A major league baseball team in New Jersey would never, ever work. Ever. (OOTP9) - Page 2

Young Drachma · 03-09-2009, 07:29 PM

FREE AGENTS

OK, here are the list of upcoming free agents for the Pilots for the 2010 season.

SP Erik Bedard (12-11, 5.04)
1B Nick Johnson .271, 17 HR, 73 RBI
SS Felipe Lopez (.264, 12 HR, 73 RBI, 28 SB)
CL Huston Street (26 sv. 1.57 ERA)
OF Luke Scott (.254, 9 HR, 40 RBI in 287 ABs)
RP Jeremy Accardo (1-4, 6.04 ERA in 48 appearances)(Arbitration)
SP Dustin McGown (11-11, 5.90 ERA)(Arbitration

Ok, so...I dunno what I'm going to do. Johnson is going to cost a pretty penny, something like $20 million a year for the next 5 years. He's already 31, so it's doubtful that I will pay him and just let him go. Helton is a shell of himself, but...I'll just have to hope he can get it together, because I'm stuck with him for 2 more years.

Bedard is intriguing, but he wants $10 million for multi-year deal (per year) and that's not alluring either, since he's clearly not top flight.

I will try to extend Street immediately, because he was lights out last year. Clemens retired for good, so he's out of here, meaning if I let Bedard go, we'll need to go out and replace 2/5ths of our rotation.

That's okay, though. I think we can make it work, because our offense is in fairly good shape. Our bullpen needs to be shored up a bit, as does our rotation though if we want to get back to the playoffs next year.

muns · 03-09-2009, 07:41 PM

DC this is pretty cool as usual, and im following. Enjoying it so far

Young Drachma · 03-09-2009, 07:48 PM

Lopez already said he's leaving, so I can figure we'll lose him completely since I won't overpay for him.

That said, I found a deal with a contract that's worse than Helton's, but with a guy who I think helps us a bit more.

NEW JERSEY trades:

1B Todd Helton
LF Seth Smith

to the VANCOUVER BLUE JAYS for:

CF Vernon Wells
MR Scott Downs

It saves us a few million this year and while Wells contract is exoribtant and still has some years on it, it actually works out better because Wells can be a more useful player to us than Helton would've been and in this case, it came down to productivity, whereas Toronto wanted to get out from under that contract of his now.

As for replacing the void at 1st base, I haven't decided what to do yet, but it's very unlikely I sign Nick Johnson to a long-term deal, I'll just find a stopgap or use Nomar at that position, which is why I offered him a deal when I first took over the team in the first place.

Young Drachma · 03-09-2009, 08:00 PM

I made a deal just before the start of FA to acquire SP Junichi Tazawa, a Japanese pitcher (22 years old) who spent last year in Boston. He was dealt to Washington a few days ago, I sent them Jered Weaver, who is mission ready and Tazawa who is underrated and I think can help us down the stretch here.

We're still going to need to go out and get at least one of the major free agent arms this off-season and maybe two. I'm not going to be shy about throwing money out there, mostly because it's about legitimacy.

We've managed to win the PR war this year. We made the playoffs, the Yankees didn't. The rivalry has officially begun and we drew first blood.

They are quickly becoming a lot like the New York Giants of the 1920s after the Yankees started winning all of those World Series, the Giants became known as "the team your father rooted for."

We're pretty convinced we can turn a whole generation of kids at Jersey into Pilots fans, but we're not gonna do it by being terrible, that's for sure. Winning memories create lifelong fans, because everyone loves a winner.

We can't spend Yankee money, but just because you can get the best prostitutes doesn't mean you shouldn't settle for a nice girl who can raise your kids.

So I think we're gonna be all right.

Young Drachma · 03-09-2009, 08:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by muns

DC this is pretty cool as usual, and im following. Enjoying it so far

Woo. Glad you're enjoying it.

Young Drachma · 03-09-2009, 08:12 PM

If you're curious about some of the moves, understand that Cubbyfan's latest roster set for 2009 contains some of the strangest rating quirks ever. Great players are highly underrated in this set, which explains the strangeness of it all. I don't know what those yahoos over there do, but...clearly it ain't watch baseball.

Young Drachma · 03-09-2009, 08:53 PM

Huston Street wants more than the 4-years and $43.8 million I've offered him. I'm reluctant to go beyond $45 million and that probably won't be enough. But I've got a personal rule that doesn't allow me to overspend on closers because they pitch too few innings and are so erratic.

So he might be dispatched.

Meanwhile, Jonathon Papelbon is a free agent and I'm convinced he can be a starter for us and I'm throwing wads of money at him. So it would be redundant to have both anyway.

Speaking of wads of money, here are the notable free agents on the market:

Quote:

CF Mike Cameron (.265/27/101 RBI)
3B Garett Atkins (.249/26 HR/ 99 RBI)
3B Chipper Jones (.350/25 HR/117 RBI
RF Vlad Guerrero (.289/24 HR/98 RBI)
SP Rich Harden (14-10, 235 K, 4.64 ERA)
SP Cliff Lee (12-17, 5.29 ERA)
SP Josh Beckett (10-17, 214 K, 4.83 ERA)

We need pitching more than anything, I can't really afford to go signing a bunch of old guys to long-term deals. But that said, we also can't afford to miss the playoffs and have the Yankees make them.

So it's a tradeoff that I'll have to balance out somehow.

Young Drachma · 03-09-2009, 11:11 PM

I traded SP Dustin McGowan and a prospect (2B Julio Casteneda) to the Texas Rangers for SS German Duran and SS Elvis Andrus.

Addition by subtraction, sure. We need more pitching, but McGowan in my mind isn't really part of that equation, at least for a pennant and so, I dealt him for middle infield depth

Young Drachma · 03-09-2009, 11:21 PM

Harden wants too much money, so I won't be offering him a contract. Beckett, I think I might bite on. Cliff Lee is a bargain, so I'll probably overpay for him.

We'll see how it goes...

Young Drachma · 03-09-2009, 11:27 PM

After the Division Playoff Series which pit the #1 v. 2 of each division against each other in a best-of-5 game series, the brackets go like this:

The playoff brackets go like this:

Quote:

AL West v. AL East
AL Pacific v. AL Central

NL East v. NL West
NL South v. NL Central

I might rotate it from year to year or I might keep it fixed. I dunno. It's kinda of a pain.

Wolfpack · 03-10-2009, 10:53 PM

Gee, thanks. I do all that work and you ball it up and throw it away....

Young Drachma · 03-10-2009, 10:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wolfpack

Gee, thanks. I do all that work and you ball it up and throw it away....

Hahaha..not really. You're the one that got me thinking about optimal geographic alignments and stuff. And the whole inter-division series to start the playoffs.

Blame yourself!

Young Drachma · 03-12-2009, 07:48 PM

We got Papelbon. He signed a 6 year deal worth $121 million. I'm going to make him a starter. Payroll is current at just over $90 million and while I'd like to add Josh Beckett, he keeps getting increased offers. My last offer to him was for 7 years and $136 million. Vancouver apparently upped their offer and so he's saying no deal.

I just can't see going higher than that, when we're already locked into Vernon Wells deal and a bunch of others.

But then again, all his deal would do is put us over $100 million and we pretty much knew that's where we'd end up. I've already said we have to win a title in the next 4 years to stay relevant and to be taken seriously, but if it doesn't work for us after a season or so, I'm not above doing what the Marlins did, selling everyone off and trying again.

We're adding 2,000 standing room only seats to the stadium for next year, so capacity at The Beachside Bakery (Entenmann's Stadium) is 32,042.

Young Drachma · 03-12-2009, 07:50 PM

Beckett signed with Washington for 7 years and $170.9 million (7th year is a team option) but there's no way we could've really done that and lived with ourselves in the morning. So...we'll be fine.

Young Drachma · 03-12-2009, 07:52 PM

We signed Vlad Guerrero to a 2-year deal worth $47.4 million, but the second year is a team option for $27.7 million, so if he doesn't pull his weight, he'll be outta here after this year. We needed some punch, because last season offense wasn't the strongest and so, he seemed like the best option left on the market.

Young Drachma · 03-12-2009, 07:58 PM

Ok, here's our lineup:

Quote:

RF Ichiro
C Lou Marson
3B Mat Gamel
1B James Loney
CF Vernon Wells
LF Brian Stavisky
SS Jed Lowrie
2B German Duran

Rotation:

Quote:

Papelbon
Ben Sheets
Phil Hughes
Cliff Lee
Junichi Tazawa

Closer: Huston Street

Young Drachma · 03-12-2009, 07:59 PM

TOP MINOR SYSTEMS (2010)

Code:

Minor League Systems
#	Team			Points	Top 5 Prospects
1st	Texas Rangers		127	P N. Feliz (5th), 1B J. Smoak (11th), 1B V. Rutledge (14th), 1B E. Hosmer (54th), RF C. Nelson (79th)
2nd	Seattle Mariners	118	SS E. Lyon (2nd), P P. Aumont (6th), 1B A. Lambo (41st), SS A. Cardenas (75th), LF G. Halman (85th)
3rd	Colorado Rockies	95	CF R. Karlier (13th), P M. Perez (32nd), C W. Rosario (43rd), 1B L. Morrison (46th), P J. Chacin (60th)
4th	San Francisco Giants	91	RF H. Brown (22nd), P T. Alderson (23rd), P M. Bumgarner (24th), P C. Tanner (37th), 1B A. Villalona (98th)
5th	New Jersey Pilots	90	P J. Tazawa (4th), SS E. Andrus (20th), C B. Lawrie (65th), SS H. Harrell (72nd), 3B M. Gamel (91st)
6th	Baltimore Orioles	85	1B B. Brown (10th), P J. Niese (27th), P C. Tillman (35th), CF F. Zheng (82nd)
7th	Detroit Tigers		84	CF M. Ordóñez (7th), P R. Porcello (9th), P J. Días (83rd)
8th	Cincinnati Reds		84	1B Y. Alonso (18th), 1B D. O'Neal (29th), P K. Lotzkar (39th), C D. Mesoraco (48th), 3B J. Francisco (93rd)
9th	Oakland Athletics	78	P T. Cahill (15th), RF D. Simpson (19th), 1B C. Carter (56th), P M. Ynoa (68th)
10th	Chicago White Sox	70	RF J. Heyward (12th), C A. Delgado (38th), P A. Poreda (57th), 3B D. Viciedo (67th)
11th	New York Mets		56	SS W. Flores (16th), LF F. Martinez (28th), P B. Holt (84th), SS J. Jones (100th)
12th	San Diego Padres	55	2B N. López (3rd), 1B K. Blanks (86th)
13th	Los Angeles Dodgers	52	SS P. Franco (21st), P C. Withrow (33rd), P E. Martin (78th), P J. Lindblom (89th)
14th	Washington Nationals	51	LF S. Ortíz (1st)
15th	Kansas City Royals	49	3B M. Moustakas (26th), P D. Cortes (42nd), RF A. Rodríguez (52nd)
16th	Florida Marlins		47	LF C. Martínez (17th), P R. Tucker (58th), P A. Portillo (62nd)
17th	Pittsburgh Pirates	43	CF G. Salinas (8th), CF J. Borbon (90th)
18th	Los Angeles Angels	43	P J. Walden (34th), P N. Adenhart (50th), P T. Chatwood (73rd), P T. Reckling (80th)
19th	Minnesota Twins		39	P S. Hunt (40th), CF B. Revere (45th), CF A. Hicks (77th), P T. Robertson (97th)
20th	Portland Beavers	39	RF M. Stanton (36th), 1B L. Anderson (59th), 3B B. Wallace (71st), CF E. Leonard (92nd), C B. Posey (94th)
21st	St. Louis Cardinals	35	CF S. Tracy (31st), P J. Todd (47th), CF D. Jones (95th)
22nd	Cleveland Indians	34	P L. Mendoza (30th), SS L. Chisenhall (70th), C C. Santana (81st)
23rd	St. Petersburg Pelicans	30	SS P. Castro (51st), SS T. Beckham (53rd), P W. Davis (64th)
24th	Philadelphia Phillies	23	P C. Carrasco (25th)
25th	Chicago Cubs		18	RF R. Oliva (61st), 3B J. Vitters (63rd)
26th	Vancouver Blue Jays	17	1B B. Williams (49th), SS J. Jackson (88th)
27th	Houston Astros		15	P G. Fernández (66th), P R. Seaton (69th)
28th	Milwaukee Brewers	14	P J. Jeffress (44th)
29th	Atlanta Braves		10	P T. Hanson (55th)
30th	Boston Red Sox		7	3B D. Crowe (74th), CF R. Westmoreland (99th)
31st	Arizona Diamondbacks	6	LF W. King (76th)
32nd	New York Yankees	0

Young Drachma · 03-12-2009, 08:00 PM

Here are the opening day team payrolls:

Code:

Rank	Team			Payroll
1	New York Yankees	$200,599,100
2	Detroit Tigers		$160,149,200
3	Philadelphia Phillies	$150,674,000
4	New York Mets		$146,555,200
5	Chicago Cubs		$144,504,900
6	Los Angeles Dodgers	$142,106,600
7	Houston Astros		$128,698,500
8	Boston Red Sox		$112,895,000
9	New Jersey Pilots	$110,592,750
10	Texas Rangers		$107,195,100
11	Los Angeles Angels	$105,161,300
12	St. Louis Cardinals	$100,380,000
13	Cleveland Indians	$88,047,900
14	Baltimore Orioles	$87,807,600
15	Atlanta Braves		$87,623,200
16	Colorado Rockies	$80,089,800
17	Chicago White Sox	$79,520,000
18	Minnesota Twins		$78,679,500
19	Vancouver Blue Jays	$77,538,800
20	San Francisco Giants	$74,770,800
21	Cincinnati Reds		$74,480,000
22	Milwaukee Brewers	$71,283,000
23	San Diego Padres	$70,755,200
24	Kansas City Royals	$70,090,100
25	Washington Nationals	$67,553,500
26	Florida Marlins		$63,396,200
27	Pittsburgh Pirates	$61,401,600
28	St. Petersburg Pelicans	$61,196,600
29	Oakland Athletics	$58,008,400
30	Arizona Diamondbacks	$55,333,800
31	Seattle Mariners	$53,194,200
32	Portland Beavers	$52,403,300

Young Drachma · 03-12-2009, 08:02 PM

That's a 3-year window of $100m+ payroll, by 2013, we're back down into the 60-million range, which basically lets our fans know "we're gonna win or we're not."

The goal here is to win as much as we can within our first five year window, then rebuild using heavy investment into prospects and tapping into a foreign player development base, which is the next thing this dynasty will focus on -- actual prospects that we'll cultivate -- and then see how our team does with those guys.

Anyway, let's start the wackiness that is 2010.

03-09-2009, 11:11 PM	#58
Young Drachma Dark Cloud Join Date: Apr 2001	I traded SP Dustin McGowan and a prospect (2B Julio Casteneda) to the Texas Rangers for SS German Duran and SS Elvis Andrus. Addition by subtraction, sure. We need more pitching, but McGowan in my mind isn't really part of that equation, at least for a pennant and so, I dealt him for middle infield depth __________________ Current Dynasty:The Zenith of Professional Basketball Careers (FBPB/FBCB) FBCB / FPB3 Mods

03-09-2009, 07:41 PM	#52
muns Pro Starter Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Baltimore MD	DC this is pretty cool as usual, and im following. Enjoying it so far

03-09-2009, 07:48 PM	#53
Young Drachma Dark Cloud Join Date: Apr 2001	Lopez already said he's leaving, so I can figure we'll lose him completely since I won't overpay for him. That said, I found a deal with a contract that's worse than Helton's, but with a guy who I think helps us a bit more. NEW JERSEY trades: 1B Todd Helton LF Seth Smith to the VANCOUVER BLUE JAYS for: CF Vernon Wells MR Scott Downs It saves us a few million this year and while Wells contract is exoribtant and still has some years on it, it actually works out better because Wells can be a more useful player to us than Helton would've been and in this case, it came down to productivity, whereas Toronto wanted to get out from under that contract of his now. As for replacing the void at 1st base, I haven't decided what to do yet, but it's very unlikely I sign Nick Johnson to a long-term deal, I'll just find a stopgap or use Nomar at that position, which is why I offered him a deal when I first took over the team in the first place.

03-09-2009, 08:00 PM	#54
Young Drachma Dark Cloud Join Date: Apr 2001	I made a deal just before the start of FA to acquire SP Junichi Tazawa, a Japanese pitcher (22 years old) who spent last year in Boston. He was dealt to Washington a few days ago, I sent them Jered Weaver, who is mission ready and Tazawa who is underrated and I think can help us down the stretch here. We're still going to need to go out and get at least one of the major free agent arms this off-season and maybe two. I'm not going to be shy about throwing money out there, mostly because it's about legitimacy. We've managed to win the PR war this year. We made the playoffs, the Yankees didn't. The rivalry has officially begun and we drew first blood. They are quickly becoming a lot like the New York Giants of the 1920s after the Yankees started winning all of those World Series, the Giants became known as "the team your father rooted for." We're pretty convinced we can turn a whole generation of kids at Jersey into Pilots fans, but we're not gonna do it by being terrible, that's for sure. Winning memories create lifelong fans, because everyone loves a winner. We can't spend Yankee money, but just because you can get the best prostitutes doesn't mean you shouldn't settle for a nice girl who can raise your kids. So I think we're gonna be all right.

03-09-2009, 08:12 PM	#56
Young Drachma Dark Cloud Join Date: Apr 2001	If you're curious about some of the moves, understand that Cubbyfan's latest roster set for 2009 contains some of the strangest rating quirks ever. Great players are highly underrated in this set, which explains the strangeness of it all. I don't know what those yahoos over there do, but...clearly it ain't watch baseball.

03-09-2009, 11:21 PM	#59
Young Drachma Dark Cloud Join Date: Apr 2001	Harden wants too much money, so I won't be offering him a contract. Beckett, I think I might bite on. Cliff Lee is a bargain, so I'll probably overpay for him. We'll see how it goes...

03-10-2009, 10:53 PM	#61
Wolfpack Pro Rookie Join Date: Feb 2003 Location: Raleigh, NC	Gee, thanks. I do all that work and you ball it up and throw it away....

03-12-2009, 07:48 PM	#63
Young Drachma Dark Cloud Join Date: Apr 2001	We got Papelbon. He signed a 6 year deal worth $121 million. I'm going to make him a starter. Payroll is current at just over $90 million and while I'd like to add Josh Beckett, he keeps getting increased offers. My last offer to him was for 7 years and $136 million. Vancouver apparently upped their offer and so he's saying no deal. I just can't see going higher than that, when we're already locked into Vernon Wells deal and a bunch of others. But then again, all his deal would do is put us over $100 million and we pretty much knew that's where we'd end up. I've already said we have to win a title in the next 4 years to stay relevant and to be taken seriously, but if it doesn't work for us after a season or so, I'm not above doing what the Marlins did, selling everyone off and trying again. We're adding 2,000 standing room only seats to the stadium for next year, so capacity at The Beachside Bakery (Entenmann's Stadium) is 32,042.

03-12-2009, 07:50 PM	#64
Young Drachma Dark Cloud Join Date: Apr 2001	Beckett signed with Washington for 7 years and $170.9 million (7th year is a team option) but there's no way we could've really done that and lived with ourselves in the morning. So...we'll be fine.

03-12-2009, 07:52 PM	#65
Young Drachma Dark Cloud Join Date: Apr 2001	We signed Vlad Guerrero to a 2-year deal worth $47.4 million, but the second year is a team option for $27.7 million, so if he doesn't pull his weight, he'll be outta here after this year. We needed some punch, because last season offense wasn't the strongest and so, he seemed like the best option left on the market.

03-12-2009, 08:02 PM	#69
Young Drachma Dark Cloud Join Date: Apr 2001	That's a 3-year window of $100m+ payroll, by 2013, we're back down into the 60-million range, which basically lets our fans know "we're gonna win or we're not." The goal here is to win as much as we can within our first five year window, then rebuild using heavy investment into prospects and tapping into a foreign player development base, which is the next thing this dynasty will focus on -- actual prospects that we'll cultivate -- and then see how our team does with those guys. Anyway, let's start the wackiness that is 2010.

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