[jksander]

October 5, 1907: Backup first baseman Danny Van Sickle announced his retirement after the playoffs ended ... he hit .259 with nine doubles and 39 RBIs over 290 career games, just 21 of which he got to start. But he got to play in the league for nine seasons, which is more than a lot of minor league guys ever get to say. Meanwhile, Mike Andreen executed his player option, so he’ll be with us for the remaining two years on his contract, and though we’d like to find a younger catcher he can work with during those years, he’s still a very solid catcher in his own right even as he nears middle age.

Our owner is of course happy with the fact that we made it to the Championship Series ahead of schedule, but he is frustrated by the fact that, even with a winning team, we’re still struggling to keep the fans engaged. I know we’re one of the four smallest markets in the league, and it’s going to take time to build up fan loyalty. But we’re trending quickly in the right direction -- if we keep doing what we’re doing, the long-term support for our franchise will build as well.

October 6, 1907: We made a trade with the Fort Wayne Flyers that gets us a young(er) catcher I’ve been eying, 30-year-old Eduard de los Santos, who hits incredibly well for contact and who is at least average as a defensive option. He’s inexpensive, as he’s not yet arbitration eligible, and in his rookie season last year he hit .322 with 12 doubles and 28 RBIs. We’re sending one of our backup first basemen, Jared Bertz, along with third baseman Jesus de la Torre, a top 70 prospect who played 19 games up at the big league level last year for us but averaged just .216 with four runs scored.

October 9, 1907: We’ve traded 29-year-old right handed starter David Wright (AA), 22-year-old first baseman Cameron Jackson (AA), 30-year-old lefty reliever Kyle Fargo and $10,000 to the Huntington Appalachians for 29-year-old right fielder Chris Whalen. Whalen hit .289 last year for the Appalachians, with 16 doubles and 52 RBIs, and is a solid fielder in left and right. He’s been on my radar all year as a rookie, and he fits in perfectly with the way we like to play baseball in Louisville, and his batting instincts will be helpful to us long term but at little financial cost as he’s joined the league later in his development.

October 13, 1907: We had four players win Gold Glove awards for exceptional fielding this year -- Mike Morris as a pitcher, Brad Burgess as a shortstop, Trent Hall as a center fielder and Jeremy Smith as a right fielder. This was Smith’s first right fielder fielding award, to go with his many Silver Sluggers.

October 15, 1907: We have two Silver Slugger award winners this season. First off, the obvious one: Brad Burgess was named the Gold Glove winner at shortstop, hitting .280 with 20 doubles, 32 homers and 94 RBIs, with 12.7 WAR. Our other winner was left fielder Ben Morris, who, before his injury averaged .290 with 10 doubles, 26 triples and 74 RBIs, putting together 4.7 total WAR. Our young bats are stepping up and making things happen, and that bodes very well for our future.

October 16, 1907: The awards keep coming for left fielder Ben Morris, who won ORL Rookie of the Year despite going down with the elbow injury before the playoffs. We’re hoping he comes back without any long-term damage, and can get back to swinging that bat next year as we try and get back to the championship!

October 17, 1907: Sean Impagliazzo won the ORL Pitcher of the Year award in a unanimous decision, taking every first place vote, beating out Cameron McClain, who did not get any first place votes but garnered 64 total points in the voting. Impagliazzo finished the year with a 27-14 record, started 43 games and threw 389 innings of work, and struck out 68 batters with an ERA of 1.69, a 0.91 WHIP and 6.5 WAR.

October 18, 1907: No surprise here ... Brad Burgess was named the unanimous choice as ORL Most Valuable Player, for his exceptional season at the incredibly young age of 22! The second-place vote getter was 20-year-old shortstop Salvatore Correa from Lexington, who hit .281 this year with 16 doubles, 16 triples and six homers, batting in 53 runs and putting together 8.2 WAR. These two young men will be up against each other for years, I suspect, in a rivalry that will only grow in its intensity.

November 11, 1907: Our first move in the offseason was to find a younger reliever to join our bullpen, and we found him in 28-year-old Ralph Ladd, a right handed hurler with a sharp curve and a decent fastball; his solid movement and above average arm make him a perfect setup man. We signed him to a three year deal with $850 per year for two years with a vesting option for a third at the same wage if he reaches 40 innings pitched.

Meanwhile we’ve made a deal with Pittsburgh to send Tim Miller (ret: 50%) in exchange for a minor league right fielder, Cody Boudman, age 26 (a former top 100 prospect) ... he deserves a place where he can start, and at 37 I am not confident I can count on him not to go down to an injury. We have to look to our future, and he’ll be of value to the Tin-Knockers, who are in the midst of a rebuild, so he should likely see more playing time there.
 
November 14, 1907: This is our big one, people! We’ve locked in on our third baseman of the future, in 26-year-old newcomer Octavio Delgado, who comes in as a free agent after playing unafilliated baseball out west for several years. Our scouts say his hitting ability is among the cream of the crop, and he’s a quality defender at third base with the ability to also back up Burgess at shorstop. Lexington reportedly went after him hard, as did Chicago, but we had the money available and made him an offer he couldn’t turn down: $27,450 spread over nine years, starting at $1,500 and rising incrementally until 1914-16, when he’ll be earning $5,000 a year in his early to mid-30s.

November 20, 1907: Owensboro reached out with interest in 21-year-old second baseman Ed Masse (AA) and 22-year-old catcher Mike Brovont (AA). In a move based on scouting information from Derek Black, I agreed to move those two in exchange for 20-year-old Chris Heikes, a young player who I feel the national scouts haven’t yet caught up on. He’s raw as hell right now, but has a high ceiling as a well-above average contact hitter, a great feel for the strike zone, and he knows when to lay off a bad pitch. He’s the kind of guy who will have to develop in the minors for a few years, but as a move toward building up our farm I think it’s the right one.

December 2, 1907: Our trainer has let me know Ben Morris is recovering very well, and he should be back to full strength in a couple weeks, at least two weeks ahead of schedule.

December 14, 1907: It took a few weeks to work out all the contractual details, but 22-year-old free agent utility outfielder Trey “Bird Dog” Bledsoe will be coming to play for his hometown Rivermen! He graduated from the University of Louisville this spring, and we had him at the top of our list for recruiting this year -- a left-handed hitter, he is confident with meticulous mechanics, and has great strike zone recognition to go with the bat speed to hit for big league power. An above average fielder in left and right, he should make an immediate impact on our team. We’ve agreed to a five-year deal worth $11,250, giving him $1,750 this year, $2,000 next year and then $2,500 per year for the final three. Our goal will then be to sign him to a long term extension and keep him in the Louisville family if he lives up to our expectations as a hitter. He’s already popular with our fans, extremely well known around the area, and has national recognition as well, since the Cardinals participated in this year’s College World Series in Omaha.

Our offense this year is going to be among the youngest in the majors, with only three of our projected starters over the age of 26! But if I’m right about the overall talent level of these guys as a group, this is going to be a team built for the long haul. Our projected salary cost for the entire franchise ranges from $22,000 this year to a max of $23,000 by 1912, which while coming in among the top teams in the ORL, is just above half of what Chicago ($39,000 this year) is paying in salaries.