Zaps at Tweeners

Zaps 3, Tweeners 1

From Al...
Tweeners continue to look for some breaks - and a winning streak. Someone should have told me I needed to pitch around Andrew F. McCutchen; for the series he hit .471, scored 5, drove in 5, stole 2 bases, doubled, tripled, homered - who knew. The only game we won was against Greinke. I think I'll play the Wahoos and see if things improve.

Tweeners at Drillers

The Drillers sweep a pair of home games to leap back into first in the NERDD.

FFTs vs Drillers

Drillers 8, FFTs 6

From the Driller Dude...

Game 1: FFTs win 5 – 0 behind an Oswalt 5-hit shutout.

Game 2: FFTs win 7 – 2 with Ichiro going 5 for 5 with 3 rbi.

Game 3: Drillers win 4 – 3 as four guys get hits!

Game 4: Drillers win 2 – 1 as Haren scatters 10 hits (Drillers had only 4).

Game 5: Drillers win 4 – 2 in a game that saw ZERO double plays.

Game 6: Drillers win 9 – 5 as Harang takes it on the chin.

Game 7: FFTs win 3 – 1 with some guy named Kuroda out pitching Lincecum.

Moving to FFT World…

Game 8: Drillers win 1 – 0 behind Lincecum and a solo Reimold tater.

Game 9: FFTs win 8 – 2 as Haren gets torched for all eight.

Game 10: Drillers win 4 – 1 due to Kendall playing catch with Bourn rather than Izturis (twice!).

Game 11: Drillers win 5 – 1 Hammel wins!

Game 12: FFTs win 3 – 1 Weaver beats Shields.

Game 13: Drillers win 5 – 1 Rzepczynski over Washburn

Game 14: FFTs win 4 – 3 on a Furcal squeeze in the 8^th.

Tweeners at Zaps

The Zaps took 4 out of 7.

Demerits

The league commissioner has asked me to give a demerit each to the Rhinos and Inmates for not reaching 50 games played by June 1.

The next marker is 75 games played by July 1.

Warpigs vs SuperGoofs

Goofs 5, Pigs 3

We played all 7 of the Pig home games and 1 of the Goofs' in order to get to 50 under the deadline. The Goofs pounded the ball, hitting 21 homers in 8 games. Oddly, all of them were on either 4-11, 4-12, 4-2, or 6-2.

Game 1 - Goofs win 4-1. Greg Zaun hit 2-run homers in the 2nd and 3rd inning. Only a Adam Lind solo shot in the 9th kept this from being a shutout.

Game 2 - Pigs win 9-8. The Pigs jumped out to leads of 8-0 and 9-1, and then watched and laughed as the PigPen tried to get outs. Funny stuff. The game ended when the potential tying run was thrown out trying to steal 2nd.

Game 3 - Pigs win 8-4. An 8-run 3rd inning against Barry Zito was enough. Cliff Lee went the distance.

Game 4 - Goofs win 18-1. In what might have been the most perfect game in the glorious history of the Goofs, only two things marred the scorebook. The Pigs scratched across a run in the bottom of the 9th again to avoid the whitewashing, but the big story was former UTA star Hunter Pence. In the top of the 9th, Pence choked on a 1-16 homer chance, settling for the triple. The shame is, that would have been Pence's 4th home run of the game. He ended up 4/5 with 7 RBI and 15 total bases. Josh Beckett scattered 17 hits and 14 runs in his 7 innings of work.

Game 5 - Goofs win 9-3. The following is a list of all the interesting things that happened in this game:

Game 6 - Pigs win 8-6 in 11 innings. This game, on the other hand was kinda fun. Barry Zito, fresh from getting blasted by the Pig bats earlier, took a no-hitter into the 8th before Delmon Young squirted a single up the middle. Geovanny Soto, then pinch hit in an at bat saving move, and launched his first homer of the season to make the game 3-2. Mike Adams came in to calm things down, but he was pulled in the 9th for Jonathan Broxton. Broxton blew the save when Albert Pujols scored from 1st on a double by Oscar Salazar (1-9 at home). By this time, the PigPen (such as it is) was out of pitchers, so naturally the Goofs scored 3 in the top of the 10th. But the Pig offense wasn't finished, and matched the Goofs with 3 runs of their own. The game ended in the 11th when Cody Ross hit a 2-run homer off of Kyle McClellan.

Game 7 - Goofs win 12-1. The angry Goofs retaliated with a 6-run first and cruised to the win. Adam Lind homered for the Pigs.

Game 8 - Goofs win 6-3. In the "Get To 50!" game, the clubs moved to GoofyVille, and the Goofs stay hot to win the game.

DVs vs FFTs and DVs vs Zaps

From the Propeller Head...
Okay, the vacation took a turn for the worse as I got all the games I
had instructions for played. I do not have Zaps email here so please
pass along this note as appropriate. Since typing on the iPhone is
only slightly less painful than watching my team, I shall be brief.
DVs go 3-7 vs FFTs and 1-4 vs Zaps.
Only observations are that the 2-8 straight home run shot on Fatboy
Fielder's card is ridiculous. Please, he couldn't carry his dad's
bratwurst. And Maicer Izturus hitting a grand slam off of Halladay to
provide the winning runs in a critical game 9 is ludicrous as well.
Stats will be sent within 24 hours of my return to civilization. DVs
now 42-49 after a brief visit to the intoxicating .500 level.
Back to the beer.

Drillers vs Wahoos

From the Driller Dude...

Drillers and Wahoos go 5 – 5 in a series that saw Ellsbury steal home after stealing 2nd and third; Lincecum have a 1.38 era and go 1 – 1; Jeter make 4 errors and allow 4 hits by him.

Tweeners vs Sidewinders

From the Snakeman...

Snakes and Tweeners split 10 in Russellville. We finish the season series 7-7. Another year in the books in the heated intrastate rivalry.

6/14 -Kubel hits a HR in the top of the 10th to give the SSWs a 3-2 win.

6/15 The Tweeners torch the snake staff 12-3

6/16 Snakes score 3 in the first on a Kubel HR and make it stand up 3-2. Lilly gets the win, Wuertz the save.

7/26 Tweeners win 5-3

7/27 Jimenez throws a 6 hit shutout, snakes win 7-0

7/28 On Edgardo Alfonzo bobblehead night, fans at the Church Lot were treated to free baseball courtesy of Carlos Pena who hit a HR in the top of the ninth off of Wuertz to tie the game at 2. Each team scores one in the 12th. Pena hits a grand slam off of Masterson in the top of the 13th to win it for the Tweeners. The field was promptly showered with Alfonzo heads by the Stanley faithful......

9/12 Neftali loses his first game as the Tweeners win 3-2.

9/13 A miserable day for pitchers as this DH is split 8-5 and 6-12.

9/14 Lester saves the snakes from a tweener split by tossing a 5 hit shutout.

Inmates vs Fungoes

Two oddities in this series. One, the first game ended with an unprecedented (in NASOMA, anyway) walk-off steal of home. The other oddity is some nice game reports from BOTH managers. Here are both...

From The HEAD INMATE...

The Beakless Chicken Gang played the inaugural NASOMA series at WTF Park at Fungoe Estates, only to be treated like shit by the Fungi.

FUNGOES 2, INMATES 1 – A 12-inning pitchers’ duel with nine Inmate/Fungoe pitchers allowing only a total of 17 hits. A walk-off steal of home (!!!???) on a 1-6 roll with two outs in the bottom of the 12th sealed the win for the cheatin’ bastages of Fungoeville. WTF!

INMATES 3, FUNGOES 0 – Five Inmate pitchers combine to toss an 8-hit shutout.

INMATES 10, FUNGOES 2 – Vazquez shuts down the Fungoe bats, while Rowland-Smith and the Fungoe arson squad pitch batting practice. B. Molina and A. Jones tater for the Inmates.

FUNGOES 13, INMATES 6 – A Beltre grand-salami in the Inmates 1st is all the Baptist Bowl Choralaires had to sing about as the Fungoe bats awoke to pound out 15 hits, including a slammer of their own.

FUNGOES 4, INMATES 3 – A missed 1-10 HR by Ryan Howard is all that stood between ingnominy and extra-innings for the Inmates. Inmates chose to be ignominious. Papelbon shuts down Impotenmate bats in 9th to take prophylactic match. Inmates now 18-27.


And from the Fungass...

Fungoes and Inmates played today at WTF Field. The results of the inaugural games here at WTF are as follows:

Game 1:

Fungoes score the first run at WTF with a 2nd inning Triple by Zimmerman followed by a sac fly by Figgins. Wakefield gives up a run in the top of the third and the game remains tied up until the 12th inning. Fungoes leadoff batter Brett Gardner singles in the bottom of the twelth inning. Cesar izturis lays down the sac bunt and then Denard Span moves Gardner to third with the ground-out to second base. Fungoes manager Al Kaline then flashes the steal sign to Gardner who speeds down the line and steals home for the win!!! Papelbon picks up the win as the Fungoes win game one, 2-1.

Game 2:

Inmate pitching, incensed at the steal of home in game one shut down the Fungoes in game two as 5 hurlers combine for the shutout. Price takes the loss for the Fungoes as the Inmates win game two, 3-0.

Game 3:

Inmates score 4 in the first and never look back, winning it big 10-2. Row-Smith gives up the four spot in the first for the loss.

Game 4:

Inmates score 4 again in the first inning. Kershaw gives up the four spot in the first along with single runs in the 4th and 5th, yet he hangs on for the win as the Fungo offense wakes up and scores 6 in the second and 6 in the fifth, coasting to the 13-6 win.

Game 5:

Fungoes win a close game 5, 4-3 with Stetter picking up the win and Papelbon the save!

Fungoes win 3 of 5 raising their overall record to 32 - 24.

The big question the day; is a steal of home to win it considered a "walk-off" Steal!!!

Sidewinders at Mavs

The Mavs lost 4 of 5 to the 1st place Snakes.

NASOMAspeak

Zaps suck = We're so bad we lost a series to Sally and the DeeVees!

DVs at Zaps

DVs 3, Zaps 2

From the Zapper...

Zaps suck.

Fungoes vs Wahoos

From the Fungoid...

Fungoes and Wahoos played 8 today. Wahoos jumped on the Fungomiester early winning the first three games. Fungoes would turn things around though, winning the last five! Here are the highlights:

Game 1:

Wahoos score three in the 2nd and three in the 3rd (all off of Kershaw) winning game one 9-1.

Game 2:

Wahoos get to Porcello for 4 runs in 5 innings and then make it stand up winning 4-2.

Game 3:

Wahoos score five in the 8th smashing the Fungoes 10-2. Ryan Rowland-Smith takes the loss!

It was somewhere around this point when the /Fungoes thought about heading for home.......we were being harassed by the Indians and Chief Wahoo was on the warpath!

Game 4:

Fungoes score in the third inning for our first lead of the day! Fungoes go on to win 4-1. Row-Smith picks up the win and Paps gets the save for the Fungi.

Game 5:

Kershaw redeems himself as he and Pinto combine for the shutout! Fungoes win 5-0.

Game 6:

Fungoes bats wake up to the tune of 18 hits and the Fungoes win it 12-5. Pinto gets the win and Feldman picks up a three inning save. A strange occurrence took place in Game six as four straight Wahoo batters hit second base X chances. Hudson is a 1e10 and you'd think this would be great for the Fungoes. Unfortunately he booted three of the four chances!!!

Game 7:

Wahoos lose a heart-breaker when the Fungoes score 5 in the top of the 9th to win 6-2. Trailing 1-0 in the 8th Matt Wieters hits a ballpark homer (1 through 6) and rolls it for the tie score. In the bottom of the the frame Wahoos hit a ballpark homer (1) to take a 2-1 lead. Fungoes hit 2 homers in the top of the ninth for the comeback! Vargas picks up the win in relief for the Fungoes.

Game 8:

Fungoes win the finale 5-2. Pinto wins it while Papelbon picks up the save.

Fungoes are now 29 - 22

Inmates are making the trip up Sunday for the first games in the new "friendly" confines of WTF field!

Sidewinders at Wahoos

From the Chief...

Wahoos win 2 of the first 3, but things fell apart in the last two and went 2-3. For the season, we split the series.

Drillers at Sidewinders

From the Snakeman...

WTF??? Why is LeBron James a topic on BB TONIGHT???

Snakes go 4-1 vs the drillers at the snakepit.

We have not been playing well on the road, 5-10 last 15 away from Stanley. The drillers won the first game 3-2. The last 4 were 8-1, 10-1, 4-0,13-0. We did not face Lincecum or Haren. I guess DD did not feel he needed to bring his "A" squad to the snakepit OR he is saving them for my favorite girl group Sally and the DeeVees.......

DVs vs Sidewinders

From the DeeVee...

DVs take 4 of 5 at home and then Snakes almost pull back to even by going 3-2 in the Snakepit. Total runs for the series were 39 each, Snakes couldn’t capitalize at a few key times in the series, with the DVs hitting more homers (7 to 4). Some highlights:

Game 1 With Starlin Castro watching from the press box, DVs win 8-1 as Cahill gives up a run in the first, but then spins a 2 hitter and the DVs bats carry the load
Game 2 SSWs pound Aaron Cook and lead 10-0 going into the 6th behind Zambrano. The DVs mount a challenge that is only strong enough to attract the attention of the ‘hotties’ sitting behind the dugout, and eventually the Snakes prevail 10-6. Jeremy Hellickson is spotted lurking around the player entrance to the DV locker room.
Game 3 – Halladay and Lester hook up in a nice duel, with the DVs winning 5-3
Game 4- The only extra inning game, Matt Holliday has a walk off walk and the DVs win 4-3
Game 5 – Cahill stays hot and wins 4-1. The series shifts to the Snake Pit:
Game 6 – Snakes get off to a good start behind a complete game by Jimenez as they win 4-3 on a Markakis walk off double that drove in Derek Lee, who had a pinch hit double ahead of him
Game 7- DVs ensure at least a split with a 3-2 win with the bullpen contributing 2 and 2/3 scoreless innings
Game 8 – Danks pitches well and the SSW win 4-3.
Game 9 –The DVs ride a Halladay complete game that notches his 9th win with a 3 hit shutout.
Game 10 – Mike Stanton takes BP with the DV major leaguers before the game, to which Snakes manager is overhead to comment: “Damn”. Zambrano takes charge in the real game however, and the Sidewinders romp 11-1.

Sidewinders at Drillers

From the Driller Dude...

Drillers go 3 and 2 vs Snakes in Mud Pit.

Game 1: Longoria boots two yet some scrub named “Murphy” turns DPs… Even in a perfect world, Drillers shouldn’t be on the same field with Snakes. 5 – 2 Snakes.

Game 2: Mauer goes deep on a 1 to 3. Driller clean-up hitter ties it via suicide squeeze! Shields makes an early Sac Fly stand up with help of pen! Drillers win, 2 – 1.

Game 3: Kubel makes a catch, hits a tater, then gives up a triple to Valbuena. Markakis adds insurance run. David Murphy blasts a pinch-hit, 2-out, 3-run shot off Soriano to put Drillers up 5 – 3 for good. Lincecum moves to 4 – 5 on the year with victory.

Game 4: Ellsbury blasts a 3-run DONG off Peavy in 2nd after Beltran gives up a fbB + 2 base error to, THAT MAN, Valbuena! Luckily, David Wright is “W” power vs righties or the game would have been tied in the 5th ! Wright missed another “wish I was “N” 3-run shot in the 8th thus tying the game rather than taking a 3-run lead! Ellsbury singles, moves the third on Johnson’s single to right and scores on Jeter’s Sac Fly to set up Nathan for his 3rd win. Drillers win 5 – 4. Thank you Mr. limp wristed David Wright!

Game 5: Not to beat a dead horse… an error by our favorite 3rd baseman, David Wright, allowed the Drillers to break the scoreless tie in the 5th. Zambrano went on to walk the bases full plus one. He left the field grabing his crotch in a suggestive manner muttering something in the direction of third. Neftali accidently tossed a warm-up pitch at Wright’s head… which he also dropped. Feliz cleans up the mess. Hammel promptly tires in the 6th with one out. Mind you this is only a 2 – 1 game, Drillers on top. At this point the Snakes have out hit Drillers TEN to ONE! Snakes tie it when Seth Smith drops a lfX single; Wilson Ks his way out of the inning holding the tie. Mauer blasts ANOTHER 1 to 3 ballpark tater with two out and two on in the 9th, followed up with 2-4 roll from D. Lee. Snakes out Drillers 14 to 2 but have to win it in the ninth. Snakes 5 – 2 to close it out.

Driller at Buckeyes

Buckeyes win 3 out of 5. Runs were scored, hits were... hit, errors were (possibly) made. Big strikeouts, nice glovework... But I'm only guessing.

Los Bees at Los DVs

It was Cinco de Mayo La Festivale Day at DV Field. Former DV great and Mexican hero Benji Gil threw out the first ball (well over the head of its intended target. Score that e6).

From Los DV...

Bees gain 5 more games on the FFTs – although the DVs take 3 of 5 to tamp down the Bee celebration.
Also had a first – Hal subbed in a player (Schumaker) at a position that wasn’t listed on his card – SS. DVs played the final inning under protest, but ended up winning in the bottom of the 9th, so justice prevails (see editor's note below). Overall a rather unrealistic series as Halladay lost a game.

Editor's note regarding the substitution oddity: Dugout conversation transcript:

BeeBoy: Gonzalez, get Wilson outta there. He sucks so bad. Gawdammit! You go to shortstop.
Alberto Gonzalez: I no play, senor. Is Viva la Revolution day! A national holiday. My family much pride. I no play.
BeeBoy: Get your ass out there.
Gonzalez: Umm... no.
BeeBoy: You know, this day has nothing to do with a revolution. It was just some damn war.
Gonzalez: Viva la Revolution!!!!
BeeBoy: Besides, aren't you from Venezuela?
Gonzalez: VIVA LA REVOLUTION!!!!
Benji Gil: I'll play.
Schumaker: I'll do it, sir! Fuck the Mexicans!
BeeBoy: Do you play shortstop?
Schumaker: Well, no, but I know where to stand.
BeeBoy: You do?
Schumaker: A bit.
Gil: I'll play.
BeeBoy: Fine, Schumaker. Get out there. We'll have to go ahead and lose this one, though, to avoid any kind of protest. And let me tell you, it ain't easy losing to the fuckin' DVs. Damn bunch of sissies. Fuck em!

Standings Update - May 1

B.U.D.	W	L	%	GB		Remaining Games	Last Update
Rhinos	28	17	.622	--		117	3/28/10
Wahoos	19	17	.528	4.5		126	5/1/10
SuperGoofs	19	23	.452	7.5		120	5/1/10
Warpigs	17	25	.405	9.5		120	5/1/10
M.F.D.	W	L	%	GB
Buckeyes	39	31	.557	--		92	4/30/10
Nads	37	34	.521	2.5		91	4/22/10
Inmates	16	24	.400	8.0		122	5/1/10
Mavs	22	42	.344	14.0		98	4/18/10
A.W.D.	W	L	%	GB
Sidewinders	34	17	.667	--		111	4/18/10
Killer Bees	50	40	.556	3.5		72	5/1/10
Pastas	41	35	.539	5.5		86	5/1/10
Tweeners	19	21	.475	9.5		122	4/26/10
N.E.R.D.D.	W	L	%	GB
Drillers	25	17	.595	--		120	5/1/10
Fungoes	24	19	.558	1.5		119	4/8/10
DVs	26	30	.464	6.0		106	5/1/10
FFTs	30	54	.357	16.0		78	4/13/10

Warpigs at Wahoos

Wahoos sweep a 3-game set at The Reservation.

Game 1 - Wahoos 7, Warpigs 3 - Aramis Ramirez hit a solo HR in the 4th, and two batters later Vernon Wells added a 3-run shot. That was all Gil Meche needed. Josh Beckett took the loss.

Game 2 - Wahoos 6, Warpigs 1 - Wade Davis lost the shutout on a 9th inning, clutch single, but he still got the complete game win, striking out 12.

Game 3 - Wahoos 4, Warpigs 3 - Why alcohol was invented: After Colby Rasmus hit a 2-run single in the top of the 9th inning to tie the game at 3, the Wahoo's bottom of the 9th went like this:
1. (Aaron Laffey pitching) Milton Bradley reaches on a ballpark single.
2. Vernon Wells attempts a hit and run, but rolls a strikeout. Because he is a "C" hit and run guy, he misses the pitch.
3. Bradley (who is not a *) needed a 6 to be running with a good lead. Naturally, he got it. But still, the Laffey/Olivo battery is a -5, s0 it was 1-8 to steal second. Bradley rolled the 3. The T-rating was 1-10. Overthrow. Runner is on third now. (A less patient, less mature man than myself would be throwing dice by now. Or a pen.)
4. Wells grounds out with the runner holding. 1 down.
5. Lastings Milledge pinch hits for Salty, and is intentionally walked.
6. Drew Stubbs hits for Jimmy Rollins and rolls a flyB, which is a single due to the outfield playing in. Game over.

The Wahoos reach the May 1 deadline with more than an hour to spare.

Killer Bees at Inmates

From The HEAD INMATE...

Inmates and Bees split a pair at the Baptist Bowl.

GAME 1 – Bees 6, Inmates 4 (15 innings). Inmate Arson Squad blows a 4-2 lead, then closer Guzman allows a two-run homer to Stewart in 15^th for the Bee win.

GAME 2 – Inmates 3, Bees 1. Bees were done in by a passed ball and an error. Howard tattered for the Inmates.

Inmates now 16-24.

SuperGoofs at Drillers

From the Driller Dude...

Drillers go 4 – 1 vs Goofs.

Hammel records first win! Drillers 5 – 3 in game one.

Ellsbury swipes 25th base in young season. Drillers 3 – 2 in game two.

Rzxpsktyvydrt out duels Zito in battle of lefties with odd names. Drillers 3 – 1 in game three.

Zito comes back for a shut out. Goofs 2 – 0 in game four.

Longoria goes 0 fer 7, hitting .168 on the season, but Sanches gets a win in 17 @#^%$ innings. Drillers 6 – 5 in game five.

Zaps at Inmates

From The HEAD INMATE...

Inmates 3 - Zaps 2 at the Baptist Bowl

Five close games at the Baptist Bowl:

GAME 1 – Inmates 3, Zaps 2. Matt Diaz hits two doubles. Both pitching staffs pitch well. Rodriguez takes the loss despite 9 Ks in 6 1/3 IP.

GAME 2 – Zaps 6, Inmates 3. A 3-all tie until the Inmate Arson Squad comes in to allow 3 runs on 7 hits in the last three innings. Howard wastes a pair of homers for the Inmates.

GAME 3 – Zaps 7, Inmates 6. 8 screaming fans watched the Zaps rally from a 5-2 deficit to squeak past the Inmate Arson Squad. Aardsma comes in with the winning run at the plate and saves the game for the Zaps.

GAME 4 – Inmates 2, Zaps 1. A classic pitchers’ duel. Both teams get 7 hits, but Inmates win in 9^th on Bengie Molina single with one out, scoring Chipper Jones. Floyd Ks 10 in complete game win.

GAME 5 – Inmates 3, Zaps 1. Another great pitching duel until Rhodes self-immolates in relief of Greinke in the 8^th. With 2 on, Rhodes allows 2 hits and a walk without getting an out. Vazquez Ks 11 in 8 2/3 for the win.

Inmates are now 15-23.

DVs at Killer Bees

Bees take 4 out 5 at the Hive.

Zaps at SuperGoofs

Goofs won 3 out of 5 games at home against the Zaps

Buckeyes at Drillers

From the Driller Dude...
Drillers go 3 – 2 vs Bucks at Mud Pit

Lincecum loses game 1: 2 – 3 Bucks
Nieman wins game 2: 5 – 2 Drillers
Drillers win game 3 in 14 innings: 4 – 3 Drillers
Hammel gets rocked in a complete game 20-hitter: 1 – 11 Bucks
Haren scatters 10 hits: 6 – 3 Drillers

Buckeyes at Tweeners

From the Tweeners...
Tweeners take 3 of 5 from the Buckeyes at the Hooverdome. Ben Zobrist's 2-run 8th inning HR is the difference in game 1 as we win 5-3. Felix throws 7 strong innings in game 2 and leaves with a 2-run lead, but Buckeyes tie it with 2 in the 9th; Carlos Pena saves us with a walk-off bomb in the 10th. We drop both ends of the 7/16 doubleheader by scores of 5-3 and 13-2. Tweeners rebound for a 7-3 win in game 5, as Victorino lacks only a single to hit for the cycle. Buckeyes out-hit us .279 to .230, out-pitch us 3.77 to 5.09, but our speed/power quotient (8 homers + 8 steals) help us win the series.

Inmates at Zaps

Zaps win 3 of 5 at home.

Zaps at Killer Bees

Zaps win 2 of 3 at the Hive.

Nads at Killer Bees

Bees take 3 of 5 at the Hive.

Inmates at Killer Bees

From the BeeBoy...
The Inmates take 4 of 5 at the Hive. Our only win came against Floyd, your lone righthander of the series. I thought I could hit LHP, guess not...you whooped our ass.

Killer Bees at Zaps

Bees win four of seven at the Zaps.

Sidewinders at Buckeyes

Buckeyes go 3 and 2 in 5 at home versus SSW

Killer Bees at Mavs

Killer Bees sweep Mavs on the road, 5-0.

Wahoos at Warpigs (cont.)

The Pigs went 2-0 to wrap up the 4-game series.

May 3 - Warpigs 4, Wahoos 3 in 10 innings - The Wahoos hit two solo homers in the first inning, but Mike Pelfrey settled down after that. A 6th inning homer by Albert Pujols tied the game at 3. The game ended in the bottom of the 10th when Stephen Drew went deep off of Phil Coke. Francisco Liriano got the win. Five of the seven runs in this game were scored on solo homers.

May 4 - Warpigs 6, Wahoos 1 - Cliff Lee gave up only a single run in the first inning, going the distance for the win. Delmon Young went 3/4 with a homer. Ricky Nolasco took the loss.

SuperGoofs at Sidewinders

Snakes win 4 of 5

Buckeyes at Sidewinders

Snakes win 4 of 5

SuperGoofs at Zaps

Super Goofs take three of five on the road.

Zaps at Sidewinders

From the Snakeman...

[Zaps] reversed the table on me and took 2 of 3. We both scored 8 runs in the 3 games. The rubber match was Greinke vs Jimenez. Crawford hit a one out single in the 9th off of Ubaldo. He stole second and Young hit a 2 out clutch RBI single. Greinke preserves his own win with a perfect 9th. We have 8 left.....

Sidewinders vs FFTs

Snakes takes 9 out of 10 from the FFTs to move into first in the AWD.

SuperGoofs at Killer Bees

From the BeeBoy...
Bees take 3 of 5 at the Hive.

Sidewinders at Zaps

From the Zapper...
Snakes take two of three on the road.

Sidewinders vs Tweeners

From the Snakeman...
Snakes and tweeners split a 4 game set at the snakepit. Highlight for snakes was an 11 run third inning in game 4. Beltran hit a pair of two run homers in the inning and we held on for an 11-7 win. Facing Felix and Wainright back to back is no fun.

Zaps at Fungoes

From the Fungoes... Fungoes manage to win only 2 of the 5 vs the Zaps at WTF Field. We got Zapped by the Zapper. Fungoes fall to 24-19.

Zaps at Warpigs

The Warpig starters silenced the Zap bats for four straight wins, before dropping game 5.

Gm 1 - Cliff Lee threw a complete game shutout, scattering 9 hits. Three DPs helped. Jeff Bailey made a rare start at DH and hit a 1st inning grand slam. Pigs win 7-0.

Gm 2 - The game was tied 2-2 when Miguel Olivo hit a 2-run homer in the bottom of the 7th. Josh Beckett went the distance for the 4-2 win.

Gm 3 - Curtis Granderson homered to lead off the game for the Pigs. Gordon Beckham hit a solo shot in the 3rd, and that was all John Lackey needed. The Zap run came in the 9th on a fielder's choice. If the DP had been turned, Lackey would have joined Lee in shutting out the Zaps. The Pigs win 2-1.

Gm 4 - I figured the Zap offense would finally explode vs Ross Ohlendorf, but game 4 brought the same quiet bats. Zap starter Max Scherzer pitched even better, throwing 6 shutout innings. But when he came out to start the 7th, Miguel Olivo greeted reliever Jim Johnson with a solo homer to tie the game at 1. In the bottom of the 8th, Cody Ross hit a 2-out triple to score Albert Pujols from first. Delmon Young then pinch hit a clutch single to score Ross. The Pigs win again, 3-1.

Gm 5 - Mike Pelfrey was the answer the Zap bats had been looking for. Three Zap homers helped Eric Bedard to an 8-2 win.

FFTs vs Zaps

Zaps win 8 of 10.

Mavs at Warpigs

Pigs win 4 of 5.

Gm 1 - Mavs score 8 in the second inning. They win 10-4. Butler and Uribe homer.

Gm 2 - Cliff Lee goes 7 for the win, 4-2.

Gm 3 - Josh Beckett throws a complete game and Pujols homers. Pigs win 5-2.

Gm 4 - Pujols hits 3 homers; Granderson hits a homer and 2 triples. Pigs win 13-7.

Gm 5 - Callaspo matches Granderson's feat from game 4 by tripling twice and homering. Pigs win 6-2.

Zaps at Buckeyes

Buckeyes go 3-2 at home.

Buckeyes at Zaps

Buckeyes win 3 out of 5 on the West Coast.

Wahoos at Warpigs

Wahoos win both games, 14-2 and 4-3.

Killer Bees at Buckeyes

Buckeyes go 2-1 in last three home games vs the Bees.

Warpigs at Zaps

Zaps won 4 of 5.

Mavs at Killer Bees

Bees 3, Mavs 2

From the Beeboy... Bees take 3 of 5 at my place. We had 4 complete games, 3 of which we won. In the complete game loss,Chad Billingsley struck out 15. Verlander and Jurrjens each had complete game shutouts. My team could not hit a lick...we only had 4 hrs combined in all 5 games; pretty piss-poor for a team built around a small ballpark.

Fungoes at Zaps

Zaps win 4 out of 5.

Warpigs at Mavs

Mavs win 4 games to 1.

April Fools Update

First of all, I want to thank all of you for making an otherwise boring Thursday a fun one. The little Wahoo got the benefit of playing Tom Sawyer going to his own funeral. I especially enjoyed getting the gullible Bees for the second year in a row.

Now... on to other things...

The NASOMA Rosters are posted on the website. All depth charts are updated, too. Please check both for errors and let me know. If you have gained or lost 2011 draft picks already, those are noted on your depth chart.

I think the weirdest thing was having no trades made during the weekend. None. Nada. Zero. Or at least there were none reported.

Somebody asked me the other day if there is ever a list of the cuts. There has not been a list like that, to my knowledge. Until now. Of the 30 players cut (the Mavs passed on his last two picks and didn't have to make cuts), almost half (14) were protected on pre-Draft rosters. Of the 16 draft picks cut, the earliest pick was Russell Branyan at pick 116. Here are the players cut after the 2010 Draft and the pick used to take them (those on pre-Draft rosters have an (R):

Warpigs - Lidge(171) and Martis(179)
Rhinos - Lindstrom(R) and Fontenot(157)
Wahoos - F.Morales(184) and Marson(192)
SuperGoofs - Troncoso(150) and Ortiz(182)

DVs - Lowell(R) and Lowrie(R)
FFTs - I.Rodriguez(R) and Ojeda(R)
Fungoes - Ibanez(R) and E.Patterson(151)
Drillers - Wagner(124) and Villanueva(140)

Buckeyes - Atkins(R) and Balfour(R)
Inmates - Clement(R) and Gamel(147)
Nads - Wellemeyer(175) and Gomes(183)

Sidewinders - Hermida(R) and G.Gonzalez(R)
Killer Bees - K.Wood(R) and Sheffield(180)
Tweeners - O.Cabrera(R) and Branyan(116)
Zaps - Encarnacion(R) and Inge(167)

Incidentally, NO team cut their last two picks. Thank God for the Tweener Rule.

There were 18 uncarded players taken in the Draft. One of those (Billy Wagner at pick 124 by the Drillers) was a cut. That leaves 17 new uncarded players to combine with the ones already on rosters. There were 11 uncarded players protected on pre-Draft rosters. One of those (Clement of the Inmates) was later cut. So there are 27 uncarded players on teams' reserve lists. Three of those are veterans (Webb and Glaus for the Nads; Sheets for the Rhinos).

The first round barely resembled my stab at a mock draft. I hit a few right on the nose, and I wasn't too far off on others. Here are the results:

1. Zobrist. My mock draft had the uncarded Desmond Jennings going here. It was not going to happen, but I needed to throw a little bait towards the Tweeners.

2. Bailey. I had Zobrist going here and Bailey going 4. Close.

3. Anderson. Nailed it.

4. Morales. I had Bailey here and Morales going at 5. Again, close. I bet the Mavs wish Morales had made it to 5.

5. Blanks. I don't know where I would have slotted Blanks, but it wasn't in the first round. I'm sure Blanks will prove me wrong.

6. Pineiro. I had the Goofs taking Feldman, so we'll call this "close." And by the way... Pineiro is EI, not IE. The Driller Dude fell back on his vague, whispy memories of grade school and came up wrong. Again.

7. Bergesen - My mock pick here was Pineiro, but I think the Fungoid had his heart set on Bergesen all along.

8. Coghlan - Nailed it!

9. Aardsma - I had the Zaps taking the best reliever. I said Gurrier; the Zaps said Aardsma. Close enough.

10. Feldman - Fungoes again. I had Correia here. Damn close.

11. Wuertz - Missed this one. I had no idea what the Snakeman would do here. He didn't appear to need much. I guess he needed another reliever.

12. Niemann - My mock draft pick in this spot was a joke, but it DID bring us a new example of NASOMASpeak: "Mike Stanton has a huge hole in his swing and struggles defensively" is NASOMASpeak for "I forgot I had Mike Stanton."

13. Desmond Jennings - In the mock draft, the Rhinos still owned this pick and I had him taking a reliever. Shortly after that posting, the Rhinos traded this pick to the Warpigs for the reliever he wanted. The Warpigs were elated to have Jennings still on the board.

14. R.Soriano - The Snakes were REALLY not satisfied with his bullpen. I assume he is now.

15. Correia - Trying to get inside the Buckeye head is impossible. I had him taking Randy Ruiz, which he DID... in the 4th round.

16. Calero - Nope. I was nowhere close again. The Buckeyes always know better.

Of the guys I had pegged for the first round, Gurrier (2nd Rd) and Ruiz (4th Rd) both ended up Buckeyes.

Time will tell who had the best draft, but at first glimpse... well, I guess it depends on what your draft goal was. The Buckeyes got some pretty good parts as did the Fungi. The Warpigs grabbed a lot of young talent. So did the Wahoos. The Snakes and Rhinos didn't have great drafts, but neither one needed to. Their teams were already set.

We'll revisit this during the summer to see who had the best drafts.

Another Patch

Click the band aid on the NASOMA home page for the latest patch.

Standings

The league standings are updated on NASOMA.org.

A couple of interesting tidbits...

As the FFTs pointed out, for the first time in a long time, they did NOT play the most games at the Draft. Although they did get in 64 games, the Nads (66) played more.

Of those present for the Draft, the Warpigs played the fewest games with 15. The Snakes were close behind with 16 games played. The Zaps, of course, have not played any games.

The early division leaders are the Rhinos, the Buckeyes, the Sidewinders, and the Fungoes.

The surprising Fungoes left the Draft with the best record in the league. Imagine how good they'd be if Grady Sizemore hadn't picked last year to have an injury-filled, crappy kind of year.

The worst record after the Draft? The Inmates have the lowest winning percentage, but they are still a game and a half ahead of the Mavs.

The Mavs were mathematically eliminated when the words "Jose Uribe" left his lips in round 3.

More Draft analysis to come later, but you can view the Draft results on NASOMA.org.

Draft Weekend

More Draft Weekend details later, but for now... the results of the 2010 NASOMA Draft can be viewed on the main page of the NASOMA website.

Also, the link on the home page to the Yahoo Tracker has been updated.

Please remember to report not only your record from the Draft, but how you did vs each opponent you played. If you made any trades before, during, or after the Draft, please report those as well - no matter how minor.

Season Predictions

BUD... The Rhinos will run away with the BUD, getting the #1 seed. Said the Rhino boss, "This is fun! I should have tried this winning thing years ago!" The other three teams will all fail to get to 70 wins and will have 3 of the first 5 picks in the 2011 Draft.

NERDD... The Drillers are convinced he is playing for next year. The Fungoes are sure he is a year away. The DVs have been trying to dump talent all winter and rebuild. The FFTs are trying to decide which team to make a Higdon winner next. So who wins? The Drillers. Lincecum and Haren will prove too much for the rest of the division. The Fungoes will be close and will vie for a wild card spot, but come up just short. Their consolation is having the "team to beat" in 2011. The DVs will try to lose games to get the first pick in the 2011 Draft, but will fail at that (too), finishing the season 81-81 - good enough for the 8th pick in the Draft. Said the DV manager, "Around August somebody pointed out that Jason Heyward was already on a team, so I don't mind so much. Still, I wish I had known all along. We should get a website or something so we can keep up with crap like that." The FFTs will leave Draft weekend with a record of 60-92, cursing the Inmates for putting off their games for later.

MFD... The Buckeyes continue to show up at the Draft each year with the least talent in the entire league. In fact, they seem to be making a mockery of the league by trying to outdo themselves each year. This year they have really bent over backwards to field a team of Zits. Their offensive stars this year will be Gabe Kapler and Jack Cust. They will, of course, win their division easily. I predict they leave the Draft with a record of 35-5. As September approaches, the MFD opponents will have these reactions to the Buckeyes clinching another pennant... Inmates: "I don't care about the math, I still think I can win this. Good thing I saved those ten FFT games for October. That's a sure ten wins!" Nads: I thought this would be the year, then my computer crashed on me." Mavs: "I don't have to try to lose, I already have Jason Heyward!"

AWD... The AWD will be this year's BUD, sending three teams to the playoffs. The Sidewinders will win the division, finishing just ahead of the Zaps and Tweeners; but the intensity of the division games will cost them a bye in the first round. The Killer Bees will play the role of the SuperGoofs, finding the three powerhouses ahead of him too much to overcome. Like the Fungi, the Bees are loaded for a run in 2011.

The Post Season... The first round will pit the Snakes against the Tweeners and the Zaps against the Drillers. The Snakes will continue their tradition of underachieving in the playoffs, and the Tweeners will advance in 7 games. Said the Snakeman, "At least we played face to face and I can avoid another depressing plane ride to the PigSty... but... GODDAMMIT!" The Zaps will dispatch the Drillers, rolling over them in 6 games. The Zaps lose games 2 and 5, quitting the league after each loss, only to change his mind and return.

(What? Too soon?)

In the second round, the Tweeners will play the top-seeded Rhinos and give them a run for their money before falling in 6. Tweener skipper Al Davis commented, "I don't know what's worse, losing on this damn NetPlay or flying to Texas to get my butt kicked." The Zaps will have the Buckeyes easily out-manned in their series, but league rules state the Buckeyes win series like this. Buckeyes in 7. Carpenter throws at least 3 innings in all 7 games. He starts 3 of them, relieves in 3, and in game 7 he both starts AND relieves, getting both the win and the save. You gotta admire a pitcher who can relieve himself on the mound.

The World Series will have the star-studded Rhinos against the painfully inept Buckeyes. Just a glimpse at the stats will show the tale... the Rhinos will have 12 players on the NASOMA All Star team; the Buckeyes will not have a single player get as many as 300 at bats, and none of them will hit higher than .243. Other than Carpenter, who went 59-3 in 68 starts, the Buckeyes had no one get more than 5 wins. But the Buckeyes will again take advantage of their park, and with the use of 13 relievers a game (including Carpenter every game, including the 4 he started) will keep the series close before falling in 6 games.

All hail the Rhinos!

Scheduling Oddity

Everyone needs to be aware of a unique situation on this year's schedule. For the most part, the schedule is exactly like last year's (same opponents in the same order). But there is a first this year: from July 16 through July 18, we are all scheduled to play 5 games in 3 days. This will REQUIRE the use of a 6th starter.

So you MUST have at least 6 starting pitchers on your roster this year.

Team Pages

The Team Pages with depth charts are all now updated. Just click on the team icon on the home page.

Included on the page is each of your players at all the positions they play, your number of reserve picks, all of your draft picks, your final stats from last year, your ballpark numbers, pennants for your championship years, and pictures.

The order of players on the depth chart isn't meant to be in the exact order you would play them. Sometimes they are in order of number of at bats, but sometimes I just left them in the order they were last year.

The ballpark numbers, of course, have not been altered.

Trade

The Warpigs and Rhinos make another deal. The Warpigs trade Heath Bell and Matt Thornton to the Rhinos for picks 13 and 29 and a 2011 1st rounder.

Updates

I have added everyone's draft picks to the bottom of the roster page.

The roster page and the draft grid are updated after every trade. You can view an HTML page of those by clicking on link on the green tool bar at the top of the home page. Or, if you wish, you can download either page and print it out by clicking on the links below that (in brown).

A link to the latest patch and a link to our 2010 Schedule are also available on the home page.

And finally, I have begun updating the depth charts for each team. All you have to do is click on the team icons on the left side of the home page. Right now, just the BUD teams are completed.

Trade

The Tweeners trade picks 4 and 163 to the Killer Bees for Carlos Pena and pick 18.

Trade

The Warpigs trade George Sherrill and Chris Dickerson to the Rhinos for Colby Rasmus and pick 168.

2009 Warpigs

With the Warpigs looking ahead to a dreadful 2010, here are some final numbers from the 2009 Warpig season...

Final record: 126-36
Home: 64-17
Road: 62-19
April: 19-5
May: 21-10
June: 20-7
July: 24-6
August: 26-3
September: 16-5
Went 9-1 vs 4 teams
Went 8-2 vs 3 teams
In the BUD, went 10-4 vs Wahoos, 12-2 vs Goofs, and 14-0 vs Rhinos
Finished 37 games ahead of the BUD Runner-up (and playoff team) Wahoos
Won more road games than the FFTs did games.
On the next to last day of the regular season (by the calendar), Warpig starter Rich Harden threw a no-hitter against the SuperGoofs, striking out 14. This was the second no-hitter in Warpig history. Greg Maddux had the other one.
Post Season: 8-4 (10th title)

2010 Mock Draft

Admittedly, I have done almost no research on (A) the players worthy of going in the first round or (B) the needs of the teams... but here it is anyway:

1. Tweeners - Al has been keeping the identity of this choice pretty close to the vest. Maybe it's just a fear of selecting a player already on a team (Jason Heyward). And while it would seem the Tweeners are poised to compete for the Higdon this year, the pick here is the uncarded DESMOND JENNINGS.

2. Killer Bees - The Beeboy will pee all over himself with glee when BEN ZOBRIST is available at this pick.

3. Inmates - The Head Inmate selects A's youngster BRETT ANDERSON, thereby ruining any chance Anderson had of having a normal, healthy career.

4. Tweeners - Al comes to his senses briefly and takes somebody to save those wins for King Felix by taking ANDREW BAILEY.

5. Mavs - The Mavman breaks a personal guideline by going 1B with his first pick for the second year in a row with KENDRY MORALES. The good news (for me), is that now Kendry Morales and Howie Kendrick are on the same team, so I'll never have to learn which is which.

6. SuperGoofs - Phillip takes the best young starter available by selecting SCOTT FELDMAN with this pick.

7. Fungoes - The Fungoes, while disappointed in missing out on Feldman, are more than happy to grab the best OLD starter in the Draft, JOEL PINEIRO.

8. Nads - The Nads are beside himself (creating a PAIR of Nads) with joy when Rookie of the Year CHRIS COGHLAN slides to #8.

9. Zaps - The only hole in the Pasta roster is relief, so the Zapper takes MATT GURRIER. Just imagining the possible pronunciations gives us all something to look forward to.

10. Fungoes - The Fungoes fill out that rotation by taking another starter, KEVIN CORREIA. The Warpigs took two starters in round one last year, so this is obviously the key to winning. This could be the year of the Fungo.

11. Sidewinders - What does the guy who needs nothing take? I'll reach a little here and say WADE DAVIS.

12. Drillers - Finding it hard to believe this guy was somebody's CUT, the Driller Dude takes the uncarded MIKE STANTON.

13. Rhinos - I know the idea of the Rhinos NOT taking another young stud for his corral is hard to accept, but I have faith the Rhinos will draft for need this year: JOSH OUTMAN, the best lefty reliever in a very meager crop.

14. Sidewinders - Actually, there may be a weak link in this juggernaut: left field. And since Michael Cuddyer can't play LF, the Snakeman reaches again for WILL VENABLE. Speaking of reaches, it's not really a reach when your two first round picks are players 30 and 31 on your team.

15. Buckeyes - The Buckeyes have already mathematically clinched the MFD, so they grab the perfect Buckeye card, RANDY RUIZ, to help get them back to the Series.

16. Buckeyes - The last pick of the first round is a guy who COULD be the first pick... MICHAEL CUDDYER.

2010 Draft Grid is Ready

That didn't take as long as I thought. The Draft Grid is now finished. There were no changes in the first 10 rounds because no one finishes drafting before Round 10. And surprisingly enough, if you discount possible passes, the first team to finish drafting is NOT the Sidewinders, but the FFTs at pick 145.

But then... after the Snakeman makes his first optional pick at #58, there's a good chance that's the last we'll see of him. His second optional pick comes up at #155, and I can't see the Snakeman hanging around almost 100 picks just to draft a cut.

Rounds 11+ are condensed to show only the picks that can be made there.

A symbol of @ next to your team name means it is your first optional pick. For your second - and last - optional pick, there is a @@ next to your team name.

As always, email me if there is a mistake.

Pre-Draft Stuff

All pre-draft rosters have been submitted. Please check the website to confirm that your roster is correct. If there is a mistake, email me ASAP.

Here are the number of players kept by each team...
Team, # of Players, (hitters/pitchers/uncarded)
DVs 24 (16/8/0)
FFTs 26 (12/13/1)
Fungoes 21 (11/10)
Buckeyes 18 (10/8/0)
Inmates 20 (12/7/1)
Killer Bees 22 (11/9/2)
Tweeners 23 (12/10/1)
Mavs 20 (11/8/1)
Nads 20 (12/6/2)
Drillers 20 (12/7/1)
Warpigs 23 (15/8/0)
Rhinos 23 (15/7/1)
SuperGoofs 19 (12/7/0)
Sidewinders 29 (15/13/1)
Pastas 25 (13/12/0)
Wahoos 20 (11/9/0)

Totals: 353 players retained (200 hitters/ 142 pitchers /11 uncarded players)

The Snakes kept the most (29 - league record), and the Buckeyes kept the fewest (18). Only the Buckeyes and the SuperGoofs (19) kept fewer than 20 players.

The DVs kept the most hitters (16); the FFTs and Snakes kept the most pitchers (13).

The Draft Grid has not been finalized yet. I will try to have it finished by tomorrow. The latest trade has been included on it, but now there is the process of eliminating picks that cannot be used. For the time being, here are how many draft picks you can make...
13 Goofs
12 Buckeyes, Mavs, Nads, Drillers
11 Inmates, Wahoos
10 DVs, Fungoes, Bees, Tweeners, Pigs
9 Rhinos
8 FFTs
7 Pastas
3 Snakes

Add 2, of course, for the two optional picks. If you use these, you will have to make cuts after the Draft.

Additionally, here are the allowable number of uncarded players you may draft...
4 DVs
3 FFTs, Pigs
2 Tweeners, Goofs, Pastas
1 Fungoes, Mavs, Drillers, Rhinos, Snakes, Wahoos
0 Buckeyes, Inmates, Bees, Nads

Remember, YOU DO NOT HAVE TO DRAFT ANY UNCARDED PLAYERS IF YOU DON'T WANT TO.

Trade

The DVs traded pick 58 to the Sidewinders for picks 75, 107, 123, and 139.

The Draft Grid and Roster pages will be updated on the website this evening. Right now I'm waiting on the Nad roster.

Trade

The Killer Bees trade Miguel Tejada to the Sidewinders for Jack Wilson.

Rosters and Flowers

Over half of the league rosters have been turned in already. The updated ones are highlighted in yellow. The rest are due by Friday.

An interesting note: the Mullen brothers combined to cut a total of 4 players.

Went to the cemetery today to visit my mom. While there, I put flowers on the Oilers' grave.

Rosters Due

Have your roster cuts turned in by Friday night, March 12th.

Trade

The Wahoos trade Ryan Madson, pick 68, and a 2011 6th to the DVs for Vernon Wells, pick 90, and a 2011 3rd.

Patch

There is a patch available for Version 15. Click here for the link. After saving the download, run it. After it is completed, open the game and go to HELP/ABOUT. The new version of your game should read Version 15.01E

Trades

The FFTs trade picks 17 and 81 to the Tweeners for picks 20 and 52.

The Warpigs trade pick 128 to the SuperGoofs for Matt Joyce.

The Wahoos trade John Baker and pick 62 to the Buckeyes for Kevin Gregg, a 2011 3rd round pick, and a 2011 reserve.

Trade

The Killer Bees trade Chris Young (SD) to the FFTs for Tim Hudson.

Trades

The Wahoos and Snakes made two trades just a few hours apart.

The Wahoos trade Craig Breslow and Reed Johnson to the Sidewinders for a 2011 2nd rounder.

The Wahoos trade pick 14 to the Sidewinders for pick 43, pick 59, and a 2011 1st rounder.

Also, the Warpigs trade Dexter Fowler, Ryan Doumit, pick 74, and a reserve spot to the DVs for Josh Beckett.

Trade

The FFTs trade Garrett Atkins to the Buckeyes for Joe Crede.

Trade

The Rhinos trade Geovany Soto to the Warpigs for Joakim Soria.

Trade

The FFTs traded Akinori Iwamura and Francisco Liriano to the Warpigs for Jason Bay and Jeff Keppinger.

2010 NASOMA Schedule

Thanks to the Merry Mentor of Medicrity, the 2010 Schedule is ready. You can download the excel file from NASOMA.org. If you see any errors, contact The HEAD INMATE.

NEW FEATURES FOR CD VERSION 15.0

1) ACTUAL WORLD SERIES & ALL-STAR GAME ROSTERS - Now replay any World Series or All-Star Game without the hassle of researching and setting up the rosters!

2) SO FAR TODAY - We have added a "So Far Today" game screen element. Did you ever wonder what the current batter has done in the game so far? Now you see what the batter has done in each of his at-bats. While you could always find out what the batter did in previous inning by looking at the play account this allows you to have handy access to that information at all times.

3) GAME SCREEN LAYOUT - We continue to improve the game screen layout by adding more options. This year we have added the ability to move the Scoreboard and ballpark information off of the ballpark picture (when using Custom mode). Now you are in complete control of the screen elements. You can have your ballpark picture completely free from anything other than the players and the ball.

4) GRAPHICAL USER INTERFACE - Improved Game Skin - The toolbar is now larger and also the buttons on standard dialogs are now more nicely drawn. This will especially be evident on older operating systems like XP.

5) AUTO BATCH REPORT CREATION - An exciting new ability of the batch reporting system allows you to automatically run your batch reports at the end of each day's games. For example, if you are replaying a particular team's season you can have the primary stats report (or any other statistical reports) automatically get saved after each day. So you can the later look back on the year and see the full statistics for your team at any point during the replay!

6) PRORATED INJURIES - A new option to prorate injuries has been added for leagues that play less than 154 game schedules. As an example, if you have this option turned on for a league with a 36-game schedule and a "15 day injury" occurs then that injury will be prorated down to 3 games.

7) BOXSCORE OUTPUT - We've added another option for boxscore output - you can now request to get the boxscore and the Play Account without the scoresheet.

8) GAME LOBBY IMPROVEMENTS - Private Messaging, Buddy Lists and Ignore Lists have been added.

9) GAME LOBBY CHALLENGE - A "Challenge" feature has been added to the Game Lobby allowing you to issue a challenge for a game to the community. Anytime users log into the Game Lobby they will see your challenge and can respond to it if they wish to take you up on it.

10) GAME LOBBY SOUNDS - We now support separate sounds to indicate the following events in the Game Lobby: Arrival of a gamer in the lobby, arrival of a buddy in the lobby, arrival of an opponent in your game room, arrival of a private message, announcement of a new challenge. You can use our supplied sounds for these events or define your own sounds.

11) GAME LOBBY PREVIEW - You can now see the Game Lobby from the Baseball League Manager Screen. A preview of the lobby is shown that lets you immediately see who is in the lobby and what challenges are currently available. This quick preview saves you from having to launch the entire lobby to determine if somebody is available to play.

12) NETPLAY IMPROVEMENTS - Netplay now allows you to play multiple consecutive games without returning to the Lobby. At the end of the game the host team just starts the next game and play can proceed.

13) NETPLAY SOUNDS - The in-game chat window now supports an optional sound to notify you when a message has arrived. In addition, the chat window will now come to the front when a message arrives.

14) BALLPARK PICTURES - Support for up to 999 Ballparks has been added. Gamers who design their own ballparks have requested we increase the number of ballparks supported. We recommend that user-defined ballparks begin at 500 so that they do not conflict with the official Strat-O-Matic ballpark codes.

15) DRAFT-O-MATIC IMPROVEMENT - Draft-O-Matic has been improved to allow you to specify the maximum number of batter and pitchers per team. For example, you can specify that the team gets a maximum of 14 batters and 11 pitchers when auto drafting.

16) TEAM NOTEBOOKS IMPROVED - Team notebooks now have a "Games" tab that shows a list of all game results for that team. When you double-click on the game result a boxscore will display if you have chosen to save them to disk.

17) SAFETY SQUEEZE INFORMATION - The Safety Squeeze now indicates the reduce percentage chance of a successful squeeze following a "1 and 2" reading.

18) LOCK LEAGUE - Now prevents the use of the Update Player function once a league has been started. Also password support and an Unlock League function have been added.

19) PLAYER PICTURES - The Game Screen allows larger player pictures that will now show with less pixelization than they previously had.

20) AUTOMATIC POSITIONING OF CORNERS - When the corners are positioned in and a pinch-hitter is brought up who is not likely to bunt (he has a bunting D rating and his slugging percentage is at least .400) then the corners will automatically be positioned back for the defense.

21) BASERUNNER ADVANCEMENT IMPROVEMENT - Baserunner advancement for the runner on 3rd has been improved for groundballs when there is a runner on third base and you are using the "improve baserunning realism" max rule.

22) DATABASE CHANGE - In order to improve compatibility with current and future operating systems, the existing Rogue Wave data access code has been removed from baseball and it has been replaced with SQLite. All existing Rogue Wave databases will be converted to SQLite when they are opened by V15. The old database file will be renamed from .LOG to .LOG.bak (this preserves the file in case you wish to revert back to an older version of the program). Note: This database contains information such as the player game logs, subset breakdowns such as "Team vs. Team" and the notebook notes.

23) BUGS FIXED

· Netplay crashes and hangs have been fixed

· Fixed play-by-play bug that sometimes caused weird text during the 7th inning stretch.

· Fixed crash that occurred while creating Team Yearbook.

· Game was allowing a pitcher to be replaced even if he did not finish facing the first batter (this would happen when a foul popup was dropped by the catcher).

· In the Update Player dialog for pitchers some fields had weird characters and changes were not always being saved.

· In Update Player some results from the body of the cards were incorrectly shown.

· Exceeding the number of pitchers on a team limit did not always generate an error message.

· In tournament mode, under Rules>Autoplay/Boxscore, the setting to always save Boxscore, PAC and Scoresheet was not working properly.

· When you created a play-off league, the option for Create Daily Reporter HTML File (Options>Autoplay) was not carried over if the Create Daily Reporter HTML File was active within the base league.

· In Team>Update Default Lineups, when you run the evaluator of a lineup sometimes it ran more games than were entered.

· When you select League>Create All-Star Game, the setting for "Use Actual Pitcher Batting Cards" and certain Max rules were not carrying over to the All Star League.

· With Swap-O-Matic turned on, the error "Attempt to exceed 25 pitcher's failed" would sometimes appear.

· Restarting a league was not deleting the Swap-O-Matic report file.

· With the Miscellaneous setting for "Also save print files as html" turned on the Swap-O-Matic report file "SwapsXX.prt" was not being saved as an html file.

· When viewing an html file via File>View HTML Files, you are presented with both icons and menu items for Print Preview, Print, Print to Blog etc. If used the menu method for Print, Print to Blog, Print Preview or Print to file, you got an Application Error crash.

· Cut and paste of player has been disabled after the season has started. This is because cutting without pasting was leaving the files corrupted. Instead of using cut&paste drag the player to his new team or the free-agent pool.

· The Large Scoreboard was not showing a zero in the bottom of the 9th when the home team lost the game.

· The Eligible players screen was hard to read when using the un-skinned interface.

· When filling in slots in the starting rotations while updating the computer manager the color indication of minor league status was not always correct.

· The Return key was not working for tactile splits.

· Some issues with starting pitchers and double-headers have been resolved.

· Squeeze now recomputes the safe percentage after are reading of "1 and 2" occurs.

· The cutoff play was not calculating the trail runner adjustments correctly in all situations.

24) SUPPORT FOR NEW SEASONS for the new 2009, 1977(Deluxe Super-Advanced), 1879, 1882, 1886, and 1899 seasons as well as the recent Negro League set has been added.

25) BALLPARK PHOTOS

· 10 New ballparks pictures - Atlanta(day), Kansas City(day and night), Los Angeles(night), New York-NL (day and night), New York-AL (day and night), Philly (day and night)

· 63 new ballpark entry pictures! Atlanta-1, Baltimore-6, Detroit-1, Kansas City-6, New York(NL)-6, New York(AL)-8, Philadelphia-6, Pittsburgh-14, Texas-3, Washington-12

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Opening Day

Today was Opening Day at SOM. There are now people with cards and disk in hand. Ours will be coming soon!

Pitchers and Catchers Report

February 18th

Trade

The Drillers traded Elijah Dukes to the Inmates for David Murphy.

Definite Cuts

E-mail me if you have any definite cuts so I can start cleaning up the roster sheet. Nothing is final until cut down day, but there are always some guys that just don't need to show up to camp.

First Warpig cuts are Geoff Geary, Billy Wagner, Russ Springer, Brian Giles, and Cody "2010 Playoff God" Ransom.

Uncarded Players on Rosters

I just gave the Ratings Disk the once-over and these are the players who are currently on our rosters and don't have cards. I haven't double checked, so I may have overlooked a player here or there. E-mail me if I left someone off OR if I listed someone who IS carded.

Some of these are prospects who haven't gotten called up, some just didn't get enough AB/IP to get carded, and some were injured or retired.

By the way, just to clarify, uncarded players can be kept or cut. It's up to you. As long as you have the reserve picks, you can keep them. This post is just to identify them.

Warpigs - Duchscherer, Geary, Litsch, Wagner
Goofs - Brocail, Marcum, Nady, Yabu
Wahoos - T.Buchholz, D.Marte, Tucker
Rhinos - Antonelli, Devine, Sheets
DVs - Carlyle, MaxRamirez, S.Shields
FFTs - Baek, Blevins, E.Ramirez, Strasburg
Fungoes - Lincoln, Mather, Mussina
Drillers - T.Beckham, Metcalf, Posey, Stanton(Fla)
Buckeyes - Bradford, Grudzielanek, Maddux, Shealy, Shell
Inmates - Bonderman, Campillo, Clement, Giese
Mavs - Heyward, S.Rodriguez, J.C.Romero
Nads - Corcoran, Glaus, Jav.Lopez, S.Torres, Webb
Sidewinders - Smoak
Bees - P.Alvarez, I.Kennedy, B.J.Ryan, Sarfate, Yates
Pastas - Ohman
Tweeners - Tazawa

Trade

The Inmates traded Maicer Izturis to the FFTs for pick 19.

The Peanut Gallery and Big Innings

The comments section on Big Innings has been turned off. Big Innings will just be for information and updates. If you have a trade to report or (later) results from games played, keep emailing them to me and I'll keep posting them.

I have put the link to the Peanut Gallery back on the home page at NASOMA.org. You may post or comment on that blog.

Trade

The Warpigs traded Chipper Jones to the Inmates for Cody Ross.

This Day in History: U.S. Baseball Hall of Fame elects first members

On January 29, 1936, the U.S. Baseball Hall of Fame elects its first members in Cooperstown, New York: Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth, Honus Wagner, Christy Matthewson and Walter Johnson.

The Hall of Fame actually had its beginnings in 1935, when plans were made to build a museum devoted to baseball and its 100-year history. A private organization based in Cooperstown called the Clark Foundation thought that establishing the Baseball Hall of Fame in their city would help to reinvigorate the area's Depression-ravaged economy by attracting tourists. To help sell the idea, the foundation advanced the idea that U.S. Civil War hero Abner Doubleday invented baseball in Cooperstown. The story proved to be phony, but baseball officials, eager to capitalize on the marketing and publicity potential of a museum to honor the game's greats, gave their support to the project anyway.

In preparation for the dedication of the Hall of Fame in 1939--thought by many to be the centennial of baseball--the Baseball Writers' Association of America chose the five greatest superstars of the game as the first class to be inducted: Ty Cobb was the most productive hitter in history; Babe Ruth was both an ace pitcher and the greatest home-run hitter to play the game; Honus Wagner was a versatile star shortstop and batting champion; Christy Matthewson had more wins than any pitcher in National League history; and Walter Johnson was considered one of the most powerful pitchers to ever have taken the mound.

Today, with approximately 350,000 visitors per year, the Hall of Fame continues to be the hub of all things baseball. It has elected 278 individuals, in all, including 225 players, 17 managers, 8 umpires and 28 executives and pioneers.

Trade

The Warpigs traded Orlando Hudson to the Fungoes for Cameron Maybin and Alberto Callaspo.

A step in the right direction...

You received a full or partial refund of $16.38 USD from Strat-O-Matic Media LLC.
This refund will appear on your credit card statement as credit from PAYPAL *STRATOMATIC. If you have any questions, please contact Strat-O-Matic Media LLC.

Trade

The Tweeners send John Baker and picks 47 and 68 to the Wahoos for picks 30 and 79 and a reserve spot.

2010 Draft Grid

The Draft Grid is now posted on the main page of NASOMA.org. There is a link to show an html page of the grid and a link to download your own copy. I'll update the grid from time to time as trades are made.

Check over your picks now. Email me if there is an error.

Ordering Cards

It makes for a long, frustrating, and ridiculous story.... but let's just say, I finally have my cards/disk ordered.

I think.

Good luck. I hope your experience is more enjoyable than mine.