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.

Hello and welcome to the world, new owners of our anticipated expansion franchises! We’re still waiting on one of the franchises to have an owner but the others are lined up. Feel free to add to the chatter, gentlemen!

Not a lot of change in the standings this sim as Pittsburgh remains on top of the Platonic League 1.5 games above both Maryland and the recovering Jersey City! Brooklyn is one half game further off the pace at 19-16.

In the Socratic League New York is 2.5 above the charging Marietta team with Miami and Seattle losing ground this time ending up at 3 and 4 games back, respectively.

In news and events we have Miami’s Ben Towell took player of the week in the SL and Albert Guzman of Pittsburgh took the award in the PL. Well done, boys! Well done!

In other news of note Brooklyn’s Tory Chavez’s hit streak is at 34 and New York’s Erwin Herrero’s hitting streak stands at 25. We’ve had several streaks this year and the media is ablaze with the story! How long can he keep it up?

In sad news the injury report was simply alive this sim:

New York’s Townsend will miss 2 weeks with a sprained knee.
Brooklyn’s MR Miguel Valenzuela with miss 10-11 months with a torn tendon.
Seattle’s Jorge Hernandez will miss one week after developing hamstring tendonitis.
Pitt’s 1B Amador Zaragoza is out for four weeks with a strained muscle.
Brooklyn loses another one: 2B Miyatarou Takenao is out for two weeks with a shoulder strain.
Miami’s CF John Fine is out 3 weeks with an oblique strain.

Lastly, Miami’s Vuong shouted at an umpire and was suspended for three games. Field reporter Crash Davis said he used a word you shouldn’t use to an umpire!

In game action:

…Pittsburth put up 7 runs in the 8th inning to defeat Jersey City 12-5…
…New York went into the 9th down by two and put up three to win 8-7. The winning run was scored on a single by Guglielmo..
…Tupper Street surprised Miami with three in the bottom of the 8th to go ahead and win 5-4…
…Tupper Street beat Maryland in 13, 3-2, with a home run by Allan Balogh…

Next sim is Friday by Mack! Don’t be late and try to welcome the newcomers!

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.

I’ve got three reasonable lefties in the bullpen (Westlund, Lebaron, Washington), as well as four more at AAA (Mariscal, Hodge, Bernal, Solorzano). If anybody out there has a need for a lefty, and has a comparable righty arm to trade, let me know.

Sounds like an Indiana Jones movie, doesn’t it?

Yes, April is now in the books and we stand at May 1 looking out into an uncertain future. The only certain thing in the future is my joy at Locke’s fecklessness. I’d say the same thing about Will but, dang, he’s playing well.

Jersey City remains on top of the PL with Maryland and Pitt tied at 1.5 games back.

In the SL, though, we’ve had a switch with Seattle now on top and New York 1 game back with Miami one game further off the pace.

Here are the awards for the month:

Batter of the Month:
PL: Jersey City’s Kirk Tilghman
SL: Seattle’s James Bray

Pitcher of the Month:
PL: Maryland’s Geronimo Rodriguez
SL: Miami’s John Winters

Rookie of the Month:
PL: Brooklyn’s Benjamin Beshears
SL: Seattle’s Wayne Jones

No injuries of longer than 2 days were reported this sim.

Plenty of interesting gameplay this sim…

…New York beat Gainesville with a grandslam in the bottom of the 10th…
…Jersey City beat Miami with nine unanswered runs in the sixth through eighth after being down 8-0 after four…
…Pitt puts up 15 against Cairo…
…Gainesville beats Brooklyn after a scoreless 9 with a solo home run in the 10th…

The draft class is now available for inspection. Get to it!

Next sim is Monday by Mack. Don’t miss out.

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.

OK, I’m back from a nine day, 4200 mile cross country trip with two small girls in the back seat of a Chevy Aveo. How tough am I?

In the OEL, which I’m sure you’d rather talk about, Jersey City and New York lead their respective leagues. In the PL Pittsburgh leads for the early wildcard followed by Maryland 1.5 games behind. In the SL the wild card is tied up by Miami and Seattle with Marietta 1 game behind those two.

April 23 was a tough day for injuries in the league. On one day these occurred:

Pittsburgh: LF Groce will miss 3 weeks with a broken rib.
Seattle: SP Pearson ruptured a tendon in his finger and will miss 4 months.
Miami: MR Hernandex has a sore hamstring and missed 2 days.

Also, on the 24th, Brooklyn lost MR Corner for 2 days.

We didn’t tip over a week so no awards were given.

In interesting game action this time on the 21st Tupper Street went into the bottom of the ninth leading Stockholm 3-2 only to see reliever Michael Bad give up two on an error, a flyball, a single, a walk to load the bases, a run scoring walk, and a sac fly.

On the 23rd Tupper Street was on the wrong end again as they were knotted with Pittsburgh 4 all after regulation when the aptly named Bad AGAIN gave up two runs on a ground out, single, single, fielders choice, walk, and a single to score two and eventually lose the game.

Perhaps Bad should be rethought. That would be good.

Also, on the 23rd Seattle beat Stockholm with 14 runs. Already ahead with nine runs they scored five in the eighth to seal the deal.

On the 24th Marietta put up a great game against Jersey City on both ends of the ball. They scored 11 runs (with no home runs) and Gowans and McGurk teamed up to allow only three hits between them. Do that again!

The next sim will take us through April, I believe, and will be by Mack on Friday! Don’t miss it!

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.

OK, so this isn’t really breaking news to any of you. But, I just realized I screwed something up.

I assumed that the league’s schedule would carry over and be fine in the new version. I didn’t check it because I’d hassled with it in prior years and just didn’t want to screw with it again. It looked ok on the surface. Plus, I was on vacation during the critical pre-season sims.

Anyway, enough excuses. The good news is that everyone still has 162 games, 81 home and 81 away. No doubleheaders (at least that I’m aware of). We still play five teams 18 times and six teams 12 times.

The problem is that the five teams we play 18 times are not necessarily the ones in our division. It’s not even the teams in our old divisions. It somehow got randomized. Which creates some disparity. Which sucks. And I should have caught it and didn’t. Sorry.

So, here are the groups of teams that play each other 18 times (or an extra six times compared to the other group):

Group 1: STO, JCY, BRK, CAI, TST, NY

Group 2: MPD, PIT, GAI, MIA, SEA, MAR

So, in summary, I suck and the schedule is unbalanced.