Bunch’s Bombers claim 2011 IAL Championship

Congratulations to Mike Bunch and the Green Rock Bombers! 

The Bombers won a very exciting 2011 IAL World Series against Don Smith’s Molly Putts Marauders in a series that went six games.  Some of us half-jokingly tease that for those of us not in the postseason, the playoffs and World Series are a ho-hum affair but this series really had its moments.  Personally, I stayed up a lot later than I intended so I could watch the conclusion.    Adam Dunn was named Series MVP. 

I did a write-up on The APBA Blog on the playoffs and World Series. 

Congrats also to Don as well as playoff managers Chuck and Marcus. 

IAL Draft & Trade Review Rebuttal by Mike Bunch

Rebuttal to Tedd’s Draft and Trade Review

I think Hellickson is a lot better than you are giving him credit. That “B Z” will be there for about 10 years or more.

The rating of the secondbaseman in the draft is a little off. Here is how I see them. Espinosa is Bobby Grich, Jason Kipnis is Jeff Kent that is a worse fielder, Dustin Ackley is Chuck Knoblauch, Jose Altuve is Ted Sizemore. All are pretty good it’s a matter of which one you like. I took Bobby Grich (Danny Espinosa).

Vance Worley is better than you give him credit. He is more like a Bob Forsch, not a super star but a real good pitcher.

Matt Downs is a good utility infielder who can really hit. Wonderdog ring a bell? Another Rex Hudler!!

Desmond Jennings is the exact player that B.J. Upton turned out to be, but Jennings is two years younger and 4 years less experience. He could still develop into a better player than Upton is.

Mike McKenry was the best fit for what was left. I never envisioned that I would get stuck at catcher. With the Catchers that were let he could help me on limits at 3B so he was the choice. I thought I would get Salvador Perez in my 3rd pick.

The Happ for Herrera trade helped both teams. Happ has a better track record than Herrera so I would give the edge to Don.

The Gordon for Michael Young trade you are way off. Michael Young is the best player in the trade by far plus he covers everywhere. Big Advantage Keith.

Keppinger & Johnson for Nix and a pick. Keppinger is a very good back up and Johnson will never be even that good. Nix is a bun for coverage. The pick however wasn’t really McKenry. It was Jennings. A back-up catcher had to be taken. Without this trade I do not have the extra pick to take Jennings. That makes a big difference.

Kuroda for Andrus Hiroki Kuroda is a proven year in year out “ B “ starter and the best player in this trade advantage Keith.

Posey for Wainwright: Which would you rather have, one of the 5 best Catchers in baseball or one of the 5 best pitchers in baseball? Since I already have one of the other 5 best catchers in baseball I’ll take the Pitcher and Catcher over two Catchers. You can only play one catcher at a time.

Upton for Hardy. A B.J. Upton type outfielder you could get in this draft (Desmond Jennings), A 30 Home Run hitting Gold Glove Shortstop you could not get in the draft. Enough said.

This is my two cents worth. Let’s hear from the rest of the manager. Do you agree with Tedd’s statement or mine. Maybe you have your own ideas. Let’s hear them!!!!!!!!

IAL Hall of Fame: Barry Larkin

IAL Accomplishments:

• 7th all-time in career triples with 82
• 1269 career runs and 961 rbis

IAL Hall of Fame: Frank Thomas

IAL Accomplishments:

• 9th all time in career homeruns with 475
• 2nd all time in career walks with 1372
• 6th all-time career OBP with .390
• Highest all time single season OBP with a .501 mark in 1995
• 7th highest all time single season in rbis with 162 in 1998
• Third highest all time single season in walks with 151 in 1995
• World Series Championships:  1998, 2006

2012 eligible Rookies

Rookie players

Rookie pitchers

Thunderchickens Losing in Bunches

Mike’s dog has as big an appetite as he does :)

Brando and I went to the lovely town of Colona to both play Papa Bunch and son on Saturday.  In both series, our team got off to a good start but ended up on a losing note.  We ended up losing 3-6 to Marcus and 4-5 to Mike.

That puts us at 61-83 and deeper in the basement, I’m sure. 

Some highlights:

In three straight games against the Bombers, Troy Tulowitzski went 9 for 13 with 5 rbis and 7 runs scored on three homeruns. 

Ryan Zimmerman had 3+ rbis in four separate games including Game 8 against the Bombers when he hit two homeruns and drove in five.  For the 18 games, he drove in 20.

Some lowlights:

Albert Pujols hit .222 with 0 homers with 1 rbi in 14 games and 45 at-bats.

In three straights starts, Manny Parra gave up a total of 39 runs and 21 walks. 

We have Molly Putts and the Beanos left.  We only need to two wins to avoid a 100-loss season.  Unless Albert picks it up, I’m only fairly certain we can do this.  Limit are good though if by good you mean I can pitch Manny Parra.

IAL Hall of Fame: Greg Maddux

Greg Maddux Gets the Call

Greg Maddux was inducted into the IAL Hall of Fame. He finished his career with a record of 354 wins versus 232 losses. Besides leading all time in wins, Greg also tops the charts in starts 749, complete games 193, 63 shutouts, and innings pitched 5,086’. Maddux is 2nd all time in strikeouts 3,925, compared to only 1,271 bases on balls, over a 3-to-1 ratio. His career ERA of 3.59 is just out of the top ten, #10 currently stands at 3.57.

In 1988 the Chicago Champions drafted Greg Maddux as D-Y, after he’d posted a 5.61 ERA, a 6-14 record, and allowed 181 base hits over 155” innings of work for the Chicago Cubs. He started 42 games for the Champs in his rookie season, finishing with a 4-15 record and a 6.83 ERA, who knew of the greatness that was to come. Maddux was one of several Champions drafted, who shared their birthday, April 14th, with Chicago skipper Tedd Mallasch.

The six-time Cy Young Award winner, relied on guile, grit, determination, along with competitiveness, but his pinpoint control was what defined Maddux as a pitcher. In 1997 he walked only 13 batters in 245 innings worked. In fact from 1996-98, he only issued 59 free passes over 712’ innings pitched. Greg was a winner, winning twenty or more games 1993-96, and then again in 2001.

It wasn’t just about personal performance for Maddux, if the team wasn’t winning Greg wasn’t happy. Fortunately the Champions finished in 1st place in his rookie year and then again in his last season in the bigs, with a lot of reasons to celebrate in between. Four times Chicago finished in first place and five times they won it all.

It’s kind of neat to compare his MLB numbers with his IAL numbers. Here are his real life stats compared to his in the Illowa APBA League:

He came in as the Batboy and went out as the Professor. Here’s to the greatest pitcher in the history of the Illowa APBA League, Greg Maddux!

- Tedd Mallasch, manager of the Chicago Champions

IAL Hall of Fame: Tom Glavine

Tom Glavine had a pretty unexciting start in the Illowa APBA League.  Winning just two games in his first years, I’m not sure anyone paid much attention to him.  After a ten-win season in his third season in 1990, his trade value was as high it would ever get so it seemed.  So Chicago Champion management traded him for an aging Kirk Gibson to the Twin City Thunderchickens.  After that he never looked back. 

After a mediocre 7-9 season, Glavine put together a string of 12 seasons of double digit wins (after a season of injuries in 2004, he won 10 or more for three more years).  That first year in 1996, he showed his talent winning 17 with a 2.96 ERA and struck out 219.  Glavine was a workhorse. For 14 out of 15 years, he threw at least 210 innings for Twin City explaining why he’s in the top ten in so many pitching categories. 

Glavine’s best season was arguably 1999.  That was the year everything just came together for the Twin City Thunderchickens.  Glavine’s amazing performance was almost overshadowed by teammate Mark McGwire’s record breaking 70 homeruns but that year, he simply couldn’t lose.  With a record of 21-7 and a 3.23, he showed why Thunderchicken management had already deemed him “untradeable”.  By the end of the year, Glavine had not only helped the team to their first 100 win season under their current manager’s reign but also brought home a league championship.

After 19 years with the team, Tom Glavine retired a Thunderchicken in 2009.  He will forever epitomize what it means to be part of that team. 

Glavine’s accomplishments

• tied for 3rd all-time in wins with 247
• 5th in strikeouts with 2797
• third in shutouts with 36
• third in games started with 582
• fourth in complete games with 148
• third in innings pitched with 4231 2/3
• 12 years in a row with 10 wins or more
• World Series ring in 1999

IAL Leaderboards Wrap-up

During the All-Star weekend, Tedd mentioned to me that the IAL Player Register was one year out of date.  So I got on it.  It’s now updated with 2010 stats.  While I was doing that, I thought I do the all-time leaderboards which is a fun for me.  Here is my summary.

Who’s new on the list?

Who cracked the single season top ten in 2010?  Good question.  There weren’t many and the ones that did might surprise you.  The Kentucky Kernels’ rookie Andrew Bailey did it with his 44 saves.  He’s tenth on the list.  The Green Rock Bombers’ Livan Hernandez found himself on a couple categories.  In 2009, he broke the all-time record for innings pitched in a season with 354 1/3.  This past year, he almost did again.  He logged 322 2/3 innings which is good for eighth all time.  Not only that, he comes in 3rd all-time in losses with 26 losses in 2010. 

Another Bomber pitcher, Francisco Lirano walked 171 batters which now ranks 3rd in the history of our league.  Manny Parra of the Twin City Thunderchickens wasn’t far behind in 2010.  He gave out 169 free passes and comes in 4th all time. 

Two pitchers ranked in the top ten in games pitched in 2010… and they both pitched for the same team.  Brad Lidge (88 games) and Kevin Jepsen (87 games) of the Molly Putts Marauders now are in the record books (5th and 6th place respectively).

That seems like a lot of pitchers but among the hitters, there was only one who cracked the single season top ten lists.  Chicago Highlander Miguel Tejada.  Shortstop Tejada hit 62 doubles which was one less than Nomar Garciaparra’s all-time record set in 2001.  Tejada will settle for a tie for second place with 1987 Wade Boggs and former Highlander 1995 Chuck Knoblauch.

What were the trends on the all-time career lists?

We’re starting to see a new class of players make their way into the IAL record books.  In 2010, Derek Jeter just made into the top ten of at-bats and runs as well as bolstering his lead in HBP.  Alex Rodriguez jumped up a few spots in the homerun category to fifth all-time with 563 dingers.   ARod also made his first appearance on the rbi chart.  He’s seventh all-time with 1489. 

Ivan Rodriguez is going to do his best bolster his numbers going into his last season in 2011.  Right now, he’s 8th all-time in hits with 2407, 4th in doubles (he’s giving tips to Miguel), and 9th in at-bats. 

Albert Pujols is now the all-time leader in slugging percentage and Joe Mauer’s OBP of .402 is nine points behind all-time leader Wade Boggs.  Upperdecker teammate Todd Helton is only three points behind Mauer and comes in at third all time. 

There are plenty more players making a splash… Chipper Jones, Jimmy Rollins, Manny Ramirez (if striking out is considered “making a splash”. Manny is now the all-time leader in Ks with 1748). 

Are there any old-timers still in the IAL record books?

Records are meant to be broken.  But do we have players from our early days still on our record books?  Plenty!  For example:

• 1981 Al Oliver is 3rd in hits with 231.  1978 Dave Parker clocks in at 9th with 224.
• 1982 Cecil Cooper ranks fifth with 61 doubles.
• 1982 Vince Coleman is the all-time leader in stolen bases with 119.  Tim aines is the all time career leader with 854.
• Andy Messersmith won 27 games in 1976 for the all time record.  Bryan Harvey saved 55 in 1992 again, no one has matched that.
• The top three in career ERA are all from a different era (no pun intended).  Catfish Hunter (3.11), Bert Blyleven (3.44), Jim Palmer (3.50), Ken Forsch (3.50) and Steve Carlton (3.50). 

Check out the all-time records yourself. 

All-time Hitting Records and the All-time Pitching Records. 

Here is the link to the 2011 IAL Player Register

2011 Illowa APBA League Rookie Draft