The Knights will rule in 2013, if they keep Whitey and the other guy.  Made it to the championship series in

year 1 and gave Legends all they wanted.

I heard the Young Guns are loading up...if they can get all their guys there they will make some noise !

Amos showed one of the single greatest improvements from 1st to 2nd year in history, quadrupling his HRs from 10 to 39 and tripling his RBIs from 31 to 91, finishing in the top 10 in both categories.  Another jump of that magnitude will make him the league leader in both...but that's a tall order...good luck !

I'm picking the Knights to win it also.  If they keep all their guys and Dustin and Amos keep getting better,

they will definitely rule this league.

I will be glad not to get beat by PVB from Game hitting HRs with solid balls against us.  My team is recruiting some new guys this year so maybe we will be champs

Word on the street is that Tyler Wiget from the U is forming his own team this year...don't know what impact this will have on one of the historically solid teams in the league - the U.  John ?

Winners of the most fun team to play against - the Dirt Dogs return (with a new flat tip I might add)

None yet.  Will be interesting to see how they fill out their roster.  Trevor has mentioned in the past he would like to get a team of his baseball players in the league.  We are confident, if all the teams we had last year

return, we will have at least 12 this year.

If our COWL Wifflers know the numbers of any guys considering getting a team in, please get me a cell

number so I can personally invite them to join us.  That seems to get teams considering it over the hump.

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As for the PV, ZT, Adena angle, we have tried but if you know someone, ask them and then pass their

number to me so we can arrange some scrimmages.   If we get them out for a few games they are hooked.

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Collin is one of the best in the league and Corbin's stats per inning average is nearly as good as Collin's.

Either one would be a huge pickup for a struggling team...if you are interested text me and I will put you

in touch with them.

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We are all for 1 night of medium pitch - and it is no trouble to set up.  We will take a league vote and let

you guys decide.

How do you measuer /  control pitch speed ? are walks still doubles ? the pitcher mounds are way too close

for fastpitch

We moved the mounds back to 40' for overhand.  A stopwatch can be used from pitch release to plate.  At 40', 40mph (which is very hittable) is 1 second even.  Less than 1 second and the pitch is too fast (and you can tell this just by watching - it looks to fast).  Six balls is a walk.  It was a single last go around, but this did

not work too well - would suggest sticking with normal rules - walk = double.

We at COWL do not discriminate on color.  We are equal opportunity official Wiffle bat users, except that

most of us are partial to the standard issue yellow.

No.  Only official Wiffle bats are permitted.  We considered Moonshot and aluminum wiffle bats in the past

but were hesitant due to the huge difference in bat performance between these highly modified bats and the standard issue bats - upon which all our stats have been built.   It was also appearant after some investigation that our fields would not be large enough given the increased performance and that Wiffle ball usage would nearly triple due to cracking by the harder bats.  So, in order to prevent a bat war we settled

on the Official Wiffle Bat as our standard bearer.

That's a loaded question.  Funny, Phil and I were just kicking this around the other day.  I will give you my 2 cents worth and you can give me yours.   If I had 1st pick and was choosing a team, my 1st pick would be...Levi, for 3 reasons.  First, I have never played or seen anyone who hits the ball as far with such regularity.  When he is on all you can do is shake your head and laugh.  #2 He is deceptively good in the field, despite those size 15's and that little teeny head.  #3 He is family.  I don't relish the thought of sleeping on the porch much.

Given that, there are anyone of 20 guys in our league who are 3.5+ star (to use recruiting vernacular) guys - and probably 10 who are at least 4 star guys. 

Using the same football recruiting theme, I would take the Coach Tressel divisions ; Speed guys, Strength guys and Athletes.  In the Speed guy bucket I would put Blake Lansing and Phil King.  Both lightning fast down the line, hit a fair number of HRs and 5 star fielders.  Either one of those guys is a 4 star hitter with 5 star fielding and base running.

In the Strength bucket I would put the Andy Russell, Dave Fisher and Dave Page trio.  All hit for power but hustle out base hits.  All are better than average fielders, pitchers and know their way around the diamond - would rate them as 4+ star guys.

In the Athlete bucket I would put Tyler Manion, Corey White and Josh Wonderleigh.  Each can do pretty much everything well - 4+ stars at a minimum.

If you forced me into a corner I would probably narrowly pick Tyler from those 3 buckets.  He cannot be beat down the line (the left handed thing is a huge advantage), there are no holes in his half of the field and he was hitting HRs at an alarming rate before Wall-to-Wall threw in the towel.  That's a combo that is almost impossible to beat.  There is my call, with apologies to other names who deserve to be on the list but due to

space constraints could not be.

Tyler is a left handed speed demon who played outfield for Wall-2-Wall then BladeSharp...they folded in the middle of last season..Tyler missed perodically due to open gyms as he was a key cog in the CHS bball team.

As for Jerry he prefers to fly below the radar...you can leave me out of the discussion...lol

We are hoping Ben rejoins us this year.... wereally missed him last year for a bunch of reasons.  On the team front it is still early but I have had several new teams inquire about joining us...the Tigers from London have signed on and I have had several high school baseball players indicate they are getting teams together.  Most of the teams who played last year have indicated they will be playing again so I am hopeful we may

manage to have 12 teams this year and need to utilize all 4 fields on a regular basis.  But, only time will tell and I imagine it will be May before we start to know for sure.

As far as I know the Knights will return - not really sure what their team makeup will be.  Contract negotiations underway I am sure.

The handicap question is a mystery to me - almost no reaction from teams about what they will do. ?????

We hope to start the league in late May as normal, with a tournament in mid May, per normal, for charity.  

The reaction to the 3 game series has been positive - so unless teams start complaining we will stick to it. The only caveat is that tWo will be playing every other week - so we will need to schedule 2 series for them

on their night (or after opening night they will have 3-4 teams who only have 2 games left with them).

I would like to have a BIG opening night - on a Saturday, where each team plays a game with 3 different teams - the 1st game of the 3 game series to be finished during the regular season - just to kick things off with a bang and give teams the chance to play on different fields and get to meet each other.   I would like to do free hotdogs and chips that night...just a fun time with announcing to get things jacked up and rolling.

The Gazette guys have even asked about getting a team in the league this year...which could mean pictures and some more pub for our league, which would be way cool.

We really like both the above comments.  I am assuming the 1st is from a team that will be ML team, and they feel they can compete without any assistance.   The 2nd comment exactly encapsulates why we came up with this change - to give the teams without the big hitters a chance against the league's best.

But I would like to provide the science behind our madness, in hopes of showing that you have to chew on this proposal before it really makes sense.  At 1st glance it can seem kind of self-defeating for teams to choose AA or AAA, but it is really not.   And the advantage grows on certain fields.

First, these are the field averages from 2012;

         TLC Field      - 22 runs total per game, 13-9 avg score, 12 avg HRs per game

         Shelley Field - 18 runs total per game, 11-7 avg score, 10 avg HRs per game

         CC Field        - 16 runs total per game, 9-7 avg score, 8 avg HRs per game

         J&M Field    - 13 runs total per game, 8-5 avg score, 4 avg HRs per game

Assuming the HRs are split evenly between the teams (which is being generous to the losing - or generally less skilled team) only on TLC would the average team use up all 6 HRs allowed as a AAA team.   The trade off for taking only 6 would be a 3 run head start, or in equivalent, 3 automatic HRs to start the game.   Given the way the balls fly out of TLC this indeed could be a risky proposition.

On every other field however, the stats say a AAA team of average ability would be ahead with the 3 run head start and only 6 HRs to use.  On J&M field in 2012 over 90% of the games found at least one team not hitting 6 HRs.   In over 70% of the games neither team hit 6 HRs.  On CC field the percentages were 80% for a single team not hitting 6 HRs and 60% for neither hitting 6.   On Shelley the stats were 70% and 50%.

The reality is, eliminate the 2 best HR hitting teams in the league and in fully 75% of the games on any field except TLC NEITHER team hit 6 HRs.   In 40% of these games NEITHER team hit 4 HRs each..

Ergo, being a AA or AAA team on at least CC and J&M fields would overwhelming be NO penalty for the majority of the teams in the league - they would simply not use up the 3 or 6 HRs alloted for AA or AAA teams.  Indeed, they would be money ahead as they would trade those HRs they weren't going to use anyway for a guaranteed 3 or 6 runs...a VERY big deal when you consider the average winning score on J&M was just 8 runs, and 9 on CC.    Trading automatic runs for HRs which would not be used anyway.

The last nail in this coffin is supplied by the average HRs per game for each team.  2012 stats clearly show only 2 teams would be significantly hurt by dropping to AAA and 6 HRs - because their average HRs per game were greater than 6.   UMH, one of the best HR hitting teams in COWL history, averaged 6.1 HRs per game.  The stats actually show 3 teams that would not be terribly hurt by declaring as AA teams, restricting themselves to 3 HRs per game, but getting 6 run head starts vs ML teams.  

Which demonstrates the method to our madness.  We figured 1/3 of the teams in ML (and these averaged

more than 6 HRs per game each), 1/3 of the teams in AAA (and these averaged from 4-6 HRs per game)

and 1/3 in AA (averaging less than 4 HRs per game).  s would be significantly hurt by dropping to AAA and 6 HRs - because their average HRs per game were greater than 6.  

The last fact to consider is when our games are played now.   Nearly all games are played after dark, since we start at 8 PM.   I don't have any quantitative data, but we all know that when the sun goes down and the air gets heavy, especially early in the year, HRs can be impossible to hit, especially on J&M and CC.  One series in 2012 the Legends played the Knights on TLC, of all places, and with a slight breeze blowing in and heavy air, a total of 7 HRs were hit in the ENTIRE series, by both teams, COMBINED.   On that night, a 6 run head start for one team or the other would have been lethal, even on TLC field.

We are hoping for that unpredictability.  We think our league needs it.   Plus, there are 2 fields a AA or AAA team could buy as home fields to complement their choice.  Can anyone imagine playing Wall2Wall on J&M and them having a 3 or 6 run lead.   That would be scareeey.    Better strategerize, as President Bush says.

2/11/11:18 - All good points but based on past years I don't think the makeup of teams will stay the same - there have been way more changes the past couple of years than I anticipated and I think you will see even more this year.   Even Joey Davis of Paints fame indicated they were trying to get back together to play in the league.   With only 1 series per team you could see dramatic swings in where teams finish.   With the weighted rules - if your ML team has a bad night you are in serious trouble...which we think will bring way more parity to the league - but we will see.  I have been wrong before.

The playoffs will be played under the SAME rules as the regular season - so the handicapping will continue into the playoffs exactly like is done in the regular season.  That should give some teams at the bottom hope.   If you have a good series - and your opponent does not, your chances of beating even ML teams jumps way up...Parity, parity, parity...