Carlos Cisneros  Five star

Sancho Bororquez Four stars

Luis Boring Four Stars

Who wants ‘em?  Line forms to the left.  Other players available at discussion.

In about 30 minutes the file will be up.  Enjoy.

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.

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.

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.

I don’t think any of them are superstars, or I’d make room for them. But, they all have their virtues and I think they’re better prospects than a lot of guys who will be selected in the middle rounds of the upcoming draft. So, I’ll trade your choice of the three for a fourth-round pick, this year or next, to the first taker.

[Later edit added]

And, Negron has now been traded to Stockholm for a 2009 fourth round pick. Good luck, Alejandro.

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.

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!

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.