Worst to First - The Sequel

[NYY #23]

While May was better than April our record was only 13-16 for the month. We continue to take one step forward and two steps back. Martin Castro returned from the disabled list, and we lost starting pitchers Vicente Cano and Ricardo Medrano.

Looking at the power rankings:



And the minor league rankings:



I've come to the conclusion that it's time to tear down and rebuild in Carolina. The allure of a quick finish set up down a certain path, and I'm not sure it was the right path. I built the team the wrong way, and I think I made some bad moves along the way. I think it's certainly fair to label my tenure in Carolina as a failure.

I expect the flood gates to open shortly, and Carolina to become active on the trade front.

[mirrf]

Originally Posted by NYY #23

I've come to the conclusion that it's time to tear down and rebuild in Carolina. The allure of a quick finish set up down a certain path, and I'm not sure it was the right path. I built the team the wrong way, and I think I made some bad moves along the way. I think it's certainly fair to label my tenure in Carolina as a failure.

It's bound to happen. You played with so many teams and made so many great moves that odds are you had to screw something up sometime. It happens to everyone. But good luck with the rebuild.

[NYY #23]

Originally Posted by mirrf

It's bound to happen. You played with so many teams and made so many great moves that odds are you had to screw something up sometime. It happens to everyone. But good luck with the rebuild.

Thanks for the words of encouragement. I guess looking back at how things started objectively I probably deserved this one. I took a bet on building to an expansion team winning now, instead of building a team the right way. I have already finished June and while painful feel like I made some moves I had to. Those moves combined with the upcoming move to OOTP 16 has me excited at least.

[NYY #23]

The anatomy of a trade can be a funny thing. The day began with a tentative trade of SS William Arthur to the Arizona Diamondbacks, and ended with a trade of 31 year old CF De-wei Si-ma, 30 year old catcher Jorge Garcia, and 23 year old minor league SP Richard Carruth to the Cincinnati Reds. While Carruth is currently a starting pitcher, I don't think he'll last as a starter in the majors.

Si-ma is the big name moving, and has five years remaining on his 7 year $140 million contract. After hitting .285 with 26 home runs, 25 stolen bases, and 89 RBI during his first year in the majors he's cooled off and went from 5.8 WAR to 1.5 WAR last season. He's our most popular player, and I didn't think he was tradable. Clearing almost $14 million in salary this year, plus our future obligations was worth making the move.

We got a couple of nice prospects in return, 24 year old catcher Roberto Contreras and 22 year old 3B Juan Mendoza. They'll stay in AAA for now, and we'll keep looking for the right deal. While William Arthur is safe for now, he shouldn't get too comfortable in Carolina.

[NYY #23]

The Breakers are officially taking a page out of the Florida Marlins playbook, after completing our second major trade in two days, once again with the intent of shedding payroll.

Going to the Seattle Mariners are 3B Meqwran Mukuru, SS William Arthur, and LF Martin Castro. Three of our best, and highest paid players. Coming back to Carolina are starting pitcher prospects Eric Wilder and Taylor Rogers, along with CF prospect Ramon Feliz and 1B/DH prospect Emilio Horne.

Our budget drops another $18 million this year, and we add some much needed prospects to the organization. Our payroll has dropped to $47 million this year and is projected to be just under $52 million next season. We have now traded our three most popular players within two days, so the fans are not happy. If we are going to lose we are going to lose cheaper though.

[NYY #23]

26 year old 1B Joe Smith probably never has more value than right now. He's hitting .364 with 14 home runs and 3.8 WAR while making the major league minimum. He's going to be arbitration eligible next season and will get expensive quick. I wanted to take advantage of that trade value, and try and land an ace of the future. 20 year old starting pitcher Jose Ruiz was the fourth player that we checked in on, and we were able to make a deal with the Rays to land him.

Going to Tampa is Smith, along with three prospects - LF Paul Knapp, 3B Al Wilson, and SS Jim Davis. I don't want to call any of them flawed prospects, but we have prospects at their positions that I'm more comfortable with, because I would rate them all as average defensively at best.

Coming back to Carolina along with Ruiz was 22 year old pitching prospect Tim Rogers, and 33 year old second baseman Brian Moore. Moore is signed through next season at $7 million per year, and is hitting .325 this year. He's a popular player, and I needed to take on some salary to complete the deal. He's a nice piece, but anybody other than Ruiz was just a bonus.

We hope that Ruiz, and our number one draft pick, 20 year old SP Phil Clark will arrive in the majors shortly. We went with pitching in the second round, hoping we can convince SP Matt Moore to sign with us, despite being a long shot. We selected another SP in the third round, Walt Bachman. The trend continued with fourth round pick Taylor Whaley with catcher Joe O'Brian our fifth round pick.

[rjl518]

Originally Posted by NYY #23

The Breakers are officially taking a page out of the Florida Marlins playbook, after completing our second major trade in two days, once again with the intent of shedding payroll.

okay...why is it that when any team has a fire sale...they always call it one-hour Marlinizing?

May i may remind people that my Marlins DID win the world series 6 years later after the 1998 sale of the century?

[NYY #23]

Originally Posted by rjl518

okay...why is it that when any team has a fire sale...they always call it one-hour Marlinizing?

May i may remind people that my Marlins DID win the world series 6 years later after the 1998 sale of the century?

The Marlins are an easy target, and probably well deserved. I lived in South Florida during the Huizenga years and it was painful to watch. They could have built on that championship, but decided to tear it all down.

It's definitely a shame, and Marlins fans deserve better. Of course, I've probaby done much worse in this dynasty.

[rjl518]

Originally Posted by NYY #23

The Marlins are an easy target, and probably well deserved. I lived in South Florida during the Huizenga years and it was painful to watch. They could have built on that championship, but decided to tear it all down.

It's definitely a shame, and Marlins fans deserve better. Of course, I've probaby done much worse in this dynasty.

dont underestimate the Carolina Breakers...sooner or later...the OOTP engine...er..i mean...destiny will shine upon you

[NYY #23]

Originally Posted by rjl518

dont underestimate the Carolina Breakers...sooner or later...the OOTP engine...er..i mean...destiny will shine upon you

I hope so, or we'll have to unveil our new slogan, Carolina, just like the Marlins, except without the championships!

[NYY #23]

The Breakers wrapped up June with a 7-20 record, which wasn't unexpected following our June deals, along with our injury situation, which seems to be getting worse and worse with eight players on the disabled list. Things are bad in Carolina, but hopefully we are hitting rock bottom now, and things will start to improve. The one positive is that we were able to agree to terms with our top five draft picks, so hopefully they'll develop quickly.

[rjl518]

Originally Posted by NYY #23

The Breakers wrapped up June with a 7-20 record, which wasn't unexpected following our June deals, along with our injury situation, which seems to be getting worse and worse with eight players on the disabled list. Things are bad in Carolina, but hopefully we are hitting rock bottom now, and things will start to improve. The one positive is that we were able to agree to terms with our top five draft picks, so hopefully they'll develop quickly.

Attachment 391970

wow...and i thought I had injury problems in my dynasties

[NYY #23]

Originally Posted by rjl518

wow...and i thought I had injury problems in my dynasties

Yes, it's bad enough to be a terrible team, but it's even worse to be a terrible, injured team. At one point this month there were 15 players either on the disabled list, or out with day to day injuries.

[NYY #23]

The Breakers finished with another 7 win month and with a 36-72 record on the season we are now 32 1/2 games back. With money available and plenty of long term holes to fill I went with the strategy of spending big on international amateurs.

That seems to be the best use of our money, and signed 16 year old SP Carlos Guerrero for $600,000, 16 year old SP Ludovic Sordelli for a $1.7 million bonus, 16 year old SP Juan Perez for a $1.7 million bonus, 18 year old SP Miguel Vazquez for a $1.7 million bonus, 17 year old SP Jose Martinez for a $620,000 bonus, and 17 year old SP Hector Torres for a $5.9 million bonus.

[NYY #23]

The Breakers finished August with their second highest win total of the season with 11 wins. I'm anxious for the season to be over, for obvious reasons. One of the bright spots this season has been Emilio Horne, who has hit .335 with 10 home runs, and 30 RBI since coming over in a trade from Seattle. His 2.3 WAR is actually higher than Martin Castro (.274, 13 HR, 48 RBI, 1.6 WAR).

It looks like the Breakers will be officially saying goodbye to Vicente Cano, who is out with a torn rotator cuff. His final line this year was 3-8 with a 5.87 ERA in 84 innings. Injuries have really taken a toll on Cano, but even though he's not the pitcher he once was I'm going to miss seeing him on the team. His contract for next season was a vesting option for $3.4 million which vested at 200 innings pitched, which he won't achieve.

[NYY #23]

I've been doing this dynasty for a very long time. 128 seasons, and I started round 2 of my Worst to First journey on OOTP 13. After adding two teams in expansion there are still eight teams remaining that I need to win a World Series with, including the Carolina Breakers, who have gone backwards in the six years that I've run them from expansion to the latest 105 loss team.

I think I've struggled more with the Breakers than any other team. Next year would be my seventh season in Carolina, with only the Expos (10), Browns (9), and Phillies (8) taking longer to win a championship. Losing really sucks. So with that being said it's time for a change or two.

The first change will be a move to OOTP 16, and the second change will be to the team name, and the Carolina Breakers will now be known as the Carolina Knights. We'll see if the new nickname will help change our karma, because we need all of the help that we can get.

Before we get in to the new look Carolina Knights and our offseason plans let's take a look at the remaining teams that I need to win the World Series with:

Montreal Expos (70-92)
Texas Rangers (78-84)
San Francisco Giants (80-82)
Los Angeles Angels (84-78)
Tampa Bay Rays (85-77)
Los Angeles Dodgers (91-71)
Houston Astros (95-67)

Carolina Breakers - Expansion
2024 - Carolina Breakers - 94-68 (.580) - GB (Defeated Seattle Mariners 3-1 in Division Series, Lost to Boston Red Sox 4-2 in LCS, Season Score - 99)
2025 - Carolina Breakers - 81-81 (.500) 4 1/2 GB (Season Score - 18)
2026 - Carolina Breakers - 86-76 (.531) 10 GB (Season Score - 38)
2027 - Carolina Breakers - 79-83 (.488) 18 GB (Season Score - 1)
2028 - Carolina Breakers - 73-89 (.451) 13 GB (Season Score - 3)
2029 - Carolina Breakers - 57-105 (.352) 46 GB (Season Score - 1)

[NYY #23]

As we head into year number 7 in Carolina there will be a few changes now that I've moved to OOTP 16. First, coaches will be re-enabled. I've gone back and forth with coaches several times, but the tediousness of hiring all minor league levels led me to turn them off. The addition of an assistant General Manager is perhaps one of my favorite additions, and he'll be put to good use managing the minor league staff, once they are hired.

Second, the playoffs will be expanded to include two wild card teams, thanks to rjl518 for the push in bringing back the wild card. The four division winners and two wild card teams will make the playoffs in each league, with the two division winners with the best record receiving a first round bye. The series length will be best of 5 for the wild card round, and best of 7 for the remainder of the rounds.

With the move to OOTP 16 there is the addition of owner's goals:



And finally let's take a look at meet the team:



Now it's time to get busy filling our vacant staff positions, and trying to figure out a way to go .500 next year.

[NYY #23]

As we try and lure some free agents to Carolina I'm seeing "I'm not interested in joining your organization" more frequently. While that is frustrating it probably is more realistic.

This one in particular hurts though:



It's probably better to move on from Cano anyway though. We did come to terms with 27 year old starting pitcher Toby Dyer on a five year $51 million contract. Dyer comes to us from the Tigers, where he went 7-2 with a 3.61 ERA last year, and 13-6 with a 4.02 ERA the year before. He's a fan favorite, and will require us to lose our second round pick this year. He wasn't our top choice, but our top choice that would actually talk to us.

The second addition was 30 year old starting pitcher James Burton, who was 16-5 with a 2.96 ERA last year with 191 2/3 innings pitched and 202 strikeouts. He was signed to a 3 year $24.6 million contract, with the third year a vesting option that requires him to make 30 starts.

Unfortunately there aren't a lot of starting pitchers coming to Carolina, it seems we've developed a bad reputation, but hopefully we've truly hit rock bottom.

We also received from news from prospect Rudy Robertson, who decided to chase his dreams on the PGA circuit. I had high hopes for Robertson, who was 14-1 with a 2.41 ERA before moving up to AAA last year where he won his only start.

[illeracula]

Originally Posted by NYY #23

We also received from news from prospect Rudy Robertson, who decided to chase his dreams on the PGA circuit. I had high hopes for Robertson, who was 14-1 with a 2.41 ERA before moving up to AAA last year where he won his only start.

That is funny. Too bad OOTP doesn't update us on his career down the road. "Rudy qualified for the att classic"... I think its a bad move on his part.

Good luck getting those attendance numbers back.

Cano has been hit with a number of injuries its probably better to not have him around. Sorry to see him go but it is for the best.

Good luck this season.

[NYY #23]

Originally Posted by illeracula

That is funny. Too bad OOTP doesn't update us on his career down the road. "Rudy qualified for the att classic"... I think its a bad move on his part.

Good luck getting those attendance numbers back.

Cano has been hit with a number of injuries its probably better to not have him around. Sorry to see him go but it is for the best.

Good luck this season.

That would be a pretty cool feature to keep updated on his progress, and close the loop. If that whole golf thing doesn't work out I'd take him back.

Cano is probably for the best. I definitely think it's best to walk away, and I probably should have never checked, but I've got this irrational attachment to a fictional player. Now I just feel spurned that he's not interested.

Thanks, I'm going to need all the luck I can get I think. It's one thing to walk into a mess and clean it up, it's another to create the mess and then have to clean it up. Carolina hasn't been my finest moment, but that is strangely satisfying because I really have to work for it, and it should be even more satisfying when I finally reach the promised land. After making the playoffs in year one this was a good wake up call.