[pauwoo]

March 9th, 2077
We’re gluttons for punishment – trading in our break from everyday baseball for baseball every day. We’ve stayed busy in the offseason – we managed to keep our offensive core together (we lost Zippo to Montreal via free agency, though), re-imagined our bullpen (now a mixture of crusty vets and young guns), and, really, don’t look that much worse for wear. Mathieu went to Dallas via free agency, so we’ve lost our ace, but… our lineup should crack, our defense remains stout, and our pitching, all things considered, looks to be a tick above serviceable (though, with Brisk serving as our Ace we are likely asking for trouble).

Summary of Roster Moves:

• 2B Zippo Hollins becomes a free-agent. He signed a 3-year, $55 million-dollar deal with Montreal.
• SP Tommy Mathieu becomes a free-agent. He signed a 3-year, $102 million-dollar deal with Dallas.
• LF Andy Shepard becomes a free-agent. He signed a 1-year, $6.9 million-dollar deal with St. Louis.
• Signed CF Ethan Mullens to a 1-year contract extension worth a total of $14,500,000.
• Signed CF Otto Isaac to a 1-year contract extension worth a total of $19,800,000.
• Signed 1B Arnold Webster to a 1-year contract extension worth a total of $8,900,000.
• Traded 28-year-old starting pitcher Cole Guzman, 31-year-old reliever Arlo Alverson and 22-year-old minor league second baseman Sam Kilgour to the Brooklyn Atlantics, getting 27-year-old starting pitcher Case Tunnell, 25-year-old reliever Jan Hernández and 24-year-old minor league closer Yong-Sun Choi in return.
• Traded 31-year-old reliever Julen Morales to the Las Vegas Outlaws, getting 33-year-old reliever Cory Sterner in return.
• Signed free agent SS Hetereki Ailani to a 2-year contract worth a total of $8,400,000.
• Signed free agent RP Adrian Bae to a 1-year contract worth a total of $3,200,000.
• Signed free agent SP Nick Demmer to a 2-year contract worth a total of $20,000,000.
• Signed free agent RP Saul Guzman to a 1-year contract worth a total of $4,000,000.
• Signed free agent RP Reynaldo Igarashi to a 2-year contract worth a total of $8,500,000.
• Signed free agent RP Grumpy Losito to a 2-year contract worth a total of $5,800,000.

So, certainly not a complete overhaul, and, through free agency, I feel like our bullpen is improved even though some of our new arms are unproven… I’m trusting our head scout, Crash Davis, here, so if they’re not up to snuff he’ll be headed back to the Minors in a coaching role. We have a couple of fireballers in Compton that could benefit from his leadership, I think. Letting Zippo and Mathieu jet via free agency freed up most of the capital we needed to shed, and we were able to trade for players of similar skill at a lower cost. With that being said, the baseball punditry has us picked to finish 2nd in the NL West with Las Vegas making the jump to 1st place… I disagree of course – I have us winning it all in 7 games against the Montreal Alouettes.