TCABT -VI and Howie Mooney Does it Again!

Selection Saturday for TCABT-VI!  What a fun time of year.  

I have some self-imposed rules for team selection that I abide by now: I only play Twins, Royals, and Cardinals teams, with one exception, the 1990 Reds. 

Why these teams?  I grew up in West-central Minnesota-so a life-long Twins fan.  I did part of my graduate work in Kansas (RockChalk!), and I now live in Illinois and adopted the Cardinals as my local team.  The '90 Reds?  Two words: Chris Sabo. 

The TCBAT continues to grow every time we play as it is now up to 32 teams and may go to 36.  I highly reccomend this tournament as the play is excellent, and the fellowship is top notch.  It is a very well run tournament and you will have a great day. 

After midnight on Saturday July 2, we can begin to select our teams.  I usually play a few games with some possible teams and then send my selection in.  Some of the teams I am tempted to manage in the TCBAT are the 1969, 1987, 1988, and 1991 Twins.  I missed my chance to play the 69 Twins in the Prairieland Tournament as I had a death in the family.  So I feel I need to give them a run. However, Howie Mooney ran a set of 1988 Twins for me and I have been playing them to get a feel for them.  

Why '88?  Both Kirby (.356 24HR)  and Hrbek (.312 25HR)  had big years, along with Gaetti's best year (.301 28HR)  at the plate and the '88 Twins have 2 A starters, both with a z. 

Why not '88? Two, yes two, D starters. D as in "Death" in a tournament. 

Howie Mooney ran a set of the 1988 Twins for me and they are gorgeous.  Here is a shot of the envelope and card-back.

Below are some of the well-know players.  This could be the 1-4 in the lineup.  Some speed at the top with "Crank" and "Puck" and then the power of "Buy a Vowel" and "The Rat". 

The lineup as I have it appears to be a 1 defense if a 2 is throwing so my Ds have a defense 1 behind them as does my closer.  I can add a defensive upgrade at catcher (Harper is a 6, Nieto is an 8) and gain a 1 defense late in a game. 

The rotation is hot and cold.  Two As and two Ds.  The saving grace, those Zs are a big help. 

Viola as the ace and then I am always at a loss on how to set the rotation.  Conventional wisdom says top to bottom, Viola, Anderson, Bert and then Straker.  But in a tourney I am inclined to mix it up, Viola (A), Bert (D), Anderson (A), and Straker (D), so I have at least one A going against each opponent. 

The Pen. One A with letters and one B with letters, and both have a z.  Reardon will close and Atherton can go as set-up, and use that one-time A upgrade when needed. The pen is short. "Señor Smoke" Berenguer is a C* with xyw.  A somewhat available option especially in the middle of an inning so he is a one-time B*. 

Yes, I know, I can't use Howie's set in the tournament, but I own an '88 complete set. 

Howie also ran a Twins All-star team for me that I will post next week.

Season Projects

I am amazed at people that play an entire season.  Well done.  I play in one on-line league (World Baseball Organization) where I play 3 games a week to run my end of a complete season with 2015 carded players, and I play 6-10 games for the fun of it each week. Time to use those 6-10 games for a project.

I am about to start a project thanks to Howie Mooney, again!  I am going to play a Minnesota Twins All-Star team against a mix of teams for 162 games.  I picked the Twins and I limited the team to 25 players from the Minnesota franchise alone. 

Starters go 5 minimum, 6 outs per reliever, injuries are in play, most rules like our tournaments.  I am going to try and stick to games played for position players and IP for arms.  Example: Mauer has 138 Games in 2009-so Wynegar will have to pick up 24, Neshek has 70 IP in 2007 so I will hold him to 70 IP in my project. 

First, the Twins:

Catcher- 2009 Joe Mauer
First Base- 1988 Kent Hrbek
Second Base- 1977 Rod Carew
Third Base- 1961 Harmon Killebrew
Short Stop- 1965 Zoilo Versalles
Left Field- 1977 Lymon Bostock
Center Field- 1988 Kirby Puckett
Right Field- 1964 Tony Oliva
Designated Hitter- 2006 Justin Morneau

Rotation:

1973- Bert Blyleven
1966- Jim Kaat
1978- Dave Goltz
1988- Frank Viola
Spot Starter- 2004 Johann Santana


Long Relief/Injury Starter- 1991 Kevin Tapani

Pen:

2006- Joe Nathan
2007- Pat Neshek
2002- Eddie Guardado
1991- Rick Aguliera


Bench:

1988-Gary Gaetti  (3B) Defensive sub for Killer
1977- Larry Hisel (PH/OF)
1988- Dan Gladden (PR/OF)
1979- Butch Wynegar (C)
2006- Michale Cuddyer (PH/OF)
2011- Tsuyoshi Nishioka (2B/SS)

Manager:
Tom Kelly

Home Field:
Metropolitan Stadium

Stadium Announcer:
Bob Casey

The Competition:  10 team "Division"
6 three game series and a two game play-off with the competition team with the best record against the Twins.  Only my Twins will play 162. 

1908 Chicago Cubs
1919 Chicago White Sox
1941 Boston Red Sox
1961 New York Yankees
1975 Cincinnati Reds
1986 New York Mets
1995 Cleveland Indians
2001 Oakland A's
2015 Kansas City Royals

Predictions welcome.

The big winner and the problem of Danny Darwin

Congratulations Jim Welch taking those 1941 Red Sox all the way!

I am so glad the Prairieland was a success, as all these tournament are turning out to be.  Next stop for the Mid-west, the Chicago Fantasy tournament in July.  I will be taking another run with those 2006 Twins with the addition of the 1977 Rod Carew. 

Jim's prize went in the mail last week: a new-in-the-box APBA Negro Leagues set. 

The Trouble with Danny Darwin

I sent an interesting question around Facebook yesterday and I will raise it here again.  I am playing in a small local tournament and I drew a team randomly from a pool: The 1990 Houston Astros. 

Standard tournament setup: Starters must go 5, grade reductions in effect, arms out of the pen limited to 6 outs, no restrictions on the pen pitching back-to-back games. 

There are 2 possible rotations:

#1

Mark Portugal By

Bill Gullickson Cz

Mike Scott Cy

Jim Deshaies C

or 

#2

Danny Darwin B(A*)yz

Mark Portugal By

Bill Gullickson Cz

Mike Scott Cy

The pen for rotation #1 would be

Darwin B(A*)yz

David Smith A*xz

Juan Agosto D*

The pen for #2

David Smith A*xz

Juan Agosto D*

Do I bolster the rotation with a Byz or the pen with a Ayz?

I will play 10 games, so Darwin as a starter will go game 1,5, and 10.  Minimum 18 innings of a Byz

He could throw 20 in relief as a Ayz

I really like the z out of the pen and I tend to be pen-heavy as a manager, but running a rotation of 3 C's is asking for trouble. 

What would you do with Danny Darwin?

The Prairieland and your plans for tomorrow

Well, I didn't get a chance to play in the First Annual Prairieland APBA Tournament.  I was home visiting in Minnesota and my Uncle died.  He was very dear to me and a huge Twins fan.  I would have given him constant updates on the 1969 Twins in the Prairieland had I played.  It is a good time to pause and remember that we all have plans for tomorrow and we must make the most of our time, as tomorrow may not come.

Here is a great photo of me and my uncle Roald playing APBA: The 1991 Twins v. the 1987 Twins.

Who won? Jim Welch with the 1941 Red Sox!  Congratulations and well done.  He holds the trophy for a year and will receive a new-in-the-box APBA Negro Leagues set.  

The Prairieland

The first annual Prairieland APBA tournament takes place April 16th in Illinois.  There is a field of 16 teams for this first time tournament at a busy time of the year.

I am fielding the 1969 Twins (97-65) in the Prairieland and go up against the 1982 Brewers, 1920 Tribe, and the 2015 Blue Jays in the Gary Gaetti Division.   Looks like this is a heavy hitting division and it should be fun.  After that we will just have to wait and see who makes the play-offs. 

I like their hitting as you can see Carew and Oliva lead in average and Killer in Home Runs and I have decent speed at the top and middle of the line-up card.

I field a #2 defense with no chance to go to a #1.  I am a bit suspect on Killer and Reese hitting into double plays, but that was the '69 Twins.  The real disappointment is Bobby Allison at #9, he hit .223 that year and is a fielding 1.


The line-up:

1.  Cesar Tovar 3B-3 F

2.  Rod Carew 2B-8 F

3.  Tony Oliva LF-2 F

4.  Harmon Killebrew  DH S

5.  Rich Reese  1B-4

6.  Leo Cardenas  SS-9 F

7.  Ted Uhlaender  CF-3 F

8.  Johnny Roseboro  C-8

9.  Bobby Allison  RF-1

Tovar at the top is my only question.  I like a fast guy with some on base percentage at the top and Carew to move him around or get on himself.  A few more practice games are needed to see if Tovar hits first or 6th. 

Roto:

Jim Kaat  B-yz

Jim Perry  B-yz

Dave Boswell  B-y

Tom Hall  C-yz

Pen

Ron Perranoski  A* z

Bob Miller  B* z

Dean Chance C-y

Overall, I like the arms. Especially the Z's.

Best of luck to everyone in the tournament!  I will give a full report after the tournament has run its course. 

The Neil Ess Tournament

The Neil Ess Memorial APBA tournament was held this weekend in Minneapolis.  It had 32 managers!  These tournaments have really grown in popularity and variety and it is such a great thing for the game/hobby. 

My impressions: 

• Very well organized and the congratulations here go to Jim Fraasch and Darrell Skogen.  The pre-tournament information is clear and timely, and the post-tournament information is also clear and timely.
• The home we play in is all set up to accommodate close to 40 people and 32 mangers for the entire day.
• The game play is smooth and the additional rules work very well. The organizers provide a sheet for all tables and plenty of new APBA rule books.
• The mangers are a fantastic group of people, all very gracious, funny, good spirits, and knowledgeable about the game
• I was engaged is so many interesting side-conversations I can't begin to describe the variety.
• The way that players have begun to build rolling-pits is a new phenomena in my experience in APBA and looking over all the creative ball-parks to roll dice in was fascinating.  George Adams (pictured below on left rolling against Scott Egge's 2015 Mets) took the crown here with his custom built parks, and he was gracious enough to allow me to take one home to use and copy if I can find the time. 

I strongly recommend you attend either the Fall or Spring iteration of this APBA tournament.  

How did I do?  Let's talk about the winner first.  My good friend and master manager Kevin Cluff (pictured above on right) won with those dreaded 2011 Rangers. They can hang runs on you like nobody's business.  They killed me in Michigan and killed me in Minnesota.  I am glad they are retired from the Neil Ess. 

I managed the 2015 Kansas City Royals this year.  They are a very fun team to manage with a 44 defense (w/o the pitcher's #) and a "1" at all positions (the way the Ess accounts for defense).  A decent starting rotation and a killer pen; I thought I had a shot. 

The 2015 Royals went 5-5.  The highlights:

Split against the 1920 Tribe, but they hung 11 runs on us in the first game, most of them on Cueto.

The 2011 Rangers, the victors.   I split with them also, shutting them out in game two with Ventura on the bump.

2015 Cards I took both from holding them to just 2 total runs over both games, Cueto allowing both in #1 and Volquez shutting them out in the second.

I split with the 1999 D-Backs  and was swept by Craig Chritian's 1988 Mets in very close games: 2-3 and 1-3.

I scored 35 runs over 10 games and gave up 35. I will take that in any tournament. 

However, I could not hit!  Over the 10 games the team batting average was .185-well below the Mendoza line.

Hoz hit .292 with 1 HR and Perez hit .285 with 3 long balls.  

Cain only hit .222, Moose .111, Morales .179, Zobrist .138 and Gordon .166 (but he did go deep 3 times).  Those 4 killed me, and in the "Managers mistakes" category, hitting Dyson lead-off was a mistake.

I could not pass up that speed-card at the top of the line-up.  He did steal 5 bases for me, hit his actual league average .250, but struck out too many times.  It is a possible mistake, as Cain only hit .222 and he is the other obvious lead-off guy. Feel free to comment on this issue or any other. 

With stellar defense and solid pitching the bats can slow down a bit, but not below the Mendoaz line and have any expectation of winning and going deep in a tournament. 

I may take them again.  Given they under-performed at the plate, they may be able to make a playoff run as that even run differential is enticing. 

Some rolling pits:

Next Stop: the first annual Prairieland Tournament in Illinois.  I take the 1969 Twins.