My 1982 Detroit Tigers (NXPL) have clinched the American League Pennant, the team is on the road for their last series in Chicago against the Chicago White Sox. The NXPL is a twenty-team league with no expansion, each league (American & National) have 10 teams each, and there is no designated hitter as well.
I had a blog piece that was published August 7th (with Bill Madlock's picture) about my 1982 Tigers' season success, but it was accidentally deleted when I was deleting some blog drafts on my site (The article was accidentally clicked on... grrr!).
My Detroit Tigers will be facing the St. Louis Cardinals, who made sure that the Montreal Expos were not going to their third-straight World Series. It's almost fitting that the Tigers & Cardinals would be facing each other, with their history against each other in the series (1934, 1968, 2006) -- plus the Cardinals did play in the actual World Series against the Milwaukee Brewers in 1982; The rosters may have some different faces, but there are also players on these rosters that actually played for their respective ball clubs.
The 'WHAT IF' World Series - Updates
Where we are at on both:
The 2001 World Series has the Oakland Athletics leading the series, 3-2, after Eric Chavez's walk-off home run to deep center off of reliever Bret Prinz; Oakland's Game 5 win was the first game that either team won at home in the series. Curt Schilling is to pitch Game 6 for the D-Backs, facing Mark Mulder.
The 1975 World Series has Boston up 1-0 in the series, after the Red Sox rallied back, tied the game with Cecil Cooper's two-run HR, in which he would come up the hero again, innings later in the bottom-of-the-11th with a walk-off single.
Check out my previous 'WHAT IF' World Series below (by clicking on it)...
- The 'WHAT IF' 1984 World Series (Cubs vs Tigers)
- Check out the Replay Booth as well.
Same Faces, New Places (BoS Updates)
Plenty of deals have gone down during the 2016 BoS Season for the Boys of Summer APBA Baseball League.
The Traverse City Panthers have made two deals that have them throwing up a white flag for 2016, a season after being a huge favorite & being knocked out early in playoffs, have been reeling since. The team has noted they are not rebuilding, but are currently reshuffling the deck for the future; The Panthers traded star third baseman Josh Donaldson with Norichika Aoki & a 6th Round Draft Pick to the Fairgrove Tigers in exchange for two younger stars in third baseman Nick Castellanos, starting pitcher Yordana Ventura & Fairgrove's 1st Round Draft Pick.
The Panthers weren't done there, they also traded third baseman Matt Carpenter (who was DH/2B for the Panthers) to the San Diego Heroes in exchange for 3B/IF- Brandon Drury, starting pitcher Daniel Norris, Cuban outfielder Yasiel Puig (who returns to the team that originally drafted him), along with a 3rd Round Draft Pick.
 |
| Donaldson will be now bashing away in a Tigers' uniform. |
It was tough for Traverse City to break up the combination of Donaldson & Carpenter, to go along with Miguel Cabrera, Hunter Pence & Giancarlo Stanton; The other three (Cabrera, Pence & Stanton) have had health issues the past two seasons, and Panthers had to trade some stars to bring in more depth. The Panthers overall feel good about their deals, bringing in Castellanos (Age 24) and the troubled Ventura (Age 25), brings in much-needed youth with upside potential; Ventura has started rough for the Kansas City Royals in 2016, and got demoted -- since coming back from his demotion, he has posted a 2.03 ERA in five starts. Castellanos is having the best year of his young career, but has recently suffered a non-displaced fracture in his left hand, and most likely will be out for the next four weeks.
It's amazing to think that Yasiel Puig is only 25, and how far he has fallen from his MLB debut in 2013; The Traverse City Panthers drafted Puig as the league's #1 overall pick in March 2014, he helped the Panthers get within a game of the World Series in his rookie year. The next off-season he was involved in a blockbuster deal, being sent to Chicago in exchange for Miguel Cabrera (both teams had other stars in the packaged deal); Mid-season 2015, Chicago would trade him to San Diego, a deal involving Andrew McCutchen. Puig is now back in T.C., San Diego had no room for him, and T.C. knows he could be the wild card in this deal, acquiring him could go either way... there is always that potential for him to turn back around that corner though.
Now moving on...
 |
| Greinke: Gun for hire. |
The Fairgrove Tigers not only acquired Donaldson for their attempts at another World Championship, they also acquired Zack Greinke with Dan Haren from the South Side Spartans, in exchange for Rick Porcello and Jake Odorizzi. GM/Manager Robert Mosher & his Tigers are making a serious push for another World Title, they won a title during the 2014 BoS Season.
Interesting fact about Greinke, it's his 3rd team this season, he becomes the second player to play for three different ballclubs in league history... the first was Jose Bautista.
Fairgrove has won 6 of their last 10 games, by tying the division, as Chicago has struggled of late, losing 7 of their last 10 games in the process; Chicago made plenty of huge moves in off-season that made the 2015 American League Champions the early season favorite.
No comments:
Post a Comment