Remember Edward Salcedo, the can't-miss 16 year-old Dominican prospect represented by Scott Boras that has been linked to the Cleveland Indians?  Funny thing: he may not be 16 after all.  Seems there's some intrigue surrounding this case.  Three MLB investigators working in the Dominican Republic have been fired recently and the rumors are swirling that it has something to do with the Salcedo case.

Obviously this makes a big difference in how this "kid" is viewed.  A 16 year-old with the (purported) skills he possesses is extremely intriguing; a 20 year-old... maybe still, but probably not $2.9M so (which is the rumored amount the Indians have offered him).  Given the lack of top-flight star power in the Indians minor league system, this is a case that's probably worth monitoring closely.

Some of you may remember an idea being pitched here for a LGT fictional baseball sim league during the height of the Indians playoff run last year.  Although management changed hands, the idea has developed into the  when the Planetary Extreme Baseball Alliance.  A number of our members hail from right here at LGT: Voltaire, NickFantana, crackaddictwhit, jonnykilbane, Jackdaw and more.

Now we're looking for one more to fill a recent vacancy.  The team in question is the Fargo Dinosaurs.  Fargo is currently in rebuilding mode, as their 21-40 record attests to.  There's hope, though, particularly in the form of just-named All-Stars Ramón Flores (1B) and Ernest 'Sourface' Conard (RF).  Don't recognize those names?  That's because PEBA is a fictional sim league.  The players are made up, but the stats and scouting are so thorough you'd swear they were real!

There's a lot of young talent on the Dinos - 60% of the roster is 27 or under - and the recent amateur draft has brought a nice new crop of players into the system.  Fargo is also lucky to have a fair amount of cash and budget room for next season, giving incoming ownership some flexibility to maneuver.

PEBA is always looking for interested, involved, intelligent owners.  We take a lot of pride in building a convincing fictional environment for our league and particularly welcome owners who enjoy contributing to that with their own writing.

This is an Out of the Park Baseball fictional sim league, meaning it's a very different experience from fantasy baseball.  We use the OOTP program (which most of our owners have purchased for $20) to simulate games.  There is a great deal of depth to team management.  Running minor leagues, scouting international leagues, negotiating player contracts - all these elements are part of the game.  I'm not kidding when I say it's deep, and managing your team will require a modest commitment of time and effort on your part.  I generally advise incoming owners to expect between 45 mins. to an hour of time commitment minimum per week.

If you'd like to get involved with PEBA and are ready for the challenge of making the Dinos a competitor in the Great Lakes division, get in touch with me.  I'll promptly respond and help get you started.  Even if you're not interested in joining, I welcome everyone at LGT to keep tabs on the PEBA homepage, news reports and forums to keep up with the action!

Some of you may remember the enthusiastic response for an LGT fictional baseball sim league when the idea was proposed here several months ago.  There's been some twists and turns since then.  The person who proposed the idea disappeared, leaving me to pick up the slack.  There was a great deal of setup work to be done.  Against overwhelming odds, though, this thing is going to happen.  On Monday, Dec. 17, the Planetary Extreme Baseball Alliance will play its first regular season games!

We've managed to collect 23 outstanding owners, many hailing from right here at LGT.  Now we're looking for one more to send us into the regular season with a full slate of active owners.  We'd love to have another LGT'er join us!  Before you sign up, though, you should know what PEBA is about.

This is an Out of the Park Baseball fictional sim league, meaning it's a very different experience from fantasy baseball.  We use the OOTP program (which most of our owners have purchased for $20) to simulate games.  There is a great deal of depth to team management.  Running minor leagues, scouting international leagues, negotiating player contracts - all these elements are part of the game.  I'm not kidding when I say it's deep, and managing your team will require a modest commitment of time and effort on your part.

PEBA puts a lot of value on building an immersive fictional baseball environment through owner writing contributions.  While not strictly required, an incoming owner who likes the idea of sharing his creative fictional writing would certainly be very welcome.  PEBA is also intended to be a fun social experience for its members, so someone who will check in from time to time to chat on our forum is a great candidate for us.

As far as actual requirements go, there are only two hard-and-fast rules.  One is that every owner commit to exporting (i.e. submitting your team's moves) in advance of each regular season sim.  The other requirement is that you be courteous yet competitive with your fellow owners.  Owning the game is not required but is highly recommended; those owning the game (or willing to purchase it) will be preferred candidates.

If this sounds like it would be up your alley, get in touch with me through our website.  I'll send you an info packet on how to get started with your new franchise and personalize its details to your tastes.  Even if you're not interested in joining, I welcome everyone at LGT to keep tabs on the PEBA homepage, news reports and forums to keep up with the action!

Quick Take: Anyone interested in joining fellow LGTers as a GM in a new fictional Out of the Park Baseball 2007 league should visit visit our website and leave me an email.  Our Inaugural Draft will begin Saturday, Nov. 3rd - applicants that can be ready to draft by then will be given preference.

Long Take: Several of you may remember that the idea of a fictional baseball simulation league was floated here a couple months ago.  A number of LGTers signed up to play, but things never quite took off.

Not wanting to lose a good group of baseball minds, I took the reigns as Commissioner.  Unfortunately I did so with an embarrassing lack of knowledge of the game we're using to play (OOTP2k7), web page design, art creation... pretty much everything.  It's taken a full month for me to pull everything together to the point of getting the league underway.

During that time the GM of the San Luis Obispo Blue Greys, with an upcoming interstate move pending, realized he wouldn't have the time to participate.  We're looking to fill his spot and we'd love to have another LGTer on board.

Our league is the Planetary Extreme Baseball Alliance (PEBA).  Our website is still a work-in-progress; however, our league portal is more advanced.  Feel free to browse around before contacting me.

As noted above, we will be conducting our Inaugural Draft beginning on 11/3.  While it's not essential for a new GM to sign on by then, it would be preferable.  We have a system for you to view and pre-rank players from the draft pool, so the sooner you join the sooner you can begin scouting.  Once the season begins we'll be running sims on Monday and Thursday nights, so you'll want to make sure you have enough time to conduct your team's affairs between those dates.  I'd also add that owners who enjoy contributing occasional league-related creative writing will be especially welcome.

I look forward to hearing from you!

A month ago CarneigeandOnterio brought up the idea of running an Out of the Park Baseball league and there was a lot of interest.  A couple weeks ago C&O sent out an email to the 21 onwers that had signed up (we're now up to 24) which indicated that we were about to get rolling and that there'd be an update shortly.  There's been no word since and I've noticed C&O hasn't posted here for over a week.  I've sent a couple emails to him with no response.

Does anybody know where C&O is or have an update on his plans for getting the league underway?  I ask because I helped sign up a number of non-LGT readers and they're beginning to ask me what's going on.  At the moment I'm feeling a little foolish because I don't really know what to tell them.

To the owners that signed up, are you all still interested in participating in an OotP league?  If for some reason C&O is unable to get his league going, I'd be willing to set up and manage a league for interested participants.  I'm not an OotP veteran, but the idea really seemed awesome and there did seem to be a lot of excitement for this kind of in-depth sim league experience.  It'd be a shame if it petered out before getting off the ground.

As a side note, good luck to all the playoff participants in the LGT fantasy baseball leagues!