March Updates (AGBA & GMABT)

Here are some quick updates for the month of March, on projects and future posts.

AGBA Baseball Season I

Here are the standings for the APBA Galaxy Baseball Association (AGBA)

The New York Pigeons (of the Eastern League's Ruth Division) has acquired some more breathing room between them and their closest competition by sweeping their 4-game series at home, against the Florida Rockets (who have now lost 6 straight). The Pigeons have one of the best records in AGBA when playing at home, sporting a 15-6 record. The Baltimore Bombers have idled all season at the .500 mark, and are at the moment, the 2nd place team.

If this season's trends continue, there should be 3 playoff teams coming out of the Robinson Division. The Philadelphia Veterans appeared to be the solid third team, and possible 2nd place team, but has now hit the skids, sliding to 4th place, with Washington slipping past them. The Washington Maroons success has been due to their lineup starting to wake up. The Maroons moved shortstop Trea Turner up to the leadoff spot, and he hasn't looked back -- batting .389, 1 HR, 5 RBI with 6 runs, while reaching base with a .421 OBP and stealing 4 bases during recent 8-game stretch. 

The Carolina Twins remains by an edge on top of the Robinson Division, while both Carolina and the Atlanta Firebirds won each of their last 4-game series, 3-1. The Brooklyn Mets rebounded from an 4-0 sweep against Carolina two weeks ago, by going 5-2-1 their last 8 games. The Mets may be adding a big bat before the Trade Deadline, by trading one of their surplus of pitchers. The Mets are in 5th place in their division, 18 points back, but have the potential to get back into the division race with the rotation that they have.

The Detroit Wolverines may be starting to add their name to the AGBA Title contenders with their recent 7-2-1 stretch, while the Cobb Division favorite Cleveland Spiders have lost their webbing, and found themselves in their worst stretch of the season (4-6, last 10 games). The Wolverines host the same Toronto Reds that won their series, 3-1 against Cleveland, while the Spiders look to rebound against the gold & purple, facing off against the Kansas City Monarchs on the road. Toronto looked good against Cleveland, and hope to build on their recent momentum.

The Milwaukee Braves remain in 1st place in the Young Division, as they are in control with a 9-point cushion over the St. Louis Saints. The Braves host the struggling Saints next. The Saints have lost 7 of their last 10 games, as their bats cooled off. St. Louis has scored 4 runs-or-less during 8 of their last 10 games. 

The Twin Cities Giants continue to move in a positive position, but due to the rough start to the season, still remain 16 points (8 games behind).

The Houston Rattlers are tied with the Carolina Twins with the best record in the entire Galaxy League, each showing off a 23-10-1 record (.696 winning pct). The Rattlers are strong in all areas, lineup, rotation, pen & bench, and appear to be the overwhelming favorite to win the division. Houston's closest competition are the San Jose Athletics, who recently slowed down the hot Los Angeles Guardians. 

The Denver Miners now appear to be the team to beat in the Wagner Division. The Miners' lineup have been explosive at the plate, while they have got clutch starting pitching out of Pat Jarvis (5-1, 2.19) and Frank Viola, who has a 3-1 record and 2.72 ERA (1.93 ERA in last 3 starts) since being acquired from Twin Cities.

Denver's Andres Galarraga is making a serious push for the Western League's MVP Award, by hitting .479 with 4 HR & 14 RBI, plus 10 doubles during his last 12 games. Galarraga also has a remarkable .528 OBP, 1.063 slugging & a Ruthian-plus 1.591 OPS during the hot streak. Teammate Dante Bichette has also been one of AGBA's hottest hitters recently, batting .375 with 4 HR & 12 RBI (.426 OBP & 1.238 OPS) during the same stretch.

Don't look now, but the Arlington Stars have come alive, and quietly snuck past the underachieving Los Angeles Royals and San Francisco Seals (the two preseason favorites to go head-to-head for the division). The Stars' rotation has been consistently good for the past couple weeks, while the lineup has been much better, although they need Juan Gonzalez (.239 AVG) and Frank Howard (.222 AVG) to step up. Although Howard is among the league leaders with 11 home runs this season, he has not hit a dinger in two weeks, while he has batted .133 (6-for-45) during the stretch.

Greater Michigan APBA Baseball Tournament IX (GMABT)

I plan to do a future post on returning to Jackson, Michigan after a 6-year absence. What I can tell you right now is that Norm Zavela navigated the 1984 Detroit Tigers ("Bless You Boys") to win the tournament's 9th tourney. 

Many APBA-heads can tell you that guiding the 1984 Tigers to any success is a somewhat rarity. The 1984 Tigers and 1986 Mets, are two very memorable MLB teams, each with colorful characters and great bench players, but for some reason many dice rollers have had a hard time equally their MLB success. There could be numerous reasons for such, in my honest opinion is that many managers (including myself) have used numerous lineups for each of these teams, with many different starters as well, and APBA managers may have altered the lineups during one single tournament as well, once they felt they had to change things up.

I found out after my first few APBA tournaments that keeping one consistent lineup helps out tremendously, then it's all down to if you are rolling good dice or not. In my first GMABT tournament, I took the deadball 1917 Chicago White Sox and changed the lineup a few times over, with Eddie Collins and a couple others shifting around. I lost a couple close ones, but short story -- I didn't do well, plus my friend Ron Emch pointed out afterwards, I probably should have hit-and-run much more. Plus I think most APBA fans also know, unless it's a deadball era tournament, it's overall best to stay away from using a deadball team.

The next year, I ended up winning the Greater Michigan with a never-changing lineup in the 1993 Atlanta Braves, going 8-2 in the division, while winning my 3 playoff games for the title (11-2 overall record). I had the #1 seed in my 1st Glass City Tournament with the 1951 Brooklyn Dodgers, also due to sticking with one lineup -- by the way, all four of the top seeds (including mine) got knocked out by the bottom four seeded teams in that tournament.

It would be great to hear from Norman on how he navigated such a great (but difficult) team to the title. I do know that Ruppert Jones (pictured at top) was named the APBA Tournament MVP for the Tigers, having a 3 HR game during the day, while hitting the clutch homer in the GMABT championship game. Kudos on a job well done!

More to come on the tournament...