The real sim, taking us up to June 10, has now been run. Jersey City has won seven in a row, apparently realizing it’s not September yet. They’ve closed to 1.5 behind Maryland and 4.5 behind Pittsburgh. Seattle now leads Miami by 5.5 and Marietta by 6. New York is now 2.5 behind Marietta.

Pittsburgh’s Randy Carman and Miami’s Richard Vuong are players of the week. No major transactions. Notable injuries to Gainesville’s Reinaldo Salerno (2-3 months) and Seattle’s Charles Fordyce (4 weeks).

League file posted. Next sim is Friday by Nate. Sorry for the mix up, as Nate and I lost track of who was doing which sim.

I’ve had it with AAA infield prospect Maximo Rodriguez. He’s 23 years old, and my scout gives him 1.5*/2.5*. He’s also in his third year of AAA and is really frustrating. He’s a solid defender at third, can play short a little, and I’ve been teaching him second this season. He’s killing my AAA squad this year, hitting below .200 and playing bad defense (albeit while learning second base).

I want him gone. I’ll deal him for a sixth round pick to whoever contacts me first. The sixth round is full of 1*/1* guys, so I’m basically willing to take a flyer on anyone else, because he just drives me nuts. (Plus, I want to promote someone from AA.) I think he should be good and he’s not. At least, not yet.

He’s angry. I’m angry. I want him gone. So, he’s available to anyone with more patience than me.

Well, not technically, but it’s June! That’s summer for most of the Western Hemisphere, or at least everywhere outside Seattle where summer doesn’t hit until July 5 most years. When summer ends in the real world, it starts in the OEL. Hurray for perpetual summer. Also, new scouting reports in the game. Wooo!

The league leaders appear unchanged, as Pittsburgh still leads Maryland by 3.5 games in the Platonic League. Jersey City is now in third, 3.5 games behind Maryland and a half-game ahead of Brooklyn.

In the Socratic League, Seattle is still five games ahead of Miami. Marietta is still a half-game behind Miami, although its lead over fourth place New York has stretched from a narrow single-game margin to a massive 1.5 game chasm.

Monthly and weekly awards were handed out. Weekly winners were Stockholm’s Horace Lawson and Tupper Street’s Ted “Yuni” Corns. Monthly winners for top hitter, pitcher, and rookie in the Platonic League were Pittsburgh’s Alberto “Nutso” Jimenez, Maryland reliever Jeffrey “Tornado” Snyder, and Brooklyn’s Benjamin Beshears. In the Socratic League, the big honors went to Miami’s Ben “Sugar” Towell, Marietta’s Willie Gowans, and Seattle’s Wayne Jones. No major transactions.

In injury news, it was a bad sim. New York lost reliever Ariel Santos for 12 months to a torn flexor tendon in his elbow. Miami outfielder Calle Bengtsson will miss six weeks with a quad strain. Seattle catcher James Dominy fractured a rib somehow running the bases and is out five weeks. Pittsburgh outfielder Amberto Ramos is out four weeks with a fractured foot sustained when he was hit by a pitch. Maryland shortstop Felix Seda will miss 5-6 weeks with a fractured finger. Tupper Street third baseman Robert Judy is out one week with back soreness. Plus some day-to-day stuff. Ugh.

In college baseball, the Georgetown Hoyas have claimed the national title, defeating Florida four games to one. In high school baseball, the Ridgemont Wolves are champs with a four games to two victory over Glen Rock.

In game action, lots of teams won, lots of teams lost, and several players were good. Unfortunately, you’ll have to find that data yourself, as I’ve got to head to my daughter’s soccer practice (sign #12 that summer is ending in the real world).

League file is posted. I’ll try to get the web pages updated tonight too.

In coming action, this Friday’s sim will take us up to June 15. That means that the draft will be next Monday. So, get your draft lists ready in the game. (At least, those of you who are better positioned than my Pisces and pick before #37 should get lists together. I may just hit snooze on the alarm clock.) After that, short-season A and Rookie league ball will start during next Friday’s sim (the June 25 sim).

Now that the expansion draft has been worked out, Nate and I have started discussing the other issues tied up in expansion. First on the block is realignment. Since not all of the new owners have been added to the blog, we’ll probably discuss this one mostly by email. (Although, I am posting this to the blog too, so you can comment there as well if you like.) Everyone is invited to chime in, whether you’re currently running a team or just eagerly anticipating one.

So, we’ll have a 16-team league for the 2010 campaign. The two leading options are a 4×4 alignment, that is, four divisions of four teams each and a 2×8 alignment, two leagues of eight teams each. I suppose some sort of three division mess similar to the current NL is a possibility, but that’s too awful in my opinion. Some notes about each alignment:

4×4

1. Game-generated schedule has 16/17 games against each team within the division, 10 games against each team in the same league but other division, and 9 games against each team in the other league. We obviously could also come up with a different schedule, but this is the easiest option.

2. Playoff options include only division winners (4 teams in playoffs) or division winners plus two wild cards per league (8 teams advance). It doesn’t look like one wild card team per league (6 teams advance) is an option.

2×8

1. Game generated schedule has 16/17 games against each team within the division and six games against each team in the other league. Again, a custom schedule is also an option.

2. Playoff options include only division winners (2 teams in playoffs) or division winner plus one wild card per league (4 teams advance).

So, what are people’s thoughts about the alignment? Nate and I are leaning toward 4×4, but don’t have a strong opinion on the number of playoff teams.

Thanks to hot streaks, the division leaders have started to separate a bit. In the Platonic League, the Pittsburgh Pisces have run off nine straight wins and have opened a 3.5 game lead over the Maryland Poedamnedmonium. Maryland has been hot as well, winning eight of their last ten. Brooklyn is in third, nine games behind Pittsburgh and 5.5 behind Maryland. Jersey City is a half-game behind Brooklyn. Gainesville has won four straight and is two back of the Skeeters while Stockholm has a three-game hold on the cellar.

In the Socratic League, the Seattle Pilots have won 13 of their past 14 and now have a 3.5-game lead of their own. The young Marietta Mammoths are in the wild card spot, 1.5 games ahead of Miami and New York. Tupper Street and Cairo are both reeling. No major transactions.

In league news, New York’s Erwin Herrero ran his hit streak to 35 games, only to see it snapped by Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh’s Joseph Yagi and Seattle’s Wayne “Snapper” Jones took home Player of the Week honors.

In injury news, Jersey City outfielder Gonzalo Fernandez fractured a finger when hit by a pitch and will miss 6-7 weeks. New York closer Paul “Rockin” Rollison is out for two weeks due to a hamstring strain.

In game action, on May 21, Stockholm used two home runs by Horace Lawson and 8.2 innings of two-hit shutout baseball by David Liriano to beat Marietta 11-0.

On May 22, Gainesville got two bombs from Kenrokurou Yoshii in a 9-6 win over Cairo. Ted Corns led Tupper Street to a win with two home runs of his own while Patrick Layfield went 5-5.

On May 23, Seattle scored five in the eighth to come back and beat Jersey City 8-4.

On May 24, Stockholm took a 4-0 lead into the bottom of the eighth only to see Pittsburgh score seven runs and hold on for a 7-5 win.

On May 25, Gainesville and Brooklyn busted out for 14 runs each, in 14-4 wins over Tupper Street and 14-7 wins over Marietta, respectively. Miami’s Richard Vuong went 4-4 with a two-run home run, but the Masters fell 3-2 to New York and ace Abe Nix.

The playoffs have begun in the college and high school ranks. The Georgetown Hoyas have jumped out to a 2-0 lead in their opening round series with the two-time defending champs from the University of Washington. In the other series, the Florida Gators and Adams College Tri-Lambs are tied at one game each. The college home run champ was Iowa’s freshman sensation Wen “Big Thunder” Won, who clubbed 23 home runs in 46 games. Harvard senior Vincent Crabtree hit .443. Washington senior Max “Roach” Barnes led college baseball with a 33.6 pitching VORP and tied for the lead with a 2.42 ERA.

In high school, the Ridgemont Wolves lead 2-0 over the Glen Rock Panthers. The home run leader in the high school ranks was another freshman, North Springs first baseman William Garant, with 19 bombs. Ridgemont first baseman (and fellow freshman) Ernest Townsley hit .513 for the year. Although, with 100 ratings for infield range and infield error, one wonders why the heck he’s playing first base. Danville sophomore Hitoshi Sekine led all pitchers with seven wins in his ten starts.

Good luck to the amateur playoff teams. League file is posted. Nate has Friday’s sim.

As we reach mid-May, and sit just six sims from the amateur draft, the Pittsburgh Pisces hold a two-game lead over the blossoming Maryland Poedamnedmonium. Jersey City is another 1.5 games back, with Brooklyn lurking a half-game behind the Skeeters. Gainesville has climbed into a tie for fifth with Stockholm.

In the Socratic League, the Seattle Pilots are now in first place, riding a six-game winning streak. The Marietta Mammoths are second, a half-game back while New York and Miami are tied for third, one full game behind Seattle. New York’s five-game losing streak wiped out their comfortable four-game lead in a hurry. Cairo and Tupper Street are tied for fifth, or for the first pick in the 2010 amateur draft, depending on how you look at it.

In transactional news, Jersey City inked free agent and long-time star third baseman Constantino Martinez to a one-year, $3.4 million deal.

In league news, Brooklyn’s Tory Chavez saw his hitting streak stopped at 37 games when the Marietta Mammoths forced him into a 0-4 day. However, New York’s Erwin Herrero is still going strong with a hitting streak that has now reached 30 games. There’s another guy I’m glad I traded after deciding he couldn’t make it in the majors.

On the injury front, Gainesville lost reliever Richard Balsamo for 1-2 weeks with a sprained elbow and Seattle’s Charles Fordyce will be out two weeks with a sprained finger. Poor baby.

The pitchers largely seemed to take this sim off as every single day this sim featured at least one game where a team scored 10 or more runs. But two games deserve mention.

In what seemed to be the offensive outburst of the sim, if not the season, Pittsburgh crushed Stockholm 22-2 on May 13. Both outfielder Joseph Yagi and infielder Randy Carman collected five hits for the Pisces. Yagi’s hits included two home runs while Carman clubbed a home run and three doubles. And yet, rookie outfielder Quan “Shifty” Xi had the best day of all with three hits (including two home runs), two walks, three runs scored, and 7 RBI.

But then, apparently a little green-eyed about the positive press, Miami went out and thumped New York 24-10 on May 15. Michael Southwood and Agustin Moreno each got five hits in that game, both racking up four singles and a double.

League file is posted and I’ll get web pages up over the weekend. Next sim is Monday, by Nate. Keep in mind that we’re about two weeks in the real world away from the amateur draft.

The Platonic League’s devious planning has played off. The five other teams planted “September” calendars throughout the Jersey City clubhouse, leading the Skeeters to believe it was time for their yearly nose dive. The resulting five-game losing streak by the April division leaders propelled the Pittsburgh Pisces into the division lead. Maryland sits just one game back in second, a half-game ahead of Jersey City. Don’t look now, but Brooklyn is above .500, and only 3.5 games out of first place. On the bright side for Stockholm and Gainesville, their players can probably start booking vacations for October and snagging the premium tee times.

In the Socratic League, the Miami Masters of Their Domain have ridden a seven-game winning streak into a half-game lead over New York. There’s actually a four-team logjam at the top, with Marietta a half-game behind behind New York and Seattle another half-game back. Marietta is actually the hottest team in the OEL, with a seven-game winning streak and taking eight of their last ten. Cairo and Tupper Street are … uh … not in the logjam at the top.

In league news, Pittsburgh’s Albert “Nutso” Jimenez and Seattle’s Larry McFadden took home player of the week honors. New York’s Erwin Herrero has a 20-game hitting streak, which is scoffed at by Brooklyn’s Tory “Tornado” Chavez and his 30-game streak. The only significant transaction this sim was Stockholm signing outfielder James McKinsey to a one-year, $420,000 deal.

On the injury front, Stockholm’s John Roll is out for three months with what must be one heck of a forearm strain. No other significant injuries.

In the hot game action, on May 1, Miami proved to be a rude host and pounded the visiting Skeeters 12-1, piling up 20 hits. Poor manners there.

On May 2, Marietta used eight shutout innings from Gaby “I Shouldn’t Have Traded Him” Duran to beat Tupper Street 7-0. Also, Maryland and Brooklyn went 11 innings before two-out hits by pinchhitter Orlando Cadena and Alex Rolfes pushed the Poedamnedmonium to a 5-3 win.

On May 3, Stockholm Slugger outfielder Horace Lawson slugged indeed, hitting two bombs, a triple, scoring three times, and driving in eight in Stockholm’s 16-3 pasting of Maryland. Rookie outfielder John Chartrand, a promising kid, chipped in with four hits, four runs, and four RBI of his own.

And yet, that wasn’t the best game of the day. In the most remarkable game so far this season, Jersey City held a 10-1 lead with two outs in the bottom of the eighth inning against Marietta. But, shaken by vociferous taunts from the Mammoths’ faithful and an unseasonable cold snap, the game started to turn sour for the Skeeters. Singles by Kevin Grow and Pio Pastrana scored Marietta’s second run. A double by Francis Decesare scored two more and Decesare then came around to score on two wild pitches. But, when Benito Parra struck out to end the eighth, it appeared disaster had been averted. After all, Jersey City still led 10-5 with only one inning to go. How could that go wrong?

Bad question to ask. A leadoff walk was followed by a hit by pitch. George Cue popped up for the first out, but Carlos Cisneros then tripled to make it 10-7. Juan Mejia drilled a double into the right-center gap to score Cisneros and bring the tying run to the plate. Kevin Grow singled to right, moving Mejia to third. Pio Pastrana lined a single to left-center, scoring Mejia. Decesare also singled to left, scoring Grow and tying the game at ten. When Benito Parra drove a double into the left-center gap, Pastrana waltzed home and the collapse was complete. Although many Skeeters could have been given the goat horns, the bulk of the blame appears to rest on the narrow shoulders of closer Michael Hollier, who gave up hits to all five Marietta hitters he faced. A cruel blow indeed.

On May 4, Maryland scored one in the ninth and two in the tenth to win a wild 11-10 decision over Stockholm.

On May 5, Gainesville’s David Austin hit two home runs, but saw the Purple Porpoises fall to New York 10-8.

There’s other league news about expansion, but that will get its own separate email tonight. League file is posted. Nate has the next sim on Wednesday.

So, with a lot of help from Michael (thanks Michael), here is the current plan for the expansion draft, when we go from 12 teams to 16 this offseason. I’ve done some testing, and this seems like it will work. I’m posting it for comments, questions, and hopefully for some kind of approval by the league. Nate, Michael, and I are on board with it. But, this is obviously a big deal and we want to make sure this is acceptable, or at least won’t cause any riots.

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1. The expansion draft will occur as soon as the offseason starts (i.e., after the 2009 playoffs finish and budgets are set, but before arbitration and free agency). We will use the game’s built-in expansion draft feature.

2. The expansion draft pool will consist of all players in the existing teams’ organizations. This includes players on the major league squad, on any minor league team, players on the disabled list, players on waivers or DFA lists, players drafted this year, etc. No player will be automatically protected from the expansion draft.

3. Each existing team will be allowed to protect 20 players in their organization. This includes all major leaguers, minor leaguers, players on the disabled list, etc.

4. The four new teams will each select 24 players, using a “snake” draft order (1-2-3-4-4-3-2-1, etc.).

5. With 96 players being drafted, each existing team will lose eight players on average. In the draft, existing teams will not be allowed to lose no more than eleven players each. After 11 players are picked from one organization, their remaining players are all protected from the draft.

6. There are no other “pullbacks”. In other words, after a player is selected from an existing team, the existing team does not get to protect any additional players.

7. Because the game’s expansion draft seems to be set automatically at 35 rounds long, we need to have 11 more players drafted by each new team just to finish out the draft. Therefore, each existing team will also submit a list of four players with minor league contracts that they don’t care about losing and the commissioners will use this pool of 48 players to finish out the draft.

8. After the draft is finished, the new teams will have their minor league affiliates’ rosters automatically filled with newly created players.

9. Because popular players lost in the expansion draft cause a loss of fan interest, we will use SuperCommissioner (TM) powers to restore all existing teams to their pre-draft fan interest levels. The new teams will, however, keep any fan interest bump they get.

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A couple words of explanation.

FYI, Michael and I came to 20 as the number to protect after concluding that it would be fair to protect 12-13 in a major league draft and 7-8 in a minor league draft. To give owners maximum flexibility, we combined the two portions into one draft. Based on our review of the various teams, 20 is a number where deep teams will lose good players, but less talented teams will be able to protect their really key guys. The expansion teams will get at least some quality talent, but won’t be raiding all of the existing teams’ rosters. (We also came up with the number of 24 players to be drafted per new team because we first came up with 15 major leaguers and 9 minor leaguers.)

Also FYI, the game’s expansion draft feature doesn’t allow pullbacks, which is one reason we’re not proposing them. The game’s draft doesn’t allow a limit on the maximum number of players to be drafted, so it will have to be imposed from on high using SuperCommissioner(TM) powers.

A big part of the problem is that auto-filling the new teams’ minor league rosters proved to be a TERRIBLE way to get them some talent. Also, if you auto-fill the major league rosters, there are all kinds of different problems, starting with the fact that none of the newly created players have contracts. It’s a mess.

So, thoughts, concerns, questions, complaints, quibbles?

P.S. Before people complain that their roster will be unfairly pillaged in this form of draft, keep in mind that my Pittsburgh Pisces will lose as much or more talent than anyone else. And Nate won’t be too far behind. If you still think it’s unfair, go ahead and say so. But we didn’t arrive at these numbers to be punitive. We just want the new teams to at least start out with some talent and have a fighting chance of not sucking for five years.

First of all, let me take time out for a commissioner tirade. Bad owners! Shame on those of you (and there were several offenders) who forced me to do something with players whose time on the DFA list had expired. I moved a tom of them to AAA, and released the couple that I couldn’t move to AAA. Next time, I’m releasing the whole lot of them.

Now that that unpleasantness is over, on to the sim! The Platonic League standings seem to remain largely unchanged. The Jersey City Skeeters are in first place, 1.5 games ahead of Pittsburgh. Maryland is a game back and Brooklyn another game back. Stockholm is in fifth, 1.5 behind the Bombers. Gainesville’s disappointing start continues, as they are in the OEL cellar with a 4-13 record. However, Purple Porpoise Daniel Rushing leads the OEL with seven home runs, so there’s a bright spot.

In the Socratic League, New York continues to cling to a half-game lead, with Miami now lurking in second place. Marietta and Seattle are tied for third, at .500 and two games behind New York. Cairo and Tupper Street round out the division.

In league news, Stockholm’s George Mullikin picked up the Platonic Player of the Week award thanks to 11 RBI and 5 runs (which strikes me as a lot of scoring for a so-called Platonic award). New York’s Brendon Townsend earned the Socratic honors. In league transactions, veteran first baseman Amado Rodon signed with Stockholm in a two-year deal worth $500,000 this year. Seems like a bargain to me.

The only injury of note was to Tupper Street star Carlos Lara, who strained his groin and will miss three weeks. Supposedly he was running the bases when he sustained the injury, but we can all read between the lines here.

In game action, Miami’s Michael Pellerin threw a eight-hit, two-walk, six-strikeout shutout of Marietta on April 16. Somehow, he did that in only 112 pitches, which is pretty efficient. Claude “Two Shoes” Carruthers became the first three-game winner the same day, giving up only two hits in eight innings in Seattle’s 2-1 win over Maryland.

On April 17, Stockholm’s Larry Casler and Brooklyn’s Tyler Conn joined Carruthers at 3-0 in shutout wins over New York and Tupper Street, respectively.

On April 18, Seattle battered Maryland pitching for 16 runs, led by two bombs and a double from outfielder James Bray.

On April 19, Basil Gomez went 5-5 in Jersey City’s 10-4 win over New York. He missed only the triple to hit for the cycle. Silvio Ruiz of Maryland hit two home runs in the Poedamnedmnium’s 7-6 win over Gainesville.

On April 20, Maryland’s Louis Wilson went the distance and struck out 11 Purple Porpoises in a 7-1 victory.

Since we’re three weeks in, it seems like a good time to check in on the high school and college circuit. The University of Iowa and Coolidge College have the best college records at 13-6, but there are tight playoff races in all four divisions. The MVP so far is Iowa’s outfielder Wen “Big Thunder” Won, who is hitting .459 with 11 home runs in 19 games. And he’s only a freshman!

In the high school ranks, Glen Rock High School has a 15-4 mark, leading the division by five games. Fast times indeed at Ridgemont High School, which leads the other division with a 12-7 record. Freshman third baseman Earl Lutz leads all hitters with eight home runs.

League file is loaded. Nate’s back from vacation, so I’ll turn the league over to him for the next sim. Good luck all.

The Jersey City Skeeters remain the talk of the OEL, using a 4-1 sim to push their league-leading record to 10-2. They are already two full games clear of Pittsburgh in the Platonic League, who sits in turn a mere half-game ahead of Maryland.

In the Socratic League, the New York Knights started 0-4, but an 8-1 run has them in first place now. Marietta is a mere half-game back at 8-6 while Miami is another half-game back in third place.

In league news, Jersey City’s Rudorufu Tatsuya and Seattle’s Myles “Stretch” Horne picked up Player of the Week honors. Miami’s David Vidal put together a 25-game hitting streak over the last two years, but saw it snapped this sim. (Brooklyn’s Tory Chavez got hurt a sim or two ago with a 26-game hitting streak still pending.) No major transactions.

Two major injuries this sim, Cairo’s starting pitcher Robert Yearby suffered a torn rotator cuff and will miss 13 months of action. Miami outfielder Rudolph “Reindeer” James sustained a concussion while making a defensive play and will miss the next three months of play. The other injuries were just day-to-day ones.

Now, for the game action, which often was a story of big innings this sim

On April 11, Jersey City posted an eight-spot in the sixth en route to a 14-6 win over Stockholm. Kirk Tilghman and Tatsuya were again the hitting stars for the Skeeters.

On April 12, Maryland trailed 2-0 going into the ninth against the defending World Champs. But, the Poedamnedmonium put together five hits and three walks in the ninth to beat Pittsburgh 6-2.

On April 13, Stockholm scored eight runs of their own in the sixth inning against Cairo and held on for a 9-6 victory.

On April 14, Brooklyn trailed 5-0 entering the seventh inning, but scored eight runs in three frames after that, including five in the eighth, to beat the Skeeters 8-6.

On April 15, Brooklyn’s David White was the star of the day with five RBI in an 11-5 triumph over Tupper Street.

This sim also saw the start of play in the top three minor leagues (AAA, AA, and full-season A). Amazingly, there are no undefeated teams after just five games. Unfortunately, the Everett Aquasox (A, SEA) and Brooklyn Trolley Dodgers (AAA, NYK) stand 0-5.

Next sim is Monday, by either Nate or me. League file is posted. I’ll try to get the web pages updated over the weekend too. I’d do it more often, but the firewall here at work blocks me from doing it here.