2081: Desperation in Denver - Page 6

jamus23 · 07-28-2007, 05:38 PM

Lee Chappel: 2081 American League Silver Slugger
11/4/2081
Al Vincent
Staff Writer

Denver catcher, Lee Chappel had a magnificent season; in fact, according to the voters, the most magnificent season of any American League hitter. Chappel was awarded the Silver Slugger today for his efforts. Chappel finished the season with a .342/.439/.723 batting line, with an OPS of a whopping 1.162. Chappel belted 60 doubles, 9 triples, and 42 homeruns, while collecting 158 runs batted in and scoring 135 runs. Most impressive was tremendous batting eye and patience at the plate, evident in his 92/33 walk to strikeout ratio.

Chappel was pleased to be honored in this way. "This means a lot to me. I know there are some really great hitters in this league, and for me to win this award is really something special," he said. Chappel also added, jokingly, "Plus, now Ellis [Bolling] will stop teasing me about not having won one!" For his part, Bolling said nonchalantly, "I've won two."

Denver manager John Wilkerson said there were no players more deserving than Chappel. "Even when the team was struggling a bit, Chappel was always there. He never stopped hitting. And when we began our second half surge, it was Chappel leading the charge. Without Lee, we may not have not have reached the postseason," he stated. Chappel batted .472 with a 1.474 OPS in the month of July, and .407 with a 1.425 OPS in the month of August. He also belted 11 HR in the final month of the season.

jamus23 · 07-28-2007, 06:00 PM

Primary Offseason Task Accomplished: Bolling Resigns
11/5/2081
Al Vincent
Staff Writer

With another season come and gone, it was time for Denver GM John Mounts to begin making decisions on what free agency eligible players to retain and which to say goodbye to. First and foremost among them was 33 year old first-baseman Ellis Bolling. The two time Silver Slugger had been making $9.5 million. Denver announced today that he agreed to resign with the Broncos on a three year, $10.5 million contract- an increase of $1 million. Mounts was pleased at the terms of the deal, saying that "like John Dear was, I want Ellis to be a Bronco for life." Bolling said that he "couldn't imagine playing for a team other than Denver."

In other news, 37 year old DH Mark Bakke agreed to resign for $1 million for one year. This is a decrease by $1.5 million from his previous contract. Also, 31 year old reliever Leo Salguero agreed to a 3 year deal worth $2.5 million. This was the first year Salguero could have been eligible for free agency, and the contract is a sizable increase from his ~$600,000 one. Mounts said that keeping Salguero was "important to maintaining the stability of the bullpen", and that he was confident that Bakke has "at least another good year left in him."

Denver's only remaining free agents are Michael Grace, Patrick Chason, Norman Cadet, Johnnie Sermons, Ronald Matamoros, Christopher Hosler, Levi Twigg, and David Pasco. None, except perhaps Chason, are likely to be retained, though it always possible that Mounts will seek them out once free agency begins.

jamus23 · 08-02-2007, 04:21 PM

Don't Expect Much Action This Free Agency Period
1/31/2082
Al Vincent
Staff Writer

A year ago, the Broncos made a rare splash in free agency, signing centerfielder Russell Thomas. That kind of noise isn't expected this offseason. Firstly, GM John Mounts feels that the team is pretty much set, and there aren't many areas that can be easily improved. Secondly, Mounts has also indicated that the team's budget this year is not sufficient to be adding any significant pieces. This, of course, has led to rumors that the Broncos may be looking to cut some of their payroll by trading some of the more expensive players on the roster. The most likely candidates would seem to be veteran relief pitcher Steven Andrade, who has one year remaining on his $5 million contract, and 33 year old left-fielder Alexis Vazquez, who is owed $3 million. The fact that the team has no obvious replacement for Vazquez has done little to quell the rumors. Neither has the non-answer given by Mounts in regard to the rumors: "For the right price, every player is tradeable."

In any event, it is too bad that Denver isn't planning on entering the free agent market. There are a number of big names that would look nice in a Denver uniform. Carl Strothers, despite coming off of an 18 loss season (due in large part to getting traded to hapless Green Bay a year ago), is a 2 time 20 game winner, and is just 29 years old. He is easily the best pitcher on the market. Closer James Smith is likely the second best pitcher available. Thirty-one years old, and coming off of a 30 save, 2.91 ERA season, Smith would seem to be a great addition to a bullpen that spent much of last season blowing leads.

As for hitters, the best available is likely 28 year old second-baseman, Eric Phillips. Phillips has an excellent glove, and posted an .858 OPS in 2081, with 27 homeruns. First-baseman Thomas Stallman, third-baseman Robin Vega, and left-fielder Joshua Kier represent the biggest sluggers on the market, but there are a number of other attractive hitters available.

The most plentiful position appears to be short-stop. No fewer than six starting SS from a year ago are available in the free agent crop. Granted, at least one of them, 38 year old Berny Morales, is likely finished as a starting caliber player- witness his .566 OPS last season- but several of the others would certainly be an upgrade over Denver's Booker Romero...

As it is, the only are where Denver is likely to be active is in the backup catcher department. After trading backup Eric Fudge last season, veteran Michael Grace filled in admirably down the stretch. Grace was allowed to leave as a free agent, but Denver may try to bring him back. Interestingly, several of the other options are also former Denver catchers. Matthew Cendejas, now 38 years old, played for the Broncos in the early '70s. Cendejas still possesses a strong arm, and excellent plate discipline. David Jagger was the backup catcher before Fudge. The 34 year old Jagger also has a strong arm, but his hitting skills are questionable at this point. Roy Isenhour was a "third string" catcher for Denver for several seasons, splitting time between AAA and the majors. Although younger than the other options, and also the owner of a strong arm, Denver is not likely to target Isenhour. With a left-handed hitting starting catcher, the Broncos would prefer a right-handed backup. The switch-hitting Isenhour has never hit particularly well against left-handed pitchers.

jamus23 · 08-02-2007, 05:03 PM

2/1/2082 and 2/2/2081

Washington makes the big early splash, signing closer James Smith to a three year, $4.9 million contract. This was followed by the signing of 24 year old SS Santiago Pina, who put up a .735 OPS with 12 homers last season, to a 4 year, $5.2 million deal.

Also on the 2nd, Hartford signed speedy, slap-hitting RF Richard Herb to a 3 year, $3.2 million deal.

2/3/2082

Miami replaced Richard Herb by signing Dennis Fernandez to a 2 year, $3.5 million deal. Fernandez is 33, three years older than Herb, is just as fast, but has more power.

2/4/2082

Knoxville grabbed slugging LF Joshua Kier for a 3 year, $6.4 million deal. Kier is 28, and just posted an .876 OPS, 33 HR, 111 BB season.

2/6/2082 and 2/8/2082

Rochester was the next team to make a splash, though not necessarily a good one, signing 28 year old SS Anthony Champ, who hit 21 HR last season, to a 3 year, $3.9 million deal, and then the 34 year old LF Allen Costner to a 5 (!) year, $3.7 million contract. Costner put up a .754 OPS with 18 HR. The Champ contract is fine, but 5 years to a guy like Costner is absurd. It may not be the worst contract doled out, but I'm getting ahead of myself...

2/9/2081

Sacramento emerged with the prize of the offseason, signing Carl Strothers to a 5 year, $7.1 million deal. This is a fine deal. Strothers is among the most talented pitchers in the game, and is in the prime of his career.

2/10/2081

Denver brought back catcher Michael Grace on a 1 year deal for $700,000. And effort was made to sign Cendejas, but he went to Harrisburg for $990,000 for one year.

This news, however, paled in comparison to two other signings.

Denver's archrival, Tucson, announced the signings of 1B Thomas Stallman (4 years, $7.5 million) and 3B Robin Vega (3 years, $2.3 million). Stallman is 28 years old, and posted an OPS of .841 with 30 HR and 118 BB. Vega is 25 years old, and posted a .791 OPS with 35 HR.

2/12/2082

In what is likely to be another bad contract, Harrisburg signed closer Edward Lovejoy to a 3 year, $6 million deal. That deal wouldn't be so bad if Lovejoy wasn't 35 years old.

2/15/2081

In another deal of utmost importance to Denver, number two rival Memphis announced the signing of 2B Eric Phillips to a 3 year, $5.8 million deal. This is rather disheartening. While Denver has been standing pat this offseason, 2 of the 3 biggest free agent hitters, plus another very good one, have gone to the primary rivals of the Broncos. This should certainly make things interesting this season...

2/17/2081

And finally, what is likely to be the worst contract of the offseason. Harrisburg, having already thrown a ton of money at a 35 year old closer, decided to try and top that. Harrisburg signed pitcher Josue Gorman to a 4 year, $7.7 million deal. Gorman was once the best strikeout pitcher in the league, but he always flirted with shaky control, and served up lots of homeruns. He's going to be 36 in May, and age has taken its toll. He is still a decent K pitcher, with 182 last season, but his control is largely shot- he walked 107 batters- and he just isn't that effective anymore, posting an ERA of 5.09, while allowing an NL-leading 64 HR. Worse, the team he pitched for last season, Sacramento, has a stadium that is slightly favorable to pitchers, especially in terms of homeruns. Harrisburg's stadium is the opposite, favoring hitters slightly.

This is not a good contract, no matter how you look at it.

3/2/2082

Denver signed three players to minor league contracts. Infielder Patrick Chason, who played for Denver last season, and a pair of relief pitcher, right-hander George Treadway, and left-hander Bobby Villanueva. The pitchers are 33 and 32, respectively.

jamus23 · 08-02-2007, 05:14 PM

Of Denver's 4 picks in this year's amateur draft, there was a definite trend. Firstly, three of the four players are pitchers. Secondly, all three pitchers look like they will induce lots of groundballs.

With the 21st pick in the first round, Denver selected right-handed pitcher Thomas Fons. Fons is 23 years old, and is a workhorse who fields his position well, in addition to his groundball tendencies.

In the second round, the Broncos took a 20 year old right-handed relief pitcher, Howard Johnson. Johnson throws hard, and throws strikes.

In the third round, another starting pitcher was taken. Right-handed Rafael Alvarez is 22 years old, and throws hard.

Denver's last selection was the only hitter that they took. Joel Castillo is a 19 year old right-fielder. He has good speed and covers alot of ground in the outfield. His bat is pretty raw, though. Fortunately, at 19, he has plenty of time to develop.

jamus23 · 08-04-2007, 06:42 PM

Well, for last season, it was necessary to introduce all of the players on Denver's team. I'm not sure that it is really necessary for this year. The opening day roster is almost identical to the roster that finished last season.

At catcher, Lee Chappel is the starter. Veteran Michael Grace has been brought back to be Chappel's backup.

Ellis Bolling is still the first-baseman. Tomas Sato is the second-baseman. Joseph Swayze is the third-baseman. Booker Romero is the shortstop. Jack Rumfelt and Michael Phillips will handle the utility infield duties.

Alexis Vazquez, Russell Thomas, and Asbel Fuentez are the starting outfielders, with Armando Navarro filling the role of reserve outfielder. It would be nice to have a second backup outfielder, though, but I will get to why that isn't feasible at the moment.

Mark Bakke remains the designated hitter.

The rotation is Kenny Pillsbury, Robert McNett, Ray Lockridge, Christopher Kirk, and George Buentello. Unfortunately, Larry Waltz, who was a valuable shot in the arm in the second half of last season, will be going back to AAA. If Buentello struggles as the fifth starter, however, Waltz will be first in line to get a turn.

The bullpen is staffed by James Virgen, Ramon Gomez, Leo Salguero, Steven Andrade, Fred Lemire, Robert Soto, and rookie Lyndon Gwinn. It's one more relief pitcher than I would like, but the player I would like to trade, Andrade, is proving to be untradeable, and I'm reluctant to trade any of the others. For now, this prevents me from carrying a fifth outfielder. We'll see, though. Perhaps it will work itself out in some fashion.

The most concerning thing right now, is Denver's minor league system, which is absolutely barren of any upper level prospects. Outfielder Marvin Lore is the only prospect of note above AA, and he is likely a platoon outfielder, at best: A poor fielder, mediocre power, mediocre plate discipline.

The rest of AAA is filled with with marginal career minor league types, with a few mediocre players who have seen a sizable amount of major league at bats/innings pitched.

The lower levels have a few interesting players, but not much that really jumps out at you.

This puts Denver at an interesting point. The major league roster is strong, and isn't particularly old; Bakke will need to be replaced next season, but every other position should have at least 3-4 years of productivity left, and most will have more than that. However, the team is also beginning to get expensive. The payroll last season ended up right around the upper limits of Denver's budget, but with a few players getting salary-increasing contract extensions, and several others going through arbitration, that payroll has jumped quite a bit. It is still manageable right now, but there are also quite a few free agents to be at the end of this season, and it will be expensive to retain them all. The barren minor league system compounds this situation, because there aren't any ready replacements for players who might leave. Come late July, I suspect some important decisions regarding the future of the team are going to need to be made.

Now for three things regarding the dynasty report:

1. Unlike last season, I don't think I will be recapping every game. It was certainly interesting, but it also took longer than I would like. I don't want to breeze through things, exactly, but I would prefer a quicker pace. This also means that I won't be playing out every single game for Denver. As I have tended not to do that in the past, it was a new experience in some ways. Unfortunately, I felt that it changed the way that I play the game, and not necessarily for the better. For example, there were some transactions that I wound up making that I would not have made normally. Playing out every game, and experiencing the highs and lows that come with that, made me more impatient with players. Simming out games, I would likely have just ridden out the poor peformance of a player for awhile. Playing out the games, I felt as though I had to do something right away. I don't like that.

2. As the 2082 season begins, there are a couple of players who are rapidly approaching some important milestones:

-Rochester CF Santiago Serrato is just 36 hits away from all time leader, Felipe Mira. Mira had 3,826 hits and Serrato begins the season with 3,790.

-Hartford 2B Ricky Vega is within striking distance of one milestone, and will likely join the top 3 in another milestone. Vega currently ranks tied for third all time in RBI, with 2,214 (he is tied with Earl Quon). The aforementioned Felipe Mira is second with 2,218. Danny Homan is the all time leader, with 2,255. So, Vega needs 5 RBI to pass up Mira, and 42 to pass up Homan. Ricky Vega also ranks 6th on the career homerun list with 637. While the top two spots (Donald Murillo with 691 and Christopher Bohanon with 670) are likely out of reach, he needs only 3 HR to pass up William Byrd, 5 to pass up Hector Abad, and 9 to pass up James Paras. That would put him into third place on the list. In addition to the RBI and HR lists, Vega is also 10th all time in hits. 115 hits this season would leapfrog him into 5th place.

-Lastly, Rochester starting pitcher Segundo Narbaiza is inching closer to being the all time wins leader. He won't do it this season, as he needs 45 wins to top the all time leader, Robert Padgett(339). He won't get to second place this year either, as he needs 41 to surpass the number two guy, Robert Jordan(335). However, he needs one win to break a tie with Jeremy Poss for fourth place(295), five wins to become just the 4th player ever to reach 300 wins, and 26 wins to move into a tie for third place with Robert McComas(321). Now, 26 wins may seem like a lot, but Narbaiza has won 26, 27, and 26 in the last three seasons, and hasn't yet shown signs of decline. It is definitely doable for him, and if he does, Padgett and Jordan could very well fall in 2083.

What I would like to do is, in addition to my reports on how Denver is doing, to include updates on these players as they approach these important records.

3. Lastly, and this is somewhat related to item #2, I would like to point out that the 2082 season represents the 80th season of this league. In recognition of that, I also plan on talking about the Hall of Famers of this league. As the season progresses, I will do a write up about each of the Hall of Famers, starting with the very first inductee, Scott Border (a player that I have mentioned a few times before already in this report). I feel this might be an interesting way to get a picture of this league's history.

Also, I invite anyone who might wonder about anything- stats, records, champions, etc.- that has transpired in 80 years of baseball, to feel free to ask. I'd like to share as much as possible, not just about the current season, but about the entirety of the league's history. If I can answer the question, I will certainly do so.

jamus23 · 08-05-2007, 03:13 PM

4/1/2082 to 4/6/2082

Denver @ Grand Rapids (5-2 victory)
Denver @ Grand Rapids (10-3 victory)
Denver @ Grand Rapids (8-3 victory)
Denver @ Charlotte (9-3 victory)
Denver @ Charlotte (9-3 victory)

The Broncos opened the season in impressive fashion. Kenny Pillsbury pitched a complete game in the season opener, with 10 strikeouts, and the Broncos went on to sweep the Tigers in three games. Backed by strong starting pitching and hot bats, the Broncos have also won the first two games of a 4 game series against Charlotte. Through one week of play, the Broncos are the only undefeated team.

Lee Chappel picked up where he left off last season, by going 12 for 24, with 5 doubles, 1 triple, 3 homeruns, 8 runs batted in, and 10 runs scored in the first week of the season. This was good enough to win the Player of the Week award.

Alexis Vazquez was also a strong performer, going 10 for 21, with a double, 2 homeruns, 7 runs batted in, and 5 runs scored. He reached 200 homeruns in his career, as well.

Asbel Fuentez stole the 600th base of his career, moving him into a tie for 13th place (Joseph Barnhill) on the all time stolen base list. Fuentez has a strong chance of moving into the top 10 in stolen bases this season, needing only 28 more to accomplish that.

jamus23 · 08-05-2007, 03:27 PM

Hits:

Code:

 #  Career       Hits H 
 1  F. Mira      3826 
 2  S. Serrato*  3792 
 3  S. Piche     3770 
 4  P. Sanchez   3447 
 5  C. Romeo     3383 
 6  D. Homan     3360 
 7  F. Cobos     3343 
 8  T. Guerrero  3301 
 9  K. Bryant    3294 
10  R. Vega*     3272

Homeruns:

Code:

#  Career     HRs HR 
1  D. Murillo 691 
2  C. Bohanon 670 
3  J. Paras   645 
4  H. Abad    641 
5  W. Byrd    639 
6  R. Vega*   638

Runs Batted In:

Code:

#  Career   RBIs RBI 
1  D. Homan 2255 
2  F. Mira  2218 
3  R. Vega* 2215 
4  E. Quon  2214

Wins:

Code:

#  Career       Wins W 
1  R. Padgett   339 
2  R. Jordan    335 
3  R. Mccomas   321 
4  S. Narbaiza* 296 
5  J. Poss      295

jamus23 · 08-05-2007, 04:26 PM

Scott Border

In 2014, Scott Border became the first player inducted into the Hall of Fame. Throughout the first decade of the league's history, Border was the foremost slugger in the game, first with Portland, and then with Kansas City. In 2004, he became the first player to hit 60 or more homeruns in one season- he hit 62- and then collected 4 more 60 homerun seasons. Until 2081, no other player had ever hit 60 or more in multiple seasons (San Jose's Ugo Momoru became the second last season). In 2005, he posted a career high of 66 homeruns. That remained the NL's single season mark until Emmanuel Maxon hit 70 in the year 2030 while playing for San Diego. Maxon's record still stands today, though a few players have made serious runs at it. In 2007, playing with Kansas City, Border hit 62. That remained the AL's single season mark until Donald Murillo matched it in 2034 with Memphis. In 2074, Denver's own Ellis Bolling joined those two greats in holding the AL single season record.

In 2012, Border became the first player in league history to hit 500 homeruns. He would finish his career with 509. Border remained the career leader in HR until 2018, when Timothy Knight surpassed him. Although Border's career numbers were gradually left in the dust over the league's history- Border dropped out of the top 25 in homeruns in the year 2048- there are few hitters who matched Border's raw power. At his peak, Border's ability to hit homeruns has simply been unmatched by anyone. Additionally, Border's 6 Silver Slugger Awards are the most ever won by a player.

Although Border was not the greatest defensive SS in the league, he did, however, manage to snag a pair of Gold Glove awards, in 2009 and 2010.

Border's career stats:

Code:

Career Batting Stats 
 
 
Year     G   AB    H  2B 3B  HR  RBI   R  BB    K SB CS  AVG  OBP  SLG   OPS Teams 
2003   157  611  156  44  0  51  145  96  38  146  0  0 .255 .299 .578  .877 POR,NL 
2004   156  584  143  38  1  62  154 108  49  127  0  0 .245 .303 .632  .935 POR,NL 
2005   154  619  181  61  0  66  168 118  34  125  0  0 .292 .329 .711 1.040 POR,NL 
2006   158  601  170  56  1  59  139 107  31  121  0  0 .283 .318 .674  .992 POR,NL 
2007   153  631  145  38  0  62  169 107  33  140  0  0 .230 .268 .585  .853 KC 
2008   155  609  165  45  2  60  155 117  45  139  0  0 .271 .321 .647  .968 KC,AL 
2009   154  614  155  43  0  51  151  99  41  150  0  0 .252 .299 .572  .871 KC,AL 
2010   154  609  171  47  0  61  164 116  40  147  1  0 .281 .325 .658  .984 KC 
2011   140  496  116  48  2  26  105  76  24  126  1  1 .234 .269 .496  .765 KC 
2012    65  139   31  12  2   8   29  14   5   31  0  1 .223 .250 .511  .761 KC ROC 
2013    68   87   21   8  0   3   15   8   4   23  1  0 .241 .275 .437  .712 LA 
Total 1514 5600 1454 440  8 509 1394 966 344 1275  3  2 .260 .302 .614  .916   
 
Career Postseason Batting Stats
 
 
Year   G AB  H 2B 3B HR RBI R BB  K SB CS  AVG  OBP  SLG  OPS 
2004   5 19  5  1  1  1   2 4  2  2  0  0 .263 .333 .579 .912 
2005   6 22  6  1  1  0   7 2  3  6  0  0 .273 .360 .409 .769 
2011   6 22  4  0  0  2   4 2  0  9  0  0 .182 .182 .455 .636 
Total 17 63 15  2  2  3  13 8  5 17  0  0 .238 .294 .476 .770 
 
Player History
 
 
Drafted in 2nd round, 26th overall pick, by Portland in 2003...
Had first career hit (homerun) on 4/1/2003, off Louis Dambrosio (LA)...
Won Player of the Week award on 4/7/2003, hitting .367 with 5 HR, 10 RBI...
Drove in 6 runs against Harrisburg on 6/1/2003...
Was selected to the 2003 Allstar game...
Hit 3 homeruns against Hartford, driving in 5 runs on 8/25/2003...
Won Player of the Week award on 9/1/2003, hitting .345 with 6 HR, 10 RBI...
Won Player of the Week award on 9/8/2003, hitting .522 with 3 HR, 7 RBI...
Won Silver Slugger Award in 2003, hitting .255 with 51 HR, 145 RBI...
Drove in 6 runs against Los Angeles on 4/8/2004...
Won Player of the Week award on 4/14/2004, hitting .400 with 6 HR, 14 RBI...
Was selected to the 2004 Allstar game...
Won Silver Slugger Award in 2004, hitting .245 with 62 HR, 154 RBI...
Drove in 6 runs against Los Angeles on 4/3/2005...
Hit 3 homeruns against Los Angeles, driving in 6 runs on 4/26/2005...
Won Player of the Week award on 4/28/2005, hitting .448 with 4 HR, 11 RBI...
Won Batter of the Month award on 5/1/2005, hitting .322 with 11 HR, 38 RBI...
Had 5 hits with 3 RBI against Hartford on 5/18/2005...
Won Batter of the Month award on 6/1/2005, hitting .314 with 12 HR, 26 RBI...
Won Player of the Week award on 6/2/2005, hitting .364 with 5 HR, 11 RBI...
Was selected to the 2005 Allstar game...
Won Player of the Week award on 9/15/2005, hitting .393 with 7 HR, 15 RBI...
Won Batter of the Month award on 10/1/2005, hitting .299 with 13 HR, 34 RBI...
Won Silver Slugger Award in 2005, hitting .292 with 66 HR, 168 RBI...
Won Player of the Week award on 5/5/2006, hitting .400 with 4 HR, 12 RBI...
Hit 3 homeruns against San Diego, driving in 7 runs on 6/4/2006...
Won Player of the Week award on 6/9/2006, hitting .321 with 5 HR, 11 RBI...
Won Batter of the Month award on 7/1/2006, hitting .299 with 13 HR, 30 RBI...
Was selected to the 2006 Allstar game...
Won Player of the Week award on 7/28/2006, hitting .500 with 2 HR, 7 RBI...
Won Batter of the Month award on 8/1/2006, hitting .303 with 12 HR, 25 RBI...
Won Player of the Week award on 8/4/2006, hitting .400 with 6 HR, 11 RBI...
Won Silver Slugger Award in 2006, hitting .283 with 59 HR, 139 RBI...
Signed as a free agent by Kansas City on 2/10/2007 to a 8-year deal worth $10,274,200 per year...
Drove in 6 runs against Tucson on 4/4/2007...
Drove in 6 runs against Memphis on 4/24/2007...
Injured on 6/25/2007 with a Tender Shoulder, out for one week...
Sets a new season AL-Record for RBI with 143 on 8/27/2007...
Won Batter of the Month award on 9/1/2007, hitting .280 with 17 HR, 38 RBI...
Won Player of the Week award on 9/1/2007, hitting .414 with 7 HR, 13 RBI...
Sets a new season AL-Record for HR with 54 on 9/20/2007...
Won Silver Slugger Award in 2007, hitting .230 with 62 HR, 169 RBI...
Won Player of the Week award on 5/19/2008, hitting .467 with 8 HR, 13 RBI...
Won Batter of the Month award on 6/1/2008, hitting .366 with 15 HR, 35 RBI...
Was selected to the 2008 Allstar game...
Drove in 6 runs against Nashville on 7/5/2008...
Won Batter of the Month award on 8/1/2008, hitting .281 with 11 HR, 33 RBI...
Won Player of the Week award on 4/7/2009, hitting .480 with 2 HR, 13 RBI...
Drove in 6 runs against Knoxville on 6/14/2009...
Was selected to the 2009 Allstar game...
Drove in 6 runs against Memphis on 9/3/2009...
Won Gold Glove Award at Shortstop in 2009...
Won Batter of the Month award on 7/1/2010, hitting .318 with 12 HR, 35 RBI...
Drove in 7 runs against Knoxville on 7/26/2010...
Won Player of the Week award on 7/28/2010, hitting .526 with 5 HR, 10 RBI...
Won Player of the Week award on 8/18/2010, hitting .500 with 5 HR, 12 RBI...
Won Silver Slugger Award in 2010, hitting .281 with 61 HR, 164 RBI...
Won Gold Glove Award at Shortstop in 2010...
Drove in 6 runs against Knoxville on 8/13/2011...
Injured on 4/6/2012 with a Inflamed Elbow Ligament, out for one week...
Had 500th career homerun on 5/21/2012, off Joel Maya (MEM)...
Released by Kansas City on 7/17/2012, refused assignment to minors...
Signed as a free agent by Rochester on 7/28/2012 to a 1-year deal worth $340,000 per year...
Signed as a free agent by Los Angeles on 2/3/2013 to a 1-year deal worth $455,100 per year...
Released by Los Angeles on 9/8/2013, refused assignment to minors...
Retired and inducted to the Hall of Fame in 2014.
 
 
Batting Leader Boards Appearances 
 
SLG
2003 - .578 - 1st
2004 - .632 - 1st
2005 - .711 - 1st
2006 - .674 - 1st
2007 - .585 - 2nd
2008 - .647 - 1st
2009 - .572 - 3rd
2010 - .658 - 1st

OPS
2003 -  .877 - 8th
2004 -  .935 - 4th
2005 - 1.040 - 1st
2006 -  .992 - 1st
2007 -  .853 - 9th
2008 -  .968 - 4th
2009 -  .871 - 9th
2010 -  .984 - 3rd

Hits
2005 - 181 - 3rd
2006 - 170 - 8th

Doubles
2003 - 44 - 1st
2004 - 38 - 4th
2005 - 61 - 1st
2006 - 56 - 1st
2007 - 38 - 10th
2008 - 45 - 2nd
2009 - 43 - 3rd
2010 - 47 - 3rd
2011 - 48 - 4th

Homeruns
2003 - 51 - 1st
2004 - 62 - 1st
2005 - 66 - 1st
2006 - 59 - 2nd
2007 - 62 - 1st
2008 - 60 - 1st
2009 - 51 - 1st
2010 - 61 - 1st
 
RBI
2003 - 145 - 1st
2004 - 154 - 1st
2005 - 168 - 1st
2006 - 139 - 2nd
2007 - 169 - 1st
2008 - 155 - 1st
2009 - 151 - 1st
2010 - 164 - 1st

Runs
2003 -  96 - 5th
2004 - 108 - 3rd
2005 - 118 - 1st
2006 - 107 - 2nd
2007 - 107 - 4th
2008 - 117 - 2nd
2009 -  99 - 8th
2010 - 116 - 3rd

jamus23 · 08-05-2007, 04:55 PM

John Caylor

John Caylor had the distinction of being the very first member of this league. Hartford made Caylor the first player taken in the inaugural draft in 2003. Although Caylor's career numbers don't really scream "Hall of Famer!", there is little question of how dominant he was in the early history of the league: Four 20 win seasons, 7 All Star appearances, and three Cy Young Awards. Perhaps more impressive is the fact that Caylor still ranks in the top 5 in ERA in league history. With a 2.90 career ERA, Caylor tanks tied for 5th with Jerrod Jordan.

Caylor never won a World Series, but did have the misfortune of playing on the Memphis team that lost three consecutive World Series to Pittsburgh from 2008 to 2010. It wasn't for lack of effort by Caylor, though. Caylor was brilliant in those three postseason runs, going 8-2 with a sub-3.00 ERA.

Caylor's career numbers:

Code:

Career Pitching Stats 
 
 
Year    G  GS   W   L SV  ERA     IP   HA    R  ER  BB    K CG SHO Teams 
2003   36  36  15   9  0 2.88  265.2  176   88  85  76  281  8   3 HAR,NL 
2004   36  36  23   9  0 2.60  259.2  177   82  75  54  281  2   1 HAR,NL 
2005   36  36  20  13  0 3.29  273.1  204  112 100  53  298  7   1 MEM 
2006   36  36  15  10  0 3.71  245.1  207  115 101  78  262  2   0 MEM 
2007   35  35  23   7  0 2.51  265.0  189   79  74  65  299  4   2 MEM,AL 
2008   35  35  21   7  0 2.17  261.1  183   68  63  63  268  8   5 MEM,AL 
2009   36  36  16  12  0 3.07  267.0  199   98  91  55  277  8   3 MEM 
2010   35  35  19   5  0 1.86  261.0  161   59  54  64  261  4   2 MEM,AL 
2011   38  38  15   9  0 2.27  261.2  166   74  66  80  245  2   1 MEM,AL 
2012   35  35  12   9  0 2.84  225.0  157   86  71  93  150  0   0 MEM 
2013   37  37  13   9  0 3.11  226.0  169   87  78  94  134  0   0 MEM,AL 
2014   35  35   7  16  0 5.50  168.2  189  117 103 109  101  1   1 MEM 
Total 430 430 199 115  0 2.90 2979.2 2177 1065 961 884 2857 46  19   
 
 
Career Postseason Pitching Stats
 
 
Year   G GS W L SV  ERA    IP HA  R ER BB   K CG SHO 
2003   2  2 0 2  0 6.75  12.0 13  9  9  5  14  0   0 
2008   4  4 2 1  0 2.76  29.1 16 10  9  9  31  0   0 
2009   4  4 3 0  0 1.24  29.0 17  4  4  6  29  0   0 
2010   4  4 3 1  0 2.56  31.2 22  9  9  8  35  0   0 
Total 14 14 8 4  0 2.74 102.0 68 32 31 28 109  0   0 
 
Career Batting Stats 
 
 
Year    G  AB  H 2B 3B HR RBI  R BB  K SB CS  AVG  OBP  SLG  OPS Teams 
2003   36  89 15  4  0  0   5  7  3 31  1  0 .169 .196 .213 .409 HAR,NL 
2004   36  89 19  4  0  1   9  9  4 27  0  0 .213 .247 .292 .539 HAR,NL 
2005   36   0  0  0  0  0   0  0  0  0  0  0 .000 .000 .000 .000 MEM 
2006   36   0  0  0  0  0   0  0  0  0  0  0 .000 .000 .000 .000 MEM 
2007   35   0  0  0  0  0   0  0  0  0  0  0 .000 .000 .000 .000 MEM,AL 
2008   35   0  0  0  0  0   0  0  0  0  0  0 .000 .000 .000 .000 MEM,AL 
2009   36   0  0  0  0  0   0  0  0  0  0  0 .000 .000 .000 .000 MEM 
2010   35   0  0  0  0  0   0  0  0  0  0  0 .000 .000 .000 .000 MEM,AL 
2011   38   0  0  0  0  0   0  0  0  0  0  0 .000 .000 .000 .000 MEM,AL 
2012   35   0  0  0  0  0   0  0  0  0  0  0 .000 .000 .000 .000 MEM 
2013   37   0  0  0  0  0   0  0  0  0  0  0 .000 .000 .000 .000 MEM,AL 
2014   35   0  0  0  0  0   0  0  0  0  0  0 .000 .000 .000 .000 MEM 
Total 430 178 34  8  0  1  14 16  7 58  1  0 .191 .222 .253 .474   
 
 
Player History
 
 
Drafted in 1st round, 1st overall pick, by Hartford in 2003...
Had first career hit (double) on 4/1/2003, off Kristofer Winters (HAR)...
Earned first career win on 4/6/2003...
Was selected to the 2003 Allstar game...
Won Pitcher of the Month award on 5/1/2004, going 4-0, 1.62...
Was selected to the 2004 Allstar game...
Won Pitcher of the Month award on 8/1/2004, going 6-0, 1.99...
Hit first career homerun on 9/17/2004, off Louis Dambrosio (LA)...
Won Player of the Week award on 9/29/2004, winning 2 games with a 1.23 ERA...
Won Cy Young Award in 2004, going 23-9, 2.60 ERA...
Signed as a free agent by Memphis on 2/2/2005 to a 5-year deal worth $9,986,900 per year...
Set a new season AL-Record for Strikeouts with 259 on 9/11/2005 ...
Won Pitcher of the Month award on 10/1/2005, going 4-0, 1.98...
Won Pitcher of the Month award on 5/1/2007, going 4-1, 1.82...
Won Pitcher of the Month award on 6/1/2007, going 5-1, 2.87...
Was selected to the 2007 Allstar game...
Won Pitcher of the Month award on 10/1/2007, going 4-0, 1.60...
Won Pitcher of the Month award on 5/1/2008, going 4-0, 1.74...
Won Pitcher of the Month award on 6/1/2008, going 4-1, 2.05...
Won Pitcher of the Month award on 7/1/2008, going 4-1, 0.74...
Was selected to the 2008 Allstar game...
Won Player of the Week award on 7/21/2008, winning 2 games with a 0.00 ERA...
Won Cy Young Award in 2008, going 21-7, 2.17 ERA...
Struck out 15 batters against Knoxville on 4/11/2009...
Won Pitcher of the Month award on 9/1/2009, going 5-1, 2.34...
Won Pitcher of the Month award on 7/1/2010, going 3-0, 1.42...
Was selected to the 2010 Allstar game...
Won Player of the Week award on 7/7/2010, winning one game with a 1.17 ERA...
Won Pitcher of the Month award on 8/1/2010, going 4-0, 2.25...
Won Pitcher of the Month award on 9/1/2010, going 4-1, 1.14...
Won Cy Young Award in 2010, going 19-5, 1.86 ERA...
Won Pitcher of the Month award on 6/1/2011, going 2-2, 1.10...
Was selected to the 2011 Allstar game...
Won Player of the Week award on 7/7/2011, winning one game with a 1.93 ERA...
Won Pitcher of the Month award on 8/1/2011, going 5-0, 1.22...
Was selected to the 2013 Allstar game...
Retired in 2015.
 
 
Pitching Leader Boards Appearances 
 
ERA
2003 - 2.88 - 2nd
2004 - 2.60 - 3rd
2005 - 3.29 - 6th
2006 - 3.71 - 8th
2007 - 2.51 - 2nd
2008 - 2.17 - 1st
2009 - 3.07 - 2nd
2010 - 1.86 - 1st
2011 - 2.27 - 1st
2012 - 2.84 - 1st
2013 - 3.11 - 4th

WHIP
2003 - 0.95 - 1st
2004 - 0.89 - 1st
2005 - 0.94 - 1st
2006 - 1.16 - 2nd
2007 - 0.96 - 1st
2008 - 0.94 - 1st
2009 - 0.95 - 1st
2010 - 0.86 - 1st
2011 - 0.94 - 1st
2012 - 1.11 - 2nd
2013 - 1.16 - 3rd

Wins
2003 - 15 - 8th
2004 - 23 - 1st
2005 - 20 - 1st
2007 - 23 - 2nd
2008 - 21 - 1st
2009 - 16 - 6th
2010 - 19 - 2nd
2011 - 15 - 8th

Losses
2014 - 16 - 4th

IP
2003 - 265.2 - 1st
2004 - 259.2 - 1st
2005 - 273.1 - 1st
2006 - 245.1 - 2nd
2007 - 265.0 - 2nd
2008 - 261.1 - 2nd
2009 - 267.0 - 2nd
2010 - 261.0 - 2nd
2011 - 261.2 - 1st
2012 - 225.0 - 6th
2013 - 226.0 - 8th
 
K's
2003 - 281 - 2nd
2004 - 281 - 2nd
2005 - 298 - 1st
2006 - 262 - 1st
2007 - 299 - 2nd
2008 - 268 - 3rd
2009 - 277 - 1st
2010 - 261 - 2nd
2011 - 245 - 2nd

BB
2003 -  76 - 7th
2011 -  80 - 7th
2012 -  93 - 4th
2013 -  94 - 6th
2014 - 109 - 2nd

CG
2003 - 8 - 2nd
2005 - 7 - 6th
2007 - 4 - 9th
2008 - 8 - 1st
2009 - 8 - 1st
2010 - 4 - 8th
2014 - 1 - 10th

SHO
2003 - 3 - 2nd
2007 - 2 - 4th
2008 - 5 - 1st
2009 - 3 - 1st
2010 - 2 - 4th
2011 - 1 - 8th
2014 - 1 - 8th

jamus23 · 08-06-2007, 04:26 PM

4/7/2082 to 4/13/2082

Denver @ Charlotte (8-2 victory)
Denver @ Charlotte (0-4 loss)
Washington @ Denver (2-5 loss)
Washington @ Denver (13-6 victory)
Washington @ Denver (8-4 victory)
Miami @ Denver (7-6 victory)

The Broncos made it to 6-0 before losing their first game of the season as Charlotte avoided the sweep. After a second straight loss, the Denver bats picked things up, scoring 28 runs over the next three games, all victories, and the Broncos improved their record to 9-2.

Alexis Vazquez gave the Broncos their second straight Player of the Week winner, as he went 10 for 23 with 5 homeruns, 11 RBI, and 7 runs scored. Vazquez is currently on a 12 game hitting streak and a 3 game HR streak.

Lee Chappel continued his torrid hitting, as well, going 9 for 20 with 5 doubles, 1 triple, 2 HR, 3 RBI, 6 runs scored, and 5 walks.

Mark Bakke had a good week. He went 7 for 24 with 2 HR and 8 RBI. Along the way, he also reached 2,000 hits for his career.

It wasn't all offense for the Broncos. Kenny Pillsbury improved to 3-0 on the year by winning both of his starts during the week with a 1.59 ERA.

In other news, Tomas Sato will be out of the lineup for about a week with a pulled abdominal muscle. Reliever Lyndon Gwinn has been sent to AAA, and infielder Patrick Chason has been called up to give the Broncos another hitter while Sato is on the shelf.

jamus23 · 08-06-2007, 04:31 PM

Hits:

Code:

#  Career       Hits H 
 1  F. Mira      3826 
 2  S. Serrato*  3798 
 3  S. Piche     3770 
 4  P. Sanchez   3447 
 5  C. Romeo     3383 
 6  D. Homan     3360 
 7  F. Cobos     3343 
 8  T. Guerrero  3301 
 9  K. Bryant    3294 
10  R. Vega*     3276

HR:

Code:

#  Career     HRs HR 
1  D. Murillo 691 
2  C. Bohanon 670 
3  J. Paras   645 
4  H. Abad    641 
5  W. Byrd    639 
6  R. Vega*   638

RBI:

Code:

#  Career   RBIs RBI 
1  D. Homan 2255 
2  F. Mira  2218 
3  R. Vega* 2217 
4  E. Quon  2214

Wins:

Code:

#  Career       Wins W 
1  R. Padgett   339 
2  R. Jordan    335 
3  R. Mccomas   321 
4  S. Narbaiza* 296 
5  J. Poss      295

jamus23 · 08-06-2007, 04:58 PM

Valentin Sojo:

Like John Caylor, Valentin Sojo's career numbers don't seem particularly impressive. Also like Caylor, Sojo was one of the more dominant pitchers in the early league history, making 7 All Star teams and winning one Cy Young award. In addition, Sojo's career ERA still ranks in the top 25. Sojo comes in at 15th on the career list with a 3.19 ERA.

Unlike Caylor, however, Sojo's credentials also include a great deal of postseason success. Sojo was the ace of the Pittsburgh dynasty that arose in the first ten years of the league, and won four World Series with the Pirates. Sojo was one of the best postseason pitchers ever, winning 13 games with a 2.71 ERA. In the 2010 World Series, against Memphis, Sojo tossed a 3 hit shutout in Game 3, and the Pirates went on to win in 5 games.

In addition to his pitching prowess, Sojo was known for being a decent hitter. He had a career .239 AVG, and batted .292 in 2007 and .311 in 2008.

Sojo's career stats:

Code:

Career Pitching Stats 
 
 
 Year   G  GS   W  L SV  ERA     IP   HA    R  ER  BB    K CG SHO Teams 
 2003  36  36  15  7  0 3.08  240.0  216   88  82  39  140  2   1 ROC,NL 
 2004  33  33  18  4  0 2.40  221.1  183   65  59  22  186  1   1 PIT,NL 
 2005  33  33  13  8  0 3.55  197.2  180   87  78  41  165  0   0 PIT 
 2006  33  33  14  4  0 2.69  224.1  176   72  67  30  187  1   1 PIT 
 2007  33  33  19  7  0 2.72  218.1  177   72  66  33  172  1   0 PIT,NL 
 2008  33  33  19  8  0 2.83  219.1  176   78  69  30  165  4   3 PIT,NL 
 2009  36  36  16  7  0 2.88  218.2  187   79  70  56  175  1   1 PIT,NL 
 2010  33  33  16  8  0 3.65  202.0  210   92  82  37  158  2   1 PIT 
 2011  34  34  15  5  0 2.79  209.1  173   76  65  55  185  0   0 PIT,NL ATL 
 2012  34  34  11 10  0 3.98  212.2  238  114  94  47  123  0   0 TUC 
 2013  36  36  13  8  0 3.08  216.1  201   86  74  51  151  1   1 TUC,AL 
 2014  36  36  11  5  0 2.72  218.2  215   83  66  45  115  0   0 TUC 
 2015  33  33  13 17  0 5.18  215.1  263  146 124  91  111  2   1 TUC 
Total 443 443 193 98  0 3.19 2814.0 2595 1138 996 577 2033 15  10   
 

 
Career Postseason Pitching Stats
 
 
Year   G GS  W L SV  ERA    IP  HA  R ER BB   K CG SHO 
2004   3  3  1 2  0 4.58  19.2  16 10 10  5  18  0   0 
2005   4  4  3 0  0 0.95  28.1  20  4  3  3  18  0   0 
2006   2  2  0 2  0 5.40   8.1  12 14  5  4   6  0   0 
2007   4  4  2 1  0 3.86  25.2  23 11 11  5  15  0   0 
2008   4  4  3 1  0 2.05  26.1  20  7  6  5  15  0   0 
2009   3  3  2 0  0 3.26  19.1  16  8  7  6  13  0   0 
2010   3  3  2 0  0 1.25  21.2  16  3  3  5  19  1   1 
Total 23 23 13 6  0 2.71 149.1 123 57 45 33 104  1   1 
 
Career Batting Stats 
 
 
Year    G  AB   H 2B 3B HR RBI  R BB   K SB CS  AVG  OBP  SLG  OPS Teams 
2003   36  79  18  2  0  0   5  7  6  26  0  0 .228 .282 .253 .536 ROC,NL 
2004   33  67  15  1  0  0   1  9  1  22  0  0 .224 .235 .239 .474 PIT,NL 
2005   33  69  17  2  0  0   9  6  2  23  1  0 .246 .268 .275 .543 PIT 
2006   33  61  14  1  0  1   7  6  4  24  0  0 .230 .277 .295 .572 PIT 
2007   33  65  19  2  0  0   6 10  1  24  0  0 .292 .303 .323 .626 PIT,NL 
2008   33  74  23  1  0  0   3  9  1  24  0  0 .311 .320 .324 .644 PIT,NL 
2009   36  68  10  0  0  1   8  5  5  34  0  0 .147 .205 .191 .397 PIT,NL 
2010   33  63  14  2  0  0   6  3  2  22  0  1 .222 .246 .254 .500 PIT 
2011   34  41  10  0  0  1   4  3  1  20  0  0 .244 .262 .317 .579 PIT,NL ATL 
2012   34   0   0  0  0  0   0  0  0   0  0  0 .000 .000 .000 .000 TUC 
2013   36   0   0  0  0  0   0  0  0   0  0  0 .000 .000 .000 .000 TUC,AL 
2014   36   0   0  0  0  0   0  0  0   0  0  0 .000 .000 .000 .000 TUC 
2015   33   0   0  0  0  0   0  0  0   0  0  0 .000 .000 .000 .000 TUC 
Total 443 587 140 11  0  3  49 58 23 219  1  1 .239 .267 .273 .540   
 

Player History
 
 
Drafted in 4th round, 63rd overall pick, by Rochester in 2003...
Had first career hit on 4/2/2003, off Edgardo Moreno (PIT)...
Earned first career win on 4/7/2003...
Won Pitcher of the Month award on 7/1/2003, going 3-0, 1.85...
Was selected to the 2003 Allstar game...
Signed as a free agent by Pittsburgh on 2/9/2004 to a 4-year deal worth $12,000,000 per year...
Was selected to the 2004 Allstar game...
Won World Series with Pittsburgh in 2005...
Won Pitcher of the Month award on 9/1/2006, going 4-0, 1.59...
Hit first career homerun on 9/2/2006, off Nathan Echevarria (SAC)...
Was selected to the 2007 Allstar game...
Was selected to the 2008 Allstar game...
Won Pitcher of the Month award on 9/1/2008, going 4-1, 1.50...
Won World Series with Pittsburgh in 2008...
Won Cy Young Award in 2008, going 19-8, 2.83 ERA...
Was selected to the 2009 Allstar game...
Won World Series with Pittsburgh in 2009...
Won World Series with Pittsburgh in 2010...
Was selected to the 2011 Allstar game...
Traded from Pittsburgh to Atlanta on 7/21/2011 (Going to ATL: P V. Sojo, 3B D. Grosvenor, LF T. Viader. Going to PIT: 3B C. Serra, LF S. Shires, LF M. Yokley)...
Signed as a free agent by Tucson on 2/10/2012 to a 4-year deal worth $13,655,000 per year...
Won Pitcher of the Month award on 6/1/2013, going 4-1, 2.16...
Was selected to the 2013 Allstar game...
Retired in 2016.
 
 
Pitching Leader Boards Appearances 
 
ERA
2003 - 3.08 - 3rd
2004 - 2.40 - 1st
2005 - 3.55 - 5th
2006 - 2.69 - 1st
2007 - 2.72 - 3rd
2008 - 2.83 - 1st
2009 - 2.88 - 6th
2011 - 2.79 - 2nd
2013 - 3.08 - 3rd
2014 - 2.72 - 2nd
 WHIP
2003 - 1.06 - 3rd
2004 - 0.93 - 2nd
2005 - 1.12 - 3rd
2006 - 0.92 - 1st
2007 - 0.96 - 1st
2008 - 0.94 - 2nd
2009 - 1.11 - 7th
2011 - 1.09 - 2nd
2013 - 1.16 - 4th
2014 - 1.19 - 2nd
 Wins
2003 - 15 - 5th
2004 - 18 - 3rd
2006 - 14 - 8th
2007 - 19 - 2nd
2008 - 19 - 1st
2009 - 16 - 4th
2010 - 16 - 6th
2011 - 15 - 7th
 Losses
2015 - 17 - 6th
 IP
2003 - 240.0 - 2nd
2004 - 221.1 - 6th
2006 - 224.1 - 9th
2008 - 219.1 - 10th
2014 - 218.2 - 7th
 
K's
2004 - 186 - 9th
2006 - 187 - 9th
2007 - 172 - 10th
2011 - 185 - 9th
2013 - 151 - 10th
 CG
2008 - 4 - 4th
2010 - 2 - 10th
 SHO
2008 - 3 - 2nd

jamus23 · 08-06-2007, 05:32 PM

2B Justin Ginn:

Justin Ginn was one of the first great second baseman in league history, making 8 All Star teams. He was a very good hitter for average (.320 for his career), and had excellent power(over 400 HR in his career and two 40 HR campaigns). In 2008, he won the AL Silver Slugger award, hitting .370 with 43 HR. He also had two very impressive postseason runs. He carried Knoxville to the 2004 championship by hitting .447 with 3 doubles, 1 triple, 4 HR, 13 RBI, and 10 runs scored in the playoffs. Seven of the RBI came in the final three World series games, as Knoxville rallied from being down 2 games to 1 to beat Pittsburgh in 6 games. In 2013, however, Pittsburgh would get the last laugh. Despite Ginn hitting .392 with 6 extra base hits and 12 RBI in that postseason for Kansas City, the Pirates prevailed in 7 games in the World Series.

Ginn wasn't all about offense, though. He did manage to win a Gold Glove at in 2003.

Ginn's career stats:

Code:

Career Batting Stats 
 
 
Year     G   AB    H  2B 3B  HR  RBI    R  BB    K  SB CS  AVG  OBP  SLG   OPS Teams 
2003   154  594  175  31  5  21   88   89  64   96   4  2 .295 .363 .470  .833 KNO,AL 
2004   140  569  178  23  4  34  107  104  63   71   2  0 .313 .381 .547  .928 KNO,AL 
2005   154  579  183  30  5  33  107  104  73   83   5  0 .316 .393 .556  .949 KNO,AL 
2006   156  574  185  36  1  32   97  118  70   85   2  1 .322 .396 .556  .952 KNO,AL 
2007   155  594  179  23  5  29   82   86  65  100   6  1 .301 .370 .503  .874 KNO,AL 
2008   155  613  227  26  4  43  118  139  67   91  14  6 .370 .432 .636 1.069 KC,AL 
2009   144  569  183  23  3  26  107   93  58   99  13  2 .322 .384 .510  .894 KC 
2010   156  616  198  28  1  39  119  115  69  111   5  7 .321 .390 .560  .950 KC,AL 
2011   154  624  193  33  5  22  114  109  65  122  17  7 .309 .374 .484  .858 KC 
2012   142  544  189  30  1  41  119  111  63   82   9  3 .347 .415 .632 1.048 KC 
2013   155  606  198  38  4  38  122  117  81  118  13  4 .327 .406 .591  .997 KC,AL 
2014   156  611  188  26  5  33  145  116  62  141  12  4 .308 .371 .529  .900 KC 
2015   150  570  171  22  5  34  109  108  55  132   1  1 .300 .362 .535  .897 KC 
2016    21   42   16   0  1   1    6    9   2   11   0  0 .381 .409 .500  .909 GR 
Total 1992 7705 2463 369 49 426 1440 1418 857 1342 103 38 .320 .388 .546  .934   
 
 
Career Postseason Batting Stats
 
 
Year   G  AB  H 2B 3B HR RBI  R BB  K SB CS  AVG  OBP  SLG  OPS 
2004  12  47 21  3  1  4  13 10  5  7  1  0 .447 .500 .809 1.309 
2006   6  27  6  1  1  0   1  2  0  3  0  1 .222 .222 .333  .556 
2011   6  26  3  0  0  0   1  1  2  5  1  0 .115 .179 .115  .294 
2013  12  51 20  3  0  3  12 11  5  7  1  0 .392 .446 .627 1.074 
Total 36 151 50  7  2  7  27 24 12 22  3  1 .331 .380 .543  .923 
 

 
Player History
 
 
Drafted in 1st round, 9th overall pick, by Knoxville in 2003...
Had first career hit on 4/3/2003, off Aurelio Sandoval (ATL)...
Hit first career homerun on 4/6/2003, off Damaso Castilleja (WAS)...
Was selected to the 2003 Allstar game...
Won Player of the Week award on 8/25/2003, hitting .579 with 2 HR, 6 RBI...
Won Gold Glove Award at Second Base in 2003...
Was selected to the 2004 Allstar game...
Won World Series with Knoxville in 2004...
Drove in 6 runs against Atlanta on 4/1/2005...
Was selected to the 2005 Allstar game...
Had 5 hits with 2 RBI against Grand Rapids on 7/31/2005...
Won Player of the Week award on 8/4/2005, hitting .484 with 2 HR, 8 RBI...
Had 5 hits with 5 RBI against Washington on 9/12/2005...
Won Batter of the Month award on 7/1/2006, hitting .347 with 11 HR, 22 RBI...
Was selected to the 2006 Allstar game...
Was selected to the 2007 Allstar game...
Signed as a free agent by Kansas City on 2/1/2008 to a 7-year deal worth $9,816,400 per year...
Won Player of the Week award on 4/14/2008, hitting .500 with 5 HR, 7 RBI...
Won Batter of the Month award on 5/1/2008, hitting .387 with 8 HR, 21 RBI...
Was selected to the 2008 Allstar game...
Won Player of the Week award on 8/4/2008, hitting .484 with 4 HR, 8 RBI...
Had 23-game hitting streak snapped on 8/8/2008...
Won Player of the Week award on 8/11/2008, hitting .500 with 3 HR, 7 RBI...
Had 5 hits with 0 RBI against Memphis on 8/23/2008...
Won Batter of the Month award on 9/1/2008, hitting .441 with 9 HR, 22 RBI...
Won Batter of the Month award on 10/1/2008, hitting .381 with 8 HR, 20 RBI...
Won Silver Slugger Award in 2008, hitting .370 with 43 HR, 118 RBI...
Injured on 4/8/2009 with a Tender Shoulder, out for one week...
Had 5 hits with 2 RBI against Tucson on 4/24/2009...
Won Player of the Week award on 7/14/2009, hitting .458 with 4 HR, 12 RBI...
Had 5 hits with 2 RBI against Atlanta on 8/14/2009...
Won Player of the Week award on 8/18/2009, hitting .556 with 2 HR, 8 RBI...
Won Batter of the Month award on 9/1/2009, hitting .421 with 7 HR, 25 RBI...
Hit 3 homeruns against Tucson, driving in 5 runs on 4/1/2010...
Won Player of the Week award on 6/9/2010, hitting .531 with 4 HR, 13 RBI...
Was selected to the 2010 Allstar game...
Won Player of the Week award on 4/28/2011, hitting .438 with 3 HR, 8 RBI...
Had 5 hits with 4 RBI against Nashville on 7/9/2011...
Won Player of the Week award on 7/14/2011, hitting .556 with 1 HR, 9 RBI...
Drove in 6 runs against Tucson on 9/13/2011...
Won Player of the Week award on 9/29/2011, hitting .500 with 4 HR, 10 RBI...
Won Batter of the Month award on 5/1/2012, hitting .419 with 10 HR, 27 RBI...
Had 21-game hitting streak snapped on 5/2/2012...
Drove in 6 runs against Atlanta on 5/14/2012...
Injured on 6/22/2012 with a Inflamed Bicep Tendon, out for 3 weeks...
Won Player of the Week award on 8/4/2012, hitting .433 with 4 HR, 12 RBI...
Won Player of the Week award on 4/21/2013, hitting .417 with 4 HR, 9 RBI...
Won Player of the Week award on 6/23/2013, hitting .407 with 3 HR, 10 RBI...
Was selected to the 2013 Allstar game...
Had 2000th career hit on 7/7/2013, off Jason Bogart (ATL)...
Had 6 hits with 6 RBI against Washington on 5/7/2014...
Won Player of the Week award on 5/12/2014, hitting .448 with 2 HR, 11 RBI...
Had 5 hits with 4 RBI against Grand Rapids on 6/20/2014...
Won Player of the Week award on 8/18/2014, hitting .500 with 2 HR, 11 RBI...
Drove in 6 runs against Tucson on 5/25/2015...
Had 20-game hitting streak snapped on 6/14/2015...
Signed as a free agent by Grand Rapids on 2/26/2016 to a 1-year deal worth $1,375,900 per year...
Released by Grand Rapids on 7/21/2016, refused assignment to minors...
Retired in 2017.
 
 
Batting Leader Boards Appearances 
 
AVG
2004 - .313 - 6th
2005 - .316 - 5th
2006 - .322 - 3rd
2008 - .370 - 1st
2009 - .322 - 5th
2010 - .321 - 7th
2012 - .347 - 2nd
2013 - .327 - 6th

 OBP
2005 - .393 - 7th
2006 - .396 - 4th
2007 - .370 - 10th
2008 - .432 - 1st
2009 - .384 - 7th
2010 - .390 - 9th
2012 - .415 - 5th
2013 - .406 - 7th

 SLG
2004 - .547 - 7th
2005 - .556 - 4th
2006 - .556 - 2nd
2007 - .503 - 8th
2008 - .636 - 2nd
2009 - .510 - 9th
2010 - .560 - 5th
2012 - .632 - 2nd
2013 - .591 - 6th
2014 - .529 - 8th

 OPS
2004 -  .928 - 5th
2005 -  .949 - 2nd
2006 -  .952 - 1st
2007 -  .874 - 8th
2008 - 1.069 - 1st
2009 -  .894 - 7th
2010 -  .950 - 4th
2012 - 1.048 - 1st
2013 -  .997 - 6th

 Hits
2003 - 175 - 10th
2005 - 183 - 5th
2006 - 185 - 3rd
2007 - 179 - 7th
2008 - 227 - 1st
2009 - 183 - 7th
2010 - 198 - 4th
2011 - 193 - 4th
2012 - 189 - 10th
2013 - 198 - 3rd
 

Homeruns
2004 - 34 - 6th
2005 - 33 - 5th
2006 - 32 - 4th
2007 - 29 - 7th
2008 - 43 - 2nd
2010 - 39 - 3rd
2012 - 41 - 3rd
2013 - 38 - 8th
2015 - 34 - 9th

 RBI
2004 - 107 - 8th
2005 - 107 - 5th
2008 - 118 - 2nd
2009 - 107 - 9th
2010 - 119 - 4th
2011 - 114 - 7th
2012 - 119 - 6th
2013 - 122 - 8th
2014 - 145 - 4th

 Runs
2004 - 104 - 8th
2005 - 104 - 5th
2006 - 118 - 1st
2008 - 139 - 1st
2010 - 115 - 5th
2011 - 109 - 8th
2013 - 117 - 6th
2014 - 116 - 7th
2015 - 108 - 10th

 BB
2013 - 81 - 9th

jamus23 · 08-06-2007, 06:08 PM

LF Kangorou Yataro:

Kangourou Yataro was one of the most feared sluggers in the early days of the league. Known for his fearsome power and tremendous batting eye, Yataro was an 11 time All Star and won 4 Silver Slugger Awards(only 7 players have won at least 4 SS's). Despite a sudden loss in power at the end of his career that left him short of 500 career HR- he finished with 493- Yataro had 4 consecutive 50 HR seasons from 2009 to 2012.

Yataro was one of the key players on those early Pittsburgh teams which dominated so much. His efforts contributed to 8 World Series championships for Pittsburgh, including 6 in a row from 2008 to 2013. It is difficult to pick out a particular postseason run for Yataro as being the "best," since he had only one that could even be considered bad. Still, his 2009 run was probably the most incredible. He batted .423 with a .651 OBP. He collected 5 extra base hits in 26 at bats, and had a 17 to 1 walk to strikeout rate.

Yataro's stats:

Code:

Career Batting Stats 
 
 
 Year    G   AB    H  2B 3B  HR  RBI    R   BB    K SB CS  AVG  OBP  SLG   OPS Teams 
 2003   70  230   61  14  1   2   26   21   28   53  2  0 .265 .345 .361  .706 PIT 
 2004  148  500  138  15  2  34   88   76   71  110  0  0 .276 .366 .518  .884 PIT,NL 
 2005  156  531  140  26  5  36  108  106  104  108  0  0 .264 .384 .535  .919 PIT,NL 
 2006  154  539  124  24  1  27   80   88   81  124  2  0 .230 .331 .429  .759 PIT 
 2007  137  439  121  29  1  22   75   87   85   92  0  0 .276 .393 .497  .890 PIT 
 2008  153  525  151  26  3  35  118   84   80   86  2  0 .288 .382 .549  .930 PIT,NL 
 2009  152  531  149  18  0  55  139  106   99   75  0  0 .281 .394 .625 1.019 PIT,NL 
 2010  157  540  163  26  1  58  153  124  103   60  4  0 .302 .414 .676 1.090 PIT,NL 
 2011  146  510  168  22  1  50  119  115   90   52  0  0 .329 .430 .671 1.101 PIT,NL 
 2012  149  515  168  24  3  52  153  113   92   58  1  0 .326 .428 .687 1.116 PIT,NL 
 2013  148  504  175  29  1  37  106  117   96   68  0  0 .347 .452 .629 1.081 PIT,NL 
 2014  149  517  146  22  0  26  107   98   81   87  1  0 .282 .380 .476  .855 PIT,NL 
 2015  150  495  126  26  1  28   82   86   72   67  0  0 .255 .349 .481  .

07-28-2007, 05:38 PM	#101 (permalink)
jamus23 All Star Reserve Join Date: Aug 2003 Posts: 560	Lee Chappel: 2081 American League Silver Slugger 11/4/2081 Al Vincent Staff Writer Denver catcher, Lee Chappel had a magnificent season; in fact, according to the voters, the most magnificent season of any American League hitter. Chappel was awarded the Silver Slugger today for his efforts. Chappel finished the season with a .342/.439/.723 batting line, with an OPS of a whopping 1.162. Chappel belted 60 doubles, 9 triples, and 42 homeruns, while collecting 158 runs batted in and scoring 135 runs. Most impressive was tremendous batting eye and patience at the plate, evident in his 92/33 walk to strikeout ratio. Chappel was pleased to be honored in this way. "This means a lot to me. I know there are some really great hitters in this league, and for me to win this award is really something special," he said. Chappel also added, jokingly, "Plus, now Ellis [Bolling] will stop teasing me about not having won one!" For his part, Bolling said nonchalantly, "I've won two." Denver manager John Wilkerson said there were no players more deserving than Chappel. "Even when the team was struggling a bit, Chappel was always there. He never stopped hitting. And when we began our second half surge, it was Chappel leading the charge. Without Lee, we may not have not have reached the postseason," he stated. Chappel batted .472 with a 1.474 OPS in the month of July, and .407 with a 1.425 OPS in the month of August. He also belted 11 HR in the final month of the season. __________________ 2081: Desperation in Denver

07-28-2007, 06:00 PM	#102 (permalink)
jamus23 All Star Reserve Join Date: Aug 2003 Posts: 560	Primary Offseason Task Accomplished: Bolling Resigns 11/5/2081 Al Vincent Staff Writer With another season come and gone, it was time for Denver GM John Mounts to begin making decisions on what free agency eligible players to retain and which to say goodbye to. First and foremost among them was 33 year old first-baseman Ellis Bolling. The two time Silver Slugger had been making $9.5 million. Denver announced today that he agreed to resign with the Broncos on a three year, $10.5 million contract- an increase of $1 million. Mounts was pleased at the terms of the deal, saying that "like John Dear was, I want Ellis to be a Bronco for life." Bolling said that he "couldn't imagine playing for a team other than Denver." In other news, 37 year old DH Mark Bakke agreed to resign for $1 million for one year. This is a decrease by $1.5 million from his previous contract. Also, 31 year old reliever Leo Salguero agreed to a 3 year deal worth $2.5 million. This was the first year Salguero could have been eligible for free agency, and the contract is a sizable increase from his ~$600,000 one. Mounts said that keeping Salguero was "important to maintaining the stability of the bullpen", and that he was confident that Bakke has "at least another good year left in him." Denver's only remaining free agents are Michael Grace, Patrick Chason, Norman Cadet, Johnnie Sermons, Ronald Matamoros, Christopher Hosler, Levi Twigg, and David Pasco. None, except perhaps Chason, are likely to be retained, though it always possible that Mounts will seek them out once free agency begins. __________________ 2081: Desperation in Denver

08-02-2007, 04:21 PM	#103 (permalink)
jamus23 All Star Reserve Join Date: Aug 2003 Posts: 560	The 2082 Free Agency Period Don't Expect Much Action This Free Agency Period 1/31/2082 Al Vincent Staff Writer A year ago, the Broncos made a rare splash in free agency, signing centerfielder Russell Thomas. That kind of noise isn't expected this offseason. Firstly, GM John Mounts feels that the team is pretty much set, and there aren't many areas that can be easily improved. Secondly, Mounts has also indicated that the team's budget this year is not sufficient to be adding any significant pieces. This, of course, has led to rumors that the Broncos may be looking to cut some of their payroll by trading some of the more expensive players on the roster. The most likely candidates would seem to be veteran relief pitcher Steven Andrade, who has one year remaining on his $5 million contract, and 33 year old left-fielder Alexis Vazquez, who is owed $3 million. The fact that the team has no obvious replacement for Vazquez has done little to quell the rumors. Neither has the non-answer given by Mounts in regard to the rumors: "For the right price, every player is tradeable." In any event, it is too bad that Denver isn't planning on entering the free agent market. There are a number of big names that would look nice in a Denver uniform. Carl Strothers, despite coming off of an 18 loss season (due in large part to getting traded to hapless Green Bay a year ago), is a 2 time 20 game winner, and is just 29 years old. He is easily the best pitcher on the market. Closer James Smith is likely the second best pitcher available. Thirty-one years old, and coming off of a 30 save, 2.91 ERA season, Smith would seem to be a great addition to a bullpen that spent much of last season blowing leads. As for hitters, the best available is likely 28 year old second-baseman, Eric Phillips. Phillips has an excellent glove, and posted an .858 OPS in 2081, with 27 homeruns. First-baseman Thomas Stallman, third-baseman Robin Vega, and left-fielder Joshua Kier represent the biggest sluggers on the market, but there are a number of other attractive hitters available. The most plentiful position appears to be short-stop. No fewer than six starting SS from a year ago are available in the free agent crop. Granted, at least one of them, 38 year old Berny Morales, is likely finished as a starting caliber player- witness his .566 OPS last season- but several of the others would certainly be an upgrade over Denver's Booker Romero... As it is, the only are where Denver is likely to be active is in the backup catcher department. After trading backup Eric Fudge last season, veteran Michael Grace filled in admirably down the stretch. Grace was allowed to leave as a free agent, but Denver may try to bring him back. Interestingly, several of the other options are also former Denver catchers. Matthew Cendejas, now 38 years old, played for the Broncos in the early '70s. Cendejas still possesses a strong arm, and excellent plate discipline. David Jagger was the backup catcher before Fudge. The 34 year old Jagger also has a strong arm, but his hitting skills are questionable at this point. Roy Isenhour was a "third string" catcher for Denver for several seasons, splitting time between AAA and the majors. Although younger than the other options, and also the owner of a strong arm, Denver is not likely to target Isenhour. With a left-handed hitting starting catcher, the Broncos would prefer a right-handed backup. The switch-hitting Isenhour has never hit particularly well against left-handed pitchers. __________________ 2081: Desperation in Denver

08-02-2007, 05:03 PM	#104 (permalink)
jamus23 All Star Reserve Join Date: Aug 2003 Posts: 560	Big Free Agent Signings 2/1/2082 and 2/2/2081 Washington makes the big early splash, signing closer James Smith to a three year, $4.9 million contract. This was followed by the signing of 24 year old SS Santiago Pina, who put up a .735 OPS with 12 homers last season, to a 4 year, $5.2 million deal. Also on the 2nd, Hartford signed speedy, slap-hitting RF Richard Herb to a 3 year, $3.2 million deal. 2/3/2082 Miami replaced Richard Herb by signing Dennis Fernandez to a 2 year, $3.5 million deal. Fernandez is 33, three years older than Herb, is just as fast, but has more power. 2/4/2082 Knoxville grabbed slugging LF Joshua Kier for a 3 year, $6.4 million deal. Kier is 28, and just posted an .876 OPS, 33 HR, 111 BB season. 2/6/2082 and 2/8/2082 Rochester was the next team to make a splash, though not necessarily a good one, signing 28 year old SS Anthony Champ, who hit 21 HR last season, to a 3 year, $3.9 million deal, and then the 34 year old LF Allen Costner to a 5 (!) year, $3.7 million contract. Costner put up a .754 OPS with 18 HR. The Champ contract is fine, but 5 years to a guy like Costner is absurd. It may not be the worst contract doled out, but I'm getting ahead of myself... 2/9/2081 Sacramento emerged with the prize of the offseason, signing Carl Strothers to a 5 year, $7.1 million deal. This is a fine deal. Strothers is among the most talented pitchers in the game, and is in the prime of his career. 2/10/2081 Denver brought back catcher Michael Grace on a 1 year deal for $700,000. And effort was made to sign Cendejas, but he went to Harrisburg for $990,000 for one year. This news, however, paled in comparison to two other signings. Denver's archrival, Tucson, announced the signings of 1B Thomas Stallman (4 years, $7.5 million) and 3B Robin Vega (3 years, $2.3 million). Stallman is 28 years old, and posted an OPS of .841 with 30 HR and 118 BB. Vega is 25 years old, and posted a .791 OPS with 35 HR. 2/12/2082 In what is likely to be another bad contract, Harrisburg signed closer Edward Lovejoy to a 3 year, $6 million deal. That deal wouldn't be so bad if Lovejoy wasn't 35 years old. 2/15/2081 In another deal of utmost importance to Denver, number two rival Memphis announced the signing of 2B Eric Phillips to a 3 year, $5.8 million deal. This is rather disheartening. While Denver has been standing pat this offseason, 2 of the 3 biggest free agent hitters, plus another very good one, have gone to the primary rivals of the Broncos. This should certainly make things interesting this season... 2/17/2081 And finally, what is likely to be the worst contract of the offseason. Harrisburg, having already thrown a ton of money at a 35 year old closer, decided to try and top that. Harrisburg signed pitcher Josue Gorman to a 4 year, $7.7 million deal. Gorman was once the best strikeout pitcher in the league, but he always flirted with shaky control, and served up lots of homeruns. He's going to be 36 in May, and age has taken its toll. He is still a decent K pitcher, with 182 last season, but his control is largely shot- he walked 107 batters- and he just isn't that effective anymore, posting an ERA of 5.09, while allowing an NL-leading 64 HR. Worse, the team he pitched for last season, Sacramento, has a stadium that is slightly favorable to pitchers, especially in terms of homeruns. Harrisburg's stadium is the opposite, favoring hitters slightly. This is not a good contract, no matter how you look at it. 3/2/2082 Denver signed three players to minor league contracts. Infielder Patrick Chason, who played for Denver last season, and a pair of relief pitcher, right-hander George Treadway, and left-hander Bobby Villanueva. The pitchers are 33 and 32, respectively. __________________ 2081: Desperation in Denver

08-02-2007, 05:14 PM	#105 (permalink)
jamus23 All Star Reserve Join Date: Aug 2003 Posts: 560	2082 Amateur Draft Of Denver's 4 picks in this year's amateur draft, there was a definite trend. Firstly, three of the four players are pitchers. Secondly, all three pitchers look like they will induce lots of groundballs. With the 21st pick in the first round, Denver selected right-handed pitcher Thomas Fons. Fons is 23 years old, and is a workhorse who fields his position well, in addition to his groundball tendencies. In the second round, the Broncos took a 20 year old right-handed relief pitcher, Howard Johnson. Johnson throws hard, and throws strikes. In the third round, another starting pitcher was taken. Right-handed Rafael Alvarez is 22 years old, and throws hard. Denver's last selection was the only hitter that they took. Joel Castillo is a 19 year old right-fielder. He has good speed and covers alot of ground in the outfield. His bat is pretty raw, though. Fortunately, at 19, he has plenty of time to develop. __________________ 2081: Desperation in Denver

08-04-2007, 06:42 PM	#106 (permalink)
jamus23 All Star Reserve Join Date: Aug 2003 Posts: 560	2082 Season Preview Well, for last season, it was necessary to introduce all of the players on Denver's team. I'm not sure that it is really necessary for this year. The opening day roster is almost identical to the roster that finished last season. At catcher, Lee Chappel is the starter. Veteran Michael Grace has been brought back to be Chappel's backup. Ellis Bolling is still the first-baseman. Tomas Sato is the second-baseman. Joseph Swayze is the third-baseman. Booker Romero is the shortstop. Jack Rumfelt and Michael Phillips will handle the utility infield duties. Alexis Vazquez, Russell Thomas, and Asbel Fuentez are the starting outfielders, with Armando Navarro filling the role of reserve outfielder. It would be nice to have a second backup outfielder, though, but I will get to why that isn't feasible at the moment. Mark Bakke remains the designated hitter. The rotation is Kenny Pillsbury, Robert McNett, Ray Lockridge, Christopher Kirk, and George Buentello. Unfortunately, Larry Waltz, who was a valuable shot in the arm in the second half of last season, will be going back to AAA. If Buentello struggles as the fifth starter, however, Waltz will be first in line to get a turn. The bullpen is staffed by James Virgen, Ramon Gomez, Leo Salguero, Steven Andrade, Fred Lemire, Robert Soto, and rookie Lyndon Gwinn. It's one more relief pitcher than I would like, but the player I would like to trade, Andrade, is proving to be untradeable, and I'm reluctant to trade any of the others. For now, this prevents me from carrying a fifth outfielder. We'll see, though. Perhaps it will work itself out in some fashion. The most concerning thing right now, is Denver's minor league system, which is absolutely barren of any upper level prospects. Outfielder Marvin Lore is the only prospect of note above AA, and he is likely a platoon outfielder, at best: A poor fielder, mediocre power, mediocre plate discipline. The rest of AAA is filled with with marginal career minor league types, with a few mediocre players who have seen a sizable amount of major league at bats/innings pitched. The lower levels have a few interesting players, but not much that really jumps out at you. This puts Denver at an interesting point. The major league roster is strong, and isn't particularly old; Bakke will need to be replaced next season, but every other position should have at least 3-4 years of productivity left, and most will have more than that. However, the team is also beginning to get expensive. The payroll last season ended up right around the upper limits of Denver's budget, but with a few players getting salary-increasing contract extensions, and several others going through arbitration, that payroll has jumped quite a bit. It is still manageable right now, but there are also quite a few free agents to be at the end of this season, and it will be expensive to retain them all. The barren minor league system compounds this situation, because there aren't any ready replacements for players who might leave. Come late July, I suspect some important decisions regarding the future of the team are going to need to be made. Now for three things regarding the dynasty report: 1. Unlike last season, I don't think I will be recapping every game. It was certainly interesting, but it also took longer than I would like. I don't want to breeze through things, exactly, but I would prefer a quicker pace. This also means that I won't be playing out every single game for Denver. As I have tended not to do that in the past, it was a new experience in some ways. Unfortunately, I felt that it changed the way that I play the game, and not necessarily for the better. For example, there were some transactions that I wound up making that I would not have made normally. Playing out every game, and experiencing the highs and lows that come with that, made me more impatient with players. Simming out games, I would likely have just ridden out the poor peformance of a player for awhile. Playing out the games, I felt as though I had to do something right away. I don't like that. 2. As the 2082 season begins, there are a couple of players who are rapidly approaching some important milestones: -Rochester CF Santiago Serrato is just 36 hits away from all time leader, Felipe Mira. Mira had 3,826 hits and Serrato begins the season with 3,790. -Hartford 2B Ricky Vega is within striking distance of one milestone, and will likely join the top 3 in another milestone. Vega currently ranks tied for third all time in RBI, with 2,214 (he is tied with Earl Quon). The aforementioned Felipe Mira is second with 2,218. Danny Homan is the all time leader, with 2,255. So, Vega needs 5 RBI to pass up Mira, and 42 to pass up Homan. Ricky Vega also ranks 6th on the career homerun list with 637. While the top two spots (Donald Murillo with 691 and Christopher Bohanon with 670) are likely out of reach, he needs only 3 HR to pass up William Byrd, 5 to pass up Hector Abad, and 9 to pass up James Paras. That would put him into third place on the list. In addition to the RBI and HR lists, Vega is also 10th all time in hits. 115 hits this season would leapfrog him into 5th place. -Lastly, Rochester starting pitcher Segundo Narbaiza is inching closer to being the all time wins leader. He won't do it this season, as he needs 45 wins to top the all time leader, Robert Padgett(339). He won't get to second place this year either, as he needs 41 to surpass the number two guy, Robert Jordan(335). However, he needs one win to break a tie with Jeremy Poss for fourth place(295), five wins to become just the 4th player ever to reach 300 wins, and 26 wins to move into a tie for third place with Robert McComas(321). Now, 26 wins may seem like a lot, but Narbaiza has won 26, 27, and 26 in the last three seasons, and hasn't yet shown signs of decline. It is definitely doable for him, and if he does, Padgett and Jordan could very well fall in 2083. What I would like to do is, in addition to my reports on how Denver is doing, to include updates on these players as they approach these important records. 3. Lastly, and this is somewhat related to item #2, I would like to point out that the 2082 season represents the 80th season of this league. In recognition of that, I also plan on talking about the Hall of Famers of this league. As the season progresses, I will do a write up about each of the Hall of Famers, starting with the very first inductee, Scott Border (a player that I have mentioned a few times before already in this report). I feel this might be an interesting way to get a picture of this league's history. Also, I invite anyone who might wonder about anything- stats, records, champions, etc.- that has transpired in 80 years of baseball, to feel free to ask. I'd like to share as much as possible, not just about the current season, but about the entirety of the league's history. If I can answer the question, I will certainly do so. __________________ 2081: Desperation in Denver

08-05-2007, 03:13 PM	#107 (permalink)
jamus23 All Star Reserve Join Date: Aug 2003 Posts: 560	4/1/2082 to 4/6/2082 Denver @ Grand Rapids (5-2 victory) Denver @ Grand Rapids (10-3 victory) Denver @ Grand Rapids (8-3 victory) Denver @ Charlotte (9-3 victory) Denver @ Charlotte (9-3 victory) The Broncos opened the season in impressive fashion. Kenny Pillsbury pitched a complete game in the season opener, with 10 strikeouts, and the Broncos went on to sweep the Tigers in three games. Backed by strong starting pitching and hot bats, the Broncos have also won the first two games of a 4 game series against Charlotte. Through one week of play, the Broncos are the only undefeated team. Lee Chappel picked up where he left off last season, by going 12 for 24, with 5 doubles, 1 triple, 3 homeruns, 8 runs batted in, and 10 runs scored in the first week of the season. This was good enough to win the Player of the Week award. Alexis Vazquez was also a strong performer, going 10 for 21, with a double, 2 homeruns, 7 runs batted in, and 5 runs scored. He reached 200 homeruns in his career, as well. Asbel Fuentez stole the 600th base of his career, moving him into a tie for 13th place (Joseph Barnhill) on the all time stolen base list. Fuentez has a strong chance of moving into the top 10 in stolen bases this season, needing only 28 more to accomplish that. __________________ 2081: Desperation in Denver

08-06-2007, 04:26 PM	#111 (permalink)
jamus23 All Star Reserve Join Date: Aug 2003 Posts: 560	4/7/2082 to 4/13/2082 Denver @ Charlotte (8-2 victory) Denver @ Charlotte (0-4 loss) Washington @ Denver (2-5 loss) Washington @ Denver (13-6 victory) Washington @ Denver (8-4 victory) Miami @ Denver (7-6 victory) The Broncos made it to 6-0 before losing their first game of the season as Charlotte avoided the sweep. After a second straight loss, the Denver bats picked things up, scoring 28 runs over the next three games, all victories, and the Broncos improved their record to 9-2. Alexis Vazquez gave the Broncos their second straight Player of the Week winner, as he went 10 for 23 with 5 homeruns, 11 RBI, and 7 runs scored. Vazquez is currently on a 12 game hitting streak and a 3 game HR streak. Lee Chappel continued his torrid hitting, as well, going 9 for 20 with 5 doubles, 1 triple, 2 HR, 3 RBI, 6 runs scored, and 5 walks. Mark Bakke had a good week. He went 7 for 24 with 2 HR and 8 RBI. Along the way, he also reached 2,000 hits for his career. It wasn't all offense for the Broncos. Kenny Pillsbury improved to 3-0 on the year by winning both of his starts during the week with a 1.59 ERA. In other news, Tomas Sato will be out of the lineup for about a week with a pulled abdominal muscle. Reliever Lyndon Gwinn has been sent to AAA, and infielder Patrick Chason has been called up to give the Broncos another hitter while Sato is on the shelf. __________________ 2081: Desperation in Denver