THE Pittsburgh Arsenal

[Papa3]

A couple smallish deals that sent a third of my mid-to-late round draft picks to New York for a pair of prospects. Fortunately these are the only deals I made that involved a crazy batch of draft picks – guess I tried to take advantage of AI. In reality, the deals were ridiculously close before sending the picks over and I didn't feel like making a bunch of moves to free space up in the minors for incoming draftees.

But anyways, we sent a decent 2B prospect, Tyler Turner to New York for a decent SS prospect, Ricky Garcia.



Ricky Garcia's stats:



Then we sent a pair prospects and a bum of a major leaguer to the Skyliners for CF Carlos Mendez.



Carlos Mendez's stats:

[Papa3]

With the first pick in the Rule V Draft, we couldn't pass up on this guy.



Along with putting up Wade Boggs-like numbers, this guy's an elite defensive third baseman. I think we've got space to give this guy a roster spot to see what he can do in the bigs.



This is why I value stats more than ratings (2-8 scale):

[Papa3]

In maneuvering some room in the budget this past season, we opened up money for a real good free agent pitcher. With the addition of Alberto Jimenez, we're getting the workhorse we need.



He's thrown over 250 innings four of the past five years including 266 each of the past two. That's the best thing we could ask for right now. With such a shoddy bullpen, the fewer innings asked of them the better.

Jimenez regularly makes leaderboard appearances in wins, starts, innings, strikeouts, K/BB ratio, WHIP, H/9, quality starts, complete games and shutouts, as well as home runs allowed.

To afford him, we had to back weight his 6 year/$8.43 million contract with about $700K the first two years and about $1.7 million the last four, final year being a player option for $1.955 million.

Jimenez's stats:

[Papa3]

We signed pitcher Josh Kerrigan to a minor league contract with a $202,000 bonus. Don't ask me what that means exactly, it just sounded like a good idea.

He has some good stats and has started in the past but he has really low stamina (3 on 2-8 scale). Regardless, we're gonna try slotting Kerrigan in our rotation.

Kerrigan's stats:

[Papa3]

In bringing Alberto Jimenez to town, we used up all our free agent $. But it's a strong deal that should give us an anchor around whom we can build our pitching staff. I love how many innings he gives. Let's take a look at our 2006 pitching staff.

STARTERS

Alberto Jimenez - Our new ace

Chris Vanes – While our rotation is still being pieced together, Vanes will be our #2. He was our best starter last season after picking him up in the big Carranza-Walker deal.

Jim Kalbfleisch - In coming back from a pair of serious injuries, he pitched okay but showed no signs of having warranted his second overall selection in the '01 draft.

Josh Kerrigan – We'd like to get 5 or 6 strong innings out of him each start.

Ruud Everts – Everts pitched pretty well in 23 starts a season ago so we'll give him in another shot this year.

RELIEVERS

Miguel Martinez – Last year he saved 9 games and only blew 1 save. He's now 28 years old so this may be as good as he'll ever be.

Matt Morner – Morner lost his closer job to Martinez last year but reinvented himself in the setup role. The M & M boys are both lefties.

Brian Morrison – He started 20 games last year but with the pickups of Jimenez and Kerrigan, we'll push him to the pen.

Bobby Cato – After his call up last year he became one of our best relievers. Still just 23 years old, the 44th overall pick in '03 will get a shot at establishing himself on our staff.

Oscar Perez – Perez was 25 for 32 in save opportunites last year in AAA Birmingham. He had a 3.38 ERA but a 2-9 record. At 26 years of age, he'll start in AAA but get a quick bump to the Arsenal if he pitches well again. In AAA he had 49 K and a 1.23 WHIP in 66 innings.

[Papa3]

This is kind of a big deal: We actually had the #1 and #4 overall picks in last year's June amateur draft.

With the #1 pick, we selected 1B Scott Walker and dealt him to the Seattle Steelheads for Robby Carranza and Chris Vanes.

At #4, we chose SP Antonio Luna out of high school. He FAILED TO SIGN with us so he went to college. That means we are getting the #5 overall pick in this year's June draft to go along with our next #1 overall pick.

A little about the Antonio Luna fiasco:

Since I'm new to OOTP, I didn't take draft pick negotiation demands seriously. Both Walker and Luna wanted a lot of $$$. It would be "Hard" to sign Walker and "Very Hard" to sign Luna.

I commenced negotiations with some fairly light offers that angered both players. We barely had money to sign one of them, let alone both. So we put everything we had into signing Walker and let Luna slip back into the world of guys willing to play for free.

My scout was never too keen on Luna so I was fine letting him go. The top of the draft was pretty weak in '05. This year's draft is MUCH deeper at the top of the first round so this should work out very well for us.

Luna's stats (Not sure why he has five years in HS):



Luna's ratings (OSA scouted):



Luna's ratings (Pittsburgh scouted):

[Papa3]

double posted

[Papa3]

We've got a real young lineup now though some positions are still weak. Every player is in his 20's and only Kevin Dooley is over 26 years old.

CATCHER

Jeremy Stubblefield, 26 – Stubby is entering his prime. He's coming off a career year and could become an All-Star in the not too distant future.

FIRST BASE

Liam Briggs, 26 – The same can be said about Briggs that I just said about Stubblefield. Same age, same future All-Star discussion. We just need more consistency out of him.

SECOND BASE

Kevin Dooley, 29 – We're gonna move Dooley from short to second. He's a pretty average player and this will probably be his make or break year.

SHORTSTOP

Julio Burciaga, 25 – He had a surprise year last year, hitting .312 and showing some good pop. He's still young and could really become a key asset.

THIRD BASE

Ben Thompson, 25/Jonathan Larsen, 26 – Our Rule 5 pickup, Thompson, will get his first shot at the bigs this year. He's been a .360+ hitter in the minors. If he doesn't work out, Larsen is back after hitting 57 doubles as a youngster the past two seasons.

LEFT FIELD

Matt Dunn, 25 – Dunn hit 34 doubles and 16 homers in his breakout campaign last year and is good with the leather.

CENTER FIELD

Ben Fearn, 26 – Fearn is back after missing much of '05 with an injury. He's our only player capable of double figure steals, but he's still slow for a center fielder.

RIGHT FIELD

Peter Alexander, 22 – Probably our best deal last year brought Alexander to town. We were concerned about his fielding ability when he came, but he has officially

[Papa3]

As the season prepares to get underway, a check of the preseason predictions has a disappointing surprise. We're headed for a 53-win season. Ugh! Hopefully it doesn't take in-season player development into account so fingers still crossed this season is the first step forward in years in Pittsburgh.

Our loss numbers the past six years:

'05: 109
'04: 116
'03: 103
'02: 110
'01: 94
'00: 102

We do get off to another bad start, but as the June amateur draft approaches our pitching starts to improve and we look like we may not crack the 100 loss mark for the first time sine 2001.

We call up reliever Oscar Perez in late April. A couple weeks later, we're forced to send Bobby Cato down and give Adrian Smith, a starter in the minors, a shot. Cato has been very disappointing. In 14 innings over 13 appearances, he has a 9.42 ERA and 2.30 WHIP. How his record stands at 3-1 is beyond logic. Meanwhile, Perez has taken the reigns from Miguel Martinez as our closer.

At the plate, RF Peter Alexander and 1B Liam Briggs are set to make their first All-Star appearances. They're our first AS representatives since 2001.

[Papa3]

I've been talking about our need for pitching, but if there's one thing we really need, it's a table setter. You know, the kind of guy who can steal 40 bases and score 120 runs.

Well today, we got both. Alex Cruz is an absolute stud of a pitcher. He looks like a sure thing but his 5 stamina is a slight drawback to what otherwise looks like a gorgeous pickup. He's a five-pitch strikeout guy with excellent control and a K/BB ratio that approaches double digits.

With a few other standout young arms available, I held out hope that CF Ben Woodruff would still be available by the time the number 5 pick rolled around. And he was. Woodruff gets on base the way a classic leadoff guy needs to and can motor on the basepaths.

After the issues with last year's draft class, these two guys are also very signable. They're immediately sent to AAA Birmingham to get their first professional experience.

Alex Cruz stats



Ben Woodruff stats

[Papa3]

2006 is in the books and we finished in 5th place! “Only” 94 losses! At least it seems we're heading in the right direction. Both our first round draft picks saw a couple months of playing time and more than held their own. And we should have all the pieces in place for a real good rotation, and we're just two years in.

Let's talk about that rotation for a moment. We've added Alberto Jimenez via free agency. We got Robby Carranza and Chris Vanes in a single trade. Alex Cruz came to us in the draft. That seems to leave us in need of only a #5 starter and we may already have that in our organization somewhere.

**For this one year, we became the Pittsburgh Pioneers. All teams have different nicknames this one year too**

Continental Conference



Metropolitan Conference

[Papa3]

A look at team stats from around the CL. Again, we're the Pittsburgh Pioneers for this season only.

[Papa3]

batting leaders





pitching leaders

[Papa3]

batting leaders





pitching leaders

[Papa3]

SOME GOOD STUFF

Liam Briggs, 1B – One of our two all-stars and a sweet swinging lefty, Briggs led our team in slugging (.545) and hit 38 doubles in only 393 AB.

Peter Alexander, RF – Our other all-star, he's become one of the top young players in the game today. The main guy we traded to get him, Pat Colston, missed four months with a torn ankle ligament suffered in spring training, then broke his kneecap in the 5th game of his rehab assignment. Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha!

Ben Thompson, 3B – Yep, our Rule 5 guy hit .361 in the majors this year. The AI bench boss was a bit obnoxious insisting Jonathan Larsen start at third, so we spent too much time trying to override his decision. Thompson ended up starting only 60 games but still had 91 hits with 9 HR and 38 RBI. He walked only 4 times though.

Matt Dunn, LF – For the second straight year, Dunn has shown great improvement and became our cleanup guy, leading our team with 29 HR and 84 RBI.

Ben Woodruff, CF – Our 5th overall pick and new leadoff guy hit .290/.341/.353 in 63 games as a rookie. He added 36 runs and his 14 steals led our team.

Jeremy Stubblefield, C – Stubby led our team in games started for the third year in a row, even as a catcher, but it was the first year his production dipped a bit. His power numbers were down considerably, but he had a career year getting on base (.342 OBP) and crossing the plate (72 runs). He's still better than most catchers in the league.

WHAT A BUMMER

Julio Burciaga, SS – After surprising a year ago by hitting .312/.348/.538 in 253 AB, he was a big let down this year. In 334 AB, he hit only .183/.271/.272.


Ben Fearn, CF – It's a darn good thing Woodruff dropped to #5 in the draft because Fearn wasn't the answer in center. His .206/.271/.315 year at 26 years of age ends any hope that he's a piece in our winning puzzle.

[Papa3]

Forgot about this one from the trade deadline:



Aside from Jeremy Stubblefield, our organization is pretty thin behind the plate. At the same time, we're getting fed up with the mediocrity known as 2B Kevin Dooley.

Suddenly the Atlanta Rebels offer a 24 year old guy who's probably the best defensive catcher in the entire NBL world -- straight up for Dooley.



We jump on this one to bring Alex Loza to the Arsenal.



Loza's got some holes in his hitting but it's easy to overlook when a guy throws out over half the runners who try to steal on him.

Batting Stats



Fielding Stats

[smiller]

Still enjoying your account. How do you go about setting up one team to have a small market? What is the procedure? Thanks.

[smiller]

Never mind. Just figured it out.

[Papa3]

It's nice having some pitchers that we feel actually belong at this level. Of course there's plenty of room for improvement but we're definitely getting a major league club assembled.



THE GOOD



Alberto Jimenez – Our big free agent pickup didn't have one of his better seasons but still finished 5th in the CL in strikeouts and gave us a chance to win most nights.



Chris Vanes – We're really liking this “throw in”. He threw 7 complete games this year and led us with 12 wins and a 3.4 WAR.



Oscar Perez – We've had only one 30 save guy this decade and Perez had 28 as a rookie. Solid potential.



Alex Cruz – The 22 yo first overall pick started 14 games for us this year and struck out nearly a batter an inning. Though inconsistent, he showed flashes of dominance affirming his high draft choice.



Matt Morner – Dating back to his role change last year, he's looking like a great setup guy. 9-4 with a team best 2.62 ERA is fantastic.



THE NOT AS GOOD



Miguel Martinez – Last year he was 9 for 10 in save chances. This year he was only 2 for 9 before losing his job to Perez.



Jim Kalbfleisch – His 5-17 record isn't gonna cut it from here on out. We've got to look for a new option here.

[Papa3]

A bit if of a surprise in the ML this year. Miami CF Fernando Alvarado won the Outstanding Hitter Award batting .317/.433/.553 with 16 HR, 93 RBI, 97 R, and18 SB. A great all-around year indeed but not sure I'd have given it to him over Atlanta's LF Joe Hersey (.316/.401/.588, 35 HR, 98 RBI) or my personal favorite from Los Angeles, Francisco Martinez, who put up another incredible year (.272/.332/.556, 52 HR, 147 RBI, 114 R).

On the mound, Seattle's Valerik Ejin continued his domination in leading Seattle to their second ever World Series championship (last one was in 1991). He threw 299 innings, the most in the NBL since Billy de la Vega pitched 303 innings back in 1991. He added a career high 304 strikeouts and 22-7 record with just 41 BB.

LF Bryan Engel of Columbus won the CL Outstanding Hitter Award with career highs in homers (47) and RBI (149) while hitting .299/.350/.594.

Meanwhile Denver added a fourth arm to their star studded staff as 35 yo Jonathan Aquilar began his second tour of duty with the Crush. Teammate David Villanueva won his second straight Outstanding Pitcher Award. My personal favorite, Dan Taylor, and Javier Barron round out Denver's staff and just happen to be the top strikeout kings in NBL history. Taylor and Barron own the top six spots among all-time single season K leaders and 10 of the top 13.

Here's how the four big guns fared this year:

Aquilar 17-8, 2.61 ERA, 170 K, 227 IP, 1.15 WHIP
Villanueva 22-3, 2.97 ERA, 261 K, 248 IP, 1.21 WHIP
Taylor 16-11, 2.72 ERA, 347 K, 254 IP, 0.90 WHIP
Barron 11-6, 3.25 ERA, 208 K, 191 IP, 1.20 WHIP

Add premier closer Ryan Bolton to the mix (8-4, 1.67 ERA, 38 SV, 103 K, 81 IP, 0.98 WHIP) and it's a wonder why the real-life Colorado Rockies have had such terrible pitching over the years. Both teams call Coors Field home. It's also a wonder how they lost the World Series in six.