First Trade of 2006...

Toronto Blue Jays trade:
F. Cordero (RP) $8, R. Belliard (2B) $3, I. Rodriguez (Ca) $22 and C. Monroe (OF) $1

Minnesota Dudes trade:
A Kennedy (2B) $16, J. Rivera (OF) $3, T. Hall (Ca) $6 and B. Chen (SP) $8.


Also: Toronto would like to put Kevin Mench (OF) and Bruce Chen (SP) on Waivers...

PLAY BALL!

The 06/07 Beer Cap League season is about to begin. We had a successful draft, rosters are set, so let the games begin.

The schedule and updated rosters are available on the left. Game logs are included with the schedule.

We had a minor draft issue: I did not include Jeff Weaver and Jon Rauch on Mike's master roster list. I've signed Weaver but Rauch is now a free agent. Starting with the last place team in the NL, owner's have the opportunity to draft him as a minor leaguer ($1). If you don't have the roster space you can drop one of your minor league players to make room.

A couple of things we didn't do at the draft were to decide on league executive positions.

• We need a treasurer to keep track of money owing and expenses (game, paper, card protectors, etc.).
• Statistician for the AL and one for the NL
• League presidents and or commissioner to approve trades and manage rosters
• Webmaster / secretary to maintain webpage and league constitution.
• Scheduler
  

If anyone has other suggestions or ideas then bring them forward and if you think this is a good idea then put your name in for one or more of the positions or nominate someone.

Thin Air At Coors Field Blamed As Todd Helton Floats Out Of Ballpark

Just a little humour curtesy of The Onion.

The New Season and Draft

Just so everyone is clear... the draft will be on Monday Sept. 4th (Labour Day) I work till 2pm so it will be after that.

If possible we will try to start Sunday Sept. 3rd. (As soon as Norm is here and we can all make it.)

We will do both leagues. First the AL (Norm, Dave, Mike, Nicholas, Nick, Doug)
then the NL (Nick, Norm, Nicholas, Dave, Doug, Mike)

Prior to the draft we will vote on the new outfield rule... weather a LF can play RF and a CF can play all fields.

We will also be having our first rookie draft. (Players with no 2005 card) Order depends on draft pick tades. (Doug has a pretty little page made up for us.)

Good luck all.

Outfield Positions....

So I'm playing another demo game with my Tigers vs. Dodgers and while making out the lineup I happened to put Coco Crisp in RF (he's only listed as being able to play LF and CF) and the game doesn't alert me to anything wrong. I start the game to see what defensive rating Crisp will have paying out of position in RF. I expect him to have the F/5 range for being out of position but instead he has his defensive rating from LF. So I look up the rules to see if this is a computer game glitch or a rule we've overlooked. On page 5 of the Official Dynasty Rulebook there it is:

LF can play RF and vice versa. A player listed in CF
can play all of the OF positions.

So centerfielders can play all three outfield positions at their CF rating unless they have a specific rating for that field and corner outfielders can play the opposite field using their same defensive rating unless a different rating is specified.

So that solves my problem of how to play both Grady Sizemore and Vernon Wells at the same time on next year's team.

Final day to sign players and make drops - Friday, June 30

Tomorrow is the last day to sign contract extensions for players and make drops. After that all current player contracts are final. Trades can still be made after the deadline but you're stuck with the contract as is.

We plan to get together Friday night for one last chance at swapping players, most likely at Mike's place.

Also, if you want to see any Jays or your favourite players in the real All-Star game this year, today is the final day for voting online.

Trade #3

Cubs trade Maddux (SP), Casey (1B), Wise (RP), For N. Perez (IF) and R. Chavez (CA) with St.L.

Trade #2

Cubs trade: Lee (1B), Sanders (OF) and 8th Pick for Berkman (1B/RF), Casey (1B) $4 and Future pick from Mil.

Trade

Cubs trade Clement (SP) and a 9th Round pick for Atlanta's 6th round pick.

Toronto trades Loaiza (SP) and a 9th round pick for $1 and a 6th round pick from LAA.

Final Standings - Who got lucky?

Was Doug's Rangers as good as their 24-10 record? Was Nicholas worthy of the Manager of the Year award? Let's take a look at the expected wins and losses and find out:

AL STANDINGS

East           W   L   Pct  GB   RF  RA  exW-L
Boston        21  13  .618   -  179 149  20-14
Toronto       19  15  .559   2  213 164  21-13
Detroit       19  15  .559   2  173 166  18-16
Kansas City    3  31  .088  18  114 233   7-27                                                

West           W   L   Pct  GB   RF  RA  exW-L
Texas         24  10  .706   -  185 128  23-11
Minnesota     20  14  .588   4  158 173  15-19
Oakland       17  17  .500   7  161 154  18-16
LA Angels     13  21  .382  11  164 180  15-19

Nicholas was five games over his expected win-lose record, chalk it up to good management or good luck?

How about the NL, just how unlucky was Norm?

NL STANDINGS

East           W   L   Pct  GB   RF  RA  exW-L
Chicago       25   9  .735   -  182 129  23-11
Atlanta       18  15  .545 6.5  156 123  21-13
Milwaukee     18  16  .529   7  130 135  16-18
Florida        9  25  .265  16   98 174   9-26

West           W   L   Pct  GB   RF  RA  exW-L
Colorado      23  11  .676   -  202 139  23-11
LA Dodgers    19  14  .576 3.5  172 155  19-15
St. Louis     13  21  .382  10  128 154  14-20
San Fransisco 11  22  .324  12  147 200  12-22

Yup, still unlucky.

Final 2006/2007 Season Schedule

Matchups are set. The schedule is set to go. Get it from the link.

TRADE: LA Dodgers and Chicago

On Wednesday Mike traded catcher Mike Lieberthal and starter Kevin Millwood to the Dodgers for catcher Jason Larue.

Wheeling and dealing at the spring meeting

First off, congrats to Mike and his repeat WS victory, now we can retire those stinking '04 cards and get on with the juicy '05 cards.

Sunday night we held an impromptu Beer Cap League meeting at Doug's place. Unfortunately nobody invited the two Nicks.

Doug and Norm traded catchers, Doug sending Michael Barrett and $5 to Norm's Braves for Yadier "the gun" Molina. After that two blockbuster deals between me and Norm went down.

First we made a deal sending the MVP champ, Albert Pujols along with Roy Oswalt and Felipe Lopez from the Dodgers to Norm's Braves for Cy Young winner, Rocket Clemens, Todd Helton and Marcus Giles, plus $5.

But the madness didn't end there. Norm, pissed off with A-Rod's performance in his two seasons, offered him up on the trading (chopping?) block. I took him up on it and we ending up with a deal that sent former MVP, Vlad Guerrero, and the ever versatile Chone Figgins along with an '06 #4 draft pick for the aforementioned Alex Rodriguez, Norm's #1 '06 pick and $10.

There were a couple of league rule modifications agreed upon. First was in regards to the prospect pick (non-card players). We flipped around so many times that I'm not sure what we settled on. We did decide on the following changes:

• The new cards will not be opened until the trade deadline has passed. This is to avoid owners making trades during the current season based on the next season’s cards.

• After this year, the draft will take place at the end of our scheduled season instead of prior to the beginning of the next season. This will stop us from knowing the results of the next MLB season while drafting the previous MLB season's cards (we would know only the results for April of the current MLB season). So now the only sure thing when deciding on contract lengths will be for the season we have the cards for, the second and third seasons of a two or three year contract will be a bit of a crap shoot. And if we do have prospect picks we will not know their stats (except for that first month) - make's those picks a challenge and no longer a sure thing.

For at least the '06 season we will stay with the mixed card and computer game. We will evaluate whether to continue in the mixed format or switch to computer-only after next season is complete.

We also held the random draw to complete next year's schedule. I will re-post the finished schedule in the next couple of days.

When we next convene for our draft in August, we will need to decide on a statistician for the NL and one for the AL. We should also formalize other league positions (League commissioner, AL & NL presidents, treasurer).

Finally, rosters must be finalized by June 30th -all extensions and drops must be completed by that date.

Update: We will allow one optional prospect pick this year that can be taken in the 10th round. Next year we will allow 2 prospect picks that can be taken at any point in the 10 round draft.

It's Over!

Bonderman pitched a great game 6 to force a game 7 back in Toronto.

Bottom of the ninth,Min 5 Tor 4. 2 out, bases empty, Lidge pitching. Hairiston due up, in comes Mauer for a pinch hit.

202

Bang solo shot to force extra innings. Mauer with the Power.

Finally in the 12th inning a sac fly by Koreanko drove in Damon for the win.

Very close series all the way through...

So join me in welcoming the returning world series champs TORONTO BLUEJAYS. (Managed by Mike)

Hooray...

We now have till the end of June to finalize our rosters. Trading is now open.

Future Trading

Well as you all know the season draws to a close. It's almost time to wheel and deal.

I'm going to throw out some trade bait... and offers are welcome...

AL - Toronto

Guardado (RP) $8, Cordero (RP) 8$ JAM, Ford (OF), Hairiston (2B, OF), Loaiza (SP) Minor leauger. Possibly Sheiffeild for a suitable cheaper replacement.

Looking to: save/make money... a solid #3-4 starter, a great 2B, future picks.

NL - Chicago

Millwood (SP) $10 JAM/OFF, Burnitz (OF), Maddux(SP) OFF, Klesko (LF/1B) $7, Sanders (LF) $5

Looking for: A defensive catcher, Jam Relieve,

I figure if we all say what we want and what we will give we may have a great trading season ... once the play-offs are done.

Good luck all.

2006 Schedule - sneak peak

With this season coming to an end everyone needing to decide who to release and sign, I've posted the outline of the 2006 Beer Cap schedule.

A couple of highlights:

• no divisions and no dummy teams
• balanced schedule, each team is played 10 times (two 3-game home and away series, two 2-game home and away series)
• 36 night games, 14 day games
• 6 off-days (including all-star game)
• off-days synchronized for easier make-up games
  
• 10 day games following a night game
• one travel day during and between playoff games
• 4 or 3 games played per (real) week (2 AL and 2 NL games or one 3 games series in either the AL or NL)

A random draw will be made to determine match-ups. Comments or suggestions welcome.

NL All Star Voting

The NL season is complete. Please return your all-star selections ASAP.

Thx

Texas places John Olerud on waivers

All of Doug's deals left him with one player over the 40 player max. To remedy that, he has placed John Olerud on waivers.

The last place team in the AL has the first option of signing him then second last and so forth. If no one signs him he goes back into the free agent pool for next year. Doug however still must pay his full salary for this year and half his salary for next year unless he's picked up on waivers. If Olerud is picked up then Doug pays 3/4 of this year's salary and the new owner pays the remaining 1/4. The new owner would also be responsible for Olerud's next year contract.

Olerud is on the second year of a $15 a year, three year deal.

Deals deals and more deals

Drop your AL deadline trades in a comment to this thread and I'll keep the main post updated.

Texas and Minnesota
 
To Minnesota: Susuki (RF)      To Texas: Delgado (1B)
              Cabrera (3B)               Jones (OF)
                                         Blalock (3B)
____________________________________________________________

Detroit and Texas
 
To Texas: Takatsu (RP)         To Detroit: Speier (RP)
          #1 2005 draft pick               #7 '05 draft pick
          #2 2005 draft pick               #8 '05 draft pick
                                           $6

1986 World Series Game 6 Re-Enacted in RBI Baseball

This is very cool. A fella by the name of Conor Lastowka recreated the the bottom of the tenth inning of the Mets-Red Sox World Series games 6 using the old Nintendo 'RBI Baseball' game.

The game of course wasn't recreated by chance but by repeating scenerios over and over until he got the right result. For example it took him over 200 attempts to get Keith Hernandez to fly out to centre. Voice over is done using the original broadcast commentary by Vince Scully (so turn your sound on).

For those of you who don't remember the particulars of the game, this is the game the Red Sox needed only one out to win their first World Series since 1918 but the pitchers fell apart then the Mets' Mookie Wilson hit a dribbler to Bill Buckner who let it go through his legs scoring the winning run. The Mets would win game seven and the Red Sox had to wait another 18 years before getting another shot at the title.

Here's another link to the file on YouTube. Also you can watch the orginal final play here.

AL Trade deadline

Trade deadline time in the AL after series 10 games are done (Aug. 28). So don't start series 11 games until everyone has caught up and all trades are in.

So far one trade has been made between Nicholas and Doug. Suzuki for Delgado were the main two players in the deal. Someone add a comment or new post with the full trade details

Trading Block

AL: Mike (Toronto) is looking to deal C. Guillen (ss), J. Hiarston (2B), L. Ford (OF) and posibbly Sabitha (SP). Also have a good minor league pitcher Loaza up for trade.

Let me know.

NL Stat Update

Chicago has clinched first in the east and Colorado has clinched a playoff berth. Florida, San Franciso and St. Louis have been eliminated. Here's the remaining races:

   NL STANDINGS
                                                   
   East          GP   W   L   Pct  GB
(y)Chicago       32  23   9  .719   -
                                              
   West          GP   W   L   Pct  GB
(1)Colorado      32  21  11  .656   -
   Los Angeles   29  16  12  .552   3
                                                    
   Wildcard      GP   W   L   Pct  GB
(3)Los Angeles   29  16  12  .552   -
(2)Milwaukee     32  17  15  .531   1
   Atlanta       29  13  15  .448   3

(y)- clinched division. (#)- magic number.

Proposed schedule for next season

We've discussed it a bit already but I thought I'd post on it. I propose for our next season that we drop the two dummy teams from each league and extend the season to 50 games. With only our six teams in each league we'd drop to one division in each league from the current two. The dummy teams would still remain out of our player selection pool.

This will have the benefit of not having to play meaningless games against dummy teams and will return us to a balanced schedule. The top 4 teams in each league will qualify for the playoffs to give everyone a shot at the post season and because a short 50 game schedule in baseball, even though it is the longest we have played, will still not be enough to determine the top team.

The 50 game schedule would consist of 10 games against each other team and would breakdown as follows:

• one 3-game home series
• one 3-game away series
• one 2-game home series
• one 2-game away series

After 25 games we'd break for an all-star game. We could have the winning league in the all-star game decide who gets home field advantage for the World Series or it could go to a coin toss or just alternate each year.

AL Stat Update

NL Stat Update

Here it is.

NL Stat Update

   NL STANDINGS
                                                     
   East          GP   W   L   Pct  GB   RF  RA  exW-L
(3)Chicago       28  20   8  .714   -  149 115  18-10
   Milwaukee     30  15  15  .500   6  109 118  14-16
   Atlanta       27  12  14  .444   7  129 100  17-10  
   Florida       28   7  21  .250  13   75 144   6-22
                                                     
   West          GP   W   L   Pct  GB   RF  RA  exW-L
(8)Colorado      28  19   9  .679   -  173 118   19-9
   Los Angeles   27  16  10  .593   2  148 121  16-11
   St. Louis     30  13  17  .433   7  121 133  14-16
   San Francisco 28  10  18  .357   9  123 173   9-19
                                                     
   Wildcard      GP   W   L   Pct  GB
(6)Los Angeles   27  16  10  .593   -
(8)Milwaukee     30  15  15  .500   3
   Atlanta       27  12  14  .444   4
   St. Louis     30  13  17  .433   5
   San Francisco 28  10  18  .357   7
   Florida       28   7  21  .250  10
                                                     
(*)-magic number.  Any combination of wins by the first place team and 
loses by the second place team will clinch the division/wildcard.

The tie game between LA and Atlanta created an odd situation where Chicago's magic number applies to clinching first in the division over Atlanta and not Milwaukee (Chicago's magic number to clinch againts Milwaukee is "2"). The same thing applies to LA in the wildcard, LA needs a combination of wins and Atlanta loses totaling 6 to clinch a wildcard spot.

No team has clinched a playoff spot yet.

Blue Jays Photo of the Day

If you're looking for a little desktop wallpaper lovin' check out Aaron Reynold's "Photo of the day" gallery.

Aaron (Named for Hank) is regular contributor at the Batter's Box.

AL Stat Update

Another fresh posting of stats with the games from this weekend. If you look at the wildcard standings you'll see that this is the first time Mike has not held a playoff position (it's still early...).

 AL STANDINGS
  
 East          GP   W   L   Pct  GB   RF  RA  exW-L
*Detroit       17  10   7  .588   -   79  83    8-9 
 Boston        15   8   7  .533   1   77  72    8-7
 Toronto       17   8   9  .471   2   96  81   10-7
 Kansas City   17   2  15  .118   8   58 113   4-13 
  
 West          GP   W   L   Pct  GB   RF  RA  exW-L
*Texas         17  12   5  .706   -   97  61   12-5
 Los Angeles   15   8   7  .533   3   81  70    9-6
 Oakland       17   9   8  .529   3   86  77    9-8
 Minnesota     17   9   8  .529   3   74  93   7-10
  
 Wildcard      GP   W   L   Pct  GB
*Los Angeles   15   8   7  .533   -
*Boston        15   8   7  .533   -
*Oakland       17   9   8  .529   -
*Minnesota     17   9   8  .529   -
 Toronto       17   8   9  .471   1
 Kansas City   17   2  15  .118   7

AL Stat Update

Fresh off the press (Mike's computer), here's the AL stats. Click the post title or the permanent link on the left.

 AL STANDINGS

 East          GP   W   L   Pct  GB  RF  RA  exWP exW exL Dif
*Det (Dave)    15   9   6  .600   -  67  77  .431   6   9  +3
 Tor (Mike)    13   7   6  .538   1  87  66  .635   8   5  -1
 Bos (Nick A.) 13   7   6  .538   1  64  66  .485   6   7  +1
 KC            13   2  11  .154   6  48  86  .238   3  10  -1

 West          GP   W   L   Pct  GB  RF  RA  exWP exW exL Dif
*Tex (Doug)    13   8   5  .615   -  71  53  .642   8   5   0
 Min (Nick S.) 13   7   6  .538   1  62  68  .454   6   7  +1
 LAA (Norm)    15   8   7  .533   1  81  70  .572   9   6  -1
 Oak           13   6   7  .462   2  70  66  .529   7   6  -1

 Wildcard      GP   W   L   Pct  GB
*Tor (Mike)    13   7   6  .538   -
*Bos (Nick A.) 13   7   6  .538   -
*Min (Nick S.) 13   7   6  .538   -
*LAA (Norm)    15   8   7  .533   -
 Oak           13   6   7  .462   1
 KC            13   2  11  .154   5

Who's been lucky (or unlucky)?

Pythagorean expectation is a formula invented by Bill James to estimate how many games a baseball team "should" have won based on the number of runs they scored and allowed. The term is derived from the formula's resemblance to Pythagoras' formula to compute the length of the hypotenuse of a triangle from the lengths of its other two sides.

The basic formula is:

where Win% is the winning percentage generated by the formula. You can then multiply this by the number of games played by a team to compute how many wins one would expect them to win based on their runs scored and allowed.

Lets apply the formula to our current national league standings:

East          GP   W   L   Pct   RF   RA  exWP exW exL Dif
ChC (Mike)    26  18   8  .692  139  102  .650  17   9  +1
Atl (Norm)    25  12  13  .480  119   89  .641  16   9  -4
Mil (Nick S.) 26  12  14  .462   82   88  .465  12  14   0
Flo           26   6  20  .231   70  137  .207   5  21  +1

West          GP   W   L   Pct   RF   RA  exWP exW exL Dif
Col (Doug)    23  16   7  .696  139   98  .668  15   8  +1
LAD (Dave)    25  15  10  .600  137  111  .604  15  10   0
StL (Nick A.) 23  11  12  .478   95   99  .479  11  12   0
SF            26  10  16  .385  110  150  .350   9  17  +1

exWP: Expected winning percentage
exW: Expected wins, exL: Expected Losses

The theory compares quite nicely with our actual win loss records. What it does point out is something we've all known but now have irrifutable proof - Norm is very unlucky.

"1-2-3-4-5-6" Twins 13, Blue Jays 4

Batgirl has humourous look at last night’s shellacking of the Jays at the hands of the Twins.

Glaus and Overbay had back-to-back homers in the first, but other than that Towers fell apart in the fourth and the bullpen was just as bad.

NL Stat Update

Mike's got some new NL Stats. Everybody's still in the playoff hunt with two wildcard spots available. Grab it here or from the permanent link on the left or in your email from Mike.

 NL STANDINGS  

 East     GP   W   L   GB   Pct 
*Chi      26  18   8    -  .692 
 Atl      25  12  13  5.5  .480 
 Mil      26  12  14    6  .462 
 Flo      26   6  20   12  .231

 West     GP   W   L   GB   Pct
*Col      23  16   7    -  .696 
 LAD      25  15  10    2  .600 
 StL      23  11  12    5  .478 
 SF       26  10  16  7.5  .385 

 Wildcard GP   W   L   GB   Pct 
*LAD      25  15  10    -  .600 
*Atl      25  12  13    3  .480 
 StL      23  11  12    3  .478 
 Mil      26  12  14  3.5  .462 
 SF       26  10  16  5.5  .385 
 Flo      26   6  20  9.5  .231 

Expanded Rosters?

With the trade deadline approaching that means that roster expansion to 30 players would happen for series 13. Question is do we want to expand the rosters for this season? It's a short season so it would only be for 4 games and we know the computer game doesn't allow expanded rosters.

What do ya all think? It would be nice to have those extra players but I don't think it would be worth it for this season. Next year, with the longer season, we could try and work out the kinks.

NL Trading Deadline

The trading deadline is upon us in the National League. The deadline follows the completion of series 10 (Aug. 28). Our actually deadline I think should be Saturday afternoon (3:00 PM?).

...I'm still in need of backup catcher.

MLB opening day today

Baseball's Back! The 2006 MLB season starts tonight at 8:05 with the Indians taking on the White Sox. The Jays don't start until Tuesday when Halladay goes up against Santana and the Twins.

Back in our league, my Detroit Tigers took two straight from Norm's Angels on Friday night in two close games. That's five wins in a row and 8 of the last nine - not bad for a 1-5 start. (Although I have to admit there were a couple of easy teams in there, first Kansas City then Mike's Blue Jays...)

Firefox Add-ons

I've put together a list of helpful baseball related add-ons for the Firefox web browser.

First up is a list of search bar engines:

ESPN MLB Player
Baseball Reference
Rotoworld Baseball
Baseball Cube
Alex Reisner Baseball Stats

If you have other sites that you'd like a search plugin for let me know in the comments and I'll make one up for that site.

Now that you've installed all those search bar plugins, a quick way to search player names is to highlight a players name within a web and right click and select the "Web Search for" option. This will search using the search engine that is showing in your search bar.


A handy extension to search selected text from any of your installed search engines instead of just the default is the Context Search extension.


Search Engine Ordering is an extension that lets you arrange your search engine plugins in any order and delete unused ones with a right click.


I'll add to this list if I think of any other helpful extensions or tips.

New web site...

After months of not updating the previous site, I've set up a new web page for our league. This one will be set up to be more interactive for all of us. Anyone from our league will be able to make posts and comment on those postings.

I will forgo the standings and scoreboard and instead I'd like to have Mike setup to upload the stat and roster sheets to the web page for everyone to download and view.

There will be links to downloads like the aforementioned stats and rosters but also score sheets, Dynasty rules, and league rules. A links section to helpful websites will also remain.

I would like transactions to be listed again. With everyone able to post to the site the owners who made the trades can post it to the page so that the entire league will know about it.

If anyone has any other ideas for the web page or things they'd like added let me know.