Here’s a schedule of sims for the next few weeks:

Wed., 12/2 – Nate – Sim to 8/10
Fri., 12/4 – Mack – Sim to 8/15 (sim to be run mid-day due to schedule conflicts for Nate and me)
Mon., 12/7 – Nate – Sim to 8/20
Wed., 12/9 – Mack – Sim to 8/25
Fri., 12/11 – Nate – Sim to 9/1 (seven-day sim to get to roster expansion)
Mon. 12/14 – Mack – Sim to 9/6
Wed., 12/16 – Nate – Sim to 9/11
Fri., 12/18 – Mack – Sim to 9/16
Mon., 12/21 – Nate – Sim to 9/21
Wed., 12/23 – Mack – Sim to 9/26

The trade deadline has come and gone without a peep. Nary a trade to be made. The teams as constructed now are on their own to make the playoffs.

In the Platonic League, the Pittsburgh Pisces lead the Miami Masters of Their Domain by 14 games. Miami, in turn, has a 14-game lead for the wild card over Stockholm. Ramapough Mountain has fallen to fourth place. Cairo and Maryland are tied for the cellar and next June’s #1 draft pick.

In the Socratic League, the Brooklyn Bombers have a 2.5-game cushion over the Jersey City Skeeters. New York has fallen six full games behind the Skeeters in the wild card race. Seattle, Gainesville, and Marietta round out the division.

Monthly awards were handed out to the top hitter, pitcher, and rookie for July. In the Platonic League, Miami’s Richard Vuong and Martin Hernandez took the first two honors while Pittsburgh’s Alberto Jimenez was named the top rookie for the fourth consecutive month. I’m going to go out on a limb and proclaim him a contender for the Rookie of the Year award too. In the Socratic League, Seattle swept the awards as Frankie Garnett was the top hitter and rookie while William “World B.” Freeman was the top pitcher.

No huge injuries. Brooklyn lost Joseph Watson for a few days to a blister that has likely already healed. Ramapough’s Jacobo Xiquena is out two weeks with a strained calf muscle. Cairo’s John Asuncion has the dreaded dead arm syndrome and will miss ten days or so.

It’s late, so I’m skipping the day-by-day recap. But, if you want to see a wild end to a game, check out the August 2 game between Pittsburgh and Stockholm with ten runs scoring in the ninth inning alone.

League file is loaded. Web pages are way out of date, but I’ll try to get to that soon. Frankly, I forgot to even download the results of Friday’s sim until I started to run tonight’s. Nate’s got the next sim on Wednesday.

It’s the last minute, gentlemen.  It’s July 31st and it’s time to make those deals happen!  Who’ll stay and who will go?  Only time and twelve GMs can say.  The whispers are heard around the offices of each team and the players approach each day with fear in their hearts…each of them waiting for the call to the office that will mean their lives have been turned over again.

In game play the PL remains static with Pittsburgh and Miami seemingly locked into the two Platonic Playoff Places.  Things are a little hairier in the SL with Brooklyn, Jersey City and New York all vying for two spots.  There’s still two months to go so anything can happen.

In injuries this sim Stockholm lost starting pitcher Stephen Guthrie for at least seven months to a torn labrum.  Ouch!  In addition, Jersey City’s Basil Gomez bruised his heel and is out for a few days.

In awards, Seattle’s Garnett and Pittsburgh’s Zaragoza were chosen players of the week, respectively.  Well done, boys!

Next sim is Monday by Mack!  He’ll take us past the deadline and into the dog days of August!  Be there!

As we close in on the trade deadline, the playoff races are continuing to stretch out. In the Platonic League, Pittsburgh leads Miami by 14 games and Miami leads Ramapough Mountain and Stockholm by 11 games. In the Socratic League, Brooklyn has opened up a 4.5 game lead on Jersey City. Meanwhile, the Skeeters lead New York by four games and Seattle by seven for the wild card berth.

Brooklyn’s Alex Sequiros and Miami’s Richard Vuong took home Player of the Week honors. No major transactions.

Some serious injuries to playoff contenders. Miami lost Winifred Kiser for five weeks to a fractured hand. New York was hit twice as Eric Guglielmo tore his bicep muscle and is out for three months (likely the rest of the season) and Courtney Mule strained his Achilles and is out seven weeks. Also, Maryland lost Alberto Santoyo for four weeks to a strained hamstring.

League file is posted. I’ll get web pages updated at some point before Monday. Nate’s got the next sim on Friday.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone.

It has been suggested to me, as commissioner, that a policy might be a good idea in response to career ending injuries.

The suggestion is this: should a team lose a player to a career ending injury, that team receives as compensation a prospect of equivalent value.  The star level of the prospect (blue stars) will equal the gold star value of the lost player.

You guys know me.  I like discussion and such concerning such propositions.  So please, discuss in the comments thread.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Just a brief post where people can report any problems with importing the sim.

Sim worked for me. Woo hoo!

PITTSBURGH (Jul. 16, 2007): The owners of the OEL all sighed with relief today when they learned that Pittsburgh acquired starting pitcher Chad Gomez from New York in exchange for three prospects. “The guy has been bugging our front office for months now,” said one exasperated anonymous executive. “Thank goodness someone finally gave him a starting pitcher. It was taking up way too much of my time to swat away his repetitive trade offers.”

Other front office executives seemed to echo the sentiment. This reporter heard from numerous front offices, all of who were highly annoyed by Pisces Owner/GM Mack Shultz’s continuous entreaties. “He just doesn’t understand the word ‘no,’” said another anonymous source. “He was finally reduced to begging and groveling. It was pathetic. We gave him a cookie and he finally slunk away. I think it was a snickerdoodle that did the trick.”

The entire league cheered Eric Lent of the Knights for not only shutting Shultz up, but getting three quality prospects in the process. The Knights added AAA IF Freddie Val, AAA outfielder John Whitener, and short-season A-ball starting pitcher Sadakuno Shibata. All three are seen as strong contributors to New York’s future.

Meanwhile, Gomez and his 5.04 ERA is expected to be easily replaced by AAA studs Chuck Finger and Robert Mahone, most likely the former. The marketing arm of the Knights organization is reportedly thrilled at the prospect of being able to finally give their fans the Finger they so richly deserve.

Finally, the first trade near the trade deadline has been completed as the Brooklyn Bombers and the Cairo Leveemen have swapped players.  Helping Cairo rebuild its farm system and giving the Bombers some OF power.  The swap sends 3 prospects to Cairo and the OF bat of RF David White to Brooklyn. 

The first place Bombers have not been living up to their name as they have been struggling to hit the long bomb.   With only 55 HR this season they have managed to hit the second lowest total of any team in the Over Educated League.   Opposing pitchers have been heard laughing on their way into The Drop Zone knowing that they are not going to be hit around.  White has 17 HR (just 38 less than the entire Bomber team) 48 RBI and even 25 SB with only 3 CS.

Heading to Cairo is the young first baseman Robert Ramsey who has already seen time at the ML level and will be the next great 1B for the Leveemen.  He should find his way into the starting lineup relatively soon.  Catcher Sixto Marciano and former first round draft pick RF Don Perkins will also be part of the rebuilding effort in Cairo. 

To complete the trade the Bombers are also getting $4M in cash from the war chest that Cairo has accumulated and a 4th round pick in the 2008 draft.

The rumors had been circulating the New York burrow for weeks now that management was in talks to get Tory ‘Tornado’ Chavez from the Leveemen, but when talks broke down last week, the idea was floated to make White a Bomber.  After some back and forth the package was completed just in time for the commissioner to come back to work his vacation of a few months.  The rumor is that he has some sort of virus effecting his downloads, but inside sources tell us that he really just needed some time off and would make up any old excuse to get it.

With just over one week until the trade deadline we will see if this move sparks any others in the Socratic League as they try to keep pace with the Bombers as time is running out to load up for the playoff run.

We’re to mid-July right now. The trading deadline will pass as of the Monday after Thanksgiving, so make those deadline deals this week!

In the league standings, no major changes as the top three teams in each league were matched up against one another and all went 2-2. Miami remains 13.5 games behind Pittsburgh, but nine clear of Ramapough Mountain. Cairo’s losing streak has stretched to a remarkable 15 games and the Leveemen have falled into a tie for last place with Maryland.

In the Socratic League, Brooklyn remains three up on Jersey City and 4.5 clear of New York. Seattle has now won 14 of its last 15 games though and the Pilots stand only 2.5 games behind New York. I think the combined score of Seattle’s four-game sweep of Cairo was something like 31-3. This may be a four-team playoff race yet. Gainesville and Marietta are solidly lodged in fifth and sixth places.

In league news, Stockholm’s George Mullikin and Brooklyn’s Gary Moeller, two more bright young hitters, were named Players of the Week. Brooklyn also added veteran outfielder Joseph Watson on a one-year, $750,000 contract.

Only one injury, but it hurts. Brooklyn lost starting pitcher Willie Carter for ten months when he tore his anterior cruciate ligament running the bases. On the bright side for the Bombers, #5 starter Carter was the most expendable of their starting pitchers, but I think that makes three season-ending injuries for Brooklyn this year. I wonder if Bobby Stoops gets another shot.

It’s been a long day, so I’m ending the report here. League files are posted. I’ll get the web pages up too tonight. Nate’s got the next sim (HURRAY!) on Monday.

The big news of the sim is the annual All-Star Game and the coming out party for a couple of young sluggers. But, there were also four days worth of games. And, in those games, the Socratic League continued to kick the crap out of the Platonic League.

In the Platonic League, only one team (Pittsburgh) has managed to go even 5-5 in its last ten games. Every other team is 3-7 or worse and the Cairo Leveemen have dropped 11 in a row. The mighty Miami squad is still in second place, nine games ahead of Ramapough and Stockholm, but is just five games above .500. It’s a pretty pathetic year for my division, all things considered.

In the Socratic League, the standings remain relatively unchanged, as all of the teams are winning. Nevertheless, Brooklyn has extended its lead over Jersey City to three full games and New York has dropped to 4.5 games out of first.

In league news, Pittsburgh’s Gary Croce and Marietta’s Walter Maley earned Player of the Week honors. No major transactions.

A few injuries struck, of varying severity. New York’s reliever Joaquin Desantiago is out 1-2 weeks with a tender shoulder. Marietta’s Darrick Batie and Cairo’s Joseph Wadlington are both out three weeks, with a torn groin muscle and torn hip muscle. Brooklyn’s George Marcano dislocated his shoulder and will miss eight weeks.

There were a lot of interesting games this sim, but in a departure from normal practice, I’m going to focus on just one of them, the July 5 game between Brooklyn and Miami.

Miami’s Robert Mullen and Brooklyn’s Freddie Mendes faced off as the starting pitchers. Although both have been very good this year, neither could contain the other offense. Both the Masters and Bombers scored in four of the first five innings. By the end of the fifth inning, Brooklyn held an 8-6 lead. When they tacked on a run in the seventh and eighth innings, the Bombers’ four-run cushion seemed sufficient.

But, the Masters’ offense had other ideas. Jose Santiago stroked an RBI single in the eighth to cut the gap to three. Then, against Brooklyn closer Steve Corner, Miami kept attacking. Four consecutive singles to start the ninth inning made the score 10-8. The tying runs then scored on a bases-loaded HBP and an RBI groundout. Puzzlingly, Miami let its own closer, William Carner, bat with two outs and the winning run on third. Predictably, this canny strategy did not work very well as Carner hit a routine flyball to right-center to end the inning.

What’s worse, Carner didn’t do anything good on the mound either. He gave up a walk, a single, and a HBP to load the bases with two outs for Brooklyn catcher Keith Atnip. Atnip drove the third pitch he saw over the right field wall for a grand slam and a 14-10 lead. This gave Atnip five hits and seven RBI in the game.

Miami wouldn’t go quietly though in the bottom of the tenth. William Kiser singled and John Fine smoked a triple to centerfield. That triple was the last hit Fine needed to hit for the cycle in the game. A sacrifice fly by Constantino Martinez cut the gap to 14-12. Jensen, Vuong, and Southwood then hit consecutive singles to make the score 14-13. Although Ben Towell struck out, Jose Santiago walked to load the bases. But, again, the Miami manager eschewed the lone remaining pinchhitter, outfielder Chokurou Kazushige, and let Carner hit again with the game on the line. Carner grounded out weakly back to the mound, ending the game.

Although Atnip and Fine in particular were magnificent in this game, Carner is my focus. He gave up four runs in two innings and collected the loss, his eighth on the season, while also going 0-2 and leaving five runners on base. Not a good game for William. But I’d say it was even worse for the Miami manager. I don’t care how bad Kazushige is, he had to be a better choice than Carner.

Now, on to the summer classic. The All-Star rosters were:

Platonic League All-Star Game Selections:
SP G. Duran (PIT)
SP R. Ro (PIT)
SP M. Truesdell (RAM)
SP T. Tashiro (PIT)
SP C. Alonso (MIA)
SP M. Pellerin (STO)
CL L. Reardon (RAM)
MR J. Hering (MIA)
MR T. Williams (STO)
CL D. Isabell (PIT)
CL F. Wolford (MPD)
MR D. McIntyre (PIT)
2B A. Jiménez (PIT)
CF P. Hodgin (PIT)
3B D. Schmeltzer (PIT)
LF R. Vuong (MIA)
SS D. Henriquez (PIT)
C J. Dominy (PIT)
1B A. Zaragoza (PIT)
RF D. White (CAI)
C L. Jensen (MIA)
CF T. Chavez (CAI)
LF G. Croce (PIT)
2B M. Weist (STO)
SS C. Fordyce (CAI)
RF B. Boss (RAM)
CF J. Fine (MIA)
1B T. Stewart (RAM)

Socratic League All-Star Game Selections:
SP T. Conn (BRK)
SP N. Funk (BRK)
SP F. Mendes (BRK)
SP H. Desalvo (GAI)
SP J. Pilla (JCY)
SP U. Sala (GAI)
CL P. Rollison (NYK)
CL L. Bergquist (SP)
CL S. Corner (BRK)
MR J. Castillo (NYK)
MR W. Lebaron (JCY)
MR M. Labarbera (JCY)
LF D. Rushing (GAI)
3B M. Horne (SP)
RF G. Pullum (JCY)
SS K. Grow (MAR)
C W. Byrd (NYK)
1B W. Maley (MAR)
CF D. Batie (MAR)
2B D. Parson (JCY)
C R. Tatsuya (JCY)
RF F. Garnett (SP)
3B A. Reyes (NYK)
RF B. Townsend (JCY)
3B B. Gomez (JCY)
1B G. Moeller (BRK)
CF C. Araoz (NYK)
RF J. Bray (SP)

The starting pitchers in the game were Miami’s Cruz Alonso and Gainesville’s Ulisses Sala, but two young Seattle Pilots stole the show. Frankie Garnett homered and Myles Horne hit a two-run home run to tie the score in the sixth as the Socratic League prevailed 6-3. Horne was named MVP. Brooklyn’s Freddie Mendes earned the win while Maryland closer Fred Wolford got the loss.

The league file is posted. I will warn everyone that it’s larger than normal, about three times the size that they have been. Hopefully the next will be smaller, but this may end up being the price we all pay to allow Nate to run sims.

Next sim will be Friday by me and then Nate will be back in the saddle. I’m also going to circulate a schedule shortly, but the trading deadline will pass sometime shortly after Thanksgiving.