[mikev]

A Blah End To A Blah Season

So our worst season ever is in the books. 61-101, worse than our 64-98 season in the inaugural GUBA campaign.

Our best pitcher was Mario Garcia, who finished the year 14-14 with a 3.99 ERA and a 1.19 WHIP. He signed an extension during the year to keep him in town for 3 more seasons at a discounted rate, so we'll be happy to keep him around if we need to. While he was on the trading block this year at hte deadline, interest in him was rather slim.

The best hitter for the Crusaders was undoubtedly Byron Guthrie, the all star starter, who finished the year with a .773 OPS, 41.5 VORP, and 23 steals. Another guy who was added to the trade block, Guthrie had absolutely no interest because there are tons of .800 OPS second basemen around the league.

Alfonso Inigo was another interesting player for the hapless Crusaders this year. A guy who is always battling some sort of injury, yet is only 25 years old, Inigo saw his contact bump back up to an 8 this year and managed a .270 average, 35 stolen bases, and only 5 caught stealing. He could be a legitimate leadoff hitter for somebody and has an above average rating on defense, to boot.

In all, there's not much to write about. The team was set up to make a nice run for a few years, which resulted in a World Series ring, but injuries and lumps tore through the roster and basically forced my hand. The squad needed to be blown up, but unfortunately every decent piece ended up hurt or lumped, and I'm now in the position where I have to just wait and hope some prospects pan out. There's about $50 Million coming off the books, though, so financially we'll be okay.

On to a pretty quiet offseason, I'd assume.