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[Not good with names]

July 8, 1994
Philadelphia, PA

As opening day has come upon us, time to take a look at how the offseason shook out.

Top Free Agents
Yoshiyau Kimura RF - 1 year $1,360 CHI
Jorge Orrego 3B  - 1 year $1,920 HOU
Jesse Miller 1B  - 1 year $1,120 PHI
Tim Armstrong 2B  - 1 year $1,180 CHI
Brett Bruce RP - Unsigned

Since our top free agents (based on production) seemed to get a lukewarm reception, let's take a look at the highest paid players in the league:

Top 5 Salaries in league
Travis Bryson SP LA - $8,200 (#20 Prospect in ABL 1993)
Adam Fleenor 2B CHI -  $6,600 (Fielder of the year at 2B 1993)
Jeff Caron SP HOU - $4,580 (#18 prospect in ABL)
Cody Dill RP NY - $4,540 (Third year of 3-year deal, pitched 7 innings last year, ouch)
Mike Murphy CL HOU - $4,100 (14 SVs last year to lead the ABL,  possibly most popular player in the league, actual reasonable contract)

After the top 15 players, everyone is making under $2,000, so at this point no one is making a living in the league, but if they start paying stars like they pay prospects, it's only a matter of time before established players like Mike Murphy can quit their day jobs.

Since we've been talking about bit more about international expansion, let's take a look at the top 5 hitters and pitchers from Mexico (As all are brought up through the international prospect process that feeds 16-17 year olds to teams, none of these players are older than the age of 22.  Also, since international player numbers are on the rebound this year after a fluky 1993, I decided against feeding in Mexican players in the draft, which should mean that by the time the Mexican league starts, these players will be hitting their prime)





As you can see, they are still pretty young and unproven.  Hoewever, let's keep an eye on Willie Morales, who in his first full season playing was able to put up some pretty good numbers.  As the veterans of the first half decade retire, we should see these ranks filled with better and better players, which will make national teams a viable idea (whether I play them in tournaments or not depends on my ambition when we get there, the inspiration for this entire diary has a pretty convoluted method to make national teams that sadly isn't in the functionality of OOTP '17, at least not without exporting all players and importing them into a new league, then manually putting together national teams).



Just a quick look at budgets.  As LA came within a hair's breadth of the playoffs last year, it motivated management to open the wallet and spend to hopefully bring home the trophy this year.  And what do the preseason predictions say?



That it might just be money well spent.  Of course, there's 50 games between the post season and now that will decide whether it was worth it or not.

Also, a bit of history that was not covered because of all the excitement of the playoff race in the 1993 season.  The first perfect game recorded in the ABL, and it was quite the gem.  In only 78 pitches, Marquise Collier cycled through 27 batters.  A lot of the credit goes to the fielders, but the ruthless efficiency of his game may never be equaled again.



Finally, because I noticed his name peek in as a top five hitter next year, and in our hypothetical 1993 season he got more ink than anyone else, a quick look at why C Sergio Franco is expected to be such an improved player this season:

[Not good with names]

August 1, 1994
New York City, NY

With the first month of the season in the books, let's take a look at how the standings are shaping up so far:



It appears that the Phoenix Nightmare are experiencing a sophomore slump after their wildly successful expansion season, and are currently mired in last place.  The top of the table is pretty close, so it would be unwise to declare a favorite this early in the season.  Our top performers include a familiar name, and after we announce the players of the month we'll take a look at one young man who appears to have a very bright career ahead of him in the ABL.

Batter of the Month -  Danny Sain C NY .412 AVG 6 HRs 19 RBIs
Pitcher of the Month - Josh Mathes SP CHI 4-0 27 Ks 1.64 ERA
Rookie of the Month - Terry O'Donnell SS NY .386 2 HRs 8 RBIs

All sterling performances, but the catcher from New York has really caught the eye of fans across the league.


Danny Sain C New York Kings

The 10th overall pick of the 1992, Danny Sain not only has become one of the marquee players in Gotham, but he's already left his mark in the record books.  His 24 game hitting streak has bested the 23 game streak set by Pat Bachman way back in the inaugural season of 1989, and with the streak active Sain looks to improve that mark as the season progresses.  Taking a look at his production so far, this is no Phares-esqe fluke either:



While only hitting for a .296 AVG in his college career, he stormed the league in 1992 winning the Rookie of the Year award, as well as sweeping the positional awards at catcher in both 1992 and 1993.  With a contract extension in the offseason of 7 years for $64,520, he's expected to be  a mainstay of the New York Kings lineup for years to come.  He's also likely to be among the first players with a 5-figure salary, slated to make $10,200 in 1995.

[Wolfhunter107]

Just jumping in real quick to say that I'm enjoying this quite a bit. Kinda hoping that you get a Washington D.C. team in at some point, too.

[Not good with names]

September 1, 1994
San Francisco, CA

Another month is in the books, let's take a look at the standings as we head into the home stretch:



1994 is shaping up to be the opposite of the exciting race we had to end the 1993 season.  Barring a miracle run by Philadelphia over their final 10 games, it will be Los Angeles against Houston for this year's championship.  Meanwhile, in Phoenix, the 1994 season is truly becoming a nightmare as the team lives up to it's namesake.  Frustration has boiled over too, as Zane Huerta went on a tirade decrying the coverage his team has received so far.



But while some teams are having a season to forget, there are some individual performances that are keeping fan's interest piqued.  We profiled Danny Sain of New York last time, and as an update, we'll note that he extended his hitting streak to 31 games.  Not only that, but with 9 Kings games left in the season, Sain has tied the league mark for HRs at 18.  While currently Day-to-day with groin tightness, Sain is expected to hold the HR record outright by the end of the season.

Players of the Month (Stats for the month of August alone)
Batter of the Month - Sean Moore RF LA .407 AVG 9 HRs 27 RBIs
Pitcher of the Month - Eric Farmer SP PHI 6-0 3.02 ERA .229 AVG against
Rookie of the Month - Eric Molyneaux HOU .333 6 HRs 22 RBIs

And while much attention has been heaped on Danny Sain's special season, We'll take a look at the new record holder for wins in a season, Eric Farmer.


Eric Farmer SP Philadelphia Brothers

Eric Farmer, a 4th round pick in 1993, has the single season record with 9 Wins.  While he's definitely got some great stuff, he's also getting 6.6 runs per game in support from his Brothers, which is more than a full run greater than the next closest player, Houston ace Chester Simons.  He's expected to get two more starts before the season is out and may well improve on his record setting mark before the season is out.

The last bit of news out of the league is that the ABL will be expanding to 8 teams for the 1995 season.  In Denver, lovable loser John Elway, Quarterback for the Denver Broncos, has announced that he will be owner of the Denver Mile High.  We certainly hope he'll have better luck in the ABL than he has had so far in his career with the Broncos.  And in San Francisco, beloved Actor Danny Glover, who looks to be a lock for an Oscar for his touching portrayal of a Manager in the fictional "MLB" league in the movie Angels in the Outfield, has announced that the San Francisco Outfield Angels will be the 8th team to enter the ABL. 

 

(Just as a note I found some generic logos that are actually set up to work well in the logo creation software I was using, though I'm iffy about using it for every team.  The Philadelphia Brothers logo is a goddamn work of art, and I think my horrible logos are part of the charm.  OTOH, it's getting old having every team have limitations based on whatever clip art I can find, and my general lack of interest in cropping the logos as cleanly as the Angels logo is.  So TBD on that one, but we could have a logo redesign in the future for the majority of the league.)
 

Just jumping in real quick to say that I'm enjoying this quite a bit. Kinda hoping that you get a Washington D.C. team in at some point, too.

Thanks, not to get too far ahead of myself, but Washington is very likely to get an expansion team by the time the ABL expands to 10 teams.  I am thinking the next round of expansion will allow me to separate the league into East and West divisions, so I just felt it was better to expand the west first so it's a little more balanced when we get around to it.

[Not good with names]

October 22, 1994
Los Angeles, CA

While there were no great surprises in the wild card, the pennant race tightened and with the Houston Noise and Los Angeles Hollywood Knights tied at 32-18, there would be an playoff game before the championship series to decide home field advantage.



With a 1 game playoff to decide the pennant winner, pitcher Mario Marques powered Houston to the victory.  Not only did Marquez throw 7 innings while only giving up a single run, he hit a 3-run homer in the 4th inning that would prove to be the decisive margin in the match.  Let's take a look at our regular season final results, as well as the league leaders:



Philadelphia did indeed try to make a run for the wildcard, but even with them going 8-2 to finish the season they could not catch the surging Hollywood Knights.  Also of note was Eric Farmer finishing with an 11-0 record in 12 games started, setting the wins record, and C Danny Sain of New York putting up 22 HRs (we'll talk more about that later).  And the nightmare in Phoenix became even worse, as the only manager in team history was sent to a nice farm upstate where he'd have a lot of space and could play with other unemployed managers:



With the season gone, it was time to look forward to the Championship series.



Houston not only won the pennant deciding game, but had a decisive advantage in their regular season run ins as well as home field advantage.  Los Angeles could only hope that their torrid pace that allowed them to catch the Noise would bear out in the 7 game series.


Los Angeles leads 1-0


Series tied 1-1


Houston leads 2-1


Series tied 2-2


Los Angeles leads 3-2


Los Angeles wins the series 4-2 in a 14 inning defensive battle!  2B Steve Hagen drove in the winning run with a double at the top of the 14th inning.  1B Dan McGaughey gets the series MVP nod hitting for a .520 clip in 25 ABs.

With 1994 coming to an exciting climax and smooth afterglow, let's take a look at the awards for the most outstanding players of the 1994 ABL season.

Awards
MVP - Danny Sain C NY .392 AVG 22 HRs 54 RBIs
Pitcher of the Year - Mario Marquez SP HOU 9-0 84 Ks 2.04 ERA
Manager of the Year -  Eric Fogle HOU (Won MotY in 1993 as well)
Rookie of the Year - Josh Cagle RF PHI .319 AVG 19 HRs 35 RBIs
Reliever of the Year - Danny Williamson RP LA 2-1 13 SVs 1.93 ERA

All-Stars
P - Mario Marquez HOU 101.2 IP 0.99 WHIP 3.3 WAR
C - Danny Sain NY .473 OBP .820 SLG 4.6 WAR
1st - Eric Molyneaux HOU .324 AVG 12 HRs 1.6 WAR
2nd - Adam Fleenor CHI .311 AVG 9 HRs 2.1 WAR
3rd - James Holder LA .265 AVG 10 HR 2.1 WAR
SS - Jeff Bradley PHI .368 AVG 14 HR 5.1 WAR
LF - Willie Morales LA .260 AVG 12 HR 0.5 WAR
CF - Brandon Honora PHI .328 AVG 9 HR 1.7 WAR
RF - Josh Cagle PHI .310 AVG 19 HR 17 SB 2.7 WAR

Danny Sain not only took the HR record, he also recorded the third triple crown in league history, leading the league in batting average and RBIs.  While SS Jeff Bradley from Philadelphia had a larger WAR percentage due to his excellent baserunning (As well as receiving the Fielder's Choice award for shortstop), it appears the voters really just loved to see them some dingers.

Finally, a look at the top free agents for the 1994 Offseason:
Eddie Unsworth SP age:21 demands $8,875
Jake Gilmartin 2B age: 25 Demands $7,500
Eric Wachter SP age: 23 Demands $3,250
Dan McGaughey 1B age: 24 Demands $2,920
Chester Simons SP age: 29 Demands $2,100

[Not good with names]

July 7th, 1995
Denver, Colorado

With opening day upon us, we'll take a moment to see how our top Free Agents fared on the open market:

Top FAs
Eddie Unsworth SP  Signed with SF 3 Years, $31,300
Jake Gilmartin 2B Signed with DEN 5 Years, $46,500
Eric Wachter SP Signed with DEN 3 Years, $10,720
Dan McGaughey 1B Signed with PHI 3 Years, $12,540
Chester Simons SP Signed with LA 1 Year, $2,420

Notably Jake Gilmartin (1993 League MVP, 2x All-star) now has the second largest contract in the league, only behind the mammoth contract given out by the Kings to wunderkind and reigning MVP Danny Sain (who is in the second year of a 7 year, $64,520 contract).  Denver surely opened up the pocketbook, and at the very least looks to have a signature star for their inaugural season.  Speaking of Denver, let's meet their owner:



Elway has announced that 1995 will be the last year of his professional football career in the NFL, and while he'll do so without a championship to his name, he hopes for better things to come for his Denver Mile High club (heh).

Over in San Francisco, we will profile the owner of the 8th team in the ABL:



Danny Glover is fresh off an amazing Oscar run for his instant classic film, Angels in the Outfield.  Not only was a it a smashing success at the box office and with Oscar voters (Winning Best Picture, Best Actor (Danny Glover) and Best Supporting Actor (Christopher Lloyd)), but it did much to improve baseball's popularity around the world.  However, it is noted that Mr. Glover expects his Outfield Angels to be just as big of winners are his films are, and he is expected to be unmerciful to any manager that does not get with his program.  Sean Medley will be his first manager, and reports are he was already considering adopting some soulful orphans whose parents will only return if the Angels win the pennant. 

With all that said, a look at the Preseason predictions forecasts a wide open league with Los Angeles in great shape for a title defense, while Phoenix is expected to be pretty terrible.



With the two expansion teams bringing the league total to 8, the league will move to a 64 game schedule, as well as an expanded playoff series.  This year the pennant winner will face the winner of a 3 game series between the top two wildcard teams, for a 7-game championship series.  With all the expansion, the future of baseball around the world looks bright:



With more and more players coming from Canada and Mexico, it is expected that in the coming years there will be a North American tournament between the best national players of the United States, Canada and Mexico.  While whispers have started small, owner Brad Moody has been working with sponsors and business people from the three countries to make this idea a reality.

[Not good with names]

August 1, 1995
Los Angeles, CA

One month into the season and so far it appears to be a two team race at the top of the league, with the rest battling it out for the second wild card position.



Surprisingly, it is the Chicago Wind that are neck and neck with the defending champion Los Angeles Hollywood Knights.  As the only team from the original 4 ABL teams not to have a championship, the Wind are seeking to make club history this year and with a strong run out the gate they are definitely in contention.  And while New York may have the best player in the league currently in Danny Sain, his bat has not been enough alone to keep them from being cellar dwellers this year, although with the 2nd wild card seed it is definitely too early to count them out.  Another note is that fan favorite (Alright, maybe just my favorite) C Sergio Franco of the Hollywood Knights has jumped to the top of the leaderboard in HRs with 11.  While Los Angeles has plenty of championship caliber players, the surprisingly play of Franco has definitely made their team even more dangerous than last year.



A look at the power rankings confirms that Los Angeles and Chicago are the class of the league, with both having great production from their batters and pitchers alike.  San Francisco has surprisingly put together a very potent lineup in their first season, though their pitching leaves much to be desired, while Houston has the pitching, but their anemic offense has been unable to take advantage of their stars in the rotation and bullpen.

Next update:  Trade Deadline, September 1st 1995.

[Not good with names]

September 1, 1995
Chicago, IL

So comes and goes another dull trading season, with no transactions between teams as they duke it out for playoff positions.



While the Chicago Wind chases Los Angeles for pennant, the race for the wild card is still wide open.  While San Francisco and Phoenix have faded down the stretch, there's a log jam for the final wild card with Philadelphia, New York, Houston and even the expansion Denver team all within 2 1/2 games of each other as we head into the final dozen games of the season.



Playoff percentages don't help much to shed light on our likely 2nd wild card spot, with a wide range of probabilities behind Chicago. 

Players of the Month
Batter of the Month - Sean Moore RF LA .441 AVG 13 HRs 26 RBIs
Pitcher of the Month -  Mario Marquez SP HOU 4-1 1.76 ERA 45 Ks
Rookie of the Month - Yale Pelton 3B PHX .311 AVG 6 HRs 19 RBIs

Sean Moore has captured Batter of the Month in consecutive months, and he is definitely in the hunt for a triple crown, placing first in HRs and AVG while taking second to teammate Sergio Franco in RBIs.  He also now is the owner of the longest hit streak in league history with a 32 game streak this season.


Sean Moore RF Los Angeles Hollywood Knights

In his 3rd season, the 10th overall pick from 1993 has positioned himself as the premier outfielder in the ABL.  While he has led the league in doubles the past two seasons, it appears this year he may take the top spot in several batting categories.  With 1 year left on his contract with the Knights, he should command a king's ransom this year on the free agent market.

Next update: 1995 Playoffs, Season in review and Offseason preview.

[Not good with names]

October 25, 1995
Houston, TX

The 1995 regular season is in the books, and the final dozen games in September did not lack for drama.



The Los Angeles Hollywood Knights was able to clear the Chicago Wind for the pennant, which meant they would take the bye in the playoffs while Chicago would face Houston for the Wildcard.  The Philadelphia Brothers were able to keep pace with Houston, but sadly fell to tiebreakers and would have to sit out the playoff season (I really don't know why OOTP didn't schedule a playoff between the Noise and the Brothers, but I didn't think to schedule one manually, so tough luck Philly).  New York and Denver just didn't have enough gas at the end of the season, but put up a respectable fight.  Meanwhile, Phoenix continued their futility, even more embarassing as they couldn't even overtake San Francisco to avoid the basement of the league.

With the standings as they are, we're able to get a look at the new playoff tree for the 1995 season.



The first two games were split by Chicago and Houston, so it would come down to a deciding game 3:



Houston was able to take down Chicago and deny them a chance for their first championship, which for the Chicago faithful was painful considering how close they were to securing the Bye.  Houston was able to come back in the 7th and never looked back, and got their date with destiny:



It did not look promising for the Noise, with Los Angeles dominating the season series 7-1.  But the first six games of the championship would be a back and forth affair:



It would be the second series in league history to go the distance, and Houston was hoping to make it a repeat of their 1990 Championship run.  Of course, they'd have to get over the 19-2 shellacking that they took in game 6 from Los Angeles' big bats. 



In what will go down as the most exciting championship series in league history, game 7 had to be decided in extra innings. Houston was able to tie the game at 3 all in the eighth inning, and after a scoreless ninth we had an extra frame to decide the championship.  Houston was able to game a run in the 10th off a single from platoon 2B Scott Sotero and closer Leon Glenn was able to close out the bottom of the inning for the second championship in Houston's history.  While Los Angeles had some historic production from their bats, Houston proved throughout the season that they knew how to win when the stakes were the highest.

The MVP went to right fielder Sean Moore of LA, who in a losing effort nonetheless carried over from historic pace in the season, scoring 5 HRs and hitting 16 RBIs with .469 AVG through the 7 games.

With 1995 sorted out, all that's left is to announce our players of the year and take a look ahead to the Free Agent class of 1996.

1995  Players of the Year
MVP - Sean Moore RF LA .439 AVG 28 HRs 70 RBIs
Pitcher of the Year - Mario Marquez SP HOU 7-2 88 Ks 2.05 ERA (3rd year in a row, gonna have to spotlight him soon)
Manager of the Year - Travis Parrott CHI (Not a really great consolation for the fans at home)
Reliever of the Year - Dave Corral LA 47 IP 33 Ks 2.11 ERA

All Stars -
P - Mario Marquez HOU 92 IP .098 WHIP 3.3 WAR
1st - Jesse Huffman LA .314 AVG 14 HRs 2.3 WAR
2nd - Adam Fleenor CHI .344 AVG 5 SBs 2.4 WAR
3rd - Yale Pelton PHX .322 AVG 12 HRs 1.3 WAR
SS - Jeff Bradley PHI .329 AVG 15 HRs 19 SBs 5.1 WAR
LF - Willie Morales LA .350 AVG 23 HRs 15 SBs 3.8 WAR
CF - Shaun Shook DEN .307 AVG 12 SBs 2.5 WAR
RF - Sean Moore LA .514 OBP 1.410 OPS 5.9 WAR

The story of the season was Sean Moore, as he is the 3rd player in League history to take a triple crown in batting.  Not only that, he did so in a fashion that will be hard to top in the future.  The 1991 season had the hard hitting, flash-in-the-pan Billy Phares, and while before this season no one had come within .050 of his slugging rate (which is basically a measure of extra bases, if a player only hit singles his SLG would be the same as his AVG) from that magical year, Sean Moore surpassed it with a .896 SLG (So basically he had a little more than a double for every hit he struck), meaning it wasn't just the extra games that contributed to his record marks.

Top 5 Free Agents
Sean Moore RF Demands: $12,000 (Not surprising, he wants to be the most valuable player after being the most valuable player)
Willie Morales LF Demands: $9,333
Eric Farmer SP demands: $6,833
Josh Cagle RF demands: $6,250
Adam Fleenor 2B demands: $5,780

Other Notables: Sergio Franco C.

The biggest story out of this offseason will be Los Angeles allowing Sean Moore, Willie Morales and Sergio Franco to venture into the market. They combined for 73 HRs and 191 RBIs, so LA better hope they have the players waiting in the wings that can replace that sort of production.

[Fishbreath]

Posting to watch.