Worst to First - The Sequel

[NYY #23]

As we prepare for the 2040 season, and my list in Montreal there is a slight change of plans. I'm going to be adding the four expansion teams next year a little bit ahead of schedule. With that came a mistake in the protection list, failing to protect 25 year old Logan Howard. While Howard was 9-2 with a 2.69 ERA I missed him on the disabled list. While he primarily pitched out of the pen for us he's capable of starting, and will be the ace in Vancouver.

The Expos also lost 30 year old Jonathan Wheeler who was 4-3 with a 3.05 ERA last year before going down with an UCL injury, and 25 year old outfielder Juan Camacho.

Also departing from the team as free agents were LF Oliver Evans, SS Christian Lee, RF Eric Wolf, SP Ricardo Moreno, and RP Julio Mateo. That left us with about $21 million to spend on free agents, although we have a relatively short wish list.

Ricardo Moreno already found a home, signing a two year $6.3 million contract with the Boston Red Sox. I'll miss the pre-injury pitcher that he once was, but he didn't real have a role in Montreal.

[NYY #23]

This year was the debut of Vicente Cano on the Hall of Fame ballot, but Cano came up just a little bit short in his first year, appearing on 72.2% of the ballots. I do have confidence that he's going to get in eventually, maybe even next year.



The one player that was elected was catcher Jack Brown, who began his career in 2018 with the White Sox, and ended his career with the Diamondbacks in 2034. In between he made his first stint in Arizona, which lasted four years, two years in Colorado, and two years in Philadelphia. Brown hit .271 for his career with 487 career home runs, 1390 RBI, 1220 runs scored, and 82.8 WAR. Brown won an MVP Award during his career, two Gold Gloves, three Silver Sluggers, and went to nine All-Star teams.

Results:

C Jack Brown 95.6 (1st year) Inducted HOF
SP Vicente Canó 72.2 (1st year)
SP Jay Bell 62.7 (2nd year)
SP Will Shaw 51.2 (2nd year)
SP Bernie Brown 46.0 (1st year)
SP Jason Crowe 29.0 (2nd year)
CL Sean Doolittle 25.8 (9th year)
SP Gregorio López 16.3 (1st year)
SP Daniel Hicks 15.1 (5th year)
SP Mark Clark 14.3 (2nd year)
CL Luis Avilan 14.3 (7th year)
CL Mark Meyer 13.1 (2nd year)
2B Raúl Mejía 10.7 (2nd year)
SP Brett Anderson 9.5 (8th year)
3B Brett Lawrie 8.7 (6th year)
SP Rich Dean 5.2 (1st year)
SS Kevin Lee 4.8 (1st year) Dropped
SP Reed Carter 4.0 (1st year) Dropped
CL Cristóbal Ortíz 0.0 (1st year) Dropped

[NYY #23]

Before we get into the Expos offseason I wanted to talk about the new look Major League Baseball. Teams will be split into four nine team divisions - the AL East, AL West, NL East, and NL West. In order to make this work there were two changes, the Miami Marlins moving to the American League, and the Seattle Mariners moving to the National League.

I wanted to thank thehip41 for creating the custom schedule for me as well.

If the Astros can do it, so can I. Six teams will make the playoffs in each league, the winner of each division, and four wild card teams. These will allow the teams with the best records to enter the playoffs. The Wild Card teams will play a best of five round, with the winners of the Wild Card round playing a best of seven Division Series against the division winners. Then finally the best of seven League Championship and best of seven World Series.

The Expos had a pretty quiet offseason, signing a pair of relievers and a starting pitcher. Sixto Delgado was 2-2 with 6 saves and a 2.99 ERA in 87 1/3 innings last year for the Astros and Tigers. Angel Ramirez was 5-4 with 29 saves and a 3.98 ERA in 63 1/3 innings. Starting pitcher Marv Miles was 9-10 with a 3.74 ERA with 181 strikeouts in 192 1/3 innings.

Losing three potential starting pitcher candidates through expansion and free agency I didn't want to get stuck without pitching depth in my final year in Montreal, and while I feel that we have three guys in AAA who could start, Jordan Zimmerman has proven he doesn't like to give young guys a shot. We went through that with Nick Seaton, and we're going through that again with Bertolameu Henrich. I can't argue with his five year track record in our organization though, winning a AAA Championship, and making the playoffs all four years at the helm in Montreal including one World Series win and two Manager of the Year Awards.

[NYY #23]

[NYY #23]

[NYY #23]

[NYY #23]

[NYY #23]

The Expos finished Spring Training with a 16-10 record and most importantly got through spring with no injuries. While this is my last season with the Expos, and we've already met our goal of winning the World Series I really want to go out on top with Montreal.

Two and a half years ago the Expos signed international amateur Denie Abeele to a $8.4 million signing bonus. He's still just 18 years old, but he's developed well, and was named the #37 prospect in baseball, just 11 spots behind Carl Parker, who is pitching in AAA. They are the last two big prospects in the Expos' system, but

[NYY #23]

The Expos have started the season hot going 18-5 and opening up a 3 1/2 lead in the NL East. Once again our pitching is leading us, although our runs scored is tied for seventh in the league, our batting average fifth in the league, and we lead the league in home runs.

Howard McDonald had a big month hitting .341 with 7 home runs while driving in 15 runs. He's tied with Bill Dunbar and Juan Ordonez for second in the league in home runs.

[JaBurns]

Just spent the last week reading all 127 pages of this dynasty. Made Canadian Thanksgiving weekend very enjoyable for me while watching the MLB playoffs.
One word: Unbelievable.
Thank you

[NYY #23]

Originally Posted by JaBurns

Just spent the last week reading all 127 pages of this dynasty. Made Canadian Thanksgiving weekend very enjoyable for me while watching the MLB playoffs.
One word: Unbelievable.
Thank you

Thank you very much, and Happy Canadian Thanksgiving! It's always nice to read comments like this, and I'm glad I could help make your weekend more enjoyable.

[NYY #23]

I felt a lot of loyalty with the Expos, which heavily influenced my decision to stay in Montreal and break my own rules. In a lot of ways I've been a long time believer in our pitching staff, but I've also had a lot of faith in our young hitters. While they've shown signs of life they haven't exactly developed like I expected. While they won a World Series I almost felt that our job was half done. This year I feel a little vindicated, seeing players like Howard McDonald (.316, 17 HR, 33 RBI), Bill Dunbar (.310, 14 HR, 27 RBI), and Juan Ordonez (.274, 16 HR, 33 RBI) develop.

After going 19-8 in May things are going well in Montreal. At one point during May the Expos had a 13 game winning streak.

There was a pair of no-hitters around the league with Francisco Mata of the White Sox and Toby Lewis of the Reds pitching no-hitters.

Former Knight Mario Nesta announced his retirement this month. He was a starting catcher for one year for us, and a backup catcher for two, including the year we won a World Championship. Nesta hit .271 during his career with 1009 hits, 69 home runs, 435 RBI, and 380 runs scored.

[NYY #23]

While we won't see any of these players in Montreal during my tenure, the Expos did draft 2B Mario Valdez, LF Millard Fuller, CF Ken King, SS Christian Griffith, and C Jeff O'Neil with our first five draft picks.

On the field we went 20-7 for the month, and hold a comfortable six game lead in the NL East over the Cardinals. Everything just seems to be clicking for the Expos in our final year.

In a move I consider long overdue Bertolameu Henrich has moved into our rotation. He had a pretty good June, pitching a no-hitter and going 3-1 with a 0.99 ERA, striking out 34 batters in 36 1/3 innings.

Former Expos star Ricardo Moreno is going to miss the rest of the year with an injury after starting the year 1-6 with a 5.89 ERA. It's sad to see such a quick decline for Moreno after injury problems.

In Washington 35 year old Tommy Albracht saved the 400th game of his career. In Arizona Matt Moore was named Pitcher of the Month after going 5-0 with a 0.46 ERA. Moore was a pitcher I drafted in the second round with Carolina who I traded away because I didn't think he'd develop into much more than a reliever. After dominating in the bullpen he's done pretty well in the rotation.

[illeracula]

It is nice to see Howard McDonald hitting the ball for average this season. I was expecting that from him last year, hopefully this is something he can keep up.

Actually, hopefully the whole offense can keep it up. Runs have been hard to come by in Montreal the previous seasons...

After having so few teams in the division, its odd seeing so many.

[JaBurns]

Just a question, what does ERL stand for with the top prospects in AAA? For the life of me I cannot get Virginia Beach from that acronym.

Jim

[ShagVT]

Originally Posted by NYY #23

In a move I consider long overdue Bertolameu Henrich has moved into our rotation. He had a pretty good June, pitching a no-hitter and going 3-1 with a 0.99 ERA, striking out 34 batters in 36 1/3 innings.

I gotta ask, if this is a "pretty good June" what exactly go you call a great June?

[NYY #23]

Originally Posted by illeracula

It is nice to see Howard McDonald hitting the ball for average this season. I was expecting that from him last year, hopefully this is something he can keep up.

Actually, hopefully the whole offense can keep it up. Runs have been hard to come by in Montreal the previous seasons...

After having so few teams in the division, its odd seeing so many.

It really is nice to see Howard McDonald play so well. I feel like I've been waiting for this a long time, so I'm glad I got to see him put it all together before I leave!

This is definitely a new experience for the Expos between the offense and the larger divisions. I'm still trying to get used to them as well. It's going to be a lot of teams to leapfrog when I take over my next team.

[NYY #23]

Originally Posted by JaBurns

Just a question, what does ERL stand for with the top prospects in AAA? For the life of me I cannot get Virginia Beach from that acronym.

Jim

Good eyes. Year 6 and I haven't noticed that yet. I actually don't remember what it originally stood for, but when I created the Expos I renamed all the minor league franchises to cities and nicknames I could easily find, and I just never updated the abbreviation. The ERL should really be VB though.

[NYY #23]

Originally Posted by ShagVT

I gotta ask, if this is a "pretty good June" what exactly go you call a great June?

I'm actually very happy with his numbers, and couldn't really ask for much more. That was me doing a poor job at sarcasm because it feels like I've been waiting for so long for my manager to put him in the rotation. The hazards of hiring a manager who maintains control over too much, who does a good job so I can't fire him.

[NYY #23]

The Expos went 13-11 for the month and saw our lead drop to five games over the Cardinals. We lost Juan Ordonez this month which has hurt our offense. When he went down Ordonez was leading the league with 29 home runs and hitting .294 with 70 RBI. He'll miss the next ninth month with injury.

The Expos had five players elected to the All-Star game with Bill Olson, Gonzalo Villareal, Howard McDonald, Jorge Flores, and Bill Dunbar selected.

Nick Seaton was also named Pitcher of the Month after going 5-0 with a 1.07 ERA in five starts with 32 strikeouts and 3 walks in 33 2/3 innings.

While this is my last year in Montreal I do want to leave the Expos in as good of shape as possible. We signed the top international amateur prospect, 16 year old starting pitcher Jose Medina to a $4 million bonus.

Around the league Johnny Steward saved his 300th game for the Cubs and Roberto Quezada picked up career hit number 2500.