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Maniacs Latest to Dropout
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Commissioner: Ownership is growing stronger

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It was  a quiet ending to a rather successful career. Duane Caulkins bows out and sells his team after 11 seasons with the ACBA.   Though they never came away with a World Series title, the Midwest Maniacs are one of the league's more successful franchises, boasting 330 career wins and 28 playoff victories including 2 division championships. The Maniacs also have the 4th best regular season with a 36-8 finish in 2003. Caulkins took home Manager of the Year award in 2012, having won the American East division title just one year after missing the playoffs.
Michigan went out strong, taking Green Bay to the limit in last year's World Series. If not for Grant Balfour, the Maniacs may very well have gone out on top.
Ownership turnover has become somewhat regular in the ACBA with at least one owner leaving every season since 2006. The commissioner is optimistic however, with the group that is in place, the league should see a slow down in that turnover rate.
"The league is probably at its strongest point yet," Cheslock said. "Including expansion, we've
added six solid owners in the last 2 years, all of whom seem like a great fit for this league. And with a thorough ownership selection process, I believe lengthy tenurship will follow."
As for Caulkins, he depart five years after his brother Dale, owner of Tiger Town stepped away. The pair are ACBA Hall of Fame GMs.



Austin Dictates Draft Early On
...Portsmouth Waits

In its second year, the offline draft went off without a hitch as the first 34 picks of the 2013 draft rolled along nicely.
But to the surprise of many and the dismay of others, some of the selections threw a curve ball in the early goings.
Austin was more than happy to toss a monkey wrench into the plans of several owners with the drafting of a couple of prospects. And though they don't have the same ring as the Harper/Trout duo of the 2011 draft, the Taveras/Buxton combo should be a solid 1-2 punch in the Red Leg's lineup for years to come.
"We knew this league has a tendency to take prospects very high," Failures owner Tim Aspin said. "We were sort of holding our breath and hoping Taveras would fall to us at #6. It didn't happen and almost immediately our draft went into 'Plan B' mode."
A spokesman for Green Bay told reporters his owner was very unhappy that Taveras went that high, "we were expecting to have a shot at him with our first pick in the 9 hole. The ownership was shocked and a bit miffed that Oscar went as quickly as he did."
At Taveras' signing press conference, he and Buxton were all smiles as Red Legs owner John Cheslock answered questions. "This draft went perfectly for us this year. It will be a long time before we have as good a draft like we have this year." Austin signed Taveras to a 16 year deal and Buxton will almost certainly get the same kind of deal in a year or two when he is closer to being major league ready.
In addition to the 2 prospects, the Red Legs also signed Adam Jones to a 2 year deal and acquired home run mercenary Josh Hamilton for the 2013 season. 
                               ~  ~
On the other end of the spectrum, the Hustlers sat through 29 picks as names fell off the board one by one.
"It was agonizing watching that happen," MacDonald said. The Hustlers traded away their first and second rounders last summer for a run at the title, acquiring Prince Fielder. "It was a gamble," MacDonald admitted, "but after that gut wrenching Game 7 loss in the 2011 World Series, we wanted to get back there and win it."
But it wasn't to be when Florida knocked them out of the first round last fall.
With few contracts and slim pickings in the draft, along with an already bloated payroll, this could prove to be a rough season for Portsmouth. MacDonald and his Hustlers have maintained an elite status for over a decade but now, in the ever strengthening National East, it will be difficult to keep up without a strong draft. 


Preseason Favorites
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And the rest of the rankings

2013 is here and the ACBA draft has been completed. There's a flurry of reporters hanging around all the teams and camping out over at the Commissioner's Office. There's  been so much change this winter and people want to talk about it. The loss of one owner and the addition of another has been the hottest topic of late, but for  here and now, we'll  breakdown  the draft. What's more, we'll set the rankings as we approach the start of the 2013
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season and we'll look at the potential playoff  matchups to come. 
First, this year's draft was the year of the dark horse, according to the not-so-politically correct Chinese ACBA calendar. Picks were going all over the place, from trades in both this year and the fallout from those in the past. It was a mess to figure out, but in the end there were definite winners, losers and surprises. 

Winners:
With 8 picks in the first 4 four rounds, Green Bay did nothing but help their case for a repeat opportunity in 2013. And with the recent acquisition of last year's Triple Crown winner Miguel Cabrera, the Title Company may pull away from their division early.
Austin and Flint both collected some nice pieces to fill out their rosters with early picks. The American East is a battleground and it looks to only get stronger in the coming years as several teams have many up and coming high ends prospects. 
 
Losers:
The Hustlers took a chance on Prince Fielder last year and it just wasn't enough to get them back to the World Series. Unfortunately, it cost them 2 very high picks and they waited until the 30th pick before they added anyone.
Senhollow also had a poor showing in the draft, but with a stacked team, their draft grade is inconsequential to them or to anyone else.

Surprises:
At this point, I don't think it would come as a shocker to anyone to say the first round of the draft was the big surprise. It shook out in a way that was not expected. Chase Headley and the "I've never played a single day in the Majors" rookie Oscar Taveras set the tone of the offline draft when both were selected in the top five. It threw many owners off guard as it left a couple of gems just sitting out there for others to snatch up. Gems that were not supposed to be there. And the only explanation? Somebody knows something that we don't. Take Headley for example. He's good, no doubt. But #2 good? Maybe 2013 is his year and if so, this draft is will definitely go down as one to remember when Headley jumps to the level of a top five pick. Taveras on the other hand, now that's just crazy!  Look back through any draft in ACBA history and you will find it's only the absolute crazy owners that take prospects that high. Remember 2011? Senhollow? Harper and Trout--both taken in the first round? Yeah, right. Look how that went. I believe this Taveras pick will come back to haunt Austin as the previous examples haunt Senhollow to this day and many years to come. 

Now, let's get to some preseason rankings. Here it is, the final order with only two teams missing the playoffs. And don't take it personnally if you're predicted to be one of those two teams.  Love hurts and so does crying (too long over these predictions). 

National League:
Green Bay
Portsmouth
Warren
Florida
Jacksonville
Washington

American League:
Senhollow
Austin
Flint
Cooperstown
Merrimack
Michigan

As for the September Classic preview, we've nailed down what we think will be the seeding with the preseason rankings, which will give us the matchups in the first round.

National East Division Series:
Green Bay defeats Florida
Portsmouth defeats Warren
National Championship Series:
Green Bay defeats Portsmouth

American East Division Series:
Cooperstown defeats Senhollow
Austin defeats Flint
American Championship Series:
Austin defeats Cooperstown

World Series
Green Bay defeats Austin


TAC TEAM ASSEMBLED

The 2013 Trade Approval Committee team has been selected and is in place.
The primary members are American East representative Tim Aspin and National East representative Michael Anderson, along with the commissioner.
The alternate members are American East representative Jason Roy and National East representative Mitch Smith.
With the newly added AAA affiliate rosters, the trade rules were adjusted to allow all trades to go through uninhibited. This allows for a quicker movement of players from their major league roster to their minor league roster, through the trade function.
Trades will still be reviewed however and the
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TAC team will be called upon if necessary to vote on whether a trade should be overturned.
The likelihood of a trade needing TAC team voting, let alone it being overturned are pretty slim. Most trades in the league are pretty well matched and typically, a trade viewed as unfair or with potential sabotage involved happens about once every 3 or 4 years. But the safeguard is in place.

The commissioner is hoping to rotate the members of the TAC team each year, adding 2 different alternate members while promoting previous alternates to the primaries each season. This allows owners to be involved, but also not to give any one owner permanent duties. It also helps in keeping decision making fresh by having different perspectives from alternating members.
The responsibilities are few and far between and mostly consists of quick decision making and quick response time, along with having fair and reasonable judgement. We would love to have all owners participate, but it is of course on a voluntary basis.


Mud Hens Swoop In

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Brent Ford may be one of the new guys in town but he certainly knows when to take advantage of an opening when he sees one.

Immediately upon the news of the Maniacs becoming an inactive team, the expansion owner filed a request with the ACBA to claim Michigan as the team name, chopping the "Mid" prefix from their title. 

"It's a small change," Ford said after getting word from the Commissioner's Office that their request was approved. "But we'll take the small things as they come. It looks a lot nicer, a lot cleaner. Flows a little better off the tongue," the Mud Hens owner joked.

Mud Hens? More like Mud Vultures. Owners beware: This guy  WILL rummage through your  trash!



League Scrambles To Find 12th Owner
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Bornas Steps In

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The Tomahawks
Early into the second round of the draft it became apparent the league would be without owner Daune Caulkins for a 12th consecutive year. The ownership of the then Michigan Midwest Maniacs was vacant and with a selection now on the clock, the league was scrambling to figure out what to do.  
With space between the Maniacs 1st and 2nd picks, the league decided to generate an automatic selection of Alex Gordon for their 1st pick and cut short the off line draft just prior to their next selection. This would buy some time to do a world wide search for a new owner with a thorough vetting process. 
After scouring the earth and coming up empty for four days, Jacksonville owner Jon Gaskins stepped up with a replacement option.

With an application for ownership in hand, the commissioner went to work on the 3-step process to determine whether the league was a good fit for this new potential owner and of course whether he would be a good fit for us.
James Bornas of New Hampshire gave off an immediate positive vibe and an eagerness to learn more about our league.
We caught up with him after the draft and spoke with him briefly about how he was adapting to our league, just 10 days into his ownership.
"We're very excited to see how this first year plays out. It should be interesting. We'll get through this first season and work on building our team for the long haul."
As for how he is adjusting to the rules, "I'm consulting a lawyer to explain it all to me," he joked. "As long as we can get a grasp on the important ones we'll be fine."

No doubt there is a learning curve here in the ACBA, but we think Bornas will be a great addition and should pick things up pretty quickly. Welcome to the league, Tomahawks!




Atlantic Coast Baseball Association 2013 ©

 Atlantic Coast Baseball Association
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