NVABL
Newsletter
April 2013
The Standings
|
W
|
L
|
%
|
GB
|
|
|
10
|
6
|
.625
|
--
|
|
|
8
|
8
|
.500
|
2
|
|
|
2
|
2
|
.500
|
2
|
|
|
9
|
11
|
.450
|
3
|
|
|
5
|
7
|
.417
|
3
|
|
|
3
|
5
|
.375
|
3
|
|
W
|
L
|
%
|
GB
|
|
|
15
|
5
|
.750
|
--
|
|
|
11
|
9
|
.550
|
4
|
|
|
0
|
0
|
.000
|
5
|
|
|
0
|
0
|
.000
|
5
|
|
|
14
|
18
|
.438
|
7
|
|
|
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 6th 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 6th
for an 8th means Chad got a little better than a 3rd 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 2nd
round, while Mike Leake was an 11z drafted with the 3rd pick of the
4th 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!
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