Taking Over in Tampa; The Story of the Expansion Devil Rays

[upperdeck]

Yeah, so this is my first attempt at a dynasty. After reading others I got the urge to try one of my own. I like to write, and I love baseball, so maybe'll this'll be better than expected. I appreciate any advice, complaints, or constructive crticism you have to offer.

Oh and for the record, I only have Baseball Mogul 2006, I'll be playing on 'manager' diffulculty, and I do have a set of restrictions I set on myself. So here goes, my first dynasty...



Tampa Bay. I cringed when I heard those words. I’m not necessarily happy with my new employer, but I can’t complain. I mean, they were giving me my first job. I’m an up and comer. I created a buzz when my name joined the rumor mill for the Devil Ray’s available general manager job. Probably because I’m only 23, but that’s beside the point. I’m a fan of the game, and I’d been pursuing this type of job for years, yet I never knew how quickly it would become a reality.

I had beaten out Chuck LaMar for the job, and the news of my hiring spread quickly. I tried to play it down by saying I was capable, but criticisms still were made. But I don’t mind. I’m here to do my job. This is my new life, and I know it’s gonna be a crazy one as General Manager of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays.


Taking Over in Tampa: Part 1

March 29th. My 24th birthday. I would be celebrating over how the last year has gone, but I was nervous. Very nervous as I sat in my office outside the stadium looking over my opening day depth chart. It was horrible. Larry (Rothschild) had done his best getting the lineup prepared. I couldn’t ask for much with this roster. In fact I didn’t have very high expectations in my first year. Maybe a 65 win season and good attendance. Not much else…

So after looking at my roster, here’s what I came up with. First the hitters…

Dave Martinez (79)- He’s coming off an average year with the White Sox. Is he good enough to fit the role of leadoff hitter? Probably not. But we’ll have to make due with what we got.

Quinton McCracken (74)- The 28 year old I have no confidence in. None whatsoever. He played half the year in Colorado last year, did well, but I don’t have too much faith in him. At least he can run…

Paul Sorrento (80)- I like the veteran in that he does provide some “pop” in the lineup. I can see him contributing.

Fred McGriff (84)- He’s 34 so he’s not the 35 homer guy anymore, but it’s safe to expect a 25 HR .280 AVG type year from him.

Wade Boggs (79)- He’s not the guy he was in Boston anymore, but there’s no reason he can’t produce for us.

John Flaherty (75)- He’s our catcher. Not much else to say other than he should be reliable.

Rich Butler (68/70)- Um, he won’t be with the team by the end of the year. I’ll leave it at that.

Kevin Stocker (80)- I hope he can produce enough to stay in the lineup. But in this lineup that shouldn’t be so hard.

Aaron Ledesma (74/76) He’s the number nine hitter. ‘Nuff said.

I’ll ignore my bench, but they’ll come up a few times during the season. Now my rotation…

Wilson Avarez (82) Our ace. Not the ideal ace, but he’ll have to do.

Tony Saunders (80/83)- I’m really confident he’ll have a good year. He struggled in Florida last year, but he was 22 year old rookie. I can see him having an impact if he stays around long enough.

Bryan Rekar (79)- A solid third starter.

Dennis Springer (70)- Coming off a terrible year, I can only hope things get better for the 33 year old.

Victor Zambrano (74/83)- I’m taking a risk with this guy. He’s 22, and he’s the future of our rotation, but I have faith he won’t completely suck in his first year. I doubt he’ll be with the team the whole year, but we’re an expansion team, so we may as well take a few risks.

The Bullpen

Closer Roberto Hernandez (86)
Setup Jim Mecir (80/86)
Rick White (76)
Rolando Arroyo (77)
Jason Johnson (74/81)
Alie Lopez (71)

A competent group who will hopefully do a solid job this year.

And that was it, my opening day lineup. Not the best group of ballplayers, but I trust they'll do what they can to win.

[Sportsmaniac8]

Good start, I hope your birthday turns out to be a good one.

I'll be reading!

[CatKnight]

This....promises to be a challenge. Especially with the Yanks and BoSox hanging around. Good luck!

[upperdeck]

Catknight: Thanks for the good luck. Yeah, this is going to be challenging, but I don't mind. By the way, I love your writing. It's what really inspired me to write my own dynasty.

Sportsmaniac8: Thanks for the support!

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April 4th. Opening day. The biggest day of my young career. I sat in my little private booth, waiting impatiently for the first pitch. I decided to leave everything on the players and coaches, so I didn’t really do a lot of talking before the game. I just wanted to watch the game in peace. It was only opening day and I’d have other times to make my voice heard if I wanted too.
The dome was full, and I was as excited as I was nervous. I know this team is going to take a lot of time to get off its feet, but it all starts today. On Opening Day of 1998 against the Oakland Athletics. Our fielders are taking the field and I still can’t get the butterflies out of my stomach. I lean back in my chair and prepare to start my journey. The batter walks into the box and the pitcher sets up. I almost want to close my eyes, thinking the worst is going to happen. But I don’t, and the pitch is delivered and the season begins.

I actually wish I’d closed my eyes for that pitch. Wilson plunked the batter, Shane Mack, and I thought things could only get worse. But they didn’t. He retired the next 3 batters and the offense did their job. Paul Sorrento and Fred McGriff both drove in runs, and we took an early 2-0 lead. By the seventh inning, we had taken an 8-3 lead and I believed that we might actually win. Then came the top of the seventh. Jason Johnson came from the pen and looked to help finish the game. He did the opposite… Back to back shots to Shane Mack and Izzy Molina., a double to Miguel Tejada, a Jason Giambi two run shot, and an 8-7 game. We couldn’t blow this game, I reassured myself at that point. And we didn’t. We won, the first win in franchise history, by a score of 11-8.




http://www.myspaceofgames.com/codes/graphics/sports/baseball/Tampa-Bay-Devil-Rays.gif
vs.
http://fantasybaseball.usatoday.com/images/teamlogos/MLB/OAK.gif

Tampa Bay (1-0) 11 Oakland (0-1) 8
Wilson Avarez (1-0) 6 IP, 4.50 ERA, Paul Sorrento 2-3, HR (1), 2 RBI

Later after the game I decided to join the team in the dugout.

“Nice job out there. Great game.” Larry was congratulating the team as he saw me walk up to him.

“1-0! Do you believe it Chris? How bout that for an opening?” he practically yelled, obviously excited in his voice. I always wondered why he’d taken the job. He already had two rings which he won as a coach, but I guess there can never be enough.

“Yeah, never been this excited since I got hired. Hopefully the rest of the year will be this great.” But even he knew I was kidding myself when I said it.

April 6th

Well, Todd Saunders blew up today and the offense couldn’t muster up any serious threat. Two in a row will have to wait.

Tampa Bay (1-1) 4 Oakland (1-1) 7
Saunders (0-1) 4.1 IP, 10 WALKS! 7 ER, Dave Martinez 3-5

April 5th
Disappointing loss. We had the lead up until the 7th, but a costly error led to a two run shot to take the lead. We never recovered.

Tampa (1-2) 3 Oakland (2-1) 5
B. Rekar 7 IP, 3 ER, 9 K’s, Wade Boggs 3-3, RBI

Not the way I wanted our first series to go. We got the first game out of the way, but everything didn’t live up to the way I’d dreamed of. We’ll head to Camden Yards for our next three games.

[Sportsmaniac8]

The storys Great! I love the way you are writing it defianately one of the best on the site.

[PotatoOfCouch13]

Always good to win the season opener! Hopefully you'll have better luck than the real-life Devil Rays.

I'll be reading!

[CatKnight]

Yep, a perfectly good start! Now to hopefully build on it!

[Overbay17]

Looking good, can't wait to see what happens next!

[EVEN11323]

I actually just started up a '98 D'Rays game today and boy, what a mess. Around 40 minor league pitchers to search through, and only a couple good ones. I wish you better luck than myself!

[upperdeck]

Thanks for all the support everyone! Glad you're enjoying it.
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April 8th

Exactly the kind of game we needed. Dennis Springer went the distance, pitching a complete game victory to defeat the Orioles. The two hitter surprised me, since this is a guy who went 9-9 last year with a 5.18 ERA. Who knows? Maybe he’ll have a great year for us.

Tampa Bay (2-2) 2 Baltimore (2-2) 1
Springer 9 IP 8 K, John Flaherty 3-4, RBI

April 9th

Another win! These are the kind of wins I expect. Against a division rival and to win a series. Victor Zambrano impressed me out there today. For a 22 year old rookie making his debut, he looked real sharp. I’m also real impressed by how this lineup is performing. Other than the eight and nine hitters, everyone’s done well. It’s still too early in the year to say if this translates into a productive year for the hitters, but I’m still very impressed with what the lineup has done in five games.

Tampa Bay (3-2) 8 Baltimore (2-3) 5
Zambrano 7 IP, 1 ER, 4 K, Dennis Martinez 2-5, HR (1), 4 RBI

April 10th

Well, we couldn’t get the sweep as Mike Mussina shut us down today. Wilson Avarez was hit hard and hit early as he only lasted 3 innings, and the offense couldn’t create runs even with the 10 hits we produced. Jason Johnson continued his struggles out of the bullpen. No runs allowed for the first time this year, but he walked five. We head to Fenway for a three game set, so we’ll put this loss behind us.

Tampa (3-3) 1 Baltimore (3-3) 5


April 11th

There’s no game today, but I’m looking forward to tomorrow’s game against the Red Sox. The Sox are 6-0 this year, so I can see us getting swept, but at the same time I’m excited that we’re playing a good team. I’ve talked to Larry and some of the players about their performance the last week, and I was generally positive. I told them I’m pleased on how things have gone so far. We might only be .500, but the team has exceeded my expectations so far. But needless to say, not everyone has been doing great…

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Sorry for the short post but I'll probably be doing a review of the team's stats next. Might change the roster before the next series. The next update might come later today, but I'm undecided so far. I appreciate any comments!

[upperdeck]

Apirl 12th

I decided to meet up with Larry that day in hopes of discussing our lineup. It was still early in the year, but I wanted to keep frequent checks on our performance by asking some of the coaches about the players. Before the game I decided to meet with him in the visiting team’s manager office.

“Hey Chris”, he said, barely looking up from his pile of papers. He was like a business man. Always studying over stats and trying to make the best decisions. I’m glad he was chosen to be our manager since he had experience.

“Hey Larry. Can’t wait for tonight’s game”, I responded. We weren’t really friends, just co workers. It seemed like when we talked, it was strictly business.

“So with the first week over, I thought we should look over the lineup. See if there any changes that could be made.” I continued.

“Yeah sure. But no major changes. We’re only 6 games into the season. I don’t need nobody telling how to manage my team.”


1998 Batting Team G AVG AB H 2B 3B HR BB K SB CS R RBI SLG OBP
Boggs, Wade TBD 6 .524 21 11 1 1 0 4 2 0 0 3 2 .667 .600
Butler, Rich TBD 6 .348 23 8 1 0 0 2 4 0 0 0 1 .391 .400
Flaherty, John TBD 6 .333 24 8 1 0 0 3 3 0 0 2 7 .375 .407
Ledesma, Aaron TBD 6 .261 23 6 0 0 0 3 5 1 0 2 2 .261 .346
Martinez, Dave TBD 6 .321 28 9 1 0 1 2 7 1 1 6 4 .464 .355
McCracken, Quinton TBD 6 .360 25 9 1 0 0 2 3 0 1 3 0 .400 .407
McGriff, Fred TBD 6 .304 23 7 0 0 1 4 4 0 0 4 3 .435 .407
Silvestri, Dave TBD 2 .000 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 .000 .000
Sorrento, Paul TBD 6 .364 22 8 1 0 3 7 6 0 0 7 8 .818 .517
Stocker, Kevin TBD 6 .136 22 3 1 0 0 4 4 0 0 2 0 .182 .269




I nodded and put on a fake smile and we began to talk. We both agreed that the lineup was doing well, and that no real changes should be made, except for Kevin Stocker. The guy was 3-22 on the year and we were both running out of patience. It’s still early in the year to say, but Larry brought up the idea of benching him by the end of the month if he didn’t pick it up. I mentioned using him as trade bait, but we figured it was too early for it. Another heated discussion we had was the role of Jason Johnson. He was our long reliever and he had seen the most action this year with eight innings. But in those eight innings he had walked ten and gave up eight runs.

“He’s still young, only 24, so I’m thinking we send him down to Durham,call someone up, and see what he does there.” Larry said.

“That’s fine with me, but I really trust he can rebound. Let’s keep him up here for a few more weeks. If he doesn’t then we’ll call up someone.”

“Who’s in the minors?”

“Nobody worth calling up. I’ll tell you that.” I said. I think I won that argument. It's hard to tell.

And with that we finished our team review. I’d say it was pretty productive. We agreed on the key issues and it’s safe to say a few moves are going to be made over the next few months. Our minor leagues do need work, though. Oh well, I need to worry about facing the Red Sox for now.

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