Draft Order For 2018

Now that the World Series is complete, we have a complete order for the first round of the 2018 draft. The top four picks this year were determined by a lottery system.

1. St. Louis Maulers (held by Death Valley)
2. Sudbury Snappers
3. Lake County Nighthawks
4. Little Rock Scorpions
5. Fighting Irish
6. California Roadrunners
7. Miami Hustlers (held by Spokane)
8. Mohawk Valley Lions
9. Spokane Hooded Crows
10. West Side Bluejays
11. Rochester Pilots
12. Rosehill Hornets
13. Cape Cod Breakers
14. Wilmington Razorbacks
15. Elysian Fields Flying Dutchmen (held by St. Louis)
16. Northwest Stars
17. Brooklyn Dodgers
18. Northeast Huskies
19. Goldenrod Gators
20. Death Valley Drivers

Note that the draft order will revert to reverse order of standing for the second round and all subsequent rounds. That means the 109-loss Scorpions will lead off the second round, followed by the Snappers (98 losses), Nighthawks (95) and Maulers (95).

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Active MMDA Manager Register 2017

Northwest manager Ray Ross traces his MMDA roots back to 1989 and has thus managed a league game in each of the past four decades. Next time you converse with Ray, congratulate him on finishing his 29th season in the league in 2017.

Five other MMDA managers joined up in the 1990s and remain active to this day: James Bailey, Jim Baker, Steve Frediani, John Tresca and Steven Tresca. However, a complete statistical record for the MMDA goes back only to 1995, so that's where I drew the line when creating our league's all-time managerial register.

A new wrinkle added this year is Fibonacci win points. This concept was introduced by Bill James in his book Whatever Happened To The Hall Of Fame?, and it balances teams' win totals with their winning percentage to arrive at one pleasing number.

The formula is simply wins (times) winning percentage (plus) wins (minus) losses—or W * PCT + W - L. So rather than rank managers by total wins or by winning percentage, I chose to rank them by Fibonacci win points to balance quality and quantity.

No	Manager	W	L	Pct	Yrs	Playoff	HighW	HighL	Fibonacci
1	John Tresca	2145	1581	.576	23	17	120	124	1799
2	Ray Ross	2098	1628	.563	23	19	117	92	1651
3	Steven Tresca	2064	1662	.554	23	18	108	123	1545
4	James Bailey	1973	1753	.530	23	13	105	102	1265
5	Matt Eddy	1318	1274	.508	16	9	113	113	714
6	Steve Frediani	1788	1938	.480	23	9	106	116	708
7	John Lamanna	738	558	.569	8	7	108	78	600
8	Mike Johnson	898	884	.504	11	5	97	97	467
9	Jim Baker	1705	2021	.458	23	2	112	117	464
10	Mike Siddon	1266	1488	.460	17	2	98	103	360
11	Tim Ednoff	518	454	.533	6	3	99	89	340
12	Jim Derer	514	458	.529	6	2	101	87	328
13	G. O'Connor	491	481	.505	6	3	103	95	258
14	J. Gruttadauria	468	504	.481	6	1	87	94	189
15	Ryan McCabe	534	600	.471	7	1	93	108	185
16	Tom Edwards	392	418	.484	5	1	90	105	164
17	Clyde Elkins	375	435	.463	5	2	94	102	114
18	Dave Jones	502	632	.443	7	1	88	106	92
19	Kevin Kasunich	115	209	.355	2	0	64	111	-53
20	Mike Renick	136	350	.280	3	0	53	124	-176

Remember, this data covers the 1995 through 2017 seasons.

Steven Tresca won his 2,000th game in 2017. James Bailey will join the 2,000-win pantheon in 2018.

Drivers Prevail In Dramatic 2017 World Series

GAME 1
Gators 4, Drivers 0
Aaron Sanchez was masterful for the Gators, throwing a compete-game two-hitter. Wilmer Flores tagged Brandon Finnegan for two homers, driving in three of the Gators' four runs.

GAME 2
Drivers 5, Gators 3
The Drivers scratched together a run in the first inning and Goldenrod tied it up in the third. Each team threw up a two-spot in the fourth. Things settled down for the next three innings until the eight when Todd Frazier dropped a bloop single into left field, scoring Yoenis Cespedes and Jedd Gyorko. The Death Valley bullpen of Alex Wood, Chris Devenski and Kelvin Herrera locked down the last three inning to help get the W for the Drivers.

GAME 3
Drivers 2, Gators 1
This was another surprising pitcher's duel. The Gators were able to get to Aaron Nola in the fifth for a run when Jarrod Dyson plated Russell Martin. It looked like that was all the Gators would need as they entered the bottom of the ninth, but then Randal Grichuk stepped to the plate and dumped a home run into the right field seats. Todd Frazier came in to pinch-hit and singled, followed by a Adeiny Hechavarria single. With two on and one out, Welington Castillo shot a grounder up the middle to plate Frazier, and the exuberant Driver faithful celebrated the walk-off and a 2-1 series lead.