The Planetary Extreme Baseball Alliance

I would have loved my old London buddy Chris Long at Duluth but he wanted 3 yrs at $40k from me which was just a bit much for Duluth unless we went all in. I did consider it but in the end I couldn't do it for a 33-yr-old, I see James has hassled him down to $30k which is good for Canton but I needed the money elsewhere. Couldn't afford to have it tied up if Jitters wouldn't budge.

Warriors wrote:I would have loved my old London buddy Chris Long at Duluth but he wanted 3 yrs at $40k from me which was just a bit much for Duluth unless we went all in. I did consider it but in the end I couldn't do it for a 33-yr-old, I see James has hassled him down to $30k which is good for Canton but I needed the money elsewhere. Couldn't afford to have it tied up if Jitters wouldn't budge.

Yup. We needed OBP and a lot of it, and the fan interest bump (48 to 56! Wow!) was a nice fringe benefit. Gonzalo Gonzalez slides from SS (where he is merely adequate defensively) to 2B (where his metrics in small sample sizes and his ratings would suggest that he is a plus defender) to make room for Long (who is no Gold Glover, but is nonetheless a better defensive SS than GG). Long's injury history of late is a concern, but talking him down from a 6 or 7 year deal to a 3 year deal was key.

Of course, in the same sim, we drafted four Rule 5 guys, sort of by accident:

R1: LF Gabe Moran, from New Orleans - Moran was a supplemental round pick out of high school five years ago and is still just 22. He will turn 23 before the season starts. He's been a slow developer, taking three seasons at SS-A ball to get his OPS over 700, one middling season at Hi-A (271/339/393), and an overmatched season at AA in 2024 (240/280/323). Our outfield is pretty low wattage and Moran is young enough and prospecty enough that we should be able to shelve him on the PEBA roster. He can serve as Gabriel Martinez's legs in LF where Moran is a plus-plus defender, and maybe he'll get an odd start or pinch-hitting apperance against righties, as he has shown a pretty pronounced platoon split. If we can spare the roster spot, a year or two back in the minors after his bonus baby year could net us a solid corner outfielder.

R2: 1B Ron Copeland from West Virginia - Of the four, Copeland is likely the toughest to roster; we already have two first basemen who we plan to platoon, and Copeland has never played above Hi-A ball. My scout and OSA both like him as a 2.5-3 star, but in different ways - OSA sees him as having a ton of power, while my scout thinks his profile is a bit more Steve Garvey than Adam Dunn. The Alleghenies probably shouldn't throw out his jerseys yet.

R3: SP Tatsui Yokota from Kentucky - I moved this guy up and down and all around by draft board. My scout likes him to eventually be a back of the rotation starter, and his worm-killing ways would fit very well with what we are trying to do with our pitching staff. OTOH, his ratings make him a real stretch to have any role, even a mop-up one, in the major league bullpen. He's just too far from being ready. The best case scenario here is that he gets a series of ingrown toenails or something minor roughly every 30 days so that he can pitch on a bunch of rehab assignments. Maybe he'll get some development in camp.

R7: RF Bob Campbell from Kalamazoo - This one was the accident. I liked Campbell OK, but I apparently forgot to delete my lists for Round 7 (I had clearly deleted them for rounds 4 through 6). This guy profiles to be a lefty killer (15 HR vs. LHP in 105 PA in Hi-A in 2024) if he can ever make enough contact in the big leagues. OSA thinks he can, my scout thinks he won't. He's also a nifty defensive RF. We'll likely hold onto him to see how spring training shakes out, but if we carry him and Moran on the opening day roster, either there has been a slew of injuries to our outfield or both of these guys will have looked like a cross between Ty Cobb and Rickey Henderson in the spring.

I guess I should ask whether anyone wants to trade either a major league ready bullpen arm or a similar prospect who doesn't need to be rostered for one of the outfielders.

Warriors wrote:I would have loved my old London buddy Chris Long at Duluth but he wanted 3 yrs at $40k from me which was just a bit much for Duluth unless we went all in. I did consider it but in the end I couldn't do it for a 33-yr-old, I see James has hassled him down to $30k which is good for Canton but I needed the money elsewhere. Couldn't afford to have it tied up if Jitters wouldn't budge.

Nigel, I think you mean 40M and 30M. As I tell my daughter those may look like small mistakes, but they are nowhere close :-).

Alleghenies wrote:

Warriors wrote:I would have loved my old London buddy Chris Long at Duluth but he wanted 3 yrs at $40k from me which was just a bit much for Duluth unless we went all in. I did consider it but in the end I couldn't do it for a 33-yr-old, I see James has hassled him down to $30k which is good for Canton but I needed the money elsewhere. Couldn't afford to have it tied up if Jitters wouldn't budge.

Nigel, I think you mean 40M and 30M. As I tell my daughter those may look like small mistakes, but they are nowhere close :-).

I was going to ask why you're complaining? $30-$40K? He want $35M from me!!!



Bold move for Canton - it think that sucks up a lot of the budget. I was shocked he signed so soon.

We lost one player - to Reno, SP Orlando Alcaron, who was the 41st player on the roster - and we struggled mightily over who would be #40...

Alleghenies wrote:

Warriors wrote:I would have loved my old London buddy Chris Long at Duluth but he wanted 3 yrs at $40k from me which was just a bit much for Duluth unless we went all in. I did consider it but in the end I couldn't do it for a 33-yr-old, I see James has hassled him down to $30k which is good for Canton but I needed the money elsewhere. Couldn't afford to have it tied up if Jitters wouldn't budge.

Nigel, I think you mean 40M and 30M. As I tell my daughter those may look like small mistakes, but they are nowhere close :-).

Yes, I hold my hand up Greg. Schoolboy error

I was surprised too that he signed in just a few sims, I guess he wanted to get the whole FA thing over and done with.

Borealis wrote:Bold move for Canton - it think that sucks up a lot of the budget. I was shocked he signed so soon.

Yeah, we had a lot of salaries come off of the books this offseason (Armando Gallegos, Manny de los Santos, aggressive non-tendering), and have probably one more big free agent splash left in us. There's an open question as to whether that is the best strategy for the organization, but we need to increase fan interest and attendance and revenues while we wait for our recent high draft picks to matriculate. Our '18 (Gabriel Martinez (1-7)), '19 (Alfonso Romero (1-3)), and '20 (Gonzalo Gonzalez (1-2)) top draft picks are all contributing - the jury is still out on GG, but I believe he's primed for a breakout season.

Our '21 (Edward Adams (1-22)) top draft pick looks like a middle reliever ceiling at best; our '22 (Roberto Salazar (1-18)) still looks like he could develop into a solid PEBA-level SS; our '23 (Bob Erickson (1-5)) and '24 (Mark Ray (1-3)) are both on the DL with torn rotator cuffs. If they can recover from the injuries (big ifs, there), Erickson profiles as a 2/3 starter, and Ray could be an ace.

Here's to hopefully treading water with style.

Holy Nigel Going All In, Batman!!!



As an aside, I gotta rant one more time about how OOTP calculates service time - How does a guy who was a September call-up, pitches in his first games in the Bigs - with no other experience - have over a year ML service time... So frustrating... Scratch Lando off the Winter Ball list...

Well I can pack up for the winter, targets #1 & 2 (well 2a really ) secured & I'm broke. Long was #2 proper but once he quoted me $40m / 3 yrs I swapped to chase Hernandez as a six year deal (only 4 guaranteed) made more sense for a 28-yr-old. Plus I always regretted trading him to CL, it was a trade that never really worked out, Holmes lumped and everyone else tanked lol.

Nice taking that insane demand for Hernandez :)

Hopefully you will have good time with Hernandez. He certainly will

In the meantime SA signed two much cheaper free agents SP Honma and 30 years old rookie from England OF Tom Higman. Pretty happy with these, there's no way Honma is 7 era pitcher, he will be 3.50 in San Antonio. We also needed right handed outfielder with power, and bam we got one right here.

Calzones wrote:Hopefully you will have good time with Hernandez. He certainly will

In the meantime SA signed two much cheaper free agents SP Honma and 30 years old rookie from England OF Tom Higman. Pretty happy with these, there's no way Honma is 7 era pitcher, he will be 3.50 in San Antonio. We also needed right handed outfielder with power, and bam we got one right here.

I agree with you on Honma... Nice pickup

Good pick up as well for a good price.

Calzones wrote: there's no way Honma is 7 era pitcher, he will be 3.50 in San Antonio.

Couldn't believe how bad he was for us.

Akira wrote:

Calzones wrote: there's no way Honma is 7 era pitcher, he will be 3.50 in San Antonio.

Couldn't believe how bad he was for us.

I blame the GM :-).

Are we still posting in this or are we starting a Season 19 (or does that start in preseason)?