1876 - 'Red Caps' Trades, Draftees and Roster
Posted 01-13-2017 at 02:02 PM by TheEquinox
Welcome back to season 1876!
Six years in already and soon the Hall Of Fame Voting is going to start (yay).
Lets start with some good news first. You remember the Taiwanese Pitcher which applied for a spot in the MLB as the first ever international amateur? Well, he's made a good decision and will be the #1 starter in Boston this year!
Mr. Yin Xú not only is easily the best pitcher in the MLB rating-wise now, but also the player with the most expensive contract value! I really hope he's worth it, because my whole budget went into this guy this season. I'll go crazy if he turns out to be a free-of-talent, overrated money-burner!
Now after some good news, we'll have to continue with some bad news:
With that terrible injury, John Cassidy picked up in the spring training (which we finished 1st in the NL btw.), I'm really afraid this young man's career has taken a big setback. It's a shame, because he has the potential to become one of the best pitchers in the league. We'll just have to wait and see what he looks like once he's cured again, I guess.
About the draft, there wasn't anything really good there this year except one quite good second baseman which was picked up immediately. Boston was #7 in the draft order, so no chance to get him at all. The rest of the draft pool was utter trash, so nothing worth mentioning here.
Cool, lets have a look at a few important trades we made. I'm going to start with the biggest trade of the league this season:
Dick Higham's time in Boston is over. He's been a great player for us with a good overall performance most of the time, but with Nick Wehman, I feel we have an equally good alternative on the 2nd baseman position. And using Dick as a Catcher wasn't really appropriate either, because with Jim H O'Rourke we've got that position covered with a premium player as well. On the other hand, the centre field has been a position we've been lacking in for quite a while now. I hoped Danny Tauer would fill the gap there, but with an AVG below 0.18 last season, we had to make a big deal here once and for all. And we did. George Hall is easily one of MLB's greatest stars by now, but see for yourself:
The two-time NL MVP and 5/5 time Allstar is cleary a safe bet. Any team who can get him is about certain to profit from his skill. The only problem is his attitude. He's known to be somewhat arrogant, but I hope our team leaders will keep him in line.
Speaking of team leaders. I felt we needed to improve in that area as well, so I was looking for high profile players with very high leadership ability, and I found Orator Shafer:
Danny Tauer was a good riddance after we had sealed the Hall-deal, so I didn't really have to think much about this. Henry Luff is an average third baseman and the perfect backup for Levi in this position.
And here's Orator:
As you can see, despite his okay defensive rating and his good hitting ability, this guy hasn't been able to click in Chicago so far. His last season was terrible, not sure what went wrong there, but maybe he just didn't fit into the Chicago franchise. We'll give him a fair chance in our team, because I believe in this guy. With his leadership ability, he could really become our team-captain if his performances on the field will be convincing.
The last trade worth mentioning is this one:
I really hated to let Carlos Tamayo go, because his development was really nice and he got better and better in every season. However, he still was just a backup player for George Bechtel and he wouldn't get past him anytime soon. On the left field position however, we had a lot of players in the roster, but none of them really convinced me last year. The best performance in 1875 came from Bill Coello, a rookie from my minor system, but it lacked in consistency to be good enough for our ambitions here. This is why I wanted to get a new guy to headline the LF position in the new season. Lots of the other guys on the LF position have been demoted to AAA to make place in the active roster.
And here's the new guy:
Ricardo's had two okay seasons in Cleveland and showed an impressive batting performance in the World Series. He is also a team captain with great leadership ability, so I hope he can live up to my high expectations of him!
And here is the roster overview for the 1876 season:
Pitching staff:
Due to John Cassidy's injury and Joe Blong's departure to Baltimore, our pitching staff has been thinned out quite a bit. I'll probably go back to a 1-man rotation with our new star SP and use Campbell as an occasional backup. Flip Lafferty is a draft pick, which has some potential after all, and will get a few innings as a reliever this season.
Batting Staff:
I mentioned the right field position before, George Bechtel is still the undisputed #1 here, his new backup is Mike Schulze who came in the package of the Rosas-Tamayo deal from Cleveland.
The centre field is hopefully settled now with George Hall being the clear #1 here. Tim Murnane is his only remaining backup, Jose Briseno is a rule-5 draft pick with great contact skill. I'm not too sure why he's rated with 1* - maybe he'll be a surprise this year.
The left field is still quite crowded. Usually, Steve King should be the best player here according to his ratings. However, he failed every time I tried him so far, and nobody wants to trade for him, so I guess he'll just have to stay until he will hopefully retire soon. Charlie Pabor and new signing Ricardo Rosas will fight for the #1 spot here, with Bill Coello being their first backup. Josh Brech can also play CF, so he will stay in the roster for now. Johnny Ryan came thorugh my minor system, but didn't really do well last year, so he'll probably make room for Davy Force once he returns from his injury in 5 days.
There's not much to say about the third base position. Levi Meyerle is our club icon and current NL MVP, there's no way anybody will push him off his #1 spot here anytime soon. Henry Luff will be his new backup. Dustin Birchfield and Elias Uresti have been demoted to AAA where they belong anyway.
On the second base, Nick Wehman will have his first season as the undisputed #1 here. Carlos Guzman returned from AAA to be his backup. He can also play SS, so he will also be Davy Force's backup who is now the only remaining SS in our roster.
First base is also quite crowded. I'm going to give Orator Shafer the #1 spot here, just to see if he can unfold his potential here in Boston. The ratings of our former #1, Juan Gonzales, are dropping more and more, and he'll probably end up in AAA sooner or later. Charlie Gould, Jack Manning and Robby Stoltenberg all did quite okay last year, so they will get their equal share of playing time.
Nothing new on the catcher position. Jim H O'Rourke did quite well last season and I have no reason to change anything here. Vince Ice will remain his backup and will probably get some more games this year, now that Dick Higham is gone and won't be available as backup C anymore.
This concludes the pre-season intro and the roster presentation. It's once again time to play some ball and see how it goes. I'll be back with an overview in the mid-season.
Six years in already and soon the Hall Of Fame Voting is going to start (yay).
Lets start with some good news first. You remember the Taiwanese Pitcher which applied for a spot in the MLB as the first ever international amateur? Well, he's made a good decision and will be the #1 starter in Boston this year!
Mr. Yin Xú not only is easily the best pitcher in the MLB rating-wise now, but also the player with the most expensive contract value! I really hope he's worth it, because my whole budget went into this guy this season. I'll go crazy if he turns out to be a free-of-talent, overrated money-burner!
Now after some good news, we'll have to continue with some bad news:
With that terrible injury, John Cassidy picked up in the spring training (which we finished 1st in the NL btw.), I'm really afraid this young man's career has taken a big setback. It's a shame, because he has the potential to become one of the best pitchers in the league. We'll just have to wait and see what he looks like once he's cured again, I guess.
About the draft, there wasn't anything really good there this year except one quite good second baseman which was picked up immediately. Boston was #7 in the draft order, so no chance to get him at all. The rest of the draft pool was utter trash, so nothing worth mentioning here.
Cool, lets have a look at a few important trades we made. I'm going to start with the biggest trade of the league this season:
Dick Higham's time in Boston is over. He's been a great player for us with a good overall performance most of the time, but with Nick Wehman, I feel we have an equally good alternative on the 2nd baseman position. And using Dick as a Catcher wasn't really appropriate either, because with Jim H O'Rourke we've got that position covered with a premium player as well. On the other hand, the centre field has been a position we've been lacking in for quite a while now. I hoped Danny Tauer would fill the gap there, but with an AVG below 0.18 last season, we had to make a big deal here once and for all. And we did. George Hall is easily one of MLB's greatest stars by now, but see for yourself:
The two-time NL MVP and 5/5 time Allstar is cleary a safe bet. Any team who can get him is about certain to profit from his skill. The only problem is his attitude. He's known to be somewhat arrogant, but I hope our team leaders will keep him in line.
Speaking of team leaders. I felt we needed to improve in that area as well, so I was looking for high profile players with very high leadership ability, and I found Orator Shafer:
Danny Tauer was a good riddance after we had sealed the Hall-deal, so I didn't really have to think much about this. Henry Luff is an average third baseman and the perfect backup for Levi in this position.
And here's Orator:
As you can see, despite his okay defensive rating and his good hitting ability, this guy hasn't been able to click in Chicago so far. His last season was terrible, not sure what went wrong there, but maybe he just didn't fit into the Chicago franchise. We'll give him a fair chance in our team, because I believe in this guy. With his leadership ability, he could really become our team-captain if his performances on the field will be convincing.
The last trade worth mentioning is this one:
I really hated to let Carlos Tamayo go, because his development was really nice and he got better and better in every season. However, he still was just a backup player for George Bechtel and he wouldn't get past him anytime soon. On the left field position however, we had a lot of players in the roster, but none of them really convinced me last year. The best performance in 1875 came from Bill Coello, a rookie from my minor system, but it lacked in consistency to be good enough for our ambitions here. This is why I wanted to get a new guy to headline the LF position in the new season. Lots of the other guys on the LF position have been demoted to AAA to make place in the active roster.
And here's the new guy:
Ricardo's had two okay seasons in Cleveland and showed an impressive batting performance in the World Series. He is also a team captain with great leadership ability, so I hope he can live up to my high expectations of him!
And here is the roster overview for the 1876 season:
Pitching staff:
Due to John Cassidy's injury and Joe Blong's departure to Baltimore, our pitching staff has been thinned out quite a bit. I'll probably go back to a 1-man rotation with our new star SP and use Campbell as an occasional backup. Flip Lafferty is a draft pick, which has some potential after all, and will get a few innings as a reliever this season.
Batting Staff:
I mentioned the right field position before, George Bechtel is still the undisputed #1 here, his new backup is Mike Schulze who came in the package of the Rosas-Tamayo deal from Cleveland.
The centre field is hopefully settled now with George Hall being the clear #1 here. Tim Murnane is his only remaining backup, Jose Briseno is a rule-5 draft pick with great contact skill. I'm not too sure why he's rated with 1* - maybe he'll be a surprise this year.
The left field is still quite crowded. Usually, Steve King should be the best player here according to his ratings. However, he failed every time I tried him so far, and nobody wants to trade for him, so I guess he'll just have to stay until he will hopefully retire soon. Charlie Pabor and new signing Ricardo Rosas will fight for the #1 spot here, with Bill Coello being their first backup. Josh Brech can also play CF, so he will stay in the roster for now. Johnny Ryan came thorugh my minor system, but didn't really do well last year, so he'll probably make room for Davy Force once he returns from his injury in 5 days.
There's not much to say about the third base position. Levi Meyerle is our club icon and current NL MVP, there's no way anybody will push him off his #1 spot here anytime soon. Henry Luff will be his new backup. Dustin Birchfield and Elias Uresti have been demoted to AAA where they belong anyway.
On the second base, Nick Wehman will have his first season as the undisputed #1 here. Carlos Guzman returned from AAA to be his backup. He can also play SS, so he will also be Davy Force's backup who is now the only remaining SS in our roster.
First base is also quite crowded. I'm going to give Orator Shafer the #1 spot here, just to see if he can unfold his potential here in Boston. The ratings of our former #1, Juan Gonzales, are dropping more and more, and he'll probably end up in AAA sooner or later. Charlie Gould, Jack Manning and Robby Stoltenberg all did quite okay last year, so they will get their equal share of playing time.
Nothing new on the catcher position. Jim H O'Rourke did quite well last season and I have no reason to change anything here. Vince Ice will remain his backup and will probably get some more games this year, now that Dick Higham is gone and won't be available as backup C anymore.
This concludes the pre-season intro and the roster presentation. It's once again time to play some ball and see how it goes. I'll be back with an overview in the mid-season.
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