Today's Birthday Team is not a good collection of talent. Almost looks like what would happen if the Birthday League had an expansion draft.

C: Carlos Ruiz
1B: Tom Jones
2B: Bobby Young
3B: Chone Figgins
SS: Irv Ray
LF: Wayne Kirby
CF: Amos Strunk
RF: Leon Roberts

SP: Mike Caldwell
SP: Jim Hughes
SP: Ubaldo Jimenez
SP: Dave Leonhard
SP: Jimmy Anderson
RP: Diomedes Olivo

Fun player: Prince Oana

In 1930, as a 20-year-old in the Class D Arizona State League, Oana hit .413 with 21 home runs and 55 XBH in 310 at-bats. San Francisco of the PCL snarfed him up and he hit .345 with 83 extra-base hits the next year. In 1933, also in the PCL, Oana hit .332 with 63 doubles, 11 triples, and 29 home runs.

He finally made it to the majors for a month in 1934, playing six games for the Phillies before getting sent back to Portland.

As a 32-year-old in 1942, Oana converted to pitching and went 16-5 with a 1.72 ERA for Fort Worth in the Texas League. He made it back to The Show the next season with the Tigers as a Kieschnick-style reliever/pinch hitter and in limited playing time hit .385/.407/.654 and a 4.50 ERA (79 ERA+).

Oana bounced around the minors until 1951. Rory Costello wrote an excellent biography of Oana for SABR's bio project.

Today is also the 10th anniversary of the Red Sox signing David Ortiz.

Birthday League Update:

January 5           73  52  .584 ---- 
January 17          70  51  .579  1.0  
January 14          70  53  .569  2.0        
January 11          69  54  .561  3.0        
January 23          69  54  .561  3.0

News and notes:
* After an 8-21 July, January 15 is 10-2 in August.
* January 2 has outscored its opponents 543-542 on the season, but is 54-66 as a result of a 1-14 record in extra innings and a 13-28 record in one-run games.
* Steve Balboni (January 16) has five home runs in the last ten days. He has 21 HR this season, tied for eighth in the league.
* Jay Powell (January 9) has six scoreless innings, two wins, and two saves in the last ten days.
* Hank Greenberg (January 1) still leads the league in SLG (.615), OBP (.436), and RC/27 (10.6). He's seventh with 22 HR.
* Otis Nixon (January 9) has 107 SB in 124 games. Max Carey (January 11) has 104 steals in 123 games.
* The January 11 Fightin' Hoxhas have stolen 246 bases in 123 games. In addition to Carey, Elmer Flick (50 SB), George Pinckney (35 SB), and Roy Hughes (22 SB) are burning up the basepaths.
* Chili Davis (January 17) leads the league in batting average (.350), hits (162), RBI (101), and total bases (264).
* Catcher Mike Konnick (January 13) leads the league with 44 doubles, but has also allowed 130 stolen bases.
* Jeff Suppan (January 2) watch: He still leads the league with 16 wins, and is now on pace for 21 wins.
* Ken Cloude (January 9) leads the league with 16 losses, 136 runs allowed, and 130 earned runs allowed. He's 7-16 with a 6.76 ERA in 33 starts.

Stats, standings, leaders, and box scores here.

Diomedes Olivo was a 41 year old rookie in 1960. Born in the teens and debuted in the 60s.

I thought that Chooch would have the highest WAR, but the heretofore unbeknownst to me Amos Strunk had himself a very nice age 23-28 peak for the As of the teens, ending with a 24.4 WAR. The Choner is at 19.2; I guess I always underrate his career because of the big contract but the man had some value outside of his one big season. Chooch is at 15.2 and Leon Roberts is 10.9.

But the rest is expansion fodder of the first rank.

Does the Birthday League have simulated injuries, too? Why is Matt Holliday sitting out 25 games and umpteen atbats?

COT FOR CHOICE

I think that Olivo was the fellow signed in a Mexican house of relaxation by Howie Haak?

I'll throw this in because I always confuse the name Diomedes Olivo with Oswaldo Olivares: Olivares (from Venezuela) was a Mets farmhand in the mid-70s, apparently came up as a pitcher. Didn't pitch, and was converted to an outfielder, but didn't hit. The Pirates picked him up, and at age 22 in 1977, at Salem in the Carolina League, Olivares hit .370, 62 walks, 46 of 53 in stolen base attempts. He then went on to hit .280 at Double A (Shreveport) and .300 at Triple A (Portland)). No power, the 1979 Pirates had tons of outfielders, I can get that .300 in the PCL didn't get him a job. It seems, though, that Olivares went straight from Portland in 1979 to the Mexican League in 1980, and never got another at-bat in the States, let along the majors. It looks like he played in Mexico for about eight years. Anyone know if he had some kind of back story that made the Mexican League a better place for him?

Can anyone describe to me the process of the "re-entry draft" that operated in the late 70s/early 80s? Looks like it had to do with free agency. I'm thinking that teams would "draft" the right to negotiate with free agents? It seems like an awful idea.

Today's Birthday Team is not a good collection of talent. Almost looks like what would happen if the Birthday League had an expansion draft.

Yet somehow they're third in their division in the birthday league.

I think that Olivo was the fellow signed in a Mexican house of relaxation by Howie Haak?

Now that's what I call a back story! Or an on-her-back story.

I just looked at the birthday league homepage. What the heck! There are box scores and game stories for every game! Clearly computer-generated, but still amazing.

I'm surprised every SP in the birthday league has a reasonable ERA. (or at least the ones starting today do) Don't some days just have no more than 3 or 4 pitchers who have ever started a game with any sort of success?

Can anyone describe to me the process of the "re-entry draft" that operated in the late 70s/early 80s? Looks like it had to do with free agency. I'm thinking that teams would "draft" the right to negotiate with free agents?

That is exactly correct.

As part of the negotiations after the Messersmith/McNally decision, the MLBPA agreed to a system that would restrict the flow of free agents so that one team couldn't sign all of the best players. The first draft was held following the 1976 season and was run like the Rule 4 draft was at the time, with the leagues alternating in inverse order of won-lost record. The 26 teams drafted for the right to negotiate with players. No more than 12 teams could draft the rights to any one player (and a team could retain the right to negotiate with its own free agents, so it was possible for a player to negotiate with as many as 13 teams), and any player drafted by fewer than two teams could negotiate with anyone. No club could sign more than two - the exception being that a team that lost more than two free agents could sign as many as they lost. A couple of teams accused the Angels of buying Tim Nordbrook from the Orioles late in the season precisely so that they could get to sign a third free agent. California wound up signing Bobby Grich, Joe Rudi, and Don Baylor.

The re-entry draft lasted until after the 1981 season, when it was replaced with the draft-pick compensation system as a result of the bitter negotiations over compensation that led to the in-season strike.

-- MWE

Does the Birthday League have simulated injuries, too? Why is Matt Holliday sitting out 25 games and umpteen atbats?

It could have injuries, but does not. I have the software set up to attempt to use players with short careers less frequently than players with long careers, to avoid having a guy like Showboat Fisher be an MVP candidate.

Now, that said, Strat's computer manager does notoriously goofy things, and I can't guarantee it will always do the things I ask it to do. But that's the idea.

I just looked at the birthday league homepage. What the heck! There are box scores and game stories for every game! Clearly computer-generated, but still amazing.

I'm surprised every SP in the birthday league has a reasonable ERA. (or at least the ones starting today do) Don't some days just have no more than 3 or 4 pitchers who have ever started a game with any sort of success?

Yeah, the Strat-O-Matic software is pretty great. It's just unfortunate the game is as expensive as it is. It's ~$55, and they release a new version pretty much every year, so you have to keep buying upgrades instead of just a season disk.

January 9 is a great example of a team with one good starting pitcher and a bunch of junk. Ralph Terry can pitch, obviously, then it's guys like Ken Cloude and Harley Payne. Individual player stats for every team are here. Scroll to the bottom for January 9.

As part of the negotiations after the Messersmith/McNally decision, the MLBPA agreed to a system that would restrict the flow of free agents so that one team couldn't sign all of the best players. The first draft was held following the 1976 season and was run like the Rule 4 draft was at the time, with the leagues alternating in inverse order of won-lost record. The 26 teams drafted for the right to negotiate with players. No more than 12 teams could draft the rights to any one player (and a team could retain the right to negotiate with its own free agents, so it was possible for a player to negotiate with as many as 13 teams), and any player drafted by fewer than two teams could negotiate with anyone. No club could sign more than two - the exception being that a team that lost more than two free agents could sign as many as they lost. A couple of teams accused the Angels of buying Tim Nordbrook from the Orioles late in the season precisely so that they could get to sign a third free agent. California wound up signing Bobby Grich, Joe Rudi, and Don Baylor.

God that sounds terrible. So if you miscalculate the market, and all the guys you draft end up for going for more than you thought, you have no recourse by digging through the second tier? Owners sure can be stupid sometimes.

That SABR BioProject article on Hank "Prince" Oana is worth a read. Another fascinating "what might have been" story.

Jays sign IF Mark DeRosa - 1 yr/$750k

White Sox sign P Matt Lindstrom - 1 yr deal

Minor league deals:
Reds sign P Armando Galarraga

Astros sign P Erik Bedard

Rangers sign P Nate Robertson

Indians sign IF Ryan Raburn and OF Ben Francisco

Mets sign P Pedro Feliciano and C Landon Powell

Rockies sign P Chris Volstad and P Miguel Batista

Yankees sign C Bobby Wilson and IF Reegie Corona

White Sox sign P Tony Pena Jr. (the former SS)

Brewers sign C Robinzon Diaz

Astros sign P Erik Bedard

Maybe not a coincidence that the Astros are the only NL team Bedard didn't face last year.

Edit: Correction from #7 - the player Haak signed in Mexico was Lino Donoso, per the Haak chapter of "Dollar Sign on the Muscle."

Phillies sign OF Delmon Young to 1-year, $750K contract that includes performance bonuses.

Remember when the Phils had multi-dimensional OFs? Victorino and Werth, before that Abreu. Heck even Pat Burrell gave you Power and Patience if nothing else. Now we have half to one dimensional OFs. Let's see: Revere can field and slap the ball for average; Brown can take pitches; Young can kind of hit for power; AAAAberry can field OK and hit LHP for power; Laynce Nix can hit some as a LH platoon corner OF (FWIW, his lifetime pinchhitting is awful). Darin Ruf, well, he can Iron Pig it up. No sense rolling the dice when you can play Delmon Young in his stead.

I don't know who the left fielder is, who the center fielder is, or who the right fielder is at this point. Can we trade Nix for a Michael Martinez upgrade or something?

A Young (with a Nix mix) in LF, Revere in CF, Brown with a sprinkle of Mayberry in RF is my guess.

Phillies sign OF Delmon Young to 1-year, $750K contract that includes performance bonuses.

Are those bonuses tied to how many Jews he assaults throughout the season? Because if so, that's going to cost Philly some serious cash.

Yeah, the Strat-O-Matic software is pretty great. It's just unfortunate the game is as expensive as it is. It's ~$55, and they release a new version pretty much every year, so you have to keep buying upgrades instead of just a season disk.

Actually, they don't allow those who already have the computer game to just buy an upgrade every year, as they used to do. You have to buy the whole darn game, even if you have an earlier version...