Dresden Blacks
Albert Stein     12 years  1208-736    3 World Series  5 Divisions

Personnel History

Albert Stein has been in charge since 1995 and in his first season turned around a 68 win team into a division champion. Picks like Charles Johnson and Brad Radke ran for a decade. The Blacks core of Mark McGwire, Craig Biggio, and Nomar Garciaparra then combined for 3 World Series Championships in the late 90s, but since then the Blacks slumped winning only two playoff series in seven years. However, the Blacks have finished with a winning record 12 years in a row, an IIBL record.

After the Big Red Era, the Blacks further cycled through some high quality players in Manny Ramirez, Larry Walker, and Kevin Brown, then dispatched the older players for younger ones like Eric Chavez and Vernon Wells, and Freddy Garcia. However, the Blacks realized they weren't the answer either, and have

The Blacks have had some missed opportunity in the draft. Luis Matos and Darrell May had nice seasons for the Blacks in 2003, but flamed out quickly. Longshots like Johnny Estrada, Jorge Cantu, and Lyle Overbay were dealt before their potential was realized, though they brought back the stuff that maintains winning records. The Blacks passed over Joe Mauer and David Wright for Zach Greinke, but at least were able to flip him for the many of the key components of the 108-win 2005 team. The midseason trades in 2006 may have cost Wells for Chris "Tommy John surgery" Carpenter, but at least the late season rally was enough to gather them the #1 pick in 2007.

2006

The Blacks made two deals around mid-season which transformed them from a .500 club to a playoff contender. They narrowed the deficit to a game, but lost the last two games of the season at home against Binghamton. Those trades most notably brought in starters Aaron Harang and Chris Carpenter, which solidified the starting rotation. The biggest cost was centerfielder Vernon Wells, who had led the Blacks in the first half of the season. After that, the offense then fell to mostly part time players: Chipper Jones, Mark Teahen, Moises Alou, and Rickie Weeks. All were solid when playing, but none managed more than 525 PA. Still, there was always a good bench to generate runs and the offense finished with over 900 runs. The pitching was more pedestrian and finished in the middle of the pack.

2005

Once again Dresden improved their roster through trade. Most notably, the Blacks bailed out on #2 overall pick Zack Greinke just before his problems became evident. That begat another #2 pick that was traded down three times providing depth along the way. The result was a 108 win season, second only to Cambridge, both in the Division and in overall record. The offense was superbly patient, walking an all time high of 800 times. A series of mid season trades enabled the Blacks to fix their bullpen and catching, and the top four in the rotation combined for 69 wins. In the playoffs, after falling behind 3 games to 1, the Blacks rallied to beat Hollywood. The continued their winning streak to 6 in the playoffs by beating Cambridge in the first three games of their series, but then suffered a 4 game losing streak.

2004

Dresden didn't set out to win 100 games, but managed it through a series of trades which constantly added value. Brian Giles, Phil Nevin, and D'Angelo Jimenez all had good seasons after being acquired in trades, and Billy Wagner shored up the bullpen. While there was no one big masher, 9 of the top 12 in plate appearances hit .300, and the Blacks spread around over 200 homers. They were second in runs scored after the juggernaut Nashua. On the pitching side, things were less steady. Brad Radke was the only dependable starter, winning 19 games; nobody else won more than 9. Closers Billy Wagner and Francisco Cordero earned 43 of the team's 54 saves, but the rest of the bullpen was shaky. The Blacks were in a season long fight with Mystic for the better wild card spot, but lost in the last weekend by one game. As such, they had to face the juggernaut in the opening round. They gave Nashua a big scare, winning 3 of the first 4 but losing the last three on late solo homers. In game 7 the Blacks only managed one hit, which is one more than in 2001, the last time they faced playoff elimination.

2003

The Blacks traded Manny Ramirez before the season and tried to rely on an offense of Carlos Delgado and Larry Walker. Though Delgado drove in a lot of runs, Walker was subpar. A series of midseason trades changed around the character of the offense. Delgado and Walker went out and in came Vernon Wells, Eric Chavez, and John Olerud. The trades cost Kevin Brown, Dresden's most successful first half pitcher. While the team's ERA went up by nearly a run from 3.36 to 4.34, the offense improved a little more than a run a game. The Blacks had a much better second half: 37-38 at the time of the trade; 51-36 afterwards. Offensively, Delgado hit 19 HRs and 59 RBIs in 75 games, but the more diversified offense boasted strong performances by Chavez, Wells, Tony Graffanino, Luis Matos, and Shannon Stewart. The pitching was fairly strong with Radke, Millwood, Darrell May, and Shawn Chacon, but the bullpen outside of Troy Percival and Francisco Cordero was fairly unspectacular.

2002

The Blacks simply didn’t have the horses to compete for a playoff spot. At the end of the year, the Blacks used 26 offensive players and were a frequent visitor to the waiver wire. Manny Ramirez had a wonderful year, and Josh Phelps and Larry Walker contributed. After that, nada. The starting rotation was essentially a two man show of Kevin Millwood and Jarrod Washburn, although Andy Ashby had his moments. Francisco Cordero had a good first half as closer, while Troy Percival took over in the second half. There was little depth behind those two. At the end of the day, staying above .500 wasn’t that bad an achievement.