(The Wolfman has returned to SOM Land!!!
Can his newly acquired baseall team become
a contender? Read his reports as he renters the world
of SOM via his 1st computer based internet league.)
May 28th,
2005 --
PART II
{ updated October 7th, 2005 }
A Secret Report
from the Guild (observing the CBA – remember Dune?)
It has come
to our attention that one formerly known Rick “Wolfman” Shapiro, now
known as Joshua Shapiro has returned to the world of SOM (stop) – Please
have our spies observe his actions to see if he causes any havoc or
mischief amongst the other players in the world (stop) – we have
observed he just joined the CBA (or also known as the Cyber Baseball
Association) and has assumed the duties of the Montreal Royals’ manager
{top guy!!} (stop) – observe if he cheats or tries to bend the rules in
any way and report this to the Guild Master #1. We were able to steal a
secret report from his computer, that he doesn’t want anyone to know (to
understand his mad strategies) – please see a copy of this report
included within this document (stop). Continue to send your usual
reports of his Wolfffffffish activities to this office ASAP … (stop) –
message from Agent 12x (oh mother of God). Report is shown below ….
Interim
Manager: Wolfman Shapiro
2005 Montreal Royals
Accept Managerial Job, February 28th, 2005
CBA acceptance
letter from Marc Wasserman,
commission, March 1st, 2005
LIST OF PLAYERS INITIALLY ACCEPTED
(codes:, Position, Real Team, AB, Average)
Hitters
-------
Bengie Molina
(C, ANA 337 AB .276 AVG) (** TRADED **)
Ray Durham (2B, SFN, 471 AB .282 AVG)
Carlos Beltran (CF, HON, 599 AB .267 AVG)
Jeff Conine (LF/1B, FL, 521 AB, .280 AVG)
Carlos Lee (LF, CHA, 591 AB, .305 AVG) (** TRADED **)
Jose Valentin (SS, CHA, 450 AB, .216 AVG)
Pedro Feliz (3B/1B/RF, SFN, 503 AB, .276 AVG)
Rafael Palmeiro (1B, BAA, 550 AB, .258 AVG)
Raul Mondesi (OF, ANA, 133 AB, .241 AVG) (** RELEASED **)
Gary Matthews Jr (OF, TEA, 280 AB, .275 AVG)
Junior Spivey (2B/SS, MLN, 228 AB, .272 AVG)
Michael Tucker (OF, SFN, 464 AB, .256 AVG) (** TRADED **)
Dan Wilson (C, SEA, 319 AB, .251 AVG) (** TRADED **)
Pitchers
---------
Kline (LH, RP,
STN 50 IP, 1.79 ERA)
Ortiz (RH, SP, ATN 205 IP, 4.13 ERA)
Looper (RH, RP, NYN 83 IP, 2.70 ERA) (** TRADED **)
Benitez (RH, RP, FLN 70 IP, 1.29 ERA)
Vizcaino (RH, RP, MLN 72 IP, 3.75 ERA) (** TRADED **)
Clement (RH, SP, CHN 181 IP, 3.68 ERA) (** TRADED **)
Lee (LH, SP, CLA, 179 IP, 5.43 ERA) (** TRADED **) Millwood
(RH, SP, PHN, 141 IP, 4.85 ERA)
Lilly (LH, SP, TOA, 197 IP, 4.06 ERA)
Kolb (RH, RP, MLN, 57 IP, 2.98 ERA) (** TRADED **)
Ayala (RH, RP, MON, 90 IP, 2.69 ERA) (** TRADED **)
Estes (LH, SP, CON, 202 IP, 5.84 ERA) (** RELEASED **)
Early Team Analysis (via
the Wolfman):
"It will take a
miracle to make this team into a contender. The only players we have of
any value are Beltran and Benitez – the rest are good to average to
poor. If this teams has a prayer for doing some significance, they
better pray to God, make some smart trades or get help in the draft."
TEAM NEEDS:
1)
Ace Starter
2)
Second
Quality Starter
3)
A Shortstop
4)
Right
Fielder
5)
Better
Defense overall
6)
A whole new
infield (every position)
7)
Better
catching
In short HELP!!!!
(Quote from Wolfman: “What the Hell am I doing with these guys?”)
Note:
Prior
to the Season started Wolfman trades away 10 of his original players and
released two other players for additional draft choices he acquired.
How he did this, the members of the CBA are still asking themselves this
very question!!
(COMMENTS
FROM AGENT 12x – Oh
Master, mighty one, this team doesn’t look so good, Shapiro will never
do anything with it – oh, I am ahead of myself, mighty one, excuse me!!
)
Overview of
CBA Rules / Structure of League
The CBA is
composed of 20 teams, with two conferences of two divisions each. Each
division has 5 teams. One conference, the one that the Royals are in
does not use a DH (like the National League in the MLB) and the other
conference does. To reach the playoffs a team must either win its
division or have the 1st and 2nd best records of
the teams who don’t win their conference. All players are limited to
their actual plate appearances or inning pitched. Each team has 35
players, 25 can be active for each series and a block is composed of two
series played in a week. At the end of the season, the last month, team
rosters can expand to 35. A pitcher needs 30 innings to eligible to
pitch in the season and a hitter 50 at bats. Each manager sends in to
the commissioner (or league office) a computer manager (one or two) or
stays with their manager sent in previously. A team can dip four times
into the free agent pool to pick up a player but these restricted free
agents are returned to the free agent pool after the season ends and are
not eligible for the playoffs. There is a 10 round draft before the
season begins, these draft picks are tradable. A team must protect 25
players before the draft and at the conclusion of the draft must not
have more then 35 players in total.
The franchise of
the currently known team as the Montreal Royals has never made it to the
playoffs – there are rumors for 2006, and Wolfman may try to resurrect
the famous Skokie Wolfmen
(COMMENTS
FROM AGENT 12x – Oh
Master, we must not let this happen – let us sabotage the Royals – may
I???? oops – Note the next few sections are the Wolfman’s direct
comments … )
Trades:
In
this section are a list of the trades we made prior to the season
beginning and during the CBA free agent draft in the month of March,
2005. After each trade is an analysis for why each trade was made and
what I thought was gained. Each player listed is shown his position and
real team in the MLB from his card.
Trade
#1
March
4th, 2005 Trade Carlos Lee for Carl Crawford (LF TBA)
This
trade is obvious, I am going for a team with more defense and speed and
there are very few LF’s who can hit about .300 and are a ‘1’ defense
fielder plus AA stealer. Crawford’s only weakness is not enough on base
percentage. I hate going with outfielders who are rated 4 even if C.
Lee does have a low error rating. Good trade for both teams as Lee went
to the team with the best average hitting in the league.
TRADE VALUE – A Advantage – Even.
-------------------------
Trade
#2
March
5th, 2005 Trade Ayala & Tucker for Erstad (1B, ANA) & Rusch
(SP/RP CHN)
I
think on this trade, of all the early trades we made, this one we came
out ahead. Following our team philosophy to have more defense, Erstad
was the only ‘1’rated firstbasemn we could acquire. My intention was to
start him all the time against right handed pitchers as he is a decent
hitter but again low OB. I felt Erstad was better overall then Palmeiro.
For Rusch, as we discussed early, our starters were weak and I could use
a fairly decent starter/reliever – actually at this point I wasn’t sure
what I was going to do with Rusch as his innings were limited. Trading
Ayala who is a decent reliever was ok as the strength or surplus of our
team was good relievers so we wouldn’t miss him. Tucker would be in the
minors for us and sit and do nothing.
TRADE VALUE- B+ Advantage – Royals.
------------------------------
Trade
#3 (a needed one)
March
5th, 2005 Trade Montreal 6th round draft pick for
Joe Crede (3B, CHA)
This
trade was again trying to have a good defensive club to support our
pitching staff. We tried to upgrade at 3B in several ways and just
couldn’t do it. I felt giving up a draft pick to get a good defensive
3B with some power was a no-brainer. Also initially I thought Crede
would start against left handed pitching and Feliz would be against
righties.
TRADE
VALUE – C (future trade value B+ as we trade for a 3B we tried
initially) Advantage - even
-----------------------------------
Trade
#4
March
6th, 2005 Trade Clement & Kolb for Clemens (SP HON) & 6th
round draft pick
Well
as you can see on our team, we had no ace starter on our team. Our
starters were Mediocre which is why I was happy by this time I had
Hernandez and Rusch to help out. Lilly is ok but he walks too many
hitters and is not an ace. When we sent this trade to the league
office, they thought we were giving away too much and didn’t want to
approve it. This was one of our more controversial trades. However,
our idea was that we have an access with relievers (plus I was drafting
more as you will soon read) and having an ace starter is key for any
contending team. Clemens is also very old and I knew he had only one
more year (wow what a year) but if we could have at least one ace for 2
years it is worth it. As I mentioned the 2004 are weak in ace
starters. We tried for Randy Johnson but of course he is the best and
was untouchable. Kolb and Clement were good in 2004 but whether they
would continue into 2005, was questionable. We did pickup a relief
pitcher in our sixth round who was almost as good as Kolb with more
innings.
TRADE
VALUE – A, Advantage (initially to our opponent, based on this current
season, Royals as both Wise and Clemens have ERA under 2)
---------------------------
An
Almost deal on March 6th, 2005:
C.
Beltran, P. Feliz and T. Lilly for P. Martinez, M.Cameron, M.Lowell & P.
Reese
Why
didn’t we do it – Beltran, Beltran, Beltran – there are just very few
players who can do all he can do. I was close to doing it as clear
Pedro Martinez is a great starter, Cameron had Power and is ok On base, Lowell
would give us that sound 3B and Reese another 1 defense at 2B. But
Daryl just couldn’t see giving up Beltran. I think if we made this
trade we would be closer to .500. Its I don’t know, one of those what
if trades, what do you think?
------------------------
Trade
#5
March
6th, 2005 Trade D. Wilson, B. Molina, 5th draft
pick for Matheny (C, STN), A.Gonzalez (SS, FLN), 10th round
draft pick
This
was a must trade for us because we only had Valentin at SS and he had a
low average and not so good defensively. I really tried everything I
could to upgrade our SS but this was the best we could do. The trade of
B. Molina for Matheny again was our drive to have a good defensive team
to back our staff and also because we were in a hitter’s park. We gave
away D. Wilson our second catcher because we would have released him
anyway and gone for a better catcher in the draft to back up Matheny. We
traded a higher draft pick for a lower one because we needed these two
players more then the draft pick. Also I didn’t know that Montreal had picked up two other draft picks
(extra) via prior trades before we took over, so we felt we got 2 good
players and didn’t really lose much.
TRADE
VALUE – B- (defensive or had to trade), ADVANTAGE - Royals
------------------------
Trade
#6
March
9th, 2005 Trade Looper, Lee & Vizcaino for Gagne, 9th
& 10 round draft pick plus 9th round draft pick 2006
Another monster trade that came by listening. Our opponent needed
pitching innings and we wanted to have a second quality relief pitcher
to back Benitez. And Gagne, is well Gagne, who could be the best relief
pitcher in the history of baseball and someone we believed we could
count on for many years whereas Benitez was probably a fly in the pan
year. Fortunately now Gagne is back from his injury and I am sure he
will do well again. The players we gave – are some good players –
Looper had a decent year and was going to be our righty ace (but Gagne
took over), Lee is a young prospect who is actually have a good year
(hated to give him up but he would never play for us) and Vizcaino was a
reverse righty pitcher who again we wouldn’t use much. In the two draft
picks we received we got some future players and another draft pick for
2006.
TRADE
VALUE: A+ ADVANTAGE - Royals (Note:
But of course for 2006, this trade will hurt us as we lose our closer
and Lee had a great year for the Indians and would have given us a solid
left handed starter)
Recap
of Trades: We traded 10 players and 2 draft picks and received back 8
new players plus 5 draft picks (one for 2005)
(COMMENTS FROM
AGENT 12x – Oh Master,
look what the Wolfman did – now he is starting to get some semblances of
a team – we might have to take drastic measures sooner then we thought.
Following is a continuation of his report dealing with his draft picks –
oh gee, it gets worse!!!!)
Draft Picks
Philosophy for the Draft: There were several week areas we had that we
tried to fill by the draft and I think we did a great job. Again we
were primarily focusing on defense and getting some good and balanced
pitching. We were following this line of thought because of our success
with our team, the Chicago Bums in the Sporting News trial league –
trying to duplicate a similar team here if it was possible (side note:
of course in such leagues where all of the good players have essentially
been picked this is not so easy).
Well
our outfield was pretty well set with Crawford and Beltran now but we
only really had Matthews to start in RF, a switch hitter and good
defensive player but with limited at bats. So I thought we need to pick
up a right handed hitting RF with good defense and hits lefties fairly
well. Our starting staff was a bit weak so I needed to get at least one
more starting pitcher and since we needed to give away our excess relief
pitchers I had to try to rebuild our staff a bit (as we only had Kline
and Benitez from our original relievers). Also we needed a decent
backup catcher and another bat with power against righties (however
there are more right handed starters then left-handed) and lefties. So
with this philosophy in mind, this is how we went into the draft.
One
disadvantage we had is that I couldn’t see the cards (because my game
hadn’t arrive yet) till the 5th or 6th round. If I
had the cards, I might have selected differently. I had to go on the
stats and the players ratings. Most of the time this works out but not
always. Also the draft had started in the 1st round before
we joined and HAL selected T. Bastista for us since we didn’t have an
official Third Basemen (Feliz was the only potential 3B we had and he
didn’t play there so much). But Mr. Bastista card didn’t fit into the
plan for the type of team I wanted to build so I skillfully and humbly
requested that I might be able to reselect a player for our first round
and throw Bastista back to the free agent pools (to the wolves, a pun so
to speak ha ha). I received permission to do so and was able to
re-select a player when it was my turn to do our draft pick in the
second round. My first official request of slightly bending the rules
if you will -- well, not that much!! That was “One” for our side.
Please find underneath each draft pick my comment why we made this
selection (again position and team listed with the drafted player).
(Prior
to taking over the team on
March
1st, 2005)
1st Round Tony Bastista, MON 3B
March 3rd, 2005
Granted Permission to release Bastista as free agent and reselect 1st
round draft pick
March
4th, 2005
1st
Round Draft Pick
– O. Hernandez (SP, NYA)
(we
just needed another starter and he was the best available. With 84
innings this meant by league rules, if I started him only for six
innings he could help us with 14 starts – he has a great card and
Hernandez is a key starter for the Sox so this move paid off and he is
doing well for our team, was the only starter consistent early.
2nd
Round Draft Pick
– W. Harris (2B, CHA)
(we
had Spivey and Durham
at 2B, but Harris was so good defensively, with a reasonable average and
good speed and on base, which I also liked, so I decided to pick him.
Thus this setup a platoon of 2B with Harris verse righties and Durham
against lefties.)
3rd
Round Draft Pick
– G.
Kapler (OF, BOA)
(I
needed another fairly good hit OF and good defense in RF so Kapler fit
the bill. I was delighted to see he hit left handers fairly well. So
this would setup, so I thought, a platoon system in RF with Matthews
versus righties and Kapler the other way. Again as you can see we were
working to build a good defense.)
March
6th 2005
4th
Round Draft Pick
– J. Mesa (RP, PITT)
(this
was perhaps one of the mistakes I made in the draft due to not seeing
the cards. I assumed because of the saves Mesa had and his ERA that he
would have a decent card and would give us a good middle relief to setup
Benitez. He gives up too many hits so at this time he is our mopup
pitcher – we will see how he does in the current MLB season)
March
7th, 2005
5th
Round Draft Pick
– K. Mercker (RP, CHN)
(we
had Kline as our lefty ace reliever but I felt I needed to get another
lefty in our bullpen and Mercker was the best pitcher available. Also
he is a reverse lefty relief pitcher and didn’t give up much homers)
5th
Round Draft Pick
(via Prior Trade) J. Mabry (IF/OF, STL)
(we
needed another lefty stick in our lineup and I saw that not only did
Mabry have good power but he could hit both lefties and righties (he is
left-handed) and a pretty versatile guy who played a number of
positions. Another reason I took him is because I thought at this time
that we would have inter-conference play (my conference doesn’t have a
DH) and that we would need for a percentage of our game a DH. In
hindsight I am glad I took this player, who helped to lift our team
during its early slow start.
March
8th, 2005
6th
round draft pick
– M. Wise (RP/SP, MLN)
(we
were forced to take Wise because Mesa’s card was so disappointing and I
felt that Wise would be our middle inning relief pitcher. He doesn’t
have any homers on his card and I thought also I might need him for one
or two spot starts. We required a pitcher of his caliber because of the
relief pitchers we had traded so far and also I didn’t know Gagne was
going to join us very soon thereafter.)
March
9th, 2005
7th
round draft pick
- T. Greene (C, CON)
(this
pick again was because we had a lot of guys who batted left handed and I
need a right handed hitter with power versus lefties – because again I
thought we might need a DH. Greene is limited with AB but has a good
hitting card even though he is not so good defensively. But my opinion
is the position that hurts you the least with a poor fielder is
catcher. We definitely needed a guy like Greene against lefties and to
start at catcher perhaps against the lefties too.)
March 10th, 2005
8th
round draft pick
– O. Moreno (RP, PIN)
(again the philosophy is you can never have enough pitching. Moreno had
a decent card with no home run chances even though he had limited
innings. So I figured he could work with Wise for our early-middle
inning relief till we used him up.)
March 11th, 2005
9th
round draft pick
– J. Molina (C, ANA)
(since Matheny can’t start the whole season and I thought Greene is for
pitch hitting and DH, I wanted to draft another good defensive catcher
with some hitting and Molina fit the bill. Even though I traded the
other Molina from Anaheim, (his brother?) – I thought he could help us
as we move late into the season where you have to be careful of player
overusage.)
9th
round draft pick
(via trade) D. Dellucci (OF, TEA)
(Dellucci
actually doesn’t have a bad card against righties and good power, again
thinking in terms of a DH or backup outfielder – just didn’t like his
throwing arm. Surprised a player like Dellucci was still left, so
figured it wouldn’t hurt to get him.)
March 12th, 2005
10th
round draft pick
(via trade) J. Borowsky (RP, CHN)
(well
Joe was the cubs closer in 2003 and I figured after recovering from his
injury he might be again, we couldn’t use him this year as he didn’t
have enough innings but he would be an insure pitcher for our next
season)
10th
round draft pick
-- released R. Mondesi, took B. Bruney (RP AZN)
(Mondesi
would never do anything for us so we let him go and I didn’t feel his
best years were ahead of him. We chose Bruney to be an ace reliever
against righties – later it turns out he helps us to get a real great
pitcher via trade.)
10th
round draft pick
(via trade) – released S. Estes, take M.Thames (OF DEA)
(this
last pick was again based on that we might need a DH versus lefties – so
I want a player with power like Greene. Afterwards, I found out we
would never use the DH during the season so his value diminished. I
didn’t like Estes card and felt with our six starting pitchers we had
enough innings so better to go after a young player. Plus Estes drove
me crazy when he started for my Cubbies in 2003 when they almost made it
to the series.)
Draft Recap:
14
Players drafted – 2 players dropped
Now,
let me present the Montreal Royal Roster (with their 2004 statistics)
just before we began our season on March 30th, 2005 (this
includes all of our trades and draft picks that were reported so far):
Interim Manager:
Wolfman Shapiro
2005 Montreal
Royals
YEAR TEAM BAL AB DO TR
HR BAVG BB K'S RBI OB% SL%
Mike Matheny 2004 SLN 1L 385 22 1 5 .247 23 83 50 .292 .348
Jose Molina 2004 ANA 6L 203 10 2 3 .261 10 52 25 .296 .374
Ray Durham 2004 SFN 2L 471 28 8 17 .282 57 60 65 .364 .484
Carlos Beltran 2004 HON E 599 36 9 38 .267 92 101 104 .367 .548
Jeff Conine 2004 FLN 2L 521 35 1 14 .280 48 78 83 .340 .432
Jose Valentin 2004 CHA 2R 450 20 3 30 .216 43 139 70 .287 .473
Alex Gonzalez 2004 FLN 4L 561 30 3 23 .232 27 126 79 .270 .419
Pedro Feliz 2004 SFN E 503 33 3 22 .276 23 85 84 .305 .485
Joe Crede 2004 CHA 1R 490 25 0 21 .239 34 81 69 .299 .418
Rafael Palmeiro 2004 BAA 5R 550 29 0 23 .258 86 61 88 .359 .436
Carl Crawford 2004 TBA 1L 626 26 19 11 .296 35 81 55 .331 .450
Gary Matthews Jr 2004 TEA 3R 280 17 1 11 .275 33 64 36 .350 .461
Junior Spivey 2004 MLN 3L 228 13 0 7 .272 25 48 28 .359 .421
Darin Erstad 2004 ANA 2R 495 29 1 7 .295 37 74 69 .346 .400
Willie Harris 2004 CHA 5R 409 15 2 2 .262 51 79 27 .343 .323
Gabe
Kapler 2004 BOA 4L 290 14 1 6 .272 15 49 33 .311 .390
John Mabry 2004 SLN 1L 240 11 0 13 .296 26 63 40 .363 .504
Todd Greene 2004 CON 5L 195 14 0 10 .282 13 38 35 .325 .508
Dave Dellucci 2004 TEA 6R 331 13 1 17 .242 47 88 61 .342 .441
Marcus Thames 2004 DEA 3L 165 12 0 10 .255 16 42 33 .326 .509
LEFT% BAL WON LOST ERA IP HITS WALKS K'S HR GS SV
Kline 48 8L 2 2 1.79 50 37 17 35 3 0 3
Ortiz 50 2L 15 9 4.13 205 197 112 143 23 34 0
Benitez 43 3R 2 2 1.29 70 36 21 62 6 0 47
Gagne 50 5R 7 3 2.19 82 53 22 114 5 0 45
Clemens 51 1L 18 4 2.98 214 169 79 218 15 33 0
Millwood 48 3R 9 6 4.85 141 155 51 125 14 25 0
Lilly 20 2L 12 10 4.06 197 171 89 168 26 32 0
Rusch 24 3L 6 2
3.47 130 127 33 90 10 16 2
Hernandez 59 4R 8 2 3.30 85 73 36 84 9 15 0
Wise 45 3L 1 2 4.44 53 51 15 30 3 3 0
Mesa 47 5R 5 2 3.25 69 78 20 37 6 0 43
Mercker
51 6R 3 1 2.55 53 39 27 51 4 0 0
Moreno 42 2L 3 1 3.38 35 29 11 29 0 0 1
Borowski
36 9R 2 4 8.02 21 27 15 17 3 0 9
Bruney 40 6R 3 4
4.31 31 20 27 34 2 0 0
Analysis
before the Year Begins and Strategy
Lineup:
AGAINST RIGHT HANDED PITCHING: -- My idea was to go with a better
defensive team that would include Erstad 1b-1; Harris 2b-2; Valentin
SS-3 (due to his power); Feliz 3B-3; Mantheny C-1; Crawford LF-1;
Beltran CF-1; Matthews RF-2
Analysis:
this squad has some speed and a few pother hitters but not so good with
getting on base and this had me a bit worried – because if our team didn’t score
enough runs we couldn’t easily catch up – also we needed to depend on
our pitching to keep it close and then take out Valentin and Feliz in
late innings. We did get a slight advantage due to the high HOME RUN
Ball Park we are in (1-14) as our hitters like ball park home runs.
AGAINST LEFT HANDED PITCHING: I figured this would occur less
frequently, so we could use our best hitters and then bring in our
defense later. The players to use were :
Feliz
1b-3; Durham 2B-3; Gonzalez SS-2; Crede 3B-2;
Conine LF-3; Beltran CF-1, Kapler RF-2; Greene C-4
Analysis:
This team featured a bit more hitting, power and on base but defensively
was not as good. We lose a bit of speed too. But this was the best we
could do.
As
you can see from our lineups we counted on platooning many of our
positions and we also studied each possible pitcher to come up with the
strongest lineup against each.
Starting Pitching:
With
the exception of Clemens our other starters weren’t so terrible but also
were not so strong. It was hoped we could keep the game close or be
ahead by a run or two and then go for our strong relievers and defense.
I decided to start Clemens and Lilly as often as possible (since they
need 3 days rest) but of course they would have 39 and 38 starts so they
would run out of innings before the end of the year. I realized early
in the season we would have to get another starter to help out. Rusch
and Hernandez had decent cards and we would use these four pitchers
against all the best teams in our conference. Thus I went through all
the rosters of my opponents and ranked them as Very Good (2 teams), Good
( 4 teams) and Weak (3 teams), I won’t see which ones as I don’t want to
embaress the managers in our league if they read this article (and
besides what do I know?). Against the weaker teams I save Millwood and
Ortiz. Then I figured we could try to start Wise once or twice and see
what happens. I also like to have starting pitcher (or relievers) who
don’t give up so many home runs as a 3 or 4 run homer can really put a
game out of reach especially when you don’t have a super strong hitting
team as we had.
Also
I figured Hernandez and Rusch to pitch a maximum of 6 innings so they
could start 14 and 22 times respectively.
Relief Pitching:
I
figured each series we would go with six relief pitchers. Mesa would be
our mop up reliever (69 innings); Kline would be used against lefties
early-middle with Mercker backing him up. We would use Wise and Moreno for middle relief against righties.
Then if we were close in the 7th, we would use Gagne as he
had a little more innings of relief then Benitez and let Benitez be our
closer. Bruney would be used when our rosters expand to 35 near the end
of the season as a righty ace reliever and Borowsky would wait for next
year.
General Feelings & Expectations
Before the Season Started:
I
thought that based upon what we had to work with to start with on March
1st and where we were before March 30th, that we
had created a more competitive team. A team with what I call
inter-changeable parts that would allow me to make changes and
modifications once I could see how our team was doing and what were the
strengths and weaknesses of the other folks we would play during the
season. I thought our pitching would do ok as we had a good combination
of starters and relievers and hoped that the Royals could score enough
runs to win. I didn’t expect that we would make it to the series but
thought perhaps if we could qualify for the playoffs that would be cool.
Another wonderful thing about the computer game is you can run an entire
season and test out all kinds of variations of your lineups and test
pitchers against each team. So I did run such a simulation (I let the
computer generate a manager for all the other teams which of course
isn’t the best) and we actually did pretty well.
So as
our season was about to begin I thought – YEAH, we are going to do well
– well after the first three blocks (first six series or weeks) we had
one of the worst records in the league and I was exasperated.
(COMMENTS FROM
AGENT 12x – To the Guild –
I think we have a real problem here, Wolfman somehow, in some way,
figured out a way to get the Royals to be competitive. Anyway we could
find the next part of his report yet – where he begins to discuss his
season – so stay tuned, we will send it out as soon as we can acquire
it. Over and out – 2EA NTX 3ER%$
Wolfman here --- hope you enjoyed this next part of our report and the
fun style I have decided to present it in --- to find out what happened
next, check out Part III (link below).
Hope
this article is interesting and helpful to my fellow strat players and
managers extraordinere!!
And
again feel feel to email me at any time, if you have any comments or
questions
All
the best, hear the Wolfman's howl from Holland
(bring on the European strat players . . . .)
To
Continue Reading
Part III
(click above)
To correspond with the "Wolfman" feel free to send him an email at:
wolfmanshapiro@gmail.com
To go the
Wolfman's Home Page, click
here
To view the leagues that the "Wolfman" is competing
in, feel free to visit:
THE CBA (www.cba-bb.net
-- check out the Skokie Wolfmen)
THE PSBL (www.psbl.us
---- check out the Skokie Cubs for 2005-2006 seasons)
To read his article about his first experience at the
Star Tournaments in Chicago (August
2005), please feel free to visit this page at:
http://www.v-j-enterprises.com/startournament_chi1.html
Good luck everyone with your Strat-o-matic Seasons
................ the Skokie Wolfman
