MMDA Power Ranking: Block One Edition

An attempt to rank the league's best teams after one block (30 games). Teams sorted by wins, then by run differential. Note that this is not the official tie-breaking method for playoff seeding or draft order.

No	Team	W	L	Division	R/G	RA/G	Diff
1	Miami	20	10	Northeast	3.97	2.43	46
2	Mohawk Valley	18	12	Atlantic	4.97	3.47	45
3	Cape Cod	18	12	Northeast	5.13	3.73	42
4	Jersey	18	12	Atlantic	4.33	3.97	11
5	Wilmington	18	12	Atlantic	4.13	4.00	4
6	Brooklyn	17	13	Pacific	6.07	5.10	29
7	Northeast	17	13	Northeast	5.00	5.00	0
8	Goldenrod	17	13	Central	4.50	4.53	-1
9	Rochester	16	14	Atlantic	4.97	3.90	32
10	Death Valley	16	14	Atlantic	5.10	4.30	24
11	Fighting Irish	16	14	Northeast	4.50	4.43	2
12	St. Louis	16	14	Central	3.10	3.80	-21
13	West Side	15	15	Northeast	4.03	3.23	24
14	Spokane	13	17	Pacific	3.23	4.07	-25
15	California	12	18	Pacific	4.17	5.10	-28
16	Columbus	11	19	Central	3.93	4.87	-28
17	Elysian Fields	11	19	Pacific	3.43	4.90	-44
18	Northwest	11	19	Pacific	2.73	4.33	-48
19	Rosehill	10	20	Central	3.70	4.73	-31
20	Lake County	10	20	Central	3.60	4.70	-33

Top Run-Creation Teams (R/G)

Brooklyn (6.07)
Cape Cod (5.14)
Death Valley (5.10)
Northeast (5.00)
Mohawk Valley (4.97)

The Dodgers' high-octane offense features three of the top seven hitters in the league. Mike Trout (1.560), Miguel Cabrera (1.159) and Hanley Ramirez (1.035) rank first, fifth and seventh in the MMDA in total average. (Google it.)

Top Run-Prevention Teams (RA/G)

Miami (2.43)
West Side (3.23)
Mohawk Valley (3.47)
Cape Cod (3.73)
St. Louis (3.80)

Johnny Cueto (1.08), Corey Kluber (1.09) and Jarred Cosart (1.78) drove the Manatees' pitching success in Block One, with there of the top ERAs in the MMDA.

Strasburg Delivers Mohawk Valley's Second-Ever No-Hitter

UTICA, N.Y.--Mohawk Valley starter Stephen Strasburg saved the best for first in 2014. Making his season debut on the road at Spokane, the righthander held the Hooded Crows hitless in a 6-0 Lions win. He walked four and struck out four, throwing 124 pitches.

Strasburg's gem is the second no-hitter in Mohawk Valley franchise history. Lefthander Paul Maholm threw the club's first no-no against the Rochester Pilots on Sept. 22, 2008.

[1]BOXSCORE: 2014 Mohawk Valley Lions At 2014 Spokane Hooded Crows      4/7/2014

[1]  Lions              AB  R  H RBI AVG     Hooded Crows       AB  R  H RBI AVG
  J.Kipnis 2B         5  0  0  0 .000     N.Aoki LF           3  0  0  0 .300  
  A.McCutchen CF      4  1  0  0 .000     A.Ethier RF         4  0  0  0 .333  
  R.Raburn LF         3  0  1  0 .333     A.Dunn DH           3  0  0  0 .333  
  W.Venable RF        5  1  3  1 .600     J.Loney 1B          3  0  0  0 .200  
  K.Blanks 1B         3  1  0  0 .000     J.Uribe 3B          2  0  0  0 .182  
C-Y.Alonso PH,1B      1  0  1  01.000     J.Jaso C            1  0  0  0 .400  
  C.Headley 3B        4  0  0  0 .000   A-P.Polanco PH        1  0  0  0 .000  
  E.Aybar SS          4  3  3  1 .750   B-C.Corporan C        0  0  0  0 .500  
  R.Weeks DH          2  0  1  2 .500     M.Ellis 2B          2  0  0  0 .091  
  R.Hanigan C         4  0  3  2 .750     A.Eaton CF          3  0  0  0 .167  
                                          Z.Cozart SS         3  0  0  0 .083  
                     -- -- -- ---                            -- -- -- ---      
[1]         Totals      35  6 12  6                 Totals      25  0  0  0

A-Pinch Hit For Jaso In 7th Inning
B-Subbed Defensively (C ) For Polanco In 8th Inning
C-Pinch Hit For Blanks In 8th Inning

Lions........... 0 0 1  0 0 4  0 1 0  -  6 12  0
Hooded Crows.... 0 0 0  0 0 0  0 0 0  -  0  0  1

[1]Lions (1-0)              IP       H   R  ER  BB  SO  HR  PC    ERA  SCORESHEET
S.Strasburg WIN(1-0)      9       0   0   0   4   4   0 124   0.00  A1
[1]Totals                    9       0   0   0   4   4   0

MMDA Champions Expressed As Olympic Medal Winners

The Winter Olympics are going on now, and some people are into that. While I don't particularly care about the outcomes of the various events, the medal-count scoring system seemed like it could have application in the world of the MMDA.

Our World Series champion would obviously be the gold-medal winner for that year, and the runner-up would take silver. As to the bronze, I decided to award that to the round two loser with the higher playoff seeding.

So, for example, the No. 3 Lions lost in the second round last year, falling one win short of the Series. The No. 4 Gators lost in the other LCS bracket, so by virtue of the Lions' higher seeding, they get the bronze for 2013.

Here are the medal counts for the past 10 years of MMDA playoff play. An easy way to think of the columns: Gold signifies a World Series win, silver is a Series loss and bronze is an LCS loss by a high-seeded team that went down in flames when it mattered most.

No	Manager	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Medals
1	Burns, Kevin	4	1	1	6
2	Tresca, John	2	1	2	5
3	Tresca, Steven	1	1	2	4
4	Beard, Steve	—	2	1	3
5	Ross, Ray	1	1	—	2
6	Eddy, Matt	—	1	1	2
7	Lamanna, John	1	—	—	1
	Leickel, Adam	1	—	—	1
9	Alterman, Steve	—	1	—	1
	Frediani, Steve	—	1	—	1
	Yingst, Mike	—	1	—	1
12	Callis, Jim	—	—	1	1
	Capriotti, Mike	—	—	1	1
	Green, Jeff	—	—	1	1

So among active managers, we might consider John Tresca to be the gold medalist for the past decade, with Steven Tresca taking the silver and Ray Ross the bronze.

See also: MMDA Playoff History

2014 MMDA Draft Report Card

Preface: This concept is a complete rip-off of the Baseball America draft report cards series, which you can read here. The goal here is to identify the most talented players in individual facets of the game, such as best power hitter or best fastball. Objectivity is the goal, though there's plenty of gray area in prospect evaluation.

Only 2013 rookies/prospects were considered for this exercise. The numbers in parentheses refer to draft round and overall selection, so Gators RF Oswaldo Arcia (1.17) was the 17th overall pick in the first round. All references to Strat card units are in left/right format and taken from the SOM Ratings Disk, so that when Arcia is credited with having 3/7 BP it means that he has 3 ballpark home runs on the left side and 7 on the right.

OFFENSE

Best Hitter For Average >> Other players in the MMDA draft hit for a higher average in the minors, but the best long-term bets to hit .300 in the majors probably are Pilots LF/CF Christian Yelich (1.8) and Lions 3B/LF Nick Castellanos (1.18), a pair of 6-foot-4 high school hitters from the 2010 major league draft. Both will be 22 in 2014, and both have impressive minor league track records as they climbed from Low-A in 2011 to the majors three years later.

Yelich hit .313 over 1,190 PAs on his way up the full-season minor league ladder (excluding rehab assignments) with solid marks for contact (20 percent strikeouts) and power (.190 ISO). Castellanos hit .302 over 1,741 PAs with 20 percent strikeouts and a .143 ISO in some tough parks for hitters. Attesting to their ability to regularly hit line drives, Yelich hit .377 on balls in play, while Castellanos hit .365 despite being a no-better-than-average runner.

Special mention: Roadrunners SS/2B Brad Miller (2.22). The lefty-hitting infielder sports a career .334 average in the minors with consistently above-the-league-average rates for BABIP, strikeout rate and isolated power.

Best Power Hitter >> Look no further for the reason why Roadrunners RF Yasiel Puig (1.1) and Manatees RF Wil Myers (1.3) went at the top of the draft. Both have the plus power required to hold down a corner position on a contending major league team.

In Their Own Words: Draft Classes Reviewed By MMDA Managers

With the 2014 draft fresh in mind, some of the participating managers discuss the thought process behind their selections. Teams presented in alphabetical order.

For reference purposes, here are links to rounds one through seven, and here are all the supplemental picks after round seven.


Brooklyn Dodgers

As with most others, I was very happy with my draft and was able to get card value and get some prospects in the fold.

Round 1. With the early picks going as expected, I was hoping one of Christian Yelich, Anthony Rendon or Michael Wacha would fall to me. Rendon was my #8 player on my board so getting him at #12 was huge. He can platoon at 2b vs LHP this year and hopefully be a regular at 2b/3b in the future years. I'm betting on him to show solid plate discipline with good contact skills and hopefully the power develops. Hoping he is over his ankle injuries that plagued him at Rice and in the minors.

Round 2. Going into the draft I figured one of the young SPs would make it to this pick due to the depth of this year's pool. With Didi Gregorius unexpectedly falling, the decision at #32 came down to Gregorius and Kevin Gausman. While it would have been nice to take an upside guy to add some youth to my older rotation, it ultimately was too hard to pass up a 1 at SS with a nice card versus RHP. He's young and he fills a hole. He will probably never hit lefties but the combo of him and a half season of Hanley Ramirez should be more than solid at SS.

2014 MMDA Draft Supplemental Rounds

Results for the eighth through 15th rounds of the 2014 MMDA draft. For the first seven rounds—the "regulation" phase—visit the 2014 Draft Results.

EIGHTH ROUND

Blackhawks eighth-rounder Taylor Jordan

141 Roadrunners Jason Frasor, rhp
142 Dutchmen Nick Hundley, c
143 Breakers Tom Koehler, rhp
144 Clippers Carlos Torres, rhp
145 Blackhawks Taylor Jordan, rhp
146 Hornets Cesar Hernandez, 2b/of
147 Dodgers Al Alburquerque, rhp
148 Bluejays Wil Nieves, c
149 Crows Shane Robinson, cf
150 Maulers Josh Phegley, c
151 Razorbacks Danny Valencia, 3b
152 Gators Wilmer Flores, 3b
153 Lions Brandon Workman, rhp
154 Huskies Andres Torres, cf

NINTH ROUND
155 Dutchmen Dale Thayer, rhp
156 Clippers Zoilo Almonte, of
157 Dodgers Erasmo Ramirez, rhp
158 Bluejays Tim Stauffer, rhp
159 Crows Carlos Corporan, c
160 Razorbacks Francisco Cervelli, c
161 Gators Leury Garcia, util
162 Lions Cliff Pennington, util
163 Huskies Brandon Maurer, rhp

10TH ROUND
164 Dutchmen L.J. Hoes, of
165 Clippers Tommy Medica, 1b
166 Bluejays Matt Tuiasosopo, 3b/of
167 Crows Scott Van Slyke, 1b/of
168 Gators Tyler Flowers, c
169 Lions Brandon Cumpton, rhp
170 Huskies Juan Perez, lhp

11TH ROUND
171 Dutchmen Burch Smith, rhp
172 Clippers Nate Freiman, 1b
173 Bluejays Manny Parra, lhp
174 Crows Nick Tepesch, rhp
175 Gators Louis Coleman, rhp
176 Huskies Anthony Varvaro, rhp

12TH ROUND
177 Dutchmen Josh Fields, rhp
178 Clippers Brian Bogusevic, of
179 Bluejays Moises Sierra, of
180 Gators Jake Diekman, lhp
181 Huskies Jayson Nix, util

13TH ROUND
182 Gators Caleb Gindl, of

14TH ROUND
183 Gators Ryan Goins, 2b/ss

15TH ROUND
184 Gators Ramiro Pena, util

Huskies Capture MMDA Championship

Congratulations to the Northeast Huskies, who capped a six-year run of regular-season domination with a championship, topping the Northwest Stars in seven games to capture the MMDA World Series.

Huskies DH David Oritz blasted the World Series-winning
home run in the 17th inning of Game Seven

John Tresca's club led the league with 115 wins during the regular season, landing in a familiar place: atop the Northeast Division (named for its geographic location, though it could just as well be in honor of its dominant team). That marked six consecutive seasons in which the Huskies have either won the division outright or tied for first.

Since bringing up the rear with a 54-108 record in 2007, the Huskies have gone 659-313, good for a .678 winning percentage. During that span they posted the best record in the league three times (2009, 2012, 2013). For all that dominance, however, there is one thing that eluded them: a title.

In five years the Huskies have advanced to the final series only once, falling to the Bulldogs in seven games in 2009. But this year they rolled through, topping the West Side Bluejays in five games in the first round of the playoffs, then withstanding the defending champion Goldenrod Gators in six games in the semi-finals.

The Stars, however, took the Huskies to the brink with a seven-game challenge. The final game was an epic affair in which the home club won in the 17th inning on a two-run shot by DH David Ortiz.