First Official Convention League Champion Is....

[Jason]

...the Muscatine squad owned by Shane Orr! (Or....sporr as many of you know him.)

Congrats Shane!

[benchwarmer]

congratulations.

[Henry]

Congratulations Shane !!!


Now, let me see if I can get Shane and a couple other OCL members to get a bit more active in their PR duties

After an initial season which had my team in last place for a couple weeks and then finishing first in the division (89-73), winning the National League playoffs against the Deadwood Renegades (92-70), and then went to the 7th game of the World Series before finally bowing to the Muskatine Muskies (90-72) - all I can say is wow, what a ride.

I never expected to get into the playoffs - much less the World Series - with a team that had a few superstars and a lot of mediocre talent.

Catcher - Roberto Betancourt, .260, 18 HRs, 69 RBIs, Platinum Glove winner
Firstbase - Vince Aliff, .230, 8 HRs, 46 RBIs
Secondbase - Arthur Bell, .284, 38 HRs, 87 RBIs, 12 SBs
Shortstop - Alan Dunham, .243, 17 HRs, 54 RBIs, 24 SBs
Thirdbase - Jeff Cupps, .294, 26 HRs, 96 RBIs, Platinum Glove winner
Leftfield - Mike Deanda, .233, 10HRs, 33 RBIs
Centerfield - Giovanni Rafter, .203, 12 HRs, 43 RBIs, 10 SBs
Rightfield - Omar Velazquez, .300, 19 HRs, 66 RBIs, 71 SBs

With a stronger offense, the pitching staff could certainly have racked up more Wins.

Shon Parramore - 15-11, 4.29 ERA, 1.31 Whip
Jesus Esquivel - 10-13, 2.73 ERA, 1.10 Whip
Miguel Castillo - 17-12, 3.25 ERA, 1.04 Whip
Jamar Carolina - 16-11, 3.27 ERA, 1.12 Whip

Best of the Bullpen.

George Poindexter - 8-4-32, 2.62 ERA, 0.96 Whip
Tyler Benero - 4-4-3, 3.44 ERA, 1.26 Whip
Mark Waldrep - 2-1-2, 3.31 ERA, 1.19 Whip

The problem, of course, in winning this way is that a second-to-last draft pick will not be an asset this Winter. The Canal Rats do, however, have significant extra cash to look closely at the Free Agent market.

Deanda and Waldrep will move on on to the FA market, but everyone else above is signed for next year.

Things certainly were fun, and coming to within one game of the World Championship is certainly a chievment for the team as configured.

Go Canal Rats !!

[sporr]

I would like to congratulate Al on a great series. Early in the year, it looked like my pitching was going to be my strength as they hovered near the tops in the league for a long time, but it was my offense that really stepped things up, led by the biggest offensive force in the league.

The key players:
C: Cosme Costa - only hit .230 with 3 HR during the regular season, but in game 7 of the WS was 4 for 5 with a 2B, HR and 3 RBI. This against an opposing manager that shared his last name
1B: Sergio Blanco - .307 with 58 HR and 144 RBI. Blanco was the stud. He led the league in HR, RBI and eclipsed 400 total bases. He was awarded the Oustanding Batter of the Year award in the AL. Unfortunately, Blanco was asking management for over $16M per year for 6 years which was more than we could afford to resign him.
2B: Joel Mazza - .290 with 15 HR and 83 RBI.
OF: Camilo Sainz - .274 with 17 HR and 80 RBI.
CF: Paul Eppler - .327 with 21 HR and 86 RBI from the leadoff position. Eppler stole 42 bases and collected a Platinum Glove in CF committing only 2 errors all season while turning 4 DP with 9 OF assists.

SP: Celestino Feijoo - In the AL, Feijoo (39 years old) was in a league of his own. Though he was only 17-9, 29 of his 36 starts were quality starts. He led the AL in ERA (2.74) and allowed 2 fewer runners/ 9 IP than the next closest AL pitcher (8.59 to teammate Drago's 10.54). In addition, he was the only AL pitcher to strike out more than 10 per 9 IP. Sadly, age has already caught up to him somewhat and will probably keep him from dominating next season.

While the pitching didn't finish near the top of the entire league, they did finish well above everyone else in the hitter-heavy American League.

However, we'll have a hard time repeating our success. Our initial drafting has left us with some pretty old/aging players. The loss of Blanco will be a huge blow to the offense as well. To make matter worse, our small stadium has hampered our ability to generate the big revenue we would need to compete in the FA market.

That said, this was my first World Series victory in all of my years in online leagues, so it's pretty sweet even if we don't go back to the playoffs next year.