Playoffs

Constantinople vs. Bay City (March 9, 2008)

Background

Three-time defending champion Tom starts the season by sweeping Jeff and never looks back. By December 10, he has won 14 of his first 20 games but holds first place by just one game over the Wax. He then wins 12 of 16 in an aggressive year ending schedule, including 6 of 8 from BC and ND over Christmas to jump to a seemingly insurmountable 5-game cushion at 26-10. He ‘stumbles’ slightly in January (5-3) and is in a virtual tie with Future Wax. But he beats Randy 3 of 4 on February 9 in a first place showdown, finishes strong with an 8-4 February, and that’s good enough to win Constantinople’s very first pennant!

Chosen 5^th by the league’s expert prognosticators, Robin starts out as she finishes - in the middle - with a 6-6 November. A 7-9 December is good enough to keep her in a tenuous 4^th place at the end of ’07, only 1-2 games ahead of the rest of the pack. By the end of January , a .500 record (22-22) puts her in 3^rd place as the league jokes that only 2 teams are over .500. You might think her February (4-8) was bad, but in fact, 4 other pretenders fold badly and finish behind her and she’s in the post season for the 2^nd time in 3 years.

Tom beat Robin 5 of 8 in the season series.

 

Game 1:

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9		R	H	E
BC	0	0	0	3	0	3	1	2	0		9	14	1
Manatees	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1		1	11	0

WP: Halladay (1-0)

LP: Santana (0-1)

SV: None

HR: Jeter(1), Thomas (1)

CN’s manager came in saying that BC was the worst possible match-up being a right handed hitting team and loaded with starting pitching and Saito to slam shut the door. CN could not hit off his own card and Halladay was masterful as predicted.

Game 2:

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9		R	H	E
BC	5	0	4	0	0	0	1	0	2		12	16	1
Manatees	3	1	0	0	2	0	0	1	0		7	9	0

WP: Kuo (1-0)

LP: Cain (0-1)

SV: None

HR: Bay (1), Varitek (1), Howard (1), Thomas 4 (2,3,4,5)

The story was long-time Bay City veteran Frank Thomas. After a long career toiling for losing teams, Frank finds new life in the post-season as he mashed the Manatees in a record setting effort, hitting 4 home runs. Anibel Sanchez (the best starter in the set) left early, but the Manatees could not overcome the power of Frank.

Game 3

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9		R	H	E
Manatees	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1		1	5	0
BC	2	1	0	0	0	0	4	0	-		7	11	0

WP: Oswalt (1-0)

LP: Cain (0-2)

SV: None

HR: Howard (2), Jeter (2), Cabrera (1), Sanchez (1)

Home crowds started chanting sweep as the Manatees break up the second potential shutout in the ninth of the series. At this point, Tom thought a sweep was a real likely possibility.

Game 4

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9		R	H	E
Manatees	1	2	0	0	1	0	5	0	2		11	12	0
BC	1	0	4	0	0	1	0	0	0		6	14	0

WP: Sheets (1-0)

LP: Saito (0-1)

SV: None

HR: Hawpe (1), Thomas (6), Abreu (1), A Jones 2 (1,2), C Lee (1)

Ben Sheets came out as the stopper and Andruw Jones was the offensive hero with a grand slam and 2 run shot late in the game to prevent the sweep.

Game 5:

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9		R	H	E
Manatees	1	4	0	1	0	0	0	2	0		8	11	1
BC	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	3	0		4	8	1

WP: Santana (1-1)

LP: Jennings (0-1)

SV: None

HR: Thomas (7), Howard (3)

CN got the series to come home on the back of a solid Ervin Santana outing and Howard’s third homer.

Game 6:

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9		R	H	E
BC	0	0	3	1	0	0	0	0	0		4	11	1
Manatees	5	2	0	0	2	0	0	0	-		9	12	1

WP: Sabathia (1-0)

LP: Oswalt (1-1)

SV: None

HR: Cabrera (2), Beltran (1), Durham (1), Bay (2)

Sabathia comes in for a rare relief win. Impartial fan Arnie tried to restrain himself when Oswalt was left in the game in the first inning and had to leave the room to watch the hockey game.

Game 7:

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9		R	H	E
BC	0	0	3	2	1	5	0	0	1		12	18	0
Manatees	0	0	1	1	0	0	1	0	0		3	8	0

WP: Halladay (2-0)

LP: Cain (0-3)

SV: None

HR: Varitek (2), Teahen (1), Cuddyer (1), Cabrera (3), Beltran (2)

Halladay came in as the ultimate big game pitcher and held down the Manatees. Cain the goat of the series lost his 3 game. This was the first 7-game series in SOMBILLA history without a save!

Frank Thomas was the offensive player of the series. BC starters were the difference and it just seemed to CN that it did not matter who was pitching as BC got clutch hit after clutch hit. The clutch hitting for CN that epitomized the season was absent, but they were scrappy enough to make it a series after 3 non competitive losses to start off ….

Future Wax vs. Area 51 (March 9, 2008)

Background:

Randy starts slow, wining only 4 of 8 in November. Randy then decides to stop doing e-mail, which seems to help his team, winning 9 of 12 in December to finish the year at 13-7, but he’s 5 games behind Tom. Randy beats Tom 3 of 4 on January 20 to close to 3 games, and he closes January by sweeping Eric into a tie for first place, but then drops a series to Tom and he settles for 2^nd place.

Coming off a last place finish, expectations are low out in the Area. A 7-9 start puts Jeff in 6^th place at Thanksgiving, and December (5-7) is no better as Jeff remains in 6^th place at year end (but only 1 game out of 4^th.). A better than mediocre (5-3) January catapults Jeff into a solid 4^th at 17-19. He continues his excellent 2^nd half with a 11-9 February kick, which gives him a solid 3^rd place and his first playoff berth in 3 years.

Randy beat Jeff 6 of 8, including a 4-game sweep in December.

 

Results:

Randy did not do any series summary or writeup. Which is probably just as well considering nobody, other than the author, actually ever reads these.

 

Future Wax 10 Area 51 0 (Santana 2-hit shutout)

Area 51 2   Future Wax 1

Area 51 3   Future Wax 2 (walkoff homer C. Jones)

Area 51 2    Future Wax 0

Future Wax 3   Area 51 1

Future Wax 9 Area 51 1

Future Wax 1  Area 51 0 (note - going back to 1985, there has never been a 1-0 game 7 post-season game).

Future Wax wins series 4 games to 3

 

World Series - Future Wax vs. Bay City

(March 15, 2008)

Background:

This was Robin's first trip to the World Series in 25 years - since she won it while sharing a team with Tsuan her first year as the Bay City Nazgul.

In fact, over the past 25 years, Robin has made the playoffs 6 previous times (7 if you count the one game playoff she lost to Eric in 1995), but this was the first time she won a playoff series since '83. During that time period, the following managers played in the World Series:

Jed

Andrew

Tsuan

Arnie

Eric

Yitz

Matt

Harold

Dave

Jeff

Tom

As noted above, Randy never submitted any summary or writeup. Here are the scores:

Future Wax 8 Bay City 1

Bay City 2 Future Wax 0

Future Wax 4 Bay City 2

Future Wax 8 Bay City 5

Bay City 10 Future Wax 9

Future Wax 8 Bay City 7

Future Wax wins series 4 games to 2

After three consecutive World Series losses, this is Future Wax’s first SOMBILLA championship since 2002.

THOUGHTS WHILE LISTENING TO THE RANGELEY LAKE LOONS


Minutes of annual meeting March 30, 2008

1. Dues. Among actual league managers, Eric and Jed still owe me $5.00 And I don't even know why I bother to mention Tsuan, Andrew, and Land who owe me $14, $18 and $200, respectively.

2. Awards Voting - 5 points for 1st place, 3 for 2nd place, 1 for 3rd place. Since managers cannot vote for their own players, 7 votes would normally be a unanimous vote.

MVP         1   2   3   Tot

Cy Young       1    2   3   Tot

Manager of the Year  1   2   3   Tot

* Unanimous selections

3. Presentation of the Richman Cup by last year's champion, Tom, to this year's champion, Randy.

4. Franchise news.

5. Rule change proposals

1. Commissioner Ruling 2007-3. This discussion was about handling multiple call-ups/sending down of pitchers. Tom had asked me in mid-season about the rule for an obscure situation. I read the bylaws and extended my interpretation of them to cover the situation. Tom abided by the ruling, but strongly disagreed with the logic behind it and made a counter-proposal for discussion at the meeting.

• Max BP HR differential between L and R: 7 (new rule floor)
• Max BP S differential between L and R: 7 (new rule floor)
• Ballpark singles more than ballpark homers, maximum: 13 (lefty hitters at Fenway)
• Ballpark homers more than ballpark singles, maximum: 15 (lefty hitters in Chicago A)

3. Repeal of the rainout rule
. I again proposed a repeal of Eric’s rainout rule. Not because it’s a bad rule or anything. It’s fairly harmless. The main reason was that it is not fairly applied. More often than not, we forgot to roll for it. While it is a manager’s own damn fault, I still proposed repealing it (keeping the automatic day off at the midway point).

4. Roll-off.
Eric proposed doing the roll-off ahead of time, like a week or two. The practicalities involved (drive an hour for a dice roll? roll by phone?) caused this proposal to be doomed.
5. Cut list.
On a similar vein, a proposal was made (by Randy, I think) to require each team to post its cut list (via e-mail) a week ahead of time. It wouldn't be final, you could recall and switch players off of it at any time right up until the draft, just as we allow now. This would just allow all teams more time to review it.

6. Tom then proposed that IBB count towards using up limited batters' plate appearances. This proposal was voted down 5-3.

7. Tom then asked for a clarification about the definition of the "pitcher with the fewest innings available" which comes into play when a pitcher is sent down for a hitter. Specifically, if a pitcher has 2 cards, and the manager intends to use both, then the innings of the 2 cards are added together for the purpose of seeing if he is the guy with the fewest innings available. If the manager intends to only use one of the cards, then they would not get added together for this purpose. The league agreed that this was reasonable by a vote of 6-1.

7. Draft Notes

There were no trades made on draft day and only one trade made during the week before draft day: Kelvim Escobar, North Dakota was traded to Bay City for a 3rd round draft pick (became Jacoby Ellsbury)

Retread report

The earliest such retread was the 4th pick overall! – Magglio Ordonez, cut by Jed just one year ago, was drafted by North Dakota with one of the draft picks traded to it by Jed for Travis Hafner.

The others:

• With the 6^th pick overall, Tom picked up former North Dakota farmhand Carlos Pena.
• With the first pick of the 3^rd round, Harold scooped up former Bay City and North Dakota shortstop Orlando Cabrera.
• In the 4^th round, Jeff redrafted lefty reliever Damaso Marte, whom he cut last year.
• In round 6, Jed drafted OF Rick Ankiel, a former pitcher for Robin.
• In the 7^th, Harold redrafted Ted Lilly, whom he cut 2 years ago.
• In round 8, former New Orleans legend Troy Percival was drafted by Jeff.
• Omar Vizquel, out of the league for 3 years after Harold cut him, was also scooped up by Jeff (in the 9^th).
• Former CN first round pick Josh Phelps was picked up by Harold in the 11^th.
• Former Bay City stalwart Garrett Anderson was drafted by RAT in the 12^th.

We all shouted "Spooneybarger," and the ’08 draft was history.

This summer we will do our 4-year draft retrospective analysis of the 2004 draft. As usual, the first 2 rounds will be listed in order, for heightened scrutiny. After that, all picks are lumped together by round.

We've conducted 4 SOMBILLA seasons since that '04 draft (using the 03, 04, 05 and 06 cards), and we will begin playing another season, the 2007 cards, in a few months. Finally, in real life, we are currently in the midst of a 6th Strat-O season, 2008, and we can project who might be usable. Thus, each player from this draft will have the potential to play in all six SOMBILLA seasons.

For the 2004 draft analysis below, the player’s SOMBILLA stats are shown for the first 2 rounds of picks. But note that Eric has only completed a total of 1 complete and 2 partial years worth of stats for these 4 seasons, and it's completely unknown who played for his team in '06-07, so his players may be more maligned than they deserve. Also Jed's and Harold stats for 2 seasons are only half complete, and Jeff's stats are only ¼ complete for '06-07.

Round 1

1. M. Cabrera, Robin. All 6 seasons. .281 (192 for 683), 33 homers, 127 rbis
2. Webb, Matt & Jed. 4 seasons, which include '06 and '07. 4-4, 6.10
3. Loaiza, Harold. 1 season . 6-6, 4.14
4. Teixeira, Jeff. 5 seasons. 232, 20,49
5. Reyes, RAT. 5 seasons, .301, 7, 31
6. Ensberg, Tom. 3 seasons, .247, 33, 93
7. L. Hernandez, Arnie. 2 seasons 6-9, 6.27
8. R. Soriano, Eric. 3 seasons, 0-1, 1.88, 7 saves.

Best pick: M. Cabrera in a close call over Reyes. Based on the fact that he's played in all SOMBILLA seasons.

Worst pick: Loaiza, Harold (although Harold did smartly unload him to ND for a 1st-rounder).

Round 2

9. V. Martinez, Robin. 4 seasons including '07 and '08. (.260, 6, 32)

10. Bradley, M&J. 3 seasons (.315, 2, 9)

11. M. Young, Jeff. 5 seasons (.254, 3, 30)

12. Contreras, Harold. 2 seasons (12-6, 4.65)

13. Harden, RAT. 1 season (5-2, 4.59)

14. Mora, Tom. 3 seasons (.340, 21, 58)

15. Podsednick, Arnie. 1 season (.279, 4, 20)

16. K. Greene, Jeff. 2 seasons (.145, 1, 5)

Best pick – Michael Young, Jeff. Noses out V. Martinez (also a better fielder).

Worst pick – Tie, Harden, RAT and the Pod, Arnie. Although Harden's the better major leaguer, their SOMBILLA impact is the same (not counting Randy’s famous "Harden-gate" last year).

Round 3

Best picks – Tie – Brad Lidge, Harold and Scot Shields, Arnie 5 out of 6 seasons for both.

Worst pick – Kurt Ainsworth, Eric. The only player drafted in this round who never played in the league. Unless he played during the year Eric didn't do any stats.

Also picked: - Cormier, Robin (1); Quantrill (1), M&J; Valverde, RAT (4); J. Guillen, Tom (3 or 4); Riske, Jeff (1)

Round 4

Best pick – Hideki Matsui, Jeff. 4 seasons.

Worst pick - Matt Kata, Eric. Who?

Also picked: - Villarreal, Robin; Alvarez, M&J; Gerut, Harold; J. Phillips, RAT; Redman, Tom; Kershner, Arnie. 1 year wonders, all.

Round 5

Best picks – Rocco Baldelli, Eric. and Dontrelle Willis, Harold

Worst pick – Jerome Williams, Jeff. Who?

Also picked – Cintron, Robin; D. May, M&J; Schoeneweis, RAT; Herges, Tom; Ponson, Arnie

Round 6

Best pick – Jeremy Bonderman, Eric. Only 2 known seasons. But I'm giving Eric the benefit of the doubt, given that otherwise Wily Mo is tied with Bonderman.

Worst picks – A. Lopez, Robin (although he did help Tom win a World Series after being traded); Hasegawa, M&J; Franklin, Jeff; Tavarez, Harold; M. Ryan, RAT; Hammock, Tom. All one year wonders.

Also picked – Wily Mo Pena, Arnie. 3 seasons.

Round 7

Best pick – Jason Bay, Tom. 5 out of 6 seasons so far

Worst picks – Matos, Robin; Heredia, RAT; Bordick, Eric. One season each.

Also picked – Seo, M&J (2); King, Harold (2); BJ Ryan, Jeff (4); J. Rivera, Arnie (4)

The league did better in this round than it did in round 4.

Round 8

Best picks – Mahay, Robin and Timlin, Eric (2 seasons each).

Worst picks – D. Young, M&J; J. Gonzalez, RAT. Never played in the league. I remember watching the late Jeremy Gonzalez get his ass kicked in spring training the next year.

Also picked – Olivo, Jeff; Baerga, Harold; Moyer, Eric; Eaton, Arnie. One season each

Round 9

Best pick – Joe Nathan, RAT. All 6 seasons and last season's SOMBILLA Cy Young winner. Was this Tsuan's or Andrew's?

Worst pick –Affeldt, Jeff. No play SOMBILLA.

Also picked – A. Boone, M&J (1); Morneau, Harold (3); Stairs, Tom (1); Michaels, Arnie (2); Meche, Eric (1); Estrada, Robin (1).

Rounds 10-12

Best picks – Chase Utley, Eric and Dan Haren, Arnie. 3 seasons each and both 2008 all-stars.

Worst picks– Balfour, Robin; Nix, M&J; Pavano, M&J; C. Miller, Harold; Hampton, Eric.

Also picked – A. Everett, Harold (3); Ford, RAT (2); Wunsch, Tom (1); Ross, Arnie (2); DaVanon, RAT (1); Durham, Tom (3); J. Wilson, M&J (1); Bigbie, Harold (1) ; Helms, RAT (1); Capuano, Tom (2).

Trades

There was one blockbuster trade during draft week 2004. Lance Berkman, North Dakota was traded to Future Wax for Gary Sheffield and Jeff Kent. To completely evaluate that, though, note that 2 years later, North Dakota unloaded Sheffield and Jason Michaels and 2 draft picks (became Wang and C. Duncan) to Harold for Contreras and Glaus.

So, counting just SOMBILLA stats since the trade, we have Berkman:

.289 (233 for 807), 49 homers, 161 rbis

vs.

2 years of Sheffield, Glaus and Contreras and 4 years of Kent:

.256 (305 for 1193), 63 homers, 182 rbi's plus 12-6, 4.65 ERA.

True, the Sheffield trade to New Orleans involved additional players, so a more accurate analysis would discount the ND stats listed above somehow to account for the trading of Michaels and 2 draft picks. Nonetheless after 4 SOMBILLA seasons, the trade appears to be fairly even. However, looking forward to the '07 and '08 cards, RAT appears to win this trade.

Best draft, 2004: Eric!

(R. Soriano, Ainsworth, Kata, Baldelli, Bonderman, Bordick, Moyer, Timlin, Meche, Utley, Hampton). It was a pretty weak draft.

Worst draft, 2004: RAT (J. Reyes, Harden, Valverde, J. Phillips, Schoenewies, M. Ryan, Heredia, J. Gonzalez, Nathan, Ford, DaVanon, Helms).

Which team is trying to buy a championship a la the Yankees? Who are the small market teams operating on a shoestring? Who are the big spenders and cheapskate owners? Should the SOMBILLA institute a salary cap?

I let the computer choose each team's 25-man roster. The computer's not perfect in that regard, making a few surprising selections from amongst each team's 45-man roster, but I figure it got at least 20 of the 25 people correct for each team. And given that it's almost mid-August, that's good enough for me and this study without spending another week nitpicking each selection. Using the salary database available on the USA Today website, here are the results:

1. Area 51. $174,583,395. Although we could call them the Yankees of the SOMBILLA, the amazing thing is that the Yankees payroll is actually much higher ($209,081,577). Think about that. We have an all-star league, yet the Yankees payroll is 20% higher than the SOMBILLA's highest team. Jeff clearly has the fewest wins per $$ spent in the league, but I guess the owner has deep pockets and doesn't really care. Number of millionaires: 20

2. Constantinople. $171,981,440. The fact that Tom's payroll is 2nd highest comes as no surprise, being a perennial favorite having won 3 of the last 4 championships. 10 of his players make $10,000,000 or more (they are, in addition to the top 5 below, Sheets, Sabathia, Guillen, Varitek, Howard). Number of millionaires: 16

3. Bay City. $158,114,084. Now we know the real secret to her successful season last year. The highest paid starting rotation in the league (Halladay, Oswalt, Buehrle, Escobar) makes almost as much as Hibernia's entire payroll. And her catchers (Pudge and V Mart) don't come cheaply either. Number of millionaires: 20

4. Future Wax. $155,109,713. The only surprise is that they rank only 4^th highest. You'd think with 3 owners, they could afford to fork over a little more dough. Does anyone else notice that the top 4 teams in payroll were the four playoff teams last year? Their payroll is still higher than all MLB teams, other than the Yankees. Number of millionaires: 16

5. Knuckle Sandwiches. $148,860,748. All those computer and Internet expenses cut into the amount the team can spend on player salaries. Jed seems to spend generously on outfielders – Suzuki, Hunter and Holliday average over $14,000,000 apiece! Number of millionaires: 19

Five highest paid:

6. New Orleans. $143,355,800. Harold likes to spend on his bullpen – Rivera, Wagner and Lidge are all high price. Despite the 'low' payroll, Harold is good to his team; free performance enhancing drugs are a staple perk. Number of millionaires: 17

Five highest paid:

7. North Dakota. $124,755,686. Playing in 400 seat capacity Gackle Park has always made it tough for this small-market team to compete for the expensive players. And forget about a TV contract when there isn't any TV in the state to begin with. Rumor has it that the controversial Berkman ($14,500,000) trade was simply a salary dump for the Pirates of the SOMBILLA. Number of millionaires: 17

Five highest paid:

8. Hibernia. $84,262,880. Does anyone know what the hell Eric is doing over there with his revenue stream? With a payroll approximately the same as the Milwaukee Brewers, and not even in the same stratosphere as the rest of the league, this franchise is an embarrassment. Does he think we won't notice how he spends ticket receipts on illegal activities? Number of millionaires: 16

Which teams rely on their farm systems? Who has the most active front office? Who signs the free agents? This summer, I analyzed each team's current 45-man roster and reviewed how every player ended up on the roster. I divided them up into three categories:

Farm system – Players who were originally drafted by the team and are still on the roster. In essence, these players are those who have spent their entire SOMBILLA career with one team.

Front office – Players acquired via trade.

Free agents – Drafted players who previously played for another team, were cut, and then picked up as free agents.

Team	Farm system	Trade (front office)	Free agents	His own weird category*
Future Wax	42	1 (Berkman)	2 (Anderson, Cameron)
Bay City	43 or 44*	*	1 (Bradford)	1 (Escobar)
Constantinople	43	0	2 (C. Pena, Church)
Area 51	40	1 (Smoltz)	4 (Percival, Grudzelanik, Vizquel, Guerrero)
New Orleans	40	2 (Sheffield, Helton)	3 (Carrasco, O. Cabrera, Phelps)
North Dakota	41	2 (Glaus, Kent)	2 (Alou, M. Ordonez)
Knuckle Sandwiches	41	1 (Hafner)	3 (Howry, Ankiel, Dye)
Hibernia	43	2 (M. Ramirez, Tejada)	0

*Escobar was originally drafted by Robin, then cut, then redrafted by North Dakota, then traded back to Robin. This makes him eligible to be counted for Robin as both farm system and trade.

Surprisingly, at least to me, there is not a lot of variation among us. All teams have between 40 and 43 players on their roster who were drafted originally by them. And all teams, except for Tom, have 1 or 2 players on their roster acquired via trade. The most variation is among free agents.

In addition to the surprising lack of variability, the only other conclusion is that Durga's famous lament from 20 years ago still holds true. "This league hates to trade."

Here is our first unscientific look ahead to the 2008 cards (due out in January).

RAT (11) – Berkman, Braun, Kazmir, Ludwick, McCann, Nathan, Quentin, A. Ramirez, Uggla, Wood, Zambrano

Eric (9) – Drew, A. Gonzalez, Hart, Lincecum, Navarro, M. Ramirez, Soto, Tejada, Utley

Jed (8) – Bradley, Duchscherer, Holliday, Mauer, Soria, Suzuki, Webb, Youkilis

Tom (8) – C. Guillen, Kinsler, Martin, Papelbon, A. Rodriguez, E. Santana, Sheets, Varitek

Harold (6) – Lidge, Morneau, Rivera, Soriano, Wagner, Wright

Arnie (6) – Hamilton, Haren, D. Ortiz, Pedroia, Pujols, H. Ramirez

Jeff (6) – Crede, C. Jones, F. Rodriguez, Sherrill, Sizemore, M. Young

Robin (4) – Halladay, Jeter, Marmol, Volquez

Tentative Opening Day: Sunday, November 2