[JetsIn06]

The 1959 Portland Rosebuds

Opening day is here! It's the final season of the decade, and afer completely bottoming out in our rebuild in 1952 with a 49-win season, we've really turned things around since then.

1953: 76-86
1954: 75-87
1955: 77-85
1956: 92-70
1957: 96-66 (Pennant Winner)
1958: 91-71

Let's also take a quick looking at our minor league system. We're now ranked 11th out of 20 teams, and have six players in the Top 100. Obviously things aren't quite as exciting as when we were consistently getting Top 5 picks (although the lottery never truly made it easy), but we still have some solid players who we're excited to bring up soon. Some highlights:

SP Jimmy Letter, 22 years old, #13 Prospect, AAA.

We picked Letter with the 8th pick in the 1954 draft, and he's progressed nicely. Durability looks strong, with strong ratings in stuff, movement, in control; all at 6. He's now the top prospect in our system.

After a strong showing at AA last year, with a 3.85 ERA over 21 starts, we promoted him to AAA. He struggled, however, pitching to a 7.81 ERA in a short stint of 5 games. He'll start the year in AAA and likely see time in the majors this season.

1B/3B Carlito Lynce, 23 years old, #71 Prospect, AAA

Lynce is our #4 prospect after coming to us in the IAFA period in early 1954. I worry a little bit about the defense and think he might need to move to 1B, but he's got 6's in contact, power, and eye; however the power hasn't shown up at all in the minors yet. Without any speed either, he'll really need to hit to be valuable.

RP Ryne White, 22 years old, #75 Prospect, AA

White is a light-out reliever who throws as hard as he possibly can to be successful; meaning no stamina and forever a bullpen arm. Despite three amazing pitches, he'll never be able to join the rotation. But we knew that going in, and took him in the supplemental round last season. He had a decent season in A-ball to start his pro career, and will start in AA this year. The stuff is elite; if he can perform in AA I see no reason why he couldn't get a cup of coffee in the majors this season.

Back to opening day; we win 4-3, defeating the St. Louis Lions at home. SP Tom Brown didn't have a great game, with six BBs and four Ks over 5 IP. But only two runs crossed the plate, allowing OF John Hollis to drive in the eventual winning run in the 6th inning.

In the middle of May, we're 21-21. Not what we were expecting, but we have been ravaged by injuries, luckily most of them have been short-term. But the end of the month comes and we are on fire, winning ten straight games, and on June 1st we're 31-21 and just 1GB of 1st.

April: 11-13
May: 20-8

Amateur Draft

In the draft, we select SP Phil Adams, a right-handed JuCo Sophmore out of Florida. He's got an elite-level changeup to go with balanced stuff, movement, and control, all graded at six. He's got great makeup, with a strong work ethic so he should be able to move through the system relatively fast.

In the 2nd, we select C Steve Dolan, who has his heart set on attending Indiana University, but we're going to try to throw some cash at him to change his mind. He's 18, but shows elite hitting talent across the board, with power and a potentially great eye for a walk. The defense is a little suspect, but he has the bat to play 1B if he develops.

Then we select SS Tyler Graves; he's another JuCo Sophomore, and has an excellent glove, one of the best in the class. He a has a great ability to avoid striking out but doesn't have much power and won't walk too much either. He's shown an ability to play all over the field, but has the range and arm to be able to stick at short.

And holy hell. We really get hot in June, going 23-5, but cool off in July with a 13-12 record. As we had towards the end of July, we start to think about the three trade allowances we have. Ideally we use at least two. Catcher seems like the most obvious place to upgrade, with C Yasutaka Yamashiro in the last year of his deal and struggling with a 67 wRC+. Additionally, in the outfield, OF Jorge Zermano who was the big return in the Guillermo Rodriguez trade after the 1957 season, has been struggling. Injured for the first three months of the season,he's been struggling since he came back in the beginning of July, with a wOBA of .155 and even struggling during his rehab assignment in AAA. OF Dan Ingle is also struggling, with a wRC+ of 82 and much lower power than he's shown over the last few years. A bullpen additional could also be useful.

We find a trade that hits on both needs, moving RP Ben Burns, who we picked up in last year's deadline, to the Washington Wasps. Burns was a starter last year, but has been mostly relegated to bullpen duty this year. He throws sidearm which creates a pretty big split, and this is his last year of team control. In return, we add OF Mike Martinez, a a speed threat in his final year of control, and RP Chris Napoloitano, an elite-stuff arm with some walk issues who has four years of control left.

We make another deal to bring in RP Javier Vasquez. As you may have guessed, he's another high stuff right-hander in his last year of control form the Georgia Peaches who's had a solid year, with a 3.45 ERA. But I also like him because he has started some games last year and could join the rotation in an emergency. CF Bobby Olvera goes in return, a 25-year-old who has been stuck in AAA for years. He's a great defender and runner, and the bat has played well in the minors. Hopefully he gets an opportunity with Georgia to play in the big leagues.

I had considered hanging on to the third trade to carry over, but we're going for it. This is our year.

We send C Yasutaka Yamashiro and OF Dan Ingle to Cleveland, and land C Adam Flowers in return. Flowers is not the best clubhouse guy, and he's making $25M this year, but he can really hit, and moving Yamashiro opens up some budget space for us. Flowers is slashing .306/.343/.455 with 9 HR and should really help bolster our lineup.

Total:

45+ rated FA: 1
Trades: 0

June: 23-5
July: 13-12


Final Stretch

On August 1st, we're in 1st place, two games up on the St. Louis Lions and five games up on Detroit. Vancouver's at 12GB, so we're really just thinking about three teams. With four new players on the squad, I feel as good as ever about our chances of holding these two teams off.

In August, we go 20-9, and enter September up ten games over St. Louis. We call up CF Hector Araiza, our first round pick last season. He comes from AA, but our scout views him as one of just two players in the entire league with 8-graded range. Our manager instantly throws him in CF, and if he should be a great player to join us in the playoffs.

On September 19th, with our 97th win of the season, we clinch. It's not all a celebration, however, as starting 1B Nick Henriksen breaks his kneecap; he'll be out for seven months. Over 154 games, he hit .251 with 23 HR and a 124 wRC+.

We finish the year with a 104-58 record, and we're heading to the World Series to meet the Cleveland Buckeyes.