Courtside with breakthewalls

1. A new face to my articles, so going to start it out with the usual: describe yourself. I want to hear all the details.

Glad to finally get a 1 one 1 article to myself! Well where to start. I just turned 22, and I'm currently going to college for a Computer Forensics degree. I'm an associate at a Panera Bread for now while I get my degree. If you've ever worked food service, you'd know that customers at a food establishment is probably one of the top 10 annoyances in the history of man, up there with the Flu and bad pop music. I got into baseball at the young age of 5, when I watched Mo Vaughn trot around on a horse in Fenway during his MVP award ceremony at the beginning of 1996. Funny considering that's the year this league started. So in a way this league was the biggest fantasy opportunity ever, to relive my entire baseball memories from the exact date I started paying attention as a kid. I feverishly collected baseball cards straight from the start, and probably have close to 50,000 baseball cards that pretty much fill up my entire closet. If you couldn't tell already, I'm a huge Roger Clemens/Pedro Martinez fan, so getting them both and having them pitch together in 1998/1999 was a dream situation. Now that Clemens has dove off a cliff, I'll be keeping him in the pen to scrap out some wins there. I spend my time outside of the sim playing League Of Legends and barhopping when I'm not at as many Red Sox games as possible.

Cool stuff. That's a lot of damn cards. I've met Roger Clemens a few times, being in Houston. My mom also went to high school with him. Played League of Legends for a bit, but I never have time/patience for computer games.

2. If karma meant anything at all, which it doesn't, you're the most hated person here. Why is that?

I'm a firm believer in saying what you think whether it's popular or not, and saying what's right. This leaves me in the unpopular camp more often than not in situations. I've also had my fair share of silly statements or flaming so some if it is well earned. I try to stay out of others business until they insult me or someone I'm friends with, so those who have been nice to me have gotten the same in return!

Have an exalt!

3. No one has come closer to winning it all then failing than you. How does this make you feel?

Ask Colorado if you want backup on this but I've had a history of this sort of thing. Back when we used to play another game called MLB Dugout Heroes I was known as the biggest choke artist in the history of the game. It was an arcade style game that used real MLB players and you could train them RPG style and when you played games it was a timing/hand eye coordination game where you had to pitch and hit with the mouse and keyboard. There were tournaments run by GamesCampus, who ran Dugout Heroes, caled the Official Tournament. Winning an OT was considered the World Series of the game. 20 OT's happened in the 3 year run the game had, and I participated in 14 of them. I was a mostly average player for the first few tournaments, but in the 10th OT I broke out as the newest top player when I made a run to the finals. I lost in the finals, and people started considering me a threat. Over the course of the 11th-20th OT's, I placed in the top 9 times, and the top 4 6 times. I was a finalist in the 15th and 20th OT's, and lost them both in full 5 game series, with the lead going into the 9th of both of the final games. I lost the 15th OT on a wild pitch, which in that game was the equivalent of a balk, they never happened. The 20th OT was lost thanks to a home run that wrapped the foul pole that looked foul to anyone watching the game. Winning one of them just wasn't in the cards I guess. Oh! Back to OOTP after that little rant.

Considering that my four finishes as a GM have been:
1996: Game 7 of the ALCS
1997: Game 7 of the WS
1998: Game 7 of the ALCS
1999: Game 7 of the WS

I think that it's just a matter of time before the dice roll in my favor. It's been extremely frustrating but I've had definitive reasons I failed every year, and I've always made efforts to fix them. Pitching depth killed me this year after Pedro's ill timed injury during the WS. So I've gone out and acquired a few pitchers, and have the same lineup apart from a new 3B face and I've got seven guys who could all be starters on any team in the league but the Cubs maybe. Having a pen full of those guys and returning shut down relievers in Rocker/Myers/Bergman with Garces/Romero at the back end make me confident there is not a single glaring hole in my team. 2000 is my year more than ever.

That game sounded like something I would've enjoyed a lot. I know what you mean about coming close in a game like that, reminds me of this online wrestling card game With Authority! I used to play all the time. HUGE tournaments and I would come so close, really coming out of nowhere, but I could never win a title. It wasn't until the game died and only 40-60 people played it I was able to reign supreme.



4. To continue that line of thought, when do you win the big one? Do you feel your window is closing? You have the talent, but you are losing money. You may have the market, but how far can it take you and how long do you have before you have to start rebuilding?

I think that my window to win it all is probably another 3-4 years. The talent I have is relatively in their prime or just leaving it with some wiggle room. Besides Knoblauch, Schilling, and Groom, my core all has 3-4 solid years. Losing money for me isn't the biggest issue ever, because it's not like I'm hemorraging money, it's just kind of trickling out 4 to 5 million per year. I've made some trades that took away some cash that I had backed up, so it looks worse than it is. With the payroll I have at the moment, I shouldn't lose more than a million, and that's only if my revenue doesn't go up which it has every year by 4-5 million. I think I'll probably cut everyone who isn't Manny/Nomar/Damon/Pedro loose in 2003/2004 and start looking for some of my current favorites like Buchholz, Lester, and Pedroia.

Solid window. I think that's realistic pending on the other teams in your division.

5. Pedro Martinez won 30 games last season. 30 games! That's some turn of the 20th century type stuff there. What does he do this season? Is there any shot for 300 wins? And does his arm fall completely off soon?

Pedro should win 25+ games again easily. He's the best pitcher in the MLB, and for good reason. The man is the original Freak. He's my favorite pitcher of all time and my goal with him is to make him better than he was in the real MLB. He finished with a 217-100 record, so he's well on his way. 100-31 is what I'm looking for out of him over the next 5 years or so, and the sky is the limit after that. 300 wins is within reach, but as Clemens found out the hard way, age catches up to you when you least expect it. I say 250-270 is easily attainable for a man of his talents.

Hey if he wins 25 games a season for the next 8 years, you're golden!

6. How does feel that guys like Manny and Nomar can't grab an MVP award? You've got Thomas, Griffey, and Helton locking that race up it seems, can Manny or Nomar ever slip one in?

Individual records are nice and all, but winning the big one is more important to me. Nomar put up numbers this year that are MVP any year. I've got 2 guys in the middle of my lineup that have been top 5 choices for MVP for the last 3 years. What more could I ask out of my team? And on top of that, look for Varitek to have a HUGE breakout season after his recent developments! He's been hitting the gym hard.

Lol Varitek.

7. Are you worried about the competition in the AL East this season? It's been awhile since NY has truly been a factor. Baltimore has fought hard every season only to have their hearts broken year after year. Detroit is mailing it in. Game is Game. Discuss and describe your competition.

I'm not truly worried about anyone. Baltimore is too set in his ways to do what it takes, similar to Colorado in a way. Yankees are in a rebuild/retool mode so they can't compete with a team that's locked and loaded to win it all. Toronto is my only slight worry, but it's Game and we all know how much effort he puts in, and results match effort more often than not. Detroit is still in my division? I thought they just gave me a free 16 wins whenever we took a vacation in Detroit.

Oh Game haha. Really unfortunate for jah, but yeah he never seems to make that big enough move to truly take the final big step. Classic jah.



8. Who are your top 5 GMs in the league? Top 5 posters?

Top 5 GM's:
1. Oakland - Broph knows how to win, and how to field a team. He's been on the winning end of more than one trade with me, and I can't say that about many people. Only a matter of time before he wins multiple World Series.
2. San Francisco - Only multi-WS winner so far, and for very good reason. Just when it looks like his door is closing, he blows it wide open whether it's a move he makes or teams around him throwing their hats in the ring and going for the rebuild. He's going to win 120 games next year, and don't doubt it with the competition he has in the West.
3. Chicago(N) - Play is always improving his team, taking the lowly Cubs to the playoffs this year. The team will only get better in future years and he's got floodgates pouring talent into his MLB team from his farm every year.\
4. Chicago(A) - Waldo has taken scraps and turned them into gold constantly. I dumped Mo Vaughn thinking his career was over, and then Waldo turns around and pulls 57 HR's out of that fat slob in the last 2 years.
5. Yankees - As much as he has committed sacrilige in the name of Yankees fans everywhere, he's done the smart thing and retooled and become extremely young, and he's gonna have guys coming up soon that are dangerous. Look for him to be in the playoffs every year going deep during my rebuild.

Top 5 Posters:
1. Play - Always shoots straight, and his arguments with others are hilarious to read.
2. Stutterbomb - Dude comes out of left field with every post he makes and kicks you in the head. Entertaining, always.
3. Styro - Resident troll and douchebag. Every good forum needs one.
4. Metsfan - His overrating of every player and constant hilarity about David Wright kills me every time I get to read it.
5. Erbes - He's been entertaining ever since his short stint in LBB when I met him there, and his first act as GM over there was to send me the worst trade offer I've still received to date.

9. You've been assembling the 2004 Red Sox. What does that mean to you? Is it killing you that you can't acquire David Ortiz?

The 2004 Red Sox were and will always be my dream team. It's not just about forming them as a symbol, but the fact that every player on the team was damn good anyways! Why not pick up studs that are my favorites. It's just a huge bonus. David Ortiz doesn't worry me too much, I'll get him eventually. Hell it took 3 years of offers and constant bickering to nab Damon from KC, but look what happened there!

Broph seems pretty adamant about not trading him to you.

10. Let's address the Cleveland trades. Clearly only about three GMs in the league think they were fair deals. Talk about that, your relationship with drowe, and the perception in the league regarding all of it.

D-Rowe and I didn't always see eye to eye. We met in 6th grade math class, when I was the tiny 4'4" kid that would crack jokes and be the class clown, and he was a mostly quiet kid. I took to calling him Dan the Van, and he didn't like it very much. I distinctly remember a day when I passed him in the stairwell and made fun of him, and then I proceeded to head back down the stairs, but not on my feet. I landed like a pile of bricks at the bottom and to this day don't understand how I didn't break several bones. Pretty much right after that we became friends through a kid we were mutual friends with and have been good friends since. He's currently going to the same college I am and we're both looking to get degrees in some field of criminal justice or computer science.

Well you got one out of three of the things I asked, but interesting backstory nonetheless.

11. What are you looking forward to most in the league's future and why?

I'm looking forward to the bittersweet moment when my current stars grow old and I get to see the final result of all my hard work making sure they compete at the highest levels, and eventually get inducted into the BBSBL Hall of Fame. Nomar, Manny, Pedro, Varitek, and Damon should all see those halls one day, and Clemens much sooner than they do.

Varitek and Damon in the Hall of Fame? Hmm.



12. Speaking of future, how do you feel about fictional players? Indifferent? Excited?

A: I've played with fictional players before, and I'm indifferent. The plus is that you don't get attached to fake players, but the minus is that real players are just that, real, and you don't get the satisfaction of trying to get people you like on top of getting good players.

Love fictional players.

13. And also speaking of future draft, you have expressed interest in helping to create/edit the draft files? What makes you qualified for this? Are you or can you be free of bias?

I'm qualified for the job because I have created several thousand player bio's/statlines for the aformentioned game MLB Dugout Heroes, along with Colorado. The GM of the game recruited us to do the dirty work to keep the game running efficiently, and we did a great job in a lot of people's opinion. The game would have sunk long before it did without the help we gave to it in player creation and idea input. As far as Bias, I'm a stat guy through and through, so players get what they get whether I hate it or not. The beauty of this league is the ability to train players that would otherwise be deemed borderline into being decent to fairly good players, and that makes bias even easier to set aside in my opinion.

Fair enough, at least you're offering to help!

14. With that as a prospective job, talk about the job you lost. How do you feel about be removed as banker?

I probably could have been more active with it, although I had been doing it at least weekly, which is a lot better than the guy I took the job from. I never really received any official warnings to do it more often, so I felt that I was doing it enough. All it would have taken was a PM saying I should be doing it every sim day and I would have been all over it. Any mistakes that I made I did my best to fix as thoroughly as I could, and only once or twice did anything linger for more than a day when it arose as an issue. Dust in the wind though, I'm already looking to the future and my teams success that follows!

Good attitude.

15. Make the predictions. Who makes the World Series and who wins it all?

I've always thought that if you don't have extreme self-confidence in your own abilities, then what's the point? This year is my year, and I've got a stronger team than ever. Spencer will be the obvious favorite yet again, but I think that my upgrades outshine his, and if he does move Sheffield/Juan Gone, my chances only go up more!