[pauwoo]

Offseason Awards

• Demetri Rodriguez (1x) and Ethan Mullens (2x) each took home Gold Gloves at their respective positions… former Leopards, Tyler Hill (1x), received the honor for his work with Mexico City this season, C Dom Cooke (4x) and 1B Satoru Ono (3x) also banked the achievement.
• CL Don Haag the 2081 first Kingston Cashmore award… this is his 8th time earning the trophy.
• Oh Hong took home his 1st career Silver Slugger award and was our only player on the list as Otto Isaac was blocked in his bid to make it 5 in a row by Austin’s NKOTB, CF Anthony Jamison.
• Skipper Travis Carlisle, of the Austin Grackles, took home Manager of the Year award after breaking our stranglehold on the division championship this season. I’ve been told that our Skipper, Michael Scott, was not pleased.
• Adam Gunter, of the Vancouver Mounties, took home the Victor Pacheco award in the American League… this marks his 3rd season in a row taking home the honor. SP Lucas Torres, of the San Diego Skipjacks, won it in our league… it’s the 1st for the 24yo, Blue Mountain State alum.
• LF Harlem Peterson, over the much more deserving Anthony Jamison, took home the NL’s Boyce Rigg award… he hit .326/.368/.602 with 43 TANKS and 111 RBI… it’s his first career Boyce. Good for him, he did Phoenix proud… Otto finished 6th in voting, Oh Hong finished 9th, Ethan Mullens 11th. Detroit’s 1B Paulo Legna took the Boyce home in the American League for the 1st time in his 7-year career.

Summary of Offseason Roster Moves:

• An inter-division trade… yuck. We flipped SP Jan Hernandez (30yo, 61/61) to San Diego along with minor leaguer SP Ethan Aniag (22yo, 20/54) for SP Larimel Alvarez (27yo, 64/64) and MiLB SP Ryan McGuire (21yo, 34/48)
• Sent SP Dontrell McNeil (31yo, 51/51) and MiLB SP Tiki Castillo (24yo, 30/49) to Philadelphia with SP Orlando Arce (25yo, 52/59) and C Julian Nagy (27yo, 43/43) coming our way in return.
• Worked with Miami on a trade that brought 2B Dan Blasko (26yo, 47/48) and RP William Tajima (24yo, 49/55) to Los Angeles for 2B Simon Paulino (26yo, 42/42) and RP Hank Wilson (26yo, 50/53)
• We extended 1B Oh Hong (29yo, 70/70) for a year at a $21.2mm price tag
• Closed a deal with Portland that brought LF Hernando Benavidez (27yo, 59/59) and MiLB SP Axel Bates (20yo, 20/44) to Los Angeles, giving up MiLB SP Waldo Long (24yo, 37/61) in return.
• Traded LF Kyle Weaver (30yo, 42/42), to Montreal, getting LF Lucas Reese (28yo, 44/44) in return… more pop, even less fielding!
• Traded SP Ram Chen (25yo, 58/69) to Buffalo for SP Marco Ortega (27yo, 54/58) and CF Benny Link (29yo, 39/39)
• Signed 3B Demetri Rodriguez (28yo, 64/64) to a 3yr, $$25.2mm extension
• Signed LF Chance Bell (30yo, 56/56) to a 2yr, $33mm extension
• Signed SS Carson Hutchinson (28yo, 54/54) to a 3yr, $18.2mm extension
• Signed SP Nacho Valadez (34yo, 60/60) to a 3yr, $44mm extension we have a team option in year 3). A dumb move that divided the fanbase… what can I say? I like the stock.

Free Agency:
Departures:

• Stephen Estevez (31yo, 78/78) denied our $15mm qualifying offer and became a free agent instead… he signed a 3yr, $93.6mm contract with Charlotte… we’ll get a supplemental 1st rounder out of it…
• RP Paul Williams (32yo, 57/57) signed a 1yr, $2.9mm deal with the Boston Shamrocks
• RP Masaya Nakagawa (33yo, 52/52) signed a 1yr, $3.2mm contract in Dallas

Summary of Notable FA Signings:

• SP Burt McElheny (35yo, 64/64) signed a 2yr, $43.8mm contract with the New York Sluggers
• SP Cathal Magill (31yo, 67/67) signed a 3yr, $54.6mm contract with the Miami Herons
• SP Tommy Mathieu (35yo, 66/66) signed a 2yr, $45.6mm deal with the New York Sluggers
• SS Hamza McDonnell (31, 66/66) signed a 3yr, $70.8mm deal with Boston
• 2B Jaden Utley (37yo, 70/70) signed a 1yr, $15.6mm contract with Salt Lake City
• 1B Tom Franzone (31yo, 80/80) signed a 3yr, $67mm contract with Pittsburgh
• RP Donovan Turnbull (28yo, 53/54) signed a 1yr, $4mm contract with Montreal
• SS Nehemiah Jenkins (37yo, 55/55) signed a 2yr, $31.1mm deal with Seattle
• 2B Heathcote Kinton (31yo, 80/80) signed a 3yr, $97.5mm deal with Austin
• SP Merl Crawford (32yo, 59/59) signed a 3yr, $61.2mm contract with Brooklyn
• SP Ferdinand Loving (37yo, 54/54) signed a 1yr, $1.2mm contract with Brooklyn
• SP Al Bundy (31yo, 50/50) signed a 1yr, $6.7mm deal to play in New York City
• 3B Germaine Sturdivant (34yo, 57/57) signed a 2yr, $9mm contract with Vancouver
• 2B Randall Berger (37yo, 58/58) signed a 2yr, $41.2mm deal with Miami
• 1B Jeremy Glickstein (34yo, 57/57) signed a 2yr, $22.4mm contract with Salt Lake
• SP Cole Guzman (33yo, 62/62) signed a 1yr, $11.7mm deal to play in Vancouver
• SP Josh Allen (34yo, 61/61) signed a 2yr, $35.6mm deal with Portland
• SP Norm Rodriquez (37yo, 60/60) signed a 1yr, 10mm deal with Toronto
• RF Jonah Dove (39yo, 59/59) signed a 1yr, 18.2mm contract with Brooklyn
• SP Michael Brisk (34yo, 60/60) signed a 2yr, $30.4mm contract with Buffalo
• 2B Mike Duncan (31yo, 68/68) signed a 2yr, $42.2mm deal with Portland
• RP Dylan Miotke (32yo, 64/64) signed a 2yr, $17.2mm deal with San Diego
• LF Lynden Urmanski (28yo, 56/56) signed a 2yr, $19mm deal with Pittsburgh

Some Changes to the Save:

• I’ve updated the schedule – we’ll now play more divisional games and have less 4-game series.
• The playoff format has been updated to increase the barrier to postseason entry… basically, only the division winners will get a ticket to the dance and there will now be a 7-game LCS in each league followed by the 7-game World Series. I made this change because I think that last year’s finish to the regular season would have been a lot more fun, stressful, and meaningful had making the playoffs been on the line.

So… we remade the staff (it’s not necessarily better), strengthened the outfield defense (Otto will DH this year… yikes), and should hit better than we did in ’81. Will we live up to the BNN predictions? Dunno, not sure… I feel good about this club, and I think we can win the whole thing for the 2nd time in 3 years.

Here’s a look at our lineup & rotation… and the preseason predictions…