California Dreamin' - The GUBA's California Crusaders

[mikev]

Man, this season has the potential to be rough. Let's have a look at the 2016 Crusaders pitching staff.

Starting Rotation



1. Mario Garcia
2015: 7-3, 3.79, 99.2 IP, 88K, 46 BB, 14.3 VORP

The 22 year old is basically the ace by default this year. He's definitely got ace potential, but control issues were Garcia's biggest problem as a 21 year old rookie. If he can harness his stuff, he'll be fine.



2. George Adams
2015: 1-5, 4.26, 57 IP, 29K, 22BB, 5.0 VORP

How the mighty have fallen. After looking like an Ace in the making, Adams was lumped multiple times and is a shell of himself at age 26. His ratings are still decent, but this is the reason I'm not holding out much hope for 2016.



3. Ulisse Manin
2015: 8-10, 5.54, 133.1 IP, 84K, 41BB, -4.l7 VORP

Manin is a young, cost controlled arm who was acquired in the Jorge Enriquez trade. Of course, he sucked balls after being acquired while Enriquez went on to win the Hemispheric Series with Havana. Hopefully Manin pitches more like he did with Havana last year.



4. Rolando Salinas
2015 (AAA): 10-10, 3.34, 178 IP, 174K, 37BB, 32.4 VORP

Salinas dominated Triple-A for the second consecutive season in 2015, but his ratings still don't look like he's ready for the bigs. I just have to hope that he can respond to the challenge of being in the big leagues, because at age 27 he's running out of time to make it.



5. Lindsay Blackley
2015: 11-16, 5.54, 201.1 IP, 56K, 51BB, -12.2 VORP

Blackley's ratings didn't change a bit, and yet he was WAY worse in 2015 than he was in 2014. Makes no sense at all, but we're hoping that he's got some kind of "every other year" performance in him or something. If not, we're in trouble.

[size=3]The Bullpen[/url]



CL. Angel "Dog" Sandoval
2015: 16-4, 2.50, 16sv, 133 IP, 94K, 29BB, 39.1 VORP

Maybe you've heard of this guy. He's awesome, and he's the anchor of the bullpen. Assuming he doesn't get the "Even though I'm ****ing awesome I am going to lump to **** for absolutely no reason" treatment from OOTP, we're looking at a guy who should be winning Reliver of the Year awards for awhile.



SU. Ken Cameron
2015: 1-10, 4.76, 5 SV, 98.1 IP, 76K, 31BB, 5.3 VORP

With a small controversy surrounding Cameron during the Hot Stove league, this is still a question on whether he will be a Crusader or not in 2016. If the Office of the Commissioner decides he stays in California, he'll be Sandoval's primary setup man.



MR. Jesus Perez
2015: 6-2, 3.21, 4 SV, 92.2 IP, 86K, 26 BB, 19.7 VORP

Perez was solid in 2015 for the Crusaders, and with the looks of the starting rotation he is going to need to be solid for us in 2016 as well.

[mikev]

Offensive Preview, 2016

So, we looked at the (likely below average) pitching for the Crusaders this year. The offense looks to be similar, but potentially improved from last year.




Francisco Mendez, DH
2015: .247/.328/.374, 10 HR, 63 RBI, 82 SB, 25.1 VORP

Mendez, in what is likely his final season as a Crusader at age 35, continues to be the most prolific base stealer in the GUBA, having led the league for three consecutive seasons. Frankly, I've got my fingers crossed and I'm hoping that he'll retire after this season, because I can't afford to extend him for what he wants and I can't imagine him playing for a different team.



Carlos Cortez, CF
2015: .249/.284/.410, 20 HR, 64 RBI, 52 SB, 9.2 VORP

Hard to imagine a guy with a sub-.300 OBP having a positive value over a full season, but 47 extra base hits and 52 stolen bases will do that. Cortez still has some discipline left in him, so we're hoping that our big acquisition during the Hot Stove pays off.



3. Jakob Forest, 1B
2015: .283/.393/.486, 30 HR, 95 RBI, 97 BB, 53.6 VORP

The Beast managed to find his lost slugging percentage last season, jumping up from his .427 in 2014. He'll need to continue that if we're going to have any chance at competing this year.

[img]http://www.theguba.net/news/html/images/player_10458.png[img]

4. Tommy Aucoin, C
2015: .290/.331/.433, 10 HR, 88 RBI, 35 2B, 26.0 VORP

Fun fact: In 524 AB last year, Aucoin had 26 strikeouts and 35 walks. He signed a nice 5 year extension this offseason, and we're expecting that he'll continue to put up solid numbers year in and year out.



5. Robinson Leyva, 2B
2015: .336/.374/.500, 9 HR, 33 RBI, 11 2B, 23.0 VORP

What I'd like to know is how Leyva, who was listed as the starting second baseman on every depth chart I have, was only able to get 256 at bats in 141 games last season. Thank you, computer. I didn't need a guy with an .874 OPS from a middle infield spot, not at all.



6. Rafael Lopez, SS
2015: .293/.372/.432, 13 HR, 66 RBI, 29 2B, 42.1 VORP

Another guy who is pricing himself out of California, Lopez is a free agent after this season and if he has another 40+ VORP I'm not sure that I will be able to afford him.



7. Mark Bowen, LF
2015: .260/.332/.402, 8 HR, 36 RBI, 26 SB, 13.1 VORP

He hates California, he's been on the trading block for an entire offseason, and he wants to bat at the top of the order. Somebody take him from me please.



8. Mark Edwards, RF
2015: .250/.305/.456, 27 HR, 79 RBI, 29 2B, 14.7 VORP

Dude needs to figure out how to get on base if he wants to hit in the middle of the order, I don't care if he's one of the two guys on the team with 25 homer power.



9. Jason Pope, 3B
2015: .270/.311/.442, 16 HR, 70 RBI, 38 2B, 20.9 VORP

Seriously, how the hell did I get so many guys with ****ty OBP into my lineup? Pope lost 20 points of OBP and 20 points of slugging from 2014 to 2015. That's never a good sign.

[mikev]

California Crusaders All-Decade Infield

Everybody else is doing All Decade Teams, so dammit I'm doing one too!

We'll start with the infield.



Catcher - Carlos Becerra
.269/.333/.406, 84 HR, 351 RBI, 144.6 VORP

In his 6 years with the Crusaders, Becerra was one of the best offensive catchers in baseball. While that says more about the lack of quality catchers in the GUBA's first decade, that doesn't take away from Becerra's performance. Becerra was a 3-time All Star (2007, 2008, 2011) and also won the American Express Platinum Glove Award in 2011.



First Base - Jakob Forest
.307/.414/.507, 232 HR, 898 RBI, 580.5 VORP

Maybe you've heard of this guy. I'll say it - he's the best First Baseman the GUBA has had so far. Career .921 OPS, only 1 season under a VORP of 50, two seasons with a VORP over 90, a 5 time all star, 2 time league MVP. Forest was the first pick the Crusaders made in the Inaugural Draft. I'd say that pick worked out.



Second Base - Pedro Vargas
.274/.344/.413, 67 HR, 306 RBI, 148.8 VORP

Injuries suck. Especially the ones that end careers. Especially careers when a guy adds 50 points of OPS every season until he's taken out. ESPECIALLY with second baseman who are good enough to swap to shortstop for a season and still put up solid numbers. Vargas was on his way to a solid, solid career before a knee injury took him out for good, but his 5 years were good enough to put him on the Crusaders all decade team.



Third Base - Pedro Cruz
.278/.334/.382, 75 HR, 495 RBI, 139.9 VORP

Cruz fell off significantly after being traded from California to Louisville in the 2011 offseason, only staying in the league through 2013. For the first 5 seasons, Cruz was hitting better than .280 with 30 doubles and very good defense at the hot corner. Third Base has pretty much been a revolving door since Cruz left, and it continues now even though Justin Pope isn't a bad option.



Shortstop - Rafael Lopez
.275/.351/.412, 72 HR, 435 RBI, 206.1 VORP

Lopez, acquired from Sydney after his all-star Rookie season, has been consistently good at shortstop for the last 5 years. He's a solid fielder, his numbers have gotten better each season through his prime, and he's still only 30 years old. Currently negotiating an extension, there's a good possibility that he won't continue to wear California pinstripes after the 2016 season.

[mikev]

Kind of an expected start -- sweep Vancouver in the opening series of the year, and then drop 3 of 4 against LA in the home opener. Blech.

Overall though, it wasn't bad. We scored 39 runs and only allowed 30. George Adams (2-0, 2.20, 0.86 WHIP) and Mario Garcia (1-1, 1.26, 1.26 WHIP) got off to solid starts on the mound.

Robinson Leyva, for some unbeknownst to me reason only played in 4 games. Jason Pope is off to a hot start as well, with 2 homers and a .995 OPS.

As a whole, the team has a .754 OPS, which I'm okay with. I'm still skeptical of the pitching, and I'm going to have to look for a way to address the starting rotation, probably sooner than later.

On the development front, we had some good news:

Robinson Leyva: Overall Contact Increases from 7 to 8
Robinson Leyva: Contact versus Lefties Increases from 7 to 8
Robinson Leyva: Contact versus Righties Increases from 7 to 8

ickles:



The Next Crusade

4/11 - v. Valencia
4/12 - v. Valencia
4/13 - v. Valencia

4/15 - v. Buffalo
4/16 - v. Buffalo
4/17 - v. Buffalo

4/19 - @ Greenville
4/20 - @ Greenville
4/21 - @ Greenville

[mikev]

Two First Round Picks For Crusaders

The Crusaders were in a bit of a strange situation in Round 1 of the 2016 Amateur Draft, with picks 22 and 25 overall.

The team had put together a group of 6 or 7 players who we hoped would be available around those picks, after a failed attempt at packaging them together and moving up to snag SS Sun Tung:

2B Addy van der Meijden (4/4/1/3/3)
RF Byron Fitchett (4/4/3/3/5)
SS Geteye Olufemi (3/3/5/4/3)
C Bob Woodside (4/5/3/3/3)
SP Aziz Joubert (3/4/3)
RF Danny Minchin (4/4/3/3/4)
C Ji-e Wu (4/3/3/3/5)

To our surprise, they were ALL still on the board at 22.

My gut told me that van der Meijden was the selection, even though he had zero power to speak of, and never will. He had a good combination of contact, speed, and defense, but his high greed and low loyalty would probably make him a tough sign down the road. I decided to gamble and pass on him in the hopes that he'd still be there at 25.

With the 22nd pick in the 2016 GUBA Amateur Draft, California selects Byron Fitchett, Outfielder, Adelaide, South Australia.

Just like that, the 6'2, 220 pound lefty with a cannon for an arm was a member of our organization. It was a safe pick, a corner outfielder with good contact and gap power, a decent eye, who would rarely strike out. He's got a nonstop work ethic and is fairly loyal, too, which is good.

So, we had two picks to wait for in order to see if we'd also get van der Meijden --

...Manhattan Myst select Infielder Geteye Olufemi, South Africa

One down. One to go. Come on, Paris, don't **** us over. Take Sixto, look at that 5 gap and 10/10/10 baserunning, or Bavin with the 4 power potential.

...Paris selects Second Baseman Addy van der Meijden, Sint Nicolas, Aruba

Asshole. You don't even know where Aruba is, do you? Oh well, our gamble didn't pay off. We still have the 25th pick.

So, our consensus BPA on the board is Bob Woodside. Good combination of contact/gap talents, no speed whatsoever, and good defense at catcher. We can deal with that, even if our best prospect is also a catcher. Acquire talent, then use that talent to acquire other talent if needed, right?

Bob, welcome to the Crusaders.

[mikev]

April Plods On... Offense Looks Good

The first "full" sim of the season netted a 5-3 result for the Crusaders: 2-1 against Valencia, 1-2 against Buffalo (Suck it, Reicher!), and then a pair of 8-3 wins over Greenville. Hey, we'll take it.

As a team: 43 runs scored, 32 runs allowed. We like that.

Hitter Of The Sim

Robinson Leyva

Hey, look what happens when I get this guy to actually play all the games on the schedule. 8-28, 3 homers, 18 total bases, a .998 OPS. Honorable mentions to Francisco Mendez (1.055 OPS, 4 steals, 0 caught), Jakob Forest (1.159 OPS, 1 HR, 5BB/3K), hell almost everybody was hitting last sim. Bowen went 13-30 with a couple triples and swiped 4 bags, and Carlos Cortez hit his first homer of the year.

Pitcher Of The Sim

Rolando Salinas

The rookie with something to prove won both of his starts, tossing 14 innings and allowing only 2 earned runs with 12 hits, 11 strikeouts, and 5 walks.

I'm still not in love with the offense, and would like to have a big time power threat in the middle of the order, and I'm nowhere near convinced that the pitching staff is going to be this solid over the course of the season. For now, I'll enjoy it.

The Next Crusade

4/21 - @ Greenville

4/22 - v. Des Moines
4/23 - v. Des Moines
4/24 - v. Des Moines

4/25 - @ Los Angeles
4/26 - @ Los Angeles
4/27 - @ Los Angeles

4/29 - v. Vancouver
4/30 - v. Vancouver

[mikev]

Lopez, Leyva Sign Extensions

During the offseason, I was really worried about Rafael Lopez.

The Crusaders shortstop, fresh off an .800 OPS, 42.1 VORP season, a 2-time all star, and only 29 years old was entering the final year of his contract that would pay him just over $8.5 million in 2016. In early negotiations, the Puerto Rican native had been asking for over $18 million per season for 5 years to ink an extension.

Now, I'm as big a Lopez fan as the next guy, but I'm not paying him 90 million dollars until he's 35 years old. It's not happening. So I was kinda worried, but I decided to wait it out and see if he was going to drop his demands when the season got started, and if not, I'd have to explore a (gulp) trade of the free agent to be.

Well, lucky for me that all changed after the season was underway. He reduced his yearly salary demands to a much more affordable $11M per year, but he still wanted 5 years. I still wasn't in favor of paying him for so long, so I offered three. Then this came across the news wire:

Tuesday, April 12th, 2016
Signed SS R. López to a 3-year contract extension worth a total of $34,950,000.

:11-dance:

With that, shortstop is taken care of until 2019, at which point Wirz will be 25 and ready to take over. Awesome.

Up next, we decided to see what Robinson Leyva wanted to sign long term. He still had a few arbitration years left, and stood to make a pretty good raise each season if he kept his production up.

So we looked at his demands, tweaked a few of the dollar amounts, and hoped that he would let us buy out a free agent year or two...

Saturday, April 16th, 2016
Signed 2B R. Leyva to a 4-year contract extension worth a total of $22,640,000.

WOOT.

Leyva is making $3.7M this season, and will be paid $4.2M in 2017 and get a $1M raise each season after that, making $7.2M in 2020

I am a happy man. I've got the middle infield covered for the foreseeable future, along with Catcher, Center Field, Super Reliever, and Staff Ace.

I like the core I've got going here.

[mikev]

Crusaders End April In 1st

One month down, and the Crusaders find themselves with a 3 game lead over LA in the MBBA-P, with a 17-7 record.

Finishing out the month 8-1 certainly helped, with a win over Greenville, 3 game sweep of Des Moines, 2 of 3 from LA, and the first 2 of a 3 gamer against Vancouver.

Star Of The Sim



MR Ken Cameron

Cameron was dominant to close out April, tossing 8.2 innings over 6 games while notching 3 wins and a save. He struck out 8, walked only 2, and did not give up a run. In 15 games on the year, Cameron is now 3-0 with 3 saves and a 2.41 ERA in 18.2 innings.

Chump Of The Sim



SP George Adams

You hear that crunching sound? That's the hot start to the season that George had crashing back down to earth. 2 starts, 13.2 innings, 12 hits, 10 earned runs, 4 strikeouts to 5 walks. Finishing April was not kind to Adams, and the only saving grace for him was that he ended up with no decisions in both of his starts. Honorable mention to Rolando Salinas, who only managed to throw 8.2 innings over two starts, but at least he had a 12:1 strikeout to walk ratio.

Word is the team is still on the hunt for a starting pitcher and a power bat in the middle of the order. The team leader in homers is Jason Pope, and he only has 5. If there is any hope of sustaining the performance of the first month, I need to get another hitter in with Forest so that a few guys can actually hit the ball out of the park. Between another power guy and a decent starter, I think we might surprise some people this year.

The Next Crusade

5/1 - v. Vancouver

5/2 - @ Long Beach
5/3 - @ Long Beach

5/4 - @ Las Vegas
5/5 - @ Las Vegas

5/6 - @ Valencia
5/7 - @ Valencia
5/8 - @ Valencia

5/10 - @ Birmingham

[mikev]

Bowen Out. van Houwliajrhgauipergaerga In.

It just seems like we're staying even with LA no matter what we do right now. Go 8-1, they go 8-2. Go 3-5, they manage to eek out 5-4 and gain some more.

The sim started off well, beating Vegas and then taking 2 of 3 from Long Beach, but then it went to hell. A 3 game sweep at the hands of Vancouver and a loss in the first game of a series with Jackson meant the Crusaders finished with 5 straight losses. That's not what I had in mind.

If I have to assign blame, it's the starting pitching. As I expected, they can't sustain the hot start to the season, but some of it is puzzling. Lindsay Blackley and his 7 control rating: 20 walks in 66 innings. How does that work? He's getting hit around a whole lot, and I'm going to need to replace him in the rotation if I have any hope of keeping up with the Seagulls.

However, the big news of the past 10 days was the pair of trades that were made. Disgruntled outfielder Mark Bowen[/b] was finally traded, after the team agreed to a deal with the Buffalo Bisons. Bowen was exchanged for minor league outfielder Ricardo Soto, 24. Soto was hitting .323/.354/.486 for Buffalo's Triple-A affiliate, and will report to AAA Oakland in the California organization.

The second deal replaced -- and IMO, upgraded -- Bowen's offense in the California lineup. Veteran slugger Scott van Houwelingen was acquired from the Taipei Tigers in exchange for minor leaguers Bartolo Flores, Augusto Collazo, and a draft pick. So far this season, the big righty is hitting .308/.371/.571 with 9 home runs and 47 RBI. Both of those numbers would put him first on the Crusaders.

The deal did not come without risk, as van Houwelingen will make over $16 million both this year and next, but with Bowen's contract off the books for 2016 and the contract of Francisco Mendez not likely to be renewed, the team still has some financial wiggle room - but not very much. Team payroll currently sits at $88 Million, and the available budget is just a tick over $90M.

van Houwelingen is expected to be the full time DH for California, and Francisco Mendez will move back to left field, pushing David Esquivel back to the bench.

The Next Crusade

6/1 - @ Jackson
6/2 - @ Jackson

6/3 - @ Green Bay
6/4 - @ Green Bay
6/5 - @ Green Bay

6/6 - v. Louisville
6/7 - v. Louisville
6/8 - v. Louisville

6/9 - @ Long Beach
6/10 - @ Long Beach

[mikev]

Wada Acquired, Is This It For Mendez?

Since the inception of the GUBA, the California Crusaders everyday left fielder has been Francisco Mendez. Aside from the 2010 season, which Mendez missed due to an elbow injury, the California native has been a fixture in the outfield.

Now, at age 35, Mendez is quite clearly on the downside of his career. After a 2015 campaign in which the lefty hit under .250 for the first time in his career, and a second season with a below average OBP, Mendez is duplicating both of those numbers again in 2016. His current .247/.312/.388 line is putting him on pace for the worst year of his career, and he's a free agent at the end of the year to boot. Simply put, the writing is on the wall for the career of oen of the better leadoff hitters and stolen base threats in the history of the GUBA.

With the acquisition of Kohei Wada from the Warsaw Falcons, that writing just became a little more permanent.

Wada, a 23 year old lefty hailing from Kitakyushu, Japan, was traded (along with a draft pick) in exchange for Matthew Brandon, Doug Rancliffe, and Fergus Gaselee, all minor leaguers. Brandon and Rancliffe were the keys to the deal, as they are both pitchers with reasonably high ceilings.

In Wada, the Crusaders feel that they just traded for Francisco Mendez, redux. The only real difference is that Wada will probably hit for more power than Mendez ever did, and won't steal as many bases.

That said, giving up a pair of minor leaguers with the potential of Brandon and Rancliffe wasn't something that was terribly easy to do, but Wada is a player that we've had our eyes on for the past couple seasons. He'll push Francisco Mendez to a 4th outfielder role, and likely replace Mendez as the Crusaders leadoff hitter in the order.

It's strange. In a league where this team has had pretty significant amounts of roster turnover, Mendez has been a rock, and now it's possible that (sans retirement) he won't be a California Crusader after this season is over. That doesn't seem right.

[mikev]

June, June, Go Away

Another losing sim. This team is frustrating the hell out of me right now.

Starting off the sim the way we did, with an 8 run bottom of the 9th inning against Chicago to win the game 12-11, things were poised to go REALLY well. Then we lost 5 straight - the last 2 against Chicago and then a 3 game sweep by Baltimore. The only saving grace of the sim was taking 3 of the last 4 games, which were against pVegas and the Seagulls.

The pitching did us in this sim, with a combined ERA over 5.00 and a 1.48 WHIP. That's not going to get it done. The offense is doing its job, with an .850 OPS as a team, but something is going to need to be done with the pitching staff, and quick.

The way things currently stand, the Crusaders are 9 games behind LA in the MBBA Pacific and 2 games behind Baltimore in the Wild Card race. There is still plenty of time before anything drastic needs to happen, as we're not even to the All Star Break yet, but it's a bit concerning to see this offense not get any help from the staff.

Jakob Forest continued his impressive season, raising his average to .351 and trying to sneak up over the 1.000 OPS mark. Along with Forest, third baseman Jason Pope (1.387 OPS) and catcher Tommy Aucoin (1.008 OPS) were the offensive stars of the sim.

The pitching was, basically, crap. Ken Cameron is the only guy worth mentioning, and he made 5 appearances and notched 2 wins.

However, changes appear to be on the horizon. Stay tuned, Crusaders fans.

[mikev]

O Hai! Can Haz New Pitcherz Kthx!

A flurry of moves, and the Crusaders now have replaced 3/5 of the starting rotation in a span of 10 days.

The first pitcher acquired: Alain Dupuis, picked up from Greenville in exchange for minor leaguers Carlos Aguilar and Vitaly Pahrin.

Dupuis, 28, has 2/4/4 talents and 4/7/5 ratings, so he's got a bit of development left in the Control department. He's got the work ethic to do it, and he's from Haiti, so if anything he'll be able to get a witch doctor to help him out. As it is now, he'll probably be the 4th/5th guy in the rotation.

The real piece given up here is Aguilar, a 21 year old with 3/4/5/3/3 talents. It's rare to find a guy with a legit 5 power talent, but it's also rare for a guy with a 5 talent to actually develop it.

Trade number two: Jeremy "Boss" Das was picked up from Mexico City. In return, we sent Jorge Temblador south of the border. Mostly a salary dump for MCDR, who are wildly over their budget, Das is a nice piece to help the rest of the season and Temblador, while still young, has already shown some development hits in his short career.

Finally, and maybe the biggest of the deals: Jesus Hernandez will be packing his bags and leaving Moscow to join the Crusaders. Minor league infielder Jonne Turtola, pitcher James Tew, and a pair of draft picks were given up for Hernandez, who has a sub-.500 record with Moscow despite an ERA under 3 and a 1.09 WHIP. Hernandez is going to slot in along with Mario Garcia to give the Crusaders a pretty damn good 1-2 punch, to be rounded out with Das, Rolando Salinas, and Ulisse Manin.

So, to recap:

Out:
George Adams (4.92 ERA, 1.41 WHIP, 0.2 VORP)
Lindsay Blackley (4.53 ERA, 1.38 WHIP, 4.3 VORP -- Traded to Manhattan)
Roberto Torres (Sucks)

In:
Dupuis (4.86 ERA, 1.51 WHIP, 3.0 VORP)
Das (4.89 ERA, 1.34 WHIP, 0.7 VORP)
Hernandez (2.74 ERA, 1.0 WHIP, 28.3 VORP)

The current plan is to get Das and Dupuis to share time in the 5th starter spot, depending on who is the hot hand. The rotation will be Garcia, Hernandez, Salinas, Manin, and then the two new guys.

I'd say that's a net gain over what we had.

[mikev]

ARRRRRRRRRRRRGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Allow me to rant for a moment.

I'm sick of this ****ing team consistently having losing sims. I'm sick of trading for guys and watching them absolutely suck. Cortez? Really? Somebody explain how this guy has a goddamn .628 OPS with 6/7/8/5/7 ratings. Please. Wada is even worse. Dupuis has an ERA of 5.75. Jeremy Das is worthless. **** them all. Seriously.

[mikev]

Forest, Cameron Snubbed In All Star Selections

So July is here, and [url=http://www.theguba.net/cgi-bin/ootpou.pl?page=asResults]All Star Voting[/url[] has been completed.

Crusaders fans are in a sort of an uproar because two of the more deserving players on the team -- Jakob Forest and Ken Cameron were left off when reserve rosters were announced.

Forest was third in voting for the First Base spot, behind starter Will Campeau from Buffalo and Pete Riddle from Chicago.

While all 3 are having solid seasons, Forest certainly has a case for being on the squad, if not starting. Campeau's .362 average is second in the MBBA, Forest is fourth at .345 -- however, Forest leads the league in OBP (.430, to Campeau's .403 and Riddle's .374), is fourth in the MBBA in OPS (.986 to Riddle's .965 and Campeau's .956), and leads the league in VORP with 48.5 (Campeau is at 45.4, Riddle at 42.8).

Oh well, I suppose.

The other major snub is Ken Cameron. This one I can't even come close to explaining. He was voted in by owners, tied for third with 26 votes. In 46 appearances, Cameron is 7-0 with 6 saves, a 2.11 ERA, 0.96 WHIP, and a 24.2 VORP. His strikeout to walk ratio is better than 4 to 1, and he's one of the main reasons that the Crusaders are even remotely close to being competitive this year. Again, we're not sure what the deal was here, but at least we can enjoy the fact that neither guy will risk getting injured in an exhibition game.

[mikev]

Development! Get Your Normal Development Curves Here!

Yay, we went 6-3 and LA went 8-1 and who gives a ****, the season is over for us.

Why, you ask?

Well, we were greeted with this heaping, steamy pile of bull**** in the Development Report:

Jesús Hernández: Overall Stuff Decreases from 6 to 5
Jesús Hernández: Stuff versus Lefties Decreases from 6 to 5
Jesús Hernández: Stuff versus Righties Decreases from 6 to 5
Jesús Hernández: Velocity Decreases from 91-93 to 87-89 Mph

To recap:

Hernandez is 27 years old. HE IS IN HIS ****ING PRIME RIGHT THIS GODDAMN SECOND.

This season, he's pitched in 19 games. 142 innings. 122 hits. 123 strikeouts and only 29 walks. 1.06 WHIP. 2.66 ERA. Opponents are managing a measley .610 OPS against him.

So he has a finger blister, and somehow he's got a permanent velocity loss and isn't even close to the same pitcher he was?

THIS IS NOT A ****ING NORMAL DEVELOPMENT CURVE. IT'S NOT EVEN CLOSE. HIS STATS AREN'T TRENDING DOWNWARD. IT'S A GODDAMN RANDOM TALENT HIT FOR ZERO ****ING REASON

I'm sick of this **** right now. Completely sick of it. Right this second, I don't even want to stay with the team.

**** you OOTP.

[mikev]

Can A 67-56 Team Be Mediocre?

No HTML, but going by Last Sim I see we went 4-5. Obviously, we're WAY out of the playoff race.

Surprisingly enough, the sim went to **** because we were swept by Valencia in a 3 game set, but went 4-2 against LA, Chicago, and Buffalo. Go figure.

Looks like Cortez finally pulled his head out and had a decent sim, he hit .324/.324/.568. Mix in a walk, jackass.

Overall the pitching was solid as well, but the gold star goes to Ulisse Manin who tossed 16.1 innings over 2 starts, allowing only 2 runs on 10 hits. That's good for a 1.10 ERA and a miniscule 0.86 WHIP. For his efforts he was rewarded with a 1-1 record. Ugh.

In other news, we inked reliever Ken Cameron to a two year extension, paying him $6M for 2017 and 2018. Had I been a smarter man, I'd have spent some PPTs on reducing his greed before negotiations. For a commish, I'm a pretty awful cheater.

Financially we're looking okay next year. Currently it's looking like we've got about $97M committed to players, but the big money is tied up in two big hitters (Forest and van Hooli) and Lopez, so it's not like we've got an albatross on our hands. Still, Free Agency is gonna be slim pickens for us, and the pitching is gonna need some serious help with Das leaving (no, asshole, we're not giving you a 3/36 contract.)

Overall, I'm not particularly confident in the way 2017 is looking right now. Sigh.

[mikev]

That's It, OOTP. You Win. I Give Up. I'm Broken.

He was a free agent to be, and since he was only 28 years old and RIGHT IN THE PRIME OF HIS ****ING CAREEER, I didn't think anything at all of signing ubercloser Angel Sandoval to a 4-year extension.

Hell, he'd only be 32 at the end of that deal, and somebody else would probably give him another 3 or 4 year deal.

Well **** me right in the ass:

Ángel Sandoval: Stuff Talent Decreases from 3 to 2

I've ranted about it before. I'm not even going to bother doing it again, because I'm just ****ing sick of it now. Whatever. I guess I'm too caught up in trying to have a good fake online baseball team. Time to step back.

Oh and we went 6-2 and lost a game in the standings.

**** this.

[Jeff49]

Hang in there, mikev. If it's any consolation, I've enjoyed reading your league's history. It doesn't make any difference to your readers whether your team is winning or losing, it's your dedication to posting your colorful results on the forum that makes it interesting. I love your writing style and down-to-earth comments, and your trade and free agent transaction comments make for interesting reading. Heck, in the end, we're all at the mercy of OOTP, and for the most part, after we put a team on the field and in the dugout and bullpen (and the doctor's office), it's up to the baseball gods as to how it all turns out. It's the getting there, or not, that's the most fun, not the final results.

[CatKnight]

I've enjoyed it as well and hope you hang in there.

Didn't you mention your league uses an older version of OOTP? I've noticed the occasional weirdness in OOTP 9 in player development, but not nearly to the extent you seem to be suffering.

[mikev]

No worries -- I'm not going anywhere. We may be working on some tweaks to the GUBA to try and stop some of these unrealistic talent changes, but I'm not sure yet. I had thought we turned talent change randomness down from 100, but it still is. anyway, thanks for the comments. On we go, this could be a hell of a finish to 2016.