California Dreamin' - The GUBA's California Crusaders

[mikev]

Curtains Closing On The Season?

It looks bleak.

California is 4 games back in the wild card with 5 to play. They need to win out, one game with Long Beach and the final 4 games of the season are at home against the already clinched Los Angeles Quakes.

Normally I'd think that Kirk is a nice dude and will rest everybody, play a bunch of minor leaguers, and get ready for the playoffs, laying down nicely for me. I doubt it.

Green Bay finishes their season with a game against Louisville, and then a 4 spot with Birmingham. Help me out here, Oak.

Right now Green Bay's magic number is 2, so we can win out and still not make the postseason. That would suck, and since Green Bay is on a 4 game winning streak right now, guys are booking tee times already.

To make matters worse, we have to go these last games without a 100% effort from leadoff hitter Francisco Mendez, who had a breakout season but suffered a concussion and is listed as day-to-day for the next 2 weeks.

It's gonna take a miracle.

[mikev]

Book Your Tee Times.

Just like that, we're done.

The Crusaders put up a valiant effort, doing nearly everything they could to get into the postseason. Being 4 games out with 5 to play means, barring a miracle, you're probably not playing in the second season. Needing to go AT LEAST 4-1 over their last five games to even have a chance, they did exactly that.

It started with a 12 inning win over Long Beach on the first. Starter Jorge Enriquez battled his way through 7.2 innings, managing to work through giving up three homers to keep the Crusaders in the game. Jesus Diaz followed up Enriquez by mowing through the next five Surfers before turning the ball over to Hsin-ta Jin, who allowed only 1 hit and struck out 4 in 2.2 innings of work to get the extra-innings victory when likely MVP Jakob Forest and Tony "Out Of Nowhere" Reyes hit back to back doubles in the bottom of the 12th.

That brought on the final series of the season, a four game set with division champion Los Angeles. I'm torn because Kirk is my favorite writer in the league with the disembodied voice bit (at least until Bisbo comes back with Diary Of A New Owner again), but I wanted him to lay the **** down so I could make the playoffs and he'd clinched already. At least the series was at home.

The first game was a dominating performance by starter Henry McHaney, tossing a complete game with 7 strikeouts and 0 walks. He scattered 12 hits, and I can say scattered because he only gave up 2 earned runs. The Crusader offense scored early and often en route to a 8-2 victory, and there was still some glimmer of hope.

In the second game, starting pitcher Masahiko Hayagawa got off to a strong start, but a high pitch count meant he could not finish six innings and was pulled in favor of Jin while California was still in striking distance, trailing 2-0. Jin would finish the sixth, and Francisco Mendez would score California's only run of the game in the bottom of the inning. He singled, stole second, and scored on a Pedro Cruz single. Unfortunately, Jin would fall apart in the seventh inning, give up three runs, and seal the Crusader's fate as they would be eliminated from playoff contention with either a loss or a Green Bay victory.

The team put up a fight, winning the last two games of the series, 4-3 and 1-0.

Green Bay's magic number was two, meaning that they would have needed to lose all five of their final games for the Crusaders to win the wild card. However, they managed to win 3 games and only lose 2, and controlled their own destiny. We needed help and didn't get it, so we will look forward to next season. There is really only one major personnel decision that needs to be made, and that's what to do with Hsin-ta Jin, who was aquired this season and is a pending free agent. He's asking for just under 6 million per season to resign for the next couple years, and he really gives us a great trio of relievers along with Diaz and Lopez. The team is just fine on cash, but we're already quite a bit over budget. Hopefully ownership recognizes the 30 win increase from last year and lets us spend just a little bit more. We're still in the bottom half of the GUBA, payroll-wise, and if we can sit at about 85-90 million I'll be a happy camper.

The Next Crusade

The offseason

[mikev]

End Of Season Awards

To wrap up an exciting season that ended in disappointment, I figured I'd do something that nobody else would think of: End Of Year Awards! Here we go:

Batter Of The Year



Jakob Forest
.344/.453/.578, 194 H, 37 2B, 29 HR, 107 RBI, 99 BB, 100 K, 93.5 VORP

Like, duh. Forest was the best hitter in the GUBA in 2008, and (depending on which stats are most important to you) by a pretty signifigant margin. His batting average was 3rd in the GUBA, his OBP was first by nearly .040 points, he was the only player in the league with a VORP above 90, he led the GUBA in Runs Created and Runs Created per 27 outs. In short, he was awesome. He's also only 26 years old and signed for 2 more years. :wub:

Pitcher Of The Year



Andy MacGregor
15-8, 3.43, 210 IP, 189 K, 33 BB, 1.14 WHIP, 35.5 VORP

It's strange to say, but MacGregor was sort of a forgotten Ace this season. With the surprising Jorge Enriquez, along with full seasons from McHaney and Hayagawa, Andy Mac just took the ball every fifth day and got the job done, leading the team in Wins, ERA, and strikouts. He cut down his homers and walks allowed compared to 2007, and increased his K's pretty dramatically. In 16 more innings this year, he struck out over 50 more hitters, and his strikeout to walk ratio of nearly 6 was fourth best in the league. He'll continue to anchor what should be a very formidable rotation in 2009.

Rookie Of The Year (Hitter)



Enrique De Jesus
.311/.355/.440, 195 H, 35 2B, 14 HR, 90 RBI, 84 R, 37.0 VORP

De Jesus was an offseason scout find who wasn't expected to serve in a starting role, let alone be one of the major offensive contributors in the lineup. However, he appeared in every game this season as the Designated Hitter, and aside from being opposed to drawing a walk every now and again (only 38 in 627 at bats!), De Jesus hit the ball and hit the ball well. He was awarded the MBBA Roookie Of The Month award three times, and Player Of The Week award twice. Preseason Crusaders ROY favorite Pedro Vargas didn't quite play up to his huge expectations but still had a solid year.


Rookie Of The Year (Pitcher



Jorge Enriquez
13-6, 3.44, 177.2 IP, 128 K, 49 BB, 1.17 WHIP, 29.6 VORP

Enriquez was nearly left in Triple-A to start the season, but was given a crack at the rotation and became one of the surprises of the pitching staff. Slotted behind MacGregor and McHaney, Enriquez was second on the team in Wins, ERA, and WHIP, and still has some potential to grow into. To say that we're excited about the pitching staff going into next year is a little bit of an understatement, as the oldest member of the rotation is 26 year old MacGregor.

[mikev]

Off Season Musings...

A few quick news and notes items from the current offseason, because we're really not gonna be too active on the FA front.

- Our first order of business was to evaluate the financial situation, as we were fairly signifigantly over budget last year, but had the cash on hand to absorb the hit. Ownership responded positively, and raised the payroll budget to a nice round 85 million dollar figure. Woot!

- Next up was our first player decision, made signifigantly easier by our newfound budget flexibility. Outstanding reliever Hsin-ta Jin, aquired at the trade deadline for youngster Yat-sen Xing, was given a 3 year contract extension averaging just a smidge over six million dollars per season. The third year is a team option. In 21 games after being traded to California, Jin posted a tidy 5-0 record with 4 saves and a miniscule 1.01 WHIP. His ability to pitch multiple innings was huge down the stretch for the Crusaders and retaining the popular lefty was considered vital to GM Mike Voelker.

- The Rule 5 draft came and went, and there were several players that we looked hard at taking a flyer on. In the end, no selections were made by the team as we did not feel that a roster spot would be available for the entire season. We did lose one player, starter Tom Adams was picked by Las Vegas in the first round. Adams is a 30 year old lefty who has never appeared in a big league game, but was pretty good in Triple A. I'm half expecting him to be offered back by midseason, but he's really no big loss.

- We're not planning on too much in Free Agency, as we only had 1 player who was possibly leaving (Jin). Barring any wacky off-field injuries, I can't see much happening with the active roster. The only guy we made an offer to got signed by Santo Domingo. What the f**k, LCG? You can't be bothered to export more than twice during the regular season but then you get off your gigantic ass and make some FA offers? Go pound sand while I run you over with my FOUR WHEELS OF FURY.

That's about it so far. We'll probably toss some minor league deals out there, but having a little bit of payroll room is never a bad thing and I think with another year of seasoning we'll be right there with LA for the Pacific division.

[mikev]

Offensive Preview, 2009

The #1 offense in the MBBA last season returns unchanged for 2009. If it ain't broke...


1. Francisco Mendez, LF
2008: .332/.400/.449, 210 H, 32 2B, 94 SB, 64.3 VORP

The GUBA's premier leadoff man, Mendez is expected to be the catalys for the Crusaders offense yet again. He led the league in stolen bases last year, and is a legitimate threat to swipe 100 bags.


2. Pedro Cruz, 3B
2008: .293/.333/.410, 191 H, 39 2B, 32.4 VORP

The switch-hitting Cruz isn't really my ideal #2 hitter, but he hits a lot of doubles and led the league in sac flies last season. I'd rather have somebody with a higher OBP and less strikeouts here, but what are ya gonna do.


3. Jakob Forest, 1B
2008: .344/.453/.578, 194 H, 37 2B, 29 HR, 99BB, 93.5 VORP

You might have heard of this guy. He's pretty above average for a Canadian.


4. Tony Reyes, RF
2008: .287/.353/.477, 171 H, 34 2B, 113 RBI, 34.1 VORP

Reyes totally came out of nowhere after being signed as a 4th/5th outfielder type and grabbed the starting rightfield job for himself. His .350 OBP really makes me want to move him up to 2nd in the order, but his 143 strikeouts make me want to leave him where he is.


5. Carlos Becerra, C
2008: .288/.352/.472, 151 H, 20 2B, 25 HR, 44.8 VORP

An all-star last season, Becerra is one of like 5 catchers in the GUBA who are actually solid all-around players. The 31 year old makes 6.6M through the 2010 season and will likely seek a gigantic pay raise if he keeps playing like he has for the past 2 seasons.


6. Enrique DeJesus, DH
2008: .311/.355/.440, 195 H, 35 2B, 90 RBI, 84 R, 37.0 VORP

:wub: this scout find! DeJesus lost a narrow vote for the OCA Best Rookie award - somehow winning Rookie Of The Month in 3 out of the 6 months we played wasn't good enough. In any event, this is another guy that we're gonna need to spend a little money to retain past this season.


7. Jose Avila, CF
2008: .265/.339/.423, 116 H, 23 2B, 49 BB, 60 K, 22.8 VORP

Despite his decent VORP, Avila was a pretty big disappointment in 2008. Expected to be one of the main pieces of the California offense, Avila missed the first 6 weeks of the season due to a ST injury and never really got on track, posting lower totals in every offensive category. A rebound year from him would be huge.


8. Pedro Vargas, 2B
2008: .250/.335/.402, 110 H, 19 2B, 41 BB, 18.5 VORP

When our scouts found this guy, they thought (and still do) that he was the next Mark Coleman. Like Avila, though, he never really got on track last season. We still have high hopes for him, and even if he remains at his current level of production he's a more than adequate option at second base for the forseeable future.


9. Tony Leslie, SS
2008: .251/.284/.388, 129 H, 81 R, 52 SB, 19.2 VORP

Leslie was inked as a defensive specialist, and gave us 144 games with a .983 FP at shortstop. Anything from him with the bat in his hands is just icing on the cake for us.

[mikev]

disregard

[mikev]

The Hurlers!

Now a quick look at the starting rotation for California, which was middle of the pack with a 3.86 team ERA last season. Interestingly enough, the rotation does not feature a left handed pitcher. I wonder if that actually has any sort of effect on games?


1. Andy MacGregor
2008: 15-8, 3.43, 210 IP, 1.14 WHIP, 189 K, 33 BB, 35.5 VORP

MacGregor returns as the team ace yet again, looking to improve on what was a very good season last year. Only 26 this season, MacGregor figures to be atop the Crusaders rotation for quite a long time.


2. Henry McHaney
2008: 9-9, 3.72, 150 IP, 1.33 WHIP, 115 K, 37 BB, 20.4 VORP

The second half of the "Mac and Mc" duo, McHaney was solid in his first full season as a professional. Our scouts think that he's a hell of a lot better than he's shown so far, so look the hell out league!


3. Jorge Enriquez
2008: 13-6, 3.44, 177.2 IP, 1.17 WHIP, 128 K, 49 BB, 29.6 VORP

Enriquez started to realize his enormous potential in his first year, making good on his 24 starts and making a big enough splash that he received a good chunk of the Rookie Of The Year voting. If the 26 year old puts together another season like last year I'll be ickles:


4. Masahiko "Griz" Hayagawa
2008: 12-4, 4.78, 194 IP, 1.25 WHIP, 160 K, 47 BB, 2.3 VORP

Griz was actually removed from the starting rotation for a short time last year, and the move prompted a nice response and a strong finish to the season from the 27 year old "elder" in the rotation. He's going to need to cut down on the home runs if he wants to step up into the leagues top tier of pitchers.


5. Matt Albury
2008: 4-4, 3.68, 66 IP, 1.18 WHIP, 56 K, 22 BB

Albury went from decent in Single-A in 2007 to pretty effing good in Triple-A in 2008, culminating with a no-hitter before getting the call up to the bigs. His small sample against major league hitting is very promising, and he should be at least a good back of the rotation guy for the next few seasons at least.

[mikev]

Relief Corps, 2009 Edition!

The final part of our 3-installment Team Preview covers the 2008 team weakness-turned-strength, the bullpen:


Antonio "Turk" Lopez
2008: 3-7, 33 SV, 4.06 ERA, 57.2 IP, 45K, 9BB, 6.0 VORP

Lopez, aquired from Des Moines before appearing in a single game for the Kernels, filled a huge void in the bullpen. We needed a closer, bad, and Turk fit the bill. Expensive, yes, but we moved Dotson's ****ty contract, which was a bonus. He notched 15 saves in 30 games after being aquired, and will assume the closer role again for now - mostly due to his lack of endurance only allowing him to pitch one inning.


Hsin-ta Jin
2008: 7-3, 15 SV, 2.48 ERA, 80.0 IP, 73 K, 33 BB, 23.9 VORP

Another deadline aquisition, this time coming from Louisville in exchange for Yat-sen Xing. Jin was our workhorse reliever last year, tossing 30 innings in only 21 games with a perfect 5-0 record as a Crusader. Talks of Jin taking over for Turk Lopez and becoming a 2-inning closer have been bounced around, but for now he will be the primary reliever out of bullpen as well as a setup man for Turk.


Jesus Diaz
2008: 4-6, 10 SV, 3.24 ERA, 83.1 IP, 82 K, 38 BB, 17.2 VORP

Diaz was sort of the forgotten reliever in the Crusaders bullpen last year after being aquired from Havana for Xu, our 2nd round pick in the draft. Diaz is an extreme groundball pitcher, and his BABIP dropped dramatically when he came to the Crusaders and played for a decent defense. He'll be looked to as the second guy out of the pen, and also as setup man for Turk.


Angel "Dog" Sandoval
2008: N/A

If you haven't heard of this guy yet, just wait. You will. SISA currently rates the 20 year old Sandoval as 6/9/9 talents with a nearly completely developed control. My scouts think he's better than that already, and has a higher ceiling as well. Either way, he's ready for the big leagues right now, and is already the prime candidate to take over as the Crusaders closer when Lopez leaves via free agency.


Benigno Cacheira
2008: 1-7, 4 SV, 4.83 ERA, 54 IP, 41 K, 15 BB, 0.3 VORP

Dude is basically filler/mopup guy, but he's Brazillian and he brings a bunch of the hottest women in the world to watch games. Nuff said, he gets to stay.


Chad Peck
2008: Really, really bad

Hey, somebody has to be around when nobody else can pitch, right?


Jeffrey Cave
2008: Minors

See: Peck, Chad

[mikev]

Crusaders Storm Out Of The Gate

Well, it appears the Crusaders were anxious to get the season started.

California opened up the 2009 campaign by taking 2 of 3 from hapless Vegas, 3 of 4 from Long Beach, and sweeping Valencia back down to Southern California. That means that we're 8-2, have the best record in the GUBA, and a 1.5 game lead over Los Angeles

The funny thing about the first week of the season? The team looks like a complete opposite of last year's squad. The league's best offense combined with a passable pitching staff in 2008 isn't what the 2009 Crusaders look like... so far.

Earned Run Average  2.02 - 1st in MBBA
Starters' ERA    2.12 - 1st in MBBA
Bullpen ERA    1.71 - 1st in MBBA
Runs allowed    22 - 1st in MBBA
Hits allowed    64 - 1st in MBBA
Opponents AVG    .200 - 1st in MBBA
BABIP    .241 - 1st in MBBA
Home Runs allowed    3 - 1st in MBBA

ickles:

Right out of the gate, starter Henry McHaney is looking like he'll be a pitcher of the year candidate. 3 games, 3 wins, 0 runs given up, 2 complete game shutouts, 18 strikeouts, 4 walks. Dude's only given up 5 ****ing hits in 23 innings. That's some Nebraska-esque **** right there. Naturally, the asshole who was doing the simming decided to give him dead arm and he's out another week or so. Nice. Oh, and I'm totally confident that he'll keep up his 0.88 BABIP and his .207 opponents OPS :yasmiley:

Turk Lopez, thought to be possibly traded to make room for other younger bullpen arms, has come out and saved 4 of the first 10 games of the season. Management is rethinking their stance on moving him.

At the plate, Jakob Forest is awesome. .419/.581/.742 with 12 walks and 4 strikeouts LOLZ0RZ. I hope his head size isn't growing eds:

Now I think I'm going to go look into writing some Ridiculously Early Projections. I miss that ****.

The Next Crusade

4/17 - v. New York
4/18 - v. New York
4/19 - v. New York

4/21 - @ Baltimore
4/22 - @ Baltimore
4/23 - @ Baltimore

4/24 - v. Jackson
4/25 - v. Jackson
4/26 - v. Jackson

[mikev]

Recap of Missed Time

So, I still feel like ****. Since Sunday I've had a fever ranging from 101 to 103, so it's basically been Tylenol Cold, sleep, wake up drenched with sweat cause the fever broke, rinse, repeat.

Couple that with being gone in Disneyland for a week, and I've missed quite a bit of GUBA time. This TN is going to kinda suck and just be a rehash of what's gone on while I was away.

- We're not in first place. ****ing Kirk. I like your TNs, I read them, then you go and **** all over me and my best player? That cuts deep.

- McHaney is a ****ing god. Nebraska-esque. 101 innings, NINE earned runs. 6 complete games out of 13 starts. Yes, I know. No, I won't trade him to you.

- Jake is leading the league in VORP. Again. OBP, too. :wub:

- We lost Enriquez to a torn rotator cuff towards the end of May. Luckily he's only out for 2 months and hasn't suffered any lumps.

- Jose Avila is having himself a nice little bounceback year after a down season in 2008. He's currently at career high pace for BA, OBP, and SLG. That's good, because I didn't want to have to try and find a centerfielder after Nick Cox lumped to ****.

- More new owners, and more Recte raping them. I'm just glad Ramon Rijo decided to become a ****ing badass and shove it up Recte's IHOP ass!

- Matt Albury got hurt, too. That sorta sucks, because he's been better than his rating IMO. The really bad part is that with him and Enriquez out, Lorenzo Diaz is getting way too many ****in innings. Since his long term injury transformed him into the Las Vegas version of Ramon Rijo, the fact that he's in the rotation is a bad thing. Needless to say, we may be on the lookout for a guy that doesn't totally suck to put in the back of the rotation for the next few months.

- This guy might be that back of the rotation arm. Of course, next season he'll probably be our 1A with McHaney, and Andy Mac will slide to the #3 slot. That should make for some pretty sweet pitching matchups in our favor.

- We took Ward Hyde with our first round pick in the draft - #30 overall (!). Multiple inning endurance, and all of our scouts say he's better than 70 overall. Good enough for us in the last few picks of the round.

That's about all I've got right now. I know I missed a lot of stuff, but hey... being sick ****ing sucks.

[mikev]

Crusaders aquire Manhattan backstop

A breaking story just coming across the wire is reporting that the California Crusaders have agreed to a trade with the Manhattan Myst that would send catcher Pat Bennett along with several minor leaguers in exchange for budding young star Jack Bryant

Bryant, 26, burst onto the GUBA scene in 2007 as a 24-year old, hitting nearly .300 with an OBP of .351. He showed some regression in the 2008 season, but has come on strong in 2009 and looks to be breaking the sophomore slump.

"We're going to bring him along and let him play alongside Carlos (Becerra, Crusaders starting catcher) for now," said GM Mike Voelker. "Pat was a great guy and will get the opportunity to play a lot more in Manhattan than he was here, we really wish him the best. He was a class act, and never caused any issues in the clubhouse. However, the opportunity to pick up Jack came around, and I asked Pat if he was okay being included in the possible deal, which he was. I really think everybody gets what they're looking for here."

The minor leaguers California sends are both Triple-A players. Luis Colon is a 24 year old third baseman in his first year with Oakland, currently hitting .313. He's a pretty slick fielder, but some scouts question whether he'll make the jump to the bigs well enough to start. With his glove, he'll likely always find himself a spot towards the end of the bench.

The centerpiece of the package was Norberto Juarez, who was a relatively obscure lefty who repeated Single-A before making the jump straight to Triple-A and being relatively dominant. He's probably got 2 more years before he's ready for the majors, but he's got a good chance at sticking into the middle of the Manhattan rotation when he does make the move. Ranked as the #4 pitching prospect in a California farm that's fairly deep with pitching, the Crusaders were okay letting him go.

When asked about Juarez, Voelker said "We felt that young starting pitching was, and still is, an organizational strength, and we were able to make Berto the primary piece of a deal that we think will upgrade us for the future as well as for the present. He's definitely on the right track, but we feel that Arturo, Ben, Blackley, and the guys we have on the major league club now are going to keep us real competive for a long time."

[mikev]

Lopez Staying Put As Closer

The California Crusaders are pleased to announce that closer Antonio "Turk" Lopez has been signed to a 2-year extension, keeping the hard throwing right hander with the team through the 2011 season.

"We were at a bit of a crossroads with Turk," said GM Mike Voelker. "He's been great since we aquired him, but we weren't sure what to do since we have Jin, Diaz, and Sandoval all pitching really well. We wanted to bring him back, but the dollars were going to be the issue. He actually approached us about an extension, and we thought that his offer was more than fair. It was really a no brainer once he made the offer."

The extension is a signifigant decrease in pay, as Lopez makes slightly over $8 million this season, but signed a deal paying him just $4,680,000 combined for the next 2 seasons.

"To me, it's not about the money anymore," said Lopez. "I've made plenty of money, and I want to win. If by taking less it means that we can sign Enrique or Pedro, for me that is perfect. California has been berry berry good to me, so now I can repay them, yes?"

The Crusaders will look to spend the savings on extensions for other players.

[mikev]

Say Hello To The Closer of The Future!

When the message came from the scouting department, hand delivered by Paco Soto who had been back in his native Mexico, the scout was nearly beside himself with excitement.

"Senor Voelker, you must sign this kid I found in Jalisco!" said Soto. "He can almost throw 100, his changeup makes hitters look like children, and he has the slider -- ay, his slider! Never before have I seen a pitch so devestating, it starts out like a bullet straight toward the batters ear and cuts across so far that after the batter jumps back he cannot touch the ball! He is out there and looks like he is just playing with the batter as if they were a child's plaything. Sometimes he will let them hit the ball and then tell the batter where the hit will go. And he's only seventeen!"

With that, Mike Voelker finished his beer and stared back at Soto. "Paco, you want me to okay one-point-five million dollars for a seventeen year old kid? Listen, I'm sure he's a quality arm, but we just signed Turk for two more years, the bullpen is pretty much set. Look, show the tapes of him to Fernando, and if he's as blown away as you are I'll sign off on it."

20 minutes later, Crusaders head scout Fernando Flores came into Voelker's office. "Boss, this kid is legit. His swing-and-miss stuff isn't quite there yet, but he's got a golden arm. Control is pinpoint, and he's got a ton of movement on everything he throws. It's almost like he wants to get a bunch of groundball outs and not worry about making hitters miss so that he can get quicker outs. I didn't see anybody make solid contact off him, and he broke a lot of bats."

"It's probably against my better judgement, but I think you'd better go ahead and lock this kid up before another team does."

Voelker paused, sat back, and looked back at Flores. "I trust you. Lets get the kid."

Shortly after that, the team issued a press release announcing that teenage reliever Luis Vargas was the newest California Crusader.\

Vargas, a 6 foot righthander, signed a deal for the remainder of the season and is subsequently working on a long term extension already. SISA has not yet gotten a look at him, but the entire California scouting corp feel that Vargas is 1) ready for the bigs right now at age 17, 2) capable of contributing at a high level, and 3) has the potential to be one of the best closers in the entire GUBA.

The team plans on putting Vargas towards the back of the bullpen, possibly as a secondary closer behind Lopez as well as an extra setup man and middle reliever. The basic idea is going to be to get the kid innings and have him keep working on his pure stuff and harnessing his insane pitch movement to make batters swing and miss.

Rumors of a possible trade of Lopez to make room have, thus far, been simply rumors.

[mikev]

MacGregor, Lopez Dealt At Deadline; Big Time Taken Out

The trading deadline was a bittersweet one for the Californa Crusaders.

Only one deal was made, and it was with a bit of a heavy heart that Crusaders GM Mike Voelker made the deal:

To Vancouver:

SP Andy MacGregor

CL Antonio Lopez

To California:

SP Jeffrey Ladner

Andy MacGregor, the first pitcher selected by the team in the inagural GUBA draft -- and the team ace for the first 2 seasons of their existance -- had been traded away to division rival Vancouver.

"Sure, it was tough letting Andy know that we were looking to make the deal. I chatted with him about it and said there was a chance he would be part of something, and he was okay with it. He knows it's a business."

Going to Canada with MacGregor is 37 year old closer Antonio Lopez, who recently inked a 2 year extension paying him a little more than 2 million dollars per season. Undisclosed sources within the organization confirmed that Lopez became expendable when both Angel Sandoval and Luis Vargas were signed to major league contracts this season.

Coming to the organization is Ladner, a workhorse of a pitcher who has tossed over 220 innings in his 2 seasons in the GUBA, with an ERA right around 3.40 and a 1.36 WHIP. He's not much of a strikeout pitcher (250 strikeouts in 578 career innings), and relies more on team defense to get outs. That said, he's having a better season than MacGregor, and will slot in nicely behind McHaney and Enriquez in the rotation.

In other news, Millsy is an asshole. For some reason he decided that it would be fun to destroy Big Time. He was ****ing dominating AAA as a 22 year old, and Millsy just couldn't handle it. So, he tears a tricep and is out for 8 months, and he's already started to lump. **** this ****, we need to turn down injuries. Actually, I just checked, and the injuries on my AAA squad are as follows:7 months, 7-8 months, one week, 8 months, one week, 2 days, 3 weeks. Jesus. That sucks.

[mikev]

Fading Away...

I hate that Pythagoras dude. Seriously.

Both the Crusaders and the Quakes have pythag records of 69-43. Those socal assholes are overplaying themselves by 4 games and are 73-39, no doubt becuase they're so ****ing lucky in 1 run games (19-8). However, the good guys have underperformed by 3, and at 66-46 are now 7 games back in the Pacific. It looks bad, again. I think I'm going to need to take over simming again, because Millsy is ****ing **** up big time.

It's mostly the offense this year, though. We have the 3rd ranked pitching staff by ERA, but last year's league leading offense has fallen back towards the middle of the pack. Enrique DeJesus has dropped off, Tony Leslie isn't doing much, and Tony Reyes has dropped over 100 points of OPS compared to last season. Couple that with Pedro Vargas not nearly performing as well as his projected numbers, and it's a recepie for disaster.

With the trading deadline gone, the only way to infuse more offense is to either make waiver pickups or find a free agent sitting around that can contribute. Neither situation is likely, and with several key players looking like they're going to head to free agency (notably 3B Pedro Cruz, though negotiations on an extension have been going on recently), it doesn't really look like the Crusaders have a playoff push in them this season.

However, the pitching staff is still extremely young and should be around for the next several years, and it should only take a couple new faces in the lineup to make the offense competitive again.

[mikev]

The Crusaders Season: Done, Finished, and What Have You

So long, 2009 season.

After being relatively free of the rash of injuries that has plagued the GUBA, the Crusaders were hit hard during the final days of August. Several key players were lost, and with the team being 6.5 games out of first place, any chance of a postseason appearance has faded away.

Leadoff hitter and left fielder Francisco Mendez suffered a fractured wrist on August 21st, shelving him for 3 months. Obviously, his season is over, and now the team just hopes that he doesn't suffer any talent hits while injured. With the team's offense struggling, losing a signifigant level of production at the top of the lineup is an absolute killer.

To make matters worse, center fielder Jose Avila dislocated his finger, landing him on the DL for 2 weeks. Avila had bounced back signifigantly from his horrible July, breaking the .300 mark and knocking 10 extra base hits in the month.

Defensive specialist Tony Leslie was the third, and final, blow to the starting lineup. A dislocated finger meant 2 weeks of sitting, taking out one of the better defensive shortstops in the league.

As stated before: our hopes of making the playoffs are, yet again, crushed. The team has underperformed yet again (-3 pythag) and is going to need to be reloaded, with probably holes at shortstop, possibly a corner outfield spot, and third base to be addressed in the offseason. The team is still negotiating with incumbent 3B Pedro Cruz, but his desire to nearly double his current salary is pretty signifigantly more than the team has been willing to spend so far.

With not much on the horizon in the way of upcoming free agents, Cruz still looks to be the team's best option. Team officials are hopeful that his salary demands will become more reasonable.

[mikev]

JUST missed!

102 wins. No playoffs.

Such is the frustration of the California Crusaders. There used to be a time when a .630 winning percentage was one of the best in the league. Still true, but I fully believe that the 38 win (yes, 38) Louisville Sluggers made the difference in the playoff picture. Without them in the MBBA Central, there is no way Green Bay puts up 113 wins, wild card Des Moines wins 104, or even 3rd place Birmingham cracks the century mark. I've gotta assume that if you put even the next worse team (55 win Havana, IIRC) in that division, you can subtract 4 or 5 wins each from the teams and we make the postseason.

Oh well. I have a funny feeling that our run might be over, but I think a big part of it is whether or not Pedro Cruz accepts the extension we offered him. His demands dropped to an average of about 10M per season, which is fair for a switch hitting 3B with 25 home run power and a low strikeout figure, plus pretty good defense.

Interestingly, there's a pretty good chance that the Crusaders will have both the Hitter Of The Year in Jakob Forest (.352/.456/.559, 25hr, 101.1 VORP) and Pitcher Of The Year in Henry McHaney (21-8, 1.78 ERA, 0.90 WHIP, 84.5 VORP). We like that.

Anyhoo, it's shaping up to be a fairly quiet offseason for the Crusaders. We like the team the way it is, and we don't really have the financial wiggle room to try and grab any free agents anyway. Stay tuned to see how we manage to underperform our pyth next year and finish second again!!!

[mikev]

Cruz inks long term deal -- Forest and Avila to follow???

In a press release issued October 20, the California Crusaders announced that negotiations with third baseman Pedro Cruz had finally resulted in a 4-year extension, paying Cruz an average of just over $10 million per season.

The slightly backloaded contract sees Cruz get a raise from $7 million in 2009 to $9.1 million next season, and then 9.8, 10.5, and 11.2 through the 2013 season. The fourth year is a player option.

The switch hitting third baseman and the Crusaders had been in talks for most of the second half of the 2009 season, ending up somewhere between the team's initial 4/28M offer and Cruz's highes demand of 4/48M.

"I'm happy to be staying. We've had some tough luck the last season or two, but I feel like we're a contenter year in and year out," said Cruz. "I wanted to stay a Crusader all along, I'm just glad that we could come up with something."

Several other key members of the Crusaders are entering the final years of their contract, most notably Jakob Forest, Jeffrey Ladner, and Jose Avila. Californa will be facing some very difficult decisions regarding which direction to go with the team, but a budget increase -- GM Mike Voelker now has $100 million to utilize next season -- may lessen the blow given by the substantial raise due to Forest and probably Avila as well.

[mikev]

Quick Interlude, as the 2009 season has been completed:

The New York Knights won the GUBA's championship, the Hemispheric Series, in a 7 game thriller over the Moscow Enforcers.

Currently the GUBA is in the offseason, just before arbitration hearings begin. Now back to your regularly scheduled Crusaders.

[mikev]

Forest, McHaney Honored At OCAs

In a not-very-surprising announcment earlier by league officials, Crusaders slugger Jakob Forest was given the Centrum Silver Slugger award for the second consecutive year.

Forest, the lefty first baseman, played in all 162 games this season. His .352 batting average was tops in the MBBA, as were his .456 on base percentage and 1.015 OPS. He also led the league in walks with 104, and more advanced metrics like VORP (101.1), Runs Created (165.24) and Runs Created per 27 outs (10.67). Forest was the only player in the entire GUBA with a VORP of more than 100. To put it simply, he was awesome and he was recognized for it.

Forest was rather modest when commenting via cell phone after the awards announcement. "It's nice, eh. I feel like I had a solid season, eh. A couple breaks go our way and we're in the playoffs, eh. Next year I'm lookin forward to a postseason run, with a couple moves I think we'll still be right there, eh."

The other not-so-surprising award was the McDonald's Golden Arm award, which was given to 25 year old Henry McHaney. McHaney tied for second in the MBBA with 21 wins, but had a pace setting 1.78 ERA, 0.90 WHIP, and an astounding 84.5 VORP (second place was 76.6). McHaney led the league with 9 complete games, 6 of which were shutouts.

The Crusaders are looking forward to many more seasons with Forest and McHaney as cornerstones of the franchise. Ownership has already told GM Mike Voelker to go to the table with Forest with a blank check and a case of maple syrup when it comes time to negotiate an extension. The team is hopeful to get something done before Spring Training in order to be able to concentrate on the season and not have a bunch of contract hoopla surrounding the team.

Congratulations to both players, and hopefully we'll be able to add "MBBA Pacific Division Champion" to the awards cabinet after next season (ping: Kirk. Please lose.)