Draft

A little birdie told me the draft goes: ThunderChickens, Kernels, UpperDeckers, Bombers, Hitmen, Highlanders, Gamblers, Marauders, BammBeanos, Champions.

Tom Glavine shines in his finale

   The final series of the year for the Twin Cities Thunderchickens was a bittersweet one.  We had to say farewell to a good friend.  It was Tom Glavine’s last series in the Illowa APBA League.  Fortunately, he gave us a good show to watch. 

In three appearances against the Bombers, he was 1-0 with one save and didn’t allow a run in eight innings pitched.  He got his save in game 3 when we were up 4-3 and I’d exhausted my bullpen.  In comes Tom Glavine and he cuts down the Bombers 1-2-3 with two strikeouts.  Nicely done!

The next game, Glavine comes in game in the top of the 11th inning.  He once again keeps the Bombers scoreless thanks to a double play.  He helps himself by striking out Brendan Harris.  An rbi single by Jacoby Ellsbury in the bottom of the inning secures the win for TG.

Glavine got the nod in game 162 in favor of perhaps better pitchers.  It was a good call as Glavine is on his game.  He only allows four hits and two unearned runs in six innings.  We eventually win the game 4-2.  If only I could give Glavine the win. 

Obviously, this was not going to be a great year for Glavine being his swan song.  His DW and limited innings just didn’t allow it.  But let me say this.  In 24 games and 16 starts, he didn’t do half bad.  His 4.93 ERA was below the team average and better than starters like John Lackey, Manny Parra and Dustin McGowan.  And he did manage a respectable 6-7 record. 

Not many Illowa managers can say they’ve had one player on their team for 19 years.  I’ve teased Tedd endlessly for practically handing me Glavine just before the 1991 IAL season.  To his credit, Tedd has taken it well.  But after a few years with the team when I knew exactly who I had gotten, I made a pact with Mr Glavine that he would never be traded and would retire a Thunderchicken.  Such is my gratitude for getting one over on Mr Champion. 

To put it mildly, Glavine has serviced the Thunderchickens well.  He’s given me 235 wins.  There’s no doubt in my mind that he’ll be a first-time IAL Hall of Famer.

Thanks Tom Glavine.

2010 Illowa APBA League Trades to date

Highlanders Trade Adrian Beltre for Scott Kazmir

The Highlanders and Gamblers have announced a major trade: the Gamblers receive Adrian Beltre and the Highlanders get Scott Kazmir.

Adrian Beltre has been a fixture at the hot corner for the Highlanders since being drafted in 1999.  He was one of the slew of slick-fielding thirdbasemen that the team had at that time; Travis Fryman (who was traded from the Hitmen), Edgardo Alfonzo, Eric Chavez, and Adrian.  Chavez, ironically, was also dealt to the Gamblers after his rookie year due to the logjam.  Eventually Fryman and Alfonzo fell to the wayside and Adrian took over the 3rd base job fulltime in 2005, and responded with a career year, hitting .266 with 49 home runs and 123 RBI; numbers he has not approached since.  Since then, he’s settled in as a solid 20-25 HR bat that has mostly hit out of the 5 and 6-holes in the Highlander lineup while playing Gold Glove defense at third.  He has hit 84 HR in the 4 years since 2005, but was looking to be relegated to defensive duty only with the arrival of Michael Young.

Kazmir came into the league as a highly regarded youngster, much like Beltre.  He was drafted in 2006 by the Gamblers and has a 36-29 record with a 3.75 ERA through 2008, and is 15-3, with a 3.88 ERA in 2009 so far.  Questions about his durability remain, although he still is thought to have great potential.

Beltre will fill the hole left by Troy Glaus’s retirement (which in turn filled a hole left by Chavez’s injuries) and should solidify the left side of the Gambler infield for years to come.  Kazmir gives the Highlanders another young, potentially high-impact arm as they try to get younger and create a more dynamic, exciting team.  For 2010 he’ll slot into the 4th spot in the rotation behind Felix Hernandez, Roy Oswalt, and Jon Garland.  He pushes Ian Snell back to the 5th slot in the rotation, Andrew Miller to swingman, and Jeremy Guthrie to the bullpen.

The Highlanders are not done dealing yet – they may have more moves to make, although none that need to be made.  Miguel Tejada and Johnny Damon are both high-quality bats at their positions who might find themselves at new addresses this spring, though both could also anchor the Highlanders offense in 2010.

Liveblogging the Highlander-Gambler Series

I’ll post some updates on the Highlander-Gamblers series, as it has playoff implications.  We started at 1 pm, and the Gamblers took game 1; the Highlanders have since taken games 2, 3, and 4.  I’ll post updates in the comments!

Updated 2010 rosters

Mike has sent us updated 2010 IAL team rosters for the league (as of Jan 7). 

Here is the download link for the Excel file.

thanks Mike!

Finish Coming Down to the Wire

The end of this season is really shaping up to be a down-to-the-wire affair. 5 games separate 2nd place from 6th place, with 5 teams fighting for 3 spots – the Champions have first place wrapped up. The Gamblers have 82 wins, the Bamm Beanos 81, the Marauders 80, the Highlanders 78, and the Hitmen 77. The Bombers are in 7th place with 71 wins, but have two series this month to try and get into it; that’s probably too tall of an order, as they would need to win 14 of 18 games to have a decent chance.

The Bamm Beanos appear to have already played their final series, taking 7 from the Upperdeckers. That puts them at 88 wins, and pretty much locked in to the playoffs. The Gamblers play the Highlanders this Sunday, and I’d guess that I need to take at least six games from Todd to put me in position to knock the Marauders out of the playoffs – I’d need to take 7 of 9 to knock the Gamblers out, and I can’t see that happening. So, the Gamblers also look pretty solid for the playoffs.

The Marauders play the Bombers in one of the two series Mike has to play. If they take five, they also put themselves in a position where the Highlanders would have to win 7 to force a one-game playoff. Meanwhile the Hitmen sit at 77 wins and probably need the Highlanders and Marauders to get their clocks cleaned this month in order to have a chance. The Hitmen play the Kernels this month. If the Gamblers were to take at least 4 from the Highlanders, and the Marauders lost 6 to the Bombers, that would put them both at 83 and Chuck could tie them with 6 wins. Heck at that point the Bombers would only need to win 6 from the T-Chix to win 83 themselves, creating a 4 way tie for 4th place.

Meanwhile the Kernels, Upperdeckers, and T-Chix all have the chance to play spoiler this month to one degree or another – although it looks like the Upperdeckers already lost their chance, the T-Chix play the Bombers and the Kernels play the Hitmen. Those series could impact the playoff picture if the teams above them do poorly, as outlined above.

What a season!

Three Rivers Gamblers – December

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to everybody!

December had the 2 series for the Gamblers – the Kernels and the Hitmen. First up were the Keith Smith and the Kernels.

The Gamblers came out of the gate hitting scoring twice in the first and once in each of the second and third innings to take the early 4-0 lead. The Kernels plated two in the bottom of the 4^th and then the Gamblers put up a five spot in the fifth to make it 9-2. With C.C. on the hill all was looking good. In the bottom of the 6^th Ryan Howard took C.C. deep. Beltran followed with a single and then Wright and Ethier went back to back. Fukodome and Navarro each singled and after Burrell fanned, Robby Cano singled home Fukodome to chase Sabathia. Jensen Lewis put out the fire as the Kernels closed to within two. The Gambler pen shutdown the Kernels over the last 3 innings as Three Rivers went on to win 11-7.

The Gamblers once again struck early in game 2 scoring four times in the first the last two coming on a Prince Fielder blast. Aaron Laffey yielded just 3 runs on 3 hits as the Gamblers won 6-3.

In game 3 Three Rivers drew first blood again scoring 2 in the fourth. The Kernels came back in the bottom half with 3 grab their first lead of the series. But the Gamblers came right back in the top of the 5^th with a three spot to go ahead for good. The Kernels mounted another come back attempt closing to within one but Craig Breslow shut the door in the 9^th as the good guys won 8-7.

Brandon Webb took the hill in game four against his old team. He dominated the Gambler bats through four innings allowing just one hit. However, Webb had a blister issue and had to leave after four. Nobody seemed to notice that Webb was gone as Jarrod Washburn allowed only an unearned run. The Kernels offense put up 10 runs to win 10-1.

The Kernels got another fine pitching performance in game 4 as Joe Blanton allowed just 3 hits and two runs as the Kernels won 6-2.

Larry Walker and Dennis Eckersley Voted Into IAL HOF

Larry Walker played for 3 teams over his 16-year IAL career, hitting .291 with a .377 OBA and .554 SLG.   The only player who played longer and slugged higher was Barry Bonds, and only 4 players played longer and had a better on-base.  He hit 407 homer, drove in 1,343 runs, and scored 1,364 times.  He also stole 233 bases and played Gold Glove caliber defense in the outfield.  Walker’s most impressive year was 1998 with the Aurora Gamblers, when he hit .343 with 52 homer, 157 RBI, 156 runs, and 40 steals; this probably ranks as one of the best overall seasons in IAL history.  He topped 40 HR 3 times, 100 RBI 6 times, and 100 runs scored 6 times.  His struggles with injuries kept him to only 2,044 hits.

Dennis Eckersley pitched for 24 seasons, splitting time between starting and relieving; he won 168 games (versus 183 losses) and saved 208 games as a closer.  He played for 10 different teams (made all the more amazing for the fact that for most of his career in the IAL was an 8-team league) which couldn’t have hurt his voting drive!  Eck was a good but not great starter, winning 16 games twice, but it as a closer that he made his mark, mostly with the Dreamteam.  From 1989 through 1993 he saved 154 games, with ERA’s of 2.13, 2.35, 2.45, 2.49, and, in 1993, 1.12!  That year he saved 35 games in 52 appearances, throwing 80.2 innings with a 6-4 record and allowed only 40 hits and 10 earned runs all year

Champs Solidify Playoff Spot

Although we had an eight game lead on first place, with 18 games to play, anything can happen, so we were wary as Rob Moore brought his Highlanders to town. Luck was on our side as the Champs jumped out to a 2-0 series lead, then dropped the next two, before taking the last five games for a 7-2 series win. The series win upped our season record to 91-62, with nine games to go versus Kentucky, so it looks like another season in which we come up just short on reaching 100 wins. Last year’s ball club finished with 98 wins, the Champions have never won 100 games in a season. If we hold onto our lead, this will be the first time we’ve finished in first place in back to back seasons. 1996/97 was the last time we struck playoff gold in the form of a championship, got my fingers crossed, which makes it difficult to type.

Mike Bunch has once again put on his Santa Claus and delivered early Christmas presents to all the managers in the IAL, whether we were naughty or nice. APBA has just gotten the disk out for the computer game, and Papa Bunch has assembled that info into each of our teams, plus the rookies, way to go Bunchie! Believe it or not, I’m already toying with possible lineups for the upcoming season, I’m such a geek. A happy surprise was seeing Josh Beckett’s grade of B-XZ. Also Felipe Lopez & Ian Stewart received 2B-7 (Stewart also received a 3B-4), and Miguel Olivo was rated as an 8 behind the plate. On a sad note, Carlos Lee lost his 2 in the outfield.