Winter trades

Offseason trading has been slower than usual this season.

• Scranton acquired third baseman Ruben Aguilar from Philadelphia for two prospects. Aguilar hit .314 with 40 homers and 113 RBIs last season. Philadelphia gets catching prospect Angel Barcelo and pitching prospect Tomas Javier.
• San Antonio acquired center fielder Carlos Santos and pitching prospect Ross Andrews from Syracuse for pitching prospect Glen Perkins, a first-round draft pick last season. Santos hit .291 with 30 homers and 95 RBIs last season.

Coach negotiations have begun, without a few of the regular in-demand candidates:

• Veteran hitting coach Lou Jones, who twice got $6 million contracts, has retired. Jones coached for five teams in seven seasons, most recently for Pittsburgh.
• Pitching coach Junior Flores also retired. Flores worked one season for Omaha, four for LA and two for Columbus, and six of his seven teams had winning records.
• Houston bench coach Bryan Fabregas, who had a record of 655-479 in seven seasons, all with the Toros, also retired.

WELCOME TO SEASON 8

Season 8 is underway.

Cubrunner has replaced Dodgerblue13 and has moved the franchise from Los Angeles to St. Louis. The Coyotes are the second St. Louis team to play in the Evangeline League. In Season 1, the St. Louis Hoosiers were 74-88 for Mslonin. They moved to Dallas, Texas, under JohnnyDancer.

In the AL East, Jacoby66 replaces BigOrange64, and has moved the team from Washington to Iowa. The Cyclones are the first Iowa City franchise in the Evangeline League.

The Evangeline League has become one of the more consisent leagues in HBD. Here's a breakdown:

Class of '01 (18 original owners still remain):

• Sbarrouque
• Jhillblom
• basilleaf
• Phillyfan33
• Jedielvis
• Dawgfan1974
• Blownranger
• Slider15
• EyetoEye
• Lenbo1212
• Eacadca
• Philpitt
• Reggie988
• Shiffy
• Kbrick
• Mpate10
• Vdaino
• Schlemiel

Class of '02:

• Noccolo
• Nordique93
• JoeBoxer

Class of '03:

• 2U23L
• PoconoMets
• Bingles

Class of '04:

• Trapapoodle

Class of '05:

• GDfan

Class of 06:

• Minor3rd
• Buddy bee

Class of '07:

• Campbell1972
• Spainard555

MONDAY UPDATE

PLAYOFF RACES

Pittsburgh's magic number to clinch a playoff berth is one, and only Nashville could eliminate them.

No one has clinched in the AL.

If the playoffs started today:
NL SEEDS

1. Pittsburgh
2. Burlington
3. New Orleans
4. Los Angeles
5. Syracuse
6. Wichita

AL SEEDS

1. New Britian
2. Seattle
3. Austin
4. Honolulu
5. Boston, Atlanta or Houston
6. Boston, Atlanta or Houston

WEEKEND TRANSACTIONS

• AUSTIN BLACK SOCKS: Placed P Victor Winchester on the DL promoted P Marvin Wayne
• BOSTON DEAD KENNEDYS: Placed OF Alton Ramsay on the DL. Promoted OF Tom Zambrano
• BURLINGTON BILLYBALL: Placed IF Santiago Urbina on the DL. Promoted P Buddy Kent and designated him for assignment
• CINCINNATI BUCKEYES: Signed free agent pitchers Vance Green, Hiram Woo, Allie Simas and Greg Pendleton.
• LAS VEGAS BANDITS: Placed OF Omar Arias on DL. Promoted Octavio Johnson, 1B Lorenzo Martin, DH Trot Cashman and OF Delanor Berroa. Demoted 1B Willie Ramsey, P Vitas Podsednik, DH Phil Zoltan and IF Reagan Kinkade. Released P Howie Knorr.
• NASHVILLE PIGS: Promoted P Will Johnson.
• NEW ORLEANS PELICANS: Promoted IF Julio Ozuna. Demoted IF Nelson Rivers
• SALEM WALRUSES: Promoted IF Jeffrey Justice and C Frank Hernandez, released IF Lyle Cook and demoted C Donnie Olerud.
• SALT LAKE STEAMBOATS: Placed P David Cruz on the DL, activated P Hal Hemphill. Extended the contract of P Bobby Joe Monroe.
• SAN ANTONIO COWBOYS: Placed P Danys Rivera on the DL
• SCRANTON K'S: Placed P Davey Miranda and P Louis Mills on DL, promoted P Lawrence Grant and P Cole Brower. Demoted P Carter Robinson.
• SYRACUSE SWORDWHALES: Promoted IF Damon Cornelius. Demoted P Stevie Bonds.

Friday update

TRANSACTIONS

BURLINGTON: Promoted P Abdul Clinton, placed P Mickey Matheson on the DL

CINCINNATI: Placed P Tommy Pryce and SS Peter Rothschild on the DL. Demoted SS Al Maradona.

JACKSONVILLE: Released P Albert Cordero

PHILADELPHIA: Placed IF Ruben Aguilar on the DL. Promoted OF Al Saez.

SALT LAKE: Promoted P Louie Navarro, demoted P Rafael Pujols

SCRANTON: Placed OF Vladimir Guerrerro on the DL, promoted P Carter Robinson

WASHINGTON: Promoted IF Alex Houston, demoted IF Rafael Gil

Wednesday moves

ATLANTA: Promoted pitcher Junior Roque.

BOSTON: Placed IF Matthew Blake, OF Willis Beck and OF Roosevelt Barnes on the DL, promoted outfielder Edgar Figueroa, OF Wilfredo Izturis and P Greg Clemens.

BURLINGTON: Placed IF Enrique Reynoso on the DL. Promoted IF Danny Meares.

COLUMBUS: Activated infielder Esteban Santayana from the DL. Demoted IF Carlos Borbon.

HOUSTON: Signed free-agent pitcher Walt Goodwin.

LAS VEGAS: Promoted P Greg Hamilton and OF Richie Kidd. Demoted OF John Leon and P Don Nicholson

PHILADELPHIA: Activated pitcher Kory Griffith from the DL. Demoted P Chili Whang.

SALEM: Promoted OF Wilfredo Wilfredo and P Albert Cordero. Demoted P Orlando Johnson and OF Karim Santos.

SAN ANTONIO: Released P Rodrigo Paz. Promoted IF Carlos Fernandez.

SEATTLE: Activated IF Pablo Lee from the DL. Demoted IF Ismael Castillo

SCRANTON: Released P Doug Sweeney

SYRACUSE: Promoted pitcher Stevie Bonds.

TUCSON: Promoted OF Edge Reed. Placed 1B Cam Calderon on the DL

Competitive

The AL South has 4 teams that are over .500, this also includes home and away. It will come down to the wire as the Houston Toros, Austin Black Socks, Atlanta Peaches and the San Antonio Cowboys march to the finish line. With 3 players in the top 13 in HR's, the Cowboys are trying to muscle their way to the top. Brian Peterman with 46, Nate Nichting with 34 and Tim Sauveur with 30 homers. Looks like it's going to be a fight to the end. The Cowboys are trying to make it to the playoffs and continue the barrage as we head down the stretch. So grab a cold one and watch the fireworks, cause it's going to be exciting.

SUNS MAKE MOVES

JACKSONVILLE: The Suns called up four players - pitcher Francis Stokes, shortstop Ray Decker, second baseman Warren Ruffin and pitcher Darren Jenkins. They also demoted five players - pitchers Blade Hudler, Oscar Tanaka and Ralph George and infielders Matthew Olson and Felix Jiang.

LAS VEGAS: The Bandits released pitcher Vince Wall and demoted outfielder Delanor Berroa, and promoted outfielder Omar Arias.

SALT LAKE: The Steamboats promoted pitcher Rafael Pujols and demoted pitcher Louie Navarro.

IF THE PLAYOFFS BEGAN TODAY

NL BYES: Pittsburgh, Burlington
NL first round: New Orleans v. Wichita or Nashville, Los Angeles vs. Syracuse
AL BYES: New Britain, Seattle
AL first round: Austin vs. Atlanta, Honolulu vs. Boston

Satou smoked by Pigs

NASHVILLE: Veteran pitcher Paul Satou was designated for assignment by the Smoked Pigs. The Pigs, who currently hold a one-game lead in the race for the second wild-card spot in the National League, also demoted pitcher Ozzie Wang (1-0, 12.00 ERA), activated outfielder Bonk Tapani from the disabled list and signed free-agent infielder Joe Clinton, who most recently played for Honolulu.

PITTSBURGH: The Steelheads demoted reliever Alex Romo to AAA and promoted
pitcher Hector Hughes, who had nine wins as a starter in AAA.

SALEM: The Walruses placed reliver Phil White on the DL with elbow tendinitis and called up reliever Tim Duncan from AAA.

LAS VEGAS: The Bandits recalled pitchers Doug Governale and Josh Wyatt and infielder Ivan Wilfredo and optioned veteran pitchers Calvin Cho and Alfredo Norman.

JACKSONVILLE: The Suns released outfielder Stuffy Sherman.

ATLANTA: The Peaches promoted outfielder Pedro Sierra, who hit .349 in AAA ball this season.

BOSTON: The Dead Kennedys placed pitcher Ramiro Garza on the D (shoulder inflammation) and promoted Lonny Santiago.

HOUSTON: The Toros designated catcher Fonzie Chapman and activated catcher Graeme Walsh from the disabled list.

COLUMBUS: Promoted infielder Louis Brosius from AAA, placed infielder Roy Wallace (bulging disc) on the DL

Upon further review

This page will take on an entirely new look soon, whenever I can figure out how to use some of the tricks on the site.

Some pages I've seen get pretty sophisticated; we'll see what we can do here.

First post

The Evangeline League of Whatifsports.com enters the world of blogging.