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?

Revised Round 3/4 Draft Order

Yesterday's posting of the FA Money awards and Round 3/4 Draft Order contained an error.

Brad Sherlag's Illinois Chow Chows actually had the 2nd best playoff record among non-playoff teams in 2010.

After correcting the $2000 FA Money award that had erroneously been given to MSU/ FRE, the Chows will now pick 11th in rounds 3 and 4, with Fredonia dropping to 15th in those rounds.

The revised / corrected draft order for rounds 3 and 4 is:

1. LVI
2. LCC
3. GRK
4. GCG
5. OJW
6. DFW
7. HHA
8. SPR
9. SPL
10. TRY
11. ILL
12. PCM
13. SBU
14. VFS
15. FRE
16. NJT

NASBL Round 3/4 Draft Order

The base round 3/4 draft order for the 2011 NASBL Rookie / Free Agent Draft will be:

1. Lehigh Valley IronPigs
2. Lake Champlain Cannibals
3. Georgia Roadkill
4. Grundy County Grizzlies
5. Outlaw Josey Wales
6. Dallas Fort Worth Spurs
7. Honolulu Hawaiians
8. Springfield Isotopes
9. Seattle Pilots
10. Troy Haymakers
11. Pocono Chin Music
12. Illinois Chow Chows
13. Slatington Bulldogs
14. Freedonia Fireflies
15. Vermont Fighting Sioux
16. New Jersey Trash Heap


Some of the noteworthy Fun Awards:
$3,000 to SPR for the best winning percentage for a team that did not make the playoffs
$2,000 to Freedonia (formerly MSU) for the 2nd best winning percentage for a team that did not make the playoffs
$500 each to GCG and GRK for having more road wins than home wins
$100 each to LCC, HHA, and SPL for having the most All-Star starters in their respective divisions (3 AS starters for each team)

GCG's Zack Greinke contributed FA Money for his sweep of the Cy Young Award, most wins, and best ERA.

ILL earned monetary awards for the Rookie of the Year award, and most wins (both by Brett Anderson, with 20 wins), as well as the Fireman of the Year Award and most saves (both by Joe Nathan, with 44 saves).

Newly minted Iron Pig Albert Pujols chipped in money for his MVP award, as well as most RBI and runs scored.

Tim Lincecum of NJT scored 3 times, with the Cy Young Award, most K's, and for being the All-Star starter for the Tastes Great.



The winners of the $50 booby prize for the "anti-awards" were:

Ryan Zimmerman, LCC, for his league-leading 29 GDP
Jonathan Broxton, OJW, for his league-leading 10 blown saves
Mark Reynolds, TRY, for his amazing 232 strikeouts
Mark Buehrle, SPL, for his 18 losses

A Sad Day in Springfield - Goodbye & Good Luck Mr. Isotope

Springfield (AP) - It is a sad day in Springfield. Yesterday, the Seattle Pilots selected Lance Berkman in the NASBL supplemental draft, officially ending Berkman's career with the Isotopes. Since being drafted #7 overall in the 2001 NASBL draft, Berkman has earned the nickname "Mr. Isotope" with his stellar play on the field of play and his stellar work in the Springfield community.

In ten seasons with the Istopes, Berkman hit .303 with a .406 on base percentage and a .570 slugging percentage. Berkman's yearly averages with the Topes are as follows: 138 games, 477 at bats, 93 runs scored, 145 hits, 32 doubles, 2 triples, 30 home runs, 102 runs batted in, and 79 walks. He owns virtually every Topes offensive record of significance and won an MVP award. These are hall of fame numbers and it is hopeful that when Lance's career is over and he is enshrined in the NASBL hall of fame, he will be wearing an Isotope hat.

Although, he put up worse than typical numbers for the Topes last season, Lance still hit 25 home runs and drive in 81 runs. Lance deserved to leave Springfield on his terms, not by being unceremoniously cut by Doug Sherlag like any other player.

I have a question for Doug Sherlag. Who is the Topes player that was too valuable to cut to make room for Mr. Isotope? Jamie Moyer....Ryan Raburn....Tyler Clippard....Joe Thatcher? None of these guys are good enough to force a legend out the door. I know many Topes fans felt the same way when the Topes cut ties with Eric Chavez. In hindsight, that appeared to be the right move by Doug Sherlag, but this one feels different.

Nobody has meant as much to the Topes organization as Lance Berkman. He gave respectibility to a fledgling expansion team and this seems to be a knee-jerk reaction to missing the playoffs last year. Much of me feels pride that the Topes organization considers a 93 win season as a failure. World Series or bust.

However, this move by Doug Sherlag is indefensible and shows a lack of class as an organization. Doug Sherlag can learn something from Mark Hildebrandt. Mr. Hildebrandt knows that Omar Vizquel is not just any other player. Shame on Mr. Sherlag for not feeling the same way about Lance Berkman.