The TBL Baseball Annual A publication of the Transcontinental Baseball League The Master Plan 2012 Edition Walter H. Hunt All 24 Teams Analyzed Robert Jordan Using the T.Q. System Mark H. Bloom The TBL Baseball Annual A publication of the Transcontinental Baseball League 2012 Edition by Walter H. Hunt Robert Jordan Mark H. Bloom with contributions from all of TBL’s managers and extra help from: Clay Beard Mark Freedman Paul Harrington Ray Murphy Craig Musselman Copyright © 2012 Walter H. Hunt. This book was produced using a Macintosh with Adobe InDesign CS2 and Adobe Photoshop 7.0. I can be reached by mail at 3306 Maplebrook Road, Bellingham, MA 02019 or by e-mail at [email protected]. The 2012 TBL Annual the TBL baseball annual Welcome to the 2012 TBL Baseball Annual. This is the seventeenth year of the Annual in the book format, and each year we try to do something new and innovative. We’ve added Mark Bloom to the staff for this edition – he’s written some of our team articles and has also contributed a feature. We’ve got the usual collection of analysis tools and metrics as well as a look at each team’s Master Plan – at least as we see it. We’ve also got some outstanding insights into building a championship team from the last two champions, Rye and Melrose. As always, it’s probably as much fun to write as it is to read. Have a great season. Walter, Editor Robert Mark May, 2012 The T.Q. System Shamelessly stolen from the Mazeroski annual, the T.Q. System assigns points to each area of the team’s expected performance and totals the result. The maximum score under the T.Q. System is 50, divided as follows: Pitching: 20 points Offense: 15 points Defense: 10 points Bench: 5 points The T.Q. System does not take age or prospect value into account, only present capability. It does, however, consider usage (available games, at bats and innings). 4 The 2012 TBL Annual table of contents FRONT MATTER State of the League Bob Jordan 6 The Master Plan Walter Hunt 9 Future Drafts 10 TQ Summary 11 Features: The Rebuilding Clock, SNTs, The Vegas Line, Numbers 12 The Vegas Line Paul Harrington 14 2010 Computer Pre-Play Clay Beard 15 INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE International Conference Hall of Fame Eligibles 16 Clemente Division Once Again Into the Breach 18 Whitman 20 Las Vegas 24 Columbus 28 Blue Hill 32 Mays Division Not Rocket Science 36 Rye 38 Gotham City 42 Greater Ohio 46 Grand Cayman 50 Ruth Division Jockey For Second Place 54 Dallas 56 Brobdingnag 60 New Westminster 64 Detroit 68 INTERMISSION Road to the World Series 72 2011 World Series Report 74 NATIONAL CONFERENCE National Conference Hall of Fame Eligibles 76 Aaron Division This All Seems Familiar 78 Portland 80 Northboro 84 Kansas 88 Maracaibo 92 Mantle Division Catch Me If You Can 96 Melrose 98 Hudson 102 Zion 106 Munich 110 Williams Division Meet the New Boss 114 Wakefield 116 Richmond 120 Midwest 124 Knoxville 128 FINAL WORDS Breakthrough 132 Future 133 Would You Continue to Play ... Mark Bloom 134 The Rise of Rye Craig Musselman 136 Avenger Spring Training Mark Freedman 138 Commissioner’s Report Darrell Skogen 140 In Memoriam 141 The 2012 TBL Annual state of the league by Bob Jordan Welcome to the 2012 TBL Baseball Annual! dispatching the defending We are happy to be back to bring you another champion Rye Herons in five installment of the clairvoyant predictions, games to win the right to face visionary analysis and agile wit for which we Melrose in the 2012 TBL World have become internationally (US and Canada, Series. This was the best season of Steve’s career baby!) renowned. In this issue, we will gaze at – and he has been with us since 1988. every card, slice and dice every trade and waiv- er pick, and boldly set forth the path to success Commissioner Darrell Skoggin is once again for each and every team in our fine league. deserving of our respect and gratitude, as he car- ried out his difficult duties with class and humor. Confronting the future Tips of the hat are also due our ever-vigilant roster czar Clay Beard, the incredible Stephen In 2012 we will be looking for a team to beat Stein who works constantly to keep our schedule the Portland Possum. Ray Murphy and new co- tracker and statistics archive up to date and laser- owner Jon Brinkmann field a club that just leaps accurate. Thanks also to Ray Murphy for surviv- off the page as the mammals to beat this year. ing his first year with the twins, and maintaining Will they live up to the hype and take home the TBL web site. their second TBL title? Or will they go the way of the 2002 Rochester Express, who won every- Finally, we once again are lucky to have the thing except the game that mattered? indestructible Walter Hunt at the help of this extraordinary effort. Writing novels side-by-side Before we set our sights on the far horizon, we with his work on our Annual was simply not first need to acknowledge a few people who were enough of a challenge for Walter this year, so instrumental in making 2011 another spectacular he published a game – Rails of New England, year for the Transcontinental Baseball League. which is on sale on fine gaming stores and web First off, we should acknowledge the spectacu- sites all over the net. lar full-season performance of Mark Freedman’s 2011 TBL champion Melrose Avengers. Mr. Comings and goings Freedman showed no quarter to anyone that crossed his path last year, steamrolling to a Two gentlemen join our brotherhood this year. 123-39 record in the regular season, and crush- Dean Rogers, who hung in there with us for ing three playoff opponents on their way to the five years despite a myriad of difficult life title. Mark fell one game short of the Rochester events, finally walked off into the sunset, leav- Express record of 124 win in the regular sea- ing his Houston Lone Stars in the hands of son, but he made up for it with his playoff run. Dave Jaskot. Dave moved the team to Motown Adding in the 12-3 record Melrose posted in the – the Detroit Stars will get their groove on with playoffs, the 135-42 record (a ridiculous .762 win- Brobdingnag, Dallas, and New West in the ning percentage) ranks as one of the most domi- Ruth Division this year. nant season-long performances in TBL history. The other new owner is a familiar face, and Congratulations are also in order for Steve it is fantastic to be able to welcome back Jon Powell’s Dallas Eagles, who won 110 games and Brinkmann to TBL! John owned the Mahopac beat a grimly determined Whitman outfit before Stogies between 1995 and 2008, and he will help The 2012 TBL Annual Ray Murphy pound the rest of TBL into submis- every year with his very popular APBA sion as co-owner of the Portland Possum. card generator. Steve is clear that he has no intention of competing with the Game The road ahead of us; Company, or violating any copyright laws, The journey behind so leveraging Steve’s work may not be possible. Also, generating our own cards Our league has been in existence since 1982, when will be costly – our dues are miniscule Tim Holmes leveraged a monster Mickey Klutts compared to most similar organizations. If card to the very first TBL championship. Statistics we build and print our own card sets, dues for that season are lost to history, but the league will go up significantly. grew in size and strength for years until it morphed at last into one of the most successful fantasy base- • Go silicon – This is another possibility ball leagues in the country. In this article, we exam- that Steve has brought up in discussion ine the road ahead, and cite some of the difficult at various times. Baseball for Windows decisions we may have to face as TBL prepares to has its problems, not the least of which is enter its fourth decade of competition. that the game is ancient and is not easy to install on later versions of Windows. Steve The Game suggests putting the Master Game as we play it into a database and building an Last year, we were all startled by the Game application from that. This will involve a Company’s sudden move from Lancaster, Pa. to lot of data entry – every board, including Alpharetta, Ga. This may be a simple transition, the RP boards, the throwing charts and and APBA may continue in its present course for the Adams tables has to be entered so that years. There is plenty of support for the game out Steve or another programmer can leverage there – the APBA page on Facebook buzzes along it. We probably have a few years before with news of tournaments, drafts, conferences and we hit a crisis with the Game, but if we’re other activities. There is no lack of interest in APBA. going to do this, now might be a good time to start. This project, once completed, would also free us from any vulnerability But the Game Company has seen its share of surrounding the financial viability of the financial problems and this physical move was Game Company. This is an exciting idea. part of the retirement plan of one of the com- pany’s founders.