Reds Replacement/ Nats-Reds + more swaps?

Cardinals · Post by **Cardinals** » Fri Jul 24, 2009 3:54 pm

Not that we need to rush to a decision on this by any means, just setting up a thread to discuss it. Levine has a friend that wants to join, and Anderson has two recommendations. Jagger will without a doubt besiege us with Mark Rowan advertisements.

As for Levine's guy, only one I can say that I know of the bunch at this point, I hate to say it but he's actually pretty good. I've met him a few times and am in fantasy leagues with him and he seems to know his stuff. No idea where he'd stand on minor league issues and such, once we start looking into candidates somebody else can email him and ask him questions and such.

Anyway, there's no reason to rush here, just wanted to get something setup so we can get a dialogue going and such and a list of guys that we'd be looking at.

Astros · Post by **Astros** » Fri Jul 24, 2009 3:57 pm

I've got a guy as well, he knows his stuff, has a BA subscription, has even said he's willing to be put on a waiting list to get into the leauge

Cardinals · Post by **Cardinals** » Sun Sep 06, 2009 5:38 pm

Alright, time to ge the tires kicking here too. Apparently, both Bren and Aaron have contacted Pat G. and he's considering a comeback. He has yet to contact me- as Aaron told him to with more questions if he had any- so I haven't personally talked to him. He would easily be my first choice above anybody else we could get since he's a pretty good GM and he knows the league anyway. I'd feel very comfortable giving the team to him as is which looks like that could have to happen since there's not much interest in a minidraft.

Also, I will add that Bren has expressed interest in moving to Washington after the season. Ken obviously would like to have Cinci and there's no reason to say no to that since he's a Reds fan plus, for what its worth, Nate requested that Ken be given the Reds franchise.

Astros · Post by **Astros** » Sun Sep 06, 2009 6:24 pm

I always took it for granted that we'd give Ken the Reds once Nate was gone.

As for the Pat G stuff, Bren added him on facebook and basically said hey you should come back. Pat imed me on facebook one night as I was going to bed so we swapped some emails, but he hasn't replied to me in 4 or 5 days and and I told him email JP in my last email to him and he hasn't. I've seen him on facebook chat since I last talked to him so I know he's bound to have read the email. While it'd be great to have Pat back, I think this is more of a curiosity to see what the IBC has become since he left as opposed to a real desire to get back in the league, but that's just my gut feeling on the issue. I personally think we should look at getting some new blood in here, instead of looking to bring back old guys again

Padres · Post by **Padres** » Sun Sep 06, 2009 6:43 pm

I am okay with Ken moving - but not in a vaccum. [In this particular situation I am sure Ken will end up being successful ...] We should go through the exercise of indicating that due to the vacancy in Cinci moves will be considered and granted consistent with the IBC's stated guidelines. (For example, I could not move again even if I wanted to.) FWIW - I am not opposed to Bren moving to Washington but it should not happen until everyone who might be intereted in moving to washington has the opportunity and the opportunity to state his case. We may have a closet Nats fan among us

Don't know Pat G or his history with the IBC ... anyone want to give me the Cliff notes version ...

Cardinals · Post by **Cardinals** » Wed Sep 16, 2009 8:23 pm

I've not heard a thing from Pat so I think it's safe to write him off. We should probably begin searching for potential GM's, and/or bringing forward people anybody may have in mind.

Dodgers · Post by **Dodgers** » Thu Sep 17, 2009 5:58 pm

I can tell you now I don't have a single person to consider. Sorry boys, but this one's going to have to fall to one of you.

Astros · Post by **Astros** » Thu Sep 17, 2009 6:18 pm

I've got a guy that wants in. He knows his baseball, I think he'd make a good member

Astros · Post by **Astros** » Mon Oct 05, 2009 10:46 pm

Anyone else have ag uy or know someone that has a guy?

Cardinals · Post by **Cardinals** » Mon Oct 05, 2009 10:51 pm

Not that I can see so far. We should probably encourage everybody to find a GM, but give us some information on your guy. I'm sure if others had GMs to recommend they'd have brought it up to somebody or posted about it. Nate has been out for awhile now. Might as well just give us some information on your guy more than he has a BA subscription

Cardinals · Post by **Cardinals** » Thu Oct 08, 2009 1:23 pm

I went ahead and contacted Aaron's guy he had in mind and this is what he had to say:

Hey, thanks for contacting me.

A little about myself. I'm currently attending St. Louis University and will be graduating in May with a bachelors in aerospace engineering. I was a catcher through high school, but chose not to play in college because after blowing out my shoulder I knew I should focus on academics instead.

For evaluating talent, there's some basic statistics I enjoy just because of their simplicity, such as OBP, SLG, OPS, WHIP, and even ERA to a lesser degree. I understand there's many flaws with these statistics, but I feel that they do well for quick reference when in a situation where better statistics aren't available (such as reading a gameday program at a minor league baseball game).

I enjoy Baseball-Reference's statistics, mainly ERA+ and OPS+, because of how easy they are to use, but still take on complexities such as ballpark effects. I understand there are flaws in them, but what statistic is free of flaws? My biggest gripe with baseball-reference is their defensive metrics. I don't understand how Matt Holliday can be rated worse of a left fielder than Manny Ramirez??? For defense, I find UZR to be the most useful, but really, until there is a better way of measuring defense (such as implementing a system similar to PitchF/X but for batted balls), I won't put much stock into defensive oriented players unless there is sufficient evidence where scouting reports match current defense metrics.

Which reminds me... I love fangraphs.com. Being able to measure the dynamics of pitches and place a value on their effectiveness is pretty incredible. This probably has more real-life application than simulation, but I still enjoy researching young pitchers to help determine the likely hood they'll develop into effective pitchers. Blake Hawksworth, for example, he been a much better pitcher ever since Dave Duncan convinced him to throw his "slider" more often (PitchF/X labels it a cutter), and there's data that backs up the evaluation of his cutter. Since he's always been a pitcher with a lot of decent pitches, but nothing spectacular, pitching from the bullpen seemed like it would have been disasterous, but by working off his cutter, he's been very effective.

As for minor league talent evaluation, I'm a subscriber to Baseball-America and just started bying their yearly handbooks. I went to the Futures Game and brought the handbook with me, which made it much easier to quickly look up guys who I don't remember much about. I also get the Baseball Prospectus book (very useful) and the Bill James handbook (I don't find it that useful).

It's been been at least 6 years since the last time I ran a DMB team, but I had a great time when I did. I started out as an assistant general manager for a struggling Pirates team where I pretty much ran minor league operations and gave advice to the GM. It was the only way to get into the league since there was a waiting list to become a GM. By having that job for a year, I was offered the Braves GM position before it was open to the waiting list. I took a poorly constructed roster with no minor league system and turned it into a competitive team with 1 of the better minor league systems. I had to give up the spot after a year because I was too busy with school/baseball/work. The past couple years I've been bouncing around leagues in Out of the Park Baseball. It's been fun, but I could never find a league that didn't run their league incredibly fast. In a given year, they'd play 2-4 seasons. I enjoy being able to follow the progression of a season clearly and not have teams filled with made up names.

I'm excited about the prospect of joining a league that runs at a real pace and is dedicated to communicating with each other over related topics. I apologize for the length of this email.

Nationals · Post by **Nationals** » Thu Oct 08, 2009 2:16 pm

He certainly sounds like an engineer! I like what I see in the email and would not be against having him on our shortlist (if we actually even have a list at this point

Cardinals · Post by **Cardinals** » Thu Oct 08, 2009 2:21 pm

I agree. I like what I see as well and he seems pretty well spoken and seems to have a pretty good grasp on baseball and how things would work. I'm all for bringing this guy in. Nobody else has piped up a candidate in the past couple of months, this guy doesn't really know anybody in the league (good thing) and seems like he really wants in.

I'll continue a dialogue with him, if for nothing else to keep him in the loop of what's going on, and I think as soon as we decide on who moves where we should go ahead and bring him in, unless a better candidate comes out of the woodworks (which I doubt at this point.)

Astros · Post by **Astros** » Thu Oct 08, 2009 3:47 pm

So basically all we have to decide on is do we want Dan to move to Washington and stick my guy in KC, or let Z move to DC, Jason to KC and my guy goes to Baltimore

Padres · Post by **Padres** » Thu Oct 08, 2009 4:40 pm

Cardinals wrote:So basically all we have to decide on is do we want Dan to move to Washington and stick my guy in KC, or let Z move to DC, Jason to KC and my guy goes to Baltimore

I don't feel real strong about either option (Dan to Washington or Z to Washington). I suppose that I would lean slightly towards Dan because he asked first and seems to have legit long term interest in being there -- and I think he should be able to defend his NLE champion position.

But if Dan does go to Washington won't the open slot be the Marlins - not KC?

Oh - and BTW - Aaron's guy [can't wait until he gets a real name] - is fine by me.

Astros · Post by **Astros** » Thu Oct 08, 2009 4:52 pm

Right, the open spot would be the Marlins if Dan moves. If Z moves, then Jason moves, and that opens up Baltimore

Dodgers · Post by **Dodgers** » Thu Oct 08, 2009 10:50 pm

I like what I see there, lots of good buzzwords for what we're looking for in a GM.

Cardinals · Post by **Cardinals** » Thu Oct 08, 2009 11:23 pm

WhiteSox wrote:
Cardinals wrote:So basically all we have to decide on is do we want Dan to move to Washington and stick my guy in KC, or let Z move to DC, Jason to KC and my guy goes to Baltimore
I don't feel real strong about either option (Dan to Washington or Z to Washington). I suppose that I would lean slightly towards Dan because he asked first and seems to have legit long term interest in being there -- and I think he should be able to defend his NLE champion position.

But if Dan does go to Washington won't the open slot be the Marlins - not KC?

Oh - and BTW - Aaron's guy [can't wait until he gets a real name] - is fine by me.

Steven Sander is his name.

Also, I think I prefer moving Z to Washington. Dan's reasons are basically well, I went to college there and I hate the Marlins colors. Z seems to have more of a vested interest in the Nats, going to the games, wearing Nats crap, bla bla bla, and he has been asking me about it the past couple days. Plus, Dan already moved two offseasons ago and he should just be happy with that. He'll still get a chance to repeat as NLE Champs- with the same Marlins he is today.

As for the rest, Gudim to KC and then Newbie to Balt? We might as well just see if there's any closet Oriole fans in the league or if somebody wants to pull a Levine- i.e. take one for the team by moving to ALE so the newbie doesn't have to. I've not much of a problem with moving Jason to KC given that we did just stick him in the ALE when he joined, never had a choice and never complained about it.

Astros · Post by **Astros** » Thu Oct 08, 2009 11:25 pm

I'll go with JP on this. Let Z have it, see if anyone likes the O's, I think Nick might be the only one and he's a Phillies fan first. I don't see anyone taking one for the team to the Sandman's just shit outta luck on this

Astros · Post by **Astros** » Fri Oct 09, 2009 9:39 pm

So, we on board with this? Steven gets the O's, Jason to KC, Z to Washington, Dan stays in Florida cause he moved 2 years ago and well, not liking the team colors is a pretty stupid, 7 year-old girl reason for not liking a team

Rangers · Post by **Rangers** » Fri Oct 09, 2009 9:50 pm

Cardinals wrote:So, we on board with this? Steven gets the O's, Jason to KC, Z to Washington, Dan stays in Florida cause he moved 2 years ago and well, not liking the team colors is a pretty stupid, 7 year-old girl reason for not liking a team

Just to chime in, Steven definitely sounds like the kind of guy we'd like to give a chance. I'm on board with the moves. Z and Ken is a pretty even tradeoff for the NLE, and Z and Gudim are pretty comparable GMs to me, both very capable, as it pertains to the ALC. The average of Nate's team and LAA should balance the AL a touch between those two divisions, although Pat T improving will probably have the biggest effect. All sounds fair to me.