Here we go...year one of what will hopefully be many to come in New Orleans. I'm thinking I'll stop at the draft and again around the trade deadline and take a look at where things are standings/stats wise and talk through the decision making.
We get to draft day - but before we try to find the next great Kingfish, let's look at where we're at in the standings:
Code:
COLUMBIA LEAGUE
Team W L PCT GB Pyt.Rec Diff Home Away XInn 1Run M# Streak Last10
Baltimore Atlantics 37 20 .649 - 32-25 5 16-8 21-12 5-3 13-2 100 W2 7-3
Brooklyn Originals 31 26 .544 6 35-22 -4 15-14 16-12 1-6 5-12 L2 5-5
Montreal Canadiens 31 27 .534 6½ 33-25 -2 16-10 15-17 3-3 9-8 W1 6-4
Chicago Packers 29 28 .509 8 33-24 -4 17-10 12-18 4-1 7-13 W4 6-4
Kansas City Monarchs 26 31 .456 11 24-33 2 17-12 9-19 3-7 6-8 L1 4-6
Cleveland Buckeyes 24 33 .421 13 25-32 -1 12-20 12-13 2-3 5-13 L5 4-6
Georgia Peaches 22 35 .386 15 22-35 0 13-17 9-18 3-1 9-7 L4 2-8
FEDERAL LEAGUE
Team W L PCT GB Pyt.Rec Diff Home Away XInn 1Run M# Streak Last10
Pittsburgh Arsenal 32 25 .561 - 33-24 -1 13-12 19-13 6-2 11-9 106 W1 5-5
New York Knights 31 25 .554 ½ 28-28 3 19-8 12-17 3-2 9-8 W1 7-3
St. Louis Lions 31 26 .544 1 34-23 -3 18-12 13-14 3-3 6-10 W2 5-5
Boston Shamrocks 29 29 .500 3½ 27-31 2 17-17 12-12 4-3 15-10 L1 4-6
Washington Wasps 28 30 .483 4½ 24-34 4 12-17 16-13 3-3 10-6 L1 7-3
New Orleans Kingfish 26 32 .448 6½ 25-33 1 13-18 13-14 3-4 11-7 W1 4-6
Philadelphia Patriots 23 33 .411 8½ 24-32 -1 12-15 11-18 3-5 5-8 L1 5-5
Honestly, it's better than I expected. 26-32, 6.5 GB. Don't see any reason to expect us to play much better than this, so barring an amazing June/July I think we'll end up selling. We'll look at some individual stats later...
The Draft
The task at hand is this draft. We are using a lottery system moving forward, but since this is our first year, I've set the league to draft in reverse order of the current standings. That gives us the 5th overall pick and there's quite a few guys worthy of consideration.
Code:
POS Name Age B T POT Prone CON P POW P EYE P STU P MOV P CON P PIT STM DEM Sign SctAcc
3B S. Bell 18 R R 80 Normal 7 6 5 2 2 2 1 2 $9,500,000 Hard High
RF J. Galliher 18 L L 80 Normal 7 7 6 2 2 2 1 2 $9,000,000 Normal High
CF J. Skaggs 19 L L 80 Normal 8 7 5 2 2 2 1 2 $8,500,000 Extremely Hard Very High
SS K. Jensen 21 R R 75 Normal 8 6 5 2 2 2 1 2 $4,600,000 Hard High
SP T. Knight 17 S R 75 Durable 3 3 3 8 5 5 4 6 $8,000,000 Extremely Hard High
CF J. Ferland 18 L R 70 Normal 6 7 6 2 2 2 1 2 $950,000 Hard Very High
CF E. Hurd 18 R R 70 Normal 7 6 5 2 2 2 1 2 $6,500,000 Extremely Hard Very High
SS Ken Jensen immediately jumps out at me as he's got the 8 hit tool with 6 power and a decent eye, but he also has great range on defense. He's going to be a 2B or 3B though, so that dings his value a bit for me.
CF Jim Skaggs is a similar case - 8 hit tool, 7 power, but will have to move to a corner OF spot (but to be fair, he'd be a good corner OF - no risk of him needing to be a DH or something).
3B Steve Bell wants the most money and looks good across the board offensively, but the defense is pretty average.
And then there's the pitcher - he's 17 and throws sidearm. Probably too high of a risk of him becoming a reliever. The stuff is lights out and he does have the potential for four great pitches, but the arm slot is going to lead so some big splits against LHP that may not be sustainable in the rotation.
Georgia goes with OF Jeremy Galliher with the first pick, and Philadelphia follows with 1B Wyatt Pratt, who our scout wasn't so high on (55 Pot). That leaves one of those bats for us. Skaggs goes at #3, and Jensen and Bell remain for us.
Jensen hits the ball on the ground a lot. As much as I like his tools, I feel like that may hold him back a bit. We have the money to go with Bell, and the defense will play at the hot corner. He's a high-school bat that will have plenty of time to develop. We take him at #5.
When the second round comes, OF Jim Ferland, a power hitter with very little speed and below-average defense is still available. But we end up going with CF Chris Miller, who may have to move to a corner, but he's got decent speed to go along with a great hit tool and power. Additionally, it looks like he's got a great hard-working personality to go along with the tools.
OF Jim Ferland is still available in the third round, so we trust our scout and go with him here. We finish up the draft, mostly targeting hitting early and pitching late. Here's a rundown of the newest members of the organization:
Code:
POS Name Age Round Pick POT GAP P POW P EYE P STU P MOV P CON P C ABI IF RNG OF RNG DrTm
3B S. Bell 18 1 5 80 6 6 5 2 2 2 2 5 3 New Orleans
CF C. Miller 17 2 5 65 7 6 5 2 2 2 2 5 6 New Orleans
CF J. Ferland 18 3 5 70 6 7 6 2 2 2 2 4 5 New Orleans
CF C. Webb 21 4 5 50 7 4 5 2 2 2 2 4 7 New Orleans
RP C. Strunk 19 5 5 65 3 3 3 8 4 6 2 2 3 New Orleans
3B P. Evans 18 6 5 55 4 6 4 2 2 2 2 5 4 New Orleans
CL D. Rozier 17 7 5 60 3 3 2 6 7 5 2 3 2 New Orleans
SS O. Carrillo 18 8 5 50 4 5 8 2 2 2 2 5 4 New Orleans
C J. Martinez 18 9 5 45 4 6 5 2 2 2 5 3 3 New Orleans
C B. Stanton 22 10 5 45 5 5 5 2 2 2 6 4 3 New Orleans
C R. Warner 17 11 5 35 3 5 5 2 2 2 6 3 3 New Orleans
SS J. McDonald 20 12 5 40 4 3 6 2 2 2 2 7 5 New Orleans
2B E. Estes 18 13 5 45 4 3 4 2 2 2 2 6 4 New Orleans
SP G. Gaytan 18 14 5 20 3 4 2 4 6 4 2 4 4 New Orleans
SP M. Randa 18 15 5 20 3 3 2 3 6 7 2 3 5 New Orleans
SP J. McAree 21 16 5 20 3 3 3 4 3 4 2 3 3 New Orleans
SP A. Edey 18 17 5 20 4 3 2 4 2 3 2 3 4 New Orleans
SP F. Miranda 18 18 5 20 3 3 3 4 3 4 2 4 3 New Orleans
SP A. Guerra 22 19 5 20 3 4 3 3 3 4 2 3 4 New Orleans
RP C. Miller 21 20 5 20 3 3 2 5 3 2 2 3 3 New Orleans
We move forward and get to the All-Star break. We won't take long here - we're 35-51, in last place and 14GB of the Pittsburgh Arsenal. As we get closer to the deadline, we start looking at some potential options to unload older guys or players on expiring contracts. We have two allowed trades, but I think we're going to end up using just one for now and roll over the other into next season.
RP Jeff Bullock is 36 - we picked him up with our one allowed FA acquisition. While we grabbed him thinking he'd be a starter, he ended up only making one start but has appeared in 36 games and has been great with a SIERA of 3.16, striking out just under 24% batters faced and walking just 5%.
We send him to the Philadelphia Patriots in return for OF Mario Aragon, the #51 prospect in the league (remember though, there's only 14 teams). He's decent in the OF but could play a corner spot in the infield in a pinch, which is nice. While he's struggling so far over 133 PA in the majors, he's been crushing AAA, slashing .351/.430/.564.
The baseball gods have mercy on us and we finally make it to the end of the year. We finish 68-94, with a -167 run differential. We did finish with the least amount of strikeouts on the offensive side, but also the fewest walks and home runs, by far. Run prevention wasn't terrible, as we finished 2nd in our league in strikeouts, and 1st in Zone Rating. The bullpen really helped us though, as our starters ERA was worst in the league.
Code:
POS Name Inf Age T POT STU P MOV P CON P STM G/F G GS IP BABIP K% BB% SIERA
SP R. Carpenter 28 R 40 5 6 5 5 GB 31 2 171.0 .307 16.4 7.5 4.43
SP J. Garcia 25 L 45 8 6 4 4 NEU 29 25 137.1 .283 31.7 10.6 2.73
SP M. Gilbraith 32 R 45 7 3 5 6 NEU 12 12 61.0 .262 29.3 7.4 2.60
SP N. Martinez 27 R 55 7 6 4 5 NEU 34 34 183.1 .303 23.3 11.3 3.88
SP T. Prior 33 L 45 4 7 6 6 EX GB 29 29 145.0 .340 11.1 5.7 4.98
RP S. Antill 34 L 65 6 6 6 5 GB 60 0 67.2 .296 20.0 7.9 3.96
RP F. Berrios 24 R 50 5 6 5 4 GB 20 0 25.1 .291 17.1 5.7 4.11
RP M. Casas 31 L 40 4 7 5 3 EX GB 7 0 10.2 .270 10.9 8.7 5.34
RP E. Dank 27 R 40 7 4 4 6 NEU 46 7 96.1 .272 24.2 12.9 3.95
RP J. Davis 27 L 40 4 7 6 4 EX GB 61 0 94.1 .262 12.7 6.8 4.87
RP L. Gonzalez 25 R 40 5 7 4 4 GB 54 27 72.1 .294 17.2 13.6 5.03
RP C. Jeon 31 R 40 5 5 5 5 NEU 39 10 79.1 .328 15.8 8.0 4.59
RP B. Nelson 29 R 50 5 5 5 7 NEU 34 10 90.0 .285 21.0 6.6 3.68
CL L. Tucker 30 R 65 7 4 5 6 FB 57 0 72.0 .240 27.0 8.0 2.95
Code:
POS Name Inf Age B POT CON P POW P EYE P C ABI IF RNG OF RNG PA 2B 3B HR SB BB% SO% wRC+ WAR
C K. Batty 27 R 45 5 6 5 4 4 2 215 7 0 7 0 8.4 23.3 93 -0.0
C T. Spektor 23 R 50 5 5 4 6 3 4 531 19 1 5 0 5.1 11.7 70 0.8
1B M. Murillo 27 L 45 5 5 5 2 5 2 528 24 0 7 2 5.7 18.9 71 -1.4
2B J. Alexander 28 R 45 4 3 5 2 5 3 86 4 2 0 1 4.7 20.9 61 -0.1
2B B. Potratz 30 L 50 4 3 5 2 6 2 555 28 7 3 10 8.3 19.6 82 1.2
3B M. Cooper 29 S 40 5 4 4 2 5 3 448 17 1 5 0 6.7 17.0 70 0.2
SS M. Clark 33 R 55 5 4 5 2 7 4 434 23 0 5 1 6.2 18.4 85 1.0
SS C. Ortiz 25 L 50 5 5 5 2 6 5 564 24 2 15 2 7.3 10.8 85 -0.0
LF M. Aragon 25 R 55 6 5 5 2 4 6 250 20 2 1 2 2.0 21.6 59 -0.9
LF A. Bolen 29 S 45 5 4 3 2 2 5 479 26 1 3 2 2.3 14.4 70 -0.1
CF E. Carty 24 S 55 6 4 4 2 4 7 718 32 11 2 23 4.7 11.3 83 2.1
CF D. Garza 35 R 40 4 4 5 2 4 6 77 1 2 1 2 3.9 13.0 84 -0.2
RF D. Harter 31 R 50 5 5 4 2 2 4 506 33 5 11 2 4.7 19.2 101 0.5
RF E. Wank 28 R 50 6 3 4 2 4 6 678 38 14 2 13 4.1 15.5 116 4.7
Yuck. We desperately need some offense. Only two players in double-digit homers is not good, and just two players above league average based on wRC+...
By my initial look, 1B, 3B, C are all major needs. Our future 3B is years away so we're going to have to get creative and/or suffer for a few more seasons.
Final standings for 1912:
Code:
COLUMBIA LEAGUE
Team W L PCT GB Pyt.Rec Diff Home Away XInn 1Run M# Streak Last10
Baltimore Atlantics 106 56 .654 - 98-64 8 54-27 52-29 15-6 26-13 L1 6-4
Montreal Canadiens 98 64 .605 8 98-64 0 53-28 45-36 6-5 25-18 L2 6-4
Brooklyn Originals 97 65 .599 9 99-63 -2 54-27 43-38 8-12 20-22 W2 7-3
Chicago Packers 89 73 .549 17 93-69 -4 54-27 35-46 9-5 24-28 W5 6-4
Kansas City Monarchs 66 96 .407 40 62-100 4 38-43 28-53 5-15 21-25 L3 2-8
Cleveland Buckeyes 65 97 .401 41 64-98 1 38-43 27-54 4-7 20-26 W4 5-5
Georgia Peaches 62 100 .383 44 64-98 -2 30-51 32-49 6-6 14-18 L4 2-8
FEDERAL LEAGUE
Team W L PCT GB Pyt.Rec Diff Home Away XInn 1Run M# Streak Last10
St. Louis Lions 95 67 .586 - 96-66 -1 54-27 41-40 9-6 25-19 W6 9-1
Pittsburgh Arsenal 93 69 .574 2 96-66 -3 48-33 45-36 9-11 23-21 W3 7-3
Washington Wasps 79 83 .488 16 75-87 4 43-38 36-45 10-7 22-20 W2 2-8
Boston Shamrocks 75 87 .463 20 75-87 0 39-42 36-45 8-7 26-26 W1 7-3
New York Knights 73 89 .451 22 77-85 -4 46-35 27-54 5-7 17-23 L5 5-5
Philadelphia Patriots 68 94 .420 27 73-89 -5 40-41 28-53 5-9 14-20 L2 4-6
New Orleans Kingfish 68 94 .420 27 63-99 5 35-46 33-48 10-6 18-16 L4 3-7
The St. Louis Lions are your World Series champs, defeating Baltimore four games to one.
See you in the offseason.