OFF-SEASON:
1-2-2017
After one day of the off-season we have our first injury. The back-up second basemen for the Baltimore Patriots suffered a brutal tripping up stairs that left him with a bruised elbow, jammed finger, and sore ankle.
Joel Healey the bench coach I offered is a real money grubber, not happy with the 100K less I offered him than what he asked for. Let's try 50K.
1-7-2017
Reynaldo Loaiza our DH/1B this season apparently told hitting coach Casey Shoemaker that he needs to be harder on the guys who aren't pulling their weight around here. Not good to hear from, apparently as the article states, our team leader.
1-12-2017
Joel Healey agrees to a 3 year, $292,320 annual salary as our bench coach.
1-28-2017
Before the season is even close to beginning we have our first retirement. Starting catcher for the Dallas Flying Tigers (we might need to change these names around), Jacob Robertson, apparently has a brother with advanced kidney disease and Robertson will donate his to save his brother. Three weeks later the story was updated to say the transplant was successful and both are resting well. Hooray!
2-3-2017
Scout Andy Steele found his first prospect, 17 year old Yoshihiro Nakashima from Japan. He plays CF with good range and an average arm, he has a solid upside in all categories and a 2 star potential rating. Pretty nice for a first find, from what I've seen.
2-17-2017
Steele is on the move again, this time in the Dominican Republic. Mike Rios is a 3 star prospect with similar defensive capabilities (and also a CF) as Nakashima, but looks to hit for a ton of power. However, his contact potential is a 20, which is low as a fellow goes, so I don't really know if he'll ever be any good. We'll see how it goes, he's only 16 so there's lots of time.
2-19-2017
Steele is a machine. He's down in Venezuela now and has found another prospect. A 16 year old left-handed pitcher Orlando Contreras with not a lot to get excited about. He's a 0.5 star prospect with his only decent thing being he might have good control over his two average pitches.
SPRING TRAINING
2-27-2017
Spring training begins today. 32 year old Zach Cantrell, 1B for the Nashville Chukars showed up ready shedding 30 pounds and coming in at a slim 6' 190. He still has 30 speed, so I don't know if it helped. But inner confidence is always good
The pre-season predictions are out and it looks good for Portland. Top of the western division, with 4 of the 5 best hitters and the third and fourth best pitchers. As a team we're predicted to lead the SL1 in runs by a solid margin and almost double up some teams for projected homeruns. All muscle!
3-15-2017
Our #1 guy in the rotation Danny Skinner left the game after one inning and is day to day with a strained shoulder. He has been pretty unimpressive in 12 innings with a 6.75 ERA and a .321 OAVG, but I don't put much in to spring training.
3-21-2017
There's been so many injuries not-on-our team but none of these names have any meaning to me since no one has played a major league game. However our starting CF Matt Crandall will be out five weeks for "Bone marrow edema" in his wrist. I don't know what it means but it sounds bad, and this is unfortunate as he was one of the many overwhelming hitters on our team.
4-1-2017
Player development update came in today, big improvement from Rafael Reyes in our Double A league, and he improved his potential stuff, his current and potential control, and stamine up 10 points, which also adding to his velocity. Good stuff from the 19 year old. On the otherside David Crew in Single A lost point in current stuff, potential stuff, potential control, stamina, and velocity. Not good stuff from the 21 year old.
We finished spring training 16 and 14, 3rd out of 6 in our division, 5 games behind the Denver Flying Squirrels who lead the league at 21-9. The San Antonio Toros (SL1 West) and Washington Scorpions (SL1 East) both finished 8-22 to bring up the bottom of the league. A few league leaders LF. M. Priest 17 BB, 2B R. Hard 14 XBH, and quite a separating 33 strikeouts by 1B R. Loaiza. Only our backup shortstop was even within 10 of that. We also had 2nd and 3rd for walks, which is nice to see we're going to be working those pitchers.
I guess I was supposed to change the depth charts or something because we hold all top 8 spots in innings pitched. Woops. Frank Munoz was a monster, 2nd in ERA with 0.45, lead the league in H/9, 5th in K's, 1st in OAVG, and 5th in WHIP.
Season opener begins tomorrow