Week 4 Loss and Player Transaction

We lost to the arch-rival Skillets last week 6-4.  Oh well.

Next up for the 0-4 Flemingos are the arch-rival Suns who are sporting a 4-0 record (the other 4 teams in SLUBA are all 2-2 right now for a sort of symmetry - 0-4 2-2 2-2 2-2 2-2 4-0).

The Big Pink Machine reserved Outfielder-Without-Appendix Jason Heyward and signed Arizona outfielder A.J. Pollock.  A man named after a fish.

So the Flemingos' best pitcher (Cueto) and hitter (Heyward) are on the DL when we face the 4-0 Suns Juggernaut.  It should be a fun week...

"Pride goeth before a fall"

Hubris.

As late as this (Saturday) afternoon (while checking the SLUBA results at the Monroe Fairgrounds - my competition chili finished 8 out of 21 and my "homestyle" (aka "anything goes") chili finished 9th out of 25) I was feeling like I had a win in the bag this week against the arch-rival Skillets.

Hubris.

I was leading all 5 of the hitting categories and also the WHIP.  The score was 6-4 with the tiebreaker in my favor.  Plus I had four pitchers yet to pitch this weekend as opposed to Bob's one pitcher - so I was sure to take strikeouts and also had a good shot at wins.

Hubris.

But when I got home I discovered that the arch-rival Skillets were in the midst of a pretty good day...  As I write this (8:40pm and most of the games are completed) they are hitting .395 with 4 home runs, 8 RBIs, and 12 runs scored.  That's just today's total!  YOW!  My hopes of victory are gone as they now lead me 7-3 (I'm still leading three categories - batting average, stolen bases, and strikeouts).

Hubris.

Plus my two pitchers today (Peacock and Peralta - need I say more?) have not helped the cause with their combined 7.71 ERA and 1.93 WHIP.

Hubris.

Of course, two wins from Miller and Cingrani tomorrow will grab back one point.  And if I can score 4 more runs than the arch-rival Skillets it would give me the second point to let my tie breaker advantage win the week for the Big Pink Machine.  But I always feel it's much better to be in the lead in these spots rather then trying to get the pieces to fall into place.

Hubris.

I will never take a win for granted again...

Double Whammy!

The Flemingos are playing our arch-rivals - the Skillets - this week. 

So I'm listening to the Twins/Marlins game.  The Big Pink Machine has Jose “Overrated” Fernandez on the mound and he's struggling to get through each inning.  Things aren't going particularly well, but he's only given up 1 run in three too-many-pitches-thrown innings.

To start off the fourth inning (after the Marlins give him a 2-1 lead by scoring two in the third) he gives up two singles and then Skillet Arcia steps up and hits a three run homer!  YOW!

A Double Whammy - not only does my pitcher get charged with the three earned runs and now the loss, but the arch-rival Skillets get a hit, a home run, a run scored, and three RBIs!

YOW!

Week 4 Flemingo Move

The Flemingos made their first roster change of the season (I think) when they reserved Johnny Cueto who has either a triceps injury or a lat injury and replaced him with Tony Cingrani of the Cincinnati Reds.  Cingrani replaced Cueto on the Reds major league roster - so there's a nice symmetry there...

If When Cueto comes back from his injury and if Cingrani isn't sent back to the minors - then Brad Peacock had better have his bags packed and be ready to leave the premises...

Flemingos Lose! Flemingos Lose! Flemingos Lose!

Brown and Revere scored in the eighth inning of the final game on Sunday night (they get back to back singles followed by a home run from the next hitter) to give the win to the arch-rival Fungoes 5-5 (with them handily winning the batting average tie breaker .243 to .194).

The Big Pink Machine's record is now 0-3 after snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.

Next week's opponent - arch-rival Skillets - had better look out.  This team is cranky and not in a very good mood...

Flemingos Lead! Flemingos Lead! Flemingos Lead!

The Big Pink Machine took a very late lead when Mark Trumbo hit a 13th inning walk off (that means the team in the field has to walk off in shame according to the term's creator Dennis Eckersley - Thanks Bob for that history lesson...) home run against the Detroit Tigers.

The Flemingos now lead their arch-rival Fungoes by 5.5-4.5.

Of course, the Fungoes might have some late inning fireworks of their own - they have Ben Revere and Dominic Brown playing in the Sunday night game.  And Alcides Escobar is still playing in the 8th inning (tied 4-4) of the second game of the Boston vs. Kansas City doubleheader (along with Flemingos Hosmer and Middlebrooks who might increase our lead).  It would be especially ironic if Flemingo Hosmer were to drive in Fungoe Escobar with the SLUBA winning run tonight...

A Fungoe home run, or a couple runs scored, or four stolen bases by these players would give them the win.  Flemingo fans will be watching these games with held breaths...

Expectations vs. Reality

This is interesting.

Baseball Prospectus, which many of us use in our draft day preparations and is a highly respected sabermetric-style guidebook, publishes their PECOTA projections on players every year.  Their book states, "All PECOTAs represent a player's projected major-league performance."

Here's their "projected major-league performance" for the the Flemingos in 2013:

BP PECOTA AVE OBP SLUG OPS Posey .295 .367 .471 .838 Hosmer .276 .331 .444 .775 Bonifacio .262 .322 .359 .681 Andrus .276 .341 .369 .710 Middlebrooks .258 .299 .452 .751 Davis .249 .332 .457 .789 Trumbo .259 .305 .477 .782 Fowler .274 .364 .429 .793 Heyward .258 .346 .446 .792 Hicks .234 .324 .356 .680 .264 .333 .426 .759

Here are some relatively current (yesterday or today) numbers for the Big Pink machine:

		2013 Actual
	AVE	OBP	SLUG	OPS
Posey	.225	.328	.347	.675
Hosmer	.242	.359	.273	.632
Bonifacio	.192	.232	.346	.578
Andrus	.206	.275	.270	.545
Middlebrooks	.182	.220	.436	.656
Davis	.173	.271	.346	.617
Trumbo	.323	.354	.468	.822
Fowler	.263	.344	.667	1.011
Heyward	.127	.262	.273	.535
Hicks	.044	.157	.044	.201
	.198	.280	.347	.627

And here is the difference between the two (red means performing poorer than expected and black means better):

		Difference
	AVE	OBP	SLUG	OPS
Posey	.070	.039	.124	.163
Hosmer	.034	.028	.171	.143
Bonifacio	.070	.090	.013	.103
Andrus	.070	.066	.099	.165
Middlebrooks	.076	.079	.016	.095
Davis	.076	.061	.111	.172
Trumbo	.064	.049	.009	.040
Fowler	.011	.020	.238	.218
Heyward	.131	.084	.173	.257
Hicks	.190	.167	.312	.479
	.066	.053	.079	.132

Where I have totals at the bottom of each of these charts - they are not totally accurate from a statistician's point of view because I just took the column total and divided by 10 (the number of players) - so part time players Hicks and Bonifacio have their stats weigh as much as Posey and Heyward who will play full time.  And the formatting is limited due to limitations related to the blogging software...

But these numbers do show that the Big Pink Machine is off to an unexpectedly rocky start hitting wise...


And as a postscript - if there is anyone out there actually reading this, I'm not  as worried about the Big Pink Machine's hitting as my recent posts might lead you to believe.  It's early, it's a small sample size,  players have slumps and it's pretty amusing that all of the Flemingos (with the exception of Trumbo and Fowler) got off to such miserable starts.  Other than Hicks, I don't think any of these  guys are destined for the minor leagues to solve their problems.  They'll be playing in the majors and part of the second half Flemingo explosion that will result in our fourth SLUBA crown!

What a Day!

Wow.  All the games have wrapped up and the Flemingos went 4 for 32 today - .125 batting average.  And for the week our batting average is now .173.  And for the season so far we're hitting .196.

Let me repeat that.  For the season so far we're hitting .196.

Incredibly, we're tied 5-5 with the Fungoes due to a couple good pitching turns by Hellickson and Lynn today.  The tiebreaker?  You guessed it - batting average...

3-21

Now hitting 3-21 on the day.  A robust .143.

It Gets Worse...

So far today the Big Pink Machine has two hits in fifteen at bats.  2-15.

So with these additional stats, we're now hitting .1988 as a team.  Let's  be generous and round it up to a robust .199 batting average for the season so far.  For the team.  All of them combined.

.199

.2008

As I write this the Big Pink Machine is batting .2008 for the season.  That's .200 plus 8/10 of an additional percentage point.  We've almost slipped below the Flemingo Line AS A TEAM FOR THE SEASON!  And this is for 523 at bats (105 hits) - so its sorta like a full major league season (523 at bats is about how many at bats a full time player will get in a season).

Even, if for some weird reason, I had tried to find 10 hitters that would bat .200 during the first 3 weeks of the season - I don't think that I could have done it.  And in this case, I thought I had some reasonably good hitters.  I never thought they would lead the league in batting average (it was more of a home run/RBI/runs scored group of players) - but I never imagined that they would be 40 percentage points behind the next worse team in SLUBA!  40 percentage points!!!

Wow.

Of course, they won't finish the year with a combined .200 average.  So there are some good hitting weeks to come - but it sure has been a rough start...

One-A-Day

Here we are on Friday night and the Flemingos have 4 RBIs.  That's one  a day for the four days (Monday-Tuesday-Wednesday-Thursday) that we've played this week...

Wow.

We currently trail our arch-rival Fungoes 6-4.

Glory Days...

Remember back on Monday when the Big Pink Machine led the arch-rival Fungoes 9-1?  And then on Tuesday when we still had a 6.5-3.5 lead?  After two and a half weeks of the season, those are the only two days that the Flemingos have been in the lead against an opponent.

Well, those might be this season's "Glory Days" - the only two days where we'll be ahead of an opponent.

Today we trail the Fungoes 5.5-4.5.

We my never be in the lead (against the Fungoes or any of our other foe this season) again.  Not the way these boys are playing... 

The Big Pink Machine's .186 batting average and 5.47 ERA this week pretty much says it all...

Roller Coaster

The Big Pink Machine, the only SLUBA team still without a win, plays the Fungoes this week.  We have had mixed success on the first couple days.

On Monday we hit over .300!  Hurray!

And we got a win on Monday!  Hurray!  Hurray!

Then on Tuesday, we were back batting under the Mendoza Line (soon to be re-named the "Flemingo Line") with a team batting average of .194 for the day.

And we sent our two $1 pitchers to the mound - the incorrectly named "Wily" received 8 runs worth of support from his Brewers in the second inning, but was unable to last 5 innings for the win.  And the strutting Peacock was also unable to last 5 innings.  Both generously "earned" no decisions.

We still lead the Fungoes 6.5-3.5 - but who knows what Wednesday might bring...

Fan Reaction to the 0-2 Start...

See it here...

Week 2 - Flemingos lose to Frickin' As 7.5-2.5 Record falls to 0-2

No surprise...

TThat's a funny place for a lat strain...

I thought lats were somewhere around a person's side - not to be confused with a triceps muscle...

Whatever.  Baseball players are special sorts...

Johnny Cueto likely to be placed on DL

Reds starter Johnny Cueto will land on the 15-day disabled list with a lat strain, FOXSports.com reports.

Cueto left Saturday's start against the Pirates after feeling something "sharp" in his right triceps during the game. He was 1-0 with a 2.60 ERA and a 1.04 WHIP through his first three starts before getting hurt.

Last At Bats!

While on the scoreboard the Big Pink Machine trails the arch-rival Frickin' As 7-3 on the last day of the week - the reality of the situation is that all is still not lost.

The Flemingos can gain half a point in home runs (it's currently tied at a pathetic 2-2).  We can gain another full point in runs scored (currently the As lead this category by just 24-21).  And another full point in stolen bases (where the As lead 3-2).  That would gain us 2.5 points and we'd win 5.5-4.5.

But, of course that means on this final day we have to hit some home runs, score some runs, and steal some bases - things that we haven't really shown a proficiency at doing so far this week...  And we need for the As to NOT get a save (it's tied 0-0) or have Matt Latos pitch a great game in Pittsburgh to have the As go ahead of the Flemingos in WHIP (currently the Big Pink Machine leads this category 0.85 to 0.95).

So, plenty of excitement even in a seemingly 7-3 blowout!

Keep your fingers crossed!


Edit:  To make things even more of a challenge - snow in Minnesota means I have two players sitting out today - Aaron Hicks and Ike Davis...

Edit:  The Frickin' As got a save today...  Now the score is 7.5-2.5 and I can't make up the difference since the As hold the batting average tie breaker (they're batting a robust .211 for the week compared to my incredibly low .181 as I write this.....).  Oh well, wait until next week!

AAAARRRRGGGGHHHHH!!!!!!!!

Johnny Cueto leaves with arm injury

Reds starter Johnny Cueto left Saturday's outing against the Pirates in the fifth inning with an apparent injury to his right triceps. He was visited by trainers and manager Dusty Baker after throwing a pitch to Travis Snider and could be seen pointing to the back of his right arm.

The right-hander threw one warm-up pitch before walking off the field. He was replaced on the mound by Alfredo Simon.

Cueto allowed one run on two hits over 4 1/3 innings before the early exit. He also struck out three and walked one while throwing 52 pitches, 35 for strikes.

His next start -- if healthy -- is scheduled for Thursday against the Marlins.

How Are the Flemingos Doing?

"How're the Flemingos doing?" I sometimes get asked.  Well, so far this year, they are an underproducing bunch of worthless hitters and pitchers...  Well, maybe they aren't that good...

Here are the league stats (IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER!) through Wednesday, April 10th:

Team	AB	R	H	1B	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	KO	SB	CS	BA	OBP	SLG
Flemingos	316	44	67	38	14	4	11	41	29	89	5	2	0.2120	0.2845	0.3861
Frickin' A's	310	50	79	52	17	3	7	30	28	73	3	2	0.2548	0.3176	0.3968
Fungoes	313	33	82	58	16	1	7	35	28	58	11	2	0.2620	0.3295	0.3866
SalsaSharks	315	40	79	45	25	1	8	33	19	72	5	1	0.2508	0.2929	0.4127
Skillets	307	43	80	55	10	0	15	36	28	63	4	1	0.2606	0.3234	0.4397
Suns	276	43	71	46	16	0	9	40	31	47	8	3	0.2572	0.3376	0.4130

Team	INN	GS	QS	CG	W	L	S	BS	K	BBI	HA	ERA	WHIP
Flemingos	66.0	12	4	0	4	3	0	0	60	27	59	4.227	1.3030
Frickin' A's	79.3	11	10	1	10	0	3	0	71	18	51	1.361	0.8697
Fungoes	73.7	13	6	0	6	4	0	0	69	21	70	3.909	1.2353
SalsaSharks	72.0	10	6	0	6	2	0	2	64	17	60	2.625	1.0694
Skillets	66.0	11	6	0	4	3	4	0	54	28	58	3.000	1.3030
Suns	56.7	9	5	0	6	2	3	0	56	25	54	3.812	1.3941

Now, of course, it's early.  And if I remember right the Flemingos had a pretty horrendous start last year too.  And ended up digging their way out of the seven-loses-in-a-row hole to finish with a 9-11 record...

And it can only get better...

Jorge Soler - Batman!

Flemingo outfield prospect Jorge Soler got a bit upset when his hand was stepped on after sliding into second base yesterday.  While the Big Pink Machine doesn't officially condone grabbing the nearest bat and heading to the opposing team's dugout in order to exact revenge after an incident like this, it does show some real spirit!

http://www.news-journalonline.com/article/20130410/SPORTS/130419967?p=1&tc=pg

A Day of Rest

Three Flemingos - Davis, Heyward, and Hicks - are not starting today.  None of them are injured, but two of them (Heyward who's batting .083 and Hicks who is hitting .067 with more RBIs than hits) are off to pretty miserable starts. 

Hopefully, they'll come back tomorrow rejuvenated.

Add Buster Posey to the list of un-injured, but not playing Flemingos today...

Week 1 - Loss to the Salsa Sharks 6.5-3.5

The Big Pink Machine couldn't stop the Salsa Shark pitching juggernaut and lost 6.5-3.5.  Our record is 0-1 to start the season.

Felix Hernandez and Yu Darvish were just too much for us.

The Flemingos won three categories - Home Runs, RsBI, and Runs.  We tied the Sharks in Saves (0-0!).  The Sharks won the rest of the categories (Batting Average, Steals, ERA, WHIP, Strike Outs and Wins).

Next week we'll be playing the Frickin' As.  Their roster can be viewed here.

I Don't Have Much Hope...

As I said earlier today about Flemingo pitcher Jose Fernandez of the Miami Marlins, "I don't have much
hope this year for a player that's only 20 and has never pitched above A ball..."

His first start above A ball was today against the Mets (on the road in New York City) and he threw 5 innings giving up 3 hits, a walk, a run, and striking out 8 with his fastball hitting 97mph...

Maybe I was wrong.

The story:  http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/fantasy-roto-arcade/impressed-jose-fernandez-shines-mlb-debut-195048907--mlb.html

Will Middlebrooks Has a Good Day...

Three (3!) home runs.  But probably too little, too late to stop the Salsa Shark Juggernaut this week - looks like the Big Pink Machine is going to take their first loss of the season...

Here's the story about Middlebrooks' excellent afternoon from the Boston Herald:
http://bostonherald.com/sports/red_sox_mlb/boston_red_sox/2013/04/will_middlebrooks_3_hrs_powers_sox_to_13_0_win

Introducing Your 2013 Flemingo Baseball Club

Here's the Opening Day Roster for the 2013 Flemingos:

(position / player name / team / salary / birth year or last year of long term contract)

C   Buster Posey, SF  $5/87

1B Eric Hosmer, KC  $5/89

2B Emilio Bonifacio, TOR $11/13

3B Will Middlebrooks, BOS $9/88

SS Elvis Andrus, TEX  $5/88

U   Ike Davis, NYM $3/87

OF Dexter Fowler, COL  $9/14

OF Jason Heyward, ATL $5/89

OF Aaron Hicks, MIN $1/89
OF Mark Trumbo, $11/14

It's an interesting bunch of hitters.  I'm expecting lots of home runs from Posey, Davis, and Trumbo.  Lots of general production from Middlebrooks, Andrus and Heyward.  Lots of stolen bases from Bonifacio.  And hopefully lots of not real bad numbers from Hosmer, Fowler and Hicks.

I expect Jurickson Profar to be up sometime this year - possibly to replace an injured 2B/SS for Texas (hoping more for the 2B because Andrus is the Texas shortstop and so that I can move Bonifacio to the outfield and waive Aaron Hicks) or to play centerfield for Texas since there's not much room in their infield.  And Christian Yelich will probably be called up by Miami sometime this year to play outfield.  If so Aaron Hicks will probably be the player he replaces.  Otherwise, it doesn't look like I have any other soon-to-be-called-up impact hitters in my minor leagues.

P Johnny Cueto, CIN $11/14

P Jeremy Hellickson, TB $5/87

P Lance Lynn, STL $5/87

P Shelby Miller, STL $4/90
P Jose Fernandez, MIA $5/92
P Brad Peacock, HOU $1/88
P Wily Peralta, MIL $1/89

The first thing that jumps out is that the Flemingos have no relief pitching.  It was an unusual draft because there were no relief pitchers in the pool of free agents who were destined to get saves.  The Salsa Sharks took a flyer on Rosenthall of the Cardinals who, if Jason Motte falters, might get the closer job for St. Louis.  But otherwise, there was nothing available.  Sometime during the year I hope to pick up a player that gets put into the closer job for some team when someone else falters - but I don't have high hopes of that happening.  We'll see.

Otherwise, the Flemingo pitching appears to be adequate.  It doesn't look like it will carry the team this year.  It could if St. Louis wins 100 games, Jose Fernandez turns out to be the second coming of Dwight Gooden, and Cueto and Hellickson have career years.  Again, I don't have high hopes of that happening.  We'll see...

From the minor leagues we might see Zach Wheeler of the Mets and Gerrit Cole from Pittsburgh.  Peacock and Peralta should keep a suitcase packed just in case...

Draft Day

One of the best days of the year (if not The Best Day of the Year) is SLUBA Draft Day.  And this year we were celebrating our 30th draft.  Amazing!  Here's a photo of Our Glorious Founder, J Michael Kenyon.

Several surprises happened prior to Draft Day this year.  The minor leagues produced three big leaguers that I hadn't expected.  Jose Fernandez made the Marlin opening day roster (he was going to be the Flemingo no-brainer first round pick in our minor league draft, Aaron Hicks was one of the darlings of spring training and made the Twins roster as an outfielder, and Brad Peacock was named a starting pitcher for Houston.  I had hoped to have all three of these players on my minor league roster (at $3 each) at the end of the day - but now it was far from a sure thing, since I would have to bid on all of them.

The Flemingos went into the draft with a simple objective.  Get Pedro Alvarez.  Regardless of the cost.  I had six openings - third base (Pedro's spot!), shortstop, outfield and three pitching spots.  Looking over the available free agents I was depressed by the players that might fill those positions.  Third base and shortstop especially looked poor - lots of "great glove and hopefully he'll be able to hit enough to keep his job" type players.  So Pedro Alvarez was The Man.

I also have players who might fill some of the other spots arriving soon from the minor leagues.  Zach Wheeler from the Mets would take a pitching spot.  Christian Yelich of the Marlins would fill the outfield spot.  And maybe Jurickson Profar at shortstop.  All of them probably in the next couple months (we'll see...).  So basically, I wanted to fill the third base opening with Alvarez, pick up a $1 shortstop and outfielder, and see what pitchers might be available for two of the three openings (and fill the other one with a $1 pitcher that I could toss aside when Wheeler arrives).

It was a simple plan.  Easily executed.  And, ultimately, doomed to failure.

When people named their 11 keepers the flaws in my plan became evident.  Third baseman Will Middlebrooks from Boston was tossed into the free agent pool.  And shortstop Elvis Andrus from Texas was also now available.  Suddenly my sole focus on Pedro Alvarez was getting to be a bit of a fuzzy focus... Alvarez, Andrus, and Middlebrooks were now all on my third base/shortstop radar.

Using the "Bill Kinsella Plan" I was not going to name any of these players - I would let others bring them up and then bid on them.  Early in the draft I planned to name players that the other owners would covet and let them spend their available funds - we all started with about the same amount ($25-$35).  So when it came around to me I named that darling of spring training - Aaron Hicks and bid $1.

 I sat back to watch the bidding.  Silence.  Going once.  Silence.  Going twice.  Silence.  Sold to the Flemingos for $1.  Hmmmm...  That wasn't what I expected.

So now my only outfield spot was filled and I would have to name either a shortstop, third baseman, or pitcher.  I didn't want to name either of those infield spots - so I would be naming pitchers from then on.  It certainly cut down on my flexibility.

A bad start.

Pretty soon Will Middlebrooks' name came up.  I joined the bidding and knew that I had Pedro Alvarez to fall back on if I couldn't get Middlebrooks.  In the end I prevailed.

Middlebrooks put on a Flemingo Pink Jersey and will be paid $9 this year.

I was happy.  I came into the draft targeting Alvarez and came away with Middlebrooks (who CBSSports.com had listed as the ninth best third baseman with Alvarez as their number eleven).  So mission accomplished.

When it was my turn again I named Jose Fernandez who was supposed to be my first round minor league pick before the Marlins made the stupifyingly bizarre move of adding him to their opening day roster.  I had a  top price of $5 for him.  I figured that if I had picked him up in the minor league draft his salary would have been $3 and it would increase to $5 in a

couple years - so if I could get him for $5 or less it was the same as drafting him #1.  It's an odd thought process, but it's what I came up with...  Plus, I don't have much hope this year for a player that's only 20 and has never pitched above A ball...

The bidding on Fernandez wasn't very spirited and eventually I got him for $5.  OK.

The only remaining target now was Elvis Andrus, the
best shortstop still available.  I had $10 left and could make a top bid of $8.  The only other team needing a shortstop was the Skillets and Bob had $12 left to spend and could bid more than I could on Andrus.  And I knew he would if necessary.  So I sat back and hoped that Bob would find another player that he liked enough to give me the hammer in the Andrus bidding.

When it was my turn to name a player again I chose Wily Peralta, a pitcher with Milwaukee whose first name I liked (sometimes these drafts aren't all science...).  I got him for $1.  And I must admit that he looks wily in this photo.

Then a catcher named Willin Rosario was tossed into the ring.  Fortunately, the Skillets needed a catcher and Rosario was by far the best available.  Bob was in the bidding!  Eventually, as I held my breath, Rosario went to the Skillets for $7.  Now the most Bob could bid on a player (uh, let's say Elvis Andrus for instance...) was $4 and I could go as high as $8.  I had The Hammer(tm)!

I named Elvis Andrus at my next opportunity and the bidding went as expected - my $5 bid over the Skillets' $4 bid put the Texas shortstop on the Flemingo roster.

Elvis looks very happy.





I then picked up Brad Peacock for $1 and I was done.  $96 of my $100 pool of funds spent.

Like Elvis, I was happy too.

We then went to the minor league draft.  I had 5 picks in the 5 rounds (having been less than successful in last year's playoffs, I had the first pick in each round).  My strategy was to trust the people at Baseball America - they've been experts on the minor leagues since back before SLUBA started and certainly know more about minor league players than I do.

I had a copy of their Prospect Handbook where they rate the top 30 minor leaguers for each major league team on a weird 20-80 scale (a scale that baseball scouts invented a century ago).  Their book included only 1 player with a 75 rating (Dylan Bundy who was already on the Fungoes' roster).  There were 15 players with 70 ratings.  Ten of those fifteen were already on SLUBA rosters and one was in the majors (Jose Fernandez who I successfully grabbed earlier), so that left just four 70-rated players still available for this draft.  In order of their Baseball America overall ranking they were, Byron Buxton, an outfielder from Minnesota; Carlos Correa, a shortstop from Houston, and Kyle Zimmer, a pitcher from Kansas City, and Lucas Giolito a pitcher with Washington (who is possibly out this entire season after having Tommy John surgery).

There were another 6 players (not already on SLUBA rosters) who Baseball America rated 65 and they would be my targets after the 70-rated players were all picked.

I selected Buxton with my first pick.  While I have a plethora of outfielders, he seems like a player with great skills and I'll find room for him if he develops like expected.

In the second round I chose one of the 65-rated players - Javier Baez of the Chicago Cubs.  He's a shortstop (I had only outfielders and pitchers (except for Jurickson Profar, who might end up as an outfielder too) on my minor league roster and needed some infielders).  Correa had gone second in this draft right after I had picked Buxton.  And Addison Russell of Oakland, another shortstop, was picked just before me by the Suns.  So Baez was the best available shortstop at the time and appears to be an excellent hitter.  We'll see.

In the third round I was happy to see that Kyle Zimmer was still available.  Maybe he wasn't on many of the other draft lists.  I don't know, but I picked him up with hopes that he'll develop into the ace pitcher that some people predict.

Fourth round was a surprise as I picked up Lucas Giolito, the last of the 70-rated players He's recovering from surgery, but might be another ace according to Baseball America.  We'll see.

In the end I selected 3 of the 4 "70" rated players and 4 of the top 5 on my Top Secret Draft List!  Nice!

And for my final selection, I went with personal scouting.  Last year at a couple Everett Aquasox games that Bob and I attended, the portly Dan Vogelbach hit 4 home runs and pretty much demolished the Aquasox singlehandedly.  A newspaper report sums it up.  After seeing those homers, I decided to make him my final minor league draft choice this year.

After the draft Bob and I headed downstairs to the baseball card shop in the Third Place Commons.  I told the guy running the shop that we had just had our draft and I wanted cards for all my players.  He said he bet that his league had been around longer than ours.  I doubted that and told him so.  I was wrong.  He started in 1982.  WOW!  We had a discussion about the early days of pen and paper statistics from USA Today and how things have changed. He's going to pull the cards for me and I'll pick them up sometime in the future.

Overall this was one of the best SLUBA drafts I remember having.  We had a relatively quiet room all to ourselves, the bidding was spirited, and a good time was had by all.

Go Big Pink Machine!