Mid-Season Grades 1982

[Pat]

What grade do you give your organization? How have those off-season moves worked out? Are you living up to your owners expectations?

I give myself a B+. My owner and I expected to legitimately compete for the IL title, and thats what we are doing. But with a half a season to play, I am nine games behind division leading Wilmington, who has the best record in all of the BLB at 57-25. I still have nine games to play against the Wildcats, so there is hope.

My team isn't that much different in 1982 in comparison to the team I was fielding at the end of the 1981 season. Of the moves I made, trading for INF Jorge Taracena has definitely helped my offense, but I was expecting more. He has a .807 OPS, but I brought him in expecting 20+ HRs, and he currently has six. I recently traded for another aging infielder in Virginia's 2B Mark MacAdie. In Virginia he was hitting .217 with a .650 OPS, in Washington those numbers are .254 and .795. So I am pleased with that move. Rookie R.A. Grounds has been my everyday 2B, and played well above expectations, landing a spot on the All-Star team.

I have remained relatively healthy, (only one player has had a stint on the DL), especially compared to recent years. Maybe thats why I am not completely out of it at the mid-way point.

How are you guys doing?

[liquidcrash]

F. Just a complete, unmitigiated failure for the Tobs. I have nothing positive to say about this season.

Time to rebuild.

[rubisco43]

C. Pitching has done better than expected, but hitting has gone down the tank. We're still technically in the race, but if my hitting doesn't improve (ie: not strike out at an alarming rate), it'll be a quick summer.

[Lintyfresh85]

I'd give my team a solid B grade for how they've done so far. Ever since I took over the team this past off-season my goal has been to improve the team every year until we are contenders.

First phase of that plan was to bring in players that could help us get some wins, and help get the fans back into the team...

I bring in Tim Murcott and Tim O'Fay as my big name free agents. Neither have really done much for me this year, especially not what I was hoping for when I signed them, but thankfully my dealing did not stop there.

Another move I made this year was bringing in veteran Catcher Alan Starr, Starr who never really had been given a chance to play in his career has been nothing short of outstanding for my team so far this year. He's gone from never having over 135 at bats in a season to being the starting IL Catcher this year in the all-star game. For whatever reason this guy got no interest from other teams although he was a switch hitting catcher which all my scouts had as a 5 contact, 5 gap type of player. Couple that with the emergence of Joe Truex my 1B who has had a wonderful year in terms of power and you can see why my offense has been as explosive as it has.

My best move so far, has been my trade of Montez Dardon for Joe Viret/Jake Fredrick... some people thought it was a crazy trade to make, but it's worked out great for me. Not only have I gained a star CF who made his first all-star team this year, but Viret is out hitting Dardon by nearly 100 points and has provided better RBI numbers than Dardon has produced so far. Fredrick has been quality at AA so far this year with an era in the upper 2's. For a 20 year old I couldn't be happier. While he didn't work in his first stint in the BLB, I don't think it will be long before he is up here for good.

I was also able to get rid of John Lakin and save 3 million dollars for the year that way.

Looking at my pitching staff, and you'll see 3 out of the 5 starters were not on my team from this past year... None of them have a 4.00 ERA or higher! Biggest find has to be Jeff Flynn a career MR before I moved him into the rotation this year. He's responded with a 2.51 ERA and a whip of 1.14. Also check out Oswaldo Escarcaga, I got him in the Rule 5 draft this past off-season and he's certainly held his own this year.

In the bullpen I picked up John Stritch and Will Summer who both have turned in stellar seasons to date.

Another gamble that has paid off (SO FAR) is the drafting of Jud Graham with the #3 pick. At first, and it may still be the case, Jud wasn't throwing above 50 pitches in a start... yet the last two he's gone 100, and 95. My scouts were pretty positive the guy was a 5 endurance wise, but a lot of others said 4... I guess I just lucked out as Graham has jumped to the #2 prospect in the game seemingly over night. If he can keep his endurance up, I think he has the make up to be a quality starter in the BLB.

So I'd have to say for my first year as the GM of the Wildfire, and my first time ever playing OOTP (I actually had to buy the game when I was brought in as GM for the Wildfire... saw the league, and knew some of the people so I thought it would be fun) I can't complain. We're already at last years win total with 80 games left this year so I think we're headed in the right direction.

[Riverman]

I'd give my team a solid B grade for how they've done so far.

It is hard for me to see how you could give yourself less than an A for all of that but I suppose one must be modest. Your Pyt. record is actually better than that of Windy City so if your team had done a better job winning the close ones you could easily be in first place now or at least close. Add to that your pick of Judd Graham at #3 and I'm starting to see my only realistic hope of ever reaching the playoffs is that I get realigned out of this division after the next expansion round. Me, Virginia, Los Alamos and one of the expansion teams is what I will be angling for.

[Clay]

Me, Virginia, Los Alamos and one of the expansion teams is what I will be angling for.

Cosign!

[Clay]

In terms of my organization as a whole, we'd probably rate somewhere around a C for the season...

At the BLB level, we have a couple of solid B/B+ seasons going for people like Bill Johnson and Leonardo Quinterro... but the team as a whole has been bad. Injuries have knocked out my entire starting Outfield for at least a month, including a stretch where I was without all 3 at the same time. Watanabe has had an OK season considering he's started almost every game when he was supposed to be a sub. Eddie Just looks like he may be as good as advertised.

Greenham started hot and got cold. Samala has underachieved. Bats just aren't there.

In terms of pitching, Delmar Oyos is pitching very well despite his ugly record. Jimmy is Jimmy. He's getting killed with run support. When you throw a 9 inning, 0 ER, 10K game and still can't win... it's just not meant to be. The bullpen has been AWFUL!!! They're killing me. I made at least a half a dozen offers in FA to legit BLB relievers and got none of them. That's killing me.

In the minors, the team that I hope to eventually make playoff runs with is starting to take shape. Archuleta and Bertetto have been good. Lacy, Cheatem, Brudenell, Van den Damn Spam Can are starting to build up their resume. Larry Headington has been a nice late bloomer. Nagatawa and Haggett from last year's draft should be future role players.

Time will tell.

[Lintyfresh85]

It is hard for me to see how you could give yourself less than an A for all of that but I suppose one must be modest.

Well I horribly overpaid for Murcott at 18 mil per year. He's locked up for the next 5 or 6 years, but if he doesn't go back to his pre Cali days of hitting .300 every year I won't be happy with a .270 hitter and 20 HR power.

Also, I've traded away TWO top 100 catching prospects this year. I don't value offense in a catcher, but still, trading away two promising catchers for some MR prospects doesn't exactly look like great trades... even if they do benefit both sides.

[Spectre]

I'll give myself a B/B-.

The BLB level has been terrible- the pitching staff and absent production at 1B and SS has doomed this team. The pen has been solid and Fuentes looks like he's going to be a very good closer for a long time.

I hope I drafted well. Tillman started off in AA and is pitching well. Don Stevens is off to a hot start.

Right now, the trading deadline will be interesting.

[Carlos]

I'd probably say a B-. I don't think anyone could have expected this team to repeat what they did last season. That being said, they still have last season hanging over them so that drops the grade a bit.

Playing .500 ball is good. Right about where they should be.

Going to be interesting next season with payroll dropping and no Harcourt.

[Z]

A- for the Freedom. Everyone's finally starting to come together under Kropp. We'll put up a fight this year and then hopefully contend for the Stout for the next few years.

[Ryan]

I'd have to say a C+ i guess. I didnt really sign anyone that I expected things from in the offseason and my expansion picks for the most part have done what I expected, some better, some worse.

Hopefully the draft was good to me and we can build on that over the next few years.

[Guest]

I'll give myself a C-. I was unable to get any pitching and have let my team get worse than it was last year.

[Riverman]

I am pretty sure I should get a grade somewhere between an A- and and an F. There are two questions to consider - did I make the right decision to rebuild and once I made the decision that I would how well did I do in beginning that process.

I reasonably could have retained Buzzell, Joyce as well as Sato and in a buyer's market I am sure I could have picked up a couple of guys who could help me this year. With Windy City and especially Carolina playing worse than usual, my guess is I would have had enough to make it interesting but in the end, no cigar. So I am happy with the decision I made to rebuild now though I think things are going to get worse before they get better.

As far as execution of the rebuilding process, I know I did not get enough in the deal for Joyce and Sato. With that deal I managed to ruin two division races by making Sin City unbeatable in their division and making it impossible for me to contend with WC. I was very surprised that Sin City was the only team to make an offer for those two.

Otherwise in the rebuilding process I think I did all right. I am happy with my other trades and all of the guys I picked in the first 5 rounds of the draft made the BA top 100 except a reliever I chose in the second or third round. All 10 of my own top 10 are now in the top 100 whereas a year ago I had none.

[Jistic]

I won't give a grade.

But I will say that for us it's really all about survival. Our entire philosophy has been to pretty much build from within and only make the occaisonal deal. Since we will never be able to ever sign a free agent of any significance, we have to develop all from within.

I know that every decision is crucial as we have no wiggle room. So from that perspective I think we've done a great job of "staying the course". We just need to try to get into the dance every year and maybe someday even win one. In another 5 years we'll most likely be cellar dwellars unless we draft responsibly so I can't even trade draft picks for players today or else we'll be finished down the line.