Guest Blog Post: Daryl and the road to the Firebirds

Here is a great post from the owner of the Philadelphia Firebirds, Daryl. He explains his journey through Pursue the Pennant, Dynasty, and joining the MBL. Give it a read. Great job Daryl, can't wait for part 2. 

MBL Guest Blog

Bums To Firebirds Part One
by Daryl P Holloman
Philadelphia Firebirds GM/Manager

While vacationing in the Philippines (late April 2014) I did a Google Search to locate Dynasty Baseball.

Years ago, having played the table top version of Pursue The Pennant, including serving as a commissioner of a play by mail league, I was aware that Mike Cieslinski had sold PTP and developed another [much better] table top baseball simulation game (I had forgotten the name).

I did recall that there was a computer version of Dynasty Baseball, so I was planning on buying the computer version to play solitaire seasons, once I had returned to the States in late May.

However, as I surveyed Dynasty Baseball Online while in the Philippines, I was disappointed that a computer game no longer existed, but was intrigued about the online version and leagues.

Being a current Yahoo Fantasy Baseball Keeper League Commissioner, I was thinking back to the hours of fun that I had when playing Pursue The Pennant, especially with the Hall of Fame Cards and Old Time Historic Ball Parks.

Perhaps if I had gone ahead and made the commitment to begin playing Dynasty Baseball Online while in the Philippines, then I might have discovered the formation of the MBL and have been able to join the MBL before Tiger Stadium was claimed.

However, I decided to wait until I returned to Oklahoma, before making a commitment to play Dynasty Baseball Online and joining a Keeper League.

After returning to Oklahoma, I finally took the time to seriously consider playing Dynasty Baseball Online, including joining the Dynasty Baseball Facebook Group.

Matt was advertising the MBL on the Facebook Page, so I asked him if there was room for another manager who was not necessarily highly competitive?

Matt welcomed me to join the MBL and I discovered that Tiger Stadium was already claimed.

Remembering back to the hours of fun that I had experienced while playing Solitaire Tournaments with the Hall of Fame Player Cards in the PTP Historic Ball Parks, I began checking out the Old Time Stadiums that were available to choose in the MBL.

I settled on playing in Shibe Park and chose the name Philadelphia Phantoms, intending to use an old minor league hockey logo to be posted on the MBL Website that Matt had constructed.

To my dismay, Matt vetoed the team name, because there was already a Milwaukee Phantoms Franchise in the MBL.

So it was back to the drawing board, as I finally decided to claim Ebbetts Field (another of my favorite Historical Stadiums when I used to play Pursue The Pennant) instead of choosing The Polo Grounds.

Living in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma provided a ready-made logo (from the local high school) for the team to be known in the MBL as the Brooklyn Broken Arrow Bums.

Brooklyn, having received the Second Overall Pick via the random draft generator for the MBL 2000 Season Snake Draft, was involved in a heated front office discussion about which of 3 players that the Bums would select to build my MBL Roster around.

I was leaning towards Catcher Ivan Rodriguez, because I am a manager who prefers adding players to my fantasy baseball rosters that I enjoy watching.

Having played games in stadiums that I did not like playing in with players I did not particularly enjoy watching play, for the sake of populating a Pitchers Stadium or Hitters Ball Park, had grown stale years earlier when playing PTP, which is why I chose Ebbetts Field when the Phantoms name was unavailable in the newly formed MBL.

So here I was staring at the Band Box known as Ebbetts Field, trying to decide whether to select I-Rod or Barry Bonds or Randy Johnson.

As much as I wanted to select I-Rod to build my team around, my final choice boiled down to either Bonds or Johnson, with the clock ticking during my time to make my first selection.

Would I rather watch Barry Bonds hammering home runs out of Ebbetts Field, or would I prefer the challenge of watching Randy Johnson be the Bums Ace, facing the challenge of pitching in a Band Box during the Steroid Era?

In the final seconds, I chose the challenge of selecting The Big Unit to pitch in a Band Box, where he recorded two complete game shutouts en route to the MBL 2000 Season Cy Young Award, while setting the All Time MBL Strikeout Record (421) while leading the Classic League with 21 Wins.

That decision alone probably cost the Bums a playoff berth by not selecting Barry Bonds, as they faded late in the season and missed a Wild Card Berth with an 80-82 record.

I am convinced that the Big Bat of Barry Bonds would have carried the Bums to both a Winning Record and a Playoff Berth.

Had I chosen Bonds, instead of Johnson, my draft choices would have probably varied from those I chose after Randy Johnson.

Bonds would also have potentially hit more than 51 Homers during the MBL 2000 Season, playing half his games in the Band Box at Ebbetts Field, thriving on God only knows how many Deep Drive Rolls, thus probably claiming sole possession of the MBL 2000 Season Home Run Title.

The challenge of watching Randy Johnson pitch in that Band Box, en route to the MBL 2000 Season Strike Out Title, won out at the last minute when it was my turn to make the Bums first selection.

So when it came time for my second and third picks (Snake Draft) I claimed Closer Keith Foulke and then Defensive Catcher Brad Ausmus (who was the newly anointed Detroit Tigers Manager).

Picks 4 and 5 were made to provide defense up the middle, as -5 double play arms were added to the Bums roster with 2B Pokey Reese and SS Neifi Perez.

Then I needed some good defensive outfielders, so I chose Kenny Lofton to patrol LF (also serving as my leadoff hitter) and Alex Ochoa anchoring CF with picks 6 and 7.

By the time my pick 8 came around, I became alarmed that all the Quality First Basemen had been drafted, so I chose JT Snow to provide some pop in the Bums batting order, followed by Paul O’Neill to provide a RF having some pop in his bat with pick 9.

My 10 and 11 picks were spent acquiring a CF for the Future in Juan Encarnacion, plus the only 3B left over, after the other quality 3B options had disappeared during the first 10 Rounds: Robin Ventura.

Now it was time to cobble together some kind of Pitching Staff, after drafting a mainly Defensive Team.

So with picks 12 and 13 I chose Short Reliever Kelly Wunsch and Long Reliever Tim Worrell; followed by Omar Daal 25/Long and Mark Redman 25/Long with picks 14 and 15.

I had to let Matt know that I would be unable to draft my picks 16 and 17 due to an appointment that I had to keep during my draft time slot, so I asked him to select a couple of starting pitchers for that day.

The result was two F Durability Starting Pitchers with Shane Reynolds 25 and Stan Spencer 20 [Spot 8], so I made it three F Durability Starting Pitchers in a row when I used my pick 18 on Darren Oliver 25, before adding John Halama 25 with pick 19.

The Bums Bull Pen needed some more arms, so I added Short Reliever Buddy Groom with pick 20, Short Reliever Mark Guthrie with pick 21, followed by Ruben Quevedo 25/Long with pick 22 and Short Reliever Danny Patterson with pick 23.

Pick 24 was used to claim Backup Catcher Josh Paul, followed by Backup Outfielder Peter Bergeron and his -2 Arm with pick 25.

Now the Bums were in need of some Backup Infielders, so I chose Wilson Delgado 2B/SS/3B with pick 26 and Luis Ordaz SS/2B with pick 27, before claiming another Backup Outfielder having a -1 Arm: Corey DeHaan with pick 28 and a third Backup Catcher Todd Greene with pick 29.

My Final Pick 30 in the MBL 2000 Season Draft was Jose Lima 25, just because I figured that ‘Lima Time’ would be entertaining at Ebbetts Field.

I wanted to see how well these drafted Bums would do over the course of a full season, so I refused to make any trades during the 2000 MBL Season, while a majority of other managers were trading their drafted players right and left all season long.

As previously mentioned, the Bums wilted down the stretch, missing the Playoffs with an 80-82 record.

Then prior to the MBL 2001 Season Draft, the manager of the New York Rippers kept asking me to trade The Big Unit, but I did not want to move him.

Finally, to get Trader Billy to quit pestering me to trade Johnson, I told him that it would take a few of his Future Draft Picks and CF Torii Hunter to pry Randy Johnson away from the Bums.

Billy bit and the rest is MBL History, which caused quite an uproar in the MBL Managerial Ranks, resulting with an Amendment to the MBL Constitution in regards to Trading Future Draft Picks.

For the sake of brevity, I do remember selecting Catcher Brandon Inge during the 2001 MBL Draft, for the following two reasons:

First, Matt approached me about trading my Defensive Catcher Brad Ausmus and I got caught up in the MBL Trade Fever (not sure who I got in return).

Secondly, I drafted Inge to fill in at Catcher until Robin Ventura retired, at which time Inge would be carded as a better Defensive 3B replacement for the departed Ventura.

I also recall trading my First Round 2001 MBL Draft Pick for Closer Jason Isringhausen.

By obtaining Izzy, another manager approached me about trading my Closer Keith Faulke (do not recall who or what player was dealt to the Bums in exchange for my First Closer).

An Interesting Note is that Kelly Wunsch was on my Keepers List, but I did not realize that he was not carded in 2001, so I lost him and ended up adding Jose Lima to my Keepers for the MBL 2001 Season, anointing ‘Lima Time’ to be the Bums Ace after trading away Randy Johnson to the Rippers.

Another Interesting Note is that had I not traded my First Round Pick in 2001 for Izzy, the Bums would have drafted SP Ben Sheets to become the Bums Ace, but Sheets ended up being drafted by the Beaneaters later in the First Round, after the manager who had received my First Round Pick chose a Batter, rather than a Pitcher.

As the 2001 MBL Season progressed, I really enjoyed that the Bums were now playing in Shibe Park, rather than Ebbetts Field, but the Bums were progressively heading South in the  MBL Draft Standings.

Unexpectedly and Reluctantly, in April of 2015, I had to inform Matt that I would have to immediately step down as the GM/Manager of the Brooklyn Broken Arrow Bums.

I had been paying my Dynasty Baseball Online account every 6 months, but I had some unexpected bills that would not allow me to pay another 6 month fee.

My account was running out in May and although I might be able to make arrangements with Dynasty to transfer my payments to a monthly fee, my wife and her sister were asking me to move to the Philippines to help protect their mother, because the Helpers had quit and a man was needed to live at the house to help dissuade intruders from breaking and entering the compound of a widow woman.

So in the light of moving overseas to the Philippines and not knowing if any Internet Service was adequate enough to continue playing Dynasty Baseball Online, I reluctantly decided to inform Matt that I would have to leave the MBL.

As it turned out, when my wife and her sister came to the States in June to spend their vacation from their jobs in the Middle East, they decided after a brief discussion that they would pay one of their male cousins to serve as a Helper and provide protection for their widowed mother, instead of sending me.

A few days later, Matt contacted me and asked if I would be interested in taking over the abandoned Pittsburgh Franchise before the MBL 2002 Season Draft took place in August.

Although the Bums were available, Matt explained that no one was willing to rebuild the Pittsburgh Franchise, because the former manager had mortgaged the farm so to speak in a failed effort to make the MBL 2001 Season Playoffs.

Having traded away Draft Picks in his failed quest to qualify for the 2001 Season Playoffs, the Pittsburgh Franchise would not begin drafting until Round Five.

No One wanted to take over a team that did not have any draft picks in Rounds One through Four.

I agreed to take over the Abandoned and Draft Pick Gutted Franchise on the condition that I could Move the Team from Pittsburgh to Philadelphia, play in Shibe Park and Rename the Team.

Matt agreed to my conditions, mentioning that some of the original managers missed both my good sportsmanship and the newsletters that I had been writing (Shibe Star Scoop).

As for the Bums, the manager who took over Brooklyn after I was forced by personal circumstances to leave the MBL in April, had made some trades that I would have Never Made, including trading away the Bums Round One 2002 Draft Pick.

Had I finished out the MBL 2001 Season and kept the Bums, I would have drafted Catcher Victor Martinez, as V-Mart was available in the Draft Pool when it was the Bums turn to pick in the First Round of the MBL 2002 Draft.

V-Mart would have replaced Inge at Catcher when Ventura retired and Inge moved to 3B.

As of this writing, the MBL is on the Eve of our 2003 Season Draft, so I will conclude this Guest Blog so I can turn my attention to any final preparations before the MBL 2003 Draft begins.

I will take a closer look in Part Two of this Guest Blog at the Philadelphia Firebirds 2002 Season and 2003 Draft.

See You at Shibe Park!

Daryl
Philadelphia Firebirds @ Shibe Park

Before the Draft Help Wanted

Below is a have and want list of some of the teams in the Millennium League before the draft takes place on Friday.

Thanks to everyone who sent me there lists. If there is something wrong or you want changed just let me know.

Also, this list is more of a guideline for trades in the league. This is to try and help you all see what everyone is looking for and what they need. Don't take this as gospel, owners might have a change of heart on what they want or need by time you get them a message.

If your team is not represented on the list cause you didn't send me your list and want to be on just email me what you are looking for or need.

When looking at the "Haves" section I have put in parenthesis () what position the player is eligible to play in 2003.

Let the trade talking begin!

Good luck to all, and I hope this help you build your dynasty.

Team	Haves	Wants
Arizona Apaches	2004 picks for starting pitching	#1 for ace or strong closer #2 and #3 for rotation guys.
Atlanta Stonecutters	Jay Payton (LF, CF, RF), 1st round pick in 03 and 04	Starting Pitcher
Baltimore Stouts	extra OF ( A. Guiel very good card in 03, A power vs Right, Lefty Hitter, also Tim Salmon. extra SP--- can deal one of following Pineiro, Washburn, or Glavine	CF with good to great Range, backup IF 2b, SS, 3b, Long RP
Boston Beaneaters
Brooklyn Bums
Cincinnati Red Stockings	Ishii (SP), May(SP), Galarraga (1B) and possibly Farnsworth (RP	Draft picks
Cleveland Rock 'N Rollers	Travis Hafner(1B), Matt Mantei (RP)	Looking for SP and Draft picks
Colorado Briar Jumpers
Detroit Buckeyes	Polanco(2B, 3B), J. Jones(LF,RF), L. Castillo (2B), Guardado(RP), possibly Ibanez(LF, RF, 1B) and Dunn (LF, RF, 1B)	Draft picks, Shortstop, Outfield, 3rd Base
Houston Buffaloes	03' draft picks (no higher than 3rd rounder) and possibly 04' picks available	left handed starting pitcher who does well in '03. Could care less about his performance beyond that looking for a third baseman of the future
Los Angeles Diablos	Coco Crisp (LF, CF)	draft picks, relief pitching, or a catcher
Miami Panthers
Milwaukee Phantoms	OFs, a few good RPs, and draft picks.	Starting Pitching
Minnesota Millers	2004 picks	2003 picks
New York Bombers	starting pitchers for the 2003 season, Future value not that important	2003 1st and 2nd round picks
New York Rippers	2003 Draft picks	2004 draft picks
Oakland Osprey
Philadelphia Firebirds	Do not contact.	Perfectly happy with what he has, and will be building through the draft.
San Diego Vipers
San Francisco Quakers
Seattle Lightning	everyone available except Ichiro, Chipper Jones, Griffey, Jr.(my favorite player and tough to deal) and Billy Wagner, but Jones and Wagner could be had in the right kind of deal and they would be expensive.	1 STARTING PITCHER AND A SOME VERY GOOD BULLPEN PIECES platoon 1B, 2B & SS that hits LHP better or a better overall players. I could use a 3B that hits RHP better and a CF that is not an "F" Durability
St.Louis Sliders
Washington Senators	Matheny (C), 1st round pick	pitching
Washington Tribe

The Autopsy of the 2002 Atlanta Stonecutters

I have completed the 2002 MBL season with a record of 85-77. Sure it's a winning record, any Brewer fan would be proud of the season. However, this is the Atlanta Stonecutters! At the beginning of the 2002 season the front office was really shooting high for the 2003 season. With a couple of trades the front office made the move to win the Southwest Division. Additions of Mark Prior, Manny Ramirez, Troy Percival, and Terry Adams the thought was it was enough to win the divison and move deep into the playoffs. Well, that didn't happen. Washington teams of the Tribe and the Senators took the division to the wire and have to play a 1 game playoff while Atlanta finishes the season 11 games out of first place.

Lets take a look and see what went wrong on this team. We will start with the position players. With players like Jose Vidro, Scott Rolen, Manny Ramirez, Lance Berkman one would think there would be enough fire power in the line up to put up big numbers, and they kinda did with a run differential of +136.  The following chart is a power ranking chart similar to the one I run for the league, this one takes into effect strikeouts.

Name	Power Ranking %	OPS	Real OPS	OPS Difference
Gary Bennett	.919	1.082	0.668	0.414
Manny Ramirez	.813	1.116	1.097	0.019
Omar Infante	.783	0.831	0.777	0.054
Nomar Garciaparra	.774	0.889	0.88	0.009
Jose Vidro	.704	0.846	0.868	-0.022
Lance Berkman	.672	0.85	0.982	-0.132
Einar Diaz	.667	0.691	0.542	0.149
Orlando Cabrera	.600	0.703	0.701	0.002
Jay Payton	.577	0.756	0.838	-0.082
Jason Kendall	.565	0.703	0.706	-0.003
Scott Rolen	.550	0.724	0.915	-0.191
Gabe Kapler	.541	0.728	0.688	0.04
Doug Mientkiewicz	.531	0.691	0.843	-0.152
Ben Grieve	.437	0.671	0.716	-0.045
Chris Gomez	.176	0.401	0.633	-0.232

Power Ranking % is closer to the number 1 you are the better you were for the team as a whole. I also compared the players real OPS number (OBP + SLG) to what they produced in the 2002 season for me. As you can see Gary Bennett was a stud according to the numbers, however Gary was not with us the entire season, only 25 games, and he only hit vs lefty pitchers as he crushed them in the real 2002 season. Manny lived up to the hype after he came over in a trade batting a better OPS. Manny did slide a bit toward the finish line and dropped his batting average from .410 at one point down to .386. Still winning the batting title but batting .400 would have been nice. Plus  going 0-4 in the last game of the season against a lefty really put the cherry on top of the season.

Nomar was traded mid season so he's incomplete. Jose Vidro was a real headache for us during the first part of the season, he however found his swing and bounced back a bit. Yeah, he didn't out perform his real OPS but he came close. 

Now for Mr. Lance Berkman. 

	G	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	SO	HBP	SH	SF	SB	CS	GDP	BA	OBP	SLG
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Totals	162	609	99	162	34	3	31	102	93	115	5	0	4	5	4	7	.266	.366	.484

Mr. Iron man for the team playing in all 162 games. Under preformed in almost every offensive category compared to his real 2002 season.
Batting average Real 2002: .292, MBL 2002 .266.
Home runs: Real 2002: 42, MBL: 31
RBI: Real 2002: 128 MBL 102
OBP: Real .405 MBL: .366
SLG: Real .578 MBL: .484

I would like to blame County Stadium for the reduction in Home Runs, but I'm not going to. OBP should not take a huge hit like it did just because of the stadium a player plays in.

Most disappointing player on the roster is... Scott Rolen. You might have seen my post a month of two ago showing how horrible Scott has been in 2002.
Here are Scott's stats in 114 games:

	G	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	SO	HBP	SH	SF	SB	CS	GDP	BA	OBP	SLG
Totals	114	424	64	98	18	7	15	67	44	82	16	0	1	1	4	20	0.231	0.326	0.413

Here is what Scott finished the 2002 season with:

G	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	SO	HBP	SH	SF	SB	CS	GDP	BA	OBP	SLG
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Totals	162	600	95	127	22	10	24	91	76	115	23	0	2	3	4	23	.212	.322	.402

Yep, he got even worse after I wrote the blog post. Worse avg, OBP, and SLG. **head desk**

Finally, Doug Mientkiewicz of DM from here on out. While not known for his bat in 2002 he was still solid with a AVG in the .260 range and a little pop. But instead DM gave me this:

G	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	SO	HBP	SH	SF	SB	CS	GDP	BA	OBP	SLG
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Totals	162	593	72	137	34	3	11	78	87	107	9	0	3	2	3	9	.231	.337	.354

One saving grace for Rolen and DM is that they were both A+ in rage for their positions in 02. They saved us a lot of hits down the line cause of their defense. However, I don't think it really made up for the lack of stick they had in 02 for us.

For a team full of clutch hitters of Vidro, Berkman, Manny, Rolen, DM there were not a lot of clutch hits.

In conclusion, the reason the Stonecutters fell in 2002 was the under performace of 3 key players. If those 3 came close to performing like there card Atlanta would be getting ready to play in the playoffs. 

Here is the pitching chart I made. Basically, while Prior was our 2nd best pitcher according to my chart he went 5-11 for us. That is not going to cut it. I only had one pitcher who had over 10 wins and that was Maddux going 22-6.

	Games	Power Ranking	ERA	Real ERA	Difference	WHIP	Real WHIP	Difference
Troy Percival	43	0.08	2.31	1.92	-0.39	0.85	1.118	0.268
Mark Prior	26	0.72	3.62	3.32	-0.3	1.08	1.166	0.086
Armando Almanza	34	0.81	3.75	4.34	0.59	1.28	1.292	0.012
Antonio Alfonseca	19	0.82	2.31	4	1.69	1.16	1.466	0.306
Greg Maddux	37	0.90	2.38	2.62	0.24	0.98	1.199	0.219
Dave Veres	59	1.11	3.12	3.48	0.36	1.24	1.282	0.042
Jeff Nelson	56	1.26	3.86	3.94	0.08	1.61	1.38	-0.23
Terry Adams	21	1.31	3.29	4.35	1.06	1.31	1.39	0.08
Kevin Brown	5	1.54	5.94	4.81	-1.13	1.26	1.429	0.169
Andy Pettitte	9	1.56	3.45	3.27	-0.18	1.43	1.307	-0.123
Ron Villone	24	1.62	3.92	4.13	0.21	1.41	1.303	-0.107
Jaime Cerda	21	1.74	4.01	2.45	-1.56	1.5	1.403	-0.097
Chad Paronto	17	1.85	5.31	4.04	-1.27	1.1	1.262	0.162
Pete Walker	28	1.85	4.55	4.36	-0.19	1.31	1.397	0.087
Rick Bauer	29	1.88	4.88	3.98	-0.9	1.44	1.434	-0.006
Shane Reynolds	21	1.98	4.23	4.86	0.63	1.49	1.432	-0.058
Pete Munro	16	2.52	6.22	3.57	-2.65	1.59	1.388	-0.202
Aaron Harang	14	2.59	5.68	4.83	-0.85	1.8	1.57	-0.23
Ben Sheets	3	3.20	7.82	4.15	-3.67	2.21	1.417	-0.793