ATL UPDATE VI: All-Stars, Stats Thus Far

Note: if you haven't read any of the previous posts setting out the background, rules, and team rosters in the All-Timers League, click here and start from the bottom post if you want the full details. Click here for the ATL Message Board, which provides constant updates on the standings, along with the daily games being finished and any injuries or roster changes that occur.

And we're now (finally) over halfway done with the ATL season! In much the same way as the actual major leagues run things, I've dubbed this point in the season the ATL All-Star break. Of course, with an All-Star break comes a fair share of awards and All-Star teams, and you'll find those in this post. I've also finally included the entire stats of everyone for each team, which most would probably find not only more informative than the cumulative team stats I had previously been sharing, but also gives all of you the overall picture of who's succeeding & who's struggling.
The ATL simply didn't coast into the All-Star break without anything of note occurring; there were a few intriguing moments that arose from these games:

• A couple players for Providence brought their bats in a big way on, fittingly, my birthday: Both Albert Pujols & Yogi Berra smashed 2 home runs in the game to lead the Reds to a 9-3 triumph in Funkstown.
  
• Just like the famous 1927 season, Jigger's Babe Ruth & Newark's Lou Gehrig are in the midst of a home run battle. They've exchanged multi-HR games, as well as the lead in this HR race; Ruth has currently spaced himself somewhat at 24 to 19. Of course, the competition in the ATL is a little bit closer in skill and numbers to Ruth & Gehrig than the men they were playing against 84 years ago.
• Remember Christy Mathewson's impressive streak of consecutive starts without a loss for Jigger, a team that currently sports a record under .500? That came to a halt at 16 as he absorbed the setback in a 3-1 loss to the Reds. He now has an unfortunate new streak going: he's lost his last 3 starts.

THE ATL ALL-STAR TEAM

Talk about a snub. He played all of 12 2/3 innings at third base, but he's 100 times more worthy of an All-Star spot than anyone who's played the spot full-time so far.

C Yogi Berra, PRO. No one is donning the tools of ignorance on the same level as Mr. Lawrence Peter Berra. He's hit at a very high level, fielded his position well more than competently, and he's stayed healthy in a full-time role; no other ATL catcher can stake these claims.
1B Lou Gehrig, NWK. If you flipped a coin between Gehrig & Albert Pujols for this spot, you would win either way. Pujols has an ever-so-slight edge in AVG, OBP, SLG, OPS, & wOBA, while Gehrig is barely ahead in HR, RBI, VORP, ISO, XBH, & total bases. I'll give Gehrig the nod based on slightly better fielding.
2B Rogers Hornsby, CMB. Hornsby beats Jackie Robinson for this spot with a little better display of hitting on a weaker team. The Sedohcs are probably desperate for Hornsby to return from his recent shoulder soreness if they want any hope of bouncing back this season.
3B Wade Boggs, FUN. Why the heck am I picking a player for this spot that has an OPS+ below 100? Because every other third baseman in the league has either spent significant time on the DL (Brooks Robinson, George Brett) or in a platoon (Eddie Mathews, Ron Santo).
SS Honus Wagner, PRO. Easy choice. The Flying Dutchman is definitely in the MVP discussion with his elite hitting & fielding. Almost certainly the best all-around player in the ATL so far.
LF Tris Speaker, NWK. Wow, another coin-flip level of decision between Speaker & Ted Williams. Nearly any pitch near the plate is one Speaker will smack into the outfield for a hit. Despite being more of a singles hitter, his overall rate statistics give Williams' a run for their money; with the added edge in fielding his spot & being a basepath terror, I had to give Speaker the nod.
CF Ty Cobb, WOR. He's besting other transcendent legends such as Willie Mays, Mickey Mantle, & Joe DiMaggio in nearly every category, and his current ridiculous average is below what it was for his career. His low HR total but amazing ability to run & create runs through small-ball epitomizes how the Ruby Legs have done most of their scoring so far.
RF Stan Musial, FUN. Babe Ruth has gotten incredibly hot with the bat, but he still has a long climb ahead of him in order to catch the consistent offensive force Stan the Man has been this season. If he can keep this up and get more runners on base for his ABs, he might be able to help hit the Funk back toward contention.
SP Lefty Grove, WOR. Walter Johnson may have a solid lead on Grove in both VORP & FIP, but I attribute some of that to the Big Train having stats that reflect those of a deadball era pitcher, while Grove pitched his career in a more modern, hitter-friendly era. If he surrenders low amounts of HRs and continues his current strikeout rates, he might be a shoo-in for the ATL Pitcher of the Year Award.
RP Bruce Sutter, PRO. Doesn't have the lowest ERA or the most saves, but Providence's primary closer has been a tremendous workhorse out of the bullpen, ringing up batters on strikes at a high rate while maintaining a very low WHIP.

ATL ALL-GLOVE TEAM With the All-Star team based primarily on hitting/pitching, I thought it would be a good idea to select those players at each position who have excelled with the glove so far. However, since I can't actually watch them play, and the defensive statistics are slightly limited, I have to resort to making some educated guesses as to who's holding down their spots in the field the best.
C Bill Dickey, WOR. Highest CS%, doing everything well behind the plate for Worcester.
1B Eddie Murray, CMB. Close call among Murray, Gehrig, & Pujols, but Murray looks to be covering the most range at this spot.
2B Eddie Collins, NWK. His astounding D has kept him as a mainstay in Newark's lineup despite some struggles at the plate.
3B Mike Schmidt, JIG. Like the All-Star team, no real stand-out winner at this position.
SS Derek Jeter, NWK. With all the criticism he got for winning the Gold Glove in 2010, the stats say he fully deserves it so far in the ATL.
LF Tris Speaker, NWK. Squeaks past Barry Bonds. As a legendary CF, it seems right that he should be leading this.
CF Joe DiMaggio, FUN. Playing a flawless CF so far while still covering a good deal of range out there.
RF Hank Aaron, NWK. The man does have 3 Gold Gloves to his name. When he gets the innings, Mel Ott will put up a great challenge.
P Phil Niekro, FUN. Near impossible to reliably pick. When it gets hit back at him, this 5-time Gold Glover makes the play.

STANDINGS Note: Please keep the accompanying player statistics in their proper context; I posted league averages on the bottom of this post.
1. Providence Reds 58-30. Right when you think they're going to cool off & let teams into the race for 1st place, they run off a 9-1 record to go into the break with a seven game lead. Quite simply, the Reds have had the most players perform either at or above expectations playing against fellow legends, and the record illustrates this. Hitting & pitching stats: 2. Worcester Ruby Legs 51-37. They no longer possess the most dominant rotation in the ATL, and they don't have the most powerful hitting team by any means, but their baserunning prowess has helped them steal some games from the opposition & kept them in 2nd place (yes, pun intended). Hitting & pitching stats:3. Newark Legion 50-38. They've now won 21 of their last 24 games and have firmly planted themselves in the race for the championship. The pitching has been adequate, but no one has scored more runs or fielded the ball better than the Legion. Hitting & pitching stats:4. Jigger Bushes 40-48. The ATL's best bullpen has closed up & kept them in some games. This team could make a late run if more of the sluggers start putting the bat to the ball instead of their myriad of whiffs this season. Hitting & pitching stats:5. Funkstown Funk 33-55. Essentially the entire pitching staff has so grossly underperformed expectations that they're nearly singlehandedly pushing this team toward the bottom of the ATL. Hitting & pitching stats:6. Cumberland Sedohcs 32-56. Almost climbed out of the basement before their current 2-8 spell. The general norm for the Sedohcs through 88 games has been players who have underplayed even possible pessimistic predictions for how they would play against fellow legends. Hitting & pitching stats:
Stat Zone (category leaders)
AVG: Tris Speaker, NWK .387
OBP: Speaker .445
SLG: Albert Pujols, PRO .555
OPS: Stan Musial, FUN .967
H: Honus Wagner, PRO 138
R: Wagner 70
HR: Babe Ruth, JIG 24
RBI: Lou Gehrig, NWK 77
SB: Ty Cobb, WOR 32
wOBA (advanced statistic, click on it to see what it calculates): Musial .422
VORP (hitting value over replacement player): Wagner 41.4

ERA: Lefty Grove, WOR 2.34
W: Pete Alexander, NWK; Christy Mathewson, JIG; Cy Young, PRO 11
L: Roger Clemens, CMB 13
SV: John Smoltz, WOR 25
IP: Mathewson 142 2/3
K: Randy Johnson, PRO 124
WHIP: Pedro Martínez, CMB 1.15
K/BB: Robin Roberts, CMB 3.68
FIP (advanced statistic, click on it to see what it calculates): Walter Johnson, PRO 2.86
VORP (pitching value over replacement player): Johnson 39.8


Top Pitching Performances of this Segment (by Game Score): Lefty Grove struck out 14 in a game; not only did he not make it on this list, he also was saddled with the loss in that game.
#3 Pedro Martínez, CMB vs. FUN: 9 IP, 8 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 8 K
#2 Ferguson Jenkins, CMB vs. PRO: 8 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 8 K
#1 CC Sabathia, WOR vs. NWK: 9 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 7 K

Top Hitting Performances: A couple '39 Yankees had virtually unstoppable days.
#3 Lou Gehrig, NWK vs. FUN: 2 for 3, 2 HR, 5 RBI, 2 R, 1 BB, SB
#2 Lou Gehrig, NWK vs. JIG: 5 for 6, 5 RBI, 1 R
#1 Joe DiMaggio, FUN vs. WOR: 2 for 2, 2 HR, 5 RBI, 3 R, 3 BB (#1 in ATL)

Big Bombs (longest HR)
#5 Barry Bonds, CMB 438 ft.
#4 Babe Ruth, JIG 443 ft.
#3 Ken Griffey Jr., CMB 453 ft.
#2 Albert Pujols, PRO 454 ft.
#1 Ted Williams, FUN 459 ft.

I have a good feeling that the ATL league averages will continue to subtly fluctuate around these numbers the rest of the season: .261 AVG, .724 OPS (.331 OBP+.393 SLG), 3.94 ERA.

Last notes: Once in a while, the OOTP manager will back himself into a corner with the players he has & be forced to play players wildly out of position in the field because of his liberal substitutions in tight games. I suppose this is still more favorable than letting the pitcher bat in those situations. Also, with players getting banged up and superstars experiencing periodic struggles, I'm really enjoying watching the ATL continue to be played out!

"What the #*$% Is Broomball?!"

Opening note: If you're coming here from the First State Broomball page, welcome! Hopefully this answers the question posed well enough for you. Feel free to comment here if you have any questions about something I neglected to cover, failed to cover clearly, or are just curious to know.

A couple weekends ago, I ventured back east to Delaware for even more good times with old friends, as well as to play a sport that we're trying to improve at to a level where we can beat traveling teams from many different areas. What sport am I talking about? Wow, you got it on your first guess! BROOMBALL.

What was formerly UD Broomball is now First State Broomball; check out our site here. While you're at it, check out the group's Facebook & Twitter pages too.

Unfortunately, 90% of the people whom I told that I was playing this wonderful sport gave me the same response: "What the #*$% is broomball?!" Thus, I had the impetus to give you my full description, with fancy pictures and everything!

Thanks for Brian for being the man (although this comes naturally to him) and taking these great pictures, Derek for helping to set this whole thing up, and the Nomadic Hordes/DC Broomball for coming up to play us.
Broomball bears many resemblances to hockey. No, we're not actually using brooms, but sticks made of a wood or some metal shaft with a "broom" end that looks kind of like an ice scraper. It's played on a sheet of ice that can be cleaned or worn down from people skating on it. As you can see above, we played on a clean sheet of ice that basically required everyone to wear special broomball shoes that grip the ice very well (my body thanks the DC group for bringing extra shoes for me to wear that night). At previous open sessions, we would play after public skating sessions or hockey games, so most of the ice would be worn down and allow us to play in our sneakers if we didn't have shoes. We used hockey goals but broomball goals are 2 feet longer & wider (6 ft. high, 8 ft. wide). The ball is inflated but hard, and it's a little larger in size than a softball. Much of the same equipment used in hockey can readily be used in broomball; I wore knee/shin guards & borrowed someone's helmet, and though I bought specialized broomball gloves, hockey gloves work just fine.

Hey, that's me! Just like hockey, play is commenced with faceoffs at the various circles. The rules are similar to hockey, but modified for broomball's nuances. Play is stopped every time the goalie freezes the ball or the ball leaves the rink. Offsides rules follow the "floating blue line" rule: the ball must be the first thing to cross the blue line into the attacking zone, and when this is accomplished, the attacking team can use their entire attacking half of the ice without worrying about offsides for touching up. "No touch" icing (international style) is always enforced, even if you're killing a penalty. Because we were playing coed no-check rules, checking someone (along with your traditional hockey penalties) earned you a trip to the box. Playing a ball above your shoulders with your stick also got you 2 minutes in the sin bin. My bad, team.
With play being 5 on 5 using the entirety of the rink, competitive broomball can certainly feature some open and fun action. Once you get used to using your stick and balancing yourself on the ice, you'd be amazed how well you can get that ball moving toward your goal. You can lift the ball high into the air, and if you line it up right, you can execute some very powerful slapshot-type shots that can really challenge a goalie. Of course, if you want a better chance of succeeding as a team, you have to deploy some strategy into the game, and hockey strategy can easily be integrated into broomball; we had 3 offensive lines taking shifts of a little over a minute, as well as 5 defensemen taking turns.
More thrills & spills. As pictured, Matt nearly had an amazing breakaway goal. The ball found its way back out to me as I trailed the play. I took a shot that was blocked, then found Matt for a one-time blast that found the back of the net! There were so many other great pictures from our scrimmage that aren't included in this post; check the First State Broomball Facebook page that I linked to for more. We may have lost 2-1 that night, but it was a great broomball experience for our new team moving forward. Obviously we'll look better once we all have shoes & fancy new uniforms.

Hopefully I've explained this sport well enough to you that I don't have to hear that title question again. Feel free to YouTube broomball for some awesome videos of the sport in action...or if you want to see random people looking silly on ice in sneakers.