Newsletter - April 29, 2014

NVABL Newsletter

May 2014

The Standings

Coastal Division

	W	L	%	GB
Oakton	13	7	.650	--
Springfield	12	8	.600	1
Roswell	20	16	.556	1
Columbia Pike	12	12	.500	3
Delphi	9	11	.450	4
Sterling	7	13	.350	6

Piedmont Division

	W	L	%	GB
Stonehenge	21	7	.750	--
Vermont	5	3	.625	5
Arlington	0	0	.000	6
Occoquan	12	16	.429	8
Washington	14	22	.389	10
Seacoast	7	17	.292	11

Results

April 2014

ROS 1	at	OAK 3
OCC 0	at	DEL 4
SPR 2	at	ROS 2
STO 3	at	OCC 1
WAS 0	at	VTC 4
VTC 1	at	ROS 3
OAK 4	at	SEA 0
DEL 1	at	CPC 3
OAK 3	at	DEL 1
ROS 3	at	DEL 1
ROS 3	at	STP 1
STP 1	at	STO 3

 

Who’s Hot and Who’s Not

The records for the teams during April are:

Oakton 10-2, (13-7) Need a cure for the sub .500 doldrums?  Go 10-2 in a month.  The cream of the league is rising to the top, as it should.

Stonehenge 6-2, (21-7) I was impressed with the stat in Dwight’s write up that Stonehenge is 17-3 with Hanley in the lineup.  Hanley will be in the lineup during the playoffs.  Will we have a finals with 2 overpowering teams facing each other?  Are they going to leave it up to the dice?  Or is one of them going to give up some more from next year in order to try and get an edge?

Columbia Pike 3-1, (12-12) Steve rested mostly this past month, but did have an important win vs. Delphi which might have implications on which team makes the playoffs.  The Cubs currently have a 1 game lead on the Oracles.

Roswell 12-8, (20-16) April was a great month for Bob, getting back into a playoff position.  We are all grateful to Bob and Bart for getting 8 Vermont games in.

Vermont 5-3 , (5-3) A good start for the Nonchalants.  A very bad sweep for the Senators to have suffered.  No one will be immune if this team gets some luck.

Springfield 2-2, (12-8) It was a quiet month for the Cardinals, but they are still in playoff position.  Chris has been interviewing a lot and our best thoughts and prayers are with him in the job search.  You know, life is much more important than this game we play.  But I look to this game to help take the some of the rough edges off the rest of life, and it does a pretty good job to have something fun once in a while.

Delphi 7-9, (9-11) George became active this month playing an impressive 4 series to get up to the minimum at the deadline.  This is a team that could still go either way.  As a true Oracle, George is casting the fate of the team to the dice, and the games over May and June will decide whether he is selling or buying in July.

Sterling 2-6, (7-13) The window of opportunity has probably closed for those who might have snagged a Pujols on the cheap.  It’s looking more and more like Sterling is not going to be a playoff team, although they still have some good hitting.  They always do.  If Walt wants to compete he could still trade Pujols for tremendous talent that helps him this year, and make some noise in the playoffs.

Occoquan 1-7, (12-16) Amazing to go 1-7 and still find themselves only 4 games under .500 and in the playoffs if the season ended today, by virtue of the Senator’s having been swept by wait for it, Vermont?

Washington 0-4, (14-22) Being swept by the Nonchalants dropped Bart’s franchise to 8 games under .500.  It hasn’t been a good start, and having played 36 games, the Senators must win at a .577 clip to return to .500 by the end of the year.  That would be a 93 win team in an MLB season.

Seacoast 0-4,(7-17) Seacoast’s loss was to Oakton, which really helped the Aviators.  This contrasts with going 2-2 vs. Stonehenge in March.  Chad loves to play the spoiler when the dice let him.  There are some dangerous hitters on this team and you’ve got to hope you face them on a night when the double numbers are not rolling.  The pitching isn’t so hot though, and will probably be the reason if the Wayfarers win the Hamner trophy.

Arlington 0-0, (0-0) This team without a manager is looking forward to showing what they can do on the field.

Transactions

None.  Most of the damage was done in February.

When Dwight said in his write up that Sterling has some choices to make, he’s talking about what we see here, whether to play for this year or next year.  It’s still early, but if the trends continue, it looks like Washington and Sterling being both sub .500 teams and having good players for next year indicates a direction trades could possibly go in the next 3 months.  It’s quite possible that teams like Delphi and Occoquan could climb back into the playoff hunt with trades for this year, giving up draft picks or players for next year to Sterling and Washington in exchange for players that would help them now.

2015 Kilg Korner

We return to this feature for the first time in 2014.  The kilg web site is http://www.kilg.us/.  The userid is nvabl70s and password is wxyz6789.

Are we already almost half way across the decade?  In hitting Oakton is already looking good and topping the charts by a wide margin.  Washington is fantastic in pitching.  Overall, the best team is Springfield for next year, with Washington and Oakton looking good and Sterling capable of making some noise if Pujols keeps up his return to greatness.    

Can 18 draft picks do the job next year for Occoquan?  With hitting that is ranked dreadful and pitching that is ranked awful, these numbers are shaking me to the core.  If it’s going to happen next year, it’s going to happen completely with draft picks, and I’m not sure that’s ever been done.

A team that has been rebuilding with a purpose for next year is Seacoast.  How are they looking?  Overall ranked 8^th or 9^th in the current players for next year, it’s going to be an interesting draft for Chad.  He’ll have the picks to snatch up some pretty prizes, whether rebuilding another year or going for that bookend couch potato wife plaque that his couch potato man plaque longs for.  Kind of like Mr. Potato Head in Toy Story wishing he could find a Mrs. Potato Head.  I’m not saying Chad is a potato.  Wait, where is this leading?  I lost my train of thought.

Hitting	Pitching	Overall
Team     OPS         Rank     Top Player OAK         0.802     1          Tulowitzki CPK         0.763     2          Viciedo STE           0.753     3          Pujols SPR          0.747     4          Blackmon SEA          0.745     5          Trout ARL          0.740     6.5     Al. Ramirez WAS        0.740     6.5       Gonzalez DEL          0.739     8          Bautista VER          0.729     9          Freeman STO          0.718     10        Votto OCC         0.714     11        Uribe ROS         0.705     12        Gattis	Team     ERA          Rank       Top Player WAS        2.77        1               Gray SPR          2.81        2               Shields VER          3.04        3               Teheran STO          3.29        4       Wainwright ROS         3.40        5               Cueto ARL          3.47        6        Samardzija STE           3.50        7               Sale OAK         3.51        8        Hernandez SEA          3.76        9               Perez DEL          3.81        10            Gallardo CPK         4.37        11            Hudson OCC         4.47        12            LeCure	Team Rank SPR 1 WAS 2 OAK 3 STE 4 VER 5 ARL 6 CPK 7 STO 8.5 SEA 8.5 ROS 10 DEL 11 OCC 12

Newsletter - April 4, 2014

NVABL Newsletter

April 2013

The Standings

Coastal Division

	W	L	%	GB
Springfield	10	6	.625	--
Roswell	8	8	.500	2
Delphi	2	2	.500	2
Columbia Pike	9	11	.450	3
Sterling	5	7	.417	3
Oakton	3	5	.375	3

Piedmont Division

	W	L	%	GB
Stonehenge	15	5	.750	--
Occoquan	11	9	.550	4
Arlington	0	0	.000	5
Vermont	0	0	.000	5
Washington	14	18	.438	7
Seacoast	7	13	.350	8

The Month

As far as I’m concerned Bart is the true champion of the month, getting his game total to 32.  Overall a good month for the league, getting 11 series in, and April promises to be even better as we reach the 20 game deadline.  It was nice to get 20 games in for the Occoquan franchise, and I hope to get as close to 40 as possible in April.  On top of the league, we see Dwight sitting at 15-5.

Team By Team News

I’ll review the teams in order of their overall record this month.

Stonehenge Druids – The Druids went 4 and 4 this month, with the league leading winning percentage of .750.  Why not start talking about what their year’s total will be?  .750 projects out to 66-22. So you can see they are still on a torrid pace.  It would be nice to see them have a great April and keep this up.

Springfield Cardinals – Springfield had a 4-4 month.  10-6 is a great record in baseball and first place is a good position to be in.

Occoquan Ospreys – After throwing in the towel and trading their best players in February, this team went 11-9.  It shows that the pre-season ranking in the #3 spot was not all that far off.  While the Ospreys don’t expect to win more than 50% of the games, they will keep grinding and hope to make the playoffs.  If it happens, then I would expect one team will be disappointed they didn’t make it.  Patrick Corbin went down with an elbow injury that required Tommy John surgery.  As a lefty with a 12y grade, nobody would pay anything for someone like that so my plan is to use him the rest of the year and then think about cutting him.  It will be hard to keep him on the roster, despite glowing reviews and potential out of Arizona.  Being a lefty starter really hurts in this league when a player is a question mark.

Roswell Greys – Roswell had a down month being swept by Stonehenge and falling out of a tie for first place.  As a .500 team Bob needs to keep that pace to make the playoffs.  They should be able to do it.

Delphi Oracles – Delphi got going, with a 2 and 2 month, splitting with Stonehenge.  Delphi has potential for making the playoffs and we look forward to seeing their season play out.

Columbia Pike Cubs – Continued playing consistently, going 6 and 6 this month and staying 2 games below .500.  If the playoffs were set today, the Cubs would be the 6^th team in.

Washington Senators – Bart went 5-7 this month, but was the only team fighting for the playoffs by trading.  We all still expect the Senators to finish above .500 this year and be a strong playoff team.  Having played them, I would say the pitching is pretty good, but perhaps the hitting would be the place to improve if this team is going to improve more than it already has.

Sterling Pirates – Sterling went 2 and 2.  Sterling has a few good cards that will be available all year long if anyone wants them.  Mauer is one prime example of a fantastic card that ought to be snapped up by someone if they are serious about winning this year.  I also noticed Pujols is sitting around, not even making the 25 man roster.  Is anyone going to take a gamble on him?  Walt and I both agreed we expect him to be the comeback player of the year in the MLB.  These guys are getting long in the tooth, so I would expect this and other deals from the Pirates this year.

Oakton – Oakton did not play in March.  When the sleeping bear awakes some teams are going to get slapped around.  It’s inevitable though, it is impossible not to play them.

Seacoast Wayfarers – Seacoast rounds out the active teams with a 1-3 record in March.  Kris Medlen went down with an injury requiring Tommy John surgery.  Unlike Corbin, he was immediately traded, along with his right arm, 12yz grade, and tons of availability.

Arlington Aces – no games played.

Vermont Nonchalants – no games played.

The Game Count

The League has finished 21 series at the end of March.  This is an average of around 9 games each for the active teams.  It’s still a pretty good start.  My feeling this year is let’s get this year over with and get to a point where we can play the managerless teams games.  It will be tough to get those in if we take it too easy, so I’m pleased that everyone is playing.

The Trade Market

After the injury to Medlen, Seacoast traded him to Washington along with SEA #6 for WAS #3 and WAS #8.  There isn’t much else that I know of in the league to talk about this month, so I’m going to describe this trade with the fanfare it deserves as the most exciting thing to happen in the league in the month of March.  This is what I would have to say is the most fair and even trade I’ve seen in all my years in the league.  The 6^th for an 8^th means Chad got a little better than a 3^rd for Medlen.  Bart got a good graded pitcher with a Z that allows him to come to more series with 4 right handed starters, since he has 5 of them now.  He also has the versatility to bring 3 left handed starters to those teams who did not prepare properly to face lefties.  For comparison with our draft, we can see that Ervin Santana is also a 12yz with a lot of starts and he was drafted with the last pick of the 2^nd round, while Mike Leake was an 11z drafted with the 3^rd pick of the 4^th round, so Bart did not really have to pay a playoff contender’s premium, but gave fair value for a good pitcher.

Looking Forward

How great it was to see the MLB teams start playing and see our players in action in games that count.  How gratifying to see the games continue on a good pace in the NVABL.  Enjoy the baseball, my firends.  Everyone at work is talking about it.  It seems to increase in popularity each year.  Happy watching and playing!