BLB 2029 Opening Day: Previews, Players to watch, Things you are excited about, etc.

[Pat]

I don't have the time this year to do a preview but maybe some others want to preview their teams or the league....

Reminder: get rosters to level. Minor leagues as well as BLB start on Monday!



TEAM PORTION:

Seattle should be good again. The biggest question mark being what IFA 2B Hideki Nakayama becomes. My scout lowered his praise to "average player" but I'm hopeful that he can be solid defensively at 2B and provide much needed eye/avoid K to our lineup. The bullpen is as deep as it's probably ever been with the addition of Pat Wood and the return from injury of Ian McManus. While the Bock looks much improved, we definitely have our eyes set on another division title and the ultimate goal of reaching a fourth straight Brew. Something that has never been done by any non steroid-aided team (Virginia/Clay).

LEAGUE PORTION:

The DH addition to the IL is a nice change. I think it makes the leagues fair for the first time ever in acquiring players but adds a new challenge to formulating a roster. I think what I'm most excited about is the new GMs in Pittsburgh and Phoenix. Such a huge addition to have full activity like we are used to. In the IL, I think New York is a big sleeper. The Stout is down overall and they have a nice young team that could surprise. In the DL, I think Wilmington is a bit of a sleeper. They have been on the cusp the last few years but have a legit CF now and depth in the bullpen.

[Nemesis]

I don't really know what to expect taking back over after Matt successfully pulled the strings the last few years. I do see quite a few players left over from when I left.
In particular:
CF Robby Brooksher - Really solid across the board
LF Jaiden Morgan - Not much with the glove, but can put the ball in the seats.
RF Ron Giamalva - Listed as a CF but playing strictly in RF and isn't horrible there, also has a decent bat.
SS Tommy Fields - 2024 draft pick and is decent and won't really have back up after I screwed up and lost Freddie Mangan by accident.

SP Wes Perry - He was drafted a few seasons before I got the team initially and has been pretty solid since, looking for some of the same.
SP Dave Swartwood - Lights out in 2023, not as dominant since his contract extension. Hoping he puts something together this year.
SP Dave Householder - I drafted him in my last season in 2024 and Matt brought him through like a champ. Hope he's lights out this year.

My first go around I didn't have any budget and had difficulty being able to pay for any good players. Matt changed that and I just to have to be more aggressive to keep it.

[PaulC]

California is shooting for the wild card this year... The IL has three untouchable teams in Washington, Seattle, and DVS, so the Wild Card is the route to go.

We have what I hope are a few strengths...

Defence... We have three gold glove defenders at first, short, and third. We also have an outfield defence that is strong and anchored by 23 year old Riley Thomas (+14.0 ZR).

Offence... Mike Morla struggled mightily last year with injuries, but leads an offence with ROY Jamie Middaugh, Erik Redding, and a bunch of young kids hoping to break onto the scene in the BLB.

Pitching... maybe, this is the year?!... Two off-season signings Bynum and Prior should forge a fairly strong top 3 with the highly undervalued TJ Broughton. Nackers, Prestianni, and Massey round out this group of high grounball pitchers. The bullpen has also been remade with pitchers that can hopefully keep leads and propel us to 80 -85 wins.

Speed... We have 5 regular that can really run, and can hopefully utilize that speed in front of Morla and Middaugh.

I always think we have a chance, the first month may give us a better indication...

[Delandis]

In Baltimore if we can stay healthy, I think we can win 90-93.

We really didn’t make any big splashes in FA as we are paying a lot of money to a few of our long term Bulldogs. Our one real FA gamble is with 29 year old catcher , Erik McDonough. Injuries have made him a shadow of his former self, but if there is anywhere a lefty power hitter can get his mojo back it would be Baltimore.

I’m more interested in seeing what, if any, difference having a competent pitching coaching coach will make. I missed the fact that our long time coach retired last year and I spent the first week or two without a pitching coach. This year, we were able to poach Effrain Grey from Washington. He looks like he’s done a great job in Washington so we are hoping that success transfers to Baltimore.

[liquidcrash]

Things aren't too different in Washington this season. We've been transitioning to a younger team the past couple seasons and this year should hopefully start to show that the young guys can keep us in contention.

Things to Watch - We saw it to end last season, but we broke in an all-rookie OF of Ron Thornton, Ian Lisch and Bert Garza. They all had their moments - Thornton had a big impact, Garza won ILDS MVP, Lisch showed some talent at the plate. I'd expect all three to play big roles on this team this year, assuming that they can stay healthy. I'm excited to see what they can do. It's been a long time since we didn't have Roseboom and Schneider taking the corner OF spots.

New Faces - We made four BLB signings this offseason. Jamie Spencer gives us a RH option to platoon with the young OF's I mentioned. Freddie Mangan will platoon in the middle infield and as a utility man. Tomio Ono gives us a solid 5th starter and a captain in the clubhouse. Our biggest addition may be 2B Tom Lewis. He's out for 2 months still, but hopefully when he comes back he'll be a big time addition to our lineup.

Rookie Watch - I mentioned Garza and Lisch, but they both are still rookies since they were late additions to last year's team. Going into this one, the biggest, new rookie to watch is 3B Rory Smith. A former 2nd round pick, my scout has always been high on Smith. He's a switch hitter with good power and will fight for the everyday 3B job.

On the mound, the guy to watch is probably Dave Theisen. Formerly the #1 prospect in the BLB, he had a pretty good rookie season and now shows up on the Top Pitchers list. He's still developing,, but he's beginning to look like the top of the rotation player I'm hoping for.

We won 95 games last year, and I think we are going to contend for the Stout title again this season. So, I'll pencil us in for about the same season as last year. Around 95 wins and a disappointing exit in either the ILDS or ILCS.

[Guest]

Don’t think we’re gonna be very good but we should improve over last year and I have a couple young guys who should make their BLB debuts at some point this season, so I’m looking forward to getting this shit underway. If the starting pitchers can maintain some level of consistency, I might be able to sneak over .500, but I think 74-76 wins is most likely.

[Carlos]

Not sure how to write this so I'm just going to mention a few things we are excited about.

Obviously Dave Grubel. I've been talking about him for a couple seasons now. My scout is raving about this kid and in his short two-week stint to end the season, he impressed beyond belief. In Spring Training, he was tremendous. I think my scout might be right. The big benefit for us this year is the addition of the DH. We were going to try to figure out what to do with Phares, Janson and Occhiogrosso (more on them below) with Grubel slated as the starting RF. The DH allows us to move Grubel to DH and have a real glove play right. It's a huge boost for us.

We like what we see out of Occhiogrosso but we are very impressed with the sudden talent bump Dusty Janson had. Janson has been average in his first couple years and spent most of last season in AAA while I played Occhiogrosso to figure out who owns LF. Well, a year later and I'm still having trouble benching Occhiogrosso despite Janson being an obvious starter for us. Sooooo...Janson is going to use his versatility and start at 2B for us. This was a last second decision and one I wish I had thought of during Spring Training so Janson could get more reps but he's our clear best option. As a 2B, he ranks 4th (when we change his position in-game). I think the guy is going to blow up. His arbitration figures (estimated) seem to indicate the same.

This was tough because it meant Pat Zeck had to go back to AAA. I really like Zeck but I love Janson and Occhiogrosso more. Zeck loses. That's just how it is.

We lost a few of our bullpen arms in free agency. We set out to rebuild the bullpen last season and succeeded. But we might not be as solid this year as last. Some guys return like Swisher, Gant and Rivenbark. But now we need to rely on Inouye who struggled in Baltimore last season, Robby Hurd (late last season waiver wire pickup from Maine), and youngster Jaylen Lindsey who we like but aren't sure is completely ready. This off-season we missed out on a couple bullpen arms we really wanted. Thankfully, we got to bring in Ted Hatch at the end of Spring Training and will let him play in AAA to get that rust off before we promote him to the BLB team.

Other than that, we are excited about Stokes and Hamada being two clear aces at the top of our rotation. Dave Walker should be a solid #3 type for us and Kendrick can sneakily be a #2 if he peaks.


I think Denver will prevent just about the same number of runs as last year while scoring a lot more than we did in 2028. I expect we should be good enough to be in the Wildcard discussion all season instead of as a late push. 90 wins is very possible if everyone does what they should.

[Delandis]

I think that......

Denver might actually be a better team than us this year. WTF?


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[funclown]

Pawtucket wins 80-85 wins. Way to many iffs going on with offense and every pitcher we signed this offseason got some serious hits from our scouting dept.

We traded for BJ Smith to help us in the #3 spot and we are still working the phones for another SP spot, but its gonna be our bullpen that gives us any hope. Missing Hall at SS to this season is gonna our D.

Were not giving up, but its gonna be an uphill battle.

[Carlos]

I think that......

Denver might actually be a better team than us this year. WTF?


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Davenport essentially giving us Stokes and Phares helped a lot. Paul giving us Lemus helped too.

I think the solution was to simply combine Davenport and Denver. Who woulda thought?

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[Pat]

I think that......

Denver might actually be a better team than us this year. WTF?


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Denver is going to play a tougher schedule.

[PaulC]

Davenport essentially giving us Stokes and Phares helped a lot. Paul giving us Lemus helped too.

I think the solution was to simply combine Davenport and Denver. Who woulda thought?

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Had I have known the DH would be a slam dunk, I would have kept that jerk!