Power Pros Forum

If anyone is following along, I messed up. I jotted down a post that I was supposed to post before the above, 5/1 post. Will post that post next. Sorry!

Twins & Country Trade Middle Infielders

Iowa City Gazette 4-30-2012

In a very odd turn of events, the Twins traded Brendan Harris (DBGDDE) for Tomas Perez (DEDDCD). Harris started every game for the Twins and had a .256 ave with 3 HRs. He is generally thought of as an offensive player only, but has a 992 fielding percentage with 1 error. Perez has a perfect fielding percentage with a similar batting ave and 2 HR. Said Country GM, "this deal sorta fell into our laps, in that we knew when we signed Perez that he had trade value, but we did not expect to be ale to get a player of Brendan's offensive abilities. We are thrilled!"

Both Harris and Sweeney, obtained earlier in the week, are expected to make their debut in today's game - the 3rd game of a 4 game series in which the Yankees took the 1st 7-6 and the Country won the 2nd 16-13. The Country's lineup for today's game is expected to be

Sweeney cf
Huisman c
Sanchez 2b
Harris ss
Johnson 1b
Ruggiano LF
Chavez 3b
Avalos (EFEEEF) DH
Roney RF

James P

Mike Mussina will start for the Yankees.

Iowa City Country: April in Review - Offense

Iowa City Gazette - 5-1-2008

Now that the 1st month of baseball is in the books, we've decided to take a look at how things are shaping up with the Country. Today, we'll look at fielders and tomorrow we'll look at pitchers.

The Country are 2 games under 0.500 (13-15), and last in the AL Central. but the Central is a very tight division this year, with the Indians, Twins, & White Sox also at 13-15, the Royals sitting at 2nd place in the division at 14-14, and the Tigers 4 games up on the Country at 17-11.

The Country have yet to play the Tigers and the Whitesox, but in other intradivision games, they are 10-11, so for a 1st year team, there are staying competitive in their division. As for the rest of MLB the Rangers, Nationals, Astros, Diamondbacks, Pirates, Cardinals, and Honeybees - the other new team - have worse records.

The Country have allowed 135 runs and scored 139. That's the 2nd most runs allowed in their division - only the Royals have been worse. They've also given up the 2nd-most hits in their division - 295; however, they've given up the fewest home runs and the fewest walks. Their strikeout total is a middle of the pack 200.

On the offensive side, they lead their division by a significant margin in batting ave (.314), runs (139), and hits. They also lead their division in sacrifices. They are last in home runs and stolen bases - not surprising considering the lack of power and speed on this team. Here's a look at the Country's stats, followed by the next closest teams stats in that same category:

batting ave .314 v Twins .280
runs 139 v Royals 126
hits 339 v Royals 284

Of course these numbers are open to interpretation, but one thing is clear: the Country is either going to need to reduce the runs allowed or increase runs scored in order to be competitive. That should be a very tough thing to do, however, as the pitching has been very good so far, and probably cannot expect that to continue indefinitely. Further, the Country's 55 more hits only netted 13 more runs than the Royals. Clearly the lack of home runs is a significant factor here, but perhaps if Huisman, Harris, and Johnson pick things up like we hope they can, more of those hits will be doubles that will drive runners joke or put people on scoring position.

As for individual stats, the leading hitters on the team are Sanchez (.415 ave), Johnson (10 XBH), and Chavez (19 runs scored and tied with Johnson with 19 RBIs).

Here's some questions and answers from our discussion with GM/Manager ERISA Dude:

Q: The team has done a great job "putting the bat on the ball," as you said would be the focus. Is it time to change the focus?
A: No, we need to keep swinging at strikes, but we need more of those hits to be for extra bases.

Q: You also mentioned before the season that there would be a focus on going from 1st to 3rd aggressively, but that has not really come to fruition. Why not?
A: Because we're slow and most of our hits are short and the outfielders are already running in when they pick up the ball!

Q: The Harris trade should help with extra base hits, but you didn't import any speed. Why not?
A: "Speed" is expensive. When we looked at players who could add speed to the team, the asking price was just too high.

Q: But the Country has still been very active in the trade market. Why trade for Sanchez and Sweeney and pick up rookie free agents, like White and Chavez, if they are not going to add speed or power? Why not let our draft picks develop?
A: There's power, there's speed, and there's defense. When you have a full staff of rookies, you aren't going to have more than 1 or 2 "complete" players. So far, I think we've got 1 - Huisman, who's been struggling at the plate, but is still tied for 2nd on the team in doubles, and has been great behind the plate. Before I looked over our roster, I expected to see a lot of what we call "D ratings". D rated players are guys who are OK at a certain skill, but should be able to get very good pretty quickly if they have the right training. Unfortunately, our team was mainly F rated players, meaning that in 2 or 3 years, they could be OK. Well, we brought in Chavez who has a great arm and has been surprisingly good at the plate. We brought in Great White who has C range on defense and seems to be hitting at a D level even though he is technically rated as an E, We brought in Sanchez who has D offense and defense, and we traded for Sweeney who has a D contact rating and D speed. Frankly, I think that once Sanchez develops a stronger arm and some more range, he is going to bean all-star. I really do!

The Sweeney trade was important for another reason, though. His ability to play every OF position should really come in handy when we need to rest players.

Q: Do you think the team can improve on its runs scored?
A: I do, but it will be difficult. I do not think we are going to improve that much, if at all, on batting average or total hits. If we improve in runs scored, it will be because we are doing a better job of getting extra base hits and getting base hits when runners are in scoring position.

Hey, folks...before I pour my time and effort into a written pitching analysis, I'd like to know if people are enjoying this. I'll gladly keep it up, but I don't want to just take up web-space.

Comments?

Definitely! I'm still following and not just clicking to get rid of new posts

Thanks. I'm pretty excited about how my pitching is shaping up. Right now I'm just mulling over whether, after the draft, I should trade Morris and Nomo for younger folks.

Probably Nomo, it sounds like Morris is doing well.

I'm following, I just haven't posted a reply. Keep up the good season.

Iowa City Country: April in Review - Pitching

5-2– 2008 Iowa City Gazette

Yesterday, we looked at the status of the Country's offense. Today we will look at how its pitching has faired over the first month of the season.

Statwise, the Country staff, as a whole, are middle of the pack in their division in every category – ERA, runs, hits allowed, etc. but there are some notable individual achievements currently. Number three starter, Chuck James, is ninth in the division in ERA. Morris and Dierdorf actually have lower ERA s, but do not have enough innings to technically qualify. Morris is only short three innings of work. As for the "wins" column, the Country's Buchanan is tied for first in the division with four wins, Morris is tied for sixth with three wins, and 4 Country starters share a tie for forth with two wins.

Shawn Green has been relatively successful at closer, saving 4 games in 6 opportunities. He is currently 5th in the division in saves, while Jiang is fourth in the division in holds.

In this case, it is difficult to know what the stats mean in terms of country success, so we are fortunate to have anyone to discuss this with country manager and GM Orissa do. Following are excerpts from our interview:

Q: can you talk generally about the starting staff?
A: sure. I am very pleasantly surprised by our starting staff. They have worked really well to keep us in the ballgames and giving us a chance to win. We had a good idea that Morris, Nomo, and James will be worthwhile pickups, but did not think they would take leadership roles with the staff as they have. I also strongly believe that we have a good core of rookies that will develop into top flight pitchers. We've been using Dierdorf and depablos as our fourth and fifth starters. They have decent control and are borderline C – B stamina with good movement on multiple pitches. We are actually going to make a change in this second month. Bourgious has been serving as our setup man, but we actually have him stretched out closer to a B than Deardorff, so we will be swapping those spots and making Deardorff our set up man. Still, we expect those 3 to develop into strong starters that can regularly go 7 innings. Jiang also has been a nice surprise, serving as a quality middle reliever who can usually go three innings.

Q: we noticed all your trades so far have been position players. Do you expect to trade for pitcher soon?
A: we do not expect it, although we will remain open minded. We do expect to pick up at least one pitcher in the draft that we project as a starter and at least one that we would project as a reliever. Although we expect to select a fielder in this years draft who will immediately contribute, if things go as expected, we will be picking in the middle of the draft next year and the end of the draft in the following years and in those spots, it is easier to find impact pitchers than impact fielders so we are more likely to trade for fielding and batting and rely on the draft and free agency for pitching.

Well, it has been a fun April and this reporter looks forward to an exciting May!

Expansion swap!
5-13-2008

The trade–happy Country traded three "Countrymen" for one Honey Bee. The Honeybees receive Huffman (EEEDDF), who apparently lost his starting centerfield position when the Country obtained Sweeney , and fellow minor leaguers Walter (RF – EFEEFF) and Arriaga (P DC 92 4). The Country receive Erdos, the honeybees starting left fielder (DDEDDD). This seems to give the Country a glut of left fielders vying for the starting spot – Erdos, Ruggiano, and White.

Honeybees GM commented "it is difficult to know how these young players will develop, so in a way, we are playing a numbers game. We are giving them a solid player in Erdos, but are receiving three players in exchange, and we like those odds."

Same, I'm following. Very nice log, by the by.

I'm following too!

You're doing well, my friend

Thanks, guys! I appreciate the feedback!

Can any of you tell me the max # of players we can have on a team? If I need to drop some guys to make room for the draft and undrafted FAs, I may try to trade some scrubs for points

You can have 25 in MLB, 15 in AAA.

You can actually have up to 44 players total. Up to 34 in AAA (44 minus the required 1 pitcher and 9 fielders).

Limit is 40 for an Arrange mode team. There is no AAA limit whatsoever.