Worst to First - The Sequel

[NYY #23]

With a 12-16 record in May the Gators have fallen to 11 games behind the Monks in the AL West, although we've remained ahead of the A's. With our recent trades our farm system has greatly improved, which makes me a little nervous not knowing what to expect as we inch closer to the trade deadline.

[NYY #23]

With the first overall pick in the amateur draft the New Orleans Gators drafted 18 year old centerfielder Russell Fraser. We added 19 year old first baseman Mitch Sanford in the second round. While Fraser is the more rounded player, both players project to have plus power.

In the third round the Gators selected 19 year old 1B Arthur Silva followed by 18 year old pitcher Bill Thomas in the fourth round and 18 year old right fielder Tim Shaw in the fifth round.

[NYY #23]

I shouldn't get too far ahead of myself, but I have already been thinking about next year and who the second player to protect would be. It's hard to name anyone except George Campbell, who is ranked as the #13 prospect in baseball. Since being acquired he hasn't allowed a run in 16 innings in AAA. Unfortunately the Orioles came calling today wanting Campbell along with right fielder Alfredo Valentin, while asking the Gators to retain 90% of his salary in exchange for 29 year old shortstop Jose Garcia. Garcia is making $3.7 million this year and has been worth -0.1 WAR so far.

Maybe a trade of Valentin for Garcia would have been fair as they are both negative WAR players, but adding Campbell makes this a "Get back to me when you have a serious offer" type of trade. This trade drops our minor league system to 17th overall.

[NYY #23]

The Gators are not going anywhere this year, and with several players with expiring contracts, and none good enough to give a qualifying offer I wanted to see if we could get something back for them.

31 year old reliever Matt MacEachran was the first and he has gone 4-0 with a save and 3.99 ERA. He was sent to the Conquistadors in exchange for 27 year old starting pitcher Damon Christian. With an 0-2 record and 6.86 ERA in 4 starts he's still waiting to see success in the majors, but he's pitched well in AAA. He's young enough to potentially figure things out though.

Next up was the trade of our "ace" Bob Curran, along with second baseman Norberto Gallegos, third baseman Freddy Trevino, and closer Pedro Navarro to the Los Angeles Dodgers. Prospects RF Nelson Flores and pitcher Julian Williams are coming back to New Orleans. Curran and Gallegos are in the final year of their contracts while Navarro is our big money closer. I wasn't expecting to trade Navarro, but needed to in order to finalize the deal, and he was a luxury we just didn't need.

Not too unexpectedly the Gators are fading in the standings, going 7-19 in June and falling to last place in the AL West.

[NYY #23]

Another day, another trade, another prospect lost. This time it was the A's who offered 25 year old catcher Danny Dukes, who is hitting .244 with 2 home runs and 13 RBI this year. Not a bad player, but also not a player I needed either.

Going back to Oakland is closer Pedro Hernandez (2-0, 2 SV, 5.08 ERA) and SP prospect Barrett Lawrence (51st overall).

[NYY #23]

I imagine waking up this morning thinking what this team really needs is a backup third baseman who hasn't started a game this year and made just 41 plate appearances. Luckily my dreams came true when the Rockies offered Roger Mathis to the Gators for the bargain basement price of our starting catcher and starting second baseman. Farewell to 21 year old catcher Ramon Lupercio, a former top 100 prospect, and 28 year old second baseman Hector Martinez.

[NYY #23]

Today's trade was the worst of both worlds. Coming to New Orleans was another shortstop, Jed Jefferson. While he's not terrible when healthy (.309, 5 HR, 20 RBI, 1.3 WAR), he's injury prone, making $9 million this year, and $12 million in each of the following two years.

Going to Atlanta is 29 year old outfielder Josh Smith and the third top 100 prospect that we acquired for Alex Terry, Jose Suarez. The trade drops our minor league system ranking to 20th, and adds our 6th shortstop to the roster.

It's time to make some minor league signings because our 10 man pitching staff is very thin, and our options for call-ups on the pitching side are not promising.

[NYY #23]

I've never been so happy to see the trade deadline pass as I am this month. We made it out with just one more trade:

CF Mike Bruce was sent to the Kodiaks for SP Andrew Squires. It's really a minor trade, my scout thinks Squires is a career minor leaguer, although he's our ace now. Hopefully that won't last long.

The Gators did sign two international amateurs. Pitcher Javier Hernandez for a $7.8 million bonus and pitcher Jose Munoz for a $5.6 million bonus. We need to add talent whatever way possible.

On the field the Gators went 7-17 and are now 30 games out of first place.

[NYY #23]

The Gators finished the month with a 10-17 record and 11 players on the disabled list, just 40 games behind the first place Monks. Things are going bad in New Orleans, and the one guy that I chose to protect this year spent half the year on the disabled list, and lost his spot in the rotation after going 1-2 with a 8.28 ERA in 6 starts. He's still young, but we'll need much more than that from him.

[NYY #23]

The Gators went backwards in 2064 with 61 wins, 6 less than the 2063 season. While this was definitely a frustrating season, I do both hate and like the added challenge of having to accept every trade presented to you. It will definitely make rebuilding more challenging, and you can pull off a big trade and acquire three top 100 prospects, but then they get picked off one by one in separate trades.

I'm not sure how to approach the offseason yet, whether I'll keep Sourabh protected next year, or protect two new players. I'm leaning towards Sourabh and Russell Fraser as the two players to protect for year number two, but that could change.

New Orleans Gators - 67-95 (.414) 20 1/2 GB
2064 - New Orleans Gators - 61-101 (.377) 50 GB (Season Score - 43)

[illeracula]

This is a crazy concept and I hope you stick to it, just because I am curious of how it will turn out (and I am not brave enough to try it)...

Knowing how insane some of the AI's deals are I wish you the best of luck and hopefully those protected players become stars at some point.

T

[NYY #23]

Originally Posted by illeracula

This is a crazy concept and I hope you stick to it, just because I am curious of how it will turn out (and I am not brave enough to try it)...

Knowing how insane some of the AI's deals are I wish you the best of luck and hopefully those protected players become stars at some point.

T

I definitely felt that this was a crazy concept, which definitely help me pick this back up. It seems like a great equalizer for sure.

I do plan to stick this one out and I'm pretty sure we'll see some crazy things. I believe there have been a couple double digit teams that have taken at least 10 years to win it all, and I think this will be another one.

[NYY #23]

For year number two in New Orleans we've decided to keep Jyotirbhaga Sourabh protected while adding number one overall pick Russell Fraser to the untouchable list.

Our fan loyalty dropped in New Orleans, our budget dropped, and our owner is not happy about how things are going. Backup catcher Julio Gabriel announced his retirement from baseball, and Omar Sanchez is in as pitching coach and Frank Schmidt is in as hitting coach for the Gators.

For salary arbitration the Gators parted company with any player eligible for arbitration that had a WAR of -0.5 or less, which included pitchers Willie Bishop, Shane Little, and Manuel Martinez, shortstops Lorenzo Bouvet, Ruben Garcia, and Aldo Vreke, and centerfielder Raul Guzman.

[NYY #23]

Alfredo Ruiz may have just gone 1-10 with a 5.31 ERA last year, but he's still just 25 years old and I expected him to continue to develop and be a productive member of our rotation. The Angels liked the looks of Ruiz as well though, and traded for Ruiz and 1B Keith Whitehead, sending us 28 year old second baseman Javier Martinez. Martinez hit .261 with 4 home runs and 22 RBI last year in 84 games. With the trade we lose a member of our rotation, and add payroll while adding a second option at second base.

The Gators signed right fielder Brody McCown and catcher Ricardo Bompiano to minor league contracts, and signed reliever Ben Patrick (6-5, 3.93 ERA) to a one year $1.4 million contract. We've got a lot of pending offers out there as the Gators are going bargain shopping.

[NYY #23]

On the same day the Gators signed reliever Mitchell Howell to a one year $1.9 million contract our owner lowered our budget by $2 million to push us over budget. That was the final piece of our offseason shopping list though so I'm not too worried about being over budget yet. Howell went 5-5 with 4 saves and a 3.98 ERA in 63 1/3 innings last year.

His signing completes a busy offseason where we hope we added enough players to make the Gators better, although not necessarily good. Hopefully in our bargain shopping we found some players who are ready for a rebound, or can at least put together a decent half year to increase their trade value.

Archie Brown signed a one year $1.6 million contract. Last year he was a closer (5-7, 41 saves, 4.04 ERA). The year before he went 12-13 with a 3.71 ERA in the rotation. I'll let my manager determine his role, but he should help our staff.

Fernando Rosas was signed to a 3 year deal at $3.7 million per year. After six straight years of producing a WAR of 2.6 or greater Rosas fell apart last year going 9-9 with a 5.39 ERA. I don't see any warning signs, so we're betting last year was just a bad year.

27 year old Carlos Hernandez became a free agent after going 3-1 with a 3.91 ERA in 69 innings out of the pen last year, and we signed him to a one year $950,000 contract.

Kelvin Coleman signed a one year $1.4 million contract after going 7-10 with a 4.72 ERA last year. He's had a WAR of 2.1 in each of the past two seasons.

Then finally we signed Orlando Velez to a 3 year $9 million contract. While he's a borderline starter he is coming off a year in which he went 17-7 with a 3.82 ERA in 183 2/3 innings. I don't know if he'll repeat that, but he's pitched well out of the pen before that and definitely worth taking a shot on.

Catcher Paul Foster signed a one year $7 million contract. He's 39 and hit .259 with 12 home runs last year, but will provide some veteran leadership as a backup catcher.

Then finally RF Armond Sciorra was signed to a one year $1.1 million contract.

I don't expect a pennant, but we should be improved from last year.

[NYY #23]

I always get nervous when I see a trade offer knowing that I'll have to accept it. This one wasn't a bad one though with the Mariners sending shortstop Bob Gorman in exchange for RF Lung Weng. Two minor leaguers that don't look like they'll ever make it to the majors.

The second trade was also minor with 1B Fraser Spicer coming over from the Dodgers in exchange for shortstop Paul Warren.

The third trade of the day was with the Phillies, who sent minor league 1B Corey Lambert in exchange for minor league catcher Jesus Herrera.

Those trades add to a busy Spring Training day in which we lost both Jesus Rodriguez and Lorenzo Rodriguez for the season. While both were pitching out of the pen Jesus Rodriguez is a top 100 prospect who I hoped could pitch out of the rotation.

[NYY #23]

In a trade of marginal prospects we welcome to New Orleans 19 year old centerfielder Drew O'Day, and send to Philadelphia SP Pablo Rivera. I'm a little disappointed since Rivera has moved his way up to AA last year and looked like a rotation option this year.

The second trade of the day was an exchange of first baseman. Going to Vancouver was 35 year old Valentin Garza, while coming back to New Orleans is 23 year old Domingo Espinoza. On the surface it looks like we made out on that trade based on age, but Garza is a veteran with some power and major league experience. Espinoza completed his fourth year in rookie ball and hit .286 with 2 home runs in 112 at-bats. I think my scout says it best "Not much gain having him, not much loss losing him.".

[NYY #23]

Last year we spent $5.6 million on a bonus to Jose Munoz as an international amateur. One month ago we promoted him from the International Complex. Today the Orioles offered glorified designated hitter Denny Robinson, a first baseman who can't field the position in exchange for Munoz AND 30 year old shortstop Jose Garcia. I don't even think I'd make the trade for Robinson for Garcia, let alone include Munoz.

I'm not happy right now, and I both really like and hate this concept. It definitely is a good equalizer.

[NYY #23]

Things have gone much better than expected in New Orleans in April with the Gators starting off the season with a 15-10 record. I'm not getting too excited though, because there are a lot of warning signs that our hot start won't last. But I'll enjoy it while it does.

The Gators lost one player this month when we waived and designated for assignment Javier Martinez. I tried to sneak him through waivers, but it didn't work, although I'm not too disappointed in losing him. That does mean we lost Alfredo Ruiz for nothing, who is now pitching in the majors for the Angels.

[NYY #23]

For the second straight month the Gators won 15 games, and if the season ended today we'd be heading to the playoffs. Of course we've scored the 11th most runs in the league, have the 15th ranked defense, and really just have our bullpen going for us.

Which is good, although we've got our top starting pitcher prospect pitching as our closer which is driving me nuts. He's pitching well as our closer, but he should be in the rotation.