Divisional Alignment

As always, both the divisional alignment and draft order is selected using the excel random number generator - two different permutations.

This year, we had 14 owners wish to be in the AL, but four of them were "ok" moving to the NL if need be.  Thank you David K and Stephen L - I used a third random number generator for those four owners, and you two popped out.

Here is the alignment with career win total (career wpct) - career high wins

AL East
Mike S......1585 Wins (.576 wpct) - 117 W
Brad P......1347 Wins (.520 wpct) - 106 W
Gary G.......279 Wins (.431 wpct) -- 74 W
Tony P........73 Wins (.451 wpct) -- 73 W

AL Central
Allen C......422 Wins (.372 wpct) -- 68 W
Greg M.......209 Wins (.430 wpct) -- 78 W
Justin B.....188 Wins (.580 wpct) -- 96 W
David I........0 Wins (.000 wpct) --- 0 W 

AL West
Lou P ......1635 Wins (.594 wpct) - 111 W
Jason B......720 Wins (.556 wpct) - 109 W
Joe T........662 Wins (.511 wpct) -- 95 W
John J........72 Wins (.444 wpct) -- 72 W

NL East
Joe V........334 Wins (.515 wpct) -- 99 W
Al H.........130 Wins (.401 wpct) -- 75 W
Thomas R......76 Wins (.469 wpct) -- 76 W

Will G.........0 Wins (.000 wpct) --- 0 W

NL Central
Justin P....1632 Wins (.593 wpct) - 113 W
Mike M.......266 Wins (.547 wpct) -- 96 W
Stephen L.....76 Wins (.469 wpct) -- 76 W
Joel Q.........0 Wins (.000 wpct) --- 0 W 

NL West
TJO.........1335 Wins (.485 wpct) - 106 W
Ivar A.......684 Wins (.469 wpct) -- 88 W
Brian B......624 Wins (.481 wpct) -- 91 W
David K......368 Wins (.568 wpct) - 100 W

Player Cards Updated

Link on the top menu or here.

I had some difficulty with the conditional formatting, which allows each stat to be highlighted if it is a league leader, all time leader, etc.  I had to turn that off for now.

ATB 18 Owners and Draft Day Set

Hey Everyone

We've got our 24th player this morning - a hearty welcome to David I and Joel Q.  Also returning after a small hiatus is Will G.

A couple of you have had requests in terms of draft timing.  And of course they conflict with each other so I'm doing the best I can to accomodate the most people.

As in the past, the draft is broken down into 3 sections - stadium draft, slow draft, and full draft.  The stadium draft is self explanatory, and the only change from previoius years is the pace - it was awful doing that for a full week so I am going to speed that up.

Then we move into the slow draft, were we only draft 1 player per day at a leaisurely pace.  Hopefully, this is OK for the folks who asked for end of month.

Finally, we pick up the pace with 3-5 picks per day to round out the draft.

Dates:

• Stadium Draft - January 6-8
• Slow Draft - January 11-15 (Rounds 1-5)
• Full Draft - January 18th until complete

If all goes well, opening day will be early february.

I will start to post the draft order in reverse order, but in the meantime every owner must send me their preferences for DH or no DH league right away.  I can't post the Divisional Alignment until this is determined.

Lou

Owner List for ATB 18

1 Justin B

2 Lou P

3 TJ O

4 Joe T

5 Justin P

6 Brian B

7 Joe V

8 Stephen L

9 Jason B

10 Brad P

11 Thomas R

12 David K

13 Gary G

14 Mike M

15 Greg M

16 John J

17 Tony P

18 Ivar A

19 Joel Q (welcome!)

20 Mike S
21 Allen C
22 Al H
23 David I (welcome!)
24 Will G

We're set!  In the coming days I will start to publish the draft order and everyone will have to let me know if they prefer the NL or the AL for DH reasons.

Average League OPS Increased in 2015

Offense rebounded a bit, rising 19-24 basis points depending upon the league.  Can't wait to see the effect on someone like Bryce Harper who killed the ball this year.

Here's the historical view for the two main leagues:

Joe Wood vs Walter Johnson

I've mentioned my favorite baseball book before - Glory of Their Times by Lawrence Ritter - here is an excerpt from Joe Wood.  It really helps paint the picture of how important the game was back then.

The premise of the book was for Ritter to sit down with players of the 1900s era and capture their stories, so this is from Wood's perspective.

Want to Remember this One

What a game.  Good luck Jason B!

Never Forget

Well done piece on President Bush's first pitch at Yankee Stadium in game three of the 2001 World Series.  Love 'em or hate 'em, he represented America well that day.

ATB 17 Silver Slugger Winners

C - .299, 17 HR, 103 RBI, Bill Dickey (ANK)
1B- .282, 37 HR, 117 RBI, Jeff Bagwell (DEN)
2B- .290, 38 HR, 116 RBI, Rogers Hornsby (BRO)
3B- .289, 30 HR, 105 RBI, Adrian Beltre (HEL)
SS- .264, 37 HR, 103 RBI, Willie Wells (WPO)
LF- .350, 32 HR, 104 RBI, Ted Williams (LAK)
CF- .289, 34 HR, 113 RBI, Oscar Charleston (SHA)
RF- .313, 25 HR, 132 RBI, Heavy Johnson (LAK)

The Silver Slugger Award is for our non-saber crowd, and it is awarded to those players with the best combination of batting average, home runs, and RBI.

2015 Royals Prove DMB Has it Right

Great article by the great Joe Pos.  Royals are winning because of defense and a great pen.