Relievers. Who are they? What do they do? Until one bright spring day in 1993, nobody knew the answers to these simple questions. Then, MLB scientists made a breakthrough in their labs in the bowels of the Astrodome, and Mariano Rivera sprung forth from his mother’s womb fully formed and sawed off Jason Giambi. But the question they couldn’t answer is ‘what is the best season ever by a reliever?’. At the time, the technology was simply not expansive enough to begin delving into this question. Now, thanks to huge leaps in science, we can finally answer something that has plagued the minds of man since the dawn of humanity.
Now, clearly, the answer is Francisco Rodriguez, since he’s the single season save leader and that’s the best stat to measure relievers by. But let’s ignore that.
You can just look up which reliever has the most WAR in a single season, which is 1975 Goose Gossage by bWAR (8.2!?!?!) or 1977 Bruce Sutter by fWAR (5.2). The reason for this difference is because BaseballReference uses runs allowed to calculate bWAR, and FanGraphs uses FIP to calculate fWAR. Since relievers pitch such small sample sizes, there’s often a large gap between their FIP and their runs allowed (RA). Since we’re looking at the best season, and not the best player, I’m going to use bWAR (and thus RA) for this exercise.
(If you don’t know what FIP is, it stands for Fielding Independent Pitching, which looks at only the outcomes of at-bats which are solely between the pitcher and the batter - home runs, walks, and strikeouts. These stats are thrown together and then given a normalizing factor so that the average league FIP matches the average league ERA. FIP is a wonderful predictive tool, to the point where it is more predictive of a pitcher’s ERA next year than a pitcher’s ERA is. I’d rather not use it here because it doesn’t look at the actual results - if I was trying to find the best reliever, and not the best season, then I’d use FIP.)
Using a simple value added stat is incredibly biased towards 1970’s middle relievers who would throw 100+ innings in a year, though. WAR is a counting stat, so the more they pitch, the more they rack up. What about bWAIP? One BBRef search later, and I have this table.

Player	bWAR	bWA100IP	IP	Year	Tm
Ted Abernathy	6.2	5.84	106.1	1967	CIN
Steve Mingori	3.3	5.87	56.2	1971	CLE
Michael Jackson	3.8	5.94	64.0	1998	CLE
Bruce Sutter	6.5	6.07	107.1	1977	CHC
Jose Mesa	3.9	6.09	64.0	1995	CLE
Zack Britton	4.1	6.11	67.0	2016	BAL
Mariano Rivera	4.3	6.13	70.2	2008	NYY
John Hiller	7.9	6.31	125.1	1973	DET
Terry Fox	3.7	6.38	58.0	1962	DET
Jonathan Papelbon	5.0	7.34	68.1	2006	BOS

This is the top 10 relief seasons by bWA100IP, minimum 45 IP. This is a fairly tight pack all the way up until the final entry, where Papelbon’s 2006 leads by near 1bWA100IP. This seems like a good candidate for the best relief year ever.
(Interestingly enough, Bill James’ list of the 100 best reliever seasons ever, written in 2007, doesn’t include Jonathan Papelbon’s 2006 season. Joe Nathan’s 2006, where Nathan pitched the same number of innings and had a much worse ERA, made the list at #27. This is a reminder that Bill James is a fallible human being.)
So, if your criteria for best year by a reliever is bWA100IP, then the best option, by far, is Jonathan Papelbon. But before we look at the other options, here’s why Papelbon’s season was the best.
There have been nine reliever seasons (min. 40 IP) with a lower ERA than Papelbon’s 2006 0.92. Why aren’t they higher in bWAIP?

Player	WAR	IP	ERA	Year	Tm	R	ER
Zack Britton	4.1	67.0	0.54	2016	BAL	7	4
Joey Devine	1.9	45.2	0.59	2008	OAK	7	3
Fernando Rodney	3.7	74.2	0.60	2012	TBR	9	5
Dennis Eckersley	3.3	73.1	0.61	1990	OAK	9	5
Rob Murphy	2.5	50.1	0.72	1986	CIN	4	4
Rich Gossage	2.3	46.2	0.77	1981	NYY	6	4
Blake Treinen	4.1	80.1	0.78	2018	OAK	12	7
Bill Henry	2.5	52.0	0.87	1964	CIN	9	5
Dennys Reyes	2.2	50.2	0.89	2006	MIN	8	5
Jonathan Papelbon	5.0	68.1	0.92	2006	BOS	8	7

To begin with, bWAR uses RA for its calculations, which uses both earned and unearned runs. Dennys Reyes, Bill Henry, Blake Treinen, Rich Gossage, Fernando Rodney, Dennis Eckersley, and Joey Devine all had more RA/IP in their respective seasons. (The difference between their ERA and their bWAIP isn’t solely explained by this, but it’s good enough for now. We’ll get to that in a moment). This leaves 1986 Rob Murphy and 2016 Zach Britton. Why don’t they stack up?
The answer is a little thing I’d like to call ‘run environment’, which is encapsulated by BaseballReference’s stat RA9Avg. It takes what an average pitcher’s run allowed/9 innings (RA/9) was that year, and then adjusts it for park factors, for the defense, and for who that specific pitcher faced. If a pitcher had a relatively high run environment, it means he would be pitching in batter’s parks, faced tough opponents, had a bad defense behind him, etc. For a perfectly average pitcher, their RA/9 will match their run environment.
For Murphy, his run environment was 4.11. For Britton, it was 4.32. For Papelbon, it was a whopping 5.00. This makes a huge difference - Papelbon may have gotten slightly worse results, but he was starting from a much more difficult positions.
For another good way to illuminate the differences run environments can cause, I can bring up one of my favorite WAR comparisons! In 1965, Jim Maloney equalled Sandy Koufax in bWAR (and surpassed him if you count batting WAR) despite throwing 80 fewer innings with an ERA 0.50 higher. How did he do this? Simple. Sandy Koufax played in cavernous Dodger Stadium with a strong Dodger defense behind him, and so had a run environment of 3.49 RA/9. Jim Maloney, pitching at batter-friendly Crosley Stadium with a poor Reds defense behind him, had a run environment of 4.34, 0.85 more than Koufax. Since Maloney is expected to give up far more runs than Koufax and only gives up somewhat more runs, he has a large bWAIP lead.
Run environment is 99% of the explanation behind ‘why does WAR give this weird result?’ questions.
Most of the best reliever seasons by ERA have relatively a low run environment - after all, good defense and a friendly park factor really helps a reliever keep the runs down. Fernando Rodney had a run environment of 3.72 in his 0.60 ERA season, because he pitched at the Tropicana and had the Rays defense behind him. Mariano Rivera consistently had a high run environment (career average of 4.72) due to pitching in Yankee Stadium with horrible, horrible, horrible Yankees defenses behind him going against tough AL East opponents. He never had that ‘lucky’ season with a sub-1 ERA, which would likely have put him on this list. He has to live with the stigma of simply being the greatest reliever of all time, unfortunately. Papelbon had an incredible season in a run environment that was incredibly ill-suited for having an incredible season, so his bWAIP is leaps and bounds ahead of anyone else.
So is Jonathan Papelbon’s 2006 the greatest single season by a reliever ever? Well, maybe. Pound-for-pound, it certainly is. But some relievers can pound more often than others, even if they're not pounding quite as hard. Should 70’s and 80’s relievers be penalized for being slightly worse in twice as many innings as Papelbon? John Hiller’s 1973 is a good candidate if you prefer quantity over quality - 7.9 bWAR in 125 innings in relief. Of course, you can flip it around - why penalize Papelbon for pitching less when relievers of that era were expected to pitch less? With the bWAIP, it’s safe to say Papelbon was more dominant in his role than Hiller was in his.
Are there arguments for other pitchers and other seasons? Absolutely. Perhaps you prefer FIP for some reason - then you can probably give the nod to 2003 Eric Gagne, with 4.7 fWAR in 82 innings. I don’t think FIP works well for this type of analysis, because it doesn’t deal with actual results, but you do you. Perhaps you want to dive into BABIP and pick a season that wasn't as lucky - this seems like a fool's errand, since the best reliever seasons are all lucky ones.
Of course, if you believe the best ability is availability, the nod goes to Mike Marshall, who appeared in 106 (!?!) games for the 1974 Dodgers. His 2.42 ERA is tarnished somewhat by the 3.33 run environment at Dodger Stadium at the time, however. Marshall apparently still has very interesting ideas on training to be able to pitch that many innings, but no MLB training staff will let him near their pitchers for some reason.
Now, I know we’d all like someone else to have the best relief season ever in baseball - someone who didn’t attack teammates, someone who didn’t watch porn in the clubhouse, someone who doesn’t hit Manny Macha - ok, I’m fine with that one. But why couldn’t it have been someone like Eric Gagne, or Robb Nen, or Heathcliff Slocumb? I don’t think I’ve ever heard anything negative about those guys. Maybe it’s just time to move on, and let bygones be bygones.
As I understand, Papelbon is just 24 hours from picking a new team, so it’ll be exciting to see him back in the league. Hopefully, he doesn’t choke his comeback.

If you'd like to catch up on previous installments, you can do so here: Initial Setup, 2020 Season Report, 2021 Season Report, 2022 Season Report, 2023 Season Report
Let's take a look at the award winners from 2023 to wrap that year up and then get into the moves made and the season recap for 2024!

2023 Offseason News

League News:

• Scott Oberg wins the AL Reliever of the Year award, Detroit's Drew Carlton received votes. In the NL, Miami's Thomas Burrows wins the award.
• 1B Diego Maicon powers his way to the AL Rookie of the Year with 43 homeruns while SS Nasim Nunez's 30 stolen bases helps him take the NL trophy.
• Detroit's Casey Mize takes home the AL Cy Young Award, receiving all 32 first place votes. San Diego's Luis Patino was the NL's best offering and wins the award.
• Houston's Kyle Tucker unseats Mike Trout as the AL MVP with a stellar season for the Astros. In the NL, Cody Bellinger wins his third straight MVP and 4th in the last 5 years.

Detroit Achievements:

• Ke'Bryan Hayes wins his first Gold Glove at 2B.
• SP Casey Mize wins the AL Cy Young Award!

Offseason Transactions

Owner gave us a $4,000,000 budget increase, but we have some solid players coming off of minimums, so our scouting and development budgets will be going down from their max.
League News:

• 1B Matt Olson signs with the San Francisco Giants for $212,600,000 over 7 years.
• Reliever of the Year Scott Oberg, along with SP Carmen Mlodzinksi and $2,000,000 in cash are dealt to the Rockies for CF Garret Mitchell.
• The Chicago Cubs and White Sox complete a cross-town deal with RF Nomar Mazara going to the Cubs and SP Will Mercer and 2B Ryan Bliss going to the White Sox.
• Chicago Cubs sign SP Jose Quintana for $72,000,000 over 4 years.
• SP Luke Weaver is sent to the Rockies for a package of 3 prospects.
• Chicago Cubs sign SP Kyle Hendricks for $82,000,000 over 5 years.
• NPB star SS Hayato Sakamoto signs with the Texas Rangers for 4 years, $52,400,000.
• SP Noah Syndergaard is sent to the Cincinnati Reds for a package of 3 prospects.
• SP Blake Snell nets $18,800,000 a year for the next 5 seasons with the Boston Red Sox.
• 1B Max Muncy gets $82,000,000 over 4 years to head cross-town to the Angels.
• 3B Miguel Andujar signs with the Marlins for $10,000,000 a year for 4 years.
• The Giants pay SP Carlos Martinez $16,500,000 a year for the next 4 seasons.
• Kyle Schwarber nets $19,142,857 a year for the next 7 years with the Houston Astros.
• Cleveland Indians sign SP Dinelson Lamet to a 2 year deal worth $53,400,000.
• Max Kepler is signed by the Washington Nationals for 5 years at $92,900,000.
• No one is elected to the Hall of Fame. Gary Sheffield (40.1%/10th year) is removed from the ballot.

Detroit Departures:

• RP Bryan Garcia
• CF Albert Almora Jr.

Detroit Trades:
Trade #1 Detroit receives: 2B Marcus Chiu, RP Jack Little Los Angeles receives: RP Junior Fernandez, RP Brendan White
Fernandez didn't seem like he was going to make it back to the majors and was available as an auto-renew for 1M+, so I moved him for another reliever that I can take a chance on and a 2B prospect that looks ready for AAA and gives me some infield depth.
Trade #2 Detroit receives: RF Ismael Mena, 2B Jordy Barley, $750,000 San Diego receives: SS Vidal Brujan
Brujan wasn't very good for us last year and was super pissed about not being an everyday starter. I can't offer him that, but the Padres were willing to part with a decent middle infielder who will play in AAA and a RF prospect that I'm really excited to be adding to the team in Mena, with great personality traits.
Trade #3 Detroit receives: 3B Jordan Diaz Oakland receives: RP Blake Taylor
Taylor wasn't going to stick with the team after a down season and some regression, but Diaz looks like a solid piece for the future. He's 23, cost-controlled and already has a nice hitting profile. He'll start in AAA likely.
Detroit Additions:
OF Jairo Pomares - He was on the waiver wire to end the season and looks like a more than capable hitter. He's young and on a minimum, so I figured I'd take a flier on him.

Spring Training

We have $17,600,000 available for free agents/trades for the season, $12,000,000 set aside for the draft and $5,400,000 set aside for international amateurs. We're spending the maximum allowed on development again this year.
We used the spring to have Castro play 2B and Gold Glover Ke'Bryan Hayes play SS.
Detroits News:

• SP Matt Manning tore a back muscle and will miss four months.
• RP David McKay tears his rotator cuff and will miss 6 months.

Regular Season

First Half
We take an Opening Day win behind a nice outing from Casey Mize and hope to continue that momentum. We're projected to win 99 games and have three top pitchers, but I have my doubts - especially with Manning missing significant time. I normally don't note much about the second game, but it was Kumar Rocker's first start and he was stellar - 8 and a third innings, 1 run and 7 strikeouts - a good look for the rookie.
As we roll into May we sit at 18-14, five games back of the unstoppable Cleveland Indians. We started 5-0, but we've had some down stops as well. At 32-28 on June 1st, the team is now seven games back of the Indians and three games back of the wild card. We need some help. Sandy Alcantara goes back into the rotation, replacing a struggling Justin Dunn, while bullpen roles get shifted as well. Ke'Bryan Hayes has been incredibly unlucky at the plate with a .222 BABIP, resulting in a .187 batting average. We'll give him another month to sort it out, but we move Evan White to CF and bring Riley Greene into the starting lineup to spell a struggling Parker Meadows. We bring up Jonathan Bowlan and David Parkinson, sending down Alex Lange and Drew Carlton to AAA.
2024 Draft
Another low pick for us, this year we spend the 27th on SP Doug Wade in the 1st round. We double-down on pitching in the 2nd with Kevin Abbs. We grab a SS that looks like a future gold glover in the third in Jeff Allemand. Left fielder Mike Gode is next on the merit of his bat. In the fifth it's center fielder Jim Longchamps with a stellar combo of speed and defense. We like the next picks of SS Ben Barilla, CF Mike Voytko and CF Kevin Devaney as well.
We limped into the All-Star break with a record of 38-37. Matt Manning returns from injury though, and hopefully it's a much-needed shot in the arm. It seems to work as the team goes on a winning streak to finish June, landing 1st in the Wild Card at 46-40 (yet still 9 back of the surging Indians).
July would prove to be a turning point for us as we secured series wins against the Mariners, Rays (swept), White Sox (swept), Rangers, Blue Jays (swept) and Angels en route to a showdown with the Indians to close the month. That showing put us 3 games up on the wild card, but still 7 back of Cleveland. We take one from them, but they prove to be too much, winning two to end the month.
Second Half
August is a new month though, and we kick it off with series wins against the Athletics and Twins, but then get swept by the Yankees. We sweep the Royals and win a series against the Steelhounds to sandwich a series loss to the Orioles and head into roster expansion. We send down David Parkinson and bring up RP Ethan DeCaster, CF Jairo Pomares and 1B Bryant Packard.
We roll into September, securing wins against a number of top teams. On September 14th we lose RP Jack Little for four months, but also clinch a playoff spot. We sit three games back of Cleveland with a chance at a division title and a series against them. We take game one handily, but draw their ace in game two against our back-half and fall by one. Mize carries us to a 2-1 win in game three though to win the series and put us just two games back three games left, giving us an outside shot. We take a game against the Athletics and the Indians drop one to the Angels to move us one game back. Another huge win against the Athletics, coupled with a Cleveland loss and we sit tied heading into game 162. We control our destiny and can force a tiebreaker!
Unfortunately, there are no last game heroics - the Athletics steal one from us and the Indians prevail, we'll take the top wild card spot.

Playoffs

We've secured a wild card berth one again, this time against the Athletics - who put us there with a win in Game 162. We have Casey Mize on the mound and it's a game we should win - we were probably the third best team in the AL, but the Indians control our division.
Wild Card - Game 1 - Tigers defeat Athletics, 9-5 We've finally advanced past the wild card round in my tenure! Mize gets hit later in the game, but we pretty much control this one wire to wire and now must face the Rays, a team we were 8-4 against during the regular season.
Division Series - Game 1 - Rays defeat Tigers, 7-6 We jump to a 6-0 lead and then crumble the rest of the way. The bullpen really didn't do too bad, just couldn't get another run on offense. If we score six, we should be winning.
Division Series - Game 2 - Tigers defeat Rays, 6-5 So I guess we're having only close games. This time it's us that had to battle back throughout the game to score, but we did it. We need better outings from the rotation.
Division Series - Game 3 - Rays defeat Tigers, 7-4 Well, we aren't getting good outings from our good pitching staff, which is irritating. The Rays blast us for 7 runs in the first three innings and we can't recover. We're on the ropes now, let's see what we're made of.
Division Series - Game 4 - Tigers defeat Rays, 4-1 Finally we get an elite performance. Mize showed up, holding them to one run over nearly 8 innings and the bullpen shut the door for us. We've got Rocker on the mound in Game 5 against Glasnow, their ace, so it'll be a high pressure situation for the rookie.
Division Series - Game 5 - Tigers defeat Rays, 6-4 We pulled it off! Rocker gave us 6 innings of quality work, only allowing 2 runs. Zach Hess got rocked in relief, but De Geus and Short shut it down after that. We got on Glasnow early and chased him before he could complete 5 innings and maintained he lead all the way! Willy Adames of the Rays was named series MVP.
The bad news for us is that the Indians swept the Angels in their series and they'll be our opponent in the League Championship Series. We were 5-7 against them during the season. Their lineup is strong, particularly the Lindor-Ramirez-Aquino-Casas gauntlet that sits from #2-#5 in the order. Their pitching is even better though, with the league's lowest FIP and best bullpen ERA, which helped them to the second fewest runs against. Shane Bieber had a down year, but he's still Shane Bieber - but Daniel Espino and Dinelson Lamet give them a fearsome three-headed monster. This will be tough to unseat the defending champs.
League Championship Series - Game 1 - Tigers defeat Indians, 3-2 A HUGE road win against Bieber off of Castro's two-run dinger in the 8th inning. Bieber was stellar, but we happened to get ahold of Edwin Diaz, which is also surprising. Manning was decent and our bullpen was stellar. I'm pumped to steal one in Cleveland.
League Championship Series - Game 2 - Indians defeat Tigers, 6-5 This was about as close as it can get throughout - we kept answering each other at the plate until we finally failed to do so. It's a shame to chase Espino so early and still lose with Mize on the mound, but I'm still glad to have one win already.
League Championship Series - Game 3 - Indians defeat Tigers, 4-1 Yeah, Lamet held us in check and their bullpen was stellar. Skubal was unfortunate, giving up three runs with only one of them being earned. It particularly hurts because the error was by Ke'Bryan Hayes, last season's gold glove winner. We need to bounce back in Game 4.
League Championship Series - Game 4 - Indians defeat Tigers, 7-6 (13) Well, that hurts. We got a serviceable outing from Rocker and got on Plesac early - we got some runs on Edwin Diaz again too, but the rest of their bullpen was untouchable. Ours, on the other hand, all gave up runs except for Zach Hess. Tough. We battled, but this road is now an incredibly uphill one.
League Championship Series - Game 5 - Indians defeat Tigers, 4-2 Manning got blown up and Bieber continues having a strong postseason - he seems to have caught fire at the right time for them. We have a lot to take from this series and feel good about going forward, but I'm starting to really dislike Cleveland. Their reign needs to end.
World Series Well, the Giants draw the appearance for the National League and get off to a 3-0 start. But Cleveland, they aren't killable are they? No, no they are not. They came back. They won the dang thing. The Cleveland Indians repeat as MLB Champions.
Detroit Achievements

• SP Casey Mize is named an All-Star
• 2B Willi Castro is named an All-Star starter
• 3B Isaac Paredes is named an All-Star
• RF Yaya Chentouf is named an All-Star
• SP Justin Powell, C Dale Burton and SS Trevor Haskins are named to the All-Prospects Game - Haskins wins MVP.

Season Recap

My division nemesis wins the World Series after sending us home. I dislike this. We had a great season though with our best win total of my tenure and had he most cost efficient team per wins, runs scored and WAR in the league. We became a top 10 team in attendance and our player's popularity is growing. Our owner wants us to upgrade at short stop - so I guess he doesn't like the Castro/Hayes swap - so we make take a look at that once again. Spoiler alert - we got a budget increase, so maybe we'll spend it. Who knows.

Hitters

Starting Lineup
CF Parker Meadows
Meadows ended up going to the bench instead of an everyday starter as his bat just wasn't there like it was last year. He's a quality fielder and baserunner and makes the minimum, so he'll be back - but he may not have a clear role on the team in the future.
DH Kyle Isbel
Isbel ended up much lower in the order during the season and his bat just wasn't good enough for a DH role. My scout thinks he should be better than he is, but I have two seasons of data that say he isn't. He's also listed as fragile, which I'm not sure if I just missed that before or if it's new, but I may try to move him this offseason.
2B Willi Castro
Willi just keeps getting better. He was a 2.5 WAR player as a rookie, gave me two seasons of 5 WAR and now nearly 8 this season - the move to 2B seems to have worked well for him and he was a plus defender. He led the league in runs, had his best season yet at the plate and was a 20/20 player. His arbitration estimate is $15,000,000 - which is a lot, but I don't see how I can let him walk while I have contract control. He's given me four full seasons without any injury issues, is a fan favorite and one of my best players. I'd love to sign him longer term if it's reasonable.
RF Yaya Chentouf
Yaya made his first all-star team, led the league in walks and was a dominant hitter for us this season. He's come a long way since he was a struggling reliever in my minors, now giving us nearly 6 WAR in RF. He's on a minimum deal and was incredible, he's obviously returning. His jump from 25 to 51 homeruns helped us accomplish our goal of improving on our homerun total that our owner set as well. Yaya has also become extremely popular at a national level - he's quickly become one of my favorites.
1B Ryan Mountcastle
Mountcastle continues to be a steady performer for me - he's not an all-star and he's not going to win any awards, but he's reliable and dependable. He bounced back from his 1.4 WAR season to give us nearly 3 this year, hit well and played good defense. His arbitration estimate is cheap, so he'll return.
LF Evan White
White was a bit disappointing again. He was the hottest player on the team two years ago and gave us 5 WAR, now he's struggling to hit 2. The bat has cooled off considerably, though, much like Isbel, my scout thinks he should be better than he has been. He doesn't appear to be having any bad BABIP luck either, so maybe he's just not as good as I had hoped, but still serviceable. He's still locked up long-term with Seattle footing 40% of the bill, so that's good. Defensively, I prefer him in left than center, but center field continues to elude me. It might be worth considering if I need both him and Mountcastle, or if I should move White to 1B or move him out.
3B Isaac Paredes
Well now, here is a pleasant surprise. Paredes wasn't someone who had a big BABIP jump, but his bat was much improved this year - going from below league average to one of the best in the league. He gave us 4.3 WAR despite missing a few weeks with injury as well, so a solid season all-around. His arbitration estimate isn't too bad, so I'll definitely be keeping him around. His personality concerns me, but if he keeps up the performance from this season he'll be hard to move on from.
SS Ke'Bryan Hayes
I had hopes that swapping Hayes and Castro would empower them both to have better seasons defensively and thus provide more value. While Hayes was a plus defender at short, it wasn't by much and I've seen four seasons of his bat not being that good. Yes, he was unlucky this season, but I'm not sure he's going to give me much even if he wasn't. If I can find a better defensive option, I may just do that.
C Christian Vazquez
My catcher position has never been one worth going crazy about. Vazquez continues to be a bad hitter for me, despite that one great season, but his defensive value is so hard to gauge. Our pitching staff was the league's best and it's tough to not credit Christian with a lot of that. I'm going to let him hit free agency and try to get him cheaper there.
Bench/Replacements
C Jake Rogers
Rogers was a better backup this year than last year, despite less appearances. I'll probably bring him back, but I might give more time to Drew Romo next year and see what he brings. Rogers looks like a solid backup with no real intentions of being a starter.
3B Jordan Diaz
Diaz was brought in to maybe replace Paredes if he struggled and I think he pushed Isaac to a career year. Diaz was decent enough as a bench player and he'll either be back with us or in AAA next year to see if he fills out some more.
RF Riley Greene
Greene pretty quickly became the everyday starter in left field, forcing my hand with his play as a fourth outfielder. Well, he was pretty dang good as a rookie, giving us 3.4 WAR in 118 starts. He was a great hitter and brought some extra pop to the lineup as well. My scout thinks his discipline will come along as well, and I hope it does because he'll be deadly if so.
OF Jairo Pomares
Pomares was tearing it up in AAA, came up at the end of the year and had a decent, albeit brief, appearance. He may be a full-time fourth outfielder next year.

Pitchers

Rotation
SP Casey Mize
Mize casually came out and improved upon his Cy Young campaign from last season, giving us a league leading 6.2 WAR and a 61 FIP-. He was pretty solid I'd say, obviously. All of that was despite a higher BABIP against him, so I like what Mize gave us. Will he repeat as Cy Young? I'm not sure, but he should be in contention.
SP Kumar Rocker
What can you expect from a rookie starting pitcher? Well, how about 4.2 WAR, a 130 ERA+ and a 73 FIP-? I will take that every single day of the week. Wow. Rocker was outstanding and my scout says this guy might get better - that is exciting. He struck out a lot of players, kept walks reasonable and overall was deserving of the #2 role in my rotation with Manning out.
SP Franklin Perez
"Fragile" Franklin finally gets his shot - and, well, he was... okay? He had four different injuries, big surprise, and was kind of rough as a starter. However, when I moved him to the bullpen, he was pretty good when healthy. I may try to capitalize on some team thinking he can be a full-time starter and move him out, but I've been saying that for awhile.
SP Justin Dunn
Dunn was worse in the rotation this year then he was last year, so he ended up being sent back to AAA to clear room for other arms. Similar to Perez, maybe I should try to move him - he has yet to perform in the majors.
SP Tarik Skubal
Tarik surprised me. He was decent enough the last two seasons, but was demoted to the pen last year. I didn't think he'd be in the rotation, but injuries said otherwise and his performance said it was a good call. He gave us 2.5 WAR as our fifth starter, which I'll definitely take. His arbitration estimate is 3M, which is probably doable.
Bullpen
SP Matt Manning
Matt missed four months with injury, which is alarming - but he came back strong and gave us 1.4 WAR in 19 starts. I suppose it was his worst stretch since his rookie year, but he was still an above average arm. The arbitration estimate is just over five million, so he'll likely be back.
RP Brett De Geus
My bullpen has yet to have a consistent leader. This year it was Brett de Geus, who gave us 2.1 WAR in 81 IP in his 63 appearances. He was downright dominant with a 58 FIP-, striking out 32% of the opposition. He'll be back on a minimum.
RP Gerson Moreno
Moreno was another new face who was surprisingly solid for us. He gave us almost 1 WAR over his league-leading 71 games and 24 holds. He was pretty solid and will be back on a minimum.
RP Zack Hess
Hess was as productive as Moreno in half as many appearances, so he was pretty great for us. He'll get more opportunities next year in the pen.
RP Kyle Dohy
Dohy was another 1 WAR reliever who was better than league average. He's also on a minimum and will be back - the high stuff, no control guys do well with Vazquez. He struck out nearly 40% of the opposition.
RP Jack Little
Little was decent enough before he got injured and missed the playoffs. He logged a lot of innings for us and gave us a solid 1 WAR. However, I think we have better arms and he won't be as relied upon next year.
RP Genesis Cabrera
Genesis was far better in the bullpen role this year than he was last year - giving us 1 WAR and a solid 149 ERA+ and 79 FIP-. He filled in for a recovering Alcantara at the end of the year too in the rotation. His estimate is less than a million, so he should return.
RP Drew Carlton
Here is the reason I was complaining about bullpen volatility - Carlton gave us 2 WAR last year and was so bad this year that I sent him down after 19 games and never looked back. I will not be picking up his arbitration.
RP Sandy Alcantara
Sandy was better than I expected despite his ratings falling a bit. He was mostly used in the pen, filled in as a starter later on, and was good at both. However, he wants eight million dollars to extend soooo good luck elsewhere!
RP Jonathan Bowlan
Jonathan got called up a couple of times, was serviceable when he was up, but will be back in AAA or gone next season.
RP Alex Lange
Keeping it short - Lange wasn't good when he was up and got sent down, where he'll stay.
RP David Parkinson
Even shorter - he was awful.

Prospect Watch

SP Justin Powell - Powell wasn't even listed last year because he struggled in rookie ball. I let him repeat, which I normally don't do, because he had just been drafted. Well, he had quite the development tour this year and is now ranked as not only my top prospect, but as the 2nd best prospect in baseball. The bad news is that he wasn't good in rookie ball again, but he'll go to A-.
SP Doug Wade - Wade was our top pick this year and was good enough in A- to go to A, where I hope he'll improve.
SS Trevor Haskins - Haskins was solid in A and will go to AA. I like his defensive profile and he's a solid baserunner. The bat tool needs some work still but I have high hopes.
C Dale Burton - Burton is, of course, still fragile, which isn't great. He was fine enough in A- to go to A though, but I don't know if he's a long-term option.
CF Petey Halpin - Petey will go to AAA next year. Maybe he's the future CF option, I don't know. Maybe he's just a fourth outfielder.
RF Ismael Mena - Mena was great in AA and will go to AAA. If he fills out the hitting tool, he doesn't have a weakness. He's a phenomenal runner and solid in the outfield. Hopefully he keeps progressing.
C Drew Romo - Romo's hitting never developed, not like it looked like it would way back in 2020. But, the defense is there and he might be the Vazquez replacement due to that alone. It's not like Vazquez has hit either.

Future Outlook

Arbitration is going to hit hard for some folks this year. Willi Castro and Casey Mize in particular. We're going to have to be more financially selective moving forward as we start to lose the cheap and controlled deals we've been accustomed to.

I shouldn’t have to make this, but after seeing people say “A-Rod was the better Yankee”, “Jeter wasn’t a real Captain”, and “Jeter is the worst defensive SS ever”, I had to.
14x All-Star
5x World Series Champion
2000 World Series MVP
1996 AL Rookie of the Year
5x Gold Glove Winner, trailing only Vizquel, Ozzie Smith, Luis Aparicio, Dave Concepción, and Mark Belanger for most by a shortstop.
5x Silver Slugger Winner
Longest Tenured Yankees Captain (2003-2014)
First Ballot HOF receiving 99.75% of vote
Robbed of MVP in 1999 and 2006
Yankees All-Time Leader in in hits (3,465), doubles (544), games played (2,747), stolen bases (358), times on base (4,716), plate appearances (12,602) and at bats (11,195).
6th All-Time in Hits and most by a SS
Career Postseason Stats- 158 games, .308 BA, 20 HR, 61 RBI, .838 OPS
He holds MLB postseason records for games played (158), plate appearances (734), at-bats (650), hits (200), singles (143), doubles (32), triples (5), runs scored (111), total bases (302) and strikeouts (135). Jeter is also third in home runs (20), fourth in runs batted in (61), fifth in base on balls (66) and sixth in stolen bases (18).
Only Player in History to bat .350 or higher in 4 different World Series
Jeter’s eight seasons of 200-or-more hits, the most by any shortstop, matches Lou Gehrig for the most by any Yankee.
In MLB history, Jeter is the only player with at least 250 career homers, a .300 lifetime batting average, 350 steals and 3,000 hits.
Jeter has a laundry list of famous moments
1996: In the game that made Jeffrey Maier famous, Jeter’s eighth-inning home run ties to the score and the Yankees go on to beat the Orioles, 5-4, in Game 1 of the ALCS.
2000: Jeter leads off Game 4 of the Subway Series with a first-pitch home run to spark a 3-2 win, then hits another homer in Game 5 to earn the World Series MVP.
2001, The Flip: From out of nowhere. Jeter catches an errant throw and flips to ball to catcher Jorge Posada to nip Jeremy Giambi at home and preserve a 1-0 Yankee win at Oakland that turned the ALDS.
2001, Mr. November: With the score tied in the 10th inning, Jeter hits a walk-off home run in Game 4 of the World Series to beat the Arizona Diamondbacks, 4-3, and earn a new nickname: Mr. November.
2004, The Dive: Jeter catches a pop fly against Boston and dives into the Yankee Stadium stands. He comes out bruised and bloody, but the Yankees come out a winner in 13 innings.
2011: Jeter joins the exclusive 3,000 hit club with a home run and caps a 5-for-5 day with a game-winning single in the eighth as the Yankees beat Tampa Bay, 5-4.
2014, The grand finale: Could it end any other way? In the final home game of his career, Jeter gave Yankees fans one final special moment, this one a walk-off single against the Orioles.
Also, this is just his on-field accomplishments, if we look at off-field, it gets even crazier. Derek Jeter is one of the most iconic and clutch players ever. He is the greatest SS in Yankees history.

Welcome back to year seventeen of the Alabama Slammers Franchise Report! Here are the links to the previous versions if you want to catch up (2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025, 2026, 2027, 2028, 2029, 2030, 2031,2032, 2033, 2034, 2035, 2036).
Previous Season Highlights:
Andy Schaffer wins Cy Young
20-year-old Marco Vazquez leads the league in batting average, hits, doubles, and triples
Edgar Sanchez wins seventh straight gold glove
6 players make all-star team
106-win regular season
Lost in NLCS 4-2
Start of Offseason:
As with the previous versions, I’ll list the moves I made, the rationale behind those moves, the season results, and the future outlook.
Here are the salaries heading into the offseason.
\Unless stated otherwise, all players were re-signed to their one-year arbitration estimate*
Departures (non-trades):
Ernesto Bernal
Bernal was discovered by my scout in 2022 and spent fifteen years with the organization. He’s the franchise’s all-time leader in games, at-bats, WAR, runs, hits, total bases, singles, doubles, triples, RBIs, and stolen bases. He’s the greatest player in franchise history and it really hurt to part ways with him, but all good things must come to an end.
He signed a 5/$84m deal with the Rangers, which seems reasonable, and had a solid year. I received a supplemental first-round pick upon his signing.
Drew Romo
Romo looked to be on his way out, so I let him walk as a free agent. He didn’t sign with a team and retired at the end of the season. He played his entire 12-year major league career with the Slammers and was a huge reason we had six Cy Young award winners during his tenure.
Eric Lawrence
Lawrence struggled last year in the majors, so I gave him a season in AAA to work things out. He looks ready for the big leagues again and will be an opening day starter or get traded.
Jeff Hopper
Hopper was excellent during his six years with us, highlighted by his 2035 campaign when he finished third in the MVP voting. He wanted 8/$232m to re-sign, which was too expensive for my tastes, and ended up getting 6/$156m from the Jazz, which is still too expensive for me. I don’t see this contract ending well.
Move #1:
Hired a new trainer.
I heavily prioritize prevention and this guy is good at preventing all types of injuries. Here’s my old trainer.
Move #2:
Slammers Receive: Edwin de la Torre
Diamondbacks Receive: Alex Rivera, Luis Arguello, Mike Dooner, Harold Coppola, Bryn Hill
De la Torre is my third baseman fantasy. He has elite batting potential, above average fielding ability, excellent baserunning, great character, durable injury proneness, and bats from the left side of the plate. I gave the Diamondbacks an assortment of young and talented players, but I would’ve gladly given them twice as much. Guys like de la Torre just don’t exist.
Move #3:
Slammers Receive: Jonathan Hubbard
Padres Receive: Eric Clark
Hubbard might not be anything special to the Padres, but he’s beautiful to me. He’s a right-handed hitter, has elite defensive ratings, doesn’t expect to start, is durable, and has the sparkplug personality trait. I needed a very specific player and Hubbard met all of my criteria. He’ll start against lefties and play a decent amount against righties in an attempt to keep Steve Flores healthy for the playoffs.
Move #4:
Signed Andy Schaffer to a 5/$105m extension.
Schaffer is 26 and just won a Cy Young, this seems like a pretty safe deal.
Move #5:
Signed free agent Tommy Noonan to a 3/$30m deal.
After looking through the available in-house, trade, and free agent replacement options, I decided the best course of action was to roll the dice on Noonan. I’ve seen players bounce back from the Guru before, so hopefully Noonan does just that. If he falls off a cliff, I’ll only owe him $15m after this year.
Move #6:
Added a Dominican Rookie League team.
We haven’t gotten much out of our scouting discoveries, and I think it might be partially due to them spending so much time in the international complex, so we’re adding a Dominican Rookie League team for them to develop in – The Kiev Blue Claws. Don’t ask me why the team is in Ukraine, it’s just what the owner wanted.
I promoted every player from the international complex, and I’ll continue to promote new players as they’re discovered. I’m interested to see how this works out.
Move #7:
Slammers Receive: Chris Joiner
Mets Receive: Joe Poffenberger
Poffenberger was given strong consideration for the starting catcher job this year, but I decided to go with Gutierrez instead. There was no need to keep Poffenberger around in the minors, so I swapped him for a guy that can provide some depth in a year or two.
In-House Moves (Preseason):
Sean Vahey remains on the major league roster after joining during roster expansion last season. He will be a member of the bullpen.
Jose Gutierrez promoted from AA. Will be the primary starter at catcher vs. RHPs.
Bobby McCallum promoted from AA. Will start at first base.
Seung-hwa Kim promoted from AA. Will start in left field.
Bob Banks will slide to DH with the promotion of Kim.
Final Financial Situation:
We have about $34m in available budget room to start the year, so shouldn’t need to make any trades for cash, and we might even complete the owner goal of ending the year with a balance of +$23m. He’s been hounding me about that one for a while.
Here are the salaries heading into the season.
Move #8 (Part 1, Part 2):
Slammers Receive: $14m
Slammers Lose: Chris Dearborn, Nate Holston
Turns out we needed some more cash. Holston is a career minor leaguer, but Dearborn might have a real MLB future. I’ve seen too many players with his profile flame out though, so I’m willing to take the risk he doesn’t amount to anything.
Season Outlook:
This is the most excited I’ve been about a season in a while. It’s always fun to cruise to 100-win seasons with established teams, but we’re going with the youth movement this year. Our five through eight hitters have a combined zero days of major league service, so I’m really trusting my scout that these rookies are ready to perform. The pitching should remain elite, so if the young guys come through, we should roll to another division title.
Batters:
Primary Lineup vs. RHP and vs. LHP when Healthy (\DH enabled in both leagues, lineup vs. RHP shown below)*
RF – Marco Vazquez
Vazquez cooled off a bit at the plate as compared to last season but upped his defense to boost his overall value. He made his second all-star team and won his first gold glove.
CF – Wil Mireles
Mireles had another excellent season but will be leaving as a free agent. He wants 8/$256m to re-sign, which is too much for me.
2B – Edgar Sanchez
Sanchez continued his march towards the hall of fame with another great year. He made his third all-star team and won his eighth gold glove.
DH – Bob Banks
Banks moved to DH this year, which should be the least taxing position, but missed about a month to injury. When healthy, he performed below his usual standard. Hopefully, he gets back on track next year.
LF – Seung-Hwa Kim
Kim had a solid rookie year and will be back for a sophomore campaign. He’s 26-years-old but still looks to have a lot of untapped potential.
3B – Edwin de la Torre
De la Torre had a monster rookie season, winning rookie of the month in September and taking rookie of the year honors. He’s 21-years-old, so should be around for a long time.
1B – Bobby McCallum
McCallum started off the year on a crazy hot streak. He won rookie of the month in April and June and was on pace for 65 home runs and 167 RBIs. He cooled off tremendously as the season progressed but was still good enough to finish third in the rookie of the year voting.
C – Jose Gutierrez
I feel pretty good about my decision to go with Gutierrez at catcher. He played great defense and was league average at the plate, which is all I could ever ask for. As an added bonus, his personality trait was revealed as sparkplug.
SS – Steve Flores
Flores came back from a year-long injury and played great. I would love to keep his defense around forever but it’s probably better to go ahead and move him before he gets injured again. I have a solid replacement in Eric Lawrence.
Bench
C – Danny Wells
Wells has been pretty much the same player since he debuted in 2032 but I’m ok with that. As long as he continues to play excellent defense, he’ll stick around.
IF – Justus Evans
Evans had a pretty good five-year run for a guy that used to be a pitcher. I have plenty of in-house replacements though, so he’ll leave as a free agent.
IF – Jonathan Hubbard
I brought in Hubbard to replace the fragile backup, so of course he got injured. He missed a month with a separated shoulder but did what was asked of him when healthy.
OF – Andy Vera
Vera is overqualified to be a bench player, but I have an excess of outfield talent and he’s the worst of the bunch. He might get a shot to start in center field next year with Mireles departing.
Replacements
IF – Chris McClain
It’s a good thing I kept the fragile backup middle infielder around. He filled in for Hubbard for a month and didn’t kill us.
OF – Mike Honeycutt
Honeycutt filled in for Banks and was pretty good in his limited opportunities. Depending on the rest of the roster, he might get a backup role next year.
Pitchers:
Pitching Staff when Healthy
SP – Corey MacDonald
I took the pitch count off MacDonald since his injury proneness was upgraded to iron man and he continued to stay healthy. He played well and made his seventh all-star game.
SP – Gilles Palacios
Palacios had one of his best seasons yet, winning the pitching triple crown and collecting his fourth Cy Young award. He wants 7/$245m to re-sign, but I’m going to try to find a way to bring him back. More than likely, I’ll have to sign him in free agency.
SP – Andy Schaffer
Schaffer decided to take it easy after winning a Cy Young last year and getting a contract extension. Hopefully, he goes back to his Cy Young ways next season.
SP – Eddie Copping
I had strongly considered a long-term extension for Copping in the offseason but I’m glad I held off. He struggled this year, posting his worst season yet. I think he’ll be fine going forward, but I’m much less worried about his performance without a long-term deal.
SP – Bobby Butler
Butler might not be done as a major league starting pitcher, but he’s done with the Slammers. He suffered a partially torn UCL in spring training, then suffered an eight-month setback in August. Hopefully, he still has some trade value when he returns.
RP – Alan McCarter
McCarter has been getting worse the last two seasons, but I’ve kept him around for his prankster personality trait. I’ll try to find someone in the offseason that’s also good at baseball.
RP – Tommy Noonan
Noonan isn’t the world beater he used to be but he’s still a really good reliever. I’m glad I brought him back.
RP – Jose Macias
Macias was solid for the second straight season and will be back next year.
RP – Sean Vahey
Vahey had a tough start to the season but established himself as one of the best relievers in the game by the end of the year. He’ll probably be around for his remaining five years of team control.
RP – Jose Aguilar
Aguilar once again performed like one of the best relievers in baseball, making his fifth all-star game. He has two more team friendly years on his contract, so will definitely be back.
RP – Mike Bentley
I was browsing through player profiles about halfway through the season and did a double take when I got to Bentley. All of a sudden, he had an 80-grade changeup and wanted to be a starter, which definitely wasn’t the case last year. I kept him in the bullpen until rosters expanded, then let him work as the sixth starter the rest of the season. He did well in his five starts and will be a member of the rotation next year. Hopefully, I can still sign him to a cheap extension.
Oh yeah, he also won reliever of the year.
RP – Steve Hixson
Hixson wasn’t as good as last year but he’s cheap and durable, so I’ll probably bring him back.
RP – Jonathan Kelsey
It’s always nice to have an iron man reliever that’s capable of competently starting 31 games. He moved to the rotation when Butler was injured and gave us 190.1 solid innings. Unfortunately, he’s an upcoming free agent, so probably won’t return.
Replacements
RP – Chris Larkin
Larkin was called up and given Kelsey’s bullpen role when Butler was injured. He wants to be a starter, but I don’t feel comfortable with his movement, so he’ll remain in the bullpen or get traded next season.
RP – Joe Cope
A 32nd round pick in 2032, it took Cope a while to figure things out in the minors, but once he did, he rose quickly through the system. He was called up when rosters expanded and struggled in limited appearances, but I think he’ll be one of the best relievers in the game in a year or two.
RP – Mike Blake
Blake was also called up when rosters expanded, and he pitched well in his three appearances. He looks like he could be a solid starting pitcher, but I have better options ahead of him, so he’ll have to take a bullpen role in the majors.
Season Results:
We didn’t do our usual raping and pillaging during the regular season but still won 104 games and took our eighth straight division crown. The Cardinals actually took the lead from us at game 130, but we took it back thirteen games later and pulled away late. The pitching continued to be dominant and the offense was amongst the league best. Other than Butler, we’re fully healthy going into the playoffs and will go with a playoff rotation of Palacios, MacDonald, Schaffer, and Bentley. Copping and Kelsey will move to the bullpen.
Our first-round opponent is the 94-68 Rockies. Their 3-5 hitters (Eric Zuniga, Noe Renteria, Robby Teeter) are terrifying, but they don’t have much pitching. We should be able to take this one.
Divisional Series Game 1, Rockies Win 5-3 – We played well overall but couldn’t overcome Renteria’s four RBI performance. Three players had solo home runs in the loss.
Divisional Series Game 2, Slammers Win 5-4 – MacDonald gave up four runs but the bullpen provided 3.2 scoreless innings to hold on for the win. We had fourteen hits in the contest and Sanchez led the way with two RBIs.
Divisional Series Game 3, Slammers Win 6-4 – New starter Mike Bentley had a great outing, striking out eight while giving up two runs over six innings. Banks led the way on offense with three RBIs.
Divisional Series Game 4, Slammers Win 8-1 – Schaffer pitched a gem, going seven scoreless innings and striking out nine. Everyone chipped in on offense en route to fourteen hits and eight runs.
Divisional Series Game 5, Slammers Win 12-8 – We knocked out their starter in the first and continued to pile on in the 12-8 victory. Kim led the way with two homers and three RBIs, winning series MVP.
Next up is the 101-61 Cardinals, led by young ace Eddie Salinas. They have a deep and balanced roster, so I could see this going either way. The winner should take the World Series.
NLCS Game 1, Slammers Win 6-4 – The rookie McCallum put the team on his back with a three-home run, five RBI performance. MacDonald gave up four runs in his second straight appearance, but Aguilar and Noonan closed out the game with 3.1 scoreless innings.
NLCS Game 2, Slammers Win 10-3 – It was Banks putting on his superman cape this time, with a four RBI performance. Bentley gave up two runs over 5.1 innings.
NLCS Game 3, Slammers Win 3-2 (12) – This one was close throughout, but a bases load walk by Kim in the top of the twelfth provided the game deciding run. Schaffer, Aguilar, Noonan, and Macias combined to allow two runs over twelve innings.
NLCS Game 4, Slammers Win 2-1 – Palacios came out on top in a pitcher’s duel and we swept the series. McCallum was named MVP, mostly off of his game one performance.
We’re once again facing off against the Red Sox in the World Series, and this should just be a victory lap. They have a very good rotation (Jorge Morones, Bobby Dibble, Rob McDowell, Josh Sheppard) but no one worth mentioning on offense. It’ll be a major upset if we lose this one.
World Series Game 1, Slammers Win 8-2 – We started off the series with a bang, getting home runs from McCallum, Banks, and de la Torre. MacDonald gave up two runs over 6.2 innings and Aguilar closed out the rest.
World Series Game 2, Slammers Win 7-4 – The Rookie Kim led the way with a pair of two-run homers. Then Bentley struck out eleven and gave up two runs over six innings.
World Series Game 3, Red Sox Win 3-1 – Red Sox ace Morones shut us down in the loss, but we can win the series without seeing him again if we win two of the next three.
World Series Game 4, Red Sox Win 9-7 – We were on track to win this one before a complete meltdown by Macias and Noonan in the eighth. They gave up a combined five runs in the inning and the offense couldn’t bail them out in the ninth.
World Series Game 5, Slammers Win 6-2 – We really needed this win. MacDonald and Vahey combined to hold them to two runs over nine innings and Banks led the way on offense with three RBIs. We’ll head back home and look to close out the series.
World Series Game 6, Slammers Win 14-5 – This one was close until a nine run explosion in the fourth inning put the game away. Every starter other than Kim had at least one RBI. The Red Sox first baseman won series MVP in the loss, but we’d much rather have the title than an individual award.
We’re really starting to roll now, as that’s our third title in six seasons! The young guys came through when it mattered and will hopefully lead us to many more titles in the future.
Here are the rest of the playoff results and MLB standings.
Top Prospects:
The top prospects list continues to be in flux, as we promoted three players and traded another three from last year’s edition, but we still have a lot of good players.
1.) Hector Ruiz
Ruiz was an honorable mention the last two years because I don’t trust international amateur free agent signings, but I’m ready to buy the hype now. If he can stay healthy and reach his full potential, he’s a 10 WAR player. He’ll begin next season at AA.
2.) Victor Lacayo
I’m starting to get some serious mileage from these international amateur free agent signings, as that’s how the top two players on the list were acquired. Lacayo has monster hitting potential for a middle infielder and could be elite defensively if he gets a slight bump to his range. Worst case, he’ll a great bench player. He’ll begin next year in A.
3.) Jake Maddox
Maddox continued his steady climb through the system and looks just about ready for the majors. Depending on what his ratings look like at the start of next year, he might make the opening day roster.
4.) Chris Joiner
I had a trio of guys last year that I thought were in line to take Justus Evans spot, but the acquisition of Joiner probably ended their major league chances. He plays above average defense at three positions, has the potential to be an elite hitter, and has excellent baserunning skills. He’ll begin next season on the opening day roster.
5.) Felix Lopez
Lopez could probably fill the role Joiner will take next year, but he’s still young, so I’ll give him a year in AAA to round out his skills. I like everything about him but his range, so hopefully that improves next year.
6.) Chris Overcash
Overcash looks ready for the majors but I don’t have a place for him, so he’ll start next season in AAA. I’ll get him some experience in left field, and he’ll be first in line as an injury replacement.
7.) Gabe Depass
If Depass had durable injury proneness, he’d be top two on the list. He’s a great talent but you can never put too much faith in a pitcher with normal injury proneness. He’ll start next season at A.
8.) Brad Cole
Cole is a very interesting player. Other than his outfield error, he has everything you’d want in an outfield prospect, so I’m hoping that improves next year in A. I was able to scoop him up in the sixth round since he was listed as a pitcher coming out of the draft.
9.) Nate Bianco
Bianco’s movement still hasn’t improved, so I’m starting to cool on him a bit. He performed well in A- though and will begin next season in A+.
10.) Chris Brown
Rest in peace Chris Brown. If he makes it back from his torn UCL, he’ll be restricted to bullpen duty.
Honorable mentions:
Andy West, Bob Larson
I usually don’t include players like this on the list, but these two curiosities have very interesting ratings profiles and dominated the competition in A. They’ll both begin next season in AA and I’m hoping their ratings catch up to their production.
Eric Whittington, Israel Lopez
Both of these guys were listed as starters coming out of the draft, but I’ve put them in their proper roles as relievers. Between the two of them, I’m sure one will make the majors.
Sam Leintz
Leintz can’t stay healthy, so he’ll probably get traded. Too bad, since I used a first-round pick on him last year.
Promoted to MLB:
Bobby McCallum, Seung-Hwa Kim, Jose Gutierrez
Future Outlook:
We have some tough decisions this offseason with Palacios’s upcoming free agency and logjams in the infield and outfield. Eric Lawrence deserves to start, as do a number of minor league outfielders, but we also have a lot young entrenched starters in the majors. I’m not sure yet how I’ll build the roster, but these are good problems to have. It’s not a question of how we win, but how do we win the most. Hopefully, we can push towards 120 wins next year.
Here is the budget and salaries heading into the offseason.

Hey Baseball buddies! Hope everyone had a relaxing Thanksgiving weekend...and following week. I'm back now, and it's time to get balls deep on the rest of this list.
This year’s Hall of Fame ballot includes 11 first time players. None of them are first ballot locks and some of them are guaranteed to fall off the ballot after one year of eligibility. So once again, we’re taking a look at all the ballot rookies, starting from the bottom. We've previously covered Nick Swisher, Michael Cuddyer and AJ Burnett, so it’s time for…
Dan Haren
Bill James Hall of Fame Monitor: 30
Career bWAR (13 years): 35.1
Stats: 153-131, 3.75 ERA, 2013 K, 2419.2 IP, 1.181 WHIP, 109 ERA+
Awards: All-Star x3 (AL 2007, NL 2008, ‘09)
League Leading Stats: Starts x3 (34, 2006; 34, 2007; 34, 2011), WHIP (1.003, 2009), K/BB x3 (5.15, 2008; 5.87, 2009; 5.82, 2011)
Teams Played For: Cardinals (2003-04), A’s (2005-07), D-backs (2008-2010), Angels (2010-2012), Nationals (2013), Dodgers (2014), Marlins (2015), Cubs (2015)
Throughout the ‘90s, David Cone picked up a reputation as kind of a gun for hire. Twice the Blue Jays brought him in mid-season for playoff pushes. The Yankees signed him longer term to solidify a rotation that won four rings, and Boston brought him in at the end of his career to try and stoke their own championship fires. He was a six-time all-star, a Cy Young winner and a fringe HoF candidate who was always happy with the “hired merc” persona.
Dan Haren was kind of like that, only more mediocre.
Daniel Boone* Haren first gained the attention of scouts while he was pitching at Pepperdine, along with teammate Noah Lowery. In their junior years, Haren put up a 2.22 ERA and was named WCC Player of the year, while Lowery posted a 1.71 ERA en route to being named WCC Pitcher of the year. Both players skipped their senior season and declared for the MLB draft; a draft in which the Giants would take Lowery in the first round, with the Cardinals drafting Haren in the second.
Lowery seemed to be on his way to a good-to-above-average career in SF until the Giants medical staff decided that he needed to be sacrificed upon the alter of Dave Dravecky and completely mis-managed a circulatory issue into a career ending forearm injury that cost Lowery a rib in the process. Meanwhile, Haren was completely fine, he was just in St Louis. He appeared in 28 games over two seasons, making 19 starts and throwing 4.2 shutout innings in the 2004 World Series, but the Cards wound up sending Haren to Oakland, along with Kiko Calero and future Mexican Baseball League gold glover Daric Barton, in a trade that netted them Mark Mulder.
In response Haren, clearly happy about being relieved of the burden of pretending that St Louis has the best fans in baseball, entered the prime portion of his career.
From 2005 to 2010, Haren’s age 24 to 29 seasons, ol’ Dirty Dan was a legit dealer. 85-64, 3.55 in 1343 innings, with 1176 K, to the tune of a 3.61 FIP, 1.173 WHIP and 123 ERA+. Over that span, he would make all three of his all-star appearances and be good for 27.1 bWAR, including back to back 6+ bWAR seasons in 2008 and 2009.
In the middle of that stretch, the A’s traded Haren to Arizona in exchange for a massive haul of prospects that included Carlos Gonzalez, Brett Anderson, Greg Smith, Dana Eveland and Chris Carter. Three of those guys would go on to have notable big league careers, but only one would make any noise in an A’s uniform because Billy Beane was always playing a game of keep away with himself.
The back half of Haren’s career, 2011-2015 was less successful. Haren kept on doing exactly the same things he’d always done, just with ever diminishing returns. Two full seasons in LAA, including his last really good effort in 2011. A season in DC. Back to LA proper for a season in Dodger blue. Then 21 games for Miami in 2015 before the Cubs traded for him to try and get them over the hump a year before they were really ready for prime time. (This was three years after a deal to trade Haren straight up for Carlos Marmol fell through. A deal which, while not being on quite the same level as Lou Brock for Ernie Broglio, would have been hilariously lopsided, nonetheless. Haren was still good for 500 innings of league average ball over his last three seasons; Marmol once finished third in the league in hit batters, despite only throwing 74 innings. A stat we celebrated by making him our closer. And sure, he gave us one pretty solid season, but then he started blowing saves like he was a drunken college student in Seattle during Fleet Week and you know what? I’m getting off track.)
Unlike Cone, Haren was never a guy who embraced the “missing piece” role. When the Angles let him walk after the 2012 season, Haren told the LA Times “I’m sick of changing teams.” And, since baseball is a petty bitch with a weird sense of humor, Haren would naturally be forced to change uniforms four times over the next three seasons.
A large part of the reason for Haren’s decline can be attributed to his change in velocity. Haren was never exactly a fireballer, but in the early portion of his career his fastball could routinely end up in the lower-end-of-the-lower-end of the 90’s and he could dial it up into the 93-94 range when he needed. By the time the Angels declined his option in 2012, however, his fastball was down to the high 80’s (a fact he’s kind of leaned into and embraced: his Twitter handle is @ithrow88). His last season in the bigs, Haren’s 86 MPH average was the second slowest non-knuckleballer in the majors.
Haren was able to remain effective because he’d always had impeccable control. At no point in his career did he ever walk more than 55 batters in a season and there were just three full seasons in his career when his BB/9 ratio got above 2. But he wasn’t ever known as a Maddux-type pitcher who lived life on the black. Instead, Haren liked to use his ability to throw any pitch at any time as a means of coming right at guys and challenging them where they live. When it worked, it worked: Haren struck out over 200 batters three times and was the active leader in K/9 ratio when he retired. But all that reward came with an ever increasing amount of risk as well: Haren coughed up 305 homers in his career, 54th all time. Back in 2016, Haren directly addressed his lack of both velocity and fear in an amazing, now sadly deleted, tweet: “Sometimes when the count was 3-1, I would just throw it down the middle and hope for the best. People pop up in batting practice, right?” (The quarantine has slowed him down a bit, but Haren has historically been a highly entertaining Twitter follow)
Dan Haren spent 13 seasons in the major leagues, dividing nine of those years more or less evenly betwixt the A’s, Dbacks and Angels. He made the most starts in Oakland and professed to be happiest in Anaheim, but he goes into the Hypothetical Hall with the Diamondbacks, as a nod to his two all-star appearances with the team and the two best overall seasons of his career. He’s also fifth all time in franchise history for bWAR for pitchers (13.1), sixth in ERA (3.56) and fourth in WHIP (1.132).
Chances of making the Hall: Worse than his chances of making an MLB comeback, better than his chances of winning the fastest pitch competition at your local ballpark.
Chances of leaving the ballot this year: 100%
*not his actual middle name, but fuck. It should be, right?

In the aftermath of the Super Bowl, the American Association has been busy, announcing their 2021 lineup and schedule, and continuing to fill rosters for the upcoming season, which will start on May 18.
Here's a look at what teams have been up to the last couple days:
Chicago Dogs
The Dogs re-signed RHP Justin Goossen-Brown, who will return for his third season with the Dogs. The 24-year-old righty is 1-2 with a 3.45 ERA in 22 games (four starts) over the 2019-20 seasons with Chicago, but he posted a 5.14 ERA in his eight appearances in 2020.
Next, they signed infielder Grant Kay. The 27-year-old previous reached as high as Triple-A with Tampa Bay, before signing with Sioux Falls in 2020, where he hit .262 with 3 homers and 18 RBI in 39 games.
Lastly, they re-signed 31-year-old reliever Paul Schwendel. Pitching professionally for the first time since 2015, Schwendel went 0-1 with a 5.81 ERA in 23 games, but struck out 33 batters in just 26.2 innings.
Fargo-Moorhead RedHawks
Fargo-Moorhead re-signed outfielder Alex Boxwell, a 24-year-old who suited up 34 times in 2020, batting .246 with 4 homers and 10 RBI. A Minnesota alum, Boxwell also has had cups of coffee with the St. Paul Saints and Gary SouthShore Railcats in 2018 and '19, before finishing the 2019 campaign in Fargo.
The RedHawks also inked right-hander Michael Hope, who they re-acquired in a trade with the Sussex County Miners of the Frontier League on January 25. The 24-year-old was a RedHawk in 2019, going 8-0 in 31 games out of the bullpen with a 3.46 ERA, striking out 46 over 59.2 innings, and even going 3-for-7 with a homer at the plate.
Lastly, the 'Hawks acquired another pitcher from Sussex County, trading for 29-year-old lefty Cam Hatch. Most recently, Hatch pitched in the pop-up league Yinzer Baseball Confederacy in 2020, going 0-2, but posting a 0.87 ERA with two saves over nine outings and 10.1 innings. Hatch has also pitched in the Pacific Association (2018-19) and the United Shore Professional Baseball League (2016).
Milwaukee Milkmen
The Milkmen re-signed three members of their championship squad, starting with set-up man AJ Schugel. The 31-year-old righty, who posted a 3.19 ERA in 73 MLB games from 2015-17, excelled for Milwaukee in 2020 after missing all of 2019, posting a 1.03 ERA in 28 games and allowing just ten hits in 26.1 innings, good for a microscopic .112 opponent's batting average.
Another righty reliever, 29-year-old Zach Hartman, re-upped as well. Hartman, Milwaukee's all-time pitching appearances leader with 60, returns for his third year with the Milkmen, having gone 4-4 with a 3.72 ERA over 87.0 innings. A former Dodgers and Angels prospect, Hartman was 1-1 with a 3.89 ERA in 18 games (four starts) in 2020, striking out 25 over 34.2 innings.
A man who caught both hurlers, catcher Christian Correa, returns for his second year in Milwaukee and fourth in the AA. Correa batted just .211 with four homers (one of them a walk-off) and 20 RBI, but was known for his defensive acumen behind the dish. The 27-year-old also has played in the AA for Kansas City (2017,19) and Sussex County (2018) in the now-defunct Can-Am League.
Winnipeg Goldeyes
Not content to watch two division rivals shore up their bullpen, the Goldeyes re-signed right-hander Nate Antone (who's not from San Antone). With the Goldeyes in 2020, the 29-year-old went 1-0 with a 3.55 ERA in 22 games, striking out 29 and allowing just 17 hits over 25.1 innings. An Indy-ball lifer, Antone had previously pitched for Quebec and Sussex County (both 2019) in the Can-Am League, Gary (2017) and Joliet (2017-18) of the Frontier League.
Also, the Goldeyes shored up the left side with southpaw Ken Frosch, who pitched for St. Paul from 2017-19. Frosch has appeared in 133 AA games (plus seven more in the postseason), going 9-6 with a 2,76 ERA in 124.0 innings with the Saints, striking out 129 and being the key lefty reliever on the 2019 AA Champs and the 2018 runner-ups. Including his 2016 stint in the Frontier League (with Evansville), Frosch has a career 2.47 ERA over 180 games, all in Indy ball.
Looking Ahead
So far, several teams already have quite a few signings, while others have remained rather silent on that front, though perhaps they are merely waiting out uncertainty in the MLB/MiLB umbrella to see what kind of players fall out and wind up in the Indy ranks.
What also will be interesting to see is the development of Kane County's roster. With Opening Day now barely three months away, the Cougars are in, but they have no manager and no players, so there will be a lot of scrambling done in the coming weeks.
On the other side, the traveling Houston Apollos will be run as a by-product of the Pecos League, meaning that their players will be supplied from the Pecos League, with the roster likely being assembled much later than other teams.

Welcome back to year seven of the Alabama Slammers Franchise Report! Here are the links to the previous versions if you want to catch up (2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025, 2026).
We had a disappointing season last year, going 80-82 and finishing third in the division. The owner isn’t happywith my performance and I’m in the last year of my contract, so I need to win now. The problem is my budgethas been cut by $32m and I need to part with some of my best players. Hopefully, I can work some magic and retool our team enough to save my job while not completely sacrificing our future.
As with the previous versions, I’ll list the moves I made, the rationale behind those moves, the season results, and the future outlook.
Here are the salaries heading into the offseason.
\Unless stated otherwise, all players were re-signed to their one-year arbitration estimate*
Departures (non-trades):
Brandon Komar
Komar was going to be our best pitcher this year but suffered a 12-month setback during his torn labrum recovery. He was eligible to return during the playoffs but sent back to the minors. I wouldn’t be surprised if he never plays in the majors again.
Here are his ratings at the end of last season.
Ben Bowden
Bowden was good for us last season but wanted too much to re-sign. He signed a 2/$3.2m deal with the Rangers and ruptured his UCL in April. He looks like he’s done as a major league pitcher.
Ludwin Jimenez
Jimenez is a solid player but got pushed out due to better options. He has a good chance of being back in the majors next year.
Joey Lucchesi
I didn’t bring back Lucchesi because he thought he was a starting pitcher, even though he’s not. The giants paid him like a starter, and he performed like a reliever forced into a starting role.
Jack Walker
Walker got roughed up last year so was sent back down to AA. He performed moderately there and will probably remain in the minors next season.
Freddy Galvis
Galvis’s ratings have slipped below MLB standards so I decided to let him leave as a free agent. He didn’t sign with a team this season.
Jeison Guzman
I wanted to keep Guzman as a minor league depth piece, but he was out of options. The Giants claimed him on waivers, released him two days later, then he signed a minor league deal with the Marlins, was eventually placed on waivers again, and then claimed by the Mets. His journey around the league didn’t do him any favors and he looks done as a major league player.
Ke’Bryan Hayes
Hayes had a couple of good seasons for us, but I decided to go with other options. He signed a minor league deal with the Bandits and was decent.
Move #1:
Slammers Receive: Josh Sheppard, $300k Cash
Braves Receive: Jack Flaherty, Bruce Ledezma
So, I need to win this season to save my job, and the first thing I do is trade my best player to a division rival for a player that might help us in three years. If I get fired this will probably be the reason why, but I really need to clear some budget room and this is by far the best offer available. We lost $29m last year and the owner isn’t going to be happy if we do that again. Hopefully, Flaherty tears his rotator cuff in spring training.
Move #2:
Signed Christian Vazquez to a 2/$4m extension. The second year is a team option with a $500k buyout.
Vazquez doesn’t really do anything on offense but he’s elite defensively. Maybe I’ll keep him around until he’s 40.
Move #3:
Slammers Receive: Connor Jones (40% retained), Robby Teeter, Sam Lauderdale
Angels Receive: Jose Paulino
Paulino was great last season but I’m betting on him falling off sooner than later. Also, if he has another good year, his arbitration estimate will get too high for my liking.
Jones is a dominant reliever and he’ll only cost me $3m a year for the next three seasons. I know his age makes him a risk for injury and regression, but his high character should get him through the rest of his contract.
Lauderdale is willing to accept a bullpen role and should be good as a long reliever. He can also make spot starts.
Teeter has some of the best batting potential I’ve ever seen. He looks like he could put up 8 WAR with just his bat. He’s also got great character and has performed well in the low minors. His defense and baserunning are awful, but I think I can work around those. He’ll make for an excellent replacement for Ohtani if I can’t re-sign him.
Move #4:
Slammers Receive: Ryan Castellani (5% retained)
Rockies Receive: Jesus Atencio
I’m once again in desperate need of starting pitching, so I’m taking a chance on Castellani. Hopefully he can be a league average pitcher outside of Coors.
Atencio is a career minor leaguer.
Move #5 (part 1, part 2, part 3):
Slammers Receive: $13.1m Cash
Slammers Lose: J.D. Brock, Scott Kobos, Nelson Gomez
I’m probably going to need cash for draft picks and an international amateur, so I went ahead and started selling prospects. Some of these guys are useful minor leaguers but they’re probably not going to play in the majors.
Move #6:
Slammers Receive: A.J. Puk (75% retained)
Dodgers Receive: Jesse Lepore
Puk is pretty old but still looks like he could be really good. Hopefully my defense will allow him to excel. He’ll cost us about $1m per year for the next two seasons.
Move #7:
Signed free agent Blake Taylor to a 3/$9m deal. The third year is a team option with a $500k buyout.
The last time Taylor played for us he was an all-star and one of the top relievers in the game. I’m hoping he gets back to form after spending two years in the Coors pitcher torture chamber.
Move #8:
Slammers Receive: Taylor Walls (60% retained)
Pirates Receive: Rio Britton, Andy Clayton, Sam Thompson
I needed another infielder after Hayes left in free agency and Walls was available on the trading block. He’s been pretty good the last couple of years and will cost a little under $4m a year for the next two seasons. Clayton is the only player I didn’t want to part with, but I think his odds of reaching the majors are slim.
Move #9:
Signed free agent Hee-Joon Bang to a 3/$22.5m contract.
This signing is directly tied to the next move. I’ll try to justify it below.
Move #10:
Slammers Receive: Clayton Andrews (10% retained), Hunter Mink
Mariners Receive: Jordan Alvarez
Alvarez is really good but he’s probably going to be really expensive his last two arbitration years. He’ll make $5m this season, $6.5m next season, then probably $10m+ the two years after that. I decided I’d rather lock in Bang at $7.5m for the next three years than play the arbitration game with Alvarez. Also, Bang is durable and better fits my system.
Andrews is a really good lefty reliever that will fill the middle relief spot vacated by Lucchesi and Fink will get a shot at the starting rotation. This seems like a great deal in the aggregate.
Final Financial Situation:
The owner dropped our budget another $2m at the start of the preseason, so we only have about $11m in available funds heading into the season. If I need a pitcher, I’ll spend the money on one of those over signing draft picks since we need to win now.
Here are the salaries heading into the season.
Move #11:
Slammers Receive: $1m Cash
Royals Receive: Luis Araujo
Here’s our annual “prospect for cash” trade. I don’t think I’ve given up anything of value in one of these yet.
Season Outlook:
I’d say we have about a 60% chance of making the playoffs. I probably could’ve done more to win now but would’ve had to give up too much. Even if I have a winning record this year, I’m probably not going to do enough to get a multi-year extension, so I need to plan for winning next season too.
The pitching is mediocre, the bullpen should be dominant, the offense should be better with a full season of Bernal, and the defense should be elite. We have a good amount of pitching depth in the minors, and a moderate amount of position player depth. Hopefully, we stay healthy and win more games than we lose.
Batters:
Primary Lineup vs. RHP when Healthy (\DH enabled in both leagues)*
3B – Nick Gordon
I moved Gordon back to the leadoff spot after a strong 2026 campaign, but he struggled and ended the year on the bench. He’s an upcoming free agent and probably won’t return.
LF – Jeisson Rosario
Rosario had a monster season. He had an OPS+ of 124 and won his first gold glove. I doubt he can keep up his .387 BABIP but he should be an above average player going forward.
He sent me a message in May saying he wanted an extension, so I asked and couldn’t believe how low his demands were. He wanted 3/$5.7m but I decided he deserved more and offered 3/$6m. He accepted and now I have one of the best value contracts in the game.
1B – Ernesto Bernal
I had high expectations for Bernal after his great rookie season, but he was pretty underwhelming. It looks like he had some bad luck with his .261 BABIP, so hopefully he bounces back next year. I need him to be good.
DH – Shohei Ohtani
Ohtani was amazing this year. He was the hitter of the month for May and June, was named an all-star starter, won the platinum stick award at DH, and was named MVP. He also made a really strong run at the triple crown.
He’s been our best player since the day he arrived and is the undisputed face of the franchise. I want to bring him back, but I don’t think I can afford his 7/$245m demand. I’m hoping I can get him for around 4/$120 in free agency, but I honestly have no clue how the AI teams will value him with his pitching ratings.
RF – Will Shirah
Shirah had another solid year but missed the last month of the season to injury. He’ll probably be back.
2B – Taylor Walls
Walls was a great acquisition. He ended up replacing Gordon in the leadoff spot and won his first gold glove at second base. He has one year remaining on his contract that I’ll have to pay about $4m of.
C – Christian Vazquez
It seems like whoever I name the starting catcher is bound to have a bad season and be replaced by the backup. Vazquez was really bad the first half of the year, missed four weeks to injury, was moved to the bench when he returned, then played better after that. I’ll bring him back as the number two catcher next season.
SS – Willie Vega
Vega continues to be excellent in the field. He had a zone rating of 28.4 and won his second straight gold glove. He’s improved offensively and I’m hoping he can be a league average hitter next year. I might look to lock him up long term so I’m not paying market value for a 7 WAR short stop in a few seasons.
CF – Franyel Baez
Baez has been a steady presence for us the last four seasons, providing excellent center field defense and competent offense. I should have a couple of in-house replacements ready by the time he hits free agency.
Bench
C – Drew Romo
Romo is the best defensive catcher in the game and had his best offensive season yet. He’ll be the starter next year.
IF – Marcelo Mayer
Mayer had one good year in 2025 but hasn’t done much since. He started off the season in the majors so I could keep my top prospect in AAA and then was sent down to AAA himself halfway through the year. An injury to Walls forced him back up the next day but he was sent back down when Walls returned and finished the year in AAA.
OF – Matt Hogan
Hogan had an amazing 2025 season, but I think that was a mirage. He’s been bad the last two seasons and probably won’t be back for a third. I’ll give one of my minor leaguers a shot at the fourth outfielder position.
Replacements
IF – Josh Epps
Epps was number one on my top prospects list last season and was ready to start the season in the majors, but I kept him in the minors to get another year of control. He was called up halfway through the season to replace Mayer as the utility infielder but was forced into a starting role when Walls went down to injury the next day. Epps played so well I had to leave him in the starting lineup when Walls returned, and he looks like he’ll be a top performer for many years to come.
C – Roberto Alvarez
Alvarez was called up for a few weeks when Vazquez was injured and was pretty bad. He’s out of options years so won’t return if someone picks him up on waivers.
OF – Christian Moore
Moore was forced up again this season due to injuries and was actually pretty good after a rough first few games. He was the starter the last couple weeks of the season and will be in consideration for a role next season.
OF – Tim Mehler
Mehler was called up when Hogan and Shirah were both injured, and my AA and AAA replacements were also injured. He’ll start next season at AA and hopefully improves his contact before getting called up again.
Pitchers:
Pitching Staff when Healthy
SP – Justin Steele
Steele wasn’t very good and couldn’t stay on the field due to injuries, so I shipped him off in June.
Move #12:
Slammers Receive: Mike Ruhs
Indians Receive: Justin Steele (100% retained)
This isn’t a great value trade, but it was better than the alternative of releasing Steele or letting him continue to play poorly. Ruhs should be a member of the bullpen sooner than later.
SP – Rawley Hector
Hector looks like he should be better but he’s just kind of average. The only problem I can find is he has a poor relationship with the bench coach. Hopefully, he’s better next season.
SP – Cooper Benson
Benson is a perfectly average starter and should be back next season.
SP – Ryan Castellani
Castellani was below average but healthy. I have him signed for one more year cheap, so he will return if better options don’t emerge.
SP – A.J. Puk
Puk was decent and should return. Maybe he’ll have a breakout season next year and get me a compensation pick.
CL – Hee-Joon Bang
Bang did about what I expected. He was an all-star, won pitcher of the month in July, and was voted the reliever of the year. He’ll be back next season.
SU – Connor Jones
Jones was dominant. He had an FIP of 2.52 and finished second in the reliever of the year voting. I have him under contract for two more seasons, so he will return.
MR – Curtis Taylor
Taylor was really good and should be back. He has a few more years of team control.
MR – Andres Nunez
Nunez has been solid for five seasons with us and will be back for his last arbitration season.
MR – Blake Taylor
I was hoping Taylor would bounce back after getting away from Coors field and he did. He’ll be back for two more seasons at $3m per year.
MR – Clayton Andrews
Andrews struggled to start the year but came on strong late. He’ll be back for his last arbitration season.
MR – Corbin Clouse
Clouse has been a steady presence for six years but is about to enter free agency. I might bring him back if I can’t find a suitable lefty replacement.
LR – Sam Lauderdale
Lauderdale filled his role perfectly. He provided league average performance during garbage time innings. He’ll be back next season.
LR – Argenis Angulo
Angulo has improved significantly since last season. I wish he would have done this before his last arbitration season, but he didn’t, so I’m probably going to lose him as a free agent.
Replacements
SP – Hunter Mink
Mink filled in for Steele during his multiple IL stints early in the year, then replaced him full time when he was traded. He was my best pitcher the first half of the season, winning pitcher of the month in June and making the all-star team but fell off later in the year. He’ll be back next season.
SP – Seth Halvorsen
Halvorsen had to make a couple of emergency starts and got roughed up. He might return as a long reliever next season.
MR – Willie Rosas
Rosas had an interesting journey to the majors. He went from potential ace in 2022 to complete bust in 2023and has now become a top bullpen option. He was called up when rosters expanded and pitched really well. He’ll have a spot next season.
My only concern is he might expect to be a starter sooner than later and I don’t want him starting with that movement.
SP – Pat Dibartolo
Dibartolo was called up in early August as an injury replacement, sent back down at the end of the month, then called back up again when rosters expanded. He was part of the six-man rotation the last month of the season and pitched really well. I really needed a prankster, so he will definitely return.
Season Results:
We avoided the slow start from last season and played well the first half of the year, going 44-37 and remaining within three games of the division leading Marlins. The starting pitching was shaky, but the bullpen was lights out and Ohtani was playing like a golden god. He had an OPS+ over 200 and was on pace for 10.6 WAR at the halfway point.
We continued to play well the third quarter of the year but so did the Braves and Marlins. We were 68-54 and third in the division, 2 ½ games behind the leader. The Marlins slipped a bit late and the race came down to us and the Braves. We were one game back with 20 games remaining but couldn’t make up any ground and remained one back with seven games left. Our last two series of the year were against the Braves and Cardinals. We took three of four against the Braves to take the division lead for the first time all year, then swept the Cardinals to lock up the division. Considering what was on the line this season, this was a huge accomplishment.
We had some difficult decisions heading into the playoffs. Shirah was injured for two more days and not allowed on the playoff roster, and Mehler was called up too late to be eligible. I debated transferring Shirah to the 60-day IL to allow Mehler to play but decided to try my luck without a fourth outfielder so Shirah could come back the next round.
I had six solid starters heading into the playoffs and went with Mink, Dibartolo, Puk, and Benson for the rotation and moved Hector and Castellani to the bullpen. It was tough to leave out Hector, but it doesn’t really make sense to keep a five man rotation.
Our first-round opponent was the 90-72 Phillies, led by Eloy Jimenez. We started off the series great with a 7-0 victory and got seven shutout innings from Mink. Then they bounced back to win game two 9-3, then game three 5-0. Our offense was struggling but came to life in the last three games as we won those 13-6, 14-5, and 9-0. Vega was named series MVP and Shirah is now eligible to return for the next round.
Next up was the 102-60 Brewers, led by Luke Leto and Christian Yelich. They were loaded with talent and had the best record in the NL. We lost a tight one 3-4 in game one but evened the series with a 4-2 game two victory. Romo had four RBIs and Dibartolo gave us eight innings of two-run ball. We then took a 3-1 series lead behind two great pitching performances in games three and four. Mink gave us nine shutout innings in a 1-0 game three victory and Puk pitched six scorless in a 3-0 game four win. The Brewers weren’t ready to go home yet and won games five and six. They knocked out Benson and Dibartolo early in each game, winning them 5-2 and 7-1. Our postseason ace Mink started game seven and gave us six innings of three run work, which was enough for an 8-3 victory. Romo was named series MVP.
I wasn’t too surprised by the first-round victory but couldn’t believe we beat the Brewers. They were by far the superior team on paper. We’re playing with house money at this point and anything else is a bonus.
Our next opponent was the 105-57 Mariners. They had the best offense and defense in the league and a star-studded roster. The rotation was led by Jose Corniell, the lineup by Cody Bellinger, and the bullpen had five all-world relievers with Jordan Alvarez, Edwin Diaz, Josh Hader, Andres Munoz, and Gerardo Cuevas. This is the classic David vs. Goliath matchup.
We had a tough start the series. Corniell pitched nine innings and gave up one run in a 5-1 game one loss, Benson was roughed up early in a 7-0 game two defeat, then we were shutout again in a 2-0 game three loss. I had a feeling we’d have trouble scoring against them and we did. We avoided the sweep with a 6-2 game four victory, then won game five after an eighth inning rally and blown save by Cuevas. We were heading back to Seattle for game six and had momentum on our side. We knocked out McCullers in the first inning and took an easy victory, tying the series 3-3. Benson gave up 1 run over 7.2 innings.
So here we are, a team with a manager on the hotseat and just hoping to have a winning record, and we’re one game away from winning the World Series.
The pitching matchup for the final game was the rookie Dibartolo vs. Evan Taylor. We started off great with solo shots in the first and third from Rosario and Baez and a 2-0 lead, but they rallied back with a 3-run fourth to go up 3-2. Dibartolo settled down and pitched another 1.2 innings before Nunez took over in the sixth inning. Moore reached base on a two-out single in the top of the seventh, then advanced to second on an error on a pick-off attempt. Baez drove him in on a single, tying the game 3-3. There were a few close calls, but the score remained 3-3 at the end of nine. Angulo pitched 3 scoreless relief innings, with 2.2 of those coming in extra innings, and struck out five. He kept us alive until Taylor took over with one out in the twelfth and ended the inning. Their bullpen was thin due to knocking out their starters early in games five and six, so McCullers started the thirteenth despite getting rocked just the day before. Walls hit a one out solo shot, then Rosario and Bernal singled before they intentionally walked Ohtani to load the bases. It looked like we were about to blow it wide open, but Epps struck out and Romo flew out to retire the side. Taylor started the thirteenth and the Mariners had Dalbec, Walton, and Raleigh due up. Dalbec flew out to right, Walton struck out swinging, and Raleigh did the same. We closed out the inning, the game, and the World Series! Walls was named series MVP.
In just the seventh year of the franchise’s existence, we’ve won our first World Series! I tried to assemble a solid team at the beginning of the season but had no clue we’d be able to pull this off. We had to fight just to make the playoffs and then win six elimination games in the final two rounds. Hopefully, this is the first championship of many to come!
The playoff revenue was huge for our bottom line. We ended the regular season with a $9m deficit but were $19m in the green after winning the World Series. We also got a huge boost in fan interest, going from 66 to 98 by the end of the year.
The owner is good with my performance and gave me a three-year extension at the start of the offseason.
Here are the rest of the playoff results and MLB standings.
Top Prospects:
1.) John Edlich
I left Edlich off the list last year because I’ve been fooled too many times with international amateurs, but after a year in rookie ball I think he’s the real deal. He could be a 10 WAR pitcher if he reaches his full potential. It’s very tempting to see if he can reach that potential in my system, but there are some serious red flags. He suffered a torn rotator cuff at the end of the season, and he has low intelligence. The safe money is to trade him for something lower risk, but I might roll the dice since he has more potential than any pitcher in the game.
2.) Robby Teeter
Teeter makes my decision with Ohtani even more difficult. He’s an in-house replacement that looks like he can step into the majors and be a top-ten hitter from day one. His batting potential is so good it almost seems too good to be true. He can’t play in the field, but I don’t play Ohtani in the field either. The only thing Ohtani provides that Teeter doesn’t is good baserunning.
If I decide to bring Ohtani back I’ll have to trade Teeter. I can’t start two DHs, and it just doesn’t make sense to keep a talent like Teeter in the minors. I really have no clue what I’m going to do.
3.) Chad Arnold
I have pitching prospects with more potential, but Arnold is the safest bet to make the majors. His ratings are more actual than potential, he has high character, durable injury proneness, and has performed well at every level he’s played at. I’ll start him in AA next year.
4.) Josh Sheppard
Sheppard was the return in the Jack Flaherty trade, so he really needs to pan out. He didn’t do as well as I wanted this year, but I think a lot of that was bad luck. He had a BABIP of .365. He’s probably going to repeat A+, but I could move him up to AA if his control improves before next season.
5.) Sean Whiteman
Whiteman has filled out a bit since last year, but I was hoping for more progress. I’m also hoping his movement improves in the next year or two or he might not cut it in the majors. He’ll start next season at AA.
6.) Joey Hudson
Hudson doesn’t have the same potential as last season, but he could still be a very useful player. He didn’t perform as well as I wanted at A- but his ratings suggest he’s ready for A, so I’ll start him there next year.
7.) Andrew McGee
I think McGee has better offensive ratings than some of the guys on my major league roster. I’m not a fan of promoting teenagers out of the low minors but McGee has no business down there. He’ll begin next season at A.
8.) Chris West
I have a hoard of above average pitching prospects, so hopefully a few of them pan out and I have a good major league rotation in a few years. I’ll probably start West at A- next season due to his low control.
9.) Josh Langdon
Langdon has improved across the board since last season and should find himself in the majors in a few seasons if he stays healthy. He’ll repeat A- next year.
10.) Chris Ryan
Ryan has realized a lot of his potential since last season and looks just about ready for the majors. He’ll start the year at AA and could get called up as an injury replacement.
Honorable mentions:
Josh Berkner
Berkner had a great year in A+ and saw his ratings increase since last season. He got some nice experience at short stop this year and I’ll try to get him some time at left and right field next season. He looks like he’ll be an awesome utility player in a year or two.
Jesus Medina
I love relievers with this profile. He’s pretty much a top starter without the stamina. He pitched well in limited appearances but will probably repeat rookie ball.
Oscar Trevino
Trevino’s ratings are about the same as last year, but I still think he can be a useful utility player. I kind of forgot about the whole “left handers can’t play 2B, SS, or 3B”, so I force started him at third base and he did awful in the field. I’ll start him at A+ next year.
Joe McKinney
McKinney has improved tremendously since last season and looks like he’s only a year or two from the majors. He’ll start next season in A.
Josh Snellgrove
Snellgrove’s ratings have improved since last season and he finally broke through in rookie ball. He’ll start next season at A and I’m still hopeful his catcher ability improves some.
Promoted to MLB:
Josh Epps, Pat Dibartolo, Tim Mehler
Dropped from list:
Dan Gay
I had high hopes for Gay, but his ratings appear to have flamed out since last year. Low control seems to be the quickest way for a prospect to not make it. He’ll start next season at A+.
Mike Marrone
Marrone still looks like he’ll be a good hitter but not good enough to keep on the list. He’ll spend one more season in rookie ball.
Here are his ratings from last year.
Esteban Gutierrez
Gutierrez is the annual winner of the “international amateur free agent that loses all of his potential in two years” award. Here’s his 2026 ratings that I can look at like in the wolverine meme.
Future Outlook:
It’s hard not to be excited about a team that just won the World Series. We won it all and have the ability to bring back almost everyone. I have a really tough decision with Ohtani/Teeter but I think we’ll be fine no matter which way I decide.
The budget will be the same next season but should be significantly improved the year after that due to the increased fan interest. Here are the salaries heading into the offseason: (part 1, part 2).

We're moving right along, Baseball Buddies! This year's Hall of Fame ballot contains 11 first time members. None of them are locks for first year induction, but there are several who are going to fall off the ballot for not meeting the 5% threshold. So before they're gone, we're taking a look at all of them. We've already covered Nick Swisher, Michael Cuddyer, AJ Burnett and Dan Haren, which brings us to...
Shane Victorino
Bill James Hall of Fame Monitor: 32
Career bWAR (12 years): 31.5
Stats: .275/.340/.425, 102 OPS+, 108 HR, 231 2B, 70 3B, 231 SB, 731 R
Awards: All Star x2 (NL, 2009; NL, 2011) Gold Glove x4 (NL, OF, 2008; NL, OF, 2009; NL, OF, 2010; AL, OF, 2013) World Champion x2 (Philly, 2008; Boston, 2013)
League Leading Stats: Triples x2 (13, 2009; 16, 2011), HBP (18, 2013)
Teams Played For: Padres (2003), Phillies (2005-2012), Dodgers (2012), Red Sox (2013-2015), Angels (2015)
Humble brag time: thanks to a lucky combination of good friends and being a professional freelancer—thus setting my own schedule—I have been fortunate enough to attend at least one round of every World Baseball Classic. So in 2009, I’m up in Toronto, watching the Pool C games at Rogers Centre. My friend and I are up in the outfield second deck, getting ready to watch what would become Team USA’s 6-5 victory over Team Canada in the opening game. There’s this Yankees fan about three rows ahead of us and he’s spending the first few innings heckling everyone on Team USA who’s not a Yankee which is, like, the MOST “Yankees fan” thing ever.
So, like, as the rosters are being announced and they get to Jimmy Rollins, who was wearing jersey number one for the WBC, and Yankees Dude yells out “Hey Rollins! You might be number one, but you’ll never be Number Two!” Then he looks around kind of smug to make sure that everyone gets his Jeter joke and we’re all like “dude, they’re on the same team.”
Anyway, the reason that story is relevant is because in the third inning when Shane Victorino comes to bat, the best Yankees Dude can come up with is “Victorino? More like ‘Victory? NOOOOOOO!’,” which is some weak-ass sauce.
So what else can I say about the Flyin’ Hawaiian? Well, for starters, there have been 46 major league players born in the great state of Hawaii—including 11 who were born there before Hawaii was even a state—and, measuring just by bWAR, Victorino is the third most successful behind Sid “The Squid” Fernandez (32.75 bWAR) and Charlie “First Marlins Opening Day Starter” Hough (38.42). (Fun side note, the World Series winning 1986 Mets team featured two starters from Hawaii, as Ron Darling was a rotation mate with Fernandez.)
A three sport star in high school, Victorino passed up scholarships in football and baseball at the University of Hawaii after the Dodgers called his name in the 1999 MLB draft. After spending a couple of seasons in their farm system, advancing as high as AA in 2002, before being selected by the Padres in the ’02 Rule 5 draft. Because he was clearly a talented youngster and because the ’03 Pads were led in WAR by fuckin Mark Loretta, it felt like a pretty safe time to gamble on a 22-year-old speedster with upside. Unfortunately for Victorino, it was a case of too fast, too soon and he struggled against big league pitching, slashing .151/.232/.178 in 83 PAs for the Dads, striking out in 23% of his at bats. After just under two months with the club, the Padres waived him. Victorino cleared waivers and, per the Rule 5 guidelines, he was offered back to LA, who sent him back to the farm.
After two more seasons of minor league toil, Victorino was once again selected in the Rule 5 Draft, this time by Philadelphia. He performed better in a smaller sample size, slashing .294/.263/.647 over 19 PAs, but the Phillies weren’t impressed enough to keep him on the roster so he was once again offered back to LA. THIS time, however, the Dodgers said “Nah son” and declined. Thus, having cleared waivers, the Phillies were able to send Victorino down to Scranton. This proved to be a lucky stroke for Philly, as the Flyin’ Hawaiian was about ready to take off.
2006, Victorino’s age 25 season, became his first full taste of the majors and he did not fuck around with it. He would slash .287/.346/.414 that season and immediately jumpstart a six year stretch that saw him combine for a .282/.348/.443, 164 double, 58 triple, 155 stolen base, 531 run scored stat line, amounting to a 106 OPS+ and 21.9 bWAR, including a high of 5.5 in 2011. That same run would see him lead the whole major leagues in triples twice, nab three Gold Glove awards, get named to two all-star teams and pick up a World Series ring in 2008, after hitting a combined .270 in the playoffs with three doubles, a triple, two homers and 13 RBI. Oh, and in 2007 he ended “Shane Victorino Day” with a walk-off homer to beat the Giants.
In 2012, with the Phillies milling around the middle of the NL pack, Victorino was shipped to Los Angeles just before the trade deadline, in exchange for 26 innings of Josh Lindblom, a 64 ERA+ from Ethan Martin and Stefan “Player to be Named Later” Jarrin, who promptly retired the next season and is now an inside sales rep for the Dodgers.
Now, I know that it might not sound like the Phillies got a lot in exchange for Victorino. This was, after all, a Rubin Amaro joint so nobody expected it to be great. But don’t let first impressions fool you! Because if you go down the rabbit hole, you see that the Phillies then flipped Lindblom to the Rangers that offseason in exchange for Michal Young’s desiccated corpse, who they then sent to the Dodgers for Rob Rasmusson, who was sent to the Blue Jays for Bran Lincoln, who pitched 2.1 innings for the Phillies in 2014 before being released. NOW how does the trade look?
But if it’s any consolation, it wasn’t super successful for LA either, as Victorino never looked particularly comfortable in Dodger blue, hitting .245 with an 85 OPS+ in 53 games down the stretch. He was allowed to wade into free agency that offseason, and signed three year, $39 million deal with the Red Sox. He thanked the club by giving them one last brilliant season of baseball.
Victorino started the 2013 season off with an injury in May but came back at the beginning of June and went off to the tune of a career high .294 batting average. His .351 OBP missed his career high by .001, and he finished the slash line with a .451 SLG, the second highest of his career. He stole 21 bags, scored 82 runs, combined for 53 XBH and posted a 118 OPS+ and career high 6 bWAR. He didn’t exactly carry those good feelings over to October, hitting .196 across the playoffs, but it was good enough to help the Red Sox to a World Series win, Victorino’s second career ring.
Then, like the Bluesmobile at the end of that chase though downtown Chicago, Victorino’s body collapsed in a heap and he was done as a useful player. He managed just 30 games the next season, batting exclusively from just one side of the plate for the first time in his career thanks to the pain, before going under the knife in the offseason to have a piece of his fucking back removed.
He came back in 2015 and played like a guy who had gotten a piece of his fucking back removed, before being traded to the Angels and managing to play even worse. In the offseason he signed a minor league deal with the Cubs and I looked forward to watching him play at Iowa in 2016. But he was only on the roster for nine games before being released and, as we all know, nothing else good happened for the Cubs that year.
There was nobody knocking on his door and Victorino seemed to be pretty at peace with the fact that his career was over. So at peace in fact, that it was not until two years later—on July 3, 2018—that Victorino looked up from his newspaper with one of those “oh shit” epiphany moments, picked up his phone and tweeted out the fact that, oh yeah, he was retired now. The Phillies signed him to a one-day contract so they could claim dibs.
Shane Victorino played for 12 seasons in the major leagues, almost all of it in Philly. He had his best single season in Boston, but it would be utterly laughable to think of him going into the Hypothetical Hall as anything other than a Phillie. He was a perennially beloved fan favorite; a heartwarming, charismatic contrast to bygone Phillies like Lenny Dykstra and Curt Schilling. The only category he ranks among the franchise leaders in is stolen base percentage (fourth, 82.11%), but come on. It’s the Phillies. You’ve got to be very good for a very long time to crack the leaderboards of a team where Sliding Billy Hamilton was sealing 102 bases in 1890.
Chances of making the Hall: Worse than Santa’s chances of getting a standing O in Philly
Chances of leaving the ballot this year: 100%

Heading out of 2019 and into 2020, the Rockies had no expectations. Heading out of 2020 and into 2021… we still have no expectations.
But this isn’t a post about hating the Colorado Rockies and what they’ve done poorly or not done! After all, the literal title of this post is “A toast to the 2020 Colorado Rockies”. So instead of hating on Jeff Bridich like we always do as Rockies fans, let’s bring up some highs, some lows, and overall, let’s have a fun time reminiscing about a truly unique Rockies season, even outside covid.

MILE HIGHS

Comeback Player of the Year… after 7 years off
Prior to this season, the last MLB season Daniel Bard pitched in was in 2013, where he only pitched 1 inning, giving up two walks and an earned run. His 9.00 ERA in 2013 and the 6.22 ERA the year prior led to him being designated for assignment by the Red Sox, which was disappointing for Bard after posting great numbers for the 2009-2011 Sox teams. It appeared as if the yips had ended his career, retiring in 2017 after being stuck in minor league purgatory for several years. Yet, seven years later, with tape on his back, he pitches himself back into the big leagues with an excellent spring training showing. He not only is able to throw his first major league pitch since Barack Obama was in office, he’s still got his vintage stuff on a 99 mph pitch. Truly, a comeback story for the ages.
Nolan Is Still Nolan
Nolan Arenado had injured his shoulder within the first few games in Oakland. He’s clearly not himself offensively this year, with a triple slash of .253/.303/.434, and a wRC+ of 76. He hasn’t had one season under 100 wRC+ since his rookie year, so why do I still say “Nolan Is Still Nolan”? Despite that shoulder injury, he’s still the best defensive player in baseball. If you don’t like FanGraphs, here’s Baseball Savant ranking him among the top fielders in baseball, too. Here’s baseball-reference having Nolan lead in defensive WAR as well!. Not a stats guy? Here’s an amazing play by Nolan to pass the eye test. No matter how you slice it, Nolan was still Nolan defensively, and he did all of that through injury.
The Re-Emergence of K-Free and Senzei
Both Kyle Freeland and Antonio Senzatela debuted in 2017. In 2018, they both improved to lead the Rockies oh-so-close to upsetting the Dodgers for the NL West title. Then 2019 came, and both pitchers suffered major setbacks. Kyle Freeland? Went from an unheard of 2.85 ERA despite playing in Coors to a 90’s era Rockies-esque 6.73 ERA. And, Senzatela? Not much better, falling from a respectable 4.38 to a horrendous 6.71 ERA. It looked like the Rockies had a starting pitching problem again, but in 2020 the two made improvements. Senzatela would start to mix his pitches better, and it got him a 3.44 ERA, best of his career, as he led the Rockies in rWAR and ranked second in fWAR. Freeland had a 4.33 ERA, which looks even better if you take out his last start in a meaningless game, bringing it down to 3.69. These guys proved that 2019 struggles were just a fluke and oddly made the rotation a Rockies strength. Hats off to these two underrated comebacks, alongside Daniel Bard.
A Fantastic Start to the Season
Of all of the stories, the high that Rockies fans remember best is their hot start to the season. Starting 11-3, the Rockies looked absolutely dominant in a shortened 60-game season. Not a single Rockies fan, or even any fan, was expecting this greatness. Sure, the offense wasn’t sustainable and the bullpen had signs of distress, but it didn’t matter. The Rockies were #1 in the NL, baby.

ROCKY LOWS

The Rockies Forget How to Win
The higher you climb, the farther you fall, they say. After the Rockies went 11-4 through the first 15 games of the season, they only needed to play .500 ball for the rest of the season to make the expanded playoffs. The Rockies would go 15-30 the next 45 games. In all honesty, let’s not talk about this anymore.
A Bullpen only Sunnier than in Philadelphia
The Phillies had a historically bad bullpen, with an ERA of 7.06. Right behind them, however, were the 6.77 ERA Colorado Rockies. Daniel Bard & Yency Almonte were pretty much the only good relievers in the Rockies bullpen. Carlos Estevez posted a 7.50 ERA after a 3.75 ERA the year prior. Jairo posted a 7.65 ERA mark himself after setting himself up to be a promising closer last season. Hoffman continued to be a bust, with a whopping 9.28 ERA. Pazos provided no support as a lefty with a 16.88 ERA. Then, of course, Bridich-overpayment Wade Davis had an amazing 20.77 ERA. Please come back healthy Scott Oberg. We miss you.
Please Fire Jeff Bridich
Last year, u/Underbubble made this exact point here too: Jeff Bridich needs to be fired. Since then, he’s somehow gotten worse. I’ve already mentioned how bad Wade Davis had been this season, but what did Bridich do to try and improve on his mediocre 2019 team, and supposedly make these 2020 Rockies the 94-win team Rockies owner Dick Monfort famously projected them to be?
Nothing - literally nothing. He signed minor leaguers, released some bad players, and that’s it. Oh, and he pissed off Nolan Arenado. While most fans want a World Series win or even a playoff appearance from their squad every year, every Rockies fan wants Jeff Bridich fired instead, as there’s no reaching those two goals with him as our GM. Rockies fans are to Jeff Bridich as Mets fans were to the Wilpons. Bridich is still our GM though, so it looks to be a rough offseason for us.

GOODBYES, AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS OF AN OLD FRIEND

I want to start by giving a quick shoutout to DJ LeMahieu! After Jeff Bridich foolishly believed that Daniel Murphy was a better investment than DJ LeMahieu, he would go on to become an MVP candidate for the Yankees, in both 2019 and 2020. A triple slash of .364/.421/.590 is just absurd, even in a 60 game season. Beautiful. Let’s say move onto goodbyes though before this becomes a rant.
Matt Kemp: The only team to beat the Dodgers this whole season in a series? The Colorado Rockies. Who hit the home run to put the Rockies in the lead for one of those crucial games. Matt Kemp. You’re probably not a Rockie with the DH rule being removed once again, but you truly made your time here memorable. Thanks.
Chris Owings: Other than the fact we didn’t see you for like, half the season after you got injured… You did quite well for us here. You were an underrated part of our original 11-4 run. I don’t think you’re a Rockie next year either, but you were also memorable.
Wade Davis: Uh. Thanks for September 2018. That wasn’t bad!
Daniel Murphy: Thanks for bringing meme material to 2020.
Drew Butera: We know you’re going to be back again, who are we kidding.
Last year’s toast said good riddance to the 2019 Rockies. Well, 2020 was unique. It’s not gonna be easy to forget. Though still, one last toast to the 2020 Rockies, and good riddance, once again.

ColoradoRockies Top 5 Shitposts by Karma:

I feel silly
RoxsHub (NSFW?)
After doing nothing in the offseason
What a monster.
Wade Davis has me like