Lions Welcome New Blood, Bid Fond Farewell To Franchise Icons Granderson, Greinke & Teixeira

Mohawk Valley beat reporters could sense an air of bewilderment in the Lions clubhouse as franchise icons Curtis Granderson, Zack Greinke and Mark Teixeira cleaned out their lockers as they prepared to meet their new employer halfway across the country.

The three distinguished veterans, plus the Lions' second-round pick in 2014, all belong to the St. Louis Maulers now, having been exchanged for center fielder Andrew McCutchen, first baseman Adam LaRoche and trade throw-in Javier Lopez, a lefty situational reliever. The transaction will take effect in time for Block 2 games in May.

Lions GM Matt Eddy acknowledged the difficult decision to part with three of the top talents in Mohawk Valley franchise history.

New Maulers righthander Zack Greinke

"Our rotation depth allowed us to make this trade," he said, referring to the starting-pitcher collective the local press corps had dubbed the $100,000 Rotation. "Trading Zack, Mark and Curtis hurts, but we knew our club's offense was deficient, and we feel that adding McCutchen and LaRoche makes it a little less so."

Following the trade, Derek Holland moves into the Lions rotation on a full-time basis, joining David Price, Yu Darvish, C.C. Sabathia and Stephen Strasburg.

Home Runs 'Go To Eleven' In Mohawk Valley

By Matt Eddy

UTICA, N.Y.—Their plans to co-occupy Citi Field this summer rebuffed, the Mohawk Valley Crimson Lions did the next best thing: they reconfigured Van Slyke Field to play just like the Mets' ballpark.

That means that singles will be scarce—a two factor for both righties and lefties—but that home runs will be somewhat common with a Spinal Tap-ian factor of 11 for both sides. The change in dimensions won't affect longball output at Van Slyke Field too much because the old yard played at 12 for lefties and nine for righties.

The frequency of singles, however, will be reduced dramatically, seeing as the previous dimensions played as a nine for lefties and a six for righties. For point of reference, the real-life Mets and their opponents hit .241 at Citi Field last year, compared with .258 away. That will be a harsh new reality for Lions batters, though club pitchers don't seem to mind the change.

"I prefer to be on the receiving end of one decisive death blow rather than succumb to one thousand paper cuts," Lions righty Yu Darvish said through an interpreter.

MMDA Unveils League Record Book

Spotty record keeping and lack of historical perspective are a thing of the past.

Following the unveiling of the playoff history archive last winter, the MMDA commissioner's office is pleased to announce the launch of a league record book that encompasses the past 11 seasons. There you can view top 10s for team categories such as runs scored and allowed, on-base average, ERA and home runs.

But wait—there's more.

Follow the link to the MMDA League Records Google doc and view top 10s for nearly 50 team categories, plus MMDA league averages and top 25s for those individual categories which are displayed on the statistics overview pages at mmdaoline.com.

Barry Bonds

The somewhat limited array of individual categories includes batting average, home runs, RBIs, wins, ERA and saves. This paints an incomplete picture, but at least now we know that the modern league leader for average is Albert Pujols (.409 in 2009). The leader for home runs and RBIs is Barry Bonds (82 and 180 in 2002).

Northwest's Craig Kimbrel set a modern league record for saves last season (56), but given MLB's downturn in run-scoring, might we see a pitcher challenge Roger Clemens' modern standard for ERA (1.91 in 2006)?

In the Google doc, users also will find headers for all teams batting and pitching. Feel free to paste the data into your own spreadsheet to conduct your own research.

New Dutchmen GM Lays Foundation For Long-Term Success

By Clyde Elkins

SAN DIEGO—There's no such thing as a pitching prospect.

That aphorism credited to Gary Huckabay, founder of Baseball Prospectus, is one taken to heart by the Elysian Fields Flying Dutchmen when making the first four selections of the club's introductory MMDA draft.

Bryce Harper

Given the option of assuming control of the Lakers or Clippers franchises when joining the league, Dutchmen GM Clyde Elkins opted for the Michigan roster, in part because the team held the fifth slot in the draft and also for the presence of the game’s top lefthander Clayton Kershaw. This was a fortuitous decision with Dodgers devotee Steve Frediani among MMDA ownership.

With the first two picks of the draft, acquired in exchange for Kershaw, the Dutchmen selected 19-year-old outfielder Bryce Harper and 20-year-old third baseman Manny Machado. After Yoenis Cespedes and Yu Darvish went off the board third and fourth, Elkins bypassed quality arms in Matt Moore and Jarrod Parker, opting to fill a void at shortstop with 22-year-old defensive wizard Andrelton Simmons.

While Harper and Machado are the consensus top selections in drafts excluding non-carded players, the presence of Pablo Sandoval at third base could have shifted Elysian Fields' attention from Machado to Darvish, a potential top-ten pitcher entering his prime. And while the young Oriole qualifies only at third, many believe that he’ll eventually return to his natural position of shortstop, which could make the selection of Simmons redundant.

Competitve Balance In The MMDA

By Matt Eddy

An infusion of experienced Strat managers, coupled with a four-team dispersal draft prior to the 2012 season appears to have brought parity to the MMDA.

Nothing attests to that quite like last year's World Series, which pitted No. 7 Mohawk Valley against No. 8 Goldenrod, the first crazy-eight playoff club to win the MMDA title in the league's recent history. The Yankee Clippers finished one game behind the Gators for the final playoff spot, while Lake County and Mount Ephraim finished three wins from breaking even.

All the postseason excitement appears to have encouraged a handful of clubs to choose card value in the early stages of the 2013 draft. For example, Wilmington grabbed Brandon Moss with the eighth pick in the draft, while Columbus selected Jordan Pacheco 12th overall, Rosehill drafted Ross Detwiler 13th (and Lucas Harrell 33rd) and Northeast nabbed Justin Ruggiano 16th. The strategy made sense this year, perhaps more than other years, given that the draft was bereft of elite talent beyond the first dozen or so prospects.

A playoff appearance in 2013 would validate any of those clubs' initial selections, but exactly how tightly clustered are the MMDA's teams? One way to approach the question is to examine the standard deviation between all 20 clubs' win totals and compare that separation with past seasons. Running the numbers through Excel yields the following chart, which dates back to the 2002 season.

Keep in mind, a low standard deviation indicates that the data points tend to be very close to the mean; a high standard deviation indicates that the data points are spread out over a large range of values. (Thank you, Wikipedia.)

Mohawk Valley GM Talks Draft Strategy, New Team Nickname

By Matt Eddy

UTICA, N.Y.—The Mohawk Valley franchise suffered a gut-wrenching defeat in the 2012 World Series, dropping three games in a row after jumping out to a two-games-to-one advantage. A clutch two-run homer by Goldenrod's Brandon Phillips in Game 5 proved to be the turning point from which M.V. did not recover.

Motivated to return to the Series, M.V. general manager Matt Eddy conducted all transactions—both trades and draft selections—this offseason with an eye toward making another deep playoff run and, with a little luck, winning the franchise's first title since entering the MMDA prior to the 2002 season.

A trio of winter trades brought closer Joe Nathan, corner outfielder Scott Hairston and the fourth pick in the 2013 draft to Mohawk Valley. The last of those acquisitions cost the club power lefty starter Chris Sale, while M.V. also sacrificed closer Chris Perez, catcher Josh Thole and its fourth-, fifth- and sixth-round draft picks in trade activity.

Mohawk Valley first-rounder Yu Darvish

In the draft, M.V. strategy could be distilled to three main tenants: 1) emphasize long-term impact potential in the first round, 2) load up on card value in the middle rounds, and 3) take fliers on overlooked young talent at the end of the draft. By taking righty Yu Darvish (fourth overall) and catcher Yasmani Grandal (19th), M.V. management believes it acquired players who can contribute immediately and for the foreseeable future. As an added bonus, both Darvish and Grandal can make an impact in a playoff series.

2013 MMDA Draft Supplemental Rounds

Results for the eighth through 15th rounds of the 2013 MMDA draft. For the first seven rounds visit the 2013 Draft Results.

EIGHTH ROUND
141 Drivers Alexi Amarista, 2b
142 Bluejays Ryan Mattheus, rhp
143 Dutchmen Christian Friedrich, lhp
144 Dodgers Joe Kelly, rhp
145 Razorbacks Quintin Berry, of
146 Hornets Alex Burnett, rhp
147 Pilots Alex White, rhp
148 Huskies Ronny Cedeno, ss
149 Maulers Russ Canzler, of
150 Breakers Xavier Paul, of
151 Jive Garrett Richards, rhp
152 Gators Nate Jones, rhp

Gators 10th-rounder Mark Rogers

NINTH ROUND

153 Bluejays Adam Kennedy, 2b
154 Dutchmen Tyler Pastornicky, ss
155 Hornets Kelly Johnson, 2b
156 Pilots Tyler Cloyd, rhp
157 Maulers Jose Iglesias, ss
158 Breakers Craig Breslow, lhp
159 Gators Jim Henderson, rhp

10TH ROUND
160 Bluejays Jerome Williams, rhp
161 Dutchmen Jason Marquis, rhp
162 Gators Mark Rogers, rhp

11TH ROUND
163 Bluejays Kevin Jepsen, rhp
164 Gators Jhoulys Chacin, rhp

12TH ROUND
165 Bluejays Cole DeVries, rhp
166 Gators Steve Johnson, rhp

13TH ROUND
167 Bluejays Jordan Norberto, lhp

14TH ROUND
168 Bluejays Bobby Abreu, of

15TH ROUND
169 Bluejays Carlos Corporan, c