Bay 12 Games Forum

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.

October 22, 1993
Philadelphia, PA

It was indeed a wild season (More wild than Mr. Moody's fever dream in fact).  On the final day of the season the standings looked like this:



With a three way tie for the pennant, it was decided by the league's commissioner that a three game round robin would be played to determine the league winner, as well as the wild card.


Philadelphia secures a wild card with an 11th inning walk off home run by SS Jeff Bradley.


Los Angeles is eliminated and Phoenix will play Philadelphia to determine the 1993 Pennant winner


Phoenix comes back from a 3-run deficit in the 8th inning to take the 1993 Pennant, becoming the most successful expansion team in ABL history!

Phoenix befuddled all expectations to become the top seed in the Championship round, and would play Philadelphia in a 7-game series to determine the who was the best team in the ABL in 1993.



The preview for the championship:



And let's see the games:









And Philadelphia take the 1993 ABL championship in 5 games, making it two years in a row they've taken the crown!  Second baseman Jake Gilmartin took the series MVP with a .500 AVG, 3 HRs and 6 RBIs for the Brothers.  The clock struck midnight on the Cinderella Phoenix club and when it counted most they turned back into a pumpkin (Alright, gonna stop using that mixed metaphor from here on out).  The results of this season means the only team not to play in the playoff so far are the Los Angeles Hollywood Knights, who sadly could not close out down the stretch, losing their final 6 games.

1993 Awards
MVP - Jake Gilmartin 2B PHI .404 AVG 9 HRs 39 RBIs
Pitcher of the Year - Mario Marquez SP HOU 5-4 66 Ks 2.73 ERA
Manager of the Year - Eric Fogle HOU
Rookie of the Year - Cason Sheehan LF PHX .386 AVG 8 HRs 32 RBIs
Reliever of the Year - Chuck McMurtry 11 SVs 2 Ws 0.73 ERA

All-Stars
P - Mario Marquez SP HOU 6.7 K/9 89 IP 2.3 WAR
C - Danny Sain C NY .372 AVG 8 HRs 2.6 WAR
1st - Dan McGaughey LA .331 AVG 33 RBIs 2.1 WAR
2nd - Jake Gilmartin PHI .515 OBP 8 SBs 4.2 WAR
3rd - Justin Maric CHI .380 AVG 10 HRs 2.7 WAR
SS - Jeff Bradley PHI .349 AVG 9 SBs 3.4 WAR
LF - Justin Shults HOU .357 AVG 31 RBIs 2.0 WAR
CF - Nick Bruyn CHI .259 AVG 8 HRs 0.8 WAR
RF - Sean Moore LA .327 AVG 8 HRs 2.7 WAR

And a quick look at the coming offseason:

Notable Retirements
Billy Phares - RF Season record holder for HRs (18), Slugging (.880) and OPS (1.370)
Kyle Eames - P Career record for IP (236)

Top Free Agents
Yoshiyau Kimura RF Age: 26 2x All-Star (CF + LF)
Jorge Orrego 3B 4x Age: 31 All-Star (3B), 1990 ABL MVP, 1991 Championship MVP
Jesse Miller 1B Age: 30 2x All-Star (1B)
Tim Armstrong 2B Age: 37 Career walks leader
Brett Bruce RP 2x Age: 30 Reliever of the Year

(Since the 1993 year was wiped out, best we take it fresh and try to explain it in universe.  And sadly, the universe obliged with just such an opportunity.)
April 11, 1993
Houston TX

The ABL family was stunned today as founder of the league, Kyle Moody, succumbed to illness and passed away.  BNN reports:



Kyle Moody dreamed of a world of baseball, where fans would be enraptured by fantastic athletes playing a game that was truly American.  He dreamed of the teams in the league having breathtaking pennant chases, of unlikely champions and even the occasional terrible pun in the sports writing that would document the league.  He dreamt that the Houston Noise would be a dynasty, but also that even expansion teams like Los Angeles and Phoenix would compete in the ABL, and that someday the world would join in.  It felt like sign from god that the same month the league began, the Berlin Wall was torn down and the world began to reconcile.  With that thought, and the determination of his son, Brad Moody, to fulfill that vision, the league would begin forming associations with teams from across the globe, and perhaps even have a tournament that would rival the Olympics and World Cup.  Upon taking the control of Houston, Brad Moody began making plans and talking with business people across the Mexican border. 

Before the end of the 20th century, the ABL will be partnering with a new league in Mexico to further those dreams.  In anticipation of this, Mexican players will be allowed into the ABL draft in the 1994 season, with hopes that other countries will understand the that not only is baseball a viable product outside the United States, but it is destined to become the premier sport across the world.  Brad Moody has also called upon New York King's owner Wayne Webb to speak with his Canadian clientele to see if there's interest in building a league for homegrown talent up north.


^{Young Brad Moody, man with a plan}

(The crash and this event has reminded me to refocus on the global aspect of this.  Plus, I've noticed that using only International FA discovery to expand foreign born players is becoming a little troublesome unless I want team to carry huge reserve rosters, which really doesn't help with expansion.  It'll also help the quality of domestic leagues if they have some ready made stars who will want to sign in their home countries come the time these leagues start.)

[Alternate History Alert!]
September 1, 1993
Los Angeles, CA

With the season dwindling down to the final 10 games, all teams are still alive and the excitement in the air is palpable. 



New York is nearly guaranteed a playoff spot, but besides that all bets are off.  Notably, the expansion Phoenix Nightmare have confounded all expectations and are one game out of the Wild Card spot, with 3 games over the next ten against Philadelphia.  Chicago and Houston are also in the thick of it as well, and even with an amazing run of luck Los Angeles could conceivably make up the 4 games between them and Philly and make the playoffs.  In other news, this sportcaster/commissioner will have to eat a little bit of crow, as Sergio Franco has turned back into a pumpkin after being picked up off waivers by the Hollywood Knights, posting a .242 AVG in the month of August.



With that said, let's take a look at the league leaders and players of the month of august as we head into the final stretch.



Players of the Month:
Hitter - Danny Sain C NY .457 AVG 7 HRs 22 RBIs
Pitcher - Eric Wachter SP 4 Ws 45 Ks 3.25 ERA
Rookie - Chris Herd CF .409 AVG 4 HRs 17 RBIs

July 9th, 1993
Phoenix, AZ

Opening day is upon us once again, and we're about to experience the first season of the Phoenix Nightmare.  Let's meet the owner, the most evil man in all of American music, Alice Cooper!


^{Cleans up nice, don't he?  Really hiding a lot of hair under that cap}

While not expected to compete this season, they do have two quite notable players on the roster.  Over the offseason they signed Billy Phares, the aging slugger and current holder of the season record for HRs at 18, and Tim Armstrong, who is actually the career record holder for walks.  Inspired by that, I decided to put together a list of some players who hold career marks in the league who haven't been profiled so far.


Tim Armstrong 2B PHX Age: 36
With 126 career walks, he is the record holder so far in ABL, even though he missed the 1991 season to injury.  In every season he's played he has lead the league in bases on balls, but even so his patience may be tested on the expansion PHX team.  Then again, he played through the 15 game losing streak the Wind went through last year, so perhaps he's just the man to steer the team through it's maiden season.


Yoshiyau Kimura RF PHI Age: 25
Released by the New York Kings in the offseason, he moved to defending champion Philadelphia Brothers, where he will likely be instrumental in their title defense.  The career leader in runs at 120, he's known to be fiercely loyal and a great leader of the clubhouse, though only time will tell if a team will actually reward him for those traits with a long and lucrative contract.


Ryan Keller 3B HOU Age: 31
Ryan Keller is the career leader in singles (119) and triples (19) and according to BNN is known as "The Energizer Bunny".  With an amazing work ethic, he led the league in doubles with the Chicago Wind last year and has been named the best fielder at 3B twice, in 1989 and 1992.


Kyle Eames SP HOU Age: 35
The career leader in starts (31), innings pitched (207.2), wins (17) and hits allowed (218).  While his skills may be eroding, leading the league in walks per 9 innings and home runs allowed in 1992, he is sitting in the #3 spot of Houston's rotation. His ability as a workhorse should see him add to these totals through the 1993 season.


Hank Underwood RP NY Age: 27
With the ignoble mark of 24 home runs allowed in 4 seasons, he is the career leader in the category.  A second round pick from the 1989 ABL draft, he has steadily improved his pitching over the past 4 years, to a career low 2.91 ERA in 1992.  Also notable as perhaps the best hitting pitcher in the league, with a .478 AVG, 2 HRs and 8 RBIs in 53 plate appearances, adding 0.8 WAR over his career.

We'll also check in on the free agents from the end of last season:
RF Yoshiyau Kimura Age: 25 1 year $6,800 PHI
C Chris Murphy 1 year $1,540 CHI
RP Chad Erickson 1 year $990 LA
RP Matt Hartenberger  Minor League Contract PHX (Ouch)
SP Greg Potter 1 year $1040 PHI

Finally, we'll take a look at the Preseason projections for the 1993 season:



Looks like Philadelphia is in the catbird seat for another championship, though the New York Kings are expected to compete after the doldrums they suffered through in 1992.  The rest of the league isn't expected to be so competitive, but considering that no one saw the Chicago's 15 game losing streak coming last year, who knows if a hot (or cold) streak will lead to the unexpected.  (And hey, everyone has a 50 game schedule, Hoorah!)

(Alright this one might be a little confusing, it totally is for me.  Perhaps because I messed with a few setting in the offseason, but rosters are a little crazy and are filled with a lot more younger players.  However, I can report that one week into the season Adam Williquette has finally been promoted off the reserve roster.  Since it's a young league I'm guessing that a little insanity is fine though, and I'm sure through the season it'll start to make more sense.  Also, while everyone has 44 games, somehow New York has 45.  That appears to be mathematically impossible, but at this point I don't really want to start over.  Next year will have an expansion team and hopefully moving to a 6 team 50 game season should calm things in scheduling and I'm going to try to refrain from touching any settings until something makes sense.)

The offseason is over and we're looking forward to opening day of 1992.  The biggest news is that the 1992 may go down in memory as one of the most heralded draft classes of all time, with many picks even making opening day rosters.  It's too soon to tell whether managers have simply become too enamored with their own selections or if they are ready to take the league by storm and relegate the original batch of ABL players to the benches.  Since the future already appears to be the present, let's take a look at the draft class:



12 of these 15 players from the first 3 rounds have ended up on opening day rosters, suggesting we'll be hearing from these players often in the years to come.

(I was also going to update the offseason top FAs, but after seeing that reigning MVP Billy Phares was signed to a 1 year $5000 contract only to be released later and then signed a league minimum contract with NY... so uhh... we'll just skip that.  On the bright side, he has a starting spot, so we'll keep everyone up to date on whether he can maintain last season's torrid pace, or whether he's going to get pinched for steroids)

Let's take a look at the preseason predictions:



Surprisingly enough, Philadelphia is looking strong to end their run of futility and compete for the title this year.  So let's take a look at opening day rosters and find out why the experts are so convinced that it may just be the Brothers year.


C - Mike Crain
1st - Jake Knapp
2nd - Justin Maric
3rd - Mark Nesbit
SS - Tim Armstrong
LF - Nick Slone
CF - Greg Threlkeld
RF - Jalen Mitchell

Rotation
1- Josh Mathes
2- Dave Fregoso
3- Travis Bryson
4- Chris Cunliffe
5- Eddie Unsworth

CL - Miguel Ramirez

Filled with rookies and journeymen, the most experienced player is SS Tim Armstrong, who anchored the midfield for Houston before fracturing his elbow in the 1991 preseason.  Otherwise it appears the Wind are committing to the youth movement after their disappointing loss in last year's championship series when the team faded down the stretch of the season.


C - Chance Wallace
1st - Brett Caauwe
2nd - Pat Bachman
3rd - Alex Diaz
SS - Ian McArdle
LF - Justin Shults
CF - Shaun Shook
RF - Victor Lopez

Rotation
1 - Mario Marquez
2 - Chester Simons
3 - Kyle Eames
4 - Frank Anderson
5 - Pedro Flores

CL - Mike Murphy

Houston appears to be relying on solid pitching and not much else again this year, with their first round pick (#3 overall) taking over the top of the rotation.  He is considered the #1 prospect in the league, so the young man may be ready to step up from Dallas Baptist University to the big leagues.  One of the biggest questions is whether moving perrenial ace Mike Murphy to the bullpen will pan out, as their rotation outside of Marquez and Chester Simons is rather unheralded.  Pat Bachman, 2-time all-star who signed from New York in the offseason, will be expected to anchor the batting lineup.


C - Bobby Vera
1st - Jesse Huffman
2nd - Julio Herrera
3rd - Trent Offutt
SS - Danny Mendoza
LF - Steve Hagen
CF - Ryan McCormick
RF - William Serrano

Rotation
1 - Eric Wachter
2 - Eric Suszek
3 - Michael Raine
4 - Nate McCray
5 - Jordan Cobos

CL - Nick Bennett

Another team going with the youth movement, perhaps the biggest story out of the team is 3 time all-star and mainstay of last year's team, Adam Williquette, appears to be in the doghouse with management and is currently languishing on the reserve roster.  Even his $5,000 a year contract was not enough to guarantee him a roster spot in the early going, and his status bears watching if journeyman Danny Mendoza struggles in the starting shortstop position.


C - Danny Sain
1st - R.J. Lowry
2nd - Chris Motes
3rd - Jorge Orrego
SS - Jeff Levitan
LF - John Zehrung
CF - Omar Stephens
RF - Billy Phares

Rotation
1 - Ken Baldree
2 - Chris Howard
3 - Travis Morgan
4 - Mark Shores
5 - Jayson Filer

Cl - John Graham

With a surprising mid-offseason move, Chicago released Yoshiyau Kimura and New York was all too happy to offer him a roster spot.  With two time rookie of the year Omar Stephens and championship series MVP Jorge Orrego as well as reigning MVP Billy Phares, the Kings have by far the best batting lineup in the league.  Their young pitching staff will definitely be tested, but they certainly will be entertaining to watch this season, don't expect many one-run games out of this team.


C - Ryan Meehan
1st - Dan McGaughey
2nd - Jake Gilmartin
3rd - Armando Dominguez
SS - Jeff Bradley
LF - Eric Wilbur
CF - Brandon Honora
RF - Jonathan Harrill

Rotation
1 - Jesus Canas
2 - Adam Johnstone
3 - Reginald Kelly
4 - Payton Messier
5 - Alden Bent

CL - Mitch Kurak

It is truly the year of the young, as Philadelphia oldest batter in the lineup is greybeard Jake Gilmartin at the ripe age of 22 years old.  While there is some experience in the pitching staff, including veteran Mitch Kurak, there is some buzz that the propects collected over the past 3 years may help Philadelphia get over the hump and get to their first playoff championship series.

In other exciting news, the board of directors have approved an expansion team for 1993, and are very excited to introduce: The PHOENIX NIGHTMARE!  An investor group headed by the original prince of darkness (and aspiring radio show host), Alice Cooper, will run the team and bring the total of ABL teams to 6.  These are heady times for the young league, but with a larger player pool than ever and record setting attendance records in the previous season, the ABL is confident that they will fit right in, at least as much as a group of misfits and miscreants can.

Say hello to your worst nightmare:


(Also, going to skip the midseason report as it's probably going to take a season for the roster alignments of the offseason to shake out.)

I tend to locate myself on flat lands close to sea level, so most forts have a walled in area for fruit gathering with a simple ramped path downward.  If I get a few years in, the fort tends to have an immediate 1-2 z-levels below the surface for animal grazing (Usually in the footprint of the first year's shelter), with separate entrances for merchants and dwarfs for the main fort below (Usually 20-30 z-levels).

For the past few forts that have made it a couple of years, The dwarves travel down a 1x3 staircase that connects the pastures to the fort, while the merchant entrance winds down around the staircase.  It's 4 tiles wide as the outmost tile is reserved for minecarts that bring surface level material to the workshops, while also allowing dwarves and merchant wagons to pass.  I tend to have workshop area that spans ~5 z-levels, with 6 workshops per room, with quantum stockpiles of material delivered by a maze of minetracks throughout the workshop area.  Basically the goal of every fort is to keep barrels for drink and the barest amount of bins possible (to stop job cancellations).

While I can't say it's terribly practical or easy, it does tend to keep the FPS up and job cancellations low (at least once you get everything set up, expect tons of job cancellations until you can get the cart paths to actually work and get everything, and named creature's teeth/odd body parts tend to require manual dumping).