1994 and beyond - a what "if" dynasty

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We got the guy we wanted and hope Hideo Nomo is going to improve our rotation a lot (if he signs). The only other Top 5 team picking a "historical" player were the Cardinals (Brian S Giles):

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Interestingly most teams with high picks stayed away from drafting "historical" players. The following were drafted in the 1st round in addition to Nomo (2nd) and Giles (5th):

Boston Jason Giambi (11th)
Minnesota Jorge Posada (12th)
California Phil Nevin (15th)
Toronto Mariano Rivera (20th)
Yankees Mike Sweeney (22nd)
Cleveland Jason Schmidt (25th)
Atlanta Alan Benes (26th)

Our picks for the rounds 2 to 6:
SP Carlos Perez (30th): becomes our No 2 starter if he signs
SP Andy Pettitte (58th): becomes our No 2 or No 3 starter is he signs
MR Antonio Osuna (86th) becomes our setup man or closer if he signs
CF Shannon Stewart (114th) becomes our starting CF if he signs which seems "impossible"
SP Felipe Lira (142nd) becomes our No 4 starter if he signs.

If all these starting pitchers sign, our rotation should turn from horrible to decent.

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More awards, but no surprises here!

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Albert Belle and Triple Crown Winner Jeff Bagwell get these awards!

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Here are the remaining picks in the later rounds.

As expected Shannon Stewart did not sign, leaving a glaring hole in CF. All the other top pics signed, while 4th round pick Antonio Osuna is still undecided.

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Minor leaguers Jorge Campos, Gabriel Rodríguez, Mark Phillips, Danny Cunningham and Jesse Orosco left the organization.

In addition big leaguers
OF Gerald Young
CF Darryl Hamilton
MR Scott Bankhead
RF Tom Brunansky
MR Bob Scanlan
IF Bill Spiers
MR Mike Timlin
became free agents.

We lost the arbitration cases with the three most expensive candidates
SS Jose Valentin ($954,000)
LF/1B Jeff Conine ($2,227,750)
SP Mike Birkbeck ($1,375,000),
while we won all other (minor) arbitration hearings.

In free agent class offers a fair number of superstars and we are rumoured to bid for at least one of them.
In general we are in need of
- an every day CF
- maybe another SP
- a backup IF
- maybe a 3B to challenge Cirillo
- a 4th OF that is good enough to play every day in case of injury

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The first three big players are off the board and Houston becomes the big favourite to repeat the World Series champion after signing Barry Bonds (4 years, $17,200,000). Starting pitchers Danny Jackson head to San Francisco (4 years, $15,680,000) and Roger Clemens signs with the Dodgers (4 years, $14,960,000).

We signed speedy CF Chuck Carr (2 years, $1,200,000) and versatile IF Spike Owen (2 years, $1,320,000).

Up next - Rule V Draft

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The sensation is perfect. We managed to sign free agent and AL Cy Young winner Randy Johnson on a 3-year deal worth $15,150,000. That's a lot of money for the Brewers, but we didn't have to go beyond three years and our pitching staff looks suddenly quite formidable. Our old ace Mike Birkbeck is the No 5 starter right now and only three members of the old bullpen seem to return.
We lost Sean Blanton our old No 2 off waivers to Baltimore, but he would not have made the active roster anyway.

SP Curt Schilling (Reds), 3B Bobby Bonilla (Padres) and SP Erik Hansen (Dodgers) signed all huge free agent deals.

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Our maybe final free agent signing this offseason (over the budget now!) is CF Stan Javier. He might not be the uber-Centerfielder some fans wanted, but he should be a tad better than Darryl Hamilton is every aspect - for the same wage Hamilton demanded.

In addition we can cross off
C Matt Nokes (Kansas City)
SP Jack McDowell (Cincinnati)
SP John Smoltz (Cleveland)
3B Craig Shipley (California)
from the free agent list.

At moment a number of free agents seem to struggle to find new teams- Result of the salary cap?

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Even if most free agents lowered their demands a huge numbers of them is still unemployed. Maybe some of them are heading to the new Mexican Baseball League?

Going into Spring Training we seem to have a much improved pitching staff, while the lineup seems to be quite average - according to the media.

At the moment we are bidding for another (cheap) bat and are on the outlook for decent waiver claims - or minor league contract additions.

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Finally the long off-season is over and soon it's time to play ball again. Due to salary cap and many "big league ready" rookies, there's still a number of big free agents unemployed.
Most notably
RF Gary Sheffield
MR Chris Bosio
1B Wally Joiner
MR Santiago Montoya
3B Tony Phillips
2B Randy Ready

Also our former players
RF Tom Brunansky
OF Gerald Young
MR Scott Bankhead
MR Bob Scanlan
2B Bill Spiers
couldn't find new teams yet.

CF Darryl Hamilton signed a minor league deal with Detroit and MR Mike Timlin moved to Mexico.

We also lost out former "ace" Mike Birkbeck to Cincinnati. I really liked Mike, but it's no shame to lose his $1,375,000 contract. CF Chuck Carr is going to miss opening day, but should come off the DL in early April.

One team really went all inn during off-season. The reigning World Series champion Houston Astros added the bats of Barry Bonds, Jose Canseco and Paul Molitor, while they had Triple Crown winner Jeff Bagwell from before. They are predicted to win 107 games, while we are predicted to be the most improved team in the NL. It has to be seen if the "pitching wins" formula is true...

The owner has once again no expectations, even if he was close to sacking me last season. My goal is to content as long as possible and build on the strong rotation.

Our minor league system dropped from 4th to 11th during off-season, but I can't really see why.
The top prospects are all potential starting pitchers, with top prospect and minor league free agent signing Andy Nelson the lone exception.

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Opening Day against Cincinnati is almost here and the 1995 Milwaukee Brewers are ready to go. Backup catcher Tony Eusebio was a late waiver claim from Houston and the missing place in CF will be filled by Chuck Carr once he's healthy again.

As Darryl Hamilton left the team, which player I should focus on this season?

Starting Rotation:
Randy D Johnson (free agent from Seattle)
Hideo Nomo (1st round draft pick)
Andy Pettitte (3rd round draft pick)
Carlos Perez (2nd round draft pick)
Felipe Lira (6th round draft pick)

Bullpen:
Doug Bochtler (14th round draft pick)
Paul Byrd (9th round draft pick)
Tim Crabtree (7th round draft pick)
Graeme Lloyd (returning from 1994)
Mike Myers (8th round draft pick)
Antonio Osuna (4th round draft pick)
Mike Fetters (returning from 1994)

Catchers:
Rick Wrona (returning from 1994)
Tony Eusebio (waiver claim from Houston)

Infielders:
Jeff Conine (returning from 1994)
Kevin Seitzer (returning from 1994)
B J Surhoff (returning from 1994)
Spike Owen (free agent signing from California)
Jody Reed (returning from 1994)
Jeff Cirillo (returning from 1994)
Jose Valentin (returning from 1994)

Outfielders:
Chris James (free agent from Toronto)
Troy O'Leary (returning from 1994)
Stav Javier (free agent from Oakland)
Dave Nilsson (returning from 1994)

Only two pitchers from the disastrous 1994 pitching crew are returning...

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Even if we still didn't figure out the http://www.ootpdevelopments.com/boar...contracts.html
problem, we were thrilled about Opening Day.

Cincinnati was in control of our division until the last week of last season and they added two very good pitchers with Schilling and McDowell who would duel Randy Johnson.

The game was pretty much a pitchers duel as expected, but in the end we won it. Of course we expected certain things from Johnson (only run came through a single shot), but also the bullpen could hold on the lead.

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Brewers record 5-3 (2 GB behind the Pirates and Cardinals)

Brewers record last week: 4-3

Power Rankings: 9th (27th)

We started the season with four wins in a row and a sweep at Cincinnati. We gave up combined three runs during that stretch. We came down to earth after a couple of very shaky starts by Nomo and Pettitte. We already hit 12 home runs and things look pretty positive right now nevertheless.

Some late free agent signings:
RF Gary Sheffield, Seattle
3B Tony Phillips, Toronto
LF Kevin McReynolds, Kansas City

Dave Nilsson watch:
.387/.375/.806 - 3 HR, 8 RBI, 0.7 WAR
This season we are going to focus on our young Australian RF here.

Brewers transactions:
CF Chuck Carr was recalled from the DL
C Tony Eusebio (.250, 0 HR, 1 RBI) was DFAed and placed on waivers

Players of the Week:
AL - Jeff Bagwell, Houston
NL - David Justice, Atlanta

Notable injuries:
RP Tom Browning, Cincinnati - 0-0, 0.00 ERA - Out for 5 months

Accomplishments:
n/a

Impressive Game Performances:
n/a

Big contract extensions:
n/a

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Brewers record 9-5 (2 GB behind the Cardinals)

Brewers record last week: 4-2

Power Rankings: 9th (9th)

We are a streaky team this season so far:
W4
L1
W1
L4
W4
Nevertheless we seem to be much improved, of course it's still early but right now we do not rank worse than 7th in any team stats. Especially pitching is like day and night compared to last season. Randy Johnson threw a 5-hit shutout again the Dodgers, while rookie Carlos Perez has an ERA of 0.87. On the side of the team RF Dave Nilsson has an active 11 game hitting streak and is leading the league in some categories.

Dave Nilsson watch:
.444/.466/.778 - 4 HR, 12 RBI, 1.3 WAR
Totally my type of player, contact + gap power + some home run power

Brewers transactions:
C Tony Eusebio cleared waivers and was assigned to AAA New Orleans

Players of the Week:
AL - Ivan Rodriguez, Texas
NL - Mark Whiten, St. Louis

Notable injuries:
n/a

Accomplishments:
n/a

Impressive Game Performances:
n/a

Big contract extensions:
n/a