Worst to First - The Sequel

[NYY #23]

We made our first deal of the offseason today, sending 1B Jason Thompson and MR Jackie Brown to the Detroit Tigers in exchange for 21 year old catcher Lance Parrish, 31 year old reliever Rick Austin, and 24 year old second baseman Rich Puig.

Our hope is that we traded a good young first baseman for a good young catcher.

[NYY #23]

It was a rough day in Montreal, as we lost the following players to free agency:

LF Merv Rettenmund
MR Frank Bertaina
C Jerry Grote
C Glenn Borgmann
SP Don Carrithers
SP Bob Sadowski
SP Dave McNally
SP Jerry Johnson
RF Roger Freed
LF Joe Lahoud
SP Bill Butler
RF Ron Swoboda
CF Jarvis Tatum
MR Don Gullett
MR Carl Morton
MR Bob Moose

It was expected, but it still left a bad team in worse shape.

[NYY #23]

This was a move I didn't want to make, but I felt that we needed to do this.

We sent RF Ken Griffey Sr and MR Dave Geisel to the Chicago Cubs in exchange for SP Dave Frost, C Don Werner, and LF Gene Martin.

It really hurts to trade Griffey, but I did it for a few reasons -

1) Griffey was by far our highest paid player
2) We saved $275,000 with the deal
3) We were able to bring back a 24 year old starting pitcher who had a 2.86 ERA last year.

Our fans hate the deal because we traded Griffey, but since we only had 8000 fans last year we'll have to win them back by building a winning team.

[NYY #23]

We made one more deal, which I believe is going to be my final deal of the winter. We saved $146,000 in a deal with the Red Sox sending 2B Jerry Remy, SS Stan Papi, 3B Ron Cey, and MR Jim Todd, and getting back a trio of pitchers including 22 year old Tommy Boggs, 22 year old Floyd Bannister, and 25 year old Randy Tate.

We cleaned house this offseason, and shed a lot of money. We tried to bring back some starting pitching. We gave up a lot of offense, and we already started out with the worst offense in the league. Next year certainly won't be pretty, but we're going with the motto pitching wins.

[NYY #23]

The Expos finished in last place in Spring Training, going 10-14. According to preseason predictions we are predicted to go 70-92, which I'll definitely take.

Our offense is expected to be terrible, but our pitching should be pretty respectable. Our owner expects us to go .500, but I think that may be a reach.

We'll be getting a supplemental pick for the Phillies signing Marv Rettenmund and the A's first round pick, along with a supplemental pick for their signing of Don Carrithers. I'm hoping next year will be a good draft.

[NYY #23]

The Expos had a better than expected month, going 10-11. It's definitely early, but attendance is up 88.2%, despite trading away our most popular players.

Billy Sample was named Rookie of the Month after hitting .349 with 2 home runs, 16 RBI, and 13 runs scored.

[NYY #23]

While the Expos had another losing month, there is nothing to be ashamed of with our 14-15 month. It's actually scary that we are 24-26 for the year and just 4 1/2 games out of first place.

Of course I'm worried about June, with Lance Parrish, Joe Sambito, Ray Knight, and Ron Davis all on the disabled list.

[NYY #23]

I did expect bad things in June, but not necessarily 8-20 bad. We had two series this month against my last team the Padres. They came to Montreal and swept us, outscoring us 12-2. We went on the road to San Diego and they swept us 12-0. They are the only team we haven't won a game against yet, after going 0-6. There is a reason why they are in first place though, and we are in last.

Just a side note, but the Padres have already traded Mickey Rivers, and Jim Palmer. Not to mention shifting around the entire defense.

[NYY #23]

We got our players back from the disabled list, but our results were just about the same, going 9-22 for the month.

It's the same situation though, our starting pitching has been pretty good, our offense has been terrible, and our bullpen suspect.

This is part of our growing pains though. The Expos failed to send anybody to the all-star game this year.

[NYY #23]

The Expos have gone .286, .290, and .333 the past three months. So we've seen some improvement this month going 9-18.

I'll just say that I'm really looking forward to the amateur draft.

[NYY #23]

With one year in the books in Montreal the Expos managed to go from a 105 loss team to a 105 loss team. We certainly are in a better position financially, making $1,963,516 to end with a final balance of $102,901.

That should at least give us some more flexibility moving forward, and I'm really looking forward to the amateur draft to add some players.

Montreal Expos - 57-105 (.352) 31 GB
1978 - Montreal Expos 57-105 (.352) 31 GB (Season Score - 1)

[NYY #23]

Before we get into the amateur draft there was some news with 1B Paul Dicken retiring, and our manager, hitting coach, and scouting director leaving with their contracts expiring.

Carlos Garcia was brought on as our new scout, with Lew Burdette our new hitting coach, and Adrian Romero as our new manager.

I should also mention that the Detroit Tigers won the World Series over the San Diego Padres 4 games to 3.

The Expos were picking first, and with our first pick in the draft we selected LF Rickey Henderson. We'll have to move Billy Sample over to center field, but it was hard to pass up on Rickey.

Unfortunately we were expecting another first round pick, but the A's did too poorly and their top pick was protected. We did have two supplemental picks though, and selected a pair of relievers, Bill Claudill and Dan Quisenberry. They weren't exactly what I wanted, but they were the best available.

In the second round we selected reliever Mark Clear. Starting pitcher Rich Dotson was our third round pick, with second baseman Steve Davis our final pick.

I think we'll be able to sign all of our draft picks, except maybe Rich Dotson. His bonus demands may be too high.

[NYY #23]

We declined to offer arbitration to CF Steve Brye, CF Cito Gaston, and SP David Clyde, and all three players will become free agents.

We won our arbitration cases with:

CL Joe Sambito ($120,000)
LF Tony Scott ($80,000)
MR Ray Burris ($80,000)
MR Steve Simpson ($80,000)
3B Ray Knight ($80,000)
MR Buddy Schultz ($80,000)

We didn't lose any of the arbitration cases.

[NYY #23]

The Expos had $170,000 available to spend on free agents this offseason, which wasn't a lot of money.

It wasn't much money, but I wanted to spend it to try and improve the team. We targeted a player who was a type B free agent, 36 year old first baseman Jim Wynn. He should offer some pop, as he hit 18 home runs last year. His .242 batting average wasn't great, but last year Dave McKay hit .213 with 5 home runs as our first baseman. We signed Wynn to a one year $160,000 contract.

[NYY #23]

I'm not sure where the money came from, but checking our available funds we had about $300,000 available to sign free agents. I thought I would put that money to use and sign a couple veterans to one year deals.

First up, 36 year old Bob Bailey, who can play both 2B and 3B. Bailey hit 17 home runs last year to go along with a .224 average and signed for $150,000.

Centerfielder Bob Coluccio is a free agent for the first time of his career, who missed all but 27 games last year with an injury. He's trying to re-establish his value, and agreed to a $150,000 deal.

[NYY #23]

The Expos started the year with a 11-9 month, and sit just a game outside of first place. We really aren't playing well though, so we should consider ourselves lucky.

Our owner would like to see us finish .500 for the year, and I think we've got a shot at it at least.

[NYY #23]

The Expos went 11-16 in May, and now sit 3 games under .500. We've got a couple of players starting to heat up, and Billy Sample is starting to adjust to right field, but it hasn't been too pretty.

Rickey Henderson is coming around, hitting .308 in May to raise his average to .276. He's added 15 stolen bases this year so far.

[NYY #23]

The Expos had our second winning month this year going 14-12 to pull to 36-37 for the year and we now sit in third place.

Jim Wynn hit his 300th home run of his career this month.

[NYY #23]

I really wanted to make a deal at the deadline to improve us for the future, but I was unable to find a deal that was worth it. I was real close on a couple of deals, but just not close enough.

We did pull to .500 for the year though with a 16-15 month.

The Expos sent Lance Parrish to the All-Star game this year, so at least we were represented.

[NYY #23]

The Expos struggled a little bit in August going 13-16, but we still are on pace for our best season ever. We've already set an attendance record and we've still got a month left.

We need just 7 wins to tie our All-Time record of 72-90. In their 11th year of existence I'm really hoping we'll get hot in September and have our first winning season.

Rickey Henderson won the Rookie of the Month Award after hitting .366 with 5 doubles, 19 runs, and 9 RBI. He also added 11 stolen bases to bring his season total to 42.