The color game charts are designed to be the stable rock of DYNASTY League Baseball so when there is a new edition it is big news.  The last new DYNASTY League Baseball game charts edition (5th) was released in 2004.  The new 6th Edition game charts are included in all new Board game editions at the Ticket Window.  The 6th Edition game charts can also be ordered separately as ITEM# charts ($12.95).  DYNASTY League Baseball Online will be incorporating the new 6th Edition game charts in the future.

What’s new?

ATTEMPT chart
The F rated Pitcher Hold section of the ATTEMPT chart  has an increase in the Pickoff Pitcher result and a decrease in Good jumps.  The end result is that potential pickoffs by F Hold pitchers have been doubled and it is also a bit more difficult to get a Good Jump off a a Pitcher with an F Hold rating.

Great examples of the type of pitcher this will help are  F rated Hold pitchers like Jason Isringhausen (Pickoff rating of 9), Matt Thornton (Pickoff 5), Jesse Crain (Pickoff 7), Tony Sipp (Pickoff 7), Matt Lindstrom (Pickoff 5), Ross Ohlendorf (Pickoff 6), Tommy Hanson (Pickoff 3), Dan Runzler (Pickoff 10), Jordan Walden (Pickoff 4), Tony Watson (Pickoff 6) and Eric Surkamp (Pickoff 8).  These pitchers fall into the category of easy to get a Good Jump off, but also very adept of picking runners off.  It’s an interesting combination of a Hold and Pickoff rating that is more common that you might expect.

Umpire Crews
Umpire crews have all been newly updated along with new strike zone ratings.  Crews now include their last name as well as first initial.  Also new is the red HOT symbol ~ for certain umpires that come into play on the updated BIZARRE play charts.  If you guessed Joe West as the leader in ejections has a HOT symbol you are right!

UMPIRE chart
Umpire result # 16-24 has been changed to decrease the number of singles and increase the number of strikeouts for Umpires with a Normal strike zone.

New weather and wind for Target Field is included in the new 6th Edition game charts and will be updated in DYNASTY League Baseball Online

BIZARRE  plays
There are 15 new  play result changes to the Bizarre plays.  Skip Schumaker and the rally squirrel, ground rule HR off the C ring in Tropicana Field, Jeffrey Maier’s interference play, video replay on a disputed HR and rf shoe string catch and doubling off runner at 1st by the likes of Ichiro Suzuki Nick Markakis and Jeff Francoeur

WEATHER charts
Minnesota Weather and Wind were researched over the last two years at Target Field using box score data (thank you Josh Nelson) and are included in the new 6th Edition weather charts.

Before the Pursue the Pennant board version game was even published (which later became DYNASTY League Baseball) and was still in the design phase, I had the chance to play test it with a few friends, but also with a few Major League Baseball players.

Dennis Martinez of the Baltmore Orioles was the first Major League Baseball player to test Pursue the Pennant and one of the things I most remember is how he would “pitch” with the dice. It was almost as if he was pitching curve balls with the dice! Dennis is among the most animated players I have played face to face and it is sheer joy playing him in face to face games because he is having so much fun playing.

Dennis Martinez “ptiches” the dice!

The Milwaukee Brewers Paul Molitor and I played Pursue the Pennant one of the club house rooms underneath Milwaukee County Stadium. So here I am playing with the most popular baseball player in Milwaukee other than Robin Yount and I am explaining how the three percentile dice are read (red, white and blue) and how to look up the play result on the player cards. I roll the dice in the first innning managing the Baltimore Orioles and of course Paul is managing the Brewers and is batting himself leadoff. The dice roll out of my hand and the red die comes up “1″ and the white and blue die follow… As any DYNASTY League Baseball player knows, the 100′s are generally good numbers for hitters. Well, this number was more than good it was great. Paul looked up the dice roll number on the Paul Molitor player card he was holding and a smile came across his face. “HOME RUN! ” Paul laughed. I laughed. Leadoff HR for the future Hall of Famer. What are the odds?

Atlanta Brave and St. Louis Cardinal Brian Jordan and I played the new DYNASTY League Baseball Online version together last January at the Cardianls Legends event and I think Brian’s enthusiasm for the game was contagious. I think he had more fun than I did which is hard to do!

We don’t get the chance to play DYNASTY League Baseball vs. Major League Baseball players everyday, but we do have the chance to play vs. friends. If you have local friends it’s a great opportunity to play the DYNASTY League Baseball board version with them and share some great times together for a series or in tournament or league. If many of your friends or family are not close by, DYNASTY League Baseball Online “Series” allow you to play a long distance game online with a friend in one click. Prior to playing just invite him as a friend on DYNASTY League Baseball Online and when he is logged into DYNASTY League Baseball Online the same time as you are you can create a “Series” and invite him to play. It is easy and it is so much fun.

Brian Jordan and Mike Cieslinski playing DYNASTY League Baseball Online

Don’t have a friend to play with when you feel like playing a game of DYNASTY League Baseball Online? That is why DYNASTY League Baseball Online is a multi-player game with solitaire options. You can play any team from any season in the DYNASTY League Baseball library vs. the new computer manager.

I personally enjoy playing vs. both friends and solitaire and find most DYNASTY League Baseball players feel the same way. There are some people who only like to play solitaire. Other people only like to play vs. other people.

What is true now though is that there has never been an opportunity in the history of baseball simulations to play vs. friends and other people like there is now with the advent of DYNASTY League Baseball Online and the community that plays there. With the daily online Greatest Team bracket tournaments there are always opponents to play vs. The Greatest Team leagues allow you to join a league and invite your friends into the same league you are joining as will the upcoming current season continuous “keeper” draft leagues.

Jamie Hall and Mike Cieslinski playing a friends “Series” with their favorite Tigers and Cardinals.

Yes, solitaire play is a lot of fun with DYNASTY League Baseball, but now you have a chance to play with friends old and new in DYNASTY League Baseball Online.

If you already have an existing Private Draft League that has completed your draft (you can still use the upcoming new live draft room next year) you are in for some very exciting news.    These new Commissioner tools allow your league to enjoy the first and only real time multi-player draft leagues for Baseball simulation leagues. 

What is the benefit of real time web based multi-player leagues as opposed to the old stand alone PC leagues?  In short, a Commissioner’s dream unless you like the drudgery of importing and exporting league files only to get stats, standings and leaders from last week or even last month.   That is way outdated in today’s connected online world.   DYNASTY League Baseball Online allows your league to have your stats, standings, leaders and box scores updated in real time. 

You can even watch other league games box scores and game summaries update in real time which is a great feature for late season pennant races when you want to know the “out of town” scores in real time.

The new Private Draft league creation tool lets you create a private league by entering the league name, number of teams and team names in the league.  Once you enter the number of teams you will see options for the number of divisions and playoff format.

You will also select the number of series your league will play each week and the scheduled league play times.  Keep in mind that the scheduler allows you to submit changes in game time for any of your scheduled series during the season and you also can have the new Computer Manager profile manage for you if you can’t play that week.

Once your Private Draft league is created there is a page that allows the Commissioner to edit the settings of the league.

The Commissioner is then be able to go to a page to invite friends into the Private Draft league.  You can also use the current “Invite a Friend” button on the left hand column of the home page to invite people you know to DYNASTY League Baseball Online using their email address.  Once new people you invited have an account you can then add them as your friend.

League members can choose and edit their team settings.

Once a league member is invited to a private draft league he can then select his team settings.

After you have created your Private Draft league, then the league Commissioner can use the new roster tool to place the players on each team. The roster tool interface allows you to promote and demote players to and from the major and minor league rosters. 

The screen shot shows Ryan Braun, Rickie Weeks, Cory Hart, Prince Fielder, Francisco Rodriguez, Yovanni Gallardo, Zack Greinke, Shawn Marcum, Randy Wolf and John Axford added to the roster.

Roster import tool allows the Commish to place players on each team

The new scheduler tool allows you to use the default 12 and 24 team schedules or you can manually create your own schedule.

The new Private Draft League tools are easy to use and will allow you to start playing your DYNASTY League Baseball Online private draft league.

During spring training this year I had a chance to meet with Milwaukee Brewers Bob McClure and Paul Molitor and reminisce about Pursue the Pennant and it’s succesor DYNASTY League Baseball .   My visits with “Mac” and “Molly”  reminded me of another meeting I had with Brewer manager Tom Trebelhorn in May of 1987 in which I played Pursue the Pennant with “Treb” in his managerial office in Milwaukee County Stadium:

After getting off to a scorching 20 and 3 start, the Milwaukee Brewers were languishing in the midst of a seven-game losing streak.  Some of the hometown faithful seemed to have already soured on rookie manager Tom Trebelhorn, or so it appeared as I entered his office in County Stadium. 

“Where do we file letters like this?” queried Trebelhorn as he handed a letter to Public Relations Director Tom Skibosh.  I read the hand-written letter alongside of Skibosh.  At the top of the page, Trebelhorn had written the words, “STAY POSITIVE”  The writer began by saying that the 13-0 streak was the worst thing that could have happened to the Brewers because now they would be “stuck with this miserable manager (Trebelhorn).”  The letter contained such compliments as “you stink” and “I can’t wait till (sic) they get rid of you.”

I guess that’s what you get for piloting the Brewers to the best record in baseball after most people picked the team to finish no higher than sixth.

I first met Treblehorn at the annual Diamond Dinner held each January by the Brewers.  It’s hard not to like the man.  Words like “thoughtful”, “organized” and “down-to-earth” come to mind when describing him.  In many ways, he reminds you of a favorite teacher you once had.   By now, you probably know that is exactly what Trebelhorn is in the off-season…a school teacher in Oregon.

Despite the long losing streak, on this day as on all others, the rookie skipper was upbeat and positive.  When I told him that the name of the game that we were about to play was called Pursue the Pennant, he replied “That’s what we’ll be doing this year.”  Based on what had transpired in the first thirteen games of the season, he wasn’t kidding.  Lately well….

Like many of the “new breed” of managers, Trebelhorn is aware of the numbers which are necessary to make sound baseball decisions.  He combed with delight the Project Scoresheet data I had along on opposition stolen bases vs. pitchers and catchers.

As a field general, Trebelhorn is aggressive.  His teams will steal bases.  The Brewers are 2nd in stolen bases compared to a dismal 9th last year under George Bamberger’s reign.  The hit and run play is often employed to stay out of the double play.  Baserunners are more aggressive, going from first to third on singles, stretching base hits, forcing the other team in to making mistakes.  Of course, the more chances you take, the more likely things are to backfire, but more often than not in 1987, Trebelhorn had been pushing the right buttons.

Meanwhile, Skibosh was still musing over the letter, describing the author in terms not to be repeated in a family publication such as this.  Seemingly undaunted, Trebelhorn took up position behind his desk.  He would manage the Brewers and I would manaage the Oakland Athletics in a “preview” of that night’s major league game.  It would be Mike Birkbeck vs. Dave Stewart.

We each began to construct our lineups for the game.  There were no Pursue the Pennant cards for B.J. Surhoff or Terry Steinbach (although there will be in the upcoming rookie card set), but otherwise, we had all the key players from both teams.  As I was making out my lineup, I mentioned to Trebelhorn that the A’s seemed to be weak against pitching.   He nodded in agreement.

I briefly explained how to play, and Trebelhorn rolled the dice for Birkbeck as Alfredo Griffin stepped in.  He drew a walk, and Carney Lansford followed with a single to center.  No outs, men on 1st and 2nd, and Davis, Canseco, Jackson and McGwire due up.  I began to think that it looked like things were going just as they had on the current losing streak.   My competitive fire took a back seat to secret longing that the Brewers would get out of it.  After all, it’s bad enough that Treblehorn’s crew had been getting their brains beaten out in real life, without someone unloading on them in a baseball table-top game.

Birkbeck got out of it, but not without a scare.  Davis flied to right, Canseco struck out, but Jackson walked to load the bases before McGwire stuck out.

Both teams went quietly until the bottom on the 2nd.  With one out, Deer singled, Cooper walked, and Schroeder reached on an error to load the bases.  With Gantner at bat, I explained that the squeeze play is also an option in PTP.   Trebelhorn elected to swing away, and Gantner hit into a 4-6-3 double play to end the inning.  Wrong button.

In the bottom of the 3rd, the Brewers got something going again.  Sveum led off with a walk.  Molitor struck out.  Yount flew out deep to left.  Braggs singled to center, Sveum to 2nd.  Greg Brock then pounded the next offering over the wall in left-center field.  Calm, cool, and collected Trebelhorn noted “Brock will do that”.

After Deer struck out to end the inning, Trebelhorn notified our Pursue the Pennant umpire (Andy Etchebarren, a Brewer coach) that he had to get back to work, and that the fourth would have to be our last inning.  What a great managerial ploy if it could be worked into the Pursue the Pennant rule book.  – RULE 7.03   The home team manager may call the game at anytime if he has to go back to work.

The Athletics loaded the bases with two out, but Birkbeck got Tony Phillips to fly out to Deer to end the game.  I hoped that Brock would repeat his feat that night, but he didn’t, and the Brewers troubles continued as they lost their seventh straight game. 

After our game was over, Trebelhorn commented that he was impressed with Pursue the Pennant.   “I saw some interesting things here, especially with all the information on the player cards, ” he said.  He then inquired about the price, commentiing that it would be fun for him and his son, an avid board game enthusiast.

Milwaukee Brewer fans can only hope that manager Tom Trebelhorn can find enough interesting things to get his team turned around and continue their pursuit of the pennant.

You can learn more about Pursue the Pennant and DYNASTY League Baseball at the IN-DEPTH page and at the new DYNASTY League Baseball Online site.  

The new DYNASTY League Baseball 2011 season player card set with Brewers Ryan Braun, Zack Greinke, Rickie Weeks, Prince Fielder, John Axford, Yovanni Gallardo, Corey Hart and Francisco Rodriguez is available at the Ticket Window store and also at DYNASTY League Baseball Online.

The DYNASTY League Baseball Official league rules that start on page 10 are basically the Rotisserie League Baseball rules including salaries and contracts for draft leagues adapted for basball simulation leagues.  What’s new is that DYNASTY League Baseball Online leagues are now included along with local DYNASTY League Baseball local Board version leagues in the Official Rulebook and there are quite a few updates.  

DYNASTY League Baseball Online is the First and Only Real Time Baseball Simulation for Draft Leagues
If you have players in many different locations, the beauty of DYNASTY League Baseball Online is that it can easily manage your league and update stats, standings and leaders in real time. This is a first for Baseball simulations.  Never before have real time draft leagues been available for Baseball simulation games.  Previously each league member would have to export his league file and send it to a central commissioner who would then have to import each league file and then export and send the files back to each league member so that league members could import the updated file again.   Of course that is far from real time and  in today’s connected world it is downright prehistoric to have to go through all that drudgery to update your stats, standings and leaders.

You join a league and then choose a franchise that includes the matching ball park and then draft your team with a fictional $300 budget from the most recent season of DYNASTY League Baseball player cards that continues each future season when the new season player cards are released  in a Dynasty play format.  Draft day consists of a Major League draft in which you draft your 25 man roster and then a Minor league draft of 8 additional players that you can call up and send down during the season for a total of 33 players under your control.  

After the draft, you are then able to start your season immediately because all of the team rosters have already been saved and integrated by the new live draft room and the scheduling is all done for you.  You are then able to easily play live games for your series just by clicking on the join game button or if you can’t make a series have the new computer manager profile play for you.

The first DYNASTY League Baseball Online public and private draft leagues are targeted for this coming April.

One of the most interesting and fun aspects of playing DYNASTY League Baseball is developing your Manager Profile identity of the tactics you use when managing your team.  When you play a game with the DYNASTY League Baseball Board version or Online version you are developing your own Managerial profile.  Do you play for the big inning and the three run HR like Earl Weaver or use one run tactics like stealing and the suicide squeeze like Whitey Herzog?   Now your Manager profile identity can be entered into the new DYNASTY League Baseball Online Manager profile.  You’ll see some of my profile selections from my SNBL draft league St. Louis Cardinals franchise in this blog post.

The new Manager profiles are targeted to be available for DYNASTY League Baseball Online in late March.  You will be able to select and use your Manager profile right away in a Greatest Team league and also in the upcoming draft leagues.

Manager profiles are important because they allow you to have your team managed according to the tactical  profile that you select if you can’t play your scheduled series live for that given week.

iPad and iPhone
Even though you can’t play a game of DYNASTY League Baseball on your iPhone or iPad (Apple does not allow the Silverlight plug-n) you can view your stats, box scores, game summary and leaders with the iPad and iPhone.  You can also change or update your Managerial profile on the iPad or iPhone. 

Lineups

The Lineups tab allows you to select your saved lineups and assign them to one of the four primary default lineup categories:

Default Lineups:

What happens when a player is injured or is not eligible to be in my default lineup?  The Lineup Slot Preferences section allows you to select various parameters using sliding scales that total 100%  Want your leadoff man to have a high OBP and be good at stealing 2nd?  Slide the scale to weight these preferences more heavily.

Lineup Slot Preferences

Pitching

Managers in recent years are including more pitchers on their roster than in previous years.  15 Batters and 10 pitchers used to be the standard, but today some managers have as many as 13 pitchers on their roster.  You’ll be able to select the depth or pitching on your roster by selecting  the Number of Pitchers to carry on active roster at the top of the Pitching tab.

Do you want to go with a 5 or 4 man rotation and do you want any of your pitchers to pitch on short rest?   The defacto standard used to be a 4 man rotation – now it is 5.  Just remember your pitcher Durability rating is reduced by 7 on short rest so you’ll need a deeper bullpen if you decide to go with a 4 man rotation.  You can select 4 or 5 man rotation at the Starting Rotation Size menu option.

Starting Rotatation Size: 5-Man Rotation 4-Man Rotation

Select Starting Rotation allows you to slot in your starting rotation and also check off if you want any of your pitchers to start on short rest.

Sparky Anderson was nicknamed “Captain Hook”.  Here are your Managerial profile Early/Late hook options:

Baserunning

Here you can set your Manager profile to be aggressive like Whitey Herzog or Joe Maddon or conservative like Earl Weaver.

Baserunning Aggressiveness:

Defensive Throwing Aggressiveness:

Bunting

Eschew or advocate the sacrifice or suicide squeeze bunt?   You can choose different selections for different base and out situations.

Sacrifice/Squeeze Bunt

Pinch Hit/Run

Decide which players on your roster are eligible to be pinch hit or pinch run for.

If you manage like Joe Maddon who lead the AL in pinch hitting appearances from 2008-2010, you’ll want to select Very Frequent or Frequent for Pinch Hit Frequency.

Pinch Hitting:

Defense

Defensive Positioning
Set up your guidelines for when to play the infield in (or just corners in) in various situations.

THE SCOUTING NOTEBOOK

Unfortunately those publications are no longer published and while Baseball Prospectus is a great read, it doesn’t completely replace the detailed scouting reports that THE SCOUTING REPORT and THE SCOUTING NOTEBOOK provided.  Yes, we have stats and lots of them.  Baseball statistics have never been as accessbile as they are now.   It was a totally different Baseball world in 1982 when the first Bill James Baseball Abstract was published for national distribution and the Elias Sports Bureau tried to claim Baseball statistics as it’s own private domain.

There never has been a Baseball publication that provided player ratings like the incredible Rick Barry Pro Basketball Scouting Report, but perhaps DYNASTY League Baseball is the closest thing to it for Baseball in terms of providing Major League Baseball player rating grades.

A tremendous amount of effort goes into the creation of the DYNASTY League Baseball season player ratings to give you the best possible replication of a players strengths and weaknesses.   I’ve been rating and grading players for 27 years for not only each season player card set for Pursue the Pennant and DYNASTY League Baseball since the 1984 season, but also several past seasons including 1957, 1967, 1970-1974, 1982 and three Greatest Teams sets from 1906-1988.   That’s about 35, 000 different players and when you multiply that times about a dozen or so player ratings per player that comes to almost 500,000 individual player ratings.  OK, Dan Treuden has been helping rate the pitchers for quite a few years, but still that is a lot of players and player ratings to evaluate!

You can now find almost of these player ratings easily accesible at: DYNASTYLeagueBaseball.com

Most player ratings are based on a 1-10 scale or A-F including A+, B+ and C+ (Error ratings go from 5-100) to give you a broad spectrum of ratings and precise statistical accuracy using historical scales.  The player ratings are derived from thoroughly researched and tested formulas and computer calculations. 

In some cases though, you simply can’t devise a formula that will take all factors into account.  Defensive Range ratings are a good example.  If you only used a players zone rating (UZR), you would come up with many misleading ratings simply because this defensive metric doesn’t account for variables such as the vagaries of the scorer’s zone judgement, the adjacent fielder, how hard the ball is hit, size of the outfield and defensive shifts.  There isn’t any single defensive metric that is reliable enough to be used alone to assign defensive range ratings.  That’s why it is important to look at more than one defensive metric and use “old school” scouting reports as a cross check.  In the case of DYNASTY League Baseball, the primary defensive metrics used are Bill James Range factor, John Dewan’s Baseball Bible plus minus and Ultimate Zone Rating (UZR).

It’s this kind of effort combined with the foremost knowledge and insight into the game that makes DYNASTY League Baseball’s player ratings the most realistic of any baseball simulation.

Rays react after Dan Johnson 2 out 9th inning HR caps 7 run comeback

September 28, 2011 arguably goes down in MLB history as the Greatest single day in regular season history with a finish so unlikely and so dramatic it seemed it was scripted from the writers of “24″.

Dan Johnson’s 2-out, 2-strike Home Run in the bottom of the 9th that capped off a seven run comeback vs. the Yankees and saved the season for the Rays.  For Johnson’s heroics he earned a Clutch hitting situation rating on his new 2011 season DYNASTY League Baseball player card.  It is very unusual for a non-RBI leader to earn a Clutch hitting rating, but it has happened before with Al Weis 1969 Mets, Tom Lawless 1987 Cardinals and Manny Mota’s 1977 Dodgers player cards.

The Tigers Victor Martinez epitomized Clutch hitting by raking at a  .375 clip with RSP/2 outs and .394 with RSP along with Miguel Cabrera (.382/724, .388/.673).

The AL East perennial powers Boston and New York both failed to earn a JAM situation rating for their relief aces Jonathan Papelbon and Mariano Rivera.  Papelbon lost his chance for a JAM with an unimpressive .273 BA with RSP/2 out.  Rivera was not only mediocre with a .261 BA/.435 SLG with RSP/2 out, but got rocked with RSP at a .326 BA/.488 SLG clip.

DYNASTY League Baseball fans Dave Kerpen and Andrew Kaufmann debated the merits of the Mets R.A. Dickey chance for a JAM rating in the 2011 season player card set.  What it came down to is that even though Dickey won only 8 games he was a candidate for a JAM rating because he was amongst the Official ERA leaders with his 3.28 ERA.  Dickey earned his JAM rating on the basis of a .184 BA/.241 SLG with RSP/2 out.

The poster boy for a JAM rating is Tim Lincecum who dialed it up with RSP/2 out allowing a .115 BA/.177 SLG.  Now THAT is a pitcher who can get out of a jam!

Carp JAM rating?  This year a resounding YES for Cardinal Ace Chris Carpenter. 

How could he not after besting Phillie Ace Roy Halladay in a Game 5 NLDS 1-0 duel of aces to end all pitching duels?  A .236 BA with RSP/2 outs during the regular season helps too.

Chris Carpenter celebrated after his duel with Halladay in Game 5 of the 2011 NLDS

Beer in the bullpen?  The Red Sox cleaned house after the season becaue the clubhouse chemistry had gone awry.  The starting rotation of Beckett, Bucholz, Lackey and Lester all got slapped with a D intangible rating for their Boston beer party.

Mark Buehrle staked his claim on this generation’s version of Jim Kaat with an A+ Range rating and 90 Error rating.  Buehrle ranked #1 in the Fielding Bible Plus/Minus leaderboard for pitchers with a +4 score to his right, +2 in the middle and 9 runs saved.

Troy Tulowitzki (A/100/-5) earned an A Range rating  on the basis of his excellent  5.05 Range Factor (1st) and his solid Fielding Bible +10 score.  Error 100 ratings are historically rare and Tulowitzki’s .991 Fielding pct. got him the top historical rating on the scale.  Tulo’s player card is a true gem topped off by his -5 Double Play pivot rating which was earned on the basis of his #1 ranked DP pct. of .681. 

In the AL, Brendan Ryan (A/70/-5) ranked 1st in the shortstop Fielding Bible rankings for the second year in a row with a +22 Plus/Minus.

It’s rare that a rookie would debut with an A range rating, but that is exactly what the Angel’s Mark Trumbo (A/70)  did ranking 1st in Fielding Bible Plus/Minus (+11).

Washington’s Rick Ankiel continues to not just impress, but to put himself in the pantheon next to Clemente in terms of throwing arms.  Ankiel’s 7 “kills” and 9 runs saved ranked him 1st among all CF.  MLB scouts also graded Ankiel’s arm an 8 on their 2-8 scale.   Ankiel (B+/90/-4) earned a very rare -4 throwing arm rating in 2011 in both CF and RF.

Atlanta’s Michael Bourn continues to be as menacing as Jason Bourne – only Michael does his killing on the basepaths.  Bourn scores a 10 Baserunning rating and top tier lead (7/6/2) and steal (8/7/1) ratings at 2nd/3rd/Home.

The new DYNASTY League Baseball 2011 season player card set is available for DYNASTY League Baseball Online right here right now and available in the original Board version format at the Ticket Window.

Billy Beane championed under valued players using some of the metrics Bill James popularized back in the early 80′s with his Baseball Abstracts.  Now you can manage the Moneyball 2002 Oakland A’s in daily live DYNASTY League Baseball Online Greatest Team bracket tournaments or leagues.  The 2002 Oakland A’s were just recenty made available along with the 1997 Baltimore Orioles in the Greatest Team bracket tournamets to bring the number of Greatest Teams to select from to 78.

How good were the 2002 Oakland A’s?  Their 103-59 regular season record is considerably better than any of the A’s Dynasty teams from 1972-1974 and you even could include the 1971 (101-60)  and 1975 (98-64)  A’s in their Dynasty as well.    In the end, clutch performers from the 1972-1974 A’s Reggie Jackson, Joe Rudi, Sal Bando and Gene Tenace are remembered for their three consecutive World Championships and the 2002 A’s are forgotten for their failure in their first round exit even though they took the ALDS vs. the 2002 Twins to a deciding Game 5.  Ironically in Game 5 of the 2002 ALDS vs. Minnesota, the A’s did not draw a single walk after expousing the value of OBP during the season.

Moneyball 2002 Oakland A's

Can you take the 2002 A’s further than Art Howe in the DYNASTY League Baseball Online Greatest Team bracket tournaments?

DYNASTY League Baseball Online runs right in your Apple Mac Safari or Windows Internet Explorer, Firefox or Chrome browser.