Fake Baseball

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The Bicentennial League began play in 1976 (after simming 20 seasons and deleting the history to that point). The league was initially comprised of twenty-two teams, ten in the Colonial League and twelve in the Patriot League.

For the 20th anniversary season, the Colonial League expanded by two teams. The Omaha Tornadoes and State College Orioles began play with the 1995 season. Omaha (65-97) was slightly more successful than their counterparts in central PA, the Orioles posted a 61-101 record. It is now October 18,1995 and I have just assumed the role of general manager of the State College team.

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A snapshot of the league history, red text indicates the association champion

Lg	LgAvg	LgERA	Champion	Year	Champion	LgERA	LgAvg	Lg
CL	.258	3.99	Nashville Sounds	1976	San Diego Pacifics	4.06	.264	PL
CL	.261	4.06	Columbus Cannons	1977	Boston Admirals	4.15	.266	PL
CL	.263	4.20	Cleveland Navigators	1978	Boise Taters	4.08	.262	PL
CL	.261	4.01	Washington Crusaders	1979	Boise Taters	4.16	.267	PL
CL	.259	3.95	Washington Crusaders	1980	Buffalo Aardvarks	4.11	.266	PL
CL	.261	4.12	Louisville T-breds	1981	Milwaukee Bandits	4.04	.264	PL
CL	.262	4.20	Kansas City Pioneers	1982	Boston Admirals	3.94	.263	PL
CL	.257	3.91	Richmond Mudcats	1983	Hartford Gulls	4.11	.264	PL
CL	.261	4.04	Okla City Armadillos	1984	Boise Taters	3.92	.259	PL
CL	.265	4.28	Fort Worth Drillers	1985	Hartford Gulls	4.06	.263	PL
CL	.261	3.93	Cleveland Navigators	1986	San Diego Pacifics	4.06	.262	PL
CL	.256	4.01	Philadelphia Americans	1987	Boise Taters	4.29	.267	PL
CL	.265	4.29	Fort Worth Drillers	1988	Milwaukee Bandits	3.97	.260	PL
CL	.260	4.02	Fort Worth Drillers	1989	Milwaukee Bandits	4.18	.263	PL
CL	.263	4.04	Philadelphia Americans	1990	San Diego Pacifics	4.19	.261	PL
CL	.262	4.07	Fort Worth Drillers	1991	Boston Admirals	4.07	.259	PL
CL	.261	4.05	Fort Worth Drillers	1992	Boston Admirals	4.19	.263	PL
CL	.260	4.03	Washington Crusaders	1993	Chicago Blackbirds	4.06	.262	PL
CL	.258	3.92	Columbus Cannons	1994	Milwaukee Bandits	4.23	.267	PL
CL	.262	4.04	Columbus Cannons	1995	New York Fog Devils	4.09	.262	PL

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Here is the active roster I have inherited. It isn't much to work with.

Role	T	Pitcher	       G	GS	W	L	SV	ERA	WHIP	Status
Starter	R	Vincent Carr	33	33	9	12	0	3.44	1.17	Rested
Starter	L	Reginald Fields	35	35	5	20	0	3.96	1.34	Rested
Starter	R	Scott Cropper	35	19	12	9	0	3.60	1.19	Rested
Starter	R	J.J. Sánchez	32	32	6	13	0	4.26	1.44	Rested
Starter	R	Roberto Rosa	19	3	1	1	2	3.11	1.14	Rested
Spot St	L	Marc Schroeder	28	5	1	5	0	4.98	1.63	Rested
Mopup	R	Luther Roberts	44	1	1	1	0	5.55	1.51	Rested
Mopup	R	Powell Lewis	9	0	0	1	0	6.23	1.54	Rested
Mid Rel	L	Marc Schroeder	28	5	1	5	0	4.98	1.63	Rested
Mid Rel	R	John Beasley	17	0	2	2	0	4.21	1.32	Rested
Mid Rel	R	Tom Washington	31	0	0	3	2	5.15	1.60	Rested
Mid Rel	L	Timothy Bishop	7	0	0	0	0	4.50	1.50	Rested
Setup	L	Pedro Bermúdez	54	0	1	3	2	2.55	1.13	Rested
Setup 	R	E. Sandoval	54	0	4	3	5	3.64	1.55	Rested
Closer	R	Aki Nakagawa	54	0	6	7	23	3.38	1.13	Rested
CATCHERS
#	B	Player	      Pos	G	AB	H	HR	RBI	R	BB	K	.AVG	OBP	SLG
17	L	Matt Anderson	C	130	458	102	14	42	42	36	114	.223	.285	.349
18	R	Vicente Barrón	C	72	168	33	1	14	11	18	39	.196	.289	.280
INFIELDERS
#	B	Player	      Pos	G	AB	H	HR	RBI	R	BB	K	.AVG	OBP	SLG
30	R	Eric Phillips	SS	151	524	128	15	55	46	23	134	.244	.274	.401
40	R	Chris Morgan	2B	111	302	81	3	26	32	39	63	.268	.353	.381
28	R	Ben Jackson	2B	157	610	109	22	61	67	62	107	.179	.261	.334
35	R	Juan López	3B	48	126	31	1	13	12	8	29	.246	.289	.365
26	L	Cameron Webb	1B	82	238	54	2	17	23	36	58	.227	.337	.319
3	R	Gary Smith	2B	31	27	5	0	0	2	3	10	.185	.267	.222
OUTFIELDERS
#	B	Player	    Pos	      G	     AB	  H	  HR	  RBI	  R	  BB	  K	  .AVG	OBP	SLG
36	R	Loren Long	CF	94	252	71	5	31	38	19	23	.282	.339	.413
33	L	Carl Patterson	RF	149	537	161	9	57	67	46	86	.300	.354	.415
43	S	Alfonso Rivera	RF	4	12	3	0	0	2	2	2	.250	.400	.417
48	L	Mike Park	LF	109	356	110	10	48	37	21	66	.309	.344	.480
37	L	Matt Jackson	RF	22	60	16	4	11	12	10	8	.267	.366	.500
15	R	Octávio López	LF	33	60	14	1	8	7	5	15	.233	.292	.350
16	L	Aug. Rodríguez	RF	28	63	10	0	5	3	4	11	.159	.221	.222
8	L	Ken Jones	LF	17	34	5	0	2	1	1	14	.147	.171	.235

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Our payroll was $59 million in 1995, but we can potentially lose quite a bit of that salary if we let all of our free agents walk.

Potential free agents

Ben Jackson	$8.5m									
Aki Nakagawa	$7.6m									
Reginald Fields	$5.8m									
Cameron Webb	$4.8m									
Tomás Hurtado	$4.4m									
Matt Anderson	$3.0m									
Vincent Carr	$1.5m									
Vicente Barrón	$950k									
Eric Phillips	$850k	
Matt Jackson    $432k

Looking at their career stats, it looks like a lot of these guys had off-years in 1995. Having not looked at the free agent market yet, a cursory evaluation would point to Ben Jackson and Cameron Webb being allowed to walk with no efforts to keep them. Everyone else has some redeeming qualities that could be useful, so for the right price we would "welcome" them back.

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As for the team personnel, we currently have no scouting director or hitting coach. I've put offers out to candidates for each.

I'm not thrilled with our manager, Bobby Tschiffley. He's rated as average everywhere. I'll look to upgrade. Bench coach Lewis Plummer looks okay, we'll keep him. Pitching Keith Wheeler isn't terrible, but I wouldn't mind an upgrade there, either. Our trainer, Ted O'Neill, has no experience prior to this past season. His time in State College may be short lived.

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On October 19, Jose Manuel agrees to become our hitting coach. He's rated "good" at teaching hitting. Three days later, Tony Price accepts our offer and is named scouting director. He's got seven years experience, but was fired by the New York Fog Devils a couple days ago. He's rated Legendary/Excellent/Legendary/Excellent for scouting. We'll need his assistance as our farm system is rated last in the league.

Our owner, 39 year old "demanding/pennypincher" Kirby Barton is is mad. He's expecting a winning record.

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October 27: Jose Serrano accepts our offer and is named manager of State College five days after Bobby Tschiffley was fired. Serrano has no prior managing experience, but appears to have a better skill set than his predecessor. He favors prospects/pitching/offense/speed/OBP.

Now that our staffing issues have been resolved, it is time to see who we want to make offers to in free agency, and who we want to let walk.

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Weird glitch, our 1995 first round draft pick, Gary Smith, was just awarded the Patriot League Gold Glove for centerfield. Other than the fact that he plays in the Colonial League, and only played second base, it seems legit.

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The roster is starting to take shape. The following players signed contract extensions prior to free agency:
C Matt Anderson - three years, $6 million total.
SS Eric Phillips - three years, $3.3 million total.
SP Reggie Fields - four years, $26 million total (two years guaranteed, two are team options).

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April 1, 1996:
Welcome to the regular season! A few things transpired over the offseason, so let's get a recap.

With a full twenty-four team structure in place, both leagues went from two six team divisions to three four team divisions. State College remains in the Eastern Division along with Richmond, Washington, and Philadelphia. Columbus and Cleveland moved into the brand new Central Divison with Louisville and Nashville. The wildcard will be in effect now.

As for us, we've altered the roster somewhat, but haven't made wholesale changes. I didn't realize I was "on vacation" so the game signed 3B Roy Hudson to a two year deal. He didn't play at all in 1995, recovering from injury. Once I realized that, I returned from "vacation" and everything else is my responsibility.

In the rule five draft we selected 1B Woody Carter with the first overall selection, and picked up MR Wyatt Henderson in round two. Carter, 22 years old, will be the opening day starter at first, and Henderson, 24 years old, will spend the season in the bullpen. The only other notable free agent signing was MR Cory Powell (2yrs/$6.8m total). Free agent SP Vincent Carr was asking for $92m over seven years. We countered that, but he didn't like it. He eventually signed with Boston for 5yrs/$54m.

Spring training was fairly uneventful, except for the loss of staring catcher Matt Anderson for 5-6 months. His kneecap exploded when hit with a fastball. Also, marginal prospect Edgardo Gutierrez broke an ankle and will be out several months. We finished the spring with a 9-15 record.

Next up: Roster review.

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As a second year expansion team, the roster is pretty thin. Minor league depth is even worse.

Starting Pitching:
Scott Cropper: 1995 stats: 12-9, 3.60 era. Just 27, I think he's someone we could actually start to build around.
Reginald Fields: 1995 stats: 5-20, 3.96. He's 33, and has a career record of 76-75. Possible trade chip later in the year?
Roberto Rosa: 1995 stats: 1-1, 3.11. Also 27, he could be traded, or else looks to have the potential to team up with Cropper to start building a core rotation.
Wayne Sheldrake: 1995 stats: 14-8, 3.31 (AAA). Sheldrake (27 y/o) did not pitch in the majors last year. For his career, he's 0-9, 7.02 in major league action (18 appearances).
Cristian Moreno: 1995 stats: 7-14, 5.48. He's 35, we'd trade him for a bag of baseballs.
Marc Schroeder: 1995 stats: 1-5, 4.98. 29 year old spot starter. If we're able to trade on of the other guys, he'll do his best to step in.

Summary: Cropper and Rosa have some long term potential. The rest are just rotation fillers. We don't have any support in the minors yet, so for better or worse these guys will have to carry the load this year. That will make it more difficult to move one of them in trade.

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Bullpen:
Luther Roberts: 1995 stats: 1-1, 5.55. Looks like he should be better than he has been.
Emmanuel Sandoval: 1995 stats: 4-3, 3.64. Great stuff, outstanding movement, but control is an issue.
Wyatt Henderson: One of our rule five draftees. He throws hard.
Cory Powell: 1995 stats: 8-6,6.27 in Albuquerque. Free agent signee this past offseason.
John Beasley: 1995 stats: 2-2, 4.21. Another hard thrower. Too bad accuracy counts.
Pedro Bermudez: 1995 stats: 1-3, 2.55. Okay stuff, but pretty good control.
Aki Nakagawa: 1995 stats: 6-7, 23 sv, 3.38. Re-signed with us during the offseason. He has decent stuff, and pretty good control.

Summary:
No stars here. Not sure any of them would fetch much in trade, but that will be explored throughout the season anyway. I have a feeling the arsonists comprising the starting rotation will make these guys' performances irrelevant.

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Catcher:
With the injury to Matt Anderson, Vicente Barron and Anthony Gray will have to step up. Both are very good defensively, but to expect anything above a .220 average might be optimistic. Barron will be the starter despite his anemic 1995 line of .196-1-14 in limited duty. Gray hasn't played in the majors in two years. There is a reason why, he just can't hit.

Summary:
With no upper level prospects in the minors, Barron and Gray are it for now, and that's not too good. Catcher will be a target area for trades.

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Infield:
Woody Carter will get every chance to lose the starting 1b job as a rookie. He should be a great #2 hitter. Has no power, or speed, but should put the ball in play. He is an excellent defender.

Tim Lund (.298-1-16 in 131 ab) will be his backup. He looks like he should have more pop than he's displayed so far.

Gary Smith (.185-0-0 in 27 ab) will get first crack at 2b. The #1 overall draft pick in 1995 he was rushed to the majors by the prior regime. I'll give him a few weeks to see if he can stick. Otherwise, he'll go to the minors for seasoning.

Chris Morgan (.268-3-26) is the backup. If Smith falters, he'll step in quickly.

Eric Phillips (.244-15-55) will start out at shortstop. He's a true utility man in that he plays all infield positions quite well.

Roy Hudson (dnp 1995) can play 2nd/SS/3rd if needed. Prospect Juan Lopez could take his spot if he gets off to a bad start.

Summary:
I'm hoping Carter can hold his own at the plate. He won't hit for power, but if he can move runners along from the #2 spot I can live with that. Smith has a lot of potential, hopefully he can stick in the majors this year, but if he struggles he'll be sent down quickly. Morgan, Phillips, and Hudson are all about or slightly below average players. None of them should feel secure.

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Outfield:
Mike Park (.309-10-48) will be the starter in left. He's a career .287 hitter with limited power.
Loren Long (.282-5-31) will be the starter in center.
Carl Patterson (.300-9-57) will be the stater in right.

Their backups are nothing special, nor worth the time to write about.

Summary:
Relatively speaking, outfield may be the strength of the team. As a group they are decent hitters but lack power. In a perfect world, they'd be role/platoon players, but we'll go with what we have.

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Overall Thoughts:
There is a reason why we lost 100+ games last year. And why the preseason picks are that we will be real close (63-99) to that this year. My goal is to lose less than 100 games, and start building some depth across the system. We have no power threat anywhere on the roster. We let Ben Jackson go in the offseason, and he's still available as a free agent. He was about the only one with power last year. I just can't handle his sub .180 average. The pitching staff is a big concern as well. And, if we get hit with any significant injuries we will be hard pressed to keep the losses below 100.

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Opening Day featured Scott Cropper getting the starting pitcher assignment. He was cruising in the top of the fifth (2 hits, 2 ks, 0 runs) when he had to leave the game due to shoulder issues. The bullpen held it together and kept the shutout intact until Philadelphia pushed a run across in the top of the eigth. They tacked on four more runs and won 5-0. Later we learned that Cropper blew out his rotator cuff and will miss the next 4-5 months.

The team rebounded from the opening day loss and at one point was 3-3 and in first place. After that, the wheels came off and we ended the month at 7-18.

On April 11, SP Juan Jose Sanchez was traded to Oklahoma City for MR Denis Lambert. Lambert, 21 years old, features a dominant fastball in the 98-100 mph range with excellent movement. He only has one other pitch, a splitter, that is slightly above average. He'll get a long look in the bullpen, with the thoughts that perhaps he could take over the closer role.

As the month of April ends here are some random notes:
1b Woody Carter leads the team in average. He's posted a .322-1-6 mark. He was at/above .340 average for most of the month before slumping recently. No other regular features an average above .240. For some reason, Jesus Serrano is running catcher Vicente Barron into the ground. I realize Anthony Gray isn't any good, but Barron needs a bit more time off if he's going to survive the season. The team leader, Eric Phillips, has two homeruns so far. We've hit a total of eight for the month. SP Cristian Moreno is 0-2, but has an era of 3.38 and a whip of 0.92.

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May 1996:
Turns out there was a typo in the last post, our record for April was actually 8-18. Woohoo! In May, there was some slight improvement. We had three two game winning streaks, and one three game winning streak. We even managed to take three out of four against expansion mate Omaha late in the month. This was notable since they've been hanging around .500 all season so far.

From a transaction standpoint, on May 6th we sent MR Luther Roberts to Louisville for 20 year old prospect George Stewart. Our scouting director thinks Stewart has decent potential. Roberts has pretty good stuff, but just wasn't working out for us. By clearing his roster spot, we received a prospect for the future and opened up a roster spot for 1b Tim Lund who was down in AAA. With Woody Carter starting to struggle the plan was to spell him with Lund. Lund probably won't hit for as high an average, but he has decent power, should bring some nice OBP abilities to the plate and is a solid defender.

Then late in the month we suffered a rash of injuries. Starting SS Eric Phillips, RF Carl Patterson, CF Loren Long, and super utility man Chris Morgan all were placed on the DL on May 26th with a series of injuries that occurred within a two or three day span. As I mentioned, we don't have depth in the minors so having four key players go out was not helpful. With all of that, we somehow put together a 12-18 month. Offensively we rank last in every category except walks, strikeouts and stolen bases. On the pitching side, our starters' era ranks 9th, and we're 7th in walks, and 6th in strikeouts.

A snapshot of the team leaders:

TEAM LEADERS AVG
	
W. Carter	.278
C. Patterson	.253
M. Park	.245
R. Hudson	.231
E. Phillips	.212
	
TEAM LEADERS HR
	
V. Barrón	6
M. Park	5
E. Phillips	5
R. Hudson	3
2 more tied with	3
	
TEAM LEADERS RBI
	
V. Barrón	25
M. Park	24
E. Phillips	22
R. Hudson	17
2 more tied with	17
TEAM LEADERS W
	
2 tied with 	4
J. Beasley	4
C. Moreno	4
C. Powell	2
2 more tied with	2
	
TEAM LEADERS ERA
	
C. Moreno	2.53
R. Rosa	3.70
W. Sheldrake	4.62
R. Fields	5.45
J. Beasley	6.37
	
TEAM LEADERS K
	
C. Moreno	61
C. Powell	48
W. Sheldrake	48
J. Beasley	43
R. Rosa	40

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June 1996:
June is a brutal 9-19 month. We managed to stay relatively injury free. On the 3rd, MR Cory Powell demands a trade. Despite efforts to move him, his salary is prohibitive and we are unable to work anything out right away. He'll remain on the trading block and we'll try and move him again closer to the deadline.

The offense continues to be very unproductive, all of our regulars except Darren Turner are hitting under .260 for the season. The pitching remains poor. We've got a lot of work to get done.

In the draft, with the #1 overall pick we selected LF Fernando Maes the consensus best player.

We end the month 19.5 games behind Washington.

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The balance of the season continued along the same path. There was a brief flicker of encouragement as we finished August with a 16-12 record for the month. For the season, the final record was 64-98.

There were a few pre-deadline deals in July. The most notable being SS Eric Phillips who was traded to Hartford for 1b Ryan Miller. Miller provides a reasonable power hitting option at first base. Woody Carter would end up being traded after the season. Carter continued to hit for a good average, but his complete lack of extra base power just wasn't a good fit for our current roster make up. SP Reggie Fields was traded to Indy for 3B Joe Barraclaugh. Barraclaugh provides excellent defense with 20 HR potential. 3B Roy Hudson was shipped to Cleveland for LF Allan Tuttle. Tuttle provides excellent defense (was awarded the Gold Glove after the season), decent power (hit 12 HR for us in 60 games) and stole 13 bases in 14 attempts. The key in all three deals was to get younger and more talented players. Miller is 23, Barraclaugh is 27, and Tuttle is 26.

After the season Woody Carter was traded to Oklahoma City for 25 year old CF Jacob Lewis. In 162 career ML games, Lewis has posted .282-9-47, 15 sb numbers. He plays excellent defense and is a decent base stealer. C Vincente Barron demanded a trade after the season, so he was sent to Kansas City for MR Javier Rodriguez. The overhaul continued when C Mark Hale was acquired from Columbus for MR Artie Hale and SP Dave Lynch in November. There were a few other minor deals. Most involved acquiring bullpen help for next year.

As for the association, Milwaukee defeated Fort Worth to win the world series. It was the first win for Milwaukee in five world series appearances. We finished 64-98, 20.5 games behind Richmond.