LEADERSHIP Commissioner: Matt Rectenwald Vice Commissioner: Aaron Weiner League Director: Ron Collins League Advisor: Randy Weigand PR Director/Historian: Stephen Lane UMEBA Ambassador: Joe Lederer CONTACT INFO Primary Website: http://montybrewster.net/ Forums: http://montybrewster.net/forums/index.php HTML: https://statspl.us/brewster/reports/news/html/leagues/league_100_home.html Application: http://montybrewster.net/forums/app.php/applicationform Constitution: http://montybrewster.net/forums/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=25938 BREWSTER BASEBALL ASSOCIATION – MEDIA GUIDE 2044 – Page 2 How the Ring was Won, or ’The ‘Won Ring’ to Rule Them All – Stephen Shaw 2043 Final Standings (BBA & UMEBA) Hall of Fame Inductees The Bloody Ninth – Vic Caleca One in a Million – Ron Collins 2044: THE PROJECTION ROOM Frick League – Aaron Weiner Johnson League – Justin Niles UMEBA – Neil Thomas FEATURES Can Nightmare Make History – Ron Collins Spinning Turnstiles – Ron Collins BBA’s Most Accomplished Accomplishments – Herb DeSpain True Park Factors – Ron Collins Active Leaderboards – Randy Weigand Per/162 Leaderboards – Randy Weigand Cover art & other Graphics - Mike Simon Publishing Support – Joe Lederer & Ron Collins BREWSTER BASEBALL ASSOCIATION – MEDIA GUIDE 2044 – Page 3 “How the Ring was Won, or ’The ‘Won Ring’ to Rule Them All” As is traditional, this is where we turn the car keys over to the GM who brought home the hardware the year previous. In this case, it means Louisville GM Stephen Shaw gets to Lord his victory over us. Oh, the frickin’ humanity. Sigh… In 2042, Louisville dominated the Frick and not winning a ring would have been a disappointment. In 2043, the Sluggers were quite literally "just happy to be here" when it came to the playoffs, but had confidence we could win it all. The BBA intelligentsia never gave serious thought to LOU winning another ring. Doubtless, this Media Guide will write it off as random luck and pick us 4th in the division for 2044. To get ahead of those stories, here is one man's view of how we did it (and a preview of how we might do it again, and again, and again...), let’s look at how and why it all went down like it did. BREWSTER BASEBALL ASSOCIATION – MEDIA GUIDE 2044 – Page 4 Reason 1: Kwak. We have him and others don't. Reason 2: SP Stan Palácios. When I took over LOU, Stan was an OK prospect who, along with SP Tim Thompson, was projected as a light-throwing, control-dependent, #3-4 type SP. Thompson died an early death, but Stan persevered in the shadow of elite specs Commie Child and SP James Browning. Thankfully, despite my best efforts, I could not give him away in trades. Teams scoffed at me for offering him in deals. When now-superstars Commie Child and Browning went down to injury, Stan was forced into the #1 SP role. He and a motley crew of unknowns gave us just enough to squeak into the playoffs. Then Stan said, "hold my beer," going 5-0 with a sub-1.00 WHIP. You want clutch? You wanna talk big, swinging, pendulous, manscaped testicles? Let's look at those wins. Clinching Game 4 vs. SFB: Win Clinching Game 6 vs. SAC: Win Crucial Game 3 vs. YS9: Win Clinching Game 7 vs. YS9: Win Clinching Game 7 vs. RCK: Win No matter what else he does, Stan will have his number retired in Louisville simply for those five games. BREWSTER BASEBALL ASSOCIATION – MEDIA GUIDE 2044 – Page 5 Reason 3: In-season trades We'll start with a trade that actually hurt our chances of winning the ring. The most shocking trade of LOU's season happened in May, while LOU was puttering along comfortably in 2nd place despite losing Browning in April. Pouncing on a chance to shore up our farm system, we waved goodbye to Slugger- for-Life™ CF Ronnie Hubbard. We thought that we could shift CF Théo Bourges to his natural position in CF, use a platoon in LF, and come out around even. When Bourges went down for two months in July, that calculation only worked out because of another legendary trade. Parts one and two of the Omaha deal fascinated and irritated the BBA, but we would not have won the ring without it. We sent out OF Miller, but got back some essential pieces: 1B Edgardo Diaz(: Put up 123 wRC+ as full-time DH, but more importantly, won the Landis MVP and went 4-6 with a HR, 3 RS, and 4 RBI in game 7. OF Marin Marin: Locked down the short side in LF with a 141 wRC+ in 43 games. OF Brett White: Locked down the long side in LF with 31 HR in 94 games. SP Juan Garcia: On the surface, he's nothing special. But when you're reduced to running guys like this and this out there as defending champions, a guy like Garcia who will put up consistent innings from the left side is a godsend. With our offense, if you give us a ~4.50 ERA, Kwak and Bourges will take it from there. Three other minor trades (1, 2, 3) paid outsized dividends. For a few lotto tickets, we got: SP Ken Bates: In approximately his 17th stint as a Slugger, Bates gave us 70% of what Garcia gave us, but at least we knew he would keep us in most games. That he started 4 playoff games tells you how short-handed (armed?) we were. RP José Castro: Was adequate in relief after being acquired, and only pitched 3.2 innings in the playoffs, but gave up no runs in high-leverage situations, and he went 2-0 in those appearances. He closed out the crucial game 3 vs. SAC and went two scoreless innings in game 2 vs. Rockville when our pen was reeling with injuries. RP Oginga Coujoe: Was ineligible for the playoffs, but was pretty dominant in a few appearances during the push that got LOU into the wild card. Moral of the story? If you want to win a ring, don't be complacent. Injuries come out of nowhere. You have to constantly be looking to add value at important positions. Do you need 3 DHs? Probably not. But you almost cannot have too many inning-eater SP and RP who can get somebody out when it counts. If you rely on your offense, make sure that you can at least cover a loss with a platoon, like I did with White and Marin when Hubbard left and Bourges got hurt. At worst, you have a good AAA team with potential trade pieces for the price of a few lotto tickets. BREWSTER BASEBALL ASSOCIATION – MEDIA GUIDE 2044 – Page 6 Reason 4: SP James Browning I offer you these two successive entries in his history. • 04/23/2043 Injured (Torn labrum (Shoulder)), out for 6 months. • 11/14/2043 Wins the 2043 Landis Memorial Series with the Louisville Sluggers. The Nebraska runner-up from 2042 came off the IL just in time to put up a 2.89 ERA in five playoff games, including winning pivotal game 5 vs. RCK. Absolutely no way we win without him. Reason 5: CF Théo Bourges actually put up better stats in the postseason than Kwak, with a slash line of .396/.448/.729 and 7 HR, and playing outstanding defense in CF. In game 7 vs. RCK, he went 4-5 with 2 RS and 2 RBI. When you have two superstars like Bourges and Kwak, you can win any series. BREWSTER BASEBALL ASSOCIATION – MEDIA GUIDE 2044 – Page 7 2043: FINAL BBA STANDINGS BREWSTER BASEBALL ASSOCIATION – MEDIA GUIDE 2044 – Page 8 BREWSTER BASEBALL ASSOCIATION – MEDIA GUIDE 2044 – Page 9 BREWSTER BASEBALL ASSOCIATION – MEDIA GUIDE 2044 – Page 10 BREWSTER BASEBALL ASSOCIATION – MEDIA GUIDE 2044 – Page 11 Hall of Fame Inductees Announced Gillstrom Joins Father Twenty-nine votes were cast this year, and as a result, the Commissioner’s office today announced that, having received 88% of the vote, Jared Gillstrom has been enshrined into the Brewster Baseball Association Hall of Fame. It was Gillstrom’s first time on the ballot. He will be the only inductee, as no other candidate received the requisite 75% of the ballot. “It’s truly an honor,” Gillstrom said. “And it’s made even more special since I know my dad is there.” Joe Gillstrom, for whom the league’s Rookie of the Year Award is named after, played in the early wildcatting days of the league. The inclusion of his son means the Gillstrom name will join that of Kengos and Hinson to make up a trio of baseball’s royal families that have a pair of inductees. Upon release of the tallies, conversation sprung up as some noted the ballot count was a bit lighter than usual. Issues with the post office were noted, and calls for uniform and secure online voting were made—ignoring the fact that all voting today is, of course, made online. The league downplayed any concerns, but said the process would be reviewed and noted that the size of the class itself had made for some difficulty—specifically that Jon Reed had to be left off the ballot to make room for the new candidates. Regardless, a good time was had by all, except maybe Cisco Guerrero, who for the third time finished a vote or so shy of the mark—a cycle that made one pundit break ranks and say “Just consider him the YS9 of individual players. Makes a lot of noise, but can’t win the big one.” BREWSTER BASEBALL ASSOCIATION – MEDIA GUIDE 2044 – Page 12 Gillstrom’s career numbers say it all, though.