Worst to First - The Sequel

[JaBurns]

I was just looking at your DL. Do you not have a 60 day DL?

[NYY #23]

Originally Posted by JaBurns

I was just looking at your DL. Do you not have a 60 day DL?

I actually do have a 60 day DL, although I haven't been using it very frequently, if at all, with the Gators. Depth has been too big of a problem, so adding someone else to the 40 man roster hasn't been worth it recently.

[NYY #23]

The Gators went 15-12 during May and moved into a tie for the final Wild Card spot, and sit 5 1/2 games back in the AL West.

Randy Luckwell is having a difficult sophomore season, hitting just .178 with 4 home runs and 12 RBI with a WAR of -1.3. We'll need him to turn things around in order to get our offense going.

There were four milestones around the league this month, 33 year old Jorge Cosa of the Tigers picked up his 2000th career hit, as did 32 year old Adam de Valk of the Padres. 31 year old Joe Numbers of the Marlins swatted the 300th home run of his career. Then finally, 34 year old Victor Rojas of the Blue Jays smashed the 300th home run of his career.

[NYY #23]

The Gators were drafting 23rd in the Amateur Draft and with our first round pick selecting 2B Robert Shoemaker. In the second round we selected starting pitcher Melvin Edmonds followed by reliever Guillermo Corte, pitcher Ricardo Lopez, and center fielder Tommy Mack.

On the field the Gators started the month 7-6, but lost another member of our starting rotation, Fred Carson, for the next 13 months.

[NYY #23]

The Gators completed another winning month going 14-13, but I'm not sure that is enough. We're falling back in the division and in the Wild Card race. Unfortunately I'm not sure what options we have to plug the holes on our roster.

Pedro Martinez of the White Sox hit the 600th home run of his career.

[NYY #23]

We've gotten a lot of bad trade proposals that we've been forced to accept, but today's offer from the Tigers was a strange one, in a good way. The Tigers wanted Alfredo Sanchez, who is in the final year of his contract. He's 7-4 with a 4.24 ERA and a WAR of 2.1. He's definitely not a bad player, but he's looking for an 8 year $130 million contract in order to sign an extension.

So my plan was to shop him if we started to falter, but now we have no choice. The Tigers offered left fielder Ismet Haxhi (.182, 2 HR, 3 RBI), $9.6 million, and 22 year old Cale Webster. Webster is ranked as the #27 prospect in baseball. Now we just hope that we can hold on to Webster through the trade deadline.

[NYY #23]

One day. Cale Webster hasn't even suited up in the Gators organization before the Red Sox proposed a trade. Are you kidding me?

The Red Sox sent 32 year old LF Tommy King, a free agent to be worth absolutely nothing to the Gators. Going to Boston is reliever Thomas Bennett (5-1, 1 SV, 3.86 ERA, 58 1/3 IP) AND Webster. I wouldn't trade Bennett for King, let alone both players.

[NYY #23]

The Gators got a trade offer from the Monks today, with the Gators sending Jose Navarro, while retaining 35% of his contract. We got back 32 year old second baseman Jerry Crane, hitting .250 and making $12 million a year through 2077, along with minor league outfielder Tom Guerra.

[NYY #23]

The Gators shopped LF Everett Thomas and got back pitching prospect Preston Walls, ranked 90th in baseball.

Our next trade was with the Brewers sending Paco Ledezma to the Brewers in exchange for minor league reliever John Stewart.

On the field July was a horrible month with the Gators going 5-19. Once again we'll miss the playoffs, and what I thought was going to be a step forward looks like it was going to be a step back.

The Gators had two All-Stars this year, Jose Morales and Ben Morgan.

[NYY #23]

The Gators had another losing month and now sit 25 games back in the AL West. At this point I'm just looking forward to the season ending.

Adelwahab Onkwani of the Red Sox picked up the 400th hit of his career this month, while Pedro Torres picked up career hit number 2500. Jose Carlos Hernandez of the Braves picked up the 2000th hit of his career.

[NYY #23]

With a 78-84 record the Gators finished with the 12th best record in franchise history, with 24 seasons where we've lost more games. It's hard to believe the Gators have had just 8 winning seasons. However you look at it 2075 was a step back for the Gators.

Losing sucks, and coincidentally we just wrapped up our 12th year in New Orleans. We've now surpassed my longest stay, 11 years with Carolina.

The recently traded Everett Thomas hit the 30th home run of his career for the Giants.

[NYY #23]

With the season over and the Diamondbacks crowned World Champions our work begins again. We started off by adding our first round draft pick Robert Shoemaker to our protected list.

Then we non-tendered 2B Marcos Acosta and 2B Michael Matson. That will save us about $1.6 million and give us around $15 million to spend this offseason.

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)
2066 - New Orleans Gators - 55-107 (.340) 40 GB (Season Score - 1)
2067 - New Orleans Gators - 59-103 (.364) 38 GB (Season Score - 10)
2068 - New Orleans Gators - 51-111 (.315) 48 GB (Season Score - 1)
2069 - New Orleans Gators - 58-104 (.358) 42 GB (Season Score - 1)
2070 - New Orleans Gators - 56-106 (.346) 47 GB (Season Score - 1)
2071 - New Orleans Gators - 66-96 (.407) 31 GB (Season Score - 99
2072 - New Orleans Gators - 77-85 (.475) 17 GB (Season Score - 377)
2073 - New Orleans Gators - 80-82 (.494) 23 GB (Season Score - 408)
2074 - New Orleans Gators - 86-76 (.531) 10 GB (Season Score - 407)
2075 - New Orleans Gators - 78-84 (.481) 28 GB (Season Score - 239)

[NYY #23]

The Monks offered a trade today sending 26 year old shortstop Roberto Aviles (.269, 11 HR, 39 RBI, 0.8 WAR) in exchange for 29 year old reliever Brian Wright (1-4, 4 SV, 3.20 ERA, 64.2 IP, 0.6 WAR) and 18 year old pitching prospect Luis Ruiz.

[NYY #23]

The Orioles proposed a trade today sending 28 year old third baseman Jeff Norton (.250, 12 HR, 43 RBI, 1.6 WAR) to the Gators while getting back 25 year old second baseman Manny Cruz (.267, 4 HR, 35 RBI, 0 WAR) and pitching prospect Melvin Edmonds, our best non-protected prospect. Norton isn't terrible, but I don't like the price we paid to give him up.

[NYY #23]

Three players were inducted into the Hall of Fame this year:







1B Armando Ruíz 84.6 (2nd year) Inducted HOF
C Germán Fernández 83.9 (2nd year) Inducted HOF
CL Ryan Dixon 79.7 (5th year) Inducted HOF
CL Fred Henderson 74.8 (1st year)
1B Anthony Webb 65.2 (2nd year)
CL Pedro Navarro 46.2 (1st year)
C Edgardo Díaz 34.8 (1st year)
CL Stan Wagner 26.2 (2nd year)
SP Jeff Lowe 17.4 (1st year)
SP Jessie Kessler 16.7 (2nd year)
SP Mike Riddle 15.4 (8th year)
RP Jorge Rivera 11.8 (2nd year)
SP Larry McCullough 11.8 (1st year)
RP Clarence Young 11.5 (1st year)
1B José Mendoza 9.8 (1st year)
SP Rowan Moss 9.8 (2nd year)
SP Bob Everhart 8.9 (5th year)
SS Chris Spence 8.5 (1st year)
CL Arthur Harrington 8.5 (10th year) Dropped
RF Ánibal Vallejo 8.2 (8th year)
3B Víctor Valéncia 7.2 (5th year)
2B Dan Stephens 6.9 (6th year)
SP Todd Thomas 6.6 (1st year)
SS Robinson Martínez 6.6 (6th year)
RP Lionnel Martin 6.6 (9th year)
SP Ronald Yule 4.9 (4th year) Dropped
C Eugene Catron 4.9 (8th year) Dropped
SP Rubén Ríos 4.6 (1st year) Dropped
C Lynn Williams 4.3 (3rd year) Dropped
SP Carlos Martínez 3.9 (1st year) Dropped
SP Herb Buchanan 3.6 (2nd year) Dropped
RF Luis Reyes 3.6 (3rd year) Dropped
SS Marcos Heredia 3.3 (3rd year) Dropped
SP Manny Álvarez 3.0 (4th year) Dropped
SP Wilbert Cashman 3.0 (8th year) Dropped
LF Jim Stephenson 2.0 (4th year) Dropped
SP Arthur Hunter 1.3 (1st year) Dropped
CL Tomás Vela 0.7 (1st year) Dropped

[NYY #23]

$15 million sounds like a decent amount of money, but given the number of holes that we had it really doesn't stretch too far. This offseason we took the approach of signing players that we hoped could bounce back to one year deals with the hope that one or two of our signing pan out.

35 year old right fielder Arsenio Charro was signed to a one year $1.4 million contract. Last year he hit .231 with 2 home runs and 32 RBI in an injury shortened year. He'll be joined by 34 year old left fielder Juan Lopez who we signed to a one year $1.5 million contact after a dreadful year in which Lopez hit just .181 with a negative WAR of 0.4. They'll be joined in the outfield by centerfielder Mark Lewis who is 31 years old and will be making $3.2 million this year. He is coming off a 2.1 WAR season despite hitting just .205 with 15 home runs and 46 RBI. He is capable of playing all three outfield spots, first base, and in a pinch second or shortstop, so we like his versatility.

Behind the plate we added 33 year old Jesus Vargas on a one year $1.3 million contract. He's strong defensively and produce a WAR of 0.6 last year in limited action.

Then finally we added a pair of middle infielders. 29 year old shortstop John Marshall hit .254 with 4 home runs in 55 games last year and was signed to a $3.2 million contract. He's just one year removed from a 4.2 WAR season though. John Castro signed a $1.9 million contract. The 37 year old hit .217 with 24 home runs and a WAR of 1.9 last year.

[NYY #23]

The Gators finished spring training with a 19-11 record in a year where my owner expects us to make the playoffs. The preseason predictions are kind to the Gators predicting an 88 win season.

In order to get down to the roster limits we waived LF Emilio Ortiz, who hit .234 with 23 home runs last year, and Ortiz was claimed by the Astros.

[NYY #23]

The Gators started off the year going 13-12 and sit six games out of first place. After starting the year in AAA because of a dreadful spring Hector Lopez was called up and won his first Player of the Week award after hitting .476 with 3 home runs and 7 RBI. Ben Morgan won a Player of the Week award later in the month after hitting .464 with 5 home runs and 15 RBI.

[JaBurns]

Your bullpen looks a little suspect, how does a guy get 8 saves with an ERA over 5?

[NYY #23]

Originally Posted by JaBurns

Your bullpen looks a little suspect, how does a guy get 8 saves with an ERA over 5?

I don't want to let my bullpen off the hook, because I do think they are bad. I do think Tom Law is a pretty decent closer. He was solid as a set-up man, and in his first year as a closer had a 2.31 ERA and 37 saves. His numbers are skewed by a couple of bad outings, but I think he'll turn things around and be the best thing in my pen.

I'm definitely struggling building a bullpen in New Orleans. I think maybe my problem is the inability to horde young starters, and have the failed starters pitch out of the pen. They get swooped away before they get a shot.