[jksander]

August 3, 2024: And so it begins ... the Pittsburgh Pirates have purchased the rights to Mason House’s contract, sending the 25-year-old left fielder to their rookie league. He’d played in 50 games for us this season, hitting .237/.343/.434 with 25 doubles and 29 RBIs. The cash infusion has certainly made our owner happy -- we’re now sitting on nearly $450,000 in cash assets thanks to his new shot at the minors.

August 5, 2024: Zac Cook has agreed to stay on with us at his same salary of $6,000, through next season. He’s made it clear that he’s fully behind the team as a whole, and wants to win a championship -- and at 26 years of age, he’s hoping to continue to develop well enough to get on some major league teams’ radar. I was happy he didn’t try to take us for too much cap space, making the “team player” move for the betterment of everyone. But I’ll be shocked if he’s in this league after next season.

August 10, 2024: Riley Delgado, at age 29, seems to be coming to grips with the idea that the major leagues aren’t going to be calling anytime soon. But he’s popular here, is batting .353 with 36 doubles and 44 RBIs, and has decided to stay on another year, inking a contract to earn $4,500 to play for the Otters in 2025. He’s an exceptional defensive player at both second and third base, and can handle shorstop in a pinch, so I know he’s worth the money -- particularly as he’s put up 3.0 WAR so far this year.

August 19, 2024: Terrible news as we fight for a shot at the playoffs -- Zac Cook broke his thumb and will now miss the remainder of the season. And we’re not in any position financially under the cap to be able to replace him. Even worse, the 12-6 loss we suffered this evening against New Jersey dropped us to 53-39, a game behind Gateway’s Grizzlies and Washington’s Wild Things ... which now also has us in a three-way tie for the final wild card spot. We’re bringing Sam Highfill, a 23-year-old pitching prospect we’d signed earlier this month for depth on the reserve roster, in to play in left field -- he’s got moderate skill in the position as a two-way player, and he has good eye and ability to get on base and then hopefully steal aggressively enough to get us through the final few days of the playoff push.

August 23, 2024: This race is coming down to the last possible moment ... and we haven’t exactly lived up to expectations, limping our way toward the finish line with three losses in a row before we decided to wake up this evening and whallop Joliet 12-0! With just one game left, at 54-41, all we can do is win our game and pray ... we remain a game out of any chance at a play-in tiebreaker game. But we got some good news for next season -- we can’t afford to bring everyone back that we’d like to, but Adam Smith, 24, has agreed to a $4,000 deal to play another season with our Otters.

August 24, 2024: It was all for naught ... tonight we got hammered by a mediocre Joliet team, losing 11-2 to finish the season with a 54-42 record, so close to the playoffs we could taste it. Gateway and Washington will face off in a tiebreaker tomorrow to determine who wins the division, and Quebec and Ottawa will face off in what some are calling “The Canuck Cup” to decide who will get the final wildcard spot.

August 25, 2024: The Washington Wild Things capped off their huge late season comeback, beating the Gateway in a 16-6 drubbing to claim the West Division crown, relegating the Grizzlies to a wild card spot. Ottawa beat Quebec 5-3 in their play-in game, earning the final spot in the four-team playoffs. The Wild Things’ reward is a best-of-seven series against the Grizzlies, but with home field advantage, while Ottawa would have to find a way past the Tri-City Valley Cats, who had finished 59-37, the best record in the league.

September 12, 2024: In the FL Divisional Series, Ottawa pushed Tri-City to the limit, but the Valley Cats won game seven in a 13-6 blowout to earn their spot in the FL Championship Series. In the West, Washington took a 2-1 series lead in a 12-inning marathon, winning 15-14, but Gateway stormed back even without homefield advantage, winning three in a row to take the series in six, where Tri-City had the home field edge. It didn’t matter to them, apparently, as Gateway declawed the Cats 13-4 in game one, and then did it again in game two, winning 12-3 to head back home with brooms on their minds. So Tri-City came back and beat them 11-10 on the road in 12 innings ... not so fast, Grizzlies! But Gateway responded with a 12-5 win to take a 3-1 lead in the series, winning a tight battle 5-4 in game five to seal the deal in front of more than 6,200 rabid fans. We’ll go into the offseason feeling like we’d been this close to a chance to be champions, but instead we were watching on the sideline with the other 11 teams who didn’t make the cut.

So congratulations go out to all the fans in the Sauget, Ill. / St. Louis, Mo. region as the Grizzlies celebrate their title. This was their first Frontier Championship win since 2003 when they beat us in a 3-0 sweep before the league began expansions. Bill Bussing is said to be happy with the direction the team is heading, but he wants big improvements in fan engagement and attendance in the coming season, and I’m working on getting Braden Scott signed to an extension before the real offseason grind begins. Free agency filings occur on October 4, and then we’ll really start hopping.