The Story of Jenny Wilkerson and the Orlando Knights

[Kent814]

(disclaimer: Jenny Wilkerson is not real. This is a completely fictional story, except the teams and players.) Jenny Wilkerson had always loved baseball and the many possibilities on the field. Her parents were puzzled by her fascination, which only grew after her reading Moneyball. Those around her asked why Jenny, a girl, could be so interested in a sport mainly reserved for boys, and her only response was that she just loved baseball. During her college years, her interest dwindled because of schoolwork and whatnot, but it was still there. After graduation, she began pestering Major League teams for a job, and many of them turned her down. But after about 6 times asking them for a job, her hometown team, the Tampa Bay Rays, decided to give her a job as financial adviser to the GM. She eventually climbed the ladder up to special consultant to Andrew Friedman, and made the most out of it by working her butt off. She didn't know anyone was watching, but the assistant GM was, and acted on it. When he was hired as GM for the Mets in the offseason, he hired her to be his assistant GM. Later, the MLB announced that there would be 2 new expansion teams, the Portland Beavers(former AAA team) and the Orlando Knights. The former hired Paul DePodesta immediately in hopes of bringing a Moneyball approach to the team. The latter of the 2 took their time to pick a GM, and the final 2 candidates came down to Pat Gillick and Jenny Wilkerson. When Mr. Gillick told them that he was not going to go back to the daily grind, they hired Jenny. She got directly to hiring a reliable staff whom she could trust, hiring Andrew Friedman as her scouting director,(I find it ironic that he's working beneath Jenny now) who was fired by the Rays after a 80-82 finish to the 2011 season. She had a lot of work to prepare for the expansion draft, in which the Knights had the first pick.

[Kent814]

Here's our pitching staff. I will post their stats from last year and go over each one at the end.

Rotation

Gio Gonzalez
15-10 3.97 ERA 208.2 IP 175 K

Zach Britton
(AAA, ML) 11-4 4.70 161 144

Tyler Chatwood
(AA, AAA, ML) 12-7 3.69 163.1 135

Chris Lambert
(2008-2009) 1-3 7.36 33 26

Zach Lee
(R, A ball) 9-1 2.88 115.2 123

Bullpen
Middle Relief

Michael Foltynewicz
(A ball, S A) 11-13 4.13 172.1 144

Jeff Anderson
Hasn't pitched in pro ball

Adys Portillo
(A ball, S A) 10-9 3.78 157 152

Tyrell Jenkins
(A, S A) 8-9 3.21 157 131

Setup

Chad Bettis
(A) 7-10 3.44 162 130

John Harris
Hasn't pitched in pro ball

Closer

Ralph Kralick
Hasn't pitched in pro ball

A quick lookthrough of our rotation and you'll see a lot of young guys. Not a single person in the rotation or bullpen is over 28(Chris Lambert is the oldest at 28), so a lot of unproven talent. We hope that this staff will ride the tidal wave of the majors without completely wiping out, but most of them are too young and inexperienced to be pitching at the majors. We have 3 undrafted players in our bullpen(Anderson, Harris, Kralick), and Lambert hasn't pitched since 2009. Most of them haven't pitched above A ball. I have little to no hope of making the playoffs with this staff, and I'll admit that. My starting lineup will be in the next post

[Kent814]

Despite our sad pitching staff, our lineup looks to be much more potent. Here's our projected Opening Day lineup

LF Fred Lewis
107 G .260 AVG 7 HR 30 RBI

3B Matt Carpenter
(AAA, ML) 148 .256 17 74

1B Nick Evans
(AAA) 98 .294 31 89

RF Jack Rye
(AA, AAA) 100 .319 12 46

CF Brett Gardner
143 .248 6 71

C Yadier Molina
145 .257 7 66

2B Mike Aviles
151 .248 9 51

SS Jose Iglesias
(AA, AAA, ML) 110 .267 8 64

Bench Players

C Mike Jenkins

1B Mickey Wiswall

2B Ryan Gennett

LF Luis Durango

LF Joc Pederson

As you can see, this is a much more experienced and more talented group than our staff. With lineup anchors Carpenter, Gardner, and Molina, and a couple young guys looking to strut their stuff in Nick Evans, Jack Rye, and Jose Iglesias(yes that Jose Iglesias), we will look to build off our wealth of position players to acquire pitchers in the unlikely scenario that we're contending by the trade deadline.

[Kent814]

MLB.com
BREAKING NEWS
Gio Gonzalez Caught Using Steroids, Suspended 50 Games

Today, Gio Gonzalez came before the Orlando media, and tried to explain why he had been suspended 50 games. He tried to make it sound as if it weren't that bad, but the Knights manager, Ricardo Moran, begs to differ, "This is going to really hurt the team. He is a really good pitcher and to lose him for this long is going to be hard. Hopefully the other guys in the rotation can step it up." Either way, this is going to prove difficult for the newly hired Jenny Wilkerson, the first female GM in the game, who made have to work out a trade or 2.

[Kent814]

Many speculated that new GM Jenny Wilkerson would make major moves in the offseason in order to set her team up for success in 2012 and beyond. Most believed that upgrades to the rotation were most needed, leading them to speculate a C.J. Wilson, Rich Harden, or Edwin Jackson signing in order to have a veteran in the young rotation, while other viewed their bullpen as their greatest weakness, with Heath Bell, Fernando Rodney, Jonathan Papelbon, Fransisco Rodriguez, and Jonathan Broxton all available. But the only moves she made were to claim Gerrit Cole off waivers(weird, I know), and extend Yadier Molina to a 3 year, $31,500,000 contract. On the other side of the expansion spectrum, the Portland Beavers went all out acquiring Prince Fielder, Jonathan Papelbon, Fransisco Rodriguez, and J.J. Hardy for a total of $188,140,000. Paul DePodesta has apparently gotten used to not having the financial contraints he had in Oakland.

Around The League Offseason Edition

Prince Fielder signs a $123,400,000 dollar deal over the next six years with the Portland Beavers

Jose Reyes signs a $109,400,000 deal for the next 6 years with the Atlanta Braves

Heath Bell signs with the White Sox for 3 years, $34,200,000

Albert Pujols signs with the Mets for 4 years, $76,400,000

C.J. Wilson signs with Boston for $76,800,000 for the next 4 years

Jonathan Papelbon signs with Portland for $39,000,000 for the next 3 years

Adrian Gonzalez goes to Texas for $87,500,000 for 5 years

Trade between A's and Rays sends Desmond Jennings and Matt Sweeney to Oakland for Andrew Bailey and $2,786,000.

[Kent814]

After a 9-15 record in Spring Training, the season already looks bleak. But they say April is the time of year everyone wins the World Series. I had tried to make a couple moves to improve our pitching staff in the offseason through trades as I didn't want to spend big in free agency like my counterparts were, but all those efforts were squashed by their asking of top prospects whom we need in order to go forward as an expansion franchise. We open up the season at Texas with Zach Britton as our Opening Day starter because of the Gio Gonzalez suspension. They send Colby Lewis to the mound, who throws a complete game, giving only one run on a RBI double by Brett Gardner. Meanwhile, our horrible pitching staff gives up 14 runs. Britton lasts 3.1 innings, giving up 6 earned runs, who then turned it over to Jim Miller, who lasted 2 innings giving up 5 earned runs. What a disastrous start to what looks like a disastrous season. We end up losing game 2 and winning game 3. Through my first 2 weeks on the job, the Knights are 2-10, and I'm looking to make a move already, probably one of the veteran players.

[Kent814]

1/4 Season Update

At the 40 game mark, our Knights are a horrendous 10-30. So far, our best pitcher has been Zach Lee, who is 2-4 with a 3.66 ERA, despite a scary 0.45 K/BB ratio and a WHIP of 1.74. Our best hitter has been Nick Evans, our best player in my opinion, with a .244/.314/.402 slash line and 5 home runs.

Around the League

Division Leaders

AL Eastern
Toronto Blue Jays 28-13

AL Northern
Cleveland Indians 22-19

AL Western
Los Angeles Angels 27-13

AL Southern
Houston Astros 24-16

NL Eastern
Philadelphia 23-18

NL Northern
Chicago Cubs 24-17

NL Western
Colorado Rockies 23-17

NL Southern
Atlanta Braves 20-20

[Kent814]

With the team struggling, I decided I needed to make a move. So decided to send Tyler Chatwood and Anthony Gose to the New York Yankees for Greg Golson,Austin Romine and Bradley Suttle. Golson and Suttle are 2 guys who are almost fully developed who were tearing it up in the minors, and Romine is a good defensive catcher who we could use to replace Yadier Molina, who's grown impatient with our losing ways. Alas, we had to give up 2 alright prospects who had been struggling and may just need a change of scenery. Chatwood had walked 57 in 54.1 innings, which was just unacceptable, which is why I let him go, and Gose had a .150 average in 107 at bats.
After the trade, I realized my first MLB draft coming up, and I've had to try to figure out who I will draft with the number 1 pick. After looking through the draft eligible players, I narrowed the list down to two college pitchers.

Carlos "Citation" Romo
A 5'8", 175 pound right hander, he isn't the size of your prototypical number 1 pick, but his 100 mph gas and impressive stats against stiff college competition put him into the conversation. In 19 starts for Rutgers, he posted a 1.30 ERA with a 12-1 record with 177 strikeouts in 124.2 innings. At 22 years old, he's already very well developed with above average stuff, great movement, and average control. Friedman projects him to a Stephen Strasburg type pitcher.

Roberto "Conman" Solís
A 6'0", 190 pound lefty, he throws around 92-94 mph, with a nasty slider and above average offerings in his curveball and changeup. In his latest season with USC, he posted a 2.38 ERA with a 9-2 record and 129 strikeouts in 106 innings. He wasn't as dominant as Romo, but projects better due to his better size and better command of his pitches. At 22, he's also the same age as Romo, but even more developed than his counterpart, and is probably already MLB ready. Friedman views him as the second coming of Koufax.

With the draft starting in 10 minutes, I still hadn't made my decision. While Romo asked for more($6,210,000), and told me it we would have to make an extremely good offer to convince him to sign with us, he would probably be a safer bet due to his high work ethic and intelligence. On the other hand, Solís is only 1 year away from being a MLB starter, and would likely be a September call up if we draft him. But while he is on par with Romo on the intelligence part, his work ethic is average, and is a terrible leader. But he's also asking for less($6,110,000), and has informed us that he's will sign with us if we make him a good offer. When the draft starts, I've made my decision and told Friedman what to tell them in New York.

As Bud Selig steps up to the podium, there's a buzz in the Orlando Knights draft room.

"With the first pick in the MLB First-Year Player Draft, the Orlando Knights select...
Roberto Solís, a left handed pitcher out of USC."

After Mr. Selig announced his name, I feel a sigh of relief. After a horrendous start to the season(currently, we are 18-42), I felt that something had finally gone right for us. Carlos Romo would end up as the number 3 pick for the Seattle Mariners. In the second round, I drafted Joe Trent, a 55 current, 80 potential rating. I chose him in order to give us someone in the bullpen who can get people out. He'll likely start at AA, if he does well for 10 appearences, he'll go to AA for 2 weeks. If he does good there, he'll move to the majors. With our 3rd and 4th picks, I decided to go after 2 contact guys with little power. Enrique Santana, a defensive minded shortstop with very good contact ratings, but little to no power. He'll probably end up with a .295/.340/.425 slash line due to his surprising gap power, but probably only 2-4 homers a year. Donovan Morgan was our 4th rounder, a right fielder with good contact and outstanding gap power. He'll probably be a .275/.315/.450 slash and 40 doubles to go with 10 homers.In the fifth round, we took a flyer on Dave Lesley, a first baseman with 80 power potential. He'll likely end up with a .285/.340/.475 slash and 30-40 homers.

In other news, we got Gio Gonzalez back from his suspension.

[Kent814]

well this game surprises me sometimes

jenny wilkerson was fired as gm of the knights after a 18-32 start. it surprised me because we are an EXPANSION TEAM we arent supposed to do good the first year but whatever

i have another series in which i likely wont get fired where michael stenford as he writes about the Honolulu Surfers heres a linkhttp://http://www.ootpdevelopments.c...ournalist.html

[Izz]

You could always go into commish mode and give Jenny her job back, and then tick 'can't be fired'

[Kent814]

Originally Posted by Izz

You could always go into commish mode and give Jenny her job back, and then tick 'can't be fired'

ah well its too late i deleted the game and have moved on to my new dynasty
i was aware of those options but just decided that years of futility were going to be too much doing a dynasty considering how much slower you have to play the game for a dynasty

the yankees actually offered her a job and she accepted but i decided i wanted a challenge and their giant budget would make it easy and their large amount of veterans would make it easy to rebuild the farm system

[ra7c7er]

Well that was short. I didn't think an owner would fire you that quickly. I've had some near .300 starting seasons and the owner always gives me at least a second year even when he's Unmerciful. Maybe the game considers inaugural expansion seasons differently from inaugural league seasons.

[Izz]

Originally Posted by Kent814

i was aware of those options but just decided that years of futility were going to be too much doing a dynasty considering how much slower you have to play the game for a dynasty

fair enough

[Kent814]

Originally Posted by ra7c7er

Well that was short. I didn't think an owner would fire you that quickly. I've had some near .300 starting seasons and the owner always gives me at least a second year even when he's Unmerciful. Maybe the game considers inaugural expansion seasons differently from inaugural league seasons.

This was a expansion team not an expansion league