Terra Baseball League: Bryant Warriors

[jaa36]

The Warriors topped their earlier winning streak by starting the month winning 13 consecutive games- running their record to an incredible 49-12 in the process. We slumped at the end of the month but are still 54-20 overall, nine games up on the Sidney City Scorpions. Our offense is now a raging inferno of run-scoring, leading the league with 390, as well as leading in on-base percentage and slugging percentage. The pitching and defense has been great too, but that's old news.

B.J. Pallister now leads the league with 3.6 WAR, a .366 average, and a 1.052 OPS. Toby Younger is hitting .354 with 12 homers and 51 RBI. Lou Harte is at .326 with 13 homers and 54 RBI. In the rotation, Lucio Montoya has a 2.18 ERA, and Michael Schneider and Nadif Aduah have nine wins apiece. Luis Del Rosario is still struggling, but oh well.

We've had a spate of injuries, but obviously nothing crippling. Rocky Long is out for the next few months with bone chips in his arm, and Zach Traa will likely miss the rest of the year with a torn meniscus. Amusingly, I've sent Traa down a few times this season and every time I get a message saying how glad the team is that he's gone- his personality is described as a "poisonous presence in the clubhouse."

We did sign our top draft pick Shane Johnson to a $5M bonus, but he promptly tore his labrum and will miss the rest of the season. We couldn't afford the best International amateur free agents this year, but I put in a bid for infielder Royce Barlow, from Westhaven. Our #1 overall prospect Miguel Bello has had a horrible season, hitting just .187 in Belltown.

Around the league, Adamond has crashed back to earth with a 29-45 record after the magical season last year. The longtime best team in the league Freeton Crusaders are right there with them. In the West, it's again a tight race with the best three teams from last season.

[jaa36]

July was a bit of a down month, as we started off by losing seven of eight, but the Warriors remain comfortably in front with a 65-36 record, eight games in front of the Scorpions. We had six All-Star selections- Lucio Montoya (who will start the game), Michael Schneider, Tatu Niemala, Toby Younger, B.J. Pallister and Lou Harte (who got the most votes of anyone in the EC).

Harte had a strong month with the bat, with a .396 OBP and six home runs, though much of the rest of the team slumped. Likewise, Nadif Awuah and Schneider pitched well, but we had a down month on the mound in general, particularly erstwhile fifth starter Owen Lemar, who was 0-3 with a 6.69 ERA.

I'd love to be able to get Younger or Harte locked up to an extension- but it doesn't look like it's going to happen. We still have no money for in-season acquisitions at all, and just $7M for next year. This lets us offer Rocky Long (who is on the IL for a while longer) $4M/year for the next two seasons, but Younger is asking for $313M over nine years, and Harte $340M over eight years. A bit pricey for the Warriors... It would be great if Schneider, Montoya and Nicky Willey exercise their player options for next season, but if they don't, it would give us a little more money to play with.

[jaa36]

Another losing month leaves us at 76-48 overall- still the best team in baseball by a fairly wide margin, but only six games in front of the Sidney City Scorpions.

Nicky Willey and Lou Harte both had solid months, hitting over .300 with 5 home runs. And Luis Del Rosario finally turned his season around, hitting .354 with seven doubles. Felix Rodriguez continued a nice comeback season, advancing his record to 11-7 with a 3.47 ERA.

The trade deadline came and went, and we didn't make any moves- the budget just didn't allow it. We should finally get Rocky Long back in the next week or so, which will put our rotation back at full strength.

In the TBL West, the Marsh Heroes have taken over the conference lead. Bob McGrory of the Terra City Capitals has somehow managed to win 20 games already; McGrory is a 32-year-old journeyman who went 7-17 with a 5.51 ERA last season. He's got an outside shot at the all-time record of 25 wins in a season.

[jaa36]

We ended September with a 13-13 mark, which leaves us at 89-61 overall. Still in first place by six games, now over the Lenaway Storm, as the Scorpions have faded. It makes me a bit nervous that we've now played three months of sub-.500 baseball, but we certainly had a big cushion to work with...

Michael Schneider tops the league with 6.8 WAR, one of four starters who have surpassed 4 WAR. Josiah Willis has converted nicely to a relief role, with a 2.10 ERA, one of six Warriors relievers with an ERA below 3. Lou Harte has put together another spectacular year at the plate, with a .405 on-base percentage and 64 extra-base hits. And Luis Del Rosario has turned around his season, hitting over .300 the last two months.

It's a dogfight in the West, with the Marsh Heroes maintaining a one-game leads and the Patrick Legends and Terra City Capitals very much still in it. Bob McGrory of the Capitals has 22 wins with likely three more starts to go.

[jaa36]

The Warriors continued to lose more than they won- but we backed our way into the playoffs and remained the top seed, winning the TBL East with a 94-68 record. We won just 40 of our final 89 games, so it's an open question as to which version of the Warriors will show up in the playoffs. The final stretch included a significant loss- Felix Rodriguez threw shutouts in his first two starts of the month, but I foolishly allowed him to start the next-to-last game of the season and he strained his back and will miss the playoffs. D'oh!

The team is otherwise at full strength, and slotting in Rocky Long for Rodriguez isn't a huge step down. The top half of the lineup is very strong, with Lou Harte and B.J. Pallister topping the league in OPS, and we can throw a capable pitcher in every game and follow that with the deepest bullpen in the TBL.

We face off against the Patrick Legends in the TBL Championship Series. The Legends were defeated by the Bruins last season in the championship, and haven't won it since 1979. They came back from a three-game deficit to the Marsh Heroes with four games to play, sweeping the Heroes in the final series of the season, including coming from behind in the ninth inning in the next to last game. The Legends boast the best offense in baseball, including ageless first baseman Hayden Hailey (who hit .337 with 225 hits at age 39), outfielder Dan Marquez (.289/30/113), third baseman Eivind Muller (.325, 7.0 WAR) and former Player of the Year Nathan Roelofs, who just returned from missing most of the season with a broken kneecap. Fifth starter Eirik Soderholm (10-15, 5.07) is a familiar face from his days in Bryant.

[jaa36]

The TBL Championship Series was a microcosm of the Warriors' season- as they won the first two, then dropped the last four to the Patrick Legends. The Warriors were done in by series MVP Cullen Valentin, who hit five home runs and drove in twelve. The Warriors got plenty of hits (69 in the series) but managed to strand an incredible 51 runners in the series, as their bats melted when there were two outs. Would Felix Rodriguez have made a difference? Possibly...

Game one: Warriors 8, Legends 7 (10 innings). I can't complain about this one. The Legends took an early 2-0 lead, but the Warriors went ahead by a runs with four consecutive singles in the bottom of the second. But Michael Schneider allowed three more in the third. Valentin hit his first homer of the series in the seventh as the Legends took a 7-4 lead. But the Warriors clawed back, as Nicky Willey homered in the bottom of the seventh, and Randy Rojo hit a two-run shot in the eighth to tie the score. Ben Roland and Roddie Tirado kept the score tied into extra innings, and in the bottom of the tenth, Randy Rojo walked, stole second, and moved to third on a sac bunt. With two down, Jeremiah Mellado hit a dribbler down the line... and beat it out, allowing Rojo to score and putting the Warriors up 1-0 in the series.

Game two: Warriors 9, Legends 3. The Warriors scored six runs in the fourth inning and looked like they were going to cruise to victory in the series. Willey drove in three runs and was one of five multi-hit games for Bryant. Lucio Montoya allowed one run over 5 1/3 innings to get the win. What could go wrong?

Game three: Legends 2, Warriors 1. Kyoshi Anno was dominant, holding the Warriors to one run over 8 2/3 innings. Nadif Awuah might have been even better, striking out seven and allowing just four baserunners in five innings, but the Warriors couldn't score any runs for him. The Legends got on the board in the sixth by virtue of errors by pitcher Ken Macy and Luis Del Rosario. Lou Harte finally got Bryant on the board in the ninth with a two-out homer, but ace reliever Ian Gusman came on to retire Reiji Kono. No big deal, just one game...

Game four: Legends 11, Warriors 10. This game was CRAZY. After Nicky Willey got the Warriors on the board with another homer in the first, the Legends put up five, capped off by Cullen Valentin's grand slam. Rocky Long was on the hill- though of course it could have been Felix Rodriguez if it weren't for his balky back. Long settled down a bit, and the Warriors chipped away at the lead against old friend Eirik Soderholm, bringing the score to 7-5 after six innings. In the seventh, Del Rosario doubled in a run, and Jeremiah Mellado followed up with a two-run single to put the Warriors ahead! But in the bottom of the inning, Ben Roland allowed the first two batters to reach base, Valentin drove in one with a single, and catcher Landon Amerson crushed a three-run homer off Roddie Tirado to put Patrick back in front. Down three runs, the Warriors loaded the bases in the eighth but did not score, and then put two runs on the board in the ninth before Toby Younger flew out to end the game.

Game five: Legends 5, Warriors 1. Lee Meade outdueled Michael Schneider, allowing just one run in 7 1/3 innings. Randy Rojo had three hits and drove in the only Bryant run. Cullen Valentin hit his third home run of the series for Patrick as the Warriors were pushed to the brink of defeat.

Game six: Legends 6, Warriors 2. Lucio Montoya allowed the Legends to take a 3-0 lead after five innings, and upon his leaving in the sixth, Tatu Niemela served up a crushing three-run homer to Valentin, his fourth of the series. The Warriors put up single runs in the sixth and the eighth, but then stranded two runners in the eighth. In the ninth, three singles loaded the bases with one out, but Randy Rojo and Loran Hamrick struck out against exhausted closer Ian Gusman to end the series in favor of the Legends.

The Legends' third baseman Elvind Muller won the Player of the Year award, hitting .325 with 19 home runs and 84 RBI. John Matthew Petty of the Wonderwood Monarchs won the Pitcher of the Year, with a 15-11 record and 2.63 ERA. Timberton's Rolando Carrillo (18-10, 3.17) was the Rookie of the Year, and Wonderwood's Blaine Young (1.20 ERA, 32 saves) was the Reliever of the Year.

Among the Warriors, Lou Harte won the Platinum Stick at DH for the second year in a row.

[jaa36]

Well, it was a good year overall, albeit with a disappointing ending. Overall, we scored 749 runs against 636 allowed. Our season score was 695. Owner Keith Little was unhappy with us- saying we had fallen short of expectations. Wow, Keith, that's cold.

Successes:
1. B.J. Pallister. The young outfielder had a tough 2003, but was marvelous this season, with a .411 OBP and 27 home runs out of the leadoff spot.
2. Lou Harte. That guy can sure hit. Harte played in the outfield more this season, allowing Toby Younger some time at DH, but to get 5 WAR from a primary DH two seasons in a row is no small thing.
3. Nicky Willey. The 34-year-old second baseman continued to bolster his Hall of Fame case with another strong outing.
4. Michael Schneider. The right-hander put together another excellent year, with 245 1/3 innings pitched and 7.0 WAR.
5. Nadif Aduah. Another solid addition to the rotation, and three more years of team control. Wyatt Cox, by the way, had a standout season, leading the league with 117 RBI, but I'd still do that trade again.

Disappointments:
1. Lawrence Munoz. Why did we give someone with a .575 OPS 549 at-bats?!?
2. Owen Lamar and Rayan Ramos. The veterans were brought in on minor-league deals for depth, but they were both pretty terrible.
3. Randy Rojo. Even at his best he doesn't get on base much, but a .189 average is hard to hide...

Down on the farm, all three levels posted losing records. Miguel Bello finished the season below replacement level, though the system remains fourth overall.

Unsurprisingly, Schneider, Lucio Montoya and Willey all declined their player options. The three of them as well as Harte and Younger are all up for free agency, and we sure can't afford all of them...

[jaa36]

The pickings were slimmer than usual for the Hall this year... I ended up going with Ethan Boies, who had a great peak but a short career. The left-hander had a remarkable collegiate career, going 34-5 with a 1.49 ERA with Chipseave College. The top overall draft pick by the Freeton Crusaders (in a rare low moment in their franchise history), Boies reached majors in 1974 and made an immediate impact, winning the Rookie of the Year award with a 17-2 record and 2.18 ERA. Two years later, he broke the record for lowest ERA in a season with a 1.87 mark (though his soon-to-be teammate Nathan Simpson would easily best that just eight years later). He was off to an even better start the next season, with a 1.50 ERA, but missed half the year with elbow inflammation. Boies continued pitching at a good (if not elite) level for the next five years with the Crusaders, winning 15 or more games and losing no more than 9 each season. Boies only made seven All-Star teams, and never won the Pitcher of the Year (even in his 1.87-ERA season), but he managed to keep runs off the board- with a career rWAR of 70 against an fWAR of 59. He was at his best in the postseason, with a 7-1 record and 2.04 ERA, leading the Crusaders to three championships in his tenure there. Boies moved on to the Sungate Falcons for the final seasons of his career, retiring at the age of 38.

[jaa36]

I'm going to try to provide a little more history about one team every offseason. Might as well start with the Warriors.

As you know, the Bryant Warriors have not had an impressive showing until recent years. Overall, their record stands at 8058-8790, a .478 mark. The club has managed to lose an incredible $560M in its history. The Warriors play in Norwood Stadium, which has a very short porch in right field (just 299 feet down the line) but still is a bit of a pitchers' park overall.

The team was decent enough in the early years of the league, and won 96 games in 1915 and 97 in 1918, but failed to make the playoffs either year. The Warriors finally broke through in 1920, but lost the championship to the Timberton Dragons in six games. The club was up and down for a few years after that, settling into a pattern of mediocrity. The 1952-54 Warriors finished in second all three years, but then fell into a rut of nine straight sub-.500 finishes. Things got even worse as the century came to a close, with eleven straight second-division seasons.

Highlight: Well, it's got to be the 2002 TBL Championship, the first in club history. Nothing else really compares.

Lowlights: The 1990s. The Warriors finished no better than 6th place in the decade, losing 101 games in 1993 and 2000.

Best Player: Shigeru Morimoto. "Pep" Morimoto was signed out of Takama and made his Warriors debut at age 20. A true power-speed threat, Morimoto hit 418 home runs and stole 452 bases in his career. He also provided excellent defense in center and right field. A seven-time All-Star, he won the Player of the Year award in 1977, and entered the Hall of Fame in 1995, having spent thirteen seasons with the Warriors.

[jaa36]

Nyambe has won its first championship in ABC history! The country had only made it out of round robin play twice in tournament history. This season saw Takama and Nyambe tied with a 9-3 record, but Bingu Adeniyi threw a 1-hit shutout in the tiebreaker to push Nyambe into the next round. It beat Kilwinning in the championship series two games to one, with Dabir Sampaio driving in the go-ahead run in the eighth inning of game three. Nadif Awuah of the Warriors took the loss in game two.

Among other famous Warriors, Michael Schneider was excellent as usual, with a 1.52 ERA and a tournament-leading 1.3 WAR. Aduah had a 3-1 record and 2.43 ERA overall. Zach Traa hit .324 with three homers and nine RBI.

[jaa36]

This was a tough one. The core of the Warriors was torn apart and spread across the TBL... It became apparent early on that I wouldn't be able to retain more than one of Michael Schneider, Toby Younger and Lou Harte. Nicky Willey and Lucio Montoya had lower demands, and I was able to re-up both of them, Willey for two more years at $11M/year and a player option for a third, and Montoya two years at $12M/year plus player option. Willey is 35 and Montoya 32, but they've both held up well so far in their three years in Bryant.

Meanwhile, the bigger three name were asking for a fortune- Younger for $313M over nine years, Harte for $300M over eight years, and Schneider for $265M over eight years. This seemed too rich for my blood, and I was hoping to wait them out to see if one got squeezed by the market- but that didn't happen. Schneider was snapped up by the Wal Titans for $178M over six years just a week after free agency opened. A week later, Younger signed for $196M over eight years with the Crestmont Bobcats, and the very next day, the Bobcats inked Harte for $151M over six years. Would I have signed any of them at those prices..? Probably Harte, yes, and maybe Younger, but those ships have sailed now.

The good news was this left a $50M hole in our budget, which in turn allowed us to replenish the scouting and player development budgets. Now that we've got a consistent winner (maybe?), I goosed the ticket prices up to $30. We're a real team now!

I signed 35-year-old Nathan Roelofs to what is apparently my favorite kind of deal, two years at $10M/year with a player option for a third year. Roelofs won a championship with the Legends last year, hitting .333 with a homer against us in the process. He was the 1995 TBL Player of the Year, hitting .359 with 34 home runs and 107 RBI that season, but has been slowed considerably by injuries since, and hasn't made it through a full season since 1997. In fact, he made it into only 87 games the past two seasons, suffering a torn abdominal muscle, an oblique strain, a strained hamstring, and a broken kneecap in the process. Roelofs can still mash, particularly against righties, and I'm hoping keeping him out of the field (as DH) will help keep him in the lineup.

I also grabbed another Legend, 31-year-old pitcher Kyoshi Anno, for two years at $7M/year. Anno was last seen throwing 8 2/3 innings and getting the win in game three of the TBL Championship Series. He's now 125-115 with a 3.91 ERA in his career, and has settled in as a very good (if not elite) 3-win-per-year type of pitcher. Not Schneider, but not bad at the price.

A trade brought in an even bigger name for the rotation- left-hander Rudolph Christie. The 31-year-old Christie is coming off a season in which he went 15-10 with a 2.76 ERA for the Wonderwood Monarchs. Christie came over for minor league outfielder Tony Hennessy, listed as the #35 overall prospect but someone who doesn't really fit into our plans. He makes $12.5M/year for the next two years. The knock on him, if there is one, is that he doesn't go terribly deep into games, but he's been able to make 32 starts a year apart from a brief dalliance as the Monarchs' closer. Getting Anno and Christie gives us excellent rotation depth- and will allow us to use Rocky Long in the bullpen if everyone is healthy. No more veteran retreads as our fifth starter!

Otherwise, we made a few minor moves around the margins. 37-year-old reliever Max Lyon came over in a trade; Lyon led the league with 42 saves in 2003, though will serve as a setup man for us. Lawrence Munoz was given his walking papers, and Randy Rojo will move into the infield as our shortstop (which will probably go fine). I picked up 31-year-old Ian Peterson on a minor-league deal to plug the new hole in center field- this will hopefully be a good acquisition on the cheap, as Peterson is an excellent defender who's averaged 2 WAR a season.

[jaa36]

We enter the 2005 season injury-free and the presumptive favorites in the TBL East despite the losses of Michael Schneider, Toby Younger and Lou Harte. BNN projects us to win 93 games. The Crestmont Bobcats, who picked up both Younger and Harte, are projects to win the West.

We look to have a fairly good lineup overall. As mentioned, Randy Rojo will shift to shortstop. Reiji Kono will start in right for now but could easily shift to center if Ian Peterson struggles, with Loran Hamrick available off the bench. Zach Traa will serve as a super-sub. The rotation is deep, and the bullpen looks that way as well, but we don't have quite the top-tier talent on the pitching staff as we did the past few years.

The farm system is ranked #5 overall. Miguel Bello slid to the #2 prospect overall, with international signee Tyler Hollis at #21 and 2004 #8 draft pick Shane Johnson at #32.

Owner Keith Little is apparently unhappy with my performance (which seems a little harsh) and expects us to make the playoffs.

I forgot to mention, Naum Mills retired at the age 45 with 597 home runs, so did not set the all-time record.

[jaa36]

The Warriors started slow, winning just three of their first ten games, but pushed above .500 by the end of the month with a 12-11 record. No one is running away with the division- we're just a game out of first place. Randy Rojo is off to a hot start, hitting .305 with four home runs, and has performed well defensively at shortstop. Lucio Montoya has paid off on his extension thus far, with a 3-0 record and 3.38 ERA. Felix Rodriguez threw a one-hit masterpiece in which he struck out fifteen. Nathan Roelofs is hitting just .208, but leads the team with 19 RBI, including a game-winning single in the eleventh inning two days ago.

The loss of Lou Harte and Toby Younger to the Crestmont Bobcats stings quite a bit. Harte won the Player of the Month, hitting .412 with two homers and 16 RBI, and Younger hit .378 with five homers and 23 RBI.

[jaa36]

It was an injury-filled month, as the Warriors lost Nicky Willey, Nathan Roelofs and Kyoshi Anno to the IL. Anno is the most significant loss, as a torn UCL will keep him out for the rest of the season- though he may be back for the start of next season. Willey and Roelofs should both return in the next few weeks.

We ended the month 26-23- still just three games behind the Silverley Mustangs. Jeremiah Mellado is hitting a sweltering .363- Mellado is now in his seventh season with the club, and while he's not quite good enough defensively to warrant starting when everyone is healthy, he sure is a good bat to have off the bench. B.J. Pallister has continued his success from last season, hitting .292 with 6 home runs. Roddie Tirado, Tatu Niemela and Max Lyon have made for a stout back end of the bullpen.

We had the 16th pick in the draft, so not a whole lot of top-tier talent left at that point... we selected collegiate outfielder Rick Cook, who looks like a decent all-around player, but without any elite skills.

Around the league, the Mustangs' Humphrey Blow is up to 19 home runs already. Blow hit 56 two seasons ago, just one off the record, so he may mount another challenge this year. Lou Harte continues to make me feel like a fool by hitting .380 with 2.8 WAR, second-best in the league.

[jaa36]

We had a solid month, winning 17 games and moving into first place in the TBL East, but it wasn't without its costs, as starters Lucio Montoya and Rudolph Christie will both miss the rest of the season with injuries. With Kyoshi Anno already out, that leaves us with just two members of the opening day rotation left. I'm not sure if this development makes me wise for investing in starting pitching depth, or foolish for investing in injury-prone pitchers... I'm going to assume the former. At this point, all three of our offseason acquisitions have suffered significant injuries, those Nathan Roelofs has returned at this point.

Even with all the injuries, our run prevention has remained very good. Roddie Tirado won the Pitcher of the Month award, allowing just one run in 13 1/3 innings, and saving eight games and winning three. Roelofs had a .373 average in July, Luis Del Rosario hit .359, and unheralded Rule 5 pickup Noah Livingstone, our backup catcher, hit .319.

I put in an offer for international amateur Takahiko Morita, out of Takama. Morita is asking for $8M, and offered $6.5M- which is the max we can offer with our current budget. The 17-year-old Morita projects to be a big offensive force and a capable outfielder. Meanwhile, Miguel Bello seems to be putting things together this year, hitting .276 with 14 home runs.

The East remains close, with three teams within two games of first, and the West has seven teams within six games of first. 21-year-old center fielder Joseph Johnson of Lenaway is putting together a terrific all-around season, with a .405 OBP, 19 home runs, and spectacular defense. Aiden Montpetit, who signed with the Crestmont Bobcats along with Lou Harte and Toby Younger this offseason, is 10-3 with a 2.95 ERA, making a bid for his third Pitcher of the Year.

[jaa36]

The injury bug, which had bitten fairly hard this season, became a horrific murder hornet this month, slaughtering Warriors right and left. At one point, our top SIX starting pitchers were injured- Kyoshi Anno, Lucio Montoya, Rudolph Christie, Felix Rodriguez, Nadif Awuah and Tatu Niemela. Rodriguez was felled by a partially torn labrum; it's possible that he's thrown his last pitch in a Bryant uniform, as I had been trying to ink him to an extension, but his demands were getting crazy ($40M/year). Awuah has just now returned, and Niemela will come back in two weeks, but things were getting pretty desperate in the rotation... To add injury to injury, a third of the starting lineup was on the shelf as well...

We suddenly had a little money in this year's budget, likely some extra draft cash that we hadn't spent, and I was able to supplement things a bit with players on the trade block. The biggest get was Senan Harris, a 33-year-old starter who came over from the Sungate Falcons for... Lucio Montoya. Their salaries are a wash for this year and next, and while Montoya is the better pitcher, he can't help us from the IL, and Sungate (with a 38-64 record) is playing for next year. Harris was just 4-8 with a 4.97 ERA with the Falcons, but he does have a functional right arm, which is nice. This was a disappointing end to Montoya's stellar career with Bryant... he finished 48-38 with a 3.52 ERA and 15.5 WAR over four seasons. I also picked up a couple of middling relievers in Oliver Brown and Nicky Arce in exchange for some minor-league filler.

In the meantime, the Warriors kept on winning- somehow putting together a 16-11 July. We're a game in front of Silverley and two in front of Lenaway... it seems foolish to think this is sustainable, but I suppose stranger things have happened. Our fifth starter right now is someone named Stu Colby, a 36-year-old with a 5.11 ERA in 445 innings in the TBL, so that's not super great. We gave 2001 #1 overall pick Alexander Moore four starts before he was mercifully banished back to Clayton with a 7.08 ERA. On the positive side, Nicky Willey hit .333 with six homers and 16 RBI, and B.J. Pallister .330 with five homers and 21 RBI. Willey made the All-Star game for the ninth time in his illustrious career, as did relievers Max Lyon and Roddie Tirado.

The Crestmont Bobcats have taken a five-game lead in the TBL West, and Toby Younger won the Player of the Month, hitting .389 with six home runs. This would be a really tough matchup, should the Warriors somehow hang on to get there.

[jaa36]

It was quite a month for the Warriors- some big trades, and some big games with our division rivals. Midway through the month, we took two of three against the Silverley Mustangs, with Max Lyon barely holding on to get the save in the rubber game. We headed to Lenaway next, where the Storm had won nine of twelve since the All-Star break- and were swept in three tough games. We left the bases loaded in the ninth down a run in the first game, and Roddie Tirado gave up a walk-off three-run homer to aging slugger Pete Guenther to take the loss in the third. But after that, we bounced back to win the next three series and stand a game behind the Storm heading into September.

We made two major trades at the deadline. The first saw Felix Rodriguez, injured for the next six weeks, sent to Patrick for reliever Jean Baccus. It's possible that Rodriguez could made it back for the postseason, but the 36-year-old reliever can help us now. The Legends will have pole position to try to re-sign to Rodriguez to an extension- his demands have come down, but I'm not super keen to lock myself into four years for someone coming off a major arm injury. Rodriguez finishes his Warriors career with an even 68-68 record and a 3.86 ERA. Baccus, meanwhile, had a 2.79 ERA with the Legends, and has 178 career saves. Between him and the three acquisitions last month (Max Lyon, Oliver Brown and Nicky Arce), the bullpen has been almost completely remade.

The Baccus deal freed up a little extra cash- which we used to acquire third baseman Gus "Moondog" Zahakis. The 29-year-old Zahakis was hitting .301 with 15 home runs and 80 RBI for the Sungate Falcons, and cost us super-sub Zach Traa. Zahakis is a four-time All-Star, a fearsome hitter who's average 5 WAR per season over the last five years. While Traa is a high price to pay for a pure rental, adding Zahakis to the lineup takes our offense to the next level. And our clubhouse was happy to see Traa go.

In the meantime, Nathan Roelofs collected his 2000th career hit. And Nadif Awuah went 5-0 with a 1.07 ERA to win the TBL Pitcher of the Month award.

Around the league, Humphrey Blow has 40 home runs, though doesn't have much of a shot at the single-season record of 57. Tim Adams is threatening .400 again, with a .397 average; he hit .396 two years ago.

[jaa36]

It's turned into a three-team fight for the conference championship, as we are neck-and-neck with the Silverley Mustangs (a game ahead) and the Lenaway Storm (a game behind). We actually won series against both teams in the month, and we have another series to go against each club- with things this close I plan to take the reins myself for those games. . Unfortunately, we also were swept in a series by the rather pathetic Adamond Bruins, getting shut out in two games and losing the third on a walk-off homer in the fifteenth inning.

B.J. Pallister won the Player of the Month for us, hitting .380 with eight home runs, 26 RBI and 29 runs scored. Rocky Long, Tatu Niemela and Nadif Awuah won three games apiece. Nathan Roelofs also had a strong month, hitting .351.

Around the league, we saw the remarkable Hayden Hailey collect his 4500th career hit! Hailey, who just turned 40, has spent his whole career with the Patrick Legends. He's now hemorrhaging runs with his glove at first base, but could remain a DH for the next few years if he chooses. Meanwhile, Santino Giotto of the Freeton Crusaders got his 3500th hit. The 43-year-old Giotto announced his retirement at the end of the season and also has spent his whole career with the same team. Tim Adams of Silverley sustained an intercostal strain and will miss the rest of the year- landing at exactly .400- though with 482 plate appearances, I don't think he'll qualify for the batting title.

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A promising season ended in disappointment as the Warriors finished in second place, five games behind the Silverley Mustangs. October saw the Lenaway Storm continue their slide, losing seven of eleven games to finish in third place. We had a real chance to make up ground against Silverley, with the Mustangs heading into Bryant having won six in a row. I played out the series- to disastrous effect!

Game one will forever be known as the "broken phone" game- in which a malfunctioning bullpen phone led manager Clyde Copeland to make an inadvertent pitching change with devastating consequences. The Warriors took a 3-2 lead on a single by Randy Rojo in the fourth inning. Nadif Awuah had labored through four innings, but was ready to head out for the fifth inning. Copeland wanted to get lefty Braden Hammel up in the pen for the heart of the Mustangs' lefty-heavy lineup, but couldn't get a response on the other end of the bullpen phone. Copeland stepped out onto the field and wiggled his left hand- which the umpire interpreted as him wanting to make a pitching change! (Full disclosure, I messed up and brought Hammel in four batters too early... oops.) There was no way to turn back time, and Hammel trotted in, walked the first batter, then allowed a two-run homer on a meatball to light-hitting catcher Nicholas Lewis.

The game wasn't over, but things sure got messed up from there. Hammel labored through five more outs, and the Warriors took the lead on a two-run single by Nathan Roelofs in the eighth. But closer Roddie Tirado gave up the tying run on a sac fly in the ninth, and then a two-run homer to Humphrey Blow (his second of the game, and 53rd of the season) in the tenth, and the Warriors couldn't answer in the bottom of the inning, losing 7-5.

This put our bullpen behind the eight-ball, but it probably didn't matter in game two, as our old friend Eirik Soderholm threw a complete game as the Mustangs won 4-2. Soderholm, now 37, had shut us down last postseason as well, and managed to do it again this year despite a 5.43 ERA.

We were able to come back and win game three, but the damage was done, we were down three games with six to play. Our next game against the Storm ended in disastrous fashion as well, as relievers Nicky Arce and Max Lyon gave up three runs apiece in the eighth as we blew an 8-3 lead, going down to a 10-9 extra-inning defeat. We ended up getting swept by Lenaway, but came back to win the last two games of the season, finishing with an 89-73 record.

The Mustangs, who made the playoffs for the first time since 1998, will face off against the Crestmont Bobcats. Toby Younger had a banner season for the Bobcats, hitting .345 with 35 home runs and 129 RBI, as they cruised to 96 wins. Humphrey Blow finished with 55 home runs for Silverley, falling one short of his mark from two seasons ago, and two short of the single-season record.

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The Silverley Mustangs defeated the Crestmont Bobcats in five games to win the 2005 TBL Championship. This was the Mustangs' 14th championship, second only to the Freeton Crusaders. Rookie first baseman Itsuka Yama****a won the postseason MVP award, hitting .333 with two home runs and five RBI.

22-year-old Todd Byerly of the Timberton Dragons won the Player of the Year Award, hitting .332 with 22 home runs, 39 stolen bases, 120 runs scored, and spectacular defense at shortstop. The Bobcats' Aiden Montpetit won his third Pitcher of the Year, going 19-7 with a 2.99 ERA. Yama****a won the Rookie of the Year (.292/27/89) and Sherman Martin of the Uniontown Aces the Reliever of the Year (2.82, 36 saves).

Hayden Hailey retired at the age of 40 with 4523 career hits and a .351 average, having spent his entire career with the Patrick Legends.