This season's Honolulu Brawling Kahunas could become known as the slowest team in the history of Double Mendoza.
They're just not going to get there very quickly.
This team could well surpass the single-season record for the fewest stolen bases - 2, by the Season 2 Richmond Spider Monkeys (this era's Columbus Discoverers). They were trying to do much better - they had 8 caught stealing's to go with their pair of thefts. Incidentally, the immortal Andrew Beaulac had both those steals. With no worlds left to conquer, he retired after that penultimate season with a .226 lifetime batting average and 16 home runs.
The Kahunas moved into elite turtledom status in Season 9 with 9 SB's (7 CS), and nearly hit single figures with 11 last year (5 CS). But their only thief, Ray Kozlowski, went to Iowa City in a deadline trade. No player on the current ML roster had a stolen base last year.
Some team officials had lobbied to use one of the team's last 2 utility jobs on a speedy pinch-runner. The first one has gone to Travis Costello, who did steal few bags in his younger days but whose only jobs now will be to hit lefties and wheeze around left filed in a wheelchair for a few innings.
BREAKING NEWS: Honolulu has signed vet OF Anthony Winn to their last position spot, imperiling their shot at the record. Winn has 209 career steals, and swiped 14 with Philly last year. While his speed has dropped even more and his playing time this season will be minimal, it seems likely he'll manage more than a couple.
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
Off-Season Trade Activity Brisk
It's been a pretty steady pace of trades leading up to Season 10, with some fairly big names changing teams. The rundown:
Durham gets rookie C Andres Julio, Season 6's #12 overall pick.
Salt Lake City gets 2-year vet SP Heinie McNally, Season 2's #10 overall pick.
Analysis: Intersting swap of former high first-rounders. McNally has 24 wins and a solid (especially in Durham) 3.94 ERA. He has a pretty nice array of pitches to go with good control; he does have his struggles with righty hitters, but will likely thrive in the decidedly more pitcher-friendly Franklin Covey Field. Julio should put up some nice hitting numbers (1.004 minor-league OPS) and calls a good game. His accuracy to second is a little suspect, but he's a good, well-rounded C. It did raise a few eyebrows when Durham, which has hitting and needs pitching, traded a nice young SP for more hitting. But the object is to score more runs than the other team; vandydave just focuses more on the "score more runs" than the "than the other team" part.
Philadelphia gets SP Len Keats (Sea 3 #18) and RP Walt Sandberg (Sea 7 #31)
Kansas City gets RP Tomas Lee (Sea 8 IFA)
Analysis: Keats has been biding time at KC's AAA team for 4 years, a good prospect but not good enough to crack the tough Masterpiece rotation. He gets his shot in Philly, and KC gets a prospect in Lee who has a chance to be a very good reliever in a couple of years.
Montgomery gets SS Gus Harper (Sea 3's #2)
Helena gets gets RP Pablo Plata (Sea 4's #37)
Analysis: Bit of a puzzler for Helena. Harper's a solid SS who's neither old, overpaid, brittle, nor lacking endurance. Sure, his glove is a little clanky for a SS, but he also hits 30 dings a year. The team can use relief help, but is Plata it? He has good control, is pretty tough on lefties, and has a great first pitch (sinker). But he's always going to have trouble with righties...lots of trouble. His 4.01 ERA last year was pretty good considering the .761 OPS-against. Alright, he could be better in the more-neutral ballpark in Helena. But the in't no place for erffdogs could've done much better.
Kansas City gets 2B Josh Bolden (a league-startup AAA prospect with the Biscuits)
Detroit gets OF Leon Durrington (a league-startup LoA prospect with the Houston organization)
Analysis: Bolden has been a backup his whole career, albeit a pretty effective one with a career OPS of .788. Durrington was a long-time minor-leaguer who finally came up in Season 7 and got more than his 15 minutes with an All-Star, Silver Slugger Season 7 (.313/26/100). Bolden appears to be penclied in as Juan Olmedo's defensive replacement; Durrington might see full-time DH duty.
Durham gets rookie C Andres Julio, Season 6's #12 overall pick.
Salt Lake City gets 2-year vet SP Heinie McNally, Season 2's #10 overall pick.
Analysis: Intersting swap of former high first-rounders. McNally has 24 wins and a solid (especially in Durham) 3.94 ERA. He has a pretty nice array of pitches to go with good control; he does have his struggles with righty hitters, but will likely thrive in the decidedly more pitcher-friendly Franklin Covey Field. Julio should put up some nice hitting numbers (1.004 minor-league OPS) and calls a good game. His accuracy to second is a little suspect, but he's a good, well-rounded C. It did raise a few eyebrows when Durham, which has hitting and needs pitching, traded a nice young SP for more hitting. But the object is to score more runs than the other team; vandydave just focuses more on the "score more runs" than the "than the other team" part.
Philadelphia gets SP Len Keats (Sea 3 #18) and RP Walt Sandberg (Sea 7 #31)
Kansas City gets RP Tomas Lee (Sea 8 IFA)
Analysis: Keats has been biding time at KC's AAA team for 4 years, a good prospect but not good enough to crack the tough Masterpiece rotation. He gets his shot in Philly, and KC gets a prospect in Lee who has a chance to be a very good reliever in a couple of years.
Montgomery gets SS Gus Harper (Sea 3's #2)
Helena gets gets RP Pablo Plata (Sea 4's #37)
Analysis: Bit of a puzzler for Helena. Harper's a solid SS who's neither old, overpaid, brittle, nor lacking endurance. Sure, his glove is a little clanky for a SS, but he also hits 30 dings a year. The team can use relief help, but is Plata it? He has good control, is pretty tough on lefties, and has a great first pitch (sinker). But he's always going to have trouble with righties...lots of trouble. His 4.01 ERA last year was pretty good considering the .761 OPS-against. Alright, he could be better in the more-neutral ballpark in Helena. But the in't no place for erffdogs could've done much better.
Kansas City gets 2B Josh Bolden (a league-startup AAA prospect with the Biscuits)
Detroit gets OF Leon Durrington (a league-startup LoA prospect with the Houston organization)
Analysis: Bolden has been a backup his whole career, albeit a pretty effective one with a career OPS of .788. Durrington was a long-time minor-leaguer who finally came up in Season 7 and got more than his 15 minutes with an All-Star, Silver Slugger Season 7 (.313/26/100). Bolden appears to be penclied in as Juan Olmedo's defensive replacement; Durrington might see full-time DH duty.
FLASH...Batista Signs With Arizona
Season 1 NL Cy Young winner and 4-time All-Star Julio Batista has signed with Arizona, getting $16.6 million over 2 years (the contract has a mutual option for Season 11). Batista has been a stalwart SP for Montgomery teams since the league's inception, getting double-digit wins every year and posting a career 3.42 ERA. His ratings have held up remarkably well over the years (excepting major injuries early in his career), even posting gains up to age 32. The only question here is how fast or slow those ratings will start to slip (Arizona's training budget is a slightly-below-average 14; Montgomery's has never wavered from 20).
FIrst Free Agents Sign
New Britain, Detroit, Montgomery and Arizona broke the ice on free agency, signing the first A and B players.
The Spitfires inked reliever Rudy Cole, who had spent all 9 years of his career in Vancouver. Cole has a "Nuke Laloosh reputation" (million-dollar arm, or in this case $12.5MM over 2 years, and a 5 cent head). sneekes is betting his as-yet-unnamed new pitching coach can restore him to his Season 4 Fireman Of The Year glory.
Detroit front-loaded a 3-year deal to get infielder Greg Evers, a 9-year vet looking to bounce back from a bad year. Evers is an excellent defender with a Grade A arm and thunder in his bat (228 homers). GM rockindock has assembled one of the league's better defensive infields with Evers at 2B, Alberto Owen at SS and Ismael Mercado at 3B.
Montgomery grabbed a potential bargain in IF Alex Gonzalez, who's coming off a monster 200-hit, .333/27/92 campaign. GM cbriese is marvelling at the Biscuits' good fortune this off-season, having added SS Gus Harper and 3B Gonzalez for the price of $6.1MM a year (Gonzalez), and a run-of-the-mill reliever.
Arizona ponied up $32MM and change to nab George Carter, an excellent reliever with absolutely amazing recovery abilities. Carter has never started a game in the majors, yet has thrown as many as 189 innings in a season. He's coming off a pair of relatively poor seasons - let's see if the change of venue puts him back on track.
While there are quite a few solid players available this year, all await the decision of the 1 marquis name: James Martin, former ROY and 2-time MVP who bolted on the Gansta' Chimps after 8 hugely productive seasons. Oddsmakers are saying it's 50-50 on whether he'll land a max contract.
The Spitfires inked reliever Rudy Cole, who had spent all 9 years of his career in Vancouver. Cole has a "Nuke Laloosh reputation" (million-dollar arm, or in this case $12.5MM over 2 years, and a 5 cent head). sneekes is betting his as-yet-unnamed new pitching coach can restore him to his Season 4 Fireman Of The Year glory.
Detroit front-loaded a 3-year deal to get infielder Greg Evers, a 9-year vet looking to bounce back from a bad year. Evers is an excellent defender with a Grade A arm and thunder in his bat (228 homers). GM rockindock has assembled one of the league's better defensive infields with Evers at 2B, Alberto Owen at SS and Ismael Mercado at 3B.
Montgomery grabbed a potential bargain in IF Alex Gonzalez, who's coming off a monster 200-hit, .333/27/92 campaign. GM cbriese is marvelling at the Biscuits' good fortune this off-season, having added SS Gus Harper and 3B Gonzalez for the price of $6.1MM a year (Gonzalez), and a run-of-the-mill reliever.
Arizona ponied up $32MM and change to nab George Carter, an excellent reliever with absolutely amazing recovery abilities. Carter has never started a game in the majors, yet has thrown as many as 189 innings in a season. He's coming off a pair of relatively poor seasons - let's see if the change of venue puts him back on track.
While there are quite a few solid players available this year, all await the decision of the 1 marquis name: James Martin, former ROY and 2-time MVP who bolted on the Gansta' Chimps after 8 hugely productive seasons. Oddsmakers are saying it's 50-50 on whether he'll land a max contract.
Thursday, November 4, 2010
Ordonez Eclipses Power Marks; Young Sets New Wins Record
A pair of AL stars have bested Double Mendoza single-season records in major stat categories.
Helena's slugging first baseman, Pascual Ordonez, has set new single-season records for both home runs and runs batted in. Ordonez smacked 78 homers and knocked in 192 runs this season.
The previous record for homers was 75, set by Syracuse's Ivan DeSoto in Season 5 (the last "steroid-era" season). Chad Bieser (then with the Biscuits) set the old RBI mark of 179 way back in Season 1.
Ordonez was a highly sought-after ($25.7MM bonus) IFA in Season 4. He debuted in Season 6 with a sold .281/30/80 season, and foreshadowed this year's monster performance with 51 and 57 homers in Season 7 and 8. He made the All-Star Team in Season 7 and picked up 2 Player Of The Week Awards this year.
On the pitching side, Honolulu's Bret Young topped the old wins record (25 by Memphis' Robert Knight in Season 6) with 27. Young was an original minor-leaguer of the Honolulu franchise, and won a Cy Young award in Season 5.
Helena's slugging first baseman, Pascual Ordonez, has set new single-season records for both home runs and runs batted in. Ordonez smacked 78 homers and knocked in 192 runs this season.
The previous record for homers was 75, set by Syracuse's Ivan DeSoto in Season 5 (the last "steroid-era" season). Chad Bieser (then with the Biscuits) set the old RBI mark of 179 way back in Season 1.
Ordonez was a highly sought-after ($25.7MM bonus) IFA in Season 4. He debuted in Season 6 with a sold .281/30/80 season, and foreshadowed this year's monster performance with 51 and 57 homers in Season 7 and 8. He made the All-Star Team in Season 7 and picked up 2 Player Of The Week Awards this year.
On the pitching side, Honolulu's Bret Young topped the old wins record (25 by Memphis' Robert Knight in Season 6) with 27. Young was an original minor-leaguer of the Honolulu franchise, and won a Cy Young award in Season 5.
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