Worst to First - The Sequel

[JaBurns]

Agreed; as I stated early you have much more courage than I do, I could not torture myself with this setup.

[NYY #23]

Originally Posted by JaBurns

Agreed; as I stated early you have much more courage than I do, I could not torture myself with this setup.

Well I do have a little bit of a safety net by protecting one player each year, but it certainly is a little bit of torture at times. Makes it tough to do long term planning, and I never realized the number of bad deals you get offered too.

[phillyboy19]

Originally Posted by NYY #23

At this point it's become somewhat of a mission to finish this challenge of taking each team from worst to first. With 14 teams left it's coming up on 2 years since I started the restart, or 4 years overall, so it's time to resume so I don't end up spending another 4 years on this.

-------------------------
Last year there were two expansion teams, including the Toronto Blue Jays. I thought there was a pretty good chance I'd be running one of those two expansion teams, but that's not the case. We will be heading to Canada to take over the Montreal Expos, who have lost more than 100 games in 7 of their 9 years of existence. Their best season came in 1974 when they went 72-90, so it hasn't been too good in Montreal:

Attachment 317944

As for the current roster, I don't even know where to start:

Attachment 317943

Out of 26 teams last year, just 2 lost money. One, the Minnesota Twins came pretty close to break even, losing less than $100,000. The Expos on the other hand lost over $2 million.

We've got the smallest budget in the league, the smallest payroll, and our attendance of 8,571 per game was less than half of the next lowest team. Runs scored - 12th, Runs allowed - 12th. Our coaching staff is terrible, as is our scout.

Our best player is 23 year old first baseman Jason Thompson who hit .279 with 32 home runs. Our best pitcher Don Carrithers is set to be a free agent after going 11-15 with a 3.35 ERA, and while I'd love to sign him to an extension we can't afford it.

This appears to be my toughest challenge yet.

It's been over 4 years XD

[jpeters1734]

pretty cool thread. what's your status here?

[NYY #23]

Originally Posted by phillyboy19

It's been over 4 years XD

Boy, I completed missed my 4 year anniversary.

Originally Posted by jpeters1734

pretty cool thread. what's your status here?

Thanks! Now that OOTP 19 is out I should have a little bit more spare time now and should pick back up soon once I figured out where I abruptly left off.

I should warn everyone when I'm going on a long hiatus though, but it's time to check off the Gators box and get them over the edge (hopefully very soon)!

[NYY #23]

After a dreadful month the Gators kicked off June with a trade of Michael Wells to the Phillies in exchange for LF Tom Montgomery that will save us about $300,000 the rest of the year. The trade was spurred by an altercation between Wells and a fan.

The Gators are now 12 1/2 games back in the AL West after going 12-16 for the month of May.

Lawrence Sutton of the Monks picked up the 2000th hit of his career this month.

[mirrf]

Welcome back!

[NYY #23]

Originally Posted by mirrf

Welcome back!

Thanks!

[NYY #23]

The Gators were drafting 16th overall in the amateur draft and with our first round pick selected 22 year old third baseman Kevin 'Mountain Man' Wilkinson. In the second round we selected pitcher Chris Young followed by right fielder Ed Garza, pitcher Enrique Moya, and right fielder Cam McKinney to round out the top five rounds.

We'll need all the help we can get after starting June 6-7.

[NYY #23]

After going 13-13 for the month of June I can't help but just feel hopeless in New Orleans. We're 3 games under .500, our playoff hopes are slim, and we just can't get over the hump in our unlucky 13th year in New Orleans.

I thought we'd make the playoffs after Spring Training, although just the fact we spent our available money and our now in the red again after our owner cut our budget after the offseason speaks volumes about New Orleans, and how much I've enjoyed things.

I may be forced to do something I don't want to do in July and trade Ben Morgan and Zach Davis. I don't want to risk them walking away and us getting nothing in return as free agents. We'll see what happens over the next couple of weeks.

34 year old James Jimenez of the Indians hit career home run number 400, while 35 year old Michael Fernandez of the Dodgers saved his 300th career game.

[NYY #23]

The opportunity to add three top 50 prospects was too good of an opportunity to pass up for the Gators, so we traded impending free agent Zach Davis, CF Mark Lewis, pitcher Fred Carson, and pitching prospect Ricardo Lopez to the Dodgers and got back Ron Hall, Javier Rivas, and Steven Wade.

[NYY #23]

While Ben Morgan is signed through 2077 I decided to make a clean break and trade Morgan along with shortstop Jorge Castro, right fielder Ed Garza, SP Preston Walls, and Ray DeWeese to the Marlins in exchange for 25 year old centerfielder Shawn Spears.

Spears is one of the top prospects in baseball and is hitting .300 since being recalled to the majors. He's a piece to build around I hope.

It's a big trade, but combined with the Zach Duke trade we essentially are throwing in the towel and starting fresh.

[NYY #23]

While the Gators went 14-10 for the month, pulled to one game over .500, and are just a 1/2 game out of the final wild card spot we shouldn't overlook that the team leader in batting average, home runs, RBI, and wins are playing elsewhere now, not to mention our best pitcher Zach Davis.

The Gators did have two All-Stars this year, the traded Morgan, and closer Tom Law. It's definitely going to be tough replacing Morgan's bat in our lineup, but I'm hoping for a strong end to the season.

[NYY #23]

The good part about August is that the bottom didn't fall out of our season. We managed to go 14-13 for the month and are still in the thick of the Wild Card race. It's not even that I have expectations of winning it all, but it sure would be nice to get over the playoff hump, especially since we're relatively healthy.

Of course I'm having second thoughts about trading Zach Davis and Ben Morgan. They are both dominating for their new teams. I do think we're better off in the long run with them gone, but I may have made a mistake for this year.

Hector Lopez hit 3 homers in a game this month. He's certainly having a good year this year hitting .285 with 25 home runs and 53 RBI and seems to have taken over at first base. That means Keith Hudson will be playing more DH now that he's back from the disabled list.

Pedro Torres of the Dodgers hit the 600th home run of his career this month. It's been about 8 years since he's played for the Monks in this universe.

[NYY #23]

With a 17-8 month I couldn't have asked much more from the team. With 83 wins we're already guaranteed to finish over .500 for just the third time in my thirteen seasons in New Orleans.

Randy Luckwell was named Hitter of the Month after going .333 with 10 homers, 28 RBI, and 17 runs scored, but we got contributions from quite a few players.

But we still are a 1/2 game out from the final Wild Card spot. We've got three games left against the 115 win White Sox, and three against the 91 loss Twins. We'll keep our fingers crossed and hope for the best.

[NYY #23]

Missing out on the playoffs by one game is disappointing, but I'm going to try and focus on the positives of 2076 instead. Our 87 wins are the most since our fluky 2065 season. On the offensive side we've seen solid seasons by 25-year-old Hector Lopez (4.3 WAR), Randy Luckwell (2.6 WAR), Keith Hudson (2.0), and some promise from Shawn Spears (1.5 WAR 53 games). It also appears that Douglas King, Enrique Contreras, Andres Martir, and Steven Wade are beginning to form the core of our rotation.

We don't have much money to spend this offseason, but I also feel comfortable that for the first time we have a good core of players to build around.

[NYY #23]

While the Gators didn't get to experience the playoffs some former Gators got to experience the playoffs this year with the Marlins, who pulled off the big upset of the playoffs when they defeated the 118 win Chicago White Sox. Ben Morgan wasn't much of a factor though (3-26, .115), nor was Ray DeWeese (0-2), or Preston Walls (0-1, 8.31). So it looks like the Marlins won in spite of former Gators. Although Morgan did have a big ALCS despite the Marlins seven game loss hitting .385 with 5 home runs and 13 RBI.

As we head into the offseason we'll add Kevin Wilkinson to the protected list. After our trades last year the current list now looks like this:

Current List:
1) Willard Burton
2) Ron Hall
3) Enrique Contreras
4) Steven Wade
5) John Guan
6) Keith Hudson
7) Douglas King
8) Hector Lopez
9) Randy Luckwell
10) Andres Martir
11) Shawn Spears
12) Scott Brouhard
13) Javier Rivas
14) Robert Shoemaker
15) Kevin Wilkinson

Interestingly of the 15 players protected, 13 played in the majors last year.

After a fairly successful season our budget was cut by $5 million. My owner is not happy, which shouldn't come as a big surprise. For the upcoming year he'd like us to replace Juan Jose Sanchez with a more experienced manager. I decided to give him an extension after he went 331-317 over the past four years because I think he's growing with the team and the right man for the job. He also expects us to reach the World Series next year, and increase attendance by 11,000 fans per game. We'll see what happens.

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)
2076 - New Orleans Gators - 87-75 (.537) 31 GB (Season Score - 449)

[G-Force]

Chatanooga Choo Choos! That's GOLD, Jerry...GOLD!!!!!

GH

[NYY #23]

The Royals offered a trade today sending us shortstop Terry Johnson and his $3.8 million contract in exchange for minor league outfielder Edgardo Oscal and this year's second round pick Chris Young. Young looks like an interesting prospect, and I'm disappointed that we lost him, especially for a player like Johnson who we don't need, and don't want.

[NYY #23]

Two players were elected to the Hall of Fame this year.





C Esteban Albizu 89.1 (1st year) Inducted HOF
CL Fred Henderson 88.1 (2nd year) Inducted HOF
1B Anthony Webb 66.2 (3rd year)
CL Roberto María 61.4 (1st year)
CL Pedro Navarro 53.2 (2nd year)
SP Jorge Cruz 42.7 (1st year)
SP Paco Martínez 23.2 (1st year)
C Edgardo Díaz 22.2 (2nd year)
CL Stan Wagner 18.1 (3rd year)
SP Jeff Lowe 15.4 (2nd year)
SP Mike Riddle 15.0 (9th year)
LF Roy Thomas 14.3 (1st year)
SP Jessie Kessler 14.3 (3rd year)
RF Ánibal Guerrero 11.3 (1st year)
C Enrique González 10.2 (1st year)
RF Ánibal Vallejo 9.2 (9th year)
SP Bob Everhart 8.5 (6th year)
SP Rowan Moss 6.5 (3rd year)
RP Jorge Rivera 6.1 (3rd year)
2B Dan Stephens 6.1 (7th year)
RP Lionnel Martin 6.1 (10th year) Dropped
1B Luke Sutton 6.1 (1st year)
SP Fernando Rosas 5.8 (1st year)
SS Robinson Martínez 5.8 (7th year)
SS Lúcio Reyes 5.8 (1st year)
RP Clarence Young 5.5 (2nd year)
1B José Mendoza 5.5 (2nd year)
CL Pedro Quintanilla 5.5 (1st year)
SS Chris Spence 4.4 (2nd year) Dropped
3B Víctor Valéncia 4.4 (6th year) Dropped
SP Larry McCullough 3.4 (2nd year) Dropped
SP Todd Thomas 2.0 (2nd year) Dropped
SP Ramón Gonzáles 1.7 (1st year) Dropped
2B Ray Osborne 0.7 (1st year) Dropped
SP Shane Howard 0.7 (1st year) Dropped
1B José Moreno 0.0 (1st year) Dropped