Sierra Nevada Goldens Enter Final Month with Playoff Aspirations and Copper Division Title Within Reach After Wild Month of August

The month of August started out very humbling for the Sierra Nevada franchise as they entered the month in a 1st place deadlock with the SoCal Knights. Sierra Nevada had stood alone in 1st from April 24, 2090 until July 30th when SoCal joined them atop the Copper Division and shared the division lead at month’s end. Two weeks into August, the Goldens suddenly found themselves 4 games behind the Knights as management wondered if the storm was ever going to subside. The swoon began on July 22nd when Sierra Nevada lost the final two home games against the feisty Washington Crossing Generals and it carried on against the Zinc Division leading, San Jose Scorpions as the Goldens lost 6 of the final 9 games of July. August started out even worse as the Montreal Sunsets & Dayton Dragons, the top dogs in the Iron Division, battered Goldens’ pitching winning 10 of 14 and outscoring them 92-74. The bad stretch included a 7 game losing streak and losses in 9 of 10. For that 3-week stretch, the clouds over Sierra Nevada were extremely ominous and management was feeling perplexed as a run into the playoffs that had once appeared to be a sure thing had now become questionable.

Fortunes soon changed for the Goldens when the skies parted as the Goldens looked up at the 1st place SoCal Knights, suddenly 3-Games back following the thrashing by the Dayton Dragons. After losing the series opener at the Meridian Trojans, the Goldens went on a roll by winning 5 of the next 6 versus Meridian and by piling up a 7-Game sweep of the cellar dwelling Southtown Misers. The stretch included a 9-Game win streak and the Goldens won 12 of the final 13 games of August and it launched them back into 1st, a game up on the 2nd place SoCal Knights! The bats had reawakened and the pitching gelled again as the Goldens outscored Meridian and Southtown 102-39!

The down-and-up month pointed out a couple of interesting facts for Sierra Nevada. It has become clear that the Goldens struggle against teams .500 and above while they demolish teams below .500. As of the end of August, the Goldens are 54-16 (.771) against teams with losing records, while they are 32-38 (.457) against teams .500 and above. The Goldens also handle their business quite well at home as they are 49-21 (.700) in the comfortable setting of Great American Ballpark, but they are also respectable on the road with a winning record of 37-33 (.529). The facts stated above suggest the importance of the Goldens winning the Copper Division crown. It appears clear that the 2nd place finisher of the Iron Division will be the top wild-card entry, either Montreal (96-44) or Dayton (93-47), while the 2nd place finisher of the Copper Division, either Sierra Nevada (86-54) or SoCal (85-55), will be the 2nd wild-card entry. The Goldens’ World Series dreams could rest on avoiding a wild-card matchup against Montreal or Dayton since they were (2-5) against each opponent and a division crown would secure a 1st round bye.

The other observation for the Goldens is that the starting pitching is less than dominating, especially against top clubs. Meanwhile, the bullpen has been especially solid all season long and it appears that Sierra Nevada has some advantages as the game reaches the final innings. Starters Josh Beckett, Gil Meche, Scott Feldman, Mark Buehrle, Jeff Karstens, Jamie Moyer, & Kyle Kendrick have combined for a record of 56-42 while the bullpen has a combined record of 30-12. The early season trade of Scott Feldman to the Plainsfield Hitmen for veteran lefty starter Jamie Moyer hasn’t exactly panned out as he is only 5-5 with a 6.00 era since the trade. Since the starting rotation is a little soft, management acquired some more relief pitching as the Goldens try and shorten games and leave it up to the bullpen. Taylor Buchholz was acquired from the Meridian Trojans and comes to the Goldens with a 6-1 record and a miniscule 1.45 ERA. He will fit in nicely with the other bullpen arms who are having outstanding years. Closer Brian Fuentes is 2-4 with a 1.34 ERA and 30 Saves, Jared Burton is 5-0 with a 1.88 ERA, & Carlos Marmol is 7-1 with a 2.23 ERA and 7 Saves. Heath Bell has been formidable versus lefty hitters, holding them to a .228 BA.

All in all, the success of the Goldens this fall will lie at the feet of the big boppers throughout the Sierra Nevada lineup. The quartet of Adam Dunn (.243, 40 HR, 87 RBI), Jason Giambi (.271, 40 HR, 105 RBI), Jermaine Dye (.321, 38 HR, 36 2B, 110 RBI), & Dan Uggla (.301, 38 HR, 82 RBI) have been devastating and have been terrorizing opponent’s pitching, especially at Great American Ballpark. Mike Lowell missed time in the opening two months of the season, but he too has enhanced the power numbers with his (.305, 15 HR, 21 2B, 47 RBI) in 84 games. As a team, the Goldens have walloped a league leading 260 HR’s. The home park has assisted in these numbers, but the pitching staff has managed to hold its own while limiting the opposition to 146 HR’s. Sierra Nevada ranks 6th in team batting average at .284, and ranks 7th in team ERA at 4.27.

The month of September will start off with a bang as Sierra Nevada and SoCal square off for 8 games as they try and gain superiority over one another, separated by only a game going in. Both figure to beat up on the other two division rivals Phoenix Phoenix (57-83) and Duluth-Superior Dukes (53-87), but anything can happen when September call-ups come into play in the final month and while managers are resting overused players. It will be a true test for the Goldens to see if they can continue their torrid power numbers against a tough SoCal pitching staff (3.61 Team ERA) while continuing to lean on Fuentes, Marmol, & Buccholz to close out games. The x-factor will be whether Beckett, Buehrle, and Meche, & Moyer can keep the Goldens in games during the early innings.

The Silver League playoff spots seem set, unless the Cream City Pirates (78-62) make a last minute surge. With the San Jose Scorpions (97-43) about to clinch the Zinc Division and either Montreal or Dayton winning the Iron, Sierra Nevada and SoCal will be fighting for that Copper Division title as they desperately fight for the 1st round bye and avoid the mighty Sunsets and Dragons.

Goldens Spot Pirates 9-Run Lead and Complete Comeback with Slam in Bottom of the 9th

The Sierra Nevada Goldens’ fans left Great American Ballpark in a raucous frenzy as they witnessed the greatest comeback of the Goldens’ season to date. After 4 ½ innings of play, the Goldens were waving the white flag as the red-hot Cream City Pirates jumped out to a 9-0 lead. Sierra’s Kyle Kendrick was completely ineffective giving up 8 hits, including 2 HR’s and 7 earned runs in only 1 1/3 innings of work. In the 2nd Inning, Kendrick gave up a 3-run bomb to B.J. Upton & a 2-run shot to All-Star hopeful Mark Teixeira leading the way to a 6-run inning, extending the early lead to 7-0. The Goldens’ Matt Albers held his own giving up 2 runs over 4 innings, but things looked hopeless as the Goldens came to bat in the bottom of the 5th staring at a monstrous 9-run deficit.

With 1-out in the bottom of the 5th, first baseman Jason Giambi ripped a single off Pirates starter Daniel Cabrera who had thrown up a string of zeros for the first 4 innings. Staring at an enormous mountain to climb, the Goldens’ manager elected to remove defensive shortstop Jack Wilson in an effort to offer some much needed rest for the duration of the blowout. The decision seemed to ignite the Goldens’ bench as switch-hitting replacement Aaron Miles stepped to the plate and laced another single to right moving Giambi to second base. The next batter was back-up catcher David Ross who was giving star catcher Yadier Molina a day off. Ross seized the moment and smashed a 3-run dinger, cutting the lead to 9-3. Adam Dunn and Jody Gerut promptly grounded out to end the inning, but the home town players seemed to gain a bounce in their steps.

While the Goldens’ bullpen went to work holding the Pirates scoreless in the sixth, seventh, and eighth innings, the Sierra Nevada bats continued to heat up. Dan Uggla blasted a solo shot in the 6th, cutting the lead to 9-4. In the bottom of the 7th, consecutive 2-out singles by Adam Dunn, Jody Gerut, & Jermaine Dye plated another run off starter Daniel Cabrera giving way to reliever Russ Springer. With two runners on and now trailing 9-5, star second baseman Dan Uggla hit his 2nd homerun in as many innings (his 28th of the season), this time a 3-run cruise missile cutting the lead to 9-8!

The Goldens nearly tied the game at nine in the bottom of the 8th as Mike Lowell and Jason Giambi reached base to start the inning, however Miles, Ross, & Dunn stranded the tying run at 3rd base. After 2 shut-out innings of work from Sierra’s Heath Bell, Adrian Beltre seemed to deliver the death blow with a solo shot to lead off the 9th. Bell held the Pirates to the solo run and sent his team to bat with one last chance to complete the comeback staring at a 10-8 deficit.

After squashing the Goldens’ rally in the bottom of the 8th, the Pirates’ Yasuhiko Yabuta came out to start the 9th. Sierra’s Jody Gerut wasted no time as he smoked his 7th homer of the season and the stadium went crazy as the Goldens were once again within a run of catching the mighty Pirates! With the heart of the Goldens’ order due up, the stage was set for an amazing finish. Team MVP Jermaine Dye greeted Pirates closer Jose Valverde rudely as he ripped a double into the left field gap putting the tying run in scoring position. After homering in his previous 2 at-bats Dan Uggla worked a walk. The next batter, left fielder David Murphy was unable to move the runners over as he struck out. Next, the Sierra manager brought Yadier Molina off the bench to pinch hit and sure enough he singled to left fielder Upton. With Giambi on deck, the 3rd base coach elected to hold Dye at 3rd rather than test Upton’s strong arm. With the bases juiced and Giambi looking for his 24th homer of the season, Valverde toughened up and got him to line out causing no damage. With 2-out and the Goldens looking at the prospect of stranding the tying run at 3rd for the 2nd consecutive inning, Aaron Miles came to the plate with his chance to shine. Ironically, he was the one who entered the game for Wilson in the 5th when the game seemed completely of reach and most had all but given up hope. Miles was up to the task and Valverde challenged him with a heater down the heart of the plate, daring him to catch up to his 97 MPH gas. Miles delivered a mighty swing and sent the fastball soaring into the right field bleachers giving him a GRAND SLAM and his 1st tater of the season!!! Miles was mobbed at home plate and the fans were delirious in celebration of the Goldens’ 13-10 shocker of a win lifting their record to 60-35 overall and 37-12 at home. Heath Bell got credit for the win providing 3 solid innings to close out the game while Uggla and Miles accounted for 8 RBI’s in the final 3 innings while Dye got the other. It sure seems that the Goldens may quite possibly be a team of destiny this season as no game is ever out of reach.

Pirates......... 1 6 0 1 1 0 0 0 1 - 10 15 0
Goldens......... 0 0 0 0 3 1 4 0 5 - 13 16 0

ATTENDANCE- 48,475 DATE- Tuesday, July 15th 2090 TIME- Night WEATHER- Good
UMPIRES- Scott Higgins, Kerwin Danley, Angel Hernandez, Andrew Fletcher
T- 3:55
LEFT ON BASE- Pirates: 6 Goldens: 5
DOUBLE PLAYS- Pirates: 0 Goldens: 0
DOUBLES- B.Upton(22nd), B.Roberts(22nd), M.Teixeira(21st), J.Dye(24th)
HOME RUNS- B.Upton(4th), M.Teixeira(20th), A.Beltre(4th), S.Victorino(9th), J.Gerut(7th), D.Uggla-2(28th), A.Miles(1st), D.Ross(6th)
STOLEN BASES- B.Roberts(18th), D.Roberts(2nd)
WALKS- M.Teixeira, T.Hunter, D.Uggla
HIT BY PITCH- J.Giambi
STRIKE OUTS- B.Upton, A.Huff, J.Hardy, S.Victorino-2, A.Pierzynski, D.Murphy, J.Giambi
WILD PITCHES- D.Cabrera

Walk-Off by Adam Dunn in the Bottom of the 9th Stuns Gems and Preserves Series Win for Goldens!

Adam Dunn proved to be the hero in the rubber match of the Diamond Gems annual visit to the Great American Ballpark of the Sierra Nevada Goldens. Dunn completely spoiled the sensational start of Adam Wainright in one thunderous crack of the bat. The home fans went into a frenzy as Dunn lofted a LONG blast into the night air as the ball splashed into the Ohio River once again off the bat of Adam Dunn. This time it was after a heated pitchers duel between the Gems' Adam Wainright and the Goldens' Mark Buehrle in a potential World Series match-up.

The Gems, a Platinum Division leading (40-16) entering the series squared off against the hosting Sierra Nevada Goldens with a Copper Division leading (44-19) record. The defending BRASS champion Gems showed who was boss in the first game of the series in a blowout of the Goldens defeating the staff ace Josh Beckett. He was lit up spoiling his early (9-1) record in a blowout 13-4 loss. Uncharacteristically, Beckett was scorched like never before this season as he gave up 7 earned runs in 5 2/3 innings giving up 6 walks. The Diamond’s John Danks was up to the task earning the win bringing his record to (8-2) while pitching a strong 7 innings with the run support of star 3rd basemen Alex Rodriguez who broke open the game in the 6th with a 1-run double and finished the game off with a 2-run bomb in the 9th.

The 2nd game of the series featured a pitchers duel between the Gems’ Ervin Santana who was (10-1) entering the game against the Goldens staff work –horse, Gil Meche, who entered the game with a respectable (7-4) record. Each starter gave up five hits in a solid 7 innings of work, but the damage was done n the bottom of the 3rd as the Goldens’ Josh Anderson and Dan Uggla launched back-to-back jacks en route to a Goldens 3-1 victory. Brian Fuentes finished off the game with his 18th save in 1 1/3 innings of work.

In the finale, the Gems’ Adam Wainright went toe-to-toe with the Goldens’ Mark Buehrle. Today, Wainright stole the show allowing only 1 hit in 7 innings of baseball. He allowed 2 walks and struck out 5, and allowed only one hit as the Goldens’ squad was held scoreless through his 7 innings of work. The Gems staked Wainright to a 1-0 lead in the top of the 5th as Franklin Gutierrez singled in Geovani Soto for the 1st run of the game. The game got dicey for Wainright in the rubber match of the series as he beaned Mike Lowell with 2-out in the 6th. On the next pitch, Jason Giambi doubled off the wall, but the Goldens’ 3rd base coach elected to hold Lowell at 3rd. Wainright’s manager Vaughn Nuest then decided next to intentionally walk CF Josh Anderson to load the bases for slugger Dan Uggla who whiffed after hitting the game winner the day before. Wainright and Vaughn were out of the jam.

Giambi’s double proved to be the only Goldens hit of the night until there were 2 quick outs in the 9th. The Gems’ J.J. Putz came in to save the game for Adam Wainright and quickly struck out the Goldens’ Jason Giambi and Josh Anderson on 6 pitches. After mustering only 1 hit all day, the Goldens got the glimmer of hope they were looking for with 2 down in the 9th. Putz glared in at the Goldens’ Dan Uggla who is among the league leaders in home runs with 22 and plunked him right in the ribs. Uggla refused to even acknowledge any pain and ran to first as big Adam Dunn entered the batters box with the game on the line. On the first pitch, Adam Dunn launched a missile into the Ohio River giving the Goldens the rubber-match victory on only their 2nd hit of the night in a 2-1 walk-off win. The entire Goldens team bounced around home plate as the Goldens improved their record to (46-20) as they won another series.

While Wainright allowed only 1-hit in 7 innings, the Goldens’ Mark Buehrle manned up and pitched 8 1/3 while giving up only 1 run and striking out 7 Gems. Carlos Marmol (7-1) pitched 2/3 IP for the win in support of Dunn’s dramatics. Adam Dunn now has 26 HR’s on the season with 52 RBI’s in 76 games, on pace for 54 HR’s this season, a serious candidate for at least an All-Star bid and possibly MVP. Tonight the thunderous bat of Adam Dunn preserved the win for the Goldens, and we will have to wait till October to see if he can bring a BRASS World Series crown to Sierra Nevada.

Gems............ 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 - 1 6 1
Goldens......... 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 - 2 2 0

Gems (41-18) IP H R ER BB SO HR PC ERA SCORESHEET
A.Wainwright 7 1 0 0 2 5 0 93 4.93 A1 C6
B.Ziegler HOLD(8th) 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 11 2.05 C7 C9
J.Putz LOSS(0-1) BS(1st) 0 2/3 1 2 2 0 2 1 12 2.45 D1
[1]Totals 8 2/3 2 2 2 2 7 1

Goldens (51-22) IP H R ER BB SO HR PC ERA SCORESHEET
M.Buehrle 8 1/3 6 1 1 0 7 0 113 3.89 A1 D2
C.Marmol WIN(7-1) 0 2/3 0 0 0 1 1 0 11 2.32 D3
Totals 9 6 1 1 1 8 0

ATTENDANCE- 16,934 DATE- Wednesday, June 11th 2090 TIME- Day WEATHER- Bad
UMPIRES- Mark Hirschbeck, Wally Bell, Brian O'Nora, Dan Iassogna
T- 2:12
LEFT ON BASE- Gems: 4 Goldens: 3
DOUBLE PLAYS- Gems: 2 Goldens: 0
ERRORS- H.Ramirez
DOUBLES- J.Giambi(18th)
HOME RUNS- A.Dunn(25th)
STOLEN BASES- H.Ramirez(24th)
CAUGHT STEALING- A.Rodriguez, F.Gutierrez
WALKS- M.Reynolds, J.Anderson, A.Dunn
HIT BY PITCH- D.Uggla, M.Lowell
STRIKE OUTS- I.Suzuki, H.Ramirez-2, A.Soriano-2, M.Reynolds-2, P.Fielder,
J.Giambi-2, J.Anderson-2, D.Uggla-2, A.DunnGIDP- D.Murphy, M.Lowell

Sierra Nevada Goldens Jump Out to Quick Start; Make Deal to Solidify Rotation

The Sierra Nevada Goldens have experienced a very promising start to the 2090 BRASS season, as they have their best record at any time during their young 1+ year franchise history. They finished the May Schedule 22 Games over .500 with a 39-17 record having held at least a tie for 1st place since April 15th and currently have a 5 game edge over the rival SoCal Knights. The hometown fans have been treated to exciting games at home while watching their club win 75% of their games at Great American Ballpark, good enough for a tie with Meridian Trojans for the 2nd best home record in the BRASS league behind the Plainsfield Hitmen. The long ball has been the name of the game for the Goldens as balls have been dumping into the Ohio River off the bat of early Silver League MVP candidate, Adam Dunn, who has 19 dingers trailing only Washington Crossing’s Ryan Braun who has 21 of his own in the early going. The Goldens home run total thus far is staggering as they have already launched 101 bombs, which are 18 more than the Meridian Trojans! The home park obviously has a lot to do with this as they have hit 66 homers at home and 35 on the road, but opposing teams have not taken advantage of the long ball at Great American as they have only hit 28 homers on the Goldens’ field. Dunn surely hasn’t been alone hitting bombs in the early going as Goldens players make up 3 of the top 5 league leaders in TOTAVG. Dan Uggla has jumped out of the gate 3rd in the league with a 1.177 TOTAVG followed by Dunn at 1.164, & Jason Giambi at 1.090. The Goldens have 4 players with double figure home run totals with Dunn at 19, Uggla with 15, Giambi with 13, & Jermaine Dye with 12. Dye is also 9th in BRASS with 121 total bases.

To compliment the power surge, the Goldens’ high-priced top of the rotation has been doing its job as well. Leading Silver League Cy Young candidate Josh Beckett has been dazzling with an 8-0 record in 11 starts with a 3.71 ERA. He’s been devastating to opponents striking out 73 and walking only 18 batters in 77 innings. Gil Meche is 7-3 with a 3.43 ERA as the staff workhorse, and Mark Buehrle is 9-2 with a 4.11 ERA. It will be interesting to see if these 3 starters can keep up the torrid pace and win 20 games apiece and try to keep their ERA’s under 4.00. Relief pitching has been solid as well with Brian Fuentes closing the door at the end of games having saved 14 contests in 15 opportunities with a 1.27 ERA, while Carlos Marmol has been keeping the 8th under control with a 5-1 record, 2.66 ERA, while picking up 4 saves of his own. Management has been pleasantly surprised with a staff ERA of 3.88 thus far.

While the Goldens have got off to a great start, the competition in the Silver League is fierce and the schedule should keep getting tougher as we enter the dog days. Five other teams in the Silver have a winning percentage of .607 or better and only 5 games separate the Silver League leader and missing the wild card altogether! Some areas of concern for the Goldens after the first two months are the team’s overall defense, the lack of a true lead-off hitter who can steal bases and maintain a high OBP, depth in center field, and the #4 & #5 starters. It would be nice if the Goldens could improve the platoon situation at shortstop of Edgar Renteria & Jack Wilson with a true everyday leadoff man, but the current state is tolerable. Left field is also a platoon with Jose Guillen, David Murphy, & Conor Jackson, but it is going to be hard to move either Guillen or Jackson due to poor performances in MLB 2009. The key to the team’s defense to this point has been All-Star candidate Yadier Molina behind the plate. With cat-like reflexes and cannon for an arm behind the plate opponents have stolen only 9 bases in 14 attempts! With the help of Buehrle, Meche, and Beckett holding on runners, the Goldens have been able to keep big innings by opponents to a minimum and have kept the double play ball in tact snuffing out rallies.

Following the month of May, the Goldens addressed the #4 starting pitcher slot and CF depth as a deal was consummated with the league leading Plainsfield Hitmen. The Goldens traded utility infielder Ramon Santiago, middle reliever Chad Bradford, and starting pitcher Scott Feldman for defensive center fielder Brian Anderson and starter Jamie Moyer. While Moyer was brought in to improve the #4 spot in the rotation, he could conceivably battle Beckett and Buehrle for the #2 & #3 spot as he comes to town with an 8-1 record and 3.10 ERA in 11 starts with his former club. The month of June will be fun to watch as Moyer makes his Goldens debut and 3B Mike Lowell makes his season debut after sitting out the 1st two months with an injury. The series to watch this month will be against the Platinum Division leading Diamond Gems who have a 40-16 record. The series figures to be home run derby as the venues will both be dinger friendly at Coors Field & Great American Ballpark.

Pitchers Hitting

If you open this up it is going to lead to stratball. The retro leagues I run, the pitchers have to bat in the 9th spot and they cannot PH unless it is for another pitcher and there are not any more hitters available. Yes, I know Larussa is sometimes batting a pitcher 8th, and over the years occasionally a pitcher has PH'd for a postion player, but 99.99% of the games in the last 30 years the pitcher bats 9th (in the NL games) and does not PH for a position player. Open this up and it will be abused.

On the topic, in my leagues that have the pitchers bat, because this is a pretty significant advantage to the manager actually playing the game instead of HAL managing the game, we have teams play their road games and turn on Home Field Advantage. This helps offset some of the advantage of making your pitching moves while you watch the game unfold.

My .02
Scott

Pitchers Hitting

We voted some time ago to abolish the DH after the upcoming season, but we never decided exactly how we would change the rules to implement this. There's a rule in our constitution which prohibits pitchers from batting; obviously that will have to be removed, but what will go in its place? I'd like to lay out the possibilities and get a discussion going, so that when the time comes to vote on something we can do so with informed opinions.

The first question is, will we allow pitchers to pinch-hit? The answer to this drives the rest of the discussion. The simplest course would be to say that pitchers cannot pinch hit, that they may only bat if they are in the game when their turn at the plate comes. With that rule, we wouldn't need any other limits on pitcher batting. (You could abuse the system to a slight extent by bringing in a good-hitting reliever with two out the inning before the pitcher's spot is due to bat, but I don't think there's a way to rule this out short of bending the game completely out of shape.)

On the other hand, the case for allowing pitchers to pinch hit is that we're playing National League rules, and in the NL pitchers can and do pinch-hit. Teams with good-hitting pitchers are, I'm sure, looking forward to taking advantage of them. (Full disclosure: Micah Owings is on my roster.) And there may not be a way of preventing the CM from pinch-hitting with a pitcher; I've never played a game on the computer without the DH rule, so I don't know how the CM functions under that condition.

If we do allow this, we absolutely need limits on the number of times each pitcher can bat; otherwise every pitcher with a #3 rating or better will be trotted off the bench 130 times a year. We can't base the limit on real-life at-bats; an American League starter will blow by his actual total his first month in a BRASS rotation. Maybe someone has another idea, but I see only two alternatives: a flat limit for any pitcher (say, 80 PA for starters, 15 for relievers) or a limit based on innings (perhaps 1/3 of a pitcher's IP; it would have to be at least that, or some starters might be forced to leave games late in the season because they were running out of PA's).

And this leads to something which might not have occured to everyone. Any reasonable limit rules will leave a team with some 200-odd available pitcher PA's more than are needed for the normal in-game situations where pitchers bat for themselves. A team with position-player shortages will be able to pinch-hit for position players with pitchers just to save at-bats for the position players. You may consider this a welcome addition to the toolbox or you may think it's an abuse, but it's something to keep in mind.

If you do consider it an abuse, you might want a rule which forbids pitchers to bat for position players, while still allowing them to hit for other pitchers.

I think that lays out the issues we need to consider. Now let's see some comments.

Dharma Strat-o-Matic

Fun piece in the NY Times today. Apparently Jack Kerouac was a big fantasy baseball fan. So big and so mysterious about it that even his closest friends like Allen Ginsberg and William Burroughs had no clue.

Kerouac created his own game with imaginary teams and players, collected their stats, analyzed their performance and even had contract disputes.

... Kerouac played an early version of the baseball game in his backyard in Lowell, Mass., hitting a marble with a nail, or possibly a toothpick, and noting where it landed. By 1946, when Kerouac was 24, he had devised a set of cards with precise verbal descriptions of various outcomes (“slow roller to ss,” for example), depending on the skill levels of the pitcher and batter. The game could be played using cards alone, but Mr. Gewirtz thinks that more often Kerouac determined the result of a pitch by tossing some sort of projectile at a diagramed chart on the wall. In 1956 he switched to a new set of cards, which used hieroglyphic symbols instead of descriptions. Carefully preserved inside plastic folders at the library, they now look as mysterious as runes.

Very cool. I made up my own game when I was a kid using simple die throws, too. For example, two 3s thrown in succession would result in a home run. I don't remember many of the other combos, but I do recall keeping copious stats. Interestingly enough, home run hitters like Hank Aaron tended to hit more in my game. Other player performances would be similar to real life.

To this day, since I was absent a calculator, I can add and subtract numbers in my head rapidly -- all because of the dice game.

I'll bet Kerouac would have been a hell of a Strat-o-Matic player.