Baseball Comes to Middle America! (The Midwest Baseball Association)

jksander · 03-16-2024, 07:02 PM

In the spring of 1876, baseball began to take hold in the heart of the American midwest, with a 16-team major league association known as the Midwest Baseball Association (MBA) taking hold in Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky and West Virginia across two leagues, the Great Lakes League (GLL) and the Ohio River League (ORL). A minor league association known as the Indiana-Ohio Baseball Association (IOBA) formed to include AA-level teams that feed into the major league programs, and an eight-team Independent League called the Tri-State Baseball Association (TSBA) formed independently at a low-minors level, with teams spread across Illinois, Indiana and Kentucky.

League setup information / rules, etc. are below. I have created a GM character, who will take over management of a team once we have a significant amount of history within the leagues, and at a point where he’d be of a reasonable age to do so.

The Major Leagues
MIDWEST BASEBALL ASSOCIATION

Great Lakes League
Green Bay Green Stockings
Minneapolis Barons
Bloomington Hoosiers
Fort Wayne Flyers
Indianapolis Grey Stockings
Chicago Internationals
Detroit Arsenal
Rockford Black Hawks

Ohio River League
Louisville Rivermen
Cincinnati Continentals
Evansville Crescents
East St. Louis Locomotives
Lexington Roughriders
Pittsburgh Tin-Knockers
Huntington Appalachians
Owensboro Rum Runners

League Start Date: April 1 (154 game schedule, No Interleague Play)
Trade Deadline: July 31

No All-Star game.
Active Roster of 26, Secondary Roster Size 35, No Expanded Rosters
Spring Training Roster Size: 40
No Foreign Players Allowed
No Waivers, DFA Length of 7 Days
Batter Inj List: 14 Days
Pitcher Inj List: 21 Days
Expanded Inj List: 60 Days
Minor League Option Years: Disabled
Trade Deadline Day Setup: Disabled
Amateur Draft Disabled
Rule 5 Draft Disabled
No 10/5 Rule or trading of injured players
Financials based on 1876, average attendance baseline 12,500
Financial System Enabled, Inflation set to 0% to 3%
Minimum Service Time for one service year: 163
Minimum Service Time for FA: 7 years
Free Agents can come from other leagues
Players can be purchased from Independent Leagues for $10,000.
Arb starts after five years, no “Super 2” players
No minor league free agency
No National Media Contracts (Fixed)
Local Media Contract Baseline: $200
Merchandising Revenue Baseline: $200
Owners Control Budget
Revenue Sharing and Luxury Tax Disabled
No Cash Maximum
No salary cap

League Evolution on only for FA Minimum Service, IL Length, Active Roster Size, Secondary Roster Size, More / Less Pitching, More / Less Offense

Independent Leagues will generate 15 or more players per year.

AA League
INDIANA-OHIO BASEBALL ASSOCIATION

Hoosier League
Valparaiso Rail Barons
Michigan City Dunes
Clarksville Explorers
Shelbyville Trailsmen
New Castle Rivermen
Jasper Eagles
West Lafayette Oilers
Jeffersonville Capitals

Buckeye League
Dayton Pilots
Mansfield Surveyors
Columbus Archers
Sandusky Sluggers
Cleveland Plums
Marion Miners
Akron Summits
Toledo Walleyes

League Start Date: May 15 (98 game schedule, no interleague play)

No Designated Hitter
No limit to Roster Size
Same Injury Time settings as parent league
Baseline Attendance: 7,500

The Independent League
TRI-STATE BASEBALL ASSOCIATION

Tri-State Baseball Association
Wilmette (IL) Raiders
Batavia (IL) Eagles
Urbana (IL) Union
Terre Haute (IN) Trailblazers
South Bend (IN) Sluggers
Paducah (IN) Pride
Henderson (IN) Frontiers
Bowling Green (IN) Engineers

League Start Date: July 10 (112 game schedule)

Designated Hitter
26 Man Rosters, Reserve Roster Limit of 20 players, No Spring Training
Batter Inj List: 7 Days
Pitcher Inj List: 15 Days
Expanded Inj List: 60 Days
League uses Reserve Clause Era rules
Minimum Service Time for one service year: 119
Baseline Attendance: 5,000

jksander · 03-16-2024, 08:16 PM

In January of 1888, the Iowa-Indiana Baseball Association was turned into a AAA-level league, with two new leagues forming at the AA level under the Iowa-Missouri Baseball Alliance name, featuring two subleagues: the Farmland League (eight teams in Iowa) which will be linked to MBA teams in the Great Lakes League, and the Ozark League (eight teams in Missouri) which will be linked to MBA teams in the Ohio River League. The league will play a 98-game schedule without interleague play, starting in mid-March and culminating in a best-of-seven Championship Series between the winners of each division. Like the AAA-level IOBA, the MIBA will feature no roster size limits, no designated hitter and a base attendance average of 7,500.

MISSOURI-IOWA BASEBALL ALLIANCE

Farmland League
Cedar Rapids Storm
Sioux City Saints
Des Moines Raiders
Davenport Giants
Waterloo Generals
Ames Jackrabbits
Dubuque Black Stockings
Council Bluffs Explorers

Ozark League
St. Louis Southpaws
Springfield Polecats
Columbia River Dogs
Independence Patriots
Joplin Javelins
Jefferson City Cannons
Cape Girardeau Gunslingers
Wildwood White Sox

jksander · 03-16-2024, 10:15 PM

January 1, 1906: The Midwest Baseball Association has been going strong for thirty years, and a whole new generation of managers are starting to find their way into the league. The youngest of these young managers is a soon-to-be 24-year old named Jonathan Sanders, who has recently been hired as the General Manager of the Louisville Rivermen over in the Ohio River League. The Rivermen are coming off an abysmal season, having gone 53-101 during the 1905 season, finishing dead last in the league. Team owner Phil Gibson, age 71, has been growing more frustrated with his team’s downward slide as each year passes. They haven’t had a winning season since 1899, which may be in no small part to Gibson’s demanding personality and pinny-penching manner. But they do have their small tastes of victory, having won OR league pennants in 1877, 1878 and 1894, with a MBA Championship Series victory in 1878. But following three consecutive second-place finishes in the OR in 1895, 1896 and 1897, they have yet to finish above fourth place since.

The team has retired three players’ numbers over the years, for overall excellence and their role in building the league’s foundation in the early years. But only one of those players has made the Hall of Fame. That honor goes to Kevin Dwire, now 46, who played for the team from 1891 to 1898 as a starting pitcher. In his complete career he put together a 311-265 record and 2.50 ERA, striking out 590 batters and winning 69.8 games above replacement.

Sanders has a tough job ahead of him, including the hiring of his staff at the major league level, the most important of which will be finding an Assistant General Manager and a team scout so he can go after any remaining free agents who may be available.

- - - - -

Bloomington Hoosiers
MBA Championships: 3 (1880, 1886, 1887)
Great Lakes Pennants: 7 (1878, 1879, 1880, 1885, 1886, 1887, 1900)

Chicago Internationals
MBA Championships: 7 (1881, 1894, 1896, 1899, 1901, 1902, 1904)
Great Lakes Pennants: 9 (1881, 1894, 1896, 1898, 1899, 1901, 1902, 1904, 1905)

Cincinnati Continentals
MBA Championships: None.
Ohio River Pennants: 3 (1899, 1902, 1904)

Detroit Arsenal
MBA Championships: 1 (1893)
Great Lakes Pennants: 1 (1893)

East St. Louis Locomotives
MBA Championships: 4 (1876, 1900, 1903, 1905)
Ohio River Pennants: 9 (1876, 1881, 1882, 1893, 1896, 1900, 1901, 1903, 1905)

Evansville Crescents
MBA Championships: 5 (1879, 1883, 1885, 1891, 1892)
Ohio River Pennants: 6 (1879, 1880, 1883, 1885, 1891, 1892)

Fort Wayne Flyers
MBA Championships: 2 (1889, 1890)
Great Lakes Pennants: 3 (1889, 1890, 1891)

Green Bay Green Stockings
MBA Championships: 1 (1882)
Great Lakes Pennants: 2 (1882, 1895)

Huntington Appalachians
MBA Championships: 1 (1898)
Ohio River Pennants: 2 (1888, 1898)

Indianapolis Grey Stockings
MBA Championships: 1 (1877)
Great Lakes Pennants: 2 (1876, 1877)

Lexington Roughriders
MBA Championships: None.
Ohio River Pennants: None.

Louisville Rivermen
MBA Championships: 1 (1894)
Ohio River Pennants: 3 (1877, 1878, 1894)

Minneapolis Barons
MBA Championships: None.
Great Lakes Pennants: 4 (1883, 1884, 1892, 1903)

Owensboro Rum Runners
MBA Championships: 1 (1897)
Ohio River Pennants: 2 (1887, 1897)

Pittsburgh Tin-Knockers
MBA Championships: 2 (1884, 1895)
Ohio River Pennants: 5 (1884, 1886, 1889, 1890, 1894)

Rockford Black Hawks
MBA Championships: 1 (1888)
Great Lakes Pennants: 2 (1888, 1897)

jksander · 03-16-2024, 11:57 PM

January 3, 1906: Derek Black, 58, has accepted the open position as the scouting director for the Louisville Rivermen, signing a five year deal worth $1,870 per year. Black, who has 13 years of scouting experience in the league, all of them with the Paducah (Ky.) Pride in the independent Tri-State Baseball League, is known to favor tools and has a good reputation at scouting the minor leagues and amateur players in general. His Pride teams won five TSBL Championships and made the championship series in all but three seasons by finishing in the top two of the league, so he clearly knows what he’s doing at least at that level. Does he have what it takes to dominate that well in the Midwest Baseball Association?

January 4, 1906: The Rivermen have a team trainer on board, as Joe Joyner, age 38, signed a contract to earn $400 per year for three years. A complete novice in the league, this will be his first job in the world of baseball. Said to have a balanced overall focus, Joyner is best when it comes to rehabbing leg injuries, and has a reputation for being able to help players avoid leg, arm and back injuries. But he’s a blank slate when it comes to results at this level of professional sports.

January 6, 1906: The Rivermen signed Danny Gremillion, age 60, to be the team’s Assistant GM for the next five seasons, earning $900 per year to do the job. He was the GM for the Paducah Pride from 1901-05, so he’s already very familiar with head scout Derek Black, and he was responsible for building the Pride’s championship team in 1903 (that also made postseason appearances in ’02 and ’04). He tends to like power offense over speed, and is known to slightly favor youth, with emphases on pitching over hitting and defense over offense. He likes to trade, but is not particularly aggressive.

January 8, 1906: Sanders has himself a hitting coach and a bench coach officially today. David “Abie” Hemphill, age 42, signed on for $750 per year over a three year span to be the team’s hitting coach, moving up from the South Bend (Ind.) Sluggers of the TSBL. He has an excellent rep in development, influencing mechanics and in teaching hitting, and is regarded as one of the best in baseball when it comes to handling aging. Unfortunately his Sluggers were among the worst teams in the entire league the whole time he was there, so take that all with a grain of salt. As for their new bench coach, 46-year-old Sam Zalman spent the last four years as the bench coach for the St. Louis Locomotives here in the MBA, and has agreed to a three year, $550 per year deal to move to Louisville. His primary emphasis has been on development, and he’s an aggressive advocate for speed on the basepaths and stealing ability.

January 9, 1906: First and third base coaches are now officially on board! At first base, 50-year-old Eric Sweeting will take over on a two year $325 per year contract, moving up from the job of bench coach in Indianapolis in the MBA. He actually agreed to a bit of a pay cut to be fully in charge of teaching infield defense, something he’s quite enamored with. Another speed guru, he should fit in well with Sam Zalman’s philosphy as a bench coach. Meanwhile, Trent Pour, age 56, will take over at third base, focused on improving our on base percentage and general outfield defense as well. He spent the years 1890-1899 as a first-base coach in Bloomington in the MBA, but has been out of the game for a few years while coaching High School ball and raising his teenagers. He’ll earn $450 a year for the next two seasons as he tries to work his way back into the game, so his reputation is basically unproven at this juncture.

January 12, 1906: It is a happy 24th birthday for the young GM of the Louisville Rivermen, as Sanders was finally able to scure his team’s pitching coach! Kyle Sidler, age 53, immediately becomes the strongest coach in the organization, with 16 years of experience as a pitching coach with the AA Cedar Rapids Storm in the MIBA (1888-91, 1904-05), the AAA Jasper Eagles in the IOBA (1893-96) and the AA Ames Jackrabbits in the MIBA (1899-1901). He has an excellent reputation in the league, though this is his first chance at the major league level. An outstanding teacher of both pitching fundamentals and infield defense, he’s good with coaching mechanics and excellent at handling an aging arm. He has signed a five year deal with the Rivermen worth $1,100 per season.

January 17, 1906: 3B Michael Levine, at 35, has signed a contract that was offered a few weeks ago before Sanders took over as GM, but it’s a signing that should benefit the team from a fan-support perspective. Levine has a career average of .287 and has 252 career doubles and 76 triples, numbers in this league that make him one of the best overall hitters in the league. He’s played on five MBA Championship teams while in Chicago and has won seven Silver Slugger awards and the 1900 Gold Glove at shortstop. He’s signed a deal to play with Louisville for three seasons, earning $1,020 per year during that duration.

January 27, 1906: Rivermen owner Phil Gibson has reportedly made cuts to the team’s budget as we get closer to the start of spring training season, lowering the team’s overall budget from $148,000 to $140,000. But at this point the team is operating well under budget anyway, keeping it lean and mean as they rebuild.

January 30, 1906: Sanders has made his first major signing as a GM, bringing in established right-handed starter Tanner Bays, who at 35 still has plenty of control and movement, with front-of-the-rotation abilities even as he ages. He had a 29-16 record and 2.28 ERA with Green Bay back in 1904, but spent the last two seasons struggling in Indianapolis and Huntington, and he’s looking to make a comeback with a team he can stick with. A member of Huntington’s 1898 championship team, he has a career record of 163-140, a career ERA of 2.45, and 33.2 career WAR. In a league where pitchers aim for contact and rarely get batters to swing and miss, he also has more than 250 career K’s (the league all-time record is 1,151). He has signed a three year deal worth $650 per season and will take over as the team’s top starter.

February 25, 1906: Mike Morris, currently the #2 starter for the Rivermen at age 26, successfully completed his offseason strength and endurance program, improving his stamina and bumping his scouting rating up to three stars! Morris signed a minor league deal with Louisville in December 1904, and has pitched five career complete-game shutouts at the MBA level as a rookie last season, going 18-33 with a 3.77 ERA, pitching 453.2 innings in 64 starts, striking out 41 batters and putting together a 1.16 WHIP. His 5.9 pitching WAR in his debut season had him in the running for Rookie of the Year, but he lost out to Huntington Appalachians shorstop Justin Yarbrough, who hit .360 with 24 doubles, two triples and three homers, batting in 40 runs. Morris’ solid offseason has many within the program, and fans in particular, hoping for him to have a stellar sophomre season.

March 1, 1906: Spring training begins today, and everyone in Louisville is excited to see what Sanders is able to do to start the rebuilding program off right. The team will play thirty games over the next five weeks as a warm-up to the real thing, with opening day scheduled for April 5, 1906 as the team will host the Owensboro Rum Runners.

jksander · 03-17-2024, 03:48 AM

April 2, 1906: Spring training was a mess for the Rivermen, with the team putting together a 9-21 record, dead last in the Ohio River league. Four players wound up on the injured reserve list due to multi-week injuries, including multiple infield and outfield positions. The team has offers out for a few stopgap player options, but in the meantime will have to start with what they’ve got and hope to be able to build through the season.

April 3, 1906: The Rivermen signed backup catcher Mike Andreen, who at 33 has been one of the best defensive catchers in the game for nearly a decade, to a minor league contract, while 25-year-old middle infield guru Felipe Lima (well above average at 2B, 3B and SS) signed a minor league deal as well -- he played in 19 games in 1904 for East St. Louis, but has primarily been a minor league asset due to his weak hitting skills. Evan Walker, a 31-year-old second baseman who has been floating around the unaffiliated leagues outside the midwest for several years, also signed a minor league deal, giving him a chance to see if he can make the bigs as a journeyman. Andreen and Walker have the best shot of making the opening day roster, though even at this late point nothing’s certain.

April 5, 1906: The Louisville Rivermen have announced their official opening day roster heading into the four-game homestand against the Owensboro Rum Runners. And as you can see, Sanders did not inherit a team built for the long haul -- a few solid young players aside, the team skews quite old, and is powered by journeymen and players potentially well past their prime.

Starting Lineup (con / gap / pwr / eye / avd / def*
C - Mike Andreen, 33 ... 50/45/55/45/60/65
1B - Jared Bertz, 26 ... 70/45/50/45/80/35
2B - Chris Hughes, 31 ... 60/65/50/50/70/50
3B - Sam Leonard, 30 ... 65/45/45/45/80/65
SS - Michael Levine, 36 ... 65/50/50/50/70/40
LF - Jeremy Smith, 33 ... 60/70/50/50/70/50
CF - Miguel Gomez, 29 ... 50/55/45/40/60/45
RF - Travis Linden, 30 ... 70/45/50/50/80/50

Bench
C - Ron Moseley, 30 ... 60/45/50/50/75
1B - David Abson, 29 ... 65/45/50/45/75/50
1B - Danny Van Sickle, 33 ... 65/40/45/50/80/25
2B - Ryan Kats, 32 ... 65/45/40/45/80/30
2B - Evan Walker, 31 ... 55/45/50/50/65/65
3B - Mike Webb, 25 ... 60/50/45/40/75/50
SS - Chris McBryde, 26 ... 35/40/45/50/30/45
LF - Bob Cline, 24 ... 65/45/45/45/80/50
RF - Tony Juarez, 34 ... 60/55/50/45/65/30

Starting Pitchers (Stuff / Mov / Ctrl / Sta / Hld / Def)*
1 - Tanner Bays, 35 ... 45/65/55/50/50/45
2 - Mike Morris, 26 ... 40/70/50/50/45/65
3 - Dave Bobb, 31 ... 35/65/45/55/35/55
4 - Tim Miller, 35 ... 40/65/40/55/75/45

Bullpen
Stopper - Aaron Kenton, 37 ... 45/60/45/30/35/25
Middle - Jimmy McClorey, 27 ... 70/55/40/30/80/40
Middle - Chris Moore, 29 ... 50/55/35/30/65/40
Middle - Sean Lien, 34 ... 45/65/40/25/75/30
Long - R.J. Noto, 23 ... 35/50/40/50/35/20

* defense rating only at key position

jksander · 03-17-2024, 04:52 AM

April 10, 1906: It’s been a rough start for the Rivermen, as they lost all four opening home games to the Rum Runners of Owensboro, Kentucky. But Sanders has made a move toward improving the team’s future, making a cash trade with Fort Wayne, sending them $25,000 in cash for the rights to Sean Impagliazzo, a 22-year-old right handed starter who is currently the #38 prospect in the league according to the Baseball Newspaper Network (BNN). The team’s 35-man secondary roster is currently full, but Impagliazzo can stand to take some time to acclimate himself to playing AAA baseball in Dayton for the time being, and if a move needs to be made, it can be done later in the season. As it stands, he is now already the team’s second-ranked prospect overall, behind Cameron Jackson (#30, BNN) who is playing in AA for the St. Louis Southpaws.

April 15, 1906: Things were starting to look up somewhat in Louisville, with the team having gone 4-1 in the last five days, but there was rough news on the pitching front -- Tanner Bays has torn a flexor tendon in his elbow and has been told by doctors that there’s nothing they’ll be able to do surgically that will restore his ability to throw a baseball properly. He has chosen to retire and focus on recovering well enough to hold down a “regular job,” as he put it to the Louisville Courier Journal. He’ll leave the league with a record of 164-141, a 2.47 ERA, 259 strikeouts and 33.4 pitching WAR.

That changes the team’s plans immediately -- they will no longer be able to afford to wait for Sean Impagliazzo to pitch in Dayton this May in the Indiana-Ohio Baseball League. Instead, he’s getting the call-up to the big show effective immediately. He’s going to step into the rotation in the #4 spot behind Morris, Bobb and Miller, as we hope to keep our momentum as the season really gets going.

April 20, 1906: Yesterday afternoon, Sean Impagliazzo won over the hearts and minds of Louisville fans as he pitched a near-perfect debut while the team was in Lexington to play the Roughriders, who had started the season with a 9-4 record. He pitched a complete game with 11 hits, a strikeout and two earned runs, and Michael Levine picked up three hits, scored two runs and batted in another as we held tough to win 3-2! That brought our team record up to 5-8, getting us to half a game up on Cincinnati to avoid being in last place in the Ohio River League! Hey, it’s something to be positive about at least. So far through our first 13 games, another bright spot has been the solid contact from right fielder Travis Linden, who is hitting .377 with a double, two homers and 13 runs batted in.

April 29, 1906: The Rivermen have a winning streak on their hands, but had to fight for every inch of it last night to get the third straight win, improving to 10-12 with a 3-1 win in a 14-inning marathon yesterday! The win puts them within one win of a four-game sweep when they play them this afternoon. The game was scoreless until the eighth inning when each team picked up a run, and it stayed that way until the top of the 14th, when Michael Levine got a hit, stole second, and then came in to score thanks to a Mike Webb standing double! Jared Bertz then hit an RBI single to add some insurance, and, incredibly, Mike Morris held tough to close it out in the bottom of the inning, completing a 14-inning complete game 10-hitter! He walked three and allowed the one earned run, but threw an incredible 167 pitches, improving to 3-3 with a 2.36 ERA.

May 9, 1906: Sean Impagliazzo is a star in the making, and our owner hasn’t stopped congratulating me on the brilliant idea I’d had to offer up straight cash to buy his rights -- a move that I doubt will ever work again, though it won’t stop me from trying! Last night in front of a sparse crowd of under 10,000 at Rum Runners Park in Owensboro, he pitched a complete game seven-hit shutout as we shellacked our Kentucky rivals 10-0! Since coming up to the majors just 24 days ago, Impagliazzo has earned a 3-3 record and thrown 49.2 innings in six starts, with a 1.63 ERA and a 1.17 WHIP. And though we’re 14-18 and in sixth place in the league, we’re only seven games back of the league-leading East St. Louis Locomotives, and our attendance is up almost 42 percent, averaging 13,300 fans per homestand!

jksander · 03-17-2024, 06:04 AM

May 12, 1906: During a 9-4 win over the Pittsburgh Tin-Knockers yesterday afternoon, Michael Levine scored the 1,000th MBA run of his career before having to be pulled with a mild groin strain. The MBA record is currently held by Jordan Avitabile, who played with Lexington, Indianapolis, Evansville and Cincinnati over a 16-year career, scoring 1,279 runs, earning HOF induction in 1897. Levine is on pace to break 100 runs scored this year, so it’s not out of the realm of possibility that he could beat that record, so fans are having a ton of fun watching him play.

May 13, 1906: Yesterday we lost an epic 4-3 battle with Pittsburgh on the road, a 19-inning affair that took nearly five hours to play! Tim Miller lasted 15 innings and still had a no-decision, allowing 14 hits with a walk, a strikeout and an earned run through 180 pitches. Kenton and McClorey gave us three scoreless innings in relief and the offense picked up two runs in the top of the 19th, but Chris Moore allowed four hits and gave up three runs in the final frame, blowing the save opportunity and coming out with the heartbreaking loss. They outhit us 21-13, so it shouldn’t have likely been that close in the first place but let’s face it, we’re scrappers. There’s no quit in this team!

May 16, 1906: In just his second season, Mike Morris is truly coming into his own. Yesterday he pitched a 10-inning complete game with nine hits, a walk, a strikeout and four runs (three earned) to improve to 7-3 on the year with a 2.39 ERA, getting a decision in every start so far! Miguel Gomez hit a single that scored Jeremy Smith from second to give us the win in the 10th, his 16th RBI of the season as we won 5-4 over the Lexington Roughriders in front of 10,000 fans here at the Ballpark of Louisville, improving our record to 16-22.

June 1, 1906: Sean Impagliazzo was named Rookie of the Month in the Ohio River League. He went 2-6 in eight starts during the month of May, striking out eight and posting a 2.27 ERA through 67.1 innings. He currently holds a 4-7 record and 2.54 ERA as a rookie through 11 starts, with 10 strikeouts against seven walks.

June 7, 1906: Impagliazzo pitched his second complete game shutout yesterday afternoon, a four-hitter, as we punished the Rum Runners of Owensboro by a 4-0 margin. We’re currently nine games under .500 with a 25-34 record, but we’re making progress in a season we were expected to be a complete non-competitor. If we can make some good moves in free agency in the offseason, we may not be as far off as a lot of people thought.

June 18, 1906: Our Rivermen are getting hot as the summer heats up! Yesterday we won a 1-0 shutout against Huntington as we improved to 32-36 on the season, adding a fifth game to our current winning streak! Impagliazzo improved to 8-8 with a five-hit, one walk, two strikeout shutout, keeping his ERA at 1.86 through 135.2 innings. We’ve switched to a three-man rotation of late, with Morris, Miller and Impagliazzo taking the bulk of our innings, while Dave Bobb has moved into the stopper role where hopefully he’ll be able to better position us for wins when we do need to go to the bullpen. And because of our win streak, we’ve now pulled ourselves into fourth place in the Ohio River League, though we still trail East St. Louis (43-24) by 11.5 games.

June 29, 1906: Brad Burgess, our 20-year-old third baseman prospect in the minors, has come a long way quickly since signing a minor league deal with us in October of 1904. He was hitting .206 with 10 doubles and eight homers for AA St. Louis, when he was called up to Dayton just a week ago. Since then he’s hit .500 in his first three games, with seven hits, three doubles and a homer! The MBA hasn’t been a power league, but Burgess has long shown the potential to be among the vanguard who could soon change that! We’ve also been impressed with Trent Hall, who was hitting .321 with a double, a triple and two homers in his first eight games at AAA Dayton this spring, after going .260 with eight doubles, three triples and 13 stolen bases in AA earlier in the season. But he fractured his tibia two weeks ago and will be out likely until August. He’ll have a month of action in Dayton before their season wraps up, at which point he and Burgess could be candidates for a late season call-up ... stay tuned!

July 1, 1906: Center fielder Jon Chavez has been solid as hell this year, and he was named the Ohio River League’s Batter of the Month for June! He hit .375 this month with two homers, 18 runs batted in and 17 runs scored. On the whole, he’s hit .330 and slugged .415 this year, with 11 doubles, six stolen bases and 28 runs batted in. We finished the month with a 39-40 record, ten games out of first place in the ORL, behind Lexington (44-36), Cincinnati (48-31) and East St. Louis (49-30).

jksander · 03-17-2024, 06:44 AM

July 13, 1906: We’ve officially made the call to bring Brad Burgess up to the majors, where he’ll be playing shorstop for us as our lineup has been badly bruised up due to frequent injuries. The 20-year-old up-and-comer played in 16 games at the AAA level in Dayton, picking up 26 hits for a .413 average. During that time he hit nine doubles and a stunning nine homers, batting in 26 runs and picking up 1.3 WAR! No one in the Midwest Baseball League has hit more than four home runs during the 1906 campaign, and no one in league history has hit more than 24 long bombs in a single season. So if he can continue to hit like this at the major league level, this kid’s got a hell of a future. Like our owner told me when he all but demanded I call the kid up: “when we’ve got a losing record, what’s there to lose?” We’re currently 41-47 and clinging to the middle of the pack in 5th place, so if he can provide the spark we need, why not go for it?

July 31, 1906: Matt Morris pitched a six-hit shutout as we beat the Lexington Roughriders 4-0 on the road yesterday afternoon, improving our record to 48-57. He’s currently 15-13 with a 2.56 ERA through 31 starts and 281 innings of work.

August 1, 1906: The trade deadline passed without much happening, and Sean Impagliazzo won Rookie of the Month again for July, going 5-5 through 10 starts, striking out 16 batters in 88.2 innings, for a 1.62 ERA this month. He is 14-15 with a 1.89 ERA for the year through 29 starts and 243 innings, with 33 K’s, a 1.06 WHIP and 3.3 WAR. Just wait until he’s got a better hitting team backing him up!

In other news, we’re calling 22-year-old center fielder Trent Hall up from AAA Dayton, having hit .347 down there with two doubles, a triple and four homers. But honestly, we need him right now more for his incredible outfield arm than anything. He’s got future Gold Glove at center field written all over him on repeat, and we’re 14 games back of first and fading fast toward last place. We might as well see what he can do.

jksander · 03-17-2024, 09:13 AM

August 6, 1906: We were on fire this week, winning four out of five games against Lexington and Pittsburgh, and starter Mike Morris went 3-0 during that stretch, giving up just 24 hits and walking ONE batter in 27 innings of work -- all of which earned him ORL Player of the Week honors! He’s 17-13 overall with a 2.53 ERA through 299 innings, averaging just one walk every other game.

August 8, 1906: We shut out the Huntington Appalachians yesterday evening by a score of 7-0, and slugging was the name of the game! Our catcher Mike Andreen hit his third homer of the season in the third inning, and Burgess hit his fourth four-bagger in 26 days, giving him a .478 slugging percentage since coming up to the majors. He’s now tied for the home run “title,” though no one really talks about that kind of thing ... the primary focus has been on hitting for average and scoring runs on the ground. But our owner wanted us to be focused on finding power bats because fans love seeing the ball go out of the park. We’re currently leading the league in home runs this year as a team, so mission accomplished.

August 19, 1906: We’ve been on a real tear in August, and just like that we’re back to .500, thanks to a four-hit 3-0 shutout win by Dave Bobb (7-7, 3 SV, 3.54 ERA, 167.2 IP). We’ve gone 12-4 this month and though we’re 11.5 games behind East St. Louis (73-50), we’re closing in on the Roughriders in third place with our 61-61 record. With just five weeks left in the regular season, we’re certainly doing our best to finish strong!

September 1, 1906: Second baseman Jeremy Smith won the OBL’s Best Bat award this month, with 37 hits giving him a .370 average with 19 RBIs and 17 runs scored himself. He’s hitting .287 for the season, providing a strong veteran presence at the plate. And once again, Impagliazzo was named Rookie of the Month, going 6-2 with 10 K’s in 75.1 innings, improving his already stellar record to 20-17 with a 2.01 ERA, 43 K’s and a 1.05 WHIP through 318.1 innings. We head into the final three weeks of the season holding a 68-65 record and tied for third place in the Ohio River League with the Lexington Roughriders, trailing Cincinnati (76-57) by eight games and East St. Louis (78-65) by ten.

September 24, 1906: Unfortunately our solid stretch had to come to an end -- not only were we eliminated from pennant contention on September 13, we went 3-7 after that point, to finish the season with a losing record, 76-78. But our third place finish in the Ohio River League was our best since 1897, a 20-win improvement over last year’s finish, and 30 wins better than our 1903 last-place finish. The Chicago Internationals (92-62) are secure in their Championship Series berth, but in our league it’s going to come down to a one-game playoff between East St. Louis and Cincinnati, because both finished the season 90-64!

September 25, 1906: The Cincinnati Continentals stunned the baseball world last night with a 7-0 drubbing of the Locomotives of East St. Louis, led by Dean Murphy (28-18, 1.70 ERA, 73 K’s, 0.92 WHIP) who only allowed four hits with a walk and a strikeout in the complete game! He controlled the mound for 433 innings this season, and they’re going to need him to be phenomenal in the Championship Series if they’re going to upend Chicago and take home their first title!

Sean Burgess has been the talk of the league among players not getting to compete for a title, being named ORL Batter of the Month for September, with a .321 average, seven homers and 14 RBIs.He played in 62 games at the major league level this season as a rookie and hit just .260, but he hit six doubles, a triple and 17 HOMERS, though his league-leading slugging percentage doesn’t qualify because he only played in a little over a third of our games. When I took over the team he was just a solid prospect with a lot of upside, but damned if he didn’t put on a growth spurt right in front of us all!

October 5, 1906: We officially have ourselves a first-time MBA Champion! Cincinnati was a team on a mission in their fourth appearance in the postseason series, taking game one in 11 innings 8-6 and game two 9-1 while on the road against the Internationals. On their field they dropped game three 3-1, but won a nailbiter 1-0 in the fourth game to take a commanding lead. Chicago fought back with an 8-3 win to bring the series back to the Windy City, but in game six Dean Murphy showed why he’s one of the best pitchers in the league, going on the road and throwing a complete game seven hitter, with a strikeout and two runs scored, neither of them earned -- Cincinnati held tough to win 5-2, taking the series 4-2!

jksander · 03-17-2024, 09:15 AM

October 6, 1906: Phil Gibson reached out to me to let me know he’d renewed my contract, giving me a three year extension at $750 per season to continue the work we’re doing to build up the organization. League voting is now taking place for awards, and arbitration hearings are scheduled for October 26, with free agency filings taking place on the 28th. Awards will start being announced in a little over a week.

October 11, 1906: I’m going to have to find a new Assistant GM, because Danny Gremillion accepted the open job in Chicago as GM for the Internationals, where he’ll now earn more than $2,500 per season -- can’t say I blame him at all. At his age, he’s earned the right to run a team on his own, rather than answering to a young Turk like me. We’re a team on the rise, and I had a number of applications come in once the announcement came in from Chicago, so I’ve already got interviews scheduled.

October 13, 1906: I’ve already found our new A-GM in Nathan Allen, the 44-year-old former GM of the South Bend (Ind.) Sluggers in the TSBL, who has spent the last year looking for a chance to move up into the major league ranks. He’ll earn $348 per year for the next three seasons, and he’s already got a reputation as a guy who fosters loyalty among players, with an emphasis on hitting which should come in handy as our young guys blossom in the league.

October 14, 1906: Catcher Mike Andreen didn’t light the world on fire with his bat this year, but his fielding’s definitely good enough to deserve a bench spot on our roster. He’s signed a two year extension worth $1,260 total, $630 in 1907 with a player option for the same in 1908.

October 16, 1906: Jeremy Smith won this year’s Silver Slugger award for his position, left field, hitting .299 all year with 19 doubles, 20 triples and a home run, to go with 59 stolen bases! This is his fourth Silver Slugger as a career Riverman, having won it before in 1900, 1902 and 1903. He’s on contract through next year, and we’re hoping once free agency starts this year he’ll be open to negotiating an extension.

October 28, 1906: Arbitration proved to have no surprises for us, and we’re excited to see that the free agents have all fired, giving us a chance to improve our roster from the outside as much as we have from within! In that vein, we’re very pleased to announce that we’ve worked out a deal with the Minneapolis Barons to purchase the rights to 2B Bobby Johnson, age 31, who hit .264 this season with 17 doubles, 18 RBIs and 31 stolen bases. He’d been on the remainder of a six year contract signed in 1904 worth a total of $6,710, but by buying out his rights we now have him on a minor league contract at no additional cost.

November 28, 1906: After a ton of negotiations all around, we finally landed our first free agent signing of the season. Shortstop Gustavo Quinones, 34, is a durable veteran presence with tremendous bat speed and an instintive nose for the ball on defense, whether at third base or at short. He spent the last six years with Cincinnati, putting together a .249 average last year with nine doubles and 37 stolen bases, giving him a 2.2 WAR season. He’ll earn $5,200 spread over five seasons with us, with $1,100 per year the first three years and then a fourth year at $950 before a player option in 1911 worth the same.

December 10, 1906: Today we signed a premier closer to anchor our bullpen, signing 32-year-old J.R. Potter to a five year deal worth $7,250 in total, starting at $1,000 in 1907 and rising incrementally to reach $1,750 in the final two years of the contract. Poter has absolutely filthy stuff, and has played for Lexington, Chicago and East St. Louis over the last eight seasons, playing 124 games from the bullpen and compiling an 18-15 record with 20 saves. His career ERA of 1.82 and 0.99 WHIP are exceptional, and he’s already won one Reliever of the Year award in 1900 with Lexington. A lot of teams are ignoring the importance of having great bullpen arms, and we intend to push that as an emphasis to back up our starters.

December 15, 1906: We made another big signing today, luring in Ben Morris, a 24-year-old with no prior experience in the MBA or its associated leagues. A solid outfielder who we’ll most likely use as a utility fielder, Morris is a switch hitter with tremendous speed who has the potential to hit for an elite average! A defensive marvel who can dazzle on the basepaths, this kid quickly got us into a bidding war with Chicago, East St. Louis and Evansville. But in the end we offered him the best long term deal, and this morning we received the signed paperwork -- eight years, $16,640 in total, but kept simple at $2,080 per season through the length of the deal.

December 16, 1906: I think we’ve finally completed our offseason build, now that we’ve added another solid starter to our rotation, which will allow us to go with a high quality four-man rotation this season. Cameron McClain, age 30, started his career in Indianapolis but finished last year as a mid-season rental to East St. Louis. All totaled, in 1906 he went 31-18 with a 1.75 ERA, 62 K’s, an 0.91 WHIP and 6.9 pitching WAR, but the Locomotives declined to offer him arbitration. Their loss, our gain! We signed him to a seven year deal worth $14,260, culminating in a team option in 1913 that would allow us to buy out his $2,240 final year for just $1,000 if his skills have dropped off. But he’s been durable so far in his career, starting 309 games and averaging 450+ innings per year, and though he’s been accused of having “fringey” stuff, his pinpoint control is more than enough to make him a keeper.

jksander · 03-17-2024, 05:18 PM

January 2, 1907: There will be no new additions to the Hall of Fame this season, but Pablo Laureano nearly got through in his second year, with 74.2% of the votes. Laureano played in Minneapolis from 1888 through 1894, then played in Huntington (1895), Louisville (1896-98) and then bounced from Detroit to Bloomington and then Lexington and finally Evansville before retiring in October of 1981. He had a 250-269 career record, a 2.59 ERA and 518 strikeouts, with a 1.12 WHIP and .273 BAPIP, accounting for 68.6 career WAR. I suspect he’ll make it over the hump eventually, though if he doesn’t it will likely be because he played for so many teams over the years he never managed to build a national reputation (though his 35-14 record and Pitcher of the Year win for Minneapolis in 1892 will always be remembered there). He’s one of those guys who had a strong flame for seven years or so and then faded quietly.

January 29, 1907: In a bid to bring more fans in this season to see the new-and-improved Rivermen, we’re going to be selling tickets for 10 cents in the month of April! Come out and see what’s happening on the riverfront here in Louisville as we fight to challenge the big dogs in this league.

February 3, 1907: I’ve allowed my coaches to control our development plans for the offseason, and for the most part it’s been business as usual with no big shocking improvements. But in the most recent round of updates we had three players who showed success. Catcher Kevin Sovie (AA) picked up some decent ability at first base, while Jeremy Smith at the major league level, improved his defensive ability in right field, though he remains the most competent at second base and in left field. At age 34, however, he remains one of our most intelligent, hardest working players. First baseman Neal Castro (AAA) has added the ability to play left field to his repetoire, to go with first and third base, though at age 27 his chances of making the major league roster are growing slimmer by the day. He’s a sparkplug-type at AAA, but lacks the overall skill to make the jump at the current moment.

February 25, 1907: Spring training officially starts today! We’ll start the regular season off on April 2 with a three-game trip to Owensboro, followed by three games against Huntington on the road, before we finally get to have our home opening series against Pittsburgh from April 8-10.

March 29, 1907: In the spring season we put together a 16-14 record in training games, placing second behind the Cincinnati Continentals (17-13) in games that don’t officially count. Our bullpen looks incredible, and Cameron McClain looks to be the spark we need to put our starting rotation into the upper reaches of the league. Brad Burgess hit .482 through 59 plate appearances, with two doubles and nine homers as he batted in 22 runs, showing he was only getting started last year ... bring it on! This league can stand some offensive fireworks to go with what’s primarily been a pitcher focused game. We also are a lot faster on the basepaths this year; Michael Levine hit .283 and stole 12 bases in 19 attempts, while Jeremy Smith stole 10 in 14 tries. We’re still finalizing the opening day roster, but expectations are definitely higher than they were at this time last year.

April 2, 1907: We’ve officially got our opening day rosters set and ready to go! In the recent BNN prospect updates, left fielder Ben Morris is now ranked 2nd overall, and will be making his major league debut this season! First baseman Cameron Jackson (AA, #30), third baseman Jesus de la Torre (AAA, #83) and right handed reliever Danny Suarez (AAA, #124) are our next highest-rated prospects overall. Our only major injury at the moment is to Chris Hughes, who strained a muscle in his ribcage and will be day to day for around a month. We’re going to have him on the IL, but should return to the infield by May.

Starting Lineup (con / gap / pwr / eye / avd / def)*
C - Mike Andreen, 34 ... 50/45/50/40/60/60
1B - Michael Levine, 37 ... 65/50/50/50/70
2B - Gustavo Quinones, 35 ... 65/45/55/45/80/60
3B - Sam Leonard, 31 ... 65/45/45/45/80/65
SS - Brad Burgess, 21 ... 40/50/80/50/30/80
LF - Ben Morris, 24 ... 75/75/45/55/80/70
CF - Trent Hall, 23 ... 45/45/80/40/45/80
RF - Jeremy Smith, 34 ... 60/70/50/50/70/35

Bench
C - Josue Grimaldo, 34 ... 55/45/50/45/75/45
C - Ron Moseley, 31 ... 60/45/50/50/75/50
1B - David Abson, 30 ... 65/45/50/45/75/55
1B - Jake Bertz, 27 ... 70/45/50/45/80/35
1B - Tony Juarez, 35 ... 55/55/50/45/65/35
1B - Edward Quiroz, 32 ... 50/50/50/40/55/40
1B - Danny Van Sickle, 34 ... 60/40/45/50/75/25
2B - Bobby Johnson, 31 ... 70/45/45/50/80/70
2B - Evan Walker, 32 ... 60/45/50/50/70/65
3B - Ryan Kats, 33 ... 60/45/40/45/80/30
RF - Travis Linden, 31 ... 70/45/45/50/80/50
INJ (2B) - Chris Hughes, 32 ... 60/65/50/50/70/50

Rotation (Stuff / Mov / Ctrl / Sta / Hld / Def)*
1 - Cameron McClain, 31 ... 55/70/65/55/55/45
2 - Sean Impagliazzo, 23 ... 55/70/45/65/65/55
3 - Mike Morris, 27 ... 40/65/50/50/40/65

Bullpen
Stopper - J.R. Potter, 32 ... 75/70/45/30/55/50
Middle - Chris Moore, 30 ... 50/60/35/30/60/35
Middle - Jimmy McClorey, 28 ... 55/55/40/30/80/40
Long - Kyle Fargo, 29 ... 40/65/50/55/70/45
Long - Tim Miller, 36 ... 35/60/40/50/75/45

* Defense rating only at key position

jksander · 03-17-2024, 06:13 PM

April 3, 1907: Owensboro held us to just three hits in our season opening game yesterday, but McClain held them to six with just one unearned run and we outscored them 2-1 in a real nailbiter to start the season off right! Jeremy Smith picked up two of our three hits and Brad Burgess grounded out to first to drive in the winning run. Nice way to start the year off on the road, boys!

April 6, 1907: Michael Levine picked up his 2,000th career hit during a 2-0 win over the Huntington Appalachians this afternoon! That’s a lot of hits, Mike, and you’re clearly still taking care of business out there when most guys would be thinking about retirement.

April 9, 1907: We opened our season on an incredible seven game winning streak, but it came to an end this afternoon with a Jamie Bennett RBI single for the Pittsburgh Tin-Knockers on our field in the top of the 10th, which allowed them to beat us 4-3 and improve to 7-2. Sean Impagliazzo pitched a complete game with nine hits, three walks, a strikeout and four earned runs, dropping to 2-1 on the young season, though his ERA is an exceptional 1.93 so far through 28 innings. Brad Burgess has started out red hot, with a .343 average, six homers and 11 RBIs, but that’s a home run pace there’s no way he can sustain. He’s not the only one slugging well, however ... Derek Cole, of the Chicago Internationals, has two homers already this season. It may be an outlier or a sign of things to come, but the fans love it ... attendance is way up in our first two home games this year and season ticket sales were steady. We just need to build the fan loyalty.

April 14, 1907: Cameron McClain is on a real tear! He improved to 5-0 with a 1.20 ERA with a 5-0 shutout against the Evansville Crescents this afternoon as we improved to 11-2 on the still-young season. Our starters have been dominant through these first two weeks, without yet having to go to the bullpen. But competition is fierce this season so far in the Ohio River League, with Lexington and Pittsburgh already nipping at our heels with 10 wins apiece.

May 1, 1907: We’ve got a month of high quality baseball in the books early on this year, and we’re off to a solid 19-9 start, leading the Ohio River League by a game and a half over Cincinnati (18-11) and by 2.5 games over Lexington (16-11). In the Great Lakes League, the Chicago Internationals continue to look like their usual selves, at 19-9 but only half a game up on Bloomington’s Hoosiers (19-10). The Internationals would love to keep their pennant streak going ... they’ve won three in a row and nine of the last 13 in that league, bringing home six championships in that stretch.

Cameron McClain had a hell of an April, winning his first nine games before finally dropping one. He won the CBL’s Pitcher of the Month award as a result, with a 9-1 record, a 1.55 ERA and an 0.92 WHIP to go with a .238 BAPIP. In 93 innings so far this season he’s only allowed 16 earned runs and a single homer. Impagliazzo and Morris are handling themselves well, but it’s clear McClain was the Ace we’d been waiting for. Our pitchers have been lights out, but our bats have not ... Michael Levine has our best average, hitting .265 with 26 hits, two doubles and a triple. Burgess’ power has been exceptional, with two doubles and seven homers putting his slugging at .467, but he’s already struck out 15 times. Still, his 2.4 WAR is third in both leagues, his slugging is 4th overall, and he’s only two homers behind the pace of Chicago’s David Cole, who right now could win a triple crown in the GLL if he keeps it up.

jksander · 03-17-2024, 08:15 PM

May 2, 1907: Yesterday afternoon, Sean Impagliazzo pitched a complete game one-hitter in a 4-0 win over the Lexington Roughriders in front of 11,100 fans here at the Ballpark of Louisville. Their only single came in the top of the ninth, when second baseman Chris Grogan hit a line-drive single before Impagliazzo shut them down with three flyouts in a row. It was by far his best overall pitching career yet!

May 3, 1907: Tim Miller is going to have to step into the starting rotation for the next three to four weeks, as Mike Morris is dealing with elbow inflammation and has been put on the 21-day IL. He went down before the third inning of yesterday’s game against the Roughriders, but our bench gave us eight innings of excellent relief. Chris Moore came out of it with a win, allowing two hits, a walk and a run in two innings of work as Brad Burgess walked off the win in the bottom of the 10th with a single. Thus far in the season we’re 3-3 in extra innings games, and 10-5 in one-run battles.

May 11, 1907: We have completed a new contract extension for Jeremy Smith, who so far this year is hitting .270 with four doubles, seven triples and 11 RBIs. The 34-year-old fielder, known to fans as “Charlie Hustle,” will earn $2,000 per year in 1908 through 1910, with $1,800 in 1911 and $1,500 in 1912 -- the deal keeps him in Louisville through age 40 and, conceivably, his eventual retirement, though right now he’s playing like he could keep doing it forever. Smith has spent his entire career in Louisville and is nearing the 1,000 hit threshold. A fan favorite and a nationally recognized ambassador for the game, we’re glad to have the chance to keep him here for good.

We opened the month of May on an eight game winning streak before dropping a game yesterday to the Huntington Appalachians here in Louisville. As such, we’ve pulled ahead in the ORL pennant race, with a 27-10 record and a six game lead on the Lexington Roughriders.

May 28, 1907: Mike Morris is back off the IL, but we’re going to keep Tim Miller (5-2, 2.51 ERA, 57.1 IP) in the starting rotation as our fourth starter. We’re still 6.5 games up on the Roughriders at this point and having the extra man in the rotation to keep from wearing down McClain and Impagliazzo should be helpful as we head into the heart of summer.

June 1, 1907: Ben Morris was named the ORL’s Hitter of the Month for May, hitting .330 with 21 RBIs and 15 runs scored! He’s hitting .276 so far this season with four doubles, 12 triples and 32 RBIs. Cameron McClain still leads the team with a 14-4 record and 1.99 ERA through 158.1 innings, but Impagliazzo has broken out as well, with a 12-5 record, 1.71 ERA and 22 K’s through 158 innings. Heading into June we’ve got a 38-17 record, five games up on Lexington and nine ahead of Evansville and East St. Louis. In the GLL, the Chicago Internationals have a 38-17 record as well, up four on the 34-21 Fort Wayne Flyers, while Bloomington has faded into third with a 31-23 record.

June 14, 1907: Just like that, we’ve come back to earth, starting the month out on a dismal 5-7w stretch, allowing Lexington to come roaring back into the race! We’re currently 43-24, with the Roughriders trailing us by just one game. If we thought we had this season all figured out, we’ve found out quite differently. It seems when our bats go cold, teams are able to take advantage -- in nine of those twelve games we struggled to score even three runs, which won’t get us anywhere.

July 1, 1907: It’s crazy to seem frustrated when we’re 52-31 heading into the month of July, but when you went 15-14 and blew a five game lead in the division, it’s hard to feel exactly confident. We’re now knotted up with Lexington, a team we know wants it since they’ve yet to make it to the postseason in the entire history of the Midwest Baseball League, and East St. Louis is now only 4.5 games back so they’re right back in it as well. We absolutely have to snap out of our offensive funk and find ways to drive in runs and win ballgames ... the rest of this league isn’t going to hand anything to us. In the GLL, Chicago is running away with things, at 61-21, a full 12 games up on the Fort Wayne Flyers (49-33). Barring an epic collapse, they’re looking like the toast of that league yet again and a formidable Championship Series opponent for whoever can get out of our league.

In other news, we’re promoting Jesus de la Torre, age 24, from AAA to see if he can spark some energy among the major leaguers -- he has hit .403 with 20 doubles, three triples and five homers while in Daytonn this year, while stealing 21 bases and being named Batter of the Month in that league. He’ll be playing 3B, SS and LF coming off the bench for the remainder of the season.

July 13, 1907: Though Burgess has been doing incredibly well as a fielder, he’s been in an epic hitting slump through May and June, but today he hit his 10th homer of the season to get some excitement going, fueling a 7-4 win over the Cincinnati Continentals on the road this afternoon! He currently leads the Ohio River League in home runs, but is way behind the pace of Cole in Chicago, who already has 31 homers, shattering the previous record of 24 in a season. He is still on pace to beat out the 17 he hit last season, and is doing so at a younger age than Cole, which makes me feel like he’s going to have the most staying power in the league. Meanwhile, we’ve opened up a two game lead again in the division, and Cameron McClain already has 20 wins this season, putting him on pace to win more games than he ever has in a season!

August 1, 1907: The trade deadline has passed, and it’s time to commit to the pennant chase. And Brad Burgess did as much as anyone in July to help us do so -- he hit .278 this month with seven homers, 14 runs scored and 19 RBIs, earning the ORL’s Batter of the Month award! Through 100 games and 347 plate appearances he’s now got a .242 average with eight doubles, 15 homers and 51 RBIs, and has been by far the best shortstop defensively in the game, with 263 putouts, 415 assists and 53 double plays, with a zone rating of nearly 32 above average!

But the pennant race remains tight -- we’re in the lead still with a 65-43 record, but East St. Louis has surged, improving to 63-44 and just a game and a half back, while Lexington (62-45, 2.5 GB) and Evansville (60-47, 4.5 GB) are all still in the conversation. Chicago, meanwhile, has all but sealed the deal on the Great Lakes League, with a 79-28 record and a 15-game lead on Bloomington (63-42), with Fort Wayne (60-47, 19 GB) fading fast.

jksander · 03-17-2024, 10:46 PM

August 13, 1907: You like pitching duels? We had a hell of a pitching duel this afternoon, as we and Cincinnati were scoreless through the first nine, and then both pitchers kept dealing ... in the bottom of the 14th inning Travis Linden reached first on a throwing error, advancing to second with one out off a single by Bobby Johnson. Jared Bertz then hit a single that allowed Linden to come all the way around to score the unearned walk-off run as we beat the Continentals 1-0! Tim Miller took the complete game shutout win, allowing just seven hits in 14 innings, giving him a 12-11 record and a 2.78 ERA this season! Cincy’s Steven Nichols wound up with the loss, going 13.1 innings with a walk, a strikeout and the one unearned run. That’s gotta burn! We improved to 74-45, and have now won seven games in a row, increasing our margin to four games in the pennant race.

Elsewhere in the world of baseball, David “Tank” Cole of the Chicago Internationals is having a dream season, hitting .415/.424/.734 with 192 hits, 20 doubles, four triples and 40 homers. He’s batted in 120 runs and stolen 15 bases to boot! Even if he cools down the stretch, which is all but certain, this is the kind of season that’s impossible to duplicate, and he’s going to leave a ton of offensive records in his dust before the season’s over. Like Brad Burgess for us, he’s also the best defensive shortstop in HIS league and it’s wild as hell to see them both having phenomenal seasons. We just need to make the matchup in the Championship Series happen.

Just six and a half weeks and we’ll know!

August 30, 1907: Ben Morris’s rookie season has come to a premature end thanks to a broken bone in his elbow, which is unfortunate as he was hitting .290 with 10 doubles and 26 triples, while stealing 22 bases! It was a hell of a rookie year, but he’ll be lucky to be able to start his winter training in January with an eye on next year.

September 1, 1907: For the second month in a row, Brad Burgess has been named ORL Batter of the Month! He hit .345 this month with 10 more homers and 24 RBIs, improving his season average to .267 with 25 four-baggers! His resurgence helped us to power through our opponents this month, putting together a 19-7 record in the month of August -- we’re now 84-50 with a six game lead on the East St. Louis Locomotives (78-56) and a 7.5 game lead on Lexington’s Roughriders (77-58). Chicago (94-48) should clinch within a couple days -- their magic number is four, with a 17 game lead on their nearest rival. Our magic number is 15, so we’re getting closer, but not close enough to let our guard down.

September 5, 1907: Jeremy Smith tore his flexor tendon in his left elbow yesterday during our 3-2 loss to the Roughriders here in Louisville, an injury that at the very least will end his season ... and at his age, it’s a legitimate question how well he’ll recover to his full strength. He’s not a pitcher, which would make a full recovery almost impossible in this day and age. But he’s a fan favorite and we’re going to make sure we do everything we can to get him back into the lineup next season. This season he hit .259 with seven doubles, 12 triples and 72 stolen bases, ending the season with 499 career stolen bases ... SO CLOSE to the milestone 500.

September 14, 1907: On the road in Owensboro this afternoon, we crushed the Rum Runners by a 13-2 margin, officially clinching as the winners of the Ohio River League Pennant! Tim Miller allowed just seven hits in a complete game win, improving to 18-11 with a 2.40 ERA, as we improved to 93-54 with just over a week to go in the regular season. It’s official: we’ll get our shot against the Chicago Internationals, and both of our teams have posted their best records in franchise history in the race to get here!

September 21, 1907: The hits keep coming ... we’ve kept winning since the pennant win became official, but we’ve got another season ending injury to deal with: left fielder Chris Hughes fractured his fibula and will miss at least three months. This season, at 32, he hit .264 with 13 doubles four triples and two homers, stealing 30 bases and driving in 29 runs.

September 23, 1907: The regular season is done, and the MBA Championship Series is now set to start on the 25th as we’ll take our 98-56 record on the road to play the Chicago Internationals who finished with a 107-47 record, looking all but unstoppable. We have two starters at the top of their games ... Cameron McClain finished the regular season with a 29-14 record with a 1.86 ERA, 43 K’s and an 0.99 WHIP, pitching 373.1 innings, while Sean Impagliazzo had a 27-14 record with a 1.69 ERA, 68 K’s and an 0.91 WHIP, pitching in 389 innings. Chicago was led by a three-pitcher rotation which all posted ERAs under 2.00, and David Castro (39-13, 1.49 ERA, 466.0 IP, 108 K’s, 0.85 WHIP) and Ryan Nicolson (32-13, 1.99 ERA, 411.1 IP, 43 K’s, 0.99 WHIP) are both exceptional starters. Our two slugging shortstops get to do battle against each other as well ... in our corner there’s Burgess, with a .280 average, 20 doubles, 32 homers, 94 RBIs and 12.4 WAR, while in theirs they have Cole, who finished his season with a .4003 average, 30 doubles, 41 homers, 18 stolen bases and 145 RBIs, with 18.2 WAR. He now leads the MBA in single-season batting average, OBP (.4149), slugging percentage, total bases (400), homers, RBIs and wins above replacement.

jksander · 03-17-2024, 10:48 PM

1907 MBA Championship Series
Louisville Rivermen (98-56) vs. Chicago Internationals (107-47)

September 25, 1907: We got things going with a bang in game one of the MBA Championship Series in Chicago ... we took an early 2-0 lead, but, up 7-4 going into the ninth inning, we let them score on a groundball single, and then their first-baseman Nate Westfall hit a single that drove in two more to tie it up. But in the top of the 11th, Michael Levine hit a grounder and reached safely on an E5 error, allowing Josue Grimaldo to put us in the lead! Kyle Fargo came out to pitch in the bottom of the inning and didn’t let them even dream of a hit, and we held on to win 8-7! McClain got blown up tonight, allowing 16 hits with seven runs, four earned, through 8.2 innings, but J.R. Potter got the win with just one hit in 1.1 innings. Chalk one up to our bullpen as we took a 1-0 series lead! Burgess had two hits, one of them a homer, and two RBIs, while Cole hit twice and scored a run on the ground.

September 26, 1907: In game two we scored a run in the top of the first, but Chicago scored five unanswered starting in the sixth, and despite two runs scored in the top of the ninth, it wasn’t enough to overcome the deficit. We lost this one 5-3 and the series evened out heading back to Louisville. Impagliazzo completed the eight innings with eight hits but allowed five runs, only three of which were earned. Burgess went 0 for 4 and struck out twice, while Cole hit twice and batted in a run.

September 28, 1907: The Internationals took game three and the series lead, beating us 6-2 in a game they took over in the third, never trailing for a moment. Morris gave up 14 hits in 7.2 innings and though the bullpen stayed unblemished, those six earned runs were impossible to make up. Burgess has gone ice cold ... another 0 for 4 with two K’s for him, while Cole hit twice and got nowhere.

September 29, 1907: McClain had a great night in game four, pitching a complete game 10-inning seven-hitter with a walk, a strike and two earned runs, the game going into extras tied up 2-2. In the bottom of the 10th, Brad Burgess hit a walk-off RBI single, scoring Michael Levine to give us a 3-2 victory and tying the series at 2-2! Burgess woke up big time, hitting three times with a run and two RBIs, including his second homer of the series, while Cole went hitless in four tries -- the battle of the MVP shortstops is heating up!

September 30, 1907: Game five was scoreless until the bottom of the fifth, when Impagliazzo hit a squeeze bunt to the third base side, Trent Hall scoring safely ahead of the throw to give us a 1-0 lead! Having gotten us the lead with his impeccable bunting skills, Impagliazzo held tough and completed the shutout, allowing just six hits, walking four batters and striking out a pair as we took the series lead three games to two heading back into Chicago. Burgess hit twice, bringing his series average up to .350, while Cole hit once and kept his at .368.

October 2, 1907: Game six was another squeaker ... Chicago took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the second, but in the top of the fifth Mike Andreen hit an RBI single that scored Trent Hall to tie it up, and an inning later Brad Burgess hit a solo homer to take the lead 2-1! But in the bottom of the ninth with the lead still at one run, we choked. Alex Larralde, their first baseman, reached on an error, and then Mike Morris allowed a hit to David Cole, putting him in scoring position. Then left fielder Kyle Doak hit a single, and on an E9 throwing error to home plate, Larralde scored the tying run. Christian Collier, their third baseman, hit a flyout to left, but Doak had time to tag up from third and scored the walk-off as we lost a heartbreaker 3-2. Burgess had one hit, which was his third homer of the series, and it would have been a championship one if we could have held on. Cole hit twice and scored a run, and has now hit .391 through the first six games. Morris took it pretty hard after the game, having gone 8.2 innings with just seven hits and three runs (one earned) in a game that was so close to won he could taste it.

October 3, 1907: We scored first, top of the third, but they answered with a pair in the bottom of the inning, adding a third in the bottom of the fifth and a fourth in the bottom of the sixth. Mike Andreen hit an RBI single in the top of the seventh to cut their lead to two, but we couldn’t make anything else happen. The Internationals held their ground and won this one 4-2, taking another championship home in the process. McClain only lasted six innings, allowing eight hits and four runs with a walk, and Fargo was impressive in his two innings of relief, with just a single hit. Burgess went 0 for 4 and struck out twice (sound familiar?) and Cole scored a run after being hit by a pitch. He finished the series with a .346 average and one RBI, while Burgess hit .286 with three homers in the series and five RBIs. He slugged .643 in the series, and would have easily been the MVP if we’d come out victorious.

We would have loved to take home the title, but going up against a juggernaut like the Internationals and managing to take it to seven games without any truly bad losses, that’s a real achievement. And I’m confident we’ve got the players who can make sure this isn’t a one-off trip.

jksander · 03-18-2024, 06:51 PM

October 5, 1907: Backup first baseman Danny Van Sickle announced his retirement after the playoffs ended ... he hit .259 with nine doubles and 39 RBIs over 290 career games, just 21 of which he got to start. But he got to play in the league for nine seasons, which is more than a lot of minor league guys ever get to say. Meanwhile, Mike Andreen executed his player option, so he’ll be with us for the remaining two years on his contract, and though we’d like to find a younger catcher he can work with during those years, he’s still a very solid catcher in his own right even as he nears middle age.

Our owner is of course happy with the fact that we made it to the Championship Series ahead of schedule, but he is frustrated by the fact that, even with a winning team, we’re still struggling to keep the fans engaged. I know we’re one of the four smallest markets in the league, and it’s going to take time to build up fan loyalty. But we’re trending quickly in the right direction -- if we keep doing what we’re doing, the long-term support for our franchise will build as well.

October 6, 1907: We made a trade with the Fort Wayne Flyers that gets us a young(er) catcher I’ve been eying, 30-year-old Eduard de los Santos, who hits incredibly well for contact and who is at least average as a defensive option. He’s inexpensive, as he’s not yet arbitration eligible, and in his rookie season last year he hit .322 with 12 doubles and 28 RBIs. We’re sending one of our backup first basemen, Jared Bertz, along with third baseman Jesus de la Torre, a top 70 prospect who played 19 games up at the big league level last year for us but averaged just .216 with four runs scored.

October 9, 1907: We’ve traded 29-year-old right handed starter David Wright (AA), 22-year-old first baseman Cameron Jackson (AA), 30-year-old lefty reliever Kyle Fargo and $10,000 to the Huntington Appalachians for 29-year-old right fielder Chris Whalen. Whalen hit .289 last year for the Appalachians, with 16 doubles and 52 RBIs, and is a solid fielder in left and right. He’s been on my radar all year as a rookie, and he fits in perfectly with the way we like to play baseball in Louisville, and his batting instincts will be helpful to us long term but at little financial cost as he’s joined the league later in his development.

October 13, 1907: We had four players win Gold Glove awards for exceptional fielding this year -- Mike Morris as a pitcher, Brad Burgess as a shortstop, Trent Hall as a center fielder and Jeremy Smith as a right fielder. This was Smith’s first right fielder fielding award, to go with his many Silver Sluggers.

October 15, 1907: We have two Silver Slugger award winners this season. First off, the obvious one: Brad Burgess was named the Gold Glove winner at shortstop, hitting .280 with 20 doubles, 32 homers and 94 RBIs, with 12.7 WAR. Our other winner was left fielder Ben Morris, who, before his injury averaged .290 with 10 doubles, 26 triples and 74 RBIs, putting together 4.7 total WAR. Our young bats are stepping up and making things happen, and that bodes very well for our future.

October 16, 1907: The awards keep coming for left fielder Ben Morris, who won ORL Rookie of the Year despite going down with the elbow injury before the playoffs. We’re hoping he comes back without any long-term damage, and can get back to swinging that bat next year as we try and get back to the championship!

October 17, 1907: Sean Impagliazzo won the ORL Pitcher of the Year award in a unanimous decision, taking every first place vote, beating out Cameron McClain, who did not get any first place votes but garnered 64 total points in the voting. Impagliazzo finished the year with a 27-14 record, started 43 games and threw 389 innings of work, and struck out 68 batters with an ERA of 1.69, a 0.91 WHIP and 6.5 WAR.

October 18, 1907: No surprise here ... Brad Burgess was named the unanimous choice as ORL Most Valuable Player, for his exceptional season at the incredibly young age of 22! The second-place vote getter was 20-year-old shortstop Salvatore Correa from Lexington, who hit .281 this year with 16 doubles, 16 triples and six homers, batting in 53 runs and putting together 8.2 WAR. These two young men will be up against each other for years, I suspect, in a rivalry that will only grow in its intensity.

November 11, 1907: Our first move in the offseason was to find a younger reliever to join our bullpen, and we found him in 28-year-old Ralph Ladd, a right handed hurler with a sharp curve and a decent fastball; his solid movement and above average arm make him a perfect setup man. We signed him to a three year deal with $850 per year for two years with a vesting option for a third at the same wage if he reaches 40 innings pitched.

Meanwhile we’ve made a deal with Pittsburgh to send Tim Miller (ret: 50%) in exchange for a minor league right fielder, Cody Boudman, age 26 (a former top 100 prospect) ... he deserves a place where he can start, and at 37 I am not confident I can count on him not to go down to an injury. We have to look to our future, and he’ll be of value to the Tin-Knockers, who are in the midst of a rebuild, so he should likely see more playing time there.

November 14, 1907: This is our big one, people! We’ve locked in on our third baseman of the future, in 26-year-old newcomer Octavio Delgado, who comes in as a free agent after playing unafilliated baseball out west for several years. Our scouts say his hitting ability is among the cream of the crop, and he’s a quality defender at third base with the ability to also back up Burgess at shorstop. Lexington reportedly went after him hard, as did Chicago, but we had the money available and made him an offer he couldn’t turn down: $27,450 spread over nine years, starting at $1,500 and rising incrementally until 1914-16, when he’ll be earning $5,000 a year in his early to mid-30s.

November 20, 1907: Owensboro reached out with interest in 21-year-old second baseman Ed Masse (AA) and 22-year-old catcher Mike Brovont (AA). In a move based on scouting information from Derek Black, I agreed to move those two in exchange for 20-year-old Chris Heikes, a young player who I feel the national scouts haven’t yet caught up on. He’s raw as hell right now, but has a high ceiling as a well-above average contact hitter, a great feel for the strike zone, and he knows when to lay off a bad pitch. He’s the kind of guy who will have to develop in the minors for a few years, but as a move toward building up our farm I think it’s the right one.

December 2, 1907: Our trainer has let me know Ben Morris is recovering very well, and he should be back to full strength in a couple weeks, at least two weeks ahead of schedule.

December 14, 1907: It took a few weeks to work out all the contractual details, but 22-year-old free agent utility outfielder Trey “Bird Dog” Bledsoe will be coming to play for his hometown Rivermen! He graduated from the University of Louisville this spring, and we had him at the top of our list for recruiting this year -- a left-handed hitter, he is confident with meticulous mechanics, and has great strike zone recognition to go with the bat speed to hit for big league power. An above average fielder in left and right, he should make an immediate impact on our team. We’ve agreed to a five-year deal worth $11,250, giving him $1,750 this year, $2,000 next year and then $2,500 per year for the final three. Our goal will then be to sign him to a long term extension and keep him in the Louisville family if he lives up to our expectations as a hitter. He’s already popular with our fans, extremely well known around the area, and has national recognition as well, since the Cardinals participated in this year’s College World Series in Omaha.

Our offense this year is going to be among the youngest in the majors, with only three of our projected starters over the age of 26! But if I’m right about the overall talent level of these guys as a group, this is going to be a team built for the long haul. Our projected salary cost for the entire franchise ranges from $22,000 this year to a max of $23,000 by 1912, which while coming in among the top teams in the ORL, is just above half of what Chicago ($39,000 this year) is paying in salaries.

jksander · 03-18-2024, 10:13 PM

December 20, 1907: After they won Pitcher of the Year and MVP respectively, we’ve been working to sign Impagliazzo and Burgess to long term deals that lock in their arbitration years and keep them here long term. Impagliazzo was the first to agree to the terms of the new contract proposals -- he’s earning $250 this year and will get $400 in 1909 and 1910, but will then earn from $1,300 (1911) up to $2,300 (1916-18) along with $750 bonuses for winning either Pitcher of the Year or MVP. The total value of the contract is $17,300 and it keeps him here in Louisville through his 35th birthday.

December 22, 1907: After dotting the I’s and crossing the T’s, we’ve agreed to terms with Brad Burgess on a long term contract for this year’s reigning ORL Most Valuable Player. He’s earning $250 this year and will get $400 in 1909 and 1910, and then rising amounts from $1,500 in 1911 at age 25 to $3,100 from 1914-18, ending when he’ll be 32 and still capable of commanding big money on the free agent market. The total value of his deal is $22,400 and does not include any additional awards compensation.

January 1, 1908: Happy New Year! The Hall of Fame is adding a new inductee this year, in Pablo Laureano, who narrowly missed out on induction last year -- this time around he got 78.3 percent of the votes in his third year of eligibility. He’s the 23rd pitcher to be inducted, while only three offensive players are currently in the HOF, though I expect that number to rise in the coming years.

January 31, 1908: I know most teams these days are running with a three-man starting rotation, but I just think it’s a smarter move to have four quality starters ready to go, so we don’t put so much wear and tear on each individual pitcher. So I went in hard on negotiations to get one more free agent this season, and we came out winners! George Driscoll, age 28, joins our league from one of the unaffiliated southern leagues, so he’s a fresh face in the league -- our scouts love his “devastating” sinker, his solid screwball and competitive fastball, and he has enough command to make up for stuff that is not exactly mind blowing. We see him as our #3 starter, with Mike Morris placing fourth in the rotation. We’ve offered him a deal for four years, starting at $850 this year, with increases to $950 in 1909, $1,100 in 1910 and $1,200 in 1911. I think with him and Morris adding depth to the absolute dominance of McClain and Impagliazzo, we’ve got the makings of easily the best pitching corps in the division.

February 27, 1908: Spring Training is now underway! Thirty games that don’t count, but which give us plentiful information about the progress of our players, including those we’ll be keeping at the minor league level, will take place over the next month, before we open the season with ten games in a row on our home field! Opening day against the Owensboro Rum Runners will be on April 2.

April 2, 1908: Here are our opening day rosters to peruse ... we have high expectations this year, and our owner fully expects we’ll be back in the Championship Series and win it this time. So no pressure, right? Right.

Starting Lineup (con / gap / pwr / eye / avd / def)*
C - David Campbell, 32 (65/45/45/50/80/55)
1B - Michael Levine, 38 (65/50/50/50/70/50)
2B - Bobby Johnson, 32 (70/45/45/50/80/70)
3B - Octavio Delgado, 26 (75/55/50/55/80/55)
SS - Brad Burgess, 22 (45/70/80/55/40/80)
LF - Ben Morris, 25 (70/75/45/55/80/75)
CF - Trent Hall, 24 (45/45/80/40/45/80)
RF - Trey Bledsoe, 22 (75/55/50/50/80/55)

Bench
C - Mike Andreen, 35 (45/40/50/40/50/55)
C - Eduard de los Santos, 30 (75/45/50/50/80/45)
1B - Scott Craighead, 32 (55/45/50/45/70/40)
1B - Tony Juarez, 36 (50/50/45/40/50/20)
2B - Gustavo Quinones, 36 (60/45/50/45/70/60)
2B - Evan Walker, 33 (60/45/50/50/70/65)
3B - Juan Garcia, 28 (55/45/40/45/65/45)
3B - Sam Leonard, 32 (65/45/45/45/80/65)
LF - Bob Cline, 26 (60/45/45/45/75/55)
LF - Chris Hughes, 33 (60/65/50/50/70/40)
LF - Chris Whalen, 30 (65/45/50/50/80/50)
CF - Jamal Meriwether, 27 (50/40/35/50/70/55)
RF - Travis Linden, 32 (70/45/45/50/80/50)
RF - Matt Lucas, 33 (65/60/45/45/70/50)

Rotation (Stuff / Mov / Ctrl / Sta / Hld / Def)*
SP1 - Sean Impagliazzo, 24 (65/75/45/65/65/50)
SP2 - Cameron McClain, 32 (55/70/65/55/55/45)
SP3 - George Driscoll, 29 (45/70/50/50/80/50)
SP4 - Mike Morris, 28 (40/70/55/50/40/65)

Bullpen
Stopper - Ralph Ladd, 29 (50/70/65/35/50/20)
Middle - J.R. Porter, 33 (75/70/45/25/55/50)

* Defense rating only at key position

jksander · 03-19-2024, 01:41 AM

April 6, 1908: Michael Levine, age 38, is still going strong, and has expressed interest in staying in Louisville until his retirement. As our scouts still stand by his overall durability and his consistent threat from the plate, we’ve agreed to terms on a three year extension worth $1,400 next year, $1,240 in 1910 and with a player option in 1911 worth the same. He is extremely popular with the fans and as a leader in the clubhouse, so it’s worth keeping him around.

April 13, 1908: It took this long for us to first feel the sting of defeat -- nine consecutive wins, before East St. Louis (5-5) upended us this evening in a 12-inning epic, scoring two runs in the top of the 12th to end our streak with a 5-3. McClain went 11 innings with just six hits, a walk, a strikeout and three earned runs, but turned the ball over in the final frame to Ralph Ladd, who allowed three hits that led to the runs. Ladd is now 1-1 with a 9.00 ERA through two single-inning relief appearances, while McClain holds a 1-0 record and 1.93 ERA through three starts and 28.0 innings. No one can blame Bobby Johnson for the loss, as he hit five times out of six (all five of them for singles!) scoring one and driving in another. He’s hitting .462 through his first 26 plate appearances, with two doubles and three runs batted in! We’re not sure how he finally started making such good contact, but we’re glad he’s found the extra gear!

May 1, 1908: George Driscoll was named ORL Rookie of the Month for his solid start with our Rivermen! He went 5-1 with a 3.30 ERA and four strikeouts, with teams hitting just .284 against him in his seven starts. But he was overshadowed by Sean Impagliazzo, who is making it clear he expects to win another Pitcher of the Year award -- the 24-year-old hurler is 6-0 through seven starts and 62 innings of work, with a 1.16 ERA, 13 strikeouts and a 0.76 WHIP.

We had a spectacular start to the season, going 20-7 through the month of April, taking a five game lead in the division over a Lexington Roughriders team that is still scrapping for the right combination to get to the postseason for the first time. It’s a tight race below us with the Roughriders at 15-12 but with East St. Louis (14-12), Evansville (14-12) and Cincinnati (13-13) right there fighting for rungs on the ladder. In the Great Lakes League, Fort Wayne’s Flyers have flown to the top of the heap with an 18-9 record, a game and a half up on Chicago (16-10) and four games up on the Minneapolis Barons (13-12).

May 10, 1908: Backup first baseman Tony Juarez has announced today that, following the end of the season, he plans to retire from baseball. The 36-year-old spent half of his first season in Fort Wayne before being traded to Louisville in 1897. A career backup player, he has played in 351 games to date, hitting .285 across 478 plate appearances with 18 doubles, four triples and 51 RBIs. You won’t see him in the Hall of Fame in Indianapolis, but guys like him make baseball fun, showing that if you work your ass off you can make a living playing this game even if you aren’t a superstar. Juarez has played in just two games so far this year, but has not had a hit.

May 12, 1908: Tonight we lost 1-0 to the Lexington Roughriders, but the real story was Burgess snapping his five-game homering streak, as he went 0 for 4 with a strikeout. Burgess, who has gotten the nickname “Sure Shot” from the Louisville press, has hit .308 to start the season, with four doubles and 13 homers, batting in 25 runs through 37 games! No other player in the game can hit a long-ball like him -- not even David Cole of Chicago, who is hitting .307 but only has three doubles and a triple, not even a single homer. No one quite knows how to cover this whole “home run” thing, since the record used to be 24 and it stood for years, only to be broken by Cole with 41 last year. Burgess is on pace for 54, which seems insane, but is this baseball’s future or just a flash in the pan? Whatever it is, our Rivermen are 26-11 and the Ballpark at Louisville has been averaging more than 15,500 fans per game even with tickets priced at 27 cents!

June 1, 1908: Sure thing, y’all! Brad Burgess was named ORL Batter of the Month, hitting .355 with 17 home runs, 35 RBIs and 26 runs scored. He now has a .324 average for the season, which is a huge improvement on last year, and 21 long bombs. Many have wondered whether Cole might not be hitting as well because of an exceptionally cold season in Chicago, but as for now it looks like he’s converted himself into a more purely contact hitter though we’ll see what the summer holds.

At the end of the month we lost three games in a row, but we still held a 38-18 record as the weather heats up here on the river’s edge. Lexington still trails by six games at 32-24, while East St. Louis is 29-26 and 8.5 games back. Fort Wayne continues to impress in the Great Lakes League, with a 35-21 record that’s still a game and a half up on Chicago at 33-22. Fort Wayne hasn’t won a GLL Pennant since 1891, the final year of their three year pennant streak that resulted in their only two championships. Their demanding owner has been trying to rectify that, hiring David Jones as their GM back in 1905, and since then their win total has gone quietly upward. And the team is winning despite having only a $19,000 team payroll -- barely half of Chicago’s budget!

jksander · 03-19-2024, 03:57 PM

June 14, 1908: We’ve had a rough start to June, going 6-6 including tonight’s big win -- but wins like this one go a long way to restoring some confidence ... against the Huntington Appalachians on the road, we took a 2-2 tie into extra innings and kept them there into the 14th, when Scott Craighead hit a sac-fly to the outfield that drove Eduard de los Santos in to score on a no-throw! We held on through the bottom of the inning to win it 3-2, and you’ve never seen 12,000 hometown fans leave that quietly. George Driscoll was the star of the night, lasting 14 innings through 157 pitches as he held them to just nine hits, striking out three and allowing just the two earned runs. He’s now 11-5 with a 2.90 ERA, huge numbers for the 29-year-old rookie.

June 20, 1908: Driscoll is becoming known for his ability to handle extra innings games ... tonight the game was scoreless in the top of the 11th against the Evansville Crescents on the road, when Bobby Johnson got on base with a single, was driven to second by a sac-bunt by Trey Bledsoe, stole third, and then came around to score on a squeeze bunt play by none other than George Driscoll! With the 1-0 lead, he then retook the mound and it was flyout, flyout, groundout, goodbye Crescents! What’s crazy is we only outhit them 11-10 and yet it was a one run shutout as Driscoll won his 12th game of the year. Incredibly, Brad Burgess hit five times in the game, four singles and a double, but was stranded on-base every time.

June 30, 1908: Down in AAA Dayton, James Davis, our 24-year-old right fielding up-and-coming star, hit in his 20th game in a row despite the team dropping the game in the end. Davis is hitting .446 this year at the AAA level, with seven doubles, a triple and two home runs. His fielding’s not good enough yet to earn a backup spot at the major league level, but he may get a September call-up once Dayton’s season ends in late August.

July 1, 1908: Brad Burgess took the ORL Batter of the Month title yet again, hitting .359 in June with 12 homers, 27 RBIs and 18 runs scored, bringing his total to 33 homers this season, just nine away from breaking the record Cole set last season. No one else in the league has hit more than two! Whatever the record winds up being, it looks like it could stand for a long time, as the slugging revolution has been slow to take hold nationwide. Meanwhile, George Driscoll was named the ORL’s Rookie of the Month again for June, going 5-1 with a 2.39 ERA and eight strikeouts through six starts, improving to 14-5 overall with a 2.70 ERA. He’s pitched in 186.1 innings this year with 18 strikeouts and a 1.10 WHIP.

We started the month poorly, but finished on a great note, winning 12 straight to end the month with a 57-25 record and a 7.5 game lead on Lexington (50-33). Cincinnati still is within striking distance with a 44-37 record, but those 12.5 games are going to be hard to overcome if our two teams keep our current pace. Chicago (49-33) has pulled to within half a game of Fort Wayne, but the Flyers still lead the Great Lakes division with a 50-33 record. That division is still tight down to the middle, with Minneapolis (46-35), Rockford (42-40) and Green Bay (40-43) all within ten games of the pennant lead.

July 4, 1908: We ended our winning streak at 14 games with a loss yesterday, but today Trey Bledsoe came out hitting on all cyllinders, coming out of the game with five hits and a run scored, perfect from the plate with a double and four singles as we beat the Lexington Roughriders 6-0! Bledsoe has been hitting .321 this season, with 16 doubles and four triples, stealing 13 bases and quietly putting together 2.2 WAR in his debut season.

July 25, 1908: It’s official: Burgess now holds the MBA single season home-run record, after getting his 42nd homer in the sixth inning of a 3-1 win over the Huntington Appalachians this afternoon! It was only a matter of time, and wherever this record finishes up by the end of the season, I think it’s going to become a much harder one to beat based on the fact that he’s pretty much out-homering the rest of the league as a whole, COMBINED. Hey, somebody’s got to be at the vanguard of an eventual offensive shift, right?

August 1, 1908: As expected, Burgess was again named ORL Batter of the Month, with his season record now standing at .350 with 22 doubles, a triple, 45 homers and 108 RBIs, giving him a chance to challenge Cole’s single-season RBI record by the end of the season as well if he stays hot. Meanwhile, Mike Morris was named the Pitcher of the Month just weeks after his 29th birthday, going undefeated this month with a 6-0 record, a 1.02 ERA and striking out six batters. This year thus far he’s put together a 20-5 record with a 2.34 ERA through 238.2 innings, striking out 15 with a 0.92 WHIP and a .234 BAPIP. George Driscoll remained hot as well, going 6-1 with a 1.79 ERA in July to win Rookie of the Month again, improving to 20-6 with a 2.47 ERA and 23 K’s, a 1.05 WHIP and 4.2 WAR through 251.2 innings. While Impagliazzo and McClain have cooled off somewhat, these two have kept us dominant on the pitching front and ensured we remain a tough team to beat night after night.

We’ve taken firm control of the Ohio River League at 78-31, dominating the head to head games against the Roughriders who are now 61-48 and in second place by 17 games (tied with East. St. Louis and only three games ahead of the 57-50 Cincinnati Continentals). Meanwhile in the Great Lakes League, Chicago has taken over the lead after flirting with it all season -- they now have a 65-44 record, a game and a half up on Minneapolis (63-46) and two games ahead of Fort Wayne (63-46) in what remains a tight divisional battle.

jksander · 03-19-2024, 06:27 PM

August 9, 1908: Second baseman Gustavo Quinones fractured his thumb in a recent game, and will miss up to six weeks, potentially ending his season. The 36-year-old has played backup in just 19 games this season, averaging .222 with a double, two RBIs and a stolen base, and we’ll be considering potentially eating his contract at the end of the year if he chooses not to retire. He started last year and hit .297, but has had a fairly steep drop-off in his overall skills halfway through his five year contract.

September 1, 1908: We went 19-7 during the month of August, capturing the Ohio River League’s pennant on August 29th! We now hold a 97-38 record heading into September, leading the rest of the division by 21 games. Lexington (76-59) and Cincinnati (75-61) will spend the next few weeks fighting to see who can finish second -- Lexington hopes to at least finish second and salvage a little bit of pride, though they remain the only team in the MBA not to have made even one Championship Series appearance. Over in the Great Lakes League, Chicago (86-50) is starting to pull away, with a 4.5 game lead over Fort Wayne, whose 81-54 record is already their best overall since last making it to the Championship Series in 1891. They’re still in the race, with Chicago’s magic number sitting at 15, but regardless of how the final chase ends, they’re definitely on their way and stand a good shot of finding their way to a pennant in the next few years with some prudent FA signings.

Brad Burgess has all but sewn up another Most Valuable Player award, winning the ORL’s Batter of the Month award yet again in August -- this month he hit .305 overall, with eight homers, 23 RBIs and 16 runs scored, giving him 53 homers and a .342 batting average for the entire season. He currently leads the ORL in batting average, homers and RBI by wide margins, so he’s also going to wind up with a batting triple crown!

Cincinnati’s Steven Nichols right now looks like the front runner for Pitcher of the Year, with a 26-10 record, 2.20 ERA and 44 K’s through 397 innings, though McClain could still win out in a close vote, with a 22-9 record thus far with a 1.62 ERA through 299.1 innings, striking out 48 with a 0.98 WHIP and 5.7 WAR. We have four starters each over 20 wins for the year thanks to our unorthodox four-man rotation, so whether that hurts guys in their chase for individual glory or not, it seems to be working well for us overall.

September 3, 1908: Sean Impagliazzo ended a 42-inning scoreless streak tonight against the Huntington Appalachians, though we still beat them easily by a 10-4 margin. Impagliazzo improved to 24-10 with a 1.98 ERA and 67 K’s through 308.2 innings and 35 starts this season, and he already has 73 career wins in just three major league seasons, with 22 complete game shutouts .

September 9, 1908: James Davis finished his AAA season with a .441 average, 33 doubles, five triples and six homers, batting in 90 RBIs and stealing eight bases, giving him 4.3 WAR. He won the Buckeye League’s Most Valuable Player award in a unanimous decision as well as their Gold Glove at LF and the Silver Slugger award. You can fully expect to see him in the majors next year! He was a huge reason why the Dayton Pilots were able to finish two games above .500 for their second winning season in a row.

September 21, 1908: We finished the season with a 107-47 record, going 10-9 down the home stretch. Cameron McClain won his 200th career game in a 4-2 win against Cincinnati on the 16th, finishing the season with a 25-10 record, 1.73 ERA, 52 K’s, an 0.98 WHIP and a total of 6.3 WAR for the year through 343.1 innings of work, finishing with the best ERA in the division. Brad Burgess finished the year with the batting Triple Crown complete, hitting .345 with 30 doubles, two triples and 59 homers, batting in 151 runs. He now holds the ORL single season records for slugging (.7165), OBPS (1.0869), total bases (407), homers (59) and RBIs (151) as well as batting WAR (18.63). Impagliazzo holds the pitching records for H/9 IP (7.02), W+H/IP (0.85) and Opponents Batting AVG (.2156), all set this year during his 27-11 season ... his ERA was 1.87 through 341 innings, striking out 73 with 6.0 WAR.

In the Great Lakes League, Chicago finished out with the best record at 98-56, so we’ll get a rematch of last year’s MBA Championshp Series! Fort Wayne finished just three games back at 95-59, in a pennant chase that went all the way down to the wire. Looking at team comparions, we’re 11-9 in extra innings games with a 26-23 record in one inning games, while the Continentals are 10-4 in extras and 25-19 in close games. We’ve got a +256 run differential to their +199, while their Starting ERA is 2.33 to our 2.30, with our Bullpen ERA (2.47) significantly behind theirs which stands at 2.26. We outmatch them significantly in defensive efficiency and team zone rating, however, so I fully expect us to be able to get that championship we’ve been looking for since our only one way back in 1878, thirty years ago!

03-17-2024, 03:48 AM	#5
jksander All Star Starter Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Indianapolis IN Posts: 1,614	April 2, 1906: Spring training was a mess for the Rivermen, with the team putting together a 9-21 record, dead last in the Ohio River league. Four players wound up on the injured reserve list due to multi-week injuries, including multiple infield and outfield positions. The team has offers out for a few stopgap player options, but in the meantime will have to start with what they’ve got and hope to be able to build through the season. April 3, 1906: The Rivermen signed backup catcher Mike Andreen, who at 33 has been one of the best defensive catchers in the game for nearly a decade, to a minor league contract, while 25-year-old middle infield guru Felipe Lima (well above average at 2B, 3B and SS) signed a minor league deal as well -- he played in 19 games in 1904 for East St. Louis, but has primarily been a minor league asset due to his weak hitting skills. Evan Walker, a 31-year-old second baseman who has been floating around the unaffiliated leagues outside the midwest for several years, also signed a minor league deal, giving him a chance to see if he can make the bigs as a journeyman. Andreen and Walker have the best shot of making the opening day roster, though even at this late point nothing’s certain. April 5, 1906: The Louisville Rivermen have announced their official opening day roster heading into the four-game homestand against the Owensboro Rum Runners. And as you can see, Sanders did not inherit a team built for the long haul -- a few solid young players aside, the team skews quite old, and is powered by journeymen and players potentially well past their prime. Starting Lineup (con / gap / pwr / eye / avd / def* C - Mike Andreen, 33 ... 50/45/55/45/60/65 1B - Jared Bertz, 26 ... 70/45/50/45/80/35 2B - Chris Hughes, 31 ... 60/65/50/50/70/50 3B - Sam Leonard, 30 ... 65/45/45/45/80/65 SS - Michael Levine, 36 ... 65/50/50/50/70/40 LF - Jeremy Smith, 33 ... 60/70/50/50/70/50 CF - Miguel Gomez, 29 ... 50/55/45/40/60/45 RF - Travis Linden, 30 ... 70/45/50/50/80/50 Bench C - Ron Moseley, 30 ... 60/45/50/50/75 1B - David Abson, 29 ... 65/45/50/45/75/50 1B - Danny Van Sickle, 33 ... 65/40/45/50/80/25 2B - Ryan Kats, 32 ... 65/45/40/45/80/30 2B - Evan Walker, 31 ... 55/45/50/50/65/65 3B - Mike Webb, 25 ... 60/50/45/40/75/50 SS - Chris McBryde, 26 ... 35/40/45/50/30/45 LF - Bob Cline, 24 ... 65/45/45/45/80/50 RF - Tony Juarez, 34 ... 60/55/50/45/65/30 Starting Pitchers (Stuff / Mov / Ctrl / Sta / Hld / Def)* 1 - Tanner Bays, 35 ... 45/65/55/50/50/45 2 - Mike Morris, 26 ... 40/70/50/50/45/65 3 - Dave Bobb, 31 ... 35/65/45/55/35/55 4 - Tim Miller, 35 ... 40/65/40/55/75/45 *Bullpen* Stopper - Aaron Kenton, 37 ... 45/60/45/30/35/25 Middle - Jimmy McClorey, 27 ... 70/55/40/30/80/40 Middle - Chris Moore, 29 ... 50/55/35/30/65/40 Middle - Sean Lien, 34 ... 45/65/40/25/75/30 Long - R.J. Noto, 23 ... 35/50/40/50/35/20 * defense rating only at key position __________________ A Fledgling “Free Agency” Movement in the Post-War World -- An OOTP 26 Dynasty Online Leagues Modern Baseball (Chicago White Sox) Daily Double Baseball (Tampa Bay Devil Rays) Championship Baseball League (Winnipeg Goldeye) WPORBL 55 (Chicago Cubs) WPORBL 74 (Oakland A's) WPORBL 94 (Montreal Expos) WPOBL (Cincinnati Reds)

03-17-2024, 04:52 AM	#6
jksander All Star Starter Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Indianapolis IN Posts: 1,614	April 10, 1906: It’s been a rough start for the Rivermen, as they lost all four opening home games to the Rum Runners of Owensboro, Kentucky. But Sanders has made a move toward improving the team’s future, making a cash trade with Fort Wayne, sending them $25,000 in cash for the rights to Sean Impagliazzo, a 22-year-old right handed starter who is currently the #38 prospect in the league according to the Baseball Newspaper Network (BNN). The team’s 35-man secondary roster is currently full, but Impagliazzo can stand to take some time to acclimate himself to playing AAA baseball in Dayton for the time being, and if a move needs to be made, it can be done later in the season. As it stands, he is now already the team’s second-ranked prospect overall, behind Cameron Jackson (#30, BNN) who is playing in AA for the St. Louis Southpaws. April 15, 1906: Things were starting to look up somewhat in Louisville, with the team having gone 4-1 in the last five days, but there was rough news on the pitching front -- Tanner Bays has torn a flexor tendon in his elbow and has been told by doctors that there’s nothing they’ll be able to do surgically that will restore his ability to throw a baseball properly. He has chosen to retire and focus on recovering well enough to hold down a “regular job,” as he put it to the Louisville Courier Journal. He’ll leave the league with a record of 164-141, a 2.47 ERA, 259 strikeouts and 33.4 pitching WAR. That changes the team’s plans immediately -- they will no longer be able to afford to wait for Sean Impagliazzo to pitch in Dayton this May in the Indiana-Ohio Baseball League. Instead, he’s getting the call-up to the big show effective immediately. He’s going to step into the rotation in the #4 spot behind Morris, Bobb and Miller, as we hope to keep our momentum as the season really gets going. April 20, 1906: Yesterday afternoon, Sean Impagliazzo won over the hearts and minds of Louisville fans as he pitched a near-perfect debut while the team was in Lexington to play the Roughriders, who had started the season with a 9-4 record. He pitched a complete game with 11 hits, a strikeout and two earned runs, and Michael Levine picked up three hits, scored two runs and batted in another as we held tough to win 3-2! That brought our team record up to 5-8, getting us to half a game up on Cincinnati to avoid being in last place in the Ohio River League! Hey, it’s something to be positive about at least. So far through our first 13 games, another bright spot has been the solid contact from right fielder Travis Linden, who is hitting .377 with a double, two homers and 13 runs batted in. April 29, 1906: The Rivermen have a winning streak on their hands, but had to fight for every inch of it last night to get the third straight win, improving to 10-12 with a 3-1 win in a 14-inning marathon yesterday! The win puts them within one win of a four-game sweep when they play them this afternoon. The game was scoreless until the eighth inning when each team picked up a run, and it stayed that way until the top of the 14th, when Michael Levine got a hit, stole second, and then came in to score thanks to a Mike Webb standing double! Jared Bertz then hit an RBI single to add some insurance, and, incredibly, Mike Morris held tough to close it out in the bottom of the inning, completing a 14-inning complete game 10-hitter! He walked three and allowed the one earned run, but threw an incredible 167 pitches, improving to 3-3 with a 2.36 ERA. May 9, 1906: Sean Impagliazzo is a star in the making, and our owner hasn’t stopped congratulating me on the brilliant idea I’d had to offer up straight cash to buy his rights -- a move that I doubt will ever work again, though it won’t stop me from trying! Last night in front of a sparse crowd of under 10,000 at Rum Runners Park in Owensboro, he pitched a complete game seven-hit shutout as we shellacked our Kentucky rivals 10-0! Since coming up to the majors just 24 days ago, Impagliazzo has earned a 3-3 record and thrown 49.2 innings in six starts, with a 1.63 ERA and a 1.17 WHIP. And though we’re 14-18 and in sixth place in the league, we’re only seven games back of the league-leading East St. Louis Locomotives, and our attendance is up almost 42 percent, averaging 13,300 fans per homestand! __________________ A Fledgling “Free Agency” Movement in the Post-War World -- An OOTP 26 Dynasty Online Leagues Modern Baseball (Chicago White Sox) Daily Double Baseball (Tampa Bay Devil Rays) Championship Baseball League (Winnipeg Goldeye) WPORBL 55 (Chicago Cubs) WPORBL 74 (Oakland A's) WPORBL 94 (Montreal Expos) WPOBL (Cincinnati Reds)

03-17-2024, 06:04 AM	#7
jksander All Star Starter Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Indianapolis IN Posts: 1,614	May 12, 1906: During a 9-4 win over the Pittsburgh Tin-Knockers yesterday afternoon, Michael Levine scored the 1,000th MBA run of his career before having to be pulled with a mild groin strain. The MBA record is currently held by Jordan Avitabile, who played with Lexington, Indianapolis, Evansville and Cincinnati over a 16-year career, scoring 1,279 runs, earning HOF induction in 1897. Levine is on pace to break 100 runs scored this year, so it’s not out of the realm of possibility that he could beat that record, so fans are having a ton of fun watching him play. May 13, 1906: Yesterday we lost an epic 4-3 battle with Pittsburgh on the road, a 19-inning affair that took nearly five hours to play! Tim Miller lasted 15 innings and still had a no-decision, allowing 14 hits with a walk, a strikeout and an earned run through 180 pitches. Kenton and McClorey gave us three scoreless innings in relief and the offense picked up two runs in the top of the 19th, but Chris Moore allowed four hits and gave up three runs in the final frame, blowing the save opportunity and coming out with the heartbreaking loss. They outhit us 21-13, so it shouldn’t have likely been that close in the first place but let’s face it, we’re scrappers. There’s no quit in this team! May 16, 1906: In just his second season, Mike Morris is truly coming into his own. Yesterday he pitched a 10-inning complete game with nine hits, a walk, a strikeout and four runs (three earned) to improve to 7-3 on the year with a 2.39 ERA, getting a decision in every start so far! Miguel Gomez hit a single that scored Jeremy Smith from second to give us the win in the 10th, his 16th RBI of the season as we won 5-4 over the Lexington Roughriders in front of 10,000 fans here at the Ballpark of Louisville, improving our record to 16-22. June 1, 1906: Sean Impagliazzo was named Rookie of the Month in the Ohio River League. He went 2-6 in eight starts during the month of May, striking out eight and posting a 2.27 ERA through 67.1 innings. He currently holds a 4-7 record and 2.54 ERA as a rookie through 11 starts, with 10 strikeouts against seven walks. June 7, 1906: Impagliazzo pitched his second complete game shutout yesterday afternoon, a four-hitter, as we punished the Rum Runners of Owensboro by a 4-0 margin. We’re currently nine games under .500 with a 25-34 record, but we’re making progress in a season we were expected to be a complete non-competitor. If we can make some good moves in free agency in the offseason, we may not be as far off as a lot of people thought. June 18, 1906: Our Rivermen are getting hot as the summer heats up! Yesterday we won a 1-0 shutout against Huntington as we improved to 32-36 on the season, adding a fifth game to our current winning streak! Impagliazzo improved to 8-8 with a five-hit, one walk, two strikeout shutout, keeping his ERA at 1.86 through 135.2 innings. We’ve switched to a three-man rotation of late, with Morris, Miller and Impagliazzo taking the bulk of our innings, while Dave Bobb has moved into the stopper role where hopefully he’ll be able to better position us for wins when we do need to go to the bullpen. And because of our win streak, we’ve now pulled ourselves into fourth place in the Ohio River League, though we still trail East St. Louis (43-24) by 11.5 games. June 29, 1906: Brad Burgess, our 20-year-old third baseman prospect in the minors, has come a long way quickly since signing a minor league deal with us in October of 1904. He was hitting .206 with 10 doubles and eight homers for AA St. Louis, when he was called up to Dayton just a week ago. Since then he’s hit .500 in his first three games, with seven hits, three doubles and a homer! The MBA hasn’t been a power league, but Burgess has long shown the potential to be among the vanguard who could soon change that! We’ve also been impressed with Trent Hall, who was hitting .321 with a double, a triple and two homers in his first eight games at AAA Dayton this spring, after going .260 with eight doubles, three triples and 13 stolen bases in AA earlier in the season. But he fractured his tibia two weeks ago and will be out likely until August. He’ll have a month of action in Dayton before their season wraps up, at which point he and Burgess could be candidates for a late season call-up ... stay tuned! July 1, 1906: Center fielder Jon Chavez has been solid as hell this year, and he was named the Ohio River League’s Batter of the Month for June! He hit .375 this month with two homers, 18 runs batted in and 17 runs scored. On the whole, he’s hit .330 and slugged .415 this year, with 11 doubles, six stolen bases and 28 runs batted in. We finished the month with a 39-40 record, ten games out of first place in the ORL, behind Lexington (44-36), Cincinnati (48-31) and East St. Louis (49-30). __________________ A Fledgling “Free Agency” Movement in the Post-War World -- An OOTP 26 Dynasty Online Leagues Modern Baseball (Chicago White Sox) Daily Double Baseball (Tampa Bay Devil Rays) Championship Baseball League (Winnipeg Goldeye) WPORBL 55 (Chicago Cubs) WPORBL 74 (Oakland A's) WPORBL 94 (Montreal Expos) WPOBL (Cincinnati Reds)

03-17-2024, 09:13 AM	#9
jksander All Star Starter Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Indianapolis IN Posts: 1,614	August 6, 1906: We were on fire this week, winning four out of five games against Lexington and Pittsburgh, and starter Mike Morris went 3-0 during that stretch, giving up just 24 hits and walking ONE batter in 27 innings of work -- all of which earned him ORL Player of the Week honors! He’s 17-13 overall with a 2.53 ERA through 299 innings, averaging just one walk every other game. August 8, 1906: We shut out the Huntington Appalachians yesterday evening by a score of 7-0, and slugging was the name of the game! Our catcher Mike Andreen hit his third homer of the season in the third inning, and Burgess hit his fourth four-bagger in 26 days, giving him a .478 slugging percentage since coming up to the majors. He’s now tied for the home run “title,” though no one really talks about that kind of thing ... the primary focus has been on hitting for average and scoring runs on the ground. But our owner wanted us to be focused on finding power bats because fans love seeing the ball go out of the park. We’re currently leading the league in home runs this year as a team, so mission accomplished. August 19, 1906: We’ve been on a real tear in August, and just like that we’re back to .500, thanks to a four-hit 3-0 shutout win by Dave Bobb (7-7, 3 SV, 3.54 ERA, 167.2 IP). We’ve gone 12-4 this month and though we’re 11.5 games behind East St. Louis (73-50), we’re closing in on the Roughriders in third place with our 61-61 record. With just five weeks left in the regular season, we’re certainly doing our best to finish strong! September 1, 1906: Second baseman Jeremy Smith won the OBL’s Best Bat award this month, with 37 hits giving him a .370 average with 19 RBIs and 17 runs scored himself. He’s hitting .287 for the season, providing a strong veteran presence at the plate. And once again, Impagliazzo was named Rookie of the Month, going 6-2 with 10 K’s in 75.1 innings, improving his already stellar record to 20-17 with a 2.01 ERA, 43 K’s and a 1.05 WHIP through 318.1 innings. We head into the final three weeks of the season holding a 68-65 record and tied for third place in the Ohio River League with the Lexington Roughriders, trailing Cincinnati (76-57) by eight games and East St. Louis (78-65) by ten. September 24, 1906: Unfortunately our solid stretch had to come to an end -- not only were we eliminated from pennant contention on September 13, we went 3-7 after that point, to finish the season with a losing record, 76-78. But our third place finish in the Ohio River League was our best since 1897, a 20-win improvement over last year’s finish, and 30 wins better than our 1903 last-place finish. The Chicago Internationals (92-62) are secure in their Championship Series berth, but in our league it’s going to come down to a one-game playoff between East St. Louis and Cincinnati, because both finished the season 90-64! September 25, 1906: The Cincinnati Continentals stunned the baseball world last night with a 7-0 drubbing of the Locomotives of East St. Louis, led by Dean Murphy (28-18, 1.70 ERA, 73 K’s, 0.92 WHIP) who only allowed four hits with a walk and a strikeout in the complete game! He controlled the mound for 433 innings this season, and they’re going to need him to be phenomenal in the Championship Series if they’re going to upend Chicago and take home their first title! Sean Burgess has been the talk of the league among players not getting to compete for a title, being named ORL Batter of the Month for September, with a .321 average, seven homers and 14 RBIs.He played in 62 games at the major league level this season as a rookie and hit just .260, but he hit six doubles, a triple and 17 HOMERS, though his league-leading slugging percentage doesn’t qualify because he only played in a little over a third of our games. When I took over the team he was just a solid prospect with a lot of upside, but damned if he didn’t put on a growth spurt right in front of us all! October 5, 1906: We officially have ourselves a first-time MBA Champion! Cincinnati was a team on a mission in their fourth appearance in the postseason series, taking game one in 11 innings 8-6 and game two 9-1 while on the road against the Internationals. On their field they dropped game three 3-1, but won a nailbiter 1-0 in the fourth game to take a commanding lead. Chicago fought back with an 8-3 win to bring the series back to the Windy City, but in game six Dean Murphy showed why he’s one of the best pitchers in the league, going on the road and throwing a complete game seven hitter, with a strikeout and two runs scored, neither of them earned -- Cincinnati held tough to win 5-2, taking the series 4-2! __________________ A Fledgling “Free Agency” Movement in the Post-War World -- An OOTP 26 Dynasty Online Leagues Modern Baseball (Chicago White Sox) Daily Double Baseball (Tampa Bay Devil Rays) Championship Baseball League (Winnipeg Goldeye) WPORBL 55 (Chicago Cubs) WPORBL 74 (Oakland A's) WPORBL 94 (Montreal Expos) WPOBL (Cincinnati Reds)

03-17-2024, 09:15 AM	#10
jksander All Star Starter Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Indianapolis IN Posts: 1,614	October 6, 1906: Phil Gibson reached out to me to let me know he’d renewed my contract, giving me a three year extension at $750 per season to continue the work we’re doing to build up the organization. League voting is now taking place for awards, and arbitration hearings are scheduled for October 26, with free agency filings taking place on the 28th. Awards will start being announced in a little over a week. October 11, 1906: I’m going to have to find a new Assistant GM, because Danny Gremillion accepted the open job in Chicago as GM for the Internationals, where he’ll now earn more than $2,500 per season -- can’t say I blame him at all. At his age, he’s earned the right to run a team on his own, rather than answering to a young Turk like me. We’re a team on the rise, and I had a number of applications come in once the announcement came in from Chicago, so I’ve already got interviews scheduled. October 13, 1906: I’ve already found our new A-GM in Nathan Allen, the 44-year-old former GM of the South Bend (Ind.) Sluggers in the TSBL, who has spent the last year looking for a chance to move up into the major league ranks. He’ll earn $348 per year for the next three seasons, and he’s already got a reputation as a guy who fosters loyalty among players, with an emphasis on hitting which should come in handy as our young guys blossom in the league. October 14, 1906: Catcher Mike Andreen didn’t light the world on fire with his bat this year, but his fielding’s definitely good enough to deserve a bench spot on our roster. He’s signed a two year extension worth $1,260 total, $630 in 1907 with a player option for the same in 1908. October 16, 1906: Jeremy Smith won this year’s Silver Slugger award for his position, left field, hitting .299 all year with 19 doubles, 20 triples and a home run, to go with 59 stolen bases! This is his fourth Silver Slugger as a career Riverman, having won it before in 1900, 1902 and 1903. He’s on contract through next year, and we’re hoping once free agency starts this year he’ll be open to negotiating an extension. October 28, 1906: Arbitration proved to have no surprises for us, and we’re excited to see that the free agents have all fired, giving us a chance to improve our roster from the outside as much as we have from within! In that vein, we’re very pleased to announce that we’ve worked out a deal with the Minneapolis Barons to purchase the rights to 2B Bobby Johnson, age 31, who hit .264 this season with 17 doubles, 18 RBIs and 31 stolen bases. He’d been on the remainder of a six year contract signed in 1904 worth a total of $6,710, but by buying out his rights we now have him on a minor league contract at no additional cost. November 28, 1906: After a ton of negotiations all around, we finally landed our first free agent signing of the season. Shortstop Gustavo Quinones, 34, is a durable veteran presence with tremendous bat speed and an instintive nose for the ball on defense, whether at third base or at short. He spent the last six years with Cincinnati, putting together a .249 average last year with nine doubles and 37 stolen bases, giving him a 2.2 WAR season. He’ll earn $5,200 spread over five seasons with us, with $1,100 per year the first three years and then a fourth year at $950 before a player option in 1911 worth the same. December 10, 1906: Today we signed a premier closer to anchor our bullpen, signing 32-year-old J.R. Potter to a five year deal worth $7,250 in total, starting at $1,000 in 1907 and rising incrementally to reach $1,750 in the final two years of the contract. Poter has absolutely filthy stuff, and has played for Lexington, Chicago and East St. Louis over the last eight seasons, playing 124 games from the bullpen and compiling an 18-15 record with 20 saves. His career ERA of 1.82 and 0.99 WHIP are exceptional, and he’s already won one Reliever of the Year award in 1900 with Lexington. A lot of teams are ignoring the importance of having great bullpen arms, and we intend to push that as an emphasis to back up our starters. December 15, 1906: We made another big signing today, luring in Ben Morris, a 24-year-old with no prior experience in the MBA or its associated leagues. A solid outfielder who we’ll most likely use as a utility fielder, Morris is a switch hitter with tremendous speed who has the potential to hit for an elite average! A defensive marvel who can dazzle on the basepaths, this kid quickly got us into a bidding war with Chicago, East St. Louis and Evansville. But in the end we offered him the best long term deal, and this morning we received the signed paperwork -- eight years, $16,640 in total, but kept simple at $2,080 per season through the length of the deal. December 16, 1906: I think we’ve finally completed our offseason build, now that we’ve added another solid starter to our rotation, which will allow us to go with a high quality four-man rotation this season. Cameron McClain, age 30, started his career in Indianapolis but finished last year as a mid-season rental to East St. Louis. All totaled, in 1906 he went 31-18 with a 1.75 ERA, 62 K’s, an 0.91 WHIP and 6.9 pitching WAR, but the Locomotives declined to offer him arbitration. Their loss, our gain! We signed him to a seven year deal worth $14,260, culminating in a team option in 1913 that would allow us to buy out his $2,240 final year for just $1,000 if his skills have dropped off. But he’s been durable so far in his career, starting 309 games and averaging 450+ innings per year, and though he’s been accused of having “fringey” stuff, his pinpoint control is more than enough to make him a keeper. __________________ A Fledgling “Free Agency” Movement in the Post-War World -- An OOTP 26 Dynasty Online Leagues Modern Baseball (Chicago White Sox) Daily Double Baseball (Tampa Bay Devil Rays) Championship Baseball League (Winnipeg Goldeye) WPORBL 55 (Chicago Cubs) WPORBL 74 (Oakland A's) WPORBL 94 (Montreal Expos) WPOBL (Cincinnati Reds)

03-16-2024, 07:02 PM	#1
jksander All Star Starter Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Indianapolis IN Posts: 1,614	Baseball Comes to Middle America! (The Midwest Baseball Association) In the spring of 1876, baseball began to take hold in the heart of the American midwest, with a 16-team major league association known as the Midwest Baseball Association (MBA) taking hold in Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky and West Virginia across two leagues, the Great Lakes League (GLL) and the Ohio River League (ORL). A minor league association known as the Indiana-Ohio Baseball Association (IOBA) formed to include AA-level teams that feed into the major league programs, and an eight-team Independent League called the Tri-State Baseball Association (TSBA) formed independently at a low-minors level, with teams spread across Illinois, Indiana and Kentucky. League setup information / rules, etc. are below. I have created a GM character, who will take over management of a team once we have a significant amount of history within the leagues, and at a point where he’d be of a reasonable age to do so. The Major Leagues MIDWEST BASEBALL ASSOCIATION *Great Lakes League* Green Bay Green Stockings Minneapolis Barons Bloomington Hoosiers Fort Wayne Flyers Indianapolis Grey Stockings Chicago Internationals Detroit Arsenal Rockford Black Hawks *Ohio River League* Louisville Rivermen Cincinnati Continentals Evansville Crescents East St. Louis Locomotives Lexington Roughriders Pittsburgh Tin-Knockers Huntington Appalachians Owensboro Rum Runners League Start Date: April 1 (154 game schedule, No Interleague Play) Trade Deadline: July 31 No All-Star game. Active Roster of 26, Secondary Roster Size 35, No Expanded Rosters Spring Training Roster Size: 40 No Foreign Players Allowed No Waivers, DFA Length of 7 Days Batter Inj List: 14 Days Pitcher Inj List: 21 Days Expanded Inj List: 60 Days Minor League Option Years: Disabled Trade Deadline Day Setup: Disabled Amateur Draft Disabled Rule 5 Draft Disabled No 10/5 Rule or trading of injured players Financials based on 1876, average attendance baseline 12,500 Financial System Enabled, Inflation set to 0% to 3% Minimum Service Time for one service year: 163 Minimum Service Time for FA: 7 years Free Agents can come from other leagues Players can be purchased from Independent Leagues for $10,000. Arb starts after five years, no “Super 2” players No minor league free agency No National Media Contracts (Fixed) Local Media Contract Baseline: $200 Merchandising Revenue Baseline: $200 Owners Control Budget Revenue Sharing and Luxury Tax Disabled No Cash Maximum No salary cap League Evolution on only for FA Minimum Service, IL Length, Active Roster Size, Secondary Roster Size, More / Less Pitching, More / Less Offense Independent Leagues will generate 15 or more players per year. AA League INDIANA-OHIO BASEBALL ASSOCIATION *Hoosier League* Valparaiso Rail Barons Michigan City Dunes Clarksville Explorers Shelbyville Trailsmen New Castle Rivermen Jasper Eagles West Lafayette Oilers Jeffersonville Capitals *Buckeye League* Dayton Pilots Mansfield Surveyors Columbus Archers Sandusky Sluggers Cleveland Plums Marion Miners Akron Summits Toledo Walleyes League Start Date: May 15 (98 game schedule, no interleague play) No Designated Hitter No limit to Roster Size Same Injury Time settings as parent league Baseline Attendance: 7,500 The Independent League TRI-STATE BASEBALL ASSOCIATION *Tri-State Baseball Association* Wilmette (IL) Raiders Batavia (IL) Eagles Urbana (IL) Union Terre Haute (IN) Trailblazers South Bend (IN) Sluggers Paducah (IN) Pride Henderson (IN) Frontiers Bowling Green (IN) Engineers League Start Date: July 10 (112 game schedule) Designated Hitter 26 Man Rosters, Reserve Roster Limit of 20 players, No Spring Training Batter Inj List: 7 Days Pitcher Inj List: 15 Days Expanded Inj List: 60 Days League uses Reserve Clause Era rules Minimum Service Time for one service year: 119 Baseline Attendance: 5,000 __________________ A Fledgling “Free Agency” Movement in the Post-War World -- An OOTP 26 Dynasty Online Leagues Modern Baseball (Chicago White Sox) Daily Double Baseball (Tampa Bay Devil Rays) Championship Baseball League (Winnipeg Goldeye) WPORBL 55 (Chicago Cubs) WPORBL 74 (Oakland A's) WPORBL 94 (Montreal Expos) WPOBL (Cincinnati Reds) Last edited by jksander; 03-16-2024 at 08:08 PM.

03-16-2024, 08:16 PM	#2
jksander All Star Starter Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Indianapolis IN Posts: 1,614	In January of 1888, the Iowa-Indiana Baseball Association was turned into a AAA-level league, with two new leagues forming at the AA level under the Iowa-Missouri Baseball Alliance name, featuring two subleagues: the Farmland League (eight teams in Iowa) which will be linked to MBA teams in the Great Lakes League, and the Ozark League (eight teams in Missouri) which will be linked to MBA teams in the Ohio River League. The league will play a 98-game schedule without interleague play, starting in mid-March and culminating in a best-of-seven Championship Series between the winners of each division. Like the AAA-level IOBA, the MIBA will feature no roster size limits, no designated hitter and a base attendance average of 7,500. MISSOURI-IOWA BASEBALL ALLIANCE *Farmland League* Cedar Rapids Storm Sioux City Saints Des Moines Raiders Davenport Giants Waterloo Generals Ames Jackrabbits Dubuque Black Stockings Council Bluffs Explorers *Ozark League* St. Louis Southpaws Springfield Polecats Columbia River Dogs Independence Patriots Joplin Javelins Jefferson City Cannons Cape Girardeau Gunslingers Wildwood White Sox __________________ A Fledgling “Free Agency” Movement in the Post-War World -- An OOTP 26 Dynasty Online Leagues Modern Baseball (Chicago White Sox) Daily Double Baseball (Tampa Bay Devil Rays) Championship Baseball League (Winnipeg Goldeye) WPORBL 55 (Chicago Cubs) WPORBL 74 (Oakland A's) WPORBL 94 (Montreal Expos) WPOBL (Cincinnati Reds)

03-16-2024, 10:15 PM	#3
jksander All Star Starter Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Indianapolis IN Posts: 1,614	January 1, 1906: The Midwest Baseball Association has been going strong for thirty years, and a whole new generation of managers are starting to find their way into the league. The youngest of these young managers is a soon-to-be 24-year old named Jonathan Sanders, who has recently been hired as the General Manager of the Louisville Rivermen over in the Ohio River League. The Rivermen are coming off an abysmal season, having gone 53-101 during the 1905 season, finishing dead last in the league. Team owner Phil Gibson, age 71, has been growing more frustrated with his team’s downward slide as each year passes. They haven’t had a winning season since 1899, which may be in no small part to Gibson’s demanding personality and pinny-penching manner. But they do have their small tastes of victory, having won OR league pennants in 1877, 1878 and 1894, with a MBA Championship Series victory in 1878. But following three consecutive second-place finishes in the OR in 1895, 1896 and 1897, they have yet to finish above fourth place since. The team has retired three players’ numbers over the years, for overall excellence and their role in building the league’s foundation in the early years. But only one of those players has made the Hall of Fame. That honor goes to Kevin Dwire, now 46, who played for the team from 1891 to 1898 as a starting pitcher. In his complete career he put together a 311-265 record and 2.50 ERA, striking out 590 batters and winning 69.8 games above replacement. Sanders has a tough job ahead of him, including the hiring of his staff at the major league level, the most important of which will be finding an Assistant General Manager and a team scout so he can go after any remaining free agents who may be available. - - - - - Bloomington Hoosiers *MBA Championships: 3 (1880, 1886, 1887) Great Lakes Pennants: 7 (1878, 1879, 1880, 1885, 1886, 1887, 1900) Chicago Internationals* *MBA Championships: 7 (1881, 1894, 1896, 1899, 1901, 1902, 1904) Great Lakes Pennants: 9 (1881, 1894, 1896, 1898, 1899, 1901, 1902, 1904, 1905) Cincinnati Continentals* *MBA Championships: None. Ohio River Pennants: 3 (1899, 1902, 1904) Detroit Arsenal* *MBA Championships: 1 (1893) Great Lakes Pennants: 1 (1893) East St. Louis Locomotives* *MBA Championships: 4 (1876, 1900, 1903, 1905) Ohio River Pennants: 9 (1876, 1881, 1882, 1893, 1896, 1900, 1901, 1903, 1905) Evansville Crescents* *MBA Championships: 5 (1879, 1883, 1885, 1891, 1892) Ohio River Pennants: 6 (1879, 1880, 1883, 1885, 1891, 1892) Fort Wayne Flyers* *MBA Championships: 2 (1889, 1890) Great Lakes Pennants: 3 (1889, 1890, 1891) Green Bay Green Stockings* *MBA Championships: 1 (1882) Great Lakes Pennants: 2 (1882, 1895) Huntington Appalachians* *MBA Championships: 1 (1898) Ohio River Pennants: 2 (1888, 1898) Indianapolis Grey Stockings* *MBA Championships: 1 (1877) Great Lakes Pennants: 2 (1876, 1877) Lexington Roughriders* *MBA Championships: None. Ohio River Pennants: None. Louisville Rivermen* *MBA Championships: 1 (1894) Ohio River Pennants: 3 (1877, 1878, 1894) Minneapolis Barons* *MBA Championships: None. Great Lakes Pennants: 4 (1883, 1884, 1892, 1903) Owensboro Rum Runners* *MBA Championships: 1 (1897) Ohio River Pennants: 2 (1887, 1897) Pittsburgh Tin-Knockers* *MBA Championships: 2 (1884, 1895) Ohio River Pennants: 5 (1884, 1886, 1889, 1890, 1894) Rockford Black Hawks* *MBA Championships: 1 (1888) Great Lakes Pennants: 2 (1888, 1897) __________________ A Fledgling “Free Agency” Movement in the Post-War World* -- An OOTP 26 Dynasty Online Leagues Modern Baseball (Chicago White Sox) Daily Double Baseball (Tampa Bay Devil Rays) Championship Baseball League (Winnipeg Goldeye) WPORBL 55 (Chicago Cubs) WPORBL 74 (Oakland A's) WPORBL 94 (Montreal Expos) WPOBL (Cincinnati Reds)

03-16-2024, 11:57 PM	#4
jksander All Star Starter Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Indianapolis IN Posts: 1,614	January 3, 1906: Derek Black, 58, has accepted the open position as the scouting director for the Louisville Rivermen, signing a five year deal worth $1,870 per year. Black, who has 13 years of scouting experience in the league, all of them with the Paducah (Ky.) Pride in the independent Tri-State Baseball League, is known to favor tools and has a good reputation at scouting the minor leagues and amateur players in general. His Pride teams won five TSBL Championships and made the championship series in all but three seasons by finishing in the top two of the league, so he clearly knows what he’s doing at least at that level. Does he have what it takes to dominate that well in the Midwest Baseball Association? January 4, 1906: The Rivermen have a team trainer on board, as Joe Joyner, age 38, signed a contract to earn $400 per year for three years. A complete novice in the league, this will be his first job in the world of baseball. Said to have a balanced overall focus, Joyner is best when it comes to rehabbing leg injuries, and has a reputation for being able to help players avoid leg, arm and back injuries. But he’s a blank slate when it comes to results at this level of professional sports. January 6, 1906: The Rivermen signed Danny Gremillion, age 60, to be the team’s Assistant GM for the next five seasons, earning $900 per year to do the job. He was the GM for the Paducah Pride from 1901-05, so he’s already very familiar with head scout Derek Black, and he was responsible for building the Pride’s championship team in 1903 (that also made postseason appearances in ’02 and ’04). He tends to like power offense over speed, and is known to slightly favor youth, with emphases on pitching over hitting and defense over offense. He likes to trade, but is not particularly aggressive. January 8, 1906: Sanders has himself a hitting coach and a bench coach officially today. David “Abie” Hemphill, age 42, signed on for $750 per year over a three year span to be the team’s hitting coach, moving up from the South Bend (Ind.) Sluggers of the TSBL. He has an excellent rep in development, influencing mechanics and in teaching hitting, and is regarded as one of the best in baseball when it comes to handling aging. Unfortunately his Sluggers were among the worst teams in the entire league the whole time he was there, so take that all with a grain of salt. As for their new bench coach, 46-year-old Sam Zalman spent the last four years as the bench coach for the St. Louis Locomotives here in the MBA, and has agreed to a three year, $550 per year deal to move to Louisville. His primary emphasis has been on development, and he’s an aggressive advocate for speed on the basepaths and stealing ability. January 9, 1906: First and third base coaches are now officially on board! At first base, 50-year-old Eric Sweeting will take over on a two year $325 per year contract, moving up from the job of bench coach in Indianapolis in the MBA. He actually agreed to a bit of a pay cut to be fully in charge of teaching infield defense, something he’s quite enamored with. Another speed guru, he should fit in well with Sam Zalman’s philosphy as a bench coach. Meanwhile, Trent Pour, age 56, will take over at third base, focused on improving our on base percentage and general outfield defense as well. He spent the years 1890-1899 as a first-base coach in Bloomington in the MBA, but has been out of the game for a few years while coaching High School ball and raising his teenagers. He’ll earn $450 a year for the next two seasons as he tries to work his way back into the game, so his reputation is basically unproven at this juncture. January 12, 1906: It is a happy 24th birthday for the young GM of the Louisville Rivermen, as Sanders was finally able to scure his team’s pitching coach! Kyle Sidler, age 53, immediately becomes the strongest coach in the organization, with 16 years of experience as a pitching coach with the AA Cedar Rapids Storm in the MIBA (1888-91, 1904-05), the AAA Jasper Eagles in the IOBA (1893-96) and the AA Ames Jackrabbits in the MIBA (1899-1901). He has an excellent reputation in the league, though this is his first chance at the major league level. An outstanding teacher of both pitching fundamentals and infield defense, he’s good with coaching mechanics and excellent at handling an aging arm. He has signed a five year deal with the Rivermen worth $1,100 per season. January 17, 1906: 3B Michael Levine, at 35, has signed a contract that was offered a few weeks ago before Sanders took over as GM, but it’s a signing that should benefit the team from a fan-support perspective. Levine has a career average of .287 and has 252 career doubles and 76 triples, numbers in this league that make him one of the best overall hitters in the league. He’s played on five MBA Championship teams while in Chicago and has won seven Silver Slugger awards and the 1900 Gold Glove at shortstop. He’s signed a deal to play with Louisville for three seasons, earning $1,020 per year during that duration. January 27, 1906: Rivermen owner Phil Gibson has reportedly made cuts to the team’s budget as we get closer to the start of spring training season, lowering the team’s overall budget from $148,000 to $140,000. But at this point the team is operating well under budget anyway, keeping it lean and mean as they rebuild. January 30, 1906: Sanders has made his first major signing as a GM, bringing in established right-handed starter Tanner Bays, who at 35 still has plenty of control and movement, with front-of-the-rotation abilities even as he ages. He had a 29-16 record and 2.28 ERA with Green Bay back in 1904, but spent the last two seasons struggling in Indianapolis and Huntington, and he’s looking to make a comeback with a team he can stick with. A member of Huntington’s 1898 championship team, he has a career record of 163-140, a career ERA of 2.45, and 33.2 career WAR. In a league where pitchers aim for contact and rarely get batters to swing and miss, he also has more than 250 career K’s (the league all-time record is 1,151). He has signed a three year deal worth $650 per season and will take over as the team’s top starter. February 25, 1906: Mike Morris, currently the #2 starter for the Rivermen at age 26, successfully completed his offseason strength and endurance program, improving his stamina and bumping his scouting rating up to three stars! Morris signed a minor league deal with Louisville in December 1904, and has pitched five career complete-game shutouts at the MBA level as a rookie last season, going 18-33 with a 3.77 ERA, pitching 453.2 innings in 64 starts, striking out 41 batters and putting together a 1.16 WHIP. His 5.9 pitching WAR in his debut season had him in the running for Rookie of the Year, but he lost out to Huntington Appalachians shorstop Justin Yarbrough, who hit .360 with 24 doubles, two triples and three homers, batting in 40 runs. Morris’ solid offseason has many within the program, and fans in particular, hoping for him to have a stellar sophomre season. March 1, 1906: Spring training begins today, and everyone in Louisville is excited to see what Sanders is able to do to start the rebuilding program off right. The team will play thirty games over the next five weeks as a warm-up to the real thing, with opening day scheduled for April 5, 1906 as the team will host the Owensboro Rum Runners. __________________ A Fledgling “Free Agency” Movement in the Post-War World -- An OOTP 26 Dynasty Online Leagues Modern Baseball (Chicago White Sox) Daily Double Baseball (Tampa Bay Devil Rays) Championship Baseball League (Winnipeg Goldeye) WPORBL 55 (Chicago Cubs) WPORBL 74 (Oakland A's) WPORBL 94 (Montreal Expos) WPOBL (Cincinnati Reds)

03-17-2024, 06:44 AM	#8
jksander All Star Starter Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Indianapolis IN Posts: 1,614	July 13, 1906: We’ve officially made the call to bring Brad Burgess up to the majors, where he’ll be playing shorstop for us as our lineup has been badly bruised up due to frequent injuries. The 20-year-old up-and-comer played in 16 games at the AAA level in Dayton, picking up 26 hits for a .413 average. During that time he hit nine doubles and a stunning nine homers, batting in 26 runs and picking up 1.3 WAR! No one in the Midwest Baseball League has hit more than four home runs during the 1906 campaign, and no one in league history has hit more than 24 long bombs in a single season. So if he can continue to hit like this at the major league level, this kid’s got a hell of a future. Like our owner told me when he all but demanded I call the kid up: “when we’ve got a losing record, what’s there to lose?” We’re currently 41-47 and clinging to the middle of the pack in 5th place, so if he can provide the spark we need, why not go for it? July 31, 1906: Matt Morris pitched a six-hit shutout as we beat the Lexington Roughriders 4-0 on the road yesterday afternoon, improving our record to 48-57. He’s currently 15-13 with a 2.56 ERA through 31 starts and 281 innings of work. August 1, 1906: The trade deadline passed without much happening, and Sean Impagliazzo won Rookie of the Month again for July, going 5-5 through 10 starts, striking out 16 batters in 88.2 innings, for a 1.62 ERA this month. He is 14-15 with a 1.89 ERA for the year through 29 starts and 243 innings, with 33 K’s, a 1.06 WHIP and 3.3 WAR. Just wait until he’s got a better hitting team backing him up! In other news, we’re calling 22-year-old center fielder Trent Hall up from AAA Dayton, having hit .347 down there with two doubles, a triple and four homers. But honestly, we need him right now more for his incredible outfield arm than anything. He’s got future Gold Glove at center field written all over him on repeat, and we’re 14 games back of first and fading fast toward last place. We might as well see what he can do. __________________ A Fledgling “Free Agency” Movement in the Post-War World -- An OOTP 26 Dynasty Online Leagues Modern Baseball (Chicago White Sox) Daily Double Baseball (Tampa Bay Devil Rays) Championship Baseball League (Winnipeg Goldeye) WPORBL 55 (Chicago Cubs) WPORBL 74 (Oakland A's) WPORBL 94 (Montreal Expos) WPOBL (Cincinnati Reds)

03-17-2024, 05:18 PM	#11
jksander All Star Starter Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Indianapolis IN Posts: 1,614	January 2, 1907: There will be no new additions to the Hall of Fame this season, but Pablo Laureano nearly got through in his second year, with 74.2% of the votes. Laureano played in Minneapolis from 1888 through 1894, then played in Huntington (1895), Louisville (1896-98) and then bounced from Detroit to Bloomington and then Lexington and finally Evansville before retiring in October of 1981. He had a 250-269 career record, a 2.59 ERA and 518 strikeouts, with a 1.12 WHIP and .273 BAPIP, accounting for 68.6 career WAR. I suspect he’ll make it over the hump eventually, though if he doesn’t it will likely be because he played for so many teams over the years he never managed to build a national reputation (though his 35-14 record and Pitcher of the Year win for Minneapolis in 1892 will always be remembered there). He’s one of those guys who had a strong flame for seven years or so and then faded quietly. January 29, 1907: In a bid to bring more fans in this season to see the new-and-improved Rivermen, we’re going to be selling tickets for 10 cents in the month of April! Come out and see what’s happening on the riverfront here in Louisville as we fight to challenge the big dogs in this league. February 3, 1907: I’ve allowed my coaches to control our development plans for the offseason, and for the most part it’s been business as usual with no big shocking improvements. But in the most recent round of updates we had three players who showed success. Catcher Kevin Sovie (AA) picked up some decent ability at first base, while Jeremy Smith at the major league level, improved his defensive ability in right field, though he remains the most competent at second base and in left field. At age 34, however, he remains one of our most intelligent, hardest working players. First baseman Neal Castro (AAA) has added the ability to play left field to his repetoire, to go with first and third base, though at age 27 his chances of making the major league roster are growing slimmer by the day. He’s a sparkplug-type at AAA, but lacks the overall skill to make the jump at the current moment. February 25, 1907: Spring training officially starts today! We’ll start the regular season off on April 2 with a three-game trip to Owensboro, followed by three games against Huntington on the road, before we finally get to have our home opening series against Pittsburgh from April 8-10. March 29, 1907: In the spring season we put together a 16-14 record in training games, placing second behind the Cincinnati Continentals (17-13) in games that don’t officially count. Our bullpen looks incredible, and Cameron McClain looks to be the spark we need to put our starting rotation into the upper reaches of the league. Brad Burgess hit .482 through 59 plate appearances, with two doubles and nine homers as he batted in 22 runs, showing he was only getting started last year ... bring it on! This league can stand some offensive fireworks to go with what’s primarily been a pitcher focused game. We also are a lot faster on the basepaths this year; Michael Levine hit .283 and stole 12 bases in 19 attempts, while Jeremy Smith stole 10 in 14 tries. We’re still finalizing the opening day roster, but expectations are definitely higher than they were at this time last year. April 2, 1907: We’ve officially got our opening day rosters set and ready to go! In the recent BNN prospect updates, left fielder Ben Morris is now ranked 2nd overall, and will be making his major league debut this season! First baseman Cameron Jackson (AA, #30), third baseman Jesus de la Torre (AAA, #83) and right handed reliever Danny Suarez (AAA, #124) are our next highest-rated prospects overall. Our only major injury at the moment is to Chris Hughes, who strained a muscle in his ribcage and will be day to day for around a month. We’re going to have him on the IL, but should return to the infield by May. Starting Lineup (con / gap / pwr / eye / avd / def)* C - Mike Andreen, 34 ... 50/45/50/40/60/60 1B - Michael Levine, 37 ... 65/50/50/50/70 2B - Gustavo Quinones, 35 ... 65/45/55/45/80/60 3B - Sam Leonard, 31 ... 65/45/45/45/80/65 SS - Brad Burgess, 21 ... 40/50/80/50/30/80 LF - Ben Morris, 24 ... 75/75/45/55/80/70 CF - Trent Hall, 23 ... 45/45/80/40/45/80 RF - Jeremy Smith, 34 ... 60/70/50/50/70/35 Bench C - Josue Grimaldo, 34 ... 55/45/50/45/75/45 C - Ron Moseley, 31 ... 60/45/50/50/75/50 1B - David Abson, 30 ... 65/45/50/45/75/55 1B - Jake Bertz, 27 ... 70/45/50/45/80/35 1B - Tony Juarez, 35 ... 55/55/50/45/65/35 1B - Edward Quiroz, 32 ... 50/50/50/40/55/40 1B - Danny Van Sickle, 34 ... 60/40/45/50/75/25 2B - Bobby Johnson, 31 ... 70/45/45/50/80/70 2B - Evan Walker, 32 ... 60/45/50/50/70/65 3B - Ryan Kats, 33 ... 60/45/40/45/80/30 RF - Travis Linden, 31 ... 70/45/45/50/80/50 INJ (2B) - Chris Hughes, 32 ... 60/65/50/50/70/50 Rotation (Stuff / Mov / Ctrl / Sta / Hld / Def)* 1 - Cameron McClain, 31 ... 55/70/65/55/55/45 2 - Sean Impagliazzo, 23 ... 55/70/45/65/65/55 3 - Mike Morris, 27 ... 40/65/50/50/40/65 Bullpen Stopper - J.R. Potter, 32 ... 75/70/45/30/55/50 Middle - Chris Moore, 30 ... 50/60/35/30/60/35 Middle - Jimmy McClorey, 28 ... 55/55/40/30/80/40 Long - Kyle Fargo, 29 ... 40/65/50/55/70/45 Long - Tim Miller, 36 ... 35/60/40/50/75/45 * Defense rating only at key position __________________ A Fledgling “Free Agency” Movement in the Post-War World -- An OOTP 26 Dynasty Online Leagues Modern Baseball (Chicago White Sox) Daily Double Baseball (Tampa Bay Devil Rays) Championship Baseball League (Winnipeg Goldeye) WPORBL 55 (Chicago Cubs) WPORBL 74 (Oakland A's) WPORBL 94 (Montreal Expos) WPOBL (Cincinnati Reds)

03-17-2024, 06:13 PM	#12
jksander All Star Starter Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Indianapolis IN Posts: 1,614	April 3, 1907: Owensboro held us to just three hits in our season opening game yesterday, but McClain held them to six with just one unearned run and we outscored them 2-1 in a real nailbiter to start the season off right! Jeremy Smith picked up two of our three hits and Brad Burgess grounded out to first to drive in the winning run. Nice way to start the year off on the road, boys! April 6, 1907: Michael Levine picked up his 2,000th career hit during a 2-0 win over the Huntington Appalachians this afternoon! That’s a lot of hits, Mike, and you’re clearly still taking care of business out there when most guys would be thinking about retirement. April 9, 1907: We opened our season on an incredible seven game winning streak, but it came to an end this afternoon with a Jamie Bennett RBI single for the Pittsburgh Tin-Knockers on our field in the top of the 10th, which allowed them to beat us 4-3 and improve to 7-2. Sean Impagliazzo pitched a complete game with nine hits, three walks, a strikeout and four earned runs, dropping to 2-1 on the young season, though his ERA is an exceptional 1.93 so far through 28 innings. Brad Burgess has started out red hot, with a .343 average, six homers and 11 RBIs, but that’s a home run pace there’s no way he can sustain. He’s not the only one slugging well, however ... Derek Cole, of the Chicago Internationals, has two homers already this season. It may be an outlier or a sign of things to come, but the fans love it ... attendance is way up in our first two home games this year and season ticket sales were steady. We just need to build the fan loyalty. April 14, 1907: Cameron McClain is on a real tear! He improved to 5-0 with a 1.20 ERA with a 5-0 shutout against the Evansville Crescents this afternoon as we improved to 11-2 on the still-young season. Our starters have been dominant through these first two weeks, without yet having to go to the bullpen. But competition is fierce this season so far in the Ohio River League, with Lexington and Pittsburgh already nipping at our heels with 10 wins apiece. May 1, 1907: We’ve got a month of high quality baseball in the books early on this year, and we’re off to a solid 19-9 start, leading the Ohio River League by a game and a half over Cincinnati (18-11) and by 2.5 games over Lexington (16-11). In the Great Lakes League, the Chicago Internationals continue to look like their usual selves, at 19-9 but only half a game up on Bloomington’s Hoosiers (19-10). The Internationals would love to keep their pennant streak going ... they’ve won three in a row and nine of the last 13 in that league, bringing home six championships in that stretch. Cameron McClain had a hell of an April, winning his first nine games before finally dropping one. He won the CBL’s Pitcher of the Month award as a result, with a 9-1 record, a 1.55 ERA and an 0.92 WHIP to go with a .238 BAPIP. In 93 innings so far this season he’s only allowed 16 earned runs and a single homer. Impagliazzo and Morris are handling themselves well, but it’s clear McClain was the Ace we’d been waiting for. Our pitchers have been lights out, but our bats have not ... Michael Levine has our best average, hitting .265 with 26 hits, two doubles and a triple. Burgess’ power has been exceptional, with two doubles and seven homers putting his slugging at .467, but he’s already struck out 15 times. Still, his 2.4 WAR is third in both leagues, his slugging is 4th overall, and he’s only two homers behind the pace of Chicago’s David Cole, who right now could win a triple crown in the GLL if he keeps it up. __________________ A Fledgling “Free Agency” Movement in the Post-War World -- An OOTP 26 Dynasty Online Leagues Modern Baseball (Chicago White Sox) Daily Double Baseball (Tampa Bay Devil Rays) Championship Baseball League (Winnipeg Goldeye) WPORBL 55 (Chicago Cubs) WPORBL 74 (Oakland A's) WPORBL 94 (Montreal Expos) WPOBL (Cincinnati Reds)

03-17-2024, 08:15 PM	#13
jksander All Star Starter Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Indianapolis IN Posts: 1,614	May 2, 1907: Yesterday afternoon, Sean Impagliazzo pitched a complete game one-hitter in a 4-0 win over the Lexington Roughriders in front of 11,100 fans here at the Ballpark of Louisville. Their only single came in the top of the ninth, when second baseman Chris Grogan hit a line-drive single before Impagliazzo shut them down with three flyouts in a row. It was by far his best overall pitching career yet! May 3, 1907: Tim Miller is going to have to step into the starting rotation for the next three to four weeks, as Mike Morris is dealing with elbow inflammation and has been put on the 21-day IL. He went down before the third inning of yesterday’s game against the Roughriders, but our bench gave us eight innings of excellent relief. Chris Moore came out of it with a win, allowing two hits, a walk and a run in two innings of work as Brad Burgess walked off the win in the bottom of the 10th with a single. Thus far in the season we’re 3-3 in extra innings games, and 10-5 in one-run battles. May 11, 1907: We have completed a new contract extension for Jeremy Smith, who so far this year is hitting .270 with four doubles, seven triples and 11 RBIs. The 34-year-old fielder, known to fans as “Charlie Hustle,” will earn $2,000 per year in 1908 through 1910, with $1,800 in 1911 and $1,500 in 1912 -- the deal keeps him in Louisville through age 40 and, conceivably, his eventual retirement, though right now he’s playing like he could keep doing it forever. Smith has spent his entire career in Louisville and is nearing the 1,000 hit threshold. A fan favorite and a nationally recognized ambassador for the game, we’re glad to have the chance to keep him here for good. We opened the month of May on an eight game winning streak before dropping a game yesterday to the Huntington Appalachians here in Louisville. As such, we’ve pulled ahead in the ORL pennant race, with a 27-10 record and a six game lead on the Lexington Roughriders. May 28, 1907: Mike Morris is back off the IL, but we’re going to keep Tim Miller (5-2, 2.51 ERA, 57.1 IP) in the starting rotation as our fourth starter. We’re still 6.5 games up on the Roughriders at this point and having the extra man in the rotation to keep from wearing down McClain and Impagliazzo should be helpful as we head into the heart of summer. June 1, 1907: Ben Morris was named the ORL’s Hitter of the Month for May, hitting .330 with 21 RBIs and 15 runs scored! He’s hitting .276 so far this season with four doubles, 12 triples and 32 RBIs. Cameron McClain still leads the team with a 14-4 record and 1.99 ERA through 158.1 innings, but Impagliazzo has broken out as well, with a 12-5 record, 1.71 ERA and 22 K’s through 158 innings. Heading into June we’ve got a 38-17 record, five games up on Lexington and nine ahead of Evansville and East St. Louis. In the GLL, the Chicago Internationals have a 38-17 record as well, up four on the 34-21 Fort Wayne Flyers, while Bloomington has faded into third with a 31-23 record. June 14, 1907: Just like that, we’ve come back to earth, starting the month out on a dismal 5-7w stretch, allowing Lexington to come roaring back into the race! We’re currently 43-24, with the Roughriders trailing us by just one game. If we thought we had this season all figured out, we’ve found out quite differently. It seems when our bats go cold, teams are able to take advantage -- in nine of those twelve games we struggled to score even three runs, which won’t get us anywhere. July 1, 1907: It’s crazy to seem frustrated when we’re 52-31 heading into the month of July, but when you went 15-14 and blew a five game lead in the division, it’s hard to feel exactly confident. We’re now knotted up with Lexington, a team we know wants it since they’ve yet to make it to the postseason in the entire history of the Midwest Baseball League, and East St. Louis is now only 4.5 games back so they’re right back in it as well. We absolutely have to snap out of our offensive funk and find ways to drive in runs and win ballgames ... the rest of this league isn’t going to hand anything to us. In the GLL, Chicago is running away with things, at 61-21, a full 12 games up on the Fort Wayne Flyers (49-33). Barring an epic collapse, they’re looking like the toast of that league yet again and a formidable Championship Series opponent for whoever can get out of our league. In other news, we’re promoting Jesus de la Torre, age 24, from AAA to see if he can spark some energy among the major leaguers -- he has hit .403 with 20 doubles, three triples and five homers while in Daytonn this year, while stealing 21 bases and being named Batter of the Month in that league. He’ll be playing 3B, SS and LF coming off the bench for the remainder of the season. July 13, 1907: Though Burgess has been doing incredibly well as a fielder, he’s been in an epic hitting slump through May and June, but today he hit his 10th homer of the season to get some excitement going, fueling a 7-4 win over the Cincinnati Continentals on the road this afternoon! He currently leads the Ohio River League in home runs, but is way behind the pace of Cole in Chicago, who already has 31 homers, shattering the previous record of 24 in a season. He is still on pace to beat out the 17 he hit last season, and is doing so at a younger age than Cole, which makes me feel like he’s going to have the most staying power in the league. Meanwhile, we’ve opened up a two game lead again in the division, and Cameron McClain already has 20 wins this season, putting him on pace to win more games than he ever has in a season! August 1, 1907: The trade deadline has passed, and it’s time to commit to the pennant chase. And Brad Burgess did as much as anyone in July to help us do so -- he hit .278 this month with seven homers, 14 runs scored and 19 RBIs, earning the ORL’s Batter of the Month award! Through 100 games and 347 plate appearances he’s now got a .242 average with eight doubles, 15 homers and 51 RBIs, and has been by far the best shortstop defensively in the game, with 263 putouts, 415 assists and 53 double plays, with a zone rating of nearly 32 above average! But the pennant race remains tight -- we’re in the lead still with a 65-43 record, but East St. Louis has surged, improving to 63-44 and just a game and a half back, while Lexington (62-45, 2.5 GB) and Evansville (60-47, 4.5 GB) are all still in the conversation. Chicago, meanwhile, has all but sealed the deal on the Great Lakes League, with a 79-28 record and a 15-game lead on Bloomington (63-42), with Fort Wayne (60-47, 19 GB) fading fast. __________________ A Fledgling “Free Agency” Movement in the Post-War World -- An OOTP 26 Dynasty Online Leagues Modern Baseball (Chicago White Sox) Daily Double Baseball (Tampa Bay Devil Rays) Championship Baseball League (Winnipeg Goldeye) WPORBL 55 (Chicago Cubs) WPORBL 74 (Oakland A's) WPORBL 94 (Montreal Expos) WPOBL (Cincinnati Reds)

03-17-2024, 10:46 PM	#14
jksander All Star Starter Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Indianapolis IN Posts: 1,614	August 13, 1907: You like pitching duels? We had a hell of a pitching duel this afternoon, as we and Cincinnati were scoreless through the first nine, and then both pitchers kept dealing ... in the bottom of the 14th inning Travis Linden reached first on a throwing error, advancing to second with one out off a single by Bobby Johnson. Jared Bertz then hit a single that allowed Linden to come all the way around to score the unearned walk-off run as we beat the Continentals 1-0! Tim Miller took the complete game shutout win, allowing just seven hits in 14 innings, giving him a 12-11 record and a 2.78 ERA this season! Cincy’s Steven Nichols wound up with the loss, going 13.1 innings with a walk, a strikeout and the one unearned run. That’s gotta burn! We improved to 74-45, and have now won seven games in a row, increasing our margin to four games in the pennant race. Elsewhere in the world of baseball, David “Tank” Cole of the Chicago Internationals is having a dream season, hitting .415/.424/.734 with 192 hits, 20 doubles, four triples and 40 homers. He’s batted in 120 runs and stolen 15 bases to boot! Even if he cools down the stretch, which is all but certain, this is the kind of season that’s impossible to duplicate, and he’s going to leave a ton of offensive records in his dust before the season’s over. Like Brad Burgess for us, he’s also the best defensive shortstop in HIS league and it’s wild as hell to see them both having phenomenal seasons. We just need to make the matchup in the Championship Series happen. Just six and a half weeks and we’ll know! August 30, 1907: Ben Morris’s rookie season has come to a premature end thanks to a broken bone in his elbow, which is unfortunate as he was hitting .290 with 10 doubles and 26 triples, while stealing 22 bases! It was a hell of a rookie year, but he’ll be lucky to be able to start his winter training in January with an eye on next year. September 1, 1907: For the second month in a row, Brad Burgess has been named ORL Batter of the Month! He hit .345 this month with 10 more homers and 24 RBIs, improving his season average to .267 with 25 four-baggers! His resurgence helped us to power through our opponents this month, putting together a 19-7 record in the month of August -- we’re now 84-50 with a six game lead on the East St. Louis Locomotives (78-56) and a 7.5 game lead on Lexington’s Roughriders (77-58). Chicago (94-48) should clinch within a couple days -- their magic number is four, with a 17 game lead on their nearest rival. Our magic number is 15, so we’re getting closer, but not close enough to let our guard down. September 5, 1907: Jeremy Smith tore his flexor tendon in his left elbow yesterday during our 3-2 loss to the Roughriders here in Louisville, an injury that at the very least will end his season ... and at his age, it’s a legitimate question how well he’ll recover to his full strength. He’s not a pitcher, which would make a full recovery almost impossible in this day and age. But he’s a fan favorite and we’re going to make sure we do everything we can to get him back into the lineup next season. This season he hit .259 with seven doubles, 12 triples and 72 stolen bases, ending the season with 499 career stolen bases ... SO CLOSE to the milestone 500. September 14, 1907: On the road in Owensboro this afternoon, we crushed the Rum Runners by a 13-2 margin, officially clinching as the winners of the Ohio River League Pennant! Tim Miller allowed just seven hits in a complete game win, improving to 18-11 with a 2.40 ERA, as we improved to 93-54 with just over a week to go in the regular season. It’s official: we’ll get our shot against the Chicago Internationals, and both of our teams have posted their best records in franchise history in the race to get here! September 21, 1907: The hits keep coming ... we’ve kept winning since the pennant win became official, but we’ve got another season ending injury to deal with: left fielder Chris Hughes fractured his fibula and will miss at least three months. This season, at 32, he hit .264 with 13 doubles four triples and two homers, stealing 30 bases and driving in 29 runs. September 23, 1907: The regular season is done, and the MBA Championship Series is now set to start on the 25th as we’ll take our 98-56 record on the road to play the Chicago Internationals who finished with a 107-47 record, looking all but unstoppable. We have two starters at the top of their games ... Cameron McClain finished the regular season with a 29-14 record with a 1.86 ERA, 43 K’s and an 0.99 WHIP, pitching 373.1 innings, while Sean Impagliazzo had a 27-14 record with a 1.69 ERA, 68 K’s and an 0.91 WHIP, pitching in 389 innings. Chicago was led by a three-pitcher rotation which all posted ERAs under 2.00, and David Castro (39-13, 1.49 ERA, 466.0 IP, 108 K’s, 0.85 WHIP) and Ryan Nicolson (32-13, 1.99 ERA, 411.1 IP, 43 K’s, 0.99 WHIP) are both exceptional starters. Our two slugging shortstops get to do battle against each other as well ... in our corner there’s Burgess, with a .280 average, 20 doubles, 32 homers, 94 RBIs and 12.4 WAR, while in theirs they have Cole, who finished his season with a .4003 average, 30 doubles, 41 homers, 18 stolen bases and 145 RBIs, with 18.2 WAR. He now leads the MBA in single-season batting average, OBP (.4149), slugging percentage, total bases (400), homers, RBIs and wins above replacement. __________________ A Fledgling “Free Agency” Movement in the Post-War World -- An OOTP 26 Dynasty Online Leagues Modern Baseball (Chicago White Sox) Daily Double Baseball (Tampa Bay Devil Rays) Championship Baseball League (Winnipeg Goldeye) WPORBL 55 (Chicago Cubs) WPORBL 74 (Oakland A's) WPORBL 94 (Montreal Expos) WPOBL (Cincinnati Reds)

03-17-2024, 10:48 PM	#15
jksander All Star Starter Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Indianapolis IN Posts: 1,614	*1907 MBA Championship Series* Louisville Rivermen (98-56) vs. Chicago Internationals (107-47) September 25, 1907: We got things going with a bang in game one of the MBA Championship Series in Chicago ... we took an early 2-0 lead, but, up 7-4 going into the ninth inning, we let them score on a groundball single, and then their first-baseman Nate Westfall hit a single that drove in two more to tie it up. But in the top of the 11th, Michael Levine hit a grounder and reached safely on an E5 error, allowing Josue Grimaldo to put us in the lead! Kyle Fargo came out to pitch in the bottom of the inning and didn’t let them even dream of a hit, and we held on to win 8-7! McClain got blown up tonight, allowing 16 hits with seven runs, four earned, through 8.2 innings, but J.R. Potter got the win with just one hit in 1.1 innings. Chalk one up to our bullpen as we took a 1-0 series lead! Burgess had two hits, one of them a homer, and two RBIs, while Cole hit twice and scored a run on the ground. September 26, 1907: In game two we scored a run in the top of the first, but Chicago scored five unanswered starting in the sixth, and despite two runs scored in the top of the ninth, it wasn’t enough to overcome the deficit. We lost this one 5-3 and the series evened out heading back to Louisville. Impagliazzo completed the eight innings with eight hits but allowed five runs, only three of which were earned. Burgess went 0 for 4 and struck out twice, while Cole hit twice and batted in a run. September 28, 1907: The Internationals took game three and the series lead, beating us 6-2 in a game they took over in the third, never trailing for a moment. Morris gave up 14 hits in 7.2 innings and though the bullpen stayed unblemished, those six earned runs were impossible to make up. Burgess has gone ice cold ... another 0 for 4 with two K’s for him, while Cole hit twice and got nowhere. September 29, 1907: McClain had a great night in game four, pitching a complete game 10-inning seven-hitter with a walk, a strike and two earned runs, the game going into extras tied up 2-2. In the bottom of the 10th, Brad Burgess hit a walk-off RBI single, scoring Michael Levine to give us a 3-2 victory and tying the series at 2-2! Burgess woke up big time, hitting three times with a run and two RBIs, including his second homer of the series, while Cole went hitless in four tries -- the battle of the MVP shortstops is heating up! September 30, 1907: Game five was scoreless until the bottom of the fifth, when Impagliazzo hit a squeeze bunt to the third base side, Trent Hall scoring safely ahead of the throw to give us a 1-0 lead! Having gotten us the lead with his impeccable bunting skills, Impagliazzo held tough and completed the shutout, allowing just six hits, walking four batters and striking out a pair as we took the series lead three games to two heading back into Chicago. Burgess hit twice, bringing his series average up to .350, while Cole hit once and kept his at .368. October 2, 1907: Game six was another squeaker ... Chicago took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the second, but in the top of the fifth Mike Andreen hit an RBI single that scored Trent Hall to tie it up, and an inning later Brad Burgess hit a solo homer to take the lead 2-1! But in the bottom of the ninth with the lead still at one run, we choked. Alex Larralde, their first baseman, reached on an error, and then Mike Morris allowed a hit to David Cole, putting him in scoring position. Then left fielder Kyle Doak hit a single, and on an E9 throwing error to home plate, Larralde scored the tying run. Christian Collier, their third baseman, hit a flyout to left, but Doak had time to tag up from third and scored the walk-off as we lost a heartbreaker 3-2. Burgess had one hit, which was his third homer of the series, and it would have been a championship one if we could have held on. Cole hit twice and scored a run, and has now hit .391 through the first six games. Morris took it pretty hard after the game, having gone 8.2 innings with just seven hits and three runs (one earned) in a game that was so close to won he could taste it. October 3, 1907: We scored first, top of the third, but they answered with a pair in the bottom of the inning, adding a third in the bottom of the fifth and a fourth in the bottom of the sixth. Mike Andreen hit an RBI single in the top of the seventh to cut their lead to two, but we couldn’t make anything else happen. The Internationals held their ground and won this one 4-2, taking another championship home in the process. McClain only lasted six innings, allowing eight hits and four runs with a walk, and Fargo was impressive in his two innings of relief, with just a single hit. Burgess went 0 for 4 and struck out twice (sound familiar?) and Cole scored a run after being hit by a pitch. He finished the series with a .346 average and one RBI, while Burgess hit .286 with three homers in the series and five RBIs. He slugged .643 in the series, and would have easily been the MVP if we’d come out victorious. We would have loved to take home the title, but going up against a juggernaut like the Internationals and managing to take it to seven games without any truly bad losses, that’s a real achievement. And I’m confident we’ve got the players who can make sure this isn’t a one-off trip. __________________ A Fledgling “Free Agency” Movement in the Post-War World -- An OOTP 26 Dynasty Online Leagues Modern Baseball (Chicago White Sox) Daily Double Baseball (Tampa Bay Devil Rays) Championship Baseball League (Winnipeg Goldeye) WPORBL 55 (Chicago Cubs) WPORBL 74 (Oakland A's) WPORBL 94 (Montreal Expos) WPOBL (Cincinnati Reds) Last edited by jksander; 03-17-2024 at 10:50 PM.

03-18-2024, 06:51 PM	#16
jksander All Star Starter Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Indianapolis IN Posts: 1,614	October 5, 1907: Backup first baseman Danny Van Sickle announced his retirement after the playoffs ended ... he hit .259 with nine doubles and 39 RBIs over 290 career games, just 21 of which he got to start. But he got to play in the league for nine seasons, which is more than a lot of minor league guys ever get to say. Meanwhile, Mike Andreen executed his player option, so he’ll be with us for the remaining two years on his contract, and though we’d like to find a younger catcher he can work with during those years, he’s still a very solid catcher in his own right even as he nears middle age. Our owner is of course happy with the fact that we made it to the Championship Series ahead of schedule, but he is frustrated by the fact that, even with a winning team, we’re still struggling to keep the fans engaged. I know we’re one of the four smallest markets in the league, and it’s going to take time to build up fan loyalty. But we’re trending quickly in the right direction -- if we keep doing what we’re doing, the long-term support for our franchise will build as well. October 6, 1907: We made a trade with the Fort Wayne Flyers that gets us a young(er) catcher I’ve been eying, 30-year-old Eduard de los Santos, who hits incredibly well for contact and who is at least average as a defensive option. He’s inexpensive, as he’s not yet arbitration eligible, and in his rookie season last year he hit .322 with 12 doubles and 28 RBIs. We’re sending one of our backup first basemen, Jared Bertz, along with third baseman Jesus de la Torre, a top 70 prospect who played 19 games up at the big league level last year for us but averaged just .216 with four runs scored. October 9, 1907: We’ve traded 29-year-old right handed starter David Wright (AA), 22-year-old first baseman Cameron Jackson (AA), 30-year-old lefty reliever Kyle Fargo and $10,000 to the Huntington Appalachians for 29-year-old right fielder Chris Whalen. Whalen hit .289 last year for the Appalachians, with 16 doubles and 52 RBIs, and is a solid fielder in left and right. He’s been on my radar all year as a rookie, and he fits in perfectly with the way we like to play baseball in Louisville, and his batting instincts will be helpful to us long term but at little financial cost as he’s joined the league later in his development. October 13, 1907: We had four players win Gold Glove awards for exceptional fielding this year -- Mike Morris as a pitcher, Brad Burgess as a shortstop, Trent Hall as a center fielder and Jeremy Smith as a right fielder. This was Smith’s first right fielder fielding award, to go with his many Silver Sluggers. October 15, 1907: We have two Silver Slugger award winners this season. First off, the obvious one: Brad Burgess was named the Gold Glove winner at shortstop, hitting .280 with 20 doubles, 32 homers and 94 RBIs, with 12.7 WAR. Our other winner was left fielder Ben Morris, who, before his injury averaged .290 with 10 doubles, 26 triples and 74 RBIs, putting together 4.7 total WAR. Our young bats are stepping up and making things happen, and that bodes very well for our future. October 16, 1907: The awards keep coming for left fielder Ben Morris, who won ORL Rookie of the Year despite going down with the elbow injury before the playoffs. We’re hoping he comes back without any long-term damage, and can get back to swinging that bat next year as we try and get back to the championship! October 17, 1907: Sean Impagliazzo won the ORL Pitcher of the Year award in a unanimous decision, taking every first place vote, beating out Cameron McClain, who did not get any first place votes but garnered 64 total points in the voting. Impagliazzo finished the year with a 27-14 record, started 43 games and threw 389 innings of work, and struck out 68 batters with an ERA of 1.69, a 0.91 WHIP and 6.5 WAR. October 18, 1907: No surprise here ... Brad Burgess was named the unanimous choice as ORL Most Valuable Player, for his exceptional season at the incredibly young age of 22! The second-place vote getter was 20-year-old shortstop Salvatore Correa from Lexington, who hit .281 this year with 16 doubles, 16 triples and six homers, batting in 53 runs and putting together 8.2 WAR. These two young men will be up against each other for years, I suspect, in a rivalry that will only grow in its intensity. November 11, 1907: Our first move in the offseason was to find a younger reliever to join our bullpen, and we found him in 28-year-old Ralph Ladd, a right handed hurler with a sharp curve and a decent fastball; his solid movement and above average arm make him a perfect setup man. We signed him to a three year deal with $850 per year for two years with a vesting option for a third at the same wage if he reaches 40 innings pitched. Meanwhile we’ve made a deal with Pittsburgh to send Tim Miller (ret: 50%) in exchange for a minor league right fielder, Cody Boudman, age 26 (a former top 100 prospect) ... he deserves a place where he can start, and at 37 I am not confident I can count on him not to go down to an injury. We have to look to our future, and he’ll be of value to the Tin-Knockers, who are in the midst of a rebuild, so he should likely see more playing time there. November 14, 1907: This is our big one, people! We’ve locked in on our third baseman of the future, in 26-year-old newcomer Octavio Delgado, who comes in as a free agent after playing unafilliated baseball out west for several years. Our scouts say his hitting ability is among the cream of the crop, and he’s a quality defender at third base with the ability to also back up Burgess at shorstop. Lexington reportedly went after him hard, as did Chicago, but we had the money available and made him an offer he couldn’t turn down: $27,450 spread over nine years, starting at $1,500 and rising incrementally until 1914-16, when he’ll be earning $5,000 a year in his early to mid-30s. November 20, 1907: Owensboro reached out with interest in 21-year-old second baseman Ed Masse (AA) and 22-year-old catcher Mike Brovont (AA). In a move based on scouting information from Derek Black, I agreed to move those two in exchange for 20-year-old Chris Heikes, a young player who I feel the national scouts haven’t yet caught up on. He’s raw as hell right now, but has a high ceiling as a well-above average contact hitter, a great feel for the strike zone, and he knows when to lay off a bad pitch. He’s the kind of guy who will have to develop in the minors for a few years, but as a move toward building up our farm I think it’s the right one. December 2, 1907: Our trainer has let me know Ben Morris is recovering very well, and he should be back to full strength in a couple weeks, at least two weeks ahead of schedule. December 14, 1907: It took a few weeks to work out all the contractual details, but 22-year-old free agent utility outfielder Trey “Bird Dog” Bledsoe will be coming to play for his hometown Rivermen! He graduated from the University of Louisville this spring, and we had him at the top of our list for recruiting this year -- a left-handed hitter, he is confident with meticulous mechanics, and has great strike zone recognition to go with the bat speed to hit for big league power. An above average fielder in left and right, he should make an immediate impact on our team. We’ve agreed to a five-year deal worth $11,250, giving him $1,750 this year, $2,000 next year and then $2,500 per year for the final three. Our goal will then be to sign him to a long term extension and keep him in the Louisville family if he lives up to our expectations as a hitter. He’s already popular with our fans, extremely well known around the area, and has national recognition as well, since the Cardinals participated in this year’s College World Series in Omaha. Our offense this year is going to be among the youngest in the majors, with only three of our projected starters over the age of 26! But if I’m right about the overall talent level of these guys as a group, this is going to be a team built for the long haul. Our projected salary cost for the entire franchise ranges from $22,000 this year to a max of $23,000 by 1912, which while coming in among the top teams in the ORL, is just above half of what Chicago ($39,000 this year) is paying in salaries. __________________ A Fledgling “Free Agency” Movement in the Post-War World -- An OOTP 26 Dynasty Online Leagues Modern Baseball (Chicago White Sox) Daily Double Baseball (Tampa Bay Devil Rays) Championship Baseball League (Winnipeg Goldeye) WPORBL 55 (Chicago Cubs) WPORBL 74 (Oakland A's) WPORBL 94 (Montreal Expos) WPOBL (Cincinnati Reds)

03-18-2024, 10:13 PM	#17
jksander All Star Starter Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Indianapolis IN Posts: 1,614	December 20, 1907: After they won Pitcher of the Year and MVP respectively, we’ve been working to sign Impagliazzo and Burgess to long term deals that lock in their arbitration years and keep them here long term. Impagliazzo was the first to agree to the terms of the new contract proposals -- he’s earning $250 this year and will get $400 in 1909 and 1910, but will then earn from $1,300 (1911) up to $2,300 (1916-18) along with $750 bonuses for winning either Pitcher of the Year or MVP. The total value of the contract is $17,300 and it keeps him here in Louisville through his 35th birthday. December 22, 1907: After dotting the I’s and crossing the T’s, we’ve agreed to terms with Brad Burgess on a long term contract for this year’s reigning ORL Most Valuable Player. He’s earning $250 this year and will get $400 in 1909 and 1910, and then rising amounts from $1,500 in 1911 at age 25 to $3,100 from 1914-18, ending when he’ll be 32 and still capable of commanding big money on the free agent market. The total value of his deal is $22,400 and does not include any additional awards compensation. January 1, 1908: Happy New Year! The Hall of Fame is adding a new inductee this year, in Pablo Laureano, who narrowly missed out on induction last year -- this time around he got 78.3 percent of the votes in his third year of eligibility. He’s the 23rd pitcher to be inducted, while only three offensive players are currently in the HOF, though I expect that number to rise in the coming years. January 31, 1908: I know most teams these days are running with a three-man starting rotation, but I just think it’s a smarter move to have four quality starters ready to go, so we don’t put so much wear and tear on each individual pitcher. So I went in hard on negotiations to get one more free agent this season, and we came out winners! George Driscoll, age 28, joins our league from one of the unaffiliated southern leagues, so he’s a fresh face in the league -- our scouts love his “devastating” sinker, his solid screwball and competitive fastball, and he has enough command to make up for stuff that is not exactly mind blowing. We see him as our #3 starter, with Mike Morris placing fourth in the rotation. We’ve offered him a deal for four years, starting at $850 this year, with increases to $950 in 1909, $1,100 in 1910 and $1,200 in 1911. I think with him and Morris adding depth to the absolute dominance of McClain and Impagliazzo, we’ve got the makings of easily the best pitching corps in the division. February 27, 1908: Spring Training is now underway! Thirty games that don’t count, but which give us plentiful information about the progress of our players, including those we’ll be keeping at the minor league level, will take place over the next month, before we open the season with ten games in a row on our home field! Opening day against the Owensboro Rum Runners will be on April 2. April 2, 1908: Here are our opening day rosters to peruse ... we have high expectations this year, and our owner fully expects we’ll be back in the Championship Series and win it this time. So no pressure, right? Right. Starting Lineup (con / gap / pwr / eye / avd / def)* C - David Campbell, 32 (65/45/45/50/80/55) 1B - Michael Levine, 38 (65/50/50/50/70/50) 2B - Bobby Johnson, 32 (70/45/45/50/80/70) 3B - Octavio Delgado, 26 (75/55/50/55/80/55) SS - Brad Burgess, 22 (45/70/80/55/40/80) LF - Ben Morris, 25 (70/75/45/55/80/75) CF - Trent Hall, 24 (45/45/80/40/45/80) RF - Trey Bledsoe, 22 (75/55/50/50/80/55) Bench C - Mike Andreen, 35 (45/40/50/40/50/55) C - Eduard de los Santos, 30 (75/45/50/50/80/45) 1B - Scott Craighead, 32 (55/45/50/45/70/40) 1B - Tony Juarez, 36 (50/50/45/40/50/20) 2B - Gustavo Quinones, 36 (60/45/50/45/70/60) 2B - Evan Walker, 33 (60/45/50/50/70/65) 3B - Juan Garcia, 28 (55/45/40/45/65/45) 3B - Sam Leonard, 32 (65/45/45/45/80/65) LF - Bob Cline, 26 (60/45/45/45/75/55) LF - Chris Hughes, 33 (60/65/50/50/70/40) LF - Chris Whalen, 30 (65/45/50/50/80/50) CF - Jamal Meriwether, 27 (50/40/35/50/70/55) RF - Travis Linden, 32 (70/45/45/50/80/50) RF - Matt Lucas, 33 (65/60/45/45/70/50) Rotation (Stuff / Mov / Ctrl / Sta / Hld / Def)* SP1 - Sean Impagliazzo, 24 (65/75/45/65/65/50) SP2 - Cameron McClain, 32 (55/70/65/55/55/45) SP3 - George Driscoll, 29 (45/70/50/50/80/50) SP4 - Mike Morris, 28 (40/70/55/50/40/65) *Bullpen* Stopper - Ralph Ladd, 29 (50/70/65/35/50/20) Middle - J.R. Porter, 33 (75/70/45/25/55/50) * Defense rating only at key position __________________ A Fledgling “Free Agency” Movement in the Post-War World -- An OOTP 26 Dynasty Online Leagues Modern Baseball (Chicago White Sox) Daily Double Baseball (Tampa Bay Devil Rays) Championship Baseball League (Winnipeg Goldeye) WPORBL 55 (Chicago Cubs) WPORBL 74 (Oakland A's) WPORBL 94 (Montreal Expos) WPOBL (Cincinnati Reds)

03-19-2024, 01:41 AM	#18
jksander All Star Starter Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Indianapolis IN Posts: 1,614	April 6, 1908: Michael Levine, age 38, is still going strong, and has expressed interest in staying in Louisville until his retirement. As our scouts still stand by his overall durability and his consistent threat from the plate, we’ve agreed to terms on a three year extension worth $1,400 next year, $1,240 in 1910 and with a player option in 1911 worth the same. He is extremely popular with the fans and as a leader in the clubhouse, so it’s worth keeping him around. April 13, 1908: It took this long for us to first feel the sting of defeat -- nine consecutive wins, before East St. Louis (5-5) upended us this evening in a 12-inning epic, scoring two runs in the top of the 12th to end our streak with a 5-3. McClain went 11 innings with just six hits, a walk, a strikeout and three earned runs, but turned the ball over in the final frame to Ralph Ladd, who allowed three hits that led to the runs. Ladd is now 1-1 with a 9.00 ERA through two single-inning relief appearances, while McClain holds a 1-0 record and 1.93 ERA through three starts and 28.0 innings. No one can blame Bobby Johnson for the loss, as he hit five times out of six (all five of them for singles!) scoring one and driving in another. He’s hitting .462 through his first 26 plate appearances, with two doubles and three runs batted in! We’re not sure how he finally started making such good contact, but we’re glad he’s found the extra gear! May 1, 1908: George Driscoll was named ORL Rookie of the Month for his solid start with our Rivermen! He went 5-1 with a 3.30 ERA and four strikeouts, with teams hitting just .284 against him in his seven starts. But he was overshadowed by Sean Impagliazzo, who is making it clear he expects to win another Pitcher of the Year award -- the 24-year-old hurler is 6-0 through seven starts and 62 innings of work, with a 1.16 ERA, 13 strikeouts and a 0.76 WHIP. We had a spectacular start to the season, going 20-7 through the month of April, taking a five game lead in the division over a Lexington Roughriders team that is still scrapping for the right combination to get to the postseason for the first time. It’s a tight race below us with the Roughriders at 15-12 but with East St. Louis (14-12), Evansville (14-12) and Cincinnati (13-13) right there fighting for rungs on the ladder. In the Great Lakes League, Fort Wayne’s Flyers have flown to the top of the heap with an 18-9 record, a game and a half up on Chicago (16-10) and four games up on the Minneapolis Barons (13-12). May 10, 1908: Backup first baseman Tony Juarez has announced today that, following the end of the season, he plans to retire from baseball. The 36-year-old spent half of his first season in Fort Wayne before being traded to Louisville in 1897. A career backup player, he has played in 351 games to date, hitting .285 across 478 plate appearances with 18 doubles, four triples and 51 RBIs. You won’t see him in the Hall of Fame in Indianapolis, but guys like him make baseball fun, showing that if you work your ass off you can make a living playing this game even if you aren’t a superstar. Juarez has played in just two games so far this year, but has not had a hit. May 12, 1908: Tonight we lost 1-0 to the Lexington Roughriders, but the real story was Burgess snapping his five-game homering streak, as he went 0 for 4 with a strikeout. Burgess, who has gotten the nickname “Sure Shot” from the Louisville press, has hit .308 to start the season, with four doubles and 13 homers, batting in 25 runs through 37 games! No other player in the game can hit a long-ball like him -- not even David Cole of Chicago, who is hitting .307 but only has three doubles and a triple, not even a single homer. No one quite knows how to cover this whole “home run” thing, since the record used to be 24 and it stood for years, only to be broken by Cole with 41 last year. Burgess is on pace for 54, which seems insane, but is this baseball’s future or just a flash in the pan? Whatever it is, our Rivermen are 26-11 and the Ballpark at Louisville has been averaging more than 15,500 fans per game even with tickets priced at 27 cents! June 1, 1908: Sure thing, y’all! Brad Burgess was named ORL Batter of the Month, hitting .355 with 17 home runs, 35 RBIs and 26 runs scored. He now has a .324 average for the season, which is a huge improvement on last year, and 21 long bombs. Many have wondered whether Cole might not be hitting as well because of an exceptionally cold season in Chicago, but as for now it looks like he’s converted himself into a more purely contact hitter though we’ll see what the summer holds. At the end of the month we lost three games in a row, but we still held a 38-18 record as the weather heats up here on the river’s edge. Lexington still trails by six games at 32-24, while East St. Louis is 29-26 and 8.5 games back. Fort Wayne continues to impress in the Great Lakes League, with a 35-21 record that’s still a game and a half up on Chicago at 33-22. Fort Wayne hasn’t won a GLL Pennant since 1891, the final year of their three year pennant streak that resulted in their only two championships. Their demanding owner has been trying to rectify that, hiring David Jones as their GM back in 1905, and since then their win total has gone quietly upward. And the team is winning despite having only a $19,000 team payroll -- barely half of Chicago’s budget! __________________ A Fledgling “Free Agency” Movement in the Post-War World -- An OOTP 26 Dynasty Online Leagues Modern Baseball (Chicago White Sox) Daily Double Baseball (Tampa Bay Devil Rays) Championship Baseball League (Winnipeg Goldeye) WPORBL 55 (Chicago Cubs) WPORBL 74 (Oakland A's) WPORBL 94 (Montreal Expos) WPOBL (Cincinnati Reds)

03-19-2024, 03:57 PM	#19
jksander All Star Starter Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Indianapolis IN Posts: 1,614	June 14, 1908: We’ve had a rough start to June, going 6-6 including tonight’s big win -- but wins like this one go a long way to restoring some confidence ... against the Huntington Appalachians on the road, we took a 2-2 tie into extra innings and kept them there into the 14th, when Scott Craighead hit a sac-fly to the outfield that drove Eduard de los Santos in to score on a no-throw! We held on through the bottom of the inning to win it 3-2, and you’ve never seen 12,000 hometown fans leave that quietly. George Driscoll was the star of the night, lasting 14 innings through 157 pitches as he held them to just nine hits, striking out three and allowing just the two earned runs. He’s now 11-5 with a 2.90 ERA, huge numbers for the 29-year-old rookie. June 20, 1908: Driscoll is becoming known for his ability to handle extra innings games ... tonight the game was scoreless in the top of the 11th against the Evansville Crescents on the road, when Bobby Johnson got on base with a single, was driven to second by a sac-bunt by Trey Bledsoe, stole third, and then came around to score on a squeeze bunt play by none other than George Driscoll! With the 1-0 lead, he then retook the mound and it was flyout, flyout, groundout, goodbye Crescents! What’s crazy is we only outhit them 11-10 and yet it was a one run shutout as Driscoll won his 12th game of the year. Incredibly, Brad Burgess hit five times in the game, four singles and a double, but was stranded on-base every time. June 30, 1908: Down in AAA Dayton, James Davis, our 24-year-old right fielding up-and-coming star, hit in his 20th game in a row despite the team dropping the game in the end. Davis is hitting .446 this year at the AAA level, with seven doubles, a triple and two home runs. His fielding’s not good enough yet to earn a backup spot at the major league level, but he may get a September call-up once Dayton’s season ends in late August. July 1, 1908: Brad Burgess took the ORL Batter of the Month title yet again, hitting .359 in June with 12 homers, 27 RBIs and 18 runs scored, bringing his total to 33 homers this season, just nine away from breaking the record Cole set last season. No one else in the league has hit more than two! Whatever the record winds up being, it looks like it could stand for a long time, as the slugging revolution has been slow to take hold nationwide. Meanwhile, George Driscoll was named the ORL’s Rookie of the Month again for June, going 5-1 with a 2.39 ERA and eight strikeouts through six starts, improving to 14-5 overall with a 2.70 ERA. He’s pitched in 186.1 innings this year with 18 strikeouts and a 1.10 WHIP. We started the month poorly, but finished on a great note, winning 12 straight to end the month with a 57-25 record and a 7.5 game lead on Lexington (50-33). Cincinnati still is within striking distance with a 44-37 record, but those 12.5 games are going to be hard to overcome if our two teams keep our current pace. Chicago (49-33) has pulled to within half a game of Fort Wayne, but the Flyers still lead the Great Lakes division with a 50-33 record. That division is still tight down to the middle, with Minneapolis (46-35), Rockford (42-40) and Green Bay (40-43) all within ten games of the pennant lead. July 4, 1908: We ended our winning streak at 14 games with a loss yesterday, but today Trey Bledsoe came out hitting on all cyllinders, coming out of the game with five hits and a run scored, perfect from the plate with a double and four singles as we beat the Lexington Roughriders 6-0! Bledsoe has been hitting .321 this season, with 16 doubles and four triples, stealing 13 bases and quietly putting together 2.2 WAR in his debut season. July 25, 1908: It’s official: Burgess now holds the MBA single season home-run record, after getting his 42nd homer in the sixth inning of a 3-1 win over the Huntington Appalachians this afternoon! It was only a matter of time, and wherever this record finishes up by the end of the season, I think it’s going to become a much harder one to beat based on the fact that he’s pretty much out-homering the rest of the league as a whole, COMBINED. Hey, somebody’s got to be at the vanguard of an eventual offensive shift, right? August 1, 1908: As expected, Burgess was again named ORL Batter of the Month, with his season record now standing at .350 with 22 doubles, a triple, 45 homers and 108 RBIs, giving him a chance to challenge Cole’s single-season RBI record by the end of the season as well if he stays hot. Meanwhile, Mike Morris was named the Pitcher of the Month just weeks after his 29th birthday, going undefeated this month with a 6-0 record, a 1.02 ERA and striking out six batters. This year thus far he’s put together a 20-5 record with a 2.34 ERA through 238.2 innings, striking out 15 with a 0.92 WHIP and a .234 BAPIP. George Driscoll remained hot as well, going 6-1 with a 1.79 ERA in July to win Rookie of the Month again, improving to 20-6 with a 2.47 ERA and 23 K’s, a 1.05 WHIP and 4.2 WAR through 251.2 innings. While Impagliazzo and McClain have cooled off somewhat, these two have kept us dominant on the pitching front and ensured we remain a tough team to beat night after night. We’ve taken firm control of the Ohio River League at 78-31, dominating the head to head games against the Roughriders who are now 61-48 and in second place by 17 games (tied with East. St. Louis and only three games ahead of the 57-50 Cincinnati Continentals). Meanwhile in the Great Lakes League, Chicago has taken over the lead after flirting with it all season -- they now have a 65-44 record, a game and a half up on Minneapolis (63-46) and two games ahead of Fort Wayne (63-46) in what remains a tight divisional battle. __________________ A Fledgling “Free Agency” Movement in the Post-War World -- An OOTP 26 Dynasty Online Leagues Modern Baseball (Chicago White Sox) Daily Double Baseball (Tampa Bay Devil Rays) Championship Baseball League (Winnipeg Goldeye) WPORBL 55 (Chicago Cubs) WPORBL 74 (Oakland A's) WPORBL 94 (Montreal Expos) WPOBL (Cincinnati Reds)

03-19-2024, 06:27 PM	#20
jksander All Star Starter Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Indianapolis IN Posts: 1,614	August 9, 1908: Second baseman Gustavo Quinones fractured his thumb in a recent game, and will miss up to six weeks, potentially ending his season. The 36-year-old has played backup in just 19 games this season, averaging .222 with a double, two RBIs and a stolen base, and we’ll be considering potentially eating his contract at the end of the year if he chooses not to retire. He started last year and hit .297, but has had a fairly steep drop-off in his overall skills halfway through his five year contract. September 1, 1908: We went 19-7 during the month of August, capturing the Ohio River League’s pennant on August 29th! We now hold a 97-38 record heading into September, leading the rest of the division by 21 games. Lexington (76-59) and Cincinnati (75-61) will spend the next few weeks fighting to see who can finish second -- Lexington hopes to at least finish second and salvage a little bit of pride, though they remain the only team in the MBA not to have made even one Championship Series appearance. Over in the Great Lakes League, Chicago (86-50) is starting to pull away, with a 4.5 game lead over Fort Wayne, whose 81-54 record is already their best overall since last making it to the Championship Series in 1891. They’re still in the race, with Chicago’s magic number sitting at 15, but regardless of how the final chase ends, they’re definitely on their way and stand a good shot of finding their way to a pennant in the next few years with some prudent FA signings. Brad Burgess has all but sewn up another Most Valuable Player award, winning the ORL’s Batter of the Month award yet again in August -- this month he hit .305 overall, with eight homers, 23 RBIs and 16 runs scored, giving him 53 homers and a .342 batting average for the entire season. He currently leads the ORL in batting average, homers and RBI by wide margins, so he’s also going to wind up with a batting triple crown! Cincinnati’s Steven Nichols right now looks like the front runner for Pitcher of the Year, with a 26-10 record, 2.20 ERA and 44 K’s through 397 innings, though McClain could still win out in a close vote, with a 22-9 record thus far with a 1.62 ERA through 299.1 innings, striking out 48 with a 0.98 WHIP and 5.7 WAR. We have four starters each over 20 wins for the year thanks to our unorthodox four-man rotation, so whether that hurts guys in their chase for individual glory or not, it seems to be working well for us overall. September 3, 1908: Sean Impagliazzo ended a 42-inning scoreless streak tonight against the Huntington Appalachians, though we still beat them easily by a 10-4 margin. Impagliazzo improved to 24-10 with a 1.98 ERA and 67 K’s through 308.2 innings and 35 starts this season, and he already has 73 career wins in just three major league seasons, with 22 complete game shutouts . September 9, 1908: James Davis finished his AAA season with a .441 average, 33 doubles, five triples and six homers, batting in 90 RBIs and stealing eight bases, giving him 4.3 WAR. He won the Buckeye League’s Most Valuable Player award in a unanimous decision as well as their Gold Glove at LF and the Silver Slugger award. You can fully expect to see him in the majors next year! He was a huge reason why the Dayton Pilots were able to finish two games above .500 for their second winning season in a row. September 21, 1908: We finished the season with a 107-47 record, going 10-9 down the home stretch. Cameron McClain won his 200th career game in a 4-2 win against Cincinnati on the 16th, finishing the season with a 25-10 record, 1.73 ERA, 52 K’s, an 0.98 WHIP and a total of 6.3 WAR for the year through 343.1 innings of work, finishing with the best ERA in the division. Brad Burgess finished the year with the batting Triple Crown complete, hitting .345 with 30 doubles, two triples and 59 homers, batting in 151 runs. He now holds the ORL single season records for slugging (.7165), OBPS (1.0869), total bases (407), homers (59) and RBIs (151) as well as batting WAR (18.63). Impagliazzo holds the pitching records for H/9 IP (7.02), W+H/IP (0.85) and Opponents Batting AVG (.2156), all set this year during his 27-11 season ... his ERA was 1.87 through 341 innings, striking out 73 with 6.0 WAR. In the Great Lakes League, Chicago finished out with the best record at 98-56, so we’ll get a rematch of last year’s MBA Championshp Series! Fort Wayne finished just three games back at 95-59, in a pennant chase that went all the way down to the wire. Looking at team comparions, we’re 11-9 in extra innings games with a 26-23 record in one inning games, while the Continentals are 10-4 in extras and 25-19 in close games. We’ve got a +256 run differential to their +199, while their Starting ERA is 2.33 to our 2.30, with our Bullpen ERA (2.47) significantly behind theirs which stands at 2.26. We outmatch them significantly in defensive efficiency and team zone rating, however, so I fully expect us to be able to get that championship we’ve been looking for since our only one way back in 1878, thirty years ago! __________________ A Fledgling “Free Agency” Movement in the Post-War World -- An OOTP 26 Dynasty Online Leagues Modern Baseball (Chicago White Sox) Daily Double Baseball (Tampa Bay Devil Rays) Championship Baseball League (Winnipeg Goldeye) WPORBL 55 (Chicago Cubs) WPORBL 74 (Oakland A's) WPORBL 94 (Montreal Expos) WPOBL (Cincinnati Reds)