Maple back in 1st place!

Maple has climbed back to 1st place in the Billy Martin Division through June 9th, 2019 of play.  We are tied with Jersey meanwhile the other two teams San Francisco and South Carolina are not far behind at 1 and 3 GB.  Maple has been very solid in Extra Inning games;  5-2 so far this season.  Winning the close games is something we haven't done in recent years.  We are also playing a lot better within the division.

Maple made a major trade to enhance their SP rotation by acquiring from Eureka Jake Nelson who is 3-1 on the year with a 3.32 ERA and 1.19 WHIP.  He will face SoCAL in his debut with the Marauders next sim.  Maple gave up promising hurler Pedro Perez who was ranked a top the OSA and also sent packing 1B Braden Murphy who had hopes of making the team within the next couple of seasons playing behind FA acquisition Blake Reynolds from Seattle.  Murphy was also part of the $10M trade with Dallas.  Maple trade winds are still swirling as management as made a decision to go4it this year and see how far we can ride this momentum.  After the first three years in the ABL, Maple has not made the playoffs.

The Annual Rookie Draft has just been completed and Maple only had one selection in the first two rounds after acquiring FA Colin St. John (formerly with Las Vegas).  In the first round with pick #3 - Maple took highly touted phenom Rick "The Franchise" Hill, SP from the CBL Calgary organization.  The fans cheered #GOLDI, #GOLDI after making this pick.  You have to appreciate the spirit of the 10th man in Maple.  Hill only played one season in the CBL posting 117 Ks in 86.1 IP with a 6-4 record, 2.08 ERA and a modest WHIP of 1.23.  He also was the main work horse in their Lester B. Person Championship Cup win.  Unlike past drafts we didn't land a bunch of solid players that we have very high hopes in eventually making the ABL one day.  Hill will be our make or break draft this year.

In the minors, all three teams are poised to win their divisions again, Astoria in AAA, Sandy Springs in AA and Kingwood in A ball all are in the lead or withing 1 game of the leader.  A ton of players demanding a promotion with really no where to put them in general.  We have been less patient with the veterans in order to give some of the youngsters a chance to move up in the organization.

Maple dropped to 4th overall in the Top Minor League Organizations after the trade with Eureka this past sim.  The new entry into the top five for Maple is Zeus "BIG THUNDER" Hallman, CL in AAA Astoria.  He sits at #51 overall and has 20Ks in 10 IP in AAA since his promotion.

Maple is looking forward to the next ABL event - International Free Agency which takes place end of June just prior to the ABL Allstar game.

Maple outlook looking good!

Maple finished the opening month of the 8th season of ABL baseball in winning fashion going 14-13.  Maple after finishing .500 in the 2015 season has had 78, 68 and 58 wins seasons.  Currently Maple is at 17-15 after the 1st week in May and looks poised to return to their glory years in the ABL (2012-2014) when they won divisional titles in the first three seasons of the ABL.

Starting in 2015, Maple has had some decent success building through the draft as the team has drafted current 40 man roster players;  Jesus Ramirez SP/RP, George Evans DH/OF, John Jones CL and Brad Thomas OF.  The immediate future looks promising too with Zeus Hallman CL, William Lee 1B and Ramu Pavi SP waiting in the ABL wings to make a mark in the league.

Maple is scoring 5.4 R/G this season which is their all time high pace.  The previous best was 5.2 R/G in 2015.  Pitching wise the team is giving up 4.8 R/G which is their best mark since 2016 (4.7 R/G).

Leading the way for Maple so far has been;  Garrett Bennet 3B, .302 bavg, 9 HR, 30 RBI.  Garrett was acquired from Las Vegas in 2017 in a trade for MR Pancho Romero.  Pancho is currently in the AAA farm system of Las Vegas after a short successful stint at the ABL last year. 

In the rotation, the waiver claims of SP Luis Lopez from SoCal and Diogo Negreiros from Jacksonville have been stabilizing as the Starters ERA has improved to 8th overall in the TML.  John Jones the CL from the University of South Carolina who pitches with a chip on his shoulder after divisional rival GM Gary Altman refused to put the Gamecocks in their draft pipeline;  has been effective with 5 saves and a ERA of 0.55 / WHIP 1.22.  How does Gary sleep at night knowing his team is in South Carolina?

The minors are all playing very well especially in Single A where the Kingwood Knights the defending league champions are off to a torrid 25-7 start and 1st place in their division!  AA Sandy Springs is in 1st place in the division at 20-12 and AAA Astoria is in 3rd place in the division sitting 4 games back at .500, 16-16.

The Maple minor league system has moved up again ranking 3rd overall with 126 points and the following players on the list:  Ramu Pavi SP (A) - 9th, William Lee 1B (AA) - 25th, Pedro Perez SP (AA) - 37th, Yoshiago Ueno SP (AAA) - 46th and Jeff Kimball SP (AA) - 50th.  The potential is no doubt there but, statistically speaking these players are off to very slow starts and it will be something to watch moving forward.  William "CANNON" Lee has already been demoted to AA after starting the season at AAA.

In the International Complex, we have trimmed our prospects to 20 players after nearly reaching 50 last year.  The reasoning being that Maple management agreed to pour much more money into player development and scouting this year.  We are hoping to find higher initial raw talent than before.  Our best prospect is Hayden Capel SP ($4.1M) signing bonus.  He should make the ABL as a 4/5th type starter.  The other higher ranked prospects have been called up to Single A Kingwood starting this season.  We don't expect to be very active in the International Free Agent signing period this year so we will have to count on our scouting department to get it done.

Maple with the 16th highest payroll and some cash available and a ton of specs could be an interesting team to watch come trade deadline if they are hanging around in the Billy Martin division in late July!


 

2018 Season - Year VII in Review - Maple Marauders

Maple finished with their worst season in seven years.  At 58-104 the Marauders for the 2nd straight season finished dead last in the TML Billy Martin Division.  GM Goldberg said after the season was over, "When you finish 35 games out of 1st place you can't do any worse".  Maple did show some promise with the bats this year returning back to the playoff years for a team batting average of .263 but, the pitching continued to struggle posting their worst ever team ERA at 5.23 and BABIP at .325.  Overall Maple is now 565-569 in sever seasons of ABL action.  Attendance has taken a strong hit as well.  Only 2.4M~ fans showed up to see the Marauders play this year.  That is 700K worse than last season and the lowest mark in seven seasons.  Fans have questioned team spending or lack of it this year as team payroll dropped from $122M~ down to $59M~.  The good news is that management has aligned the balance sheet to go after highly touted INT FA, leverage player contracts and pour funds into Player Development and Scouting as the team tries to build from the minor leagues up.  Maple's exact finances are not know but, speculation has it that they made close to $38M~ this year and if correct it would be the 2nd highest profit in seven seasons.

The 2018 Draft was a successful one for the Marauders.  They landed SPs Pavi & Kimball and OFs Huanu & Tenegesdal & 2B Reaveley all of which look poised to jump to the next level in 2019.  This represents the 2nd consecutive season for Maple in the draft arena where they have had favorable results.  In 2017, Maple landed 1B Lee and Knaus both look like future starters in the ABL and SS Omori is already playing in Maple after being called up this past season.

Outlook for 2019 is promising due to a promising rookie emerging in the OF.  Brad Thomas in his first season with Maple posted statistics that put him on the all time single season leader board for the team.  His .320 bavg was good for 5th, his .381 obpct was good for 9th, his .518 slugging pct was good for 9th, his .899 OPS was good for 5th.  John Jones also took over the CL role for the Marauders this year.  His 24 saves was good for 4th all-time in a single season.  Meanwhile there is still uncertainty with former R1 pick Jesus Ramirez out of University of Florida.  He did pile up the Ks as predicted with 185 this season good for 2nd all-time in a single season sitting 2 Ks behind Mr. Roboto Martinez who had 187Ks in 2012.  The issue with Ramirez is his control.  The depth at SP coming along to Maple in the next 1-3 seasons might result in Ramirez finishing his career off as a solid MR.

News from Maple

Maple closes out this season as the teams worst season of all-time in the ABL.  We are currently 50-86 and a substantial 29 games out of first place in the TML - Billy Martin Division.  However, the future looks very bright in Maple as our farm system is stacked with incredible talent.  Maple has been showcasing some of the youth this season with the inclusion of Jesus Ramirez SP, Rob Young SP, Ovidio Montanio MR, Manny Palma, MR, Ju-Wei Yuan MR, John Jones CL, Ronnie Talley 2B, Taro Omori SS, Bill Nelson OF, Brooks Petersen OF and Brad Thomas OF who might have a chance at finishing in the top 3 for ROY in the TML.

Injuries took away any momentum Danny Burris SS had after winning the Gold Glove at SS in the TML.  He is scheduled to return just before the season but, likely we will be sent for a rehab stint at AAA Astoria all but ending his 2018 campaign.  A few weeks ago, more disappointing news hit Maple as OF Martin Petersen suffered a CEI.  In order to shore up the middle infield moving into 2019, Maple acquired SS Archie Sandeson from San Francisco.  GM Goldberg said, "SF has been the cream of the crop in our division, maybe he can help us steal some signs...."

The most exciting news comes from our SP rotation in Single A Kingwood.  We feel we have an elite staff of up and comers that in the next 3 seasons will be a force in the ABL for years to come.  We are speaking of; Ramu Pavi SP, Pedro Perez SP and Jake Robinson SP. 

Meanwhile in our International complex where the PS4's are buzzing til midnight, watch out for SP Gabresilassie Cherone (say that 10 times to win a prize!).

So Maple will continue to play hard, slide with passion and HR trot with pride until the end of the season.  We will give some valuable play time to some youth to see if they are ready to make the jump to the big leagues.  Until then, we await for the Rookie draft and hope that there is a superstar in ready to play in the ABL at our selection!

Maple Rookie Draft Results & Blockbuster deal with NY

One of the largest trades in ABL history took place this month.  The details of the trade were as follows:

TO NEW YORK:

CL RON CUTTER (ABL), MR CHANDLER FISHER (ABL), MR BRANDON WILSON (ABL), OF BILLY GREER (ABL)

TO MAPLE:
SP PEDRO PEREZ (A), OF MARTIN JENKINS (A), SP TOM COLLINS (AA), 2B RONNIE TALLEY (AAA) AND MR LYLE ARNOLD (DL-ABL)

New York acquired a solid, streaky power hitter to join their lineup together with some excellent bullpen help.  All 4 players should help their stretch run as they try to qualify for the playoffs in the difficult RCL..

Maple acquired some nice future talent including another pitching prospect.  Lyle Arnold has a huge team option contract that will not be executed according to team officials.  OF Martin Jenkins 1 week after the trade suffered an injury forcing him to the DL to join SP Tom Collins.  2B Ronnie Talley was immediately called up to the Maple team to play full time.

Rookie Draft:

Maple selected with the sixth overall pick SP Ramu Pavi.  We were thinking of taking a hitter with this pick but, to our surprise when we saw Pavi still on the board we just couldn't pass up on his arm.  Maple then continued to take another SP in Round 2 by selecting Jeff Kimball.  In Round 3, Maple selected LF Arama Huanu their first hitter of the draft.  From there on out, Maple rotating between selecting a pitcher and a hitter until the draft reached round 9 and 10 where the organization decided to take back to back catcher selections (Jasper Anderson & Phil Bowman).

Maple was then announced to be the host site for the 7th annual ABL Allstar game.  Unfortunately for the TML fans, the RCL won the game 5-2.  Dean Graham, 3B for Montreal was selected as the games MVP.

Maple Marauders: 1 Step Forward, 2 Steps Back...

Maple heads into the Rookie Draft in last place in the Billy Martin division, 11 GB.  Maple had some good momentum going up until the past 2 sims (3-10) to finish the month at 11-17.  Our struggles continue to be with divisional games.  San Francisco, South Carolina and Jersey are taking care of business versus our team.  Our divisional record is:  6-13.

Our bullpen, defense and team speed have improved;  however, our SP has been 1 step foward, 2 steps backwards since the 2014 season.  Our team SP ERA is 11th (2nd last in the TML).  Our organization had high hopes on some trades made to boost the rotation but, they just haven't paid off.  Dave Blake sits on rehab in Triple AAA Astoria & Robert Osborne has been inconsistent at the ABL level.  Our hope rests on last years International Free Agent sweepstakes win in landing:  SPs Gabresilassie Cherono, Felipe Moreno, Robinson Pedercini and Hayden Capel.  So it was no big surprise that in Round 1 of this years rookie draft, GM Goldberg took the mic and announced Ramu "Pepper" Pavi's name at the 6th overall selection.

The team has also announced it will take offers on OF Billy Greer & CL Ron Cutter.

Young & Palma enter the Managers office...

A couple of top prospects for Maple were asked to Manager after their AAA game with Astoria last night.  Rob "Tangles" Young SP and Manny "Blitz" Palma CL were given notice that they are heading to Maple to join the big club tonight for their first ABL action.  What a time to be called up, as the 2nd worst team in the league Maple hosts Brooklyn for a 3 game set.  Brooklyn has been over the past four seasons the elite team in the league.  Young will get the ball in Game 2 of the series while, Palma will settle in at middle relief to start.  There is strong speculation this move opens the door for Ron Cutter CL to be shopped to a contender before the deadline.  To make room for this prospects, Maple sent down Jonathan Martin MR and Jeff Andrews SP to AAA Astoria.  Martin refused to comment if the demotion was about his ABL stats or the fact that one of his teammates was rumored to have been intimidating Martin with nasty text messages.  In the Andrews case, he was just plain awful.

According to the OSA, Manny was 9th and Rob was 43rd overall rated prospects in minor league baseball.  Lets face it, Manny has had a roller coaster ride in the minors from the time he was acquired in a trade with Nottinghamshire.  "Blitz" finally got his game straight in very limited action in AAA Astoria this year;  8.2 IP, 5 H, 0 HR, 1 ER, 3 BB, 12 Ks, 1.04 ERA and a WHIP of 0.92.  So this is a gamble that the youngster is ready to take his game to the next level.  Meanwhile, "Tangles" who was acquired in a trade deadline move with division rival San Francisco last season for the "Big Ticket" has been stellar in the Maple Minor League system.  He had am impressive AA season last year to close out the year and in AAA Astoria this year he posted in five games started, 29.2 IP, 18 H, 3 HR, 11 ER, 9 BB, 16 K, 3.34 ERA and a WHIP of 0.91.

Maple is already 9.5 games back of Jersey and 6.5 games back of the wild card race in the TML.  They are also 2 games ahead of Dallas for having the worst record in the ABL.