2019 TBL Annual 3 the TBL Baseball Annual
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
The TBL Baseball Annual A publication of the Transcontinental Baseball League The Rebuild 2019 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 Paul Montague Craig Musselman Rich Meyer Copyright © 2019 Walter H. Hunt. This book was produced using a Macintosh with Adobe InDesign and Adobe Photoshop. I can be reached by mail at 3306 Maplebrook Road, Bellingham, MA 02019 or by e-mail at [email protected]. The 2019 TBL Annual 3 the TBL baseball annual Welcome to the 2019 TBL Baseball Annual. This is the twenty-fifth year of the Annual in the book format. This year we’re looking at the rebuild – certainly one of the most discussed topics in every TBL offseason. We’ve assembled a collection of insightful articles, including our lead from Robert, Joe Auletta’s deconstruction of the concept of rebuild, a Rich Meyer discussion of unbuilding, and a scholarly discussion of bullpens from Paul Montague. The staff would also like to thank Craig Musselman and Joe Auletta for help with Year in Review articles. Our usual collection of team and division articles, and most of our usual features are here. Once again, we’re glad to present the best of TBL, our great APBA league, now old enough to run for President. Enjoy the Annual and enjoy the season. Walter, Robert, Mark May, 2019 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 2019 TBL Annual table of contents FRONT MATTER Future Drafts 6 TQ Summary 7 Manager Roll Call 8 2019 Computer Pre-Play Clay Beard 9 Hall of Fame 10 Work, Clairvoyance and a Bolt of Lightning Robert Jordan 12 Rebuilding – What does it mean? Joe Auletta 16 SNTs 19 Spontaneous Unbuilding Rich Meyer 20 Commissioner’s Report Ray Murphy 23 Bullpen Manifesto Paul Montague 24 INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE Clemente Division Back to Normal 28 Whitman 30 Blue Hill 34 Strong City 38 Riverwoolf 42 Mays Division Testing the Winds 46 Rye 48 Maracaibo 52 Gotham City 56 New Westminster 60 Ruth Division No Such Thing As Too Much 64 Brobdingnag 66 Knoxville 70 Hoboken 74 Midwest 78 2017 World Series Report Eric Sheffler 82 NATIONAL CONFERENCE Aaron Division All In 84 Melrose 86 Kansas 90 Calusa 94 Las Vegas 98 Mantle Division Quite A Dogfight 102 Hudson 104 Columbus 108 Munich 112 Detroit 116 Williams Division Shadow Boxing 120 Northboro 122 Zion 126 Warrenton 130 Grand Cayman 134 FINAL WORDS Breakthrough 138 Future 139 Editorial Walter Hunt 140 F. Robby Walter Hunt 141 The 2019 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 2020; above the base middle line is excess, while below means something’s missing. haves have nots NEW WESTMINSTER. Two #1s, their own HUDSON. Their own #1 and #3. and Rye’s; four #2s; two #3s. Next year’s team will be completely different. GRAND CAYMAN. Two #1s, theirs and Melrose’s; four #2s; two #3s. Also planning RYE, COLUMBUS. Their #2 and #3. on a complete makeover. STRONG CITY. After delivering the championship: take it apart and start over. BLUE HILL, WHITMAN. Their own #1s. Four #1s including two top-half ones. LAS VEGAS, BROBDINGNAG. Vegas has two top-half #1s, their #2 and #3. Brobdingnag has three #2s. MIDWEST. Their own #2. MARACAIBO, MUNICH, DETROIT. Maracaibo has an extra #2 and #3; Munich has a slightly higher #1 and two extra #3s. Detroit has two #1s. MELROSE, CALUSA. Their own #3. balanced all in RIVERWOOLF, WARRENTON, KANSAS, ZION, KNOXVILLE. Riverwoolf drafts in rounds 6 through 10; Warrenton and Knoxville Their own drafts, likely upper half. draft in rounds 5 through 10. These indicators also appear GOTHAM CITY, HOBOKEN, at the bottom NORTHBORO. of each team article, Their own drafts. for your convenience. 6 The 2019 TBL Annual t.q. summary TEAM (DIVISION) OFFENSE DEFENSE PITCHING BENCH TOTAL The Cream of the Crop Brobdingnag (Ruth) 11.0 3.0 17.5 4.0 35.5 Melrose (Aaron) 11.0 4.0 16.0 3.5 34.5 Knoxville (Ruth) 9.0 4.0 15.0 3.0 31.0 Hoboken (Ruth) 12.0 5.5 9.5 3.0 30.0 The Solid Performers Hudson (Mantle) 11.0 4.0 10.5 2.5 28.0 Midwest (Ruth) 7.5 6.5 11.0 2.5 27.5 Whitman (Clemente) 9.5 6.0 9.5 2.5 27.0 Columbus (Mantle) 9.0 4.5 10.0 3.0 26.5 Rye (Mays) 8.0 5.5 10.0 2.5 26.0 Northboro (Williams) 8.5 6.5 7.5 3.0 25.5 Maracaibo (Mays) 7.0 6.5 9.0 2.5 25.0 The Transitional Teams Munich (Mantle) 6.0 6.5 8.5 2.5 23.5 Gotham City (Mays) 8.5 3.5 9.0 2.5 23.5 Kansas (Aaron) 8.0 4.0 9.0 2.0 23.0 Warrenton (Williams) 8.0 4.5 8.0 2.5 23.0 Blue Hill (Clemente) 9.0 5.0 7.0 2.0 22.0 Zion (Williams) 8.5 3.0 7.0 2.5 22.0 Calusa (Aaron) 8.0 4.5 7.0 2.0 21.5 The Rebuilders Strong City (Clemente) 8.0 5.5 4.0 2.0 20.0 Las Vegas (Aaron) 9.0 4.5 4.0 2.5 20.0 Riverwoolf (Clemente) 7.0 4.5 4.0 2.0 17.5 Detroit (Mantle) 6.5 3.0 4.5 2.0 16.0 Grand Cayman (Williams) 6.0 4.0 3.0 1.5 14.5 New Westminster (Mays) 2.5 4.5 4.0 2.0 13.0 Division Totals International 299.0 (24.9 average) Ruth (IC) 124.0 Mays (IC) 87.5 National 278.0 (23.2 average) Aaron (NC) 99.0 Clemente (IC) 87.5 Mantle (NC) 94.0 Williams (NC) 85.0 The 2019 TBL Annual 7 manager roll call Munich Marauders Mantle Division Paul Montague 36th year Hudson Generals Mantle Division Clay Beard 35th year Elders of Zion Williams Division Richard Meyer 35th year Gotham City Batmen Mays Division Anton Greenwald 34th year Knoxville Outlaws Ruth Division Pat Martin 33rd year Maracaibo Rumrunners Mays Division Walter Hunt 33rd year Brobdingnag Barbarians Ruth Division Joe Auletta 31st year Hoboken Zephyrs Ruth Division Steve Powell 30th year Grand Cayman Havens Williams Division Mark Bloom 29th year Melrose Avengers Aaron Division Mark Freedman 26th year Blue Hill Mudslides Clemente Division Mark Ludwig 24th year Whitman River Rats Clemente Division Brian Hanley 24th year Las Vegas Gamblers Aaron Division Paul Harrington 23rd year Northboro Phoenix Williams Division Robert Jordan 20th year Midwest Mongrels Ruth Division Darrell Skogen 18th year Northboro Phoenix Williams Division Steve Stein 17th year Strong City Statesmen Clemente Division Eric Sheffler 16th year Rye Herons Mays Division Craig Musselman 15th year New West Whiskeyjacks Mays Division Jim Jeatt 15th year Columbus Jets Mantle Division Vic Vaughn 13th year Kansas Koyotes Aaron Division Bill Schwartz 12th year Warrenton Giants Williams Division Jack Chapman 11th year Detroit Dragons Mantle Division Dave Jaskot 8th year Calusa Indians Aaron Division Gordon Rodell 5th year Riverwoolf Sharks Clemente Division Daniel Dumont 3rd year Ray Murphy is serving his fifth year as our non-playing Commissioner. Hall of Fame managers in Bold Italic. 8 The 2019 TBL Annual 2019 computer pre-play by Clay Beard The good news: I fired Duke. The pre-play has a new the division. Blue Hill will push manager this year. The bad news: Gustave Robicheaux traditional rival Whitman in has issues too. He’s better at finding the proper pitcher to the Clemente. Rye looks pretty be on the hill at the end of a close game, but he has some safe in the Mays. The best action trouble with pitching limits. I think he’s an improvement, in the IC will probably be for but I’ll probably try yet another manager next year. the wild-cards. I have to point out the remarkable consistency I checked Fatigue only under Fatigue and Injury Rules. of Midwest in this exercise. A I also checked all three of the options at the bottom: seven-game spread might be the tightest shot group I’ve Automatic AIM Subs, Enforce BFP, and that No PR > 930 seen since I’ve been doing this. thing, which provides some innocuous usage. I also checked the “platoon awareness”. All players were active There are two good divisional races in the NC. There’s a for the whole season. These settings basically allow the real good chance the Mantle may place three teams in the season to be played with usage similar to that of the MLB playoffs.