[MattStewNYY]

November 17th, 2004

(Reuters), Washington D.C. - The Washington D.C. baseball scene, and its new organization, fresh from the crisis of Montreal and creating its own crisis now, operating out of makeshift trailors in front of their soon to be rennovated stadium, have made significant progress over the course of the last 24 hours in terms of its future and its beginning. In monumental fashion, the D.C. Baseball franchise announced two historic decisions in the early hours on November 17th, 2004, the first of which was announcing the hirnig of their, (and the youngest) general manager and on field manager of all time, 18-year-old Matthew Stewart, a baseball fan, writer, and sports management major in his freshman year at Lynchburg University, Virginia. His contract is slated as a 2 year deal worth $525,000 dollars and his goal is clear: Make the playoffs in two years time. Quite demanding, but many say the groundwork is already there.

"Our club is going to be all about making monumentous changes and we hope for the same results in a positive way." a club official said during an A.M. conference call with local and national media members.

Stewart, who's first task in his MLB general managerial career will be to resurrect a franchise that has, since its dream season in 1994 was cut tragically short due to labor issues, been stagnant and barely existant.

"Short of a run in 2001 and 2002 during the heat of the contraction talks..." Peter Gammons said on the special "WINTER EDITION'S" Baseball Tonight this afternoon "The Expos have barely been existant at all in the realm of baseball. 65 wins a year and out..."

But the new General Manager and Administration are determined to alter that course of history immeadiately.

Along with the announcement of the new general manager, Washington also announced that it's decided that it's name and appropriate logos will be what they were in the past for the Washington franchise, as they have tagged themselves the "Senators", a historically significant name for the franchise.

A third and last announcement, was the announcement of a self-imposed salary cap for the team from ownership and its related interest groups.

"We're going to be working with 60 Million to start the 2005 season." Team President Paul Strezynski, a former Pepsi and Welch's mathematician and business strategist said. "We have confidence that GM/Manager Stewart can put a competitive team on the field building up from that, and then we'll look at attendance, fan interest, ticket and food prices... really, right now, this is a feeling out year. But we in the least feel well about it." He joked with a relatively serious overtone, describing how he hopes to turn a definitively failed franchise around in a short amount of time.

File Photo

"Well our goal here is to win early, and win often." Matt Stewart said in his first interview as General Manager and Field Manager of the Washington Senators. "We feel we have a good groundwork to start up from, and our plan this offseason is to completely jumble the chemistry of this team. I mean, let's be honest. This team isn't going to change over the course of a season by letting our prospects get older. We want to make smart deals that aid our future and our present. We want to be contenders now."

I hope to take this dynasty a long way with the help of readers here and a realistic foundation to work from on this dynasty. Readership is important in this because I will be asking for YOUR HELP on a lot of key situations throughout the season and off season.

Here's the format for this dynasty:

First: First, I will put together the off-season in a journalistic fashion, not just for my team, but for all teams. I will do this over the course of a few days, completing various aspects of the off-season and bringing that to a close to ring in the 2005 year.

Second: Second, I will do a quick preview of the 2005 season. All this from 2004 are going to go off realistic data. Boston as the winner, the 2004 stats, etc, etc, etc.

Third: Third, I will update throughout the season after each series, giving a detailed description of each game from my point of view (blog style?) and "media" points of view. Occasionally, I will update on other league accomplishments, standings, and stats.

So! Let the fun begin. I first want to say I was mostly inspired by "The Pale Hose" to do this, his writing, his enthuisiasm, and his determination to put together and keep consistant a professional and realistic thread makes me want to do the same. It's a short and sweet off-season, but still, we all need something to carry us over. I hope as a community, we can make the Washington Senators add to that.

Here are some quick facts:

I'm playin this thing with Managerial Mode off for now.

To get out of that hellatiously ugly stadium in Montreal, not to mention it's kind of unrealistic to use those park factors for a team that just moved, I'm going to use Hiram Bithron Stadium from Ankit's Stadium set, as I will renamed JFK Jr. Stadium, for this dynasty. It's not completely realistic, but the best we can do right now. JFK Jr. stadium is a right handed hitter's park that just about favors as many triples as it will doubles. Anyways, let's have some fun with this.
Enjoy!

[MattStewNYY]

Pre Free Agents Team

Well, the winter has arrived, and the free agency period is upon us. This is the time of year when we're going to set the Senators up for failure or success in coming years. Looking at last years financial outcome, we had quite a bit of success, and made a considerable profit, leaving us with roughly over 70 Million cash to spend on coaches, free agents, and resigning players so far.

As per the self discipline I set earlier, I'm not going over 50 Million for free agents. 20 million or so should leave me with enough to resign the key guys for years to come.

But first, here's your 2004 WINTER Senators:


Moises Alou
Clay Bellinger
Rigo Beltran
Rocky Biddle
Ron Calloway
Matt Cepicky
Endy Chavez
Matt Childers
Chad Cordero
Zach Day
Clint Everts
Livan Hernandez
Paul Hoover
Joe Horgan
Sun-woo Kim
John Labandeira
Luis A. Lopez
John Patterson
Brian Schneider
Claudio Vargas
Jose Vidro
Brad Wilkerson


So what we can see from this is pretty simple. What i need to do is get the bullpen better, get another top end starter, and get a left side of the infield. I've got a few moves in mind, and Jason Bay is someone I'd really like to try and get my hands on, to see if I can move Alou's contract, because he's just old and ridiculous. A reliable lefty in the bullpen is going to be priority, and we don't know how well Vargas or Everts handle pressure situations, which, we hope, will be apart of this years club here in Washington.

[MattStewNYY]

Senators Complete Busy Winter, Prepare for Spring Training

It was indeed a busy winter, and although some of the big names of the game were locked up prior to the off-season, for instance, Pedro Martinez resigned with Boston shortly after the World Series. Obviously, we went into the winter meetings, and this big ordeal, with pitching and the left side of our infield in mind. We made several signings and two trades to try to sure things up, one trade that was probably particularly surprising.

First off, the signings:

Donnie Sadler: Donnie was a quick, one day signing, and isn't goign to play a big part on the team this year other than pinch running and the like. We're going to be relying on a bench of speed, defense, and smallball ability this year, and Donnie is going to be a key part of it, with his ability to pinch run. He has great instincts.

$440,000, 1 year deal

Pokey Reese: Late in the game, Pokey was a guy who we went after, after losing out the bidding war for Doug Mientkiewicz(will talk about later). Pokey has incredible range at 2B and SS, but we made a few good deals, and he went through spring training as a 3B, his range and fielding percentage there aren't great, but they're existant, and with his infield ability and professionalism, we're glad to have him start everyday at 3B for the Washington Senators. He did bite us with the length of the contract though -- Pokey isn't a big hitter, and we'd obviously like to expand and improve at the position later, so the 4 year deal could be a problem, but who knows, maybe he'll surprise us?

$1,250,000, 4 year deal


Chris Carpenter: Chris Carpenter was a guy who wasn't on our radar for the first two weeks or so of the signing period, we had been focused on Brad Radke and Derek Lowe, but with negotiations beginning to cool down with them, we put in a bid for Carpenter. Carpenter is a positive on two accounts: 1) he's cheaper than Radke or Lowe, and 2) his 2004 season was better than Radke and Lowe's. If we're going to make a run at the playoff's this year as I hope to, and extend my contract, he's going to have to be key as my #2 or #3 starter.

$5,000,000, 3 year deal

Cory Vance: Vance was a sleeper signing that is going to round off our rotation to open up 2005. He's a 4 star blue prospect, and was ranked highly among our scouting team. We think he's a real smart pitcher with a lot of fire, and can do some work in the trenches for us. We got him for two years, so we're certainly looking forward to seeing him build himself and grow as a pitcher.

$750,000, 2 year deal

Ramon Ortiz: Ramon Ortiz is the X-Factor for this pitching staff this year. He's going to get the occasional spot start and work in the bullpen a lot. He's a guy who throws one hell of a damned fastball and can eat up innings for us. He's another guy though, who we had to eat up some years for to get to come aboard.

$1,500,000, 3 year deal

Trever Miller: Trever Miller is listed as only 2 and a half stars, but make no mistake, he can deal. He's a lefty, and he can throw the baseball damn well. He's going to be a key to the middle of our bullpen this year, and could win us/lose us 5 to 10 games. Another sleepy pick for us, but with his 8 stuff/7 control/7 movement, he was worth the money.

$1,500,000, 3 year deal

Odalis Perez: Odalis Perez excites me because of his versatility. He's going to start the year out of the Bullpen, but he's got tons of talent and will probably work his way into the rotation before everything is said and done. He's a proven lefty, which we need, and he can just throw until the cows come home. We had to dish out a little to get our hands on him, but yet again, we feel it was well worth it.

$4,250,000, 3 year deal

Two Trades



Washington gets:
Michael Restovich

Minnesota gets:
Luis A. Lopez
John Labandeira

We feel that Michael Restovich is a complete player. He's got big hitting skills, and will be the 3rd hitter in our line-up. Luis A. Lopez is a decent 3rd basemen, but with Reese in there, we don't have a lot of need for him, and he's eating 2 Million in Salary. Labandeira was a hard guy to swallow giving up too, he's a middle of the road Shortstop, but Restovich is going to lockdown Right Field.

Washington gets:
Jack Wilson

Pittsburgh Gets:
Shawn Hill
Seung Song
Endy Chavez

Jack Wilson is a guy we, to be honest, really needed to square up the left side of our infield. To be frank, in the free agency period, we flat failed at picking anybody up for over there. Hill and Song are both solid, 4 star prospect pitchers, but we have a lot of pitching right now, and they are getting near the time when they'd be moving to a level where we couldn't afford them anyway. Endy Chavez is another guy who was in the logjam that was the Outfield battle, but he was simply the most expensive, and the least talented that Pittsburgh would accept.

Free Agents We Missed Out on

Derek Lowe - We were in the Derek Lowe sweepstakes from the very beginning, and as each two or three days seemed to go by, his price demands raised. We were fighting with the Cardinals for him, and to be fair, that's a money war we simply would not win. On the bright side, ex Cardinal Chris Carpenter is now a Senator, so from a league standpoint, we can call it a wash.

Brad Radke - Brad Radke was in the same boat as Derek Lowe. We kept giving in to his demands for more money, and he kept pushing it. Eventually we had to cut off negotations.

Aramis Ramirez - We made a longstanding bid for him at 3B, but we just got beat out by Cleveland, and we started to turn our attention to Doug Mientkiewicz. Eventually, Cleveland came up with Ramirez anyway.

Doug Mientkiewicz - We had Mientkiewicz locked down for about 5 days, but for some reason he kept holding off, and we weren't really sure why. Come to find out, he was dealing secretly with Toronto, who once going public for him, put up a hell of a fight with us for him. We weren't going to let him go easily.. he was our guy for 3B and 1B when Nick wasn't playing, but with 5 days left to go, Toronto threw out an uncany 8.9 million at Mientkiewicz, and that bluff we called. He's a Blue Jay, and a rich one at that. We'll find out if it's worth it.

Final Payroll: $58,606,373.00



2005 Washington Senator's Opening Day Roster

So I don't know exactly how this year is going to turn out. I think we have a solid enough base to contend for the NL Wild Card. The division, I don't know. We'll see how things pan out....

[] = 1 star

Rotation
RHP, Livan Hernandez [][][][]
RHP, Claudio Vargas [][][][
RHP, Chris Carpenter [][][][
RHP, Clint Everts [][][][][]
LHP, Cory Vance [][][][]

Bullpen
RHP, Ramon Ortiz [][][
LHP, Joe Horgan [][][]
LHP, Trever Miller [][][
LHP, Odalis Perez, [][][]
RHP, Rocky Biddle [][][][]
RHP, Matt Childers [][][][]
RHP, John Patterson [][][][][

Line-Up
1B, LHB, Nick Johnson [][][
SS, RHB, Jack Wilson, [][][][]
RF, RHB, Michael Restovich, [][]
2B, SHB, Jose Vidro, [][][]
LF, LHB, Brad Wilkerson, [][][]
CF, LHB, Termel Sledge, [][][]
C, LHB, Brian Schneider, [][][
3B, RHB, Pokey Reese, []

DH (WHEN NEEDED), RHB, Moises Alou, [][][

Bench
OF, Moises Alou, [][][
OF, Matt Cepicky, [][][]
C, Paul Hoover, [][]
IF, Clay Bellinger, [][]
IF/OF Donnie Sadler, [][



I think when you look at my team, two things are going to be crucial for me to have a winning team this year: 1) The ability of the 3 - 7 guys to hit. The only one that's really a sure thing is Jose Vidro. Now these other guys all have talent; their ratings reflect that. Everything does. Whether or not they can translate that over to the field is another story, and that's going to be a big thing for us this year. 2) The Bullpen. Biddle is off and on and Childers and Henderson are going to be key. Can Henderson be a reliable, dare I say, even dominant closer? I hope so, because the options otherwise are skewed and uncertain. It could make for a confusing season out of the pen, and I absolutely WILL NOT do bullpen by committee. It doesn't work.

So. This should be interesting.

[ctorg]

Cool idea. You really do get to start out with something new that's based in real life. I'm surprised no one has started one of these yet (unless someone did and I missed it).

[Matt from TN]

Originally Posted by MattStewNYY

His goal is clear: Make the playoffs in two years time.

Wheeeeeww... Best of luck with that!

[MattStewNYY]

Originally Posted by Matt from TN

Wheeeeeww... Best of luck with that!

I think it's possible. I think we have a decent contact hitting line-up this year, and the pitching shouldn't be too bad. One thing that is my concern right now is that we need to keep the foundation of this team around for a while, and that's going to be hard if possible at all..

[metsgeek]

Looking good so far...great writeups. The only issue I have is with the team moniker. The Senators have historically been a jinx as a name. I would have preferred (as I do in RL) to call the team the Grays after the Homestead Grays.

[MattStewNYY]

Originally Posted by metsgeek

Looking good so far...great writeups. The only issue I have is with the team moniker. The Senators have historically been a jinx as a name. I would have preferred (as I do in RL) to call the team the Grays after the Homestead Grays.

Well, I guess my response to that is The Rangers were jinxed in Hockey until they won it in '94.

The Red Sox were cursed by the Bambino until 2004.

Mickelson was jinxed in golf until he won a major tournament.

As Pedro Martinez (regretfully), would say: "I don't believe in damn curses. Wake up the Bambino maybe I'll bean him in the ass."

That's my take on it. This is a franchise that I think, with Livan Hernandez, with it's relatively middle-of-the-road farm system, that I can recover quickly, and be competitive with.

Obviously right now, third base is my issue.

[ctorg]

Originally Posted by metsgeek

Looking good so far...great writeups. The only issue I have is with the team moniker. The Senators have historically been a jinx as a name. I would have preferred (as I do in RL) to call the team the Grays after the Homestead Grays.

Funny, I was thinking a similar thing. Since the Texas Rangers still hold the rights to the "Senators" name, they'll have to work out a deal if they want to use it. I'm hoping they go with Grays, too.

Either way, even if they don't use the name Senators, this should be an interesting thread to keep an eye on.

[MattStewNYY]

I could change their moniker to the Gray's relatively easily, I mean. That wouldn't be hard. I just figured Senators was a historically representable name.

Would you rather I change their name to the Gray's?

[MattStewNYY]

Senators Open Season

Philadelphia Phillies (0-0) vs. Washington Senators (0-0)
Randy Wolf, LHP (0-0) vs.
Livan Hernandez, RHP, (0-0)

Game One

The steady hum of the caramel machines kicked into action, the crickets tender winter slumber, that laid still and comfortable for over 30 years, disrupted -- the subtle glow of a stadium light began to burn the hollywood green of the park's grounds, and I stood at the base of our home dugout, with baseball again in Washington, a new empire to build, and 80 years titleless, two generations teamless, as a vendetta to fulfill.

Our team's dark red jersey's and pinstripes, their dark red caps with the fitting black "W" and blue "Senators" across the chest of their shirts, worn with pride and bit of a mud in typical ballplayer fashion, they stepped onto the field to overcast skies and a packed house of nearly 56,000 as if they'd never left, as if the man with the tall hat and thick suit in 1940 still sat in the left field stands, growing what seemed like years in time as games slowly passed, or the woman and her ill child who would have the special privledge of watching that particular game in the President's Booth, reserved for the Chief Executive on opening day, and to always see a man's best, Ted Williams, though he never stepped foot as a player, thankfully comes to mind.

President Bush sat in his box, guards as thick as trees, and the shy, lonesome frailty of me standing near with my "7" jersey on, and merely embracing the moment. As he stood he rolled up his sleeve, his trademark of hard work and blue collared enthuisasm, and though I disagreed with this man, this flawed man, I could have been no where but that moment, and to avoid being too dapper, too embraced in his own moment, he removed his sparking watch, and with a glove surely bought in the latter half of a few days notice, he cocked and fired to Brian Schneider, waiting happily for the catch.

Thus with all the ceremony done, and JFK Jr. stadium heavy with anxiety, we moved forth with the precedings, and Livan Hernandez, the man I'll most rely on this season, stepped on the mound, toed the rubber, rubbed some fresh erd dirt against his traveled fingers and threw a few to warm himself once more.

We were off, and Hernandez looked like a Danny Almonte, and memories came to mind of dominant pitchers, Koufax, Gibson, the era was looming about the park, and Rollins, missing and missing again, fell on strikes. A batter later, Jim Thome came up swinging for the fences, and rightfully so, they were brimming with activity, as the stadium seemed to sway with every swing from the slugger, but this battle was short, and he would fall, and miss, and crawl to the dug out assured of imperfection. The Senators were up to bat.

First came Nick Johnson, his speed matched by many, his patience by few, the idea was to get the kid on base, and move him along, but a second pitch curveball pushed that to later, at least, and the first Senator out was recorded. In truth, no Senator in the first, be it Johnso, Wilson, or Restovich put together an at bat worthy of much to do. Restovich's corky stance, huddling his shoulders close to his ears, as if cold or wounded, and swinging tight and rapidly, trying perhaps to slay the dragon charging him, but this time he simply trickled down the line, and felt the flame.

Hernandez continued to deal leading into the second, but the gray sky that had created such an eerie feeling early began to fizzle with activity, and the rains came, cleaning the rustbucket of it's 80 year shame, and teaching it an early lesson, and despite hopes, delaying the conclusion of a historic day, for at least a while. For me, I sat in the bat and looked over a few games from the day, prepared some things for tomorrows meeting, and talked to Livan, who, after 45 minutes was allowed to return to the mound, but he moved arm around uncomfortably, and this concerned me.

An inning later, Jimmy Rollins would get his revenge, with two on and two out, he'd strike a long and loud corkscrew hitting the very parameters of the top of the right field wall, and Restovich, with all his might returned the favor back to Vidro, who relayed in an accurate bullet, but it was too little, too late, and the first tally would go Philadelphia's way. Despite avoiding further trouble, Livan had clearly already begun to tire, and the layoff would serve as much a curse as anything. It was clear now, much like his brother Orlando, he'd have to use a fiesty breaking ball, and the love of the game, something he found long ago in Cuba, to get him through the night.

The 5th frame rolled around rather quietly, and both pitchers had held off their respective foes the last go around, but it was clear that Randy Wolf who in the least had faded among the chaos of Philadelphia's 2004 blunder, was on that night, and determined to do everything he could to start his Larry Bowaless career, his new beginning, out right. Michael Restovich, the generous fellow, began a string of double plays for us that, needless to say, killed every tilting turn on the wheel of momentum we managed to create. His first double play in the 5th, would be one of three from then to the end, and overcoming that was something that even a great team would struggle to do.

As the 6th bell tolled, Hernandez was still running on economy fuel, the kind only the heart can muster, but there simply wasn't much of that left. A hit by pinch hitter Miguel Cairo, ending Wolf's rain shortened night, and a walk to Marlon Byrd set up a 2 on 1 out scenario, and again the Phillies sluggers delivered. Thome first, hit a beam that brought one home and sent the other to third, before Pat Burrell sent a dribbler down the swap of third base, and Pokey Reese slipped on his way to grab it, marking down his first error of the year, something that, at his new position, he certainly doesn't need.

That would end Livan's night, and although we would score off of Michael McDougal in the next frame, by a Termel Sledge opposite field single, the first RBI in the new franchises history, another double play by the catcher, and appropriately, in this case, the "stopper", Brian Schneider, who unfortunately this time stopped our momentum.

Joe Horgan would be the next Senator pitcher, and he is going to be key to us this year, but not in this case, where he let a run in, in his first frame, and left in his second without retiring a man, and allowing two aboard. Trever Miller was my next choice, to see if he could live up to my preseason hype, and despite allowing another man's run, he retired the next few relatively quietly, and brought us into the darkening night a little faster, a little more quiet.

Rocky Biddlefinished off the game for us, and I must say I'm surprised at the way he pitched. He outdid himself from his preseason performance, and reminded me of another Rocky, the way he fought his way out of a 1st and 3rd 1 out jam to allow nothing, and showing no more emotion than a quick grunt of jubilation and relief, that he had done his team well, and earned a spot of trust in my mind. But to talk of feared pitchers, you must talk of a flamethrower named Wagner whose grizzly appearance and 99 MPH gun would scare the skin of a cat, given the chance.

Billy Wagner the Phillie's closer, came into the 9th with a 3 run lead, to finish off the game, but a lead off slap hit by Restovich and a close-call walk by Jose Vidro had Washington faithful, most of which still stood, cracker jacks readily supplied, crying "not yet!". The fateful next man, and probably only a helpless victim to the curse of the twin killing, Brad Wilkerson left his at bat with a man on third, but put two away, and effectively ended my hopes. Sledge would bring the game within two, and for the time being at least, is the RBI guy, the Sheffield of this team. We walked away from our opener with a loss, and started assumedly where we left off... Vidro scoring hits and runs alike, but with a positive outlook, and where Livan Hernandez pitched well enough to win, he was outpitched all the same.

So we'll go back tomorrow, hand Claudio Vargas the ball and even up our record. After this game, I still think the same about our team. We've still got fire, still got passion, still got a desire to win, and still have the talent to do it. We have to show it on the field, and now, we're only 161 away from doing so. Confidence is everything.

FINAL SCORE:
Philadelphia Phillies:4
Washington Senators:2

Washington Senators: 0-1

[ctorg]

Originally Posted by MattStewNYY

I could change their moniker to the Gray's relatively easily, I mean. That wouldn't be hard. I just figured Senators was a historically representable name.

Would you rather I change their name to the Gray's?

Nah, just leave it. It doesn't matter. In truth, I should have kept my trap shut about it and just let you post the good stuff.

[MattStewNYY]

Originally Posted by ctorg

Nah, just leave it. It doesn't matter. In truth, I should have kept my trap shut about it and just let you post the good stuff.

No big deal. Whatever makes it enjoyable.