The
First Year of the
By
David Dick
I took
over the former Mansfield Mounties shortly before the start of 2007 FA,
so I thought
with the ending of 2008 FA now would be a good time to look over
how my first
year in BRASSWORLD has gone and what the outlook is like for the
Taking
over the team I saw a huge hole at 3B and some really bad contracts in
Andy Pettitte (3,F4-33M), Cliff Floyd
(3,F4-24M) and Mark Kotsay (3,F4-24M).
There was
also not much relief pitching on the team, as the only rated
relievers were
Jason Isringhausen and Carlos Marmol.
I knew I would have my
work cut out
to fill all those gaps with enough at-bats and innings pitched, but
saw that the
team had some really good young players (Peavy, Verlander,
Marmol, Mauer, Teixeira, Stephen Drew)
and could be a powerhouse in the
future. After
much deliberation, I decided to blow almost all of my remaining
cash to land
the biggest fish in 2007 free agency, Alex Rodriguez. It was a huge
gamble, but I
figured that talent like that doesn’t come around that often and
if I sign
him to a five year deal he would still be around once the bad contracts
expire and I
would have a chance to really compete. I was willing to go up to
$10M per
year to get him and was happy to land him for $9.6M per year. I then
used the rest
of free agency to pick up every scrub reliever I could find since I
had pretty
much no cash left.
I wanted
to free up a little more cash and I still needed a corner outfielder, so I
took the
plunge and traded away Jason Isringhausen for
forgot about the
closer rule which would come back to haunt me once the
season started.
But I got a young corner outfielder on a L5 contract that I was
hoping would
rebound after a down year. I needed an outfielder that could
(somewhat) hit lefties, so I shipped off Joel Guzman for Emil
Brown (though
Brown
played like crap for me). Finally, I realized that Stephen Drew would
not be a
great card so I shipped Wandy Rodriguez to get
Brendan Harris and Kip
Wells
so that I could do a reverse platoon with Drew and Harris at SS.
I had the
pressure of the #1 overall pick in the 2008 Draft and finally decided to
take young phenom Rick Porcello. I picked
mainly for upside the rest of the
way. John Lannon turned out to be a nice grab in the 4th
round.
The pick of
Joe Smith
in the 5th round helped the bullpen. Max Ramirez in
the 9th round
also turned
into a find.
The season
began and I thought the team would have a shot at the playoffs,
but wouldn’t
be too upset if we finished in the middle of the pack, given the
bullpen. The
offense carried the day, making it so that I didn’t have to worry
about the
bullpen too much. Halfway through the season Rob Bell was my
saves leader,
thanks to plenty of 3-inning “mop-up” saves. Blown saves by
Carlos Marmol and Ron Mahay on a routine
basis led me to realize I needed to
pick up a
reliever with a better closer rating than 0. So, I traded for Todd
Jones and
Pat Neshek, who proceeded to do well in picking up
the saves at the
end of the
year and I found myself a wild card. I was able to get past Port
Richey in
the first round, but
Looking at
my team in the off-season, I realized a had a real chance to
compete for the
title next year if I could just find a few more pieces.
Unfortunately,
some of those bad contracts were still on the books so if I was
going to do
this it would have to be on the cheap. When I found out that Grady
Sizemore
was on the market, I realized he could be a big piece of the puzzle.
The price
was steep, but I parted with Rick Porcello, Matt LaPorta, Max
Ramirez
and a couple of picks to snag Sizemore and Reed Johnson. I still
needed to shed
some salary, so I dumped Cliff Floyd for J.J. Putz.
Unfortunately,
to entice Jonah to take Floyd I also had to part with Chris
Duncan,
Brendan Harris, James McDonald and some picks. Didn’t want to give
up McDonald
and the picks, but I desperately needed the cash.
2008 free
agency was an almost non-event for
constraints. I picked
up Willie Bloomquist to be my utility infielder since
Harris
is now a McGaffigan. I was still hurting on relievers, so I picked
up Alan
Embree
and Tyler Walker to be middle inning pitchers. I wasn’t
sure about
Marmol getting a
good closer rating and Putz is limited innings so I
picked up
Todd
Jones and Jason Isringhausen on the cheap. Finally,
I took a flyer on
Chad
Cordero in the event that his arm is healthy for the next couple of years.
What’s the
outlook for the franchise heading into 2009? The rotation should be
average, with
Jake Peavy leading the way. Verlander,
Pettitte and Lannan will
do yeoman’s
work and Sean Gallagher and Odalis Perez will try not
to get
shelled too much
as the #5 starter. The bullpen should be ok, with Marmol,
Jones
and Putz closing things for me. The
offense is what is going to carry this
club. Mauer, Teixeira, ARod, Bay and Sizemore will form a fearsome middle of
the order. Should be a lot of fun next year.
I’ve had a
blast so far in BRASSWORLD and appreciate playing in such a great
league. Thanks
for letting me join!