Tuesday, May 18, 2010

PREDICTIONS & HALL OF FAME

Last season I made awards predictions with some success. Going to do it again because it gives me a chance to profile some of the best players in the league as well as some up and comers.

NL MVP
Obvious: Taylor Glynn - Back-to-back NL MVP. In total, he has won three of the last four. Hit 50+ HRs in each MVP season.

Not So Obvious:
Martin won NL ROY in Season 13 when he hit .352 and had 228 hits. In two seasons he's averaged 215 hits, 110 runs, 91 RBI and 25 HR. If  he bats above these averages then he has got to at least be a candidate to win the award.

NL Cy Young
Obvious: Leonardo Walker - Two-time NL Cy Young Award winner. Best NL pitcher. Period.

Not So Obvious:
Delgado is a former Cy Young winner from Season 13. He will need to duplicate the 2.08 ERA from that season to challenge Walker. Has won 13 or more games in nine of 10 seasons and had a sub-3.00 ERA in six of those seasons.

NL Rookie of the Year
Obvious: Leon Padgett - Former number one overall draft pick in Season 12. Extremely good pitching ratings for a 22-year old. Looks like a future Cy Young Award winner.

Not So Obvious:
Hayashi is a $15 million free agent from Japan that rawdk27 signed in Season 11. He was later traded to Mexico City and last season he made an impression during a cup of coffee stop to the Majors. He went 7 for 13 with four extra-base hits and drove in seven runs. His carrer minor league numbers were impressive as well. .324/.425/.584/1.009

NL Batting Champion
Obvious: Pat Rivera - Has won two of the last three NL batting titles. Career .345 batting average and plays in hitter's paradise.

Not So Obvious:
Nap Sherman has the 5th highest batting average in league history (.322). He also owns a batting title from Season 10 and plays in the same extreme hitter's park that Rivera plays in.

AL MVP
Obvious: Louie Ma - All this guy does is win MVPs and batting titles. Has three of each.

Not So Obvious:
Lost most of last season and his hitting streak of 20+ games because of a herniated disk in his neck. McNeil, 25, has the skill to hit .300 with 40 HRs while stealing 30 bases.

AL Cy Young
Obvious: Tomas Armas - Best pitcher in Fingers history. Seven-time AL Cy Young winner.

Not So Obvious:
Rico Macias has 97 career wins in 5 big league seasons with the MAPS. He's recently been involved in a trade with Richmond but that won't stop him from contending for the Cy Young. If he limits the number of home runs allowed then he can win 20 games.

AL Rookie of the Year
Obvious: Samuel Davis - The 8th overall pick from Season 11 has destroyed mino league pitching at every stop. In 307 games he's hit .377 with an OPS of 1.234.

Not So Obvious:

Righthander Rudy MacDougal was drafted 7 picks after Samuel Davis. In 100 minor league starts he has held opposing hitters to a .232 batting average and struck out 500 batters in 510 innings pitched. MacDougal has one decent pitch and good control & splits.

AL Batting Champion
Obvious: Horacio Martin - Two-time AL Batting champ. Hit .321 despite playing in extreme pitcher's park. froidl moved the team to a hitter's ballpark and Martin will benefit greatly.

Not So Obvious:
Ramirez has quietly been one of the best hitters in the league. Only once in nine seasons has his batting average been below .313. Last season it was .342 when he moved to the hitter's park in Boise. Like always, expect Louie Ma to be in this race too.

HALL OF FAME
Congratulations to Nolan Wall for becoming the 1st postion player in Fingers League history to make the Hall of Fame. While looking at his statistics I saw what he accomplished in Season 5. It made me want to pose the question: In the last decade worth of seasons, who has put up the best offensive season?

Nolan Wall - FIVE - .339/.400/.705/1.105/ 59HR / 135R / 181RBI
Pedro Alvarez - SEVEN - .322/.378/.680/1.058 / 63HR / 120R / 188RBI
Chuck Moore - TWELVE - .325/.395/.694/1.089 / 71HR / 132R/ 158RBI
Pat Rivera - FOURTEEN - .361/.442/.546/.988 / 21HR / 145R / 103RBI
Louie Ma - ELEVEN - .352/.460/.665/1.125 / 40HR / 117R / 161RBI
Horacio Martin - TWELVE - .343/.433/.552/.985 / 27HR / 167R / 90RBI

Monday, May 10, 2010

WELCOME TO SEASON 15

OFFSEASON MOVES

Boston deals for some big names. In three seperate moves the Brawlers added OF Del Campos, P Cliff Dessens, P Marc White and their 10 combined WS titles. bunting also added former NL MVP Spike Cambridge and 23-game winner Felipe Marquez. Three-time AL MVP Louie Ma might have made some comments to management about the three straight seasons with no playoffs.

motey's big problem with the PooHoles was that he never provided the team with enough offense. The pitching was top notch but they always finished in the bottom half of the league in runs scored. New owner zoobaseball went out and added aging but still effective slugger Santiago Santiago, 200HR/200SB club member Byung-Hyun Chen and speedy CF Mike Pickett.

Big Money Free Agents:
Cristobal Rojas 5yrs/32.5mil (Charleston)
Kenny Borders 3yrs/20.6mil (Washington)
Jacob Wells 5yrs/40mil (Richmond)
Marlon Purcell 4yrs/37.8mil (Fargo)
Edwards Fitzgerald 4yrs/33.2mil (Santa Cruz)
Chris Green 4yrs/54mil (Scranton)
Nipsey Parrish 5yrs/43.5mil (Richmond)

THE YEAR OF THE 500th HR?

Five players are within striking distance of the 500-HR club. All need 43 HRs or less to reach the milestone.

Karim Oliva - 486 HR - Oliva was once a guy with a near perfect power rating. But that number as well as his HR total have been in steadily decline since Season 11. He struggled to hit 17 HR last season and may not reach 14 until late in the year.
Esteban Rivera - 471 HR - The longtime Chicago Blackhawks backstop quietly moved to Mexico City in what could be a steal of a signing. His power rating has also been in decline since Season 11 but his HR total has not suffered. It'll be interesting to see what type of effect the NL pitching will have on this future Hall of Famer.
Clarence Black - 469 HR - Black had his streak of nine straight 40+ HR season snapped last season. It's hard to tell why he dropped to 27 HR since I see his power rating staying the same from the prior season. Regardless though, I can't bet against this guy hitting at least 31 HR. He's just too damn good.
Dale Pritchett - 459 HR - It's been a couple of seasons since Pritchett clubbed 40 HR but if he sees enough LHP he will have a good shot at hitting 41. Again, this is another guy who is too good and too close to 500 to not reach this mark in under two seasons time.
Kenny Butler - 457 HR - The move to a pitcher's park in Portland will probably keep Butler from hitting his 500th HR this season. But it will only delay the inevitable for one more season. He is only 32-years-old so he has a good number of years to exceed 500.

HALL OF FAME

In my opinion these two players are the most deserving of entry to the Hall of Fame. Both played a huge part in the three straight championships that the Richmond Tobacco Beetles franchise won.

Wall won a NL MVP Award and went to nine of the first 10 Fingers All-Star games. He had 11 seasons where he scored 90 or more runs, hit more than 26 HRs and drove in over 85 runs.

For the seven straight seasons it was a lock that Pena would finish with this line: .300 / 14 HR / 80 R / 70 RBI/ 40 XBH. In real life a catcher has only pulled this off 19 times ever. During the three Beetle title runs he hit .353 in 46 games.