Worst to First - The Sequel

[NYY #23]

Originally Posted by JaBurns

Congratulations to the Kodiaks. When do the masses find out which team becomes the new rags to riches story?

Thanks! I should be ready to roll right into the next team tonight, but it looks like I'll be staying in the same division and trying to beat out the Kodiaks as we head south of the border to Mexico City.

[NYY #23]

It's been five fun years in Vancouver before we won a World Series, and we saw some steady progression until winning the World Series. By the numbers the Kodiaks won more game than any other team that I've run, and maybe their World Series win puts them in the conversation when discussing best team ever.

I don't want to take anything away from the Kodiaks, but I don't see that. I don't think the Kodiaks got lucky in winning the World Series, but I certainly don't think they were 111 wins good. In the end the Kodiaks were a fun team, and we ended with a strong pitching staff, good defense, and offense good enough to get the job done.

I think the quartet of Cesar Delgado, Rob Whitfield, Carlos Martinez, and Jesus Concepcion are a nice core rotation, all between the ages of 26-28. I think I've left them in pretty good shape, probably only needing to replace the free agent to be catcher Tomas Flores, but they've got plenty of money to do it.

It's time to move on though, and find out who's next…

Vancouver Kodiaks - 68-94 (.407) 39 GB
2041 - Vancouver Kodiaks - 62-100 (.383) 39 GB (Season Score - 1)
2042 - Vancouver Kodiaks - 73-89 (.451) 29 GB (Season Score - 29)
2043 - Vancouver Kodiaks - 85-77 (.525) 10 GB (Season Score - 59)
2044 - Vancouver Kodiaks - 88-75 (.540) - GB (Defeated the Seattle Mariners 4-1 in Division Series, Lost to Montreal Expos 4-1 in LCS, Season Score - 60)
2045 - Vancouver Kodiaks - 111-51 (.684) - GB (Defeated the Colorado Rockies 4-2 in Division Series, Defeated Los Angeles Dodgers 4-1 in LCS, Defeated Texas Rangers 4-2 in World Series, Season Score - 139)

[NYY #23]

There are nine teams left and let's take a look at how each of those teams did this past offseason:

1. Los Angeles Dodgers (102-60)
2. Texas Rangers (102-60)
3. Houston Astros (84-78)
4. Los Angeles Angels (82-81)
5. San Antonio Texans (81-81)
6. San Francisco Giants (78-84)
7. Tampa Bay Rays (74-88)
8. New Orleans Gators (68-94)
9. Mexico City Conquistadors (64-98)

[NYY #23]

From north of the border to south of the border, next up is the Mexico City Conquistadors. Let's see how many times I spell that one wrong before I win a championship. The conquistadors came into the league at the same time as the Kodiaks, and have never won more than 70 games in a season.

Last year they finished 64-98, which was the worst season in their history. Their expected record of 73-89 was better though, and Mexico City did finish with five players on the disabled list.

We'll head into the offseason with about $20 million to spend, and a lot of holes. It's time to get busy!

[JaBurns]

Pitching doesn't look bad but I think it is going to hard to win a lot of low scoring 1 run games to make a short stay south of the border!

[NYY #23]

Originally Posted by JaBurns

Pitching doesn't look bad but I think it is going to hard to win a lot of low scoring 1 run games to make a short stay south of the border!

That seems to be the story of my life lately. I just can't build an offense anymore.

[JaBurns]

But it seems to be working with pitching and defense.

[NYY #23]

Originally Posted by JaBurns

But it seems to be working with pitching and defense.

That's also a good point!

[rjl518]

Go Mexico City...go get im...andele, andele eeha eeha

[NYY #23]

Originally Posted by rjl518

Go Mexico City...go get im...andele, andele eeha eeha

Gracias!

[NYY #23]

My first offseason in Mexico City has started off with a bang. My first order of business was to clean house, starting with my coaching staff. The next part was the frustrating part, salary arbitration.

I decided to non-tender nine players to free up both roster spots and money. The problem I didn't anticipate was our outgoing GM had already offered contract to everyone, so that changed our offseason plans quite a bit. With an already low payroll we're on the hook paying players like LF Damon Carpenter $1.3 million to produce negative .5 WAR.

We've got two roster spots that we'll use to add a couple of free agents and for the first year we'll try and make some trades during the season.

Mexico City had one player who won an award, right fielder Luis Rodriguez.

There were a couple of Kodiaks who also won awards. Cesar Delgado won both the MVP and Pitcher of the Year Award. Jason Browning also finished runner of in Reliever of the Year voting.

[NYY #23]

The Conquistadors announced today the signing of starting pitcher Shawn Hendricks to a four year $20.4 million contract. The 31 year old was just 9-10 with a 5.07 ERA last year, but was 16-10 with a 3.29 ERA the year before. From 2039 to 2044 he averaged 3.6 WAR, so we hope his season last year was just a bad year. With a FIP almost a run lower than his ERA I think he'll bounce back, and he's worth the $4.4 million gamble.

[NYY #23]

The 2046 Hall of Fame results were released and three players were inducted into the Hall of Fame.



Four time MVP Joe Kaiser became the first player to receive 100% of the votes. He hit .321 during his career with 500 home runs, 3370 hits, 1698 RBI, and 1561 runs scored.



215 game winner Wilfred Small won four Cy Young Awards and one MVP during his career and finished second with 97.4% of the vote.



Finishing third with 81.8% of the vote was Alex Hunter, who went 263-201 during his career and won one Cy Young Award.

None of the three players had any ties to my worst to first teams.

Hall of Fame Results:

1B Joe Kaiser 100.0 (1st year) Inducted HOF
SP Wilfred Small 97.4 (1st year) Inducted HOF
SP Alex Hunter 81.8 (1st year) Inducted HOF
SP Jake Smith 65.8 (1st year)
1B Jesús Espaillat 63.2 (3rd year)
SP Jason Threlfall 62.8 (6th year)
SP Will Shaw 50.6 (8th year)
SP Luis Varerla 37.2 (3rd year)
RF Martín Castro 35.1 (4th year)
2B Robbie Raines 32.9 (3rd year)
CL Mark Richardson 19.9 (1st year)
C Pedro Trujillo 14.3 (1st year)
CL Miguel Hernández 6.1 (1st year)
1B Augusto Rodríguez 5.2 (3rd year)
2B Brian Moore 4.8 (6th year) Dropped
CL Aaron Shaw 3.0 (4th year) Dropped
CL Bob Kirby 2.2 (4th year) Dropped
CF Oktav Knobloch 1.7 (1st year) Dropped
RP Ron Wilkinson 1.3 (1st year) Dropped
SP Vassily Partin 0.9 (1st year) Dropped

[NYY #23]

Mexico City competed our first trade sending 36 year old starting pitcher Jose Ruiz (9-7, 2.41), 32 year old starting pitcher Dave Butler (7-14, 3.29), and 30 year old Zach Holt (8-6, 3.63) to the Pittsburgh Pirates in exchange for 22year old centerfielder Roberto Alou (.304, 4 HR, 40 RBI, 3 WAR) and 27 year old starting pitcher John Lane (2-1, 3.41 ERA).

Our second trade of the offseason was sending 31 year old right fielder Juan Ordonez and 20 year old reliever Luis Flores to the Milwaukee Brewers in exchange for 26 year old outfielder Carlos Alvarado and 25 year old reliever Jonathan Small.

All of the players that we traded have contracts that expire after the 2046 season, and we hope in Alou and Ordonez we are adding two players who will help us in the future.

We also signed former Vancouver outfielder Tony Price to a one year $10 million contract with a vesting option if he reaches 550 plate appearances. We also welcomed aboard 1B Francisco Fernandez, who we signed to a one year $1.3 million contract.

We have a couple of minor offers out to starting pitchers for depth, but for the most part our offseason shopping is done.

[NYY #23]

As we head into the 2046 season we signed two starting pitchers to deals - Al Rigden (11-14, 4.14 ERA) who should be familiar from my Vancouver days, and Oliver Bell (6-8, 4.42). Both were signed for approximately $1 to one year contracts, and both pitchers are 37 years old. They'll provide us with some depth while we try and rebuild the team.

Checking in on our owner goals -

• Play close to .500 by 2046
• Increase attendance to 27,000 per game
• Find a top prospect (Lydon Montgomery debuted at 53rd)
• Build your farm by 2050 (Was ranked 34th, currently 25th)
• Improve your draft record (11 players on our roster combined for 0 WAR)
• Reach the playoffs by 2048

I'd really be surprised if we make the playoffs by 2048, because we have a lot of holes, and not a lot of talent in the minors. According to preseason predictions they think we'll finish 84-78 though, so we'll see what happens.

[NYY #23]

The Conquistadors started the season 8-15, and we've experienced a rash of injuries that is causing problems. It's a different team, but once again our starting pitching and defense is carrying us. Our offense is last in the league though, and our bullpen ERA is ranked 17th. We've definitely got some problems, but they aren't totally unexpected.

[Trebro]

Pretty busy in Mexico City--I see they're following the football model and keeping the development team close at hand!

[NYY #23]

Originally Posted by Trebro

Pretty busy in Mexico City--I see they're following the football model and keeping the development team close at hand!

I thought that would be a good model to follow, plus I'm running out of places to put the expansion team minor league affiliates.

[NYY #23]

May was a little better for the Conquistadors, going 11-16 for the month. That's still not great, but a little bit better. We continue to struggle with injuries, in what seems like a constant parade of players heading to and from the disabled list.

As we head into the summer months we'll be looking to move players on expiring contracts, including Tony Price, Gabriel Vazquez, Dave Adams, Al Rigden, and Oliver Bell.

Around the league Jose Mejia of the Rangers pitched a perfect game this month, while catcher Tony Pollock hit his 300th home run for the Yankees.

[ShagVT]

I think at this point all of us should be past whining about injuries. Does anybody ever have a season where injuries are not a major component? The big question is always whether the injury is long term, and how much depth you have behind the injured player.

It would be interesting to go back through your 150 seasons of this and see how many of them don't have a statement about "having to deal with a lot of injuries" ...

That said, I have to congratulate you on how quickly you got through the Grizzlies. I thought that team looked like an absolute train wreck ... no talent, no farm, tiny city with no fan base. You made it look easy!!! What difficulty do you have trades set at?