JANUARY 24, 2006
What I'm noticing so far and what I like, is that if I try to say, offer a deal to a guy from the majors who is worth a lot of money, he'll ask me to pay him what a superstar in my league would make. When the salary cap is only $15 million, you don't really have a ton of leeway to sign lots of guys like that, because well...eventually you'd be stuck.

What should happen is, the offers they get at the major league level should be so much more substantial that they'd never take such offers and that keeps star players out of the lower leagues and so, OOTP is working just as it should. I noticed it before, but never got an acute understanding of how the process was playing out until now.

FEBRUARY 2006 DIARY
So, I'm with Worcester now. Needless to say, it's a little strange starting over with a team that won't be trying to win a World Series AND knowing that we're not going to get promoted this year. But I prefer it this way, because at least it gives me a starting point where I can test out some theories in this league to see if they work or not and if not, then no harm and no foul and I have an entire off-season next year to try to fix them.

But the strategy we're employing now is risky. I'm spending money. Quite a bit of it to get to or near the cap, to acquire the best talent I can to basically dominate this league. I want to find out if major league has-beens are the type of guys that can clean this league up, along with youngsters that can augment them.

The risk to this strategy is very simple. If you're paying a bunch of washed up guys to play for you in a lesser league, it might bring out fans who have heard of them AND it might win you a pennant. What it won't do is help you long term OR give you kids to develop. Both of which are a problem.

So, it's got to be a give and take thing or else, forget it.

We'll see how it works and what sort of strategy we're going to go with here in Year 1. I'm sorta throwing darts recklessly at this point and I'm not sure where they'll land.

AMERICAN LEAGUE ADDS A FEEDER
I figured that it would be very difficult to call this league a developmental league and have no development happening and so, I added a high school developmental league to the AL that will feed directly into it.

There will be an AL draft starting in 2007 -- the only league that'll employ one -- for the sole purpose of getting talent onto teams and developed. Long-term, we'll see how it works. But I think it's a good way to get this league stocked with young talent.

DAY IS DONE..
FEBRUARY 14, 2006
So I've not introduced you to my team yet, but I find it interesting that you can deal guys who are serviceable major leaguers who sign with you for about what they'd sign for in the majors, only they'd never play and then flip them to major league teams for guys who'll never make it out of the affiliated minors.

In other words, playing this way is a extremely intriguing way to play because there are so many players out there and yet, you have to consider the salary cap and other issues that exist when building your team.

It's just funny how different the standards for talent are, when you're playing in a league like this, though.

It'll be interesting to see how the season plays out.

Speaking of, we play 136-game season. There are 100 games in your division and 36 interleague games.

PAYROLL NUMBERS
MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL 2006 PAYROLLS

HIGHEST PAID PLAYERS, MLB, 2006


CONTINENTAL LEAGUE, TEAM PAYROLLS, 2006

HIGHEST PAID PLAYERS, CL, 2006

NATIONAL LEAGUE, TEAM PAYROLLS, 2006

NATIONAL LEAGUE HIGHEST PAID PLAYERS, 2006


The American League numbers won't be released until early April, since our season starts..at the end of April.

AMERICAN LEAGUE PAYROLL, OPENING DAY 2006


HIGHEST PAID PLAYERS, AMERICAN LEAGUE, 2006

Rather than introduce you to our roster and all that prematurely, especially since promotion/relegation isn't at stake, I'm going to sim to midseason and figure out what's work and what hasn't and not make any more moves. It'll be a lot more interesting than trying to speculate for you based on what we know about the players I've signed to deals.

But suffice to say that no one on the current roster played in MLB last year. Well that's not entirely true. I made a deal just now which is opening day to get a guy from Pittsburgh who played there last year. But given how bad they've been lately, that might not mean a whole lot.

But save for him, no one played in MLB last season, but there are guys with MLB experience on the roster..include a few names I've mentioned before or if not, at least they're familiar to me and soon, I'll introduce you.

The AL trade deadline is June 1st and so we'll sim well past that date -- I know, no deals for me -- and we'll just see how things are around July 1st.

AMERICAN LEAGUE STANDINGS
JULY 4, 2006

So far, I've figured out in this league that the only thing that matters is performance. It's not like in the majors where you can sign guys on potential. Down here, it's all about how much success they've had or projecting guys who can or will be successful plain and simple. If you fail to do that, you'll simply blow the thing.

It's been a learning experience and we're not even halfway through it. I do think that the short trading window forces you to be effective about putting your team together early on and minimizing the mistakes you make during free agency.

I'm going to hit the free agency pool and see if I can't get a vet or two down the stretch and release other guys to stay under the cap. But we'll see, I haven't decided if it's worth breaking my neck to the pennant this year or not.

SPOKE TOO SOON ~ WE'RE DOING WHAT WE DO
I didn't make any moves at all. I just simmed the game to this point last night and here's where we are:

AMERICAN LEAGUE STANDINGS
8-1-2006

DOWN THE STRETCH...
September 1, 2006
Here is a look at the other leagues and what's going on as the teams start to find their position:

In the majors, the Pennsylvania Colonials are leading the high-octane eastern division. Meanwhile, the New York Mets, Cinncinati Reds and Baltimore Orioles are within striking distance of relegation. But there are still 3 long weeks left in the regular season.

MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL Standings

In the Continental League, the Minnesota Twins are the big story. A team that won the Continental League in 2003, the team is looking closer and closer like a relegation candidate in the CL. Unlike MLB and the CL, there is no 'play-in' to get to the CL. The winner of the NLCS will be automatically be promoted to the Continental League. It's a remarkable fall from grace for a team that was in the majors as recently as 2002.

CONTINENTAL LEAGUE

2006 COLLEGE WORLD SERIES
Rutgers knocked off Ohio State 4 games to 1 to win the College World Series

NATIONAL LEAGUE STANDINGS
In the NL, it's for all the marbles. Win your division and you're in the playoffs. In the Southern Association, Arkansas and Tulsa are grinding it out and in the Western Association, there is a huge race in the midwest with Indianapolis leading, but Cedar Rapids, Gary, St. Paul and Windsor all nearby.


AMERICAN LEAGUE STANDINGS
Playing for pride and no promotion in 2006, the American League race doesn't have the suspense that the other leagues have. It seems all but sewed up in both conferences, setting up what should be an interesting east v. west matchup in the first-ever American League Championship Series. But as we know, anything can happen.

MLB FINAL STANDINGS, 2006

Mets are headed to the MLB Challenge Series

MLB PLAYOFF ALIGNMENT

CONTINENTAL LEAGUE FINAL STANDINGS, 2006

The Minnesota Twins will be relegated to the National League in 2007.

NATIONAL LEAGUE FINAL STANDINGS, 2006

NATIONAL LEAGUE PLAYOFFS

Before I recap the playoffs in the other leagues, you've waited patiently to find out WHO the Worcester Browns are.

Well, let me introduce them first, by showing you the season stats for 2006:



Ok, so now you're wondering, "Who the hell are these people?

Vern Morgan is a 28-year old centerfielder. He's in his second year, after spending last year hitting .242 with 27 HR and 81 RBI for Salt Lake of the National League. I signed him to a six-year deal during the off-season. The key to playing in this league and making the ascent to the majors, I decided at the beginning of the year, was that we needed to find a way to get your core guys in place early and have dudes who can produce all the way until you get to the majors or who can market themselves with their talents so you can move them for more players. In other words, 5 for 1 deals are great if you can move a guy to a major league contender or even a bad team, so you can get some prized prospects that will grow and develop along with you.

But in the AL right now? I'm focused mostly on trying to get the hell out of here, not developing players for the long haul at this point, because frankly..I can't really afford to have them hanging out down here for an entire season.

Ok, back to the rest of the team.

3B Ivan Cruz was a guy I acquired from the Chicago Comets in a deal that included three prospects that I shipped off to them for five guys, all of whom could have been or were key for us in certain spots. The players I shipped off are Grade-A prospects that could likely be starring for them by the time we (hope) to be in the majors. But you gotta do, what you gotta do. Cruz is 30 years old and hit 22 HR ad 91 RBI for us in his first year outside of MLB. I can't resign him, either. He'll want more money than I can pay him this off-season and so, I'll have to let him go.

And this friends, is another one of those challenges about playing in a lower league where there salary cap considerations.

2B Robin Donovan is a 32-year old infielder who spent his first year outside of the majors last year, with New Orleans, hitting .296 in 71 games for the Zephyrs of the NL.

Prior to that, he spent 11 1/2 years with the Kansas City Royals and actually, was a guy that I often considered dealing for at deadlines to get an extra bat, but we never pulled the trigger for him. Anyway, I inked him to a long-term deal and he hit .296 with 26 HRs and 91 RBI for us this year.

The hitters are guys who could be servicable at the next level in some situations, whereas our pitching staff is decidedly bush league. But very effective for us.

Our ace this year was 26-year old Cris Massarelli, who despite the name is from Venezuela. Anyway, he went 15-7 this year and was effective notching 18 quality starts.

You can read the stats and get an idea of who we have, but the bottom line is..no matter how we do in the ALCS -- and make no mistake, we want the title -- we'll have to go out and find ways to bolster the pitching staff and replace the guys who we'll not be able to afford next year, if we want to replicate the success of this season.

Free agents this off-season will include the following key players:

Gus Lancaster spent a good third of the season hurt and so, he'll be able to step in for a full year and that'll help ease the loss of losing Anderson who might not have played much anyway, but it'll be intriguing to see how it goes for us.

But enough of that talk.

Let's get to the ALCS
---
The Santa Maria Winemakers were the best pitching team in baseball this year and boast two 13-game winners in Robby Hill and Carlos Macias. Macias is 40-years old, but doesn't seem to want to quit. He went 13-11 this year with 70 Ks in 226 innings. On the flip side, Hill is a 24-year old hurler who went 13-6 with a 3.99 ERA and 135Ks this year.

The team's power is derived for a 24-year old rookie from Fort Drum, NY named Mack Knight. He hit 26 HRs and 93 RBI this year on .272 hitting.

We should match up well with them in this best-of-seven championship series, but it's the playoffs and anything can happen...

BROWNS WIN THE 2006 ALCS
By offering ridiculously low ticket prices (average ticket price was $1 in a league where they're normally about $4) and making the atmopshere fan friendly, while giving fans a winning product, former Yankees GM D.C. Daly is becoming a championship owner, in the same way that he was running other people's product.

"It's so different," he said of running his own ballclub. "Obviously, I have more help now. But there is so much more to consider."

The Browns won the 2006 American League Pennant (box score) and have fans in Worcester dreaming of major league grandeur.

The upstart American League is the bottom rung of the major league baseball ladder. Its players don't make the tens of millions that stars in the upper majors make, the games don't get much TV coverage and talent level is generally deemed to be of a lower quality than the other leagues.

"We're playing great baseball down here. It's a wonderful chance for smaller cities in America to get Major League baseball in their backyards, so more people truly grow up with the national pastime. I think this system is brilliant and it forces your team to produce. If you don't do well, you go home," said Daly, who as an owner pays a fee each year into the pool.

The system is all possible because of significant spreading out of media money throughout the league. So New York might have four teams -- five if you count the NL team in New Jersey -- but all of the media money those teams generate gets put into the pool, along with other radio, internet and other fees that allow teams in places like Billings or Santa Maria to exist at all.

"Without the revenue sharing across the board, there is no way any of this would be possible. Can you imagine baseball where only the big market teams can compete and it's like, when small market teams compete and win titles, we'd throw parades because they bothered to show up to the party? Man, what a crappy baseball world that'd be to live in," said Daly.

After his team won the title, he said that he knew they'd have to "reload" going into next season, because "with everyone knowing that an AL pennant will get you promoted [to the National League], it's going to be cutthroat. Every game will feel like the playoffs."

This is precisely what I was trying to show with my league as well. It doesn't always make sense from my perspective, but then again, you have no window into the players minds either. Still, it seems to work out very well, and is fun to watch develop.

dola,

oh! And Boooooo on showing ratings. ;)

2006 PLAYOFFS RECAP
AMERICAN LEAGUE
As you know, in the American League, the Worcester Browns captured the pennant over the Santa Maria Winemakers 4 games to 3.

NATIONAL LEAGUE
Meanwhile, on the senior circuit, the stakes were high as the winner of the NLCS would be promoted to the Continental League -- on the doorstep of Major League glory -- if they move up.

New Jersey was knocked off by the Arkansas Travelers in five games, while Cedar Rapids dispatched Omaha in 5 games to setup an NLCS date between the unlikely pair.

In the end, the Arkansas Travelers beat out their big city competition to win the NLCS over upstart Cedar Rapids 4 games to 2 to earn promotion to the Continental League in 2007.

CONTINENTAL LEAGUE
The Charlotte Knights won the 2006 Guinness Cup Series over the Sacramento River Cats 4 games to 2 to earn best-of-five date with the New York Mets to determine who'll be playing in MLB next year at the Baseball Grounds in Jacksonville.

MLB CHALLENGE SERIES presented by AT&T
The New York Mets held serve in four games of the best-of-five MLB Challenge Series to retain their spot in MLB for another year, knocking off the CL Champion Charlotte Knights. It's the third time in four years that the Continental League champion has been denied entry to the big leagues after a loss in the Challenge Series.


MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL
WORLD SERIES QUARTERFINALS
Pennsylvania def. Florida 3-2
Atlanta def. Chicago Cubs 3-1
Texas def. San Jose 3-0
Boston def. St. Louis 3-1

WORLD SERIES SEMIFINALS
Atlanta def. Pennsylvania 4-1
Texas def. Boston 4-2

2006 WORLD SERIES
Atlanta Athletics def. Texas Rangers 4 games to 1

It's the first World Series title in franchise history for the A's of Atlanta.

Yeah yeah..I don't wanna hear it. lol

AMERICAN LEAGUE TO ADD TWO TEAMS IN 2007
The road to the Majors just got a little tougher for American League teams. The league announced plans to expand by two teams in 2007 to a total of 14.

"We're going to capitalize on the success of year 1 with two new cities that will be able to dream of Major League status."

The two cities have not been named as of yet, but ought to be unveiled November 1st.

Ed Note: I have one city picked and the other..I'm waffling about. If you have any ideas of cities say, west of the Mississippi that we're not already in and could be a good AL destintation (remember: 4th divsion) let me know.

Santa Fe, El Paso, Billings, Cheyenne, Rapid City, Winnipeg, Calgary, Edmonton,

Midland/Odessa, TX

Someone asked a question on another board and I thought my answers might be helpful here:


1. MLB is the only league with minors. It's one level of minors there, 40 players max on the minor league roster. The other leagues do not have minors. The CL used to, but we got rid of that after I added the lower leagues permanently. Most teams don't have a glut of reserve players, because of the salary cap. So you don't see the problem that OOTP used to be famous for where teams gobble up all of the good players and hold onto them forever.

There are two feeder leagues. The NCAA feeds MLB (same number of teams at MLB) and the AL now has a HS feeder league and I might, though I'm not 100% certain, add a minor league for AL teams that's all prospects with the idea that the AL should be the league that houses prospects and I'd love to see a situation where upper division teams trying to deal for those guys left and right sending back vets or something.

2. When a team is promoted or relegated, I recalculate financials for all of the teams in those leagues, so it can change the team's budget from where it was in their old league, to the new one. Sometimes, I have to change their TV revenue to match the rest of the league. But that's it and yes, when teams get demoted to the CL they have to cut payroll and it's been happening automatically. From time to time -- and this was back when I was in MLB myself and not so much now -- I'll step in and hasten the process of the purging of players. But it hasn't been a problem for the past four or so years.

3. Generally at average/average. Sometimes, later in the season or in the off-season, I'll bump it to "very high" and depending on the flow of players in the league (e.g., if I see too many teams holding onto kids who are able to start or where it's veterans who are being held onto to) I'll change it to "favor prospects or favor veterans". It's all based on league movement and trends.


I think the bottom line in understand my "mindset" or whatever is, I'm far more interested in the 50,000 ft. view of the league and 'how it works" than I am about my own team.

It's why I probably change my team idea (I didn't start this ever intending to leave Boston, etc., and planned to stay in Providence before changing my mind...) and why I decided to try to "struggle" my way back to the majors.

I've tried to minimize the team moves and stuff, because I know that can be super hard to follow and keep up with and that's a departure for me from previous dynasties. I'm trying to keep things from get too convoluted and yet, I do want to get people an idea of what's happening in each league. So questions help, because it helps me know what details people are interested in, because while I'm detail oriented to a fault, I don't always know what things people seek out in these things.

I think heading into next season and beyond, I want to streamline things a bit and so, rather than focus on the leagues as a whole or the larger part of things, I'm going to focus more on the team I'm running at that time. It just seems like an easier way to go about things and allows for more focus. I'll obviously cover the stuff like who gets relegated and stuff and of course, if there are things you specifically want to know, PLEASE ask because it helps me know that folks are reading and want to know certain things.

But..I think that's the format I plan to take, because it might just be easier to navigate. And I plan to try to incorporate graphics better, too.

So we'll see.

The two newest American League teams are the:

Westchester (N.Y.) Apples
El Paso Incredibles

I'm pretty happy with how the Incredibles (LOS INCREÍBLES) wordmark came out:

I posted all of my graphics online, so feel free to take what you like. Or at least look and admire my handiwork.

Link

DC, I'm as fascinated by the mechanics of how you're getting OOTP to do these kinds of things and actually make it work as the actual relating of the dynasty itself. The creativity here is outstanding.

Btw, thanks for the graphics link. Those are great as well.

2006 OFF-SEASON PREVIEW
November 1, 2006

So, my plan is pretty simple. We don't have the luxury of wallowing down here for years or else, I'll have to change our entire gameplan. We're all about the fast track and so, I'm going to do my best to get out of this league this year trying to assemble a team that can win in the playoffs as well as the regular season, which in a league like this is pretty much the same thing.

The National League is a completely different animal, since it's almost as big as MLB and so, I dunno. I'm a little concerned and yet...I think we can make it work.

I'd love a player development avenue or some way to get cheap, young talent and so, don't be surprised if I make deals to get a lot more guys on the reserve roster, simply because I want more options to choose from later in the year, because at this level, that can be the biggest problem is that when you do get hit with injuries, that you don't have the ability to bring players in who can help you fill those holes and signing free agents can be spotty or just downright impossible in terms of solid quality.

So we'll see how it goes.

2007 SALARY CAP FIGURES
---
MLB: none
CL: $80 million
NL: $50 million
AL: $25 million

DECEMBER 10, 2006
The most interesting dynamic of running a team at this level is the fact that signing players can be a gamble. If you ink a guy to a long-term deal that won't be as useful at a higher level of ball, you might be saddled with having overpaid for a guy who won't be useful for more than a year.

The flip side? The fact that you almost have mortagage the future. You can't sign tons of prospects and hold onto them. Ok, you can. But you'll ensure you'll hang out in the AL doldrums forever. You can't even wait for them to develop, because I've rigged the rules at this level to make sure that minor league free agents can exercise their right to bolt after just a year depending on their service time.

So it's been weird looking at guys we KNOW we can't sign and then trying to make deals for the scraps of bigger teams, really and hoping that works for us.

I'm going to sim through the rest of the off-season to get to the pre-season and then prepare for the regular season. I'm still trying to dream up a format I can use, so we can get through these seasons, because frankly..none of the details at this level are all that interesting and all we want to know is whether the Browns can get up the ladder or if we'll be stuck down in the mud for many, many years.

INSERT YOUR HIGH SCHOOL INTO THE AL FEEDER
I have a high school league feeder going to the American League and 2007 will mark the first season of the AL Draft. To make things more interesting, I thought it might be cool to insert a few user high schools into the feeder.

So if you want yours in there, do tell me the name, the school colors and obviously the location and mascot/nickname.

I won't get them all this go-round necessarily, but...I'll eventually find ways to add more as we go on. I think it could fun to follow how kids from our high schools did or whatever.

SEASON PREVIEW, 2007 WORCESTER BROWNS
The defending American League champion Browns are going for something far more than just pride and a pennant this year -- we're gunning for promotion.
The Browns are doing their best impression of a free-wheeling juggernaut by boasting the highest payroll in the AL this year -- just under $800k under the salary cap -- but management says, "we're not concerned with perceptions. We just want to win baseball games."



On the offensive side of the house, the Browns are hoping to get maximum production for reigning MVP Vern Morgan who led the AL with 41 HRs year and added 120 RBI to that total.


33-year old infielder Robin Donovan looks to build his first season in Worcester where he hit .298 with 26 HR and 91 RBI for the Browns.


Newcomers to the ballclub include former Providence infielder Alfie Penrice who spent the past two years with the Minnesota Twins, who were relegated to the NL this past season. Penrice is just 25-years old and the man that signed him to his first deal -- none other than D.C. Daly himself -- says that he thinks the young Englishman can turn it out this year.

"We were ecsatic when he agreed to come here. He didn't play much last year in Minnesota (.228 in 42 games played and I think his confidence is down. He's a solid defender, a great clubhouse guy and the fans in New England already know and love 'em. I can't wait to see him out there on opening day," said Daly about his new acquistion.


The pitching rotation only includes one face, 21-year old rookie Billy Henson.

The team acquired closer Franciso Ortiz from Minnesota, in the deal that sent Penrice and another player to Minnesota for four players include former Worcester closer Warren Tucker (who Minnesota turned converted back to a starter) and three other players this off-season.

In case you're wondering, it's not uncommon to find teams at the AL level that have guys who have MLB experience. Nine of the pitchers on the Browns roster are MLB alumns. Among those, three have started more than 60 games. While we have eight hitters who are MLB experienced, but among those only four of them have in excess of 300 MLB at-bats in their career.

Westchester has seven guys who are MLB experienced in their lineup, among them seven have at least 200 MLB ABs and four have over 1000. But I suppose that's what you have to do when you play in the shadows of NY's Finest teams.

Anyway...I'd like to think we're pretty well setup for the year, but if we sputter out of the gate, I'll make adjustments, because it's worth it to me.

Here goes.

AMERICAN LEAGUE TEAM PAYROLLS ~ OPENING DAY 2007



HIGHEST PAID PLAYERS ~ AMERICAN LEAGUE 2007

Gary Roosevelt Panthers
Gary, IN
Black & Gold

MLB TO SPONSOR AREA CODE GAMES
Major League Baseball created a new league for elite high school players starting in 2007 called Area Code Baseball. The six-team league will be comprised of teams of some of the best high school prospects in the nation.

"This will give MLB teams a chance to showcase some of the best young talent that America has to offer."

TEAMS
---
Royals
Cubs
Bees
Yankees
Cardinals
Cyclones

REEBOK HIGH SCHOOL LEAGUE SET FOR 2007 SEASON
12 high schools across the nation are set for the 2007 installment of the Reebok High School Baseball League this year.

A whole new setup has been recruited for the league.

AMERICAN
---
Alameda HS (CA)
Theodore Roosevelt HS (Gary, IN)
Lebanon HS (MO)
Plainfield HS (NJ)
T.C. Williams HS (Alexandria, VA)
Westfield HS (NJ)

NATIONAL
---
Norway (IA)
Cheyenne South (wY)
Cousins Day School (WY)
Laramie HS (WY)
Tucker HS (GA)
Yellowstone Academy (wY)

JUNE 30, 2007
DODGERS REPORTED OFFER DALY JOB WITH CLUB
Despite his Browns being 5 games ahead in the AL Northern Conference race and looking to repeat as AL champs and earning a promotion to the 3rd division National League, some reports out of Boston are saying that Worcester Browns Team President and majority owner D.C. Daly has received an offer from the Los Angeles Dodgers to run their ballclub as Team President & General Manager.

The Dodgers are currently 35-51 and their .407 winning percentage puts them as the worst team in MLB and in position for the MLB Challenge Series at season's end.

Since it's just midseason, team ownership has panicked, firing the team's manager, GM and several other key players in the front office and are reportedly making an "aggressive" offer to Daly, who has long been coveted by Dodgers, who were recently taken over by a consortium that includes -- most strangely -- the California State Teacher's Retirement System.

"Who would expect teachers to own a baseball team. But they saw the value and thought it was a long-term value investment," said Mickey "Skip" Aronson, CEO of Golden State Sports Enterprises (GSSE), which among its holdings also owns the Los Angeles Kings NHL team and Golden State Warriors. The CSTRS owns 43% of GSSE.

It's not unprecedented as Canadian' Maple Leaf Sports Enteprises is a publicy owned company as well, owned 58% by the Ontario Teacher's Pension Plan.

No word has been given from Daly on whether he'd be willing to sell his ballclub to his partners -- or to a local owner -- to take the job in LA, but some reports have said that after a year and a half in the lower levels of baseball, that he's grown "tired" of the process and underestimated the grind of being an owner and G.M.

"I think he feels like it's almost like he's retired. He likes calling the shots and building a club. And he's obviously doing a great job, but I think anytime you have to watch your compatriots play at the big leagues while you toil in obscurity, it can be a little hard. After all, you have to understand that this guy won a World Series five years ago. So I can understand the adjustment of being down there," said Terry Hargrove, Assistant GM of the Boston Yankees, the club Daly helped build into a powerhouse and close friend.

Using a strategy of acquiring name players, wooing Bostonites and employing cheap ticket prices, Daly's Browns club are the toast of lowel-level major league baseball. They play at 24,000 seat Iron Hills Stadium in Worcester, and sellout every game in the ballpark.

"They've done an excellent job down there. They're the envy of a lot of clubs at a much higher level," said an MLB executive.

Their current attendance is nearly double that (692,361, Santa Maria is #2 at 386,728) of any team in the AL and 39th in all of the majors, on par with the top two teams in the 3rd division National League and would put them in the middle of the pack in terms of clubs at the 2nd division Continental League level.

So he's got quite a product to sell. The franchise fee for the club was a paltry $3 million, but the team's value is estimated at as much as $40 million if it were sold today.

The Dodgers are clearly trying to salvage their season and seem to want to move forward on a candidate rather than opting for interims for the rest of the season.

"We're going to try to move this as fast as we can, but we want the right candidate. We don't just want anybody," said Aronson, about the team's search.

REPORT: BROWNS TO BE SOLD TO LOCAL GROUP FOR $34 MILLION
JULY 1, 2007

WORCESTER - It looks like D.C. Daly is poised to head back to the major leagues. After a report came out today in the Worcester Telegram & Gazette -- breaking the story before the Boston Globe could -- that the local ballclub that leads the American League is poised to be sold to a local community group comprised of 10 local investors and about 1,000 shareholders who call themselves Worcester Community Baseball Group, LLC., for the sum of $34 million.

The reported sale price is obviously is a hometown discount -- one must guess -- of nearly $10 million off the premium of the team's value, which is reported to be between $40-47 million, according to a recent report by the Boston Herald.

The sale would still need to be approved by Major League Baseball's Associate Committee, the group that is comprised of the clubs that do not make up the top tier, but only the AL clubs get to vote to approve the deal and most have said, that "won't be a hurdle in the deal."

WHAT HAPPENS TO D.C. DALY?

Daly owned a controlling interest in the ballclub -- about 43% -- at the time of the proposed deal and was the one who engineered it according to advisors to the Team President.

He's still in his current role and a spokesman for Worcester Community Baseball have said that if D.C. wants to stay, he has a job for life.

"This guy is one of the best that's come along. He's still extremely young and we're all pretty convinced he can turn Worcester into a big league city. We're talking rivalry with the Yankees big."

But the rumors are swirling that the Dodgers have offered him a lucrative gig with their ballclub include the title of President of Baseball Operations.

NCAA FINAL STANDINGS ~ 2007

NCAA PLAYOFFS (ALL BEST-OF-SEVEN)

REGIONALS
---
Maryland def. Wichita State 4-2
Texas def. Oklahoma 4-3
Penn State def. Ferrum 4-1
Ohio State def. Notre Dame 4-2

SUPER REGIONALS
---
Maryland def. Texas 4-1
Ohio State def. Penn State 4-2

2007 COLLEGE WORLD SERIES
====
Ohio State def. Maryland 4-3


DALY DONATES $1 MILLION TO YELLOWSTONE UNIVERSITY BASEBALL PROGRAM
July 5, 2007
CODY, WYOMING -- Worcester Browns GM gave $1 million to the Yellowstone University baseball program, the largest single gift in the history of the school's athletic program. Of course, the school is only 7 years old, so that's not saying a whole lot.

The school was founded by his close childhood friend E. Steven Colms, who founded the university in 1998 as a "place for young, brilliant people to study among the most beautiful scenery in the world and to create a world class university in Wyoming," says the school's web site.

Colms, 36, understands what it's like to be young and successful having owned and sold several internet properties during the 1990s before deciding to finish his doctorate and decided to invest his money into starting a university.

He said he and Daly grew up together and that he was originally the friend of his older brother, but that he and Daly started talking about their common love for baseball and stayed in touch over the years despite the 5-year age difference between the two.

"He always said he'd do this, be successful in baseball."

Daly, who recently sold his stock in the Browns and remains on as Team President, said he was excited about the school's new program that will join the NCAA along with Creighton, UConn and Alabama in 2008.

"I just love this campus. It's a great place and love the work they're doing," he said appearing on the campus as the AL was off for its annual All-Star game for the past few days.

Daly did not answer questions related to his future in Worcester, saying only that he's happy where the ballclub and feels like they've put the team in a great position to go further, but "it's a long season and you never want to get too far ahead of yourself. We're poised on the prize of defending our pennant. That's all the team is focused on now, not anything else."

DALY RESIGNS AS BROWNS PRESIDENT, COULD JOIN DODGERS BY WEEK'S END
July 9, 2007
WORCESTER - In a move that had been anticipated for weeks, Browns Team President D.C. Daly resigned from his post atop the reigning AL champs after the sale of the club was approved in a special session conference call of the American League Board of Governors this weekend.

"I'm happy to have had the opportunity to set the gears in motion that will hopefully soon lead to Worcester being home to a big league ballclub," said Daly who leaves Worcester with a 132-53 record as GM of the ballclub and with the team leading the AL Northern Conference by 3 games. If the team wins the pennant this season, it will be promoted to the NL next season as the American League officially enters the promotion scheme this year.

While Daly didn't directly address the rumour that he'd be taking the Dodgers job, he did say that he would have more information regarding his future later this week.

"I won't deny that I've been contacted by several clubs related to opportunity related to my immediate future. But I won't have anything to say about what's next for me until I know myself," he said in a statement released by his agent.

MLB STANDINGS
Tuesday July 10, 2007

BASEBALL AMERICA TOP FARM SYSTEMS

BASEBALL AMERICA TOP FARM SYSTEMS

TEAM PAYROLLS ~ MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL

HIGHEST PAID PLAYERS ~ MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL

Sunday, July 15th, 2007: D.C. Daly is the New General Manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers
LOS ANGELES -- When Los Angeles used the "nuclear option" and made wholesale changes in the front office after new ownership took over the club, fans were left wondering in which direction their favorite club would head. The hiring of D.C. Daly gives them hope that the ship can be righted, as the team sits in last place in MLB and is trying to save the team's major league status.

"It's great to be back in the bigs again, but there will be no honeymoon. I'm already aware of that," said Daly. The former Yankees G.M. who rescued that club from the doldrums and put them back on the baseball map spent the last year and a half with the American League's Worcester Browns, a ballclub he was the primary owner of. After selling the club for a handsome profit last month, Daly says that he felt it was the "right time" to get back to business in the big leagues, rather than toiling in the lower leagues with the Browns, who wouldn't be eligible for MLB until the 2010 season and that's provided the team could win the AL in '07, NL in '08, CL in '09 as well as the MLB Challenge Series to earn a bid to MLB in '10.

Daly said that while the task was an "exciting" one, that he felt like his talents were better utilized at the big-league level.

"I have a new appreciation for what owners go through after that whole thing [in Worcester], because I never knew how much work it would be to be able to do what I do and run a ballclub from the top-down. But...when this opportunity arose, I felt like it was the right time for me to move forward, especially since we'd sold the team."

The Dodgers boast one of baseball's worst farm systems and will need to get better, faster if the club is to fight off a possible relegation date.

"I can assure you that we're too proud a ballclub here in Los Angeles to risk trying to lose our top division standing," said Daly, who said he is aware of the gains made by the Los Angeles Angels during this time and that he was hoping to put more pressure on the other relegation candidate from California, the Riverside, CA-based California Empires.

"Needless to say, if someone's going down...I'd rather it be them than us. But we'll have to prove that on the field."

With about two weeks to go before the trade deadline, Dodgers fans are wondering what sort of magic Daly will work to get the team off the ledge. Ownership paid him a handsome sum to sign with the Dodgers, but no one is certain that they're willing to take on more salary at the moment. "We're going to have to evaluate what we have, before we make any hasty moves. Hopefully, we can salvage the year making smart baseball moves. But make no mistake, this is a formidble challenge for anyone."

The AL trade deadline is June 1st, the CL and NL end trading on July 1st and so, the only league that has trading (until August 2nd) is MLB. This is done on purpose to prevent top-division teams from raiding talent at the last minute from teams at the lower levels preparing to dump talent.

SAVING DODGERTOWN
The Dodgers -- under the direction of new GM D.C. Daly -- have launched a new ad campaign called "We Are LA" as a response to the increased popularity of the Angels in the city. With the Dodgers in the relegation zone, the team is looking to salvage its season, while also attracting fan interest, as the team resides 28th in attendance out of the 32 big league clubs.

"We're going to try to make things work and we don't have a lot of time to save this season. But I think we've got a lot of great guys here and I believe we can turn it around."

The team also started an area on the team's web site where they can ask the new G.M. questions. "We want to keep the lines of communication open. I'm genuinely interested in where people want to see the ballclub go and look forward to suggestions."


The Dodgers star is Bobby Stewart, who came over during the off-season in a trade from the New York Bombers where he'd spent the first nine years of his career. The 29-year old right fielder said that he didn't expect that he'd be in a position to from a club that was relegated to a team that might be, but having experienced it once before, he says that he's not interested in having it happen again.

"Man, I'm not trying to do that again. We have to get out of this spot we're in," he said.

The Dodgers problems stem from a lack of production from its infielders. Together, they're hitting below the Mendoza Line. The team's pitching staff isn't much to write home about either and lacks depth.

Whether the team can make necessary adjustments to stave off relegation -- something that D.C. Daly has never experienced -- will make this the biggest challenge of the young veteran GM's career.

"It'll be interesting to see if he can pull this off," said one veteran baseball exec. "He's had it pretty easy, even in Boston they were willing to let him make deals left and right and spend when they had to. We'll see how he handles this."

NAMES TO KNOW
Here are a few of the guys on the Dodgers -- you can look at the stats below -- that you ought to know.


Mike Sharpe, Closer
In his fifth year as the Dodgers closer, notching 142 saves over that time.

Paul Moneur, Pitcher
If the name sounds familiar, it should. He was the closer in Providence during '03 and '04 and I had him in the Boston farm system when I was there.
He was dealt here after two years with the NY Bombers last off-season.


Cody Reese, Outfielder
Never got to see him play before now. He was an 8th round pick in the 2001 draft of the Boston Yankees. After getting released in '03, he won a Gold Glove
in Riverside (now California Empires) and inked a three-year free agent deal with the Dodgers in the off-season.


Orlando Hernandez, Pitcher
36-year old hurler came over from New York along with Cody Reese and Bobby Stewart in a blockbuster during the off-season. Only dependable starter in
the Dodgers rotation at present. Went 17-8 last year in New York with a 2.71 ERA and 258 K


Alex Todd, Outfielder
25-year old outfielder who is in his third year with the Dodgers. Had a breakout year last year hitting 39 HR and 110 RBI.


PITCHING STATS ~ JULY 15, 2007 ~ LOS ANGELES DODGERS

BATTING STATS ~ JULY 15, 2007 ~ LOS ANGELES DODGERS

I am genuinely curious how some of the readers out there would approach a situation like this. Rebuilding in the era of relegation is very, very different than dealing with just losing for a few years and going through growing pains. Playing at the lower levels is a lot more competitive than you'd think and once you get down there and have to face salary caps and other restraints, it becomes very difficult to move up and so, it's not anywhere we want to be.

And playing the best-of-five challenge series is akin to a crapshoot, too.

So...how should I approach presenting this season to you? I considered doing a game-by-game account of the rest of this year, to break down my thought process and also to slow things down a bit and help you all get more invested in the guys we have and the team as a whole.

I'm looking for feedback.

I think that the first order of business it avoiding relegation. It seems that you have at least 2 starters that *need* to be replaced. A third would be helpful. I would look for pitching first, but then I always look at pitching first. The bullpen is acceptable for now. The offense actually looks pretty good, but club is really lacking contact hitters (i.e #2 hitters) and guys who get on base (more #2 hitters). That would be the first things that I would look at anyway.

Ed Note: Trading is on hard

JULY 18, 2007
---
We traded pitchers Will Lewis, Kelsey Brown, Bruce Campbell and shortstop Jeff Sawyer to San Antonio today for:


Rationale: It was all about having more options. We have little to none at the moment. Campbell was horrible with us, but he'd never had a season this bad before (10-13, 4.99 ERA, 208 K last year in Toronto) and so, I felt the change of scenery might help and seeing that he had some value, keeping him at his current pace was not an option.

Sawyer is just 26 and is another guy that was struggling in his first year with us. He makes $5.2 million a year and so, getting rid of him and his salary -- even if he rebounds -- was worth it to me.

This isn't the last deal we'll make before the deadline, as I'm expecting to move either Sharpe or Moneur before the deadline, hoping to pick up prospects in return.

I'm also considering moving Moneur to the rotation. He's started two games in his career, I started him last week and he started a game two years ago in New York.

I don't have any illusions about building a contender or a winner this year or even next. I just want to get this team stabilized enough to a safe, midtable position where we can begin to plot our next moves.

BAD AT EVERYTHING..
JULY 23, 2007
I'm almost amused at how bad we are at everything critical and really trying to resist blowing the team up, selling off whatever value we have to try to get players to salvage the year. This team does everything porly. We're the worst hitting team in baseball and amongst the worst in team ERA as well. I mean, none of this is really that much a surprise and all, it's just....staggering.

We just got swept this past weekend by the Atlanta A's and now we're currently tied with California Empires for the worst record in baseball.

I've moved new acquisition Jorge Gonazales into the rotation, along with Paul Moneur, because I figured well..why not?

I haven't found a deal for Sharpe yet and I haven't really decided what to do with what we have, knowing that after August 2nd, there won't be a whole lot that we can do.

I'll be scouring the minor leagues to see if there are some "near-ready" or "ready" guys that teams are holding onto that can be had. I think that's our best hope right now, as it would be my strategy if this were a lower-division team trying to move up and so, maybe I need to focus more on that, than anything.

And in case you were wondering, if two teams are tied with the worst record, they play a one-game playoff, with the loser going to the Challenge Series.

YANKEES AND DODGERS MAKE DEAL: 12-PLAYERS CHANGE HANDS
JULY 23, 2007

LOS ANGELES - Dodgers G.M. D.C. Daly is desperate to keep him team in the major leagues. So much so that he dealt his team's lone all-star and ace pitcher Orlando Hernandez to Eastern Division leading Boston today as the centerpiece of a deal that would allow the Dodgers to cut payrol by close to $4 million, as well as picking up some prospects along the way.

In the deal, the Dodgers also sent free agent to be Alex Todd, who despite hitting .274 with 21 HRs so far this year, indicated that he would test free agency and so, the team decided to move him while had value.

One other starter, C Paul Peek, who is hitting .239 with 14 HR and 32 RBI as the starting catcher for most of the season and valued primarily for his defensive prowess, will give the Yankees another option at catcher.

Two other minor leaguers -- reliever Javier Orozco and outfielder Mat Gilmore - were also included in the deal.

In return, the Dodgers get starting pitcher Chuck Sherman who is 10-9 with a 4.63 ERA this year in 22 starts with 85 strikeouts and 52 walks. Another notable major league player the team acquired was outfielder Nick Johnson, who is hitting .254 with 13 HR and 47 RBI as the Yankees 4th outfielder. The Dodgers are likely to consider moving him to the infielder, possibly third base. Fifth outfielder Gabe Ramirez (.249/15 HR/37 RBI) and five minor leaguers sealed the deal for the Dodgers.

Fans in Los Angeles upon hearing the deal are livid with new GM D.C. Daly, saying that by dealing a player like Hernandez (11-7, 3.54 ERA, 8.0 K/9) that the team is resigned to its poor position and is giving up.

"We fully recognize that there is a risk in a deal like this and trust me, we weren't just happy beyond belief to give up a guy like Orlando and yet, I think that this trade will help us fill a ton of gaps that we're trying to address, because let's face it..for us right now, there is no tomorrow. We have to get through this season and then we can adjust or adapt as we need to. But right now, we're hearing the alarm and it doesn't make sense to hold onto guys -- especially 36-year old hurlers -- when they can be useful elsewhere, while helping us keep this team in the bigs."

LA talk radio is burning up over the deal saying that Daly should "go back to the minors" and that the engineer of the Yankees World Series championship in 2002 and who led the Bees to the World Series in 2004, is in over his head with a "team that probably needs someone who undrstands what a bad team is like and how to make them better."

What LA fans are ignoring is that it took him 3 years to get Boston to the post-season and that his first year, the team finished 66-96 and 7th in the eastern division.

Daly says that he's okay with criticism and that the team will hopefully respond to his moves. He has not ruled out another deal before the August 2nd trade deadline.

"I don't want to tip our hand too much, but I've been on the phone pretty much non-stop for at least a week. We've got some options and we're going to evaluate them and try to do the best thing we can for our ballclub."

The team is preparing for a four game homestand against the team that's sharing last place with them currently -- the California Empires -- and Daly says that this series will test the team's mettle.

"We'll see if they respond and how they respond. We've shaken things up a bit, but I think the team will decide for themselves what they want to happen next."

DEADLINE DEALS
We made two deadline deals after the one listed already:

JULY 27, 2007: We dealt Mike Sharpe, Angel Crus, Matt Dupree, Ikki Watanabe and Ted Burns to the Florida Marlins for prospect starter Armando Torres, who was ranked among the Top 100 prospects on Baseball America's list, he's a 24-year old southpaw.

We also got first baseman Joe Wilson (.263/3 HR/13 RBI), reliever Jason Woodward (0-1, 2 SV 1.46 ERA in 9 games), second baseman Victor Brown (.221/9 HR/38 RBI) and pitcher Matt Gregory (2-1, 2 SV 3.03 ERA)

On August 2nd, we made our final deal, trading with the San Francisco Giants for some veteran talent. We sent them outfielder Bobby Crawford, infielder Victor Brown, outfielder Gabe Ramirez, catcher Manuel Gonzalez, starter Edward Braun and Matt Gregory and cash for:

26-year old SS Scott Noble (.255/16 HR/51 RBI)
28-year old MR Joe Rainey (2-3, 1 SV 4.55 ERA)
32-year old LF Kelly Sizemore (.248/17 HR/ 61 RBI)
23-year old C Jose Valadez (.275/8 HR/25 RBI)

The deal with the Giants could be scrutinized heavily since we gave up so much talent -- at least on paper -- Sizemore and Crawford for sure. But, I felt like we need to augment our lineup with guys who'd fit. At this point in the game, I realized that we could get too attached to much of anybody -- other than Bobby Stewart -- because we're in the doldrums and if we didn't come out of this one alive, then we need to try to forge some sort of chemistry as fast as we could, plus I got rid of guys earlier that might be free agents and who made it clear they weren't going to resign.

Right now, the only free agents to be we have on our roster are pitchers Jorge Gonzales, Vincente Salas and David Grant and third baseman Alfonso Lopez.

I do realize that it's a bit insane to go imploding an entire rotation and selling off everything of value, but the real world and the relegation world are completely different and so, it's hard to parallel really.

----
SEPTEMBER 1, 2007
After making the two deadline deals, I simmed an entire month and planned to go through the last month of the season game-by-game so you could really see whether we make it out or not.

Here are the standings in the MLB RED ZONE brought to you by Old Spice Red Zone:

We went 14-13 in August, our first winning month of the season and even though you could hear the collective sting of "ouch" from fans and pundits when Bobby Crawford was named MLB Rookie of the Month for August (.389/4 HR/ 18 runs), I still feel confident the moves we made will prove right and keep us in the majors for another year without having to play the challenge series.

But that being said, being 2 1/2 games up isn't exactly a safety cushion by any stretch.

Our schedule the rest of the way out: (record as of Sept. 1st) (record against team)

I think at the point that one creates a structure that's comprised of four tiers of major league baseball, abolishes the draft, pools media revenue and essentially treats baseball as on par with European Soccer in terms of its perceived popularity in the world, that realism is an overrated concept.

But that said, yeah I do. I don't make swindle deals where I acquire stars from teams on the cheap. Plus, I tend to overcompensate by generally playing in "God" mode and helping computer teams at random times and I'm always steering top talent their way, on purpose, to make things more difficult.

Also, in terms of realism...real life deals are almost ALWAYS involving multiple players and in most of my deals, I send more minor leaguers and so it always inflates the deal. If I were to say (as they do in real life) "future considerations" or "players to be named later" it'd be the same form or function of what we're doing here.

And when cash is involved in my deals, it's almost always sent as a mechanism to cover the salary of someone I'm sending to that team, not as a pot sweetener, though it acts that way. The alternative, would be to just subtract the money from our payroll and add it to theirs, but to me that's not realistic as the actual transfer of money from team to team.

So to answer your question in earnest (and I appreciate the question, I like these sorts of questions...because it really makes me know people are following what I'm doing and are curious about stuff), I will say that I never know where the line of "realism" and "just plum ridiculous" get drawn. I mean, we're a team in a major market, fighting for our lives. You have a (presumably) well-liked GM who is known for his ability to get quick results, make alliances and make things happen.

Ownership gives him the keys to the farm and say, "production has to improve. Or else." So on some level, I think panicking and dealing off guys where it could very well blow up in his face isn't really unrealistic. Especially fan favourite type guys like Alex Todd that came up with the organization and then get dealt up in a fit of rage that the TFNG decides don't fit with the "chemistry" of the new ballclub and where they're headed.

So yeah, they're realistic to me. Unorthodox maybe and perhaps crazy, but not unprecedented as far as this whole thing is concerned.

THE PULSE OF THE FAN
So, I was wondering what fans were thinking about the team and decided to hit the internet.

Boy, was that a mistake.

Daly sucks! Who thought it was a good idea to bring this scrub from BOSTON to LA? This is the big city loser. He trades all of our good guys away and we're gonna have to play some sorry team, lose and get stuck in relegation playing in the minors like the Bombers or something.

This SUCKS!


With the spectre of positivity on our side, let's get to the last games of the regular season.

We start a three game set against the Cincinnati Reds on the road. We haven't played them all year.

I never know how to explain these games unless it's particular interest in the result and so, I'll just post the box scores unless something very interesting comes out of it.

In this particular case, I haven't done anything with the lineups at all, but might make some tweaks to particular games to see if someone can get hot to end the year.

Looking more closely, here are some of the notable guys who had hot months in August:

C Jose Valadez (.396/8 HR/ 16 RBI in 27 games)
SS Scott Noble (.342/3 HR/10 RBI in 27 games
OF Kelly Sizemore (.260/7 HR/17 RBI in 27 games)
SP Chuck Sherman (4-1, 17 K, 4.40 ERA)
SP Paul Moneur (2-0, 4.54 ERA 22 K)

The idea here is...find the hot hands and see where they can take us. Playing at Dodger Stadium itself is all about finding guys who can get on base and produce runs, not looking for dudes who can belt it out of the ballpark, because it's a lot harder to do there than it is somewhere else and so, that's how we'll approach this.

September 1, 2007
Los Angeles 8, Cincinnati 1
Box Score

DODGERS DO ONE-DOLLAR GAME DAYS
The Los Angeles Dodgers, in an attempt to sellout the rest of the team's game as they fight off relegation have announced $1 game day, offering fans $1 tickets on a host of seats at the ballpark.

"We'll take a loss, sure. But this is bigger than money. It's about bleeding blue. We're hoping fans come out and support the team. We need them and bigger things are on the horizon," said GM D.C. Daly about the move.

Daly, who was brought on in mid-July has faced a ton of scrutiny from Dodgers fans who wanted someone closer to the organization to run the team after the team was acquired by new ownership prior to the All-Star break. Daly's design to break up a great deal of the ballclub after it sank to last place and after a run of back to back 90-loss seasons in 2005 and 2006 (70-92, 68-94), fans have become frustrated with the ballclub and its lack of success, though the team claimed division titles in 2000, 2001 and 2004, it's not resulted in any sort of success in the form of championships.

"People need to begin to understand that this is a process and that we're all very committed to getting this team into a place where it's very successful. But that takes time."

GAME RESULTS
Unless otherwise asked, I'm just going to go game-by-game and not post box scores. I save them and the logs to any game my teams play these days, but it gets tedious to upload them, paste them or whatever when I know that sort of thing only appeals to a small base of people. Feel free to inform me of otherwise, tho.

SEPTEMBER 2, 2007:
Cincinnati 8, Los Angeles 2
The Reds had a 5-run eighth inning to bust the game open and get past the Dodgers at home.

SEPTEMBER 3, 2007:
Dodgers sign two college players
22-year old Harlan Minor signed a deal today with the Los Angeles Dodgers organization after four years at the University of Virginia. The Laramie, Wyoming native hit .355 with 78 HR and 232 RBI in four years of college. And in 2007, was a NCAA All-Star selection.

The other player was 22-year old outfielder Danny Hurley,a four-year starter at the University of Washington, Hurley hit 39 career HRs and 137 RBI during his four years at UW. The Beaverton, Oregon product is a left-handed hitter and the Dodgers are hoping he'll develop into a multifaceted outfielder down the road.

"We're happy with our college pickups this year and want to continue to develop our farm system," said D.C. Daly about the signings.

What happens to prospects upon relegation?
Teams lose their minor league club and it's transferred to the team that takes their place, upon relegation. Which can suck if you have a lot of young kids invested on the farm that you can put on the major league roster before you get relegated.

SEPTEMBER 3, 2007
Dodgers 6, Cincinnati 4
Down 4-1 heading into the 9th inning, the Dodgers put their rally caps on and started to dig deep. A single by Cody Reese started the rally, when the Reds walked Scott Noble to get to Takashi Kichida, who'd been inserted into the game in the 9th and he was hit by a pitch to load the bases for Bobby Stewart, who was walked to score a run, to make the score 4-2. Rookie Harlan Minor struck out to make two outs and the Reds made a pitching change, but Taylor Briggs, the new pitcher gave up a triple to the Dodgers Nick Johnson that scored three and proved to be the cushion the Dodgers needed to pull out the late inning rally win.

"This are the games that seasons are made of," said Johnson about his game winning heroics.

SEPTEMBER 4, 2007: Los Angeles 13, Houston 0

SEPTEMBER 5, 2007: Houston 4, Los Angeles 3 (12 innings)

SEPTEMBER 6, 2007: Houston 5, Los Angeles 2

We head home now for 3 against San Jose and a four-game set against the cross-town rival Angels. We're 33-38 at home this year and only 31-47 on the road and so hopefully, we'll get some home cooking over the next few days.

Here are the Red Zone Relegation standings as of September 7, 2007

SEPTEMBER 8, 2007: DODGERS 1, SAN JOSE 0
CHUCK SHERMAN threw 8 innings of seven-hit ball, striking out 4 and walking 1, as the Dodgers only needed one run to combat Dalton Conway and the San Jose Captains attack.

SEPTEMBER 9, 2007 DODGERS 6, SAN JOSE 1
SEPTEMBER 10, 2007 DODGERS 4, SAN JOSE 3

$1 DAYS A HIT WITH DODGER FAITHFUL.
D.C. Daly wanted his team to come off the road and get to see what it's like to be inspired by a home crowd packed to see them. The team hadn't had a sellout since back in April, but through the ingenuity of giveaways and offering a bevy of $1 tickets, the team has packed the house for three-straight games in a sweep against the Western Division leading San Jose Captains, leaving them 4 games ahead of California in the relegation race and giving the team a lot more breathing room than seemed possible a few weeks ago.

"We've really responded well," said Manager Vince Harris, who took over at mid-season. "We're not out of the woods yet, but I think we do see town ahead..so we're gonna run like hell for it, before something comes and eats us in the forest."

The Dodgers are now 23-17 in one-run games this year, an astounding stat given how anemic the team's offense and as woeful as it's pitching has been. But the recent string of wins gives the ballclub hope, said G.M. D.C. Daly.

"We're really looking forward to an entire off-season to assess where the ballclub is and to set the gears in motion to being successful on a regular basis. Our fans deserve it and our new owners will demand it."

SEPTEMBER 11, 2007: DODGERS 5, ANGELS 2
SEPTEMBER 12, 2007: DODGERS 5, ANGELS 4
SEPTEMBER 13, 2007: DODGERS 4, ANGELS 3

Heading to Riverside for a three-game set against the last-place California Empires should prove the mettle of the Dodgers as they finish up the season. The Empires are 3 games in back of the Washington Nationals for last place in MLB and if the Empires lose this series, they're likely going to be heading to a MLB Challenge Series matchup against the winner of the Continental League's Guinness Cup Series, which is now a best-of-seven game series and kicks off next week between Milwaukee and either Nevada or an up-start Chicago White Sox ballclub who have gone 7-3 in their last ten games.

SEPTEMBER 14, 2007: DODGERS 10, CALIFORNIA 9
Only the Dodgers and Colorado Rockies (76-81) have won 8 of their last 10 games in the majors at present. Meanwhile, the Empires have sunk lower, losing seven straight and 8 of their last 10 games and sit 4 1/2 games ahead of the Mets for MLB's wooden spoon.

SEPTEMBER 15, 2007: DODGERS 4, CALIFORNIA 2

SEPTEMBER 16, 2007: EMPIRES 10, DODGERS 3
The Empire gets off the schnide and cool off the hot Dodgers, heading into the last four games of the regular season. The Dodgers face the Giants at home, always a tough battle.

SEPTEMBER 17, 2007: GIANTS 4, DODGERS 0
SEPTEMBER 18, 2007: GIANTS 4, DODGERS 3
SEPTEMBER 19, 2007: DODGERS 7, GIANTS 5
SEPTEMBER 20, 2007: DODGERS 5, GIANTS 2

The Dodgers end the regular season at 74-88, 13 games out of first place in the Western Division and more importantly, not in last place. The team actually had a 6 game improvement over last season's 68-94 campaign.

LEAGUE LEADERS

FINAL LEAGUE STANDINGS
September 21, 2007

AMERICAN LEAGUE

NATIONAL LEAGUE

CONTINENTAL LEAGUE

MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL

PLAYOFF RESULTS
Each league I'll do separately, to make it easier to follow.

AMERICAN LEAGUE CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES
The Worcester Browns knocked off the Santa Maria (CA) Winemakers in 5 games to win their 2nd straight AL Pennant, but this team, they're going up a division after winning it all.

Meanwhile, the Boise Hawks (67-87) will be relegated from the National League after finishing with the worst record in that league for 2007.

NATIONAL LEAGUE PLAYOFFS
WINDSOR def. Sioux Falls 4-3
Minnesota def. Buffalo 4-2

In the 2007 NLCS, the Windsor Red Sox knocked off the Minnesota Twins 4 games to 1 to advance to the Continental League in 2008.

Meanwhile, the Portland Beavers of the CL will be relegated to the NL after a 57-97 season.

2007 GUINNESS CUP SERIES ~ CONTINENTAL LEAGUE CHAMPIONSHIP
The Nevada Silverhawks were undaunted by the new best-of-seven format of the GCS and knocked off 2005 Champion Milwaukee in six games and will now face the California Empires for the right to enter the bigs in 2008.

Nevada Silverhawks Continental League Champions
vs.

California Empires Major League Baseball

For the first time ever, the Challenge Series is now a best-of-seven game series, with MLB going to this format to ensure "fairness" after teams complained the best-of-five format was a "crapshoot." The format is 2-2-3, meaning the CL team will play the first 2 games at home and the last 3 at home, a concession added to give the CL champion the home-field advantage for having won their league and having already played five games just to get here.


NEVADA WINS SERIES 4 GAMES TO 3
The Silverhawks become the first CL team to get promoted since the New York Rens in 2004.

2007 MLB PLAYOFFS
WORLD SERIES QUARTERFINALS
------------
Pennsylvania def. Seattle 3-0
Florida def. Arizona 3-0
San Jose def. Atlanta 3-1
Boston def. Chi. Comets 3-1

WORLD SERIES SEMIFINALS
----
Pennsylvania def. Florida 4-3
San Jose def. Boston 4-2


2007 WORLD SERIES
----
(San Jose's last World Series title came in 1970, the Colonials won the World Series just two years ago)

COLONIALS def. San Jose 4 games to 1

THE UP & DOWN REPORT ~ 2007
----
MLB
---
In: Nevada
Out: California

CONTINENTAL LEAGUE
---
In: Windsor, California
Out: Nevada, Portland

NATIONAL LEAGUE
---
In: Portland, Worcester
Out: Windsor, Boise

AMERICAN LEAGUE
--
In: Boise
Out: Worcester

Given this was the first year of relegation and promotion in all the leagues, it got confusing very quickly to make sure alignments were right and teams were in the right place. But it worked out okay and next season will go on just fine.

THE LA STRATEGY
October 20, 2007

So, the team went 33-28 from the time I took over in July. I need to craft a strategy short of going out and spending on tons of players and bloating payroll -- though it's not out of the question -- to determine how we're going to get this club into contention year in and year out.

The first order of business is developing the farm system. We're going to get a developmental team in the Area Code Baseball league along with seven other clubs (Royals, Cubs, Bees, Yankees, Cardinals, Cyclones and Nationals)

Beyond that, I'm not certain. I want to get a lineup together that truly exploits the benefits of Dodger Stadium and uses it to our advantage, because well...I think it can be an asset.

I have no idea how I'll go about this, but..it's the plan I guess.

The draft will come back next season, so NCAA players will be subject to it and NCAA players only.

2008 CAP FIGURES
CL: $60 million
NL: $47.5 million
AL: $20 million

We actually lowered the cap. It was too high for CL teams to the point where they were clearly competing with MLB teams for talent at the top tiers and MLB owners were extremely opposed to this, so an adjustment in the amount of media revenue these teams were allocated happened. I think the game allows teams over the cap if they're already there, but won't let them sign anybody else.

In the CL, California, Chicago and Tampa barely (just 863k over) are affected.

In the NL and AL, it's not an issue.

Hey DC,

I've just gotten in to playing OOTP, and I was wondering about your retiring numbers. I haven't seen any option to do that within the game, is this just something you are doing for the dynasty or is it an option in the game that I'm missing somewhere?

It's not an option in the game. That makes entirely too much sense when you could be playing with leagues in the Vatican.

Just kidding.

But no, it's not an option. It's the result of me playing with photoshop and using work time ineffectively. :) It's a lot of fun though, I encourage it. And it's a lot easier to follow it when you actually run the same team for a long time. I don't bother to go back now and see if the Yankees are maintaining my retired numbers from before or anything. But when I did, I was all over it.

D.C. BOLTS FROM LOS ANGELES
October 22, 2007
LOS ANGELES - D.C. Daly is on the move again. After just a half season at the helm of the Los Angeles Dodgers and saving the ballclub from relegation, club officials reportedly asked the 32-year old G.M. to resign.

No indication was given as to why the team asked him to quit or be dismissed, but, some reports indicate that the team's new owners never "seriously" considered keeping Daly on board past this year and that those who supported the move to sign him were "disconcerted" with moves he made, despite the fact that the team had a winning record in August and September with Daly at the helm.

Reportedly, ownership took exception to his refusal to a team mandate to shed nearly $20 million in payroll - most notably star outfielder Bobby Stewart, who still has three years and over $50 million on his deal. Stewart, along with prospect Harlan Minor and pitcher Paul Moneur were dealt to Nevada for five players on Saturday in a deal that was reported conducted directly by ownership of the two ballclubs.

Daly had no comment through his agent, but all indications are that the seeming journeyman GM is looking for a role that's "stable."

In seven years as a G.M., he's 637-425, winning the 2002 World Series with the Boston Yankees and the 2006 American League pennant with the Worcester Browns, who repeated in 2007 and will play 2008 in the National League.

His half-season with the Dodgers was his first time back in the bigs since 2004 with the Providence Bees, where he spent just one season.

DALY GIVES WORD, MIGHT SIT OUT THE YEAR
October 28, 2007
"I'm not sure what's next. All I know is, I'm tired of living out of a suitcase," said D.C. Daly, who after spending nearly a decade in New England GMing the Yankees, Bees and Browns, headed to LA on a whim at mid-season to help rescue the Dodgers from relegation.

"I'm proud of what we were able to accomplish in a short period of time and grateful they were so interested in having me that they made me such a great offer. It just wasn't a good fit. Some jobs in the real world come with a six-month probationary period for a good reason and this wasn't one, but would a lot like that. I'm not sure I'm a west coast guy," said Daly.

When asked what's next and if he saw himself as the journeyman type, he laughed.

"I'm always in search of a challenge. But more than anything, I want to build something. I want to go somewhere, be there a decade or so and really be able to see stuff go from concept to completion. I haven't been able to do that yet and well...if I take another gig anytime soon, that'll be precisely what my plan is."

Dude, sit still. :)

MONTERREY MATADORS SOLD TO PHILADELPHIA REAL ESTATE MAGNATE
November 4, 2007
The Monterrey Matadors were the first Mexican club to join the bigs, but after five years in the bigs with attendance never reaching more than 2.1 million fans per season, the team has been sold to a New Jersey-based Philadelphia real estate magnate W. Lyon Evans.

Evans, 48, has said that he desired to bring a big league team to Philly after the CL's Phillies failed to gain promotion since their inception and the Colonials moved an hour outside of the city.

The Matadors are likely, upon the likely approval of MLB to move to Philadelphia for the 2008 season.

"We're thrilled. I've wanted to do this for a long time and it seems the time was right to make it happen," said Evans about the deal reported worth $218million.

The relocated Matadors would likely share Aramark Park with the Phillies until the team decides where to build a ballpark. Reportedly, Evans is looking at a site across the river in Camden, NJ, that's in full view of the Ben Franklin Bridge. The reported deal would also include several significant real estate developments.

"We're still hammering out the details, but we'd want a gleaming new ballpark."

The Matadors best season was 82-80 in 2004 (2nd in their division, but failed to make the playoffs.) The team's attendance record was broke this season at 2,173,951; which is 338 more fans than the team attracted in 2004, the previous record.

The recent success of the central PA based Colonials have left Philly faithful desperate for a successful ballclub.

"This city is much too proud in its legacy in the game to go without a team in the top level of baseball for this long," said Deputy Mayor for Sport Michael Wordley.

YOU WANNA TELL ME WHAT'S GOING ON?: INSIDE THE HEAD OF A WANDERING G.M.

So, you're reading along and sopping up all the tasty morsels my brain can concoct and in the process of trying to wrap your mind around all of the mindblowing changes that have happened to baseball since relegation and promotion were implemented is "What the HELL is D.C. Daly doing? It doesn't make any sense?!"

If you go back to the beginning, you have to think about who we're dealing with here. He's a kid that came into a job that all of us -- well, most of us -- dream of. He got the keys to a franchise and was told to do his best to get them out of the doldrums and given the scratch to make it happen.

So when he screws up and actually pulls off the impossible, he starts to think "well, this is easy." And starts to believe in his own magic too much.

Clearly, the kid has a gift. No team he's run has been relegated yet, even after he's left, but he hasn't exactly gone out of his way to be a finisher or even to necessarily prove his loyalty.

He'll say all of the right things in press conferences and the fans will believe him and then before you know it, he's gone.

The fact that he's such a primadonna that he needs the attention of even casual fans knowing who he is -- what other fourth division team had a GM whose departure was top news on Sportscenter? -- tells you that our friend here has some issues.

I think he thinks that it was supposed to all be as easy as it was in the beginning. And that he could even go and take money he got from "working hard" and investing well and maybe even from Daddy (we didn't mention that part, though...) to go and buy a baseball team and get the idea that "well, if I run them, we'll win, we'll be in the majors and I'll show those guys that I'm just as good as they are."

They, being his friends..the owners. See, he's obviously not the most patient and he's clearly not that inclined to take orders from the person writing the checks. He's like a kid who runs a school club and tries to turn it into his own fiefdom, not realizing that once he leaves, someone else has to try to navigate whatever mess he left.

I don't think the problem here is that he's a bad GM or that he'll be allowed to bounce around the league like this much longer. Far more talented individuals have been known to languish at the hands of owners who want someone they can trust and who'll keep their word.

The protagonist in our story has yet to find his way, in part because I'm not sure he knows what he wants or even how to get there. I think if I had to do some soul-searching just from what I've read, I'd say that he's probably trying hard to recreate what he had in Boston, but gave up because his ego got the best of him and he believed the grass was greener in Providence, before deciding that was a bad situation and getting a team in Worcester...and YOU KNOW what he was thinking by buying that particular team. (Worcester could've competed with Boston if they were in the majors....what guts this guy has?!)

I don't think the move to LA, even in what amounted to an interim capacity was a bad idea. Would've been better if everyone went into it with that understanding, but given that he managed to do his job -- even if it was controversial at times -- was all they wanted from him.

But back to what I was saying about redemption and recreating what you didn't have before....It's true that the Yankees have not won another World Series since D.C. left in 2003. But the team also hasn't missed the playoffs in the years since then, either and until last year, had a stretch of five straight division titles to their credit.

This is essentially with guys that D.C. Daly put together and a foundation he put in place when he took the job and he's not there to reap the benefits, get the credit or just enjoy it. Because he's been a nomad in search of a home ever since, taking time off and being confused about what it is he's trying to do.

So, as we move forward...I'd say that it will be interesting to see if he'll ever be able to find his soul and to find a place where he feels he truly belongs. He's only 32 and so, he could end up doing this for another two or three decades if he's lucky. But the question remains, will he ever truly be happy? Or will it be the story of the guy who bounces around and even when he wins, never seems to find the core of what he stands for?

I guess that's what's left for us to find out.

PHILADELPHIA WELCOMES THE QUAKERS
PHILADELPHIA - The Colorado Rockies are no longer the only baseball team named after a defunct hockey team. The Philadelphia Quakers were welcomed to town today in a ceremony in downtown Philadelphia near LOVE Park to a throng of nearly 8,000 fans.

The city has been without a big league team since the Colonials moved to central Pennsylvania for the 2004 season.

"We're excited to welcome the Quakers to town!"

The team -- owned by W. Lyon Evans, a local real estate magnate is expected to be a big player in the free agent market, to try to endear the local fan base early to their new team.

"We want people to embrace this team. We love Philly and we want bring titles to this city in a way no team previously has," said Evans.

I'm considering the following:

- Spinning off to a new thread, to make it easier to follow what's happening.

- Focusing almost exclusively on the bigs and only paying end-of-the-season promotion/relegation attention to the lower leagues.

- Taking a new job with a team and implementing rules very similar to what I did in my old Moneyball dynasty where I institute all sorts of spending limits, along with some other modern tweaks aimed at create lasting connections.

Now that I've got things setup, the relegation/promotion is in place and we know where the teams are for the most part, etc., I'm aiming to stabilize things a bit and get down to the business of building a true dynasty...somewhere.

I'm not sure which of these I'll implement, but..that's where I'm at with things.

SINCE THEN...
November 15, 2009
The Pennsylvania Colonials established themselves as the modern juggernaut after defeating the Atlanta Athletics in 2008 to win their third World Series title in four years.

Meanwhile, their new rivals to the east, the Philadelphia Quakers have emerged as a true rival in their former city.

The Quakers won the 2009 World Series, knocking off the Atlanta Athletics -- who won the '06 Series -- in seven games.

And the GM of that team in Philadelphia? None other than D.C. Daly himself, who took the job almost immediately after it was offered to him by W. Lyon Evans, owner of the Quakers and a friend of Daly's father R.B. Daly.

Heading into his third year with the ballclub, Daly has taken the relocated Monterrey Matadors to the top. In 2008, the team was Top 5 in payroll, but lost in the first round of the playoffs.

The team shed about $20 million in payroll and rode what was left to the first World Series in franchise history.

The Washington Nationals, who were relegated in 2009 will be returning to MLB after knocking off the Providence Bees in seven games. The AL Was won by Toledo, the NL by Worcester and Washington beat Windsor in six games to win the CL before capturing the Commissioner's Pin against Providence to return to MLB after a one-year absence.

THE QUAKERS TAKE OCTOBER: PHILADELPHIA CAPTURES ITS FIRST WORLD SERIES TITLE
PHILADELPHIA -- With one swing in the bottom of the 9th, Ron Olden, who was on this team when it was still in Monterrey and who is 2nd in franchise history with 187 home runs, hit one for the ages when he put an end to the 2009 World Series and led the Quakers to their first-ever World Series title in the franchise's 13th year of existence and in just its sixth year in the bigs.

The Quakers are also the first team from the "promotion era" to win the World Series -- no team from a lower league had ever laid claim to the title before now.

The team, which was promoted to the majors in 2002 and spent five years in Monterrey before being sold to W. Lyon Evans and moved to Philadelphia in 2008, the team has been successful for its two years in town and will move to brand-new Johnson & Johnson Park, just across the Ben Franklin Bridge in Camden, NJ this coming season and expects to continue participating at the top tier of major league clubs.

"We're not going to experience any dropoff. We're on the same page here and we're going to make Quakers baseball the class of the majors. It helps that we have a team right down the road that we're competing with and so, we're not going to make this a fluke by any stretch. We're just gonna reload," said Daly.

Asked if he was happy to be in a city where he felt comfortable, he smiled and said, "Well, I dunno. When it's all said and done, it's about wins and losses. If we're not getting it done on the field, no one is going to care what I do up here in a suit and tie, they're gonna send me away and bring someone else in to do the job.

---
DIAMOND NOTES ~ NOVEMBER 2009
It was sad to see Providence get relegated without so much as returning to the World Series after I left. I hope they make it back soon, especially since they've invested so much in a short period of time to that ballclub being there.

Seeing Worcester on the doorstep of the majors starting next year will be interesting. We called getting to the majors and the plan surrounding it "The Blueprint" and well, it's just cool to see "The Blueprint" is well underway. It'll be tough to get out of the Continental League, but...the fact that they made it out of the National League in just two years surprised me a ton, because it's a place that can consume a ballclub really quickly if they're not proactive. Just ask the Minnesota Twins, who've been stuck down there for three years now and still haven't gotten out and are sitting the lowest of any ballclub who have big league experience.

In 2004, the White Sox were actually pondering moving. But increased cap numbers in the Continental League and recent success -- despite no playoff appearances -- have helped that team come full circle attendance wise.

Starting in 2010, the Guinness Cup Series playoffs will be two best-of-five playoff series, rather than just one series title between the top two teams. This is borne out of the fact that teams with a lesser record (as Washington was in 2009) are managing to get into the Guiness Cup Series and are winning out, to get into the majors. So the league finally gave in and playoffs will be expanded for the first time in that league starting next year.

But enough of this lower league business. Let me introduce you to the Quakers of Philadelphia.

I made the championship banner for the '09 Quakers

2009 PHILADELPHIA QUAKERS TEAM STATS
PITCHING

BATTING

2009 FINAL MLB STANDINGS

The Quakers steamrolled to their 2nd straight Eastern Division title, but as the Colonials manager said last year, as his team won it all, "all winning your division means is that you beat up on the bad teams more than anybody else. The real wins that count start in October."

Taking that message to heart, the Philadelphia Quakers put on their hard hats and went to work in the 2009 playoffs. After battling hard to get past the Cincinnati Reds in the Quarterfinals, they swept the Kansas City Royals -- who in 20 playoff appearances have just one World Series title (1971) -- in the semis.

That setup a showdown with the Atlanta Athletics who were making their 3rd World Series appearance in four years.

Despite being up 3 games to 1, the Quakers lost two straight, to force a decisive Game 7 at Aramark Park in Philadelphia.


Game 7, was tied 1-1 heading into the bottom of the 9th, when Ron Olden, who has been with the club since 2006, smashed a 1-2 fastball out of the ballpark to send the Philly faithful into a FRENZY, giving the Quakers their first-ever World Series title.

2009 WORLD SERIES GAME 7 GAME LOG
GAME 7 BOX SCORE

Randall Dorsey
The 27-year old Atlanta native joined the bigs in 2005 after he signed a deal with the St. Louis Cardinals after spending his rookie year with the Cleveland Indians of the CL playing third base, as he does now.

He's had five straight seasons of 40+ HRs and had a career high for at-bats (646) and hits (183) this past season for the Quakers.

After three years with the Cards, he was traded in 2007 to the Quakers and in 2009, signed a four-year extension to keep him in Philly through 2013.


Ron Olden
The hero of the 2009 World Series isn't just a one-trick pony. Over the past two seasons, he's got 102 HRs and 253 RBI. At just 26-year old, Olden is the spirtual leader of this ballclub and has a huge following locally. The team signed Olden to a 6-year extension worth $119.9 million.


Dan Warren
If you've been reading a while, then you know this guy. He was on the World Series squad in Boston back in 2002 and spent until 2007 with the Yankees, before inking a three-year deal with the Quakers in 2008. He didn't even play the whole year in 2008, only playing in 71 games, but after we dealt the incumbent, Warren became the full-time first baseman in Philly.


Nick Blackstone
Was acquired from the Worcester Browns in 2007 and after a brief adventure in the minors, he's been in the majors for the past two years and is 32-14 with an ERA just over three. He's just 23.

Jorge Morales
28-year old hurler signed a 5-year deal worth over $86 million in the off-season, after starting his career with the San Francisco Giants.

In his first year in Maroon, he went 19-7, matching his career high in wins and coming within one strikeout of tying his career single-season record of 275.


Frankie Azcarreta
In his second season with the Quakers, he had his fourth-straight 30+ save season. The 31-year old hurler is heading into the 3rd year of a four-year deal worth $26.2 million.


Aaron Larkin
The prize of the 2007 off-season was this 30-year old righthander from Okemos, Michigan. In his second year with the Quakers, he won 20 games for the fourth time in his career. Larkin began his career with the Seattle Mariners, spending from 1998-2004 in the Pacific Northwest, before spending three years in Nevada with the Silverhawks prior to their ascent to the major leagues. He's the first player to win both a Cy Young and a CL Charlie Cousins Award for best pitcher over two different years.

He has three years left on a five-year deal that will pay him $69.875 million.

My goal with this team is really to get through this first generation of players, have a legacy of whatever the legacy that's left by them. Whether it's titles and hard-fought battles with the Colonials or if it's coming close to winning and pulling what the Royals do -- make the playoffs and lose at some point year in and year out -- I want to assume whatever the mantle is, then come back and look at the team again and see what the next generation of players will be faced with.

At this point, this team has nothing like my past teams have had. In both Boston and in Providence, I had a farm system to speak of or at least, kids that I knew would eventually be able to come up and contribute.

On this team, our prospects are basically near-done or done kids that are going to try to force my hand and make me figure out where to play them as time goes on and eventually, I'll have to deal them for established players or for pennies on the dollar.

So right now, I see this team a lot more like what the Yankees of the 1990s looked like, than anything like my past teams have and so, the real issue will be whether we'll find success in this window or not.

I do think it's important for an upstart team in a new city to establish a legacy early. The reason expansion teams in some cities fail to penetrate the market to where it's a true baseball city early on, is because the team's do a poor job of creating a culture of winning early. Spending money sucks, sure...but when you're the envy of the league, you do that by winning and creating a methodology for the way your organization does business and then, if you do that for a decade on the outset, it's a lot easier when you've created that to get fans to stick with your team after that in the lean years if they come.

But expansion teams in the modern era start out bad and expand fans to support them through it and while die-hard fans always will, in a sport like baseball that's become increasingly regional, if you're in a transplant city -- we're not, but go with it -- you're going to find yourself having a difficult time attracting the sorts of fans whose kids grow up with fond memories of going to Quakers games as a kid.

PLAYOFF DROUGHTS UPDATE
---
Here are the teams still in MLB (e.g. some teams with MLB tenure have droughts and have since been relegated). Teams that made the playoffs in '09 are listed with number of consecutive appearances.

PAST WORLD SERIES CHAMPIONS (1969-2009)

2010 TO USHER NEW PLAYOFF SYSTEM IN MLB
In addition to renaming the rounds of baseball's playoffs, MLB has ushered a new system.

Starting in 2010, MLB will "test" a system that will include the four Wild Card teams playing in a five-game series before the first-round Division Series (formerly MLB Quarterfinals) which is now a best-of-seven series.

After the five games, the standings will be readjusted and the top four non-division champs will advance to the playoffs to face off against the four division champs.

What happens if there is a tight division race that goes down to the wire? Then head-to-head record will decide the division champ and the loser will end up in the Wild Card Week playoff, followed by division record and inter-division record.

MLB's "Wild Card Week" will count in the regular season standings, but only the 8 teams who haven't won their division will be able to qualify.

The Wild Card Week will pit the teams against each other in a separate bracket essentially, with 1 v. 8 2 v. 7 3 v. 6 and 4 v. 5, the teams that emerge from this week with the best records will advance to the playoffs.

"It's the best alternative we could concoct to fully expanding the playoffs," said MLB Spokesman Josh Canty. League officials have not referred to the format as anything other than "experimental" and have not committed to it past the 2010 season, but believe that it will "provide incentives for teams that are on the cusp of the playoff bubble to do their best to get in, while giving the division champions a rest before the start of formal playoff play."

The season will start a week earlier to accomodate the change.

Ed Note: After realizing you can edit the playoff schedule, I just am curious to see how this model will work. It would help me not to have to expand the playoffs and while five more games for players will affect end of the year stats to some degree, I don't know that I care enough to mind the benefit of having the playoff be more competitive. So we'll see how it goes and if it works, we'll continue it.

In case you were wondering, the worst team to win a World Series still remains the Boston Yankees of 1975, who went 87-76, won a tiebreaker to get in and then manage to run the table on the entire playoffs that year, including knocking off the top two seeds en route to winning it all.

The 1977 St. Louis Cardinals won it all after having gone 88-74 that year. The 1996 Toronto Blue Sox (now Blue Jays) won it all after an 89-73 season and the 1999 Seattle Mariners went 90-72 en route to their first World Series title.

One of the benefits of the single-table, four division setup in MLB is that all of the teams play each other throughout the year and so, you're far more likely to get two teams in the World Series that are not just battled tested or streaky, but who are truly great teams. And it's possible for a team that's not a juggernaut to win out, as the four examples above point out, but they're going to have to earn their way in.

One of the main criticisms of expanding the Division Series to seven games, was having a bad team getting to "hang around" and so, with the Wild Card Week setup, the teams jockeying for Wild Card position will be able to play each other for the right to advance, rather than resting on the laurels of playing in an easier division or being penalized for playing in a harder one. Plus, it gives the games down the stretch more meaning and keeps fans engrossed for longer.

2009 OFF-SEASON
You can take a look at our stats and decide for yourself on what you think the team needs, but we've decided to go out and try to get some bullpen help, a frontline starter (even an ace...) and most important, a starting shortstop.

We're prepared to spend money and yet, I won't be opposed to going the "cheap" route to find players via trade or something.

We'll just have to see, I guess.

It would be wise not to mess with the chemistry we've developed with the ballclub this past season, short of going out and try to bolster the ballclub the best way we know how.

I'll talk more about our specific off-season acquisitions once we get into the team previews, but here is an account of the deals we made this off-season up to this point.

OFF-SEASON DEALS BY THE QUAKERS
Sunday November 15, 2009
Traded 25-year old right fielder J. Esparza, 22-year old minor league left fielder A. Bravo and 25-year old minor league starting pitcher L. Pérez to the Houston Astros, getting 30-year old center fielder J. Brandon in return.

Thursday, November 19th, 2009
Traded 26-year old right fielder A. García, 26-year old third baseman M. Robichaux and 26-year old minor league starting pitcher L. Morris to the New York Bombers, getting 25-year old shortstop J. Balencia and 31-year old starting pitcher M. Martínez in return.

Sunday, December 6th, 2009
Traded 25-year old minor league shortstop J. Balencia, 28-year old shortstop G. Dollard, 21-year old minor league closer B. Piper and $500,000 in cash to the Columbus Clippers, getting 28-year old reliever G. Flores, 29-year old second baseman R. Álvarez and 33-year old starting pitcher G. Walker in return.

DECEMBER 16, 2009
As I set the roster just to see who we had on the team, I smiled. I'm really happy with this new lineup and don't see any reason to change it at all. We'll go and get a depth first baseman and get rid of 33-year Gabe Martinez in favour of someone who is more defense-minded and look for some more depth help in the outfield and infield, but...that's it.

I still haven't gotten the #1 starter I'm looking for. And you might look at our staff and say, "what? are you serious?" And I sure am. We need a guy who is automatic on every fifth day, because I feel like while we've got a good crew "for now" that it might not hold up long term. I might be wrong, but...I just feel like we need to go after someone on the market and I have one particular guy in mind that if we get him, that would be great and if not, well, then we'll make do with what we've got.

The Colonials are right on our heels and not just that, but they're still leading the "hearts and minds" battle among the faithful in Philly, despite being in central PA.

The camps of the teams in the metro-Philly region fall like this. The blue collar fans root for the Phillies, despite the fact that the team plays in the second-tier Continental League. They market themselves heavily as "The People's Team" and the fact that you can go to a Phillies game with a family of four for the same price of a ticket to a Colonials or Quakers game, makes them a fan favourite to be sure.

The Quakers are exciting to people who want a team based in Philly that wins. But the team has only been in town going on three years now and so, it remains to be seen whether they can sustain that sort of following and success over time. Moving to Jersey pissed off a few people, but people who follow the team regularly said that it was hard for a major league team to play in the park of a club that's supposed to be a "lesser" team to them, so....as long as they keep winning, it ought to be okay.

And the Colonials still attract fans because they've been around since the beginning, even if they moved and changed their name in that time.

December 17, 2009
We signed 28-year old starter Antonio Lopez (25-8, 2.99 ERA, 261K) to a four-year deal worth over $69 million. The 2006 Cy Young Award winner, he spent the past five years with the Atlanta A's going 102-50 over that five year period, with 1285 strikeouts over that time and a 2.84 ERA.

I felt like getting him on board wasn't just a plus for us, but a minus to our competitors, especially once it seemed evident that he was willing to come here.

He joins Aaron Larkin ('03) as the only Cy Young Award winners in the Quakers pitching staff.

"We really feel like we're building something special here," said General Manager D.C. Daly, "so I can't tell you how happy I am to be able to announce this deal just before Christmas. We're going to be able to have quite a holiday in Philly this year, let me tell you."

The 34-year old GM has seven and half years as a GM in the bigs, spending four with the Boston Yankees, one with the Providence Bees, half a season with the LA Dodgers and just completed two years with the Quakers in Philly.

He signed a contract extension that will keep him with the club until at least 2013.

MARIO RIVERA SIGNS WITH BROOKLYN
We made an offer for him, but in the end, star centerfielder Mario Rivera, signed a seven-year deal worth $214.2 million with the Brooklyn Cyclones.

Rivera, 29, spent the first eight years of his career with the Cincinnati Reds registering 300 HRs, 832 RBI and a career .265 average over that time.

The 2004 MLB Most Valuable Player, he was a hotly contested player by most of the majors for the entire off-season and finally committed to the Cyclones, saying it'd always been a dream of his to play in New York.

The Cyclones also signed Marcus Parker, a free agent pitcher to a four-year deal worth over $79 million. Parker, 28, went 19-12 last year with 170 K and a 4.01 ERA for the Chicago Cubs.

THE BRANDON DEAL
The deal we made with the Houston Astros might seem quizzical if you're not sure why we made it. We sent three players to the Houston Astros for John Brandon. He hit 28 HR and 105 RBI last year on a .286 average during his second season with the Astros.

Not only is he a talented player, he's also the team leader in most categories historically for the Quakers/Matadors franchise. He's obviously never played in Philadelphia, because he was dealt less than a month before I took over the job in Philly. He was in Monterrey from 1999 until the end of the 2007 season, logging two 40+ HRs seasons during that time and moving up with the team to the bigs after winning the Continental League.

The 2002 Jack Curry Award winner for CL MVP, He's a three-time MLB All-Star and says he couldn't be happier to be in Philadelphia.

"I was happy in Houston, but I knew a lot of these guys from our time in [Monterrey] and it's just really cool to be here in new digs, a new city and to have the energy that this team has. It's just awesome to be here and I can't wait to pitch in and do my part to keep it up."

The Astros last playoff appearance came in 1991.

I didn't know much about it until I took a look at the team's records, saw who he was and realized that he'd fill a need for us in centerfield, while also introducing the Philly faithful with someone who played a key role in the franchise being where it is today.

So I pulled the trigger and found a deal that worked for both teams -- far more fair than the original deal the PC made that sent lots of junk to Philly in return for him -- and we'll see how it goes, but having him in the lineup is a huge boon to the ballclub on paper.

2010 PHILADELPHIA QUAKERS
2009 finish: 112-50, 1st place in Eastern Division, 21 games ahead of Pennsylvania; Won World Series

Arrivals: RHP Marc Martinez, OF John Brandon, RHP Antonio Lopez, 2B Ricardo Alvarez, RHP Gerardo Flores, OF Barney Everett, SS Bobby Jennings

Departures: RF Juan Esparza, SS George Dollard, 1B Gabe Martinez, 3B Mat Robichaux, RF Andres Garcia, RHP Lenny Perez

Rotation: Jorge Moralez, Aaron Larkin, Antonio Lopez, Nick Blackstone, Curt Brown, Travis Barron

Relievers: Frankie Azcarreta, J.J. Medina, Marc Martinez, Gerardo Flores, Vincente Barron, Steve Fuller

Regulars: RF Kenny Jones, 2B/SS Anselmo Cachiera, DH Ron Olden, 3B Randall Dorsey, OF Jon Brandon, OF Jackson Mason, C Lou West, 1B Dan Warren, 2B/SS Ricardo Alvarez

Role Players: C Felipe Magana, 2B Bobby Jennings, SS/OF Josh Monroe, CF Barney Everett

Rotisserie Sleeper: 24-year old righthander Travis Barron went 9-4 in the spot starting role for the Quakers last year and if there is an injury in the rotation, Barron, who was the team's 2nd round draft pick in 2008 will be slated to hit the rotation and could be poised for a big year. he's a big righthander with a power arm and could easily win 12-15 games as a starter.

Rundown: The defending World Series champs reloaded, picking up the ace of the team they beat in the World Series -- Antonio Lopez -- a 25-game winner who is slated as their third starter. With luck like that -- or more like, deep pockets -- put the expectations of this club at winning a World Series or else.

With the 2nd highest payroll in baseball heading into this year (the Royals are tops at $170m), the team is betting that inserting John Brandon into the fifth spot in the lineup that the former club legend during the franchise's time in Monterrey will give the team even more depth from 3-5, which bumps Jackson Mason to the sixth spot.

The real question marks for this team is how will it deal with adversity. If the team is hit with a rash of injuries or if there are some slow starts out of the game, there won't be a whole lot of wiggle room for management to get the team out, so they've essentially cast their lot with whatever they have on the active roster all year, save for any deals they make later in the year.

That said, they look as complete as almost any team in the majors and should be the presumptive favorites when the post-season rolls around.

Prediction: 105-57, 1st place Eastern Division

2010 SEASON PAYROLL ~ OPENING DAY

2010 MINOR LEAGUE REPORT ~ OPENING DAY

MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL STANDINGS as of May 1, 2010

REFLECTING ON THE SEASON THUS FAR...
MAY 26, 2010

I'm gonna tell you that it's already making me nervous to think about having to play five more regular season games at the end of the year to determine if we even get into the playoffs. But I like how it makes teams have to fight to win their division, if you want a guaranteed spot. If you look at the current standings, the 5-8 teams are within 2.5 games of the 8th overall seed and so, a five game set of games is surely going to wreck havoc on someone's post-season plans at the end of the year. Which I like.

In OOTP, it might cause some problems with division titles, if a team is close to the division lead or whatever. But....if it were real life, the best-of-five would be a playoff and the four division champs would get a week off. But since we can't do it naturally in OOTP, we'll do it artificially and see how it works for Year 1.

BIGGEST SURPRISE: I don't know if it's really a "surprise" as much as more of the same from Nick Blackstone. He's 7-3 so far this year with a 2.01 ERA. He's on pace to match his 17-wins from a year ago, too.

BIGGEST DISAPPOINTMENT: Antonio Lopez. I don't really know why I let my eyes get bigger than my mouth when it came to paying close to $70 million over four years for a pitcher. I just am not too sure what was going on in my head. But whatever. He went 1-2 with a 9.97 ERA in April, but has settled down since then, winning 3 of his last four decisions and bringing his ERA down to 2.51. We'll see, but the jury is still out.

JUNE 7, 2010
PHILADELPHIA -- Sitting six games out in the tough eastern division, the Philadelphia Quakers aren't content to stand pat much longer. G.M D.C. Daly went out for help and made his first deal of the season acquiring reliever Mark Martin(1-1, 3 SV in 32 innings) and IF Jose Ramirez from the New York Bombers of the Continental League for reliever J.J. Medina and IF Josh Monroe.

Medina, 25, was 1-3 with 1 SV in 21 appearances this year, boasting a 6.55 ERA.

The deal saved the Quakers about $1m in salary and is intended to help with depth and bullpen issues.

"We're going to try to tweak what we have. We're not in a bad spot and all it takes is one hot month and we're right back in [the division race]," said Daly after announcing the deal today.

STANDINGS AS OF SEPT. 27, 2010

BROWN & OUT: CURT BROWN OUT FOR THE REST OF THE SEASON
Curt Brown had chronic elbow problems which will force him out for the rest of the season. The 25-year old lefthander was 9-4 with a 3.69 ERA and 96 strikeouts in 16 outings this year.

The Quakers called up Billy Henson from the minors, he'd pitched in seven games this year in the bigs, all in relief and inserted Travis Barron (3-2, 4 SV, 30 K) into the rotation, He's started six games this year.

"We're going to keep pressing along," said G.M. D.C. Daly.

The New York Rens are riding a 12-game winning streak that's vaulted them to the lead in the Eastern Division, with the Quakers sitting a game out.

Both have gained some ground on the perennial contenders in the east, the Pennsylvania Colonials, who sit 7 1/2 games out.

JULY 28, 2010
Catcher Lou West is out 4-5 weeks with a fractured hand, the 2nd injury by the Quakers in the past week.

"We're going to adjust."

West will be a big loss for the team. Despite hitting just .237, he had 25 HRs this year and 68 RBI as the starting catcher for the Quakers.

The 25-year old righthander was hoping that the injury would only be for two weeks as was originally reported, but after going to the doctor, he discovered that it would be more like 4 to 5 weeks.

DEALING...
The Quakers made two deals, as the deadline nears to cover the spate of injuries the team has been hit with lately.

They acquired starting pitcher Cody Adams and shorstop Cesar Rodriguez from the National League's Portland Sea Dogs, for pitcher Vicente Sanchez (3-1, 3 SV 1.87 ERA, 44 K in 34 appearances.), outfielder Barney Everettwho spent most of the year split between minor league Trenton and Philadelphia and prospect starting pitcher Olly LaRoche, who was a third round selection for the Quakers in this year's draft.

Two days later, the ballclub sent minor league reliever Tetsu Kobayashi and infielder Bobby Jennings (.222/8 RBI in 230 minor league ABs) to the LA Dodgers for catcher Jose Valadez.

"We're going to try to keep ourselves moving forward and headed towards what we hope will be a spot in the playoffs. We're excited about this team and we're not panickning," said manager Jose Cardenas, who is in his 2nd year with the club.

2010 REGULAR SEASON FINAL STANDINGS

WILD CARD WEEK, NOT SO WILD
Well, one of the things I didn't consider about Wild Card Week was evidenced this season.
There will be years that none of the teams beyond the 8th playoff spot (or 4th wild card) will be
within striking distance to claim a spot in the playoffs by playing extra games.

In some years, like last year, there were no less than four teams within striking distance and so, all of the
teams that year would've played in Wild Card week. In years when the teams have won enough games to avoid that
they just simply don't have to participate. This year, the only four teams that participated were
Kansas City -- who was in the 7th seed, Atlanta and Cincinnati who were tied for the 8th spot and Los Angeles, who needed
to sweep the Royals and get help to get into the playoffs as the 8th seed.

In the end, Atlanta took 2 out of 3 from the Reds -- who they'd won the season series against -- and the Royals took
2 of 3 from the Royals. This was reduced from the original 5 games that were scheduled.

MLB officials are not sure the experiment will gain enough traction to happen again next season. It just causes too many
issues. "They're afraid of a scenario in which a Wild Card team wins enough games to win a close division according to the winning
percentage."

But the original premise -- trying to expand the playoffs -- is a concern that's important to MLB officials, because the regional nature
of the sport means that once teams lose the division, fans are less likely to follow the games.

"We play a long regular season. A win in baseball is almost twice as important as a win in another sport, because of the magnitude of our schedule," said an MLB spokesman.

The 162-game schedule and four division setup has been the same since 1969 when MLB reformed to its current setup. A change might be in order.

"We'll evaluate it and see what's best for the game now and in the future."

DIVISION SERIES


2010 is the first playoff year for the Colorado Rockies since 1998, the first ever appearance in the MLB post-season for the NY Rens.

It's Atlanta's sixth straight appearance, the sixth straight appearance for the Colonials and 3rd straight for the Quakers. Florida's back after an absence from last year.

This is the first season that I've ever employed a staggered playoff schedule. I like this, because it's like real life, I just didn't know you could edit the playoff schedule once it's set and since we pushed the regular season back an extra 10 days, the regular season ended the 2nd week of September, way early...but it's nice that the Division Series, now that it's staggered lasts almost through September, leaving October for the League Series and World Series.

Also, if you didn't notice by looking at the MLB standings, we have the first tie ever for last place and so, I have to figure out how to break the tie. I guess a one-game playoff would be prudent, though I'm too lazy to look back now..I believe we said before that head-to-head record would determine who went to the Challenge Series in the event of a tie.

BRAVES ESCAPE CHALLENGE SERIES FOR 2ND STRAIGHT YEAR BY CLAIMING SEASON SERIES AGAINST THE PIRATES

The Milwaukee Braves have dodged a bullet for the 2nd straight year in the majors. Last year, the team lost 100 games and was nearly certain for the MLB Challenge Series, just a year after being promoted, but the ballclub managed to get lucky because the Providence Bees lost 103 games, to save the Braves from likely relegation.

In 2010, the team finished with the worst record in the bigs, tied with the Pittsburgh Pirates.

MLB rules state that the Challenge Series tiebreaker would start with head-to-head record, largely because MLB didn't want relegation to be determined in a "coin-flip" of a game that would detract from playoff baseball going on at the same time.

The Braves won the season series against the Pirates 7-5, so as a result, the Pirates are MLB's candidate for relegation and will play the winner of the Continental League's Guinness Cup Series.

DIVISION SERIES RESULTS
SEPTEMBER 19, 2010
The Philadelphia Quakers are en route to defending their World Series title after knocking off the Atlanta A's in a rematch of last year's World Series 4 games to 0.

The Quakers won the series without deploying Antonio Lopez who they acquired from the A's as a free agent during the off-season. Lopez, 28, went 11-6 with a 3.04 ERA in 21 career post-season starts for the A's in five seasons.

He'll likely be the Game 1 starter for the team in the MLB League Series against the winner of the Florida Marlins/Kansas City Royals series.

The arrival of John Brandon to Philadelphia has been a boon to the Quakers playoff effort. Brandon, playing in his first playoff series since 2002 when he was with the Monterrey Matadors (the club the Quakers used to be), he hit .313 with 3 HRs and 5 RBI during the series against the A's.

"It's good man. It feels really good to back in the swing of things," said Brandon.

LOWER LEAGUE REPORT
September 24, 2010
AMERICAN LEAGUE: Hartford win the AL pennant, knocking off Grand Junction in seven games. In that league, no team from the Pacific Conference has ever won the league title in five tries.

The Birmingham Barons of the National League will be relegated to the AL in 2011 after a 53-101 season.

LEAGUE SERIES PREVIEW
The Philadelphia Quakers will take on the Florida Marlins, the latter of whom, have never won a World Series despite 9 career playoff appearances.

The Quakers are gunning for their 2nd straight title.

In the other League Series matchup, the New York Rens are continuing on their miracle run in their first ever MLB playoff appearance and are trying to become the first native CL team to win the World Series. The Quakers won the CL as the Monterrey Matadors in 2002, but the team moved to Philadelphia three years ago

The Rens are taking on the Colorado Rockies who last won a World Series in 1978 and are in the playoffs for the first time in over a decade.

OCTOBER 8, 2010

FAMILIAR FACE THROWS OUT THE FIRST PITCH FOR BIGGEST GAME IN BROWNS HISTORY

WORCESTER -- Five years ago, D.C. Daly had the dream that he could get a team from the lowest levels of Major League Baseball -- the 4th division American League -- to the major leagues.

And he'd do it as fast as he could.

"We really believe that it could be done here. Boston isn't far away, the area loves great baseball and the city was committed to the ballclub. It was a fantastic match and still is," said Daly, about the decision that sent him from the bigs down to the 4th division.

Despite coming in 2nd in their division, they benefitted from joining the Continental League in the first year of that league's expanded playoffs, which let the two best non-division teams into the Guinness Cup Series. This was done to prevent a team that barely wins its division or has a worse record than a 2nd or 3rd place team in another division from getting passed over and winning a short series to get a shot at the bigs.

The Browns dropped just one game in the CL playoffs, beating rival Memphis (formerly Windsor) Red Sox in four games, then sweept through the Puerto Rico Leones in 3 straight games, the top two teams in the Western Division to capture the CL pennant in their first year in the league and a date with the Pittsburgh Pirates -- and destiny.

Just five years ago, this team was just getting its start and now, the ballclub is just one win away -- playing in Game 7 of the MLB Challenge Series -- to getting to that ultimate prize. The team could see no better person to throw out the first pitch than the architect himself.

"It's crazy. I never saw it happening this fast. But it's really fun to watch," said Daly about his former team.

Alfie Penrice, a 28-year old Englishman who has spent all but two years of his career in New England, said that he didn't know when he came to play here that the team would be able to get to the bigs at all, but he was willing to go along for the ride.

"It was hard for me starting out. But D.C. knew me when he drafted me with the Yankees and so, it was his influence that helped me come here and try to do what I could to help." The Browns captain is the all-time leader in games played with the team and has said that a packed Iron Mountain Stadium hosting a big league game would be amazing.

"Man, I don't want to get ahead of myself. But trust me, there have been more than a few dreams about it for me."

As for Daly, does he have any regrets about leaving?

"No. I mean, it was time for me to go. I had other stuff I felt I needed to do. The Dodgers thing was mostly about me seeing if I still had it. Even if it had only been a year, everyone always said that Boston and Providence were 'easy' jobs because the owners spent money. But look at the Bees now [relegated to the CL in '09] and the Yankees aren't the force they once were and even still, they only won that one title during that streak.

So I feel like what I did here, just setting the foundation was huge, because no matter what you call it...they've won three pennants in four years in three different leagues. That's nuts."

Daly came because the Quakers -- tied 1-1 in the World Series with the Colorado Rockies -- had a travel day.

"I had to be here. Sure, it's an important time for me and for my ballclub and the guys knew. But they're the ones who told me to come. They know what this club means to me and well...it's just great to see and I hope they pull it out."

BROWNS WIN 9-2 IN GAME 7 OF MLBCS: FIRST AL TEAM TO MAKE BIGS

WORCESTER -- A capacity crowd was on hand at Iron Mountain Stadium in Worcester, as the Browns laid claim on the Commissioner's Pin, staking their claim as the first-ever lower division team (3rd division (NL) or 4th division (AL) to earn a bid to the major leagues. They beat the Pittsburgh Pirates 9-2, who were the worst team in MLB after finishing with the worst record and losing the season series to the Milwaukee Braves, who tied them for the worst record

"This is astounding," said Browns owner Jason Flores., "This is just..a great day for all of Worcester."

Box Score | Game Log

WILL D.C. LEAVE PHILADELPHIA FOR WORCESTER?

On the morning of Game 3 of the World Series, the newest distraction for the Philadelphia Quakers isn't whether they can get a win at Coors Field in Denver, but whether the team's GM will be leaving the ballclub after spending the team's travel day with the Worcester Browns as they won the 2010 MLB Challenge Series.

Daly said that he's not sure how he became the topic of discussion and is frustrated.

"I'm a GM, people. Go talk about someone important like the stars on my ballclub or the great talent the Rockies have. I'm the GM of the Philadelphia Quakers and that's all there is to it."

Daly addressed the media as he got onto a private team plane to fly to Denver this morning in time for the team's game at Coors Field.

The Series is tied 1-1.

2010 WORLD SERIES


Needing just one win to capture their 2nd straight World Series title, the Quakers sent starter Aaron Larkin to the mound, the Philadelphia Quakers were dialed in. the team went up 2-0 in the top of the third. The Rockies cut into that lead in the bottom of the sixth to make it 2-1, but in the top of the 7th, the Quakers knocked three, off a double by Kenny Jones and that was all they needed. They tacked on two more in the 8th to make it 7-1 and despite a late rally by the Rockies in the bottom of eight to make it 7-3, they couldn't string together enough to capture the victory and the Philadelphia Quakers are the World Series champs for the 2nd straight year.

BOX SCORE // GAME LOG

THE UP & DOWN REPORT
----

I felt bad for the Minnesota Twins. They lost the NLCS in seven games to the Oklahoma Red Hawks and miss out on their 2nd shot at promotion in the past few years. I guess as cool as it is to see upstart teams make the majors, especially in major markets, it's sad to see familiar teams languishing in the lower levels.

But I love the merit of it all.

QUAKERS OFF-SEASON REPORT

We're going to lose Dan Warren, Ricardo Alvarez and John Brandon to free agency. Alvarez had a team option at just over a million for next year, but we declined that. I'm obviously tempted to re-sign Brandon. He plays center field well, he hits great and the fact of the matter is, he was clutch in the playoffs. But we're starting to get cheap and trying to set priorities about who we want to keep and who we get rid of and so, it's getting harder to rationalize some of these deals, is what it is.


2010 PITCHING REPORT ~ PHILADELPHIA QUAKERS


2010 BATTING REPORT ~ PHILADELPHIA QUAKERS

WHAT THE FUTURE HOLDS...
The Quakers have won their 2nd straight title, the Browns are headed to the bigs and an AL team is moving to London, England for 2011.

The future of baseball is evolving faster than we can keep up with and yet, as much as it gets different, much of it stays the same.

Do we know where the game will go in the next decade? The next millenium, even?

D.C. Daly is 35-years old and has already amassed success beyond his own wildest dreams and yet, you're never sure if this guy is going to stick to one place and stay for a long time or if he'll bail and head to greener pastures after getting bored every few years.

With so many personalities and a future that's hanging in the balance, it'll be interesting to see where the future takes the game, D.C. and what new challenges and adventures lie ahead.

THE END

would you post the final file here? Id be interested in fiddling with it more.

If I can find it. I moved all my files to my portable hard drive, so I'll scour and if I have it, I'll send 'er along.