Mr Bucket: An Exercise in General (mis)Management

[mrbucket]

So this is a mild departure from what I normally do. I generally prefer to create a league and document it from a neutral perspective rather than act as a GM but figured I should actually have a proper go at what this game is actually designed for.

So I've decided to do a live start in the morning of the 1st of October. Simulate to the Winter Meetings and then expand the league to 32 teams and re-arrange the divisions. From there, simulate to the start of the preseason and then pick a team. I'll restrict myself to a team that finished in the bottom half of the 2021 standings and who's farm ranking is the bottom half then go from there. Commissioner mode will be deactivated, owner goals will be on, and I can be fired.

February 1, 2022
Hi Diary, my name is Larry Bucket, nice to meet you. I'm the General Manager of a baseball team! Weird, right? I have no idea what I'm doing but my next door neighbour suggested that I try writing things in a diary to figure things out instead of talking to him. What a friendly fellow.

Five months ago I was in Dunedin, New Zealand. At home and I opened my wardrobe and there was this green vortex thing. Naturally, I stepped through it and traveled not just through space but time itself. Suddenly I was here, shaking hands, congratulating me on my new appointment as General Manager.

Today's my first day on the job but I've been frantically trying to figure out what's been going on in the last five months because this isn't the MLB I'm used to. Here's what's happened in those five months.

• First up, the end of the 2021 season that I missed!
• When I went through the vortex, the NL playoffs were set: Braves, Brewers, and Giants won their division and the Dodgers and Cardinals were set to go to the wildcard.
• The AL was a bit messier. The Rays, White Sox, and Astros clinched their division but there was 4 teams going for a wildcard spot. The Yankees got the first spot while the Blue Jays and Mariners tied for the second. The Blue Jays won the tiebreaker to book their place.

• The Milwaukee Brewers won the NL pennant, pushing aside the challenges from the Atlanta Braves and San Francisco Giants.

• The Tampa Bay Rays won the AL pennant through a sweep of the New York Yankees and a sweep-of-sorts of the Chicago White Sox.
• (The "sweep-of-sorts" being letting the White Sox win the first three games and then -- facing elimination -- require Nelson Cruz to hit three dingers in game four including the winning one in the 9th, and then winning the next three straight.)

• With the dramas of the AL Championship Series behind them, the Tampa Bay Rays then cruised into their first World Series title.

• AL MVP went to Shohei Ohtani, Cy Young went to Robbie Ray, Rookie of the Year went to Akil Baddoo, and Reliever of the Year went to Jonathan Loaisiga.
• NL MVP went to Paul Goldschmidt (Yep, when everyone else was focused on the likes of Soto or Harper or Tatis, here comes Goldschmidt surging through the middle!), Cy Young went to Walker Buehler, Rookie of the Year went to Jonathan India, and Reliever of the Year went to Blake Treinen.
• With the season done, the changes started to roll in.
• Two new expansion teams have been added to the league for the 2022 season: The Portland Beavers in the American League and the Nashville Stars in the National League.
• The World Series winning Tampa Bay Rays announce that they're moving to Montreal and rebranding themselves as the Montreal Expos.
• The Washington Nationals are rebranding themselves as the Senators and shifting to the American League.
• The Colorado Rockies and Houston Astros are also switching leagues.
• The Los Angeles Angels are renaming themselves back to the California Angels.
• The Miami Marlins are renaming themselves back to the Florida Marlins.
• The Cleveland Indians rebrand themselves to the Cleveland Spiders.
• The Ghost Runner in Extras Inning is eliminated.
• Some things that don't change: the DH is not introduced to the National League and the Oakland Athletics stay in Oakland.
• With four divisions of four teams in each league. Playoffs are expanded to 6 teams in each league. The division winners all make the playoffs with two wildcard teams. The top two teams of each league get a bye in the first round as the other two division winners play the wildcard teams in a three game series: all games at the division winner's stadium. We then move onto the five game divisional series and the seven game championship series before the seven game World Series.

Here's how the new setup looks like.

NL EAST
Montreal Expos
New York Mets
Philadelphia Phillies
Pittsburgh Pirates

NL CENTRAL
Chicago Cubs
Cincinnati Reds
Milwaukee Brewers
St. Louis Cardinals

NL SOUTH
Atlanta Braves
Flordia Marlins
Houston Astros
Nashville Stars

NL WEST
Arizona Diamondbacks
Los Angeles Dodgers
San Diego Padres
San Francisco Giants

AL EAST
Baltimore Orioles
Boston Red Sox
New York Yankees
Washington Senators

AL LAKES
Chicago White Sox
Cleveland Spiders
Detroit Tigers
Toronto Blue Jays

AL CENTRAL
Colorado Rockies
Kansas City Royals
Minnesota Twins
Texas Rangers

AL WEST
California Angels
Oakland Athletics
Portland Beavers
Seattle Mariners

And finally, the various transactions that have happened before my first day on the job.

• Trevor Story re-signs with the Colorado Rockies. $194m/7yrs
• Kris Bryant re-signs with the San Francisco Giants. $168m/7yrs with a team option on the last year.
• Corey Seager signs with the Houston Astros. $166m/8yrs
• Kyle Schwarber signs with the Los Angeles Dodgers. $145m/8yrs with a player option after year four.
• Brandon Crawford re-signs with the San Francisco Giants. $138/4yrs with a vesting option on the last year.
• Nolan Arenado signs with the Philadelphia Phillies. $138m/6yrs with a team option on the last year.
• Nick Castellanos signs with the Chicago Cubs. $134m/6yrs
• Marcus Semien signs with the Boston Red Sox. $119m/5yrs
• Robbie Ray signs with the Chicago Cubs. $117m/6yrs with a player option on the last year.
• Carlos Correa signs with the Chicago Cubs. $113m/6yrs
• Freddie Freeman signs with the Los Angeles Dodgers. $111m/4yrs
• Clayton Kershaw re-signs with the Los Angeles Dodgers. $103m/5yrs
• Brandon Belt signs with the Boston Red Sox. $97m/5yrs
• Javier Baez signs with the St. Louis Cardinals. $76m/4yrs
• Starling Marte signs with the Houston Astros. $72m/4yrs
• Lance Lynn signs with the Houston Astros. $70m/4yrs with a vesting option on the last year.
• AJ Pollack signs with the Chicago Cubs. $64m/5yrs with a vesting option on the last year.
• Max Scherzer signs with the Philadelphia Phillies. $44m/2yrs with a vesting option on the last year.
• Charlie Morton signs with the California Angels. $41m/3yrs
• Kyle Seager signs with the Toronto Blue Jays. $41m/4yrs
• Anthony Rizzo signs with the Atlanta Braves. $35m/3yrs
• Buster Posey re-signs with the San Francisco Giants. $34m/2yrs
• Eduardo Rodriguez signs with the Houston Astros. $24m/2yrs with a vesting option on the last year
• Eduardo Escobar signs with the St. Louis Cardinals. $20m/2yrs
• Kenley Jansen re-signs with the Los Angeles Dodgers. $16m/2yrs with a team option on the last year.
• Nelson Cruz signs with the Los Angeles Dodgers. $12m/1yr
• Craig Kimbrel signs with the Houston Astros. $12m/2yrs
• Also the Dodgers train Gavin Lux + minor leaguers to the Mets for Noah Syndergaard who signed the qualifying offer.
• The Padres trade Joe Musgrove to the Brewers in exchange for minor leaguers.
• Retirements included Albert Pujols, Robinson Cano, and Zack Greinke,
• Inductees to the Hall of Fame: Alex Rodrigeuz (99.4%), David Ortiz (78.9%), Roger Clemens (75.1%). Barry Bonds, Curt Schilling, and Sammy Sosa get dropped.
• And finally, the Cleveland Spiders are sold to new owners while the owners of the Washington Senators and Baltimore Orioles both die.

Well that's about all I've found out so far. Now, it's time for my first day as the General Manager of the Colorado Rockies.

[mrbucket]

February 1, 2022



I meet Charlie Monfort at Coors Field and he outlines his goals for my general management.



Doesn't seem too bad. Only thing pressing is getting the side up to .500 which apart from a fever dream in 2017 and 2018 they haven't be able to achieve over the last debate. Gulp?

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February 1, 2022
This is a very long day but I'm only just getting started.

So here we go through this team, position by position. Just to get a sense of where we're at. We'll start off with the catchers in the 40 man (note: my 40 man is completely full and looks like that's the case for everyone too, guess the expansion draft had a part to play in that)



Management had already put Elias Diaz on the trading block before I arrived which has completely tanked his mood. It makes sense though, the two catchers behind him are both as good defensively (or better) as Diaz and aren't too far off him offensively. Since it's a walk year for Diaz, might as well see if I can get a more positive asset.

Taking a look at our top catching prospects.



Drew Romo's glove definitely looks exciting but is obviously a while off. Max George looks to be of a pretty similar level to what we've got so could get some game time this season depending on how things shake off.

Conclusion? Probably stick with the plan to trade Diaz. His mood has already been tanked by the decision to put him on the trading block so might as well see what I can get.

[mrbucket]

February 1, 2020
Onto the First Basemen



Woop, thought the Catchers weren't looking too flash but I think First Base will need a higher priority. My good friend, Bud Black is looking to start Jake Bauers in First though I think a better spot for him would be on the bench.

Greg Bird hasn't had a positive WAR season in the bigs since 2015 and Rio Ruiz put up a 40 wRC+ over his 143 plate appearances in 2021. McMahon put a solid season at 3B in 2021 so could be an option to shift corners.

Alternatively, C.J. Cron is still on the free agent market asking for $17.5m/4yr contract.



The prospect pool not looking too promising either. The top prospect probably too much of three true outcomes player for my tastes.

Conclusion: probably looking to fill out the prospects and an actual major leaguer to take on the role. Sorry, Jake Bauers but I'm probably going to relegate you to a bench role, Bird is getting sent down to the minors.

[mrbucket]

February 1, 2022
Onto the Second Basemen and it's starting to look a lot more promising.



Brendan Rodgers looks to be a solid, though not spectacular player to build around. He picked up a 112 wRC+ with 16 home runs over 418 plate appearances in 2021 with average defense. Hey I'll take it! He's 25 and under team control until his age-28 season. I'm wondering if it's worth trying to get at extension out of him since he's due to get paid in arbitration anyway and try to lock down a couple more years?

Hampson is primarily the backup Shortstop and McMahon covering all sorts of infield positions. Don't really feel like it's worth keeping Boswell around.



No ranked second baseman prospects -- and none of them ready for the bigs anytime soon.

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February 1, 2022
Onto the Hot Corner!



So Joshua Fuentes is currently rated at about average and is under team control for a while longer so probably not a high priority to do anything about Third Base. He had a very poor 2021 though. .218/.249/.339 for a 51 wRC+ and -0.7 WAR over 67 starts/95 games total. Obviously that's not average. But I think we'll need to hope he can improve. McMahon also looks like suitable though he may be required elsewhere.



Hey! Someone ranked! Ryan Vilade projects out to be better offensively than Fuentes and he's nearly ready so definitely worth keeping an eye on.

[mrbucket]

February 1, 2022
And now for our premier player:



Trevor Story was not only not traded at the 2021 deadline but was actually given a seven year extension. This was done before my reign of terror begun, there are no team or player options but also no no-trade clause. Regardless the message is clear that Story is a player to build around.



One ranked prospect at Shortstop but his ETA isn't listed until 2025.

[mrbucket]

February 1, 2022
Final batch of hitters to look at: the outfielders.



Charlie Blackmon's All-Star days may be behind him but he's still got plenty to offer. I can't imagine a world where he doesn't take his player option so I imagine we'll have him until 2023. Can't imagine there's any trade value in him at the moment but might be next season if he performs well. (but seems a bit wrong to trade a guy who's spent his entire career with the Rockies in the final moments of his contract)

Bud Black has Blackmon in RF, Boog Powell in CF, and Sam Hillard in LF. Tapia and Hampson providing backup with Tapia getting DH duties against Left handed pitchers (reminder: the Rockies got shifted to the American League in the offseason).

If we take a punt that Blackmon is still a worthwhile starter until the end of 2023 then this collection of players probably isn't too bad. There's some more pressing issues with this team I feel.



Lots of young guys that are a long way away. Montgomery and Veen look especially promising

[mrbucket]

February 1, 2022
And the final edition of this process. Our pitchers.



I'm not too sure how to handle the Coors Field of it all with regards to our pitchers. Obviously Coors is a unique ballpark, looking at this list of pitchers it seems the previous management assembled together a group of groundball pitchers with a lot of focus on control.

It seems to make sense, I guess we need to accept that we'll give up home runs and the overarching goal of our pitchers should be to limit baserunners so that the home runs hurt less and not giving up walks seems like a good place to start. I think???

Anyway, our rotation is all pretty young and we've got a lot of control years upcoming. So gotta feel alright about this.



Now, important note is that I've included everyone currently on our 40 man roster so obviously we'll have to do some extensive culling to get it down a 26 man roster. There's some equivalent arms down in AAA as well.

But overall: pretty young, lots of team control. The groundballer with high control theme from the starting rotation doesn't seem to have translated here.

Also note: Scott Oberg is still 2-3 months out from returning from his elbow injury.



And the prospects. Nearly all them at least a couple years away from an MLB field and interestingly, none of them really fitting the theme of groundballer with high control that I got from the starting rotation. Maybe that was all a happy coincidence? Gosh, I really have no idea how I should deal with Coors.

[mrbucket]

February 1, 2022
So, after going through our rosters and prospects. Where do we need to go? Big Boss Manfort wants a .500 team so I think we need some more offense at First Base and DH as the number one priority. Upgrades at Catcher and in the Outfield would be nice as well. Pitching is also never a bad idea to get more of.

So what's out there?

Manfort has given me $34m for free agents. A lot have been already been snapped up and looking at what's our there seems a bit bleak.

Let's start with First Base
C.J. Cron is rated as the best First Baseman available but I've been told by my sources that he will be "extremely hard" to sign. Guess he didn't depart on the best of terms.

Matt Duffy is a 31 year old Third Baseman with high contact abilities but not much pop available for around $3.6m. Could certainly shift McMahon over to First. Sticking to Third Base, Kaleb Cowart hasn't been seen at an MLB level since he put up a 18 wRC+ over 9 games in 2019 with the Angels but our scouts reckon he's an average MLB hitter with a great arm and plus speeds on the basepaths. He's 29 and asking for $3.6m

Some other options could be the trading block: the Cubs are looking to deal Patrick Wisdom -- a pure three true outcomes kind of guy -- that is still under team control. The Royals Hanser Alberto is also on the trading block, he'll be a free agent next season but offers super high contact but zero power or plate discipline. The Mets are also looking to flip Jose Martinez who offers up some pretty good ratings against left handed pitchers so could offer an interesting platoon.