Nabo48 - 2043 and beyond ...

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September saw a lot of platoon lineups with the additional callups.

Sarver continued to hit well despite moving to CF to fill in for the injured Horsfall. Sutton sat the bench half of the month, and every game vs LHP. He did pick up the pace, but was out produced by Cohen (FA after 2050 season). Maxwell turned in a stinker of a month, following his player of the month award.



Cardenas had another productive, all-star caliber season. Regression across the board, following his 60 2B season, but still very productive.

Maxwell was a batting god after being acquired by Mesa. He was performing similarly with his old team, but they were not playing him.

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Playoff format seemed to work really well this year. Weren't any weak playoff teams, and the bye round seemed to really give the top 2 teams an advantage, which is the entire point of the bye round.

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It's been a very busy offseason for Mesa. With looking to upgrade where they can, trim salary space, and accumulate as many draft picks as they can, or move up in the draft, to go all in on the 2051 amateur draft. As with a game of dominos, every move seemed to trigger another move as the Monsters GM tried to balance budget and depth.

With 1B JJ Sutton experience a drop in production, the team moves to find alternatives to increase their overall production.

The transactions are listed in chronological order.

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These moves are really just cleaning up the 40-Man roster, trading players that are decent enough to be on some team's ML or 40M roster, but have no place in Mesa. The main goal is to pick up 1st-3rd round picks here and there, or try to swap picks to move up.

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This move was to find a starting RF for the next few seasons. I just kept adding different players until I found the right combination that they'd say yes to. Oettinger is a pretty good OF prospect, not sure why Tampa moved him to 1B.

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4 players leaving in free agency. Martinez had a nice year, but wanted too much in an extension given that we acquired an upgrade and have good prospects coming up.

Peters was a TD deal just for SP insurance. He also was not looking to sign for team-friendly contract, so he can test the market.

I really like Acevedo, but his production and contract demands did not match. Had he been more reasonable, I would have resigned him and not traded for a RF.

Willey is a good player, but Sarver is in LF with a big contract that I can't get rid of (traded for him to get out of Nelson Gonzales's contract extension, so still an upgrade), and he's not a good enough defender to play RF, and I'm chocked full of 1B/DH types. He was valuable for Mesa down the stretch when Sutton faltered and Maxwell was tearing the cover of the ball.

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Keith Gonzales is a good value sign, and a quality placeholder as a backup. He plays multiple positions and can swing it a little. Also allows me to trade similar players that are making more money.

Luis Maldanado, the reigning MVP (Eastern League) ... not sure where to begin here. Some years ago I looked into signing him as I saw this 80 OVR in FA with nobody signing him. I kept digging and saw that he was a 2-way player, racking up like 6 WAR as a player and 3 WAR more as a pitcher. THEN, I saw that his health was "wrecked", so I did not sign him, but I tried like heck for 20M/y .... he signed with Mile High and among other teams has since won 2 MVPs ... so I don't know how much the health thing means. I offered him what I thought was a super low-ball offer, thinking other teams would jump in and drive the price to a ridiculous level .... but they didn't and he accepted the offer (2y, 13M AAV) .... and then I had to scramble to find a spot for him because I just traded for the RF I thought would start, Sutton is at 1B, and Maxwell at DH. SO, I figured I'd start Luis in RF and have Aidan be the 4th OF, playing all 3 positions. Or if/when Sutton/Maxwell slump, he can DH and the other new guy can play RF. Not only was I interested in him as a player, but his huge popularity would increase fan interest .... and it did ... like 10 points.



Douglas is simply a cheap 1y starter. When I brought up an extension, he wants big money.

Flores is another 1y contract for a starter while 2 big 3B prospects develop (although one may be moved to 2B, to gain experience there). When I talked about an extension, he was very reasonable, and it looks like a 4y deal may be possible, allowing him to be my utility infielder going forward ... instead of having to have backups at 2B, 3B, and SS.

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Just another move to move some players and money around, and increase draft picks/spots.

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A couple of more moves, dealing from a surplus to increase draft picks/spots.

Had I been able to trade 1B JJ Sutton, even at a loss (He invokes his 10/5 rights), Cohen would have been my starting 1B heading into the offseason. Well, pretty much everything has changed, and given that I have a 1B prospect that is ML ready, there's no room for him.

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A couple more moves, same old strategy of trying to find quality while adding/moving draft picks.

At the time of the Vasquez trade, I did not realize that he was the West Reliever of the Year (probably going to get a big pay bump in arbitration), all I saw was a quality reliever with a high stamina, and thought it would be cool to make him a SP, and see how effective that possible strategy could be (because there are quality relievers available in FA all the time, that might be effective starters). Oh well, it adds a storyline whether it's successful or not. Worst case scenario is I end up with a highly paid closer/stopper. The "Reliever of the Year" thing isn't too big of a deal. Mesa had one of those (Josh Buckley) and it did not take long for him to turn into "Gas Can of the year", but still wanted big closer money.

That's it ... no more moves. FAR more moves than I anticipated. The only things I wanted to do this offseason were get a RF starter for the next 2-3 seasons, and make 40-Man moves to get draft picks. It turned into a whirlwind rather quickly, as I kept collecting 2B's and LF's.

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Mesa "wins" the off-season, adding 14 WAR to the team, highest of any team in the offseason.

Now, let's hope the don't "Mets" during the regular season.

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One thing I've tried to do is to look at my entire organization by position, primarily to plan for the draft and make sure I'm drafting, in part, for team needs instead of just taking the best player available. As a side note, I've started to focus on college players rather than taking the 80 POT high school players, who rarely seem to pan out as expected ... unless you can get that top 5 pick or so. I think many are aware of this, I'm a little late to the party on that one.

CATCHERS



Medina is a league average starter, or close to hit, and Medina is a competent backup. But, after that there's not a lot of prospects in the system. With a handful of 1st and 2nd round picks this year, finding a future starter at catcher is a priority.

1st BASEMEN



1B used to be a strength of the franchise. Sutton, 2 seasons removed from MVP, has declined rapidly. He still hits enough HR to rack up RBI, but the increasing strikeouts and severe drop in BA, make him of limited value ... considering the expectations of the position. Maxwell, generally the DH, will likely see a lot of time at 1B as Sutton has played himself out of playing time.

Sinnot is a legit 1B prospect, just one year out of the draft, he's produced and developed as expected. With Maldando signing and playing DH, with Maxwell taking up time at 1B, the franchise has some serious questions as to what to do with Sinnot. Juan Cardona is another solid 1B piece, under team control, but without playing time at the ML level.

2nd BASEMEN



Douglas is a solid, average starting 2B, but he's only a 1y stop gap or transition player until the team prospects Erdman (almost said Tommy Edman instead of Tom Erdman) or Johnson a shot at starting. After those 2 there is not a lot of depth further down in the system.

3rd BASEMEN

Flores is the starter for this season, but the future plan is to have him be the super utility infielder, getting playing time at all IF positions except 1B. Urbon has showed some signs of competence, but the strikeouts combined with the lower BA have been too much even with his decent gap and power. Dan Miller was viewed as the future 3B of the franchise, but has not continued to develop at the pace he has established. Bryan shows some potential, but at 19, he's more likely to run into obstacles than launch his potential even higher. For now, the team seems content with their present and future options.

SHORTOPS



Cardenas is the shortstop of the present and future. The 2047 ROY and 3x All-Star is signed for 5 more seasons. Vasquez is a solid prospect and even though he may never replace Cardenas as the starter, he should make the ML team in the next season, backing up SS, and possibly starting at 2B if the other 2B prospects don't take command of the position. SS is a position of priority in the upcoming draft.

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LEFT FIELDERS



Sarver is set as the starting LF, and his contract makes him essentially untradeable. At age 30 and with him under contract for 2 more seasons after this one, he looks as though he should remain highly productive, even with a 35M/y contract. Martinez is a 1y back up at both corner positions and then next season Taub should get the call to fill in the same role as Martinez, before taking over for Sarver once his contract is up. After that, Dennis appears to be a legit high end prospect at either corner position, if he continues to develop.

CENTER FIELDERS



Horsfall does not impress with his bat, but his outstanding defense and baserunning allow him to produce enough to best around league average. Bill flores looks to be a solid prospect and perhaps the future starter. If an elite CF prospect is available in the draft, Mesa will select him.

RIGHT FIELDERS



Maldanado's age, injury history, and poor defense translates into him being the full-time DH .... leaving the position to be grabbed by Aidan Charles if he can prove himself capable at the ML level. Charles appears to have the pop, the eye, and the defense to be better than league average as a starter. After that it's pretty lean until you get to Da Silva in A ball.