THE Pittsburgh Arsenal

[Papa3]

Our best pitcher was shipped out by the AI in the offseason and the outfielder we got in return is now on the shelf so we're off to another bad start. Here's what we have on the mound to get this dynasty rolling.

STARTERS

Jim Kalbfleisch - Eight weeks after being selected 2nd overall in the '01 draft, he lost four months to a torn labrum. Now he's coming off a torn flexor tendon in his elbow that caused him to miss the entire '04 season. We have no idea if this guy's got anything left in him but, for now at least, he's the closest thing we have to an ace. Before his most recent injury he was 9-12 with a 4.05 ERA and 1.40 WHIP in '03. Overall 1.0 stars/Potential 1.5 stars

Jon Wolfe - The former 5th rounder was a AAA All-Star in '03, posting a 12-7 record and 2.98 ERA. Last year he started 6 games with Pittsburgh going 3-2 with a 3.66 ERA. Overall 1.0 stars/Potential 1.0 stars

Oscar Ayloffe - Now 29 years old, Ayloffe has a 20-54 record over the past three seasons. His 4.60 ERA isn't off the charts however his 2.3 run support is. Overall 2.0/Potential 2.5

Boyd Groves - In '04, the 24 year old was 5-6 with a 3.61 ERA in AA but 4-10 with a 7.48 ERA in AAA. He made his big league debut late in the year, throwing 7 innings allowing 1 run on 5 hits and a walk. We're going to need about 30 more of those this year. Overall 0.5/Potential 1.0

Tomoharu Fukuda - A Rule 5 pickup this past December, he was 13-10 with a 4.09 ERA in AAA last year. Overall 1.5 stars/Potential 2.0 stars

RELIEVERS

Matt Morner - This will probably be closer-by-committee but Morner's the best of the bunch, throwing 57 games last year with a 4.17 ERA and 62 K's in 73 IP and a 1.32 WHIP. Overall 3.5 stars/Potential 4.0 stars

Miguel Martinez - He saved 65 games in 2 seasons at AA ('02-'03) but had a 5.54 ERA in 69 AAA appearances a year ago. Overall 1.0 stars/Potential 1.5 stars

Brian Morrison - A starter throughout his college and minor league career, he threw 24 games in relief for Pittsburgh in '04 and was 2-5 with a 5.76 ERA and 1.76 WHIP. Overall 1.0 stars/Potential 1.5 stars

Casper Sankey - The 27 year old had a 3.34 ERA in AA and a 4.66 ERA in AAA while splitting 60 appearances between the two. Overall 1.5 stars/Potential 2.0 stars

Liao Rayte - 30 years old, he had a 4.93 ERA in 33 games last year and a 3.99 ERA in 16 the year before. Overall 0.5 stars/Potential 0.5 stars

[Papa3]

As the season gets underway, it's time to start with the remake. We've hired a new scout who's one of the best in the biz, and he's hitting on a 15-year old Oklahoma City 3B named Roberto Contreras. OSA has him rated as 1 star potential, my scout has him as 5 stars. His stats against much older competition lead me to believe my scout is smarter. Let's get him.



It doesn't take too much to bring Contreras aboard, just our 22-yr old pitching prospect named Lance Wheeler. Our budget being hamstrung, we get $320,000 thrown into the deal. Contreras is a long ways off, but I didn't see much of a future with Wheeler so we'll take our chances.

I'm not quite sure how this happened, but the 15-year old Contreras played in both high school and Rookie league last year. He put up some nice numbers in Rookie ball despite his age. Looking forward to seeing what he'll develop into over the next 5-10 years.

[Papa3]

REMINDER
Because the game date is actually four years in the future (February 2009), I can't detail how the Arsenal are doing on a constant basis yet. I only have access to the transactions and end-of-year stats, so that's what I'm doing until we get caught up.

Peter Alexander

A week later, with our starting CF (Ben Fearn) on the DL until September, we've made another deal. This one's bigger, as you'll see in a couple years.



Peter Alexander is a 21 year old prospect who's hitting for extremely high average but comes with a major caveat. He's rated a 2 at CF and that's his only position. He has a Very High work ethic which means he should be good at learning a new position, and while his range and error are below average, he has an elite arm. Could move to right field in the future.

He has a high cost to get him -- two top prospects, two more prospects, and a 4th round pick -- but I'm not seeing what OSA is seeing in my prospects so I'll move them out for Alexander. This guy's got a heck of a bat and has been tearing up every level so far. 24 homers in 58 games last year. Not too shabby.



The Arsenal aren't anywhere close to being a winner, so we've got to

[Papa3]

So we're now 2+ months into my first season as GM of the Arsenal and I've gotta tell you, it's fascinating watching each and every game play out. We're horrible but it's kind of neat seeing how it happens.

Some nights the bats just can't get going. On other nights when they do, my pitchers always find a way to give up a couple of big innings that wipe out any good work done by the hitters. This is definitely going to take some time -- and some more moves.

Rich Cooper

Scouring A-ball, I come across one of the top pitchers in the league named Rich Cooper. His amateur stats were awful but he's done quite well in the minors. In a world of "What have you done for me lately?", I pull the trigger.



Cooper doesn't come cheaply. I have to trade my starting RF, Andnej Zajac, who has batted third for me on occasion. But with the move for Peter Alexander a couple months ago, I'm thinking he's my future in right field, not Zajac. So I'm willing to give up some "now" for some "later".

Still very strapped for cash, it was key to making this deal that I get a good amount thrown in. This move was more than just Cooper, it was getting $ for a quality free agent or two in the offseason.

[Papa3]

Surprise, surprise. We've got the #1 pick in the June draft. If we're gonna turn this franchise around any time soon, we HAVE to make this count.

One thing I'm not a fan of is the AI draft pick trading, at least on Hard/Favor Prospects which is what this is on. Not a single team would trade me their first rounder straight up for my first rounder, even though I've got the #1 pick. So trading this pick is out of the question.

I need just about everything badly, but particularly pitching. Unfortunately there's not a single pitcher who warrants a first overall selection. In fact there's really only one guy who I'd say is first overall, and he's a first baseman. Scott Walker is 2.0 stars overall/5.0 stars potential and, at 22 years old, could bat third in my starting lineup. Here's his overpowering college stats:

Scott Walker, 1B



But I've already got a young guy who's playing very well at first base, and frankly, that position is a dime-a-dozen.

Liam Briggs began the year at AAA and hit .435/.458/.826 with 8 HR and 26 RBI in 17 games. Since his promotion, he's batting over .300 with a 30+ HR full-season pace. Without a DH in either league, we've got a tough decision to make.

After many a debate, we decide to go with the clear #1 choice and draft Walker. With the first pick in the second round I grab reliever Ken O'Connor. O'Connor's college stats:

Ken O'Connor, RP

[Papa3]

Pittsburgh's losing ways continue (we're 35-80), and our first overall pick isn't helping our greatest need -- pitching. Ever since drafting Scott Walker we've been sniffing out offers from around the NBL for him.

Cast your net far enough, eventually someone will bite. Two teams offered up a top pitching prospect in a deal that would include Walker. Here are the choices, but the Carranza deal could involve additional elements:





They're different types of pitchers. Carranza has the chance to become overpowering if he can get his command in order. Jovanovic looks to be a more reliable pitcher who might provide more quality starts over the course of a season, but fewer dominating appearances.

I keep swaying back and forth, initially leaning toward Jovanovic then towards Carranza. But I went with Carranza because I could milk more out of the deal. If I went with Jovanovic, it would have been straight up for Walker.

The Carranza deal also allowed a throw-in pitcher. I could get an even better pitcher if I included some other pieces on my side of the offer. I found Chris Vanes, a guy I think could become a high quality #4 or #5 starter. If I could fill 40% of my future rotation in one deal, that's the deal I'm gonna make. And I did.



Chris Vanes stats :

[smiller]

Am enjoying your report, but am puzzled by the changes in team names. For example, are Pittsburgh the Arsenal or Renegades? Noticed this with other teams. Did I mss something earlier?

Also, are you strictly doing GM duties, or acting as manager as well?

[Papa3]

Originally Posted by smiller

Am enjoying your report, but am puzzled by the changes in team names. For example, are Pittsburgh the Arsenal or Renegades? Noticed this with other teams. Did I mss something earlier?

Also, are you strictly doing GM duties, or acting as manager as well?

Thanks a lot, and great questions that I should clarify.

Yes, the team names were changed in 2007 or 2008 (game years). I went through a couple uniform sets from guys in the mods section. I finally settled on the ones I'm stating and tried to avoid posting anything that showed the old unis/names. All the cities and franchises remain the same, just the nicknames/logos/unis have been updated.

And Pittsburgh was originally the Renegades, then the Pioneers for one year, but finally they are the Arsenal. That will not change from here on out.

As far as my duties, I am mostly GM. I set all rosters including all levels of minors and tweak pitching staffs and lineups. I control NOTHING during the game, however. I watch each one using Short PbP/Instant. It takes me about five minutes to "space bar" (repeatedly pressing the space bar) through each game.

I'm glad you're enjoying this. I can't wait to get caught up and give more in-season detail.

[smiller]

Thanks for the response. Are you planning to stay with 14 or move everything over to 15? Also, how long did it take to sim 15 years and did you do it in Commissioner mode? Am asking, because you're starting to inspire me to try something similar.

[Honorable_Pawn]

Oh, you're gonna get a lot of followers. Very nice work. I'll try to keep up. Pretty busy with 100+ jerseys to make but I'm looking forward to this report.

[Papa3]

Originally Posted by smiller

Thanks for the response. Are you planning to stay with 14 or move everything over to 15? Also, how long did it take to sim 15 years and did you do it in Commissioner mode? Am asking, because you're starting to inspire me to try something similar.

I've already moved to 15 In 14, it took maybe half a day to sim. It took several attempts to get a league I was happy with but it was fun trying.

I simmed in Commish mode so I wouldn't get any message interruptions but have kept it so I can delete nicknames whenever they pop up. But I promise I have NEVER looked at a guy's actual ratings.

As I mentioned in one of the very early posts, I planned on swimming the first 20 years, but I couldn't resist taking over Pittsburgh at the 15 year mark because they were so horrendously awful and, with a tiny market, gave me an enormous handicap.

While I didn't intentionally set it up for one team to be so bad, I think you can. Just set one team in the league to have a tiny market. Pittsburgh is a 2 out of 20, I did peek at that a week or so ago while I was working on this report.

Feel free to ask me any questions at all. I'm happy to help.

[Papa3]

Originally Posted by Honorable_Pawn

Oh, you're gonna get a lot of followers. Very nice work. I'll try to keep up. Pretty busy with 100+ jerseys to make but I'm looking forward to this report.

Thanks a lot. I wasn't planning on doing a dynasty report initially, but have become so immersed (and frankly, kind of proud) of this team and league.

Since I know the outcome of the first four years, it's all a recap trying to refresh my memory along the way. I just wish I could go back to certain points in the game to view stats, standings, etc. so I can share more than just transactions and end-of-year stats. But oh well.

I imagine sharing my experience with this team will help others out too. (Yes, a little foreshadowing, but no big one...yet -- hopefully that'll come in "real time" during this report.)

[NYY #23]

This is good stuff. I'm caught up now and curious to see your journey from here to present day.

[Papa3]

The 2005 season, my first as Arsenal head boss, was a mess as expected. But we made some good strides positioning ourselves for the future. Without giving up any key pieces of the future (we didn't really have any to begin with), we brought in some good, young prospects and added nearly $1 million in our trades.

Almost as importantly, we began fixing our financial situation. Our attendance is up, as is our balance, and our payroll is down.

FINANCES Change from 2004 >>> 2005

Attendance 1,023,364 >>> 1,279,495
Balance 1,795,005 >>> 5,627,164
Payroll 9,002,419 >>> 7,319,821

KEY ADDITIONS

OF Peter Alexander
3B Roberto Contreras
SP Rich Cooper
SP Robby Carranza
SP Chris Vanes

REMINDER

In these stats we were the Pittsburgh Renegades. All franchises are still in the same city (except Minneapolis is now Minnesota) but the nicknames in these stats have since changed as well.

[smiller]

Your report reminds me of ones I used to read in Football Manager where someone tried to take a lower league club to a higher division.

I do have a few more questions. I only started playing ootp a month ago, so am still in the learning process. Started with 14, but will be buying 15 soon.
So with Pittsburgh (Arsenal, by the way, is a top English soccer club), you are now the GM, and are no longer in Commissioner mode? Or are you able to do both at once?

[Papa3]

Originally Posted by smiller

Your report reminds me of ones I used to read in Football Manager where someone tried to take a lower league club to a higher division.

I do have a few more questions. I only started playing ootp a month ago, so am still in the learning process. Started with 14, but will be buying 15 soon.
So with Pittsburgh (Arsenal, by the way, is a top English soccer club), you are now the GM, and are no longer in Commissioner mode? Or are you able to do both at once?

I'm also really new to OOTP, got it back in January and kind of embarrassed to say how many hours I've played it since then. So I guess I'm kinda a vet now.

But to answer your question, you can definitely be commish and GM at once. The customizability really is limitless. The only reason I'm still checked off as commish is to delete the player nicknames, which I'm not a fan of. I found out there's a way to not have them in the first place, but ONLY if you clear the nicknames file BEFORE starting a new game.

Since I'm not going to restart this one for something so trivial, I just delete one when I see it. But I could manage 2 teams, 5 teams, 22 teams, whatever...if I wanted to. And I've read on these forums where lots of guys do that sort of stuff.

[Papa3]

STATS & SOME GOOD STUFF

- Jeremy Stubblefield is establishing himself as an above average catcher. Nothing wrong with 65 extra base hits.

- Trade pickup Peter Alexander was bumped right into our starting lineup and led our team in batting with a .322 average. I'd like to see his K/BB ratio improve with experience.

- Liam Briggs hit a bit of a slump the last couple months but showed he's a capable first baseman. 20 home runs in 305 AB will do.

- Matt Dunn had a solid rookie season and may just be good enough that we don't have to search for an upgrade here. 34 doubles ain't bad for a rookie.

- Julio Burciaga is a utility guy who never put up strong numbers but surprised this year. In part-time duty, he was among our team leaders in most offensive categories.



- Chris Vanes stepped right in and became our most reliable starter. Not bad for a throw-in with the Carranza deal. In 10 starts, he offered up 5 quality starts including 2 complete games while leading all starters with a reasonable 3.63 ERA.

- At just 22 years old, Bobby Cato played well after his call up and just may proide some fresh blood in the pen.

- Miguel Martinez became our closer after Matt Morner struggled in just about every save opportunity. Martinez actually had some awfully good stats but got shelled in a couple outings which really inflated his numbers. Most of his saves were 1,2,3 innings.

[Papa3]

Los Angeles's Francisco Martinez is really impressing me. Not only is he a home run hitting beast, he led the league in at bats, hits, runs, RBIs, and total bases. This guy's still just 25 years old and now has four 50+ HR seasons and 296 for his career. But LA fell short of San Francisco, led by SF's pitching staff. SF gave up just 3.6 runs per game (3.31 ERA), Miami was second at 4.1 and the league average was 4.5 runs.

Seattle's Valerik Ejin, who's already established himself as the league's top pitcher, had a career year at 27 years of age. It was his fourth straight year with an ERA of 2.35 or better and his first 20+ win season . Here are the guys with the best win seasons since 1999: Gabe White (now with San Francisco) won 28 in '99, Dan Taylor (now with Denver) won 27 in '03, and Ejin won 24 this year.

Chicago's Tommy Lester is a tough out, plain and simple. He led the NBL with a .369 AVG and .448 OBP. Add his World Series Championship and he's more than well deserving of the Outstanding Hitter Award.

I'm still loving me some Dan Taylor. Whenever we played him, I had a hard time rooting against him. I really did. He had his worst year, despite still leading the NBL with 335 strikeouts – way down from his 424 a year ago. He was only 17-12 this year with a 3.74 ERA for Denver.

According to OSA's top players report, the top three pitchers in the entire NBL all played for Denver. Along with Taylor, they had David Villanueva (21-7, 3.54) and Javier Barron (15-3, 2.57). But it was World Series champion Chcago's Ren-qing Dan who won the Outstanding Pitcher Award with a 20-6 record, 2.83 ERA and 262 K.

**Don't forget the different team nicknames**

CONTINENTAL CONFERENCE


METROPOLITAN CONFERENCE

[Papa3]

batting leaders




pitching leaders

[Papa3]

batting leaders






pitching leaders