I've been toying with a CM4 Dynasty, and an OOTP5 Dynasty. At the moment I think OOTP is going to hold my interest a little more easily. I may start both and switch between the two, or I may get immersed in this and hold off on CM4 for awhile...

This will be a little different. I love baseball history. I'm not sure when baseball went astray, perhaps it was free agency, perhaps it wasn't until the 1990s and the advent of the wild card, but back where I'm going, those problems haven't occured yet.

The concept

I start in 1910 with a 154 game schedule, with the league structure as it was in 1910, with 2 8 team leagues, in the dead ball era.

My goal is to follow the majors throughout history, moving teams, expanding, and re-aligning as was actually done throughout history, UP TO 1961. That was the beginning of expansion in the Majors. From that point on, if I make it that far, the league will be run as we see fit from a fan and financial point of view. That's 50 years away so we'll see if it lasts that long.

The other catch

I love baseball history, but its flawed. The Chicago Cubs are a storied franchise with a rich history, but are a laughingstock thanks to 90+ years without a world series title. I will be running the Chicago Cubs, my goal is to guide them into a better place in the record books.


The Players

Baseball begins today. There is no babe ruth, and there won't be. All teams are empty, the record books are empty. We will begin with an "Initial Draft" where I will begin to attempt to take the Cubs to glory.


The Settings

Coaches and Scouts are OFF(mainly b/c they're off in every dynasty I read)

Finances are on, revenue sharing after $10 Million. I don't want a salary cap but I don't want the big market teams to have too big an advantage. If I find this number is too low after a few years I'll up it to $20 Million.

There is no salary cap.

Awards have generic names. They may be renamed within the first 20-30 years of the league after the stars that give the league its foundation.


I haven't run a league in depth myself yet, so the settings may not be perfect. I have renamed all the teams correctly, and am going to go see if I can put the teams in their proper ballparks and financial markets. After that the draft begins. I'll try to keep up with the entire league, but obviously, my prime focus is the Chicago Cubs.

Ok screw the ballparks thing, I am assuming its nothing I can't adjust if I feel like it later. It's Draft Time.

We're doing a snake draft, here's the random order:

1: Brooklyn
2: Washington
3: Cleveland
4: Pittsburgh
5: Philadelphia As
6: Detroit
7: Chicago Cubs
8: New York Giants
9: St Louis Cardinals
10: Philadelphia Phillies
11: Chicago White Sox
12: Boston Braves
13: Cincinatti Reds
14: New York Yankees
15: Boston Braves
16: St Louis Browns


Since the opening round picks are going to dictate the stars of the league for the first few years, I'm going to go through the first 3-5 rounds player by player. Up next: Round 1.

Initial Draft - Round 1

Brooklyn: SP Jeffrey Markus - 10/7/7/8 B/A/G - 27 years old, a lefty
Washington: SP Frank Patrick - 10/6/8/9 B/F/G - 28 years
Cleveland: CF Evan Patel - 6/7/10 A/B/B - 32 years old
Pittsburgh: SP John Curry - 10/7/7/8 B/G/G - 29 years old
Philadelphia(A): SP Thomas Wilkins - 10/7/6/7 B/A/G 26 years
Detroit: SP Ahmad Hamblin - 9/8/6/8 G/G/G 26 years

Looks like I better get me an ace:

Chicago: SP Lawrence Lach - 9/8/6/7 - G/G/A 26 years

Young enough that I should get a good number of years out of him, but still a quality talent who will clearly be my ace from day 1.

New York Giants: RF Bryan Myers - 7/10/8 G/B/G 31 Years
St Louis Cards: LF Benjamin Englund - 6/9/7 A/B/G 26 Years
Philadelphia Phillies: SS Mark Bryant - 6/8/8 G/B/B 29 Years
Chicago White Sox: SP Karl Strong - 8/7/6/6 G/G/G 30 years
Boston Red Sox: LF Michael Rooker - 6/10/7 A/B/G 27 Years
Cincinnati: LF Lamont Sevilla - 8/8/8 G/B/B 30 years
New York Yankees: SP Walter Escalera 9/8/6/6 G/G/A 33 years
Boston Braves: SP Douglas Essex 9/8/6/6 G/G/A 30 years
St Louis Browns: LF Mike Baker 7/10/8 G/B/B 36 years


That's the first round. The obvious trend was starting pitching. The biggest suprise to me so far is seeing the Browns go with a 36 year old. I'm obviously going to be going for younger guys myself.

Round 2:

St Louis (A): SP Bruce Dockins 8/6/8/5 G/A/G 28 Years
Boston (N): CF Donald Crowder 6/9/10 A/B/B 36 years
New York (A): 3B Rodger Nelson 6/8/8 A/B/G 26 years
Cincinnati: RF Chet Damron 5/9/6 A/B/G 31 Years
Boston (A): CF Darrick Napper 6/7/8 A/G/B 27 Years
Chicago (A): SS Charles Franco 5/10/8 A/B/G 32 Years
Philadelphia (N): LF Brent Holt 6/8/6 A/B/A 24 Years
St Louis (N): SP Chris Cummings 8/7/6/6 G/G/A 30 years
New York (N): SS James Cawley 6/7/7 A/B/A 29 years

No team has gone with 2 pitchers yet. I'm seriously considering it, there are just a couple #1 talent level starters left. There are only a couple of really solid hitters left, but I think the best pitcher left is going to help me out more, here we go:

Chicago (N): SP Wilfred Trent 8/8/7/5 G/G/G 27 Years

Detroit: CF Brandon Bailey 6/7/7 G/B/G 31 Years
Philadelphia (A): C Stephen Shrum 7/7/8 G/G/G 31 Years
Pittsburgh: 3B Bill Andres 5/9/7 A/B/A 34 Years
Cleveland: SP Ronald Couch 8/7/7/5 G/G/G 32 Years
Washington: RF Shaun Clear 7/5/7 G/A/A 31 Years
Brooklyn: 3B Mark Wegman 6/7/5 A/G/A 27 Years



And, that's the first two rounds. I think we'll start to see a pretty quick talent dropoff, and I'm just going to go through my picks from here on out.

Chicago Cubs Initial Draft

With my first two picks I selected two very good pitchers. Here's the rest of the draft:

3rd Round: 2B Anthony Reimers 6/6/8 A/A/G 32 Years - The only really solid 2B in the draft
4th Round: 1B Kenneth Burrow 6/5/8 A/A/G 28 Years - The talent level is starting to severely drop off.
5th Round: C Andrew Rahman 6/5/7 G/A/A 28 Years
6th Round: RF Gabrial McCrady 7/4/8 G/A/G 33 Years
7th Round: SS Juan Luckey 6/3/7 A/F/G 30 Years
8th Round: 3B Christopher Witmer 4/5/6 25 Years
9th Round: SP George Keegan 6/6/7/6 A/A/G 29 Years
10th Round: LF Bill Ducker 6/4/6 A/F/A 31 Years
11th Round: CF Robert Holding 5/4/5 A/F/F 36 Years
12th Round: SP Jeffrey Moak 7/7/7/5 A/A/G 34 Years
13th Round: CF Albert Krupa 2/2/2 (Solid Prospect) 21 years
14th Round: CL Jerry Stefanski 6/7/7/4 A/G/G 31 Years
15th Round: MR Christian Little 8/6/7/6 G/A/G 32 Years
16th Round: MR David Meador 7/8/8/4 A/G/G 33 Years
17th Round: MR Robert Davis 7/7/6/5 G/G/A 33 Years
18th Round: SS John Garibay 2/1/4 (prospect) 19 Years
19th Round: CF Richard Henry 5/3/4 A/F/F 30 Years (can play all 3 outfield positions, reasonable backup)
20th Round: SP Douglas McCart (SP Prospect) 19 Years
21st Round: SP William Cox (SP Prospect) 21 Years
22nd Round: MR Robert Miura 6/7/7 30 Years
23rd Round: C Clinton Warman (backup)
24th Round: 1B Samual Saunders (backup)
25th Round: 2B Jeffrey Engram (backup)


From Here on out we draft prospects and backup talent. A roster review is forthcoming and then the first season starts!

Im looking forward to hearing from Jason Garibay in a few years ....seems like a future HOF and award name .

Thanks Chemical Soldier for the comment! I missed out on some of the top prospects trying to fill out my roster, I think the other teams grabbed a bunch of the top prospects before filling out their senior squad(which makes sense, I did the same just started too late).
I have the 12th best farm system (out of 16 teams, isn't saying much).

I found a full stadium set, and a great site listing all of the team movements from 1901-present so I'm going to set everyone up now.

I'm posting everyone this one time, as I move through time at the begining of each season I'll just update who is moving/changing anything.

Starting Stadiums/nicknames:

American League

Boston Red Sox - Huntington Avenue Grounds
Chicago White Sox - Comisky Park
Cleveland Broncos - League Park
Detroit Tigers - Bennett Park
New York Highlanders - Hilltop Park
Philadelphia As - Shibe Park
St Louis Browns - Sportsman Park
Washington Senators - American League Park (this is whats available in the 1910 stadium pack... web reference says Griffith Park)


National League
Boston Doves - South End Grounds
Brooklyn Superbas - Washington Park
Chicago Cubs - West Side Grounds
Cincinnati Reds - Palace of the Fans
New York Giants - Polo Grounds
Philadelphia Phillies - Baker Bowl
Pittsburgh Pirates - Forbes Field
St Louis Cardinals - Robison Field


Brooklyn and Boston(the Doves) sure did come up with better names later on huh? :)

I auto-filled the minors so I have a full set of minor league teams. I doubt that's what most people do and it was something I chose without much thought, hopefully it won't have a major impact on how the game plays out.


Chicago Cubs Position Analysis - Major League Roster

Catchers

Andrew Rahman (6/5/7) - Age 28 - 3 Stars - C Defender - $4.59M/yr until 1912 - 5th round draft choice. Rahman isn't a star but is someone I hope puts up some decent numbers for a few years.

Clinton Warman (4/4/4) - Age 31 - 2 Stars - C Defender - $300K/yr through 1910 - Warman was my 24th round pick. He makes the minimum salary and hopefully will make a decent backup.

Outlook - Hopefully Rahman is worth the $4 Million and 5th round pick. If he gives me a decent 3-4 years he certainly will have been


First Base

Ken Burrow (6/5/8) - Age 28 - 3 1/2 Stars - D Defender - $4.59M/yr - 4th Round Pick - Defense may hurt us but he looks to be a solid offensive player. Signed through 1910 only.

Samuel Saunders (4/5/4) - Age 31 - 2 Stars - D Defender - $765K/yr - 25th Round Pick - again, hopefully a decent backup

Outlook - Burrow looks good but he'd better prove it to me right away


Second Base

Anthony Reimers (6/6/8) - Age 32 - 4 1/2 Stars - B Defender - $7.602M/yr - 3rd Round Pick - Reimers was the best second baseman available in the draft, so I feel very good here. Reimers can also play short(C Rating), he is only signed through 1910.

Jeffrey Engram (4/4/4) - Age 32 - 2 1/2 Stars - B Defender - $1.052M/yr - 26th Round Pick - another hopefully decent backup. Engram is signed through 1913.

Outlook - Reimers should be a very good 2nd baseman. With his contract up this year I have to quickly evaluate him and re-sign him if he performs


Shortstop

Juan Luckey (6/3/7) - Age 30 - 2 1/2 Stars - E Defender - $3.85M/yr - 7th Round Pick - Luckey probably got picked way too early... His defense is horrible at a key position. He's got no power, he'd better have a great OBP if he expects to stay here. He's signed through 1912, and may well be early trade bait.

Rodney Simpson (4/3/2) - Age 25 - 2 1/2 Stars(prospect) - D Defender - $300,000/yr - Simpson belogs in the minors, and there is a trend here that I have way too many position players and not enough pitchers on the major league roster. Simpson may be demoted soon, or, maybe I'll play him a bit and see if he improves over Luckey in any way.

Outlook - Luckey scares me, particularily his defense, but he's my guy for now.


3rd Base

Chris Witmer - (4/5/6) - 25 Years old - 2 1/2 Stars - C Defense - $1.127M/yr - 8th Round Pick - Witmer is a farily average player, his low contact is a concern but he will probably hold down a spot on the roster depending on how much more money he expects in the future.

Witmer is the only 3B on the major league roster.

Left Field

Bill Ducker (6/4/6) - Age 31 - 2 Stars - C Defender - $2.075M/yr - 10th Round Pick - Ducker looks to be better than my SS and 3B that I took earlier in the draft. He's signed through 1913 and will be 34 when that contract runs out. I hope he can perform for me for the duration of that contract.

Danny Price (3/7/4) - Age 26 - 1 Star - E Defender - 300K/yr - Not a very good backup. Only signed through this year. A top candidate to drop off the roster for a pitcher.

Center Field

Robert Holding (5/4/5) - Age 36 - 2 1/2 Stars - A Defender - $3.85M/yr - 11th Round Pick - Holding looks like a solid starter, he's the fastest player I've looked at so far, B speed/A Stealing ability and top range. His arm is weak. He's only signed through this year and is aging. I'm glad I've got him for the year though.

Richard Henry (5/3/4) - Age 30 - 1 Star - B Defender - $300,000/yr - 19th Round Pick - A great later round pickup really. He has B range in Center and A in left and right. He can spot anyone in the outfield for rest and can come in for defense late in games. Only signed through this year.

Archie Bilbrey (4/3/4) - Age 37 - 1 Star - C Defender - $300K/yr - 41st Round pick - I don't see this guy lasting long here.


Right Field

Gabriel McCrady (7/4/8) - Age 33 - 3 Stars - D Defender - $7.34M/yr - 6th Round pick - McCrady is signed through 1913 and will hopefully prove to be one of my more consistant players. Worth 7 million? We'll see.

Willie McMahan (3/6/4) - Age 27 - 1 Star - D Defender - $300K/yr - 30th Round Pick - perhaps a decent backup.


Starting Pitching

Bill Graham (7/7/5) - Age 35 - 2 1/2 Stars - C Defense - 27th Round pick - C Duration - $2.78 M/yr - Graham could be a 4th starter possibly, lets see what else we've got. He could also(more likely) be trade bait if I can find a team that doesn't have much in the way of starting pitching.

George Keegan (6/6/7) - Age 29 - 2 Stars - C Defense - 9th Round Pick - C Duration - $300K/yr - I picked him in the 9th round? Oh yeah I was going a little too hard for youth I guess and just totally avoiding anything over 34 or so. Spot starter/mopup reliever material?

Lawrence Lach (9/8/6) - Age 26 - 4 1/2 Stars - C Defense - 1st Round Pick - C Duration - $6.1M/yr - Lach will hopefully be *the* star of the team. He's signed through 1912 and when I drafted him the hope would be that he would anchor my rotation for 8+ years.

Jeffrey Moak (7/7/7) - Age 34 - 2 1/2 Stars - C Defense - 12th Round Pick - C Duration - $2.7M/yr - Signed through 1914, Moak is likely my 3rd or 4th starter.

Arthur Morgan (6/6/4) - Age 38 - 2 1/2 Stars - A Defense - 33rd Round Pick - A Duration - $1.25M/yr - Signed also through 1914. At age 38 he has very little use to me and is eating up $1 Million a year.

Wilfred Trent (8/8/7) - Age 27 - 4 Stars - C Defense - 2nd Round - D Duration - $5.66M/yr - Signed through 1913. The duration may be a bit of a concern, we'll see, but he was my 2nd round draft pick and would be a #1 starter on many of the teams in the league. I didn't get one of the top batting stars so I could get this guy and have the best 1/2 pitching punch in the league, so I'm banking an awful lot on Trent and Lach.


Outlook - With a 4 man rotation I don't need 6 starters. This may be a good way to dump off some salary by getting rid of one of them early on


Relief Pitching

Robert Davis (7/7/6) - Age 33 - 4 Stars - D Defense - $1.6M/yr - 17th Round Pick - B Duration - Davis is one of many solid middle relievers that I drafted, but one of only 2 on the major league staff. He's signed through this year only.

David Meador (7/7/8) - Age 33 - 4 Stars - A DEfense - $2.3M/yr - 16th Round Pick - C Duration - Same as Davis... slightly better actually. Signed through just this year.

Christian Little (8/6/7) - Age 32 - 4 Stars - D Defense - $2.3M/yr - 15th Round Pick - C Duration - Little is my closer. Signed through 1913.

Now the question is, in an old school era 4 man rotation, do I have enough pitchers on the major league staff? I doubt it. 6 starters/3 relievers surely isn't enough. I have some more middle relief talent that I drafted that i can move up, at the expense of a couple of my weakest position players.


All in all, I am counting on having one of the best pitching staff's in the majors, since I don't have any signifigant offensive stars.

After looking through my minor league system, I move up 2 MR's that I drafted, and demote SS prospect R Simpson, and CF A Bilbrey. Bilbrey is 37 and should probably just be released. Simpson is a prospect and may well never make it.

Robert Miura is a 3 star 6/7/7 MR, 30 years old, on a 1 year 1.2M Contract.

Jerry Stefanski is a 3 star 6/7/7 MR, 31 years old, 1 year/300K contract. That gives me 11 men on my major league pitching staff, a number I'm much more comfortable with.


Top Prospects

1. SP Douglas McCart - 19 Years old - A/A/G - Single A. McCart is a 3 1/2 Star Prospect. (37th overall)

2. SS John Garibay - 19 years old G/P/G - Single A. 3 1/2 Stars (41st Overall)

3. SP William Cox - 21 Years old A/G/A - Single A. 3 1/2 Stars (46th Overall)

4. CF Albert Krupa - 21 Years old A/A/A - Single A (57th overall)

5. CF Chris Broussard - 18 years A/F/A - Single A

My top prospects are all quite a ways from major league level. Rodney Simpson is my 6th best prospect, the guy I just demoted from the majors to make room for middle relief, and Robert Gross is an average starting pitcher in Triple A, 3/5/4, 2.5 Star Prospect.

Ok, I think its time to play some baseball :) Any and all suggestions on presentation are welcome, as is critique on how I'm presenting things as I go. I plan on figuring out how to upload everything and putting this all on my website after the first season.

Starting Pitchers Bill Graham and George Keegan are on the trading block, as is SS Luckey. I'll actively look for trades once I have a little data to guide me.

Opening Day Lineups:

Vs RHP
1. CF Holding
2. 1B Burrow
3. RF McCrady
4. 2B Reimers
5. C Rahman
6. LF Ducker
7. 3B Witmer
8. SS Luckey

vs LHP
1. 2B Reimers
2. LF Ducker
3. SS Luckey
4. 1B Burrow
5. RF McCrady
6. 3B Witmer
7. C Warman
8. CF Holding

Pitching Staff

Starters:
1. Lach (R)
2. Trent (R)
3. Moak (R)
4. Graham (L)

Spot Starter Morgan (12% / R)

Mopup Reliever: Keegan (R)

Middle Relief:
1. Davis (R)
2. Stefanski (R)
3. Keegan (R)

Setup:
1. Meador (R)
2. Miura (L)

Closer: Little (L)



Opening Day!

I won't do this every year, but this is the first game in the history of baseball :)

In the American League there is 1 game at 1:05 pm. The Boston Red Sox beat the St Louis Browns 13-4. Boston Ace Ed Banks pitches a complete game.


In the National League, there is also 1 1:05pm game. The New York Giants beat the Brooklyn Supergas 13-6. Giants Ace Bruce Tyree goes the distance here.


The Chicago Cubs open up at home against the Phillies. The Cubs win, 4-1! Larry Lach goes the distance, a 1 run 6 hitter. He threw 153 pitches and is the player of the game. The wind was blowing to right field at 18 MPH. Welcome to Chicago, and welcome to the new baseball history!

Hopefully Marmel and Skydog and Andryhenuaflskjdfa won't mind me borrowing from all of their formats here.


APRIL 1910


This Month's Record: 10-16
Overall Record: 10-16
Current Standing: 7th place, 8 games behind Pittsburgh

Major Injuries
On April 9th, Jeffrey Moak is hurt in his second start of the year, he's out for 5 weeks. Art Morgan gets bumped to the starting lineup and Keegan in the spot starter role.


League News
In the American League, Detroit opens 16-10, a slim lead over Cleveland and St Louis. The Highlanders(Yankees) are 9-17 and bringing up the rear in the AL. Detroit's D Kania and G Looper are #1/#2 in the AL in batting(.367 & .354). 2 players hit 10 homers in April in the AL, and numerous players have 5 wins.

In the National League, Pittsburgh opens up the Majors best record, 18-8. St Loius is 2 back at 16-10. Cincinnati is on a 7 game losing streak and is in last place, a mere 1 game behind Chicago. Boston's Don Crowder is hitting .409 with 11 Home Runs and a 1328 OPS. St Louis' Michael Briggs is 6-0, leading the majors in wins.


Team News


Sunday 4/6/1910 :

Christopher Witmer hits a 468-foot homerun!!

Wednesday 4/9/1910 :

Bill Ducker hits a 452-foot homerun!!
Robert Holding sets a new single game NL-Record for Triples with 2!

Thursday 4/10/1910 :

Christopher Witmer hits a 456-foot homerun!!

Friday 4/11/1910 :

Andrew Rahman hits a 465-foot homerun!!

Monday 4/14/1910 :

Kenneth Burrow has 4 hits against St Louis (N).

Tuesday 4/15/1910 :

Kenneth Burrow hits a 478-foot homerun!!
Arthur Morgan sets a new single game NL-Record for Bases on Balls with 7.


Friday 4/18/1910 :

Kenneth Burrow hits a 566-foot homerun!!


Saturday 4/19/1910 :

Bill Graham fans 12 batters against Boston (N).

Sunday 4/20/1910 :

Anthony Reimers sets a new single Extra-Inning Game NL-Record for At-Bats with 6.
Bill Ducker sets a new single Extra-Inning Game NL-Record for At-Bats with 6.
Arthur Morgan fans 13 batters against New York (N).


Friday 4/25/1910 :

Kenneth Burrow hits a 469-foot homerun!!
Juan Luckey hits a 485-foot homerun!!
Robert Holding has 4 hits against Brooklyn.
Robert Holding scores 5 runs against Brooklyn.


Monday 4/28/1910 :

Wilfred Trent pitches a 5-hit shutout against Philadelphia (N)!!



Lineup Notes/Changes

My guys are hitting well. Holding/Burrow/McCrady/Luckey are all hitting over .300. Holding is solid on the bases with 7 steals. Ducker is the only truly weak link hitting .172 in left field. I have no power, Witmer has 4 HRs from 3rd base, that leads the team.

Lach and Trent are horrible disappointments early on. A combined 3-9 with an ERA near 5.

I put everyone on quicker hooks. I understand the era, but I've got good relief pitching and I want to take advantage of it, espicially with Trent who doesn't have the best endurance.


Team Leaders
AVG: RF McCrady .319
HR: 3B Witmer 4
RBI: McCrady/Witmer 16
SB: Holding 7
SP ERA: Keegan 2.53
RP ERA: Meador 0.00
SAVES: Davis 1
Ks: Lach 45
W-L: Morgan 4-0


Player Development

Monday 4/7/1910 :

Christopher Witmer has gained more power!
Charlie Honig increased his bat control, resulting in more contact!
Charlie Honig has gained more power!

Monday 4/21/1910 :

James Harvill increased his bat control, resulting in more contact!
James Harvill has gained more power!
James Harvill has improved his plate disclipine!
Wayne Brown has lost some lower body strength, his duration drops to E ...
Wayne Brown has lost some momentum, his range at P drops to C ...



Honig is a 2 star 3B Prospect, while Harvil is a 2 1/2 Star Catching prospect. Harvill is my #8 Prospect Currently.



Monthly Awards

AL Pitcher: Jeff Provencher 5-0 2.00 ERA 34 Ks (Detroit)
NL Pitcher: Michael Briggs 6-0 2.60 ERA 65 Ks (St Louis)

AL Batter: Eugene Mickle .292 AVG 24 RBIs (Boston)
NL Batter: Donald Crowder .409 AVG .500 OBP 24 RBIs (Boston)

Keep em coming . People are enjoying this dynasty .

I take a deal from the St Louis Cardinals:

Chicago gets:
2B Nelson Brown (2 Star Prospect - 21)
SP Allen Sallee 6/6/7 (2 1/2 Stars)

St Louis Gets:
SP Bill Graham 7/7/5 (2 1/2 Stars)

Graham makes 1.5 Million a year more than Sallee and is performing horribly, 1-6 so far this year. Sallee has a solid 3.42 ERA and will be inserted into my rotation.


May 1910


This Month's Record: 11-18
Overall Record: 21-34
Current Standing: 8th place, 15 games behind Pittsburgh

Major Injuries
CF Robert Holding goes out for 9 weeks with an injury on May 18th. That's rather bad, he was hitting .316 with 10 Steals and has been a solid leadoff man. Aging utility CF A

Bilbrey is brought up from the minors and Henry will get a shot in the starting lineup.


League News
American League: Detroit is still playing well, leading the AL at 32-23. St Louis remains 1 back. B Banker is batting .342 for the Senators to lead the league, and J

Lacombe has 21 Homers. T Wilkins of the As is 9-3 to lead all AL pitchers.

National League: Pittsburgh remains the class of the Majors, they're 36-19 and have a 6 game lead on the NY Giants. The Cubs are horrible, the worst record in the majors,

and 4 behind Boston for next to last. Boston's Don Crowder has cooled down and is now 2nd in the NL batting .362. B Myres leads the majors at .369. Myres has 24 Homers to

dominate the NL home run list(2nd place is 16) and he's shooting for the triple crown! 62 RBIs is 17 over 2nd place. 3 NL pitchers have 9 wins. The Cubs ace Larry Lach leads the

NL with 117 strikeouts.

Team News

None of the team news is really worth quoting. Lach and Morgan and Trent all had a few solid 13-15 strikeout games. Most of the news is "Lach has set the record for games started

with 10! ... 11! ... 12!" thanks to the blank record book.


Lineup Notes/Changes

Our batters have cooled off quite a bit. Our catcher Andrew Rahman is hitting .324, the only guy over .300. Reimers has taken the lead and is actually starting to hit some home

runs, he has 9. Ducker is still a weak link in left field, batting .192. I need a left fielder. Witmer at 3rd base is hitting a weak .228 also, but he has 27 RBIs, near the top

of the list on the team.

Lach and Trent are both 4-9 each, both show eras near 5.00. This is a major problem. Art Morgan is 8-3 with a 5.47 ERA, the guys must just come out to hit when he's on the

mound. It's a small sample but Lach has a 2.40 ERA at home, 7.32 on the road... I was actually afraid of the opposite.

The left side of my infield is horrible. Luckey was as bad as I feared, a .953 fielding % and 11 errors already. Witmer is bad too, 8 errors and a .945 fielding %. 3rd, short,

and Left field(though mainly because of offense) are huge weak spots for me right now.

3 Star Prospect Albert Krupa has been hitting .343 in Single A and earns a promotion to AA.


Team Leaders
AVG: C Rahman .324
HR: 2B Reimers 9
RBI: 1B Burrow 29
SB: CF Holding 10
SP ERA: Sallee 3.87
RP ERA: Little/Meador 0.00
SAVES: Little 2
Ks: Lach 117
W-L: Morgan 8-3


Player Development

Monday 5/12/1910 :

Archie Bilbrey seems to have lost some bat speed, resulting in less contact...
Bill Becker seems to have improved his pure stuff!
Bill Becker's pitches have more bite now, the movement has improved!
Harry Colman has lost some movement on his pitches...
Harry Colman's control seems to have taken a bump...


Monday 5/19/1910 :

Christopher Witmer has lost some power...
Arthur Morgan has lost some lower body strength, his duration drops to B ...
Arthur Morgan has lost some momentum, his range at P drops to B ...


Becker is a 2 star 20 year old closer in Single A. Bilbrey and Morgan are both aging, their decline is unfortunate but expected. Coleman is a 1 star Single-A reliever with no

future.

Monthly Awards
AL Pitcher: Jeff Zehner 3-0 1.48 ERA 19Ks (Boston)
NL Pitcher: William Rosinski 6-0 0.67 ERAs 43 Ks (Cincinnati) Rosinski is 9-3 overall.

AL Batter: Michael Rooker .287 avg/.333 OBP, 24 RBIs (Boston)
NL Batter: Bryan Myres .436 avg/.931 SLG, 37 RBIs (NY Giants) Myres is 1st in all Triple Crown Categories

I have no idea how finances are going to work out or if my settings are screwed up and everyone is going to make/lose money... so I'm kinda guessing here(I also like the learn-as-you-go approach to dynasties. It's more fun if I figure this stuff out as I'm playing, even if ya'll all get to see my mistakes).

Anyway, 3B/LF/SS I have identified as huge problems, LF because of the batting, 3B batting AND fielding, and SS fielding. I have a decent farm system but no prospects really ready to play in the majors anytime soon, my top prospects are all young and in Single-A.

My payroll is #1 in the majors, at 68 million right now. I have a large number of players whose contracts are up at the end of the year so I have to start thinking about extensions. That's my next step before I start June. I'm going to spend a fair amount of time actively shopping a few guys around, and then will look at the financial situation and start to decide who gets extension offers and who gets let go.

So my understanding is that the trade AI is good enough that you don't need any house rules. So here we go:

Here's the first trade:

Philadelphia(A) Gets:

3B Christ Witmer 4/5/6 C Range, Season: .228 Avg, 8 errors/.945 Fielding - 2 1/2 Stars Age 26

Chicago(N) Gets:

3B Allan Krieger 3/6/6 B Range, Season: .282 Avg, 3 errors/.975 Fielding - 2 Stars Age 30
SP Michael Kendrick 3 1/2 Star 19 year old Prospect
CL Ty Jones 4 Star 23 year old Prospect

I'm definitely giving up some supposed talent at the major league level, though my guy just isn't performing so far(it's very early but I'm very worried about being in last, maybe I'm too quick to pull a deal)


And the second deal:


Boston (N) Gets:
SS Juan Luckey (6/3/7) E Range horrible fielder. Batting .259.

Chicago (N) Gets:
SS Gregory Gum (4/5/5) C Range, 1 error in 51 games for Boston so far. Batting .251.
MR Joseph Nies 3 1/2 Star MR Prospect

The contracts are about the same, Luckey is a better hitter but I can't deal with an E Fielding range. Gum is 32, while Luckey is 30, I am getting a good relief prospect in addition and should be getting a huge upgrade on the defensive side of the ball.


Financially, I think I'm going to be losing a ton of money this year, but I'm really not certain yet. I'm drawing only 16,000 a game and my revenue per game is only $159,000. With the top payroll in the majors, that hurts. I'm going on the assumption that i need to cut a signifigant amount of salary this year. My payroll is currently $68 Million. I'm going to shoot for something between $55 and $60 Million next year unless I see some drastic changes in the revenue that I'm not expecting.

That being said, here's what we're dealing with:

Free Agents after this year:

2B A Reimers Current $7.6M Wants $9.6M
1B K Burrow Current $4.6M Wants Winning Team
CF R Holding Current $3.8M Wants $3.1M (age 37)
MR D Meador Current $2.3M Wants $2.3M
MR R Davis Current $1.7M Wants $2.7M
MR R Miura Current $1.2M Wants (let me hear offer)
3B A Krieger Current $985K Wants (will probably test market)
SP G Keegan Current $300K Wants (probably test market)


Lots of my backups were signed at 1 year/300K and are free agents too. I can probably cut some salary in my middle relief. I can also probably count on getting rid of Holding. His only saving grace is his speed and he'll be 38, I can't count on that. Reimers is worth what he's asking for but I'm not sure I can pay it...

so, that's where I sit. I think I'll give things another month to see how the new defensive players affect the situation(I don't expect a major turnaround or anything) and to try to see how my revenue changes over the next month.

I also have Ducker(left field) on the trading block, we'll see how that works out.


One big positive is the effect this is having on my minor league system. My top prospect Douglas McCart has improved from 41st to 27th prospect as the season has progressed. My new closer prospect is 34th, and my system as a whole is up to 8th from 12th.

Back to it. Holy shit. 27 year old, 4 Star, #2 starter, 2nd round pick in the draft, Wilfred Trent suffers a torn tricep muscle on June 2nd, 1910. The injury ends his career. :( In the last game of his career, Trent goes 6 innings and gives up 1 run in a game the Cubs eventually win 3-2.

The same day, Clinton Warman, my backup catcher, goes down for 5 weeks.

June 1910


This Month's Record: 11-11
Overall Record: 32-45
Current Standing: 8th place, 21 Games behind Pittsburgh. 1 Game out of next to last!

Major Injuries
Bye Bye Wilfred Trent.


League News
American League: St Louis and Detroit battle for the AL lead. St Louis has a 1 game lead over Detroit, with Washington only 3 back. We have new league leaders everywhere, M Baker for St Louis is putting up a .347 average and a 1149 OPS. C Frano for the White Sox has 26 homers to lead the AL. T Wilkins of the As continues to be the top pitcher in the league, having pushed his record to 12-5. A Hamblin of the Tigers is 2nd in Wins with 11 and leads the Majors now with 179 Ks.

National League: Pittsburgh remains the class of the Majors, they went 19-5 in June and are 53-24. 10 games ahead of New York and running away with the league. They'd be 8 games ahead of the top AL team. The NL sees new league leaders, Lamont Sevilla of the Reds has a .374 average, Don Crowder is 2nd at .373, and triple crown threat Myres is 3rd at .359. Myres continues to lead the league in homers with 33, and RBIs with 85. He's a virtual lock to win those two titles. The giants Christopher Lafferty is 13-3 to lead the majors in wins, is 25 wins within reach?

Team News

Spot Starter Jeffrey Moak informs me he wants a shot in the starting rotation, and I try out a 5 man rotation, all my other pitchers suck, what can it hurt?

38 year old Art Morgan is aging and fading fast, and is signed to a 4 year contract. I put him up on the block and will take almost anything for him.

I get a trade offer for Ducker. The Highlanders offer me SP Phillip Kempton for Ducker. Ducker is my left fielder, hitting .210 and costing me over $2 Million a year. Kempton will cost about $1.1 Million and is a middle of the road average starter. I pull the trigger.

SP Phillip Kempton 6/5/7 - Age 26, 2 1/2 Stars - $1.1M. He is in the last year of his contract.


Lineup Notes/Changes

We went .500 this month so I have to be pleased with that. Our 'whos hot' list has more players on it than the 'whos not' list for the first time that I've ever seen. We're near the bottom in most team stats, not suprisingly. Last in the league in homers, 2nd from last in runs, 12th in ERA, 14th in HRs allowed, last in walks allowed, that last one is a suprise to me.

Andrew Rahman is a bright spot and is on fire, his average is up to .353. He hit .364 in May and .419 in June. 2nd Baseman Anthony Reimers is consistant hitting .302 still.

The pitching is just discouraging. Allen Sallee is a bright spot, he's 10-7 with a 3.74 ERA, he went 4-1 in June for me. Larry Lach goes 2-3 for June and continues to disappoint. He's 6-12.

In general I feel we're playing a bit more consistantly but there are still few bright spots, and the career ending loss of Wilfred Trent is very painful.

During the month our scouts(minor league coaches? Whatever) recommend that Mihael Kendrick, my #4 prospect, a SP, be bumped up to AA from A. He's only 19 so this was quite an impressive reccomendation.
Team Leaders
AVG: C Rahman .353
HR: SS Gum 18 (5 since becoming a Cub)
RBI: SS Gum 57
SB: CF Holding 10
SP ERA: Sallee 3.74
RP ERA: Meador 1.69
SAVES: Little 2
Ks: Lach 154
W-L: Sallee 10-7 (last month's leader, Morgan went 1-4 in June and is fading very fast)


Player Development

Monday 6/2/1910 :

Robert Holding has lost some power...

Monday 6/9/1910 :

Arthur Morgan's control seems to have taken a bump...

Monday 6/16/1910 :

Gabriel Mccrady has lost a step. His speed drops to E ...
Robert Holding has lost some momentum, his stealing ability drops to B ...
Robert Holding has lost some momentum, his range at CF drops to B ...

Monday 6/23/1910 :

Robert Holding seems to have lost some bat speed, resulting in less contact...

Monday 6/30/1910 :

Chance Poole seems to have lost some of his feel for his stuff...
Chance Poole has lost some movement on his pitches...


Holding is apparently dying on the DL. He definitely won't be back next year.


Monthly Awards
AL Pitcher: Steve Davenport 4-0 2.06 ERA 27 Ks (Cleveland)
NL Pitcher: Edward Shinn 2-1 0.91 ERA over 29.2 Innings/4 starts (Pittsburgh)

AL Batter: Charles Franco .370 avg/1341 OPS for the month, 12 HRs/23 RBIs (Chicago White Sox)
NL Batter: Donald Crowder .400 avg/1420 OPS/.500 OBP 10 HRs (Boston) - Crowder's 2nd Batter of the Month award this year

2B A Reimers Current $7.6M Wants $9.6M
1B K Burrow Current $4.6M Wants Winning Team
CF R Holding Current $3.8M Wants $3.1M (age 37)
MR D Meador Current $2.3M Wants $2.3M
MR R Davis Current $1.7M Wants $2.7M
MR R Miura Current $1.2M Wants (let me hear offer)
3B A Krieger Current $985K Wants (will probably test market)
SP G Keegan Current $300K Wants (probably test market)


Well with Trent's career over, I assume he gets cut at the end of the year? He's signed through 1913, and i wasn't allowed to release him. Hopefully that works itself out at the end of the season? any ideas?

That frees up about $5 Million a year.

I made Ken Burrows a few offers and he's adamant about playing elsewhere next year, he wants a winner and he won't find it in Chicago just yet. He makes about $4.5M that I will not be spending next year.

George Keegan signs for 1.1M for 3 years. He's not great but he's holding down a starting spot for me and he's 30 years old and I'm losing some older starters... an increase of $850,000/yr

I lock up Anthony Reimers for possibly the rest of his career, for $8.75M a year. He was asking for over $9 so I save a bit. I'll have him on my roster for 4 more years... an increase of $1.1M/yr.

Allan Krieger feels I'm not offering him a big enough raise at 3rd base and will test the market. Bah!

Backup 1st Baseman Samual Saunders takes a $200K/yr pay cut for 2 years, he'll make $500K a year(2 star 4/5/4).

Richard Henry, my "utility outfielder" gets $900K for 3 years. He's nothing at the plate but is fast and a solid defender.

2 1/2 Star starter Phillip Kempton gets a big raise, he'll make $2.75M for the next 2 years. I'm not sure he's worth it but he is putting up a decent ERA and has youth going for him.

Reliver Robert Miura gets a 400K/yr raise to hold down the pen.

4 star reliever Robert Davis gets a 600K/yr raise to help Miura out. The rest of the expensive relief staff is gone.

I'm saving 2.4M a year on David Meador, over $5 Million on Wilfred Trent, and $5 Million on Ken Burrow(that one is unfortunate, I wanted to keep him aruond), so it looks like the cubs are officially rebuilding!

We get out of July with everyone injury free.

July 1910


This Month's Record: 9-19
Overall Record: 41-64
Current Standing: 8th place, 32 Games behind Pittsburgh. 6 Game out of next to last!

Major Injuries
None!


League News
American League: St Louis has opened a very slim lead, 3 games, over Detroit with a 59-46 record. We see another new batting leader, Dewey Sobers of the Senators batting .343. Michael Rooker of the Red Sox has 35 homers now to lead the AL, he also has 93 RBIs. The A's Thomas Wilkins continues to lead the AL in wins but isn't dominating as much as he was earlier in the year, he's 15-7 now. Detroit's Ahmad Hamlin is 14-9.

National League: Pittsburgh remains the class of the Majors, they went 20-8 in July and are 73-32. 14 games ahead of New York and running away with the league. Lamont Sevilla of the Reds has a .382 average and is starting to run away with the batting crown. Brandon Myres is all but a lock for the HR and RBI titles, at 41/112 already. The Giantss Christopher Lafferty is 17-5, John Curry of the Pirates had a great month and is 17-5 now. The Cubs Larry Lach continues to put up the Ks, with 211 he is 2nd in the NL.

Team News

The Cubs had quite a day against the Cardinals mid-month:


Wednesday 7/23/1910 :

Gabriel Mccrady hits a 523-foot homerun!!
Anthony Reimers hits a 504-foot homerun!!
Allan Krieger hits a 474-foot homerun!!
Richard Henry hits a 504-foot homerun!!
Anthony Reimers hits 2 homers against St Louis (N).
Anthony Reimers drives in 5 runs against St Louis (N).


Lineup Notes/Changes

Andrew Rahman cooled off a bit but is still the offensive star batting .338. Gum and Reimers are showing at least a little bit of pop, they've both surpassed 20 homers. Holding is back off the DL and in center field and has 12 steals now, he lost so much while he was hurt though, he's down to 4/1/3.

The pitching actually improved over the month. Maybe the 5 man rotation is helping. All my starters had ERAs over 5 except Sallee for awhile, and Lach/Kempton/Moak are all hovering in the mid 4.50 range now, a big setp up. Lach is still at risk of becoming a 20 game loser though, he's 8-16. Sallee and Morgan are our only 10 game winners so far.

Team Leaders
AVG: C Rahman .338
HR: SS Gum 22
RBI: SS Gum 68
SB: CF Holding 12
SP ERA: Sallee 4.31
RP ERA: Meador 1.69
SAVES: Little 2
Ks: Lach 211
W-L: Sallee 12-11, Morgan 10-7


Player Development

Monday 7/7/1910 :

John Garibay has lost a step. His speed drops to D ...
John Garibay has lost some momentum, his range at 3B drops to E ...
John Garibay has lost some momentum, his range at SS drops to D ...
Arthur Morgan has lost some lower body strength, his duration drops to C ...
Archie Bilbrey has lost some power...
John Kelly has lost a step. His speed drops to D ...
John Kelly has lost some momentum, his range at RF drops to D ...

Monday 7/21/1910 :

John Garibay has gained more power!
Harry Colman has worked out more, his duration raises to B ...

Monday 7/28/1910 :

Arthur Morgan has lost some lower body strength, his duration drops to D ...
Arthur Morgan has lost some momentum, his range at P drops to C ...
Bryan Bartlett has lost a step. His speed drops to B ...
Bryan Bartlett has lost some momentum, his range at LF drops to C ...
Bryan Bartlett has lost some momentum, his range at RF drops to C ...
Bryan Bartlett has lost some momentum, his range at LF drops to D ...
Bryan Bartlett has lost some momentum, his range at RF drops to D ...


Bartlett is old, that doesn't matter, so is Morgan and Bilbrey. Garibay is picking up some power which is nice but the defense scares me.

Monthly Awards
AL Pitcher: Tim Tindle 4-2 1.33 ERA 54 IP 11 BB 34 K (New York(A))
NL Pitcher: Robert Chrisman 5-1 1.45 ERA 56 Ks in 56 innings. (Boston(N)) - Chrisman was 3-9 prior to July.

AL Batter: Michael Rooker .261 avg/1122 OPS 13 HRs/33 RBIs (Boston(A))
NL Batter: Benjamin Englund .366 avg/1255 OPS 12 HRs - a solid player, .336/36/82

For a brief, shining moment the Cubs go on an 8 game winning streak in the middle of August and get out of last place! A 6 game losing streak to close the month drops us back down to last.

August 1910


This Month's Record: 15-13
Overall Record: 56-77
Current Standing: 8th place, 28 Games behind Pittsburgh. 1 Game out of next to last!

Major Injuries
None!


League News
American League: St Louis is pulling away in the AL, an 8 game lead with a month to go, a magic number of 14. The St Louis Browns Michael Baker is up to .350 and has the batting lead by 9 points. The A's Joseph Laombe now has the HR and RBI lead(43/113), Rooker fell off a little last month. Detroit's Ahmad Hamblin went nuts in August and is now 20-10, the first AL 20 game winner. He also has 295 Ks to lead the majors and seems a likely Pitcher of the Year candidate in the AL

National League: Pittsburgh has a magic number of 12, they're 84-49, 10 ahead of the Giants. The various titles in the NL are secured. Sevilla of Cincinnati is batting .376, and Brandon Myres has 50 Homers and 137 RBIs, crushing any competition. The Giants' Christopher Lafferty is 21-7, the only NL 20 game winner so far.

Team News

Larry Lach had quite a month! See below at the monthly awards :)


Monday 8/25/1910 :

Lawrence Lach was named Player of the Week!
He won 2 games, with 2 shutouts, pitched 18 innings
with an ERA of 0.00, fanning 23.


Lineup Notes/Changes
The pitching has really improved big time, we're up to 7th in ERA in the league, and 4th in runs allowed. Being 14th in runs scored makes it irrelevant but at least we're pitching a bit now. Lach had a great month, his ERA just might fall below 4, he's 12-18 with a 4.01 ERA right now.

Rahman raises his average to .370! He has also taken over the team lead in RBIs, he's really producing now.


Team Leaders
AVG: C Rahman .370
HR: SS Gum 24
RBI: C Rahman 79
SB: CF Holding 15
SP ERA: Lach 4.01
RP ERA: Meador 0.93
SAVES: Little 2
Ks: Lach 283
W-L: Sallee 15-13, Morgan 10-7


Player Development

Monday 8/4/1910 :

Michael Kendrick has lost some movement on his pitches...
Michael Carlucci has lost some momentum, his range at 2B drops to B ...
Nelson Brown increased his bat control, resulting in more contact!
Nelson Brown has improved his plate disclipine!

Monday 8/18/1910 :

Kenneth Burrow is getting faster, his speed increases to D ...
Raymond Prior seems to have improved his pure stuff!

Monday 8/25/1910 :

Archie Bilbrey has lost some momentum, his stealing ability drops to C ...

Monday 9/1/1910 :

Kenneth Burrow is getting faster, his speed increases to C ...
Robert Miura seems to have lost some of his feel for his stuff...
Robert Miura's control seems to have taken a bump...
Ronald Messner has lost some momentum, his range at 2B drops to D ...
Ronald Messner has lost some momentum, his range at SS drops to D ...


Prior is a legit 3.5 Star prospect so his improvements impress me. Many of the losses were due to aging.

Monthly Awards
AL Pitcher: William Shimer 5-0 1.76 ERA over the month, 15-6 on the year(Cleveland)
NL Pitcher: Lawrence Lach - 4-2 1.70 ERA for the month, 53 IP/72 Ks!!! Only 13 Walks in the process, amazing and congrats Larry!

AL Batter: Mike Baker .396 avg/.509 OBP/1322 OPS, 9 HRs 25 RBIs and a 3/1 bb/k ratio(St Louis(A))
NL Batter: Andrew Rahman .493 avg/.529 OBP/1316 OPS!!! Wowow .493 average, congrats to Andrew, as the last place cubs dominate the monthly awards :)

It appears Rahman just isn't getting up to bat enough? He's hitting .370 in 362 ABs, the league leaders are over 400 ABs by now, and Rahman isn't on the league leader lists.

It's "wait til next year" time, but hey, we're the cubs, Rome wasn't built in a day.


September 1910


This Month's Record: 7-14
Overall Record: 63-91
Current Standing: 8th place, 31 games behind Pittsburgh

Major Injuries
SP Larry Lach missed 2 weeks of the month with an injury.

League News
American League: St Louis held off Detroit easily, winning the division by 8 games, they finish 89-65. Washington's Shaun Clear goes on a tear in the final month to win the batting crown, batting .352 on the year, the A's J Lacombe finishes with 55 homers, and M Rooker of the Red Sox has 140 RBIs. Detroit's Ahmad Hamblin wins 24 games and strikes out 334 men and will likely win the pitcher of the year award.

National League: Pittsburgh finishes 94-60, 8 games over the Giants. Sevilla hits .363 to win the batting crown by 30 points, and Myres hits 58 homers and 155 RBIs to dominate. Lafferty for the Giants wins 24, while the Cardinals Briggs strikes out 337 men to take the NL title. Lach strikes out 327. The top 3 in the league in ERA are all Pirates, Curry 2.39, Shinn 2.43, Okane 2.98. Amazing.

Team News



Lineup Notes/Changes

Rahman ends up hitting .373 but I guess he just didn't get enough plate appearances.

Larry Lach loses 20 games and goes 12-20 but he seemed to have benefitted from the 5 man rotation and finished 14-20. He went 8-8 in the last 3 months of the year with an ERA under 2.50, giving me high hopes for him for next year.

Team Leaders
AVG: C Rahman .373
HR: 2B Reimers 27
RBI: 2B Reimers 92
SB: CF Holding 17
SP ERA: Lach 3.86
RP ERA: Meador 0.93
SAVES: Little 2
Ks: Lach 324
W-L: Sallee 16-17, Morgan 10-7, Lach 14-20.


Player Development

Monday 9/1/1910 :

Kenneth Burrow is getting faster, his speed increases to C ...
Robert Miura seems to have lost some of his feel for his stuff...
Robert Miura's control seems to have taken a bump...
Ronald Messner has lost some momentum, his range at 2B drops to D ...
Ronald Messner has lost some momentum, his range at SS drops to D ...

Monday 9/15/1910 :

Jeffrey Moak's pitches have more bite now, the movement has improved!
Keith Hawkins increased his bat control, resulting in more contact!
Keith Hawkins has gained more power!

Monday 9/22/1910 :

Donald Meidinger has lost some movement on his pitches...
Donald Meidinger has lost some lower body strength, his duration drops to D ...

Monday 9/29/1910 :

Robert Holding has lost some momentum, his stealing ability drops to C ...
Robert Holding has lost some momentum, his range at CF drops to C ...
John Kelly has improved his plate disclipine!
Joe Martin seems to have improved his pure stuff!



Monthly Awards
AL Pitcher: Ed Geer 4-1 2.60 ERA (Cleveland) Geer is a rather bad pitcher who got hot for a month, he went 11-17
NL Pitcher: Stacey Roberts 5-0 1.60 ERA 45 IP/34 Ks (New York(N))

AL Batter: Joseph LaCombe .406 avg/12 HRs in 19 games (Philadelphia)
NL Batter: Sherman Ellerbee .380 avg/.420 OBP (Boston(N))

1910 World Series

Game 1

We open up in Forbes Field, John Curry opens up on the mound for Pittsburgh, he brings in a 2.39 ERA and a 22-9 record.

St Louis starts Bruce Dockins, 15-13 with a 4.23 ERA.

St Louis goes up 1-0 in the 2nd as Curry loses it, hits one man and walks 3.

3rd Inning: St Loui's Tom Thatcher hits a solo homer, 2-0 St Louis. Thatcher hit .299 with 21 homers during the season

4th Innng: Pittsburgh's Patrich Hepworth hits a solo shot to make it 2-1, he only hit 8 during the season. A triple and a sac fly tie the game in the 4th, 2-2.

5th Inning: A triple, a double, a wild pitch, and a balk bring home 2 more, it's 4-2 Pirates.

6th Inning: An Error, a triple, and a sac fly bring in 2 more for St Louis, it's 4-4!

The defense picks up after that and we see extra innings. In the bottom of the 11th Pittsburgh gets a leadoff double, a sac bunt moves the runner to third, but he's stranded there.

St Louis scores on a 2 out double in the top of the 12th! Pittsburgh can't score and that's it. Dockins for St Louis goes the distance!

St Louis 5-4 (11) : 1-0 series lead


Game 2

Game 2 in Pittsburgh sees Raymond Okane, 11-6 2.98 ERA going for the Pirates. St Louis sends Ben Defoor to the mound, a 16-16 pitcher with a 5.19 ERA

4th Inning: Pittsburgh opens the scoring on a solo homer by Elloit Glowacki (hit 18 on the year) Defoor loses control after that and the Pirates put up a 5 run 4th to lead 5-0.

It's never close after that.

Pittsburgh 8-2 : Series tied 1-1


Game 3

In St Louis, the Browns pitch Ray Pangle, 8-5 with a 5.26 ERA. Pittsburgh runs out its 3rd star, Edward Shinn, 21-10, 2.43 ERA

5th Inning: a leadoff double, a sac bunt and a groundout put across the first run. 1-0 Pittsburgh.

8th: St Louis gets a leadoff double. A sac bunt moves the runner to 3rd. A short looping fly ball, a great sliding catch is made by the right fielder! The runner can't tag up! Pittsburgh gets out of the jam and goes into the 9th up 1-0.

9th: St Louis trails 1-0. they get a leadoff single, then Knapp almost hits one out, the catch is made at the track! a strikeout brings pittsburgh 1 out away. Greg Hamel takes a 1-1 pitch and turns on it, driving it out of the ballpark!!! That's a 2-1 win for St Louis, great game! Hamel gets his only hit of the game, he's batting .077 for the series but boy did he make it count!

St Louis 2-1 : Series: St Louis 2-1


Game 4

The #1 starters come back out today, John Curry(0-0) for the Pirates, Bruce Dockins(1-0) for the Browns.

4th: Pittsburgh goes up 1-0 on a single and a 2 out triple.

4th: Curry gives up doubles to the first two men up. He then gets 2 outs but proceeds to lose control, 3 walks and 2 hits later it's 5-1 St Louis.

Pittsburgh never threatens seriously to tie it up again

St Louis 6-3 : Series: St Louis 3-1

St Louis' Bruce Dockins has taken down Pittsburgh's ace twice in a row now!

Game 5

Ray Okane tries to keep the Pirates alive, while Ben Defoor tries to put it away for St Louis, Defoor had a horrible performance in game 2.

Defoor makes up for it! St Louis wins easily, 7-3, Pittsburgh only got 3 hits.


St Louis Browns have won the 1910 World Series, 4-1 over the Pittsburgh Pirates


It's very late :) Tomorrow I'll see if I can't get a website going after each season, and present the end of season stuff.

I've uploaded the end of season set of HTML files to my website. Here is the 1910 season!

http://www.angband.org/~radii/

1910 Outstanding Batter Awards

American: LF Mike Baker, SLA, (492 AB, .348 AVG, 52 HR, 125 RBI, 129 R, 171 Hits, 1.184 OPS)
National: RF Bryan Myres, NYN, (534 AB, .339 AVG, 58 HR, 155 RBI, 111 R, 181 Hits, 1.149 OPS)

1910 Outstanding Pitcher Awards

American: Ahmad Hamblin, DET, (Record: 24-11, 3.41 ERA, 316.1IP, 334 Ks, 96 BB)
National: John Curry, PIT, (Record: 22-9, 2.39 ERA, 297IP, 275 Ks, 82 BB)


1910 Newcomer of the Year Award

American: RF Robert Tucker, PHA, (466 AB, .247 AVG, 38 HR, 96 RBI, 78 R, 115 Hits, .848 OPS)
National: 3B Thomas Willis, NYN, (541 AB, .244 AVG, 30 HR, 94 RBI, 93 R, 132 Hits, .819 OPS)


1910 Slick Fielder Awards

1910 American Winners

Pitcher: August Riemer, BOA
Catcher: John Johnston, DET
First Base: Terrance Branco, CHA
Second Base: Joseph Church, BOA
Third Base: Aron Auzenne, CHA
Shortstop: Russell Rickey, BOA
Leftfield: Howard Pompey, CLE
Centerfield: Evan Patel, CLE
Rightfield: Richard Wickham, NYA


1910 National Winners

Pitcher: Allan Wotring, BON
Catcher: Jay Lederman, BRO
First Base: Kenneth Burrow, CHN
Second Base: Mario Grant, CIN
Third Base: Mark Wegman, BRO
Shortstop: Gregory Gum, CHN
Leftfield: Elliot Glowacki, PIT
Centerfield: Ronald Owen, NYN
Rightfield: Sean Miramontes, BRO


Everything else is on the website, though if there's anything I could go more in depth in let me know.

One thing I've noticed is that a majority of teams in the league lost money this year. Most teams, except for the New York Giants, hovered in the 55 Million in revenue range, including the Cubs. Most teams had a slightly higher payroll. It will be interesting to see how this effects the league over the next few years. For me, my Cubs had a $68 Million payroll this year and we lost a ton of money and are in 'rebuilding mode' as a result.

Off to the offseason, there are lots of free agents to be had but I don't think we'll be making many moves ourselves.

We open up 1911 with $51 Million committed in salary. That really only leaves me with $5 Million to spend if I want to turn a profit this year. We have -$5 Million cash, so we actually could use not spending any money at all. Our fan interest is down to 50.

Clearly this is a big time rebuilding year for us. Time to look at our roster and see how much we have to do.

Preseason News


Friday 1/31/1911 :

Wilfred Trent retires ...
Michael Kendrick retires ...
Anthony Bracamonte retires ...
Bryan Bartlett retires ...
John Weiland retires ...
Samuel Hart retires ...
Chris Lofland retires ...
Conrad Versace retires ...
Kenneth Burrow becomes a free agent.
Allan Krieger becomes a free agent.
Robert Holding becomes a free agent.
Jerry Stefanski becomes a free agent.
David Meador becomes a free agent.
Clinton Warman becomes a free agent.
Danny Price becomes a free agent.
Willie Mcmahan becomes a free agent.
Jerry Reed becomes a free agent.
Archie Bilbrey becomes a free agent.


Trent retired, good, he was the one that suffered the horrible career ending injury. Burrow and Krieger I like but I couldn't re-sign last year. The rest of them I'm not terribly interested in, a lot of extra middle relief that i didn't use and aging stars.


Well there's definitely work to do, only 18 men on the Major League Roster.

Catcher

Andrew Rahman is back, 3 stars, 29 years old, 6/5/7, coming off a great season, batting .373 in 113 games. He's not that great and I don't expect .373 but I know I'm set at this position. George Pink is a decent backup, 28 years old, 4/3/6, batted .281 last year.

First Base

We lost our starting 1B last year, and are left with Samuel Saunders, 32 y/o, 2 stars, 4/5/4, batted .286 in 24 games. He's not a solid starter but may be something we deal with for payroll reasons.

Second Base

Anthony Reimers is the man here. 6/5/8, 32 y/o, a 4 star man. Batted .286 with 27 homers last year. He's our star offensive player, and he makes $8.75M a year. He *might* be tradable if we can get a couple of solid $3-$4M players in his place, but I like him a lot. Jeffrey Engram, 33 y/o 3/3/4 is our backup, he makes $1M a year, and isn't worth it.

Shortstop

Gregory Gum is back, coming off a outstanding fielder award season. He's a 2 1/2 star 32 year old, 4/5/5, coming off a .204 season where he hit 25 homers.

Third Base

We're clean. Nothin! We lost our 3B last year, a guy I wanted to keep but couldn't due to his desire to play for a winner. Clearly, we have found a place we need to upgrade :)

Left Field

Another place where we're clean. We lost most of our outfield.

Center Field

31 year old Richard Henry[/B] is back, he was a quality reserve last year and I hope he will be the same this year. 4/3/4, batted .256 in 107 games last year. He has great range in all 3 outfield positions. That's all I've got though, so I need to find a starter.

Right Field

[U]Gabriel McCrady is back, he was under the radar last year a bit because of Rahman and Riemers, but really the man can play. 7/4/8, he hit a solid .312 last season, he has little power with 11 homers, but he's good and consistant, 61 BBs/59 Ks.

That's it. 3rd base, left field and center are clearly our top priorities. Backups in the infield would be nice too, we need 7 additional players on the major league roster.


Starting Pitching

We've got a rotation. It starts with Larry Lach, 5 star 27 year old, 10/8/6. He was 14-20 last year but had a very solid second half of the year. Our #2 starter is Allen Sallee, a guy we brought over in a trade with the Cards last year. Sallee went 16-17 last season, he's a 6/6/7 2 1/2 star man. #3 starter Phillip Kempton is next, another 2 1/2 star starter, 6/5/7, he struggled a lot last year, going 10-22. We'll hope for better this year. George Keegan (6/6/7) and Jeff Moak (6/7/6) will finish out our 5 man rotation and aging Art Morgan has one more year left in him it seems. Well, not really, 3/4/3 38 year old, he's on contract through 1914 and we don't want him that long, we'll be looking to deal him early and often. But we do have 6 starters and aren't looking for one in free agency necessarily.


Relief Pitching
Our closer is 4 1/2 star Christian Little, 32 years old, 8/6/7. I need quicker hooks and more saves, he only pitched 4 times last year. I understand the era, but this guy can help me. David Cone, Robert Davis and Robert Miura are all very quality relief pitchers. That may be all we need given the lack of relief pitching use in the era.



Free Agent Priorities

3B, LF, CF, backup outfielder, backup utility infielder. I have no more than $5 Million to spend. If it takes more than that to fill all necessary positions, then I will consider trading Reimers and his $8 Million+ salary.

2 Star SS Rodney Simpson may well get a callup from the minors to take up the utility infield slot, and I can call up a 2 star MR or two from AAA to fill out my roster if I can fill the other key positions.


Minor League Outlook

Two prospects in AAA, 4 star Closer Ty Jones May be very close to making it to the show, and 2 star 3B Charlie Honig is probably a year or two away.


In AA, 3 1/2 Star Jason Garibay is only 19 and a long ways off. Same for 18 year old 3 1/2 Star J Nies, both of them may not be ready for AA yet, we'll see. 22 year old LF Alfred Krupa I have high hopes for also, he's getting his AA shot.

I am very hopeful about 3 SP prospects, two of them are in AA. William Cox and Ray Prior are both 3 1/2 star men. Cox is 22, Prior 20. Prior may be ready for AAA but I'm not rushing him at age 20. Cox is getting his first shot up from A to AA, we'll see how he does. Prior is the top prospect in my system.

In Single A is my #2 prospect, Douglas McCart, he's only 19 and will likely spend the season down there. We have the #6 ranked farm system in the majors and i'm hopeful that's where much of my rebuilding success will come from.

And finally, on to free agency.

Oh dear. Because of the fact that we lost $11 Million in our first year, and have a negative cash balance, we have a grand total of $465,060 to spend on salary. Well, I make one offer to a 3rd baseman with decent range(who can't hit of course) for $465,060.

We've got a potential deal setup with the Philadelphia A's to fill some of our position problems, but I'm not pulling the trigger just yet.

Good thing, a little more playing around and I get a much better deal.

Chicago (N) gets:

LF Joseph LaCombe - 31 y/o 2 1/2 Stars $3.3 M (expires this year). 3/9/4, he hit .254 and led the majors with 55 homers last year.

CF Brian Huneycutt - 26 y/o 2 star $1.9M, expires this year. 5/5/6, quite average but fills the hole.

Philadelphia(A) gets:

CL Christian Little - 4 star 32 y/o closer, 8/6/7, $2.3M/yr til 1913. With so many complete games, solid closers aren't valuable yet. I was going to mess with the settings to try to get Little involved more but this helps better.

MR Melvin Starner - 2 star 28 year old, he was in AAA.


That fills two of my biggest holes.


We fill the third hole, 3B with Oscar Gerke, for $465K for this year. Gerke is a poor 2/4/4 man with decent defense. Boy the cash crunch is making this painful.

We fill our roster with AAA players who aren't really ever going anywhere. Our payroll is now sitting at $54 Million. With less fan interest I fear we won't make $56 Million like last year, but we shall see.

I have the amateur draft setup for the preseason right now, I'm doing this draft, and after June 1 I'll change it to midseason. Well, lets see what we can do in the draft!

I set it to a 7 round draft also, that sounds normal at least for other leagues I've seen. Since we sucked so bad last year, we get the first pick. Our top 4 prospects are starting pitchers, so I debate between taking a starter which seems to be the norm in drafting, or finding the best position player in the draft.

I don't debate long. After looking over the draft list, there is only one option, so easy its silly.

Amatuer Draft

1) Russell Lobb - 2B - Age 22 - 5 star prospect - Good/Brilliant/Brilliant. Already 4/3/5, A range in the field, not fast but a smart runner.

The top 3 picks are batters, then 7 straight pitchers.

2) Ronald Hague - SS - Age 20 - 3 star prospect - Average/Average/Average - 0/2/2, listed as someone who should be a good starter but not a team leader. Hague has some big advantages though. A range on defense at short, 2nd, AND 3rd. a great runner, B speed/B stealing, A bunting. All other better players available are relief pitchers...

3) Norris Sikorski - SP - Age 22 - 3 star prospect - Average/Average/Average - 3/2/1 currently, a decent but not great pitcher, coudl become a good #3 man if he develops. He gets a lot of ground balls, and has a decent duration.

4) Ruben Maggard - MR - Age 23 - 3 1/2 stars - Average/Average/Average - 5/5/4 currently, a lock to be a solid man in the 'pen. 65% ground balls I like.

5) George Holzer - CF - Age 18 - 2 stars - a long shot prospect really.

In rounds 6 and 7 we go after long shot pitcher Wallace Solis and RF Dylan Troup.


Post Draft Minor League Systems

1. New York (A)
2. Boston (A)
3. Cleveland
4. Pittsburgh
5. Chicago (N) - 1st round pick Russell Lobb is the #1 Prospect in the majors!!!
6. Chicago (A)
7. Philadelphia (A)
8. Philadelphia (N)
9. St Louis (N)
10. St Louis (A)
11. Cincinnati
12. Detroit
13. Washington
14. New York (N)
15. Brooklyn
16. Boston (N)

This year won't be the year, but I feel like I have a lot to look forward to. Lobb is the #1 prospect in the majors, pitchers Prior, McCart, Jones(Closer) and Cox are ranked 35th, 43rd, 48th, 54th.

SPRING TRAINING NEWS:

Russell Lobb has good batting practice sessions!
Albert Krupa has good batting practice sessions!
Albert Krupa displays more power in batting practice!
Albert Krupa showed good strike zone judgement!
Norris Sikorski has increased his throwing velocity!
Norris Sikorski has improved his control!
George Holzer has good batting practice sessions!
George Holzer displays more power in batting practice!
George Holzer showed good strike zone judgement!
William Cox has improved his control!
Chris Broussard has good batting practice sessions!
Chris Broussard displays more power in batting practice!
James Elzy has good batting practice sessions!
Randall Parker has improved his control!
Chance Poole has good pitching sessions!
Douglas Coppa has good pitching sessions!
Jack Grammer has good pitching sessions!
Jack Grammer has improved his control!
Bill Becker has good pitching sessions!
Bill Becker has increased his throwing velocity!
Bill Becker has improved his control!
William Higgs has good batting practice sessions!
William Higgs displays more power in batting practice!
Stephen Nies has good batting practice sessions!
Stephen Nies displays more power in batting practice!
Stephen Nies showed good strike zone judgement!
Charlie Honig has good batting practice sessions!
Charlie Honig displays more power in batting practice!
Charlie Honig showed good strike zone judgement!
Keith Hawkins has good batting practice sessions!
Keith Hawkins showed good strike zone judgement!
Aaron Moffatt has good batting practice sessions!
Aaron Moffatt showed good strike zone judgement!
John Kelly displays more power in batting practice!
William Reynosa has good pitching sessions!
William Reynosa has improved his control!
Peter Mclaughlin has good pitching sessions!
Peter Mclaughlin has increased his throwing velocity!
Harry Colman has good pitching sessions!
Harry Colman has increased his throwing velocity!
Joe Martin has increased his throwing velocity!
Joe Martin has improved his control!
Jeffrey Walker has good pitching sessions!
Jeffrey Walker has increased his throwing velocity!
Herschel Dudek displays more power in batting practice!
Michael Carlucci showed good strike zone judgement!



Going into the season, our payroll of $55,181,403 is 12th in the majors, but may be too much for us to turn a profit. Our Fan Interest of 50/100 is 11th.

Looking ahead, 5 players will be free agents after the season. Three of them we just signed, Gerke (3B), LaCombe(LF) and Huneycutt (CF)

Off to the season!

Two league changes:

Brooklyn comes to their senses and renames themselves from the SUPERBAS to the Dodgers. Boston (N) renames themselves from the Doves, to the Rustlers.

Art Morgan has announced his retirement. I am glad. 38, he's lost all his talent and is eating up over $1 Million.



April 1911


This Month's Record: 13-13
Overall Record: 13-13
Current Standing: 5th Place, 4 games behind Pittsburgh

Major Injuries
Gregory Gum, our starting SS, is out for 4 weeks, former prospect turned below average SS Rodney Simpson gets his shot.

League News
American League: Detroit is hot, 19-7 and 3 games over the A's and the defending champion Browns. PROSPECT Richard Canup (3/9/3) opens with 16 homers in the month for the Highlanders. Lonnie Evans hits .409 for the As.

National League: Pittsburgh starts on top again at 17-9, Brooklyn is 1 back, Cincinnati and the Giants are 14-12, both 1 game up over the Cubs. The Cubs were hot early but losing streaks of 3 and 4 in the last week and a half hurt us. Chicago's own Gabriel McCrady hit .414 in April to lead the league. Pittsburgh's Ray Okane and John Curry pick up where they left off, 1st and 3rd in ERA at 1.00 and 1.65. Chicago's Larry Lach is 2nd, 1.53 in a much much better April!

Team News

Larry Lach one a player of the week award, and again consistantly strikes out 10+ men every game.

Lineup Notes/Changes

On Offense, McCrady is the man, .414 avg/6 HRs in the first month. our Catcher Rahman starts off great again batting .360, and CF pickup Huneycutt hit .281 in the leadoff spot.

Larry Lach is off to a great start, 5-1/1.53 ERA, 59 Ks/53 IP. Jeff Moak started off 2-0, he missed a week due to injury. The rest of the staff is painful, 6-12 with ERAs up above 5.50.

Team Leaders
AVG: RF McCrady .414
HR: RF McCrady/LF LaCombe 6
RBI: LF LaCombe 19
SB: Many - 2
SP ERA: Lach 1.53
RP ERA: Miura/Davis 0.00
SAVES: 0
Ks: Lach 59
W-L: Lach 5-1


Player Development

Monday 4/7/1911 :

Douglas Mccart seems to have improved his pure stuff!
James Harvill is getting faster, his speed increases to D ...

Monday 4/14/1911 :

James Harvill plate discipline seems to have faded...
Allen Sallee seems to have lost some of his feel for his stuff...
Allen Sallee has lost some movement on his pitches...
Joseph Nies has lost some lower body strength, his duration drops to D ...

Monday 4/21/1911 :

Dylan Troup has learned reading pitchers better, his stealing ability raises to C ...
Arthur Morgan seems to have lost some of his feel for his stuff...
George Freeman has learned reading pitchers better, his stealing ability raises to A ...

Monday 4/28/1911 :

Wallace Solis has lost some lower body strength, his duration drops to C ...
Robert Berthold has lost some lower body strength, his duration drops to D ...


McCart's improvement is great to see, and Sallee falling a bit hurts.

Monthly Awards
AL Pitcher: Matt Baker 5-1 3.00 ERA .195 opponents average (Detroit)
NL Pitcher: Raymond Okane 6-0 1.00 ERA 66 Ks/5 BBs/54 IP (Pittsburgh)

AL Batter: Brandon Bailey .396 avg/.450 OBP/12 HR/41 RBI (Detroit)
NL Batter: Donnell Clements .373 avg/.442 OBP/7 HR/23 RBI (Pittsburgh)

Russell Lobb and Albert Krupa, two of my best hitting prospects, are both ready for Triple-A and get the callup from AA.

In his first and only month in AA, Lobb hit .354.

Anthony Reimers, who I had not noticed is loyal to the Cubs, announces that he's unhappy I have him on the trading block.



May 1911


This Month's Record: 16-13
Overall Record: 29-26
Current Standing: 3rd Place - 4 games behind Pittsburgh

Major Injuries
Many day to day injuries that may be effecting us.

League News
American League: Detroit still leads the AL, they're 35-20 and 2 games ahead of the Browns, 5 over the As. Richard Canup has 23 HRs for the Highlanders now. Dude is 22 years old, he doesn't hit for average, but do we have a long term home run king among us? Lamont Sevilla, who was a star for Cincinnati last year and was the top free agent available, signed by Cleveland for $10 Million a year, is leading the AL with a .377 average. Cleveland's starter Ed Geer is 9-2 with a 2.64 ERA leading the AL in both of those categories.

National League: Pittsburgh is 33-22, Brooklyn is 32-23, and the Cubs hold onto 3rd at 29-26. The reason for the cubs success is clearly the offense. McCrady continues to hit well over .400, he's at .411. Rahman is 2nd in the NL at .324. McCrady has the only OPS in the nL over 1000. LaCombe leads the NL in homers with 11, and RBIs with 47, and Brian Huneycutt has the longest hitting streak, 13. Ray Okane dominates in the pitching side of things, leading the league with a 1.94 ERA, and a 10-1 record. Lach fell off a bit in May.

Team News

Monday 5/19/1911 :

Gabriel Mccrady was named Player of the Week!
He batted .600 in 25 AB, with 2 RBI.

Saturday 6/1/1911 :

Allen Sallee was named National-Pitcher of the Month !
He had a record of 6-0 in 6 games started, with an ERA of 2.62 and 2 shutouts.


Lineup Notes/Changes

All of the stars got their mention for topping the league... Huneycutt is hitting .306 in the leadoff spot, McCrady is batting .411, Rahman hit .324, and LaCombe has 17 HRs/47 RBIs.

Larry Lach slowed a bit, he's 7-5 now with a 3.23 ERA, but the rest of the staff has iproved. Sallee as you can see above went 6-0 in the month, Moak is 4-4, Keegen and Kempton held their own and went .500 over the month.

Team Leaders
AVG: RF McCrady .414
HR: RF McCrady/LF LaCombe 6
RBI: LF LaCombe 19
SB: Many - 2
SP ERA: Lach 3.23
RP ERA: Davis 0.00
SAVES: 0
Ks: Lach 119
W-L: Sallee 8-4/Lach 7-5


Player Development

Monday 5/5/1911 :

Arthur Morgan has lost some lower body strength, his duration drops to E ...
Arthur Morgan has lost some momentum, his range at P drops to D ...
Wayne Brown has lost some momentum, his range at P drops to D ...
Ryan Moore has worked out more, his duration raises to B ...

Monday 5/12/1911 :

Nelson Brown has lost some momentum, his range at 2B drops to E ...


Monthly Awards
AL Pitcher: Edward Geer 6-0 1.33 ERA (Cleveland)
NL Pitcher: Allen Sallee 6-0 2.62 ERA 55 IP/14 BB/40 Ks (Chicago (N))

AL Batter: Lamont Sevilla .424 avg/.534 OBP 10 HR/12 K/23 BB (Cleveland)
NL Batter: Nicholas Degraffenreid .330 avg/.382 OBP 10 HRs (St Louis) - This guy isn't a good ballplayer, April he hit .179

Sounds interesting. Good luck.

June 1911


This Month's Record: 11-11
Overall Record: 40-37
Current Standing: 4th Place - 7 games behind New York

Major Injuries
Many day to day injuries that may be effecting us.

League News
American League: St Louis used a 17-5 June to pull well ahead of Detroit, they're 50-27 and up 6 games over the Tigers. Sevilla continues to lead the AL batting .375, Michael Rooker has overtaken Canup with 30 HRs and 77 RBIs. Last year's world series hero Bruce Dockins now leads the AL at 12-5, and Ahmad Hamblin is dominating the Ks again this year, he's got 158.

National League: For the first time ever Pittsburgh doesn't hold the lead in the NL. the New York Giants are 47-30, and hold a 1 game lead over the Pirates, Brooklynis 3 back and the Cubs 7. It's amazing, McCrady is hitting .380, Huneycutt .338, and Rahman .336, the Cubs are on fire! Jimmy Newman of the Giants has 23 HRs, while LaCombe still has the most RBIs at 59. Okane still leads in ERA and Wins, Larry Lach is back on track though with 11 wins.

Team News

Monday 6/2/1911 :

Brian Huneycutt was named Player of the Week!
He batted .464 in 28 AB, with 2 HR and 5 RBI.

Monday 6/16/1911 :

Andrew Rahman was named Player of the Week!
He batted .524 in 21 AB, with 2 HR and 7 RBI.

Saturday 6/28/1911 :

P Lawrence Lach will play in the OOTP-Allstar game!
P Allen Sallee will play in the OOTP-Allstar game!
C Andrew Rahman will play in the OOTP-Allstar game!
CF Brian Huneycutt will play in the OOTP-Allstar game!
RF Gabriel Mccrady will play in the OOTP-Allstar game!


Lineup Notes/Changes

Again, the offense is at the league level. Reimers is way down, he is pissed about being on the trade block, and I may need to go actively move him.

Lach and Sallee are holding down the rotation quite nicely, Lach is 11-6, Sallee 10-6, and no one is really bad.

Team Leaders
AVG: RF McCrady .414
HR: RF McCrady/LF LaCombe 6
RBI: LF LaCombe 19
SB: Many - 2
SP ERA: Lach 3.07
RP ERA: Davis 0.00
SAVES: 0
Ks: Lach 167
W-L: Sallee 10-7/Lach 11-6


Player Development

Monday 6/2/1911 :

Arthur Morgan has lost some movement on his pitches...
Donald Meidinger has lost some lower body strength, his duration drops to E ...

Monday 6/9/1911 :

Dylan Troup seems to have lost some bat speed, resulting in less contact...

Monday 6/16/1911 :

Russell Lobb increased his bat control, resulting in more contact!
George Freeman seems to have lost some bat speed, resulting in less contact...
Ty Jones's pitches have more bite now, the movement has improved!

Monday 6/23/1911 :

Joe Martin has lost some lower body strength, his duration drops to D ...
Nelson Brown has improved his plate disclipine!

Monday 6/30/1911 :

Robert Miura seems to have lost some of his feel for his stuff...
Robert Miura has lost some movement on his pitches...
Jack Grammer has lost some lower body strength, his duration drops to C ...
John Kelly increased his bat control, resulting in more contact!
John Kelly has gained more power!
John Kelly has improved his plate disclipine!


We get improvements from Lobb and Ty Jones, both are quite pleasing to me. Lobb is batting .285 in AAA, 3 star prospect Krupa is hitting .320 in Left (AAA) so I have two solid prospects hopefully on the way up. 3 1/2 Star pitcher ray prior is 3-1 with a 5.40 ERA in AAA. Closer Ty Jones has a 0.89 ERA in 30 relief AAA innings. Jones is now a 5 star prospect. 20 year old McCart is still in single A but he's up to a 4 1/2 star prospect himself.

Chicago Cubs Minor League System is now the #1 system in the majors

Monthly Awards
AL Pitcher: Calvin Whittenburg 4-0 1.80 ERA 40 IP/39 Ks (St Louis(A)
NL Pitcher: John Curry 3-1 1.30 ERA 35 IP/35 Ks (Pittsburgh) - Last Year's Outstanding Pitcher

AL Batter: Gregory Hamel .481 AVG/.962 SLG (St Louis (A)) - You may remember his name as he hit a 2 out 2 run home run in the bottom of the 9th of Game 3 of the World Series last year with his Browns down 1-0.
NL Batter: Frank Boudreau .393 Avg/.445 OBP (New York (N))

It's time to shop Reimers and re-sign who we can afford. We're 5 million in debt and MIGHT make $1 Million this year tops.

This doesn't take long, and we basically announce we can't contend this year but I think it solves all our problems.

New York (A) gets:

2B Anthony Reimers - 4 Stars 33 y/o
SS Ronald Messner - 2 Star prospect 21 y/o

Chicago (N) gets:

RF Robert Behnke - 23 y/o 5 star prospect, 3rd pick in last year's draft
SP John Perry - 19 y/o 4 1/2 star prospect

We save about $9 Million a year and should be able to get ahead, and get two of the best prospects in the majors.

Behnke and Perry become the #2 and #3 prospects in the Cubs farm system, and gives the Cubs 5 top 20 prospects.


1 Chicago (N) 262 2B Russell Lobb (1st), RF Robert Behnke (5th), P John Perry (10th), P Douglas Mccart (13th), RF John Kelly (18th)


We are an amazingly dominant farm system, and if we can compete and play .500 ball this year I'll be thrilled at our future prospects.

Thanks Swaggs :) Maybe this will help me rebuild the Giants in the RWBL :/ That looks like a much harder job than these Cubs though.


July 1911


This Month's Record: 14-14
Overall Record: 54-51
Current Standing: 4th Place - 9 games behind Pittsburgh

Major Injuries
We lose 2B Jeffrey Engram for 6 weeks with a fractured Knee.

League News
American League: Detroit has fallen hard and a consistant St Louis team now has an 11 game lead in the AL. Sevilla looks to become the first man to win a batting title in both leagues, in the league's second year of existance! Rooker continues to dominate the HR and RBI categories but Highlanders rookie Richard Canup is still putting up great power numbers. 3 pitchers have 14 wins in the AL and the Pitcher of the year race may be a tight one.

National League: Pittsburgh has pulled back ahead of the Giants by 3 games, with Brooklyn 6 back and the Cubs 9 back. the Cubs still hold the batting avg leads, McCrady/Huneycutt/Rahman at .361/.348/.337 respectively. Lacombe got hot in July and leads the NL in HRs and RBIs again, but it's a tight race with last year's dominant force Brandon Myres. John Curry has a 1.78 ERA, Okane has fallen off badly, but Okane's 16 wins still leads the NL, Lach has 14 for 2nd.

Team News



Lineup Notes/Changes

Again, the offense is at the league level. Rookie 3rd baseman Charlie Honig came in and batted .286 in Gerke's

abscence, he's 22 and a 2 star prospect, his arbitration count has staretd now unfortunately, but Gerke is horrible

at the plate and Konig might hold down the job if he can hold a .250 average.

Lach continues to impress, 14-8 and hopefully will be a 20 game winner this year. Sallee has fallen badly, to 10-11

(from 10-6 after June), Moak has a 10-8 record now and Kempton is the worst starter at 10-13. If Wilfred Trent

hadn't ruined his arm last year and I had 2 5 star pitchers, I might be headed for the series this year, but alas.

Team Leaders
AVG: RF McCrady .361
HR: LF LaCombe 31
RBI: LF LaCombe 76
SB: Huneycutt 9
SP ERA: Lach 3.56
RP ERA: Davis 0.00
SAVES: 0
Ks: Lach 213
W-L: Lach 14-8


Player Development

Monday 7/21/1911 :

Gregory Gum has lost some power...
Arthur Morgan's control seems to have taken a bump...
Bill Yamada seems to have improved his pure stuff!
Keith Hawkins has learned reading pitchers better, his stealing ability raises to D ...




Monthly Awards
AL Pitcher: Calvin Whittenburg 5-1 3.06 ERA 53 IP/10 BB/39 Ks (St Louis(A) - 2nd month in a row!
NL Pitcher: Jeremy Chase 6-0 3.00 ERA 54 IP/44 K/12 BB (Brooklyn)

AL Batter: Rodger Nelson .366 avg/9 HR/.426 OBP (New York(A))
NL Batter: Bryan Myres .319 avg/8 HRs/23 RBIs (New York(N)) - Myres is well off his 58 HR/.339 pace but he's still solid, 30 HR/.270 this year.

We really want LaCombe back, he doesn't hit for much average but he drives in some runs and, of course, chicks dig the long ball. We sign him to a 3 year extension at 4.75 Million a year, a 1.4 M/yr raise.

Brian Huneycutt has earned his pay as well, he doesn't have star ratings, but he hit .301 last year and is at .342 this year, and he's only 26, I give him a 1.2 M/yr raise, he'll make $3 Million a year over the next 4 years.

Allen Sallee is fading and not putting up great numbers, I'm going to let him go into free agency, as he's not worth the $2 Million + that he expects.

Gerke hasn't impressed at 3rd, and he was just filler, if I feel like I have the money to put a few million into the free agent market, I might do it at 3rd, his last year is now also.


August 1911


This Month's Record: 8-20
Overall Record: 62-71
Current Standing: 6th Place - 21 games behind pittsburgh

Major Injuries


League News
American League: St Louis looks to return for a rematch in the world series. They're 81-52, 6 games ahead of Detroit, 7 over Philadelphia. Sevilla has the batting title wrapped up at .367, and Rooker has the HR/RBI titles with 53 HRs/126 RBIs easily. 3 pitchers go into September with 18 wins, Detroit's Ahmad Hamblin, Ralph Casner, and this month's pitcher of the month, michael holte.

National League: Rematch, rematch! Pittsburgh is 7 up on the Giants. Pittsburgh has the most amazing pitching staff, Curry and Tindle are #1/#2 in ERA, and Okane/Shinn/Curry are 1/2/3 in wins. The rest of the league is looking at ERAs around 4.50 as a team. The Pirates have a 2.97 team ERA, well over 1 run better than any other team in the league. McCrady still leads the NL batting .338 but the Giants Bordreau is 2nd at .335 and McCrady is a bit cold. LaCombe has 40 HRs/96 RBIs for slim leads still in both categories. Raymond Okane is 21-6 and looking for this year's pitcher of the year award. Teammate John Curry may get his 2nd still yet though.

Team News



Lineup Notes/Changes

The cubs fell and fell hard, McCrady got hurt and missed 2 weeks, triggering an 8 game losing streak.

Lach is 16-12 and needs a great final month for 20 wins, Moak is 13-11 and is the only other starter with a winning record.

Team Leaders
AVG: RF McCrady .338
HR: LF LaCombe 40
RBI: LF LaCombe 96
SB: Huneycutt/Gum 11
SP ERA: Lach 3.32
RP ERA: Davis 0.00
SAVES: 0
Ks: Lach 271
W-L: Lach 16-12


Player Development

Monday 8/4/1911 :

Michael Carlucci has learned reading pitchers better, his stealing ability raises to B ...

Monday 8/18/1911 :

Robert Davis has lost some movement on his pitches...
Robert Davis's control seems to have taken a bump...

Monday 9/1/1911 :

Gregory Gum has gained more power!



Monthly Awards
AL Pitcher: Michael Holte 6-0 3.33 ERA 54 IP/65 Ks (Detroit)
NL Pitcher: Tim Tindle 5-1 1.47 ERA/55 IP/48 Ks (Pittsburgh)

AL Batter: Michael Rooker .333 avg/15 HRs/29 RBIs (Boston (A)) - Rooker has 53 HRs with a month left in the year
NL Batter: James Cawley .337 avg/13 HRs (New York (N))

Both St Louis and Pittsburgh clinch their pennants around 9/15.


September 1911


This Month's Record: 10-11
Overall Record: 72-82
Current Standing: tied for 5th, 24 games behind pittsburgh

Major Injuries


League News
American League: St Louis wins easily, 95-59, 5 games over Detroit. Sevilla wins his 2nd straight batting crown, hitting .375. Michael Rooker is the first man to ever hit 60, he hits 62 Home Runs, he also drives in 143 runs. the Top AL ERA was 3.26, much different than the pirates in the NL, and Ahmad Hamblin wins 22 games and strikes out 306 men...

National League: Pittsburgh wins it easily, 96-58, the Giants finish 11 back. The Cubs Gabrial McCrady wins the batting crown with a .342 average! the Giants Bordreau finishes only 2 points back at .340, and the Cubs catcher Rahman finishes .338 in 3rd. Joseph LaCombe's 44 homers is the most in the NL, but Thomas Willis, another 23 year old prospect, drives in 110 runs to top Lacombe. Willis also has 42 HRs. John Curry puts up a 1.92 ERA and wins 20 games. Ray Okane has a 2.50 ERA(3rd in NL) and 24 wins. Ed Shinn, also a pirate, wins 20. That's 64 wins from the top 3 starters, an amazing feat. Okane struck out 352 to lead the NL.

Team News



Lineup Notes/Changes

Really I have to admit I'm happy with this season. I expected a much worse record than last year. McCrady came through big time and LaCombe's power really helped in the #6 hole in the lineup. There were some weak spots. Rodney Simpson hit .207 in the #2 spot in the batting order, Gregory Gum only hit .250 from the leadoff spot, Lacombe's 44 HRs are great but he batted .208.

Larry Lach had a great finish to the season, he finishes 20-13 to become the Cubs first ever 20 game winner! Everyone else in the rotation got 10 wins, but Jeff Moak's 14-14 was the 2nd best record, a disappointment. We have a major star reliever coming up in Ty Jones, and we're going to have to get the bullpen more involved next year. I seriously might make Jones my #1 Middle reliever, setup man, and closer if it lets me in the rotation, this guy is 7/6/6 at age 24 in triple-A, he'd be a major, major star in the modern game, we'll see how I can get him going in the 1910s though.

Top pitching prospect Ray Prior went 7-2 in Triple-A, and 5-2 in Double-A, he's only 21 and has a lot of room for improvement but I am optimistic. 19 year old John Perry went 10-1 in A ball, then 2-1 in AA, he's on the way up quickly too it appears.

Russell Lobb hit .282 in his first year in AAA, while Behnke hit .318 with 24 HRs. Two budding stars there too. The future is bright :)

Team Leaders
AVG: RF McCrady .342
HR: LF LaCombe 44
RBI: LF LaCombe 106
SB: LaCombe/Gum 12
SP ERA: Lach 3.14
RP ERA: Davis 0.00 (6.2 innings for the entire year, hooray)
SAVES: 0
Ks: Lach 321
W-L: Lach 20-13


Player Development

Monday 9/8/1911 :

Stephen Nies increased his bat control, resulting in more contact!

Monday 9/29/1911 :

Andrew Rahman has learned reading pitchers better, his stealing ability raises to D ...
Keith Hawkins has lost some momentum, his range at 2B drops to C ...
Keith Hawkins has lost some momentum, his range at SS drops to C ...



Monthly Awards
AL Pitcher: Thomas Wilkins 4-1 2.00 ERA 45 IP/42 K (Philadelphia (A)) - 20-13 in 1910/20-10 in 1911
NL Pitcher: Chris Cummings 4-1 1.20 ERA 45 IP/46 K (St Louis(N)) - 17-16, quite average

AL Batter: Rodger Nelson .386 avg/9 HR/26 RBIs (New York(A))
NL Batter: Mark Wegman .385 avg/.456 OBP/10 HR/21 RBI/20 R (Brooklyn)

1911 World Series

A rematch of the first world series, the St Louis Browns and the Pittsburgh Pirates. The Browns have home field this year.

Game 1

Just like last year, John Curry for the Pirates, Bruce Dockins for the Browns. Curry is a dominant 20-11, 1.92 ERA. Dockins is 18-9, 3.41 ERA.

Pittsburgh is led by 3B Bill Andres, who has 28 Homers and 82 RBIs. Clearly a team built on defense.

St Louis has 5 20+ HR men including 37 y/o Mike Baker, the star of the team, hitting .318, 41 HR/117 RBIs, leading the team in all categories.

5th: Pittsburgh gets a man on w/ 2 outs thanks to a throwing error by 3B Feathers, and a double brings him home, it's unearned but it's 1-0 Pirates.

8th: This is what superstars do! 2 outs in the bottom of the 8th, and Mike Baker takes an 0-2 fastball out of the yard, we're tied at 1!

We're going into extras!

11th: The browns get a 1 out double from 1B Sandy Knapp, the next man is walked intentionally. Backup catcher Charlie Kummer (3/3/3) slaps a single through the infield, Knapp is snet home, Pirates LF Cowie with the throw, and he's out! The Pirates are still alive.

12th: Pitt has men on 1st and 2nd with no one out, St Louis turns a double play! The next man up, however, SS Michael Roberts, hits a 2 run homer! 3-1 Pittsburgh.

John Curry gets the player of the game award, he went 8 1/3 innings.

Pittsburgh 3-1 : Series: PIT 1-0


Game 2

Pittsburgh starts Ray OKane, 24-8/2.50 ERA. St Louis starts 20-11/3.26 ERA Calvin Whittenburg.

1st: St Louis gets runners on 1st and 3rd with no outs but strands them both.

4th: Pirate Bill Andres hits a solo shot to lead off the 4th. Whittenburg comes out injured and we get a relief pitcher for the Browns. With 2 down and a man on 1st, LF Elliot Glowacki hits a 2 run homer, and it's 3-0.

Pittsburgh scores 2 in the top of the 9th, St Louis gets 2 in the bottom but they never get the tying run anywhere near the plate.

Ray Okane is the game MVP.

Pittsburgh 5-2 : Series: PIT 2-0


Game 3

St Louis heads to Forbes Field to try to steal a couple back, Pittsburgh is ready to put the series away. Ben Defoor starts for St Louis, he's 16-15/5.37 ERA. 18-14/2.63 Tim Tindle starts for Pittsburgh.

4th: Pittsburgh 1B James Ingrassia hits a solo shot to make it 1-0 Pirates. Ingrassia is a 5 star prospect, 25 y/o 5/7/4, he hit a solid .289 this year and we may be hearing about him for years to come.

5th: Following a leadoff walk, Paul Tracy hits a 2 run home run, 3-0 Pirates! Defoor has 6 walks through 5 innings, only 3 hits allowed.

8th: Pittsburgh puts it away. Larry Franklin hits a 2 run homer, he's having a great series, batting .500.

Tindle throws a shutout and this series is a rout.

Pittsburgh 5-0 : Series PIT 3-0

The aces go again today.

4th: St Louis gets the first run of the day, a double by 1B Knapp and a single by the CF, Lockridge make it 1-0.

8th: Pittsburgh tries to get that run back, after an out, the Pirates get 2 singles and a walk to load 'em up with 1 down. 1B Ingrassia strikes out, but RF Larry Franklin is now 4-4, he hits a single through the hole to drive in 2 runs! Franklin is now batting .625 for the series, 1 HR/4 RBIs.

9th: Curry walks a man, gets two out, commits a throwing error on a weak grounder, and now there's 2 out in the top of the 9th, with runners on first and second. Weak hitting SS Ronnie Byers steps to the plate, he's 1-10 in the series and .213 on the season. Byers runs the count full, but strikes out! And the series is over.

Pittsburgh 2-1 : Series: PIT 4-0

Pittsburgh Pirates win the 1911 World Series

The league file is uploaded, but I made a mistake, I went on to the next season before I exported it so everyone's 0-0. But you can still look at records and past stats and such.

http://www.angband.org/~radii


Here's the dump of the league recap stuffs:


1911 RECAP:

American Outstanding Newcomer Award:
Bill Reyes (DET)!
He batted .249 in 345 AB, with 3 homers and 28 RBI.

National Outstanding Newcomer Award:
Joseph Watlington (BRO)!
He batted .243 in 498 AB, with 13 homers and 52 RBI.

American Outstanding Pitcher Award:
Ahmad Hamblin (DET)!
He had a record of 22-11 with an ERA of 3.76 and 2 shutouts.
In 34 games started, he pitched 299.1 innings, fanning 306 and walking 116 batters.

American Outstanding Batter Award:
Michael Rooker (BOA)!
He batted .285 in 523 AB, with 62 homers and 143 RBI.

National Outstanding Pitcher Award:
Raymond Okane (PIT)!
He had a record of 24-8 with an ERA of 2.50 and 6 shutouts.
In 33 games started, he pitched 299.1 innings, fanning 352 and walking 54 batters.

National Outstanding Batter Award:
Brent Holt (PHN)!
He batted .292 in 527 AB, with 35 homers and 104 RBI.

American Slick Fielder Award Winners:

Pitcher: Wilburn Armistead (PHA)
Catcher: Tony Mcarthur (NYA)
First Base: Kenneth Burrow (CHA)
Second Base: Joseph Church (BOA)
Third Base: Jerry Pond (BOA)
Shortstop: Charles Franco (CHA)
Leftfield: Michael Rooker (BOA)
Centerfield: David Dealba (CLE)
Rightfield: Richard Wickham (NYA)

National Slick Fielder Award Winners:

Pitcher: Larry Brandes (BRO)
Catcher: Jay Lederman (BRO)
First Base: Michael Yarger (CIN)
Second Base: Marion Mancilla (PIT)
Third Base: Jeff Short (PHN)
Shortstop: Mark Bryant (PHN)
Leftfield: Elliot Glowacki (PIT)
Centerfield: Ronald Owen (NYN)
Rightfield: Chet Damron (CIN)

American Standings :
(Name W L PCT GB AVG ERA)

American
St Louis (A) 95 59 .617 -- .264 4.18
Detroit 90 64 .584 5 .279 4.43
Philadelphia (A) 83 71 .539 12 .284 4.43
Boston (A) 74 80 .481 21 .260 6.09
Chicago (A) 71 83 .461 24 .276 4.93
Cleveland 70 84 .455 25 .277 5.02
Washington 69 85 .448 26 .259 5.70
New York (A) 64 90 .416 31 .275 5.49

National Standings :

(Name W L PCT GB AVG ERA)
National
Pittsburgh 96 58 .623 -- .250 2.78
New York (N) 85 69 .552 11 .251 4.04
Brooklyn 84 70 .545 12 .248 3.94
Cincinnati 73 81 .474 23 .250 4.57
Boston (N) 72 82 .468 24 .249 4.20
Chicago (N) 72 82 .468 24 .249 4.35
Philadelphia (N) 68 86 .442 28 .249 4.64
St Louis (N) 66 88 .429 30 .230 4.19

Playoffs :
World Championship :
Pittsburgh (4) against St Louis (A) (0)

TOP 5 in BATTING AVG :
.375 Lamont Sevilla( CLE,AL)
.345 Rodger Nelson(NYA,AL)
.342 Gabriel Mccrady(CHN,NL)
.342 Richard Wickham(NYA)
.340 Frank Boudreau(NYN,NL)

TOP 5 in HOMERUNS :
62 Michael Rooker(BOA,AL)
46 Richard Canup(NYA,AL)
46 Rodney Macha(DET,AL)
44 Joseph Lacombe(PHA CHN)
43 Charles Franco(CHA,AL)

TOP 5 in RBI :
143 Michael Rooker(BOA,AL)
131 Rodney Macha(DET,AL)
120 Richard Canup(NYA,AL)
118 Charles Franco(CHA,AL)
117 Mike Baker(SLA,AL)

TOP 5 in ERA :
1.92 John Curry(PIT,NL)
2.36 Jeffery Markus(BRO)
2.50 Raymond Okane( PIT,NL)
2.63 Tim Tindle( PIT)
2.99 Edward Shinn(PIT,NL)

TOP 5 in WINS :
24 Raymond Okane( PIT,NL)
22 Ahmad Hamblin(DET,AL)
21 Michael Holte(DET)
20 John Curry(PIT,NL)
20 Thomas Wilkins(PHA,AL)

TOP 5 in SAVES :
8 Steven Harger(BRO)
7 Christopher Cambra(BOA)
6 Herman Ridder(BRO,NL)
5 Royal Combs(CIN)
5 James Rowland(SLA)



None of the major award winners are repeats.



Here's the relevant preseason news:

New York (A) gets $0 through revenue sharing.
WAS: Fan loyalty increases to Very Good!
NYN: Fan loyalty increases to Very Good!
CIN: Fan loyalty increases to GREAT!


Congrats to the Highlanders for their $0 revenue sharing.

1912 Financial Outlook

We made a profit of $5 Million last year and are now cash positive. This leaves us with all the money in the world for free agents and extensions.

Our payroll is at $46 Million, and we've shown a revenue of $57 Million in each of the last two seasons, so we can realistically take on $11 Million in salaries this year and expect to break even.

The league as a whole is losing lots of money, but we have lots of stadium changes coming up in the next 5-10 years that will likely have a major impact on revenue.

The Browns and Pirates are both $2+ Million in the hole right now, as are the Giants, they have a huge revenue of $70 Million, but they spent $80 Million last year. Over half the teams in the league lost money last year, and both Boston teams are struggling horribly, neither of them can pull in 1 million fans, they're the only two teams that weak.


1912 Roster Overview Pre-Free Agency

Catchers
Andrew Rahman is still the man here. This is the last year of his contract, he's only 30 so I expect to keep him around if he hits over .300 again. He's only a 3 star guy but he has hit .373 and .338 for me. George Pink is a 1 star 4/3/6 catcher, also in the last year of his contract.

First Base
Samuel Saunders[/B] hit .245 last year, and I can't expect that to improve, he's 33, 1 1/2 stars, 4/5/4. His backup is no better, 3/3/3 [U]Robert Hutchins hit .237.

Second Base
Jeffrey Engram is a 3/3/4 1 star second baseman, batting .222.

Third Base
I started 2 star prospect Charlie Honig last year after my free agent signing went down hurt. Honig batted .235 in 53 games, he's a 4/4/5 man who can't play defense.

Shortstop
Gregory Gum is starting to fade a little, he's at 3/5/4 and his range is fading. He hit .250 last year, he's 33 and a 2 1/2 star guy. He's backed up by 1 star Joey Manske, 4/3/2 guy who hit .241 in 18 games last year, and 2 star 4/4/4 Rodney Simpson who hit .207 in 90 games.

Our infield is horrible.

Left Field
Joseph LaCombe is back, 2 1/2 stars, 3/9/4, he doesn't hit for average but he'll hopefully pound out 40+ HRs for me again.

Center Field
Brian Huneycutt was a suprising success, I didn't expect him to hit .300 for me last year. He led the team with 98 runs too. 2 1/2 stars, 5/5/6. He's backed up by Richard Henry, 5/3/4 .258 hitter last year. Henry is still a good quality outfield backup for me, so he stays.

Right Field
Gabriel McCrady can't be expected to repeat last year's performance, where he won the NL batting crown batting .342. He's 34 y/o, 7/5/8. I do hope for .300 though. Daniel Dean is a 1 star 3/5/4 backup, he batted .273 in 35 games last year.

I'm fine in the outfield, and at catcher, and I can get another year out of Gum at short I'm sure. 1b/2b/3b are weak spots though.


Starting Pitchers
Larry Lach is one of the stars of the league, 5 stars, 28 y/o 10/8/6, he won 20 games last year. My 2nd best starter last year was Jeffrey Moak a 36 y/o 2 star man, 6/7/7 who went 14-14. Phillip Kempton is my 3rd starter, 6/6/7 2 1/2 star 27 year old. Kempton went 14-19 last year with a 4.83 ERA. My last starter is George Keegan, 2 star 31 y/o 5/6/7 man, 10-16 last year.

We lost Sallee last year, and need another starter. If I didn't have such huge holes at 1st/2nd/3rd base I would consider going after a top pitching FA, but I'm not sure that would be a good idea right now.


I have 4 solid relievers, they pitch so little it's not worth mentioning.

Minor Leagues

I have 5 prospects in AAA I'm excited about:

Russell Lobb 2B - 5 starts - 22 y/o. Lobb hit .282 in AAA last year. I wonder if he will be ready to come up this year.

Robert Behnke RF - 5 stars - 24 y/o. Behnke hit .318 in AAA last year. Again, ready soon?

Ray Prior SP - 3 1/2 stars - 21 y/o. Prior may be AA material still, I'm not sure.

Albert Krupa LF - 3 stars - 23 y/o. If Krupa can turn into an average starter I'll be thrilled.

Ty Jones CL - 3 stars - 25 y/o. Fell from a 5 star prospect to a 3. Does that mean he's tapped out in terms of minor league development? Jones is 6/6/5 already and I may well put him in the bullpen.


Free Agent Needs

We have 22 players on the Major League roster so we need 3 more. We have some $1 Million + men who could be moved for real talent too.

1B/2B/3B/SP are important to fill with almost anything. In theory we have $11 Million to spend, but we're also going to be looking at 6 men who are going to be free agents after the season. One of them is Larry Lach, who I am rather attached to. his demands will have to be amazingly unreasonable for me to not re-sign him.

Available Free Agents

First Base

Rodney Macha is the cream of the crop here. 5/8/6 4 star 27 year old. Hit .307 with 46 Homers last year. Below him is 3 1/2 star Sandy Knapp, 3/9/10 hitter who only batted .207 last year. I don't think I can live with two Joseph LaCombes, power guys who barely hit .200. Knapp does walk 100 times a year though. Woodrow Camire is a 2 1/2 star 5/5/4 29 y/o guy who hit .270 last year. He is a likely option since I have 4 positions to fill here.

Second Base

Shawn Rather 27 y/o 2 stars, 4/4/4. There's also a 2 star 36 year old 3/5/5. 2nd Base is weak this year. With those options I may just keep 3/3/4 Jeffrey Engram.

Third Base

27 year old Chris Witmer was a Cub I traded away for defense. He's a .250 hitter, 5/5/6 and if he comes cheaply he may come back to Chicago. Aron Auzenne is an aging star, 35 y/o, 5/5/5, he hit .304 last year and again, if he comes cheap he's a good solution. He's a much better defender. Jasper Hill is a cheap option, 4/5/6, 32 y/o, he hit .283 and may be okay.

Starting Pitching

There's 6 pitchers worth going after:

1. Walter Escalera - 4 stars - 35 y/o - 8/8/5 - went 8-14/5.29 ERA last year with the Highlanders and then later the Giants.

2. Karl Strong - 4 stars - 32 y/o - 8/7/5 - 13-18/4.95 ERA last year, 17-11 2 years ago.

3. Ben Defoor - 2 1/2 stars - 29 y/o - 6/7/6 - 16-15/5.37 ERA last year. I have a bad taste in my mouth about this guy because of watching the last two world series'.

4. Lewis Falkner - 2 1/2 stars - 33 y/o - 7/7/6 - 14-15/4.54 ERA last year.

5. Chad Kaufman - 2 1/2 stars - 27 y/o - 6/7/7/ - 2-4 last year

6. Herb Netto - 2 1/2 stars - 27 y/o - 6/6/7 - 19-11 4.33 ERA last year. Maybe Herb has some intangibles here, he was 11-11 in 1910 with a 3.83 ERA.


I'm going to try to make a couple of deals for a little while and then come back and get going with free agency.

A deal comes quickly, maybe too quickly but we shall see, I think this is what I wanted here.

St Louis (A) gets:

SP Phillip Kempton - 2.75M/yr, expiring this year. Kemtpon was a disappointment, I expected more than 24-41 out of him over 2 years.


Chicago (N) gets:

2B Gregory Hamel - 3/6/4, nothing great but 985K/yr and he did hit .286 last year.
3B John Feathers - 5/4/4 27 y/o, he hit .255 last year. Neither are great solutions, but it saves me an extra Million dollars, and allows me to go after a star, either one of the 4 star starters, or the 4 star 1B in FA.

I'm also going to try to dump Engram, my other 2B.


Philadelphia (A) gets:

2B Jeffrey Engram - we'll save $1 Million on this one too.

Chicago (N) gets:

SP Don Shell - 23 y/o 3 star. A long shot of a prospect but about the best I was going to get for Engram.



The Cubs now need a first baseman and 2 Starting Pitchers, and have 12.62 Million to spend.


Well, we find out something rather disturbing. All of the 4 star talent has no interest in my team. I go after a 5 star center fielder, both 4 star SPs, and the 4 star 1B, all of them "have no interest in my organization" and won't even listen to me on day 1.


New Signings

1B Sandy Knapp - $4 Million/yr for 3 years. Knapp is a 3/9/10 guy. He won't hit for average but he'll walk 100 times and hit 30 homers I hope. Not my first choice but the best choice. .199 avg/.341 OBP/70 HRs/194 RBIs career. (great average...)

SP Herb Netto - $3.75 Million/yr on 2 years. 6/6/7 30-22 4.12 ERA career.

SP Lewis Falkner - $1.75 Million/yr for 2 years. 7/7/6 26-30 4.61 ERA career



SP Walter Escalera signs with Cleveland for $6.77 Million/yr for 3 years. I never would have had a shot.

1B Rodney Macha goes to the Philadelphia A's for $7.5 Million.

4 star Starter Karl Strong goes unsigned. I wanted him but he didn't want to talk to me. That's what you get butthead!

Spring Training


2 SPRING TRAINING NEWS:
Robert Behnke displays more power in batting practice!
Robert Behnke showed good strike zone judgement!
Russell Lobb has good batting practice sessions!
Russell Lobb showed good strike zone judgement!
Ronald Hague has good batting practice sessions!
Ronald Hague displays more power in batting practice!
Norris Sikorski has good pitching sessions!
George Holzer has good batting practice sessions!
John Garibay showed good strike zone judgement!
Douglas Mccart has improved his control!
Chris Broussard has good batting practice sessions!
Wallace Solis has increased his throwing velocity!
Dylan Troup has good batting practice sessions!
Dylan Troup displays more power in batting practice!
James Smith displays more power in batting practice!
James Smith showed good strike zone judgement!
James Elzy has good batting practice sessions!
James Harvill displays more power in batting practice!
Chance Poole has improved his control!
Douglas Coppa has improved his control!
Bill Yamada has good pitching sessions!
Bill Becker has improved his control!
William Higgs has good batting practice sessions!
Stephen Nies displays more power in batting practice!
Cleveland Pyatt has good batting practice sessions!
Charlie Honig displays more power in batting practice!
Aaron Moffatt displays more power in batting practice!
Aaron Moffatt showed good strike zone judgement!
John Kelly displays more power in batting practice!
Bill Reed has good pitching sessions!
Bill Reed has improved his control!
Robert Berthold has increased his throwing velocity!
Jeffrey Walker has good pitching sessions!
John Strohl has good batting practice sessions!
Herschel Dudek has good batting practice sessions!
Herschel Dudek showed good strike zone judgement!
Michael Carlucci showed good strike zone judgement!
George Freeman displays more power in batting practice!
Nelson Brown has good batting practice sessions!
Nelson Brown displays more power in batting practice!
Nelson Brown showed good strike zone judgement!

1912 League Changes

The Boston Red Sox open up a new stadium named Fenway Park. :) Fenway seats 35,000 and may drastically change the future of the struggling Red Sox.


The Boston Rustlers rename themselves to the Boston Braves.

The Cincinnati Reds move into Crosley Field.

the Detroit Tigers move into Tiger Stadium.

April 1912


This Month's Record: 12-14
Overall Record: 12-14
Current Standing: tied for 5th, 4 games behind Pittsburgh

Major Injuries


League News
American League: The Red Sox get off to a hot 20-6 start, and are 5 games ahead of the White Sox and Broncos (that's Cleveland). The Browns Mike Baker starts off hot, .423, 9 HRs, 28 RBIs. Edwin Perrodin(White Sox) and Ed Banks(Red Sox) start 6-0.

National League: Early on it's Pittsburgh at 16-10, with Brooklyn and St Louis 15-11. PIT's Paul Tracy starts out batting .429. 8 HR/19 RBI leads the league, 3 guys with each. 22 y/o Michael Hector is 5-0 to lead the majors early, he plays for Brooklyn. A young 7/7/7 guy, he started as a 21 year old and went 16-13. Maybe not a future star but someone who is young and could put up some big numbers.

Team News



Lineup Notes/Changes

Note that I'm a moron. I redid my depth charts on offense but I forgot to adjust the lineups, so I was starting some really crappy infielders. Lets see how much better we play in may :P LaCombe did hit 7 HRs. McCrady is off to a .273 start.

Larry Lach and George Keegen start out strong with ERAs under 4, but a lack of run support puts them at 5-7 combined. Rookie Reliever Ty Jones has a 2.25 ERA in 8 innings. I put everyone but Lach on an ultra-quick hook and Jones is my #1 relief option at every single turn except for mopup relief.

Team Leaders
AVG: SS Gum .275
HR: LF LaCombe 7
RBI: LF LaCombe 19
SB: CF Huneycutt 4
SP ERA: Keegan 3.73
RP ERA: Jones 2.25
SAVES: 0
Ks: Lach 51
W-L: Lach 3-3/Netto 3-3


Player Development

Monday 4/7/1912 :
Ronald Hague has improved his plate disclipine!

Monday 4/14/1912 :
Herbert Netto has worked out more, his duration raises to B ...

Monday 4/28/1912 :
Charlie Honig has improved his plate disclipine!


All great news.

In the minors, Behnke is hitting .337, Lobb .240, Prior is 3-2 with a 4.33 ERA. Krupa hits .328 and Hawkins .295. Those are my Triple-A prospects. Doug McCart, one of my best starting pitching prospects, is 21 y/o now and just got moved up to Double-A. 4 star RF prospect John Kelly just moved up to AAA.

Monthly Awards
AL Pitcher: Ed Perrodin 6-0 2.17 ERA/58 IP/12 BB/42 K (Chicago)
NL Pitcher: Robert Crissman 5-1 2.50 ERA/54 IP/70 K (Boston) - a 2 star man who is a career 34-31 record starter.

AL Batter: Mike Baker .423 avg/.773 SLG/9 HR/28 RBI (St Louis)
NL Batter: Peter Tracy .429 avg/.714 slg/5 HR (Pittsburgh) - Oops I thought he was paul tracy for some reason.

We don't do any better with our real starters :P

May 1912


This Month's Record: 13-16
Overall Record: 25-30
Current Standing: 6th, 9 games behind Pittsburgh/New York Giants

Major Injuries
Huneycutt just went down for 1-2 weeks, he's day to day.

League News
American League: Chicago is able to keep up with the Red Sox, and it's almost down to a 2 team race already. Boston is 37-18, Chicago is 4 back at 33-22, Philadelphia is in 3rd, 9 back. 24 year old Boston Prospect Moroney is hitting .357, while Lamont Sevilla has assumed his rightful place in the batting race, he's hitting .342 and going for his 3rd straight batting title. Michael Roker has 18 HRs to lead the AL, and Moroney has 49 RBIs. Ed Perrodin is off to a career year, he's 11-1 with a 2.18 ERA to lead the league.

National League: the Giants and Pirates are both 34-21, Brookly is only 4 back. Peter Tracy is hitting .364, still leading the league. Phillies prospect William Stokes has 21 HRs so far, he's batting .193, hooray for him. Stokes also has 42 RBIs to lead the NL. John Curry leads the NL in wins and ERA, Curry is 31 years old and seriously I can see 5-10 years from now giving out the John Curry award.

Team News

Tuesday 5/13/1912 :
Richard Henry hits a 553-foot homerun!!


Dude has 10 homers in his career, and that's his only one this year, but damn did he make it worth it :)

Lineup Notes/Changes

McCrady has picked it up, he's now hitting .337, the rest of the team is way down though. Hamel is hitting .183 and 2nd base, Huneycutt is the only other guy on the team hitting above .275(he's at a blazing .276). LaCombe has 13 HRs.

Lach and Keegen are still the only guys with ERAs under 4, Lach is 6-6, my only pitcher at .500 or better.

Team Leaders
AVG: RF McCrady .337
HR: LF LaCombe 13
RBI: LF LaCombe 40
SB: CF Huneycutt 7
SP ERA: Lach 3.72
RP ERA: Jones 1.93
SAVES: 2
Ks: Lach 106
W-L: Lach 6-6


Player Development

Monday 5/12/1912 :
Herschel Dudek has lost some momentum, his range at 1B drops to D ...

Monday 5/19/1912 :
James Smith is getting faster, his speed increases to B ...
Keith Hawkins is getting faster, his speed increases to B ...


Behnke is hitting .348 with 8 HRs in AAA. My scout isn't telling me to bring him up yet, but damn. Of course, he can only play RF and LF, and I have McCrady and LaCombe solidly in those spots. Assuming I'm not in the race come September, I may give Behnke a shot in the majors during the 40 man callup period.

Monthly Awards
AL Pitcher: Justin Drye 6-0 1.33 ERA/54 IP/41 Ks/.156 oavg (Detroit)
NL Pitcher: Ed Shinn 3-0 0.56 ERA/32 IP/23 Ks/0.78 WHIP (Pittsburgh) Shinn is the underappreciated Pirates Star, largely unnoticed behind Curry and Okane, but he's 46-22 witha 2.64 ERA lifetime.

AL Batter: Bruce Caruso .396 avg/7 HRs/.443 OBP (Detroit)
NL Batter: Bryan Myres .393 avg/9 HRs/23 BBs/.522 OBP (New York)

I apparently made a little screwup. I changed the draft to June, but it still setup a pre-season draft. So, knowing from reading other threads that it would do two drafts this year, I did a 0 round draft in the pre-season and only 1 player was selected. But I hit June, and it set up and empty draft. Therefore, only the Yankees got anyone this year, and they only got one player. Oh, sorry, the Highlanders :)

So, no draft this year, whoops.

It appears like I may lose Larry Lach. He said he'd probably test free agency, I bid up to 10.5 Million for him and he told me to kiss off. I signed Ahmed Rahman to 3 more years at $5 Million a year, a $400,000 a year raise.

June 1912


This Month's Record: 12-10
Overall Record: 37-40
Current Standing: 5th, 12 games behind Pittsburgh

Major Injuries
None

League News
American League: Boston is still on fire, they're 52-25, 9 games ahead of the 2nd place White Sox. Lamont Sevilla is hitting .358 to lead the AL. Michael Rooker has 24 HRs and 57 RBIs to lead the AL. Ed Perrodin is still going strong, 14-3 with a 2.30 ERA.

National League: The giants fall off the wagon, Pittsburgh is 49-28, with Brooklyn 6 back, and the Giants 7 back. Bryan Myres of the Giants shows a line of .349/21/45, he has to be the MVP favorite this year. He leads the league in atting, Stokes still leads in HRs and RBIs though, 29/63. Curry continues to lead the NL in ERA and wins, his 11 wins wouldn't compete in the AL though.

Team News

Saturday 6/28/1912 :
P Lawrence Lach will play in the OOTP-Allstar game!
P Ty Jones will play in the OOTP-Allstar game!
RF Gabriel Mccrady will play in the OOTP-Allstar game!

Monday 7/1/1912 :
Lawrence Lach was named National-Pitcher of the Month !


Grats to Lach! I'm really going to miss having him anchor my rotation when all my prospects come through. McCrady has pushed into the top 3 in batting average to earn his all star spot. Jones is a great reliever, too bad they just aren't so valuable.

Lineup Notes/Changes

The offense is jsut way down this year. McCrady is hitting .336, no one else is hitting .260. LaCombe has 17 HRs/52 RBIs, another 40 homer 100 RBI year isn't out of reach yet.

Lach's June puts him at 10-6, of course, the class of the rotation.

Team Leaders
AVG: RF McCrady .336
HR: LF LaCombe 17
RBI: LF LaCombe 52
SB: LF LaCombe 9
SP ERA: Lach 3.13
RP ERA: Jones 1.69
SAVES: 3
Ks: Lach 139
W-L: Lach 10-6


Player Development

Monday 6/2/1912 :
Herbert Netto has lost some lower body strength, his duration drops to C ...

Monday 6/9/1912 :
Ty Jones has lost some lower body strength, his duration drops to D ...

Monday 6/16/1912 :
Herbert Netto's pitches have more bite now, the movement has improved!

Monday 6/23/1912 :
Gabriel Mccrady has lost some power...

Monday 6/30/1912 :
George Keegan has worked out more, his duration raises to B ...
Donald Meidinger has worked out more, his duration raises to D ...
Douglas Coppa is hitting his spots better, his command improved!



Monthly Awards
AL Pitcher: Phillip Kempton 3-0 2.33 ERA 27 IP/19 Ks (St Louis) - he never had a single good month for me, and he's only 8-6 for St Louis anyway
NL Pitcher: Larry Lach 4-0 1.46 ERA 37 IP/33 Ks/6 BBs (Chicago) - his 2nd pitcher of the month award.

AL Batter: Lamont Sevilla .395 avg/.473 OBP/12 BB/5 Ks (Cleveland) - his 2nd batter of the month
NL Batter: Mark Wegman .391 avg/1207 OPs/9 HR/20 RBIs (Brooklyn) - his 2nd batter of the month

July 1912


This Month's Record: 16-12
Overall Record: 53-52
Current Standing: 4th, 10 games behind Pittsburgh

Major Injuries
George Keegan goes down for 7 weeks with a herniated disc, Ryan Moore comes up from the minors.

League News
American League: Boston is up 11 over Detroit. Lamont Sevilla is hitting .352 to lead the AL, he's 20 points over 2nd. Michael Rooker has 31 HRs and 86 RBIs to lead the AL. Ed Perrodin is simply having an amazing season, 19-4 with a 2.48 ERA. The record for wins in a season is 24, and Perrodin has 2 months to go.

National League: Pittsburgh is 63-42, but it's a pretty close race still, Brooklyn is 4 back, and the Giants are 5 back. The Giants Bryan Myres still leads the NL batting .337, but McCrady is close behind at .329 for the Cubs. William Stokes still leads in HRs and RBIs though, 34/82. Pittsburgh has the top 3 in ERA, with John Curry leading the way with a 2.03 ERA. Larry Lach has 15 wins to lead the league!

Team News

Tuesday 7/8/1912 :
Andrew Rahman hits a 508-foot homerun!!
Andrew Rahman hits a 502-foot homerun!!
Andrew Rahman hits a 565-foot homerun!!
Andrew Rahman sets a new single game NL-Record for Homeruns with 3!
Andrew Rahman crushes 3 homers against Boston (N).
Andrew Rahman drives in 5 runs against Boston (N).
Lawrence Lach strikes out 11 against Boston (N).

Thursday 8/1/1912 :
Lawrence Lach was named National-Pitcher of the Month !
He had a record of 5-1 in 6 games started, with an ERA of 1.29 and 1 shutouts.


Way to go nuts in a contract year Larry. I keep getting some fo these first names wrong. ANDREW rahman, I keep calling him Ahman. Sheesh.

Lineup Notes/Changes

The offense is still way off. LaCombe's power and Sandy Knapp is picking up the HR pace, 27 HRs for LaCombe, 20 for Knapp. McCrady is still the only guy over .260 though.

Lach has gone crazy, and the short hook is helping the relievers to get involved. My relievers are actually 7-0 with 4 saves. Lach is the man though, and Falkner is performing pretty well.

Team Leaders
AVG: RF McCrady .329
HR: LF LaCombe 27
RBI: LF LaCombe 78
SB: LF LaCombe 12
SP ERA: Lach 2.60
RP ERA: Jones 1.54
SAVES: 4
Ks: Lach 212
W-L: Lach 15-7


Player Development

Monday 7/14/1912 :
Herbert Netto is hitting his spots better, his command improved!



Monthly Awards
AL Pitcher: Thomas Wilkins 6-0 2.50 ERA/54 IP/64 Ks/.135 oavg/0.74 WHIP (Philadelphia) - his 2nd monthly award. HE's 28 and going for his 3rd straight 20 win season.
NL Pitcher: Larry Lach 5-1 1.29 ERA 56 IP/73 Ks/8 BBs (Chicago) - his 2nd pitcher of the month award in a row, 3rd overall. .

AL Batter: Mike Moroney .354 avg/11 HRs/28 RBIs (Boston) - this guy is 24, 5 star prospect, 6/8/5... wowow.
NL Batter: Donald Margolis .352 avg/.383 OBP/8 HRs/29 RBIs (New York)

August 1912


This Month's Record: 9-19
Overall Record: 62-71
Current Standing: 5th - 23 games behind Pittsburgh

Major Injuries
Jeffrey Moak is out for 4 weeks. Keegan is still day to day for 2 weeks but I bring him back in anyway.
Brian Huneycutt injures his shoulder and is going to miss 4 weeks of action.

League News
American League: Boston is up 9 over Chicago, they're 82-51. Lamont Sevilla is hitting .342 to lead the AL, it's going to be a tight race for him to try for a 3rd straight batting title though, he's 4 points over Moroney. Michael Rooker has 40 Hrs and 107 RBIs to lead the AL. Perrodin had another incredible month, he's 24-5 with a full month to go!

National League: the Pirates went 22-6 on the month, they're 85-48 and 10 up on the Giants. At least their opponent will be different this year :) Myres is hitting .337 to lead the NL still, but it's tight, the Pirates young 1B Ingrassia is batting .331 in 2nd. It's a major youth movement here as William Stokes has 40 Hrs/97 RBIs. Ingrassia is 2nd in both categories with 35 HRs/96 RBIs. He may well be the MVP this year. Curry's 2.11 ERA still leads the NL, Larry Lach's 2.50 is 3rd though, the Giants Bruce Tyree has 19 wins, Lach has 18.

Team News



Lineup Notes/Changes

Rahman heated up and is hitting .270 now but the team is just down... McCrady is putting up a solid .325. LaCombe has 34 HRs/95 RBIs.

Netto has been horrid. 8-18 with a 6.93 ERA.

Team Leaders
AVG: RF McCrady .325
HR: LF LaCombe 34
RBI: LF LaCombe 95
SB: LF LaCombe 15
SP ERA: Lach 2.50
RP ERA: Jones 3.10
SAVES: 5
Ks: Lach 254
W-L: Lach 18-8


Player Development

Monday 9/1/1912 :
Kenneth Flinchum has worked out more, his duration raises to B ...



Monthly Awards
AL Pitcher: Phillip Foley 5-1 1.53 ERA 53 IP/42 Ks (Washington)
NL Pitcher: Bruce Tyree 6-0 2.00 ERA 54 IP/42 Ks (New York) Tyree is an average 2 star man. A hot month from Lach could end up in a pitcher of the year award.

AL Batter: Rodney Macha .388 avg/.474 obp/8 HR/20 RBIs (Philadelphia) Damn him for not wanting to play for me.
NL Batter: Mark Wegman .402 avg/1198 OPS/8 HR/25 RBIs (Brooklyn) his 3rd such award, 2nd this year.

I brought up 3 guys who look to be very close to major league ready. Behnke gets a month starting in left field, Krupa starts in center, and Lobb at 2nd base. All of them may be ready to join the majors at the start of the next season, so I've got to try them out now.

September 1912


This Month's Record: 11-10
Overall Record: 73-81
Current Standing: 4th - 25 games behind Pittsburgh

Major Injuries

League News
American League: Boston clinched the AL easily, they finish 96-58, 13 games better than St Louis, who was in 6th going into September. Philly's Setphen Shrum overtook Sevilla to win the batting title, he hit .341. Michael Rooker was the only 50 HR man this year, he hit 51 and drove in 123, he also scored 126 and seems a lock for MVP. Ed Perrodin surely gets the pitching award, with a 2.93 ERA and a 26-8 record.

National League: Pittsburgh won 98 games and beat Brooklyn by 10 games. Bryan Myres hit .339 to win the NL Batting Crown. Rookie William Stokes hit 48 Hrs and drove in 115 runs to lead both of those categories. Myres scored 108 runs to lead that category. My vote for the MVP though goes to Pittsburgh's James Ingrassia. 3rd in batting average, 3rd in HRs, 3rd in RBIs, and 2nd in Runs. John Curry probably just won another pitching award. His ERA is 1.94 and he won 21 games to only 3 losses. Larry Lach was 3rd with a 2.55 ERA and finished 20-8.

Team News



Lineup Notes/Changes

McCrady finished at .312, Rahman .272, LaCombe with 37 HRs/99 RBIs, Knapp 29 HRs/83 RBIs, but the story is the rookies. 24 year old CF Albert Krupa hit .295 on the month, and stole 5 bases, he's a 3 star prospect and rated 4/3/4 right now. 5 star LF Robert Behnke, currently rated 5/5/5, hit .276 with 2 HRs. 2B Russell Lobb, 23, 5 star prospect, current ratings 8/5/8 :D, he only hit .244 but he made huge strides this year. I think it's a distinct possibility that all three of these men will be on the major league roster to start 1913.

Lach and Falkner I was happy with, Lach 20-8 and Falkner 15-13. The fact that I couldn't re-sign Lach kills me. The bullpen was a bit weak after I pushed them out on the field a lot more.

Team Leaders
AVG: RF McCrady .312
HR: LF LaCombe 37
RBI: LF LaCombe 99
SB: LF LaCombe 16
SP ERA: Lach 2.55
RP ERA: Jones 2.90
SAVES: Jones 6
Ks: Lach 298
W-L: Lach 20-8


Player Development

Monday 9/1/1912 :
Kenneth Flinchum has worked out more, his duration raises to B ...

Monday 9/15/1912 :
James Smith has learned reading pitchers better, his stealing ability raises to C ...

Monday 9/22/1912 :
Robert Behnke positions himself better now, his range at LF increases to B !

Monday 9/29/1912 :
Joseph Lacombe has lost some power...
Sandy Knapp increased his bat control, resulting in more contact!



Monthly Awards
AL Pitcher: Gerald Forst 4-0 3.94 ERA 45 IP/33 Ks (New York) a 1 star guy who went 8-9 this year...
NL Pitcher: John Curry 4-0 1.21 ERA/44.2 IP/38 Ks (Pittsburgh) Curry missed over a month with a major injury, and he still went 21-3. He won his last 11 decisions in a row.

AL Batter: Michael Rooker .342 avg/11 HR/21 RBIs/17 BB/8 Ks (Boston) His 4th batter of the month award
NL Batter: Mark Bryant .333 avg/.443 OBP/8 HRs/22 RBIs (Philadelphia)

1912 World Series

Pittsburgh is the home team this year, their 3rd straight apperance. New to the Series are the Boston Red Sox, opening up Fenway with a bang.


Boston's offense is a powerful one. Michael Rooker is the star, .282/51/123. Rookie 3B Mike Moroney hit .329 with 36 HRs and 114 RBIs, and RF Eugene Mickle hit .276 with 41 HRs and 110 RBIs. If this team is going to win the World Series they'll do it at the plate.

Pittsburgh returns the same stars from last year, James Ingrassia hit .318/39/112, and Bill Andres hit 38 HRs and drove in 104. Leadoff man Donnell Clements stole 41 bases.

This is a classic matchup of great pitching vs great hitting.

Game 1
Boston pitches Lauren Glassman, 16-14 with a 5.06 ERA. Pittsburgh of course uses 21-3 John Curry.

4th: Boston gets a man on first on an error. A sac bunt, a strikeout, another strikeout, then a little popup, Pittsburgh's LF drops it! 2 errors in the inning and it's 1-0 Red Sox.

4th: Bill Andres leads off with a double, he is eventually driven in by Marion Mancilla, it's 1-1.

6th: Ingrassia with a leadoff walk, Andres hits a double to score him. 2-1 Pirates

9th: Boston gets a man on first on the pirates 3rd error of the day, but he never gets past 1st base.

John Curry pitches a 2 hitter!

Pittsburgh 2-1 : Series PIT 1-0


Game 2

Boston starts James Steward, who went 12-2 with a 4.36 ERA. Pittsburgh sends Ray OKane to the mound, a 16-7 2.62 ERA season under his belt.

1st: Moroney allows Peter Tracy to reach first on an error. That seems to rattle Steward, he only allows 3 hits, but thanks to that error and 3 walks, a balk, and a wild pitch, the Pirates bat around and score 6 runs!

No poitn watching after that really.

Pittsburgh 8-3 : Series PIT 2-0


Game 3

Pittsburgh starts Karl Strong, a guy who the Cubs pursued but had no interest... he went 6-8 with a 4.19 ERA this year. Boston starts Edmund Banks, their ace, who went 24-8 with a 4.03 ERA. Boston should have the upper hand here. Also, welcome to Fenway Park!

1st: Don Clements looks at a called 3rd strike, argues, and gets tossed!

6th: Ingrassia reaches on an error by the pitcher. Bill Andres follows it up with a 2 run home run!

8th: Andres gets the first hit this time, and Pittsburgh strings together a few hits to go up 3-0.

8th: Boston's stars try to make it a game again, Moroney doubles off the wall in left, and Rooker hits a 2 run shot to make it 3-2.

3 up 3 down in the bottom of the 9th and Karl Strong gets the win, 3-2.

Pittsburgh 3-2 : Series PIT 3-0

Game 4

John Curry has a chance to close out the World Series for the 2nd straight year. Curry is 2-1 lifetime in 5 postseason starts, with a 2.14 ERA.

1st: Mike Moroney hits a solo shot, he's batting .500 this postseason, and the Sox lead 1-0.

3rd: Don Clements hits his 2nd postseason homer, a solo shot, and he's batting .556 this postseason, it's 1-1!

4th: a double by Ingrassia, a single by Glowacky, and a double by Peter Tracy make it 3-1 Pittsburgh

5th: Ingrassia hits a 2 run bomb! 5-1 Pittsburgh.

... it falls apart.

Pittsburgh 8-1 : Series PIT 4-0

The Pittsburgh Pirates win the 1912 World Serires

Don Clements had a great series, 3 homers, 6 RBIs in 3 games(he got kicked out on the first at bat of one game).

The updated league file is at http://www.angband.org/~radii .. this time I updated it before the start of the new season so it shows the end of year stats for 1912.


1912 Review


1912 RECAP:

American Outstanding Newcomer Award:
Lamar Coger (WAS)!
He batted .268 in 377 AB, with 11 homers and 54 RBI.

National Outstanding Newcomer Award:
William Stokes (PHN)!
He batted .163 in 571 AB, with 48 homers and 115 RBI.

American Outstanding Pitcher Award:
Edmund Perrodin (CHA)!
He had a record of 26-8 with an ERA of 2.93 and 1 shutouts.
In 34 games started, he pitched 301.1 innings, fanning 226 and walking 62 batters.

American Outstanding Batter Award:
Mike Moroney (BOA)!
He batted .329 in 590 AB, with 36 homers and 114 RBI.

National Outstanding Pitcher Award:
John Curry (PIT)!
He had a record of 21-3 with an ERA of 1.94 and 4 shutouts.
In 27 games started, he pitched 241 innings, fanning 203 and walking 48 batters.

National Outstanding Batter Award:
James Ingrassia (PIT)!
He batted .318 in 554 AB, with 39 homers and 112 RBI.

American Slick Fielder Award Winners:
Pitcher: Phillip Ferraro (NYA)
Catcher: Tony Mcarthur (NYA)
First Base: Kenneth Burrow (CHA)
Second Base: Walter Bonnet (CHA)
Third Base: Jerry Pond (BOA)
Shortstop: Charles Franco (CHA)
Leftfield: Daniel Bauman (NYA)
Centerfield: Brandon Linehan (PHA)
Rightfield: Lamont Sevilla (CLE)

National Slick Fielder Award Winners:
Pitcher: Dewitt Jamar (NYN)
Catcher: Dennis Ryan (PHN)
First Base: James Zielinski (PHN)
Second Base: Mario Grant (CIN)
Third Base: John Feathers (CHN)
Shortstop: Gregory Gum (CHN)
Leftfield: Elliot Glowacki (PIT)
Centerfield: Isaac Salzer (CIN)
Rightfield: John Williams (BON)

American Standings :
(Name W L PCT GB AVG ERA)
Boston (A) 96 58 .623 -- .281 4.64
St Louis (A) 83 71 .539 13 .257 3.86
Chicago (A) 82 72 .532 14 .247 4.24
Philadelphia (A) 80 74 .519 16 .272 4.26
Detroit 80 74 .519 16 .262 4.53
Washington 67 87 .435 29 .261 4.66
New York (A) 64 90 .416 32 .269 5.20
Cleveland 64 90 .416 32 .267 5.19

National Standings :
(Name W L PCT GB AVG ERA)
Pittsburgh 98 56 .636 -- .258 3.04
Brooklyn 88 66 .571 10 .247 3.88
New York (N) 83 71 .539 15 .253 3.94
Chicago (N) 73 81 .474 25 .239 4.28
Boston (N) 72 82 .468 26 .237 4.35
Philadelphia (N) 71 83 .461 27 .233 4.36
St Louis (N) 67 87 .435 31 .236 4.38
Cincinnati 64 90 .416 34 .233 4.16

Playoffs :
World Championship :
Pittsburgh (4) against Boston (A) (0)

TOP 5 in BATTING AVG :
.341 Stephan Shrum(PHA,AL)
.339 Bryan Myres(NYN,NL)
.335 Lamont Sevilla(CLE,AL)
.329 Richard Wickham(NYA,AL)
.329 Mike Moroney(BOA,AL)

TOP 5 in HOMERUNS :
51 Michael Rooker(BOA,AL)
48 William Stokes(PHN)
42 Mark Bryant(PHN,NL)
41 Eugene Mickle(BOA,AL)
39 Rodney Macha( PHA,AL)

TOP 5 in RBI :
123 Michael Rooker(BOA,AL)
115 William Stokes(PHN)
114 Mike Moroney(BOA,AL)
113 Mark Bryant(PHN,NL)
112 James Ingrassia(PIT,NL)

TOP 5 in ERA :
1.94 John Curry(PIT)
2.37 Edward Shinn(PIT,NL)
2.55 Lawrence Lach(CHN,NL)
2.62 Raymond Okane(PIT)
2.63 Thomas Wilkins(PHA,AL)

TOP 5 in WINS :
26 Edmund Perrodin(CHA,AL)
24 Edmund Banks(BOA,AL)
21 John Curry(PIT)
20 Ahmad Hamblin(DET)
20 Bruce Tyree(NYN)

TOP 5 in SAVES :
18 James Mccutcheon(BRO)
8 Christopher Cambra(BOA)
6 Scotty Harber(PHN)
6 Ty Jones(CHN,NL)
6 James Lester(BRO)



On to 1913 Free Agency

1912 Financial Outlook

We made a profit of $3 Million last year, revenue is really stable at about $57 Million a year. Our current payroll is $47 Million a year, so we have about $10 Million to spend right now. Keep in mind we lost Larry Lach to free agency.

Boston and Detroit, the first two teams to upgrade their stadiums signifigantly in the era, showed major, major revenue increases last year. Boston specifically, aided by their World Series appearance, went from the second worst revenue team in the majors, to one of the top ones bringing in $63 Million.

All teams quickly adjusted to the state of finances in the league, unlike last year where all teams but 2 or so lost money, only a limited few teams lost money this year.


Time to look at what we've got on the roster right now.


1912 Roster Overview Pre-Free Agency

Catchers
Andrew Rahman is our catcher, he's signed now for $5 Million/yr until 1915. He has a career average of .325 and has been one of our best performers. Rahman starts the year as a 6/5/7 hitter. George Pink re-signed until 1916 at a meager $600,000/yr to back up Rahman.

First Base
Sandy Knapp only hit .220 last year but he hit 29 HRs and drove in 83 runs. Knapp shows ratings of 3/9/10 and has a career .206 average but has 99 HRs over 3 seasons. His backup is 3/4/3 Robert Hutchins, who hit .258 in 11 games last year.

Second Base
Gregory Hamel is a 3/6/4 2 star second baseman, batting .227 last year. Hamel's contract runs out this year. Russell Lobb will likely be our starter this year though, Lobb is only 23 but he's ready to go, with 8/5/8 ratings with A range and decent speed. We hope for Lobb to content for rookie of the year.

Third Base
John Feathers is in his 2nd year as a Cub, he's a 5/4/6 man who hit .252 last year in 121 games for the Cubs. He won the slick fielder award last year at 3rd base. 25 year old Charlie Honig is a 4/4/5 backup who batted .215 last year. I have hopes that he'll turn into an average 3rd baseman for me but I have my doubts at this point.

Shortstop
Gregory Gum is at 3/5/4, he hit .236 last year and .250 the year before. He's signed for 2 more years at $3.67 Million a year. A definite trade possibility if I can get a big starting pitcher on my roster and need to free up some paryoll. He's backed up by 1 star Joey Manske, 4/3/2 guy who hit .216 in 47 games last year, and 2 star 4/4/4 Rodney Simpson who hit .271 in 44 games.


Left Field
Joseph LaCombe is back, his power is starting to fade just a little, he comes into the year 3/8/4. Robert Behnke is up to 6/5/5 and looks ready to go here too, he may split time in left and right with LaCombe and McCrady. Behnke and Lobb are my two star prospects of course.

Center Field
Brian Huneycutt is back, but he was down last year, a 5/5/6 CF, he hit .254 last year after putting up solid .300+ numbers 2 years ago. I still have Richard Henry, my favorite backup, playing all 3 outfield positions, and I am also looking at 3 star prospect Albert Krupa, he's currently at 4/3/4 and 24 years old, he may not be ready to go in the majors, and I'm debating whether to put him on the major league roster or back in the minors for now. He did hit .295 as a September callup last year.

Right Field
Gabriel McCrady is still at 7/5/8 and is solid still in Right Field. This is his last season under contract though, and he's 35 years old. Daniel Dean is a 1 star 3/5/4 backup, he batted .273 in 37 games last year. Behnke may get some time here this year.


Starting Pitchers
With the loss of Larry Lach the pitching staff really isn't very good.

Lewis Falkner is a 7/7/6 man who went 15-13 for me last year. He's only making 1.75M/yr and this is his contract year. Jeffrey Moak is 37 years old and fading a bit, he's at 6/7/6 and went 9-10 last year. George Keegan, 1 1/2 star 32 y/o 5/6/7 man, 7-15 last year. Herb Netto fell apart last year, he was listed as a 6/6/7 man last year, but down to 3/5/6 now. He was a horrid 8-21 last year.

Free Agent Needs

I think starting pitching will be 100% of our concern in free agency this year. I'm going to look to trade away Herb Netto, more to free up his 3+ Million/yr than anything.

We trade away high priced starter Herb Netto to the Red Sox, in return we get 4 star RF prospect Corey Hopwood.

Midway through free agency we realize if we're going to sign the absolute best pitchers that we're going after we need a bit more cash available, and trade away fading shortstop gregory Gum to free up another $3 Million.

Washington gets:

SS Gregory Gum
C William Higgs (one of 2 2-star catching prospects I have)

Chicago (N) gets:

SP Brian Skillern - a 3 star 20 year old starting prospect
CL Kyle Tone - a 5 star closer prospect, also 20 years old.

This works to perfection and we've got our replacement for Larry Lach.


Free Agent Signings


SP Thomas Wilkins - 5 stars, 29 years old, 10/8/6, signed for 4 years at $10 Million a year. Wilkins and Lach were the stars of the free agent session. Wilkins spent his first 3 years with the Philadelphia As, he's a 2 time 20 game winner, and has a 58-30 lifetime record, a 3.39 career ERA, he strikes out about 290 men a year.


SP Michael Holte - 3 1/2 stars, 33 years old, signed for $7.5 Million/yr for 2 years. Holte is rated at 8/8/7 and ha a career record of 49-41 for the Detroit Tigers. I probably overpaid for holte but my hope is that Holte, Wilkins, and Falkner will be a solid top 3 starters for me.

1913 Spring Training

Sunday 3/2/1913 :

2 SPRING TRAINING NEWS:
Corey Hopwood has good batting practice sessions!
Corey Hopwood displays more power in batting practice!
Corey Hopwood showed good strike zone judgement!
Robert Behnke displays more power in batting practice!
Bryan Skillern has increased his throwing velocity!
Russell Lobb displays more power in batting practice!
Ronald Hague displays more power in batting practice!
Norris Sikorski has good pitching sessions!
Norris Sikorski has increased his throwing velocity!
Norris Sikorski has improved his control!
John Garibay has good batting practice sessions!
Douglas Mccart has good pitching sessions!
William Cox has good pitching sessions!
William Cox has increased his throwing velocity!
William Cox has improved his control!
Chris Broussard has good batting practice sessions!
Chris Broussard displays more power in batting practice!
Donald Shell has improved his control!
Dylan Troup has good batting practice sessions!
John Perry has improved his control!
Lawrence Lemieux has increased his throwing velocity!
Lawrence Lemieux has improved his control!
James Elzy has good batting practice sessions!
James Elzy displays more power in batting practice!
James Elzy showed good strike zone judgement!
Tod Harris has good batting practice sessions!
Tod Harris displays more power in batting practice!
James Harvill has good batting practice sessions!
Brandon Beck has good pitching sessions!
Donald Meidinger has good pitching sessions!
Donald Meidinger has increased his throwing velocity!
Donald Meidinger has improved his control!
Randall Parker has improved his control!
Bill Yamada has increased his throwing velocity!
Bill Yamada has improved his control!
Bill Becker has increased his throwing velocity!
Stephen Nies has good batting practice sessions!
Cleveland Pyatt displays more power in batting practice!
Keith Hawkins has good batting practice sessions!
Keith Hawkins displays more power in batting practice!
Keith Hawkins showed good strike zone judgement!
Jason Addis displays more power in batting practice!
Jason Addis showed good strike zone judgement!
Aaron Moffatt has good batting practice sessions!
Aaron Moffatt displays more power in batting practice!
Aaron Moffatt showed good strike zone judgement!
John Kelly has good batting practice sessions!
John Kelly showed good strike zone judgement!
Peter Mclaughlin has good pitching sessions!
John Strohl has good batting practice sessions!
Herschel Dudek has good batting practice sessions!
Herschel Dudek displays more power in batting practice!
Michael Carlucci has good batting practice sessions!
Michael Carlucci displays more power in batting practice!
George Freeman displays more power in batting practice!
George Freeman showed good strike zone judgement!
Nelson Brown has good batting practice sessions!

I setup Russell Lobb as my starter at 2nd Base, but Gregory Hamel will get 30% of the starts still at least at the start of the new season.

Behnke will get 30% of the starts in both left and right field, so he should be seeing a fair amount of action this year.

Albert Krupa is going to get 30% of the starts behind Brian Huneycutt as well.

It's back! If anyone was ever reading anyway :)

I honestly don't know if I'm going to stick with this or not but I know I've got some time this weekend... if Seadogs 2 is all I hope it to be this might be an off and on thing again. Trying to pick up where I left off:

April 1913


This Month's Record: 8-18
Overall Record: 8-18
Current Standing: 8th(last) - 10 games behind Pittsburgh

Major Injuries
Our new 5 star pitching signing Thomas Wilkins goes down for 5 weeks on April 26th.


League News
American League: Defending AL Champ Boston is off to a slow 12-14 start, the White Sox are 17-9 and up early. Highlanders 3B Rodger Nelson is off to a hot .386 start, he'll fade I'm sure, he's coming off a .244 year. 3 guys hit 8 homers in April in the AL.

National League: Pittsburgh has the best record in the majors yet again at 18-8. Phillies Catcher Dennis Ryan is off to a blazing .415 start. Cubs rookie Russell Lobb is hitting .400, and Catcher Andrew Rahman is up top yet again batting .396. The Phillies 2nd year starter William Stokes has 10 HRs/27 RBIs early on, not bad for a 2 1/2 star 2/8/2 rated 23 year old.

Team News



Lineup Notes/Changes

We're playing horribly. The offense doesn't look horrible, Knapp is hitting a bad .168 at cleanup and our 7th and 8th hitters aren't doing so well, but we've also got 4 .300 hitters. Russell Lobb is looking great, our rookie 2B, he's hitting .400 with 4 HRs/18 RBIs. Our other prize rookie Robert Behnke is off to a slower .240 start.

The pitching staff is struggling. My bottom 3 starters are 2.9 with a combined ERA easily over 7. Wilkins was 1-3 with a 3.70 ERA before going on the DL


Team Leaders
AVG: 2B Lobb .400
HR: 1B Knapp 6
RBI: C Rahman/2B Lobb 18
SB: CF Huneycutt 6
SP ERA: Wilkins 3.70
RP ERA: Cone 3.86
SAVES: Davis 1
Ks: Holte 52
W-L: Falkner 3-2


Player Development

Monday 4/14/1913 :

Bill Wethington has worked out more, his duration raises to B ...

Monday 4/28/1913 :

Corey Hopwood has improved his plate disclipine!
Joe Martin seems to have lost some of his feel for his stuff...



Monthly Awards
AL Pitcher: Walter Escalera 5-1 3.26 ERA/58 IP (Cleveland)
NL Pitcher: Allen Wotring 4-2 1.56 ERA (Boston)

AL Batter: Mike Moroney .383 avg/8 HR/32 RBIs (Boston)
NL Batter: Dennis Ryan .415 avg/.489 OBP/7 HRs/20 RBIs (Philadelphia)

May 1913


This Month's Record: 18-11
Overall Record: 26-29
Current Standing: 5th - 11 games behind Pittsburgh

Major Injuries
Wilkins will come off the DL June 1st, and hopefully help us continue our hot streak that began in May.


League News
American League: We've got a really tight race in the AL. Philadelphia and St Louis are 31-24, Detroit 1 back, Boston, Chicago, and Cleveland all only 3 back. Perinnial Star Lamont Sevilla is leading the AL now with a .349 average. He boasts a career average of .356 and is 33 years old. He will probably hold a lot of batting records when he retires and I seriously will consider naming the batting title award after him.

National League: Pittsburgh's dominance of the NL continues, they're 37-18, 6 up on 2nd. Cubs rookie Russell Lobb is batting .381 and now leads the NL, this guy is going to be good! William Stokes has 19 HRs, and Cubs 1B Sandy Knapp got hot in May and is 2nd with 17 HRs.

Team News

Monday 5/5/1913 :
Russell Lobb was named Player of the Week!
He batted .450 in 20 AB, with 5 HR and 9 RBI.

Sunday 5/11/1913 :
Michael Holte strikes out 16 against Brooklyn.


Lineup Notes/Changes

Our power numbers are way up. Knapp hit 11 homers in May, Lobb is a great #5 hitter, McCrady is holding up with a .300 average and 7 HRs from the 3rd spot... we're great in our first 5 spots in the lineup really... it tails off fast after that. The "other rookie" Behnke is up to .268, he's not getting as much playing time as Lobb though.

We see signifigant improvement here... our bottom 3 starters have dropped their collective ERA from around 7 to around 5. The top starters are getting wins, it's all looking much better, and I have hopes of being able to get above .500 and stay there with Wilkins back in the lineup.


Team Leaders
AVG: 2B Lobb .381
HR: 1B Knapp 17
RBI: 1B Knapp 42
SB: CF Huneycutt 7
SP ERA: Holte 3.07
RP ERA: Maggard 1.93
SAVES: Davis 3
Ks: Holte 111
W-L: Falkner 7-4


Player Development

Monday 5/5/1913 :

Ruben Maggard has worked out more, his duration raises to C ...

Monday 5/19/1913 :

Robert Behnke has lost some power...
Donald Shell seems to have improved his pure stuff!
Bill Yamada has lost some lower body strength, his duration drops to C ...
John Bench has worked out more, his duration raises to B ...
George Freeman has lost a step. His speed drops to D ...
George Freeman has lost some momentum, his range at LF drops to D ...
George Freeman has lost some momentum, his range at CF drops to E ...
George Freeman has lost some momentum, his range at RF drops to D ...
Ty Jones has worked out more, his duration raises to C ...

Monday 5/26/1913 :

Jeffrey Moak has lost some lower body strength, his duration drops to D ...
Jeffrey Moak has lost some momentum, his range at P drops to D ...
Douglas Coppa seems to have improved his pure stuff!
Douglas Coppa is hitting his spots better, his command improved!
Charlie Honig has learned reading pitchers better, his stealing ability raises to D ...
Joseph Nies seems to have lost some of his feel for his stuff...
Joseph Nies has lost some lower body strength, his duration drops to E ...



Monthly Awards
AL Pitcher: Melvin Peaslee 5-1 2.33 ERA/54 IP/44 Ks (Philadelphia)
NL Pitcher: Andrew Causey 2-1 0.62 ERA/29 IP/25 Ks (Boston) - a 5 star prospect, 24 y/o and already 6/7/8. this guy might be someone we hear about for a long time.

AL Batter: Lamont Sevilla .375 avg/7 HR/27 RBIs (Cleveland) - 3rd batter of the month award
NL Batter: Bryan Myres .394 avg/1.202 OPS/8 HRs/22 RBIs (New York) - 4th batter of the month award(1910 Batter of the year)

First lets look at the contract extensions we're dealing with this year potentially:

RF Gabriel McCrady - Making $7.34/yr Wants 6.13/3 years.
CL Robert Davis - Making $2.25/yr Wants $2.59/4 years
SP Lewis Falkner - Making $1.75/yr Wants $5.54/4 years
SP George Keegan - Making $1.15/yr wants $1.42/3 years
MR David Cone - Making $1.00/yr Wants (let me hear offer)
2B Gregory Hamel - Making $985K/yr Wants (let me hear offer)
CF Richard Henry - Making $900K/yr wants (let me hear offer)

The only signifigant Arbitration case would be Robert Behnke who would go from $300K to $3 Million/yr on arbitration. I'd like to ink him to a long term deal.

I have $21 Million available here.

I'd like to keep McCrady around, he hasn't lost a step, but I'd rather get him for 2 years than 3.

Falkner is not worth $5.5 Million/yr. He's my #3 starter and a 7/7/6 rated man but he's 35. Maybe i'd give him $5 million for 1 year but not 4.

Hamel and Henry are expendable now, Cone I like but i won't give a huge raise to, and Keegan is currently my spot starter. I have 3 solid looking starters in AAA but none will be ready next year, so I need to either sign Keegan or Falkner it appears.



I start with Falkner, he won't take less money for 3-4 years, and he won't take $5 Millino for 1 year, he's gone.

Keegan easily signs for $1.25 Million/yr for 2 years, so I've got my 5th starter until my prospects emerge.

Gabriel McCrady signs for $5.75M/3 years. I would have preferred 2, as he's 36 years old, but he's been worth it for me so far, a career .320 hitter for me.

Cone and Davis are gone. Relievers just aren't worth millions in this era.

This will leave me some work to do during the offseason, but also should leave me about $15 Million to go after free agents.

Going into the draft, we consider 2B(Lobb), LF(Behnke), RF(Corey Hopwood) to be positions that we have zero interest in.

1913 Amatuer Draft

We have the 8th pick in the draft. The draft is 7 rounds.

The star of the draft is G/B/G centerfielder George Berthelot, 19 years old. He goes to Cincinnati.

This is a batter heavy draft, the first four players all position players, and none of the pitchers look like sure things... lots of the hitters do.

Here's the Cubs picks:

1st Round: SP Ken Shine A/G/G (21 Years old), the A duration pushed him over the top and into the Cubs uniform.

2nd Round: 1B Harry Goosby A/G/F (19 years old)... this feels like a weak draft heh

3rd Round: SP Edward Butler F/A/A (19 years old) - 2 stars

4th Round: MR Ken Korando A/G/A (18 years old) - 3 stars

5th Round: SS Albert Heiss A/P/F (20 years old) - 2 stars

6th Round: MR Shaun Schmidt F/A/A (18 years old) - 2 stars

7th Round: MR Vernon Govea F/A/A (18 years old) - 2 stars

Not really a great draft for us at all unless someone breaks out. After the draft we've dropped from the top minor league team to the 2nd best, the Philadelphia As have the top minor league system now.

Since closer Robert Davis isn't going to be around, I spend some time shopping him.

Philadelphia (A) gets:

CL Robert Davis

Chicago gets:

SP William Shimer - 2 1/2 stars, 7/7/5, 34 y/o. He can fill in in the rotation which is pretty weak at the back end.

Back to baseball!

June 1913


This Month's Record: 12-10
Overall Record: 38-39
Current Standing: 4th - 12 games behind Pittsburgh

Major Injuries
None


League News
American League: Philadelphia has taken a slim lead in the AL, they're 45-32. Cleveland is 3 back, Detroit and St Louis 4 back. New league leaders everywhere, Dewey Sobers(a new name to me on the leaderboard) is hitting .361. He's an aging Shortstop for the Senators. A name that is familier is Michael Rooker, his 28 Hrs and 65 RBIs lead the AL. Rooker will hit his 200th HR this year and is a lock to be the career leader in home runs barring some sort of injury. He's got 40+ more HRs than anyone else in the Majors. ERAs are up, 3.40 leads the AL in ERA, and there's 3 pitchers with 11 wins, all with a shot at 20.

National League: It's all about the Pirates. 50-27, 5 up on the Giants. Russell Lobb continues to lead the NL batting .356, 2nd is .337. Sandy Knapp now leads the NL in HRs with 23. The starndard 3 pirates all lead the NL in ERA.

Team News




Lineup Notes/Changes

We're ok now in our top 6 spots in the order. Shortstop Rodney Simpson is having a horrible year and really SS needs to be a position that the Cubs address soon.

The pitching staff has settled down to what I expected. Wilkins, Holte and Falkner at 1-3 are doing pretty solid and we're very weak at the end of the rotation. Holte and Falkner both have 10 wins and have a shot at 20 wins.

Team Leaders
AVG: 2B Lobb .356
HR: 1B Knapp 23
RBI: 1B Knapp 60
SB: CF Huneycutt 8
SP ERA: Wilkins 2.58
RP ERA: Cone 3.38
SAVES: 0
Ks: Holte 161
W-L: Falkner, Holte 10-5


Player Development

Monday 6/2/1913 :

Chance Poole has lost some lower body strength, his duration drops to D ...

Monday 6/9/1913 :

James Elzy has lost some momentum, his stealing ability drops to C ...
John Bench seems to have improved his pure stuff!
John Bench's pitches have more bite now, the movement has improved!
John Bench is hitting his spots better, his command improved!

Monday 6/16/1913 :

William Reynosa seems to have improved his pure stuff!
William Reynosa's pitches have more bite now, the movement has improved!

Monday 6/23/1913 :

Raymond Prior's pitches have more bite now, the movement has improved!


Any improvement by Prior is good to me, he's one of my top pitching prospects and is in AAA right now. Also, top pick Ken Shine has already moved up to AA.


Monthly Awards
AL Pitcher: Ahmad Hamblin 5-1 4.03 ERA/51 IP/53 Ks (Detroit) - 20 wins every year so far and two outstanding pitcher awards, but this is his first monthly award
NL Pitcher: Jeffrey Markus 4-0 1.01 ERA/35 IP/39 Ks (Brooklyn)

AL Batter: Michael Rooker .436 avg/14 HR/33 RBIs (Boston) - 5rd batter of the month award!
NL Batter: Donald Margolis .434 avg/only 6 ks (New York) - an average (5/5/4) guy gets hot for a month

oops

July 1913


This Month's Record: 19-9
Overall Record: 57-48
Current Standing: Tied for 3rd - 9 games behind Pittsburgh

Major Injuries
None


League News
American League: Philly is 59-46, Boston, Cleveland, and St Louis are 4 back, Chicago 5, Detroit 6. Michael Rooker now has a bead on the triple crown, all the races are close but he has the top average, HRs and RBIs in the AL.

National League: It's still the pirates, but I'm excited about the hot streak the Cubs went on in July. The Cubs are just 1 game behind 2nd place! Lobb's average is down to .339 but he still has the league lead. The Pirates Raymond OKane has 269 Ks and has been racking them up at an amazing rate. With 2 months left in the season he has an outside shot at the record for a season of 367 Ks.

Team News

Saturday 6/28/1913 :

P Lewis Falkner will play in the OOTP-Allstar game!
P Michael Holte will play in the OOTP-Allstar game!
2B Russell Lobb will play in the OOTP-Allstar game!
1B Sandy Knapp will play in the OOTP-Allstar game!
RF Gabriel Mccrady will play in the OOTP-Allstar game!


A month behind, but congrats to the Cubs all stars!

Lineup Notes/Changes

Rookie Robert Behnke has slowly raised his average up above .300 during the season. He replaces a fading Joseph LaCombe in left field as my full time starter. This signifigantly improves my starting lineup with SS Simpson the only major weakness.

Wilkins and Holte both had great months, Wilkins is up to 7-5 and Holte 14-6, Falkner is still putting out a solid performance and is 12-8. I just can't justify the 5+ Million Falkner wants, he's 53-51 on his career.

Team Leaders
AVG: 2B Lobb .339
HR: 1B Knapp 29
RBI: 1B Knapp 75
SB: CF Huneycutt 12
SP ERA: Wilkins 2.58
RP ERA: Cone 3.07
SAVES: 0
Ks: Holte 213
W-L: Holte 14-6


Player Development

Monday 7/7/1913 :

John Perry has lost some lower body strength, his duration drops to E ...
George Pink increased his bat control, resulting in more contact!
Bill Wethington's pitches have more bite now, the movement has improved!

Monday 7/14/1913 :

Wallace Solis seems to have improved his pure stuff!
Wallace Solis's pitches have more bite now, the movement has improved!

Monday 7/21/1913 :

Norris Sikorski has lost some lower body strength, his duration drops to D ...

Monday 7/28/1913 :

Joseph Lacombe has lost a step. His speed drops to C ...
Joseph Lacombe has lost some momentum, his range at LF drops to E ...



Monthly Awards
AL Pitcher: Roy Beem 5-1 3.21 ERA/56 IP/68 Ks (Chicago) - 7-8 on the year...
NL Pitcher: Ray Okane 5-1 1.42 ERA/57 IP/75 Ks (Brooklyn) - his 2nd monthly award, the 1911 pitcher of the year

AL Batter: Thomas Lockridge .395 avg/.514 OBP/9 HR/30 RBIs (St Louis)
NL Batter: Ben Englund .376 avg/15 HRs/31 RBIs (New York)

August 1913


This Month's Record: 15-13
Overall Record: 72-61
Current Standing: Tied for 3rd - 14 games behind Pittsburgh

Major Injuries
None


League News
American League: Boston now has the lead heer, 75-58, Detroit 2 back, St Louis 3 back, Philadelphia 4 back. Rooker still has a shot at a triple crown but Sevilla has taken the batting average lead back for now. Glassman(Boston) and Hamblin(Detroit) both look like locks to win 20 games.

National League: Pittsburgh is 86-47, it's not even close. Lobb held his average up at .345 and leads the Giants Myres by 16 points going into the final month. The standard piartes are up there in ERA, Curry 2.02, Shinn 2.34, but Thomas Wilkins of the cubs is 3rd at 2.39! Another exciting development is that Michael Holt is now leading the majors in wins, he's 19-7. Okane has 337 strikeouts, so the strikeout record is still within reach.

Team News

Monday 8/18/1913 :

Michael Holte sets a new single game Team-Record for Strikeouts with 17!
Michael Holte fans 18 batters against Boston (N).

Sunday 9/1/1913 :

Michael Holte was named National-Pitcher of the Month !
He had a record of 5-1 in 6 games started, with an ERA of 1.50 and 1 shutouts.

Sunday 9/1/1913 :

Robert Behnke was named National-Batter of the Month!
He batted .456 in 68 AB, with 9 homers and 25 RBI.


Go Cubs! Behnke certainly showed he deserves his roster spot.

Lineup Notes/Changes

With Behnke and Lobb having such great seasons, I'm really excited about the future of the team here. Knapp has 34 HRs/93 RBIs, and our Catcher Rahman silently is putting together another solid .300 year.

Wilkins is on a tear, he's up to 12-6, after a slow 3-5 start with his injury... Holte is 19-7 and has just been amazing. Falkner is 14-11, but I wish my 4th and 5th starters could hold their own... 7-12, and 9-16.

Team Leaders
AVG: 2B Lobb .345
HR: 1B Knapp 34
RBI: 1B Knapp 93
SB: CF Huneycutt 16
SP ERA: Wilkins 2.39
RP ERA: Cone 4.11
SAVES: 0
Ks: Holte 286
W-L: Holte 19-7


Player Development

Monday 8/4/1913 :

Ronald Hague has lost a step. His speed drops to C ...
Shaun Schmidt has worked out more, his duration raises to B ...
Donald Meidinger's pitches have more bite now, the movement has improved!

Monday 8/18/1913 :

Robert Behnke has lost a step. His speed drops to D ...
Robert Behnke has lost some momentum, his range at LF drops to C ...
Robert Behnke has lost some momentum, his range at RF drops to D ...
Philip Livingston increased his bat control, resulting in more contact!
Charlie Honig has gained more power!

Monday 8/25/1913 :

Sandy Knapp has lost some power...
Sandy Knapp seems to have lost some bat speed, resulting in less contact...
Bill Becker has worked out more, his duration raises to B ...
Aaron Moffatt has improved his plate disclipine!
Bill Reed seems to have improved his pure stuff!
Bill Reed's pitches have more bite now, the movement has improved!

Monday 9/1/1913 :

George Holzer has lost some momentum, his range at CF drops to C ...



Monthly Awards
AL Pitcher: Ralph Bartlett 5-0 3.13 ERA/46 IP/30 Ks (Washington)
NL Pitcher: Michael Holte 5-1 1.50 ERA/54 IP/73 Ks (Chicago) - Holte is 17-4 since May 1st.

AL Batter: Bruce Caruso .402 avg/8 HR/31 RBIs (Detroit)
NL Batter: Robert Behnke .456 avg/9 HRs/25 RBIs (Chicago)

September 1913


This Month's Record: 13-8
Overall Record: 85-69
Current Standing: 3rd - 10 games behind Pittsburgh

Major Injuries
None


League News
American League: Over in the American League it came down to the last days. In the end, Detroit and Chicago both finished 84-70, 1 game out of first. Boston and St Louis tied, and St Louis one a 1 game playoff over the Red Sox to win the AL Pennant, it doesn't get any more exciting than that!! In the end the Browns Chris Witmer hit .332 to win the batting crown, and Michale Rooker hit 52 HRs and drove in 133 runs to dominate those two categories. The Red Sox Lauren Glassman won 22 games against 13 losses to lead the AL.

National League: Pittsburgh finishes 95-59, 6 games ahead of Brooklyn, it wasn't really that close, Pittsburgh lost some towards the end. Russell Lobb has a great September and shoots up to .360, winning the batting title as a rookie! Ben Englund hits 44 HRs and Bryan Myres drives in 120 runs. Michael Holte wins 21 games to lead the NL, and he missed the last 2 weeks. Ray okane demolished the previous strikeout record, he finished with an amazing 390.

Team News

Wednesday 9/17/1913 :
Sandy Knapp sets a new season Team-Record for RBI with 106!

Wednesday 9/24/1913 :
Brian Huneycutt sets a new season Team-Record for Triples with 12!


Lineup Notes/Changes

Here's the two rookies:

Russell Lobb: .360 avg/26 HR/91 RBI/15 SB
Robert Behnke: .364 avg/19 HR/70 RBI/1 SB

If I have these guys in my lineup for the next 10 years each, I'm going to be winning a world series or two, I can feel it. Rahman put up a solid .315 average with 21 HRs, and McCrady hit .311, I think there are a lot of positives to build on, espicially considering I have the #2 minor league system and have a ton of options.

On the mound, Wilkins went 15-7 with a 2.45 ERA, and Holte went 21-9 with a 2.86 ERA. Falkner went 18-11 but I really feel his season was a fluke, like I said, 53-51 before this season... Holte is 33 but I hope I can get 3 or 4 more good seasons out of him. Wilkins is signed through 1916 and hopefully is my ace for years to come.

Team Leaders
AVG: 2B Lobb .360 (Behnke .364 but not enough at bats)
HR: 1B Knapp 37
RBI: 1B Knapp 113
SB: CF Huneycutt 18
SP ERA: Wilkins 2.45
RP ERA: Cone 3.94
SAVES: Cone 1
Ks: Holte 318
W-L: Holte 21-9


Player Development

Monday 9/1/1913 :

George Holzer has lost some momentum, his range at CF drops to C ...

Monday 9/15/1913 :

Randall Parker is hitting his spots better, his command improved



Monthly Awards
AL Pitcher: Roy Beem 5-0 1.60 ERA/45 IP/41 Ks (Chicago) - his second award this year!
NL Pitcher: Jeffrey Markus 3-0 1.31 ERA/34 IP/36 Ks (Brooklyn) - also his second award this year

AL Batter: Wiliam Day .325 avg/9 HR/28 RBIs (Philadelphia) - slow month, an average 2 star guy here
NL Batter: Bryan Authement .365 avg/12 HRs/19 RBIs (Brooklyn) - 25 years old/4 1/2 stars, we might hear from this guy more often

1913 World Series

The St Louis Browns won the first ever world series over the Pirates in 1910. In 1911 the Pirates swept the Browns. 1912 had the Pirates over the Red Sox... we're back to Pittsburgh vs St Louis here in 1913.

Game 1

Pittsburgh's John Curry(15-4 2.16) faces off against the Browns Bruce Dockins(14-15 5.17) in St Louis' Sportsman Park.

1st: Pittsburgh gets men on 2nd and 3rd but can't score

1st: St Louis scores first after a walk, a hit batsman, a strikeout, and then a triple, and finally a homer by Charles Witmer(AL Batting Champ) and it's 4-0 St Louis.

2nd: Pittsburgh strikes back as leadoff man Donnell Clements hits a 3 run home run, it's 4-3 St Louis.

3rd: Witmer comes up and hits a solo home run! 2-2, 2 homers, 3 RBIs. Nice start to the series for this year's AL batting champ. 5-3 Browns.

4th: 20 year old Dwayne Taylor hits a solo shot for Pittsburgh to cut into the lead. 5-4 St Louis.

7th: Following a leadoff double and an intentional walk, Chris Witmer steps up to the plate again, this time he smashes a double to the fence, scoring both runners. Curry leaves in the 7th, he walked 7 batters and his control just wasn't htere. 7-4 Browns.

Pittsburgh gets 2 batters on base in the 9th, the tying run was at the plate, but a popup ended the game.

St Louis 7-4 : Series St Louis 1-0

The rest of the series is coming up tomorrow.

Game 2

Pittsburgh sends 31 year old Ray OKane to the mound. Okane was 20-11 with a 2.93 ERA this year, striking out an amazing 390 men in 310 innings.

St Louis counters with Calvin Whittenburg, who went 15-14 with a 4.47 ERA over the season.

1st: 23 year old Pittsburgh DH Michael Crotsky doubles in a run with 2 out in the first, 1-0 Pittsburgh

2nd: Donnell Clements hits a 2 run homer, he's now driven in 5 runs in two games for Pittsburgh! 3-0 PIT

2nd: a single, a walk, a K, 2 more singles and St Louis gets back into the game, another hit and then a double by Matt Service make it 4-3 St Louis after 2 innings...

The Browns seem to be negating the great pitching from Pittsburgh rather easily here so far. Will this continue in Pittsburgh next game?

7th: Pittsburgh gets men on 2nd and 3rd with no outs, its a squeeze bunt! The Browns 2nd baseman makes a great play though and the runner is out at home... 1st and 3rd, 1 out. the ball never gets out of the infield and the Pirates have squandered a great chance.

7th: St Louis probably put it away here, 4 singles and a walk without an out being recorded, and 3 runs come home. 7-3 Browns.

That's it!

St Louis 7-3 : Series: St Louis 2-0


Can the Browns continue the hot performance in Pittsburgh? If they can beat up on the Pirates 3rd starter then they've got the series all but wrapped up here.

Game 3

St Louis starts 17-11, 3.77 ERA Ray Pangle. Pittsburgh counters with Edward Geer, he's 12-16 with a 3.33 ERA, this is definitely St Louis' best chance to steal one in Pittsburgh.

A great pitchers duel, going into the bottom of the 8th it's scoreless, 3 hits for St Louis, 2 for the Pirates.

8th: a leadoff walk, a pinch runner steals second, and 3B Olivares gets his first hit of the postseason to drive in the first run of the game! Olivares went to second on the throw home... a sac bunt by the pitcher and another single makes it 2-0 Pittsburgh going into the top of the 9th.

3 up 3 down in the 9th and Pittsburgh has taken a game back!

Pittsburgh 2-0 : Series St Louis 2-1



Game 4

Pittsburgh's John Curry gets the chance to redeem himself after his game 1 loss.

1st: Pittsburgh's Robert Baily leads off the bottom of the first with a solo homer! The next batter singles, and after that 1B Ingrassia doubles in the 2nd run. Dockins settles down for the Browns after that and it's 2-0 Pirates after 1.

3rd: Matt Service singles, the pitcher bunts him to second, and leadoff man Reeve signles him home, nice Smallball, St Louis. A walk and a hit batsman loads the bases for Chris Witmer, who singles in 2 runs! Witmer has 7 RBIs in the series so far. 3-2 Browns.

6th: Witmer may just be the MVP of the series, a solo home run(his 3rd of the series) makes it 4-2 St Louis.

7th: Never, ever walk the pitcher! 2 outs in the bottom of the 7th, and John Curry draws a walk. Robert Baily follows up with a triple and it's 4-3.

8th: Pit 1B James Ingrassia leads off the 8th with a home run to tie it up!

St Louis goes 3 up 3 down in the top of the 9th.

9th: 3B Olivares sngles to leadoff the 9th, Curry will surely try to sacrafice him. Nope! Good going AI. We're going to extras after the runner never gets off 1st base.

St Louis again does nothing in the 10th.

10th: Ingrassia draws a leadoff walk. Two men in a row ground out, could have had double plays either time but no, the batters hustle down to first. We've got a man on first with two out. C Hepworth is hit! Men on 1st and second, 2B David Taylor steps up, and hits a single up the middle, the runner scores and Pittsburgh wins it!

Pittsburgh 5-4(10 inningts) : Series 2-2



Game 5

A rematch of game 2, Okane vs Whittenburg. One has to think that Pittsburgh is all of a sudden in very good shape in this series.

1st: James Ingrassia hits his 2nd home run of the series and it's 1-0 pittsburgh.

6th: three straight two out singles put another run home for the Pirates, and it's 2-0.

7th: Two walks, and then James Ingrassia singles home another run, Okane is unhittable today and a 3-0 lead is probably more than enough.

8th: a leadoff double, a sac bunt, and a Matt Service single put across St Louis' first run. A double play gets Okane out of it though, and its 3-1 with 3 more outs to go.

9th: Witmer leads off the 9th for St Louis with a hit. A popup and two Ks end it though. A nice pitching perfromance there!

Pittsburgh 3-1 : Series Pittsburgh 3-2



Game 6

We're back in St Louis, where the Browns hope home field advantage can hold up and they can take 2 straight here.

Pittsburgh's Ed Geer goes up against Ray Pangle of the browns, two overly unimpressive pitchers.

1st: Pittsburgh is ready to end this series. A leadoff single, a steal, a triple, another single, another single, and a sac fly and it's 3-0 Pittsburgh before St Louis even gets to come up to bat.

2nd: David Taylor leads off the 2nd inning with his 2nd series home run! 4-0.

3rd: Peter Tracy leads off the 3rd with another homer! A double and RBI single later and it's 6-0 after 3.

I start to quick sim innings after this. Pittsburgh scores again in the 4th, and puts up FIVE in the 7th. 1 run by St Louis in the bottom of the 8th is laughable.

Pittsburgh 12-1 : Series Pittsburgh 4-2


Pittsburgh Wins the 1913 World Series


Series MVP is Ed Geer, he pitched a shutout in game 3 to stop the bleeding and to prevent St Louis from going up 3 games to none, and a 1 run 4 hitter in the final game, game 6.

The league file has been updated for the end of 1913, if you're interested take a look at:

http://www.angband.org/~radii


The awards abound for the Cubs this year! Congrats to Russell Lobb for winning the outstanding newcomer of the year award, and to Michael Holte for winning the outstanding pitcher of the year award in the National League!!


1913 Review


1913 RECAP:

American Outstanding Newcomer Award:
Jerrell Bourbeau (NYA)!
He had a record of 11-13 with an ERA of 5.27.
In 30 games started, he pitched 211.2 innings, fanning 110 and walking 96 batters.
National Outstanding Newcomer Award:
Russell Lobb (CHN)!
He batted .360 in 458 AB, with 26 homers and 91 RBI.
American Outstanding Pitcher Award:
Ahmad Hamblin (DET)!
He had a record of 21-9 with an ERA of 3.54 and 3 shutouts.
In 31 games started, he pitched 259 innings, fanning 241 and walking 83 batters.
American Outstanding Batter Award:
Michael Rooker (BOA)!
He batted .311 in 547 AB, with 52 homers and 133 RBI.
National Outstanding Pitcher Award:
Michael Holte (CHN)!
He had a record of 21-9 with an ERA of 2.86 and 1 shutouts.
In 30 games started, he pitched 264.2 innings, fanning 318 and walking 60 batters.
National Outstanding Batter Award:
Bryan Myres (NYN)!
He batted .313 in 533 AB, with 39 homers and 120 RBI.
American Slick Fielder Award Winners:
Pitcher: Robert Neel (BOA)
Catcher: Tony Mcarthur (NYA)
First Base: Kenneth Burrow (CHA)
Second Base: Austin Caudillo (WAS)
Third Base: Mike Moroney (BOA)
Shortstop: Charles Franco (CHA)
Leftfield: Jeffery Rowlands (PHA)
Centerfield: Max Williams (DET)
Rightfield: Bruce Caruso (DET)
National Slick Fielder Award Winners:
Pitcher: Kris Plumb (BON)
Catcher: Jimmy Newman (NYN)
First Base: Donald Margolis (NYN)
Second Base: Mario Grant (CIN)
Third Base: Timothy Bradford (BON)
Shortstop: Rodney Simpson (CHN)
Leftfield: Brent Holt (PHN)
Centerfield: Brandon Bailey (BON)
Rightfield: Roger Hackney (STN)
American Standings :
(Name W L PCT GB AVG ERA)
American
St Louis (A) 86 69 .555 -- .285 4.60
Boston (A) 85 70 .548 1 .282 4.95
Detroit 84 70 .545 1.5 .277 4.80
Chicago (A) 84 70 .545 1.5 .271 4.11
Philadelphia (A) 78 76 .506 7.5 .264 4.90
Cleveland 74 80 .481 11.5 .279 5.18
New York (A) 69 85 .448 16.5 .293 5.67
Washington 57 97 .370 28.5 .259 5.33
National Standings :
(Name W L PCT GB AVG ERA)
National
Pittsburgh 95 59 .617 -- .257 2.92
Brooklyn 89 65 .578 6 .242 3.60
Chicago (N) 85 69 .552 10 .266 4.19
New York (N) 83 71 .539 12 .250 4.23
St Louis (N) 76 78 .494 19 .255 4.57
Boston (N) 65 89 .422 30 .250 4.80
Philadelphia (N) 62 92 .403 33 .234 4.82
Cincinnati 61 93 .396 34 .245 4.70
Playoffs :
World Championship :
Pittsburgh (4) against St Louis (A) (2)
TOP 5 in BATTING AVG :
.360 Russell Lobb(CHN,NL)
.332 Christopher Witmer(SLA,AL)
.332 Lamont Sevilla(CLE,AL)
.331 Dewey Sobers(WAS,AL)
.327 Andrew Schrader(NYA)
TOP 5 in HOMERUNS :
52 Michael Rooker(BOA,AL)
44 Benjamin Englund(STN)
43 Bryan Authement(BRO,NL)
42 Rodney Macha(PHA,AL)
41 William Stokes(PHN)
TOP 5 in RBI :
133 Michael Rooker(BOA,AL)
120 Bryan Myres(NYN,NL)
118 Rodger Nelson(NYA,AL)
113 William Day(PHA)
113 Mike Moroney(BOA,AL)
TOP 5 in ERA :
2.16 John Curry(PIT,NL)
2.21 Edward Shinn(PIT)
2.45 Thomas Wilkins( CHN)
2.49 Richard Dabbs( BRO)
2.77 Chris Cummings(STN,NL)
TOP 5 in WINS :
22 Lauren Glassman(BOA)
21 Michael Holte( CHN,NL)
21 Ahmad Hamblin(DET,AL)
20 Raymond Okane(PIT,NL)
20 Edmund Perrodin(CHA,AL)
TOP 5 in SAVES :
9 Christopher Cambra(BOA)
9 James Mccutcheon(BRO)
8 Walter Haas(NYA)
7 Paul Cavalier(CLE,AL)
7 Kenneth Woods(NYA,AL)

Oops, since I'd been away from this so long I didn't realize I didn't make the 1913 changes as necessary, so we get those in this year.

The New York Highlanders have changed their name to the New York Yankees

The Brooklyn Dodgers have begun to play in Ebbets Field. They have also renamed themselves to the "Brooklyn Robins"

Well our payroll is $59 million going into the season. Until we move into Wrigley Field in a few years, we're selling out every game and making a very consistant $56 Million a year. This means if I want to go after any free agents I need to do some trading.

Time to go over the roster and see what we're looking at.


Catcher

Andrew Rahman (6/5/7) 32 y/o - Rahman makes $5 Million a yaer but he's worth it, he's a consistant .300+ hitter. Backing him up is George Pink (4/3/7). Pink has been fine for my backup over the past few years.

First Base

Sandy Knapp (4/9/10) 31 y/o - Knapp makes $4 Million a year and his contract expires at the end fo the season. He set a Cub record with 113 RBIs last year and he is the major league career leader in walks, having drawn 401 in 4 years. He's backed up by Robert Hutchins (3/4/3)

Second Base

Russell Lobb (8/8/9) 24 y/o - Lobb is the man. He's only makeing 300K and we're going to struggle to find salary room for him, but we're damn well going to do it.

Shortstop

Rodney Simpson (4/4/4) 29 y/o - Simpson makes $415K/yr. This is probably our weakest position, and if I do try to do anything in free agency somehow, it'll be at SS.

Third Base

John Feathers (5/4/6) 29 y/o - Feathers makes $930K/yr and his contract is up at the end of the year. He hit a respectable .273 last year for the Cubs. He's backed up by Charlie Honig (4/4/5)

Left Field

Robert Behnke (6/7/6) 26 y/o - Behnke is also the man :) He and Lobb are the cornerstone of my future. I signed Behnke to an $8 Million/yr contract through 1920 last year. Joseph Lacombe (2/7/4) 34 y/o is the trade bait, he's fading fast and worn out his welcome. I'll be trying to deal him before free agency starts. He makes $4.75 Million/yr.

Center Field

Brian Huneycutt (4/5/6) 29 y/o - Huneycutt makes $3 Million a year, and was way off last year, batting only .229. I could consider trading Huneycutt and letting 25 year old Albert Krupa (4/3/5) get his shot in the bigs... he hit .253 in 66 games last year.

Right Field

Gabriel McCrady (7/5/8) 36 y/o - I hope McCrady retires a Cub. He's a career .319 hitter, and I re-signed him for 3 more years at $5.75 Million a year last year. He and my catcher Rahman have been great for me in these early years.



In summary:

LaCombe is definitely getting trade, Huneycutt quite possibly is too. My biggest weakness is Shortstop, with Center Field not far behind.



Minor League Batters

A quick look at the guys in triple-A, the ones who might actually be able to play within 2 years and are worth making short term plans over.

C - James Harvill - 24 y/o (4/3/3) 3 stars I don't expect too much but he's a guy that could see some action.

2B - Nelson Brown - 25 y/o (4/4/8) 3 stars Brown is expendable, for obvious reasons(Russell Lobb). He's on the trading block.

SS Jason Garibay - 22 y/o (6/2/5) 3 1/2 stars Garibay could actually see some action eventually, but I can't imagine trying to use him for another year or two. He has steadily and consistanly moved up the ranks and has been a .290 hitter in 2 years in AAA ball.

RF John Kelly - 24 y/o (4/9/6) 4 stars Kelly puts me into a bit of a dilemma, I love Gabe McCrady but this guy is just about ready to go...

Making RF even more complicated:

RF Corey Hopwood - 22 y/o (3/3/4) 4 1/2 Stars Hopwood is still more of a prospect than Kelly, but if he develops he'll be the man in right field for sure. I'm not sure what to do with these guys and I don't imagine I want Kelly to linger in the minors much longer.


Overall I'm happy with what I've got here. I'd really like to trade LaCombe and possibly Huneycutt and make a short term upgrade at SS.

continuing the overview of the roster:

Starting Pitching

Thomas Wilkins (10/8/7) 30 y/o wilkins makes $10 Million a year but is certainly worth it. 15-7, 2.45 ERA last year after a 5 week injury, he couldhave won 20. A career record of 73-37.

Michael Holte (7/8/7) 34 y/o The defending Outstanding Pitcher of the Year. Makes $7.5 Million a year, his contract ends next year so it'll be interesting to see what will happen with him after he's 35 going on 36 next year, but for now we're very happy with our top two starters.

William Shimer (6/7/5) 34 y/o A step down here, and a $2.5 Million step. If I could package LaCombe and Shimer for a solid 2nd/3rd starter I would do it in a heartbeat.

Ryan Moore (6/5/4) 30 y/o It falls apart badly after those top two guys doesn't it? Moore went 9-18 last year. He only makes $300K.

George Keegan (4/5/7) 33 y/o $1.25 Million/yr.

Jeffrey Moak (4/6/6) 38 y/o $2.7 Million/yr (expires this year)

Moak actually went 7-7 last year, if he can do that again this year I'll happily keep him and send him off on a winning team.


Relief Pitching

Ty Jones (6/6/5) 27 y/o

Douglas Coppa (6/7/6) 26 y/o

Ruben Maggard (5/7/6) 26 y/o

Bill Yamada (3/5/6) 25 y/o

I gloss over the relievers because they are used so little. I had some great ones but they saw 20 IP a year, so until the era changes it's just not worth it.


Minor League Starters

William Cox (4/5/4) 25 y/o 3 stars If he's going to make a major league staff it's going to have to happen soon.

Douglas McCart (5/5/6) 22 y/o 4 1/2 stars - McCart should be an ace... he could pitch now, the question is, should he go to the majors now or sit in the minors another year or so? 6-4 with a 3.66 ERA in AAA last year, his first year in AAA, so I think he's worth another year in the minors.

Ray Prior (4/4/6) 23 y/o 4 stars Another guy who should easily make the team in a couple of years.

Ok, time to look at the free agent market and do a little trading.

Notable Free Agents

C Dennis Ryan (7/5/5) 36 y/o is available. I won't be going after him but he is notable anyway. A career .311 batter.

LF Benjamin Englund (5/10/7) 29 y/o - Clearly the class talent available this year, 29 years old, 4 1/2 stars, he's coming off a .276 year with 44 HRs. The Cardinals apparently can't afford him anymore. With Behnke I have no interest in him, but it will be interesting to see how much he goes for.

There's only 1 ShortStop worth going after, SS Peter Tracy (5/6/4) 33 y/o - I don't knwo how much eh wants, but I could see going after him, he's a good defender with world series experience. A career .291 hitter in 4 years for the Pirates.


There's nothing in CF worth going after.

Free Agent Pitchers

Jeffry Markus (9/6/6) 31 y/o A superstar no doubt, but I can't afford two aces. 65-37 in 4 years with Brooklyn.

Bruce Dockins (7/6/6/5) 32 y/o Dockins was down last year but is 65-51 over his career and has pitched in 3 World Series'. I'd like to go after him but I doubt I can afford him.

Lewis Falkner is the 3rd best pitcher available, he's the guy that wanted $5 Million+ for 4 years and I wouldn't give it to him, so I doubt I'll get him back :)

David Ester (6/6/6) 34 y/o - Ester is an average pitcher that I could legitimately go after. 68-55 in 4 years with the Senators.


So, my plan is to either trade for a starter and go after Tracy, or trade for a SS and go after Ester. On to the trading block.

We don't get many good offers, but we finally settle on one that we think improves the team signifigantly, and one that frees up about $5 Million in payroll.

New York Giants get:

LF Joseph LaCombe (2/7/4) $4.75 M/yr
CF Brian Huneycutt (4/5/6) $3.00 M/yr

Chicago Gets:

SP Benjamin Defoor (7/7/6) - 2.18 M/yr (through 1915)

Defoor will make a decent 3rd or 4th starter for me, and this frees up enough room to make a little run at Peter Tracy.


Tracy ends up signing with Boston, we made similar offers but I lose out. Boston also signed former Cub Lewis Falkner.

I try to sign David Ester too, the 6/6/6 pitcher I had some interest in. The white sox are also bidding on him and he'll take well over $4 Million for 2 or 3 years, and I just don't see him being worth that much, so we do nothing in free agency this year.


Pitching ace Jeffrey Markus signs with the Philadelphia Phillies for $7.25 Million/yr.

Bruce Dockins ends up going back to the St Louis Browns for $5.58 M/yr.

Lewis Falkner goes to the Red Sox for $6.2 Million/yr.

The Boston Braves sign power hitting Ben Englund for $9.46 Million/yr!


That's all for free agency, we didn't get the players we wanted in the open market, but hopefully Defoor will contribute, and we cut our payroll down to $54 Million/yr, which should allow us to turn a $2 Million profit this year.

the most notable thing during spring training is that I've trained star RF prospect John Kelly to play Centerfield, lets see how that went.


Sunday 3/2/1914 :

2 SPRING TRAINING NEWS:
Corey Hopwood showed good strike zone judgement!
Bryan Skillern has good pitching sessions!
Bryan Skillern has improved his control!
Ronald Hague has good batting practice sessions!
Ronald Hague displays more power in batting practice!
Ronald Hague showed good strike zone judgement!
George Holzer displays more power in batting practice!
John Garibay has good batting practice sessions!
Chris Broussard showed good strike zone judgement!
Dylan Troup displays more power in batting practice!
Dylan Troup showed good strike zone judgement!
Philip Livingston has good batting practice sessions!
Philip Livingston showed good strike zone judgement!
Claude Alam has good batting practice sessions!
Claude Alam showed good strike zone judgement!
Tod Harris displays more power in batting practice!
Kenneth Korando has improved his control!
Raymond Prior has good pitching sessions!
Raymond Prior has increased his throwing velocity!
Raymond Prior has improved his control!
Donald Meidinger has good pitching sessions!
Donald Meidinger has increased his throwing velocity!
Randall Parker has increased his throwing velocity!
Bill Becker has increased his throwing velocity!
Vernon Govea has good pitching sessions!
Stephen Nies has good batting practice sessions!
Aaron Moffatt has good batting practice sessions!
John Kelly now plays Centerfield.
John Kelly has poor batting practice sessions.
Harry Colman has good pitching sessions!
John Bench has good pitching sessions!
John Bench has increased his throwing velocity!
John Bench has improved his control!
John Strohl has good batting practice sessions!
John Strohl displays more power in batting practice!
Michael Carlucci displays more power in batting practice!
Michael Carlucci showed good strike zone judgement!
George Freeman displays more power in batting practice!




Well, Kelly has horrible range in center, but this is it, he's going to the majors as my starting center fielder.

Off to the season!

Opening Day Pitching Staff:

1. Wilkins
2. Holte
3. Defoor
4. Shimer
5. Moore
Spot: Keegan


Opening Day Lineups:

1. CF Kelly
2. C Rahman
3. 2B Lobb
4. 1B Knapp
5. RF McCrady
6. LF Behnke
7. 3B Feathers
8. SS Simpson
9. Pitcher

this feels like an extremely powerful lineup, but of cuorse I'm relying on three very young men in Kelly, Lobb and Behnke.

Jeffrey Moak announces that he will retire at the end of the season.

April 1914


This Month's Record: 15-11
Overall Record: 15-11
Current Standing: 3rd - 4 games behind St Louis

Major Injuries
Russell Lobb has a minor day to day injury for a few weeks.. I hope I'm not risking his future, but Lobb at 80% is better than aything else I've got.


League News
American League: Early on the White Sox have an 18-8 record, the As are 1 back. the St Louis Browns start out cold, 11-15 in next to last place. Michael Rooker is a familier name at the top of the HR and RBI leaderboard, while the Browns Edward Reeve is off to a hot .394 start to lead the batting race.

National League: St Louis starts off 19-7, Pittsburgh is 16-10 and my Cubs are 15-11 early on. Andrew Rahman is hitting .354 to lead the league early on, while we have a new name atop the HR leaderboard, Thomas Willis, a 26 year old on the Giants.

Team News

Monday 4/7/1914 :
Andrew Rahman was named Player of the Week!
He batted .500 in 16 AB, with 2 HR and 5 RBI.

Tuesday 4/15/1914 :

Andrew Rahman hits a 470-foot homerun!!
Andrew Rahman sets a new single game NL-Record for Homeruns with 3!
Andrew Rahman hits 3 homers against Pittsburgh.
Andrew Rahman drives in 5 runs against Pittsburgh.

Wednesday 5/1/1914 :

Andrew Rahman was named National-Batter of the Month!
He batted .354 in 96 AB, with 9 homers and 20 RBI.


Go Rahman!

Lineup Notes/Changes

McCrady and Behnke are off to slow starts, .216 and .228 each, Knapp is hitting a dismal .198 but has 8 HRs. the top of the lineup looks much better than that, rookie Kelly is off to a .287 start, Rahman obviously is dominating(.354/9/20) and Lobb is batting .305 with 7 steals already.

If the back end of the lineup starts hitting more consistantly we're going to be dangerous.

Wilkins is off to a slow 2-4 start, despite a decent 3.74 ERA, we need to hit better for him. Holte is picking up the slack though, he's 5-0 with a 2.35 ERA, and William Shimer is off to an impressive 3-1 2.02 ERA start... the rotation is looking more consistant than last year, something I think is a very good thing.


Team Leaders
AVG: C Rahman .354
HR: C Rahman 9
RBI: LF Behnke 21
SB: 2B Lobb 7
SP ERA: Shimer 2.02
RP ERA: Coppa 0.00
SAVES: 0
Ks: Wilkins 66
W-L: Holte 5-0


Player Development

Monday 4/7/1914 :
George Holzer increases his talent in avoiding strikeouts!
George Holzer increased his bat control, resulting in more contact!
George Holzer has gained more power!

Monday 4/14/1914 :
Edward Butler has lost some lower body strength, his duration drops to E ...
Vernon Govea seems to have lost some of his feel for his stuff...
Vernon Govea has lost some lower body strength, his duration drops to E ...
William Reynosa has lost some lower body strength, his duration drops to D ...

Monday 4/21/1914 :
Andrew Rahman has improved his plate disclipine!



Monthly Awards
AL Pitcher: Ed Perrodin 5-1 2.89 ERA 53 IP/39 Ks (Chicago) One of the better pitchers in the league, going for his 3rd straight 20 win season
NL Pitcher: Roy Fullmer 4-1 1.65 ERA/60 IP/50 Ks (Philadelphia) Fullmer is a consistant 18-20 game winner, this is a great start for him

AL Batter: Michael Rooker .354 avg/11 HR/28 RBIs (Boston) his 6th batter of the month award, I sense something is gonna be named after this guy
NL Batter: Andrew Rahman .354 avg/9 HRs/20 RBIs (chicago) the best 6/5/7 player i've ever seen :P - his second career batter of the month award

Well May sucked...

May 1914


This Month's Record: 10-19
Overall Record: 25-30
Current Standing: 5rd - 15 games behind Pittsburgh

Major Injuries


League News
American League: Philadelphia went on a tear and is 35-20, 5 games up on the Browns, who have come surging back from their bad start. Rooker's 17 HRs/48 RBIs are both tied for the AL lead, while young(25 y/o) Detroit SS John Smiley is hitting .387. 26 year old Wilburn Armistead of the As already has 10 wins, he's 10-3 and off to the best start in the AL.

National League: Pittsburgh went 24-5 in May and is sitting on top of everything at 40-15, the Cardinals are 7 back in 2nd place. Cards RF Roger Hackney is hitting .351 to lead the NL but that won't last (6/5/3 32 y/o). 3 guys are tied with 18 HRs and the Phillies Brent Holt has 48 RBIs(Lobb is 2nd with 43).

Team News



Lineup Notes/Changes

We have the next to worst team batting average in the majors. Lobb is hitting .314, the only starter over .300, Rahman fell all the way to .293 during the month of may. Our power numbers are great, 5 guys with 10+ HRs already, but it isn't helping.

Holte fell apart in May too, and Wilkins hasn't gotten on track yet. Holte went from 5-0 to 6-5, but that's the best record on the staff at the moment. The ERAs aren't bad, 3 guys under 4.00, so I'm thinking we just aren't scoring enough.


Team Leaders
AVG: 2B Lobb .314
HR: CF Kelly 15
RBI: 2B Lobb 41
SB: 2B Lobb 9
SP ERA: Wilkins 3.40
RP ERA: Coppa 0.00
SAVES: 0
Ks: Wilkins 109
W-L: Holte 6-5


Player Development

Monday 5/12/1914 :
George Keegan seems to have lost some of his feel for his stuff...
Tommy Barrientos has worked out more, his duration raises to C ...
Bill Reed has lost some lower body strength, his duration drops to C ...

Monday 5/26/1914 :
Robert Berthold increases his talent in getting strikeouts!
Robert Berthold seems to have improved his pure stuff!
Robert Berthold's pitches have more bite now, the movement has improved!
Robert Berthold is hitting his spots better, his command improved!



Monthly Awards
AL Pitcher: Keith Cornell 4-0 2.24 ERA 52 IP/50 Ks (Washington) The 4-0 may follows an 0-6 April...
NL Pitcher: Ray Okane 4-1 1.36 ERA/46 IP/63 Ks (Philadelphia) Okane was just as good in April, he's 8-2 with a 1.69 ERA. This is his 3rd pitche r

AL Batter: Thomas Lockridge .348 avg/8 HR/25 RBIs (St Louis)
NL Batter: Roger Hackney .375 avg/6 HRs/21 RBIs (St Louis)

It's draft time again, and I had a solid record last year so I'm drafting 13th out of 16 teams.

Only 1 5 star prospect in the entire draft, but he's a good one. 23 year old SP Randall Winiger, 7/4/4 already, B duration, this guy should be a star. He goes first to the Washington Senators.

By the time it gets to the 13th pick, we're down to a 4 star MR prospect, everything else is 3 stars.

1st Round: RF Michael Champagne G/G/G 19 y/o He can play right and center and has very good speed.

2nd Round: 1B Jonah Genao A/A/F 22 y/o a good defensive first baseman.

The rest of the draft just isn't worth mentioning... I hope all the draft classes aren't going to be as horribly weak as the last two. this was particularily bad.

June wasn't any better

June 1914


This Month's Record: 9-13
Overall Record: 34-43
Current Standing: 6th - 19 games behind Pittsburgh

Major Injuries


League News
American League: Philadelphia is holding on to their 5 game edge, now over the Red Sox, with the Browns 7 back in the AL. Detroit's John Smily still dominates the AL charts batting .365, the As Rodney Macha has 25 HRs and Michael Rooker has 67 RBIs to lead the way there. Wilburn Armistead has 13 wins now, on pace for 26, if he can keep that up.

National League: Eventually someone is going to unseat the Pirates. They're 53-24, 7 up on the Cards. The Cardinals RF Roger Hackney is still leading the NL bating race at .346 but the Cubs Russell Lobb is at .335 and challenging.

Team News

Sunday 6/1/1914 :
Thomas Wilkins sets a new single game NL-Record for Triples with 2!
Thomas Wilkins pitches a NO-HITTER against Cincinnati!!
Russell Lobb has 4 hits against Cincinnati.

Saturday 6/28/1914 :
P Douglas Coppa will play in the OOTP-Allstar game!
1B Sandy Knapp will play in the OOTP-Allstar game!


Congrats to Wilkins for throwing the first ever Cub no hitter!


Lineup Notes/Changes

We're not doing anything on offense, 12th in the majors(out of 16 teams) in average and HRs. 14th in runs scored. Its still very dismal looking, Rahman hitting .291, Lobb .335, no one else over .270.

Holte got back on track in June, he's up to 10-6, Wilkins is only 7-9 at the halfway point though. There just isn't anything to cheer about here.


Team Leaders
AVG: 2B Lobb .335
HR: CF Kelly/2B Lobb 17
RBI: 2B Lobb 56
SB: 2B Lobb 14
SP ERA: Wilkins 3.40
RP ERA: Coppa 0.00
SAVES: Coppa 1
Ks: Holte 152
W-L: Holte 10-6


Player Development

Monday 6/9/1914 :
Shaun Schmidt seems to have lost some of his feel for his stuff...

Monday 6/16/1914 :
Jeffrey Moak has lost some lower body strength, his duration drops to E ...

Monday 6/23/1914 :
William Reynosa seems to have improved his pure stuff!
William Reynosa is hitting his spots better, his command improved!

Monday 6/30/1914 :
Gregory Walter has improved his plate disclipine!



Monthly Awards
AL Pitcher: Melvin Peaslee 4-1 2.66 ERA 44 IP/39 Ks (Philadelphia) Having a solid 11-4 season so far, a 2 star guy having a career year
NL Pitcher: Frank Patrick 5-0 2.00 ERA/45 IP/32 Ks (New York) 12-4 this year, a consistant but not stellar 5 star guy(never won 20, 82-57 overall record)

AL Batter: Eugene Mickle .391 avg/7 HR/31 RBIs (Boston)
NL Batter: John Williams .342 avg/9 HRs/25 RBIs (Pittsburgh)

Well, Gabe McCrady is going downhill fast, he started the season rated 7/5/8 and is now at 7/3/7 and he's having his worst year ever. I need to shake something up and that's going to be it.

No one offers much until we look at the last team on the list, the Pittsburgh Pirates:

Pittsburgh gets:

RF Gabriel McCrady (7/3/7)

Chicago gets:

SP Edward Shinn (6/8/7)


Shinn makes $6.5 Million a year, about 750K more than McCrady did.

This gives us an overload of Starting pitching, and we trade away George Keegan, also to pittsburgh, for a MR prospect. Purely a roster/salary dumping move.


We also receive some unexpected good news. SP prospect Douglas McCart, age 23, has jumped up to 7/6/6 and is ready to go against major league pitching.

Our pitching staff now looks much much better:

1. Wilkins (10/8/7)
2. Holte (8/8/6)
3. Shinn (6/8/7)
4. Defoor (7/7/6)
5. McCart (7/7/6)
Spot: Shimer (6/7/5)


Now that looks like a servicable rotation. We've got some filler i'd like to dump off but that's enough action for now.

John Kelly moves to Right Field and Albert Krupa will get a shot to start in CF with McCrady gone. Krupa is a more pure leadoff man so I am happy about that.

On to July.

July 1914


This Month's Record: 10-18
Overall Record: 44-61
Current Standing: 6th - 25 games behind Pittsburgh

Major Injuries


League News
American League: The Red Sox have cut Philadelphia's lead to 2 games, so at least one of the races should be close. Michael Rooker has 31 HRs/86 RBIs and is just dominating, there are a lot of guys batting in the .320 range competing for that title. wilburn Armistead has 17 wins and leads the majors

National League: Eventually someone is going to unseat the Pirates. Not this year though, 2nd place is 9 back. Hackney and Holt(Phillies) both are batting .322, another tight race for the batting crown. Holt has 34 HRs and 78 RBIs, 1st and 2nd, so he has a shot at the triple crown here. Ray Okane's 1.43 ERA is .90 points better than anyone else in the majors, he's been hurt and has only started 15 games though so he'll have trouble picking up seasonal awards. He'll be pitching in his 5th straight world series though.

Team News



Lineup Notes/Changes

The team just isn't hitting. We've got 3 guys over 20 HRs but only 3 over .280 also... it's not pretty.

Holte and Shinn both have 13 wins(Shinn had many of them with Pittsburgh of course), while Wilkins is just cold... his 3.28 ERA is great but he's 7-13, needs some run support! McCart is a nice 2-2, 3.86 ERA.

Team Leaders
AVG: 2B Lobb .335
HR: RF Kelly 24
RBI: RF Kelly 63
SB: 2B Lobb 14
SP ERA: Wilkins 3.28
RP ERA: Coppa 0.96
SAVES: Coppa 1
Ks: Holte 192
W-L: Holte 13-8


Player Development
Monday 7/7/1914 :
James Harvill has learned reading pitchers better, his stealing ability raises to D ...
Jack Grammer has lost some lower body strength, his duration drops to D ...

Monday 7/21/1914 :
Douglas Mccart has worked out more, his duration raises to C ...
Randall Parker has worked out more, his duration raises to B ...


McCart's D duration was a major problem for me, glad to see it improve.

Monthly Awards
AL Pitcher: Ahmad Hamblin 5-1 2.30 ERA 58 IP/58 Ks (Detroit) His 3rd pitcher of the month award. He has 3 outstanding pitcher of the year awards, I'm sure he likes those much better.
NL Pitcher: Von Byrnes 5-0 2.64 ERA/44 IP/59 Ks (Boston) A 3 star prospect, this is his first month ever in the majors, he's won his first 5 starts...

AL Batter: Robert Tucker .383 avg/12 HR/30 RBIs (Philadelphia) one of those freaks that can't hit for average usually, but boy does he have some pop in his bat(4/9/4)
NL Batter: Carmine Stump .295 avg/12 HRs/28 RBIs (Philadelphia)