2014 Louisville Sluggers

This is my (very late) annual post about the Louisville Sluggers of the Original Bitnet Fantasy Baseball League. We draft twice each season -- once prior to the regular season and again at the beginning of July. I didn't get around to putting this post together until now. Sorry, though I doubt anyone cares. I'll just report draft results and transactions for the second half season -- my A season did not go all that well.

Prior posts: 2013,  2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008,  2007, and 2004.

Why do we draft twice each year? Well, the OBFLB crowns champions for both the "A" first half and "B" second half of the baseball season, divided by the All Star game. My team's most recent championship was in 2008B. The current team is all-but-assured a place in the 4 team playoff competition that begins Monday. I'll update this post as appropriate to provide results.

As I list the team's current roster, keep in mind that the OBFLB is a 24 team head-to-head fantasy baseball league using 10 categories: home runs, stolen bases, batting average, runs produced average (R+RBI/ABs), plate appearances, innings pitched, wins, saves, earned run average and "ratio."

Here are the 2014 B Sluggers (players in red were retained from 2014A). Since I kept 12 players, I started the draft in round 13. We use 28 man rosters, exclusive of injured players. Because Arenado and Profar were on the major league and OBFLB DL mid-season, I had 2 extra picks at the end of the draft.

For the B season, our league requires that a player appear 6 times at a position during the current year -- or once during the week when he is listed at a position.

Starters

 C:  Yasmani Grandal (SD) (22nd round)
1B: Joey Votto (CIN) DL 7/8 during draft; has not played in B season
       James Loney (TB) (17th round)
2B: Jason Kipnis (CLE)
3B: Nolan Arenado (COL) 
SS: Troy Tulowitzki (COL) DL 7/22 during draft; has not played in B season
       Jose Ramirez (CLE) (free agent)
OF: Corey Dickerson (COL)
OF: Oswaldo Arcia (MIN) (15th round)
OF: Ender Inciarte (ARI) (19th round)
DH: Chris Carter (HOU) (18th round)

SP: Alex Cobb (TB)
SP: Chris Archer (TB)
SP: Homer Bailey (CIN) eventually DLed and out for the season
SP: Tyler Skaggs (LAA) (13th round) quickly DLed and out for season
SP: Phil Hughes (MIN) (14th round)
SP: Jeremy Hellickson (TB) (16th round)
SP: Matt Shoemaker (LAA) (20th round)
RP: Francisco Rodriguez (MIL) 
RP: Edward Mujica  (BOS) (28th round)
RP: Kevin Quackenbush (SD) (free agent)

Bench

 C: Cameron Rupp (PHI) (30th round) released when sent to minors
 C: Rene Rivera (SD) (free agent)
IF: Wilmer Flores (NYM) (26th round)
IF: Charlie Culberson (COL) (27th round)
IF: Nick Franklin (TB) (free agent)
SS: Addison Russell (CHC) (minors)
IF: Jurickson Profar (TEX) DL missed entire 2014 season
OF: A.J. Pollock (ARI) (21st round) (DL for most of B season)
OF: Cameron Maybin (SD) (25th round) released
OF: Anthony Gose (TOR) (free agent)
UT: Daniel Nava (BOS) (23rd round)
OF: Byron Buxton (MIN) (minors)

SP: Chris Capuano (NYY) (free agent)
RP: Danny Farquhar  (SEA) (24th round)
RP: Kirby Yates (TB) (29th round) eventually released

I have felt strong pressure to trade current (or recent) top prospects, Russell, Profar, and/or Buxton all season because a team with Votto and Tulowitzki needs to win NOW and not build for the future. However, I resisted because I believe all three are going to be very valuable talents. Plus, my all-stars got hurt and I assumed the B season would be another bust.

In any case, Russell and Profar are very young middle infielders who can seemingly hit like outfielders and Buxton is an excellent young hitter, with tremendous speed and looming power. I did trade away top power pitching prospect Archie Bradley at mid-season in a deal that returned Bailey. I received Nolan Arenado of the Rockies in a separate deal. Also, I traded long-time DH Billy Butler for closer Rodriguez.

At season's end, the draft and trades clearly went very well. As of today, September 13, Carter has hit 17 HRs since the all-star break, which leads the majors. Newly acquired Arenado has been a top 10 player and has 12 homers. Arcia and Dickerson have 11 homers each. These are top 20 figures in all of baseball. Each of the power hitters except Arcia is in the top 15 in slugging percentage, though that is not a category this league uses. Plus, Arcia has slugged over .500 himself.

Inciarte and Ramirez have 8 steals each, which puts them in the top 30 in baseball post-break. Gose has 10 steals, though he rarely plays on my team. Kipnis has 9 thefts. The team has plenty of speed and power, really.

In a league that still uses batting average, Loney has hit .320, which is a top 15 figure for the second half. Only about 25 players have hit .300 or better. Arenado, Carter, Dickerson and Inciarte have all hit between .283 and .296, placing them among the top 55 hitters for average.

Among starters with at least 35 innings pitched, Cobb has the lowest ERA in baseball in the second half. Shoemaker is in the top 10. Hughes has also been terrific. Indeed, all three of those starters are among the top 20 second half pitchers in WHIP. Bailey (1.61 ERA) and Skaggs (3.18) pitched very effectively, but in only 7 total starts before being derailed by injury. Potentially, the pitching could have been even better as Archer and Hellickson have had ERAs between 3.75 and 4.00.

Thanks to trades and injuries, the Sluggers now have 3 closers in the bullpen.

Is this a championship team? Maybe. Surprisingly.

Anniversary

Twenty-five years ago today, my spouse and I saw the Rolling Stones live -- with Living Colour as the warmup group. I've found several different websites that claim to have the setlist. This is from setlist.fm (it is supposed to automatically update when edited):

Edit this setlist | More The Rolling Stones setlists

This one, slightly different, is from someone who has a recording:

01. Continental Drift
02. Start Me Up
03. Bitch
04. Sad Sad Sad
05. Undercover Of The Night
06. Harlem Shuffle
07. Tumbling Dice
08. Miss You
09. Ruby Tuesday
10. Play With Fire
11. Dead Flowers
12. Mixed Emotions
13. Honky Tonk women
14. Midnight Rambler
15. You Can’t Always Get What You Want
16. Little Red Rooster
17. Before They Make Me Run
18. Happy
19. Paint It Black
20. Sympathy For The Devil
21. Gimme Shelter
22. It’s Only Rock’N’Roll
23. Brown Sugar
24. Satisfaction
25. Jumping Jack Flash

And setlist.com has one too.

At the time, I thought the Stones were rapidly becoming old men. Mick Jagger was 46 and Keith Richards would turn 46 later that year. Now, I'm one full sabbatical cycle older than that. Gulp.

Of course, Jagger and Richards are now 71 and 70 and still going strong. Below, you can watch their performance of "Miss You" from a concert they performed in Hyde Park during mid-summer 2013. That song was the first cut on an album released in 1978 when I was in high school. Indeed, based on the tape's presence in my car's 8-track player, you could say it was the soundtrack to my high school experience. A few months ago, I watched the Hyde Park concert film on television:

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