Quote:
Originally Posted by Palaaemon
Questions that I have are; (preferably the answers given when all information is in, probably the first day of the season (FDotS) once everything has settled)
1) What kind of Owner and GM does he have above him? What kind of expectations do they have for him?
2) How does his coaching staff look? Do they appear to be a good staff, just average overall or should Happy Harry be talking to the Owner 'bout makin' some changes 'round 'ere? pft-ting! 
3) Obviously this is more of a GM thing being financial but it does affect him. What do the finances look like? Now, going into preseason and of course the FDotS.
4) Once the FdotS comes, what does the team look like overall? Rotation, Bullpen, Lineup, Bench and other players on the 40 man that are interesting. Obviously some things like injuries will affect this, but that is why to do it FDotS.
5) What does the division look like? Where do you feel the Charlotte Sting fit in? Will they compete? In your opinion what are their chances at winning the division?
I am sure there is something(s) obvious that I am leaving out that I should be asking but I cannot think of it right now. I will probably think of something later or you most likely will. Either way I think that is plenty for now.
Once again thank you! Have a great evening!  |
Hey Palaaemon,
Thanks as always for engaging with the WPK and asking such good questions.
I know that this is counter to your request, but I'm going to give preliminary answers to these questions prematurely, mostly because before we head into next season I'm sure I will have migrated the WPK over to 23 and also will have started a new thread for this WPK reporting.
So we can certainly revisit these prior to the 1987 season but I will eyeball where things stand now to give some initial responses to these questions.
1. The owner of the Sting, Richard Romero, is real mixed bag in terms of his impact on the front office. On the one hand he is hands-off and tolerant, on the other hand he emphasizes winning (not a bad thing) while being a penny-pincher (kind of makes that winning part tough). Romero currently is expecting the club to make the playoffs, which would be incredibly unrealistic in any other division, but as you indicated, in the MGL East it is sort of a crap shoot and could happen.
General Manager Rico Orozco, a 58-year old native of Colombia, has been the G.M. of Charlotte since 1967 and has a great reputation in spite of the team only having had 3 winning seasons during that time (and one season at .500 exactly). He favors prospects, his personality (normal) shouldn't create conflict with Harry, his trade frequency is above average and he is pretty aggressive as a trader. His contract still has 2 years left on it.
2. The coaching staff is mostly mediocre and/or unproven. The strongest member of the staff is probably pitching coach Jake Bennett, who was a journeyman relief pitcher in the WPK from 1971 through 1980 and most recently was serving as a third base coach in the independent Iowa Baseball Confederacy. This will be his first season as the Sting pitching coach so he's inexperienced and unproven but there are indications that he could be quite good at the job. Beyond that, they have an average hitting coach, a very unimpressive head scout, a fairly bad trainer, just an okay bench coach, and a pair of really weak base coaches. They do at least seem to have a good mesh of personalities that work well together but to what end, given their skills limitations, is hard to say.
3. With a penny-pinching owner they currently have the 20th highest budget (out of 24) in the WPK and the 18th highest player payroll. Their market size is big, fan loyalty is a bit above average, but fan interest is very lukewarm (understandably). They ranked 21st this past season in attendance and merchandising income. On the other hand, they were 9th in terms of media revenue. They currently have no money to spend on free agents and a minimal amount in the budget for extensions.
4. So I know that you are asking about what this looks like on the first day of next season but that is so far away that I just thought I would look at what it might project to look like at this point. They have a small handful of veterans who could be free agents soon and if they are smart they will let them go. Blake Brock, a 32-year old shortstop, in particular is not only not that good anymore but a selfish player who isn't great for clubhouse morale. 33-year old left fielder Eddie Evans still has some power in his bat but so rarely makes contact that he doesn't often get to it in games. And 37-year old third baseman Nazir Williams has never been more than a backup infielder in his career shuttling between the WPK and the minors with his best WPK WAR season being the 0.9 WAR 1981 season when he hit .312/.352/.438 in 105 plate appearances. They all should be moving on and not Lyerly's problem. Charlotte's best position player, Eric Hammock, is 32 and injury prone. They did acquire talented Gold Glove center fielder Chris Heisler in a recent trade with Houston, but although Heisler is very good when healthy and only 28 years old, he is considered wrecked physically and was only able to play in 47 games this past season. They do have a great hitter in 23-year old second baseman/DH Alex Bock, who is emerging as a star player. But other than that most of their starters are 30 years old or older. The pitching staff has some talent but also some injury risk but overall it is a relative strength for the club. They are ranked 14th in terms of their farm system/prospects and pretty much all of their top prospects are still a long ways away from being big league ready. Harry has his work cut out for him.
5. Again, I know I'm answering this prematurely and not following your instructions, and all of this can certainly be revisited later, likely in a new forum thread. But the short answer is what you already know, which is that this is a very weak division. Could that change over the off-season? Perhaps, but it would take a lot of serious movement for it to change significantly. I suspect Detroit might have one more pennant in them if they can stay healthy and get good production from some of their veteran hitters again. Oklahoma City has the pitching rotation that could help them have a come-back season after a disappointing 1985 (they need to add a few hitters). Baltimore has a few young hitters emerging who could help them win more games but pitching will likely be a real weakness. Brooklyn is in the midst of a rebuild and also needs to refresh their pitching staff and get some younger arms. And Montreal, in spite of having the top ranked farm system, is still at least a few years away from being anything but terrible in all likelihood. Charlotte right now looks like a middle-of-the-pack team in the division but in this weak grouping anything can happen.