Post by Spencer on Aug 18, 2013 1:02:49 GMT -5
On Deck - 10 with Habes!
1. You have acquired arguably the 2 best sluggers in BBSBL. They are amazing offensive players. Talk about them. Also, do you think you can keep these two guys long term with your market?
Habes - I'm looking for them answer that last question. If we win and go far in the playoffs, I'll have the fan interest and game cash to afford them. If not, oh well, pairing them for this season is going to be a blast.
They're both 50+ home run players. Juan could also be a 320+ hitter, and Griffey gives me Gold Glove defense. They're older, but still absolute beasts. My park will hurt their numbers, but they'll still be a blast to track.
Me - Risky getting both of these guys. IMO this isn't like FBB where if you get two studs you win 50 and you're a title contender. While you still have talent it seems like you kinda blew your load early. Time will tell but Id probably deal off both these guys in the off-season for more youth and depth.
2. Speaking of your market, are you at all concerned about improving it? What are your expectations if you do happen to win the division? Do you expect your market to go up this year? DO you think you can get your FI above 75? Whats your best case for revenue this year?
Habes - Yeah, of course I'm concerned about improving my market. I don't know about 75 without at least winning a round or two in the playoffs, but I can do a lot better than 21 and $180,0000 a home game. My goal is $400k a home game (the Marlins do a lot better, for reference). That's 32m in attendance. With merchandise and trading for game cash, I'll be able to afford my payroll.
I know I'm going to lose money this year. I stashed the game cash to have at least some cash on hand after the season. The big question is whether my team is good enough to generate the fan interest to keep Griffey and JuanGon. I'm not hugely concerned because my payroll is really tied up in three players, and they're guys I can still deal for solid value. Say I dump Griffey for a prospect. My payroll would be under 70m. Last year my fan interest stayed at 19-20 all year, I didn't have any playoff revenue, and I still had over 40m revenue. Point is, my team's obviously a lot better this year. My revenue will be much higher. If, regardless of that fact, I need to deal one of my top bats, well, that's *all* I'll need to do to have healthy finances.
Obviously the concern would be whether my team could win despite losing a Griffey. Time will tell, but I think Rumble, Gess, Sizemore, and Piatt have bright enough futures that I'll be fine.
Me - This is the question of the hour. How much more money can you generate? Can you get up to 60 million in revenue this year? Then you'll still have lost a ton of cash and be over budget next year. Obviously you can always trade for cash, I do but it gets pretty sticky if your lack of elite P or your lack of depth mean you cant compete for the NL West crown.
3. I'm of the opinion that you rushed your rebuild. Do you think you should've waited a little bit longer and built up to competing? Are you completely happy with where you are?
Habes - I rushed it last year for sure, but that was basically just overspending. I didn't lose my top prospects. This year I dealt Doumit, Bedard, and Mourneau. Frankly, two of the guys are injury prone, and I didn't rate any of them on the level of the guys I retained. Pitching is easy to come by, and besides, I have plenty of young pitching. Mourneau and Doumit are very similar hitters, neither of which approach guys like Gess, Sizemore, and Rumble. That doesn't mean I made the right moves, but I did put together a damn good team, and I don't think I sacrificed my future. (To be fair, I dealt a number of picks, so it's not like I'm in shape to keep developing young guys, which sucks.)
Whether or not spending on Griffey and Juan was smart just depends on this year. I don't think it's a failure if I don't win the World Series or even the division. At some point I needed to get the fan interest and market going, and plus, it's a lot of fun to have a good team. If I cripple my finances and need to unload multiple guys, then I'll have rushed it. But right now my team is pretty good and even worst case scenario, I'll still have a really good young core on hand.
Me - This game is fun because of financials. It gives you another very important aspect to contend with. You do need to get that FI up. You do need to up revenue. Having said that I think I would've gone a little slower with your rebuild. You are right that you didn't give up much to get these guys. Another reason why the VET route is the best way to go. VETs have no value. You can get them on the cheap!
4. You've said you really want a #1 type SP. What are you willing to give up? What type of SP are you looking for?
Habes - Depends on the guy. I'm not inclined to move a hitter. Obviously if we're talking Halladay, I'll move just about anything. At the same time, it looks like I'll need to either move Sizemore or two of Valenzuela, Sizemore, and Zito to get that #1 guy. Fair enough, but probably not a smart move. Right now I have the lowest ERA -- clearly my pitching's good enough to compete. If I get a #1, it's to win the World Series this year, not because I don't think I have that piece going forward. I have no doubt that between Webb, Valenzuela, Bootcheck, and Zito, I have an ace or two on hand. If it's early June and I'm on pace for 100 wins, I'll get much more serious about bringing in a #1 this year. For now, I'm content.
Me - Sounds good. No reason to overspend for someone when you have so many nice young SP. Its also completely impossible to get a good deal on a #1 type guy between 22-28. Guys in their "prime" are way too hard to get IMO. Better off getting that studly guy in the Juan Griffey age group.
5. Recently we've had a very major rule change that has been modified to be much less severe. Erbes had removed the ability to reverse bad PDs for first year players. Hes recently changed his stance and limited it to not being able to RC these first year guys. Thoughts?
Habes - What's the point? Now you have to wait a year to camp a guy? Not sure how that changes anything. You don't draft a guy either help your or have his peak value in his first year, do you? So what if you have to wait to improve him? Dumb rule, of no import.
The PD reversal rule was a very significant change, one I'm happy isn't being made. I don't think the tanking "problem" is so bad that we need to make drafting riskier, so it seemed like too harsh a measure. Maybe keep it in mind if there are too many tankers. If anything, I think we have a problem of too much mediocrity, which seems to come with the territory. Veteran OOTP guys do nowhere near enough to steadily improve their teams. They seem to just sit on their teams and only make big moves when they want to make (rare) major directional changes.
Me - Ya, I rushed to trade my 2004 1st because I was even more set on not rebuilding without the ability to reverse PDs. It was a huge rule change. The new rule is nothing tbh. It is pointless. If you want to change the rules to lower talent levels why not increase the prices of PD removals? Seems like a great idea!
6. Erbes has been doing a great job. But clearly I am a better commish. Tell Erbes 5 things he should do to be more like me.
Habes - a. Communication - first and foremost. When are rules going to be announced? What are you leaning towards deciding? Will you provide enough notification? Will the rule be written clearly? Is the decision going to be unilateral? Jeff likes to hand down decision without giving us enough of any of the things I've mentioned. Look at something like the tanking rules, or even your IRI concerns right now. Jeff doesn't make himself available to discuss these things and doesn't care to be respond sometimes.
b. Consistency - see the tanking rules, handling the draft, enforcing rules. We don't stick to things, which makes enforcement unpredictable and creates problems that are easily avoided.
c. Availability - I don't fault Jeff for this. He's busy. But offseasons in particular drag, and he misses planned sims sometimes. It's a bummer.
d. Stick to plans - the above three sort of cover this, but with things like revenue, schedules, tanking rules, Jeff will deviate.
e. Dedication - this is about being more like Spence, not about criticizing Jeff. But Spence was an amazing commish. The pace, incentives, amount of interest from the commish just made it so easy to stay interested in BBS.
Me - I did this more for me then for Erbes. I think he does a good job. I just wish he was more consistent. As for me, I really thought I owed it to all my GMs to be as active as my most active member. It was hard to keep up sometimes but when BBS was good, it was very good. And it was because you knew your activity would result in a reward. A freebie, a sim, something. it made it fun.
7. I think the major strength of any sim league is board activity. I think it promotes being on the board which makes trade talks more easy, PM returns quicker and overall morale higher. Tell GMs that don't like board activity, or that don't value it that they're wrong. Give them reasons why board activity is important.
Habes - There are two parts to this. For me, activity makes the league more fun and better. You can't convince someone who gets nothing out of posting that they'll have more fun if they post (obviously time is another big factor). But you can convince them it's better for the league and for their team, especially through incentives like rewards. I don't think this league lacks board activity, and I think that's because the rewards system is in place. I do think this league lacks the camaraderie of BBS, where you'd see tons of guys posting throughout the day just because there was always something fun to talk about. That's a function of time, of the pace of the league, and also just of the personalities present. You can't really argue to someone that these things exist and they should join in. It sorta just develops.
Obviously the board activity in this league is already head and shoulders above other OOTP leagues, and there are a number of teams that haven't even tried to win yet. Competing goes a long way, so I expect board activity to increase in the next few months. And I do think the veteran OOTP GMs have bought into board activity. So I don't know if there's an argument to be made about the importance of board activity beyond a) it being fun if you find it fun and b) it helping your team.
Me - I still think too many Gms fight it. Why not just go with the flow. I mean its so hard to compete here without board cash. Why not just do as much as you can in your free time? Its so addictive. Just lie back and let it happen.
8. Mark has been a huge disappointment. Not necessarily in life, just in BBSBL. Call him out and light a fire under this guys big ass. Also post some pics.
Habes - Yeah, he sucks. For one, I don't think the features were in place to help the expansion GMs hit the ground running. I think he gave Jeff a bit of leeway with his draft and now he has too big a payroll/some unmovable pieces. Why the fuck is Everett on his roster, for example? Also, expansion teams should've started out with board cash. Lots of fringe pieces in the expansion draft, and it would've been nice to give the expansion GMs the chance to turn some picks into studs. Board cash is a big asset they could've used to develop guys or gotten involved in the trade scene early.
I don't know -- especially with how bad this coming draft class is, I doubt Mark ever gets into BBSBL. Sad.
Me - I had to call out Mark. He deserves it. Love the kid and he could be great here but hes running behind already. In my experience calling people out either makes them better or pushes them out. I want Mark here but if he cant do a little more then what he's doing its kinda pointless for him to be here.
9. I don't want predictions, but I would like you to pick 3 teams from either league that you think would be tough to beat in the playoffs. Name each team, give reasons why they'd be tough to face.
Habes - I sorta think three is steep. Lots of teams with holes.
NL --
a. Padres - Knock my team all you want, but I have two incredible hitters that nobody else matches. It's not like any team is so scary or my other pieces are so lackluster that I'm not in the mix. Rumble and Gess are also brilliant in homers and improving elsewhere. I have some really good defenders. And I have the prospects to get better. Especially dangerous if Webb or Zito develop this year.
b. Giants - Loaded team. Incredible rotation if the four-man can continue to work. Such a balanced, deep offense. Greer, Sheff, Giles, Knoblauch, Fryman, HRod. Good pen, too, and lots of trade chips. They're tough.
c. Cubs - Almost entirely on the strength of their rotation. It's amazing. But with the Giants taking a step back and Play talking his team up so often, the Drew trade was a bit confounding. I liked it for Play, no doubt, but I thought he was going to win it all before that move.
AL --
a. Yankees - loaded offense. Delgado makes their 3-4-5 nearly as good as it gets (mine's better is all). Their top 4 SP definitely form a playoff rotation you can win with. Top relievers are nasty, though the MR is suspect.
b. White Sox - Stacked offense, and probably the best 1-2 punch of SP in the AL. They're older, and I think the Yanks are better overall, but they're in the mix for sure.
c. A's - Still so loaded. Ortiz, Jeter, Hunter, Giambi are elite hitters. Pavano's number ratings are surprisingly great. Deep rotation, stud relievers. Broph has the assets to get one more major piece if he wants to go for it. I think he'll need to do that to beat the Yankees, though.
Sleeper pick: Blue Jays. Love this team. Pujols is already nasty. Andruw Jones is a lot better than everyone though he was. Edmonds and Rentaria are good bats. JRoll gives great D and speed and is probably good for an elite OPS among shortstops. Halladay is the best pitcher in the AL. Woody is still so good. Escobar just needs to fill out his ratings to be elite too.
Me - Really nice to see my team still in the hunt. I sold quite a bit this off-season and I'm still very good. Don't think I'm a WS type team but ya never know. I have some tools to add if need be and teams become sellers at the deadline.
10. Finally. Where do you see yourself finishing? What will you do this offseason to get better? Where will your team be next year?
Habes - Tough to say. Piatt, Rumble, and Gess could push my offense over the top. If each guy gets to 6 in hits, I think I have the best offense by a good margin. And I'm not afraid to deal Bootcheck, Valenzuela, Webb, and Zito for the pieces to win this year. Payroll is a big constraint, and I have no chance to win the World Series if my SP stays as is. But I think we're a 90+ win team with above avg pitching and an excellent offense.
My off-season plan is up in the air. Can I generate enough fan interest/revenue to afford an 80+ mil payroll? If not, I'll need to unload Griffey, Juan, or Ichiro. That said, I have absolutely no doubt about my future. Guys like Sizemore, Gess, Rumble, Gaspar, Valenzuela, Webb, Zito, Bootcheck all look like elite talents, and none of them are going to be making big salaries in the near future. I know I can afford a few of my older studs, but I also know that they have enough value to get me younger, cheaper pieces. I'd guess my pitching is much better and my hitting is a good bit worse next season, but I'm gonna wait for my finances to be more predictable to set a plan.
Me - I don't know why but I'm super scared about Ichiro bolting. He just seems like the type. You have such a nice young core still that if you need to deal Juan or Griffey you'll bounce back quickly. Id love to get Juan back too, BTW!
Thanks Habes!
1. You have acquired arguably the 2 best sluggers in BBSBL. They are amazing offensive players. Talk about them. Also, do you think you can keep these two guys long term with your market?
Habes - I'm looking for them answer that last question. If we win and go far in the playoffs, I'll have the fan interest and game cash to afford them. If not, oh well, pairing them for this season is going to be a blast.
They're both 50+ home run players. Juan could also be a 320+ hitter, and Griffey gives me Gold Glove defense. They're older, but still absolute beasts. My park will hurt their numbers, but they'll still be a blast to track.
Me - Risky getting both of these guys. IMO this isn't like FBB where if you get two studs you win 50 and you're a title contender. While you still have talent it seems like you kinda blew your load early. Time will tell but Id probably deal off both these guys in the off-season for more youth and depth.
2. Speaking of your market, are you at all concerned about improving it? What are your expectations if you do happen to win the division? Do you expect your market to go up this year? DO you think you can get your FI above 75? Whats your best case for revenue this year?
Habes - Yeah, of course I'm concerned about improving my market. I don't know about 75 without at least winning a round or two in the playoffs, but I can do a lot better than 21 and $180,0000 a home game. My goal is $400k a home game (the Marlins do a lot better, for reference). That's 32m in attendance. With merchandise and trading for game cash, I'll be able to afford my payroll.
I know I'm going to lose money this year. I stashed the game cash to have at least some cash on hand after the season. The big question is whether my team is good enough to generate the fan interest to keep Griffey and JuanGon. I'm not hugely concerned because my payroll is really tied up in three players, and they're guys I can still deal for solid value. Say I dump Griffey for a prospect. My payroll would be under 70m. Last year my fan interest stayed at 19-20 all year, I didn't have any playoff revenue, and I still had over 40m revenue. Point is, my team's obviously a lot better this year. My revenue will be much higher. If, regardless of that fact, I need to deal one of my top bats, well, that's *all* I'll need to do to have healthy finances.
Obviously the concern would be whether my team could win despite losing a Griffey. Time will tell, but I think Rumble, Gess, Sizemore, and Piatt have bright enough futures that I'll be fine.
Me - This is the question of the hour. How much more money can you generate? Can you get up to 60 million in revenue this year? Then you'll still have lost a ton of cash and be over budget next year. Obviously you can always trade for cash, I do but it gets pretty sticky if your lack of elite P or your lack of depth mean you cant compete for the NL West crown.
3. I'm of the opinion that you rushed your rebuild. Do you think you should've waited a little bit longer and built up to competing? Are you completely happy with where you are?
Habes - I rushed it last year for sure, but that was basically just overspending. I didn't lose my top prospects. This year I dealt Doumit, Bedard, and Mourneau. Frankly, two of the guys are injury prone, and I didn't rate any of them on the level of the guys I retained. Pitching is easy to come by, and besides, I have plenty of young pitching. Mourneau and Doumit are very similar hitters, neither of which approach guys like Gess, Sizemore, and Rumble. That doesn't mean I made the right moves, but I did put together a damn good team, and I don't think I sacrificed my future. (To be fair, I dealt a number of picks, so it's not like I'm in shape to keep developing young guys, which sucks.)
Whether or not spending on Griffey and Juan was smart just depends on this year. I don't think it's a failure if I don't win the World Series or even the division. At some point I needed to get the fan interest and market going, and plus, it's a lot of fun to have a good team. If I cripple my finances and need to unload multiple guys, then I'll have rushed it. But right now my team is pretty good and even worst case scenario, I'll still have a really good young core on hand.
Me - This game is fun because of financials. It gives you another very important aspect to contend with. You do need to get that FI up. You do need to up revenue. Having said that I think I would've gone a little slower with your rebuild. You are right that you didn't give up much to get these guys. Another reason why the VET route is the best way to go. VETs have no value. You can get them on the cheap!
4. You've said you really want a #1 type SP. What are you willing to give up? What type of SP are you looking for?
Habes - Depends on the guy. I'm not inclined to move a hitter. Obviously if we're talking Halladay, I'll move just about anything. At the same time, it looks like I'll need to either move Sizemore or two of Valenzuela, Sizemore, and Zito to get that #1 guy. Fair enough, but probably not a smart move. Right now I have the lowest ERA -- clearly my pitching's good enough to compete. If I get a #1, it's to win the World Series this year, not because I don't think I have that piece going forward. I have no doubt that between Webb, Valenzuela, Bootcheck, and Zito, I have an ace or two on hand. If it's early June and I'm on pace for 100 wins, I'll get much more serious about bringing in a #1 this year. For now, I'm content.
Me - Sounds good. No reason to overspend for someone when you have so many nice young SP. Its also completely impossible to get a good deal on a #1 type guy between 22-28. Guys in their "prime" are way too hard to get IMO. Better off getting that studly guy in the Juan Griffey age group.
5. Recently we've had a very major rule change that has been modified to be much less severe. Erbes had removed the ability to reverse bad PDs for first year players. Hes recently changed his stance and limited it to not being able to RC these first year guys. Thoughts?
Habes - What's the point? Now you have to wait a year to camp a guy? Not sure how that changes anything. You don't draft a guy either help your or have his peak value in his first year, do you? So what if you have to wait to improve him? Dumb rule, of no import.
The PD reversal rule was a very significant change, one I'm happy isn't being made. I don't think the tanking "problem" is so bad that we need to make drafting riskier, so it seemed like too harsh a measure. Maybe keep it in mind if there are too many tankers. If anything, I think we have a problem of too much mediocrity, which seems to come with the territory. Veteran OOTP guys do nowhere near enough to steadily improve their teams. They seem to just sit on their teams and only make big moves when they want to make (rare) major directional changes.
Me - Ya, I rushed to trade my 2004 1st because I was even more set on not rebuilding without the ability to reverse PDs. It was a huge rule change. The new rule is nothing tbh. It is pointless. If you want to change the rules to lower talent levels why not increase the prices of PD removals? Seems like a great idea!
6. Erbes has been doing a great job. But clearly I am a better commish. Tell Erbes 5 things he should do to be more like me.
Habes - a. Communication - first and foremost. When are rules going to be announced? What are you leaning towards deciding? Will you provide enough notification? Will the rule be written clearly? Is the decision going to be unilateral? Jeff likes to hand down decision without giving us enough of any of the things I've mentioned. Look at something like the tanking rules, or even your IRI concerns right now. Jeff doesn't make himself available to discuss these things and doesn't care to be respond sometimes.
b. Consistency - see the tanking rules, handling the draft, enforcing rules. We don't stick to things, which makes enforcement unpredictable and creates problems that are easily avoided.
c. Availability - I don't fault Jeff for this. He's busy. But offseasons in particular drag, and he misses planned sims sometimes. It's a bummer.
d. Stick to plans - the above three sort of cover this, but with things like revenue, schedules, tanking rules, Jeff will deviate.
e. Dedication - this is about being more like Spence, not about criticizing Jeff. But Spence was an amazing commish. The pace, incentives, amount of interest from the commish just made it so easy to stay interested in BBS.
Me - I did this more for me then for Erbes. I think he does a good job. I just wish he was more consistent. As for me, I really thought I owed it to all my GMs to be as active as my most active member. It was hard to keep up sometimes but when BBS was good, it was very good. And it was because you knew your activity would result in a reward. A freebie, a sim, something. it made it fun.
7. I think the major strength of any sim league is board activity. I think it promotes being on the board which makes trade talks more easy, PM returns quicker and overall morale higher. Tell GMs that don't like board activity, or that don't value it that they're wrong. Give them reasons why board activity is important.
Habes - There are two parts to this. For me, activity makes the league more fun and better. You can't convince someone who gets nothing out of posting that they'll have more fun if they post (obviously time is another big factor). But you can convince them it's better for the league and for their team, especially through incentives like rewards. I don't think this league lacks board activity, and I think that's because the rewards system is in place. I do think this league lacks the camaraderie of BBS, where you'd see tons of guys posting throughout the day just because there was always something fun to talk about. That's a function of time, of the pace of the league, and also just of the personalities present. You can't really argue to someone that these things exist and they should join in. It sorta just develops.
Obviously the board activity in this league is already head and shoulders above other OOTP leagues, and there are a number of teams that haven't even tried to win yet. Competing goes a long way, so I expect board activity to increase in the next few months. And I do think the veteran OOTP GMs have bought into board activity. So I don't know if there's an argument to be made about the importance of board activity beyond a) it being fun if you find it fun and b) it helping your team.
Me - I still think too many Gms fight it. Why not just go with the flow. I mean its so hard to compete here without board cash. Why not just do as much as you can in your free time? Its so addictive. Just lie back and let it happen.
8. Mark has been a huge disappointment. Not necessarily in life, just in BBSBL. Call him out and light a fire under this guys big ass. Also post some pics.
Habes - Yeah, he sucks. For one, I don't think the features were in place to help the expansion GMs hit the ground running. I think he gave Jeff a bit of leeway with his draft and now he has too big a payroll/some unmovable pieces. Why the fuck is Everett on his roster, for example? Also, expansion teams should've started out with board cash. Lots of fringe pieces in the expansion draft, and it would've been nice to give the expansion GMs the chance to turn some picks into studs. Board cash is a big asset they could've used to develop guys or gotten involved in the trade scene early.
I don't know -- especially with how bad this coming draft class is, I doubt Mark ever gets into BBSBL. Sad.
Me - I had to call out Mark. He deserves it. Love the kid and he could be great here but hes running behind already. In my experience calling people out either makes them better or pushes them out. I want Mark here but if he cant do a little more then what he's doing its kinda pointless for him to be here.
9. I don't want predictions, but I would like you to pick 3 teams from either league that you think would be tough to beat in the playoffs. Name each team, give reasons why they'd be tough to face.
Habes - I sorta think three is steep. Lots of teams with holes.
NL --
a. Padres - Knock my team all you want, but I have two incredible hitters that nobody else matches. It's not like any team is so scary or my other pieces are so lackluster that I'm not in the mix. Rumble and Gess are also brilliant in homers and improving elsewhere. I have some really good defenders. And I have the prospects to get better. Especially dangerous if Webb or Zito develop this year.
b. Giants - Loaded team. Incredible rotation if the four-man can continue to work. Such a balanced, deep offense. Greer, Sheff, Giles, Knoblauch, Fryman, HRod. Good pen, too, and lots of trade chips. They're tough.
c. Cubs - Almost entirely on the strength of their rotation. It's amazing. But with the Giants taking a step back and Play talking his team up so often, the Drew trade was a bit confounding. I liked it for Play, no doubt, but I thought he was going to win it all before that move.
AL --
a. Yankees - loaded offense. Delgado makes their 3-4-5 nearly as good as it gets (mine's better is all). Their top 4 SP definitely form a playoff rotation you can win with. Top relievers are nasty, though the MR is suspect.
b. White Sox - Stacked offense, and probably the best 1-2 punch of SP in the AL. They're older, and I think the Yanks are better overall, but they're in the mix for sure.
c. A's - Still so loaded. Ortiz, Jeter, Hunter, Giambi are elite hitters. Pavano's number ratings are surprisingly great. Deep rotation, stud relievers. Broph has the assets to get one more major piece if he wants to go for it. I think he'll need to do that to beat the Yankees, though.
Sleeper pick: Blue Jays. Love this team. Pujols is already nasty. Andruw Jones is a lot better than everyone though he was. Edmonds and Rentaria are good bats. JRoll gives great D and speed and is probably good for an elite OPS among shortstops. Halladay is the best pitcher in the AL. Woody is still so good. Escobar just needs to fill out his ratings to be elite too.
Me - Really nice to see my team still in the hunt. I sold quite a bit this off-season and I'm still very good. Don't think I'm a WS type team but ya never know. I have some tools to add if need be and teams become sellers at the deadline.
10. Finally. Where do you see yourself finishing? What will you do this offseason to get better? Where will your team be next year?
Habes - Tough to say. Piatt, Rumble, and Gess could push my offense over the top. If each guy gets to 6 in hits, I think I have the best offense by a good margin. And I'm not afraid to deal Bootcheck, Valenzuela, Webb, and Zito for the pieces to win this year. Payroll is a big constraint, and I have no chance to win the World Series if my SP stays as is. But I think we're a 90+ win team with above avg pitching and an excellent offense.
My off-season plan is up in the air. Can I generate enough fan interest/revenue to afford an 80+ mil payroll? If not, I'll need to unload Griffey, Juan, or Ichiro. That said, I have absolutely no doubt about my future. Guys like Sizemore, Gess, Rumble, Gaspar, Valenzuela, Webb, Zito, Bootcheck all look like elite talents, and none of them are going to be making big salaries in the near future. I know I can afford a few of my older studs, but I also know that they have enough value to get me younger, cheaper pieces. I'd guess my pitching is much better and my hitting is a good bit worse next season, but I'm gonna wait for my finances to be more predictable to set a plan.
Me - I don't know why but I'm super scared about Ichiro bolting. He just seems like the type. You have such a nice young core still that if you need to deal Juan or Griffey you'll bounce back quickly. Id love to get Juan back too, BTW!
Thanks Habes!
