2023 Offseason SIM 1 Complete - Next SIM Offseason 2 (FA1) Friday 11/3

[Matt]

Next SIM Fri 11/3

Files due by 7 AM PCT/10 AM EST

League file is up. HTML and Utility in process

Stat of the Day!

Sun 11/5 - Free Agency 2 - Dec 13 to Dec 20
Mon 11/6 - Free Agency 3 - Dec 20 to Jan 1
Tues 11/7 - Free Agency 4 - Jan 1 to Jan 21
Wed 11/8 - Free Agency 5 - Jan 21 to Feb 16
Thur 11/9 - Free Agency 6 - Feb 16 to ST
Sat 11/11 - Spring Training 1
Sun 11/12 - Spring Training 2
Tues 11/14 - Opening Day

Reminder

14. CONTRACTS

• If Team Option is used the Buyout must be the difference between Option year and highest Guaranteed year.
• Only one Team Option may be used per contract, and it must be in the last year of the contract. This prevents people from stacking Player Options after the Team Option.
• Players cannot be signed to contract extensions until after they have received their second arbitration contract. Players become eligible for contract extensions once they have two "Received a 1-year contract worth a total of $xx through arbitration." in their player history.

[Hank]

Thanks Matt. And sorry about the roster issue.
Unlike Davenport, I care and will try not to let it happen again.

[Matt]

No worries, not the first, not the last.

Offseason times are hard on the DFA due to SIM length and FA signings/trades. Just try and make sure that there is space on the 40 man to add any players you might acquire.

[Pat]

Seattle Off-Season News:

-Declined arbitration for C Ted Sandy, 3B RJ Cheek, P Dave Kell and C Dave Foshee. Kell and Sandy have been on the BLB squad for a long time so I do wish them luck wherever they continue their careers. Sandy was victim of his own arbitration demands. I believe I offered something like $2.5M last off-season and arbitrator ruled in favor of the player for nearly double that. With a lower budget, I couldn't swing paying a guy $5M+ to be a part-time player. He's popular in Baltimore, though.

-Let OF Jamie Roberts, OF Hector Estrada, OF Micah Jennie, 1B Dave Wescott, P Chaz Landis and P Tristan Schinnerer leave without being re-signed. No big names here. Mostly just $280k September depth guys. Estrada did get a playoff start against Baltimore though.

-Lost two of my five arbitration cases after losing all of them in 2022. This year it only cost me about $1M. Huge relief.

-Signed former New York Knights scouting director Thom Reed, and firing ours, Conan Bowden. Overpaid to do so but I was never a big fan of Bowden and knew he was a stop gap. Still missing a Single-A hitting coach and pitching coach, but might just go with two rookies and develop him through the org for cheap.

-We have quite a bit of budget room currently but not sure how to play the FA crop. Besides 2017, Seattle's inaugural year with all the money in the world and tons of roster holes post expansion draft, we really haven't had a lot of FA success in the PNW. Sure, we landed Ulloa/Nieto in 2022, but we also had to spend the most I ever had to get them. The real "winners" of FA are the GMs/teams that land under the radar signings and have the patience to wait for their guy.

-Seattle has been working the trade lines but nothing has come to fold.

[liquidcrash]

The Bats say goodbye to Jimmy Douglas and CJ Turnbow. I hate letting them go - Douglas is one of the best hitting 2B's in the league, while Turnbow has been a very good player for me after being a 4th round pick. But, money is tight and I couldn't realistically afford to keep them, given some of the other needs this team has. In their place, we have question marks. We don't have an obvious answer at second base on the roster - top prospect Kaz Fujii will get a look, but he spent all of last season in AA. At first base, we have more options. My highest rated prospect, Dave Blackmon, can probably play there. I also have Jimmy Harris, a former first round pick that I like. Not sure he's quite ready, but he'll get a chance.

In arbitration, we lost every decision. Koehler, Roseboom, Schneider and Seibert took us to the cleaners, just like everyone else does in arbitration. I increased all of their offers from the suggested amounts and still got beaten. We must have been represented by Lionel Hutz on our side.

We brought back Frank Rico on a good deal (1.2 million). I think that's good value for a player of his caliber, and he's available for anyone needing a good reliever. He's still on the trade block.

Heading into free agency, we've got a little bit of money to play with. If I really want to stretch it, I could conceivably spend 20-25 million, thanks mainly to letting Douglas walk. But, I've got big free agency decisions coming up in the next couple of seasons for the arbitration guys, so I'm not sure how best to play it.

[funclown]

So......I think we safely say the Intl classes aren't like the ones we had a few years ago. Maybe it was just the game trying to add in some hitting talent?

Either way glad to see it won't tip the scales each and every season. Its just luck.

#pathashorseshoeuphisass

[PaulC]

So......I think we safely say the Intl classes aren't like the ones we had a few years ago. Maybe it was just the game trying to add in some hitting talent?

Either way glad to see it won't tip the scales each and every season. Its just luck.

#pathashorseshoeuphisass

Agreed... Especially to that second point!

#PatCheats