Made Men

Note - R. Grossman will not be eligible for the waiver draft (Darvish Keeper).

Phantoms makes Change to protection list

GM Steines changes protection list, placing Blake Swihart on Waivers and protects Miguel Gonzalez. 

1st Trade of 2017 is a Blockbuster

Pittburgh Phantoms will send Robinson Cano, Miguel Gonzalez and their 4th round pick(39) to the Las Vegas Fremonts for Miguel Sano, Steven Souza Jr and 2nd round pick (18) 

Vega$ Protection List

Fremont Protection List

Made Men
Carlos Beltran
Jackie Bradley Jr
Chris Davis
Chris Iannetta
Carlos Perez
Jose Ramirez
Miguel Sano
Kyle Seager
Marcus Semien
Steven Souza
Danny Valencia
Trevor Bauer
Marco Estrada
Colby Lewis
Darren O'Day
Masahiro Tanaka

Wacked
Jose Alvarez
Zach Putnam
Fernanado Rodriguez
Adam Warren
Alejandro de Aza - NC
Mark Buehrle - NC
Richie Shaffer - NC
Eric Sogard - NC
Jose Reyes - NC
Ryan Webb -NC

Evicted from the Witness Protection Program ("Yu Darvish" player)
Dexter Fowler

Added to the Witness Protection Program
Pablo Sandoval

The Fremonts would like to congratulate Mark Buehrle on his retirement.
Buherle rides off after five seasons with a lifetime 24-29 record, 5.21 ERA, 442.3 innings pitched, 73 starts.
24 wins, 29 losses, 442.3 IP and 73 starts are all Fremont Records.
Buherle also holds the distinction of being the first Friendship League player re-activated from the "Yu Darvish" reserve list.

The Fremonds also bid a fond adieu to Alejandro de Aza.
de Aza leaves after 5 seasons with a career .255/.303/.397 slash line, 20 HR, 96 RBI and as the 'Monts career leader with 14 triples.
de Aza is third on many all-time Fremont lists; Games - 335, ABs - 990, Doubles - 52, Hits - 253, Runs - 139, SB - 36.

First guys in line! #stratopeningday pic.twitter.com/4Gs4GbQUFk

— Strat-O-Matic (@StratOMatic) February 10, 2017

World Series Recap

Game 1 - Bangor, ME - Pregame fireworks for the first World Series game in Maine since 1907 led to a 55 minute delay after Loggers mascot Loggie caught on fire and also did some damage to the bullpen golf cart (stunt gone wrong).  This would not be the only wait the fans would endure.  This baby was not decided until the wee hours of this crisp New England night.  The tired crowd went nuts as JD and JP stole the show, blasting late HR's to move this game into extras....14 innings for those counting.  Chirinos got the GW RBI in the bottom of the 14th off of Alex Wilson.....mania ensued.

Game 2 - Bangor, ME - This game was quite the pitchers duel between Hector "Code Red" Santiago and Jose Quintana.  Both pitchers made it through six w/out allowing a run.  The X factor in this game was James McCann.  McCann went off the wall twice for two doubles, accounting for two of the Men's three runs along with an RBI.  Santiago went all nine innings in the 3-0 shutout win - allowing only three hits.

Game 3 - Minneapolis, MN - The Loggers started with pants on fire (sorry mascot Loggie) as Jose Bautista sailed it into the cheap seats on the first pitch of the game against Felix Hernandez, but the Men had an answer.  Jose Abreu hit a three run jack off of Michael Pineda to give the Men a 3-1 lead. The Men continued to add to the lead in the 4th, but the Loggers scored three in the top of the sixth to make it 5-4 Men.  Little Jacoby Ellsbury came up big in the bottom of the 7th with a two run dinger...Then Men held on from there winning 7-4.

Game 4 - Minneapolis, MN - 7,981 fans came out for game 4 after a blizzard rocked the Tri City area (that is the only damn excuse).  With little fan support, the Men gave little effort.  Sonny Gray went all the way, scattering nine hits and a run in this 3-1 victory.  Ben Zobrist and Mitch Moreland went yard for the Loggers.  Series now all tied at two games a piece.

Game 5 - Minneapolis, MN - After the poor attendance game the prior night, the Men marketing team decided to wheel out the coffin of Kirby Puckett once again.  This brought over 21K to the Glad Bag Dome!

Not enough though to spur the Men on to victory.  Castellanos, Gomez and Mother Tucker all went deep for the Loggers.  The Men, down 6-1 got a strong motivational speech from the late Puckett while the horns played a somber version of God Bless America.  The came out like gangbusters following, notching three runs in the eighth and ninth, but it was not enough.  Loggers get the win and are now only one victory away from their first title since 1907.

1907 Maine Loggers

Game 6 - Bangor, ME - Loggermania is in full effect.  All three businesses in town are closed today in anticipation of an epic celebration.  Stadium capacity is 30,000, but they fit another 500 on top of that in the park for tonight's game.  Maine was ready to role, but so was Felix the Cat.  Another complete game for Hernandez, giving up just four hits and a couple of runs.  Four HR's were smacked tonight, all solo shots (Donaldson, McCann, Zobrist, A. Cabrera).  The Men were able to scrounge up a few more runs to take the game 4-2.  It had to happen, this series is going the distance.

Game 7 - Bangor, ME - 36K in the ballpark for tonight's game.  Maybe it was game 7, maybe it was the introduction of the Maine cheer squad (is that a dude on the far right?).

This incredible series had to be decided in a thrilling fashion....it just would have been fitting, but instead Minnesota ordered the "Code Red".  Not a single HR was hit in this game, but Minnesota singled, sacrificed and scraped together six runs.  Hector went five innings, giving up zero runs and two hits.  The bullpen went the final four innings, capped by Tony Sipp going 2 2/3, yielding only a walk with no hits.  Santiago finished the series pitching 14 innings, giving up zero runs, five hits, and 14 strikeouts.  He was unanimously named MVP.

Back-to-back world series titles for the upstart Minnesota franchise.  We may be seeing the start of a dynasty!

Thunder Protection List

Here is the protection list for the Toronto Thunder: Sale - SP Porcello - SP Richards - SP Britton - RP Betances - RP Kela - RP Cruz - RF Beltre - 3B Miller -SS/1B/LF Gardner - LF/CF Gonzalez - 1B,2B,3B,SS,LF Aoki - LF/CF Lind - 1B Teixeira - 1B Zunino - C Young - LF/CF/RF McGee - Yu Darvish player Being released Karns - SP/RP Wilhemsen - RP Smith - RP Heany - NC Perkins - NC Lowrie - 2B/SS Giavotella - 2B Smoak - 1B Casali - C Phegley - NC Thompson - NC

World Series Photo Album

Wanted to share some pictures from the epic, seven-game classic series between the Minnesota Men and the Maine Loggers.  Exciting series, great location, fun celebration, it was a great event!  Congrats again to Scott, and to Steve as well for a great season!  No rest for the weary, there are cards to sort, numbers to crunch, and drafts to be planned.  Looking forward to seeing you all at this year's Draft Weekend!




You are looking LIVE, in Farmington Hills, MI
at the Friendship League 2017 World Series!

A classic show of sportsmanship after a tough seven-game series!

After a Game 7 thriller, Scott prepares
the traditional two-dollar-
a-can-Stroh's Cup Drink

 

Ceremonial drink from the Cup

Love at first, no, it is now SECOND sight!
Congrats to the now two-time champs, the Minnesota Men!!!

Pittsburgh Phantoms Protection List

Yu Darvish
J.A. Happ
Taijuan Walker
Daniel Norris
James Paxton
Matt Shoemaker
Martin Perez
Jason Castro
Blake Swihart
Kendrys Morales
Robinson Cano
Mike Moustakas
Delino Deshields
Byron Buxton
Kevin Pillar
Greg Bird (n/c)

Yu Darvish Player:
Joey Gallo (n/c)

Cuts:
Miguel Gonzalez
Matt Moore
Erasmo Ramirez
Kris Medlen
Alexei Ramirez
Shin-Soo Choo
Tyler Duffey
Joakim Soria
Mike Aviles

Damn you all

World Series - Be There - Craft Breww City - Farmington Hills, MI

Our trip to Mecca - Glen Head, NY!

 

What a great time we had for Strat Opening Day 2017!  We have had some great trips to places like Fort Wayne and Grand Rapids, but we turned it up to 11 to visit the Big Apple!  Wanted to share

some of our pictures of our adventure....

 

 

The moment we became Strat Celebrities!

 

 

Got to spend some quality time chatting with Hal, who was so gracious
 and nice.  Just these minutes hanging with Hal made the whole
 trip worthwhile, everything else was a bonus.

World's hardest trivia contest, trying
to guess cards with the names blacked out

Inside the inner sanctum!

The trip wasn't all Strat, we did visit the
9/11 memorial site 



First up on the pub crawl.. the world famous McSorley's!







Stop #2 was Jimmy's No. 43, recommended to us by a
large Irishman 'local' who hooked us up with the best places to go!



At the Heartland Brewery, stop #5 of 6 bars

I call this one 'Muppet Takes Manhattan'

Inside the "Strat Studio"