Santa Cruz Snag Slugger Kelly with #1 overall choice

James Kelly Santa Cruz Larrupin Lous Age: 19 B/T: L/L Born: Clarion, IA Position(s): 1B View Hardball Dynasty Profile

The Santa Cruz Larrupin Lous nabbed slugging first baseman James Kelly in this season's amatuer player draft. Kelly, from Marshalltown, IA Community College, played just one season of college ball, but it was plenty to leave scouts in awe. The slugger is still growing, with doctors projecting him to add another 2 inches and 23 lbs over the next few years. He is complete hitter, able to hit for average and power and with a very advanced strike zone judgment for such a young hitter.

Kelly's has two downsides, both related to his build. First, he's not quick or agile and this limits him to 1B in the field. Many scouts seem him at DH over the long term. He's also slow and a bad base runner, so don't expect to see him taking many extra bases.

The Larrupin Lous have pledged to take Kelly's development slowly. He'll start the season at rookie ball.

All-Star Status

A quick look around the league at the All-Star break:

American League:

AL North - the Chicago and Vancouver are battling it out, tied atop the division. The Bartmans are slugging their way to the top, 542 runs, good for 5th in the AL, but will their shaky pitching staff hold up? And, wow, 5 games under leads the division?

AL East - The traditional power division in the AL stays true to form. All four teams have scored 500 runs. The 4th place New York would lead the North by 6, but they trail here by 8. Richmond Confederates leads and is gunning for a 9th straight playoff birth. Scranton and Baltimore will battle the South runner-up for the wild card spots.

AL South - Texas leads the division by 1 game and hopes to avoid being a bridesmaid by finishing 2nd for the 6th time in 7 years. Monterrey has started 11 different pitchers as off-the-wall pitching coach Ronald Lane continues to baffle the pundits.

AL West - San Francisco takes a 14 game lead into the break. They're 9-1 in the division and have the best pitching and defense in the AL.

National League:
NL North - Sioux Falls used red-hot streak down the stretch (including a 4-game sweep of Mexico City) to take the division lead by 3 games. Defending division champ Helena has led most of the way and continues to ride the pitching of phenom Rafael Aguilera (16-1, 1.07 ERA).

NL East - Burlington is leaving the field in the dust with a 13 game lead on the strength of a 16-8 record in 1-run games.

NL South - Mexico City holds the best record in the league and seems likely to take the #1 seed again despite losing 8 of 10 going into the break. San Juan, Memphis, and Nashville all appear likely to be in the wild card hunt all season in a brutally tough division.

NL West - The NL version of the AL North sees Las Vegas leading with a sub-.500 record. Their not-exactly-blistering pace, has kept mediocre Cheyenne and Arizona dreaming of a 2nd half run.

Other Story Lines:
The Dead Ball era? Only Antonio Chapman exceeds 30 hr's as the ball does not seem to fly like it once did. Still, the incomprable Chapman's 38 might be more impressive than his previous 80 HR outputs.

Cat Burgler? Has the league's taste for good hitting catchers started to hurt them? Bernard Lieber has stolen 74 of 76 bases. He may better his own record of 133 set in season 11.

Free AC? Benny Andrews has fanned 117 times. He's got a shot to break Carmine Barkley's record of 199 in season 11.

Stone hands Wayne Dickens is criminally playing SS. The commish may have to step in after 68 first half errors.

Cy Forever? The aforementioned Rafael Aguilera is out of his gord. He's probably already locked up the Cy Young award, but how many records might he break?

The Dandy Dozen: Carl Brooks

Carl Brooks Chicago Bartmans Age: 40 B/T: L/L Born: East Orange, NJ Position(s): P (ClA) View Hardball Dynasty Profile

The Resume: The 40-year old Brooks appears timeless. He's been in the big leagues since season 1. In those 13+ seasons, he's won the Fireman of the Year award 4 times. He's made 10 All-star teams, and even won the Cy Young in Season 7 for the Chicago Gangsters, going 3-6 with 43 saves in 52 opportunities. He would throw in a career-high 79 games and 91.1 innings. Despite the workload, he finished with a 2.17 ERA and a 1.01 WHIP.

Brooks' 442 saves are the most in the history of Second City. His 734 appearances are also in the top 10.


The Rest of the Story: Brooks hails from East Orange, NJ. Twenty-two years ago, as an 18-year old, Brooks had the world on his plate. He was a 3-sport star, and pretty much had his pick of sports and fabulous careers. That's when his next-door neighbor, Dionne Warwick, predicted he'd be a professional sports star. And, she was right. At the time Warwick was a successful singer, and Brooks looked like a great athlete. But Warwick would go on to found the Psychic network, in part based on her brilliant prediction. Two decades and millions later, nobody remembered that she predicted Brooks would be a star quarterback, not the most the successful closer in Second City History.