Republican League - Version 2.0

[Jestor]

Maybe try packaging Hotham and Moya for an upgrade at first and some type of pitching help?

[gordyhulten]

Originally Posted by Jestor

Maybe try packaging Hotham and Moya for an upgrade at first and some type of pitching help?

That's an excellent idea - wait until you see how awful my pitchers are. I'd gladly play a cheap scrub at 1B for any time of help on the mound, and maybe Hotham and Moya can help me to get that.

[gordyhulten]

POSITION REPORT: Outfielders
Our outfielders are a mixed bag. Ricardo Pena (12/14/12/9/13) is the best veteran. He’s just 27yo, and is an athletic LH who excels in either RF or LF, can hit for a decent average and some power. He looks like a good, consistent #2 hitter while playing full-time in one of the corners. Another LH, 23yo Warren Harris (13/8/8/12/3 – POT 16/8/13/17/3) was the first overall pick in 1996. He’s in the bigs probably a bit too soon, and his first 371 PA this year showed it, as he was barely replacement level. Like Pena, he’s also an excellent fielder at either corner position, but Harris is probably a platoon candidate right now. Our current CF is 30yo SH Brian Robinson (8/11/16/10/8) and he’s both an excellent CF, baserunner and HR hitter – he just can’t ever get on base. His career OBP is .293, and he’s probably best suited to a defensive sub/PH role. Chris Marshall (12/16/12/9/5) is another LH and another free-swinger, but he’s 30y, has average wheels and range, and makes $3 million and is becoming a Free Agent. Our fifth OF is Bill Morris (14/6/8/3/6) and he’s – stop me if you’ve heard this before – also LH and also a hacker. But he can run, catch and throw, and his paychecks are tiny, so he might be sticking around – although 29 K in 104 AB is awful.

In the system, there are some OK young prospects, but no immediate help. Gabriel Davis (POT 4/19/20/10/8) was our first round pick in 2000, and is a 5-star prospect who can run and play OF with the best of them. He can hit the ball a ton – he just can’t ever make contact. But he’s only 20yo, so maybe he’ll learn – or maybe he’ll get traded for a nice young SP with a 97 MPH slider? Gus Johnson (POT 11/17/6/13/7) is an OK prospect (346/398/395 in AA), but he’s got to spend at least a year at AAA before he can help much. Pedro Valles (POT 12/7/17/12/5) has a lot of potential, but he’s just 18yo and has a long, long way to go. Avery Frey (POT 19/19/17/5/12) has a super-high ceiling, but he’s 24yo and hit 231/271/388 in Rookie ball this year. Elijah Johnston (POT 8/14/19/10/4) is similar – 24yo, and can’t hit in Rookie ball.

OVERALL THOUGHTS: Pena and Harris will start at the corners, and I’ll give Harris plenty of time to develop. As much as I like Robinson’s glove in CF, I’d gladly trade his 20 HR for 50 points of OBP, especially with his speed. In the end, I’ll probably try to shop Robinson, Davis, Frey and Johnston for pitching, and see if I can find a decent CF in free agency.

[silvam14]

Wow, This is great!

I liked the news account of the new look Kentucky Stallions!

[gordyhulten]

Originally Posted by silvam14

Wow, This is great!

I liked the news account of the new look Kentucky Stallions!

Thanks, silvam14! The new looks wouldn't have been possible without you.

[silvam14]

Originally Posted by gordyhulten

Thanks, silvam14! The new looks wouldn't have been possible without you.

I'm glad I could contribute to this dynasty as it looks like a good one!

I only wish I had the time and writing skill to do what you are doing, only with my dynasty! Cheers!

[Mikekem]

Great writeup so far Gordy. Can't wait to follow along.

[gordyhulten]

Originally Posted by silvam14

I'm glad I could contribute to this dynasty as it looks like a good one!

I only wish I had the time and writing skill to do what you are doing, only with my dynasty! Cheers!

Thank you.

Originally Posted by Mikekem

Great writeup so far Gordy. Can't wait to follow along.

I can't wait to find some time to spend looking through my pitchers!

More tonight...

[Vris]

Originally Posted by gordyhulten

More tonight...

Oh you tease!

[gordyhulten]

POSITION REPORT: Starting Pitchers
If you thought the OF were bad, then the starting pitchers are going to make you avert your eyes in Edvard Munch-like horror.

My “ace” is Rob “Scar” Reid (Stuff 10 / Movement 14 / Control 9). (ASIDE: I’m deleting goofy nicknames, such as “Scar” and “Clockwork” if I can’t imagine some justification for keeping them.) Reid is a 30yo lefty groundball specialist and innings-eater, so I think he can actually be decent with enough help up the middle. His K/BB ratio really improved this year, so I can at least cling to that. After him, the next best option is 29yo righty Norm “Freeze” Simmons (9/10/15), who is also an inning-eater and groundball specialist. Of course, his contract has expired and he’s leaving the team. The other three current starters are all replacement level:

• Eric Kempf (7/9/11): 29yo, RH, 4.5 K/9. As a further aggravation, we traded away this 23yo 4* 1B prospect to get Kempf in July of 2000. Of course, it’s not like we needed a young 1B or anything.
• Keith Copeland (8/15/7) is a LH junkballer who has no business being a major-leaguer, let alone at the age of 24.
• Dan Sanders (7/11/7) has even worse ratings than Copeland, but performed much better, despite being just 23.

In the minors, there are just a few guys worth watching. Bob Price (POT 9/14/13) is 22yo, RH, and fresh out of college, so his stats are meaningless. Joe Jones (POT 5/7/10) is the second-best pitching prospect in our system, which should tell you how terrible our system is. He’s 23yo, RH, and got knocked around a bit in AAA this year, although his peripheral numbers were OK. Jerry Carr (POT 10/13/9) is 21yo, RH and at Owensboro (A) after doing just OK in 88 Rookie-level innings this year. Carr is a marginal prospect at best. Kevin Adams (POT 13/11/9) throws hard and gets grounders and did pretty well at SA, A and AA this year, despite bad BABIPs at all three levels. Finally, Bill Clark (POT 9/11/9) is 22 and also has no record beyond pitching in college.

To give you an idea of how bad the starting pitching in the Kentucky system is, I went browsing through my one-star guys to see if I could find any gems. What I found was that, according to my own scouts, the highest rating of any player in the “Stuff – Potential” category was 12, by only one player – Mr. Kevin Adams.

Ugh.

OVERALL THOUGHTS: Reid would be a good #3 starter. Unfortunately, I have no one in my entire organization who looks qualified to even be a #4 or #5 starter, let alone a #1 or #2. Lots of work to do here, either via trade or via free agency.

[ifspuds]

Wow. You weren't kidding when you suggested the stable was empty. This is going to be one impressive rebuilding task. Especially in 2007, which I've found to be significantly harder to win consistently at (though I've only got a small sample size of games there).

[gordyhulten]

POSITION REPORT: Bullpen
Unlike with the SPs, in the bullpen, at least there’s some hope. Young Tommy Jackson (9/15/12) is a solid RH MR already at just 25yo and in his second big-league season. Another young (26yo) RH, Ignacio Reyna (7/13/12 – POT 9/13/15) also has the opportunity to be very good despite a mediocre career so far. (In yet another brilliant move by my predecessor, he traded for Reyna last year, sending away a decent-but-not-great 33yo 1B in exchange and leaving us with nothing but dead weight at 1B. Grrrrrr.) Lastly, our 31yo LH CL Chuck Terry (16/10/11) is good enough to be the best pitcher on our staff, with a great 10/5 K/9 last year. He’s under contract for one more year at $1,000,000, so he’s a bargain, too.

In the minors, there’s literally nothing worth mentioning. Every time I think I see a glimpse of some real potential, I notice that the flashy rating that caught my eye belongs to a 30yo in AA. There’s just nothing there, and repairing this problem will take multiple drafts, not just a few trades.

OVERALL THOUGHTS: Terry and Jackson are good, and Reyna could be. Relievers are unpredictable, but I’d like a LH setup man at the least, and some sort of depth in the farm system would be reassuring.

[gordyhulten]

Originally Posted by ifspuds

Wow. You weren't kidding when you suggested the stable was empty. This is going to be one impressive rebuilding task. Especially in 2007, which I've found to be significantly harder to win consistently at (though I've only got a small sample size of games there).

ifspuds,

I'm glad you're still reading along.

This isn't going to be a quick-fix, that's for sure. We've got some decent organizational depth on offense, but absolutely nothing in terms of pitching, and I think that's going to take years to fix. It's not even like we have a bunch of depth at any position (except maybe catcher) to trade away, although I do have some "prospects" that I won't mind parting with that I might be able to get some return for.

All in all, this organization is so bad that I'm looking forward to my first draft.

[gordyhulten]

It took me most of the weekend, but I've got my organization completely mapped out, by position and by level:



Guys in bold are leaving via free agency. Guys in strikethrough are going to be released. Italics are some of the guys I'm hoping to use as trade bait, but so far I've had no luck whatsoever in finding an acceptable trade.

There's lots of scrub/roster filler in our organization and precious little talent.

[Vris]

Lost in the shuffle bump.