C-Bay's 2013 ABL Draft

(Round /Overall)
1/10  Yu Darvish  SP
2/20  Adam Wainwright  SP
3/30  Joe Nathan  RP
5/45  Ryan Zimmerman  3B
5/50  Salvdor Perez  C
6/60  Craig Breslow  RP
7/65  Jayson Werth  OF
7/70  Willie Bloomquist  SS
9/90  Ryan Doumit  C
10/100  Justin Maxwell  OF
11/110  Jordanny Valdespin  2B
12/120  Michael Young  1B
13/130  Mike Adams  RP
14/140  Bryan Villarreal  RP
15/150  Tommy Hanson  SP

Here’s what traded draft picks yielded:

•Garrett Jones to Tallahassee, got Zimmerman & Werth.

Several Adjustments before first game:
Dropped
12th Pick Adams
12th Pick Villarreal
15th Pick hanson

Picked up
Lucus Harrell
Travis Blackley
Josh Rutledge

Traded Away
Jon Jay
Ryan Doumit
JP Arencibia
Michael Young
Jonthan Niese

Traded To
Justin Morneau
Michael Bourn
Ryan Hanigan
Josh Collmenter
Kelly Johnson
Deep draft and picking last was tough with too many holes to fill.  Not getting a 2nd base till the 11th round hurt the club.  Mega ten player trade hopefully gives us a shot at .500 in 2013.

C-Bay's 2012 ABL Draft

1. Jonathan Papelbon
2. Chipper Jones
3. Rafael Perez
4. Aroldis Chapman
5. Vinnie Pestano
6. Ryan Theriot
7. Shelley Duncan
8. Jason Bourgois
9. Mark Melancon
10. Jim Thome
11. JP Arencibia
12. Chris Perez
13. Trevor Cahill
14. Jason Bay
15. Max Scherzer
16. Lonnie Chisenhall


Adjustments before first game: Dropped 12th Pick Perez and 15th Pick Scherzer. Picked up Jarrod Saltalamachia and Angel Pagan.

Moneyball!

When Moneyball came out in theaters a few weeks back I was there on opening day. I hadn't read the book yet so I went in with an open mind. I was actually entertained and thought it was neat how like us on the tabletop Oakland A's GM Billy Beane was looking for new ways to value players. If you like baseball, you should check out the movie.

Then I had surgery last Monday October 3rd and my daughter Alexei bought me the book Moneyball. Knowing I'm not an avid reader but she was hoping with my time off from work I would delve into the book and learn more about the topic.

So far to her surprise, I've already reached page 142 and I'm currently reading the chapter about filling in Giambi's hole in the lineup. As expected the book as been a lot better due to the fact a book can go into detail.

Some highlights so far:

Bill James played tabletop

In chapter four:
"As James later admitted, the desire to win these games had been a chief motive for his original rethinking of the game. Before the sophisticated baseball fantasy leagues there had been sophisticated table-top baseball games. I used to be in a table-game league, James confessed to hit readers a decade later. This was ten, twelve years ago....It was during this period, in trying to win that league, that I became obsessed with how an offense works and why it doesn't work sometimes...with finding what information you would need to have to simulate baseball in a more accurate way. I had thought about these things before, of course, but to win that damn [table league] I had to know."

Stealing could be riskey

In chapter six:
"True, he stole some bases, but stealing bases involved taking a risk the Oakland front office did not trust even Johnny Damon to take. The math of the matter changed with the situation, but, broadly speaking, an attempted steal had to succeed about 70 percent of the time before it contributed positively to run totals.

Make the Big Trade

In chapter nine:
"By the middle of June, six weeks before the tradling deadline, he was walking into Paul DePodesta's office across the hall from his own and saying, "This is the time to make a fucking A trade." When asked what was meant by a "Fucking A trade," he said, "A Fucking A trade is one that causes everyone in the business to say 'Fucking A.'''

A's draft Jeremy Brown from Hueytown, A.L. where the Legend is stationed

In chapter eleven:
"Especially Brown, the bad body catcher from Hueytown, Alabama. Everyone had laughed when the Oakland A's drafted Brown in the first round. Every day Brown was more interesting to Billy."

ESPN Baseball Podcaster Host Keith Law

In chapter twelve:
"The first thing J.P. Ricciardi did after he took the job was hire Keith Law, a twenty-eight-year-old Havard graduate who had never played baseball, but who wrote lots of interesting articles about it on baseballprospectus.com."

I'm made my daughter Alexei proud and finished this book on October 20th from cover to cover. She says she might have to frame it. I'm glad she challenged me to read it. It was interesting, funny and very imformative.

C-Bay's 2009 ABL Draft

1. Justin Morneau 1b
2. Mike Napoli C
3. Ryan Braun LF
4. Jair Jurrjens SP
5. Jay Howell RP
6. Max Scherzer RP
7. Alberto Callaspo SS
8. Chris Volstad SP
9. Ramon Ramirez RP
10. Huston Street RP
11. Jason Kendall C
12. Hiroki Kuroda SP
13. Kevin Gregg RP
14. Casey Blake 3b
15. Mike Jacobs 1b

Vangaurd Games: Ithaca, N.Y.

Vanguard Games (Ithaca, N.Y.) 
Purchased Pursue the Pennant Tabletop Baseball Game
Date:  August 1989

This particular trip wasn’t one to a ballpark to catch a ball game but is by far the most influential baseball trip I have ever taken in my life.  As I grew up a baseball fan my dad introduced me to different tabletop baseball and football games.  He played Avalon Hill’s Baseball Strategy and Football Strategy to name a few.  Growing up my parents bought me simpler tabletop sports games like championship baseball, half time football, etc.  Everything changed when I saw a commercial for Pursue the Pennant on television showing someone rolling dice into Fenway Park made out of cardboard.  One day I was eventually quick enough to write down the toll free number to find out where we could pickup this excellent looking game.  My mom called the number and found out the closest store that carried the game was a game store in the small town of Ithaca, N.Y.  Ithaca is roughly sixty minutes from our Binghamton home and I understood that it was a decent drive if my mom took me up there to pick up the game.  I also realized the game wasn’t cheap and she might not have that kind of money laying around.  Luckily for me my mom was a special person and would do anything for her kids.  She said, “We can go today if you want.”  “But you must promise me, you’ll play the game and have fun.”  We’ll I started a tabletop baseball league soon after that purchase and we’ll Mom, we are still playing a form of “PTP” like tabletop baseball over twenty years later.  I can remember the excitement of arriving at the store and seeing the big PTP box on the third shelf in the game store.  I was already checking it out on the ride home and asked my two long time friends Shawn Fitzpatrick and Anthony Marrongelli once I arrived back home if they wanted to give it a try.  We grabbed a pizza from a local store called “Dips” and began a journey of tabletop baseball excitement that continues today.  Mom, thank you!

1988 Season Set