Worst to First - The Sequel

[NYY #23]

Prior to free agents filing we agreed to terms with impending free agent Melvin Gross on a two year $5.2 million contract. Gross was 3-2 with 3 saves and a 2.79 ERA in 51 2/3 innings this season.

Around the league Joe Kaiser of the Indians captured the AL batting title this season while hitting .350. In the National League it was Martin Castro of the Cubs, a 26 year old right fielder who hit .364.

The Rookie of the Year Awards went to SS Christian Lee of the Yankees (.337, 3 HR, 59 RBI, 70 runs scored) and Robert Eichele of the Giants (.266, 27 HR, 88 RBI, 72 runs scored).

Troy Raymer of the Yankees captured the AL Cy Young after going 19-6 with a 2.46 ERA in 234 1/3 innings, with Felix Sapiens of the Giants winning the NL Cy Young after going 17-7 with a 2.49 ERA in 202 1/3 innings.

Joe Kaiser of the Indians won the MVP with a .350 batting average, 34 home runs, 93 RBI, and 95 runs scored as a 26 year old first baseman. In the National League it was Martin Castro of the Cubs who hit .364 with 32 home runs, 86 RBI, and 120 runs scored.

As for the Breakers we will be looking to upgrade at third base and the outfield this offseason while keeping our eye out for a potential fifth starter and backup catcher.

[NYY #23]

Heading in to this offseason I wasn't sure what approach I wanted to take. Do we have the core in place that would benefit from the addition of one or two players, or do we need to make some drastic changes?

After being disappointed in year 2 I still like parts of this team, and in the end I felt like it was worthwhile to salvage what we could. I'm hoping that bringing in Anthony Newman will give us some stability on offense, because I felt like we missed Greg Deen quite a bit last season. With Cano under contract for just two more seasons, unless he gets injured this season and misses his vesting option the timing is right.

Plus we have our former #1 overall selection knocking at the door in AAA, with SP Logan Cameron looking ready to join the rotation sometime this year if needed.

So our first big deal of the offseason was bringing in a guy who has one championships in both Minnesota and Seattle with me, 3B Brett Lawrie on a one year $7.5 million contract. Lawrie is coming off a year in which he hit .283 with 12 home runs, 57 RBI, and scored 76 runs for 2.9 WAR. He's not the 6-8 win player he once was, but I think he'll make our lineup quite a bit better.

We also brought aboard 26 year old right fielder David Lucas on a 3 year $19 million contract. The final year is a player option. Lucas hit .241 last year with 28 home runs, 83 RBI, and 65 runs scored for 2.0 WAR. He should add some pop to our lineup and man right field.

Our other move was to turn back to Taiwan and bring in pitcher Keung Choe on a one year $900K contract. Rating wise he's very similar to Shiu, so if we can catch lightning in a bottle again and bring in a 3.6 WAR pitcher on a minimal contract I'm willing to take that chance.

Then finally we offered a similar one year $900K contract to South Korean starting pitcher Myeong-hun Yu. He's another low risk, high reward signing that we'll give a shot.

That should be it for Carolina's offseason. Another one of my former players was in the news though, when Gary Lowe signed a 6 year $114 million contract with the Reds, leaving the Mariners as a free agent.

[NYY #23]

As we head into Opening Day the Breakers made a trade to get our active roster down. We traded SP Terry Crawford, SP Javier Martinez, and 2B Don McBean, all of whom were out of options, to the Yankees in exchange for 38 year old reliever Aroldis Chapman and SP prospect Greg Bower, plus catching prospect Ron Dyer.

Unfortunately we have too many AAAA players on the roster, but we were able to swap them out for a couple of future AAA players and Chapman.

[NYY #23]

The Breakers had a good start to the season with a 16-6 record. We've managed to start the year better than last season, despite several injuries. Perhaps the biggest blow was losing Yue-rong Shiu for the next seven weeks, so we'll insert Keung Choe into the rotation after he started the year 2-0 with a 2.01 ERA in 22 1/3 innings in AAA.

In news around the league Eric William of the Rockies hit the 300th home run of his career this month, and former Breaker Greg Deen went down with injury and will miss the next month.

Batter of the Month Awards

Randy Paulin, NYY - .400, 5 HR, 26 RBI, 16 R
Anthony Martin, MON - .375, 7 HR, 17 RBI, 19 R

Pitcher of the Month Awards

Kim Simmons, TEX - 4-0, 1.49, 36 1/3 IP, 34 K
Manuel Moya, LAD - 4-0, 1.40, 38 2/3 IP, 33 K

[NYY #23]

The Breakers had another winning month in May going 17-11 to take a 3 1/2 game lead over the Rangers in the AL South. I feel good about the way the team is playing, and we've been playing without Brett Lawrie for most of the season after he returned from an injury only to go out with another injury just two days later.

Our pitching has been carrying us though, with Vicente Cano pitching like an ace, going 5-0 with a 1.28 ERA in May. For Cano health is the key this year as his option vests with 200 innings pitched, which should be more than attainable if he stays healthy.

Keung Choe has been a nice surprise at the back of the rotation going 5-1 with a 2.98 ERA while filling in for the injured Shiu.

Around the league one name has been catching my attention this month, Wilfred Small of the Diamondbacks, who struck out 16 in back to back starts this month. Last year as a rookie Small struck out 193 batters in 133 innings, and this season as a 23 year old Small has struck out 114 in just 64 innings. Small certainly looks to be the real deal.

Jay Bell of the Phillies pitched the first no-hitter of the season in a 2-0 win over the Mets this month.

Batter of the Month Awards

John Kelly, KC - .312, 14 HR, 40 RBI, 24 R
Martin Castro, CHN - .446, 7 HR, 26 RBI, 18 R

Pitcher of the Month Awards

Troy Raymer, NYY - 6-0, 1.25, 43 1/3 IP, 45 K
Reggie Dominguez, NYM - 4-0, 1.26, 43 IP, 25 K

[NYY #23]

The Breakers started the month 8-6 and saw our lead slip over the Rangers to 2 1/2 games. Injuries are once again becoming a concern, with Cory Keys (.301, 2 HR, 12 RBI), Mario Martinez (.372, 5 HR, 23 RBI), and Luis Perez (.235, 5 HR, 19 RBI) hitting the disabled list, and Brett Lawrie having a setback.

With the injuries mounting we recalled our top prospect Logan Cameron, who lost his major league debut. We really need another bat, but I don't have any good options, and Cameron looks like he was ready for a promotion, so it was time for him to join our rotation.

The Breakers were drafting 12th overall in the amateur draft, and selected 21 year old shortstop Ken Blake with our first round pick. In the second round we drafted 17 year old shortstop Jim Davis, with starting pitcher Pedro Galvan, starting pitcher Leopold Blaise, and starting pitcher Randall Campbell in the fifth round.

[NYY #23]

What a difference a month makes. After two winning months the Breakers finished 12-15 and have fallen to second place, two games behind the Texas Rangers.

After a decent start Aroldis Chapman has been declining steadily, and the Breakers decided to part ways with Chapman and released him from his contract. We wish him well if he chooses to join another team, but he's been struggling too much to let him take a spot in the bullpen.

Batter of the Month Awards

Miguel Vasquez, NYY - .337, 7 HR, 20 RBI, 23 R
Zachary Thompson, PIT - .333, 12 HR, 27 RBI, 25 R

Pitcher of the Month Awards

Troy Raymer, NYY - 5-1, 0.97, 46 1/3 IP, 45 K
Jesse James, NYM - 5-0, 1.13, 39 2/3 IP, 19 K

[illeracula]

Cano is having a beast of a season. One of those other starters needs to step it up and pick up the slack to make up those 2 games... Lets go Breakers!

[NYY #23]

Originally Posted by illeracula

Cano is having a beast of a season. One of those other starters needs to step it up and pick up the slack to make up those 2 games... Lets go Breakers!

Thanks! Cano was really having a great season. I use was because of what's coming next. I thought this was going to be the year, but I'm starting to feel like we lost our direction.

[NYY #23]

After going 12-15 in June the Breakers did even worse in July by going 10-17. Our hot start to the season is a distant memory, and the Breakers now sit in third place, 7 1/2 games out of first place. Let's take a look at some of our pitching splits for the month of July -

Vicente Cano: 0-5, 5.97 ERA
Yue-rong Shiu: 2-2, 5.40
Ramon Rocha: 1-3, 10.13
Ralph Johnson: 2-1, 6.23
Gordon Sanchez: 2-1, 6.57

That's just our starts, by Melvin Gross (5.40) and Victor Flores (9.72) are a couple of examples from our bullpen. During a month where up to four members of our lineup were out we suddenly forgot how to pitch. Not only did we lose, but we lost ugly, 19-17, 12-4, 16-5, 9-2, 12-7. My faith in our team right now is almost non-existent.

We did send a trio of players to the All-Star team - Cano, Flores, and Meqwran Mukuru. Cano picked up the win (his only win of the month) in a hitless inning, and Mukuru was 2-4 with 2 RBI.

In news around the league Terry Rice of the Phillies pitched a no-hitter in July, Scotty Bodhe of the Rays struck out 16 batters in a 8-0 win over the Orioles, Dean Richmond of the Orioles hit the 300th home run of his career, and Chris Fullerton of the Marlins hit for the cycle in a 12-7 win over the Braves.

[Trebro]

going to try any waiver trades to reload, or just chalk it up to bad injuries and fire the training coach?

[illeracula]

Originally Posted by NYY #23

Vicente Cano: 0-5, 5.97 ERA
Yue-rong Shiu: 2-2, 5.40
Ramon Rocha: 1-3, 10.13
Ralph Johnson: 2-1, 6.23
Gordon Sanchez: 2-1, 6.57

Sorry if I jinx'ed you... yikes...

[ShagVT]

Congratulations on reaching 100 pages in this thread! Insane!

[NYY #23]

Originally Posted by Trebro

going to try any waiver trades to reload, or just chalk it up to bad injuries and fire the training coach?

I always seem to have difficulty getting a waiver trade to go through. But depending on how things go at the start of the month I may try and see what I can do.

I don't know if I can chalk it up to injuries anymore. I'm feeling like we've got some real holes, and may need to shake things up this offseason. I think our inconsistency frustrates me the most. Maybe that's just me not having a clear plan with the Breakers.

[NYY #23]

Originally Posted by illeracula

Sorry if I jinx'ed you... yikes...

I really can't remember too many bad months that Cano has had, but I think he was due for a bad month. It was just a month where everything went wrong, and hopefully we'll bounce back. I haven't lost faith in yet, at least in Cano.

[NYY #23]

Originally Posted by ShagVT

Congratulations on reaching 100 pages in this thread! Insane!

Thank you! I guess on some level I noticed this thread has reached 100 pages, but only in passing. Looking back, I started this almost three years ago, and the original five years ago. That's a pretty long time with this concept.

There is definitely a part of me that would love to wrap this up soon, and another part of me that's still enjoying this. The more fictional things get the more challenging things seem to get. I'm definitely guilty of moving slowly occasionally, but I guess a good goal would be to wrap this up in version 16.

[rjl518]

i can only hope my dynastys get as far as you and George Bell's

[NYY #23]

Originally Posted by rjl518

i can only hope my dynastys get as far as you and George Bell's

I've got faith that you can do it.

[NYY #23]

At a minimum the Breakers returned to winning in August and finished with a 15-13 record. That's not a wonderful accomplishment, but I'll take it after two losing months.

There were a couple of highlights on the field in August, the return of Logan Cameron, the former #1 overall pick, who had a three start audition in June and went 0-2 with a 12.66 ERA. His first start back was a 8 inning two hitter where he struck out 13 to earn his first Major League win. He earned his second win with another dominating 8 inning performance against the Yankees where he allowed just 1 run in 8 innings. He needs to show a little more consistency, but at 23 years old I'll take it.

Vicente Cano also passed the 200 inning mark this month, with a 4-1 month, which is significant because that was the magic number for his $24 million option to vest. Pricy, but he's been worth it in my opinion. I'd love to extend him, but he's currently asking for $30 million per year for his age 35-42 seasons. I know he's a knuckleballers, and I love having pitch on my team, but I do hope to be away from Carolina, and even I'm not that crazy to give him that much.

The Breakers also completed a trade involving Ramon Rocha in exchange for a third baseman and a prospect, but we weren't able to pass him through waivers. We'll investigate a trade in the offseason and see if we can find a comparable package.

Around the League

• Ryan Cook of the Rangers earned the 300th save of his career
• Bryce Daniel of the Astros picked up the 2000th hit of his career
• Ernesto Rodriguez of the Reds hit his 300th career home run
• Bill Glendenning of the Mariners hit .309 with 7 home runs, 17 RBI, and 22 runs scored to earn AL Batter of the Month
• NL Batter of the Month went to Chris MacKinley of the Pittsburgh Pirates who hit .320 with 10 home runs, 31 RBI, and 16 runs scored
• Howard Brown of the Astros (2-0, 1.15 ERA, 11 saves) and Bernie Brown of the Rockies (5-1, 1.12 ERA) earned Pitcher of the Month honors

[NYY #23]

After such a promising start to the season the Breakers finished September with a 13-13 record and have been eliminated from the postseason. After making the playoffs in year one it's been a disappointing couple of season in Carolina.

It looks like it's back to the drawing board this offseason for the Breakers as we try and get over the hump. We'll have some tough decisions to make too, with little budget room, and a projected jump in arbitration that will be higher than our expiring contracts.