2015 Regular Season SIM 23 Complete - Next SIM Sat 03/05

[BradZ]

Next SIM: Sat 03/05

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Stat of the Day!
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DFA: BAL
Roster:
Single A Age:
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- Watch your DFA/Roster/Single A please!

[Z]

Thanks, Brad!

Our AAA club won the championship. Sorry, Mike! Some of these winners will join the Guides this sim.

Tino Suarez is a Guide again! Sort of. He joins single-A Barre as pitching coach.

We're shutting down Ignacio Alvarez and Dave Toste for the season, effective immediately.

[Hank]

Thanks Brad!

Congrats on the AAA crown Z!

Matt, would you stop it already! Your damn scrappy team refuses to lay down!

[mike]

11-1 in September.

The one loss dropped us from 8.0 GB to 9.0 GB.

[bparks1987]

Sorry I've been quiet fellas been away at work for a while.

Can't begin to say how pleased we are as an organization in Wilmington right now. We've had some ups and downs, injuries have hurt us. But we've managed to hold onto a nice cushion in the Stout.

One of things we really tried to improve on last offseason was the pen. And man Ian Berg has been nothing short of spectacular for us. We originally signed him to be a setup guy for Charles, but after some thought decided to let Charles get his feet wet before throwing him into the high pressure situations. Berg has posted a 1.64 ERA with 36 saves while Charles has a nice 2.40 ERA in the setup spot. I credit a lot of our success this year to those guys holding the pen down.

Also really good to see Norm Deiwert come around. Hitting .276 this year with 31 hrs. Nice to see that power potential start to have some affect on the field.

Still some games left to play but overall feeling really good about this team moving forward.

[liquidcrash]

A surprisingly good week for the Bats, headlined by a 4 game sweep in Philadelphia. Unfortunately we lost 2/3 in Death Valley, but I'll gladly take a 5-2 week on the road against those two. We've got a one game lead for a wild card spot.

Against Death Valley, Al Moon threw a complete game on only 80 pitches. Efficient work.

[BradZ]

A surprisingly good week for the Bats, headlined by a 4 game sweep in Philadelphia. Unfortunately we lost 2/3 in Death Valley, but I'll gladly take a 5-2 week on the road against those two. We've got a one game lead for a wild card spot.

Against Death Valley, Al Moon threw a complete game on only 80 pitches. Efficient work.

That 4 game sweep of us in our house feels like a killshot. We just can not get out of our own way and build any sort of positive momentum.

Positive note: Pat Evans notches win #20.

[Carlos]

Manley came back from AAA and threw some good innings out of the pen.

The entire farm did great. Each affiliate won their division and reached the playoffs. Unfortunately, once again, they all fell short in the post season.

Tom Reed will be part of the AAA Tucson Toros next season. Maybe in the BLB in two years.

Santos hit extremely well in AA and will of course see AAA action next year. He should be ready soon enough. Challenge is finding a spot for him. He's not an exceptional fielder and injuries make me cautious with him. But with Banuelos patrolling first and my modest expectations for Lee, I might be forced a bit. If Lee somehow goes above expectations then I could broach the subject of possibly trading Banuelos. But not while he's my best player.

Decisions to be made in A ball. Collazo destroyed A ball but we have Evans and my personal favorite Posada in AA so I'm hesitant to block one of those two. I'd like to give Cox more reps but perhaps next season will play out well on its own if each player shows vast improvement.

Looking forward to seeing what some of my undrafted A ball hitters do next season. A few might force my hand. Luckily I still have 1-2 seasons to make an age mandated promotion.

[Hank]

Manley came back from AAA and threw some good innings out of the pen.

The entire farm did great. Each affiliate won their division and reached the playoffs. Unfortunately, once again, they all fell short in the post season.

Tom Reed will be part of the AAA Tucson Toros next season. Maybe in the BLB in two years.

Santos hit extremely well in AA and will of course see AAA action next year. He should be ready soon enough. Challenge is finding a spot for him. He's not an exceptional fielder and injuries make me cautious with him. But with Banuelos patrolling first and my modest expectations for Lee, I might be forced a bit. If Lee somehow goes above expectations then I could broach the subject of possibly trading Banuelos. But not while he's my best player.

Decisions to be made in A ball. Collazo destroyed A ball but we have Evans and my personal favorite Posada in AA so I'm hesitant to block one of those two. I'd like to give Cox more reps but perhaps next season will play out well on its own if each player shows vast improvement.

Looking forward to seeing what some of my undrafted A ball hitters do next season. A few might force my hand. Luckily I still have 1-2 seasons to make an age mandated promotion.

Are there any long-term negatives to keeping young guys in A or AA for long periods of time (2 to 3+ seasons?).

My catcher, J.D. Gadzinski, has really struggled at A and AA. My scout really likes him and he's even rated as the 82nd best prospect, yet his stats certainly don't show it.

I wonder if I shouldn't have moved him up to AA so soon.
I was told to try that for other struggling young kids and it usually works. Some kid who's floundering in his 3rd season of A ball suddenly sees a spike in his stats when getting the call to AA, even though he didn't look like he was ready.

Is there logic built into the software that can hurt (or help) some prospects by keeping them at the same level for too long?

[liquidcrash]

That 4 game sweep of us in our house feels like a killshot. We just can not get out of our own way and build any sort of positive momentum.

Positive note: Pat Evans notches win #20.

You're still right there in the race. I'm sure the wheels will fall off in Washington any moment.

Our top performers for the week were Rich Pena, Todd Boyce and Kunihiro Inouye. I'm not sure that's the receipe for success in our stretch run. But, it's about all I've got right now.

[Ryan]

A very timely 7-0 sim allows us to keep our distance from a #White-Hot Pittsburgh club.

[Matt]

Thanks Brad!

Congrats on the AAA crown Z!

Matt, would you stop it already! Your damn scrappy team refuses to lay down!

Our scrappy team should be on top this darn division. 5-13 vs Morgantown and a league worse -6 PYT while you're +5! Just not our year.

[Z]

Sonny Marshburn might just play forever.

[umd]

5-2 with a split of WAS. Tough week coming up but every starter has an ERA under 4.00 and we have four hitters with the potential for 100 RBI seasons. Not a bad regular season.

[Carlos]

Are there any long-term negatives to keeping young guys in A or AA for long periods of time (2 to 3+ seasons?).

My catcher, J.D. Gadzinski, has really struggled at A and AA. My scout really likes him and he's even rated as the 82nd best prospect, yet his stats certainly don't show it.

I wonder if I shouldn't have moved him up to AA so soon.
I was told to try that for other struggling young kids and it usually works. Some kid who's floundering in his 3rd season of A ball suddenly sees a spike in his stats when getting the call to AA, even though he didn't look like he was ready.

Is there logic built into the software that can hurt (or help) some prospects by keeping them at the same level for too long?

Short answer: it depends.

If there's a formula to when you should absolutely promote someone, that person is either a cheating commissioner or Captain Nes the Game Master.

Some guys will struggle with quick promotions. Some won't. Some guys need a kick in the ass, some don't like it at all.

Ratings and stats seem to be the best indicator but you have to kind of have your own strategy and opinion and run with it.

I agree with those that say you shouldn't bounce guys back-and-forth. It seems to stunt development. I only do it with guys I consider backups for my minor league system or if a player is absolutely struggling to the point that a demotion is better than their lost confidence.

But I'm also of the opinion that struggles are okay. I tend to find that my guys struggle in their first year of promotion and then right themselves in the second half or following season.

Tristan Carter (AAA), Pat Webb (AA), Bob Perkins (AA), Jimmy Lockard (AA), Dave Lehrman (AA) are examples of those types of players in my system. They all struggled in the first two months at a higher level and then slowly started picking it up. Sometimes depending on the player, I won't just look at their average, I'll look at their power, their base on balls, performance on the defensive side, as signs that they are getting comfortable.

It's a similar situation with Lee in my BLB roster. He's not going to hit for a high average so I'm mostly concerned with his power. In June, he had none of it. Yes, he hit 4 home runs, but there were no walks, too much swinging and missing and he probably was more lucky because of his strength than feeling comfortable. But then it seems he kind of held back in July. Made an effort to hit for average which was nice. August and September seem to be showing some combination of both. There's raw power there, more patience at the plate (not a lot but more) and what seems like a higher comfort level.

Griffith, on the other hand, is an absolute mess and I'm hesitant to call his September a sign because it's too high a jump. All it tells me is that he's probably facing more recently promoted AAA guys and he had already proven he could hit those guys. But I think he needs to face the higher competition because he had nothing left to prove in AAA. He's either a AAAA guy or he'll figure it out.

I say all this because that's just my strategy. That's how I approach it. I think the best idea is to see what the poor hitters do with your decisions (since they are the least likely to hurt you if things fail) and figure out what works for you. And stick with it. Understand there's no perfect solution. Some guys will respond, some won't.

Often times, you're not at fault.

Unless you promote your failed first overall pick to the BLB club days after the draft or keep a pitcher in AAA for ten years to pick up some control ratings he won't get. Then it's your fault.


re: Gadzinski. I think he was too young to be promoted to AA. Especially with those stats in A ball. I find that a lot of the high school drafted guys need several years in A ball. After that, they might fly through AA and AAA, but remember that they are likely facing a lot of 22-year-old former college players. Gadzinski barely has a chance.

Though not at the projected level of your catcher, Napieralski is one of my examples of a guy I'm holding back for as long as it takes. Every season he shows improvement. Every season he gets a little better as a short stop.