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Old 04-26-2023, 08:07 AM   #1
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Congrats! You’re the GM of the worst team in baseball! The…………

.....Savannah Sand Gnats

Those were the words that came over the phone from Jeff Springer, the billionaire owner of the three-year old baseball franchise, the Savannah Sand Gnats. But before I get into the background of that story, let me give you the wonderful history of baseball in the beautiful city of Savannah:
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Since 1926, players in the field have had this view looking toward Savannah’s baseball fans. Legendary names such as Lou Gehrig, Babe Ruth, Jackie Robinson, Hank Aaron, and Bob Gibson have looked back at the old grandstand that has become one of Savannah’s many cultural icons. Grayson Stadium has anchored the northeast corner of Daffin Park, always ready for a ball game.

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By 1886, baseball had itself throughout the nation. Many teams would travel south to train in the spring, with Savannah becoming a popular location. The article above mentions the opening of the 1886 season and how the Detroit Wolverines of the National League beat the unnamed Savannah team of the Southern Association, at Bolton Street Park in Savannah.

In addition to fielding a team in the Southern Association, Savannah hosted two teams in the Southern League of Colored Base Ballists. Sadly, due to mounting debt, the league only lasted one year.
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In 1905, Ty Cobb roamed the outfield for the Augusta Tourists while playing against the Savannah Pathfinders in Savannah. One game, Cobb was eating a bag of popcorn when a fly ball was hit in his direction. He let the ball drop to the ground instead of dropping his popcorn. When confronted by the manager, Cobb proceeded to get in a fist fight with the skipper.
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Bolton Street Park saw another legend come through, that of Shoeless Joe Jackson. Playing in his second year of professional baseball with the 1909 Savannah Indians, Jackson made quite a name for himself by leading the league in hitting with a .358 average.
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Old 04-26-2023, 08:46 AM   #2
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Stan Musial and the St. Louis Cardinals stopped by Savannah for an exhibition game against the Philadelphia Phillies in April of 1952.
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As you can see, the Savannah baseball team has had many nicknames over the years, representing the teams they represented in the minors. I’ll add more history of Savannah baseball as we move along, and also more information and pictures of the beautiful city of Savannah, which by the way, since 2016, is my hometown.
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And of course, the most recent addition to Grayson Stadium has been the nationally known, and very wild and wacky Savannah Bananas. More on that later.
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Saturday, October 30th, 2027 - But back to that phone call. My name is Randy Smith, and I was drafted out of high school in the 9th round by the Phillies. Low signing bonus, and after advancing to high A ball, injuries derailed my career.

I was fortunate enough to start in their scouting department, where I worked hard to learn the trade, and after four years, I moved into the administrative side by blind, dumb luck. It takes that sometimes to forge a path in a baseball career.

I eventually worked my way up to Assistant GM, and the Phillies had a banner season, winning 101 games, and the division. Unfortunately, after taking out the Nationals in the first round, we ran into a red-hot Cubs team that took us out in five games, and when on to win the World Series over the Tampa Bay Rays.

The call was an offer to become the GM of the Savannah Sand Gnats. Jeff Springer was the 67-year-old owner of the club, a club that he loved dearly, and fought for years to get an MLB team in Savannah. It finally happens in 2025, and along with the Montreal Expos, two new franchises were born.

Grayson Stadium, which originally had a capacity of 4000, was extended with seats along the third base line, right and left field, to increase capacity to 25,000. Still small for an MLB stadium, but Springer had a lot of pull apparently, and the deal was done.

The 147 thousand residents of Savannah, and the over 300 thousand in the surrounding area were ecstatic! The Sand Gnats would share Grayson with the Bananas, who only play 30 home games, as they now barnstorm across the country, in the same vein as the Harlem Globetrotters.

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Old 04-26-2023, 09:00 AM   #3
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Sorry Son, But You're Out!

All startup businesses go through growing pains. All baseball clubs, with their “rookie owner” may even go through more! The one mistake, and it was a BIG ONE, that Jeff Springer made, was to appoint his son, Jon Springer as the General Manager. Jon was a nice guy from what I understand, but his only baseball background was in the front office of the Bananas. And apparently no one really knew what he did. Rumors were he was the assistant in player development, another was he was the Assistant GM, but the way he ran the Sand Gnats, you’d think he was the assistant to the janitor.

Whatever his title, he was clearly in over his head! One former front office person said, he believed by reading and studying such books as “Moneyball”, “Dollar Sign on the Muscle: The World of Baseball Scouting”, and “Smart Baseball”, and picking the brains of some other GM’s, he had a complete hold on making the Sand Gnats a success. Well, things didn’t work out so well, as you can see below.
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Now to be fair, MLB didn’t do the expansion teams any favors when they allowed teams to protect 26, and not being able to draft any player with a minimum of four years of service. So maybe, you can excuse the first year and the 42 wins. And there was a slight improvement in season two, and then a huge step backwards in this season.

The expansion draft was a disaster, terrible amateur drafting, not identifying and acting quickly enough in free agency. All this led up to two seasons of barely beating the 1962 Mets record of 40 wins. And that led to the hardest decision a father has to make, firing his son!

And it was true, the Expos struggled the first season, winning 54 games, before winning 70 the second season, and then falling back a bit with 63 in their 2027 season. But anyone can see they have laid a decent foundation for the future. But not the Sand Gnats. While the 2027 draft was a bit better, in what would be the young Springer’s last hurrah, the Sand Gnats are still dead last in minor league rankings.

As we move into and through November, I’ll highlight some of the terrible lowlights of the current status of this club. And yes, there have been many a time already, when I’ve asked, what did I get myself into.

Here’s just a tid bit to wet your appetite:
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2027 Final Standings
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Old 04-26-2023, 12:25 PM   #4
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Looks like the start of a cool dynasty!
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Old 04-26-2023, 01:54 PM   #5
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You piqued my interest immediately! Hope to see more soon. Go Sand Gnats!
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Old 04-27-2023, 04:13 PM   #6
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The only way you are going to have success is to have lots of failures first

Whoever said that must be talking about this club. Over the first three seasons, there were 350 failures (losses), to just 136 successes (wins). So where do I start?

Before I take on the mountain of a task to rebuild this fledgling franchise, thought I’d bring you up to date on the 2027 season.

I didn't show the National League standings in the last post:
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American League Leaders:
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National League Leaders:
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On the pitching side, Corbin Burnes of the Brewers won an incredible 25 games, and the Cy Young Award, and in the AL, Luis Patino of the Rays won 20 games and the Cy Young Award.

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And after three seasons, three drafts, this is pitiful
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Old 04-27-2023, 09:58 PM   #7
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Whoa! Protecting 26 players and exempting anyone with less than four years MLB experience is brutal! I typically allow teams to protect only 12 in expansion, and exempt any player with three years experience. And allow an additional player to be protected for each one selected. That creates a better pool of players, particularly from the deeper organizations. But a lot of older guys, and guys with huge contracts, are not tempting for an expansion team. Still, my approach makes expansion teams better, if not competitive. It also has the tendency to make the best teams weaker. Thus it promotes parity overall.

Good luck! Savannah is a beautiful town, with great food. A baseball town.
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Old 04-27-2023, 10:14 PM   #8
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Quote:
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Whoa! Protecting 26 players and exempting anyone with less than four years MLB experience is brutal! I typically allow teams to protect only 12 in expansion, and exempt any player with three years experience. And allow an additional player to be protected for each one selected. That creates a better pool of players, particularly from the deeper organizations. But a lot of older guys, and guys with huge contracts, are not tempting for an expansion team. Still, my approach makes expansion teams better, if not competitive. It also has the tendency to make the best teams weaker. Thus it promotes parity overall.

Good luck! Savannah is a beautiful town, with great food. A baseball town.
Thanks for following. Yeah, it does make it tough for expansion teams, but I like the challenge. This will be a huge challenge, as even with expansion teams, after three seasons, I've been able to get them close to .500 ball. It does take some patience. I like doing a Dynasty Report as it slows down how I play the game. Have to pay much more attention to the team, and the league.
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Old 05-01-2023, 01:57 PM   #9
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When you only win 43 games, there’s not much to look at on paper. And no, it’s not like these guys had a down year, they just stink!
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Maybe I can get our mascot to hit cleanup!
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And the pitching was dreadful. And this doesn’t include Alex Manoah who went 1-17. Cepeda and Sundell may be worth keeping.
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With a 65-million-dollar budget (I like the challenge), I can’t just go out and spend big on every position, which is what’s needed. Very little to choose from in the minors (feel like the Phillies in real life), so I have to “patch” things up this first year, hopefully have a good draft (can it be any worse than the past) and go from there.

Setting goals is the first step in turning the invisible into the visible.

First Season Goals!!


1. Don’t lose 100 games – Yeah, I know, people will say set a loftier goal. What, like .500 ball. Please!

2. Find and Develop Talent for the Future

3. Find players with a future – Getting wins is the most important objective for any team. But with this team, finding players that you want to be around for more than a year is important too. Not just a roster full of “stop gap” players.

4. Avoid those “Goldilocks Goals” – My mentor, who is now retired from baseball, said this to me a long time ago. Keep the goals realistic. Setting unrealistic goals, you’ll be amazed at how quickly you give up on them.

5. Focus forward, glance back - The previous season should not be the main motivation or the most crippling distraction. Use what you can from the prior season to build on, but it should only be a piece of the puzzle, not the landscape of the picture.

6. Be a Fan of the Sport You Coach – Another line from my mentor. He reminded me that coaches and players will be looking up to you. Stay grounded during success, and hungry during failure.


November 2027

November 1st - Going to be a busy month. Arbitration is coming up (we only have one), and free agency starts on the 22nd! All the awards start now and go through to the 13th. We don’t have to worry about any of that.


You win pennants in the off season when you build your teams with trades and free agents. — Earl Weaver



Well, I certainly have nothing to trade, so it will be a busy free agency period for me! I added an Assistant GM and am going to let him hire some of the other positions within the organization.
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Old 05-01-2023, 03:58 PM   #10
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Looks like you got your work cutout for you! Best of luck turning the Gnats around!
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Old 05-02-2023, 07:51 AM   #11
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Looks like you got your work cutout for you! Best of luck turning the Gnats around!
Thanks for following. It should be fun, I think, lol.
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Old 05-03-2023, 08:47 AM   #12
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It's that time of the year for the Rule V draft. One thing I’ve noticed in this season’s draft is there is a lack of decent pitching. They all seem to have the same thing in common. A huge amount of lack of control!

So, while I chase some pitching in free agency, I decided to concentrate on everyday players in this draft. Here’s what I’m looking at, and they are all in AA with the exception of Kim in AAA.
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Now these guys look like superstars with Eddy hitting .374 and Kim hitting .369, but AA and even AAA a lot different than the bigs.

I do think there are times when you can find serviceable players in the Rule V draft. Kim, Cummings, and Duncan all went after I selected Eddy first overall. I was able to get Richardson in the second round, and then trusted my scouts on Tackett and Markle. I'll go into more depth with these players once we get to opening day and beyond.
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As we move toward Spring Training, thought I'd give you a few pics of the beautiful city of Savannah.

When walking around the city, which has 145,000 residents, and 300k in the surrounding area, I had one guy tell me "Savannah is the "Jewel of the South." Well, it is a gorgeous city, and hot and humid for sure.

Downtown city butts up against the Savannah River. River Street is the main area on the river for restaurants, pubs, and shops. Across the river sits the Weston Hotel on what's called Hutchinson Island. If you go over the Talmadge Bridge, and drive less than a mile or so, you'll be in South Carolina.
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The Talmadge Bridge. They are going to raise this bridge as they've been dredging the river for years in order to get larger container ships into the ports. They apparently can't do any more dredging, so the next step is to raise the bridge, which is currently at 574 feet.
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And this is the famous fountain at Forsyth Park. The fountain has aged extremely well as it was erected in 1858. Forsyth Park was designed after the French ideal of having a central public garden, and the fountain is said to be the garden’s centerpiece (although it isn’t at the center of the park). Go figure!

And yes, the water is green, as this picture was taken on St. Patrick's Day. Every year they dye the water green in a big ceremony, and then within hours, all the water in the fountains throughout the city, their water turns green, since they're all connected. Savannah has the second largest St. Patty's Day parade in the country, with New York being first. Besides the 145,000 people that live in Savannah, another 200 to 250 thousand come in on St, Patrick's Day for the parade and plenty of partying!
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Gotta get back to business, as Spring Training is right around the corner.

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Old 01-25-2024, 08:23 AM   #13
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