TIMBER!!! | The Story of the Portland Timbers (OOTP 18)

[MLBfanatic97]

March 1st, 2017

It had been two months since Major League Baseball had officially welcomed the 31st and 32nd clubs to the league, and the buzz had not died down around the new additions.

In the NL East, the return of an old friend: the Montreal Expos.

Sure, this was like the "Cleveland Browns" replacing the football franchise that became the Baltimore Ravens, but there was finally baseball back in Montreal, and this time, with an owner willing to spend slightly more than a few bucks in the form of billionaire Juan Olivera.

Olivera had promised to build the stadium using only private funds, and so the city of Montreal fast tracked construction of the stadium down in Peel Basin, with the cost of the stadium remaining undisclosed.

However, the big surprise was the addition in the AL West: the Portland Timbers. Talks of adding a franchise in Portland developed very quickly. There were rumblings in the early parts of 2016 that the big man himself Phil Knight finally wanted his own professional sports franchise, and seeing as though Portland already had basketball and Oregon has 2 college football programs, he decided that baseball was the way to go.


By March of 2016, Knight and his investment group had found a site just up the road from the Moda Center, home of the Trailblazers, in the Rose Quarter along the banks of the Williamette River for a brand new stadium.

There would be the home of 41,645 seat, open air stadium for an expansion team, at a projected cost of $875 million. After negotiations with the city of Portland, the investment group secured $200 million to go toward the construction of the stadium, with another $150 million coming from Major League Baseball, and the remaining $525 million coming from Knight and his group of investors. Construction began at the end of March 2016 and was completed by January 2017.

The city would soon have its baseball team, but its team needed a name. Instead of trying to come up with something original, Knight decided to simply buy the rights to the name and logo of the Timbers Soccer Club and share the name. The owner of the original Timbers, Merritt Paulson, said that having the soccer and baseball teams share the name would "bring the city closer together and allow fans of both teams to maybe save some money on merch."



So now Portland had a team, a name for the team, and a stadium.

But who was gonna run the show?

March 3rd, 2017

Phil Knight sat in his office with a baseball in hand, and his cellphone up to his ear.

Everything was finally coming together for Knight, on schedule and as he envisioned.

He knew the risk involved was significant but he was determined to make this franchise as successful as teams like the Yankees of old. But he needed someone to come in and run the team. Sure, he had money, but he wasn't going to give the team a blank check. After all he had just spent $500 million of his own money on a stadium! No no, Phil Knight wanted someone with the ability to make the most of the resources available to them, regardless of the amount.

And Phil Knight knew exactly who wanted.

"Hello Billy? It's Phil Knight. Let's talk."


Phil's guy was Billy Beane.




Not only did Beane know how to squeeze every last bit of value from what he was given, but Knight knew a name like Billy Beane would create a lot of interest and publicity for the team and potentially draw people in.

"Well good morning Phil, can't say I was expecting a call from the head of Nike."

"Oh you're not getting a call from Nike Phil Knight. You're getting a call from Owner of the Portland Timbers Phil Knight."

Billy was intrigued.

"Is that so?"

"Listen Billy, I have everything in place here in Portland to bring baseball. We have a stadium, sponsors, support, everything. But I need someone to run the show."

"And so you want me."

"Exactly."

Knight knew that Beane was quick on his feet, but man was Billy ahead of the game.

"Look Phil, I'm flattered, but I like my position with the A's. It's my home, how could I ever leave here?"

"I understand Billy, but think of the opportunity! A brand new team to sculpt however you want from scratch, a stadium that is state of the art..."

"Phil if I cared about stadiums, I'd have jumped ship already."

"Look Billy, if you come here to Portland and help me start this team, you will have complete control over everything, and I mean everything. You won't have to come to me for approval on anything, you can hire your own team, budget the money however you see fit. It'll be your team to run, completely, and without my input."

A moment of silence followed that felt like an eternity.



"I'll see you in Portland, Phil."

[MLBfanatic97]

March 10, 2017

The Portland Timbers had their front office assembled, all that was left to deal with now was the Expansion Draft.

[MLBfanatic97]

So I went ahead and went through the expansion draft, picked a few guys on my own, let the AI... I mean... Andrew Friedman pick the rest, and here are your inaugural Portland Timbers!

[MLBfanatic97]

March 31, 2017

Offices of The Ballpark of Portland

Billy Beane walked across the parking lot, dodging puddles along the way. He was on the way to talk to Phil Knight about the expansion draft and what the plan was going to be for the immediate future of this ballclub.

Billy looked down at his phone at the roster. Sure it wasn't going to win the World Series this season, but he considered it a great start. He thought this roster had a good mix of young talent with grizzled vets. The best part is that most of the talent was still on league minimum contracts, which is good considering Knight only gave this team a $75 million budget, and Ryan Zimmerman on his own was making $14M. The payroll sat at $44M, leaving little to allocate for scouting and develop the team's players.

Maybe he could get Phil to open up the purse a little more....

Inside, Knight was on the phone, like he usually is. Finally it was real. There was baseball in Portland, Oregon. The season tickets were selling like crazy, billboards dotted the city, it was all going perfectly.

"Come on you can give me a little more than that."

Okay maybe not everything.

"It's a brand new ballpark, everyone here is buzzing, it's a great opportunity to advertise!"

Look, "The Ballpark of Portland" is a good name, but that wasn't going to make this team money."

Billy walked in, "Good afternoon Phil."
"Just give me a sec Billy... $5 million more guys."

Billy took a seat while Phil hammered out the final details.

"Pleasure doing a business with you. Billy! Welcome to Chevrolet Stadium!"
"Chevrolet? Too bad I drive a Ford..."
"Don't worry Billy, I'm sure they'll hook you up. But anyways, that deal just bumped your payroll up another $5 million."
"You probably have $5 million under the couch at home."

After a hearty chuckle, the two got to business looking at the roster.

"It's not a pretty roster, but I'm satisfied with it," Billy said, "It's got good talent and the costs should remain low for the time being."
Phil laughed, "Well eventually the plan is to give you some more cash to spend, but the lower we can keep costs the better."
"That's what I'm known for Phil."
"Well it's a good thing I brought you on."
"So do you like what you see with this team?"
"It's the first season Billy, you could run 25 Milton Bradleys out there and I'm sure you'd sell out games. The team looks solid to me, let's see how they do."

[MLBfanatic97]

Monday, April 2nd, 2017

Chevrolet Stadium

Finally Opening Day was here and the city of Portland was ready. Beers were being poured, snacks being eaten, and merch being bought as 7:05 pm came along for Game 1. The first opponent?

Those filthy Seattle Mariners.


Looks like the Portland-Seattle rivalry would extend to baseball.

However, not everyone was watching the game.

In the offices, Billy Beane was on the phone, the only one to be found inside not taking part in the festivities.

"We would love to have you here in Portland, we want more veterans on this roster."

Outside, the wind died down and the clouds dispersed enough to let the sunset peek through as the Timbers took the field and the crowd began to roar for the hometown guys. It was a sellout, probably the first of many.

"So do we have a deal?"
"I think $1.3 million is more than fair."
"We'll see you here tomorrow."

As the 2nd inning began, Beane was still on the phone, this time trying to coax someone else to Portland.

"$2.5 million."
"Look I want him here with the Timbers but not for $2.5 million."
"Well what's your counter offer?"
"A million and a quarter."
"You're kidding."

The crowd let out a moan as Andrew Triggs gave up a 2 run HR to Mitch Haniger to open the scoring for the game. 2-0 Seattle.

"My client is not going to entertain such terrible offers."
"Do you even know what your client wants? Put him on the phone."
"Billy..."
"Put him on the phone."

Triggs managed to get out of the inning only giving up the 2 runs. It was sloppy, but now the Timbers had a chance to fight back.

"Mr. Beane?"
"Good afternoon. Tell me, do you want to come play for Portland?"
"I would love to, when should I show up?"
"Well I don't know, your agent is proving difficult to deal with."
"Look I don't know what you guys were arguing about, but give me $1.9 million and I'll be there tonight."

Billy didn't really plan on paying quite that much, but he couldn't help but love how ready the guy was to come up.

"You have a deal."

Billy was not done. He called up the Dodgers and somehow hammered out a deal for Yasiel Sierra, sending back Jesse Chavez while also convincing the Dodgers to retain Sierra's contract. ("If this deal is bad, I'll give you back Friedman.")

After all the wheeling and dealing, Beane had missed out on the game, but unfortunately for the Timbers, they would lose their inaugural game to the Mariners by the score of 7-2.

However, Billy hoped that the additions of Upton and Rodriguez, and with Sierra down in AAA, the Timbers will figure something out and win some games this season.

[artoodeetoo]

Love having other OOTP work on here.

[MLBfanatic97]

Week 1, 2017 Season

**************************************************

Notes:

• I know the DL looks full, but everyone outside of Matt Adams was hurt when they were drafted in the expansion draft.
• My starting pitching has left much to be desired, but Paco Rodriguez is already proving a smart pickup.
• I love you Drew Robinson and Renato Nunez. Someone tell Ryan Zimmerman to wake up.

[MLBfanatic97]

Week 2, 2017 Season

********************************

Notes:

• 3rd in hitting, but 12th in pitching... yikes.
• I'll take that 8-5 record, I'm interested to see what happens to that pack at the front all tied.
• Melvin. Upton. Jr.
• Someone woke Ryan Zimmerman up, thank you. Renato Nunez is still on fire and Derek Norris is hitting the cover off the ball. This offense is definitely keeping the team afloat, but it's a matter of whether or not they can keep up.
• Matt Adams is beginning his rehab assignment, so hopefully he does well.