Quest for the Posey - Denied

The Grundy County Grizzlies are used to having an early draft pick if not the first overall pick. In 2011, the Grizzlies wanted to draft Buster Posey. Posey, a young catcher with a lot of positive reviews and articles, is the latest qualifying baseball God until the next anti-pitcher ruler, Bryce Harper collects 200 MLB plate appearances.

Oh wait, the Grizzlies made their first playoff appearance in the NASBL by winning 87 games and passing perennial Less Filing Central Contenders, the Pocono Chin Music and the Vermont Fighting Sioux. WOE IS US. The Griz picketh 13th. Our chances of drafting Posey have been reduced.

Griz management was very sad.

But, wait, maybe we could trade to acquire the great Posey.

With the draft set to start at the end of February, Griz management pondered - "What would it take?"

First determine who had the 1st pick - Oh, Red Robbins, YUMMMM!!! The Dallas Fort Worth Spurs don't need a catcher, they have Victor Martinez, one of the top hitting catchers in the NASBL all ready. Red will want to give away that pick - We are sure. So the Griz management decided to make an offer for the pick.

So we sent Red the following offer in mid-January:

Griz's 1st, and two 2nd round picks for the #1 pick,
or
Griz's 1st, 2nd, 3rd, & 4th round picks for the DFW's #1,
or
any player on the Griz roster for that first overall pick.

Red said "No Thanks"

So the Griz decided to up the ante

The Griz offered Oakland RHSP - Trevor Cahill, Philadelphia starting catcher Carlos Ruiz, and budding outfield power prospect Alex Gordon for the first overall pick.
That would give Red one of the top starting pitching cards, a good hitting catcher that can actually catch and throw the ball, and a prospect who may have tarnished skills at this point, but at 27 still has a lot of baseball life to resurrect that potential. That would cover any direction Red would take in making the pick.

Again, Red said "No Thanks" and he indicated his appreciation for what he termed were worthy offers.

RATS!!! Denied!

But wait remember Red owns a good hitting catcher in Victor Martinez, maybe he will select someone else.

Who has the next pick? Answer - Lehigh Valley Iron Pigs commander - Kevin Burns. Kevin is usually a willing trader. Lets see if Kevin will trade us the pick.

So in early February we made a similar proposal to Mr. Burns:
The Grizzlies #1, and the two #2 picks we owned for the second overall pick (with the caveat that it would be a draft day trade assuming Buster Posey was available at that time.)
We also offered the Griz's 1st, 2nd, 3rd, & 4th round picks for the #2 pick with the same caveat, and
our final offer was Cahill, Ruiz, and Gordon for the pick to acquire Posey.

Kevin initially liked one or more of our offers. We remembered that Kevin had tried to acquire Cahill last season, so we thought that we would sacrifice the 3 players for Posey. It would be a tough pill to swallow, but we could make up for it in the draft.

As draft day neared, we sent Kevin a friendly reminder email and posed the potential trade again.

Kevin replied that he had had some other offers for the pick and he determined our offer was not good enough. He said the Griz's 1st round pick (13th overall) was to late. However, he asked if would I be willing to trade a 1B. I was willing to trade anyone on my roster, except Miguel Cabrera (I had reconsidered the possibility of losing Cabrera in my original offer to Red, and determined I was not willing to make that sacrifice), so I asked Mr. Burns to make a counter proposal.

I did not hear from Kevin after that. The next thing I knew was that the Pigs traded their pick to the league's newest manager, the Bulldogs. The trade was the #2 pick and Francisco Liriano, Minnesota's #1 starting pitcher for Jon Lester and the 5th pick. The Pigs choose another Boston starting pitcher - Clay Buchholz. Both Lester and Buchholz are an improvement over Liriano, but not much of an improvement in this person's opinion.

Thus, the coveted Buster Posey was drafted by the Slatington Bulldogs. Winner - Winner - Chicken Dinner.

Founding NASBL Member Red Robbins Honored for a Quarter Century of Service!

The NASBL has a long history of long-time membership, with the average member staying in the league for nearly a decade.

But one GM stands head and shoulders above his peers. Robin "Red" Robbins of the Dallas Fort Worth Spurs has now captained his NASBL team for an amazing 25 years! During this time, Red has presided over the entire 22-year NASBL career of Barry Bonds (drafted out of Arizona State by Red back in 1985) and Ken Griffey Jr, who played for Red's Spurs every one of his 21 NASBL seasons.

Red led his Spurs and their core of Bonds, Griffey, and Edgar Martinez to the 2002 NASBL Championship, then in 2007 Red became the first ever 2-time winner of the coveted NASBL World Championship title.

In recognition of a quarter-century of NASBL excellence, it was Commissioner Stephen Beard's recent honor to present Red with the baseball-diamond shaped plaque pictured in the awards ceremony above.

Thank you, Red, for your first quarter-century in the NASBL. We look forward to competing with you for another 25 years!

Chows Trade for Another Pitcher and eye 2012

Last year the Chows led all of NASBL in pitching and were 5th in runs scored. Unfortunately, the Chows were 4th in runs scored in the mighty TGE leading to another season without reaching the play-offs. Going into the draft, the Chows figured to address their offense in the early part of the draft. Instead, Sherlag traded the Chows 1st pick for A PITCHER - getting Liriano and a 3rd.

"We figure our strength is pitching, and after having traded Carpenter, we were not as strong there. After adding Liriano, we really like our staff for this year and beyond. We dubbed draft day Project 2012 and we feel we set ourselves up to contend in the mighty TGE in just one year. We really believe we will not have to draft a single starting pitcher in 2012 allowing us to focus on our offense. "

The Chows have 8-9 starting pitchers on the current roster. Halladay, Liriano, Anderson, Scherzer, Volquez, Zambrano, Duensing, Wells and potentially McClellan. They should be able to assemble a solid starting 5 out of that bunch and may be able to leverage some of that strength to fill in some holes.

Here is how Project 2012 shakes out with a lot of uncertainty in a few categories:

Avoid Regression

Prado, H Ramirez, Willingham, Duensing, Liriano

Get Healthy

Nathan, Anderson, Beltran, Volquez

Bounceback

A Ramirez, Suzuki, Hawpe, Lee, Bradley, Zambrano

Reach Some Potential

Smoak, Davis, Colvin, Beckham, Scherzer

Potential Useful Parts

Fukudome, Wells, Bourn

Will these parts lead to a solid nucleus of 17 for 2012? Only the next season will tell.

Morandini will have a challenge to manage usage in some spots and comply with the 50% rule in others. Having only one lefty in the bullpen and two subpar closers (Gregg and Cordero) should pose additional challenges.

The starting pitching should keep the Chows in games this season, the lack of power and the suspect bullpen figures to lead to a lot of low scoring losses.

At Haymakers Camp

Annapolis, MD: There is excitment in the air here at the Haymakers spring training facility in the capital of Maryland as the early round draft picks make their way into camp. First round selection and uber prospect Madison Bumgarner is here as well as new slugger Corey Hart. Back of the rotation starter Clayton Richard is already working with the pitching coach. Even backup outfielder Jim Edmonds is drawing a crowd of autograph seekers. Add in new superstars Josh Hamilton and Chris Carpenter and it's almost a who's who of players in a camp where last season was almost the opposite.

Japanese league veteran Hisanori Takahashi speaks to reporters through an interpreter as he fields questions about what his role with the club will be. New Haymaker relief pitcher Matt Guerrier carries the bullpen catchers equipment as he takes a few jabs from the rest of the pen.

Even the thought ot riding the pine can't stop a player's excitement. Last year's lone star player Pablo Sandoval is not worried about it, "I'm going to do whatever I need to to contribute this season," he says, "I know they told me I need to work on some things and I'll be in the cage everyday so that I can be available whenever I'm needed." Sandoval said that team management made it clear to him that he is part of this team's future. "I'll just do what I need to do this season to bring a championship here," he added.

The fans are clamoring for tickets, as season ticket sales are up over 80% from last year. There is no doubt that the fans will get a great show in 2010 as some experts are considering Troy favorites to win Less Filling West.

And the loose and confident mood around camp seems to portray that feeling. "There is definetly a big difference in the feel of camp this year compared to last year," said closer and senior team veteran Huston Street, "it's very exciting. There is a lot of talent here." The team GM had a different approach; "We can't get ahead of ourselves. There is some good competition in this league and we haven't even begun playing games yet."

Here's a quick look at how the Haymakers will look in 2011:

Starters

1. Chris Carpenter

2. Brett Myers

3. Jon Garland

4. Clayton Richard

5. Madison Bumgarner

6. Homer Bailey

Closer: Huston Street

C: Geovanny Soto/Nick Hundley

1B: Billy Butler

2B: Brandon Phillips

SS: Jason Bartlett

3B: Jose Bautista

LF: Josh Hamilton

CF: Brett Gardner

RF: Corey Hart

DH: Mark Reynolds/David Murphy/Jim Edmonds

Can the team live up to the lofty expectations??

Who Can It Be Now

The song by 'Men at Work' titled 'Who Can It Be Now?', is the current #1 song in the DFW area! Just like it is in NASBL, who will go first in the 2011 Draft- OF Jason Heywoodor C/1B Buster Posey. OR will the pick be traded? When GM Red Robbins was asked by the local press if 'he [Red] wanted to give the press a tip'?. He replied 'Sure- plant your corn early in the fall'. The press look at each other with their best Homer Simpson face and went 'D'OH'!! When asked what that meant, 'Red replied, 'Wait till Monday and you will find out he smiled'! Asked if DFW would trade the pick? Red said we had some really good offers along with some laughable ones, however right now we are 99% sure we are going to keep the pick. When reporter Ima Dumbass shouted, 'Give us something, anything', Red said a picture is worth a 1,000 words, then pointed to the above picture and left the room.

Haymakers for Sale!

Troy, NY: You read that right; you, the fan, can buy a part of your favorite team! In order to build the funds to keep the new top tier players, the Haymakers are selling .10% portions of the team for $25 a pop, plus a $5 per transaction fee.

What's so great about this deal is that if we don't get enough fans involved (don't worry, we won't tell you what that magic number is) then we will refund your $25. We will keep the $5 processing fee though.

So send in your money today because it's not cheap having players like Chris Carpenter or Josh Hamilton on your favorite team!

#3 Pick - Take a hitter or the TNSTAAPP?

Burlington, VT

Pending a lobotomy, the top two picks of the upcoming NASBL Rookie/Free Agent draft are set in stone. Thus, the guessing and real fun begins with the #3 pick.

The Burlington Free Press caught up with Vermont Fighting Sioux GM Justin Rabidoux during a recent all you can eat luncheon at Moe's.

When asked the million dollar question, Rabidoux shrugged his shoulders, attempting to reveal neither his intent nor his thoughts.

However, he did point to a recent study his office commissioned. The VFS number crunchers took a look at all draft data dating back to 1998 (years 2005 and 2002 are gone into cyber-abyss apparently) and evaluated the careers of the players drafted #3 and #4 overall. Rabidoux apparently thinks any combo of the three players he's considering are likely go in the #3 and #4 slots of the draft.

The resulting 22 players were then assigned a score ranging from 1 (Bust) to 5 (HOFer, Borderline HOFer, elite at their position for 2-4 years) and then sorted as either a pitcher or a hitter.

The players are:

2010 - Elvis Andrus, Pablo Sandoval
2009 - Evan Longoria, Matt Garza
2008 - BJ Upton, Dustin Pedroria
2007 - Justin Verlander, Matt Cain
2006 - Ryan Howard, Scott Kazmir
2005 - No data
2004 - Jose Reyes, Hank Blalock
2003 - Austin Kearns, Eric Hinske
2002 - No data
2001 - Pat Burrell, Fernando Vina
2000 - Carlos Beltran, Tim Hudson
1999 - Todd Helton, Ben Grieve
1998 - Scott Rolen, Vlad Gurrero

Categories -

1 - Bust
2 - Short, underwhelming career - didn't realize potential
3 - Average production, decent career length
4 - Very good career, all-star caliber player
5 - Hall of Fame type player - elite for multiple years

Young players such as Andrus have their value based on a combination of production to date as well as expected production - they may end up in a different category before their career's over, this represents a best guess.

Results (pitchers shown in bold)

1 - Austin Kearns, Eric Hinske, Ben Grieve
2 - Hank Blalock, Pat Burrell, Fernando Vina
3 - Pablo Sandoval, Matt Garza, BJ Upton, Scott Kazmir
4 - Elvis Andrus, Dustin Pedroria, Justin Verlander, Matt Cain, Ryan Howard, Jose Reyes, Tim Hudson, Scott Rolen
5 - Evan Longoria, Carlos Beltran, Todd Helton, Vlad Gurrero

Obviously opinions can vary on the results, but the main point was to determine if there's a evidenced history of highly drafted pitchers not panning out. As far as I can tell, the range is somewhere between Kazmir on the low end (three quality seasons, a few ... others) and Verlander (strong candidate to end up in Category 5 before all's said and done.

What's interesting when looking at the hitters that haven't panned out, is they all fit a similar mold. They mostly play the power positions (corner IF/OF - can't explain how Vina ended up on this list, so I won't try). Middle IFers/CFers have fared better over time.

So what does this tell us, other than to ignore results comprised from a small sample? It tells us that in the NASBL, pitchers drafted high have a decent chance of succeeding.

Wait, I thought the title of this article included the phrase There's No Such Thing As A Pitching Prospect. Correct, it did. But perhaps NASBL's player eligibility requirements (100 IP for starters) act to filter out and separate hurlers who are merely prospects from those that have some level of demonstrated success.

Whether he truly doesn't know, or hasn't made up his waffling mind yet, Rabidoux did not state if he was swayed by the findings of his study. Surely he must have an opinion on it. Surely?