[jamus23]

Well, for last season, it was necessary to introduce all of the players on Denver's team. I'm not sure that it is really necessary for this year. The opening day roster is almost identical to the roster that finished last season.

At catcher, Lee Chappel is the starter. Veteran Michael Grace has been brought back to be Chappel's backup.

Ellis Bolling is still the first-baseman. Tomas Sato is the second-baseman. Joseph Swayze is the third-baseman. Booker Romero is the shortstop. Jack Rumfelt and Michael Phillips will handle the utility infield duties.

Alexis Vazquez, Russell Thomas, and Asbel Fuentez are the starting outfielders, with Armando Navarro filling the role of reserve outfielder. It would be nice to have a second backup outfielder, though, but I will get to why that isn't feasible at the moment.

Mark Bakke remains the designated hitter.

The rotation is Kenny Pillsbury, Robert McNett, Ray Lockridge, Christopher Kirk, and George Buentello. Unfortunately, Larry Waltz, who was a valuable shot in the arm in the second half of last season, will be going back to AAA. If Buentello struggles as the fifth starter, however, Waltz will be first in line to get a turn.

The bullpen is staffed by James Virgen, Ramon Gomez, Leo Salguero, Steven Andrade, Fred Lemire, Robert Soto, and rookie Lyndon Gwinn. It's one more relief pitcher than I would like, but the player I would like to trade, Andrade, is proving to be untradeable, and I'm reluctant to trade any of the others. For now, this prevents me from carrying a fifth outfielder. We'll see, though. Perhaps it will work itself out in some fashion.

The most concerning thing right now, is Denver's minor league system, which is absolutely barren of any upper level prospects. Outfielder Marvin Lore is the only prospect of note above AA, and he is likely a platoon outfielder, at best: A poor fielder, mediocre power, mediocre plate discipline.

The rest of AAA is filled with with marginal career minor league types, with a few mediocre players who have seen a sizable amount of major league at bats/innings pitched.

The lower levels have a few interesting players, but not much that really jumps out at you.

This puts Denver at an interesting point. The major league roster is strong, and isn't particularly old; Bakke will need to be replaced next season, but every other position should have at least 3-4 years of productivity left, and most will have more than that. However, the team is also beginning to get expensive. The payroll last season ended up right around the upper limits of Denver's budget, but with a few players getting salary-increasing contract extensions, and several others going through arbitration, that payroll has jumped quite a bit. It is still manageable right now, but there are also quite a few free agents to be at the end of this season, and it will be expensive to retain them all. The barren minor league system compounds this situation, because there aren't any ready replacements for players who might leave. Come late July, I suspect some important decisions regarding the future of the team are going to need to be made.




Now for three things regarding the dynasty report:

1. Unlike last season, I don't think I will be recapping every game. It was certainly interesting, but it also took longer than I would like. I don't want to breeze through things, exactly, but I would prefer a quicker pace. This also means that I won't be playing out every single game for Denver. As I have tended not to do that in the past, it was a new experience in some ways. Unfortunately, I felt that it changed the way that I play the game, and not necessarily for the better. For example, there were some transactions that I wound up making that I would not have made normally. Playing out every game, and experiencing the highs and lows that come with that, made me more impatient with players. Simming out games, I would likely have just ridden out the poor peformance of a player for awhile. Playing out the games, I felt as though I had to do something right away. I don't like that.

2. As the 2082 season begins, there are a couple of players who are rapidly approaching some important milestones:

-Rochester CF Santiago Serrato is just 36 hits away from all time leader, Felipe Mira. Mira had 3,826 hits and Serrato begins the season with 3,790.

-Hartford 2B Ricky Vega is within striking distance of one milestone, and will likely join the top 3 in another milestone. Vega currently ranks tied for third all time in RBI, with 2,214 (he is tied with Earl Quon). The aforementioned Felipe Mira is second with 2,218. Danny Homan is the all time leader, with 2,255. So, Vega needs 5 RBI to pass up Mira, and 42 to pass up Homan. Ricky Vega also ranks 6th on the career homerun list with 637. While the top two spots (Donald Murillo with 691 and Christopher Bohanon with 670) are likely out of reach, he needs only 3 HR to pass up William Byrd, 5 to pass up Hector Abad, and 9 to pass up James Paras. That would put him into third place on the list. In addition to the RBI and HR lists, Vega is also 10th all time in hits. 115 hits this season would leapfrog him into 5th place.

-Lastly, Rochester starting pitcher Segundo Narbaiza is inching closer to being the all time wins leader. He won't do it this season, as he needs 45 wins to top the all time leader, Robert Padgett(339). He won't get to second place this year either, as he needs 41 to surpass the number two guy, Robert Jordan(335). However, he needs one win to break a tie with Jeremy Poss for fourth place(295), five wins to become just the 4th player ever to reach 300 wins, and 26 wins to move into a tie for third place with Robert McComas(321). Now, 26 wins may seem like a lot, but Narbaiza has won 26, 27, and 26 in the last three seasons, and hasn't yet shown signs of decline. It is definitely doable for him, and if he does, Padgett and Jordan could very well fall in 2083.

What I would like to do is, in addition to my reports on how Denver is doing, to include updates on these players as they approach these important records.


3. Lastly, and this is somewhat related to item #2, I would like to point out that the 2082 season represents the 80th season of this league. In recognition of that, I also plan on talking about the Hall of Famers of this league. As the season progresses, I will do a write up about each of the Hall of Famers, starting with the very first inductee, Scott Border (a player that I have mentioned a few times before already in this report). I feel this might be an interesting way to get a picture of this league's history.

Also, I invite anyone who might wonder about anything- stats, records, champions, etc.- that has transpired in 80 years of baseball, to feel free to ask. I'd like to share as much as possible, not just about the current season, but about the entirety of the league's history. If I can answer the question, I will certainly do so.