Free Agent Pitchers

Update 12/1/2007:
Here is what teams have to spend: Millions of Dollars

Pitchers and hitter lists have been updated as teams have declined 4th year options or arbitration salaries to a number of players.

2008 Free Agent Pitchers

Rufus Anderson, Grant Dunn, Jojo Lewis, Steven Hyde, and David Mulder lead a strong class.

Anderson may get a Barry Zito-sized deal.

Update:

Here are the hitters

Top Free Agent Hitters

3 players signed contract extensions, otherwise they would be on this list: Bruce Berano will stay in Cleveland for 3 years and 28.5 million, a tremendous deal for a catcher who will be 36. 39 year old future Hall of Famers Kermit Holmes and Mahatma Russell signed one year deals to stay with the New York Knights.

That leaves these top players:

Catchers:

1. Chris McMullen
2. George Kird
3. Eli Moreno

Kird will likely stay in Portland for a similar contract to Berano's. McMullen should get similar money but for more years.

1st Base:
1. Hal Glover
2. Stuart Johnson
3. Joseph Greble

Glover may be the top free agent available, you can expect 200 hits, 100 runs and rbi, and gold glove defense. He should be a lock for 15 million, but might get even more.

Johnson at 38 is still an outstanding player and will get between 8 and 12 million. Greble, 29, would have a huge payday if he had a season like his 2006 (298-31-114) but slumped to .250 with 18 homers in 2007

Infield:
1. Domingo Chavez
2. Jose Isales
3. Travis Palmer

Chavez will get a huge contract thanks to his power and defense. Isales is an above average hitter at a position where offense is rare and an adequate defender. He's probably thinking about a contract in another league: Julio Lugo's 36 million for the Red Sox. Palmer doesn't stand out, but is at least average in every aspect of the game and has been durable. Lou Zamuda is not listed here as he will not see the free agent market. He will either decide to return to Utah or retire.

Outfield:
1. Dirk Lindros
2. Roy Brown
3. Carlos Merejo
4. Eddie Cedeno
5. Jose Encarnacion
6. Gabe Kotter
7. Kyle Broslofski
8. Gary Parkman

Lindros hits the free agent market for the first time. He's 35 and coming off his worst season (.242, 27 homers) but he's still likely to get one more big contract. Brown has been a solid RBI bat from centerfield and a key contributor to some good Hollywood teams, but he's lost a step in center. Merejo is weak in on-base skills, but gives you a lot of RBI, a strong arm in right, and is durable. Cedeno is the top gloveman in the group and a true leadoff man. He averaged over 100 runs scored in his 3 seasons in Alaska. The Snow Sox will let him leave as Johnny Tusken and Darnell Turner compete for the center field job.

Encarnacion would top even Lindros based on his 2007 season (.324, .587 slugging) but he's never played at this level before, in previous seasons he was barely good enough to keep a job. Broslofski, Parkman, and Kotter are solid, unspectacular corner outfielders.

Utah Utes, 2007 World Champions

From left to right, bench coach Zandar, outfielder Bobby Lewis, 1st baseman Frank Lewis, manager Battletrap.

2007 Regular Season Awards

We have previously announced the winners of the Jeffrey L. Lewis trophy for rookie of the year. Suzuke Mazdahonda wins for the Major league and Delmon Jefferson for the Superior league.

The Roger Chillingworth award is equivalent to MLB's Cy Young award for best pitcher. In the Major league, Roger Lewis took 6 of 8 first place votes and wins the award. Roger had a 21-9 record, a 2.44 ERA, and struck out 300 batters. Willis Brusstar and Mazdahonda also received 1st place votes. Mazdahonda finishes second overall with Brusstar third and Stuart Coppolla fourth.

In the Superior League the award goes to Henry Rollins, the Saving Ute. He took home 3 first place votesand won a close match over Cleveland's Jimmy Doyle and Toledo's Paul Williamson. Rollins set a Ute record with 53 saves in the regular season. He added 6 saves in the Superior League playoffs and 2 more (both 2 inning power saves) in the World Series, then he was the winning pitcher in game six to give Utah the Championship. Rollins sets an alltime record of 61 saves including the postseason. Bernie Grayson previously held the record, he had 56 saves in 1993 and 3 more in the playoffs.

The Major League MVP award was close, but Brett Solo edged out Paul White for his first award. Solo hit .293 with 36 homeruns and 111 RBI while playing great defense at shortstop. White hit 49 homers and drove in 124, but as a big slow 1B did not add the defensive value. Chad White finished third and Miguel Tejawa and Stan Marsh tied for 4th.

In the Superior League the voters could not ignore Adama Dunn's numbers despite his team's last place finish and Dunn having no defensive value as a DH. Dunn's hitting was just too far above everyone else. He hit .295 and led the league in Slugging percentage (.645), runs created (163), runs scored (132), runs batted in (151), walks (115), and homeruns (58). He also led the league with 166 strikeouts. Frank Lewis finished second, followed by Joe Young and Mark Crawford.

2008 Draft

Now that the year is over, here be the draft:

2008 draft

Next up is determining the lottery and draft order.

2007 World Series Game 6

With the win in game 5 New York sends the series back to Utah. Stuart Coppolla takes the mound for New York against Bob Zimmerman.

The game started off with speedy Ricky Buckley hitting a slow roller towards short. Lou Zamuda charged in, tried to desperately barehand it, and dropped the ball for a tough error. Two batters later Chad White crushed a homer to put New York up 2-0.

Utah tied the game up in the bottom of the second. Utah put together a 2 out rally. Carlos Merejo singled, then Del Holdsworth lined a ball off third baseman Tim Griffin. The ball rolled into the outfield for a double, and Griffin was forced to leave the game. Doug Dodson followed with a 2 run single.

The score remained 2-2 until the bottom 7th. With 2 out again, Del Holdsworth worked a walk against Coppolla, and Doug Dodson again came through with an RBI double. With a one run lead, Battletrap decided not to go to saving Ute Henry Rollins in the 9th, sticking with Zimmerman. Bob retired Zygyk, Buckley, and Lee in order. New York brought in Jaret Benser and he shut down Utah in the bottom 8th.

Utah was now 3 outs away from a championship. Bob Zimmerman, who had completely shut down the New York offense since the first, came out to try for the complete game. After Brett Solo flew out to left, Chad White hit his second homerun of the game to tie the game at 3.

A little too late, Battletrap brought in Rollins. He struck out Mueller (his third strikeout of the game) and got Lenny Backman to ground to short.

To the bottom 9th, all Utah needed to do was what they do best: score. Lou Zamuda led off against Benser with a walk. Ryan Ballard followed with a single. Carlos Merejo came up in a potential bunting situation, much like the pivotal play in game 4, but this time Battletrap orderded him to swing away. Merejo struck out, bring up Del Holdsworth. Holdsworth put a quick swing on an inside fastball and pulled a groundball just over the first base bag. Manfred Mueller dived, but it was just out of his reach. Holdsworth wound up with a double, and Zamuda came around to score the winning run.

New York manager Eddie Bird was the first one on the plane back to New York, too emotional to deal with the loss. Bob Zygyk came in from left field to congratulate Lou Zamuda, his former teammate and fellow member of the old Utah "killer Z's". Zygyk then went home to his Utah ranch, and is likely to retire and join the 2008 Utes as a coach.

For Zamuda, this could be the final run he ever scores. He will spend the next month deciding if he will retire or return to the Utes. Manager Battletrap feels sweet vindication. Once considered just an offensive genius who could run the bases loaded offense but not a complete team, he now has a ring and his Utes did it with offense, with pitching, with great relief from his saving Ute, and with one perfectly timed bunt.

And then there's Frank Lewis. The great-hitting jawa went so crazy after the victory and postgame champagne that he stripped naked and treated the 51,437 SCREAMING UTE fans to a post-game streak around the warning track.

Frank the Tank! Through the quad and to the gymnasium! UTE!

World Series Game 5

Utah sends game 1 starter Keith Langford against Mazdahonda. In the bottom of the first, New York loads the bases with 1 out for Manfred Mueller. Mueller grounds to Dodson who throws wide of first. 2 runs score and the runners take 1st and 3rd on the error. Griffin then singles home Chad White to give New York a 3-0 lead. In the 3rd, Utah gets on the board with a 2 out double by Holdsworth that plates Dodson. In the bottom of the 4th, New York scores 3 more on a sacrifice fly and a 2 out 2 run triple. On the play, Ryan Ballard and Del Holdsworth collide and have to leave the game due to injury. They will both be ready for Game 6 back in Utah, if necessary. In the bottom of the 6th, New York has 2 runners on and leads 6-1. They can sense the game, and Eddie tells Brett Solo to "hit a three run homer" to put the game out of reach. Solo obliges by taking spot starter Armando Morales over the left field wall. New York leads 9-1 on the great strategy by Eddie. In the 8th, New York pulls Mazdahonda who goes 7-5-1-1-2-4. Despite the 9-1 lead, they go to Jaret Benser, as Eddie says, "to make sure nothing stupid happens." Benser retires the side in the 8th, and remains on the mound for the 9th. Lou Zamuda and Bobby Lewis work leadoff walks. Merejo then strikes out bringing up Eddie Davis. Davis singles to right to load the bases for Scott Romano. Romano pops it up to Buckley to bring up catcher Bendict. Benedict flies to right, but Chad White and Keith Lee collide! The runners are streaking around the bases as they were off on contact...the ball took a strange hop off Chad White's head and Ricky Buckley is able to gather it. 2 runs score and Buckley looks around and sees slowpoke catcher Benedict heading to second base. Buckley throws it to Solo who applies the perfect tag, and the game is over. New York wins the game 9-3 and we will head back to Utah, with the Utes still leading the series 3 games to 2.

World Series Game 4

In New York, Pedro Lewis returns on three days rest to face Utah's #4 starter Jack McDermott. New York scores first in the third, on a Buckley stolen base and Manfred Mueller RBI single. In the 5th, Utah ties it up on a Carlos Merejo Homer. In the 7th, Battletrap summons pinch hitter Eddie Davis who delivers a two out RBI double to score Merejo to give Utah the 2-1 lead. In the bottom of the inning, Tim Griffin ties the game with a solo homer off Michael Haley. And thats the way it stayed until the 9th inning. Pedro goes 7-6-2-2-4-7, while McDermott goes a solid 6-3-1-1-3-7. In the top of the 9th, New York elects to go with righthander Fritz Jones to face Merejo, in lieu of closer Jaret Benser. Merejo leads off with a walk. Then Battletrap elects to leave Dodson in to bat. He gives him the swing away and "run the bases loaded" sign, but then stops. He has visions of his time in Portland where the sacrifice bunt is regarded as holy. He closes his eyes to clear his thoughts but cannot shake the sound of Megatron saying "use the bunt, Battletrap, use the bunt..." Battletrap decides to follow the voices in his head and tells Dodson to drop one down. After fouling off two pitches, Dodson lays a beautiful sacrifice bunt down to move Merejo to scoring position. With the weak hitting Ordonez due up, Battletrap substitutes Scott Romano. Romano delivers a single to left, the third base coach sends Merejo...the close play at the plate...Merejo plows into Justin Lewis...OUT! New York cut off the go ahead run....NO!...Lewis dropped the ball. They call it an error on Lewis, Merejo scores the go ahead run and Romano moves to second. With the lefthanded Bobby Lewis due up (on a previous double switch that pulled Ballard from the game, New York summons Rudiger Rocker. Lewis works the walk, then Del Holdsworth drives a double to deep right...Romano scores, Lewis is being waved home...Keith Lee's throw...OUT! Maduro then grounds to Solo to end the inning, but Utah takes the 4-2 lead. With the 2 run lead, Utah does not have Henry Rollins available to pitch due to his high pitch count in game 3. With Jackie Garrison due up, Battletrap uses his lefty Tommy Dwyer. Dwyer gets the ground out to Zamuda. Now with Griffin due up, Battletrap summons Biasatti. Griffin singles and then pinch hitter for Justin Lewis, Jerrod Smith works a walk. With the pitchers spot due up, New York pinch hits Will Spriggs. He grounds to Biasatti who gets the out at second, but Spriggs avoids the double play and keeps the game alive. 2 out, 2 on for Buckley....and he draws the walk. Now with the bases loaded and 2 out, Manfred Mueller is in a position to be a hero...but he pops out to the catcher to end the game. Utah leads the series 3-1.

2007 World Series Game Three

After a day of rest the teams head to New York, leaving behind the designated hitter and 65,000 screaming UUUUUUTE fans.

New York goes to their longtime postseason hero Stuart Coppolla, and Utah goes to the relatively unknown Dave DelSavio. Without a DH, Utah finds an outfielder's glove for Ryan Ballard and tries to hide him in left, but they tighten up the infield defense by starting Dodson and Ordonez.

Utah starts fast. In the top of the first Yamil Maduro doubles, and with two out scores on a dropped fly ball by Jackie Garrison. DelSavio starts strong, with 7 strikeouts and 6 groundouts in 5 innings of work. He was unscored upon for the first four. Utah scored in the third on a Frank Lewis sac fly, in the 4th on an Ordonez double, and again in the 5th as Lou Zamuda homered.

In the bottom of the 5th DelSavio ran out of gas. With 2 out and a runner on first he gave up a single to Coppolla, who strangely was not pinch hit for. Ricky Buckley and Manfred Mueller followed with hits, and brought New York to within one, 4-3. Utah tried to add an insurance run in the 6th but Doug Dodson was nailed at the plate on a throw from Garrison.

New York took the lead in the bottom 6th off a shaky Utah bullpen, with Chad White singling in Keith Lee and Ricky Buckley drawing a 2 out, bases loaded walk. The lead was very shortlived as Frank Lewis and Lou Zamuda greeted Bill Wright with back to back jacks. Wright has now pitched 2 2/3 innings and allowed 4 homers this series. Michael Haley set New York down 1-2-3 in the 7th, and Del Holdsworth pushed the lead to 7-5 with an 8th inning double.

In the bottom 8th, Utah once again went to the saving Ute, Henry Rollins, for a 6 out save. He was shaky to start the 8th, as Garrison led off with a single and Griffin followed with a double to put the tieing runs on base. Justin Lewis followed with a sac fly to left, and Bobby Lewis (in left for defense) made it a very close play when Ute manager Battletrap would have conceded the run as long as he kept Griffin on second. Pinch hitter Lenny Backman then lifted a pop fly in foul territory behind third, and 39 year old Lou Zamuda made a spectacular catch, diving into the stands Jeter-style for the second out. After a Buckley walk, Rollins got Mueller to ground to second.

Utah got the insurance run back in the 9th as Frank Lewis blasted another homer off Jaret Benser. Then in the bottom 9th Brett Solo struck out, Lee doubled, White grounded to Zamuda, and Garrison drew a walk to once again put the tieing runs on base.

A clearly exhausted Rollins gave up a long flyball to left field. To the warning track, but no further as it died in the glove of Bobby Lewis to put Utah up 2-1.

With the victory, Utah cannot lose the series on the road. They will either return to the Popcorn Dome as conquering champions, or to play game 6.

World Series Game 2

Mazdahonda vs. another Ute lefty, Bob Zimmerman.

New York uses the same lineup, while Utah goes with their defense, playing Juan Ordonez at 2B. There was no score until the 4th, when Utah explodes for 5 runs. The inning was highlighted by back to back homers by Frank Lewis and Lou Zamuda. New York starts to claw back on a Tim Griffin solo homer in the 5th, a 2-run homer by Chad White in the 6th, and a Manfred Mueller sacrifice fly in the 7th. Going to the top of the 8th, Utah leads 5-4, and elects to bring in saving Ute, Henry Rollins for the 6 out save, figuring the season is on the line. Rollins breezes through the inning, and in the bottom half, the Utes add 2 insurance runs. on solo homeruns from Doug Dodson and Del Holdsworth, Dodson being in the game as a defensive replacement at 3B for Eddie Davis. With a 7-4 lead in the 9th, New York pinch hits Johnny Ray for Bob Zygyk, who is followed by Ricky Buckley and Manfred Mueller. Rollins gets Ray to fly out to center, Buckley to strike out, and Mueller to ground out to short to end the game, and tie the series at 1 game apiece. We now head to New York for games 3, 4, and 5.

World Series Game 1

With game 1 in Utah, the DH rule applies. New York opts to use lefty 1B Vern Terrell against the Utes lefthanded pitching, since Terrell was signed last year to be the exclusive DH in the World Series. New York also opts to use former Ute hero Bob Zygyk in left field for the platoon advantage. Meanwhile, Utah goes with their dominant offensive lineup, and opts to augment it by playing Clint McGee at 2B and Eddie Davis at 3B, while sacrificing some defense in the process.

The game 1 pitchers were Pedro Lewis and Keith Langford and only one of these pitchers had their best stuff this day. In the first, Brett Solo hit a HR to make it 1-0. In the 2nd, New York added 3 more runs on a sacrifice fly, wild pitch, and then a Buckley stolen base followed by a Mueller 2-out single. In the 3rd, New York scored 1 more and chased Langford after only 2 1/3 innings. Utah was able to cut the lead to 5-2 in the bottom half of the inning on a Yamil Maduro 2 run homer. It should have been a 3-run homer but Keith Lee nailed Bobby Lewis who tried to go first to third on a Del Holdsworth single.

In the 4th, New York blew the game wide open with a 4 run outburst. At the end of the game, New York won 13-2, with homers from Brett Solo, Chad White, and Vern Terrell. Pedro won the game with a strong 7 innings, allowing only 4 hits, 2 walks, while striking out 9. He also was able to limit his pitch count and should be available to start game 4. Frank Lewis went 0-4 with 3 strikeouts in the loss for Utah.