It’s a Cruel Summer Newsletter
VOL. XXV No. 2
July 26, 2009

-----------------------------------------------
Playoffs: North Dakota vs. New Orleans
Playoffs: Fugakyu vs. Constantinople
World Series: New Orleans vs. Constantinople
Minutes of the Annual Meeting
MVP and Cy Young Voting
Summer Study 1: 2005 Draft Analyses
Summer Study 2: Who's Your Daddy?
Summer Study 3: Comparing the Great SOMBILLA teams
All-Star Count
Ballparks



      Playoffs

      North Dakota vs. New Orleans (March 8, 2009)

      Background

      Heavily favored to win the league championship, North Dakota realizes on opening night it has made a fatal mistake by inexplicably choosing a non-homer park for its lineup of bashers. From TWITS Notes: "You want the fucking details? Fine. The computer fucking screwed me by making me choose the wrong park. I missed FOUR ballpark homers in game 1 (Randy had none)". Despite that fatal mistake, the team is in the thick of the pennant race all season and ends up in a flat-footed tie for 2nd with New Orleans.

      Harold, picked for 7th, starts off strong by sweepin Jeff to open the season, and at the holiday break is only a game out of first at 16-12 in the thick of a 5-team race. He goes 12-4 in January (winning series against both Jed and Tom) to take over first place and turn the season into a 3-team race. By that time, a .500 February (6-6) is good enough to claim a coveted playoff spot, tying North Dakota for 2nd.

      The teams split the season series and thus a coin flip (won by North Dakota) determines the home field advantage.

      Game 1: Cy Young Winner Jake Peavy is dominant, as ND breaks open a tight 1-1 game with 5 runs in the 6th and 7th.


      1

      2

      3

      4

      5

      6

      7

      8

      9


      R

      H

      E

      New Orleans

      0

      0

      0

      0

      0

      1

      0

      0

      0


      1

      5

      1

      North Dakota

      0

      1

      0

      0

      0

      2

      3

      0

      1


      6

      9

      0

      WP: Peavy (1-0)

      LP: Carmona (0-1)

      HR: Pujols

       

       

      Game 2: Back to back doubles by Glaus and Bard off Lilly give ND the 2-0 lead they will never relinquish. Helton’s 8th inning homer off Accardo makes it interesting, but ND hangs on to go up in the series 2 games to 0.


      1

      2

      3

      4

      5

      6

      7

      8

      9


      R

      H

      E

      New Orleans

      0

      0

      0

      0

      0

      1

      0

      1

      0


      1

      4

      0

      North Dakota

      0

      0

      2

      0

      0

      2

      0

      0

      0


      2

      7

      0

      WP: Hill (1-0)

      LP: Lilly (0-1)

      SV: Bell (1)

      HR: Helton

       

      Game 3: The series shifts to New Orleans and Harold’s bats come alive with 3 runs on 4 hits in the first inning off Shields. ND’s Reynolds’ 2-run blast makes it a 3-2 game until the 8th. Morneau, Wright, Helton, Posada, Sheffield, DeJesus and Cabrera start off the 8th with hits for a 5-run inning. Wang, Capps, Beimel, Gardner and Garland shut down North Dakota.


      1

      2

      3

      4

      5

      6

      7

      8

      9


      R

      H

      E

      North Dakota

      0

      2

      0

      0

      0

      0

      0

      0

      0


      2

      6

      0

      New Orleans

      3

      0

      0

      0

      0

      0

      0

      5

      x


      8

      13

      0

      WP: Wang (1-0)

      LP: J. Shields (0-1)

      SV: Garland (1)

      HR: ND: Reynolds (1) NO: Morneau (1)

      Game 4: A shaky Peavy (8 walks in 3 2/3) helps New Orleans to pound on North Dakota mercilessly. Hudson (3-run homer), Markakis (4 hits, homer) and O Cabrera (3 hits) lead the charge as New Orleans easily ties up the series 2-2


      1

      2

      3

      4

      5

      6

      7

      8

      9


      R

      H

      E

      North Dakota

      0

      3

      1

      0

      0

      2

      0

      0

      1


      7

      12

      1

      New Orleans

      1

      0

      0

      7

      0

      5

      3

      0

      x


      16

      15

      0

      WP: Carmona (1-1)

      LP: Peavy (1-1)

      HR: ND: Hamilton, Reynolds; NO: Markakis, Hudson

      Game 5: The pivotal game. It’s 3-3 after 6 and both teams go into full-blown relief matchup mode. New Orleans uses 8 pitchers, North Dakota 6 as each team gets runners in scoring position in the 5th and 7th and can’t score. NO has the winning run on 3rd in the bottom of the 9th, but Isringhausen gets O.Cab and DeJesus. With 2 out and one on in the bottom of the 11th, Helton hits a game-winning 2-run homer off Izzy.


      1

      2

      3

      4

      5

      6

      7

      8

      9

      10

      11


      R

      H

      E

      North Dakota

      1

      0

      0

      2

      0

      0

      0

      0

      0

      0

      0


      3

      9

      0

      New Orleans

      0

      0

      2

      0

      0

      1

      0

      0

      0

      0

      2


      5

      12

      1

      WP: Chamberlain (1-0)

      LP: Isringhausen (0-1)

      HR: NO: Helton

      Game 6: North Dakota fully expects to tie the series and force a game 7. NO strikes first with a DeJesus sac off C. Young, but Reynolds answers with his third homer for ND to tie it 1-1. A combined 12 relievers later and it’s 1-1 going into the 9th. Markakis singles off Accardo. He’s bunted to second and then a fielder’s choice moves him to 3rd with 2 out. Hudson walks. Izzy comes in and walks Sheffield. C. Jones is up with the bases loaded, two out. He hits a bases-clearing triple and Harold is going to the World Series, stunning the pre-season favorites.


      1

      2

      3

      4

      5

      6

      7

      8

      9


      R

      H

      E

      North Dakota

      0

      0

      0

      1

      0

      0

      0

      0

      3


      4

      9

      0

      New Orleans

      0

      0

      0

      0

      1

      0

      0

      0

      0


      1

      4

      0

      WP: Beimel (1-0)

      LP: Accardo (0-1)

      SV: Rivera

      HR: ND: Reynolds

      "North Dakota was ripped into small pieces, crumpled into a small ball, stuffed into a water and salsa filled glass, then dumped outside into a pile of dog poop in anticipation of tonight's snow and ice."




      Fugakyu vs. Constantinople (March 8, 2009)

      Background: Jed, picked 2nd in pre-season polls, starts out slowly at 6-6. But he goes 8-4 in December and at the break is sitting in second place at 14-10. A 6-6 start to the new year isn’t good enough for Jed, so he acquires Carlos Pena from Tom on 1/21. With Pena in the lineup, he wins 15 of his final 20, including 3 of 4 in a 2/8 showdown against North Dakota, to finish in first place overall and avoid the 2 other top teams, ND and NO, in the first round.

      Tom was actually chosen third by the league in the preseason poll, but stumbles out of the gate, starting out 2-6 in November, and despite a 10-10 December, is looking up at the league in 7th place at the break. A 5-7 start to the New Year is enough for the CN GM who finds himself 9 games out of first. He unloads Carlos Pena, then sweeps Robin in his very next series to find himself back in the thick of the ‘wild-card’ race, with 4 teams contending for the final playoff berth. A 6-6 February is good enough to clinch 4th place outright, as all the other pretenders fall out of contention one by one.

      Jed beat Tom 5 of 8 during the regular season and Tom is thinking it might have been useful to have Pena in his own lineup for the series.

      Game 1: The first suicide squeeze of the series went bad and Victorino is thrown out at the plate. But Fugakyu did not need the run as Beckett and 3 relievers smother the CN offense, striking out 12.

       

      Teams

      1

      2

      3

      4

      5

      6

      7

      8

      9

      R

      H

      E

      CN Manatees

      0

      1

      0

      0

      0

      0

      0

      0

      0

      1

      5

      1

      Fugakyu

      0

      0

      0

      3

      0

      1

      0

      0

      0

      4

      8

      0

      W: Beckett (1)

      L: Cain (1)

      SV: Speier (1)

      Errors: Loney (1)

      HR (CN Manatees): A. Rod (1)

       

      Game 2: Fugakyu goes up early on a Wilson double, but CN comes right back for 3 in the third as A. Rod hit his second homer of the game - this time a two run shot. Cust’s 2-run single ties the game. In the 10th, A. Rod hit his second homer of the game to put CN up 1. The Fish tie it with an unearned run. Howard hits a 12th inning homer for the win.

       

      Teams

      1

      2

      3

      4

      5

      6

      7

      8

      9

      10

      11

      12

      R

      H

      E

      CN Manatees

      0

      0

      3

      0

      1

      0

      0

      0

      0

      1

      0

      1

      6

      9

      1

      Fugakyu

      0

      1

      1

      0

      2

      0

      0

      0

      0

      1

      0

      0

      5

      11

      0

      W: Bedard (1)

      L: Webb (1)

      Errors: Ross (1)

      HR (CN Manatees): A. Rod 2 (2,3), Howard (1)

       

      Game 3: The CN offense came out big with 10 runs in the first two innings and they needed all of them. The Puffer Fish never gave up and scored 8 runs including a grand slam from Cust for their first homer of the series. The tying run was on deck in the 9th, and when A. Rod kicked Shoppach’s grounder for a two base error the CN fans were on the edge of their seats. Loney came through again as he took a 1Bx chance unassisted to end the game.

       

      Teams

      1

      2

      3

      4

      5

      6

      7

      8

      9

      R

      H

      E

      Fugakyu

      0

      1

      0

      0

      4

      2

      0

      0

      1

      8

      10

      0

      CN Manatees

      8

      2

      0

      0

      0

      0

      0

      0

      1

      11

      11

      1

      W: Hudson (1)

      L: Harang (1)

      SV: Papelbon (1)

      Errors: A. Rod (1)

      HR (Fugakyu): Cust 1 (1 GS)

      HR (CN Manatees): Loney 2 (1 GS,2), Varitek (1), Martin (1)

       

      Game 4: The Fish went up 3-0 after Cain started slowly giving up 4 hits and 3 walks. CN came back with 4 runs against Beckett, but Beckett survived being tired when Kelly Johnson was thrown out at home. The Puffered ones came back in the 8th to tie it on a Mauer single after a Varitek error. Jenks gives up a triple to Figgins and then Suzuki hit a sacrifice fly (CFx) to put the Fish up 1 and Soria came in and struck out 3 while giving up a walk and a double to make it interesting.

      Teams

      1

      2

      3

      4

      5

      6

      7

      8

      9

      R

      H

      E

      Fugakyu

      2

      1

      0

      0

      0

      0

      0

      1

      1

      5

      13

      0

      CN Manatees

      0

      4

      0

      0

      0

      0

      0

      0

      0

      4

      8

      1

      W: Fuentes (1)

      L: Jenks (1)

      SV: Soria (1)

      Errors: Varitek (1)

      HR (CN Manatees): Ross (1)

       

      Game 5: All tied at 2 games apiece, Game 5 starts tied at 1 until the computers crash while processing a Holliday HR split 1 to 11. Controversy ensues – Jed ends up rolling the thing and is credited with the homer.

      CN's offense takes offence and goes on to score 4 in the bottom of the inning and 3 in the next inning and they just never looked back. 13 relief pitchers don’t help if your starters are on the bad end of the breaks. Bedard pitched 3 complete innings giving up 2 hits, a walk and 4 Ks.

       

      Teams

      1

      2

      3

      4

      5

      6

      7

      8

      9

      R

      H

      E

      Fugakyu

      1

      0

      1

      1

      0

      0

      0

      0

      0

      3

      7

      0

      CN Manatees

      1

      0

      4

      3

      0

      1

      0

      0

      0

      9

      10

      1

      W: Correia (1)

      L: Smoltz (1)

      SV: Bedard (1)

      Errors: Escobar (1)

      HR (Fugakyu): Holliday (1)

      HR (CN Manatees): Howard (2), Johnson (1), A. Rod (4)

       

      Game 6: A reboot of the computers later saw CN take the series with a 7-0 victory behind Hudson and 2 relievers. Hudson scattered 3 singles through 7 and none of those advanced. The Manatees have a shot to win their 4th World Series bid since adopting the playfully rotund mascot.

       

      Teams

      1

      2

      3

      4

      5

      6

      7

      8

      9

      R

      H

      E

      CN Manatees

      1

      1

      0

      3

      0

      0

      2

      0

      0

      7

      11

      0

      Fugakyu

      0

      0

      0

      0

      0

      0

      0

      0

      0

      0

      7

      0

      W: Hudson (2)

      L: Harang (2)

      HR (CN Manatees): A. Rod (5), Loney (3)

      Constantinople wins series 4 games to 2

       

      Overall, pitching was good for the Manatees with Bedard and Sabathia acting as relievers coming through with 12 innings and giving up only 1 earned run and striking out 17. Hudson won his two starts.

      A-Rod was the offensive MVP, hitting .320/.346/.920 with 6 runs, 5 homers and 6 RBI. Loney was a close second, hitting .375/.400/.833 with 3 homers, 3B and 7 RBIs. CN out muscled the Puffer Fish 15 homers to 2 in the series.

       


      World Series

      New Orleans vs. Constantinople

        (March 21, 2009)

        Background:

        It is an unlikely matchup – New Orleans, picked 7th in the pre-season vs. Constantinople, a team that traded away some of its best players only to make the playoffs in the last week of the season.

        It is the third post-season matchup between the two franchises. In 2001, New Orleans beat Constantinople 4 games to 1 to advance to the World Series (losing to North Dakota). Two seasons ago, Tom turned the tables, beating Harold in 5 games to advance to the World Series. During the regular season, Harold won 5 of 8 games vs. Tom.

        Game 1: CN scratched out 3 runs against NO ace Fausto Carmona. The home team scratched back into it by putting together a triple from the speedy Adam Dunn and RBI double from Wright in the 6th. CN’s defense collapsed as Escobar and Church gave up long singles and Loney kicked the ball as New Orleans roared back to tie the game at 3-3 after 8. Posada led off the 10th with a walk-off homer for the first homer and win of the Series!

         

        Teams

        1

        2

        3

        4

        5

        6

        7

        8

        9

        10

        R

        H

        E

        CN Manatees

        1

        0

        0

        0

        1

        1

        0

        0

        0

        0

        3

        12

        1

        New Orleans

        0

        0

        0

        0

        0

        1

        0

        2

        0

        1

        4

        9

        1

        W: Lidge (1)

        L: Benoit (1)

        Errors: Loney (1), Dunn (1)

        HR (New Orleans): Posada (1)

         

        Game 2: CN goes up 3-0 again and after 7 it is 3-3. Then with one man on and 1 out Mariano Rivera comes in to hold CN down. Howard hits a ball park homer (1-2) that is caught (and Harold breaths a sigh of relief that we are in his park), but CN then puts together a bunch of 2 out hits to go up 7-3. Harold does come back for 2 including a Posada triple, but can’t get the final clutch hit and looses.

        Teams

        1

        2

        3

        4

        5

        6

        7

        8

        9

        R

        H

        E

        CN Manatees

        0

        1

        2

        0

        0

        0

        0

        4

        0

        7

        8

        0

        New Orleans

        0

        0

        1

        1

        0

        0

        1

        2

        0

        5

        9

        0

        W: Billingsley (1)

        L: Rivera (1)

        SV: Jenks (1)

        HR (CN Manatees): A. Rod (1)

         

        Game 3: CN went up 4-0 in the first, chasing Ted Lilly and put on the lead-off man in every inning. But it is 4-4 after 3 innings and 7-7 after 8 and a half innings. A. Rod leads off the 9th with his version of the patented Posada walk off homer. A. Rod bookends the game with a lead-off homer in the first and the game winner in the 9th. Cody Ross had a homer, double and 5 RBIs in the game.

        Teams

        1

        2

        3

        4

        5

        6

        7

        8

        9

        R

        H

        E

        New Orleans

        0

        1

        3

        0

        2

        1

        0

        0

        0

        7

        10

        0

        CN Manatees

        4

        0

        0

        1

        2

        0

        0

        0

        1

        8

        17

        0

        W: Benoit (1)

        L: Rivera (2)

        HR (New Orleans): Helton (1), Jones (1), Wright (1), Rios (1)

        HR (CN Manatees): A. Rod (2,3), C. Ross (1)

        Game 4: Harold goes up 3-0, but CN claws back to 3-3 after 2. Harold goes up 4-3 after his half of the 3rd and then CN answers with 2 runs of their own in the bottom of the third. Then Harold comes back in the 4th to go up 7-5 and never looks back as they knot the series at 2 with an 11-7 win.

        Teams

        1

        2

        3

        4

        5

        6

        7

        8

        9

        R

        H

        E

        New Orleans

        3

        0

        1

        3

        0

        0

        2

        0

        2

        11

        14

        0

        CN Manatees

        1

        2

        2

        0

        1

        0

        0

        0

        1

        7

        11

        1

        W: Carmona (1)

        L: Cain (1)

        Error: Johnson

        HR (New Orleans): Rios (2)

         

        Game 5: The pivotal game saw Lilly (1-inning Game 3 starter) and 3 relievers take a 3-0 shutout into the 9th against CN. Joba the unstoppable came out to put this one in the books. But CN greeted him with a single, walk and CF-x (Ross CN’s mutant) which goes for an RBI double rare play where the hidden ball trick gets the 1st out. Howard then hits the 1st homer of the year off Joba (ballpark – 4 off his own card) and ties the game at 3-3. But the hidden ball out is the difference between a tie and a 4-3 win.

        The 10th saw A.Rod hit a LF-x to the 4 Adam Dunn and he gets a single and a rare play, and Dunn throws behind him to get the 1st out. A walk and long single later had Harold intentionally walk Ross to get to Howard. Howard flies out. The rare play again keeps the game going even longer as both teams use tired pitchers and face running out of innings. In the bottom of the 13 after Wright (3B 2) boots the lead off grounder from Johnson, a K , FC and long single gives CN 1st and 3rd with two outs. Loney and his big clutch rating hits a SSx and Harold breaths a sigh of relief as no error is showing and Cabrera is a 1. But wait, Loney is LH and Willits is the runner on 1st (*18 runner) so the hold comes into play and a single results as Cabrera is reduced to a 2 and the ball dribbles into the outfield and CN wins 4-3 after 13 grueling innings.

        Teams

        1

        2

        3

        4

        5

        6

        7

        8

        9

        10

        11

        12

        13

        R

        H

        E

        New Orleans

        0

        0

        0

        0

        1

        0

        2

        0

        0

        0

        0

        0

        0

        3

        15

        1

        CN Manatees

        0

        0

        0

        0

        0

        0

        0

        0

        3

        0

        0

        0

        1

        4

        13

        0

        W: Benoit (2)

        L: Garland (1)

        Error: Dunn (2)

        HR (New Orleans): Dunn (1), Cabrera (1)

        HR (CN Manatees): Howard (1)

         

        Game 6: Bedard starts for CN and he is toasted and between him and Billingsley Harold gets 9 runs in the 3rd inning. Game 6 ends 10-2 and it is down to the last game with all hands on deck. Both pens are rested and have limited but sufficient innings. CN manager Tom Kinney would argue later that if I was going to lose Game 6, I needed a blowout to have the innings for Game 7. Harold felt Game 5 was the decider and does not think the blowout was significant.

         

        Teams

        1

        2

        3

        4

        5

        6

        7

        8

        9

        R

        H

        E

        CN Manatees

        0

        0

        0

        2

        0

        0

        0

        0

        0

        2

        9

        1

        New Orleans

        0

        0

        9

        0

        0

        1

        0

        0

        0

        10

        13

        0

        W: Wang (1)

        L: Bedard (1)

        Error: A. Rod (1)

        HR (CN Manatees): Howard (2)

         

        Game 7: CN goes up 2-0 after 1. A-Rod boots a lead off DeJesus grounder and before you can say "My name is Chipper, don’t call me Larry" it is 3-2, Harold, as 2 unearned runs put them up. A 2-out Loney double in the 5th knots the game at 3 and it is extra innings before you know it.

        The 11th starts with Garland pitching as the last non tired New Orleans pitcher. A tired Lilly is warming up as the only other pitcher available and he is available only because of the ‘World Series starters can relieve in game 7’ rule and there are no players left on either bench to pinch hit. Church hits a lead off single and then Escobar doubles and Church is thrown out for the first out at home with Escobar taking 3rd on the throw. Pence doubles in Escobar and Ellis follows with a double to give CN a 5-3 lead. Romero comes out with 1/3 of an inning left (Papelbon and Jenks are already used up and Hudson and Bedard are tired and only Correia and Benoit are left with innings and rest) and walks Kearns and then gets DeJesus to hit into a double play. Benoit comes in and retires Cabrera to save game 7 and give CN the series.

         

        Teams

        1

        2

        3

        4

        5

        6

        7

        8

        9

        10

        11

        R

        H

        E

        CN Manatees

        2

        0

        0

        0

        1

        0

        0

        0

        0

        0

        2

        5

        14

        2

        New Orleans

        0

        0

        3

        0

        0

        0

        0

        0

        0

        0

        0

        3

        5

        0

        W: Romero (1)

        L: Garland (2)

        SV: Benoit (1)

        Errors: Escobar (1), A. Rod (2), O Dog (1)

         

        The CN bullpen again comes through as New Orleans hit 3 singles in the last 7 innings with no runners reaching third base.

        This is only the 2nd SOMBILLA World Series ever with an extra-inning 7th game (the other was the famous FW Strawberry 11th inning walk off pinch-hit home run off the LH's Eichorn back in '87), but the only one with 3 extra inning affairs.

         

        The MVP hitter was A. Rod, who hit .355, .457, .645 with 3 homers and 7 RBIs and 7 Rs.


        THOUGHTS WHILE CONVERTING ALL MY BEATLES ALBUMS TO MP3’s


Minutes of Annual Meeting and Draft April 5, 2009

1. Dues. For the first time ever, I can actually report that nobody owes any money (having decided to finally write off Land, Tsuan and Andrew as ‘bad debt’).

2. Awards Voting - 5 points for 1st place, 3 for 2nd place, 1 for 3rd place. Since managers cannot vote for their own players, 7 votes would normally be a unanimous vote.

MVP
1
2
3
Total
Wright, NO
5
2

31
Hamilton, ND
3
2
2
23
Pena. CN-FU

2
1
7
Fielder, DB

1
1
4
Ortiz, ND

1

3
Howard, CN


2
2
M. Cabrera, CB


1
1
O. Cabrera, NO


1
1


Cy Young
1
2
3
Tot
Peavy, ND
3
2
2
23
Lackey, FU
2
2
1
17
Chamberlain, NO
2

4
14
Lilly, NO
1
1
1
9
Halladay, BC

2

6
Carmona, NO

1

3

 

 

Manager of the Year
1
2
3
Tot
Tom
4
2
1
27
Harold
2
5

25
Jed
1
1
5
13
Arnie


1
1
Eric


1
1

 

There were no votes for Matt this year.

At the draft, Tom questioned why A-Rod was left off the MVP ballot. I couldn’t come up with a rational explanation on the spur of the moment other than inadvertent oversight, so to defuse the situation I offered to have a runoff among A-Rod and the top vote getters after the draft.

As I assembled the run-off and looked at A-Rod’s SOMBILLA stats more closely, I realized that in fact, it was a conscious decision of mine to leave him off as his stats were simply not up to those of his teammates Howard, Pena and most of the other nominees on the ballot. Of course, the nominations are chosen by one person, me, so there can be room for dispute. I’m positive nobody with true MVP ability has ever been left off, but it’s possible, even probable, that where there’s a large ballot (13 here) the actual best 13 players may not be listed.

Anyway, The run-off had no impact. Harold's David Wright still won the MVP and Hamilton still came in 2nd.



1
2
3
Tot
Wright, NO
4
3

29
Hamilton, ND
3
2

21
Pena, CN-FU

1
3
6
A. Rod, CN

1
3
6

One person refused to cast a 3rd place vote, while another refused ('abstained') to vote entirely.

 

3. Presentation of the Richman Cup by last year's champion, Randy, to this year's champion, Tom.

The presentation was uneventful.

 

  1. Rule change proposals


a. Elimination of any cutting of players for the draft!

Back in January, Tom first proposed entirely doing away with the cutting of players before the draft. Instead, cuts would be required a week after the draft.

There was much discussion about this. The second part of the question was around the effect of this change and the resulting structure of the draft as well as any waiver draft for teams to draft other teams’ cut players. While I felt they were separate discussions (that is, both doing away with the cut list before the draft and the resulting structure of the draft), most people felt they were sufficiently intertwined to merit an intertwined discussion of everything.

When the dust settled, the league decided three things:

  1. To do away with the requirement to cut players before the draft by a vote of 5-3.
  2. At first Robin abstained, then was in favor of the change. Randy provided the final vote in favor, but noted that he needed to see all of the details written up and reserved the right to change his mind.
  1. All teams would get 12 draft picks, no matter what.
  2. This passed by a vote of 7-1.
  1. Waiver draft in the same draft order as the regular draft of the players on the cut list.
  2. This was decided by consensus. I don’t think people were as concerned about this, because frankly, as a practical matter, we’re talking about maybe 1-2 players per season that might be claimed off the cut list? Certainly in the entire history of the league no more than 2 players have ever been drafted from the cut list in one draft.

I’d envision this waiver draft as:

b. Each team decides on DH.

Jed reiterated his proposal from a few years ago that each team decide whether to use the DH in their home park. That is, all games in that home park would be played under the no-DH rule (if a team decided to play without the DH at their park). This proposal was defeated 6-2.

  1. By-law clarifications.

The rest of the rule change discussions were taken up with a series of proposed clarifications from Tom covering situations that had either never occurred or had occurred once in 29 years.

1. Mismanagement of starter’s innings.

The first of Tom’s clarifications came up due to a fuck-up by Eric, whereby he unintentionally mismanaged his starter’s innings leading up to the final games of the season. The first proposal was merely to codify the obvious:

"A starter who has less than 4 innings remaining may not start if there is an alternative starter who can legally start and has 4 or more innings remaining. This applies during the season". We did clarify at the meeting that this does not apply to a one or more game playoff to decide who makes the playoffs, however.

Tom then offered up two alternatives to further clarify this once in a 29-year situation. The league, by a 6-2 vote, passed this version:

"If the only legal (i.e., non-tired) starter has fewer than 4 innings available through mismanagement of stats, the opponent gets to choose whether the starter has to be yanked or whether he stays in, tired, until he can be legally yanked". (Tom argued that sometimes forcing the starter to be yanked early could be an advantage, especially if the pitcher is dominant to one side or the other, even if he is tired).

2. Post-season running out of innings.

The next theoretical situation which has never occurred that Tom wanted addressed was where a reliever becomes used up in the middle of the game and the only one left in the bullpen is the starter for the next game.

The league passed, by a 5-3 vote, the following clarification of this situation:

"In the post-season, all starters can relieve. If your last 'real' reliever (i.e. someone with "relief" on their card) gets used up, you have to bring in any eligible pitcher left in the bullpen even if that guy is actually a starter for the next game. Even if this leaves you with only tired starred starters for the next game. The only time you can leave a used up pitcher in a game (regular season or post season) is if there is no eligible pitcher left in the bullpen. So, in this situation where a reliever gets used up, you have to bring in the starter for the used up reliever because the starter is eligible to relieve. Once this starter's innings are used up (whether in this game or during his next start a la Lincecum) he's tired."

3. Final clarification of that which will never occur.

What if, as a result of a situation similar to the above, all of your starters are tired? The league passed, by a 5-3 vote, the following clarification:

"The general rule for the regular season and playoffs is you can start any eligible (i.e. has enough rest) starting pitcher. If you have no such pitcher due to having had to use up all your available starters in relief in a prior game to replace a reliever who was used up, then you can start a tired pitcher who has innings left and has 'starter' on his card. If there is more than one such pitcher, the ‘least tired’ pitcher with 4 or more innings must start. If there is more than one pitcher with the same amount of tiredness, then the starred starter must start before the unstarred starter. If more than one starter has the same amount of tiredness and starredness, the manager can choose who to start among them. Such pitcher is automatically tired to start the game and the normal starter-yanking rules (4 inns/3 runs apply)".

(Credit Randy with the "least tired" rule amendment to the original proposal, as we all got down and dirty into obscure rule creating minutia)

There was also a brief discussion about allowing non-tired relievers to start instead, but this was quickly dismissed out of hand and never brought to a vote.

d. Ballparks. I proposed amending the current floor for lefty-righty differentials to be 5 instead of 7. This proposal was deadlocked at 4-4, thus keeping the status quo of "7" as the floor.

 

5. Card burning The league voted to burn A-Rod. However, Tom refused to allow his extra (non-laminated league-issued) A-Rod to be burned and after much hand wringing, we moved on without a card burning for the first time in draft history.

Draft Notes
There was one trade made on draft day: Jed traded Dye, Hafner and Smoltz to Tom for Jason Giambi.

Retread report:

Also, for the second year in a row, someone tried to draft a player off of North Dakota’s roster – Randy attempted to draft Adam Wainright, just as Jed tried to draft Edwin Encarnacion at last year’s draft.

We all shouted "Spooneybarger," and the ’09 draft was history.



  • SUMMER STUDY NO. 1 - DRAFT ANALYSIS - 2005

    By Tom Kinney, guest columnist. (Edited by Arnie and Robin)

    CHALLENGE – One of the things about which I was thinking before Arnie asked me to write the Draft Analysis was to ask my fellow managers to participate in an experiment for next year.

    1. Right before the draft, open up a word file and write some of your thoughts about the upcoming draft. I don’t want your super secret hush hush strategy or your lists of utility players. I was thinking more of what you were thinking of your team going in and what general thoughts you had about your draft and the draft in general. For example: Eric might have written this year that he had a good team and needed to pick up a quality starter, a lefty power bat and x quality relievers and y prospects. Robin might have written that she saw this draft as a chance to rebuild and wanted to concentrate on hitting prospects. I could have written up two different strategies, because I had a strategy for my team when I thought I was dicing off for the 2nd pick. (It is eerie how many players from my first analysis were drafted by the Troika (RAT).)
    2. Right after the draft, create another word file and write a little about how "you" did in the draft and a little about your impressions of the draft as a whole. This year I would say that I was too concentrated on this year and did not shift to getting a future pitcher soon enough to get one of the top three.
    3. Email me them and I will not open them for four years and then see what happened.

    Anyway. . . .

    It is time for the 4-year draft retrospective analysis of the 2005 draft. The first two rounds will as always be listed in detail with actual SOMBILLA seasons (where possible) and a look at 2009 usability and some glance to the future. I may be a bit more wordy than Arnie has been in past years and he may of course edit all that out …

    As I am writing this it is only a month into the season, so unless I come back and update this there will be very little about the 2009 season in this analysis. We have 4 SOMBILLA seasons, but note that we have partial or no data for the following seasons:

    As a result, some of these teams’ players may lose out in counting statistics (Wins, Saves, HRs, RBIs, SBs) and be more maligned that they deserve.

    Round 1: (stats shown are Average/Onbase/slugging/OPS)


    Team

    Player

    2004

    2005

    2006

    2007

    Stats

    1

    Harold

    David Wright

    X

    X

    X

    X

    .313 / .388 / .515 / .903 (681 PA), 40 HR, 124 RBI, 8 SB

    2

    Robin

    BJ Upton




    X

    .275 / .351 / .335 / .686 (191 PA), 4 HR, 14 RBI, 3 SB

    3

    M&J

    Joe Mauer

    ?

    X

    X

    X

    .279 / .354 / .396 / 0.75 (429 PA), 11 HR, 60 RBI, 5 SB

    4

    Eric

    Jake Westbrook

    X

    ?



    3-1, 5.36 ERA, 37 K

    5

    Harold

    Oliver Perez

    X




    2-2, 3.69 ERA, 54 K

    6

    Jeff

    Grady Sizemore


    X

    X

    X

    .255 / .354 / .383 / .737 (407 PA), 11 HR, 26 RBI, 13 SB

    7

    RAT

    Zack Greinke




    X


    8

    TSK

    Bobby Crosby






    Best Pick: This is a remarkable echo of the 2004 draft with a #1 pick overall who was a 3B middle of the order stalwart (M. Cabrera) versus a 5 tool lead off hitter (Reyes). This is a closer battle, though. While Wright has it all over Sizemore in the statistics to date, Sizemore in one publication is the #1 player at his position for next SOMBILLA year and the #1 CF for the future and the 12th best player in the 2008 set. (Wright is the 26th best player). Wright has the slightest edge in what may be a tie in the long run.

    Worst Pick: Bobby Crosby. At one point, Peter Gammons selected him as his preseason MVP candidate but the injury bug bit him and bit him and he was eventually cut without ever playing a single game in the SOMBILLA. He joins Jeff Borchard as the worst 1st round pick ever and, like Borchard, was the first pick after the first World Series victory for two different franchises. Could this be a WS hangover? (Gary Redus is smiling somewhere.)

    Other: This was a solid first round. The two position players not mentioned in Best/Worst are solid plus future contributors. Mauer is arguably the best catcher going forward and probably has not missed a SOMBILLA season and provides remarkable offense and defense at a hard to get and important position. BJ Upton is a late bloomer (or because he made the majors so young and searched for a position maybe he should have some other description) who was a #1 overall pick from HS and is now being rated as the 3rd best CF going into the future. Both of these players could enter the argument for SOMBILLA HOF when all is said and done. Three starting pitchers were taken and the first two had short-term value with one already being cut. Greinke of the anxiety disorder has a rating of the 19th best starter for the future and is 10-5 with a 2.08 ERA as of this writing.

    Round 2:


    Team

    Player

    2004

    2005

    2006

    2007

    Stats

    9

    Harold

    Bronson Arroyo

    X


    X


    4-4, 5.60 ERA, 54 K

    10

    Eric

    Juan Rincon

    X


    X


    2-2, 11 SV, 3.82 ERA, 35 K

    11

    M&J

    Brian Roberts


    X


    X

    .221 / .302 / .328 / .63 (232 PA), 3 HR, 22 RBI, 8 SB

    12

    Robin

    Jaret Wright

    X




    5-2, 7.31 ERA, 43 K

    13

    Arnie

    Mike Gonzalez

    X

    X

    X


    4-3, 5 SV, 2.28 ERA, 73 K

    14

    Jeff

    Dallas McPherson






    15

    RAT

    Scott Kazmir



    X

    X

    4-2, 4.75 ERA, 52 K

    16

    TSK

    Brad Radke

    X




    4-5, 4.67 ERA, 52 K

    Best Pick: Brian Roberts. His statistics so far have not been flashy and would have been hurt by the lack of stats reported in the 2004 card set, but this was one of the worse second rounds I have ever thought about. He is rated as one of the top 3 second basemen in the 2008 card set though, 19th best card in the set and 4th best 2B going forward. The specter of steroids float around his name (which Jed is no doubt happy to hear), but with speed as one of his best features it is less worrisome than it otherwise would be (and he is cute – RP).

    Worst Pick: Dallas McPherson was drafted and never used and has now been cut. Jeff likes 1st round three baggers and this power prospect just could not hit enough to hold onto a job.

    Other: Eight players were drafted, only 3 are still on teams, 1 never played, 2 were one year players and 1 of those was a good stop gap for a playoff contender. This second round was drafted for the short term; the best of which was Juan Rincon who closed for Eric.

    Round 3:


    Team

    Player

    2004

    2005

    2006

    2007

    Stats

    17

    Harold

    Chris Carpenter

    X

    X

    X


    12-7, 0 SV, 5.74 ERA, 174 K (197.4 IPS)

    18

    Robin

    Bobby Maditsch

    X




    1-0, 1 SV, 2.50 ERA, 17 K (28.7 IPS)

    19

    M&J

    Danny Kolb






    20

    Eric

    Shinjo Takatsu

    X




    1-4, 2 SV, 5.93 ERA, 14 K (19.7 IPS)

    21

    Arnie

    Juan Uribe

    X

    X



    .290 / .316 / .551 / .867 (136 PA), 7 HR, 19 RBI, 0 SB

    22

    Jeff

    Gavin Floyd






    23

    RAT

    Jeremy Reed






    24

    TSK

    Carlos Guillen

    X


    X

    X

    .347 / .404 / .519 / .923 (416 PA), 16 HR, 61 RBI, 21 SB

    Best Pick: If Chris Carpenter was healthy now or had been more healthy in his career he would be the best pick of the round. But I give the nod to Carlos Guillen, who is on his last legs, but has provided a .923 OPS for 3 seasons and started at SS for a contending team.

    Worst Pick: Jeremy Reed but only because I assume that Danny Kolb played in the non-reporting year of card set 2004.

    Round 4:


    Team

    Player

    2004

    2005

    2006

    2007

    Stats

    25

    Eric

    Aaron Rowand

    X



    X

    .287 / .334 / .462 / .796 (392 PA), 14 HR, 39 RBI, 4 SB

    26

    Eric

    Daniel Cabrera






    27

    M&J

    Ryan Drese






    28

    Robin

    Dustan Mohr

    X




    .273 / .400 / .375 / .775 (120 PA), 3 HR, 14 RBI, 0 SB

    29

    Arnie

    Yhency Brazoban






    30

    Jeff

    Nick Swisher

    X


    X

    X

    .292 / .363 / .513 / .876 (80 PA), 5 HR, 12 RBI, 0 SB

    31

    Harold

    Ryan Freel

    X

    X

    X


    .301 / .420 / .337 / .757 (300 PA), 3 HR, 25 RBI, 29 SB

    32

    TSK

    Sean Casey

    X

    X



    .308 / .357 / .369 / .726 (84 PA), 1 HR, 3 RBI, 0 SB

    Best Pick: Aaron Rowand edges out Ryan Freel since he is still on his team and provides CF1 defense.

    Worst Pick: Cabrera, Drese and Brazoban never played and have since been cut.

    Round 5:


    Team

    Player

    2004

    2005

    2006

    2007

    Stats

    33

    Robin

    Mike Adams






    34

    Robin

    Brad Hawpe



    X

    X

    .255 / .349 / .434 / .783 (355 PA), 15 HR, 54 RBI, 0 SB

    35

    M&J

    Eric Byrnes






    36

    Harold

    David DeJesus

    X

    X


    X

    .242 / .305 / .335 / .640 (486 PA), 10 HR, 58 RBI, 9 SB

    37

    Arnie

    Dave Bush



    X


    3-4, 0 SV, 7.46 ERA, 62 K (76 IPS)

    38

    Harold

    Eli Marrero

    X




    .300 / .386 / .421 / .807 (57 PA), 1 HR, 7 RBI, 0 SB

    39

    RAT

    Ryan Madson

    X




    3-1, 1 SV, 2.45 ERA, 14 K (25.7 IPS)

    40

    Robin

    Gabe Gross






    Best Pick: This was a close battle, but Hawpe gets the nod based on slightly better stats and a better future.

    Worst Pick: Gross, Adams and Byrnes never played and have since been cut.

    Round 6:


    Team

    Player

    2004

    2005

    2006

    2007

    Stats

    41

    Harold

    Chad Cordero

    X

    X

    X


    3-2, 1 SV, 1.94 ERA, 43 K (41.7 IPS)

    42

    Eric

    Yadier Molina




    X

    .202 / .287 / .191 / .478 (94 PA), 0 HR, 7 RBI, 0 SB

    43

    M&J

    Armando Almanzar






    44

    Robin

    Jorge Cantu

    X

    X



    .264 / .297 / .452 / .749 (155 PA), 5 HR, 24 RBI, 0 SB

    45

    Arnie

    Jose Lopez






    46

    Jeff

    Kiko Calero

    X




    1-1, 0 SV, 2.07 ERA, 6 K (13 IPS)

    47

    RAT

    Glendon Rusch

    X




    3-1, 1 SV, 2.13 ERA, 18 K (25.3 IPS)

    48

    TSK

    J.T. Snow

    X




    .333 / .401 / .467 / .868 (137 PA), 4 HR, 21 RBI, 0 SB

    Best Pick: Chad Cordero has been a solid reliever (some question on his ERA comes from the partial years reported by Harold) and even though he has been cut he still beats out Yadier Molina who may be an exceptional defensive catcher but that is just not enough.

    Worst Pick: Alamanzar and Lopez who never played and have both been cut.

    Other: JT Snow started one year for a World Series team as a 1B-1 and might have been the best of a mediocre round despite one year wonder status if Cordero had not been serviceable to good for 3 years.

    Round 7:


    Team

    Player

    2004

    2005

    2006

    2007

    Stats

    49

    Harold

    Robb Quinlan

    X




    .263 / .317 / .390 / .707 (41 PA), 1 HR, 10 RBI, 0 SB

    50

    Robin

    Ricky Bottalico

    X




    2-1, 0 SV, 2.27 ERA, 27 K (23.7 IPS)

    51

    M&J

    Lyle Overbay



    X


    .238 / .304 / .261 / .565 (23 PA), 0 HR, 2 RBI, 0 SB

    52

    Eric

    Brandon Inge

    X




    .359 / .457 / .522 / .979 (46 PA), 2 HR, 9 RBI, 0 SB

    53

    Harold

    John Buck






    54

    Jeff

    Frank Francisco

    X




    0-2, 1 SV, 2.28 ERA, 22 K (19.7 IPS)

    55

    RAT

    J. D. Closser






    56

    TSK

    Salomon Torres

    X

    X



    2-1, 5 SV, 3.91 ERA, 30 K (62 IPS)

    Best Pick: Salomon Torres gets the nod based on more playing time and more years played while putting up solid stats and closing for a team and winning 2 rings.

    Worst Pick: Buck and Closser for never playing and being cut.

    Other: Everyone in this round has been cut subsequently.

    Round 8:


    Team

    Player

    2004

    2005

    2006

    2007

    Stats

    57

    Harold

    Alexis Rios

    X



    X

    .317 / .368 / .412 / .78 (68 PA), 0 HR, 5 RBI, 0 SB

    58

    Eric

    Zach Day

    X




    2-2, 0 SV, 4.31 ERA, 19 K (41.7 IPS)

    59

    M&J

    Jason LaRue


    X



    .190 / .333 / .176 / .509 (51 PA), 0 HR, 3 RBI, 0 SB

    60

    Robin

    Guillermo Quiroz






    61

    Arnie

    Moises Alou

    X

    X

    X

    X

    .298 / .363 / .466 / .829 (830 PA), 41 HR, 119 RBI, 6 SB

    62

    Jeff

    Kevin Mench

    X

    X

    X


    .210 / .247 / .371 / .618 (170 PA), 4 HR, 21 RBI, 0 SB

    63

    RAT

    Scott Linebrink

    X

    X



    2-2, 2 SV, 4.57 ERA, 59 K (59 IPS)

    64

    TSK

    Braden Looper

    X




    3-2, 0 SV, 2.88 ERA, 18 K (25 IPS)

    Best Pick: Moises Alou has just played and played and played at a high level. Rios has the best future and is the only player to have not been cut. Rios could be the better pick 5 years from now, but I do not have a crystal ball.

    Worst Pick: Quiroz for having never played. (He was actually traded to Jeff for fellow 8th rounder, Big Head Mench – RP)

    Round 9:


    Team

    Player

    2004

    2005

    2006

    2007

    Stats

    65

    Harold

    Kazuo Matsui






    66

    Robin

    Clint Barmes

    X

    X



    .200 / .200 / .400 / .600 (10 PA), 0 HR, 0 RBI, 0 SB

    67

    M&J

    Bruce Chen


    X



    1-2, 1 SV, 4.54 ERA, 21 K (29.7 IPS)

    68

    Eric

    Akinori Otsuka

    X


    X


    3-2, 4 SV, 4.69 ERA, 26 K (32.6 IPS)

    69

    Arnie

    Chris Young


    X


    X

    5-6, 0 SV, 6.40 ERA, 75 K (85.7 IPS)

    70

    Jeff

    Tom Glavine

    X




    3-7, 0 SV, 6.87 ERA, 55 K (93 IPS)

    71

    RAT

    Jose Hernandez

    X




    315 / .362 / .534 / .896 (58 PA), 4 HR, 13 RBI, 0 SB

    72

    TSK

    Jason Kubel






    Best Pick: Chris Young based on having a future. This tall right hander has never seen a runner that he wants to throw over to keep on the bag, but he is murder on right handed batters.

    Worst Pick: Matsui was drafted but later forfeited as it turned out that Harold was not eligible to pick him.

    Other: Jason Kubel was a late round gamble on an injured player who can hit. He is still on a roster, but has been nothing but a tease. It is May and he is batting over 300 and has 5 homers in the middle of the Twins lineup but who knows if he will have a card that can play in a league like this.

    Round 10-13:


    Team

    Player

    2004

    2005

    2006

    2007

    Stats

    73

    Eric

    Darin Erstad

    X




    .400 / .500 / .417 / .917 (12 PA), 0 HR, 4 RBI, 0 SB

    74

    M&J

    Coco Crisp


    X



    .270 / .315 / .369 / .684 (130 PA), 1 HR, 20 RBI, 7 SB

    75

    Robin

    Luis Ayala






    76

    Arnie

    Ruben Gotay






    77

    RAT

    Al Leiter

    X




    5-1, 0 SV, 4.50 ERA, 45 K (54 IPS)

    78

    TSK

    Doug Mirabelli

    X




    .113 / .217 / .217 / .434 (60 PA), 2 HR, 3 RBI, 0 SB

    81

    M&J

    Chone Figgins


    X


    X

    .316 / .356 / .392 / .748 (393 PA), 4 HR, 36 RBI, 28 SB

    82

    Eric

    David Eckstein






    83

    Arnie

    Doug Davis

    X

    X



    8-10, 0 SV, 5.43 ERA, 130 K (142.3 IPS)

    84

    RAT

    Royce Clayton

    X




    .200 / .235 / .309 / .544 (136 PA), 2 HR, 12 RBI, 1 SB

    85

    TSK

    Ryan Howard

    X

    X

    X

    X

    .308 / .391 / .596 / .987 (557 PA), 49 HR, 135 RBI, 0 SB

    89

    M&J

    Noah Lowry






    90

    Arnie

    Luke Hudson






    91

    RAT

    Jose Castillo






    92

    TSK

    Brian Meadows

    X




    0-0, 0 SV, 6.07 ERA, 10 K (16.3 IPS)

    93

    Arnie

    Ryan Church






    94

    RAT

    Jamie Burke

    X




    .289 / .319 / .298 / .617 (47 PA), 0 HR, 22 RBI, 0 SB

    96

    TSK

    Damian Easley

    X

    X



    .298 / .341 / .545 / .886 (132 PA), 7 HR, 19 RBI, 0 SB

    Best Pick: Only two of these players are still on teams and I have to give the nod to Ryan Howard who has played every year and is likely to play for a little while longer.

    Worst Pick: Take a choice of any number of players who never played.

    Other: Damian Easley deserves some kind of honorable mention for being the last pick of the draft and supplying .886 OPS for two years on a World Series winning team.

     

    2004 Card Set Results:

    Team

    Stats

    Arnie

    .302 / .377 / .616 / .993 (297 PA), 26 HR, 62 RBI, 0 SB

    Eric

    .321 / .364 / .500 / .864 (250 PA), 9 HR, 30 RBI, 4 SB

    Harold

    .292 / .367 / .411 / .778 (428 PA), 10 HR, 51 RBI, 26 SB

    Jeff

    .200 / .241 / .443 / .684 (79 PA), 4 HR, 14 RBI, 0 SB

    RAT

    .245 / .282 / .361 / .643 (241 PA), 6 HR, 47 RBI, 1 SB

    Robin

    .282 / .381 / .403 / .784 (181 PA), 3 HR, 22 RBI, 0 SB

    TSK

    .308 / .370 / .495 / .865 (467 PA), 22 HR, 73 RBI, 3 SB

    Team

    Stats

    Arnie

    6-4, 1 SV, 4.95 ERA, 69 K (80 IPS)

    Eric

    9-10, 14 SV, 4.89 ERA, 120 K (195 IPS)

    Harold

    6-5, 1 SV, 4.23 ERA, 117 K (129.7 IPS)

    Jeff

    4-10, 1 SV, 5.65 ERA, 83 K (125.7 IPS)

    RAT

    13-5, 3 SV, 3.73 ERA, 104 K (137.3 IPS)

    Robin

    8-3, 1 SV, 4.95 ERA, 87 K (109.1 IPS)

    TSK

    9-8, 3 SV, 4.23 ERA, 97 K (155 IPS)

    Total Reported SOMBILLA Statistics for the four completed seasons:

    Team

    Stats

    Arnie

    .297 / .356 / .478 / .834 (966 PA), 48 HR, 138 RBI, 6 SB

    Eric

    .281 / .340 / .419 / .759 (544 PA), 16 HR, 59 RBI, 4 SB

    Harold

    .288 / .366 / .418 / .784 (1633 PA), 55 HR, 229 RBI, 46 SB

    Jeff

    .247 / .327 / .396 / .723 (657 PA), 20 HR, 59 RBI, 13 SB

    M&J

    .276 / .339 / .368 / .707 (1258 PA), 19 HR, 143 RBI, 48 SB

    RAT

    .245 / .282 / .361 / .643 (241 PA), 6 HR, 47 RBI, 1 SB

    Robin

    .263 / .345 / .406 / .751 (831 PA), 27 HR, 106 RBI, 3 SB

    TSK

    .313 / .382 / .525 / .907 (1386 PA), 79 HR, 242 RBI, 21 SB

    Team

    Stats

    Arnie

    20-23, 5 SV, 5.54 ERA, 340 K (367.1 IPS)

    Eric

    11-11, 17 SV, 4.86 ERA, 131 K (211 IPS)

    Harold

    21-15, 1 SV, 5.04 ERA, 325 K (358.4 IPS)

    Jeff

    4-10, 1 SV, 5.65 ERA, 83 K (125.7 IPS)

    M&J

    1-2, 1 SV, 4.54 ERA, 21 K (29.7 IPS)

    RAT

    17-7, 4 SV, 4.06 ERA, 196 K (219 IPS)

    Robin

    8-3, 1 SV, 4.95 ERA, 87 K (109.1 IPS)

    TSK

    9-8, 5 SV, 4.31 ERA, 110 K (192 IPS)

    Best Draft: Harold – D. Wright, O. Perez, Arroyo, Carpenter, Freel, DeJesus, Marrero, Cordero, Quinlan, Buck, Rios and Matsui (sort of). He still has 6 of these players (even though I would argue that Oliver Perez will not play this year and is likely to be cut) and most of them have the potential to be starters in any of the years to come.

    Worst Draft: This is close. Arnie only has one player still on his roster, but the players who are gone now produced the second best statistics over the last four years. Thus, Eric gets the nod for the worst draft with Westbrook, Rincon, Takatsu, Rowand, Cabrera, Molina, Inge, Day, Otsuka, Erstad and Eckstein. He still has Rowand and Molina but every other team has at least one hold over that are the equal or better of either of these.

    Other: Surprisingly, RAT almost had the worst draft. The only factor that keeps them out of the spot is that Greinke on medication has the potential to be a solid starter. Only 3 of the draftees played after that first year and they did not draft a single offensive player to talk about, of course when you have their offense maybe you do not need to draft offense every year.

    Players Missed? It is hard to list a Rockies LHP as missed, but Brian Fuentes shows up 18th from Lamanna and was eventually drafted the following year. Casey Kotchman (25) and Chad Tracy (31) were also drafted in a future draft. The two best players not drafted were Adrian Gonzalez and Kevin Youkilis. Both were late bloomers and listed by Lamanna in the 40’s but not drafted that year or the next, and now are starters for teams in the SOMBILLA.

     



  • SUMMER STUDY NO. 2 – WHO’S YOUR DADDY?
      1. Which managers have an easier time against other managers? Who actually likes to play against Randy? Who can’t wait to play Jed? Who hates playing Robin?

        This summer, we look at each manager’s won/loss record vs. each other team. I did it in two parts. First, I went back six seasons, starting with the 2003-2004 season. Originally, I was going to go back only 5 seasons, but in pulling down the data from the attic, I accidentally pulled the 6th season (‘03-04), so I figured what the heck, use the data.

        Using the past six seasons also enables us to look at Matt’s last three years in the league in addition to Jed’s most recent three years. Each team played each other team 48 games (Matt and Jed 24 each, and Arnie and Randy who played 49 games owing to that one-game playoff a few years ago). Without further ado, here is the data:

        Total 2003-2009


        Wins are across, losses down












        Arnie

        Robin

        Eric

        Harold

        Randy

        Jeff

        Tom

        Jed

        Matt

        Arnie

        ---

        29

        24

        28

        22

        29

        23

        9

        13

        Robin

        19

        ---

        20

        26

        19

        22

        19

        13

        16

        Eric

        24

        28

        ---

        27

        16

        29

        21

        7

        14

        Harold

        20

        22

        21

        ---

        24

        30

        17

        12

        15

        Matt

        11

        8

        10

        9

        6

        7

        10

        ---

        ---

        Randy

        27

        29

        32

        24

        ---

        29

        20

        11

        18

        Jeff

        19

        26

        19

        18

        19

        ---

        17

        11

        17

        Tom

        25

        29

        27

        31

        28

        31

        ---

        10

        14

        Jed

        15

        11

        17

        12

        13

        13

        14

        ---

        ---

         

        So, over the last six seasons, who is the biggest daddy? That’s easy – Randy against Eric. Randy is 32-16 against Eric over the past six seasons, a .667 winning percentage.

        Other notables:

        Tom vs Harold (31-17), Tom vs Jeff (31-17) and Harold vs. Jeff (30-18). Jed is 17-7 against Eric. No wonder why Eric complains about playing on the computer.

        But look at the league’s records against Matt, over his last three seasons. Every team had a winning percentage against him, led by Randy (18-6). No wonder we were all sad to see him go.

        So, who likes to play against Randy? Why, Tom of course, who is 28-20 against him. Who likes playing Jed? Robin! She is 13-11 against him. Who hates playing Robin? Harold. She is 26-22 against him. Who is your Daddy?

         

        Now, looking at just the most recent three seasons:

        Total 2006-2009

        Wins are across, losses down



        Arnie

        Robin

        Eric

        Harold

        Jed

        Randy

        Jeff

        Tom

        Arnie

        ---

        16

        14

        9

        9

        11

        16

        11

        Robin

        8

        ---

        12

        14

        13

        11

        9

        11

        Eric

        10

        12

        ---

        12

        7

        8

        11

        9

        Harold

        15

        10

        12

        ---

        12

        13

        20

        9

        Jed

        15

        11

        17

        12

        ---

        13

        13

        14

        Randy

        13

        13

        16

        11

        11

        ---

        17

        11

        Jeff

        8

        15

        13

        4

        11

        7

        ---

        7

        Tom

        13

        13

        15

        15

        10

        13

        17

        ---

        Over the past three years, Harold is a staggering 20-4 against Jeff. He should drive out to Hopkinton more often. In fact three of the top 4 "Daddy records" are against Jeff:

        Jed vs. Eric (17-7)

        Randy vs. Jeff (17-7)

        Tom vs. Jeff (17-7)

        Who’s your Daddy now?

        Finally, with six years worth of data, how often do you think one team beat another 8 games to 0 during the season. To do that, you not only have to be good, you have to be lucky too, since even the worst teams are still an all-star team. It’s only been done three times in six years:

        Harold has swept Jeff 8-0 two times in the past three seasons, including last year! And Randy swept Matt 8-0 in ‘05-06, Matt’s last year in the league (no wonder Randy was so verklempt when Matt resigned).

        Just for good measure, here are the totals for last season:

        2008-2009

        Wins are across



        Arnie

        Robin

        Eric

        Harold

        Jed

        Randy

        Jeff

        Tom

        Total

        Arnie

        ---

        5

        6

        4

        2

        4

        6

        7

        34

        Robin

        3

        ---

        4

        5

        4

        3

        3

        3

        25

        Eric

        2

        4

        ---

        4

        3

        6

        4

        3

        26

        Harold

        4

        3

        4

        ---

        5

        5

        8

        5

        34

        Jed

        6

        4

        5

        3

        ---

        5

        7

        5

        35

        Randy

        4

        5

        2

        3

        3

        ---

        6

        3

        26

        Jeff

        2

        5

        4

        0

        1

        2

        ---

        3

        17

        Tom

        1

        5

        5

        3

        3

        5

        5

        ---

        27

         

         


         

         

  • SUMMER STUDY NO. 3 –COMPARING THE GREAT SOMBILLA TEAMS
      1. Study 3A

        This study first ran in the 2002 summer newsletter and it seemed like a good time to update it. Not to mention fun! To refresh your memory, that study went back and chose the eight most recent SOMBILLA champions and threw them all into a Champions League to determine the greatest SOMBILLA team of all-time (or at least the eight seasons leading up to 2001-2002). The Future Wax team of 2001-2002 won that Champions League study.

        This time, my goal was to expand the number of teams in the SOMBILLA Champions League. Because I have every computer baseball season since 1989, I figured that made a nice, even 20 champions we could look at!

        Alas, since that original 2002 study, Strat-O has implemented a new disk protection system requiring you to hold a season "Authorization Code" before you can access the season. If you transferred that authorization to a computer and then got a new computer, you are out of luck unless you actually retained the Authorization Code. Who here still has the same computer they had back in 2002? You can see the issue.

        I actually had to go up into the attic and pull out my old hard drive from my old computer that thankfully I still had. It had all the teams since 1989 on it, and wasn’t a total loss. I was able to access 12 of the past 20 seasons, oddly (including 12 of the past 13). I was unable to access 2004 or 1989-1994. I spoke with Strat-O and they were unsympathetic. I actually contacted Tom to see if he had the 2004 season to lend me, but like me, he had transferred that season to a now-defunct computer. Well, I certainly wasn’t going to fork over $80 to Strat-O (@ $10 a season) just to have a complete study. After my initial rage and bummed-out ness, I decided to make the best of it and have fun with it despite Strat-O’s paranoid absurd restrictions.

        So, I still had a formidable 12-team, Champions League, with the following 12 SOMBILLA Champions participating in the league (listed chronologically):

        Finn’s People ‘96-97

        Future Wax ‘97-98

        North Dakota ‘98-99

        North Dakota ‘99-00

        New Orleans ‘00-01

        Future Wax ‘01-02

        Area 51 ‘02-03

        Gawd B ‘03-04

        Constantinople ‘04-05

        Constantinople ‘06-07

        Future Wax ‘07-08

        Constantinople ‘08-09

        I used each team’s actual ballparks as well as the Computer Manager. Each team was scheduled to play each other team 14 times, 7 at home and away, for a 154 game schedule, just like the old days before 1962.

        Here are the final regular season standings. (The first year listed is the actual MLB card year. The name of the team includes the SOMBILLA season)

         

        LEAGUE STANDINGS FOR 2008 SM Champions League

                                    WON LOST PCT GB
        2000 Future Wax 02 FW2     92 62 .597 ----
        1997 North Dakota 99 ND1   86 68 .558 6.0
        1995 Finn's People97 FIN   81 73 .526 11.0
        1996 Future Wax 98 FW1     81 73 .526 11.0
        2007 Constantinopl07 CN2   80 74 .519 12.0
        2002 Gawd B04 GWB          80 74 .519 12.0
        1999 New Orleans 01 NEW    77 77 .500 15.0
        2004 Constantinopl05 CN1   76 78 .494 16.0
        1998 North Dakota 00 ND2   73 81 .474 19.0
        2001 Area 51-03 A51        72 82 .468 20.0
        2009 Constantinopl09 CN3   67 87 .435 25.0
        2008 Future Wax 08 FW3     59 95 .383 33.0

         

        That ’01-02 Future Wax team still looks like the team to beat, winning the pennant by an impressive 6 games. Interestingly the two last place teams are the two most recent champions. Here are the stats leaders from this league (you can match up the teams with the abbreviations shown above):

        (Note the steroid-tainted HR leaders, probably all by Griffey & Bagwell? – RP)


        LEAGUE LEADERS FOR 2008 SM Champions League
        ----BATTING AVERAGE---- --------HOMERUNS------- -----RUNS BATTED IN---
        R.Ventura FIN .359        A.Jones CN2 71       A.Galarraga FW1 174
        D.Justice ND1 .355        A.Rodriguez CN2 57   A.Jones CN2 162
        M.Piazza FW2 .341         K.Griffey Jr FW1 57  J.Bagwell NEW 141
        R.Palmeiro FIN .340       A.Jones CN1 55       A.Jones CN1 137
        B.Williams ND1 .336       B.Bonds FW2 55       A.Rodriguez CN2 137
        B.Bonds FW2 .333          M.Ramirez NEW 54     B.Bonds FW2 137
        R.Alomar ND1 .330         A.Rodriguez CN1 52   R.Palmeiro FIN 133
        N.Garciaparra FW2 .329    A.Galarraga FW1 52   M.Ramirez NEW 132
        J.Bagwell NEW .322        M.Piazza FW2 51      G.Sheffield FW2 130
        B.McCann FW3 .321         G.Sheffield FW2 51   M.Piazza FW2 127
        T.Fernandez NEW .321      J.Bagwell NEW 49     A.Rodriguez CN1 125
        J.Kent FW2 .319           R.Palmeiro FIN 48    D.Justice ND1 120


        ------WINNING PCT------ ----------ERA---------- ---------SAVES---------
        G.Maddux(21-8) FW2 .724   R.Clemens ND2 3.55    O.Dotel CN1 33
        R.Clemens(21-8)ND1 .724   R.Clemens ND1 3.67    J.Papelbon CN3 31
        M.Redman (13-5)CN1 .722   G.Maddux FW1 3.99     S.Kline A51 31
        S.Chacon (13-6)CN2 .684   S.Reed ND2 4.06       B.Wagner NEW 31
        G.Maddux (19-10)FW1.655   P.Martinez FW2 4.09   J.Wetteland ND1 30
        P.Martinez(13-8)FW2.619   D.Lowe GWB 4.13       T.Hoffman ND2 27
        D.Lowe (15-10)GWB .600    C.Schilling A51 4.35  T.Worrell FIN 25
        K.Millwood(15-10)GWB.600  R.Johnson ND1 4.39    J.Nathan FW3 24
        R.Johnson (14-10)ND1.583  G.Maddux FW2 4.50     T.Jones CN2 20
        S.Reed (11-8) ND2 .579    K.Millwood GWB 4.50   E.Guardado GWB 19
        L.Hernandez(15-11)FW2.577 M.Redman CN1 4.57     K.Ryan FW1 19
        OTHERS TIED WITH .571     H.Nomo FIN 4.57       J.Jimenez FW2 18


        AWARDS VOTING FOR 2008 SM Champions League



        MVP AWARD             CY YOUNG AWARD
        A.Rodriguez(CN2) 373 R.Clemens(ND1) 123
        A.Jones(CN2) 364     G.Maddux(FW2) 97
        B.Bonds(FW2) 217     P.Martinez(FW2) 44
        J.Bagwell(NEW) 141   H.Nomo(FIN) 16
        A.Rodriguez(CN1) 102 R.Johnson(ND1) 7


        ALL-STAR SELECTIONS BY POSITION
        C M.Piazza(FW2) 2,711,377         J.Varitek(CN1) 2,663,237
        1B J.Bagwell(NEW) 4,192,759       A.Galarraga(FW1) 3,339,095
        2B J.Kent(FW2) 2,938,271          B.Boone(A51) 2,788,626
        3B A.Rodriguez(CN2) 4,659,583     A.Rodriguez(CN3) 2,464,409
        SS A.Rodriguez(CN1) 3,866,383     J.Reyes(FW3) 2,593,692
        LF B.Bonds(FW2) 3,565,747         B.Bonds(FW1) 3,230,317
        CF A.Jones(CN2) 4,315,845         K.Griffey Jr(FW1) 3,309,572
        RF M.Ramirez(NEW) 3,416,818       G.Sheffield(FW1) 2,594,122
        Pi R.Clemens(ND1) 4,473,199       H.Nomo(FIN) 3,093,552
        R.Johnson(ND1) 2,799,109          P.Martinez(FW2) 2,790,795
        G.Maddux(FW2) 2,782,501           B.Wagner(NEW) 2,538,309
        G.Maddux(FW1) 2,284,769           J.Papelbon(CN3) 2,274,005
        R.Clemens(ND2) 2,096,125          T.Jones(CN2) 1,946,785
        T.Hoffman(ND2) 1,695,907          D.Lowe(GWB) 1,575,520

        Well, it wouldn’t be a real Strat-O season without playoffs. Because 50% of our league makes the playoffs, I put 50% (the top 6 teams) in these playoffs too. The first two teams got first round byes, with 3rd playing 6th and 4th playing 5th in the first round. This matched up Eric’s two champions – Gawd B and Finn’s People – against one another, while Constantinople from three years ago played FW’s 11-year old champion team in the other matchup.


        Playoffs – Round 1
        Finn’s People d. Gawd B 4 games to 2 (After going up 3-0, FP wins in 6)
        Constantinople 06-07 d. Future Wax ‘97-98 4 games to 1 (Future Wax’s only win was a game 5 18-13 slugfest)
        So, CN moves on the semi-finals – a rematch against Future Wax, but this Future Wax is the heavy favorite first place version from ‘01-02. Finn’s People goes up against North Dakota ‘98-99 in a classic luggage-fest.

        Playoffs – Semi-finals
        Future Wax 12 Constantinople 6

        Future Wax 14 Constantinople 13 (13 innings)
        Future Wax 16 Constantinople 12
        Constantinople 13 Future Wax 9 (11 innings)
        Future Wax 8 Constantinople 3
        Future Wax wins series 4 games to 1. FW scored 52 runs in 5 games against one of the best teams of all-time. Piazza hit 5 homers and batted .522 over the 5 games.
         
        North Dakota 2 Finn’s People 1
        Finn’s People 11 North Dakota 7
        North Dakota 4 Finn’s People 3
        North Dakota 6 Finn’s People 2
        Finn’s People 7 North Dakota 4
        Finn’s People 6 North Dakota 4
        North Dakota 9 Finn’s People 8 (10 innings).

        Game 7

        Finn’s People 5 1 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 - 8 12 1

        North Dakota 0 4 0 1 3 0 0 0 0 1 - 9 10 0

        Win:Wetteland(1-1) Loss:McMichael(1-1) Homeruns- R.Palmeiro(3rd), H.Baines(3rd), D.Segui(2nd), B.Santiago(1st)

        "First baseman David Segui slammed a homerun and had 3 RBI as the North Dakota 99 ballclub defeated the Finn's People97 club in 10 innings by a score of 9 to 8 at the ballpark. Both teams were tied at 8 runs apiece after nine innings. North Dakota 99 won the game in the 10th inning. After an out was recorded, Scott Rolen drew a walk. Rolen was safe at second on a stolen base. Brad Fullmer struck out, unable to help the rally. Ryan Klesko came up and he was walked intentionally. Barry Larkin stepped into the box and delivered a single resulting in an exciting win for North Dakota 99 and a wild post-game celebration by the home town fans. North Dakota 99 banged out 10 hits on the afternoon. The win went to John Wetteland(1-1) who allowed no runs in 1 and 2/3 innings. Greg McMichael(1-1) was charged with the loss in relief. He allowed no hits and 2 walks in 1 inning."

        And so, incredibly, we have a World Series rematch between the same teams from the summer study 7 years ago, won by Future Wax in 4 straight games.


        World Series
        Future Wax 9 North Dakota 3 (Giles, Bonds, Thome, Piazza homers, Maddux CG)
        North Dakota 4 Future Wax 1 (M. Morris, Wetteland shut down FW; Alomar 3 hits)
        Future Wax 7 North Dakota 6 (Back and forth game; Piazza 2-run HR in the 5th off R Johnson the key blow)
        Future Wax 3 North Dakota 1 (Pedro is too much, scattering 9 hits, 1 walk, 12 K’s)
        North Dakota 4 Future Wax 1 (Clemens, Shaw and Wetteland too much, scattering 7 hits)
        Future Wax 9 North Dakota 8 (Bonds (2 HRs, 4 BI’s), hits a study-ending walk-off home run in the bottom of the 9th. Lead changed hands 5 times
        Future Wax d. North Dakota 4 games to 2

        Having knocked off all-comers in 2 studies seven years apart, I guess it’s safe to say that the 2001-2002 Future Wax is the greatest SOMBILLA team of alltime.

        Study 3B

        Next, I decided to let everyone play. I included Robin and Jed, both left out of Study 3A. For Robin, her World Series team from two years ago was the obvious choice. Jed, who has shared numerous forgettable teams with Clint and Matt over the years, seemingly had his best team (of those for which I had computer Strat-O) last year when he finished in first place.

        For the other six holdovers, I chose the highest finishing team from Study 3A to compete in this 8-team league. Again, I used each team’s actual ballparks as well as the Computer Manager. Each team in this 8-team league was scheduled to play each other team 22 times, 11 at home and away, for a 154 game schedule, same as Study 3A.

        Here are the final regular season standings. (The first year listed is the actual MLB card year. The name of the team includes the SOMBILLA season)

         

        LEAGUE STANDINGS FOR Best of SOMBILLA

                                    WON LOST PCT GB
        2000 Future Wax 02 FW2       94 60 .610 ----
        2007 Fugakyu 09 FUG          87 67 .565 7.0
        2007 Constantinopl07 CN2     81 73 .526 13.0
        2001 Area 51-03 A51          80 74 .519 14.0
        1997 North Dakota 99 ND1     79 75 .513 15.0
        1999 New Orleans 01 NEW      71 83 .461 23.0
        2006 Bay City 08 BAY         69 85 .448 25.0
        1995 Finn's People97 FIN     55 99 .357 39.0

        As expected, FW wins the pennant easily. Poor Eric! Finn’s People simply outclassed here, finishing 39 games out after a respectable showing in the first study. (I noticed that Mark Portugal finished 3-24 with a 7.87 ERA). Both Jed and Jeff sneak into the playoffs, just ahead of North Dakota.


        LEAGUE LEADERS FOR 2008 Best SOMBILLA


        ----BATTING AVERAGE----     --------HOMERUNS-------     -----RUNS BATTED IN---
        N.Garciaparra FW2 .383     B.Bonds FW2 67           M.Ramirez NEW 165
        B.Bonds FW2 .355           M.Ramirez NEW 65         B.Bonds FW2 152
        M.Ramirez NEW .337         M.Piazza FW2 52          A.Rodriguez CN2 138
        J.Kent FW2 .328            C.Beltran BAY 51         C.Beltran BAY 132
        P.Polanco FUG .327         A.Rodriguez CN2 50       J.Bagwell NEW 128
        A.Rodriguez CN2 .324       C.Pena FUG 46            K.Griffey Jr. FW2 124
        E.Martinez NEW .322        J.Bay CN2 45             J.Bay CN2 123
        D.Justice ND1 .321         D.Justice ND1 45         G.Sheffield FW2 122
        M.Holliday FUG .320        G.Sheffield FW2 44       A.Jones CN2 121
        M.Piazza FW2 .318         OTHERS TIED WITH 42       C.Pena FUG 120
        P.Lo Duca A51 .317         M.Piazza FW2 119
        T.Fernandez NEW .315       D.Justice ND1 112


        ------WINNING PCT------     ----------ERA--------    -----------SAVES---------
        J.Smoltz(16-6)FUG .727     R.Clemens ND1 3.66      M.Corpas FUG 32
        G.Maddux (20-9)FW2 .690    J.Smoltz FUG 3.86       J.Wetteland ND1 30
        R.Clemens(20-9)ND1 .690    P.Martinez FW2 3.90     B.Wagner NEW 28
        L.Hernandez(17-8)FW2.680   J.Vazquez A51 4.05      T.Saito BAY 27
        P.Martinez(14-7)FW2.667    G.Maddux FW2 4.11       J.Jimenez FW2 24
        C.Schilling(19-12)A51.613  H.Nomo FIN 4.13         T.Worrell FIN 23
        A.Sanchez(11-7)BAY .611    B.Webb FUG 4.96         T.Jones CN2 22
        B.Sheets (9-6)CN2 .600     R.Johnson ND1 5.03      S.Kline A51 18
        C.Sabathia(15-10)CN2.600   J.Lackey FUG 5.07       J.Zimmerman A51 11
        F.Cordova (9-6)ND1 .600    R.Oswalt BAY 5.18       R.Springer FUG 7
        J.Vazquez(17-12)A51.586    C.Schilling A51 5.32     OTHERS TIED WITH 6
        A.Harang(15-11)FUG .577    A.Harang FUG 5.42


        AWARDS VOTING FOR 2008 Best SOMBILLA


        MVP AWARD             CY YOUNG AWARD
        B.Bonds(FW2) 403      R.Clemens(ND1) 129
        A.Rodriguez(CN2) 347  P.Martinez(FW2) 90
        J.Kent(FW2) 208       G.Maddux(FW2) 49
        M.Ramirez(NEW) 138    J.Smoltz(FUG) 13
        N.Garciaparra(FW2) 101 C.Schilling(A51) 6


        ALL-STAR SELECTIONS BY POSITION
        C M.Piazza(FW2) 2,624,797     P.Lo Duca(A51) 1,610,020
        1B J.Bagwell(NEW) 2,730,234   C.Pena(FUG) 2,562,740
        2B J.Kent(FW2) 3,124,283      C.Biggio(NEW) 1,981,162
        3B A.Rodriguez(CN2) 3,716,952 C.Jones(A51) 2,060,966
        SS N.Garciaparra(FW2) 2,971,402 M.Tejada(A51) 1,675,029
        LF B.Bonds(FW2) 4,659,583     J.Bay(CN2) 2,960,537
        CF C.Beltran(BAY) 2,828,900   R.Lankford(ND1) 2,421,726
        RF M.Ramirez(NEW) 4,274,232   V.Guerrero(A51) 2,514,842
        Pi R.Clemens(ND1) 4,473,199   P.Martinez(FW2) 2,846,359
        J.Smoltz(FUG) 2,287,853       G.Maddux(FW2) 2,091,138
        C.Schilling(A51) 1,928,360    J.Vazquez(A51) 1,818,842
        M.Corpas(FUG) 1,772,007       B.Wagner(NEW) 1,710,159
        R.Johnson(ND1) 1,652,318      T.Saito(BAY) 1,636,983
        H.Nomo(FIN) 1,581,862         J.Jimenez(FW2) 1,538,476

         

        Going into the playoffs, the question is whether any of these three teams can knock invincible Future Wax ‘01-02 down from the perch.


        Playoffs:
        Future Wax 16 Area 51 3 (Future Wax belts 20 hits)
        Future Wax 8 Area 51 5 (Griffey 3run HR)
        Area 51 13 Future Wax 8 (Dye 5 Rbis)
        Future Wax 11 Area 51 1 (Pedro 3-hitter, Sheffield 4 rbi)
        Future Wax 6 Area 51 4 (Fryman 2 HR)
        Future Wax wins series 4 games to 1
        Fugakyu 3 Constantinople 2 (Ankiel walk-off HR)
        Fugakyu 5 Constantinople 3 (Cust two HR’s)
        Constantinople 11 Fugakyu 8 (A Jones, Giambi HR)
        Constantinople 5 Fugakyu 3 (A-Rod 2 HRs)
        Constantinople 8 Fugakyu 7 (A-Rod 2 more HRs)
        Fugakyu 3 Constantinople 2 (Corpas 2nd win, T Pena save)

        Game 7:


        CN 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 2 - 4 9 0
        FU 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 2 - 3 10 1
        Win:Sheets(1-1) Loss:Harang(1-1) Save:Small(1st) Homeruns- A.Rodriguez(7th)

        "Alex Rodriguez jacked one out of the ballyard and had 2 RBI as the Constantinopl07 club staged a dramatic comeback over the Fugakyu 09 team by a score of 4 to 3 at the ballpark. Constantinopl07 went ahead for good in the 3rd inning plating an isolated run utilizing 2 base hits. Constantinopl07 managed 9 hits in their victory. Ben Sheets(1-1) went 5 and 2/3 innings allowing 1 run for the victory. Aaron Small earned the save, his 1st. The loss was charged to Aaron Harang(1-1)."

        Constantinople wins series 4 games to 3

        World Series:
        Future Wax 3 Constantinople 2 (Griffey 2 HR; Maddux W)
        Future Wax 15 Constantinople 14 (FW gets 7 in the bottom of the 9th to win. Bonds 2 HR)
        Future Wax 18 Constantinople 6 (Nomar 5 rbi, Wells 13 K’s)
        Constantinople 6 Future Wax 3 (A-Rod 3-run HR)
        Constantinople 9 Future Wax 3 (A-Rod 2 HRs, 5rbi)
        Future Wax 14 Constantinople 3 (D. Lee 2 HR, 5rbi, Maddux W)
        Future Wax wins series 4 games to 2

         

         

         

        Study 3C

        For the final study, I decided to do something completely different. For the 12 years to which I had access to computer Strat-O – 1995-2003, 2005-2007 (but not including 2008, which has yet to be played by us), I put together each franchise’s best 25-man roster. That is, the best 25 players over the past 12 years (sans 2004) for each team in one giant "Super League".

        For Jed’s franchise, I decided to include not only players from his solo teams of the last few years, but the Manila Folder teams he shared with Matt. For the ‘95-2000 seasons, he shared a team with Clint. So, what the heck; because the Folders and the Clint/Jed teams for those six seasons were all fairly non-descript, I threw all those teams’ players into the Jed pool as well, calling that team the "Fugakyu Folders"

        I had one main rule when assembling the rosters – no duplicate players. Not just within a team (so Future Wax couldn’t have 4 Barry Bonds and 5 Ken Griffeys), but also across teams. Only one Manny Ramirez or Roger Clemens for instance. I let the computer decide which player was the best, and he got to stay in the league.

        Here is a list of the duplicate players (and year of card) across teams on the original 25 man rosters before I replaced the ‘lesser’ of the players:

        Player

        Team that got to keep him

        Team that had to replace him

        Lance Berkman

        North Dakota (2002)

        Future Wax (2006)*

        Kevin Brown

        Fugakyu (1996)

        New Orleans (2000)

        Roger Clemens

        North Dakota (1997)

        Fugakyu (2005) **

        Brian Giles

        Fugakyu (2002)

        Future Wax (2001)

        Troy Glaus

        New Orleans (2000)

        North Dakota (2005)

        Tom Glavine

        New Orleans (1997)

        Dem Bums (1998)

        Area 51 (1997)

        Vlad Guerrero

        Fugakyu (2000)

        Area 51 (2002)

        Todd Helton

        Dem Bums (2001)

        Fugakyu (2000)

        Andruw Jones

        Constantinople (2005)

        Fugakyu (2000)

        Rob Nenn

        New Orleans (2000)

        Constantinople (1998)

        Manny Ramirez

        New Orleans (2000)

        Dem Bums (2006)

        Curt Schilling

        Area 51 (2002)

        New Orleans (1998)

        Gary Sheffield

        Future Wax (1996)

        North Dakota (2003)

        Miguel Tejada

        Dem Bums (2002)

        Area 51 (2000)

        Larry Walker

        Area 51 (1997)

        Dem Bums (2001)

        * I’m sure they don’t believe me.

        ** Resigned to it

        I let the computer decide the entire 25-man rosters. Some of the choices might be questionable (It couldn’t find a better 4th starter for North Dakota than Shawn Estes?) but I quickly decided not to try and second-guess any selections as that could lead to a slippery slope requiring me to spend a multitude of summer nights poring over this stuff. Fuck that.

        I also chose an average ballpark for each team, since I’m not really sure what else would have been fair to cover an entire 12-year period. So, here are the "all-time" 25-man rosters for each franchise. Technically, they represent only 12 of the 29 SOMBILLA seasons, but so what. It’s my fucking study, I’ll call them "All-time teams" if I want to. Anyway, this list of rosters may be more interesting than anything else!


    Area 51 All-time team    
     
                      YEAR TEAM BAL  AB DO TR HR BAVG  BB K'S RBI  OB%  SL%
    <><>Carlos Delgado    2000 TOA 4R 569 57 1 41 .344 123 104 137 .470 .664
    Chipper Jones     1999 ATN 3L 567 41 1 45 .319 126  94 110 .441 .633
    <>Bret Boone        2001 SEA 5L 623 37 3 37 .331 40  110 141 .372 .578
    <>Jose Canseco      1998 TOA 1R 583 26 0 46 .237 65  159 107 .318 .518
    <>Preston Wilson    2003 CON 4R 600 43 1 36 .282 54  139 141 .343 .537
    Terry Steinbach   1996 OAA 1L 514 25 1 35 .272 49  115 100 .342 .529
    Paul Lo Duca      2001 LAN 5L 460 28 0 25 .320 39   30 90  .374 .543
    Mark Teixeira     2005 TEA 2R 644 41 3 43 .301 72  124 144 .379 .575
    Mark Lewis        1995 CIN 4L 171 13 1  3 .339 21   33 30  .407 .480
    Darin Erstad      2000 ANA E  676 39 6 25 .355 64   82 100 .409 .541
    Mickey Tettleton  1995 TEA 2R 429 19 1 32 .238 107 110 78  .396 .510
    Michael Young     2005 TEA E  668 40 5 24 .331 58   91 91  .385 .513
    Larry Walker      1997 CON 5R 568 46 4 49 .366 78   90 130 .452 .720
     
     
                    Catcher       1b   2b   3b   ss   lf   cf   rf   ARM  ClAv DP
    
    Delgado                       4e13                                    .341 23 
    Jones                                   3e18 4e20                     .284 35 
    Boone                              1e11                               .305 26 
    Canseco                                           5e13      5e13 +1   .237 12 
    Wilson                                                 2e8       -2   .323 39 
    Steinbach       2e4 -1t5p1    4e25                                    .276 42 
    Lo Duca         2e3 -1t7p1    3e14                4e25           +0   .338 35 
    Teixeira                      1e3                                     .319 39 
    Lewis                              4e41 4e14 4e48                     .364  1 
    Erstad                        3e2                 1e4  2e4       +1   .327 15 
    Tettleton       4e2 +2t3p0    4e25                4e9       4e9  -1   .238 13 
    Young                                        3e19                     .326 44 
    Walker                        4e25                     3e2  1e2  -4   .328 31 
      
                           YEAR TEAM  THROWS START RELIEF  WON LOST  ERA  IP
    
    <>B.J. Ryan              2006 TOA     L             1     2   2   1.37 72
    Andy Pettitte          2005 HON     L      7           17   9   2.39 222
    Curt Schilling         2002 ARN     R       7          23   7   3.23 259
    Damaso Marte           2003 CHA     L             2     4   2   1.58 80
    Armando Benitez        1999 NYN     R             1     4   3   1.85 78
    Randy Myers            1997 BAA     L             1     2   3   1.51 60
    Norm Charlton          1995 SEA     L             2     2   1   1.51 48
    Al Reyes               2005 SLN     R             2     4   2   2.15 63
    Freddy Garcia          2001 SEA     R     7            18   6   3.05 239
    Brendan Donnelly       2003 ANA     R             2     2   2   1.58 74
    Mike Mussina           2001 NYA     R     7            17  11   3.15 229
    Pat Hentgen            1996 TOA     R     7            20  10   3.22 266
    <> 

    2009 Bay City All-Time Team

     
                     YEAR TEAM BAL AB DO TR HR BAVG  BB K'S RBI  OB%  SL%
    Sammy Sosa       2001 CHN 3L   577 34 5 64 .328 116 153 160 .437 .737
    Carlos Beltran   2006 NYN 4R   510 38 1 41 .275 95   99 116 .388 .594
    Ivan Rodriguez   1999 TEA 1R   600 29 1 35 .332 24   64 113 .356 .558
    Frank Thomas     2000 CHA 5L   582 44 0 43 .328 112  94 143 .436 .625
    Derek Jeter      1999 NYA 3R   627 37 9 24 .349 91  116 102 .438 .552
    Miguel Cabrera   2005 FLN 1R   613 43 2 33 .323 64  125 116 .385 .561
    Hank Blalock     2003 TEA 8R   567 33 3 29 .300 44   97  90 .350 .522
    Jorge Cantu      2005 TBA 2R   598 40 1 28 .286 19   83 117 .311 .497
    Brady Anderson   1996 BAA 3R   579 37 5 50 .297 76  106 110 .396 .637
    Jeff Frye        1997 BOA 1L   404 36 2 3  .312 27   44  51 .352 .433
    B.J. Surhoff     1995 MLA 3L   415 26 3 13 .320 37   43  73 .378 .492
    Mike Sweeney     1999 KCA 1L   575 44 2 22 .322 54   48 102 .387 .520
    Shawn Green      2001 LAN 1R   619 31 4 49 .297 72  107 125 .372 .598
    Bill Mueller     2003 BOA 1R   524 45 5 19 .326 59   77  85 .398 .540
     
                     Catcher       1b   2b   3b   ss   lf   cf   rf   ARM  ClAv DP
    Sosa                                                        3e6  +0   .297  2 
    Beltran                                                1e2       -3   .275 20 
    Rodriguez       1e1 -5t12p0                                           .304 68 
    Thomas                        4e6                                     .323 21 
    Jeter                                        1e14                     .318 22 
    Cabrera                                 3e12      4e7            -3   .318 34 
    Blalock                            4e71 4e18                          .276 43 
    Cantu                              4e19 4e34                          .309 67 
    Anderson                                               2e4       +0   .285 22 
    Frye                          5e25 3e8  4e65 4e48 4e25 4e25 4e25 +2   .295 43 
    Surhoff         4e13 +2t1p20  3e13                3e3  4e3  4e3  +2   .359 19 
    Sweeney         4e4 +3t13p0   5e27                                    .308 45 
    Green                         4e25                          2e6  -2   .283 21 
    Mueller                            4e22 2e21 5e48                     .293 31 
     
                   YEAR TEAM THROWS START RELIEF WON LOST ERA IP
    Takashi Saito  2007 LAN   R             1      2  1 1.40 64
    Mark Prior     2003 CHN   R     7             18  6 2.43 211
    Odalis Perez   2002 LAN   L     7             15 10 3.00 222
    Guillermo Mota 2003 LAN   R             2      6  3 1.97 105
    Tim Wakefield  2002 BOA   R     6       3     11  5 2.81 163
    Rheal Cormier  2003 PHN   L             2      8  0 1.70 85
    Roy Halladay   2002 TOA   R     7             19  7 2.93 239
    Tom Gordon     1998 BOA   R             1      7  4 2.72 79
    Roy Oswalt     2006 HON   R     7             15  8 2.98 221
    Huston Street  2005 OAA   R             2      5  1 1.72 78
    Andy Benes*    1997 SLN   R     7             10  7 3.10 177
     
     
    
    
    Constantinople All-Time Team
     
                      YEAR TEAM BAL  AB DO TR HR BAVG  BB K'S RBI  OB%  SL%
    Alex Rodriguez    2007 NYA 4R   583 31 0 54 .314   95 120 156 .422 .645
    Jason Giambi      2000 OAA 3R   510 29 1 43 .333  137 96  137 .476 .647
    Ellis Burks       1996 CON 4L   613 45 8 40 .344   61 114 128 .408 .639
    Bobby Abreu       2001 PHN 4R   588 48 4 31 .289  106 137 110 .393 .543
    Edgardo Alfonzo   2000 NYN 1R   544 40 2 25 .324   95 70   94 .425 .542
    Jason Varitek     2003 BOA 4L   451 31 1 25 .273   51 106  85 .351 .512
    Ryan Howard       2006 PHN 3R   581 25 1 58 .313  108 181 149 .425 .659
    Russell Martin    2007 LAN 4L   540 32 3 19 .293   67 89   87 .374 .469
    Carl Everett      2003 CHA 4R   526 27 3 28 .287   53 84   92 .366 .510
    Ron Belliard      1999 MLN 1R   457 29 4 8 .295    64 59   58 .379 .429
    Phil Nevin        2001 SDN E    546 31 0 41 .306   71 147 126 .388 .588
    Jeff Reboulet     1995 MNA 1L   216 11 0 4 .292    27 34   23 .373 .398
    Tony Batista      1999 TOA 1R   519 30 1 31 .277   38 96  100 .330 .518
    Andruw Jones      2005 ATN 2R   586 24 3 51 .263   64 112 128 .347 .575
     
                    Catcher       1b   2b   3b   ss   lf   cf   rf   ARM  ClAv DP
    Rodriguez                               2e14                          .286 24 
    Giambi                        3e8                                     .328 16 
    Burks                                             1e6  3e6       -1   .325 33 
    Abreu                                                       3e8  -2   .275 27 
    Alfonzo                            1e12                               .291 27 
    Varitek         2e3 -1t11p2                                           .259 29 
    Howard                        4e14                                    .264  2 
    Martin          1e1 -2t14p1                                           .293 34 
    Everett                                           3e5  4e5  3e5  +1   .303 16 
    Belliard                           2e19 3e37 4e48                     .290 40 
    Nevin                                   4e32                          .287 19 
    Reboulet        4e16 +5t20p20 3e10 3e18 3e25 3e7                      .273 16 
    Batista                                      3e19                     .286 34 
    Jones                                                  1e2       -4   .246 43 
     
                          YEAR TEAM  THROWS START RELIEF WON LOST  ERA  IP
    Jonathan Papelbon    2006 BOA     R            1      4    2 0.92 68
    Jason Schmidt        2003 SFN     R         7         17   5 2.34 208
    Tim Hudson           2003 OAA     R         7         16   7 2.70 240
    Ismael Valdes        1995 LAN     R         7  3      13  11 3.05 198
    Ugueth Urbina        1998 MON     R            1       6  3  1.30 69
    Denny Neagle         1997 ATN     L         7         20  5  2.97 233
    Bobby Jenks          2007 CHA     R             1      3  5  2.77 65
    Randy Wolf           2002 PHN     L         7         11  9  3.20 211
    Todd Jones           2005 FLN     R             1      1  5  2.10 73
    Octavio Dotel        2002 HON     R             2      6  4  1.85 97
    Gabe White           2000 CON     L             2     11  2  2.36 84
     
     

    2009 Dem Bums All-Time Team

     
     
                     YEAR TEAM BAL  AB DO TR HR BAVG  BB K'S RBI  OB%  SL%
    Todd Helton      2001 CON 6R   587 54 2 49 .336 98 104 146 .432 .685
    Steve Finley     2000 ARN E    539 27 5 35 .280 65 87   96 .361 .544
    Miguel Tejada    2002 OAA 1R   662 30 0 34 .308 38 84  131 .354 .508
    Mike Lieberthal  1999 PHN 5L   510 33 1 31 .300 44 86   96 .363 .551
    Ed Sprague       1996 TOA 4L   591 35 2 36 .247 60 146 101 .325 .496
    Chase Utley      2006 PHN 1R   658 40 4 32 .309 63 132 102 .379 .527
    Greg Vaughn      1998 SDN 2R   573 28 4 50 .272 79 121 119 .363 .597
    Jay Buhner       1996 SEA 2L   564 29 0 44 .271 84 159 138 .369 .557
    Prince Fielder   2007 MLN 4R   573 35 2 50 .288 90 121 119 .395 .618
    Mark Loretta     2002 HON E    283 18 0  4 .304 32 37   27 .381 .410
    Eddie Perez      1998 ATN 4R   149 12 0 6  .336 15 28   32 .404 .537
    Eric Davis       1996 CIN 4R   415 20 0 26 .287 70 121  83 .394 .523
    Mike Macfarlane  1996 KCA E    379 24 2 19 .274 31 57   54 .339 .499
    J.D. Drew        1998 SLN 2R    36  3 1 5  .417 4  10   13 .463 .972
     
                    Catcher       1b   2b   3b   ss   lf   cf   rf   ARM  ClAv DP
    Helton                        1e2                                     .326 32 
    Finley                                                 1e3       -1   .240 23 
    Tejada                                       1e19                     .340 46 
    Lieberthal      1e3 -3t1p3                                            .281 41 
    Sprague                                 3e17                          .242 12 
    Utley                         3e24 3e19                               .292 19 
    Vaughn                                            3e2            +2   .255 12 
    Buhner                                                      1e3  -5   .280 16 
    Fielder                       4e15                                    .267 29 
    Loretta                       3e10 3e6  4e6  3e40                     .283 31 
    Perez           2e1 +1t2p2    4e30                                    .349 24 
    Davis                         4e25                2e4  3e4       +0   .277  8 
    Macfarlane      3e2 -1t7p1                                            .248 12 
    Drew                                              2e16 3e16 2e16 -1   .435  0 
     
                         YEAR TEAM  THROWS START RELIEF WON LOST  ERA  IP
    Derek Lowe           2002 BOA     R     7            21  8   2.58 220
    Rafael Betancourt    2007 CLA     R             2     5  1   1.47 79
    Hideo Nomo           1995 LAN     R     7            13  6   2.54 191
    Keith Foulke         2001 CHA     R             1     4  9   2.33 81
    Hideki Okajima       2007 BOA     L             1     3  2   2.22 69
    Mike Hampton         2000 NYN     L     7            15 10   3.14 218
    Rafael Soriano       2003 SEA     R             2     3  0   1.53 53
    A.J. Burnett         2002 FLN     R     7       3    12  9   3.30 204
    Kevin Millwood       2002 ATN     R     6            18  8   3.24 217
    Akinori Otsuka       2006 TEA     R             1     2  4   2.11 60
    Tom Glavine          1997 ATN     L     7            14  7   2.96 240
     
     
     

    Fugakyu Folders All-Time Team

     
                     YEAR TEAM BAL  AB DO TR HR BAVG  BB K'S RBI  OB%  SL%
    Mark McGwire     1998 SLN 4R   509 21 0 70 .299 162 155 147 .470 .752
    Ken Caminiti     1996 SDN 4L   546 37 2 40 .326 78   99 130 .408 .621
    Albert Belle     1995 CLA 4R   546 52 1 50 .317 73   80 126 .401 .690
    Jim Edmonds      2000 SLN 2R   525 25 0 42 .295 103 167 108 .411 .583
    Javy Lopez       2003 ATN 1L   457 29 3 43 .328 33   90 109 .378 .687
    Jay Bell         1999 ARN 4L   589 32 6 38 .289 82  132 112 .374 .557
    Rich Aurilia     2001 SFN 2L   636 37 5 37 .324 47   83  97 .369 .572
    Charles Johnson  2000 CHA 5R   421 24 0 31 .304 52  106  91 .379 .582
    Chone Figgins    2005 LAA 3R   642 25 10 8 .290 64  101  57 .352 .397
    Jermaine Dye     2006 CHA 1L   539 27 3 44 .315 59  118 120 .385 .622
    Chuck Knoblauch  1996 MNA 2L   578 35 14 13 .341 98  74  72 .448 .517
    Brian Giles      2002 PIN 5R   497 37 5 38 .298 135  74 103 .450 .622
    Vladimir Guerrero2000 MON 3L   571 28 11 44 .345 58  74 123 .410 .664
    Travis Hafner    2006 CLA 1L   454 31 1 42 .308 100 111 117 .439 .659
     
                    Catcher       1b   2b   3b   ss   lf   cf   rf   ARM  ClAv DP
    McGwire                       3e13                                    .299  5 
    Caminiti                                1e23                          .335 35 
    Belle                                             4e7            +1   .300 44 
    Edmonds                       4e10                     1e5       -1   .253  3 
    Lopez           4e1 +1t8p0                                            .332 33 
    Bell                               3e25      4e22                     .277 16 
    Aurilia                                      3e19                     .254 33 
    Johnson         1e4 -2t5p2                                            .273 24 
    Figgins                            3e23 2e10 4e31 2e5  3e5  3e5  +1   .276 29 
    Dye                                                         4e7  -2   .277 27 
    Knoblauch                          1e10                               .327 16 
    Giles                                             3e8  4e8       +1   .288 22 
    Guerrero                                                    2e11 -5   .284 37 
    Hafner                        5e13                                    .284 14 
     
                         YEAR TEAM  THROWS START RELIEF WON LOST  ERA  IP
    Kevin Brown          1996 FLN     R     7             17 11 1.89 233
    John Smoltz          2003 ATN     R             1      0  2 1.12 64
    Jeff Zimmerman       1999 TEA     R             2      9  3 2.36 88
    Joakim Soria         2007 KCA     R             1      2  3 2.48 69
    Mike Jackson         1998 CLA     R             1      1  1 1.55 64
    Jeff Nelson          2001 SEA     R             1      4  3 2.76 65
    Rick Reed            1997 NYN     R     6       4     13  9 2.89 208
    Darryl Kile          1997 HON     R     7             19  7 2.57 256
    Jeff Shaw            1997 CIN     R             2      4  2 2.38 95
    Barry Zito           2003 OAA     L     6             14 12 3.30 232
    Brandon Webb         2006 ARN     R     7             16  8 3.10 235
     
     
     
     

    Future Wax All-Time Team

     
                      YEAR TEAM BAL  AB DO TR HR BAVG  BB K'S RBI  OB%  SL%
    Barry Bonds       2001 SFN 3R   476 32 2 73 .328 177  93 137 .515 .863
    Ken Griffey Jr.   1997 SEA 4R   608 34 3 56 .304  76 121 147 .382 .646
    Jim Thome         2002 CLA 6R   480 19 2 52 .304 122 139 118 .445 .677
    Juan Gonzalez     1996 TEA 8L   541 33 2 47 .314 45   82 144 .368 .643
    Vinny Castilla    1998 CON E    645 28 4 46 .319 40   89 144 .362 .589
    Mike Piazza       1997 LAN 1R   556 32 1 40 .362 69   77 124 .431 .638
    Nomar Garciaparra 1998 BOA 1R   604 37 8 35 .323 33   62 122 .362 .584
    Jeff Kent         2000 SFN 2R   587 41 7 33 .334 90  107 125 .424 .596
    Denny Hocking     2000 MNA 2R   373 24 4 4  .298 48   77  47 .373 .416
    Brian McCann      2006 ATN 2R   442 34 0 24 .333 41   54  93 .388 .572
    Craig A. Wilson   2001 PIN 2L   158  3 1 13 .310 15   53  32 .390 .589
    Marcus Thames     2006 DEA 2R   348 20 2 26 .256 37   92  60 .333 .549
    Gary Sheffield     1996 FLN E   519 33 1 42 .314 142 66  120 .465 .624
                    Catcher       1b   2b   3b   ss   lf   cf   rf   ARM  ClAv DP
    Bonds                                             2e7            +1   .328  0 
    Griffey Jr.                                            1e7       -3   .322 29 
    Thome                         4e13                                    .283  3 
    Gonzalez                                                    3e3  +0   .309 28 
    Castilla                                2e13 4e12                     .337 53 
    Piazza          4e6 +1t10p2                                           .348 41 
    Garciaparra                                  2e29                     .313 46 
    Kent                          3e30 3e11                               .287 29 
    Hocking                       3e25 3e15 3e17 3e14 3e2  3e2  3e2  -2   .258  0 
    McCann          2e6 +0t7p1                                            .319 50 
    Wilson          5e7 +2t20p6   4e10                          5e18 +2   .305  6 
    Thames                                            4e7       4e7  +0   .251  0 
    Sheffield                                                   4e6  -1   .288 28 
     
                         YEAR TEAM  THROWS START RELIEF WON LOST  ERA  IP
    Pedro Martinez       1997 MON     R     7            17 8 1.90 241
    J.J. Putz            2007 SEA     R             1     6 1 1.38 72
    Greg Maddux          1995 ATN     R     8            19 2 1.63 210
    Joe Nathan           2006 MNA     R             1     7 0 1.58 68
    Scott Williamson     1999 CIN     R             3    12 7 2.41 93
    Mark Wohlers         1995 ATN     R             1     7 3 2.09 65
    Matt Mantei          1998 FLN     R             2     3 4 2.96 55
    Mel Rojas            1996 MON     R             2     7 4 3.22 81
    Kazuhiro Sasaki      2001 SEA     R             1     0 4 3.24 67
    Johan Santana        2005 MNA     L     7            16 7 2.87 232
    Carlos Zambrano      2003 CHN     R     7            13 11 3.11 214
    Kerry Wood           2003 CHN     R     7            14 11 3.20 211
     
     
     

     

    New Orleans All-Time Team

     
                      YEAR TEAM BAL  AB DO TR HR BAVG  BB K'S RBI  OB%  SL%
    Richard Hidalgo   2000 HON 1R   558 42 3 44 .314  56 110 122 .391 .636
    Jeff Bagwell      1999 HON 1L   562 35 0 42 .304 149 127 126 .454 .591
    Todd Hundley      1996 NYN 5R   540 32 1 41 .259  79 146 112 .356 .550
    Alfonso Soriano   2002 NYA 1L   696 51 2 39 .300  23 157 102 .332 .547
    Omar Vizquel      1999 CLA 1L   574 36 4 5 .333   65 50   66 .397 .436
    Moises Alou       1998 HON 2R   584 34 5 38 .312 84  87  124 .399 .582
    Bill Spiers       1997 HON 3R   291 27 4 4 .320 61   42   48 .438 .481
    Neifi Perez       1998 CON 2L   647 25 9 9 .274 38   70   59 .313 .382
    Jorge Posada      2000 NYA 1L   505 35 1 28 .287 107 151  86 .417 .527
    Edgar Martinez    2000 SEA 3L   556 31 0 37 .324 96 95   145 .423 .579
    Marquis Grissom   1996 ATN 2L   671 32 10 23 .308 41 73   74 .349 .489
    Troy Glaus        2000 ANA 7L   563 37 1 47 .284 112 163 102 .404 .604
    Manny Ramirez     2000 CLA 2L   439 34 2 38 .351 86 117  122 .457 .697
     
     
                    Catcher       1b   2b   3b   ss   lf   cf   rf   ARM  ClAv DP
    Hidalgo                                           1e8  2e8  1e8  -4   .274 33 
    Bagwell                       2e8                                     .283 11 
    Hundley         2e2 -1t6p2                                            .254 20 
    Soriano                            3e24                               .300 15 
    Vizquel                                      1e18           5e25 +3   .295 17 
    Alou                                              2e5  3e5       -1   .295 31 
    Spiers                        4e25 3e23 2e35 4e72                     .350 12 
    Perez           5e16 +5t20p20                2e21                     .241 16 
    Posada          2e1 -2t8p3    4e21                                    .247  8 
    Martinez                      5e11                                    .305 24 
    Grissom                                                1e1       -2   .257 28 
    Glaus                                   2e5  4e48                     .277  9 
    Ramirez                                                     3e4  -2   .307  2 
     
                        YEAR TEAM  THROWS START RELIEF WON LOST  ERA  IP
    Billy Wagner        1999 HON     L             2    4   1 1.57 75
    Dontrelle Willis    2005 FLN     L     7           22  10 2.63 236
    Mariano Rivera      1996 NYA     R             2    8   3 2.09 108
    Al Leiter           1998 NYN     L     7           17   6 2.47 193
    Doug Jones          1997 MLA     R             1    6   6 2.02 80
    Troy Percival       1995 CAA     R             2    3   2 1.95 74
    Chris Carpenter     2005 SLN     R     7           21   5 2.83 242
    Arthur Rhodes       2001 SEA     L             1    8   0 1.72 68
    Bartolo Colon       2002 MON     R     7           20   8 2.93 233
    Tom Glavine         1997 ATN     L     7           14   7 2.96 240
    Robb Nen            2000 SFN     R             1    4   3 1.50 66
     

     

    2009 North Dakota All-Time Team

     
                    YEAR TEAM BAL  AB DO TR HR BAVG  BB K'S RBI  OB%  SL%
    Luis Gonzalez   2001 ARN 2R   609 36 7 57  .325 100 83 142 .429 .688
    Roberto Alomar  2001 CLA 3R   575 34 12 20 .336 80 71  100 .415 .541
    Barry Larkin    1996 CIN 1L   517 32 4 33  .298 96 52   89 .410 .567
    Benito Santiago 1996 PHN 4L   481 21 2 30  .264 49 104  85 .332 .503
    Albert Pujols   2006 SLN 2R   535 33 1 49  .331 92 50  137 .431 .671
    Jimmy Rollins   2007 PHN 1L   716 38 20 30 .296 49 85   94 .344 .531
    Matt Lecroy     2001 MNA 1R    40 5 0 3    .425 0   8   12 .429 .775
    Jeff Cirillo    1996 MLA E    566 46 5 15  .325 58 69   83 .391 .504
    Ramon Hernandez 2006 BAA 3L   501 29 2 23  .275 43 79   91 .343 .479
    Ray Lankford    1997 SLN 2L   465 36 3 31  .295 95 125  98 .411 .585
    David Ortiz     2006 BOA E    558 29 2 54  .287 119 117 137 .413 .636
    Magglio Ordonez 2007 DEA 3L   595 54 0 28  .363 76 79   139 .434 .595
    Lance Berkman   2002 HON 5R   578 35 2 42  .292 107 118 128 .405 .578
    Scott Rolen     1998 PHN 2L   601 45 4 31  .290 93 141  110 .391 .532
    David Justice   2000 NYA 4L   524 31 1 41  .286 77 91   118 .377 .584
      
                    Catcher       1b   2b   3b   ss   lf   cf   rf   ARM  ClAv DP
    Gonzalez                                          3e0            +2   .297 30 
    Alomar                             1e5                                .359 20 
    Larkin                                       1e20                     .284 38 
    Santiago        2e2 -2t13p2   4e13                                    .220 26 
    Pujols                        1e7                                     .312 50 
    Rollins                                      1e12                     .256 34 
    Lecroy          4e13 +1t1p0   4e25                                    .443  0 
    Cirillo                       3e25 3e14 2e21                          .325 33 
    Hernandez       2e1 -1t17p4   4e25                                    .270 40 
    Lankford                                               2e11      +2   .285 18 
    Ortiz                         5e30                                    .277 28 
    Ordonez                                                     3e1  -1   .393 35 
    Berkman                                           2e7  3e7  3e7  +0   .301 20 
    Rolen                                   1e14                          .280 18 
    Justice                                           3e6  4e6  3e6  +0   .274 33 
     
                         YEAR TEAM  THROWS START RELIEF WON LOST  ERA  IP
    Eric Gagne           2003 LAN     R            1     2 3 1.20 82
    Randy Johnson        2001 ARN     L     7           21 6 2.49 250
    Heath Bell           2007 SDN     R             2    6 4 2.02 94
    Trevor Hoffman       1996 SDN     R             2    9 5 2.25 88
    Jason Isringhausen   2002 SLN     R             1    3 2 2.48 65
    Jake Peavy           2007 SDN     R     7           19 6 2.54 223
    Buddy Groom          2002 BAA     L             1    3 2 1.60 62
    Chris Young          2007 SDN     R     6            9 8 3.12 173
    Roger Clemens        1997 TOA     R     8           21 7 2.05 264
    Shawn Estes          1997 SFN     L     6           19 5 3.18 201
     

    Talk about a tough league!

    New Orleans won the first "Study 3C" 7 years ago, when it represented only the best rosters of the then past 5 seasons (1996-2000) So, what happened this time? How’d it turn out? Here are the final standings (using a 168-game schedule, so that each team played each other team 24 times).

     

    LEAGUE STANDINGS FOR All-time SOMBILLA Super League
     

    WON LOST PCT GB

    2009 Future Wax WAX         100 68  .595 ----
    2009 New Orleans NEW         94 74  .560 6.0
    2009 North Dakota NDK        90 78  .536 10.0
    2009 Area 51 A51             87 81  .518 13.0
    2009 Dem Bums DEM            80 88  .476 20.0
    2009 Constantinople CON      79 89  .470 21.0
    2009 Fugakyu Folders FUG     77 91  .458 23.0
    2009 Bay City BCY            65 103 .387 35.0


    LEAGUE GRAND TOTALS FOR All-time SOMBILLA Super League

    TEAM AVG AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB CS E
    2009 Future Wax .263 5861 981 1541 268 30 424 966 42 27 103
    2009 North Dakota .252 5690 898 1432 280 52 313 867 63 35 86
    2009 New Orleans .247 5779 900 1428 312 27 321 877 111 40 141
    2009 Bay City .247 5763 765 1423 299 29 283 748 46 20 107
    2009 Area 51 .246 5808 856 1426 332 15 285 837 46 21 79
    2009 Fugakyu Folders .245 5762 901 1414 249 21 379 887 54 17 100
    2009 Constantinople .239 5706 812 1361 229 28 313 786 60 27 80
    2009 Dem Bums .228 5709 795 1302 277 26 301 774 33 8 79
    -------------------- ---- ----- ---- ----- ---- --- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----
    LEAGUE TOTALS .246 46078 6908 11327 2246 228 2619 6742 455 195 775

     
     

    TEAM ERA W L IP H R ER HR BB SO OAVG
    2009 North Dakota 4.32 90 78 1503.1 1235 778 722 307 720 1774 .222
    2009 New Orleans 4.50 94 74 1512.2 1433 842 756 322 594 1509 .246
    2009 Dem Bums 4.59 80 88 1505.1 1402 808 768 298 653 1228 .245
    2009 Future Wax 4.71 100 68 1519.1 1376 872 795 353 629 1779 .237
    2009 Constantinople 4.84 79 89 1503.2 1447 854 809 322 584 1422 .251
    2009 Area 51 4.93 87 81 1515.0 1419 885 830 323 680 1553 .245
    2009 Fugakyu Folders 5.09 77 91 1498.0 1473 919 847 332 694 1272 .254
    2009 Bay City 5.38 65 103 1483.1 1542 950 886 362 545 1363 .265
    -------------------- ----- --- --- ------- ----- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----- ----
    LEAGUE TOTALS 4.79 672 672 12040.2 11327 6908 6413 2619 5099 11900 .246

     
     
    Only one batter hit over .300!!
     
     
    LEAGUE LEADERS FOR 2009 All-time SOMBILLA Super League
     
    ----BATTING AVERAGE---- --------HOMERUNS------- -----RUNS BATTED IN----
    M.Piazza WAX .327        M.McGwire FUG 79     M.McGwire FUG 154
    E.Alfonzo CON .294       B.Bonds WAX 68       B.Bonds WAX 143
    J.Thome WAX .290         S.Sosa BCY 61        L.Gonzalez NDK 143
    B.Bonds WAX .290         J.Thome WAX 55       A.Pujols NDK 125
    M.Young A51 .290         A.Rodriguez CON 51   S.Sosa BCY 121
    S.Sosa BCY .288          T.Glaus NEW 51       J.Thome WAX 121
    A.Pujols NDK .287        L.Gonzalez NDK 49    M.Piazza WAX 115
    E.Burks CON .286         A.Pujols NDK 49      R.Hidalgo NEW 112
    L.Walker A51 .284        K.Griffey Jr. WAX 47 T.Glaus NEW 112
    G.Sheffield WAX .282     M.Piazza WAX 47      A.Rodriguez CON 110
    B.Boone A51 .276         R.Hidalgo NEW 44      L.Walker A51 108
    T.Helton DEM .275        J.Edmonds FUG 42     K.Griffey Jr. WAX 107
      
     ------WINNING PCT------   ----------ERA---------- ---------SAVES---------
     J.Schmidt(16-5)CON .762   K.Brown       FUG  3.38 B.Wagner      NEW    45
     P.Martinez(19-7)WAX.731   J.Schmidt     CON  3.47 J.Smoltz      FUG    35
     G.Maddux (16-6)WAX .727   G.Maddux      WAX  3.54 T.Saito       BCY    34
     K.Brown (21-9)FUG  .700   R.Clemens     NDK  3.60 J.Putz        WAX    34
     B.Webb (17-8) FUG  .680   P.Martinez    WAX  3.64 E.Gagne       NDK    34
     D.Lowe  (18-9)DEM  .667   C.Carpenter   NEW  4.41 B.Ryan        A51    33
     R.Clemens(19-12)NDK.613   C.Schilling   A51  4.53 J.Papelbon    CON    29
     C.Schilling(18-12)A51.600 R.Johnson     NDK  4.54 K.Foulke      DEM    23
     I.Valdes(12-8) CON .600   J.Peavy       NDK  4.58 
     K.Wood  (14-11)WAX .560   M.Hampton     DEM  4.59 
     T.Glavine(15-12)NEW.556   D.Lowe        DEM  4.60                             
     M.Mussina(12-10)A51.545   F.Garcia      A51  4.68                             
     

    AWARDS VOTING FOR 2009 All-time SOMBILLA Super League

    
    
    MVP AWARD                               CY YOUNG AWARD
    B.Bonds(WAX) 413                        P.Martinez(WAX) 122
    M.McGwire(FUG) 364                      R.Clemens(NDK) 95
    M.Piazza(WAX) 197                       E.Gagne(NDK) 46
    J.Thome(WAX) 129                        G.Maddux(WAX) 17
    L.Gonzalez(NDK) 96                      K.Brown(FUG) 8
     

    ALL-STAR SELECTIONS BY POSITION

    C  M.Piazza(WAX) 2,633,147              I.Rodriguez(BCY) 1,423,586
    
    1B M.McGwire(FUG) 4,613,564             A.Pujols(NDK) 2,615,082
    
    2B J.Kent(WAX) 2,236,892                B.Boone(A51) 1,889,604
    
    3B A.Rodriguez(CON) 2,440,547           T.Glaus(NEW) 2,350,310
    
    SS B.Larkin(NDK) 2,232,695              N.Garciaparra(WAX) 1,942,938
    
    LF B.Bonds(WAX) 4,680,201               L.Gonzalez(NDK) 2,785,208
    
    CF R.Hidalgo(NEW) 2,261,881             J.Edmonds(FUG) 2,035,410
    
    RF S.Sosa(BCY) 2,895,502                L.Walker(A51) 2,395,755
    
    Pi P.Martinez(WAX) 4,492,993            R.Clemens(NDK) 3,742,308
    
       E.Gagne(NDK) 3,459,349               J.Schmidt(CON) 3,447,487
    
       C.Schilling(A51) 3,168,633           K.Brown(FUG) 3,019,423
    
       T.Saito(BCY) 2,958,432               B.Wagner(NEW) 2,948,016
    
       G.Maddux(WAX) 2,931,412              J.Putz(WAX) 2,515,035
    
       B.Ryan(A51) 2,267,609                R.Johnson(NDK) 2,069,258 

         

         

         

        All-time SOMBILLA Super League Playoffs

        Future Wax 11 Area 51 1 (Bonds, Griffey, Piazza, Castilla HR)
        Future Wax 6 Area 51 1 (Santana, Putz 6-hitter)
        Future Wax 13 Area 51 1 (Thome 2 HR, 5 RBI, Zambrano 6-hit CG)
        Future Wax 7 Area 51 6 (11 inns) (Griffey 2 HR 4 rbi, including game winner in the 11th)

        Future Wax wins series 4 games to 0

         

        New Orleans 9 North Dakota 2 (Carpenter 6-hitter to kickoff this all-time super luggage series)
        New Orleans 4 North Dakota 3 (Glavine and Wagner hang on as ND rally falls short)
        North Dakota 2 New Orleans 0 (Estes & Gagne, 1-hit shutout)
        North Dakota 2 New Orleans 1 (C Young 12 K’s, Gagne 2nd save) <>
        North Dakota 6 New Orleans 2 (Clemens 5-hitter, Pujols, Ortiz HR)

        North Dakota wins series 4 games to 2

         

        All-time SOMBILLA Super League World Series

        Future Wax 3 North Dakota 2 (12 innings) (Thames walk-off, Putz 3 1/3 shutout inns for the win)
        North Dakota 6 Future Wax 5 (Big Papi HR, 4 RBI) <>
        Future Wax 4 North Dakota 2 (Thames HR, Zambrano and Putz pitched well)
        North Dakota 4 Future Wax 1 (Estes – 2 hits, 3 bb, 12 ks in 7 ½ inns, Gagne 2nd save)
        Future Wax 6 North Dakota 4 (Maddux win, Putz save)
        Future Wax 6 North Dakota 1 (Pedro no-hitter into the 7th, Nomar HR)

        Future Wax wins the All-Time SOMBILLA Super League World Series 4 games to 2

        It’s a Future Wax sweep of the computer studies.



        HOW IS YOUR TEAM DOING?

        Here is our first unscientific look ahead to the 2009 cards (due out in January).

    Eric (12) – Crawford, Fielder, A. Gonzalez, Ibanez, A. Jones, Lincecum, Molina, Tejada, Utley, Verlander, Werth, Zimmerman

    RAT (9) – Braun, Cordero, N. Cruz, Greinke, A. Hill, McCann, Nathan, Santana, J. Upton

    Robin (9) – Beltran, Buehrle, Granderson, Halladay, Hawpe, Jeter, V. Martinez, F. Sanchez, Wakefield

    Jed (8) – Beckett,. Figgins, Fuentes, F. Hernandez, Mauer, C. Pena, Suzuki, Victorino

    Tom (8) – Bay, Billingsley, Cain, Howard, Hunter, Papelbon, Pence, Youkilis

    Arnie (8) – Bell, Hamilton, Haren, Hoffman, J. Johnson, Pedroia, Pujols, H. Ramirez

    Harold (6) – Bartlett, O. Hudson, Lilly, Morneau, Rivera, Wright

    Jeff (5) – Broxton, Longoria, F. Rodriguez, Teixeira, M. Young

     

     

    <>Tentative Opening Day: Sunday, November 8

    (because Game 7 of the World Series would be Thursday November 5)



    Ballparks

    Singles

    Homers

    Arizona

    1-11

    1-15

    1-17

    1-11

    Atlanta

    1-9

    L 1-4

    R 1-10

    Chicago (NL)

    1-10

    1-13

    Cincinnati

    L 1-7

    R 1-4

    1-16

    Colorado

    L 1-13

    R 1-19

    L 1-11

    R 1-15

    Florida

    1-6

    1-6

    Houston

    1-7

    1-12

    Los Angeles

    1-7

    L 1-12

    R 1-9

    Milwaukee

    L 1-6

    R 1-3

    1-9

    New York (NL)

    1-2

    1-8

    Philadelphia

    L 1-10

    R 1-7

    1-14

    Pittsburgh

    1-12

    L 1-7

    R 1

    St. Louis

    1-8

    1-4

    San Diego

    1

    L 1-2

    R 1-5

    San Francisco

    1-12

    1-3

    Washington

    L 1-15

    R 1-6

    L 1-4

    R 1-8

    Baltimore

    L 1-6

    R 1-12

    L 1-11

    R 1-17

    Boston

    L 1-19

    R 1-16

    L 1-2

    R 1-5

    Chicago (AL)

    L 1-2

    R 1-5

    1-17

    Cleveland

    L 1-11

    R 1-8

    L 1-9

    R 1-6

    Detroit

    L 1-7

    R 1-12

    1-10

    Kansas City

    1-13

    1-6

    Los Angeles

    1-13

    L 1-4

    R 1-7

    Minnesota

    1-5

    1-4

    New Yuck (AL)

    L 1-4

    R 1-7

    L 1-15

    R 1-9

    Oakland

    1-3

    L 1-8

    R 1-5

    Seattle

    1-4

    1-7

    Tampa Bay

    L 1-6

    R 1-3

    1-9

    Texas

    L 1-8

    R 1-11

    1-11

    Toronto

    1-3

    1-13