[sharknut]

Hello Florida!

That was SO much fun........doing a full expansion draft to build a team for less than $15 million when my last payroll in LA was $55 million. LOL

But first we did the amateur draft and we got the last pick in the 1st round. What I did was draft 1 player at each position and 6 pitchers in my first 14 picks to try to get a young player at each position and a handful of pitchers early and then just fill out the best I could.

I then started signing some minor league free agents. I have to build 1 AAA, 2 A and 2 rookie teams from nothing, so about 150 players to sign. I have 85 signed as of now with spring training starting in 2 weeks.

I managed to draft 36 players at a spend of $9 million. After the draft, I tempted CF Kevin Reimer with a $1.4 million a year deal. He has a good glove and has a little pop and at age 28, it's nice to have one position "up the middle" be a better than average.

I have a rating system of 20-80, 50 being bang average and I have a projected lineup as of now of:

RF-Darryl Hamilton Contact-60/Eye-50/Power-35/Speed-70/defense 50
2B-Luis Alicea-50/50/35/70/55
1B-Jeff King-50/45/60/55/50
CF-Kevin Reimer-50/40/55/50/60
3B-Kelly Gruber-45/40/60/60/45
C-Tony Barron-45/45/55/75/45
LF-Wes Chamberlain-45/35/50/70/65
SS-Scott Leius-40/45/45/70/55

We have 5 of 8 who have a steal rating of at least 70 including a catcher at 75. I think we are going to be running to score runs this year.

I only picked 1 player in the Expansion Draft with a salary over $1, and that was starter Al Leiter at $1.4 million. He's been a closer 4 of the last 5 years, but he's going to be my #1.

1-Al Leiter Stuff-60/Movement-45/Control-40/Stamina 65
2-Michael Jackson-55/45/45/55
3-Joe Beckwith-40/40/55/70
4-James McIntosh-45/40/55/70
5-Mike Roesler-45/65/50/65

I picked a lot of decent minimum salary middle relievers and spent a little on closer Bryan Farmer who was the closer in Cincinnati last year and is cheap enough where I could flip him at the deadline for some futures.

I still have a payroll of less than $11 million with $4 million to spend. I could make the team better, but there really is no reason, I'm not going to contend. I'd rather leave the budget space there in case a team is trying to dump a big salary.