After kicking off Prospect Underground, I described it as place I would highlight the top minor league baseball hitters no one is talking about while helping fantasy players boost their prospect floor.
Well, anyone who remotely understands baseball knows there are two sides to the game: hitting and pitching.
While I research and promote low-level hitters at UTRMinors.com, the pitching portion belongs to my partner and long-time friend Jim Brown.
Brown's introduction into the world of under-the-radar prospects began as a result of my search for new ownership in a lifetime National League-only dynasty league. A league I've been a part of for 20 years.
The sudden loss of two owners after the 2006 season left our 12-team league down to ten. During the time in the off-season where draft preparation should be well underway, I frantically called Brown after having lost touch with him for an extended period of time. I was hoping he'd be ready and willing to step right in as a team owner.
To make a long story short, he accepted, drafted his team and I took him under my wing, teaching him everything I know: Roster building, not winning leagues at the draft, smart waiver pickups and most importantly, knowing your minor leaguers. Brown confessed the invitation to join the league couldn't have come at a better time.
"I had just retired as Fire Chief from the [Alpha] fire department. I was working all day at the university (Penn State)."Being chief, I'd come home from work, eat dinner, then head right over to the fire house to work. I'd prepare training manuals and schedule re-certifications for all the guys. We'd do training exercises. All this on top of the fire calls. It was like working two full-time jobs, and I was burned out, no pun intended."
When Brown retired, his wife Melissa was worried he would go through some form of withdraw. Brown went from having an enormous amount responsibility to having nothing to do aside from his day job working for Penn State University. Melissa describes him as a 'busy body' so the timing of joining the fantasy league was what she called "a blessing."
Going on his tenth season, Brown has not only been successful in our fantasy league, his UTR research has garnered successful results using his own brand of scoring system called "TPS."
Trust me, it's not the same report Bill Lumbergh addressed during the 1999 cult movie classic 'Office Space." Brown's goal using TPS is much the same as mine: sift out the top minor league players no one is talking about yet. We follow the same pattern posting in-season daily content and off-season OAS lists.
In next weeks blog installment, I'll dive deep into the inner workings of Brown's TPS method as well as my own scoring system called PAG/APAB.
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