June, 2001

National League News
by Lenny Luchtefeld

NL Notes

            I’m sorry but due to time restraints this month this will be an abbreviated newsletter. 

We have come to the half way point as the leaders after last month have stayed in charge again this month. A lot of things can happen in the second half a season but it looks like the only drama will involve Stanley, Fleetwood and Columbus.  All these teams seem destined to make the playoffs.  Who will win the division and which other 2 teams will make up the Wildcards slots will be the only unanswered question as we evolve into the 2^nd half.

Ocala opened up their lead in the West to 21 games.  No other team in the division seems remotely able to challenge the Ocelots.  The only battle may be for second as the Yellow Jackets and the Wolfpack are just 4 games apart.

Stanley stays in control of the Central by 4 games over Fleetwood and Columbus.  The Walkers and Buckeyes have identical records at 46-38.   They may be trailing Stanley in the Central Division but they both have a good grasp a top of the 2 Wildcard standings.  Both teams are 6 games ahead of their Division rival Bloomington for the 2 spots.

No team in the East is still above .500 halfway through the season.  Glen Allen did open up some breathing room over Long Island by pushing out to a 4 game lead. The Tigers and the Wizards could make some noise but they are going to have to make things happen soon.

2001 All-Star Game

            BRASSball’s 2001 All-Star Game will be played by John Winters of Columbus.  John has graciously agreed to host the All-Star game this year.  The game will be played in Columbus’s home park, which is Fred Bridegdale Park.

.  John will be playing the games as soon as we get the ballots returned on July 15th.

            I have attached in this mailing an All-Star ballot for the National Leaguers to fill out and return to me by the 15^th of July.  After I receive all of the NL ballots, I will then tally the votes and inform John of who is to start at each position.  John will then be in charge of everything else concerning the game from selecting the line-ups to when to change pitchers.  I will also send all of you an e-mail to let you know the results of the voting.

Voting for the All-Star game is mandatory by all teams.   Kevin is also sending out the American League All-Star ballot this month.  The results of the game will be posted and discussed in next month’s newsletter. Go NL!

Back-up Owner

For the firs time in a long time we now have a back-up owner ready to go if we have an opening. Jon Kjarsgaard, brother of Walkers director of player personnel
Joal Kjarsgaard and friend of Avengers CFO Andy Wiesner. has expressed interest in joining our league. Jon works with them on their team news sites -- they write the stuff and then he put it up. Because of his work with Andy, he currently promoted Jon to the
position of "Chief Information Officer" of his team (Joal only lets him be "Roving  bunting Instructor"). Jon also helped Andy out with his League Directory project by making the caps for each team.
Jon has been following the league since Joal and Andy joined in 1999. He was first exposed to Strat-O-Matic when my brother came home from college over Christmas break with his brand new 1993 cards. Most of his Strat experience has been via the old-fashioned cards. He doesn’t have much experience with the Strat computer game the past couple of years, but he had some from before so it shouldn’t take him anytime at all to get up to speed.
Like Joal and Andy before me, Jon is happy to say that he is a Wisconsin Badger. He is currently in my hometown of Altoona, Wisconsin (right next to Eau Claire, one-time minor-league home of the likes of Hank Aaron, Joe Torre, and Bob Uecker, among others), and he'll be moving down in Madison in approximately two months.

Trades

Bloomington trades Mark McGwrie, Mark McLemore and Kevin Appier to Stanley for Juan Gonzalez, Carlos Febles, Vinny Castilla, Stanley's 2002 2nd Round Draft pick, and $2,500,000.
Fleetwood trades Ryan Anderson, Ricky Ledee (paid in full), Lee Stevens (paid in full) Fleetwood's 2002 #1, and $1.5 Mil in Cash to Morris Monarchs for Jim Edmonds (paid in full).

Contract Signings

Bloomington signs D. Reichert (M0-2) M. Buehrle (M0-2) M. Suzuki (M0-1) and M. LeCroy (M0-1) contracts
Ocala signs JD Drew to his 3rd call-up in July.
Fleetwood signs Felipe Crespo to a 1-year major league deal, Ben Molina to a 1-year deal , Brad Penny to his first minor-league call up (MO-1) and Dan Plesac to a 2-year major league deal.
North Georgia signs Canizaro M0-2 and Valdes M0-2 contracts.
Glen Allen signs to Mora MO-2 contract.
Wauwatosa signs R.Ortiz, Quinn and Richard to (MO-3) contracts. Sheldon and Ryan signed to (MO-2) contracts.
Metropolis signs Desi Relaford, Ramon Castro andThomas Howard to MO-1 callups and Dan Serafini and Trenidad Hubbard to MTM deals.

Fines