1) Ron Guinan * 2019 - 2031Guinan is most famous for his propensity to land on the disabled list. I found this
old player card which details player history through 2029. The injuries included:
Injured on 4/26/2022 with a Fractured Hand, out for 6 weeks...
Injured on 4/26/2023 with a Strained Back, out for 2 weeks...
Injured on 7/10/2023 with a Dislocated Shoulder, out for 2 weeks...
Injured on 6/3/2024 with a Broken Hand, out for 4 weeks...
Injured on 9/3/2025 with a Strained Hamstring Muscle, out for 3 weeks...
Injured on 4/12/2026 with a Bruised Ribs, out for one week...
Injured on 6/13/2027 with a Scratched Cornea Eye, out for 1-2 weeks...
Injured on 8/8/2027 with a Fractured Knee, out for 4-5 weeks...
Injured on 9/8/2028 with a Broken Jaw, out for 4 weeks...
Ultimately, the injuries caught up with him
There is no bigger story in baseball this week. The NPBL's single-season Home Run king, Ron Guinan, is done.
The 33-year-old surefire hall-of-famer, who hit an NPBL record 62 homers in 2028 and has hammered 50 or more bombs in each of the past 3 seasons, destroyed his back making a diving catch on September 3rd against the Rhode Island Reds. Guinan, who had a reputation for being brittle, was batting .348 with 42 homers and 115 RBI so far this year and was looking for his 4th-straight 50 homer and 7th straight 100-RBI season. He made the retirement official 3 days later.
The early retirement means that Guinan holds the distinction of having the best final season of a career. The five best send-off seasons are
2) Stone Nichols * 2048 - 2060It may come as a surprise to some to see Guinan ranked ahead of Nichols. It’s very close between the two former Virginia Gray right fielders.
Ultimately, what it came down to in my scoring system is that Guinan had a better YOPDI score – by a very slight margin. Both outfielders had 9 seasons as the top RF and both outfielders also had two additional seasons ranked in the top ten. Guinan was the second best RF in 2023 and the third best in 2021, while Nichols ranked 6th in both 2048 and 2058.
John Yuda, the manager of both Guinan and Nichols ranked Nichols ahead of Guinan. My guess is that he did so due to the fact that Guinan was injury prone and often frustratingly found on the disabled list. However, he was in the lineup often enough to put up statistics that carried him to the top of the RF class.
3) Héctor Vásquez 2056 - 2073Vasquez was a part of the 2063-2067 Pennsylvania Freedom dynasty that won 4 championships in 5 years. As such, Vasquez is one of 47 players that have 4 rings. There are an additional 9 players with more championships than 4:
- 6 - Issac Phillips 3B #17 – Won 5 championships for the Washington Griffins between 2018 and 2026. Then was traded to the Louisiana Blaze and picked up one more in 2029.
- 5 Carlos Horizon SP #30 – Championships with three different clubs: Kansas (2023), Mississippi (2030,2031,2033) and New Jersey (2042).
Plus the following players that won 5 championships for the Washington Griffins between 2018 and 2026.
- J.L. Carrillo SP #138
- Roy Ferrer RP
- Truman Wagner
- James Darby
- Mikel Fleming
- Joseph Albee
- Edward Klein
4) Aquilino Castillanos * 2022 - 2043Which is the greatest team in the history of the NPBL? My pick would be Aquilino Castillanos’ 2034 Minnesota team. They were the NPBL champion with the most regular season wins (118). The 2019 Washington Griffins had the most wins (119), but they failed to win the championship. The team with the best Pythagorean record (123-39) was the 2021 Washington Griffins (who did win the championship).
There have been 6 teams that have scored 1000 or more runs in a season
The best
defensive teams (i.e. least runs allowed)
And the best run differential:
Run differential sees the same 2034 Minnesota team at the top of the list.
On the flip side, the worst team in the history of the NPBL comes from the same year. The 2034 Nevada team had the most losses in history (32-130, tied with 2028 Hawaii) and the worst run differential (-572).
5) Larry Sears * 2014 - 2035Larry Sears was a top 5 pick (#3) in the 2014 draft by Marcus Shuter of the Utah Scorpions. He was drafted just after Bill Worm (C #4) and Sanford Powers (3B #4). He joins 19 total right fielders on the 75/75 list that were drafted in the top 5. Right fielders on the list are, more than any other position needed to be drafted in the first round. Of the list of 75, 48 were drafted in the first round.
As for drafting in the top 5, Marcus Shuter had moderate success. In all, he had 7 draft picks in the top 5. Two of the picks were big hits: Sears and Felton Olney (CF #3). One other (Wenjie Laverick CF #44) exceeded expectations. Three others were ranked, but did not meet expectations: Terry Macias (RF #62), Dacio Herrara (3B #57), and Herme Moreira (LF #73). Finally, one player (Terry McClain) did not make the 75/75 list. Under the quantifiable draft score system (explained in CF #6), Marcus Shuter has a score of 43.26 (for his top 5 picks alone). Using this scoring system and ranking ONLY the top 5 picks, the top ranked drafter is easily John Heinz.
The following chart shows owners scores when separated by the various draft categories. Doing so allows us to see exactly where many owners’ strengths and weaknesses lie with respect to drafting. For example, it’s clear that Fred Kroner and John Yuda get the most out of their second round picks. Those two are far, far ahead of the pack. Meanwhile, that is a true weakness for me (Tim Veenstra). It turns out that I’ve had only 5 second round draft picks that have exceeded expectations, and 56 picks that did not make a 75/75 list!
6) Cliff Butter * 2017 - 2035Butter spent his career between 4 teams: Washington (2017-2020), Kansas (2021-2026), Idaho (2027) and Utah (2028-2035). Butter would play LF, CF and RF. But at each stop, and for nearly his entire career, Butter’s outfield mates were ranked in the 75/75 list, and oftentimes were Hall of Famers themselves.
What was the greatest outfield of all time? Looking at the same measurements covered in the excerpt on the greatest infield of all time (SS #9): tvSTAT, WAR, YOPDI, 75/75 Rank:
What a close call! It wasn’t until I color coded the table above that I made a decision and my vote goes for 2052 Virginia. Having the three categories with a shade of green overcomes the one category that shows red.
7) Tony Bustamante * 2036 - 2061Bustamante had the longest career in the history of the NPBL
A lot of Hall of Famers (*) on that list. If you can find a guy who could play for 23+ years, you stand a good chance he’ll be a HoFer… Okay, I guess there
may be a question on what’s the cause and what’s the effect on that one.
8 ) Sully Sullivan * 2000 - 2009Sullivan is a member of the “what if” club. The what if club has four types of members:
1 - Players whose career was cut short by injuries
2 - Players who were already at an advanced age when the league began
3 - Players whose career never got started because they left baseball to pursue another career
4 – Players who were somehow stuck behind other players or stuck with an inactive owner
The last type likely doesn’t contain players that missed out on superstardom, but I feel for them nonetheless.
Off the top of my head, a few players in each category:
1 – Ron Guinan, Daniel Peart, Freddy Valore, Dennis Boshears
2 – Jimmie Davis, Sully Sullivan
3 – Lee Manning, Bill George
4 – Lester Griffey
9) Clarence DiBenedetto 2005 - 2017DiBennedetto’s career was spent between Massachusetts, Nevada and Kansas whereby he played for 3 owners that are now among the 50+ club – owners who have managed in the NPBL for 50 or more seasons.
Brian Cook will join this club at the conclusion of the 2076 season and Matt Yordy needs 6 more seasons to make the list.
In the past (CF #7, LF #8), I’ve considered which
organization has the strongest ranking at the position. I’m also interested to see which
owner has the strongest set of right fielders. First, to the question of organizational rankings…
When it comes to strength by owners, both Louisiana and Utah have split ownerships, so as far as total rank points, Rob Chapman tops the list.
Since different owners have managed for different lengths of seasons, the statistic to attempt to level the playing field would be Rank Points per Season. Which brings an interesting result:
10) Francois Dussault * 2034 - 2050Dussault is “Mr. Colonel” in the way that Ernie Banks is “Mr. Cub”. Dussault was the one great star that the Kentucky franchise possessed during the organization spent in the bluegrass state. Dussault won 3 Tyson Bacon Awards. Two of those awards he won while only earning a WAR under 6.5. There have been only 10 times that dubious feat has been accomplished.
That’s not to say that Dussault was the
wrong choice. I think it highlights the fact that, for whatever reason, Dussault does not score well in the WAR category. He is not clearly any further behind any of the other candidates. Take 2040 for example, the top FFL players were:
It’s also worth noting that the GEL appeared to have the bulk of the top players at the time. The top candidates in 2040 (when Buzzy Stevens won the award) are more impressive than the FFL candidates.
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