Chronicles of The Monty Brewster Baseball Association

[mikev]

Knock Knock. Who's there? Last Place

So, the Crawdads are 25-32, 6 games behind Austin and in last place in the Frick League Midwest. The sim started with a win over Buffalo, then losing 2 of 3 to Long Beach, getting shut out twice by Des Moines (it's okay, we laid a fifteen spot on them in game 1 of the series), and then losing 2 of 3 to Hackensack. Ho-hum.

The biggest question about the team being terrible: Why? The answer: Offense. After trading away team aces Robert Grove and Shawn Boskie before the season started, Expectations weren't high for the pitching staff.
However,

Team Pitching Stats & Rankings
Earned Run Average 3.44 - 2nd in FL 
Starters' ERA 3.22 - 1st in FL 
Bullpen ERA 4.32 - 10th in FL 
Runs allowed 217 - tied for 4th in FL 
Hits allowed 468 - 2nd in FL 
Opponents AVG .245 - 2nd in FL 
BABIP .305 - 5th in FL 
Home Runs allowed 46 - tied for 5th in FL 
Bases-On-Balls 178 - 8th in FL 
Strikeouts 482 - 2nd in FL

Not bad considering that we were supposed to be horrible in all aspects of the game this year, so the good pitching is a nice surprise. The offense is another story though, as their highest ranking in any offensive category is 5th (extra base hits). There's lots of 9ths or worse, which is bad in a 12 team league.

To try and rectify the situation, outfielder Arthur Jagger was dealt to Calgary for veteran Brad Komminsk, who will be one half of a platoon with [url=http://www.sixfivepony.com/mbbauniverse/leaguesite/news/html/players/player_2310.html]Archibald Graham[/url[, with the other corner outfield spot taken by a platoon of Tsukasa Sato and Jason Stucky.

What about Centerfield, you ask? Say hello to the Crawdad's new leadoff hitter, Tipper Kengos Kengos will be a tablesetter for the team and his defense is above average. His Eye and Avoid K's are very developed, as is Contact, and he's equally effective against lefties and righties. We love him, and the Kengos name is an institution in New Orleans.

Upcoming Schedule

6/1 - v Las Vegas
6/2 - v. Las Vegas
6/3 - v. Las Vegas

6/5 - @ Seattle
6/6 - @ Seattle (Happy fake online birthday, Mikey!)
6/7 - @ Seattle

6/8 - @ Calgary
6/9 - @ Calgary
6/10 - @ Calgary

[mikev]

Stumbling towards the All Star Break

Things aren't looking any better. Let me put is this way: When all the Breaking News on your Team Homepage is about other guys beating the crap out of your club, you've got some work to do. I have to keep reminding myself that this is a rebuild year to keep from getting really pissed off. Losing sucks, even when it's fake online baseball. I don't even think I've had a .500 season yet in New Orleans. Ouch.
Anyways, we're 27-39, 8 back of Birmingham who happened to come into 1st this sim, overtaking Austin, while Des Moines has clawed their way into a tie with Austin, 1 behind the assBandits.
The sim started with a win over Vegas that was sandwiched between two losses (Recte cheated to win), That was followed up by a 3-game sweep at the hands of Seattle, who still refuses to give me Dash, and then we took the first game of a series with Calgary before dropping the last 2. So, there you have it. Two ****ing wins, seven losses. Deep breath. We're rebuilding.

Well, at least Jason Stucky is doing his part. I'm so happy he finally started to develop. He's got a 1.015 OPS in his first full season, and leads the team with 10 homers. I love that guy.
Tipper Kengos, on the other hand, didn't quite make as big of a splash as was expected. Several other GMs in the league agreed that it was time to call him up and let him run wild on the league. Instead, he decided to go 8-for-36 in his first 9 games. He hit a double though! The promising part: 6 walks, 3 strikeouts. That's a positive. Hopefully he makes the transition soon, because the guy's got the ratings to be one of the best leadoff men in the game.

We also called up starter Paul Alfred, who has stopped developing in the minors. He's still got some room for his stuff and control to improve, so he'll be inserted as the spot starter for now, but we'll make sure he gets plenty of opportunities. As of now, the starting rotation is still decent, and the offense is killing the team. As usual. Either way, Alfred is too old to be in AAA anymore and we will still control him for 6 more seasons.

The upcoming sim is also the final sim of the first half, as the All-Star Game is going to be played on 6/22. More than likely Donovan Osborne will be the only representative from the Crawdads.

Upcoming Schedule

6/11 - v. Montreal (trade me Bolt)
6/12 - v. Montreal (trade me )
6/13 - v. Montreal (trade me Bolt)

6/14 - @ Austin
6/15 - @ Austin
6/16 - @ Austin

6/18 - v. Birmingham
6/19 - v. Birmingham
6/20 - v. [urll=http://www.sixfivepony.com/mbbauniverse/leaguesite/news/html/teams/team_17.html]Birmingham

[mikev]

League feature, posted by Tedesco23, Baltimore Monarchs GM

On June 15, the all-stars were announced for both leagues, and I thought that it would be interesting to go through each team, see who was selected, and more importantly, who might have a case for having been snubbed. This post will focus on the Johnson League:

BALTIMORE
IN:
SP LaSalle 11-2, 2.58, 1.12 WHIP
CL Henry 19 sv, 2.60, 1.12 WHIP
2B Black .322, 9, 56, .832 OPS
1B Torres .299, 15, 54, .882 OPS
RF Renner .313, 7, 39, .828 OPS

SNUBBED?
SP Cordero 7-6, 3.05, 1.17 WHIP
It's hard to argue for snubs for the team that placed the most players on the all-star team, but Cordero has a reasonably strong case, with solid numbers across the board, including 11 quality starts.

LOUISVILLE:
IN:
SS Hauser .332, 15, 45, .974 OPS
3B Lueras .310, 11, 41, .921 OPS
C Cruz .270, 17, 47, .887 OPS

SNUBBED?
SP Nastay 8-4, 3.20, 1.13 WHIP
No Louisville pitchers are all-stars in 1996, but if any has a case, it's Nastay. Excellent numbers across the board; opponents are hitting just .209 against him.

WASHINGTON:
IN:
3B Davidson .270, 14, 41, .831 OPS

SNUBBED?
SP Howell 6-4, 3.12, 0.98 WHIP
Howell's case is made on WHIP alone, really. Probably hurt by low innings totals due to low endurance. But very solid numbers thusfar.

GREENVILLE:
IN:
SP(?) Logan 23 sv, 2.16, 1.15 WHIP

SNUBBED?
CF Hayes .314, 4, 17, .813 OPS
Hayes gets recognized here for his solid numbers at the top of the order, in particular his 24 steals (which are perhaps offset by being caught 8 times).

MADISON:
IN:
CL Dever 20 sv, 2.62, 1.22 WHIP
1B Lee .294, 17, 52, .911 OPS
RF Moniz .302, 12, 49, .901 OPS

SNUBBED?
SP Barbosa 7-5, 2.35, 1.13 WHIP
Madison has gotten good season out of several starters, but Barbosa's ERA--good for 5th best in the entire MBBA--puts him a class above.

OMAHA:
IN:
SP Vanness 9-3, 1.55, 0.87 WHIP
SP Mitrani 10-4, 3.04, 1.19 WHIP
1B Greene .332, 9, 37, .955 OPS

SNUBBED?
LF Elsner .301, 12, 49, .858 OPS
A very good year for Elsner in his debut in the MBBA, after clubbing 42 homers in the AABA last season.

PHOENIX:
IN:
CL Washington 18 sv, 1.39, 1.08 WHIP

SNUBBED?
SP Nebraska 5-6, 2.52, 0.96 WHIP
Several snub candidates for Phoenix on both offense and defense, but Nebraska gets the nod in spite of his losing record. His other numbers are uniformly good. Opponents are hitting just .208 off of him, and he's put up 11 quality starts out of 15 total.

CHICAGO:
IN:
SP Steadman 10-8, 1.94, 1.02 WHIP
CL Wasson 18 sv, 1.91, 1.24 WHIP
CF Malkowski .300, 19, 41, .939 WHIP
1B Fort .299, 8, 42, .847 OPS

SNUBBED?
SP Nepal 7-7, 2.96, 1.11 WHIP
It'd be hard to argue that a last place team with four all-stars had any snubs, but Nepal has the best case. 19 starts already due to Chicago's 4-man rotation.

VALENCIA:
IN:
CL Braunstein 19 sv, 2.35, 0.85 WHIP

SNUBBED?
1B Jackson .272, 18, 48, .812 OPS
Sort of the opposite of Chicago here, where we have a first-place team with just one all-star. Lots of candidates here, but Jackson leads the pack, with excellent power and run productions as Valencia's #3 hitter.

CALIFORNIA:
IN:
SP Rebhan 7-4, 2.58, 1.06 WHIP
CL Taylor 20 sv, 5.93, 1.79 WHIP
C Reyes .290, 13, 42, .866 OPS
RF Benson .298, 4, 22, .776 OPS

SNUBBED?
Sp Combs 8-8, 2.84, 1.01 WHIP
Solid numbers for Combs, but the bigger surprise here: how the hell did Taylor (he of the -5.8 VORP) actually qualify as an all-star???

VANCOUVER:
IN:
LF Manville .271, 19, 54, .934 OPS

SNUBBED?
1B Plantier .248, 22, 54, .770 OPS
I know the average is low, and he has an anemic .273 OBP, but those power numbers at least deserve a second glance.

HAWAII:
IN:
RF Quintero .296, 11, 31, .802 OPS

SNUBBED?
SP Palomo 7-5, 3.36, 1.33 WHIP
It's honestly hard to find a plausible snub candidate on the Tropics, but Palomo has a winning record for the worst team in the MBBA, and that counts for something, I suppose.

[mikev]

League feature posted by Tedesco23, Baltimore Monarchs GM

Just like I did for the JL, I thought it would be interesting to take a kind of inventory of who made the all-star team, and also to take a quick look at who didn't make it and might have a case for being an all-star. Here goes:

HACKENSACK:
IN:
MR Poso 8 sv, 1.55, 0.91 WHIP
LF Alleyne .321, 1, 18, .858 OPS
CF Mohler .314, 6, 40, .781 OPS

SNUBBED?
SP Neidnagel 7-3, 2.93, 1.11 WHIP
Neidnagel has posted the best WHIP and ERA on what is a deep and talented rotation. He's thrown 122.2 innings in 15 starts, which works out to over 8 innings per start.

ATLANTIC CITY:
IN:
Sp Brochtrup 10-2, 2.94, 1.15 WHIP
CF/C Angle .271, 10, 33, .839 OPS
RF Murphy .296, 15, 34, .896 OPS

SNUBBED?
1B Luna .296, 10, 37, .825 OPS
Luna is one cog in a solid overall offense. He's got 17 doubles already.

MONTREAL:
IN:
SP Rivera 8-3, 2.60, 1.17 WHIP
CF Vanderhugen .332, 17, 50, .972 OPS

SNUBBED?
2B Pere .315, 4, 30, .853 OPS
Pere's easy to miss at the top of Montreal's lineup, but he's putting together a very solid season, with an OBP of .394 to go with 17 doubles and 5 triples.

BUFFALO:
IN:
CL Ripken 16 sv, 2.60, 1.24 WHIP
MR Nilson 5-1, 2.19, 1.05 WHIP

SNUBBED?
SP MacGyver 6-4, 2.74, 1.25
MacGyver is putting together a solid season near the bottom of Buffalo's rotation. He's the only starter with a winning record on the struggling team.

AUSTIN:
IN:
CL Wendon 15 sv, 1.52, 0.73 WHIP
3B Barfoot .311, 13, 36, .869 OPS

SNUBBED?
SP Dickson 5-8, 2.49, 1.01 WHIP
Despite a poor record, Austin's ace has had an excellent year, with phenomenal ERA and WHIP and 12 quality starts out of 16 total.

BIRMINGHAM:
IN:
CL Lopez 15 sv, 4.31, 1.15 WHIP
2B Cain .350, 3, 32, .865 OPS
1B Larkin, Jr. .437, 2, 21, 1.161 OPS

SNUBBED?
SP Bodeen 7-2, 2.01, 0.95 WHIP
Perhaps one of the biggest snubs in the entire league. Bodeen has the 4th best ERA in the entire MBBA, and he has an astonishing BB/K ratio, with 13 walks and 125 strikeouts.

DES MOINES:
IN:
SP Harris 11-5, 1.60, 0.97
1B Matsumoto .309, 8, 41, .805 OPS

SNUBBED?
C Cascio .296, 3, 18, .773 OPS
Cascio gets acknowledged here on the basis of an excellent .403 OBP, and 41 runs scored in 64 games.

NEW ORLEANS:
IN:
SP Osborne 8-5, 2.96, 1.32 WHIP

SNUBBED?
SP Fagg 6-4, 2.48, 1.18 WHIP
Fagg has quietly put together a very good year near the bottom of the Crawdads' rotation.

LAS VEGAS:
IN:
SP Madorin 10-3, 2.86, 1.29 WHIP
CL Avalos 20 sv, 1.67, 0.80 WHIP
3B Picou .306, 15, 59, .850 OPS
SS Williams .316, 5, 28, .786 OPS

SNUBBED?
1B Lynch .315, 13, 36, .934 OPS
So many players have contributed to the Hustlers' great 1996 season thusfar, but Lynch has been right in the thick of it, posting a 24.2 VORP to this point.

CALGARY:
IN:
SP Vazquez 9-4, 2.75, 0.92 WHIP
C Avatar .324, 13, 39, .904 OPS
RF Iraq .348, 10, 40, .977 OPS

SNUBBED?
SP Plemel 9-4, 2.40, 1.27 WHIP
Plemel has a rock-solid case to be an all-star, with excellent numbers across the board. He's got 13 quality starts out of 16, and he's given up just three home runs in those 16 starts.

LONG BEACH:
IN:
SS Jackson .323, 10, 26, .891 OPS
1B Sale .307, 12, 43, .912 OPS

SNUBBED?
CF Ashley .323, 7, 26, .827 OPS
Not an overwhelming case here, but in a year of low averages, anything over .320 is worth noting.

SEATTLE:
IN:
RF Kelly .420, 4, 29, 1.001 OPS
SNUBBED?
CF Pennebaker .300, 16, 48, .904 OPS
There's several players on the Storm who could make all-star cases, but Pennebaker gets the nod here for all-around solid numbers as the #4 hitter on the Storm.

[mikev]

1996 Amateur Draft Recap

Since the big league club totally sucks, we're going to do what we can and look towards the future. That said, here's the recap from the Crawdad's 1996 Amateur Draft: Our first 2 picks now show up in our top prospect list

SP Joaquin Adonte (Round 1, Pick 7, 7th overall Pick). - Adonte is an 18 year old 10/9/9, 14 endurance monster with a fastball that can touch 94mph. He also features a changeup and a splitter for his out pitch. He'll start in single A, and looks to be an Ace in training.

2B Doug "Pogo" Wells (Round 1, Pick 11, 11th overall Pick) - Defense be damned, Wells 8/10/9/5/7 talent set as a middle infielder are impressive. He projects to be an offensive powerhouse if he develops, but will probably see some time at first base in the minors to hide his subpar defense.

CF Broderick "Bud" Bundyt (Round 1, Pick 19, 19th overall Pick). - Bundy may very well be my favorite pick in the draft. His 7/8/2/7/7 talents are nothing spectacular, but since I have a gigantic mancrush on Dash Kelly and Bundy has slightly better talents, I'm in love with the guy.

MR Esteban Garcia (Round 2, Pick 7, 31st overall Pick) - Good endurance, decent stuff and control, movement off the charts. He gets more groundballs than flyballs, and has the ability to pitch 3 or 4 innings in relief. We like him, and he could be an "uberMR" in the future.

SS Trace Wilcox (Round 2, Pick 19, 43rd overall Pick) - Low contact, decent eye, above average defense. Hopefully Wilcox will develop into a serviceable utility player, and will get some time at second and third to (hopefully) develop both of those positions as well, making him a more valuable defensive player.

MR Tetsu Yama****a (Round 3, Pick 7, 55th overall Pick) - Getting a 7/6/7 lefty in the 3rd round isn't bad at all, especially when he throws 90pmh and features a screwball! He could be a decent reliever, but realistically probably needs a bump to be anything more than a back of the bullpen guy.

MR Billy Simpkins (Round 3, Pick 15, 63rd overall Pick) - If getting a 7/6/7 lefty with pick 55 isn't bad, then getting a 7/7/6 lefty who throws even harder and has more endurance at #63 is downright cool. It's hard to fathom a guy who throws 95mph as only having a 7 Stuff rating, but whatever. Our pitching prospects suck, and this guy makes them better.

CF Marcel Dufort (Round 5, Pick 7, 103rd overall Pick) - CPU pick. Uh, he's kinda fast I guess.

C Blayne Davis (Round 6, Pick 7, 127th overall Pick) - CPU Pick. Minor league filler. Good defensive rating at Catcher, but not a lot else to look at here.

RF Kamatari Shirane (Round 7, Pick 7, 151st overall Pick) - CPU Pick. He's actually not a horrible pick at 151, with an 8 gap rating at least there's something to work with, and he's got plus speed to go along with a 20 rating in RF. Still, probably a career minor leaguer.

2B Cubert Leister (Round 8, Pick 7, 175th overall Pick). - CPU Pick. Q-BERT! NICE!

LF Heinz Rickerly (Round 9, Pick 7, 199th overall Pick) - CPU Pick. Heinz Ketchup = Pretty freaking good. Heinz Right Fielder = Not so good.

SP Jon Hamilton (Round 10, Pick 7, 223rd overall Pick) - CPU Pick. 3 stuff, 4 movement, 16 endurance. He's going to give up about a million runs in his career.

1B Arturo Abasta (Round 11, Pick 7, 247th overall Pick) - CPU Pick. This low in the draft, a guy with 6's across the board who will probably be a decent minor leaguer isn't bad. He'll probably never make the bigs.

MR Cal McSourley (Round 12, Pick 7, 271st overall Pick) - CPU Pick. He's McCrappy.

1B Pedro Cavazos (Round 13, Pick 7, 295th overall Pick) - CPU Pick. This guy might be the slowest player ever, but somehow he's got a 20 rating at 1B. I'm going to stick him in center field.

MR Ted Honaker (Round 14, Pick 7, 319th overall Pick) - CPU Pick. Whoa, wait a second here. You're telling me that there were 318 players on the board better than this guy? I mean ****, he's not a world beater and he's got low stuff, but 7 movement, 6 control, 71% groundball rating, and above average fielder for a pitcher. Please just give him one little bump, and this dude could make the bigs.

MR M. van Schaack (Round 15, Pick 7, 343rd overall Pick) - Not bad, an 8 in movement and pretty good endurance for a reliever. For a 15th round pick, whatever.

[mikev]

39-53. We're out of it, we've been out of it, and we're not gonna get back in it. That was expected this season, can't forget that. We're supposed to be bad. Gotta remember that.

Hey, Willie Williams won the POW award. Good job. Take off that Mets hat, a**hole. Of course once Tipper Kengos (no I will not trade you Kengos) gets rolling, with an OBP just a hair below .400, he gets hurt. At least it's only for another week, because our offense still totally sucks.

The good news is that help should be on the way. By on the way, I mean in the next couple seasons. Ninteen year old Rogelio Morales earned himself a promotion to AA after posting a solid .807 OPS in A ball, with 12 homers and more walks (43) than strikeouts (41). Hopeully playing against better talent will help jumpstart his ratings growth. Speaking of ratings growth, what does Rolland Plemons have to do to get some increases? He's gota .371 OBP, a bunch of doubles, 54 walks and only 37 strikeouts but his power won't develop. I guess a 22 year old in AAA is acceptable. Oh, and ping: Jeremy - .963 OPS in 22 games so I figured A ball wasn't where he should have been.

My current dark horse to win a spot on the Crawdads sooner rather than later: Bud Bundy, who has a .462 OBP in his first month, and already has a 10 overall contact and avoid Ks. I don't think my love affair with Dash Kelly is a secret, and Bundy could very well be better than Kelly Oh BTW, Kelly is still hitting .400. Insanity. ickles:

On the mound, Donovan Osborne continues to have a career year (which, of course, is obvious since it's his walk year), George Fagg continues to make himself invaluable to the team. Hell, even Nate Minchey has decent numbers this year. Recently promoted Paul Alfred is showing that he belongs in the bigs. He's made 2 starts, both wins, the first an 8 inning 1 run performance against Des Moines, the second a complete game 4 hitter against Hackensack, with 8 Ks and only 2 walks. We'll take it.

In an attempt to improve the crappy bullpen, the team has placed a waiver claim on Joe Shippee, who will be featured as the teams lefty specialist. This probably means that Abdal Tutmosa will be waived to the minors to make room.

Upcoming Schedule

7/12 - @ Las Vegas

7/13 - v. Seattle
7/14 - v. Seattle
7/15 - v. Seattle

7/16 - v. Calgary
7/17 - v. Calgary
7/18 - v. Calgary

7/20 - @ Montreal
7/21 - @ Montreal

[mikev]

A flurry of moves at the deadline for New Orleans

In a trade season that was relatively busy, the Crawdads made a quick flurry of moves, once involving the de facto team Ace, and another seeing a ridiculous salary brought on.

The first trade:

Long Beach sends:
SP Charlie Lindquist
IF Donnie Rotten
1997 1st round pick
1997 3rd round pick
New Orleans sends:
1B Albert Merico

Obviously a salary dump for LBC, but as talks with Hawaii for taking on the contract of Tim McGraw had died down, and Long Beach was extremely eager to move Rotten's estimated 28 million dollars owed over the remaining season and next year. It's definitely a hefty sum, but the 30 million dollar team payroll, combined with the fact that New Orleans would have been well above the league's cash max anyways, led to the completion of the deal.

"The way we looked at it, that money was literally gone if we didn't use it," said GM Mike Voelker. "We're already near the maximum amount of cash on hand for the season, so essentially we're getting a better than average pitcher and 2 picks for free."

It's slightly ironic that Rotten's contract would be dumped onto New Orleans, as the Crawdads were the ones who signed him to the initial deal and he was sent to Long Beach to alleviate salary cap hell several seasons ago.

In Lindquist, New Orleans gets a 23 year old pre-arbitration starter who is fully developed and already doing well in the MBBA. He sports an ERA below 4.00, strikes out nearly a batter an inning, and walks less than 3 per game. The front office is excited, when looking at his above average .340 BABIP, expecting it to regress to league average will make his stats look that much better. He'll immediately have a slot in the rotation, mostly due to the second trade:

Valencia sends:
1B Ernest Van Pelt
New Orleans sends:
SP Donovan Osborne

So, officially, thats THREE #1 starters that New Orleans has traded since the end of last season. Osborne had indicated that he wanted to test the free agent market after the team was leery of inking him to a deal worth over 8M per season earlier in the year. The decision to make a deal involving Osborne was made at the 11th hour, and the list of teams that were even available to deal with was slim. "We put out some feelers, but there just wasn't enough time to wait for responses, so we went with what we could." said Voelker.

It just so happened that Voelker ran into Valencia Stars GM Anthony Puhl as Puhl was stumbling out of an, ahem, Gentleman's Club. Puhl jumped at the chance to aquire Osborne, and agreed to deal Vanpelt with little hesitation.

Vanpelt is a first baseman without much pop, but he sprays the ball to all fields and is a fantastic baserunner. His plate discipline leaves something to be desired, but so far in the minors he's had very good numbers, putting up an .803 OPS in his first full season in AA as a 21 year old.

Combining the two deals, the team probably got an upgrade at SP and 2 extra high draft picks in exchange for a pitcher who wasn't resigning anyways and (possibly) 28 million dollars. If somehow the team convinces Rotten to retire at the end of the season, the total cash outlay drops to about 7 million, which would make the team ecstatic.

[mikev]

End Of Season Report

Finishing the season 67-95, the Crawdads mercifully saw the end of a rebuilding year and will have yet another Top 10 pick in next year's Ammy Draft (#3 overall).

The end of season awards will be brief, as there wasn't a whole lot to be excited about. The team had turned towards the future, with youngsters like Tsukasa Sato, Jason Stucky, and Tipper Kengos getting vast amounts of playing time. Obviously this would backfire, as Sato's talents would be shredded to the point of probably being a 5th outfielder at best. Kengos, who the team was VERY cautious with promoting in order to avoid bringing him up early and lumping, did just that. 7/8/2/9/9 talents should still be a serviceable MBBA'er though, hopefully. Then again, this is the New Orleans Crawdads we're talking about, and everybody knows that this team is cursed.

Batter Of The Year

1B Willie Williams - Williams basically wins this by defaultt. Everybody else on the team hits like ****, so the only guy who is reasonably productive is going to lead New Orleans in basically every offensive category. It'll be interesting to see how badly he kills me with his arbitration this year.

Pitcher Of The Year

SP Nate Minchey - Minchey was clearly the most valuable starter on the team. He lead the team in a majority of pitching categories including Wins, IP, Complete Games, and VORP.

Reliever Of The Year

Gunga Oogalagunga - You all know it was coming, but nobody else in my bullpen was worth a ****. Gunga had 35 saves, a 1.18 WHIP, struck out nearly a batter an inning, and hardly walked anybody. He cracked the 500 save mark this year, currently at 522, and he's got 101 wins on his career as well. That means out of the 1,080 games he's been involved in during his career, 623 of them have been victories. I guess .576 is a decent winning percentage (FYI, only one team had a winning percentage higher than that this year). In short, F U to all the HOF naysayers. I'll Wagner him in anyways.

Rookie Of The Year

CF Tipper Kengos - Kengos was supposed to be a monster. One of the best prospects in teh MBBA, his 9/8/2/10/9 talents were the stuff that superstars are made of. After a slow start, his OBP crept up towards .400 and he was playing like expected. Then the lumps came to Contact and Strikeouts, and he's now sitting below a .700 OPS. Great.

[mikev]

With the 1996 Regular Season having come to a close in the MBBA, we're going to have a brief recap of the postseason, starting with Round 1, The DoubleDay Series:

Doubleday Series Game 1

JL
Baltimore vs. Valencia: Valencia 4 - Baltimore 3. Lasalle and Hollins would battle to a 2-2 tie after 8 innings and leave it up to the bullpens. Valencia would prevail in the end. Valencia leads series 1-0.

Washington vs. Phoenix: Phoenix 5 - Washington 3. The Phoenix bats would prevale by scattering 12 hits for 5 runs. Phoenix leads series 1-0.

FL
Las Vegas vs. Hackensack: Las Vegas 14 - Hackensack 1. Las Vegas brought the sticks early and often. Las Vegas leads series 1-0.

Austin vs. Calgary: Calgary 3 - Austin 2. Things would be tied 2-2 at the end of regulation with the Calgary bullpen holding tough in extra innings. Calgary leads series 1-0.

Doubleday Series Game 2

JL
Baltimore vs. Valencia: Valencia 7 - Baltimore 2. The Stars would jump out early and stretch the lead in the later innings. Valencia leads series 2-0.

Washington vs. Phoenix: Phoenix 4 - Washington 1. Again, more hits equals more runs despite solid pitching on both sides. Phoenix leads series 2-0.

FL
Las Vegas vs. Hackensack: Hackensack 5 - Las Vegas 2. Burgundy would go 8 strong innings to cool off the Las Vegas bats. Series tied 1-1.

Austin vs. Calgary: Austin 14 - Calgary 4. Another FL blowout would see Austin score early and often. Series tied 1-1.

Doubleday Series Game 3

JL
Baltimore vs. Valencia: Baltimore 5 - Valencia 4. Baltimore would get into the win column and hold off the Valencia bats as LaSalle goes 8 strong. Valencia leads series 2-1.

Washington vs. Phoenix: Washington 3 - Phoenix 1. Solid pitching on both sides would see Washington come out on top. Phoenix leads series 2-1.

FL
Las Vegas vs. Hackensack: Las Vegas 4 - Hackensack 1. Las Vegas would jump out early and Hackensack could not mount an attack. Las Vegas leads series 2-1.

Austin vs. Calgary: Calgary 8 - Austin 4. Calgary would again jump out to an early lead and despite Austin's best efforts would hold on for the win. Calgary leads series 2-1.

Doubleday Series Game 4

JL
Baltimore vs. Valencia: Baltimore 5 - Valencia 0. 3 run shot by Torres in the 1st sealed the deal for Baltimore. Series tied 2-2.

Washington vs. Phoenix: Washington 2 - Phoenix 1. Scoreless thru 7 and tied at the end on 9. Washington's bullpen would hold on for the win. Series tied 2-2.

FL
Las Vegas vs. Hackensack: Hackensack 7 - Las Vegas 2. Do pitching duels not exist in the FL? Again the Bulls would grab an early lead that Las Vegas could do little about. Series tied 2-2.

Austin vs. Calgary: Calgary 7 - Austin 3. Austin would grab and early lead but the Marauders would not be denied. Calgary wins series 3-1.

Doubleday Series Game 5

JL
Baltimore vs. Valencia: Valencia 5 - Baltimore 1. The LaSalle magic would finally run short as the Stars pounded out 15 hits for the win. Valencia wins series 3-2.

Washington vs. Phoenix: Washington 2 - Phoenix 1. A 2-run shot by Moronobu in the 1st would be all the Bobwhites would need in what would be an excellent pitchers dual. Washington wins series 3-2.

FL
Las Vegas vs. Hackensack: Hackensack 4 - Las Vegas 1. The Bulls would finally prove to be to much and Spivey would go 8 strong to close out the series. Hackensack wins series 3-2.

Congratulations to the Calgary Marauders, Valencia Stars, Washington Bobwhites, and Hackensack Bulls on advancing to the Cartwright Cup and the chance at the Landis Memorial Series!