This Week in Cobb

Buster Gunns - Cobb Times Herald

Cobb will have rolled over to start season 18 by the time your radio show is up.  New owners include jonboynky taking over the former St. Louis Tweakers franchise, and original owner and two time World Series Champion furniss13 returning to the league after a four season absence to take over the former Vancouver franchise.  Trade winds are already blowing and as soon as relocations occur there are certain to be numerous trades, as is usual in Cobb.  

Winning the World Series in a sweep in season 17 were the AL’s #1 seed Cleveland Steamers, run by owner pieo.  This is the franchises fourth World Series Championship, and third under pieo’s management.  The franchise has been to the W.S. 7 of the last 8 seasons, taking out some very good AL teams along the way.  The Wichita Wankers, the NL pennant winner and #3 seed had a very good run, but just didn’t have enough in the tank to get by Cleveland, making this their second W.S. loss to the Steamers, with their first being in season 12. 

Playing in what was probably his last full ML season, future Hall of Famer and undoubtedly the best position player in the history of Cobb World Jose Barrios set the bar by becoming the first player in Cobb history to reach 800 home runs.  The 38 year old Omaha Sluggers career numbers are elite in every sense of the world.  2047 runs, 3108 hits, 484 doubles, 29 triples, 800 home runs, 2238 RBI’s,  1561 walks,  1460 strikeouts,  5 steals, 24, CS,  .304 batting average .401 OBP,  .591 slugging, and .992 OPS are the stats to this point for Barrios.  It is possible he retires, and if he does he should be a unanimous first ballot hall of famer.  

Speaking of the Hall of Fame, there should be several very good players up for induction this year to join the three current members of the HoF.  Whether anyone gets elected though is up for debate, currently the standard is quite high.

There will be some very good free agents on the market, including SP Dean Hernandez, who along with Kazuhiro Ong is in the debate for best pitcher in Cobb history, and the best candidate to reach 300 wins in his career of active pitchers.  After posting yet another 20 win season last year, the max contract SP will look for another huge deal, and is likely to get it, even at age 33.  Other top free agents include SP Phil Hinch and another SP who will be reported on after rollover.

Early favorites for the playoffs include Cleveland, Tacoma, Toronto, Dover, the former Vancouver team, Florida, and Nashville in the AL.  From the NL Montgomery, San Francisco, Iowa City, New York, Columbus, Atlanta, and Sioux Falls are the likely bets before off season moves.