2062 - Brewster Hold 'Em: Young Guns

[R.Umali]

Will Hsung was sitting upright on the couch in his aunt's house. He had his Viz Optics on and he was jockeying on Jokey Ride, trying to climb the district leaderboard. His aunt had been calling to him but he feigned like he didn't hear. With the VizOptics, one could really block out all the outside sounds but that story about that kid dying in the apartment fire a few years ago was still fresh in his memory. Will figured that since he didn't see any smoke he was good. He continued speeding through his virtual world.

His aunt tapped him and he recoiled, maneuvered his avatar to a temporary safe zone, points be damned, and said, "What?!?"

"Did you check your fantasy team today? The first sim ended and Dee Dee said she'd update the site with the stats."

"Oh. That."

His aunt was always trying to get him to engage in the real world. And to slow down. And to develop his Math prowess. And yes, he conceded, also to climb up the district leaderboard in Jokey Ride. She did qualify as the cool aunt. For that, he said, "No, I did not check."

"I'm sure your team's great. Weren't you working on some pivot table about all the players?"

Technically, yes. But truthfully, he had only players sorted by wins above replacement, age, and nationality. All the players, regardless of position, were on one big spreadsheet. It was the way he preferred to start any project. Dump everything on the table. It was not his fault that the draft occurred on the same time that a district wide Jokey Ride tourney had been scheduled.

He knew that stats other than WAR were important. His aunt told him that WAR considers defense and "defense doesn't matter in fantasy" and then she hedged "except for playing time." So he dumped all the defensive metrics on the sheet. But he was also interested in other stats like "leverage index", which derailed him trying to figure out some way to measure the leverage index for his life.

William intuited that he would have to spend quite a bit more time to appreciate and understand the beautiful gestalt he immediately sensed. It wasn't unlike his favorite MMORPG. He finally completely removed his Viz Optics and looked at his Aunt, a person really not that much older than he.

"Yeah I made that table. But I didn't make the model."

"Well, I remember you picked up Yuu Suzuki in the first round. He would've been number 1. He's awesome. Some projection systems have him hitting 60 or more homers. He hit .369 last year."

William had heard about Yuu Suzuki mainly because he appeared in Jincast's online series disguised as a yakuza who spoke Japanese with a thick Tohoku dialect. (Apparently, this is even more funny if one remembers that Yuu Suzuki was born in Funabashi, Chiba Prefecture.)

"I like the name. It's like, 'Hey, you' and Yuu goes, 'Who me?' And then the first person goes, 'No, you' to a third person."

"Lol. I hear he's a funny guy. That San Fernando Bears team is pretty good. Maybe we should go see them when they're in town."

When Will didn't respond after a few beats, she said. "Vinnie Vitale is nice. It'll be fun to go into the city. Maybe we can make a weekend out of it and catch a couple of games. Tickets are really cheap these days - ."

"Yeah 'cuz Chicago sucks."

"Well. They're not run very well. Their manager is bad." She sighed and her mind drifted briefly to last August when it was for sure that Rocky Wattson, Chicago manager, was going to be fired. But he finished out the season and seems to be have some kind of job security. She shook her head to bring her back to the present. "But there's a certain pleasure to rooting for a bad team. Heck, your father used to say - ."

This time she stopped herself. The stillness in the small room was suddenly absolute. As if saying the word conjured the man. Then it was gone.

She continued. "Used to say 'To win is to play.' Or something like that. 'Playing is winning,' maybe."

The silence that followed was less freighted.

"I think I got a Chicago guy for my first baseman. Timothy Gadomsky."

"That's Timofei. Russian guy. Yeah, he's good. He had a great rookie year last year. Hit over .300. 34 homers. Good hope for the future. Nickname is 'Full Pack.'"

"I really wanted young guys. And Japanese guys. And guys with a high leverage index. That's why I got Edward Joseph Pfeffer."

His aunt scrunched her face as a way to signal that she was impressed. She was. "Jeff" Pfeffer was one of the hardest throwers in the league, but plays for an Austin team that she figures won't get that many save chances.

In the silence, William started to put on his Viz Optics. His aunt sat swiftly plopped down next to him on the couch. "Let's have a look at your team."

Will sighed meaningfully but they cast the roster on the overhead and looked at his team.

"You got a couple of interesting rookies in Jack Westman and Yoshitora Goto. He's young and he's Japanese so he checks out."

Young Guns
Managed by 15-year old William Hsung

C : Pedro Jimenez (BIK)
1B : Timofei Gadomsky (CHI)
2B : Yoshitora Goto (MAD)
3B : Yuu Suzuki (SFB)
SS : Jack Wesman (AUS)
OF : Julio Perez (DM)
OF : Jamie Angwin (NO)
OF : Gary Keller (MAD)
UT : Tokimasa Yano (CCJ)

SP : Hector Silva (CCJ)
SP : Carlos Moya (CHI)
SP : Shinsui Hasegawa (CLG)
SP : Lucio Juarez (MTL)
SP : Michihiro Tanaka (SAC)
SP : Dirk Bessi (LBC)
RP : Edward Joseph Pfeffer (AUS)
RP : Quinton Manning (SA)
RP : Adam Bristcoe (MTL)

----

Young Guns had the 3rd pick of the draft. The other teams, and their managers, in Brewster Hold 'Em will be introduced in subsequent postings. This feature series began as kind of a lark, turned into a random number program and a couple of hastily generated spreadsheets (hitters and pitchers, naturally), and then another to parse the data.

The Dave Ackerman as first pick was completely egregious. At best, he's a late first-rounder in my eyes. Yuu Suzuki would've been my first pick. Ramon Rodriguez if we're doing dynasty or keeper.

[Dington]

Gotta draft those Bluebirds if you wanna win!

[R.Umali]

Ha ha. Yeah, a quick count of the # of players drafted by team has Nashville way out in front. 14 to 16 players were drafted (I'm still vetting the teams, making sure nobody was picked twice and that each team has at least 1 catcher). Anyway, there were two Bluebirds in the first round: Alfonso Gonzalez - person that drafted him is probably hoping for a 40/40 season - and RBI-machine and batting average lock Brooks Eliot. Eric Stevens was the first pitcher taken. What's interesting, I think, is that the guy who took him (Malcolm, from South Africa) took him at the 1/2 turn, so he had the chance to take him in the first. Turns out, he's a Nashville hater but now his fantasy team's success is tied to Nashville's success. A common conundrum in the hobby.

Sacramento had 12 players drafted and Las Vegas had 11.

[BaseClogger]

I’d expect to have around 11 players drafted too.

[R.Umali]

I think San Fernando had 10 or 11. Yuu Suzuki was definitely my #1 overall. And might have become my favorite player not on the Black Sox. Qutuz Mahdi went in the 2nd round and that's probably because I sorted by WAR and the possible scarcity of good SS. Otherwise, I think Keith Tims or Chris Hall goes before Mahdi.

One of the fun things about continuing with this project is getting to know a lot more about the stars on each team. I had fun learning more about Dave Ackerman, Ramon Rodriguez, and Yuu Suzuki and then imagining the debate one would have about the merits of one over the other. I also didn't realize - and I had a very brief DM about this with Ron Collins - how deep and good 3B was, esp since Malik bin Mazin has 3B eligibility.

[BaseClogger]

Third base seems to do that in cycles in real life too.

Position scarcity is a big deal and why I find it believable that Ackerman would go first overall. Injury risk is about the only thing holding him back.