Making The Move Upstate: A Buffalo Nickels Story

[dward1]

There’s something to it. I can see the draw of the patriotic (if you are a fan) or nationalistic (said sneeringly and denigratingly if you aren’t) side of the game here. Seeing our guys lineup and knowing we could play the national anthem for all our guys, 100% American does make you a bit proud and want to beat Sydney’s group of global stars.
We have


And they have

-Aussies
-Brazilians
-Americans
-lots of Canadians
-Curaçaoan
-Korean
-Mexican
-Dutch

Nothing wrong with that, but it does add a bit of an edge. Like we can do it just as well as the rest of the world put together. And we’re in the second tier, even. It should never stop giving us motivation.


Game 1
The offense has been so good at scoring runs early throughout this competition and it continued against Adrian Adams, one of the worlds great control artists. 3 ringing doubles led to 3 runs in the first.

Jared Farr, coming off his posting request, showed both why he wants to play at the top level and why he is so important to us going 5.2 strong. His ERA in the competition and qualifiers is down to 1.59 over 34 innings.

But he would not get the win here. Zamora entered in the 7th with a runner on but couldn’t stop the fire, Sydney got to him and tied the game at 4. The Outback bullpen is just full of elite talent, including their legendary closer Satoshi Koyama. It’s rare to stay with one team for so long in the WBA system, much less as a reliever but he’s in his 12th year with Sydney, the only team he’s ever played with. Here he was merely scene-setting material as Jaeden Burton drove a walk-off home run deep into the Dallas night…11 straight wins in the Global Cup for us. One step closer to that first ever trophy.

Player of the game: Jared Farr 5.2 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 1 BB, 7 K

Game 2
A massive mismatch among starting pitchers: Jonathan McCarthy holds a career 3.33 ERA in the WBA (8th all-time) and has never missed a start since debuting in ’55. Buchanan has solid rate stats but hasn’t made it to 5 innings in his last 4 starts. That standout start vs Las Vegas is remembered fondly, but didn't signify Buchanan emerging as a key player, at least not yet.

We didn’t think the talent mismatch on the mound would matter, we’d won 11 in a row for goodness sakes.

It did. Buchanan didn’t get through 5 again and the procession of non-Zamora relievers (Carree, Tucker, Rieger, and Bresnahan) all allowed runs as the winning streak came crashing to a halt. Of course it entered my mind as I went to the mound to pull Buchanan that “Damn, we need Farr.” But contracts come later. Right now I have to get the boys back up, it’s a 1-1 series. Basically we are in a 3-game series again, we beat Madison, lost to Las Vegas and now have our toughest test yet. We won’t go undefeated through the Global Cup but we can still win it.

Player of the game: Chris Yates (2-4, 3B)

[Englishtide73]

i see who have prize money for winning your cup. where do you go to put up prize money? i dont see a financial section in the tournament

[dward1]

Originally Posted by Englishtide73

i see who have prize money for winning your cup. where do you go to put up prize money? i dont see a financial section in the tournament

I just go to cash in budget...I'm not actually sure how it effects the teams spending but it's all manual

[dward1]

Game 3
The bottom of our order was has two players known for their defense at premium positions in Jaeden Burton and Matt Mallow. While Stromgren, Yates, Peterson, and Duncan have taken turns getting the hitting plaudits they have done their part: chipping in .720 OPSes and Mallow contributing enough pop to drive a ball out every once in a while. But they’d never taken center stage for the bat, until the Global Cup final. Burton’s walk-off homer in the opener was one part, and Mallow has just put another crucial part together in this season-long puzzle. In a game where we had just 7 hits and scored 4 runs, our #9 man drove in all 4 with a pair of 2-run homers off Mike White.

Josh Rieger got through just 2.2 innings, we are essentially working with one true starter at this point. That meant it was up to that duo again, Zamora and Bresnahan. And they were up to the task, throwing 6.1 scoreless innings, allowing 3 baserunners and striking out 6. The contributions are coming from everywhere, we are just a win away from the title and have a rested Farr lined up in Game 4.

Player of the game: Matt Mallow (2-3, 2 HR, 4 RBI)

Game 4
BJ Peterson doubled home a pair in the 3rd inning and the lead ballooned to 4-1. We sort of looked around the room like “This is going to happen isn’t it”…no one was thinking it was over of course but it just felt like it was really happening.

But it wasn’t.

Jared Farr got torn apart for 5 runs in a painful 5th inning and we never recovered to get back in the game. They’ve scored 11 runs for the second time In the series, winning this one 11-5. The huge margins in defeat do sort of hint at the apparent talent gap between these teams. That talent gap will be at its most apparent tomorrow as McCarthy takes on Buchanan with the Global Cup on the line.

Player of the game: BJ Peterson (2-4, HR)

Game 5

Ben Buchanan came out in Game 5 guns blazing, I told him he had nothing to loseto go out there and take his opportunity. He cruised through 3 innings, looking every bit the equal of McCarthy as the game remained scoreless. But, let’s be honest, he isn’t yet. Jerry Green got to Buchanan in the 4th driving a 2-run shot deep to dead center field. 2-0 to Sydney.

McCarthy was marvelous, no one was hitting the ball hard off him at all and he was filling the zone with strikes.

Buchanan got through 5 innings for the first time in 6 starts since that great performance against the Lights, but we should have pulled him there. Another home run, to almost the exact same spot, made it 3-0.

McCarthy exited in the 7th with us still sitting at 0.

Zamora kept them at 3, with just dominant pitching: 3 hitless innings with 6 K’s. He finishes the Global Cup with 19.2 innings and a 0.46 ERA and 0.56 WHIP.

We went to Carree in the top of the 9th and the run he allowed seemed to break the spirit of everyone upstairs. The room was flat when I walked in…then our first two batters were retired in the 9th. The handful of Sydney fans, maybe a thousand or so, started clapping as they were just an out away.

But then Burton doubled. Ok, no big deal.

With 2 strikes, Mr. Strikeout King Matt Mallow singled.

With 2 strikes, John Stewart doubled and the shutout was gone. Suddenly the tying run was coming to the plate and it was Joe Duncan.

Koyama got 2 strikes on Duncan, the 3rd straight potential Cup clinching batter put down to his last hope. But like the last two, Duncan delivered, scorching a ball into left center and winding up on second.

Suddenly, everyone was up in the entire stadium. Jerry Jones statue even seemed locked in as that man, BJ Peterson, strolled to the plate as the Outback met at the mound to see if the exhausted Koyama could face him.

He stayed in.

Ball 1.
Ball 2.
Ball 3. Was he going to put the winning run on base?
He finally came through the zone with a strike.
3-1. Koyama delivered, Duncan shuffled off the bag, the pitch was headed outside for ball 4 but Peterson took a mighty, mighty swing…

And popped it up. To right field. Ballgame. Season over. Sydney wins the Global Cup.

Player of the game: Jorge Zamora 3 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 6 K

[dward1]

Overall
About as good a season as we could have dreamed of if you told us we weren’t getting promoted. The Lights bested us in the league, straight up, but we performed so far above expert opinion (remember they had us 9th) no one will be too devastated about that. Especially with the Global Cup run. In the preseason we were talking about how little difference there was between 9th and 3rd and how we thought a few mis-evaluations meant we were going to right in the mix for third. We were clearly one of the two best teams and the season has reset our goals in the short-term, next year it will be promotion or bust.

League: 2nd in regular season, swept Madison 2-0, lost in Finals 4-2 to the Lights
Baseball Cup: 4-8, missed knockout stage
American Cup: 5-5, missed knockout stage
Global Cup Qualfiers: swept Boston 2-0
Global Cup: 6-0 in group stage, swept Hartford, lost 3-2 to Sydney in finals

Major Awards:
Platinum Stick: BJ Peterson, Chris Yates
Pitcher of the Year: Jared Farr (despite getting just 3 of 12 first place votes)
Rookie of the Year: BJ Peterson
Gold Glove: Matt Mallow (2)

Pitching

We finished allowing 4.2 runs per game, 0.1 fewer than last year and the 2nd best rate in Nickels history. Farr was critical to holding this staff together all season, wins aren’t the best staff but he won 18 games and no one else won more than 8. That shows just how central he was. His transfer request is still sitting there on my desk. I don’t think I’m going to honor it, this service time freeze is a goldmine for us. We have to take advantage, even if it means an unhappy Farr.

Bresnahan threw the 2nd most innings and had a sparkling 3.73 FIP but that 1.44 WHIP and failure to thrive as a starter means even with our big cash influx he will not be back at his 2-year, $300k per extenstion option.

You can’t say enough about Zamora and how good he was. He was even better than Farr and more important. Really without those two guys, this was quite a mediocre staff. Buchanan, Carree, Rieger and Tucker will return to spots on the staff, but only those first two are rotation candidates and both had chances to grab it this year and didn’t pounce.

Kirkpatrick has a big arbitration number upcoming, he’s 32 and didn’t get it done this year and didn’t look good at any point of the season. Despite the talent, I don’t think I will pick his up.

Kuruc is cheap which could be his saving grace, but he certainly does not have a staff role nailed down.

Player Grades
A+: Jorge Zamora
A-: Jared Farr
B: Ben Buchanan, Josh Rieger
B-: John Tucker
C+: Justin Carree
D: Trevor Kirkpatrick, Jason Kuruc


Batting

The team scored 5.3 runs per game, up 1.2 runs per game from last season and just 0.1 the best season in Buffalo history. The foursome of Chris Yates, Peterson, Duncan and Stromgren delivered in a big way at the plate. They all did it in different ways for similar results, which I think makes it harder to stop:
-Duncan the contact hitting machine
-Yates destroying lefties
-Peterson with patience
-Stromgren a mix of every skill

Jaeden Burton wound up hitting over .300, and the team wound up over .300. Incredible. Jose Rodriguez looked like not a sure thing to return to a job most of the way through the season, but great games in the playoffs and Cups pushed his season OPS over .800 and should be enough to stave off Chris Bishop, who had a great year in Portland (3.7 WAR). If Bishop could play second, that would be his best path to the majors, Zavala did not have a good season despite hitting .288. He is likely the only player at risk this offseason.

Player Grades:
A+: BJ Peterson
A: Joe Duncan, Chris Yates, Adam Stromgren
B+: Matt Mallow
B-: Jose Rodriguez, John Stewart
C+: Jaeden Burton
D+: Victor Zavala

Rough Offseason Plan
The money we earned, and it was substantial, is likely to go toward top of the line starting pitching. It will still be hard to sign anyone like that as we are still in the second tier, but it’s worth a shot.

[dward1]

USBL fights back...

The Champions League knockout stages were all USBL teams

The first time a USBL2 team ever made the game's greatest stage and the Las Vegas Lights beat the giant Los Angeles Reign to a knockout stage berth.

The Iowa Dusters, so recently in the second tier and often mocked for their literally corny home stadium, topped the group above global #2 LA and global #3 San Antonio.

Global #1 Brooklyn lost 2 of 3 to both Jacksonville and Raleigh and the two USBL teams advanced in Group B, as the Atlantics headed home.

The problems began earlier for the WBA teams as Toronto lost their qualifier to the Lights and Sydney embarrassingly lost it to Real Madrid.

It was pure drama in a 7-game final that saw Jacksonville come back with 4 runs in the bottom of the 9th to win the 7th game 4-3 and win their second Champions League.

The WBA still have a massive lead in overall title score: 53.5-34.

Yet another Brooklyn-LA battle where the Atlantics come out on top

LA have been the second best team in the world for a long time now, the problem is they basically can't ever beat the best. This year they came oh so close, leading throughout August before losing to London once on the final weekend as Brooklyn swept Houston to win their fifth consecutive WBA title. The league designed to be as equal as possible has been broken by Brooklyn.

Since 1954 the titles won by these two teams would fill any trophy room to bursting, but the quality of titles by Brooklyn is just clearly stronger. LA have won
1x WBA ('58)
2x Baseball Cup ('54, '55)
2x Cup of the Americas ('61, '62)
1x Global Cup ('60)
1x Super Cup ('62)

while Brooklyn have won
6x WBA ('55, '59-'63)
3x CL ('59-'61)
2x TBC ('61, '63)
1x Super Cup ('61)

Since that '58 league title, the Reign have finished second to Brooklyn three times and have been eliminated by Brooklyn in The Baseball Cup semifinals three times. The NY-LA divide has played a part as well, Reign fans just seem so sure they are the best-run franchise and keep waiting for next year to prove it only to lose yet against to those east coast guys. The level of success and talent they've had over these past 5 years should not result in an exasperated fanbase, but here we are. Herman Downie is about to be 38, Fernando Ruiz about to be 33. The dynamic duo atop the Reign rotation won't last forever.

Both leagues see promotion; could a Vegas rivalry ignite?

3x WBA and 2x CL champion Quebec returns to the top tier after 4 years away. Commissioner Hayes will enjoy a second French-speaking team in the top flight, since Mexico City's relegation it's been quite English. Paris's rise and now Quebec's return quells that lack of diversity worry.

Despite the enormous revenues rolling in, Dallas never could get going in the top flight. Their 3rd consecutive Pro/Rel playoff finally lead to a loss. The Bulls should be set well to fight back with their mountains of cash but it's never easy.



The Lights absolutely destroyed Memphis in the Pro/Rel playoff.

After their CL campaign I think everyone acknowledged they deserve a spot in the top tier. What makes this very spicy is the Magic have for so long simply denied there is any rivalry. The two teams have played just a handful of times in the Cup and the Lights really haven't even made any impact on the sports scene in Sin City until these last two seasons.

Since being an expansion team in '57, the Lights had finished above .500 until '62. They've gone from an insignificant #55 in the global rankings two years ago up to #25 this year and made the CL knockout stages which the Magic haven't done since '56. They only drew 3k fewer fans per game than the Magic. Now we will have a head-on collision.


New leader
Indianapolis won their 8th USBL crown in 2045, they had 8 and everyone else had 5 at that point. It looked almost impossible for anyone to catch them. It's 2063 and they have been de-throned. San Antonio just won their 9th USBL title. The depressed and dejected Arrows fanbase gets pushed further into the mud. It will be 19 long years come next season, they've won nothing.

Shanghai's Drive For Five Denied
Shanghai's run ended in Asia, their quest for a fifth straight title was taken from them by Yomuiri.


Global Rankings Update
-The top three remain on a plane of their own
-Jacksonville surges into the top 10 on the back of the CL win
-Lights and Nickels make biggest one-year leaps
-Kansas City's collapse continues, biggest drop

1. Brooklyn Atlantics, WBA
2. Los Angeles Reign, WBA
3. San Antonio Riders, USBL
4. Raleigh Oaks, USBL
5. New York Americans, WBA
6. Sydney Outback, WBA (+3)
7. Toronto Maple Leafs, WBA
8. Salt Lake City Swarm, USBL (-4)
9. Jacksonville Kingfishers, USBL (+7)
10. Indianapolis Arrows, USBL
...
14. Las Vegas Magic, USBL
...
16. Quebec Habitants, WBA (promoted), +6
17. Boston Colonials, WBA2 (highest ranked in league)
...
22. Shanghai Golden Eages, ASL (highest ranked in league), -8
...
25. Las Vegas Lights, USBL (promoted) +16
26. Memphis Blues, USBL2 (relegated) -9
...
31. Rochester Roosters, USBL2, -4
32. Paris Saint-Germain, WBA (lowest ranked top tier team)
...
34. Buffalo Nickels, USBL2, +16
...
36. BC Barcelona, EURO (highest ranked in league)
37. Dallas Bulls, WBA2 (relegated)
...
52. Kansas City Packers, USBL2, -16

[Englishtide73]

Originally Posted by dward1

I just go to cash in budget...I'm not actually sure how it effects the teams spending but it's all manual

So you go to the teams budget and enter it?

[dward1]

Originally Posted by Englishtide73

So you go to the teams budget and enter it?

not budget but the cash tab under Front Offices -> Financials -> Edit Financials (of course playing as commissioner)

[Englishtide73]

Originally Posted by dward1

not budget but the cash tab under Front Offices -> Financials -> Edit Financials (of course playing as commissioner)

Thanks! I’m just starting my second season and it’s a lot of fun. I have 7 leagues and right now I’m just playing a champions league with qualifiers mixed in.

[dward1]

The 2063 meeting was on WBA turf this time, hosted in Zurich at the famous Baur au Lac hotel. An old school Swiss elegance as the Alpine nation continued its heavy push for a second tier of Euroleague including a Swiss team along with hosting duties for the European Cup yearly.




The USBL contingent arrived: commissioner Pierce Carlson, his right-hand man Chuck Greer, owner rep Mark Lopez from Salt Lake City, management rep Michael Newby from San Antonio and player rep Hector Chavez from the Lights.




Already in the tasteful meeting room were the WBA contingent. Commissioner Chris Hayes, his vice Richard Villani, owner (and more) rep Adam Aliyev from Barcelona, management rep Marco Avila from Mexico City and player rep Wilson Salinas from Los Angeles.




The 84-year old Hayes still is full of energy and clearly is still the organizational and intellectual leader of the WBA, and opened the meeting after some casual joking from the USBL contingent about this years Champions League. The first topic was about the Russian media company Elita and the money suddenly flooding massively into the game. Aliyev's close association with Elita (he founded the company which got suspiciously cheap rights to Russian soccer first) had led him to gain a lot of power in the organization.

The money going to prizes in the tournaments was getting overwhelming, Jacksonville had brought home over $5 million for winning the CL this season. Teams will be left behind if this isn't spread out.

The USBL view seemed to be, well, that's kind of ok if teams get left behind and weren't exactly against the current distribution of the cash. Hayes was pushing for this money to go to TV contracts instead where every team who was in a league involved in a tournament would get a roughly equal share.

Solution: Tabled for two years, but service time frozen for leagues that would take it (USBL) for 1 or 2 seasons with a large share of the TV money given to those players for whom it would cost the most.


The second topic was about the Summer Market and the caps on spending across all leagues except the USBL. This year Indianapolis had spent $8 million on players in the Summer Market while WBA teams were capped at $400k and oddly USBL2 teams were capped at $188k. Carlson announced USBL2 teams would be free to spend what they want as well and eliminated the tax that the USBL teams play. "Why is this any different than the free agent market? We shouldn't depress these guys earnings just because they are young. I mean the Winter Market will be full of guys soon signing for $2 million just because they came out at a certain time of year. How does this make any sense?"

Solution: After a short discussion, the WBA joined in. The fear of being left behind was a factor here, Villani justified it by saying the organization is still distributional and this cap did nothing but keep money in owners pockets. The Summer Market is now a total free market, all sides agreed to shift more players to be eligible during this market as well to increase the importance.


Marco Avila brought up the idea of a 3rd global team competition but it was quickly shot down by the USBL side who already worry that side of the game has grown so big it could overwhelm the league, which is what they always want to be at the center of the game.

We then turned to the two topics Hayes really wanted to talk about. First up was international play. The World Cup in soccer remained the premier sporting even across the globe but the baseball World Cup was kind of an afterthought. When it happens it was fun, and it had been surprisingly competitive but no one really loved it and it wasn't bringing in much money.

Greer said it was because you weren't appealing to the nations themselves, these groupings of "Europe", "Caribbean", "Asia" and "Southern Hemisphere" were not teams that actually drew fans from these regions because no one felt loyalty to those concepts. He pushed for an actual World Cup with players only playing for their nations and not these vague regions.

Hayes disagreed, but Avila and Salinas obviously supported the Greer proposal. Both Mexicans, they made it clear they wanted to see a Team Mexico playing and not playing alongside Dominicans, Curacaoans and Cubans.

Hayes and Carlson went off alone for a while and came back with a proposal.

Solution: World Cup is now played every two years so teams have much more continuity. The same 6 regions still play in it.

To appease Greer and their own side, a second international competition was created: the Nations League. Here it will only be players from your own nation competing. The details would be hammered out later but it will happen every other year as well, so there will always be an international competition happening every winter.

The final topic was the big one, Expansion. The more the leagues expanded, the better for Hayes and Villani. More parts of the globe, more players eligible for their leagues, more power to the global part of the game. The USBL contingent isn't totally opposed but are worried about those aspects and truly worried about finding appropriate markets for their teams.

Hayes pushed papers across showing his expansion ideas for a new Third Tier totaling 32 teams:

-a 12-team league in the Americas with 2 divisions
the first

• 3 in USA: San Jose, Minneapolis, and Denver
• 2 in Mexico: one in Monterrey and a second in Mexico City
• 1 in Canada: Calgary

and the second

• 2 in Brazil: Rio and Sao Paulo
• 1 in Argentina
• 1 in Dominican Republic
• 1 in Cuba
• 1 in Chile

-a 10 team "Cricket Nations" league featuring

• 3 in India: Mumbai, Bangalore and New Delhi
• 2 in Australia: Perth and Melbourne
• 2 in Pakistan: Karachi and Lahore
• 1 in New Zealand
• 1 in South Africa
• 1 in Singapore

the second, a 10-team Middle East/Africa league

• 1 in Dubai
• 1 in Doha
• 1 in Riyadh
• 1 in Abu Dhabi
• 1 in Nigeria
• 1 in Cairo
• 1 in Kinshasha/Brazzaville urban area (Congo/DR Congo)
• 1 in Kenya
• 1 in Ghana
• 1 in Algiers

Carlson couldn't believe the size. "This is absurd, 64 teams total (referencing the clause in the WBA-USBL agreement that means both sides have to expand equally that the WBA is dancing around with their tenuous connection with Euroleague and the Asian Super League) would mean doubling the total teams involved."

Greer came in "Just because you have the whole world to keep looking for new fans in doesn't mean you have free reign, we focus on depth not breadth. We want to focus on each team growing new fans and fans knowing the teams well and not suddenly having to deal with all these new teams."

Avila tried to mediate "We can do both, this shouldn't take away from the local knowledge of a team or league...that can continue. You don't have to pay attention to this new Cricket type league if you are a Buffalo Nickels fan, you can still love your team and follow it just as closely."

Hayes also mentioned to try and woo Greer that this would lead to a much more robust Nations League type competition with more nationalistic feeling and more teams available to play. It didn't quite stick.

Solution: Tabled for a year with solid opposition from Carlson and Greer, but Chavez seemed quite open to the idea. Lopez and Newby didn't say anything.


As they headed out to the famous Didis Frieden for dinner, handshakes and smiles passed between the two sides. They may compete on the field and argue over money distribution and expansion but really both sides are very satisfied with the direction of the game right now.

[dward1]

Originally Posted by Englishtide73

Thanks! I’m just starting my second season and it’s a lot of fun. I have 7 leagues and right now I’m just playing a champions league with qualifiers mixed in.

it's very fun to expand and create more and more but there is a balance to keeping it small, because the actual day to day goings on of game are much better focusing small but big picture narratives more fun big. there's a balance, I'm trying to find it here by having my Big Picture side represented by WBA with small focus the USBL and they argue and fight amongst themselves

[dward1]

First came arbitration.

We decided not to offer arb to Trevor Kirkpatrick, he was likely going to get a top 5-6 salary on our team and we'd lost confidence in him.

We didn't pick up Danny Bresnahan's option either, too many baserunners in a mediocre season made us worry further decay could come soon. We really respect Danny, especially for how hard he worked and well he played in the Global Cup after we told him we weren't renewing.

We got our butts kicked in arb. We were arguing in a pre-Elita world and the judges certainly were not ruling that way. We wanted to give Yates and Farr about $800k combined, they wound up getting $1.2m combined. Much fairer truly and they deserve it, but it just kind of shocked us.

We then looked to Portland to see if anyone deserved promotion to the big club. Two minor league options who look ready for the bigs statistically or according to the scouts are Chad Graves (who has had tastes of the big leagues here and there over the past four years) and Chris Bishop (who might be simply out of luck as there is no spot open at his position and our scouts doubt he can be an impact player at a higher level).

We are flush with cash from our Global Cup run, and we need starting pitching. There are three huge-name starting pitchers on the market that would clearly make our team a huge force. Steve Dombroski (a stunning 45-11 for Brooklyn since being converted to a starter two years ago), Jeremy Herbert (led WBA in WAR 2 years ago), and Joey Neale.

Herbert was too much even for our cash pile, Neale didn't want to go to the second tier and while Dombroski was open at first, he eventually cut off communication with us. It was always a bit of a long shot for a second tier team to get those guys, we would have had a real shot had we won promotion. Our first plan of grabbing an elite starter fizzled so we decided to look to the future.

Young players often command big salaries on the winter market but are very risky. Deciding what to offer them based on a handful of workouts and play in these small amateur leagues is very tough. Sometimes they wind up like Bresnahan, who signed a huge contract and was immediately one of the best players in the league. But sometimes they wind up like Jimmy Vodicka, who signed an equally large deal but fizzled out and never had an above average season and was in the minors 3 years later and out of the game after 8 years. But we decided there were two guys we thought we'd go after and that we needed to take the risk now if we truly want to leap into the world's best.

The first was an electric power arm named Kerry Burns out of Dallas, TX. He's a two-pitch guy right now, but so is Dombroski. There is a chance he could be a starting pitcher now and into the future and if not he has the stuff to be a dominant Zamora-type reliever.

The second we saw as a second baseman. We thought we maybe had a big prospect there in Victor Zavala but he just didn't show it this year. We are going after an even bigger prospect in Wayne Rigsbee, who our scouts believe basically could be the best player in Buffalo history.

Our original offer had to get bumped up nearly 50% as we battled with several teams in both tiers of the USBL for Rigsbee: Kansas City, Charlotte and Milwaukee all wanted him. Eventually, we got our man. He's going to be by far the highest paid player on the team and is guaranteed 3 years of that high salary. Rigsbee can absolutely fly, which I love in a player. Speed never slumps is a cliche that doesn't have relevance for 95% of players, but that tiny upper crust can create huge value from it. John Poirier had 4 seasons of 2.8+ WAR for me in Brooklyn from sheer speed. He once stole 90 bases in 98 tries in 66 games. I'd love for Rigsbee to hit 50 steals.

A few weeks later we got Kerry Burns. He will be the second highest paid player on the team. Oddly no one else seemed to be in on him...should that worry us, what do they know?

We are putting about 40% of our budget on the shoulders of these two 20 year olds. This won't be a huge problem if we make it to the USBL soon and they live up to their billing but if not, these could be very crippling moves. We are all in on youth, these two players are probably the biggest transactions in Buffalo history figuring where we are now. If they both make it, that could provide a big base for surging toward the USBL and the global elite.

Total Outgoings: Danny Bresnahan (FA), Trevor Kirkpatrick (FA), Victor Zavala (demoted to Portland)
Total Incomings: Kerry Burns (FA-16% of payroll), Wayne Grigsbee (FA-25% of payroll), Chad Graves (promoted from Portland)





Bresnahan signed a one-year deal with Indianapolis as a reliever.
Kirkpatrick went to the WBA2 as a reliever to the Atlanta Braves for the minimum.
Dombroski went to LA, the second big money free agent to make the move from Brooklyn to LA in as many years as the Reign try everything to beat Brooklyn to a title, just once.
Neale signed with Toronto.
Herbert is now the highest paid player in the USBL, for San Antonio.

[dward1]

by Brian Brick for Buffalo Ball


This is a brand new Buffalo. I don't really know what I expected with this offseason, but it certainly wasn't this. We all expected the new braintrust to go after a starting pitcher and while we all know that's just a ferocious market in free agency, I expected someone like Dave Hooper, who probably would have come for $300k or so. Hooper is about a league-average WBA pitcher and could have been relied upon to be a solid rotation piece that you don't have to worry about melting down every third start.

Instead we've got these two young guns. It's very, very risky. Almost $2 million going to these guys, what if there are no more Cup runs, what if there's no promotion this season? The money dries up next year and these guys are still on the payroll for at least 2 more seasons, meaning the team is basically locked in place and new additions become impossible. It's a huge role of the dice by a management team that avoided them throughout their time in Brooklyn. There it was slow and steady, build through development and marginal gains. Here it almost feels like they feel like they got lucky last year and decided to push harder.

I don't know if these two guys will work out but I think the USBL2 title was there with or without them this year, and they were not necessary moves.

[dward1]

In a press conference today following the annual WBA meeting in New York, vice commissioner Richard Villani announced the WBA will no longer be distributing the Cup prize money in the suggested Elita way. While previously the team that finished in a certain slot would take all the money, the WBA leadership has agreed to take all the prize money for the league and put it in a pool. This pool will be distributed then, equally throughout the WBA system and then about a quarter as much to each team in Asia and the Euroleague.

"We are glad that the Asian Super League and the Euroleague have agreed to come in with us on this revenue sharing program and we look forward to closer involvement in the future." was Villani's statement about that. There is no secret that the WBA desperately want to add the Euroleague and the Asian Super League to their structure in the coming years.

"There is no way to reach the finals of The Baseball Cup on your own, so one team should not get all the money. They still get the Cup, the glory, and the trophy, but the money will be distributed evenly throughout this system. Certain teams should not be able to build a dynasty based on this prize money, we respect what Brooklyn and Los Angeles have done of course. But this has gotten out of hand, Los Angeles will spent $20 million this year while other teams will spend just $6 million. That goes against the ideals and founding principles of our league." was what Chris Hayes said when reached for contact.

In previous years it hasn't been unheard of for LA or Brooklyn to take home $6 million or more in a season. That will now likely be around $722k, the same number that Frankfurt or Tel Aviv take home.

In addition, the league announced that visiting team gate share would rise from 20% to 40%. This will be seen as a blatant attempt to slow down the Brooklyn and LA runaway trains, because...well it is. The WBA has been proud of their "no dynasties", egalitarian feel for so long but these two teams have bashed that down over the past decade. Now the league is changing the rules to fight back. Regulating to help those without.

[dward1]

The boys all arrived last night at Orlando Performance Center, in the suburbs of the Florida city as it’s time for our real prep for the huge, upcoming 2064 season. The first day we had just a bit of competitive conditioning and small-sided high-action games as we just got back into the flow heading toward The Baseball Cup. That night we had our team goals for the season laid out, and there was just one main goal

-Win the League and Get Promoted

The Baseball Cup and the Cup of the Americas would be amazing to win, but first and foremost is winning the league, getting to the USBL and then focusing on whatever global competition we wind up in.

We’ve got a job on our hands to ease the pressure on and integrate these two kids really, in Grigsbee and Burnsy. They are 19 and 20 and one a team that’s nearly half 30+ year olds. Joe Duncan is the next youngest, he did what they did two years ago but with a massive difference: he came on a minimum contract with minimal expectations. These two make more than everyone else on the team. Keeping Adam Stromgren, for one, from turning on them will be a challenge.

And that challenge and more is up to our extensive staff, good to have everyone together in one place. Everyone meaning, our performance staff

- Nick Hilley, head trainer and injury prevention
- Keemo Chase, power coach
- Rakeem Hamilton, speed and agility coach

Our onfield staff

- Matt Bailey, head pitching coach
- Keith Meade, offspeed coordinator/Portland pitching coach
- Mark Bruss, mentality coordinator/Syracuse pitching coach
- Nate Martin, head hitting coach
- Alex Jimenez, Plate Discipline coordinator and Portland hitting coach
- Eric Adams, Swing Coach and Syracuse hitting coach
- Jon Castanada, Defensive Coordinator and bench coach
- Paul DeMoura, Defensive Coach and Portland Manager

These guys do good work, but let’s be real clear here, the “upstairs men” are where I put my trust. These “upstairs men” are often the ones with the charts, with the data, with the video that is provided to the field staff and players for development and planning. I’m the go-between, the man with a foot in both camps as it were.

The “Upstairs Men”

- Mario Segura, Amateur Analysis and Scouting Director
- Julio Martinez, Assistant GM
- Navdeep Gill, Opposition Analysis
- Lockie Wheeler, Performance Analysis
- Wellington Moor, Roster Construction and Financial Analysis
- Rassie Smuts, Minor League Analysis and Development Director
- Myron Til, Player Go-Between

These are the guys I spend my days with, and have for years. Navdeep, Lockie, Wellington, Rassie and Myron have travelled with me since Brooklyn. All have been around since ’59 at the latest. I've picked them up along the way mainly through trolling sports social media and blogs.

Moor was analyzing rugby financials in New Zealand. Myron Til was a B-level sprinter who wrote a great biography. Navdeep and Rassie were breaking down cricket and posting amazing vizzes on the same great analytical blog, one from Mumbai and one from Johannesberg. Lockie had previously worked with Aberdeen in Scottish football.

All of them showed incredible minds for sports and had rough knowledge of baseball, the process has become: come on as an intern for 6 months or so and we'll teach you the final baseball stuff. Then you are in.

And these are the guys who decided this new direction we are going. Navdeep loved Burnsy. He said his spin rate on his fastball is just unreal and that it already might be the best fastball in our league. He says he's an athlete and his motion is just brilliant, which puts his injury potential in the bottom 5% and ceiling-breaking (a word for unknown potential) in the top 5%.

When it came to Grigsbee, no one doubted the talent, it was more should we spend that much money on one guy. Myron was the guy who was in my ear saying this type of physical talent comes along very rarely, if we want to go big this is exactly the kind of guy to go big on. Myron and Lockie both think he could become one of the handful of best players in the world, the kind of guy who is a lock to represent the US in international play. That type of talent is just not available often to Buffalo. But it was really up to Wellington to decide whether we could spend that kind of money on one player. He recommended against it, but weakly, saying he would be 70% against this decision. He knows he has the right to veto anything by going 90% or above, that's enough for me.


Navdeep Gill salivating over Kerry Burns workout stats


All of us are a bit tense about how Burnsy and Grigsbee will get on, a good debut would go a long way. We’ve got a total of 19 staff on-hand here for just 28 players, it sometimes seems like overkill. The extra 10 players are minor leaguers we think have the ability to possibly make the leap this season and we want to train with all the support staff here. Unlikely to play, but we never rule out a in-cup transaction.

-Victor Zavala, 22, was our starting 2B last year
-Chris Bishop, 22, an outfielder that Rassie was raving about last year and was pushing to unseat Rodriguez...we want to see him repeat AA
-John Johnson, 24, a 3B who is the Nebraskan God of Walks (15% walk rate last year)
-a heap of pitchers (Nick Fernandez-23, Antonio Hernandez-29, Ben Sussman-25, Carlos Trujillo-24,Enrique de la Cruz-22 who had a 1.5 ERA last season over 61 innings)
-a couple more former Nickel regulars in LF Josh Cross (24) and PJoe McCammant (23)


Our Baseball Cup group schedule is basically about league average, and so is our group’s difficulty, nothing big to point out outside of a Global Cup rematch on Day 2 against Sydney.

We don’t have starter #2 and #3 figured out and will give all the options at least two starts and a good relief appearance to try and shake things out. Of course Farr will get his work also, we want to advance and go as far as we can in the Cup (the prize money would be real nice also to keep the momentum rolling). We are planning on a 5-man rotation

-Farr
-Buchanan
-Carree
-Burns
-Chad Graves

Who will take advantage in the Cup and can we get our season off on the good foot by making the knockout stage?

[dward1]

Games
Rigsbee went 0-3 in his debut, Jared Farr allowed 4 runs in the top of the 1st for a welcome back, but we fought back for a 9-6 win against Charlotte in Jacksonville.

Grigsbee’s first Buffalo hit came in his 6th at-bat in a rematch against Global Cup opponents Sydney, his first RBI capped a 4-run comeback in the 8th, but we lost to the Outback in 12 innings, 8-7. Buchanan was crushed.

Kerry Burns took the hill in Orlando against Marseille, getting a softer Euroleague team for his debut…a good idea in theory from Burns main backer Navdeep Gill but now Navy was so nervous before first pitch, clicking his computer over and over and over until Lockie had to put music on because it was driving them crazy. Burns got through 4 scoreless before struggling to finish a good outing, 9 baserunners, 4 K’s, 3 walks, over 5.1 innings of 4-run ball. We ran wild on a poor catcher, Stewart stole 3 and Rigsbee stole his 4th in a 10-5 win over the Olympiques.

Graves got the start with great expectations after how he’d thrown the ball in our workouts, but gave up 15 baserunners in 6 innings as we dropped another, a 6-1 loss to Palo Alto in Port St Lucie.

The starting pitching competition is no competition at all, none of the starters allowed fewer than 4 runs. It was Justin Carree’s turn to get pummeled, and he allowed all of Iowa’s runs in a 9-6 loss to the Dusters. 2-3 after one turn through the “rotation”. The Las Vegas Magic and San Antonio Riders are both undefeated, 4 teams are 4-1. We’ve got a long way to go to advance.

And we have the world #2 Los Angeles Reign up next in Palm Beach. My old dominant duo from the Brooklyn bullpen destroyed our lineup and our knockout stage hopes possibly with it. Dombroski, who we tried to woo, showed why he’s playing for the #2 team in the world with 8, 4-hit innings and Mike Haynes closed it out. Our 3rd straight loss, this one 3-1 to the Reign. At the halfway point we are 3 games back, we will probably have to win out.

Wayne Rigsbee is starting to cook. He hit his first Nickel homer, reached base 4 times, stole his 9th and 10th bases and scored 4 runs as we demolished Frankfurt 16-4. Buchanan’s already low stamina seems to have returned even shy of last years levels. He was dead on his feet at around 75 pitches.

To the visible glee of Navdeep Gill, Kelly Burns delivered the start of the Cup so far in Tampa. 7 strong innings, 1 run, 1 walk, 6 strikeouts with that run coming in the first inning. Zamora closed out a 2-1 win over Oklahoma City and we were back even at 4-4.

Graves pitched adequately but the offense didn’t travel to Sarasota in a 3-1 loss to Glasgow that meant we were probably looking at mathematical miracles talking about reaching the knockout stage.

The miracle wasn’t coming. Carree served up a couple homers and 6 runs in 5 innings vs Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh. That won’t help his rotation odds. A 6-1 loss to the Rebels was by some margin our worst performance of the Cup.

It took 11 games and Rigsbee has been moved to the top of the order. Lockie was always bugging me last year that Stewart had the most at-bats on our team with a .710 OPS, well now he gets his wish. Stewart drops to 7 and the lineup has been shaken up to get our surging rookie as many AB’s as possible. His first AB as a leadoff batter was a walk, followed by two steals and a run. 7-6 win vs Hong Kong.

We ended the Cup on a high note, beating Toronto with Rigsbee playing a key role in the attack and Burns closing it out with a save. Chad Graves made his play for a starting role, allowing just 4 baserunners in 7.2 strong innings in the 5-3 win over the Toronto Maple Leafs.



Takeaways
We wanted to advance but not doing so will be quickly forgotten, because my god. Wayne Grigsbee...it's hard not to get carried away. This could be something special. 16/20 on steals in just 12 games and a 1018 OPS. At his current WAR-rate, he would reach the 4th-best season ever. Globally. Of course we want to keep expectations lower tha
n that, but we are giddy.

Kerry Burns was very good as well over 17 IP (16 K, 4 BB, 1 HR, 3.71 ERA) and earned a rotation spot.

Buchanan (6.75 ERA) and Carree (11.25 ERA) pitched themselves out of the mix, leaving Chad Graves as the clear #3. He pitched solidly over 25 innings, not allowing a single HR. The 14 strikeouts feel a little low, but Rassie has been hassling me about just how good Graves looks and how big a step he's making. He says his command rate has skyrocketed this spring and they'd been seeing good progress as he dominated Portland these last few years as well. In 40 innings at Portland he has a career 0.59 WHIP...he's in. Farr, Burns, Graves, our rotation.

Matt Mallow is the only batter I'm worried about, his .326 OPS was painful to see. 20 strikeouts in 47 PA. I'll keep an eye on Jose Rodriguez, 631 OPS. We've got Bishop lurking at least in the outfield.

Team Stats, The Baseball Cup
6-6
5.6 R/G, 5 RA/G


Los Angeles beat Chicago in the final. Chicago lost the final for the second straight year as they continue to look for their first silverware in 32 years as a club. LA has won the Super Cup and the Baseball Cup now to start the year amazingly, this could be the one when they finally top Brooklyn. It's their fourth win of this competition.

[Englishtide73]

Originally Posted by dward1

In a press conference today following the annual WBA meeting in New York, vice commissioner Richard Villani announced the WBA will no longer be distributing the Cup prize money in the suggested Elita way. While previously the team that finished in a certain slot would take all the money, the WBA leadership has agreed to take all the prize money for the league and put it in a pool. This pool will be distributed then, equally throughout the WBA system and then about a quarter as much to each team in Asia and the Euroleague.

"We are glad that the Asian Super League and the Euroleague have agreed to come in with us on this revenue sharing program and we look forward to closer involvement in the future." was Villani's statement about that. There is no secret that the WBA desperately want to add the Euroleague and the Asian Super League to their structure in the coming years.

"There is no way to reach the finals of The Baseball Cup on your own, so one team should not get all the money. They still get the Cup, the glory, and the trophy, but the money will be distributed evenly throughout this system. Certain teams should not be able to build a dynasty based on this prize money, we respect what Brooklyn and Los Angeles have done of course. But this has gotten out of hand, Los Angeles will spent $20 million this year while other teams will spend just $6 million. That goes against the ideals and founding principles of our league." was what Chris Hayes said when reached for contact.

In previous years it hasn't been unheard of for LA or Brooklyn to take home $6 million or more in a season. That will now likely be around $722k, the same number that Frankfurt or Tel Aviv take home.

In addition, the league announced that visiting team gate share would rise from 20% to 40%. This will be seen as a blatant attempt to slow down the Brooklyn and LA runaway trains, because...well it is. The WBA has been proud of their "no dynasties", egalitarian feel for so long but these two teams have bashed that down over the past decade. Now the league is changing the rules to fight back. Regulating to help those without.

I’ve been fighting with money too. I just gave my champions league winner 3 million and after reading what FIFA does with there money I implemented a level system where depending on where you lose that’s the money you get. Even the teams that lose in qualifying are getting something.

[dward1]

Originally Posted by Englishtide73

I’ve been fighting with money too. I just gave my champions league winner 3 million and after reading what FIFA does with there money I implemented a level system where depending on where you lose that’s the money you get. Even the teams that lose in qualifying are getting something.

I modeled it sort of after Champions League, but more to winners. If you advance to knockout stages of any tournament you get cash but CL and Global Cup are the big money.

I’ll keep it to be budget busting cash in USBL, which is much more capitalistic and spread it out in WBA now, which is socialistic

[jacka]

Loved the series so far! One of my favorite current ones.

[dward1]

Originally Posted by jacka

Loved the series so far! One of my favorite current ones.

thanks! I'm really loving playing it, small rosters and small leagues with all these competitions in big universe makes a very nice balance so far...I love expanding and creating a huge universe so we will see if I can keep that balance