20 Resims: #19 - Downsouth Brews

Owner:  Mike N

61 - Actual Wins

74 - Resim Wins
72 - ATB Balanced Schedule Wins
74 - Standard ATB ERA Wins instead of 1906

88 - Max Win Potential (Pythag Record of best RF and RA)

0 Playoff Appearances (0 Div, 0 WC)

National League Silver Slugger Awards

C  - Bill Dickey, Beaters - - -( .759 OPS, 231 TB,  91 RBI
1B - Norm Cash, Isotopes - - - ( .821 OPS, 305 TB,  83 RBI)
2B - Eddie Collins, Hellcats - ( .662 OPS, 218 TB,  66 RBI)
3B - George Brett, Zeros  - - -( .839 OPS, 317 TB,  94 RBI)
SS - Honus Wagner, Cobblers - -( .739 OPS, 284 TB,  74 RBI)
OF - Oscar Charelston, Beaters (1.002 OPS, 398 TB, 128 RBI)
OF - Reggie Jackson, Isotopes -( .879 OPS, 335 TB, 125 RBI)
OF - Mickey Mantle, Brews - - -( .910 OPS, 286 TB,  94 RBI)

New Record of Futility Set

Congratulations to Allen C and the Downsouth Brews - they no longer hold the all time single season loss record.

Planet 10 and Ivar A now hold the dubious distinction with some potential room to spare.  They currently sit at 44-116 with two games left, here's to hoping they distances themselves from the Brews. 

Additional Note:  Typically a very good team will outperform their Pythagorean Record, and poor teams usually under-perform.  There is a chance that Planet 10 can beat the loss record with their Pythag as well, which is currently 46-114 thanks to a -275 run differential.  This would be remarkable and something we should all root for.

Hat tip to Allen for following this for the past few weeks and keeping me up to date!

Joss for Holmes Highlights 4-player Deal Between Red Eagles and Brews

To Brews
Tommy Holmes: .329 / .369 / .571, 31 2B, 54 R, 57 RBI
Satchel Paige: 3-3, 4.36 ERA, 54 IP, 60 H, 13 BB, 41 K

To Red Eagles
Addie Joss: 4-6, 1.83 ERA, 84 IP, 69 H, 11 BB, 33 K
Sam Crawford: .247 / .288 / .298, 19 R, 23 RBI

No No's and Cycles

Hit For Cycle

• Turkey Stearnes (N95ers) - May 28 - (4-5, 3 R, 5 RBI):  Order - Single, Double, Triple, Game Winning Grand Slam in 9th
• Sam Thompson (Foxes) - June 9 - (4-5, 3 R, 2 RBI):  Order - Single, Home Run, Double, Triple in 9th

No Hitter 

• Aaron Nola (Brews) - June 14 - (9 IP, 1 BB, 2K, 102 Pitches)

Week 4 Power Alley

+5 Lady Evelyn Walleyes
+4 Dayton Toppins
+3 Manetheren Red Eagles

-4 Spanish Harlem Pinata Beaters
-7 Willets Point "Mechanics"
-6 Downsouth Brews

Power Alley - Week 3

Also, I know there a few emails out there to me today that I haven't responded too.  Work got the best of me, but will get back to everyone tomorrow.  

+8 Back Bay Bivalves
+7 Inglorious Batters
+7 Shamokin Miners
+6 Chattanooga Lookouts
+5 Kansas City Cobblers

-5 Lakeview Zeros
-6 Springfield Isotopes
-8 Downsouth Brews
-5 Ohio N95ers

Week 2 Power Alley

+11 Springfield
+7 Manetheren
+6 Kansas City
+5 Cleveland

-6 Downsouth
-7 Back Bay
-8 Inglorious
-10 Lady Evelyn

Week 7 Transactions

• Brews pick up Mel Stottlemeyer 1965, drop Hal Schumacher
• Hillbillies pick up Corey Kluber 2014 and Joe Sambito 1980, drop Harry Brecheen and Ron Reed
• Solo Artists pick up Chili Davis 1984 and Preacher Roe 1948, drop Aroldish Chapman and Carl Crawford
• Handbasket pick up Bobby Veach 1919, Herman Long 1894, and Dutch Leonard 1914; release Milton Bradley, Dick Lundy, and Cliff Melton
• Miners pick up Jimmy Ryan 1888, DL Cal McVey

The Good, The Great, and the Ugly

(Week 3)

Downsouth Brews Return

Allen C remains the owner...

20 Resims - #23, Downsouth Brews

Overall Rankings
24 - Chatanooga Lookouts
23 - Downsouth Brews

Best Performances of the Season

Pitchers (by measure of Game Score)
97 - Jun 14 - Johnny Cueto (BRO)
93 - Apr 12 - Pedro Martinez (SPA)
91 - Jul 01 - Christy Mathewson (HOB)
91 - Jun 28 - Randy Johnson (OAS)
90 - Apr 30 - Deacon Phillippe (SPA)
90 - Jun 25 - Deacon Phillippe (SPA)

Batters (By Measure of Total Bases)
14 - Jul 17 - Bill Joyce (HOB) - Hit for Cycle
12 - May 16 - Jimmy Foxx (SEA)
12 - Jun 20 - Hack Wilson (CHA)
12 - May 13 - Johnny Bench (GRU)
12 - May 02 - Reggie Jackson (SEA)
12 - Apr 13 - Mike Napoloi (DHA)
12 - Jun 11 - Willie McCovey (DOW)
12 - May 28 - Rogers Hornsby (BRO)
12 - Apr 24 - Luis Gonzalez (HUD)

Standings Summary

Week 5

With the East and Central divisions remaining status quo, the talk of the American League is the AL West.  The RoidBoyz are struggling, plummeting from a 3 game lead to a 2.5 game deficit in a single sim.  Taking sole possession of the the division lead is Dharma thanks to a 9-5 week and a 19-10 streak.  They key to Dharma's success?  The Week 5 Batter of the Week Barry Bonds who finally caught fire and led this team to a stellar month of play.  As a team, Dharma were among the weekly leaders in just about every category, batting .260 / .351 / .452 with 27 2B, 3 3B, 19 HR, and 77 runs scored.

The only team to best Dharma in offense were the 10-5 Downsouth Brews who scored an incredible 91 runs behind a .441 / .529 / .610 week from Ty Cobb

In contrast, the RoidBoyz are literally reeling.  Their starting pitching is just not getting the job done, which led to the Heavy Johnson/Harry Brecheen deal from yesterday.  The good news?  Brecheen pitched great in his first start, going 7 strong with 7 hits, 0 walks, and 7 k's.  The bad news?  The rest of the starters averaged this:  84.2 IP, 114 H, 32 BB, 53 K, 6.95 ERA.

In the National League, the smokin' hot Shamokin Miners won 10 of 13, took possession of first place in the West from Lakeview, and are now on pace for the best record in the game.  It is very likely that risky trades (and potentially extremely rewarding) from Lakeview were a direct result of this sim.

As a group, the Miners bullpen had a 1.21 ERA, their starters a 3.46 ERA, and their batters a .780 OPS.  Oscar Charleston caught fire, batting .360 / .439 / .740 with 13 runs scored and 10 RBI.

Elsewhere, Willets Point leads ATB in stolen bases (135) - at least twice this season the "Mechanics" have stolen 7 bases in a game, and are also among the league leaders in  fewest steals against (30).* Here are the stolen base against figures per team, sorted by worst to first in SB's given up:

Team              SB   CS   SB%    G    
 Pilots           82   26   75.9   68   
 RoidBoyz         81   22   78.6   71   
 Zephyrs          71   23   75.5   72   
 Red Wings        71   21   77.2   69   
 Handbasket       68   26   72.3   67   
 Lookouts         64   27   70.3   68   
 Brews            63   33   65.6   69   
 Clown Punchers   63   19   76.8   64   
 Gunters          56   28   66.7   66   
 Islanders        52   21   71.2   70   
 Miners           52   19   73.2   67   
 Heisenbergs      51   34   60.0   69   
 Arctic Foxes     50   28   64.1   68   
 Zeros            50   37   57.5   70   
 Hoplites         50   17   74.6   69   
 Blausers         49   35   58.3   68   
 Cyclones         47   22   68.1   70   
 Guardians        43   26   62.3   69   
 Adventurers      43   18   70.5   69   
 Red Lectroids    40   33   54.8   69   
 MadBum           39   18   68.4   68   
 "Mechanics"      30   19   61.2   67   
 Hellcats         27   17   61.4   67   

 Pinata Beaters   24   20   54.5   68  

* Thanks Matt B for noticing!

Week 3 Standings Summary

AL East

Willets Point took advantage of a down week from Spanish Harlem, and claimed first place in the AL East. Center fielder Pete Hill led the charge with a .347 / .431 / .612 slash line and adding 3 triples and 2 home runs.  Willie Wells added 4 home runs while Frank Baker and Chris Hoiles each batted over .400 in limited duty.  The staff was led by Brett Saberhagen who has every right to be upset and losing Pitcher of the Week honors.  The righty won all three of his starts with a 1.17 ERA and 13K in 23 innings.

AL Central

All teams hovered around the .500 mark in a status quo week.  Player of the Week George Brett was the best in the business.

AL West

Denver continues their torrid start, winning 8 of 13 and opening up a 7 game lead on Dharma.  Jeff Bagwell was the offensive star batting .393 / .433 / .696 with 4 HR and 14 RBI.  Al Simmons hit 4 out of the park as well while Paul Molitor hit .412 and scored 14 times.  Three stars in the pen - Don Sutton, Kent Tekulve, and Ted Abernathy - combined for 29 innings of 3 run ball.

NL East
With a 9-4 week, the Grumman Hellcats took advantage of poor play from the rest of the division and secured possession of first place.  The Hellcats now have a +45 run differential, best in the National League.

NL Central
After a slow start, the Sparta Hoplites, winners of 18 of 29, have tied the Flin Flon Foxes for frst place in the division.  Their pitching staff combined for a 2.66 team ERA while their offense took the week off (.212 / .287 / .324).  JJ  Putz was great out of the pen, entering 8 games and not giving up a run.

NL West
Newcomer Thomas R continues to impress, putting up fine numbers again and extending his Jeff City lead to 3 games over Lakeview.  The Blausers used all 13 of their pitchers and had a team ERA of 3.10.  At the plate, Earl Combs ripped the ball (1.058 OPS) and John McGraw did his thing (.459 OBP and 8 SB.)

Other Tidbits

• Roger Connor (ROC) went 5-5 with 3 R and 5 RBI on Cinco de Mayo
• Reggie Jackson (SEA) and Johnny Bench (GRU) each had 3-hr games
• Pete Alexander (DOW) had the best start of the week on May 14.  Tossed a 5-hit shutout, striking out 12 and walking none.

Finally, below are the year to date Starting and Relief pitcher ERA's by team.

Players of the Week

George Brett (NOR): .473 / .525 / .709, 1.234 OPS, 4 2B, 3 3B, 1 HR, 14 R, 12 RBI

Pete Alexander (DOW): 3-0, 1.57 ERA, 23 IP, 19 H, 3 BB, 19 K

Javy Lopez just didn' have enough at bats, but the Brooklyn Cyclone batted .516 with a 1.194 slugging in 31 AB.

Opening Day Marquee Matchups

"There are Opening Day Pitchers, and pitchers who start on Opening Day"
--- Roger Craig

With the new schedule everyone plays on opening day and we've got some matchups you won't want to miss.  I decided to rank them in terms of quality using our RSAA (Runs Saved Against Average) stat.  A refresher, this stat tries to determine how many runs a pitcher saves his team compared to league average.  League average is zero, so the negative numbers are better than average, and positive numbers are lower than average.

Using this statistic we have two superior matchups to look forward to:

First, Sean S' Sparta Hoplites travel to Shamokin to face Mike M's Miners.  There, we are treated to a Pedro Martinz vs Johnny Podres matchup.  Pedro is easily the best pitcher in the game and averages 44 runs saved per year.  In normal terms, he's averaged a 2.66 ERA and a 0.97 WHIP.  

Podres is no slouch himself, averaging a -23.3 RSAA over the past three years with a 39-31 record and a 2.94 ERA.

Our second matchup is just as good, and Division rivalry to boot.  While neither pitcher surpasses Martinez, both are better than Podres.  Carl Hubbell stormed into the league three  years ago when Gold Country created him anew and drafted him 5th; he helped them to a division title with a 17-6 record.  In all, he's averaged a 3.00 ERA and 1.15 WHIP in his three years, never falling above the -20 RSAA mark.  Joe V has high hopes for the left hander.

Stephen L counters with Walter Johnson.  The Big Train was drafted 'early' this season and the topic was bantered around the draft room for the first few days of the draft.  For all the negative talk we need to remember it was around draft position, no one argued that Johnson is not an ace starting pitcher.  Case in point?  ATB 16 when Johnson made an incredible 45 starts and held down a 2.56 ERA.

Three other matchups bear watching for quality starting pitching.   The two time returning World Series Champions, Spanish Harlem, who are currently 19-4 in the preason by the way, are hoping for a monster year from Tex Hughson.  The righty has had big seasons in ATB (18-8 with a 2.67 in ATB 12) but has struggled the last two years in hitters parks.  Hughson and the Beaters travel (west?) to Denver to face the RoidBoys and their leader, Cy Blanton.  The 26 year old is coming off a down year (again in a batters park) but don't let that fool you, the righty has posted double digit negative RSAA seasons 5 times in his career.

The Adventurers send Addie Joss (3.58 career ERA) to the mound to battle Jesse Tannehill (3.85 ERA) of the New orleans Clown Punchers.

Elsewhere, Hudson Madbum opens ATB 17 with Al Orth (3.77 ERA) and the Rochester Red Wings counter with Russ Ford (3.84 ERA)*.

*These ERA's look gawd awful, but remember, we are coming fresh off a no DH league last year, where the league average ERA was a miniscule 3.65 and no team, an entire team (!) had an ERA worse than 4.25.  Two years ago, in ATB 15, the league average ERA was 40 points higher and 10 teams had ERA's over 4.25 and the worst was over 5.00.  

The AL is in for a rude awakening this season.  Quick trivia, what do Al Orth, Babe Adams, Walter Johnson, John Tudor, Addie Joss, and Tex Hughson have in common?  They are all opening day starters this year that had ERA's north of 4.00 the last time we played in a DH league.

 

Finally, two additional matchups will interest everyone due to the involvement of two newly created aces - Clayton Kershaw from 2014 and Dwight Gooden of 1984.  Neither have any ATB history, and both are being counted upon as #1 starters.

The rest of the games still feature some incredible pitchers, but their opponents leave a little to be desired.  Good luck to all, and have a great opening day on Sunday!

20 Resims - #23 - Downsouth Brews

800 OPS Batters: 

None 

Sub 3.75 ERA Starters

2.70 – Pedro Martinez

Sub 3.00 ERA Relievers

None

Best Value Draft Pick

Rd 26 – Jason Motte (78 IP, 3.79 ERA)

Bust Draft Pick

Rd 9 – Chief Bender (2 IP per season)

#24 - Colorado Greensox
#23 - Downsouth Brews

The Great, the Good, and the Ugly

It's been a while...

Opps - Your ATB Pitcher All Stars!

Astute reader Mike S pointed out the problems in fielding an All Star team without a pitching staff.  Where were the rest of you!

American League
SP 1 - Pedro Martinez (DB)
SP 2 - Garland Braxton (SPB)
SP 3 - Lefty Grove (PRL)
SP 4 - Camillo Pascual (PRL)
SP 5 - Jesse Tannehill (DIM)

LR - Red Ryan (DC)

SEL - Alexander Torres (SM)
SER - Jeff Russell (SM)

CL L - Tug McGraw (DIM)
CL R - Tom Gordon (OFB)

National League
SP 1 - Kevin Appier (HH)
SP 2 - Joe Wood (BS)
SP 3 - Walter Johnson (CGS)
SP 4 - Greg Maddux (DI)
SP 5 - Joe Horlen (RPF)

LR - Russ Ford (HH)

SEL - John Hiller (HH)
SER - Rafael Soriano (SH)

CL L - BJ Ryan (HH)
CL R - Bobby Jenks (DI)