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Old 04-18-2015, 11:30 AM   #1
Dr.K
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Random Season Dynasty: 2002 Cincinnati Reds

Was undecided which team and season to do a dynasty on. So decided to use a random number generator. Picked between 1950 and 2015 and the number was 2002. To choose the team, used a random number generator and came up with 17. Counted down from AL to NL from the historic standings and came up with the Reds.

So I'll start off with the Reds. I had stopped following baseball around the time of the Yankee domination so this is perfect as my knowledge of the players at this time is mainly around the major stars. Being from the UK, access to baseball was limited at this time, to live games where we got the Sunday Night Baseball broadcasts with Joe Morgan and Jon Miller. My knowledge of the Reds of course was knowing the Reds are a proud franchise that had great success in the 1970's and had won a world title in 1990 against the vaunted Oakland A's.

So 2002 - On research, by pure co-incidence this is the "Moneyball" season! So I am a little more familiar with the season at least. It also happens to be the last season at Riverfront Stadium, so the randomness has thrown up an interesting backdrop.

I've got OOTP development engine on, historical rookies (no amateur draft). Scouts 100% and stars on. DH on both leagues ( I'm a fan). History imported, then League Info > League History > Retired players > Sort by age > import the key players who came up for a cup of coffee who are missed on import. (such as Betemit, Raines Jr, Ankiel, X.Nady, Meche, A.Escobar, Vogelsong, Grilli, Ellarton,)

*If anyone knows an easier way to not miss out on notable rookies, please let me know

Next up the state of The Reds 2002........

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Old 04-18-2015, 01:21 PM   #2
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Jan 2002- Owner goals and Meet The Team

Owner Goals
Well the Owner goals are simple - Playoffs within 2 years and don't suck, this season. I think I can manage the second goal but the first is a challenge. I think in the NL central we can give the Cardinals and the Astros a challenge, but I don't expect much from the Cubs, Pirates and the Brewers.

My Baseball Philosophy
I want to put a team on that plays for the 3 run home run, good defense and of course good pitching. I don't think manager Bob Boone will be a problem with the philosphy as he is conventional and fits in anywhere.

StaffingTasks
I need an Assistant GM and a hitting coach. I send out the feelers for 44 year old Alfredo Ortega and Morten Rose who is conventional but likes to coach power hitters.

First Scouts Meeting review of the 40 man roster.
Wow. A quick assessment of the team with my scouts. Not good. The names I am familiar with are not in good shape. Three names stare back at me on the roster. I frown and look again. There is a lot to discuss. Barry Larkin, Ken Griffey Jr and Jose Rijo. In their day world beaters. But now past their best. Larkin and Grifffey are still popular but injury prone and Larkin is 37. Rijo is angry and wants to play in the majors his last assignment was in AAA.

Our pitching sucks. We have two bright spots of talent, RP, Scott Williamson 25 (4/4), and Closer Gabe White 30 (4.5/4.5), we have virtually no starting pitching. Not much better with the position players either. CF Austin Kearns (4/4) is a potential star, I see decent production from LF Adam Dunn 22 (3/3.5) C Jason La Rue (3.5/3.5) and 2B Todd Walker (3.5/4) and they re-present our best players.

I made a note that my scouts were not too keen on two infield veterans which surprised me, 3B Aaron Boone and 1B Sean Casey. Both are capable, I'll have to keep a watch. So after a disheartening meeting with the scouts, our priorities were to resolve the upcoming contract situations for upcoming free agents (including, Aaron Boone, Juan Encarnacion, Ken Griffey, Barry Larkin, Jose Rijo), adress the starting pitching and firm up the bullpen. I wondered was the 9M I had for Free Agents going to be enough?

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Old 04-18-2015, 02:38 PM   #3
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Shipping Larkin/Griffey/Rijo

To lessen payroll and get some new talent, we hit the phones early for the next couple of days we didn't stop, not even to go home, burgers and fries it would be. We needed payroll space and if it meant trading of two of our icons. So be it. There will be no sentiment for the new Cincinatti Reds. We had to find Larkin's contract, did he have a trade veto in there?

Intially, no one expressed an interest in Larkin or Rijo, but Griffey got a few bites, in player for player offers amongst them Texas offered their own ageing slugger, Juan Gonzales and The Dodgers offered ace Kevin Brown, who had a a decent season last year with a 10-4 record and a 2 65 era. Both had some talent left, but enough to straight swap for injury prone Griffey? And Brown is injury prone the last two years.

But a last minute call with the Tampa Rays got our attention, they wanted Griffey. Ken Griffey Jr, just 13 hits away from 2000 career hits and onwer of 460 career dingers done in style. A fan favourite, did we dare trade him? An hour later after much haggling. A deal was done. Two good prospects and a serviceable pitcher. The Deal? Young outfielders, Carl Crawford, Ben Grieve and journeyman pitcher Paul Wilson. We gave up Griffey, young prospect CF Reggie Taylor and reliever Elmer Dessens.

I was excited with this, we'd also improved our payroll by nearly £6M, I really tried to get Rijo on this deal but the Tampa GM laughed, they'd got their man. Ken Griffey was going to Tampa.

I had asked the other GMs to keep it quiet. Of course they understood. I hadn't even told the owner. It would be an easier sell after the fact. We'd have to tell Griffey before news broke. We were assured everything would be on the hush hush. As disappointed as he would be, he's a pro. And classy too. But he deserved an explanation. The fans, well I'm sure they'd see the up - dside. But now to tell the boss and then tell Ken.

We had switched our phones off in that moment. We had done our deal. It had taken three days but now time for the families. The last hamburgers were eaten and the team basked in the dawn of a new era. It had been half an hour since we agreed the deal with Tampa, eventually the excitement of the deal thinned, everyone now aware that Ken and the owner had to be told. Someone switched the TV on to break the tension. And there it was. ESPN's main story, Ken Griffey Junior had been traded to the Devil Rays and by the looks of the reporters already outside Riverfront the fans wern't happy.

How had they heard? Worse, how classless did this now look? This was not a good way to get started in Cincinatti, not with the owner, the fans, not with Ken Griffey and worse the clubhouse leader Barry Larkin was ringing in. Welcome to Cincinatti.

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Old 04-18-2015, 03:29 PM   #4
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New Trade Deal Calms fans

It took a couple of weeks for the excitement of the Griffey trade to calm down. Ken took it well actually and so did the owner. He could see what we were trying to do, but the fans, the fans hated it. Call in shows were jammed and the consensus was the team was going to suck in 2002. Fan interest crashed overnight.

Me? I was confident, so what, being public enemy #1. I kindof liked it. Now I was faced with another dilemma, we needed starting pitching, to get it we may need to give up a good prospect or two. Maybe give up Austin Kearns? We enquired for Schilling and Randy Johnson, we knew we had no chance but we wanted to see what they wanted. We fished Atlanta chased us away. We called around and to our surprise the Yankees wanted to talk, they were the World Champions. What in the world would they want from us? Maybe a third baseman. Could I give up Boony? There was no replacement for him if I did.

What did they need? We threw in a name, we' take El Duque their Cuban born #3. Another marathon of talking began, when all was said and done. We wnet this way and that, could we get Soriano? Back and forth, back and forth but they clearly wanted Aaron Boone. To my ever lasting surprise I enquired about Mussina and they wanted to talk. Salary concerns? In New York?? You know what? We ended up with Mike Mussina! Mike Mussina and El Duque! What!! The Yankees were in Win Now Mode, but they did have a deep rotation, Clemens, Petitte, Wells, but Mussina? and El Duque?? The final trade was third baseman Aaron Boone, pitching prospect Chris Rietsma, reliever Carlos Almanzar, veteran Jose Rijo, and centre fielder Brady Clark.

It seemed one sided to me, in fact I'd thrown in Rijo as a goodwill gesture and the Yankees took him. What were they up to? So now my rotation had it's upgrade and really we only lost Boone and some payroll space. Would that come back to haunt us in the future? Mussina and El Duque were over 30 and Mussina came with a fat £11M Contract.

So with Spring training around the corner we had made a run at fixing the rotation - for now, we had got some prospects in and kept ours and we had £5M left for free agents and £5M left for extensions. The big question remained, what do I do about high salaried Barry Larkin?

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Old 04-18-2015, 04:11 PM   #5
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Spring Training

We went into Spring Training with some optimism. Our braintrust had decided that we would not offer Barry a new contract but let him play out his final season and let him go at the end of the season to new pastures. We had El Duque, Mussina, former touted Mets prospect Paul Wilson, and a crop of youngsters coming through the ranks, Spring would give us a chance to see how we would shape up.

What followed was a 9 - 19 Record. Miserable. Miserable. Miserable. Luckily no major injuries, but dissapointing. Nonone shone except Mike Mussina whose strikeout ratio looked good 11.7 per 9 and Luke Hudson who pitched 22 innings, showing some versality along the way.

With such a poor record during spring, my thoughts turned to our manager Bob Boone, was he the man for the job? I'd already traded his son, I would have no problem trading him too. The feedback from the coaches is that Ben Grieve, pitcher Jose Acevedo and and catcher Jason LaRue have improved during Spring.

9- 19 not good and the Pre- Season prediction, had us 75-87, 16 games behind 1st. The fans were not happy, this could be a rough season, but hey the owner just wants us to be respectable. We had opening day around the corner with the Cubs and a date with their flame-throwing hero, Kerry Wood.

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Old 04-18-2015, 05:29 PM   #6
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Opening Day

We hosted the Cubs in front of 34,000 at Riverfront, The Cubs were loaded with talent. It was our new ace Mike Mussina vs one of the Cub's aces, Kerry Wood. Things didn't look good in the second inning when with two out the Cubs Chris Singleton flied out to right and second baseman Walker, right fielder Juan Encarnacion and first baseman Sean Casey gathered to collect the ball and yet it fell in between them. Luckily Mussina got them out of it with a strikeout next batter

The rest of the way however our new ace Mussina was masterful, though he did give up a towering solo home-run blast to left field to Slammin' Sammy Sosa in the 6th, he held on for a complete game victory, 3-1 Great we have our "stopper". Sean Casey began to answer his doubters with a 3-4 performance. Greive and Encarnacion stole a base each, the signs look good.

The fans went home happy, we were 1-0.

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Old 04-18-2015, 05:59 PM   #7
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April

The Cards took the lead with an 18- 8 record with the Cubs 12- 13 followed by us 11 -13, 6 games back. The Astros? They are 10 - 15.

Veteran right hander Joey Hamilton has got off to a decent start 2-0 2.73 and Mike Mussina leads the staff with 4-1 2.83 era. El Duque is 1-1 with an era over 6.00. Did those Yankees know something? I wonder....

Austin Kearns is batting .341 and has won rookie of the month, a great start for him, and Sean Casey and wait for it Barry Larkin are batting over .300. Had I been too pre-mature in my assessment of Larkin?

Oh yeah Ken Griffey is batting .221 with 1 homerun over in Tampa. Sad to see.

Next we shall see what happens in May, I'd like to see Juan Encarnacion and Third baseman Brandon Larson get their averages up above .200 at least and play .500 ball at least.

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Old 04-18-2015, 06:41 PM   #8
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April Roster Decisions

so 6 games out of first place, what do I with right fielder, the Dominican, Juan Encarnacion? Boone has hit him in clean - up. With that batting average. Really? the scouts believe in him. Boone clearly believes in him, but you know what I don't think I believe in Boone. I made my mind up, if he hasn't got this team playing .500 at all Star break, he's toast.

What kind of manager keeps Encarnacion hitting in the 4 spot with a .190 average. And why is he not playing Carl Crawford more? The kid has talent. And what of the pitching? Paul Wilson looked terrible in April, was this guy once a Top Prospect for the Mets with that kid Isringhausen and Pulsipher? He carries on like this, he's going to end up like Pulsipher. Retired. Early.

And the Texan Brandon Larson at Third, he bats in the 9 spot. But he's batted .195. The scouts like him though, but I'm not convinced. I mean what kind of guy keeps playing pranks in the locker room after a loss?He's not a winner. He's not good enough here. It was time to shop around. I rolled the dice and traded Brandon Larson, to say the kid was shocked was putting it mildly, but the Expos were happy to have him, I got closer Scott Stewart a quality shut down guy. I tried to get them to talk about their 3rd baseman Fernando Tatis but no they would not budge.

So now we had a hole at Third. Second basemen, Wilton Guerrero and Juan Castro can play there so they may have to fill a gap. This could cost us, but Boone is going to have to earn his money. .500 Ball Mr. Boone, over to you.

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Old 04-18-2015, 07:47 PM   #9
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May - Monthly Record 10 - 19

Third Base.

It's a hole we need to fill. Pronto. Twenty nine year old, Mexican, Juan Castro has not been the answer. He is batting .215. Wilton Guerrero? .158
Wow.

I'm not taking the blame on this one, it's Boone not matter what he says. The month has been horrible. Kearns is still having a good start (.330 7 27) and Mussina is (7-4 3.46).

The month started with an injury to Juan Encarnacion. He went down for five weeks with a fractured foot, and that was the start of a bad month to say the least. Fight? The only fight we showed was when El Duque plunked the Cardinal's young slugger Albert Pujols which sparked a bench clearing brawl. Yup El Duque suspended for six games for that one. I wouldn;t have minded the suspension so much if we had had won the brawl, but we lost that and the game. Some of the bullpen guys ambled out there to the brawl. What had Boone done to these guys? They needed a fire under their asses!

Then midway through the month, Jesse our bench coach sat down with me to give me his take on the club house, I can't say it surprised me, there were no mal-contents on the club, but we need a leader, there are too many lazy, selfish players and some are bad mouthing to the press.

In no time at all we discussed the players who seemed to care the most about the lazy mob. Catcher Jason LaRue, pitchers, Mike Mussina, El Duque, Jimmy Haynes and Scott Stewart. At least these guys cared. Three of these guys had only just arrived in Cincy.

But what about Larkin? He is the skipper of this club. Where is my Derek Jeter?

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Old 04-18-2015, 08:18 PM   #10
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Fun start!

I don't usually pay much attention to the early 2000s due to the 'roids everywhere, but it'll be great to see if you can turn this team around.

As for your Derek Jeter, maybe pauwoo has him!
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Old 04-18-2015, 08:24 PM   #11
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May - Roster Moves

Time to shake this thing up - The fans are not going to be happy, I need some leadership here, it may mean I trade away team icon Barry Larkin. We needed maybe 4 new faces to shake things up. Give Boone a fighting chance.

The thing is Larkin had batted (.210 2 20). Time to go. Great service to the Reds and a potential Hall of Famer. We traded him to Montreal for catcher Brian Schneider, straight up. Montreal can have a player to boost their attendance while we get somewhat of a new leader who is only 25, he can back up the strong armed Jason La Rue.

We got more help for the bullpen, we got thirty two year old Mark Wohlers out of Cleveland. Wohlers may be some way from his best days in Atlanta but we think he'll make us better. Besides we only gave up AAA minor leaguer Jim Brower for him. Brower had been pissed in AAA and so that is another voice connected to the clubhouse - gone.

Finally we got Brent Mayne, another catcher but he has leadership, this does mean the next man out of the door will be Kelly Stinnett, who I'm not sure belongs with my Reds. Oh who did we give up? - Sean Casey. My scouts had warned me. He was hitting ( .270 3 18) with a OBP barely over .320 and he just seemed like he didn't care.

What going to happen now with icon Larkin gone and that gaping hole at Third?

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Old 04-18-2015, 08:36 PM   #12
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Fun start!

I don't usually pay much attention to the early 2000s due to the 'roids everywhere, but it'll be great to see if you can turn this team around.

As for your Derek Jeter, maybe pauwoo has him!
Thank You, wasn't sure where to start, so did the random thing and it feels right, can't believe the first time I did this, it was the "Moneyball" season! Yes I do need a Derek, Donny or Daryl! I shall make this a focus!

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Old 04-18-2015, 09:27 PM   #13
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June -

We wanted to play .500 ball at least with the terrible May behind us. We had traded Larkin and Casey two of our bigger names and wanted to see some return. This was also a crucial month for manager Boone. I'm not sure he has the clubhouse fully yet, though I had given him a leader like Brent Mayne. I really want Paul Wilson (1-6 5.37) to contribute more in the rotation, he's not looked good. My rotation? Mussina, Jimmy Haynes, Joey Hamilton, Wilson and Hernandez. We needed more!

Within a couple of days of the month, my new acquisition Brent Mayne had already knocked on my door, he wanted to be in the line-up. Could I have a word with manager Boone. This was difficult, I already had Jason LaRue behind the plate with a strong arm. This move to bring veteran leadership could spell trouble. The last thing I needed was a catcher controversy. Right field was a worry but I had twenty year old Willy Mo Pena a player of some promise who could play centre for some additional depth, with Kearns moving to right field, at least until Encarnacion returned, but hey that was Boone's decision to make.

Kelly Stinnett was claimed off waivers by Kansas City, I thought that was a good thing, as the month toiled on, Pitcher, Jimmy Haynes had enough, he'd asked for a trade, he had no desire to play in Cincy. Great. Fantastic. Jump the sinking ship, what were we at the time? 27 - 42? just 20 games back of first and he wanted to quit town, great. We have no time for losers here I told Boone, let him go. Haynes was a back up starter at best. We only wanted players who want to be here! We finished the month 9 - 17, this sounded like our spring training record!

Our overall record for the season: 30 - 49, next a meeting with the owner. I remember at the start of the season the message was not to suck, what was going to happen now. Surely I would not be fired mid season. Can't blame me for this? It's early. But Boone, yes Boone would have to be served up.

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Old 04-18-2015, 10:01 PM   #14
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June Roster Moves

Clearly I survived the mid season meeting with the owner. I got the feeling the owner was less than happy with my definition of the word "suck". I felt that at 30 -49 and with a payroll savings we were off to a good start to the new era. my owner disagreed.

Anyway, I was less than happy with manager Boone, but not quite ready to throw him under the bus. Not yet anyway. I had a master plan I reminded the owner we would play "Old Baltimore Oriole Baseball". I had to now fish out what the great Earl Weaver said about roster building and apply it. It's also time to trade away or release some fodder too. I need to stay respectable and cut as much payroll to make a run at free agency next season to meet the goal of playoffs. Playoffs? Playoffs? So we have to go from not quite sucking to playoffs. On my mind was Carl Crawford. Carl had struggled in the lead-off role and while he has talent he had really struggled, he would be pissed if we sent him down.

So we made some decisions, Carl was sent down. He was more than pissed, but was assured he be back. My, no, the Paul Wilson experiment has finished, he is (1-10 6.29), terrible. The word from the clubhouse was that "he puts himself above the team" .He had to go. We got young short stop twenty five year old Alex Gonzalez. The Venezuelan can turn the double play. In the bullpen Scott Sullivan had to go to, he has a 9.38 ERA in 24 games. We brought in veteran pitcher Dan Plesac, the man was 40 but he had big league pedigree and was a former 3 time All star, he had the presence of a clubhouse leader. God knows the team needed it.

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Old 04-18-2015, 11:14 PM   #15
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July

We set out once again to play above .500 ball and deal the want away Jimmy Haynes and somehow right this ship. What we get is a sensational month from Adam Dunn. At the All Star break he is batting (.281 21 67) and Austin Kearns is batting (.329 14 62) and wins rookie of the month.

Not only is Haynes upset and wants to be traded, one of our best players of the season southpaw reliever, Gabe White (2-2 2.67) has expressed he wants a trade. The good news? we went 16 -11 and that with a divided club house. We didn't shift Haynes, but we did get a surprise call from Billy Beane, he wanted White.

Did we want to let our reliever go? well we had two more lefties in the pen and we needed a 1st baseman who could get on base, Billy had offered up Scott Hatteburg! So we worked out a deal, I got Hattburg and reliever Jose Jimenez for White and Willy Mo Pena. Pena is a prospect for sure, but I don't think he will be ready for some time and I really like Hatteburg for his .OBP.

So we went 16 -11 and that brings our record to 46- 61, still terrible, I checked in with the owner his mood was good. So credit to Boone. The thing I turned my mind to was the fans, they were not happy seeing White and Willy Mo go, and the club house was now in turmoil..Even after the monthly record which included a 5 game winning streak, trouble ahead and though the majority of the line-up is now hitting, Wilton Guerrero is still mannig third base as a regular starter and is batting .178. Terrible. My My AAA experiment with Carl Crawford? Carl is only batting .228 with 1 home run.

We really have to put the Weaver plan into play in August.

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Old 04-18-2015, 11:50 PM   #16
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Oh yeah Ken Griffey is batting .221 with 1 homerun over in Tampa. Sad to see.
Sad, indeed. Good stuff, this is a very enjoyable read.
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Old 04-19-2015, 09:40 AM   #17
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July - Roster Moves

End of July
We had the meeting putting in the "Weaver Plan" . The entire Reds, braintrust gathered to hear, my baseball organisation philosophy, based largely around Earl Weaver. This will take time of course, but at least everyone would know what type of organisation we were trying to build.

It looks like this,

We encourage platooning to make the aggregate.
We develop players with defence.
We "run and hit", not "hit and run" -
We don't bunt in the Red's organisation unless it's a very close late innings game. Every out is crucial.
We keep steals to an average level. Why give the opposition an out.
We make our lead - off guy is our best on base percentage guy with batting average. Austin Kearns should be our leadoff guy.
We carry no more than 10 pitchers so we can have more guys on offense.
We don't care about left righty in the bullpen, just who gets the other guy out.
We carry no more than 2 rookies on our 25 man roster, to ensure the right seasoning in the minors.
We make Rookie pitchers pitch long relief.
We make Rookie and young pitchers spot start if they do well in long relief.
We trade veterans if young pitchers do well in spot starts.
We recruit guys who can play defense.
We recruit guys who can hit for power.
We recruit guys who get on base.
We prefer a veteran type of ball club, but we need a guy who can handle veterans.
We prefer a manager at the Major League and AAA level who can handle veterans.
We prefer coaches in our system who can coach young players.
We prefer managers in our system who can coach young players
We have a AAA club filled with good minor league vets who can contribute in a pinch.
We have our AA club with our phenoms and good players , they can go straight to the majors in September.
We like control pitchers over power pitching. We don't want any Steve Dalkowskis.
We don't sign players to major deals past 3 years over the age of 30.


When all was said and done, the only one with a bemused face was Bob Boone, he could tell he was not for this organisation for long.

I had to say though our record is not the greatest we are 5th in our division and 28 games back. The Cardinals who lead the division have had a great season. They are 22 games ahead of the 2nd placed Cubs. So with the Cubs, the Pirates and the Astros there are only 6 game between us. I feel comfortable we can get close to 2nd place. We signed Adam Dunn who has been on a tear to a 1 year contract extension.

The NL Central

Cards 74-35 (They have a sensational rookie closer Mike Crudale 26 saves 1.99. Jim Edmonds has 34 home runs and Pujols 25.)
Cubs 53-58 (Sammy Sosa has 29 home runs)
Astros 49-62 (Lance Berkman has 21 home runs and Richard Hidalgo 20)
Pirates 48-63 (Brian Giles is hitting .325 with 32 homeruns)
Reds 47-64 (Adam Dunn is hitting .285 with 21 homeruns and rookie of the year contender Austin Kearns is .324 with fifteen dingers)
Brewers 37-75 (The Brewers really suck but Richie Sexon is having a nice year with 23 homeruns so far)

The Giants, Cardinals and Braves are really dominating the National League.

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Old 04-19-2015, 12:30 PM   #18
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August

We had a very good July long overdue with a 16 -11 record. Could we do it again?

We set out to match that record again in the hot month of August. None of the big shots except the Cardinals very late on were on the schedule. Alex Gonzales had come in the trade for Wilson, was hot, if he could carry that form into August we'd be looking good to get into that second place position. We wanted Carl to get his act together in AAA in readiness for a September call up. Also Plesac, Wohlers, and Graves needed to sign new contracts or go.

The month rolled on, the only cloud on the horizon was Mark Wohlers who knocked on the door one afternoon, the ex Brave sat down, cracked open a cold one with me. He's been struggling for sure, but I'd let him pitch through his woes. Then he started his stuff. The clubhouse in his opinion was very lazy. Yup, I'd heard this before and I let Wohlers know, it was a slight cause for concern, but the team had been playing better. Leave it to Manager Boone I said. Wohlers did not take to this news. He let me know this is not how things were done in Atlanta. That was not a wise choice of words.

I let Wohler's know he was not in Atlanta now but Cincinnati and that if he had played like he used to, he might still be on a contending team in Atlanta not sporting a 3-2 record with a 7.42 Era. Wohlers was going to have to go. Though I appreciated his candor, I did not want comparisons with Atlanta, I wanted winners not whiners.

We achieved 14 -14 .500 ball. Great.

I met with the owner for a chat, more to guage his mood. He was good. He was not happy his favourite player Carl Crawford was in the minors but would be patient, so long as he was up in September. We were 8 games behind the second place Cubs. and 28 games behind the charging Cardinals. The wildcard was too far unless we had a miracle September but the team had played better no doubt. He let me know playoffs next year were the goal and if I didn't think I could do it then to let him know. Oh yeah, he asked, what was I going to do about Boone if the team didnt have a winning record in September. He left no doubt he wanted to see above .500 ball in September. Maybe then he would be convinced to release more cash for the free agents we may need to make a run.

Last edited by Dr.K; 04-19-2015 at 01:03 PM.
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Old 04-19-2015, 02:30 PM   #19
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August Roster Moves

The deadline has passed, 60 -75 but the starters had started to hit. Most impressed with short stop Adrian Gonzalez who really has been a nice pick up who has hit . 322 and Juan Encarnacion has shown some power as of late and has got up to 17 homeruns.

We may have to move second baseman Todd Walker who is batting .236 in the offs -eason and Guerrero is not a third baseman and hitting only .199. Mussina leads the pitching staff with a 14-9 record but a slightly high 3.70 era. Carl continues to struggle in AAA.

Corky Miller and Brian Schneider are called up for September, the minors are too thin to call anyone else up, besides these two are ready.

Last edited by Dr.K; 04-19-2015 at 03:08 PM.
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Old 04-19-2015, 03:23 PM   #20
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September

We have a chance to get second place. We need to have a strong September. I made it clear to manager Bob Boone. Strong finish is needed. There continue to be rumblings of discontent in the clubhouse, but no culprit emerges. So the boys took the field in September.

We looked for the pitching to firm up. We however lost El Duque for the season with a hamstring. The trade for El Duque was a washout. The Cuban is 36. Well 36 officially, he could be older. Will he be back next year?

We started 0 and 7. What? Worse? We lost to the lowly Brewers. Swept 3-0 in Milwaukee. The Cardinals swept us 3-0 in St. Louis. We were horrible. Thank god for the Pirates we swept them at home 3-0. Later on the Cubs came into town and took 3 of 4. We went 10-17 for the month.

Would I survive the end of season meeting with the owner? Does a 70-92 record suck? We finished 4th in the division. 70 and 92. WOW.

Last edited by Dr.K; 04-19-2015 at 03:27 PM.
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