2005 Season

A TRIBUTE TO THE SKIPJACKS

Men:

As much as it pains me to do so, this is the issue of From the Bullpen in which we pay tribute to this year’s HSL champion, the Skipjacks, and analyze and dissect the making of the 2005 championship team. Before we embark on this journey, for perspective, let’s rewind the clock and put ourselves back in the PHEB War Room on April 2, 2005, and remind ourselves that the cagey Itchie seemed clueless for the lion’s share of the Draft. Once again this year, as is his custom, Itchie looked like a man who was pumping gas that Saturday morning at a local Stop ‘N’ Go fueling station when he suddenly remembered that it was Draft Day. Only a last-minute discussion with Habib, the convenience store attendant, enabled him to sharpen his draft strategy for the big day. Well, it worked again.

For your reading bemusement, please find below

How Itchie Did It in ’05

	SKIPJACKS 5	Pnts	COMMENTS
1.	A. Rodriguez	785	Truly a no-brainer. How A-Rod lasted until the fifth overall pick warrants investigation.
2.	Hudson	348	Nothing to be proud of, but also not an embarrassment.
3.	Teixeira	722	Getting the fifth best hitter overall in the third round, especially after Possum’s doubleclutch on Thome, was sweet indeed. A difference maker.
4.	Peavy	512	Savvy pick yielded the 13th best pitcher overall.
5.	A.Jones	651	Dumb luck or just luck? Naturally, Andruw has his career year on Itchie’s watch.
6.	Bonds	57	Wasted pick on Steroid Boy. Cheaters never win. Except, in Itchie’s case.
7.	C.Jones	422	Now we can see Itchie’s only conscious draft strategy last year: Take guys named Jones.
8.	Hoffman	428	Itchie has saved more careers than Dr. Frank Jobe, the Tommy John surgery guy.
9.	J.Vazquez	354	Turned out pretty good, especially since Itchie thought he was drafting shortstop Vizquel in this slot. Shannon Stewart revisited.
10.	L.Hernandez	390	Had to take Livan here, couldn’t get old Elton John song out of his head. Worked out well.
11.	Pat Burrell	575	419 last year as a Tribesman, 575 as a Skipjack. Pure coincidence, or pure evil?
12.	J.Giambi	490	Shrewd pick, but released by Itchie early on in season when he assumed that Giambi wasn’t willing to take steroids to revitalize career. Bad guess.
13.	Pettitte	585	As evidenced here, Itchie could fall into a rendering plant refuse truck and come up with a prime cut New York strip sirloin in each hand. Round 13 can only be lucky for one person.
14.	Burnitz	455	Solid pick for the 14th round.
15.	Bellhorn	228	Mistakenly thought he was related to Foghorn Leghorn, cut him loose when he learned otherwise.
16.	Izturis	243	First shortstop drafted by Itchie, a costly mistake on anyone else’s team.
17.	Gordon	393	Pretty nifty for the 17th round.
18.	Lowry	357	Great late pick, but the impatient Itchie then foolishly released him to the custody of the Senators.
19.	Encarnacion	396	Nothing to write home about, but didn’t hurt him.
20.	Grissom	44	Designated for reassignment to scrap heap.
21.	Pierzynski	418	A.J. was Itchie’s first catcher, who was taken in the 21st round, then released, then redrafted, and who then ends up as the 7th best catcher. This guy’s made more careers than Cecil B. DeMille.
22.	Vizquel	404	Itchie’s top catcher, taken in the 22nd round. God help us all.
23.	Buck	308	Yawn.
24.	Reitsma	326	Good performer for Itchie until he ruthlessly cut him loose in early September.
25.	Infante	264	Itchie’s top second-baseman until Robinson Cano plopped into his lap in mid-season.
26.	King	144	Another draft blunder, but didn’t cost him.
27.	Silva	322	27th round draft pick actually ended up being the 58th best starting pitcher. Please.
28.	Capuano	383	28th round pick, 33rd best starting pitcher. Enough.

In addition to the above Draft Day selections, Itchie made the most of the free agent market this season. Somehow, Itchie was able to cull through all of the usual back alley garbage and draft a handful of free-agent gems that somehow eluded the rest of us, plugging a number of gaping holes in his lineup and effectively carrying the Jax to the title. The following are the key free agent pickups that were made by Itchie in 2005:

Name	Position	Week Taken	Points
John Patterson	Starting pitcher	2	426
Jon Garland	Starting Pitcher	3	446
Todd Jones	Closer	4	479
A.J. Pierzynski	Catcher	5	418
Robinson Cano	Second baseman	11	429

One can make a strong argument that the free agent draft saved Itchie’s bacon after a mediocre Draft Day. The Itchmeister was able to turn a weak pitching staff into a strong one by landing Patterson (who finished as the 18th best starting pitcher), Garland (who finished No. 14 among starters), and Todd Jones (No. 8 closer) after everybody else bypassed them in the initial Draft and during the early weeks of the free agent draft. Similarly, Itchie was able to fill in a weakness at second base by drafting Cano, and his recapturing of Pierzynski after his earlier free agent pickup (Zahn) went out with an injury has previously been chronicled in this organ. While there was no shortage of managerial blunders on Itchie’s part (releasing Jason Giambi and Noah Lowry, to mention two), the good moves obviously outweighed the bad, and the renowned Itchie Magic trumped all other forces at work in the end.

A few other things to chew on about Itchie’s season:

u	After the first five rounds of the Draft, Itchie had accumulated five players who ended up with 3018 gross points for the season, second only to the 3024 points that the Bronx Bombers had with their first five draft picks.

u	The Jax stumbled a bit during Rounds 6 through 10, ending up with gross points from these five of only 1651, ninth best in the league. This is skewed a bit since Bonds was drafted by Itchie in the sixth round, and ended up with only 57 points.

u	For Rounds 1 through 10, Itchie’s players ended up with 4669 points, good for third in the league. The Redbirds had the most gross points from its first ten selected players, a total of 5311, while the Bombers were a close second with 5202.

u	Itchie was plenty busy on the free agent wire, collecting 26 players during the course of 26 weeks. Despite this, Itchie ended up with 17 of his original drafted players on his final team roster, while the other 11 came via the free agent draft. Itchie took part in no trades this season.

u	While 11 new players out of 28 may seem like a fair amount of turnover, it was actually tied for the second lowest turnover in the league, behind Jim Ed’s ratio of 18-to-10 in terms of original draftees to new players. The Reds had the highest turnover with only 8 original draftees ending up on their final roster, together with 20 new players. The other original/new ratios are as follows: Senators 15/13; Chiefs 14/14; Tribe 13/15; Cubs* 17/11; Bombers 14/14; Wahoos 14/14; Tigers 15/13; Irates 13/15.

u	According to my calculations, Itchie made a total of 85 promotions and demotions throughout the course of the season, which was probably on the low to medium side compared against other managers, although I haven’t endeavored to count everyone’s numbers. While Itchie is certainly an active manager, he’s not what you would call impulsive, an adjective which does apply to several other league pilots, whose names need not be mentioned here.

u	Itchie’s Skipjacks spent a total of 16 weeks in first place this season, while the second place Redbirds, who had hopes of gaining their first title, spent an intoxicating 6 weeks at the top of the heap. Leading the league at some point was no guarantee of a good finish, however, as the Blues managed to top the charts for two weeks, the Pirates one, and the Cubs* one. Fun while it lasted, eh boys?

Once again, hats off to Itchie on a well-drafted and well-managed team, and a well-deserved fifth title.

That’s all for this week. Next week: Team Hitting Rankings; Team Pitching Rankings; Individual Player Leaderboards; Best Late Pick; Worst Early Pick; Worst Player Drafted; and much, much, oh so much, more. Tune in.

Skipper


2005 Season	Edition No. 31	October 11, 2005