I’ve got like a dozen OFs at AAA, so probably should move one or more. The most appealing are 2.5-3* Luis Chace and Joseph Prosperie (who also plays 2B), and 2* Samuel Torre. All should be in the big leagues somewhere. Send me an e-mail if you’re interested. A pick or middling prospect is all I’d be looking for in return.

The Miami Masters of Their Domain continue to roll through the OEL campaign. Their 18-4 record, good for a sparkling .818 winning percentage, has allowed them to open up a full five-game lead on the Pittsburgh Pisces. Stockholm is a half-game behind Pittsburgh and Ramapough sits another two games out.

In the Socratic League, the Seattle Pilots now lead the league by 1.5 games over the Marietta Mammoths and the New York Knights. The defending champs in Brooklyn still are in last place, but still sit a mere four games out of first in this clumped, highly competitive division.

No major transactions or important league news this sim. Four injuries, with two major, one minor, and one very odd. The major injuries were to two starting pitchers, as New York’s David Nicholes is out 5-6 weeks with a strained tricep and Jersey City’s Joseph Diederich will miss 7 weeks with a strained bicep. Pittsburgh lost centerfielder Albert Guzman to back spasms, but only for one week. Meanwhile, Maryland’s closer Todd Oldenburg, on the disabled list due to a torn rotator cuff suffered last year, will have to stay there for an additional three weeks due to an “undisclosed injury” suffered “while punching a wall during a fight with his girlfriend.” No news on whether this also constitutes a violation of league player conduct policies.

Otherwise, it seems time to check in on the college and high school leagues, which have reached their midway point and which played their All-Star games this sim.

In college baseball, the best record belongs to the Frostburg State University Bobcats, who stand 16-6. Among the 20 college teams though, another six stand 14-8, so it’s still anyone’s title. The best hitter to date appears to be Great Lakes’ Duane Allen, who has hit 11 home runs in 19 games this season and has posted a 1.429 OPS. The pitchers are more tightly grouped, but freshman William “Crazy” Rogers of Elon University and Scott “Rocky” Norman of the University of Florida lead their leagues in VORP.

In high school baseball, the Issaquah High School Indians, this reporter’s alma mater, lead the race with a 16-6 record. Two teams are 15-7, including everybody’s favorite story, the St. Mary’s School for the Blind Schoolgirls. After experiencing considerable ridicule last year as they groped their way to a last-place 14-32 finish, the disabled girls have really turned things around this year. Their defense and pitching has improved markedly, thanks to the new “BeeperBall” used in their games. The audible chirps of the new baseball have made it much easier to locate and handle. In fact, the girls have won six of their last seven games and sit now just one game out of the division lead. Of course, attendance is down 40% as the constant noise drives all of the fans batty, but that’s a small price to pay for an improved record according to St. Mary’s GM Javier Ruiz.

The best prep hitter so far has been King Senior freshman third baseman Brent Louder, who has used a .545 batting average to post a league-leading 1.354 OPS and 31.2 VORP. The top pitcher has been Saint Mary’s starter Greg Phillips, who has a microscopic 1.96 ERA.

Good luck to all the players, whether sighted or blind, as they continue their seasons and as the seniors prepare for June’s amateur draft.

I would like to call up my 1B prospect David Vidal in the next sim, and I find myself with too many players on my active roster.  The following players are available for trade, at varying prices:

1B/OF Winifred Kiser

2B/OF Jose Santiago

OF John Fine

CF Brady Morris

OF Benito Parra

I am looking for draft picks and/or prospects in return.  Email any offers to guitar_shark@hotmail.com.

Miami is again on a tear.   Now sitting at 15-3 on the year their 4-1 sim has increased their lead from 1.5 to 4.5 games.  Can anyone stop them?  The army?  The navy?  Anyone?  Nothing has worked so far!  Chasing the SoFlo marauders are Stockholm  and Pittsburgh tied for the wild card at 10-7 and Ramapaugh Mountain is one game behind those guys.

Things are more…fluid…in the Socratic League.  Seattle is leading the pack but it’s not a comfortable lead with Gainesville and New York one game behind and Marietta one half-game behind them.  The total separation, top to bottom, in the SL is the same and the distance between first and second in  the PL: 4.5 games.  Time will tell.

Several Injuries this sim.  Most minor but two are serious.

Brooklyn’s Hodgins will miss 4 weeks after a collision on the basepaths.

Pittsburgh lost Tashiro and Yagi for 1-2 weeks each.

Stockholm lost Peters and Zielinksi for a week or so.

Maryland lost Snyder for a week on a day to day status.

And league-leading Seattle lost starting pitcher Maximo Navarro for three months to a torn tricep.  Back luck, Maximo!

Next sim is by Mack and will take us to April 26!  Don’t miss it.

With the third sim of the year, the higher minors have started action and the season is in full swing. In the Platonic League, the Miami Masters of Their Domain continue to pace the OEL with an impressive 11-2 mark. The Stockholm Sluggers sit in the wild card berth, 1.5 behind Miami. Pittsburgh leads the also-rans, a game behind Stockholm.

In the Socratic League, the division is now led by the Seattle Pilots. The New York Knights are second, a mere-half game back. Gainesville is another half-game back in third. Surprisingly, last year’s division champs in Brooklyn are currently bringing up the rear, but all six teams are within three games of first place.

In league news, Miami’s Richard Vuong and New York’s Eric Guglielmo were named players of the week. This was the second consecutive such award for the two franchises, as teammates Michael Southwood and Albert Ramer won the initial weekly honor for 2008 last sim.

In transactional news, Miami signed international free agent starting pitcher Carl Shearing to a $1 million major league contract. Seattle signed ace William “World B.” Freeman to a reasonable four-year extension totaling $23.3 million.

No significant injuries, just some day-to-day stuff for a couple pitchers and Jersey City outfielder Axel Enriquez will miss a week with blurred vision.

On to the highlights of the game action!

On April 10, Cairo led Ramapough Mountain 4-3 going into the ninth inning. Ramapough seemed to grab victory with three runs in the top of the ninth, but saw Cairo come back with two in the bottom of the ninth and one in the eleventh to win the game. Also, Maryland broke Miami’s eight-game winning streak to start the season with a 6-4 win.

On April 11, Gainesville beat Jersey City 7-6 in 12 innings, winning on an RBI single by Reinaldo Salerno. Stockholm beat Pittsburgh 4-3 behind ex-Pisces pitcher Larry Casler. Seattle’s fifth starter Maximo Navarro kept his hot start, posting an ERA of 0.64 so far to start the season and leading Seattle to a 4-1 win over New York.

On April 12, New York roughed up Tyler Conn en route to a 9-1 win over Brooklyn. Jersey City reversed the previous day’s score and edged Gainesville 7-6, along the way beating frequent trade rumor target Hernando Desalvo. I hear he’s available again. Also, Ramapough’s James Fortner shut down Pittsburgh’s offense in a 6-1 win.

On April 13, Ramapough continued to thump Pittsburgh, this time 11-6. Gainesville shut out Jersey City 6-0 and Seattle topped Marietta 6-5 on a ninth-inning single by James Bray.

On April 14, Pittsburgh starter Tsukijirou “T-Rex” Tashiro avoided the sweep with a four-hit shutout of Ramapough. Robert Mullen led Miami to it’s 11th win in 12 games with a 5-1 win over Cairo.

On April 15, New York and Marietta played the game of the sim. New York tied the game at 6 in the eighth inning on a two-run bomb by Freddie Val. A leadoff triple in the bottom of the eighth by Mammoth Francis Decesare was wasted and the game moved into extra innings. In the tenth inning, with the bases loaded and two outs, Knight Erwin Herrero lined one up the middle to give New York an 8-6 lead. But, Marietta star Kevin Grow responded with a two-out, two-run double to tie the game again. The game continued to move along to the bottom of the twelfth. With two outs and two on, New York brought in reliever John Burke. Unfortunately, Burke couldn’t find the strike zone on any of his eight pitches and Marietta walked its way to a 9-8 win, knocking the Knights out of a tie for first place.

The next sim will be Friday by Nate, up to April 21. I’ll try and get a schedule together and circulated too, so that we all know when various league events will be falling.

Another sim, sports fans and the story of the season so far in Miami!  Now an impressive 8-0 on the season the Masters of their Domain are looking like a juggernaut in the Platonic League.  Only ten games into the season and they lead in wins, batting average, runs, and OPS in offense while only hitting six home runs!  In pitching they lead in ERA, IP, Home Runs Allowed (with zero!), and strike outs!  Truly an intimidating force on the field.

On the flip side of the Miami equation is the Platonic League celler dwellers, Maryland, with another perfect record 0-8.  Not looking good for the Crab State Bandits!

In the Socratic League there are two records 5-3 and 3-5.  Either a team is tied for first or it is 2 games off the pace.  Seperation is the word for the week there!

There were, blessfully, no injuries of any sort in this sim.  That sort of luck can’t hold!

Next sim is Wednesday by Mack!  Don’t be late!

We’ve had the first 2008 regular season sim. Good to get the season going again.

After the first five days of action, there are three unbeaten teams left: the Miami Masters of Their Domain, the Stockholm Sluggers, and the New York Knights. They are all on pace for 162 wins. That would be a very impressive accomplishment.

We also have two winless teams: the Cairo Leveemen and the Maryland Poedamnedmonium. I really believe that this won’t last all season and they’ll get off the skid and win at least one game. (grin)

No transactions of note this sim.

Three injuries this sim. The defending champs sustained two of them, as ace Richard Ro is out 1-2 weeks and new starting catcher Karl Urick is out 5 weeks. Miami also lost starter Robert Mullen for 1-2 weeks.

Since it’s late, y’all will have to check the sim to get the rest of the story. League file is updated. I’ll do web pages tonight too.

Just starting this as a one-stop shopping site for 2008 season previews. Predictions, boasting, foreshadowing of doom? Drop it in here.

Who says you can’t come back home.  One of the key Starting Pitchers in the runs of the Brooklyn Bombers to the World Series Championships in 2002 and 2004 is back where he belongs in the Yellow and Green of Brooklyn as Seattle trades SP Trevor Canela back to Brooklyn for AAA SP Robert Bearden. 

Canela had 16 wins in each of the 2002 and 2003 seasons with an ERA around 4.30 both seasons.  He is not expected to get back to those levels, but he is hoping to be a solid #5 starter to compliment the top of rotation.  In his career Trevor is 50-43 with a 4.19 ERA.  Last season, Canela was 1-3 with a 5.14 ERA splitting time in the rotation and bullpen for Seattle.  He should be a good fill-in until SP Willie Carter comes back from the DL in a couple of months.

In return, Seattle gets AAA SP Robert Bearden.  There were high hopes for Bearden as a Bomber prospect, but he never lived up to those hopes.  “There is still potential there,” said Brooklyn GM Jeremy Goldman, “I hope he realizes that potential with the Pilots.”

The final Spring Training sim is behind us now and we stare forward into the vague uncertainties of the regular season.  Will the rookie live up to his promise or will he find himself riding busses in Iowa in two months?  Will the wily veteran see his ligament last one more season or will it, like his hopes, snap and send him home for good.

Only time will tell, gentlemen.  Only time.

On the final spring numbers front Pittsburgh ended the fake season with a leading 17-7 season.  Chasing them were two SL teams, Jersey City and Gainesville at 15-9 each.  The top home run hitter of the spring was Miami’s Richard Vuong with 8 and the top strike out pitcher was Jersey City’s Stein with 26 fans.

On the injury front there’s bad news for Jersey City.  Starting Pitcher Paul Valles was lost to a torn labrum for 12 months.  He’ll miss the entire season.  No other significant injuries were reported.

The next sim begins the regular season and will be by Mack for the standard five day period.  Enjoy the season, gentlemen.  Enjoy the season.