Out of the Shadows: The Eclipse League

[italyprof]

This is a really interesting use of the Negro League Players. I would like to eventually play a Negro League save, but one thing that blocks me is that, as with playing a Pacific Coast League save, the existence of real major leagues means you have to figure out what to do with the majors taking players etc. And I am not good at including individual players on a large scale in a draft pool, despite many people here having explained it a zillion times. So did you set up a fictional league and then include only individual African American MLB players and Negro League players, rather than use the Historical Minor Leagues fuction? Anyway, fascinating. When you have a chance, it would be cool to see some career stats from this league.

[luckymann]

Originally Posted by italyprof

This is a really interesting use of the Negro League Players. I would like to eventually play a Negro League save, but one thing that blocks me is that, as with playing a Pacific Coast League save, the existence of real major leagues means you have to figure out what to do with the majors taking players etc. And I am not good at including individual players on a large scale in a draft pool, despite many people here having explained it a zillion times. So did you set up a fictional league and then include only individual African American MLB players and Negro League players, rather than use the Historical Minor Leagues fuction? Anyway, fascinating. When you have a chance, it would be cool to see some career stats from this league.

Hey bud, appreciate you following along and glad you are finding it interesting.

Yeah, this is a real labour of love. Loads of work but totally worth it to see these guys in action together in the old NeL unis.

I did set it up as a fictional starting in 1968. Dev only, no recalc.

I hand-picked all white players and deleted them from the master csv (after thorough vetting of the entire thing to cull rogue errata IE white guys being designated other, and vice-versa), then broke the remaining eligible players from the MLB down into three groupings according to their talent level on a career WAR basis so as to get a good spread. These are imported on a pro-rata basis each year for that season's Draft.

Someone had kindly given me an NeL DB with import data etc and these players are all hand-curated, then classified and imported again as per the above methodology.

I keep track of it all on a simple spreadsheet and it's all kind of planned out years in advance because there's only roughly 6000 players at my disposal, roughly 50 seasons' worth, so I have to squeeze out every last drop.

I'll be introducing a minor league and having a 400-player Draft at the end of this season, which is exciting but tough to ensure I have sufficient players at each position, especially the battery, for 40 clubs plus reserves. Some big names are coming in so that should be fun to watch.

With regard to bulk import, I too was floundering with how to get it done until I solved it with a really simple process.

Just get the players you want to import - just the Lahman ID and year of import running down in two adjacent columns with ID first then year - into an Excel spreadsheet. Save it as an .xslx so you have a backup, then save it as a normal csv file.

Once you've done that, go into your directory and simply change the .csv suffix to .txt

Voila, you just go into the import function, select that file and they'll all go in at once.

Re the stats, I'll post the latest at the end of this 1970 season.

Cheers

G

[luckymann]

Birmingham's Tony Armas becomes the first EL player to reach the 100 career HR mark. Not bad for a guy who was Drafted 205th overall...

[luckymann]

This absolute mashing of the Lincoln Giants, led by Albert's excellent game, puts the Elite Giants, Grays and Athletics into a three-way tie at the top of the WC American.

[luckymann]

A fair regression on the mound for ShoTime this season, but his offensive output has done just the opposite. After a sensational game against the AGs, in which he powers the Bucks to a 9-3 win with a 7 RBI performance, his stats look like this.

[luckymann]

Señor Marquez hasn't exactly set the EL alight since entering it in the Inaugural Draft - career he's 32-48 / 4.37 with a nasty 82 ERA+. Still, that has collected him nearly 12 WAR - not too shabby at all, and he seems to have blue sky potential from here. This game shows what he is capable of at his very best, which I'm sure will please the Mons no end. It's the first no-no this season and just the 5th in EL history.

Shout-out to Felipe Paulino, who pitched a heck of a game in a losing cause.

[luckymann]

[luckymann]

Just last night, I finished reading Roger Kahn's The Boys of Summer for the first time. A great read, even if good portions of it haven't aged all that well. One of the titular boys is, of course, Joe Black, who comes across as having been a fine gentleman indeed both on and off the diamond.

I certainly can't sum up Joe's career any better than this sublime passage from TBoS:

"Irony ringed Joe Black's life in baseball. He appeared without acclaim, determined and fearless, and quickly became the strongest pitcher on the team. Then, with success, came dread. These afternoons as hero might vanish as suddenly as they had come. He had longed to succeed. Now nightmares warned of a sudden end. All of Joe Black's dreams came true, the good ones and the bad. Five years after his brilliant Dodger season, he was dropped by the Washington Senators, a last-place ball club. His baseball skill was spent. At thirty-three, he would have to make a new life and find another dream."

A lot of the cause for this precipitous decline from such an incandescent start to his major league career - which began in 1952 after five WW2-interrupted seasons almost exclusively with the Elite Giants in the Negro National League, followed by a couple of seasons that I'm confused about, namely 1949 and 1950, which BBRef Bullpen makes reference to and yet for neither of which any stats are provided by either that site or SH - comes down to meddling. Dodgers manager Charlie Dressen, convinced Joe needed a third pitch to survive in the bigs, forced upon him the responsibility of learning a change-up. This completely messed up both Joe's mechanics and confidence, and he was never the same pitcher again, fading out as per Kahn's description above.

Nevertheless, a superb and history-making 1952 season can never be taken away from Joe. In an epic matchup against the nemesis Yankees, Joe Black became the first black pitcher to ever win a World Series game, and he went on to be named the NL's RoY.

After baseball, Joe - a highly intelligent and well-educated man - gained his masters degree at Seton Hall and then, after a short stint as a teacher, went on to a long and successful career as an executive with the Greyhound Corporation. He passed away in 2002 at the age of 78.

As was his main role throughout his MLB career, Joe is operating from the BP for the Monarchs, who chose him with their 8th pick (159th overall) in that 1968 Draft. After a couple rough early seasons, he has improved mightily in '70 to currently be 6-4 / 3.03 (134 ERA+) with 1 save.




The game has him having a third pitch, so he will most likely see some future action in a rotation, either KC's or elsewhere. I'm going to leave that as is, given he started 44 of his 71 NeL games.

As with all these featured players, I'll keep tabs on Joe over the course of his EL career.

[luckymann]

The Black Yankees haven't extended their lead in the FC American, but nor have they let it shrink and now - still 11 1/2 games up with less than 40 to play - look home. Across in the WC National, the East put their foot down with an 18-10 month and now lead by a far more comfortable margin. Not quite done, but I don't see them capitulating.

The other two races look set for big finishes.

In the FC National, the West have hit the front as expected, but the Black Barons are hanging in there, riding a current win streak of 7 to be just a game and a half behind. The Giants' gradual improvement after a slow start continues with a 16-11 sectional that leaves them, too, well within reach at just 4 GB.

Doesn't anybody want to win the WC American? One could certainly think this to be the case as things currently stand. The Grays' 64-63 record is the only won above 500 as we enter the stretch, and their 17-10 August mark pitches them as the form team. Hilldale (11-15 for the month, lost their last 5) and Baltimore (9-18, lost 8 in a row and counting) are both firmly headed in the wrong direction. The Lincoln Giants are just 5 back and the last-placed Liberty Stars a further half-game behind them. So every club is still in this up to their eyeballs.




Awards for August went to the following players:

• FC BATTER OF THE MONTH: Rich Coggins (Crawfords) 356 / 10 HR / 27 RBI.
• FC PITCHER OF THE MONTH: CC Sabathia (Black Yankees) 5-1 / 1.64 / 50 K / 49.1 IP.
• FC ROOKIE OF THE MONTH: Hector Fajardo (Bacharach Giants) 3-1 / 3.86 / 32 K / 49 IP.
• WC BATTER OF THE MONTH: Adrian Gonzalez (East) 318 / 10 HR / 35 RBI.
• WC PITCHER OF THE MONTH: Frank Barnes (East) 6-1 / 2.65 / 43 K / 54.1 IP.
• WC ROOKIE OF THE MONTH: Ramon Ramirez (Lincoln Giants) 1-0 / 0.57 / 11 SV / 13 K / 15.2 IP.

Top 20s:





News and leaders:

[luckymann]

Now the question is how far he can extend it. Roughly 40 games left gives him a real chance at 50 I'd say.

[luckymann]

Last year it was Juan Marichal, this year it is Bill Lindsay having a hard time of things at the Monarchs, who despite their good early form seem to have run out of puff and look headed for another season way too close to the cellar.

Bill is one of the EL's better pitching prospects, but 5-18 / 4.89 will shake the strongest mindset. Yet, as his 330 BABIP and 85 FIP- tell you, a lot of the bloated ERA can be put down to bad luck, and when your team is on its way to a near 100-loss season, as a starter you are going to cop your fair share of them.

Games like this 10-inning shutout are what he needs to focus on moving forward, hopefully everything else around him will fall into place. Another lofty Draft pick will do them no harm whatsoever.

[luckymann]

No case whatsoever of second-year blues for Chicago young gun Yovani Gallardo, who finished runner-up to ShoTime in both the rookie and pitching awards last season. This was a big night for him, allowing two unearned runs on just one hit to earn win number 20 for the campaign.

[luckymann]

On the same day Hilldale's Willie Stargell sets a new EL mark with his 45th double of the season, KC's Cleon Jones also etches his name into the record books, at least for the time being.




Amazingly, since breaking the single-season HR record on September 5th, Tony Armas has not added to his total. A few other marks have been set as well: Rudy Law of the Liberty Stars with 58 SB, Cleveland's Cesar Hernandez with 139 bases on balls, and Octavio Dotel of the Motown Stars with 44 saves.

[luckymann]

Sadly for those who like a bit of late-season drama, this year seems almost certain to be devoid of it, with the Black Yankees and Cuban Stars East having already clinched and the other two races looking almost done with the West and Grays each leading handily.

A full recap at season-end.

Here are the award-winners for August:

• FC BATTER OF THE MONTH: Juan Soto (West) 352 / 7 HR / 21 RBI.
• FC PITCHER OF THE MONTH: Juan Marichal (Monarchs) 5-2 / 1.26 / 35 K / 57 IP.
• FC ROOKIE OF THE MONTH: Hector Fajardo (Bacharach Giants) 3-0 / 3.12 / 24 K / 43.1 IP.
• WC BATTER OF THE MONTH: Elvis Andrus (Elite Giants) 402 / 1 HR / 9 RBI.
• WC PITCHER OF THE MONTH: Carlos Zambrano (East) 5-0 / 1.46 / 53 K / 49.1 IP.
• WC ROOKIE OF THE MONTH: Ozzie Albies (ABCs) 310 / 2 HR / 8 RBI.

[luckymann]

A hard-fought home sweep for the East in this year's series between the two Cuban Stars clubs gives them a 2-1 lead overall, but this may not be the only time they meet this season, with both headed to the playoffs. An all-Cubano EL World Series is a tasty prospect indeed!

[luckymann]

Not the fairytale ending the Liberty Stars were after, but they'll be real happy with the improvement they've shown and looking forward to continuing that run into 1971 with more performances like this beauty from Gary Eave against the BBs.

[luckymann]

[luckymann]

... in fact a few of those records I've reported will need to be updated in what has been a frenetic final week to say the least.

This one, however, looks safe - for this year, at any rate. An unbelievable season for the big guy.

[luckymann]

Wow. Just wow. For a season devoid of any standings drama these past few days have been off the hook.

First, the easy part - here's how the races finished up. The 103 wins by the Black Yankees sets a new record, eclipsing the Giants' 102 of the EL's first season.




George Scott of St. Louis repeats as FC batting champ by hitting 346. Pops Stargell sets new highs for BA (358), OBP (440) and SLG (627) to go with his doubles mark, which ends up at 46, and his 377 Total Bases are also a record.

Rickey Henderson steals a bunch of bases in the final few games to steal the season record from Rudy Law, finishing with 63.

Jose Abreu swoops in with a late power surge to finish with 43 HR and pip Tony Armas by one.

Rich Coggins sets a new RBI mark with 136.

Cleon Jones finishes with 229 hits to set the new record, while Octavio Dotel's save record settles at 46.


The final Top 20s now.

Hitters - overall




Pitchers - overall




Hitters - NeL




Pitchers - NeL




And news / final leaders.

[luckymann]

Fleet Conference

New York Black Yankees (103-59) v Cuban Stars West (84-78)

Best of seven, Black Yankees with home-field advantage.

• The Cuban Stars push them all the way, with all but one of the games decided by 2 runs or less, but in the end New York is just too strong and goes through in five.
• Black Yankees 2B Ernie Riles hits 562 with 7 RBI to win MVP honors.

Weldy Conference

Cuban Stars East (95-67) v Homestead Grays (86-76)

Best of seven, East with home-field advantage.

• A truly epic series as the East rally from 1-3 down to earn their first EL World Series appearance.
• Game 7 is one for the ages, as Rob Ducey singles in the winning run in the bottom of the 12th to give the East a dramatic 2-1 walkoff win.
• East RF Rod Allen is named series MVP.