Do you believe in magic: The Santa Maria Winemakers Baseball Club (2014-) - Page 4

darkcloud4579 · 04-23-2007, 10:37 PM

MILWAUKEE (PL) gets: LF Noel Miles, 2B Angel Rey, OF Dave O'Kirwan and OF Mitch Atkinson and cash considerations.

SANTA MARIA (MLB) gets: RF Stephen Allison, MR Mark Adkins, OF Danny Norman

ANALYSIS: This deal is all about us getting younger. Allison is just 22 years old, a rookie who hasn't played a game in the majors as of yet.

Norman, 25, spent a year with the Angels last year hitting 25 HR and 62 RBI and Adkins, 23, actually spent the past three years in Boston as a reliever, averaging at least 45 appearances a year.

----------
DEAL WITH BOSTON

The Winemakers acquired 2B Mauro Ayala from the Boston Red Sox today along with reliever Orlando Caballero and a prospect in a seven player trade made today.

The Winemakers sent reliever Scott Linebrink, 2B Aurelio Aguilar, reliever Mark Adkins who was just acquired from Milwaukee less than a week ago and a minor league infielder.

Ayala, 23, spent the past three years in Milwaukee and it .288 last year with 3 HRs and 46 RBI. Most notable for the Winemakers is Ayala is a thief on the basepaths, stealing at least 60+ bases each of the three years in his career.

"We're rounding our squad out and I can't think of an April I've been more looking forward to in my life," said Winemakers GM Dark Cloud.

------------
Virginia offered up a deal SP Wayne Allman (20, rookie) and minor leaguer Andrew Miller for two prospects, SP Simon Gray and reliever Jose Yanez.

I accept the deal. Miller could start easily in MLB, but he's listed as a reliever and they had him in the minors. Allman is a stud and has a lot of upside and assauges my fears about pitching staff heading into the season.

---
The last deal I plan to make before the season starts. Xavier Scruggs played for us last year, he's a solid guy and I want him back for another season. He's in Atlanta now, recently acquired. We offer up 21-year old top prospect Donald Baxter who probably has slightly more upside than Scruggs.

Along with him, we send three pitchers -- Norman Hughes, Nick Mason and Kenny Brandenburg.

In return, we get Scruggs and two pitchers -- Jon Silver and Brendan Leonard.

Both could factor into the rotation this year, though I still need to check that out and see how that'll go down.

darkcloud4579 · 04-23-2007, 11:09 PM

Hamilton? Windsor? What the heck?

You might wonder what the heck I was doing replacing those Canadian markets with smaller ones than we had before?

When the Blue Jays flew south to the Premier League, I debated whether we even needed Canadian team or not in the game. After all, why does it matter?

But many of the moves this year were TV market based, reactionary decisions.

So for instance, the team in San Antonio makes up for the lost Houston team.

Moving the Whalers to Manchester, NH might seem weird, but Manchester is part of the Boston TV market, expand MLB's market reach.

Leaving New Jersey, where it's just another team sapping up the TV market away from both the New York and Philadelphia markets, depending on where the team plays its home games, moving to Indianapolis gives the league more market penetration into a Top 50 TV market.

But what about those Canadian teams?

It's easy.

Windsor is part of the Detroit TV market. And Hamilton is part of Toronto's.

So we get to penetrate both of those TV markets, giving us an +1 net gain since we haven't had market access to Detroit since the Tigers moved to the Premier League.

The move to Rochester from Montreal was borne mostly out of respect for the fact that Rochester, N.Y. is one of the cities in pro sports that has maintained the same team in the same league uninterrupted for over 100 years.

The team like the Green Bay Packers is community owned and I thought that would be a nice element to add, especially with Santa Maria playing on the West Coast.

The regional alignment basically makes sense. With sixteen teams -- many of them founding teams -- having left MLB, there wasn't any point in maintaining history as if you could dupe fans into believing that a Owls v. CUbs rivalry had the same cache as the Cubs v. Cardinals.

Though getting the Cardinals back into the fold was a huge, huge coup for us.

The Florida Oranges play in Orlando, which gets us back into a major market area in that state, with Tampa having been our only entry since the Marlins left prior to that.

I think that if this alignment can stay relatively static -- that is, no major moves or shifts -- for the next 15 or so years, it'll get a lot more comfortable and we'll be able to monitor exactly how it all looks comparatively.

I'm not sure some sort of merger between the MLB and PL isn't down the line. But it's not going to happen for a long, long time that's for sure.

darkcloud4579 · 04-24-2007, 12:09 AM

The newly relocated Indianapolis Baseball Club will be named the Explorers.

darkcloud4579 · 04-24-2007, 12:17 AM

SANTA MARIA -- The Winemakers name is a proud one across the Central Valley in California, but the newly club in Major League Baseball's smallest television market, have decided to go a different route for their second season.

The Santa Maria Community Professional Baseball Club, Inc., voted yesterday to rename their MLB franchise the Santa Maria Marshals after a fan vote yielded over 300 suggestions.

"We were astounded, really," said Dave Richards, spokesman for the SMCPBC.

The newly dubbed Marshals are entering their second season in the majors, after baseball's search for its "own Green Bay" came just before several moves between both MLB and the renegade Premier League turned both leagues on their heads.

But the dust settled and the Santa Maria franchise is still standing. But with a new name, this time.

"A lot of parents had problems with their kids wearing Winemakers jerseys," said a laughing Team President Dark Cloud.

"I guess it's okay if they're Brewers fans. But wine has a negative connotation in other parts of the country, I guess. We're not sure. We just wanted to nip this problem out before it got to be a huge deal. We're happy to be the Marshals. It's certainly more fierce than a Winemaker."

darkcloud4579 · 04-24-2007, 03:55 PM

For the first few years of running this team, I'm just going to do major season recaps. Part of that is, I spent so long getting this universe set up, that I haven't had the time to properly get immersed in my team or in any of the changes I've made so fast.

So..I kinda want to take a chance to do that for a few seasons and then I'll be able to spend more time on minutia and whatever else.

darkcloud4579 · 04-24-2007, 05:04 PM

I'll write a more detailed recap later on in my whole "season in review" post that comes later.

But I will say that, it's interesting to see this team post-draft. Because it's hard to really judge players until you see how they perform in an environment that's not natural. Given the scheduling rules everything, it's been very interesting to see how this whole game has gone down this year, with changes like going from two to three divisions, adding interleague play and for my team, going from the American League to the National League.

Given that we're just sitting a game ahead in the Wild Card and led the division for a good part of the year, I'm pleased. When you consider our ENTIRE roster was imploded and that I had a ton of very good young prospects who are now off playing for other teams (and boy, does it hurt), you immediately can figure out the difference between going for broke to win early, as I am now, versus playing a more deliberate strategy of building from within.

I've never realized this before or ever felt THIS much like a GM in previous versions.

I think the inaugural draft had a lot to do with that, but...still. Future seasons with this team should be pretty interesting to read, because I've mocked the GM of my RL favourite team for a long time for moves they make that baffle me. But now I get to understand a little better how much more complicated this gig is.

Mostly because I know the job ahead of me....won't be any sort of picnic.

And we're not even done with the season yet.

darkcloud4579 · 04-25-2007, 03:02 AM

I plan to do a more detailed season recap once the season is over, but not until then.

Right now, I wanted to just focus a bit on the playoffs.

As it turns out, there was a three way tie for the Wild Card this year.

Texas and Omaha played to determine the winner of the NL Midwest. The loser of that game, played us for the right to advance to the playoffs via the Wild Card.

We beat Texas and managed to capture the Wild Card berth out of the National League.

Two seasons and two playoff appearances. It'd be impressive, if for the fact that Memphis and Omaha are both 2nd year expansion franchises who have done exactly the same thing, despite the fact that I used the inaugural draft to implode all of the teams.

Our ace, Zach Brennan who for a good part of the season was leading the league in ERA and was just DOMINANT was out for three weeks and will be back in time to pitch in Game 3 of the playoffs.

Our 2nd baseman Mauro Ayala got injured and is still out for two more weeks. We hope to make it to the World Series to use him.

SO we're depleted, but not decimated. But in a short series, you often don't get many second chances.

With that, we face off against the defending NL champs in Omaha in our Division Series.

GM 1: Santa Maria 3, Omaha 0
The first two games are on our home turf and we win the first one.

GM 2: Santa Maria 5, Omaha 4

GM 3: Omaha 8, Santa Maria 1
Taking a cue from the other series, the Marshals lose on the road. So far, in each series, the home teams have won every game.

GM 4: Omaha 4, Santa Maria 2
Same deal here, as with all of the others. Each of the division series will advance to a decisive Game 5 for the right to advance to the League Championship Series of both leagues.

GM 5: We'll see how useful homefield advantage is, as we play in Game 5 of the NLDS.

The game was tied 3-3 into the 9th, after Omaha tied it up with a run in the top of the 8th.

The game seemed to last forever. The game broke open in the Top of the 14th, when the Owls scored on a double by Luis Martinez to take a 5-4 lead.

With two outs in the bottom of the 14th inning, the Marshals replaced SS Robert Fisher with a pinch hitter Hidetada Yamamoto, who was signed the last week of the regular season, to replaced an injured player and somehow squeaked onto the post-season roster.

Yamamoto, given the seemingly impossible situation of having to save the season of a team he barely knew, hitting .125 in the playoffs, advanced on an error. That brought up Rich Reynolds, who came in to play center field in the 11th innings and in his first at-bat of the night, notches a double off Omaha reliever Jeff King, which scored Yamamoto and tied the game at 4-4.

That brought up rookie phenom Cris Zavala, who posted the game winning double off King to give the Marshals an improbable 5-4 victory and their second straight trip to the LCS. But this time, in the National League.

The Owls woes were probably attributed largely to their FOUR errors in the decisive Game Five loss.

OTHER SERIES:
AL
--
Tampa Bay defeats Hamilton 3 games to 2

Memphis defeats Baltimore 3 games to 2

NL
--
Portland defeats San Bernardino 3 games to 2
---

darkcloud4579 · 04-25-2007, 03:03 AM

FALL CLASSIC 2015: In the Premier League, Cincinnati and Pittsburgh faced off in the first fall classic with the new setup.

Cincinnati won the Fall Classic, which is now a Best of Nine game series. And the whole series went the full nine games, too.

Say what you want about this league, I'll tell you that gameplay in the Premier League has really been some of the best (simulated) baseball I've seen in a long time.

Just all the way around, a really classy league and play by the players all around.

The lack of a DH in the Premier League gives it a really old school feel, too.

darkcloud4579 · 04-25-2007, 03:04 AM

ALCS
GM 1: Tampa Bay 4 Memphis 1
GM 2: Tampa Bay 2 Memphis 1
GM 3: Tampa Bay 3 Memphis 1
GM 4: Tampa Bay 4 Memphis 1

NLCS:
GM 1: Portland 8 Santa Maria 2

GM 2: Portland 3 Santa Maria 1

GM 3: Santa Maria 4 Portland 3
David Wright's clutch single in the 9th, scored a runner from third to win the game to keep the Marshals undefeated at home this postseason.

GM 4: Santa Maria 4 Portland 3
A late rally by Portland in the top half of the eighth narrowed the lead 4-3, but Santa Maria's bullpen calmed down and managed to pull out the victory to tie the series at 2 games apiece.

GM 5:
Mauro Ayala was activated for Game 5. A HUGE boost for the Marshals. He's our leadoff hitter and just brings a measure of calm and leadership to the ballclub. Not to mention his 76 steals this season will be a boost too.

Santa Maria 8 Portland 3

Jerome Holmes makes his first postseason start and gives up 2 earned in 5 innings of work. Orlando Caballero was extremely effective in relief, scattering just three hits in 4 innings of relief work, to give the Marshals their fifth win at home this post-season. The bad thing? They haven't won a road game all post-season and Portland too is undefeated at home.

Something has to give with a berth to the World Series at stake.

GM 6: Portland 2 Santa Maria 0

Despite 10 hits, the Marshals couldn't get the job done and the Series will now head to decisive seventh game.

GM 7:
Marshals playoff ace Wayne Allman is all of 21-years old. But when it comes to the playoffs, he's got just a 1.13 ERA. If it's a time to put up or shut up, now is that time.

And it turned out not to be a battle that we could win. Portland was undefeated at home for a reason and ultimately, this series came down to a whole lot of missed opportunities for my kids from Santa Maria. We're a team of young kids, even if we have some veterans sprinkled in.

And the bottom line is, when it was time to produce or to put up...a lot of the guys we count on for that, simply weren't there to make it happen.

So we'll go home for another year. Make no mistake, to come back from a year with an entirely remade roster and get to within a game of the World Series -- when last year, we only mustered one win the LCS -- is an accomplishment. But what I realize is, it won't get easier for us, it's just going to get harder to replicate this sort of success year in and year out.

So it's incumbent to make moves that will allow us to sustain that success over a period of time, rather than to expect that we'll make it this far, because all teams are just an injury or three away from a wasted season.

We lost Game 7 of the NLCS in the bottom of the 10th, after the Beavers managed to score.

So close..and yet, it wasn't meant to be for one more year.
---

Tampa swept the ALCS and so, the 2015 World Series will pit Portland (NL) v. Tampa Bay (AL)

darkcloud4579 · 04-25-2007, 01:06 PM

2015 Santa Maria Marshals Batting Report

Code:

Santa Maria Marshals 11-01-2015
Basic Batting Stats Report - Split: Overall	
Select Set: Select Split:
Name			G	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	TB	BB	K	SB	CS	AVG	OBP	SLG	OPS
Dean Mack 1B		159	599	81	157	38	4	26	105	281	49	76	0	0	.262	.315	.469	.784
Mauro Ayala 2B		151	593	122	180	56	17	4	51	282	118	92	76	71	.304	.419	.476	.894
David Wright 3B		156	586	81	162	39	2	14	76	247	81	97	8	6	.276	.366	.422	.788
Jack Nicholas LF	153	575	94	158	30	2	27	88	273	78	53	0	0	.275	.364	.475	.839
Stephen Allison RF	147	525	84	136	32	3	34	104	276	65	102	8	14	.259	.344	.526	.870
Ryan Chapman C		135	505	81	180	20	2	10	77	234	89	46	1	1	.356	.452	.463	.915
Xavier Scruggs CF	123	420	52	95	24	7	9	50	160	27	80	25	22	.226	.274	.381	.655
Cris Zavala SS		94	312	26	76	15	4	3	26	108	20	43	17	21	.244	.287	.346	.634
Gary Crews 3B		89	306	37	70	19	4	5	30	112	6	49	7	3	.229	.246	.366	.612
Rich Reynolds CF	63	246	22	62	16	2	6	30	100	36	55	0	0	.252	.344	.407	.750
Sébastien Marcoux RF	83	233	37	65	17	0	7	35	103	32	39	3	6	.279	.363	.442	.805
Danny Norman CF		64	221	21	52	9	2	3	26	74	18	44	17	14	.235	.290	.335	.625
Noel Miles LF		56	167	18	48	20	2	4	20	84	15	44	0	0	.287	.344	.503	.847
Vincent Moore C		29	92	8	18	4	2	1	13	29	4	17	0	0	.196	.250	.315	.565
Robert Fisher SS	24	67	7	15	5	0	1	9	23	0	9	1	0	.224	.221	.343	.564
Adrian Gonzalez 1B	6	17	4	10	3	0	0	3	13	0	3	0	0	.588	.588	.765	1.353
Carl Crawford LF	4	9	0	1	0	0	0	1	1	0	1	0	1	.111	.111	.111	.222
Orlando Calderón 1B	3	6	1	1	0	0	0	1	1	0	2	0	0	.167	.167	.167	.333
Hidetada Yamamoto SS	2	6	0	1	0	0	0	0	1	0	1	0	0	.167	.167	.167	.333

darkcloud4579 · 04-25-2007, 01:10 PM

2015 SANTA MARIA MARSHALS PITCHING REPORT

Code:

Santa Maria Marshals 11-01-2015
Basic Pitching Stats Report - Split: Overall	
Select Set: Select Split:
Name			W	L	SV	ERA	G	GS	IP	HA	R	ER	HR	BB	K	WHIP	OAVG	BABIP
T.J. Lambert CL		5	2	49	1.52	63	0	65.1	44	14	11	4	14	61	0.89	.186	.234
Doug Scott MR		2	3	6	1.66	48	0	65.0	50	14	12	2	29	63	1.22	.218	.293
Zach Brennan SP		13	7	0	2.83	29	29	190.2	185	69	60	10	63	97	1.30	.257	.286
Will Foreman MR		0	0	0	3.08	14	0	26.1	21	10	9	1	6	9	1.03	.214	.227
Orlando Caballero MR	4	5	1	3.27	37	0	55.0	66	25	20	4	13	30	1.44	.299	.332
Wayne Allman SP		19	11	0	3.38	32	32	244.2	268	103	92	4	49	81	1.30	.286	.310
Andrew Miller SP	17	10	0	3.60	33	33	232.2	226	96	93	19	53	118	1.20	.253	.274
Héctor Martínez SP	12	10	0	3.65	31	31	221.2	218	102	90	14	72	210	1.31	.258	.329
Jerome Holmes SP	4	3	0	3.79	24	2	54.2	54	29	23	7	26	47	1.46	.266	.315
Jon Silver SP		14	10	0	4.03	33	33	212.1	226	104	95	16	61	166	1.35	.268	.317
Brendan Leonard MR	3	7	3	4.52	41	2	77.2	99	46	39	9	27	48	1.62	.318	.354
Ricky Nolasco MR	0	1	0	7.50	1	1	6.0	10	5	5	2	0	3	1.67	.385	.381

darkcloud4579 · 04-25-2007, 01:48 PM

While the term fire sale might not be completely apt. I will say that I plan to do some moving of players during this off-season. I don't expect the team to do that great next year.

I'm concerned about the future and I want to hedge against having veterans that we have now getting old and getting very little to nothing for them.

Plus, we play in baseball's smallest market. We simply can't sustain spending $70m a year, even if we were winning titles each year.

So now seems as good as time as any to build on the success we've had early to do great down the road, I think.

So stay tuned for that.

darkcloud4579 · 04-25-2007, 03:48 PM

Our first deal of the off-season was on face, seemingly lopsided. But it gave us a lot of salary flexiblity.

We dealt SP Andrew Miller, 3B David Wright and SS Robert Fisher to the Carolina Blue Sox for 3B Max Fischlin (.286/9 HRs/45 RBI in 352 ABs) and two draft picks in the 2015 draft (1st round, 3rd round)

I like the deal because the draft picks were critical to the sealing it and Fischlin is just 21 and the sort of guy we can build off of down the road. I probably gave up more than we needed to. But I think it'll be one of those deals that down the road, we'll come to appreciate. And when you consider that Miller is 30, it's not as crazy a deal as it might seem on paper.

We'll see.

Jordan · 04-25-2007, 04:22 PM

A lot of hustle and bustle

Do you have logos and FaceGen for this league? I'd be interested in some of the logos if you did

Scottiedog · 04-25-2007, 04:40 PM

darkcloud4579
Out of all the stats you posted I like Mauro Ayala (2B) dude stole 76 bases and got caught 71 times LOL.

But, seriously pretty cool idea man.

CatKnight · 04-25-2007, 05:16 PM

Dark, I think your premier league may have a problem.

Quote:

Eastern Conference
---
Boston Red Sox
Cleveland Indians
Detroit Tigers
New York Yankees
Pittsburgh Pirates
Toronto Blue Jays
Virginia Giants

Western Conference
----
Atlanta Braves
Chicago White Sox
Cincinnati Reds
Colorado Rockies
Houston Astros
Los Angeles Angels
Milwaukee Brewers
Sacramento Soliders

Yeah, that's fifteen teams. You might want to see how their schedule went. (Or how long in game time they needed to play 162 games.) With an odd number of teams someone's ALWAYS not playing if the schedule's done right, and in worst case scenarios (like BM's scheduling program) the odd team may be left off the schedule entirely.

I'd strongly suggest the PL recruit a sixteenth team somewhere. Perhaps in Trenton/Philly/Allentown to try and disrupt the Phillies.

-----------

In other news, I think your moving teams around to compete for PL markets is a sound decision. That's effectively what the American League did with the Nationals. By 1903 the AL had five teams in NL cities (BOS, PHI, NY, STL, CHI) - I assume it was Ban Johnson's way of telling the NL he meant business.

I'm curious: You say the PL is richer and pays their players more. Do you see players defecting from MLB to PL for a better salary?

darkcloud4579 · 04-26-2007, 12:32 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CatKnight

Dark, I think your premier league may have a problem.

Yeah, that's fifteen teams. You might want to see how their schedule went. (Or how long in game time they needed to play 162 games.) With an odd number of teams someone's ALWAYS not playing if the schedule's done right, and in worst case scenarios (like BM's scheduling program) the odd team may be left off the schedule entirely.

I'd strongly suggest the PL recruit a sixteenth team somewhere. Perhaps in Trenton/Philly/Allentown to try and disrupt the Phillies.

-----------

In other news, I think your moving teams around to compete for PL markets is a sound decision. That's effectively what the American League did with the Nationals. By 1903 the AL had five teams in NL cities (BOS, PHI, NY, STL, CHI) - I assume it was Ban Johnson's way of telling the NL he meant business.

I'm curious: You say the PL is richer and pays their players more. Do you see players defecting from MLB to PL for a better salary?

There are sixteen teams. I just managed to miss one. I'll post the standings and stuff from the Premier League pronto.

I like the idea of the PL trying to compete with the MLB, because I didn't necessarily think of doing that and my original idea was that the PL was going to just poach teams from MLB. But this is an interesting angle to take.

We'll see.

darkcloud4579 · 04-26-2007, 12:34 AM

Code:

Eastern Conference Standings
			W	L	PCT	GB
Pittsburgh Pirates	84	78	.519	-
New York Yankees	82	80	.506	2.0
Cleveland Indians	81	81	.500	3.0
Florida Marlins		81	81	.500	3.0
Boston Red Sox		77	85	.475	7.0
Toronto Blue Jays	77	85	.475	7.0
Virginia Giants		73	89	.451	11.0
Detroit Tigers		68	94	.420	16.0

Western Conference Standings
			W	L	PCT	GB
Cincinnati Reds		98	64	.605	-
Houston Astros		97	65	.599	1.0
Colorado Rockies	94	68	.580	4.0
Los Angeles Angels	85	77	.525	13.0
Atlanta Braves		82	80	.506	16.0
Sacramento Soldiers	77	85	.475	21.0
Chicago White Sox	76	86	.469	22.0
Milwaukee Brewers	64	98	.395	34.0

2015 FALL CLASSIC
Cincinnati Reds def. Pittsburgh Pirates 5 games to 4 games

darkcloud4579 · 04-26-2007, 12:40 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jordan

A lot of hustle and bustle

Do you have logos and FaceGen for this league? I'd be interested in some of the logos if you did

You know, FaceGen caused me SO many problems with my first few dynasties that I disabled it in this league at present.

But that said, I intend to turn it back on once all of the real players are out of the league, because that always bothered me.

As for the logos. I'm largely using one of the generic logo sets that one of those guys in the mods forum complied. So they're not specific logos for the teams, save for the MLB ones that are obviously the same as real life.

I'd love to have logos for the teams, but...only if they looked good and so, I probably won't bother to get custom logos made.

But I will start to go ahead and post that stuff as we get further into this one, because I know it can enhance the dynasty.

Thanks for checking it out.

darkcloud4579 · 04-26-2007, 12:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Scottiedog

darkcloud4579
Out of all the stats you posted I like Mauro Ayala (2B) dude stole 76 bases and got caught 71 times LOL.

But, seriously pretty cool idea man.

I do have my leagues set to stolen bases "very often". I like lots of steals in the game, I just do. So that's probably part of why those numbers are so jacked.

04-24-2007, 12:17 AM	#64
darkcloud4579 Hall Of Famer Join Date: Jun 2003 Posts: 8,709	Winemakers To Become The Marshals SANTA MARIA -- The Winemakers name is a proud one across the Central Valley in California, but the newly club in Major League Baseball's smallest television market, have decided to go a different route for their second season. The Santa Maria Community Professional Baseball Club, Inc., voted yesterday to rename their MLB franchise the Santa Maria Marshals after a fan vote yielded over 300 suggestions. "We were astounded, really," said Dave Richards, spokesman for the SMCPBC. The newly dubbed Marshals are entering their second season in the majors, after baseball's search for its "own Green Bay" came just before several moves between both MLB and the renegade Premier League turned both leagues on their heads. But the dust settled and the Santa Maria franchise is still standing. But with a new name, this time. "A lot of parents had problems with their kids wearing Winemakers jerseys," said a laughing Team President Dark Cloud. "I guess it's okay if they're Brewers fans. But wine has a negative connotation in other parts of the country, I guess. We're not sure. We just wanted to nip this problem out before it got to be a huge deal. We're happy to be the Marshals. It's certainly more fierce than a Winemaker."

04-25-2007, 01:48 PM	#72
darkcloud4579 Hall Of Famer Join Date: Jun 2003 Posts: 8,709	Fire Sale While the term fire sale might not be completely apt. I will say that I plan to do some moving of players during this off-season. I don't expect the team to do that great next year. I'm concerned about the future and I want to hedge against having veterans that we have now getting old and getting very little to nothing for them. Plus, we play in baseball's smallest market. We simply can't sustain spending $70m a year, even if we were winning titles each year. So now seems as good as time as any to build on the success we've had early to do great down the road, I think. So stay tuned for that.

04-25-2007, 04:40 PM	#75
Scottiedog All Star Reserve Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: In a van...down by the river! Posts: 745	darkcloud4579 Out of all the stats you posted I like Mauro Ayala (2B) dude stole 76 bases and got caught 71 times LOL. But, seriously pretty cool idea man. __________________ President Ronald Wilson Reagan "Some people live an entire lifetime and wonder if they have ever made a difference in the world, but the Marines don't have that problem. " ******** Giovani della Casa "I cannot divine how it happens that the man who knows the least is the most argumentative”**

04-23-2007, 10:37 PM	#61
darkcloud4579 Hall Of Famer Join Date: Jun 2003 Posts: 8,709	MILWAUKEE (PL) gets: LF Noel Miles, 2B Angel Rey, OF Dave O'Kirwan and OF Mitch Atkinson and cash considerations. SANTA MARIA (MLB) gets: RF Stephen Allison, MR Mark Adkins, OF Danny Norman ANALYSIS: This deal is all about us getting younger. Allison is just 22 years old, a rookie who hasn't played a game in the majors as of yet. Norman, 25, spent a year with the Angels last year hitting 25 HR and 62 RBI and Adkins, 23, actually spent the past three years in Boston as a reliever, averaging at least 45 appearances a year. ---------- DEAL WITH BOSTON The Winemakers acquired 2B Mauro Ayala from the Boston Red Sox today along with reliever Orlando Caballero and a prospect in a seven player trade made today. The Winemakers sent reliever Scott Linebrink, 2B Aurelio Aguilar, reliever Mark Adkins who was just acquired from Milwaukee less than a week ago and a minor league infielder. Ayala, 23, spent the past three years in Milwaukee and it .288 last year with 3 HRs and 46 RBI. Most notable for the Winemakers is Ayala is a thief on the basepaths, stealing at least 60+ bases each of the three years in his career. "We're rounding our squad out and I can't think of an April I've been more looking forward to in my life," said Winemakers GM Dark Cloud. ------------ Virginia offered up a deal SP Wayne Allman (20, rookie) and minor leaguer Andrew Miller for two prospects, SP Simon Gray and reliever Jose Yanez. I accept the deal. Miller could start easily in MLB, but he's listed as a reliever and they had him in the minors. Allman is a stud and has a lot of upside and assauges my fears about pitching staff heading into the season. --- The last deal I plan to make before the season starts. Xavier Scruggs played for us last year, he's a solid guy and I want him back for another season. He's in Atlanta now, recently acquired. We offer up 21-year old top prospect Donald Baxter who probably has slightly more upside than Scruggs. Along with him, we send three pitchers -- Norman Hughes, Nick Mason and Kenny Brandenburg. In return, we get Scruggs and two pitchers -- Jon Silver and Brendan Leonard. Both could factor into the rotation this year, though I still need to check that out and see how that'll go down.

04-23-2007, 11:09 PM	#62
darkcloud4579 Hall Of Famer Join Date: Jun 2003 Posts: 8,709	Hamilton? Windsor? What the heck? You might wonder what the heck I was doing replacing those Canadian markets with smaller ones than we had before? When the Blue Jays flew south to the Premier League, I debated whether we even needed Canadian team or not in the game. After all, why does it matter? But many of the moves this year were TV market based, reactionary decisions. So for instance, the team in San Antonio makes up for the lost Houston team. Moving the Whalers to Manchester, NH might seem weird, but Manchester is part of the Boston TV market, expand MLB's market reach. Leaving New Jersey, where it's just another team sapping up the TV market away from both the New York and Philadelphia markets, depending on where the team plays its home games, moving to Indianapolis gives the league more market penetration into a Top 50 TV market. But what about those Canadian teams? It's easy. Windsor is part of the Detroit TV market. And Hamilton is part of Toronto's. So we get to penetrate both of those TV markets, giving us an +1 net gain since we haven't had market access to Detroit since the Tigers moved to the Premier League. The move to Rochester from Montreal was borne mostly out of respect for the fact that Rochester, N.Y. is one of the cities in pro sports that has maintained the same team in the same league uninterrupted for over 100 years. The team like the Green Bay Packers is community owned and I thought that would be a nice element to add, especially with Santa Maria playing on the West Coast. The regional alignment basically makes sense. With sixteen teams -- many of them founding teams -- having left MLB, there wasn't any point in maintaining history as if you could dupe fans into believing that a Owls v. CUbs rivalry had the same cache as the Cubs v. Cardinals. Though getting the Cardinals back into the fold was a huge, huge coup for us. The Florida Oranges play in Orlando, which gets us back into a major market area in that state, with Tampa having been our only entry since the Marlins left prior to that. I think that if this alignment can stay relatively static -- that is, no major moves or shifts -- for the next 15 or so years, it'll get a lot more comfortable and we'll be able to monitor exactly how it all looks comparatively. I'm not sure some sort of merger between the MLB and PL isn't down the line. But it's not going to happen for a long, long time that's for sure.

04-24-2007, 12:09 AM	#63
darkcloud4579 Hall Of Famer Join Date: Jun 2003 Posts: 8,709	The newly relocated Indianapolis Baseball Club will be named the Explorers.

04-24-2007, 03:55 PM	#65
darkcloud4579 Hall Of Famer Join Date: Jun 2003 Posts: 8,709	For the first few years of running this team, I'm just going to do major season recaps. Part of that is, I spent so long getting this universe set up, that I haven't had the time to properly get immersed in my team or in any of the changes I've made so fast. So..I kinda want to take a chance to do that for a few seasons and then I'll be able to spend more time on minutia and whatever else.

04-24-2007, 05:04 PM	#66
darkcloud4579 Hall Of Famer Join Date: Jun 2003 Posts: 8,709	I'll write a more detailed recap later on in my whole "season in review" post that comes later. But I will say that, it's interesting to see this team post-draft. Because it's hard to really judge players until you see how they perform in an environment that's not natural. Given the scheduling rules everything, it's been very interesting to see how this whole game has gone down this year, with changes like going from two to three divisions, adding interleague play and for my team, going from the American League to the National League. Given that we're just sitting a game ahead in the Wild Card and led the division for a good part of the year, I'm pleased. When you consider our ENTIRE roster was imploded and that I had a ton of very good young prospects who are now off playing for other teams (and boy, does it hurt), you immediately can figure out the difference between going for broke to win early, as I am now, versus playing a more deliberate strategy of building from within. I've never realized this before or ever felt THIS much like a GM in previous versions. I think the inaugural draft had a lot to do with that, but...still. Future seasons with this team should be pretty interesting to read, because I've mocked the GM of my RL favourite team for a long time for moves they make that baffle me. But now I get to understand a little better how much more complicated this gig is. Mostly because I know the job ahead of me....won't be any sort of picnic. And we're not even done with the season yet.

04-25-2007, 03:02 AM	#67
darkcloud4579 Hall Of Famer Join Date: Jun 2003 Posts: 8,709	I plan to do a more detailed season recap once the season is over, but not until then. Right now, I wanted to just focus a bit on the playoffs. As it turns out, there was a three way tie for the Wild Card this year. Texas and Omaha played to determine the winner of the NL Midwest. The loser of that game, played us for the right to advance to the playoffs via the Wild Card. We beat Texas and managed to capture the Wild Card berth out of the National League. Two seasons and two playoff appearances. It'd be impressive, if for the fact that Memphis and Omaha are both 2nd year expansion franchises who have done exactly the same thing, despite the fact that I used the inaugural draft to implode all of the teams. Our ace, Zach Brennan who for a good part of the season was leading the league in ERA and was just DOMINANT was out for three weeks and will be back in time to pitch in Game 3 of the playoffs. Our 2nd baseman Mauro Ayala got injured and is still out for two more weeks. We hope to make it to the World Series to use him. SO we're depleted, but not decimated. But in a short series, you often don't get many second chances. With that, we face off against the defending NL champs in Omaha in our Division Series. GM 1: Santa Maria 3, Omaha 0 The first two games are on our home turf and we win the first one. GM 2: Santa Maria 5, Omaha 4 GM 3: Omaha 8, Santa Maria 1 Taking a cue from the other series, the Marshals lose on the road. So far, in each series, the home teams have won every game. GM 4: Omaha 4, Santa Maria 2 Same deal here, as with all of the others. Each of the division series will advance to a decisive Game 5 for the right to advance to the League Championship Series of both leagues. GM 5: We'll see how useful homefield advantage is, as we play in Game 5 of the NLDS. The game was tied 3-3 into the 9th, after Omaha tied it up with a run in the top of the 8th. The game seemed to last forever. The game broke open in the Top of the 14th, when the Owls scored on a double by Luis Martinez to take a 5-4 lead. With two outs in the bottom of the 14th inning, the Marshals replaced SS Robert Fisher with a pinch hitter Hidetada Yamamoto, who was signed the last week of the regular season, to replaced an injured player and somehow squeaked onto the post-season roster. Yamamoto, given the seemingly impossible situation of having to save the season of a team he barely knew, hitting .125 in the playoffs, advanced on an error. That brought up Rich Reynolds, who came in to play center field in the 11th innings and in his first at-bat of the night, notches a double off Omaha reliever Jeff King, which scored Yamamoto and tied the game at 4-4. That brought up rookie phenom Cris Zavala, who posted the game winning double off King to give the Marshals an improbable 5-4 victory and their second straight trip to the LCS. But this time, in the National League. The Owls woes were probably attributed largely to their FOUR errors in the decisive Game Five loss. OTHER SERIES: AL -- Tampa Bay defeats Hamilton 3 games to 2 Memphis defeats Baltimore 3 games to 2 NL -- Portland defeats San Bernardino 3 games to 2 ---

04-25-2007, 03:03 AM	#68
darkcloud4579 Hall Of Famer Join Date: Jun 2003 Posts: 8,709	FALL CLASSIC 2015: In the Premier League, Cincinnati and Pittsburgh faced off in the first fall classic with the new setup. Cincinnati won the Fall Classic, which is now a Best of Nine game series. And the whole series went the full nine games, too. Say what you want about this league, I'll tell you that gameplay in the Premier League has really been some of the best (simulated) baseball I've seen in a long time. Just all the way around, a really classy league and play by the players all around. The lack of a DH in the Premier League gives it a really old school feel, too.

04-25-2007, 03:04 AM	#69
darkcloud4579 Hall Of Famer Join Date: Jun 2003 Posts: 8,709	ALCS GM 1: Tampa Bay 4 Memphis 1 GM 2: Tampa Bay 2 Memphis 1 GM 3: Tampa Bay 3 Memphis 1 GM 4: Tampa Bay 4 Memphis 1 NLCS: GM 1: Portland 8 Santa Maria 2 GM 2: Portland 3 Santa Maria 1 GM 3: Santa Maria 4 Portland 3 David Wright's clutch single in the 9th, scored a runner from third to win the game to keep the Marshals undefeated at home this postseason. GM 4: Santa Maria 4 Portland 3 A late rally by Portland in the top half of the eighth narrowed the lead 4-3, but Santa Maria's bullpen calmed down and managed to pull out the victory to tie the series at 2 games apiece. GM 5: Mauro Ayala was activated for Game 5. A HUGE boost for the Marshals. He's our leadoff hitter and just brings a measure of calm and leadership to the ballclub. Not to mention his 76 steals this season will be a boost too. Santa Maria 8 Portland 3 Jerome Holmes makes his first postseason start and gives up 2 earned in 5 innings of work. Orlando Caballero was extremely effective in relief, scattering just three hits in 4 innings of relief work, to give the Marshals their fifth win at home this post-season. The bad thing? They haven't won a road game all post-season and Portland too is undefeated at home. Something has to give with a berth to the World Series at stake. GM 6: Portland 2 Santa Maria 0 Despite 10 hits, the Marshals couldn't get the job done and the Series will now head to decisive seventh game. GM 7: Marshals playoff ace Wayne Allman is all of 21-years old. But when it comes to the playoffs, he's got just a 1.13 ERA. If it's a time to put up or shut up, now is that time. And it turned out not to be a battle that we could win. Portland was undefeated at home for a reason and ultimately, this series came down to a whole lot of missed opportunities for my kids from Santa Maria. We're a team of young kids, even if we have some veterans sprinkled in. And the bottom line is, when it was time to produce or to put up...a lot of the guys we count on for that, simply weren't there to make it happen. So we'll go home for another year. Make no mistake, to come back from a year with an entirely remade roster and get to within a game of the World Series -- when last year, we only mustered one win the LCS -- is an accomplishment. But what I realize is, it won't get easier for us, it's just going to get harder to replicate this sort of success year in and year out. So it's incumbent to make moves that will allow us to sustain that success over a period of time, rather than to expect that we'll make it this far, because all teams are just an injury or three away from a wasted season. We lost Game 7 of the NLCS in the bottom of the 10th, after the Beavers managed to score. So close..and yet, it wasn't meant to be for one more year. --- Tampa swept the ALCS and so, the 2015 World Series will pit Portland (NL) v. Tampa Bay (AL)

04-25-2007, 03:48 PM	#73
darkcloud4579 Hall Of Famer Join Date: Jun 2003 Posts: 8,709	Our first deal of the off-season was on face, seemingly lopsided. But it gave us a lot of salary flexiblity. We dealt SP Andrew Miller, 3B David Wright and SS Robert Fisher to the Carolina Blue Sox for 3B Max Fischlin (.286/9 HRs/45 RBI in 352 ABs) and two draft picks in the 2015 draft (1st round, 3rd round) I like the deal because the draft picks were critical to the sealing it and Fischlin is just 21 and the sort of guy we can build off of down the road. I probably gave up more than we needed to. But I think it'll be one of those deals that down the road, we'll come to appreciate. And when you consider that Miller is 30, it's not as crazy a deal as it might seem on paper. We'll see.

04-25-2007, 04:22 PM	#74
Jordan All Star Starter Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: Chi Suburbs now... Posts: 1,997	A lot of hustle and bustle Do you have logos and FaceGen for this league? I'd be interested in some of the logos if you did