HOFL Update

Brooklyn is moving up. They've won 10 of their last 12, including a sweep of the 1st place New York PreThirties.

Greg Maddux threw another shutout. That's back to back shutouts for Maddux.

Pete Alexander followed up his 21-inning complete game victory with a CG 3-hit shutout.

HOFL Starts 2nd Half

The second half of the HOFL season is under way. The PreThirties continue to pull away, taking all three series 2-1. The LeftOuts, on the other hand, continue to have stretches where the steroids just aren't doing the job, losing 4 of 5 at one point.

Curt Schilling of St. Louis threw a gem against Boston. He carried a no-hitter into the 9th inning, when Roberto Alomar slapped a 1-out single to end the no-no bid. He finished with a 1-hit shutout. Greg Maddux (BOS) and Rube Waddell (CHI) both had 3-hit shutouts.

The game of the week turned out to be Pittsburgh at New York on the 4th of July. The game was tied 6-6 after 9 innings. The two teams had gone 12 innings the day before (and would go 10 innings again on the 5th), so both bullpens were dragging. Grover Cleveland "Pete" Alexander started for the PreThirties, and still appeared strong after 9, so he was allowed to stay in there. Apparently, there were no other options because Old Pete earned a complete game 21-inning win. The game story said he "tossed a fine 15 hitter." The time of the game was 7 hours, 42 minutes, and made the fireworks show at 3:00AM an interesting site.

HOF All Stars 4, NASOMA All Stars 2

A pitching duel. Who woulda thunk it? Hank Aaron gets the MVP. Apart from the two "Last" pitchers, only Martin Prado and Craig Kimbrel didn't play. But when Miguel Cabrera came up in the 9th as the tying run, both were prepared to come in for the bottom of the 9th.

HOFL All Star Game Rosters

Tomorrow is the HOFL All Star Game. I've been kicking around ideas for how to do this. The plan is to use the All Star team that the fans voted for (via the SOM game) with a handful of worthy backups and play a game against the 2013 NASOMA All Star team, as voted on by you.

Both teams will have a 9-man starting lineup, 5 bench players (picked by me), and 7 pitchers for a total of 21 players. One pitcher on each team will be designated as *LAST PITCHER, and is reserved for extra innings only. The game will take place at Wrigley Field using the 12/12 numbers that all HOFL teams use. The HOFL All Stars will be the home team.

The HEAD INMATE, NASOMA Manager of the Year, was initially tabbed to manage the NASOMA All Stars, but 3 pitchers immediately went on the DL when the plan was leaked, so that idea was scrapped.

The lineups/rosters...

HOFL

Starting Lineup
1. A.Rodriguez, 3b (STL)
2. J.DiMaggio, cf (PHI)
3. B.Ruth, lf (NY)
4. W.McCovey, 1b (CHI)
5. R.Hornsby, 2b (NY)
6. L.Gehrig, DH (NY)
7. H.Aaron, rf (BRK)
8. M.Piazza, c (STL)
9. E.Banks, ss (BRK)

Bench
J.Bench (CIN)
S.Musial (PHI)
M.Mantle (BRK)
L.Boudreau (PHI)
R.Alomar (BOS)

Pitching Staff
SP- D.Drysdale (BRK)
D.Sutton (CHI)
S.Koufax (BRK)
B.Feller (PHI)
C.Young (NY)
D.Eckersley (BOS)
Last- C.Mathewson (NY)

NASOMA 2013

Starting Lineup
1. A.McCutchen, cf (VZP)
2. R.Cano, 2b (RHI)
3. M.Cabrera, 3b (VZP)
4.Y.Molina, c (PIG)
5. D.Ortiz, DH (GPB)
6. E.Encarnacion, 1b (PIG)
7. J.Hamilton, lf (SPG)
8. G.Stanton, rf (DV)
9. E.Aybar, ss (NAD)

Bench
M.Prado, PIG
J.Mauer, SSW
A.Beltre, INM
M.Trout, FUN
E.Andrus, MAV

Pitching Staff
SP- A.Wainwright, PIG
K.Lohse, SPG
C.Kershaw, FUN
M.Cain, MAV
C.Kimbrel, SSW
F.Rodney, PIG
Last- J.Weaver, DV

HOFL Reaches Midway Point

At the halfway point of the season, the New York PreThirties have surged ahead to a commanding lead. NY had two 3-game sweeps in this set sandwiched around ANOTHER series loss to Boston. There's just something about a New York/Boston series.

The St. Louis LeftOuts are hanging onto 2nd place despite ending the first half with a 6-game losing streak.

Other highlights of this set of games:
Eddie Cicotte of St. Louis threw a 2-hit shutout over Philadelphia. The LeftOuts followed up that pitching gem by losing their next six games. Ernie Banks (BRK) and Willie McCovey (CHI) both had a 3-homer game, and both LOST those games.

Here are some statistics at mid-season:

HOFL Update

The PreThirties finally had their streak of winning series stopped by Boston, but they then responded by winning their next series 2-1 and then sweeping Brooklyn.

The game of the week was a match-up of Walter Johnson (NY) and Sandy Koufax (BRK). Lou Gehrig led off the top of the 2nd inning with a HR off Koufax, and that was the only run scored in the game. I believe this is the first 1-0 game of the year. Both starters allowed 5 hits. Johnson walked 1, Koufax didn't walk anyone.

There were a number of shutouts this cycle, including a 2-hitter by Jim Bunning. Tom Glavine shut out NY, the best offense in the league. I thought maybe, with the Glavine and Koufax success against the PreThirties, that they might have a weak link vs lhp, but upon further review, NY is 18-8 vs lh starters.

Al Kaline, invigorated by his new Tiger uni, had a 5-6, 3 homer, 9 RBI game to start this 9-game cycle. Unfortunately, he went 5-29 over the next 8 games.

Some stat updates...

And the 1st place New York PreThirties...

 

Killer Bees 3, Mavs 2

Bees take 3 of 5 as the Mavs begin planning for the draft.

5/4:  A back and forth slugfest with five lead changes.  The Mavs came out on top when a harmless two out pinch walk by Heyward became important as Howard Kendrick tattered on the next pitch, one of three homers by each club.  Holland got a shaky save getting the last out with runners on first and third.  Howie wins the Grumpy’s Bail Bonds Player of the Game (thanks to the Tweeners for the new sponsor).  Grumpy’s where our motto is “When you ring, we spring”.  Mave 8-7

5/5:  The Mavs stay in the game despite the Bees cranking out 17 hits because the Bees leave 14 and make two errors.  Werth wins the Grumpy’s Bail Bonds Player of the Game going 3 for 4 and not dropping the ball.  Gattis goes 3 for 3 with a walk in a losing cause.  Bees 6-4.

5/6:  Evan Gattis wins the Betty’s Brothel Blow of the Game with the game winning two run homer off of Cliff Lee.  Lee strikes out 11 in 7 1/3 in a losing cause.  Lucroy goes 3-4 as the Mavs get away with playing two catchers.  Mavs win 7-3.

7/28:  The Bees crack out 15 hits including three homeruns winning a laugher 13-5.  The Grumpy’s Bail Bonds player of the game goes to Soriano who went two for five with a homer and 3 RBI’s. 

7/29:  Omar Infante gets the Grumpy’s Bail Bonds Player of the Game going 4 for 5 including the game winning homer as the Bees come from behind to win 6-5.

NY PreThirties Surge into First

New York has won 2 of 3 in seven straight series to take over first place. St. Louis looked strong, sweeping Chicago in the big series in Wrigley, but followed that up by being swept at home by last place Pittsburgh. The St. Louis squad called a team meeting after their last game. A source inside the clubhouse says the overriding goal of the meeting was ARod, Bonds, and Mac trying to convince Alan Trammell to get on the juice - that his lack of offense was hurting the team. Biggio defended Trammell's choice to refrain from using. Pete Rose laid odds that Trammell would give in, while Shoeless Joe replied, "I don't know what you guys are talking about, but count me in."

When you have such lineups as these, with outstanding hitters throughout, sometimes the offense begins to snowball. Having practically no bullpen doesn't help. Here's an example. I don't think I'd ever seen a game where every hitter on a team has a multi-hit game. Come to think of it, how about Lefty Grove giving up 6 homers and still getting an easy win? Perhaps even more amazing is Ted Williams and Jimmie Foxx, who hit back-to-back in the lineup, getting a 3-run homer and a grand slam (respectively) IN THE SAME INNING!

Joltin' Joe's Hitting Streak stopped at 30

The St. Louis Leftouts have won 4 in a row and 7 of the last 8 to take over first place.

Philadelphia ThirtyForties' centerfielder Joe DiMaggio had an interesting week. In a game in Pittsburgh, he homered 3 times, but all of the homers were solo shots and represented his team's entire offense in a 9-3 loss. A few days later, he was shut down by Sandy Koufax and saw his 30-game hitting steak come to an end.

Koufax, Dizzy Dean, and Bob Feller all threw 3-hit shutouts in the past week.

Paul Molitor had a career game, going 4-5, driving in 9 and hitting for the HOFL's first cycle. His team, Boston, lost the game (of course) to Philadelphia 12-10 in 12 innings.

In homage to the Fungoes, after the games on May 30th, Pittsburgh and Detroit, both giving disappointing showings in the standings, traded centerfielders. Al Kaline is now a Detroit Idol and Lloyd Waner is with the Pittsburgh Heroes. Rumor has it that a "League of Their Own" kind of sibling skirmish between the Waner brothers prompted the move.

Here are the stats of the league-leading St. Louis LeftOuts:

HOFL Update

The Legends continue to win. They are currently on a 4-game win streak including a sweep of Brooklyn. Mays and Mantle and friends just could not solve Chicago's pitchers.

Here is the stat page for the 1st place Chicago Legends (I hope it's legible):

Here's a current stat I found interesting:

The * means it's a current hitting streak. Interesting.

Zaps 3, Goofs 2

Zaps go 3-2 with the Super Goofs.

 

Game 1: GOOFS win: 6-3

Game 2: ZAPS win 6-0 

Game 3: ZAPS win 3-2

Game 4: GOOFS win 1-0 

Game 5: ZAPS win 6-5 in 13 innings

Goofs 3, FFTs 2

Goofs go 3-2 with FFTS

Game 1: FFT's win 4-3 in 10 innings

Game 2: FFT's win 6-2 in 10 innings 

Game 3: Goofs win 3-2 

Game 4: Goofs win 3-2 

Game 5: Goofs win 5-3 in 10 innings

Goofs 3, DVs 2

Goofs go 3-2 with DV's

Game 1: Goofs win 4-3 in 14 innings

Game 2: DV's win 5-1 

Game 3: DV's win 8-1 

Game 4: Goofs win 6 - 1 

Game 5: Goofs win 3-2 

Computer Managing

Something I like: The schedule includes off days so every team isn't on the same number game. That adds some realism, I think.

Something I don't like: Hal LOVES the hit and run. And it doesn't matter which setting you put for the H&R, Hal is still going to use it maybe 4-5 times a game between the two teams. If the leadoff batter reaches first, and the next hitter is a H&R B, it's a guarantee. At first I thought it was Hal's way of trying to offset the quality pitcher on the mound, but I tried it in a game between two old Warpig teams. With a crappy pitcher on the hill, Hal still attempted the H&R in the first inning with a .343 hitter at the plate. I would say Hal just stereotypes the #2 hitter, but I saw him hit and run with Ted Williams in the 3 hole WITH ONE OUT! And this was using Teddy Ballgame's 1941, .406 card. I just don't get it.

Something I did wrong: Half of the teams have only 6 pitchers. This was mostly out of necessity, as I used every available HOF pitcher except one. (Herb Pennock, whose election into the HOF is a mystery to me. Even though he pitched for Murderer's Row, he only won 20 games twice and ALWAYS gave up more hits than innings pitched.) There were also a handful of HOF pitchers from before 1900, and I don't have those seasons. I'm not even sure they exist in SOM. But to my point, a team with only 6 pitchers has a dilemma. Hal appears to be going with primarily a 5-man rotation, leaving only 1 guy to relieve. And on a couple of these teams, the 1 guy is a true reliever. I watched Dennis Eckersley go 8.1 innings today after Randy Johnson got lit up in the 1st. The teams with 7 pitchers don't have this dilemma. I'm going to remove the 5th SP from the CM and see if Hal goes with a 4-man rotation, leaving 2 guys to relieve.

HOFL Update with Stats

The LeftOuts and the FiftySixties are in a tie for first, 1 game ahead of the NinetyAughts.

Some individual highlights: Gaylord Perry (CIN) tossed a 2-hitter against Chicago in a 5-2 win. Randy Johnson (BOS) struck out 15 in a 5-1 win over Chicago, but then got hammered by St. Louis, giving up 1st inning, back-to-back-to-back homers to Bonds, McGwire, and ARod. Ironically, this happened on Steroid Day at the ballpark.

Jackie Robinson (BAL), well known for his power, had a 3-homer game, one of which was a grand slam. Warren Spahn (BRK) and Vic Willis (PGH) both tossed complete game shutouts.

Here are some stats...

Early Season Jitters

Thru the first 18 games of the HOFL season, the surprise team at the top of the standings is the Chicago Legends, who have won their last 6, sweeping both the NY PreThirties and the Philadelphia ThirtyForties.

Let me explain quickly how I approach the games. I pick one of the five games each day to watch and set the other four games on auto. Then I choose the spectator option and just let the game go. I've tried to watch some of all the teams. I got to see Mays and Mantle homer in the same inning. In fact, except for missing a 1-12 BP HR, Aaron would have matched them in the inning. I was also watching when Philly's Hal Newhouser loaded the bases in the top of the 9th against Chicago with the score tied at 5. The last batter's walk tired Newhouser, but Hal (our Hal) decided to let him stay in to face McCovey. Big mistake. McCovey hit a grand slam. But the best game I watched was such typical Strat. Brooks Robinson of the Baltimore Stars (3b-1e14) made 3 errors in 1 game, including TWO in the top of the 10th inning, allowing 2 unearned runs. Brooks was saved in the bottom of the 10th when Reggie (Reggie! Reggie!) Jackson hit a walk-off 3-run homer.

There are some game events that will automatically save the box score of a game when they occur. In one game I wasn't watching (although the out of town scoreboard let me know), Chicago came back from an 11-3 deficit with an 11-run 8th inning to beat Philly. Dizzy Dean, Bob Lemon, and Lefty Gomez allowed 12 consecutive hits or walks in that inning. In another game, Boston lost a game 13-6 despite getting 20 hits. Harmon Killebrew of Detroit had a 3-homer, 7 RBI game against Boston (all off of Tom Glavine) and lost because Rickey Henderson went 5-6 with 3 homers of his own.

The offensive numbers are staggering. The pitchers are having a tough time keeping up. Of course, they're working without a bullpen for the most part. The bigger problem might be the setting of "deadball", which keeps the SP in longer. At some point in the season, I may have to consider some setting adjustments. Here's an example:

For now, I think I will look to do some small team adjustments every 36 games or so. Things like seeing if the batting order could use an adjustment... Seeing if some pitcher is being under- or over-used.

More tomorrow.

HOFL is Under Way!

The first set of games have been played, and the St. Louis LeftOuts and Brooklyn FiftySixties have jumped into the lead. They are followed closely by the Chicago Legends and the New York PreThirties, who started off 6-1 before dropping their last 2 games to Philly.

The LeftOuts lost their first 2 games - including suffering a 4-hit shutout by Chicago's Don Sutton - but came back to win 7 straight. The LeftOuts have been led by Edgar Martinez's .515 batting average, Barry Bonds' 6 homers, and Mike Piazza's 19 RBI. All of those lead the league. Piazza's RBI total might be even better, but he also leads the league in times grounded into a DP.

The LeftOuts beat Pittsburgh on the 14th by a score of 15-7 while hammering out 22 hits. Pete Rose and Edgar Martinez both went 5-6 (as did Pittsburgh's Nap Lajoie). Bonds hit 2 homers in that game and went 4-6.

Despite all the offense, there were a number of shutouts. In addition to the Sutton masterpiece, Roger Clemens of St. Louis and Warren Spahn of Brooklyn both tossed 3-hit shutouts, and Juan Marichal of Pittsburgh topped them all with a 2-hit shutout over Cincinnati.

Steve Carlton of Cincinnati has already struck out 24 batters in only 2 starts. He's followed closely by Brooklyn's Sandy Koufax (23 Ks) and Boston's Randy Johnson (22) in what should be an interesting race for HOF Strike Out King.

Something of note is the atrocious e-ratings of the early guys. Consider the starting infield for NY: Sisler 1b-1e18, Hornsby 2b-2e38, Traynor 3b-1e31, and Wagner ss-1e50. Even Cobb in cf is a 1e19. As time went by, and the equipment improved, the error ratings steadily dropped.

In the next batch of games, St. Louis travels to New York for three important early-season games against the PreThirties. Check back tomorrow.

Hall of Fame League

Beginning tomorrow, a Strat-O-Matic league consisting of 10 teams begins play. Each team (except one) is made up of Hall of Fame members (with three ringers added, which I'll explain later).

The teams have 9 batters and 6-7 pitchers on their roster, so the outcomes won't be based much on managing ability (sorry, Hal) but on the talent on the field.

The only "managing" I did was creating a batting order and a pitching rotation. The pitcher usage was set at "deadball" for all teams. If a pitcher had SP/RP on his card (as ALL the old guys do), then I marked them to relieve "as needed." If they were SP-only, I marked them to relieve "sometimes." A few teams have a RP-only guy, but some don't. There just aren't that many relievers in the Hall of Fame. For those teams, I changed the setting to "maximize" closer.

They will play a 162-game schedule, using the DH. Every team will use a ballpark of all 12's. I chose the best year's card for each player (although there are a few years I don't own: 1902, 1912, 1913, and 1924 - Hornsby was ticked).

I began by making HOF teams from decade groups. There's a team for 1900-1930, a team for 1930-1950, one for 1950-1970, one for 1970-1990, and one for after 1990. The card I chose for each player determined which team he was on. I also wanted a team of HOF snubs (Rose, Shoeless Joe, Bonds, Clemens, etc. - I even included ARod, because when he becomes eligible, he WILL be a snub). After making these 6 teams, I realized there were enough HOF players left over to roster 4 more teams. Those teams are NOT divided up by years, but just randomly put together - although I tried to balance them. Theoretically, those 4 teams should not be as strong as the original ones, but when you only take a guy's BEST year, sometimes that year is way better than the guy's overall career - so it might balance out. There are a number of HOF'ers who still didn't make a roster (Jim Rice and Lou Brock, for example).

Choosing a player's best year wasn't always easy. Some were, but lots of them gave me several equally worthy options. If it helped make a roster easier with regards to position or year, I took that into consideration. There are a few guys playing a little out of position. Frank Robinson, for example, will start at 1b for the FiftySixties. But then, breaking into an outfield of Mantle, Mays, Aaron, and Snider is tough to do. But hey, at least Robby has 1b on his card. He's even a 3! Duke Snider is the only player who will be playing a position that is not on his card. Since he and Mays and Mantle all played CF-only on their respective cards, I put Mantle at DH and Snider in LF.

The only exception to my HOF rosters is the NinetyAughts team. There just weren't enough HOF pitchers who pitched after 1990 to fill out a team. All I could come up with were Ryan (91), Eckersley (90), Maddux (95), and Glavine (92). So, to fill the roster out, I added two ringers: future shoe-in HOF'ers Randy Johnson (95) and Pedro Martinez (00). I also gave them Ken Griffey, Jr., who will be elected in 2016 but was needed to fill out this team.

Now, while I could play the entire league's schedule in a matter of seconds, that wouldn't be a lot of fun. So, my plan is to play a handful of games every day and blog the results. Here are the dates:

• Monday, July 7th - Opening Day
• Tuesday, July 15th - End of the first half of the season
• Wednesday, July 16th - The All Star Game of All Star Games
• Thursday, July 17th - Beginning of the second half of the season
• Friday, July 25th - End of regular season
• Saturday, July 26th - Playoff series between the 2nd and 3rd place teams
• Sunday, July 27th - The HOF World Series. This is also MLB's 2014 HOF Induction Ceremony day.

Below are the teams. I hope you enjoy reading thru these great names as much as I do.

DH/C/1B/2B/3B/SS/LF/CF/RF/P

New York PreThirties: L.Gehrig(27), M.Cochrane(30), G.Sisler(22), R.Hornsby(25), P.Traynor(30), H.Wagner(08), T.Speaker(22), T.Cobb(11), B.Ruth(21), J.McGinnity(04), C.Young(08), C.Mathewson(09), W.Johnson(15), P.Alexander(15), D.Vance(28)

Philadelphia ThirtyForties: J.Foxx(32), B.Dickey(36), S.Musial(48), C.Gehringer(36), G.Kell(49), L.Boudreau(48), A.Simmons(31), J.DiMaggio(36), T.Williams(41), L.Grove(31), D.Dean(34), L.Gomez(34), H.Newhouser(45), B.Feller(46), B.Lemon(48)

Brooklyn FiftySixties: M.Mantle(56), R.Campanella(53), F.Robinson(66), N.Fox(57), E.Mathews(54), E.Banks(58), D.Snider(54), W.Mays(54), H.Aaron(59), W.Spahn(53), E.Wynn(54), W.Ford(64), D.Drysdale(64), S.Koufax(65), B.Gibson(68)

Cincinnati SeventyEighties: G.Brett(80), J.Bench(70), R.Carew(77), J.Morgan(75), M.Schmidt(81), O.Smith(87), C.Yastrzemski(70), K.Puckett(88), A.Dawson(87), T.Seaver(71), S.Carlton(72), G.Perry(72), F.Jenkins(74), J.Palmer(75), R.Fingers(81)

Boston NinetyAughts: P.Molitor(94), C.Fisk(90), F.Thomas(94), R.Alomar(01), W.Boggs(91), B.Larkin(90), R.Henderson(90), K.Griffey(94), T.Gwynn(94), D.Eckersley(90), N.Ryan(91), T.Glavine(92), G.Maddux(95), R.Johnson(95), P.Martinez(00)

Baltimore Stars: J.Mize(39), R.Bresnahan(03), E.Murray(82), J.Robinson(49), B.Robinson(64), C.Ripken(91), J.Medwick(37), R.Ashburn(58), R.Jackson(69), M.Brown(06), C.Bender(10), R.Marquard(11), B.Grimes(20), T.Lyons(27), R.Ruffing(39), R.Roberts(54)

Chicago Legends: H.Wilson(30), G.Hartnett(37), W.McCovey(69), R.Sandberg(84), R.Santo(64), J.Cronin(38), B.Williams(72), L.Doby(50), H.Heilmann(23), J.Chesbro(04), A.Joss(08), R.Waddell(08), J.Haines(27), J.Bunning(67), D.Sutton(72), B.Sutter(77)

Detroit Idols: R.Kiner(51), Y.Berra(50), H.Greenberg(38), E.Collins(11), H.Killebrew(61), L.Appling(36), D.Winfield(84), L.Waner(28), P.Waner(36), E.Walsh(08), E.Plank(09), S.Coveleski(17), W.Hoyt(27), P.Niekro(67), H.Wilhelm(67), J.Hunter(72)

Pittsburgh Heroes: W.Stargell(73), G.Carter(82), B.Terry(30), N.Lajoie(01), F.Lindstrom(30), R.Yount(82), M.Ott(36), A.Kaline(59), R.Clemente(69), K.Nichols(04), V.Willis(06), E.Rixey(16), R.Faber(21), C.Hubbell(33), J.Marichal(66), R.Gossage(77)

St. Louis LeftOuts: E.Martinez(95), M.Piazza(97), M.McGwire(98), C.Biggio(97), A.Rodriguez(05), A.Trammell(87), B.Bonds(01), J.Jackson(11), P.Rose(69), E.Cicotte(17), J.Kaat(66), L.Tiant(68), J.Morris(81), L.Smith(83), C.Schilling(92), R.Clemens(05)

Have a great 4th of July!

Inmates 3, Zaps 2

All games via CM at the Baptist Bowl:

 

Inmates 6 – Zaps 4: Inmates scored three in 3^rd and 7^th, while Greinke sucks. Cargo tatered for comedic effect.

 

Inmates 4 – Zaps 0: Salazar tosses a 4-hit shutout; Pierzynski homers.

 

Inmates 4 – Zaps 2: Zaps continue to not hit, getting only two. Lackey takes a tough-luck loss.

 

Zaps 11 – Inmates 8: Everyone hits in this game, but the game-icer is a Goldschmidt Grand Salami in the 5-run Zap 8^th.

 

Zaps 4 – Inmates 1: Lackey pitches great while Chacin doesn’t. Jones taters for the Inmates to avoid the shutout.

 

The HEAD INMATE