NL East Preview: Season 6

Chicago Jayhawks-Season 5 114-48 (1st Place, Division Champion)

After yet another year of record wins followed by playoff disappointment, the window, while not shut, does not appear to be widening either for the Chicago Jayhawks. Given the roster composition of the other teams and precluding a blockbuster deal of some variety, Chicago has to be considered the favorite for another division title until proven otherwise. Offensively, Chicago is coming off a year where it led the NL in OPS at .839 with an impressive OBP of .365 and a great SLG of .475. Bryan Beckett resumed his march towards digital Cooperstown last year posting a .399 OBP and a 1.045 OPS overall with his normal stellar defense. The greater concern is the deteriorating defense with many of the other position players have fallen below the HBD averages. Not surprisingly for a team that won 114 games, Chicago also led the NL in pitching with an ERA of 3.46 and WHIP of 1.19. Don Masato returned to his perch as the best pitcher in baseball with an ERA of 2.91 and a WHIP of 1.12 in 256.1 innings of work. No pitcher with more than 40 innings posted an ERA of over 5.00. The age of the staff means that some regression is to be expected but the overall performance should be in the general range of 1.33 and 3.60 which would still make it the best staff in the NL by a wide margin based on this year’s performance. Unless Thorku wishes to move super prospect Stu Butler up to the bigs from AA or he pulls off a blockbuster signing or trade, a mild regression should be expected.

Prediction: 110 Wins and another division title

New York Yankees- Season 5 96-66 (2nd Place, Wild Card)

Goose yet again combined above average offensive production and well above average pitching to post a win total that would have led, or tied for the lead, in five divisions in Gleeman world. Unfortunately, he is still in a division with Thorku so he had to settle with 5^th place yet again. Offensively, New York placed a solid 6^th in the NL with an OPS of .764. The offense was bolstered by the acquisition of Bernard Rhodes who posted nearly an 1.100 OPS on his time with the Yanks. However, he was the lone position player with regular playing time that posted an OPS above .900. The offense should receive some bolstering by the arrival of Kelvim Lyons at catcher but any remaining improvement in season 6 will have to come from either a trade or a free agent signing. New York’s strength was its pitching with a 2^nd place WHIP and with an ERA of 4.13 which put it in 4^th place in the NL. Led by the true Cy Young winner in the NL, Haywood Towers, the rest of the Yankee’s staff was very solid though two pitchers managed to post 200 innings of 5.50 era which drug down the staff’s final totals. The imminent release of Jay Cosby, with no obvious replacement, should hurt the staff’s overall performance but won’t knock it out of the top 5 staffs in the NL.

Prediction: 93-69

Tampa Bay Devil Rays- Season 6 90-72 (3rd place, Wild Card)

Tampa Bay is coming off the most successful year of its franchise seeing it reach the playoffs for the first time. The playoffs were almost certainly a direct result of his acquisition of the top hitter on the market, Charlie Stevens, who posted an OPS of over 1.050 and reached base at almost a 45% clip. The rest of the offense was also very solid with the notable achievements of super rookie Clay Gibbons who posted an OPS of over 1.000 in his short time at the bigs. Every player with more than 200 ABs had an OPS of over .698. The pitching was another story entirely however. The ERA was a slightly below average 4.75 but the WHIP was only the 14^th best in the NL at 1.49. Miguel Abreu led the team with a 4.04 ERA on a 1.36 WHIP. On the opposite end of the spectrum, three pitchers combined for over 200 innings of ERA around 6.5. This trio absolutely must be replaced if Fry wants to ensure his return means another trip to the playoffs as there will be many teams contending for that final playoff spot. Tampa Bay does appear to have two solid prospects that can be brought up in the form of Mark Lyons and Oswaldo Dotel. Tampa Bay should continue to maintain their current level of performance for the next year though the large number of long-term contracts does not provide Tampa Bay with much flexibility to make an acquisition.

Prediction: 93-69

Washington D.C. Bureaucrats- Season 5 54-108 (4th Place, No Wild Card...Not Even Close)

Season 5 was not the best of the days for the fabled Bureaucrat franchise, in fact it was the worst of days. The Bureaucrats started off strong by holding a seemingly insurmountable lead during the first week of the season only to see a fall that Rudy Giuliani would be ashamed of. The offense was almost uniformly terrible with a league worst OPS of .672. The only highlight during the season was the continued strong performance of Matty Montanez with an OBP of almost .400 and an OPS of .871. The rest of the offense does not deserve mention. The pitching was only marginally better with a 2^nd to last ERA and WHIP of 5.52 and 1.55. Herman Young was the best pitcher once again with an ERA of 4.68 and a WHIP of 1.47. Almost without exception, he was in many ways the only near average pitcher. Next season should prove to be mildly more promising with the addition of slugging OF Murray Matthews and the eventual promotion of super pitching stud Garret Kline. Regardless, this team is clearly destined for a distinct fourth place finish next year. Season 7 on the other hand…

Prediction: 65-97

NL West Preview: Season 6

1. Anaheim Anteaters: Season 5- 90-72, NL West Champions

Finally. Traditionally the worst division in Gleeman World, the NL West finally broke through with its first .500 team since Season 1. Unlike the Honolulu Warriors (now known as the Seattle Lumber Barons), however, this team looks like it's here to stay. Fritz Rushford's decline in power is worrisome, but he still gets on base with the best in the league, and plays a solid CF. Alexander Stowers is coming off of a 52 HR season, but must improve his .320 OBP if he wants to earn his keep. Trent Gordon and Stan Lambert both delivered star-level performances; the former hit .301/.373/.502 as a 2B, and the latter notched a .367 OBP with 40 HR's in just 407 AB's. Veteran hurler Rick Goodwin and rookie Trevor Peterson both need to rebound from season-ending injuries if Anaheim wants to compete for a first round bye. The bullpen is also a weak point; closer Willis Bradford was a mess last year, and the rest of the pen is average at best. But with an above average lineup, a solid defense, and a strong, balanced rotation, there's no reason why Anaheim shouldn't match last year's win total.

Prediction: 93-69 and the division crown.

2. Boise Mashers: Season 5- 75-87, 2nd (NL West)

There's a lot to like here, but Boise (as is) lacks the talent to be labeled as a serious contender. Not a single starter on last year's team slugged .500; as a comparison, the ML team median was .437. That should change this year; Jon Stowers and Luis Cairo are both young and talented enough to top last year's disappointing performances, and Don Dillon is an upgrade over incumbent Scot Pierce. But Boise's offense lacks a true star; admittedly without checking, I would guess that not a single player in Boise's lineup would be considered one of the 7 or 8 best players at his position. That leaves a very slim margin for error; Boise cannot contend if even a couple of players in their lineup play below expectations. The defense is suspect, too; Boise committed 93 errors last season, good for 4th worst in baseball. Doug Rueter alone was responsible for 34 of those in just 138 games at SS. At the age of 24, he's young enough to improve, but he might be better served moving either to 2B to utilize his quickness and lateral agility, or to 3B, where he could showcase his strong arm. Dennis Cohen, once the #2 pick in the amateur draft, was enjoying a fine rookie season before injuring his arm; one might wonder how he'll rebound after elbow surgery. Pascual Ozuna and Sherman Yount are both eligible for free agency; given their age, it's doubtful that either re-sign. The bullpen is capable, but nothing special. Boise's payroll is only at $58 million; a key acquisition or two might make things interesting. But as it stands, they're not there yet.

Prediction: 80-82, with room for improvement.


3. Tacoma Downpour: Season 5- 63-99, 4th (NL West)

Rookie GM mrauseo is clearly in a rebuilding phase; as a result, this team is unlikely to contend this season. However, there are some bright spots, and a few easy fixes may improve this team quite a bit. The Achilles' heel of the Downpour is clearly its defense. A league-worst 119 errors resulted in 84 unearned runs. However, such a problem is not particularly difficult to fix. Jim Brown and Terry O'Connor are both stretched at their current positions; finding new players for their current positions (and moving Brown and O'Connor to an outfield corner) would certainly help. The lineup has its strong points, and AAA prospects Steven Piper and Gene Tessmer might be with the big club soon. The pitching is terrible, though; while Tacoma posted a 4.69 ERA at home, their road ERA was 5.51. Furthermore, the team traded both Karim Unamuno and Allen Zambrano, arguably their two best pitchers. Clearly, the plan is to usher in a new wave of young talent. It might be ugly at times, but this could be a team on the rise.

Prediction: 66-96, but capable of more with a better defense.


4. Seattle Lumber Barons: Season 5- 68-94, 3rd (NL West)

A moribund offense will likely keep this team out of contention. Out of all of their starters, only Patrick Hartman had an OBP better than the ML average, and only Vicente Balboa had a SLG better than the ML median. To put it another way, Seattle ranked 32nd, 32nd, and 30th in BA/OBP/SLG (out of 32 teams). Worse yet, Seattle won't have much help anytime soon in their minor league system; prospect analyst Mark Zoff ranks Seattle's farm system dead last in the NL. At first glance, the pitching in Seattle looks solid, even good. But one must ask how much of this is an illusion due to their home park. At home, Seattle posted a 3.72 ERA; on the road, 4.99. Seattle has considered relocating to give its offense a boost. The question is how this will affect the pitching staff, which struggled when not in Safeco. Over the offseason, Seattle needs to figure out who's worth keeping, and who's not, because the immediate future in Seattle doesn't look very bright.

Prediction: 62-100, and possibly the start of a re-building situation.

Best pitchers in the world

There have been some spirited debates over the first five seasons about who the best pitchers in Gleeman World are, and the Cy Young balloting has frequently been contentious. So, what better way to while away the offseason than trying to figure out who the best pitchers in the history of the world have been.

Here are the top dozen pitchers over the first five seasons, from No. 12 up to No. 1.

12. Brian Murata has easily been the best closer in the world. He's converted 177 of 193 save opportunities (92 percent) while posting a 2.04 ERA and 0.96 WHIP in 330 innings. A three-time Fireman of the Year and four-time All-Star, Murata has perfect control and dominates hitters on both sides of the plate. He doesn't throw hard, but instead relies on an excellent sinker/curveball combination.

Murata's worst season was in Season 1, when he posted a 2.52 ERA and only saved 29 games. Since then, he's averaged 37 saves a season with a 1.94 ERA. And although the Yankees have struggled in the postseason, it hasn't been because of Murata. He's yet to allow a run in 11 playoff innings.

11. Ruben Crespo doesn't have the sparkling ERA of some of the pitchers ahead of him on this list, but his ability to soak up innings has been a great value to the Minnesota Fatboys. Crespo is 98-63 with a 4.08 ERA in 1,401 innings. He's topped 270 innings every season except for Season 4, when an injury cost him about a month and he still made 40 starts.

Crespo's best performance came in Season 2, when he went 21-11 with a 3.24 ERA in 280 innings. The three-time All-Star also gets points for spending his entire career in a slight hitter's park in the high-offense American League. He has struggled in the postseason, going 4-8 with a 5.21 ERA in 102 innings, although he had a 3.78 ERA while helping the Fatboys win the Season 5 World Series.

10. Two seasons ago, it would have been laughable to think John Carroll would be this low on the list, but he's only gone 29-23 with a 3.71 ERA in Seasons 4 and 5. For his career, he's 76-45 with a 3.45 ERA in 1,128 innings. Those still-excellent numbers are mitigated somewhat by the fact that the two-time All-Star's played for an NL team in a pitcher's park all five seasons.

Carroll was in AA at world creation but reached the majors by the end of Season 1. In Seasons 2 and 3, he went 42-17 with a 3.14 ERA, winning the Cy Young award in Season 3. In his only postseason experience, Carroll went 1-1 with a 1.69 ERA in 16 innings in Season 2.

9. Jay Cosby has never won more than 15 games in a season, but that's due largely to the quality of some of the offenses he's pitched for. In his career, he's 62-54 with a 3.48 ERA in 1,145 innings, and he's almost certainly the best pitcher to have never won an award of any kind.

Cosby's been remarkably consistent, posting an ERA between 3.35 and 3.55 in four of five seasons, with Season 4's 3.79 ERA the worst of his career. He's been a hard-luck loser in the postseason as well, going 1-3 with a 3.48 ERA in 44 innings.

8. Gary Long is overshadowed on his own pitching staff, but there's no question he's one of the best in the league. The Season 1 Rookie of the Year is also a two-time All-Star who has gone 82-33 with a 3.58 ERA in 1,118 innings. He's also pitched his whole career in the AL, although his home park is beneficial to pitchers.

Long's best work came in Season 4, when he went 19-5 with a 2.81 ERA in 230 innings. He also gets extra credit for his postseason work, going 7-4 with a 3.20 ERA in 98 innings. He went 3-0 with a 1.54 ERA in 35 innings to help the New York Mets repeat as champions in Season 3.

7. Billy Ray Prince is definitely the pitcher on this list who's had the toughest circumstances for most of his career. Not only has he pitched in the AL all five seasons, but he's also spent 3.5 of those seasons toiling in the best hitter's park in the world. Still, he's managed to go 68-37 with a 3.45 ERA in 958 innings.

The two-time All-Star did his best work in Season 1, going 18-7 with a 2.78 ERA in 194 innings for the Mets. His postseason work has been spotty, as he did well in Seasons 1 and 5 while struggling in Seasons 3 and 4. Overall, he's 2-3 with a 4.07 ERA in 42 innings in the playoffs.

6. Haywood Towers might rank higher on this list if not for a debilitating injury in Season 3. Even without the injury, however, Towers just doesn't the arm to be a workhorse in the rotation. So while he's 65-28 with a stunning 2.72 ERA in his career, he's only managed to pitch 813 innings.

Towers has finished the season a sub-3.00 ERA three times, but Season 5 was by far his best effort and earned him his first All-Star appearance. He went 17-4 with a 2.04 ERA in 185 innings as opponents batted just .177 against him. As dominant as Towers has been in the regular season, he's been a postseason bust, going 2-1 despite yielding a 7.84 ERA in 20 innings.

5. While Towers simply never had the stamina or durability to pile up innings, Grover Rowand has struggled with injuries throughout his career, going on the DL in four of five seasons, including one stint on the 60-day DL. That's limited him to 827 career innings, but he's 71-27 with a 2.73 ERA and two Cy Young awards.

His first Cy Young came in Season 2, when he went 19-11 with a 2.68 ERA in 231 innings. He followed that up with his worst season as an injury limited him to 84 innings and his 3.52 ERA was the only time he's had an ERA above 2.90. Rowand bounced back in Season 4 to win another Cy Young by going 23-1 with a 2.19 ERA in 168 innings. He's been good, but not great, going 3-1 with a 3.79 ERA in 38 postseason innings.


4. Max Leary has overall numbers that stack up nicely with the top three on this list, but there's some reason to doubt that he's quite as good as them since his performance improved dramatically when he joined a team that plays in one of the best pitcher's parks in the world the last two seasons. Leary is 67-52 with a 3.16 ERA in 1,115 innings.

He was a very good pitcher the first three seasons, and that prompted Oklahoma City to give him a massive contract that guaranteed him more than $60 million over three seasons and as much as $76.4 million over four seasons. The Twins haven't been disappointed so far, as he's gone 37-21 with a 2.82 ERA in 492 innings while make the All-Star team both seasons. In his only trip to the playoffs, Leary went 1-0 with a 1.42 ERA in 19 innings in Season 4.

3. Red Wainhouse might be No. 1 on this list had he not been mismanaged his first two seasons or gotten hurt in Season 5. Even with those problems, however, he's 82-40 with a 3.11 ERA in 1,044 seasons. Wainhouse was under-appreciated and under-used his first two seasons, getting traded for very little by Nashville and then being used primarily as a reliever by Indianapolis.

When Indy let him walk after Season 2, the Mets jumped at the chance to sign him and he rewarded them with back-to-back Cy Young seasons. Wainhouse went 48-12 with a 2.96 ERA in 552 innings in Seasons 3 and 4. He's also been an excellent postseason pitcher, going 7-4 with a 2.78 ERA in 97 innings.

2. Vic Alfonzo has never won a Cy Young award and he's only made two All-Star teams, but that's partly because his teams have occassionally struggled to help him win games. The past two seasons, he's only gone 29-23 despite posting a 2.79 ERA in 490 innings.

For his career, Alfonzo is 82-44 with a 2.97 ERA in 1,202 innings. His 2.66 ERA in 254 innings in Season 5 was one of the best performances in Gleeman World history even though he still managed to lose 13 games somehow. Alfonzo's been just as good in the postseason, going 8-3 with a 3.03 ERA in 101 innings to help Milwaukee reach the World Series twice.

1. Don Masato is the complete package. A dominant pitcher, he has the stamina and durability to be a workhorse and he's been healthy enough to throw at least 240 innings every season. A two-time Cy Young winning and four-time All-Star, Masato is 109-32 with a 3.09 ERA in 1,275 innings. And although he doesn't have to face a DH in the NL, he has played in a home park that favors hitters.

Masato has three 20-win seasons and he's never won fewer than 18 games, and he's only posted an ERA above 3.25 once. He went 19-8 with a 2.48 ERA in 240 innings to earn the Cy Young in Season 1, and he was 25-3 with a 2.91 ERA in 256 innings to barely win his second in Season 5. Masato hasn't been quite as good in the postseason, going 7-7 with a 3.86 ERA in 142 innings. He did do his best to give Chicago a championship in Season 2, when he was 4-1 with a 2.47 ERA in 54 innings in the playoffs.

World Series recap: Fatboys repeat

The American League continued its dominance in the World Series with the Minnesota Fatboys defending their title by taking care of the Milwaukee Twindyans in five games.

Center fielder Nigel Whang was named World Series MVP after going 7 for 18 with four doubles, a triple, a home run, six walks, three steals, eight runs scored and two RBIs.

Whang got things going right away for the Fatboys, leading the series off with a single that sparked a three-run opening inning. Darwin Stocker added two solo homers and AL Rookie of the Year Jumbo Rijo added another solo shot in Minnesota's 6-3 win.

Starting pitcher Cliff Becker allowed Milwaukee to cut the lead to 4-2 in the fourth and 5-3 in the seventh, but Kevin Zhou and Joey Ward pitched 2 1/3 scoreless innings to close it out.

Minnesota then romped in Game 2 to take a 2-0 lead back to the Twin Cities. The Fatboys pounded out 17 hits, including homers from Whang, Rijo and Trey Fonville, in a 13-3 victory.

The only thing going in Milwaukee's favor after the first two games was that NL Cy Young runner-up Vic Alfonzo was taking the ball for Game 3. Unfortunately, when the Twindyans needed their ace to be lights-out, he was simply decent. Alfonzo allowed three runs in six innings and left the game trailing 3-2.

Milwaukee then tied the game in the ninth inning when Neil Byrne took Ward deep and went ahead 4-3 in the 10th on a Hector Santos home run.

But Mac Bell couldn't close the door for Milwaukee. He got the first out before yielding a double and a walk, then recorded the second out on a strikeout. Fonville followed with a walk-off three-run homer down the left-field line to give Minnesota a 6-4 win and a 3-0 series lead.

Milwaukee avoided an embarrassing sweep with a 15-6 laugher in Game 4, but the Fatboys closed it out with a 6-3 win in Game 5.

The Twindyans took an early 3-0 lead after two innings, but Becker settled down for Minnesota and didn't allow anything else through the seventh. The Fatboys got one run back in the fifth, then exploded for five runs in the sixth, including a grand slam from David Cora. Zhou, who didn't allow a baserunner in 5 1/3 innings in the series, pitched the final two innings to close out the victory and the World Series.