S34 Mid-Season Blog

Midseason Classic

Season 34 Pine Tar All-Star Game: American League defeats the National League 7-2
HR Derby Winner: Neifi Gil (Roughnecks)
All-Star Game MVP: Phillip Bruske (Yardbirds)
Winning Pitcher: Lonny Gonzalez (Volcanoes)
Homeruns: Bruske, Santo Herrera (Black Sox), Neal Hartzell (Komodo Dragons)

Teams with the most All-Star selections:

Houston Roughnecks (bagwellbuff) - 6
Salem Volcanoes (jkenned) - 5
Nashville Merchants (blapo21) - 5
Kansas City Yardbirds (holleybard) - 4
Scranton Red Barons (reggie988) - 4
Jacksonville Juice (greygoose123) - 4
Syracuse Orange (joekendall) - 3
San Juan Marichals (sermonauthor) - 3

Teams with zero All-Star selections:

Boise Coursers
Colorado Springs Iron Horseman
Philadelphia Moneymakers

All-Stars by Division
**This is much closer than the past few years
AL North - 9
NL South - 9
AL South - 8
NL North - 8
NL East - 8
AL East - 7
AL West - 6
NL West - 5

*Links are posted - click on an individual player's name to open their HBD profile
First Time All-Stars – American League

P - Richard Huang (Sultans of Swat)
P - Marcus Ledee (Yardbirds)
P - Bert Jordan (Thunder)
P - Alfonso Diaz (Orange)
P - Tomas Cora (Oracles)
P - Quilvio Benitez (Screaming Babies)
C - Mac Braden (Magnitude)
1B - Santo Herrera (Black Sox)
3B - William Nakano (Black Sox)
3B - Scott Craig (Dinklebergs)

First Time All-Stars – National League

P - Rick Cooper (Jaggernauts)
P - Graham Hausmann (Tornadoes)
P - Travis Morris (Hawkeyes)
P - Rondell Collins (Marichals)
P - Norberto Barajas (Prairie Dogs)
P - Earl Magill (Galveston Wave)
C - Alex Chong (Miracles)
1B - David Uribe (Red Barons)
SS - Wilfredo Zapata (Red Barons)
CF - Samuel Johnston (Roughnecks)
CF - Jack Westbrook (ARF ARF ARF ARF's)

All-Stars Making Their 5th Appearance or Greater
P - Sticky Farquhar (Juice): 11th Appearance
P - Geronimo Estrada (Marichals): 7th Appearance
LF - Gus Justice (Juice): 7th Appearance
P - Alex James (Merchants): 6th Appearance
RF - Roger Byrne (Sultans of Swat): 6th Appearance
P - Wilt Sizemore (Roughnecks): 6th Appearance
2B - Eugenio Canseco (Red Barons): 6th Appearance
3B - Jim Hawpe (Wildcats): 6th Appearance
P - Yoshinori Zhou (Volcanoes): 5th Appearance
P - Lonny Gonzalez (Volcanoes): 5th Appearance
SS - Wendell Werth (Merchants): 5th Appearance
SS - Bartolo Ortiz (Marichals): 5th Appearance


Playoff Tidbits

-Nine Pine Tar clubs are looking to end playoff droughts as they are within striking distance of a postseason berth at the midway point:
Chicago: 16 seasons
Kansas City: 11 seasons
Jackson: 10 seasons
St. Louis: 8 seasons
Tampa Bay: 6 seasons
Wichita: 6 seasons
Dover: 5 seasons
Iowa City: 4 seasons
Cincinnati: 3 seasons

-Five division leaders are looking to extend their current streak of consecutive division titles:
Salem: 6 consecutive AL West titles
Scranton: 6 consecutive NL North titles
Nashville: 5 consecutive AL South titles
Milwaukee: 5 consecutive AL North titles
San Juan: 3 consecutive NL East titles

-Seattle has a 6-game lead in the NL West with a surprisingly low payroll of $48 million.  Of the remaining seven division leaders, Scranton's payroll is $71 million, while everybody else is greater than $90 million.  On the other side, Boston is 6 games below .500 with a payroll of $116 million and Texas is 8 games below on a $101 million player budget.

-The AL North is looking for their first playoff wildcard berth since Season 22.  You heard that correctly...11 seasons of only sending 1 team to the postseason.  Kansas City is currently in the second wildcard position, while Chicago is 3 games behind.

-Some of the American League teams feel comfortable in seeing that league powerhouse Salem is ONLY on pace to win 106 games this season, while Nashville is on pace to win less than 100.  These two teams have put up win totals of 110 or greater SIX times in recent Pine Tar seasons.  Although nobody really knows what to expect come playoff-time after an 83-win Boise team advanced to the World Series last season.

Early Trade-Deadline Moves
-Seattle added power to its lineup by trading for 1B Willie Tarasco, who has already hit 12 homeruns in 39 games with the Strikers.  Seattle leads the NL West by 6 games.
-Cincinnati, who are currently sitting 1 game out of the NL East lead, strengthened its bullpen by acquiring Hades Phillips (5 time all-star, 414 career saves).
-Wichita ranks 15th in the NL in runs scored, but made a move to improve its offense by adding all-star 3B Jim Hawpe, who has a .383 on-base percentage and 55 RBIs this season.  The Tornadoes are below .500, but only 6 games behind division-leading Scranton.
-St. Louis looks to be dealing as the trade deadline draws closer.  They have sent SS Jhonny Castro to Nashville and RP Andy Ganzel to New York in the hopes of building for the future.  St. Louis is 5 games out of first place in the NL North.

Around The League 2-12-16

PROMOTIONS
Cookie Tapia-Milwaukee Magnitude
Tapia is a 1b/lf with some great hitting abilities. He could put up MVP type numbers offensively. He can hit for a high average, get on base and he will hit a lot of homers. I wouldn't be surprised to see him win multiple MVP awards and he has a good chance to win the AL rookie of the year this season.

Phillip Braun-Boise Coursers
Braun is strictly a DH. Offensively he has good contact and a good batting eye. He will hit some homers, but he's about average with his power. He should hit well and get on base enough to make him a good play as a DH.


Jesus Dali-San Juan Marichals
This is a nice call up for the Marichals. Dali is going to be a really good starting pitcher in the league for quite a while. He has good control and really good splits. His top 2 pitches are above average. His stamina is a little low, but he has good durability. With room to grow a little still, Dali should become a top end of the rotation starter.


Other notable callups-
Benito Rodriguez-El Paso Walkers
Vic Dickerson-Jacksonville Juice
Hub Winkler-Boston Screaming Babies


KEY INJURIES
Mo Lee-Houston Roughnecks
Tim Daubach-Boston Screaming Babies
Dick Kohlmeier-Nashville Merchants
Gio Esposito-Tampa Bay Thunder
Delanor Guthrie-Kansas City Yardbirds


Waiver Claims
Kameron Moore-Omaha Oracles
Jose Lopez-El Paso Walkers



INTERNATIONAL SIGNINGS
Saul Pescado-Durham Doormats
This guy is a 20 year old leftfield/firstbaseman type IFA. He looks like he will have average pop(15-20 hr), and the ability to get on base at a decent clip. He's not an allstar caliber player, but he could put up decent enough numbers to make it on an allstar team or two. Especially in a hitters park like Durham

Edgmer Bournigal-Louisville ARF ARF ARF ARF's
Bournigal projects as a decent mid rotation starter. He should have good control with solid splits. He should pitch enough groundballs to be effective in Louisville, but his pitches are not very good. At worst he will pitch at the back end of the rotation in a few years.

Harry Alou-Louisville ARF ARF ARF ARF's
Another pitching prospect signed by Louisville in the past couple weeks. I see a trend. This guy has some concerns with the possiblity of injuries. His durability looks lower and will hold him back some. He projects to have good control with decent splits. He also has good velocity with a couple of average pitches. Alou could end up pitching at the back end of a rotation or in a long reliever type role. He does have big league potential though.


OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE
The league has seen 4 players hit for the cycle this season. Boone Brow of Syracuse, Rich Miller of Boise, Buddy Berry of Milwaukee and Stan Stroud of Nashville have accomplished the feat.

Jim Hawpe-Colorado Wildcats is hitting a .350 with a .411 obp. He also has 11 steals and 12 homers.

Williams Nakano-Chicago Black Sox leads the league in triples with 6 and also has 17 doubles and 14 homers. His 56 runs scored are second in the league, and he ranks 7th in steals with 22.

The longest hitting streak this season belongs to Maikel Martinez with 27 games in a row.

3 pitchers have 9 wins at this point and they are Yoshinori Zhou, Rymer Tavarez and Kendry Martin.

Rodrigo Andujar-Houston Roughnecks is the first pitcher to 20 saves. He has 20 in 21 opportunities and also has a .84 ERA.

Ben Boyer-Wichita Tornadoes has just a .90 WHIP through 13 starts and a 1.39 ERA.

Julio Fuentes-Colorado Springs has 7 minus plays at second base. This is because he's left handed. He has great range and glove, but a lefty can't play the position.