The KJCCC and the Career of GM/Manager Mike Schaplowsky, 2nd attempt

[baseballfanmas]

ok guys, I've made some changes to this dynasty. First and foremost, I'm switching to OOTP 20, because I can't seem to play games on OOTP 21, just sim. Plus, I wanted a level of minor leagues. The format is exactly the same as last time. I've decided to do the KJCCC, the junior college league in Kansas. I've added a couple teams to it to make it an even 10. I'm going with a 92 game schedule that I found in the mods, with 1 game series, games on Sun/Tues/Thurs/Fri. 72 intra division games and 20 games against the other division.

Playoffs will be top 4 teams from each division, put into a modified round robin bracket. First 2 rounds will be 1 game a piece, higher seed hosting. Final 2 rounds will be best of 3, with higher seed hosting the 1st and 3rd (if necessary) games. First round will be cross division (west 1 vs. east 4, west 3 vs. east 2, east 3 vs. west 2, east 1 vs. west 4).

Morale and team chemistry turned off, because I really hate it. All star game will be played. 25 man rosters, 30 man extended rosters, no trades allowed. Draft will be at the end of the season, in December, and it will be 5 rounds. Here's a look at the league setup, with teams and rules. I have simmed a season so I'll be starting in 2020.

[baseballfanmas]

Breaking News

Mike Schaplowsky has been hired as the GM/Field Manager of the Cloud County Thunderbirds. Cloud county was last place in the KJCCC West last season, so he will definitely have his work cut out. He will be working with a franchise that has the 6th best minor league system, so he has lots of potential to work with. The unveiling of the 2020 Cloud County opening day roster is upcoming.

[baseballfanmas]

Starting Pitchers

Oh..my..goodness! This is not a fun group of starters to be working with. Aside from O'Connor who could be an effective opening day starter, there isn't much to work with. The way this schedule mod is set up, we are scheduled to play just 4 games a week: Sunday (for dynasty purposes my weeks will be Sunday-Saturday), Tuesday, Thursday, Friday. Because of that, I'm going with a 4 man rotation, because I have a feeling I might not that extra arm in the bullpen. Trantham will be dropped to a long reliever/spot starter role for now.

[baseballfanmas]

Cloud County Bullpen

Now, this looks more promising! We have a very effective closer in Ryan, if and when we can get a lead and get to him. We also have a 2 way player that could be one of our best relief pitchers and outfielders. More on him later, as he will primarily be a position player for us, and will only pitch when absolutely necessary.

[baseballfanmas]

Cloud County Catchers

There isn't a lot of difference talentwise between our 2 catchers. Age and experience are the biggest difference. We will be using a platoon system here, and barring any injuries, I expect both catchers to get about the same number of starts.

[baseballfanmas]

Cloud County Infielders

All these guys will get playing time. Gatica will be our main starting 2B, but Perez will start every 3rd game. Padilla is our starting DH, and Germain will be our starting 1B. Even though Padilla is rated higher overall, Germain is the better defensive play. At 3B, it'll be Graham of course. Suarez can also play the outfielder, but he will start at 3B every 5th game.

[baseballfanmas]

Cloud County Outfielders

Santiago is our 2 way player, and you can see our need for him in the outfield, as he is our best rated outfielder. He'll start in LF, Hollander will start in CF, and we'll run a platoon system at RF. James will play against left hand pitchers, and Yoder will play against right hand pitchers. Suarez can also play RF, especially when we need to shift the outfield around if and when we need Santiago to pitch, which hopefully won't be very often.

[baseballfanmas]

Cloud County Owner and Finances

Whew! It's pretty ugly. There is only 1 team that has a lower budget and payroll than us. The owner appears to be tolerant, but he thinks we can reach the playoffs this season. Hey, I'll just be happy if we get out of the cellar. It's a good news/bad news thing. The good news is we do have some money for free agents and contract extensions, but the free agent list isn't great, and as far as guys we can extend, well I haven't looked at that yet. We'll see what happens.

[baseballfanmas]

For those of you that really want to know about my 35 man minor league roster and the organization personnel, I'll drop info on that. Otherwise, I'm going to stop here for the night. My reports will be weekly. I just feel like I'm stronger at week by week reports. However, I won't be playing any games tomorrow as I have other commitments, so my first weekly report will be Thursday. (FYI, for weekly, I mean in-game weeks, of which I hope to do 2 or 3 in-game weeks per actual week). Any questions, comments, or concerns, please let me know.

[baseballfanmas]

Change of plans on the reporting. It'll still be week by week, but since the first week of the season starts on Sunday, and the awards come out on Monday, this first report will be an 8 day report (Sunday the 5th-Sunday the 12th).

April 5-12, 2020

Record: 1-4, .200
Position: 10th in KJCCC West, 2 GB
Power Ranking: 32.0, 19th in KJCCC
Owner Mood: Ecstatic
Fan Interest: 44/100

This Week: 1-4

April 5th vs. Butler County (L 5-1, LP- Ivan Gonzalez). Gonzalez gave up all 5 of the runs in 4 innings of work, but the bullpen was excellent. Pino Possenti went 3 scoreless innings, and Gerardo Chacon and Eddie Duran pitched a scoreless inning each. 6 of the 9 position players got base hits, with Evan Germain getting 2 hits.

April 7th at Seward County (L 4-1, LP- Ron Trantham). This one hurts. Starting pitcher Hector Chaidez was pitching a no-hitter into the 5th inning when he had to leave due to injury (more on that later). This time, the bullpen didn't get the job done, as Trantham and Guiomar Clia each gave up 2 runs. Offensively, we only managed 3 hits all game.

April 9th at Pratt (L 8-3, LP- Steve O'Connor). Pitching betrayed us in this one, as O'Connor gave up 5 runs in 4 1/3 innings and Clia gave up 2 runs in 1 inning. Possenti continued to be effective out of the pen, giving up 1 run in 2 2/3 innings. We did have 10 hits in the game, but left 12 on base.

April 10th vs. Barton County (W 3-0, WP- Fernando Orozco, SV- Mark Ryan). An outstanding game, as Orozco went 8 scoreless innings, and Ryan pitched a perfect 9th as I picked up my first win as a GM/Field Manager! We didn't hit well, getting only 6 hits, but Jorge Padilla had 3 of those 6 hits.

April 12th at Colby (L 4-1, LP- Ivan Gonzalez). Not a bad outing for Gonzalez who went 5 2/3 innings and gave up just 3 runs, and Chacon gave up 1 run in the last 2 1/3 innings. But the offense was disappointing again, as we left 7 on base.

Not the best week, but I saw a lot of promising things this week. The bullpen for the most part was solid, and a great performance by Orozco. I feel strongly that our bullpen will be the key to our season. It's going to be a long one. The budget is low, the payroll is low, and the talent is not great, but we'll do our best to stay out of the cellar.

Team Injuries

April 7- Hector Chaidez was injured while pitching. The diagnosis was an elbow strain. He'll miss about 3 weeks.

Team Transactions

April 8- Chaidez was placed on the 10 day Injured List, and we've called up Josh Walls, who will start in Chaidez's place for the next 3 weeks, if not longer.

April 9- Rafael Manrique, who started the season on the Injured List, was activated and placed on the active roster. We've sent Ron Trantham down to the minors, as he has been ineffective so far.

Around the League

Weekly Awards

KJCCC East Player of the Week: Omar Hernandez (Allen County)- .467, 1 HR, 3 RBI.

KJCCC West Player of the Week: Jose Cerda (Hutchinson)- .615, 1 HR, 4 RBI.

[baseballfanmas]

April 13-19, 2020

Record: 3-6, .333
Position: 9th in KJCCC West, 4 GB
Power Ranking: 56.0, 16th in KJCCC
Owner Mood: Ecstatic
Fan Interest: 44/100

This Week: 2-2

April 14th vs. Garden City (L 10-1, LP- Josh Walls). The pitching was just bad in this one. Walls gave up 4 runs in 6 innings, but Eddie Duran gave up 5 runs in 2/3 of an inning. Ouch!

April 16th at Northwest Kansas Tech (W 3-2, WP- Ryan DuFour, SV- Mark Ryan). Tim Yoder had the game winning RBI with a double in the top of the 8th. DuFour and Ryan pitched 2 2/3 perfect innings to end the game.

April 17th at Dodge City (W 3-2, WP- Fernando Orozco, SV- Mark Ryan). The pitching again did the trick, as Orozco gave up 2 runs in 6 innings, and Gerardo Chacon, Rafael Manrique, and Ryan pitching the last 3 innings, giving up just 3 hits.

April 19th vs. Seward County (L 3-2, 10 innings, LP- Rafael Manrique). This time we were on the short end of the 3-2 score, as we wasted a quality start by Ivan Gonzalez who pitched 8 innings and gave up just 2 runs. We only managed 5 hits in the game, with Felipe Cintra having 2 of those 5.

GM/Manager Analysis

Well, 3-2 seems to be our preferred score, at least for this week. Take away the game against Garden City in which we self destructed, and it was actually a pretty good week. The pitching has definitely been our bright spot so far. Pitching and defense, as our starter ERA is 3rd best in the KJCCC West, and we've only committed 1 error in our first 9 games. That's the best in the KJCCC West, and probably the best overall in the KJCCC. Offense is the problem. We are last, or next to last, in almost all offensive statistic. We run the bases well when we do get on base, as we are 4th in the KJCCC West in stolen bases and base running. But if we don't find some offense soon, it's going to be a long season. I'm mildly encouraged with the start though.

Around the League

Weekly Awards

KJCCC East Player of the Week: Ryan Sela (Highland)- .500, 3 HR, 6 RBI, 7 runs scored.

KJCCC West Player of the Week: Jose Cerda (Hutchinson)- .600, 3 HR, 6 RBI, 7 runs scored.

[baseballfanmas]

Just checking, is anybody following this dynasty? It's not a typical junior college dynasty, in the sense that I'll be playing it like a regular dynasty.

I had considered trying to play it like real junior college where nobody played more than 2 years, but I didn't figure that would be very easy to do. So if anybody has any comments or questions, feel free to hit me up.

[baseballfanmas]

Just checking to see if this dynasty still has some followers, I will be jumping back into it next week. I'll have at least 3-4 weeks of reports coming up.

[progen]

Typical owner. Team finishes dead last, and then this season, expects them to make the playoffs. Good luck with this. You'll get occasional responses on here, but just keep track of the views. I try and read nearly all of the dynasties, in between doing my own with the expansion Expos, but don't always respond, just follow.

I like rebuilds, as I find them the most challenging, and especially with a low budget. Makes it more fun! Good luck!

[baseballfanmas]

April 20-26, 2020

Record: 4-9, .308
Position: 9th in KJCCC West, 6 GB
Power Ranking: 52.4, 17th in KJCCC (-1)
Owner Mood: Ecstatic
Fan Interest: 44/100

This Week: 1-3

April 21st vs. Hutchinson (L 8-5, LP- Guiomar Clia). Clia was roughed up in 1 inning of work, he gave up 4 runs, all in the 7th inning. Bobby Lopez and Leo Gatica each had 2 RBIs.

April 23rd at Garden City (L 5-0, LP- Steve O'Connor). We actually outhit Garden City 9-6, but left 8 runners on base. O'Connor gave up 4 runs in 4 innings of work.

April 24th vs. Colby (W 13-12, WP- Mark Ryan). This was an old fashioned slugfest, as we led 8-6 after 2 innings, after giving up 6 runs in the first. Dave Graham had 4 hits, including 2 homers and 4 RBIs for us, and Roberto Velazquez hit a walk-off homer on the first pitch of the 9th inning to give us a badly needed win.

April 26th at Barton County (L 8-0, LP- Ivan Gonzalez). Not much to talk about in this one as we only managed 6 hits all game. Again, the starting pitching was a downfall, as Gonzalez only lasted 4 innings.

GM/Manager Analysis

Seems like we saved all our offense for 1 game, as we were shut out twice, but scored 13 runs against Colby. Our pitching took a huge hit this week, as both our starter and bullpen ERA is now 9th in the KJCCC West. Our defense is still sharp, but our offense is still bad.

I'm constantly searching the free agent market and the waiver wire for some help, but there just isn't any there. And the minor league season hasn't started yet, but it's a safe bet that some of those guys will get a chance to produce here at Cloud County before the season is over. Nobodys job is safe right now, especially when it comes to the pitching staff. The one bright spot for the week is that the KJCCC West Player of the Week came from Cloud County. More on that later.

Team Injuries

April 26- Jim James fell out of his sons treehouse and suffered and intercostal strain, whatever the heck that is. He's expect out a week or two.

Team Transactions

April 26- We placed James on the 10 day injured list and called up Mark Bortner to the main roster.

Around the League

Weekly Awards

KJCCC East Player of the Week: Joe Stamp (Coffeyville)- .474, 2 HR, 7 RBI.

KJCCC West Player of the Week: Dave Graham (Cloud County)- .538, 1 HR, 4 RBI.