The TBL Baseball Annual A publication of the Transcontinental Baseball League The TBL Draft 2016 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 by Walter H. Hunt Robert Jordan Mark H. Bloom with contributions from TBL’s managers and extra help from: Joe Auletta Clay Beard Jim Dietz Paul Montague Gordon Rodell Copyright © 2016 Walter H. Hunt, except “Number 8”, which is copyright © 2016, Jim Dietz. This book was produced using a Macintosh with Adobe InDesign and Adobe Photoshop CS4. I can be reached by mail at 3306 Maplebrook Road, Bellingham, MA 02019 or by e-mail at [email protected]. The 2016 TBL Annual 3 the TBL baseball annual Welcome to the 2016 TBL Baseball Annual. This is the twenty-first year of the Annual in the book format. This year we’re looking at the TBL Draft, and we have four differ- ent perspectives: our lead article, this year penned by Mark Bloom; analysis pieces by Paul Montague and Joe Auletta; and a first-timer’s view by Gordon Rodell. In addi- tion, each team article includes some insight into its draft history and strategies. We have lots of our usual features, including the Vegas Line, the Pre-Play, a look at the new Hall of Fame enshrinees and the ballot for the coming year, Breakthroughs and Futures, and a piece honoring the late, great Yogi Berra. The recent work by a scholarly group, examining the nature of our milieu in general and TBL in particular, has made us even more aware of the high standards we’ve sought to achieve, and which our readers have come to expect. You’ll find an update on that project in the back matter. As always, we hope you enjoy our work, and TBL’s new season. Walter, Robert, Mark April, 2016 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: 17 points Defense: 8 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 2016 TBL Annual table of contents FRONT MATTER Future Drafts 6 TQ Summary 7 Manager Roll Call 8 2016 Computer Pre-Play Clay Beard 9 Hall of Fame 10 The Vegas Line Paul Harrington 12 The TBL Draft Mark Bloom 14 The Art of the Draft Joe Auletta 18 SNTs 21 TBL Draft: First Timer Gordon Rodell 22 Plotting the Portfolio Trajectory Paul Montague 24 INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE Clemente Division Ticking Clock 28 Whitman 30 Blue Hill 34 Warrenton 38 Columbus 42 Mays Division Frictionless Surface 46 Gotham City 48 Calusa 52 Rye 56 Grand Cayman 60 Ruth Division New Gate City 64 Brobdingnag 66 New Westminster 70 Hoboken 74 Detroit 78 2015 Playoff Report 82 2015 World Series Report 84 NATIONAL CONFERENCE Aaron Division Central Time 86 Kansas 88 Maracaibo 92 Northboro 96 Statesmen 100 Mantle Division It Takes Two, Apparently 104 Munich 106 Melrose 110 Hudson 114 Zion 118 Williams Division 3½ Men 122 Knoxville 124 Taylorville 128 Las Vegas 132 Midwest 136 FINAL WORDS Breakthrough 140 Future 141 Editorial 142 Commissioner’s Report Ray Murphy 143 Scholarly Update 144 Number 8 Jim Dietz 145 The 2016 TBL Annual 5 future drafts In many cases, what’s on the field isn’t the whole story. Some of our teams have quite a bit to say in future drafts, and any evaluation should properly take that into account. The graphical displays below show how much each team has in the tank. The middle 9 mark on the thermometer (9) represents a full draft (picks #1-#3) in 2017; above the base middle line is excess, while below means something’s missing. haves have nots HOBOKEN. Their own #1 and #2; CALUSA. Their own #1 and #2. Munich’s #1, Midwest and Knoxville’s #2, WARRENTON. Ksnsas’ #1 and Munich’s 20 and Brobdingnag’s #3. 7 #2. DETROIT. Their own #1, #2 and #3, and Knoxville’s #1 and #3, Taylorville’s #2. GOTHAM CITY, TAYLORVILLE, LAS VEGAS, MARACAIBO, WHITMAN. 19 Their #1 and #3. NEW WESTMINSTER. Their own draft, 6 plus the Grand Cayman and Knoxville #2. MELROSE, KANSAS. Their #2 and #3. 18 (And a lot of #4s and #5s, too.) STATESMEN. Their #1 and #2; Melrose’s 5 #1, Whitman’s #2, and Warrenton’s #3. 17 MUNICH. Hoboken’s #3. BROBDINGNAG. Their own #1 and no #3, but four #2s: their own, Maracaibo’s, 2 16 Munich’s and Warrenton’s. ZION. Their own #1, #2 and #3 and all in Calusa’s #3. KNOXVILLE. They’ll pick in the 6th round 12 and after. Again. NORTHBORO. Their own #1, #2 and #3 and Midwest’s #3. 0 11 balanced These indicators also appear RYE, MIDWEST, COLUMBUS, BLUE at the bottom HILL. Their own drafts, likely higher up. of each team article, 10 for your convenience. GRAND CAYMAN, HUDSON. Their 9 own drafts. 6 The 2016 TBL Annual t.q. summary TEAM (DIVISION) OFFENSE DEFENSE PITCHING BENCH TOTAL The Cream of the Crop Munich (Mantle) 14.0 7.0 15.5 4.0 40.5 Melrose (Mantle) 12.5 6.0 13.5 3.0 35.0 Knoxville (Williams) 12.0 6.0 12.5 3.5 34.0 Taylorville (Williams) 10.5 5.5 15.0 2.5 33.5 Whitman (Clemente) 11.0 6.0 11.5 3.5 32.0 The Solid Performers Kansas (Aaron) 8.5 4.0 14.5 3.0 30.0 Gotham City (Mays) 10.0 5.0 12.5 2.0 29.5 Las Vegas (Williams) 11.0 5.0 10.5 2.5 29.0 Maracaibo (Aaron) 10.0 5.5 10.0 3.0 28.5 Hudson (Mantle) 11.0 4.5 10.0 2.5 28.0 Northboro (Aaron) 7.5 4.5 12.0 2.0 26.0 The Transitional Teams Brobdingnag (Ruth) 11.0 5.5 5.0 2.0 23.5 Statesmen (Aaron) 9.0 5.5 5.0 3.0 22.5 Blue Hill (Clemente) 8.0 5.5 7.0 2.0 22.5 Calusa (Mays) 7.5 4.5 7.0 3.0 22.0 Rye (Mays) 8.0 2.5 8.5 2.5 21.5 Grand Cayman (Mays) 8.0 3.5 7.5 2.0 21.0 Zion (Mantle) 6.0 3.0 9.5 2.0 20.5 The Rebuilders New Westminster (Ruth) 6.0 3.5 7.0 2.5 19.0 Warrenton (Clemente) 7.5 3.0 6.0 1.5 18.0 Hoboken (Ruth) 7.0 3.5 5.0 2.5 18.0 Columbus (Clemente) 6.5 3.0 5.5 2.0 17.0 Midwest (Williams) 5.5 3.0 4.5 2.0 15.0 Detroit (Ruth) 5.0 4.0 2.5 2.0 13.5 Division Totals National 345.5 (28.7 average) Mantle (NC) 123.0 Mays (IC) 93.5 International 256.5 (21.4 average) Williams (NC) 115.5 Clemente (IC) 88.5 Aaron (NC) 107.0 Ruth (IC) 74.0 The 2016 TBL Annual 7 manager roll call Munich Marauders Mantle Division Paul Montague 33rd year Hudson Generals Mantle Division Clay Beard 32nd year Elders of Zion Mantle Division Richard Meyer 32nd year Gotham City Batmen Mays Division Anton Greenwald 31st year Knoxville Outlaws Williams Division Pat Martin 30th year Maracaibo Rumrunners Aaron Division Walter Hunt 30th year Brobdingnag Barbarians Ruth Division Joe Auletta 28th year Hoboken Zephyrs Ruth Division Steve Powell 27th year Grand Cayman Havens Mays Division Mark Bloom 26th year Melrose Avengers Mantle Division Mark Freedman 23rd year Blue Hill Mudslides Clemente Division Mark Ludwig 21st year Whitman River Rats Clemente Division Brian Hanley 21st year Las Vegas Gamblers Williams Division Paul Harrington 20th year Taylorville Red Raiders Williams Division Bruce Taylor 19th year Northboro Phoenix Aaron Division Robert Jordan 17th year Taylorville Red Raiders Williams Division Glenn Taylor 15th year Midwest Mongrels Williams Division Darrell Skogen 15th year Northboro Phoenix Aaron Division Steve Stein 14th year The Statesmen Aaron Division Eric Sheffler 13th year Rye Herons Mays Division Craig Musselman 12th year New West Whiskeyjacks Ruth Division Jim Jeatt 12th year Columbus Jets Clemente Division Vic Vaughn 10th year Kansas Koyotes Aaron Division Bill Schwartz 9th year Warrenton Giants Clemente Division Jack Chapman 8th year Detroit Stars Ruth Division Dave Jaskot 5th year Calusa Indians Mays Division Gordon Rodell 2nd year TBL welcomes back long-time manager Ray Murphy as non-playing Commissioner. Hall of Fame managers in Bold Italic. 8 The 2016 TBL Annual 2016 computer pre-play by Clay Beard Here’s the setup for this thing. I used Duke cinch, averaging 107 wins Robinson, Jr. to manage all the teams. I checked and winning over 100 all Fatigue only under Fatigue and Injury Rules. I ten times. While Melrose also checked all three of the options at the bottom; gets a wild-card every time, Automatic AIM Subs, Enforce BFP, and that No PR > they’re not quite the dominant 930 thing, which provides some innocuous usage. team anticipated. Taylorville looks solid in the Williams, Something new this year is some “platoon awareness” but much to my surprise thing which I checked.