1856 Team Previews & Season Thread

[Young Drachma]

Spring Training time.

[Young Drachma]

The Wichita Falls Skeeters have indeed decided to move west. But rather than adopt the moniker of the defunct Los Angeles Vulcans, they've become the Los Angeles Banditos.



Wichita Falls, while a rousing market ended up being too small for a vibrant new franchise in SLOP and the bright lights of the big city proved too much to avoid for the ownership group.

[Young Drachma]

NL
Carolina 15-9
Los Angeles 15-9
Rio Grande 14-10
Chicago 14-10
Brooklyn 10-14
Gettysburg 4-20

AL
Winnemucca 18-6
Memphis 14-10
Syracuse 12-12
Hilton Head 12-12
Lake Tahoe 12-12
San Diego 4-20

[Young Drachma]

File is up. We'll sim the 1st half of SLOP's 19th season on Tuesday night.

[Young Drachma]

Ok, let's see if I can manage to churn out 12 season previews this year, shall we? Gonna crib Deadspin's feature on "Why Your Team Sucks" though it won't be a faithful retelling, obviously.




The Rough Riders maintain the distinct as "only original club to never win a pennant" and we're nearly 20 years into this thing. They did manage to win 97 games in a shitty expansion year, but their last playoff appearance came five years ago. So what gives?

Is this the year they get over the hump? Probably not.

WHERE'S THE PITCHING?
The Rough Riders don't have enough hurlers to get them through the mine field that is the Nationwide League. Their "ace" is 23-year old Philip Carr who'd probably be in the minors if he played for Brooklyn or that crazy thing Winnemucca is building. Still dude is no slouch. Problem is, no one else in the rotation is proven. A bunch of lower-tiered guys who have some potential, but you just wonder how they'll hang everyday with the Rick Knight, Bill Powell and Brad Scots of the world.

Likely answer? Not well. Offensively? The team is nuts, though. They've got long-time anchor centerfielder Sugar Joe Mosely who is slowly creeping up my list with over 2000 hits of "is this guy gonna be a Hall of Famer?" thanks to his speed and reliability over the years. I always liked him and it's cool seeing him playing in spite of having no will to live in Rio Grande.

Pedro Garcia was probably the MVP last year and got robbed. He hit .371 and had 30+ HRs. Lowell MacNeill is another speedster with skills, Jimmy Ridgeway is a future star, too. If it's not obviously, Rio Grande needs to deal some of that outfield surplus for some kind of pitching help (Hello Winnemucca? Is that you on the phone?) because that's really what's separating this team from the upper echelon of the NL right now.

If ownership can figure out how to use the talent it has, they're the sort of team that with a few breaks could actually surprise by mid-season. It's probably not going to happen though, so put away those bandwagon playoff caps and go back into hibernation.

1856 isn't like the year for the Rough Riders to unpop the corks on their championship drought.

[Young Drachma]

Also, I'll process any trades through Monday night. So if you feel like making deals -- now that we have owners who do that -- I figure I'd formalize the trade board.

We'll shut the trade well off at regular deadline (10pm eastern) on Monday night and then it starts back up again on Tuesday after the 1st half sim and then shuts down for good again at 5pm eastern time on Thursday (in advance of the second-half sim.)

[Young Drachma]

Ok, first off...what the fuck is a Bandito? In Los Angeles? Yeah, this is going to end well. Admittedly, the rest of the league cheered loudly when they heard they don't have to go crappy ass Texas anymore for games. (And let's be real, Wichita Falls is basically Oklahoma. And sucks just as bad as you'd expect.)

Moving on, the boys are heading to the bright lights of LA, where the bad taste the shitty Vulcans (well, I guess Banditos is an upgrade after all) won just one pennant and spent the rest of their time not being very good and spending money to do so at that.

This new LA team will not win the hearts and minds out of the gate. Sorry kids, too much talent in the deep N.L. for that to happen. But the team won't be terrible as it was last year in Texas, so thank your lucky stars for that. Why? Because they went out and cashed in on a bunch of guys and added more WAR than any team in SLOP this off-season.

That'll usually help. What did the cash money haul bring home to momma? They stole SP Matt White from Chicago. He won 16 games last year and outside of the two-headed monster haul that Winnemucca inked to ridiculous contracts this off-season, he was probably the 3rd best pitcher off the board. They also brought in a 21-game winner in Allen Gorman, but no one expects him to replicate his performance from a year ago this season. Still, they did take two established starters from teams within their league. Nothing to sneeze about there. Then they added another Rio Grande starter in Pedro Villegas who won 28 games last year (Thank you expansion!) and if for some odd reason, both of those Rio Grande exiles manage to pitch even close to their potential, this team could actually be pretty good.

Scary thought.

The problem? Not really depth. They've got some nice pieces, but with absolutely no farm system to speak of and their offense is woeful after you get past Mike Morrell who got pilfered from San Diego and William Messer who came over from Carolina.

This team is the wild card of all of them, because it's an expansion team that essentially overhauled its roster in a year, dumping expensive veterans who weren't producing at the level they were being paid and went after more value guys who should undoubtedly make this a better team than it was a year ago and likely, the first of the expansion teams to boast a winning record.

Will it yield a playoff appearance though? Seems highly unlikely.

[Young Drachma]

Say this for the Pyles, they certainly didn't stand pat after their first season. Still, don't think anything resembling an iota of success is headed to Pennsylvania. Not this year anyway.

They managed to get an ace in the form of former Brooklyn star Cory Meyer. I hope he likes spending all of his money on trips out of town, because I tell ya...the hurlers behind him on the days he doesn't go wouldn't inspire confidence on a STREP team, let alone in SLOP.

Hey did we mention the Gomers got new duds for Year 2? Check 'em out!



On the offensive side, the Gomers wisely picked up veteran Jim McLean after he asked for his release out of Wichita Falls -- naturally before he even knew the team was moving to Los Angeles. Oops -- and he ought to provide the Gomers with a fresh face to market the club, as well as veteran leadership and solid offensive production at a bargain ($11m) given the way deals were being signed this offseason.

Ponty Lopez is evidence of that explosion in salary, as he's making nearly $15m this year, but the solace is that he's only 25 (so maybe he'll get even better?) and it's hard to find a high OBP middle infielder in this league. He should prove useful.

But in the rough and tumble NL, the Gomers are still going to have to find themselves and with the contracts they have now, that might take a while. They'll be an improved team and they'll have entertaining moments, but most in PA are going to brace themselves for a long year.

[Young Drachma]

This is a note to myself to stop on April 24th or so and make sure to load a new Rookie League schedule. I've standardized (finally) the minors, so there are six teams in each league and all of them except Rookie League have interleague play and play 126 games. Rookie will play 96 (which is more than they played in the past) and start sometime in June or something.

[Young Drachma]

Another day, another damn expansion team. This time, it's those Heroes from Souf Cakalacky. Fresh off their maiden voyage in which they lost 106 games, it seems '56 will be another tale of woe. They did do something SLOP hadn't seen in ages - that's make an actual trade - for Winnemucca's Tommy Cobb, but barring a huge bump, that's not going to really result in a whole lot.

Free agency wise, the team didn't go out of its way to spend. Smart, since there weren't enough players in FA to help this team leave the cellar so why go all hardcore at trying to finish 4th?

Speaking of which, what ever happened to Andy Baker? This dude was a star when he was in Kyoto, then the team gets contracted and he ends up in Winnemucca and then falls off a cliff never to return to respectability ever again. Let that be a lesson to you all who think fast-sim is all about guys who never suck, who always pan out and whose ratings can be trusted without question.

Hilton Head has a few guys who'd be nice for deadline acquisitons for somebody in the form of Mark Lewis, Jean Gilles and Angel Vargas. Each of them logged over 200 strikeouts apiece last year, which on a better team with more run support could've yielded something worthwhile.

Their true offensive bright spot is Ernie Whalen who has the rest of the league staring at him like a pretty girl with a boyfriend that isn't on her level. Coming off a 30.1 VORP year last season, all indications are that he could have a monster season. But that said, he's not going to be a free agent for a while, so all of the dudes can go home with their chocolates. Two words: Franchise Tag. (aka, will muns put a ring on it?)

So in short, Hilton Head isn't a contender yet. It'll be a long year, they'll be competitive and yet, probably losing 100+ games again en route to a draft pick where they get the right to check out some studs in STREP. It'll take a bit of time, but they'll get there.

In the meantime, I imagine you can get cheap tickets this summer.

[Young Drachma]

HTML is updated. Along with the fixes to the minors.

I decided to go check out STREP for a bit and to pick out a few guys who aren't the "obvious stars" that might be worth taking a look at, as you're preparing those draft lists. And when it's draft time, I won't have the time to waste on this.

For the record, this year's draft will take anyone who is aged 19 by draft day. This age will vary based on how many players STREP generates at that particular age, to make sure we can at least fill out a 10-round draft each year. We won't ever go older than 19 though. This year there are enough 19-year olds, so that's the cutoff age. (I tell STREP to let 19 year olds play, then when the season is over, I cut it down to 18 to get rid of all of the 19s out of the league and the game will make any 18s who will turn 19 eligible too.)

So here goes:



Jamie Butler, Sioux Falls: He leads STREP with a .370 average this year, can play 2B/3B/SS, sees the ball well and is the kind of guy that could develop a bit on the basepaths. Not a first rounder or anything, but a solid mid-round value selection once the starlets are off the board.



Chris Ricardo, Roundup Boasts a 1.17 ERA this year and is 10-2. 4-star talent, but only has two pitches and so, you just have to hope he'll discover a 3rd one and that's what's going to impact his draft status. Still, a guy worth giving a second look.



Jaiden Holmes, Sioux Falls A 2-star talent, he's picked up a changeup to go with his curveball and fastball. He's logged 107 strikeouts so far this year, barely walks anyone and seems to have the makeup of a guy who could develop well. Will turn 19 a week before the draft, so a nice young talent that could really end up panning well for someone.

[Young Drachma]

The mid-40s and early 50s were high times in Chicago. Three Sunset Series titles and a string of eight playoff appearances in nine years. But for the past three years, the Hornets haven't had the firepower to get over the hump and have finished out of the money, though despite improving their record each year they've finished further out of first.

So after their expansion induced 95-win season last year, the question on everyone's lips in Chi-town is "are the Hornets for real?"

The answer? You have to like their chances.

They boast the 1-2-3 pitching combo of the always dangerous 'http://wyogeek.com/baseball/slop/pla...ayer_1718.html who seems to start every year with 20 wins, the emergent Brad Scots and the electric three-time Pitcher of the Year award winner Bobby Foster who at age 38 seems to keep on trucking and won 17 games last year.

If that wasn't enough, offensively the Hornets are probably the best team in the NL. Yoshi Ikarashi, Steven Chowen and Gonzalo Carrion all hit 100+ RBI last year. They've got run scorers, half their lineup has pop in it (six guys who hit 20+ HRs last year) and so, that's a hard thing to go up against every night.

The only thing you have to wonder is whether or not guys will play up to their full potential. A few aging veterans have rocky years and all of a sudden, it's not so rosy in Chicago. But barring that unlikely circumstance, it would appear the brief playoff drought in Chicago is over. Whether or not this team has the firepower to make a title run is an entirely different story.

But when the conversation is over, one has to think the Hornets be among the teams left standing.

[Young Drachma]

If you thought that after losing some key pieces during free agency, that the 3-time defending Nationwide League champions were just going to roll over....well then you were probably somewhat accurate.

Let's be real, the Titans are still deep and talented. The problem is, most of their talent is concentrated in the same areas. In spite of their losses though, they're bringing back THREE 20 game winners to their rotation. They still boast a farm system with some of the future stars of SLOP waiting to happen.

If they could flip a guy like Juan Otero, Bobby Slaughter and/or Jimmy Lefebvre for some established talent at mid-season, this is a team that will be in the NL pennant chase.

Otherwise, they're just going to come up short. The back end of their rotation is going to rely on some unproven arms barring a last-minute deal. Offensively, it's still a formidable club. We're talking THREE 40+ HR guys and even the corpse of Jay-Man Yun in the hopes he might have something left in the tank playing on an actual contender.

Still, this team took a hit this off-season and the rest of the NL has been able to catch up as a result. It'll be an interesting battle, but...it's not looking like an unprecedented 4th straight pennant is in the cards. Memphis won 4 pennants in five years from 1843-46, but no team has ever been to the Series 4 straight times.

I imagine the Brooklyn faithful will do their best to defy history and blaze their own path further into the record books.

[Young Drachma]

The Kings are probably the best organization in SLOP. 11 playoff appearances in 13 years. Only two titles, but hey you can't win them all.

There's nothing indicating that '56 will be any different than the past. Except this time, can the Kings get over the title hump? With Brooklyn theoretically out of the way after reeling off three straight NL pennants after Carolina did the same during the three years prior, this team is scary good.

If I needed one word to summarize this team, it'd be depth.

If the Kings are going to get over the hump, they'll need to rely on some reinforcements coming from the minors such as SS Jason Bush and CF Nick Cannon. Their bullpen is easily the best in the NL with no less than four guys who could be closers on any other team. Dustin Harrison, Ray Rocchigiani, Fumi Suzuki and Jose Cruz, give the hurlers on this team confidence that if they get to the 6th inning, all will be handled by the professionals out of the bullpen.

The game's prediction engine seems to be higher on these guys than the stats bear out. I looked at the prediction and just assumed that they were going to be really good, but now that I look at their roster compared to that...I'd say that they're going to have to really hunker down if they want to beat out Brooklyn. In a seven game series, I'd take Brooklyn because they've just got so many weapons even with what they lost in the off-season.

Still Ed Saunders is no slouch and Wal-Mart doesn't sell 50 HR guys. Marco Espada had a hell of a rookie season, making the All-Star game his first year in the bigs.

23-year old rookie hurler Dean Harris might be the difference maker, believe it or not. If he can come up and win 15 games, this team might be able to surpass Brooklyn. They do have a stronger pitching staff than what's left in Brooklyn. So again, it'll come down to the two teams who have terrorized the NL for the past six years duking it out for one playoff spot, as I don't feel like both of them will get in.

[Young Drachma]

The Stars have made two straight ALCS appearances, getting back to the Sunset Series in '54, but missing out last year. While the Associated League this year will be a tale of the haves (Syracuse, Winnemucca, Memphis) and the have-nots (Everyone else) you have to wonder whether the Stars have lost too much this off-season to make it back to the post-season for the 3rd straight year.

The two-headed monster of Chris Ross and Jonathan Redick will be back again, Ross just missing out last year on his 5th Pitcher of the Year award (did we mention he's only 28?) and they'll be helped out by 3rd year starter Tony Archuleta. Their starting falls off a cliff after that and if they're sitting at home in October, you'll know exactly why.

On the offensive side, this year ought to mark the welcome arrival of one of the best prospects SLOP has ever waited for in D.J. Struchen. He ought to be a fun guy to watch and ushers in a new era into the Syracuse outfield with guys who are talented but aging outside of him. If he can put up all-star numbers, it'll go a long way to keeping his team in the wild card chase.

Rookie 2B Brian Winter is another guy who is making is ML debut this year and has the potential to turn a race around if he's at his best.

So the message for the Stars is there are a lot of wild cards surrounding their potential entry into a wild card race. If their offense produces as it has in the past, they're going to be right there in the thick of things. Still, it looks like they're going to have a devil of a time keeping up with the changes made in Winnemucca and whatever Memphis has been doing to keep the rest of the AL under its thumb for the past decade or so.

[Young Drachma]

Doing these damn previews was a lot easier when we only had 8 teams.

[Young Drachma]

Three owners in three years, and a three-year playoff drought is what awaited the Choo-Choos after bursting into the league winning a title in just their 2nd season and making the playoffs the four years following including an absolutely heartbreaking (if you're a Choos fan or their former owner during that season) 9-game series loss in '52 to Carolina after being up 4-1 in the series.

Anyway, those days appear long behind the Winnemucca faithful, as ekcut has ridden in on his FOOL history and shown this fast-simmers how it's done. Thanks to bit of tenacity and creative accounting, he managed to steal Denis Sheehan from a direct rival and further gutted the mess that has become the San Diego Fathers by taking Pablo Nieto and giving him the glimpse of what life will be like on a contender. The privilege for this? Each of these two guys will spend at least one year making more than half the team's cap ($50m) to do so. Nieto's turn is in a few years.

The stalwart thing that has always made Winnemucca great has been its strong pitching. This year will be no different. Most of the usual suspects are back including one of the few success Legacy players ever Ramesh Chandar who has seen his days as the ace long since passed. Rookie Erik Doucet might be a factor at some point this year and if so, this 4-star prospect could be a critical edition.

Offensively, the Choos are just lucky to have inked Quentin Jones to a long-term extension (4 years left on that deal) at a bargain basement price. You can best believe he won't be coming that cheap when this deal is up. (You're welcome.) Franchise player Tommy Bonner scored 100 runs last year and hit .330, second-year outfielder Tucker Lloyd features prominently in the team's plans as well.

When you look at Winnemucca, they're evenly matched with Memphis and seem to have finally risen above the fray in Syracuse. If the two jokers at the top of the rotation have their say, we'd have to think that the Choo-Choos will be returning to the playoffs this year.

[Young Drachma]

Memphis baseball is the dean of the AL. 10 playoff appearances in 14 years. Two titles and 5 AL pennants. Nothing to sneeze at there. Oh did I mention they're the defending champs?

The Smokers picked up Yataro Arai from San Diego to head their rotation this year and brought his buddy Ryan Schaefer along for the ride. Coupled with 39-year old SLOP legend Charlie Taylor who won 29 games last year and claimed his first AL Pitcher of the Year award at the age of 38 and Kosaku Hirata, who "only" won 25, you have to feel like the Smokers reloaded pretty nicely. Especially with the bullpen that's the best in the AL.

Offensively, the core remains the same. Rookie Joe Wright will be a handy outfield addition. But they're essentially bringing back a team that won 108 games last year and not only are coming back, but seem to have mitigated any losses they had and managed to get better.

The defending champs give me no indication that they're ready to relinquish the title. Winnemucca will give 'em hell, but I think the Smokers are too complete to have any problems making it back to the post-season this year.

[Young Drachma]

This team won a whopping 27 games last year. That's for the whole season, friends. Clearly, there's nowhere to go but up for California's latest expansion entry to SLOP going into their 2nd year.

They made a slight peep this off-season, when they pilfered Hugh Butler from Brooklyn by sticking a Brinks truck in front of his apartment which subsequently led to him signing on the dotted line. One hopes he can maintain his semblance of skills and doesn't languish playing on a club that's not going to win much at all this year.

Rather than talk about what the Syndicate have at the major league level (not much) outside of SP Jarrod Karnes who they ought to flip in a few years for a bunch of prospects (or wait until he's good and make him their Franchise player), let's talk about the future.

The Syndicate -- in contrast to the other expansion clubs -- managed to behave in the pre-existence and as such, they've been rewarded because they have the 2nd best farm system in the whole dern league. That's no smegma, boys. We're talking real talent. Subby is a pro-fessional, so he knows how to manage young talent.

Pat Kenady, Colin Doyle, Hy Oda, Dusty Kibler AND Felipe Morales are all Top 25 prospects. An entire future outfield, starting pitcher and a shortstop.

That's a haul, alright.

So while the Syndicate aren't going to impress anyone anytime soon, these guys are a tour de force waiting to happen. They'll sit back, take a bunch of STREP newbs and in a few years, the rest of the AL will be wistfully remembering the days when the Lake Tahoe club were awful.

Those of you who have been here a while know what I mean. After all, there was once upon a time that Brooklyn was rudderless, but they tanked for a while, stockpiled talent and with the right leadership have been a thorn in everyone's side ever since.

[Young Drachma]

We've been writing an obit in each one of these for the San Diego Fathers. Why? Because it seems like they've lost their entire team this off-season. Strangely, this team won 95 games last year. Expansion helped, but nonethelesss this wasn't a bad team before.

Now? It's slim times in Southern California.

They picked up no one notable during free agency. (With apologies to former Brooklyn 3B Toshi Kondo) and there are more holes on this roster than a firing range target. Poor Eusebio Salavisa. He's going to have to put up MVP numbers for a last-place team and there's no way out since franchise players can't be dealt and there's no way in hell San Diego will release its meal ticket.

Freddie Hurley's career comes creaking towards the end, as he's now at 519 career home runs, those of us who have been here a bit can remember when he was a star. He's still productive and seems like the sort of guy that could help a contender. Problem is? He's making $20m this year. Oops. This is his walk year, though, so maybe he'll strike lightning and drive up his price for next year as a free agent.

Emilio Hernandez is another guy who could help a contender and he's only $9m more than that rookie you're throwing into the 5th spot.

It'll be a long year in San Diego. No nice way to put it.

[Young Drachma]

Ok, so there you go. 12 team capsules. That's exhausting.

[Young Drachma]

Didn't want this to get permanently buried in this thread, so I put it on the rules thread. But to alert your attention to it anyway...here's the "official" ruling on franchise players. We've never had to deal with it before, but with new owners, the original franchisees retiring and some teams (like the expansion teams) not even having franchise guys yet, I felt like it was time to formalize it, so there was no confusion later.

I provide a bit of founder's intent in the rule, so that we all understand the reasoning behind the rule in the first place.

FRANCHISE PLAYER CLARIFICATION
I wanted to clarify the franchise player rule a bit. It's never been an issue, but since we've got some new owners and we're nearing the 2nd generation of franchise guys. I figure if I make the ruling ahead of time, we don't have to worry about any potential issues with it.

The main intent behind the FRANCHISE player rule was to replace the LEGACY player rule. The idea is basically to provide an extra layer of immersion for owners, by enabling them to keeping a home-grown player for his entire career at an uncapped salary. For clerical purposes and the sanity of your commissioner, this is listed in game as a $100k salary, but franchise players are understood to "earn" the average of the top 5 players in SLOP annually, but this value is not charged to your cap.

(In case you need to feel like his family is eating okay...)

A player can be franchised if he meets any of the following criteria:

- A traded player no older than 24 years old. (What this means is, a team can deal a guy who is no older than the age of 24 years and 364 days old and the new team that acquires him, still can franchise him provided he meets one of the other criteria below.)

- Player has played exclusively in the major leagues only for the franchising team (minor league service doesn't count for this clause) regardless of age.

- A player that not exceeded one season of major league service. (Season played in the majors under 50 IP/130 ABs, do not count as "major league" seasons for the purposes of this rule.)

- The team franchising the player is the one that drafted him. (Regardless of age)

- The franchised player has spent at least one minor league season with the team prior to the franchise year. (Regardless of age)

What I tried to do here is keep with founder's intent (giving owners an immersion piece) while also providing some tactical aspects to the franchise situation, because now teams can go out and actually look for guys that might be a future franchise centerpiece and manage to franchise him. Under the old interpretation of the rule, getting a guy as a prospect, raising him and then trying to franchise him might not have been allowed, because the basic idea was to have "A guy you drafted and raised" but I wanted to widen the interpretation just slightly.

After all, in real life there are all sorts of MLB guys who got dealt at prospects and later became franchise icons. That's really what this rule is about, is giving us that memorable guy who started and finished his career in one place.

This isn't listed, but it hasn't changed from before. The franchise tag can be removed at any time, but the player who was franchised must immediately be released & cannot be resigned by the franchise club for at least one year. The tag can be applied to another player, provided he meets the above criteria and cannot be a player who already earns a salary beyond the league minimum. So you can't use the franchise tag on a guy who is on your club, that is earning $10m a year, but is homegrown to try to get rid of that contract. It's too late by then to franchise him.

[Gomer]

Good assessment of the Gomers, DC.

Yep we're gonna suck.

But hopefully we'll steal some wins while rebuidling from the ground up.

[muns]

Wow, thanks for taking all that time on this DC. Was a great read and I enjoyed learning more about the league.

[chicago_gm]

Good read.
Good job.

I'm thinking Chicago will fall short, but I'm hoping.

[Young Drachma]

Tonight's file is for the trade deadline. If there are no other trades, I won't release a new file.

[Young Drachma]

SP Ernie Hanlon



Hanlon is almost 18, so he'll be eligible for the draft next year ('57.) He's 11-1 with a microscopic ERA (1.86) and a bevy of strikeouts (127) with Sioux Falls in STREP. With a rapidly developing curveball and a blistering fastball, he's actually right now the sort of guy that scouts think would make a nice bullpen arm, but with a 3rd pitch, he could be a good middle of the rotation arm.

He's still so young, hard to really pigeonhole.

[Young Drachma]

I finally started a running list of franchise players, because well...they're getting old, guys are retiring and it's getting hard to keep track of. It's stickied and so, you can post in there when you add/drop a guy.

I couldn't find a record anywhere of Brooklyn's FRANCHISE player. So I wrote Jim to ask him about it.

Hilariously, Charlie Taylor is the only LEGACY player to manage a long career as a wayward. All of the other ones who managed to get released, weren't any good. But Taylor only got cut when Philadelphia went under. He's managed to have a heck of a career in spite of it. Still four of them left floating around the league. The ones that managed to hang on had solid careers and all of them (not shockingly) the four who managed to last were all pitchers.

[Young Drachma]

I guess everyone wanted to wait until mid-season to make trades.

Hah. So there will not be a new file tonight.

We'll sim the 1st half of SLOP's 19th season tomorrow night! Deadline 10pm eastern as usual!

[Subby]

When do I have to set my draft list?

[Young Drachma]

Originally Posted by Subby

When do I have to set my draft list?

Haha...You still have a day. Tonight's file will trigger the draft list and then you'll have until tomorrow night.

[Young Drachma]

Subby's question makes me think that we might start using Mondays. Rather than wait until Tuesday to do the season, we could set the trade deadline to Sunday night, sim the 1st half on Monday night and then do the draft on Wednesday like normal. It'd give everyone an extra day to do their draft lists.

Might be worth trying next season (since it's too late to do it this year, obviously.)

Thoughts?

[Gomer]

[Cole]

Originally Posted by Dark Cloud

The Kings are probably the best organization in SLOP. 11 playoff appearances in 13 years. Only two titles, but hey you can't win them all.

There's nothing indicating that '56 will be any different than the past. Except this time, can the Kings get over the title hump? With Brooklyn theoretically out of the way after reeling off three straight NL pennants after Carolina did the same during the three years prior, this team is scary good.

If I needed one word to summarize this team, it'd be depth.

If the Kings are going to get over the hump, they'll need to rely on some reinforcements coming from the minors such as SS Jason Bush and CF Nick Cannon. Their bullpen is easily the best in the NL with no less than four guys who could be closers on any other team. Dustin Harrison, Ray Rocchigiani, Fumi Suzuki and Jose Cruz, give the hurlers on this team confidence that if they get to the 6th inning, all will be handled by the professionals out of the bullpen.

The game's prediction engine seems to be higher on these guys than the stats bear out. I looked at the prediction and just assumed that they were going to be really good, but now that I look at their roster compared to that...I'd say that they're going to have to really hunker down if they want to beat out Brooklyn. In a seven game series, I'd take Brooklyn because they've just got so many weapons even with what they lost in the off-season.

Still Ed Saunders is no slouch and Wal-Mart doesn't sell 50 HR guys. Marco Espada had a hell of a rookie season, making the All-Star game his first year in the bigs.

23-year old rookie hurler Dean Harris might be the difference maker, believe it or not. If he can come up and win 15 games, this team might be able to surpass Brooklyn. They do have a stronger pitching staff than what's left in Brooklyn. So again, it'll come down to the two teams who have terrorized the NL for the past six years duking it out for one playoff spot, as I don't feel like both of them will get in.

Nice recap DC... I'm proud to be called the best organization in SLOP, time to keep it up! I kind of screwed the pooch and lost some of my depth by not exporting and extending some of the guys that walked on me this year, but such is life I suppose.

[Young Drachma]

IT'S TIME FOR THE SEASON!

[Young Drachma]

STANDINGS AS OF MAY 1, 1856

NATIONWIDE LEAGUE STANDINGS
			W	L	PCT	GB
Carolina Kings		23	15	.605	-
Rio Grande Rough Riders	22	15	.595	.5
Brooklyn Titans		21	17	.553	2.0
Los Angeles Banditos	19	20	.487	4.5
Chicago Hornets		18	19	.486	4.5
Gettysburg Gomers	13	24	.351	9.5

ASSOCIATED LEAGUE STANDINGS
			W	L	PCT	GB
Syracuse Stars		23	14	.622	-
Winnemucca Choo-Choos	23	16	.590	1.0
Memphis Smokers		20	18	.526	3.5
San Diego Fathers	18	19	.486	5.0
Hilton Head Heroes	13	24	.351	10.0
Lake Tahoe Syndicate	13	25	.342	10.5

[Young Drachma]

NATIONWIDE LEAGUE STANDINGS
			W	L	PCT	GB
Carolina Kings		40	25	.615	-
Chicago Hornets		36	28	.563	3.5
Brooklyn Titans		35	31	.530	5.5
Rio Grande Rough Riders	33	31	.516	6.5
Los Angeles Banditos	30	37	.448	11.0
Gettysburg Gomers	21	43	.328	18.5

ASSOCIATED LEAGUE STANDINGS
			W	L	PCT	GB
Winnemucca Choo-Choos	43	23	.652	-
Syracuse Stars		40	25	.615	2.5
Memphis Smokers		38	27	.585	4.5
San Diego Fathers	30	35	.462	12.5
Hilton Head Heroes	26	39	.400	16.5
Lake Tahoe Syndicate	19	47	.288	24.0

[Young Drachma]

That sound you hear is Los Angeles packing up players to be shipped out at mid-season.

[Young Drachma]

STANDINGS AS OF JUNE 19, 1856

NATIONWIDE LEAGUE STANDINGS
			W	L	PCT	GB
Carolina Kings		53	29	.646	-
Chicago Hornets		46	35	.568	6.5
Brooklyn Titans		44	38	.537	9.0
Rio Grande Rough Riders	39	42	.481	13.5
Los Angeles Banditos	36	47	.434	17.5
Gettysburg Gomers	26	55	.321	26.5

ASSOCIATED LEAGUE STANDINGS
			W	L	PCT	GB
Winnemucca Choo-Choos	54	29	.651	-
Syracuse Stars		51	30	.630	2.0
Memphis Smokers		50	32	.610	3.5
San Diego Fathers	34	47	.420	19.0
Hilton Head Heroes	33	48	.407	20.0
Lake Tahoe Syndicate	24	58	.293	29.5

[Young Drachma]

Ok, we're at the mid-season break. Zipping the file to be sent up now. Hold tight.

[Young Drachma]

File is up!

Draft tomorrow. 2nd half on Thursday.

[Jack Raden]

That's a tough AL.

[Young Drachma]

Syracuse is only at $44m, Carolina in the $60m range and currently in first.

Should be interesting to see what they and other teams choose to do with a number of sellers surely out on the market.

[Young Drachma]

Ok, so I have to put up a new file. I forgot to change the STREP age from 19 to 18 for the purpose of releasing all of the eligible 19-year olds into the draft. So you should re-download the league file if you did so after I put up the original. If you're just getting this for the 1st time now, then no worries.

[Subby]

is it normal for all of the starting pitchers to only have two pitches?

[Young Drachma]

Originally Posted by Subby

is it normal for all of the starting pitchers to only have two pitches?

It's more of an OOTP13 thing thanks to the model. They develop a 3rd pitch later in theory, but not always. But the idea was to get away from slotted middle relievers and instead having lots of 2 pitch pitchers who might earned a 3rd pitch and then you figure out what to do with them.

[Young Drachma]

A note on draft pick trading:

It's never been a discussion before, but with STREP now, it seems like something that might be worth discussing. I hemmed on hawed on whether to allow it, but we're going to have it, using this conditions:

- You can only trade picks for the current draft. So you can't deal future draft picks. It's not fair to a possible future owner if you leave, to have to deal with the wreckage of years of no draft picks awaiting them.

Draft is set to 10 rounds at present and should remain that way.

[ekcut]

I want to aknowledge that the html has been updated. Makes trade talks from my iphone easier! Thanks DC. Your extra work is appriciated.

[ekcut]

I want to acknowledge that the html has been updated. Makes trade talks from my iphone easier! Thanks DC. Your extra work is appriciated.

[Young Drachma]

Originally Posted by ekcut

I want to aknowledge that the html has been updated. Makes trade talks from my iphone easier! Thanks DC. Your extra work is appriciated.

No worries mate. It's so nice having a full league, because now people actually want/need to see that stuff. So I'll try to be better about updating it at critical points. It didn't use to matter, so I didn't do it as often...but now people ask about it (someone specifically wrote me about it.) and so, I'm totally jazzed to do it.