1986 Offseason Thread

[Alan T]

Spring training results:

CL:

New York 15-9
Rio Grande 14-10
Napa Valley 14-10
Baltimore 13-11
Wyoming 12-12
Brooklyn 10-14
Atlanta 10-14
Toronto 8-16

RL:

Long Island 15-9
Hartford 15-9
Boston 14-10
Columbus 11-13
Chicago 11-13
Colorado 11-13
San Diego 10-14
Ann Arbor 9-15

[Alan T]

Current Salary cap info.. Remember all teams need to be below salary cap before the start of the season:


1 Atlanta Firecrackers $69,379,430
2 Ann Arbor Wolverines $65,759,500
3 Brooklyn Brownstones $64,804,380
4 San Diego Fathers $64,574,950
5 Chicago Black Sox $64,460,200
6 Colorado Rancheros $64,015,450
7 Hartford Harpooners $63,197,500
8 Baltimore Gothams $62,362,500
9 Columbus Crusaders $61,047,050
10 New York Panthers $60,717,700
11 Rio Grande Roadrunners $58,381,600
12 Long Island Violators $58,219,200
13 Napa Valley Winemakers $54,427,950
14 Boston Bombers $53,543,000
15 Toronto Osprey $46,417,050
16 Wyoming Buffalo Soliders $23,050,350

[ekcut]

Originally Posted by Chief Rum

Wow, color me shocked. I got the best starting pitcher prospect at #11 (sure, he's listed as a CL, but 50 END...)

Yaaaaaaaaaa! *sarcastic cheer*

I had him as #1 ranked pitcher, # 2 overall.

Good pick Chief!!

[Tasan]

Originally Posted by Chief Rum

Wow, color me shocked. I got the best starting pitcher prospect at #11 (sure, he's listed as a CL, but 50 END...)

Yeah I was hoping he might slip a little farther there...Oh well, I like the closer I picked up there.

By the way, anyone want a young, up and coming closer? I have one to trade!

[Alan T]

New file is up! The 1986 season runs tommorrow night!

[Chief Rum]

Originally Posted by ekcut

Yaaaaaaaaaa! *sarcastic cheer*

I had him as #1 ranked pitcher, # 2 overall.

Good pick Chief!!

Thanks.

I think Commo Soldier's gonna be pissed. I can't think he intentionally had Bryde so high. Alan didn't list him has a missing export, so that makes me wonder if he somehow forgot about the draft.

[kaosfere]

#3, 8, and 11 on my draft list. Not bad. 8-16 sucks, but is to be expected.

[Chief Rum]

Yup, I was surprised to get two of my top 10 as well (#1 and #9).

[Tasan]

Man, I hate that it doesn't save your draft list somewhere, at least for the season. I got 3-4 from my 28 deep list, so I was happy.

[Tasan]

On another note, me and my owner are on the same page this season:

"You have just been informed by the team owner about his expectations for the season. He thinks you should win it all!"

Preach it brotha, preach it!

[Chief Rum]

Originally Posted by Tasan

On another note, me and my owner are on the same page this season:

"You have just been informed by the team owner about his expectations for the season. He thinks you should win it all!"

Preach it brotha, preach it!

Heh...my owner only wants to make the playoffs (that makes, I think, 8-9 years in a row of at least playoffs in expectations).

[kaosfere]

Righto. I'm exported for tomorrow night.

The highlight of the coming season? The return of Artie Wiley!

Almost a decade after he left Toronto in one of my worst trades ever, he returns, at the age of 36, to likely close out his career with the team that brought him into the league.

He is 99.9% certain to break the 3000 K mark this season. Whee?

Whee!

[Tasan]

Exported. Needless to say I have very high hopes for this season. Good luck to everyone in the CL!

[Chief Rum]

I don't. I think I got quite a bit worse. No more Wiley. No more Marnane. Can't afford Ramirez. Watkins signed elsewhere. Reed was let go for salcap reasons. So was Zambrano and Little.

Holden Matthews is also clearly getting worse, and he didn't have a great season last year.

Fact is, I have one extremely good starter in the rotation in Qian, and enough pitching depth with Berui, Clarke and Duffy to throw out probably the 2nd or 3rd best rotation, and the signing of McDonald means I will probably have the best pen again (McDonald replaces Marnane). That will mean 2nd or 3rd in ERA or so. I won't lose much because of pitching, but Qian is the only guy I think I can count on to win games on his own. Wiley was important for that.

And on offense, the five players above were my starting C, starting 2B, starting SS, and best backup OF and IF. Ramirez was an All Star.

To replace them I have signed Devin Johnson (serious downgrade), promoted Sonny Brock (63 CON will take a lot away from impressive POW), signed Emeric Loiselle and Jorge Tejada as, at best, even replacements in the middle infield, and signed Ben Schmidt who may or may not match Zambrano's numbers.

That means the offense will be significantly worse and counting on strong years from sub-.700 OPS guys like all of the above, putting more pressure on a pitching staff which is also not as good as it was--and I barely escaped with 2nd place last year.

I think the other four 80+ win teams from last year will likely all finish ahead of me.

[ekcut]

I am not as hard hit by the new financials as Chief was, but I did lose my best hitter CF Domingo Sanchez who was demanding a long term $13mil per deal. I have sophmore CF Herman Jensen who got some ML experience last year as my 4th OFer, and who now has ratings of 100 contact and 61 eye with 80sp and 100 st ready to become a fulltime player. He will not replace Sanchez's power, but he should be a very good OBP man at the bottom of the order and he has great defense.

I have a new arm in my rotation. 21yr old Rookie Pedro Villalobas who made his ML debut in the playoffs last season posting a 2-0 record and a 1.06 era is joining the starting staff fulltime. That puts an end to the Ramiro Rodríguez experiment. The southpaw who burst onto the scene 3 seasons ago with a world shaking 14-8 record and a 1.93 era in his rookie year had an off year last year and and is the odd man out. Look for him to be traded in the offseason.

Other than that, my lineup is the same as last season.
My offense is worse, my pitching is better. It sounds like a 4 team race again this year, and the Gothams hope to be one of them!

[ekcut]

My predictions...

CL-Baltimore & Brooklyn

RL-Hartford & Ann Arbour

That's not a typo!

[ekcut]

Ok...that IS a typo, it should say "Ann Arbor", but they sure have the horses to do it this year!

And Commo is due...he should of been a playoff team last season but the baseball gods were against him...these things usually even themselves out. Look for Brooklyn to hoist the big trophy at seasons end.

[Commo_Soldier]

Originally Posted by Chief Rum

Thanks.

I think Commo Soldier's gonna be pissed. I can't think he intentionally had Bryde so high. Alan didn't list him has a missing export, so that makes me wonder if he somehow forgot about the draft.

You would be right. I am so mad at last nights draft results. I had my #1 choice as Conway, but after adding about 7 players he was taken off the list. I then went and thought I added him back but added stupid Bryde instead. Oh well, I still got Conway who I was high on in the second round.