Thursday, May 14, 2015

S26 Available Team Profiles

AL North, S25 Montreal: 80-82. Another good rebuild candidate, it’s a mostly-aging roster with a handful of good young players and prospects. Albert Calderon and his expiring contract still has something left in the tank, so sign him or enjoy the cap space. Rusty Thomas has sneaky value on the ML roster, and recent draft picks Irv Baldwin, Paul Suzuki, and Willie Perez are all 21 or younger and still in the farm system.

AL East, S25 Boston
: 75-87. Two seasons removed from a 93-69 season, this franchise has struggled quite a bit because of a lack of consistent ownership. Quite a bit of talent hasn’t been able to overcome 6 owners in 9 seasons, the franchise has perhaps the second-best all-around offensive player in the league in Gary Gardner and former RoY J.P. Locke manning 3B. Add in current RoY candidate Bernie Mendoza, and former #7 pick Al Escobar, and there is a strong offense already in place.


AL East, S25 Chicago
: 50-112. This franchise is a Minimum Win Requirement casualty, and as such has some very good potential in the minors. There are a couple decent pieces in the Majors, such as Tomas Osoria and Slick “Slick” Henry. But the major appeal are studs like Hideo Komatsu and Juan Mateo, and next year’s #1 pick.


AL West, S25 Vancouver
: 76-86. This franchise has had remarkable consistency as well, having only three owners over its lifetime. They have a solid 3B in his prime in Jarrett Capuano, and one of the better young pitchers in the league in Davey Eovaldi. If you can stand aging star Yamil Servet for one more season and his mutual option, this is a decent team to build around.


AL West, S25 Oakland
: 81-81. Another franchise that could go either way -- rebuild or reload -- hovering at or above .500 for the last 3 seasons. Solid pieces include power-hitter Dick Mitchell, DH Mark Shin, 3B Terry Hume. With a team salary under $60m, there’s a lot of flexibility here.


AL South, S25 Texas
: 63-99. This team will have a top 5 pick and doesn’t carry a ton of salary with it, so there is a ton of flexibility here. There isn’t a ton of talent at the ML level, though players like Curt Gruber and Joshua Hughes are solid, young contributors. There are some decent pieces in the minors in Jhoulys Gonzales and Yuniesky Toca, so there’s room for growth.

AL South, S25 Florida: 86-76. A perennial playoff team, this franchise has perhaps the best pitcher in the league in his prime, in Geraldo Campos. Along with stud Jeremi Singleton and a couple solid pieces in Leonardo Lukasiewicz and Ray Bumgarner, this team could easily be a contender next season.


NL West, S25 Tacoma
: 59-103. #2 pick in the draft, 3 consecutive seasons of 92+ losses, and you can start out with Advanced Scouting higher than everyone else’s. Add in one of the best pure hitters in the league in 29 year old Eswalin Arias, and this franchise is stacked.


NL South, S25 Atlanta: 66-96. Another up-and-coming team with some good pieces already in place in Elroy Leverton (25 years old), Cedrick Mercedes (27), and Augie Kubel (21). Add in last year’s #7 pick in Jarret Carr, and the future is bright with this franchise.

Wednesday, October 29, 2014

Double Mendoza HOF

Good Morning Double Mendozaaaaaaaa! (RIP Robin.) As you know, life is miserable right now. The Vikings are atrocious, MLB is 24 hours from months of dormancy, and we will soon be inundated with the most insipid NBA coverage possible. Is Lebron's hairline receding?  Has he lost a step?  Is KEVIN LOVE ELITE!?!?!?!? Worst of all, it remains preseason is our beloved fake baseball universe, which is almost awful enough to make us remember coach hiring fondly.

Along with the general malaise of facing our own mortality in a cold, cruel universe, I can understand if voting for the Double Mendoz Hall of Fame is not anyone's top priority. After all, examining and discussing Hall of Fame worthiness is a tired, often frustrating exercise.  However, since we devote an absurd amount of our lives to these fake players, we may as well create a fake Hall of Fame worthy of those we adulate.  Hopefully, one man's generally unbiased (ain't gonna be a Doughnut ready for the Hall until long after Ebola has claimed us all) overview of the most eligible candidates will provide a little background and at least ensure maximum voter turnout.

For background purposes, to be eligible for any HBD HOF, players must meet the following requirements: Position players: 10+ years of ML experience with 400+ PA per season; Relief pitchers; 10+ years of ML experience with 50+ IP per season; Starting pitchers: 10+ years of ML experience with 150+ IP per season.  As far as I can tell, players do not have a maximum numbers of years eligible as in MLB.

Just because I was curious, I looked up how our HBD Hall of Fame compares to the MLB Hall of Fame by position distribution:


Count of Hall of Fame Members by Position
Numerical Order
Position
Number of Inductees
Rank
Pitchers
70
1
Center Fielders
25
2
Shortstops
24
3
First Basemen
21
4
Left Fielders
21

Right Fielders
21

Second Basemen
18
7
Catchers
16
8
Third Basemen
14
9
Designated Hitters
1
10
Position
Number of Inductees
Rank
Hall of Fame Positional Frequency
Double Mendoza HBD Hall of Fame by position (as determined by me):
1B – 4; Corner OF – 3.5; 2B – 2.5; SP – 5; RP - 2
At least three caveats apply here.  One, HBD positions are more fluid than MLB positions, since the ratings are all that dictates fielding ability (experience at a position doesn’t matter).  Two, the MLB Hall features many inductees appointed by a Veterans Committee and formerly a Negro Leagues Committee, which muddles the comparison to the strict merits-based voting of HBD.  Finally, our HBD Hall obviously reflects a tiny sample.  ss

With those in mind, the only clear trend (based on ZERO mathematical analysis) I see is that HBD voters are more likely to vote for power-hitting 1B/COF than MLB voters, and less likely to vote for players at defensive skill positions like C, CF and SS.  This may be due to the relative ease of hitting HRs in HBD compared to MLB, or the dead defense era (check out the + play stats until season 6), or the lingering effects of the early season steroid era - which I was not present for in Double Mendoza, but was confirmed by WIS and strongly evident in other worlds. In any case, I would argue Mendoza voters should pay a little more attention to value provided at tough defensive positions, and a little less attention to traditional MLB HOF statistical benchmarks like 400 HR. Having said all that, this class is one the suckiest bunch sucks that ever sucked.

Okay let’s actually look at the players and stop this pseudo-intellectual babbling.  I have narrowed the candidate pool down to only players I think could arguably be included in this year’s top 5:

PANTHEON NO-DOUBTERS

Hahahahahaha none of you are even close. Double Mendoza example: Joe Thompson

SECOND BALLOTERS

I'm talking about Roberto Alomar types specifically, players who should unquestionably be in, but some stuffy or power-drunk moron in the BBWAA decides they are not worthy of ultra-elite Cal Ripken jockstrap-caddying greatness. But you have to check their stats to make sure.

In any case, there aren't any here either. Double Mendoza example: Rick Vander Wal

SHOULD BE IN THIS YEAR

Pascual Ordonez - 1B


Key Stats:  .288/.394/.550, 573 HR, 1387/1541 R/RBI, 2253 H
Bling:  1 MVP, 3 AS appearances, 3 SS
Best Season:  .343/.448/.760, 36 HR 153/192 R/RBI, 216 H, 162 G – most HR/RBI in a season, ever
Argument: You might be noting that I just argued that we induct too many 1B/COF types based on inflated power stats, and then proceeded to advise inducting a 1B based entirely on offensive stats. Touche sirs/madams. And yet, Ordonez's non-steroid era career OPS bests 4 of the 1B/COFers currently in the Hall (Dawkins, Vander Wal, Martin, and Brunette). This is despite playing the bulk of his career in Oakland and Helena, not exactly hitters paradises. At his peak, the man was a 78-100-76-73-94 hitter, which is terrifying. 573 HRs is like, a whole lot, too. So there's that.





TOO CLOSE TO CALL/CLOSE, BUT NO CIGAR
Normally I would make these two separate categories, but since this HOF class is so bad I will lump them together for those who wish to hand out all 5 votes.

Dave Gallagher - SP

Key Stats:  192-139 W/L, 3.00 ERA, 1.20 WHIP, 2454/905 K/BB
Bling:  6 AS appearances, 2 Gold Gloves
Best Season:  23-6, 2.42 ERA, 1.17 WHIP, 163/67 K/BB
Argument:  Gallagher has gotten no love from voters, but has a better ERA than all but two HOF pitchers, one of whom is a reliever. Lack of Cy Young wins seems to be effecting him as well, as Markus Collins has a similar if slightly worse resume but has garnered far more votes. Due to a limited stamina, he rarely surpassed 200 IP in a year, and fell short of 3000 IP and 200 Wins, which has undoubtedly hurt him. At his peak was wielding twin 90s splits, high 80s control, 70= VEL/GB, and two 75+ pitches.  For one game, I'd rather have him than any HOFer outside of Parra and arguably Dessens, though it's close. I will be voting only for Ordonez, but my second vote would go to this Watermelon-smasher over any other candidate.

John Burroughs - SP (See Dave Gallagher. Eerily similar, but eclipsed arbitrary 200-win threshold despite pitching slightly worse throughout career)

Sherman Seo – 1B/LF

Key Stats:  .291/.372/.531, 407 HR, 1355/1461 R/RBI, 275 SB
Bling:  2 MVP, 6 AS, 3 SS (LF and 1B), ROY, and a surprising 3 Cycles
Best Season:  .326/.438/.617, 32 HR 116/115 R/RBI, 46 SB
Argument:  Seo is a very strong all-around offensive player, and actually could've been even better without a devastating injury that robbed him of 6 points of PWR while he was still developing. He hits for power, gets on base, and ran the bases fairly well for a slugger, although he was caught stealing well over 1/3 of the time. The Shermanator's 2 MVPs and strong overall offensive game without the aid of hitter-friendly parks are not enough for me to vote him in, but he received 12 votes one season.  No year will be any easier than this one. Could blaanks's all-caps plea seal the deal?


Markus Collins - SP

Key Stats:  189-129 W/L, 3.38 ERA, 1.18 WHIP, 2011/884 K/BB
Bling:  2 Cy Youngs, 7 AS appearances
Best Season:  16-7, 1.95 ERA, .90 WHIP, 142/48 K/B, 207 IP
Argument:  Markus Collins must have played on mostly mediocre teams, because he eclipsed 200 IP in 10 seasons, had a lifetime 3.38 ERA, and never cracked 20 wins. For 15 seasons and 8 different franchises, Collins was an ace-level pitcher, yet he started only 5 playoff games his entire career. That's not a knock against him; it's a pixelated tragedy. With a better WHIP, more bling, but a far worse K/BB ratio and ERA than Gallagher, it's tough to argue Collins is any more deserving. But like many players in this class, I toast Markus Collins: here's to a great career that wasn't quite long enough or good enough for me, but vote him on in if you're less persnickety.


HONORABLE MENTIONS

Steve Wilson, Glenn Shaw, Jo-Jo Overbeck, Artie Benjamin:  If you're looking for a 1B/COF with a career OPS of .820-.860, 400-525 HR, and 1100-1500 R/RBI, you've got enough choices here to convince me that none of them is a special enough snowflake for our fake Hall of Fame.

Jesus Santos, Vern Woods, Reggie Winston: Take your 4.00ish ERAs and your mediocre winning percentages and kindly leave.

Mark Blackwell: You actually played great defense! Why didn't you hit better - you make my intro section meaningless with your Hall of Pretty Good bat. Damn you to Honorable Mention, Mark Blackwell.

Shortstops: There were like 25 of you weaklings. The highest career OPS among you? .765. And if you're asking, NO, NONE OF YOU IS OZZIE SMITH WITH GLOVE.

Jayson Punto:  Jayson, you had me at "this player has not won any awards."


Lots of Steroid-era players who didn't play very long:  Tough cannolis.

So there you have it.  1000 words on RETIRED fake ballplayers when I could have just gone on world chat and posted "VOTE ORDONEZ." Let's Get out the Vote - even if you're voting for those other also-rans too.  

Wednesday, October 22, 2014

Double Mendoza Cycle Processing Times

Hey all --

I'm sure most of us have already noticed that Double Mendoza's cycles are consistently delayed from the posted HBD cycle times. This has always annoyed the crap out of me, so in an effort to make this a little more predictable I've been saving all my fake baseball fake emails in this off-season to attempt to come up with a "Double Mendoza Cycle Schedule" we can use to at least get a rough idea of when to expect our cycles to process.

You can find a permanent link on the menu bar above, but I'll post the results here for the time being. Everything is listed in EST, but I know we have people all over the place, so if people want I can expand the post to include other time zones. Just add a comment here or TC me.

[Note: Each time listed is approximate and as such should not be taken as authoritative -- if you miss a cycle because it happened earlier than stated here, please TC the commissioner so the times can be re-adjusted.]

In general, I've found the "Part 1" cycles can be expected to process approximately 40+ minutes late, whereas the "Part 2" cycles can be expected to process approximately 15+ minutes late.

AM Part 1: 
"Official" process time: 3:00 AM EST
Actual process time: 3:43 AM EST

AM Part 2:
"Official" process time: 7:00 AM EST
Actual process time: 7:18 AM EST

PM1 Part 1:
"Official" process time: 11:00 AM EST
Actual process time: 11:56 AM EST

PM1 Part 2:
"Official" process time: 3:00 PM EST
Actual process time: 3:17 PM EST

PM2 Part 1:
"Official" process time: 7:00 PM EST
Actual process time: 7:54 PM EST

PM2 Part 2:
"Official" process time: 11:00 PM EST
Actual process time: 11:21 PM EST

Thursday, October 9, 2014

Franchise Profile - Monterrey

CLAIMED!


Team History

Number of Owners: 1
Division Titles: 7
Playoff Appearances: 9
Division Championships Series Victories: 2
American League Championships: 1
World Series Championships: 1

Recent History:

S23 Record: 77-85
S24 Draft Picks: #11, #15

Combined record past 5 years: 409-401 (.505)

This is an interesting franchise -- they've had ONE owner in all 23 seasons of Double Mendoza's existence, so there's been really good consistency here. The offense is stacked, and several players are hitting arbitration, so this roster has a ton of flexibility.

Key Major League Players:


Eliezer Familia, OF

Age: 30
OVR: 79
Contract remaining: 2 years @ $7.25m

Greg Durbin, 3B

Age: 32
OVR: 77
Contract remaining: 4 years, $10.9m / $10.9m / $9.9m / $8.9m

Pedro Tatis, 1B

Age: 34
OVR: 76
Contract remaining: 2 years, $8.5m / $8.0m

Davey Dunn, SP

Age: 35
OVR: 75
Contract remaining: 1 year @ $5.8m

Ken Bennigson, C/DH

Age: 26
OVR: 71
Contract remaining: Arbitration, year 3

Key Minor League Players:


Pep Urich, SS

Age: 21
OVR: 70
Draft year/pick: S21, #17

Ed Worley, OF

Age: 22
OVR: 71
Draft year/pick: S20, #17

Doyle Gagne, DH

Age: 22
OVR: 70
Draft year/pick: S20, #30


Team Profile - Monterrey

Team History

Number of Owners: 4
Division Titles: 5
Playoff Appearances: 8
Division Championships Series Victories: 0
National League Championships: 0
World Series Championships: 0

Recent History:

S23 Record: 86-76
S24 Draft Pick: #23

Combined record past 5 years: 412-398 (.509)

All 5 of this franchise's Division Titles have come in the last 5 years. It is the top team in a very winnable division, and has had some recent college draft picks that could push the team into 90-to-95 win territory soon. We typically have pretty active free agency periods so with a few good additions you could almost guarantee this team as a playoff team.

Key Major League Players:


Brad Polcovich, SP

Age: 32
OVR: 82
Contract remaining: 1 year @ $7m

Jimmy Tracy, OF

Age: 30
OVR: 79
Contract remaining: 3 years @ $7m

Bert Stewart, OF

Age: 28
OVR: 78
Contract remaining: Arbitration, year 3

Geoff Jeter, 3B/SS

Age: 27
OVR: 75
Contract remaining: Arbitration, year 1

Key Minor League Players:


Yorvit Johnson, 2B

Age: 21
OVR: 63
Draft year/pick: S23, #15

Albert Durham, 1B

Age: 24
OVR: 73
Draft year/pick: S22, #16

Jeremy Simmons, 2B

Age: 24
OVR: 71
Draft year/pick: S22, #33


Franchise Profile - St. Louis

CLAIMED!

 

Team History

Number of Owners: 7
Division Titles: 4
Playoff Appearances: 5
Division Championships Series Victories: 1
National League Championships: 0
World Series Championships: 0

Recent History:

S23 Record: 78-84
S24 Draft Pick: #18

Combined record past 5 years: 398-412 (.491)

With 90+ losses in 8 of its last 12 seasons, this franchise is young and should be on the upswing. Unfortunately, 3 owners in the last 5 seasons has resulted in essentially a .500 team. Fortunately, all that losing has left this team with a pretty young roster -- 16 of its 22 Major League roster spots held by players under 30, including 3 players rated 80 OVR. Bring this franchise its first World Series!

Key Major League Players:


Danys Arredondo, 3B

Age: 25
OVR: 80
Contract remaining: Arbitration, year 1

Deivi Henriquez, 3B

Age: 28
OVR: 80
Contract remaining: Arbitration, year 2

Horacio Pelaez, SP

Age: 25
OVR: 80
Contract remaining: Arbitration, year 1

Clarence McKnight, SP

Age: 32
OVR: 79
Contract remaining: 3 years, $17m / $15m / $15m

Tanyon Bush, CF

Age: 30
OVR: 79
Contract remaining: Arbitration, year 2

Key Minor League Players:


Everett Smith, SS

Age: 19
OVR: 52
Draft year/pick: S23, #16

Dexter Guerrero, C/DH

Age: 21
OVR: 66
Draft year/pick: S21, #16

Charlie Long, IF

Age: 22
OVR: 80
Draft year/pick: S20, #8


Franchise Profile - New York

CLAIMED!


Team History

Number of Owners: 5
Division Titles: 5
Playoff Appearances: 13
Division Championships Series Victories: 6
National League Championships: 4
World Series Championships: 1

Recent History:

S23 Record: 67-95
S24 Draft Pick: #5

Combined record past 5 years: 445-365 (.549)

It's not often you find a team with a .549 winning percentage over the last 5 seasons that also has a top 5 pick. This is a solid team that is starting to get up there in age and was the victim of a one-and-done owner the previous season. Still some gas left in the tank, and with some smart free agent signings it could potentially be a 90 win team with a top 5 draft pick. Alternatively, there are some assets to trade if you do want to go for a full rebuild.

Key Major League Players:


Pat Nelson, SP

Age: 35
OVR: 78
Contract remaining: 1 year @ $6.25m

Cesar Pulido, 3B

Age: 33
OVR: 77
Contract remaining: 2 years @ $7.1m

Hector Guzman, OF

Age: 34
OVR: 76
Contract remaining: 2 years @ $7.4m

Key Minor League Players:


Guy Malone, 2B

Age: 19
OVR: 62
Draft year/pick: S23, #30

Gus Browne, SS

Age: 21
OVR: 67
Draft year/pick: S22, #41

Chick Schoeneweis, SP

Age: 23
OVR: 63
Draft year/pick: S22, #25