Welcome to Maine.

[Sagitta]

Welcome to Maine

I've decided to give a dynasty another shot (so far, my record isn't so good...) using fictional teams based solely in Maine.

I am using my homebrewed ethnicity ratios, so some of the names may strike as a bit French Canadian heavy. I consider it quirky and kind of neat, so I'm not complaining at all over it.

The Maine State Baseball Association (or MaSBA) is composed of an 'Eastern' and 'Western' League comprised of 16 and 12 teams respectively.

It also has both college and high school feeder leagues, and one level of the minors in a AAA club for each team.

Before I jump in and start dynasticating (is that a word?), its only proper to give a brief history of the league as it has just completed the 2017 season, its eleventh since its conception in 2007.

[Sagitta]

Being that Maine is a relatively large state comprised of a relatively small populace, advertising revenue for the various teams is shared equally amongst all.

The active roster for each team is made up of 20 players, with the expansion being up to only 24 come August 15th of each year. The trade deadline is the end of July, and the season starts the first Friday in May.

The season is 120 days long.

The average attendance for each team is set at 2500, with the average ticket being $10.

Free agency is enabled, and comes after 2 years of play for each player. Minor league free agency is disabled. There are no option years nor is there a rule 5 draft.

Trading is allowed, including draft pick trades, and the deadline is the end of July.

All leagues and sub leagues are set to disallow foreigners (ie, non-Mainers).

The playoffs are three rounds of best of seven - a wildcard series, league series, and the Maine State Series.

Teams have a 4-man rotation, with relievers rarely used except for the closer, who is used often. Pinch hitting and substitutions are the exception rather than the rule, and bunting, hit and runs, and stealing are encouraged.

[Sagitta]

The MaSBA's Western League is composed of teams based in roughly the western half of the state. It is broken into the 'Mountain' and 'Coastal' Divisions, which divide the league roughly in half between - easy guess - the interior mountain and coastal regions of western Maine.


Mountain Division
Auburn Jammers
Augusta Senators (formerly Augusta Hoodlums)
Farmington Cougars
Gardiner Diamond Cats
Hallowell Wheat Kings
Lewiston Slammers
Mexico Peppers
Oxford County Yellowjackets (South Paris)

Coastal Division
Bath Bruisers
Biddeford Ramjets
Brunswick Vipers (formerly Brunswick Pit Vipers)
Old Orchard Beach Seals (formerly Brewer Unforgiven)
Portland Pilots
Rockland Legionaires
Saco Ghost Riders
South Portland Downeasters

[Sagitta]

MaSBA's Eastern League is far more spread out, with teams clustered around Bangor then flung far afield from the far north to the far eastern corners of the state. It is comprised of the 'County' (or Northern) Division and Downeast (more southernly) Division.

Downeast Division

Bangor Ravens
Belfast Cormorants (formerly Belfast Squids)
Brewer Witches (formerly Westbrook Witches)
Ellsworth Ions
Old Town Hurlers
Waterville Purple Panthers (formerly Waterville Panthers)

County Division

Calais Whales
Caribou Antlers
Eastport Magpies
Houlton Coasters
Millinocket Katahdins
Presque Isle Islanders (formerly Presque Isle Monitors)

[Sagitta]

Maine State Series Results, by year:

2007 Mexico def Calais, 4-2
2008 Biddeford def Waterville, 4-1
2009 Brunswick def Caribou, 4-3
2010 Waterville def South Portland, 4-1
2011 Waterville def Farmington, 4-2
2012 Farmington def Calais, 4-3
2013 Brewer def Hallowell, 4-0
2014 Houlton def Auburn, 4-3
2015 Mexico def Waterville, 4-0
2016 Mexico def Belfast, 4-3
2017 Waterville def Biddeford, 4-3

Most Postseasons: Waterville (9), Mexico (9)
No Postseasons: Millinocket, Portland. Lewiston, Ellsworth

Most Wins: Mexico (752-570)
Most Losses: Ellsworth (522-798)

[Sagitta]

No-Hitters: 15

Perfect Games: 3 - Louise-Emile Bouchard (FAR) 2009; Sam Stone (FAR) 2010; Raphael Poirier (ROC) 2013

Triple Crowns: 1 - 2009 Ted Bruenig (BRE) ; 37 HR, .342/.420/.649, 105 RBI and 97 Runs in 453 AB, 67.4 VORP

300 HR Club - 2 members; Ken Farmer (318) and Samuel Langevin (314). Both players hit this mark in 2017 while playing for the same team, Hallowell.

Soon-to-be-300 members (ie, may hit it this year): 2; Ted Bruenig (299), Werner Jones (281)

Single Season HR Record: Ted Breunig (42), 2010
Only Other 40HR hitter: Yannick Carrier (40), 2010

Greatest Hitting Streak: 36 by Donald Miller of Eastport set 8/9/2017

[Sagitta]

Now this is where it gets interesting: choosing my team I would like to play.

I'd love a challenge, so I'm going to look at the four teams that have yet to make the playoffs, ever.

In the end, it comes down to deciding between Ellsworth and Millinocket. Both are equally bad (though both have been better than some of their divisionmates in the past year). Both have very low payrolls (around $750,000 - average is $1,000,000 while 'high' payrolls top out around $1,250,000 in this league).

In the end, it comes down to Ellsworth being more 'local' to me, so I take them. Add in that they have one of the winningest teams competing with them in the division with Waterville, and it should prove nice and challenging.

That said, lets meet my new team, the Ellsworth Ions (after a brief history lesson)!

A Brief History of Dreck - Ellsworth Through the Years

Ellsworth has had only one year in which it did not finish last or next-to-last in the division, and that was its inaugural season in 2007. Since then they have amassed a 522-798 record. This has also allowed an amazing 11 high draft choices, which SHOULD alleviate the whole 'we suck' issue, but for some reason never has.

Out of curiosity, I checked to see what ever happened to their first rounders . has it been bad choices in who was drafted? Bad trades later on? What?

Upon review, most players are still on the team, but they never seem to hit the levels that were hoped for. Maybe I can get lucky and work some magic on them to get them up to par.

[Sagitta]

As of March 5, this is our tentative lineup for the season.

STARTING PITCHERS

1 - (R) Billy Timblick
26 years old; Born Bangor, ME
Graduated Kennebunkport High; No College
15/14/13 (out of 20) for ratings. 4 1/2 stars

Billy looks to be one of those players that you want to like, you want to keep on the team, but deep down you know he'll probably implode. Unfortunately, he looks to be our starter, which means I probably need to go pitcher-shopping before the season starts in May.

2 - (L) Clive Roads
31 years old; Born Caribou, ME
No HS; No College
5/13/10 1 star

This is our second starter...? Clive has shown flashes of brilliance in the past, but they are long ago and far away. He's spent his career bouncing between AAA and the Bigs, and signed with Ellsworth during the off season before I took over. a 3.99 ERA pitcher, he is really not someone I would like to see on the mound, let alone in the #2 slot.

I'm almost afraid to look at my other 2 starters.

3 - (R) Teo Jean
35 years old; Born Brewer, ME
No HS; No College
11/8/9 1 star

Teo is Clive, only older. YUCK.

4 - (R) Les Johnson
24 years old; Born Waterville, ME
Madison HS; No College
8/11/8; 1 star / 1 star potential

Les is Clive, only younger. He doesn't look like he'll progress past Clive levels either.

Down at the Farm in Livermore Falls:

I have two possible stud pitchers coming up with southpaw Will Rainey and righty Adam Lalonde. Both just have to learn to control the ball and they'll get a trip up Route 1 to play with the Ions. As it is, they still almost look better than what I have. Should any of my starters start to stink (and I know that they will), they should expect to get replaced by one of these two.

The Bullpen

RP (R) Jean-Pierre Martineau
26 years old; Born Bangor, ME
Clinton HS / No College
7/15/10; 4 stars, 4 stars potential

This guy only has one full season under him, in which he went 5-9 with us last year after being released by Rockland after an injury filled 2015 season. Promptly tore his tricep early in 2016, so never really 'showed up' until 2017.

A shell of his former self after being hammered with injuries, he's a huge question mark. Hopefully he'll live up to those 4 stars and give us some much needed late-inning help.

RP (L) Turlough Restalrig
26 years old; Born Portland, ME
Howland HS / No College
6/12/5; 1 star / 1 star potential

HI CLIVE. Does get bonus points for having a crazy name, though.

CL (R) Maxime Carriere
33 years old; Born Bangor, ME
No HS / No College
4 1/2 stars / 4 1/2 stars potential

On every team that stinks, you need one shining star. For the Ions pitching staff, that star is Maxime. He's been with the club since the start in 2007, and has closed all but 2 of those years he has accumulated 193 saves in the past 10 years that he has been the closer. Hopefully he'll stick around should i be able to improve this team at all.

[Sagitta]

C - Todd "Locomotive" Maskell (BL/TR)
29 years old; Born Lewiston, ME
Graduated Madison HS; No College
12/13/13/10/7 (out of 20) for ratings. 3 stars, 4 1/2 Potential

Maskell came up to the bigs in 2012 and has been consistantly decent. Better yet, he's an extremely good defensive backstop which more than makes up for any flaws he may have. If our league played 162 rather than 120 games, he'd be a 20 HR hitter.

He's definitely a keeper - at least for now.


1B - Anthony Forrest (R/R)
26 years old; South Portland, ME
No HS; Colby College
10/9/10/7/12; 1 star; 4.5 star potential

Anthony has been surprisingly decent for his current ratings, and only looks to improve with time. An excellent defenseman, and fast, he should not be allowed to get away from us if we can help it. Has 'lead off hitter' written all over him. Again, a pleasant surprise considering how horrid the pitching staff is.

2B - Vincent "Rally" Daoust
24 years old; Old Town, ME
Hallowell HS; No College
15/20/7/12/12; 4 stars; 5 star potential

Rally is one of the teams future stars. A former 1st round, first overall pick as a result of Ellsworth tendancy to suck eggs, he's assured himself a spot in our rotation.

While not a power hitter yet, he tends to get the ball in play, which allows the rest of what is turning out to be a surprisingly good squad of batters to do their magic. If he lives to his potential, he should blossom as a dangerous middle of the lineup beast.

3B - Liam Jones
28 years old; Portland, ME
Bar Harbor HS; No College
12/16/12/16/11; 3.5 stars, 4 potential

Jones is a solid hitter. While he's a standout on our team, he'd be a middle of the pack nmember on most others. While decent at 3B, I intend to move him to 1st as he's a defensive wizz at that position. I'll try to see if I can get Forrest to learn 3rd and see who does better where. I have no delusions of taking any pennants this season, so I'll be doing a lot of rebuilding.

SS - Dan "Wolf" Drew
26 years old; South Portland, ME
Bingham HS, No College
13/17/14/18/8; 4.5 stars; 5 star potential

Another surprisingly good hitter, Wolf puts up solid numbers.

That said, he's slow and is sub-par as a defenseman, which means his days as shortstop are limited, and he could become tradebait despite his abilities if I can't find a way to use him elsewhere. With a pitching staff as horrid as mine, I need all the defense I can find and Wolf just doesn't have that ability. Hopefully I can get a decent player or three out of him by sending him off somewhere where they can afford a shortstop that can't field but can kill the ball.

[Sagitta]

My outfield has three solid players... Colm Hoyles, Ted Saxby and Dominic Benoit. As I'm hurrying to get to actual play, I'll truncate their bios to simply say that they are all excellent players worthy of their spot in my rotation.

My bench is equally strong, so my job rebuilding will be that much easier - I can simply focus on the train wreck that is my pitching staff and try to hold on to my betters as much as possible and see if things gel.

This could be easier than I thought!

[Sagitta]

Not wanting to delay the inevitable, I shopped Dan "Wolf" Drew around and came up with an 8-player trade with Oxford County.

I shiped off Drew, Clive Roads, and Turlough Restalrig along with a minor leage outfielder for 25 year old SP Kelly Stonehill, 20 year old minor league prospect SP Yann Duchesneau, 28 year old SS Daniel Bazinet, and 35 year old MR Mercel Masse.

Righty Stonehill is a stud pitcher, depite his 19-21 career average. Rated 4.5 stars bith currently and potentially, he'll hopefully settle nicely into our pitching staff. The only question mark is whether he's fragile, as he lost almost all of 2016 to injury when he started getting back spasms.

Lefty Duchesneau is a gamble, as he was just drafted in the first round by Oxford County in the last ammy draft. What caught my eye was his high school numbers while playing for Dixfield HS - a stellar freshman year where he went 6-0 (followed by a three year slide) that gave him a career 15-15 record with a 3.38 ERA.

The part I noticed, however was that he is just shy of an 11k/9 inning average. If he can improve his control, and regain the form he had in his early high school career, we could have a future ace in him.

SS Daniel Bazinet has huge shoes to fill. While nowhere near the batter Wolf Drew was, Bazinet can field. While only being rated at 2 stars with 2.5 potential, he's put up a career average nearing .300 - which is actually very good in this league where league averages hover around .260. (to highlight this, the career BA leaderboards only have 53 players above .300 in the history of the league). Hopefully he will make a nice band-aid to the defensive wound his predecessor left at short.

Right handed MR Marcel Masse is older than most of the team, so he'll hopefully be a decent influence in them, and his excellent work as a reliever should hopefully bolster things in the latter innings for us.

All in all, a decent trade, and hopefully not TOO lopsided on our part. I'm going to go up the difficulty a notch though just out of guilt.

[Sagitta]

I signed Free Agent SP Hannigan Kerry (and somehow lost my 1st round draft pick to a team he left a year ago... WTF?). A former Pitcher of the Year in 2014, he's only rated at 1 star but way better than that would suggest.

Kerry also brings his popularity with him, which should show at the gate. The southpaw is 59-32 so far for his career.

I have a few more offers out for free agents that could set myself up nicely for the season (I hope), so we'll see how we stand come Opening Day.

[Sagitta]

I signed another FA, 24 year old left handed MR Kieron "Bow Wow" Routhwaite . The Husson College graduate has played in AAA for three seperate clubs but has yet to see action in the majors. His AAA record is 8-12, with a 5.97 ERA.

So why, you're asking did I sign him? His record at Husson was 9-0, with 2.02 ERA with 30 saves. He is rated at 3.5 stars with a potential of 5.

He will be playing for our AAA Livermore Falls affiliate until we decide what to do with him.

I have one more offer floating that's a huge gamble, so we'll see how that one pans out (if it does) before I set my official lineups.

[Sagitta]

3/26/2018

Ellsworth Ions sign Pierre-Alexandre LaPointe.

My gamble (maybe!) paid off here.

LaPointe is currently on the DL after shattering his elbow while playing for the Eastport Magpies. The Magpies allowed his contract to expire rather than try to resign him.

He won't be back until probably July, but when he does he'll liekly take over the number one slot in our rotation.

a 3 year veteran, LaPointe is a former PotY, and a 2-time all-star who has a 3.60 ERA with a 29-35 record. It should be pointed out that Eatsport has only been marginally better than Ellsworth over the past few years so his numbers are deflated due to an inability of his team to actually give him any support.

I should be set now, so on to Spring Training!

[Sagitta]

My Ions went 12-12 in a Spring Training filled with injuries. I lost Masse, Daoust, and Jones to the injury bug, with Jones still sitting the bench a week or so more.

Ownership wants me to break .500 for the season, which I believe I may be able to actually do. Only time will tell!

[Sagitta]

The first week has passed, and we fired Teo Jean outright after he blew his first start by allowing 5 runs over 8 innings.

I tried shopping him around, and the other clubs met the idea with complete silence.

RHP Adam "The Troll" LaLonde has been called up from AAA. he is 21 years old, and green as can be, but rated about the same as Jean was, plus has the advantage of actually potentially improving his game.

We have also demoted/released our backup catcher and recalled 25 year old Todd Meadows from AAA to fill in as he backup backstop. Meadows has played in the majors before, serving as the backup for the past three years where he has gained a .274 average. he shows a bit of room for improvement, so he probably will remain as our backup barring injury to Maskell.

[Sagitta]

In the "We Can't Catch a Break" category, Hannigan Kerry went 1.2 innings into his second game and tore his bicep. While not a CEI, it probably should be, plus he'll be out for a year.

Waterville native RHP Les "Dreamland" Johnson has been brought up from AAA to replace him. Les has a 15-19 record in the majors, but a frightening 5.78 ERA over 297 innings.

We. Need. Pitching.

[Sagitta]

It's June 1.

With my first month under my belt managing the Ions, I must say I am pleasantly surprised despite the pitching woes we're facing.

We sit at 14-12, two games in back of Bangor and Brewer (who are tied atop the division) and one back from Waterville.

We're a pleasant 7-2 at home (but 7-10 on the road), which means we're doing something right.

We're in the top three in almost every batting category among the Eastern League as well. The only area we have a major problem is our inability to walk (we place 11 out of 12 there).

Our pitching, however, is a completely differnt story. We are in the bottom tier in every category except strikeouts (where we place 4th, mainly due to Timblick (45 K's) and Stonehill (44 K's) who have over half of our teams 161 K's between the two of them.

Clearly my goal this year will be to improve our pitching while trying to keep our batters as they are. I don't want to mess with sucess with them.

[Sagitta]

Another month has passed, and our Ions have been on a tear. We've managed to dance with first place, and start July tied with Brewer atop the division.

Better still, our injured free agent is no longer injured! "Checkmate" LaPointe will take over the fourth slot in our rotation (remember, we only have a 4-man rotation in this league), replacing Les Johnson. (in iritating news, I accidentally released Johnson rather than just demoting him to AAA - I hope this doesn't come back someday to bite me in the rear).

I'm happy, as we now have a solid rotation, along with a solid bullpen. Interestingly, our middle reliever (with an endurance of 7) actually was leading the league for a bit in wins. This shows how bad my lower half of my rotation was until I patched things up.

We continue to dominate at the plate, now having the best record in average, OBP, slugging and hits. We also are in second place for steals.

Our pitching has managed to climb up to the middle of the pack for most its stats as well, and should only improve now that I have what should be my full rotation set for the year.

We also have scouted the upcoming ammy draft (which takes place in August, right before roster expansion) and are looking at some decent chioces there.

Coming up: the All-star game!

[Sagitta]

The following Ellsworth players have been selected to participate the 2018 MaSBA All-star Game:

CL Maxime Carriere
MR Marcel Masse
CF Ted Saxby
RF Dominic Benoit