The Blog of Regular Joes World

Season 27 - Issue #5

May 22, 2021

 

Well, this is the last installment of the players I ranked as the top 25 in Regular Joe’s world.  I hope it’s been informative and enjoyable.  As I mentioned before the 1^st installment, I created a spreadsheet that works somewhat similar to the HBD Draft’s Formula Builder, (which I never use by the way). 

This spreadsheet is giving various “weighting scales” to assorted rating categories; comparing every player’s current rating in the categories, and then combining them all to arrive at a final weighted grade.  For example…I perceive control in a pitcher to be very important.  I apply a certain weight to that rating grade, etc.  It’s complicated to explain any further in an essay like this without making everyone bleary eyed.

I only mention it, because I want to emphasize that this is my grading based on what I am shown by WIS.  It’s not written in stone.  I respect differences of opinion, and I am sure you all have some kind of at least basic method of evaluating the players in this game.  There is nothing that says my evaluation method is any better than any of yours.

BTW, if anyone would like to post a story to the blog.  Let me know, and I’ll help you do so.  The commish has given me two rules for posting. 

1.        No evaluations of amateur draft prospects until after the draft has taken place.

2.        No articles criticizing trades.

 

Well, let’s get started on the essays covering the players that I perceive to be the top five players in Regular Joes world.

I will follow this article with some brief lists of “honorable mentions” – perhaps like top player on each team, best five pure hitters, best five pure fielders, best relief pitchers.

 

 

#5.          Willie Lopez       Huntington Motorboaters – AL South                     26-year old 3^rd Baseman

Willie Lopez, Huntington’s stellar, young 3^rd baseman occupies the 5^th spot on my list.  This is the 5^th Huntington player to land a spot in the top 25.

Willie has played his entire 6-season career for the Huntington franchise.  He was originally obtained from the season 21 International Free Agent pool, when the Motorboaters outbid other teams, providing Lopez with a $35.5M bonus to sign.  That was the biggest bonus given to any of the IFA prospects that season.   It seems that the teams in the American League South dip deep into the IFA pool each season.  It is a division with outstanding teams!

After cashing his IFA bonus, the 20-year old Cuban prospect bought himself a mansion in Miami and a yacht before reporting to Huntington’s AA affiliate, driving up to his first practice in a Lamborghini Aventador SVJ LP770-4 Roadster, an expensive Cuban cigar hanging from his mouth, flashy, silk shirt with a vibrant red parrot print on a lime green background, white swimming trunks and expensive Italian leather sandals and repeating “Si.  Soy Rico Gringos! Si, So Rico Gringos!” (that is… “Yes, I am rich you gringos!”) to every question posed by the media. 

But seriously; in his first professional season he played only 44 games at AA, hitting .321 with 9 HR’s and 16 stolen bases.  He played shortstop and fielded only .888 with no plus plays. 

In his 2^nd pro season, he played 22 games at AA, again at shortstop and fielding much better at .984 and hitting 6 HR’s in only 77 at bats.  He was then promoted to the major leagues.  Moved to 3^rd base at the ML level (as a 21-year old), he hit .302 with 26 homeruns in 108 games, garnering 71 rbi’s and 32 stolen bases.  Huntington’s major league ball park is ranked the 2^nd best hitter’s ball park in our world.

Lopez has now played four and three-quarter seasons in the major league and has a present lifetime batting average of .292 with 163 homeruns 541-rbis’s and 202 stolen bases.  He has twice had more than 200 hits in a season.  Here is another guy who is a candidate for the 40/40 club.  In his four complete seasons he’s had two 30/30 seasons already!

In all four of his complete major league seasons he’s knocked in more than 100 runs and he’s durable; missing only seven games in those four seasons and in two of those seasons, playing all 162 regular season games. 

He has only played 3^rd base at the major league level and it looks like he rarely comes off the field.  His lifetime fielding percentage is .974 with a range of 3.24 and he has made 65 plus plays and only one minus play.  His defensive ratings show him to be a perfect 3^rd base candidate, with very good range for the position, sure hands and plenty of arm. 

Willie’s speed and power are at about the 70^th percentile, not as high as some of the others on the list ranked just below him.   His hitting splits are higher.   His batting eye and contact numbers combined with those splits are surely sufficient to have him around the .300 mark every season.  He gets a boost in rank owing to his ability to play a defensive position other than leftfield or 1^st base and play it well.

He was the Rookie of the Year in the American League in season 22 even though he only played 108 major league games (26 HR’s and 32 stolen bases and an average of .302 is a pretty good Rookie season even if one had played closer to 162 games in the majors).

He followed that up with the American League MVP award in season 23.  He’s been on the American League All-Star team four times in his five ML seasons and has been the Silver Slugger 3^rd baseman in that league in three seasons.  All he needs now is a World Championship ring!

Perez is in his 2^nd Arbitration season, and dbreez signed him to a one-year $9.4M contract.  If that was his 2^nd arb season agreement, one can only imagine what he’ll be asking for in his 3^rd and last arbitration season!

 

#4           Hiroki Wan          Houston Bulls – AL South                              26-year old 3^rd Baseman

Next in our countdown to #1 is Hiroki Wan, Houston’s young and talented infielder.  Wan is the 6^th Houston player on this list of top 25.

Wan is from Naja, Japan and was discovered by Houston’s International Free agent scouting team in season 22.   He signed a $20M bonus to make his living in Houston.  That was the 3^rd highest bonus given to any IFA that season.  NOTE:  See Benny Domingo player #8 on this list, who also was signed out of the IFA pool that season by Houston. 

Immediately sent to High A after signing, Wan played 129 games, splitting his defensive time between five positions, but playing shortstop most often, (about 45% of the time).  He fielded .947 at SS but made five plus plays and no minus plays.  Offensively, he hit .350 with 31 HR’s, 129-rbi’s and 23 stolen bases. 

Wan spent season 23 in AA, where he exclusively at shortstop, fielding .945 with six plus plays.  He hit .283 in AA with 24 Homeruns and 27 stolen bases.

Then he played two full seasons at AAA, playing mostly shortstop the 1^st season and mostly 3^rd base his second season.  He improved defensively at shortstop in AAA, fielding .965, but made a few poor plays.  In the 2^nd season AAA while playing 3^rd base, he excelled, fielding .970, while making 17 great plays and never making a bad one.

In the two full seasons at AAA, Wan hit about a combined .321 while smashing an average of 31 homeruns and stealing an average of 26 bases per season.

Hiroki started season 26 at AAA, played the obligatory 24 games there to save a year of major league service time and was promoted to the big leagues.  In 135 games in the major leagues that season, he hit .288 with 27 Homeruns and 24 stolen bases.  Oddly, his total walks were down about 33% from levels he achieved in the minors while he struck out at a similar rate.

He only played 3^rd base in that 1^st major league season but improved defensively compared to how he fielded at 3^rd in the minors, making only 8 errors, fielding .982 and making 19 plus plays.  It’s his defensive capability which sees him being an excellent 3^rd basemen who could capably play short stop in a pinch, that boosts him above some others who are similar hitters but are less dynamically gifted defensive players.  For a 3^rd baseman, he has great range, a great glove and a cannon for an arm.

He has very good speed to combine with good base running skills and his hit ratings suggest that he will be around the .300 mark, while hitting around 25-30 HR’s and stealing 30 bases a season…another player capable of being a frequent 30-30 guy.

His health and stamina are a little concerning.  He may need to be pampered to avoid injury.

He was an All-Star at every level that he played in the minors, was a Silver Slugger shortstop, AAA season 24; a Silver Slugger 3^rd baseman, AAA season 25, and won a ML World Series ring last season.

He has yet to complete a full major league season and is playing on a one year $343k ML salary this season and has three full seasons to play before even reaching arbitration.  Wan is at the very beginning of a long and potentially great career and should be a staple at 3^rd base in Regular Joes world for the next 10-12 years.

 

#3           Jenrry Urias                 Austin Express – NL South              30-year old Starting Pitcher

In real major league baseball, there have been more misses with the number one pick in the Amateur Draft than there have been hits.  In HBD, it’s hardly ever a miss, but when Jenrry Urias was picked with the 1^st pick in the 1^st round in Regular Joes season 15 Amateur draft, for the team selecting him, it was a Homerun. 

He was drafted as an 18-yr old out of Lebanon High School, in Lebanon, Illinois.  Urias held out until he was given a bonus of $9.73M.

(An aside:  Every time I’ve selected an 18-year old pitcher in the 1^st round, and placed him at any level above Rookie ball, he’s come down with a significant career damaging injury.  I simply do not put 18-year old pitchers at any level but Rookie ball any longer.) 

This is the most dominant pitcher in this world!  I’ll say it again, with emphasis.  This is the most dominating pitcher in the world!!

Jenrry has played all his 12 professionally seasons for this franchise.  He was originally drafted when the franchise was playing in Tampa Bay.  In season 17, the franchise was moved to Richmond.  In season 18 it was moved to Texas; it was season 18 when he first arrived in the major leagues.

In his minor league career he started in Rookie ball and in 14 starts he won 10 and lost 2 with a WHIP of 1.14 and 2.46 ERA.  Promoted to Low A for his 2^nd season, he wasn’t used with regularity, only getting into 17 games and going 7 and 8 with an ERA of 2.08.  Season 17 saw a promotion to High A.  There he went 22 & 5; 1.08 WHIP and 2.78 ERA.  At every stop he struck out more than a batter an inning. 

Season 18 saw him start at AA, dominate there going 15-1; then get promoted to AAA, DOUBLE DOMINATE there, going 7 & 1 in 8-starts with a WHIP of 0.81 and an ERA of 0.71.  To top off Season 18, he finished in the major leagues, going 3 & 0 in five starts with an ERA of 0.78 and a WHIP of 0.98.  What a Season!!

His 1^st full major league season, playing for Texas, he started 33 games, winning 19 and losing only 7 with a 3.24 ERA.  Texas tends to favor the hitters.  In total he pitched two seasons in Texas winning a total of 36 games.

The franchise was then moved to Charlotte.  Playing while the franchise was located in Charlotte, Urias’ ERA and WHIP improved considerably to about a 2.70 combined ERA with a WHIP of a combined 1.08, but he seems to have been pampered while playing for the franchise in Charlotte as his starts per season declined from 33 per season while in Texas to about 28 per season while in Charlotte.  His win total dimished to an average of about 14 per season under that Charlotte usage rate.

In season 25, Scotb50 took over the franchise and moved it to Austin.  Austin’s major league ballpark tends to favor the hitter.  Scotb50 certainly has NOT pampered Urias!  In fact, in the 2 seasons under Scotb50’s management and playing home games in Austin, Urias has started an average of 37 games per season.  That’s like Bob Gibson/Denny McLain era 4-man pitching rotation scheduling.

And, Urias has responded, winning 20 games each season, while losing only 13 games combined.  Remarkably, last season, while starting 38 games, Urias struck out 254 batter in only 251 innings.  His ERA in those two seasons combined is about 2.65!

In his 8-plus major league seasons, Urias’ won/loss record is now 134 & 57 with an ERA of 2.77, (do you see another pitcher on this list with a lifetime ERA under 3.00?), a WHIP of 1.11; 1,749 strikeouts in 1,581 innings.  Opponents have hit only .230 against Urias lifetime and only reached base at a clip of .283. 

His ratings suggest that Urias has dominant control…dominant!  They show he is strong and durable and has loads of stamina.  He has averaged more than seven inning per start in his career and the ratings do suggest he could both, pitch deeper into games, and come back on short rest.

Urias is a right-handed pitcher who has a knee-bucklingly good curve ball, a very good sinker, and a decent change and slider, but his fastball is poor although it is his infrequently used 5^th pitch.  The ratings suggest that he has awesome velocity and movement on his pitches and should be incredibly effective keeping the ball in the ballpark.  They also suggest that he should dominate right-handed hitters, but that he should not be as dominating against lefties.

He won two Cy Youngs and a Rookie of the Year in the minors, while winning a Futures game MVP and making two All Star teams.  At the major league level, he has made six National League All Star teams and won two Cy Young Awards including last season’s Cy Award.

I’m glad he’s in the National League.  My Arizona team has enough to worry about with those loaded AL South teams already. 

At the start of this season, Urias was playing in the last season of a five-year contract paying $10.0M in this season 27.  Scotb50 signed Jenrry to a new 5-year extension, paying $9.3M per year from season 28 thru season 32.

 

#2           Adrian Peterson               Santa Fe Fliers – NL South                   27 year old 3^rd Baseman

Adrian Patterson, Santa Fe’s fine 3^rd baseman takes the runner-up spot I my ranking of best 25 players in Regular Joes.

Patterson is another 1^st round, 1^st overall pick player.  (Later, I’m going to do an essay on real ML 1^st overall picks through the years).  Adrian has always played for this franchise, but it has moved around…a lot.  But as long as Patterson has been a player in this world, the owner of the franchise has been scarpio.

He was selected in the season 19 Amateur draft, (with that Round , Pick 1 selection).  Adrian was an unbelievable bargain.  He signed for the slot-level bonus of $4.0M!  

The franchise was in Louisville then.  Immediately sent to Louisville’s Rookie team as a 19-year old, he started his pro career as a shortstop and had an atrocious season defensive, fielding only .890.  He hit .319 with 16 homeruns and 12 stolen bases in 76 games.

Patterson was promoted from Rookie ball to High A to start season 20.  In 82 games there, again playing shortstop, he again had an atrocious defensive season, fielding worse than in Rookie League; .871!  But again, his bat did the talking.  He hit .319 with 17 HR’s and 88 rbi’s in those 82 games.  His bat earned him a promotion middle of season 20 to AA.  In the 58 games he played at AA season 20, he split time defensively at shortstop and 3rd base, still struggling at SS but playing an improved 3^rd base.  His bat again sparkled.  At AA he hit .389 with an OPS of 1.183.

To start season 21, Patterson was promoted to AAA where he played two seasons with the franchise, the 1^st in Montgomery and the 2nd season in Atlanta.  The 1^st AAA season he was back to shortstop and was a little improved defensively but still made 79 errors in 149 games.  In the 2^nd season he played exclusively at 2^nd base, a position that better suits his strengths.  At 2^nd base, he fielded .983 and made only 11 errors in 144 AAA games.  One would think he’d found a home.

Hit bat never failed to impress.  In the two full seasons at AAA he averaged about .308, 35 HR’s, 30 stolen bases, 152 rbi’s…PER SEASON.  His OPS was just under 1.000 there.

Season 22 found Patterson starting the season in the majors.  His Rookie major league season he hit .308 with 32 HR’s and 55 stolen bases, slugging .555 and reaching base at a .372 clip…here we go again…another 30/30 guy near the top of my rankings.

He has now played four full major league seasons and while his batting average has dipped a bit, Patterson’s power & speed have remained fairly constant.  This guy must be a top-of-the-order guy.  He has the tools and he’s been a phenomenal run scorer, and a top doubles and triples maker, averaging 125 runs per ML season, hitting more 42 doubles and 8 triples to go along with averages of 28 HR’s & 46 stolen bases.  Twice he’s had 194 hits in a season.  He consistently has over 625 at bats a season and walks an average of 66 times per.

His ratings suggest immense speed, and very good base running ability; very high batting eye and contact, and very good hitting splits…all the attributes for a super lead off hitter OR an rbi producer.  His power rating suggest he out hit around 25 HR’s per season (he has).  His health rating is very good and his durability rating is outstanding, though his stamina is not great.  (He’s never been on the disabled list and he’s played an average of 158 ML games per season). 

His defensive ratings suggest he’d make an excellent 3^rd baseman and would be a very adequate 2^nd baseman if that was necessary.  But they suggest and his record shows, at shortstop his glove, his arm strength and his arm accuracy would hurt the team.  Being able to play both 3^rd base and 2^nd base gives Patterson a rating boost over some players with similar hitting potential just below him on this list.

In the major leagues Adrian has played about 88% of his time at 3^rd base, 11% at 2^nd base.  At 3^rd, he’s been a .973 fielder with a range factor of 3.11 and 51 plus plays with only one bad play on his record.  His fielding average at 2^nd is .983.

For awards, Patterson won the NL Rookie of the Year award in Rookie ball; was a 2-time Silver Slugger award winner in AAA, once as a 3^rd baseman and once as a shortstop, made an All-Star team there and took home the NL AAA Most Valuable Player award in season 22.

For major league award hardware, Adrian won the NL Rookie of the Year award in season 23, has made two NL All-Star teams and has been the NL Silver Slugger 3^rd baseman twice.

In season 26, his 1^st arbitration season, he played on a one year, $2.1M ML contract.  In season 27 Patterson agreed to a new 5-year ML contract to keep him in Atlanta paying a total of $55.0M with $9.5M payable this season.

Patterson has a bright, bright future.

 

AND

#1           Buddy Reid                         Dover Senators                           25 year old 3^rd Baseman

Buddy Reid takes home the prize (my admiration) for being ranked as #1 best player in Regular Joes world as spit out by my spreadsheet and my weighting factors.

At 25 years of age, Reid already has five full seasons of major league experience and two AL MVP trophies.  NOTE: his profile page says 4.  I don’t know why that is because he played 158 ML games in his Rookie season, so he couldn’t have been brought up after 20 games were played.  On the player profile pages you use to put your curser over the major league years in the top right corner of the screen and it would give you a precise number of years to two or three decimal places.  I can’t get the profile page to do that anymore.

 In any event, Reid was selected with the 2^nd overall pick in the first round of the season 20 Amateur draft, when the franchise was the Good Ol’ Boys and playing in Atlanta.  He signed to a bonus of $5,552,500.  He has always played for this franchise, but it has played in three cities since Reid was drafted. 

Pimpbotlove took over this franchise in season 25.  Before pimpbotlove the franchise had not had a record over .500 in twelve seasons.  In the two seasons pimpbotlove has run the team, their regular record has been better than .600 each season.  Playing to a great than .600 winning percentage is hard to do!   Not to mention how swiftly it was done. 

Back to Reid.

Immediately after being drafted as an 18-year old out of Roseville High School, Roseville Michigan, Reid was sent to The Rookie league.  In 69 games he destroyed Rookie league pitching, hitting .365 with a slugging percentage of .799 and an OPS of 1.265! 

He started his 2^nd pro season in Rookie ball again, playing only 42 games there, slugging better than .800 with an OPS of 1.245.  Then he was promoted to Low A.  (Lowly A I should say…in two seasons, a prospect like this never got out of Low A?  At Low A he only played 37 games while hitting .338 with an OPS of 1.152.  He only played a total of 79 games in his 2^nd pro season.

In his 3^rd pro season, season 22, he played 3 AAA games and then was promoted to the major leagues where in 158 games he hit only .235, slugging 23 HR’s and stealing 23 bases.  That was while the franchise was in Philadelphia.  It does appear that his lack of playing time in the minors may have affected his ML output, because he started very slowly.  A .235 1^st season average for a stud like this?

However, hold off your opinions.  In each season since, Reid has dramatically ramped up his production until last season, his 5^th major league season his batting like looked like this:  .322 average; .395 on base percentage; .601 slugging percentage; .996 OPS; 43 HR’s; 140 rbi’s; 154 runs scored; 214 hits; 40 doubles; 8 triples and 49 stolen bases.

There my fellow owners is the first 40/40 season for any of the remarkable players in this listing and there my friends is a season for the ages.  Dover is a slightly hitter friendly leaning park; so it shouldn’t be greatly affecting Reid’s output except possibly as it relates to HR’s to right field. 

In his five-year major league career Buddy has hit only a lifetime .269 (I said it’s ramping up), but with an average of 34 HR’s and 32 stolen bases per season.  He does tend to strikeout a lot, having more than 100 in four of his five ML seasons.

In Reid’s major league career he has split time about equally between 3^rd base and shortstop.  And this is the first sign of a very good owner to me and what can make the most immediate improvement on a team.  The prior owner of this franchise played Reid at shortstop.  He’s no shortstop. 

In my opinion, simply putting a team’s players in their best possible positions and obtaining good defensive players at each position can make the biggest immediate improvement when taking over a franchise or improving a bad one.  It might not make the team a World Champion, but it makes the team immediately competitive.  Then the rebuild can start.   

I once asked an owner who had a record of something like 80+ World Championships in this game, what his #1 recommendation was for me to be a winner in this game.  His answer was, “Look for guys who have the most plus defensive plays and try and obtain them.” 

Reid’s no shortstop.  His ML fielding record as a shortstop is a fielding average of 9.14 with a range of 4.91 and 153 errors in 346 games to go along with one plus play and 36 minus plays.  Those numbers for a shortstop at the major league level are putrid.

Pimpbotlove immediately moved Reid to 3^rd base when he took over the team.  In 327 games at 3^rd base, Reid has a fielding line of .970 with a range factor of 3.27, 28 plus plays, 1 minus play and has averaged only 16 errors per season.

In terms of ratings, Reid’s defensive detail suggests that he does have a shortstop’s arm strength, but he only has a 3^rd baseman or 2^nd baseman’s glove.  This detail suggests he’s best suited for 3^rd and then could also be an adequate 2^nd baseman.

Reid has both outstanding speed and power…the best combo of the two in these players we’ve discussed.  His hit splits are high and about equal against throwers from both sides of the plate.  His batting eye is very good, but as shown in his strikeouts, his contact rating is his lowest hit rating.  He’s going to strikeout.  It may keep him from being a consistent .300 hitter where otherwise he might be.  But he’s going to produce with speed and power.  

His health and durability ratings are extremely high, but his stamina rating is quite low.  Perhaps he might benefit from some rest at the end of games in blowouts?

In the Rookie league, Reid was awarded a Silver Slugger SS award and an All Star birth.  In the major leagues, he has won a Silver Slugger for shortstops and another for 3^rd basemen; he’s twice been an American League All-Star and has already won two American MVP Awards.  By the way, those are back-to-back, the last two seasons.

Reid is in his 2^nd arbitration year.  In arbitration, he was given a $10.405M 1-year ML contract.  One can only imagine what he’s going to command in his 3^rd arbitration season and beyond.

 

Well, that is the list.  I have to say this about these Regular Joes players I’ve discussed.  I’ve now done this to some extent in several world’s and in one world to this large extent.  At the beginning I said that I’ve learned that all the worlds are different.  In my opinion, and after now doing this several times in several worlds, these Regular Joes players as a group are much better than the top 25 from other worlds that I’ve looked at.  There are some phenomenal players in this world.

Well, the Regular Joes season 27 regular season is about the begin.

Good Luck everyone! And Play Ball!

"Take me out to the ballgame...

Take me out with the crowd,

Buy me some peanuts and cracker jacks,

I don't care if I never come back

For it's ROOT, ROOT, ROOT for the home team

If they don't win it's a shame...

And it's 1, 2, 3 strikes you're out,

At the Old Ball Game!"

I love that song!