Hall of Fame Candidate: Mike Piazza

This is the fourth in a series of articles about candidates for the Illowa League Hall of Fame.

Now we move on to the first player in our series who seems like a real slam-dunk first ballot Hall of Famer.  Over 15 years, Mike Piazza was the best offensive catcher in the IAL by a long stretch.  He stepped into a key role immediately with the Posse, hitting 22 homers and driving in 83 runs as a rookie in 1994, and stayed dominant for the first decade of his career – after which he was merely very good, hitting 23 homers with a .272 batting average in his second-to-last season in 2007.

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Hall of Fame Candidate: Kenny Lofton

This is the third in a series of articles about candidates for the Illowa League Hall of Fame.

It’s always difficult to predict how leadoff hitters will do in IAL Hall of Fame voting.  Kenny Lofton was one of the best for about six or seven years, but like Craig Biggio and Shawn Green before him in this series, his period of dominance was brief.  Lofton played 16 seasons in the IAL, but only played in more than 140 games five times, all in the first seven seasons of his career.  He ranks first all-time in triples, with 113, second all-time in stolen bases with 652 (over 200 behind Tim Raines) fell just short of 2,000 hits (ranking 24th all-time with 1,983), and scored 1,233 runs (also ranking him 24th). [more after the jump]

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Hall of Fame Candidate: Shawn Green

This is the second in a series of articles on candidates for the Illowa League Hall of Fame.

Shawn Green played 13 seasons in the Ilowa League, splitting time between the Bunchies.  He had a slow start to his career, not really breaking out and playing full-time until his fourth season, 1999, when he hit 36 homers, stole 34 bases, and scored 121 runs.  That started a streak of eight seasons where he played in at least 152 games, scoring and driving in 100+ runs four times.  His best season was 2002, when he hit .295/.363/.589 with 46 homers, 24 steals, 135 runs scored, and 130 RBI.  After 2006 he faded fast, and after two seasons as a part timer, retired. [more after the jump]

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Hall of Fame Candidate: Craig Biggio

This is the first in a series of articles about candidates for the Illowa League Hall of Fame.

Craig Biggio came into the IAL in the expansion draft of 1997, taken by the State Street Sluggers.  He was immediately dealt to the Aurora (now Three Rivers) Gamblers.  Despite missing what would have been the first eight seasons of his career if he had been drafted when first eligible (probably 1989) he played 11 excellent seasons, exclusively playing for the Gamblers.

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2010 Hall of Fame Voting

I’ve been going over the Hall of Fame for the 2010 ballot, and it looks like this year will be a good one! Eligible players for this year include, among hitters, Craig Biggio, Jose Cruz, Jr., Juan Encarnacion, Shawn Green, Kenny Lofton, Mike Piazza, and Jose Valentin. Among pitchers we have Roger Clemens, Bartolo Colon, Kelvim Escobar, Roberto Hernandez, and John Smoltz.

Biggio, Lofton, Piazza, Clemens, and Smoltz all would appear to have shots to make the Hall of Fame. It will be interesting to see how Clemens’ real world issues affect his Illowa voting.

Tedd has been bugging me about Tim Raines’ not being in the Hall, and so I have an idea that I’d like to share – for an old-timer’s “second chance.” Each manager can nominate 1 player that played on their team to be reconsidered by the voters. If they get no votes, they fall off the ballot. What do you think?

Playoff Preview

With the playoffs coming up in March I thought I’d do a playoff preview.  The Champions seem to be the clear favorite – but will they close the deal?  I’ve looked at run differential, the likely pitching rotations, and if there are any part-timers who look to take a bigger role in the postseason…

Chicago Champions (+136) vs. Three Rivers Gamblers (+69)

Probable playoff rotation: A, CZ, CZ, CZ vs. BZ, B, BW, C

The Champs have to be the favorites to take it all this year, but that doesn’t mean they don’t have weaknesses.  This applies especially in Round One, as Lincecum can only pitch twice if the series goes five.  That means the Gamblers have a slight pitching advantage.  Both pens go reasonably deep, but the Champs have got good control all over the place, while the Gamblers are shaky.  Offensively both teams have great hearts of the order (A-Rod, Morneau, Sizemore, Lee and Rollins for the Champs, Pedroia, Jeter, Braun, Fielder, Glaus and Bay for the Gamblers).  Neither really has a "secret weapon" they can trot out in the playoffs.  The Champs should win this one – I’ll say Champs in 5.

Rising Bamm! Beanos (+67) vs. Molly Putts Marauders (+26)

Probable playoff rotation: AW, B, B, B vs. AW, BZ, BZ, BZ

The Marauders only scored 26 more runs than they allowed as they had the second worst offense in the league.  On the other hand, they’ve got a deep rotation, and the luxury of adding a couple of starters to their pen, making it also extremely deep.  The Bamm! Beanos, on the other hand, have an excellent offense with lots of depth; Hanley Ramirez and Mark Teixeira are top-notch while Matt Kemp, Russ Martin, and Dan Uggla are a good supporting cast.  Their pen is not as deep as the Putts but still adequate – they also can add a B starter to their pen.  It could come down to a couple of rookie part-timers; Denard Span for the Beanos and Kung Fu Panda (Pedro Sandoval) for the Marauders.  Neither will be able to play every day but will have a big effect when they are in the game.  In the end though, I think the Marauders have too many holes on offense – Sandoval can only plug one – and the Bamm! Beanos will advance to the World Series in 4 games.

Highlanders Take Five of Nine From Gamblers, Miss Playoffs Anyway

We came into the final series knowing we probably needed to win six games against the Three Rivers Gamblers to have a chance at the playoffs, and our pitching limits were putting us up against the wall; our 2 A+ pitchers had 8 2/3 innings but only 3 appearances between them, and Ryan Madson had only 3 appearances and 4 innings. Things started really well, with the Highlanders winning 4 of 5 behind an incredible Chris Davis hot streak (4 HR, 2 2b, 2 3b, 13 RBI in the 4 wins) but things cooled off quickly thereafter, as we only won game eight after that. Congratulations to the Gamblers and all the other playoff teams (Marauders, Bamm Beanos, and Champions, looks like).

Time to dissect the team performance. Hitting was clearly the problem, as we had 6 players get over 300 at-bats who had on-base averages under .300. Once again, we didn’t have anyone drive in 100 runs (Chris Young drove in 96 despite his .230/.293/.431 line – the Joe Carter special). Lance Berkman was our best all-around hitter, scoring 107 runs, driving in 91 while hitting .274/.379/.529 and stealing 17 bases to top it off. Justin Upton hit .248/.332/.532 with 19 HR in 351 AB’s, and other than that no one really did well with the bat. Stephen Drew and Adrian Beltre started off hot, but vanished without a trace in the second half, Howie Kendrick and Rickie Weeks never really got started, and Ivan Rodriguez and Miguel Montero didn’t do much behind the plate.

The pitching staff was good but not great. Our starters were solid, led by Roy Oswalt (a 2.86 ERA but only 12 wins) and Felix Hernandez (14-11 with a 4.71 ERA that would have been better without one blowout game early in the season). Jeremy Guthrie threw a no-hitter and won 13 games, and Jon Garland was solid as well. Ian Snell was up and down, going 5-15 with a 5.21 ERA, looking much worse than that at times and much better at other times. Brad Ziegler flashed good stuff in the pen, saving 21 games with a 2.43 ERA, while fellow rookie Jim Johnson vultured 10 wins with a 2.36 ERA himself. Ryan Madson was expected to develop into an elite shutdown reliever, but that didn’t happen (4.14 ERA, 7-5 record) and now he’ll get the chance to try for the Kernels as he and Johnson were shipped out for Michael Young.

Where do we stand for 2010? It looks right now like there are three strong contenders for the playoffs, and three teams playing for 2011, leaving four teams with varying degrees of chances to get that 4^th playoff spot. I think we’re one of those 4 in the middle, but probably one of the further shots. We’ve traded for Scott Kazmir and Michael Young, and shipped out a couple of reliever and Adrian Beltre. We need a little coverage at second base but are otherwise covered – which is good because we have no retiring players. Julian Tavarez is getting cut, and the ax is hovering over several other players heads, and we may not know who will be cut for the extra pick until draft day.

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!

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!