S25 Draft - Top 10 Review by habslmets

1. Norfolk Turkeys – Sammy Medrano, 2B/CF, Central Michigan

Norfolk got the draft going by taking Sammy Medrano  with the number one pick. Medrano has very solid defensive skills, and should play gold glove defense at either well valued 2B or CF. With power and contact splits both 75 or higher, his bat should come into great use as well. Medrano is the kind of player you can build your line up around with him hitting at multiple positions in the order.

2. Seattle Water Wolves – Robb Lockwood, SP, Georgia Tech

Seattle made Robb Lockwood the first pitcher off the board, and with good reason. The 86/89 lefty-righty splits made many owners take notice. His control is also excellent, but there are a few reasons to be concerned. A durability of only 11 could be a concern as the season wears on, but his health of 98 definitely should take a load of off reigny's mind.

3. Kansas City Renegades – Pablo Figureoa, SP, College of Lake County

The Renegades plucked another top pitcher with their selection of Figueroa at 3. Figureoa has the kind of stamina that will make him a great innings eater. Combine that with his perfect health and it won't be surprising to see him frequently top 200 innings pitched. He is equally solid against both left and right handed batter, and has very nice control. There are few weaknesses in Figueroa's game.

4. Santa Fe Sluggers – Ray Griffith, 1B, Larnerd High School (KS)

Griffith was easily one of the few truly solid first basemen in the draft, but he may have been a slight reach at number 4. His lefty-righty splits were among the best in the draft, and his power and contact will make him a terror in the middle of an order. His health was my main reason for falling a little in my draft board, but if first base is your main priority, then Griffith was the way to go.

5. Chicago Blagos – Bartolo Gonzalez, SP, Hartshorne High School (OK)

Gonzalez rounded out the elite tier of starting pitchers in this years draft thanks to his 91 stamina, 83 control and scorching 98 velocity.. Gonzalez also posed on of the toughest arms against lefties at 83, but his 55 split against righties may have scared off a few teams. Teams should be afraid of Gonzalez, who will make a great top end starter in the future.

6. New Britain River Rats – Bo McMillan, CF, Little Falls High School (MN)

The 6th pick in the draft started a small run of position players, and the River Rats made McMillan the first outfielder off the board. McMillan has great hitting ability with contact at 75 and a power rating of 84. His lefty-righty splits are a little low, and he has below average ability at center field defensively. However it wouldn't surprise me to see McMillan tearing it up at 2B in the future.

7. Louisville Lumber – Alvin Miceli, SS, Salt Lake West Theron High School (UT)

The Lumber took Miceli with the 7th pick, but at the time of this writing he is the only one of the top 10 unsigned. If he does sign, he will be a very talented shortstop both offensive and defensively. His skill in the field is very good, and his 88 power makes Miceli a rare power shortstop. However his health is a little low for comfort, although that may not matter if Miceli decides not to sign.

8. Baltimore Orioles – Vic Montero, SS, Northwest College

Baltimore landed themselves another stud shortstop with Montero, who by my counts was the best defensive player available in the draft. His high health and durability ratings means he could a gold glover for years to come, and his very solid 76 power and 53 contact ratings will make him a solid member of any batting order. The Orioles might have had the steal of the draft with Montero.

9. Wichita Rocks – Alex Harris, SP, Iowa Western CC

Alex Harris ended the run of position players, and for good reason. Harris is very solid in almost every major pitching category, with his 82/77 splits and 91 velocity really standing out. A perfect health rating of 100 was another major bonus for the leagues oldest franchise, and could find himself in the ace role in the years to come.

10. Rochester Rakers – Ricky Gold, RP, North Texas University

The Rakers rounded out the top ten by landing themselves the best relief pitcher in the draft. Ricky Gold was a steal at number 10, and will make a top bullpen arm. Gold's lefty-righty splits of 86 and 83 are spectacular, and his 83 control and 89 velocity make him solid all around. Granted his stamina is low, but with a health rating of 90 the Rakers may have found their closer of the future. 

S25 Power 10

1)  San Diego Beards of Zeus -  40_dog and his Black Panther magic is doing even better than winning 60%  of the time 100% of the time...they rolling at a clip of 76%.   SD has been on a slow up swing winning 62, 75, 83 over the last 3 seasons.   Can young gun Horacio DeLeon get 40 back to the playoffs for the first time since S18?

2)  Augusta Polar Bears -  Balls are flying out of Noes Field at an alarming rate.......the blog wonders if the commish took a page from The Lorrax and bottled some of the fresh Rocky Mountain air and is piping it into Noes.......could happen......

3)  Tampa Bay Don Caesers -  2x ARod World Series champ cebola continues to get it done with solid hitting to go with great pitching and fielding.    You better have a lead late against TB as stud closer Alfonso Villafuerte is virtually unhittable!!!

4)  Philadelphia Colonials -  All those years in the basement collecting talent is paying off in a big way for brutus08, but the "cou de ta" was landing superstar SP Gary Pressley last year in a trade........speaking of that, who traded him to brutus?  I gotta go back and look so we can kick their ass!!!  :)

5)  Helena Peacemakers - Another team loaded with superstar young talent.........here's to wishing we had to the MWR in place 10 season's ago, maybe bigp wouldn't be in for such a dog fight this year.   Keep an eye on slugger Hersh Glynn as that crazy breakout MVP season could happen at any moment.

6)  Tacoma XMEN -  Just when it looked like mrx39 was going to give up on his rebuild, he gives it one last change and what do you know............loads of young talent here but is there enough pitching to keep this going?

7)  Colorado Shock -  The Shock are doing what The Shock do......struggle against the truly elite and handle everyone else.   Could this be the year that bigparb13's $110 million investment finally pays off - Gio Hernandez?

8)  Hartford Dirt Dobbers -  The entire town of Hartford held its collective breath when superstar Art Krause was injured ..... luckily for the Dobbers it was just a calf strain and with Krause set to make his return tomorrow, rdwaltz71 has done a great job keeping the Dobbers in 1st place in the NL North division.

9)  San Juan Rum Runners -  new owner BroncoRon has a solid veteran squad sitting in first place but in recent days he's indicated a desire to re-build.  There's been no significant moves to-date but the blog wonders when we might see that first domino fall......

10)  Tie -Trenton Thunder &  Iowa City Rounders -  really?  really?  two of the best teams in ARod both sitting under .500 33 games in a more that a bit shocking?   Is it rebuild time for Iowa?     
 

S25 Hall of Fame vote

It just don't get any easier than this folks.   We've got five ARod legends up for the Hall this year.   Let's not embarrass ourselves by not voting a couple of these guys in (again).

1)  Emmanuel Aquino  -  13 All-Star appearances, 2nd all-time to Dante Ming, S6 AL ROY, S7 All-Star game MVP, 2x World Series Champ, 8x Silver Slugger and S14 AL MVP, Aquino's racked up some amazing stats.  Check out this slash line over 17 seasons - .325/.405/.643/1.048;  add 716 HR (#5 all-time),  2126 RBI (#4 all-time), 1871 runs (#5 all-time), 1100 walks, 500 doubles and dude could run too - 229 SB.   Aquino was never a magician (1 Gold Glove at 2B)  in the field but playing most of his career at 2B, he had a .985 fielding% while there.   If this guy isn't in the HOF this year I will have to question the collective intelligence of this world.

2)  Jack Redmond  -  10 All-Star appearances, tied for 3rd all-time, 4x AL Cy Young winner, 2x World Series Champ and S15 AL Gold Glove pitcher, "Black" Jack is in the discussion of best pitchers in the history of ARod and as if you needed more evidence - 253 W(#4 all-time) - 108 L in 523 GS; 2871 K(#3 all-time) vs. only 1044 BB;  career WHIP of 1.19 and ERA of 3.12.

3) Dan Stuart   -   6 All-Star appearances, 3x NL Cy Young winner, 2x World Series Champ, 2x NL Gold Glove pitcher, The Big Train was the most durable and dominant pitcher the NL has seen.  281 W(#2 all-time) - 159 L, 104 CG(#1 all-time) in 561 GS, 4002.2 innings pitched (#1 all-time), 2793 K(#5 all-time) vs. only 1088 BB and a career WHIP of 1.22 and ERA of 3.53.  Oh and he's #1 all-time in Shutouts(31), Quality Starts(357) too......Get'r done!!

4) Tony Weiss   -  9 All-Star appearances, tied for 4th all-time, S16 AL MVP, S6 NL ROY, 10x Silver Slugger, Weiss was one of the greatest non-power hitting hitters in the history of ARod and his MVP season was one for the ages----he hit .384 with an OBP of .451, scored 164 runs and ripped 262 hits (an all-time single season record) and stole 57 bases---not bad eh?   For his career he hit .324 with a .399 OBP, ripped 2961 hits (#5 all-time), scored 1809 runs, had 1321 RBI and walked 1031 times......almost forgot the 778 SB's (#3 all-time) and the 545 doubles (#5 all-time)!!!

5) Sal MacDougal   - 7 All-Star appearances, tied for 6th all-time, S4 AL Cy Young winner, S16 World Series Champ, MacDougal was the AL's answer to Dan Stuart.   He may not have racked up quite as many Cy's, but if you needed a Win, look no further - #1 in all-time wins with 286, #2 in innings pitched with 3814, #4 in CG with 77, #2 in Shutouts with 29 and #1 in K's at 3053.  Nuff said!!

S24 All-World Team

P -  Elrod Coke
C - Brant Ducey
1B - Vincente Bennett
2B - Ralph Kydd
3B - Benito Rijo
SS - Ajax Maybin
LF - Dan Blair
CF - Hi Shouse
RF - Pat Dougherty
DH - Dioner Monero

Congrats to cebola & Tampa Bay

1)  2nd World Series title for cebola in 4 years

2)  4th consecutive World Series title for the NL South

3)  8 of the last 11 World Series titles for the NL

S24 LCS Recap by cebola

It was guaranteed that the NL champ would come from the NL South for the 5th consecutive season, as division rivals Iowa and Tampa squared off in the best of 7. In each of the first two games, Tampa came from behind late to steal the 2-0 series lead. Iowa got another superb start from Bruce Mullens (7 innings, 1 run) in game one, but the bullpen could not hold on, as Tampa comes up with 5 runs in the 8th to erase a 4-1 deficit. Kid Flair delivered the 2-run, 2-out hit to give the Dons the lead. In game 2, Iowa’s Cutter Darr staked the Rounders to a 4-0 lead in the first with a big 3-run blast off Rob Cormier. Tampa got huge lifts from a couple bench players as Ronnie Rapp got his team back into it with a pinch-hit 3-run homer in the 5th to cut Iowa’s lead to 2. And when Harry “Met Sal” Lee was able to come out of the pen and give his squad 3 scoreless/hitless innings, the Dons positioned themselves to make a comeback for the second straight game. Flair played hero again with a 2-run homer in the ninth to put Tampa ahead by a run, and closer Alfonso Villafuerte closed the door for the second straight game. Game 3 was more of a typical contest for these two clubs, as Clinton Puffer spun a beauty (7 innings, 1 run) in Iowa’s 2-1 win, thrusting his team back into the series. Sammy Cochrane got the big 2-out RBI hit in the 8th to put the Rounders ahead to stay. Doug “Buck” Rogers was the hard luck loser (7 innings, 1 run.) Tampa got great pitching in the next two games from Rich Sobolewski (8 shutout innings) and Rob Cormier (6 innings 0 earned runs) to seal the series with wins of 4-0 and 7-2. Game 5 was a 2-1 contest through Iowa’s half of the 6th, but Tampa was able to break it open with 3 homers the rest of the way, including another pinch-hit blast by Rapp. Tampa ends Iowa’s quest for the Three-peat (I use the term with Pat Riley’s permission), and get back to the series for the 3rd time in 5 seasons.

Iowa had another great season and looked to be on a mission to win their third consecutive title. There’s no doubt they will be back next season to add to their legacy and do whatever it takes to win it all! Great job.

In the AL Championship Series, Trenton stormed out to a 3-1 series lead with a couple of dramatic come-from-behind wins of their own. Game 1 was a great pitching performance by co-ace Karl Hurst and three relievers to stake them to the early series lead with a 3-1 win. Game 2 saw the Thunder come back from a 4-1 deficit by scoring 6 in the final two frames to win 7-4. John "lil Ichiro" Suzuki and Don Fukudome "No Fukudome You" each had a 2-run HR in the 8th to go ahead. LA took game three 4-3, on a brilliant pitching performance by Derek Hardtke, who tossed 4 innings of relief for the win. In game 4, Trenton survived a 5 run first inning by LA (Darren Ferguson and Andrew Gipson HR’s with ducks on the pond) to come back again and win 8-6. A couple of 2-out RBI hits by Victor Morales and Ober Furcal tied the game in the 5th, and Javier Rivera and Suzuki supplied the RBI’s in the go-ahead 7th. In game 5, the Dodgers again staked themselves to a 5-nil lead in the 1st on another 2-run blast by Ferguson, and a homer by Tony “The Crooner” Bennett. This time, they were able to make it hold up, as Paul Merrick throws 6 innings, giving up only 1 run on 5 hits and a walk. LA starter Don Wallace (7 innings, 1 run, 5 hits, 1 walk) comes up huge in game 6, outdueling Pat “Puffy” Combs in the 2-1 win that forces a game 7. In the do or die finale, the Thunder took a 6-5 lead to the 8th. Trenton’s Suzuki had a couple homers and LA got some big timely hits by the likes of Bennett and Geovany Molina. But Trenton broke it open in the 8th on a Victor Morales 3-run homer, and the Thunder hold on to win game 7 and advance to the World Series for the second time in 3 seasons.

LA had another terrific season, and definitely has a championship caliber team. You know the Dodgers are built to win for the long haul, and should be back in a position to contend for the title next year. Great job.

S24 NL Awards

NL MVP -  Benito Rijo
     *Dig deeper....Rijo was a monster AWAY from Coors this year and should have gotten a Gold Glove at 3B.   It's time for his 3rd MVP.

NL Cy Young - Santo Cerda
   *My apologies to Donte Zoltan who put up ridiculous numbers in the light air of Colorado....but could the blog give his own guys both awards?? :)   As for Cerda, he's the reason Scranton wasn't in the toilet this year.

NL ROY - Shawn Lo Duca
      *I know Oleg hit alot of bombs and drove in a lot of runs, but for some reason I find myself more impressed with this rookie locking down 33 of 37 save opps......perhaps its my own history of never having a guy who can do that.....

NL CoY -  patrick71665
     -As much as I'd have liked to give this award to bigparb13, the wins in Colorado weren't as much of a surprise as what happened with Washington's run to the NL title.  Game recognizes game....