A jackpot awaits this season’s top playoff outsider

If the I-75 League season ended today, the happiest team in the league would be… the Superior Titans. That’s because they’d be the best team not to make the playoffs, thus earning them the first choice in the 2013 draft, and making them the presumptive owner of baseball’s most exciting prospect, Bryce Harper. Harper has [...]

Preseason power rankings peg ‘Clips, ‘Choos and ‘Topes

Rnk Offense Power S N W Rnk Pitching Power S N W 1 Chatfield .999 W1 1 Springfield 526.3 S1 2 Applegate .974 N1 2 Applegate 616.4 N1 3 Wisconsin .952 S1 3 Savannah 620.8 S2 4 Margaritaville .951 N2 4 Chatfield 638.4 W1 5 Superior .941 W2 5 Bismarck 681.8 N2 6 Springfield .923 [...]

15-man ‘most efficient draft ever’ blows all other drafts away

Perhaps we should have gone to this 15-team format years ago. After years of drafts that dragged on for seven, eight, nine hours — when we had just 9 or 12 managers — the I75 League pulled off its most efficient draft ever to kick off its 33rd year, conducting a 14-round, 15-team draft plus [...]

‘We’re not off Poinciana anymore, Toto!’

Before you blindly point your rental car or personal vehicle to Poinciana Blvd. this weekend, be aware this year’s Strat House is in a completely different location from past years. See Dave’s 2/26 e-mail for directions.  Here’s the relative lay of the land with key landmarks for this year’s festivities. (Not shown: Tigertown…) From Disney, be [...]

Convention forecast: Hot, then not

A look at the 10-day Orlando weather forecast spanning the convention period. Looks like we need to pack for two different climates…

Draft tip: Act like you know the guy you’re drafting

A famous I-75 drafting faux pas occurred at the 1987 draft, when then-Michigan manager Mike Renbarger wrote down then name of Darrell Porter as his draft pick, turned in his index card, and left the room for some, er, personal maintenance. While he was gone the draft moderator, squinting at the handwriting, announced Michigan had [...]

Presenting YOUR 2012 mock draft

With less than two weeks to go before the 33rd I-75 League convention, we fire up the mock drafting ovens one more time to see what delights are being cooked up for the first round when we gather in Kissimmee the first weekend in March. What’s diferent about this mock draft? Well… this is the draft [...]

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. [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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, [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

Expansion draft set to unfold: Iowa has first pick

It’s not that difficult to find a dozen decent players available among the unprotected players for the first round of the I-75 League Expansion Draft. But sorry, expansion teams, only one of those players can come from the Springfield Isotopes. That goes for all of the other existing teams too. Therein lies the challenge in the [...]

Demo Dogs dispersed to four expansion teams

Justin Upton was the first selection of the Detroit Demo Dogs dispersal draft, chosen by Steve Nieroda’s Satellite Beach Brawlers. In a draft that moved at lightning pace and was over by 8:06 p.m. ET, the four new clubs took turns snapping up the best goods available at Detroit’s yard sale. Rick Lackey’s English Pig [...]