While we wait...

[Pat]

With the conversion to 14 expected to take a day or two, I thought it would be a good time to reflect on the season we just had. Our last with OOTP12. Our first without a crooked commish. Our first with a sim every other day. The first season that, personally, I think has ever gone this smooth. Sure, we missed the selection of the All-Stars, but I feel participation is at an all-time high.

So:

1. How did your season go? Highlights? How did you trades work out? How did the signings go? Did you meet or exceed expectations?

2. Off-season plans? Players on the trade block? Big needs or targets for Free-Agency?

3. Early expectations for next year? Any big names coming up? Any big names being shown the door?

Washington Bats

1. Obviously my season went as well as it could. I defended the title defeating a great Pawtucket team in six games. Going into the season I did expect to compete, but even as the playoffs started, I didn't think that I would win it. I made a few big transactions during the season:

a.) Trading away CF prospect JR Lowe to Los Angeles for a 1st round pick. Lowe is going to be a great player in this league but my OF depth is unmatched (IMO), and the last thing I needed was another young stud left handed batter.

b.) In free-agency I made four under the radar signings. I made one-year guaranteed offers to SP Jin-soo Baik and OF Hugh Brown. Neither of which made much of an impact and were replaced soon by better players already in the organization. The other two signings, formerly the starting middle infield of Windy City, SS Cy Gray and 2B Jerry Davis. Gray served as a utility all year providing a switch-hitter and great defense off the bench. Davis was the key signing of the group. An above average defender at second who also provided a key bat who didn't almost always put the ball in play (25 Ks) and was an XBH machine (41 doubles, 8 triples, 1 HR).

c.) I traded another LH hitting OF in Dave Miller. Sending him to Pawtucket for a 2nd round pick.

d.) I also combined a few draft choices to jump up to land the prospect my scout thought was the best in the draft, 2B Danny Romero. My scout still thinks he is going to be a Hall of Fame second basemen and after tearing the cover off the ball at 18 in Single-A, hopes are high.

e.) Another solid signing was the recently cut MR Andy Benequiz. He ended up being my 3rd best reliever down the stretch.

2. Off-season plans are simple. I got to cut salary. Whether that is not bringing guys back or trading away players who are locked up, the Bats are at the salary limit. I also like to be a player, even with minor signings, in Free-Agency, so something needs to be done quick.

3. It is highly likely that some of a key Bats grouping, will be playing for different teams next year. Three former 1st rounders, MR Don Bolton, MR/SP Edgar Salazar and 1B Nari Garin are all on the trading block. SS Shawn Nolan, a mainstay for D.C. for as long as any player on the team, is asking for a major contract extension he is unlikely to receive. Two names to keep an eye on however, are top hitting prospect CF Manny Reyes and top pitching prospect SP Terry Bornemann. Both will get a shot in Spring Training and are the future of the franchise.

No matter who I lose in trades/FA, or who I gain in the same realm, this team is built to compete for a three-peat.

Watch out for Batavia...by the way.

[umd]

With the conversion to 14 expected to take a day or two, I thought it would be a good time to reflect on the season we just had. Our last with OOTP12. Our first without a crooked commish. Our first with a sim every other day. The first season that, personally, I think has ever gone this smooth. Sure, we missed the selection of the All-Stars, but I feel participation is at an all-time high.

So:

1. How did your season go? Highlights? How did you trades work out? How did the signings go? Did you meet or exceed expectations?

2. Off-season plans? Players on the trade block? Big needs or targets for Free-Agency?

3. Early expectations for next year? Any big names coming up? Any big names being shown the door?

DVS

1. As expected. We suck and will for a long while. My vets were upset that they're now losing and underperformed all season which made it even easier to get the #1 pick. We were able to move Jody Richards in what I consider a pretty solid deal for us, given the "Scandal factor" attached to all my players. We were able to get Dimaggio and Allende for him and added some young guys like SS Tom Kroeker, CL Jamie Cook, SP Reynaldo Morales, MR Geoff Shafer, and SP Lupe Pena to our system in several other low profile deals. Also picked up some miscellaneus picks from traded FA vets.

3 of 4 Rule 5'ers survived - 3B Enrique Flores and OF Hector Martinez, but neither is spectacular. MR Warren McKay should stick.

2. We'll have money to spend in FA as we manage the budget in rebuilding mode. The offseason focus will continue to be on vets that can help us short term and get flipped for young players or picks. We'll continue to focus on the bullpen and defense in our system and FA. I'll consider bringing in a star or two to keep up fan interest, and cut loose several vets due arbitration or TO's that didn't produce.

3. We'll begin bringing up the kids... SP Lindsey, CL Manning, SP Amaral and OFs Dimaggio and Cash will join Allende, Salcedo and Gleason at the BLB level. We should be pretty terrible again, with a focus of building this franchise through the draft as we continue to bottom out. The future is pretty bleak with all the IL teams on the rise and this team gutted.

[Carlos]

1. How did your season go? Highlights? How did you trades work out? How did the signings go? Did you meet or exceed expectations?


The season went as expected. We knew we would be bad. Whether it's 90, 100, or 115 losses, it's bad.

We did not make any trades and don't plan to make any. No pieces to move. No desire to add any but the ones we sign and draft.


2. Off-season plans? Players on the trade block? Big needs or targets for Free-Agency?

The initial plan is to change our ballpark some more. It's been a few years and the second stage can now be afforded.

Hack Wells will not have his team option picked up. Rex Knight will not return. Our highest paid player once we clear through the financial year will be our closer Tony Perez at $4MM.

We plan to continue to sign cheap bodies and build through the draft. We have our picks now and go 2nd this year. Last time we gave that pick up for Olivo. We won't be making a move like that this time so don't even ask.

We have several needs but with success far off into the horizon, no point in spending money on any major free agents. We will stay put and build internally.

3. Early expectations for next year? Any big names coming up? Any big names being shown the door?

We expect to lose again. We might lose a lot more with a few more kids coming up to pitch and a couple of patch work signings expected to fill spots until we promote a few of them.

Tameike is definitely staying up. As is Dave Carter. Both did well in September. Eventually we will see Melgoza come up. Hoping to finish the year off with Gentner, Mueller, Tamieke, Carter and Melgoza as our five. In the wings we have Malone and a couple of hopefuls pitching in AAA right now.

Hitting-wise, we have nothing and the most difficult decision in this upcoming draft will be deciding on an impact pitcher or hitter. Will depend on what's available, I guess. As a team in need of everything, talent trumps all.

But we will have a fun, new ballpark. I'm sure funclown will love it!


Sent from my mobile device.

[Lintyfresh85]

California Kodiaks

1. Anytime your team wins 99 games it's hard to call the season a disappointment. I can't even say that I expected the team to perform as well as they did. While I am still pretty upset with the sweep to Washington, I am happy that we made the playoffs.

a.) Marco Soto was a pleasant surprise in the rotation this year. Even though he posted a 4.55 ERA, he gave us 190+ innings and generally kept the team in the ballgames. Not bad for a two pitch pitcher.

b.) Todd Burley cratered and lost his job as the team's 2B after six years on the job. He won't be back in 2004.

c.) Sonny Marshburn had a sad end to his Kodiaks career as he missed the majority of the year with various ailments. When healthy, Marshburn was one of the better power hitters in all of the BLB and was the face of the organization for many years. His contributions will be missed in 2004 and beyond.

2. Off-season could go a number of directions. I have a decision on Dani Trujillo coming up soon. Do I exercise his team option or do I let him walk and take his 6.5 million in savings and invest back into the team with 1-2 players?

I'll be looking for rotation help and a starter at 2B. If I could shore up the bench as well I'd be pretty happy.

3. Next year I'm not very confident in our chances. With Baltimore always fielding a strong team and Batavia and Philly both having winning seasons and teams on the rise, 2003 may have been the last chance we had at winning for quite a few years. Then again, I didn't have high expectations for 2003 and the team surprised me, so, you never know with this game.

[funclown]

Like Washington alot of things went right this season (Except losing in 6 to Wash) I'll just highlight the changes:

We gambled a bit on a few players to produce and boy did they ever : Todd Boyce as a replacement for Javara worked out .304/ OPsd near .800 most of the season to go along with his nice glove. Only 27 so best years still to come.

Jon Montalvo will go down as statistically one of the best players NOT to win the New Brew hitting 38 homeruns/ 121rbi/ .551slg/ .898 OPS. 25 years old, I'll take it.

Finally Tom Vaccarella coming back from a 14 month injury to go 14-3 with a 2.78 era. Love my trainer!!!

Add the emergence of Quinn (26), the solid play of SS Saucedo (28) and RF/CF Tammany(28) we have ourselves a nice solid young core here.

Signings:

Only one, but it was HUGE... C Ignacio Huerta. You survive at Pawtucket as a lefty by being an insane power hitter and unreal contact hitter OR having a great eye. Ignacio loves to work the pitch counts having a .410OPS. Also gives an aging Thang Mac a much needed rest. Upgrade check showed a 5-5-7-6 from scout so he might end up starting in 2004. Oh and he's cheap!


Important trades hits and misses:

Brought in RP Romero really for the future. Only 28 so in his prime, he had no real pressure to take on a larger role with Aguilar still on the team. Not sure Nestor will be on the team in 2004 so figure Romero to take on a larger role next season. HIT

We packaged a few prospects to LA for Veteran Ace Derrik Tucker hoping for two good seasons from him. Well for some reason Pawtucket is not allowed to carry two top pitchers, fell off the list before the May and overall lost some zip on his fastball, lost some movement, control .....the wheels are coming off. Luckily we did get a solid season from him going 12-6 with a 3.35 era, but is he worth the 17.3 team option next season? Lol, this is PAWTUCKET where contracts are treated like the NFL. Expect Tucker to either walk or come back for maybe 3-4ml. MISS

Dave Miller intrigues me. Came over from Washington and like Washington didn't enough playing time. My scout recently said this kid took a bump and reality he's still only 26. Another move for the future, see how he plays during his prime years. TBD


Offseason:

Thrilled with our bullpen (CURT KELLY!!)and happy with two of our starters, but really needed to piece the rotation together at the end. At only 25, we think Ed Kisselburg will take a step up in 2004. Still, leaves 2 open spots which we will fill via free agency or trade. We have 32ml in team options that should free up some nice coin to make a move or two.

Watchouts:

Basically watching age in a few areas. Our bullpen is not considered old, but after a player turns 30 you just never know. Simmons(31) & Lucca(33) seem to be holding, but again see statement above. All important players which will hurt if they start to drop off.

Also keep our eye on the Ale as usual. I still think Pitt will eventually get they're shit straight. This team was originally built to counter act they're talent. Lol, guess it worked out better then expected.

[Jimmy]

A lot of decent moves were made by other teams but usually it's the smaller deals that work out the best. We didn't really make any of those. We brought in a lot of new players this year. All in the hopes of getting younger and rebuilding on the fly, which we did, but our ultimate goal of sneaking into the playoffs was a bust. It's going to take a lot more moves to get this team closer to the where we need to be.

Starters

Going into the season I thought a rotation of Torres, Hautbourg and JP Johnston was going to be pretty formidable, so we traded Tucker to PAW and planned on moving Ocampo to free up some cash. Tucker might have stayed if Ocampo could be moved but noone wanted him. After his ST and brief start to the season it was obvious Ocampo didn't want to be in LA, so we outright cut him. Torres was spent the first half of the season looking terrible and my fear was that I would have a contract on my hands and a player that could no longer perform, so off he went. Itturiaga was a pitcher who started off hot for us, so I took the opportunity to move his contract for Pierce and a young Vasquez. Pierce sucked almost every time he went out but Vasquez was pretty good. All in all I give us a B- for our efforts.

Hitters

It's not always about how good you hit the ball but how you play your position as well. For this very reason we had to move our best righty, Naito, because his fielding was killing us. His error total was ridiculous (double his average yearly total) at the half. Johnny Knight was almost comical at 2nd base but hit well enough to get into the AS game. Marco Lona's bat, got him into the AS game as well but his fielding was definitely rookie-like. At the half it looked like we had a lineup of DH's so we went to work on that. Firing our Bench coach and signing 2B Jeremiah Kelly was a good start. Kelly was absolutely filthy for us (until Pat and Funclown ruined him), helping to bring a little cohesion to a horrible infield and earning himself an extension. Stephen Alexander (Rule V) had a decent rookie year but found himself on the bench a lot as we opted for more defensive minded players. I would have to rate out hitters with a C- because I can't stand a player who can't field the ball.

Bullpen

Terrible. If we hadn't gotten Rod Phillips(SYR) I would give us a straight up INC. Not even close to where we need to be. Ureste, who I thought would be dominant at the back end, was completely befuddled. I can't say anything bad about the old man, Ivan Gallo, but the wheels started to fall off at the end of the season and he will probably be put out to pasture this off-season. F

In summary to our season I just tried to do too much. I was reactive instead of proactive and we will try to put together a better team this year. Luckily we still have some good kids who are ready to come up and give it a shot. C Jimmy "Muscles" Brenizer will join our core of young kids at the BLB level. We will also give a look at young starter Kelvin Diaz during ST. With Lona, Lowe, Alexander, Diaz and Brenizer, we think we have a solid core of young players.

[Jistic]

1. How did your season go? Highlights? How did you trades work out? How did the signings go? Did you meet or exceed expectations?

Obviously the season was a huge success for us. First time in the playoffs since '93. Had a bit of validation in our long term complete rebuild strategy. That was the hardest thing to do, and I'll probably never do it again. But to see a long term plan come together feels good. Obviously our work isn't done but it's a nice first step.

The highlight for us besides winning our division was the emergence of some pieces. Firstly JJ Caplan has budded into a legit BLB super star. This was a guy that Clay didn't even think would debut on the top 100 prospects list (he did at #6). Being a high schooler I knew it would be a long damn time for him to develop and there are no guarantees. He has exceeded my expectations, and proved his worth in his first post season game by helping us clinch a game seven against Baltimore. His counterpart Edgar Mejia also was a long term HS player who we had to cook forever it seems. He also has surpassed my expectations. The future is bright and expensive for ownership for these two.

Trades? Bobby Corrall was a great trade for us. To bring in a SS and have his OPS+ be 122 I'll take any day. Not the best defensively but not a glaring liability. He will man the position until Travis Krummen comes up.

The signing of Joe Rojas was a slight disappointment. He's overpaid, but most free agents are. He still drew 100 walks but I don't pay guys 25MIL per season to walk. Still he had a decent post season. Fortunately we're on the hook for only one more year for him.

We predicted 86 wins beginning of the season ended up with 90 so I'd say we about met our expectations. The only question was would anybody else in the Bock be up there with us. Fortunately there wasn't.

2. Off-season plans? Players on the trade block? Big needs or targets for Free-Agency?

Right now we don't plan to be too active in free agency. Our dollars need to spent internally. However with the drafting of SP Tyler Kling it looks like the starting staff maybe getting a little crowded. There is a rumor that Jamie Herberholz may be on the block soon.

3. Early expectations for next year? Any big names coming up? Any big names being shown the door?

Honestly we'd like to take another step. 90+ wins is our goal.

We will have JJ Frantz and Travis Krummen debuting in spring training and hopefully contributing to the big league club. Just making the playoffs can't be enough anymore. We need to win. The window has just opened but in the BLB glory is fleeting. So we can't take anything for granted. Above all I hope for few injuries. The IL looks to be even tougher next year.

[Pat]

[B] The IL looks to be even tougher next year.

It's going to be a bloodbath.

I'm sure D.C., California or Baltimore might take a few steps back after 98-100 win seasons, but not much. But Batavia, Windy City, Wilmington and Morgantown were .500 or better that are young and on the rise. And don't forget about Philly, who is still the best team in the Porter. Los Alamos and Carolina were also 80 win teams.

I feel bad for Death Valley. Might get a new record for losses.

[Andrew]

StatsLab is updated for v14. There are some nice features I haven't seen before. Check out the Draft History... scroll down to top draft teams.

http://www.simgamingnetwork.com/blb/...ft_history.php

[Pat]

It's a bummer that it's all screwed from Clay's steriod era but a nice feature.

The positional summaries are very cool.

[Jistic]

StatsLab is updated for v14. There are some nice features I haven't seen before. Check out the Draft History... scroll down to top draft teams.

http://www.simgamingnetwork.com/blb/...ft_history.php

That's awesome. Hey we've had the most players reach the BLB level.

[Pat]

Round 9 has better results than Round 8.

My 8th round pick is officially on the block.

[Andrew]

Not to completely derail this thread with StatsLab info but OOTP 14 also gives you the option to export OSA scouted ratings rather than real ratings. That means we can start using the StatsLab development tracker. This also means the autodraft won't be based on real ratings anymore so it's more of a disadvantage for those who don't participate.

[Jistic]

I like it!

[BradZ]

My password isn't working with statlab. Was it reset?

Sent from my ADR6350 using Tapatalk 2

http://www.simgamingnetwork.com/foru...ad.php?t=15884