I have had a wonderful time this year with our new league. I never officially commissioned a league before, it's been trying at times (especially the league's rough start), but overall I feel everyone (the owners) for the most part have enjoyed it as well. I feel confident that the league will only get better & stronger in time, and I feel that I have learned from the seasons' mistakes, and how to go about things as the league moves on for future seasons. I don't like giving myself pats on my shoulders, maybe I'm being modest, I just can never take credit for this great experience.
A experience that I could have never done without all the owners involved. Well, I shouldn't say owners, I should say my new friends (and a few old ones as well) -- I've said this before, somewhere, and I'll say it again.. Seriously, I believe if we all lived a few miles apart, we would be rolling the dice or also doing the BBW still, and if we happened to all be of the same age, and if we were kids in the same neighborhood, we would be driving our parents bonkers right now-- They'll be wondering where one another was, while shouting for us to come home for dinner, LOL! I feel like we formed a band of brothers, and I feel that bond will only get stronger in time. We have men from all ages, in different regions of the country, playing make-believe General Manager, practicing our managing skills in the game we grew up to love. Honestly, is there anything better than Baseball? I refuse to believe there is, well.. okay for me, my wife Becky, family & God --- but after that really?!
So before I move on with the season to date... I just want to say thanks to the following in alphabetical order, because everyone has played a part of making -- what I feel, and hopefully what they feel, as a successful APBA BBW League. Here is to many more years...
Thank you..
- John "Stray" Corrado
- Charles Evans
- Bill Gillam
- Robert Mosher
- Thomas Nelshoppen
- Steve Ruder
- Brad Stark
- Frank Thomas
- Jeff Tritthart
- Larry Waddell
- Merle Watkins
- Peter Wennin
- Randy Woolley
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| David Price of the Urbana Locomotives. |
The NATIONAL LEAGUE (Divisions in Review)
Let's get to the season in review so far, the Urbana Locomotives (managed by Thomas Nelshoppen of The APBA Blog) jumped off to a 14-5 start in the National League East. When they lost their next two games, my Traverse City Panthers were just 3 games back at 11-10. We played the next series, where T.C. visited Urbana, and I got swept in all 6 games -- the rest of the division was going in the opposite direction as well, and Tom had his Locomotives up by 9 games, with a 20-7 record. In late April, Game #43 (would have been mid-May for us) -- I would once again, represent myself as a spring board for Randy Woolley's Hannibal Cavemen, I would once again get swept to a division rival, losing in all six. The Cavemen would win 9 straight at one point, and be within 8.5 games of Urbana at the Game #53 mark -- Hannibal was a even 26-26, where Urbana went 15-11 since their 20-7 start -- I remember Tom being a bit nervous thinking his team was going to start declining, personally I felt the division would be between Urbana and Hannibal all along, on the way they executed the Draft. I kept my own predictions to myself at the time, in old leagues we would do preview issues, but as a new commissioner and still feeling out things in the league, and not knowing how owners would take a predictions issue -- I felt it was best to stay quiet.
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| Beltre is on top of nearly every offensive category in the N.L. |
Thomas & his Locomotives just clinched the division August 15th. He currently leads the division by 27.5 games, entering play yesterday, with a 96-51 record. His team has been outstanding, led by a heavy N.L.Cy Young favorite in David Price -- who has a 21-4 record (.840 win pct), while leading the league in wins, ERA (2.42), complete games (tied with 10), shutouts (6); he is 5th with 215 K's, but his 9.3 K's per 9 innings (ranks 3rd), and is ahead of strikeout leader Clayton Kershaw's 8.4 K's per 9 inning. On the offensive side of the ball, Urbana's slugger Adrian Beltre was in the Triple Crown hunt. Beltre is at the top of nearly every offensive category -- Batting Average (.351 over Erick Aybar's .324), Slugging (.613), On-Base Percentage (.389), Runs Created (132.8), Total Average (1.039), Runs Contributed (58.4), Runs (93), Runs Batted In (129), Hits (193), Doubles (37) & MultiHit Games (58) entering August 20th. His 35 HR's are currently 10 HR's behind Edwin Encarnacion of the Sacramento 66'ers.
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| Harper & Holland looking to be Royal pains. |
The cellar-dwellers in the N.L. East are Steve Ruder's Holland Hitchhikers and my own Traverse City Panthers, we drafted mainly for 2013 & present, I think both teams have bright futures, and will test their division mates in time. Holland has a lot of youth and is led by two young studs that play for the Nationals in Bryce Harper and Stephen Strasburg. The Hitchhikers should also think of changing their colors to Royal blue with all the Kansas City players on their roster in Eric Hosmer, Mike Moustakas, Alcides Escobar, and Greg Holland. Traverse City's Giancarlo Stanton is currently 3rd in HR's with 33. They also have guys who take big steps in 2013 with Josh Donaldson, Matt Carpenter, Brandon Belt & Brian Dozier -- along with bright starting pitching on the horizon, led by the franchise's top pick in Yu Darvish.
The National League West has been probably the closest division all year. For the first 21 games, the Brad Stark's Portland Microbrewers and Charles Evan's King Road Kings were neck-to-neck. On May 4th, Portland only led the division by two games over 2nd place Sacramento Kings, the last place team Seattle Rainiers were only 6 games out, at this point. The next day, the Portland would make a deal with Traverse City, bringing in a new acquisitions in starting pitchers Matt Harrison and Brandon Morrow, outfielder Austin Jackson & Traverse City's 3rd Round Draft Pick (2014 - 2013 MLB Season) in exchange for two young pitchers in Corey Kluber & Nathan Eovaldi, and veteran outfielder Ryan Raburn. Harrison pitched a solid 10.1 inning Portland debut, allowing 3 earned runs with 5 K's. Portland adds some starting pitching with their already effective rotation, to give them that extra push, plus a bat (in Jackson) to help with what was a struggling lineup at that point.
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| Kershaw leads possibly the best 1-2 punch in BoS (both southpaws). |
The Kings have a scary one-two punch in their starting rotation with lefties Clayton Kershaw & Chris Sale. The only problem, the team doesn't get good run support (in bottom half of league), have left many men on base (2nd w/994), and have been punched out at the plate more than any other National League team, not named the Traverse City Panthers, with 1,181 K's. Kershaw has been on fire, particularly the second-half & finally started to accumulate some victories; Leads league with 232 K's, 3rd in victories (18), 2nd in ERA (2.53), while topping the league in Earned Runs Prevented (41.1), Innings Pitched (249.1), and possibly making a strong case with his 26 Quality Starts (1st) to David Price's 19, when it comes to the Cy Young conversation. Sale, on the other hand, has been punished with weak run support (tied with 3 starting pitcher for 1st) with 3.4 runs per outing, and is right there with Kershaw with a .198 Opponent's Batting Average against them, he has also compiled 200+ strikeouts with 219, making it 451 K's between the two of them -- making a legit case that there is no better 1-2 punch at the top of the rotation than Kershaw & Sale. Kershaw started getting more run support in the second half, and actually ranks 7th (tied) with 4.8 runs per game now.
Merle Watkins' Seattle Rainiers is an interesting bunch, I like the pieces he has, and I was a bit surprised that they came out of the gates a bit sluggish, they have played better of late. When I looked at the division as a whole, Portland out of the four stood out. I felt they had more impact pieces, and drafted pretty good around the board, plus you can never go wrong with Mike Trout as the top overall pick, but other picks like Jason Kipnis & Cliff Lee stand out. I think the rest of the division would be anywhere from 2-4, I think you could have many different scenarios when you look at this division, you can also draw up plenty of scenarios where Portland is not on top as well -- everything in this division is about a break here, and a break there. Seattle has Prince Fielder, Evan Longoria, and Max Scherzer, while drafting youngsters in Yoenis Cespedes and Michael Brantley.
-- to be continued....
Summer's Setting Sun (Part II) - The AMERICAN LEAGUE (Divisions in Review)
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