I’ve got a surplus of good relievers in AAA and at the ML level.  If you are looking to strengthen your bullpen, or to restock your AAA talent, make me an offer!  The only relievers that are completely untouchable are Carner and Su.

Next, how about a young catcher who can also play 1B?  Check out John Ange.  He’s gotten off to a slow start this year as my backup catcher, but my scout says he has 4.5* potential.  He had a season-long injury a couple of years ago that set back his development a bit, but he should be pretty good.

Finally, I am looking to trade one of my backup outfielders – Cary Buteau or Willy May.  Buteau had an .831 OPS last year and has a power rating of 65, so he has considerable pop, particularly against lefties.  May is an excellent defender and base stealer.  Both of them are cheap, and they are both also eligible for all outfield positions.  Either of them would make a good bench option or 25th man for the right team.

Let me know if you have any interest!  I am looking for draft picks or prospects in return.

It’s May 1, meaning lots of good things. First, everyone gets new scouting reports. Second, the free agent draft compensation period is over, allowing everyone to sign any remaining desired free agents without giving up picks. That also means I’ll “transfer” the free agent escrow picks (i.e., make changes to the traded picks page) and the recipients are now free to trade those picks, if they desire. Third, and most important, the amateur draft class has been announced. Hopefully, it’s a good one.

In the Platonic League, the Pittsburgh Pisces remained red hot, using a 5-0 sim to extend their winning streak to 9 games. Miami sits 4.5 games back, in second place, and went a pretty hot 4-1 themselves. Cairo is in third place, but is another 4.5 games behind Miami and a full nine back of first place. Stockholm, Maryland, and Ramapough Mountain round out the league.

The Jersey City Skeeters continue to lead the Socratic Division. Gainesville has now moved into the wild card spot, 2.5 games back. Brooklyn is third, four games out of first and 1.5 out of the wild card. Defending champion New York has lost six in a row and now sits just a half-game ahead of Marietta and a full game ahead of last-place Seattle.

In injury news, Stockholm lost Robert Mccree for a week to a strained rib cage and Marietta’s Robert Judy is day-to-day with a poor wittle blister on his finger. More importantly though, Ramapough Mountain’s terrible injury luck continued, as they lost starting pitcher Ayarou Hidetada for 3-4 weeks to a pinched nerve. Of course, considering his 7.36 ERA, maybe that’s not so bad.

Lots of awards handed out. Pittsburgh swept the monthly awards in the Platonic League, with Gary Croce, Gaby Duran, and Claude Carruthers named the top batter, pitcher, and rookie respectively. In the Socratic League, Marietta grabbed two awards despite a floundering record with top batter Bill Waite and top rookie Kevin Grow. Jersey City’s closer William “Chrysler” Lebaron won the pitcher of the month award. I usually don’t agree with giving such an award to a closer, but a 3-0 record, 8 saves, and a 0.00 ERA make it a little hard to argue with this one. Pretty good start for the rookie.

In more minor award news, Cairo’s George Pullum and Gainesville’s Francisco Montayo were named Players of the Week.

On April 26, Pittsburgh’s David Kirklin made his major league debut, giving up just one run in 7.1 innings while striking out 10 as Pittsburgh topped New York 8-1 in a rematch of last year’s championship series. Stockholm also got eight strong innings from Thomas Holte in topping Jersey City 4-1. In another rematch of sorts, Ramapough Mountain beat Seattle 5-4 in a contest between the two teams with the worst records last season. Fittingly, the winning run scored on a wild pitch in the eighth inning.

On April 27, Gainesville’s Moncayo posted a strong 5-5, 2 double, home run, 2 runs scored, 6 RBI performance in a 9-1 win over Maryland. In the rematches, Pittsburgh’s Moises Dominguez outpitched New York’s Abe Nix in a 5-1 win while Seattle topped Ramapough Mountain 5-2 in a game featuring only 10 combined hits and three errors.

On April 28, Miami’s Constantino Martinez hit two home runs in a 11-1 thrashing of Brooklyn. Pittsburgh finished off the sweep of New York with a come-from-behind 7-6 win. Ramapough Mountain shut out Seattle 3-0 to win the series, which is a little rude since they “won” the first pick in the draft last year too. Stockholm and Jersey City went extra frames with a 4-2, 11-inning contest ended by a two-run home run from the Skeeters’ Marcus Navarro.

April 29 featured some good games, including a 5-4 Marietta victory over Stockholm in 10 innings and a 7-6 win by Gainesville over Ramapough Mountain in 13. But, everyone was left talking about the wild affair between Brooklyn and Cairo. The visiting Bombers struck quickly with four runs in the first inning. But, the Leveemen answered with two in the first and four in the second to set off the insanity. When it was all over, Brooklyn topped Cairo 18-11. Bombers’ leadoff hitter John Douglass posted the best hitting performance of the year, going 4-5 with a double, home run, walk, 4 runs scored, and 5 RBI. Congrats to him.

On April 30, the star of the day was recent call-up Steven Donaldson, as the Stockholm Slugger went 4-5 with a home run and five driven in in a 9-5 win at Marietta.

The next sim will be Monday, by me, as Nate has deserted us all (temporarily) for greener pastures. League file is posted. It’s a little larger than normal, due to adding in the new amateur players and photos. I’ll get the web pages up later today or sometime tomorrow.

Good luck, all.

In a deal many are already labeling a heist, the Seattle Pilots acquired starting pitcher Timothy Hornyak at the bargain basement price of A-ball outfielder Jesus Yorba.

“We needed to free up room for David Kirklin, and it seemed a waste to move Hornyak to the bullpen. We’ve heard great things about this Yorba kid, so it was an easy deal,” said Pisces owner/GM Mack Shultz.

Unfortunately, the Pisces front office later learned that their scouting department had mixed up the reports on Yorba and Marietta outfielder Kenrokurou Yoshii. The error was not found until after the deal had been finalized. The Pisces front office put the best face on the deal, noting that the OSA rates Yorba as the 96th best prospect and that Yorba has a “100″ steal rating, but quietly placed an ad on craigslist looking for a new scouting assistant.

Pilots’ owner Mike Bateman could not be interviewed, as he was too busy chortling.

Due to ongoing tech issues and not wanting to rush a sim we’ll delay until Friday and Mack’s sim for the next one.

Edited by Mack to add that I’ll probably run the sim in the early afternoon Pacific time (provided my flight back to Seattle tomorrow morning isn’t interminably delayed).

OK, clearly my host didn’t get it fixed yesterday. Depending on what happens today we may hold off the sim until tomorrow or Friday. Stay tuned!

Another sim has come and gone and it’s the first of two in a row for me.

As expected there’s beginning to be some distance between the top and the bottom already.  Nine games seperate first place Pittsburgh and last place Ramapaugh in the PL and seven and one-half games is the spread between Jersey City and…sigh…Marietta in the SL.  Gonna be a long year.

The real mover this sim is Brooklyn going from fourth to second in the SL.  In the PL Pittsburgh moves back above Miami in a league in which only those two teams are above .500.

Only one injury this sim.  Seattle’s Gonzalo Abarca was injured while running the bases.  He’s expected to miss three weeks or so.

League file is being uploaded right now.  The next sim is Wednesday by me.  Then Mack’s on the board for a week or so. Wish him luck!

Well, now that Furness and Hornyak are back from injury (albeit working through their rust), I am left with the enviable position of what I consider to be seven good starting pitchers (Ro, Duran, Dominguez, Hornyak, Casler, Carruthers, and Kirklin) and six similar relievers (Furness, McIntyre, Isabell, Peters, Mejorado, Johnson). I’ve also got other serviceable pitchers in AAA, so I need to move one or two of my guys. At least one SP and maybe a reliever too.

Here’s my detailed summary of the starting pitching I have to deal, but feel free to also make an offer for a reliever.

You’d have to blow me away with an offer to make me trade Richard Ro, but it’s up to you if you want to try. Gaby Duran is a solid #2, but he’s paid like a #1. While I don’t have a problem carrying his contract because of my surfeit of young guys, I don’t expect other owners to feel the same, so Duran probably has more value to me than other owners. And, I think David Kirklin is an ace-in-training, and I value him accordingly. So, feel free to make an offer for those three, but I honestly don’t expect to move any of them.

Moises Dominguez seems to me like the next least likely to be traded, mostly because I still have the likely irrational belief that he’s going to turn into a legitimate #2 starter. So once again, his value is likely to be higher to me than other, more straight-thinking owners.

So, here’s the three starters I think are most available:

Timothy Hornyak. He’s off to a rocky start this year as he shakes off the rust acquired as a result of missing Spring Training. Hornyak’s a solid 3* left-handed starting pitcher, and has been for his whole career. If you look at his career, it’s clear that he’s going to post an ERA right around 4.00 for the season. He’s making $4.5M this year and is a free agent at the end, if you want to let him go. His contract extension demand is something like $23M for four years, which is very reasonable for a reliable starter. I’m open to a sign-and-trade with him.

Claude Carruthers is a good young starter off to a great start in his career. I don’t think he’s as good as his start this year has been, but I think he’s got potential to be a #2 or #3 starter. He’s got good endurance and is at the start of his career (read as “cheap and under club control for six years”).

Larry Casler is the other starter available. His endurance is a little low, so I’ve been using him as a swing man, but I think he’s a very good fit for the back of a rotation. He’s 9-0 with an ERA of about 4.00 since I rescued him from the frozen tundra of Stockholm. He’s also cheap and under club control for the next three years. Casler also offers a fan interest boost, as he’s “very popular.”

I’m looking for draft picks and prospects in return. I’m especially looking for outfielders, as I’m going to have to replace CF Oscar Woodworth in a couple years. Even though they’re riskier, I’d also probably prefer prospects below AAA, as my major league roster is pretty set for the next year or two.

So, if you’re interested, make me an offer. I’d like to move someone by Wednesday’s sim, if I can find the right deal.

Another sim, another division leader as Miami has seized the Platonic League lead from the Pittsburgh Pisces by a half-game. The two teams stand 4.5 games clear of the rest of the division.

In the Socratic League, Jersey City has a two-game lead. Gainesville and New York are tied for second, two games back. Brooklyn is just another half-game back in striking distance.

A really tough sim for injuries, including my beloved Pisces, who lost third baseman Darren Schmeltzer for eight weeks and centerfielder Oscar Woodworth for two weeks. The damage wasn’t confined there as Ramapough Mountain was hit even harder, losing relievers David Bravo and Anthony Wong for the season. Also, Marietta lost Robert Judy for six days and Joseph Watson for a week while Jersey City is without John Arant for for 3-4 weeks. Bad, bad, sim.

Pittsburgh’s Gary Croce and Gainesville’s Shane Spies took home Player of the Week honors. No free agent signings I saw.

On to the games!

On April 16, the struggling Seattle Pilots’ broke out the bats and battered mighty Brooklyn for 18 hits in a 14-7 win. Seattle had a 10-0 lead after just three innings.

On April 17, the 2006 World Champion Stockholm Sluggers saw new closer Lyman Grimm fall apart as Miami scored one in the ninth and four in the tenth to beat Stockholm 7-3.

On April 18, Stockholm’s Chad Kinlaw threw eight innings of one-hit baseball in a 3-0 win over Maryland. Pittsburgh rallied with four runs in the final three innings to squeak out a 7-6 victory over Miami.

On April 19, Miami crushed the Pisces in revenge in an 11-3 win. Cairo thumped Ramapough Mountain 12-2 with nine runs in the first two innings. Jersey City’s Joseph Silas won a pitching duel over Brooklyn’s Tyler Conn by a 2-1 count.

On April 20, Seattle beat New York 4-3 for its second one-run win over the Knights and capping a 3-1 sim, a great run compared to the tough 2-12 start for the Pilots. Miami also made its statement forcefully, winning its second game of the first three in the four-game set with Pittsburgh in a convincing 11-1 fashion. Gainesville also got another solid start from Ulises Sala in an 8-2 win over Marietta.

Next sim is Monday by Nate. Hopefully, we’ll see a lot fewer injuries in those games. League file is posted. Web pages will come soon.

Another sim has come and gone, my fellow owners, and things are beginning to find some balance.  Jersey City and Pittsburgh are in first in their respective leagues, both by 1.5 games.  It’s early though so anything can, and likely will, happen.

In standout performances this sim Pittsburgh’s Claude Carruthers did a stand out job against Cairo on the 12th.  Double C through 8.1 scoreless inning while allowing four hits and striking out seven!

On the offensive side and the following day, Cairo’s Benny Gonzalez paid Pittsburgh back while going 4 for 6 with 4 RBI and a HR.  Well done!

Only one injury of any sort this time.  Jersey City’s Paul Caldwell went down to back spasms and will likely miss three weeks!  Tough break!

Files are uploading now and should be ready for download in a bit.  The next sim is Friday by Mack.  Be there!

I noticed something today and pointed it out to Mack, and he suggested I write a post about it.  I called up several of my young players from the minors to participate in Spring Training this year and then sent them back down after the last ST sim.  Without exception, all of those players now have 1 day of ML service time even though I sent them back down after the last ST sim and before opening day.  I looked at a few other players on other teams and noticed the same thing.  In addition to starting the arbitration clocks of these players, it also means that they lost an option year.  For an example, take a look at the contract page for my AAA outfielder Vuong. 

(The same thing happened in the SDMB league as well, for those who play in that league.)

I think the explanation for this is that the last ST sim went up to April 1.  The game may have focused on that date for the purpose of starting the ML service time clock, even though the players were sent down on the same day (and prior to any ML games being played).  This conclusion is supported by the fact that Eric Lent (New York) sent some of his players back down before the last ST sim, and those players still register as having no ML service time and all of their option years (look at New York AAA 3B Guglielmo as an example). 

It seems to me that there are two ways to avoid this in the future.  (1) Send your players back down prior to the last ST sim; or (2) modify the sim schedule to make March 31 the last day of the last ST sim.