In a classic off-season deal Marietta acquires starting pitcher Billy Lowry (12-8 4.75) in exchange for minor league starter Claude Guzman (10-11 3.47 an AA and 1-1 3.86 in three starts at AAA), Marietta’s 8th round pick in the upcoming draft, and $4,000,000 cash.

Day One of Free Agency is now complete. Download the new file and so forth to see how things are going. Note that I’ve altered the schedule a little bit. Check the website for updates.

Day two of Free Agency and Round 1 of the Amateur Draft will be on Monday. Get those picks in to me, guys. If I do not have your picks I’ll let the machine do it for you.

Here’s how to get me your picks:

Find out where your pick is in the round.
Sub a list, in order of preference, of the players you want. The list should be as long or longer than the number of your pick.
I’ll pick the available player that is highest on your list.

Simple as that!

So be there!

Draft Order for the 2005 Amateur Draft:

1. Cairo
2. Helena
3. Stockholm
4. Sylva
5. Maryland
6. Marietta
7. Winnipeg
8. Jersey City
9. New York (tied with Seattle, won coin flip)
10. Seattle (lost coin flip)
11. Pittsburgh
12. Brooklyn

Also, here is a list of the draft picks that have been traded. Not very many in this draft. As always, if you see anything wrong, leave a comment and I’ll update the post accordingly.

2nd Round
Pittsburgh to Cairo (cash trade)
Brooklyn to Sylva (Duran trade)

3rd Round
Stockholm’s pick to Seattle (Covas trade)
New York’s pick to Stockholm (Scull trade)
Pittsburgh’s pick to Cairo (cash trade)

4th Round
New York’s pick to Stockholm (Gomez trade)
Pittsburgh’s pick to Cairo (cash trade)
Brooklyn’s pick to Maryland (Sasso trade)

5th Round
Jersey City’s pick to Pittsburgh (Whitesides trade)
Pittsburgh’s pick to Stockholm (Avelar trade)

8th Round
Marietta’s pick to Seattle (Lowry trade)

[Edited to add Duran trade]
[Edited to add Lowry trade]
[Edited to add Seattle-Cairo cash trade]

With some poor financial decisionmaking, I have dug myself into a “negative cash” hole. I’ve decided to commence rebuilding mode anyway, at least partially… so if you see a player on my team who will help your team and also help my bottom line, make me an offer!

Well, after some testing over the weekend, and learning from experiences in the SDMB League, here’s the plan for the 2004-05 OEL offseason. In short, we are going to upgrade to OOTP 9 for the 2005 season. Unfortunately, we have to complete most of the offseason in version 6.5 before we can upgrade.

For those of you who do not have version 9 of the game, here’s a website where you can download it. I think it’s only $30, which is a pretty good deal for your entertainment dollar, even in today’s economy. Everyone probably should go ahead and get it now, even though we won’t be using it for a few weeks, just to get it up and running. Make sure your game is updated to the latest version (9.2.2).

Tonight I’m going to roll the sim over to the 2005 season. So, get any last minute contract offers or roster moves in today.

The only task it appears that we can cleanly skip in the version 6.5 offseason is the coach signings. The coaching system in 9 is different enough that nothing carries over. So, there’s no point to signing coaches. I’m going to sim through those five days tonight.

Where we’ll start is with free agency and the amateur draft. Unfortunately, we can’t move the amateur draft into version 9 (without massive work for the commissioners, and I don’t want to spend hours on it just to move the draft into version 9). Also, it appears that it is cheaper to sign free agents in 6.5 than in 9, based on an ad hoc review by me during my testing. So, we’ll do those two tasks together in the same way we’ve done them in the past. I’ll post a schedule today or tonight on the league web site, but you can expect Day 1 of free agency to be Wednesday. Nate’s running the sims for free agency and the amateur draft.

After free agency and the amateur draft, we’ll have to do the Rule 5 draft and Spring Training in version 6.5. Those will also be run by me and done the same as in the past.

Finally, after Spring Training is done, I’ll roll the game into OOTP 9. We’ll give everyone probably a quick sim or two to acclimate themselves to the changes, and then jump right into the regular season.

If you have any questions, you can either post them in the comments or email Nate and me.

Congrats to the winners:

Ted Williams (MVP):
Seattle’s Darren Schmelzer
Brooklyn’s Miyatorou Takenao

Cy Young:
Sylva’s Bobby Stoops
Brooklyn’s Tyler Conn

Rookie of the Year:
Pittsburgh’s Richard Ro
Helena’s Wayne Prokop

Platonic League Gold Gloves:
Pitcher: Thomas Holte (SEA)
Catcher: Herman Colon (SEA)
First Base: James Sanfilippo (CAI)
Second Base: Samuel Corrado (SYL)
Third Base: Raymond Bullington (SYL)
Shortstop: Charles Fordyce (MPD)
Leftfield: Paul Caldwell (CAI)
Centerfield: Mark Peters (STO)
Rightfield: Mark Kiker (CAI)

Socratic League Gold Gloves:
Pitcher: Sergio Varela (JCY)
Catcher: Pio Pastrana (BRK)
First Base: Wiley Reinoso (HEL)
Second Base: David Austin (WIN)
Third Base: Basil Gomez (JCY)
Shortstop: Maels Ruiz (JCY)
Leftfield: Tomihiko Heizo (MAR)
Centerfield: Oscar Woodworth (BRK)
Rightfield: Benito Figueredo (BRK)

This post brought to you by the agents for possible free agents Bobby Stoops, Paul Caldwell, Mark Kiker, David Austin, Maels Ruiz, and Oscar Woodworth. (laugh)

In a thrilling Game Six, the Brooklyn Bombers fended off the Pittsburgh Pisces to claim the 2004 championship, their second in three seasons. Only the improbable victory last year of the Maryland Poedamnedmonium has prevented Brooklyn from a three-peat.

Once again, the starting pitching was superb. Brooklyn took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the second with a solo home run by Anotnio Alicea. Pittsburgh responded in the fifth inning with a solo shot by Brian Staudt. Unfortunately, the Pisces also left the bases loaded. The game remained tied until the seventh inning, when the Bombers scored on an bases-loaded single by Stephen Hyer to take 1 2-1 lead.

In the bottom of the eighth, things finally unravelled a bit for the Pisces. An error by third baseman Staudt gave Alicea a chance to stroke a two-run, two-out single off of reliever Vincent Furness. The three-run lead was too much for the Pisces to overcome in the ninth against closer Steve Corner.

Alicea’s three runs batted in led to Player of the Game honors. The “goat” award was hung on Pisces first baseman Gary Croce, who ended his remarkable postseason by grounding into two double plays.

The next sim will be Monday by me. That’s the final chance to make roster or contract offers in the 2004 season before we roll over to 2005.

It looks like more owners support upgrading to OOTP 9 than oppose it. So, we will probably be upgrading at the end of the offseason, before 2005 starts. If you are opposed to the upgrade, or if that might hurt your desire to continue as an owner in the game, please send me or Nate an email.

Believe it of not, baseball aficionados, we had another nail biter tonight in the OEL Series! Tonight Brooklyn held off Pittsburgh to go up 3 games to 2 in the series!

Pittsburgh got on the board first with 2 runs in the second. The runs scored with two down as the Pisces put up a single, an infield hit, a walk, and another single to plate two runs!

But Brooklyn wasn’t going down easy tonight. They put up 2, 1, and 2 runs in the 5th, 6th and 7th innings, respectively, to go up 5-2 going into the late innings.

The Irontowners weren’t demoralized, however, as, in the bottom of the ninth 1b Gary Groce led the inning with a walk and 3b Brian Staudt then hit a two run homerun off reliever Steve Corner to make it 5-4 and leave the Pittsburghers down only 1 run with no outs!

Corner turned the, well, corner at that point and shut down the Fish with three straight ground outs to the third baseman to close the door on the game.

The series now moves back to Brooklyn with the home team just one game away from a championship and the Pisces with their backs to the wall! Who will win?

I have simmed the game and the day off following. The next, possibly final, sim of the series will be tomorrow by Mack! Don’t miss a moment of the tense, baseball action!

After four games in the OEL Championship Series (the sweetest smelling series in the world), the home team is undefeated. This means, of course, that Pittsburgh defended its turf tonight and tied the series at two games a piece.

Interestingly, despite both teams rolling out their #4 starters, the game was fairly low scoring. Pittsburgh broke the ice with a two-out, one-run rally in the first inning. But, the Pisces left the bases loaded, which it seemed would come back to haunt them when Brooklyn roared back. An RBI single by starting pitcher Thomas Fleenor in the second tied the score and Benito Figueredo stroked an RBI double in the third to take a 2-1 lead.

The game remained 2-1 into the sixth inning, as both starters settled down. However, an RBI groundout by Donald “Missing” Parson and and RBI infield hit by starting pitcher Robert Gaertner then gave the Pisces a 3-2 lead. A RBI double by Brian Staudt followed by a RBI single by James Dominy in the bottom of the seventh boosted the gap to a three-run cushion. At that point, Pittsburgh called on its unmatched relief combination of Vincent Furness and Ariel Santos to close out the series-tying victory. Brooklyn managed to bring the tying run to the plate with one out in the ninth, but Santos struck out Randy McGinn and William Marone to end the threat.

Robert Gaertner, who team owner Mack Shultz debated on whether to let start or not, took home Player of the Game honors with his seven strong innings pitched and game-winning RBI single.

League file is posted and web pages en route. Game Five in this classic contest will be tomorrow, by either Nate or me. Will the home field dominance continue, or will Brooklyn break through? Stay tuned.

The outstandingly competitive OEL Championship Series continued today with a classic contest between the Brooklyn Bombers and the Pittsburgh Pisces.

The starting pitching was extraordinary, as the game was scoreless through the first five innings. In the bottom of the sixth, the Pisces finally broke through when Brooklyn’s Gaby Duran inexplicably lost his control. With one out, Duran walked five consecutive batters, mixing in a wild pitch for good measure. With Pittsburgh holding a 2-0 lead and having the bases loaded, Brooklyn’s bullpen stepped up and coaxed a double play from Donald “Missing” Parson to end the threat.

The game remained 2-0 into the ninth inning, as Pittsburgh’s Timothy Hornyak continued to shut down the Bombers’ attack. Pittsburgh manager Moses Guthrie, despite having league-saves leader Ariel Santos rested and ready in the bullpen, elected to let Hornyak finish what he had started. He stuck with Hornyak despite a leadoff double by Miyatarou Takenao and was rewarded with a harmless pop up by Pio Pastrana. Unfortunately for the Pittsburgh fans, Randy McGinn then hammered a long, long home run down the left field line, travelling an estimated 420 feet, to tie the score at 2-2. Hornyak, who was still left in, managed to get out of the frame without further damage. Pittsburgh was retired in order in the bottom of the ninth and the game went to extra innings.

In the top of the tenth inning, Pittsburgh reliever Vincent Furness retired Brooklyn in order. In the bottom of the tenth, pinch-hitter Brian Caraway led off with a double for the hometown Pisces. And, one out later, phenom Gary Croce ended the game with an opposite field two-run home run off Ramon Medina. That was Croce’s fifth of the postseason, and his second playoff extra-inning homer.

So, with a 4-2 victory, Pittsburgh has closed the series gap to 2-1. Game Four will be played this evening, so tune in for more drama and excitement.