MMDA League History Update 2023

It's been three years since I've updated the all-time MMDA manager register.

When I got back into this Blogger user interface, I was immediately reminded why. It's impossible to work with HTML tables in this program. So I created a cool looking table in Excel and pasted a screen grab here.

Active MMDA Managers Ranked By Winning Percentage

The 162-game rate section captures what MMDA standings would look like if the all-time data was telescoped to a single season. 

I incorporated all manager data to which I have access. It dates back to 1995 in several cases, though my understanding is that several MMDA managers' tenures predate that season.

MMDA Manager Register After 2020 Season

This post includes a complete statistical record for MMDA managers going back to 1995.

Managers are ranked by Fibonacci win points. This concept was introduced by Bill James in his book Whatever Happened To The Hall Of Fame? It balances teams' win totals with their winning percentage to arrive at one pleasing number.

Key to categories: 90W and 100W are 90-win and 100-win seasons. DIV stands for division titles and POST for postseason appearances. FIB is Fibonacci win points.

Regular Season Manager Register

RK	MANAGER	W	L	PCT	YRS	90W	100W	DIV	POST	FIB
1	John Tresca	2398	1814	.569	26	19	11	12	19	1949
2	Ray Ross	2338	1874	.555	26	14	6	9	16	1762
3	Steven Tresca	2277	1935	.541	26	18	9	2	19	1573
4	James Bailey	2225	1987	.528	26	9	5	7	14	1413
5	Matt Eddy	1618	1460	.526	19	8	4	8	11	1009
6	Steve Frediani	2064	2148	.490	26	8	3	8	10	927
7	Jim Baker	1979	2235	.470	26	4	2	2	3	673
8	John Lamanna	1095	1011	.520	13	5	1	4	7	653
9	Jim Derer	795	663	.545	9	4	1	4	5	565
10	Tim Ednoff	780	678	.535	9	3	0	1	4	519
11	George O'Connor	777	681	.533	9	4	2	3	6	510
12	Mike Siddon	1517	1723	.468	20	2	0	0	3	504
13	Clyde Elkins	651	645	.502	8	4	2	1	4	333
14	Jim Gruttadauria	707	751	.485	9	0	0	0	2	299
15	Ryan McCabe	771	849	.476	10	1	0	1	2	289
16	Bill Huffman	71	91	.438	1	0	0	0	0	11
17	Patrick Tougas	113	211	.349	2	0	0	0	0	-59
18	Bret Williams	42	120	.259	1	0	0	0	0	-67
19	Kevin Kasunich	302	508	.373	5	0	0	0	0	-93
20	Mike Renick	359	613	.369	6	1	0	0	1	-121

Remember, this data covers the 1995 through 2020 seasons.

Managerial thresholds crossed in 2020: Steve Frediani passed 2,000 wins and Mike Siddon cleared 1,500.

Active MMDA Manager Register 2019

A complete statistical record for the MMDA goes back to 1995. That's the line of demarcation I used to create our league's all-time managerial register.

Managers are ranked by Fibonacci win points. This concept was introduced by Bill James in his book Whatever Happened To The Hall Of Fame? 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. So rather than rank managers by total wins or by winning percentage, I chose to rank them by Fibonacci win points to balance quality (winning percentage) and quantity (career wins).

Note that Kyle Glaser and Jeff Olson stepped away after the 2019 season, the former after only one season.

No	Manager	W	L	Pct	Yrs	Playoff	MaxW	MaxL	Fibonacci
1.	John Tresca	2305	1745	.569	25	18	120	124	1872
2.	Ray Ross	2247	1803	.555	25	15	117	98	1691
3.	Steven Tresca	2214	1836	.547	25	19	108	123	1588
4.	James Bailey	2148	1902	.530	25	14	105	102	1385
5.	Matt Eddy	1507	1409	.517	18	10	113	113	877
6.	Steve Frediani	1960	2090	.484	25	9	106	116	819
7.	John Lamanna	1023	921	.526	12	7	108	96	640
8.	Jim Baker	1896	2156	.468	25	3	112	117	627
9.	Tim Ednoff	701	595	.541	8	4	99	89	485
10.	Jim Derer	700	596	.540	8	4	101	87	482
11.	Mike Siddon	1425	1653	.463	19	2	98	103	432
12.	George O'Connor	680	616	.525	8	5	103	95	421
13.	Clyde Elkins	590	544	.520	7	4	113	102	353
14.	Ryan McCabe	691	767	.474	9	2	93	108	251
15.	Jeff Olson	891	1053	.458	12	4	109	118	246
16.	Jim Gruttadauria	621	675	.479	8	2	89	98	244
17.	Kyle Glaser	75	87	.463	1	0	75	87	23
18.	Patrick Tougas	48	114	.296	1	0	48	114	-52
19.	Kevin Kasunich	238	410	.367	4	0	65	111	-85
20.	Mike Renick	265	545	.327	5	0	67	124	-193

Remember, this data covers the 1995 through 2019 seasons.

Managerial thresholds crossed in 2019: John Tresca passed 2,300 wins, Ray Ross and Steven Tresca eclipsed 2,200 wins, James Bailey moved past 2,100 wins.

Top 10 Managers Of The 2010s

Just as every journey begins with a single step, a successful season is the culmination of several small achievements that equal a larger accomplishment.

This post celebrates the MMDA managers who achieved the most in the 2010s, both small and large.

To assess managers’ greatness, I borrowed a scoring system from Bill James.

Teams receive one point each for having a winning season, for winning 90 games and for winning 100 games.

Teams receive two points for winning a division, three points for winning a pennant and four points for winning a World Series championship.

Thus the highest score via this six-tiered scoring system is 12 points. There were four “perfect” teams in MMDA in the 2010s. These teams won 100 games, a division title and a World Series championship.

• 2013 Northeast Huskies
• 2015 Mohawk Valley Lions
• 2018 Elysian Fields Flying Dutchmen
• 2019 Spokane Hooded Crows

Now let’s see how MMDA managers stack up for the years 2010 to 2019.

Active MMDA Manager Register 2018

A complete statistical record for the MMDA goes back to 1995. That's the line of demarcation I used to create our league's all-time managerial register.

Managers are ranked by Fibonacci win points. This concept was introduced by Bill James in his book Whatever Happened To The Hall Of Fame? 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. So rather than rank managers by total wins or by winning percentage, I chose to rank them by Fibonacci win points to balance quality (winning percentage) and quantity (career wins).

Note the return of Jeff Olson and subtraction of Mike Johnson in this year's register. Jeff previously managed in the MMDA from 2002 to 2004 and from 2007 to 2012 before returning in 2018 with a playoff team.  

No	Manager	W	L	Pct	Yrs	Playoff	HighW	HighL	Fibonacci
1	John Tresca	2221	1667	.571	24	17	120	124	1823
2	Ray Ross	2183	1705	.561	24	20	117	92	1704
3	Steven Tresca	2123	1765	.546	24	18	108	123	1517
4	James Bailey	2047	1841	.526	24	13	105	102	1284
5	Matt Eddy	1420	1334	.516	17	10	113	113	818
6	Steve Frediani	1855	2033	.477	24	9	106	116	707
7	John Lamanna	815	643	.559	9	7	108	85	628
8	Jim Baker	1787	2101	.460	24	2	112	117	507
9	Tim Ednoff	615	519	.542	7	4	99	89	430
10	Jim Derer	611	523	.539	7	3	101	87	417
11	Mike Siddon	1347	1569	.462	18	2	98	103	400
12	George O'Connor	591	543	.521	7	4	103	95	356
13	Jeff Olson	771	849	.476	10	4	109	118	289
14	Clyde Elkins	488	484	.502	6	3	113	102	249
15	Ryan McCabe	620	676	.478	8	2	93	108	241
16	Tom Edwards	468	504	.481	6	1	90	105	189
17	Jim Gruttadauria	532	602	.469	7	1	87	98	180
18	Dave Jones	569	727	.439	8	1	88	106	92
19	Kevin Kasunich	180	306	.370	3	0	65	111	-59
20	Mike Renick	198	450	.306	4	0	62	124	-192

Remember, this data covers the 1995 through 2018 seasons.

James Bailey won his 2,000th game in 2018. Matt Eddy can reach 1,500 by winning at least 80 games in 2019.
 
In the sample period, John Tresca has won the most division titles with 10. Next on the list are Matt Eddy and Ray Ross (seven each), James Bailey (five), John Lamanna (four) and Steve Frediani and Jeff Olson (three each).

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.

Examining 15 Years Of League History In Five-Year Windows

Note: I updated this file with a corrected calculation for ERA+, which altered a few pitching and balance leaders (March 18, 2017).

The MMDA just completed its 15th season of play in its "online" era. This means we have comprehensive player, team and league data for every season from 2002 through 2016.

To celebrate this odd anniversary, I sliced the data into three five-years periods to see how things shook out. Which were the best regular-season teams from 2002 to 2006? Which teams dominated the playoffs from 2007 to 2011? Which players or teams established league records from 2012 to 2016?

Now we have the answers to these esoteric questions and more.

Granted, dividing the seasons into five-year buckets based on chronology is arbitrary. So at the end of this piece, I divide MMDA history into periods along lines that a historian might draw.

In the tables below PF stands for park factor. Pyth stands for Pythagorean record.

---

I. Period One: 2002–2006

The best regular season managers from 2002 to 2006 as ranked by wins.

No	Manager	W	L	Pct	R/G	OPS+	RA/G	ERA+	Home	Road	PF	Pyth
1	Steven Tresca	470	340	.580	5.89	119	4.80	103	+23	+42	100	.589
2	John Tresca	451	359	.557	4.94	101	4.52	109	+21	+25	100	.537
3	James Bailey	450	360	.556	5.48	109	4.78	107	+30	+15	109	.561
4	Ray Ross	441	369	.544	4.62	94	4.13	115	+7	+29	93	.544
5	Mike Capriotti	440	370	.543	4.65	93	4.30	112	+26	+9	104	.538

Active MMDA Manager Register 2016

In the continuing tradition of lifting ideas from Baseball-Reference, I created an all-time register for the 20 active managers in the MMDA.

A similar table to the one that appears here also runs at the bottom of our site's Playoff History page, but even I sometimes forget it's there. So I embellished the data from that page and created a more prominent space for it here on the blog.

Thanks to commissioner James Bailey's record keeping from the early years of the MMDA, I had access to comprehensive won-loss and playoff data back through the 1995 season. So that's where I drew the line for this table. Five active managers played in the league in 1994 or earlier, but the results of those seasons are not reflected here.

Managers are sorted here by career wins. Remember, this data goes back only through the 1995 season.

No	Manager	Yrs	W	L	Pct	G	HighW	HighL	Playoffs	WSWon	PennWon
1	John Tresca	22	2047	1517	.574	3564	120	124	16	2	5
2	Ray Ross	22	2003	1561	.562	3564	117	92	18	2	5
3	Steven Tresca	22	1976	1588	.554	3564	108	123	17	2	3
4	James Bailey	22	1891	1673	.531	3564	105	102	13	1	1
5	Steve Frediani	22	1708	1856	.479	3564	106	116	9	0	3
6	Jim Baker	22	1614	1950	.453	3564	112	117	1	0	0
7	Matt Eddy	15	1239	1191	.510	2430	113	113	9	2	3
8	Mike Siddon	16	1193	1399	.460	2592	98	103	2	0	0
9	Mike Johnson	10	831	789	.513	1620	97	97	5	0	0
10	John Lamanna	7	642	492	.566	1134	108	78	6	1	1
11	Ryan McCabe	6	466	506	.479	972	93	108	1	0	0
12	Dave Jones	6	435	537	.448	972	88	106	1	1	1
13	Jim Derer	5	428	382	.528	810	101	87	2	0	0
14	Tim Ednoff	5	424	386	.523	810	99	89	2	0	0
15	G. O'Connor	5	399	411	.493	810	103	95	2	0	0
16	J. Gruttadauria	5	388	422	.479	810	87	94	1	0	0
17	Tom Edwards	4	317	331	.489	648	90	105	1	0	0
18	Clyde Elkins	4	283	365	.437	648	94	102	1	0	0
19	Mike Renick	2	83	241	.256	324	45	124	0	0	0
20	Kevin Kasunich	1	51	111	.315	162	51	111	0	0	0

Most Decorated Managers Of The Past Decade

Bill James once proposed a method for evaluating managers' worthiness for enshrinement in Cooperstown. He assigned weighted values to various accomplishments, such as World Series championships (eight points each), pennants not resulting in a championship (five), division titles (three), career wins (one point per 200) and 100-win seasons (one).

Last year, I applied James' manager standards to the past decade of MMDA play, and John Tresca's Northeast Huskies ranked No. 1 for the 2006-2015 period.

This year I applied those same standards to the past 10 seasons of MMDA play, 2007-2016, to see if anyone challenged John for the top spot. This time, however, I substituted top-four playoff seedings for division titles, because division titles are practically meaningless in our league format.

MMDA teams receive no bonus for winning their division and, in fact, just three of the past eight league champions won their division, whereas two teams that qualified for the playoffs as the No. 8 seed—2012 Goldenrod and 2016 Lake County—actually won the whole thing.

I included division titles in the table below, even though it does not count toward the final score. The Avg-W column is simply Wins divided by Years.

No.	Manager	Years	Avg-W	WS	Penn	Div	Top-4	Wins*	100-W	Total
1	John Tresca	10	98	1	2	8	8	978	7	53
2	Matt Eddy	10	94	2	1	5	3	941	2	36
3	Ray Ross	10	93	1	2	4	3	925	3	34
4	Steven Tresca	10	86	1	1	1	4	862	3	32
5	John Lamanna	7	92	1	—	3	4	642	1	24
6	Steve Frediani	10	79	—	2	2	1	794	—	16
7	James Bailey	10	85	—	—	4	3	853	1	14
8	Dave Jones	6	73	1	—	—	—	435	—	10
9	Jim Baker	10	78	—	—	1	1	781	1	7
10	Jim Derer	5	86	—	—	1	1	428	1	6
11	Tim Ednoff	5	85	—	—	1	1	424	—	5
	Ryan McCabe	6	78	—	—	—	1	466	—	5
	George O'Connor	5	80	—	—	1	1	399	1	5
14	Clyde Elkins	4	71	—	—	—	1	283	—	4
15	Mike Johnson	9	85	—	—	1	—	762	—	3
	Mike Siddon	10	74	—	—	—	—	742	—	3
17	Tom Edwards	4	79	—	—	—	—	317	—	1
	Jim Gruttadauria	5	78	—	—	—	—	388	—	1
19	Kevin Kasunich	1	51	—	—	—	—	51	—	0
	Mike Renick	2	42	—	—	—	—	83	—	0
* Teams awarded one point for every 200 wins

A Jamesian Approach To Evaluating MMDA Managers

In his 1995 book "Whatever Happened To The Hall Of Fame?," Bill James proposed a method for evaluating managers' worthiness for enshrinement in Cooperstown. He assigned weighted values to various accomplishments, such as World Series championships (eight points each), pennants not resulting in a championship (five), division titles (three), career wins (one point per 200) and 100-win seasons (one).

With the Hall of Fame announcing this week that Ken Griffey Jr. and Mike Piazza would comprise its class of 2016, I thought it would be fun to review our current membership with an HOF angle. Thus, I applied James' manager standards to the past decade of MMDA play.

In addition to the weighted values listed, James also awarded points for tenure, but since MMDA managers are not hired and fired by team owners, I did not consider this category relevant to our league context. Instead, I simply listed years in the MMDA, dating back to 2006.

Managers Clyde Elkins (three years) and Mike Renick (one) have undertaken complete rebuilds, so I did not include them in the following ranking.

No.	Manager	Years	WS	x8	Penn	x5	Div	x3	Wins*	x1	100W	x1	Total
1	John Tresca	10	1	8	2	10	8	24	1008	5	8	8	55
2	Matt Eddy	10	2	16	1	5	6	18	931	4	2	2	45
3	Ray Ross	10	1	8	2	10	5	15	947	4	3	3	40
4	Steven Tresca	10	1	8	1	5	0	0	836	4	3	3	20
5	James Bailey	10	0	0	0	0	4	12	869	4	1	1	17
6	John Lamanna	6	1	8	0	0	2	6	534	2	0	0	16
7	Steve Frediani	10	0	0	1	5	1	3	770	3	0	0	11
8	Jim Baker	10	0	0	0	0	1	3	782	3	1	1	7
9	Mike Johnson	8	0	0	0	0	1	3	669	3	0	0	6
10	Jim Derer	4	0	0	0	0	1	3	353	1	1	1	5
11	Tim Ednoff	4	0	0	0	0	1	3	342	1	0	0	4
12	Mike Siddon	10	0	0	0	0	0	0	746	3	0	0	3
	Eric Campell**	10	0	0	0	0	0	0	731	3	0	0	3
14	Ryan McCabe	5	0	0	0	0	0	0	389	1	0	0	1
	Dave Jones	5	0	0	0	0	0	0	347	1	0	0	1
	Jim Gruttadauria	4	0	0	0	0	0	0	315	1	0	0	1
	George O'Connor	4	0	0	0	0	0	0	296	1	0	0	1
	Tom Edwards	3	0	0	0	0	0	0	227	1	0	0	1
* Teams awarded one point for every 200 wins **  Kevin Kasunich takes over franchise for 2016

League welcomes two new skippers

While we were sad to see old friends Jeff Green and Jeff Olson step away from the league this week, we have quickly found two capable, experienced replacements in Jim Pardee and Clyde Elkins. Jim takes over Jeff Olson's Yankee Clippers, and being from Columbus, Ohio, he is even keeping the team name as the Columbus Clippers. Clyde takes over the Michigan Lakers, with a mouthful of a team name, the Elysian Fields Flying Dutchmen, a double tribute to baseball's roots.

Please send a warm welcome to the league's new members, and perhaps drop a trade inquiry while you're at it. Both clubs have some nice long-term talent, some good card value, and some, uh, shall we say, dead weight?

Jeff-less in the MMDA

Just when it appeared we would make it through the offseason with minimal turnover, we lost two Jeffs in less than a week.

Jeff Green, manager of the Michigan Lakers, stepped aside, citing recurring technological issues with the chat site on draft day as a significant factor in his decision. As he put it, draft day is at least half the fun of being in a league like this, and having to participate from the sidelines the past two years was a let down.

Jeff Olson, manager of the Yankee Clippers, has also resigned, due to health reasons. Jeff had built his team into a perennial contender in recent years. We are rooting for him to feel better, and have let him know he is welcome back if he is physically able to participate again in the future. Best of luck to Jeff, who has frequently been in my thoughts since he sent me that sad email earlier this week.

Jeff O. was kind enough to recommend the league to a friend of his from another mutual league, so we have a lead on one replacement manager.