Jim’s Corner
December 17, 2002
The following teams have paid their dues for TML2002 and may trade:
AL, AV, BC, BO, BU, CS, DV, DY, FC, FM, GC, KY, MV, NA, NB, NY, RR, TG, TR, WW, ZR
That leaves 3 teams unpaid - (JG, MF, MG) so no trades with these teams are official. Quoting Alfred E. Newman, $5, Cheap!
My address is 115 Glengerry Court, Cohoes, NY 12047.
The unlimited ERA for TML
2002 will be 4.58. Anyone at 4.58 and over is
limited to 40 starts and 90 appearances.
TRADING OPENS
I have a bunch to balance out and will be sending the updated trade reports to Scott shortly. All trades should be reported to me at jpertier@nycap.rr.com
DRAFT
Beach City was the winner of the lottery and will be drafting first in the upcoming draft.
The draft will
take place on January 18th, 12 noon Eastern.
Everyone is welcome to attend of course. If you cannot make it, the draft will be conducted using AOL Instant Messenger. We used it for the 1929, 1939 and 1968 drafts and it worked like a charm. If you are going to attend (thus far I know that the Connecticut 3 of Jim Schembari, Art Albanese and Mike Mayko will be with us), let me know. Anyone who cannot participate in person or on-line should send in a list.
I received the 2002 disk yesterday from Diamond Mind. I will be creating TML2002 and starting the process (along with Rich) of identifying rookies. Once the database is migrated, I will be sending it out to everyone.
PLAYOFFS
Here are the matchups for the first round of the playoffs:
MF-FM, NY-GC,
ZR-TG, MV-TR
Buffalo, New York, Zaca and Mudville will host games 1,2,6,7 (if necessary), Playoffs can start right now. I would like to get the first round started ASAP. Playoff limitations are in the constitution on the web page.
Millennium and Fallsburg will be playing face to face. NY-GC and ZR-TG will be face to face at the
draft.
See above and below
A couple series still outstanding and they will determine who will meet the Commack Pink Flamingos for the championship. This will be the Commack swan song in the '50's, as Rich's 2-year caretaking of the former Miami Vice will end with the World Series. The franchise will be moving south to Auburn, Alabama as Chick Wade will be taking over the helm of the Auburn Browns. Final stats and all star/player/pitcher of the year ballots will be out shortly.
The Eastern Division dominated the interdivisional play as period 2 ended. Mudville has raced out to the best record in defense of their championship. More details to follow.
The drafts went without a hitch. The 1929 draft took 2 hours and the 1939 draft took an hour and a half. My thanks to all for their diligence and their humor.
Auburn selected Earl Averill as the first pick of the 1929 draft. New York took Ted Williams first for 1939. Both seasons will be kicking off on February 1st.
Danny Way is still open in 1929 and we are all filled up for 1939.
I thought it would be interesting, as a mid Series Jim's Corner, to take a long look at the TML National Record book.
Before I start the tour I would be most remiss if I didn't mention that all we have is courtesy of the hard work of Kevin Powers in compiling the old data through TML2000 that was carefully maintained by Mike Landin and everything we have done since.
When the American and National split, we had 17 seasons in the books. That was 7 years ago. 1929 and 1939 will be our 20th retro season and 2001 will be the 24th current season. Think about it…44 years soon to be part of TML history.
Anyhow…
Here are the single season records through 2001 (including 1927-8, 1936-8, 1948-1951, 1961-7, and 1979-2001).
At Bats - Garret Anderson - Mohawk Trail 1999 - 730
Runs - Derek Jeter - New York - 1999 - 190
Hits - Tony Gwynn - New York - 1984 288
Runs Batted In - Albert Belle - Kentucky - 1998 203
Doubles - Edgar Martinez - North Adams - 1995 81
Triples - Mitch Webster - Golden State - 1986 30
Home Runs - Mark McGwire - Berne - 1998 82
Total Bases - Lou Gehrig - Albany - 1927 462
Walks - Barry Bonds - 2001 183
Strikeouts - Kelly Dransfeldt - Albany - 2000 301
Stolen Bases - Otis Nixon - Kentucky - 1991 174
Batting Average - Harry Heilmann - Buffalo - 1927 .429
Slugging Pct. - Barry Bonds - 2001 .841
On Base Pct. - Barry Bonds - 2001 .521
ERA - Orel Hershiser - New York 1988 1.23
Wins (Starter) Sandy Koufax - New York 1965 36
Wins (Total) Xavier Hernandez - Kentucky - 1992 40
Losses - Tim Leary - Bethlehem - 1991 37
Winning Pct. - Troy Percival - North Adams - 1995 .955
Saves - Mike Timlin - New York - 1998 58
Games - Eric King (Motor City)/John Smiley (New York) 1987 Dave Giusti North Adams 1965 90
Starts - Kent Greenfield - The Dawgs - 1928 47
Complete Games - Sandy Koufax - New York - 1965 37
Shutouts - Orel Hershiser - New York - 1988 15
Innings Pitched - Burleigh Grimes - Riverview-1928 364.7
Hits Allowed - Dennis Lewallyn - Oceanica 1981/Kent Greenfield - The Dawgs - 1928 401
Strikeouts - Randy Johnson - New York - 2000 412
Fewest BR/9 IP - Pedro Martinez - Gotham City – 2000 5.96
Here are the Career Records through the same period. Active Leader in brackets if different)
At Bats - Rickey Henderson 10938
Runs - Rickey Henderson 2178
Hits - Tony Gwynn 3513 (Rickey Henderson 2941)
Runs Batted In - Barry Bonds 1856
Doubles - Tony Gwynn 607 (Mark Grace 513)
Triples - Lance Johnson 118 (Steve Finley 88)
Home Runs - Barry Bonds 631 !!!!
Total Bases - Barry Bonds 5042
Walks - Rickey Henderson 2079
Strikeouts - Fred McGriff 1821
Stolen Bases - Rickey Henderson 1409
Batting Average - Tony Gwynn .349
Slugging Pct. - Lou Gehrig .645 (Vladimir Guerrero .632)
On Base Pct. - Lou Gehrig .478 (Frank Thomas .439)
ERA - Sandy Koufax 2.20 (Pedro Martinez 2.54)
Wins - Roger Clemens 330 (Note Greg Maddux 300)
Losses - Bob Welch 189 (Chuck Finley 165)
Winning Pct. - Sandy Koufax .776 (Pedro Martinez .775)
Saves - Trevor Hoffman 300
Games - John Franco 854
Starts - Roger Clemens 540
Complete Games - Greg Maddux 235
Shutouts - Greg Maddux 63
Innings Pitched - Roger Clemens 4100'
Hits Allowed - Roger Clemens 3414
Strikeouts - Randy Johnson 3696
Fewest BR/9 IP - Sandy Koufax 8.83
The ballpark proposal has passed overwhelmingly. Accordingly I would ask everyone to submit their choice for a ballpark to me by December 24th so that they will be included in the first 2002 database.
All retro managers should submit their stadium choices for 1929 and 1939 immediately (but no later than 12/24).
There is one additional rule proposal that will affect only retros.
The proposal is from me and was a byproduct of thinking towards the closing of the loop as our seasons touch each other.
Essentially I would like to make sure that legacy players wind up on their "host" teams in a going forward basis. The retros are a lot less cut throat than the current era. We tend to gravitate towards players we like and hold onto them for their entire career. I was looking at Jackie Robinson's career numbers the other day and all of a sudden it hit me that I might not get Jackie for his rookie year in 1947. There have been a number of times where people in the retros have passed over better players to get their hands on someone who was already on their franchise.
If I had to do the retros all over again, that is the one thing that I would change. Then again, my original idea was to start with 1978 and move backwards. That was voted down at the time, but I would bet that there would be more people in favor of doing that than working upward from 1961 as we are now.
I would like my proposal to be fair to everyone (obviously or it would not pass) so I worked a lot of what ifs in my warped brain and came up with this: (think of it as the reserve clause in reverse).
If a player
enters any TML league as a rookie AND has spent his entire career (minimum of 4
years) with the same franchise, then that player will belong to that
franchise. That franchise, if they wish
to retain the rights to this legacy player, will have to expend its highest
available draft choice to retain the player.
If a franchise decides to not exercise the option, that player will join
the rookie pool.
For example,
Jackie Robinson entered TML in 1948 and was drafted by New York. Robinson has played his entire career (as of
the moment through 1952) with New York.
At his rookie season, in 1947, the rights to Robinson will revert to New
York at the expense of its 1st round pick.
Example 2,
Mike Schmidt was drafted by Troy at the advent of TML in 1979. Schmidt spent his entire career on
Troy. When Schmidt's rookie year
arrives (1973 I believe) the rights to Schmidt will revert to Troy at the
expense of its 1st round pick.
I
will compile a list of affected players if the proposal passes. However, many of you who are retro veterans
can tell me the names of their legacy players right now. Names like Bunning, Killebrew, Frank and
Brooks, etc. are out there. On the
other hand, this also means that players like Sandy Koufax will be true rookies
(I will be lining up for that pick!!!) as they did not spend their career with
one team.
I
would ask that the retro managers take a look at this and give me your comments
before I make it an official proposal.
None of this would be retroactive by the way, but it would definitely
have an effect on the 1953 draft that we will hold in the Spring.
That's
it for now. Our next issue will
finalize 1952, update 1968 and start paving the way for 1929, 1939 and
2002. If you have not ordered your
Diamond Mind disk, please do so now.
Happy
holidays to all of you and thanks for your continuing support and friendship as
this interesting year comes to an end!
We have been through a lot and made a great deal of progress. I feel we are on good footing with Diamond
Mind and the future is bright!
'Til then……
Best/Jim