APBA 2K9 Project

Victor Martinez will be playing for the Boston Red Sox.

So recently, I have received the 2009, 2010 & 2011 APBA Baseball Seasons from my "Uncle Bob" Breher, which was very generous of him. I had no idea at first what to do with them for projects, I read his note, saying that some cards may be missing (It didn't appear so) and I didn't want to pick just one of those to do a season replay. Also, I had already played the 2007 & 2008 seasons in keeper's league (full season) plays...

So it dawned on me...

What if I did a project combining the three seasons, and it will be the best players' cards from one of those three seasons to represent the team they spent the most time with?

There was some tough decisions on players such as Adam LaRoche and Victor Martinez who spent time with three different teams during those stretches, so sometimes I had to sit those players to the side and afterwards see what team they fit on. I really wanted to do my best for a leveled playing field, of course some teams will be clearly better in the Philadelphia Phillies and New York Yankees, compared to the Pittsburgh Pirates, Baltimore Orioles and San Diego Padres.

Going through these cards were a blast when sorting them, the process took a good solid week to place players on rosters. At first I had to put players in alphabetical stacks, then put them in alphabetical order, and then pick out of those players' three cards, with help from Baseball Reference to help decide what team some of those players should play for.

There was some tough decisions, there was situations to keep balance; For example, I thought it would be great to add Javier Vazquez (B-XYZ, I believe) to the Atlanta Braves' rotation of Tim Hudson (B-YZ), Jair Jurrjens (A-Y) & Tommy Hanson (B-YZ)... but since they already had an outstanding bullpen of Peter Moylan (A*-YW), Jonny Venters (A&C*-XYW), Eric O'Flaherty (A&C*-XZ), Craig Kimbrel (A&C*-KXYW) & Billy Wagner (A*C-KX) -- Meanwhile, Florida was pretty short on starting pitching and Javier would balance things out, although his Marlins' APBA card is only a C-YZ.

Although, I would love to have Victor Martinez on the Detroit Tigers, I did not want to make it out to be a homer pick by being biased, so he ended up with Boston. This allowed Texas to have Jarrod Saltalamacchia, instead of Boston.

There was statistical situations as well, I really wanted to have Jose Bautista's 2010 Season (.260, 54 HR & 124 RBI) represent Bautista for Toronto, instead of his 2011 season (.302, 43 HR & 103 RBI) that I went with -- basically because of the .260 batting average which is more accurate to Bautista's career norms, but I did not go that way, because I looked at all the other Blue Jays and many of their starters' batting averages (with the exception of Adam Lind) ranged only from .255 to .286, so I felt another .300 hitter would help them battle better against clearer favorites such as the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees.

I also did this with players like Gordon Beckham; Beckham's 2009 rookie season (.808 OPS) stands alone as his best season of his career, I went with his 2010 season, due to the fact that his 2010 season is more like his career numbers and the fact is that he played second base mostly with the White Sox -- he played third, his rookie year. He never hit over .700 OPS for a season, since his rookie year as well.

Boston also won out on Jason Bay (.267, 36 HR & 119 RBI), even though he played the majority of this period with the Mets (two years), but the Mets had plenty of interesting bats, and let's face it Bay's Mets cards sucked. Boston got Victor and Bay largely due to their starting pitching being average-to-good at best, with two B starters in Josh Beckett and Jon Lester; The Red Sox also won John Lackey (from possibly pitching for Cardinals), but Cards had much more depth and better starting pitching.

It is cool to see the blasts of the pasts return in Manny Ramirez, Vernon Wells, Lance Berkman, Vladimir Guerrero & even Carlos Delgado & Gary Sheffield for the Mets (although those two are more limited) while seeing Joe Mauer and Ichiro Suzuki being hitting machines again.

Oh, and Tim Lincecum (A-XY) is dominant again... while other guys were just starting out and have yet to have big cards in Anthony Rizzo, Paul Goldschmidt and Carlos Gomez.

This will be played whenever I am not doing one of my tournaments & just killing time, it will definitely take a few years to say the least. I am using the 2016 MLB Schedule, and for another twist I will have the Houston Astros stay in the A.L. West.

WEEK 5 & WEEK 6 - BoS Player of the Week Awards

WEEK 5 - BoS Player of the Week Awards

A.L. WEEKLY AWARD WINNERS

Chris Archer was impressive for the Buffalo Yankees in his only outing of the week, although he suffered a tough loss -- pitching 9.2 innings, allowing only 4 hits, one earned run & two walks, while logging 13 strikeouts.

A.J. Pollack won the hitting award for the week in the American League, representing the Micatin Destroyers by going 6-for-21 (.286) with a clutch grand slam -- finishing the week with 7 RBI.

Honorable Mention: Two-time Weekly winner Jake Arrieta pitched 8 strong innings in a no-decision (allowing 2 hits, no earned runs) with 9 K's & a walk; Others include Micatin's Jason Hammel  (8 IP, 4 H, 2 ER with 10 K & 3 walks), Buffalo's Alex Colome (8.1 IP, 5 H, 0 ER, with 7 K & BB in win), Chicago's Matt Harvey (9 IP, 7 H, 2 ER with 12 K's), Fairgrove's Andre Ethier (Batting .500 in 14 AB's, with 2 runs & RBI) & Corktown's Jarrod Dyson (5-for-12 /.417 BA with 2 doubles, RBI & three steals).


N.L. WEEKLY AWARD WINNERS

Clayton Kershaw does what he does best & that is being his usual dominant self; Kershaw allowed only three hits & one walk in his shutout performance against the first-place San Diego Heroes. The King Road Kings usually can count on a full house when the Clayton takes the mound.

Yoenis Cespedes had an impressive week by going 11-for-20 (.550 BA) with 2 HR, 3 triples, 2 doubles, with 5 RBI & 5 runs scored. Cespedes has proven to be an excellent acquisition for the Urbana Locomotives.

Honorable Mention: The Louisville Sluggers' offense lit up the Traverse City Panthers' pitchers in Week 5... Gerardo Parra (6-for-17, .353 BA, 3 HR, 6 RBI & 5 runs), Robinson Cano (9-for-21, .429 BA, HR, 9 RBI & 3 runs), Cameron Maybin (7-for-16, .438 BA, RBI & 5 runs), Marcell Ozuna (7-for-13, .538 BA with 5 RBI) & Carlos Santana (7-for-20, .350 BA with HR & 5 RBI) led the way for Louisville.

Also... The Seattle Rainiers' Jose Altuve (.440 BA, HR, 4 RBI, 6 runs & 4 steals) and hot prospect Corey Seager (.320 on 8 hits, HR, 7 RBI & 2 doubles) this week -- plus the old vet Torii Hunter (8-for-21, .381 BA, 2 HR, 3 RBI & 4 runs) still showing he can get it done for the Kings.

WEEK 6 - BoS Player of the Week Awards

A.L. WEEKLY AWARD WINNERS

Last week, he was among the honorable mention... this week, he was the American League's Pitcher of the Week Award winner -- Jason Hammel pitched a complete game victory, allowing only one earned run & walk, 7 hits, while striking out 11 Tigers.

On the offensive side of the coin, is the Fairgrove Tigers' Paul Goldschmidt, who was locked in, hitting .524 with 11 hits in 21 at-bats, while logging 2 long balls with 6 ribbies.

Honorable Mention: Corktown's Carlos Carrasco (A no-decision & loss -- combining for 13.2 innings, 3 ER & 5 walks allowed with 18 K's), Chicago's Chase Anderson (15 IP, 8 H, 2 ER with 10 K's & 4 walks allowed) & Dexter Fowler (5-for-14, .357 BA with 2 HR, 5 RBI & 5 runs), Micatin's Ben Zobrist (.286 BA with 3 of his 4 hits being homeruns with 6 RBI), and Brooklyn's Billy Burns (9-for-22, .409 BA, with 5 RBI, 5 runs & 3 doubles).

N.L. WEEKLY AWARD WINNERS

Yoenis Cespedes has been red-hot and is putting together possibly one of the league's most impressive two-week stretches in league history.... all while winning the N.L. Player of the Week Award for the second straight week; Cespedes went 10-for-27 with 4 HR & 9 RBI, with 2 doubles & 2 triples.

The most impressive part of Cespedes' week is that hit a home run in 4 consecutive games to finish out the series, with the streak still in tact.

Cespedes' two week stretch: 21-for-41 (.512 AVG) with 6 HR, 5 triples, 4 doubles & 14 RBI -- all while scoring 13 runs!

For the pitchers in the N.L., the award goes out to a reliever -- Cespedes' Urbana teammate, Zach Britton, who logged 4 saves, on 5 scoreless innings of work, that included 8 K's, while only allowing two walks (no hits).

Honorable Mention: Urbana's Adrian Beltre (9-for-31, .290 BA with HR & 7 RBI) & ace David Price (8.2 IP, 3 H, no ER, with 14 K's & walk in no-decision), Kings' J.A. Happ (13.2 innings, 3 ER & 2 walks allowed with 13 K's & a victory in two outings), Louisville's Mark Canha (8-for-19, .421 BA, 2 HR & 3 RBI) & A.J. Burnett's two-hit shutout (9 K's) against San Diego --- Plus, Portland's Josh Tomlin splits his outings with a win & loss, going 14 innings, allowing only 4 earned runs & 2 walks, while logging 16 K's against Holland; Dallas Keuchel of Portland, logs two-hit shutout with 8 K's, improving to 3-1 with a 2.25 ERA.

A.L. Surprises (and not so much)

Cano has the Mariners facing in the right direction.

So we are a good solid month-plus into the Major League Baseball Season... and with every MLB season, particularly this part of the season, there are always surprises... Here is my take on the American League.

I will start with the Seattle Mariners. Did anyone have the Mariners leading the A.L. West with an 18-12 record at this point? If you did... you are lying! The Los Angeles Angels are always in the mix with a man like Mike Trout leading the way, plus the Texas Rangers have a lot of talent; The Athletics are doing their usual reshuffle Moneyball thing, while the team that was supposed to lead the division, the Houston Astros, are a complete mess.

Seattle really was not on the radar, their big contract star Robinson Cano was supposed to be declining according to every baseball expert and Fantasy Baseball magazine... at press time, Cano was batting .306 with 11 HR & 32 RBI (.979 OPS) -- to put it into perspective he has twice as many homers & ribbies than slugger/teammate Nelson Cruz right now (5 HR & 16 RBI, .827 OPS)... without looking around the league at the moment, from the top of my head, I would say we have our early favorite in Cano for American League MVP right now.

Cano & Cruz are getting help in the lineup from young Ketel Marte, and the old vet, always forgotten Seth Smith; Smith is one of those players that completely falls off the face of the map (or so it seems), and then has one of those better seasons where he is one of the team's more dangerous weapons in the lineup -- he would do this from time to time in his days with Colorado and Oakland, he is doing the same thing, now. Smith has a .375 on-base percentage, with 4 HR & 12 RBI -- putting together a respectable .813 OPS. I happened to forget that he played for the Padres in 2014, this is exactly what I am talking about with Smith just vanishing off the map... then again, it's San Diego, where almost everyone falls off the map.

It also appears that Felix Hernandez has some help this season in the pitching staff (for once) with Nathan Karns (3-1, 3.38 ERA & 38 K's) and Taijuan Walker (2-2, 1.97 ERA, 29 K's). I have always liked both of these kids, in fact I had both players in my keepers APBA League for the Traverse City Panthers -- I traded Karns with Adam Warren & a 2nd round Draft Pick for Adam Wainwright, who was basically a second-half rental for our playoff push last season. I really can't believe Tampa got rid of Karns, while Walker has finally blossomed. Their new closer Steve Cishek (after a decline in Miami) has bounced back nicely in the American League with 9 Saves & 1.13 ERA this season.

Meanwhile... Houston we have a problem...

(Sorry, couldn't avoid it)

The Houston Astros, the team that was supposed to lead the A.L. West has been crashing to the MLB surface in the same way as the asteroid in 'Deep Impact' did.

Although they are getting some strong production in their lineup from consistent Jose Altuve (.317, 9 HR & 19 RBI, 10 steals -- with a 1.064 OPS), rising stud Carlos Correa (.284, 5 HR & 15 RBI / .882 OPS), and George Springer (.264, 6 HR & 16 RBI) -- it's their backbone of last season, the pitching that is completely letting the team down...

Out of their starting pitchers who have had at least 6 starts, this season -- It's Doug Fister that has done the best out of them, and that's nothing to brag about, when Fister is leading the team with a 4.54 ERA & 1.32 WHIP! Dallas Keuchel, last year's American League Cy Young winner, has been nowhere as dominant, with a 3-3, 4.70 ERA with 19 walks (through 44 innings & 7 starts). The bullpen has been no better, as it appears Luke Gregerson (7 SV, 3.29 ERA) is on his own.

Now let's go to the other side of American League spectrum, and check out the American League East. I am not surprised by the Boston Red Sox or Toronto Blue Jays, who I really think the division will come down to... I am also not surprised by the New York Yankees being in last, they are (and have been) long in the tooth for some time -- they benefited last season with bounce-back last hurrahs from Mark Teixeira and Alex Rodriguez.

I am though, a bit surprised by the Baltimore Orioles (1st place, 17-12), who really didn't make any big additions in the off-season. Mark Trumbo (.313, 8 HR & 22 RBI / .922 OPS) and Manny Machado (.345, 7 HR & 16 RBI / 1.042 OPS) appear to be doing the heavy lifting when it comes to the lineup, while their pitching staff has had some high points early on with Kevin Gausman, Chris Tillman & Vance Worley (but most of it, is in small doses); Overall? I don't see this keeping up.

Steven Wright has been excellent for Boston with a 1.67 ERA &1.14 WHIP in 5 starts, while Rick Porcello has bounced back (so far) from a disappointing 2015 season, with 5 wins, 2.95 ERA & 41 K strikeouts (impressive K rate for Porcello in only 39.2 innings of work) -- So it appears pitching is actually doing well in Boston to go along with their strong lineup. Also, do you really think its time to retire, David Ortiz? 'Big Papi' is batting .301 with 7 HR & 25 RBI, plus a 1.011 OPS.

I believe the Toronto Blue Jays will win the A.L. East, they have a strong lineup, good pitching and a great balance going on right now, their +13 scoring differential shows they should be better than a .500 team right now & should regain control of the division very soon here.

The Chicago White Sox for a few years have been labeled the team to beat, or so it seems for this Detroit Tigers fan... So let it be known, when USA Today and other big name sports writers were once again picking the White Sox to win the division, I had to laugh...

This time the laugh is on me, the White Sox have a commanding 5-game lead over Cleveland and Kansas City & although their lineup has a huge question mark in Todd Frazier (yeah the power is there, but where is the batting average & on-base percentage?), it's their rotation that is truly carrying this team, as predicted. Will the White Sox keep it up? Sadly (speaking as a Tigers fan), I think they will be in this division race until season's end. There is a lot of things to like about the Cleveland Indians, and a well-managed Terry Francona team, I do see Cleveland as the potential division champ, if the lineup finds its groove.

Detroit? I don't even know if I want to field this question right now. After last season, and the good moves in the off-season, everything must face up, right? So far, a definite no. Justin Verlander was one of the best starting pitchers in the second-half, everything indicating a strong season for 2016, but so far it has all been disappointing, on the exception for one start. The three big highlights for the Tigers have been Jordan Zimmermann (5-1, 1.10 ERA & 1.05 WHIP), the bounce-back season of Victor Martinez (.320, 5 HR & 18 RBI) & the evolution of Nick Castellanos (.376, 5 HR & 24 RBI, plus .389 OBP & .993 OPS). The bullpen seems to be improving of late, but their rotation (on the exception of Zimmermann) has been horrible!

The defending World Champion Kansas City Royals need to get their bats rolling, and their rotation stable, its difficult to figure out which way they are going at this point, up or down? Their scoring differential (-12) indicates that they are a team on the downside... one thing is for sure, they are not playing like champions right now.

What's wrong with the Minnesota Twins? Nothing, they came back down to earth, and are in the natural order of this division.

BoS Week 4 (Award Winners & Power Rankings)

A.L. Player & Pitcher of the Week Awards (Week 4)

Whenever anyone is talking about, which pitcher is hot? In MLB or APBA these days, one name constantly comes up... Jake Arrieta; Arrieta wins the A.L. Pitcher of the Week Award in the Boys of Summer APBA Baseball League for the second time this season (he previously won in Week 2).

Arrieta pitched a one-hit shutout, with 10 K's & 3 walks against the Brooklyn Mets.

Arrieta's teammate, Yasmany Tomas wins this week's A.L. Player of the Week Award -- He went 11-for-29 (.379) with 3 home runs & 10 RBI for the Corktown Tamales.

A.L. Honorable Mention: Micatin's Joey Votto (10-23, .435 BA, HR & 5 RBI) & John Lackey (CG, 0 ER/1 R, 4 H & 2 BB's allowed + 7 K's); Lackey improved to 5-0. Chicago's Andrew McCutchen (.385 AVG, HR & 8 RBI) & Dee Gordon (12-for-30, .400 BA with 2 steals & 3 RBI), plus Brooklyn's Justin Verlander (9 IP, CG, 8 H, 2 ER & 7 K / 1 BB).


N.L. Player & Pitcher of the Week Awards (Week 4)

The Portland Microbrewers' Corey Dickerson easily won the players award this week for the National League, he was a force of nature to deal with, in which the Louisville Sluggers had no answer for. Dickerson went 10-20 (.500) in four games (taking 2 games off during the series) with 4 HR & 9 RBI, with 5 runs & a triple.

For the pitchers' award, it was a tough decision, although Max Scherzer (Seattle Rainiers) regained his old form this week by pitching 18 strong innings (allowing only 1 ER & 7 hits) with 13 K's & 5 walks -- the award was given to the San Diego Heroes' Danny Salazar, who improved to 5-0 with a 1.18 ERA, by defeating a tough Holland Hitchhikers team twice, leading the team to a 4-2 series victory; Salazar pitched 14.2 innings, allowing 2 ER (with 10 hits & 2 walks) while picking up 9 strikeouts. Scherzer improved to 2-2 with a 3.58 ERA, one of his outings was a no-decision -- while Salazar has been knocking on the door for the award in the weekly honorable mention section.

N.L. Honorable Mention: Kings' Clayton Kershaw (allowed 4 hits & 1 ER in a complete game performance with 11 strikeouts), Urbana's Micheal Fiers (7 strong innings, allowing only 1 ER, a walk & 8 hits -- racking up 13 K's) & Mitch Moreland (7-15, .467 BA, HR & 6 RBI), plus Louisville's Robinson Cano (11-for-29, .379 BA, HR & 4 RBI).

BoS Power Rankings (End of APRIL) / April 3rd - 27th

Portland is once again, the team to beat, but this time they proudly can say that being the defending BoS World Champions; This is the Boys of Summer APBA Baseball League's 4th season & Portland has reached each of the previous World Series, and they finally won their first title over Chicago last fall.

The league has had three different champions -- The South Shore Fighting Imps (now Micatin Destroyers, same owner), Fairgrove Tigers & the Portland Microbrewers.

Portland is currently in second place, with the San Diego Heroes in first place in the N.L. West -- the entire National League may be a dog fight this season, with the Central being as tight as always, while the West got tougher.

Two playoff teams in the Swatara Eliminators (A.L. East) and the Traverse City Panthers (N.L. East) have seen a serious drop-off from last post-season, while Micatin has been good early on, trying to return to its winning ways as in the early years.

The one huge surprise, which has been echoed among the league, is the sluggish start by the Chicago Nine (11-12, 6 games back of Fairgrove), who many had pegged & predicted the Nine to win it all this season.

It's a long season, and we still have 5 months to go.

WEEK 2 & WEEK 3 - BoS Player of the Week Award Winners

WEEK 2 - BoS Player of the Week Awards

A.L. WEEKLY AWARD WINNERS

Jake Arrieta had 2 wins for Corktown while allowing only 7 hits, 2 earned runs & 2 walks -- while striking out 21 batters (1.20 ERA for the week); His teammate Justin Upton wins the batter element of the A.L. weekly award, by going 10-for-22 (.455) while hitting 2 HR & 8 RBI.

Honorable Mention: Micatin's A.J. Pollack (.379, 2 HR & 9 RBI), Buffalo's Ian Kinsler (.407, HR & 3 RBI), Spartans' Mark Teixeira (.357, 2 HR & 6 RBI) & Edison Volquez (2 W, 4 ER - 2.12 ERA in 17 IP) for Brooklyn.

Brandon Phillips keeps hitting well for Swatara through 2 weeks, as he went 9-for-22 (.409) with 2 HR & 3 RBI for Week 2.

N.L. WEEKLY AWARD WINNERS

The National League was not as clear-cut, but Robbie Ray made it worth his only Week 2 outing, with a two-hit shutout with 11 strikeouts for the Seattle Rainiers; Once again, it was another teammate to take the batting award for the week, Ray's teammate & All-Star vet Joe Mauer (acquired from Micatin in the off-season) went 7-for-16 (.438) with 2 HR & 8 RBI.

Honorable Mention: Holland's Johnny Cueto (9 IP, 2 H, 2 ER with 9 K's & win), King Road's Clayton Kershaw had 9 K's - allowing an earned run in a loss; Also Portland's Todd Frazier (.391 with 6 RBI) and San Diego's Nelson Cruz (.360 with 2 HR & 5 RBI).

WEEK 3's BoS Player of the Week Awards.

A.L. WEEKLY AWARD WINNERS

The Micatin Destroyers' two pitchers Jake Peavy and John Lackey each pitch a one-hit shutout. Peavy gets the edge by striking out one more batter in his outing (finishing with 9 K's), while both allowed two walks against Corktown.

It was tough to decide from the hitters, so I went with the player who had the most impact (despite a .250 avg, 4-for-16) in Mark Teixeira, hitting 3 HR & 8 RBI in big clutch moments for the South Side Spartans against the Swatara Eliminators.

Honorable Mention: Chicago's Nolan Arenado (.333, HR, 3 RBI, plus 3 doubles & triple), Buffalo's Jordan Zimmerman (8 IP, 5 H, ER with 10 K & BB), Fairgrove's Mike Mahtook (.429, 2 HR, 2 RBI, 5 runs & double) & Patrick Corbin (8 IP, 6 H, 0 ER/2 R, with 7 K's)-- while Gregory Polanco, Adam Eaton and Neil Walker all had a productive series for the Spartans.

N.L. WEEKLY AWARD WINNERS

King Road's J.A. Happ had the strongest outing in the N.L., by allowing only two hits in a shutout performance against a tough Portland team, all while racking up 12 K's & allowing only one walk.

The offense was tough to pick, but I decided to go with T.C's Eddie Rosario, who seemed to be everywhere in the Panthers' 3-2 series win over Holland. Rosario went 8-21 (.381) with 2 HR, 4 RBI & 7 runs.

Honarable Mention: Holland's Evan Gattis hit 3 HR with 6 RBI (6-for-18, .333), while his teammate, Mike Moustakas batted .421 with a HR, 3 RBI & 5 runs. San Diego's Francisco Lindor gave the Player a run with Gattis, while going 7-12 (.583), HR, 4 RBI & 6 runs -- while Heroes teammate Danny Salazar looked sharp on mound with complete game victory (improving to 3-0, 1.17 ERA) with 11 K's, while allowing 1 run on 3 hits & 2 walks.

*** PRAIRELAND TOURNAMENT Results from Urbana, Illinois in next post! ***