Series #1 vs Boston

Muffin Men starting pitcher Mike Foltynewicz wanted to send a message early in game #2 following the opening day loss, where Boston put on a hitting clinic 9 hits in the first three innings capped by a Rhys Hoskins grand slam. He sent that message on his first pitch.

Brandon Nimmo was drilled with a fastball on the first pitch of the game. The message was clear. He was not being pushed around. Foltynewicz no-hit the Boston batters through 6 innings and established the inside of the plate belonged to him. He pounded his opponents inside, hitting two more, and kept them off balance.

The Boston bats were silenced for only three hits in the Muffins 4-1 victory bringing their record to (1-1).

Next up for the Muffin Men is the defending NL champion LA Dodgers.

Baseball is coming.

Happy 2019 to one and all.  I’m pleased to announce that SABLE Baseball is BACK!   Baseball is coming.

The old league members have stayed in touch and now is the time to get the gang back together and play some games.

I’ll have more information in the upcoming days.  I’m still waiting on a solid commitment or two.  Once that’s complete we will be good to go.

We will start out slow. While we learn the mechanics of the game and decide which teams to play with.   Once we have that we’ll officially begin and start keeping standings.

 

I look forward to playing with you all again.

 

PLAY BALL!

SABLE 2014 National League Schedule

Week 1	2/1/14	APRIL		DNN		Week 11	4/12/14	JUL		DNN
MIAMI	0 @ 3	WASH DC	A	a,b,c		MIAMI	@	WASH DC	N	d,a,b
ST LOUIS	@	ARIZONA	B	a,b,c		ST LOUIS	@	ARIZONA	O	d,a,b
CHICAGO	1 @ 2	ATLANTA	C	a,b,c		CHICAGO	@	ATLANTA	P	d,a,b
Week 2	2/8/14	APRIL		DNN		Week 12	4/19/14	JUL		NNN
CHICAGO	2 @ 1	WASH DC	D	a,b,c		CHICAGO	@	WASH DC	Q	d,a,b
MIAMI	1 @ 2	ST LOUIS	E	a,b,c		MIAMI	@	ST LOUIS	A	c,d,a
ATLANTA	3 @ 0	ARIZONA	F	a,b,c		ATLANTA	@	ARIZONA	B	c,d,a
Week 3	2/15/14	APRIL		NNN		Week 13	4/26/14	JUL		NND
ATLANTA	@	ST LOUIS	G	a,b,c		ATLANTA	@	ST LOUIS	C	c,d,a
ARIZONA	1 @ 2	WASH DC	H	a,b,c		ARIZONA	@	WASH DC	D	c,d,a
MIAMI	1 @ 2	CHICAGO	I	a,b,c		MIAMI	@	CHICAGO	E	c,d,a
Week 4	2/22/14	MAY		NND		Week 14	5/3/14	AUG		NNN
ARIZONA	@	MIAMI	J	a,b,c		ARIZONA	@	MIAMI	F	c,d,a
ST LOUIS	@	CHICAGO	K	a,b,c		ST LOUIS	@	CHICAGO	G	c,d,a
ATLANTA	@	WASH DC	L	a,b,c		ATLANTA	@	WASH DC	H	c,d,a
Week 5	3/1/14	MAY		NND		Week 15	5/10/14	AUG		NNN
WASH DC	@	ST LOUIS	M	a,b,c		WASH DC	@	ST LOUIS	I	c,d,a
CHICAGO	@	ARIZONA	N	a,b,c		CHICAGO	@	ARIZONA	J	c,d,a
ATLANTA	@	MIAMI	O	a,b,c		ATLANTA	@	MIAMI	K	c,d,a
Week 6	3/8/14	MAY		NND		Week 16	5/17/14	AUG		NNN
WASH DC	@	MIAMI	P	a,b,c		WASH DC	@	MIAMI	L	c,d,a
ARIZONA	@	ST LOUIS	Q	a,b,c		ARIZONA	@	ST LOUIS	M	c,d,a
ATLANTA	@	CHICAGO	A	d,a,b		ATLANTA	@	CHICAGO	N	c,d,a
Week 7	3/15/14	JUNE		NNN		Week 17	5/24/14	SEPT		NNN
WASH DC	@	CHICAGO	B	d,a,b		WASH DC	@	CHICAGO	O	c,d,a
ST LOUIS	@	MIAMI	C	d,a,b		ST LOUIS	@	MIAMI	P	c,d,a
ARIZONA	@	ATLANTA	D	d,a,b		ARIZONA	@	ATLANTA	Q	c,d,a
Week 8	3/22/14	JUNE		NNN		Week 18	5/31/14	SEPT		NNN
ST LOUIS	@	ATLANTA	E	d,a,b		ST LOUIS	@	ATLANTA	A	b,c,d
WASH DC	@	ARIZONA	F	d,a,b		WASH DC	@	ARIZONA	B	b,c,d
CHICAGO	@	MIAMI	G	d,a,b		CHICAGO	@	MIAMI	C	b,c,d
Week 9	3/29/14	JUNE		NND		Week 19	6/7/14	SEPT		NNN
MIAMI	@	ARIZONA	H	d,a,b		MIAMI	@	ARIZONA	D	b,c,d
CHICAGO	@	ST LOUIS	I	d,a,b		CHICAGO	@	ST LOUIS	E	b,c,d
WASH DC	@	ATLANTA	J	d,a,b		WASH DC	@	ATLANTA	F	b,c,d
Week 10	4/5/14	JULY		DDD		Week 20	6/14/14	OCT		NDD
ST LOUIS	@	WASH DC	K	d,a,b		ST LOUIS	@	WASH DC	G	b,c,d
ARIZONA	@	CHICAGO	L	d,a,b		ARIZONA	@	CHICAGO	H	b,c,d
MIAMI	@	ATLANTA	M	d,a,b		MIAMI	@	ATLANTA	I	b,c,d

If the season ended today…AL playoffs and NL draft

#1 Oakland vs # #4 Houston & #2 Boston vs #3 Baltimore

Draft

#1 Pick – Alvin

#2 Pick – Schindler

#3 Pick – Sherwood

 

There’s still 20 games to go in the season and plenty of room for maneuvering.

S.A.B.L.E. National League Standings 2014

		Wins		Loss		GB
Washington		8		4		–
Arizona		6		3		.5
Chicago		5		4		1.5
St Louis		2		1		1.5
Atlanta		3		6		3.5
Miami		3		9		5

AL Keeper Lists SABLE 2013

Anaheim Angels
RP Ogando Alexi
1B Ortiz David
2B Carroll Jamey
RF Bautista Jose
RF Zobrist Ben

Baltimore Orioles
SP Gonzalez Miguel
SP Lewis Colby
SP Chen wei-Yin
RP Strop Pedro
RP Johnson Steve
C Mauer Joe
1B Pujols Albert
3B Longoria Evan
RF Suzuki Ichiro

Houston Astros
RP Nathan Joe
RP Peralta Joel
C Pena Brayan
3B Dominguez Matt
3B Hannahan Jack
SS Gonzalez Marwin
CF Jackson Austin
CF Maxwell Justin
CF Span Denard

Oakland A’s
SP McCarthy Brandon
SP Griffin A.J.
SP Hunter Tommy
SP Blackley Travis
C Norris Derek
C Iannetta Chris
1B Encarnacion Edwin
3B Donaldson Josh
SS Peralta Jhonny
LF Cespedes Yoenis
LF Willingham Josh

Texas Rangers
SP Verlander Justin
SP Darvish Yu
SP Sale Chris
RP Ross Robbie
RP Kirkman Michael
C Wieters Matt
CF Hamilton Josh
RF Hunter Torii
RF Markakis Nick

New York Yankees
SP Pettitte Andy
RP Uehara Koji
RP Phelps David
RP Eppley Cody
1B Teixeira Mark
SS Jeter Derek
LF Gordon Alex
CF Trout Mike
CF Granderson Curtis

Chicago White Sox
SP Hellickson Jeremy
SP Holland Derek
RP Reed Addison
RP Pestano Vinnie
RP Santiago Hector
1B Fielder Prince
SS Escobar Alcides
RF Revere Ben

Seattle Mariners
SP Iwakuma Hisashi
SP Ramirez Erasmo
SP Hernandez Felix
RP Benoit Joaquin
2B Cano Robinson
3B Cabrera Miguel
3B Beltre Adrian
3B Keppinger Jeff

Boston Red Sox
SP Price David
SP Harrison Matt
RP Johnson Jim
RP Tazawa Junichi
RP Janssen Casey
C Santana Carlos
1B Gomez Mauro
3B Middlebrooks Will
3B Ciriaco Pedro
LF Podsednik Scott
RF Swisher Nick

Dom’s AL & NL KEEPER LISTS

My AL KEEPER LIST: BALTIMORE ORIOLES
#1. SP-Colby Lewis, TEX; #2. C-Joe Mauer, MIN; #3. 1B-Albert Pujols, ANA; #4. 3B-Evan Longoria, TB; #5. RF-Ichiro Suzuki, NYY.
-ROOKIES- P-Steve Johnson; P-Wei-Yin Chen; P-Miguel Gonzalez; P-Pedro Strop; 1B-Nick Johnson

My NL Keeper List: WASHINGTON NATIONALS
#1. P-Aroldis Champman, CIN; #2. P-Edwin Jackson, WAS; #3. SS-Jose Reyes, MIA; #4. LF-Matt Holiday, STL; #5. CF-Michael Bourne, ATL; #6 RF-Justin Upton, ARI.
-ROOKIES- P-Craig Stammen; C-Jhonathan Solano; 1B-Sandy Leon; 3B-Steve Lombardozzi; LF-Tyler Moore; and CF-Bryce Harper.

UPDATE: My response to Steve Gardner of USA Today (only two years late)

Recently Steve Gardner, USA Today’s fantasy baseball columnist, published a post on USA Today in which he drafted a fantasy baseball team to play in the SNBL, an online baseball simulation league.  In his article he listed his team and also asked “How would you arrange the batting order?”  Well, being an online baseball simulation player myself I’d like to answer that question here.

First off I am a big fan of Dynasty League  Baseball. I have played the board version since 1996 when I joined a 12 person tabletop baseball league, now in its 26th year called SABLE,  in central Massachusetts.  I also regularly play the online version vs human and AI controlled managers since 2011 and have won a few daily tournaments.  I enjoy the online game because it allows you to play against people from all over the United States and Canada, but there really isn’t anything like rolling the dice, finding the result, and imagining the game play out in your imagination.

As a side project each year when the Dynasty League Baseball game is published I like to create player reports.  These player reports I share with my SABLE friends and anyone who assisted in the process of creating them.  These reports break down a player card, list all the ratings for every player, and I also provide my own type of SABERMETRIC analysis. I did an analysis of Mr. Gardner’s Baltimore Orioles Team and created this Batter Report.  I will create a pitcher report for his team later this week.

I recently posted and article (https://sablebaseball.wordpress.com/2013/01/19/the-dom-carden-player-information-report-what-do-those-numbers-mean/) that explained the cOPS batter ratings.  If you are familiar to baseball statistics and OPS you should understand the concept behind the rating.  This is however just a game and there are no “stats” on a card to create real time batting average, slugging percentages, etc; although that is a very fun part of playing the game in  a league.

So in using the cOPS analysis I have determined that this is the lineup that Steve Gardner of USA Today should use in the SNBL.

First the starters by position vs RHP

C- Matt Wieters – I actually prefer Greg Zaun as the every day catcher but he has a limited use vs right handed pitching.

1b – Joey Votto

2b – Dustin Pedroia

ss – Jhonny Peralta – I chose Peralta because he has a higher WCOPR and error rating than Escobar that is greater than the difference in Range dropoff from C+ to C.

3b – Adrian Beltre

lf- Chris Coghlan

cf – Adam Jones

rf – Ichiro Suzuki

dh – Russell Branyan – if using DH

Now the batting order.

1st – Ichiro Suzuki

2nd – Dustin Pedroia

3rd – Joey Votto

4th – Adrian Beltre

5th – Russell Branyan

6th – Jhonny Peralta

7th – Adam Jones

8th – Matt Wieters

9th – Chris Coghlan

My personal opinion of this lineup.  I would actually have liked Ichiro to bat 2nd, Pedroia, Votto, and Beltre 3,4,5 but this team doesn’t really have a “lead off ”  hitter.  Its only once a game he’ll lead off an inning and after that Ichiro has a very good card for advancing runners, driving in runners from the bottom of the lineup, or beating out a possible double play, which actually helps the team because then Ichiro becomes an upgrade to any other baserunner on the roster.

On the positive side this team has overall good defensive ratings and very good error ratings so the team shouldn’t need to get any extra outs in the field.  Offensively you have a mix of baserunning, power, and the ability to drive in a runner from 1st at any time.  A runner on 1st base is in scoring position in this lineup.

One glaring defect is that his team is injury prone. I count 6 F durabilities including Pedroia and Coghlan who are starters.  If either of them go down you’re done for.  I mean Mark Derosa (D/5) is your backup 2b!  and all your OF replacements have C or worse range and +2 throwing arms.

Overall I think you did a good job!  Now go out and get ’em.

 

UPDATE: It wasn’t until after this post published that a discovered it was from 2 years ago.  Well don’t I feel stupid.  Anyways the mini project was fun and I’d love to analyze Steve again, 2012 team perhaps?  Everyone else you too can get a copy of my 2012 Player Reports to compare every card in the game.  Its only $15 and payable through paypal. Contact me for details.

New Format, New Teams, New Divisions

SABLE 2012 set is mixing it up a little bit. We’re going to 18 teams in two leagues. There will be an AL pool with 9 AL teams and a NL pool with 9 NL teams.
Alvin – Anaheim; St Louis
Dom – Baltimore; Washington
Kenny – Boston; Chicago
Lynn – Houston; Miami
Mark – Oakland; Philadelphia
Mike K – Chicago; Cincinnati
Mike M – Texas; San Diego
Mike S – Seattle; Atlanta
Sherwood – New York; Arizona

The AMERICAN LEAGUE Divisions are:
#1 Oakland, Baltimore, Texas
#2 Seattle, Anaheim, New York
#3 Chicago, Boston, Houston

The NATIONAL LEAGUE Divisions are:
#1 Arizona, St Louis, San Diego
#2 Chicago, Miami, Cincinatti
#3 Washington, Atlanta, Philadelphia

Building you team:
Each team both AL & NL will submit a 6 man protected list AND any rookies the team wishes to sign. It is the responsibility of the manager to determine rookie status. Remember rookie status means that a player did not have a card the previous Dynasty season and has a card in the current season. Any player not submitted on a keeper list will be entered into the draft. Both League Keeper Lists must be submitted at the same time.

Draft:
There will be two drafts, 1 AL draft and 1 NL draft. In 2013, the 2012 season set, the AL draft will be first. Folowing the draft will be the AL season. WHen the AL season & playoffs is complete the NL draft will be occur. The NL will then play its season. The order of season will switch each year. So next year the NL draft will occur first and the AL draft second.

Schedule:
Each team will play 2 series vs each opponent outside their division and 3 series within the division. There will be no interleague games. The AL will use the DH the NL will not and pitchers must bat.
Divisional series will be 4 game series. Series outside of your division will be 3 game series. You will play a total of 60 games.

Playoffs:
The three division winners in each league will make the playoffs ranked #1, #2, #3. The two teams with the next best record will be Wild Cards ranked #4 & #5.
The first round of the playoffs will be a Best of 3 series- #5 @ #4 with all 3 games played at #4. Round 2 will be best of 5. 2-2-1 format Wild Card winner @ #1, #3 @ #2. The two 2nd round winners will play a best of 7 LCS 2-3-2 with the series opening at the park of the Highest remaining seed. The winner of the LCS will advance to the World Series and also be the manager for their league in the Dan Flynn Memorial All Star Game.

If both LCS have not been played, SABLE will hold its other League Draft and will play out the season.
If both LCS have been played, the two LCS winners will manage their league’s All STar Team.

ALL Star Game:
The All Star Game will take place after the completion of the 2nd LCS and must be played prior to the World Series since it determines home field advantage. The two World Series representatives will manage the All Star Game. The players will be chosen by voting after each regular season series. The players with the most votes by position will make the team as starters. The All Star managers will complete the remaining roster.

SABLE World Series:
Following the completion of the All Star Game the Sable World Series will begin. The format will be 2-3-2 with home field advantage belonging to the team that represents the league that won the Dan Flynn Memorial All Star Game. The Winner of the World Series will be declared League Champion.

Draft Order:
Draft order will be determined by record in the previous league with the non-playoff teams picking 1st-4th, the WC loser #5, the 2nd Round Loser wih worst record #6, the 2nd Round loser with the better record #7, the LCS loser #8, and LCS winner #9.

GOOD LUCK AND LETS HAVE A FUN YEAR!

The Dom Carden Player Information Report : What do those numbers mean?

A good question.  Here’s the answer.

FOR BATTERS:

You will notice ratings of WCOPS, COPSL, COPSR, vsLH, vsRH.  Well “vs” is the total number of hits (1b,2b,3b,hr) + walks + hbp results on a card in the range 0-499.  LH is vs Left Handed Pitching and RH is vs RHP.  So vsLH 175 means out of the 500 results on the left side of a batter card 175 of those the batter reaches base safely.

cOPS measure the offnsive productivity of a player card.  First you take the “vs” result then add to it the value of each hit (1-1b, 2-2b, 3-3b, 4-HR). Then subtract the walks & hbp and divide by possible results.  COPSL is vs Left Handed Pitching, COPSR is vs Right Handed Pitching.  WCOPS is the overall offensive value of the card weighted towards actual usage.  You will face more right handed pitching then left handed pitching so wCOPS is weighted a higher percentage towards the Right side.

COPS of .900+ is top notch.  These are your run producers.  Bat these players 3-5 in your line-up.  If your batter has a low COPS but high vsLH or vsRH rating bat them 1-2. These players will get on base more often than others to be driven in by your higher COPS rated batters.

FOR PITCHERS

For pitchers vs LH and vs RH are basically the same as for batters.  It is all the 1b, 2b, and Walk results of a pitcher card added together.  The lower the number the better chance the picther has of making an out.

However just adding the numbers up doesn’t take into account infield range, outfield range, and deep drive results.  Don’t batter’s reach base from those as well?

The answer is yes they do.  So I introduced PvL, PvR, and PvB. PvL is vs Left Handed Batter, PvR is vs Right Handed Batters, PvB is the overall value of a pitcher card taking into account the # of lefthanded, right handed, and switch hitters in the game.

The “Pv” rating (Pitcher vs.) rating takes into account the number of range plays and deep drives and other situtational ratings like jam, on, off on a player card and calculates how many of those will result in a hit and how many will result in an out. The result is an amount rounded to the nearest whole number.

This number gives you a better idea of how many times on a pitcher card will the batter reach base safely.  The lower the number the more effective the pitcher.

A PvB rating below 100 is a top of the line starter an ACE.  100-120 is an effective starter.

For relief pitchers below 80 is lights out! 80-100 is solid. 100-120 is effective. 150+ mop up guy.

Keep in mind PvB is an overall rating.  In  a bullpen relief situation I prefer to use PvL and PvR  since I can prepare for the handedness of the upcoming batters.  The situation does allow for a pinch hitter but if the PvB rating good your fans may not second guess your decision.

HAPPY GAMING AND BEST OF LUCK IN YOUR LEAGUE!