Traffic Jam

This semi-regular column will be Trenton's counterpart to The Cat's Mewlings, with updates on the state of the Trenton Traffic.

It's been an interesting start to the season, as we currently sit 18-15, 3 games back of the vaunted Atlanta Bandits. Management contemplated setting dynamite and hitting the plunger, but opted to re-tool for what could very well be one last run, as many key players are in the final year of their contracts (notably David Dunwoody and Dwight Salmon).

Most of the veterans spent the entire offseason on the trading block- reactions have been varied. In the lineup, Stephen Mills and Vasco Lopez have come out swinging in the middle of the lineup (Lopez already has more homers than he did all of last season), but Cap Herrera is struggling in the #3 hole. The other veteran off to a slow start is LF Rico Valdes, who may finally be starting to slow down after jumpstarting the offense last season when he was plugged into the lineup.

The pitching staff has been another story- that story is Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde. Dunwoody hasn't looked as good as he did last season when he placed second in the Cy Young voting, but he's been solid. Salmon is having a bounceack season, and Jason Sprague has been solid. On the other hand, free-agent signing Woody Hiller has been bad (1-6, 5.05). I have had to come out and publicly state there is no truth to the rumor circulating Trenton that the first 5,000 fans to show up for our first home game after the road trip (against Fargo) can try out before the game to take Damion Mays's spot in the rotation. The bullpen is a similar story- Bernie Corino regained the closer's role after Quinton Hughes left and has done a great job, and Matty Eusebio and Dan Linden have been solid. But usual stalwarts Pablo Rojas and Karl Coleman have been shaky and the Will Piper experiment appears to be blowing up in our face.

All in all, fan reaction has been mixed to the start. Some fans look at the bright side, saying that essentially the same group struggled early in the season and then turned it on a little after the All-Star break. Some fans aren't happy that we seem to lose some games we feel we should win, especially when we jump out to an early lead. Hard to say where this season is going. Stay tuned.

One on one with Salt Lake City GM plague

We recently caught up with the GM of the defending world champion Salt Lake City Shakers, plague, to get his thoughts on how he will defend his crown, his opinion on the great "splits vs. pitches vs. control" debate and some Miami Dolphins talk. Here's what plague had to say:


You currently run eight HBD teams. I can barely keep up with four. So what am I missing here? How do you do it?
You're not missing anything. The more teams you run the more shortcuts you take. It's just a question of can you win taking shortcuts. If you can't then you need to cut teams until you can give them enough attention to win.

Which of the 8 teams is your favorite and why?
Los Angeles Crushers in Bryant world. It was my first team. I think most people's favorite team is the first team they created.

You’re the defending world champion of The Bigs. How did you take this franchise from one that lost 114 games in the inaugural season to world champions in season 8?
I can't take credit for that 118 loss season, and I don't want credit for that horrible season. I took the team over about 115 games into season one. The one thing I did have going for me when I took them over was I had prospect money left, and who pops up but Vic James, so I got a stud Intl player my first season. I got the benefit of the previous coach drafting Che Bong, and I was given a team with the 2nd pick in the draft. From that point on I worked the draft, traded veterans for youth, and grabbed a few good Intl players.

What adjustments if any have you made going into this season and what will you need to do to defend your title?
My offense is probably the best in the league, my starting staff is equal to last season, but my bullpen is questionable and if I want to repeat my bullpen will have to perform like it did last season or I will have to look to make some moves.

If you could draft one current player from any franchise in The Bigs and add them to your ML team at no cost, who would it be and why?
That would be easy. Javier Henriquez. I am already loaded offensively, but come playoff time with all the days off, a stud starting pitcher becomes more valuable. He can pitch every 3rd game in the playoffs compared to every 4th or 5th game during the season. I love having 1 dominant pitcher come playoff time and my current team does not have that.

When it comes to what makes a good pitcher in HBD, different GM’s will give you different answers. So, for you, which of the following ratings is most important in determining a successful HBD pitcher: splits, control, or pitches?
I think you need all 3, I don't care how good your splits are you will not win with a 10 control, same goes with splits, if your control is 100 you wont win with 10 in splits. If I could pick any of the 3 with 100 and the others with 50 I would take 100 splits with 50 control and 50 pitch, however because of the 50 pitch I dont think he would be a great pitcher..

So you’re a football fan from California. Don’t tell me you’re a Raiders fan…
Dolphins fan. I have liked them since I was about 6 years old. Cowboys were playing the Dolphins in the Super Bowl, I did not know football but my dad and his friend were rooting for the Dolphins, so I rooted for the Dolphins and I have been a fan ever since.

Dolphins fan!? That's what I'm talking about! I knew there was something I liked about you, as I am also a Miami fan. What positions do you think they need to improve going into next season and how do you feel about Chad Henne as the savior?
I watched every Dolphin game last season. Chad Henne has the physical tools to be a NFL quarterback. He is the best QB since Jay Fiedler. His problem is he throws the ball too hard, but so did John Elway when he first started. Chad Henne overthrows everyone on deep passes, he will need to learn to take a little off his passes when he goes long. He will also need to learn to not throw the ball through a wall on short passes. Short he needs to learn touch, that is going to take a season or 2.

The Dolphins need a lot. They need 4 new LBS, a NT, and a free safety on defense. On offense they need a WR and a TE. I like Brian Hartline as a up and coming receiver, he has the potential to be a #2 WR. Devone Bess is a good receiver but you are hurting when he is your best. Ted Ginn JR cant run a route and he is never open because of that, and when he is open he drops a lot of balls. He started to hang onto the balls last season near the end, but he still never got open. Dolphins also need a pass catching TE.

The draft will most likely go something like this.

First pick will either be a Outside LB or NT. Dan Williams, Ricky Sapp, or Serigo Kindle. The Dolphins will almost surely take one of the borderline 1st round pick LB with their 2nd round pick if one should drop to the 2nd round. I would not expect to see the Dolphins pick a receiver until the 3rd round or later, they will most likely build their defense first, the exception would be is if Dez Bryant somehow falls to the 2nd round or maybe if Tate falls to the 2nd round. The Dolphins will probably fill their TE need in free agency. Most likely targets for free agency will be Antrel Rolle, who I think the Dolphins will probably make a big push for. Karlos Dansby, the Dolphins had maybe the worst ILB crew in the NFL last season and will probably look to shore that up through free agency and not the draft. The other guy they might sign would be Tully Banta Cain. I don't think the Dolphins sign any of the restricted free agents, they would lose their first round pick if they did that.

If you could change one thing about HBD, what would it be and why?
I think scoring is too high. I would look to make changes to bring scoring to a more realistic level. We see way too many double digit scoring games.

The Cats Mewlings II

Ok, I said I would do this at a later time but a big trade occurred between the Cats and Bandits. I was one surprised GM when the trade came across the wire. I had to pass this one by the Bipster, you know how owners are. I was confused by the trade for a while until I realized it was a salary dump by under-performing players. I guess some GM's might get a little antsy when high priced players are performing well below the Mendoza line in all offensive categories. Pete Duvall was moved to LF after a little confrontation between me and Bob Koplove. Pete was actually complaining that he wasn't getting enough playing time as the coaches and I were trying different approaches with the outfield and 3B in general. Then of course, Alving Infante went on one of his joke playing tirades at the same time. I told the Bipster that this trade could be a blessing in disguise.

Atlanta sent over William Bolling and Tony Burnitz with Davey Sherman as a dangling participle. It seems they wanted Pete Duvall in the worst way. I assume they wanted his power bat in RF. Davey Sherman was more or less a throw-in as his health is not very good. But one never knows and could be destined to being a very good short reliever at the ML level.

After the trade we had to drastically reconfigure the lineup. First we sent Alving Infante to AAA, good riddance! We put Bolling in LF to Koplove's diappointment, he is such a cry baby. Burnitz became our new RF to a little bit of disappointment to a couple younger players. But they soon found out they were not forgotten and were overjoyed at the situation. Boomer Robinson and Jay Hegan are going to split time at 3B. Boomer is also the backup to Kevin Kim at SS and Paul Ingram at 2B so he will be seeing a lot of action, of course Jay will see the most action 3B. Richard Gabriel will be splitting time resting the COF and maybe a little 3B thrown in. Bob Koplove may seem like the forgotten one, but we decided if he quit his disruptive ways and gets out of the dog house, he could spell Wally Harvey at 1B.

We actually had a good series in Buffalo taking two of three. Now it is home to face Monterrey and the new line for a four game series. 6-13 is not a good start to the season and our 1-7 record in 1-run games is the culprit. Normally, I can look over things and tell you the root cause of the 1-run problem, but this one actually defies normalcy so far. When you look at the team stats and see the best two hitters are your non-hitting catchers, you know something is amiss. I just think things will settle down here shortly and right itself and I think the trade will help achieve that goal.

The Cats Mewlings I

This is the first installment of "The Cats Mewlings" from Las Vegas. Maybe this will generate some interest by other owners to get some perspective on their teams in the blog. If there are questions about my actions just leave them in WC and will try to answer them in the next edition, 20 games or so.

The first 10 games have been very trying and the empty bottles of Pepto is filling up the recycle bin quickly. Our opening series in Seattle was more or less a fact finding mission as the coaching staff really didn't know what to expect of the retooled offense as well as the pitching staff. As it turned out, we felt we should have won 3 games in the series. Scoring runs in Safeco is not easy and Seattle is a good team but that 1-0 loss was hard to swallow. As a coach I committed a cardinal sin in the fourth game, or at least I think it is. I started the opening day tandem, low and behold they got shelled.

Yes, I set up the pitching staff as tandems for the first 10 games but forgot to insert Louie Martin as the #1 starter for the fourth game and it cost me. Really, I didn't trust the abilities of the two rookies in the rotation to go deep into games. The intention was to have a rotation of three tandems and a #1 starter as my pen was outstanding last year. Of course that in itself is a problem because I don't really have that proverbial #1 starter. But the idea was to be able to get to the 7th inning and let the pen take over to close the game out. I think it was/is a sound idea personally. It actually worked in my opinion but not sure about the pairings. The starters did outstanding jobs but their seconds didn't hold up their end of the bargain all that well. I have abandoned the tandem rotation for the time being, it may be re-institutionalized at a later date.

The advanced standings will show you the telltale woe of the team at the moment, we really haven't been blown out of any games. However, the 1-4 record in 1-run losses says it all along with the runs scored. The retooled offense just isn't getting the job done! Is it them though or the tough early schedule that is the problem? Seattle, Boise and New York shows to be not as easy as one thinks. In Vegas, you have got to put the ball in play and run like the wind or hit it over the wall. So far none of that has happened to my and the rest of the coaches liking.

So what is up with the offense? Well putting the ball in play doesn't really seem to be the problem. 71 strike outs in 357 AB's isn't all that bad but could be better. The power offense is nowhere to be seen, 18 doubles and 7 taters is all they have to show so far with a total of 92 hits. Ok, so Seattle and Vegas isn't exactly the hitting mecca of the World but where was the offense in Boise where they only had one decent game? The stolen base department has been a problem also, not sure what to make of that.

It is still early in the season and I am not jumping into any unwarranted decisive moves as of yet. About the only thing I have done is shifted the batting order around trying to find a combination that works. Still trying to find a lead off hitter that gets on base is a top priority at the moment. Another 20 games I should be able to make a better analysis of what to do.

Meanwhile back on the farm. The Bipster and I have kept a close watch on the AAA team, especially Zeke McDonald as we think we will need him later in the season. Also the three prospect pitchers we are high on who have gone 5-0 combined in 6 total starts so far. Last years #1 pick, Benji Pena , is blazing a trail in Low A ball so far. Of course we have our eyes trained on a couple other future stars also.

A No-hitter and a Milestone

Anaheim got its first win of the season (a 1-0 win) in dramatic fashion, as reigning Cy Young Award winner Mateo Batista threw a no-hitter against Seattle and former Cy Young Award winner Miguel Benitez. Benitez gave up only one run in the eighth inning for the complete game loss, but the story was Batista, who walked 3 and struck out 3 for his first ever no-no and the 7th in the history of The Bigs (Ajax Drabek, Duffy Parnell, Perry Herman, Matty Eusebio, David Dunwoody, and Turner Darr are the others). "I was so focused on trying to win the game, as it was close the whole way, so the answer is no", said Batisita when asked if he was thinking about the no-hitter. "I was focused on making my pitches where Cesar (Trevino) called for them. But I do know it's a short, fairly exclusive list that I'm now on. It's a good feeling", continued the Anaheim ace.

As for the milestone, this update marks the blog's 500th post. The Trenton office of TBDN has stated they are planning a celebration to mark the occasion, but aren't stating exactly what they were planning on doing to celebrate.