Well we all know how quickly the club got good after hitting the Bay Area, and so as you'd expect the place is in pretty solid shape with a nice bunch of young guys ready now and a few more still a couple years or so away. One young gun I never knew was part of our franchise IRL is Darrell Evans and, unlike our real-life counterparts, we won't be leaving him unprotected come Expansion time.
You'll slowly become acquainted with the group as we wend our way through the seasons, so I'll leave that for now and turn instead to some changes we want to make. We've got a bit of flash cash to spare that I am keen to put to good use from the off before Charlie O. pulls one of his swifties.
Firstly, I want to acquire OF Rico Carty, one of the few notable FAs available as this timeline begins. Big bat, virtually no glove is Rico's jam and it's clear this will be our OF mantra for a while with guys like Reggie and Rick Monday as part of it. (With the exception of SS Bert Campaneris and 3B Sal Bando, it speaks for our IF as well, albeit to a lesser degree.)
Rico, who had a couple short tours of duty at the Col during the 70s, is looking for roughly $275k AAV and a 6-year deal, which is broadly in line with what we're happy to pay. After the usual to-and-fro, he signs for $1.5m.
Next, I look to move overpaid and now obsolescent OF Jim Gosger elsewhere for some relief pitching, something of which we are in dire need. We waive / DFA him first because our expectations of getting anything in return for him are so low.
As expected, he gets through unmolested and we eventually have to work hard and get a tad creative before finally swinging this deal, using our first trade ticket for 1968.
Bob (OAK 1970-72) has been around for a few years and should be a reliable enough type to tide us over for the next few years as we build the club we want. For now, he'll be our RH Setup guy.
We still need an upgrade at 2B, some IF depth and another RH reliever or two, but Oakland - like Rome - wasn't built in a day. Spring Training is about to get underway, so I'll be back full a comprehensive sit rep on Opening Day.