Strat Twitter Range Ratings preview(for those that haven't joined the 21st century and don't have a Twitter account-more tomorrow)...

BALTIMORE: Manny Machado earns a 1 for his stellar play at 3B

BOSTON: World Champion Mike Napoli gets a 3 at 1B

CHICAGO (AL): Dayan Viciedo is a 5B4 in LF

CLEVELAND: Michael Bourn falls to a 2 in CF for the first time since 2008

DETROIT: Torii Hunter drops to a 3 in RF, his first rating below a 2 at any position since 1998

HOUSTON: José Altuve remains a 3 at 2B

KANSAS CITY: Slick-fielding Alcides Escobar gets a 1 at SS.

LOS ANGELES (AL): Albert Pujols drops all the way from a 2 to a 4 at 1B.

MINNESOTA: Joe Mauer has a rating for two positions... Catcher: 3B2 (-3 arm) and First Base: 4

NEW YORK (AL): "The Captain" Derek Jeter receives a 4 at SS, the first 4 of his career since his debut in 1995

OAKLAND: 2013 HR Derby Champion Yoenis Cespedes is a 2 in LF and a 3 in CF.

SEATTLE: Kyle Seager improves to a 2 at 3B for the M's

TAMPA BAY: Yunel Escobar earns a 1 at SS for the first time in his career

TEXAS: The recently traded Ian Kinsler gets bumped up from a 3 to a 2 at 2B

TORONTO: Melky Cabrera with a 5B4 rating in LF

ARIZONA: Adam Eaton's outfield ratings... LF: 2B3, CF: 3, RF: 3

ATLANTA: Andrelton Simmons... you guessed it. He receives a 1 at SS.

CHICAGO (NL): Starlin Castro is a 3 at SS for the fourth consecutive year.

CINCINNATI: Todd Frazier gets a 2 at 3B and a 3 in LF

COLORADO: Michael Cuddyer is a 3 at 1B and a 4B3 in RF.

LOS ANGELES (NL): Matt Kemp retains his 3 rating in CF

MIAMI: Logan Morrison, one of the more active Twitter users in baseball, gets a 4B3 for his play at 1B

MILWAUKEE: Scooter Gennett earns a 3 at 2B in his rookie season for the Brew Crew.

NEW YORK (NL): Juan Lagares receives a 2 in CF and a 3 in RF (-4 arm) for his first season in the bigs

PHILADELPHIA: Chase Utley notches a 2b3 for his play at 2B this season.

PITTSBURGH: Andrew McCutchen caps his MVP season by receiving a 1B2 rating in CF, his third straight 1!

ST. LOUIS: Jon Jay gets a 3B2 in CF for the defending NL Champs

SAN DIEGO: Rookie Jedd Gyorko posts a 4B3 defensive rating at Second Base and a 4 at Third Base

SAN FRANCISCO: Hunter Pence moves back up to a 2 fielding rating in RF after falling to a 3 last year.

WASHINGTON: Ian Desmond holds his 2 rating at SS for the third consecutive year

More Strat-O-Matic fielding ratings to come tomorrow!

2013 NASBL Postseason Awards Winners

The 2013 Post Season Awards voting is closed, and the winners are in!

2013 #1 overall draft pick and NASBL batting champ Mike Trout (.328/25/111) of the Ed Couch New Potatoes pulled off a double win, taking home both the Tastes Great MVP and TG Rookie of the Year Awards for fellow rookie Ed Killmer.  Besides the batting title, Trout led the NASBL in runs scored (103) and was 2nd in the Tastes Great in stolen bases with 32, a total trailing only that of all-time NASBL SB leader Juan Pierre (LVI) who once again led the league with 44.

Another rookie, Stephen Strasburg (16-4, 2.85, 251 K), took home the Tastes Great Cy Young award for Lehigh Valley.  The award was the 3rd such trophy for the Iron Pigs, with Strasburg's Cy joining those of Daisuke Matsuzaka (2008) and Clay Buchholz (2011) on owner Kevin Burns' mantle.  Strasburg was solid all around, finishing 2nd in ERA behind SPR's Clayton Richard (2.32), 2nd in strikeouts behind LCC's Clayton Kershaw (261), and 4th in wins.

The final Tastes Great award, the Fireman of the Year, was a clean sweep of the 1st place voting by 2012 FOY winner Craig Kimbrel (1-2, 0.68, 33 saves).  Besides the back-to-back awards by Kimbrel, Outlaw owner Mark Hildebrandt has also captained 2001 Keith Foulke to the TG Fireman's trophy.  Besides his microscopic ERA, Kimbrel posted a huge 15.2 K/9 ratio (89 strikeouts in 53 innings), and top-flight saves numbers (3rd in the Tastes Great behind CCC's Sergio Romo, who finished 2nd in the voting.)


In the Less Filling Conference, Miguel Cabrera (.301/36/116) brought Grundy County owner Jack Howard and his Grizzlies their first ever MVP Award.  Cabrera was solid all around, finishing 2nd in RBI behind TRY's Josh Hamilton, 2nd in doubles behind teammate Alex Gordon, 3rd in hits, and 4th in homeruns.

The Less Filling Cy Young was a surprise in several ways, as Shawnee Crow Justin Verlander (17-9, 3.27, 223 K) edged out Troy Haymaker worthy Scott Diamond (18-3, 2.82, 119 K) in the closest vote of the 2013 ballot.  The first surprise was to see the Less Filling leader in ERA, wins, and winning percentage fall by the wayside in the voting.  The second surprise was that this is the first NASBL Cy Young award in the career of Justin Verlander.  Perhaps the voters remembered that last year Verlander was beaten out for the LF Cy despite leading the conference in ERA, strikeouts, and shutouts (thanks to the winning ways of 26-victory 2012 Cy winner Matt Cain of SBU.)

The LF Rookie of the Year voting was far less controversial, as Jarrod Parker (15-10, 3.27) brought home the hardware for Vermont Fighting Sioux owner Justin Rabidoux.  The award was the 3rd ROY for the Sioux, with Parker joining 2009 Ubaldo Jimenez and Rabidoux's inaugural pick in his NASBL career 2002 Albert Pujols.

Finally, 2013 Less Filling Fireman of the Year Award winner Jim Johnson (6-4, 2.71, 45 saves) made the Shawnee Crows and Mike Johnson the only LF team to win two awards this offseason.  Johnson's 45 saves not only led the league in 2013, they were the 2nd highest single season total of all time in the NASBL (trailing only Michael "The Thriller" Jackson's 47 all the way back in 1999.)  This is the 2nd season in a row the LF FOY has gone to a Crow, with Johnson joining 2012 winner Ryan Madson.


Congratulations to all the winners!

EdCouch reshapes team roster(again!)...

Three big Holiday trades have again reshaped the team roster and the GM says they are not done.
With range ratings coming out in a month. the seemingly usual pace of off season trades has really picked up and there were 13 trades completed before the New Potatoes were able to strike...but strike they did with three straight big trades that has shaped the roster for next year while giving up some real good young talent for some proven veterans that had some injuries(and one new acquisition that still has a whole lot of explaining to do with his new team's fan base!).
The next task at hand is to prepare for a few more trades to get the roster pared down for the 17 man cut down(we hoping for a few surprises when the range ratings are announced). For now the New Potatoes players are going to have to get some new team chemistry , but not till after the team attempts to advance to the world series(though the very formidable and designed for playoff success LVI stands their way!).

Outlaw Career Strikeout Leaders

Twenty-three years of Outlaw All-Time strikeout leaders, from 1991 to 2013 including the predecessor NASBL Cleveland Indians and San Diego Padres:

1. 1820, Tim Hudson, 2000 - 2013
2. 1730, Jake Peavy, 2004-2013
3. 1153, Andy Ashby, 1994-2003
4. 1056, Mark Langston, 1991-1995
5. 1003, Charles Nagy, 1992-1999

Jake Peavy closed the gap with Tim Hudson this year.

Outlaw Career Hits Leaders

Twenty-three years of Outlaw All-Time hits leaders, from 1991 to 2013 including the predecessor NASBL Cleveland Indians and San Diego Padres:

1. 2474, Manny Ramirez, 1995 - 2011
2. 1879, Omar Vizquel, 1996-2011
3. 1631, Albert Belle, 1992-2001
4. 1625, Kenny Lofton, 1993-2001
5. 1255, Tony Gwynn, 1994-2000

There was no change in the top five this year, although Adrian Gonzalez climbed to within 125 hits behind Tony Gwynn.

NASBL Post Season Kicks Off

The 2013 NASBL post season is set to kick off with a pair of compelling matchups.

Less Filling - Dallas Fort Worth Spurs (96-66) at Grundy County Grizzles (84-78)

Jack Howard's Grizzlies were able to bear down and win their 3rd division title out of the past 4 years, thus earning homefield advantage for the 1st round of the playoffs.  The Grizzlie's less than dominant final record may be a bit deceiving, as Grundy County led their division nearly from coast to coast.  Grundy moved into 1st place with a win in the 7th game of the season, and never relinquished the top spot in the standings.  GCG's offense is keyed by the righty/lefty power attack of long-time Grizzly Miguel Cabrera (.301/36/116) and mid-season acquisition Josh Reddick (.244/36/83), while the rotation has a north/south flavor of its own in the resurgent Bartolo Colon (11-8, 3.61) and another in-season acquisition, lefty Cole Hamels (11-13, 4.13). 

Grundy will pit their balanced attack against 2-time NASBL Champion Red Robbins' wildcard DFW Spurs.  Like their opponents, the Spurs present a balanced power attack on offense (22 HR each from lefty/righty outfielder duo / NFL running back descendants Andrew McCutchen and Jason Heyward, and 22/23 HR from lefty/righty first-base duo Anthony Rizzo and Michael Cuddyer.)



Tastes Great - Springfield Isotopes (96-66) at EdCouch New Potatoes (104-58)

Ed Killmer's New Potatoes made quite a splash in their first year in the league, leading the NASBL in scoring with 898 runs and finishing 2nd in run prevention behind only the 111-win Lehigh Valley Iron Pigs.  Fittingly enough, the New Potatoes offense is keyed by 2013 #1 overall draft selection Mike Trout (.328/25/111), while 2nd year closer Kenley Jansen (4-6, 2.98, 33 saves) put on his own admirable display of kid-power in the 9th inning.

Up against the New Potatoes will be Doug Sherlag's perrenial powerhouse Springfield Isotopes.  Like their 96-win wildcard brethren in the Less Filling conference, the Topes will march an army of 20HR hitters at their opponents, in that familiar left-right-left-right cadence.  AJ Pierzynski (27), David Wright (21).  Brandon Moss (21), Carlos Gonzalez (20).  On the hill Springfield will rely heavily on Cy Young candidate Clayton Richard (16-2, 2.32), while Springfield's brace of no-hitter hurlers Chris Capuano and Trevor Cahill will head to the pen to support an already strong corps led by setup man David Hernandez (5-2, 1.31) and closer Aroldis Chapman (5-4, 2.98, 31 saves).



Good luck to all!

Chows Trade Up to #1 Pick

Illinois Times - Illinois is on the clock!  For the first time in franchise history the Chows will be picking first in the NASBL draft.  "We are extremely excited to move up.  When it became clear that we had the second pick we wanted to move either up or down.  There is one guy we really, really liked above all else and a few guys we saw as pretty equal."

In exchange for the #1 pick, Illinois sends Slatington Wilson Ramos and the Chows first selection (#2 overall).  "We look at this as a vote of confidence for Salvador Perez.  We had two fine catchers, which is a nice situation to be in.  However we are committed long-term to Salvador Perez.  This is the second straight year we moved up to get our guy.  Last year we really wanted Perez and moved into a position where we thought we could get him.  This year we know who we are going to take.  Without a 2nd pick, the draft prep room will be pretty low key this year."

Chows GM Sherlag would not tell us yet who he is planning on taking.  The Chows holes seem to be 2B, 1B, SP and Closer.  While the club has some OF depth, the lack of power on the roster makes it tough to rule out going that direction.  Inside sources confirmed that the Chows are not looking at a closer with the first pick.