IBC

I understand Larry Bestwick has been recommended as Bren's replacement. I believe he is a solid GM as evidenced by his participation in a few other leagues and I believe he understands that he will likely be moved after this season is completed.

I would be very comforatble with his replacing Bren ... he would be a solid fit who could hit the road running!

I'm basically comfortable with Larry. He's obviously a compotent GM. I would prefer Jared if we're picking a BCMBL guy, but John gave me the impression that Larry was more likely to be interested.

Jim, do you recall what happened with him before, why his stay was so short last time? That would probably be my greatest concern.

I think I remember but I would like to check to see if I have a few old e-mails to verify whether or not my recollection is correct ... more later.

My honest preference would to be find somebody completely new and competent instead of rehashing an old GM.

That said, I'm also 100% OK with bringing in Larry or Jared. We know what we would be getting. Also, we wouldn't have to explain things etc. and we know both would be active.

As for my preference between Larry or Jared, it's flip a coin to me. Both have their pluses and minus'. Larry is more hyper active but I know he has a bunch of sim leagues and sent an email to people about starting another one, so I'm not sure how much time he would be able to devote into one league.

Dunno if things have changed for Larry, but his pretty sure previous stay was marked by inactivity.

Is Jared the same one who is also a previous member?

Jared wound up quitting because of Bren in some capacity. He was pretty pompous for the most part, which rubs me the wrong way personally, but he's fine as a GM I think. I believe the AA rule refused one of his deals (or a couple for that matter), then he and Bren had a bitch fit and Jared was out.

I honestly can't remember anything about Larry's stint. He's constantly trading and making add/drops in BCMBL though, and pretty much has since I've been around there. I also don't know what ramifications him starting that league could cause.

Me neither. He's pretty hyperactive. As I said, I've no problem with either of them. We should probably figure out which one to contact in the next day or two.

I remember Larry from both MLBSL and PJBA I'm pretty sure. He just fell off the map at one point. He also tried to start his own league and failed miserably, again disappearing. If he's fine now, I'm okay with it.

I couldn't find the e-mails I thought I might have had. When I flat out asked Larry and he indicated that SIM took a back seat to a personal situation (divorce, child custody issue) for a while ... I certainly understand that and I don't hold it against him.

I just know him to be a solid, albeit sometimes aggressive but rarely abrasive, GM who is to be knowledgeable and interested.

If someone else gets chosen I won't lose any sleep but I do believe Larry would be a good addition.

I'm ready to ask him.

I'm still not sold on bringing on another guy who's in multiple leagues. I guess I don't see the push if we're talking about May 1 for bringing a guy in (viewtopic.php?t=1300).

I agree about the multiple leagues being a concern. The more dedicated to the IBC a GM we can get the better.

So I posted on the DMB forums and received a pair of replies so far as for a new GM. One I am still waiting to hear back from for his overall gauge of interest, but the following was what one guy sent to me on two separate emails:

I'm interested in the IBC opening you have. I'm new to DMB, just got the sim 2 weeks ago, along with the 2008 projection disk (and a couple of all-time disks, and the 1969 season). I'm new to PC baseball sims in general, though I'm a former Strat board game player, and a huge baseball fan. I'm also good with computers, so the learning curve has been quite small. A little about me, I'm 38, live in Swansea, IL, right across the river from St. Louis. I'm not a Cardinal fan though, been a Reds fan all my life (lived in Ohio during the Big Red Machine years). I'm married, work mostly from home, so I'd have some time to do head-to-head, especially during the daytime hours. Anyway, if you have any other questions, let me know.

Then I followed up and asked him how he looks to value players, minor league systems, etc. because being new to the software isn't what really is important:

I won't pretend to be any kind of expert on minor leaguers, I know the Reds top prospects, and the big-name prospects in other orgs, but I'm not any kind of expert. I would have to carefully research any potential trades involving prospects while I get up to speed. I can tell you as far as player value goes I tend to prefer younger players with upside over steady veterans. But realistically there would be a learning curve for me, but hopefully that won't be a deal breaker. Thanks.

I've already spoken to Brett about this, but Bren IM'ed me today. He told me last week he would IM me today. He said this:

brendilon: btw, count me back in

I told him that should he return, that he would NOT be on ExCo, the TRC or be involved in any simming duties. To which he replied,

brendilon: Yup
brendilon: I have no interest in taking on other responsibilities beyond the usual Gm
brendilon: Only having 8 weeks left to grad school will provide extra incentive to not get drawn into any long arguments.
brendilon: I simply don't have the time to be bickering about rules.

The last two sentences we can pretty much write off as bullshit. I told him that it's not my decision solely to either allow or disallow him back into the league, and that it would need to be discussed within the ExCo. Honestly I am not really sure how I feel about the whole thing. We pretty much knew when he resigned that he would try to claw his way back into the league somehow, so we gave the end-of April ultimatum which we actually accelerated anyway. Do we disallow the guy from joining his own league? He's a royal pain in the ass 95% of the time, but that's always been in a power role. I'm not sure if that would get better or worse being a "GM Only."

On one hand, I think it would be pretty dick to say no, sorry, you can't join. And I think Nils would cause a big stir about it as well and then the rest of the league would get all pissed off at us etc. He knows the rules and nothing would have to be explained or outlined to him.

On the other hand, would he be an asset or detriment to the league? Can we just keep him on a short leash and if he's too much of a douchebag say adios to him?

Actually, I think the rest of the league is going to be upset if we let him back in. I say poll the league.

Dodgers wrote:Actually, I think the rest of the league is going to be upset if we let him back in. I say poll the league.

I asked Zalaski what he thought (only one person) but he said he thinks we kind of have no choice so long as he is stripped of any power/duties. Obviously he is not representation of the league, but just one GMs thought anyway.

But I agree. I think the league should be polled.

If we poll the league, we need to be sure to disable individualized voting display. This is a little too personal to have everyone's votes just sitting out there.

Having said that, I think that a league poll is the right way to go.

Tigers wrote:If we poll the league, we need to be sure to disable individualized voting display. This is a little too personal to have everyone's votes just sitting out there.

Having said that, I think that a league poll is the right way to go.

Agreed on both counts here. Since Jim and Jake are likely in the same boat, and this is nothing official anyway, should we go ahead and poll the league or just wait for them to chime in anyway?

Has this been mentioned to the league and do you feel like Bren has officially requested to rejoin the league? I know that you and I talked briefly about this but I just want to make sure that I'm clear on it.

I've only mentioned it to Zalaski outside of you guys at this point.

And yeah, it's pretty crystal clear to me at least that he's officially requested to rejoin.

Absolutely poll the league.

I kinda like Aaron's idea, should we consider it?

I think Aaron's intentions are not exactly inline and I'm not going to force a team move on 2 GMs, especially if they brought it up and no longer want to.