OOTP Developments Forums - View Single Post - "This Otter Be Fun!" -- Gary Shannon, A GM on Baseball's "Frontier"

jksander · 05-26-2024, 12:43 AM

March 18, 2024: In a taste of local sports news, Evansville Otters owner Bill Bussing has hired 41-year-old Gary Shannon to take the team’s helm as General Manager of Baseball Operations. This will be Shannon’s first sports management job, following a 12-year stint as the third base coach for the Evansville Aces over in the Missouri Valley. Shannon attended the University of Indianapolis and played a utility infield role off the bench for the D-II Greyhounds off and on for four years, graduating with a degree in Communications in 2004. After seven years bouncing around the minors as a scout and occcasional team press liason for the Cincinnati Reds’ AA affiliate, Shannon took the job with the Aces and eventually earned his Master’s in Sports Management in 2016. No word yet as to who the team will hire to take on the vacant manager role, or whether any free agent signings will be on the horizon before the Otters begin Frontier League play on May 10th on the road against the New Jersey Jackals. But the team is in good shape financially at the moment, with the team at least $17,000 under the cap with a roster full of non-guaranteed minor league contracts.

March 20, 2024: The Otters have hired 45-year-old Fox Beyer to take over as on-field manager of the team for the upcoming season. Beyer tends to focus on sabermetrics and has been known to be pretty easygoing, with a preference for hitting and offense. He has only signed a one year deal, worth a reported $56,365, to lead the team for the 2024 campaign.

March 22, 2024: The Otters have come out strong in free agency, signing five key players to add juice to the main roster. Among them are 25-year-old power hitting LF Zac Cook ($6,000), 27-year-old four pitch starter Hector Perez ($4,800), 22-year-old CF prospect Jasiah Dixon ($4,160), 27-year-old high-contact utility infielder Diosbel Arias ($6,500) and 29-year-old veteran closer Kyle Zurak ($3,600). All five will play key roles for the team right away, and should help push them to be contenders in the league. The team reportedly had an offer out for 25-year-old third baseman Juan Martinez, but he’s getting bigger offers elsewhere and would put them over the cap if they pursue him further.

March 27, 2024: The Otters have reportedly signed yet another solid veteran pitcher, nabbing 29-year-old Brandon Bailey on a $3,920 one year deal. He has five plus pitches as a flyball pitcher, with solid mid-90s velocity ... the stuff is there to be a solid contributor, and his dominant changeup should lead to a lot of swings and misses. The team has also made a trade, sending Jeffrey Baez, a 30-year-old right fielder, to the Oakland Ballers in exchange for 23-year-old first baseman prospect Nolan Machibroda, 24-year-old center fielder Payton Harden and 24-year-old right-handed starter Jake Dahle, to add depth to our reserve squad. At this point the Otters now have a five-man rotation which features three top starters at 27 and under, plus Bailey as a veteran in the fourth spot. With one of the best bullpens in the league, expectations are high that the team will be hard to score against this season, and with a power batting lineup that features Zac Cook, Yoel Yanqui, Mike Peabody and Disobel Arias, all four under 27, we expect plenty of offensive fireworks as well.

April 19, 2024: Spring training begins today, with an 18-game exhibition schedule that will get us ready for setting opening day lineups. We’ve had to cut our reserve roster back down to meet league guidelines, which meant some tough cuts ... but in the end this team still looks like a solid one on paper, and with season ticket sales up 25% and attendance expected to break 2,100 per game this year, all signs are pointing to plenty of fun this summer at Bosse Field!

May 8, 2024: Spring training game scores and records don’t count for much, as long as the players get the warm-up they need to show what they’re going to be capable of when the season gets going. But we would certainly have liked to have finished better than 7-11 (fifth placein the FL West Division. But it’s all about ridiculously small sample sizes, with nobody going full throttle so as to avoid any early season injury disasters. We’ll have our opening day rosters set in a couple days and then we can get the season going.

May 9, 2024: Here’s our finalized opening day roster:

Lineup
C - Logan Brown
1B - Yoel Yanqui
2B - Diosbel Arias
3B - Riley Delgado
SS - Nick Gonzalez
LF - Zac Cook
CF - Josiah Brown
RF - Mike Peabody
DH - Jomar Reyes

Bench: C Justin Felix, 1B Nolan Machibroda, CF Payton Harden

Starters
1 - Hector Perez
2 - Braden Scott
3 - Adam Smith
4 - Brandon Bailey
5 - Alex Valdez

Closer: Kyle Zurak
Setup: Jon Beymer, Kevin Davis
Middle: Tyler Ras, Leoni De La Cruz, Tyler Driver
Long: Parker Brahms

Our reserve roster has been cut down as well, to include LF Mason House, 2B Austin Bost, SP Jake Dahle, 1B David Mendham and RP Zach Smith, in order to be in compliance with league roster limits.

05-26-2024, 12:43 AM	#2
jksander All Star Starter Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Indianapolis IN Posts: 1,816	March 18, 2024: In a taste of local sports news, Evansville Otters owner Bill Bussing has hired 41-year-old Gary Shannon to take the team’s helm as General Manager of Baseball Operations. This will be Shannon’s first sports management job, following a 12-year stint as the third base coach for the Evansville Aces over in the Missouri Valley. Shannon attended the University of Indianapolis and played a utility infield role off the bench for the D-II Greyhounds off and on for four years, graduating with a degree in Communications in 2004. After seven years bouncing around the minors as a scout and occcasional team press liason for the Cincinnati Reds’ AA affiliate, Shannon took the job with the Aces and eventually earned his Master’s in Sports Management in 2016. No word yet as to who the team will hire to take on the vacant manager role, or whether any free agent signings will be on the horizon before the Otters begin Frontier League play on May 10th on the road against the New Jersey Jackals. But the team is in good shape financially at the moment, with the team at least $17,000 under the cap with a roster full of non-guaranteed minor league contracts. March 20, 2024: The Otters have hired 45-year-old Fox Beyer to take over as on-field manager of the team for the upcoming season. Beyer tends to focus on sabermetrics and has been known to be pretty easygoing, with a preference for hitting and offense. He has only signed a one year deal, worth a reported $56,365, to lead the team for the 2024 campaign. March 22, 2024: The Otters have come out strong in free agency, signing five key players to add juice to the main roster. Among them are 25-year-old power hitting LF Zac Cook ($6,000), 27-year-old four pitch starter Hector Perez ($4,800), 22-year-old CF prospect Jasiah Dixon ($4,160), 27-year-old high-contact utility infielder Diosbel Arias ($6,500) and 29-year-old veteran closer Kyle Zurak ($3,600). All five will play key roles for the team right away, and should help push them to be contenders in the league. The team reportedly had an offer out for 25-year-old third baseman Juan Martinez, but he’s getting bigger offers elsewhere and would put them over the cap if they pursue him further. March 27, 2024: The Otters have reportedly signed yet another solid veteran pitcher, nabbing 29-year-old Brandon Bailey on a $3,920 one year deal. He has five plus pitches as a flyball pitcher, with solid mid-90s velocity ... the stuff is there to be a solid contributor, and his dominant changeup should lead to a lot of swings and misses. The team has also made a trade, sending Jeffrey Baez, a 30-year-old right fielder, to the Oakland Ballers in exchange for 23-year-old first baseman prospect Nolan Machibroda, 24-year-old center fielder Payton Harden and 24-year-old right-handed starter Jake Dahle, to add depth to our reserve squad. At this point the Otters now have a five-man rotation which features three top starters at 27 and under, plus Bailey as a veteran in the fourth spot. With one of the best bullpens in the league, expectations are high that the team will be hard to score against this season, and with a power batting lineup that features Zac Cook, Yoel Yanqui, Mike Peabody and Disobel Arias, all four under 27, we expect plenty of offensive fireworks as well. April 19, 2024: Spring training begins today, with an 18-game exhibition schedule that will get us ready for setting opening day lineups. We’ve had to cut our reserve roster back down to meet league guidelines, which meant some tough cuts ... but in the end this team still looks like a solid one on paper, and with season ticket sales up 25% and attendance expected to break 2,100 per game this year, all signs are pointing to plenty of fun this summer at Bosse Field! May 8, 2024: Spring training game scores and records don’t count for much, as long as the players get the warm-up they need to show what they’re going to be capable of when the season gets going. But we would certainly have liked to have finished better than 7-11 (fifth placein the FL West Division. But it’s all about ridiculously small sample sizes, with nobody going full throttle so as to avoid any early season injury disasters. We’ll have our opening day rosters set in a couple days and then we can get the season going. May 9, 2024: Here’s our finalized opening day roster: *Lineup* C - Logan Brown 1B - Yoel Yanqui 2B - Diosbel Arias 3B - Riley Delgado SS - Nick Gonzalez LF - Zac Cook CF - Josiah Brown RF - Mike Peabody DH - Jomar Reyes Bench: C Justin Felix, 1B Nolan Machibroda, CF Payton Harden *Starters* 1 - Hector Perez 2 - Braden Scott 3 - Adam Smith 4 - Brandon Bailey 5 - Alex Valdez Closer: Kyle Zurak Setup: Jon Beymer, Kevin Davis Middle: Tyler Ras, Leoni De La Cruz, Tyler Driver Long: Parker Brahms Our reserve roster has been cut down as well, to include LF Mason House, 2B Austin Bost, SP Jake Dahle, 1B David Mendham and RP Zach Smith, in order to be in compliance with league roster limits. __________________ "Goodbye To 'The Mack'": The 1916 A's In Peril -- An OOTP 27 Dynasty Online Leagues Modern Baseball (Chicago White Sox) Championship Baseball League (Winnipeg Goldeye) WPORBL 55 (Chicago Cubs) WPORBL 74 (Oakland A's) WPORBL 94 (Montreal Expos) WPOBL (Cincinnati Reds)