Maassluis Merchantmen, take 3 (FOF MP) - Page 2

MIJB#19 · 12-24-2018, 06:49 AM

2079 Off-Season: New center, dozens of renegotiations
Party in the Merchantmen front office: today the Merchantmen signed center Nicky Sherman from the IHOF champions Moontown Darksiders and struck new deals with all 21 players that were at the table with the Merchantmen management. Not a single player turned down the contract offered, a rare feat.

Sherman is a 31-year old center, played 9 seasons with the Moontown Darksiders after being traded by the Outer Banks Ospreys in his second season. Sherman has been a tremendous player for the Darksiders, allowing just 19 sacks and making 322 key run blocks for what has been a state of the art offense since the Darksiders drafted Derek Barge. Sherman has three IHOF Bowl victories on his resume and has been a guarantee for 35 key run blocks, aside from last season when a 4-game absence due to a wrist injury made him miss about a month of action. Sherman signed a 3-year deal, worth $95M, with a $40M bonus and a $5M base salary this season, escalating to $25M salaries in the second and third season. The signing of Sherman is bad news for Steven Houshmandzadeh, who was expected to step in as the new center after the retirement of Tom Anaya.

The Merchantmen found the cap space to be able to afford Sherman through no less than 21 renegotiations, all accepted by the players. That list of players: tight ends Randal Curtis and Branden Schwrizke, wide receivers J.R. Mills, Brody Stevens and Dennis Nadell, linemen Carlos Webb, Oscar Meadows, Louie Murray and Steven Houshmandzadeh, punter Tito Honrsby, defensive tackle Glen Stiegler, linebackers Antonio Battle and Glenn Brewer, cornerbacks Alonzo Hitchcock, Ezra Slocum, Herman Glenn and Bart Lahnum, and safeties Maurice Harkleroad, Rex McIndoe and Jonah Harden.

The Merchantmen will need some of the new cap space to work out contract extensions with tight end Monty Elliott and guard Harvey Hank, as well as giving contracts to restricted free agents running back Ronald Graham and defensive end Max Lyons. Four players are unrestricted free agents: wide receivers Mickey Allen and Patrick Henry, and linebackers Chance Nason and Alexis Turner.

Biggest question mark remaining in Maassluis is the quarterback situation. Retirement of Bennett Morris has the Merchantmen looking at Sammy Erickson and Ellis McAlister as the alternatives. An attempt to trade for a quarterback looks like it has little chance. The Merchantmen already had one team reply their quarterback is not available for trade. The top draft prospects look like misfits for the Merchantmen as Alvin Engelberger and Hugh Gaines are said to lack the agility to fit their game plan. Top free agent Ike Woodhouse might be too expensive with the current cap situation in Maassluis...

MIJB#19 · 12-24-2018, 05:41 PM

75th season anniversary: 50 Legends, Class of 2064 period
To celebrate the 75th season of the Maassluis Merchantmen, I selected 50 players that I consider the legends of that time span from 2004 until the start of the 2078 season. I split the list of players into 5 groups, each being a time period of roughly 15 seasons. We'll finish with episode 5: Class of 2064 period.

C #76 Zack Whelan 2056-2067
Center Zack Whelan joined the Merchantmen as a second round pick in the 2056 draft. The plan was to make him the future replacement of Cristian Sampson, but Whelan was forced into action five times. It was quickly clear that Whelan had the talent to grow into being the best run blocker up the middle in the league. In 2058, Whelan became the full time starter and in his first three seasons he had a minimum of 44 key run blocks, earning back to back All-IHOF Second team honors. Whelan was a backup for IHOF Bowl LIV and misses IHOF Bowl LVII due to injury. A suspension cost Whelan the 2064 season, an in retrospect cut his career short. The Merchantmen drafted a replacement in 2065 in Tom Anaya, but injuries across the line got Whelan back on the field after all. His role quickly got smaller, although he was activated for the IHOF Bowl LXIII victory. As a result, Whelan is one of three players on roster for 3 IHOF Bowls, but to his own disappointment, he got to start in none of them. After spending the entire 2067 season inactive, he wasn't re-signed in the 2068 off-season. Despite the gaps in his activity, Whelan retired with 296 key run blocks, 5th highest in franchise history.

QB #8 Lester Lowe 2057-2065
Quarterback Lester Lowe joined the Merchantmen through trade in the 2057 off-season. Initially considered exchange money in a trade up with the Augusta Greenjackets, from #29 overall to #14 overall to get wide receiver Riddick Stanley while sacrificing a first round pick next draft, Lowe was suddenly promoted to the starting role ahead of Chow after decent, but underwhelming play in the first 5 games. Lowe started with a loss, but followed up with 5 straight victories without interception and continued to impress en route to the IHOF Bowl LIV, which the Merchantmen lost 34-27. The Chow era was over, Lowe time had began. He followed up with three 4,000-yard seasons, and four with 32 touchdown passes. Interceptions started to pile on, but Lowe did well enough to guide his team to IHOF Bowl LVII, a close contested 17-14 loss. The 2064 season turned out to be his last as the starter. The demise had kicked in and prior to the 2066 season, after a season with just 14 pass attempts, Lowe decided to retire. Lowe retired with a 89-40 record 29,690 passing yards and 239 passing touchdown, 5th in Merchantmen history.

WR #83 Riddick Stanley 2057-2068
Wide receiver Riddick Stanley joined the Merchantmen after a trade up from the #29 to the #14 overall pick in the 2057 draft. Stanley's quarterback was also acquired in that trade, as Lester Lowe became the starter from week 7 in that season. Stanley broke out in his sophomore season, catching 102 passes for 1,536 yards and 14 touchdowns. From there on his performance slowly went down, aside from a spike up in the 2068 season, his last season in Maassluis before joining the Iowa Cobbers for his last two seasons in the IHOF. Stanley was a key player in the offense for Maassluis, outlasting many changes on the opposite side of the field and the switch from Lester Lowe to Alfred Hickman. Stanley was the top receiver for a team that reached IHOF Bowl LIV, IHOF Bowl LVII and finally got the Merchantmen's only title in the IHOF Bowl LXIII victory. He's one of just two Merchantmen players active in all three bowl games and the only one to start in all three of them. Stanley retired with Hall of Fame worthy numers. With 13,511 receiving yards and 100 receiving touchdowns, he retired ranked third for the Merchantmen in all three going into the 2078 season. J.R. Mills surpassed Stanley in receiving yards in the 2078 season.

DE #92 Jordan St. Pierre 2057-2067
Defensive end Jordan St. Pierre was a low fifth round pick in the 2057 draft for the Merchantmen. An afterthought, given a chance to make the team as a rotation backup for the pass rush. Against all odds, St. Pierre was listed as a starter from his rookie season and onwards. Granted, his playing time was about 1/3rd of the time in his rookie campaign, including the IHOF Bowl LIV loss. His pass rush ability became more apparent from his third season onwards. He was a starter in the IHOF Bowl LVII loss and followed it in the 2061 season with 15.5 sacks and All-IHOF honors. By then he had established himself as a building block. In 2062 Shaun Hartman and Preston Urquoila came along, while in 2064 Daquan Strugielski became the fourth member of the fearsome front four. St. Pierre saw his numbers decline, but as a sidekick to these stars, as a 10th year veteran he got his chance to shine in IHOF Bowl LXIII with 2.5 sacks. He retired after the upset deficit in the 2067 AOC Championship game. At that time he ranked 2nd for the Merchantmen with 78.5 sacks and following the retirement of Hartman and Strugielski, he's 4th all-time in sacks.

DT #95 Shaun "The Behemoth" Hartman 2062-2074
Defensive tackle Shaun Hartman was only the 28th overall draft pick in the 2062 draft, but the Merchantmen knew it for sure: this was the guy they wanted. And they chose wisely, Hartman was a day one starter and didn't miss a single game for 13 seasons. The first three seasons were relatively disappointing, as the Merchantmen misses the playoffs. But Hartman was a force, earning All-IHOF first or second team honors from his second to twelfth season, being a seven-time first-teamer. Playing exclusively from the inside, Hartman was a pass rush machine, recording 116.5 sacks, 281 hurries and 57 blocked passes in regular season action. He added 577 tackles, 252 assists and 22 forced fumbles. He's second in sacks and first in hurries and blocked passes of all Merchantmen players. His finest hour came in IHOF Bowl LXIII, where he made 3.0 sacks, 2 hurries, 6 tackles and forced a fumble to earn IHOF Bowl MVP honors. His ferociousness earned him the nickname Behemoth with the Merchantmen fans. In 2074, Hartman decided to step away from football. In the 2079 off-season, Hartman got inducted into the Hall of Fame.

CB #34 Peter Tucker 2064-2075
Cornerback Peter Tucker was the #10 overall pick in the 2064 draft, the first of many tremendous Merchantmen picks that draft. The Merchantmen hoped to get a shutdown corner in Tucker, but that doesn't exactly describe the kind of player Tucker turned out to be. Rather than throwing away from him, Tucker was often faced with the WR1 of the opponent and had the task to deflect the ball or at least make sure the receiver wasn't going to gain ground. With 45 interceptions and 130 defended passes, he ranks 1st and 2nd in Merchantmen history. But Tucker also supported the run defense, for a conrberback he made the remarkable total of 1,039 tackles and 284 assists. Tucker earned All-IHOF honors seven times, 4 times as a first team selection. Tucker made crucial interceptions in the playoffs of the 2066 season in he divisional round and conference final, en route to IHOF Bowl LXIII victory. The Merchantmen retired the #34 jersey the day Tucker announced his retirement from football.

LB #51 Gabe Hamilton 2064-2074
Linebacker Gabe Hamilton was the #12 overall pick in the 2064 draft, the second of many tremendous Merchantmen picks that draft. Hamilton peaked early, earning Defensive Rookie of the Year honors ahead of teammates Tucker and Ross. In 2066 he made 152 tackles, 5.5 sacks and defended 17 passes, earning All-IHOF honors. He brought his a-game to the playoffs as well, making 13 tackles and 8 assists in the AOC Championship victory en route to the IHOF Bowl LXIII victory. Although that turned out to be his best season, Hamilton remained to be a key player for 9 seasons, coming 2 tackles short in 2072 to have a century in all of them. He lost his starting role in 2073, was active in a single game in 2074 and a tough roster cut decision in the 2075 pre-season, not making the final 53-men list. Hamilton retired in the 2076 off-season and it is rumored he talked his Class of 2064 compatriots Peter Tucker, Edward Ross and Daquan Strugielski to retire together with him. Hamilton recorded 1,72 tackles, 326 assists, 23.5 sacks, 80 defended passes, 5 interceptions and 15 forced fumbles.

LB #58 Edward Ross 2064-2075
Linebacker Edward Ross was the #16 overall pick in the 2064 draft, the third of many tremendous Merchantmen picks that draft. Initially playing second fiddle to Hamilton as the premier linebacker, the roles changed from the 2067 season and onwards. By that time, Ross was already wearing a championship ring, just like all his teammates in the IHOF Bowl LXIII victory. Albeit the highlight of his career being there and then, Ross continued to grow into perhaps the best outside linebacker in league history. He earned All-IHOF honors four seasons straight in 2067-2070, being a three-time first-teamer. Ross was a lock for 100 tackles, but also was a key factor in the pass rush and pass defense. Ross retires with 1,423 tackles, 407 assists, 49.0 sacks, 17 interceptions, 94 defended passes and 25 forced fumbles. The tackle total ranks him 3rd all-time in the IHOF. For the Merchantmen he ranks 1st in tackles, 11th in sacks, 9th in defended passes and tied 3rd in forced fumbles. Ross retired in the 2076 off-season and is expected to be inducted into the Hall of Fame.

DE #98 Daquan "Da Machine" Strugielski 2064-2075
Defensive end Daquan Strugielski was the #217 overall pick in the 2064 draft, the last of many tremendous Merchantmen picks that draft. In his rookie campaign, Strugielski wasn't a sure thing yet, but in his second season the 10.5 sacks were the start of a 9-season stretch of 10.0 or more sacks in all but one season. He was one of the pass rush monsters in the IHOF Bowl LXIII victory. From 2069 onwards, Strugielski earned All-IHOF honors, winning back to back Defensive Player of the Year honors in 2071 and 2072. The latter a result of also being an above average tackle machine from the defensive end position. he made 50+ tackles four times, including those DPOY seasons. The continuing production of sacks in those seasons earned him the nickname 'Da Machine'. Strugielski made 7.0 sacks in a time-share role in 2074, but his 2075 season ended in a deception: 0.0 sacks in 17 games, including the lost wild card game. Strugielski retired in the 2076 off-season after a Hall of Fame worthy career.

QB #3 Alfred Hickman 2065-2072
Quarterback Alfred Hickman joined the Merchantmen out of the blue in the 2065 off-season. Lester Lowe was still in charge, but the Merchantmen felt that a kid with 0 starts on his resume was worth sending their 1st roud pick next draft to the Hanalei Dragons. Hickman won the starting gig and delivered with a tremendous season: 4,545 yards and 32 touchdowns versus 16 interceptions, a 12-4 record and a loss in the divisional round. In 2066 the interceptions started to pile up. From week 11 through 17, Hickman threw at least 2 picks, but 10-5-1 was enough to go into the post-season. Supported by the superb defense, Hickman quarterbacked the Merchantmen through the playoffs and into IHOF Bowl LXIII victory. Despite throwing for 231 yards, the MVP honors weren't his. Hickman continued to be a lock for 4,300 yards and above. Contract disputes made the Merchantmen cut Hickman right after training camp 2070. In 2071 Hickman returned for another couple of one-and-done seasons. The 2073 off-season was Hickman's second departure, cut as contract negotiations were expected to fail again. In 7 seasons, Hickman threw for 30,325 yards, 198 touchdowns and 153 intcerceptions, guiding the Merchantmen into the playoffs every time and towards their only IHOF Bowl victory.

C #77 Tom Anaya 2065-2078
Center Tom Anaya was the Merchantmen's surprise first round pick in the 2065 draft. Following the suspension of Zack Whelan, the Merchantmen decided to give the line to Anaya. He became a day one starter. His stats as a rookie were unimpressive, but the Merchantmen started an eight-season streak of playoffs football. Anaya wasn't just great for the Merchantmen, it became apparent he was an all-time great run blocker. The All-IHOF honors were limited to two times, but he wasn't a stranger to 40 key run blocks. He was around early enough to party after the IHOF Bowl LXIII victory, yet hung around long enough to celebrate the Merchantmen's 75th season. Anaya retired after the 2078 season, ranking 8th in key run blocks and 2nd in block opportunities in IHOF. He ranks first for the Merchantmen in both figures, while his 213 starts top previous record holder Louie Flannery by 2.

WR #82 J.R. Mills 2069-2078
Wide receiver J.R. Mills cost the Merchantmen a treuckload of picks, but the #9 overall selection was high enough to get him. And boy was he worthy it. Not from the beginning though. Despite a 1,000-yard campaign as a rookie and making it a four-season streak, Mills' stamina appeared to be an issue. Injury sidelined him for the majority of the 2073 season. Upon his return in 2074, he upped his game and kept improving, becoming a 1,500-yard receiver and peaking with 111 catches for 2,228 yards in the 2077 season. Coming in at the second most productive season by any receiver in IHOF history. The Merchantmen hope to build on him for another handful of seasons. Mills had another All-IHOF second team season in 2078 with 1,756 yards receiving. His 17 receiving touchdown were a personal record and second best in Merchantmen history. Going into 2079, he ranks 6th in receptions, 3rd in receiving yards, 5th in receiving touchdowns and a superior yards per catch and yards per target figures. Mills

OT #65 Oscar Meadows 2071-2078
Offensive tackle Oscar Meadows was a surprise first round pick in the 2071 draft for the Merchantmen. Right tackle isn't traditionally a position the Merchantmen invest in, but Meadows has the size and talent to be worthy of that. In his first seven seasons in Maassluis, Meadows proved to be the stud of the line. He allowed 33 sacks and made 198 key run blocks so far. In 2078 Meadows earned his first All-IHOF honors, being a second-teamer with 33 key run blocks and only 4 sacks allowed.

LB #52 Antonio Battle 2073-2078
Linebacker Antonio Battle joined a rich history of first round picks at his position. He had the honor to join the Merchantmen shortly before the big names retired. The veterans imediately recognized Battle's talent and he became a full-time starter as a rookie. With four 100-tackle seasons, 11 interceptions, 50 defended passes, 8 forced fumbles and 12.0 sacks in 5 seasons, his two All-IHOF team selections aren't surprising. He's a premier linebacker, a worthy succesor to Edward Ross and preceding names. In 2078 Battle earned his second All-IHOF first team selection.

MIJB#19 · 12-27-2018, 09:28 AM

75th season anniversary: 50 Legends, epilogue
To celebrate the 75th season of the Maassluis Merchantmen, I selected 50 players that I consider the legends of that time span from 2004 until the start of the 2078 season. I split the list of players into 5 groups, each being a time period of roughly 15 seasons. Epilogue.

If you counted the names carefully, you'll notice that the 5 articles of 50 Legends actually consisted of only 49 names, one short. The explanation is simple, I picked only 1 player from the list of active players in the 2076-2078 time period. With 2078 in the books and hopefully the beginning of a new strong era, it's the perfect timing to promote one name from the also-rans list.

Bennett Morris bailed on us after one season, that's an easy "no". Walt Blair is 10 games in, that's too short. Carlos Webb hasn't broken out into becoming a threat to the run blocking legends yet. Stiegler and Hitchcock actually earned All-IHOF first team honors in the 2078 season, but they'll have to wait for a future episode of whatever number of legends. Which leaves the honors to...

RB #23 Lucas Blackwell 2069-2077
Lucas Blackwell was the Merchantmen third round pick in the 2069 draft. Instead of bringing him slowly, he impressed enough in camp and pre-season to get 20 carries from the start. Blackwell came along with a skill set unusual to the Merchantmen, as he wasn't known for his breakaway speed, but did bring the instinct for hole recognition. On top of that, Blackwell was showing the power en determination to be a third down back. His endurance was slightly lacking, meaning the Merchantmen kept Blackwell basically active about 2/3rd of the time for most of his career and rarely seeing Blackwell active on the first play on the first possession. His career yards per carry wasn't impressive at 3.96. With 6 1,000-yard seasons, he played above the odds as a part-timer. Eventually his elusiveness and fumbling habits made the Merchantmen decide to release Blackwell in the 2078 off-season, deeming him too expensive for a backup role behind recently selected rookie Walt Blair. As a result, Blackwell's production was halted after 9 seasons with 9,531 rushing yards and 75 rushing touchdowns, with a 48.6 success rate on third downs. he's second all-time for the Merchantmen in carries, rushing yards and rushing touchdowns. The later trailing Nobert Talley by a single touchdown, a record that would have been in reach for Blackwell with one more season... Blackwell tried out with the Arizona Miners in training camp 2078, but didn't make the 53-men roster and retired in the 2079 off-season.

MIJB#19 · 12-27-2018, 10:11 AM

For the heck of it, I tabulated the 50 Legends to create a listed top50, assigned every player three scores from 1 to 5 on "star player value", "popularity" and "longevity". The first one being slightly subjective but basically ranging from hall of famers . The popularity rating resembles my own "heart for the player" value, again ranging from 5 for "favorites" to 1 for "I had to play him by lack of having anything better". Longevity was a simple formula of dividing the years of service by 3 and rounding to the closest whole number. Tie-breakers went to my own decision (shocker!).

Top 50 Merchantmen 2004-2078
1. DT #95 Shaun "The Behemoth" Hartman 2062-2074
2. WR #89 Terry "The Gasket" Haskell 2036-2048
3. DT #78 Charles Gomez 2004-2014
4. LB #55 Wesley Devine 2036-2048
5. DE #98 Daquan "Da Machine" Strugielski 2064-2075
6. WR #86 Gabe Springer 2016-2027
7. C #77 Tom Anaya 2065-2078
8. LB #58 Edward Ross 2064-2075
9. QB #3 "Fumblin'" Justin McDavid 2004-2017
10. LB #54 Daniel "Double D" Duncan 2040-2049
11. WR #82 J.R. Mills 2069-2078
12. C #76 Zack Whelan 2056-2067
13. QB #5 Russell "Rusty" Harrison 2020-2034
14. QB #1 Bryson Chow 2045-2058
15. LB #50 Cody Cluff 2004-2016
16. LT #60 Kerry Zumdahl 2031-2038
17. CB #34 Peter Tucker 2064-2075
18. LT #63 "Indestructible" Ivan Jacques 2007-2015
19. RB #20 Stanley Givens 2023-2026
20. G #71 Ricky Castillo 2032-2038
21. QB #8 Lester Lowe 2057-2065
22. RB #29 Donald Terry 2037-2044
23. K #8 Al Bettis 2006-2019
24. WR #87 Jack Money 2037-2046
25. CB #39 Everett Heiser 2052-2062
26. LT #64 Roman Torrez 2051-2063
27. OT #65 Oscar Meadows 2071-2078
28. QB #14 Louie Flannery 2006-2021
29. RB #25 Norbert Talley 2048-2055
30. WR #83 Riddick Stanley 2057-2068
31. FB #20 Albert "The Shovel" Shalon 2029-2039
32. WR #83 Adam Brautlacht 2034-2044
33. LB #52 Antonio Battle 2073-2078
34. S #46 Lincoln Gilmore 2004-2014
35. CB #27 Randall Allen 2019-2023
36. DE #92 Jordan St. Pierre 2057-2067
37. S #49 Thurman Hopper 2031-2044
38. S #42 Perry Walker 2030-2043
39. WR #84 Scott Dupuis 2043-2053
40. QB #3 Alfred Hickman 2065-2072
41. RB #29 Mark McConnell 2027-2035
42. LB #51 Gabe Hamilton 2064-2074
43. S #48 Jimmy Chellino 2020-2031
44. WR #80 Terry Thomason 2023-2035
45. QB #7 Jay McGee 2030-2039
46. C #79 Cristian Sampson 2047-2059
47. DT #56 Dennis Lucas 2041-2050
48. WR #81 Alfredo Bass 2012-2014
49. RB #23 Lucas Blackwell 2069-2077
50. WR #83 Vince McAlister 2015-2018

MIJB#19 · 12-27-2018, 05:55 PM

Game technicality:

Quote:

Originally Posted by MIJB#19

2079 Off-Season: Morris and Anaya retire
Center Tom Anaya was the Merchantmen's 2065 first round pick. He played 14 seasons in Maassluis, playing in 213 regular season and 18 post-season games. Anaya made 487 key run blocks and allowed just 54 sacks. He ranked 8th all-time in the history of the IHOF in key run blocks in the regular season. He was the leading run blocker for the Merchantmen 12 times, including his rookie season, twice earning All-IHOF First team honors. Unsurprisingly, he's the all-time leader for the Merchantmen, 92 key run blocks ahead of Cristian Sampson, a starter for the Merchantmen in the '50s.

It's premature, but it looks like #77 has been retired, it's no longer available for new Merchantmen players. Anaya would be the third player to get a retired number after #25 for RB Norbert Talley and #34, presumable retired for CB Peter Tucker.

MIJB#19 · 12-28-2018, 08:42 AM

2079 Off-Season: Free agent signings, renegotiations
The Merchantmen signed five players today. Linebackers Chance Nason and Alexis Turner each signed a new two-year contract. Additionally, veteran wide receivers Erik Slechta, Gene Sweazy and Nicolas Tucker were signed to two-year contracts. All five will likely battle for a roster spot with special teams duties. Tucker will also get a chance to battle for the kickoff duties ahead of behind Bart Lahnum, 4th in the league last season.

Slechta comes over from the Williamsburg Colonials, where he was a member of their special teams unit. Sweazy was a free agent throughout the 2078 season, getting cut on roster cut day by the Frederick Red Menace, where he was a special teamer for 3 seasons. Tucker was a pre-season cut by the Moontown Darksiders in their successful 2078 campaign, where he was a special teamer for 9 years and had been the premier kickoff returner from 2074 to 2077, until he lost the roster spot to Marvin Rayburn, who ranked 3rd last season.

The Merchantmen also announced contract extensions for guard Harvey Hank and defensive end Herb Crane. Hank was on the final year of his rookie contract and signed a 5-year deal worth about $116M, with a bonus of nearly $30M. Hank has been a crucial element for the pass protection, while having proven to be a worthy run blocker as well. Crane enters his sixth season in Maassluis and was also up for renewal, signing a 3-year $33M contract. His playing time increased last season, in particular on passing downs, ranking third on the team with 7.5 sacks and second with 15 hurries.

With the draft ongoing, the Merchantmen have 14 players still on their final contract, expecting to negotiate with most of them in the pre-season. Punter Santiago Hitchcock and linebacker Roosevelt Dees won't be amongst those players. Hitchcock signed a one-year deal, hoping to earn the holder duties. Dees has asked for a trade and has been on the trade block, trade talks with one team feel apart over the asking price. Key players still to be resigned include third down back Raul Curie, potential starting fullback Donald Latschaw, kicker Dave Eiermann, defensive end Todd Clinton, defensive tackle Willie Turner, linebacker Stan Foster, nickelback Giovanni Morton, safety Ben Gilbert and long snapper Chris Bertolone.

Contract negotiations with wide receivers Mickey Allen and Patrick Henry have reached an impasse. Merchantmen management is unwilling to comply with their demands. Henry spent the entire 2077 season inactive. Allen will have to battle with the recently acquired free agents for a special teams and fifth receiver role, as the Merchantmen expect to see sophomore Rico Techen jump into the WR4 spot.

MIJB#19 · 12-28-2018, 08:51 AM

General Manager notes: 2079 draft rounds 1, 2 and 3
We went into the draft with a truck load of draft picks. As result of trades in the previous two drafts, we had 3 additional second round picks and an extra fifth round pick.

We spent the 2.17 pick as exchange money for a trade up from #29 to #18 to be able to select linebacker Craig McCorkle. The staff assed him as underrated, which for me was the determining factor. He's strong and agile, a bit green and slightly undersized, but we'll be happy to have him team up with Battle and Brewer. We might consider playing a bit more linebacker heavy formations.

The second and third round ended up being a trade frenzy. We sent 2.12 to the Hanalei Dragons for a 2nd and 5th next draft. Then we sent the 2.26 to the Toronto Lake Monsters for their 2nd and 7th next draft. We sent the 2.29 to the Rochester Razorbacks for the Moontown Darksiders 2nd next draft. Finally we swapped the 3.29 for the North Plainfield Plague's 3rd next draft. This should be fun again next off-season...

McCorkle is in and we've still got five picks to be made, with the #29 overall in all four rounds, while having the 5.14 as a bonus.

MIJB#19 · 12-29-2018, 09:08 AM

General Manager notes: 2079 draft rounds 4 through 7
And then there was a trade. And another one. And a potential trade partner calling in 2 minutes too late. We shipped a player overseas for the first time in 22 seasons. And a trade that didn't go through, that got amended and eventually was trimmed to a different trade. And then we traded back into the draft. Craziness!

After all the smoke had cleared, we added a 4th round pick next draft, substituted our fifth next draft for Chesapeake's, gave linebacker Roosevelt Dees a new home and selected three rookies.

Kicker Herb Easter was our 4th round pick. The top rated kicker this draft will have a tough road ahead: We've picked 15 kickers in the previous 74 drafts and only 5 of them made the roster for week 1. Of those 5, only 3 survived the roster cuts for their second season and only 2 of them stuck around for more than 2 seasons. And the two that did stick, played 7 and 8 seasons with us. That's excluding Dave Eiermann, who's still active in the league, having spent 3 seasons on our roster. Wouldn't it be something to see the man named 'egg man' get replaced by a kid named Easter? So let's hope Easter breaks the trend and is a keeper. He had the best combine of all kickers, but might be just a kickoff specialist, which in this day and age is much less important than it was back when Al Bettis was the legend.

Our first pick in the 6th round was wide receiver Dwight Clements. Undersized at 5'8", but he ran the 40-yard dash in 4.29 seconds. Imagine that: J.R. Mills lining up with on the other side the gazelles Clements and Rico Techen (clocked at 4.25 this off-season) distracting the opposing secondary.

Our second pick in the 6th round was linebacker Jermaine Page. The trade of Dees made me decide to grab just one more rookie at this position. Page is a special teamer and can play zone defense. We'll have to consider hiring a mentor for Paige and first round pick McCorkle. Too bad the market on inside linebacker mentors is non-existent. There are 3 of these guys across the league, none in the open market. Chicago and Williamsburg won't trade their best linebacker, I suspect, and Paris shouldn't feel happy about trading their best special teamer. So much for that mentor suggestion...

All this wheeling and dealing means we're listing 53 players on roster, 4 incoming draft picks and leaving 3 open roster spots for the pre-season. I'm leaning towards bringing in a quarterback, long snapper and a defensive tackle. But we'll see what's available in late free agency after the draft.

tzach · 12-30-2018, 05:31 PM

this is great stuff mijb -- i keep coming back here to check your updates.

MIJB#19 · 01-01-2019, 07:27 AM

General Manager notes: 2079 Training Camp Report
Training camp has finished, we're in preparation for the pre-season games, which we'll start at home against the Williamsburg Colonials and then on the road at the league champions Moontown Darksiders. We'll stay in the USA for about a week with training sessions at a location on the East coast, continuing with a road game at the Brooklyn Fightin' Bums and finishing at home against the Outer Banks Ospreys.

We signed two undrafted rookies to join us in training camp. Quarterback Karsten Muchnick and defensive tackle Cameron Erlitz. We also tried to bring in the best rookie long snapper Dustin Cooksey, but he decided to sign for about $250K more with the Orlando Talons. In retrospect, we should have offered Cooksey a better contract, that kid might turn out to be the best in business. Now we'll have to deal with another top 5 talent in Chris Bertolone, who's asking for a much bigger contract than what we could have tried to sign Cooksey for. The guys that did join us are strip sack specialist Erlitz and kick holder Muchnick. Both stand a good chance to make the 53 men roster.

Training camp was mediocre. With only 6 rookies in camp, the number of players that made progress wasn't spectacular. Our first round pick linebacker Craig McCorkle appears to be the real deal. He was the most improved player in training camp, according to our staff. Fellow rookie linebacker Jermaine Page, third year cornerback Amari Lavelli and rookie kicker Herb Easter were the other three guys that were reported as much improved.

Smaller improvement was reported for most of the other rookies and second and third year players, with a special mention for sixth year quarterback Ellis McAlister, who continues to improve and by our staff is graded as the 29th best player in the league at his position, with Sammy Erickson as the 24th best. We've moved on from the loss of Bennett Morris, we're going to stick with these two guys as our options. Despite some cap room to work with (about $18M), a good chunk of that will be used to extend a couple of contracts later on this pre-season. But more importantly, there's no team out there with 2 quarterbacks better than Erickson and McAlister. Maybe the Iowa Cobbers, but we can't afford the league nestor Cesar Small and their man of the future Zachery Hatcher isn't an improvement over either of our two guys.

We'll go into pre-season with 60 players signed, hopefully. We've made one offer to a free agent to join us post camp. We failed to persuade Mickey Allen to stick around for another season as our WR5, his salary demands far exceeded what we were willing to pay him in that role. He should have seen it coming with the four new receivers that we acquired in the off-season. The not to be named player should jump into a bit of a hole on our roster.

A slight disappointment in training camp were running back Walt Blair and wide receivers Dwight Clements and Rico Techen. Their progress was there, but I had hoped for more improvement. It's the second training camp where we have to list Blair as 'good progress', but not spectacular', that to me is a minor concern about his overall ability. Minor, because we've seen what he can do in the 2078 season, he's quickly proven why we had to move on from Lance Blackwell and give this kid the rock. If he stays healthy, he'll be that kind of player that gives Erickson or McAlister all the time to do their thing.

Lastly, our backup left tackle Richie Coughenour made good progress in training camp and by my staff has improved to being the third best pass blocking left tackle in the league. Quite the dilemma, given that we just gave Louie Murray a 5-year $100M contract. Coughenour is up for renewal of his contract, he's still willing to sign a new deal with us, but unless we give him playing time this season, I fully expect him to want to play elsewhere the season after. And he's unlikely to see much of that this season, if the guys we have and newly signed all-world Nicky Sherman show us in pre-season they're in good shape...

MIJB#19 · 01-01-2019, 05:50 PM

Will McAlister be number 17?
For decades, the starting quarterback for the Maassluis Merchantmen was the same guy for, well, over a decade. Louie Flannery came in on the mid '00s and was the clear cut starter throughout the '10s. Russell Harrison owned the '20s, while Jerry McGee dominated the '30s. Perry Coleman started early in the '40s, then Bryson Chow finished that decade and was the man under center through most of the '50s. Then there was Lester Lowe followed by Alfred Hickman and then the times of change started. The list of opening day starting quarterbacks, consists of 16 different names, so far. Sammy Erickson hopes to maintain that number for a while, but Ellis McAlister hopes to be number 17 in week one of the 2079 season. Borrows from an old article over at the IHOF website, here's an updated list of opening day starting quarterbacks for the Merchantmen:
2004 Calvin Snider
2005 Leonard Lyon
2006-19 Louie Flannery
2020-29 Russell Harrison
2030-32 Jay McGee
2033-34 Russell Harrison
2035-39 Jay McGee
2040 Stanley Bissel
2041-44 Perry Coleman
2045-57 Bryson Chow
2058-64 Lester Lowe
2065-69 Alfred Hickman
2070 Robbie Rhoades
2071-72 Alfred Hickman
2073 Winston Buckner
2074 Robbie Howe
2075-76 Erick Loera
2077 Sammy Erickson
2078 Bennett Morris
2079 ???

Ellis McAlister has been named the starter for the first two pre-season games, playing amidst a mix of youngsters and hard to replace backups. Walt Blair will be active, but J.R. Mills and Brody Stevens will be inactive. Sammy Erickson will be inactive, but likely play with the first teamers, such as Mills and Stevens, in the last two pre-season games. Rookie Karsten Muchnick will serve as the backup to McAlister and will likely see a lot of action as the mid-game replacement. On the defense, Antonio Battle and Glenn Brewer will be inactive, while the rest of the defense will likely be play in rotation, just like it will likely do in the regular season. Things might chance in the secondary for the last two pre-season games, a decision to be made after the first couple.

MIJB#19 · 01-03-2019, 03:12 PM

General Manager notes: Ellis McAlister, here are the keys for 2079
So much for that quarterback battle. McAlister, the team is yours.

It's always hilarious to see how training camp can give you a basic idea on what the team will be like, only to see the bunch of guys go into action and have some of these kids all of a sudden look like a complete different football player. Nothing of that, in a sense of having huge demasque moments, but we've had some medium ones and the quarterbacks were on both ends of it. On a scale from 1 to 100, this is where we stand, according to our staff:

50 (+7) QB Ellis McAlister
38 (-11) QB Sammy Erickson
14/28 (+1) QB Kartsen Muchnick

58/65 (+1) RB Walt Blair
39 RB Raul Curie
33/34 (-1/-2) RB Ronald Graham
40 FB Gilbert Taliancich
32/38 (0/+3) FB Darien Latschaw

57 TE Monty Elliott
42 TE Branden Schwirzke
41 TE Randal Curtis
13 (-4) TE Markel Ellison
60 WR Brody Stevens
54 (-4) WR J.R. Mills
49 WR Dennis Nadell
31/37 (+5) WR Rico Techen
24/28 (0/-6) WR Dwight Clements
18 (-6) WR Nicolas Tucker

81 C Nicky Sherman
38 (-5) C Steven Houshmandzadeh
68 (+1) G Harvey Hank
67 G Carlos Webb
19 (-9) G Bryson Hamilton
70 (-3) T Oscar Meadows
48 (-1) LT Louie Murray
32 (-7) LT Richie Coughenour

49 DE Todd Clinton
42 (-2) DE Max Lyons
41 (-5) DE Arnie May
40 (-1) DE Herb Crane
59 DT Glen Stiegler
50 DT Chandler Posante
33 (-1) DT Willie Turner
20/33 (-2/+3) DT Cameron Erlitz
76 (-1) OLB Antonio Battle
40/76 (+2) MLB Craig McCorkle
64 OLB Glenn Brewer
40 (-1) OLB Stan Foster
26/35 (+3) MLB Jermaine Page
1 OLB Alexis Turner

53 (-6) CB Alonzo Hitchcock
49 CB Amari Lovelli
49 (+1) CB Ezra Slocum
43 CB Herman Glenn
38 CB Giovanni Morton
25 (-9) CB Bart Lahnum
47 S Maurice Harkleroad
37 S Rex McIndoe
34 (+1) S Ben Gilbert
20 (-4) S Jonah Harden

70 (+1) P Tito Hornsby
55 (-1) K Dave Eiermann
21 LS Chris Bertolone

Released
QB Jamie Holmes: +1 in pre-season, but lost the kick holder battle to Muchnick
WR Erik Slechta: -6 in pre-season, not even worth a special teamer spot
WR Gene Sweazy: -10 in pre-season, not even worth a special teamer spot
P Santiago Hitchcock: -2/+3 in pre-season, but lost the kick holder battle to Muchnick
K Herb Easter: -3/-17 in pre-season, nope, not an elite kickoff specialists
LB Chance Nason: -5 in pre-season, took hit in special teams skills, bummer

That sets our 53 men roster. Or does it? Our depth at the OL took a hit. All the backups had terrible progression. Alas. I'm opting to look for a new backup guard after the next pre-season games. Afterwards, because we've offered a bunch of last-year players a contract extension. Once we know how much cap space is left, we'll consider using it.

MIJB#19 · 01-03-2019, 04:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tzach

this is great stuff mijb -- i keep coming back here to check your updates.

Writing about the old stuff was both time intensive and cool to pick up. At the same time, this particular season of jumping back into writing, we actually had a solid season. The 500 points barrier feels like the borderline between also-ran and bowl worthy.

The team of 2023 was my favorite offense, it was fun to bring that talent together and see it work. Until injuries made the post-season end in deception. QB Russell Harrison, RB Stanley Givens, WR Gabe Springer, WR Terry Thomason...

The 2059 team that went 15-1, yet one-and-done, stung too. While the talent was marginal, that team was Jackie Collier Tigers good, the results were exceptional. A team that lost 2 bowl games around that season. QB Lester Lowe, WR Stanley, WR Oburn, TEs Forbes and Jurevicius... A defense with CB Everett Heiser, S Lonnie Razo, DTs Lapointe and Singletary...

In retrospect, I wish I had written about the 2066 season when we won it all, that would have been fun to re-read. Especially with the kind of team it was. It slightly was still built on the 2059 team building blocks C Whelan, LT Yonney, WR Stanley and WR Ellard. But with the enigmatic QB Alfred Hickman, but mostly being a completely rebuilt defense, with Shaun Hartman and the Class of 2064.

The team with the excellent defense of the 2037-2040 era was also fun. WR Haskell carried it. LB Wesley Devine, safeties Hopper and Walker...

And then there was the 2007 defense that grew into the zone only defense. Those were the times when novelties turned out to be over the line of what the game was supposed to do, forcing patches and all.

On to 2079, it will be really interesting to see what the loss of QB Bennett Morris and C Tom Anaya will do...

MIJB#19 · 01-04-2019, 11:46 AM

General Manager notes 2079: Ellis who?
There's no turning back, for the 8th time in the '70s, we'll have a new (opening day) starting quarterback. Sensational, since we had only 9 different guys in the previous 66 seasons. Ellis McAlister is the name, an unknown for the outside world, but within the Merchantmen, we know this kid well. That is to say, we thought we knew this kid to be a career backup. But here we are, years of keeping him around are about to get a new twist.

It was the 2074 draft when we saw the name Ellis McAlister for the first time. We were coming of the Winston Buckner season, who turned out to be a one-season solution and felt that Robbie Howe might not be the long term solution. The awesome defense was aging, but still in full galore. Cap space was tight and I figured this should be the draft where would interview 12 quarterbacks and see what it might bring.

And interviewing we did, 12 different quarterbacks. Results were mixed, with only 2 kids giving us an "underrated" impression. One of them was Brandon Riley, the Augusta Greenjackets made him the #2 overall pick and they have made the playoffs in all 5 seasons with him under center, with one lost IHOF Bowl on his resume. In retrospect a wasted interview, but so be it.

The other "underrated" kid was Ellis McAlister. Was he anything spectacular? Not quite. His combine numbers were pretty good, Solecismic score of 38, 7.36 seconds in the agility test, 13 bench reps. Numbers that should a general manager get interested in a quarterback. He also had better than 'average' 40-yard dash and position drill scores. His scouted potential ranges, though:
24-36 screen
28-39 short
28-40 medium
33-44 long
3-14 deep
12-24 third down
29-40 accuracy
34-45 timing
37-49 sense rush
9-20 read defense
20-32 two-minute
32-43 scramble

It makes you (me as well) wonder why we interviewed McAlister, probably because of the interesting combine scores. We did though and by the time it was our first sixth round pick, I figured, why not get this kid with very high volatility a chance? We grabbed some left tackle with awesome agility and named Louie Murray 3 picks later. Murray started in every game we played after that draft, 80 straight regular season games and 4 more in the playoffs. McAlister has been on the field in just 1 of those 84 games, handing off three times to Lucas Blackwell to salvage a 40-14 victory at home over the Bordeaux Vineyards.

The progress notes of post camp, mid-pre-season and season end:
2074: 14/35 to 14/39 to 17/39
2075: 21/39 to 22/41 to 23/41
2076: 28/41 to 29/42 to 29/42
2077: 34/42 to 35/42 to 35/42
2078: 39/42 to 41/44 to 41/44
2079: 43/43 to 50/50 to t.b.d.

And there's the reason why McAlister hung around: the kid showed progress in ability in every training camp (+4, +5, +5, +5, +2 to fully developed). Additionally, he showed disgruntlement towards being the backup to Sammy Erickson. Usually a hint that said player is better than backup material. It shows, at this point, he's the 21st highest rated quarterback by my staff. With 5 years on roster prior to this season, he's good for cohesion as well, that can't be bad either. And on top of that, he's come a long way from the scouting report post interview:
44 screen
56 short
49 medium
88 long
27 deep
36 third down
60 accuracy
94 timing
49 sense rush
28 read defense
55 two-minute
34 scramble

Lastly, his combine numbers today are very similar to what he showed as a rookie. His combine score next off-season will tell us whether his latest improvement was a sip from the elixir of life or it was all written in the stars...

MIJB#19 · 01-06-2019, 05:31 PM

2079 Pre-season Recap, stats leaders
The Maassluis Merchantmen finished the pre-season with a 3-1 record. They started with a 23-17 loss at home to the Williamsburg Colonials, gaining only 190 total yards but also allowing only 279 total yards. They followed up with a 21-17 victory at the Moontown Darksiders, IHOF's defending champions, outgaining their opponents 422 to 371 total yards. Third was a dominating 37-6 victory at the Brooklyn Fightin' Bums, outgaining them 382 to 229 total yards. The last game was another victory, beating the Outer Banks Ospreys 34-19 in Oranje Haven, outgaining the opponents 397 to 350 total yards.

Passing leading
McAlister 38/59 for 431 yd, 3 td, 1 int
Muchnick 21/43 for 305 yd, 3 td, 1 int
Erickson 22/32 for 280 yd, 3 td, 0 int

Rushing leaders
Curie 202 yd, 2.77 avg, 4 td, 1 fumble
Blair 124 yd, 3.88
Graham 17 yd, 2.83 avg

Receiving leaders
Nadell 23 for 304 yd, 4 td
Elliott 17 for 175 yd, 1 td
Sweazy 6 for 125 yd, 1 td (got cut)
Mills 9 for 125 yd, 0 td, 1 fumble
Stevens 6 for 107 yd, 1 td
Techen 6 for 62 yd
Curie 5 for 57 yd
Curtis 3 for 16 yd, 2 td

Blocking leaders
Hank 10/22
Sherman 6/23
Webb 6/21, 1 sack
Meadows 5/19, 1 sack
Taliancich 2/3
Elliot 2/5
Murray 1/5
Coughenour 0/10

Pass rush leaders
Lyons 3.0 sck, 2 blk, 0 hur
Clinton 2.0 sck, 3 blk, 3 hur
Stiegler 2.0 sck, 1 blk, 4 hur
May 1.5 sck, 1 blk, 5 hur
Posante 1.5 sck, 0 blk, 1 hur
Battle 1.0 sck, 0 blk, 0 hur
Crane 0.0 sck, 1 blk, 2 hur

Pass defense leaders
Hitchcock 2 int, 1 def
Morton 2 int, 1 def
McIndoe 1 int, 2 def
Lavelli 1 int, 2 def
Gilbert 1 int, 1 def
Battle 4 def
Harkleroad 2 def

MIJB#19 · 01-07-2019, 05:11 PM

2079 Regular season, week 1
At last, the Merchantmen were back on the field. The place to be: Oranje Haven. The opponents: the Paris Musketeers. Last season, the Paris Musketeers were 10-4 in games not played against the Merchantmen, but 0-3 against orange, white and blue. A warm welcome back for running back Walt Blair and an even bigger test for the new starting quarterback Elis McAliser.

And boy, did McAlister pass the test. His first three throws turned into negative yardage and a couple of incompletions, but attempts four and five to J.R. Mills were the kind of throws Merchantmen fans have gotten accustomed to the last couple of seasons. A drive with a 15-yard catch and run by Mills was followed up by Walt Blair's first 20-yarder of the season and the drive ended in a deep throw from McAlister to Mills to dance into the endzone for a touchdown.

The Musketeers replied with a drive ending in a 39-yard field goal, but the Merchantmen had only just began. Walt Blair ran for a career long 70 yards to put his team 14-3 up. Shortly after Paris' first offensive touchdown to make it 14-10, things got quiet for a while. Until the Merchantmen saw McAlister connect with Mills for 28 yards with just over 5 minutes left in the first half. Two plays later, Walt Blair stormed into the end zone from 26 yards out. The Merchantmen defense forced a couple of three and outs, but a couple of long passes to Mills and Dennis Nadell went unanswered as Dave Eiermann missed a 47-yard field goal to make it 21-10 at half time.

Paris scored first in the second half, seeing Shaun Dole convert a 47-yard field goal attempt. The Merchantmen quickly responded with a 40-yard field goal, as did Paris again with a 45-yarder. Dave Eiermann missed a 49-yarder to keep the score closer at 24-16 Maassluis.

The fourth quarter started with Paris equalizing touchdown drove. Despite a strong pass rush, the Merchantmen defense were unable to stop Neil Poling on 3rd and 18 from finding Eugene Hamilton in the end zone. A two-point conversion later and 24-24 was the score. Tossed from McAlister and runs from Blair kept the chains moving on the next drive and J.R. Mills once again found the end zone on a long throw from McAlister: 31-24, with 7:25 to go.

A quick three and out gave the Merchantmen a chance to pull the game away, but with 3 minutes to go, McAlister saw an underthrown pass get intercepted near midfield. Paris' hopes were broken only one play later, as pre-season revelation Giovanni Morton returned the favor. McAlister then found Brody Stevens and Mills for 17 yards each to waste Paris' timeouts to secure the 31-24 victory.

The end result was a close score, despite that the Merchantmen outgained the Musketeers 528 to 282 yards. Ellis McAlister completed 26 of 38 passes for 339 yards and 2 touchdowns with 1 interception in his first career start. J.R. Mills caught 11 of those passes for 192 yards and 2 touchdowns. Walt Blair ran for 179 yards and 2 scores. The Merchantmen fans saw the offense they had accustomed to in the first half of last season.

The Merchantmen take the early lead in the European division, based on tie-breakers that at this stage of the season are pretty pointless to look at. The Gothenburg Giants won a closely competed home game against the Bordeaux Vineyards 27-20.

MIJB#19 · 01-10-2019, 02:50 PM

2079 Regular season week 2
Back to earth. The Maassluis Merchantmen failed to produce the goods and stumbled on the Kansas Creationists on the road, losing 27-22 at a team that's financially cheating by being $40 million. Ellis McAlister tried to keep pace with all-world Eric Keith, but couldn't quite manage that, completing 17 of 37 passes for 244 yards, 2 touchdowns and 1 interception. Walt Blair was stuffed to just 65 yards on 23 carries, J.R. Mills was near-invisible behind the coverage, catches just 3 passes for 52 yards and 1 touchdown.

and week 3...
The Merchantmen bounced back in a quick fashion, storming to a 17-0 lead at the reigning AOC Champions Toronto Lake Monsters and eventually scoring the game winner in the fourth quarter for the 24-17 victory. The Merchantmen defense held Toronto to just 263 total yards. Ellis McAlister completed 24 of 35 passes for 316 yards, with 3 touchdowns and 1 interception. Dennis Nadell caught 8 passes for 155 yards and 1 touchdown, while Monty Elliott had 2 receiving tocuhdowns. The stars of the offense, Walt Blair was practically nullified with just 25 yards on 27 carries, while J.R. Mills caught just 4 balls for 61 yards.

and week 4!
In high speed fashion, the Merchantmen fans have embrassed their new quarterback. The "Ellis! Who the fuck is Ellis?" chants have made a 1995 song popular in Maassluis. Ellis McAlister guided his team to a 33-7 demolition of the San Antonio Tidal Force, taking full advantage of the defense's 6 forced turnovers. McAlister completed just half of his passes, but with 208 yards and 4 touchdowns, the fans have nothing to complain about there. He continues to struggle in connecting with J.R. Mills, this time recording just 3 receptions on 12 targets, gaining 78 yards with no score. Walt Blair continued to struggle as well, gaining 98 yards on 26 carries. Dennis Nadell lead the Merchantmen receivers once again with 2 touchdowns and tying Mills' 78 yards. Tight ends Monty Elliott and Randal Curtis hailed in the other two touchdowns. Safety Ben Gilbert and Linebacker Antonio Battle each had a pair of interceptions, while Glenn Brewer made 2 sacks, including a forced fumble. Kicker Dave Eiermann missed another short kick. Cohesion on the kicking unit (or lack there of) is turning into a concern. Sammy Erickson played a couple of downs in garbage time.

European Division
1. Maassluis 3-1
2. Gothenburg 3-1
3. Bordeaux 2-1
4. Paris 2-2

The European Division continues to be incredibly strong. Maassluis will go into their bye in week 4, while Gothenburg and Paris will travel to Texas for visits to Fort Worth and San Antonio. Bordeaux travels to Atlanta.

Despite the struggling offense, the Merchantmen key players have had a big enough day to rank highly on the leaderboards. Ellis McAlister ranks 5th in passing yards (269 per game) and passer rating (98.0), Boasting a 2nd place in passing touchdowns. Walt Blair, barely, ranks 2nd with 92 rushing yards per game. Dennis Nadell ranks 8th and J.R. Mills ranks 10th in receiving yards (97 and 96 yards per game), while both join Monty Elliott in a big group of players with 3 receiving touchdowns.

With games played again the two pass-only offenses (Paris and Toronto), team defensive numbers are very skewed towards low number of rushing attempts.

MIJB#19 · 01-12-2019, 10:45 AM

2079 Regular Season week 5
The Maassluis Merchantmen were on their bye week.

and week 6!
The Maassluis Merchantmen dribble on, with good but not great football. The defense has surprisingly been the stronger side of the ball, while the offensive stars J.R. Mills and Walt Blair struggle to play up to their standards. And amidst this all, the new starting quarterback Ellis McAlister is winning the hearts of the fans, already getting his own walk on song for the third home game of the season. The Atlanta Vipers came to town, the reigning AOC South champions, a 2-2 team with a run-oriented offense.

The Merchantmen defense started the game strong, forcing Atlanta to go four and out (a holding penalty gave them their only first down). The Merchantmen offense didn't come out with a bang, seeing Ellis McAlister find J.R. Mills for 9 yards and Walt Blair running for 7 yards, but the next three plays being short runs, coming short to move the chains. Sophomere quarterback Santiago Lester then lead his offense to a long scoring drive for 80 yards, with rookie Brody Barrett running for the short touchdown run to put the Vipers 7-0 up. The Merchantmen offense was rusty on their next drive, saw punter Tito Hornsby nail the Vipers at their 2-yard line, only to have a penalty nullify it and the re-punt resulting in Atlanta getting the ball back at their own 48-yard line. Lester then got sacked at the Merchantmen 46-yard line on the second play of the drive to end the first quarter.

Penalties on both ends resulted in Atlanta facing second and 17 early in the second quarter, leading to a punt that Amari Lavelli returned 17 yards to get the ball outside of the Merchantmen red zone. After a strong 17-yard run from Walt Blair, it was Ellis McAlister who scrambled for 7 yards, but lost the ball in the pile at midfield, giving Atlanta the ball back. The Vipers then gained just enough ground to have Jalen Bennewith kick a 46-yard field goal for a 10-0 lead. With three medium length completed passes and a 10-yard run by Raul Curie, the Merchantmen rolled into the Vipers' red zone for the first time this game and had Dave Eiermann kick the 28-yarder to trim the deficit to 10-3. With back to back sacks, the Merchantmen defense the forced the Vipers to punt on fourth and 25, which was returned by Amari Lavelli for 20 yards to the Maassluis 46-yard line right before the to-minute warning. Both defenses then forced a three and out, leaving too little time for the Merchantmen to put points on the scoreboard on the last drive before the big break.

leading 10-3, the Vipers were happy to force a quick three and out to start the second half. But not for the first time in the game, the Merchantmen defense swarmed the Atlanta quarterback and Santiago Lester was flat on his back. On the next drive, Ellis McAlister connected with Dennis Nadell for 22- and 21-yard gains to march into the red zone, finishing it off with 10-yard passes to Nadell and Brody Stevens, putting 10 points for both teams on the scoreboard. Atlanta wasn't impressed yet, Santiago Lester found Caleb Flylum for a big catch and run for 35 yards, then found Johnnie Forsyth for 23 yards on a third and long and then Flylum in the end zone for a short touchdown pass. Atlanta went up 17-10 and then forced a fumble on the kickoff return, which the Merchantmen tight end Monty Elliott recovered to save the day. Another three and out on both sides of the field saw the clock run out and seeing the home team fans worried this game might not go their way.

The Merchantmen were stopped short once again, this time pinning Atlanta at their 5-yard line. The Vipers struggled against the aggressive Merchantmen defense, were forced to punt and Amari Lavelli returned the punt 21 yards to the Atlanta 32-yard line. Randal Curtis then was Ellis McAlister's target for a short pass, but Curtis managed to find the hole in the defense and brought the ball into the end zone on a 29-yard gain. Dave Eiermann missed the ensuing extra point, meaning the Vipers were still up by a point: 17-16. Then, the wheels finally came off, as Lester Santiago saw his pass get picked off by Giovanni Morton at the Atlanta 30-yard line. Maassluis caught momentum, McAlister found J.R. Mills for 16 yards and on third and goal, Raul Curie showed his bulldozing skills to put the ball into the end zone. A two-pointer from McAlister to Dennis Nadell put Maassluis up 24-17. The dominating Merchantmen defense forced another three and out. Raul Curie ran for 15 yards, which got followed up by McAlister finding Walt Blair for two impressive catch and runs, the first one for 33 yards and the second for a 30-yard touchdown. Eiermann didn't miss this time and Maassluis improved the lead to two touchdowns: 31-17. Atlanta converted on fourth and 15 to stay alive, but the pass rush pressure made Santiago Lester throw the ball away three times. After the two-minute warning, the Vipers were not able to convert on fourth and 10, turning the ball over in Atlanta territory. The Merchantmen burned Atlanta's time outs, but the game wasn't over yet. The Vipers' hopes ended three plays later when Antonio Battle made the game ending interception in Atlanta territory.

Ellis McAlister earned his third player of the game honors in only his fifth start as he completed 19 of 29 passes for 263 yards, with 3 touchdowns and 1 lost fumble. Dennis Nadell was his top target again, catching 10 passes for 113 yards. Brody Stevens, Randall Curtis and Walt Blair had touchdown receptions. That same Blair ran for just 60 yards on 20 carries, but Raul Curie made up for it with 38 yards and a touchdown run. The defense impressed by sacking the Atlanta quarterbacks 8 times and picking him off 2 times allowing less than 300 total yards for the third time this season against a playoff team from last season.

Elsewhere in the league, the Paris Musketers reverted to a balanced game plan on offense and as a result saw Jon Miernicki run for 171 yards in a 39-21 victory at the Gothenburg Giants. The Bordeaux Vineyards didn't need much firepower to beat the struggling Fort Wayne Fury 30-7.

AOC Europe
1. Maassluis 4-1
2. Gothenburg 4-2
3. Bordeaux 3-2
4. Paris 3-3

The Tucker Tigers lost a 38-30 barnburner at the AOC Northeast leading Rochester Razorbacks, meaning the only undefeated team in the league are the NAC Mid-Atlantic leading Williamsburg Colonials. The Hanalei Dragons lead the NAC West with a 5-1 record, being the only other team with Tucker and Maassluis with 1 loss. Every other team in the league has lost at least 2 games already, with no winless teams and only 4 teams with just 1 win. Is competitiveness at an all time high? Probably not, but at the very least it keeps a lot of teams dreaming for going places this season...

MIJB#19 · 01-17-2019, 05:26 PM

2079 Regular Season week 7
Despite slightly outplaying an inferior opponent on the road, the Maassluis merchantmen lost 24-20 at the Fort Wayne Fury as that home team somehow managed to be more efficient down the field, as touchdowns trump field goals. Walt Blair had one of those games again, running 22 times for 163 yards and 1 touchdown. J.R. Mills was invisible with 4 catches for 42 yards. Ellis McAlister completed 17 of 33 passes for 186 yards and 1 touchdown, his lowest production to date.

came next: week 8
The Maassluis Merchantmen beat the Paris Musketeers for the sixth straight time in less than 2 full seasons. Scoring touchdowns was once again the Achilles heel, giving Paris a chance to almost get close enough for a game winning field goal to avoid the Merchantmen's 26-24 victory. J.R. Mills caught 5 passes for 148 yards, Walt Blair ran 27 times for 137 yards and a score, Ellis McAlister completed 20 of 27 passes for 263 yards and a pick.

followed by week 9
The Houston Mustangs dissected the Maassluis Merchantmen offensive game plan. The Merchantmen gained just 226 yards in a 20-10 loss. Walt Blair ran 16 times for 64 yards, J.R. Mills caught 4 passes for 75 yards, Ellis McAlister completed a measly 11 of 26 passes for 165 yards, 1 touchdown and 1 interception.

and eventually week 10
The streak of victories over French opponents increased to 11 wins for the Maassluis Merchantmen. Despite a sloppy showing, the Bordeaux Vineyards were beaten 17-10 in Oranje Haven. Ellis McAlister completed 18 of 29 passes for 216 yards, J.R. Mills caught 7 passes for 74 yards, Walt Blair ran 21 times for 82 yards and 1 touchdown.

AOC Europe
1. Maassluis 6-3
2. Gothenburg 6-3
3. Paris 4-5
4. Bordeaux 4-5

Next up: Maassluis at Gothenburg (the re-match is in week 15) and Paris at Bordeaux.

The Merchantmen get yet another chance to jump into pole position in the AOC, if they win. That's a big if, they've been in that position in Fort Wayne and Houston. The skeptics and pessimists expect the Merchantmen to completely fall apart. Optimists trust in Mills, Blair and McAlister, or in the defense, which is slowly falling in the ranks after the impressive victories against Paris, Toronto and Atlanta earlier in the season. The Solecimic Power Ratings has Maassluis and Gothenburg tied at fourth place as the best two teams in the conference, while the Solecismic probabilities calculator has Maassluis as the front runners for the #1 seed as well.

MIJB#19 · 01-18-2019, 04:10 PM

2079 Regular Season week 11
Gothenburg on the road, long time Merchantmen supporters are wary of this matchup. The Giants and Merchantmen were both sitting at the top of the division with a 6-3 record, with Maassluis having the mid-season tie-breakers. A chance for the Merchantmen to pull away for a bit and grab pole position in the Atlantic Ocean Conference.

The Gothenburg Giants drew first blood in the game on their first possession. Albeit not the desired 7 points, Roger Passut had a 21-yard run, 13-yard reception on a Tre Lynn pass and a 7-yard run to set up Myron Barcley's 51-yard field goal. The Merchantmen responded with a bulldozing drive. Ellis McAlister to J.R. Mills for 11 yards here, Walt Blair for 16 yards there, Blair for 11 yards, Blair for 7 yards, McAlister to Blair for 10 yards, McAlister to Monty Elliott for 22 yards and eventually the short throw into the end zone by McAlister to Elliott for the 7-3 lead. The game was on. Gothenburg immediately replied with a couple of big plays as Lynn found Passut (15 yards) and Cornell Perez (33 yards) for big catch and runs. It stalled there, still being close enough to see Barcley nail a 41-yarder for the 7-6 deficit. Maassluis quickly marched downfield on their second possession as McAlister connected with Mills (14 yards), Brody Stevens (10 yards) and Elliott (22 yards) with a 10-yard run by Blair in between, but a 16-yard sack pushed the Merchantmen outside of field goal range.

The second quarter rolled around and the Giants were playing well inside their own territory again. Tre Lynn found Richard Cook for 10 yards and C.J. Levine for 24 yards. This time, the Merchantmen defense had no answer on their end, Lynn found Roger Passut for 16 yards and Cornell Perez for 19 yards to march into the red zone. The Merchantmen thought they had them stopped short, but Ben Gilbert was penalized for pass interference and a new set of downs was just enough to see Passut run it in for the 13-7 Gothenburg lead. The Giants thought they had caught momentum, sacking Ellis McAlister for the second time. McAlister answered with a 29-yard laser to J.R. Mills, but on third and 19 his throw ended up in Gothenburg cornerback Skip Arnold's hands. The Merchantmen defense came up big, stuffing Passut twice and forcing Gothenburg to punt. With the ball back, deep inside their own territory, McAlister silenced the stadium with a 50-yard bomb to Brody Stevens. McAlister urged his team to hurry up and Walt Blair followed up with a 15-yard run. McAlister then found Dennis Nadell for 10 yards into he red zone, Raul Curie converted a big 3rd down run and Walt Blair blitzed into the end zone for the 14-13 lead. The Merchantmen secondary came alive and deflected three straight Lynn passes, giving Maassluis the ball back with still 83 ticks on the clock. McAlister immediately found Mills for 30 yards and on third down made a deep enough throw to make up for the third sack of the game to set up for the 54-yard field goal attempt to end the half. Dave Eiermann surprised all, shockingly succeeding to make it Maassluis 17, Gothenburg 13 at half time.

Second half and the Gothenburg fans had renewed faith. The Merchantmen winning streak inside the division has to stop at some point, why not in Gothenburg, after 12 wins by the Merchantmen against Bordeaux, Paris and today's hosts? The Giants defense was reborn, notching a three and out to start the third quarter. Tre Lynn was back too, finding Jace Milam for 10 yards. Adam LeBel ran for 19 yards and 12 yards to march into Merchantmen territory and Lynn then found Denzel Givens for 11 yards and into the red zone. Roger Passut slashed through the Merchantmen defense for 12 yards and the go ahead touchdown: Gothenburg 20, Maassluis 17. The Merchantmen were unimpressed. Walt Blair ran for 10 yards on the first play of the drive, Ellis McAlister found Monty Elliott for 20 yards on third and short, then J.R. Mills for 16 yards and then for 18 yards and a touchdown. Maassluis was back in the lead with a 24-20 score. In the last 3 minutes before the break, Lynn found Steve Sinclair for 10 yards, saw another pass interference call put his team past midfield and Passut then ran for 18 yards, barely short of the red zone.

The fourth quarter started with Maassluis' bend but don't break moment, seeing Tre Lynn find Albert Gilmartin for 10 yards and holding the Giants to a 21-yard field goal, keeping Maassluis leading 24-23. Bart Lahnum's 33-yard kickoff return into Gothenburg territory, shortly followed by Ellis McAlister's 16-yard pass to Monty Elliott was enough to set up Dave Eiermann's 40-yard field goal for the 27-23 lead. Gothenburg was then three-and-outted, while the Merchantmen continued their efficiency: Raul Curie converted on 3rd and short, McAlister found Dennis Nadell for 33 yards on third and long, Walt Blair ran for 11 yards and McAlister found J.R. Mills for a jump into the endzone for a 34-23 lead. It wasn't all over yet, but now time wasn't on Gothenburg's side, trailing by 11 and just 2:31 to go. Tre Lynn found C.J. Levine on third down for 13 yards, then Albert Gilmartin for 14 yards and used his legs to run for 13 yards into the redzone. Adam LeBel then ran for 12 yards, followed by Roger Passut pounding his second attempt in for the touchdown. Luck ran out then and there. The two-point conversion failed and Maassluis recovered the onside kick. Their last time out was insufficient to keep Maassluis from securing it in victory formation: Maassluis 34, Gothenburg 29.

Maassluis had season highs both in points scored and points allowed, in what appears to be a deserved victory. The Merchantmen outgained the Giants by 83 yards and gained 1.3 yards per play more. Ellis McAlister earned another game MVP by completing 20 of 30 passes for 344 yards, 3 touchdowns and 1 interception. J.R. Mills caught 7 passes for 131 yards and 2 touchdowns. Monty Elliott caught 7 passes for 92 yards and a touchdown. Walt Blair ran 21 times for 110 yards and a touchdown.

AOC Europe
1. Maassluis 7-3
2. Gothenburg 6-4
3. Bordeaux 5-5
4. Paris 4-6

The Merchantmen haven't just taken the lead in the division, but also moved into pole-position for the #1 seed. Additionally, they have locked up tie-breakers over Gothenburg and Paris, while Bordeaux mathematically still has a longshot chance to brush away their inferior tie-breakers situation. In the AOC, the gap between #1 and outside the playoffs is as marginal as 1 1/2 wins.

Next up, the underperforming Chicago Norsemen. Despite their 3-7 record, Chicago isn't a pushover team. Their running game is unusually bad, while the passing game is an after thought, as it has been in decent decades. The defense is doing exceptionally well, ranking 2nd in total yards, leaning on 6th best yards per run and 3rd best yards per pass attempt. Again, no pushover, but in the current flow, the Merchantmen should be able to get this. The bookmakers are optimistic, having the Merchantmen floating around 9 or 10 point in their favor.

MIJB#19 · 01-19-2019, 06:40 PM

2079 Regular Season week 12
The Maassluis Merchantmen rock on. After a 1-2 stretch in a 3-game series of road games, victories over Bordeaux and at Gothenburg restored confidence for the Merchantmen. This week's opponents were the Chicago Norsemen, a team known for their pounding offense and stingy defense.

It showed immediately in the first couple of drives. The Merchantmen struggled to gain ground on their first drive, requiring a penalty to get their only first down, yet the Norsemen displayed their run-run-run approach, which the Merchantmen didn't surprise in their 4-3 formation. Drive number two for the Merchantmen was much different, seeing Ellis McAlister connect with Dennis Nadell for 17 yards, followed with Walt Blair running for 30 yards into the red zone. Three more Blair runs later, the 7-0 lead was established. Chicago continued their run only approach, cycling through their backs Cory Lowe, Chuck Lyle and Shaun Vreede, shockingly converting on third and eight and then on third and 33. On their ninth play of the drive, Rickey Nelson found Irving Keilor for the tying touchdown pass. After a short kickoff, Maassluis started their next drive close to midfield and tried to force their way through with Walt Blair getting the ball a lot, changing gears a bit with a 12-yard pass from McAlister to J.R. Mills. It resulted in a 47-yard field goal by Dave Eiermann to put Maassluis 10-7 up on the first play of the second quarter.

The Merchantmen had caught momentum and forced and recovered a fumble on the following kickoff. Ellis McAlister failed to connect with any of this receivers, but Dave Eiermann didn't miss the 28-yard field goal attempt: 13-7, Maassluis. Another hilariously bad defensive showing on third and low, despite playing with all their linebackers on the field, the Merchantmen allowed the Norsemen to get into field goal range. Despite finally stuffing a carrier on third down, the Merchantmen couldn't avoid Darien Shield's 46-yard field goal for the 13-10 score in Maassluis advantage. Walt Blair and Raul Curie responded with big runs of their own, to march into Chicago territory, while McElister found Dennis Nadell for 24 yards and nearly into the end zone. An illegal cut block penalty pushed the Merchantmen back and after a sack on third and very long, Maassluis settled for a 40-yard field goal. The Merchantmen were once again made look foolish, allowing a 24-yard run on a third down attempt, but righted the ship just in time to hold Chicago to a 43-yard field goal. Walt Blair ran for 40 yards into Chicago territory, but the coaching staff blundered to not call a time out and try to run another play or two to try for a field goal, ending the first half in a 16-13 lead for the Merchantmen.

On the first Chicago drive of the second half, the Merchantmen defense were total morons once again, giving up a 17-yard run on third and long, but then regrouped and a sold out Oranje Haven cheered hard when a fourth down stop gave Maassluis the ball. The cheering didn't last long, Ellis McAlister misjudged on the next play and saw his pass get intercepted at the Chicago 46-yard line. Chicago continued to run, but this time Cory Lowe was barely held short on third and long, coming about a yard short. Maassluis failed to avoid a three and out, mostly due to an expensive penalty. Chicago fooled Maassluis with a successful pass from Rickey Nelson to Caiden Batchelder on third and short, but his receiver on a screen pass on third and long was quickly pushed to the ground to keep Chicago short of field goal range. Walt Blair replied with a 10-yard run, but three plays later, Maassluis punted the ball back to Chicago to end a scoreless quarter.

Still trailing 16-13, the Norsemen surprised the Merchantmen defense on third and short with a 34-yard pass from Rickey Nelson to Irving Keillor. The Merchantmen then quickly stopped Cory Lowe on a third and long run to keep the damage to a 40-yard field goal and a tied score at 16 all. Ellis McAlister came back to live, finding Monty Elliott for a chains moving short throw and then pacing for 33 yards into field goal range. Walt Blair ran for 10 yards and then for 8 yards into the end zone to put Maassluis 23-16 up with half a quarter to play. Had the Merchantmen finally learned their lesson? They kept Cory Lowe to a minor gain on third and very long to force a time consuming three and out. McAlister showed his accuracy, finding J.R. Mills for 11 yards and Randal Curtis for 15 yards, then Mills again for 16 yards to get into the red zone with the two minute warning stopping the clock. The Norsemen needed their time outs, but stuffed the Merchantmen, yet a 30-yard field goal was good enough to make it a two-score game. A penalty pinned Chicago deep in their own red zone for their all or nothing drive, which turned into nothing, as Rickey Nelson completed a screen pass to Shaun Vreede for 34 yards, which took too much time off the clock to trim the deficit. The Merchantmen players stormed the field, the 26-16 victory was secured.

Ellis McAlister struggled for three quarters, finishing the game with 16 of 27 passes completed for 158 yards and 1 interception. Dennis Nadell was the leading receiver with 5 catches for 73 yards. Walt Blair had a field day though, running 21 times for 143 yards and 2 touchdowns, earning him player of the game honors in a game where both teams ran for more yards than they threw for, but coming just barely short of 200 yards rushing (Chicago 199, Maassluis 190).

Elsewhere in the European division, the Gothenburg Giants beat the defenseless Arizona Miners 27-0, the Bordeaux Vineyards needed overtime to win 27-24 at the Iowa Cobbers and the Paris Musketeers swung past the Kansas Creationists 34-17. As a result, the divisional standings didn't change.

AOC Europe
1. Maassluis 8-3
2. Gothenburg 7-4
3. Bordeaux 6-5
4. Paris 5-6

Next up a round of games against teams that finished at the same position in another AOC division last season. Paris will visit the 7-4 Rochester Razorbacks, Bordeaux the 5-6 Harlem Apollos and Gothenburg hosts the 3-8 Orlando Talons. The Merchantmen will host the 6-4-1 Augusta Greenjackets, a rematch of last season's divisional round playoff game, which the heavily outplayed Merchantmen somehow won 24-23 in Augusta. A 91-yard pick six and three missed field goals, the Greenjackets will be motivated to avenge that...

MIJB#19 · 01-22-2019, 02:14 PM

General Manager Notes, 2079 Regular season
Another couple of weeks in the books, we've added a couple of home victories: 32-14 against the Augusta Greenjackets (7-5-1) and 31-17 against the Arizona Miners (1-12). Neither impressive wins, neither games were we played bad. Which is to say, Ellis McAlister had his first multiple pick game. And his second one. At the same time, he threw for 301 and 299 yards, he's proving he can move the chains. Walt Blair got stuffed badly by the Greenjackets, but bounced back with 146 yards and score against Arizona. J.R. Mills' demise continues, 30 yards and 111 yards were his numbers. Mills has scored a total of 2 touchdowns in the last 11 games. Dennis Nadell hasn't overtaken Mills, but with 119 yards and 2 touchdowns against Augusta, he's shown us again he can get the job done.

The defense is, well, mediocre. I can't put my finger on the cause, but we're not doing what I thought we could and should do. The disastrous third down run defense against the Chicago Norsemen was, well, that: disastrous. We won, but even the best linebacker trio in the league is just mediocre. Perhaps we should package all our picks next off-season and acquire a couple of new safeties. Maurice Harkleroad, Ben Gilbert and Rex Indoe should be good enough stop gaps, but I'm not seeing the results. Cohesion ain't the issue either, we're in the upper echelons in that regard.

Despite all that, we keep finding ways to win. We're the 8th best scoring team in the conference, 3rd best in the division. At least we're the 'best' defense, doing 1 point and 4 points better than division rivals Bordeaux and Gothenburg, making us 2nd in the league. I'm making a "say what now" gesture as I'm writing this, because some things just can't be explained.

AOC Europe
1. Maassluis 10-3
2. Gothenburg 9-4
3. Bordeaux 7-6
4. Paris 7-6

So, as it is, we're on a 5-game winning streak, sitting at a conference leading 10-3 record. Upcoming a home game against the Gothenburg Giants, in which we can guarantee the division title with a victory. A loss would still keep us leading, but with road games at Iowa (5-8) and Bordeaux (7-6),no easy task to maintain, despite Gothenburg's slightly harder schedule. And they should have it harder, compared to the rest of the division, they've had a cup cake schedule, would say the former Astoria Heroes owner/general manager.

So yeah, we're in pole position to be the #1 seed, but I'm not yet buying it. Aside from Gothenburg, the Tucker Tigers are on our tail with a 10-3 record, the Toronto Lake Monsters are 9-3-1. Thankfully the Houston Mustangs dropped to 8-4-1, but we can't count them out just yet. The playoffs are, well, the closest thing to locked as it can be. The only thing that can keep us from the post-season would be 3 losses, combined with Gothenburg winning at least 1 of their last 2 games (on top of beating us), Augusta winning their last 3 games, Tucker not losing both their next 2 games (they play Augusta week 17), San Antonio winning their last 3 games and Houston getting a win and tie in the next 2 games (they play San Antonio week 17) to finish 9-5-2 and beat us for the last wild card based on that week 9 loss.

Thing is, we've been here before, several times, and have quite a track record of not pulling it through, dropping a game or two, ending up with the #3 seed and lose on a missed field goal in the wild card round. Too pessimistic, or stuck in "Been there, done that"?

MIJB#19 · 01-27-2019, 06:23 PM

General Manager Notes: 2079 playoffs, here we come!
In a bit of a rollercoaster, we've finished the regular season with 2 wins and 1 loss. And that loss came against the team not making the playoffs, costing us the #1 seed in the AOC.

So, week 15, at home against the team on our tail: the Gothenburg Giants. It didn't come easy, with a wild fourth quarter, in which we came back from behind to win 33-27. Ellis McAlister threw for 330 yards, 2 touchdowns and 2 interceptions (his second straight 2-pick game). Walt Blair was held to 21 carries for 88 yards and 1 score. J.R. Mills caught 5 passes for 98 yards, Dennis Nadell surpassed Mills again with 5 catches for 135 yards and a touchdown. We gave up a 95-yard interception return, but replied it with a positive turnover margin to not let the superiority in total yards go to waste.

Week 16 came the inevitable hilarious loss. We outplayed the Iowa Cobbers, but freakish managed to lose 20-17, coming time short to kick the tying field goal. Ellis McAlister finally snapped his multi-pick streak, throwing for 232 yards with scores. J.R. Mills had 6 catches for 89 yards. Walt Blair ran for 107 yards and 1 touchdown, Raul Curie ran for the other touchdown.

In week 17 we were much better than the Bordeaux Vineyards, but fumbles and a pick returned for a score shortly before half time kept the score close. Late in the game, Giovanni Morton made a crucial interception, keeping Bordeaux from kicking the game winner, securing the 17-16 victory. Ellis McAlister threw for 329 yards and 2 touchdowns, with aforementioned interception. Walt Blair ran for 102 yards, Dennis Nadell had 8 catches for 94 yards, J.R. Mills had 5 catches for 92 yards, while Monty Elliot and Gilbert Taliancich made the scoring catches.

AOC Europe
1. Maassluis 12-4
2. Gothenburg 11-5
3. Bordeaux 9-7
4. Paris 8-8

The strongest division with 4.5 wins more than the second best division will send 3 teams into the playoffs. Paris went into week 17 eliminated on tie-breakers, but theoretically had a chance to finish the season 7th in the AOC, (The 20-17 late game collapse to Gothenburg dropped them to 10th).

Sadly, we choked the #1 seed, falling behind the 13-3 Tucker Tigers, but we salvaged a bye week, giving us a home game in the elite eight round. It should be great news, we've gone 8-0 at home this season. But, better than everyone we know it's worth nothing once the post-season kicks off, it's all a completely new coin flip. Heck, the last time we managed that 8-0 was in 2059, when we crushed the league with a 15-1 record (#1 in both points scored and points allowed) only to fall apart 31-17 in the only playoff game that season. In 2043 we didn't even get to play at home in the playoffs. In 2040 we lost 24-0 as the #2 seeds. In 2037 we lost 38-20 at home as the #2 seeds. Yup. We've gone 1-4 in the playoffs seasons with an 8-0 record at home, winning 0 of 3 home games. The only bright side: we lost all 3 home games to the Atlanta Vipers, lo and behold, they didn't make the playoffs!

So, regular season in the books, how has our new starting quarterback done?
Ellis McAlister threw the ball 522 times, completed 59% of those passes for 4,193 yards, 27 touchdowns and 14 interceptions. He ranks 9th in passing yards in the league, tied 8th in passing touchdowns with Gothenburg Tre Lynn. He had the 9th best passer rating, leaning heavily on the 3rd best yards per attempt. McAlister is our fourth different 4,000 yard passer in 4 seasons, a rare feat, something I might want to figure out, but probably is a novelty. I suspect three different guys in three seasons was already unique. McAlister was on roster all those season and has at least shown he can do it with much less interceptions than Erick Loera and Sammy Erickson. Ellis, who the fuck is Ellis? Well, he's our starting quarterback and bar disaster will still be next season.

J.R. Mills was our leading receiver with 77 catches for 1,349 yards and 5 touchdowns. Dennis Nadell had 86 catches for 1,273 yards and 6 touchdowns, in 27 targets less than Mills. Nadell can honestly make a case for having become our WR1, with Mills being the big gain WR2. Brody Stevens caught only 25 passes for 331 yards and 2 touchdowns, so much for being the most talented guy. Tight end Monty Elliott was our go to guy in the red zone, he had 73 catches for 798 yards and 9 touchdowns. Mills ranked 8th in yardage in the league, Nadell 11th, there was only one other team with two 1,200-yard receivers. Elliott was amongst a bunch of guys tying for 8th in receiving touchdowns.

Walt Blair came back strong after the mid-season injury as a rookie, running a league high 366 times for second most 1,609 yards and fifth most running touchdowns. We don't run the ball most of all, the seven teams ahead of us distribute their carries more evenly over their running backs, while we give Blair 23 carries per game and Raul Curie only 4 carries, on average.

Free agency singing Nicky Sherman had 41 key run blocks, leading the team in that area. Right tackle Oscar Meadows had 30 key run blocks, both could be considerations for all-league honors. Fullback Gilbert Taliancich had 12 key run blocks (on 33 opportunities), making him by far the most used fullback on running downs in the league. We used Taliancich on 250 running plays, second most used was the Arizona Miners' fullback on 159 running plays. Apparently using a 2-back formation on running downs is falling out of favor.

On the defensive side, our linebackers thrived. Glenn Brewer had 118 tackles, 25 assists, 7.5 sacks, 11 defended passes, 1 interception and 2 forced fumbles. Antonio Battle had 114 tackles, 36 assists, 1.5 sacks, 11 defended passes, 3 interceptions and 1 forced fumble. Brewer tied for 5th in the league in tackles, Battle tied for 7th in that figure. Rookie Craig McCorkle didn't see a lot of action, because (as mentioned on the blocking numbers) IHOF teams are drifting away from 2-back formations, making the usage of 3 linebackers rare. McCorkle saw the field on 401 plays, compare that to Battle's 1,007 and Brewer's 923. It'll be interesting to see what to do with that next season. Battle is an elite pass defender, it might be worthwhile to consider using him as a nickelback...

Speaking of nickelbacks, Giovanni Morton led the team in with 5 interceptions and added 10 defended passes to it for an exceptional 3rd best pass defense rating in the league. The picks rank him tied for 8th in the league. The rest of the secondary, well, they were there. We weren't bad, but not great either.

Our pass rush was second best with a 25.6 percentage, but basically on par with Houston Mustangs' 25.7 percent. Arnie May led the guys with 9.5 sacks, but Herb Crane was more prominently active with 8.5 sacks and 26 hurries (compared to May's 8 hurries). But really, with use four defensive ends in our rotation, these guys are all part of team effort. Defensive tackle Glen Stiegler is the workhorse in the line. His sidekick Chandler Posante may appear like a weak link, he may be, his endurance really calls for us to get either veteran Willie Turner, rookie Cameron Erlitz or a 2080 acquisition more involved to work around Posante's weakness. Our defensive ends are all too light to play on the inside.

We've cursed at our kicker Dave Eiermann from time to time, he scored a league low of 88 percent of extra points with a league most 5 misses. But we shouldn't forget that he was playoffs quality on long field goals and hit his only 50+ attempt. He's out of contract after the season, so, it's still more likely we'll look elsewhere...

Enough about the regular season, the playoffs are here. And the field this season is massive. There are four teams that scored 500+ points, all are amongst the 38 best scoring teams ever. That's 76 seasons of football, on average we should have only one of such teams every two seasons...

AOC
1. Tucker 13-3 (526-299 points = +227)
2. Maassluis 12-4 (404-309 points = +95)
3. Toronto 11-4-1 (535-391 points = +144) (we won 24-17 at them)
4. Houston 10-5-1 (338-315 points = +23) (we lost 20-10 at them)
5. Gothenburg 11-5 (428-317 points = +111) (we swept them 34-29 and 33-27)
6. Bordeaux 9-7 (370-306 points = +64) (we swept them 17-10 and 17-16)

NAC
1. Moontown 14-2 (526-285 points = +241)
2. Hanalei 13-3 (529-336 points = +193)
3. Williamsburg 13-3 (409-282 points = +127)
4. Kansas 11-5 (404-334 points = +70) (we lost 27-22 at them)
5. Fairbanks 9-7 (328-357 points = -29)
6. Chesapeake 9-7 (347-294 points = +53)

Two teams are out of contention with strong points differentials: Paris 8-8 (+53) and Harlem 7-9 (+51). But given the setup of the league these two teams were quite simply the also-rans in the AOC.

We're probably the mismatch amongst the four bye week teams. The simple result of only 5 wins by more than a score, but we've also lost just once by more than a score. We've gone 5-2 against this field, with 4 victories against our division rivals. Rivals that we've apparently dominated for quite some time. It was our second straight clean sweep in the regular season, we beat Paris in the playoffs in between and finished the 2077 season by beating Bordeaux and Paris in our home. It would be awesome to extend our winning streak from 15 to 17 in this post-season, if only for the fact that it would mean we'd be the 2079 AOC champions. But we have nothing we can do to determine who we will face, you can only beat the teams you meet. Toronto or the Gothenburg at Houston winner will be first, which regardless of the opposition will have us very motivated to beat them.

MIJB#19 · 01-28-2019, 01:22 PM

2079 Futility Bowl rematch
The longstanding rivalry between the Maassluis Merchantmen and Toronto Lake Monsters will get a new chapter. The Lake Monsters beat the Bordeaux Vineyards 42-6 in the wild card round to set up a rematch. Last season, the Lake Monsters won 37-14 in their own place. Earlier this season, the Merchantmen were victorious 24-17.

Elsewhere, the Gothenburg Giants crushed the Houston Mustangs 33-6 on the road. They will continue their championship dreams with a road trip to the Tucker Tigers. In the other conference, the defending league champions Moontown Darksiders will host the Chesapeake Chitterlings, who pulled a miraculous 21-16 upset victory at the Williamsburg Colonials. The Kansas Creationist won 17-9 against the Fairbanks North Stars and will travel to the Hanalei Dragons in the conference semifinals.

Kodos · 01-28-2019, 02:15 PM

Go Lake Monsters! (Sorry, old friend.)

MIJB#19 · 01-28-2019, 02:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kodos

Go Lake Monsters! (Sorry, old friend.)

I can't fault you for rooting for your old team, can I?

Poli · 01-28-2019, 03:39 PM

Kodos · 01-30-2019, 10:03 AM

Looks like Ben has avenged you!

MIJB#19 · 01-31-2019, 04:46 PM

2079 Divisional Round: Merchantmen choke again
With a season worst score, the Maassluis Merchantmen saw their season come to an end earlier than anticipated. The Toronto Lake Monsters defense picked off Ellis McAlister 5 times, to nullify what otherwise was a slightly better offensive performance. The Lake Monsters took full advantage of the turnovers and traveled home with a 43-17 victory.

The Merchantmen defense held the Lake Monsters to 29 rushing yards on 16 attempts, but more importantly kept Clayton Andrews below 300 yards passing. But a decent amount of that was a result of a superior field position, as the Lake Monsters started 3 drives in the Merchantmen red zone and also scored a 96-yard pick six.

McAlister completed 19 of 37 passes for 271 yards and 2 touchdowns, with 5 interceptions. J.R. Mills caught 4 passes for 77 yards and 1 score, Dennis Nadell emerged once again with 6 catches for 90 yards and 1 score. Walt Blair ran for 82 yards on 19 carries.

The Merchantmen continued their tradition to lose at home in the playoffs after going undefeated at home in the regular season and added yet another one and done to their resume...

MIJB#19 · 01-31-2019, 05:34 PM

General Manager notes: Hello, 2080.
Ugh. Ugh. Ugh. What a disappointing way to see the 2079 season end. Granted, I never felt like we were an elite team like we were in 2078, but we had only one game in the regular season where we lost by more than a single score, getting crushed purely on an extraordinary number of picks is, well, baffling.

For those keeping score and not checking scores, Toronto lost the AOC Championship game at the Tucker Tigers 35-23. The Tigers in turn got Barged in IHOF Bowl LXXVI, the Moontown Darksiders repeated as IHOF champions with a 44-20 score. Derek Barge and his Darksiders have ended the '70s with four IHOF Bowls in their trophy case.

We went one and done 5 times in that decade, our only two victories in the playoffs came in the 2078 season...

Things didn't get better after the game. J.R. Mills has retired from the game. Mills finished his career with 839 receptions (franchise 5th), 14,944 receiving yards (franchise 2nd, just 57 short of the record), 85 receiving touchdowns (franchise 5th), with a spectacular 17.89 yards per reception average (3rd in the league all-time). In my mind, this guy joins the big two Gabe Springer and Terry Haskell, to become the big three of Merchantmen receivers. Yeah, Riddick Stanley got into the Hall with a ring, but, y'know, the other guys all felt special. Stanley was, solid, always, week in, week out. Mills had to get through the cycles of no less than eight different starting quarterbacks (Hickman, Rhoades, Buckner, Howe, Loera, Erickson, Morris and McAlister). God speed, J.R.

With Mills, long time sidekick tight end Markell Ellison and one-year backup kickoff returner and special teamer Nicholas Tucker decided that they don't want to go into the '80s as a football player. Ellison played in 112 regular season games and 5 (all lost) playoffs games with us. He was mostly our third or fourth tight end in all those years, with the exception of the 2071 season, when he caught 41 passes for 453 yards. His 2070 season was the special one with 8 receiving touchdowns on just 17 catches for 117 yards. Tucker had 3 kickoff returns for us. He did see a lot of action as a special teamer though in his only season with us.

Okay, now something neat: Edward Ross, Daquan Strugielski and Peter Tucker all got elected into the Hall Of Fame. The Class of 2064 got the ultimate individual accolades, albeit Gabe Hamilton came short and the other foursome that we drafted are nowhere to be found. They join Shaun Hartman into the hall, that's four guys from that awesome defense. Riddick Stanley is the fifth guy from our IHOF Bowl winning roster in there, no doubt Tom Anaya will join these guys soon...

So, 2080. We're $116 million over the cap, with 46 players on roster, 2 restricted and 2 unrestricted free agents. And 13 draft picks... Business as usual, except that we've got 4 second round picks once again. Maybe we'll actually use some of them this time around? First order of business will be a truckload of renegotiations. We should be able to find at least $100 million there. Right?

MIJB#19 · 02-05-2019, 11:52 AM

General Manager Notes: 2080 Pre-draft
And so began the off-season without J.R. Mills. Ok, we've got a couple of wide receivers ready to step in, but Mills had become on of those receivers that felt he was 'my guy'. I've had that with Gabe Springer, Terry Haskell and on a slightly lower level with Vince McAlister. Guys that you knew would always be a threat for the opponent to out of nowhere make a big play. Terry Thomason had that to a certain degree, but never really managed to carry the team like those guys did. Brody Stevens has yet to live up to it, and I fear he'll forever will be a WR2, while Dennis Nadell has shown early flashes of being better than we've always thought he could be. With the gazelles Rico Techen and Dwight Clements waiting in the wings, I should feel confident we'll manage, but sentiments, y'know?

We've gone through a truckload of renegotiations. We had early trade talks for Antonio Battle, but I decided against it, despite knowing we have Craig McCorkle ready to step in and have Glenn Brewer in his contract year. It'll be a challenge to find the cap room to extend Brewer's contract... Battle accepted the cap out route, making him untradeable and costing us $54.29M in dead money if we'd decide to move him after all.

I've made the tough decision to cut cornerback Ezra Slocum. He was our second most expensive cornerback this season, yet spent the entire 2079 season inactive. In return, this means I'll have to find a way to figure out whether Amari Lavelli is worth keeping, because his fumbling habits make him more of a liability as a punt returner than an added value. He's still our CB2, so not quite a waste of a roster spot.

We've acquired the rights of rookie center Butch Pearson. Fast, strong, I hope he can be our OL6 this season or perhaps we'll be forced to play him at center and play Nicky Sherman at guard. You never know whether the offensive linemen show up in shape at training camp.

We've shipped our quartet of second round picks to the Texas Sharks for their first and second round picks next draft. We can't afford these picks, I'm terrible in second round picking and it was about time for us to finally get something for all those picks.

We've still got additional third, fourth and seventh round picks this draft. In total, we'll need about $15 million to be able to afford all those rookies. Sure, the league mandated accountants tell us we need $19.02M, but that includes picks that will be the 52nd and 53rd most expensive players.

The tight cap situation means a couple of players that haven't signed a renegotiated deal are still at risk of getting cut. Safety Rex Indoe wants a trade, but he's missing the point that we've missed on our safety targets in the draft class and will quite possible reinstate him as a starter. All IHOF fullback Gilbert Taliancich isn't safe either, Darien Latschaw is looking over Taliancich's shoulders to take over...

MIJB#19 · 02-07-2019, 03:59 PM

General Manager Notes: 2080 Draft is done!
Some wheelin' and dealin', we finally got something in return for the truckload of low second round picks, and now, we've got 8 rookies about to join the team. Who are they?

QB Josiah Lyle (R7, #229)
3rd highest Solecismic score amongst QB, 4th highest agility amongst QB, high volatility, Michigan graduate. We're hoping to get a good lottery ticket here.

TE Kody Gowan (R4, #126)
Scouted to have decent run blocking, decent big play ability, decent special teamer.

WR Artie Blazewicz (R6, #188)
Could be a return specialist (3rd highest broad jump amongst WR), Big play ability (ran the 40-dash in 4.45), good size at 6'1" and 208 lbs.

C Butch Pearson (R1, #28)
Tied highest graded C, second fastest C, strongest C, 7th highest agility score amongst C, should be our new long standing center.

G Raul Hughett (R7, #228)
Tied strongest G, good size at 6'6" and 325 lbs, smart (39 Solecismic score).

K Chance Arnold (R3, #92)
We had to take another chance at drafting a kicker. Strongest K by a landslide, good speed, Solecismic score, broad jump.

DE Erik Shrader (R4, #124)
Acceptable speed (4.75 40-yard dash), good size at 6'6" and 313 lbs, enough stamina to play a lot, prefers to play DT.

DT Gino Kemp (R5, #153)
Good speed for a DT (4.93 dash), tied second smartest DT, prefers to play DE.

In other news, we've re-signed restricted free agent quarterback Karsten Muchnick and defensive tackle Cameron Erlitz. Both were undrafted rookies last season and I see a role for them on the active roster in 2080. Muchnick was already our kick holder, Erlitz should move into a pass rush role on the defensive line, given that we've got a lot of guys with low endurance and are considering our options there.

As such, I've decided to part ways with veteran defensive tackle Willie Turner. He played 9 seasons with us as a former undrafted rookie signing, being active in all games of the last 8 seasons. He's great for cohesion, but his salary figure was too much, he was asking for a raise and we actually still need to trim some cap figures to get well enough under the cap to extend Glenn Brewer's contract. Releasing Turner will be sufficient to be able to afford all the incoming rookies.

MIJB#19 · 02-08-2019, 04:23 PM

General Manager Notes: 2080 Cap Hell
Well, it's on. Glenn Brewer has decided to hold out.

We're going to make him a huge offer and will cut a couple of his sidekicks. I wonder what the rest of the team will think of Brewer from here on. We've already cut cornerback Ezra Slocum and defensive tackle Willie Turner, well, defensive end Todd Clinton and cornerback Herman Glenn are up next. Center Steven Houshmandzadeh is the fifth player that won't make our training camp roster.

If Brewer signs a new deal, we'll bring in a couple of undrafted rookies to get at least 53 players into camp. Adding up to 60 players might be bad for the cap situation as well, because at this point every $10K in bonus money will make a difference between keeping or not keeping Brewer.

Sigh.

I've considered trading Brewer. In retrospect, long term technically, trading the veteran Antonio Battle would have been a smarter decision, but with the five guys cut, we'll be losing about 600 downs of action of last season's roster combined. Brewer or Battle alone sniff at 1000 plays and quite frankly are the more talented players.

MIJB#19 · 02-12-2019, 04:57 PM

General Manager notes: 2080 End of Training Camp
At last, he signed. After turning down six previous offers, including a 3-year $85M contract, Glenn Brewer decided to extend with us for a 3-year $66M contract.

It's been 5 seasons since we've had such a tough off-season to get the cap situation worked out. Then it was our promising quarterback Robbie Howe that destroyed his football career by deciding to go into hold out mode and risk it all. He lost: we cut him and none of the 31 other IHOF franchises even thought he was worth the veteran minimum, let alone the starting money he was requesting.

Brewer is a different story, an All-IHOF linebacker, a centerpiece of our defense, together with Antonio Battle. It came at a price though, we released 4 defensive players that used to be starters with us in recent seasons.

Defensive end Todd Clinton was one of our four guys in rotation. He had been for both of the last two seasons, after spending his rookie season inactive and seeing limited action in season two. Clinton has the run stopping and pass rushing skills any team should like, keeping in mind he's not an all downs lineman.

Cornerback Herman Glenn was our nickelback in the 2077 season. We signed him in the 2075 post-season and thought he'd be a great (figuratively, the guy is 5'6") zone defender. He was our dimeback the last two seasons.

Cornerback Ezra Slocum was a starter in his first two seasons, but last season we kept him inactive all-season. He's a good corner on running downs and against formations with full backfields, but his zone defending and ball hawking skills were lacking. Good on paper, but he didn't deliver and was too expensive to watch 19 games without shoulder pads on.

Defensive tackle Willie Turner spent 9 seasons with us and didn't miss a game since late in the 2075 season. Initially the change of pace guy behind Shaun Hartman and Preston Urquoila, more recently the guy who came on for Chandler Posante when he needed a couple of minutes to take a good breath.

As a result, we're heading into pre-season with just 53 players signed. It wasn't necessary, the cap rules would have allowed us to sign 7 rookies at the rookie minimum ($1.4M), or even slightly higher than that ($1.51M), but we'll save that for the later. We might go scavenger hunting in the pile of leftovers after pre-season roster cuts to give a couple of guys a week to work out with us, but the current 53 names are close to carved in stone.

It leaves us with an unsatisfying off-season. The plan was to find a young safety who could anchor the defense for about a decade, but the draft class was lacking that guy. We liked Bobby Crips, he was taken 3 picks before our pick at #28 overall, but he's more of a cornerback. Our sleeper pick Tevin Taylor was taken #42 overall, the staff really liked him, but I didn't feel like he was first round material, down the road maybe good enough to take over from one of the guys on team. We'll have to go with mostly the same guys as last season, without Herman Glenn, without the vulture Slocum and maybe with undrafted rookie Tucker Lockhart added to the mix.

We did get our center of the future, presumable. Butch Pearson was our pick at #28 overall. He'll likely have to spend the 2080 season as our OL6, behind Nicky Sherman, but his training camp progression was impressive. It's rare to go through a full season with the same 5 linemen, Pearson will see some action on offense sooner or later.

We failed to address the retirement of J.R. Mills as well. Part of that is that retirement, which cost us more dead cap space than we could afford to hire a new receiver. We'll have to rely on Dennis Nadell and Byron Stevens and hope to see the young sub 4.40 seconds gazelles Rico Techen and Dwight Clements grow into the WR3 and WR4 roles. Rookies Artie Blazewicz and undrafted Les Didier will be special teamers at best this season. Our tight ends are obviously pretty good as well, not to mention the presence of our 1,600-yard back Walt Blair.

The quarterback situation is okay. Ellis McAlister crushed hard in the playoffs after what had been a solid regular season. Sammy Erickson hopefully doesn't have a similar downfall like last pre-season, maintaining to have a decent backup. McAlister is on roster for just $6.67M, next off-season will be challenging, he'll do what any other starter would do: ask for at least $25M to $30M, and if he plays well, close to $40M.

Last but not least, we have $1.15M of cap space remaining and still have a couple of players on the last year of contract:
* All-IHOF fullback Gilbert Taliancich
* backup fullback Darien Latschaw
* backup left tackle Richie Coughenour
* cornerback and punt returner Amari Lavelli
* safety Ben Gilbert
* long snapper Chris Bertolone
None of them are currently willing to sign for less than their cap figure, so we'll have to make some choices here. LS Bertolone will get the extension, his current demands are good. S Gilbert is in a 'probably' situation, he's asking for a small raise. FB Latschaw's demands are favorable, expect us to come to terms between the pre-season games. FB Taliancich's demands are reasonable, we might have the cap space to extend for an additional season. LT Coughenour is unwilling to sign a new contract, but by lack of better options on the free market, we'll go with him as our third tackle and look for a replacement next off-season. The decision to make here is with CB Lavelli. We can't afford his demands, so it might even be wiser to trade him before week 1, to give the receiving team a chance to offer him an extension. We'll try, but I suspect we'll come short.

We'll just have to wait and see how these guys look in real action though. All the young guys made some progress, with Butch Pearson and last year's first round pick linebacker Craig McCorkle making the biggest improvements, warranting a starting role that we might not be able to give them quite yet this season. But the first couple of pre-season games usually reveal what these guys are capable of in the new season. Yes, it's that time of the season general managers fear the most: the day of the proverbial Volatility Sticks of Death and unexpected booms...

MIJB#19 · 02-14-2019, 02:35 PM

Merchantmen wrap 2080 pre-season up with 3-1 record
The Maassluis Merchantmen wrapped up the pre-season action. In games against a couple of the upper echelon teams in the North American Conference, the Merchantmen posted an encouraging 3-1 record.

32-23 win at Frederick Red Menace (5-11 in 2079)
Rookie QB Joshua Lyle completed 11 of 18 for 162 yards and 2 touchdowns, WR Brody Stevens had 5 catches for 96 yards, receiving touchdowns were scored by WR Dwight Clements, WR Rico Techen and rookie WR Les Didier, the latter on a throw from KH Karsten Muchnick. Raul Curie was the leading rusher with 48 yards on 24 carries.
CB Amari Lavelli made 2 interceptions, CB Alonzo Hitchcock, LB Antonio Battle and S Maurice Harkleroad all had 1 pick. LB Antonio Battle was also amongst the four players with a sack.
Rookie K Chance Arnold was 4/5 on field goals and 2/3 on extra points.
Rookies C Butch Pearson and G Raul Hughett were both shockingly underused, while rookie TE Kody Gowan had 2 key run blocks on 3 opportunities.

20-3 win over Texas Sharks (6-10 in 2079)
Rookie Joshua Lyle completed 10 of 18 passes for 107 yards and 2 touchdowns. TE Branden Schwirzke and WR Dwight Clements were on the receiving end of those scores, Clements also lead the team with 38 yards on 2 catches. Raul Curie ran 21 times for 60 yards.
CB Alonzo Hitchcock had an interception, DT Chandler Posante recovered a fumble. LB Glenn Brewer made 3 sacks and defended 2 passes.
Rookies C Butch Pearson and G Raul Hughett were once again used way too little for what was planned.
Rookie K Chance Arnold was 2/3 on field goals, 2/2 on extra points, scoring a 52-yarder.

24-17 win at Williamsburg Colonials (13-3 in 2079)
QB Sammy Erickson completed 15 of 24 for 234 yards, 2 touchdowns and 2 interceptions, QB Ellis McAlister completed 7 of 11 for 92 yards and 1 score. WR Dennis Nadell had 9 catches for 151 yards and 2 scores, WR Brody Stevens had the other score. Walt Blair ran for 86 yards on 12 carries.
CB Alonzo Hitchcock had yet another pick.
DT Glen Stiegler had 2 sacks, DT Chandler Posante 1.5 sacks.
Rookies C Butch Pearson and G Raul Hughett were disappointingly not used.
Rookie K Chance Arnold was perfect on 1 field goal and 3 extra point attempts.

24-31 loss vs Moontown Darksiders (14-2 and IHOF champions in 2079)
QB Sammy Erickson completed 15 of 30 for 191 yards, 1 touchdown and 1 interception, QB Ellis McAlister completed 8 of 15 for 119 yards and 1 pick. Dennis Nadell had 8 catches for 149 yards, TE Branden Schwrizke had the sole receiving touchdown. Raul Curie carried 20 times for 72 yards, but Walt Blair ran for a touchdown.
Rookie K Chance Arnold scored on all 3 field goal and 1 extra point attempts.
The defense went without a pick or a sack.
Rookies C Butch Pearson and G Raul Hughett were once again not on the field.

MIJB#19 · 02-14-2019, 02:54 PM

General Manager notes: Pre-season 2080 done, bring on the real action!
So, Dennis Nadell.
I suspect the fans will quickly forget about J.R. Mills, because our leading receiver from last season was amazing in the pre-season. Brody Stevens appears to be on the decline, but Nadell should be capable of being more than a double coverage magnet from here on. Walt Blair is still, well, Walt Blair. He didn't jump out in pre-season, but I'm confident he'll get the job done, lead the league in carries and average 100 yards per game. The rest of the offense will be unchanged, although Darien Latschaw seems to have surpassed our All-IHOF fullback Gilbert Taliancich. Monty Elliott continues to be an elite tight end, awesome blocker and good enough for roughly 50 yards per game. The line is still going strong, with very promising Butch Pearson eager to jump in if an injury occurs.

The defense saw some overhaul, but has mostly remained. We'll try to get linebacker Craig McCorkle into the mix, but I'm not sure yet how. We might use linebacker Glenn Brewer on the defensive line here or there, we might put linebacker Antonio Battle in the dime or nickel slot. Alonzo Hitchcock and Maurice Harkleroad continue to be the key features on the secondary.

Cornerback Amari Lavelli has been trade blocked. We've told other owners they have until the weekend to make an offer, after that, we'll fly with Lavelli on the last year of contract, because we can't afford the extension that he's seeking. We have no cap room to hire a replacement (heck, we actually released his understudy in the off-season), so it has to be an offer that blows me away.

If Lavelli stays, we'll go with the 53 guys we have now.

oh yeah, we're heading into 2080 with 4 quarterbacks. Ellis McAlister was underwhelming in pre-season, but, who cares? He had a very good first season as a starter, we're confident the 5-pick disaster in the one-and-done playoffs (goodness, don't remind me of going through that kind of nonsense for the zillionth time) was a rarity. Sammy Erickson will be the backup guy for another season, Josiah Lyle will most likely never be active and Karsten Muchnick is our kick holder.

Is that Lyle kid anything good? Uhm, not right now, but what rookie quarterback is from the get go? Wait a sec, didn't he just have a tremendous pre-season while having to play without Dennis Nadell, Walt Blair, Monty Elliott and Nicky Sherman? This kid's stats are not to be underestimated!

MIJB#19 · 02-25-2019, 01:30 PM

General Manager notes: 2080, not quite our year just yet...
We're 7 weeks into the season, and the divisional standing are quite exceptional.

1. Gothenburg 5-2
2. Paris 4-2
3. Bordeaux 4-2
4. Maassluis 2-4

Uhm, yeah. We started with a 3-game losing streak, the first two while outgaining the opponents. We lost 23-19 at home to the Gothenburg Giants, then 16-10 at the Outer Banks Ospreys and then went into our usually way too early bye week after a 23-22 loss at the Toronto Lake Monsters. We thought we regrouped with a 16-13 overtime victory over the Tucker Tigers and a 30-20 win at the Augusta Greenjackets. But today, things went south again, we lost 26-24 at the Paris Musketeers.

QB Ellis McAlister's season started dreadful. His QB rating is a horrific 68.1 after 6 games, completing 52.6% of his passes for 270 yards per game with 5 touchdowns and 8 interceptions.

RB Walt Blair has to carry this offense at the moment. He's ran for a second most 598 yards (and a league best 100 per game). WR Dennis Nadell isn't J.R. Mills, but he's doing well in the yards per catch area (31 catches for 518 yard).

Otherwise, well, "meh". The season has been disappointing, so far. After improving to 2-3, we were actually in a win it all and be the division champion situation. At 2-4, we're far behind, with a tie-breaker situation that looks hard to fix. The wild cards are currently both in the European division, seventh best in the AOC is currently a threesome of 4-3 teams, not counting the Northeast division leaders.

Oh yeah, to rub it in, three of our cap casualties were picked up by other teams today: CB Herman Glenn joined the Moontown Darksiders, DE Todd Clinton the Rochester Razorbacks, C Steven Houshmandzadeh the Toronto Lake Monsters. These were the guys that we cut to be able to work out a new deal with Glenn Brewer. Earlier casualties DT Willie Turner and CB Ezra Slocum are still without a job in football though.

MIJB#19 · 03-04-2019, 03:52 PM

General Manager notes 2080: Too little, too late?
We've been winning 2/3rd of our games since the bye, but the triplet of losses before it have handicapped us.

We've won our last three home games by wide margins (37-13 over Snapfinger, 27-12 over Capital City and 31-6 over Houston) and in between won 24-14 at Bordeaux, but the stupidity in our 31-30 loss in Orlando and ineptitude in the 40-20 loss at Gothenburg have us trailing the wild card teams by 1 win and inferior tie-breakers. Had we won only one of the six games we lost (three of thosewe were the better team) and we're heavily in the mix.

European Division
1. Paris 9-3
2. Gothenburg 7-5
3. Maassluis 6-6
4. Bordeaux 6-6

Sure, 1 win behind, but Gothenburg has already secured tie-breakers, we'll need more than just 1 win. Aside from Gothenburg, three other 7-5 teams are ahead of us, as are the 6-6 Toronto Lake Monsters. On our tail, aside from Bordeaux, are three 5-win teams. The race for the wild cards is going to be wild.

QB Ellis McAlister has slowly recovered, improving to an 18:13 touchdown:interception ratio after 12 games. With 3,196 yards throwing, he's on pace for another 4,000-yard season. He's back into the league lead of yards per completion and third in yards per attempt.

RB Walt Blair has been missing in action in the last four games and about three quarters with a concussion. With 727 yards rushing and 5 touchdowns on the ground, he's still our ground game leader. We hope to see him back in action for the three home games.

WR Dennis Nadell unsurprisingly is our leading receiver. 66 catches for 1,067 yards and 5 touchdowns. He's in the upper echelon of the yard per catch guys, but he's mediocre in the per target list and catches less than 50 percent of his targets. WR Brody Stevens (62 for 753 yd and 3 td) and TE Monty Elliott (54 for 726 yd and 5 td) are sniffing at missing 1,000 yards by about 50 or so.

Our offensive linemen are doing well in the key run block figures. C Nicky Sherman and G Carlos Webb will likely come just short of 40 blocks for the season, G Harvey Hank isn't far behind them either.

The defense, well... I like the talent on this unit, but they've let me down quite often. We've got the fifth worst run per carry and fifth worst yards per catch numbers. Head shaking bad. ok, at least we've got the best pass rush in the league. (Too bad we're missing our key defensive end Arnie May in the last four regular season games).

Skeptic? Pessimistic? Realistic? A bit of all three, I think. If we win the last 4 (it's a lot to ask for with a road game at the 7-5 Texas Sharks and home games against Bordeaux, Derek Barge's Moontown Darksiders and Paris), we'd still need about 4 other teams to collapse.

Yeah, Derek Barge is coming to Maassluis in week 16, his first visit to Oranje Haven, if he remains healthy in the next couple of game. He's highly regarded as the second best player in league history, after Jackie Collier. That's a game we can sketch into the L-column already...

Ok, let's be optimistic: we're only eight wins away from our second IHOF Bowl victory!

MIJB#19 · 03-12-2019, 04:37 PM

General Manager Notes: 2080 is over already?
Fourth place.

No, not in the league (like two seasons ago) or in the conference (like last season), last in the division. It's been 31 seasons since we managed to fall to the bottom of the division.

Granted, it was a strong division, the strongest in the league last season, but fourth place is beyond all a very disappointing performance. Especially when the team ranks 6th in the Solecismic power ratings at the end of the season. Playing the toughest schedule in the league will do that.

1. Paris 12-4
2. Gothenburg 10-6
3. Bordeaux 8-8
4. Maassluis 7-9

We've won a shockingly low of 1 game inside the division, ~~fucked up~~ ~~pissed away~~ lost 4 home games over the course of the season.

This team should go hide in shame, or go outside, sit in the rain and storm that's torturing the Netherlands and think hard about how disappointing this season was.

We've won 4 games by a large margin, 2 more by 2 scores and beat the Tucker Tigers in overtime. On the other end, we lost 7 games by 6 or less points, lost by 20 at Gothenburg and when the season was already a failure managed to disgust the pride of the franchise with an unwarranted drubbing at home against the Paris Musketeers and their backup quarterback. We finished the season at +45 points, seventh best in the conference and 12th best in the league.

Our inept staff decided to pull our QB Ellis McAllister short of a 4K season, keeping him to 3,990 yard with 21 touchdowns and 16 interceptions. That's the lowest touchdown figure since Lester Lowe in 2062 (16 touchdowns in just 11 games), but basically the worst since the 2049 season, when Bryson Chow had only 16 touchdown passes. Yeah, that previous 4th place season.

RB Walt Blair came short of the 1K mark, running for 973 yards in 11 games with a head banging 3.96 yards per carry average. He ran the ball in 6 times, including a receiving touchdown. What happened to our 4.97 yards per carry workhorse? He was still a green rookie back then...

WR Dennis Nadell unshockingly lead the league in yards per catch (16.44), but with a pedestrian 49.1 percent catch percentage, his season was still a failure, despite the 85 catches for 1,397 yards. WR Brody Stevens had 81 catches for 1,028 yards, TE Monty Elliott 73 catches for 967 yards.

The defense was supposed to carry this team, but despite leading the league in sacks, that unit completely forgot to force turnovers and gave up a Merchantmen unworthy 346 yards per game. Yeah, we gave up between 351 and 389 in four straight season between 2074 and 2077 (and 367 yards in 2072), but all that was a disgrace to our tradition of fine defenses already. In that light, it was better than average in the '70s, but I had expected a lot more from Battle, Brewer and Craig McCorkle, undeniably the best trio of linebackers in the league and by pure talent could be in Merchantmen history. Amari Lavelli finally made his first career interception, in his 58th and probably final game in orange-white-and-blue. This unit ranked 31st in yarder per carry and 31st in yards per catch.
This all has nothing to do with a turnover prone quarterback or a retired HOF wide receiver. Quite simply: y'all let us down, defense, big time.

The good news? The Texas Sharks helped us get the #12 overall pick on top of the #16 overall pick that we 'earned'. It also means we'll have the #47 and #48 overall picks to work with.

To work with... We'll be about $150M over the cap going into the next off-season, with an underpaid starting quarterback in his final season of contract, an elite running back in the last year of contract, a couple of overpaid WR2s and an overpaid offensive line compared to what they showed us this season.

The defense is, of course, beyond doubt, a depressing unit. The talent is there, but the performance on the field is utterly disappointing. We try to game plan to their strengths, but instead they resemble nothing noteworthy.

Back to the drawing board?

MIJB#19 · 03-15-2019, 03:05 PM

General Manager notes: Hello 2081!
Oh goody, off-season time!

The retirement wave made us lose four guys, and not lose a guy or two that I anticipated to see retire. Firstly, who has left us?

Quarterback Sammy Erickson, 4 seasons of service, 1 as our starting QB. A 4,731-yard season with 32 touchdowns was part of the story, going 7-9 was the other half of it. He sat behind Bennett Morris and Ellis McAlister after that.

Fullback Gilbert Taliancich goes out at his peak, being the All-IHOF fullback for the last two seasons. 0 career carries, 29 career catches, Taliancich was a blocker for 11 season. 101 key run blocks, 297 opportunities. These are numbers of decent offensive linemen. Taliancich ranks highly amongst fullbacks in IHOF history in run blocking.

Safety Ben Gilbert played 9 seasons with us. Last season in a relief role, before that usually as a starter. His pass defense numbers aren't overly impressive, he was usually just there. 419 career tackles, 11 interceptions, 43 defended passes.

Linebacker Alexis Turner spent 12 seasons with us in 2 stints. His stat sheets says it was 12 seasons straight, but the Solecismic record books will count the post-camp singing in 2070 as a new start. 1 tackle in 12 seasons, what's up with that? Nothing shocking, really. Turner was a special teamer, made 190 special teams tackles for us.

The league office press department also reported the retirement of CB Ezra Slocum, WR Patrick Henry, RB Skip Clemons, G Bryson Hamilton, DT Willie Turner and T Liam Bell.

Slocum spent 3 seasons on our roster, 2 as a starter. What a waste of money. Wait, did I write that out loud?

Henry was a backup with us, mostly.

Clemons a one-year starter with 1,290 yards and 8 touchdowns. We just didn't want to pay him starter money. He moved on, but nowhere got even close to the playing time he got with us.

Hamilton was a backup, he was active in just 2 games in 5 seasons.

Willie Turner was a backup with us, active in 133 games. Cap woes made me cut him last off-season.

And then there was Liam Bell. Was with us for 5 seasons, active in 5 games. He was picked and kept for sentimental reasons. God speed.

Back to business.
We're $124M over the cap, projected at $153M over the cap after draft picks. We're holding the #11 and #14 overall picks, as well as the #45 and #46 picks.

I'm somewhat torn between getting a major rebuild going, or do what we usually do. It's worth considering to trade a couple of our expensive players. Antonio Battle in particular has the fourth highest cap figure in the league, $73.26M puts him just behind a threesome of veteran quarterbacks. It might be a busier than usual off-season...

MIJB#19 · 03-18-2019, 03:04 PM

General Manager Notes: 2081, what to do at quarterback?
We talked to the kid, but before we had a chance to make a sane offer for the 1.1 pick, it was already traded from Oakland to Orlando. The Talons did what had to be done there: select quarterback Jerald Harrison.

So much for that idea.

What about that Ellis McAlister guy that toted the ball for us in the last two seasons? Well, realistically, we're in a deadlock situation. McAlister is signed for a $11.69M cap figure in his last season of contract, but obviously he wants us to offer him a $164M contract for 4 years, with a $36M cap figure this season. As of today, after a truckload of renegotiations, we're still about $63M over the cap, $92M over after signing draft picks. I'm fully expecting McAlister to go into hold out mode and we'll be very unlikely to make him even a half-decent offer without trading or cutting guys like Nicky Sherman, Antonio Battle and Brody Stevens. All are a bit of a luxury (we've got last season's first round pick Butch Pearson, a couple of excellent linebackers and hope to fix the receivers group), moving all three would save us about $78.5M.

The free agents market is dry at quarterback. Not just a little bit, it's void of anybody worth throwing a contract at. Wesley Elliott and Zachery Hatcher are sack magnets, while Colin Clements is projected to still be out for the entire 2081 season.

The rest of the draft? I dunno. I shouldn't show my hand here, but I can be open about that I didn't focus our interviews at that position. Jerald Harrison was the only one.

Our backups are, well, that. The retirement of Sammy Erickson means last year's seventh round pick Josiah Lyle and third year kick holder Karsten Muchnick are our depth, or lack thereof. Neither of them is ready to start.

Our best bet right now is hoping for McAlister to not hold out, or if he does, hope he ends the holdout before week 1, to force our hand for the next off-season.

MIJB#19 · 03-19-2019, 03:31 PM

General Manager Notes: 2081 Free Agency Fire Sale
Cap space is a problem, a big one this off-season. We spent about $25M too little in 2076, '77 and '78 and we're paying for it dearly this season. Four of our best (albeit aged) players are on the block. Center Nicky Sherman, wide receiver Brody Stevens and linebacker Antonio Battle were already listed, but cornerback Alonzo Hitchcock has joined the list.

We'll have to move them all to be able to get under the cap and have at least some room to work with. Trading away the two second and one third round picks for a 2083 first round pick of the Outer Banks Ospreys gives some cap relief, about $4.5M. We're still at $53.74M over the cap.

Putting Hitchcock on the block is also a result of spending both first round picks on cornerbacks. Kirk Hitchcock (#11) and Tre Poloski (#14) are the top two graded cornerbacks this draft and hopefully can boost what has been such a disappointing unit. Of course, it'll take a season or three for them to really become top-notch, but we've got a guy or three good enough to play around them.

I'm pessimistic about the chances to salvage this team though. Aside from quarterback Ellis McAlister, there are several other players likely to go into hold out more. Walt Blair and his concussion syndrome wants $10M more than his current last year of contract, I think at best I can get him to sign for $7M more. Then there's defensive tackle Chandler Posante, currently signed for just $3.81M on the last year of his rookie contract and asking for his $100M contract, with a $14.4M cap figure this season. But McAlister is the biggest risk, signed for $11.7M and desiring $36.4M. We'll have to let these guys go regardless, I'm afraid. It's unusual, but we might have to sacrifice even more than just the quarterback this time...

MIJB#19 · 03-21-2019, 04:11 PM

General Manager Notes: 2081 fire sale has begun
Good bye Brody Stevens, good bye Nicky Sherman.

After nine seasons of service, we've traded our four-time 1,000-yard receiver Brody Stevens to the Oakland Black Panthers for the top of the seventh round pick in the on-going draft. He ranked in the top 10 of franchise receptions, receiving yards and receiving touchdowns upon his departure.

Nicky Sherman's stint in Maassluis lasted only 2 seasons, we traded him to the Houston Mustangs for a mid-late sixth round pick. Sherman made 41 and 44 key run blocks while on our team, allowing just 5 sacks in 32 games. A stellar, elite center, but we've decided that we're going to put our first round pick from last season in our line up.

It was sad to move them, but cap woes made it impossible to afford these two guys on top of the bunch of other guys that seem unsustainable.

We've accumulated a bunch of late round picks to cover for a potential situation where we'll have to go into training camp in an over the cap situation, yet still a chance to add more than the 51 players that account towards the cap.

I've already decided to release tight end Branden Schwirzke. A former third round pick, a pure receiver, had several seasons at around 700 yards for us, but the last three seasons he had a very minor role as the third tight end. Still scored 39 touchdowns in 8 seasons, a very respectable number.

Cornerback Amari Lavelli has decided to continue his IHOF career with the Gothenburg Giants. We had hoped to see him go far away to an AOC team, but he decided to stay within the division for just $7.2M this season and $8.2M in the next two seasons. It's more than we paid him, good for the kid, but it's a bummer to see a talented player go to a team we face twice per season.

We're going to give Antonio Battle one last chance to sign a new three-year contract. I'm expecting him to turn it down, but we have to try, no?

As mentioned earlier, we've got three players that are very likely to go into hold out modus. We'll still need to find the cap room to work around that. Chances of finding that are slim, trading or releasing Battle is the only option to make that happen, it seems...

MIJB#19 · 03-21-2019, 05:12 PM

2081 Draft Results: Top Two Corners For Maassluis

pick	player	notes
1.11	CB Kirk Hitchcock	highest graded CB, complete defender, except for play diagnosis
1.14	CB Tre Poloski	2nd highest graded CB, complete defender, except for low endurance
5.14	FB Tristan Cochrane	2nd highest graded FB, run blocker, picks up the blitz well
6.13	T Abel Bauer	23rd highest graded OT, tall, heavy, strong
6.23	LB Darien Stokes	8th highest graded OLB, special teamer, zone defender
7.1	S Louie Ferguson	20th highest graded S, smart, strong, interceptions
7.12	WR Riddick Bunting	40th highest graded WR, short, smart, route runner, special teamer
7.19	C Riddick Kasowski	9th highest graded C, green, decent speed and agility

Future draft situation:
2082 additional 3rd, no 7th
2083 additional 1st

MIJB#19 · 03-22-2019, 07:36 AM

General Manager Notes: The 2081 Hijack
The word is out. Ellis McAlister, Walt Blair and Chandler Posante have told me they want Antonio Battle's salary. Battle refused a much richer contract than he requested, which also resulted in us being over the cap after early free agency and a 3rd round pick penalty in return. Cutting Battle would increase our dead cap space to nearly $100M on a $448M salary cap.

Part of me wants to cut all of their asses, but then, what kind of team will we have left after losing our starting quarterback, starting running back, starting defensive tackle and third linebacker? Our team would be depleted.

It might come as no surprise, I'm afraid of the implications of these hold outs. Battle's roster spot has been filled, we've got two talented younger linebackers, boosted the secondary with two talented cornerbacks. But losing Posante would downgrade the defensive line and losing Blair and/or McAlister would destroy our offense.

MIJB#19 · 03-25-2019, 06:57 PM

General Manager Notes: 2081, The Plot Thickens
Antonio Battle, gone.

Ellis McAlister, hold out ended. Gone in 2082.

Walt Blair, unwilling to sign a better deal than requesting (when will these football players get rid of these incompetent player agents who are too blind to see that a $39M contract with a $20M bonus is significantly better than a $39M contract with a $9M bonus?)

We've signed a bunch of undrafted rookies (QB Frank Graul, TE Gavin Stern, P Roosevelt Shaw, DE Ezekiel Wylie, CB Frankie Youngblood, S Phil Harvey), of whom some might not survive the roster cut waves.

Training camp report is in. Rookies FB Cochrane, C Kasowski, DE Wylie, LB Stokes, CB K. Hitchcock, CB Poloski, S Harvey, as well as second-year pro's C Pearson, K Arnold, DE Kemp and DT Shrader, these 11 guys all received "good progress" grades by my staff. We'll have to see where they stand in two days, when they'll be asked to re-grade the guys after the first couple of exhibition games.

All in all, the loss of Battle was a bummer, but seemed inevitable. The quickly ended hold out by McAlister was sad, but so be it. A starting quality quarterback, he deserves that money. We've actually attempted to trade McAlister for another team's holding out quarterback, but that opportunity fell when Merchantmen management (me) decided to stay away from the laptop for a bunch of hours.

Otherwise, I remain far from optimistic about the upcoming season.

MIJB#19 · 03-27-2019, 11:40 AM

Antonio Battle signed with Gothenburg Giants
Two-time All-IHOF linebacker Antonio Battle continues his IHOF career in Europe after signing with the Gothenburg Giants. The former Maassluis Merchantmen key player signed with the Giants shortly after training camp, just in time to join them for 2081 pre-season action. Battle signed a $22M one-year contract, making him the fifth highest played player on roster. Of course, it's far less than what Battle was due in Maassluis (a $35.5M base salary, with a $37.7M cap hit due to the signing bonus) and nowhere near the $107M 3-year contract the Merchantmen saw Battle decline.

Walt Blair denies Merchantmen again, talks continue
Contract negotiations between the Maassluis Merchantmen and running back Walt Blair are still in progress. Blair turned down a $47.5M two-year contract shortly before pre-season activity kicked off. Blair's demands have changed to a three-year contract, which the Merchantmen management reportedly is willing to work along with. Merchantmen GM M.IJ.B. said getting Blair to show and dress up is a top priority this pre-season, but the Merchantmen will have to offer Blair something different as the team simply can't get the cap room available for desired $15.3M salary with a $14.8M bonus, as it would increase his cap figure by $14.75M, while there's only $9.55M available.

Chandler Posante unlikely to play in 2081
Defensive tackle Chandler Posante and the Maassluis Merchantmen management are unlikely to come to terms before the regular season kicks off. "Imposante" turned down a $79M four-year contract after training camp and the Merchantmen have reportedly decided to put talks on hold until the situation with Walt Blair is resolved. The Merchantmen keep the options open for Posante to end his hold out and walk away as a free agent after the 2081 season. His name hasn't been thrown around as available for trade, but that could be an alternative route.

Merchantmen announce pre-season cuts
The Maassluis Merchantmen today announced the release of rookie punter Roosevelt Shaw and second-year quarterback Josiah Lyle. Shaw was unable to unseat Tito Hornsby, one of the elite punters in the league. Lyle lost the roster spot battle to undrafted rookie Frank Graul. This move means the Merchantmen go into the last two pre-season games with 53 players on roster, including hold outs Walt Blair and Chandler Posante.

MIJB#19 · 03-31-2019, 02:35 PM

General Manager notes: bye bye Blair and Posante
It's decided. Walt Blair and Chandler Posante have decided to end their hold out. They'll play out the 2081 season with us and then walk away free agents. There isn't even a point to trade them, because Solecismic regulation prohibit players from signing renegotiated contracts after pre-season. So they join Ellis McAlister in that. A huge blow to the stomach.

The good news? We've played decent in the pre-season we might be able to lose a dozen games by a field goal. Yay?

So be it, there's a lot worse stuff in life to get worked up about. We'll have to make the best of this season and get a rebuild going in the off-season. We'll kick off in Bordeaux, a team we're always more than happy to beat, winning at their place will be a nice way to start the season.

MIJB#19 · 04-01-2019, 04:01 PM

2081 week 1: Merchantmen sneak by Vineyards
The Maassluis Merchantmen are off to a good start. Despite defensive struggles, the Merchantmen came home with a 30-24 overtime victory at the Bordeaux Vineyards. Ellis McAlister and Walt Blair tried to make the best of their farewell season. McAlister completed 21 of 37 passes for 267 yards and 2 touchdowns with 1 pick, while Blair carried 28 times for 119 yards and 2 touchdowns.

Reality was simple: Bordeaux was the better team out there, but an early missed field goal in regulation, the traditional strong pass rush throughout the game and an interception too many in overtime reshuffled the cards just enough to give Maassluis a chance to squeak by. The Merchantmen shrugged at it, their season started with a 1 in the W-column. That's all that matters.

European division in action:
Maassluis 30, Bordeaux 24 (OT, @ Bordeaux)
Paris 48, Gothenburg 38 (@ Paris)

Standings
1. Paris 1-0
2. Maassluis 1-0
3. Bordeaux 0-1
4. Gothenburg 0-1

Next up:
Paris vs Williamsburg (1-0), 10-point favorites
Maassluis vs Frederick (0-1), 5-point favorites
Bordeaux at Brooklyn (0-1), 11-point favorites
Gothenburg at Chesapeake (1-0), 9-point underdogs

MIJB#19 · 04-02-2019, 05:47 PM

2081 week 2: Merchantmen pick off Red Menace
When the Frederick Red Menace took the plane to Maassluis, the figured throwing the ball a lot was a good idea. Think again, pals. It proved to be a horrible mistake. The Merchantmen defense knew their way with the commies' quarterback Alvin Mills, picking him off 5 times, sacking him 4 times, hurrying him 5 times, blocking 6 pass attempts and deflecting 7 passes. The kid was pulled in the fourth quarter with a 8.6 passers-by rating.

The Merchantmen offense struggled to punt points on the board though, attempting a field goal 7 times, 5 of those bring shorter than 40 yards. But with the supreme defense, they didn't need it. Walt Blair ran for 112 yards on 28 carries, while Ellis McAlister threw for 265 yards, 2 touchdowns and a couple of picks to give the visitors a fighting chance. Dennis Nadell recovered with 9 catches for 117 yards and a score.

Elsewhere in the league, the Paris Musketeers rolled on, beating the Williamsburg Colonials 47-34. The Bordeaux Vineyards recovered with a 17-10 victory at the Brooklyn Fightin' Bums. The Gothenburg Giants dropped hard, 49-30 at the Chesapeake Chitterlings.

Division standings:
1 Paris 2-0
2. Maassluis 2-0
3. Bordeaux 1-1
4. Gothenburg 0-2

Next up
Paris visits 2-0 league champions Tucker Tigers, Bordeaux visits the 1-1 Jerald Harrison lead Orlando Talons, Gothenburg hosts the 1-1 Fort Wayne Fury and the Merchantmen will host the 1-1 Atlanta Vipers.

12-27-2018, 09:28 AM	#53
MIJB#19 Coordinator Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Maassluis, Zuid-Holland, Netherlands	75th season anniversary: 50 Legends, epilogue To celebrate the 75th season of the Maassluis Merchantmen, I selected 50 players that I consider the legends of that time span from 2004 until the start of the 2078 season. I split the list of players into 5 groups, each being a time period of roughly 15 seasons. Epilogue. If you counted the names carefully, you'll notice that the 5 articles of 50 Legends actually consisted of only 49 names, one short. The explanation is simple, I picked only 1 player from the list of active players in the 2076-2078 time period. With 2078 in the books and hopefully the beginning of a new strong era, it's the perfect timing to promote one name from the also-rans list. Bennett Morris bailed on us after one season, that's an easy "no". Walt Blair is 10 games in, that's too short. Carlos Webb hasn't broken out into becoming a threat to the run blocking legends yet. Stiegler and Hitchcock actually earned All-IHOF first team honors in the 2078 season, but they'll have to wait for a future episode of whatever number of legends. Which leaves the honors to... RB #23 Lucas Blackwell 2069-2077 Lucas Blackwell was the Merchantmen third round pick in the 2069 draft. Instead of bringing him slowly, he impressed enough in camp and pre-season to get 20 carries from the start. Blackwell came along with a skill set unusual to the Merchantmen, as he wasn't known for his breakaway speed, but did bring the instinct for hole recognition. On top of that, Blackwell was showing the power en determination to be a third down back. His endurance was slightly lacking, meaning the Merchantmen kept Blackwell basically active about 2/3rd of the time for most of his career and rarely seeing Blackwell active on the first play on the first possession. His career yards per carry wasn't impressive at 3.96. With 6 1,000-yard seasons, he played above the odds as a part-timer. Eventually his elusiveness and fumbling habits made the Merchantmen decide to release Blackwell in the 2078 off-season, deeming him too expensive for a backup role behind recently selected rookie Walt Blair. As a result, Blackwell's production was halted after 9 seasons with 9,531 rushing yards and 75 rushing touchdowns, with a 48.6 success rate on third downs. he's second all-time for the Merchantmen in carries, rushing yards and rushing touchdowns. The later trailing Nobert Talley by a single touchdown, a record that would have been in reach for Blackwell with one more season... Blackwell tried out with the Arizona Miners in training camp 2078, but didn't make the 53-men roster and retired in the 2079 off-season. __________________ * 2005 Golden Scribe winner for best FOF Dynasty about IHOF's Maassluis Merchantmen * Former GM of GEFL's Houston Oilers and WOOF's Curacao Cocktail

12-28-2018, 08:51 AM	#57
MIJB#19 Coordinator Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Maassluis, Zuid-Holland, Netherlands	General Manager notes: 2079 draft rounds 1, 2 and 3 We went into the draft with a truck load of draft picks. As result of trades in the previous two drafts, we had 3 additional second round picks and an extra fifth round pick. We spent the 2.17 pick as exchange money for a trade up from #29 to #18 to be able to select linebacker Craig McCorkle. The staff assed him as underrated, which for me was the determining factor. He's strong and agile, a bit green and slightly undersized, but we'll be happy to have him team up with Battle and Brewer. We might consider playing a bit more linebacker heavy formations. The second and third round ended up being a trade frenzy. We sent 2.12 to the Hanalei Dragons for a 2nd and 5th next draft. Then we sent the 2.26 to the Toronto Lake Monsters for their 2nd and 7th next draft. We sent the 2.29 to the Rochester Razorbacks for the Moontown Darksiders 2nd next draft. Finally we swapped the 3.29 for the North Plainfield Plague's 3rd next draft. This should be fun again next off-season... McCorkle is in and we've still got five picks to be made, with the #29 overall in all four rounds, while having the 5.14 as a bonus. __________________ * 2005 Golden Scribe winner for best FOF Dynasty about IHOF's Maassluis Merchantmen * Former GM of GEFL's Houston Oilers and WOOF's Curacao Cocktail

01-01-2019, 05:50 PM	#61
MIJB#19 Coordinator Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Maassluis, Zuid-Holland, Netherlands	Will McAlister be number 17? For decades, the starting quarterback for the Maassluis Merchantmen was the same guy for, well, over a decade. Louie Flannery came in on the mid '00s and was the clear cut starter throughout the '10s. Russell Harrison owned the '20s, while Jerry McGee dominated the '30s. Perry Coleman started early in the '40s, then Bryson Chow finished that decade and was the man under center through most of the '50s. Then there was Lester Lowe followed by Alfred Hickman and then the times of change started. The list of opening day starting quarterbacks, consists of 16 different names, so far. Sammy Erickson hopes to maintain that number for a while, but Ellis McAlister hopes to be number 17 in week one of the 2079 season. Borrows from an old article over at the IHOF website, here's an updated list of opening day starting quarterbacks for the Merchantmen: 2004 Calvin Snider 2005 Leonard Lyon 2006-19 Louie Flannery 2020-29 Russell Harrison 2030-32 Jay McGee 2033-34 Russell Harrison 2035-39 Jay McGee 2040 Stanley Bissel 2041-44 Perry Coleman 2045-57 Bryson Chow 2058-64 Lester Lowe 2065-69 Alfred Hickman 2070 Robbie Rhoades 2071-72 Alfred Hickman 2073 Winston Buckner 2074 Robbie Howe 2075-76 Erick Loera 2077 Sammy Erickson 2078 Bennett Morris 2079 ??? Ellis McAlister has been named the starter for the first two pre-season games, playing amidst a mix of youngsters and hard to replace backups. Walt Blair will be active, but J.R. Mills and Brody Stevens will be inactive. Sammy Erickson will be inactive, but likely play with the first teamers, such as Mills and Stevens, in the last two pre-season games. Rookie Karsten Muchnick will serve as the backup to McAlister and will likely see a lot of action as the mid-game replacement. On the defense, Antonio Battle and Glenn Brewer will be inactive, while the rest of the defense will likely be play in rotation, just like it will likely do in the regular season. Things might chance in the secondary for the last two pre-season games, a decision to be made after the first couple. __________________ * 2005 Golden Scribe winner for best FOF Dynasty about IHOF's Maassluis Merchantmen * Former GM of GEFL's Houston Oilers and WOOF's Curacao Cocktail

01-03-2019, 03:12 PM	#62
MIJB#19 Coordinator Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Maassluis, Zuid-Holland, Netherlands	General Manager notes: Ellis McAlister, here are the keys for 2079 So much for that quarterback battle. McAlister, the team is yours. It's always hilarious to see how training camp can give you a basic idea on what the team will be like, only to see the bunch of guys go into action and have some of these kids all of a sudden look like a complete different football player. Nothing of that, in a sense of having huge demasque moments, but we've had some medium ones and the quarterbacks were on both ends of it. On a scale from 1 to 100, this is where we stand, according to our staff: 50 (+7) QB Ellis McAlister 38 (-11) QB Sammy Erickson 14/28 (+1) QB Kartsen Muchnick 58/65 (+1) RB Walt Blair 39 RB Raul Curie 33/34 (-1/-2) RB Ronald Graham 40 FB Gilbert Taliancich 32/38 (0/+3) FB Darien Latschaw 57 TE Monty Elliott 42 TE Branden Schwirzke 41 TE Randal Curtis 13 (-4) TE Markel Ellison 60 WR Brody Stevens 54 (-4) WR J.R. Mills 49 WR Dennis Nadell 31/37 (+5) WR Rico Techen 24/28 (0/-6) WR Dwight Clements 18 (-6) WR Nicolas Tucker 81 C Nicky Sherman 38 (-5) C Steven Houshmandzadeh 68 (+1) G Harvey Hank 67 G Carlos Webb 19 (-9) G Bryson Hamilton 70 (-3) T Oscar Meadows 48 (-1) LT Louie Murray 32 (-7) LT Richie Coughenour 49 DE Todd Clinton 42 (-2) DE Max Lyons 41 (-5) DE Arnie May 40 (-1) DE Herb Crane 59 DT Glen Stiegler 50 DT Chandler Posante 33 (-1) DT Willie Turner 20/33 (-2/+3) DT Cameron Erlitz 76 (-1) OLB Antonio Battle 40/76 (+2) MLB Craig McCorkle 64 OLB Glenn Brewer 40 (-1) OLB Stan Foster 26/35 (+3) MLB Jermaine Page 1 OLB Alexis Turner 53 (-6) CB Alonzo Hitchcock 49 CB Amari Lovelli 49 (+1) CB Ezra Slocum 43 CB Herman Glenn 38 CB Giovanni Morton 25 (-9) CB Bart Lahnum 47 S Maurice Harkleroad 37 S Rex McIndoe 34 (+1) S Ben Gilbert 20 (-4) S Jonah Harden 70 (+1) P Tito Hornsby 55 (-1) K Dave Eiermann 21 LS Chris Bertolone Released QB Jamie Holmes: +1 in pre-season, but lost the kick holder battle to Muchnick WR Erik Slechta: -6 in pre-season, not even worth a special teamer spot WR Gene Sweazy: -10 in pre-season, not even worth a special teamer spot P Santiago Hitchcock: -2/+3 in pre-season, but lost the kick holder battle to Muchnick K Herb Easter: -3/-17 in pre-season, nope, not an elite kickoff specialists LB Chance Nason: -5 in pre-season, took hit in special teams skills, bummer That sets our 53 men roster. Or does it? Our depth at the OL took a hit. All the backups had terrible progression. Alas. I'm opting to look for a new backup guard after the next pre-season games. Afterwards, because we've offered a bunch of last-year players a contract extension. Once we know how much cap space is left, we'll consider using it. __________________ * 2005 Golden Scribe winner for best FOF Dynasty about IHOF's Maassluis Merchantmen * Former GM of GEFL's Houston Oilers and WOOF's Curacao Cocktail

01-07-2019, 05:11 PM	#66
MIJB#19 Coordinator Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Maassluis, Zuid-Holland, Netherlands	2079 Regular season, week 1 At last, the Merchantmen were back on the field. The place to be: Oranje Haven. The opponents: the Paris Musketeers. Last season, the Paris Musketeers were 10-4 in games not played against the Merchantmen, but 0-3 against orange, white and blue. A warm welcome back for running back Walt Blair and an even bigger test for the new starting quarterback Elis McAliser. And boy, did McAlister pass the test. His first three throws turned into negative yardage and a couple of incompletions, but attempts four and five to J.R. Mills were the kind of throws Merchantmen fans have gotten accustomed to the last couple of seasons. A drive with a 15-yard catch and run by Mills was followed up by Walt Blair's first 20-yarder of the season and the drive ended in a deep throw from McAlister to Mills to dance into the endzone for a touchdown. The Musketeers replied with a drive ending in a 39-yard field goal, but the Merchantmen had only just began. Walt Blair ran for a career long 70 yards to put his team 14-3 up. Shortly after Paris' first offensive touchdown to make it 14-10, things got quiet for a while. Until the Merchantmen saw McAlister connect with Mills for 28 yards with just over 5 minutes left in the first half. Two plays later, Walt Blair stormed into the end zone from 26 yards out. The Merchantmen defense forced a couple of three and outs, but a couple of long passes to Mills and Dennis Nadell went unanswered as Dave Eiermann missed a 47-yard field goal to make it 21-10 at half time. Paris scored first in the second half, seeing Shaun Dole convert a 47-yard field goal attempt. The Merchantmen quickly responded with a 40-yard field goal, as did Paris again with a 45-yarder. Dave Eiermann missed a 49-yarder to keep the score closer at 24-16 Maassluis. The fourth quarter started with Paris equalizing touchdown drove. Despite a strong pass rush, the Merchantmen defense were unable to stop Neil Poling on 3rd and 18 from finding Eugene Hamilton in the end zone. A two-point conversion later and 24-24 was the score. Tossed from McAlister and runs from Blair kept the chains moving on the next drive and J.R. Mills once again found the end zone on a long throw from McAlister: 31-24, with 7:25 to go. A quick three and out gave the Merchantmen a chance to pull the game away, but with 3 minutes to go, McAlister saw an underthrown pass get intercepted near midfield. Paris' hopes were broken only one play later, as pre-season revelation Giovanni Morton returned the favor. McAlister then found Brody Stevens and Mills for 17 yards each to waste Paris' timeouts to secure the 31-24 victory. The end result was a close score, despite that the Merchantmen outgained the Musketeers 528 to 282 yards. Ellis McAlister completed 26 of 38 passes for 339 yards and 2 touchdowns with 1 interception in his first career start. J.R. Mills caught 11 of those passes for 192 yards and 2 touchdowns. Walt Blair ran for 179 yards and 2 scores. The Merchantmen fans saw the offense they had accustomed to in the first half of last season. The Merchantmen take the early lead in the European division, based on tie-breakers that at this stage of the season are pretty pointless to look at. The Gothenburg Giants won a closely competed home game against the Bordeaux Vineyards 27-20. __________________ * 2005 Golden Scribe winner for best FOF Dynasty about IHOF's Maassluis Merchantmen * Former GM of GEFL's Houston Oilers and WOOF's Curacao Cocktail Last edited by MIJB#19 : 01-07-2019 at 05:11 PM.

12-24-2018, 05:41 PM	#52
MIJB#19 Coordinator Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Maassluis, Zuid-Holland, Netherlands	75th season anniversary: 50 Legends, Class of 2064 period To celebrate the 75th season of the Maassluis Merchantmen, I selected 50 players that I consider the legends of that time span from 2004 until the start of the 2078 season. I split the list of players into 5 groups, each being a time period of roughly 15 seasons. We'll finish with episode 5: Class of 2064 period. C #76 Zack Whelan 2056-2067 Center Zack Whelan joined the Merchantmen as a second round pick in the 2056 draft. The plan was to make him the future replacement of Cristian Sampson, but Whelan was forced into action five times. It was quickly clear that Whelan had the talent to grow into being the best run blocker up the middle in the league. In 2058, Whelan became the full time starter and in his first three seasons he had a minimum of 44 key run blocks, earning back to back All-IHOF Second team honors. Whelan was a backup for IHOF Bowl LIV and misses IHOF Bowl LVII due to injury. A suspension cost Whelan the 2064 season, an in retrospect cut his career short. The Merchantmen drafted a replacement in 2065 in Tom Anaya, but injuries across the line got Whelan back on the field after all. His role quickly got smaller, although he was activated for the IHOF Bowl LXIII victory. As a result, Whelan is one of three players on roster for 3 IHOF Bowls, but to his own disappointment, he got to start in none of them. After spending the entire 2067 season inactive, he wasn't re-signed in the 2068 off-season. Despite the gaps in his activity, Whelan retired with 296 key run blocks, 5th highest in franchise history. QB #8 Lester Lowe 2057-2065 Quarterback Lester Lowe joined the Merchantmen through trade in the 2057 off-season. Initially considered exchange money in a trade up with the Augusta Greenjackets, from #29 overall to #14 overall to get wide receiver Riddick Stanley while sacrificing a first round pick next draft, Lowe was suddenly promoted to the starting role ahead of Chow after decent, but underwhelming play in the first 5 games. Lowe started with a loss, but followed up with 5 straight victories without interception and continued to impress en route to the IHOF Bowl LIV, which the Merchantmen lost 34-27. The Chow era was over, Lowe time had began. He followed up with three 4,000-yard seasons, and four with 32 touchdown passes. Interceptions started to pile on, but Lowe did well enough to guide his team to IHOF Bowl LVII, a close contested 17-14 loss. The 2064 season turned out to be his last as the starter. The demise had kicked in and prior to the 2066 season, after a season with just 14 pass attempts, Lowe decided to retire. Lowe retired with a 89-40 record 29,690 passing yards and 239 passing touchdown, 5th in Merchantmen history. WR #83 Riddick Stanley 2057-2068 Wide receiver Riddick Stanley joined the Merchantmen after a trade up from the #29 to the #14 overall pick in the 2057 draft. Stanley's quarterback was also acquired in that trade, as Lester Lowe became the starter from week 7 in that season. Stanley broke out in his sophomore season, catching 102 passes for 1,536 yards and 14 touchdowns. From there on his performance slowly went down, aside from a spike up in the 2068 season, his last season in Maassluis before joining the Iowa Cobbers for his last two seasons in the IHOF. Stanley was a key player in the offense for Maassluis, outlasting many changes on the opposite side of the field and the switch from Lester Lowe to Alfred Hickman. Stanley was the top receiver for a team that reached IHOF Bowl LIV, IHOF Bowl LVII and finally got the Merchantmen's only title in the IHOF Bowl LXIII victory. He's one of just two Merchantmen players active in all three bowl games and the only one to start in all three of them. Stanley retired with Hall of Fame worthy numers. With 13,511 receiving yards and 100 receiving touchdowns, he retired ranked third for the Merchantmen in all three going into the 2078 season. J.R. Mills surpassed Stanley in receiving yards in the 2078 season. DE #92 Jordan St. Pierre 2057-2067 Defensive end Jordan St. Pierre was a low fifth round pick in the 2057 draft for the Merchantmen. An afterthought, given a chance to make the team as a rotation backup for the pass rush. Against all odds, St. Pierre was listed as a starter from his rookie season and onwards. Granted, his playing time was about 1/3rd of the time in his rookie campaign, including the IHOF Bowl LIV loss. His pass rush ability became more apparent from his third season onwards. He was a starter in the IHOF Bowl LVII loss and followed it in the 2061 season with 15.5 sacks and All-IHOF honors. By then he had established himself as a building block. In 2062 Shaun Hartman and Preston Urquoila came along, while in 2064 Daquan Strugielski became the fourth member of the fearsome front four. St. Pierre saw his numbers decline, but as a sidekick to these stars, as a 10th year veteran he got his chance to shine in IHOF Bowl LXIII with 2.5 sacks. He retired after the upset deficit in the 2067 AOC Championship game. At that time he ranked 2nd for the Merchantmen with 78.5 sacks and following the retirement of Hartman and Strugielski, he's 4th all-time in sacks. DT #95 Shaun "The Behemoth" Hartman 2062-2074 Defensive tackle Shaun Hartman was only the 28th overall draft pick in the 2062 draft, but the Merchantmen knew it for sure: this was the guy they wanted. And they chose wisely, Hartman was a day one starter and didn't miss a single game for 13 seasons. The first three seasons were relatively disappointing, as the Merchantmen misses the playoffs. But Hartman was a force, earning All-IHOF first or second team honors from his second to twelfth season, being a seven-time first-teamer. Playing exclusively from the inside, Hartman was a pass rush machine, recording 116.5 sacks, 281 hurries and 57 blocked passes in regular season action. He added 577 tackles, 252 assists and 22 forced fumbles. He's second in sacks and first in hurries and blocked passes of all Merchantmen players. His finest hour came in IHOF Bowl LXIII, where he made 3.0 sacks, 2 hurries, 6 tackles and forced a fumble to earn IHOF Bowl MVP honors. His ferociousness earned him the nickname Behemoth with the Merchantmen fans. In 2074, Hartman decided to step away from football. In the 2079 off-season, Hartman got inducted into the Hall of Fame. CB #34 Peter Tucker 2064-2075 Cornerback Peter Tucker was the #10 overall pick in the 2064 draft, the first of many tremendous Merchantmen picks that draft. The Merchantmen hoped to get a shutdown corner in Tucker, but that doesn't exactly describe the kind of player Tucker turned out to be. Rather than throwing away from him, Tucker was often faced with the WR1 of the opponent and had the task to deflect the ball or at least make sure the receiver wasn't going to gain ground. With 45 interceptions and 130 defended passes, he ranks 1st and 2nd in Merchantmen history. But Tucker also supported the run defense, for a conrberback he made the remarkable total of 1,039 tackles and 284 assists. Tucker earned All-IHOF honors seven times, 4 times as a first team selection. Tucker made crucial interceptions in the playoffs of the 2066 season in he divisional round and conference final, en route to IHOF Bowl LXIII victory. The Merchantmen retired the #34 jersey the day Tucker announced his retirement from football. LB #51 Gabe Hamilton 2064-2074 Linebacker Gabe Hamilton was the #12 overall pick in the 2064 draft, the second of many tremendous Merchantmen picks that draft. Hamilton peaked early, earning Defensive Rookie of the Year honors ahead of teammates Tucker and Ross. In 2066 he made 152 tackles, 5.5 sacks and defended 17 passes, earning All-IHOF honors. He brought his a-game to the playoffs as well, making 13 tackles and 8 assists in the AOC Championship victory en route to the IHOF Bowl LXIII victory. Although that turned out to be his best season, Hamilton remained to be a key player for 9 seasons, coming 2 tackles short in 2072 to have a century in all of them. He lost his starting role in 2073, was active in a single game in 2074 and a tough roster cut decision in the 2075 pre-season, not making the final 53-men list. Hamilton retired in the 2076 off-season and it is rumored he talked his Class of 2064 compatriots Peter Tucker, Edward Ross and Daquan Strugielski to retire together with him. Hamilton recorded 1,72 tackles, 326 assists, 23.5 sacks, 80 defended passes, 5 interceptions and 15 forced fumbles. LB #58 Edward Ross 2064-2075 Linebacker Edward Ross was the #16 overall pick in the 2064 draft, the third of many tremendous Merchantmen picks that draft. Initially playing second fiddle to Hamilton as the premier linebacker, the roles changed from the 2067 season and onwards. By that time, Ross was already wearing a championship ring, just like all his teammates in the IHOF Bowl LXIII victory. Albeit the highlight of his career being there and then, Ross continued to grow into perhaps the best outside linebacker in league history. He earned All-IHOF honors four seasons straight in 2067-2070, being a three-time first-teamer. Ross was a lock for 100 tackles, but also was a key factor in the pass rush and pass defense. Ross retires with 1,423 tackles, 407 assists, 49.0 sacks, 17 interceptions, 94 defended passes and 25 forced fumbles. The tackle total ranks him 3rd all-time in the IHOF. For the Merchantmen he ranks 1st in tackles, 11th in sacks, 9th in defended passes and tied 3rd in forced fumbles. Ross retired in the 2076 off-season and is expected to be inducted into the Hall of Fame. DE #98 Daquan "Da Machine" Strugielski 2064-2075 Defensive end Daquan Strugielski was the #217 overall pick in the 2064 draft, the last of many tremendous Merchantmen picks that draft. In his rookie campaign, Strugielski wasn't a sure thing yet, but in his second season the 10.5 sacks were the start of a 9-season stretch of 10.0 or more sacks in all but one season. He was one of the pass rush monsters in the IHOF Bowl LXIII victory. From 2069 onwards, Strugielski earned All-IHOF honors, winning back to back Defensive Player of the Year honors in 2071 and 2072. The latter a result of also being an above average tackle machine from the defensive end position. he made 50+ tackles four times, including those DPOY seasons. The continuing production of sacks in those seasons earned him the nickname 'Da Machine'. Strugielski made 7.0 sacks in a time-share role in 2074, but his 2075 season ended in a deception: 0.0 sacks in 17 games, including the lost wild card game. Strugielski retired in the 2076 off-season after a Hall of Fame worthy career. QB #3 Alfred Hickman 2065-2072 Quarterback Alfred Hickman joined the Merchantmen out of the blue in the 2065 off-season. Lester Lowe was still in charge, but the Merchantmen felt that a kid with 0 starts on his resume was worth sending their 1st roud pick next draft to the Hanalei Dragons. Hickman won the starting gig and delivered with a tremendous season: 4,545 yards and 32 touchdowns versus 16 interceptions, a 12-4 record and a loss in the divisional round. In 2066 the interceptions started to pile up. From week 11 through 17, Hickman threw at least 2 picks, but 10-5-1 was enough to go into the post-season. Supported by the superb defense, Hickman quarterbacked the Merchantmen through the playoffs and into IHOF Bowl LXIII victory. Despite throwing for 231 yards, the MVP honors weren't his. Hickman continued to be a lock for 4,300 yards and above. Contract disputes made the Merchantmen cut Hickman right after training camp 2070. In 2071 Hickman returned for another couple of one-and-done seasons. The 2073 off-season was Hickman's second departure, cut as contract negotiations were expected to fail again. In 7 seasons, Hickman threw for 30,325 yards, 198 touchdowns and 153 intcerceptions, guiding the Merchantmen into the playoffs every time and towards their only IHOF Bowl victory. C #77 Tom Anaya 2065-2078 Center Tom Anaya was the Merchantmen's surprise first round pick in the 2065 draft. Following the suspension of Zack Whelan, the Merchantmen decided to give the line to Anaya. He became a day one starter. His stats as a rookie were unimpressive, but the Merchantmen started an eight-season streak of playoffs football. Anaya wasn't just great for the Merchantmen, it became apparent he was an all-time great run blocker. The All-IHOF honors were limited to two times, but he wasn't a stranger to 40 key run blocks. He was around early enough to party after the IHOF Bowl LXIII victory, yet hung around long enough to celebrate the Merchantmen's 75th season. Anaya retired after the 2078 season, ranking 8th in key run blocks and 2nd in block opportunities in IHOF. He ranks first for the Merchantmen in both figures, while his 213 starts top previous record holder Louie Flannery by 2. WR #82 J.R. Mills 2069-2078 Wide receiver J.R. Mills cost the Merchantmen a treuckload of picks, but the #9 overall selection was high enough to get him. And boy was he worthy it. Not from the beginning though. Despite a 1,000-yard campaign as a rookie and making it a four-season streak, Mills' stamina appeared to be an issue. Injury sidelined him for the majority of the 2073 season. Upon his return in 2074, he upped his game and kept improving, becoming a 1,500-yard receiver and peaking with 111 catches for 2,228 yards in the 2077 season. Coming in at the second most productive season by any receiver in IHOF history. The Merchantmen hope to build on him for another handful of seasons. Mills had another All-IHOF second team season in 2078 with 1,756 yards receiving. His 17 receiving touchdown were a personal record and second best in Merchantmen history. Going into 2079, he ranks 6th in receptions, 3rd in receiving yards, 5th in receiving touchdowns and a superior yards per catch and yards per target figures. Mills OT #65 Oscar Meadows 2071-2078 Offensive tackle Oscar Meadows was a surprise first round pick in the 2071 draft for the Merchantmen. Right tackle isn't traditionally a position the Merchantmen invest in, but Meadows has the size and talent to be worthy of that. In his first seven seasons in Maassluis, Meadows proved to be the stud of the line. He allowed 33 sacks and made 198 key run blocks so far. In 2078 Meadows earned his first All-IHOF honors, being a second-teamer with 33 key run blocks and only 4 sacks allowed. LB #52 Antonio Battle 2073-2078 Linebacker Antonio Battle joined a rich history of first round picks at his position. He had the honor to join the Merchantmen shortly before the big names retired. The veterans imediately recognized Battle's talent and he became a full-time starter as a rookie. With four 100-tackle seasons, 11 interceptions, 50 defended passes, 8 forced fumbles and 12.0 sacks in 5 seasons, his two All-IHOF team selections aren't surprising. He's a premier linebacker, a worthy succesor to Edward Ross and preceding names. In 2078 Battle earned his second All-IHOF first team selection. __________________ * 2005 Golden Scribe winner for best FOF Dynasty about IHOF's Maassluis Merchantmen * Former GM of GEFL's Houston Oilers and WOOF's Curacao Cocktail Last edited by MIJB#19 : 12-27-2018 at 10:13 AM. Reason: minor name in text fix

12-27-2018, 10:11 AM	#54
MIJB#19 Coordinator Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Maassluis, Zuid-Holland, Netherlands	For the heck of it, I tabulated the 50 Legends to create a listed top50, assigned every player three scores from 1 to 5 on "star player value", "popularity" and "longevity". The first one being slightly subjective but basically ranging from hall of famers . The popularity rating resembles my own "heart for the player" value, again ranging from 5 for "favorites" to 1 for "I had to play him by lack of having anything better". Longevity was a simple formula of dividing the years of service by 3 and rounding to the closest whole number. Tie-breakers went to my own decision (shocker!). Top 50 Merchantmen 2004-2078 1. DT #95 Shaun "The Behemoth" Hartman 2062-2074 2. WR #89 Terry "The Gasket" Haskell 2036-2048 3. DT #78 Charles Gomez 2004-2014 4. LB #55 Wesley Devine 2036-2048 5. DE #98 Daquan "Da Machine" Strugielski 2064-2075 6. WR #86 Gabe Springer 2016-2027 7. C #77 Tom Anaya 2065-2078 8. LB #58 Edward Ross 2064-2075 9. QB #3 "Fumblin'" Justin McDavid 2004-2017 10. LB #54 Daniel "Double D" Duncan 2040-2049 11. WR #82 J.R. Mills 2069-2078 12. C #76 Zack Whelan 2056-2067 13. QB #5 Russell "Rusty" Harrison 2020-2034 14. QB #1 Bryson Chow 2045-2058 15. LB #50 Cody Cluff 2004-2016 16. LT #60 Kerry Zumdahl 2031-2038 17. CB #34 Peter Tucker 2064-2075 18. LT #63 "Indestructible" Ivan Jacques 2007-2015 19. RB #20 Stanley Givens 2023-2026 20. G #71 Ricky Castillo 2032-2038 21. QB #8 Lester Lowe 2057-2065 22. RB #29 Donald Terry 2037-2044 23. K #8 Al Bettis 2006-2019 24. WR #87 Jack Money 2037-2046 25. CB #39 Everett Heiser 2052-2062 26. LT #64 Roman Torrez 2051-2063 27. OT #65 Oscar Meadows 2071-2078 28. QB #14 Louie Flannery 2006-2021 29. RB #25 Norbert Talley 2048-2055 30. WR #83 Riddick Stanley 2057-2068 31. FB #20 Albert "The Shovel" Shalon 2029-2039 32. WR #83 Adam Brautlacht 2034-2044 33. LB #52 Antonio Battle 2073-2078 34. S #46 Lincoln Gilmore 2004-2014 35. CB #27 Randall Allen 2019-2023 36. DE #92 Jordan St. Pierre 2057-2067 37. S #49 Thurman Hopper 2031-2044 38. S #42 Perry Walker 2030-2043 39. WR #84 Scott Dupuis 2043-2053 40. QB #3 Alfred Hickman 2065-2072 41. RB #29 Mark McConnell 2027-2035 42. LB #51 Gabe Hamilton 2064-2074 43. S #48 Jimmy Chellino 2020-2031 44. WR #80 Terry Thomason 2023-2035 45. QB #7 Jay McGee 2030-2039 46. C #79 Cristian Sampson 2047-2059 47. DT #56 Dennis Lucas 2041-2050 48. WR #81 Alfredo Bass 2012-2014 49. RB #23 Lucas Blackwell 2069-2077 50. WR #83 Vince McAlister 2015-2018 __________________ * 2005 Golden Scribe winner for best FOF Dynasty about IHOF's Maassluis Merchantmen * Former GM of GEFL's Houston Oilers and WOOF's Curacao Cocktail Last edited by MIJB#19 : 12-27-2018 at 10:15 AM. Reason: cosmetic fixes

12-28-2018, 08:42 AM	#56
MIJB#19 Coordinator Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Maassluis, Zuid-Holland, Netherlands	2079 Off-Season: Free agent signings, renegotiations The Merchantmen signed five players today. Linebackers Chance Nason and Alexis Turner each signed a new two-year contract. Additionally, veteran wide receivers Erik Slechta, Gene Sweazy and Nicolas Tucker were signed to two-year contracts. All five will likely battle for a roster spot with special teams duties. Tucker will also get a chance to battle for the kickoff duties ahead of behind Bart Lahnum, 4th in the league last season. Slechta comes over from the Williamsburg Colonials, where he was a member of their special teams unit. Sweazy was a free agent throughout the 2078 season, getting cut on roster cut day by the Frederick Red Menace, where he was a special teamer for 3 seasons. Tucker was a pre-season cut by the Moontown Darksiders in their successful 2078 campaign, where he was a special teamer for 9 years and had been the premier kickoff returner from 2074 to 2077, until he lost the roster spot to Marvin Rayburn, who ranked 3rd last season. The Merchantmen also announced contract extensions for guard Harvey Hank and defensive end Herb Crane. Hank was on the final year of his rookie contract and signed a 5-year deal worth about $116M, with a bonus of nearly $30M. Hank has been a crucial element for the pass protection, while having proven to be a worthy run blocker as well. Crane enters his sixth season in Maassluis and was also up for renewal, signing a 3-year $33M contract. His playing time increased last season, in particular on passing downs, ranking third on the team with 7.5 sacks and second with 15 hurries. With the draft ongoing, the Merchantmen have 14 players still on their final contract, expecting to negotiate with most of them in the pre-season. Punter Santiago Hitchcock and linebacker Roosevelt Dees won't be amongst those players. Hitchcock signed a one-year deal, hoping to earn the holder duties. Dees has asked for a trade and has been on the trade block, trade talks with one team feel apart over the asking price. Key players still to be resigned include third down back Raul Curie, potential starting fullback Donald Latschaw, kicker Dave Eiermann, defensive end Todd Clinton, defensive tackle Willie Turner, linebacker Stan Foster, nickelback Giovanni Morton, safety Ben Gilbert and long snapper Chris Bertolone. Contract negotiations with wide receivers Mickey Allen and Patrick Henry have reached an impasse. Merchantmen management is unwilling to comply with their demands. Henry spent the entire 2077 season inactive. Allen will have to battle with the recently acquired free agents for a special teams and fifth receiver role, as the Merchantmen expect to see sophomore Rico Techen jump into the WR4 spot. __________________ * 2005 Golden Scribe winner for best FOF Dynasty about IHOF's Maassluis Merchantmen * Former GM of GEFL's Houston Oilers and WOOF's Curacao Cocktail

12-29-2018, 09:08 AM	#58
MIJB#19 Coordinator Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Maassluis, Zuid-Holland, Netherlands	General Manager notes: 2079 draft rounds 4 through 7 And then there was a trade. And another one. And a potential trade partner calling in 2 minutes too late. We shipped a player overseas for the first time in 22 seasons. And a trade that didn't go through, that got amended and eventually was trimmed to a different trade. And then we traded back into the draft. Craziness! After all the smoke had cleared, we added a 4th round pick next draft, substituted our fifth next draft for Chesapeake's, gave linebacker Roosevelt Dees a new home and selected three rookies. Kicker Herb Easter was our 4th round pick. The top rated kicker this draft will have a tough road ahead: We've picked 15 kickers in the previous 74 drafts and only 5 of them made the roster for week 1. Of those 5, only 3 survived the roster cuts for their second season and only 2 of them stuck around for more than 2 seasons. And the two that did stick, played 7 and 8 seasons with us. That's excluding Dave Eiermann, who's still active in the league, having spent 3 seasons on our roster. Wouldn't it be something to see the man named 'egg man' get replaced by a kid named Easter? So let's hope Easter breaks the trend and is a keeper. He had the best combine of all kickers, but might be just a kickoff specialist, which in this day and age is much less important than it was back when Al Bettis was the legend. Our first pick in the 6th round was wide receiver Dwight Clements. Undersized at 5'8", but he ran the 40-yard dash in 4.29 seconds. Imagine that: J.R. Mills lining up with on the other side the gazelles Clements and Rico Techen (clocked at 4.25 this off-season) distracting the opposing secondary. Our second pick in the 6th round was linebacker Jermaine Page. The trade of Dees made me decide to grab just one more rookie at this position. Page is a special teamer and can play zone defense. We'll have to consider hiring a mentor for Paige and first round pick McCorkle. Too bad the market on inside linebacker mentors is non-existent. There are 3 of these guys across the league, none in the open market. Chicago and Williamsburg won't trade their best linebacker, I suspect, and Paris shouldn't feel happy about trading their best special teamer. So much for that mentor suggestion... All this wheeling and dealing means we're listing 53 players on roster, 4 incoming draft picks and leaving 3 open roster spots for the pre-season. I'm leaning towards bringing in a quarterback, long snapper and a defensive tackle. But we'll see what's available in late free agency after the draft. __________________ * 2005 Golden Scribe winner for best FOF Dynasty about IHOF's Maassluis Merchantmen * Former GM of GEFL's Houston Oilers and WOOF's Curacao Cocktail Last edited by MIJB#19 : 12-29-2018 at 09:14 AM.

12-30-2018, 05:31 PM	#59
tzach High School JV Join Date: Mar 2015	this is great stuff mijb -- i keep coming back here to check your updates.

01-01-2019, 07:27 AM	#60
MIJB#19 Coordinator Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Maassluis, Zuid-Holland, Netherlands	General Manager notes: 2079 Training Camp Report Training camp has finished, we're in preparation for the pre-season games, which we'll start at home against the Williamsburg Colonials and then on the road at the league champions Moontown Darksiders. We'll stay in the USA for about a week with training sessions at a location on the East coast, continuing with a road game at the Brooklyn Fightin' Bums and finishing at home against the Outer Banks Ospreys. We signed two undrafted rookies to join us in training camp. Quarterback Karsten Muchnick and defensive tackle Cameron Erlitz. We also tried to bring in the best rookie long snapper Dustin Cooksey, but he decided to sign for about $250K more with the Orlando Talons. In retrospect, we should have offered Cooksey a better contract, that kid might turn out to be the best in business. Now we'll have to deal with another top 5 talent in Chris Bertolone, who's asking for a much bigger contract than what we could have tried to sign Cooksey for. The guys that did join us are strip sack specialist Erlitz and kick holder Muchnick. Both stand a good chance to make the 53 men roster. Training camp was mediocre. With only 6 rookies in camp, the number of players that made progress wasn't spectacular. Our first round pick linebacker Craig McCorkle appears to be the real deal. He was the most improved player in training camp, according to our staff. Fellow rookie linebacker Jermaine Page, third year cornerback Amari Lavelli and rookie kicker Herb Easter were the other three guys that were reported as much improved. Smaller improvement was reported for most of the other rookies and second and third year players, with a special mention for sixth year quarterback Ellis McAlister, who continues to improve and by our staff is graded as the 29th best player in the league at his position, with Sammy Erickson as the 24th best. We've moved on from the loss of Bennett Morris, we're going to stick with these two guys as our options. Despite some cap room to work with (about $18M), a good chunk of that will be used to extend a couple of contracts later on this pre-season. But more importantly, there's no team out there with 2 quarterbacks better than Erickson and McAlister. Maybe the Iowa Cobbers, but we can't afford the league nestor Cesar Small and their man of the future Zachery Hatcher isn't an improvement over either of our two guys. We'll go into pre-season with 60 players signed, hopefully. We've made one offer to a free agent to join us post camp. We failed to persuade Mickey Allen to stick around for another season as our WR5, his salary demands far exceeded what we were willing to pay him in that role. He should have seen it coming with the four new receivers that we acquired in the off-season. The not to be named player should jump into a bit of a hole on our roster. A slight disappointment in training camp were running back Walt Blair and wide receivers Dwight Clements and Rico Techen. Their progress was there, but I had hoped for more improvement. It's the second training camp where we have to list Blair as 'good progress', but not spectacular', that to me is a minor concern about his overall ability. Minor, because we've seen what he can do in the 2078 season, he's quickly proven why we had to move on from Lance Blackwell and give this kid the rock. If he stays healthy, he'll be that kind of player that gives Erickson or McAlister all the time to do their thing. Lastly, our backup left tackle Richie Coughenour made good progress in training camp and by my staff has improved to being the third best pass blocking left tackle in the league. Quite the dilemma, given that we just gave Louie Murray a 5-year $100M contract. Coughenour is up for renewal of his contract, he's still willing to sign a new deal with us, but unless we give him playing time this season, I fully expect him to want to play elsewhere the season after. And he's unlikely to see much of that this season, if the guys we have and newly signed all-world Nicky Sherman show us in pre-season they're in good shape... __________________ * 2005 Golden Scribe winner for best FOF Dynasty about IHOF's Maassluis Merchantmen * Former GM of GEFL's Houston Oilers and WOOF's Curacao Cocktail

01-04-2019, 11:46 AM	#64
MIJB#19 Coordinator Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Maassluis, Zuid-Holland, Netherlands	General Manager notes 2079: Ellis who? There's no turning back, for the 8th time in the '70s, we'll have a new (opening day) starting quarterback. Sensational, since we had only 9 different guys in the previous 66 seasons. Ellis McAlister is the name, an unknown for the outside world, but within the Merchantmen, we know this kid well. That is to say, we thought we knew this kid to be a career backup. But here we are, years of keeping him around are about to get a new twist. It was the 2074 draft when we saw the name Ellis McAlister for the first time. We were coming of the Winston Buckner season, who turned out to be a one-season solution and felt that Robbie Howe might not be the long term solution. The awesome defense was aging, but still in full galore. Cap space was tight and I figured this should be the draft where would interview 12 quarterbacks and see what it might bring. And interviewing we did, 12 different quarterbacks. Results were mixed, with only 2 kids giving us an "underrated" impression. One of them was Brandon Riley, the Augusta Greenjackets made him the #2 overall pick and they have made the playoffs in all 5 seasons with him under center, with one lost IHOF Bowl on his resume. In retrospect a wasted interview, but so be it. The other "underrated" kid was Ellis McAlister. Was he anything spectacular? Not quite. His combine numbers were pretty good, Solecismic score of 38, 7.36 seconds in the agility test, 13 bench reps. Numbers that should a general manager get interested in a quarterback. He also had better than 'average' 40-yard dash and position drill scores. His scouted potential ranges, though: 24-36 screen 28-39 short 28-40 medium 33-44 long 3-14 deep 12-24 third down 29-40 accuracy 34-45 timing 37-49 sense rush 9-20 read defense 20-32 two-minute 32-43 scramble It makes you (me as well) wonder why we interviewed McAlister, probably because of the interesting combine scores. We did though and by the time it was our first sixth round pick, I figured, why not get this kid with very high volatility a chance? We grabbed some left tackle with awesome agility and named Louie Murray 3 picks later. Murray started in every game we played after that draft, 80 straight regular season games and 4 more in the playoffs. McAlister has been on the field in just 1 of those 84 games, handing off three times to Lucas Blackwell to salvage a 40-14 victory at home over the Bordeaux Vineyards. The progress notes of post camp, mid-pre-season and season end: 2074: 14/35 to 14/39 to 17/39 2075: 21/39 to 22/41 to 23/41 2076: 28/41 to 29/42 to 29/42 2077: 34/42 to 35/42 to 35/42 2078: 39/42 to 41/44 to 41/44 2079: 43/43 to 50/50 to t.b.d. And there's the reason why McAlister hung around: the kid showed progress in ability in every training camp (+4, +5, +5, +5, +2 to fully developed). Additionally, he showed disgruntlement towards being the backup to Sammy Erickson. Usually a hint that said player is better than backup material. It shows, at this point, he's the 21st highest rated quarterback by my staff. With 5 years on roster prior to this season, he's good for cohesion as well, that can't be bad either. And on top of that, he's come a long way from the scouting report post interview: 44 screen 56 short 49 medium 88 long 27 deep 36 third down 60 accuracy 94 timing 49 sense rush 28 read defense 55 two-minute 34 scramble Lastly, his combine numbers today are very similar to what he showed as a rookie. His combine score next off-season will tell us whether his latest improvement was a sip from the elixir of life or it was all written in the stars... __________________ * 2005 Golden Scribe winner for best FOF Dynasty about IHOF's Maassluis Merchantmen * Former GM of GEFL's Houston Oilers and WOOF's Curacao Cocktail Last edited by MIJB#19 : 01-04-2019 at 12:02 PM.

01-06-2019, 05:31 PM	#65
MIJB#19 Coordinator Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Maassluis, Zuid-Holland, Netherlands	2079 Pre-season Recap, stats leaders The Maassluis Merchantmen finished the pre-season with a 3-1 record. They started with a 23-17 loss at home to the Williamsburg Colonials, gaining only 190 total yards but also allowing only 279 total yards. They followed up with a 21-17 victory at the Moontown Darksiders, IHOF's defending champions, outgaining their opponents 422 to 371 total yards. Third was a dominating 37-6 victory at the Brooklyn Fightin' Bums, outgaining them 382 to 229 total yards. The last game was another victory, beating the Outer Banks Ospreys 34-19 in Oranje Haven, outgaining the opponents 397 to 350 total yards. Passing leading McAlister 38/59 for 431 yd, 3 td, 1 int Muchnick 21/43 for 305 yd, 3 td, 1 int Erickson 22/32 for 280 yd, 3 td, 0 int Rushing leaders Curie 202 yd, 2.77 avg, 4 td, 1 fumble Blair 124 yd, 3.88 Graham 17 yd, 2.83 avg Receiving leaders Nadell 23 for 304 yd, 4 td Elliott 17 for 175 yd, 1 td Sweazy 6 for 125 yd, 1 td (got cut) Mills 9 for 125 yd, 0 td, 1 fumble Stevens 6 for 107 yd, 1 td Techen 6 for 62 yd Curie 5 for 57 yd Curtis 3 for 16 yd, 2 td Blocking leaders Hank 10/22 Sherman 6/23 Webb 6/21, 1 sack Meadows 5/19, 1 sack Taliancich 2/3 Elliot 2/5 Murray 1/5 Coughenour 0/10 Pass rush leaders Lyons 3.0 sck, 2 blk, 0 hur Clinton 2.0 sck, 3 blk, 3 hur Stiegler 2.0 sck, 1 blk, 4 hur May 1.5 sck, 1 blk, 5 hur Posante 1.5 sck, 0 blk, 1 hur Battle 1.0 sck, 0 blk, 0 hur Crane 0.0 sck, 1 blk, 2 hur Pass defense leaders Hitchcock 2 int, 1 def Morton 2 int, 1 def McIndoe 1 int, 2 def Lavelli 1 int, 2 def Gilbert 1 int, 1 def Battle 4 def Harkleroad 2 def __________________ * 2005 Golden Scribe winner for best FOF Dynasty about IHOF's Maassluis Merchantmen * Former GM of GEFL's Houston Oilers and WOOF's Curacao Cocktail

01-10-2019, 02:50 PM	#67
MIJB#19 Coordinator Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Maassluis, Zuid-Holland, Netherlands	2079 Regular season week 2 Back to earth. The Maassluis Merchantmen failed to produce the goods and stumbled on the Kansas Creationists on the road, losing 27-22 at a team that's financially cheating by being $40 million. Ellis McAlister tried to keep pace with all-world Eric Keith, but couldn't quite manage that, completing 17 of 37 passes for 244 yards, 2 touchdowns and 1 interception. Walt Blair was stuffed to just 65 yards on 23 carries, J.R. Mills was near-invisible behind the coverage, catches just 3 passes for 52 yards and 1 touchdown. and week 3... The Merchantmen bounced back in a quick fashion, storming to a 17-0 lead at the reigning AOC Champions Toronto Lake Monsters and eventually scoring the game winner in the fourth quarter for the 24-17 victory. The Merchantmen defense held Toronto to just 263 total yards. Ellis McAlister completed 24 of 35 passes for 316 yards, with 3 touchdowns and 1 interception. Dennis Nadell caught 8 passes for 155 yards and 1 touchdown, while Monty Elliott had 2 receiving tocuhdowns. The stars of the offense, Walt Blair was practically nullified with just 25 yards on 27 carries, while J.R. Mills caught just 4 balls for 61 yards. and week 4! In high speed fashion, the Merchantmen fans have embrassed their new quarterback. The "Ellis! Who the fuck is Ellis?" chants have made a 1995 song popular in Maassluis. Ellis McAlister guided his team to a 33-7 demolition of the San Antonio Tidal Force, taking full advantage of the defense's 6 forced turnovers. McAlister completed just half of his passes, but with 208 yards and 4 touchdowns, the fans have nothing to complain about there. He continues to struggle in connecting with J.R. Mills, this time recording just 3 receptions on 12 targets, gaining 78 yards with no score. Walt Blair continued to struggle as well, gaining 98 yards on 26 carries. Dennis Nadell lead the Merchantmen receivers once again with 2 touchdowns and tying Mills' 78 yards. Tight ends Monty Elliott and Randal Curtis hailed in the other two touchdowns. Safety Ben Gilbert and Linebacker Antonio Battle each had a pair of interceptions, while Glenn Brewer made 2 sacks, including a forced fumble. Kicker Dave Eiermann missed another short kick. Cohesion on the kicking unit (or lack there of) is turning into a concern. Sammy Erickson played a couple of downs in garbage time. European Division 1. Maassluis 3-1 2. Gothenburg 3-1 3. Bordeaux 2-1 4. Paris 2-2 The European Division continues to be incredibly strong. Maassluis will go into their bye in week 4, while Gothenburg and Paris will travel to Texas for visits to Fort Worth and San Antonio. Bordeaux travels to Atlanta. Despite the struggling offense, the Merchantmen key players have had a big enough day to rank highly on the leaderboards. Ellis McAlister ranks 5th in passing yards (269 per game) and passer rating (98.0), Boasting a 2nd place in passing touchdowns. Walt Blair, barely, ranks 2nd with 92 rushing yards per game. Dennis Nadell ranks 8th and J.R. Mills ranks 10th in receiving yards (97 and 96 yards per game), while both join Monty Elliott in a big group of players with 3 receiving touchdowns. With games played again the two pass-only offenses (Paris and Toronto), team defensive numbers are very skewed towards low number of rushing attempts. __________________ * 2005 Golden Scribe winner for best FOF Dynasty about IHOF's Maassluis Merchantmen * Former GM of GEFL's Houston Oilers and WOOF's Curacao Cocktail Last edited by MIJB#19 : 01-10-2019 at 02:54 PM.

01-12-2019, 10:45 AM	#68
MIJB#19 Coordinator Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Maassluis, Zuid-Holland, Netherlands	2079 Regular Season week 5 The Maassluis Merchantmen were on their bye week. and week 6! The Maassluis Merchantmen dribble on, with good but not great football. The defense has surprisingly been the stronger side of the ball, while the offensive stars J.R. Mills and Walt Blair struggle to play up to their standards. And amidst this all, the new starting quarterback Ellis McAlister is winning the hearts of the fans, already getting his own walk on song for the third home game of the season. The Atlanta Vipers came to town, the reigning AOC South champions, a 2-2 team with a run-oriented offense. The Merchantmen defense started the game strong, forcing Atlanta to go four and out (a holding penalty gave them their only first down). The Merchantmen offense didn't come out with a bang, seeing Ellis McAlister find J.R. Mills for 9 yards and Walt Blair running for 7 yards, but the next three plays being short runs, coming short to move the chains. Sophomere quarterback Santiago Lester then lead his offense to a long scoring drive for 80 yards, with rookie Brody Barrett running for the short touchdown run to put the Vipers 7-0 up. The Merchantmen offense was rusty on their next drive, saw punter Tito Hornsby nail the Vipers at their 2-yard line, only to have a penalty nullify it and the re-punt resulting in Atlanta getting the ball back at their own 48-yard line. Lester then got sacked at the Merchantmen 46-yard line on the second play of the drive to end the first quarter. Penalties on both ends resulted in Atlanta facing second and 17 early in the second quarter, leading to a punt that Amari Lavelli returned 17 yards to get the ball outside of the Merchantmen red zone. After a strong 17-yard run from Walt Blair, it was Ellis McAlister who scrambled for 7 yards, but lost the ball in the pile at midfield, giving Atlanta the ball back. The Vipers then gained just enough ground to have Jalen Bennewith kick a 46-yard field goal for a 10-0 lead. With three medium length completed passes and a 10-yard run by Raul Curie, the Merchantmen rolled into the Vipers' red zone for the first time this game and had Dave Eiermann kick the 28-yarder to trim the deficit to 10-3. With back to back sacks, the Merchantmen defense the forced the Vipers to punt on fourth and 25, which was returned by Amari Lavelli for 20 yards to the Maassluis 46-yard line right before the to-minute warning. Both defenses then forced a three and out, leaving too little time for the Merchantmen to put points on the scoreboard on the last drive before the big break. leading 10-3, the Vipers were happy to force a quick three and out to start the second half. But not for the first time in the game, the Merchantmen defense swarmed the Atlanta quarterback and Santiago Lester was flat on his back. On the next drive, Ellis McAlister connected with Dennis Nadell for 22- and 21-yard gains to march into the red zone, finishing it off with 10-yard passes to Nadell and Brody Stevens, putting 10 points for both teams on the scoreboard. Atlanta wasn't impressed yet, Santiago Lester found Caleb Flylum for a big catch and run for 35 yards, then found Johnnie Forsyth for 23 yards on a third and long and then Flylum in the end zone for a short touchdown pass. Atlanta went up 17-10 and then forced a fumble on the kickoff return, which the Merchantmen tight end Monty Elliott recovered to save the day. Another three and out on both sides of the field saw the clock run out and seeing the home team fans worried this game might not go their way. The Merchantmen were stopped short once again, this time pinning Atlanta at their 5-yard line. The Vipers struggled against the aggressive Merchantmen defense, were forced to punt and Amari Lavelli returned the punt 21 yards to the Atlanta 32-yard line. Randal Curtis then was Ellis McAlister's target for a short pass, but Curtis managed to find the hole in the defense and brought the ball into the end zone on a 29-yard gain. Dave Eiermann missed the ensuing extra point, meaning the Vipers were still up by a point: 17-16. Then, the wheels finally came off, as Lester Santiago saw his pass get picked off by Giovanni Morton at the Atlanta 30-yard line. Maassluis caught momentum, McAlister found J.R. Mills for 16 yards and on third and goal, Raul Curie showed his bulldozing skills to put the ball into the end zone. A two-pointer from McAlister to Dennis Nadell put Maassluis up 24-17. The dominating Merchantmen defense forced another three and out. Raul Curie ran for 15 yards, which got followed up by McAlister finding Walt Blair for two impressive catch and runs, the first one for 33 yards and the second for a 30-yard touchdown. Eiermann didn't miss this time and Maassluis improved the lead to two touchdowns: 31-17. Atlanta converted on fourth and 15 to stay alive, but the pass rush pressure made Santiago Lester throw the ball away three times. After the two-minute warning, the Vipers were not able to convert on fourth and 10, turning the ball over in Atlanta territory. The Merchantmen burned Atlanta's time outs, but the game wasn't over yet. The Vipers' hopes ended three plays later when Antonio Battle made the game ending interception in Atlanta territory. Ellis McAlister earned his third player of the game honors in only his fifth start as he completed 19 of 29 passes for 263 yards, with 3 touchdowns and 1 lost fumble. Dennis Nadell was his top target again, catching 10 passes for 113 yards. Brody Stevens, Randall Curtis and Walt Blair had touchdown receptions. That same Blair ran for just 60 yards on 20 carries, but Raul Curie made up for it with 38 yards and a touchdown run. The defense impressed by sacking the Atlanta quarterbacks 8 times and picking him off 2 times allowing less than 300 total yards for the third time this season against a playoff team from last season. Elsewhere in the league, the Paris Musketers reverted to a balanced game plan on offense and as a result saw Jon Miernicki run for 171 yards in a 39-21 victory at the Gothenburg Giants. The Bordeaux Vineyards didn't need much firepower to beat the struggling Fort Wayne Fury 30-7. AOC Europe 1. Maassluis 4-1 2. Gothenburg 4-2 3. Bordeaux 3-2 4. Paris 3-3 The Tucker Tigers lost a 38-30 barnburner at the AOC Northeast leading Rochester Razorbacks, meaning the only undefeated team in the league are the NAC Mid-Atlantic leading Williamsburg Colonials. The Hanalei Dragons lead the NAC West with a 5-1 record, being the only other team with Tucker and Maassluis with 1 loss. Every other team in the league has lost at least 2 games already, with no winless teams and only 4 teams with just 1 win. Is competitiveness at an all time high? Probably not, but at the very least it keeps a lot of teams dreaming for going places this season... __________________ * 2005 Golden Scribe winner for best FOF Dynasty about IHOF's Maassluis Merchantmen * Former GM of GEFL's Houston Oilers and WOOF's Curacao Cocktail

01-17-2019, 05:26 PM	#69
MIJB#19 Coordinator Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Maassluis, Zuid-Holland, Netherlands	2079 Regular Season week 7 Despite slightly outplaying an inferior opponent on the road, the Maassluis merchantmen lost 24-20 at the Fort Wayne Fury as that home team somehow managed to be more efficient down the field, as touchdowns trump field goals. Walt Blair had one of those games again, running 22 times for 163 yards and 1 touchdown. J.R. Mills was invisible with 4 catches for 42 yards. Ellis McAlister completed 17 of 33 passes for 186 yards and 1 touchdown, his lowest production to date. came next: week 8 The Maassluis Merchantmen beat the Paris Musketeers for the sixth straight time in less than 2 full seasons. Scoring touchdowns was once again the Achilles heel, giving Paris a chance to almost get close enough for a game winning field goal to avoid the Merchantmen's 26-24 victory. J.R. Mills caught 5 passes for 148 yards, Walt Blair ran 27 times for 137 yards and a score, Ellis McAlister completed 20 of 27 passes for 263 yards and a pick. followed by week 9 The Houston Mustangs dissected the Maassluis Merchantmen offensive game plan. The Merchantmen gained just 226 yards in a 20-10 loss. Walt Blair ran 16 times for 64 yards, J.R. Mills caught 4 passes for 75 yards, Ellis McAlister completed a measly 11 of 26 passes for 165 yards, 1 touchdown and 1 interception. and eventually week 10 The streak of victories over French opponents increased to 11 wins for the Maassluis Merchantmen. Despite a sloppy showing, the Bordeaux Vineyards were beaten 17-10 in Oranje Haven. Ellis McAlister completed 18 of 29 passes for 216 yards, J.R. Mills caught 7 passes for 74 yards, Walt Blair ran 21 times for 82 yards and 1 touchdown. AOC Europe 1. Maassluis 6-3 2. Gothenburg 6-3 3. Paris 4-5 4. Bordeaux 4-5 Next up: Maassluis at Gothenburg (the re-match is in week 15) and Paris at Bordeaux. The Merchantmen get yet another chance to jump into pole position in the AOC, if they win. That's a big if, they've been in that position in Fort Wayne and Houston. The skeptics and pessimists expect the Merchantmen to completely fall apart. Optimists trust in Mills, Blair and McAlister, or in the defense, which is slowly falling in the ranks after the impressive victories against Paris, Toronto and Atlanta earlier in the season. The Solecimic Power Ratings has Maassluis and Gothenburg tied at fourth place as the best two teams in the conference, while the Solecismic probabilities calculator has Maassluis as the front runners for the #1 seed as well. __________________ * 2005 Golden Scribe winner for best FOF Dynasty about IHOF's Maassluis Merchantmen * Former GM of GEFL's Houston Oilers and WOOF's Curacao Cocktail

01-18-2019, 04:10 PM	#70
MIJB#19 Coordinator Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Maassluis, Zuid-Holland, Netherlands	2079 Regular Season week 11 Gothenburg on the road, long time Merchantmen supporters are wary of this matchup. The Giants and Merchantmen were both sitting at the top of the division with a 6-3 record, with Maassluis having the mid-season tie-breakers. A chance for the Merchantmen to pull away for a bit and grab pole position in the Atlantic Ocean Conference. The Gothenburg Giants drew first blood in the game on their first possession. Albeit not the desired 7 points, Roger Passut had a 21-yard run, 13-yard reception on a Tre Lynn pass and a 7-yard run to set up Myron Barcley's 51-yard field goal. The Merchantmen responded with a bulldozing drive. Ellis McAlister to J.R. Mills for 11 yards here, Walt Blair for 16 yards there, Blair for 11 yards, Blair for 7 yards, McAlister to Blair for 10 yards, McAlister to Monty Elliott for 22 yards and eventually the short throw into the end zone by McAlister to Elliott for the 7-3 lead. The game was on. Gothenburg immediately replied with a couple of big plays as Lynn found Passut (15 yards) and Cornell Perez (33 yards) for big catch and runs. It stalled there, still being close enough to see Barcley nail a 41-yarder for the 7-6 deficit. Maassluis quickly marched downfield on their second possession as McAlister connected with Mills (14 yards), Brody Stevens (10 yards) and Elliott (22 yards) with a 10-yard run by Blair in between, but a 16-yard sack pushed the Merchantmen outside of field goal range. The second quarter rolled around and the Giants were playing well inside their own territory again. Tre Lynn found Richard Cook for 10 yards and C.J. Levine for 24 yards. This time, the Merchantmen defense had no answer on their end, Lynn found Roger Passut for 16 yards and Cornell Perez for 19 yards to march into the red zone. The Merchantmen thought they had them stopped short, but Ben Gilbert was penalized for pass interference and a new set of downs was just enough to see Passut run it in for the 13-7 Gothenburg lead. The Giants thought they had caught momentum, sacking Ellis McAlister for the second time. McAlister answered with a 29-yard laser to J.R. Mills, but on third and 19 his throw ended up in Gothenburg cornerback Skip Arnold's hands. The Merchantmen defense came up big, stuffing Passut twice and forcing Gothenburg to punt. With the ball back, deep inside their own territory, McAlister silenced the stadium with a 50-yard bomb to Brody Stevens. McAlister urged his team to hurry up and Walt Blair followed up with a 15-yard run. McAlister then found Dennis Nadell for 10 yards into he red zone, Raul Curie converted a big 3rd down run and Walt Blair blitzed into the end zone for the 14-13 lead. The Merchantmen secondary came alive and deflected three straight Lynn passes, giving Maassluis the ball back with still 83 ticks on the clock. McAlister immediately found Mills for 30 yards and on third down made a deep enough throw to make up for the third sack of the game to set up for the 54-yard field goal attempt to end the half. Dave Eiermann surprised all, shockingly succeeding to make it Maassluis 17, Gothenburg 13 at half time. Second half and the Gothenburg fans had renewed faith. The Merchantmen winning streak inside the division has to stop at some point, why not in Gothenburg, after 12 wins by the Merchantmen against Bordeaux, Paris and today's hosts? The Giants defense was reborn, notching a three and out to start the third quarter. Tre Lynn was back too, finding Jace Milam for 10 yards. Adam LeBel ran for 19 yards and 12 yards to march into Merchantmen territory and Lynn then found Denzel Givens for 11 yards and into the red zone. Roger Passut slashed through the Merchantmen defense for 12 yards and the go ahead touchdown: Gothenburg 20, Maassluis 17. The Merchantmen were unimpressed. Walt Blair ran for 10 yards on the first play of the drive, Ellis McAlister found Monty Elliott for 20 yards on third and short, then J.R. Mills for 16 yards and then for 18 yards and a touchdown. Maassluis was back in the lead with a 24-20 score. In the last 3 minutes before the break, Lynn found Steve Sinclair for 10 yards, saw another pass interference call put his team past midfield and Passut then ran for 18 yards, barely short of the red zone. The fourth quarter started with Maassluis' bend but don't break moment, seeing Tre Lynn find Albert Gilmartin for 10 yards and holding the Giants to a 21-yard field goal, keeping Maassluis leading 24-23. Bart Lahnum's 33-yard kickoff return into Gothenburg territory, shortly followed by Ellis McAlister's 16-yard pass to Monty Elliott was enough to set up Dave Eiermann's 40-yard field goal for the 27-23 lead. Gothenburg was then three-and-outted, while the Merchantmen continued their efficiency: Raul Curie converted on 3rd and short, McAlister found Dennis Nadell for 33 yards on third and long, Walt Blair ran for 11 yards and McAlister found J.R. Mills for a jump into the endzone for a 34-23 lead. It wasn't all over yet, but now time wasn't on Gothenburg's side, trailing by 11 and just 2:31 to go. Tre Lynn found C.J. Levine on third down for 13 yards, then Albert Gilmartin for 14 yards and used his legs to run for 13 yards into the redzone. Adam LeBel then ran for 12 yards, followed by Roger Passut pounding his second attempt in for the touchdown. Luck ran out then and there. The two-point conversion failed and Maassluis recovered the onside kick. Their last time out was insufficient to keep Maassluis from securing it in victory formation: Maassluis 34, Gothenburg 29. Maassluis had season highs both in points scored and points allowed, in what appears to be a deserved victory. The Merchantmen outgained the Giants by 83 yards and gained 1.3 yards per play more. Ellis McAlister earned another game MVP by completing 20 of 30 passes for 344 yards, 3 touchdowns and 1 interception. J.R. Mills caught 7 passes for 131 yards and 2 touchdowns. Monty Elliott caught 7 passes for 92 yards and a touchdown. Walt Blair ran 21 times for 110 yards and a touchdown. AOC Europe 1. Maassluis 7-3 2. Gothenburg 6-4 3. Bordeaux 5-5 4. Paris 4-6 The Merchantmen haven't just taken the lead in the division, but also moved into pole-position for the #1 seed. Additionally, they have locked up tie-breakers over Gothenburg and Paris, while Bordeaux mathematically still has a longshot chance to brush away their inferior tie-breakers situation. In the AOC, the gap between #1 and outside the playoffs is as marginal as 1 1/2 wins. Next up, the underperforming Chicago Norsemen. Despite their 3-7 record, Chicago isn't a pushover team. Their running game is unusually bad, while the passing game is an after thought, as it has been in decent decades. The defense is doing exceptionally well, ranking 2nd in total yards, leaning on 6th best yards per run and 3rd best yards per pass attempt. Again, no pushover, but in the current flow, the Merchantmen should be able to get this. The bookmakers are optimistic, having the Merchantmen floating around 9 or 10 point in their favor. __________________ * 2005 Golden Scribe winner for best FOF Dynasty about IHOF's Maassluis Merchantmen * Former GM of GEFL's Houston Oilers and WOOF's Curacao Cocktail Last edited by MIJB#19 : 01-18-2019 at 04:11 PM.

01-19-2019, 06:40 PM	#71
MIJB#19 Coordinator Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Maassluis, Zuid-Holland, Netherlands	2079 Regular Season week 12 The Maassluis Merchantmen rock on. After a 1-2 stretch in a 3-game series of road games, victories over Bordeaux and at Gothenburg restored confidence for the Merchantmen. This week's opponents were the Chicago Norsemen, a team known for their pounding offense and stingy defense. It showed immediately in the first couple of drives. The Merchantmen struggled to gain ground on their first drive, requiring a penalty to get their only first down, yet the Norsemen displayed their run-run-run approach, which the Merchantmen didn't surprise in their 4-3 formation. Drive number two for the Merchantmen was much different, seeing Ellis McAlister connect with Dennis Nadell for 17 yards, followed with Walt Blair running for 30 yards into the red zone. Three more Blair runs later, the 7-0 lead was established. Chicago continued their run only approach, cycling through their backs Cory Lowe, Chuck Lyle and Shaun Vreede, shockingly converting on third and eight and then on third and 33. On their ninth play of the drive, Rickey Nelson found Irving Keilor for the tying touchdown pass. After a short kickoff, Maassluis started their next drive close to midfield and tried to force their way through with Walt Blair getting the ball a lot, changing gears a bit with a 12-yard pass from McAlister to J.R. Mills. It resulted in a 47-yard field goal by Dave Eiermann to put Maassluis 10-7 up on the first play of the second quarter. The Merchantmen had caught momentum and forced and recovered a fumble on the following kickoff. Ellis McAlister failed to connect with any of this receivers, but Dave Eiermann didn't miss the 28-yard field goal attempt: 13-7, Maassluis. Another hilariously bad defensive showing on third and low, despite playing with all their linebackers on the field, the Merchantmen allowed the Norsemen to get into field goal range. Despite finally stuffing a carrier on third down, the Merchantmen couldn't avoid Darien Shield's 46-yard field goal for the 13-10 score in Maassluis advantage. Walt Blair and Raul Curie responded with big runs of their own, to march into Chicago territory, while McElister found Dennis Nadell for 24 yards and nearly into the end zone. An illegal cut block penalty pushed the Merchantmen back and after a sack on third and very long, Maassluis settled for a 40-yard field goal. The Merchantmen were once again made look foolish, allowing a 24-yard run on a third down attempt, but righted the ship just in time to hold Chicago to a 43-yard field goal. Walt Blair ran for 40 yards into Chicago territory, but the coaching staff blundered to not call a time out and try to run another play or two to try for a field goal, ending the first half in a 16-13 lead for the Merchantmen. On the first Chicago drive of the second half, the Merchantmen defense were total morons once again, giving up a 17-yard run on third and long, but then regrouped and a sold out Oranje Haven cheered hard when a fourth down stop gave Maassluis the ball. The cheering didn't last long, Ellis McAlister misjudged on the next play and saw his pass get intercepted at the Chicago 46-yard line. Chicago continued to run, but this time Cory Lowe was barely held short on third and long, coming about a yard short. Maassluis failed to avoid a three and out, mostly due to an expensive penalty. Chicago fooled Maassluis with a successful pass from Rickey Nelson to Caiden Batchelder on third and short, but his receiver on a screen pass on third and long was quickly pushed to the ground to keep Chicago short of field goal range. Walt Blair replied with a 10-yard run, but three plays later, Maassluis punted the ball back to Chicago to end a scoreless quarter. Still trailing 16-13, the Norsemen surprised the Merchantmen defense on third and short with a 34-yard pass from Rickey Nelson to Irving Keillor. The Merchantmen then quickly stopped Cory Lowe on a third and long run to keep the damage to a 40-yard field goal and a tied score at 16 all. Ellis McAlister came back to live, finding Monty Elliott for a chains moving short throw and then pacing for 33 yards into field goal range. Walt Blair ran for 10 yards and then for 8 yards into the end zone to put Maassluis 23-16 up with half a quarter to play. Had the Merchantmen finally learned their lesson? They kept Cory Lowe to a minor gain on third and very long to force a time consuming three and out. McAlister showed his accuracy, finding J.R. Mills for 11 yards and Randal Curtis for 15 yards, then Mills again for 16 yards to get into the red zone with the two minute warning stopping the clock. The Norsemen needed their time outs, but stuffed the Merchantmen, yet a 30-yard field goal was good enough to make it a two-score game. A penalty pinned Chicago deep in their own red zone for their all or nothing drive, which turned into nothing, as Rickey Nelson completed a screen pass to Shaun Vreede for 34 yards, which took too much time off the clock to trim the deficit. The Merchantmen players stormed the field, the 26-16 victory was secured. Ellis McAlister struggled for three quarters, finishing the game with 16 of 27 passes completed for 158 yards and 1 interception. Dennis Nadell was the leading receiver with 5 catches for 73 yards. Walt Blair had a field day though, running 21 times for 143 yards and 2 touchdowns, earning him player of the game honors in a game where both teams ran for more yards than they threw for, but coming just barely short of 200 yards rushing (Chicago 199, Maassluis 190). Elsewhere in the European division, the Gothenburg Giants beat the defenseless Arizona Miners 27-0, the Bordeaux Vineyards needed overtime to win 27-24 at the Iowa Cobbers and the Paris Musketeers swung past the Kansas Creationists 34-17. As a result, the divisional standings didn't change. AOC Europe 1. Maassluis 8-3 2. Gothenburg 7-4 3. Bordeaux 6-5 4. Paris 5-6 Next up a round of games against teams that finished at the same position in another AOC division last season. Paris will visit the 7-4 Rochester Razorbacks, Bordeaux the 5-6 Harlem Apollos and Gothenburg hosts the 3-8 Orlando Talons. The Merchantmen will host the 6-4-1 Augusta Greenjackets, a rematch of last season's divisional round playoff game, which the heavily outplayed Merchantmen somehow won 24-23 in Augusta. A 91-yard pick six and three missed field goals, the Greenjackets will be motivated to avenge that... __________________ * 2005 Golden Scribe winner for best FOF Dynasty about IHOF's Maassluis Merchantmen * Former GM of GEFL's Houston Oilers and WOOF's Curacao Cocktail Last edited by MIJB#19 : 01-19-2019 at 06:42 PM.

01-22-2019, 02:14 PM	#72
MIJB#19 Coordinator Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Maassluis, Zuid-Holland, Netherlands	General Manager Notes, 2079 Regular season Another couple of weeks in the books, we've added a couple of home victories: 32-14 against the Augusta Greenjackets (7-5-1) and 31-17 against the Arizona Miners (1-12). Neither impressive wins, neither games were we played bad. Which is to say, Ellis McAlister had his first multiple pick game. And his second one. At the same time, he threw for 301 and 299 yards, he's proving he can move the chains. Walt Blair got stuffed badly by the Greenjackets, but bounced back with 146 yards and score against Arizona. J.R. Mills' demise continues, 30 yards and 111 yards were his numbers. Mills has scored a total of 2 touchdowns in the last 11 games. Dennis Nadell hasn't overtaken Mills, but with 119 yards and 2 touchdowns against Augusta, he's shown us again he can get the job done. The defense is, well, mediocre. I can't put my finger on the cause, but we're not doing what I thought we could and should do. The disastrous third down run defense against the Chicago Norsemen was, well, that: disastrous. We won, but even the best linebacker trio in the league is just mediocre. Perhaps we should package all our picks next off-season and acquire a couple of new safeties. Maurice Harkleroad, Ben Gilbert and Rex Indoe should be good enough stop gaps, but I'm not seeing the results. Cohesion ain't the issue either, we're in the upper echelons in that regard. Despite all that, we keep finding ways to win. We're the 8th best scoring team in the conference, 3rd best in the division. At least we're the 'best' defense, doing 1 point and 4 points better than division rivals Bordeaux and Gothenburg, making us 2nd in the league. I'm making a "say what now" gesture as I'm writing this, because some things just can't be explained. AOC Europe 1. Maassluis 10-3 2. Gothenburg 9-4 3. Bordeaux 7-6 4. Paris 7-6 So, as it is, we're on a 5-game winning streak, sitting at a conference leading 10-3 record. Upcoming a home game against the Gothenburg Giants, in which we can guarantee the division title with a victory. A loss would still keep us leading, but with road games at Iowa (5-8) and Bordeaux (7-6),no easy task to maintain, despite Gothenburg's slightly harder schedule. And they should have it harder, compared to the rest of the division, they've had a cup cake schedule, would say the former Astoria Heroes owner/general manager. So yeah, we're in pole position to be the #1 seed, but I'm not yet buying it. Aside from Gothenburg, the Tucker Tigers are on our tail with a 10-3 record, the Toronto Lake Monsters are 9-3-1. Thankfully the Houston Mustangs dropped to 8-4-1, but we can't count them out just yet. The playoffs are, well, the closest thing to locked as it can be. The only thing that can keep us from the post-season would be 3 losses, combined with Gothenburg winning at least 1 of their last 2 games (on top of beating us), Augusta winning their last 3 games, Tucker not losing both their next 2 games (they play Augusta week 17), San Antonio winning their last 3 games and Houston getting a win and tie in the next 2 games (they play San Antonio week 17) to finish 9-5-2 and beat us for the last wild card based on that week 9 loss. Thing is, we've been here before, several times, and have quite a track record of not pulling it through, dropping a game or two, ending up with the #3 seed and lose on a missed field goal in the wild card round. Too pessimistic, or stuck in "Been there, done that"? __________________ * 2005 Golden Scribe winner for best FOF Dynasty about IHOF's Maassluis Merchantmen * Former GM of GEFL's Houston Oilers and WOOF's Curacao Cocktail

01-27-2019, 06:23 PM	#73
MIJB#19 Coordinator Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Maassluis, Zuid-Holland, Netherlands	General Manager Notes: 2079 playoffs, here we come! In a bit of a rollercoaster, we've finished the regular season with 2 wins and 1 loss. And that loss came against the team not making the playoffs, costing us the #1 seed in the AOC. So, week 15, at home against the team on our tail: the Gothenburg Giants. It didn't come easy, with a wild fourth quarter, in which we came back from behind to win 33-27. Ellis McAlister threw for 330 yards, 2 touchdowns and 2 interceptions (his second straight 2-pick game). Walt Blair was held to 21 carries for 88 yards and 1 score. J.R. Mills caught 5 passes for 98 yards, Dennis Nadell surpassed Mills again with 5 catches for 135 yards and a touchdown. We gave up a 95-yard interception return, but replied it with a positive turnover margin to not let the superiority in total yards go to waste. Week 16 came the inevitable hilarious loss. We outplayed the Iowa Cobbers, but freakish managed to lose 20-17, coming time short to kick the tying field goal. Ellis McAlister finally snapped his multi-pick streak, throwing for 232 yards with scores. J.R. Mills had 6 catches for 89 yards. Walt Blair ran for 107 yards and 1 touchdown, Raul Curie ran for the other touchdown. In week 17 we were much better than the Bordeaux Vineyards, but fumbles and a pick returned for a score shortly before half time kept the score close. Late in the game, Giovanni Morton made a crucial interception, keeping Bordeaux from kicking the game winner, securing the 17-16 victory. Ellis McAlister threw for 329 yards and 2 touchdowns, with aforementioned interception. Walt Blair ran for 102 yards, Dennis Nadell had 8 catches for 94 yards, J.R. Mills had 5 catches for 92 yards, while Monty Elliot and Gilbert Taliancich made the scoring catches. AOC Europe 1. Maassluis 12-4 2. Gothenburg 11-5 3. Bordeaux 9-7 4. Paris 8-8 The strongest division with 4.5 wins more than the second best division will send 3 teams into the playoffs. Paris went into week 17 eliminated on tie-breakers, but theoretically had a chance to finish the season 7th in the AOC, (The 20-17 late game collapse to Gothenburg dropped them to 10th). Sadly, we choked the #1 seed, falling behind the 13-3 Tucker Tigers, but we salvaged a bye week, giving us a home game in the elite eight round. It should be great news, we've gone 8-0 at home this season. But, better than everyone we know it's worth nothing once the post-season kicks off, it's all a completely new coin flip. Heck, the last time we managed that 8-0 was in 2059, when we crushed the league with a 15-1 record (#1 in both points scored and points allowed) only to fall apart 31-17 in the only playoff game that season. In 2043 we didn't even get to play at home in the playoffs. In 2040 we lost 24-0 as the #2 seeds. In 2037 we lost 38-20 at home as the #2 seeds. Yup. We've gone 1-4 in the playoffs seasons with an 8-0 record at home, winning 0 of 3 home games. The only bright side: we lost all 3 home games to the Atlanta Vipers, lo and behold, they didn't make the playoffs! So, regular season in the books, how has our new starting quarterback done? Ellis McAlister threw the ball 522 times, completed 59% of those passes for 4,193 yards, 27 touchdowns and 14 interceptions. He ranks 9th in passing yards in the league, tied 8th in passing touchdowns with Gothenburg Tre Lynn. He had the 9th best passer rating, leaning heavily on the 3rd best yards per attempt. McAlister is our fourth different 4,000 yard passer in 4 seasons, a rare feat, something I might want to figure out, but probably is a novelty. I suspect three different guys in three seasons was already unique. McAlister was on roster all those season and has at least shown he can do it with much less interceptions than Erick Loera and Sammy Erickson. Ellis, who the fuck is Ellis? Well, he's our starting quarterback and bar disaster will still be next season. J.R. Mills was our leading receiver with 77 catches for 1,349 yards and 5 touchdowns. Dennis Nadell had 86 catches for 1,273 yards and 6 touchdowns, in 27 targets less than Mills. Nadell can honestly make a case for having become our WR1, with Mills being the big gain WR2. Brody Stevens caught only 25 passes for 331 yards and 2 touchdowns, so much for being the most talented guy. Tight end Monty Elliott was our go to guy in the red zone, he had 73 catches for 798 yards and 9 touchdowns. Mills ranked 8th in yardage in the league, Nadell 11th, there was only one other team with two 1,200-yard receivers. Elliott was amongst a bunch of guys tying for 8th in receiving touchdowns. Walt Blair came back strong after the mid-season injury as a rookie, running a league high 366 times for second most 1,609 yards and fifth most running touchdowns. We don't run the ball most of all, the seven teams ahead of us distribute their carries more evenly over their running backs, while we give Blair 23 carries per game and Raul Curie only 4 carries, on average. Free agency singing Nicky Sherman had 41 key run blocks, leading the team in that area. Right tackle Oscar Meadows had 30 key run blocks, both could be considerations for all-league honors. Fullback Gilbert Taliancich had 12 key run blocks (on 33 opportunities), making him by far the most used fullback on running downs in the league. We used Taliancich on 250 running plays, second most used was the Arizona Miners' fullback on 159 running plays. Apparently using a 2-back formation on running downs is falling out of favor. On the defensive side, our linebackers thrived. Glenn Brewer had 118 tackles, 25 assists, 7.5 sacks, 11 defended passes, 1 interception and 2 forced fumbles. Antonio Battle had 114 tackles, 36 assists, 1.5 sacks, 11 defended passes, 3 interceptions and 1 forced fumble. Brewer tied for 5th in the league in tackles, Battle tied for 7th in that figure. Rookie Craig McCorkle didn't see a lot of action, because (as mentioned on the blocking numbers) IHOF teams are drifting away from 2-back formations, making the usage of 3 linebackers rare. McCorkle saw the field on 401 plays, compare that to Battle's 1,007 and Brewer's 923. It'll be interesting to see what to do with that next season. Battle is an elite pass defender, it might be worthwhile to consider using him as a nickelback... Speaking of nickelbacks, Giovanni Morton led the team in with 5 interceptions and added 10 defended passes to it for an exceptional 3rd best pass defense rating in the league. The picks rank him tied for 8th in the league. The rest of the secondary, well, they were there. We weren't bad, but not great either. Our pass rush was second best with a 25.6 percentage, but basically on par with Houston Mustangs' 25.7 percent. Arnie May led the guys with 9.5 sacks, but Herb Crane was more prominently active with 8.5 sacks and 26 hurries (compared to May's 8 hurries). But really, with use four defensive ends in our rotation, these guys are all part of team effort. Defensive tackle Glen Stiegler is the workhorse in the line. His sidekick Chandler Posante may appear like a weak link, he may be, his endurance really calls for us to get either veteran Willie Turner, rookie Cameron Erlitz or a 2080 acquisition more involved to work around Posante's weakness. Our defensive ends are all too light to play on the inside. We've cursed at our kicker Dave Eiermann from time to time, he scored a league low of 88 percent of extra points with a league most 5 misses. But we shouldn't forget that he was playoffs quality on long field goals and hit his only 50+ attempt. He's out of contract after the season, so, it's still more likely we'll look elsewhere... Enough about the regular season, the playoffs are here. And the field this season is massive. There are four teams that scored 500+ points, all are amongst the 38 best scoring teams ever. That's 76 seasons of football, on average we should have only one of such teams every two seasons... AOC 1. Tucker 13-3 (526-299 points = +227) 2. Maassluis 12-4 (404-309 points = +95) 3. Toronto 11-4-1 (535-391 points = +144) (we won 24-17 at them) 4. Houston 10-5-1 (338-315 points = +23) (we lost 20-10 at them) 5. Gothenburg 11-5 (428-317 points = +111) (we swept them 34-29 and 33-27) 6. Bordeaux 9-7 (370-306 points = +64) (we swept them 17-10 and 17-16) NAC 1. Moontown 14-2 (526-285 points = +241) 2. Hanalei 13-3 (529-336 points = +193) 3. Williamsburg 13-3 (409-282 points = +127) 4. Kansas 11-5 (404-334 points = +70) (we lost 27-22 at them) 5. Fairbanks 9-7 (328-357 points = -29) 6. Chesapeake 9-7 (347-294 points = +53) Two teams are out of contention with strong points differentials: Paris 8-8 (+53) and Harlem 7-9 (+51). But given the setup of the league these two teams were quite simply the also-rans in the AOC. We're probably the mismatch amongst the four bye week teams. The simple result of only 5 wins by more than a score, but we've also lost just once by more than a score. We've gone 5-2 against this field, with 4 victories against our division rivals. Rivals that we've apparently dominated for quite some time. It was our second straight clean sweep in the regular season, we beat Paris in the playoffs in between and finished the 2077 season by beating Bordeaux and Paris in our home. It would be awesome to extend our winning streak from 15 to 17 in this post-season, if only for the fact that it would mean we'd be the 2079 AOC champions. But we have nothing we can do to determine who we will face, you can only beat the teams you meet. Toronto or the Gothenburg at Houston winner will be first, which regardless of the opposition will have us very motivated to beat them. __________________ * 2005 Golden Scribe winner for best FOF Dynasty about IHOF's Maassluis Merchantmen * Former GM of GEFL's Houston Oilers and WOOF's Curacao Cocktail

01-28-2019, 01:22 PM	#74
MIJB#19 Coordinator Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Maassluis, Zuid-Holland, Netherlands	2079 Futility Bowl rematch The longstanding rivalry between the Maassluis Merchantmen and Toronto Lake Monsters will get a new chapter. The Lake Monsters beat the Bordeaux Vineyards 42-6 in the wild card round to set up a rematch. Last season, the Lake Monsters won 37-14 in their own place. Earlier this season, the Merchantmen were victorious 24-17. Elsewhere, the Gothenburg Giants crushed the Houston Mustangs 33-6 on the road. They will continue their championship dreams with a road trip to the Tucker Tigers. In the other conference, the defending league champions Moontown Darksiders will host the Chesapeake Chitterlings, who pulled a miraculous 21-16 upset victory at the Williamsburg Colonials. The Kansas Creationist won 17-9 against the Fairbanks North Stars and will travel to the Hanalei Dragons in the conference semifinals. __________________ * 2005 Golden Scribe winner for best FOF Dynasty about IHOF's Maassluis Merchantmen * Former GM of GEFL's Houston Oilers and WOOF's Curacao Cocktail

01-28-2019, 02:15 PM	#75
Kodos Resident Alien Join Date: Jun 2001	Go Lake Monsters! (Sorry, old friend.) __________________ Author of The Bill Gates Challenge, as well as other groundbreaking dynasties.

01-28-2019, 03:39 PM	#77
Poli FOFC Survivor Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Wentzville, MO	lol __________________ Cheer for a walk on quarterback! Ardent leads the Vols in the dynasty forum.

01-30-2019, 10:03 AM	#78
Kodos Resident Alien Join Date: Jun 2001	Looks like Ben has avenged you! __________________ Author of The Bill Gates Challenge, as well as other groundbreaking dynasties.

01-31-2019, 04:46 PM	#79
MIJB#19 Coordinator Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Maassluis, Zuid-Holland, Netherlands	2079 Divisional Round: Merchantmen choke again With a season worst score, the Maassluis Merchantmen saw their season come to an end earlier than anticipated. The Toronto Lake Monsters defense picked off Ellis McAlister 5 times, to nullify what otherwise was a slightly better offensive performance. The Lake Monsters took full advantage of the turnovers and traveled home with a 43-17 victory. The Merchantmen defense held the Lake Monsters to 29 rushing yards on 16 attempts, but more importantly kept Clayton Andrews below 300 yards passing. But a decent amount of that was a result of a superior field position, as the Lake Monsters started 3 drives in the Merchantmen red zone and also scored a 96-yard pick six. McAlister completed 19 of 37 passes for 271 yards and 2 touchdowns, with 5 interceptions. J.R. Mills caught 4 passes for 77 yards and 1 score, Dennis Nadell emerged once again with 6 catches for 90 yards and 1 score. Walt Blair ran for 82 yards on 19 carries. The Merchantmen continued their tradition to lose at home in the playoffs after going undefeated at home in the regular season and added yet another one and done to their resume... __________________ * 2005 Golden Scribe winner for best FOF Dynasty about IHOF's Maassluis Merchantmen * Former GM of GEFL's Houston Oilers and WOOF's Curacao Cocktail

01-31-2019, 05:34 PM	#80
MIJB#19 Coordinator Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Maassluis, Zuid-Holland, Netherlands	General Manager notes: Hello, 2080. Ugh. Ugh. Ugh. What a disappointing way to see the 2079 season end. Granted, I never felt like we were an elite team like we were in 2078, but we had only one game in the regular season where we lost by more than a single score, getting crushed purely on an extraordinary number of picks is, well, baffling. For those keeping score and not checking scores, Toronto lost the AOC Championship game at the Tucker Tigers 35-23. The Tigers in turn got Barged in IHOF Bowl LXXVI, the Moontown Darksiders repeated as IHOF champions with a 44-20 score. Derek Barge and his Darksiders have ended the '70s with four IHOF Bowls in their trophy case. We went one and done 5 times in that decade, our only two victories in the playoffs came in the 2078 season... Things didn't get better after the game. J.R. Mills has retired from the game. Mills finished his career with 839 receptions (franchise 5th), 14,944 receiving yards (franchise 2nd, just 57 short of the record), 85 receiving touchdowns (franchise 5th), with a spectacular 17.89 yards per reception average (3rd in the league all-time). In my mind, this guy joins the big two Gabe Springer and Terry Haskell, to become the big three of Merchantmen receivers. Yeah, Riddick Stanley got into the Hall with a ring, but, y'know, the other guys all felt special. Stanley was, solid, always, week in, week out. Mills had to get through the cycles of no less than eight different starting quarterbacks (Hickman, Rhoades, Buckner, Howe, Loera, Erickson, Morris and McAlister). God speed, J.R. With Mills, long time sidekick tight end Markell Ellison and one-year backup kickoff returner and special teamer Nicholas Tucker decided that they don't want to go into the '80s as a football player. Ellison played in 112 regular season games and 5 (all lost) playoffs games with us. He was mostly our third or fourth tight end in all those years, with the exception of the 2071 season, when he caught 41 passes for 453 yards. His 2070 season was the special one with 8 receiving touchdowns on just 17 catches for 117 yards. Tucker had 3 kickoff returns for us. He did see a lot of action as a special teamer though in his only season with us. Okay, now something neat: Edward Ross, Daquan Strugielski and Peter Tucker all got elected into the Hall Of Fame. The Class of 2064 got the ultimate individual accolades, albeit Gabe Hamilton came short and the other foursome that we drafted are nowhere to be found. They join Shaun Hartman into the hall, that's four guys from that awesome defense. Riddick Stanley is the fifth guy from our IHOF Bowl winning roster in there, no doubt Tom Anaya will join these guys soon... So, 2080. We're $116 million over the cap, with 46 players on roster, 2 restricted and 2 unrestricted free agents. And 13 draft picks... Business as usual, except that we've got 4 second round picks once again. Maybe we'll actually use some of them this time around? First order of business will be a truckload of renegotiations. We should be able to find at least $100 million there. Right? __________________ * 2005 Golden Scribe winner for best FOF Dynasty about IHOF's Maassluis Merchantmen * Former GM of GEFL's Houston Oilers and WOOF's Curacao Cocktail

02-05-2019, 11:52 AM	#81
MIJB#19 Coordinator Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Maassluis, Zuid-Holland, Netherlands	General Manager Notes: 2080 Pre-draft And so began the off-season without J.R. Mills. Ok, we've got a couple of wide receivers ready to step in, but Mills had become on of those receivers that felt he was 'my guy'. I've had that with Gabe Springer, Terry Haskell and on a slightly lower level with Vince McAlister. Guys that you knew would always be a threat for the opponent to out of nowhere make a big play. Terry Thomason had that to a certain degree, but never really managed to carry the team like those guys did. Brody Stevens has yet to live up to it, and I fear he'll forever will be a WR2, while Dennis Nadell has shown early flashes of being better than we've always thought he could be. With the gazelles Rico Techen and Dwight Clements waiting in the wings, I should feel confident we'll manage, but sentiments, y'know? We've gone through a truckload of renegotiations. We had early trade talks for Antonio Battle, but I decided against it, despite knowing we have Craig McCorkle ready to step in and have Glenn Brewer in his contract year. It'll be a challenge to find the cap room to extend Brewer's contract... Battle accepted the cap out route, making him untradeable and costing us $54.29M in dead money if we'd decide to move him after all. I've made the tough decision to cut cornerback Ezra Slocum. He was our second most expensive cornerback this season, yet spent the entire 2079 season inactive. In return, this means I'll have to find a way to figure out whether Amari Lavelli is worth keeping, because his fumbling habits make him more of a liability as a punt returner than an added value. He's still our CB2, so not quite a waste of a roster spot. We've acquired the rights of rookie center Butch Pearson. Fast, strong, I hope he can be our OL6 this season or perhaps we'll be forced to play him at center and play Nicky Sherman at guard. You never know whether the offensive linemen show up in shape at training camp. We've shipped our quartet of second round picks to the Texas Sharks for their first and second round picks next draft. We can't afford these picks, I'm terrible in second round picking and it was about time for us to finally get something for all those picks. We've still got additional third, fourth and seventh round picks this draft. In total, we'll need about $15 million to be able to afford all those rookies. Sure, the league mandated accountants tell us we need $19.02M, but that includes picks that will be the 52nd and 53rd most expensive players. The tight cap situation means a couple of players that haven't signed a renegotiated deal are still at risk of getting cut. Safety Rex Indoe wants a trade, but he's missing the point that we've missed on our safety targets in the draft class and will quite possible reinstate him as a starter. All IHOF fullback Gilbert Taliancich isn't safe either, Darien Latschaw is looking over Taliancich's shoulders to take over... __________________ * 2005 Golden Scribe winner for best FOF Dynasty about IHOF's Maassluis Merchantmen * Former GM of GEFL's Houston Oilers and WOOF's Curacao Cocktail

02-07-2019, 03:59 PM	#82
MIJB#19 Coordinator Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Maassluis, Zuid-Holland, Netherlands	General Manager Notes: 2080 Draft is done! Some wheelin' and dealin', we finally got something in return for the truckload of low second round picks, and now, we've got 8 rookies about to join the team. Who are they? QB Josiah Lyle (R7, #229) 3rd highest Solecismic score amongst QB, 4th highest agility amongst QB, high volatility, Michigan graduate. We're hoping to get a good lottery ticket here. TE Kody Gowan (R4, #126) Scouted to have decent run blocking, decent big play ability, decent special teamer. WR Artie Blazewicz (R6, #188) Could be a return specialist (3rd highest broad jump amongst WR), Big play ability (ran the 40-dash in 4.45), good size at 6'1" and 208 lbs. C Butch Pearson (R1, #28) Tied highest graded C, second fastest C, strongest C, 7th highest agility score amongst C, should be our new long standing center. G Raul Hughett (R7, #228) Tied strongest G, good size at 6'6" and 325 lbs, smart (39 Solecismic score). K Chance Arnold (R3, #92) We had to take another chance at drafting a kicker. Strongest K by a landslide, good speed, Solecismic score, broad jump. DE Erik Shrader (R4, #124) Acceptable speed (4.75 40-yard dash), good size at 6'6" and 313 lbs, enough stamina to play a lot, prefers to play DT. DT Gino Kemp (R5, #153) Good speed for a DT (4.93 dash), tied second smartest DT, prefers to play DE. In other news, we've re-signed restricted free agent quarterback Karsten Muchnick and defensive tackle Cameron Erlitz. Both were undrafted rookies last season and I see a role for them on the active roster in 2080. Muchnick was already our kick holder, Erlitz should move into a pass rush role on the defensive line, given that we've got a lot of guys with low endurance and are considering our options there. As such, I've decided to part ways with veteran defensive tackle Willie Turner. He played 9 seasons with us as a former undrafted rookie signing, being active in all games of the last 8 seasons. He's great for cohesion, but his salary figure was too much, he was asking for a raise and we actually still need to trim some cap figures to get well enough under the cap to extend Glenn Brewer's contract. Releasing Turner will be sufficient to be able to afford all the incoming rookies. __________________ * 2005 Golden Scribe winner for best FOF Dynasty about IHOF's Maassluis Merchantmen * Former GM of GEFL's Houston Oilers and WOOF's Curacao Cocktail

02-08-2019, 04:23 PM	#83
MIJB#19 Coordinator Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Maassluis, Zuid-Holland, Netherlands	General Manager Notes: 2080 Cap Hell Well, it's on. Glenn Brewer has decided to hold out. We're going to make him a huge offer and will cut a couple of his sidekicks. I wonder what the rest of the team will think of Brewer from here on. We've already cut cornerback Ezra Slocum and defensive tackle Willie Turner, well, defensive end Todd Clinton and cornerback Herman Glenn are up next. Center Steven Houshmandzadeh is the fifth player that won't make our training camp roster. If Brewer signs a new deal, we'll bring in a couple of undrafted rookies to get at least 53 players into camp. Adding up to 60 players might be bad for the cap situation as well, because at this point every $10K in bonus money will make a difference between keeping or not keeping Brewer. Sigh. I've considered trading Brewer. In retrospect, long term technically, trading the veteran Antonio Battle would have been a smarter decision, but with the five guys cut, we'll be losing about 600 downs of action of last season's roster combined. Brewer or Battle alone sniff at 1000 plays and quite frankly are the more talented players. __________________ * 2005 Golden Scribe winner for best FOF Dynasty about IHOF's Maassluis Merchantmen * Former GM of GEFL's Houston Oilers and WOOF's Curacao Cocktail

02-12-2019, 04:57 PM	#84
MIJB#19 Coordinator Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Maassluis, Zuid-Holland, Netherlands	General Manager notes: 2080 End of Training Camp At last, he signed. After turning down six previous offers, including a 3-year $85M contract, Glenn Brewer decided to extend with us for a 3-year $66M contract. It's been 5 seasons since we've had such a tough off-season to get the cap situation worked out. Then it was our promising quarterback Robbie Howe that destroyed his football career by deciding to go into hold out mode and risk it all. He lost: we cut him and none of the 31 other IHOF franchises even thought he was worth the veteran minimum, let alone the starting money he was requesting. Brewer is a different story, an All-IHOF linebacker, a centerpiece of our defense, together with Antonio Battle. It came at a price though, we released 4 defensive players that used to be starters with us in recent seasons. Defensive end Todd Clinton was one of our four guys in rotation. He had been for both of the last two seasons, after spending his rookie season inactive and seeing limited action in season two. Clinton has the run stopping and pass rushing skills any team should like, keeping in mind he's not an all downs lineman. Cornerback Herman Glenn was our nickelback in the 2077 season. We signed him in the 2075 post-season and thought he'd be a great (figuratively, the guy is 5'6") zone defender. He was our dimeback the last two seasons. Cornerback Ezra Slocum was a starter in his first two seasons, but last season we kept him inactive all-season. He's a good corner on running downs and against formations with full backfields, but his zone defending and ball hawking skills were lacking. Good on paper, but he didn't deliver and was too expensive to watch 19 games without shoulder pads on. Defensive tackle Willie Turner spent 9 seasons with us and didn't miss a game since late in the 2075 season. Initially the change of pace guy behind Shaun Hartman and Preston Urquoila, more recently the guy who came on for Chandler Posante when he needed a couple of minutes to take a good breath. As a result, we're heading into pre-season with just 53 players signed. It wasn't necessary, the cap rules would have allowed us to sign 7 rookies at the rookie minimum ($1.4M), or even slightly higher than that ($1.51M), but we'll save that for the later. We might go scavenger hunting in the pile of leftovers after pre-season roster cuts to give a couple of guys a week to work out with us, but the current 53 names are close to carved in stone. It leaves us with an unsatisfying off-season. The plan was to find a young safety who could anchor the defense for about a decade, but the draft class was lacking that guy. We liked Bobby Crips, he was taken 3 picks before our pick at #28 overall, but he's more of a cornerback. Our sleeper pick Tevin Taylor was taken #42 overall, the staff really liked him, but I didn't feel like he was first round material, down the road maybe good enough to take over from one of the guys on team. We'll have to go with mostly the same guys as last season, without Herman Glenn, without the vulture Slocum and maybe with undrafted rookie Tucker Lockhart added to the mix. We did get our center of the future, presumable. Butch Pearson was our pick at #28 overall. He'll likely have to spend the 2080 season as our OL6, behind Nicky Sherman, but his training camp progression was impressive. It's rare to go through a full season with the same 5 linemen, Pearson will see some action on offense sooner or later. We failed to address the retirement of J.R. Mills as well. Part of that is that retirement, which cost us more dead cap space than we could afford to hire a new receiver. We'll have to rely on Dennis Nadell and Byron Stevens and hope to see the young sub 4.40 seconds gazelles Rico Techen and Dwight Clements grow into the WR3 and WR4 roles. Rookies Artie Blazewicz and undrafted Les Didier will be special teamers at best this season. Our tight ends are obviously pretty good as well, not to mention the presence of our 1,600-yard back Walt Blair. The quarterback situation is okay. Ellis McAlister crushed hard in the playoffs after what had been a solid regular season. Sammy Erickson hopefully doesn't have a similar downfall like last pre-season, maintaining to have a decent backup. McAlister is on roster for just $6.67M, next off-season will be challenging, he'll do what any other starter would do: ask for at least $25M to $30M, and if he plays well, close to $40M. Last but not least, we have $1.15M of cap space remaining and still have a couple of players on the last year of contract: * All-IHOF fullback Gilbert Taliancich * backup fullback Darien Latschaw * backup left tackle Richie Coughenour * cornerback and punt returner Amari Lavelli * safety Ben Gilbert * long snapper Chris Bertolone None of them are currently willing to sign for less than their cap figure, so we'll have to make some choices here. LS Bertolone will get the extension, his current demands are good. S Gilbert is in a 'probably' situation, he's asking for a small raise. FB Latschaw's demands are favorable, expect us to come to terms between the pre-season games. FB Taliancich's demands are reasonable, we might have the cap space to extend for an additional season. LT Coughenour is unwilling to sign a new contract, but by lack of better options on the free market, we'll go with him as our third tackle and look for a replacement next off-season. The decision to make here is with CB Lavelli. We can't afford his demands, so it might even be wiser to trade him before week 1, to give the receiving team a chance to offer him an extension. We'll try, but I suspect we'll come short. We'll just have to wait and see how these guys look in real action though. All the young guys made some progress, with Butch Pearson and last year's first round pick linebacker Craig McCorkle making the biggest improvements, warranting a starting role that we might not be able to give them quite yet this season. But the first couple of pre-season games usually reveal what these guys are capable of in the new season. Yes, it's that time of the season general managers fear the most: the day of the proverbial Volatility Sticks of Death and unexpected booms... __________________ * 2005 Golden Scribe winner for best FOF Dynasty about IHOF's Maassluis Merchantmen * Former GM of GEFL's Houston Oilers and WOOF's Curacao Cocktail

02-14-2019, 02:35 PM	#85
MIJB#19 Coordinator Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Maassluis, Zuid-Holland, Netherlands	Merchantmen wrap 2080 pre-season up with 3-1 record The Maassluis Merchantmen wrapped up the pre-season action. In games against a couple of the upper echelon teams in the North American Conference, the Merchantmen posted an encouraging 3-1 record. 32-23 win at Frederick Red Menace (5-11 in 2079) Rookie QB Joshua Lyle completed 11 of 18 for 162 yards and 2 touchdowns, WR Brody Stevens had 5 catches for 96 yards, receiving touchdowns were scored by WR Dwight Clements, WR Rico Techen and rookie WR Les Didier, the latter on a throw from KH Karsten Muchnick. Raul Curie was the leading rusher with 48 yards on 24 carries. CB Amari Lavelli made 2 interceptions, CB Alonzo Hitchcock, LB Antonio Battle and S Maurice Harkleroad all had 1 pick. LB Antonio Battle was also amongst the four players with a sack. Rookie K Chance Arnold was 4/5 on field goals and 2/3 on extra points. Rookies C Butch Pearson and G Raul Hughett were both shockingly underused, while rookie TE Kody Gowan had 2 key run blocks on 3 opportunities. 20-3 win over Texas Sharks (6-10 in 2079) Rookie Joshua Lyle completed 10 of 18 passes for 107 yards and 2 touchdowns. TE Branden Schwirzke and WR Dwight Clements were on the receiving end of those scores, Clements also lead the team with 38 yards on 2 catches. Raul Curie ran 21 times for 60 yards. CB Alonzo Hitchcock had an interception, DT Chandler Posante recovered a fumble. LB Glenn Brewer made 3 sacks and defended 2 passes. Rookies C Butch Pearson and G Raul Hughett were once again used way too little for what was planned. Rookie K Chance Arnold was 2/3 on field goals, 2/2 on extra points, scoring a 52-yarder. 24-17 win at Williamsburg Colonials (13-3 in 2079) QB Sammy Erickson completed 15 of 24 for 234 yards, 2 touchdowns and 2 interceptions, QB Ellis McAlister completed 7 of 11 for 92 yards and 1 score. WR Dennis Nadell had 9 catches for 151 yards and 2 scores, WR Brody Stevens had the other score. Walt Blair ran for 86 yards on 12 carries. CB Alonzo Hitchcock had yet another pick. DT Glen Stiegler had 2 sacks, DT Chandler Posante 1.5 sacks. Rookies C Butch Pearson and G Raul Hughett were disappointingly not used. Rookie K Chance Arnold was perfect on 1 field goal and 3 extra point attempts. 24-31 loss vs Moontown Darksiders (14-2 and IHOF champions in 2079) QB Sammy Erickson completed 15 of 30 for 191 yards, 1 touchdown and 1 interception, QB Ellis McAlister completed 8 of 15 for 119 yards and 1 pick. Dennis Nadell had 8 catches for 149 yards, TE Branden Schwrizke had the sole receiving touchdown. Raul Curie carried 20 times for 72 yards, but Walt Blair ran for a touchdown. Rookie K Chance Arnold scored on all 3 field goal and 1 extra point attempts. The defense went without a pick or a sack. Rookies C Butch Pearson and G Raul Hughett were once again not on the field. __________________ * 2005 Golden Scribe winner for best FOF Dynasty about IHOF's Maassluis Merchantmen * Former GM of GEFL's Houston Oilers and WOOF's Curacao Cocktail Last edited by MIJB#19 : 02-14-2019 at 02:36 PM.

02-14-2019, 02:54 PM	#86
MIJB#19 Coordinator Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Maassluis, Zuid-Holland, Netherlands	General Manager notes: Pre-season 2080 done, bring on the real action! So, Dennis Nadell. I suspect the fans will quickly forget about J.R. Mills, because our leading receiver from last season was amazing in the pre-season. Brody Stevens appears to be on the decline, but Nadell should be capable of being more than a double coverage magnet from here on. Walt Blair is still, well, Walt Blair. He didn't jump out in pre-season, but I'm confident he'll get the job done, lead the league in carries and average 100 yards per game. The rest of the offense will be unchanged, although Darien Latschaw seems to have surpassed our All-IHOF fullback Gilbert Taliancich. Monty Elliott continues to be an elite tight end, awesome blocker and good enough for roughly 50 yards per game. The line is still going strong, with very promising Butch Pearson eager to jump in if an injury occurs. The defense saw some overhaul, but has mostly remained. We'll try to get linebacker Craig McCorkle into the mix, but I'm not sure yet how. We might use linebacker Glenn Brewer on the defensive line here or there, we might put linebacker Antonio Battle in the dime or nickel slot. Alonzo Hitchcock and Maurice Harkleroad continue to be the key features on the secondary. Cornerback Amari Lavelli has been trade blocked. We've told other owners they have until the weekend to make an offer, after that, we'll fly with Lavelli on the last year of contract, because we can't afford the extension that he's seeking. We have no cap room to hire a replacement (heck, we actually released his understudy in the off-season), so it has to be an offer that blows me away. If Lavelli stays, we'll go with the 53 guys we have now. oh yeah, we're heading into 2080 with 4 quarterbacks. Ellis McAlister was underwhelming in pre-season, but, who cares? He had a very good first season as a starter, we're confident the 5-pick disaster in the one-and-done playoffs (goodness, don't remind me of going through that kind of nonsense for the zillionth time) was a rarity. Sammy Erickson will be the backup guy for another season, Josiah Lyle will most likely never be active and Karsten Muchnick is our kick holder. Is that Lyle kid anything good? Uhm, not right now, but what rookie quarterback is from the get go? Wait a sec, didn't he just have a tremendous pre-season while having to play without Dennis Nadell, Walt Blair, Monty Elliott and Nicky Sherman? This kid's stats are not to be underestimated! __________________ * 2005 Golden Scribe winner for best FOF Dynasty about IHOF's Maassluis Merchantmen * Former GM of GEFL's Houston Oilers and WOOF's Curacao Cocktail

02-25-2019, 01:30 PM	#87
MIJB#19 Coordinator Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Maassluis, Zuid-Holland, Netherlands	General Manager notes: 2080, not quite our year just yet... We're 7 weeks into the season, and the divisional standing are quite exceptional. 1. Gothenburg 5-2 2. Paris 4-2 3. Bordeaux 4-2 4. Maassluis 2-4 Uhm, yeah. We started with a 3-game losing streak, the first two while outgaining the opponents. We lost 23-19 at home to the Gothenburg Giants, then 16-10 at the Outer Banks Ospreys and then went into our usually way too early bye week after a 23-22 loss at the Toronto Lake Monsters. We thought we regrouped with a 16-13 overtime victory over the Tucker Tigers and a 30-20 win at the Augusta Greenjackets. But today, things went south again, we lost 26-24 at the Paris Musketeers. QB Ellis McAlister's season started dreadful. His QB rating is a horrific 68.1 after 6 games, completing 52.6% of his passes for 270 yards per game with 5 touchdowns and 8 interceptions. RB Walt Blair has to carry this offense at the moment. He's ran for a second most 598 yards (and a league best 100 per game). WR Dennis Nadell isn't J.R. Mills, but he's doing well in the yards per catch area (31 catches for 518 yard). Otherwise, well, "meh". The season has been disappointing, so far. After improving to 2-3, we were actually in a win it all and be the division champion situation. At 2-4, we're far behind, with a tie-breaker situation that looks hard to fix. The wild cards are currently both in the European division, seventh best in the AOC is currently a threesome of 4-3 teams, not counting the Northeast division leaders. Oh yeah, to rub it in, three of our cap casualties were picked up by other teams today: CB Herman Glenn joined the Moontown Darksiders, DE Todd Clinton the Rochester Razorbacks, C Steven Houshmandzadeh the Toronto Lake Monsters. These were the guys that we cut to be able to work out a new deal with Glenn Brewer. Earlier casualties DT Willie Turner and CB Ezra Slocum are still without a job in football though. __________________ * 2005 Golden Scribe winner for best FOF Dynasty about IHOF's Maassluis Merchantmen * Former GM of GEFL's Houston Oilers and WOOF's Curacao Cocktail

03-04-2019, 03:52 PM	#88
MIJB#19 Coordinator Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Maassluis, Zuid-Holland, Netherlands	General Manager notes 2080: Too little, too late? We've been winning 2/3rd of our games since the bye, but the triplet of losses before it have handicapped us. We've won our last three home games by wide margins (37-13 over Snapfinger, 27-12 over Capital City and 31-6 over Houston) and in between won 24-14 at Bordeaux, but the stupidity in our 31-30 loss in Orlando and ineptitude in the 40-20 loss at Gothenburg have us trailing the wild card teams by 1 win and inferior tie-breakers. Had we won only one of the six games we lost (three of thosewe were the better team) and we're heavily in the mix. European Division 1. Paris 9-3 2. Gothenburg 7-5 3. Maassluis 6-6 4. Bordeaux 6-6 Sure, 1 win behind, but Gothenburg has already secured tie-breakers, we'll need more than just 1 win. Aside from Gothenburg, three other 7-5 teams are ahead of us, as are the 6-6 Toronto Lake Monsters. On our tail, aside from Bordeaux, are three 5-win teams. The race for the wild cards is going to be wild. QB Ellis McAlister has slowly recovered, improving to an 18:13 touchdown:interception ratio after 12 games. With 3,196 yards throwing, he's on pace for another 4,000-yard season. He's back into the league lead of yards per completion and third in yards per attempt. RB Walt Blair has been missing in action in the last four games and about three quarters with a concussion. With 727 yards rushing and 5 touchdowns on the ground, he's still our ground game leader. We hope to see him back in action for the three home games. WR Dennis Nadell unsurprisingly is our leading receiver. 66 catches for 1,067 yards and 5 touchdowns. He's in the upper echelon of the yard per catch guys, but he's mediocre in the per target list and catches less than 50 percent of his targets. WR Brody Stevens (62 for 753 yd and 3 td) and TE Monty Elliott (54 for 726 yd and 5 td) are sniffing at missing 1,000 yards by about 50 or so. Our offensive linemen are doing well in the key run block figures. C Nicky Sherman and G Carlos Webb will likely come just short of 40 blocks for the season, G Harvey Hank isn't far behind them either. The defense, well... I like the talent on this unit, but they've let me down quite often. We've got the fifth worst run per carry and fifth worst yards per catch numbers. Head shaking bad. ok, at least we've got the best pass rush in the league. (Too bad we're missing our key defensive end Arnie May in the last four regular season games). Skeptic? Pessimistic? Realistic? A bit of all three, I think. If we win the last 4 (it's a lot to ask for with a road game at the 7-5 Texas Sharks and home games against Bordeaux, Derek Barge's Moontown Darksiders and Paris), we'd still need about 4 other teams to collapse. Yeah, Derek Barge is coming to Maassluis in week 16, his first visit to Oranje Haven, if he remains healthy in the next couple of game. He's highly regarded as the second best player in league history, after Jackie Collier. That's a game we can sketch into the L-column already... Ok, let's be optimistic: we're only eight wins away from our second IHOF Bowl victory! __________________ * 2005 Golden Scribe winner for best FOF Dynasty about IHOF's Maassluis Merchantmen * Former GM of GEFL's Houston Oilers and WOOF's Curacao Cocktail

03-12-2019, 04:37 PM	#89
MIJB#19 Coordinator Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Maassluis, Zuid-Holland, Netherlands	General Manager Notes: 2080 is over already? Fourth place. No, not in the league (like two seasons ago) or in the conference (like last season), last in the division. It's been 31 seasons since we managed to fall to the bottom of the division. Granted, it was a strong division, the strongest in the league last season, but fourth place is beyond all a very disappointing performance. Especially when the team ranks 6th in the Solecismic power ratings at the end of the season. Playing the toughest schedule in the league will do that. 1. Paris 12-4 2. Gothenburg 10-6 3. Bordeaux 8-8 4. Maassluis 7-9 We've won a shockingly low of 1 game inside the division, ~~fucked up~~ ~~pissed away~~ lost 4 home games over the course of the season. This team should go hide in shame, or go outside, sit in the rain and storm that's torturing the Netherlands and think hard about how disappointing this season was. We've won 4 games by a large margin, 2 more by 2 scores and beat the Tucker Tigers in overtime. On the other end, we lost 7 games by 6 or less points, lost by 20 at Gothenburg and when the season was already a failure managed to disgust the pride of the franchise with an unwarranted drubbing at home against the Paris Musketeers and their backup quarterback. We finished the season at +45 points, seventh best in the conference and 12th best in the league. Our inept staff decided to pull our QB Ellis McAllister short of a 4K season, keeping him to 3,990 yard with 21 touchdowns and 16 interceptions. That's the lowest touchdown figure since Lester Lowe in 2062 (16 touchdowns in just 11 games), but basically the worst since the 2049 season, when Bryson Chow had only 16 touchdown passes. Yeah, that previous 4th place season. RB Walt Blair came short of the 1K mark, running for 973 yards in 11 games with a head banging 3.96 yards per carry average. He ran the ball in 6 times, including a receiving touchdown. What happened to our 4.97 yards per carry workhorse? He was still a green rookie back then... WR Dennis Nadell unshockingly lead the league in yards per catch (16.44), but with a pedestrian 49.1 percent catch percentage, his season was still a failure, despite the 85 catches for 1,397 yards. WR Brody Stevens had 81 catches for 1,028 yards, TE Monty Elliott 73 catches for 967 yards. The defense was supposed to carry this team, but despite leading the league in sacks, that unit completely forgot to force turnovers and gave up a Merchantmen unworthy 346 yards per game. Yeah, we gave up between 351 and 389 in four straight season between 2074 and 2077 (and 367 yards in 2072), but all that was a disgrace to our tradition of fine defenses already. In that light, it was better than average in the '70s, but I had expected a lot more from Battle, Brewer and Craig McCorkle, undeniably the best trio of linebackers in the league and by pure talent could be in Merchantmen history. Amari Lavelli finally made his first career interception, in his 58th and probably final game in orange-white-and-blue. This unit ranked 31st in yarder per carry and 31st in yards per catch. This all has nothing to do with a turnover prone quarterback or a retired HOF wide receiver. Quite simply: y'all let us down, defense, big time. The good news? The Texas Sharks helped us get the #12 overall pick on top of the #16 overall pick that we 'earned'. It also means we'll have the #47 and #48 overall picks to work with. To work with... We'll be about $150M over the cap going into the next off-season, with an underpaid starting quarterback in his final season of contract, an elite running back in the last year of contract, a couple of overpaid WR2s and an overpaid offensive line compared to what they showed us this season. The defense is, of course, beyond doubt, a depressing unit. The talent is there, but the performance on the field is utterly disappointing. We try to game plan to their strengths, but instead they resemble nothing noteworthy. Back to the drawing board? __________________ * 2005 Golden Scribe winner for best FOF Dynasty about IHOF's Maassluis Merchantmen * Former GM of GEFL's Houston Oilers and WOOF's Curacao Cocktail