Owner Hall of Fame Induction

Owner Hall of Fame Interview

First, I'd like to welcome tk21775 to the Pine Tar owner Hall of Fame. tk21775 has been a great and valuable member of Pine Tar for 12 1/2 seasons now. The Iowa City franchise was a tough one to take over when he joined the league and it was going to be tough to fill, but tk21775 was up for a challenge and took on the team. It was quite possibly the worse mess of a franchise that I've seen in my time in Pine Tar, but tk quickly turned it around and made them respectable. It's owners like this, that make Pine Tar such a great world. There were some well deserving candidates that tk21775 beat out this season for the nomination, but I feel like the voters made the right choice by electing tk21775 to the owner Hall of Fame.

Interview

As the newest member of the owner hall of fame how does it feel to be recognized by your fellow owners as a hall of famer? 

It feels pretty neat given this is a fictional game and you've never met any of the owners in person before. Just being nominated with the write-up was an honor.

Can you describe how your time in Pine Tar has been?

Pine Tar has been great to be a part of, a reason I still am today. I'm in all hop's worlds which are extremely well run and this is one of the few that I will remain a part in outside of his worlds until I retire from HBD. It's a great group of guys, well run, no drama, and competitive.

 What is it that makes another owner stand out as a good HBD owner, in your eyes? 

What makes a good owner I think in this game is communication. It's hard to get to know all owners but when trading it's nice when an owner will explain why they rejected. I've met some guys I do fantasy football with through trade chats or am friends on FB now because of just chatting with them throughout the season. We might not see eye to eye on something but a quick trade chat helps explain why.

What are your short term and long term goals with Iowa City?

Goals look to be long-term now for Iowa. I traded my 1st #1 pick this season, Sticky, since he was going to go FA and that started a downfall I didn't expect for 2 seasons or so. Once the floodgates opened I decided to trade my vets while I could get something in return so Iowa City will probably be rebuilding for the next 2 or 3 seasons. All depends on the FA pool. When I first started I had zero prospects to trade, Hank Rolling was the only ML player that was decent, but 2 seasons out I saw the potential for a huge FA talent and managed to make sure I had a few draft picks and Int'l signed but the cap space yet to sign those FA.

Is there anything that you can think of that could make Pine Tar a better world? 

Pine Tar I think is one of the elite worlds WIS has to offer. The blog is hands down one of the best, owners are great and competitive. Trading is a little difficult in this world compared to some but that's not a bad thing either. 

Any advice for other owners on what they can do to get into the Hall of Fame? 

Advice is just to play your game and have fun. It's easy to bail out for a team that looks better on paper and maybe they are but you won't find a world better than Pine Tar. If you stick with your rebuild, whether it works or not, I think you'll enjoy your time in this world. 

Any closing statement? 

Closing statement, same thing: enjoy and have fun. Reason I enjoy WIS is that there is interaction amongst owners, some that I've struck up friendships outside of WIS and have consulted on different matters such as football and actually my business. Shout out to ghutton who does a great job running Pine Tar and was well deserved to get into the Hall of Fame as the owner right in front of me. I don't think people understand how hard it is to line up owners so that rollover goes the same day when so many owners are cutting back and making sure you get the quality owners that remain in Pine Tar. You sir are thet rue HOFer for all the work you put in behind the scenes and still have great success with your team! I'm just fortunate you took a chance letting me join all those years ago.

Arfy's Ramblings Season 28

Serious Injuries to major players:
Cin P Willie Crawford
KC P Sherman Stevens
Roch LF Saul Trevino
MIL P Derrick Jacquez

Let's play 2 and a half:
Texas and Fargo go 21 innings(click for link)

Durham's Vasco Nieves hit's 4 homers in one game

Rule 5 draft
Let's take a look at the last 5 players who were selected first in the rule 5 draft and see how they are doing

S28 2B NASH Victor Guillon  .292 8 hr 32 rbi's  From San Juan
S27 P  KC  Elmer Hartgraves currently in AAA  from Indianapolis
S26 2B NASH Bubbles Conger .257 27hr 55rbi's From KC
S25 P INDY Dwight Sneider  221G, 351inn, 1.56whip, 5.53 era career From San Juan
S24 C MAD Albert Goldberg  .268 115 hr, 269 rbi career From Rochester

International Signings:How many players have gotten more than $20 mil  contracts.  Let's look:
S28    2
S27    2
S26    3
S25    2
S24    1
S23    0
S22    0
S21    0
S20    1

Best hitting pitcher this season- OKC Angel Osuna 9 for 31, .290 avg, .180 career hitter

List you don't want to be on:
Most K's for a hitter- SS Phil Alex Lyons 115
Worst Pinch Hitter- 1B Dov John Pong 3 for 31 .097avg
Most BB's for a pitcher- Nas Al Galvez 118 BB's
Most hr's for a pitcher- Bos Heinie Green 27hr's
Most L's for a pitcher- Jackson Joakim Alvarez 3-15 record
Worst defensive shortstop- Iowa Russell Fleming 0 +, 9 -, 22 errors in 43 games
Most minuses at any position- Fargo 1B Junior Shigotshi, 19 minuses

Quick rundown of each division:
NL North

Scranton has caught Fargo.  These two teams were on the bottom last season.  It will be fun to see who ends up taking this division.  I'm going to put my money on Fargo, only because the owner has more experience.  ARFY'S PICK:  Fargo takes division, Scranton just misses playoffs

NL East
Cincinnati appears to be running away with the division as Philadelphia appears to be slipping around the .500 mark.  ARFY"S PICK: Cincinnati takes division

NL South
Texas has led pretty much the entire season.  Louisville closed the gap for a while, but then slipped back down.  Arfy is making some major moves to try to climb back into it.  ARFY'S PICK: Texas takes division for second straight year.  Louisville misses playoffs

NL WEST
Seattle is having a VERY good season.  I don't see that changing.  Oklahoma City and Colorado are duking it out about 7 or 8 games behind Seattle.    Both very good teams
ARFY'S PICK- Seattle takes division AND WORLD SERIES, Oklahoma City and Colorado both make wildcard

AL North
Dover has a 5 game lead over New York.  Although Dover hasn't had a impressive season, they are still getting it done
ARFY'S PICK- Dover takes division

AL East
Boston in complete control of their division, 8 games over Durham.  Durham is having a great season, but Boston seems to be unstoppable.  ARFY's PICK-Boston wins division 2nd straight season, and loses in World Series.  Durham gets a wildcard slot

AL South
New Orleans dominating division.  It's the only team over .500  ARFY's PICK-New Orleans wins division

AL West
Probably the most talented division in all of Pine Tar.  Again!  This is always an exciting division to watch.  St. Louis current leads with Fresno one game behind and Salem two and a half games behind.  Salem has been really hot lately closing the gap and have made some moves for a stretch run.  Salem will play both St. Louis and Fresno the last 6 games of the season.  ARFY'S PICK-St. Louis wins division for 2nd straight season.  Fresno makes a wildcard and Salem misses out on the wildcard on the very last day.

• Two best pitching staffs in Pinetar are St.Louis and Fresno.  Very unusual for the American League to have the best pitching staff .  How unusual?  The last time an AL team led the league was in season 17 when Kansas City(Syracuse at the time) led the league with a 3.22 era.  Season's 3, 7, and 11 are the only other season a AL teams has led the league.  And the AL has NEVER had the top two teams

FLASHBACK SPOTLIGHT
S18 Jackson Juggernauts led by longtime owner bobbyj7.  Jackson won a league best 112 games that season.  It was his first HBD World Series victory.  His pitching staff was led by 20 game winner Aubrey Simmons.  The rest of his staff consisted of pitchers Dusty Lindsay,  Rube Clark,  Bobby Ray Ingram, Brant Clayton, Raymond Dewitt,   Vic Matos,  Desi Alvarez,  Ubaldo Bennett,  Wesley Landrum,  Stone Faulkner.  His lineup consisted of: C Paul Fischer,  1B Max Morales, 2B James Glass,  SS  Michael Katou,  3B Jeff Moore,  LF Hipolito Matos,  CF Scott Harvey,  RF Jared Glynn.  How many of these players have played for you over the years?   I know I picked up a couple of them.  This team wasn't the strongest offensively, although they put up good numbers.  Jared Glynn had 45 hr, 138 rbi's.  Hipolito Matos was the only other player to hit 100+ rbi's.  He had 31hr, 115rbi's, and hit .299.   6 players on the team hit 20+ home runs.  Jeff Moore had a really solid hitting season hitting .300 and including a 20 game hitting streak in there.   This team was just powered by a really strong pitching staff and obviously great managing.  We look forward to seeing you at the top again someday Bobby.  But not too soon, since I'm in your division.


I always enjoy your feedback.  What do you like?  What don't you like?  Send me a trade chat and just say something!

Arfy's Ramblings, Season 28

• Iowa City off to a horrible start.  They are currently 27-59.  It looks like it will be the first time in 10 seasons that they finish under .500
• At it's current pace Dover will finish over .500 for the 11th straight season and Durham it's 10th
• On the other end of the spectrum.  At it's current pace Wichita will finish under .500 for the 12th straight season
• Off topic,  the most wins in a season from one team is Syracuse from Prezuf in season 11. He went 121-41 for a .747 winning percentage.  He did not win the World Series that season.
• A late congrats to Colorado Springs for winning the World Series in season 27.  He beat Dover 4 games to 1.  It was Toe's second World Series win in Colorado.  His first was back in season 7.
• Fargo 10-0 this season in his division so far
• Iowa City 0-10 in his division this season so far
• Seattle is 22-11 in one run games this season
• Indianapolis is 8-1 in extra inning games this season
• Garret Heiserman from Jacksonville has 8 Complete games pitched this season already.
• Brendan Taylor is probably the most effectively used player this season.  One of the best pitchers, and has pitched in 51 out of 86 games.  The most from any pitcher
• Seattle's Juan Sierra, is a perfect 33 for 33 in save opportunities this season.
• St. Louis Bryan Holmes has been caught stealing more than any other player this season  He has 3 sb and has been caught 14 times.

Highest paid players in Pinetar

1. RF COL Pedro Reyes $20m
2. RF NO Sam Slotnik $18m
3. P BOS Dusty Lindsay $16m
4. 3B SEA Raymond Petrov $14.91 m
5. DH VAN Armando Mota $14m
6. P TEX Jesus Amezaga $12.5m
7. SS FRE Jim Hawpe $11.48m
8. RF CIN Alexander Williamson $11.1m
9. 2B FRE Benny Navarro $11m
10. 1B PHI Jojo Frandsen $11m
11. P ROC Patrick Wilson $11m
12. P TEX Al Manto $10.5m
13. P PHI Kiki Hanrahan $10.2m
14. P SEA Brendan Taylor $10m
15. C NO Coco Stratton $10m
16. LF ROC Saul Trevino $10m

Highest Scoring game for one team
Team        runs  date           opponent

NY              24   7/24           vs. Nashville
Scranton     21    7/23           vs. Alb
NY             19    7/22           vs. Nashville
Nashville   19     8/2            vs. Jackson
San Juan    19    7/9             vs. New Orleans
Alb            18    7/3             vs. San Juan
Scranton    18    8/4             vs. Jacksonville
Boston       16    7/18           vs Nashville
Vancouver  16   7/14           vs. Dover
Fresno         16    7/28          vs. Dover
N.O.            16    7/17          vs. Indy
Seattle         16    7/10          vs, Jacksonville


Minor League Love
Minor League teams that are having insane crazy good seasons so far
Wichita AAA 65-22
Red Barons HiA 69-18
Magnitude HiA 65-22
Arch Angels HiA 71-16
Val Varauders Rookie 18-2
Arch Angels Rookie 17-3
Yardbirds Rookie 15-4

Teams that probably need to give their minor league some attention.  Most of these teams have lost 10+ games in a row:
Jacksonville AAA L11
Fargo AA 11-76
Pilgrims AA 15-72
Fargo HiA 12-75
Fargo LoA 15-72
Zephyrs LoA 24-63
Pilgrims LoA 24-63
Texas LoA 27-60
Iowa City Rookie 4-15

With the all star game coming up I thought it might be fun to throw together an ALL ARFY team.    It would be the team I would put together if I could have anyone in the league.  Based on this season's stats that is.   I tried to use everyone at positions they have played this season or could easily play.  Here we go:

SP1-LOU Geronimo Estrada
SP2-SEA John McNamara
SP3-FRE Wilt Sizemore
SP4-FRE Magglio Figuereo
SP5-BOS Dusty Lindsey
Long Relief-Sea Brendan Taylor
True Setup-OKC Juan Ramirez
Closer-Sea Juan Sierra
C-  BOS  Matt Jaha
1B-BOS Vinny Hill
2B-DUR Fred Inge
SS-NO Benito Miranda
3B-COL Keith Williamson
LF-FAR Tony Cabalero
CF-SEA Sean King
RF-NY Gus Justice
DH-SAL Michael Pena
Infielder-TEX Bengie Romano
Outfielder-PHI Rickey Masterson
True pinch hitter-LOU Bartolo Duran 12-20 as a pinch hitter this season
Defensive SS-HOU Yusmeiro Julio
Defesive C-TEX Sammy Goya

Snubs with no place to put them(but deserve recognition)-
1B PHI Jojo Frandsen
1B  ROC  Russell Powell
LF  SEA Houston Graves
1B  HOU Howie Jay
RF OKC Carlos Zorilla
P TB Al Rosario
P SEA Freddy Butcher
P VAN Sticky Farqua
P DUR Victor Maranon
P CIN Keith Davis
P VAN Phil Linton