OOTP5: Laredo Osprey [Archive] - Front Office Football Central

primelord

05-29-2003, 10:27 PM

I decided to hit the random draft order button 4 times and take whatever we got. The Osprey end up with the 4th pick overall in the snake draft. That means we will most likely end up with an elite player with our first pick, but not much star power will probably be left when it gets back around to us. I am going to detail our first ten picks or so to give everyone a sense of the team.

1st Pick
1B David "Thunder" Campbell, 27 yrs (8/7/10) 5 stars

It took me awhile to settle on Campbell. There were several guys I thought about taking with this pick, but when it came down to it Campbell was just the best offensive guy on the board next to Robert Murray who was a 9/10/9 guy, but was 37 years old. And with a lack of a just out of this world starting pitcher I went with the best guy with the bat.

2nd Pick

LF Vaughn "Mr. Inside" Bogen, 33 yrs (7/9/6) 4 1/2 stars

I really wanted to grab a starting picther with this pick, but again there was just no one that blew me away. And since I have another pick coming up shortly most of the guys I may have selected here will still be on the board when it comes back around. Bogen however probably would have been taken. He isn't much of a defensive player, but he will provide some very nice protection for Campbell in the lineup.

3rd Pick

SP Steven Kowalski, 33 yrs (8/9/7) 3 1/2 stars

Kowalski was about the best left in terms of starting picthing. He isn't quite the guy I would prefer anchoring the rotation, but he should be solid. At the very least he should eat up some innings. He is a work horse on the mound, but he also doesn't field his position particularly well.

4th pick

SP John Haller, 33 yrs (7/7/6) 3 stars

Haller would make a nice #3 guy on any team. However he will have to be our #2 guy. The two guys we have picked up so far are both good, but I really like to have that money ace at the top of the staff. Haller is another work horse. And is a very fine fielder too.

5th pick

RF Granville Bosco, 31 yrs (8/5/5) 4 stars

Again I more or less went with just the BPA. Bosco is excellent at putting the bat on the ball and should make a solid #2 hitter for us. He can also play a pretty good RF and has a very strong throwing arm. We aren't real big on team speed so far though. And that concerns me a little.

6th Pick

CL David Easley, 28 yrs (9/8/8) 5 stars

This guy is just lights out at the end of the game. It was maybe a little early to take a closer considering there are several 5 star guys still on the board, but he looks to be the best of the bunch and I just couldn't pass on him. Great stuff, good control, and is a fireballer. Everything you want in a closer. Plus he has an A duration as a reliever so could even pitch a few inning s ata time if we needed him.

7th pick

SP Charles Forbes, 37 yrs (7/6/6) 2 1/2 stars

Forbes only gets 2 1/2 stars, but his ratings look better than that to me. He has a rating of 10 in velocity and I think he will make a nice addition to our rotation. The age is a bit of a concern, but with the other options available in starting pitching he seemed to be the best fit even if it is only for a year or two.

8th pick

3B Ernest Pena, 30 yrs (5/7/6) 3 stars

I think Pena rounds out our 2-5 hitters pretty nicely. He has some decent pop in his bat and is fairly patient at the plate. Again we have a disturbing trend on defense. He isn;t very good with the glove, but hopefully his offense will make up for it.

9th Pick

CF Thomas Robinson, 29 yrs (4/6/5) 2 1/2 stars

Robinson is an outstanding fielder. He can play Center or Left field with the best of them. He also has a ton of speed and a little pop in his bat. I think we will have him in the lead off spot this season. I would like to try and keep our defense strong up the middle and he is a good start.

10th pick

MR Deangelo Corona, 26 yrs (10/8/7) 5 stars

Again I may have taken Corona a bit early as all the 5star MR's were still on the board, but this guy was just too good to pass up. If we get to the 8th inning with a lead Corona and the Easley should pretty much garauntee us a win every time.

Those are our first 10 picks. I'll give a little more info on some of the other guys we take when I go over the lineups before the season.

primelord

05-29-2003, 10:36 PM

Originally posted by DolphinFan1
I'll be reading. But, Indy, Pittsburgh and Rochester in the West? :confused:

Heh yea I just hit the randomize teams button a few times and went with what it spit out. I didn't bother trying to get them aligned properly and I was too lazy to come up with creative league and division names. :)

primelord

05-29-2003, 10:47 PM

Starting Pitching

Our rotation will be as follows.

1. Steven Kowlaski (8/9/7/6)
2. John Haller (7/7/6/7)
3. Charles Forbes (7/6/6/10)
4. David Chittum (7/7/7/5)
5. Christopher Roundtree (6/6/7/6)

With 20% spot starts from Castor Rodriguez (7/8/5/4)

Bullpen

Mopup Relief goes to

Felix Ortiz (6/7/7/4)

Middle Relief

1. Edwin Presley (7/7/7/6)
2. Rayford Mcgaha (6/7/7/6)
3. Felix Ortiz

Set-up

1. Deangelo Corona (10/8/7/10)
2. Edwin Presley

Closer

1. David Easley (9/8/8/10)

Again if we get to the 8th inning with the lead we should be golden.

primelord

05-29-2003, 11:09 PM

Catchers

Rafel Munro will be our starting catcher. He is very solid behind the plate and has some average offensive skills. He actually has a C range at 3B too if we needed to use him there in a pinch. Overall a decent option at catcher. Munro also has very good speed on the bases for a catcher.

Eddy Lopez is the backup, but hopefully we don't need to use him that often. He is a downgrade both defensively and at the dish from Munro.

1st Base

David Campbell is our lone 1st baseman and should be the best offensive player on the team. He has a great eye at the plate and some good power. We are expecting big things out of him.

2nd Base

Steve Wilbert is our starting 2nd baseman. I was looking to keep the defense very strong up the middle and he gives us that with an excellent glove at 2nd. He also can play a very solid short stop if we need him to. His offense leaves something to be desired, but hopefully his defense will make up for it.

Walter Pruden should make a pretty good backup. He isn't much with the glove, but is a decent hitter with good speed and should be an asset pinch hitting and coming off the bench.

Shortstop

This is without question the weakest link on the team. Stephen More will be the starter due to a lack of better options. He has a little pop in his bat and a little speed, but is not good with the glove and isn't that great of a hitter overall.

Richard Finnie is even worse at the dish and equally awful in the field. This is an area that may need to be addressed before the seaso is over.

3rd Base

Ernest Pena is the starter and should do a fine job as the #5 hitter in the lineup. He has some solid speed to go with his power too. And his backup Deon Desousa should be a great asset for us too. He will get some playing time as a defensive replacement and will probably also be our first option off the bench in pinch hitting roles.

Outfield

The outfield is a pretty strong position for us. Left fielder Vaughn Bogen has the most power on the team and will bat cleanup. He is the one weak fielder in the group though.

In center field Thomas Robinson gets the start, but could be pushed very hard by James Milligan for playing time. Both players are phenomenal fielders and can play multiple positions in the OF flawlesly. They both also have a ton of speed. Robinson gets the edge right now because he has a little better plate discipline and I expect one of these two guys to hit lead off for us. And we also have Jose Barrientos who will provide some very nice power off the bench and while he is a natural CF is a better RF.

And in RF we have Granville Bosco who may be the best contact hitter on the team and also plays a very solid RF.

Overall I think we have a good lineup.

1. Thomas Robinson (4/6/5)
2. Granville Bosco (8/5/5)
3. David Campbell (8/7/10)
4. Vaughn Bogen (7/9/6)
5. Ernest Pena (5/7/6)
6. Steve Wilbert (4/6/4)
7. Rafael Munro (5/4/6)
8. Stephen More (2/5/5)

primelord

05-29-2003, 11:55 PM

April (15-13, Tied for 2nd, 2 GB)

Things looked bleak early on. We lost our staff ace Kowalski to a shoulder injury on opening day. It put him out for the entire month of April. However the rest of the starting rotation seemed to really step up led by #2 man John Haller. For the month John was 4-1 with a 2.25 ERA. David Chittum was also 3-1 with a 3.19 ERA. Our bullpen has left a little to be desired though. Easley is pitchign well with 5 saves and a 2.25 ERA, but Corona has been awful so far with an 8+ ERA and an 0-3 record so far. Both left and right handed hitter are hitting over .300 against him. I'll give him another month to settle down. Kowalski should be back in a week so things are looking good for the starting staff.

On the offensive side of the ball we have had some surprises both good and bad. In the leadoff spot Thomas Robinson is hitting .311 with 8 HR's and 17 RBI's and a .963 slugging percentage. I am tempted to move him lower in the order, but I am concerned with shaking things up too much when he is going good. David Campbell is hitting .330 with 8 HR's, 16 RBI's and a 1.072 OPS. Pretty much what we were expecting. However Bogen has only hit .212 with 9 RBI's out of the cleanup spot. The biggest surprise may be SS Stephen More who was thought to be the offensive liability in this lineup. He is currently hitting .325 with 13 RBI's and a .900 OPS!

[B]May (29-27, 3rd Place, 1 GB)

We had a very up and down month. At one point we were a couple of games under .500 and at another we were leading the division by 4 games. Very up and down. After his hot start Haller cooled off quickly. He went 2-4 for the month with a 5.60 ERA. Chittum however continued to get the job done going 5-1 for the month and improving to 8-2 overall. Easley was excellent converting 10 of 10 save opportunities for the month and Corona is still a long way from being the dominator I was hoping for, but he showed signs of improvement too.

On offense the average, HR's and OPS were a little down for David Campbell, but he continues to drive in runs and be the best offensive player on the team. Robinso cooled off considerably too only hitting .265 with 2 HR's and 6 RBI's for the month. Bogen may be coming out of his slump. The power numbers aren't there yet, but he hit .292 with 15 RBI's in May. And in an amazing stat since he came back from injury pitcher Steven Kowalski has 2 hits and they have both been HR's!

Anrhydeddu

05-30-2003, 08:27 AM

I was too lazy to come up with creative league and division names

Shame on you. :)

Marmel

05-30-2003, 10:12 AM

Originally posted by Anrhydeddu
Shame on you. :)

It is just window dressing anyways. :)

Keep up the good work here primelord!

Anrhydeddu

05-30-2003, 10:48 AM

Originally posted by Marmel
It is just window dressing anyways. :)

But for some, an extra bit of the Immersion Factor (tm) that will perhaps keep a dynasty from dying out too soon.

Case in point which primelord I know can relate to. I have played 7 years in my 1960s Cardinals dynasty and plan on playing for at another 10 years. Because of the use of Lahman and the historical/customized league, I am able to play as long as I have (and take the time to write it up) as well as anxious to get back into it. Otherwise, I would have the immersion and interest to have played more than a few season, just like my FOF experiences. This, I know, is not important to you but for me and some others, it makes a difference despite how insignificant it might appear.

primelord

05-30-2003, 01:13 PM

A,

You know my feelings on this, but I agree with Marm. To me it is just window dressing. Espescially considering the thing I enjoy about sports sims is much more about my players and the stats they produse than even how the team performs as a whole.

Still maybe just for you I will go back and give them some decent names. :)

Bee

05-30-2003, 01:23 PM

Nothing wrong with window dressing. It can help bring in customers.

primelord

05-30-2003, 01:26 PM

Originally posted by Bee
Nothing wrong with window dressing. It can help bring in customers.

That's true. It's just alos something I know after a season or two I won't even notice either way. The main reason I didn't even bother was I started the dynasty a little late last night and I wanted to get into the first season quickly so I could sim a few months before I went to bed. I probably will go back and edit the names.

Anrhydeddu

05-30-2003, 01:28 PM

Hey, East and West work for me (I was more interested in the team names).

But I do wonder though. Why did you chose Laredo Osprey if that had nothing to do with players and stats? Or Marm, why the continued interest in the league of Japanese cities, nicknames and local players? In both cases, why not just stick with defaults instead of customizing them? ;)

primelord

05-30-2003, 01:33 PM

Originally posted by Anrhydeddu
Hey, East and West work for me (I was more interested in the team names).

But I do wonder though. Why did you chose Laredo Osprey if that had nothing to do with players and stats? Or Marm, why the continued interest in the league of Japanese cities, nicknames and local players? In both cases, why not just stick with defaults instead of customizing them? ;)

Well the customized city names were actually for the benefit of readers than myself. By labeling the team name a fictional team then when the reader is looking for a dynasty to read they get a good idea that it is probably a fictional universe. If that is what they want to read great if not that is ok too. But I didn't spend much time customizing the team names. I just hit the randomize city button a couple of times and then literally just picked a team at random to take over.

Marmel

05-30-2003, 03:55 PM

Originally posted by Anrhydeddu
Hey, East and West work for me (I was more interested in the team names).

But I do wonder though. Why did you chose Laredo Osprey if that had nothing to do with players and stats? Or Marm, why the continued interest in the league of Japanese cities, nicknames and local players? In both cases, why not just stick with defaults instead of customizing them? ;)

Ahhh, but Bucc, there should be cities, but whatever they are it really does not matter. In fact, they can be called team 1, team 2, etc... up to team 16. It is nice to be able to rename them to fit a theme (which you can do in most any sim that I know of).

The key is the players. You don't hear me talk about the Carp, but you hear me talk about Takashi Hiroshi like he is my lover. Or what about the Kobe Surpass' rookie, Totoya? Will he be the first guy to play in the majors and be drafted in the same year? How will he develope and what kind of career will he have? Will he turn the fortunes of Scott's team (whatever it is called)?

Anyway, we probably hijacked primelord's dynasty thread long enough now. :)

primelord

05-30-2003, 11:22 PM

June (42-39, Tied for 1st, 0 GB)

We had a good month, but parity rules in our division. We are tied with Pittsburgh for first in the division, but Austin and Indy are both just one game back. The lead seems to change almost daily. Chittum finally colled off on the mound going 1-1 with a 6.23 era for the month. However Haller and Forbes were a combined 5-2 with a 3.00 ERA for the month so it balanced out a bit. Easley again had an excellent month closing the door on the opposition. He was once again 10 for 10 in save opportunities this month.

Overall the offense has gone into a slump. Campbell had his worst month of the season so far and none of the other guys are picking up the slack. We could really use some more offense and a spark at the top of the lineup. Robinson has started to struggle quite a bit, but Milligan has been awful when he has gotten chances so we can't put him in either.

July (52-54, Tied for 3rd, 3 GB)

To start the month we completed a trade to both sure up our defense up the middle and improve our lineup.

Laredo Gets
SS Mark Briceno (7/3/5) 3 stars 26 yrs

Dallas Gets
SP Steven Kowalski (7/8/7) 3 1/2 stars 33 yrs
MR Shawn Lerma (4/8/5) 2 stars 32 yrs

Briceno is a great fielder and a very solid hitter. He will take over the starting role from More. Kowalski was taken to be our staff ace, but he has struggled since his injury early in the season and with the eregence of some of our other pitchers we felt this was a trade we could afford to make. Briceno also has good speed and goes right to the top of our order.

And again the standings flip flop. Rochester who was 8 games out fo first is now in 2nd place only 1 game out. The 5th place team Pittsburgh is only 4 games out. It is anyones ball game at this point. It figures I trade my ace and my pitching staff goes into a funk. Easley continues to be the only consistent pitcher on the staff. He leads the league with 29 saves and has a 10.9 K/9 ratio. Forbes also had a fine month going 4-1. Forbes is second in the majors with 211 K's and a 13.5 K/9 rate.

On offense Campbells hitting slump continues. He hit 21.6 with 3 Hr's, 11 RBI's and a .697 OPS for the month. Not what we want from our best offensive player. Bogen is starting to show a little life though. He has 12 HR's and 30 RBI's over the past two months. We really need him to start swinging the bat well.

primelord

05-31-2003, 10:57 PM

August (70-64, 2nd place, 5 GB)

For awhile there it looked like the 1st place Austin club was just going to run away with it, but a late month slump by them coupled with a 6 game win streak by us got us back within 5 games as we come down the stretch. I made a lineup switch moving Bogen into the 3 hole and dropping Campbell down to the cleanup spot. Bogen responded wonderfully hitting .280 for the month with 9 HR's and 30 RBI's. Easily his most productive month for us so far. I guess he is seeing better pitches to hit with Campbell behind him. Our new shortstop Briceno hit .325 for the month and drove in 12 runs from the lead off spot. Our top 4 guys have been the most productive this year. Granville Bosco has been a very pleasent surprise in the 2 hole. He is hitting .352 with 14 HR's, 52 RBIs and a .899 OPS. I didn't expect this much from him.

We also reach 3 year contract extension agreement with SS Briceno at 4.5 million per year. A little steep, but he has been very productive for us so far and I like haveing a good glove at SS. Old man Charles Forbes keeps defying age. He went 4-1 for the month and struck out 72 batters in 43 innings pitched. Going down the stretch he now has 283 K's on the season.

September & October (88-74, 2nd place, 1 GB)

What a finish to the regular season. We battled Austin all the way down to the wire. They didn't clinch the division title from us until the last day of the regular season. Unfortunately we had a 5 game lead at one point and couldn't hold it. So we will sit out of the playoffs this season, but it was a great finish. On a side note we would have been the wild card team if this had been real life and this reminded me why I hate the wild card.

Norfolk ended up winning the first championship in our leagues history.

primelord

06-01-2003, 09:19 PM

Here are the stat dumps for our offense this season.

Name G AB H 2B 3B HR RBI R BB K AVG OBP SLG
G. Bosco 154 583 205 30 3 18 66 84 46 62 .352 .398 .506
M. Briceno 130 528 171 16 9 9 56 81 46 61 .324 .376 .439
J. Barrientos 126 220 71 16 0 9 44 40 22 33 .323 .382 .518
V. Bogen 157 576 164 29 3 30 103 92 54 96 .285 .349 .502
D. Campbell 152 562 160 25 1 22 76 95 96 33 .285 .392 .450
M. Casella 20 49 13 2 0 0 1 1 0 8 .265 .265 .306
J. Milligan 72 142 37 8 4 2 16 33 8 31 .261 .305 .415
E. Lopez 50 103 26 3 0 4 18 9 10 22 .252 .319 .398
T. Robinson 152 534 134 34 2 15 56 74 47 135 .251 .316 .406
W. Pruden 119 184 46 6 0 7 34 21 12 41 .250 .298 .397
R. Munro 144 503 125 26 2 8 59 54 52 112 .249 .316 .356
D. Desousa 124 150 37 10 0 6 28 16 8 37 .247 .276 .433
E. Peña 156 542 129 29 4 20 74 69 40 75 .238 .299 .417
S. More 109 315 71 14 0 7 36 34 30 79 .225 .294 .337
R. Finnie 16 18 4 1 0 1 3 2 1 7 .222 .263 .444
S. Wilbert 154 463 96 25 3 9 55 42 45 107 .207 .278 .333
C. Rodriguez 20 35 5 1 0 0 0 2 1 8 .143 .167 .171
C. Roundtree 28 52 6 0 0 0 1 1 5 20 .115 .193 .115
D. Chittum 35 62 6 0 0 0 2 1 4 27 .097 .152 .097
C. Forbes 35 66 6 1 0 0 4 2 1 24 .091 .103 .106
J. Haller 36 79 6 0 1 2 4 5 8 32 .076 .161 .177
E. Presley 74 9 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 .000 .000 .000
D. Corona 84 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000 1.#IO .000
F. Ortiz 51 5 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 2 .000 .000 .000
T. Houseman 54 9 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 3 .000 .000 .000
R. Mcgaha 48 7 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 .000 .000 .000
D. Easley 70 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 .000 .000 .000

Name GS PA HP IW CI GDP SH SF TB EBH SB CS SB%
G. Bosco 140 643 0 0 0 7 12 2 295 51 2 1 66.7
M. Briceno 126 583 1 2 0 8 3 5 232 34 23 16 57.9
J. Barrientos 22 246 1 2 0 4 0 3 114 25 6 3 66.7
V. Bogen 146 645 7 5 1 15 0 7 289 62 7 5 58.3
D. Campbell 152 665 4 15 1 20 0 2 253 48 13 3 81.3
M. Casella 10 51 0 0 0 0 2 0 15 2 0 0 .0
J. Milligan 34 153 1 0 0 2 2 0 59 14 20 8 71.4
E. Lopez 25 118 1 0 0 4 2 2 41 7 0 0 .0
T. Robinson 144 598 7 2 1 6 3 6 217 51 37 17 67.9
W. Pruden 15 199 1 0 0 4 1 1 73 13 2 0 100.0
R. Munro 137 560 0 0 0 16 0 5 179 36 33 6 84.6
D. Desousa 16 169 0 0 0 1 6 5 65 16 1 0 100.0
E. Peña 146 596 9 4 0 19 0 5 226 53 11 5 68.8
S. More 94 353 2 0 0 4 3 3 106 21 7 0 100.0
R. Finnie 2 19 0 0 0 0 0 0 8 2 0 0 .0
S. Wilbert 149 512 1 1 0 4 1 2 154 37 0 0 .0
C. Rodriguez 17 38 0 0 0 0 2 0 6 1 0 0 .0
C. Roundtree 28 59 0 0 0 0 2 0 6 0 0 0 .0
D. Chittum 35 74 0 0 0 0 8 0 6 0 0 0 .0
C. Forbes 35 74 0 0 0 0 6 1 7 1 0 0 .0
J. Haller 36 89 0 0 0 1 2 0 14 3 0 0 .0
E. Presley 0 10 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 .0
D. Corona 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 .0
F. Ortiz 0 5 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 .0
T. Houseman 0 9 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .0
R. Mcgaha 0 7 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .0
D. Easley 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .0

Name RC RC/27 TAVG ISO AVG OBP SLG OPS
G. Bosco 120.1 8.1 .889 .154 .352 .398 .506 .904
M. Briceno 97.7 6.8 .790 .116 .324 .376 .439 .815
J. Barrientos 46.4 7.9 .917 .195 .323 .382 .518 .900
V. Bogen 103.8 6.4 .826 .217 .285 .349 .502 .851
D. Campbell 101.8 6.4 .861 .165 .285 .392 .450 .842
M. Casella 4.1 2.9 .417 .041 .265 .265 .306 .571
J. Milligan 21.9 5.0 .765 .155 .261 .305 .415 .720
E. Lopez 13.1 4.2 .642 .146 .252 .319 .398 .717
T. Robinson 80.6 5.0 .726 .155 .251 .316 .406 .723
W. Pruden 21.5 4.0 .613 .147 .250 .298 .397 .695
R. Munro 60.3 4.0 .660 .107 .249 .316 .356 .672
D. Desousa 19.6 4.2 .649 .187 .247 .276 .433 .709
E. Peña 67.0 4.1 .654 .179 .238 .299 .417 .716
S. More 33.6 3.6 .585 .111 .225 .294 .337 .631
R. Finnie 2.2 4.2 .643 .222 .222 .263 .444 .708
S. Wilbert 45.3 3.3 .539 .125 .207 .278 .333 .610
C. Rodriguez 1.2 1.0 .233 .029 .143 .167 .171 .338
C. Roundtree 1.6 .9 .239 .000 .115 .193 .115 .308
D. Chittum 1.5 .6 .179 .000 .097 .152 .097 .248
C. Forbes 1.0 .4 .133 .015 .091 .103 .106 .209
J. Haller 2.5 .9 .297 .101 .076 .161 .177 .338
E. Presley .0 .0 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000
D. Corona .0 .0 .000 .000 .000 1.#IO .000 1.#IO
F. Ortiz .0 .0 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000
T. Houseman .0 .0 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000
R. Mcgaha .0 .0 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000
D. Easley .0 .0 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000

primelord

06-09-2003, 09:41 PM

And after the long lay off here is the stat dump for our pitching.

http://unixweb1.brick.net/~agency/fofc_gt/Season1_Pitch.JPG

The starting pitching was solid, but not spectacular. Props have to be given to old man Forbes. At 38 years old he still won 15 games, struck out 337 batters and had a 6:1 K:BB ratio.

Easley was everything we expected him to be closing out games for us. He was essentially a lock every time we brought him in. And pitching 70 ball games is pretty impressive. Corona however was a pretty big disappointment as a setup man. He was supposed to be the 1 in the 1-2 punch and he failed to deliver most of the time. Although he did pitch better down the stretch.

primelord

06-09-2003, 10:13 PM

2004 Offseason

We have all of our coaches and scouts under contract so we just skip through the coach hiring phases.

Taking a look at our roster we get some bad news on SS Mark Briceno. We signed him to a long term extension before the end of the season and of course now that he got injured his ratings have taken a hit. Still he should be a solid leadoff hitter, but not quite what I was paying for.

We have to sign a 2B. Wilbert just wasn't the answer there as he struggled all year to finish barely over .200. He has a nice glove, but I would like to get some more production on offense from our 2B. If we can afford it I would also like to sign a starter. Forbes will be 39 this year. He can't have much left in the tank.

We currently have a payroll of 81.4 million which puts us 1st in the league. However we made 95 million last year so atleast we are turining a profit. Still I would prefer to not raise our payroll too much more than it already is. I may look to trade some salaries before we head full into free agency.

We complete a trade with the Houston ball club.

Laredo Gets:
RF Edgar "Dr. Focus" Derosa 24 yrs. (6/7/8) 5 stars

Houston Gets:
SP David Chittum 34 yrs (7/7/7) 2 1/2 stars
3B Ernest Pena 31 yrs (6/6/5) 3 stars

I realy like this deal for us we get a budding star in Derosa who not only can already hit, but is an A rated OF with a B arm and has fantastic speed. This gives a hole at both 2B and 3B now, but we also drop our payroll to 75 million with this deal.

We make one more trade before we head into free agency.

Laredo Gets:
3B Kevin Robison 32 yrs (5/4/6) 2 1/2 stars

San Francisco Gets:
CF Thomas Robinson 30 yrs (4/5/5) 2 1/2 stars

With the addition of Derosa, Robinson was really without a spot on the team so we dealt him for a slick fielding 3B. Robison doesn't have a huge bat, but plays an excellent 3B and can hold his own at SS too if need be. And again we save another 3 million in payroll on this deal. That puts us at about 72 million. So with that extra pay roll space we need to find a starting pitcher and a 2B and then any additional help we can get.

primelord

06-09-2003, 11:04 PM

2004 Free Agency

There is really a lack of a true star SP on the market so I may go ahead and try to nab a top notch 2B. The best true 2B on the market Mike Bartlet doesn't like our orginization. However I think we may go after Benito "The Scorpion" Duran. He hit .352 with 39 HR's and 111 RBI's last year and while he is a true 3B he has a C rating at both 3B and 2B. So we may try to snag him and play him at 2B. He won't come cheap though. But at 26 yrs old with (7/7/7) ratings he seems to good to pass up.

We make an offer of 9.5 million over 5 years and we will see how that stands up. We may quickly get outbid though. As a backup plan we make a small 1 million for 3 years offer to 2B Zack Davidson who isn't very good with the bat, but is great with the glove.

I want to keep our payroll around 90 million dollars (keeping with Anry's rule of payroll not exceeding profits. :)) So we have a little cash to work with still even if Duran signs. We also make a 5 million 4 year offer to SP Joe Prevost (7/7/6) and we will see where those initial offers get us.

Not surprisingly after the first week Duran has already received a much bigger offer than ours. I will go ahead and take a stab at 13 million a year for him, but we can't possibly go any higher than that. We have the best offers out to Davidson and Prevost. And after the second week Columbus has offered Duran what he says is considerable more money. Thats just too much green for us to invest when we have other areas to fill so I think we will go with Davidson if we lock him up and try to improve our pitching.

We up our offer a bit to Prevost and add offers to SP K. Clark (6/7/8) and MR Juan Carrero (8/8/7). Clark comes back in the first week and says Milwaukee is offering his considerably more than the 5.5 million we offered so I pass on him and put a 1.5 million dollar offer in for SP Frank Powell (5/6/4) his ratings aren't stellar, but in limited action last year he had some solid numbers. We also make a 4 year offer to MR Cecil Sadkowski (8/8/5). If we land Sadkowski and Carrero we will really bolster our bullpen.

On Day 7 we lock up Frank Powell and again bump our contract offer a bit to Prevost who got a better offer from Knoxville. On day 11 we lock up Sadowski and again Prevost is asking for more money after getting a better offer from Knoxville. I am already at 7 million and I am not sure I want to oush much higher. Sincde we traded Chittum and I am just not expecting much out of Forbes I think we have to go ahead and try to sign Prevost. We up the ante to 8 million. On Day 12 Zack Davidson signs with us and we have a 2B albeit a weak hitting one.

On day 17 Juan Carrero accepts our offer and our bullpen should be greatly improved next season. However again Knoxville has trumped our offer to Prevost. I am really up against the wall here as I don't want to pay Prevost this kind of money, but we really don't have enough options in the rotation. I am going to bump it up to 9 million per year which if he signs will put us at about 93 million for payroll which means I will have to move salary somewhere after. And in day 19 our pursuit of Prvost comes to an end. He has been offered a considerable amount more by San Francisco and I just can;t see paying him that kind of cash. We will just have to go with what we have got and hope for the best. Perhaps we will be able to make a deal during the season to bolster the rotation.

We offer a 2 million dollar deal to CF Neal Stevens (5/4/4) who is an A in CF and RF and has some good speed. He will be a good defnsive replacement off the bench. if we land him. In the end Stevens gets a better offer from Houston and we close out the free agency period.

primelord

06-09-2003, 11:19 PM

2004 Amateur Draft

We have the 20th overall pick in the draft this year so I don't suspect we will be able to add too much to our already weak minor league system.

1) SP Ronnie Kinkade 19 yrs (A/A/B) 4 stars
2) SS David Sherron 18 yrs (F/G/A) 3 1/2 stars
3) MR George Greer 21 yrs (G/A/G) 4 stars
4) C Samuel Palermo 20 yrs (F/G/F) 2 1/2 stars
5) MR Michael Morgan 20 yrs (G/G/G) 3 stars
6) 2B David Parker 21 yrs (A/F/A) 2 1/2 stars
7) LF Jerry Beaufort 19 yrs (F/A/F) 1 1/2 stars
8) MR Juan Diaz 18 yrs (A/G/G) 2 1/2 stars
9) MR Jack Hazelip 23 yrs (A/A/G) 2 1/2 stars
10) MR Derrick Roye 21 yrs (A/G/A) 2 stars

primelord

06-09-2003, 11:45 PM

2004 Season Preview

Pitching Staff

I am verry concerned about our starting pitching this year. We traded away a couple guys and we were not able to bring in abig arm to replace them. The starting rotation will look like this.

1.) C. Forbes (7/6/6/10)
2.) J. Haller (6/7/6/7)
3.) C. Rodriguez (5/7/5/3)
4.) C. Roundtree (6/6/7/6)
5.) F. Powell (5/6/4/5)

I am not certain if Forbes will hold up for another enitrie season, but he was out best pitcher last season so he gets the nod on opening day. After him and Haller it starts to get scary. The good news is atleast on paper our bullpen is fantastic. Here is a look at how the bullpen is setup.

Middle Relief
1.) J. Carrero (8/8/7/5)
2.) T. Houseman (7/7/6/6)
3.) E. Presley (7/7/7/6)
4.) R. Mcgaha (6/7/7/6)

Set-up
1.) C. Sadowski (8/8/5/8)
2.) J. Carrero (8/8/7/5)

Closer
1.) D. Easley (9/8/8/10)

The bullpen should hpefully save the the starters quite a bit this season.

Offense

Here is how the lineup shapes up for the upcoming season.

1.) SS M. Briceno (6/3/6)
2.) RF G. Bosco (8/6/5)
3.) CF E. Derosa (6/7/8)
4.) LF V. Bogen (7/9/7)
5.) 1B D. Campbell (7/8/10)
6.) 3B K. Robison (5/4/6)
7.) C R. Munro (4/4/7)
8.) 2B Z. Davidson (3/5/6)

Ratings wise Campbell is still the best hitter on the team, but he just didn't produce well enough last season so he gets dropped to the 5 hole this year. I am very happy with this lineup 1-5, but my 6-8 hitters are suspect. Still I suspect we will produce some runs this season. Barrientos again will be the main threat off of the bench.

primelord

06-10-2003, 12:57 AM

April (14-14, 3rd Place, 2 GB)

Again so far this season parity is king in our division. Austin once again leads the division, but we are easily within striking distance. Bogen has been the story on offense for our team so far. He is hitting .357 with 10 HR's and 26 RBI's after the first month. Newcomer Derosa has shown some good power speed numbers with 9 HR's and 10 SB's, but his .235 average leaves something to be desired. And David Campbell really needs to get things going. He isn't earning his pay check at this point.

On the pitching front things have gone pretty much the way I expected. The starters have struggled including Forbes who continues to strike guys out, but is onyl 2-2 with a 5.77 ERA. The surprise story so far is newcome Powell who is 2-1 with a 2.21 ERA. He doesn't seem to have the ratings to support those numbers, but he put up decent numbers in limited starts last year too. He could be a diamond in thr rough for us. The bullpen has been very solid with only Carrero having an ERA over 4 at this point. Sadowski and Easley are that 1-2 punch I was looking for last year.

primelord

06-12-2003, 10:46 PM

May (34-22, 1st Place, 0 GB)

Things started off very slow for us in the month. We at one point fell behind by 5 games, but we won 17 of our last 20 ball games and soared into 1st place. We are four games ahead of Austin and Pitt and 5 games ahead of Indy and San Fran. Only Rochester is really out of the picture at this point.

Chris Roundtree was the star of the starting staff this month. He went 4-0 to improve his season record to 7-2. Overall our starters have been solid, but nothing to brag about. I think they can hold together, but it may be in our best interest to try and land another starter before the trade deadline. Forbes is really starting feel the affects of his age. He is being held together by spit and duck tape, but he does continue to bring the heat and strike batters out. Easley is just unhittable improving to a league leading 18 saves at the end of May.

On offense the story has all been Vaughn Bogen he is putting up an MVP type season. He currently sits at .378, 23 HR's, 59 RBI's, 1.233 OPS!!! The guys has just been a monster all year. He is leading the league in HR's and RBI's and is 2nd in AVG. He is a serious triple crown threat this year. Derosa continues to show some pop in his bat and flash some speed, but he can't seem to hit consistently. Still despite his .226 average he is leading the team in runs and steals and is second in HR's and 3rd in RBI's. Campbell has started to make a bit of a comeback hitting .341 with 8 HR's and 17 RBI's for the month of May. Not wanting to rock the boat with Bogen or Campbell I resist the urge to drop Derosa a bit in the batting order. I will keep that in mind is he is still hitting poorly next month. Robison and Davidson are both hitting right around .200, but I guess we have them for thei goves and not their bats. They only have 6 errors combined for the season.

June (44-37, 2nd Place, 3 GB)

No one can sustain a lead in this division. Just as we had a white hot streak in may we went ice cold in June including losing our last 6 ball games. I am really liking the trade we made for Mark Briceno last season. He has been our leadoff hitter and this year is hitting .316, with a .407 OBP and 31 RBI's from the leadoff spot. He is really making thing happen for us. Plus he plays a flawless SS. Just as I start to contemplate moving Dr. Focus Derosa down in the order he hits .344 for the month of June to raise his season average to .263. He gets to keep his 3rd slot for now. Bogen slowed down a little bit. He still had a solid month, but nothing like his last two months. Still he is among the leaders in all offensive categories.

primelord

06-12-2003, 11:33 PM

July (56-50, 4th place, 4 GB)

Our losing strek got all the way to 14 straight games before we finally got back on track. San Francisco has more or les dropped out of the race, but we still have a 4 team race down the stretch. Austin currently sits in first. Here is a look at our staff and lineup so far this season.

http://unixweb1.brick.net/~agency/fofc_gt/Season2_Pitch.JPG

http://unixweb1.brick.net/~agency/fofc_gt/Season2_Bat.JPG

MizzouRah

06-14-2003, 08:12 AM

waiting....

:)

Todd

primelord

06-15-2003, 11:49 PM

August (70-64, 4th place, 7 GB)

We start off the month of August by promoting SP Robert Grasser from the AAA ball club. Grasser is not a star by any means, but he is 11-5 with a 3.05 ERA and a BB to K ratio of 26:167. He will take Frank Powell's spot in the rotaton. Powell has been optioned to AAA.

Of course The first game of the month Chris Roundtree, who has been our best pitcher all season goes down with a 6 week injury o we call Frank Poweel right back up to step into the rotation. Our starting pitching is really hurting. We are going to have to sign a player or two in the off season. And we need prospect Ronnie Kinkade to develop more quickly.

The weak starting pitching was our downfall all month. We went through a 7 game losing streak at one point and then when we did get on a hot streak, winning 6 games in a row the top two teams Pittsburgh and Indy also won 6 games in a row. Things look pretty bleak for us at this point. It would take a major rally to regain the lead in the division.

Bogen had an excellent month at the plate hitting .380 with 6 HRs and 29 RBIs. He is right in the thick of the MVP race. Granville Bosco had a great month too hitting .414 with 6 HRs and 13 RBIs. He is just a great number two hitter. He also made his first all-star game this season.

Grasser had a rough first two outings giving up 9 earned runs in just 7 innings pitched, but he calmed down and got two wins while only giving up 1 earned run over 13 inning in his next two starts. He is now 2-2 on the season. Haller picked up some of the slack with the loss of Roundtree going 4-0 on the month with a 2.11 ERA. Easley is up to a league leading 35 saves and has an outside shot at breaking the single season record of 43 saves set by Milwaukee's Hiram Lee last season.

September/October (84-78, 4th place, 5 GB)

We actually battled pretty hard all the way down the stretch getting as close as two games out at one point. When it was all said and done though Indianapolis edged Pittsburgh by 1 game to take the playoff berth for our division.

Our division is represented well as Indy goes on to win the world series.

primelord

06-16-2003, 12:31 PM

2004 Season Recap

Offense

http://unixweb1.brick.net/~agency/fofc_gt/End_Season2_Bat1.JPG

As you can see there is no question who the star of our team on offense is. Bogen was a monster this year leading the league in Avg and RBI's and finishing 3rd in HR's. Just shy of a triple crown. We drafted Campbell to anchor our offense, but it's clear Bogen is carrying the load right now. And his efforts were rewarded as Bogen was given the NL MVP award this season. Well deserved I must say.

I am also very excited about Derosa's season. He is a major star on the rise. In addition to his 42 HR's and 100+ RBI's he had 52 stolen bases and lead the league with 13 triples. Those kind of power speed numbers are hard to come by and when you add in his stellar defensive capabilities he should be an elite player for years to come. I would like to see him cut down on his strikes outs and hit for a little more average, but it's hard to find much to complain about.

David Campbell had a solid season, but I expect more out of him than what we got. .313/28/83 is nice, but for the 14 million a year we are paying him I would like to see more bang for our buck. On the flip side I am very happy with the play we got from Bosco. He put up very similar numbers to Campbell, but on paper he is less talented and he did it at a much cheaper price tag. He continues to over achieve and be a key contributor to our team.

Briceno faded down the stretch and I was hoping to get a little more out Robison, but they both play stellar defense and I guess that is what we are paying them for.

Pitching

http://unixweb1.brick.net/~agency/fofc_gt/End_Season2_Pit1.JPG

It's very clear to me that we absolutely must get some help for our starting pitching next season. Haller had a nice bounce back year after struggling some last season, and Roundtree also had a decent season, but no one realy stepped up and took control of this team and past our 3-5 guys just weren't getting it done. Forbes can still strike guys out, but when he doesn't fan them they seem to knock him all around the ball park.

Ronnie Kincade is our only real prospect as a starting pitcher and his struggles in A ball this season seem to say he is still several years away. So wewill need to find more pitching either in free agency or through a trade in the off season.

The bullpen pitched pretty well as expected. Houseman faded some towards the end after getting off to a great start. I think a lot fo that was because the pen was just over worked with our poor starting rotation. Still they did a nice job and Easley was money in the bank in the 9th as usual. Overall I am very happy with this part of the ball club.

primelord

06-16-2003, 09:27 PM

2005 Off-Season

Free Agents

1B Mark Casella (7/4/6) 2 1/2 stars
LF Sixto Fleites (5/4/5) 1 star
C Brian Braddy (2/3/4) 1 star
MR Alfred Salmons (6/8/9) 3 1/2 stars

We only have four players who are eligible for free agency this season. None of which I am that interested in signing. Casella Fleites and Braddy are all marginal backups at best and Salmons looks solid, but he can't crack our bullpen rotation.

Free Agency

Well taking a look at the free agent market there are two guys we have our eyes on.

SP Stewart Sanchez 33 yrs (9/8/8) 5 stars
SP Jed Pichardo 33 yrs (8/8/7) 4 1/2 stars

Both of these guys are probably going to command a lot of money. Our payroll currently sits at about 83 million and we made 97 million last year so we have around 12 million or so to play with and still be profitable. I don't know if 12 million is going to be enough to lock either of these guys up, but we absolutely must get some starting pitching help. We also need some backup help at C and 1B. It looks like I am going to ahve to free up some payroll if we want to land a starting pitcher.

In a move that we may very well regret later we make a blockbuster trade to bring in some starting pitching, but it costs us our star 1B.

Laredo gets
SP Anthony Ferrier 22 yrs (9/8/6) 5 stars

Philadelphia gets
1B David "Thunder" Campbell 29 yrs (6/8/10) 5 stars
SP Frank Powell 29 yrs (6/6/4) 2 stars

Ferrier is a star pitcher to be. He went 14-7 last season with a 3.22 ERA. He is a work horse pitcher and should immediately but at the top of our rotation. He also only making 300,00 dollars this season so swapping that for Campbell's 14 mil and Powell's 1.5 mil really gives us some felxibility.

I hate to deal Campbell as he was our #1 pick overall, but he just hasn't lived up to his contract and his potential the last few years for us. A guys like that better be hitting 35+ HR's and driving in 100+ runs and he just wasn't putting up those kind of numbers for us. He will probably come back and punish us with Philly, but we just had to pull the trigger on this one.

The move drops us to a 67 million dollar pay roll. That should give us some money to pursue another starter and a replacemnt for Campbell at first.

Wow it didn't even dawn on me to see if Sanchez was even willing to sign with us before I made that deal. He of course doesn't like our orginization. So we may not have needed to clear that much salary. Oh well Pichardo is interested in our ball club so we will go after him. We make the following offers:

SP Jed Pichardo 5 yrs 10 million
CF Mitchell Paquet (4/8/5) 3 stars 5 yrs 7 million
1b Mark Casella (7/3/7) 2 1/2 stars 3 yrs 3 million
C Matt Sink (3/4/6) 1 1/2 stars 2 yrs 600,000

I think my plan is to try and teach Bogen to play first base and sign Paquet so Derosa can go back to his natural position in LF. Bogen is an awful OF so I figure if he is awful at 1B we will still improve overall as Derosa and Paquet are both very good OF's. I alos make an offer to our old backup 1B Casella who I don't remember looking quite as good as the league scouts think he does.

After the first day we have the top offer in to all players, but Paquet. We will up our offer to him some. He is very good defensively and has a ton of speed. I would really like to land this guy. We bump our offer up to 9 1/2 million over 5 and that apparently is what Paquet was looking for because he signed with us after day 3! We also sign Matt Sink after day 3.

And after day 5 the bidding war for Pichardo seems to have begun. Houston has come in offering considerable more money. I really do not want to see him sign with a rival ball club in our division. We bump our offer to 13 million over 4. After day 10 Casella signs our offer and comes back home to play. He should be able to fill in for Bogen should he get injured or the switch to 1B just doesn't work.

On day 11 we get a very interesting trade offer from Raleigh they offer:

SP Emilio Marzano 30 yrs (6/8/8) 2 stars
C James Richter 20 yrs (0/3/2) 2 1/2 stars

for

CF Jose Barrientos 31 yrs (4/6/7) 2 1/2 stars

Barrientos was awful for us last season so I quickly jump on this deal. Our scout seems to think more of Marzano than the league scouts do. He put up solid numbers last season too. And the salaries are just about a wash so there is no payroll impact for this trade.

On Day 15 Norfolk comes through and offers Pichardo a better deal. We are starting to hit the ceiling in terms of what we can offer him. We are currently at 80 million so we only have a few more million over what we had already offered to give. We bump the offer up to 15 million and hope for the best. If not we may have to move more salary. And of course on day 18 Houston comes through and offers more money. I can't let Houston land this guy.

We make a trade to clear a little payroll.

Laredo gets
MR Jaime Herrera 20 yrs (2/4/5) 4 1/2 stars

Cincinnati gets
SP Chris Roundtree 36 yrs (4/6/7) 1 star

This deal only clear up another million in cap space but hopefully it will be enough. It takes all the way until day 25, but Pichardo finally signs on the dotted line with us for a hefty 17 million for 4 years. I think we may have over paid for him, but we really need to improve out starting pitching.

primelord

06-16-2003, 09:48 PM

2005 Amateur Draft

We have the 16th overall pick in this years draft. Our farm system ranks 22nd out of 24 teams so we could really use a good draft here.

1. SP Eugene Vanguilder 18 yrs (G/G/G) 4 1/2 Stars
2. 3B Charles Heilman 23 yrs (F/G/A) 3 stars
3. CL Terrence Shaw 19 yrs (G/G/G) 3 1/2 stars
4. LF Juan Rodriguez 18 yrs (G/F/A) 3 stars
5. RF Ronald Weiland 22 yrs (A/A/F) 2 1/2 stars
6. MR Randy Sanford 19 yrs (G/G/A) 3 1/2 stars
7. 3B Jonah Ayala 22 yrs (F/A/F) 2 stars
8. 2B Augustine Baeza 21 yrs (A/F/A) 2 stars
9. 1B Sean Chivers 18 yrs (F/A/F) 2 stars
10. MR Wilfredo Magana 21 yrs (F/A/A) 2 stars

primelord

06-16-2003, 10:20 PM

2005 Season

Here is a look at our pitching rotation and starting lineup for the upcomig season.

http://unixweb1.brick.net/~agency/fofc_gt/Season3_Pitch.JPG

Our newcomers Pichardo and Ferrier head the top of the rotation. They give us two front line starters that should really help improve our staff. If we can get another solid season from Haller and our bottom two guys can just be average we should be in good shape. We paid a lot to get here, but I think our staff should be greatly improved. I also expect the bullpen to be stellar like last season. Forbes is just too old has slid too much to be given a spot in the rotation but he still throws hard so I am hoping some mop up work and even a little setup work will be good for him in what should be his final season.

http://unixweb1.brick.net/~agency/fofc_gt/Season3_Bat.JPG

Again this year I am pretty comfortable with our 1-5 guys, but 6-8 will probably be a weak spot for us again. Bogen will make the switch to play first base this season. He will not be stellar there with the glove as he only has an E rating, but he only had an E rating in the OF too so it can't be too bad. He is starting to get up there in age. At 35 I have some fear he may be in for a drop off year soon. Hopefully not this season. Derosa looks like he will be a monster this year he is at (7/9/8) now and I expect both him and newcome Paquet to swipe a lot of bags.

primelord

06-16-2003, 11:16 PM

April (19-9, 1st place, 0 GB)

We had an excellent opening month and you can pretty much out it all on the shoulders of Edgar Derosa. He had a monster month hitting .391 with 14 HRs and 37 RBIs!!! He currently leads the league in OPS, HRs, RBIs, Rs, and is 3rd in Avg and SBs. Bogen's power numbers are down a bit, but he had a nice month too hitting .368 with 4 HRs and 20 RBIs and newcomer Paquet 9 HRs and 26 RBIs of his own.

The starting pitching has been very solid so far too. Pichardo and Ferrier are a combined 6-1 with a 3.30 ERA and the starters over all are 12-4. The bullpen however has been a bit of a disaster. Easley is the only reliever with an under 6 ERA! And his is 4.15. I have a feeling they will get it together in the coming months though.

primelord

06-17-2003, 09:17 PM

May (33-23, Tied for 1st Place, 0GB)

Another solid month for us, but Pittsburgh had a very good month and has climbed into a tie for first with us. We suffered a blow when our new staff ace ruptured a bicep tendon and has gone down for 6 weeks. He has about 3-4 weeks left of recovery time. Ferrier has picked up the slack though going 5-1 on the month with a 1.56 ERA. He also has 107 K's in only 78 innings pitched. Rodriguez is just getting hammered though and we are going to have to pull him out of the rotation. Old Man Forbes will get another shot to start. Easley bounced back afetr a sub par month for him converting 7 of 7 save opportunities with a 0.79 ERA and a 0.88 WHIP.

On offense Derosa cooled off quite a bit only hitting .312 with 10 HR's and 17 RBI's for the month. He hit quite a few solo shots this month. He still had a nice month just not the monster numbers he put up last month. Bosco had a very nice month hitting .378 with 27 RBI's. Overall our team is playing some very good baseball.

June (48-33, 2nd place, 1 GB)

We start off the month by extending David Easley's contract by 4 years at 4.5 mil a year. He is one of the leagues top closers and deserves every penny.

Ferrier had another solid month going 4-2, but his ERA shot up to a little over 4. Still he is getting the job done for us. Haller and Marzano have also been solid for us this season. And the bullpen is really starting to settle down except for our setup man Sadowski. He is 2-3 with a 5.12 ERA on the season. Not what I like to see in a guy we rely on to get a hold.

Derosa continues to hit well, but he seems to be getting a little cooler as each month goes by. This month he hit .302 with 6 HR's and 23 RBI's. Bosco has is turning into my favorite player. He just remonds me of a Wade Boggs type hitter. Hits for a high and average, has some decent pop and drives in runs. Bosco is sitting at .342 with 11 HR's and 57 RBI's for us. Bogen is starting to really show his age. He is still hitting for a nice average at .333 and has 51 RBI's, but has only hit 9 HR's so far on the year. Not what we were used to. Hopefully he can find a second wind for the second half.

primelord

06-18-2003, 10:53 PM

July (63-43, 2nd place, 2 GB)

We continue to play good baseball, but Indy is just playing better. Every time we got on a win streak this month Indy did too. In any other division we would be in first place by atleast 4 games. Oh well competition is good for ya. :)

I continue to just be enamored with Derosa. He had a nother big month hitting .337 with 9 HR's and 24 RBI's and a 1.219 OPS. He is gunning to be our second straight MVP winner and I would say right now he has to be the favorite. He leads the league in OPS, HR's, RBI's, Runs and Stolen Bases! He is also vying to be a 50/50 man. He currently has 39 HR's and 42 SB's. Taking a look at our old freind David Campbell he is currently hitting .286 with 13 HR's and 60 RI's for Philly. Paquet (who took his spot in our lineup) is hitting .235 with 22 HR's and 71 RBI's. So they are putting up similar numbers with Paquet producing a few more runs and Paquet is doing it at a cheaper price tag. Plus Ferrier is looking like he may win 20 games for us so I would say overall that was a very good trade on our part.

As I mentioned Ferrier has continued to be stellar. His ERA has gone up a bit, but he continue to win ball games and sits at 14-5 on the season. If he stays healthy he should be a lock for 20 wins. I haven;t gone much into any of the starters because there just isn;t much to tell. They all have records right around .500 with around 4.00 ERA's. Not bad, but nothing to brag about either. Easley (who is another one of may favorites) had another brillant month getting 7 saves and 2 wins and not giving up a run in 11.2 innings picthed.

August (77-57, Tied 1st place, 0 GB)

Well we go into the final month of the season tied with Indy for first place. And we are only 1 game up on Pittsburgh and only 4 games up on Austin. It's anyones ball game at this point.

Ferrier was outstanding for us in the month of August. He won pitcher of the month honors while going 4-0 with an 0.87 ERa and 2 shut outs. This guy is on his way to winning a Cy Young at 22 years old! He is 18-5 on the season with a 3.00 ERA and 279 K's to only 65 BB's. The starting rotation also got a boost from the return of Jed Pichardo who took longer than originally thought to recover from his injuries. He was onyl 2-3 for the month, but his return was abig boost for morale.

On offense the story this month has to be Vaughn Bogen. It looks like he had a little left in the gas tank after all as he hit .348 and belted 11 HR's and drove in 23 runs. He almost doubled his home run total in one month. Hopefully he can keep a hot bat down the stretch. We can use him as Derosa seems to have cooled some suffering his worst month of the season.

primelord

06-18-2003, 11:33 PM

September/October (98-64, 1st Place, 0 GB)

Woo Hoo! We won our first division title!!!! And by a solid margin. We just took control on the division this month and finished 9 games ahead of both Pittsburgh and Indianapolis. And a lot of people had something to do with our amazing drive down the stretch.

Ferrier just found another gear and blew through his opponents. He won the pitcher of the month award for the second straight month going 6-0 with a 1.58 ERA. He finishes the season 24-5 with a 2.72 ERA and 353 K's! He is a lock for the Cy Young award. Pichardo also picthed very well going 3-0 for the month, but went down with another injury in his final start that will sideline him for the entire playoffs. :( I noticed his ratings have taken a bit of a hit with this last injury too. Easley was off the hook getting 11 saves with a 1.13 ERA.

I think Granville Bosco got hosed out of the batter of the month award. Bosco hit .450 for the month of September with 7 HR's and 19 RBI's. He raised his season average to .352 which finished 2nd overall in the NL. Bogen also had a huge month hitting .427 with 6 HR's and 26 RBI's. And finally Edgar Derosa had a pretty huge month of his own, hitting .333 with 7 HR's and 32 RBI's. He finished the season with a .325 average, 52 HR's and 148 RBI's. And is a very strong candidate for MVP. We may have both the MVP and Cy Yound award winners this season. Derosa also finished with 59 SB's giving him a 50/50 season!

So we head into the playoffs with very lofty hopes of winning a championship.

primelord

06-19-2003, 12:08 AM

Post Season

We face Chicago in the league championship series. We should have very little trouble disposing of Chicago. They played in the weakest division in the league and actually won their division with only an 81-81 record. We will hope to sweep them in 4 games and rest up for the world series.

Game 1

Well the combination of overconfidence and a rotation glitch seems to have cost us game 1. I wanted to start Ferrier in this game however I forgot to uncheck the most rested starter pitches button and Marzano got the start. He pitched well, but with a 2-1 lead in the 7th he gave up two runs and Chicago closed the door on us 3-2. It's touhg to drop the opener at home.

Series: Chicago - 1, Laredo - 0

Game 2

We quickly make up for the first game loss by stomping Chicago 8-0 in game 2. Ferrier was dominant all game pitching a complete game shutout and only giving up 5 hits and 2 walks to 11 K's. I wish he could pitch for us every night. :) Vaughn Bogen had a huge game too going 3 for 5 with 4 RBI's. And leadoff man Briceno went 3 for 4 and is now hitting .625 for the series.

Series: Laredo - 1, Chicago - 1

Game 3

What a game this one was. We got on the board first in the second inning as Vaughn Bogen took a Edward Matt fastball over the wall to make it 1-0. However Chicago answered in the 3rd inning by putting 3 runs on the board. We scored again in the 5th to cut the lead to 3-2, but were not able to get anything going after that. We went into the 9th losing 3-2 and facing Chicago's closer Nicholas Arias who had 33 saves on the season. Vaugh Bogen led off the inning and crushed the first pitch he saw from Arias over the wall for his second home run of the game and to tie the score up at 3. In the 11th we then got 3 more runs and Easley got the win.

On the day Bogen, who was the player of the game, went 3 for 5 with 2 HR's, 3 RBI's and 3 runs scored!

Series: Laredo - 2, Chicago - 1

Game 4

Marzano took the hill again in game 4, but his day was quickly cut short. Marzano injured himself after only 1/3 of an innign and it was up to the bull pen to pull us through the day. Carrero, Houseman, Presley, and Mcgaha all pitched very well only giving up 2 runs, but we couldn't muster up any run support of our own and dropped this 2-1.

Series: Laredo - 2, Chicago - 2

Game 5

With Ferrier back on the mound we made very quick work of Chicago. He again mowed through the hitter pitching his second straight complete game and earing a 7-1 win. He struck out 16 batters whule only walking 4. Ferrier hasn't lost a decision since early July! Bogen drove in 2 more runs in the game and is now hitting .476 with 2 HR's and 9 RBI's for the series. Haller will try to close the series out for us back home.

Series: Laredo - 3, Chicago - 2

Game 6

We just don't seem to put many runs on the board when Ferrier isn't pitching. Chicago put 2 runs up on the board in the 1st inning and that was all they would need as they went on to take game 6 2-1. We now face a game 7 situation that I did not want to get to. I really hope he doesn't get hurt, but seeing as we must win game 7 I am going to bring Ferrier back to pitch on only 2 days rest.

Series: Laredo - 3, Chicago - 3

Game 7

Despite being on only 2 days rest Ferrier was absolutely brilliant! He pitched 6 2/3 innings only giving up 2 hits, 2 walks and striking out 7. He then turned the game over to Carrero who pitched 1 1/3 innings of scoreless ball and Easley closed the game out in the 9th giving us a 1-0 victory and a trip to the world series! Our one run came on a 2nd inning home run from Paquet.

Series: Laredo - 4, Chicago - 3

primelord

06-19-2003, 06:29 PM

World Series

Game 1

We face the Seattle ball club in our bid to win our first ever world championship. For obvious reasons we won't have our fireballer Ferrier for the first game so Marzano takes the hill for us again in game 1. Well when we lose games we always seem to lose the close ones. This was a defensive struggle that we lost 3-1. Apparently Marzano wasn't rested enough to pitch because the A.I. put middle reliver Carrero in as the starter. He pitched 6 good innings, but gave up 2 runs and that was enough to give us the loss.

Series: Seattle - 1, Laredo - 0

Game 2

The bats came alive in this one. Granville Bosco was the player of the game as he went 2 for 4 with 1 HR, 2 RBI's and 2 Runs. We also got a 3 for 4 day from Derosa who has not had a stellar playoffs. In 9 playoff games he has 0 RBI's! Not good. Haller pitched 6 2/3 innings and we get the win 7-3.

Series: Laredo - 1, Seattle - 1

Game 3

With Ferrier on the mound for us I thought we were a lok to win this one, but Seattle got him for 4 runs and we weren't able to put anything together on offense and we drop this one 4-1. Ferrier didn't seem like himself only going 5 innings and giving up 4 earned runs while walking 5 batters. I hope the short rest he got in the last series didn;t affect him too much.

Series: Seattle - 2, Laredo - 1

Game 4

Things are starting to look bleak. Seatlle topped us again in this one 6-2. Again the bats have just gone quiet and we don;t win many ball games when we don't score a lot. Seattle got on the board early and never looked back as they easily cruised to this win. We need a strong performance from Haller in the next game or we are going home unhappy.

Series: Seattle - 3, Laredo - 1

Game 5

Well it seems we just ran out of gas. Despite finishing with the best record in the regular season and being the favorites going in we just couldn't out play Seattle as they downed us 7-1 to clinch the world championship. It was a scoreless ball game after 5 inning, but we were forced to pull an overworked and very tired Haller and McGaha gave up two runs in the 6th. We gave up another 5 in the 8th and that was all she wrote.

Series: Seattle World Champions

It's hard to be too disappointed with the outcome of the season, but we were the favorites going in so it leaves a bit of a bitter taste. Losing Pichardo for the playoffs may have made the difference.

primelord

06-19-2003, 07:32 PM

2005 Season Recap

Well we managed to sweep the two major awards. The corner stones of our team Anthony Ferrier took home the Cy Young award in his first season in an Osprey uniform and Edgar Derosa won his first MVP trophy making that back to back seasons we had the MVP winner. It's clear the voting doesn't take the post season into account as Derosa didn't drive in a run during the entire playoffs.

Financials

http://unixweb1.brick.net/~agency/fofc_gt/End_Season3_Finance.PNG

As you can see our profits were down 10 million from last season so we are still profitable, but things are starting to get a bit tight. Without that playoff revenue we wouldn't have made it.

Offense

http://unixweb1.brick.net/~agency/fofc_gt/End_Season3_Bat.PNG

We are really going to miss Bosco next season. He is a free agent and I a not certain we are going to be able to sign him. Especially considering he is 35 so can't have that many productive years left. Although Vaughn Bogen found a little at the bottom of the bag and had a very nice final two months to finish with some very solid numbers on the year. And obviously Derosa was just a monster this season. He has a very bright future ahead of him. He is up for arbitration this season. It will be interesting to see what he gets.

Casella turned out to be a very nice signing as a backup at first. He was easily our most valuable hitter off the bench. We also got a much better season at the plate from Robison. Overall a very nice season on offense for us.

Pitching

http://unixweb1.brick.net/~agency/fofc_gt/End_Season3_Pitch.PNG

Ferrier was without question the star of the team this year. He just got stronger as the year went on. And to think he is only 22 years old. We had to give up a verygood player in david Campbell to get him, but I think in the long run we are going to win this one. Our 17 million dollar man Pichardo pitched well, but was hurt for a couple large chunks of the season. Still if he comes back at full strength next season we will have a very nice 1-2 punch at the top of the rotation. Marzano also pitched pretty well. Our starting staff was much improved this year.

The bullpen was up and down almost all year, but they seemed to have finished on a down note. All pf the relievers, but Easley finished with over a 4 ERA, But Easley was outstanding as usual. I really would like to try and find a guy who can be a great set up man for him though. I thought Sadowski was going to be that guy, but I am not so certain anymore.

Fielding

http://unixweb1.brick.net/~agency/fofc_gt/End_Season3_Field.PNG