TRANSACTION LEAGUE: At the Break

How will the real-life moves effect the Trans teams, here on out?

For those that may not know what my 2014 Transaction League is, well, it's simple really. It's a Baseball for Windows (BBW) League that is the 2013 MLB Players' stats while I update the replay to the real-life 2014 MLB Season moves.

We all know that all hell broke out on the July 31st MLB trading deadline. The Red Sox reshuffled a lot of players, Oakland and Detroit feel they landed big pieces in Jon Lester and David Price. How will this effect the Transaction League? We'll have to wait and see, the Boston Red Sox in the Transaction League, hold a strong 8.5 game lead in the A.L. East with a 72-36 (.667 pct - best in entire TL), compared to their last place (yet only 12.5 out of first) record of 48-60. The Red Sox in the MLB released A.J. Pierzynski, who was struggling, but not so in the 2013 replay of course, but we have to do what the real teams do, so the Red Sox release A.J., who was batting .315, 14 HR & 62 RBI in 311 at-bats, at the time of his release. He just got picked up by the St.Louis Cardinals, who also landed Justin Masterson (13-XW) and John Lackey (10-YZ) to bolster their already strong rotation. In the 2013 replay, the Cards have a healthy Yadier Molina, who also played some first, will play more first base with the addition of Pierzynski. Matt "Babe" Adams has tired down, and got sent to the farm to make some room, plus the fact that the Cards shipped Allen Craig to Boston.

Longoria is all smiles in Transaction League.

Boston will be a team of mystery from here on out, can they keep up their winning ways when they traded two strong starters? They also traded Stephen Drew to the Yankees, Drew signed late, but was a spark-plug in the Transaction League that turned the sluggish Red Sox around, to the best team in the league. They traded another good grade in relief pitcher Andrew Miller to Baltimore, a wild card contender in the TL -- A team that can potentially be a problem if they match-up in the playoffs, now that Boston has thinned their rotation. The Tampa Bay Rays currently own the first wildcard spot, while the Baltimore Orioles & Kansas City Royals are tied for the 2nd wildcard slot. We'll see if the Rays can keep it up, now that they traded Price to Detroit. The Rays have been led by possible A.L. MVP candidate Evan Longoria, who is just driving the ball out of the park right now, here's what he's doing below 

A Comparison between Longoria's 2013 MLB numbers & 2013 Replay/2014 Transaction numbers

• Entire 2013 MLB: .269 BA, 32 HR, 88 RBI, 91 runs, 39 doubles, .842 OPS &.343 OBP.
• 2014 TL (2013): .261 BA, 30 HR, 87 RBI, 70 runs, 26 doubles, .837 OPS & .305 OBP.

Lots more in the HR department, while sacrificing more walks & on-base percentage in the Transaction League, he has still 50+ games remaining in his season, so he's going to dwarf his power numbers for sure, while keeping on track with his real-life 2013 batting average & OPS (On-Base + Slugging).

Some of the divisions, you will see some similarities between real-life & the transaction.

In the A.L. East, the last place teams have similar records of 46-60 & 48-60, while Baltimore has a similar record with a 58-49 (3rd place) compared to it's division-leading counterpart 60-47 in the MLB for 2014. The A.L. Central has Detroit on top in both, both with similar leads 3 games up (Trans) & 4 games up (MLB), both over the Kansas City Royals nipping at their heels. Minnesota is similar in both with 46-57 record (Trans) & 48-59 record in MLB -- while Chicago is only 5 games difference between their two versions. Cleveland is a joke compared to their MLB counterpart with only a 40-65 record, which is only going to get worse with them trading off Asdrubal Cabrera & Justin Masterson. The A.L. West for the American League is the only division with really no similarities, it does make Texas Rangers fans wonder, what if? though. Texas with the addition of Prince Fielder & Shin-Soo Choo is running away with the division in the Transaction League, while in real-life Texas has been marred with injuries, including Fielder for pretty-much the entire season. Oakland for some odd reason is off it's MLB mark by a good 15 games, they were doing well earlier in the Transaction League, we'll see if they make a run at that wild card slot at least with all the new additions.

Fielder & Texas are doing great in their alternate world.

The National League side of things, goes like this... in the N.L. East, both versions of the division leaders have similar record's in Atlanta 58-49 (Trans) & Washington 58-48 (MLB) -- the two franchises are flip-flopped for second place with Washington 4 GB (Trans) with a 54-43 record, while Atlanta trails by a much closer distance of only 1.5 games at 58-51 in the Majors. New York & Philadelphia are closely the same in record for both leagues, while Miami simply sucks in the Transaction League at 39-66 (18 GB), while they are only 6 games out --despite losing Jose Fernandez for the season. For the N.L. Central, the 64-42 Pittsburgh Pirates (Trans) are on top, by slight 1/2 game over suddenly hot St.Louis Cardinals, who also made some upgrades to their rotation -- making them a sudden favorite in the N.L. Cincinnati has slipped from the top of the standings to third at 58-50, and are starting to reflect their MLB counterparts (who are 54-54, in 4th). The surprise team in the N.L. Central/MLB has been the Milwaukee Brewers, while in the Transaction League, they are playing the way most magazines & sports outlets have predicted for the Brewers in 2014, and that was no better than 4th (and even last), as they dwell in 4th at 45-62. Then there is the Cubs, no surprise, in the bottom of both. The N.L. West is headed by both versions of the Los Angeles Dodgers at 65-40 & 62-47 records. Even though the San Francisco Giants have nearly identical records at 56-49 (.533) & 58-50 (.537), they find themselves behind the surprising Colorado Rockie in the Transaction League -- Rockies are 65-43, if you recall their MLB version had a pretty good April, until they fell back to earth. San Diego is the one in the cellar for Trans, at 39-69, 17 games behind 4th place Arizona (4th in both leagues). The wild card race in the N.L. is real close in the MLB, while St.Louis is looking solid in the 2nd slot for Transaction league, and tied for second spot in majors.

These are just a few of the things that have made the Transaction League, a lot of fun!
Here is the League Standings below, with the real-life standings on July 31st.

TRANS MLB' 14 A.L. EAST W L PCT GB A.L. EAST W L PCT GB Boston 72 36 0.667 0 Balt 60 47 0.561 0 Tampa 63 44 0.589 8.5 Toronto 60 50 0.545 1.5 Balt 58 49 0.542 13.5 N.Y. 55 52 0.514 5 Toronto 50 56 0.472 21 Tampa 53 55 0.491 7.5 N.Y. 46 60 0.434 25 Boston 48 60 0.444 12.5 A.L. CENT W L PCT GB A.L. CENT W L PCT GB Detroit 60 45 0.571 0 Detroit 58 47 0.552 0 K.C. 56 47 0.544 3 K.C. 55 52 0.514 4 Chicago 48 56 0.462 11.5 Cleve 53 55 0.491 6.5 Minn 46 57 0.447 13 Chicago 53 56 0.486 7 Cleve 40 65 0.381 20 Minn 48 59 0.449 11 A.L. WEST W L PCT GB A.L. WEST W L PCT GB Texas 68 39 0.636 0 Oakland 66 41 0.617 0 L.A. 51 54 0.486 16 L.A. 64 43 0.598 2 Oakland 51 56 0.477 17 Seattle 56 52 0.519 10.5 Seattle 45 60 0.429 22 Houston 44 65 0.404 23 Houston 33 72 0.314 34 Texas 43 65 0.398 23.5 N.L. EAST W L PCT GB N.L. EAST W L PCT GB Atlanta 58 49 0.549 0 Wash 58 48 0.547 0 Wash 54 53 0.505 4 Atlanta 58 51 0.532 1.5 N.Y. 52 52 0.500 4.5 Miami 53 55 0.491 6 Phila 50 56 0.472 7.5 N.Y. 52 56 0.481 7 Miami 39 66 0.371 18 Phila 48 61 0.440 11.5 N.L. CENT W L PCT GB N.L. CENT W L PCT GB Pitts 64 42 0.604 0 Milw 60 49 0.550 0 St.Louis 63 42 0.600 0.5 St. Louis 57 50 0.533 2 Cinn 58 50 0.537 7 Pitts 57 51 0.528 2.5 Milw 45 62 0.421 19.5 Cinn 54 54 0.500 5.5 Chicago 38 68 0.358 26 Chicago 45 62 0.421 14 N.L. WEST W L PCT GB N.L. WEST W L PCT GB L.A. 65 40 0.619 0 L.A. 62 47 0.569 0 Colorado 65 43 0.602 1.5 San Fran 58 50 0.537 3.5 San Fran 56 49 0.533 9 San Diego 48 60 0.444 13.5 Arizona 55 51 0.519 10.5 Arizona 48 61 0.440 14 San Diego 39 69 0.361 27.5 Colorado 44 64 0.407 17.5 N.L. WC W L PCT GB N.L. WC W L PCT GB Colorado 65 43 0.602 0 San Fran 58 50 0.537 0 St. Louis 63 42 0.600 0.5 St. Louis 57 50 0.533 0.5 Cinn 58 50 0.537 7 Atlanta 58 51 0.532 0.5 San Fran 56 49 0.533 9 Pitts 57 51 0.528 1