of the Bats with 53. As far as pitching staffs, the starting pitchers in the
league faced a rather odd system. The
computer manager set the rotation, which stayed as the identical 1-2-3-4-5
order throughout the season. Therefore,
each starting pitcher was pitted against the same opponent in each game. Not only that, but the computer manager set
up each team’s starting rotation order exactly the same, so starting pitchers
faced one of their clones in each of their 30 starts! Syndergaard on the Stars was the only 20-game winner, and he
also won the Cy Young Award. He was 20-5
in 223 IP, with 228 strikeouts and an ERA of 3.83, second best in the
league. The oddest result in the league
had to be the Stars’ Joe Musgrove, who took the ERA title at 2.71. That, and his 18-6 record, got him third
place in the Cy Young voting. Note that
his ERA was less than a full run below second place Syndergaard and even
further behind his best clone, Jim Miller of the Gloves who ended at 4.49. A few things like that I cannot explain,
except for the randomness of the dice. As noted earlier, Rob Ingala (clone of Raisel Iglesias) of
the Gloves topped the league in saves with 29, which along with an 2.82 ERA won
him the Fireman of the Year Award. The actual
Iglesias of the Stars had 20 saves, but a 4.91 ERA, and Rex Iddings of the
Gloves also had 20 saves with a 2.98 ERA.
For some reason, Iglesias finished second in the Fireman voting, while
Iddings with the better ERA was third.
Not included in the top five of the voting was Robert Ivy of the Clowns
who managed 10 saves, despite a 7.86 ERA.
Oddly, Iddings pitched 63 innings, but none of the others pitched more
than 38. As might be expected, the computer-generated All-Star roster
included six players from the Stars for the eight position players. Two players
from the Bats also made the team, Pete Alonso (39 home runs) and Yordan
Alvarez. The other two Star players made
the second string All-Star team, Anthony Rizzo and Mookie Betts. The only player to make the All-Star teams
who was not a Star or Bat was Raisel Iglesias clone Rob Ingala of the Gloves,
Fireman of the Year. Six Gold Glove
awards went to six Star players (including pitcher Mike Leake and his 1e7
fielding rating) and three to Glove players.
The only mention of a Clown in the awards report was in the Manager of
the Year category, where the Clown manager finished fourth (ha ha!) And finally, looking at individual games, the Stars scored
22 runs with 25 hits in one game, the highest totals in any game for the
season. Nick Clark (clone of Nelson
Cruz) of the Bats hit four home runs in one game, and eight players hit three,
including Nelson Cruz and his other two clones.
Cruz also had 9 RBI in one game for the Stars. Poor Mike Kendall (clone of Merill Kelly) of the Bats gave
up 15 runs in one game against the Stars, and the computer reports that “many
pitchers” gave up 10 or more runs in a game.
Moreover, the Gloves’ Mickey Lloyd (clone of Mike Leake) gave up 8 home
runs to the Stars on July 6. On the
other hand, the Stars’ Robbie Ray fired a no-hitter against the Gloves, and his
clone Ron Rice of the Bats struck out 17 Gloves players in a game. So if anyone has any real interest in all this, I’d be glad
to send you the LZP file that will allow you to look over the entire Talent
League season on your own computer. Or
I’d be glad to answer questions if anyone wants to know more about all this. If nothing else, it’s kept my mind off this
isolation issue for a few hours. |
An SBA manager sent me this SOM related essay. The misery index BY STEWART SCHLEY on MAY 16, 2020 Strat misery. We all know it, rue it, live in constant dread of it. On that bright note, here as a public service are a handful of worst-case-scenario moments that will have any veteran player squirming in recognition. Thanks to a few DDLers who chimed in: The 20-roll: You know the moment: your guy is cruising home on a 1-18 chance. Put it in the books, fellas. And then: the two-digit number of doom. Not the 19, which would be almost acceptable albeit undesired, but the emphatic, in-your-face 20. You fool, you. How dare you even try this nonsense. A specialty of Southland’s Gothams, who seem to have a penchant for snuffing out baserunners on big rolls. The WPx2: It sounds like a spaceship or an energy drink, but no: A wild pitch with a runner on third and a close score is just about the most soul-wrenching moment in Strat. But wait: It gets better. What about the SECOND wild-pitch in a row? You know: cuz if the first was fun, wait until you experience the second! The first WP always ties the game, the second puts you behind or wins it outright for the other team. You protest. You whine. But you are alone in the Strat wilderness. There is no going back. The outfield throwing error. It’s like those scenes in the (awful) Stephen King mini-series “Langoliers” where there is literally no oxygen in the room. Like, you can’t even light a match. This is what it feels like to have an outfielder throw the ball into the left field stands, allowing two runs to score The error just comes out of nowhere, silently, and is unannounced. You have no idea what just happened until you read the fine print. The oh-so-adorable “funny” Strat moment. Every now and then the game decides to do something really cute, with the play-by-play joyously expressed as such: “TROUT ROUNDS SECOND AND OH, BOY, A STRAY COLLIE SNATCHED THE BALL AND HANDED IT TO A KID IN THE FRONT ROW AND HE TOSSED IT TO THE SECOND BASEMAN AND HEHE, MIKE TROUT IS CAUGHT RED-HANDED WITH THE OLD DOG-TOOK-THE-BASEBALL TRICK AND HE’S OUT AND YOU LOSE! OH BOY WHAT A MEMORABLE MOMENT!” So cute. The foiled bunt. A Billy Hamilton 2020 special. Tidy 81% chance of successfully advancing the runner into scoring position when suddenly and without warning: the pop-up double play vanquishes any pretense of small ball. You’d have been better to request a strikeout. The pickoff : 100% chance to get a lead. Who wouldn’t take those odds? And then: the runner is out. Just…out. Done. Sent-back-to-the-dugout sort of out. It’s not so much that your guy got caught, but that the game teased you straight into this charade. You want a do-over. Strat does not permit do-overs. The “tired” starter . Gloating and reveling in the moment, you realize your opponent has little left in the ‘pen and is relegated to leaving a tired pitcher on the mound for the duration. Finally, a chance to rest your starters as you roll your way to an easy win. Except: you know what happens. A tense, nail-biting pitchers duel the rest of the way, as the opposing hurler heroically presses on despite the “tired” rating. Every “K” on the card is legit; you never hit the tired result. You even bring in your top closer who’s fast running out of usage to try to squeak out a victory…but for naught. You lose anyway. The improbable PHHR : The slap-hitting backup catcher with a 0.9% HR chance is the only remaining batter. Guy on first, two outs. Of course you’re gonna pitch to him. And you know what happens: ball sails over the left-field fence. “Wow,” writes your opponent in a text message, as if to enlist you in his happy astonishment Yeah. Wow. The befuddled opponent . Early in the game. One out. Nobody on. An everyday, nicely balanced right fielder with 550 at-bats comes up the plate. Can’t bunt worth a damn. Obviously cannot hit-and-run, cuz nobody is on base. So…ummm, there is literally ONE THING to do, which is to swing away. Except, somehow, someway, your opponent is privately theorizing about creative and heretofore unknown possibilities that could somehow present themselves if he thinks hard enough. Hmmmm. Nope, guess not. He draws a blank. Four minutes later, the guy hits a ground ball “C.” And you can only shake your head. GTL : It stands for “guarding the lines,” and it’s the crafty autoplay defensive maneuver your opponent forgets to undo in the eigth inning while he’s nonchalantly filing his fingernails or such. But hey! Good call, brother! Because you just rolled the T 1-11, D 12-20 roll, came up with the “16” split, prepared for great things, and watched as the game took away a sure extra-base hit to end your innings. Bah. And finally, the Leaping OF (pronounced “Oaf.”) You know this guy. He’s the “4”-rated RF who, squinting into the sun, thrusting his glove upward and sort of half-heartedly elevating a half- inch or two above the grass, comes up the dramatic leaping catch to rob your 3-run HR and set your team into a funk from which it cannot recover. |
  | from CALL TO THE PEN |
  |  from THE GUARDIAN |
  |   |
PRORATING DJ LEMAHIEU One of the best feel good stories for the Mitts has been how solid major leaguer DJ Lemahieu turned himself into a star at least for one year. He was in the conversation as an MVP candidate although few expected him to win it and he did not. Now the Mitts have played 60 games of its 160 game schedule and I thought it might be interesting to check DJ's pace and see how close or far he is from matching his Yankee numbers of last season.  The
first thing one can notice is how the player is not hitting doubles at
anywhere near his rate in the AL. On the other hand he's in line
for nine more homeruns than he hit for the Evil Empire. His BA
is doing fine. I've always thought that CBL pitching reduces BA
on average 25 to 30 points for regular non-platooner players. So
I'd be expecting him to hit .300 for the season and anything above that
is gravy. His walk rate is almost exactly as it was in real life and while his K's are up a bit it's not to an outrageous extent. CBL pitching figures to make most regulars fan more. His OPS is also doing well and likely is ahead of his Yankees' pace once CBL pitching is accounted for. On balance Lemahieu is doing just fine. It's an intriguing question as to whether we'd be better off with the missing 18 doubles while foregoing the extra 9 homers. |
THE ONE TEAM
RECORD THIS MITTS' TEAM IS ON A PACE TO BREAK
Yes, the Mitts are a good hitting and high scoring team. If you scan the roster you see a goodly number of solid hitters but you wouldn't see it as a dominant homerun hitting team. Yet as we start moving thru block 2 it is the team HR record that this Mitts team has a decent shot of breaking. Only once has a Mitts team homered more than 300 times. As you might expect it was the 2002 Bonds/Sosa group which finished with 303 dingers. The current Mitts have hit 118 homers. The prorate figure at this time is 2.67. If the team remains on its current pace it will finish with 315 HRs. Team leaders in that department are Alex Bregman with 20, Carlos Santana with 17, DJ Lemahieu with 14, and, in a bit of a surprise, Christian Vasquez has 13. If the team continues to score runs at its current rate it would finish with 922 which is a great total but falls 22 runs short of what the 2002 team scored. |
CRIERS PISTOL HOT DESPITE FIVE OFFENSIVE STRAGGLERS After a 6-0 week 8 the Criers stayed hot winning 5 of 6 from the Nickel City team. The offensive profile for the club at the 1/3 pole is pretty impressive.  With the team putting up nearly six runs a game you'd think everyone must be contributing with the bat. Here are five guys who are well below what could be expected of them.  Garver has to be the biggest head-scratcher but then again that we were expecting a lot more from Bo Bichette in his rookie SBA campaign. |
A POSSIBLE FIRST: CRIERS HOLD BEST RECORD IN THE SBA The Smithtown Criers are in their sixth SBA season. And while we've done quite well overall I believe the club has never been in the position of having the best record in the league.  Even
in that big 2016 year I recall the team as being the second seed in the
playoffs. To date we've won no championships in that league. Each week a new LZP file is released to the membership. One can view the standings with all the teams having played the same number of games. Early this morning the file hit my email box.  On the heels of a most unexpected six game sweep of Texas the Criers now hold the best record in the entire league. Now if the question is whether we can stay atop the standings I'd be pretty doubtful. Innings and at bats limitations will likely force us to use weaker players more in the next 114 games than we have in the first 48 (of course other teams could be in a similar bind). And as you can see there are two other real good teams right on our heels. In the SBA a team plays its division foes 90 times (3 six-game series against each division rival). So this means the Criers still need to play 12 games each against Rushmore and the NY Knights. Like the other teams we also do get 12 more games against the scuffling Kampeska club. |
CHECKING OUT THE CRIERS BY OPS  The
pleasant surprises are Clint Frazier and Aquino. The distressing
ones are Aledmys Diaz (even with a big week 8 against Texas), Bo
Bichette who has a great card against lefties but hasn't hit them at
all, Yaz, and especially Garver who is the guy whose OPS should
be in the 900s. |
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 |
