2000 Early Offseason – Hiring Staff
I was unaware, but using feeder leagues threw off the number of staff that were available for teams to hire – for example, Kentucky spent all of 2000 without a manager, pitching coach and team doctor. Instead of there being a handful of staff available, a bunch of teams have extraneous vacancies.
So I jumped into Commissioner mode and created enough new managers/coaches/staff at each “position” to have 20 people available to fill openings this off-season, which will hopefully allow all the teams to have someone to hire. If not, I’ll keep creating more until everyone’s staffs are full.
I was tempted to clean house and fire all of the coaches and staff as my first move as General Manager. But the Stallions have some talented people in key positions, so rather than a clean sweep, we’re doing targeted replacements.
Level-by-level, position-by-position:
Kentucky Stallions- Manager: vacant – hired Michael Alston (20/13/20/20/19/20) for four years, $200,000 per year. He’s old and expensive and has a funky mustache, but I love his strategic tendencies: he heavily favors prospects and pitching, and is generally conservative otherwise. He is 58yo, and has never managed a ball club, in the minors or elsewhere – which is also fine by me, as he shouldn’t mind a little micro-managing, eh?
- Bench Coach: Replaced Doug King (8/9/9/6/6/6) with 38yo Teddy Dwyer (15/17/12/15/20/18).
- Hitting Coach: John Potts (17/6/6/18/18/18) is retained.
- Pitching Coach: vacant – hired 31yo Robert Clark (2/19/10/14/15/15) for five years at the bargain-basement price of $90,000 per season.
- Head Scout: Mitchell Gardner (20/20/18) - retained
- Scout: Bob Andrews (13/18/16) - retained
- Scout: Jay Harris (17/14/13) - retained
- Scout: Michael O’Toole (14/15/18) - retained
- Scout: Nicholas Spears (7/4/4) replaced by 36yo Josh Simon (15/14/16/16/13) for four years at $65,000 per year. Another young bargain.
- Scout: Mac Wallace (2/6/3) replaced by 60yo highly-respected veteran Carlos Gonzales (20/19/20/20/18) at four years, $105,000.
- Team Doctor: vacant – hired Horace Daniels (14/9/15/13/17) for four years at $135,000.
I re-ordered my scouting staff a bit, so that it now runs Gardner, Gonzales, O’Toole, Andrews, Harris and then Simon, the newbie.
Overall, I feel very good about the reconstituted staff for my big-league team.
AAA Lexington- Manager: Kevin Goodman (11/6/7/3/4/4) is fired, and 33yo Eric Meredith (20/19/17/13/11/12) takes his place for four years and $135,000.
- Hitting Coach: Millard Hill (20/2/9/18/13/16) - retained
- Pitching Coach: Lester Walters (4/5/4/3/3/3) is removed, replaced by 34yo Brant Charles (19/17/15/15/17/16) for three years, $135,000.
- Head Scout: Gerald Morris (15/20/14) – retained.
AA Bowling Green- Manager: Marlon Sykes (8/11/9/6/4/5) is fired. The new guy is 46yo Bill Verret (20/18/16/11/18/14) at $125,000 per year for two years.
- Hitting Coach: Mike Lyttelton (10/7/7/1/5/3) wouldn’t accept a demotion, so I fired him and hired 47yo Will Bullock (18/5/9/12/15/13) for three years at $50,000.
- Pitching Coach: vacant -
- Head Scout: Norbert Johnson 3/4/3 is fired and 44yo Zach Shaefer (16/13/14/16/13) signs a one-year, $40,000 contract.
A Covington- Manager: Dan Kendrick is fired. Andy Smith (16/15/14/14/11/12) is 49yo and signed through 2003 for $105,000 per season.
- Hitting Coach: Fernando Ortega (5/2/1/4/5/5) is fired. 41yo Zach Peterson (16/5/9/18/15/17) comes aboard for three years at $45,000.
- Pitching Coach: Brandon Kidd (10/12/7/4/4/4) also declined a demotion to Frankfort, so I showed him the door. Taking his spot is Albert Muller (5/17/4/20/12/16) for one year at $50,000.
- Head Scout: vacant – 37yo Eric Green (14/12/13/13/12) is hired for three years, $30,000.
Short A Owensboro- Manager: vacant – 58yo Kade Brewer (16/14/11/11/15/13) is hired for two years at $95,000.
- Hitting Coach: Robbie Morris (5/4/2/1/4/2) is fired. Newcomer 38yo Will Downing (12/1/10/11/9/10) takes over for one year and $20,000.
- Pitching Coach: David Hull (7/10/7/4/4/4) is retained.
- Head Scout: vacant – 32yo Bill Kline (13/10/12/13/11) has no experience, but interviews well, so I give him one year and $20,000.
Rookie Frankfort- Manager: vacant – 49yo Andrew Jones (13/11/11/11/19/15) is tabbed.
- Hitting Coach: Scott Coleman (7/7/6/3/3/3) is fired. Another newcomer, in 31yo Denny Cunningham (11/1/5/11/10/10) is hired for three years at $20,000.
- Pitching Coach: Ken Fountain (2/4/2/2/3/3) is fired. 36yo Walt Miller (1/14/6/15/11/13) is hired for $30,000 for one season.
- Head Scout: vacant – filled by 32yo, freshly minted James Walker (10/12/12/11/13) for one year and $15,000.
Given my budgetary constraints, I couldn’t have afforded to hire the best of the best at every level of the minors. I think the improvements made are vast, though – including much younger personnel and entirely new staffs at the Rookie, A and AA levels.
I also didn't hide the best available talent, as some of these guys were newly created to fill feeder-league-caused shortages, and I wanted the other teams to have a fair crack at some decent guys when they get around to signing personnel.
Now, on to the daunting task of evaluating personnel.
We'll do it position-by-position, looking throughout the organization at each spot to see how we're doing today and in the future. As we do them, if you have advice or thoughts, please share them - this is actually my first game with OOTP2007, so I'm going to need all the help I can get.