Orcin's Story

[Orcin]

2004 Continental Baseball Association World Series
Boston Bombers (96-66) vs. Louisville Colonels (115-47)

GAME 7 @ Louisville: Robert Campos vs. Robert Westaway

Boston’s big guns in the middle of the order were on the bench against the left-hander. That’s a strange call for a game seven, but that’s how they did it all year.

Olivares, starting on a hunch, doubled in Jaramillo with the first run of the game in the fourth. A nifty 3-6-3 double play bailed Westaway out of a jam in the sixth, and it began to look like that lone run might stand up.

Trailing 1-0 with two out and nobody on in the eighth, Boston let Campos bat against Westaway. He had a hit earlier in the game but not this time.

Leading 1-0 with one out and nobody on in the bottom of the inning, Byrne sent McGlone to the plate to bat for Westaway with Sanders warming up in the bullpen. That’s a strange call to take out a guy with a shutout, but that’s how we did it all year. Robert Westaway pitched a great World Series game seven against Boston. Déjà vu!

Sanders took care of Boston in order in the ninth and, well… let’s have the play-by-play announcer tell you.





The Louisville Colonels win the series 4-3. This is CBA championship #1 for Louisville.

[Orcin]

October 31, 2004 (BNN)

Subject: Louisville Wins It All

The Colonels earned their 1st World Series title and now get to spend all winter basking in glory, while the beaten Bombers will have plenty of time to wonder what went wrong.

Louisville is the Continental Baseball Association Champions for 2004. They did it with a 1-0 triumph to capture the series 4-3. Robert Westaway pitched eight shutout innings in the finale and Lucas Sanders closed out the victory.

"Both clubs are talented. We just made fewer mistakes than they did," the winning manager said to the press corps at the postgame press conference. "We made the crucial plays and got the timely hits."

The Boston skipper agreed with that assessment and added, "We were a little weak on fundamentals at crucial times. I have a sneaky suspicion we will be working on fundamentals a lot next spring."

On the way to the World Series championship, the Colonels ended up in first place in the Federal League Midwest Division and compiled a league all-time best 115-47 record during the regular season.

**********
2004 Game Score = 100
This time, I will accept this score graciously and happily!

The turning point of the playoffs was undoubtedly Chris Brown’s bat attack on the dugout and surrounding property way back in the first game against San Diego. This showed everyone that it was time to get serious and do more than “take the next step”.

[Westheim]

Told you.^^

And now that Kentucky's partying all night long, it is all that much sweeter to win a World Series at home.

I've been told. I never won a World Series either way.

[Muskies]

Well Done!!! Couldn't have made it more dramatic if you tried.

I will tip one or two to you tonight.

[beachbomer]

Congratulations Louisville!!!!!!!! No longer is Kentucky know only for basketball and horse racing!

[Dobber2419]

Nice job Orcin! A job well done!

[Galeg]

Congrats! It's about time.

[Orcin]

I hope the picture of the trophy is not a spoiler for anyone.

[Sal, The Barber]

Sal is sorry for not having checked in earlier to say "congratulations." But Sal is drunk and now it appears that that damn Jennifer has slipped out of his sight. Back to work. Sal has got to think about retiring from this drinking and chasing women. Don't worry, even drunk, Sal knows this Jennifer is not to be caught.

[Lee]

Brought home in style, congraulations!!

[Tyke]

Congratulations to everyone at the club. Enjoy the celebrations, Sal!

[Orcin]

Thanks, everyone. This season was a lot of fun.

When your best player goes down for the year in April, the gut instinct is to just quick-sim the thing and move on. A dynasty report demands otherwise. What am I going to write about it? I can't sim it in 10 minutes and then spend two days sifting through box scores to produce a narrative.

No, you play through and see what happens. Well, guess what happened? A trade here, a rookie discovery there, a fringe player performs better than expected, and suddenly you have a 115-win season and a trophy. I would not have guessed that on May 1.

As a good friend of mine used to say... That's baseball!

I will probably savor this for a while longer, and then I will be back for season 5. Thanks for reading!

P.S. And yes, I made a backup.

[Orcin]

November 1, 2004 - The Off-Season Begins

Key dates:
November 11-15 – Award announcements
November 22 – Salary arbitration hearings
November 25 – Eligible players file for free agency
December 1 – “Rule 5” Draft
December 15-19 – Winter Meetings

Henry and Gordon Cooper informed me that the 2005 budget will be $136 million, a $2 million reduction from 2004. My bosses deducted half of last season’s $4 million fiscal loss from next year’s budget. I can’t really blame them for this adjustment. We had $9 million of playoff revenue and still lost money. You can’t count on that bonus revenue every season. We simply must get expenses back in line. We have the trophy now. It’s time to stabilize the payroll at a figure that keeps us in the black. No more desperation bullpen moves.

Before I move on to important off-season tasks, I want to update you on the personnel changes from around the league. The following personnel were fired after the season:

Federal League
Denver Miners (70-92, 13th): GM Sergio Dominguez
Indianapolis Indians (67-95, 14th): MGR Peter Dundee (this was a bad hire)

Patriot League
Nashville Tigers (71-91, 12th): GM Millard Lawrence
Orlando Sharks (68-94, 13th): GM Manny Aguilar, MGR Travis Kline
Cleveland Rockers (65-97, 14th): GM Michael O’Rourke

This is the second straight year that the Sharks cleaned house. Maybe they should boot the guy doing the hiring.

In addition, there are two ownership changes. The Dallas Rattlers were sold to Johnny Durham from Minnesota. He will likely try to reign in the free-spending Rattlers’ GM Eddie Pearson. The Baltimore Robins also changed hands. New owner Artie Patrick is a retired businessman who looks at this as a hobby. He has money and is reportedly ready to spend it for a winner. Both of these teams immediately set their focus to “Rebuilding” and put a bunch of what I would term “dead weight” on the trading block.

Finally, I know you are anxious to hear about this one. Silas Campbell informed us via his agent that he intends to continue his playing career at age 37, and he is willing to negotiate with Louisville on a new contract until the free agent filing deadline. Silas, I am glad that you got that ring. The coaching offer is still open if you change your mind.

[Winnipeg59]

Congrats Orcin!

Enjoy the win, but please keep going. As much fun as it is to watch you build the franchise, it should be as instructional to keep it on top.

[Westheim]

Noooo, how can you go on and dump Old Silas!?

[Orcin]

Originally Posted by Westheim

Noooo, how can you go on and dump Old Silas!?

It's a cold business, my friend.

[Orcin]

Preliminary Depth Chart for 2005

The road map for next season’s active roster follows. Most of these guys are locked in. There could be some trades, but we are world champs so I don’t plan to blow it up. I plan to shore up the foundation underneath it. If you don’t see a familiar name here, rest assured that I did not just forget to mention him. The departures will be covered later.

Starting Pitchers: Wilson, Westaway, Fletcher, Davidson, and Alexander are the best five-man starting rotation in the CBA (my humble opinion). Pedro Castro, AAA Pitcher of the Year, could be in the bullpen as the long reliever. Johnny Savard has one option remaining and will be at AAA as the seventh man on the depth chart.

Bullpen: I am not defining roles until spring training, so I will just list them in order of “seniority”. O’Daniel (R) and De La Hoya (L) will be the veteran leaders. Garza, Brooks, and Jones will be in the bullpen somewhere. Castro could be the long man. I will need to select one or two more from among AAA candidates Barajas, Reed, and Trejo.

Catcher: Bland is the starter and Troy Daniels will be the backup. Larry Matchim has options remaining and will be the third catcher (playing in AAA).

Infield: Chris Brown has three years remaining on a budget-friendly contract. Simon and Martinez will be the starters on the left side. Neither had their best seasons but they are still among the best in the league at their positions. Mariano Gonzalez will be the second baseman. His offense improved late in the year, and he is the best defensively. Tom John and Juan Aponte will be the infield backups.

Outfield: CF Manuel Jaramillo returns as the starting center fielder. Dennis Morgan will be back in left field, but it remains to be seen if he is the same Dennis Morgan. Right field is up for grabs between Lorenzo Olivares, Hugh McGlone, and Jeffrey Jackson. I really want Olivares to take the job because I think he has lots of upside, but he must improve upon last season. Top prospects Pedro Dominguez and Jose Cruz could also be candidates, although Candelaria just issued a significant ratings downgrade on Cruz.

Lineup: We still need to settle on a leadoff hitter. I want Bland in a run-producer spot instead of at the top of the order. Simon is be the best option for base stealing, but that .323 on-base percentage is not good enough. Jaramillo is ideal in the #2 spot and I don’t want to move him up to #1 or back to #3. Jeffrey Jackson could be a very good leadoff hitter, but his arm is weak for the right field position and so is Morgan’s. I will have to compromise somewhere, and you know how highly I value defense.

Summary: This is a world championship team and the temptation is to stand pat. You don’t get better by standing pat though. You just get older. I will explore ways to get better, younger and yes, cheaper – but not at the expense of my chance to repeat.

[NYY #23]

Congrats on the World Series win!

[Orcin]

First Day of Off-Season

I remind you of the standard task list for today:
• Address open personnel positions
• Make decision to exercise or decline team options
• Offer arbitration (or not) to potential free agents
• Submit arbitration offers to eligible players or decide not to tender them
• Make offers to potential free agents (or not), including minor league free agents

I attend to all of these tasks before I advance the game to the next day, but of course I don’t finish every task because I have to wait for answers on some of them.



Task: Fill open personnel positions

I don’t have any positions open! There are several great managerial candidates on the market, but I don’t intend to fire an incumbent just to see if I can hire someone that looks better on paper. The real question is next year. I have a bunch of expiring contracts from my first season’s hires, including the entire major league staff.

We just won the World Series, Sal. I can’t fire my manager. I will negotiate extensions with the entire major league staff this winter. Scout Fernando Candelaria will get an offer also. I also plan to look carefully at the minor leagues and selectively offer a few extensions so that there won’t be so many openings next year. It’s always healthy to have a few positions turn over and bring fresh ideas into the system.

[Orcin]

Task: Make decision to exercise or decline team options

Starting pitcher Ron Sims has a team option for $2.5 million. He did not have a good season and was sent down to AAA in July. He made 11 starts down there and was below average for the league in ERA, giving up 14 home runs in 11 starts. I don’t see any reason to bring him back, and Candelaria agrees.

Shortstop Howard Archuleta was injured most of the year and appeared in 49 games, mostly as a defensive replacement or late-inning sub. He is 33 years old and I would rather go with a younger guy that has options remaining. I will decline his $1.5 million team option.

As previously noted, Silas Campbell did not meet the statistical requirement for his vesting option and will become a free agent if we do not negotiate an extension before the deadline. I have no interest in an extension.



Task: Offer arbitration (or not) to potential free agents

I will offer arbitration to one eligible free agent: CL Lucas Sanders (70 IP, 5-0, 52 SV, 1.40 ERA, 0.76 WHIP, 87 K, age 28, 5 stars)

I would be really happy if he accepts. I can afford him for 2005 but not beyond. He won’t sign a one-year deal – he wants six years at $14M/year. He won’t accept the arbitration either. My initial list from the league says that he is not compensation eligible.

The following players will not be offered arbitration and will become free agents:

MR Matt Head (49.2 IP, 5-3, 6 SV, 2.72 ERA, age 31, 4.5 stars)
MR Chris Patterson (26 IP, 0-3, 1 SV, 3.12 ERA, age 30, 2 stars)
SS Howard Archuleta (63 AB, .238/.275/.349, 1 HR, 0 SB, age 32, 3 stars)
LF Silas Campbell (154 AB, .286/.321/.468, 8 HR, 1 SB, age 37, 1 star)
RF Dale Harris (75 AB, .213/.247/.360, 3 HR, 3 SB, age 29, 1.5 stars)

None of them would be compensation eligible.