Broken Bat - Discussion Forum: 2051 Top 3 Offseason Dilemmas

Forum >> Discussions >> 2051 Top 3 Offseason Dilemmas

Post ID	Date & Time	Game Date

#82917	07/09/2021 6:50:27 am	Feb 19th, 2051
Seca Joined: 05/05/2014 Posts: 5199 Waterloo Dinosaurs Legends	The fun is in the decisions, and many off the big ones are in the offseason. What were/are the 3 biggest questions for your franchise? 1) Short-stop-gap Franchise icon Flynn's life-clock crystal started blinking last season, and SS of the future Lively is still figuring out A ball. We planned for Meadows to fill the gap, but his position knowledge isn't great. Had to decide to give the job to him anyway, find someone else, or a combination of the 2. For now its combination. We added Caldwell to split the load, and we'll see what works best. 2) But you can never take our ... ABs! Was fish or cut bait time with Wallace. To give him an opportunity meant parting ways with one of Stafford or Gordon. Not easy as both Stafford and Gordon are productive fan favorites, and neither showed signs of age slowing them down. We did decide to give Wallace a shot, and it was Stafford who took the fall. Looks like he stuck the landing tho. 3) Holland-daze Holland is not a fan favorite. His erratic play makes everyone pull their hair out. And we have a couple of kids who could use his innings. Kept him for now. Lovelace will get cup action and scraps for the time being. Holland better be pitching well when we make our cup exit or he will be looking for work.

#82920	07/09/2021 7:27:20 am	Feb 19th, 2051
electriceel883 Joined: 05/26/2021 Posts: 1505 Irvine Infernos III.3	I would put this as more of dilemmas since I have had the Peppers: 1) Who to release? For the most part, I dont think I have made too many mistakes there, the team was that talent-deficient. 2) Most of the core is now older 28+. I have only a couple core pieces on the big league roster 25 or younger and not much breaking down the doors in the high minors. I haven't really been able to address either point the way I would like. 3) How to improve the Pitching and get more consistency? this has had some very mixed results, but I think I am learning better who to look at, and making some progress, but whether I am is more something for the 2052 offseason.

#82928	07/09/2021 5:17:37 pm	Mar 2nd, 2051
Geech Joined: 01/12/2014 Posts: 545 San Luis Obispo Turtles IV.8	Great thread. Here are some of mine: 1) 2B or not 2B. Aguirre is a talented young player with a promising scouting report, and he's pretty much ready for real major league playing time. I think his defensive build is best suited for the middle infield, but there are a few problems with this. The first is that he doesn't have a lot of position knowledge, so he'll be learning on the job. The second is that I already have a pretty solid player manning second base in Clayton. Clayton has lost a bit to aging, but not a lot. Complicating this is my assessment that Aguirre is a risk to under-produce his offensive skills. I think he's talented enough to be solid 2B even if that's the case, but it makes the short term performance tradeoff a lot tougher to swallow. If I cut or sit Clayton to play Aguirre, then I'm accepting a much worse player offensively and defensively. I know we're a strong candidate to demote ANYWAY, but I don't want to totally throw in the towel. I think my likely course of action is to give Aguirre playing time in Spring and Cup games, while using him to back up 2B and other positions. If Clayton isn't playing well at the All Star break, he may be a candidate for release in favor of Aguirre. 2) WAY too many belly-itchers. I have a glut of left handed pitchers who might be decent in a limited bullpen role, but don't have the tools to thrive as a starter. This includes Agosto, Calderon, Galarza. . . and possibly even Otero. All of these pitchers have lots of talent, but are highly likely to disappoint, at least in part because they're wrong-handed. Frankly, my disappointing crop of young pitching driven largely, but not exclusively, by these guys is a big part of reason my team is dropping like a stone. I need to make at least some of these guys succeed in the rotation or find a solid replacement. I'm just going to keep throwing these guys out there, and pray something pops up on the waivers. I haven't had good luck lately with pitching waiver claims, which is frustrating given my 20 pitching manager. I just have to hope that turns around. 3) Designated Sitter I have a really complicated situation to resolve at 1B, DH and LF this season. Quintana and McLain seem like the obvious primary choices at DH and 1B respectively, and Corona has a well-established history at LF. However, I also have young players like Kaczmarek, Pak, and Coffman who have some promise and I would like to develop. I need to find some way to get these developing guys good playing time without just sitting my solid vets. Coffman and Kaczmarek are right handed bats, so platooning is an option, but an unsatisfying one. It takes a long time for a righty to develop in a platoon, and Coffman in particular is already well behind the curve. My partial solution here is to move Corona to RF on a regular basis, opening up LF for a platoon of Pak and Coffman. Pak will be on a bit of short leash, because I think he may also be a risk for under-performing. If someone washes out, it's likely to be him first. Kaczmarek will have to platoon at first with McLain, with the option for a bit more playing time if Quintana sinks at DH. It's not totally satisfying, but I think it's the best I can do. Updated Friday, July 9 2021 @ 5:20:45 pm PDT

#82958	07/11/2021 11:28:05 am	Mar 4th, 2051
Seca Joined: 05/05/2014 Posts: 5199 Waterloo Dinosaurs Legends	You are always more pessimistic about your own prospects. I see a lot to like with Aguirre. OPS right at 800 is nice, gb:fb under 1 is good. He's going to make more errors for the moment, but +3 range makes up for some of that. I look at some of those P and think they might do better in the pen, but that doesn't solve the problem. I got lost in the 3rd one.

#82974	07/12/2021 7:15:12 am	Mar 6th, 2051
wuggla Joined: 05/10/2013 Posts: 1059 Colorado Springs Vultures VI.28	The Buzzards fans mood has dropped 5 season in a row. Manager George Lion has another raise in pay, because bellow average wins and run difference is his thing! MVP Rey McDonnell has 2 others Morgan Foster and Cliff Devore both are on bench because age is doing them bad. Veteran Trevor Caldwell will anchor a 4 man rotation this season a 1st for the franchise not having 5 starting pitchers. "IF" I can find a 5th starter on waivers this season??? 8 very young players have a chance to grow SI/EXP; with 3 rookie pitcher in bullpen going to be throwing batting practice probably all season long? I expect to be demoted again really "butt" maybe we do good in waivers just need a little luck that's all. Good Luck every owner 2051!!!!

#82986	07/12/2021 10:16:40 pm	Mar 8th, 2051
JV-Tosshin Joined: 11/11/2020 Posts: 297 Biloxi Thresher Sharks V.15	1) What is the contingency if we fall flat after the team's first foray out of LL6 in like, 30 years? I don't think I have any big shakeups I can do, and that worries me if I fall off a cliff. My manager is weak on offense, so if the defense can't hold up, I really think I might be screwed. 2) My pitching order. Just generally. Finally come good with some decent options alongside a couple of journeymen I've picked up, but I have no idea what order to put them in. All five of my starters were in the top 10 on game MVP awards, but my best pitcher statisitcally also had my worst record, so yeah... 1st spot is probably nailed down, but after that I get a bit iffy. 3) Aging backups, when to change? My OF especially is getting on in years, but I think I have some decent prospects coming up from minors there. I'm far more worried about my prospects at SS and 2B, where my starters aren't quite young and I have NO legitimate 2nd option. Centeno at SS has been brilliant defensively and can hit it far when he makes contact, but he is a poor batter most of the time, and if age takes out his defense, I'm in trouble. At 2B, I made a shift last season for better defense without sacrificing too much offense. My aging DH was let go and my old 2B guy got shifted to DH, because honestly, his defensive skills were... Iffy. He led the league in errors three seasons, I believe. New guy doesn't hit that well, so again, what to do when the defensive output craters? Generally, I have quite a few guys who're gonna need changing in the next, maybe 5, seasons. I have 2 starters younger than 29, and only one backup (A prospect I'm still not sure about). And I do not know what to prioritise. Who do I try and draft replacements for? Who do I try and find an FA for? And what is the timing for it all? I'm worried I've screwed myself by going broke to get out of LL6 and now face atrophy by aging in the near future.

#82988	07/12/2021 10:52:07 pm	Mar 8th, 2051
electriceel883 Joined: 05/26/2021 Posts: 1505 Irvine Infernos III.3	You've basically written my broken bat life story. Except I didnt even get the enjoy the first and only year in L5 and got the team half-way through this 2050 crash and burn to L6. I am totally not in a hurry to get back, for exactly the same reasons. Finding serviceable OF is relatively easy compared to middle infield. I suppose most people draft from the Asian league for those quick-fix kind of players. I am rebuilding my team from the ground up and I expect the few stars on my team to be washed up by the time I am ready. I really dont expect anyone to start, lol. I mean, if someone was a good starting P they wouldnt be on waivers. Every now and then there is that inexplicable release and it has 50 claims and I wont get them. That being said, I have found some useful pitchers. If every game is a minimum number of pitches and then to bullpen I am fine with that, because the pitchers you CAN find on waivers that can actually get people out are usually relievers. The P staff I inherited has "Stamina" "Bad Control" guys and apparently they were good enough to pitch well in L6 in 2049 and most of them got totally massacred in L5. So you may want to stay away from guys like that, at least as starters. So far I have bolstered my lineup a little bit, but mostly people in AAA I already had. Not much in the minors below them, mostly OF and certainly no 18 year middle-infielder guys with potential. I am hoping the draft changes that. Lopez, my SS, is pretty much the same situation as yours. And he's 30 and starting to decline. Not a fun situation. I have heard drafting by position is pointless, at least until you reach the late rounds because who cares by then. Try to find a 2B/SS guy in the NP. Or a P. I expect that is the only way to find really impact people for those hard to fill spots. I certainly havent figured out how to stagger my minor leagues so theres 3 mostly developed guys 23 year old guys just sitting there in AAA waiting for someone to get old. I am rebuilding, and frankly, I havent done that well on waiver claims. Just basically getting people few other teams wanted. Not to say that I didnt carefully scout them and that they dont have a good chance of being a plus player on my team, but I am not getting anyone being fought over. The churn continues Updated Monday, July 12 2021 @ 10:53:08 pm PDT

#82990	07/13/2021 7:21:37 am	Mar 8th, 2051
NotGood88 Joined: 08/28/2020 Posts: 510 Prattville Black Cats II.2	1. Stating Pitching In De Smet, McGee, and Mendoza, we have 2 14 POTs and a 15 all coming off career years. The final 2 pitchers are a mystery though. Radford's 88:80 K:BB ratio is very bad, and he needs more pitching SI just in general, Culp will grow a lot, but only has 75 SI, and Solis is stunted and between his 2048 All Star season was 65 starts of pain. Then, he got moved to the bullpen and promptly became great. 2. Triple A Of our 4 AAA guys, only Kajimi and Ferrera have shown any signs of hope (though David has a pulse, he's a singles hitter with no patience, it seems, De La Cruz has a career minor league ERA of 6 but I guess his youth makes him good?). Everything but AAA is good. 3. Relief Pitching Outisde of Solis, our best major league ERA of any of the bullpen pitchers is 4.84. This is 3rd because it's not really a dilemna so much as it is a complete disaster.