injury update 2/20/11

The trading deadline has passed, fatigue is setting in, the season is winding down and the injuries should be up - but they are not. Mexico City lost Darren Brooks for the season right after the last posting but other than that the injuries have been more short duration. The Rats dipped into the remaining free agents to pick up a bat to replace the 2 players on the 15 day DL (and to prevent further fatigue). Still the last 10 days have been eerily quiet. ?The quiet before the storm?

INJURY UPDATE - 2/11/11

Well, it has been 3 weeks since the last update and the players have not slackened the pace of injury - just the reporters have. Since it is now past the trade deadline finding replacements just gets harder. Going down: reliever Albert Perez who is a minor lose for Oakland but potentially terminal to Mr Perez career. New Orleans lost Jorge Feliz, a less than .5oo pitcher, until the September stretch. The Associates lost another pitcher on 2/1 for the rest of the season . Then on 2/2 Baltimore, Colorodo Springs, and Colorodo all had a pitcher bite the pines for most of the rest of the year. While none of these loses were of Cy Young quality they do hurt - particularly in the part of the schedule with little rest.

What the heck were they thinking?

Who wants a guy who hit 90 dingers and drove in 300 runs in the last 2 seasons? Thats what GM elgman was asking at the start of this season. The phone rings, elgman picks it up and who else but Syracuse GM yoijames is on the other end proclaiming he wants Clint Stern and what is it going to take? Simple says elgman, I want 2 young stud prospects. After a little back and forth the 2 teams decide on Darby Gant and Rob Gross. The deal is done and 3 possible superstars put their homes on the market and move their family's into rental homes and new school districts for their children. How will this turn out for the 2 franchises. Well the Grasshoppers have 2 players that will probably play in this seasons all star game and one of them is Stern. On the other hand Gant and Gross are throwing up huge numbers in AAA and should be making an impact in the bigs shortly. Another case of one club trying to win now and the other planning on winning later. With both clubs struggling below .500 ball with the all star game just around the corner it apears Syracuse's win now moves are not working. It will be a while before Charlotte's moves can be evaluated.

Wins = ALL-STARs (except in Pittsburg)

All-Stars: With only a few games left to the final selection of all-stars I thought I would look in and see how my favorite River Rats were doing. The answer was they weren't. Which made me wonder who was. Well, here is the run down for the the top teams in each League. The races are pretty tight in the NL with only 3 wins seperating team 2 from team 8.

Seattle with 54 wins - 6 all stars
Cleveland with 49 wins and 2 all-stars
Pittsburg 49 wins and 0 all-stars
New Britain - 48 wins - 5 all stars
Mexico City - 48 wins - 2 all stars
Chicago - 48 wins - 4 all stars
Austin - 46 wins - 3 all stars
St Louis - 46 wins - 5 all stars

So out of 30 all star slots 27 are from teams in the top 8 and 2 of the other 3 come from the NL east 2nd place grasshoppers (behind the River Rats who have no allstars?). Now I'm more confused than before.

In the AL the teams are more diverse with only 6 teams with winning records

Colorodo with 58 - 6 all stars
San Jaun with 54 - 7 all stars
Baltimore with 54 - 5 all stars
Los Vegas with 53 - 4 all stars
Nashville with 49 - 1 all star
Omaha with 45 - 1 all star

So in the AL these 6 teams have 24 of the 30 allstars - So it seems that if you want to win games you need to have all-stars - home grown or purchased - OR you need to have a team in Pittsburg

What the heck were they thinking?

Pitching prospect versus position prospect. What do you value more. Apparently GM Saffron likes pitching and GM elgman likes a solid everyday player. This was proved in the Tony Benavente for Zachrey Todd deal.

Charlotte obtained 3B Benavente who was the 31st overall pick in season 11. Tony had spent the last 3 seasons with the Woods big league club but started this season in AAA as Saffron decided to go with Gary Mabry this season. In his 246 games in the majors Tony hit .269 with 30 homers.

Cleveland picked up 21 year old starting pitcher Todd who was the 38th overall pick last season. Zachrey has a horrible rookie season going 2 and 12 with a 7.56 era. Todd was assigned to the Woods Low A ballclub.

Both clubs are very happy with the initial results of the trade as both players have picked up their game with the change of scenery. Benavente is hitting .348 after 72 games and Todd is 6 and 2 with a 2.59 era. Sometimes everybody wins. This may be a case in point.

What the heck were they thinking?

Pittsburgh and Kansas City completed a one for one trade of young Major League talent. The River Rats moved defensive SS Bruce Mercedes to the Golden Ox for Left handed starting pitcher Orber Guerrero. Mercedes a 1st round pick in season 12 had seen limited playing time in 2 seasons with Pittsburgh. Guerrero signed as an international free agent in season 11 at the age of 18 did not spend much time in the minors. Called up to the show at the ripe old age of 20 he has 5 full major league seasons of 30 plus starts. Despite an overall major league record of 42 and 83 going into this season Orber is generally considered the better player in the deal. Why then did Kansas City move him? One word: signability. Insiders say that Guerrero's agent has his heart set on testing the free agent market. Even thou Guerrero loved the Kansas City fans and was a strong role model within the Dominican community he has decided to listen to his agent. This is probably based on the 12 million signing bonus his agent got him back in season 11. The question is can GM grivfmd1 convince his agent to sign a multi year deal. It is this reporters view that if Pittsburg can resign Orber than they win the deal. If he chooses free agency than the slight edge swings back to Kansas City.

What the heck were they thinking?

First year GM scootermcray took one look at his ball club and decided it was a good time to rebuild. When first year GM yojames took his first look at his ballclub he decided "Win now Baby". Case in point the Pablo Maduro and Carl Thurman for Paul Hukata and Kenneth Simmons deal. Veterans for prospects plain and simple.

The Grasshoppers picked up 2 seasoned vets that were former 1st round draft picks back in season 7. Maduro a carear .298 hitter in 8 big league seasons is off to a good 1st half in season 18 hitting .304 with 11 dingers and 52 rbi's. Thurman a carear .280 hitter over parts of 11 big league seasons has never lived up to his potential. The former University of Richmond star was the 6th overall pick of the season 7 draft and decided to forego his senior year. Everyone expected him to be a 30 HR 30 SB guy. yojames is hoping the change of scenery in Syracuse will help ignite his carear. Since the trade Carl is hitting .257 with 8 longballs and 34 rbi's.

The Maize and Blue definately got younger. Hukata 23, from Japan, signed as an international free agent in season 13 receiving an 8 million dollar signing bonus. Milwaukee currently has Paul at AAA and the results have been promising. 10 saves, 2.50 era and 0.81 whip. Simmons 22, was the 12th pick overall in the season 16 draft after his sophmore year at Mid-state Technical College. Ken finished season 17 at AA with Syracuse but Milwaukee placed him with their High A ball club. Not happy with the demotion Ken got off to a slow start but things have gotten better and he currently has 12 saves, 3.76 era and 1.01 whip. He also has 43 k's in 40 innings.

Time will only tell who wins this deal but it seems both GM's got what they wanted.

Injury report for 1/25/11

So the draft is over and we have no reporter - such is life, guess you will have to figure out the winners and losers on your own. As to LOSERS here is the injury report.

Pittsburgs pitching took another blow as Rich Belhorn went on the 15 day DL, though he should be back before the all star break. Picking up 2 SPs in the previous week cushioned the blow. Mexico City also had a scare but Steve Scanlon(2B) should also be back shortly. The big news was Charlotte lossing a 3rd pitcher for the season as Leo Ramsey suffered a career shortening injury that puts him out for the season. Charlottes training budget of 16 and medical budget of 11 may be coming back to haunt the Associates. New Orleans lost reliever buddy Dykhoff for a month but he has not been a key cog in the Pelicans season. But has anyone?

Tough season in Charlotte - the question would now be, are they buyers? or sellers?

Next report at the All -Star break

Injury update #3 - as of 1/18

As noted in the last report the River Rats lost a major starting pitcher for the season - management continues to look for a replacement. How many other teams are in a similar situarion - if you are a "seller" it may be a good time to be in the market.

Over the last 8 days the "buying" owners could include (1) Milwaukee who lost RF Carlos Palmeiro for the season, Palmeiro was having an off year but.... (2) any of the clubs that lost major players in previous reports. Fortunately for most of the teams in Sandberg the rest of this weeks injuries were short term with the players due back shortly.

That is all until after the draft.

Injury update #2 1/10/11

In Sandberg the River Rats have their issues but injuries are not part of the problem (Within hours of posting this summary the River Rats were devastated by an injury to their already thin pitching corps. Hector Madura went down for the regular season with an arm injury. This will be a major test of the River Rats world class medical department (20M). Failure of the medical department to effectively treat Madura will be a long term blow to the River Rats). But other teams have been hit and hit hard. On 1/2/11 Durham of the Mexico franchise went done for 2 months but should return by the all-star break and be close to his old self. San Jaun was not so lucky. Hera is out for about the same amount of time but his shakey control will be even iffier on return. And Charlotte's Jesse Patrick took it even worse in his first outting - out for the season with a career threatening injury. Wes "too much hockey as a teen" Randolf also will be limitted on his return but at least it will be during the season and he will retain some limited value.
Things then calmed down for a few days until future stud Mark Schultz tour up his hamstrings. He will miss most of the season and effectively ended his SS career (as a 3B he may still flourish)(If Salt Lake does not have a solid medical team they need to evaluate getting one - this may not be his last injury). Hector Morales career may have ended with his season as Charlotte suffered its 2nd career threatening injury in a week (sharpen your trading skills fellows Charlotte may need to go shopping.).

Thats all until the prospects are available in the draft - then look for recap #3

Injury report #1 - post spring training

The NB thundercats took a blow in early spring training as Starting Pitcher Mack Scott went down with a rotator cuff injury. Las Vegas was hit with a major injury as well, CFer Dennis Diaz was felled by a sore shoulder and will miss the 1st month + of the season. Rolando Barajas of New Orleans has some elbow issues but should return early in the season. His absence should not have a major impact on New Orleans 1st week.

Whether NB or LV will be looking for replacements is not presently known.

Big Signings Bring New Hope

The craziest days of the year are now behind us: The free agency signing period. During the week, back and forth phone calls were made to the desired player of each franchise. These negotiations can make or break a franchise, and many franchises saw this happen right in front of them. If your interested to hear what went down, here you go.

Possibly the best, most talented player in the FA class was Pedro Siqueiros. This man could not sleep, he told me that he even got a phone call at 3 AM! His bidding went all the way up to the league maximum! That is 20,000,000 for 5 years, however the first year he will only receive 18,000,000. That is still a boat load of money. ANd the team that gave him this amount was none other than the New Britain ThunderCats who also signed Damaso Plata to the exact same deal last year. This team is really building up towards a championship. And we will see if it works, I know all the ThunderCat fans are hoping.

On the other hand, there was one team that lost some of their best players during the free agency. The Pittsburgh River Rats ended up losing three Type A free agents: Tino Hubbell, Dave Richardson, and Jose Owen. However, they are awarded with draft picks in the amateur draft because these players were signed by another team, but each of these players were very good. But, maybe they have a plan in store, and they did not need the players. Nobody knows what will happen, only time will tell.

Many other teams made some signings, and each owner is hoping their new signings come up big for them this season. Each team is going into the season with new hopes, but only one team will emerge as the victor. As spring training rolls around, we begin to see a clearer picture of what teams are trying to do. So let's see which team can pull it off.

Rule 5 draft analysis

Fortunately for world Sandberg there were no obvious "studs" left unprotected for this years draft. However, there were still some players that could hang on at the ML level and even make a contribution. Boston picked up Kyle Russell and will apparently be starting him at SS with a defensive back up. Boston pitchers may like his bat but can not be thrilled about the glove, in the long run his future may be 3B. Washington picked up Darrell (wild man) Dolan also at SS - combined with their 1B he could lead the league in errant throws if he plays regularly. The 3rd SS taken was Alex Mecardo from Pittsburg - a defensive Wiz and a Wiff at the plate he should be destined as a pinebrother defensive back up for Colorodo Springs. At catcher Scranton picked up Enrique Pena who should be a solid defensive catcher with a good eye (walks). With the possible exception of Amp Sexton, who is presently injuried and therefore harder to predict, this observer expects the rest of the players to end up on the waiver wire before the year is out.

Welcome back to all old owners and to the new owners who have joined. I really don't know why we had such a large group of departing owners but I am hoping it is the last time we have to deal with that kind of an event. I feel that we are very fortunate to have recruited so many seasoned and gongho owners and look forward to the season.
I will try to post an injury report every 25 games or so for the league as a whole and look forward to reading other owners contributions.

Is it Christmas Time or Baseball Time?

As the season of giving and spending time with your family rolls around, it is also time for a new season on the diamond. The long anticipated season is now here. Despite some troubles throughout the off season, all the owners in Sandberg are psyched up for Season 18. The veteran owners who stuck through the hard times finally got enough new owners to take over some of the teams that had been abandoned. "It was hard to deal with, but I'm glad I stayed here. I hope that this never happens again, and that we can get over it and start a great new season of ball." stated Griv F. the owner of the Pittsburgh River Rats. 


As many of you Sandberg owners know, there was lots of trouble this past off-season. However, if you haven't heard, here's the scoop:


Fans were shocked when a whopping 3 teams made it from the AL West. It was even crazier when 2 of those teams met in the AL Championship: The Colorado Canadian Red Stripers and the Las Vegas Gamblers. The Red Stripers were doubted early in the season because of their dealing of Delgado. Fans were outraged at this move, but it would end up working out. During the AL Championship, Blake Radek, owner of the Gamblers, "went all bleeding heart liberal," as a close source explained to me. The rivalry between these two teams is very heated and has been going on ever since Season 16 when Coach 34 took over the Colorado Canadian Red Stripers. The fans are relentless at these games, and many fights break out at these events. I would not recommend bringing your kid to one of these games. Never before had the owners taken part in these heated quarrels until now. This series was around the time of Thanksgiving, and these remarks made by Radek were all about Indians and Turkeys. "I have never seen such an inappropriate remark made by an owner. He was a very well-respected man, but not anymore." stated Coach 34. This may be the reason for the abandonment of several owners. After the end of the season, 2 very mysterious disappearing's happened. 2 others informed the Commissioner, but it was a very unexpected departure. Here's what the Commissioner had to say, "There's nothing we can do, we just have to move forward, forget the past, and have a great season." And let's hope he's right. 
 
Excluding all these unfortunate events, the Sandberg owners had a satisfactory season. The league even had some shocking victories. Around playoff time, it appeared that the favorites were the Austin Stunners from the NL and from the AL, the front-runner was the Omaha Buffaloes, 7 time defending champions. Anyhow, neither of them made the World Series! Surprisingly, it was between the Colorado Canadian Red Stripers vs. the  Pittsburgh River Rats. And after only 4 games, the Red Stripers took the series and swept the River Rats.               Here's what Coach 34 had to say about his team's victory:


"This year has been pretty crazy. Between the troubles and mystery disappearing's of owners, somehow our team stuck in there and took advantage of the lack of discipline within the other franchises. But we now have to put that behind us, and i think we did that after the parade. I've never seen a better parade than the one we put on in Colorado. We might have the strongest fan base in the country, and I believe that the Striper nation will have a strong showing at every game this year. Hopefully we can win it all again."


Those are some strong words there, the coach must have great faith in that team, and the world series can really go to anyone this year. It looks like it will be a toss up. Back to this past years championship team, the man that really changed this series was Rod Perry. Throughout the playoffs he had a Batting Average of .367 while blasting 4 Home Runs. This NL All-Star also snagged a Silver Slugger and Golden Glove Award. This man was unstoppable this season, and here was his response to his break-out season after the final out in the World Series:


" I was just out there having a blast and having the time of my life, it just so happened that my play was good enough to snatch these awards. I'm looking forward to doing it again this season, now I have to get my champagne goggles on." 


All of us over here at Sandberg Gazette weren't allowed into the celebration down in the locker room, but we're sure they had a blast. Who knows what will happen this year? We all hope there will be no more problems, but we can't control other owners actions. Also, will another underdog emerge to win the World Series this year? Only time will tell, so get ready Sandberg fans, here comes the new season, and have a great Christmas.