SPB-2 1974 Season              Status:Week 20


AVERAGE
HOME RUNS
RBI's
WINS
ERA
STRIKEOUTS

Current League Champion

SPB1-1973 Champion

Steve Lehman
Seattle Totems

photo

The Totems captured their fourth SPB-2 title in five years, beating the Route 66 Hot Rods in six games. John Mayberry went 6-20 with 3HR and 4RBi, while Roy White slammed 3HRs as well with 8 RBI.

SPB-2 League Officers

Commissioner

Mike See

President

Gary Plunkitt

Statistician

Dave Lauer

Beat Writer

John Ungashick

SPB-2 News that's fit to print

December 18, 2022

1974 Pre-Season Prognosis

People yell and scream like litle children until they receive it. Why? Cause it's that good! Thank you again to John Ungashick with his 1974 Pre-Season prognosis. Enjoy!

October 28, 2022

Pre 1974 draft roster moves

As I had stated I would do before, the Oceanside Seagulls were allowed to pull from the available Free Agents Cuts to fill out a proper 27-Man Roster. Here were those moves for the Seagulls:

Add C Vic Correll (Hot Rods) - Cut C Ron Hodges
Add 2b Larry Lintz 2b (Elephants) - Cut: 1B Hal Breeden
Add SS Ed Brinkman SS (Barons) - Cut: Orlando Cepeda
Add SP Lerrin LaGrow (Barons) - Cut: MR Jim York
Add RP Orlando Pena (Royals) - Cut: Leo Cardenas
Add RP Vincente Romo (Sparkplugs) - Cut: Eddie Solomon

September 6, 2022

1974 Stadium Change

The Route 66 Hot Rods have vacated Veterans Stadium for the more cozy midwestern confines of Metropolitan Stadium.

The Hampton Road Cruisers vacate Candlestick Park for Veterans Stadium This leaves Candlestick Park, Oakland Coliseum, Arlington Stadium and Three Rivers Stadium available.

September 6, 2022

1973 Use or Lose Players

I have looked at the under usage for 1973 and it looks really good, with the exception of some relievers. I think in the case of using batters faced with RP’s, the 50% threshold is too high, as the number of innings RP’s in this era can throw can be incredibly difficult to replicate with the DMB game.

That said, with the small out there was, with no players of any real significance less their aforementioned relievers, I am waiving ANY and ALL use or lose losses for the 1973 season, and will re-evaluate these thresholds with the other commissioners and rule committee, likely lower it for Relievers.

Thanks for your understanding,

September 6, 2022

1974 Lottery results

Number was 2-5-9. Congratulations goes out to Chris Longo and his data city Schema Buster for landing the top overall pick! Order didn’t change much, just a swap of 1 and 2.

Data City Schema Busters (Chris Longo) - 63 Wins (3 Chances)
Oceanlake Seagulls (Marc Hollingsworth) - 54 Wins (4 Chances)
Portland Beavers (Rich Applegate) - 65 Wins* - (2 Chances)
East Kenosha Lakers (Dave Lauer via Trade) - 65 Wins (1 Chance)

January 1, 2022

1973 Pre-Season prognosis

We start off the new year with John Ungashick's great analysis of the upcoming 1973 season. Thanks John!

September 19, 2021

1973 Notes

A few notes to keep in mind during the off-season:
-- We will be using hte FULL DH for BOth leagues starting in 1973. Ensure you have enough PA to cover.
-- The RULE 5 Draft will begin 2 weeks from today, on Saturday Oct 2, 2021. All via email of course, with 3 rounds of drafting. YOUR 27 Man roster is due to Mike See NO LATER than Thursday September 30 at 9pm EST (6pm CST). Uncarded players do not count against this number. Remember, you do not get any of the player you are cutting back after the draft.

September 19, 2021

1973 Stadium Change carousel

Several franchises have moved into new abodes: Here is the list:

1) East Kenosha Lions (Dave Lauer) moves to the Astrodome, leaving County Stadium
2) Missouri Barons (Mike Boling) moves the KC Royals Stadium, vacating San Diego Stadium
3) Data City Schema Busters (Chris Longo), who wanted KC, settle for County Stadium, leaving the iconic home of his favorite team, Yankee Stadium
4) Ocean Lake Seagulls (Marc Hollingsworth) vacate Metropolitan Stadium for Yankee Stadium.
5) South River Gladiators (Joe Dezarlo) vacate Arlington Stadium for San Diego Stadium.

That leaves Metropolitan Stadium, Arlington Stadium, Oakland Coliseum and Three Rivers Stadium should you wish to relocate.

June 22, 2021

1973 World Series results

So the Angels had to beat my 117 win Hot Rods, 110 win 3 time champion Totems, and John Turnbull’s favored dragons, all who had home field advantage, to win his first World Series in 12 years. The most difficult road you could take to a title, and he did it. Wow! Especially after taking over a full rebuild just a few seasons ago!!

Amazing accomplishment Don! You are truly the Jedi Master, taking out all of us young guns….

Congratulations to both Don, Steve on a great series to wrap up our first full season of weekly play. In fact, congratulations to all of you on a great 1972 season. It was very smooth. Steve, you had a heck of. 3 year run and will certainly be back in 1973, as will the up and coming Angels, who now will have World Series Rings…..

Remember, universal DH is now upon us in 1973, and I’ll have the draft order and will begin work on the new database when I return from Cabo.

Trading my now commence though….

Thanks for an amazing 1973 season!

May 31, 2021

1973 Lottery results

Here is your lottery results for 1973. (2-5-4). Congrats to Stan Barkun for getting the top pick in 1973! Chris L, at least you still got second. Mike Boling’s Missouri Barons jump from 4 to 3.

1. Montreal Royals (Stan Barkun) – 54 Wins (3 Chances)
2. Data City Schema Busters (Chris Longo) 46 Wins (4 Chances)
3. Missouri Barons (Mike Boling)– 62 Wins (1 Chance)
4. Portland Beavers (Rich Applegate) – 57 Wins (2 Chances)

The 1973 Draft is a deep one….some great players for all of these teams no matter what…..

May 31, 2021

1972 Award Winners and League Leaders

It was a very fun 1972 Season! Though they missed the playoffs by one game, Marc Hollingsworth’s Oceanlake Seagulls led their division up until the final weeks, when usage caught up with them. His players dominated the NL leader boards, including MVP. Below are your league leaders for the 1972 season and league MVP’s. Who will be the playoff surprise with the Wild Card this year? Should be a fun postseason……here are your award winners for the 1972 Regular Season.

May 31, 2021

New manager for 1973 season

Happy to announce that our “Old” friend Mr. Mike Boling will be returning to SPB-2 for the 1973 season. Mike B. will be taking over the former Bay Sox franchise and renaming them the Missouri Barons. Welcome back Mike!!!

May 31, 2021

1972 end of season Use or Lose

1972 is the first season to have only a use or lose report, since overusage penalties are no longer in play. Click HERE to view the report.

May 31, 2021

1972 End of season Comparison

Linked HERE is the annual comparison of actual wins, expected wins and my preseason prognosis. For the entire American League and the NL East things ended up almost exactly as they should. The AL East had very little deviation between actual and expected wins and therefore fell right into line and my prognosis was right on. The AL West had some minor differences in actual and expected wins and this caused the Lions and Monarchs to flip one slot but the forecast was perfect.

In the NL East a significant negative variance between actual and expected wins found the Bishops falling to third when they should have been second with the same result in the forecast. The Royals and Schema Busters flipped the last two slots due largely to Data City having allowed the most runs in all of SPBII by quite a margin. However the NL West it was a different story. My preseason writeup had the Beavers forecast as the winners but when I rechecked my analysis I discovered that I must have been drinking when I wrote it up as the Sparkplugs, per my spreadsheet, were way ahead of everyone else. The Beavers and Fortress looked to be solid contenders for second with the Seagulls not far behind and the Wild Weasels bringing up the rear. Due to a complete collapse of their pitching staff, especially a bullpen which on paper looked very strong, the Beavers fell all the way to the cellar. Per the expected wins formula, the Seagulls, Wild Weasels and Fortress were all bunched together but significant over achievement by the Seagulls vaulted them to second place where they just barely missed the playoffs as a wild card. On to 1973!

November 4, 2020

New manager for start of 1972

Steve Ehresman has relinquished the Tippecanoe Voyageurs franchise. Taking his place will be SPB manager Marc Hollingsworth, who will rename the team to the Oceanlake Seals, and will be keeping Metropolitan Stadium. Welcome aboard Marc!

October 23, 2020

1972 Pre-Season prognosis

Linked is the 1972 Pre-Season prognosis. As quoted by John Ungashick: "This is a bit early but with the Pandemic I have nothing else to do! With the new rules, trades are allowed until halfway through the season and this report is based on the current rosters. A few teams have some "holes" that could be filled but it's unlikely they would acquire a player that would seriously change the dynamic of the various pennant races as three of the divisions seem a lock with only the NL West competitive. Read em and weep!" Thanks John!

September 8, 2020

1972 Rules Reminder

Remember, there are NO BONUS Players anymore, so if you are planning your usage, please account for this. ALL players will get a 10% bonus in 1972 (due to the 1972 Players strike wiping out games) so you can go to 110% on the usage meter (PA’s and Batters Faced), at which point that player will be farmed for the rest of the season. We will be rolling with 27 Man rosters this year for each series, so you’ll have a little more flexibility as well.

September 5, 2020

1972 Ballbark Change

Ron Peterson and his Colts have vacated the Astrodome in the middle of the night on Mayflower trucks for the "friendlier" confines of Comiskey Park.

That leaves the Astrodome, KC Royals Stadium, Oakland Coliseum and Three Rivers Stadium as the available parks.

July 24, 2020

1972 Rule 5 and Roster reminder

Before we begin, I want to announce that myself, in coordination with the league rules committee, has made a slight change to the new Rule 5 Format. We will still cut down to 27, and we will still draft 3 players, but WE WILL NOT have each team drafting 3 players at once. The Rule 5 draft will ALWAYS now look exactly like the Re-allocation draft did in post-1961 Leagues. 3 Rounds, 1 pick per team per round in reverse order of the standing and playoffs.

Bottom line with this was: With protecting 27 players now, allowing teams to pick 3 at a time was going to render the end of the Rule 5 nearly worthless, at least in terms of accomplishing its goal, which is to help team fill holes they might have. So it has been officially changed for ALL post 1961 leagues from here forward.

The Trade Deadline and deadline for 27 man roster submissions will be Sunday August 2nd at 9pm EST. All trading will be frozen at that time and until after the completion of the Rule 5 draft.

Cutting down to 27 will be easy for some, and more difficult for others. Some may not even have 27, and if not, I would encourage you to make a deal to get to that number. I imagine this is going to generate some interesting trades, and player shifting. That is just fine. Goal here is to balance the rosters and make sure you have more quality rosters as well, so if you have players that can’t keep (and remember, once you cut them, THEY DO NOT COME BACK TO YOUR ROSTER AFTER THE DRAFT, even if they are not taken) and they can help another teams needs, trade away!

ALL TEAMS PROTECT 27, no matter the record.

The Rule 5 draft will then commence via email the week of August 3rd.

July 12, 2020

1972 Stadium Changes

The Fairfax Colts abandon the Astrodome and move into the friendlier confines of Comiskey Park

The Kansas City Barons are blowing up KC Municipal and moving to a new park on the river. They will call it Riverfront Stadium.

Dave Lauer's East Kenosha Lions have left Comiskey park and will now call Milwaukee's County Stadium home.

That leaves now what are (4) available parks. KC Municipal (Royals Stadium beginning in 1973), Oakland Coliseum, Astrodome and Three Rivers Stadium.

July 9, 2020

1972 Positional losses

The linked text file contains the positional losses for the 1972 database.

July 9, 2020

1972 Schedule Notes

SPB-2 Commish Mike See has put together some schedule notes to outline the dates and guidelines for the upcoming season, which will be the first with weekly play.

July 7, 2020

1971 Champions....threepeat!

Thanks to Steve and Joe for playing this series so quickly, and much congratulations goes out the Steve Lehman for his 3rd straight SPB-2 World Championship. First manager to also 3-peat in two different leagues. Amazing Feat for sure since it has never happened in 28 years prior (That said, you still need 2 more to match the all time SPB record of 5 straight World Series titles by yours truly in SPB-60 from 1953-57,

Also, my congrats go out to Joe Dezarlo for putting up a fine battle in this series against a very formidable team and franchise. I have a feeling Joe’s Gladiators are going to be a force to be reckoned with for the rest of the 1970’s.

July 3, 2020

1972 Draft Lottery results

Illinois Evening Pick 3 Lottery Numbers were: 2-7-0

Results:
1. NY Mets (Don Rahn) – 57 Wins (3 Chances)
2. Montreal Royals (Stan Barkun) – 51 + 4 Wins (4 Chances)
3. LA Angels (Don Zminda)– 62 Wins - (2 Chances)
4. East Kenosha Lions (Dave Lauer)– 63 Wins (1 Chance)

Congrats to Don Rahn for landing the top pick! Could we see Michael Jack in a Mets Uni? We shall see……

July 2, 2020

1971 End of year reports

As is customary....and for the last time in SPB-2, I present to you the 1971 USE OR LOSE and OVERUSAGE reports.

June 27, 2019

Upcoming 1972 Changes. Trading freeze and Contraction

If you have read my end of season email, you likely noticed that I put a freeze on ALL trades until after the completion of the 1971 World Series.

Here is the reason why.

With the new rules we will be implementing for the 1972 season, one of the most difficult parts of these changes is that we needed to contract (2) of our existing teams. It’s the great thing about having such a strong league of managers…..but in this case, made it a bit more difficult for me.

The two teams being Contracted are the Hudson Valley Renegades of Sean Comerford (manager with the least league seniority) and the Milwaukie Pilots of long time SPBer Marc Hollingsworth, who after discussing via phone, is voluntarily giving up his franchise for now.

Both the these managers are of course excellent, and this was a very difficult thing for me to do, but it is very much in the long term best interests of our leagues to do this. Both managers leave in great standing and will be #1 and #2 on the wait list for the next available. franchises. My hope is that both will be back with us soon. Thanks for both Sean and Marc for their time and effort put into SPB-2.

___________________________________________________

That leaves us in a pace where we have never been. At the conclusion of the 1971 World Series, before we begin ANY trading, we will be holding the first ever CONTRACTION DRAFT.

This draft will be held in reverse order of the 1971 standings, it will not include ANY penalties and will be based on standings only. It will be a 2 round, 40 player email draft, where ANY of the carded players from the Pilots and Renegades being available) with any remaining players being made available in the Rule 5 (Free Agent) draft later in the off season. CONTRACTION DRAFT PICKS CAN NOT BE TRADED.

There are some pretty darn good players on these two franchises, so it is going to have a significant impact on the younger teams in our league.

Also, if order to put each of our leagues on a more balcned schedule so that John and I can act as league stats for weekly play, we will be moving up the Rookie Draft and season start dates for SPB-2 by 2 month, The rookie draft will now be in September, and the Season will start Nov 1 (instead of Draft in November and Jan 1 start).

I will be sending out another announcement about the timing of this email draft at the completion of the 1971 World Series. Once this draft takes place, trading will begin.

Please email me should you have any questions, and thanks.

May 22, 2020

1971 September stats posted

The stats and power rankings for September 1972 are now posted.

In the NL, their the battle for the wild card slots remained. In the NL West, with the defending Champion Seattle Totems having long ago clinched the division, it came down to the Wild Card race. And what looked like a cake walk into the Wild Card for the Portland Beavers turned fierce battle with the RED HOT Winter Harbor Seals, who went 8-2 over their final 10 games. Only a extra inning win in the Beavers second to last game of the season over the KC Barons, prevented the Seals from forcing a 1 game Wild Card Play-in Game for all the marbles. The Frankfort Clinched the #1 Wild Card sport, whole Rich Applegate’s Barons slide into the #2 slot.

In the NL East, the Tippecanoe Voyageurs clinched long ago and had a firm grip on the #2 Divisional playoff slot.

Your National 7 game Playoff matchups will be:

Series 1 – The Seattle Totems #1 (Steve Lehman) VS #4 Portland Beavers (Rich Applegate)
Series 2 – The Tippecanoe Voyageurs #2 (Steve Ehresman) VS Frankfort Fortress #3 (Gary Plunkitt)

Congrats to Steve L, Steve E, Gary and Rich for making the playoffs!

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

In the AL East, the South River Gladiators, who had been behind most of the season, barely squeaked out the division title by 1 game for the Evanston Elephants. The Elephants still made the playoffs however as the #2 Wild Card. Congrats to both Joe D and John U!

In the AL West, my Hot Rods had clinched long ago, but the Thud Ridge Wild Weasels used a late season surge to surpass the Elephants for the top Wild Card Seed.

Your American 7 game Playoff matchups will be:

Series 1 – The Route 66 Hot Rods #1 (Mike See) VS #4 Evanston Elephants (John Ungashick)
Series 2 – The South River Gladiators #2 (Joe Dezarlo) VS Thud Ridge Wild Weasels #3 (Terry Baxter)

Congrats to Me, Joe D, Terry and John U for making the playoffs!

December 28, 2019

1971 Pre-Season Prognosis

Thanks always to John Ungaschick for his award-winning and honest as a southern gentleman synopsis of the upcoming 1971 season. Thanks John!

December 22, 2019

1971 Last team name change

With his move to a new home, Rick Ryan has also decided to relocate his Mulberry Marauders to their new home as well, and are now the Speedway Sparkplugs.

October 7, 2019

1971 Stadium Changes

Here are the Stadium changes for the 1971 Season:

The Route 66 Hot Rods have vacated Yankee Stadium and have moved into Veterans Stadium.
The Data City Schema Busters have claimed Yankee Stadium, and have relinquished Fulton County Stadium

Fulton County Stadium and the Oakland Coliseum are the two available parks.

September 23, 2019

1971 - Call for Protected roster

It is that time of year again as we head into 1971. Time for the 1971 Rule V Draft, which means I need your cutdowns soon. We will begin the draft the week of Sept 30th via email, so I need your protected list to me no later than Sunday Sept 29th at 6pm PST. So you have about 2 weeks to make trades. The new data base was sent in the previous email.

Here are the amounts that each team can protect:

21 Players Protected
Los Angeles Angels
Nanoose Bay Sox
Kansas City Barons
Milwaukie Pilots
Montreal Royals

20 Players Protected
Thud Ridge Wild Weasels
Hudson Valley Renegades
Mulberry Marauders
Evanston Elephants
Tippacanoe Voyageurs
Salzburg Bishops
Frankfort Fortress
Data City Schema Busters
East Kenosha Lions
West Warwick Monarchs
Winter Harbor Seals
Fairfax Colts

19 Players Protected
South River Gladiators
Portland Beavers
New York Mets
Route 66 Hot Rods
Seattle Totems

Your protected lists are due soon, and the deadline is Sunday (September 29th at 6pm PST) They should be received by me no later than 6:00P.M. PST. At that time, ALL ROSTERS WILL BE FROZEN AND NO TRADES MAY BE MADE UNTIL THE RULE V DRAFT IS COMPLETED.

Please send me an MP with your cutdowns, along with a list via email of protected, unprotected and uncarded players

July 15, 2019

1971 - Wild Card official

We will be adding two Wild Card per conference for the 1971 Season.

In addition to switch to Best of 7 format for both main playoff series in each conference, in the event of a Wild Card Tie, the following would apply:

There would be a best of 3 series to determine the winner, with best H2H record getting Home field. If that’s tied, better run differential get home field.

In the event of a 3 way tie for a spot, the team with the highest run differential will be automatically put into the 3 game playoff, with the lower two teams playing a 1-game play in game, with better H2H record hosting, or best run differential.

In the event of a 4 way tie for a spot, the Highest Run differential will play the lowest in a one game play in game, and two middle teams would also play a 1 game play in game to get to the best of 3.

Hopefully that covers almost all the bases. Really looking forward to these changes. Going to make for some very exciting playoff races!!!!

Calendar

Jan 13, 2023

Season begins

Jul 2023

Playoffs begin

Historical Information

Established: 1992
Starting Season: 1944
Seasons: 28
Games: 35174
Trades: 1114

Page last updated
May 18, 2023