Well, The Unnamed Baseball League is underway again, for its 16th season.

Unveiling the 2005 Rocky Coloradans:

C1 Javy Lopez Bal
C2 #Guillermo Quiroz Tor
1B Tino Martinez NYY
3B Joe Crede CWS
CI #Ken Harvey KC
2B Juan Uribe CWS
SS Derek Jeter NYY
MI Julio Lugo TB
OF1 Manny Ramirez Bos
OF2 Gary Sheffield NYY
OF3 Aaron Rowand CWS
OF4 Torii Hunter Min
OF5 Shannon Stewart Min
DH Frank Catalanotto Tor

P1 Randy Johnson NYY
P2 Bartolo Colon LAA
P3 Kevin Millwood Cle
P4 Kenny Rogers Tex
P5 Kyle Lohse Min
P6 Gil Meche Sea
P7 Justin Speier Tor
P8 Damaso Marte CWS
P9 Gustavo Chacin Tor

The # means that they are in the Minors. And I could have sworn I checked the night before to verify any recent transactions that changed a player’s status. Either the wires were slow to pick them up, or I just missed them. I will see who I get in their place later today. (Remember the background write-up I gave? we do one-day-a-week replacements, Mondays.)

I decided, this year, to pass on saves. The other owners were bidding up the closers past what I considered a god price and if I couldn’t get a good closer it was a waste of money to try for second tier. Unfortunately, the way our league works, setup pitchers aren’t worth much. They don’t get wins because they come into the game after the starter has established the lead, and the credit. They don’t get saves because the closer comes in for the last inning to preserve the win for the starter. They don’t get a lot of strikeouts because they don’t pitch a lot of innings and, truth be told, they aren’t the best control artists in town. (otherwise they would be starting) They may get a good ERA or Ratio (watch out for that control) but that’s about it. There is a stat that we could use for set-up pitchers, the HOLD.

The Hold is determined like a Save. A pitcher that comes in, in relief, with a lead and leaves with a lead (without closing the game) gets credit for a Hold. There may be two or three pitchers per game that get credit for a Hold. I think this stat gives value to the middle relief pitchers, especially if we replace Strikeouts with it. That would leave the pitcher categories as Wins, Saves ,Holds (all specialty pitching jobs) and ERA and Ratio. And ERA and Ratio are prorated on innings pitched so the relievers and the starters are normalized