The Trade Deadline Just Passed Tonight and Once Again Everyone Was Wondering Will Another Big Deal Be Made
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AROUND THE DIAMOND IN THE ABL WEEK 12 7/23/14 BIG STORY: The trade deadline just passed tonight and once again everyone was wondering will another big deal be made. A couple of late rounder were swapped and the Starfish seemed to get a pretty decent haul for a guy named Carpenter. Last year as usual the Tallahassee Terriers made the big splash by adding the best pitcher on the market at the time in Justin Verlander. This year they already snatched 1/1 in the draft in Jose Fernandez ironically for Verlander and a 3 rd plus others. On the diamond it was a play week ruled by huge sweeps by Chicago and Chesapeake Bay as the Cats took a three game lead in the National Division race. The Gangstas have won four straight since trading away some good ball players on July 3 rd after getting swept by the Starfish. Did they sell to early? Currently the Gangstas are in 2 nd place with Nashville up next at Summer Slam. A great race is brewing in the American Division and National Division with a log jam for post season play. The action is heating up as all six playoff spots still remain with everyone trying to capture them as we head into the four game sets known as Summer Slam with teams having ten games left on the regular season slate. 2014 ABL STANDINGS NATIONAL W L GB PCT RS RA AWAY HOME DIV VS AD Chesapeake Bay 16 10 -- .615 128 97 8-6 8-4 8-4 8-6 Manahawkin 13 13 3 .500 105 112 6-10 7-3 10-8 3-5 Titusville 13 13 3 .500 125 108 5-9 8-4 6-6 7-7 Tallahassee 13 13 3 .500 125 131 8-6 5-7 6-6 7-7 Abilene 9 17 7 .346 86 115 2-10 7-7 4-10 5-7 AMERICAN W L GB PCT RS RA AWAY HOME DIV VS ND Orlando 18 8 -- .692 124 84 7-7 11-1 10-2 8-6 Chicago 13 13 5 .500 90 97 6-4 7-9 7-7 6-6 Syracuse 13 13 5 .500 111 104 7-5 6-8 8-6 5-7 Long Beach 12 14 6 .462 110 115 6-8 6-6 7-9 5-5 Nashville 10 16 8 .385 87 128 2-8 8-8 2-10 8-6 X-PLAYOFF SPOT Y-DIVISION Z- TIED FOR PLAYOFF SPOT, ONE GAME SHOWDOWNS DEADLINES: Play Week begins July 25th Recap due August 4th 8 p.m. est. Score sheets due August 5th 8 p.m. est. SCORES LBI 5 ORL 1 ORL 4 LBI 1 CB 10 MAN 7 CB 5 MAN 4 AB 6 TV 3 TV 12 AB 3 TA 12 NAS 6 NAS 4 TA 2 CHI 3 SYR 2 CHI 3 SYR 2 2014 ABL TEAMS AND MANAGERS: National Division Chesapeake Bay Channel Cats(25th Season) Scott “Commish” Allen Tallahassee Terriers(24th Season) Don “Legend” Allen Jr. Titusville Perfectos(7th Season) Lennart “Lenny” Saaf Abilene RoughRiders(7th Season) Duran “Stole” Allen Manahawkin Pelicans(6th Season) Steve “Stevo” Bomysoad American Division Chicago Gangstas(22nd Season) Anthony “Antman” Marrongelli Orlando Sharks(15th Season) Greg “Buck” Dietzen Long Beach Island Starfish(12th Season) Jim “Skibby” Bomysoad Syracuse Hazard(10th Season) Jason “Coop” Cupelo (Defending Champions) Nashville Titans(6th Season) Chad “Trader Jack” Degnan ABL 2014 IP’S Orlando 15 Syracuse 15 Long Beach Island 15 Manahawkin 15 Abilene 14 Chesapeake Bay 14 Titusville 14 Chicago 14 Tallahassee 12 Nashville 12 ROLLING DICE?? ( Q and A with Game Play Notes) (PLEASE TAKE NOTE) (Italic are located in the current charts) 1. Outfield Range Chart Play with a shallow blooper to 1B, 2B, SS, or 3B. Does the infielders field the throw in the runners decide to adva nce? ANSWER: Yes. Use the infielder’s throwing arm of 0 for any runner advancement. Skibby and Shawn rolling at Summer Slam 2014 at the STA Center SUMMER SLAM 2014: As discussed at the 2013 ABL Winter Meetings in November the league is not plannin g to host/sponsor every slam event in 2014. Any Binghamton base manager has the opportunity and still does to step up and host a slam event. If no manager hosts the event, the play week will be treated like all others as managers will play the four game sets on their own time as usual. Teams should contact their opponent just like any other play week to set up game play for the 4 game sets. Site Managers are listed in the schedule for the four games and are responsible for recaps and sheets. In all cases the site manager is the team that is home for the first series. As usual both managers should initiate contact to setup the where and when. The play week will run from July 25th till August 3rd. Transaction Reminder: No Transactions will be allowed between the two game sets during Spring Slam. It will be treated like any other play week or set of playoff games for transaction purposes. ABL 2014-2015 OFF-SEASON VOTING: Send in your proposals for rule changes to be voted on in the off-season. Please remember the new process for adding new rule ideas to the voting agenda. Each manager may petition for rule changes or additions as amendments to this rulebook by submitting proposals to the Commish. 1. The Commish will decide to add the proposal to the agenda as a Commish sponsored proposal. 2. Reject the proposal based on the best interest of the league clause 3. Send the proposal to the review board (Ant, Buck, and Steve) for approval. All submitted proposals must be submitted by October 15 th at 8 p.m. est. SKIBBY’S SPOTLIGHT: Skibby’s Spotlight – MLB All-Star Edition Good evening loyal followers! Loyal readers? Um, diamond notes subscribers? Well, whyever you’re reading this, hello! As of writing this intro we’re now less than 24 hours to the ABL trade deadline. Is there another deal to be made out there? By the time you’re reading this you should know the answer. Just scroll to the transactions. But finish reading this first! The Twitterverse – As some of you may have seen I posted some rookie stats via twitter last week on the @ABLDraft account. Is this a benefit to anyone? Is this preferable to dumping stats in the spotlight every other week? Should I create a spot just for ABL stuff on the interwebs somewhere? Let me know! MLB All-Star Rosters – Most of you understand how flawed all-star voting can be. Like the year Nomar won without touching the field (see, Nomar IS better), or when Yao Ming winning an NBA all- star vote because China has like 1/5 th the global population. Fans last year voted Jeter 6 th and he hadn’t touched the field yet. Whatever the reason, most of us have read an article stating that fans are stupid, or players are stupid in whom they vote for, or the coaches are stupid who they vote for. I guess I should state for the record that I absolutely HATE fan voting for so many reasons than just the two above listed. All told, there is no way to make every fan happy with all-star voting. There is no perfect process and someone will always be disappointed because their favorite player didn’t make the team. Except this guy, because David Wright sucks this year and needs to stop with the nagging injuries. Or is there a better way? The internet has given me an idea! Part of the flaw in the MLB all-star rosters is that every team has to represent. I understand why, every team wants a vested interest in the all-star festivities. Especially now since the all-star game means something! It now means the American League will win the World Series. It’s happened the last 6 years. Look it up. I’ll wait. While I wait, here are this year’s all-star rosters: AL Starters NL Starters AL Reserves NL Reserves AL Pitchers NL Pitchers Jonathan Salvador Perez Yadier Molina Derek Norris Yu Darvish Johnny Cueto Lucroy Paul Devin Clayton Miguel Cabrera Kurt Suzuki Max Scherzer Goldschmidt Mesoraco Kershaw Freddie Felix Robinson Cano Chase Utley Jose Abreu Zack Greinke Freeman Hernandez Troy Masahiro Madison Derek Jeter Victor Martinez Dee Gordon Tulowitzki Tanaka Bumgarner Aramis Edwin Adam Josh Donaldson Daniel Murphy Jon Lester Ramirez Encarnacion Wainwright Andrew Fernando Mike Trout Brandon Moss Starlin Castro Tyson Ross McCutchen Rodney Henderson Jose Bautista Carlos Gomez Jose Altuve Todd Frazier Scott Kazmir Alvarez Adam Jones Yasiel Puig Alexei Ramirez Matt Carpenter Mark Buehrle Julio Teheran Giancarlo Nelson Cruz Adrian Beltre Josh Harrison Sean Doolittle Craig Kimbrel Stanton Yoenis Charlie Aroldis Greg Holland Cespedes Blackmon Chapman Francisco Alex Gordon Hunter Pence Glen Perkins Rodriguez Michael Dellin Betances Tony Watson Brantley Pat Neshek So what’s my brilliant idea? Stat heads enjoy using WAR (wins above replacement) to measure how valuable a player is. What if we took this value and took the top two position players in WAR, and the top 5 starters, top 5 relievers for each league. How different would it look?! NL DH was decided by the top players in WAR that did not make it based on the position they play. Players that were all-stars are highlighted and are in a pretty blue color. Positions AL #1 AL #2 NL #1 NL #2 Jonathon Devin Catcher Sal Perez Yan Gomes Lucroy Mesoraco Edwin Paul First Base Encarnacion Brandon Moss Goldschmidt Matt Adams Second Base Robinson Cano Ian Kinsler Chase Utley Dee Gordon Anthony Third Base Josh Donaldson Kyle Seager Todd Frazier Rendon Alexei Short Stop Erick Aybar Ramirez Troy Tulowitzki Jhonny Peralta Michael Christian Left Field Brantley Alex Gordon Seth Smith Yelich Andrew Center Field Mike Trout Adam Jones McCutchen Carlos Gomez Giancarlo Jason Right Field Jose Bautista Kole Calhoun Stanton Heyward Victor DH Nelson Cruz Martinez Yasiel Puig AJ Pollock Starting Pitching AL #1 AL #2 AL #3 AL #4 AL #5 Masahiro Felix Hernandez Mark Buehrle Tanaka Chris Sale Garret Richards NL #1 NL #2 NL #3 NL #4 NL #5 Adam Clayton Wainwright Kershaw Johnny Cueto Jake Arrieta Julio Teheran Relief Pitching AL #1 AL #2 AL #3 AL #4 AL #5 Dellin Koji Uehara Jason Petricka Jake McGee Zack Britton Betances NL #1 NL #2 NL #3 NL #4 NL #5 Jonathan Papelbon Rafael Soriano Huston Street Pat Neshek Santiago Casilla Notice the omissions? The winner of the last two AL MVPs Miguel Cabrera was the most noticeable to me, furthering my argument for Trout for MVP/Greatest player on the planet.