Worst to First - The Sequel

[NYY #23]

The Gators were picking second overall and selected 18 year old starting pitcher Melvin Page. In the second round we selected third baseman Kent Kennedy, followed by right fielder Cody William, first baseman Lucio Castillo, and shortstop Keith Hicks.

The Gators started the month with a 7-6 record, and are just a 1/2 game back in the AL West. What a strange year this has been.

[NYY #23]

June was the first month where we finished with a losing record, going 13-14. July is going to be a key month for the Gators which will determine whether we sell at the trading deadline. We have a few players who will be free agents after the season who could potentially bring back some decent young players.

[NYY #23]

The month started with a trade when 39 year old catcher Paul Foster sent me a message that he wasn't happy with his role on the team. I aim to please though, so we shipped him off to San Francisco in exchange for 26 year old first baseman Rich Moore.

That trade didn't hurt us much as we went 6-6 for the month and was 2 games out of first place. The decision to sell or buy was looking like a decision to buy, but the Indians helped make our decision for us when they offered left fielder Gustavo Ondrias, minor league shortstop Nick Cannon, minor league shortstop Gabe Lamb, and reliever Steve Nelson.

The Indians wanted Orlando Velez (8-5 with a 3.69 ERA) and minor league shortstop Bob Gorman. Let's just forget about the shortstops included in the deal because none of them will likely ever see the majors. Velez is signed at the bargain price of $3 million for the next 3 years and has already been worth 2.1 WAR this year.

Nelson isn't a bad reliever, but the centerpiece coming back is Ondrias. He's both fragile and signed through 2068 while holding a player option for 2069 at $15.6 million per year. He's not a bad player, he's just expensive, fragile, and plays a position where we don't need help. This trade definitely hurts.

[NYY #23]

The Gators just seem to keep going and going finishing with a 13-12 record, and are just 1 1/2 games out in the AL West. It's almost as if they don't realize how bad they are. In reality, even though we'd head to the playoffs if the season ended today there are two teams in the AL East with 10 more wins than any team in the AL West. So we may sneak into the playoffs, but that doesn't necessarily mean we are a good team.

One good thing about the departure of Orlando Velez is that forced my manager to move Jyotirbhaga Sourabh into the rotation where he belongs. Of course he still needs to find his way in the rotation as he's 0-2 with a 6.26 ERA in 5 starts.

[NYY #23]

As the injuries mounted during the month of August the Gators continued to win going 17-9 with a cast of characters that just doesn't seem like they should be winning. We have a pair of outfielders manning third base and second base, with our third baseman playing shortstop, and we've used 9 different starting pitchers this year.

Perhaps the most telling statistic for me is our expected record of 66-63. Winning seven more games than expected is the difference between seventh place and second place, and the reason why we're talking playoffs in New Orleans.

[NYY #23]

The Gators went 19-7 in September and moved into a one game lead in the American League West. Last month I talked about how we'd won 7 more games than expected, and that's now up to 11 games more than expected. Whatever the reason we'll be heading to the playoffs.

One troubling area is the number of players who want extensions, but I'm unable to offer. Take for example Kelvin Coleman who is 14-9 with a 3.93 ERA and has been worth 3.1 WAR. A four year extension for $4 million per is certainly reasonable, but my owner won't allow that because we're over budget compliments of the Gustavo Ondrias and his massive salary. To be fair, Ondrias is playing well since he came to New Orleans (.279, 21 HR, 57 RBI, 2.6 WAR), although he certainly doesn't fit our budget and is out for the next four weeks with an injury.

[NYY #23]

With a 96 win season the Gators are American League West Champions and heading to the playoffs for just the fifth time in their history, with their second highest win total. While I should be celebrating, and do acknowledge that anything can happen in the playoffs, I don't feel like this is a 96 win team. We were expected to win 84 games, and that feels more like it. The way this team was put together doesn't feel right either, and I feel like our foundation is fragile at best. But that's a worry for another day, for now let's just keep our fingers crossed and hope for the best in the playoffs.

[NYY #23]

The Gators will begin our playoff push against the Cleveland Indians. The Indians finished with an identical record, we were 3-3 against the Indians this year, and our offenses are fairly comparable. Where the Indians stand out is their pitching, allowing over 70 fewer runs than us.

[NYY #23]

The Gators got off to a strong start in the playoffs behind the arm of Fernando Rosas, who allowed 2 hits in 6 innings while striking out 8 batters. Our offense pounded out 10 hits and scored 6 runs in our 6-2 win in Game 1.

Bob Schmidt drove in a pair of runs with a triple, while Blair Polk added three hits for the Gators.

[NYY #23]

The Gators wasted a strong start by Kelvin Coleman as the Indians came back to score 1 run in the seventh and one run in the ninth in their 3-2 win to even up the series. Coleman would be responsible for the run in the seventh, but allowed just 2 runs on 6 hits spread across seven innings.

Steve Nelson took the loss for the Gators after walking a pair of runners and allowing a double in two innings of work. Our offense started out in an encouraging way with a leadoff homer by Angel Munoz, but we managed just 3 hits the rest of the game. With the series tied at 1 we head back to Cleveland for Games 3-5.

[NYY #23]

The Gators lost Game 3 by a score of 7-3, and lost one of our best hitters in the regular season (Gustavo Ondrias) for the game with a thumb injury that could effect him the rest of the series.

Archie Brown would allow 4 runs in 3 2/3 innings in perhaps his final start as a Gator, while Norberto Sanchez would allow 3 runs in 3 innings of relief.

[NYY #23]

Steve Nelson picked up his second loss of the series as the Indians came from behind to win 7-6 and move within one win of advancing to the next round. Former Gator Orlando Velez picked up his second win of the series in relief.

Offensively Bailey Richardson had the big game with a triple, homer, and 2 RBI. Danny Dukes, Denny Robinson, and Allen Patterson added two hits apiece.

This was a disappointing game for the Gators, and I think the writing is on the wall for the 2065 season.

[NYY #23]

Let's start with the good - Fernando Rosas was dominant on the mound tonight with 6 innings of 1 run ball and 11 strikeouts. Jyotirbhaga Sourabh was also dominant in relief with 2 2/3 innings of shutout ball with 5 strikeouts.

That's leading with the positive. The biggest blow was the torn labrum to Sourabh which ended both this season, and likely next season as well. The other low points of the game were the two run homer by Pablo Rios in the bottom of the ninth for the Indians to send the game to extra innings, or the walkoff homer by Melvin McCoy for the Indians in the bottom of the thirteenth to win the game.

The 4-3 loss to end our season doesn't hurt as much as the loss of Sourabh. On to the offseason where we have some work to do.

[NYY #23]

With a fresh new two year contract in hand, and an owner that is somewhat satisfied despite the fact that he really wants a Cy Young winner on the team, we'll head into what I expect to be a challenging offseason. While our budget was increased it really only covers the amount we were expected to be over, so we have no budget room. Moving Ondrias and/or Jefferson might be necessary as we have just under $30 million of our payroll tied up with those two players, just a little under 50%.

It doesn't feel right to unprotect Sourabh since he's injured, so I think it makes sense just to add one player to the protected list each year. This year that's Melvin Page, the 18 year old starting pitcher who we selected with the second overall pick this year.

I'm sticking with my policy of not offering arbitration to players with a negative WAR and we'll bid farewell to reliever Juan Manuel who was 2-2 with a 5.10 ERA last year.

New Orleans Gators - 67-95 (.414) 20 1/2 GB
2064 - New Orleans Gators - 61-101 (.377) 50 GB (Season Score - 43)
2065 - New Orleans Gators - 96-66 (.593) - GB, Lost Division Series 4-1 to Cleveland Indians (Season Score - 703)

[NYY #23]

The new year started with a bang. Welcome to the team Felipe Garcia. In 2061 he was signed to a 7 year extension worth $81 million. He's got three years remaining at $15.2 million per year left, with the third year a player option. Over the last two years he's pitched in just 64 innings, and produced 0.5 WAR. He's had more injuries (5) than wins (2).

He comes to us for our closer Steve Nelson (5-1, 17 SV, 2.70 ERA, 0.6 WAR) and RF Armond Sciorra (.260, 20 HR, 76 RBI, 2.8 WAR), who head to the Brewers.

[NYY #23]

The Red Sox offered 2B Doug Raymond (.228, 32 HR, 2.3 WAR) and $4 million in exchange for five minor leaguers: 3B Kent Kennedy, 1B Mitch Sanford, 3B Steve Kennedy, RF Drew O'Day, and SS Gabe Lamb. That's our 6th, 7th, and 20th ranked minor leaguers for a second baseman in the last year of his contract that will leave us with $140 of budget room after we signed reliever Lorenzo Roberto to a one year $1.3 million contract yesterday. Roberto was 5-3 with a 5.29 ERA last year.

[NYY #23]

The Mariners traded 22 year old minor league third baseman Alberto Chavez in exchange for 24 year old minor league catcher Joe Wolfe. While this was a minor deal, we did end up losing the better prospect in the deal.

[NYY #23]

Another day, another trade. This time the Mariners offered 1B Mike Brown in exchange for CF Angel Munoz and 18 year old Javier Hernandez who was promoted from the international complex at the end of February. Adding players as international amateurs was always a good way of adding talent to the system, but based on my past two high ticket purchases someone just comes swooping in once they are added to the minor league system.

Disappointing, but Mike Brown is at least a good player, hitting .264 with 29 home runs and 86 RBI last year. That gives us three first baseman who can't field.

I've had a lot of difficulty trying to swing a trade this offseason. Whether to move money, or get better I'm just not liking what I'm being offered, or interested in meeting the price to complete a deal. With no budget room my strategy seems to be limited to throwing minor league contracts around but that doesn't feel effective. At this point we've lost more in WAR than any other team (10.4). That doesn't even include the 1.1 WAR that Sourabh put up last year. Prepare for an implosion…

[NYY #23]

Our farm system may be thin, but we did rank 6th overall with solid showings by Russell Fraser and Melvin Page. We also finished with the best record in the AL West with a 17-13 record in Spring Training.

In order to get our roster down to the limit the Gators made a trade, sending 1B Mike Brown, SP Fernando Rosas, RF Lee Goodman, and a pair of low level minor leaguers - 1B Lucio Castillo and SS Gabriel Correa to the Washington Nationals for a quartet of arms.

Coming back to New Orleans was 23 year old Duane Smith (#78 ranked prospect), Hilarious 'Clodhopper' Windischgraetz (#13 prospect), Juan Martinez, and Felipe Pereira.

It's both a trade I like and worry about. If we can keep Duane Smith and 'Clodhopper' I'll be happy, even though Rosas was a solid pitcher. It does get us under budget though.

[NYY #23]

Nelson Flores doesn't get much prospect love, but I was impressed enough to trade for him, and surprised nobody came calling in a trade. After a solid spring he made his big league debut and has hit .347 with 9 home runs and 22 RBI. That's even better than I expected, but it's nice to see him perform well, and hopefully he can keep it up and someone doesn't make me an offer I can't refuse.

He's helped the Gators start the year with an 11-15 record