Pineda for Montero could shake up draft

A big trade involving top prospects might shake up the first round of the March draft.

Seattle has traded young pitching star Michael Pineda, projected as the No. 1 overall pick in our league’s draft, for young slugging prospect Jesus Montero of the New York Yankees, himself projected to be the No. 5 overall pick.

But does Pineda’s stock drop now? He moves to a smaller ballpark, and to a tougher division. Meanwhile, Montero’s chances at a full-time spot in the lineup for 2012 have just shot up dramatically. What do you think of the trade?

Less than two months to the draft!

Here in the Washington, D.C., area, we’re still waiting for our first snowfall of the winter, but already spring is on our minds. Draft Day, Saturday March 3, is less than two months away.

If history is any indication, the ratings ‘disk’ (now a download) should be available next week. Last year it was available on Jan. 10, the second Monday of the year, so a corresponding date this year would be Monday, Jan. 9.

Also, tickets for some spring training games, including those hosted by the Atlanta Braves and Detroit Tigers, go on sale this Saturday at 10 a.m. We’ll be doing the usual group purchase technique as soon as the Internet will allow on Saturday morning to get the best possible seats. It’s helpful to have several managers assisting with this task, to help spread the initial cost, and to parcel out the seats into manageable sizes.

Watch for an e-mail coming soon regarding spring training games you’re interested in.

Meanwhile, for which player on your team are you most eager to see card ratings?

2011 in review

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for this blog.

 

Here’s an excerpt:

A New York City subway train holds 1,200 people. This blog was viewed about 7,300 times in 2011. If it were a NYC subway train, it would take about 6 trips to carry that many people.

Click here to see the complete report.

Start prepping today with the Ultimate I-75 Draft Toolkit!

No need to wait for those player ratings from SOM in January. You can get started on preparing for the March draft right now, with the Ultimate Draft Toolkit, already bundled up, customized and personalized.

Use this toolkit to:

* Analyze free agents, with real life 2011 stats, age and Strat fielding ratings
* See at-a-glance how your team offense and pitching looks
* Check out how your club compares to others in the league
* Get real-life 2011 stats for your players: Overall, vs. righty and vs. lefty

The stats come courtesy of the Strat Fan Forum, and were shared publicly by a contributor named Bryan. We’ve taken them and tweaked them slightly, adding OPS columns for hitters, then adding in players’ I-75 League affiliation and sorting by those teams.

Within each team, hitters are sorted alphabetically; pitchers are grouped by starters and relievers, then starters are sorted by lowest opponent batting average.

So at a glance, rosters come to life, and you learn things such as:

* Hickory only has one starting pitcher
* Springfield has an awesome starting pitching staff
* Michigan has an all-1 infield and center fielder
* And much much more!

Use the toolkit to scope out trading partners or draft strategies. One word of caution: Computer-only players who will not be carded are also included in the toolkit; I did not take the time to carve them out one-by-one.

Please do not manipulate the shared Google doc version of this; don’t apply colors, or move your players around, or update it with trades — we will rewrite the document with updates periodically. If you want a version to manipulate, watch your e-mail for a spreadsheet you can monkey with.

Let’s draft!

Hickory reigns as 2011 I-75 League champs!

The Hickory Nuts completed the most improbable run to a world championship since — well, since the 2011 St. Louis Cardinals — when they knocked off the Margaritaville Volcanoes in seven games to rule the I-75 League roost for 2011.

Having finished a distant third in the Northbound Division, the Nuts’ postseason run included conquests of three consecutive higher-seeded teams, not unlike the 2011 Cardinals, a wild-card winner who earned their playoff spot on the last day of the regular season.

It was the first-ever postseason crown for Hickory, which joined the league in 1991.

Down 2-1 in the series to Southbound playoff champion Margaritaville, the Nuts scored back-to-back key victories, pounding the Volcanoes 18-2 in Game Four, then squeaking out a 7-6 win in 10 innings in Game Five on an RBI single by Kendry Morales.

After Margaritaville forced a Game Seven with a 2-1 win in Game Six (both runs scoring on David Wright solo homers), the Nuts spotted the Volcanoes a 3-0 lead and came back to win 9-4. A four-run sixth inning swung the tilt in Hickory’s favor.

Hickory had earlier defeated second-place Bushwood and first-place Superior in playoff battles.  The seven-game win over Bushwood included road victories in Games Six and Games Seven. The win over Superior took six games, including a bounce-back from a 2-1 deficit.

Congrats to the 2011 league champion Hickory Nuts and manager Mike Wilson!!!

Sneak preview of range ratings begins Monday

If you’ve never bothered creating a Twitter account, based on the logic, “What would I use that for?” — well, Strat is now giving you a reason.

The fielding range ratings will be released in full in mid-December as they usually are, but starting Monday, they’re also going to release a couple of tidbits every few hours on Twitter until the ratings for two players from every team have been revealed, which should take until Wednesday or Thursday.

If you’re on Twitter, you’ll need to follow @StratOMatic.

If you’re not on Twitter, you’ll need to go to twitter.com and create an account, and then follow @StratOMatic.

It’s a genius marketing move by Strat, if you ask me.

Numbers behind the Nuts’ playoff victory

Hickory manager Mike Wilson has compiled some additional statistics they help tell the tale of the Nuts’ seven-game first-round playoff win over the higher-seeded Bushwood Gophers.

Bushwood

BOO:   Starting Pitchers  31.2 IP, 41 hits,  28 runs, 26 earned 7.39 ERA
YEA:    Bullpen  30.1 IP, 21 hits,    5 runs,  3 earned 0.90 ERA  (WOW–Dave should have gone to his bullpen after 3 runs immediately!)

BOO:  Thome, Hart, Pujols and Utley hit a combined 17 for 101 for .168 BA and 8 RBIs
YEA:   Rolen, Hammy and Delmon Young went 26 for 78, .333 and 16 RBIs

Hickory

BOO:  Wainwright 0-2 5.65 ERA; Casilla and Clippard 5.1 IPs, 7 earned runs, 5 HRs 
YEA:  Hernandez 25 IPs, 24 hits, 12 runs, 8 earned, 2.88 ERA

BOO:  Mora, Jackson, Pedroia, Headley: 10 for 73 for .137 BA. 2 errors
YEA:   Suzuki, Tabata, Huff, Werth:  32 for 86 for .372 BA 14 runs scored and 12 RBIs

What’s your MVPQ? Wisconsin, Springfield have gobs of it

Let’s throw another barometer out there for measuring the anticipated competitiveness of clubs in the 2012 I-75 Strat League.

Let’s take the two recently concluded MVP votes and apply them to players currently on I-75 League rosters to determine everyone’s MVP quotient. What do we learn?

Wisconsin and Springfield are stacked.

The Warhawks boast Ryan Braun, NL MVP, who collected 388 points in voting, as well as 229 for Prince Fielder, third in the NL. Four more Warhawks earned votes: Roy Halladay (52) and Carlos Beltran (3) in the NL, and Robinson Cano (112) and Paul Konerko (11) in the AL. That’s a total of 795 votes.

Springfield came up just short of that at 788 votes, but it had eight players represented, one more than Wisconsin, and that doesn’t count Mark Teixeira, who got five votes but was let loose in the expansion draft. Springfield’s cause is led by AL MVP Justin Verlander (280) and NL runner-up Matt Kemp (332).  But then there is seemingly the rest of the Isotopes’ protected list too: Michael Young (96), Clayton Kershaw (29), Ian Kinsler (25), Shane Victorino,  James Shields (7) and Carlos Ruiz (1).

Applegate ranks third at 498, with a 2-4 finish in the AL for Jacoby Ellsbury (242) and Curtis Granderson (215) and NL points from Jose Reyes (31) and Hunter Pence (10).

Here’s how the rest of the league ranks:

Meet the new managers: John Renbarger

John Renbarger, manager of the expansion Iowa Swirling Cyclones, was born one month after the I-75 League celebrated its 10th anniversary.

Still a student at Iowa State, where he is majoring in chemical engineering, John displaces Dan Wilson as the youngest manager in the league, but in so doing becomes the second second-generation manager in the league.

The fanatacism that his father, Mike, showed in Strat began to rub off on John in his teen-age years, and so while John is a managerial newbie, the terminology and gameplay are things he has lived with all of his life.

Read John’s complete managerial profile here.

Meet the new managers: Ken Crawford

Ken Crawford has dubbed his team the Michigan Moneyballers, but does he subscribe to the Moneyball principles?

That remains to be seen, but the Ohio native did earn a living as a financial consultant before semi-retiring in 2011 to spend more time learning how to play Strat.  You will recall that he shared managerial duties with John Renbarger at the helm of the orphaned Detroit Demolition Dogs.

A childhood pal of Dave Renbarger’s from their time together at both North Farmington High School and the University of Michigan, Ken has been subjected to second-hand Strat via that relationship for more than 30 years. An avid follower of the Detroit Tigers and major league baseball, Ken hopes the enjoyment of that crosses over into Strat-O-Matic. He even vows to replace his Commodore 64 with a real computer in time for next season and to have Netplay and Hamachi humming on all cylinders by March.

Read Ken’s complete profile here.

One draft down, one mock draft to go

Forecasting the first round of the 2012 draft is especially challenging, and not just because a whopping 19 players will be chosen. For one thing, we don’t know which expansion teams will be slotted in which order. And, having not conducted the waiver draft yet, we don’t know what their specific needs will be.

However, we can guess that they are more likely to go for young prospects than veteran players to try to win in 2012, so that is one of our premises as we walk out on the ledge with this month’s version of our Mock Draft. Note that the order below is unofficial. Our last attempt at the mock draft rankings is here.

1. Michael Pineda, SP, Seattle (expansion team A). Previous Rank: 2. Pineda or Mike Trout remains a tossup, but when in doubt, pitching is more precious than offense, and Pineda is not only a prized prospect at age 22, he has one of the best, if not the best, available starting pitcher cards. Pineda struck out 173 in 171 innings and had a 1.10 WHIP.

And now, the leftovers: Clubs grab what they can

The pickings were decidely slimmer in the third and final round of the I-75 League Expansion Draft, perhaps best illustrated by the selection of .159-hitting Adam Dunn.

Apart from the selections of two decent starting pitchers and Florida Marlins first baseman Gaby Sanchez, the picks were primarily guys who’ve seen better times or hope to in the future.

Here’s the Round Three recap:

Finally! 2011 season is semi-officially complete

The Superior Titans and Wisconsin Warhawks are the division champs of the I-75 League for 2011 and have earned first-round byes for the playoffs.

Wisconsin defeated Margaritaville 5-4 in a one-game playoff to settle first place in the Southbound Division. Earlier, Applegate beat Savannah in a one-game playoff 4-3 to determine the third-place finisher.

Wisconsin had finished one game ahead of Margaritaville in the standings, but was ordered to forfeit one game for having started Roy Halladay eight games in the month of September, including three times on insufficient rest.

So, pending further review of final stats for any other rule violations or player abuse that could lead to additional action, the playoffs shape up this way:

Southbound Division
(3) Applegate vs. (2) Margaritaville
Winner plays (1) Wisconsin

Northbound Division
(3) Hickory vs. (2) Bushwood
Winner plays (1) Superior

Division champions meet in the 2011 World Series.

Hear highlights of Dave LaMont’s USC-Colorado call

If you weren’t able to catch the play-by-play work of Springfield manager Dave LaMont on Friday night, as he called Matt Barkley’s school-record-breaking six-TD passing performance in USC’s win over Colorado, enjoy these video highlights with Dave’s call as they happened (click the image above).

To keep up with Homer’s Odyssey, check out his upcoming schedule to see if he’s coming to a stadium or arena near you. Otherwise you can catch his calls on the ESPN “family of networks.”

Meet the new managers: Rick Lackey

Rick Lackey, manager of the expansion English Pigdogs, has already been associated with the I-75 League for several years, having assisted Garth Lewis with the general manager aspects of the South Grand Prairie Warriors.

He’s also been active and successful in another long-running Strat league, NASOMA, where he has earned 10 league titles since 1987 and also serves as league Webmaster.  Like the I-75 League, NASOMA also began in 1980; now it is a 16-team league.

Rick is a lifelong Texan but a fan of both the Rangers and the St. Louis Cardinals. He has been teaching English to middle- and high school students since 1984. Rick is married with two grown daughters.

Read his complete managerial profile here.

Meet the new managers: Steve Nieroda

Steve Nieroda, manager of the expansion Satellite Beach Brawlers,  joins the I-75 League in 2012 as a 15-year Strat veteran who is also managing clubs in three other leagues.

Steve was born in Union, N.J., and grew up a fan of the New York Mets. He now lives in Satellite Beach, Fla., where he sells real estate property for EXIT 1st Class Realty. He is married with three older children.

Don’t get him angry in face-to-face action. He’s a youth wrestling coach and mixed martial arts afficionado.

Read Steve’s complete managerial profile here.

Preseason predictions prove pretty accurate

Looking back at our preseason predictions, we find that we fared pretty well in forecasting the outcome of both divisions.

In the North we picked Bushwood, Springfield and Superior as playoff teams and for Hickory to finish fourth; the Isotopes offense proved to be more miserable than we anticipated, and the Nuts claimed that playoff bid.

In the South, we picked Wisconsin, Margaritaville and Savannah; Savannah only missed the postseason by virtue of losing a one-game playoff in a tie for third, so we’re pretty happy with how that prognostication turned out.

We had Springfield and Savannah rated as having the best pitching in their respective divisions, but perhaps we applied too much weight to that factor, as it didn’t pay off in playoff berths, even though their pitching performed as advertised.

Pitchers snapped up in second round of expansion draft

Unlike the first round, pitchers were the dominant element of Thursday night’s second round of the I-75 League Expansion Draft, which saw seven hurlers among the 12 players chosen in the 17-minute round.

English manager Rick Lackey led the way by snagging pitchers on each of his three picks: Jhoulys Chacin from Chatfield, Derek Holland from Margaritaville and Jeremy Guthrie from South Grand Prairie.

Satellite Beach stockpiled two starters in Applegate’s Trevor Cahill and Bushwood’s R.A. Dickey, while Iowa and Michigan went the relief route with Joel Hanrahan and John Axford, respectively.

Round Three is scheduled for Monday, Nov. 7 at 8 p.m. ET once again. Existing managers get half of that time to ponder their two additional retainees, but must submit them by Saturday, Nov. 5 at 8 p.m. ET.

Here’s Round Two in the order they went off the board:
1. English: Jhoulys Chacin, SP, Chatfield. 1.31 WHIP, Yahoo rank 251.
2. Michigan: Ben Zobrist, 2B-RF, Springfield. .469 slug.
3. Satellite Beach: Trevor Cahill, SP, Applegate. 1.43 WHIP, Y rank 816.
4. Iowa: Jayson Werth, OF, Hickory. .389 slug.
5. Iowa: Geovanny Soto, C, Savannah. .411 slug.
6. Satellite Beach: Dan Uggla, 2B, Bismarck. .453 slug.
7. Michigan: John Axford, RP, Superior.  1.14 WHIP, Y rank 60.
8. English: Derek Holland, SP, Margaritaville. 1.35 WHIP,Y rank 255.
9. English: Jeremy Guthrie, SP, South Grand Prairie. 1.34 WHIP, Y rank 856.
10. Michigan: Carlos Pena, 1B, Wisconsin. .462 slug.
11. Satellite Beach: R.A. Dickey, SP, Bushwood. WHIP 1.23, Y rank 208.
12. Iowa: Joel Hanrahan, RP, Detroit. 1.05 WHIP, Y rank 74.

Warhawks, Clips lead way with three Silver Sluggers each

Don’t look for offensive powerhouse Wisconsin to cool off much in the 2012 season. The Warhawks boast three Silver Slugger honorees who will return to their lineup next season, tying Applegate for tops in the league.

First baseman Prince Fielder, second baseman Robinson Cano and outfielder Ryan Braun were honored Wednesday night with Silver Sluggers, reflective of being the top offensive player at their position in their league. All three are Warhawks.

Southbound division mate Applegate checked in with three Silver Sluggers of their own.  Applegate saw catcher Brian McCann and outfielders Jacoby Ellsbury and Curtis Granderson honored.

Margaritaville had hardware awarded to second baseman Brandon Phillips and outfielder Jose Bautista, while Bismarck feted first baseman Adrian Gonzalez and DH David Ortiz.

Six clubs collected one Silver Slugger each: Chatfield (Aramis Ramirez), Superior (Asdrubal Cabrera), Springfield (Matt Kemp), Hickory (Troy Tulowitki), Michigan (Adrian Beltre) and Satellite Beach (Justin Upton).

One Silver Slugger will be available in the March draft: catcher Alex Avila.

Pitcher Daniel Hudson also won a Silver Slugger but doesn’t figure to get many at-bats for South Grand Prairie next year in our DH-format league.

Margaritaville can flash some golden leather

The Margaritaville Volcanoes are still playing for I-75 League hardware, but their players are leading the way when it comes to on-the-field honors for defensive excellence in 2011.

Three Volcanoes — Matt Wieters, Joey Votto and Brandon Phillips — earned Gold Gloves Tuesday night, and with them a treasured ’1′ defensive rating on next year’s cards.

No other team was able to match that, although four players are free agents: Mark Buehrle, Erick Aybar, Alex Gordon and Gerardo Parra.

Four teams could claim two Gold Glovers. Springfield had Clayton Kershaw and Matt Kemp; English has already enlisted Nick Markakis and Yadier Molina; Hickory has Dustin Pedroia and Troy Tulowitzki, and Bismarck has Adrian Gonzalez and Placido Polanco, although to date Polanco has not been retained.

Applegate (Jacoby Ellsbury), Superior (Andre Ethier) and Michigan (Adrian Beltre) had one Gold Glover apiece.