This is another fine Sim you’ve gotten me into!

Pittsburgh and Sylva continue their heated battle for the wildcard in the Platonic League. Now they’re all knotted up at 10 ½ games behind Seattle!

Jersey City stakes out a 3 game lead over Helena who is closely chased by Brooklyn for the wildcard! We’ve got some fine chasing going on here!

Standout performers:

Seattle’s Bobby Lowry tossed a 3 hitter against Winnipeg! His game score of 91 matches the top score of the year!

Maryland’s Jackie Chadwick receives a game score of 80 against Cairo throwing 6.2 innings of 1 hit 1 walk baseball!

Joseph Watson of Helena went 3 for 6 with 4 runs scored and 4 RBI on July 2nd! That’s good for 12th best offensive performance of the season! Well done!

Next sim is Friday, by me.

The once-vaunted NY Knights, decimated by injuries, distracted by clubhouse rancour and media scrutiny, and just plain not-being-good-at-baseball this year, are having a fire sale! (note the Arrested Development reference).\

We’ve got free-agent-to-be infielders (1B, 2B, 3B), pitchers, outfielders, and other stalwart veterns looking for a good home. If you’re interested in any of them, let me know.

1B Pineda
2B Dediego
3B Collado
OF Galgano
C. L. Ice (with a name like that, it’ll be a steep asking price)
SP Sirmans (not free agent)
SP Pacheco (arbitration eligible)
CL Kagan

Eric

The Pittsburgh Pisces announce that they have added a bonus baby to their pool of talented minor leaguers. William Shultz, despite being born just six days ago, was signed to a multi-year contract by team owner (and father) Mack Shultz.

“We’re not sure what position he is going to play for us, or even what hand he throws with. In fact, we don’t think he can even throw yet. But, he’s clearly going to be a hell of a player,” said Mack Shultz. “William is still on the Disabled List (i.e., in the hospital), and will remain there for another four weeks or so, but we think he’s got a world of potential.”

When asked to explain the signing of William, who clearly is not a Pisces, the elder Shultz said, “I’ll talk to his mother about that. It was her job to time the birth.”

Yes, Sim #16 is now complete. We’re halfway through the season and heading into July and the trading deadline!

A fairly non-descript sim this time as no player produced an effort worthy of climbing into the top 100 performances this time.

The oddest thing I’m seeing in the Platonic League is that even though their Pythagorean record is only 1 run apart Seattle and Pittsburgh are separated by 10.5 games in the actual standings. The real race in the PL is for the wildcard slot. Pittsburgh and Sylva appear ready to fight that one out until the end!

In the Socratic League things remain tight between Jersey City and Helena with still only 1.5 games between the two. Of course, with Jersey City 8-2 in their last team and Helena 4-6 that’s provided some real fireworks for the tabloids!

Next sim in Wednesday by me! Be there!

Anybody looking for some middle relief help? Well, I’ve got a couple of names to dangle out there, as I’ve got someone I’d like to move up from AAA.

Andreas Anderson, 2.5 stars, 37 years old, FA after this year. 3.66 ERA / 1.27 WHIP this year.

Augusto Pesante, 2.5 stars, 33 yrs old, signed through 2003 at the bargain price of $410,000! Putting up a respectable 3.79 ERA with a 1.26 WHIP.

George Echevarria, 2.5 stars, 33 yrs old, signed through 2003 at the admittedly high salary of $3,160,000 per. Can start if needed, and has put up a 2.28 ERA with a WHIP of 1.23!

And finally, all-star Cedric “Practice?” Iverson, who’s been closing for me so far this year, has 15 saves, an ERA of 4.01 and a WHIP of 1.26. FA after this year, will resign for 3.2M/yr.

Looking for: middling prospects, a ML ready 4th OF, or a MR stud.

BROOKLYN – After an excellent start to the season the Bombers are ready to take the second half of the season by storm. “We have the talent to win this thing outright,” said Bomber Manager George Welsh. “Our offense is the best in the league, everyone is hitting very well and there is no reason to think that will change.”

It is hard to ignore the staggering offense that Brooklyn has amassed in the first half of the season. They are leading the entire league in batting average with an even .300 average as a team and in runs scored with a mind-blowing 405, 16 more than Helena who is in second in the category.

“We are very proud of our entire team,” commented General Manager and Team President Jeremy Goldman, “they have worked really hard to get to this point, and they are not giving up until we win the World Series.” He went on to thank the fans for their support mentioning that none of this would be possible without their support.

One of the noticeable weaknesses of the team is their bullpen, which has blown many leads this year and has been bailed out by the offense many times over. “We are looking to upgrade the bullpen,” stated Mr. Goldman, “Our second half run will be futile if we cannot keep the leads our offense stakes us.”

They have just called up stud Forrest Stiff a 4 star prospect who spent time with the AA Charlottesville Hoos and AAA Atlanta Aardvarks amassing a 3-0 record and an ERA around 2.00 combined. “We still need more help,” Manager George Welsh added, “my options out of the pen are thin and getting thinner with Lucero tearing his bicep muscle and being out for the rest of the season.”

GM Goldman is talking to owners from other teams, which have included offers for All-Star 3B Steven Hyer, and is looking for something a little more substantial to help the team right now.

If they are able to get help or not Jersey City and Helena had better watch out because the Bombers are not going to give up this season or next.

Yes, boys, Sim #15 is in the books! And with this sim came the naming of the All Star Team for each league. Here’s the rundown:

In the Platonic League Seattle and Pittsburgh led the pack with 7 All Stars each.

P Thomas Holte from Seattle
P Gaby Duran from Pittsburgh
P Baltasar Acevedo from Cairo
P Ramiro Roxas from Pittsburgh
P Chad Gomez from Stockholm
P Oscar Leon from Pittsburgh
P Alvaro Pedro from Seattle
P Derrick Lozano from Sylva
P Wesley Savage from Seattle
P Vincent Furness from Pittsburgh
C Charles Hicklin from Stockholm
C Richard Pendelton from Pittsburgh
1B Bruce Bremer from Pittsburgh
2B Randy McGinn from Sylva
3B Darren Schmeltzer from Seattle
SS John Covas from Seattle
LF Ronald Veit from Seattle
CF Leo Villa from Maryland
RF George Pullum from Pittsburgh
1B Amador Zaragoza from Seattle
RF Silvio Ruiz from Maryland
CF Donald Mansfield from Stockholm
LF John Sasso from Maryland
2B David Austin from Maryland
2B Edward Redding from Stockholm

In the Socratic League we found that Helena had 10 All Stars, Jersey City had 8, and Brooklyn had 6. In fact, all of the SL All Stars came from those three teams except Marietta’s own Wilson Abellan, our lone representative.

Next sim is Monday by me! Data is being uploaded right now. So stay frosty.

Hey all, Nate the temporary permanent sim-guy here.

The sim is completed. In it you can see the death of whatever hope I had left. Offers for MR, SP, and an all-star 3B will now be accepted.

Seattle again continues to outpace the rest of the Kant division, extending their lead to 10.5 games over second place Pittsburgh. In the wild card Sylva is one half game behind Pitt and Maryland is only three games out. Stockholm is an outside contender at six games out of the wild card.

In the Hegel division things continue to be tight with Jersey City closing to 1.5 games behind first place Helena. Brooklyn is six games off the pace and 4.5 games out of the wild card.

Outstanding performances this sim included:

Frederick Wickham of Marietta throwing a complete game one hitter against Brooklyn in his first start off the disabled list. His start is the second highest rated start of the year so far!

In payback Stephen Hyer of Brooklyn went four for four against Marietta the next day. He had two home runs and four RBIs!

Alvaro Pedro threw eight innings of four hit ball against Cairo on June 18th!

Curiously, there were no extra-inning games this sim!

Next sim is Friday by me! Don’t be late!

Seattle and Sylva completed the first major trade of the 2002 season today. Seattle sent CF James McKinsey and AAA 1B prospect Todd Stewart to Sylva in exchange for All Star LF Ronald Veit.

“We’ve been pretty happy with our results so far, but we saw an opportunity to add a big bat to our lineup and just couldn’t pass it up,” Seattle GM Matt Macario responded, when asked to explain the move. “Still, it’s a long season. We gotta play ‘em one day at a time.”

“My momma always told me I kinda walk funny, so I guess getting traded to the Ministry of Silly Walks makes sense,” Veit quipped as he stepped off the plane, greeted by an uncharacteristically sunny Seattle afternoon. While he’s very proud of his past accomplishments with the Sylva Black Bears organization, including being selected to play in the All Star game last year, he is also excited for his future. “I’m just happy to be here and hope I can help the ballclub,” Veit said. “I just wanna give it my best shot and, Good Lord willing, things’ll work out.”

In the Kant Division of the Platonic League, Seattle extended its division lead to 7.5 games over the not-so-Mighty Pisces. Seattle also made a trade with third-place Sylva, but the two owners are apparently too lazy to post the first big trade of the season. (Ahem.)

In the Hegel Division of the Socratic League, Helena continues its worst-to-first fairy tale season, and has a 2.5 game lead over Jersey City. Brooklyn is only six games back of Helena though and defending champion Marietta lurks in fourth place.

Maryland’s David Austin and Jersey City’s Benito Parra took home Player of the Week honors on June 12.

Marietta’s Cristian Diaz threw a two-hit shutout of Winnipeg on June 12.

On the injury front, Pittsburgh’s thin bullpen got even thinner with a season-ending injury to Jesse Daigneault. Helena’s star second sacker Juan Favela suffered a pulled elbow ligament, but should only miss a week of action.

I would post about the games, but the fact that I lost three more one-run games, including two in extra innings, is just too depressing. Everyone can look for themselves.

The league files should already be up. Due to some family issues that need tending to, Nate will be running the sims until further notice. (Thanks Nate!)