The Eastern Baseball Alliance

[storm427]

I'm going to give a fictional solo sim a try after bowing out of my last online league recently. I have created the EBA, starting in 2021.


The EBA, launching in 2021

New league, tribute to older style baseball, the goal is to have a bit less analytics style baseball, and the 3 true outcomes are pitching up and in, a triple to the gap, and a strike’im out, throw’im out double play.
Initial set up is 2021 finances and settings, but the league will evolve toward a salary capped, flat revenue model and some stats modifiers to achieve fewer HRs and Ks and more doubles and flyouts.

The Eastern Baseball Alliance is a league of 16 teams located in the eastern US, divided into two conferences, each of which has a north and south division. Playoffs will be division winners and 2 wild cards from each conference.

Initial configuration, spring 2021 standings and pre-branding.


I have taken on the Orlando Jokers. After picking the team from the initial set up screen, somehow the game gave me the highest payroll roster in the league and a suspiciously thin farm.


(Editor's note: I have branded most and re-branded a couple of the teams after having some time to spend with the cephasjames logo set, for which I am eternally grateful from many years of abandoned solo sims.)

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While enthusiasm (mine) is high, I will post somewhat in depth and somewhat often. I expect to eventually sim my way forward after the first season and start tinkering with finances first to get where I want to be, which is a fairly level spending environment.


Meet the Jokers
Pitching
The starting staff is a mess.
23 year old Mike Dunivan will start on opening day, he has prior major league experience and features a fastball/curve ball mix. Already with excellent control, he has a little room to still develop according to my scout.
A hodgepodge of 26 yo Donovan Bynum, 32 yo Jay Champagne and soon-to-be 42 year old Dave Morgan will be the middle of the rotation. None excite, despite the club paying Morgan 12 million with a vesting option for the same amount NEXT season. I need to remember to make sure he gets put out to pasture before that 25th start.
My scout thinks more highly of 21 year old Brent Boss than the OSA does, and my manager seems to agree with the external scouts. He has Boss slotted as the 5th starter, and I’ll be surprised if Boss sees the mound more than twice in April with the off days built into our schedule.
The bullpen is anchored by league-best closer Kevin Zimmerman and his setup man, Jeff Bunk. Both are under team control through next season, Bunk at a very affordable 1.4m per, and the rest of the pen looks serviceable.

At the plate
CFer Chris Henry will lead us off. Henry is the prototypical wheels and glove guy and I don’t quite understand why manager Jamie Hedrick has him leading off since his below average contact and plate discipline suggest he will struggle to generate OBP.
Vs lefties, we will feature RFer Bobby Belda, who has the same profile.
Matt Taylor will bat second, another slot I lack enthusiasm for.
The three hole will be a LF platoon of Willie Perez and switchhitting Alexis Baez. Both these guys may find their way into regular playing time if either can hold his own in right field.
My clean up and 5 hitter will flip flop depending on pitcher handedness, lefty 1B John Connell and right handed hitting 3B Aaron Zullo. Connell is my kind of hitter, with above average power and a tremendous eye. Unfortunately, he’s also 38 and we owe him $23m/year this year and next. If he gets off to a great start and the team doesn’t we may be forced to shop him for a younger prototype of the same sort.
Catcher Cameron Crooks, who may have been a classmate of Dave Morgan since he’s also 41, and 2B Matt Jennings form the unexciting back of the lineup. We don’t use the DH in the EBA, so the collection above will have their chance to outshine our leadoff hitter every 5th day.

Defense
Right fielder Bobby Belda has the best infield range on the team. I don’t think I need say much more. However, it doesn’t look like there are many naturally gifted infielders anywhere in the league, at least not ones who can also survive a plate appearance. This will be a point of emphasis for our scouting to identify glove men in the draft or international spaces.
My outfield should be ok, with decent depth in this regard and the (current) LF platoon each having average range and more than decent arms.
Catcher Crooks and his backup Bill Landolfi should be fine or maybe a bit better than that.

So, without doing a deep dive on the other 15 clubs, I think the thing I can base any optimism on is that the commissioner’s office assigned a lot of dollars to my squad, which might say something about the rest of the league, or might not.

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April 5, 2021. Opening Day arrives.
We open with 3 at home vs the Reading Monarchs. Reading has decent front end pitching, a closer to rival Zimmerman, and strong players up the middle defensively. Sadly (for them), 2B Ian Reagan, their best position player, is hampered by wrist tenditis and may be limited in this series.

Inauspicious start. Dunivan gets injured pitching in the third, after surrendering an opening frame run. The bullpen holds it together until the 7th when the Monarchs explode for 3, and another 3 in the eighth. We lose 7-1.
(It was a good day to be a road team in the Williams Conference, as all three visitors won their games.)

Orlando takes the rest of the series though, and we have an off day before hosting early leaders, the 3-0 Atlanta Raptors. The Williams south is dominant after the first matchups, as each squad took at least 2 out of 3 from their north division opponent. Now we will canabalize each other, as Savannah visits Raleigh.

Bad news heading into the weekend series, as Dunivan’s elbow strain will keep him out 8 weeks. 24 year old Scott Cochrane gets the call up. Brent Boss better be at least as good as advertised!

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MayDay!
We have reached the end of April and a promising start met the rocky shores of our second clash with Reading, a four game sweep by the Monarchs. This leaves us 11-12 going into a weekend series with Pittsburgh, who mirrors us with a sub 500 record and is just behind us in the tight Williams Conference wild card stack (here after referred to as the WCWC). There is no help on the horizon as the league has no spare parts on offer and our minor league system has no one who is quite a fourA player. With three pitchers on the IL, we are about at the median for injuries, and to be fair, callup starter Cochran has held his own after a dreadful 0.1 IP initial outing.
At the plate, my lofty expectations for Henry and Belda are paying off, as they lead the team in batting average and WAR, Belda is second on the club with 3 HRs, and Henry is second in RBI and first in steals. What do I know? At least Perez is performing well, as I had hoped, while Baes hasn’t gotten going in 14 starts. Connell (1B) has been solid but not spectacular, certainly not enough to try to dangle him on the block. Catching offensive output is dismal.

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We drop the first two to Pittsburgh and arrive officially at May 1 with an 11-14 record.

The astute reader will note that I did some renaming in addition to sprucing up logos for most of the teams. I have a weird soft spot for the game's default Beavers logo, so that stayed.

[storm427]

We’ve reached mid-May, the reason for the update here is we are watching Virginia Beach’s C Matt Henry add to his 23 game hit streak, tops so far in either conference this season. Henry is 29 years old and signed through the 2027 season. He is just one jewel in the crown of the division leading Express.

Henry’s streak ends on the 19th at 25 games, 0-4 in a 4-2 win over Baltimore.


The Jokers had one small light in the darkness, RP Jeff Bunk had an 18 game scoreless streak going, also snapped on the 19th.

[storm427]

If There’s a June Swoon
May turns to June, and the Jokers are mired in sub mediocrity at 23-27. Luckily, other than the Reading Monarchs, the whole conference isn’t much better, and we sit only 2.5 games out of a wild card berth.
However, some of our success, irony intended, is definitely smoke and mirrors. 24 year old SP call up Scott Cochrane had a bad May 1st outing, and then reeled off 5 amazing starts to earn Rookie and Pitcher of the Month honors. Neither my scout nor the OSA think this is warranted.
More true to form, graybeard Dave Morgan is floundering in his starting role, and will be relegated to bullpen duty this month, so that there is no danger of his option for next season vesting. Morgan should already be coaching someone else’s A ball staff.
The offense is bad, the pitching is bad, and the defense is stellar, as we are first in all 3 tracked metrics.
CFer Chris Henry has 17 steals, making him second in the league.

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After the draft, we will look to put Morgan out to pasture and see if the disappointing season of John Connell might still attract a taker, maybe if I hold onto some of his money. Unfortunately, its not like there is a hot young bat down at AAA waiting to surface. But, we can just as easily lose games with Chris King at first.

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Draft Day, June 5, 2021 has arrived. The Jokers hold the 4th pick, and I will spend some time compiling some scouting on interesting players in the top rounds of the draft.
Currently, Orlando's farm is ranked 10th out of 16. Unfortunately, that seems to be overstating the quality, as our 3 top ranked prospects are #s 26, 29 and 36 overall, and all 3 are playing in the majors. At least they are contributing.

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On the Clock
There are six starters who stand out from the rest of the pitching pool. The problem is that 5 of them only have 3 pitches, and each has an undeveloped changeup among their mix of 3. That is too risky for round 1. The sole possibility is 22 yo college junion Jeff Davidson, who OSA had going 3rd in the mock. He’s a sinker/slider righty, with a curve, and a 4th pitch undeveloped change. His control is projected to top out only at league average, he’s a groundballer, and my scout says he has the “potential to be an impact player”.
My scout is not especially keen on any of the position players still on the board, with the best potential attached to 1B Kirk Johnson, who already has 50/65 power. Johnson has nice offensive potential across the board, but stone hands.
There are two offensively gifted catchers, one of whom also has good defensive ratings. If that guy (Randy Rosser) were a leader, he would be a no brainer. Instead, I am hesitant because he is already 23, and has the feel of a guy who is already too old to reach his possibilities in the offensive categories. Also, his eye potential is only 35. That feels especially bad for a backstop.
My eye keeps going to SS Jaden McNair. OSA thinks I will have the chance to pass on him again in the second round, but to me he is the best infielder on the board, with good on base potential, excellent speed on the bases, and 70 range and a strong enough arm to hold down the position. His demand is a modest $600k with easy signability.
My scout thinks I should take Cameron Rusiniak, a Tarheel CF who posted 15 HR and 31 steals in his 59 game senior season. He has a low demand, is very signable for the Jokers, 80 speed and stealing, and 75 OF range. His offense isn’t stellar but my scout likes the distraction and threat he poses once he reaches base.
I shortlist Davidson so I can wallow in regret later, I keep McNair in mind for hopefully round 2, and decide that I pay my scout for a reason. I draft Rusiniak.
(Atlanta takes Davidson two picks later at 6.)